Category: Games

The Inevitable List Of Ten Things My Brother Will Buy Me For My Birthday!

  • February 13, 2022

It’s been a whopping eight whole years since I’ve posted a list like this, but yesterday I was thinking that my brother may be having difficulty finding a birthday gift for me. Ever the helpful sibling, I decided to give him some assistance.

So here you go brother, ten simple suggestions!

Let’s start with an action figure! Darth Plagueis was released eight years ago in the 3.75″ ‘black collection’ and as with most figures of that era was frustratingly difficult to find and hardly made it to store shelves. Had I seen it I would have bought it for sure, but now mint-on-card versions are only available for $100+ on eBay. I’d love to put this guy in a box and never look at him again!

Speaking of figures, I recently learned about a series of Guyver statues by Prime 1, including the above showing a Guyver-0 standing atop a defeated T-Rex. It’s an amazing piece, standing almost one meter tall and weighing over 25 kg! Unfortunately it’s sold out but even if it wasn’t the $1300 price tag (not including the insane shipping cost from Japan) is something I would never spend myself but think is entirely appropriate for a birthday expense!

Vinyl is really hot now, and while my record player no longer works I think it’s obvious that I’d love the above vinyl album (not CD!) from 1962. This was long before Pertwee became (the best) Doctor, and apparently he was already famous enough to release an album full of bawdy ditties! You can listen to the songs on YouTube and they are of course abysmal, so the album would be one ‘for the collection’.

Let’s switch to games! I’ve got an impressive Fighting Fantasy book collection but despite my efforts have yet to obtain an original 8-bit FF computer game. There’s a few available, for 4 systems (C64, Spectrum, BBC, Amstrad) so it shouldn’t be too hard for Bernard to get me one (on eBay UK most likely) for around £25! Naturally I want it in the original cassette case and in NM or better condition.

Speaking of games Ive seen the above myself a few times on recent Japan trips, and every time I do I nearly buy it. But the astonishing prices (¥40,000+) have always given me pause, and as a result a hole in my Wizardry collection remains unfilled. Bernard’s going to have to be careful when he buys this one though: ‘discount’ ($200) copies are easy to find, but they almost certainly don’t include the trading card!

Naturally, since Bernard will probably become an expert in navigating Yahoo Auctions Japan for the last item, he should keep his eyes peeled for the above as well. This is the Xevious gamebook released by Namco in the mid 1980s and, much like the game, this book tells the story of Mu and Eve as they pilot Solvalou to travel to Garu Andor Genesis and destroy GAMP. Apparently the game system is very similar to Fighting Fantasy but I wouldn’t know since I don’t own the book. Yet.

Let’s take a sidestep into toys. The LEGO Old Fishing Shack is a masterpiece of design, and several years ago I was with my brother when I picked it up in a shop and said I may buy it. I didn’t, and now it’s $500+ on the aftermarket. But B should realize: a LEGO for me is also a LEGO for him, since one day I’ll take it apart and send it to him so he can enjoy it too. While paying the ludicrous aftermarket scalper prices would be the act of a fool, at least it would be an act that one day benefits him!

We had ministecks as kids and loved them, and it’s time to love them again. Though they are still being released, they’re weirdly hard to find and the few kits I’ve seen for sale here are very kid-centric, like puppies or doll pictures. I reckon B has contacts in Germany that could help him snag me this monster Neuschwanstein kit, don’t you?

Who doesn’t love View-Master? I know I do, and my measly collection would receive a wonderful boost with the addition of the above set. Sadly it’s hellishly rare these days, with single reels (of the three-reel set) going for $25 or more in poor condition. If he gets me this, naturally in the original packaging, I promise I’ll blog it in detail!

And what better thing to end on than a pair of shoes! You didn’t see this coming did you? Yes my friends these are the 2016 limited edition Ultraman Converse All-Star shoes sold at only one store in Japan. Once again condition and packaging are important since I’ll never wear them, and unused examples in the original boxes go for silly amounts on Japanese auction sites these days. Indeed, you’d have to be a damn fool brother looking for a birthday gift to even consider entertaining some of the scalper prices…

So there we go, ten easy items only a click or two away. I wonder how many of these he will get me this year?

Computer Spot

  • January 29, 2022

For a few years before I left Australia, my gaming life was all about the PC. Bernard had purchased his first computer in the early 90’s (for an ungodly amount in those days) and even though it was in his room I played games on it every chance I could get.

I mostly played RPGs and strategy games, and this was the era of the SSI ‘gold box’ AD&D series (all of which I played), classics like Eye Of The Beholder and Ultima 7 (thanks, Bernard, for helping me set up a boot disc to run that beast!), the Might and Magic series and… this game:

That’s a postcard for the 7th Wizardry game. I found it the other day while doing some random sorting through stuff we had in a crate. The postcard is in astonishing condition considering it’s age, for it was given out in a store to advertise the imminent release of the game. Remember those pre-internet days when shops were full of catalogues and handouts to advertise upcoming releases? It was fun grabbing all the free stuff and looking through it afterwards. What makes this postcard particularly interesting is the reverse:

Incredibly, this is an original card I picked up myself before the game was released! Some time in mid 1992 I waltzed into Computer Spot in Charlestown and would have grabbed this, possibly when I was there to buy something else. The vast majority of my game purchases were made at this particular store, which was a few doors down from the fish-and-chip shop where I first played Ghosts’n’Goblins and Exed Exes many years before. At this very store I bought the previous Wizardry game, all the SSI games, the Ultima games and a few others like Battle Isle and The Summoner. Bernard bought his flight simulators here as well.

Those were the glory days of boxed PC software, when the boxes were loaded with bonus items (‘feelies’, as Infocom called them) and the box art was wonderful. Computer Spot was loaded with games, and to an avid player like myself it was always fun to go in and browse the titles. For those few years I devoured what would become some of the best PC RPG’s of all time, and I have very fond memories of that era. The pinnacle of the games was Crusaders Of The Dark Savant, a challenging and lengthy dungeon crawl that I was proud to eventually beat, which was no small feat in the time before internet FAQs.

At the time I left Australia Computer Spot was evolving away from exclusively PC games into a general game store as they added consoles to their stock. At some point since then they’ve ceased to be. My guess is, assuming they even lasted that long, that like most stores of their type they didn’t survive the transition to online computer game distribution. I wonder when exactly that Charlestown store that I loved so much closed it’s doors for good?

I used to keep my games in perfect condition fully boxed, and don’t remember what happened to all of them either before or after I left Australia. I imagine I left them with Bernard or passed them on to someone, and they were all eventually sold and/or trashed. I wish I still had my two boxed copies of Wizardry V and VI, but even though I don’t, it gives me a warm feeling inside to know that for some reason I kept this postcard, and even brought it to America with me so long ago 🙂

2021 In Games

  • December 2, 2021

Time once again for the annual review of my game-buying. It still remains one of my biggest hobbies, and probably as a result of so much time spent at home I spent more time gaming in 2021 than in previous years. It was an interesting year though, since more than ever before my gaming was concentrated on only one system…

In total I purchased 41 games in 2021, for a measly 4 systems. This continues the trend of recent years, and is a tie with 2017 for lowest purchases since 1994! However when you look at the data you’ll see something interesting:

Yes, 38 of the 41 purchases were for Switch! The reason is that our PS4 broke several months into the year and we’ve been unable to replace it, hence the Switch has become the only current system we own. The other three (Intellivision, NES and PS4) saw only one game purchased each this past year. An interesting tidbit from my records show that I didn’t buy any games in January or February, which I believe is the longest break without a game purchase (December 10 until March 3) since I started keeping records in 1993!

Here’s the cost breakdown:

97% of spending this year was on Switch games, since the Intellivision game was only $4 and the PS4/NES games under $20 each. The most I spent on any single game was $59.99, and the average price of about $37 is the largest since 1999! In fact the total I spent on Switch games in 2021 – about $1460 – is the most I’ve ever spent on games for any one system in a single year (by a decent margin; the second highest was $1158 spend on Nintendo DS games in 2009)!

So the year’s playing was a bit of PS4 and lots of Switch. This was not by choice: we wanted to replace the PS4, possibly with a PS5, but as you may know they’re basically unavailable. PS4’s are discontinued and in over 7 months of looking I have yet to see a PS5 for sale. Maybe we’ll get one in 2022?

I also made another sale in 2021, selling about 250 more games (mostly PS1 and PS2), thus reducing my collection to about 1300 remaining games, from a maximum just shy of 2000 a few years ago. I don’t regret either of the two big sales I’ve made, and it’s likely I’ll do more in the future.

As with previous years I’ll focus on my three favourites of 2021, although I’ll preface by saying this was quite a challenge due to me playing a lot of truly wonderful games this past year…

Nioh 2 (PS4)

I bought this sequel late in 2020, and was playing it avidly around the time I wrote the 2020 in review post. It’s more of the same of my best game of 2019, only bigger, better and more difficult. This is a sublime evolution of the soulslike genre, with dashes of Diablo 2 (itemization) and Monster Hunter (quest based) thrown in for good reason. Detractors said it was too difficult, but for me this was a nearly perfect game, and between the original content and the three DLC packages I played it well into March until my savegame exceeded 350 hours. If you like an extremely rewarding challenge, give this one a go!

Monster Hunter Rise (Switch)

Speaking of Monster Hunter, another year saw another installment. We were all wondering how they would follow up MH World but I don’t think any of us expected an open-world Switch installment, and we absolutely didn’t expect one in which they actually iterated upon (and improved) the systems introduced in World. Rise was a success on so many levels, but foremost was that it’s just amazingly fun to play. The graphics are lovely, the game loop satisfying and the controls spot on, but the real reason I played this like a man possessed was simply because it was loads of fun beating up the monsters! I can’t wait for the expansion next year…

Hades (Switch)

This is an isometric story-based roguelike with perfect controls, beautiful graphics and an incredible amount of depth. I predict we’ll see this one on many game-of-the-year lists and rightly so: it’s a wonderful game that offers something to players of every level but gets really, really good as you learn to master it’s many systems. I became lunatically addicted to this when it came out and had to put it aside since I was playing too much, and just yesterday I started it up once again and found the lure is still there…

As I said it was a year of great games, and honorable mentions go to Metroid Dread, Monster Hunter Stories 2 and Bravely Default 2. In addition I replayed quite a few games this year – Diablo 2 Resurrected alone saw me spend >200 hours on it! – and Slay The Spire (from 2020) remains dangerously addictive. I also bought a lot of rereleases (on Switch) of older games that I’ve yet to sink much time into but intend to.

And I can’t end without mentioning I passed 3000 consecutive days of Puzzle And Dragons logins. Not only is it the game I have played longest in my life, but it’s almost certain no other game will ever challenge it for that title…

What will 2022 bring? Flashy new graphics on a PS5, or another year of (for me) Switch dominance? Come back in a year to find out 🙂