Whats in the box? whats in the box? (it's not Gwens head...)

I love limited editions.

Whether it's a special comic book tie in, a rare CD sleeve or a DVD box set. Special editions are just...well their special.

But my favourite type of limited edition has got to be games ones, i have bought allot over the years and lots have been clever, funny or down right weird (a blow up beach ball? really capcom?).

But among the art cards, making of DVDs and sound tracks have been some crackers.

Listed bellow are the top three full special editions and some other items that have come free with games that i think are great (not the games, the stuff that came free, some of the games sucked the big one.).

First of all lets start with Halo; Reach.

The game was okay, but that's not what I'm talking about today, the limit edition is the most detailed i have ever seen. There are items inside that actually add to all of the Halo games so far. Want to know who Master chief really is? (and i don't mean just his name, it's John by the way) then you will find it in the beautifully authentic diary.

 

It contains....

A hard back Scientists diary sealed in an evidence bag made of black bubble wrap (very red dwarf).

3x photos of covenant troops taken by security cams and satellites

A UNSC ID badge in plastic.

Letters from UNSC command with orders and lots of classified info.

Cocktail napkins and paper towels with ideas she had for improving the Spartan DNA.

Test subject files and fingerprints.

Inter system news print outs x3.

Plastic DNA chart x1.

DNA marker charts.

An art book

and 3x xbox live codes for in games items.

All of this contained in a sealed hard box shaped like a cargo container.

The second in my list is the awesome GTA 4.

Grand theft auto 4 goes all out when it comes to special edition stuff.

The box its self is a safety deposit box, not a plastic one, an actual metal lock up box.

But it does not stop there, oh no....

It contains,

Lock box,

A rockstar keyring

Soundtrack CD

Art book.

Making of DVD

And a proper, lined rockstar gun bag hold all,

Next is Wraith of the Litch King, the 3rd expansion for the World of Warcraft MMORPG.
Most art books you get free with games are leaflets with a few pics, some artist quotes and not allot else, sometimes you get it in hard back like GTA4 or demon souls. But sometime you get a book like the one included here, its a proper 300 page hardback tome, it has paintings, sketches and notes and whole chapters on how and why thy used the art and style they did.

includes...

Game in a nice cardboard case.

Soundtrack CD.

Art book as mentioned.

And an in game pet that cannot be bought from any on line store or in game. in a game that its hard to stand out in, a free pet that only a few have is a real extra to love.

And finally there are the extras that stand out from the selections of things that I've got free over the years, although the the other dross that came in these box sets was not Worth mentioning, these few items stood out and deserve a mention.

From top right to bottom left...

The mass effect art "pamphlet" not as thick or as nice as the WOTLK one but still some nice pics and some back story.

Legend of Zelda sound track C.D. . Kind of a greatest hits from the last few Zelda games.

Alone in the dark art book, this is more like it! it's hard back, longer than most and has some very nice pics and sketches, shame the game was sooo boring.

Armachan catalogue, this came with Fear 2, it's a buyers guild for all the weapons that the armament firm make when they are not being torn limb from limb by killer little girl ghosts or having their brains eaten by Paxton Fettal.

Demon souls art book, another hard back art book with some nice illustrations of all the major players in this harder than hard RPG hack em up.

And last but not least "destroyed Beauty" Gears of War art book and mission statement for the next 3 Gears games. lots of lovely art, sketches and proberly more story than the whole first game.

So i hope you have enjoyed my fav special editions, if you have any you think i should have listed please comment.

And one more little item, in case you get a spot of zombie breath...

Umbrella inc mints! MMMM minty brains.

This is the droid your looking for....

I've always tried, when i can to play real games on real systems.

There is nothing like actually owning the cart or disk and using the real controller, pad or stick with the proper game.

Sometimes however, this is not possible, either the game is hard to find, or its too much effort to unpack, setup and boot the system the game you want is on. This is when emulation is handy.

if you are Reading this blog then you don't need to be told what this is and how it works, suffice is to say that it allows the playing of retro games without he hardware to play them on (at least not eh original intended hardware).

I am just adding this article to mention a new emulator i have found for android OS ICS and honeycomb. its called SNES Droid and it allows snes and nes Roms to be played on your tablet (in my case a Xoom) or phone.

It could not be simpler, you just install, copy the Roms of games you own (legal reasons) into the ROM folder.

It plays really well at the correct speed, very few dropped frames and with great audio.

I really like this and may write more on it latter, check out the screen shots bellow.

I dream a dream of casts gone by.

I've got my Dreamcast back!

After selling my last one on a boot sale I've picked up one from the ropiest game shop I've ever been in.

Just off London road is a side street that looks like it should be in the shades (Pratchett reference) and not in Brighton, on this particular street is a place called game hive, the grimiest, dirtiest crappiest video entertainment emporium you will ever find (except maybe gamestation Worthing).

In the window of said flea pit was a Dreamcast, sun damaged dusty and yellow maybe but for a tenner you could not say fairer...or so I thought.

I went inside and the guy in army surplus combat trousers and a grubby quicksilver hoodie glared at me over his copy of Metro.

"How much is the Dreamcast in the window?" I asked. "you cant buy it, its show only"
"okay, do you have any for sale?". "maybe, you buying?" okay this was not going easily, at this point I notices the a sign on the counter, well I say counter, more of a pasting table with a crap till on it. The sign said "closing end of April". so this place was going out of business? there was a surprise.

Turns out he had a box load of Dreamcasts, an actual box full, they were thrown in a brown card board packing box , wires curled round each other and the consoles smashed together by which ever Neanderthal had decided this was the best way to store complex ageing electronic goods.

I convinced the ape behind the till to let me test them and find one which A, looked okay and B, actually worked at all.

After 40 mins of me rigging up several consoles Donkey pong announced he was closing the shop early (it was 2 in the afternoon) so I picked the one that was not too smashed, yellow and stinking of fag smoke and actually booted a game and paid him the sum of £20 for the console, a broken one for spares and some games that looked like someone has gone over them with an angle grinder. as I left I picked up a pad and 2 vm units as he tried to get the till open by repeatedly swearing at the stuck draw, I'm not paying £20 just for a yellow stinking console!

I got it home, took it apart and vacuumed the inside, ran a lens cleaner over it and reassembled it.

I gave the plastic a good scrub with bleach and toothpaste to it came up nice and white (toothpaste will clean any sun yellowed plastic, SNES consoles and pads look great after 5 mins of scrubbing).

Here's a pic of the results, not to shabby if I do say so myself.

 

Update, 20/12/2012

 

 

I walked past Game hive today and it is now boarded up and empty, as is gamestation Worthing, I think this is probably for the best.

I'm back from the dead!!! well..ive started collecting retro game stuff again...so not actualy dead...oh shut up.

So, it's been awhile, I'm a little older, a little wiser and a little richer so Ive decided to start collecting again.

It wasn't my intention to start it up again, after selling my last console (a dreamcast) on a shoreham car boot at the end of 2010 i was going to call it a day, and i did.
I closed my blog, gave up hunting carboots and charity shops for old copies of radiant supergun and snes carts. I stopped my ebay shop where i sold and items i had duplicates of or didn't need.
I even gave my boxed Amiga A1200 to my mate and my whole box of A500 games to my bud Paul.

I was finished, i took up photography and painting, moved house, twice and got a new job working for a heath insurance firm (the one with the blue green logo, you know the one).

Then one rainy morning i spotted something in a shop window. It was a Saturday (other mornings are available)   and i was walking down London road in Brighton ( i don't advise this to the faint of heart, its a bit lively down that way) when i saw a box i recognised in cancer research uk's window.

I went inside and found a fully boxed gamecube with 2 pads, games and memory cards, something stirred that i thought was well and truly gone, i took it to the guy behind he counter and asked how much they wanted, a look of panic ran over his mid teen spot encrusted mug as he tried to deconstruct and reassemble the complex and nuance laden request i had just forced into his subconscious so early on a Saturday morning. How much? yes i said how much? i tried to not look like i felt, ready to hand over all the loot i had to play the collector edition res evil 4 that sat on the shelf next to it.

After he panicked and fled to the back room a older gent in offensively festive knitwear informed that it would be £9 for the system and all the stuff that went with it (turns out it ha a dance mat and a 2.1 sound system from logitec) i handed over the reddies and took it home with me.

The wife took one look at my face when i came in the door, "what have you bought now?" she asked with suspicion. "just an old console"i said, she took one look at my face and walked away, she knew it was only a matter of time.

I'm collecting again.....  

The dream is over.

Dreamcast.

Dreamcast carboot.

I've now sold every retro console I owned, my last Saturn and dreamcast were sold last weekend at a car boot in shoreham, west Sussex.

The whole lot went to a man who took the consoles, pads and all the games (mostly originals but some copies as well) i hope he gets as much out of them as i have.

Now i have no more collection and nothing else to write on the subject i will not be adding to this blog any more, I've enjoyed writing this and sharing my thoughts and feelings on it.

If i ever start over i may continue anew.

Fractalus/Invader13

War craft is hell

Its been one year since Rachel signed into WOW to "use up my remaining credit and she is still bloody playing the thing (no, not 24/7 for 12 months, she would be dead by now).

Shes now a level 68 mage and is about to embark to Northrend, looks like i was wrong about her getting bored of it.

We now both have accounts and play together (yes i was drawn back in) and i have a lvl 80 rogue, a lvl 68 death knight and a new lvl 20 Paladin.

I will probably get bored and quite again at some point, but i will no doubt lapse back again as always. maybe crack would be less addictive.

Bleeding the second hand market

If you bought a second hand car, lets say a Toyota, would it piss you off if Toyota demanded you pay them to use the air con even though you bought it from a private seller and not from them?

Well that's what EA just did to me, i bought Mass effect 2, no sooner had i started the game then the title screen tells me i have to pay to use features that are already on the disk! This is a very under hand way of screwing customers, i buy new games and second hand and this nasty cheap tactic is in place to limit my options, just the idea of being punished in these days of recession for trying to save money and not paying the over inflated prices of new games (i mean £50 for a game EA? is it 1995 again? F%#K you!) makes me sick.

Retro re-boot (sale)

Good weekends profit from the local shoreham carboot sale.

Sold 3 old display cards, 1 sound cards, 5 old pc games inc sam and max, call of duty and broken sword.

Along with these choice items i also flogged a load of old bits and bobs from several old consoles and computers, all junk and stuff that was taking up space (the wife hates that) and i netted myself 45 quide! goodtimes!

If at first you dont suceed

Having ordered my DSI XL from a well known catalogue in early march i was prepared to wait a bit for its arrival, it was March the 3rd and the expected delivery date was the 23rd of that month.

Well that date came and went and still not slip through my door to tell me id missed the delivery (as i work odd hours i am rarely home for deliveries), each time i arrive home i excitedly checked the recycling bin (for some reason best know to him self out local delivery man puts the packages in there when he can get an answer and no amount of letter of complaint can seem to stop him doing so)  but i was met with disappointment.

I called them again and again and got the same lines i always get from the residence of 118 land, "it is on order and will be there soon" or my fav "are you sure your address is correct on out system" well its your f ing system, you tell me!!!

well i got bored of this, called them and cancelled the order and wrote a lovely cheerful fuck you letter to their customer service dept, Ive now bought one in a proper shop and will open it tonight, yay!!!

Losing all interest

Been a while since i last added anything to this blog.
Its not that ive not had time, or that ive been busy with another one, it's just that ive stopped playing.
Ive bought a few modern titles, Bayonetta, AVP and Mass effect 2, none have sparked my interest in any way.

Ive gone back to some old ones as well, Fable 2 has been played to death, as has the 3 DLC packs released, burnout paradise has still got a few races yet to be won but i'm not really up for them, but it does also have some DLC avalible as well.

Maybe DLC is the way to go, so downloaded the tantooine mission pack for force unleashed, what a let down, it lasted about as long as it took to download it, it cost more that the actual game now costs to buy new and it takes the whole game into some alternative starwars universe where alec guinness now plays obee wan and is now usless at fighting. i fell ripped off.

So this may be it, heavy rain is just a long and slightly pervy interactive movie, god of war is nowhere near as good as the last one and mass effect has had any degree of complexity sucked out of it so now its just gears of war with less blood, what is there to look forward to?

I think i will just stick with world of warcraft, at least blizzard know how to keep us entertained, and who knows, maybe diablo 3 will be as amazing as the 2nd one.

Well heres hopeing