Don’t Starve has been running my life

As I sit here, not having written anything for this blog in almost a month, I feel like I’m not even the one who’s responsible. I’ve WANTED to write about things. I even have some super kick-ass ideas in the queue, and they’re going to be super kick-ass.

Anyway, that stuff will be here in the coming days. Let me bring you up to speed with Don’t Starve.

I’ve been playing this game almost non-stop (not quite as non-stop as my wife, but that’s a different post) because it’s really fun to play. Or maybe not fun? More like, addictive? Yeah, I’m going to go with addictive.

Don’t Starve really has scarcity down to a science. You always have to be working toward the next thing, because if you misallocate your time… BOOM you’re dead. Trust me, I know.

So anyway, I might venture into a thorough “thinking out loud” about this game in an upcoming post, but the reality is that I just died in a game the other day where I was 58 days in… I’m still heartbroken…

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Chrono Trigger – SNES

/sigh

So I was writing this post on my phone and apparently when one does that, one must remember that the WordPress app is REALLY anxious to publish your post. One (me) did NOT remember that and a half-done version of this post was live over the weekend.

Sorry about that.

Anyhoo, ON TO THE ACTUAL POST!

http://chrono.wikia.com/wiki/Chrono_Trigger

I haven’t written in so long that I wanted to take any opportunity to start contributing to the blog again.

SO I decided to try out an Android emulator (after some quick research I bought SuperGNES) and spend some time with Chrono Trigger! This game is a bit legendary BUT I’VE NEVER PLAYED IT and I basically know nothing about it.

So. In the interest of actually posting something on this damn blog, I’ll forgo convention and just post!

This is going to be rad!

First off, I can only choose a name that’s 5 characters long… I’m glad THAT part of old games has died a horrible death.

Then IS THAT FREAKING PIKACHU? IS THIS WHERE GORD-DAMN POKEMON COME FROM???

Nope. Turns out that cats just look a lot like Pokemon in Chrono Trigger. To be honest, I’m a little disappointed.

No matter how many old games I play I always find the lack of hand-holding a little jarring. They were ok with having you wander around a bit being a confused. After all, aren’t you smart enough to figure this stuff out on your own (I’m not)? Does that ever happen anymore… aside from sandbox games?

To start off Chrono Trigger I’m supposed to go find Num09 (you get to name some of the characters, i’m guessing she’ll be part of my party later on – later I named a girl who ran into me and dropped a pendant, Penny… for obvious reasons). I named her Num09 because she’s an inventor, so obviously she would have a number in her name.

I’ll have to look into the bloodlines here, because aesthetically Chrono Trigger really reminds me of Final Fantasy, but I have no idea which one came first… that seems like a long, dark, deep, nerd hole to fall into. Heck, maybe all the RPGs looked like this – I mean: it works.

Side-note

The controls in this emulator work surprisingly well. I wouldn’t want to use SuperGNES to play anything that required precise or quick controls, like Contra, but for an RPG they’ve been totally usable so far.

This is an involved game

I didn’t play for all that long, maybe 30-45 minutes in total spread across a few days, but I’m going to keep putting in time on this game and I’ll keep you updated. I’ve found that the small phone screen discourages me from long play-periods, which will draw this out, but the overall experience is pretty solid. I’ll probably write more on that later as well.

Blades of Steel on NES – Game the Game

THIS IS NOT WHAT I EXPECTED IT TO BE! UP IS DOWN, DOWN IS UP, AND ICE HOCKEY IS THE ONE WITH THE DAMN PLAYER SELECTION!

phillbarron.files.wordpress.com

As you may remember, I posted a Pre Game with my mind’s eye not being able to distinguish between Ice Hockey and Blades of Steel. Well, dear reader, as you can tell from the headlines… was I wrong. So very wrong.

Here are some notes I wrote frantically whilst my entire world crumbled around me…

• Whoa whoa whoa… when you lose a fight YOU’RE DOWN A PLAYER!?!?!?!
• I can’t figure out how to pass – looks like it might be a problem with the emulator I’m using… apparently passing is actually a feature
• You control your own goalie – there’s an arrow that floats up and down in the net
• I can be Edmonton (whose colours are green?) AND NOT CALGARY (muaa ha ha)

MUAA HAA HAA, stupid Calgary!

In short, Blades of Steel is a very solid game. It’s just not the game I remembered… not in the least. The controls were also a weird adjustment for me.

(I’ll likely post about this in the future, but I was/am/always will be a huge fan of the early NHL games on the Genesis. They were probably THE fundamental series of games of my childhood. And lately I’ve been trying to get into the more modern NHL franchise with… limited… success. Anyway, all of this is context to me trying to get my little brain around the controls in Blades of Steel.)

It’s me, not you

My first few plays didn’t go phenomenally well (this image is of the CPU scoring… which it did a lot of), but that’s not a game issue. It’s entirely my lack of skill + total and utter loss and how I had misremembered this game. I’ll definitely be playing more Blades of Steel.

And stay tuned for my Game the Game for Ice Hockey!

Retron 3 NTSC/ PAL Schmoz

My problems with my Retron 3 have been recorded for posterity and subsequently clarified, though it’s time to add another, which I will call: “what?”

It seems like the Retron 3 is a PAL machine. Frankly I didn’t even know that was a thing for videogames until I plugged in my brand spankin’ new/old copy of Streets of Rage 2. I guess it makes sense that would be a thing… but seriously?

WHAT?

So, at least Genesis games are locked to regions on this slowly-becoming-more-useless-as-time-rolls-on machine. Sweet Zombie Jesus Retron, why would you sell PAL encoded hardware in North America???

I guess I can least play SoR IIand Shinobi III guilt-free on an emulator now…

COBRA TRIANGLE – NES – Actually Playing the Game Now!

We’ve had the Pre Game, now on to: GAMING THE GAME

They’re boat’n through your ocean, snatching your people up,
tryin’ to steal’em
so you better

hide your kids
hide your wife
hide your kids
hide your wife

and hide your motorboat
cause they’re stealin’ everybody out here…

– my wife, singing about Cobra Triangle
inspired by the classic: Bed Intruder Song

Wow, I had completely forgotten that this thing is fundamentally a racing game.

With that shock over, I quickly started shooting all of my motorboat enemies… though I’m not sure why we’re enemies… and why do they get shore-based weapons? It’s no matter as dispose of a few of them.

Right, I have a health bar. OOO powerups! It damages my body to run into the shore, makes sense, and I’m done the first level. That was pretty easy.

And this is the part that I’m really sad about forgetting: to get to the next level, my body sprouts a helicopter rotor and flies away! A HELICOPTER ROTOR! Dude, let’s just use that thing for the whole “race”!

So, are you trying?
– my wife commenting as I die for the seemingly 100th time while failing to prevent the enemy from making of with 8 helpless swimmers

In my first real attempt, I didn’t get very far. The first level is easy, then it’s kind of a bonus powerup level (that may be unlocked by performance, I’ll have to look that up), then it’s a damn guarding level. 8 helpless, drowning, terrified looking ‘people’ are arranged in a diamond with me at the centre to protect them. It’s horrifying! Enemy boats come and DRAG THE PEOPLE AWAY! … and the boats have UFOs!?! What in the blue hell is going on here?!?!?

And that’s as far as I got. I’m sorry that couldn’t protect you random, identical people… *single tear*

Look at this poor guy… THIS GAME IS DELIGHTING IN OUR TERROR

We now know fear.

JJGames.com review: 1st order has arrived

Booyah!

This is official confirmation that www.jjgames.com is totally legit and awesome. My order took a little less than 2 weeks to arrive, which is not bad for US to Canada shipping, the games work, and were in the condition described on the website. Basically, what you see is what you get.

Also, through my extensive shopping cart testing I have discovered that the best value for the $15 basic Canadian shipping is to order 8 games (shipping price is based on weight). Past that shipping goes up to $23.

Anyhoo, most common games are <$10 and there’s a great selection – obviously, if you’re looking for a rare or popular game you’re going to pay more (NES Zelda is $26.56 right now), that’s more than I want to pay for a 25 year old game, but it’s still a great price imho. I’ve seen Zelda priced at >$50.

Overall I think JJGames is a much better option than eBay (seriously, have you seen some of the listings on eBay… some sellers are out of their freakin’ minds)

Note, this post isn’t sponsored in any way, it’s just confirmation that when I ordered from them, the games arrived. My review: the site is real.

But if JJ’s wanted to, say, give me a promo or affiliate code… I’d be totally into that 🙂