Players will still have to shell out the base cost of the game ($30), but you will have access to everything. People can still subscribe if interested, and they get the usual pack of bonus items (Extra XP gains, monthly point allowance etc.). for your $15 a month.

From a subscription perspective, this really appels to me more than the Star Wars: The Old Republic. SWTOR’s free model is incredibly restrictive, and is really just enough of the game to force you to buy.

I may end up checking it out, but it definitely falls in my “buyer beware” category. As much as The Secret World intrigued me, FunCom games have always been one of my least favorite to play. Anyone who has met me will know the Age of Conan stories I still rage about constantly.

MOGA’s controller is Bluetooth so there’s no cables, gives you a basic modern controller layout (think Xbox 260) and will work on basically any phone. Couple that with an HDMI adapter and a TV and you’ve got a mini portable console!

The controller runs on AA batteries but will still give you 18 hours of gameplay which is impressive. At $45 it beats paying for a stand alone portable too.

I have heard rumors that the driver will constantly stay on unless you shut it off which is annoying, plus if you’re going to use this it’s recommended you have a MOGA universal driver. MOGA uses an app to configure controls which limits games that work. I have heard through some forum trolling that if you use the Universal it just works like a standard Bluetooth controller which means any game (including emulators works).

Gizmodo Review

MOGA Mobile Gaming Controller for Android Smartphones & Tablets | PowerA.

Digital Press is unique in that it’s one of the few stores that’s almost exclusively retro games. Yes there’s a small space for LANs in the back but this is basically the polar opposite of GameStop. You can bring in newer games, but they’re far less interested. Upon entering the store you are greeted with a wonderful display of games from yesteryear. You can tell the owners really do care about retro gaming. There are wonderful, museum like displays along the walls, posters everywhere and you can find some very rare hardware to purchase. I also was impressed with how they take care of some of the hardware. As I was in there there were about 3-4 SNES boxes lying around that were going through a very thorough cleaning. When buying retro games, nothing is worse than getting home and finding out it’s so dirty it won’t play.

However I have to say I was honestly a little disappointed with my visits to Digital Press. Part of it is they are a victim of their own success. While I love collecting video games, I’m just not as obsessed as others. I don’t spend every free moment of my life combing stores for games. I don’t have every opportunity to make to their store every weekend, and because of that I don’t consider myself part of the “in crowd” of retro collectors. Because of that I found Digital Press’ selection of available games on some systems to be thoroughly picked over. For example, the last time I went there the NES section (what I’m currently collecting) had about 30 copies of Pinball, and Major League. Neither are hard to collect, and outside of a few other cartridges I just wasn’t all that impressed. Perhaps it’s my own fault for having such high hopes about the store. Part of me maybe expected to have it like a Funco Land from my youth where you could find any game that you want. This just wasn’t the case. You could instantly tell that hardcore collectors camp out at the store and pick off what comes in, and it was a bit of a letdown. Once a month they have a group of game collectors and traders set up shop in their store to hang out, trade and play. Perhaps I’m just coming on the wrong day, but when I looked through the NES section and found copy after copy of the same game it was a little depressing.

Bottom line: Despite some issues, Digital Press is a “must-go” for any game collector. Just make sure your expectations are tempered.

Score table (Scale of 1 -10)

Selection: 6 - The selection is picked over pretty thoroughly (at least every time I’ve been there). Going there for the displays however it 100% worth it.

Price: 8 - I consider the game prices to be what you would pay at a retro game store. It’s not a swap meet, but you’re not getting ripped off.

Quality of games: 6- Not much to say here. I do appreciate seeing people take care of their games when they sell them. I do trust buying games from this store.

Quality of staff: 9 – Very helpful, very nice and very informative.

Availability:  Monday – Thursday 11am – 8pm, Friday – Saturday 11am – 9pm, Sunday 12pm – 5pm

Here is the minimum amount of plot I’ll disclose for those of you that haven’t seen it: The film is the story of a video game character , Wreck It Ralph, that goes on an adventure to change his standing in the world. All of the characters live in their own video games inside of an arcade and they can travel to other games.

Overall the film itself from a visual standpoint is incredibly fun and enjoyable. Having the setting of a video game let the set designers really play around and the result is a wonderful palette of scenes and feelings I quite enjoyed. If you’re a video gamer there is also a lot of great references and video game art that you will instantly recognize. Below is a list of stuff I managed to see (I’m sure there are more there but I’ve only seen it once):

Bowser (Super Mario Bros)

Dr. Robotnik and Sonic, (Sonic the Hedgehog)

Q*Bert and his case (Q*Bert)

Chun-Li, Cammy, Zangief, M.Bison, Ryu, and Ken (Street Fighter)

Neff  (Altered Beast)

Frogger (Frogger)

Pac-Man and the ghosts (Pac-Man)

Dig Dug

Kano and Sub-Zero (Mortal Kombat)

As a gamer that grew up with these characters, having a chance to see them come alive in a different way was just amazing, and fun. There are so many subtle video game nuances mixed into the film that you can tell the designers and writers were gamers at heart.

One thing that did occur to me that did dampen my experience was a matter of timing. Don’t get me wrong, this is a good movie, but I think releasing it in 2012 is just too late. While I’m in the theater I was near a 6th grade kid who would ask his mom every time a character came on the screen “Who is that?” Now I know I’m getting into that age bracket where stuff I grew up with isn’t known any more but it still shocked me a bit that kids who watched this may literally not know half of the characters in the film. Sure most people know Bowser, but Q*bert? Dig Dug? The film has some made up games that play a major role in the film, but part of me thought that kids watching this won’t know the difference and to be honest that made a little sad.

It also occurred to me that most of the kids that watch this film will never have the experience I had of playing games in an arcade. Today gaming is console and P.C. video arcades enjoy a niche existence at best and it really did pang me to think that someone watching this will think the idea of putting quarters into a game to play. The cacophony of sound that seems to drill its way into your ears while you concentrate. The smell of an arcade machine, that’s like old wood mixed with warm electronics. Kids that see this film will never have experienced that and it truly hurt a little bit to know this film is recalling a time period that is long gone.

All in all this is a fantastic film to watch. As an adult you will be brought back to the arcades you grew up with, and as a child you hopefully will see an entire world of entertainment you may not have known existed and will want to learn more.

First on my list is a very unlikely store called SWAP. It’s located on Route 1 in Edison NJ, and if you go there it’s really REALLY easy to miss. It’s basically a hole in the wall Pawn Shop but it honestly as the biggest selection of games I have EVER seen. Racks of NES games. More Sega Genesis games in their original boxes than any other store I’ve been in. The owner actually has a mint condition General Chaos that I want very badly. There is even a section of the store I call “the pit”  that is just a pile of stuff. I’m seeing shrink wrapped SNES’ Sega CDs there’s even a Sega CDX!

The downside is the prices. Boy oh boy what a selection but you’re going to have to pay for it big time. Most of the games are prices as mint collectables. For example I find a Solar Jetman NES cart, that clearly was in a fire. The front was almost melted off. The Label was OK but the bottom was a bubbled mess. It was priced at $8. Solar Jetman is not that rare and that cart wasn’t even close to 8 bucks. The owner also will absolutely not negotiate on prices at all. It’s not even worth bothering. While I get it to a point (business is business), a little wiggle room would be kind of nice. He does offer a buy 3 get one free but you’re still gonna drop about $40 for each game. There’s a sign there that says NES games $5, I’ve yet to see one priced under 7. Another pet peeve of mine is the labels he uses. They’re the tops of Post-It notes that are Scotch taped to the back label of the NES cartridge! As a collector taking these off is nearly impossible without ripping the back label. It’s cosmetic but it really annoys the crap out of me. My last complaint is the owner won’t give you a sleeve with your game purchase. Now I’m not a huge fan of sleeves to begin with but what the hell. I spend 12 bucks on Kid Icarus, and I can’t get a sleeve for free?

Bottom line: Worth a visit, but bring your extra credit card.

Score table (Scale of 1 -10)

Selection: 9 – There is stuff here I’ve never seen. Just seeing this many games in box in good condition is worth the trip.

Price: 4 – Would have been a 2 but the buy 3 get one is somewhat nice. Retro collecting is about the haggle and you have no chance here. Most are taken from an Amazon search so you’re paying colllectible

Quality of games: 5.5 – You get a mixed bag, most are in good condition, and the number of in-box things is impressive. I’m docking some points too for organization here. Stuff is everywhere. It’s nice cause you can hide some games for later but if you’re looking for an alphabetical list you’re in the wrong store.

Quality of staff: 5 The owner is nice, but pretty standoffish with prices. Also the label thing really bothers me. If you cater to collectors treat your products accordingly

Availability: Hours are 11-9 weekdays, but I’ve been there a couple of times when it was closed. Make sure you call ahead.

First and foremost, we’ve started a Nerd Palace steam group. You can find the  group here http://steamcommunity.com/groups/nerdpalace. It’s open for anyone to join so I encourage you to hop in if you’re a NP associate. Right now most of us on there are pretty into Borderlands 2 and I know I’m always looking for more people to play with. I hope to see you in there.

~Shaun

1. It’ll be out in 2013 – There is a lot of speculation that 2013 E3 will be the premiere of the new xbox.

2. Some codenames for the new box might be the Xbox “Loop” or Xbox “Durango” – Microsoft doesn’t usually use their code names as the final product name. For example: Kinect was originally called Project Natal.

3. Cloud storage and no discs – I’ve been seeing on a lot of MS rumor sites that they are considering using an all internet delivery/gameplay system. While I can see that as cool since I love being able to download games whenever I feel like it, but that would essentially kill the used games. I also am cautious about how MS will market this. Having all digital games would indicate that games would be cheaper since you don’t have to pay for things like plastic and box art. However, on demand games are usually not that much cheaper. This also leads me to think they’re considering killing off the whole MS points thing which sucks anyway.

4.  Windows 8 – One of the more interesting ones out there, but considering MS is going with an single OS ecosystem on its computers it would make sense to have a similar experience on their gaming console. Would be an interesting move to offer all of the Win8 apps and options on a T.V. console.

5. Lots and lots of Kinect – Love or hate it, but Kinect is here to stay. MS crushed the motion controls market and the last update added more Kinect functionality. I’m sure games will all have voice controls and you’ll be able to do even more gesture things with the new Xbox.

As I read about any other things I’ll post them up here. I for one am looking forward to checking it out.

Just for clarity I’m playing all of these on my arcade machine emulator. I’m also not doing this for any high score or competitive capacity. I just want to beat these darn games. I’ll repost this with updates as I go. I also promise to be honest and when I give up and use game genie or cheats. Beating the game is still beating the game, and if anyone knows Nintendo games you know they are hard as hell.

As of 3/12/2012

Nintendo:

Batman – The first Batman for Nintendo is insanely hard, but it’s also amazing. Hands down one of the best soundtracks for a game as well.

Blaster Master – Continuing my love affair with SunSoft games (Batman) I come to Blaster Master. One of the first games I remember playing as a kid. It was also one of the first games I can remember that was a side scroller and an over the top shooter in the same game.

Castlevania

Castlevania 2: Simon’s Quest

Castlevania 3: Dracula’s Curse

For some reason I never really played the Castlevania Series a lot growing up. I really regret that. I had the third one but I found it to be too difficult and frustrating. I think it’s time for another try.

Ducktales – When I bought this game EVERYONE made so much fun of me, until they played it and realized it was one of the best video games for the NES. Endless fun, plus you get yet another great soundtrack

Faxanadu – Faxanadu was one of those weird games I bought towards the end of the life of Nintendo. It’s a very strange, but very enjoyable RPG style game.

Karnov – How on earth can you not like this game. You’re a fat Russian fire-breather who is basically stuck in some kind of acid trip.

Legend of Zelda – BEATEN (No saves other than in game ones. Both times)

Legenda of Zelda 2

Metal Gear – Easily one of the hardest games ever made it was also the first one I can think of that you didn’t have to shoot the enemies. It was all about stealth.

Snakes Revenge – One of those obscure sequels I just love.

Super C – Everyone has beaten the first Contra game at some point in their lives but I never really got into the sequel.

Super Mario Brothers BEATEN (no saves used)

Super Mario Brothers 2* BEATEN (I used save games in this. I just couldn’t find the hours I needed to do it in one shot)

Super Mario Brothers 3*

For the record I’ve beaten both 2 and 3 but it’s been a long time. I have never made a concerted effort to beat the first one.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – The first TMNT game is arguably one of the hardest ever made (and one of the worst). For some reason it still makes me mad that I never beat it.

Trojan – Trojan was one of those strange games I bought early on when I started playing Nintendo. I can’t remember if I ever beat it, so I’m going to try again.

Willow – Awesome movie and an awesome game. Another RPG I never got around to beating

Brett and I have talked about doing this before and he had a great idea behind the application of this type of music “I like to play the music and pretend that I’m trying to beat the level “work” in some game.” Anyway let me know what you think and if I’m missing any artists I need.

(vie Spofity)

Chiptunes