My Wishlist of Gaming Hardware

We all have a wish list of hardware we would love to own, whether the latest console or some other piece of kit. I thought I would write down five pieces of gear I wish I owned.

1) Commodore CBM 1541 Disk Drive

Despite owning several C64's over the years have never been the owner of a disk drive. All my Commodore memories are based around the trusty old datasette. As I now own two C64's (one with a 6581 and one with an 8580 SID chip if you care) I think a disk drive would be a useful device to have. For one thing it would be allot more reliable at saving games than the datasette ever was!



2) Super Nintendo Console

At this point in my life myself (and most of my friends) were Sega Megadrive fanatics so the though of owning a SNES back then was unthinkable. All these years later however and there are several good reasons I want to own one. R-Type III and Gradius III to be exact.






3) Sega Saturn Console

When Sony was going all 3D with the PS1 Sega and the Saturn were showing that 2D wasn't dead yet. With classic shooters like Radiant Silvergun and Dodonapachi available this machine is a shmup fans dream.






4) Sega Mega CD

A cool little add-on for the Megadrive with some cool games too, Sonic CD, Ecco the Dolphin, Snatcher and many other great titles. (can you just imagine what the back of my TV is going to look like if I do own all these extra consoles?).







5) Candy Cabinet

If I ever do get one of these I'm sure it won't be for many years but what gamer wouldn't want a beautiful looking candy cab in his or her living room?








Does anyone else have a hardware wishlist?

A Quick Link From Another Blog

I found an interesting article just now about classic gaming and its relevance in todays gaming world.

Hope you enjoy

Link

original article found on SideQuesting

Sega Dreamcast, happy (belated) birthday

The beloved Sega Dreamcast was released in North America just over 10 years ago and although us Europeans had to wait a little longer to get our hands on this brilliant piece of gaming hardware it still seems that 09/09 (the North American Release date) is as good a date for an anniversary.

I personally never owned a Dreamcast during its short but eventful life as I was firmly in the Playstation camp at this point wating for the PS2 to arrive with baited breath. However I did pick up a Dreamcast two years ago and despite only owning a small collection of games I fell love this machine.

So here are some of the games I own and rate for the venerable Dreamcast:



Chu Chu Rocket

A simple but extremely deep puzzler. Help your mice get to their rocket ships by avoiding various obstacles and the dreaded cats. despite having been stuck on the same level for over a year now I still come back to this fantastic game.







Soul Calibur

The first fighting game I ever really enjoyed. I never owned a SNES so I also never really got Street Fighter II fever. but Soul Calibur just seemed so easy to get into. Despite its easy learing curve, the more you played the deeper the gameplay became and you soon found yourself stringing together combos that were not only devastatingly effective but also visually very beautiful. Still one of my favourite fighting games.




Triggerheart Excelica

I first played this on Xbox Live and loved it so much i just had to get my hands on the Dreamcast version. It was the game that got me back into shooters after a very long (since my old C64 and Amiga days) hiatus. The visual style and characterisation of this Japanese shmup is just wonderful. Add in the anchor mechanic and you have a manic shooter with a novel twist. I prefer the Dreamcast version over the Xbox live version although I'm not sure why.




Giga Wing

Another manic shooter from Japan, this one is about as OTT as they come though. It is very easy to become disorientated while playing this game as the amount of bullets on screen is overwhelming but the feeling of accomplishment upon completing a level that has denied you for so long or in beating your high score is a rare thing in modern videogames. can be found fairly cheep too.





So this is the handful of games that get repeated play in my Dreamcast, I know there are allot more quality titles that I want to pick up and I'm sure I will at a later date (I'm looking at you Mars Matrix and Border down!)

Happy birhtday Dreamcast, see you in another 10 years!

This week I have been mostly playing...

Sonic the Hedgehog
Sega Megadrive (gens+ emulator)

Decided to give this old classic a quick spin today. Needless to say within moments I had the joypad snatched out of my hands by a squealing girlfriend reliving her childhood (turned out she preferred Sonic 2 and I soon had the pad back!) All these years later the purity of the level design and overall charm of the game still shine through.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Xbox 360

Still loving CoD4 and I am finally getting to grips with the sniper rifles.




Gradius Galaxies
Gameboy Advance

Been without the DS for a few days so I have been back to playing this on my GBA. Still finding it very hard, although not as hard as Gradius III.



Colin McRae Dirt 2 (Demo)
Xbox 360

I downloaded the demo for this game from Xbox live and have been well impressed. I have an ever growing list of games I want to pick up when my student loan comes, this one may well be at the top.

Eve Online
PC

Still loosing countless hours to this MMO. Damn you Eve!!!

Review: Sega Saturn USB gamepad

A quick review of my goto retro controller.

I bought this off eBay a while ago now, there was allot of buzz about them on one of the forums I visit (shmups.com) so decided to take the plunge.

Now I'm not here to say whether these are original Sega pads with a USB cable stuck on or whether some enterprising factory owner in China has decided to make a copy old the Saturn pad. What I am going to say is this:

This game pad is fantastic! I use it with all my emulators from MAME to WinVICE , Both the Pad itself and the buttons have a wonderful feel and it is beautifully responsive. It works perfectly with Joy2key too.

I would recommend this pad to anyone looking for a good USB gamepad.

Just search ebay for: Sega Saturn USB there should be loads for sale

Currently Playing:

Nintendo DS:
Advance Wars: Dual Strike
Gradius Galaxies (GBA)




PC:
Eve online



Emulators:
Gradius III (MAME)
Zerowing (gens+)
R-Type III (zsnes)



Xbox 360:
Nothing, RROD (again)!

Blazblue gets PAL release

from eurogamer.net

The highly acclaimed 2D fighter Blazblue is set to land on European shores in 2010. For those of you to impatent to wait there is always the Casino Arcade on Tottenham Court Road which has a beautiful HD cab all set up for you in the basement.

Now lets all just hope we get PAL releases of some nice 2D shooters like Deathsmiles, Raiden IV and Mushimisama