Tales from Behind the Controller
Today has been a day of gaming and so I choose to offer you a few paragraphs detailing this planetary rotations gaming tales.
There is a risk that every gamer takes and understands. They can take precautions against it, paranoia perhaps being the only possible defence. We spend hours, days, toiling away at our endeavours, the possibility of utter failure ever looming over our heads. Worse still, our undoing is often at the hands of none but ourselves; the heinous act that is our downfall is not for which malicious others may be beholden. The sole culprit is most often our own foolishness and inattention.
Yes, accidentally deleting your best save file is truly a right pain in the ass. This afternoon, my little sister overwrote the Harvest Moon DS file she had spent months working on. She was in tears for a while but I think she'll get over it with time. Or perhaps not. I still kick myself for starting a new save file on Pokemon Blue because I thought I was trapped in Victory Road.
On a note tangentially related to comforting her, did you know that the average price for a copy of Harvest Moon 64 on eBay is a pound of flesh? It's true.
Speaking of eBay, my second gaming tale of the day has to do with an eBay purchase. Sometime last week, I was scanning through some retro gaming equipment when I spotted a job lot that I thought I could turn a profit on. Suspecting that the initial investment and work might be too much for my cash strapped self alone, I enlisted Sam's aid and wallet. Thus it was that I was woken this morning by the news that a large box had arrived for me. Everyone knew it was one of my eBay purchases but nobody could guess what it was. Erin thought it might be a computer but I had to tell her that, though I had been considering it, I hadn't bought one. A few more tries from all and sundry led to no answers and all were mystified.
Until the 7 non-functioning Nintendo Entertainment Systems lay upon the breakfast table.
Once Sam returns from a short trip to England for his god-daughter's christening or some such trivial matter, the plan is to open up the NESes (NESs? NESi?) poke around and then replace what needs replacing and sell them at a profit. I shall keep you updated on the outcome of this plan.
My third tale of gaming relates to my love of RPGs, my inability to bring myself to complete many of them and my habit of picking up old games again during the holidays. A few years back, I picked up the excellent Skies of Arcadia Legends for the Gamecube and never completed it. A few months ago, during the Christmas holidays I think, I started a new file and got even further. I recall that a combination of reaching a rather tricky point and mounting pressure to revise for my prelims led to me giving up again.
I started playing that second file again today, continuing from where I left off at the request (lit: demand) of Erin, who tends to enjoy the stories of a lot of RPGs, even if I'm the one playing them.
I just realised that I have no idea where I'm going with this story. I guess I'd just like to point out my habit of trying to replay old RPGs. I guess I'd also like to needlessly extend this blog post so that I have more than just two stories, neither of which are particularly interesting. On a final RPG related note, go buy a Fire Emblem game. Seriously.
So.... anyone want to buy a NES?
There is a risk that every gamer takes and understands. They can take precautions against it, paranoia perhaps being the only possible defence. We spend hours, days, toiling away at our endeavours, the possibility of utter failure ever looming over our heads. Worse still, our undoing is often at the hands of none but ourselves; the heinous act that is our downfall is not for which malicious others may be beholden. The sole culprit is most often our own foolishness and inattention.
Yes, accidentally deleting your best save file is truly a right pain in the ass. This afternoon, my little sister overwrote the Harvest Moon DS file she had spent months working on. She was in tears for a while but I think she'll get over it with time. Or perhaps not. I still kick myself for starting a new save file on Pokemon Blue because I thought I was trapped in Victory Road.
On a note tangentially related to comforting her, did you know that the average price for a copy of Harvest Moon 64 on eBay is a pound of flesh? It's true.
Speaking of eBay, my second gaming tale of the day has to do with an eBay purchase. Sometime last week, I was scanning through some retro gaming equipment when I spotted a job lot that I thought I could turn a profit on. Suspecting that the initial investment and work might be too much for my cash strapped self alone, I enlisted Sam's aid and wallet. Thus it was that I was woken this morning by the news that a large box had arrived for me. Everyone knew it was one of my eBay purchases but nobody could guess what it was. Erin thought it might be a computer but I had to tell her that, though I had been considering it, I hadn't bought one. A few more tries from all and sundry led to no answers and all were mystified.
Until the 7 non-functioning Nintendo Entertainment Systems lay upon the breakfast table.
Once Sam returns from a short trip to England for his god-daughter's christening or some such trivial matter, the plan is to open up the NESes (NESs? NESi?) poke around and then replace what needs replacing and sell them at a profit. I shall keep you updated on the outcome of this plan.
My third tale of gaming relates to my love of RPGs, my inability to bring myself to complete many of them and my habit of picking up old games again during the holidays. A few years back, I picked up the excellent Skies of Arcadia Legends for the Gamecube and never completed it. A few months ago, during the Christmas holidays I think, I started a new file and got even further. I recall that a combination of reaching a rather tricky point and mounting pressure to revise for my prelims led to me giving up again.
I started playing that second file again today, continuing from where I left off at the request (lit: demand) of Erin, who tends to enjoy the stories of a lot of RPGs, even if I'm the one playing them.
I just realised that I have no idea where I'm going with this story. I guess I'd just like to point out my habit of trying to replay old RPGs. I guess I'd also like to needlessly extend this blog post so that I have more than just two stories, neither of which are particularly interesting. On a final RPG related note, go buy a Fire Emblem game. Seriously.
So.... anyone want to buy a NES?
Labels: alasdair, musings, rant, videogames
posted by Alasdair Corbett at
11:07 PM
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