RF Generation Message Board

Episode 4 is live!

What a tease you are.

Not anymore ;D

But I haven't even listened to the 3rd one yet! I normally listen when I cut the grass, but its all dead now so I may not be able to listen until September...

You could always just push it around the yard for fun.

You have a really odd sense of fun.

I wish I could say that is the first time someone has told me that.

I think variants should be seen form each individual system/region like in your Shenmue 2 example to make a complete US X-box set you can’t count the Dreamcast version for a US X-box complete set. In other words different hardware/region = different game in my opinion.

As far as import Vs. release I think as long as the company that released the original game does something to show that they intended for the game to be released here in the US then it’s an official release. One of the most controversial games that fits this is SMS Sonic with the US UPC sticker. In my eyes you do not have a complete US Master System set unless you have a UPC sticker Sonic. I do think it’s funny though every time you take the US Sonic out of the case it turns into the EUR game.

Stuck in an office writing today, thank god for this!!

We usually just go by Crabmaster and Duke.Togo, but I think we'll get used to it.

My word. How long till you guys get a star on the ground in Silicon valley?

Neither of us live close enough to spray paint one there.

@understatement: Interesting thought. Even though Sachen games aren't know to have been officially released in the US, there were clear intentions to do so. Would that make games like Huge Insect that were imported in some small numbers unlicensed US releases in your mind?

Hum, personally I consider pirate/bootleg type carts in a whole other league. Most of the time pirate/bootleg carts don’t have any indication where they were released such as PAL, NTSC-J, NTSC-U and so on.

Rereading my post I might need to clarify that as long as the company or someone with the company’s consent that released the game does something to the game/packaging to show that they intended for it to be released in another region I would consider that a release. Basically if someone tried to get there Japanese game released here and no publisher picked it up and then a store like EB/GS imported it and sold it it’s just an import. If a publisher did pick it up they would have to change something: NTSC-j to NTSC-U, the language in game or on the package, the shape of the cart, or the UPC just for a few examples. I don’t know of a single official game release where there was no change from it's foreign counter part.

But games released from companies such as Sachen aren't pirates or bootlegs. They are completely original releases. Some Sachen games were published in the US by Color Dreams under the Bunch Games moniker, but Huge Insect was a direct importation of carts from Sachen themselves. I know some people refer to these games as "pirate originals," but I don't think including games from Sachen in that grouping as they weren't a pirate company at all.

I'm really just playing Devil's Advocate, but this is a very interesting topic in how games should be classified.

So I'm listening right now.

I want you to know that Episode 6 will be up tomorrow.

Episode 7 will be 2 weeks after. I lost my first 1.5 hours of gameplay footage so I'm behind. And this game could make or break me...

That's all well and good... but more rapping please.

Well, when I say bootleg I'm referring to any games that don't go through the proper channels to get an official release, so things like homebrews or unofficial releases like Color Dreams games. It's just so hard to determine what region the game was released in with most of them I just kind of through most of them off to the side and say if it works with the system it's a release for that system so I guess I see them more as a world wide release over anything. For example take Wisdom Tree anyone in the world can go here http://www.wisdomtreegames.com/games.html and buy Super 3D Noah's Ark so is it a US PC release if people in Europe can buy it? I know this isn't how it worked back then but I can't help but think if I knew of Sachen back in the day and sent them a letter with enough money in it for one of every game they had and shipping to my address they would have had no problem sending the games to me.

I will make Episode 7 entirely in rap form.

Angry rap. But rap.

You rang for me?

An angry rap about variants and why Duke's Super Mario 3 request was rejected

Which Super Mario 3 request? ;D

Hey Crabs, I just realized that you seemed to be a little down on the Francophones at a couple points in the podcast.

You keep that up, and we might just hafta make you an honorary UnitedStatesian...

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Got around to listening to the podcast today, hearing my name still hasn't gotten old!

As for that Pikmin 2 in a NASCAR case, the guy running the sale told me about it. I had gladly paid his asking price of $2 for the N64 stuff, then asked if there was any other game stuff he might have around. He brought out a few GameCube and Xbox games, none of which were in their correct cases, so he went through each one to see what was actually in there. Sadly, it's too scratched to play, but perhaps I can bring it back with some toothpaste and/or Brasso. I don't recommend spending time making sure that each game case is what it says it is, unless it's one you want to buy in the first place. :P

As for the rest of the podcast, I think variant chat went on a little too long for me. Maybe it was just that it was so specific to our database here, rather than squabbling over what should and shouldn't be in here, it might have been interesting to hear what other collection communities do? I know it's the RF Generation Collectorcast, but NintendoAge got a mention earlier in the episode, how do they track these things there? That could have been interesting to know. Are we seen as the overly nitpicky crowd in the collecting scene, or given the other sites that do board variations, are we actually pretty lenient? I think answering some questions like this would have been a little more interesting than "Well what if I own the Xbox Dreamcast compilation..." that went around in circles a few times toward the end.

But if we answered everything in one episode, then we couldn't come back to it to address these kind of comments ;)

This is the kind of feedback I love to hear Grue! Were always looking to improve so if you guys can point out specific instances like this and explain why you didnt like them, that gives us a lot of info to work with.

I'll have to let Crabby have a "shut up already Duke" indicator for the next episode ;)

i loved the debate and banter about variants.  you guys are teaching me more about collecting in just the 4 episodes than i ever knew before.

I'm still waiting for my name to be dropped though :/

Now I could swear that you were mentioned in a small scores in an earlier episode...

meh its no big deal.  i just cry about it every night is all.

Save those tears in a bottle and sell them to witches so you can get more game cash, man.

Collectorcast Episode 5: How to exploit the Supernatural to expand your game collection!

tears are kinda hard to bottle.  how about belly button lint?

You just need to cry more I think. We'll make sure to ignore you in future podcasts :P

Ahh being ignored.  Takes me back to my childhood.

I must say, I was a little disappointed in the variant discussion. You guys just barely scratched the surface as far as variants go. I deal with variants as they pertain the DB on a near daily DB, and what you guys talked about was nothing. There's been stuff brought up that's made my head want to explode.
What I did find intriguing was whether compilations are variants of their respective titles. I had never considered them to be variants until it was brought up to me in chat. It seems rather obvious something like the Genesis Collection wouldn't be a variant of each Genesis title, but what about dual packs where you basically get two separate games packaged together with one UPC? Are they variants or separate releases? It was decided for the DB they were separate because if games A & B were sold together and you tied that dual-pack to each title then title A would be tied to title B as variants, which obviously wouldn't work.

Also, I'll mention your audio quality is excellent. It was only when I heard a child say something in the background for a second that I realized there was no static or other background noises. It was like you guys did it with professional mics in a soundproof room.

Like what? We knew we could only hit the highlights of variants, since it is such a huge topic. Let's here some interesting bits and we can incorporate those into variants part 2 sometime.


Thanks. We have been working hard at this, and it's not quite where I want it but it is much improved from episodes 0 and 1.

Thank God I'm not the only one.

Wasn't everyone raised by Nintendo and their TV?

I just heard all the Sega fanboys out there telling you to bite your tongue.

I'm sure a few youngins raised on Sony would be upset, too.

I don't about you guys, but around here "Nintendo" included Sega, Playstation and everything else.

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psh, sony youngin's don't count :-P

@NES_Rules - I'd love to hear your thoughts on all the important variant discussion that we missed as well. Please do elaborate.

Good news, folks. The RF Generation Collectocast is now available on Stitcher SmartRadio: http://stitcher.com/s?fid=25284&src=psl

Download that Stitcher app for your iOS, or Android device and give us a listen!

I once had my mother tell me that we hand to return Ogre Battle 64 to Blockbuster, because I had spent 80 hours playing it between Friday and Sunday. I was just about to reach the last battle, and I have no clue what ending I would've gotten.

what is the Stitcher app?

oh man, Stitcher is an app to keep all yr podcast subscriptions in one place and stream em? Fuuuuuuu. Tha'ts awesome. Downloading now.

My Windows Phone does this automatically with Zune. Too bad the podcast still isn't available with Zune...

I've submitted it several times to the Zune Marketplace. Blame Microsoft :(

Well aware the Zune Marketplace submission sucks.

Oh, for god's sake, don't encourage the guy!  >:(

Here's a variant head-scratcher that I was reminded of today. Expansion packs.
At first it seems obvious that an expansion pack is not a variant of a game, but a separate title. But what if more expansion packs are added, and then eventually a "Deluxe" edition comes out that has the original game and all expansion packs bundled together? Would this deluxe edition be a variant to the original title or a separate title like the individual expansion packs?

I'd vote for separate title, but make sure that they are linked as related.

Funny, I would vote for variant.