Peripheral Vision: ASCII Pad PS No.800 Controller
Along side the Interact Barracuda and Nuby's "The Rock", there sits yet another controller I own for the Playstation that baffles me as to how it passed the R&D stage. I'm more familiar with ASCIIWare's SNES and Genesis era controllers, and many of them are actually really nice. The slim, boxy design of the PS No.800 controller just leaves me scratching my head as to who thought this was a good idea. With the official Playstation logo on the front I first thought this was an odd Sony controller, but later I ... Read more
Posted 5 days ago
World Driver Championship
The Nintendo 64 has a lot of great racing games, but most of them are kart racers or adapted from the arcade. Don't get me wrong, I do love those types of games, but I've always wondered if the N64 ever birthed a competitor for Sony's racing simulation Gran Turismo. After a bit of internet research I came up with a few candidates that may be able to answer that question. The one I decided to try first is World Driver Championship.
World Driver Championship isn't exactly a racing simulator, but ... Read more
Posted 1 week ago
Building the Ultimate Game Boy
Throughout my thrift store journeys I've purchased a handful of Game Boy consoles, most of which were in desperate need of repair or restoration. Some only needed elbow grease and care, but the others, sadly, were so far gone they became relegated to the parts bin. A few years ago I looked into my parts bin and saw an AGS-101 and a AGB-001 sitting there. I could feel the desire to become a part of something better burning deep within their souls, so I decided it was time to make my own backlit GBA (or as I call it the ... Read more
Posted 2 weeks ago
Peripheral Vision: Interact Barracuda
If you've read a portion of my other Peripheral Vision posts you'll know I have quite a few strange video game controllers. One of the strangest among the collection is my Interact Barracuda. Compared to all the other oddities I own this is an absolute unit. I'm a grown man with grown man hands I have to admit, even I find this thing to be a behemoth of a controller.
Apart from its size the Interact Barracuda is, to me, a bit of a mystery, in terms of how it works. You see, ... Read more
Posted 2 weeks ago
Eternal Eyes
In the age of Pokemon's success everyone was looking for their slice of the pie. While Hudson Soft and Atlas were busy publishing Robopon to try and take down Game Freak's behemoth other companies were trying to catch the trend curve and see where they might fit in. Sun Corporation quietly sat back and when they finally saw their opening they published their attempt to seize the moment with Eternal Eyes.
The game follows the life of Luke, a descendant of the Cucurotheatro who possessed crimson eyes. The Cucurotheatro were known as ... Read more
Posted 3 weeks ago
Overpriced or Justified: Expensive NES Games
In the 25 years or so I've been collecting video games, rarity and value only started to factor in about ten years ago. I started collecting as a kid, buying or trading for old games from other kids in the neighborhood. I would keep the games I liked and trade away the others to places like FuncoLand. Around 2010 vintage gaming became a more popular hobby, and in some cases a business. At that time it wasn't uncommon to walk into a flea market and see a $30 copy of Gyromite or even 10 Yard Fight locked away behind ... Read more
Posted 3 weeks ago
Peripheral Vision: Sony’s Dual Analog
Before the success of Sony's DualShock series, there was another controller that looked slightly similar by the name of the Dual Analog. The Dual Analog was released in Japan in 1997, alongside a pair of compatible games, Bushido Blade and Tobal 2. The controller was advertised as giving more precise controls, with a rumble feature for a more realistic experience. When considering its release outside of Japan, Sony decided that the rumble function would be removed from both the European and American versions of the controller.
Hands on with the Dual Analog will ... Read more
Posted 4 weeks ago