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The talk of differences between Nintendo versions and other console titles in the forum upgrades thread has made me want to play Aladdin on the Mega Drive again. Might have to setup the Mega SG after work and dig out the cart.

Aladdin_01_(SMD).gif

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1 hour ago, Happenstance said:

The talk of differences between Nintendo versions and other console titles in the forum upgrades thread has made me want to play Aladdin on the Mega Drive again. Might have to setup the Mega SG after work and dig out the cart.

Aladdin_01_(SMD).gif

Why would you want to play the inferior version of the game?

*kicks hornets nest and runs*

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All-aluminium Analogue Pockets announced:

They look reeeeeeeeeally nice 

Price of a PS5 and a bit though, with the Switch 2 potentially less than 9 months away? Think I'll wait :p

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  • 2 weeks later...

There's a great article on Time Extension that popped up yesterday.

https://www.timeextension.com/features/talking-point-does-video-game-history-have-a-nintendo-problem

This is something I have thought about for along time now. There's no denying that Nintendo have played a huge part in the development of the industry but a lot of the time other companies had pioneered things way before Nintendo did.

The article is spot in in that most Youtube videos about gaming do seem to be from people who live in the US and so there is definitely a bias there. Another thing that is pointed out, and it's always been a pet peeve of mine, is that Nintendo is seen as a saviour for the whole industry in the 80's during the Atari crash but over here in the UK there was no such issue. Home computers were doing fine and when it came to game consoles, most people had Sega machines over here, not Nintendo.

Personally, I think it was @Happenstance who wrote the article. I mean, nobody loves Croc as much as him, right? :D 

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Its an interesting article. I do agree that there is a Nintendo problem with video game history but I think the writer maybe gets a bit too sidetracked with the 3D aspect of people praising Mario 64. I don't particularly remembering people lauding it for being a big 3D innovator but as a 3D platformer innovator and I think that's an important distinction.

They are right though, the world would be a much darker place today without Croc. My only complaint about that game has always been that it singlehandedly took down Sega with its sheer brilliance. They carried on trying for a while but could never get out of its shadow.

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7 minutes ago, Happenstance said:

Its an interesting article. I do agree that there is a Nintendo problem with video game history but I think the writer maybe gets a bit too sidetracked with the 3D aspect of people praising Mario 64.

I was about to say the same thing.

Mario 64 isn't as influential as it was because it was first, its because it did a lot of things really well compared to its contemporaries.

I played Croc by the way, as a bit of an aficionado on games that feature Crocodilians, it's thoroughly "meh".

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1 minute ago, Glen-i said:

I played Croc by the way, as a bit of an aficionado on games that feature Crocodilians, it's thoroughly "meh".

The Nintendo problem in action my friends. As you can see here we have a fan so consumed by their own delusions that they actually have started to believe their own lies.

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1 minute ago, Happenstance said:

The Nintendo problem in action my friends. As you can see here we have a fan so consumed by their own delusions that they actually have started to believe their own lies.

Mate, if Crocodiles/lizards can't make me enjoy a game, it's bad.

Just look at Skyrim.

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3 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

Mate, if Crocodiles/lizards can't make me enjoy a game, it's bad.

Just look at Skyrim.

Immovable object (searing hatred of open worlds) meets unstoppable force (love of crocs and lizards)

Yeah, I'm really shocked you weren't head over heels with Skyrim, Glen :p

Edited by Julius
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7 minutes ago, Julius said:

Immovable object (searing hatred of open worlds) meets unstoppable force (love of crocs and lizards)

Yeah, I'm really shocked you weren't head over heels with Skyrim, Glen :p

You say that, but Lil Gator Game exists. So the impossible can be done.

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While I do agree with the premise somewhat that Nintendo is overrepresented by gaming historians; moreso than anything else, gaming historians are overly anglocentric.  As far as the English speaking internet is concerned, there is America and Thar Be Dragons everywhere else.

Take The Great Video Game Crash for example.  It’s basically taken as universal worldwide gospel at this point, but it was actually an isolated US-only phenomenon, that didn’t even affect the arcade industry in the US at the time; but if you are to take the internet spiel as fact, you’d think that the entire video game industry just ground to a halt the moment that Atari’s ET and Pac-Man came out.  Never mind the booming arcade industry’s golden and silver age, or the booming British and mainland European microcomputer revolution.

Likewise, you’d think that Nintendo was the only game in town after the end of the Atari 2600, and the Master System was a tremendous failure, but SEGA actually wiped the floor with the NES here in the UK and throughout most of Europe in the late 80s/early 90s.  You almost never hear that acknowledged by the internet history consensus, outside of a basic footnote.  And countries outside of the US, Japan or (to a much lesser extent) Europe? They may as well not exist at all.  And even Japanese video game history is often glossed over… if you were to only go by western accounts of gaming history, you might not even know that Virtua Fighter exists; despite it being one of the most important and influential games in all of gaming history (indeed, without VF, there would’ve been no PlayStation; never mind it being the first ever example of 3D motion captured human animation in a video game).  An absolute travesty of historical documentation.

That’s the biggest crime as far as video game historical documentation goes.

Edited by Dcubed
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So I found a Platinum Wavebird going on eBay for a song (about £15), which is well below the average market price.  Sweet! Have always wanted one of these, and they're not easy to come by (I believe that they never got released in Europe, being US/JPN only), seeing as they're the only official colour variant of the Wavebird available (outside of the super rare JPN Club Nintendo exclusive models that I have never seen on eBay or IRL in any form.

Only problem is...

9e6E7tP.jpeg

... this shit don't work!

Controller is knackered.  Will not power on, no matter how many batteries you throw at it.  Oh noes! What do I doez?!?

Well...

oX4wYNH.jpeg

gu23rVe.jpeg

Profit

Thankfully an easy fix.  Had a spare busted up Wavebird lying around, so all I had to do was harvest a few parts from it (mainly the motherboard) and voila! Platinum Wavebird resurrected from the dead! :D

Edited by Dcubed
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14 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Should have changed the sticks as well. Those things are looking a little nasty. :shakehead

I have another broken controller + working Wavebird Receiver on the way (Mainly wanted the Receiver, as one of mine got broken last week).  Will be swapping out the sticks once the controller arrives.

Edited by Dcubed
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Small update.  I have since replaced the nasty looking c-stick for a new one...

73dEH6N.jpg

Ahh! Much better.

You might be wondering why I didn't replace the left stick... well, as it turns out; the left stick is the only part of this controller that is actually unique to this colour variant.  While Gamecube controllers by and large all use the same buttons and sticks, regardless of controller shell colour, it turns out that Nintendo broke their rule in this one specific case; as the left stick actually comes in a slightly darker grey to fit the Platinum colour shell.

4O4wNq0.jpg

Squint and you can see the difference

Might not be so obvious in this photo, but I did try swapping out the sticks and the result just looked really weird and obviously not OEM, so I've decided to leave the left stick as-is.  It looks better in person than these beauty ugly shots would suggest, and the minor blemishes don't really bother me.  The left stick works perfectly and feel normal, and that's the most important thing.

Edit:

I've only just noticed this now... but it's not just the left stick, but all of the grey buttons (Y/X/Start/D-Pad/Wireless Switch/L/R) actually use a darker variant colour as well!

SRG0Yez.jpg

No other Gamecube controller uses these particular parts AFAIK (though I'd imagine that the wired Platinum colour GCN controller also uses these buttons/sticks; the wireless switch would still be exclusive to this one particular variant).  Interesting that Nintendo actually bothered to manufacture unique parts for this colour and this colour variant only!

Edited by Dcubed
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  • 2 weeks later...

I've been making my way through this video over the past week and finally finished last night.

Their output on the PS1 was insane. A lot of the games were top tier stuff and most of them still hold up even to this day. Of course the problem with watching something like this is that it always sends me down a retro rabbit hole over on eBay. Good viewing but bad for my wallet.

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  • 3 weeks later...

So my parents have found some of my old LCD games.  I’ve discovered one of them (Formula 1 by Systema) is missing a spring and battery contact.  Does anyone know if this is fixable?  To be honest I’m simply selling them all on eBay and it’s to know whether I can realistically sell this or if it’s destined for the bin!
 

 

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4 minutes ago, WackerJr said:

So my parents have found some of my old LCD games.  I’ve discovered one of them (Formula 1 by Systema) is missing a spring and battery contact.  Does anyone know if this is fixable?  To be honest I’m simply selling them all on eBay and it’s to know whether I can realistically sell this or if it’s destined for the bin!

I'd say definitely don't bin it, as it can be fixed with a new spring and contact, though it would take a little bit of doing, but assuming it comes apart easily enough, it could be fixable.

If you didn't want to fix it, and were considering binning it though, I'd pay postage cost, I might even be interested in some of the other LCD games, so PM me if you like, but if you want to eBay them all, then I understand.

Either way, I'm happy to offer advice if I can.

Also, as it happens, I've got a similar thing to fix with a GameBoy, as it's missing a spring in the battery compartment, but I'm pretty sure it could be fixed with a replacement spring, hopefully.

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