OBEY

Yes. This is a 150 cm tall cardboard standee of 0ur master Segata Sanshiro. Please do not ask what I had to pay for it, because it was quite much. But money is nothing when it comes to Segata Sanshiro. If he calls, I'll pay. No matter how much.

I have nothing more to say.

A long Time Coming

Wow, the posts certainly have dried up this week, every one must be glued to their TV's playing RE5 or something.....I know I am.

Anyways, a little while ago I said that I would write a short article about my history with Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter. Well, I finally decided to stop procrastinating......

I'm a huge Street Fighter fan, I've probably spent enough money in the arcades over the years playing SFII to actually buy a SFII arcade cabinet...I'm talking about a shit load of quarters. After playing the World Warrior, Championship, Hyper, and Super versions of SFII, the transition to the Alpha series was a little it weird. At first I thought the anime style graphics were too different, and being able to counter, air-block, pull of multiple super moves, etc. was all just a bit too much for me....at first anyways. I picked up "Warriors Dreams" in '96 for the Saturn and played it..a lot. By 1997 I was into other Saturn Games like Resident Evil and Tomb Raider, and basically stopped following the SF series.

In 1998 I started university, and lucky for me, there was a half-decent arcade on campus. There were some pretty good games like Tekken 3, Virtual On, Virtua Striker, King of Fighters '97, and Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter. I had seen X-Men vs. Street Fighter in arcades a year or so earlier, and never really thought much of it. I would say that I am a purist when it comes to a number of different things, and this was no different for the Street Fighter series. So to see non-SF characters fighting in a SF game.....well, you get the idea. After passing by the machine a few times I decided to give it a try. "Welcome to the adventure" the voice said. I have to say it took me a while to get used to the play mechanics of the game; tag team style play, super jump, fire balls in the air, cross-over combos etc., etc. After a few weeks of play I had become accustom to the new style and found it very entertaining. Like....holy fuck...70 hit combos...hell yeah. I love to see Spiderman take a fireball up the ass from Ryu & Akuma at the same time. Anyways, I really started to enjoy the play mechanics and overall feel of the game. My fondness grew, and grew, and grew......."damn I totally love this game".

It was a long walk up a very long hill from the dorm rooms to the arcade, but sometimes I found myself, alone , in the arcade at 1:00am (since the arcade was on campus, it was accessible 24h/day)....in my pajamas none the less. I would consistently make the night-trek to the arcade, in all types of weather just to have a few plays. There was something very serene about being in the lone, quite arcade, all by myself rocking fireballs and shoyou-reppa uppercuts. My friends would ask me where I was going, and thought that it was a bit weird that I would want to play this game when every one else was sleeping, but maybe that's what made it special.

After a while, I decided that I had to have this game at home. Lucky for me, it was available as an import for the Saturn, but the cost (I was a starving student at the time remember), was too much, and I was unable to procure the precious game. Knowing that it was out there, but I couldn't have it just added to the pain!

Time passed, and eventually the game was removed from the arcade, and eventually the arcade left as well. I had sold my Saturn, but I would never forget about the time I spent with MSH vs. SF. I purchased Marvel vs. Capcom for DC, but the game just didn't have the same 'feel', and I was still left longing for MSH vs. SF. Basically every other 2D fighting game I played since that time I compared to this game....and all left me feeling kind of empty inside.

Present day: I decide to rebuild my Saturn collection and finally get a copy of MSH vs. SF........HELL FUCKIN" YEAH. 12 years old, and this game still kicks major ass. The first time I popped it in and watched the start up screen I had a huge smile on my face, and felt so giddy...all of those good old memories rushing back. It still amazes me that the Saturn can rock such an awesome 2D game. It was a long wait, but well worth it! On a side note, I did pick up X-Men vs. SF as well, and that is a truly awesome game too (see my earlier post about that title). I'm a huge fan of SFII, the Alpha series, SFIII, and Capcom vs. SNK, but MSH vs. SF will always hold a very special place in my game library. I think I'm going to play a few matches right now.

GLRC- Daytona

A gift from the heavens

There I was, coming back home after a hard day at college (ok, I only had a two hour class, English, but it was still a pain to get up early and drive all the way to Aveiro and back...), when I notice something in front of my door. Nothing less than a big-ass package with my address written all over it (literally, it was written with a marker in giant letters). This could only be one thing: a package from our own dear Simon Early, known in teh interwebs as Father Krishna! Oh boy, was I excited about opening it up! :D


I didn't really know what to expect, although I always thought it would be only one thing. Was I in for a surprise... there was not just one thing inside, nor two, but four!!! Four gifts for me!!! :O



There was a black Dreamcast VMU, which may be something ordinary for most Dreamcast fans, but for me it's a life saver, since I (laugh all you want) only had one! Imagine my pain everytime I had to delete a saved game to make space for another... Now that wont happen again so soon!

Also for the Dreamcast there was a game, but not just any game. We're talking about the revolutionary Seaman! Oddly enough there was no actual game in there, don't know it that was the point or not, but anyway, the game I can easily download and burn. The case and manual on the other hand are more difficult to come up with.

Now, for the Saturn, there were two Japanese treats in there. One was that little hidden gem called Burning Rangers, which I've never played before, despite J saying such good things about it. There final, and most awesome of gifts, was...

*suspense*

*no suspense, since the video above already spoiled it...*

A sealed Japanese copy of Christmas NiGHTS!!! OMFG!!! O_O That's, like, the dream of every Saturn fan to have something like that! OMG! I don't know what to say, Father, thank you so much for everything! You're the man! :D

Swap, Shock & Rock

What a wonderful Saturnalia! I had such a good time reading every one's posts.....so much good stuff....and here's the first post of March.......

I'm not a big fan of downloading back-ups of games, but when certain titles are very hard to come by, sell for exorbitant prices, or if you just know they will suck, and you're going to toss the disc after a single play, then I don't feel too bad. If I have the option to purchase a real game I will do so. As many of you know I've been rebuilding my Saturn collection as of late, and even though I don't have all of the original titles that I once did, I now think I have a better overall library of games. I've been wanting to pick up some of the more sought after Saturn games (i.e. Radiant Silvergun, Panzer Dragoon Saga, and Guardian Heroes), but man are they expensive. No doubt I will one day buy them, but right now I just have to wait for that day. I've never actually played any of these games, although I do have Panzer I & II, and Ikaruga for Dreamcast (basically Radiant Silvergun pt. 2), and I'm a huge fan of 2D Beat 'em Ups....so I know that I would enjoy Guardian Heroes just from the videos I've seen, and reviews that I've read.

SWAP:
So anyways, back in the day I got pretty involved in the Dreamcast backup scene....again, to supplement my DC library with the games that I just couldn't find or couldn't afford to buy. But I've never played around with backups for the SS. Neither of my SS are moded. I do have the Action Replay to play imports, but that's it. A while ago I tried the swap trick but didn't have too much luck there either. I really wanted to play Guardian Heroes, and after a few visited web pages I was able to find a working copy (or so it claimed). Thanks to my knowledge with the DC back-ups, burning a working Saturn disc wasn't too difficult. I then decided to give the swap trick another try........and what do you know.............success!

SHOCK:
You have to open up your Saturn in order for the swap trick to work. A little bit of tape needs to be applied to the button that tells the Saturn that the disc cover is closed. Now, I haven't done too much work with electric devices, but the one thing I know is that you should unplug electric things before you take them apart. And yes, you know what happend next......of course I didn't unplug the system and my hand fully grazed the back of the mother board while it was not only plugged in, but turned on as well...damn I'm a loser. We'll I'm just glad that I didn't ruin anything, at least that I know of. I did get a pretty nasty shock, and the back of the circuits pocked my hand too.....not fun.

ROCK:
After all was said and done, I have been rocking Guardian Heroes.......hard. It's truly amazing that a game like this was around more than 10 years ago. I'm already tracking some legit copies on eBay, and I can't wait until I actually get my hand on one. The graphics and gameplay (for a 2D fighting game) are better than anything I have seen on recent consoles, with the only exception being Princess Crown & Odin Sphere. I'll definitely be spending some quality time with this gem.

Again, let me emphasize that I don't really condone back-ups...but I suppose that I'm a hypocrite for doing so anyways. But if it's the only way to play some of these hard to find games, then so be it. But until I can acquire the legit copies, I'm going to have to feel just a little bit dirty every time I put a CD-R in my Saturn.