New Members: Introduce Yourself!

[Exhuminator]

I've come and gone on many gaming forums since the late 90's but this one seems nice so far, so I guess I'll bite on this thread.

So I'm 34 and I've been gaming since I was about 4 years old. That means I've been playing video games for 30 years now. Started out with arcade games and ColecoVision all the way up to modern stuff. I find myself fascinated by the potential of this medium and I've happily seen it evolve greatly in my life time so far. I'm most excited about virtual reality taking off (Oculus Rift or whatever) and the potential for AR gaming (Google Glass or whatever).

Well my user name is a combination of the words "Exhume" and "Terminator". This is a silly joke to myself. It has to do with the fact that my backlog is legion and consisting of many eras of gaming. Often by the time I get around to finally playing a game I've owned for a long time, said game's so old it's practically "dead", at least as far as being related to the modern era. So when I play something that technologically antiquated, I feel like I "exhume" it, and then when I finish it, I "terminate" it. (Told you it was silly.) My avatar is simply the PM light of my dork cave's clock, in reference to the fact that I always play games late at night.

Other than that stuff I work in IT and I'm a family man with obligations out the wazoo, so I don't get to game as often as I used to (worth it though). Other hobbies I enjoy are hiking, anime, billiards, kayaking, and nature documentaries. I used to build synthesizers and sell them for fun. I'm also an agnostic and a vegetarian and not at all good at curbing my game collecting habits.

My top dozen favorite games of all time thus far:

Thief The Dark Project
Hotel Dusk
SMT: Nocturne
Fallout (original PC version)
Bionic Commando (NES version)
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
Vagrant Story
Phantasy Star (I, II, or IV, I can't decide which.)
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Shadow Of The Colossus
Gargoyle's Quest
System Shock (I & II)

Well that's enough about me then.

[Hank_Peters]

Hey y'all!

I'm hank peters and my username comes from an obscure MST3K joke. I've been sitting on this account for nearly four years without a single post! Yowza! I remember signing up because I had friends who were posting here a lot at the time, and I had been a fan of the site since around 06 or so, but I never got around to actually making any posts on here! Chalk that up to the hectic nature of real life and adopting more mobile forms of social communicating like tumblr and twitter instead of message boards (this is my first forum post in years!).

It would be a safe assumption to assume that I like video games since I'm posting here! I can't think of an obvious favorite that I prefer over anything else, but I'd say that I'm a casual fan of just about every genre out there. I used to be big on console gaming but I think as we progress into the next generation of systems I'm going to start getting more involved with PC gaming due to convenience. Outside of games I'm really into music, both listening and producing (I originally went to school for audio production). My tastes can change at a moment's notice, but right now I'm really into jazz, 90s dance, modern rap tapes, and digital hardcore stuff (like some ATR song or Mad Capsule Markets). Lately I've been turning back into a pro wrestling fan, and ever since I moved closer to my cousin I try to attend RoH TV tapings whenever they're in Baltimore.

I'll be honest, one of the main reasons I'm making this post is because I thought it'd be courteous to introduce myself and interact on the board for a little bit before making a giant post over on the B/S/T board. I'm in the process of getting transferred to Washington state, which is on the other side of the continent for me (by the way I work for Lego and yes, it's awesome)! As much as I had fun building up my game collection into what it is now, I could use all the extra cash I can get, and I think I've got a couple of things that the racketboy community would be interested in!

Hopefully I'll have a fun time on here and maybe even make some new friends! That'd be pretty cool! Anyway I'm gonna bring this post to a stop so thanks for reading it if you did!

[BogusMeatFactory]

Welcome aboard all you wonderful new people!

@hank_peters
Good to have you aboard. The forums do in fact need more Italian Grocers and we are happy to have you! I feel ya on the urge to convert more towards PC out of convenience. I tend to have huge swings in desires, moving from PC to console back and forth every so many years. I'm starting to get back into a console swing myself and rightly so. My WiiU is getting some good games coming out!

Also can't wait to see what you have up for sale. Always looking to expand the collection here and there when time/money allows!

When you say you are going to get into PC gaming are you thinking about taking the Digital route, or are you looking to collect classic PC games?

@exhuminator
Welcome welcome! Never fear about the silliness of usernames. I tend to always go with strange names like JigglyPuff5000 (an old Xbox Live name I used to anger gamers when I beat them in CoD 2 waaaaayyyyy back in the day), but BogusMeatFactory stuck. At least yours has some rhyme and reason to it, which I give extra kudos to!

I am digging the variety of some of your favorite game's list. You have a nice selection of classic american and japanese RPGs and those good old first person hybrids! Being an older, lifetime gamer, I have to ask, what side of the 16-bit argument were you on as a kid? Sega or Nintendo? Also, for me personally, Phantasy Star IV rocks the others out of the park in the series. Although I and II are both good (even III has some merits, it just had really really bad music), I feel like IV had such great presentation and coherence from beginning to end. You really knew what you had to do and where to do, a problem I felt that II had (although I still loved).

[Hank_Peters]

The forums do in fact need more Italian Grocers

When you say you are going to get into PC gaming are you thinking about taking the Digital route, or are you looking to collect classic PC games?

kinda both! lately i've been noticing that most non-console exclusives tend to preform better on PCs, plus they're more often to go for discounted prices than they would at a retail store. over the years i also accumulated a large collection on GoG and steam because of said sales, and since my current computer setup is a 2009 macbook pro running windows xp... yeah ahaha. I was already in the market for building a new computer anyway, so it just makes more sense to go the PC route instead of spending extra money on a next gen console (for the first few years anyway).

[Exhuminator]

what side of the 16-bit argument were you on as a kid? Sega or Nintendo?

Ha ha oh I remember those war torn days clearly. I never had to choose a side though, because I was lucky enough to have a SNES and a Genesis simultaneously during their prime.* So I got to be the fence sitter that both sides of the debate hated. Well if it counts, as an even younger kid I asked for a SEGA Master System long before a NES. Primarily for Phantasy Star.

*Just like right now there seems to be this console VS PC thing going on. I say why not both? Because I just do both.

Phantasy Star IV

It's probably my all time favorite 16-bit JRPG, and the most well rounded entry into the series overall. PSIV cost me a fair bit of cash back in the 90's as well, that's for sure. I think PSII had the best music of the series. I enjoyed PSIII's generational system, but I thought its monster designs were weak (don't remember much about the music). PSI though was the most innovative and progressive overall. It had a female protagonist, first person dungeons that were actually tough, full screen enemies that animated, different worlds to explore, excellent music, a killer arch nemesis... so many amazing things for its time. Too bad about all the grinding for meseta though.

[Ben]

Just thought I'd jump in on this thread for my first post, I actually found racketboy while looking for a Saturn s-video cable. I posted on some gaming forums back in the early 2000's and got busy with life and other things, but given that I'm just not into the current and upcoming gens it seemed a better fit than the other ones I've come across. This place really is a great resource, hopefully I can contribute something worthwhile anyway.

[Sano]

Welcome to all the new people I haven't said hello to!

[Sasha_Blue]

Hey fellas, welcome

[slaytracks]

Hello, everyone!

I'm 19 years old, and off to Syracuse University majoring in English. I've been doing a lot of retro gaming lately, mostly because I just got out of a long summer with nothing to do, and my friends and I have very competitive Punch Out bouts. I've been wanting to join Racketboy for a while, and have just finally decided to stop lurking and try my best to contribute something.

As for some things about myself; I'm an avid admirer of all fizzy drinks. I freaking love soda. My fridge is stocked with moxie and root beer and ginger beer and orange soda and anything that fizzes under the sun. I play lots of guitar, I'm a huge fan of Radiohead, wearing raglan tees, cheesy cinema (Monty Python, sci-fi spoofs) and I enjoy Walt Whitman's work.

As for gaming;

I currently own a Famicom, Super Nintendo and a Super Famicom, Nintendo 64, Gamecube, Wii, a Genesis, Dreamcast, a ton of old Game & Watch systems, (does anybody care about those? I'm obsessed) nearly every GameBoy put to production, a PS1, PS2, and PS3.

I'm a pretty well-rounded retro gamer. I love fighters. Tekken is my favorite, and Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat will forever hold places in my heart. Although, as I stated earlier, right now I'm in the middle of a Punch Out obsession. RPG's are also a favorite of mine, and I'm looking to dig a little more into the weirder and quirkier JRPG's. Atlus seems like a super exciting company to me, and I'm just starting getting into the Persona series. I can't get enough of my Super Nintendo, or my Gamecube. I'm sure I'll be regularly visiting the Nintendo forums. My favorite game of all time would have to be.. Earthbound. I know, I know. Terribly original.

Thanks for reading all of this. That's all I can think to divulge at the moment. I hope I can contribute some useful thoughts and info to the forums!

[Czernobog]

Nice to meet you slaytracks! You sound like you have some pretty awesome tastes. That Game and Watch collection sounds pretty neat. Those things seem to be getting harder to find lately, especially in good working order, and more and more expensive. I bet I'm not the only one here who would love to see pictures of them!