@slider1983 having just looked up the US manual (can’t find the PAL one) he is called Nack the Weasel in that. So it’s seems outside of Japan he was always called Nack. To be honest it makes sense; the creature that he is supposed to be in Japan (Jaboa?) is even more likely to be unfamiliar than an echidna to western audiences and his name ‘the Sniper’ is totally different from every other anthropomorphised Sonic character. Not sure if ‘sniper’ means something else in Japan other than the military role. Plus weasels are often portrayed in literature as sneaky and underhanded.
He’ll always be Nack the Weasel to me (though thinking about it ‘Fang the Weasel’ might actually have been the better combination).
@slider1983 I came here just to say that! I never owned Triple Trouble back in the 90s, having given up on the Game Gear and its terrible battery life, but I remember him from the pages of the UK SEGA comic Sonic the Comic, where he started out as a member of the Chaotix crew before double crossing them. He had habit of using shrinking technology, a bit like a villainous version of Ant-man.
I hadn’t bought a Nintendo handhelds since 2008 (which was a GBA SP after trading in my of GBA from 2002). By 2014, when I got the 2DS I was well behind in handheld gaming. I’d been tempted by the 3DS in 2011, but after trying one I was underwhelmed by the 3D. It was a lot of money for something that felt gimmicky. I’d never appreciated the DS from what I’d seen, was far more into consoles. Yet in early 2014 I took a gamble on a 2DS, which was going for £110 with a choice of game. I was hooked. It was a cracking system for the price. The ergonomics of the system was fantastic, the flat slate reminding me of the Game Boy and Game Gear I grew up with. The virtual console, with games from both those old systems was fantastically nostalgic.
I did upgrade to a 3DS XL about 18 months later but immediately regretted it. Not long later I got a New 3DS and whilst it is a great bit of kit, I still wish I hadn’t bothered moving on for the 2DS.
I remember these from the early 90s at school. Serious flashbacks! Love somebody he named that completely passed me by as a kid. The goblin called ‘Duns Scotus’ is named after a philosopher, I think?
The thing is that ‘gaming’ as a hobby does not have to be expensive, really only if you want or need either the newest systems and games or rarer retro games. If you were starting from nothing there are several systems where you could pick up a system and good selection of games for not very much: Master System (in the UK at least) is very cheap to get into as a Master System 2 can be found for £20-£40 (with a game built in) and a lot of the big hitters are pocket money prices. The same can be said for the Mega Drive for a bit more. A gen 1 Wii gives you access to GameCube as well. Plus it is incredibly easy to mod and put the entire Virtual Console library on a couple of SD cards (it’s actually only about 8GB but the Wii cannot display enough channels on screen to have all on one card). That alone would give you a healthy library of NES, SNES, N64, Master System, Mega Drive, Neo Geo, Turbo Grafix, C64, arcade and Wiiware titles, more than you could play in a decade, with access to many games that are expensive or rare if you were to hunt down the originals.
If you want something more modern then Xbox 360s, Xbox Ones and PS4s are cheap secondhand and the games are dirt cheap for Xbox one and PS4 right now (plus with Xbox one S you are getting a 4K Blu-ray player as part of the deal).
Funnily enough I have just recently returned to my New 3DS. With a handgrip it is much more comfy to play for extended periods of time than my Switch. Plus it has a heck of a lot more personality than the Switch too!
@h3s sounds like a similar experience to me growing up, though I started with the Speccy, it wasn’t until the Game Gear I started buying carts. Boots was also a go to place in Leeds, with a dedicated video game section. I remember preordering Sonic 2 and Tazmania for the Game Gear. Both were terrible disappointments. I also remember getting games at video rental shops as well
@slider1983 even carts seem to be less frequent than just Master System and Mega Drive carts. I do see them on occasion, just not to the same extent (unless it’s somewhere like Sore Thumbs in York where everything seems to be well represented).
@slider1983 yup, today if you go into most retro video game shops in the UK there is very little NES (not a huge amount of SNES tbh) but Master System and Mega Drive are very easy to find.
@h3s I remember those days well. However, I only saw NESs on display in shops like Boots and Children’s World (which is entirely where my nostalgia for the system comes from). The walls of game covers in Toys r’ us was epic, but at least in our local shop it was dominated by SEGA. I knew plenty of people with Amigas, C64s and Spectrums (which is what I had) but in terms of consoles it was once the Mega Drive arrived that consoles took off. Everyone seemed to have it (I only knew 2 people with SNESs) with Nintendo being represented by the ubiquitous Game Boy.
It was only later, in the mid 90s that on three separate occasions at three different friends houses that we discovered that their parents had bought NESs in the 80s. We felt like Indiana Jones recovering some lost relics! In fact, the last one ended up being mine as I bought the console, accessories and library of games for £17.
The is such a shock. I love reading Nick’s articles ‘Back to the Noughties’ about what was happening this month X years ago and his passion for all things Sonic, as well as his conversations with Darren and Tim on the ‘Hot Topic’ of the month. I’ve been a subscriber for about 6 years and always looked forward to his contributions. Such a young age to go as well. The mag won’t be the same without him.
I was a Game Gear owner from Xmas 1991. It was a much more premium product than the Game Boy (which was a great portable system). The batteries were the thing that held it back (yes, it had a blurry screen but the OG Game Boy had a very blurry screen as well). Now I look back, if they had produced pretty much the same machine, but without the backlight, then it probably could have done a bit better, as it would effectively be an early Game Boy Color (which had full colour but no back light, which meant it could run on 2 AA batteries compared to the Game Gear’s 6). I know the Game Boy had a much bigger library, but the Game Gear had some excellent exclusive games (such as GG Shinobi) and conversions from Master System titles (Sonic 1 was reworked extensively to better suit the smaller screen).
Lots of memories of EB both in the UK and US from back in the day. I remember buying my original Game Boy at an EB in a large mall in Florida, with Killer Instinct as the pack in game back in 1996. It was choice between that or a Pocket model with Wave Race and a carry case bundle. Even at an early age I had nostalgia for the original model from ‘89 (even if looking back the Pocket would have been far more sensible to go for!)
The Master System was big here in the UK, I only really saw NES in shops. However, that Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles NES set was a big deal. I begged my folks for one.
My first dabbles with video games were also with Game & Watch back in the 80s. Both were single screen games: a brown one with Parachute and a green one with Donkey Kong Jr. Many hours were spent on these addictive but frustrating machines, before moving onto the ZX Spectrum.
I also remember one kid having the classic dual screen Donkey Kong in school and a close friend had the Zelda one. I also remember seeing the sky blue Super Mario Bros one in Toys R Us, staring at me from behind glass. I had no idea what any of these Nintendo characters were, outside of the cartoons on TV and the occasional go on a NES in a shop.
Fairly sure I had that Spiderman figure and I still have the Claire Redfield and Zombie set. She still has her bowgun but the revolver she came with is long gone.
It’s not particularly unusual; SEGA were massive in Europe in the 90s, with the Master System being very popular in the UK in the 80s before that. Nintendo seemed to ignore us in the UK until 1990 (the Game Boy and the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles NES pack were very popular that year and into 1991) and the Mega Drive was everywhere growing up. The Saturn was a bit of a bust, so people seemed to swap to the PS1, whereas I went the other way with the N64. Aside from SEGA it was really micro computers that were king over here. Nintendo was present, but I only encountered the NES in shops on displays and I knew 2 people with a SNES.
I didn’t get a Wavebird during the GameCube’s lifetime (not sure I even knew that it existed) but when I went through a bit nostalgia trip in about 2012 I managed to buy one, along with many of the big hitting games I missed a decade previously (for very little money compared to the eye watering prices they go for today). By the time I did I was used to wireless controllers due to the Wii, so the impact of being cable free was somewhat lessened. That being said, had I got one in 2003, it would have been a complete game changer; my Wavebird works brilliantly, it never has any connection issues and the battery life is excellent. The lack of rumble is the only downside. Compared to so called ‘wireless’ controllers on the 90s (that needed a direct line of sight to an IR receiver) it was way ahead of its time. I remember reading that one website tried out its range and it was something ridiculous like 90 feet!
@Andee I’m just looking back now and thinking about how much money I could have saved or how many more games I could have bought, as the pound was so strong against the dollar! When I first went in 1988 it was 2:1; I can still remember standing Toy Liquidators, where they were selling toys that were old in the US but brand new in the UK for a ridiculously low price. My dad was so impressed he started pulling Transformers off the shelf saying ‘at that price you can have as many as you want!’ Until my mum reminded him that we had to fit everything in the suitcases. Still, I did rather well that Xmas 😂
As a Mega Drive owner back then, who was lucky enough to visit the States from the UK several times, the playground story was that ‘you can’t buy Genesis games in the US and play them on your Mega Drive; they’ve got a chip in them that stops them working’. No such issues with Game Gear or Game Boy existed, so we stuck to those. Flash forward to about 2020 and I bought a couple of carts on eBay, not checking properly that one said Genesis on the label. Disappointed I tried it anyway. To my shock (and relief) it worked perfectly! I always wondered why people bothered importing stuff in the 90s if it wouldn’t run the games. I felt bamboozled!
In the early 90s SOR1 was a blast to play through in 2 player and the soundtrack was phenomenal. Very much a pastiche of gritty 80s American action films from a Japanese point of view. But then SOR2 arrived and just blew it out of the water in every way! Don’t get me wrong, I love the original but SOR2 is just on another level. Plus as kids we had no idea we were slamming punks into the concrete to acid house tunes (Stage 4 is just ‘Move any mountain’ by the Shamen).
Smith’s, though an institution, was always ridiculously overpriced. The shops seem like they haven’t been updated since the 90s (the one in our city centre feels like most of the lightbulbs are gone, it is so dark). It will be a pity to loose the large selection of magazines and I have some memories of buying games and DVDs there in the past. However, it was usually when I got a voucher for my birthday, as they were always so overpriced compared to other shops.
UK 1983: <looks up from home computer> ‘What was that noise?’
Tbh I was 1 year old in ‘83, but the Sinclair ZX Spectrum was my first games system in about 1990. Although I yearned for SEGA goodness like most kids in the UK at the time I really, really miss how cheap games were! £2/£3 for games on cassette with carts £20+. Those were the days, but at least with digital sales there are some real bargains out there these days for pocket money prices.
@GameGear1991 luckily I still have my setup. I never owned 4 Swords, gave away my original copy of Link’s Awakening once I got the DX version and Twilight Princess has gone missing (only game I have ever misplaced and it’s still remains a mystery how that actually happened) but have everything else except Oracle of Seasons. The Cube is a Zelda beast!
@GameGear1991 I logged in just for this comment. With the GameBoy Player attached, the GameCube allowed you to play every Zelda game up to and including Twilight Princess. You can own 5 Zelda titles on Switch. Once online access ends (inevitably it will) that’s your lot. Even with a modded Wii you can ‘own’ 7 of them.
@GhaleonUnlimited it’s hard to overstate just how popular both Tomb Raider and Lara Croft were in the UK in the 90s; a British video game hero was pretty rare in a big game and it was a British made game too. Lara fitted in perfectly with ‘girl power’ that swept the country due to the spice girls; men wanted her and women wanted to be her! Recently she was voted the greatest video game character of all time by one of our newspapers, above Mario, Sonic and PAC man. While I don’t personally think she is quite as iconic as those characters clearly others do.
@GhaleonUnlimited all true. In terms of killer apps for PS1 though I would say that Wipeout was heavily marketed (with Sony setting up systems in nightclubs to attract 20 somethings to return to gaming, to get away from the ‘kiddie’ image that had been around for a while. Tomb Raider was also a fairly early killer app and again managed to appeal to the more ‘mature’ croud. Again, I was about 12/13 when the PS1 launched, so it kind of flew over my head. Plus by then I had discovered PC gaming, which already did what the PS1 could do but better. Combine that with my Mega Drive them N64 and I didn’t need a PS. I could play games like Resident Evil 2, Dark Forces, Worms and Tomb Raider on a far more powerful machine.
Sorry if this has already been said, but I was under the impression that while it wasn’t successful in the US and Europe, the Saturn was the most popular SEGA system in Japan, to the extent that it is pretty synonymous with the brand there and occupies a similar position in Japanese culture as the Mega Drive/ Genesis does in the West.
I remember the time it was launched. I was a SEGA kid, but after the one-two flops of the Mega CD and 32X in the public consciousness here in the UK the last thing I wanted was another seemingly duff machine (history has of course vindicated the Saturn and the Mega CD as well somewhat. No such luck with the 32X!).
For me as a young teen at the time Sony was associated with TVs and stereos (and the PS seemed to be marketed at older gamers) so I ended up holding out until 1998 when I got an N64. I wonder if that was true for other people as well?
I got this version of the console in this very box design for Xmas ‘96 while on holiday in the US. However, it did actually come with Killer Instinct packed in, with a sticker in the bottom corner to show this. It was a choice between that or a Game Boy Pocket that came with Waverace and a wallet. Looking back the pocket would have been the better choice, but even then I wanted the nostalgia of the OG model. I’d had a Game Gear since ‘91 and felt that I’d missed out on the GB, so I got it just in time for Pokemon.
My sister had had a Game Boy for years already, hers was in the classic ‘cyborg hands’ design package, which had the link cable, headphones and Tetris included.
I actually got a SEGA Game Gear in ‘91 when the Game Boy released. However, one of my best friends had a GB, so we would swap for a week to have a go at each others machines. My sister got a GB the year after, at the airport on the way to the US. I was very envious of the fact that the 6 AA batteries on my GG died after an hour or so but her GB kept going for days!
I finally got an OG GB for Xmas ‘96 and it was my constant companion until I upgraded to a GBC in ‘99. Unfortunately I must have ended up with one of the rare non-Toni’s tough GB as the screen cover fell off and I destroyed it trying to fix it with model glue…
I can’t understand how we have to go any further than ‘if you don’t like it, don’t buy it’ for any form of game, music or film. I would extend that to ‘if you don’t like it, don’t buy it for your kids; it’s your responsibility to gate keep what they are consuming until they are old enough to make their own mistakes’.
As for ‘content warnings’ before I start my game they are actually nothing new. Every Resident Evil game used to begin with one ‘This game contains scenes of explicit violence and gore’ to which I always thought the same thing: ‘’That’s why I’m here!’’
Trigger warnings for re-releases of classic games will have as much impact as the age rating/MPAA/Parental Advisory warnings did back in the 90s when they first came out.
With nostalgia goggles firmly on it’s got to be the Game Boy line, followed by the DS systems and my personal childhood machine the Game Gear (the terrible battery life knocks it down the list). Goggles off and it’s clearly the Switch; a full console in handheld form (with the ability to play HD on a TV) is pretty hard to beat on paper.
Absolutely. There are games I played to death as a kid that I can still blast through. These are like comfort food. There are games that I played but couldn’t beat but I can now. It’s a great feeling to complete something previously unachievable many years later. There are games I wanted to play but couldn’t afford. These are a mixed bag as some are fantastic whilst others have aged poorly. Finally I love retro games for the contrast with a lot of modern games; no updates or internet connectivity nonsense and especially with cartridge games you can turn them on and play pretty much instantly.
At the time this came out I had never played any Final Fantasy game, but was aware from media osmosis that it was either high fantasy or steam punk style (FFVII was very popular) so when I saw the trailers I was just confused as it looked like something totally different. I’m not sure what they were going for; it didn’t look familiar enough to any of the games to appeal to either those who were already fans of the game or to attract new players. It was just all a bit strange…
No matter what you achieve in life there is always someone out there who will want to bring you down. Yes it’s only a game but it’s still pretty awesome that he made headlines. Well done lad.
I have a couple of Bitmap books; the Master System and Game Boy books. They never published the Mega Drive/Genesis one, I believe for legal reasons, which is a real pity as the Master System one is lovely. I will look into the N64 one as it is another of my childhood consoles.
@John_Deacon I had the same happen to my Wii from 2009. Sent it off to get repaired and all sorted for £30. Works fine today.
I bought a cheap Wii online (£11) and modded that one as a backup. I’m more worried that my Wii U will break before anything else as it is now boxed away. My Mega Drive from 1993 is still going strong (only given it a clean inside and out a couple of years ago, the controllers really benefited from a good clean; no more squeaky direction pad!
The best Mario Kart. Less cheap cheating from the AI than MK64, better gimmick than MK Wii and better track design (imo) than MK8 (or at least more streamlined).. Loved the two characters per cart, the music and presentation. The controls were spot on. Many, many an hour was lost on multiplayer to this game.
The SNES vs Mega Drive is a total cliche and has been for a long time (ever since we debated it on the playgrounds of the early 90s). However, it’s like comparing the Ferrari F40 to the Lamborghini Diablo: both are phenomenal machines that will put a big grin on your face no matter which you own (I’d imagine!)
The GBC was the first system that I bought with my own money. I’d had a Game Gear in the early 90s and only got an original GB in 96. The GBC was a very good upgrade from the classic GB: smaller form factor, much sharper screen with no motion blur, only needed a couple of batteries and some of the games were pretty impressive, especially when it gave new life to old monochrome games. My only gripe is the lack of a backlight but a worm light was a cheap solution, especially since the back light is what made the Game Gear such a battery hog back in the day.
When my son was first getting into games I bought him a GBC in Atomic Purple (the see through model) that I found in pretty decent condition. He loves playing it to this day, especially Wario land 2. I then found myself a grape coloured model online in immaculate condition for a ridiculously good price. My original teal model is with a friend and still gets used to this day 25 years later!
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Re: Interview: "I Believed Fang Was Forgotten" - Former Sonic Artist Talks Batman, Design Changes, & Swapping Games For Vinyl Toys
@slider1983 having just looked up the US manual (can’t find the PAL one) he is called Nack the Weasel in that. So it’s seems outside of Japan he was always called Nack. To be honest it makes sense; the creature that he is supposed to be in Japan (Jaboa?) is even more likely to be unfamiliar than an echidna to western audiences and his name ‘the Sniper’ is totally different from every other anthropomorphised Sonic character. Not sure if ‘sniper’ means something else in Japan other than the military role. Plus weasels are often portrayed in literature as sneaky and underhanded.
He’ll always be Nack the Weasel to me (though thinking about it ‘Fang the Weasel’ might actually have been the better combination).
Re: Interview: "I Believed Fang Was Forgotten" - Former Sonic Artist Talks Batman, Design Changes, & Swapping Games For Vinyl Toys
@slider1983 I came here just to say that! I never owned Triple Trouble back in the 90s, having given up on the Game Gear and its terrible battery life, but I remember him from the pages of the UK SEGA comic Sonic the Comic, where he started out as a member of the Chaotix crew before double crossing them. He had habit of using shrinking technology, a bit like a villainous version of Ant-man.
Re: The Best Mistake Nintendo Ever Made? Why 2DS Is The Perfect Embodiment Of Gunpei Yokoi's Core Principles
I hadn’t bought a Nintendo handhelds since 2008 (which was a GBA SP after trading in my of GBA from 2002). By 2014, when I got the 2DS I was well behind in handheld gaming. I’d been tempted by the 3DS in 2011, but after trying one I was underwhelmed by the 3D. It was a lot of money for something that felt gimmicky. I’d never appreciated the DS from what I’d seen, was far more into consoles. Yet in early 2014 I took a gamble on a 2DS, which was going for £110 with a choice of game. I was hooked. It was a cracking system for the price. The ergonomics of the system was fantastic, the flat slate reminding me of the Game Boy and Game Gear I grew up with. The virtual console, with games from both those old systems was fantastically nostalgic.
I did upgrade to a 3DS XL about 18 months later but immediately regretted it. Not long later I got a New 3DS and whilst it is a great bit of kit, I still wish I hadn’t bothered moving on for the 2DS.
Re: Game Changer: Forget Pokémon And Magic: The Gathering, Fantasy Top Trumps Was My Introduction To Card-Based Gaming
I remember these from the early 90s at school. Serious flashbacks! Love somebody he named that completely passed me by as a kid. The goblin called ‘Duns Scotus’ is named after a philosopher, I think?
Re: Prices Of Second-Hand Nintendo 3DS Consoles Spike Online
The thing is that ‘gaming’ as a hobby does not have to be expensive, really only if you want or need either the newest systems and games or rarer retro games. If you were starting from nothing there are several systems where you could pick up a system and good selection of games for not very much: Master System (in the UK at least) is very cheap to get into as a Master System 2 can be found for £20-£40 (with a game built in) and a lot of the big hitters are pocket money prices. The same can be said for the Mega Drive for a bit more. A gen 1 Wii gives you access to GameCube as well. Plus it is incredibly easy to mod and put the entire Virtual Console library on a couple of SD cards (it’s actually only about 8GB but the Wii cannot display enough channels on screen to have all on one card). That alone would give you a healthy library of NES, SNES, N64, Master System, Mega Drive, Neo Geo, Turbo Grafix, C64, arcade and Wiiware titles, more than you could play in a decade, with access to many games that are expensive or rare if you were to hunt down the originals.
If you want something more modern then Xbox 360s, Xbox Ones and PS4s are cheap secondhand and the games are dirt cheap for Xbox one and PS4 right now (plus with Xbox one S you are getting a 4K Blu-ray player as part of the deal).
Re: Prices Of Second-Hand Nintendo 3DS Consoles Spike Online
Funnily enough I have just recently returned to my New 3DS. With a handgrip it is much more comfy to play for extended periods of time than my Switch. Plus it has a heck of a lot more personality than the Switch too!
Re: How The NES "Defined The Home Video Game Industry As We Know It"
@h3s sounds like a similar experience to me growing up, though I started with the Speccy, it wasn’t until the Game Gear I started buying carts. Boots was also a go to place in Leeds, with a dedicated video game section. I remember preordering Sonic 2 and Tazmania for the Game Gear. Both were terrible disappointments. I also remember getting games at video rental shops as well
Re: How The NES "Defined The Home Video Game Industry As We Know It"
@slider1983 even carts seem to be less frequent than just Master System and Mega Drive carts. I do see them on occasion, just not to the same extent (unless it’s somewhere like Sore Thumbs in York where everything seems to be well represented).
Re: How The NES "Defined The Home Video Game Industry As We Know It"
@slider1983 yup, today if you go into most retro video game shops in the UK there is very little NES (not a huge amount of SNES tbh) but Master System and Mega Drive are very easy to find.
Re: How The NES "Defined The Home Video Game Industry As We Know It"
@h3s I remember those days well. However, I only saw NESs on display in shops like Boots and Children’s World (which is entirely where my nostalgia for the system comes from). The walls of game covers in Toys r’ us was epic, but at least in our local shop it was dominated by SEGA. I knew plenty of people with Amigas, C64s and Spectrums (which is what I had) but in terms of consoles it was once the Mega Drive arrived that consoles took off. Everyone seemed to have it (I only knew 2 people with SNESs) with Nintendo being represented by the ubiquitous Game Boy.
It was only later, in the mid 90s that on three separate occasions at three different friends houses that we discovered that their parents had bought NESs in the 80s. We felt like Indiana Jones recovering some lost relics! In fact, the last one ended up being mine as I bought the console, accessories and library of games for £17.
Re: How The NES "Defined The Home Video Game Industry As We Know It"
… in the USA. Meanwhile, in the UK it was all micro computers and SEGA Master Systems. Until that TMNT bundle came along in 1990…
Re: Retro Gamer's Nick Thorpe Has Passed Away
The is such a shock. I love reading Nick’s articles ‘Back to the Noughties’ about what was happening this month X years ago and his passion for all things Sonic, as well as his conversations with Darren and Tim on the ‘Hot Topic’ of the month. I’ve been a subscriber for about 6 years and always looked forward to his contributions. Such a young age to go as well. The mag won’t be the same without him.
Re: "It Would Have Been A Huge Success" - The Pitch Behind The Sega Handheld That Might Have Rivalled The Game Boy
I was a Game Gear owner from Xmas 1991. It was a much more premium product than the Game Boy (which was a great portable system). The batteries were the thing that held it back (yes, it had a blurry screen but the OG Game Boy had a very blurry screen as well). Now I look back, if they had produced pretty much the same machine, but without the backlight, then it probably could have done a bit better, as it would effectively be an early Game Boy Color (which had full colour but no back light, which meant it could run on 2 AA batteries compared to the Game Gear’s 6). I know the Game Boy had a much bigger library, but the Game Gear had some excellent exclusive games (such as GG Shinobi) and conversions from Master System titles (Sonic 1 was reworked extensively to better suit the smaller screen).
Re: Sorry Nintendo, But It Doesn't Look Like Switch Will Overtake PS2 As The Best-Selling Console Of All Time
Ridiculous idea to get those final sales: release a digital only Switch Lite for £99!
Or a simplified Switch console that has no screen and can only connect to the TV, with a card slot, SD card slot and a USB port for £99!
BWAAAAH HA HA! IT’S ALIVE! <thunder and lightning>
Re: "Not A Funko Pop In Sight" - Step Back In Time With This Amazing '90s Electronics Boutique Footage
Lots of memories of EB both in the UK and US from back in the day. I remember buying my original Game Boy at an EB in a large mall in Florida, with Killer Instinct as the pack in game back in 1996. It was choice between that or a Pocket model with Wave Race and a carry case bundle. Even at an early age I had nostalgia for the original model from ‘89 (even if looking back the Pocket would have been far more sensible to go for!)
Re: Interview: "We Can't Say Anything About It Being A Video Game Console" - Meet The Sales Genius Who Helped Launch The NES
The Master System was big here in the UK, I only really saw NES in shops. However, that Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles NES set was a big deal. I begged my folks for one.
I got a ZX Spectrum instead 😂
Re: Game Changer: Donkey Kong II Game & Watch - My First Ever Taste Of Video Games
My first dabbles with video games were also with Game & Watch back in the 80s. Both were single screen games: a brown one with Parachute and a green one with Donkey Kong Jr. Many hours were spent on these addictive but frustrating machines, before moving onto the ZX Spectrum.
I also remember one kid having the classic dual screen Donkey Kong in school and a close friend had the Zelda one. I also remember seeing the sky blue Super Mario Bros one in Toys R Us, staring at me from behind glass. I had no idea what any of these Nintendo characters were, outside of the cartoons on TV and the occasional go on a NES in a shop.
Re: "Can You Believe We Got Away With This?" - The Complete History Of Toy Biz's Video Game Superstars Line
Fairly sure I had that Spiderman figure and I still have the Claire Redfield and Zombie set. She still has her bowgun but the revolver she came with is long gone.
Re: Random: "That's Wild" - The Fact That Two French Devs Didn't Play Nintendo As Kids Appears To Have Upset Some People
It’s not particularly unusual; SEGA were massive in Europe in the 90s, with the Master System being very popular in the UK in the 80s before that. Nintendo seemed to ignore us in the UK until 1990 (the Game Boy and the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles NES pack were very popular that year and into 1991) and the Mega Drive was everywhere growing up. The Saturn was a bit of a bust, so people seemed to swap to the PS1, whereas I went the other way with the N64. Aside from SEGA it was really micro computers that were king over here. Nintendo was present, but I only encountered the NES in shops on displays and I knew 2 people with a SNES.
Re: The WavePhoenix Brings Nintendo's Best Controller Back To Life For $5
I didn’t get a Wavebird during the GameCube’s lifetime (not sure I even knew that it existed) but when I went through a bit nostalgia trip in about 2012 I managed to buy one, along with many of the big hitting games I missed a decade previously (for very little money compared to the eye watering prices they go for today). By the time I did I was used to wireless controllers due to the Wii, so the impact of being cable free was somewhat lessened. That being said, had I got one in 2003, it would have been a complete game changer; my Wavebird works brilliantly, it never has any connection issues and the battery life is excellent. The lack of rumble is the only downside. Compared to so called ‘wireless’ controllers on the 90s (that needed a direct line of sight to an IR receiver) it was way ahead of its time. I remember reading that one website tried out its range and it was something ridiculous like 90 feet!
Re: 34 Years Ago, Nintendo Begged Fans Not To "Risk" Importing SNES Consoles From Japan
@Andee I’m just looking back now and thinking about how much money I could have saved or how many more games I could have bought, as the pound was so strong against the dollar! When I first went in 1988 it was 2:1; I can still remember standing Toy Liquidators, where they were selling toys that were old in the US but brand new in the UK for a ridiculously low price. My dad was so impressed he started pulling Transformers off the shelf saying ‘at that price you can have as many as you want!’ Until my mum reminded him that we had to fit everything in the suitcases. Still, I did rather well that Xmas 😂
Re: 34 Years Ago, Nintendo Begged Fans Not To "Risk" Importing SNES Consoles From Japan
As a Mega Drive owner back then, who was lucky enough to visit the States from the UK several times, the playground story was that ‘you can’t buy Genesis games in the US and play them on your Mega Drive; they’ve got a chip in them that stops them working’. No such issues with Game Gear or Game Boy existed, so we stuck to those. Flash forward to about 2020 and I bought a couple of carts on eBay, not checking properly that one said Genesis on the label. Disappointed I tried it anyway. To my shock (and relief) it worked perfectly! I always wondered why people bothered importing stuff in the 90s if it wouldn’t run the games. I felt bamboozled!
Re: Yuzo Koshiro Explains What Inspired Him When Creating Streets Of Rage's Iconic Soundtrack
In the early 90s SOR1 was a blast to play through in 2 player and the soundtrack was phenomenal. Very much a pastiche of gritty 80s American action films from a Japanese point of view. But then SOR2 arrived and just blew it out of the water in every way! Don’t get me wrong, I love the original but SOR2 is just on another level. Plus as kids we had no idea we were slamming punks into the concrete to acid house tunes (Stage 4 is just ‘Move any mountain’ by the Shamen).
Re: The End Of An Era: 233-Year-Old 'WH Smith' Brand To Vanish From UK High Streets
Smith’s, though an institution, was always ridiculously overpriced. The shops seem like they haven’t been updated since the 90s (the one in our city centre feels like most of the lightbulbs are gone, it is so dark). It will be a pity to loose the large selection of magazines and I have some memories of buying games and DVDs there in the past. However, it was usually when I got a voucher for my birthday, as they were always so overpriced compared to other shops.
Re: The End Of An Era: 233-Year-Old 'WH Smith' Brand To Vanish From UK High Streets
@Bod2019 that’s not in Harrogate by any chance is it? It was nice to see that old giraffe there again after so many years!
Re: "Poorly Analyzed US-Centric Garbage" - Why Do Americans Keep Ignoring European Gaming History?
USA 1983: CRASH!
UK 1983: <looks up from home computer> ‘What was that noise?’
Tbh I was 1 year old in ‘83, but the Sinclair ZX Spectrum was my first games system in about 1990. Although I yearned for SEGA goodness like most kids in the UK at the time I really, really miss how cheap games were! £2/£3 for games on cassette with carts £20+. Those were the days, but at least with digital sales there are some real bargains out there these days for pocket money prices.
Re: Square Enix Staff Discover Cache Of Pristine Retro Games, Some Of Which Date Back 30 Years
That’s a blast from the past! The Living Daylights was my very first video game, packed in with the ZX Spectrum +2 James Bond pack.
It wasn’t very good…😂
Re: Man Sets Record For Most Gaming Consoles Connected To A Single TV
@Deuteros sorry, I think you’ll find it’s spelt Mega Drive. Easy mistake to make, I know.
(Just kidding, both systems are equally awesome!)
Re: Man Sets Record For Most Gaming Consoles Connected To A Single TV
Best system of all time is Genesis/Mega Drive?
Good for him. It’s the correct choice 😁
Re: It's Insane How Much 'Zelda' Is On Switch, And That's Why It's Nintendo's Best Console
@GameGear1991 luckily I still have my setup. I never owned 4 Swords, gave away my original copy of Link’s Awakening once I got the DX version and Twilight Princess has gone missing (only game I have ever misplaced and it’s still remains a mystery how that actually happened) but have everything else except Oracle of Seasons. The Cube is a Zelda beast!
Re: It's Insane How Much 'Zelda' Is On Switch, And That's Why It's Nintendo's Best Console
@GameGear1991 I logged in just for this comment. With the GameBoy Player attached, the GameCube allowed you to play every Zelda game up to and including Twilight Princess. You can own 5 Zelda titles on Switch. Once online access ends (inevitably it will) that’s your lot. Even with a modded Wii you can ‘own’ 7 of them.
Re: Poll: What Do You Think Of Jo's New Look In Perfect Dark?
As a fan of the original all the way back to 2000 I only have two requirements for Joanna Dark: that she’s British and that she kicks arse.
That is all.
Re: Is It Time To Change The Narrative On The Sega Saturn?
@GhaleonUnlimited it’s hard to overstate just how popular both Tomb Raider and Lara Croft were in the UK in the 90s; a British video game hero was pretty rare in a big game and it was a British made game too. Lara fitted in perfectly with ‘girl power’ that swept the country due to the spice girls; men wanted her and women wanted to be her! Recently she was voted the greatest video game character of all time by one of our newspapers, above Mario, Sonic and PAC man. While I don’t personally think she is quite as iconic as those characters clearly others do.
Re: Is It Time To Change The Narrative On The Sega Saturn?
@GhaleonUnlimited all true. In terms of killer apps for PS1 though I would say that Wipeout was heavily marketed (with Sony setting up systems in nightclubs to attract 20 somethings to return to gaming, to get away from the ‘kiddie’ image that had been around for a while. Tomb Raider was also a fairly early killer app and again managed to appeal to the more ‘mature’ croud. Again, I was about 12/13 when the PS1 launched, so it kind of flew over my head. Plus by then I had discovered PC gaming, which already did what the PS1 could do but better. Combine that with my Mega Drive them N64 and I didn’t need a PS. I could play games like Resident Evil 2, Dark Forces, Worms and Tomb Raider on a far more powerful machine.
Re: Is It Time To Change The Narrative On The Sega Saturn?
Sorry if this has already been said, but I was under the impression that while it wasn’t successful in the US and Europe, the Saturn was the most popular SEGA system in Japan, to the extent that it is pretty synonymous with the brand there and occupies a similar position in Japanese culture as the Mega Drive/ Genesis does in the West.
I remember the time it was launched. I was a SEGA kid, but after the one-two flops of the Mega CD and 32X in the public consciousness here in the UK the last thing I wanted was another seemingly duff machine (history has of course vindicated the Saturn and the Mega CD as well somewhat. No such luck with the 32X!).
For me as a young teen at the time Sony was associated with TVs and stereos (and the PS seemed to be marketed at older gamers) so I ended up holding out until 1998 when I got an N64. I wonder if that was true for other people as well?
Re: CIBSunday: Nintendo Game Boy
I got this version of the console in this very box design for Xmas ‘96 while on holiday in the US. However, it did actually come with Killer Instinct packed in, with a sticker in the bottom corner to show this. It was a choice between that or a Game Boy Pocket that came with Waverace and a wallet. Looking back the pocket would have been the better choice, but even then I wanted the nostalgia of the OG model. I’d had a Game Gear since ‘91 and felt that I’d missed out on the GB, so I got it just in time for Pokemon.
My sister had had a Game Boy for years already, hers was in the classic ‘cyborg hands’ design package, which had the link cable, headphones and Tetris included.
Re: Anniversary: The Game Boy Is 35 Years Old Today
I actually got a SEGA Game Gear in ‘91 when the Game Boy released. However, one of my best friends had a GB, so we would swap for a week to have a go at each others machines. My sister got a GB the year after, at the airport on the way to the US. I was very envious of the fact that the 6 AA batteries on my GG died after an hour or so but her GB kept going for days!
I finally got an OG GB for Xmas ‘96 and it was my constant companion until I upgraded to a GBC in ‘99. Unfortunately I must have ended up with one of the rare non-Toni’s tough GB as the screen cover fell off and I destroyed it trying to fix it with model glue…
Re: Jack Thompson, The Man Who Tried To Ban GTA, Thinks Video Games Can Be Good, Actually
I can’t understand how we have to go any further than ‘if you don’t like it, don’t buy it’ for any form of game, music or film. I would extend that to ‘if you don’t like it, don’t buy it for your kids; it’s your responsibility to gate keep what they are consuming until they are old enough to make their own mistakes’.
As for ‘content warnings’ before I start my game they are actually nothing new. Every Resident Evil game used to begin with one ‘This game contains scenes of explicit violence and gore’ to which I always thought the same thing: ‘’That’s why I’m here!’’
Re: Poll: Should Retro Game Remasters Carry Warnings About "Offensive" Content?
Trigger warnings for re-releases of classic games will have as much impact as the age rating/MPAA/Parental Advisory warnings did back in the 90s when they first came out.
As in none whatsoever.
Re: Poll: What's The Best Handheld Of All Time?
With nostalgia goggles firmly on it’s got to be the Game Boy line, followed by the DS systems and my personal childhood machine the Game Gear (the terrible battery life knocks it down the list). Goggles off and it’s clearly the Switch; a full console in handheld form (with the ability to play HD on a TV) is pretty hard to beat on paper.
Re: Perfect Organism: An Alien: Isolation Companion Book Gets August Release Date
It shall be mine….
Re: Going Back In Time - Do You Play Retro Games To Reconnect With Your Past?
Absolutely. There are games I played to death as a kid that I can still blast through. These are like comfort food. There are games that I played but couldn’t beat but I can now. It’s a great feeling to complete something previously unachievable many years later. There are games I wanted to play but couldn’t afford. These are a mixed bag as some are fantastic whilst others have aged poorly. Finally I love retro games for the contrast with a lot of modern games; no updates or internet connectivity nonsense and especially with cartridge games you can turn them on and play pretty much instantly.
Re: The Making Of: Final Fantasy - The Spirits Within, Square's Groundbreaking Box Office Bomb
At the time this came out I had never played any Final Fantasy game, but was aware from media osmosis that it was either high fantasy or steam punk style (FFVII was very popular) so when I saw the trailers I was just confused as it looked like something totally different. I’m not sure what they were going for; it didn’t look familiar enough to any of the games to appeal to either those who were already fans of the game or to attract new players. It was just all a bit strange…
Re: Teen Who "Beat" Tetris Told To "Go Outside And Get Some Fresh Air"
No matter what you achieve in life there is always someone out there who will want to bring you down. Yes it’s only a game but it’s still pretty awesome that he made headlines. Well done lad.
Re: Bitmap Books Is Launching 'N64: A Visual Compendium' This Year
I have a couple of Bitmap books; the Master System and Game Boy books. They never published the Mega Drive/Genesis one, I believe for legal reasons, which is a real pity as the Master System one is lovely. I will look into the N64 one as it is another of my childhood consoles.
Re: Does Your SNES Have A Ticking Time Bomb Inside?
@John_Deacon I had the same happen to my Wii from 2009. Sent it off to get repaired and all sorted for £30. Works fine today.
I bought a cheap Wii online (£11) and modded that one as a backup. I’m more worried that my Wii U will break before anything else as it is now boxed away. My Mega Drive from 1993 is still going strong (only given it a clean inside and out a couple of years ago, the controllers really benefited from a good clean; no more squeaky direction pad!
Re: Anniversary: Mario Kart: Double Dash!! Turns 20 Today
The best Mario Kart. Less cheap cheating from the AI than MK64, better gimmick than MK Wii and better track design (imo) than MK8 (or at least more streamlined).. Loved the two characters per cart, the music and presentation. The controls were spot on. Many, many an hour was lost on multiplayer to this game.
Re: Gunstar Heroes Developer Treasure On Why Mega Drive Is Better Than SNES
The SNES vs Mega Drive is a total cliche and has been for a long time (ever since we debated it on the playgrounds of the early 90s). However, it’s like comparing the Ferrari F40 to the Lamborghini Diablo: both are phenomenal machines that will put a big grin on your face no matter which you own (I’d imagine!)
Re: Katsuhiro Harada On Tekken Tag Tournament's Teeth And Scoring An Unexpected Hit
I played this game to death back in the day with a housemate at uni. It got even more fun when we unlocked Tekken Bowl!
Re: Anniversary: Game Boy Color Turns 25 Today
The GBC was the first system that I bought with my own money. I’d had a Game Gear in the early 90s and only got an original GB in 96. The GBC was a very good upgrade from the classic GB: smaller form factor, much sharper screen with no motion blur, only needed a couple of batteries and some of the games were pretty impressive, especially when it gave new life to old monochrome games. My only gripe is the lack of a backlight but a worm light was a cheap solution, especially since the back light is what made the Game Gear such a battery hog back in the day.
When my son was first getting into games I bought him a GBC in Atomic Purple (the see through model) that I found in pretty decent condition. He loves playing it to this day, especially Wario land 2. I then found myself a grape coloured model online in immaculate condition for a ridiculously good price. My original teal model is with a friend and still gets used to this day 25 years later!