OptOut

Lol, did it really take you two weeks to clap back with that?

You are correct that the WATA fraudsters got incredibly lucky in the timing of their little scam here, as it did coincide with a remarkable and anomalous boom in collectable markets.

But, that doesn't change their ill-intent and their deceptive actions, which are all now a matter of public record. They were gunning for that boom before the pandemic was so much as a twinkle in a Chinese bat's eye.

If there was no WATA, that covid boom money wouldn't have gone into graded games, it would have just gone into regular game collecting (which it did AS WELL) or other collectable categories (which again, it did as well).

The pandemic boom in collectables is not a part of the accusations against WATA, and to conflate them is a product of either ignorance, willful ignorance, or an intention to distract or mislead.

I'm currently working on a playthrough of Body Harvest on Hero mode. It's been a 25 year journey for me with this game, I first got it for Xmas when I was 12 years old, and it's been kicking the shit out of me ever since!

I've tried and failed to beat this game several times over the years, but I THINK I'm finally man enough to do it! I've just beaten the first Alien Processor in the America level, which is further than I've ever gotten before...

I think I got this one guys, wish me luck! 

19 minutes ago, guillavoie said:

Bitcoin chart since this post :

 

I told you that you should have stated that this was not financial advice !

It will be fun to watch it crash again, lol!

I'm afraid I'm not aware of any copies for sale local to myself! Good luck with the hunt! 

30 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

I'm a contrarian reverse purity test pioneer.  I look at what @OptOut collects and then do the complete opposite, but also make sure to do it faster and better, all while waging a campaign of harassment against him to ensure he knows I'm better at collecting than him, and that he'd best stay out of my lane if he knows what's good for him.

It's working out pretty well.

I know you are, but what am I? Goddim. 

6 minutes ago, AirVillain said:

King K. Rool has had him tied up on a pirate ship, still with his diaper on, feeding him only carrots this whole time.

Whatever fetish it is you're talking about here, I want no part of.

@Splain alert!

Knife Edge Nose Gunner done!

This is a pretty short arcade style rail shooter. It's fun enough, but nothing really special here, very generic Sci-fi plot. The graphics are basic and bland, the weapon selection is poor, and the game feels surprisingly lethargic for a shooter. I wouldn't call it a bad time, but it doesn't leave much of an impression, tbh.

The Game Gear adaptor on my Analogue Pocket died pretty much as soon as I got it, so I figured I'd invest in the real thing!

The guy I bought it from fully refurbished it for me, new caps and screen, she plays like a beaut! 

Of course, unless you plan on taking out a second mortgage to buy double AAs, probably gonna want to have one of these also!

If I start putting some serious playtime into this thing, I may think about buying a set of rechargeable AAs, but I do most of my handheld gaming indoors anyway! 

Vigilante 8 and Vigilante 8 2nd Offense are two of my favourite games on N64, hands down. So much fun! 

On 2/25/2024 at 9:37 AM, Tantalus said:

By the way @Splain, I was looking through the table and noticed that Vigilante 8: 2nd Offense is listed as only 1 point. That can't be right, can it?

Yeah, no, sorry, @Splain's dead actually. 

I've seen all 100 of these movies, watch them all regularly, actually! Where can I accept my prize?! 

4 hours ago, Gulag Joe said:

Oh look, 45 comments of NOTHING HAPPENING other than Pat the nes punk collecting hundreds of thousands of views of the go-to content when things are slow. Rent must be due!

Lol, good ol' Joe! Never disappoints with his frigid-ass WATA takes! 

3 hours ago, Gloves said:

I'm still waiting for someone to offer to buy this place. So far you've all posted basically nothing worth selling, get to work!

All my beautiful MS paint contributions count for nothing?! I guess they laughed at Van Gogh in his time too... 

6 hours ago, DefaultGen said:

15 years ago: A boy finds a forum with a bunch of Nintendo nerds who like the same rare obsolete games
2024: The Dark Knight blu-ray 9.2 A+

To be clear this is a real tweet. I know there were memes about this when Wata launched @OptOut for good measure.

What, no submissions for HD DVD? Hard pass. 

47 minutes ago, JamesRobot said:

As often as possible.  Barring my wife has a "headache."

Same, barring when your wife has a "headache"... 

20 minutes ago, ApebitMusic said:

Could someone sum up this whole situation succinctly? Sorry to be that guy but I don't have the energy.

The entire media blitz that launched the graded game market into a frenzy was fueled by reporting on a sale of a WATA graded copy of Super Mario Bros. for 100 thousand USD.

However, that sale was engineered by people involved in the founding of WATA and other interested parties who would all greatly benefit from the resulting pump, and the sale itself wasn't even legitimate, as the "seller" also retained an interest in the game.

The pump was followed by a dump, and now a bunch of idiots lost a ton of money, and so they are suing WATA for, among other things, market manipulation.

On 2/25/2024 at 4:53 AM, RegularGuyGamer said:

I never understood the cult following for this game. It seems like one of those games you got for Christmas instead of Mario Kart and played it enough to fall in love with it. Everyone who has Mario Kart made fun of it and it only solidified your love for the game, backing you into a corner and a creating strong confirmation bias for the games perks. There are bright spots but idk, it's an OK game. Different than Mario kart but certainly not better. 

Everyone I knew with an N64 growing up had both... so... 

35 minutes ago, final fight cd said:

I get all my gaming news come the CUPodcast, so it would be interesting to see and hear what the defenders of WATA has to say about this. 
 

And weren’t all the “buyers” connected to WATA in some way.

For people who haven't or don't want to watch the video, it should be noted that Pat and Ian aren't just spitballing here, they are reading DIRECTLY from court documents submitted by the claimants. The information revealed here was part of the sworn deposition of Dennis Kahn himself.

Oof. Every time we hear more about this case, it gets worse and worse!

Turns out, that original 100 grand Mario "sale" that kicked off the grading hype wasn't even a proper sale. Bronty kept an interest in the game, and apparently in addition to the 3 publicly known "buyers" there was ANOTHER "buyer" Mark Haspil one of the founders of WATA itself.

Complete scam, top to bottom.

Alright, so here's the N64 aftermarket set so far!

Obviously I am hoping this set will grow and grow over time, but I'm pretty happy to have all this already!

I figured it might be useful to give a quick summary of my thoughts on each of these releases, in case anyone else was interested in picking some of these up. 

I'll start with the licensed rereleases:

In many ways these are the least interesting and most redundant aftermarket N64 releases. They are basically the same as the original versions, just with some updated copyright information on the startup screen, and I believe Glover has had a few bug fixes.

The only one of these I would say is worthwhile is Worms Armageddon, as the original NTSC-U version of the game is almost 200 bucks for the cart alone. So, if you are an N64 fan who really wants to play this game on original hardware without pirating it, this will save you money. However, even THIS version of the game is running 90 bucks plus on eBay, so it's not exactly a bargain either...

As for Glover and the 2 Star wars games, you could get each of these games super cheap if you just wanted a cart to play, and there is little collectable value in them, you'd be better off investing in a decent OG CIB than any of these.

Next we have 40 Winks:

This game was originally supposed to come out on the N64 back in the day, it was fully developed and completed, even to the point of getting reviews and print ads in game magazines. However, just before it was due to release, they cancelled it, and only the PlayStation version saw the light of day.

I would definitely recommend fans of N64 platformers check this game out, it's definitely worth the price tag IMO. It's definitely in the upper-mid range of N64 platformers at least, not on the Banjo-Kazooie or Rayman 2 level, but definitely above a lot of the average stuff like Gex or Duck Dodgers.

Overall, this is a good model for other aftermarket N64 games to follow IMO, take finished but unreleased games from back in the day, polish them up a bit and put em on a cartridge, I really hope we see a lot more of these!

Next up, another very worthwhile purchase:

Xenocrisis is a port of a Mega Drive/Genesis homebrew, which has also found it's way to Steam and about a MILLION other retro platforms. It's a fast-paced 2D run-and-gun shooter with randomly generated level layouts, and a sick soundtrack.

Arguably, the N64 version is one of the best versions of this game. The controls work well on the N64 pad, with the D-pad and C buttons allowing for independent running and shooting in 8 different directions. The graphics also look crisp and the game runs super fast and smooth, it's an excellent package with great challenge and TONS of replay value.

The only thing I would say is it's not exactly the sort of game that really screams N64, it really does feel like a 16 bit game, but that makes sense seeing as where it came from. Also, if you just want to play the game and aren't especially interested in playing the N64 version, you could definitely get this cheaper elsewhere. 

However, the game is great, it's well polished, and as for the packaging and production of the cart, it's probably the BEST quality of all the aftermarket releases. It's also available in Japanese, USA and PAL versions so you can take your pick, although each version is the same with all the same language options and stuff.

Now, for something less appealing...

Well well well... Not the best first impression with this one, seeing as it was glitched up out the box, and I'm still waiting on a replacement... 

I've still played enough of this game to know that it's a poor fit for the N64. This is just a homebrew GameBoy Color ROM running on an emulator of some kind, with some barebones interface options for things like resizing the window, save states and speeding up the gameplay.

The game itself IS fun, I am looking forward to getting my replacement cart so I can see more of the game beyond the first world, and I definitely intend to play through the whole thing when I get the chance.

BUT, it is NOT worth playing this game on N64, the game looks REALLY jerky and bad and washed out on a giant HDTV. If you are interested in this one, check out the original GBC version, I'm sure the game would look and play WAY better handheld.

Last, but CERTAINLY not least we have the REAL oddball of the group Remute R64:

Remute R64 is not a game, as such, but a music album programmed using the sound synth chip of the N64, and containing a bespoke music visualizer with limited interactive elements.

The main draw of this cartridge is the novelty factor of an entire 40 plus minute music album in an N64 cartridge, which takes full advantage of the N64's unique soundscape. However, in addition to the novelty, the music is actually REALLY good, it's a sort of electronic style synth thing which is reminiscent of many of the electro rhythm soundtracks of N64 games such as Tetrisphere, Wipeout, Forsaken, etc.

However, it's not just a collection of cool songs, it really does flow well together as an ALBUM, there are themes and rhythms that repeat and remix through several tracks, so it does feel like one whole cohesive piece. I have found myself greatly enjoying listening to this album, especially when doing other things like cleaning my games or reorganizing my game room.

In terms of interactivity, there are controls to skip though and select songs etc., you can pause and play, and there are a couple of effects you can apply to the visualizer (which looks a lot like flying over a jagged mountainous alien N64 landscape). However, outside that, this really is something mainly to be appreciated for the music.

Is this something you should go out of your way to get? In my opinion, this is worth it for the artistic merit alone, it really is a great piece of musical art. It's also worth it for the novelty factor of having an album on N64. But, if none of what I have said appeals to you, and you are looking for a GAMING experience, then you can probably skip this one.

So, those are my thoughts thus far! To sum up, I REALLY hope that we can see two more things ramping up moving forward. Firstly, as I said earlier, I really think the BEST kind of aftermarket releases we can hope for would be unreleased N64 games getting another chance, I really want to play more of those lost games we missed out on.

Secondly, I want to see some BRAND NEW homebrew/Indy games that really take advantage of N64 hardware, and make games that really live up to the N64 style. Xenocrisis is great, but it wasn't intended as an N64 game, and I don't want to see any more Frankenstein emulated games like Big2Small. I want to see new, original N64-style content, something like a brand new 3D platformer, FPS, or 3D Adventure game, something like what we would have seen back then!

That may be a lot to ask, I'd imagine programming a new game for N64 would be incredibly challenging, especially something on the scale of a full-sized game, but even if it was something smaller, I would still REALLY be interested in seeing and playing something like that.

Anyway, I am excited to see what the future brings!!!

(Oh, and Limited Run, can we just, like, NOT with anymore cheap 5 dollar bargain bin carts rereleases for 60 bucks? Thanks!)

Lul peeps can't handle the fact it only takes the N64 20 frames to achieve what lesser systems can only accomplish with 60... You're literally cramming 3 times the awesomeness into every frame!

That's why they call it Ultra, baby! 

Why did I buy this?! 

F'in awesome game! One of the best games on N64, and a standout Rareware contribution. I know this is going to divulge into a shitstorm of DKR vs. MK64 so I'm going to get my say in early:

DKR = better single-player, course variety, adventure mode, vehicle selection (Hovercraft FTW!!!!), unlocks, bosses etc.

MK64 = better multi-player, course design, race-fundamentals and handling, weapons.

I can't REALLY pick between them because they each excel in areas the other doesn't, I think they are both FANTASTIC games, and I wouldn't be happy giving up either. I think overall though, pound for pound, Diddy Kong Racing just offers so much more than MK64, even if I would argue that the actual RACING aspect of MK64 feels better than DKR.

So, I guess chalk up the first DKR notch on the leaderboard.

@Splain ALERT!!!

I just wrecked Iggy's balls:

Not a bad game by any means, but playing it for more than an hour or so at a time gets a bit tedious IMO.

Also, this is practically required if you don't want your hands DESTROYED after 10 minutes playtime:

The analogue stick on this pad is WAY softer and lighter-touch than the OG pad, which is a godsend for a game like this with such demanding and constant stick action.

1 hour ago, RH said:

Valve Orange Box, maybe?

EDIT

I just looked it up and though it might be close, I thought it had more games in it than it does. It still has a lot though.

Well yeah, but Team Fortress 2 is multiplayer online, and Portal, HL2: Ep 1 and HL2: Ep 2 are all relatively short. The only real meaty game in that bundle that would keep you going is Half Life 2, which is a lot more linear and less replayable than Halo IMO.