It took about a year, but today, Memorial Day, I went to the Flea Market at the Meadolands/Giant Stadium in New Jersey and finally walked away with a Philips CD-I. I have been looking for about a year. There are always people there selling old CD players and VCRs, so I knew one day I would find one with someone who did not know what they had. CD-I's go for way too much on eBay, so it was a great find for $10.
And i found an origianl Commodore 64 too in the origianl box! A good day at the Flea Market.
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I made some big submissions to the Wiki today for Air Zonk and Super Air Zonk. I thought it was funny that there were no descriptions unde rthese games at all. I remember these games from the early nineties, so I thought they should be added. Here is an excerpt of what I wrote for Air Zonk.
Air Zonk, named PC Denjin Punkic Cyborg in Japan, was a side scrolling shooter game. It served as an unlikely and unusual sequel to the prior Bonk games from Hudson and NEC that were successful on the TurboGrafx-16. The game was developed by Red Company and provided an update to the popular boy-caveman character Bonk. For this game Bonk was renamed Air Zonk and converted into a more punk rock, modern and contemporary style. The result was this game's punk rock cyborg character sporting sun glasses and a mohawk. The game even uses the same villian from the Bonk series, King Drool.
Red Company and Hudson Soft decided instead of creating a direct sequel to the Bonk games' popular platformer gameplay, Air Zonk would be a side-scrolling shooter game. Side-scrolling shooters being almost equally popular as platformers in the early nineties video game era. Air Zonk's art style was somewhat distinctive in the shooter category at the time, using cute cartoon like graphics, in a very similar manner as presented in the earlier Bonk games. The game is recognized by most as what would be called a "Cute 'Em Up," a cuter art style version of a typical "Shoot 'Em Up." Other games in this "Cute 'Em Up" style of the period included Parodius and Ordyne.
I got further along in FF XIII last night and the game has opened up a little bit more. I upgraded some weapons and my characters are levelling up. I think the only thing left for the game to reveal is for it to aloow me to choose my own team. I think everything else is open to me now. I am enjoying it, but I can understand where people may get frustrated with the strict path or linear nature of the game.
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I have been playing Final Fantasy XIII and I don't fins it to be teh slog that everyone makes it out to be. Sure it takkes a while to get going, hours to get going, but the quick combat along the way is enjoyable and almost arcadey. Sure you are mostly just hitting the same bottom over and over at times, but somehow this strange quick arcade style RPG combat has grown on me.
Meanwhile, I am letting some older games I purchased go a little neglected, D2, Bonk's Adventure and Bonk's Revenge. I have to get into those games. I ahve to jump back in to some of these especially D2. The game is fascinating and definitely different.
This afternoon while at work I was bidding on the original Splatterhouse for the TurboGrafx-16, but I lost the auction. Just wondering does anyone else here on Giant Bomb but old games on eBay, or other sites or at Flea Markets? And do you think it is unhealthy to be bidding while at work?
It seems like sometimes I really struggle with purchasinga game or not. Typically when I am torn over buying a game it is for anumber of reasons, not just one reason. I will find myself struggling with spending the money. For example, I think that Alan Wake is a good example of a game that I would like, but it is a full $60 ($59 whatever), and then a couple days out Amazon lowers the price to $50 and the I really start thinking about it.
My second struggle is I never seem to finish games. I seem to have way too many unfinished games. The XBox 360 has had so many good games and I have alot of them that are unfinished and the PS3 has started to turn a corner and has more good games. I have unfinished games like Final Fantasy XIII, Little Big Planet, Metal Gear Solid 4, Forza 3, Brutal Legend, Bully, and plenty of others.
Maybe I have some credit card points I can turn in for some Amazon bucks? hmm...
I just made my second big contribution to the Giant Bomb Wiki that revolves around WARP, Inc. and Kenji Eno. I am not quite sure where my fascination comes from. I have liked the games they produced, as few as they were. I don't really think the games would fly now.
There games were certainly quircky. D was basically a pre-rendered FMV point and click adventure game, Real Sound was a unique audio only "choose your own adventure" love story game, Enemy Zero was a first person shooter and adventure game that relied on sound to find your enemies and D2 was a mash up of several game types; first person shooter, collecting items and FMV story telling.
Real Sound: The Wind's Regret was a Japanese only audio adventure games released for the Sega Saturn by WARP, Inc. and directed and produced by the company's founder Kenji Eno. The game was released on June 15, 1997.
The game came as a result of contact that Eno had with blind and visually impaired fans of WARP games. Eno was fascinated that the visually impaired would be fans of his games. He thought his games were very visually rich. He even went so far as to contact some of these fans to find out how they played his games if they could not see the games. As a result Eno decided to make a game that would be audio only, with no graphics at all.
So I ahve been thinking and trying to find some othe subjects to write about for the Giant Bomb Wiki. I guess I seem to have some sort of attaraction to the more unusual games and game developers. I initially wrote about and added to the listings for the Atari Swordquest games; Earthworld, Fireworld, Waterworld and Airworld. After writing about that I went ot to write about Jack Tramiel the founder of Commodore who went on to be CEO of Atari during the Swordquest era.
Over the last couple of days i have been thinking, researching and trying to decide on what to work on next for the Wiki. I think i have found my next muse; Kenji Eno and his company WARP, Inc. Eno already has a well written page on the Wiki, but there is next to nothing about WARP. I think I will start there and then may move on to some of the games the company and Eno developed.
Well, Giant Bomb, Thanks. You are helping me to keep up my writing skills. But what will I write about after that...
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I wrote a new entry on Adventure International to follow up my Wiki edits on Scott Adams. Sometimes, I think people forget about this early video and computer gaming history. I grew up playing Adventureland, Secret Mission and the Questprobe games. I remember me and a group of friends were never able to complete Secret Mission, but we lover it, even though we were dumbfounded.
An exceprt of what I wrote about Adventure International:
Adventure International was a computer and video game publishing company. The company was created and founded by Scott Adams, the so called godfather of text based adventure games.
History
Adventure International was founded in 1978 by Scott Adams shortly after he created his first text based adventure computer game for the TRS-80 personal computer. That first game was Adventureland. After Adventureland, the schedule at which games were released by Adams and Adventure International was fairly quick. The first games released by the company following the premier effort were also mostly created by Adams and were also text based adventure games. Those first games included Pirate Adventure, Secret Mission and The Count.
The company went on to release games that Adams worked on with others too, and those created solely by other creators. After many of these games, the company gained what would then be a very early agreement to create computer games based on Marvel Comics characters. These games were released under the Questprobe moniker and included games featuring Spiderman, the Incredible Hulk and the Fantastic Four. The company also released a very hard to find and rare game based on the movie The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension.
Well, my name is Gregg and I am a pretty big fan of the Giant Bomb web site and the podcast. I am typically checking the web site on a daily basis for new videos from the crew, new reviews on the web site in general and reading and checking out the forums. I work for a Dutch company in New York City. I listen to teh podcast on the train into New York City often too. Every once in a while I must go in to the company's headquarters in the Netherlands, once or twice a year. It is typically a nice experience because I get to stop in Amsterdam and I like to travel for the most part.
My latest trip to the Netherlands was going well. I got a day in Amsterdam and went to the Anne Frank House, a surreal experience being in the actual rooms that Anne Frank and her family and the van Pelts actually hid in, and wandered around the city. I even had a nice lunch in a cafe in the city. That afternoon I headed off with a colleague on the train to s' HertogenBosch (Den Bosch in english), a smaller Dutch city nearby my compny's headquarters is.
The next couple of days were full of meetings and catching up with Dutch co-workers. Overall a very nice experience. I heard about the volcano in Iceland on Wednesday but did not think much of it. I also continued to visit www.giantbomb.com and started taking part in some of the quests. I even started to edit the Wiki as part of the quest system too. I did some silly little edits to get some quest points; Parappa The Rapper and Neo Geo Pocket and Bandai.
Stuck in Europe
Then on Thursday night my flight out of the Netherlands on Friday afternoon was cancelled.
The next morning I spoke to the company's travel agency and Continental Airlines. I was rescheduled to fly out by Continental on Sunday. Well, guess what happened? On Saturday afternoon that flight was cancelled too.
Disheartened and not in a good mood in a small city with few shops open in the Netherlands, I ended up spending a good part of Sunday on Giant Bomb and on the Wiki. To keep myself busy and my mind off the miserable situation I ended up editing a bunch of Wiki pages; Swordquest EarthWorld, FireWorld, WaterWorld and AirWorld from the Atari 2600 days.
Giant Bomb Wiki
Now it is Tuesday and I am still stuck in the Netherlands. I was supposed to be here five days and am now here nine days.
Giant Bomb's Wiki has kept me busy and sane which is great. Thanks guys. I have now gone on to create a Jack Tramiel page on the wiki and have added some much needed information to the Scott Adams text adventure games Adventureland, Pirate Adventure and Secret Mission.
I am also thankful that I have a hotel room about an hour away from Amsterdam. There are people out there that have it much worse than me, that are stuck in airports with no hotel rooms. Or do not have simple pleasures like good co-workers that are helping like I have or even internet access to keep in touch with family. I am hopeful for all those people who have it worse than me.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and wish me luck in getting home soon.
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