Fear has an address: 677 Bluebonnet Ln., Wichita, Kansas 67218

20 years ago today (Oct 2, 1997), Konami released Castlevania: Symphony of the Night in the US. My life has been demonstrably better ever since.

After reading a review of it in EGM, I knew I had to get the game. So I did, and it was awesome. This is probably still my favorite video game — or at least in the top three. This is the game that inspired our beloved Metroidvania term and genre, and it’s still one of my favorite game genres to this day.

Discussion Topic: What’s your favorite Castlevania game?

I need to start a historical coupon collection

Apparently I ripped this Tiger Game.com $10 rebate coupon off the back of some unknown cereal box around 1997 or 1998. I found it recently in the papers cleaned out from my childhood desk.

The Tiger Game.com seemed like a neat machine when I first read about it — with its touch screen and potential for “Internet access” — but it ended up being a major let-down.

I did eventually get a Game.Com — I could have sworn I got it on clearance at K-Mart or Toys’R’Us (but I didn’t mention that in this earlier post)…or maybe it was a birthday present from my dad in 1998. Despite buying many Game.com games over the next few years on clearance, I pretty much only played the built-in Solitaire game on it. But that was fun enough.

I remember thinking something along the lines of “For the price I paid for it, it’s a pretty good solitaire machine.” So maybe I did get my first Game.com on clearance. It’s sad that my memory is fading like this. I can typically remember how and when I got everything in my collection. I will have to look through my papers later and see if I have a receipt for it. That could shed some light on things.

See my previous Retro Scan posts about the Game.com (listed below) for more of my stories about this odd console. It’s the only video game console I ever used to call a BBS. Now that’s odd.

Discussion Topic of the Week: Did you buy a Tiger Game.Com in the 1990s? What did you think about it?

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See Also:
Tiger Game.com (RSOTW, 2010)
Game.com Internet Module (RSOTW, 2012)

“In fact, don’t even come in on Monday.”

It’s amazing to think back to a time when the now-common mouse scroll wheel was billed as a labor saving device.

But that is exactly what’s going on in this early ad for Microsoft’s Intellimouse and Intellimouse TrackBall. The Intellimouse series, first introduced in 1996, popularized the scroll wheel.

(By the way, the first mouse with a scroll wheel was actually the Mouse Systems ProAgio in 1995 — see this timeline I created in 2008 for more neat mouse history.)

A long time ago, people thought modernization and labor saving devices would lead to shorter workdays and work weeks. As someone once said somewhere (fuzzy attribution, I know), it turns out that productivity enhancements cease to be productivity enhancements as soon as they are ubiquitous. We just acclimate to them and expect more output for the same amount of work time.

Oh well. Keep on scrollin’.

Discussion Topic of the Week: When did you first get a mouse with a scroll wheel on it? How did you feel about it at the time?

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See Also:

The First Microsoft Mouse (RSOTW, 2007)
TrackMan Marble FX (RSOTW, 2008)
IBM ScrollPoint Mouse (RSOTW, 2010)

You are getting sleeeeepy

Mega Man 8 remains notable in my mind for its resistance to polygonal 3D graphics at a time when the media perceived that as a requirement for sales success (in the PlayStation-dominated console era). I remember renting it and being impressed by its fluidity and gameplay, although it was too difficult and frustrating for me to play for more than ten minutes in a sitting.

But then again, all the side-scrolling Mega Man games have been that way for me. I’m still partial to Mega Man 2, 3, and X, though.

Discussion Topic of the Week: What’s your favorite entry in the main-line Mega Man (1-10) series?

Even polygons get mad sometimes

Discussion Topic of the Week: If you’re old enough to remember it in the arcade, what did you think of Virtua Fighter the first time you saw it?

Atari Jaguar on Sale in 1997: “Includes RISC Processors!”

The Atari Jaguar launched at retail 20 years ago this Friday — November 15, 1993.

In April 1994, I received a Jaguar for my birthday, and it was one of the most exciting days of my life. That Christmas, my parents gave me Doom for the Jaguar, and I had a blast. After that, not many truly great games came out for the Jaguar (I’d say Tempest 2000 is the system-exclusive standout).

Partly because of that lack of great software, the Jaguar sunk fast — especially in the face of strong competition from Sony, Sega, and Nintendo (throw in some 3DO and Neo-Geo in there as well). The mid-1990s was a hard time to be a video game console.

By 1997, the Jaguar was toast. If I recall correctly, TigerDirect bought up a huge inventory of unsold Jaguar and Jaguar CD systems and sold them through their catalog.

This scan is a page from a 1997 TigerDirect catalog advertising the Jaguar for a mere $59.99 and the CD add-on for $89.99. Lucky for me, this is how I bought my Jaguar CD system, along with the advertised ultra-cheap game packs. CD exclusives Myst and Cybermorph 2 were worth the purchase alone.

So happy birthday, Jag. Sorry I can’t write more about you now. But I’ve written a lot about you on VC&G in the past. To read more, check out the links at the bottom of this post.

Discussion Topic of the Week: What’s your favorite Atari Jaguar game?

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See Also: Rayman and Frustration (RSOTW, 2013)
See Also: Atari Jaguar Debut Photo (RGOTW, 2013)
See Also: War + Mech = “Kinda Cool” (RSOTW, 2007)
See Also: Anatomy of a Young Collector’s Room (2006)
See Also: The First Atari Jaguar Press Release (2005)

So that’s what a translucent tongue looks like.

Nintendo’s second round of colored Game Boy units, this time pocket-sized. And over a year before the iMac, mind you.

Discussion Topic of the Week: What is your favorite Game Boy game?

It’s that time of year again…

I’m not a big fan of sports, and I’m not a big fan of sports games (Blades of Steel for the NES is probably my favorite — off the top of my head). But having grown up in the heart of ACC basketball country surrounded by great and once-great teams (UNC, Duke, NCSU, Wake Forest, etc.), I have a soft spot for the ACC and NCAA college basketball tournaments. I tend to watch a couple games a year.

So I can’t tell you much about NCAA Basketball Final Four ’97, because I’ve never played it. The closest I’ve come was NBA Live ’97 for the SNES, and that was pretty fun for a basketball game.

Discussion Topic of the Week: What’s your favorite basketball video game of all time?

Back in 2007, I intended to write an article about the 10th anniversary of Nick Newhard, the designer and lead programmer of Blood, and arranged for an interview.

For whatever reason, my interview with Newhard didn’t take place until April 2008 via email. (That’s probably why I shelved the project.) Since it’s almost Halloween — and it’s the 15th anniversary of Blood this year — I thought I’d share this little gem from my archives. It should be a treat for any Blood fans that might be out there.

I’m presenting this interview a little more sparsely laid-out than I usually do just for the sake of expediency. Some day I will write more about Blood, but until then, I hope this nugget of history will tide you over.

Get Blood

By the way, you can buy Blood on GOG.com these days for $5.99 (price at present). It runs great in DOSBox on a fast machine — make sure you crank up the in-game display resolution for greatest effect. The game is amazing in 1440×900 VESA mode on a widescreen monitor.

I heartily endorse the thorough and frequent playing of Blood, as it is one of the greatest PC games of all time — in my opinion, at least.

[ Continue reading VC&G Anthology Interview: Nick Newhard on Monolith’s Blood (2008) » ]

World Series Baseball 98 for the Sega Saturn

I’ve written about gratuitous and graphic video game advertising of the 1990s more than a few times over the years, but I never get tired of revisiting this wildly bombastic era in consumer marketing.

Here we see a nice ad for World Series Baseball 98 for the Sega Saturn, complete with front-and-center forearm scrape. I don’t know about you, but this makes me want to play baseball. Injury sells.

Discussion Topic of the Week: Would a graphic ad like this make you more or less likely to play a certain video game?