Gallery: PlayStation 2 Library (US)

Posted on January 5, 2012 by geelw

Minus about 15 games that are out on loan, here you go. I have to call this gallery “updated”, as it was a lot larger a few years back. I had close to 450 or more games here at one time, but it was a bit hard to get anything for any other system stored, so I started whittling down quite a bit. There’s an import in one of these pics (oops), but that’s because it was borrowed before and returned after I took pics of my PS2 imports Yes, there were a few Final Fantasy games here, but those went to someone who’s probably a lot more appreciative of the direction the series has taken than I am. I think I sold off a few games I meant to keep otherwise for reference purposes (oops), but most of what I’m looking for is dirt cheap these days and pretty easily located. As for some of the pricier games I no longer own or never got around to getting, well, I’m not dead yet…

Yeah, yeah, those press DVD’s aren’t “games”, but they were on the shelf, so in they went. I have a ridiculous amount of press kits stored here in a few bins (I saved nearly everything I’ve gotten since the late 90’s), so perhaps I’ll post a gallery of those if you ask nicely. It’ll take me a while to go through them all, that’s for sure…

Gallery: CD-i Library

Posted on January 4, 2012 by geelw

OK, OK, it’s way too small to be an actual “library”, but I’ll take care of that (again) in due time. Actually, I had about 30 titles here at one point, but I sold/traded most of them off thinking I’d pick them up again at some point. The system is pretty easy to collect for with a few exceptions like the Mario and Zelda games Nintendo really doesn’t wish existed. I like that the system plays VCD’s (remember when THAT was supposed to be a great format back in the day?), so it does double duty on occasion when I want to see how bad things might have become if we were all relegated to swapping to Disc Two after 74 minutes passed. It’s a good thing there were no epics released for the format (as far as I know). Getting up to change to a fourth or fifth disc would give some of the lazier folks around these days a hear attack as they reached for the remote, a bag of chips and their laptops or phones to tap out a complaint…

Gallery: PlayStation Library (US)

Posted on January 4, 2012 by geelw

Here’s the rest of the PS1 collection to go with the PS1 RPG/SRPG library I posted a few weeks back. What’s here is about 100-150 games less than it was about two years back, so anything you don’t see was most likely played to death and sold or traded. I absolutely never wanted a complete PS1 collection anyway, as I’d have a ton of games here that I’d never play. Still, I wish I’d kept more of the racers and all of the shmups I sold off, but oh well. That last photo is stuff I dug up after I took the others and put everything away. Oops. I was wondering where my import copy of D no Shokotaku ended up all this time. The items on the bottom row of the pic are a few of the small selection game soundtracks I have: Soukaigi, Silent Hill, Threads of Fate and Biohazard Remix. I don’t have anything resembling a decent game soundtrack collection at all – I just stuck those in because they’re PS-related…

Gallery: N64 Library (Plus)

Posted on January 3, 2012 by geelw

What’s left of my N64 and Famicom/Famicom Disk collections plus some loose Super Famicom games I didn’t add with the boxed stuff a while back. As with all of the library pics, the collections here are much smaller than they were a few years back, but I’d say the Famicom stuff has been condensed the most overall, as it was around 150+ games at one point. I do miss my N64 imports (Bangai-o, Wonder Project J2 and Neon Genesis Evangelion among others) and most of the bunch of other stuff I don’t have these days, but that’s the way that ball bounces, I suppose. Oh well – once I’m rolling in loot from my world domination plans, I’ll grab a plane to Game Central and clean out a few places again. That is, provided the world doesn’t blow up before then…

Gallery: Sega Saturn Import Library*

Posted on January 2, 2012 by geelw

This collection is now about 1/4 of the size of what it once was, but still has some nice titles in it along with a few commons and a bunch of duds. *Yes, I stuck in all the NIGHTS demos and versions from the US and UK, but those were in the same shelf space, so I figured I may as well run them here. I’ll get to my smallish US Saturn library at some point. It’s up in a closet with my US Sega CD stuff (also slimmed down dramatically) and I need to see what’s leftover after a few on and off years of whittling it down. Now, if Sega would FINALLY get wise and do a Sega Saturn collection of some of those games I no longer have, I’d be a much happier man…

D2: WARP’s Last Gasp Makes For A Curious Cure For Holiday Melancholy

Posted on December 30, 2011 by geelw

While the holiday season is usually packed with happy jolly tidings and the usual mass consumer craziness (that’s turned some shopping malls into pepper spray scented war zones), it’s also a time for reflection and a bit of moodiness about current and future events. Winter also brings in a bit of depression, as we humans are also prone to go gloomy when the lack of sun and warmth hits hard, sending some into a depressed state. Kenji Eno and WARP’s final console game, D2 has been my go-to holiday gift for myself ever since it was released on the Sega Dreamcast in Japan back in 1999. I’m not going to do a full review of the game (there’s an older one I wrote posted here), but I will say that the game manages to capture the feeling of being inside a bad winter dream that you can’t wake up from, yet one that you don’t want to simply because you want to see how it plays out. It’s definitely not for all tastes and in fact, can be baffling even when you piece things together into a more sensible narrative than what’s presented. On the other hand, the game also soars into unsuspecting territory a few times and packs an emotional punch where it counts. Continue reading →

Gallery: Xbox Library (US)

Posted on December 28, 2011 by geelw

Here you go, minus about 80 or games I sold off to make room, so some key titles are gone (but most of them are dirt cheap if I ever want to repurchase them at some point). It still amazes me that a lot of what’s here wasn’t made backward compatible with the 360, but that’s why I have a few original Xboxes around here for. Like any marriage, you have to take the good with the bad, so yup, i have a bunch of not so hot games. For me, everything is worth playing once, as playing bad games can help one understand what shouldn’t go into better ones. That and you can often find likable aspects of almost any game if you look hard enough.

Gallery: PlayStation Import Library

Posted on December 27, 2011 by geelw

Like all of the other libraries here, this was a bit bigger a few years back, but has shrunk a bit over the years. I’ve got a few nice guides that list every game made for the console (outside of demo discs from magazines and trial version discs, which I’d love to see more of at some point). As usual, far too many RPG’s never made it to the US and that’s too bad considering the quality of a lot of the ones here. It’s also too bad horror-themed or other adventure games like Moonlight Syndrome (or heck, the entire Syndrome series), Silver Jiken, Dark Messiah and others. Yes, I do like racing games and almost anything with a mech or mecha in it (which means I still have a lot of stuff to play that I haven’t yet). Super rare stuff like Rakugaki Showtime, Xanac x Xanac, Geppy-X, Double Dragon and a few more have been sold off for a while, but it was great to have experienced all of those while they were here. I think that’s everything I have left, but we’ll see if anything turns up as I get to the rest of the library in 2012…

Gallery: PlayStation & PS2 Demo Library (Japanese)

Posted on December 24, 2011 by geelw

Nowhere as many as I’d like to have and some aren’t pictured here, as I need to move about 500 or so games to get to the remaining few. I’ll update the gallery once I get that mighty task done. Some of these are incredible for what’s on the discs, from memory card download, interviews and exclusive content not seen outside Japan. Stuff like Net Yaroze demos (games made by those who bought the special Net Yaroze PlayStation model), some hilarious commercials and some great demos of games that were drastically different than what ended up on store shelves. The Project Zero disc is a DVD that features CG from the game and some other cool stuff, but isn’t playable. I know there are a ton of these non-playable demos out there, but I’m a lot more interested in trial version discs these days. The one other exception is the Summer Special 1996 disc that has a bunch of game trailers including the first look at Metal Gear Solid. That long movie was created entirely with in-game asset and actually makes the game look like a more action-packed experience than it turned out to be.

Gallery: PlayStation RPG/SRPG Library+

Posted on December 23, 2011 by geelw

I shot these earlier this year while moving some things around. Not my entire PS1 collection by a long shot, but that’s going to be photographed and posted in a bit. I sold off a huge chunk of it over this year and last (about 110 – 120 games) but I hung onto stuff I like or haven’t quite completed yet. I still think that some of these games need proper remakes or sequels in the future, but I doubt they’ll get done any time soon if at all. BTW, my copy of FF8 somehow disappeared a while back, but I think I may have accidentally sent someone it as a bonus by mistake. Oh well. Not like it’s rare or anything. I’ll probably post my US and Japanese demo disc libraries before the rest of the US games I have, as the demos are easier to get to. Anyway, enjoy – more to come!