Random Retro Anecdotes

[Bojack]

I remember back in the day my parents were dirt poor, dad was a fire fighter, mom did odd office jobs and they saved up for a while to get me the new system they could afford. My NES had gotten all worn out. So the pinched nickles till the buffalo shit and got me a TG-16. I'll always feel bad for being a fairly ungrateful fuck because it wasn't the Genesis or SNES that all the other kids were getting. Now in retrospect I'm glad because it introduced me to an "outside" of gaming that included a sweet R-Type port and Bonk and such that I would have stayed insulated from if I had gotten an SNES and Gen so I'm now really glad for it. Luckily they didn't hold a grudge over my stupid 8 year old ass.

Then there was the time in HS when I got a Dreamcast and didn't have any cash left over for a game. I thought the demo disc would tide me over till next pay day but it totally fuckin' didn't. So I raided this 5 gallon jug of coins in my room late at night. Went to the local Wal-Mart and they had some poor old Spanish dude with a bad ass mustache sit there and count out the 45 or 50 bucks it took to get Crazy Taxi back to my house.

[MechDeus]

The day (month? week?) it came out, my friend invited me over to his house to watch him play. That's right: I was forced to watch someone play a two-player game. I bounced and he got angry.

Why did kids do that?

Cartman: Don't think that you can buy me with presents… Unless of course it's the new Tonka radio-controlled play bulldozer.
Randy: It's yours.
Cartman: I want the batteries for it too. And I get to drive it around in the school parking lot.
Principal Victoria: Fine.
Uncle Jimbo: Anything else?
Cartman: Yes. Kyle doesn't get to have one! Ever! And he has to watch me drive mine around the school parking lot and get super-jealous!

[Hot Like Wasabi]

I had purchased Fire Pro Wrestling D from videogamedepot back during the GameGo days and I was so excited to play it as I had never played any of the Fire games. I popped it in and played it for a few minutes before having to leave. I get home and fire up the Dreamcast again and the disc was being read, tried numerous times and no luck. I contacted VGD and asked if I could exchange it but got a "pretty much your fault" response.

I promptly went on to GameGo and threw a fit which get me a response from haohmaru. At the time I wrote random stuff for jvgfanatic.com and I guess he spoke to haohmaru about it for some reason and haohmaru was kind of enough to exchange it. After all I that, I exclusively bought from vgd and played the hell out of Fire Pro D because of the incident.

[Changeling]

That's true regardless of the title. They butcher facts and think that Europe mattered before Tomb Raider. Jet Set Willy woohoo!

Neozeedeater is rolling in his grave...

[GohanX]

The day (month? week?) it came out, my friend invited me over to his house to watch him play. That's right: I was forced to watch someone play a two-player game. I bounced and he got angry.

Why did kids do that?

I remember a few neighborhood kids like that. Never went back to their houses again.

[Frogacuda]

I vividly remember Die Hard Gamefan devoting three columns over three months to talk shit about EGM for panning Strider 2.

This happened? I need to read this. I kind of like Halverson, but Strider Returns was the the worst sequel ever (unless you count the earlier Strider II versions as another game)

[GohanX]

I think he meant PSX Strider 2. EVERYONE hated Strider Returns.

[Frogacuda]

Did EGM pan Strider 2, though? I didn't think they did.

[YellerDog]

PSX Strider 2 was horrible, so they'd have been right.

[Frogacuda]

I didn't mind it for the quarter muncher that it was. I just looked it up thought, got a 6.3 from EGM, so I guess that's kind of a panning.

It's funny to go back and read really old gaming mags, where they're so forgiving to shit we now accept as horrible. Super Thunderblade, for example, got praised for "awesome graphics!" in one of the first EGMs.