Older: October 2006
Newer: December 2006

Genesis on Virtual Console

Tuesday, November 28, 2006 »

wiiii

So another two Genesis games (Golden Axe and Ecco the Dolphin) hit the Virtual Console today. I would be tempted to get both of those (plus Sonic, previously available), but I recently noticed that Sega released a $20 compilation of old games for the PS2 earlier this month. Here's how it compares to the scheduled Genesis VC lineup:

Sega Genesis CollectionVirtual Console
Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle
Altered BeastAltered Beast
Bonanza Bros.
ColumnsColumns
Comix Zone
Decap Attack
Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
Ecco the DolphinEcco the Dolphin
Ecco: The Tides of Time
Ecco Jr.
Flicky
Gain Ground
Golden AxeGolden Axe
Golden Axe II
Golden Axe III
Gunstar Heroes
Kid Chameleon
Phantasy Star II
Phantasy Star III
Phantasy Star IV
RistarRistar
Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi  
Shinobi III
Sonic the HedgehogSonic the Hedgehog
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Space Harrier II
Super Thunder Blade
Sword of Vermilion
ToeJam & Earl
Vectorman
Vectorman 2
Virtua Fighter 2


Sort of disappointing that Gunstar Heroes and ToeJam and Earl aren't on the disc, but I guess Sega wouldn't want to make their Virtual Console offerings completely obsolete.

Also, mofoing Bonanza Bros.!! William, you are invited over to my house after school.

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Excite Truck!!!!!!!

Tuesday, November 28, 2006 »

SUPER TRUCK SMASH

Excite Truck may be the best racing game I've played. It's incredible. You pick one of many sprawling, offroad courses, choose a truck with a ridiculous name like Dominator or (my favorite) Rad, and then drive at like 869105135 MPH, literally flying over hills and trying not to crash into too many things. And half the time your truck is on fire!

It has pretty much killed the Burnout series for me. Excite Truck may not be as pretty, but hey, you know what happens when you try to cram in a ton of photo-realistic textures: heinous load times between every race. And what? I can listen to my own music instead of the completely awful EA TRAX? I am so there. (So is Hotei.)

The difficulty level has been pretty good so far. I just unlocked Super Excite difficulty, so we'll see if it ramps up significantly. There have been a few tracks I've had to replay many times in order to get an S ranking, but whereas in other racers it would be like, oh great, time to try to drive that one again but try to crash into one fewer wall, with Excite Truck it's more like, oh boy, I get to do the drawbridge launch/oil tanker jump/tornado dodge again! YAY, EXCITE TRUCK!

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How to connect to the Wii Shop Channel

Monday, November 27, 2006 »

The Shop Channel has been the only negative aspect of my Wii experience over the last week (besides not being able to find another nunchuk). Usually when I try to load it up, it would get to the "connecting..." screen and just hang, often for five minutes or more. Since you can't hit the home button to return to the menu, I'd usually just pull the plug at that point, which was very painful for me to do to a brand new console. Even when I was able to connect, it'd wait at the same screen for about a minute. I figured Nintendo's servers were just overloaded, as I seemed to have more luck connecting late at night.

However, I just read on Digg that people have better success when they switch their router's wireless channel from 6 (The default in most cases, I guess? Mine was on 6.) to either 1 or 11. I'm not sure if it matters if it's 1 or 11 specifically, or just a channel besides 6, but I switched mine over and now the shop loads in 20 seconds from clicking the "start" button.

I downloaded today's Virtual Console game, Super Star Soldier, to celebrate. (Also because I am really impulsive.)

If it makes any difference, I'm using a Linksys WRT54G v4 router.

» comments: 1

Wii loves Islam, hates Konami

Tuesday, November 21, 2006 »

Just messing around with the Wii messaging system and came across this auto-complete entry:

q'uran r-type

Unfortunately, p.s. (what I was trying to type) isn't in the dictionary, but luckily the Q'uran is, which will be great because it'll be easy to type when I send out my Mohammed mii.

Of course, the entry to the right is even better. It turns out the Wii dictionary is full of game titles and characters. However, what I discovered next was distressing:

NO GRADIUS

R-Type, but NO GRADIUS. What are you trying to say, Nintendo? Gradius shows up on the Virtual Console in Japan and not America, and now it's not even in the dictionary? Are we just not good enough? How are people supposed to message each other their complaints?

A: Oh, I really wish I could download that impossible NES space shooter!
B: What was it called?
A: You know... Grading... er, Gradients... Oh, I can't even spell it!

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Wii number

Sunday, November 19, 2006 »

2944 4185 0074 6978

It is with great excitement that I add the above friend code to my list. Please share yours.

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feesamay

Friday, November 17, 2006 »

omg Reggie just called me~

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The PlayStation 3 cage

Thursday, November 16, 2006 »

Via this Gamespot article, the PlayStation 3 cage:

PS3 cage

There's the dignity lost by camping for days outside a Best Buy, and then there's this. Look at you people!! You are no longer waiting in line. You are in a cage. Those barriers are not to keep people from cutting ahead of you. That tarp is not there to shield you from the rain. They are there to protect the rest of us from you.

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This is the only photo I took in Vegas

Sunday, November 12, 2006 »

8|

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I'm going to Las Vegas for a few days

Sunday, November 5, 2006 »

And no, it is not to get married at the Star Trek Experience.

When I get back I will talk at great length about Final Fantasy XII.

» comments: 1
Older: October 2006
Newer: December 2006