Starting From Scratch...

HeartOfTheCity

I've owned most consoles in my lifetime but during those years either threw away or sold most of them (sacrilege, I know).

What I'm aiming to do is obtain each console and the best 25 games for each one, using IGN's Top 25 for each.

Question is, what would you say your top three must have games for each console (NES, onwards)? (And no, I'm not trying to start a war!)

Retr0gamer

HeartOfTheCity wrote: »

What I'm aiming to do is obtain each console and the best 25 games for each one, using IGN's Top 25 for each.

I really can't recommend against using IGN, bunch of hacks. You'll end up with just the poulist titles or at worst a lot of games that have aged really badly. You would be mush better off using the Racketboy lists which include stuff like the rarest, cheapest, best and the ones that define the system. They also list games before each category to check out. Retrogaming isn't just about revisiting the past. The best bit is discovering new games that you would never have played so don't stick to one list.

As for a top 3? 3 just isn't enough

HeartOfTheCity

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I really can't recommend against using IGN, bunch of hacks. You'll end up with just the poulist titles or at worst a lot of games that have aged really badly. You would be mush better off using the Racketboy lists which include stuff like the rarest, cheapest, best and the ones that define the system. They also list games before each category to check out. Retrogaming isn't just about revisiting the past. The best bit is discovering new games that you would never have played so don't stick to one list.

As for a top 3? 3 just isn't enough

Three is why it's fun

You're probably right about IGN. My exposure when the systems were current was pretty limited (what with being a kid and all), so any help would be greatly appreciated. Trying to make it more entertaining (frustrating?) by avoiding buying on the internet and only buying in person.

Now, get to the top three lists

o1s1n

3?! Impossible I'll try 5! (probably subject to change the moment I press submit+)

Sega Megadrive -

Streets of Rage 2
MUSHA Aleste
Alien Soldier
Sonic The Hedgehog
The Revenge of Shinobi

Snes -

Zelda A Link to the Past
Chrono Trigger
Super Metroid
Super Mario World
Secret of Mana

Ps1 -

Castlevania SOTN
Final Fantasy VII
Metal Gear Solid
The Raiden Project
Resident Evil 2

Saturn -

Panzer Dragoon Saga
Radiant Silvergun
Soukyugurentai
Battle Garegga
The Tower (!)

Neo Geo -

Metal Slug
Blazing Star
Shock Troopers
Magical Drop 2
Puzzle Bobble

Retr0gamer

Another piece of advice before you start, learn the difference between PAL and NTSC machines and also if the machines can be hacked to 60Hz and made multi-regional. Just be sure what you are doing before you start, you don't want to regret a few years down the line when you have a full PAL collection and want an NTSC one. Most old games suffer from horrendous european PAL conversions where they are bordered leading to squashed visuals and running at 50Hz meaning they run slower with sluggish controls.

NES

Mega Man 2
Mario 3
Castlevania 3 Dracula's Curse

Master System

Phantasy Star
Sonic
Master of Darkness

PC-Engine

Soldier Blade
Air Zonk
Bomberman '93

PC-E CD

Castlevania Rondo of Blood
Lords of Thunder
Ys Book 1 and 2

Megadrive

Gunstar Heroes
Phantasy Star 4
Rocket Knight Adventures

Mega CD

Sonic CD
Robo Aleste
Shining Force CD

SNES

Earthbound
Super Metroid
Zelda Link to the Past

PS1

Suikoden 2
Castlevania Symphony of the Night
Einhander

Saturn

Panzer Dragoon Saga
Radiant Silvergun
Nights

N64

Sin and Punishment
Zelda Majoras Mask
Blast Corps

Gameboy

Zelda Links Awakening
Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal
Donkey Kong 94

Game Gear

GG Shinobi
Baku Baku Animal
Sonic

Gameboy Colour

Metal Gear Solid
Zelda Oracle of Seasons and Ages
Shantae

Gameboy Advance

Ninja Cop
Metroid Zero Mission
Castlevania Aria of Sorrow

Wonderswan

Makaimura
Rhyme Rider Kerorican
Klonoa

Neo Geo

Metal Slug
Samurai Showdown 2
Garou: Mark of the Wolves

Neo Geo Pocket

Faselei!
SNK vs. Capcom
Card Fighters Clash

Dreamcast

Under Defeat
Power Stone
Skies of Arcadia

o1s1n

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Another piece of advice before you start, learn the difference between PAL and NTSC machines and also if the machines can be hacked to 60Hz and made multi-regional. Just be sure what you are doing before you start, you don't want to regret a few years down the line when you have a full PAL collection and want an NTSC one. Most old games suffer from horrendous european PAL conversions where they are bordered leading to squashed visuals and running at 50Hz meaning they run slower with sluggish controls.

+1 million.

Luckily you can modify a lot of old consoles to run in 60hz..however some you can't.

PS1 games for example are all stuck in 50hz, it's a software thing.

I wish I'd know that before I started building up a PAL PS1 library years ago!

HeartOfTheCity

o1s1n wrote: »

+1 million.

Luckily you can modify a lot of old consoles to run in 60hz..however some you can't.

PS1 games for example are all stuck in 50hz, it's a software thing.

I wish I'd know that before I started building up a PAL PS1 library years ago!

Crap, I didn't even think of that! Cheers lads. Any suggested collectors reading so I don't end up doing your heads in?

o1s1n

HeartOfTheCity wrote: »

Crap, I didn't even think of that! Cheers lads. Any suggested collectors reading so I don't end up doing your heads in?

Do one console at a time. See what the best way is of getting the games in proper 60hz speed with the best picture and sound quality.

A lot of consoles will have the same solution for sound and picture - RGB Scart. If the console supports it (For example - Snes/Megadrive/Saturn/PS1/Dreamcast/PS2) then definitely go that way. And make sure you have it in the correct RGB scart socket on the tv (on a lot of TVs only one scart socket supports it)

If you can, get your hands on a nice CRT. Preferably a Sony Trinitron with a superflat screen. They weigh a ton, but combined with RGB scart, the picture quality is godlike.

Retr0gamer

What o1s1n says times a million. The PAL NTSC thing is a good thing to know starting off. I've a massive N64 collection that's pretty much complete but ost of it is in PAL and it's too much of a bother and too much money to start again. Best to know now.

Sparks43

Tough one op but after hours of thought these are the must haves on all systems





NES
Boulder Dash

Master System

Boulder Dash
PC-Engine
Boulder Dash

PC-E CD
Boulder Dash

Megadrive
Boulder Dash

Mega CD

Boulder Dash

SNES
Boulder Dash

PS1

Boulder Dash

Saturn

Boulder Dash

N64
Boulder Dash

Gameboy

Boulder Dash

Game Gear
Boulder Dash

Gameboy Colour
Boulder Dash
Gameboy Advance
Boulder Dash

Wonderswan
Boulder Dash

Neo Geo

Boulder Dash

Neo Geo Pocket

Boulder Dash

Dreamcast
Boulder Dash

Wii

Dr Who

Steve X2

Sparks43 wrote: »

Tough one op but after hours of thought these are the must haves on all systems

NES
Boulder Dash
Master System
Boulder Dash
PC-Engine
Boulder Dash
PC-E CD
Boulder Dash
Megadrive
Boulder Dash
Mega CD
Boulder Dash
SNES
Boulder Dash
PS1
Boulder Dash
Saturn
[BBoulder Dash[/B]
N64
Boulder Dash
Gameboy
Boulder Dash
Game Gear
Boulder Dash
Gameboy Colour
Boulder Dash
Gameboy Advance
Boulder Dash
Wonderswan
Boulder Dash
Neo Geo
Boulder Dash
Neo Geo Pocket
Boulder Dash
Dreamcast
Boulder Dash
Wii
Dr Who

.

Myrddin

This is exactly how I started again, sold most of my consoles back in the day to upgrade etc. When the PS1 came out, only shmucks had Megadrives, so you sold everything to raise the cash for the latest & greatest.

It was only in later years it dawned on me that some of the greatest games I've ever played, in fact of all time, were on systems long gone. So the quest began. I'm pretty much where I wanna be hardware wise, short of a few oddities like a Famicom etc, but I have everything back that I used to own.

Game wise, good luck keeping it to 25 per system, you' enjoy doing this so much you will NEVER stop buying, trust me. Have fun!

CiDeRmAn

To start from scratch might I suggest heading to a Sunday Market and picking up a cheap console there and a few games, you may spot a PS or a Snes, Megadrives crop up regularly enough and you will, typically, get a couple of games along with.
Not important what comes with it, normally Sonic or some random Fifa title.
Be careful on Adverts and Ebay, there are some serious profiteers and they will fleece the inexperienced.
After you have a couple for a solid start, and a Megadrive, Snes and a n N64 or Saturn would be a good start, build your collection slowly.
You can throw a fortune at it and have a massive collection quickly but, more often than not, you will just wind up with a ton of new games for your retro consoles and not a hope of playing them all properly.
So, a game or to a week, not spending more than, say, a tenner each or less will build a respectable collection of classics for each, Super Mario World, Sonic 2 and Super Mario Kart are not expensive games.
For the rarer titles I might suggest that you hold off on such expense until you know what you like, no point in blowing 50 on a Front Mission title when, it turns out, you dislike the turnbased strategic genre, better to play with the the fun, common stuff, get a feel for the machine and then get into the more niche material.
For starters,
A Snes with Super Mario World, Super Metroid, Zelda A Link To The Past and Super Mario Kart is a great introduction, an extra controller too!
A Megadrive with Sonic, Sonic 2, Road Rash 2, Thunderforce 4 and some poeple around these parts recommend Streets of Rage.....
An N64 with Mario 64, Zelda Ocarina of Time, Blast Corp, 1080 Snowboarding, Goldeneye.
Those three combinations are a good intro to each and really shouldn't cost any more than €60 with the games per package.

In fact, I may have a spare N64 with a few games knocking around here.......
I will post on Adverts if I can find it!

Retr0gamer

Try to find an old console for sale with as many good games as possible. You'll spend a lot less on a bundle. I got an N64 with about 15 games which gave me a solid foundation of good games for about 70 euros. If I was to buy them all seperately it would have cost about 200. The best place to look for these is on the likes of adverts or buy and sell but unfortunately the price of old videogame hardware and games has gone up with more people being quite savvy and others being complete rip off merchants. Maybe put some feelers out there with friends and family to see if they still have their old collections and want to make a nice crisp 50 :P Sunday markets can also be a goldmine if you are lucky.

HeartOfTheCity

Legends, the lot of you. Appreciate it. Any more advice?

Myrddin

HeartOfTheCity wrote: »

Legends, the lot of you. Appreciate it. Any more advice?

Never,ever, eat yellow s.....

Oh wait, games advice? Yeah, when your finished building your collection, build a room for an arcade cab or three. Get a Vectrex & a Virtual Boy too

o1s1n

Whenever you get something new, make sure to post a picture of it in this thread and gloat

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055724411&page=522

K.O.Kiki

SNES:
Secret of Mana (German -- the original English one doesn't even have variable-width fonts IIRC) Buggy & incomplete it may be, but I love it to bits in a way that is hard to explain
Donkey Kong Country 2 -- best "flow" in a game, ever
Yoshi's Island -- 90s platformers distilled

honourable mention: Chrono Trigger -- best RPG of all time? You can get it on iPod/iPhone now

PS1:
Tekken 3 -- Amazing fighter with huge depth
Metal Gear Solid -- You'd be a fool to miss it
Final Fantasy IX -- You'd be heartless to not love it

PS2:
Ico -- 30 years of game design evolution distilled into 5hrs of magic
Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution -- absolutely the best port of a fighting game, ever (and that includes DC Soulcalibur)
Persona 4 -- For my money, the best traditional JRPG of the last decade

Honourable mention: Shadow of the Colossus -- get it on PS3 for the improved frame-rate

GameCube:
Super Smash Bros Melee -- Truly stands the test of time
Resident Evil 4 -- has defined the 3D shooter genre in so so many ways
(can't think of a 3rd right now)

N64:
Super Mario 64 -- Perfection out the boat

Dreamcast:
Grandia 2 -- insanely great battle system
Soulcalibur -- still very very playable
Shenmue -- this is what dreams are made of

Honourable mention: Rez -- get it on 360 XBLA for the full-on HD treatment

Andrew76

Quality games listed there K.O.Kiki.

As for the GameCube, some other great games that spring to mind are: Metroid Prime, Paper Mario, Ikaruga, F-Zero GX, Mario Sunshine, Pikmin, Eternal Darkness.

CiDeRmAn

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Sunday markets can also be a goldmine if you are lucky.

Not only lucky but get there before me, Mwa ha hahaaha!

OwaynOTT

SNES
Bomberman 1 with a multi-tap
Secret of Mana with a multi-tap
Street Fighter 2 Turbo

Got a Bomb em up, a level em up and a beat em up there.

Sega Megadrive

Streets of Rage
Streets of Rage 2
Streets of Rage 3

And because it's so good I have to add a fourth for Sega, Golden Axe.


Good luck with spending your every spare cents on games.

CiDeRmAn

OwaynTT, your not attempting to troll are you???
Sure, everyone knows Rise of the Robots is the best thing on the MD!
KOkiki, can't believe you slid Donkey Kong Country 2 by as a paragon if great gaming with out so much as a peep from Retr0! He must be losing his edge!

Lastly, we really sound like a bunch of crack addicts into whose midst an innocent has stumbled asking the unwashed horde "what's that you are smoking and is it nice?"

djsim101

Am....how come ye guys never mentioned the C64 once, my fav of em all

You can pick one up for around 50 shots, well worth it..

And another console (which my wife bought for me for Xmas) the beautiful Atari Jaguar

As the lads said above, try and buy in bundles. Prime example is the above Atari. The wife ( god bless her, she tried)bought online with only 1 controller and 2 games (one of which,btw, is white men cant bloody jump) and its a right pain trying to source games and controllers for it at a fair price

paperwork

C64
Creatures
The Last Ninja
Mayhem in Monsterland.

Great system!

Jack burton

Here's my advice. Come back to this thread in a years time and laugh as you look as you'll be after getting way more than what you except to get. I'm collecting SNES games atm and I have about 40 or 50 games on my list.

Good luck and I remember my first 2 major earlier purchases were for mega drive lots which game me over a 100 games straight away. A lot of them were resold by me but I got some very rare and good games in those lots for cheap so I'd say looking around for something like that would be a good start

OwaynOTT

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

OwaynTT, your not attempting to troll are you???
Sure, everyone knows Rise of the Robots is the best thing on the MD!
KOkiki, can't believe you slid Donkey Kong Country 2 by as a paragon if great gaming with out so much as a peep from Retr0! He must be losing his edge!

Lastly, we really sound like a bunch of crack addicts into whose midst an innocent has stumbled asking the unwashed horde "what's that you are smoking and is it nice?"

Nope, just trying to break the taboo that surrounds Streets of Rage. Golden Axe howerver, is pure golden ****.

Megadrive
Streets of Rage 2
Road Rash 2
World of Illusion

CiDeRmAn

Be careful with collecting, I now have over 100 PlayStation games and about 250 PS2 titles now!
The problem is, if it is a problem, it becomes very quickly that you don't only want all the great games you used to own but also all the games you wished you owned at the time. Then you quickly end up with a 500 a month ebay habit, you selling blood and semen to support said habit and breaking into Rage in the middle of the night to get that Super Scope you've had your eye on!

Retr0gamer

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

KOkiki, can't believe you slid Donkey Kong Country 2 by as a paragon if great gaming with out so much as a peep from Retr0! He must be losing his edge!

Ah I've talked to him about it before, neither of us are changing our mind. Anyway it's a decent game that's worth owning, definitely the best of the DKC games, I just don't think it's the perfect platformer like KOkiki thinks it is and that there's much better platformers out there.

o1s1n

DKC games are good fun, but there's no way in hell you could consider any of them the perfect platformer.

For example, how can you possibly make a case that it's better than Super Mario World? And that's just going with the obvious one!

ghostchant

Plok is the king of the non-Mario SNES platformers!

CiDeRmAn

ghostchant wrote: »

Plok is the king of the non-Mario SNES platformers!

No it's not, now be quiet or we'll take you to o1s1ns pantry and lock you in!

ghostchant

Meh, as long as I at the very least have something with a SNES emulator and Plok I'm not too fussed. Assuming he doesn't keep his SNES in there that is.

Jack burton

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Be careful with collecting, I now have over 100 PlayStation games and about 250 PS2 titles now!
The problem is, if it is a problem, it becomes very quickly that you don't only want all the great games you used to own but also all the games you wished you owned at the time. Then you quickly end up with a 500 a month ebay habit, you selling blood and semen to support said habit and breaking into Rage in the middle of the night to get that Super Scope you've had your eye on!

Wait! There's a place in Ireland that buys this stuff? Like do they buy jizz by the once or quality?

If only I knew about this sooner, might be able to get me a few new cabs!

CiDeRmAn

Jack burton wrote: »

Wait! There's a place in Ireland that buys this stuff? Like do they buy jizz by the once or quality?

If only I knew about this sooner, might be able to get me a few new cabs!

Think you might be out of luck, it can't be crusted into an old sock....
Going to have to come up with a different plan to get those cabs...

How about selling your body?
TO SCIENCE!
I believe Aperture Science are looking for volunteers, something to do with mantis DNA?

Jack burton

Damn, if we lived in America everyone could win, I could have everything I want and they'd be a nation of really cool people, because coolness is genetic!

CiDeRmAn

Hmm, is your love custard "motile" enough to be of value?
Your little swimmers are no use if the can only do half a length doing the doggy paddle!!!

It'd make a pretty interesting Adverts.ie offer though...


Seller: For Sale Boxed and Sealed Super Nintendo with SMW, any offers considered.

Ole Jack Burton: Offer- 500mls of frozen semen, mostly of known origin, it was a kinda wild night, you know....

Jack burton

Were talking Ian Thorpe type swimmers here

HeartOfTheCity

Jack burton wrote: »

Were talking Ian Thorpe type swimmers here

Recently come out of retirement and off the pace?

Jack burton

nono, vintage 2000 thorpe!

How many consoles you plan on collecting for anyway heartofthecity?

HeartOfTheCity

Jack burton wrote: »

nono, vintage 2000 thorpe!

How many consoles you plan on collecting for anyway heartofthecity?

After advice from some of the guys here, I'll be starting with one console (one of NES, Mega Drive or N64) and going from there. Eventually, though, I'll be looking to get:

- NES
- SNES
- Dreamcast
- Saturn
- Mega Drive
- N64
- Gamecube
- Neo Geo
- Atari 2600

Now, where to put it all...

Retr0gamer

If you want to collect Neo Geo then make yourself a consolised Neo Geo out of a supergun. The home console AES games cost stupid amounts of money while the arcade MVS carts are cheap as chips.

Also you'll get no respect in these parts if you don't own a Virtual Boy :P

CiDeRmAn

Retr0gamer wrote: »

If you want to collect Neo Geo then make yourself a consolised Neo Geo out of a supergun. The home console AES games cost stupid amounts of money while the arcade MVS carts are cheap as chips.

Also you'll get no respect in these parts if you don't own a Virtual Boy :P

Up to recently not owning a Nes was enough to get you abuse, but sadly this was remedied and now we just consider cross dressing and CDi ownership as key sources of comedy here...

Also, never mind the VB, get a Vextrex and a Vecmulti flash cart for the true badge of retrogaming honour!!!

A supergun and MVS mother board is a great way to get the Neogeo gaming for non-mortgage prices, €150 should see with the required hardware and a game or two, the King of Fighters games are cheap as chips, and an excellent Samurai Shodown 2 is pretty cheap too, and something you will always come back to.
A €50 supergun will also grant access to the world of Jamma arcade boards, G-Net boards and a whole host of gaming goodness as well.

Myrddin

HeartOfTheCity wrote: »

Now, where to put it all...

The Golden Question. My solution? If you can't beat them, build a diy loft conversion gaming den - http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=70557478

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Also you'll get no respect in these parts if you don't own a Virtual Boy :P

Pay this no attention, he only got his first NES about 4/5 months ago.

Jack burton

I'm working on somthing a bit more compact at the moment, making a 9 shelved TV stand

I'll put pics up when its finished but seems to me like it will be a grand little set up for myself

HeartOfTheCity

EnterNow wrote: »

The Golden Question. My solution? If you can't beat them, build a diy loft conversion gaming den - http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=70557478

That's just showing off That's pretty amazing alright. Not quite sure I can convert my apartment in quite the same way though. Thinking of building something from scratch or hacking something from Ikea to bits to store the consoles neatly. But I'm getting ahead of myself now.

Thanks for the Racketboy suggestion. Such an unbelievably clear and helpful site, and now I know I won't be paying over the odds.

Myrddin

HeartOfTheCity wrote: »

That's just showing off That's pretty amazing alright. Not quite sure I can convert my apartment in quite the same way though. Thinking of building something from scratch or hacking something from Ikea to bits to store the consoles neatly. But I'm getting ahead of myself now.

Thanks for the Racketboy suggestion. Such an unbelievably clear and helpful site, and now I know I won't be paying over the odds.

Not showing off at all, purely to demonstrate that it can be done by diy means at a fraction of the cost

An apartment does restrict you though Perhaps look at going down the mountain lodge route?

CiDeRmAn

A dedicated gamesroom is definitely the way to go, if space permits and your hobby needs it, often though, especially if you focus on a particular console or manufacturer, you could get away with some nice display cases.
Under the TV or buried in a wardrobe is really not the way to go, be proud of your retrogaming habit!
You should see the admiring looks the Vectrex gets when it moves downstairs from the gaming cave, people find it fascinating, and get hooked on the Asteroids homebrew!

80s Synth Pop

I've picked up ten or so consoles in the past years from the USA NES to the Jap PC Engine. The consoles alone take up a lot of space, never mind the games and the cables. Before you take the plunge though, consider putting a laptop under the TV, picking up the original controllers and then some of these adapters:
http://www.amazon.com/Retrolink-Nintendo-NES-Adapter-Entertainment-System/dp/B000PDOTXG
http://www.amazon.com/SNES-Controller-Adapter-USB-Super-NES/dp/B002IXZ5DE/ref=pd_bxgy_vg_img_b
http://www.amazon.com/Gamecube-XBox-Controller-Adapter-favorite-PC/dp/B000ND3XXA/ref=pd_sim_vg_3

collectors are going to collect as a hobby regardless, but emulation with the original controllers is an alternative to consider.

HeartOfTheCity

The heavy spending begins next weekend. Pray for me.