Collection Project. The games outstanding

I haven't really added too many titles to my collection over the last year. The original idea was to recreate the collection that I used to have. I managed to get most of it back together and even added quite a few that I never owned but played extensively. Now I just want to get a list together of the games that are outstanding. As I try to write this list it is amazing how hard it is to remember the games that I used to own.

Taz-Mania (MegaDrive)

Streets of Rage 3 (MegaDrive)

Mortal Kombat 2 (MegaDrive)

James Pond II (MegaDrive)

Wiz n Liz (MegaDrive)

Quick Note - International Superstar Soccer 64

Today I added to my collection for the first time in ages. I was in a retro game store and found International Superstar Soccer 64 for the N64 in perfect condition for only €5. This isn't a game I owned, or even for a system I owned but a friend had it and we clocked up a good few hours on it.


Couldn't resist adding it to the collection.

Fade To Black

If I remember correctly Fade To Black is one of two games that I acquired in a swap with a friend at school. The other game being Worms. I owned the original game, Flashback on the Mega Drive and was a fan even though I never made it that far into it. I'm pretty certain the same can be said about Fade To Black. Again it was graphically impressive (for the time) and I enjoyed the gun play but I found it very tough. I also think that I had a problem with the 3D perspective, in that it gave me motion-sickness. Like a lot of the games discussed here in recent months I struggle to remember any more details about it. Still, it is nice to have back in the collection and is in pretty good condition.

Worms

The second of those games acquired in a swap with a friend. I've no idea what games I swapped with him but I think one of them might have been Command and Conquer. Now unlike many of the games I've posted about recently I can remember lots about Worms. It is one of those games that just keeps on appearing generation, after generation. As well as the PSOne version I have owned it on the Xbox 360 and now I own it on the iPhone. But this version, for me, is the definitive one. 

Many, many Saturday evenings were lost to this game in fantastic three player battles between myself, my sister and a good friend. We all had specific teams and every single worm in the game had their own name. I remember the Villains team, the Heroes team, the Goddess team etc... Over time we all grew attached to those worms and after months of playing we had all built up some very impressive statistics for these worms. Playing Worms since on other systems has never quite recaptured what was so special about those days.

This version is in excellent condition and comes in that silly dual-DVD case. I never understood the purpose of those cases.

The sole Mega Drive survivors

I had a nice stroke of luck at the very beginning of my quest to rebuild my video game collection. In the attic of my childhood home there lay a bag containing no less than five Mega Drive games. As is the case with practically everything I own the condition of these items was near perfect, apart from a healthy coating of dust. So what gems you ask were in included in this little haul? Well I had Road Rash, Desert Strike, PGA Tour Golf III, Flashback and Ballz. My delight at finding these five was somewhat tempered by the fact that the real stars of my collection like Streets of Rage 2 or NBA Jam were not among them. Just were did they go I wonder.

So what do I make of this collection of Mega Drive games that shall form the beginnings of this new collection?

Road Rash 

Of the five it is Road Rash that had the most play time back in the day. Who can forget flying along the road hitting your opponents with a chain or a nice forearm smash before ploughing headlong into an oncoming car. You'd get that sinking feeling that the race was lost as you ran back to your bike and saw the other contestants fly past racing towards the finish. I'm positive that I wasn't the only one that wished you could actually enter the houses along the road that you'd encounter while looking for your bike. Little did we know we'd have to wait the best part of a decade for GTA III to arrive to fulfil that little wish. As I write this I'm beginning to wonder if I owned Road Rash 2 (RR2).

[Returns back from Wikipedia] It appears that I might also have owned the sequel. The box art doesn't look that familiar but the chain weapon is actually in RR2 not the first game as I originally thought. It is possible that I just had a loan of RR2 which means I'll have to put it on the list of

wanted items.

Desert Strike 

Desert Strike is a game that I got with the Mega Drive. It didn't come  bundled with the console, I think my mother bought it at the same time but I could be wrong. It was an enjoyable game even though I didn't manage to experience that much of it. You see, I found the game impossibly hard. If it wasn't the eagle-eyed enemies swatting me from the air it was the gas guzzling helicopter that would fall from the sky, out of gas yet again. I also think that I never quite got the hang of the controls, I was just never precise enough for the more delicate manoeuvres. If memory serves I never did get past the first level. Was there even a next level? Even now I'm unsure. I remember going back to the game time and again determined to crack that level once and for all. Perhaps when I get a Mega Drive up and running again I will attempt it one final time.

PGA Tour Golf III

I guess everyone has a golf game in their collection somewhere even if they aren't a fan of the sport. They always seem like a good idea at the time as they tend to be highly addictive and fun at the beginning but that, for me at least, only lasts a short time. Perhaps it is the repetitive nature of the control scheme - press A, followed by A and press A again. PGA Tour Golf III as no different. Then again not being a golf aficionado it is possible that I am missing out on the little nuances that would have made the game more fun in the long run. Thinking about it now I thought the graphics at the time were very impressive, the player models trying to achieve a very realistic look. Quite impressive at the time but one suspects if I were to play it now the graphics wouldn't hold up at all. Another memory associated with this title is the fact that it remains the only game that I have played with my dad. Having said all that I did fall into the golf game trap only last year with Tiger Woods 10 on the Wii. Yes, it was fun at the start, especially with Wii Motion Plus but I haven't even completed one tournament yet. I really must go back and try again.

Flashback

Flashback was an interesting game. At the time I remember having saved enough for a new game and thought that the screen shots of the game in C&VG magazine were awesome. Perhaps I didn't know what type of game it was or was just sucked by the amazing visuals but I picked up the game regardless in Artane Castle. There must have been a toy store there back then, I don't recall exactly. What followed was one of the more embarrassing episodes of my gaming life. The game opens with the main character, Conrad lying on the ground. Control is passed to me and I walk him to the side of the screen to continue. Nothing happens. The screen doesn't scroll. Nor does a new screen load. It appears I'm stuck on the opening screen. I try everything I can think of to make some progress but fail spectacularly. I'm not sure how much time goes by but I eventually try to return the game. They guy in the shop puts the game on and of course doesn't see anything wrong. The game turns on and looks fine from his point of view. I have no idea what I tried to argue. Did I suggest the rest of the game was missing? Anyway, I returned home defeated with the same copy of Flashback in my hand.

I'm not sure how long after that episode I figured out what I was doing wrong. Perhaps I just read the manual. But a simple press of 'up' on the d-pad would have solved all my problems as Conrad reaches up and pulls himself to a new part of the screen. Progress. Finally. I never did get that much further. The game was extremely difficult, at least I found it so. I loaned it to a friend once and found out that he had gotten much further than I had. How annoying is that? Despite never having that much fun with the game I still remember it fondly and actually ended up owning the sequel Fade to Black on the PSOne. One more thing about Flashback was the awesome box art. Looking at it now it has a definite iconic quality. I'm sure most gamers my age would recognise it.

Ballz

The last of the games contained in the bag was Ballz. Or Ballz 3D: The Battle of the Balls to give it it's full title. I'm pretty sure that I picked this up towards the end of the Mega Drive era. I think I got it cheap enough in the old Electronic Boutique store on Dawson Street. I miss that shop actually. There isn't much of this title that sticks in the memory, in fact I had to resort to Wikipedia just there for a refresher. I guess the game was a bit of a laugh but with Mortal Kombat II in the collection and Super Street Fighter II on my friends SNES to play I really don't see why I bothered with such an inferior fighter. On the plus side I don't have to try to track down a copy of it now.

Writing lists and setting rules

Now that I had decided to rebuild my collection of video games I had to actually try and remember what games I did own at one point or another. This is not as easy as you might think. The best place to start as in most cases is the beginning. I did own a C64 but for one reason or another I have decided not to pursue this part of my collection. So that brings me onto the Sega Mega Drive, probably the best console I've ever owned but that could be the nostalgia talking.

I know that towards the end of the Mega Drive era I had amassed quite a collection of games but I couldn't remember them all when I sat down to write a list. Sure, I remembered the classics that I owned like Sonic the Hedgehog, Streets of Rage II and NBA Jam. Other games that sprung to mind were Desert Strike, Mortal Kombat 2, Road Rash and Flashback. That made seven games, but surely I had more than that. A little more thought and I remembered some more but I resorted to Wikipedia to look up popular Mega Drive games to ignite a spark of recognition. Games that I found that had to be added to my list were Ballz, Micro Machines, Tazmania and several others.

The situation was the same with my PSOne collection of titles. I knew a couple, like International Superstar Soccer Pro and Wipeout but it took some looking to figure out what else I had. I didn't have as much of a problem when it came to the PS2 as I was still playing that machine up until a few years ago. Still one thing did strike me about my PS2 collection - it was very small. That was my primary console for five years and yet I rarely seemed to buy any games for it, apart from my annual fix of Pro Evolution Soccer. The Nintendo Game Boy is another console that I've owned in my time but that part of my collection is on the back burner. It is not forgotten but it will have to wait. There are also a handful of PS3 games that I've traded in that I now want back, at the right price of course.

Price. A very important consideration in all this. In order to control the cost, rules were needed. Do I buy only games that I've owned? What about games I loved but didn't own, that I had gotten a loan of. Ah yes, loaning games in school, great way to play plenty of games without paying for them. How about games that I might have owned or rented, like Aladdin. What about games that I could come across that would be great in any collection but I've never played? Finally, it turns out that although the majority of retro games are very cheap, some are surprisingly expensive. Raise your hands (or clenched fist) Streets of Rage 3!

In the end there is no set rule really. If I think it would be good for the collection and at a reasonable price, preferably low, I will try to get it. So when I'm finished it won't be my original collection per se but it will be quite a collection.