tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11358155439126466552024-03-18T03:14:15.268-04:00Hardcore Gaming 101 - BlogA supplementary blog to Hardcore Gaming 101, a video game site devoted to the history and culture of the medium, ranging from retro software to modern releases.Discoalucardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04206257399887664488noreply@blogger.comBlogger776125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135815543912646655.post-57787064112449265112017-06-21T22:42:00.002-04:002017-06-21T23:33:51.431-04:00HG101 at Too Many Games in Oaks, Pennsylvania, June 23-25, 2017Time for Too Many Games! I've got a table again this year, where you can buy all of the HG101 books (including the brand new Retro Game Super Translation Selection and Contra and Other Konami Classics books), as well as previews of two upcoming books to browse through, The Complete Guide to the Famicom Disk System, and Retro Indie Classics Vol. 1. I'll also be sharing the table with Carrie Wood, author of the <a href="https://www.gemstonepub.com/the-overstreet-guide-to-collecting-video-games">The Overstreet Guide to Collecting Video Games</a>, which I also contributed a couple of articles to and will also be available for sale.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi91YD0WrsT8htI-Jx1sDbvghsnHeRvXuNDdzixf9yFufmDlUVK6hEWKAsrNLgB-cYS4aB7wynfaHsKTnHhSNEWZ6FdQHAPw_yK7RQdfidbi3q7yIJR1Ha-5abJwoRilcV5kIn1_XyYHt8o/s1600/20170621_200524.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="498" data-original-width="401" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi91YD0WrsT8htI-Jx1sDbvghsnHeRvXuNDdzixf9yFufmDlUVK6hEWKAsrNLgB-cYS4aB7wynfaHsKTnHhSNEWZ6FdQHAPw_yK7RQdfidbi3q7yIJR1Ha-5abJwoRilcV5kIn1_XyYHt8o/s640/20170621_200524.jpg" width="513" /></a></div>
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I'll also have a few boxes of games (mostly PlayStation 2, some really good ones too!), and Carrie will have a Zelda standee for sale.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtROYZxZ9OzO_YOUg9uVdnEpE3o874DacpdTQ4cCBR3qEmFBcs88XyLvGWFz2s3nowJBrhsD8gq0GE3bGed7dL1f1DfjvZnahxN-o-OU7JvN5R3aa8Qqk7CYOwEqkrAOGqtWsKCB7TXz2e/s1600/tmg2017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtROYZxZ9OzO_YOUg9uVdnEpE3o874DacpdTQ4cCBR3qEmFBcs88XyLvGWFz2s3nowJBrhsD8gq0GE3bGed7dL1f1DfjvZnahxN-o-OU7JvN5R3aa8Qqk7CYOwEqkrAOGqtWsKCB7TXz2e/s640/tmg2017.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Feel free to stop by and say hi, and also feel free to browse through any of the books we have on display! Here's a map and where we are:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOWDjbu2AqHyVEZTV7JMeZl5vMyfg-EdCnOJsiRIw08fJC56drnod1a4dvMqXH17SCx9mLVhoHBj47zUcpZwcuuUY2xZAD0AfThVJh7L-qruAHNQFfiKQ6e4uZ32P-PJfgixsCDa9t0rig/s1600/tmg2017-map.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="763" data-original-width="807" height="377" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOWDjbu2AqHyVEZTV7JMeZl5vMyfg-EdCnOJsiRIw08fJC56drnod1a4dvMqXH17SCx9mLVhoHBj47zUcpZwcuuUY2xZAD0AfThVJh7L-qruAHNQFfiKQ6e4uZ32P-PJfgixsCDa9t0rig/s400/tmg2017-map.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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Also, here's me from last year:<br />
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<br />Discoalucardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04206257399887664488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135815543912646655.post-43958765892922705242017-02-01T14:55:00.001-05:002017-02-01T14:55:50.573-05:00Coming Soon: Retro Game Super Translation Selection (English edition)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWnNUdvz3JUksK5TeN2-KXWtk11AOUBDcnSeWYKkegKJe6kRbcsOKK4oVSt7OHYJqc-lAyxhYnAXNPQa7Ow4GGakH05Y_eT174Oc9lYuQGvcoF2O43wC8mjP3Z9Su-TEw0pgtUN6cxvxzV/s1600/Japanesecover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWnNUdvz3JUksK5TeN2-KXWtk11AOUBDcnSeWYKkegKJe6kRbcsOKK4oVSt7OHYJqc-lAyxhYnAXNPQa7Ow4GGakH05Y_eT174Oc9lYuQGvcoF2O43wC8mjP3Z9Su-TEw0pgtUN6cxvxzV/s320/Japanesecover.jpg" width="228" /></a></div>
<p>HG101 is happy to announce that we are publishing a localized version of Retro Game Super Translation Selection, a doujinshi that highlights various written localization changes in 8 and 16-bit games. It was written by <a href="http://twitter.com/yami_translator">Hanenashi Error</a>, who translated and distributed our Sega Arcade Classics and Castlevania books into Japanese, and contribute to our 200 Best Games of All Time book. He is a professional English to Japanese translator for video games, and also runs a blog called <a href="http://wearebottoms.blog53.fc2.com/blog-entry-157.html">Gaminglish</a> that explains various memes and bits of English gaming culture to Japanese players.</p>
<p>I was excited to work on this book because it contains a lot of instances of localization changes that are unknown to most English speaking retro fans. It addresses some of the most famous issues (like the "I Am Error" quote from Zelda II) but there are also many instances from more obscure games that highlight the general attitude of translators of the time, often in funny ways. In some of the highlighted cases, the original Japanese line is plain while the English line adds in jokes; in others, it tries to take Japanese jokes and rewrite them in different ways. Some games included are Paladin's Quest, Secret of Mana, Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom, Ignition Factor, Lunar: The Silver Star, Cosmic Fantasy II, Landstalker, Lufia II, Neutopia, Saturday Night Slam Masters, various Kunio-kun games, and many others. </p>
<p>Since it was also originally written for the Japanese audience, there are also a lot of interesting cultural insights that one normally wouldn't get from an American or native English speaker. In most cases, the book deals with Japanese-English translations, but there are a few English-Japanese as well (Brutal: Paws of Fury, Maniac Mansion, Shadowrun, Shadowgate, First Samurai).</p>
<p>We'll be putting up a fuller page on the site with more details soon, but in the meantime, you can check out <a href="http://wearebottoms.blog53.fc2.com/blog-entry-524.html">the Japanese page</a> to see some samples. The release date and price haven't been solidified yet since I'm still working on putting it together, but hopefully it shouldn't be more than a few months.</p>Discoalucardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04206257399887664488noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135815543912646655.post-64885684914037910862016-10-12T17:15:00.001-04:002016-10-12T17:31:23.659-04:00New Patreon Tiers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1A3hsrAwq2sHDb1SKYqIHeM87IILOCq8zG_y9qt1_75tTd1WvUABu9sxT6drU8yEwxnKqn3_jcBW5B6ICEq4YncgvcNfuTktGg46u2Ife9KgdbH0NegCFXGKk6RSRudhyLIqCLiLUClA9/s1600/patreon-banner.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="59" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1A3hsrAwq2sHDb1SKYqIHeM87IILOCq8zG_y9qt1_75tTd1WvUABu9sxT6drU8yEwxnKqn3_jcBW5B6ICEq4YncgvcNfuTktGg46u2Ife9KgdbH0NegCFXGKk6RSRudhyLIqCLiLUClA9/s320/patreon-banner.png" width="460" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 13.3333px;">We've been running the</span><span style="background-color: black; font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 13.3333px;"> </span><span class="il" style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 13.3333px;">Patreon</span><span style="background-color: black; font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 13.3333px;"> </span><span style="background-color: black; font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 13.3333px;">here at HG101 for a little over two years and it's worked out great! The expanded budget has allowed us to commission a larger number of articles, and we now generally update about three times a week. So, we've decided to update our</span><span style="background-color: black; font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 13.3333px;"> </span><span class="il" style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 13.3333px;"><a href="https://www.patreon.com/hg101">Patreon</a></span><span style="background-color: black; font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 13.3333px;"> </span><span style="background-color: black; font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 13.3333px;">tiers in order to give some more bonuses to our readers and tie it in more closely with our recently re-launched podcast, <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/top47858/top47858.htm">The Top 47,858 Games of All Time</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 13.3333px;">$2 - You'll receive regular site updates and early access to each episode of our podcast. Plus, you get your name featured in the back of all upcoming books!</span><br />
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$5 - You'll receive PDFs/Kindle MOBIs of the three latest HG101 book (as of this writing, The 200 Best Video Games of All Time, Digest Vol. 2: Taito Arcade Classics, and Data East Arcade Classics), along with<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;"> exclusive </span><span class="il" style="font-size: 13.3333px;">Patreon</span><span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">-only bonus books, </span><span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">plus as long as you continue to donate, you'll receive PDFs/MOBIs of all upcoming books when they're released, along with the perks of the previous tier.</span></div>
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$10 - You'll get full access to PDFs of all HG101 books, and discount coupons for paperbacks plus all previous rewards. You can also receive special thanks and pick a topic to be discussed on the Top Games podcast. Plus the perks of both previous tiers.</div>
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$15 - You'll be given the opportunity to supply a short write-up to be featured in our upcoming books, discussing some kind of personal experience with the topic. What you want to write is pretty much up to you, as long as it applies to the theme of the book (these will be for the Sega Arcade Vol. 2 book and Shoot-em-up book). It will be at least 150 words. You can have a picture featured (or avatar), within reason, of course. Plus all of perks of the prior tiers. Here's a mock-up of one written by myself:<br />
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$20 - You'll be shipped color paperbacks when they're available, plus all previous rewards (US addresses only)</div>
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$25 - You'll be shipped color paperbacks when they're available, plus all previous rewards (for non-US addresses)</div>
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The main changes are that you'll get your name in the back of the book if you're donated $2, whereas previously it was $10. We depend on your contributions in order to put together books on relatively obscure topics like Taito and Data East so this will be a way to see your cash rewarded in print!</div>
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Also, you used to be able to get all of the HG101 book PDFs for $5. This made sense back when we first launched the <span class="il">Patreon</span> and only had two books. Now we have eight, with at least a few more on the way, so that began to seem a little too generous! So, that tier has been increased to $10, which is still a fantastic deal considering the PDFs and Kindle files are sold anywhere from $5-$10 each separately. $5 will still get you access to three of our most recent books, if you haven't donated before, which is still an almost $20 value.</div>
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The changes to way that <span class="il">Patreon</span> charges customers also allows us to slightly change the tiers for physical books. Since US shipping is not too expensive, we can keep that tier at $20, but if you're anywhere outside the US, the tier remains at $25.</div>
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Previously we offered a stretch goal to allow for the monthly production of videos. Unfortunately we never quite achieved that goal, which is just as well, because most of the staff hasn't been able to devote the time to produce these. But we still will be featuring more videos produced by the podcasting team, which will include footage of the game being discussed.<br />
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We've got plenty of books coming the pipeline, including:</div>
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<a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/segabook2/segabook2.htm"><b>Sega Arcade Classics Vol. 2:</b></a></div>
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I swear I mentioned this every time I make an update about books, but this time it's finally almost near completion! Here are early sketches by the cover artist, Thor Thorvaldson, who you'll also remember did the cover for The 200 Best Video Games of All Time book.<br />
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<a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/shooterbook/shooterbook.htm"><b>Guide to Shoot-em-ups Vol. 1:</b></a></div>
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We previously produced a book on Konami's library of shoot-em-ups, but we're branching out for another series to cover as much of the genre as possible! The first volume will primarily focus on Hudson (Star Soldier), Compile (Zanac, Power Strike, MUSHA), Technosoft (Thunder Force, Hyper Duel), Irem (R-Type, X-Multiply, Image Fight), and a handful of other PC Engine and Mega Drive games. Here is an early draft of the cover by artist Michael Brennan, which is based loosely on the artwork for Guardic Gaiden, the Famicom version of The Guardian Legend.<br />
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<a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/segafanjambook/segafanjambook.htm"><b>The HG101 and Sonic & Sega 2016 Sega Fan Jam Fanbook</b></a></div>
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A collaboration between Hardcore Gaming 101 and <a href="http://segabits.com/">SegaBits</a>, produced for the Sega Fan Jam convention in Savannah, Georgia. This is a short (about 60 pages) book that features selections from the articles for Streets of Rage, Virtua Fighter, Nights, Puyo Puyo, and others, designed to look like a Sega Master System box. Since this was intended primarily for the convention, the articles published here are just samples from the full articles, covering only one or two games in each series. We will eventually be publishing more Sega books in the future, probably starting with the Master System and Genesis, and featuring more complete versions of these articles. But after working on Sega Arcade Classics Vol. 2 for so long, we'd like a bit of a break!<br />
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<b>Wrestling with Pixels</b></div>
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Technically we're publishing this book by Audun Sorlie, who previously ran a <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/654436224/wrestling-with-pixels-the-world-tour-of-wrestling">Kickstarter</a> for it, but if you a <span class="il">Patreon</span> donor you'll get it too! This is different from the usual HG101 book, as rather than featuring reviews, it includes the entire history of wrestling video games, including several interviews. Here are early inked covers by Rusty Shackles, one of our regular cover artists:<br />
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<b>Konami Classics: Contra, Mystical Ninja, and More</b></div>
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We still need a good title for this one. After covering Castlevania and the shooters of Gradius, Parodius, and TwinBee, this book will cast a wider net over Konami's 8- and 16-bit output. The main features will be, of course, Contra and Ganbare Goemon (Mystical Ninja), but also covered will be Rocket Knight Adventures/Sparkster, Sunset Riders, and many other Konami titles for the MSX, NES, Famicom, and arcade platforms.</div>
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<b>The Complete Guide to the Famicom Disk System</b></div>
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The Famicom Disk System has a large number of titles that are almost completely undocumented in English, including many RPGs and adventure games, and we're going to document all of them! These reviews will be originally written for this book, and are different from the ones currently featured on the site.</div>
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<b>Guide to Obscure NES Classics</b></div>
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NES fans are pretty familiar with the works of Nintendo, Capcom, and Konami, so this book will feature games by some of the lesser known developers, from both North American and Japanese territories. This will include games by Sunsoft (Batman, Journey to Silius, Blaster Master), KID (Low-G-Man, GI Joe), Natsume (Shatterhand, Power Blade), and many other titles like Vice Project Doom, Kabuki Quantim Fighter, WURM, Xexyz, Moon Crystal, Holy Diver, Metal Storm, and many others.</div>
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We've got several more planned, but this encompasses everything that we hope to have published through the year 2017, so we'd prefer not to get too far ahead of ourselves! But just as a teaser, we'd like to do a book or two on beat-em-ups, modern retro indie games, Namco, and more classic PC stuff.</div>
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<span id="goog_457833328"></span><span id="goog_457833329"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a><br />
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There are two other large projects that we've mentioned before: a book covering the Shin Megami Tensei and Persona series, and another covering the entirety of Falcom's work (Ys, Xanadu, Legend of Heroes). These are still being planned, but due to the exhaustive nature of research required, we will definitely be looking for freelancers to contribute to these projects. So if you're an expert in these subjects, please keep your eyes open because we'll start looking once we've finished up with a few of our 2016 projects.<br />
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Please check out our <a href="https://www.patreon.com/hg101">Patreon</a> if this sounds interesting, and thanks for checking this out!<a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div>
Discoalucardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04206257399887664488noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135815543912646655.post-45308084584991893152016-09-08T21:45:00.000-04:002016-09-08T21:45:32.261-04:00HG101 at A Video Game Con - September 10-11 in Parsippany, NJ<p><center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/toomanygames/avideogamecon.jpg"></center></p>
<p>I'll be at <a href="http://www.avideogamecon.com/">A Video Game Con</a> in Parsippany, NJ this weekend. Last year was its first year and it only ran for one day, but this time it's running on both Saturday and Sunday. Make sure to check the web page so the parking situation makes sense - it will definitely overcrowd and if you park in the wrong spot you'll get a ticketed/towed.</p>
<p><center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/toomanygames/avideogamecon2015.jpg"></center></p>
<p>Here's what my table looked like last year. Expect similar stuff, though I haven't quite determined what games to bring...probably some more boxed NES stuff. Take note that we have several more books available since last year, including The 200 Best Video Games of All Time, Taito Arcade Classics, Data East Arcade Classics, and The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers Vol. 2. They're being sold a bit cheaper than Amazon since I don't have to deal with their monstrous cut in the profit, so stop by and talk video game stuff (and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDTwO0TlwOU">buy my book(s)</a>)!</p>
<p>Also, take note that there's an excellent <a href="http://www.cluckuchicken.com/">Cluck-U Chicken</a> right down the road from the Parsippany PAL Building. If you want to drive about 15 minutes to Morristown, you can also get a <a href="http://www.fatsandwich.com/">fat sandwich</a> for a taste of some traditional New Jersey cuisine. And that's just a 5 minute walk from the <a href="http://www.morristowngamevault.com/">Morristown Game Vault</a> arcade. </p>
Discoalucardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04206257399887664488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135815543912646655.post-57368590795037496062016-06-19T23:25:00.001-04:002016-06-19T23:25:36.929-04:00HG101 at Too Many Games in Oaks, PA, from June 24-26th<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGx9qw_A7GPQZXQfgcmdq1cZwxirdOZSaX6TAR8lY-rXknOL6wYX380K_w0wF4j7OgpPJAIZZoC88gbd2gS0K3aySVj6axq_IgjeWr05PXx-rUyyYbGrnD104Bo5MnRS4aGFVh9UKtbA4x/s1600/logo-2015.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGx9qw_A7GPQZXQfgcmdq1cZwxirdOZSaX6TAR8lY-rXknOL6wYX380K_w0wF4j7OgpPJAIZZoC88gbd2gS0K3aySVj6axq_IgjeWr05PXx-rUyyYbGrnD104Bo5MnRS4aGFVh9UKtbA4x/s320/logo-2015.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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Well, it seems like nowadays this blog is mostly used for convention announcements. And here's another one! I'll be at Too Many Games in Oaks, PA on the weekend of June 24-26th, 2016, selling books and assorted other video game stuff. I'll be at table 23 (marked below on the map).<br />
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I'll be selling copies of all seven of our books, plus both volumes of the Untold History of Japanese Game Developers, for prices lower than what you can get them on Amazon. (No exorbitant markup, you see.) I've also got a sample copy of a book that has all of the projects we're working on the next year, if you want to see previews of the upcoming Data East or shoot-em-up books. I'll also have an assortment of NES, SNES, Genesis and N64 games, a handful of video game soundtrack CDs, maybe some manga and strategy guides, some PS2 and DS titles (good ones, too!), and basically whatever else I can fit on a single table. Or just stop on by and chat video games!<br />
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Here's my table at Too Many Games 2015 too, just look for this nerd:<br />
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<br />Discoalucardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04206257399887664488noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135815543912646655.post-71384857615778525732016-06-19T00:23:00.000-04:002016-06-19T00:27:39.973-04:00Cosmic Cavern 3671 on Steam Greenlight<div style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 13.3333px;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Pin9401wBFcGBLC728TUrgeYQqxANo9cAo-2fNgF5RBpjTKnlKAUnFhQmqyk9zqptMU8R2CwshKkjajK2435xkzRImmS65Zgy86X2I75Wuy89QDJF4b2tfVJaR9G8c_B9oyESKYA7Psa/s1600/CC_80ACArr_Title.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Pin9401wBFcGBLC728TUrgeYQqxANo9cAo-2fNgF5RBpjTKnlKAUnFhQmqyk9zqptMU8R2CwshKkjajK2435xkzRImmS65Zgy86X2I75Wuy89QDJF4b2tfVJaR9G8c_B9oyESKYA7Psa/s320/CC_80ACArr_Title.png" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana";"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: 13.3333px;">The realm of early Japanese computer gaming is not widely documented, especially on the English internet, but it's something that we at HG101 take huge interest in. So that's why it's worth checking out Cosmic Cavern 3671 (宇宙最大の地底最), which was recently posted on <a href="http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=699794047">Steam Greenlight</a>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana";"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: 13.3333px;">Cosmic Cavern 3671 is a remake of a 1980 computer game called Chitei Saidai no Sakusen (地底最大の作戦). Programmed in BASIC for the MZ-80, it was first printed in July 1980, and was written by Takaya Arita, currently a professor at Nagoya University. It's a digging game, that actually looks like Namco's Dig Dug, despite predating it by two years.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">This remade version includes ports of the original BASIC versions (using monochrome ASCII-type graphics, of course, with different colors based on different monitor types), as well as a redone version with updated sprites and some changes that are said to make the game less frustrating. The redone visuals were created by Hiroshi Ono, the famous pixel artist who worked on numerous early Namco arcade titles, including Galaga, Mappy, Dig Dug, Pac Man, and many, many, many others. The new soundtrack was also provided by Yuzo Koshiro, famous for thirty years of fantastic video game music.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5XURaRnzeysUpc8KRj2PHkAgNEIE9ZeK3V4xiWEYSEhUHJbvE_hDdoJq2WOluev7XWqifQXdnjillA9e2ir4KIQW4qRstIMiHtBeIDyavi8-ZPbObbCqiElZ023xZCJ3JEbnINg0nihTe/s1600/CC_MZ80_InGame_1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5XURaRnzeysUpc8KRj2PHkAgNEIE9ZeK3V4xiWEYSEhUHJbvE_hDdoJq2WOluev7XWqifQXdnjillA9e2ir4KIQW4qRstIMiHtBeIDyavi8-ZPbObbCqiElZ023xZCJ3JEbnINg0nihTe/s320/CC_MZ80_InGame_1.png" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">It's definitely an obscure title - the original game doesn't appear to be emulated anywhere - but it's great to see such a bit of history resurrected for the modern era. Go give it a vote, and check it out when it's released! </span></div>
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Official site:
<a href="http://www.pinball.co.jp/games/CosmicCavern/index_e.htm">http://www.pinball.co.jp/games/CosmicCavern/index_e.htm</a>
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Discoalucardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04206257399887664488noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135815543912646655.post-652559187632868312015-09-18T07:07:00.000-04:002015-09-18T12:00:31.007-04:00Hardcore Gaming 101 video articles are go!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMhu-4gZw-wl0nlJUFGPwIPSgLD5noiWwBvxRC1_RP-R7b82uOuHsQfOuRnzcLfE-D8gqXe7HkaqT5JE85cYiCCNiUz-dVBTY7j_oQKKY3cpt90tfUngsWhZkggJbY3ZUgb3QHOwLP5xs/s1600/youtube.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMhu-4gZw-wl0nlJUFGPwIPSgLD5noiWwBvxRC1_RP-R7b82uOuHsQfOuRnzcLfE-D8gqXe7HkaqT5JE85cYiCCNiUz-dVBTY7j_oQKKY3cpt90tfUngsWhZkggJbY3ZUgb3QHOwLP5xs/s320/youtube.png" /></a></div>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCPzkstbidZniw38EM0I8GA">Welcome to Hardcore Gaming 101’s official video channel</a>. We’ve been asked about more video content a lot, and video is the future of games writing, so finally here is our attempt to launch some regular programming.
<p>We’re starting out with two series. The first is a new topic in our popular Inventories line. Super Mario Bros. has just turned 30 this month – what better excuse could there be to take a look at all the platforming games from before that paved the way for it?</p>
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<p>The other series is JRPG Chronicles, where we explore the history of RPGs in Japan from the very beginning. This is an extended reboot of the blog series we launched a couple of years ago, and we’ve been looking for an opportunity to do more of this for a while. These aim for deeper research than the old blog posts, and so we’re launching with 1982’s Dragon Lair. We only grazed over it in the original series, even though it might just be the very first computer RPG ever published in Japan (among a few other games of which we know only a vague 1982 release date).</p>
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<p>But producing the videos takes a lot of time, and the current site budget cannot support doing it consistently, so we’re adding new milestone goals to our <a href="http://www.patreon.com/hg101">Patreon</a>. They won't be up by the time this is published, but look out for them very soon. Once we reach $1250 (it's currently hovering around $1070), we can ensure one video per month, alternating between the two series. If we manage to get to $1500, that means three videos each month. This will be in addition to all the usual articles we put on the site, so even if you’re already a patron, please take a moment to consider whether this kind of added content might be worth increasing your pledge to help us go on and get better at this.</p>
<p>Mind that the quality isn’t quite where we want it to be yet. I obviously need to work on my delivery a lot, but I also haven’t figured out the acoustics yet, so please view these initial two videos as a proof-of-concept rather than the final standard of quality. We plan to go on with both series even before we reach sufficient funding, but the schedule will be much less reliable.</p>
<p>We’re also going to try out how ad revenue pans out with these. If it contributes in any significant way, then that means even more videos for you. Patrons will get ad-free download access to all future videos a few days before they go on Youtube. Later down the line we will also have votes on Patreon every once in a while when we try to decide on a new series. As ever, as a patron you also get access to all our eBooks at the $5 level and physical copies of future books at the $25 level. An official announcement for a new one will be coming up soon, too.</p>
<p>If you’re into this kind of content, be sure to also check out Dr. Sparkle’s Chrontendo, Jeremy Parish’s Game Boy World and PlayStation Year One by Adventure Pals, all of which informed the style of our videos a lot. Also don’t miss the official channel of our own GameClub 199X crew, where you can find long form discussions about many overlooked games. See our subscriptions on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCPzkstbidZniw38EM0I8GA">Youtube</a> for all these and more recommendations.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCPzkstbidZniw38EM0I8GA">Go to the Hardcore Gaming 101 Youtube channel.</a></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135815543912646655.post-85387791798841755612015-09-13T21:26:00.000-04:002015-09-13T21:26:01.290-04:00HG101 at A Video Game Con in Parsippany, NJ on Saturday, September 19, 2015!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://www.avideogamecon.com/">A Video Game Con</a> is a brand new video gaming convention starting up in Northern New Jersey. Since this is basically my backyard, I had to get a table here. So, please stop on by and say hi! I should have a near complete copy of the next HG101 book, The Top 200 Video Games of All Time, available for preview too. It starts at 10:30 AM on Saturday, September 19, at the <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Parsippany+PAL/@40.8618373,-74.3975448,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x89c307fb48895b13:0x476c2add53d4e951">Parsippany PAL</a>, which is right off Rt. 46 and not too far off Rt. 80. It's about a 30-40 minute ride from the George Washington Bridge, if you're coming from New York City.</div>
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Anyway, here's some stuff I'll be bringing:</div>
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I've got plenty of NES, SNES and Genesis games, plus all of the HG101 books will be available, at prices lower than Amazon!</div>
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Here is my table from Too Many Games earlier this year, so you kinda sorta know what to look for!</div>
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<br />Discoalucardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04206257399887664488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135815543912646655.post-17754853994957870742015-06-16T17:20:00.002-04:002015-06-25T20:59:26.002-04:00HG101 at Too Many Games 2015!<center>
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Are you going to <a href="http://toomanygames.com/">Too Many Games</a>, the video game convention on Oaks, PA from June 26-28? If so, cool! I'll be there at a table, selling books and assorted video game stuff. Feel free to stop by and chat about old video games!<br />
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I'll be selling copies of all of our books, as well as copies of the Untold History of Japanese Game Developers book, including a few copies of the Kickstarter-only cover special edition. Things will be cheaper than they are on Amazon too!</div>
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I'm cleaning out my closets and selling other stuff too, like Japanese PS2 games, SFC games, boxed NES stuff, video game soundtracks, loose cartridges, Japanese video game-based manga, back issues of Gamespite Quarterly and Scroll magazine, basically whatever I can fit in my car and on the table!</div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">Here's me looking awkward by my table back in 2013. (I didn't have a table in 2014 since I hadn't published anything new, but we have put out plenty of stuff since then!) Maybe this year I'll remember to bring some proper signage. </span><br />
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Here's the floor plan, I've circled our location below. (Click on it, because the thumbnail is tiny and useless.) Hope to see you there!</div>
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Discoalucardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04206257399887664488noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135815543912646655.post-37652382860263920992015-05-31T15:28:00.001-04:002015-05-31T15:48:57.523-04:00HG101 State of the Union: June 2015<p><center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/digest1/webpromo.jpg"></center></p>
<p>First off, the <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/digest/digest1.htm">HG101 Digest Vol. 1: Strider and Bionic Commando</a>, is now available! It retails for $15 at Amazon, $4 for the Kindle and $3 for the PDF from Sellfy. It's more than just Capcom's series, it covers some similar games and includes a few other really fun, nerdy feature articles.</p>
<p>Coming up this month, we have a bunch of articles on some older computer games, all from Electronic Arts: Murder on the Zindernauf. a mystery on a blimp; 7 Cities of Gold and its pseudo-sequel, Heart of Africa, which focus on exploration and can be seen as the precursor to Sid Meier's Pirates!; and Alter Ego, an extremely forward thinking "life simulator". We'll also be featuring all of Sunsoft's Batman games, including the two NES and two Game Boy games, in time for the release of the new Arkham Knight game, as well as some Namco titles like Phelios and Marvel Land, and the addictive perpetually-a-work-in-progress strategy game Dwarf Fortress.</p>
<p>I'll also be at <a href="http://www.toomanygames.com">Too Many Games</a> on June 26-28, at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, PA. I'll be manning a table selling our books, as well as assorted video games and whatever else I can dig out of my closet and fit on display. Feel free to stop by and chat! As a side note, Robert Belgrade, the voice actor of Alucard from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, is going to be there. Just saying, maybe our Castlevania book would be a good thing to have signed!</p>
<p>For a summary of last month's articles, we started an <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/inventories/arcade.htm">extensive feature on arcade games within video games</a> (which will be completed this month); a long look at the many, many <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/lemmings/lemmings.htm">Lemmings</a> games, which will also be evolving as we fill in some of the small gaps left in coverage; the weirdo cult classic <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/kusoge/kusoge-goatsimulator.htm">Goat Simulator</a>; the two <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/gijoe/gijoenes.htm">GI NES games</a> by Taxan; the two <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/madmax/madmax.htm">Mad Max</a> games to tie in with the awesome new movie (even though Outlander isn't officially a Mad Max game, even though it really is); two fun indie games, the Zelda inspired <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/ittledew/ittledew.htm">Ittle Dew</a> and the time-bending run-and-gun <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/supertimeforce/supertimeforce.htm">Super Time Force</a>; and the early PS1 3D platformer series <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/jumpingflash/jumpingflash.htm">Jumping Flash</a>.</p>
<p>Now that some of our major projects are completed, it's time to start talking about some new ones.</p>
<p>As a follow-up to our Bionic Commando and Strider digest, we are currently planning two more similar volumes. Vol. 2 will focus on Taito arcade games. While nowadays Taito is mostly known for Bubble Bobble and Space Invaders, they were a huge, huge publisher in the 80s and 90s, as the many arcade compilations can attest. Most of them are not well known outside of Japan, unfortunately, though many are excellent. We're still keeping the whole volume within the 75 page limit so obviously this will only scratch the surface of the company's output. We haven't finalized all of the covered titles yet, but planned articles include an overhaul of the ancient Darius article, as well as Ninja Warriors, The New Zealand Story, Gun Frontier, Metal Black, Growl, and many others. Like the first volume, it will also contain 10 pages devoted to 80 interesting Super Famicom titles. We're also planning some other interesting "Inventory" articles to feature.</p>
<p><center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/digest2-1.jpg"></center></p>
<p>A subsequent volume will focus on Data East. The major game people seem to remember from them is probably Bad Dudes, but again, they had quite a bit of output, and even though they aren't always fantastic, there are still a lot of interesting titles. Again, nothing is set in stone, but we plan on covering the Data East Commando games (Heavy Barrell, Bloody Wolf, Midnight Resistance, Desert Storm), Joe & Mac, Bad Dudes, Karnov, Burger Time, Trio the Punch, Edward Randy, and whatever else we can squeeze again. Again, there will be another piece focusing on 80 import titles, though we haven't decided the platform yet (I'm still working on completing the Super Famicon one!)</p>
<p>Of course, we are still working on Sega Arcade Classics Vol. 2! This one has taken awhile (and will continue to take awhile) as we build up all of the games that need to be featured. Basically, the game will cover all sorts of early 80s stuff, from the Sega/Gremlin days, all the way up through the System-32 era. The current list of featured titles are:</p>
<p>119 / Megumi Rescue / Flying Hero, A.B. Cop, Action Fighter, Aerial Assault / Sonic Boom, Air Rescue, Alien 3, Arabian Fight, Aurail, Bank Panic, Bayroute, Bonanza Bros., Borderline, Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom / Zoom 909, Bullet, Burning Rival, Car Hunt / Head On, Carnival / Razamatazz, Choplifter, Columns, Congo Bongo, Cool Riders, D.D. Crew, Dark Edge, Desert Breaker, Enduro Racer, Flicky, Gale Racer / Rad Mobile / Rad Rally, Hang-On, Holosseum, Jurassic Park, Laser Ghost, Last Survivor, Line of Fire, Monaco GP / Super Monaco GP / F1 Exhaust Note / F1 Super Lap, My Hero, Ninja Princess / The Ninja, Pengo, Rail Chase 1 & 2, Riot City, Samurai, Scramble Spirits, SDI / Global Defense, , Sindbad Mystery, Spatter, Spiderman: The Arcade Game, Subroc / Poseidon Wars, Super Locomotive, Tant-R, Teddy Boy Blues, Tetris, Tough Turf, Tranquilizer Gun / Safari Hunting, Turbo, Up'n Down, Zaxxon</p>
<p>We'll also be having smaller reviews of the (many, many) other obscure titles published during this era, like 005, Gardia, Combat Hawk, 4-D Warriors, Tac/Scan, Pulsar, Monster Bash, I'm Sorry, Flashgal, UFO Senshi Yohko, Time Scanner, and others.</p>
<p>One project we've been working on for a few months is a little different from the norm. It's a "best games of all" time book, that highlights favorite titles from the staff. Looking through old magazines, these were always the issues I enjoyed the most (and have the most worth in keeping around) since it gave a good snapshot into the tastes of the magazine, and the attitude towards certain titles of the time, so I wanted to do something similar for HG101.</p>
<p><center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/essential120-1.jpg"></center></p>
<p>The main issue with these types of articles is that the actual written content is very shallow, since they're typically just a cover article as part of a larger magazine. Even when other video game sites do "top X" lists, there's not much actual writing, maybe a paragraph or so. We're doing things a little differently, as each piece will have about 450 words devoted to it, describing its history, why it's important, and why we love it so much. We're also doing smaller pieces to accompany each game that we've chosen that recommends similar titles, either other games in the series or just another game that's related in some way. The main reason is that we don't want to feature too many similar games, but at the same time want to talk about as many awesome games as possible. We also tried to balance the selection out so there are a whole bunch of different games from various genres, to give a wide variety of titles to read about.</p>
<p><center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/essential120-2.jpg"></center></p>
<p>Although I'm sure many readers will be familiar with a good chunk of our selections, the content will be significantly different from most other magazines or websites. Since we focus primarily on retro content, most of our selections aim towards older games, or modern games that either channel the spirit of older games, or do something really unique beyond the typically bland AAA cinematic stuff that encompasses a majority of today's marketplace. I hope that it will encourage people to check out some new and different titles. It's still very much a work in progress and I haven't quite nailed down how many games we'll be featuring, but it will be at least 175, so it will be a pretty meaty book. Given the size, we will probably be publishing both a full color and a cheaper black and white edition.</p>
<p>Further into the future, we also have two (maybe three?) more books planned. The first one is a Konami special, that will feature two big series - Contra and Ganbare Goemon - along with a good chunk of their 8/16-bit output. I was initially trepidatious about this after Konami grumbled about our Castlevania book, but we haven't had any issues with them since, and they haven't bothered us about the Konami Shooters book, so I think we're in the clear! Other games featured will include their run-and-guns (Sunset Riders, Mystic Warriors, etc) and their many FDS/FC/NES games, like Almana no Kiseki, Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa, Ai Senshi Nicol, Getsu Fuumaden, and so forth.</p>
<p><center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/konamispecial-1.jpg"></center></p>
<p>Additionally, since I've received many requests for a book on beat-em-ups, we've decided to start putting one in order. We have a good number of significant titles already featured on the site, but we're missing a big one - Double Dragon - so we have to complete that first! And in order to chronicle all of the beat-scrollers, we will probably have to publish two volumes, and figure out to do with some of the redundant content that will already be featured in the Sega book. (The Konami beat-em-ups articles will probably be placed here, rather than in the Konami specific volume mentioned above.)</p>
<p>All of these plans are admittedly pretty ambitious! I'm hoping to have the Taito digest, Top X Video Games and Sega Arcade Classics Vol. 2 completed by the end of 2015. Everything else will definitely be planned for 2016.</p>
<p>If you like what we're doing and like what you see, please consider donating to our <a href="http://www.patreon.com/hg101">Patreon</a>, even as little as $5 a month will get you access to digital copies of all books published, past and future, and $10 a month will get your name in print in subsequent volumes. Thank you for your support!</p>
Discoalucardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04206257399887664488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135815543912646655.post-22420360063260056872015-05-17T22:09:00.000-04:002015-05-17T22:09:11.940-04:00A friendly reminder of the ways you can support Hardcore Gaming 101<p>According to our randomizer feed for the front page, there are now more than 1200 articles on Hardcore Gaming 101, including book reviews, Weekly Kusoge, 500-word indies and more! If you ever wished you could pay someone for all that content, the good news is you can! <a href="http://www.patreon.com/hg101">Patreon</a> and our most generous readers have already enabled us to post about 20 articles on average each month over the past ten months. Besides many one-shot looks at classic and indie games, we've had massive serialized retrospectives about the <i><a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/wizardry/wizardry.htm">Wizardry</a></i> and <i><a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/megaman/megaman.htm">Mega Man</a></i> series and fun features like an enumeration of <i><a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/inventories/80sheroines.htm">the video game heroines of the 1980s</a></i>, which is right now being followed by a thorough <i><a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/inventories/arcades.htm">history of arcades and arcade machines within video games</a></i>.</p>
<p>We've also published three more <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/books.htm">books</a> within the past year alone, comprehensive volumes on the Castlevania series and Konami's entire shoot-em-up output over the decades, as well as a special of assorted contents for the holidays. Patreon backers can receive all our ebooks (or even hard copies of future books, depending on the funding level) for free. More books are always in the making!</p>
<p>The great thing with <a href="http://www.patreon.com/hg101">Patreon</a> is that it allows us to react flexibly to our funding level. The more funding we get, the more content we can publish the next month. And there is no shortage of content in sight: For the time being, we even had to temporarily suspend external submissions in order to be able to reduce our posting backlog and keep the waiting time for each individual submission in check, so every contribution helps in getting out more articles.</p>
<p>So, if you've got a few bucks to spare each month and think our content is worth your money, <a href="http://www.patreon.com/hg101">head over to our Patreon page</a>!</p>
<p>If direct financial support is not an option for one reason or another, there are other ways you can help us out. Please consider clicking on an ad or two. When you go to eBay, Amazon, PlayAsia or GOG.com through our links, anything you buy still gives us a tiny cut even if it's not anything that's recommended in the links themselves. Also follow us on the social media of your choice - we just recently added <a href="http://hardcore-gaming-101.tumblr.com/">Tumblr</a> to our list of outlets, but there's also <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hardcore-Gaming-101/109837535712670">Facebook</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/HG_101">Twitter</a> and our <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/curator/6859020">Steam community group</a> - and share, mention, reblog, retweet or forward whenever you see something you like.</p>
<p>Also shoot us comments about what types of content you'd like to see more of, or what additional site features could make your stay more pleasant. Did you know that as of recently, you can easily browse covered games by <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/company.htm">company</a>, <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/genres.htm">genre</a> or <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/themes.htm">themes</a>, with a screenshot of each entry as a preview? We're on a neverending quest to try and improve the site and its content, so your feedback is always welcome.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135815543912646655.post-20972454666369353942015-01-10T00:14:00.002-05:002015-01-11T12:57:31.795-05:00HG101 Sega Classics book part of the latest Storybundle!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/storybundlea.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/storybundlea.jpg" /></a></div>
<p>Yesterday the <a href="https://storybundle.com/games">Video Game Storybundle 5.0</a> went live, featuring several video game related books! If you pay at the $12+ tier, you get a copy of HG101 Presents: Sega Arcade Classics Vol. 1, in both PDF and a newly created Kindle format. It also includes a bunch of other great stuff - I've been wanting to read some of the Boss Fight Books series for awhile, which are extremely detailed essays on a particular game, as well as Leigh Alexander's title - plus I have the original issuance of the I Am 8bit art book and it's pretty fun!</p>
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<p>Additionally, since I needed to create a new digital version of the Sega Arcade Classics book, I decided to do a small revision to add a few new things. I'd originally intended to do these later in the year after all of the 3DS ports had been released in America, but did them now since Storybundle requested the book's inclusion. They aren't major addition, and the page count hasn't changed, but these include:</p>
<p>-An updated format (for the PDF) which includes the same headers and page numbers as the Castlevania book, so it looks a little nicer<br>
-Updated text to include the 3DS ports of all of the featured games, since only Space Harrier had been released at the time the book was originally published (December 2012)<br>
-Since there were some changes to text spacing, some of the articles are slightly expanded with extra details or pictures</p>
For right now this revised version is only available digitally as part of this bundle. It will be issued in physical form shortly, but I'm still waiting on the proof from the printer to ensure that everything looks good.Discoalucardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04206257399887664488noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135815543912646655.post-52722240003900031802014-12-19T10:16:00.000-05:002014-12-19T10:16:06.427-05:00Digitiser returns<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzQnmpi-HwcledtPa86aYel4WGCHu0f7qoCwI8J7eQLC7zWk2NkTfTYI9Amx9HEbsBp7t4xMuX03xmUX02zdWT1SuoqsshlBipNhw6VCm4NamFwAwhZS88SyCzFL4L67bnHgP14vHvN-ic/s1600/DIGITISER.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzQnmpi-HwcledtPa86aYel4WGCHu0f7qoCwI8J7eQLC7zWk2NkTfTYI9Amx9HEbsBp7t4xMuX03xmUX02zdWT1SuoqsshlBipNhw6VCm4NamFwAwhZS88SyCzFL4L67bnHgP14vHvN-ic/s1600/DIGITISER.png" height="320" width="251" /></a></div>
If you read the original on Teletext, you're probably weeping into your sandwiches with joy. If you <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digitiser" target="_blank">have no idea what I'm talking about</a>, then it probably just seems really weird, in a British sort of way. Digitiser is back, by <a href="http://www.digitiser2000.com/about.html" target="_blank">those who made it</a>.<br />
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<a href="http://www.digitiser2000.com/">http://www.digitiser2000.com/</a><br />
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They also seem to have an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdMWnD7qCz4Y7FbbbfyDq5g/about" target="_blank">official YouTube channel</a>, and... someone told me you can pay to have someone make you promotional videos like this. Awesome. <br />
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<br /><span class="fullpost"></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135815543912646655.post-29238987501868677832014-12-05T11:57:00.000-05:002014-12-05T11:57:26.429-05:00Over 1800 Atari VCS games trawled for hidden stuff!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Everyone knows the Atari VCS, or 2600, depending on your preference. Everyone should know The Cutting Room Floor, which documents unused stuff hidden in games. Fantastic website, <a href="http://tcrf.net/Category:Atari_2600_games" target="_blank">and they have 14 entries for Atari's system</a>. Allow me to share a university professor's paper, which looked through 1816 titles for the system, in the hunt for hidden stuff.<br />
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<span class="fullpost">In July, as a result of <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/japandvd/japandvd.htm#book" target="_blank">my book</a> on Japanese game developers, <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1748556728/the-untold-history-of-japanese-game-developers/posts/900872" target="_blank">I was invited to Montreal to give a keynote speech at the Game History Annual Symposium</a>. As you can see from the itinerary it was an amazing two days, <a href="http://www.sahj.ca/?page_id=178" target="_blank">jam packed with fascinating discussions on the history of games</a>, and methods of researching game history. <br /><br />The majority of talks were excellent, with favourites including a talk on Space War and Warrior (the vector graphics one), plus one where speedrunners were examined as a means of digging up "gaming fossils", since they hammer games in ways that reveal a title's inner workings.<br /><br />This blog entry relates to "<i><b>Using Historical Video Games to Teach Computer Scientists</b></i>" by <a href="http://pages.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/~aycock/" target="_blank">Professor John Aycock</a> (pictured).<br /><br />The quick version is that he dissects old games in order to teach present-day students valuable skills. The problem being that students would otherwise graduate without working within a constrained environment, and many techniques used on limited hardware (such as the Atari VCS), are still used today. Games are fun, students like games, and so: "... the implementation of old games can be used as a vehicle to explain modern Computer Science techniques."<br /><br />What caught my attention was that they would disassemble old games in order to understand how they work. At the end of the talk I asked if they discovered anything odd in the games. The answer given related to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chase_the_Chuck_Wagon" target="_blank">Chase the Chuckwagon</a>, which had an unused piece of graphics, and two sections of code which - in the context of this game - did absolutely nothing. Likely leftovers from previous games, where code was borrowed. Three mysteries which intrigued me, because I am all about uncovering the "unknown".<br /><br />My question, and the conversation with Professor Aycock afterwards, led to me receiving an email with the following:<br />"I got curious - and somewhat carried away - when you asked about hidden things in games, and I thought you might like to see the result:"<br /><br /><a href="http://www.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/~aycock/papers/atari.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/~aycock/papers/atari.pdf</a><br /> </span><br />
<span class="fullpost">Strung Out: Printable Strings in Atari 2600 Games<br /><br />"This report documents the raw findings from an exhaustive (and exhausting) analysis of a large corpus of Atari 2600 games to find printable strings. While similar reports have been conducted before [3], this is the most extensive survey so far, to the best of our knowledge. We intend to analyze these results from a higher-level viewpoint later, but this report serves as a permanent record of the data and the methods we used to acquire it."<br /><br />"The results reported here are based on a corpus of 1816 Atari 2600 ROM cartridge images. Duplicate images were removed - the initial corpus, as acquired, had 1840 images - but some game images have one or more prototype images too. We have not removed these, because sometimes the strings are different between these versions."<br /><br />For anyone who enjoys The Cutting Room Floor, this should prove very interesting. Surprisingly, despite programmers not being allowed credits in games, many have their named tucked away within the code. Some games have little jokes from those who made it, while others contain ending text or - in the case of edutainment title MegaBoy - the answers to puzzles.<br /><br />It's a long document, and mostly raw data, but I'm sure a lot of people will get a kick out of it, and it will probably keep TCRF busy for a while updating the Atari section.</span><br />
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<span class="fullpost">Enjoy! </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135815543912646655.post-20118765575119277722014-10-12T23:26:00.003-04:002014-10-12T23:26:52.639-04:00HG101 State of the Union October 2014 - Sega Arcade Classics Vol. 2, more Patreon discounts, and a summary of last month's updates!<p>Hi everyone! Just here to give some updates about all of the goings-ons at the site for the past month.</p>
<p>A few people have asked if they were able to get copies of the Untold History of Japanese Game Developers book by donating through <a href="http://www.patreon.com/hg101">Patreon</a>. Although HG101 promotes the book and we helped with its production, it's actually John Szczepaniak's project, so we're not at liberty to give anything away. However I've discussed it with him and he offered up discounts exclusively for Patrons at the $5+/month tier. For the book, you need to order directly from the Createspace site, as opposed to Amazon. The coupon will bring the price down to $29.99. Although you have to pay for shipping, overall it's about a $7 discount over the lowest price from over Amazon. Additionally, he's also offered discount prices for the DVD. It's normally 40 pounds but if donate, you'll be given access to a discount link which will lower the price to 30 pounds. If you've donated or are already a donor, I've already posted a section under "Activity" called "Discounts for Untold History of Japanese Game Developers", where you can find the coupon code and the discount link.</p>
<p>You can find some reviews of the book/DVD at <a href="http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-09-12-the-untold-history-of-japanese-game-developers-dvd-review">Eurogamer</a>, <a href="http://www.blackfalcongames.net/?p=123">Black Falcon Games</a> and <a href="http://www.bordersdown.net/content/742-The-Untold-History-of-Japanese-Game-Devlopers-review-(DVD-and-Book)">Borders Down</a>.
<p>In the last couple updates I've discussed the Konami Shooter book, which is coming along nicely, but I also wanted to talk about the one every keeps asking me about: Sega Arcade Classics Vol. 2.</p>
<p>In the first volume, we focused primarily on popular franchises, along with a few other one-shots that we deemed noteworthy enough to include along with it, largely based on whether they were ported enough times. The main reason was, even though there is a "Volume 1" in the title, we weren't sure if the book would be successful enough to justify a "Volume 2", so we figured we'd load it with the titles most gamers were familiar with. The good news is that the reception was decent enough to justify a second volume, but on the other hand, the titles are probably not going to ring any bells. But that's okay! HG101 is about discovering new titles, and Sega put out a ton of interesting stuff in the 80s and 90s, most of which has been largely forgotten. So if you're the type that trawls through the MAME archives to find new and interesting things to play, this will definitely be for you, especially if you're a Sega fan.</p>
<p>The selection of games in Volume 2 falls into two basic categories:</p>
<p>(1) Arcade games from 1985 and prior. In the first volume, the earliest release game we focused on was Space Harrier, but there are a lot of games from before that period. These predated Sega consoles (at least the ones that were released worldwide, like the Sega Master System), so they be more familiar to Atari or Colecovision fans. The most prominent of these titles are Pengo, Turbo, Congo Bongo, Buck Rogers and the Planet of Zoom, and Zaxxon, along with others like Carnival, Borderline (AKA Underground), Up n' Down, and Subroc. There are a lot of other titles that fall into this category like Spatter, Flicky, Monaco GP, Ninja Princess, Super Locomotive, and many, many others. Sega also had a partnership with Coreland (in Japan) and Gremlin (in America) that put out a wide variety of strange, bizarre, largely unknown titles.</p>
<p>(2) Any arcade game from the late 80s and early/mid-90s that couldn't fit into the first volume. There were some titles like Bonanza Bros, SDI/Global Defense and Teddy Boy Blues that fell into the era covered in the first book, but we felt weren't quite well known enough to add in, since it would increase the cost to the point of unaffordability. Not all of these games were great. Some games like Bay Route, Tough Turf and Riot City are flagrant rip-offs of other titles at the time, but they're also really good rip-offs! Other games like Last Survivor, Dark Edge, Line of Fire, Laser Ghost and Rail Chase show off some extremely impressive technology, and occasionally have some really interesting ideas, that kind of games that are worth recognizing their efforts even though they're flawed.</p>
<p>Here are some very rough, early samples of what I've been working on:</p>
<img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/segabook2/segabook2-sample1.jpg"><br>
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<p>I don't have anything close to a set release date for this just yet. There are two other books that will come first: the Konami Shooters book, which should hopefully be available at the beginning of 2015, and the HG101 Digest Vol. 1, a 75-ish page issue covering Bionic Commando, Strider, and several other features, will hopefully be available by the beginning of summer.</p>
<p>Some of the most noteworthy articles we've published this past month include: the first parts of <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/wizardry/wizardry.htm">Wizardry</a>, the seminal CRPG series, coverage of which is still ongoing; <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/danganronpa/danganronpa.htm">Danganronpa</a>, a series of stylish adventure games that totally justify the purchase of the Vita and are easily two of the best games I've played this year; <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/deaetonosama/deaetonosama.htm">Deae Tonosama Appare Ichiban</a>, a campy SFC run-and-gun similar to Choaniki; <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/piersolar/piersolar.htm">Pier Solar and the Great Architects</a>, the recently released HD update of the homebrew (yet quite professional) Genesis RPG; <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/elementalmaster/elementalmaster.htm">Elemental Master</a>, a fantasy shooter by the same folks as Thunder Force; <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/smashtv/smashtv.htm">Smash TV / Total Carnage</a>, the ultra violet twin stick arcade shooters from the 90s; and <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/systemshock/systemshock.htm">System Shock</a>, the first person shooter/RPG hybrid that inspired Bioshock, and is the topic of this month's Game Club 199X.</p>
<p>Upcoming articles for October and early November include Charlie Ninja, Puzzle Boy, Boppin'. 64th Street: A Detective Story, Sentinel, Yumimi Mix, Chimera Beast, Martial Champion, King of Dragon Pass, New Zealand Story, and several Halloween themed entries towards the end of the month. </p>
<p>As always, thanks for reading and for your support!</p>
Discoalucardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04206257399887664488noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135815543912646655.post-65474037055786265062014-09-10T20:30:00.001-04:002014-09-10T20:43:54.745-04:00HG101 State of the Union September 2014<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
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<span style="background-color: black; color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">After being in the works for over two years, the <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/cvbook/cvbook.htm">Castlevania</a> book is almost ready for publication! We unveiled the cover artwork a little while ago, provided by Rusty Shackles, who does lots of fantastic video game crossovers in the style of comic books. I spent this past weekend fixing up small little issues and am waiting for the final proof. Initially I'd anticipated having it ready for sale at the end of September, but that's because I like to leave a "Murphy's Law" buffer in case something goes massively wrong. So far it's shaping up okay though, so if all goes well it may be available by next week!<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Note that everyone who contributes to the <a href="http://www.patreon.com/hg101">Patreon</a> at the $5 (or more) per month level will receive free copies of the PDF and Kindle copies - the PDFs will be sold for $5 alone and probably about $7 for the Kindle copy. Anyone who has donated $10 or more has their name appearing under the table of contents nearing the beginning of the book. The cutoff date has passed for any future contributors, but the same deal will apply for any future books! Anyone who's donated at the $25 level will receive free copies of the books shipped to them, which I'll handle after the final proof has been approved.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The retail price of the Castlevania book is $25, but Amazon has a tendency to discount them, so it may be cheaper once it actually goes live.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Since most of the work on the Castlevania book has been completed, I've been concurrently working on the Konami Shooters book. This will encompass articles for <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/gradius/gradius.htm">Gradius</a>, <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/gradius/gradius5.htm">Life Force/Salamander</a>, <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/twinbee/twinbee.htm">TwinBee</a>, <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/parodius/parodius.htm">Parodius</a>, <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/otomedius/otomedius.htm">Otomedius</a>, and the <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/konamishooters/konamishooters.htm">Konami Shooters</a> article, which includes Scramble, Time Pilot, Gyruss, Axelay, Xexex, Thunder Cross, Space Manbow and others. All of them are being updated to fix up various stuff, and the Parodius and TwinBee articles have been almost entirely rewritten, since they were from the early days of the site. We're also featuring a section on the numerous minigames featured in <a href="http://blog.hardcoregaming101.net/2011/06/shooter-minigames-of-tokimeki-memorial.html">Tokimeki Memorial</a> and other Konami games (which I started several years ago but never finished, because I hate playing those games), the usual sections about trivia, reviews for a few Gradius inspired games like <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/satazius/satazius.htm">Satazius</a> and Hydorah, a rundown of some clones and fan games, and a full list of soundtrack albums. Since there is still some work to be done I hesitate giving release dates, but if all goes well it should be ready by early 2015.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">I have a feeling that the Konami Shooter book may not be as popular as the others, just because there doesn't seem to be a large English speaking fan base. The forums at <a href="http://www.gamestone.co.uk/gradius/">Gradius Home World</a> aren't too active and most of the folks on the Shmups forums seem to rally around more modern shooters. Konami did a very poor job in building an audience in North America by failing to localize many of their shooters (they did a bit better in Europe, where they at least tried with a few Parodius and TwinBee games). But if you're a fan of Konami in general it'll definitely be worth checking out! In the 80s and 90s, the company had the feeling of an extended family, with games often cross-referencing each other (especially Parodius, which the series was essentially built for), and I love drawing these connections together, even if they are for games that are not particularly well known.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">As for other site news: last month we pushed past the Patreon threshold to allow us to bring back the <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/kusoge/kusoge.htm">Your Weekly Kusoge</a> column and solicit submissions. Since its inception, we've published reviews of Contra: Legacy of War, Sonic's Schoolhouse, Spanish for Everyone, Muscle March, Midgard, and Gokuu Densetsu: Magic Beast Warriors. We've closed submissions for the moment since we have a little over a month's left that's still to post, but we'll be reopening them soon.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">We also debuted a new series of columns called Inventories, a name which is more or less blatantly stolen from The AV Club. They're basically listicles, but with more effort put into the standard thoughtless clickbait that most people seem to use them for. For our first one, we've featured <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/inventories/80sheroines.htm">a list of over 70 video games featuring women in leading lady (or otherwise featured) roles</a>. We'll probably be updating it in the future to include a few that we've missed - you can drop in to the article's forum topic if you seem any that we've missed and that fit into the requirements. Someday we'll probably also flesh it out to more to include more heroines from the rest of the 8 and 16-bit era, but we'll be focusing on other Inventories for awhile instead. They do take a long time to research and compile - this one here is the result of a year's on-and-off work between Derboo and I - but they should be a more regular feature going forward.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Finally, other articles we've featured include PS1 platformer Tomba, 16-bit era shooter Steel Empire and its recent 3DS remake, the indie Mercenary Kings, the offbeat SFC RPG Gokinjou Boukentai, a look at the early 3D games powered by the Freescape engine, the (very) early falling block puzzler Highrise, and unfortunately unlocalized Falcom PSP RPG Nayuta no Kiseki. And we've finished publishing a massive article on the original Mega Man series, making it one of the larger articles on the site. The <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/gameclub199x/gameclub199x.htm">Game Club 199X</a> page has been expanded to include the video series, as well as a new podcast line focused on indie games, the most recent topic being the fantastic Sega inspired Freedom Planet. The newest episode of the main podcast focuses on the recently fan translated Game Center CX 2.<u></u><u></u></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">We've also introduced a long requested function to swap the white text/black ground to a black text/white background, to improve readability. There are still some pages using the old pre-CSS code that won't work, but most of the site has been updated to feature this. Thanks to Derboo and his behinds the scene wizardry to get this up and working!</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: #f3f3f3;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">As for the coming month, please look forward for articles on System Shock, Danganronpa, Wizardry (another very long article to be posted in multiple parts), Smash TV/Total Carnage, Elemental Master, and the usual kusoge and 500 Word Indies columns.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: #f3f3f3;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">As always, if you like the work that we do, please check out our <a href="http://www.patreon.com/hg101">Patreon</a>! Your contributions are always much appreciated!</span></div>
Discoalucardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04206257399887664488noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135815543912646655.post-62077227610944313702014-09-05T04:52:00.002-04:002014-09-05T04:54:21.773-04:00Pathologic Kickstarter is live<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/002/530/004/8dceced9fd893b89c451c0e6d7ccb21d_large.jpg?1409766824" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="124" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/002/530/004/8dceced9fd893b89c451c0e6d7ccb21d_large.jpg?1409766824" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1535515364/pathologic" target="_blank">It's already topped $100k at the time of writing</a>, nearly halfway towards its goal of $250k. I backed it as soon as I
heard. Read on to find out why.</span></div>
<a name='more'></a><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/09/04/ice-pick-lodge-kickstarter-pathologic/" target="_blank">Adam Smith's article on Rock, Paper,Shotgun</a> gives a good analysis of the story, character, use of language, and
overall philosophical arc to the remake. It's worth reading. He spoke with the
developers at Gamescom, and the article allays any and all concerns I had about
the update.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">What personally excites me, even more so,
are the mechanical enhancements. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The team promises to keep the following
untouched:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">- The atmosphere; </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">- The setting;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">- The ideas that lie in the very core of
the game;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">- The general storyline; </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">- The characters; </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">- The map, the general feel and the concept
of the Town; it’s already an existing place for us, so we won’t change it, but
rather add more detail to it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">In addition, here are some improvements
they promise:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">- There’ll be new quests, events, and
plotlines, and some filler quests that were added for the sake of adding
something will be rid of. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">- Graphics will be much better. We’ll do
everything we can so that the game looks adequately even ten years from now. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">- Gameplay will be way more balanced. We’re
not talking about making it simpler and survival easier, mind you; but fights
used to be annoying rather than tense and emotional, scavenging was very
rudimentary, and the economy of a plagued town was hardly a system at all. We
plan to change all that, making all these mechanics robust. That doesn’t mean
the game will become a breeze, it just means we’ll replace artificial
challenges with real ones.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">- Street NPCs will have advanced AIs that’ll
make them feel way more alive. Once again, we’re not abandoning the concept of
them being “extras” in this play, we just want those extras to perform better. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">- We’ll also add realistic behavior
patterns to the disease. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">- Localization will be done internally or
with the help of trusted outsourcers who are not only native speakers, but also
talented writers. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/002/523/345/a5b448037b57d6344c4d8302310c9763_large.png?1409669189" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/002/523/345/a5b448037b57d6344c4d8302310c9763_large.png?1409669189" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">And here are some things I've deduced from
their Kickstarter page and images, even if they're not listed in bulletpoints:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">- Shops will lock down when in a plagued
district </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">- Regarding survival, Ice-Pick Lodge list the
previous parameters (immunity, hunger, exhaustion etc), in addition to thirst,
which is new</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">- Guns will misfire (this might not be new
- I can't actually remember if guns misfired in the original or not, they may
well have done)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">- In addition to the time of day changing,
there will be changing weather (it sort of changed in the original, but only
between cloudy or drizzling)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">- A more complex inventory system, keeping
track of individual pockets, belt pouches, and your backpack. I like this!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">- Apparently you will have the chance to rob
shops (or at least try to)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">- Guardsmen will then pursue you - if
you're caught you will be put in prison with infected people (you could end up
in prison in the original game, but only as a specific plot point for one of
the characters)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">- Bandit AI can be scared away by firing in
the air </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://pathologic-game.com/images/press/art.en/choices.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://pathologic-game.com/images/press/art.en/choices.png" height="200" width="320" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The flowchart diagram (above) from the Kickstarter
pages highlights how any potential day might play out, and reveals aspects of
the AI, economy, and overall gameplay which will be improved on. All of this
pleases me. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">If all this wasn't enough, there's also a
tabletop version of the game, for higher tiers. Which is an unexpected but
delightful surprise.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Anyone who has read my thoughts on the game
will know I am heavily biased towards it, and have been since I first played
the PC original some years back. I hope my enthusiasm encourages others to try
it.</span><span lang="EN-GB">It's clear the team have their own vision for the
game, and they're
sticking with it. Whatever myself and other fans ask for aloud or
secretly hope will be implemented, ultimately I liked the original (and
by extension the development team), because of their decisions, because
of how and what they created. <b>For the remake, above all else, I hope the
team achieve what they personally want, and they show me things which I hadn't even considered.</b> The best creators don't react to the demands of their consumers, but rather provide them with content which is beyond their imagining. I have complete faith in Ice-Pick Lodge to deliver.<b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">My only question now is, do I upgrade my
computer, or buy a PS4 to play it?</span></div>
<span class="fullpost"></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135815543912646655.post-6528841080750735052014-08-23T09:56:00.000-04:002014-08-23T11:42:38.152-04:00Pathologic Remake on Kickstarter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/r7ikBnFfGYU?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">A remake of the fantastic survival game
Pathologic is due to launch on Kickstarter (see the above video). If you've never heard of
Pathologic, <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/pathologic/pathologic1.htm" target="_blank">READ</a> our lengthy feature on it. If you've already been charmed by
its bleak landscape, read on! </span></div>
<a name='more'></a><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">First released in 2005, the original
Pathologic was a phenomenal blend of bleak narrative, set in a remote Russian
town, and deliciously complex mechanics: you had to manage hunger, sleep,
immunity, infection and reputation, through use of medicine, guns, and a
selection of foods, all wrapped up in a fluctuating virtual economy. Although
"survival" has become a hot videogame theme in recent years, for my
money nothing has yet to match the ingenious set-up of Pathologic.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The game was <a href="http://www.gog.com/game/pathologic" target="_blank">re-released on GOG not long ago</a>, for only $10, thereby allowing anyone with a computer and internet
connection to play it. Such a re-release (which would come with GOG's technical
support for running on modern systems) removed any fears I had about the game
eventually becoming non-functioning. Despite being nearly 10 years old anyone
can access it, and I recommend it highly.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">If you've read my article on the game
you'll know it's an all-time favourite. So the announcement of a remake via
Kickstarter, to be launched in SEPTEMBER, interests me a great deal. As told to
us by Ivan Slovtsov:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">---</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span lang="EN-GB">I’m a part of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice-Pick_Lodge" target="_blank">Ice-Pick Lodge</a> team.
We’re the guys that have made Pathologic, The Void, and Knock-Knock. Now we’re
making something new - or rather remaking something old, and we thought it
might be of interest to you. You may have heard that we’re planning to remake
Pathologic - a game that many consider to be our opus magnum and that has
defined us as a studio. So we’re launching a Kickstarter campaign soon. </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">---</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">An interesting premise. For me the game is
already flawless, its idiosyncrasies adding to the enjoyment. However, there
will be some who are put off by the visuals and non-existent enemy AI. There
are a few places it could be improved:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">* Dynamic lighting and improved visuals</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">* Realistic reloading animation for the
shotgun, so if you fire one bullet, only one empty shell is replaced upon
reloading</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">* More varied architecture, so for example
the Tanners' district appears visually distinct from Bridge Square</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">* AI that doesn't simply rush at you</span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB">* More complex system for dealing with wounds (akin maybe to MGS3?) </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Of course, the fear is also that trying to
improve the formula might ruin it. Much of the game's appeal lies with things
which at first appear to be negative.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">For example the repeated character models
for generic NPCs, compared to key characters found indoors. There's a very
specific, and very important reason for this - the generic NPCs need to all
look alike for the narrative conclusion to function.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Then there's the difficulty. If you can't
handle the original, either improve your skill or go watch a YouTube longplay.
Pathologic is meant to be difficult. I sincerely hope Ice-Pick Lodge don't make it
easier in the hope of gaining mass appeal. Demon's Souls, Dark Souls and Dark
Souls II all showcased their difficulty with pride.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWklnu4UOuu-VQIo0GYetS5Ytyjj_B7FkeXPALO6PyNv354UbZ3QnBxuyhr6kOszKAf4b_z3mbdyakkSeG8G_1jXKzvUNIJJV_Ne3z7Vx9S5GaRka_rUytbidAE2H5Yy8cyE6_lQWsl3MD/s1600/girls.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWklnu4UOuu-VQIo0GYetS5Ytyjj_B7FkeXPALO6PyNv354UbZ3QnBxuyhr6kOszKAf4b_z3mbdyakkSeG8G_1jXKzvUNIJJV_Ne3z7Vx9S5GaRka_rUytbidAE2H5Yy8cyE6_lQWsl3MD/s1600/girls.jpg" height="200" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">My biggest concern is the localisation. I
am revising whatever I said about the original. The localisation is perfect, at
least for the first 2 scenarios (I've not played the 3rd, though it's said to
be unintelligible in English). The way the text was translated for Pathologic
is epically poetic. It's not always neat, or grammatically clean, or even
contextually believable, but it is grandiose and melodramatic in the best way
possible. It's like the difference between the delivery of lines in a serious
film, or an exaggerated stage play. HG101 forumite Garamoth posted some of his
favourites in our forum topic on the game:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">---</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span lang="EN-GB">- We resist our passions not because we are
strong, but because they are weak.<br />
- The best way to be deceived, is to consider yourself more artful than others.<br />
- Even the most reasonable people are reasonable only in insignificant matters.
In the significant affairs, the reason usually fails them.<br />
- The main thing is not to have time to think. This... is a ticket to paradise.<br />
- We are all strong enough to bear a misfortune of the neighbor.<br />
- We promise in accordance with our calculations, and we carry out in
accordance with our fears.<br />
- Happy people are incorrigible. Destiny does not punish them for their sins,
and they consequently think themselves innocent.<br />
- The world is ruled by destiny and whim.<br />
- I have danced all my dances. The show is over.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">---</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/pathologic/pathologic1.htm" target="_blank">character profiles</a> in the main article
also feature quotes from each of them. One of my favourites:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">"<i>We are afraid of everything, brother,
as all mortals are. And, we want everything. As if immortality is granted to
us.</i>"</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Now, can you honestly imagine these lines
coming through with the same gravitas, if localised by a different company? The
dialogue is rich with the atmosphere and art style of the game.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">I mention this concern because there was an
attempt at a fan retranslation. It never came to anything, which is fine by me,
but the developers might feel the need to revise the script for its English
release. My hope: they include original Russian voice acting, with English
subtitles, translated as above. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">I mentioned all my concerns to Ivan,
finishing the email by saying they should ignore everything that myself or
other fans say, and simply create as true to their own visions as possible. He
was quick to reply:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">---</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span lang="EN-GB">Thank you John for the kind words. We will
do our best to not disappoint our fanbase (and that certainly includes
you) and will stay truthful to the principles of the old game during the
remake. </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">---</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">However this proceeds, and whatever the
final result, I have not been this interested in a Kickstarter campaign since
Shadowrun Returns. There really is nothing else that quite scratches the same
itch as Pathologic. Not DayZ, not Don't Starve, nothing else quite matches Pathologic. I like how the video above describes the world as a simulation - the number of variables to deal with does make it more akin to a sim than a traditional adventure or FPS.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">To generate publicity the team have <a href="http://feverishfeeling.com/en/" target="_blank">set up a website</a> where you can sign up and become part of an Augmented Reality Game
narrative...</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">---</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span lang="EN-GB">But before [the Kickstarter launch] another
curious thing will happen: <a href="http://feverishfeeling.com/en/" target="_blank">a website will be launched</a> allowing anyone
interested to subscribe to… something. It’s not your everyday teaser though;
everyone who subscribes will become privy to a short interactive story leading
to the launch of the Pathologic Remake Kickstarter campaign. But stories like
that are only interesting when they have an audience ready to discuss it and
crack its puzzles. It offers you a chance to be a witness of, or even
participate in... events that will be happening soon.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">---</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Spread the word, talk about it, play the
original if you have not already. Keep an eye on the developer's <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/1535515364" target="_blank">Kickstarter profile</a>. </span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB">Prepare yourself for the glorious return of
the Sand Plague.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span class="fullpost"></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135815543912646655.post-45822074910098431792014-08-13T04:49:00.002-04:002014-08-17T02:45:13.964-04:00Mitchell Corporation arcade games available to license<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNe_qhKKk7PcfBLrQbPKoewjWyJ21papT8-W_CyNEOnLmtZ15OaarHCjiv9vvetnhvxOPGLnIKt7_2-fE02R-RSkFMCWuxMNNM_P5H1i3ApJBCq9bHy0WhZ8UPsT5OC74jWyM26Uqg1mIU/s1600/osman-flyer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNe_qhKKk7PcfBLrQbPKoewjWyJ21papT8-W_CyNEOnLmtZ15OaarHCjiv9vvetnhvxOPGLnIKt7_2-fE02R-RSkFMCWuxMNNM_P5H1i3ApJBCq9bHy0WhZ8UPsT5OC74jWyM26Uqg1mIU/s1600/osman-flyer.jpg" height="218" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">A diverse selection of Mitchell
Corporation's arcade back catalogue is up for grabs, to license and re-release
on modern systems, including the phenomenal <i>Cannon Dancer / Osman</i>. Read on for
details.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<a name='more'></a><div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">This news story is actually several weeks
old, having first broken on the Facebook feed of Kouichi Yotsui, creator of
both <i>Strider</i> and <i>Cannon Dancer</i>. I shared it on my timeline, as did others, but
I'm surprised and also a little disappointed that this wasn't picked up by any
news websites. If you do write a news story, feel free to use anything on this
page, the photo is mine, while the in-game images were taken from <a href="http://www.arcade-museum.com/" target="_blank">various websites</a> including HG101. Right at the bottom you'll find some interview
excerpts from my up and coming book, <i>The Untold History of Japanese Game
Developers</i>, to be available on Amazon the end of August or early September.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Below is the company's English message:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">-----</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">"Mitchell is currently looking for a
licensee for our arcade titles. For use on mobile phones, computers, and other
devices. The terms would be a limited-time license on ports and sales. We would
want to receive royalties as well as advance payment. The following bolded
Mitchell arcade games are currently available for licensing. For the titles
listed, the arcade PCB, source code, and instruction manual are available. If
anyone is interested, we would be happy to discuss matters further." </span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB">- Roy
Ozaki, company owner</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB">Email: <b>office@mitchell.jp</b> </span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUNojFt8hJqImGZGEdCWwzyPt7ET3UCCwuLzkpbwOtq-N7bwJFIB3hENMGOugO2ufnS_KJOCMheUJuuZssDhkiCPlLJwGTXQEh_Y1LPZfic9KPwJiJ457UcM70O_qcn0vZDvdwHOh6O_sF/s1600/funkyjet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUNojFt8hJqImGZGEdCWwzyPt7ET3UCCwuLzkpbwOtq-N7bwJFIB3hENMGOugO2ufnS_KJOCMheUJuuZssDhkiCPlLJwGTXQEh_Y1LPZfic9KPwJiJ457UcM70O_qcn0vZDvdwHOh6O_sF/s1600/funkyjet.jpg" /></a></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DguGCHmZ4k8" target="_blank">Funky Jet</a> / </span><span lang="ZH-CN" style="font-family: SimSun; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">ファンキージェット</span><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span>- Arcade, 1992</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQcirYJ143kiSmzbT7VzQU16Iv0gZlzb7a1vuXUC5JGBJ-zhhV9LKW8ap5yMDzqqFR76hj4iyJMfGxhBM5a9EVVMeiT6UP1NFHl9v6mp36fra-jgzLtlQg83HoOov3p3ZKXcBVYtax3kVR/s1600/arcademuseum.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQcirYJ143kiSmzbT7VzQU16Iv0gZlzb7a1vuXUC5JGBJ-zhhV9LKW8ap5yMDzqqFR76hj4iyJMfGxhBM5a9EVVMeiT6UP1NFHl9v6mp36fra-jgzLtlQg83HoOov3p3ZKXcBVYtax3kVR/s1600/arcademuseum.png" /></a></div>
<span lang="EN-GB"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K34hhoWGmeg" target="_blank">The Karate Tournament</a> / </span><span lang="ZH-CN" style="font-family: SimSun; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">チャタンヤラクーシャンク</span><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>- Arcade, 1992</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWdvgXx6XfE" target="_blank">Double Wings</a> / </span><span lang="ZH-CN" style="font-family: SimSun; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">雙翼</span><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="mso-tab-count: 6;"> </span>-
Arcade, 1993</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=lady+killer+arcade" target="_blank">Lady Killer</a> / </span><span lang="ZH-CN" style="font-family: SimSun; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">燃えよゴンタ</span><span lang="EN-GB">!!<span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span>- Arcade, 1993</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Demon Mirage Mahjong / </span><span lang="ZH-CN" style="font-family: SimSun; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">妖獣麻雀伝</span><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>- Arcade, 1994</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4726MLwBKZQ" target="_blank">Party Time: Gonta the Diver II</a> / </span><span lang="ZH-CN" style="font-family: SimSun; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">がんばれゴンタ</span><span lang="EN-GB">!!2<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>- Arcade, 1995</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Diploma / </span><span lang="ZH-CN" style="font-family: SimSun; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">卒業証書</span><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="mso-tab-count: 6;"> </span>-
Arcade, 1995</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0VCdYsZYXvKeI9dV7lw0KC-XhdiiiDUb0BBJVarsGOmWlxjn1ftDR1H37ngXLgErWseBX3BZcWbGRtTeCgAenZG8bW7uejPSwnMUUMoUPDUiBlC9AtljCy2EwJyUBk6rtQXPtEAyjzi-y/s1600/charlie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0VCdYsZYXvKeI9dV7lw0KC-XhdiiiDUb0BBJVarsGOmWlxjn1ftDR1H37ngXLgErWseBX3BZcWbGRtTeCgAenZG8bW7uejPSwnMUUMoUPDUiBlC9AtljCy2EwJyUBk6rtQXPtEAyjzi-y/s1600/charlie.jpg" /></a></div>
</div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avQ2opGXr-g" target="_blank">Charlie Ninja</a> / </span><span lang="ZH-CN" style="font-family: SimSun; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">チャーリー忍者</span><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span>- Arcade, 1995</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuIcQ17E1fRMRCo6Ig50aRo4gI8ZkBI2c4hs6eiL65cMGyI85I31yYESyCOrZhE8XWEchk44Ycc6ilt_uFk1MzyhyAS0iUFVTR3l19ROW5pXWPDU2AI5q0rOjmlkNh5dOWJ67qIyJ50dba/s1600/osman-10.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuIcQ17E1fRMRCo6Ig50aRo4gI8ZkBI2c4hs6eiL65cMGyI85I31yYESyCOrZhE8XWEchk44Ycc6ilt_uFk1MzyhyAS0iUFVTR3l19ROW5pXWPDU2AI5q0rOjmlkNh5dOWJ67qIyJ50dba/s1600/osman-10.png" /></a></div>
</div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqzGqrPqmUE" target="_blank">Osman / Cannon Dancer</a> /<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span lang="ZH-CN" style="font-family: SimSun; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">キャノンダンサー</span><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>- Arcade,
1996</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Three Engraved Intentions / </span><span lang="ZH-CN" style="font-family: SimSun; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">三刻志</span><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span>-
Arcade, 1996</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWabv1O-YGU" target="_blank">Gamshara</a> / </span><span lang="ZH-CN" style="font-family: SimSun; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">銃武者羅</span><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="mso-tab-count: 6;"> </span>-
Arcade, 2002</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYjA56vNH1I" target="_blank">This Good Octopus</a> / E</span><span lang="ZH-CN" style="font-family: SimSun; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">タコ</span><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="mso-tab-count: 5;"> </span>-
Arcade, 2003</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The official Mitchell Corp website</span></div>
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<span lang="ZH-CN" style="font-family: SimSun; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(株)ミッチェルホームページ</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.mitchell.jp/index.htm"><span lang="EN-GB">http://www.mitchell.jp/index.htm</span></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">-----</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The important thing to note with this list
is that all of the games are arcade exclusives. They have never (to my
knowledge) been available for home use before. Some excellent games, like
<i>Gamshara</i>, aren't even emulated. At all. There is no way to play <i>Gamshara</i>
without the original arcade board; <a href="http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2007/02/column_arcade_obscurities_mitc.php" target="_blank">a unique experience which few have access to</a>.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Sure, some of these games, such as the
mahjong title, won't have widespread appeal, but this is still a really cool
opportunity.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpxCSBZ61PE6a2i_oJ9Oxi8Oca_nSvta2mTSdbyXAxYIJNi9Iy935tJv8iGzbsLuhT4DBDfNmiHz6LGVkMXHMpmUn2D3vYZQ8W14PUX9zXBN-mX30ADHWKw3F95NtqGmRKjIIscuduZtaf/s1600/ryokan.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpxCSBZ61PE6a2i_oJ9Oxi8Oca_nSvta2mTSdbyXAxYIJNi9Iy935tJv8iGzbsLuhT4DBDfNmiHz6LGVkMXHMpmUn2D3vYZQ8W14PUX9zXBN-mX30ADHWKw3F95NtqGmRKjIIscuduZtaf/s1600/ryokan.JPG" height="186" width="320" /></a></div>
</div>
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<i><span lang="EN-GB">The author, during an interview with Mr
Ozaki and Mr Yotsui. For video footage of this day check out <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/japandvd/japandvd.htm" target="_blank">The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers DVD</a>.</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">I'm going to take 90% credit for giving Mr
Ozaki and Mr Yotsui this idea. We were in Japan, at a mountainside inn, and
repeatedly I was explaining what a great idea it would be to re-release games
like <i>Cannon Dancer</i>. It is, in my opinion, even better than the original <i>Strider</i>.
It's amazing! And yet few have had the opportunity to play it. Without
hesitation I would buy it if re-released on something like GOG or Steam. Or what
about a compilation for a handheld device like Vita, or 3DS, or a disc for
PlayStation3/4 or Xbox360/One, or the WiiU? Even if production is too costly
for a physical release, now is the perfect opportunity for a digital download.
Perhaps for an iOS or Android device? There are 12 arcade exclusive games here, some of which on their own are worth
the price of admission.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Interestingly, Mr Ozaki mentioned publicly
that he will be retiring this year, so it makes sense that he's looking to sell
or license on his back catalogue of games. He just needs to find a company
that's interested.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Here's the message in Japanese:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">---</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="ZH-CN" style="font-family: SimSun; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">ミッチェルがアーケードタイトルのライセンス先を探しています。携帯電話、コンピューターや他のデバイスでの使用。条件としては、移植と販売ライセンスの期間限定発行。ロイヤリティの他に、先渡金希望。今回案件としているミッチェルのアーケードゲームタイトルには下記のものがあります。リストにあるものには、基盤、ソースコード、取り扱い説明書があります。</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="ZH-CN" style="font-family: SimSun; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">ファンキージェット</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="ZH-CN" style="font-family: SimSun; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">チャタンヤラクーシャンク</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="ZH-CN" style="font-family: SimSun; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">雙翼</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="ZH-CN" style="font-family: SimSun; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">燃えよゴンタ</span><span lang="EN-GB">!!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="ZH-CN" style="font-family: SimSun; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">妖獣麻雀伝</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="ZH-CN" style="font-family: SimSun; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">がんばれゴンタ</span><span lang="EN-GB">!!2</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="ZH-CN" style="font-family: SimSun; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">卒業証書</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="ZH-CN" style="font-family: SimSun; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">キャノンダンサー</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="ZH-CN" style="font-family: SimSun; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">三刻志</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="ZH-CN" style="font-family: SimSun; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">銃武者羅</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">E</span><span lang="ZH-CN" style="font-family: SimSun; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">タコ</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="ZH-CN" style="font-family: SimSun; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">チャーリー忍者</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="ZH-CN" style="font-family: SimSun; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(株)ミッチェルホームページ</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.mitchell.jp/index.htm"><span lang="EN-GB">http://www.mitchell.jp/index.htm</span></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">---</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><b><span lang="EN-GB">Excerpt from my interview with Roy Ozaki:</span></b></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-GB">JS: How come Cannon Dancer was never
converted to a home system?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">RO: Because it didn't sell, as a coin-op.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-GB">JS: You said Strider didn't sell well, but
when it was ported it made money. It's money for nothing, because the game
already exists. Converting to a home system can be done quickly and cheaply. </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">RO: OK, let's say we do a conversion, you
need money for that! </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-GB">JS: Do you still own Cannon Dancer's rights?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">RO: Yes! You want to buy them?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-GB">JS: Perhaps, how much?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">RO: The money you need is not to pay me.
It's to pay Sony or Nintendo, if you want to make it. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-GB">JS: You mean to have it run on Wii or PS3?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">RO: You have to make the [conversion] or
whatever, right? For that you need money. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-GB">JS: What about on PC, there are companies
like Good Old Games. The PS3 or Wii is a locked system, which Sony and Nintendo
controls, but a computer is an open platform. You could sell it without any
extra publisher or middleman. </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">RO: But how much money can you make?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-GB">JS: Probably... Possibly... I have no idea.
I don't know figures. But people have made money selling their back catalogue
through places like GOG. How much money could you lose selling it? Probably
nothing.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">RO: But you need to get a programmer to
convert it to PC.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-GB">JS: Well, really all you need is someone to
program an emulator.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">RO: Well, if somebody wants to do that, I'm
willing to license it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-GB">JS: So if someone was interested in
producing an emulator for you to sell Cannon Dancer online, through GOG, you
would be open to negotiating with them?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">RO: I don't know. I don't know the PC
people so well. I do business with people who I think I try to drink with. I
mean, it's not the paperwork. We drink three cups of this and... I mean, that's
what this whole world is. I've done different businesses, and worked with
companies. I realised that if you drink, you can get along with anybody in the
world. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-GB">JS: What I've found is, Japanese developers
seem reluctant to embrace the Western PC market, even though a lot of
developers make a lot of money.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">RO: Cannon Dancer - no other company else
was involved. It was Mitchell Corp's game.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-GB">JS: A company like GOG wouldn't own the
rights, it's just a distribution platform...</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">RO: It's a license?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-GB">JS: For example, with GOG, a lot of other
companies put their games on there. They're a shop. You're not licensing to
them, you're selling it yourself, in their shop, and they take a percentage,
and the rest of it goes to you.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">RO: I don't have people to do that kind of
thing for me.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-GB">JS: Plus there's other games in your back
catalogue that you can make use of.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">RO: I'm willing to go along with it... </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-GB">JS: Do you still own all the rights to all
the other games developed at Mitchell?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">RO: Coin-op, yes. </span></div>
<span class="fullpost"></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135815543912646655.post-37083544697982295502014-07-27T20:18:00.002-04:002014-07-27T22:25:27.885-04:00HG101 State of the Union July 2014<p>First off, I'd like to extend a tremendous amount of gratitude for anyone who's donated to our site's <a href="http://www.patreon.com/hg101">Patreon</a>. We've been running it for about a month now, so I thought I'd line out some of the changes we've implemented that have helped improve the site.</p>
<p>For starters, and you've probably already noticed this, the front page has been completely redesigned. The main reason behind this is that it makes updating much easier, since we don't need to write huge descriptions every time we update. In the past it was just me updating the main page, and I often only had time to get everything together on the weekends. We originally promised biweekly updates when we met out $500 funding goal, but between myself and fellow site admin Sam Derboo, we've exceeded that and have been hitting closer to three or four updates on a weekly basis. The extra money has helped funding the additional work required to get these updates in order. We've also worked our way (mostly) through our large posting backlog, so submitted articles will appear sooner. In the past, it often took up to three months before articles were officially posted, which I'm sure irritated some contributors, but the increased manpower has helped us become more efficient.</p>
<p>Additionally, we've also revised the site <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/submission.htm">Submission Guidelines</a>, which also outlines our revised payment rates. Initially they were kind of loose, typically about $15-$25 per game covered depending on the length, but with the help of the Patreon, we've revised them to, at the very least, double their original rates, and in the case of the longer pieces, nearly tripled. It's still not quite up as high as professional sites, but as contributions to the Patreon increase, we'll be increasing these too! </p>
<p>Note that all Patreon contributors of $5 or more get free digital copies of the books. If you've already contributed, check out the first post we made for links to the PDFs. You'll be receiving a free digital copy of the Castlevania book once it's completed too. A revised Kindle copy of the Guide to Classic Graphic Adventures is coming soon, as well as a previously unreleased Kindle version of Sega Arcade Classics Vol. 1. All contributors of the $10 tier or higher will get their names in all upcoming books, including the Castlevania one, so <a href="mailto:kurt@hardcoregaming101.net">let me know</a> if you want a different name added. All contributors at the $25 tier will also get a copy of the Castlevania book mailed to you, so make sure you have your address entered!</p>
<p>Finally, I'd like to share some previews of books that are currently in progress. The $2,500 goal is kind of a pie-in-the-sky goal that would allow me to work full time on these, and we're not quite there yet, but books will still be coming, albeit at a very slow pace. The Castlevania book should be out in the next month or two, so more details will be posted of that shortly, but in the mean time here are some other books:</p>
<p>HG101 Presents: Konami Shooters (Gradius, Parodius, TwinBee, etc.)<p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/bookpreviews/konamishooter-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/bookpreviews/konamishooter-1a.jpg" /></a></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/bookpreviews/konamishooter-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/bookpreviews/konamishooter-3a.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/bookpreviews/konamishooter-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/bookpreviews/konamishooter-4a.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/bookpreviews/konamishooter-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/bookpreviews/konamishooter-5a.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/bookpreviews/konamishooter-6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/bookpreviews/konamishooter-6a.jpg" /></a></div>
<p>HG101 Presents: Sega Arcade Classics Vol. 2</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/bookpreviews/segabook2-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/bookpreviews/segabook2-1a.jpg" /></a></div>
<p>HG101 Presents: Shin Megami Tensei</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/bookpreviews/megaten-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/bookpreviews/megaten-1a.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/bookpreviews/megaten-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/bookpreviews/megaten-2a.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/bookpreviews/megaten-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/bookpreviews/megaten-3a.jpg" /></a></div>
<p>HG101 Digest Vol. 1 (includes full articles for Bionic Commando and Strider, as well as similar games, plus 80 JP PS1 games worth playing, a collectors guide to Genesis/Mega Drive games, the Dark Age of JRPGs, and more. Future editions will cover Taito arcade games)</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/bookpreviews/ps1guide.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/bookpreviews/ps1guidea.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/bookpreviews/growl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/bookpreviews/growla.jpg" /></a></div>
<p>I'll be posting more samples in the coming weeks so you get a feel of what we've planned.</p>
<p>Thanks again for all of your support, and we hope that the new HG101 will be deserving of your support!</p>
Discoalucardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04206257399887664488noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135815543912646655.post-12075323167011656232014-07-16T12:40:00.003-04:002014-07-16T12:40:56.883-04:00Nintendo Power Retrospectives - Part 30This week I'm taking a look at Nintendo Power Issue #20.<br />
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<br />
Games Reviewed This Issue:<br />
Mega Man III - Capcom (NES)<br />
The Immortal - EA (NES)<br />
Deja Vu - ICOM (NES)<br />
Gremlins 2 - Sunsoft (NES)<br />
Dragon's Lair: The Legend - CSG Imagesoft (Game Boy)<br />
Mercenary Force - Meldac (Game Boy)<br />
Burai Fighter Deluxe - Taxan (Game Boy)<br />
F-1 Race - Nintendo (Game Boy)<br />
Super Scrabble - GameTek (Game Boy)<br />
<br />
Please support my Patreon at http://www.patreon.com/countzeroor<br />
Gamester 81's Miracle Piano Teaching System Review: http://gamester81.com/rare-snes-miracle-piano-review/<br />
Thanks to NESGuide.com for gameplay footage of The Immortal and Deja Vu.CountZeroOrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770351633114527017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135815543912646655.post-88217584706992076922014-07-02T15:35:00.001-04:002014-07-02T15:35:26.406-04:00Nintendo Power Retrospectives - Part 29This week we're coming to Nintendo Power's final strategy guide issue, featuring a collection of games that support multi-tap.<br />
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<br />Games reviewed this issue:<br />Gauntlet II - Mindscape (Developed by Atari)<br />Nintendo World Cup - Nintendo (Developed by Technos)<br />Swords & Serpents - Acclaim (Developed by Interplay)<br /><br />Previously Reviewed Games:<br />NES Play Action Football & Super Off-Road: Part 18 - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXS2MO1--fI">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXS2MO1--fI</a><br />
Super Spike V'Ball: Part 19 - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISzcZ-SBbuc">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISzcZ-SBbuc</a><br /><br />Other Things of Note:<br />Retronauts' Kunio-Kun Episode: <a href="http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=9088701">http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=9088701</a><br />"Of Dice And Men: The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and the People Who Play It" by David M. Ewalt: <a href="http://ow.ly/ysvuk">http://ow.ly/ysvuk</a>CountZeroOrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770351633114527017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135815543912646655.post-52088001745753432792014-06-28T00:24:00.000-04:002014-06-28T00:24:03.469-04:00 Konami Shooters in Hayate the Combat Butler (DS)<p><center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/konamishooters/hayate/hayate.png"></center></p>
<p>So let's say that it's 2008 and you've achieved your lifelong dream as an employee at Konami, the company that made awesome games like Castlevania, Contra and Gradius. Hooray! Except, you're stuck making garbage portable anime tie-in games instead. Boo! What do you do to pass away the time? Why, you sneak classic Konami minigames in an otherwise completely unrelated title!</p>
<p>There are a few DS games based off of Hayate the Combat Butler. The first one, Boku ga Romeo de Romeo ga Boku de, is a basically a visual novel, where you read lots of dialogue and occasionally interact with the touch screen. It seems pretty banal - except, at the end of each chapter, you can play a minigame, almost all of them just involve hitting objects with the stylus. The goal is to get a high score and increase your "Pathos", which is used for unlocking costumes and other things in the main game. The five minigames are:</p>
<p><center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/konamishooters/hayate/gradius.png"></center>
<p><b>Gradius:</b><br>
Orbs spawn randomly around the screen. Smash as many of them as possible with the style.</p>
<p><center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/konamishooters/hayate/gradius2.png"></center></p>
<p><b>Gradius II:</b><br>
Moai heads spit out a bunch of stuff, which also need to be smashed with the stylus.</p>
<p><center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/konamishooters/hayate/parodius.png"></center></p>
<p><b>Parodius:</b><br>
Based off of the sumo pig boss from the mountain stage of Parodius, this panda trounces back and forth. He stomps on the ground, causing stuff to fall from the sky, which must be smashed with the stylus.</p>
<p><center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/konamishooters/hayate/twinbee.png"></center></p>
<p><b>TwinBee:</b><br>
Hit the clouds and juggle the bells.</p>
<p><center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/konamishooters/hayate/quarth.png"></center></p>
<p><b>Quarth:</b><br>
The most in-depth game, and the only one that doesn't require the stylus (though you can use it), you play a quick game of the Konami puzzle shooter Quarth, where you have to shoot bricks at falling objects, turning them into rectangles and causing them to disappear. The visuals here seem to be taken from the Ganbare Goemon DS title, which included a similar, but more in-depth, Quarth minigame.</p>
<p>If you want to play these, you can just speed through the text in the main game, then hit the Minigame option in the menu. Since they're randomly chosen, you may want to save the game (using the battery save, not the save state), play the game, then reset and reload if you want to try something different. Alternatively, I'm attaching <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/konamishooters/hayate/hayate.zip">some save states for use with DESMume .9.7.2</a> which will let you play each of the five games.</p>
<p>Also, if the score tallying sound effect at the end of each game is from the original Castlevania.</p>
<p>Most Tokimeki Memorial games also included unique shooter games - you can read about some of them <a href="http://blog.hardcoregaming101.net/2011/06/shooter-minigames-of-tokimeki-memorial.html">here</a>.</p>Discoalucardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04206257399887664488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135815543912646655.post-91863780727850133522014-06-18T16:50:00.003-04:002014-06-18T16:50:39.039-04:00Nintendo Power Retrospectives - Part 28After a long absence, the Nintendo Power Retrospectives are *back*. This time I'm covering issue 18 for November, 1990.<br />
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<br />
Retronauts Pocket episode of Destiny of an Emperor: <a href="http://www.retronauts.com/?p=602">http://www.retronauts.com/?p=602</a><br />Theme Music: Super Buck II by Estradasphere, a re-arrangement of the Overworld BGM from Super Mario Bros II, composed by Koji Kondo - <a href="http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR00577">http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR00577</a><br /><br />Please support my Patreon at <a href="http://www.patreon.com/countzeroor">http://www.patreon.com/countzeroor</a><br /><br />Game Covered:<br />Solar Jetman - Tradewest<br />Little Nemo - Capcom<br />Dr. Mario (NES & GB) - Nintendo<br />Duck Tales (GB) - Capcom<br />Robocop (GB) - Data East<br />Play Action Football (GB) - Nintendo<br />Castlevania III - KonamiCountZeroOrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770351633114527017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135815543912646655.post-38819776544854006942014-06-09T19:50:00.001-04:002014-08-23T13:24:25.987-04:00Dark Age of JRPGs (11): Mugen no Shinzou<p align=justify><b>Mugen no Shinzou (夢幻の心臓)</b> - PC-88, PC-98, Mz-2500, S1 (1984)</p>
<p align=center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/jrpg/mugena.jpg"></p>
<p align=justify>I promised we'd meet XTal Soft again soon, didn't I? <i>Mugen no Shinzou</i> ("Heart of Fantasy") is actually their first RPG and one of the most well-regarded Japanese computer RPGs. The Japanese Wikipedia entry on <i>Hydlide</i> describes it as one of the "big three" of Japanese CRPGs (the other two being <i>Dragon Slayer</i> and <i>Hydlide</i>), although that distinction may mostly come from its sequels. All in all, the series spans three titles, which were released about a year apart from each other.</p>
<p align=justify><i>Mugen no Shinzou</i> was developed by Kazunari Tomo and one K. Kawahara. <i>Lunar</i> fans will probably remember the former as the creator of that series; after <i>Mugen no Shinzou</i> he did a few more games for Xtal Soft (including <i>Mugen no Shinzou 2</i>) before switching to Falcom, where he worked on <i>Sorcerian</i> and <i>Dinosaur</i>. As for Kawahara, I couldn't confirm 100% that it is the same person, but "K. Kawahara" appears credited for the Surlent scenario in <i><a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/rudra/rudra.htm">Rudra no Hihou</a></i> and a Katsuyoshi Kawahara directed the <i>Final Fantasy</i> remakes for PlayStation.</p>
<p align=center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/jrpg/mugen1-00.png" width=500></p>
<p align=justify>The game is also frequently cited as one of the influences for <i>Dragon Quest</i>. While I'm not sure Koichi Nakamura and Yuji Horii conceded as much directly (this <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120621104811/http://www.geocities.jp/bgrtype/gsl/words/horiisakuma/horiisakuma.html">lengthy conversation</a> between Horii and his friend and later <i>Dragon Quest</i> collaborator Akira Sakuma seems to imply that they have at least played it), it sure does seem to make a lot of sense when playing it.</p>
<span class="fullpost">
<p align=justify>According to the plot, the protagonist is nearly killed in the real world, but gets rescued and spirited away by a god, ending up in a fantasy world full of dragons, goblins and other monsters. If those who enter don't find their way back to the real world soon, they are turned into monsters themselves and damned to eternal suffering. Thus the game actually has a "time" limit (although since the game is turn-based that translates to a turn limit) of 30,000 days. Moving every few steps advances the timer.</p>
<p align=center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/jrpg/mugen1-01.png" width=500></p>
<p align=justify>The game takes a lot of inspiration from <i>Ultima</i>, although like in <i>Poibos</i> the hero is merely a rectangle on a tiny window view of the map during overworld exploration. Another characteristic <i>Mugen no Shinzou</i> shares with <i>Poibos</i> is the fact that you won't survive most enemy encounters. At least the game starts next to a town, which is navigated in menu form. Resting in the inn to heal is fortunately quite cheap, but everything else is ridiculously expensive, resulting in the game's big similarity to <i>Dragon Quest</i>: It's basically just one huge, long, boring money grind.</p>
<p align=center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/jrpg/mugen1-03.png" width=500></p>
<p align=justify>The first enemy I was actually able to defeat was the above thief, but he poisoned me before he went down, and curing poison costs a lot, so I ended up spending more money than I earned on the fight. Which I soon learned is characteristic for most fights in this game.</p>
<p align=center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/jrpg/mugen1-04.png" width=500></p>
<p align=justify>Then I finally happened upon a peasant. Human characters usually don't attack you rightaway, and you can choose between three different attitudes when encountering them. It's also possible to flee or hide on sight, but doing so costs a few experience points. Experience points don't seem to do anything, though, so it's not too bad a deal. The peasants probably are the most friendly enemies, but killing them really is the only way to make any (very slow) progress. The drop shit for money, but are not too hard to defeat, and if you're really lucky you can get their sickle to sell in town for like 25 gold pieces.</p>
<p align=center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/jrpg/mugen1-10.png" width=500></p>
<p align=justify>So after heroically slaughtering peasants for a few hours I saved up some money to spend. The most important stop in the town is the hospital. Here you can heal the hero entirely (which costs 100 gold vs the 4 gold to heal 25 points in the inn, so it's only worth it much later as you start with a mere 100HP), cure poison for 20 gold or extend the maximum amount of HP by a few. The next town you get to when traveling west has a castle. Getting an audience with the king costs 500 gold, so I never met him, but you can train strength, agility and dexterity, but the amount you can learn here is limited. At least it makes enough difference so you can successful fight most human enemies.</p>
<p align=center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/jrpg/mugen1-08.png" width=500></p>
<p align=justify>You may save for better weapons or armor to get a bit stronger, but you'll soon find out that every piece of equipment is destructible, and especially armor is so expensive that you better get used to fighting most battles naked and unarmed, until you get lucky and capture an enemy's weapon. Luck is a huge part of things, anyway, as the random factor is much too high. You may defeat an enemy with ease, only to get hopelessly slaughtered in the next encounter with the same type. There's not much tactics to the fights, either, as you got only one guy who can either attack, change his gear or try to escape. There's a "spell" option during combat, too, but I never got far enough to learn any magic.</p>
<p align=center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/jrpg/mugen1-05.png" width=500></p>
<p align=justify>Don't ever run off the path, cause in the woods and mountains you're likely to get attacked by beasts, and they mean always trouble.</p>
<p align=justify>Sometimes when you're being nice to road encounters, they tell you some piece of information, usually the location of an interesting point of the map. I was directed to a poisonous well in the woods once, but usually the destination was a dungeon.</p>
<p align=center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/jrpg/mugen1-06.png" width=500></p>
<p align=justify>Entering here resulted in a pitch black graphics window, so I had to go back to town to buy a lamp and oil (at least there's no food management). This reveals a wireframe grid dungeon like in the early <i>Ultima</i> and <i>Wizardry</i> games. The tower I went into seemed rather huge, but had no distinguishing features other than a single trap right near the entrance, which just draws a lot of health when triggered. Apparently it's possible to get a map of the dungeons, but I never found one. The monsters here are quite a bit stronger than the human enemies outside (though nowhere near as destructive as the beasts in the wilderness), so usually after two or three fights I'm forced to back out. <i>Mugen no Shinzou</i> might be the most mechanically sound game I've played so far for this series, but the odds are still stacked far too heavily against the player. After 6-8 hours, I had just barely grinded my HP up to 200 and yet could barely make any money to get it up further.</p>
<p align=center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/jrpg/mugen1-07.png" width=500></p>
<p align=justify>Xtal Soft have to be lauded for the graphics, though. The world map view and wireframe dungeons may not be too special, but the game contains a ton of detailed enemy graphics. I hardly got anywhere in this game, and still met more than 20 different enemies.</p>
<p align=center>
<img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/jrpg/mugen1-monster01.png">
<img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/jrpg/mugen1-monster02.png">
<img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/jrpg/mugen1-monster03.png">
<img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/jrpg/mugen1-monster04.png">
<img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/jrpg/mugen1-monster05.png">
<img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/jrpg/mugen1-monster06.png">
<img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/jrpg/mugen1-monster07.png">
<img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/jrpg/mugen1-monster08.png">
<img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/jrpg/mugen1-monster09.png">
<img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/jrpg/mugen1-monster10.png">
<img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/jrpg/mugen1-monster11.png">
<img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/jrpg/mugen1-monster12.png">
<img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/jrpg/mugen1-monster13.png">
<img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/jrpg/mugen1-monster14.png">
<img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/jrpg/mugen1-monster15.png">
<img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/jrpg/mugen1-monster16.png">
<img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/jrpg/mugen1-monster17.png">
<img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/jrpg/mugen1-monster18.png">
<img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/jrpg/mugen1-monster19.png">
<img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/jrpg/mugen1-monster20.png">
<img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/jrpg/mugen1-monster21.png">
<img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/jrpg/mugen1-monster22.png">
</p>
<p align=justify>Here is a <a href="http://towerofretrogame.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-690.html" target="_blank">Japanese Blog</a> of a guy who actually managed to finish this game. You can see some more great monster graphics in some of the later posts.</p>
<p align=justify>Previous Episodes:<br>
<a href="http://blog.hardcoregaming101.net/2013/04/dark-age-of-jrpgs-dragon-princess-1982.html">(1) The Dragon and Princess</a><br>
<a href="http://blog.hardcoregaming101.net/2013/04/dark-age-of-jrpgs-2-some-games-we.html">(2) Some games we cannot play</a><br>
<a href="http://blog.hardcoregaming101.net/2013/04/dark-age-of-jrpgs-3-danchizuma-no.html">(3) Danchizuma no Yuuwaku</a> (NSFW)<br>
<a href="http://blog.hardcoregaming101.net/2013/05/dark-age-of-jrpgs-4-ken-to-mahou-sword.html">(4) Ken to Mahou</a><br>
<a href="http://blog.hardcoregaming101.net/2013/05/dark-age-of-jrpgs-5-dungeon-pc-80-pc-88.html">(5) Dungeon</a><br>
<a href="http://blog.hardcoregaming101.net/2013/05/dark-age-of-jrpgs-6-seiken-densetsu-pc.html">(6) Seiken Densetsu</a><br>
<a href="http://blog.hardcoregaming101.net/2013/06/dark-age-of-jrpgs-6-panorama-toh-pc-88.html">(7) Panorama Toh</a><br>
<a href="http://blog.hardcoregaming101.net/2014/01/dark-age-of-jrpgs-8-do-dutch-wives.html">(8) Do Dutch Wives Dream of Electric Eels</a> (NSFW)<br>
<a href="http://blog.hardcoregaming101.net/2014/05/dark-age-of-jrpgs-9-some-more-games-we.html">(9) Some more games we cannot play</a><br>
<a href="http://blog.hardcoregaming101.net/2014/05/dark-age-of-jrpgs-10-courageous-perseus.html">(10) Courageous Perseus</a><br>
</p>
</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7