dtm666

All These Years, I’ve Screwed Up The Damn Name

Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth, the third in Konami’s series of classic remakes for WiiWare, is a bit of a revelation, as it officially confirms the proper name of the title. Besides that, the general belief is that it’s going to be a remake/remix/upgrade/whatever of the Game Boy title of the same name.

It sort of makes sense when you think about it. While I can’t necessarily speak for Contra ReBirth since I’ve not played it yet, it seemed to me like Gradius ReBirth is sort of a spritual remix or upgrade of the Game Boy version called Nemesis, as both games seem to have similar levels.

In any case, it’ll be interesting to see how this game turns out. I’m hoping it’ll be a return to form similar to Super Castlevania IV and not another “Metroidvania” game that seems to be the norm these past few years… then again, anything is an improvement over what we got on Game Boy.

My Gaming History Thus Far… Have Some Mushrooms, Brother.

I’m into video games… mostly the old-school variety.

I’ve been into video games since I first got an Atari 7800 ProSystem back in the late-1980s and enjoyed the system tremendously until I eventually got the almighty NES. The NES survived until my brother picked up an Super Nintendo for himself, but eventually the system migrated over to me. I’ve grabbed a Sega Genesis for five bucks at a thrift store, but the system lacked controllers, forcing me to borrow a couple 3-button controllers until I got my hands on a couple six-button controllers and eventually one with Turbo capabilities.As time passed, my interest in video games would wane (I sold my Super Nintendo with the small bunch of uninspired games I had for the system, including a couple Madden games and a crummy port of Wolfenstein) with only my trusty Game Boy and the occasional session of PC games to sate whatever desire was left. before I eventually picked up a Playstation (the smaller PS-One model) and started collecting games again. It was mostly wrestling games at first, but eventually I relented and picked up a few choice titles – mostly sequels or updates to game series I had played during my younger years.

A couple years later, I got an original Xbox for Christmas and began collecting games for that system. Somewhere along the line, I picked up a GBA SP unit when the Classic NES Series came out (only got a couple of those before getting real GBA titles).

When I finally got work, I eventually picked up a Playstation-2 and even a GameCube with GameBoy Player. Somewhere along the way, I picked up a Nintendo DS Lite and a PSP which were the best ways to keep up with the latest crop of games, since I knew that it’d be a good long while before I get my hands on a current-generation console.

That’s okay, though. I picked up a clone system called the FC Twin, which played NES and SNES games. Sure, it wasn’t perfect, but it was good enough to play all the old NES games I had left over and it was incentive enough to start building a new SNES library as well as build upon the existing 40+ NES titles I already have. Heck, I even picked up a Dreamcast, Nintendo 64, and a damn Game Gear along the way, just to get more old stuff in the collection.

And then last year, I bought a current-gen console, Nintendo Wii. Mind you, it was mostly for Mega Man 9 – a wonderful new-old game – and also bex but also because of their amazing Virtual Console service which opened up a new realm of titles I wouldn’t have otherwise been able to get without paying major cash for.

I don’t necessarily consider myself hardcore (I play video games for fun and not for arrogant bragging rights – although I like winning too), but I’m not necessarily casual either (unless keeping records of game play on DVD is a casual player attribute).

I don’t have a massive collection (roughly 550+ games total plus 15+ consoles – nothing compared to Handsome Tom’s huge-ass collection), but at least none of it is from eBay and online sources (mostly flea markets, garage sales, thrift stores, and specialty shops… and the newer retail stores for the “recent” stuff too, I suppose).

I’ve never imported Japanese games, but I do have a couple of those Hong Kong multicarts on NES… also from a flea market for much cheaper ($40) than they would have asked for years ago ($200+).

And that’s pretty much my brief history with video games – which is still ongoing. I still play games, but I’m holding out on getting any new ones. What I’ve got at the moment is enough for me… at least until something catches my eye.

So ends the first video game-related post on this blog. Expect normal rants on the topic in the future… whatever that means.

FIRST… of a whole new blog (First Blogger Post)

(2019 Edit: For those curious, this was the first post to the old Blogger site that is preserved for archival purposes.)

Many welcomes to those who find their idle ways here. There has to be a fairly good reason behind my emerging from the dark shadows of insipidness or something to that extent and the reason so far has eluded me. May it emerge somewhere someday.

All seriousness aside, I would like to welcome you to my new blog. What can you expect from this blog? Well, you did read the title, didn’t you? A whole lot of random stuff, ramblings, and all in all, generally uninteresting stuff.

If you’re wondering a bit about me, I’ll fill out my profile soon enough (I just opened this up yesterday) and will add more details about this blog and what to expect. In any case, I hope that whoever comes by is somewhat entertained (or disdained) by what is eventually featured here and sticks around long enough to follow my hapless adventures in… stuff.

So, in any case, here’s to a new blogging experience… that ends up better than my last.

Later,
DTM

(As a bonus, here’s the post on the older blog announcing the move that was originally intended as a side-by-side thing before things fell apart on that front.)

I started a new affair yesterday during a dry period.

And with that, I’m “proud” to introduce the new DTM’s Blog of Randomness, which is my all-new, leaner blog at Blogspot. Unofficially, it’s called DTM Blog II: The Wrath of Crohn, but decided with the much happier, more ambiguous Blog of Randomness! Hooray!

What does this mean for DTM Blog?

Absolutely nothing, because there’s no rule saying I can’t have more than one blog.

But that doesn’t answer my question, asshack!

Watch your mouth, boy! All will be explained in the coming weeks.

Maybe…

*Updates will still made to THIS blog, but I also have another blog for leaner purposes… like I said, more details to come as soon as I straighten them out.

Jeff Hardy Busted For Drug Possession

According to this article, Jeff Hardy was arrested for trafficking perscription drugs and possessing anabolic steroids. As a result, WWE is not going to be producing that Jeff Hardy DVD that I never knew about.

Hardy apparently left WWE back in August to do other stuff. My guess is being arrested wasn’t high on the list. Hey, the guy made his decisions and could have gone clean, but some people don’t have the will to get it done and most of his colleagues are none the wiser to clean up either.

All we could do now is wait for Matt to cut another scathing rant about how the Internet knows nothing and blows everything out of proportion… even though Jeff’s mugshot will probably grace the Smoking Gun website by the time that gets done.

GameFAQs Review – WWF Royal Rumble (Dreamcast)

My first experience with a WWF arcade game wasn’t the Wrestlefest game (because I’ve never seen it in arcades around my block) but rather the Midway-produced WWF Wrestlemania arcade game, a strange little beast that involved some of the more popular WWF wrestlers of the time competiting in Mortal Kombat-style wrestling matches (without all the blood and fatalities). For the time, it was a fun little game, but involved little wrestling. Years later, I come across a Royal Rumble arcade machine that I’ve only heard about and this was more like a wrestling game than the other one was. You could either play in straight matches or compete in the Royal Rumble match itself, which was a crazy experience in and of itself. This ought to be a fun game to bring home, right?

Eventually, THQ did bring it home to the Dreamcast. Unfortunately, chances are not many people got to play it because it was released somewhat late in the Dreamcast’s lifespan before Playstation 2 arrived and demolished Sega’s hardware dreams forever… which is a shame. In any case, a few years later (more like last year actually), I had managed to pick up a Dreamcast with a few games, which included this game. So I decided to give this game a go to see if it was as memorable as I remembered it… and the end result is… it’s okay, but lacking. How lacking? Let’s see here…

Continue reading “GameFAQs Review – WWF Royal Rumble (Dreamcast)”

GameFAQs Review – Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 (Dreamcast)

First there was X-Men. Then there was Marvel Super Heroes. Then X-Men came back and tussled with Street Fighters. Then it was Marvel’s turn. Then other Capcom heroes joined the fray. Now we get to Marvel vs. Capcom 2, where a whole bunch of fighters from both universes show up and beat the tar out of each in pixilated fashion. Most people consider it to be one of the finest fighting games ever made while others (myself included – see my Xbox review of the same game) blast it for being a unbalanced contest of who can pull off the more impressive combo. In either case, you were getting a pretty meaty package that was a blast to play among friends and fun times can be had by all.

Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, like most Capcom fighters, started life as an arcade machine and was eventually first ported onto Sega’s Dreamcast console before being shovelwared onto PS2 and Xbox consoles a couple years later. While I have already picked up and reviewed the Xbox version years ago (before it started commanding ridiculous prices on eBay), just a couple months ago, I was able to snag the Dreamcast version for a couple bucks. And after having played the game for a couple days, my thoughts are… well, let’s just go on.

Continue reading “GameFAQs Review – Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 (Dreamcast)”

A Strange Feeling

Walking by the magazine rack, I saw the cover for the latest issue of Nintendo Power and saw something on the cover that startled me a bit. What was it? A small bit of print that says “We Celebrate 20 Years of the Sega Genesis.”

If you owned a Sega Genesis 20 years ago and were told that NINTENDO POWER would do a retrospective on the console, you would have had the messenger committed. Even years after the fact and despite owning a Wii with a couple Genesis games on the Virtual Console, I still can’t used to the fact that Sega stuff is being featured in Nintendo stuff… go figure.

Speaking of anniversaries, tomorrow’s the Sega Dreamcast’s tenth birthday. I’ll have a couple reviews posted on the site this week.

GameFAQs Review – Power Rangers Super Legends (Nintendo DS)

In 2007, Power Rangers celebrated its fifteenth anniversary with a 2-part episode that united some familiar faces of the franchise’s past. Despite its intentions, the episode had left a sour taste in most people’s mouths that is rather hard to do away with. So in a vain attempt to salvage the anniversary, Disney has their gaming studios develop a couple games commemorating the franchise’s fifteen-year history; one for the Nintendo DS and another for the Playstation-2 and PC platforms. Both share a similar scenario (Rangers from different points in history team up to fight the bad guys), but the actual set-up and gameplay is different. For now, we’ll start with the DS version.

Continue reading “GameFAQs Review – Power Rangers Super Legends (Nintendo DS)”

Classic Bite Commentary #88 – September 1st, 2009

Welcome to another Bite commentary… and one that’s going to be fairly brief because this is less a commentary on the state of the world and the bubble of interests that serve as the background fodder for my little corner of the Interwebz or whatever we’re supposed to be calling this thing… but rather, this is going to largely focus on “the big picture” change that I’m going to be toying with.

Continue reading “Classic Bite Commentary #88 – September 1st, 2009”

Classic Bite Commentary #87 – August 15th, 2009

It’s been a while since I wrote one of these, hasn’t it?

The last time I’ve written a Bite commentary was WAY BACK in March 2009. A few months behind on stuff… and to be perfectly honest, not that many posts have been appearing on the blog, either. Unusual considering I’ve managed well over a thousand posts in a period of five years – an uncanningly disturbing statistic in itself. So let’s get it out of the way…

Continue reading “Classic Bite Commentary #87 – August 15th, 2009”