Category: Gamebooks

How Did My Resolution Go?

January 21, 2014

Last year I made a post detailing what I felt was an enormous amount of books, games and DVDs on my ‘list’ that I felt I really needed to get through. It became a resolution or sorts, to shrink all lists in 2013. How did I go?

Books

I made great progress in this category, reading the majority of the approximately 50 volumes that were sitting on my shelf this time last year. The only one I haven’t yet found time for is In The Wake Of The Sea Serpents, the 800+ page magnus-opus by Heuvelmans. In addition to those I had this time last year, I purchased and read many new books during the year, mostly manga and fantasy novels. I try and read every single night before sleep at the least.

However – and to my delight since I love books – I have to admit my ‘to read’ list is hardly smaller than it was last year, replenished as it was by a large variety of other books. Heuvelmans tome is now accompanied by 3 other cryptozoology books, and they share a shelf with about 20 novels (mostly fantasy), a handful of manga (not much I am interested in is released nowadays), and a half-dozen or so RPG manuals such as the one pictured above. Add to this a couple of Doctor Who books, an art book or two and four books on video-game and pinball history and I should have enough to keep me busy well into 2014!

Movies & TV

As with my books, I made great progress on the DVD ‘watch list’ of February 2013. Ultraseven, Lexx, Claymore – all the box sets have been watched. In fact almost every single item we owned last year has been watched months ago, and many more have now filled their place.

In fact, the ‘watch list’ as of today is actually longer than it was last year. Two items alone: the Inspector Morse DVD box set and the Monkey DVD set sum to over 100 hours! Add to these several other anime DVD sets (Spice & Wolf, Sekai de Ichiban Tsuyoku Naritai!), another Japanese sci-fi set (Ultra-Q) and about a dozen assorted DVD movies (almost all sci-fi/fantasy) and we’ve got our watching cut out for us.

Games

As with the other two categories, I made bold strides into my piles of unplayed games. As of today I have:

– 8 unplayed PSP games, only one of which was actually purchased in 2013
– 8 unopened 3DS games, most of which are less than 6 months old
– only 1 unopened Wii U game (Pikmin 3, which I may start playing today!)
– 2 unopened PS3 games (both of which I owned last February as well…)

As you may recall from the blog post a month ago, I purchased much less games in 2013 than I usually do, which allowed me to play a lot more games I already owned. I expect during this next year to ‘finish’ the PSP games as well as possible the PS3. Since I currently have no plans to obtain a PS4, I imagine this section of the list will be much reduced this time next year.

Last time I looked at the piles of unopened/unread/unwatched media and thought “Why do I even buy more stuff?!”. Now I look at the smaller piles and think “I’m looking forward to opening that!”.

In other words, I think my resolution was a success 🙂

New Year’s Resolution?

February 2, 2013

When I returned from Australia, for some reason I started becoming very aware of the piles of stuff that filled my house. Books to be read. Games to be played. Media to be consumed.

When I was young there was so much I wanted but couldn’t have. Now I can have it all, but – especially in the last year – have been accumulating it faster than I can enjoy it. The reasons are varied (work, World of Warcraft, age), but I’ve never purchased anything I didn’t really want to read, watch or play and, by Jove, it was time to do just that!

So, my first ever (?) New Years resolution: Consume more media!

How much am I talking about here? I will preface by saying we all have little ‘to read’, ‘to watch’ and (some of us) ‘to play’ piles. For instance, I know for a fact quite a few of you – SFL, AW, BS – certainly do. But mine had gotten quite large. As in very large. And it’s time to climb them.

I’ll revisit this resolution at the end of this year, but here’s the scope of what I’m tackling. All of this just describes what is in the house right now, not anything I expect to obtain in the next few weeks or months…

Books

That’s the English version of Monster Hunter Illustrations, which came out over a year ago and is jam-packed with all sorts of fascinating MH art. It’s on my pile with two additional japanese MH books including the sequel (!) and a different art book on TCG art. These share a shelf with no less than four additional art books (including Genzoman, Queen’s Blade and the recently released Hyrule Historia Zelda art book). I could probably look through all these in a long afternoon.

But that’s hardly all. There are some 30+ volumes of manga (Bleach, Bakuman amongst others), 16 novels (including some purchased five years ago when a local bookstore went out of business), 2 academic texts (one, on cryptozoology, is almost 800 pages long), about 50 comics and 20 odd magazines. This list doesn’t even include the approximately 100+ gamebooks from a collection of over 200 that I haven’t played through.

How much of this can I read in one year?

Movies and TV

I got the above for Christmas. It’s the long-awaited (by me, for one) second full Ultraman series finally translated into English. And it’s 19 hours long. It sits on a shelf right now next to DVD collections of all 4 series of Lexx (over 40 hours in total) and the first three seasons of the Keroro Gunso TV anime (20+ hours). Add to this list 22 more anime DVDs or Blu-Rays adding to more than 35 hours (including the full series of Claymore) and about another 28 hours of UK TV series collections and 30 more hours of (sometimes untranslated) Japanese or Korean series and I start to wonder realistically how we could watch all this in a single year? I haven’t even considered the movies…

Games

I currently have, unplayed and in most cases still shrinkwrapped:
– 8 PS3 games (including Hyperdimension Neptunia 2 and Resonance Of Fate)
– 6 Nintendo DS games (including Pokemon Conquest and Shepherd’s Crossing 2)
– 17 (!) PSP games, almost all RPGs, many of which look great (including God Eater Burst and Ragnarok Tactics)
– 11 3DS games, many of which were Christmas gifts (including Theatrythym Final Fantasy and Paper Mario Sticker Star)

That’s 42 games on my ‘to play’ list. With some embarrassment I’ll reveal I have already preordered about 6 more online, and yet right now much of my gaming time is spent playing Warcraft. I think I’ll have to be more disciplined 🙂

Will I succeed? Can I possibly consume all this media before getting overrun? Also, will I stop buying more until what I have has been enjoyed? I’ll revisit this post at the end of the year, and it will be interesting to see how effective my resolution has been!

Here’s What My Brother Is Going To Buy Me For Christmas

November 15, 2012

The world turns, but the more things change, the more they remain the same. Take, for instance, the eternal struggle of what to buy me for gifts? As I did once before, I received the following message from my Brother:

Yo sibling! I’ve learned that the Christmas gifts you’ve gotten me are mighty indeed, and I want to reciprocate in kind. Any suggestions?

Well brother-of-mine, your sources are true, for I have indeed obtained some of the mightiest gifts you will ever receive from me! Since it is the wish of all men to one-up each other in terms of gifts, I understand your motive. Thus, I will humbly offer some suggestions…

Books Category

Blood Sword (books 3-5)

Well known as one of the best ever gamebook series, I only have the first two installments and the latter 3 continue to elude me. It’s not that they are particularly hard to find, more hard to afford. Prices online seem to range from ~$30 (for book 3, Battlepits Of Krarth) to $250+ (for book 5, The Walls Of Spyte). Yes, we all know they are being rewritten, simplified, and converted to the Virtual Reality system for a reprint, but – let’s face it – as a purist only the original version is acceptable as a Christmas gift 🙂

?????? Chronicle

I’m not going to lie – this one will be difficult! This is (of course…) the Japanese Fighting Fantasy doujin magazine that has published every two years (or so) since 2003. Details are scarce. Who publishes it? What’s in it? Where can it be purchased? Does it even exist? I have confidence the answers to all of these will be in my hand when I open my Christmas gifts!

Fighting Fantasy Second Age

When one completes their Fighting Fantasy collection, one must seek gratification elsewhere. Therefore, my attention has turned to the Czechoslovakian-only sequel series, Fighting Fantasy Second Age. Bernard’s going to have to work quite hard to find a book in this insanely rare series (book #1, Island Of Exiles, is shown above), possibly including (but not restricted to) personally scouring the shelves of used bookstores in Prague! But he will no doubt be motivated by thinking of my smiling face on Christmas morning 🙂

This…

It’s not particularly rare or expensive, it’s 33 years old, it’s (cough) ‘written’ by the best Doctor Who ever, and it has an awesome cover. I want it. Make it happen please?

Toys Category

Remembrance Of The Daleks figure set

I’ve got a pretty large collection of Daleks at this point, of all sizes, but I don’t have this amazing set. Sure it’s wildly overpriced and possibly impossible to find, being limited as it was to one store and released as a limited edition two years ago…. but hey, it’s Christmas!

Revoltech Yamaguchi MH Rathalos Liolaeus

This Japanese monster hunter toy is a little tricky to find… in the colour shown above. While I – and, let’s face it anyone – would love to own this, the impossibly hard to find limited ‘Silver Rathalos’ version is the one that would bring a tear to my eye on Christmas day! Could a young mans dream come true?

Material Handler Lego Technic

Remember that chat we had during the summer where I told you how every single Technic series includes a crane? Here’s another! You’re really going to have to pull out all the stops to get this for me for Christmas though, since it isn’t released until January 13, 2013! Maybe this one waits until my Birthday? 🙂

Dungeon & Dragons Trading Card Sets

TSR released factory sets of AD&D Trading cards each year from 1991 until 1993. Naturally, I’m mostly interested in the largest set – released in 1992 which contains 750 cards. Factory complete, sealed and unopened examples of these are wildely available. After all, who would want them now? And as I’m sure you know, this would be a fine gift for a fellow such as myself!

Music

Gone Petshopping (Pet Shop Girls)

Seriously… just go read last year’s entry again and understand I’m serious about this one!

Games

Rune Factory 2 and 3 (DS)

I practise self-flagellation daily for missing both of these. I played the first, loved it, and somehow not one but two sequels snuck out without me realizing. Once I had found out of their existence… BAM! The resellers had hoarded and driven the prices up to levels this poor college professor could never afford 🙁

Wizardry Gaiden III: Scripture Of The Dark (Gameboy)

Despite my greatest hopes, the Wizardry titles I requested for gifts last year never eventuated. At the time, I withheld this one from the list, since it’s so… painful. Back in 2006, I managed to acquire the first two Japanese Gameboy Gaiden titles. Both are boxed, in perfect condition, and beloved by me. And yet, the third has ever eluded me! This fact has been known to keep me up at night, and if only for the good graces of my brother, I could eternally sleep soundly were it finally in my hands. And yet, the task may be Herculean indeed. For this game, now 20 years old, has become almost a footnote in history. Let us see if it can be unearthed?

The Legend Of Zagor Boardgame

You know how sometimes you have this awesome dream that you own something awesome and have an awesome time playing with it? Well in my dreams, it’s always The Legend Of Zagor boardgame. This near-mythical conversion of an FF book into a game includes a computer voice! Here’s hoping the first thing I ever hear that voice say is “Happy Christmas from your beloved brother!”

And there we go, a relatively short and modest list of items intended to assist with my Christmas shopping. Times-a-wasting, so get to it! 😉

Robot Claw