It was just a blue screen with the word “placeholder”.

Well it didn’t take too long of tinkering to figure out it was a backup ram issue. I deleted some files and it booted fine. I surfed the web and apparently it’s a well known design flaw. The game won’t boot unless you have sufficient free space in your backup ram. Luckily I have a back-up ram cart.

I tried everything, but eventually tracked it down to the use of an s-video cable.

Now the weird thing is that I had tried to rule that out by using an old fashioned NES style RF adapter. But it turns out that as long as the s-video cable end of the a/v adapter is plugged in to something, even if you are actually viewing the video over the RF port instead, the sprites in the game are messed up!

What in the world could cause that?

So in order to play I just have to unplug the s-video end from the av cable, to make sure only the composite video end is connected.

Anyway, just some interesting things. As usually I popped it in first without throwing my region switch just to see what happens (game genie for physical connection), and the game has no problem running. I think I’ve only actually encountered one or two imports that actually require the switch. But while watching the intro, I realized it was all in english!

So for run, I restarted the game, this time with the japan switch thrown, and sure enough, now all the story text was in japanese.

It seems very clear to me that they did parallel development for world release of super fantasy zone. The game was basically ready to release for US (barring some questionable translations, but nothing like zero wing). So I wonder why they didn’t? Especially since fantasy zone had been a fairly successful franchise on both the Master System and NES. I mean they released crap like last battle and shaq-fu and x-perts and time killers and sword of sodan.

Even with the genesis ruling the scene for a time, I just think of how much better it would have fared if some of the more late-era japanese games that pushed the genesis to its limit had been released stateside. The genesis was already known as THE system for shooters. Truxton, thunderforce, lightningforce, hellfire, m.u.s.h.a. I see no reason why gleylancer, eliminate down, super fantasy zone, and panorama cotton (with a standard issue sprite swap to turn it into a sonic-themed game or something just so the US gamers would buy it) never made it. I’d think throwing some of the DBZ fighting games over would have gone over well as well. I mean those DBZ fighting games have been on an endless streak since the playstation. The genesis could have owned that as well.

(FYI, I know super fantasy zone got a european release, so they did get use of the english mode. But still it was ready for US release).

It seems to be the general consensus that the arcade version is always superior. But I don’t know if I always agree.

How much is based on nostalgia? And it goes both ways. If you played the arcade first, the port will never be exactly the same, so you’ll always deride it. But if you played the console port first, you don’t have that preconception.

I never played arcades. I used to go to Chuck-E-Cheeze Circus Circus all the time, but I always played skee bowl, and rode in a helicopter or truck that went up and down. I always thought it was absurd to pay 25c to 1$ per play when I could play all I wanted for free at home (and most of my games came from garage sales for <5$). The only time I played an arcade game was if it had some cool gimmic you couldn’t do at home, like a moving chair or some other interactive environment (like Galaxy Force, and there was some afterburner-like game were you actually moved the whole thing around 360 degrees to aim).

Oh, and I loved the ball pits! Funnest thing ever when you are 5. But now that I think about what was probably down there I’m not sure I’d do it again. But it was damn fun in my ignorant youth.

So I had an atari 2600, and my first experience with games like millipede, moon patrol, joust, mario bros., etc. was on that. And those were my favorite games for the system. To me, the arcade perfect ports look better, sound better, but the simply don’t “play” right. The simpler control and patterns on the atari ports just created a lot more replay value. I remember practicing joust constantly to learn where to start each round to get instant kills. For instance, you can time falling off the top ledge just right to get two instant egg hits in the bonus round. Or knock out the first two birds right as they fly into view. The best was if you stood at the right place on the ledge, when the ledge disappears as the next level begins you’ll fall and hit a bird.

On the other hand, some games, even playing the port first, I much preferred the arcade version afterwards. For instance, the 32X arcade versions of afterburner and space harrier are far better to me, even though I played the NES and SMS versions first.

And then there’s original modes. Typically when there is an original mode in conjunction with an arcade mode, well actually typically I’m not savvy enough to notice the minute details (like changes in a fighting game engine), but for the more obvious once I prefer the original, as it usually adds extra stages, ships, or makes things easier.

Speaking of which, one thing that makes port better than arcade usually is the difficulty. Arcade games are designed to eat quarters. Not to be beaten in under 3 continues. I much prefer a more sane level of difficulty. Dying every 3 seconds isn’t quite my idea of fun. Usually ports are easier, or give unlimited continues. Some people actually complain and say that spoils it, but I much prefer it that way.

I’m going to discard all fake sonic games (games that are only “sonic” to take advantage of the brand, not to be an actual sonic game, like sonic tennis or sonic kart racing or something).

1. Sonic 1 (Genesis)
- I know everyone says Sonic 2 is the best, and maybe it is, but there’s just something magical about the first one, the more simple, methodical gameplay.
2. Sonic 3 (Genesis)
3. Sonic 2 (Genesis)
- So I’m going to buck the system and not put sonic 2 first for a change. It’s not worth starting a topic to repeat what everyone else does.
4. Sonic Adventure (Dreamcast)
- I like what the did for 3D sonic in the dreamcast games
5. Sonic and knuckles (Genesis)
6. Sonic CD (Sega CD)
- I’m also miss putting this in the top 5, though some say it is the best sonic game of all time. It is good, good music and colorful. But something about how the levels are just a bit shorter horizontally. They did that to compensate for having to go through the whole level 3 times (present, past, future), but in the end it makes the levels seem a bit small. And the forces repeating of the same parts of the level 3 times (for good ending) is a bit annoying at times. I will admit to being a huge sega CD fan, favorite console.
7. Sonic Advance 3 (GBA)
8. Sonic Advance 2 (GBA)
9. Sonic Advance (GBA)
10. Sonic Adventure 2 (Dreamcast)
10. Sonic Triple Trouble (Game Gear)
11. Sonic Chaos (Game Gear/SMS)
12. Knuckles Chaotix (32X)
13. Sonic 2 (Game Gear/SMS)
14. Sonic 1 (Game Gear/SMS)
15. Sonic 3D Blast (Genesis/Saturn)

Now I haven’t played the PS2 afterwards sonics yet (Heroes, Rush, sonic 4, shadow, etc) so I’m hoping others can advice me where to insert them into the list.

There’s a couple of different perspectives. One is for spreading the games. The other is for the used market.

Clearly the more people who have systems to play the games, the more people will experience the old sega games. Bundling the NES/SNES/Genesis on one console can help, because some people just remember the SNES as their favorite, and this piggy-backs the genesis onto their console, so they might then pick up some of those games and see firsthand that the genesis was in fact far superior to the SNES in terms of capabilities and games.

If it convinces people to buy more games, or they need to buy any games for a new console, that helps the secondary used market for games. As you know I vend used video games a bit. I can’t say I specifically have ever made a sale of a game I know went to someone who had one of these new duo/triple systems. I’m not really sure I know anyone who’s bought one.

I would expect that at the minimum it would hurt console system sales. Since it’s cheaper (50$) to get three consoles in one than to buy them all separate. Plus only one power supply instead of three wall bricks. Plus the pins are probably better so you don’t have to clean it all every time you play a game.

But in fact I’ve sold 2 genesis systems this summer at flea markets already, which is actually a lot as far as genesis is concerned (and consider I’m a small player, and only have like 4 in stock for the year).

I personally kind of don’t like them, just because I think people should buy the “real thing” and not a knock off. But at the same time, I think if it gets someone to play Sonic who might not have otherwise played sonic, we all win.

Now I’m going to admit, I have never been a fan of Street Fighter. Ever since the dawn of fighting games, I remember playing it at a friends house and never being impressed. Mortal Kombat on the other hand was an instant hit. Fatal fury wasn’t too bad. But never quite got street fighter.

Yet it is “universally” considered the best fighting game of all time, the whole line. All other fighting games are measured up to it and never achieve it’s level. Who decides this bull?

Anyway, SF3 looked pretty good on youtube videos and reviews so I wanted to give it a shot. I actually had found ST3 double impact at a thrift store for a dollar before. But I didn’t play it too much since I intend to find third strike to devote my time to.

Well, my first impression is that I don’t really like the art. The character art style just doesn’t jive with me. I like my anime to look like ranma or sailor moon. Fatal Fury has good character designs. But all the girls in SF are not attractive at all. That’s half the pleasure of fighting games is monster vs. eyecandy.

Now there were a couple monster things in this game as well. I don’t know what place they have in the street fighter universe. I don’t remember either van damme or jackie chan fighting these guys. But they turned out to be my favorite, and had good animations to go with them.

But I was shocked at how small the moves list was. Some only had 3 special moves. What is this, 1993? They have some bonus moves but they only work if you have a full power guage, and you have to get beat up for your power gauge to increase (huh?).

And then my biggest beaf with all street fighter games (except alpha). They are VERY unforgiving in button sequence. You have to be damn fast (faster than PoS2 controllers can do! Luckily I have some arcade pads) and perfect. No slop at all. And what you think is fast, that still isn’t fast enough! You got 0.5 seconds to roll the thing 8 times and land at exactly 325 degrees and then hit ABXBXABBXSY. They are too hard to pull off easily during a match. I get killed while trying unsuccessfully to pull off the moves over and over again. And how do I get killed? Because the computer opponent is throwing some fireball at me continuously for the entire round.

And the moves in general aren’t very exciting. For the amount of blood, sweat, and motherloving beer it took to pull of all three special moves, they were unimpressive and did little damage.

Before that I played Soul Calibur II and III I just picked up, and I actually liked both of those quite a bit. I played them side-by-side assuming I’d just keep the better, but they were both different enough and good I think I’ll keep them both. And Soul Calibur DC. And Soul Blade PS.

Interestingly enough, I do love fighters, play them a lot, but for some reason always suck.

There have been a few fighting games in the past I’ve devoted considerably time into. And even after mastering a character and beating the game, my friend can come over with little experience and still kick my ass. I’m just missing something.

But since I do love fighters, I own very very many of them for many systems. In the past I could devote myself to one. But now when I actually get a chance to play, it’ll put in an hour with a friend to one game. And next time it will be another game. So it’s really necessary that the game is relatively pick-up easy.

Now I’m not a button masher. By pick up I don’t mean just craming buttons and cheezing the fireball. I print out the special moves lists and we run through a few practice rounds with a character to learn the special moves and try to pull off some of the super-special attacks or fatalities, and then move to another character once we’ve seen all the moves. And I’m tired of getting my butt wasted. I always pick the cute girl and he picks the giant behemonth and then I complain about losing.

But if we play a game and run through a dozen characters and can’t pull off more than 25% of the moves, we figure something is wrong.

Now sometimes it is the controller. For instance stock PoS controllers suck in all regards. And I’ve had some 3rd party d-pad controllers for normal systems that somehow are incapable of registering directions right for special moves. I’ve had some amazing times where just switching a controller makes the difference between special moves being easy and impossible.

I tried everything. Multiple power cycles, cleaning, disc swapping, using a game enhancer disc. I even made a CDR copy of it on my computer and it wouldn’t play.

But the system plays all other games fine, including other CD-Rs.

I grabbed one of my dreamcasts from my sale bin and tried it out on there, and sure enough it worked fine.

The assumption is that the laser is just getting touchy on my other dreamcast. But how can it be touchy such that it is so distinctly picky with what it plays or not? What gets me is that if it was just having trouble reading CD-Rs, why did it read other CD-Rs just fine? And if it was a problem with the specific pressing or quality, why did it still refuse to read a copy of the CD-R? The copy was on high quality media, no bit errors from the computer copy.

It seems more like there is something about the content of the disc, and not the actual quality.

Is it possible for a particular boot system to not work on certain revisions of the dreamcast? I know these homebrews use these boot systems which are exploits of some dreamcast hole. Did they clean up these holes in later models? Or maybe they didn’t exist in earlier models?

Many of my favorite games are on that system.

I’m not into RPGs at all, so our favorite game lists may not coincide, but the Sega CD is good for all genras.

And all of these are Sega CD exclusives as well:

My favorite driving game: Batman Returns CD (driving levels).
My favorite flying game (other than X-Wing series): AH-3 Thunderstrike
My favorite fighting game: Eternal Champions Challenge From The Dark Side
My favorite platform game (other than Sonic/Mario): Earthworm Jim Special Edition

Not to mention an awesome array of shooters, again Sega CD exclusives
Android Assualt - could litterly be one of the best shooters ever, alongside the likes of Einhander
Silpheed
Robo Aleste
Soul Star
Keio Flying Squadron
(And you probably already have the orignal version of Lords Of Thunder, but still worth mentioning here)

And some more awesome Sega CD exclusives:
Adventures of Batman & Robin (driving/shooting plus exclusive batman animation)
Sonic CD
Terminator (platform shooter)
Road Rash CD (a unique 16-bit port of the 32-bit road rash incarnation, surprisingly the only version to include the music during the races, neither the 3DO nor Playstation versions have it!)

And I may be in the minority in the world, but I love a good FMV shooter. Visually pleasing, simple blastathon action.
Microcosm
Cobra Command
Ground Zero Texas
Road Avenger

And there’s plenty more where that came from.

I also have collected most of the new release Sega CD games (Bug Blasters, Star Strike, Battle Frenzy, Burning Fist, Citizen X). I’d recommend Bug Blasters if you’re into FMV shooters.

And also check out the imports. I’m probably the last lucky soul alive to get one of the MultiBios chips. I have:
Devastator
Dynamic Country Club Golf
Night Striker
Ranma 1/2 Byakuran Aika
Sengoku Densho
Urusei Yatsura: Dear My Friends
Yumimi Mix

Of these, I think Devastator is probably the most interesting. It’s very unique and grows on you, very old-school platform shooter action, but with graphics touches that feel kind of TGCD. And Sengoku Densho is also really interesting and unque wild dimension hopping samurai beatemup shape changing action. In another league compared to the terrible SNES port. My Sengoku Densho is for sale though since I picked up the Neo Geo version.

This will be my 5th year as a vendor.

Here’s some video of the vendor halls, museums, shmup contests, etc.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=midwest+gaming+classic&aq=f

The tour of my booth last year starts around 4:44 in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ira66Dkpnmw