It's Friday so it's Alana here :)  As you probably don't know I am a huge art fan, especially game art.  I love painting and designing stuff that feels like retro Nintendo so this was totally up my alley.  If you aren't familiar with Famicase you are really missing out!  Artists use Famicom game cases as their canvas by designing game labels for fake games and displaying them on game carts as if it were real.  When it first started in 2005, 23 artists displayed work.  Now over 100 artists from all over the world submit game labels to be displayed.

Artists submit their designs and the show founder Sakagami prints them off and applies them to the carts to be sure they are all uniform the he displays them in his shop on pegboards.  Check out http://famicase.com/12/index.html to see this years entries.

Here are some of my favorite entries over the last few years

Does this sound super cool to you? Want to design your own labels, well here's your chance. Nathan from Video Games Are Rad and I are teaming up to put on our own art show called Famicart Exhibition.  Anyone from around the world can enter and your entries will be placed on the online gallery and displayed on carts for a local art show, once we find a venue :)

We will be using Famicom and NES carts in our show so you can pick whichever you like.  We would also like if the artists make their own logo and short description to go with the game to be displayed with the carts.  It doesn't matter if you are a pro artist or designer, or you don't think you are good at drawing.

It doesn't need to be complicated, there have been entries like this too, just simple and not much to them :)

Very simple but looks cool :)

So anyone can make a design to use, there is no excuse :)  If you are interested just leave a note here or email me at alana@retrogamergirl.com  Even if you don't want to make a label but have some ideas you think would be cool you can definitely leave some suggestions for me :)

Hi there!  Alana here J  It’s finally Friday so time for my new post.  This one isn’t very long but I’m trying to get my game collection in order and I’ve having a couple issues so I thought I would get your opinion on it.

Today I am going to talk about a problem I’m sure a lot of game collectors have, how to organize your games.  The biggest problem I am having is with my NES and Famicom games.

NES games seem like they should be really simple, they have the nice end labels with the name clearly displayed.  They are all totally flat and are easily stackable.  The issues arise when you are trying to put them in order.  If you try alphabetical it’s fine until you get to the letter T.  There are so many games starting with the word The, so do you include it as the first word in the title or do you ignore it and use the rest of the title? ie. The Last Ninja vs Last Ninja.

What if you have multiple titles in the same series of games.  An example that comes to mind is Legend of Zelda and Adventure of Link, for me I would put them together but it kind of messes up the alphabetical order.   Plus if you include the Wisdom Tree games or the Tengen games then you don’t have end labels.

Now working with Famicom games you have a different problem.  Not all of the games have end labels so when you stack them you don’t know which game they are, plus you don’t have just play grey carts you have a multitude of colors, so do you group them according to color or just randomly stack them? Maybe I should make my own end labels for the games that don’t have any.  Plus a few of the companies have different shaped cartridges so that makes a bit of a mess too.

Not that this is super essential but it’s a problem that’s been bugging me as I’m trying to display everything in the “correct” way.  How do you guys do it?  Have any suggestions?

Retro Gaming Television

Happy Friday!  It’s been a long week but we have finally made it

Today I figured I would talk about my favorite television show.  I know this sounds really lame but I promise it is retro game related J  4 years ago I stumbled across an awesome show online called Game Center CX.

The star of the show is Shinya Arino.  On the show he is known as the Kacho which means Section Chief and depending on how good he does at his challenges he can either get promoted or demoted.  Arino is a comedian and child at heart who will be 40 this year, and has 2 little kids at home.  He played Famicom and Super Famicom games back in the day, but he isn’t a professional gamer by any stretch of the imagination.  He makes up with this with his perseverance; this guy is very determined and won’t give up easily.  He will do whatever he can to entertain the audience and not disappoint them.  

To help him on his quest are his Assistant Directors.  An AD is someone that will help Arino through a tricky part on a level, give him hints, or a strategy guide when he gets stuck.  The AD’s usually play through the game right before filming so if necessary they can help him out.  I almost forgot to mention the awesome narrator; he not only narrates but makes funny comments about what the Kachou is doing throughout the show.  He definitely helps guide the episode along.

Every episode Arino is given a game (usually Famicom or Super Famicom) that he is required to beat in a certain time limit, or complete a certain challenge.  So Arino sits in his room with his white board behind him, and his table full of snacks to give him energy throughout the day.  One of Arino’s signature items is his cooling head pads that are commonly used to help headaches.  When he gets really frustrated or tired he slaps one of these on his head to refresh himself and give him a burst of energy.  On a side note I’ve tried these and they work great if you are having a long gaming session.

The show is an hour long is mixed with footage of Arino sitting there playing the game, his great reactions, and in game footage of him playing.  Throughout the show there are different segments that are tossed in.  Some like You Should Visit this Game Center Sometime where he takes trips to arcades and game centers that viewers suggest he goes to or Moshi Moshi where Arino is playing a difficult game and calls viewers for their help.  Mix this with short Game Collection segments that show a collection of Famicom games that came out in a specific year (ie. 1985) and it never gets dull.  Plus I’m kind of evil and I enjoy watching other people play games and get frustrated sometimes.  It’s nice when you see other people have trouble with games you had trouble with too. It may sound like a boring concept, but this show has a great mix of comedy, drama and extremely tense moments so it’s totally worth watching.

This show is so popular that it is on its 15th season in Japan.  So far Arino has challenged 135 different games.  Some games he plays are Famicom exclusive but a lot of the games are ones we are familiar with.  I’ve actually figured out Famicom games to get or avoid based on this show :p There are a few groups out there that have taken it upon themselves to translate and subtitle episodes like Something Awful and TV-Nihon just to name a few.  If you do some searching it won’t be hard to find.  Kotaku even had the rights to air a few episodes on their site last year, but they subbed over the narrator parts which got pretty annoying.  I highly recommend they subtitled ones.  The cool thing is a lot of the episodes are up on youtube they have some if you want to get a taste of the show. Here’s the episode for Mega Man 2, it's one of my favorite games so I thought it would be a good one to choose. I can’t wait until they subtitle the Battletoads episode, that game is evil!

If you like the show be sure to check out Retro Game Challenge for the DS which is based on this show.  You won’t be disappointed!  And like Arino the Game Master says, be sure to game for at least 12 hours a day!

Girls who Game

Happy Friday!  Before you think someone has hijacked the site I figured I should introduce myself.  My name is Alana and I run http://retrogamergirl.com. OldAssGamer asked me if I would like to do a weekly article on his page and I jumped at the opportunity, so I'll be seeing you every Friday!  Make sure you leave comments and check out my site!

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What’s the difference between a “girl gamer” and a “gamer girl”?  I’ve been doing some research on this recently and all the other articles I have seen focused on current generation games and playing multiplayer online.  I don’t think it’s fair for me to comment on this part since I don’t really play any online games so I’ll be looking at this more from a retro game perspective. 

Figuring out the difference between the types of female gamers has the same problem as when you try to classify casual gamers and hardcore gamers; it’s really hard to pinpoint an exact definition.  In my mind girls like the ones that I know who play older games, tend to stick with a particular series and they are usually the more cutesy ones like Kirby, Tiny Toons or Mario.  They usually won’t go out of their way toplay a game on their own time.  If youwere to ask them, they may play a few rounds, especially if there were guys around to get some extra attention.  Theyare girls first and gamers second, it’s more of a social event for them.  You aren’t going to find them staying up allnight trying to level up their characters in Final Fantasy 6, or spending moneyon games to play.  So I would classify them as “girl gamers.”

Now a “gamer girl” is someone who loves playing games and won’t pass up the chance to do so whether they are playing with other girls, guys or by themselves, it doesn’t matter as long as they get to play games.  The games don’t have to be easy or cutesy.  They can love difficult games like Ninja Gaiden or Mega Man, sports games like Ice Hockey and games like Kirby.  From my experience they tend to enjoy a larger range of games, whether they are on North American systems likethe NES or Japanese systems like the Famicom.  In the end they are gamers who just happen to be female. 

I think there is also an extreme version of the gamer girl.  This is where I fit in the spectrum.  I love all retro Nintendo games; I have a huge collection of NES, SNES, Famicom, Super Famicom etc. games.  I have tons of Nintendo memorabilia, from t-shirts to toys, and DVD’s.  I spend all of my free time thinking about games, playing games, looking up information on games,buying games, writing about games etc. Plus if that wasn’t enough I have tattoos, both Nintendo themed. 

Nostalgia plays a huge part in gaming for me.  The first thing I did when I got my NES wasto collect all the games I had when I was a kid.  It brought back memories of hanging out with my dad and brother when I was young and things were easier.  Back then I didn’t have to work or worry about bills, we could just sit and game all day if we wanted.  Now it has become a way to escape the crazy stress filled lives that we live every day and just sit down and have fun. 

Why does it seem so hard to find gamer girls?  I’ve often wondered this myself, when I was a kid everyone played Nintendo games. Didn’t matter if you were a girl or a boy it’s just what everyone did.  Then as I got older the amount of girls I knew that played games kept getting smaller and smaller until it was just me.  What changed that caused this to happen?  I personally think that asyou get older, games are seen more as a guy thing and that people who play games are more immature.  Whenever someone I know finds out I’m a huge gamer, if they are older than me and particularly a woman, instantly start judging and make comments about how gamesare for kids or for guys.  Women seem tobe expected to be cooking, taking care of the kids, shopping for clothes andall that fun stuff, not spending money on games and spending time sitting infront of the TV playing games.  I think a lot of girls who do like playing games may not say anything in fear of being judged. 

I don’t think gaming should be viewed any differently than someone who reads, watches TV or has any other kind of hobby.  I’ve finally gotten over this and I don’t care what other people think anymore, I think being a gamer makes me a better mom and I’m sure my little guy will appreciate the huge collection of games he will be able to play when he gets a bit older. I have a Mega Man tattoo on my forearm for everyone to see and to remind myself that I am who am I because of my gaming history.  If I wasn’t a gamer I never would have went to the symphony, I never would have met such awesome people on sites likeTwitter or Famicom World and I wouldn’t have the desire to learn Japanese and go to Japan.  Gaming does not make me immature; it keeps me young at heart. 

Let me know what you think. Come visit my site at http://retrogamergirl.comor follow me on twitter at @retrogamergirls

Do u think your Elite

Like myself, a lot of us think we're Elite at a certain game or games. I thought this about my high score on Gradius. Then I found TwinGalaxies.com ! All of a sudden, my 194,200, didn't seem so Elite anymore :( The guy that holds the world record, has 8,000,000 ? Mind blowing, isn't it ? I had to dust off my game genie and see this for myself !
When I finished the game, I had 2.5 million. So, this means the guy beat the game four times in a row ? When I started playing the game a second time ,I quickly figured out that it gets harder every time and I didn't waste my time trying to get the 8 million ! If u ever wanna give yourself a good reason to bust out that game or games, head over to TwinGalaxies.com And see what ya got ?