Random Gaming Thoughts

[prfsnl_gmr]

Lots of good stuff on the Taito Legends collections. I also really love the Extreme games.

Atari 2600 will always be Space Invaders to me though. It's the first one I played before I even knew how to read or write. There was a lot of variety that made it even better than the arcade cabinet. Atari knew Space Invaders was going to be their killer app and they really put a lot of TLC into porting it. It's probably the first truly excellent arcade port really, even if it's not arcade accurate.

I agree on all points.

Also...was Space Invaders available at the 2600's launch? If so, the presence of both Space Invaders an Combat would make the 2600 launch line up one of the very best.

EDIT!: Nevermind. Wikipedia says that Space Invaders was not available at launch. The presence of both Combat and Indy 500 still makes for a pretty killer line up, however.

DOUBLE EDIT!!: Wikipedia also says Aquanaut's Holiday was a PS1 launch title...Since that game, to my knowledge, never had a "long box" release that does not seem right to me. Does anyone remember a period when some PS1 games were released in "long boxes" while others were released in jewel cases?

TRIPLE EDIT!!! (ULTRA COMBO!!!!): GameFAQs shows a U.S. release date for Aquanaut's Holiday of 6/29/95 (i.e., a little over two months before the U.S. PS1 launch), and Wikipedia shows a U.S. release date of 9/9/1995 (i.e., the U.S. PS1 launch date). The copyright on the back of the case says 1996, however, which lead me to believe that both GameFAQs and Wikipedia list this game's release date incorrectly. This error, combined with the fact it is only available in a jewel case, leads me to believe that Aquanauts Holiday was not, in fact, a PS1 launch title.

[Hobie-wan]

DOUBLE EDIT!!: Wikipedia also says Aquanaut's Holiday was a PS1 launch title...Since that game, to my knowledge, never had a "long box" release that does not seem right to me. Does anyone remember a period when some PS1 games were released in "long boxes" while others were released in jewel cases?

TRIPLE EDIT!!! (ULTRA COMBO!!!!): GameFAQs shows a U.S. release date for Aquanaut's Holiday of 6/29/95 (i.e., a little over two months before the U.S. PS1 launch), and Wikipedia shows a U.S. release date of 9/9/1995 (i.e., the U.S. PS1 launch date). The copyright on the back of the case says 1996, however, which lead me to believe that both GameFAQs and Wikipedia list this game's release date incorrectly. This error, combined with the fact it is only available in a jewel case, leads me to believe that Aquanauts Holiday was not, in fact, a PS1 launch title.

Moby says July 96.

http://www.mobygames.com/game/playstati ... ts-holiday

[RyaNtheSlayA]

Not sure if I want to continue replaying Deus Ex HR on Wii U or on PC. Unlike Assassin's Creed IV I don't have the time invested in either to really sway me to one on lost time. Just a matter of nifty gamepad stuff vs. mouse aiming and 60fps. Hmmm.

[RCBH928]

The GameCube and Xbox came out after the Dreamcast was discontinued. Sega died and transformed into an awful publishing house under Sammy. Sales slowed down a ton after the PS2 released. Sega had to give them away (under SegaNet) to get rid of some of the stock in warehouses. I don't see how you could not consider that a complete and utter failure compared to the others.

Also the GameCube was pretty well considered a failure by Nintendo internally, as was the original Xbox by Microsoft.

Plus a lot of people held off buying a Dreamcast because they were waiting for the PS2 to launch. Sony even told people to hold off for PS2s iirc.

The Gamecube is considered a success because it turned a reasonable profit and survived the generation. It made Nintendo money, which in the long run is all it needed to do. They would've liked it to do better sure.

The Dreamcast is considered a failure because it failed to save Sega from bankruptcy, which was it needed to do. The console sold quite well at first, but it needed to do much better than it did.

I know Sega failed financially but if we put the business factor out of the picture I really do not see the Dreamcast as a bad console within itself. I think it was a $100 less than ps2 at launch and it had a modem built in which was not on the ps2 IIRC. I am also not sure if this was a factor in selling the system but I think the Wii proved that playing Disc media (Bluray) is not a selling point which people argued was the reason many people picked a ps2 over the Dreamcast.

I think Sega killed itself with bad business decisions but the Dreamcast was no (much) less than its competitors. Nintendo survived by selling 30m 64s , 20m NGCs, and currently a 5m Wii Us I do not see why the Dreamcast would have not reached somewhere around the 20-25m sales mark if it stayed up until 2006 with the rest of its generation.

This also makes me wonder, if Sega quit on the Dreamcast after 2 years how did SNK survive on the Neo-Geo for like 7 years.

I think Sega killed the Dreamcast , not the PS2 .

[ExedExes]

It appears I posted my original Space Invaders post twice on the last page? What can I say, it's the original shmup.

Yes, Atari put so much into that port. Over 100 variations (!), moving shields, faster enemy shots, zig-zag shots, invisible invaders, and all the 2 player simultaneous games (!) even those that has one player move and the other player shoot. That probably took the entire 2k on that cart.

They did that right, yet the Pacman port tanked.

[Gunstar Green]

This also makes me wonder, if Sega quit on the Dreamcast after 2 years how did SNK survive on the Neo-Geo for like 7 years.

I think Sega killed the Dreamcast , not the PS2 .

That's comparing two different animals though. I don't think the Neo Geo was ever really intended to have the same mass appeal. It was priced into a niche category from the very start and they seemed fine with their niche status.

It's nice to picture an alternate reality where Dreamcast kept on trucking, content to hold an arcade-ish niche instead of trying to compete with the likes of the PS2 and so-on.

[GSZX1337]

It appears I posted my original Space Invaders post twice on the last page? What can I say, it's the original shmup.

Wouldn't the original shmup be SpaceWar?

[Gunstar Green]

It appears I posted my original Space Invaders post twice on the last page? What can I say, it's the original shmup.

Wouldn't the original shmup be SpaceWar?

Only by the most liberal of definition in that it has space ships that shoot.

[Erik_Twice]

What people are asking Nintendo to do is basically replace Iwaya with Bobby Kotick and turn the company into the modern Capcom.

Exactly what gamers benefit from!

[Ack]

What people are asking Nintendo to do is basically replace Iwaya with Bobby Kotick and turn the company into the modern Capcom.

Exactly what gamers benefit from!

Wait, what? Where are people asking Nintendo to do this? Modern Capcom totally sucks!