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We interrupt your regularly scheduled turkey stuffing to bring you the November 2020 edition of RF Generation's Site News! In this issue, we announce our December Community Playthrough game, reveal our shoot 'em up club title, and of course, thank those members who sent in submissions to our site and registered approvals last month. Thanks for keeping it on Channel 3 and please continue to keep you and your loved ones SAFE!
REMEMBER: If you have any news about upcoming events or topics that you think the site needs to hear about, please PM singlebanana and put "RFG Site News" in the subject line. Who knows, maybe your news will make our front page!
Continue reading All Our News Are Belong To You: December 2020 Edition
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We interrupt your regularly scheduled COVID-19 boredom to bring you the May 2020 edition of RF Generation's Site News! In this issue, we announce an awesome June Community Playthrough game for our monthly playthrough group...and our shoot 'em up club??, and of course, thank those members who sent in submissions to our site and registered approvals last month. Thanks for keeping it on Channel 3 and please keep you and your loved ones SAFE!
REMEMBER: If you have any news about upcoming events or topics that you think the site needs to hear about, please PM singlebanana and put "RFG Site News" in the subject line. Who knows, maybe your news will make our front page!
Continue reading All Our News Are Belong To You: May 2020 Edition
In this episode, the boys let their freak flags fly as Rich (singlebanana) and Shawn (GrayGhost81) are joined by their friend and host of the Retro Fandango podcast, Kevin (BuriedOnMars). It's another month of murderous mayhem as the guys stalk the streets of Steelport to reclaim the city they call home in Volition's wacky, open-world crime shooter, Saints Row: The Third. The guys discuss the their favorite gameplay elements and how they chose to approach this title. This month, there's a tremendous concert cast as the guys discuss their recently fallen rock heroes and their favorite albums of 1995. You will not want to miss this high eclectic selection of albums and you'll certainly want to know which of the boys has never heard of the Wu Tang Clan.....we can't make this up kids. Join us for this hardy and laughter-filled episode of the Playcast.
As always, we are happy to hear your thoughts on these games on our discussion page (linked below). We will respond to your comments and are always happy to discuss the games more. Please be sure to rate and write a review of the show on iTunes and/or Podbean to help us increase our listenership. Thanks for the listen, we hope you enjoy the show!
Episode 66 discussion thread: http://www.rfgeneration.c...m/index.php?topic=19192.0
Get the show on Podbean: http://www.rfgplaycast.com/
On iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/...ion-playcast/id1038953364
On Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/p...ation-playcast?refid=stpr
And follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rfgenplaythroughs
And on Twitter: @thesinglebanana & @RFGPlayCast
Continue reading Episode 66 - RF Generation Playcast
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In this episode, the boys let their freak flags fly as Rich (singlebanana) and Shawn (GrayGhost81) are joined by their friend and host of the Retro Fandango podcast, Kevin (BuriedOnMars). It's another month of murderous mayhem as the guys stalk the streets of Steelport to reclaim the city they call home in Volition's wacky, open-world crime shooter, Saints Row: The Third. The guys discuss the their favorite gameplay elements and how they chose to approach this title. This month, there's a tremendous ConcertCast as the guys discuss their recently fallen rock heroes and their favorite albums of 1995. You will not want to miss this high eclectic selection of albums and you'll certainly want to know which of the boys has never heard of the Wu Tang Clan.....we can't make this up kids. Join us for this hardy and laughter-filled episode of the Playcast.
As always, we are happy to hear your thoughts on these games on our discussion page (linked below). We will respond to your comments and are always happy to discuss the games more. Please be sure to rate and write a review of the show on iTunes and/or Podbean to help us increase our listenership. Thanks for the listen, we hope you enjoy the show!
Episode 66 discussion thread: http://www.rfgeneration.c...m/index.php?topic=19207.0
Get the show on Podbean: http://www.rfgplaycast.com/
On iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/...ion-playcast/id1038953364
On Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/p...ation-playcast?refid=stpr
And follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rfgenplaythroughs
And on Twitter: @thesinglebanana & @RFGPlayCast
Continue reading Episode 66 - RF Generation Playcast
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According to the Playcast crew, they've knocked it out of the park with their January and February games picks this year. So, how did their March game fair? In this month's Playcast, Rich (singlebanana), Shawn (GrayGhost81) and returning guest, Retro Fandango's own, Kevin (BuriedOnMars) discuss the nostalgia driven, hack 'n slash brawler Transformers: Devastation, which appeared on various 7th and 8th generation consoles. Not only do the guys review the game, but they also discuss the impact the Transformers animated series and toy-line had on their adolescence, including a very special segment dedicated to Transformers: The Movie. Is this game worth playing, or is it merely an effort to loose our purse strings with G1 nostalgia? If you're a fan of Transformers, then you definitely will not want to miss this episode of the RF Generation Playcast!
Our 50th episode is only two shows away and we want YOU to send us an audio roast! Congrats, well wishes, and cheap shots are all welcome. Audio should be limited to under 2 minutes, so if you're interested, please contact singlebanana to find out how to send in your piece.
As always, we are happy to hear your thoughts on this game on our discussion page (linked below). We will respond to your comments and are always happy to discuss the game more. We hope you enjoy our show. Please be sure to rate and write a review of the show on iTunes to help us increase our listenership. Thanks for the listen!
Episode 48 discussion thread:
Get the show on Podbean: http://www.rfgplaycast.com/
On iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/...ion-playcast/id1038953364
On Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/p...ation-playcast?refid=stpr
And follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rfgenplaythroughs
And on Twitter: @thesinglebanana, @MrShawnGray & @RFGPlayCast
Continue reading Episode 48 - RF Generation Playcast
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My favorite cartridge label for this game, since it best sums up the chaos within.
SPECS:
Game: Bobby Is Going Home
Genre: Platformer
Year: 1983
Publisher: CCE/Taiwan Cooper
Developer: Bit Corporation
Rarity (according to AtariAge): Undetermined
Controls: Joystick
Number of Players: 1 player
Average Cost: approx. $5 - $15+ (depending on label variation)
Also Available On: Only for the Atari 2600 or similar VCS consoles
Tagline/Description: "Bobby feels that the world is so beautiful. He feels his life [is] perfect. But this day as he [is] going home, he meets many strange troubles."
Just over two years ago, I wrote an article about how my Atari 2600 collecting had branched out of North America and into Brazil. To summarize, there are several Brazilian 2600 titles that were not released in North America, but are playable on NTSC based systems. Of the handful of games that I have acquired, one of my favorites is a little 2-D platformer called Bobby Is Going Home. Let's take a look!
Continue reading Banana's Rotten Reviews: Bobby Is Going Home
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Growing up as a kid in the 80's, I have vivid memories of walking into the local arcades of the time and pumping countless quarters/tokens into those high-tech cabinets. Some of my favorite machines of the that bygone era were the brawlers. While many games focused on high scores, had GAME OVER screens, and required starting back at the begging upon defeat, beat 'em ups often awarded continuous play via simple capitalism. As a result, many stage bosses got tougher and were aptly named "quarter munchers" due to their tendency to gobble shiny Washington's from your pant's pockets and/or Mom's change purse. As a kid, I'm sure few or none of us kept track of these types of expenses, it was all about popping in as much change as we could to get an end screen and enjoy that feeling of sweet bliss that would carry over to the school playground on Monday.
My favorite brawlers growing up were Double Dragon, Kung Fu Master (which may barely fit this category), and Final Fight. However, for the purposes of this article, I will only be discussing the latter.
Continue reading Let's Compare: Final Fight 2 & Final Fight 3
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Eric and I hitting the sticks in the NanerCade during his recent visit
As game collectors, one of the things that crosses our minds on an almost daily basis is "value." Often, when out hunting for games, systems, toys, etc., we have to weight out the estimated monetary value of a game with amount the seller is asking for it and the amount we are willing to pay for said item. This is always quite the juggling act, and one in which we are always working toward being the primary beneficiary of the "good deal." However, when it comes to value, it doesn't mean that we maintain a spreadsheet of what we spent on games, determine what they are currently worth, and adjust monthly as the prices go up.....well....maybe some of you do. For most of us, games aren't merely a monetary investment, but an investment in something on a grander scale.
Continue reading So What's Your Highest Valued Item?
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Recently, there has been talk between Sony and Microsoft about implementing cross-platform gaming. Though no sort of agreement has been reached yet, and there is only speculation as to what these talks have consisted of, even the slightest notion that these two video game giants have taken the idea into consideration is HUGE! The climate for console developers has drastically changed over the course of time, and while Nintendo still goes its own way, it does so without feeling the need to get into squabbles or spend millions in advertising to inflict insult upon its competition. But, as we all know, this hasn't always been the case.
As a child of the 80's, I remember these targeting ads well and can look back today and see their overt influence over the console choices made by my classmates and I. The feud that Nintendo and Sega started was hotly contested and equally debated on the playground in my day. Nintendo's dominance in my community was so pronounced that no one dared to admit to owning a Sega console for fear of ridicule. What gaming system you owned or didn't own could have socially ruined you among your peers. If you owned a Sega, no one wanted to come over to your house because they couldn't bring their games over, and there wasn't a chance that you could swap games for a few weeks (...sometimes to never have your games returned, but that's another matter all together). In reality, it was a somewhat milder form of bullying, and let's be honest, it still exists among some fanboys/fangirls today.
Continue reading Call Me Traitor
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Over the past two years, I've been fortunate enough to work with some great writers/people who have contributed greatly to the success of our site's front page. It's a job that takes time and effort, and only pays with the occasional "nice article" and subsequent warm fuzzy. With any job, there is turnover, people's job and family situations change, people begin or continue personal projects, and sometimes even burnout can set it. As a volunteer position, it is typically the easier thing to let go of, so leaving is completely understandable and has always been on great terms. I am very appreciative of those who have helped out in the past and only wish them the best of luck; your articles are still welcome here should any of you get the itch to write one.
With some recent turnover, I've been struggling a bit to provide content to our readership (though we still haven't missed a deadline) and have been putting much more free time than what I have into making sure our front page is a beacon that draws in potential members. As a result, I am putting out a call to writers for anyone who might be interested in joining our staff. Right now, I am looking to add one or two writers to take on one article each per month. Though this may not sound like a lot, I can assure you that coming up with a topic each month and creating a good product is a little more time consuming and taxing than one might think. Our staff adheres to a strict (but flexible when needed) schedule and articles must be turned in on time so that they can be reviewed and set back to fix if there are any issues. Writers must also stick to site guidelines in terms of content; though are forums and personal blogs are pretty much a free-for-all, our front page is a direct reflection of our site and as so, strives to be informative and family-oriented.
Continue reading A Call For Writers
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I consider myself a fair, upstanding, and generous person (*cough*) and I like that some people have that opinion of me. Collecting is an exciting hobby in that many of us see ourselves as Indiana Jones-like explorers who scavenge local garage sales, thrift stores, and "antique" stores in an attempt to upturn games and consoles at great prices and add them to our personal museums. Oftentimes, when we find duplicates or valuable items for games/systems we don't collect, we may turn these over to game stores, sell them on auction sites, or sell/trade them with friends to reinvest in our collections. Of all of these interactions, dealing with friends and people you are in contact with on a regular basis is the most personal, and can sometimes result in awkward or less than favorable interactions. I was recently involved in one of these "transactions" and this is my story. Ladies and gentlemen: "The story you are about to hear is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent."
Continue reading Buying From Friends: A Cautionary Tale
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Sorry guys, you won't be getting a Top Games of 2015 list from me. For one, I don't own a current generation console to play games released this year on, and secondly, my list of my favorite games I played it 2015 will be available early next year when you listen to the RF Generation Playcast (http://rfgenplaycast.podbean.com/) .....shameless plug!! Instead, I'll be focusing on a topic that has baffled and frustrated me (and probably you) for years and that is, "What import games can I play on my North American consoles without having to import systems?" I certainly won't be able to cover every system, but I'll try to cover the more well-known and most-owned consoles. I understand that some imported games can be burned or pirated for play on North American systems; however, since this method is frowned upon by a large majority of the community, I will not be covering or suggesting this method for any system here. I hope many of you will find this article useful and please think of it and my research as my holiday gift to you!
**DISCLAIMER: Please be advised that I have not tried several of these methods myself and that the great majority of the information that I have assembled here has been compiled through research. I have verified as much of the information as possible, but some of it may be incorrect. If you find that something is incorrect, please send me a PM and I can verify and edit this post. Thank you!**
Continue reading Is it Region-Locked or Region-Free?
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Like some of you, when I was a kid, I distinctly remember seeing all of the ads on television for the Nintendo Entertainment System and several of its games. Each time they came on, I was filled with excitement and longed for the day when I would own a square, gray box of my own. It wasn't until my grandparents' Christmas gift of a faulty telescope in 1987, that I was able to turn "misfortune" into gaming gold with the help of my older cousin and via the Customer Service Department at Brendle's. My parents were not pleased, but somehow my crafty maneuver paid off and I was able to keep it. And so began, not only my love for the NES, but a kind of gaming resourcefulness that would last a lifetime.
Enter 2015, a 38-year old gamer with a wife, two kids (another on the way), a new dog, a mortgage, and the same zest for gaming since he gave up the ability to look at the stars. Though unable to peer into space, several years ago, instead I began filling space with a collection that now consists of approximately 2,585 games across 35+ systems, and a great deal of accessories and controllers. Collecting has become a hobby and being able to now own systems and games I could only dream of during my very humble childhood and share them with my friends and family gives me great joy. As I've gotten older and earned greater responsibility, money has to be disbursed through various necessary channels and the appeal of buying new systems and games with my disposable income has greatly waned. Some might call this being "cheap," but that's really not the case at all. For me, there are various reasons why I choose to wait to purchase systems and typically stay a generation (and sometimes two generations behind).
Continue reading Why Wait?: A Collector's Guide to Patience
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This past Christmas, I was fortunate enough to get a copy of Ready Player One from the wife as one of my gifts. She’s always been good with gift-giving and I attribute this to her knowing me pretty well after being together for 19 years, and a little thing I like to call an Amazon Wishlist (if you don’t have a Wishlist and share it with your loved ones, I highly suggest it). Anyway, I’ve had the book for 10 months now, I’ve picked it up and put it down several times and it wasn’t until recently (during my travels to RWX and a subsequent beach vacation) that I settled in and gave it a go. You see, I’m kind of what you would call an opportunistic reader. I read when a good opportunity presents itself and those opportunities are typically when I’m not around my kids or when I’m on a nice warm beach…..so yeah, pretty few and far between. It’s not that I don’t love to read, I use to do it all of the time, but a busy adult life and being heavily force-fed a lot of “classics” I didn’t want to read in grad school kind of sucked a lot of the enjoyment out of it for me. Again, I still love to read, it’s just that I’m a lot pickier about what I choose to dive into these days.
Ready Player One sat near the top of my stack for those 10 months, and did so due to strong recommendations from site members and a New York Times reviewer’s blurb on the cover which reads, “Willie Wonka meets The Matrix.” (The Huffington Post’s “The grown-up’s Harry Potter,” not so much a draw for me.) Was the New York Times right? Well, in a way. Mr. Cline takes great liberty in borrowing pieces of 70’s and 80’s nostalgia to craft a story which tugs at the core of his reader and unlocks images from the deep recesses of our childhood memories. You see, Ready Player One is more than a book, it’s a love letter—one directed at the late 30 and 40+ year old dinosaurs who grew up during the infancy of video games and helped cultivate what we now so lovingly refer to as “geek culture.” However, to limit the book to a specific audience is not only unfair, but inaccurate. Any lover of science fiction, apocalyptic landscapes, high-tech gadgets, action, and even romance, will appreciate and enjoy this book. However, it doesn’t hurt to have a good working knowledge of, or at least a healthy interest in, early video games and 80’s culture.
Continue reading Banana's Rotten Reviews: Ready Player One
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If you grew up in the 80's, at some point your dreams were probably plagued by images of at least one of the super iconic kings of the slasher film. Though Freddy, Jason, Michael Myers, and even Leatherface were not totally absent from appearing on the home console, most of these games (if not all) were very poor representations of their movie license. Of course, this had a lot to do with early censorship issues, which prevented fantasy blood, gore, and other forms of more "adult" content. Thanks to ESRB ratings (established in 1994), parents can now be more aware of what their kids are playing, and on the flip side and much to the joy of many modern gamers, the amount of mature content has greatly increased in modern gaming. Prior to ESRB ratings, many licensed horror games were "forced" to keep their games behind the counter or dull down the content for younger gamers. One of the most notorious (as in notoriously bad) games to come out pre-ESRB was Friday the 13th on the NES in 1989. Since then, no one has even attempted to make a more violent and mature video game based on this series.......that is, until NOW!
Check out more details, watch the project creators talk about the game, and JOIN THE KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN HERE!!!: https://www.kickstarter.c...h-the-game?ref=nav_search
**DISCLAIMER** - PICTURES AND VIDEOS BEYOND THIS BREAK MAY CONTAIN VIOLENCE, BLOOD AND GORE, AND ADULT MATERIAL THAT MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR ALL AUDIENCES. VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Continue reading Friday the 13th on Kickstarter
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