September 30. 1998
Do you like sequels? Probably so.
Consider how many of our favorite titles
are now in their 4th or even 8th incarnation.
Are sequels a way to give us
more of what we want or just merely a
way to cash in on a successful
franchise? Depends on your perspective.
IMHO one Mortal Kombat was
enough. The Japanese seem to think
so as well since that game really stunk
up the shelves here. Final Fantasy?
Sometimes I've had enough, sometimes
I want more. Shining Force?
Gimme all you got! I've played the first Genesis
version, the Game Gear version and the
Sega CD version, now I'm playing
SF2 on my Nomad. Someday I'll play
the Saturn version(s) as well.
What do you think? Are sequels a
good thing or a rip off? Let the world know
in the next Superfami.com survey coming
later this week.
September 27, 1998
Gosh darn it's a small world! Today
I met TSR of TSR's NES Archive fame
in Akihabara. The strange thing
is not meeting another American in Tokyo,
that happens all the time. The weird
thing is I had met this guy a year or so
ago in New Jersey, but didn't know it
was the same person! Just imagine,
someone you meet casually and you don't
know that they run a web site you
sometimes visit, then you meet that web
master and it is the same person,
then add in the fact that where you first
saw this person 7000 miles away
from where you met them again!
Anyway, the best find of the day was an
unauthorized Genesis/Mega Drive
game called Mallet Legend by Realtech.
It comes with a 9 button "whack
a mole" style controller. I'll get
a picture of it up later this week.
Has this ever happened to you?
I went to play one of my SNES games
this evening, only to find out that the
SRAM save was wiped out! It happened
to be an RPG that I had invested a good
75 hours of time into so needless
to say, I was upset. So much for
the myth that ROM games do not need
to be backed up.
What are you playing lately? I just
finished Shadowrun on SNES last night.
I went to play Yoshi's Island for a change
of pace. Turns out that SRAM was
zapped as well. Did I offend the
gods? I put in a good hour on Yoshi's Island
and when I say a good hour, I mean I had
fun! That game looks and plays
better than almost platformer I've seen
on a 32 or 64 bit system.
Neo Classicism?
Some of you have written in to ask about the new head-
line on the front page of the site.
Since the accepted definition of classic
gaming is anything pre-crash, how should
we distinguish the 8 and 16 bit
systems which followed from the "next
generation" 32 and 64 bit systems
of today? I suggest that "neo-classic"
gaming be used for the 8 & 16 bit
era. Some may argue that the NES
is considered "classic", but I would
agree with those who say that the classic
period ended with the crash and
that since the NES was the system which
resurrected gaming in the US
that it is a post classic period system.
Another reason to group them
together is that so many 16 bit games
were re-hashes of games from the
8 bit era.
If any readers understand how the terms
"classic" and "neo-classic" are
used in other fields such as art or literature
and have anything to add to
this idea, please write
in with your opinion. Please let me know if you want
your name and email address added to your
letter if I decide to publish it.
September 23, 1998
Typhoon season is upon us. Luckily
nothing serious has hit Tokyo. The
Neo Geo price index seems to be following
the Dow. I'm not happy about
this. Unboxed home ROM systems are
now over $550. All Duo systems
are also going up.
One class of games which never seems to
drop is "table" games. This
category includes Pachinko, Mah Johg,
and Hanafuda which is a traditional
Japanese card (gambling) game. These
games are not million sellers, so
I wonder why their prices never seem to
go down.
I'm not sure if I ever mentioned this before,
but some systems in the past
have had some type of Karaoke add on.
I've seen them for the Famicom,
Mega CD, and PC Engine. Yet another
add on which just wouldn't sell in
the US.
September 16, 1998
I scanned my Dracula box covers last night.
As soon as I get the images
processed, I'll upload them for you all
to see.
The RPG survey is done. I'll have
a new survey up by the end of the week-
end and maybe have the RPG survey analyzed
by the end of next week.
On the topic of RPGs; what do you
call someone who murders strangers,
takes searches the corpses for money,
and becomes stronger in mind and
spirit for committing these murders?
In an RPG you call them the hero. I
don't want to start up that moronic debate
about if video game violence
promotes real life violence or causes
children to be anti-social. It just
seems strange to me when I think about
the idea of a hero and what the
typical RPG hero actually does in the
process of "saving the world/princess/
whatever".
September 10, 1998
Only two more Dracula titles to go before
I have a complete set! When I
move back to the US, I'll have to get
the US versions (Castlevania) of these
games. As soon as I get access to
a scanner I'll be posting pics of the box
covers of this series.
Bad news. The bulls may be retreating
on Wall Street, but they seem to
have come to Akihabara. I saw something
last night I never thought I would
see. Unboxed Neo Geo ROM systems
going for almost $500. Yes I've
adjusted for the exchange rate.
September 7, 1998
Added the Tri-Star and Famicom Network
System to the Famicom page
as well as more games. Check out
the Specials page for
the Metal Gear
Solid Premium Package. I have only
one for sale and no idea if I will be
able to restock these. Dropped some
prices on PC-FX software.
The RPG survey has about one more week
to go. Lots of good response
so far. It will take about a week
for me to put the results together since
I'm too lazy/busy to write the tools in
Excel to do it quickly.
September 4, 1998
So much to write about! Metal Gear Solid
came out in Japan and it's
selling like crazy. The limited
edition box sets are quite nice. They
include a oversized art book, a music
CD, T-shirt, dog tags and of course,
MGS itself. I'll try to get some
of the box sets for you all if you
want em,
but no guarantees. I had trouble
getting one for myself!
I did manage to get some of the Konami
Metal gear Solid preview books.
Take a look at the Game
Goods page if you are interested.
I finally got a copy of "Hanjuku Hero"
by Square. It looks really boring, but
I want to have a COMPLETE Square collection.
I also found another
computer game by Square. It's called
Will and it seems like it runs on
PC8801, PC9801 and FM Towns. When
was the last time you saw a
5.25" floppy? Take a look at the
Pictures page for that
and a MSX
version of Kings Knight.
I found another exceedingly weird SFC game
called "The Shinri Game 2".
It has a personality quiz, compatibility
quiz, and "trip mode". In Trip Mode
you select your mood and it displays some
"psychedelic" images and plays
music. Sort of like an early version
of Baby Universe for PSX but without
control of the graphics.