It's an old message board, and the photos look like they are no longer hosted. But essentially, some users found that the overall speed of Super FX games were determined by a crystal oscillator inside the cartridge which vibrated at a certain frequency. By removing the stock oscillator and replacing it with one at a faster clock speed, you could speed up / smooth out the gameplay of Super FX games.
It was imperfect. It was impractical. And some games performed better than others. Myself, I have done the mod with several games, including Doom. It bumps the stock speed from 21mhz to 28 mhz - a whole 33% boost! Unfortunately, while it does make the game run smoother, it has the side effect of increasing the speed of EVERYTHING - enemy animations, enemy response times, death animations, etc.
Effectively, it turns the game into a sort of Nightmare difficulty regardless of how hard you set it from the get-go. As soon as you see an enemy, they're already shooting and running up on you at alarming speed. But it is fun to see it in motion.
The game with the best results, though? Stunt Race! Not only is the game much smoother than with the stock cart, the increase in speed DOES NOT affect the UI or the in-game timer. Which means you will completely obliterate your old times, and rarely be in a position where you are running out of time while racing.
Inadvertently, it's sort of like activating a permanent cheat mode. But for the sake of seeing Stunt Race being much more playable, I think it's a fair trade ^_^
@ShawnsterOZ "...the younger Tik-Tok generation, the rest of us oldies barely can understand what they are talking about..."
A feeling I know all too well ^_^
I haven't made it out to WA - yet. Alice Springs was as far West as I got. I had a nice time there (on a research trip, monitoring air quality) though some of my colleagues were a bit sketched-out by the rowdy after-dark crowd and the poor hanging around the street corners. Me, it just reminded me of life here on the West Coast of the US!
I had a gentleman at a cassowary sanctuary in Mission Beach say some kind things about Oregon, where I currently live. In his own words, he told me that, if he ever visited the US - which was "looking less and less likely with each passing day," he would like to see the forests we have here on the coast. I told him I couldn't blame him for staying away - I barely wanted to go back home, as it were!
Nice chatting with you! I'd say more, but I think I'd just be getting more and more off-topic. I never thought I'd be having this sort of chat following an article related to Daytona USA, of all things...
Guns, ammo, AND stacks of cash?? Just when I thought this game couldn't possibly be more American than it already was
Honestly, I would have expected this sort of thing to happen in the ACTUAL Daytona, Florida. But Australia??
@ShawnsterOZ I've spent some time in AUS over the years, and I had a local in Brisbane give me a little food for thought on my last trip. More or less, he said that Australians love to make fun of all the silly things we do here in the US, but two weeks later, they're doing the same thing down under, too. Like, they love to laugh at Americans, but also can't help acting just like them. I know this isn't universal to everyone, but it did give me something to think about.
Yes, I'm American, but I also feel like I'm one of the rare ones that can actually take a step back and laugh at ourselves, these days...
"...the subject never matters, if you can't get them invested."
Very much, this. While I am not an educator, my mother was for many years. Having to adapt to the different generations and make a curriculum that appeals to them is an extraordinary challenge.
Really, the title of this article could have just as well read, "The Challenge Of Teaching [Anything] In The Age Of Minecraft, Netflix And ChatGPT."
Didn't NintendoLife post almost this exact same article??
I'll post here what I posted there: I played this for an hour or so the night it released, and had a nice time with it. The only changes I noticed from the N64 game were positives - it was much sharper and clearer than before, with a much smoother framerate. And the widescreen mode works well, without any noticeable stretching or distortion.
Myself, I found the N64 version difficult to play back in the day due to its choppiness. Looking back, this was pretty common with games that used the Expansion Pak and a so-called "Hi-Res" mode. Hybrid Heaven and Command & Conquer come to mind, too. For those games, I played them without enabling the high resolution options, and found they still looked great and played pretty well in their "Low-Res" modes.
I've played the XBLA / Rare Replay version of PD, and yes, it is better than this one. But what we have on Switch, in my opinion, is something I'd rather play than the choppy N64 version.
( Though, to be fair, I'd much rather play GoldenEye, any day ^_^ )
I recently bought one of their Resident Evil sets. The actual LPs were fine (which is what really matters!) but the packaging was so cheap. The inner sleeves had seam splits along every edge, while the outer slipcase was made of a thin, flimsy paper instead of the thicker stock you usually see used for record jackets. It failed to hold its shape over time, and also tore easily, even with careful handling. Looking at this set, it seems it will use a similar slipcase design.
That, and Laced releases rarely sell out in my experiences, and can usually be found at local shops after release. Might be best to wait this one out.
Also, is anyone else disappointed that none of the MGSV tracks feature any of the licensed songs from the game? That was my favorite feature, finding all the random cassette tapes and making a playlist for Snake's Walkman, which you could listen to as you carried out missions.
I also feel Konami missed a golden opportunity to produce an actual retail cassette featuring those songs, much like Disney did for Peter's mixtape from Guardians of the Galaxy. Then again, Konami and missed opportunities kind of go hand-in-hand these days...
I don't have much of a gaming collection, but one of my prized possessions is the twin stick controller for the Sega Saturn. Loved V-On in the arcades, loved it at home on the Saturn, and couldn't pass up the opportunity to have the arcade controller once I finally saw it for a fair price.
Few games support it, but V-On does, and that's all that matters!
I do miss being able to play it in arcades / movie theaters. That being said, I'm not sure a trip to Japan is in the cards anytime soon. But a guy can dream...
@XiaoShao They have my sympathies, as well. To an extent.
In my own experience, the 3DO is a notoriously fickle system. The running joke is, finding a 3DO is easy - it's finding a working one that's a challenge!
I think the most practical solution would have been to send their customers both discs - the professionally-produced ones, and the CD-R versions. Give the customers a note explaining that there may be issues playing the legit disc, and they are providing a CD-R as a fallback option. Let their customers choose which disc to play, or find out for themselves whether or not their console is compatible with the LRG discs.
But they didn't do this. Customers were not notified of the compatibility issues in advance, and LRG did not release a statement about it until after people had received their orders and started to complain. It was a bad look for them, as they were obviously aware of the compatibility issues, yet chose not to say anything.
I'm happy with their apology, and I hope they do learn from this issue. But I feel like much of the online outrage could have been avoided if they had just gotten in front of this in the first place, and let people know about it before the orders were being shipped. As it played out, it felt like a bait-and-switch.
LRG's Special Edition PC release of the Command & Conquer Remastered Collection also came without an actual game disc - just a Steam code in the box.
"Forever Physical." Sure. You may not get an actual hard copy of the game, but hey, at least you get some knick-knacky crap like posters and lapel pins!
The best way to fix LRG? Stop buying from them. Give your money to another company that does it right. If LRG starts noticeably losing business, maybe they'll start putting more effort into the items they produce.
(Or, you know, maybe Embracer will shut them down completely. Who can say for sure??)
If you want to support the developers of indie titles, back their crowdfunding campaigns and buy their games digitally. Heck, buy several digital copies on multiple storefronts, if you're so inclined!
Giving your money to LRG is not the best way to support the developer. Never has been. This is a company that thought it was more important to produce skateboards for Plumbers Don't Wear Ties than it was to produce an actual game disc that wasn't on a CD-R. If that doesn't say it all, I don't know what else would...
Nice to see the prompt apology - and the offer to refund those affected.
This whole experience does highlight the difficulty in attempting to create new items for vintage hardware. Old disc-based consoles and computers are fickle, and sometimes struggle to read even legitimate discs in pristine condition. My Sega CD, for example, reads lightweight "see-through" CD-Rs like a champ! But with retail SCD discs - or music CDs - it's a real toss-up. I often leave my retail SCD games on the shelf and play only CD-R backups, as I know they'll work without issue.
Still, I doubt anyone who ordered one of these LRG 3DO games expected to receive a CD-R in the mail. At the very least, LRG should have let its customers know there were manufacturing issues up-front, and offered buyers the chance to cancel their orders at that time. Again, while the apology is welcomed, them keeping their customers in the dark is not.
On a side note, the Christa Lee chimed in on this, in one of the article's X screenshots?? I feel like that's at least worth a mention, if nothing else ^_^
Please forgive my forthcoming art critique! But as a former Fine Art major - with a concentration in sculpture and 3D design - this sort of project is my favorite thing to digest and examine ^_^
To start, it would probably be more accurate for the author to say, "I had one made," instead of, "I made my own." But I do appreciate how everyone involved in the project got a shout-out in the article, at least! Sometimes it can be difficult to give proper credit.
The gold paint does indeed look wonderful, but the Sega logo at the base seems like it got the short end of the stick. I can't understand why the "S" has a sort of black highlight line inside the lettering, while the rest of the letters do not. The real trophy appears to have had the Sega logo painted exclusively in blue and white - why would a black line be added? It also appears that the linework in the Sega logo is not consistent, with the "S" having a thinner inner line than the rest of the colors. This could have been a fault in the original 3D model, and I can honestly imagine these inconsistencies would have been a nightmare to paint...
All in all, though, a well-done project, and a very successful end result. The scale appears much smaller than the real thing, but that's OK. Makes me wonder of McLaren, Sega, or the original sculptor would consider selling licensed miniature versions of their own? I mean, who wouldn't love to have one of these??
No only do I remember the Virtual Games Station, I even bought it for my iMac back in the day - and still own it
PC gamers from that era may remember a similar product called Bleem, which was likewise sued out of existence by Sony. I think both cases were similarly settled, but in the case of Bleem, it left the company bankrupt. I doubt Connectix was in a much better position after their own legal battles.
Connectix also had a killer product called Virtual PC, which let you install Windows on your Mac and run it in real time alongside the Mac OS. That same iMac with the VGS also had Windows 98 installed within Mac OS 9. Such a versatile machine, and the emulation with both Connectix products was more than satisfactory at the time.
The rights to Virtual PC were later bought out by Microsoft, who proceeded to release their own brand of the product. Imagine that.
Thanks for posting this article. Going off the first sentence, I've gotten quite the chuckle out of the online community's response to Nintendo's recent actions towards emulators. Dunk on them all you want, but if you assume Sony or Microsoft has never done anything similar in their company history, well...
As someone who's had an eBay storefront for over 20 years - and one that focuses on videogames, at that - I can certainly relate to this situation. But I can honestly say that, in all that time, I have never once canceled a sale because I felt the item I had listed didn't sell for enough, or didn't fetch what it was "worth."
I often list items with the Buy It Now option. And like the person in the article, I, too, have had listings snatched up within minutes of going live. Does it make me feel like I could have asked for more? Certainly. But it also makes me feel like the buyer got a great deal. Transactions like this have been some of my most positive interactions on the site, as few things are more heartwarming than hearing from a buyer that is absolutely thrilled with their purchase!
And me? I got the price I asked for, so I'm happy with the sale, either way ^_^
It's a free-market system. If the seller was unsure what their game was worth - yet was determined to sell it on eBay - then they should have listed it as an auction, and let their potential buyers determine the sale price. On the flipside, if they were using the Buy It Now option, then the price they listed it for should have been a price they were willing to accept. Period.
Yes, eBay has rules, but they are rarely enforced. At worst, this seller may have gotten a negative feedback score. Even if their account had gotten canceled over this incident, what would they care - they're selling it though a different outlet, and laughing all the way to the bank!
I'm not sure what the seller here was hoping to achieve through "going public" with this story. Maybe they're just looking to drum-up hype for their upcoming auction, but honestly, all it does is cast them in a less-than-favorable light. Who's to say they might not try and back out of their next auction, too, if the final price doesn't fetch as much as they would have liked??
I almost exclusively play games to re-connect to my past.
There's a few reasons for this. Biggest of all is that I've had multiple concussions and other head injuries over the years, and struggle greatly with memory loss despite my sub-40 age. Playing games from my youth can not only remind me of the game, itself, but also a time period that I may have lost to brain damage. I may only get sensations or hints of being there, but the games do a fantastic job of reminding me of a time that my brain had essentially blacked-out.
Another reason is, I like to prove to myself that I've still "got it!" We all have games that we feel we can beat blindfolded. Off the top of my head, I have the original NES Metroid, Mega Man 3, UN Squadron, Doom, and TMNT Hyperstone Heist. Being able to pick them up after several years and slam through them in one sitting is my way of reminding myself that my reflexes haven't slipped too badly, or that there are certain lasting mental impressions that still exist - and strongly.
We all play for different reasons. Those are mine. I don't usually comment, but I thought I would share that little bit with the community.
Comments 18
Re: Star Fox Will Take Advantage Of The New Super FX 3 Chip, Will Feature Rumble Support
@LadyCharlie You may be interested in what some of us oldheads were doing about a decade ago:
https://archive.nes.science/nintendoage-forums/nintendoage.com/forum/messageview12b8.html?catid=22&threadid=100516
It's an old message board, and the photos look like they are no longer hosted. But essentially, some users found that the overall speed of Super FX games were determined by a crystal oscillator inside the cartridge which vibrated at a certain frequency. By removing the stock oscillator and replacing it with one at a faster clock speed, you could speed up / smooth out the gameplay of Super FX games.
It was imperfect. It was impractical. And some games performed better than others. Myself, I have done the mod with several games, including Doom. It bumps the stock speed from 21mhz to 28 mhz - a whole 33% boost! Unfortunately, while it does make the game run smoother, it has the side effect of increasing the speed of EVERYTHING - enemy animations, enemy response times, death animations, etc.
Effectively, it turns the game into a sort of Nightmare difficulty regardless of how hard you set it from the get-go. As soon as you see an enemy, they're already shooting and running up on you at alarming speed. But it is fun to see it in motion.
The game with the best results, though? Stunt Race! Not only is the game much smoother than with the stock cart, the increase in speed DOES NOT affect the UI or the in-game timer. Which means you will completely obliterate your old times, and rarely be in a position where you are running out of time while racing.
Inadvertently, it's sort of like activating a permanent cheat mode. But for the sake of seeing Stunt Race being much more playable, I think it's a fair trade ^_^
Re: Random: This Daytona USA Cabinet Is Hiding A Sinister Secret
@ShawnsterOZ "...the younger Tik-Tok generation, the rest of us oldies barely can understand what they are talking about..."
A feeling I know all too well ^_^
I haven't made it out to WA - yet. Alice Springs was as far West as I got. I had a nice time there (on a research trip, monitoring air quality) though some of my colleagues were a bit sketched-out by the rowdy after-dark crowd and the poor hanging around the street corners. Me, it just reminded me of life here on the West Coast of the US!
I had a gentleman at a cassowary sanctuary in Mission Beach say some kind things about Oregon, where I currently live. In his own words, he told me that, if he ever visited the US - which was "looking less and less likely with each passing day," he would like to see the forests we have here on the coast. I told him I couldn't blame him for staying away - I barely wanted to go back home, as it were!
Nice chatting with you! I'd say more, but I think I'd just be getting more and more off-topic. I never thought I'd be having this sort of chat following an article related to Daytona USA, of all things...
Re: Random: This Daytona USA Cabinet Is Hiding A Sinister Secret
Guns, ammo, AND stacks of cash?? Just when I thought this game couldn't possibly be more American than it already was
Honestly, I would have expected this sort of thing to happen in the ACTUAL Daytona, Florida. But Australia??
@ShawnsterOZ I've spent some time in AUS over the years, and I had a local in Brisbane give me a little food for thought on my last trip. More or less, he said that Australians love to make fun of all the silly things we do here in the US, but two weeks later, they're doing the same thing down under, too. Like, they love to laugh at Americans, but also can't help acting just like them. I know this isn't universal to everyone, but it did give me something to think about.
Yes, I'm American, but I also feel like I'm one of the rare ones that can actually take a step back and laugh at ourselves, these days...
Re: The Challenge Of Teaching Game History In The Age Of Minecraft, Netflix And ChatGPT
"...the subject never matters, if you can't get them invested."
Very much, this. While I am not an educator, my mother was for many years. Having to adapt to the different generations and make a curriculum that appeals to them is an extraordinary challenge.
Really, the title of this article could have just as well read, "The Challenge Of Teaching [Anything] In The Age Of Minecraft, Netflix And ChatGPT."
Re: The "Worst PlayStation RPG Ever" Has Just Got A Fan Translation
An article on the worst PlayStation RPG ever? And it's not about Beyond The Beyond??
Re: Random: Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night's Most Useless Item Is Also Its Funniest
I always liked the "cool-looking sunglasses," which decreased your INT stat by a point when equipped >.<
Re: F-Zero On Game Boy Color? This Might Be The Closest We Get
The GBC Road Rash totally eats this game's lunch.
Re: "It's The Worst" - Perfect Dark Expert Delivers Withering Verdict Of Nintendo Switch Port
Didn't NintendoLife post almost this exact same article??
I'll post here what I posted there: I played this for an hour or so the night it released, and had a nice time with it. The only changes I noticed from the N64 game were positives - it was much sharper and clearer than before, with a much smoother framerate. And the widescreen mode works well, without any noticeable stretching or distortion.
Myself, I found the N64 version difficult to play back in the day due to its choppiness. Looking back, this was pretty common with games that used the Expansion Pak and a so-called "Hi-Res" mode. Hybrid Heaven and Command & Conquer come to mind, too. For those games, I played them without enabling the high resolution options, and found they still looked great and played pretty well in their "Low-Res" modes.
I've played the XBLA / Rare Replay version of PD, and yes, it is better than this one. But what we have on Switch, in my opinion, is something I'd rather play than the choppy N64 version.
( Though, to be fair, I'd much rather play GoldenEye, any day ^_^ )
Re: New 6LP Metal Gear Solid: The Vinyl Collection Celebrates The Series's Music
Be careful buying anything from Laced Records.
I recently bought one of their Resident Evil sets. The actual LPs were fine (which is what really matters!) but the packaging was so cheap. The inner sleeves had seam splits along every edge, while the outer slipcase was made of a thin, flimsy paper instead of the thicker stock you usually see used for record jackets. It failed to hold its shape over time, and also tore easily, even with careful handling. Looking at this set, it seems it will use a similar slipcase design.
That, and Laced releases rarely sell out in my experiences, and can usually be found at local shops after release. Might be best to wait this one out.
Also, is anyone else disappointed that none of the MGSV tracks feature any of the licensed songs from the game? That was my favorite feature, finding all the random cassette tapes and making a playlist for Snake's Walkman, which you could listen to as you carried out missions.
I also feel Konami missed a golden opportunity to produce an actual retail cassette featuring those songs, much like Disney did for Peter's mixtape from Guardians of the Galaxy. Then again, Konami and missed opportunities kind of go hand-in-hand these days...
Re: Japan's "Virtual On" Community Finally Has A Brand New Home
Grud Almighty, do I love me some Virtual-On
I don't have much of a gaming collection, but one of my prized possessions is the twin stick controller for the Sega Saturn. Loved V-On in the arcades, loved it at home on the Saturn, and couldn't pass up the opportunity to have the arcade controller once I finally saw it for a fair price.
Few games support it, but V-On does, and that's all that matters!
I do miss being able to play it in arcades / movie theaters. That being said, I'm not sure a trip to Japan is in the cards anytime soon. But a guy can dream...
Re: Soapbox: The Trouble With Limited Run Games, And How To Fix It
@XiaoShao They have my sympathies, as well. To an extent.
In my own experience, the 3DO is a notoriously fickle system. The running joke is, finding a 3DO is easy - it's finding a working one that's a challenge!
I think the most practical solution would have been to send their customers both discs - the professionally-produced ones, and the CD-R versions. Give the customers a note explaining that there may be issues playing the legit disc, and they are providing a CD-R as a fallback option. Let their customers choose which disc to play, or find out for themselves whether or not their console is compatible with the LRG discs.
But they didn't do this. Customers were not notified of the compatibility issues in advance, and LRG did not release a statement about it until after people had received their orders and started to complain. It was a bad look for them, as they were obviously aware of the compatibility issues, yet chose not to say anything.
I'm happy with their apology, and I hope they do learn from this issue. But I feel like much of the online outrage could have been avoided if they had just gotten in front of this in the first place, and let people know about it before the orders were being shipped. As it played out, it felt like a bait-and-switch.
Re: Soapbox: The Trouble With Limited Run Games, And How To Fix It
@N64-ROX Yes. It was in their official statement on the matter:
https://www.timeextension.com/news/2024/05/limited-run-games-apologises-for-shipping-3do-games-on-cd-rs
Re: Soapbox: The Trouble With Limited Run Games, And How To Fix It
LRG's Special Edition PC release of the Command & Conquer Remastered Collection also came without an actual game disc - just a Steam code in the box.
"Forever Physical." Sure. You may not get an actual hard copy of the game, but hey, at least you get some knick-knacky crap like posters and lapel pins!
The best way to fix LRG? Stop buying from them. Give your money to another company that does it right. If LRG starts noticeably losing business, maybe they'll start putting more effort into the items they produce.
(Or, you know, maybe Embracer will shut them down completely. Who can say for sure??)
If you want to support the developers of indie titles, back their crowdfunding campaigns and buy their games digitally. Heck, buy several digital copies on multiple storefronts, if you're so inclined!
Giving your money to LRG is not the best way to support the developer. Never has been. This is a company that thought it was more important to produce skateboards for Plumbers Don't Wear Ties than it was to produce an actual game disc that wasn't on a CD-R. If that doesn't say it all, I don't know what else would...
Re: Limited Run Games Apologises For Shipping 3DO Games On CD-Rs
Nice to see the prompt apology - and the offer to refund those affected.
This whole experience does highlight the difficulty in attempting to create new items for vintage hardware. Old disc-based consoles and computers are fickle, and sometimes struggle to read even legitimate discs in pristine condition. My Sega CD, for example, reads lightweight "see-through" CD-Rs like a champ! But with retail SCD discs - or music CDs - it's a real toss-up. I often leave my retail SCD games on the shelf and play only CD-R backups, as I know they'll work without issue.
Still, I doubt anyone who ordered one of these LRG 3DO games expected to receive a CD-R in the mail. At the very least, LRG should have let its customers know there were manufacturing issues up-front, and offered buyers the chance to cancel their orders at that time. Again, while the apology is welcomed, them keeping their customers in the dark is not.
On a side note, the Christa Lee chimed in on this, in one of the article's X screenshots?? I feel like that's at least worth a mention, if nothing else ^_^
Re: I Wanted F1 Legend Ayrton Senna's Sonic Trophy So Bad That I Made My Own
Please forgive my forthcoming art critique! But as a former Fine Art major - with a concentration in sculpture and 3D design - this sort of project is my favorite thing to digest and examine ^_^
To start, it would probably be more accurate for the author to say, "I had one made," instead of, "I made my own." But I do appreciate how everyone involved in the project got a shout-out in the article, at least! Sometimes it can be difficult to give proper credit.
The gold paint does indeed look wonderful, but the Sega logo at the base seems like it got the short end of the stick. I can't understand why the "S" has a sort of black highlight line inside the lettering, while the rest of the letters do not. The real trophy appears to have had the Sega logo painted exclusively in blue and white - why would a black line be added? It also appears that the linework in the Sega logo is not consistent, with the "S" having a thinner inner line than the rest of the colors. This could have been a fault in the original 3D model, and I can honestly imagine these inconsistencies would have been a nightmare to paint...
All in all, though, a well-done project, and a very successful end result. The scale appears much smaller than the real thing, but that's OK. Makes me wonder of McLaren, Sega, or the original sculptor would consider selling licensed miniature versions of their own? I mean, who wouldn't love to have one of these??
Re: Remember When Steve Jobs Promoted PS1 Emulation On National TV?
No only do I remember the Virtual Games Station, I even bought it for my iMac back in the day - and still own it
PC gamers from that era may remember a similar product called Bleem, which was likewise sued out of existence by Sony. I think both cases were similarly settled, but in the case of Bleem, it left the company bankrupt. I doubt Connectix was in a much better position after their own legal battles.
Connectix also had a killer product called Virtual PC, which let you install Windows on your Mac and run it in real time alongside the Mac OS. That same iMac with the VGS also had Windows 98 installed within Mac OS 9. Such a versatile machine, and the emulation with both Connectix products was more than satisfactory at the time.
The rights to Virtual PC were later bought out by Microsoft, who proceeded to release their own brand of the product. Imagine that.
Thanks for posting this article. Going off the first sentence, I've gotten quite the chuckle out of the online community's response to Nintendo's recent actions towards emulators. Dunk on them all you want, but if you assume Sony or Microsoft has never done anything similar in their company history, well...
Re: "Holy Grail" NES Zelda Worth $700,000 Was Almost Sold For $17,000
As someone who's had an eBay storefront for over 20 years - and one that focuses on videogames, at that - I can certainly relate to this situation. But I can honestly say that, in all that time, I have never once canceled a sale because I felt the item I had listed didn't sell for enough, or didn't fetch what it was "worth."
I often list items with the Buy It Now option. And like the person in the article, I, too, have had listings snatched up within minutes of going live. Does it make me feel like I could have asked for more? Certainly. But it also makes me feel like the buyer got a great deal. Transactions like this have been some of my most positive interactions on the site, as few things are more heartwarming than hearing from a buyer that is absolutely thrilled with their purchase!
And me? I got the price I asked for, so I'm happy with the sale, either way ^_^
It's a free-market system. If the seller was unsure what their game was worth - yet was determined to sell it on eBay - then they should have listed it as an auction, and let their potential buyers determine the sale price. On the flipside, if they were using the Buy It Now option, then the price they listed it for should have been a price they were willing to accept. Period.
Yes, eBay has rules, but they are rarely enforced. At worst, this seller may have gotten a negative feedback score. Even if their account had gotten canceled over this incident, what would they care - they're selling it though a different outlet, and laughing all the way to the bank!
I'm not sure what the seller here was hoping to achieve through "going public" with this story. Maybe they're just looking to drum-up hype for their upcoming auction, but honestly, all it does is cast them in a less-than-favorable light. Who's to say they might not try and back out of their next auction, too, if the final price doesn't fetch as much as they would have liked??
Re: Going Back In Time - Do You Play Retro Games To Reconnect With Your Past?
I almost exclusively play games to re-connect to my past.
There's a few reasons for this. Biggest of all is that I've had multiple concussions and other head injuries over the years, and struggle greatly with memory loss despite my sub-40 age. Playing games from my youth can not only remind me of the game, itself, but also a time period that I may have lost to brain damage. I may only get sensations or hints of being there, but the games do a fantastic job of reminding me of a time that my brain had essentially blacked-out.
Another reason is, I like to prove to myself that I've still "got it!" We all have games that we feel we can beat blindfolded. Off the top of my head, I have the original NES Metroid, Mega Man 3, UN Squadron, Doom, and TMNT Hyperstone Heist. Being able to pick them up after several years and slam through them in one sitting is my way of reminding myself that my reflexes haven't slipped too badly, or that there are certain lasting mental impressions that still exist - and strongly.
We all play for different reasons. Those are mine. I don't usually comment, but I thought I would share that little bit with the community.
Be well, everyone!