I recently started maintaining a collaborative Google spreadsheet with several other MobyGames contributors in order to track games that are not yet listed in the MobyGames database. As part of the first pass, I made sure that all known Barbie games were either in the database or in the missing games spreadsheet by researching through Amazon.com.
Unfortunately, now I can’t go to Amazon without seeing stuff like this:
The things I’m willing to do for MobyGames.
You think I have depleted my Barbie stock? Goodness, no. Tonight’s title is Barbie Storymaker. I have my doubts that this is actually a game, though. But I must dutifully delve deep, daring to discover any evidence of gaming content.
The action starts on the faux-Hollywood studio set show above. Barbie patiently, squeakily describes all of the activities at hand. Mercifully, this brief introduction confirms that there are absolutely no gaming activities. This effectively eliminates my motivation to investigate this title at any reasonable depth.
The game allows you to create and edit animated stories, with music and recorded dialog (yours). To be honest, my creative juices ran dry after placing a fishbowl on the mall set. I tried to place Barbie on the set as well.
I got confused when it turned out that I was supposed to place Barbie on some sort of animation path. I couldn’t figure out how to terminate the path, save for maxing out the number of animation waypoints, which only removed Barbie from the set.
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Here I am at the start of a new year. 2008 really didn’t see that much gaming activity from me but hey, it’s not like this is a job or anything. According to the Master Play List, I only played (or made blog posts for) around 40 games (vs. about 150 for 2007). However, according to my notes, I actually played several games that just bored me to the point that I couldn’t bring myself to compose a proper blog entry or MobyGames record. Who knows, maybe I will get to those in 2009. I only managed to amass around 2500 MobyGames points in 2008 vs 7500 points for 2007, though I suppose that still represents a significant amount of effort, so I can’t be too hard on myself there.
I have something ready to go for the new year– I have a good number of console games to cover (many are already in the database but need screenshots). These include mostly Sega Saturn games, but also some PlayStation 1 & 2, Dreamcast, and GameCube games. While there are excellent emulators for most video older (say, ROM-based) game systems, screenshots from more modern (say, optical disc-based) consoles are pretty difficult to obtain. I have long struggled to capture video from these consoles through different TV capture cards and most recently via a DV capture bridge. These solutions work adequately but the biggest problem is playing the game while capturing. All of the capture solutions introduce a slight lag which makes gameplay incredibly frustrating.
However, I finally thought of a solution: an S-video Y-splitter. Once I thought of the idea, I visited Amazon to verify that such a device exists. Thus, for a game console that has S-video and stereo RCA outputs, split all 3 outputs, sending one set to a real, lagless television for playing and the other set to the DV capture bridge.
It’s all a bit tedious to set up (hauling the TV into the same room as the computer, setting up all the cables), but once it works, it works well. The capture process, I mean. First, I have to suffer as the Sega Saturn CD console (pictured above) struggles to validate the old, used collection of Saturn games. Mostly I get the familiar Gouraud-shaded VU cubes playing the red book CD audio tracks.
But I’m pleased to report that I did get some games to work, and that once a few games worked, some previously rejected Saturn games started working as well (perhaps the console needs to warm up). It’s a real pleasure to play without input delay. Further, I have already discovered a few gems among my old Saturn stock that I look forward to writing up, and have captured hours of footage. The only problem I am struggling with now is properly capturing still images (software likes to squeeze the images to the wrong aspect ratio). I am confident I will work through that soon and transform myself into a console screenshot capturing machine. Ideally, I will be able to put together some decent gameplay videos for posterity as well.
I actually decided to explore some other sections of my favorite thrift store. In particular, I wanted to see what kind of sweat shirts and hoodies were on offer. My motivation for doing so was the recollection of a conversation with a coworker long ago who appeared one day in an apparently never-been-worn sweatshirt from some obscure university.
Me: Nice sweatshirt. Where is that school located anyway?
Him: I don’t know.
Me: … so… how did you come to obtain that article of clothing?
Him: I found it at a thrift shop.
Me: I certainly respect that.
So I raided the clothing items and oh, wow! There is some fun stuff in those racks. Some shirts for a random security service. A long-sleeve shirt with a patch that apparently proudly certifies that the wearer is ISO-certified. A sweatshirt that simply, humbly, and rather quizzically says “Crate & Barrel: Safety 2002″.
But the crowning piece was a hooded sweatshirt for a varsity cheer squad. The back had a Tinkerbell character talking some smack about how the team fully intended to dominate Nationals ’06. And you know I would have paid the 3 dollars for the item if it wasn’t 2 sizes too small for me.
Hey, if I’m going to buy any of these clothes, they’re going to be things I can wear. Honestly, I could start an entire other blog documenting the strangest thrift store finds. The only problem is that, while the cost would be negligible, the storage requirement for all of this junk would not be.
I recently returned to my old state where I was able to visit my favorite spent shops for both console games and PC games. I returned home with 25 new games procured for about $75, easily averaging less than $5 per game which is my soft limit. Thing is, I had no way of knowing if these games would be valuable for entry into MobyGames since I am not equipped with, e.g., a cellphone that has web access. Wouldn’t you know, almost all of the games are already in the database, though there are some odds and ends for me to fill in regarding cover art scans, screenshots, and credits. But overall, good coverage.
So it seems that I’m getting to the point that I can’t just pick up random games and expect to find something that is not yet in the database. However, that doesn’t really square with the fact that every single time I visit my new favorite local thrift shop, I find random games that are almost certainly not entered yet.
Years ago, a fellow named Claude Knobler used to publish capsule movie reviews on a site called Hollywoodhollywood.com. One day, all of his reviews vanished and someone else’s review appeared. However, I was browsing through his old reviews courtesy of the Internet Archive and found this brilliant analysis of the 2002 movie The Count of Monte Cristo:
This thing’s like a Pop-Tart: it’s not good for you, it’s not well made and if you give me a thousand of them, I’ll love every single one.
If only I could fashion review rhetoric like that. I think that sentiment pretty much sums up every guilty pleasure ever and might describe how many of us regard video games.
(I have also long cherished Claude’s review of the 2001 movie Rat Race, where watching it “is like being tickled by sweaty guy with halitosis. I laughed, but I was never really happy about it.” I often apply that same analysis to the American Pie series.)
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