Welcome to STAG
> Games you missed at the time, but want to revisit

I got sent Metal Gear Solid 2 a few days ago, and booted it up for the first time tonight.  While I loved Metal Gear Solid on PS1, and owned the Virtual Missions, I never got a PS2 and never had the chance to play them.  Now that Rowanwolf has bought me a PS2, I can play it.  Everyone else is all talking about MGS4, and I'm just clapping eyes on MGS2.  Behind the times, but dammit it's still a decent game.

Going back to the PlayStation controller feels quite odd, and I've done at least 5  or 6 run throughs of the first little part because I keep fluffing the controls.  I've just downed the first boss, and remembered that I should be shaking people for items, as well as holding them up for Dog Tags (I managed to miss a few, for definate).  Now that I have the controls a bit more mastered I may just start again and do it properly, this time.  My desire to do a game "right" has led to quite a few restarts rather than just escaping, and my skills aren't quite up to it any more.  I might have to just put it on Very Easy and blast through it getting as many Dog Tags as I can, just to get it down.

Also in the pile of Stuff is Gears of War 2, bought for me again by Rowanwolf.  Little bit late to the party with this one, and it seems CUS is at the same point in the story so looking forward to some co-op action before he has to send his copy back.

Then there's Ristar, on the MegaDrive.  I finally unlocked this beastie on the Sonic Mega Collection Plus for PS2, and have yet to really sit down and play it.  It looks very nice and polished, though.

And Sonic CD, a game I totally missed due to not owning a MegaCD, but now available to me through Sonic Gems.  I've yet to sit down with this one, either.

Not to mention some of my Gamecube stuff that still needs a good amount of time spent with it, such as Metroid Prime 2 (the first one I nearly completed but not quite), and finishing off Zelda:WW.

THEN there's Wii stuff, I need to play Zelda:TP a lot more, and I also have Paper Mario (n64 version), and Mario Picross to finish up.  And Sam & Max Season 2 on the PC to finish.  And Day of the Tentacle to even start.

My Xbox 360 isn't actually seeing all that much action, lately, due to revisiting older titles.

Anyone else got a pile of old games to revisit?  Or are the games you missed missed for good, as you consume the newer titles?

MMM.  *nods pointedly*  Lovefilm keep reminding me that I still have it   I've only been hanging onto it really because of the hope of some co-op Dom lovin'.

The fact is, I have an entire room in my house full of nothing but games I have mostly never played.  I have a Vectrex with about 6 games; I have played two.  I have a CD32 that I've not played anything on,despite having a fairly decent collection, 'cos I only finally got a six-button Megadrive replacement pad for it recently.  I have THREE Master Systems for some reason, with about two dozen games I wanted, but never tried, when I had one as a kid.  I have ooo, three dozen or so original Gameboy/Colour games that I've been delightedly buying off eBay...

...Monster Max IS as good as Retro Gamer keep saying, if you like isometric puzzlers, folks...

...for an average of £2 a game.  I have a Turbografx/PC Engine that I've hardly played.

And that's before I get onto my terrabytes - oh yes! - of ('entirely legal ROMs released to the public with the permission of the respective copyright-holders').  And the forty or so Dreamcast games I have yet to actually try.

I need to stop buying games.

I had a Vectrex with many games, and I do miss it.  It just doesn't feel right emulated.

(The Virtual Boy doesn't work when emulated either, for obvious technical reasons.  I don't miss my one though - it gave me a bloody headache.)

I really want to play Ultima 7 again. I have the urge.
Also I was a late gamer so I have much to do really.

Want to buy mine?  It's lovely and fully-working, but I'm on a bit of a quest to sell/give away my consoles and stuff because if I ever had to move to a smaller place, I'd be screwed.  I have five games, I forget what just now, but one of them is BEZERK, I remember that much.

Coo, you've just given me a great idea for a thread, very tangentially...

@Wolfie, what do you mean that you're a late gamer?  Am I going to have to start calling you Ghostie instead?

Basically, my family were not the computer or gaming sort so we had one computer in the house for a small stage of my childhood and I was very outdoorsey so the only thing I really gamed on was my Megadrive back in the day.
When I got too ill to be outdoors and busy I got more into games. I'm exploring games from my childhood that I didn't play or know about.

For someone who seems to spend a lot of time on tenuously-linked-to-gaming forums, I barely bother with games. The last console that I could spend hours and hours playing on was the SNES (which I paid for with a paper-round, and it was the original Mario All-Stars pack, fact-fans). Nintendo's version of Sim City (THE PROPER, NON-AWFULLY TEDIOUS VERSION) was sublime.

There followed a few years of Amiga use (mid-90s to 2001), then a bout of PC usage (mostly the original Unreal Tournament) and that was that.

No consoles at all until the DS Chunky, and now the Wii and the DS Lite. The Lite is broken, after I fixed the impossible-to-align touch screen successfully, but left a speck of dust in there. So I took it apart again, successfully removed the dust and clipped off the absurdly tiny and fragile power switch in the process. Still works, but requires a pin to flick what's left of the power switch to turn it on. I have a replacement switch, so I may get a solder-happy chum to sort this.

But yes, I skipped everything from the PS1 onwards. And though I am slightly tempted to get a 360, a lack of finance and the knowledge that I'd probably barely use it push me away.

Yes yes yes to the Sim City thing, last Sim game I every enjoyed.

Myself, I've recently (re)ought Viewtiful Joe and F-Zero GX, realised I hardly touched the absurdly-enjoyable Excite Truck, started and abandoned Twighlight Princess, I've yet to start Fallout 3 properly, still not finished GTA, and intend to play through Burnout 1 & 2 again to remind myself of when Burnout was good, so I'm plenty busy.  There's some 'cube stuff I'd live to pick up again as well (PN. 03, Pikmin 2, Wave Race) but I simply don't have the time to play everything I'd want to.

Yes, but I can't afford it as a combination of electricity, gas and vet bills have fucked me right up.  Still - how much you lookin' for, chuck?

Ooo, bills.  Has your Drippy End cleared up sir?  I'm comedically misunderstanding, you see.

I dunno really.  Do you have anything shiny that isn't so shiny that you'd not mind perhaps exchanging it for a Vectrex?

A trade!  I like the cut of your jib, Sir.



I do have two items to get rid of but irritatingly I think they're worth more than el Vectrexo.  (Unless it's boxed and all that, I suppose, but I care not for boxes.)  Anyway, I have a GP2X F-200 and an Asus EEE 701 which are no longer in the box marked 'useful'.

I also have a completely knackered pink DS Lite in case you like broken things that will never, ever work again.

Pink DS you say?!

Indeedy.  It was given to me in the hope that I could un-fuxxor it.  I couldn't because it's been utterly broken by an idiot.

Ah...best I not have it then 

You've met my ex then?  HO HO.

virginmedia.com/images/swap%20shop.jpg is the URL for that image.  I tried various other different Saturday morning kids shows but weirdly, Virgin Media don't seem to have felt the need to include them in their root images directory.

Oh!  And no!  I would have had the GP2x at one point, but since getting my Google Phone and Acer Aspire One, I have all the portable computery goodness I could ever need.

So badly, that not even some gubbins from dealextreme can fix it? That's seriously utterly.

Yup. Somebody tried to fix it themselves first.  I've never seen a mess of solder like it.

Sounds like I probably did it.  I can play guitar delicately, I've got a remarkably steady hand, and I've very strong fingers.  But damnit, I can't soldier worth ship.  I look upon those who *can* solder with a kind of awe I'd usually reserve for heart surgeons and Mandela.

Just wait until I decide to solder the new power switch onto my DS Lite.

Thanks to someone selling a copy of Bully for the 360, for a pittance on eBay, I have been engrossed in that for the last day.  I missed its PS2 version not owning a PS2, and did try it v. briefly on the 360, but just didn't get on with it.  Just didn't click.  Now it has, and ooo, I'm loving it.  Even moreso than the GTA games, it feels like a stress-free, fun-centric sandbox to just have a good old laugh in.  The controls (particularly the camera) didn't quite gel with me at first, but soon all was well, and I was marvelling at how well-structured the game is.

You start off exploring the school you've been forced to attend by selfish, uncaring parents, but soon the world outside is available to you to explore.  This might sound no different than how in GTA, you have other islands available to you, but here it feels more liberating.  You've had time to know the ropes of school life, taking (or avoiding) lessons, which take the form of unusually fun mini-games; you've perhaps kissed a few of your fellow students, had some fights, rode around on your skateboard.  It does remind me somewhat of a less harsh version of Bak to Skool, but in 3D, and very attractively done.  For a game that started out on the PS2, it has a slightly cartoonish look, simple but detailed enough, and some good music throughout.  Despite just being a series of repetitive background music (you can't simply change radio station to some known song, like in a modern-day GTA), it's not bad in its repetition, and really sets the mood.

So when you finally do get to ride out of the school gates on a bicycle, and see that there's a whole town out there for you to go explore and have fun and mischief in - it's as truly liberating a gaming moment as I can remember.

I had been intending to recommence playing GTA IV, until this arrived.  For now I think it's more friendly, playful approach is the perfect stress-free provider of fun and laughs, in this dreadful humidity.  I recommend it to all whom have yet to try it; it's also available on Wii.