Recent acquisitions

Fool's Requiem said:

I also reeeeaaaaaalllly want to type up a "Dirt Cheap Retro Games You Should Be Buying" thread. It's been one of those things I've put off for a while. Every time I see how incredibly cheap Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge on the Xbox is despite it only ever being released on the Xbox, I get the want to tell the world that you can, in fact, get GOOD retro games for stupid cheap without resorting to digital stores and emulation. I got as far as typing up a list of games and price tiers.

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I'd like to read that and a review thread, just to get some discussion going. But for those who want to buy retro games in my experience the motivation comes from either buying games and systems that they played when they were younger, so for nostalgic reasons, or the pleasure of owning something valuable. Often a mix of the two. That doesn't necessarily lend itself to people buying cheap, good games that are obscure. Because if no one played them when they were younger and they're not valuable now, most people with retro gaming collections won't be interested in them.

Crazy Jamie said:

I'd like to read that and a review thread, just to get some discussion going. But for those who want to buy retro games in my experience the motivation comes from either buying games and systems that they played when they were younger, so for nostalgic reasons, or the pleasure of owning something valuable. Often a mix of the two. That doesn't necessarily lend itself to people buying cheap, good games that are obscure. Because if no one played them when they were younger and they're not valuable now, most people with retro gaming collections won't be interested in them.

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I think the two reasons you listed are probably the two biggest reasons people like to buy retro games, but a lot of retro gamers are just content owning and playing something retro that they haven't played before. Retro games are very different from most modern games, and players who enjoy them prefer them because they offer gameplay, design, attention to detail, music, and art that's mostly absent from modern games. I'm now collecting Sega Saturn games, and I never even played a Sega Saturn until this year. And while there are a lot of games that are expensive on the system, there are a lot of excellent, affordable games, as well.

Smacktard said:

I think the two reasons you listed are probably the two biggest reasons people like to buy retro games, but a lot of retro gamers are just content owning and playing something retro that they haven't played before. Retro games are very different from most modern games, and players who enjoy them prefer them because they offer gameplay, design, attention to detail, music, and art that's mostly absent from modern games. I'm now collecting Sega Saturn games, and I never even played a Sega Saturn until this year. And while there are a lot of games that are expensive on the system, there are a lot of excellent, affordable games, as well.

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That's fair. I can pick up a retro game now that I've never played before but know of and appreciate it. Even if it's not something that I have memories of playing when I was younger, the general aesthetic, style and presentation of these games can still bring with it its own pleasure. Again, generally for people who did play those games when they were younger. So I do understand everything that you've written there.

That said, as much as I might prefer to still play notable games that I haven't played rather than obscure recommendations, the arcade machine that I've mentioned has 8,000 games on it, and my son is currently going through a phase of just picking ones that look interesting. To him. A six year old. Usually sports of some kind. So I have played some utterly random old games with him on there, from rally games to basketball and even one beach volleyball game, none of which I knew existed. And honestly we've had a great time with them. Even the ones that are rubbish are retro rubbish, and that still gives a nice, fuzzy comfortable feeling.

Crazy Jamie said:

That said, as much as I might prefer to still play notable games that I haven't played rather than obscure recommendations, the arcade machine that I've mentioned has 8,000 games on it, and my son is currently going through a phase of just picking ones that look interesting. To him. A six year old. Usually sports of some kind. So I have played some utterly random old games with him on there, from rally games to basketball and even one beach volleyball game, none of which I knew existed. And honestly we've had a great time with them. Even the ones that are rubbish are retro rubbish, and that still gives a nice, fuzzy comfortable feeling.

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Haha that's pretty much how I picked the Vectrex games I want to own. My system came with a bunch already, but I checked out a few others and anything that made me go "ooh, that looks cool" I got for myself. They're pretty interesting to me as history pieces, and many of them can be pretty fun for 10 or 15 mins of play

Another update on Hat in Time. I've DEFINITELY gotten more comfortable with the controls and I'm just diving everywhere in this levels. I very much dislike the tight ropes. I know what I'm doing wrong to make it worse for myself, but my brain says the correct way is stupid. So, if I can, I abuse the double jump, dive, and quick recover to basically get 4 jumps in the air. There's some sections where you're intended to do something one way, and I'm like "I can jump this fucking gap and bypass it."

I still haven't made it to the fabled horror level. I've been REAAALLLLLLY taking my time on finding everything on the Mafia chapter and now the Movie Studio one.

ok... I played the Manor level and... that was it?! Like I can see kids being scared but she doesn't even follow you into the rooms. It instantly breaks if you use a door to go to another room (or hallway). It's also suuuuuper short. I was surprised how quick it was. To make it even shorter, there's a glitch that let's you skip from the basement with the first key to the attic through a hole in the wall...

Edit: 78% completion (not including DLC). Played a little bit of Apline Skyline and chose to hold off and save it for last, so I've pretty much cleared everything else beside the final battle. There are a couple items I'm having difficulty getting, but hopefully that doesn't go towards 100% completion.

So...

Viva Pinata is a farming sim aimed at little kids. You don't control a character, you control circle that you move around your "garden" and do things to make the garden your own and hopefully attract pinata animals. Think Sim City without the annoying budget constraints that make the game obnoxiously hard to get into.

I don't think I'm going to be playing this game. I can definitely just get rid of this and come back to it whenever I get Rare Replay, assuming I will want to play it.

I heard Viva Pinata is actually really good, and one of the 360's best exclusives (only exclusives too, tbf)

Smacktard said:

I heard Viva Pinata is actually really good, and one of the 360's best exclusives (only exclusives too, tbf)

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I'm sure it is, but Farming Sims are just not my bag.

Oh, and I acquired After Burner 2 for the Saturn. It's a Sega Ages Japan import (like the port of Outrun that Kelly got). I bought Space Harrier and Outrun on the Switch and pretty much have no need to get the NA Sega Ages compilation from Working Designs. After Burner is the only one not on the Switch, and I actually like After Burner a lot more than Outrun (I'm an Outrun 2 stan), and owning what is considered the best and most arcade perfect version of the game is a huge plus.

I don't even need to get the 32x "Complete" edition now unless I really want it.

I also got a complete version of the Genesis port (to replace my loose copy). So, now I have 3 versions of After Burner... for now (the NES version is going to be a casualty of downsizing).

I'll probably pick up After Burner II for the Saturn at some point too. I'm hoping to finish off my Saturn collection later this year.