Life Force NES High score video loop 2

Life Force NES High score video

Gradius high score video

I just got a Dazzle and will be recording gameplay videos. Check out my first vid !

Rate My Collection

What's better than having a cool collection of stuff?  Getting recognition of it.  If you have any sort of collection (doesn't just have to be video games like me) you should go to www.ratemycollection.com

It's a really cool site where people go, upload pictures of the stuff they collect then everyone can view it and even rate it based to a bunch of different categories like item diversity, historical significance. condition and rarity.  Plus the really awesome this is when you meet the requirements you will be considered a founding member and you get a certificate and pin too!  Which also gets you free admission to their events :)

This is on display in my game room now :D  Check out my collection here and give it a rating!  Plus make sure when you start your collection you post the link here so we can check it out!

Have an awesome weekend everyone!
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Check out my site at retrogamergirl.com and follow me on twitter @retrogamergirls

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!