After my first post announcing my intent to reclaim (or mostly reclaim) the portion of my collection I sold off in 2007, I really began pondering the sanity of this choice.  As I've said before, my collecting instincts tend towards the chaotic, where I wander the thrift and garage sale landscape picking through boxes and endless shelves of junk for something new or at least something that looks interesting.  Stalking ebay, Craigslist, and forums for stuff I wanted (instead of stuff I stumbled upon) was strange and a little uncomfortable.  Sure, I could do it (I did it with the C64), but could I sustain the momentum over a long period of time? Could I be happy with this?  I suddenly regretted my announcement.  Just looking over the pricing of some of the titles in my list made me cringe and a little claustrophobic.  How was I, one of the cheapest gamers on the planet, going to get out of this?





Then one relatively hectic Wednesday evening I received a package from my friend (and yours) Mr. Slackur.  Now I knew this was coming, but I I hadn't expected it so quick.  Once the madness of the day ended I peeled open the box and was greeted by this:


The very moment that I laid the games all out, I instantly knew that this was the "bump" I had needed to get me back on track to this revival business.  Sure, I had picked up a few other games, but none of them had packed the raw emotional punch that the games from Slackur had.  Sound strange (though I think I'm preaching to the converted, so to speak)?  Please let me share with you (if you would be so kind to indulge me).  If now, please feel free to skip to the end (or hit back on your browser if you like, I'm pretty okay with anything you want to do).

Back in late '97 I had my Sega Saturn modded and Grandia was the first import game I bought on the system.  I won't tell you exactly how much I paid for it, but it was more than $60.  I spent hours bumbling through that game with no idea what was really going on, but still loving it.  Years later I bought the Playstation port so I could finally understand it, but was underwhelmed by what I experienced.  Was this justice to what I had seen and heard back on the "lowly" Saturn?  Nay, I say.

King of Fighters '97 was my third import game on the Saturn.  But before I gush, let me share something with you all.  Back when I originally compiled the list I did a lot of research and decided that it was KoF '96 that I had owned, but the second I saw the KoF '97 case and held it I knew that this was it.  Since I don't really believe in coincidence I decided to share this fact with Slackur and just roll with it.  Between this game and Grandia the Saturn has again earned a permanent position on my coffee table.  So, what is different about this game?  The massive amount of characters.  That, and Iori Yagami's special is slightly different than in the last game.  Yep, that's all it took, but then I also own two other KoF games (both Japanese, too).

Populous (the bottom SNES game in the pic) was originally given to me (along with a massive stack of games) by my Cool Aunt, an Aunt that was, well, cool.  Back in the day she bought a ton of games, using a combination of Nintendo Power and the back of the cardboard placers at Toys R Us as a scale for quality. Most of the crappy ones (or those that she deemed crappy) she would bequeath to me.  Also, Populous was one of the first games that I remembered playing when I received my first TV (which was a 10" color from the mid 70's), so naturally it got a lot of playtime, despite the fact the convex screen cut off the bottom icons in the game (that is what manuals were for).

I never expected to see The Silent Hill Experience (TSHE) again, mainly due to feeling overwhelmed by the rest of the list.  Plainly put, boy am I glad to see this again.  When I bought my first PSP I went a little overboard with my purchasing, but I managed to play every game I bought whilst on the job at Ford (every ten minutes I got about 55 seconds of game time if I hustled).  But TSHE was reserved specifically for home, not just because there were no games on it, but because the soundtracks that played when you read the comics commanded a lot of atmosphere.  You just had to wear headphones.  This game, along with the nearly forty PSP games and movies I originally owned, were sold off as fodder to purchase my 360.  *sigh*  Anyway, when I first started compiling my 2007 revival list I debated on whether or not to leave it on, especially considering the overall price of some of the PSX games (and Soul Blazer).

Panzer Dragoon Orta was the game I showed to friends who thought the Xbox wasn't worth getting.  The game still holds up well with great graphics (a treat on a widescreen 480p monitor) and great sound (with digital 5.1)  The rain effects on the first level...  Just amazing.  This was the last console system that game me that "Dreamcast" feeling, and this was one of the games that kept that feeling going.

Demon Attack is just an awesome game.  So awesome that I've decided to pick it up for all the systems I own that is was released for, as each adds something a little to the formula to make it special.  The A2600 port if my favorite of the bunch, and while it doesn't boast the graphics of the C64 port, it beats the pants off of the ITV version by a country mile.

I don't think that Three Dirty Dwarves is regarded as a good game, but nonetheless I played it to death.  I think I originally bought it because because of the hundreds of hours I spent on the playable level from a Saturn demo disc.  Man the 90's was a strange time for games.  Five years prior to its release and this game would have been an action/platformer on the SNES.  Five years more it would have been third-person action game on the PS2.

I originally bought Metal Arms out of a clearance bin at a "Friends and Family" even at the local Sears.  Like many Xbox games, it looked and sounded great (especially since the protagonist was voiced by Hank Azaria), and best of all, it controlled great.  Ripped through this one like there was no tomorrow, but now I can't remember a thing about it.

I don't think I ever owned any of these Sega Master System (SMS).  Notice I said "think," as I cannot be 100% sure.  I'm ashamed to say that my old SMS along with the fifteen or so games that I owned were shuffled to the bottom of my "Misc. Games Box" in my basement when I was originally working on my game room.  When I was looking for sales fodder back in 2007 I stumbled across it and immediately made a "sales poster" for it that I put up at work (which was how I was selling stuff back then).   It went (along with my NES top-loader and a handful of games) to a friend at Ford who intended to put it up at his cabin for entertainment.  Today I am pleased to find that a loose original-model SMS goes for around $50 (sometimes with games), so I am proud to have Wonder Boy in Monster World, Psycho Fox, and Shanghai as the first titles in my new SMS collection.

Blaster Master 2 and Outlander I would like to save for another day, for no other reason that I want to include them with other games.  I'd like to eventually do articles for each game, but we will have to wait and see, I guess.

Finally we get to Mechassault.  While it wasn't the first Mechwarrior game I bought, it was the first that I seriously played, which caused me to go back and play Mechwarrior 3 and then 4 (which I had already bought).  Once again awesome graphics and sound mixed with a "mech-lite" flavor of Mechwarrior and we have a winner.  Also, it is hard (or so I think so).

Well, that is all the gushing I have for now.  I really want to write these anecdotal articles for the 2007 Revival series (as they are the quickest articles that I write).  Thank you so much for the games, Slackur!  I have to confess that I originally went into this kind of detail to show you how much I appreciate the games, then really felt that this is how I should approach this quest of mine.

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