Well, while most people are getting new consoles and new games for Christmas, I was busy doing something completely different.
Earlier this year I was having some cravings to play some of the games I used to love on the SNES. While the vast majority of SNES games are mediocre, completely forgettable, and have deteriorated with time, there were some special gems that are classics no matter when they are played. Some of those classic games provide a type of gaming experience that just isn't found in modern games. While I knew they were special at the time, I didn't realize how unique they were as I expected them to be copied and polished repeatedly over the years. Instead, there was a rapid transition to 3D and a generally different type of gaming…progression to higher quality 2D and of old ideas generally didn't happen. So, I came to realize if I wanted to keep any of that old style experience I better get some of the old stuff together.
I also have some little girls that might like playing around with it some eventually…some of those SNES games are really good for kids.
So, I went to my parent's house where some of my old stuff was. I asked where things were at (my mom was a little excited about it, she used to play a lot of RPGs and strategies and such on SNES), went crashing through storage rooms, and had some success. I found all my old games and some controllers, but I didn't find the console itself. The games were the most important thing, so I was at least happy about that.
Well…my dad likes to use Ebay. So, I made a list of some of the games didn't already own but wanted. Gave it to my parents and told them it would be something I wanted for Christmas. They have had trouble knowing of any good things to get me for Christmas and such in recent years so they were probably happy to finally have a cheat sheet in hand.
Christmas rolls around and they did in fact get some games from the list. Okay…"new" games in hand…time to get serious. Day after Christmas - back over to my parent's house to look for the console one last time. My mom thought there was one last place it might be or else she thinks my younger sister had taken it somewhere she was babysitting at one time and left it there. Well…I do find the NES, but the SNES is still unfound and probably gone. I knew I was probably stuck with Ebay for my cheapest solution, but I'm not a huge fan of Ebay buying… it can be aggravating and a pain sometimes…as well as the potential for getting cheated somehow. Besides, I didn't feel like waiting. We have some "Vintage Stock" stores around town that deal in all the old school nerd ambrosia…so off to the nearest one. They didn't have any SNES's on hand (sold out) and at least one of their other stores didn't have any either. But, they are selling these newly manufactured "FC Twin" systems that are copy jobs that play both the 8-bit NES and 16-bit SNES games on the same hardware. I'm normally quite skeptical of non-original hardware, but this place is pretty serious about this kind of stuff and I also have 30 days to return it if it doesn't work right. So, I bought it.
So far, I'm quite happy with it. I at least briefly tested every SNES game I have and they all worked. Super Mario Bros. 2 worked in the 8-bit slot - although it seems just as finicky getting getting good contact on the old NES carts as on a regular NES system. It hooks up with with AV cables (normal RCA connectors on both ends) and comes with 2 new controllers that are essentially exact copies of the original ones except for different color plastic on the body and the different name. The new controllers were nice because mine were pretty worn from heavy usage. So, while a more normal person would be playing Halo 3 right now, I'm playing "Breath of Fire" and enjoying it just as much as I did in 1994.
Anyway…here's some of the games I already had (ones I care about off the top of my head):
Super Mario World
Zelda: A Link to the Past
Final Fantasy III
Chrono Trigger
Romance of the Three Kingdoms III
Inindo (this game rocks and hardly anyone knew about it)
Uncharted Waters: New Horizons
Street Fighter II: Turbo
(and some others I'm either not remembering or don't care a whole bunch about)
For Christmas I got: (I can't imagine getting a haul like this back in the mid 90's.)
Final Fantasy II
Breath of Fire
Breath of Fire II
Important games still on my list:
Earthbound
Secret of Mana
Ogre Battle
Super Metroid
Contra III
Megaman X
Less important but would like to have:
Shadowrun
Secret of Evermore
King Arthur's World
Illusion of Gaia
Samurai Showdown
maybe the Lufia games, Soul Blazer, the ActRaiser games, Gradius/R-Type/Darius Twin games, Castlevania games
Wow, long post…
Earlier this year I was having some cravings to play some of the games I used to love on the SNES. While the vast majority of SNES games are mediocre, completely forgettable, and have deteriorated with time, there were some special gems that are classics no matter when they are played. Some of those classic games provide a type of gaming experience that just isn't found in modern games. While I knew they were special at the time, I didn't realize how unique they were as I expected them to be copied and polished repeatedly over the years. Instead, there was a rapid transition to 3D and a generally different type of gaming…progression to higher quality 2D and of old ideas generally didn't happen. So, I came to realize if I wanted to keep any of that old style experience I better get some of the old stuff together.
I also have some little girls that might like playing around with it some eventually…some of those SNES games are really good for kids.So, I went to my parent's house where some of my old stuff was. I asked where things were at (my mom was a little excited about it, she used to play a lot of RPGs and strategies and such on SNES), went crashing through storage rooms, and had some success. I found all my old games and some controllers, but I didn't find the console itself. The games were the most important thing, so I was at least happy about that.
Well…my dad likes to use Ebay. So, I made a list of some of the games didn't already own but wanted. Gave it to my parents and told them it would be something I wanted for Christmas. They have had trouble knowing of any good things to get me for Christmas and such in recent years so they were probably happy to finally have a cheat sheet in hand.
Christmas rolls around and they did in fact get some games from the list.
Okay…"new" games in hand…time to get serious. Day after Christmas - back over to my parent's house to look for the console one last time. My mom thought there was one last place it might be or else she thinks my younger sister had taken it somewhere she was babysitting at one time and left it there. Well…I do find the NES, but the SNES is still unfound and probably gone. I knew I was probably stuck with Ebay for my cheapest solution, but I'm not a huge fan of Ebay buying… it can be aggravating and a pain sometimes…as well as the potential for getting cheated somehow. Besides, I didn't feel like waiting. We have some "Vintage Stock" stores around town that deal in all the old school nerd ambrosia…so off to the nearest one. They didn't have any SNES's on hand (sold out) and at least one of their other stores didn't have any either. But, they are selling these newly manufactured "FC Twin" systems that are copy jobs that play both the 8-bit NES and 16-bit SNES games on the same hardware. I'm normally quite skeptical of non-original hardware, but this place is pretty serious about this kind of stuff and I also have 30 days to return it if it doesn't work right. So, I bought it.So far, I'm quite happy with it. I at least briefly tested every SNES game I have and they all worked. Super Mario Bros. 2 worked in the 8-bit slot - although it seems just as finicky getting getting good contact on the old NES carts as on a regular NES system. It hooks up with with AV cables (normal RCA connectors on both ends) and comes with 2 new controllers that are essentially exact copies of the original ones except for different color plastic on the body and the different name. The new controllers were nice because mine were pretty worn from heavy usage. So, while a more normal person would be playing Halo 3 right now, I'm playing "Breath of Fire" and enjoying it just as much as I did in 1994.
Anyway…here's some of the games I already had (ones I care about off the top of my head):
Super Mario World
Zelda: A Link to the Past
Final Fantasy III
Chrono Trigger
Romance of the Three Kingdoms III
Inindo (this game rocks and hardly anyone knew about it)
Uncharted Waters: New Horizons
Street Fighter II: Turbo
(and some others I'm either not remembering or don't care a whole bunch about)
For Christmas I got: (I can't imagine getting a haul like this back in the mid 90's.)
Final Fantasy II
Breath of Fire
Breath of Fire II
Important games still on my list:
Earthbound
Secret of Mana
Ogre Battle
Super Metroid
Contra III
Megaman X
Less important but would like to have:
Shadowrun
Secret of Evermore
King Arthur's World
Illusion of Gaia
Samurai Showdown
maybe the Lufia games, Soul Blazer, the ActRaiser games, Gradius/R-Type/Darius Twin games, Castlevania games
Wow, long post…
![]-[itman](/forums/data/avatars/s/9/9309.jpg?1650325391){kind=avatar}
