Un-fun games…

July 20, 2013 by stopXwhispering

I’m not quite sure where I’m going with all of my collections for the various consoles I have.. I’ve never really tried completing any collection by owning every single game released for a system, instead I prefer just buying games that I will enjoy, but then I also buy games sometimes without having a clue what it is, because I like getting surprised ^_^ This has however resulted in me owning A BUNCH of strategy games in japanese, LOADS of RPG’s that I don’t enjoy playing and also various other games that are text heavy in japanese or that just aren’t fun to play (like pachinko games, or sports games) >_<

I’ve just uploaded more games to the PC Engine HU card library and also the CD ROM library, most of these new acquisitions are strategy games or various un-fun games, haha… un-fun ^_^
but anyway, here they are:

The problem is that I’m also a bit of a hoarder, I can never get rid of anything! haha So I guess I will just end up owning every single game for every system eventually, since I keep buying stuff that I don’t already have and that list keeps getting shorter… At least when sorting I sort away some of the really boring games, (like JRPG’s and strategy), underneath the desk in boxes so I don’t have to see them and mistake them for something fun ;D

I know that a lot of people are really into RPG’s and especially JRPG’s, and I bet there’s loads of people that enjoy strategy games and sports games too, otherwise there wouldn’t be that many released over the years ;D But everybody must have some type of game that they’re just not that into… What are un-fun games in your opinion?

You should seriously Play: Spin Pair (PC Engine)

July 20, 2013 by stopXwhispering

Seriously Play are games that I think you Seriously Should Play! In this post I will re-visit a game I wrote about a while ago, but only briefly, namely Spin Pair for PC Engine!

Spin Pair is an HU Card game, so you don’t need the CD unit or a duo to play it. It’s a puzzle game in the style of Tetris or Columns where you have shapes falling down, which you can flip or move left or right. However, in Spin Pair the shapes are very different and it makes the game more complex. Not only can you switch places of the pair of shapes falling down, but with the second button you can also rotate the contents of these two shapes! So basically what you need to do is get half a shape to fill up the opposite half of a shape in the same type/colour.

There is also another aspect of Spin Pair that I really like. If you have shapes of the same colour/type lining up horizontally in the same row and you remove ONE, then ALL of them will disappear! This makes for a great way of being able to plan ahead and arrange your shapes so that you can easily remove them all in one drop ^_^

Another trick I’ve learned is that you can separate the pair that is falling down, if you get the first one to land on a higher row then you are free to move the remaining shape to the side and also rotate it :D

There’s a story mode you can play, where each level gets a little bit harder. You will have to remove certain amounts of each shape, and this number will increase for each stage, also the amount of shapes will increase making it much more difficult since you will have to survive longer. You’re not always lucky to get the shapes you need either.

Each stage also has new shapes, they go from being quite normal shapes like squares, triangles and circles to really complex shapes.

Allt he different shapes represent various object. Everything from animals to robots and vehicles. Sometimes it can be hard to know which one it is you’re lacking. Since you can rotate the content of the shapes in four different directions it’s easy to make mistakes.

Once in a while the game will speed up, making it more difficult, and the only way to get it to slow back down is to remove shapes!

There is an endless mode instead of story mode where you just play to see for how long you can survive. It starts off easy with few objects and then increases. There is also a 2 player mode where you battle each other. Every time you remove a row with several shapes of the same type your opponent will get punished, having a pair of 3 or 4 objects falling down in their next move.

Already from the start I really liked this puzzle game, but I found it to be quite difficult. The more I played it though the better I got at it. Now I’ve managed to beat the story mode and it’s still a lot of fun to play! The final stage comes as a surprise with the words “COME ON BLACK WIZERD!!” lol… and then you have to remove loads of the same shape but in different colours, and you’ll see two cute little wizards fighting with their broomsticks.

I recommend anyone who’s into puzzle game to try this little gem out. The music is good, the animations are cute, it’s a challenge and most of all very different! You should Seriously Play it! :D

GAME COLLECTION: My Retro Room re-visited

July 9, 2013 by stopXwhispering

2015-08-24
Edit: My room has been updated since this post. Check out my latest collection pics here >>

Recently I got interviewed by Ant Harper from Retro Games Collector :D So for this feature I needed to take some more recent pictures of my Retro Room containing my game collection :) It was quite a while ago since I last shared pictures of my game room, from when I upgraded to a bigger room, so I thought I would share the new ones here as well so you can all see what it looks like today!

So this is more or less what it looks like today! :D

This is the lighting of the room, it’s very cosy and warm with mainly red lights ^_^

Here’s my desk, where I’m sitting right now and blogging ^_^ haha!

A close-up of the shelf over the desk. There’s mainly boxed Super Famicom games (There’s more of them now, it’s basically full so I can’t fit any more in there >_< but there’s still sooo many SFC games I want!!) And there’s boxed Famicom games, in the two middle shelves and the bottom right. I haven’t really collected boxed Famicom games that much, I have over 600 loose carts. On the bottom left are my Atari 2600 games, I have a few more doubles stacked away somewhere and a few boxed ones elsewhere. BTW I loooove my Pacman neon signt ^_^

Behind the desk are 4 shelves, the two to the left are filled with Famicom cartridges, neatly organized by colour and by type! :D The top 5 rows are only platformers arranged by colour, below is one row with the few carts that have end labels (also platformers mainly), and below that is three rows with only shooters and then a row with puzzle games and lastly sports and other playable stuff that I don’t really care for. I have 4 boxes stacked away underneath the desk with all the RPG’s and various other text-heavy games that you can’t really play unless you’re fluent in japanese (also I don’t really care for RPG’s…..). The two right shelves contain all my boxed GB, GBC and GBA games and on the bottom 2 rows with boxed NES games.

Facing my desk is a cool couch I got from my grand parents, it folds into a matress if you put the back on the floors facing it ^^ It’s like a puzzle :D

On the couch is also one of my three Virtual Boys, a Pacman Pinky porcelain piggybank and an official Nintendo wooden box where you can put a Zapper, two controlllers and a bunch of games inside ^_^ I put some of my favorites in there :D

I also have a really cosy gaming chair that holds my Famicom pillow and temporarily also this Amiga 500. I have found a better place for it now underneath one of the TV’s.. ;D

In this corner I have my PAL NES, with some Zappers on the wall ^_^

Above that there’s some PAL SNES games and N64 games, also some of my Virtual Boy games on the bottom shelf (I have a bunch of doubles stacked away in a drawer as well, I’m only displaying the playable ones that are opened). There’s also some video game related board games like Centipede, Pac-man and Donkey Kong and various other games like boxed Atari 2600 games and games for the Intellivision that I can’t play since I don’t have that system yet :(

On this shelf I have my Famicom Disk System games, some boxed Atari’s and in the left corner all my Star Wars related stuff and games ^^

Underneath that shelf I have my favorite painting that my friend Arri made for me ^_^ It has all my favorite game characters! :D

Here’s the mess.. the main TV that has almost all the consoles you see below connected to it! lol I did this using scart splitters (one outtake turning into 4) and also composite cable splitters for some systems that have the red, yellow and white cables. It’s not optimal, I’m gonna work on making it prettier so that you won’t see all the chords as much, but I’m still quite happy that I was able to connect all of these: NTSC NES, PAL SNES, Twin Famicom, PAL Sega Mega Drive, PAL Sega Dreamcast, PAL PS2, PAL Sega Saturn, PAL N64, Super Famicom, and a japanese Sega Master System ^_^

This is the third TV, and here I have my japanese Sega Mega Drive and all the 30-40 something games I have for it, and my PC Engine Duo and the Atari 2600 Junior ^_^

Here’s a small shelf I painted and decorated and it holds all my Famicom Konami games, and two Game Gears and the Wonderswan color ^_^ I also love my Nintendo neon sign :D

On the floor here are some of my PC Engine games.. I’ve re-organized these now onto a smarter CD stand with double sides that stands on my desk, looks much better! :D

On top of this shelf are more PC Engine games.. this collection has been growing really fast since I discovered this awesome system :D

Here’s an overview of this wooden shelf that contains a bunch of stuff. Below you’ll see some close-ups. In the bottom are magazines, like Retro Gamer, Nintendo Power etc. And my Sega Saturn games.

Here are my Castlevania games, this collection is now taking up two full shelves ^_^ You can see all my Castlevania games in my Castlevania Collection post, where I scanned them all :)

Below the Castlevania games are some other random stuff. Like Chrono Trigger, a factory sealed SNES Zelda, Mario Bros for Atari 2600, factory sealed Doom for Atari Jaguar, Darius Twin for SFC, Super Mario RPG, Life Force for NES, Rockman X, Donkey Kong II Game & Watch, Ninja Baseball Batman ;D and much much more..

Here’s the Sega Saturn games, and a few Atari Jaguar games.

Various bead art and my Sega Mega Drive collection ^^ I basically can’t get much more games for this system cause I’m running out of shelf-space! LOL

On the top right are my NTSC NES games, all the way down to the half row with Dreamcast games, below those are PAL NES games. Then PS2 in the bottom. In the left shelf are PS1 games, then some of my favorite Famicom games and all my Sega Master System games (I have finally gotten around to fixing shelves now for those poor games stacked on top of each other) ;D

Here’s a closeup of the Famicom games, mainly puzzle, platformers and shooters ^_^

Last but not least I have my Commodore 64 on a small table with a fourth TV on a bureau next to my desk ^_^ There’s also a boxed PAL SNES, another Super Famicom and a black Atari 2600 underneath it :)

I have a lot more games stacked away in various places.. I have 73 game consoles in total (counting a few doubles, over 50 are different systems though) and just got over 3000 games, and I’m seriously running out of space again and probably need to take over our living room for my retro game collection soon! Just gotta run it past the boyfriend first ;D

Violinist of Hameln for Super Famicom

July 8, 2013 by stopXwhispering

There’s this little cute guy, wearing a hat, a cape and carrying a violin, that comes to a village and plays for the monsters and makes a friend. A girl in a red hat with a white bow…

This story is about the Violinist of Hameln ^_^ On Super Famicom, by Enix!

This weekend me and my friend Gabriella played through the entire game, almost twice! ;D On saturday we sat for hours playing through until the second to last boss, and then.. forgot to press continue on time when we got distracted by our 3DS’s >_< This game lacks cheats or passwords so there is no way to skip ahead, you have to play through it all in one go!! But on sunday we gave it another go, and beat it without ever even getting a Game Over and we had 25 lives to spare! :D

The best thing about the Violinist of Hameln is his buddy, the girl that can transform into almost anything!! Of course you have to discover the various powers first to unlock each creature she can turn into. The creatures will help you along the way. And if nothing else, you can always pick up and chuck the girl straight at enemies or walls :D It works! The Violinist can only jump, glide a bit with his cape and shoot notes from his violin, so having the girl around is very helpful! Here’s a chart of all the characters you can unlock and choose from in the start menu:

And here they are in action:


The Ostrich buddy: Walks over spikes	The Frog buddy: If you stand on her you can jump up on hard to reach platforms

The Robot Buddy: Can walk over spikes and punch rock walls if you jump on her.	The Curling buddy: Can be thrown and will glide into narrow spaces and is effective against enemies

The Gorilla Buddy: Can walk over spikes, but is mainly meant for you to get passed a certain stage where you have to transform your buddy into the gorilla to impress a guy.. See the gifs below for more Gorilla action ;D	The Penguin Buddy: Let’s you swim passed water, if you jump on the penguin she dashes forward and destroys enemies in the water.


The Fish Buddy: If you step on it it will float upwards! If you press down it will drop, but you can’t steer side- ways unless the wind takes you there.	The Duck Buddy: Can swim over water but also dive if you jump on her.

The Monkey Buddy: Can climb walls! You just tag along and shoot whatever comes in your way ^_^	The UFO Buddy: Hovers around you constantly and is good when you need the girl to follow you (BECAUSE SHE SUCKS AND WALKING AND CAN’T JUMP AT ALL!!) >_<

The Monster Buddy: Is useless, but you need it to get passed a road block. A guy needs to see the monster to let you pass to the next stage.	The Frisbee Buddy: You’re actually not supposed to stand on her, just throw her like a frisbee at enemies :)

The Elephant Buddy: Can put out fires if you jump on her! Pffrrrsshh!	The Bird Buddy: Can fly!! And you can steer her! :D Be careful not to fall off though >_<

The Octopus Buddy: Let’s you swim under water! :D	The BOMB Buddy: You can throw her and she goes BOOOOOM!* Works like a charm on all following bosses :D
	Here’s a closeup of your buddy BOMB blowing up! ;D LOL

The entire screen flickers when the BOMB is thrown ^_^

There are four world maps, each filled with several stages followed by a boss at the end.

In the beginning of each world map there’s a village which you can re-enter at any time between stages on that map. Here you can talk to people, regain health at an inn and buy stuff! :D Like shields, extra time for stages, a better cape and also some of the stuff that your buddy can turn into, like the UFO (but you will find this one on a stage later) and the missile (I’m not sure if you can find this one, so I’d suggest buy to it!)

During stages you can find stars, when you have found 4 stars you will get to a bonus stage where you can find an extra life and also get loads of coins!

The stages are all very varied, and with pretty graphics ^_^

The bosses were a lot of fun! And not too hard, we only had some problems with one, which was the second boss. But eventually we figured out how to beat this one too ^_^ You’re just supposed to throw your buddy straight upwards towards the boss’ platform and he’ll fall down so you can hit him :)

Here’s screenshots of all the bosses:

First boss, not that difficult, keep throwing your buddy at his face :)

The second boss, we were stuck here for a while since it was hard to dodge all the snakes that kept spawning while also dodging his spiked he kept shooting in all directions >_< but shooting your buddy from below the platform worked like a charm :) The non-blurry screenshots were taken while we were figuring out what to do and thought the UFO was a good idea.. but just throwing the girl worked a lot better ;D

This is the third boss, some skeleton guy on a really weird horse that has no face!!! LOL He wasn’t too difficult if you had the missile. I came into the boss fight for the first time with only one heart of health and I managed to beat him, while taking photos with my iPhone!! ^_^

During the final boss this guy with a grand piano on his back came in and joined the fight. You met him previously in the village, but I didn’t quite get what he said, so during the entire battle I wasn’t really sure if he was on my side or not.. but it turned out that he was on my side when the credits started rolling ;D

During the entire game you got the feeling that the Violinist wasn’t all that nice. He was quite mean to the girl, throwing her around and she looked pissed most of the time. And also during some cutscenes between stages this is what you saw:

But in the end it seemed like they made friends after all ^_^ This was a great game, and totally worth the high price :D

New GameBoy additions.. OCD buys!!

July 3, 2013 by stopXwhispering

My OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive-Disorder) really got to me when I was creating my Game Boy collection with scanned cartridges.. I had this one game that was still sealed and in pretty much awesome condition, and I couldn’t bring myself to open it up just to scan the friggin’ cartridge.. but I really really REALLY wanted to!!! It really pissed me off because it made the entire library assymetrical with that one boxed game among all the carts >_<

Damn you Oddworld for being so pristine, pretty and unopened!! >______<

So I eventually just gave up and started looking for the loose cartridge, and found it almost instantly :D I bought it and threw in Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle 3 while I was at it ^_^

Now I can sleep at night knowing there’s symmetry in my Game Boy Collection Library again ^__^ AND I will also be able to play Oddworld whenever I feel like it :D

Oddworld! :D It’s difficult but fun ^_^ Bugs Bunny’s Crazy Castle 3 is also a great game, much prettier and more colorful than it’s prequels ^^

All my Sega Master System games scanned!

July 2, 2013 by stopXwhispering

The last two evenings I’ve kept myself busy scanning all my Sega Master System games! This mainly because I’ve only uploaded libraries of Nintendo and PC Engine games so far and thought it was Sega’s turn, and Sega Master System suits well now that Retro Gamer magazine has just had that system as their main headline in their latest issue ^^ And also since I know it would make theSegaDude happy ;D

I only have a few japanese Sega Master System games, maybe like 5 or so, the others are all PAL. So I just included the Japanese ones in the same collection list ^_^

So here’s a little collage where you can see all the games easily, and if you wanna read more info about each game then please visit the uploaded Sega Master System Library that always can be found in the left menu :D