Real Saturn Chronicles Episode 12: Still studying...

First of all, I'd like to wish you happy holidays, regardless if you celebrate Christmas and the New Year or not. Lately, I've been quite busy trying to turn my life around and this will last for the next months. At least I'm felling happier than I was last year and hopefully these recent changes will bring something good throughout 2016. I've made a rather big decision and I've been working on it for the last few months. Once I'm done with this, another stage on my life will probably begin.

I obviously didn't stop buying games, although I must say that the number of stuff I have been buying recently has greatly decreased. For instance, my retro purchases are totally stopped right now and I don't know when I'll be able to resume getting older games. There are no longer good deals lying around and I'm just focusing on newer editions. I'm already missing the old stuff anyway, so I'd rather not miss the newer stuff still coming out as well. When there's no money, there is no serious collecting. Sadly, this means I've missed some important items but at least I was still able to afford the editions I wanted the most. Lately, I didn't have much patience to update the blog with my latest purchases but I just felt like writing something, so it's time to resume the story of my life (as a collector' at least). So, here we go again...

So, the end of my 2nd year at the uni was pretty rough. I was facing a lot of problems at home and still taking driving lessons while doing the finals. I don't have many good memories of those times because I was literally exhausted. I was obsessed with the university, afraid of failing, working my butt as much as I could. I still think that was the most stupid thing I did,

One good thing that actually happened that year was me getting my drivers' license. That happened a few days just before my birthday. Despite all the problems at home, my parents still prepared something that I certainly didn't see coming. One day, I came back from one of the finals in the middle of the afternoon and I was so tired that I immediately fell asleep on my bed as soon as I arrived home. Shortly after, my parents came into my room and and tried to wake me up to take to a used car seller. At that exact moment, I was so deep asleep in a completely different state of mind that I briefly woke up complaining before resuming my sleep. It's only natural you don't want to be disturbed after spending so many days with little to no sleep...

I woke up later that evening and I vaguely remember my parents entering my room but I was not sure if it was me dreaming or if it really happened - I was that confused. But it did happen. The following day they took me to a used car seller so I could try the used car they were planning on buying me for my birthday a few days later. It was a really green '98 Toyota Starlet. I just couldn't believe what was happening. It was a small car that belonged to an old guy who barely drove it, so it was as new as a used car could be. At first I wasn't fascinated by the colour but I eventually became fond of it. And who was I to refuse such an offer... I had just received my driver's license  a couple of days before and I had never driven a car by myself without the support of a teacher or someone by my side. I wasn't even expecting that my parents would allow me to drive alone at the beginning, let alone actually own a car. However, as we were about to leave the car dealer, my restrictive and overprotective mother gave me the keys at me and told me: "you're on your own now, see you at home". Just what the heck was happening? I admit I was a little scared to drive alone. In a very short period of time I realized I was feeling too confident with my brand new driving skills but I knew it was a fake overconfidence. I was still an unskilled driver.

It took me some time to get used to the fact that I had a car. But this gave me a sort of freedom I never had before and that was important for me. Shortly after I successfully finished my last exam and cleared the second year, I spent the summer break still working for uni in order to improve some of my marks at some classes instead of spending a month resting and preparing for the next year. That was the dumbest, most stupid thing I could possibly do at that time...

I eventually started the 3rd year and that was the moment I finally began collecting videogames more seriously... Sort of. It was definitely the early beginning of my collection before it became what it is now, and all because I finally found out about this amazing website called eBay.co.uk. That was in April 2003. Well, it was amazng at that time but I really can't say the same right now...

I really didn't know what to think about eBay when I originally created my account. Back then, eBay was something completely different than it is today. It was that place where most people were selling their unwanted goods for a small profit. Right now, eBay is basically where the scalper scum spend most of their time.

Back then, I was only focused on buying most of the PS1 games that I wanted to play a few years before but never really had the chance to get them (no money...). Those second hand games would sell for ridiculously low values. Most of the common games that I wanted would go for as low as 0.99 to 3 pounds. I thought that was just BS. How could a 30 euro game (second hand price) be available on eBay for 0.99 and nobody placed a bid? And there was this feedback system where everyone was talking wonders about  sellers and buyers. To me, that all seemed very fishy but I was very tempted to give it a try. I wasn't very fond of buying second hand games but for such prices I couldn't say "no". After a short time I decided to place a bid on one game that I wanted very much but never had the chanced to get: Dino Crisis 2. It took me a while to find someone who would be willing to post internationally. At that timed the pound sterling currency was much more valuable than the euro currency. One pound was almost two euros. However, international postage costs by registered mail were a hell lot more cheaper than the insane prices that are practiced today by Royal Mail. About three times cheaper for a regular videogame or dvd... Nowadays, even with a smaller difference between euros and pounds, the postage costs from the UK are truly atrocious.

I still lost a few auctions but the day came when I won my first game for 0.99 pounds plus postage. I had absolutely no idea what Paypal was or how it worked but thankfully the seller understood I was still a n00b and gave me some time to pay. I eventually managed to have a fully active Paypal account with a provisional credit card and I paid for the game using Paypal for the first time ever. Back then, there was only an american version of the Paypal website. After about two weeks later the game arrived at my home and it was as good as if it had never been played. I immediately thought: "holy crap this is real". I couldn't believe it. I had just found a gold mine and it was time to finally buy all those favourite PS1 titles that I left behind years before!

At the same time, I started visiting second hand stores to see what I could find in there. I know I've said before that I always avoided to buy second hand games, but if I wanted to get some of the older ones I had no other choice but to buy them in used condition.

Read More »

Real Saturn Chronicles Episode 11: No time to play...

Unfortunately, there isn't much talk about videogames or my collection in this "episode", mostly because nothing special about that happened.

As I've mention before, I was quite scared of starting the second year in uni, in October 2002. Too many things happened that year. I worked even harder than before to the point my work rhythm started to decrease due to fatigue, meaning I would take more time to accomplish tasks that I could do in shorter periods without dragging them if I was well rested. It felt like a snowball... Instead of putting all the work aside once in a while just to get more sleep and rest when it was really needed, I would just keep working. Sleep privation and lack of rest can have some really nasty side effects on an individual's performance and psychology, but I was stupid enough to ignore that and I really felt the consequences a couple of years later. Working as hard as I could seemed the right thing to do at that time, but now I tremendously regret it. Some of my friends warned me about it but I was so stranded in my way of doing things that I didn't even consider other options, such as sacrificing a couple of classes or leaving some work unfinished. Today, I'm not even sure if all the work I've done was really necessary. I now consider that I spent too much time doing unnecessary things in order to guarantee I wouldn't fail any class. I even pushed my social life to second place. That is probably one of the biggest mistakes a person can do.

I think I was a coward in many ways. In fact, I still am a coward. I am a very stressed person. I'm usually afraid to fail when I have something new to do in my profession, even if it's something relatively simple.  I always start by worrying and asking my inner self: "Can I do this properly? Will it go okay? Am I up to this?". In the end, looking at all my past experience, there's usually not much to worry about, or at least not as much as I usually do. I start exploring my new tasks, I eventually become familiarized with them and that's when my confidence finally starts to grow. I usually finish the tasks just fine, even those that seemed harder or complex. Once they're done, I end up looking back and thinking: "After all, there was no need for so much worry and stress. Why was I so concerned about this?". But I still react the same way whenever something new pops up... I'm not the kind of proactive guy that knows immediately what to do when a new problem or situation appears. I first need to familiarize with the situation and slowly build my confidence until I can finally say "I can do this" or "I can fix this". Unlike many people who immediately have the confidence to do whatever they have to...

This major lack of confidence and low self esteem is the opposite of what companies usually look for when hiring new workers. When I am looking for current job requests, it really upsets me to see all those ads from companies searching for "confident, determined people with a high degree of commitment, preferably the best employee in the world with many outstanding characteristics and experience". Especially if the payment they offer is far bellow all those requirements...  I call all that stuff a major BS. I'm not the type of person to impress a boss by acting like a smart ass and only telling wonderful things about myself. I'm the type of modest person that would go to a job interview saying all my faults and problems in the first place, because that's what I feel more important to confess to someone expecting to hire me. However, that's exactly the type of person that no company would like to hire. Honesty and humility seems to mean zero in a job interview. All it counts is to impress the interviewer by convincing them that you are the perfect person to take the job, regardless of any other factor. It's funny, because I've met several confident people writing wonders about themselves in their CVs as if they were experts. However, after knowing some of them better or seeing how they work, I realize they're nothing that special and I don't consider myself to be inferior to them, professionally speaking. The only thing they have that I don't is self confidence, even if theirs is just a fake confidence or complete BS. Anyway, enough of this subject. I have a hard time explaining all these things in English...

While I was in the second year at the university, I still played a couple of games now and then, but I really can't remember which ones... There really isn't much I can tell about videogames or about my collection because I don't remember anything important that happened during that period. I know that I was just buying newly released PS2 games. Maybe Devil May Cry 2, Onimusha 2, GTA Vice City... I don't even know for sure. I guess I could just look at their release dates to find out exactly which ones I bought and played at that time, but I guess it's not worth the hassle. All I know is that I almost didn't play anything-

2002 was also the year when something happened between my parents. As if suffering from depression and having my mind all messed up thanks to the uni wasn't enough, things at home became pretty, pretty rough. They started to argue all the time. Sometimes, as I was finally trying to get some sleep after spending many hours awake, they decided to argue again. This happened many times and it was quite horrible. This sh!tty scenario lasted for about two years, by the time I was already a 4th year student, when my parents finally broke up and my father left home. Sometimes I would spend some nights at my friends' homes just so I could stay away from all that mess at home.

I started taking driving lessons on the summer break between 12th grade and the 1st year at the uni, in August 2000. I completely stopped taking those lessons for one entire year because I was too busy studying. I resumed those lessons on the following summer break between 1st and 2nd years (August 2001) and I was nearly ready to take the final driving test. However, classes restarted and I stopped taking driving lessons once again for almost an entire year. My 2 year apprentice license expire date was August 2002, so I didn't have another choice but to take additional driving lessons in order to pass the final test, otherwise I would have to restart everything. I retook driving lessons in May 2002 I believe, just before the 2nd year finals. With so much stuff to do and to study, I still had to skip classes to take more driving lessons... In June 2002 I took the final driving test and I failed. I am very confident I deserved to pass but the examiner was a complete a**hole. I retook the exam in the first days of July and that's when I finally obtained my driving license. Eventually, I passed every class from the 2nd year with good marks. I'm not exactly proud of it now.

Not everything was as horrible as I'm describing during the second year, though. For instance, I started to socialize with some of my classmates that I never sticked close to during the 1st year. We obviously had a lot of individual work to do in every class, but some of the tasks were so exhaustive and overwhelming that we were required to team up in working groups raging between 3 to 5 people. In order to make things work out more more effectively, we would usually use the same team in the required group tasks for different classes. If all the people in the group worked well together, things would just go smooth, despite the insane amount of stuff we all had to do both individually and as a group. However, if there was something wrong with the group, things could easily go wrong and affect a student's performance at most classes...

My first year's working group didn't go very well. Rui was a great classmate that seemed to admire my devotion to the university. However, he was older and he had his life quite filled already, with a wife, several kids to support and a part-time job at night. Even though he still did the best he could, unfortunately he didn't have much spare time to work in group, so I had to compensate for this part. Micaela was the only other person in my group that worked harder as well, but only two people trying to do the work of 4 or 5 can't end up well. As a result, half the people from my 1st year's working group failed to clear a few important classes and they stayed behind... I somehow managed to pass every class. So, in this 2nd year, I found a new working group with very interesting people: Pedro, Vanessa, Tania and Sidel, just to name a few. They were all dedicated people who were really interested in working together. And those people in particular, as well as several other classmates from separate groups worth mentioning, were those who stayed together until the very end of this journey that was the university - or college, like you guys from the US call it. 

Read More »

Real Saturn Chronicles Episode 10: The PS2 at the wrong time

That's right, I finally had my PS2 console. Just the console, zero games as usual. That seemed to be a tradition. But this time I didn't even care about not having a single PS2 game to play in it. Having the console alone made me more than happy. Plus it could run PS1 games with enhancements and DVDs. This was just beautiful. I had to see how some of the games looked like with the enhancements turned on and that was enough to keep me busy!

The first PS2 game I've bought was Zone of the Enders. The second game arriving at my collection was one game I was waiting for a while since I first heard about it. It was Onimusha. I bought that game while I was sick and spending most of the time in bed. My parents decided to go on another trip to the shopping mall. I was pretty weak and feeling terrible but I always enjoyed going there so I decided to get off bed and go with them. My head was a mess. I visited the same electronics store where I bought the PS2 and checked the games. I had no clue that the game was already out. Once I saw it shitting on a shelve, the hype was so big that I instantly felt better. I totally forgot I was sick. I finished the game in only three days.

I bought a few other games but I no longer remember exactly which ones in which order. I know Resident Evil Code Veronica X was one of them. It came with a Devil May Cry demo that I tried and loved it but I though I would be unable to have enough money to buy it, so I decided not to get it. The truth is... the game came out and I bought it. At some point I also played demo versions of Final Fantasy X and Metal Gear Solid 2, both of which were mandatory purchases,and I ended up buying both some time later, when I was already studying at the university.

One year later, my life completely changed. Too many things changed to be honest. I've always wanted to be an architect since I was in primary school. It may sound cliche but I loved to draw and that's why I chose architecture at a very young age. I was obviously not too sure if that desire would last until the time I'd finish the 12th grade because I started to become more interested in computers and stuff like that.

There were only two moments in my life when I nearly stopped buying and playing videogames. The first moment was when I was between 11 and 13. That's when I stopped playing Master System and before I got the Sega Saturn. The other moment was when I entered the university. Instead of selecting Architecture as the main option, I've selected Architecture of Urban and Territorial Planning instead. One of the main reasons why I eventually decided to keep with my younger desire of becoming an architect over something else related to computers was the fact that, since I was a child, I've watched constructors ruining my town with horrible buildings and new hoods. The second reason was because I was no good at math to be honest. My father knew a guy that was almost graduating at that course and he greatly recommended it. I even visited my future uni one particular weekend before finishing the 12th grade and I saw the classrooms with models lying around. I was fascinated with most of the things I saw. I made up my mind that same day. I wanted to become an urban planner. I did whatever I had to do for the admission and enrollment and some time later I received positive news. I made it in. That was a great moment. Too bad it was short lived, because the smile on my face was about to fade way the following years... 

I always worked hard in order to achieve good grades at school and I wanted to continue to work hard on my way through the university. However, I believe I took the university too seriously and as a result I've put my social life and a few other things in second place. At that time I thought I was doing the right thing but now I realize the big mistake it was. Many people assume that students go to the university and have a great time with parties, find their partners, meet new people and all that. It's true that I've met many people, some of which probably became my friends for the rest of my lifetime. I also had a couple of crushes but I was too coward to talk to them. However, I didn't really hang out that much. I don't smoke and I don't really enjoy drinking. That doesn't help much if you want to hang out with most people. Anyway, the first year was quite tough. It wasn't necessarily hard, but there was too much work to do at once. I was used to work hard but that was a complete exaggeration.  Before uni, I was used to go to bed early, sleep enough hours and have some time for myself. Most of those things ended. I started to sacrifice my spare time to work for the university. Then I started to sacrifice sleeping hours. Eventually my life basically became class-work-sleep. I could sleep longer during weekends but I would spend most of the time working on projects and essays and crap. Stress and fear of failing at a single class were taking over me and things were not going okay because my grades started pretty low - positive, but low. Little by little I started to become depressed. I've had some bad luck during the first year as well and that didn't help.

As a result, I nearly stopped playing videogames (and everything else...) but I was still targeting some of the most important releases. One of them was GTA III. I knew GTA for a while but I've always ignored that game because it was too violent. I wasn't the violent type and I also wasn't affected by violence in videogames or movies in general, but even to me there were limits and the first two GTA titles were a little off those limits. It may sound stupid, but it's true. I was reluctant to buy GTA III thanks to that, but the game seemed pretty impressive. On another random visit to the store, I saw the game already available for sale and I simply couldn't resist it and I bought it. I obviously didn't have the immediate time to play, so I had to wait for the first two week Xmas break. I've spent those two weeks doing not much more than sleeping and playing GTA III. I wanted to completely finish the game before going back to the uni, but something unfortunate happened just a couple of missions before I beat the game, with dozens of gameplay hours. My cousin Liliana came to visit us some day just before Xmas. As she came in the room to say goodbye, she accidentally stepped on the power cord and the console went off while the game was saving. The save file became corrupt. I guess I was still recovering from all the pressure I was facing at the uni, so I nearly flipped. I was so pissed off that I made a big scene and she left the home in a hurry. That was pretty bad... I'm sorry for my behaviour that day, cousin :(. I had to restart all over but in a matter of days I finally managed to completely beat the game.

A few months later, Final Fantasy X came out. I knew I didn't have the time to play that game, not even remotely close. But I still wanted to get it on release date. At this time, the videogame market over here was so grown that the games finally started being released on their official European dates! I asked my father if he could go out and get the game for me because I had work to do. He didn't want to do it for some reason and I became a little upset, but my mother convinced me to go. Some time later that evening, he came to the room with a copy of the game on his hand, complaining a lot about the trouble I gave him to find a copy of the game and how expensive it was. My head was so messed up with all the work from uni that I basically did not give a sh!t about his complaints. I was just happy to have the game to play. And I stopped working right at that moment just to play the game for a little bit. I still played the game for the next few days, but I eventually stopped because I didn't have the time. I was only able to play the game a few months later during the summer break, after clearing all classes from the first year with mostly low to average marks. But at least I cleared them all. I've spent the entire August playing that game. In one month, I played well over 200 hours and completed the game. The only things left undone were beating Penance and maximizing most stats on all characters.

The 1st year in uni was quite a tough experience. I suffered from depression, sleep privation, had a few break downs, was tired, at some point I thought of giving up almost on a daily basis. When the 1st year ended, me and my classmates went out to play football in grass for one afternoon. The truth is that we were completely out of shape and the game ended prematurely because almost everyone became tired too soon. I guess most of us didn't have the time to exercise... As we were taking the bus to return home, all I could think of was the next year in uni. If the first year was that tough, I was pretty afraid of starting next year. Thanks to Final Fantasy X, I was able to forget that for a while. But as the summer vacation was coming to an end and me and my parents were spending some days in Algarve, I started to feel a little worried again... I didn't want to go back, I thought I wouldn't be able to handle another year of so much hard work.

Read More »

Real Saturn Chronicles Episode 9: PlayStation 2 is coming!

Over 5 years, I've had great fun with my PS1 and at that time I was able to amass a collection of almost 30 different titles. However, sooner or later the first news and images about new consoles started to pop up. First, it was the Nintendo 64. It was an interesting console, but unfortunately it was way, way expensive. Games were really expensive over here. I enjoyed Super Mario 64 quite a bit, as well as one of the Zelda games (I don't remember which one) but I always considered the N64 as a console I just couldn't buy.

Eventually, Dreamcast was also announced and that console slightly caught my attention, mostly thanks to Shenmue because, to be honest, the rest of the games such as Crazy Taxi, Sonic Adventure and Metropolis Street Racer were not interesting enough for me. However, I was so disappointed with Sega that I really didn't trust the Dreamcast. I was originally a big Sega fan. I never considered buying any other home console but the Sega Saturn. At first, I didn't care about the PS1 at all and I choose Saturn over it. The Master System and Mega Drive consoles lasted quite a lot of time in our market as they were both very successful over here. The main reason why I trusted Sega was because I've always seen it as a company that doesn't abandon its consoles, even when they are surpassed by newer technologies. At that time I obviously couldn't talk about Mega CD or the 32X because my knowledge about those things was very, very limited. As a kid, buying a new console was something big. I couldn't consider getting a console that would suddenly stop receiving games. I wanted to own something that would last a long time.

Unfortunately, I felt betrayed by Sega when they abandoned Sega Saturn to focus on the Dreamcast. Suddenly, Saturn stopped getting games, whereas PlayStation was receiving lots of new and amazing titles. I wanted to buy something for the Sega Saturn, but there wasn't anything interesting coming out. Even though I was only 14, I really noticed they were ignoring Saturn to focus on newer technologies. Sega wanted to be ahead in the competition by releasing the most advanced hardware but by doing that they started to ignore their current console. To me, that was a huge mistake that totally broke my trust on them and that made me stay away from the Dreamcast until a much, much later time.

After a while, information about the PS2 started to show up. First the rumours, then the pictures and finally a few videos. That was a long time before the actual release date announcement. I definitely wanted to buy a PS2 and I knew that I had to start taking action if I was going to buy that console on release date. So I started saving my cash at a very early stage. I had nearly one year and half to get enough money for it. I sacrificed a few PS1 games in order to save money for the PS2. Its price was tagged at around 90.000$, something like 450 euros and I was unsure if I was able to save so much money in the meantime, but I still decided to give it a shot. Eventually, I sacrificed some of the money I've saved to buy a few PS1 games, otherwise I would not have anything to play for a while. Two of those titles were classics: Resident Evil 1, the last title I was missing from the original trilogy and, of course, Tomb Raider 1, one of my favourite games. My mother also told me she would help me to buy the console if I was missing some cash by the time of its release date, as much as it wasn't a big amount.

One year and half later, the console finally came out. I was 17 at that time. I had a little more than enough cash to buy the console but I wasn't really concerned about preordering or going to the stores early in the morning just to secure one for myself. I never really believed that videogames were a big thing over here like it happened in foreign countries. Looking at every other family I knew, parents didn't care much about games. They would eventually pick up the controller once in a while, but videogames in general were seen as expensive kids' stuff. When I was around 15 or 16, my father told me once that I would not care about the games when I turned 18, and I would consider all those games I had bought as a total waste of money. I replied back saying that would probably never happen and he didn't know what he was talking about. I now look at my collection and... I guess he was wrong...

I didn't preorder any PS2 and I didn't even bother going to the store earlier to get the console. To me, that was just one regular day. It was a brand new, expensive system that most people wouldn't be buying, so I had plenty of chances to get it.

However, some things did not go as I expected. This was the first time I actually saw some radical changes about the impact of videogames in this country. The truth is, most kids who actually enjoyed playing on the previous gen consoles were now adults. Some had jobs already. For the first time ever, I saw on the news a report about the PS2 craze. People actually lined up in front of the stores before the opening hour just to secure one model. It was no longer parents buying an expensive system for their kids. These kids became self-sufficient adults and they were buying the console for themselves. I believe that Sony also thought the same way I did and they released a very limited number of models on release day. The number of models available was very low compared to the demand and the first batch of the console easily became sold out. I was truly impressed.

Basically, I lost my chance to buy the console on release day, but I didn't regret. Having almost 500€ in my pocket and seeing them go just like that was something I definitely wasn't used to. Two weeks later, I had the chance to buy one of two consoles available at a local store, but I couldn't. I really didn't feel like spending the highest amount of cash I ever had on a single thing. I just thought of how many things I could buy instead.

I only bought the console another couple of weeks later (basically, one month after the release date). The second or third batch of the console was finally available. I was randomly visiting a large electronics store and they had a couple of PS2 available. I realized this as soon as I saw a woman pulling a baby pushchair inside the store, but instead of a baby she was carrying a PS2. I picked one of the consoles and took it to my parents. I was still very reluctant about spending all my money. I had been saving for over one year and half with the sole purpose of buying the console, but in the end I couldn't do it. I asked my parent's opinion while carrying the console and they weren't very helpful. They told me to do what I thought it was best. 

I picked up my phone and sent a text message to my friend Rui to hear his opinion. I told him I had a PS2 on my hands and asked him if I should spend so much money on it. His answer was exactly what I needed to hear, as it gave me all the motivation I was lacking. He replied saying: - "Of course you should buy it, are you still standing there?". At that point, I told myself: -"F*** this, I'm taking this home." and went to the checkout line. As soon as I finished the checkout, I received a phone call from my friend Rui asking if I was serious about buying the PS2. I said yes, and thanks to his reply I had already bought it. He seemed very impressed and said he was going to camp on my backyard.

I finally had a PS2.

Read More »

Real Saturn Chronicles Episode 8: A completionist, not just because I wanted to be one

Being a completionist was something I already was long before Final Fantasy VII. The main reason why I've become a completionist was the fact that I didn't have much money to spend on videogames, like most kids around me those days. I would play the same game countless times until there was nothing left undone. On top of that, I had a mother that was also against kids playing videogames at an early age and she didn't support that hobby. My mother was and still is very concerned about health, so she is always well informed by reading news and themed magazines. She considered videogames as an unhealthy addiction to kids because it had many bad side effects. Her biggest concern was the decline of the eyesight by spending too many hours playing. I have to admit that she was kind of right, but I just wish she wasn't so prohibitive when I was younger. With time, she eventually softenen and when I was around 14 years old she was no longer so prohibitive anymore. She wasn't at home all the time to control how long I would play anyway ;). After buying Final Fantasy VII, I've spent the next summer break waking up early in the morning as soon as she left home in order to play. I would wait to hear her footsteps outside, meaning she was walking away to work, meaning it was fine to come off my bed and play :D.

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned before, but I could only buy around 4 to 7 games per year, which basically meant that a single game had to last at least two months. I was privileged to own a PlayStation, a Saturn and still have so many games per year. As a kid, that didn't seem be enough but now I understand that not having a massive amount of games was a pretty good thing. It helped me to value all the games I had. It's what made me the type of player I was and (later) the type of collector that I've become. Even at that young age, I've kept all my games in a very good condition. I wouldn't accept to lose a leaflet or an instructions booklet from the case, unlike the majority of the other kids I knew. I wouldn't accept a badly handled disc with scratches or marks, so I've kept all my games in a condition that even by my current standards they are still worthy of being part of my collection, not just by their sentimental value. I was always a careful kid with the things that I really cared about, especially if they were tough to get. I was also totally against piracy. I wasn't really bothered to pay so much for an original copy of the game simply because I thought it was worth it.

As a result, finishing a game just once was not an option - I had to finish it many times. After beating the game once, I would take the time to find secrets, unlock bonuses, try cheat codes, find all the items and collectibles, do things faster, whatever came to my mind as much as I was having fun. As a result, almost nothing was left undone in any of the games I owned.

Final Fantasy VII took the completionism to a whole different level. I liked the game so much that I played it 6 or 7 times and tried to achieve a near perfect save file. That took not months, but years. The second time I went through the game, I already had some magazines that revealed the majority of secrets, sidequests and collectibles. I did everything I possibly could but I still missed a few items. I spent a few hundreds of hours getting everything, but there was always something missing for some reason. Access to the internet was limited (not to mention non existent for me), so getting information about the hardest things to find in the game was not an easy task. On my 3rd near perfect file, I realized I missed one tricky item called Vagirysk Claw. That was basically the last thing I was missing. I restarted all over again just to get that item. That was troublesome. I'm pretty sure I did everything from scratch another time after that, and a few years later I replayed the game just for fun. 

Final Fantasy VII was a great experience, but thankfully many others followed. Over the 5 years I owned a Playstation, my collection of games for that system alone grew up to almost 30 original titles. It's hard to tell one by one all the amazing experiences I had with all the games I bought. 

I obviously suffered while waiting for the release of Final Fantasy VIII one year after its announcement, but I had many games to keep me busy. It's pretty hard to tell the order of purchase, but I bought Tekken 3, Dino Crisis, Ace Combat 3, Ridge Racer Type 4, Resident Evil 2, Gran Turismo 1 and 2, all the Tomb Raider games, Metal Gear Solid, Street Fighter Alpha 3, Hard Edge, Cool Boarders 4...  I played all those games to exhaustion and did everything I possibly could. I even wrote some small walkthroughs/FAQs that still should be available in several websites.

There's a funny story behind Dino Crisis and Ace Combat 3. Those games were bought shortly after their release dates. In fact, at that time I was mostly buying brand new releases because I was well informed about the PS1 games thanks to a UK magazine called Playstation Power. I think I bought that magazine for nearly two years, even when it changed its name to just Power. Anyway, I asked my parents for Dino Crisis as a birthday gift. The game of course was not released on date so I had to check the same store over and over until it was finally available, on a particular Saturday. Next Monday, I had enough money to buy another game. Since I played Air Combat and Ace Combat 2 quite a lot in those PS Kiosks at the shopping mall, I've decided to pick Ace Combat 3. As my parents and I were driving home, I asked them to stop at one of my usual stores. I went in and came back with Ace Combat 3. This was a complete record for me, two games in just three days. My mother realized I was bringing home another game in such a short time and she nearly flipped. She was seriously upset, using arguments in an angry tone like: - "Go ahead, spend all your money on videogames, don't you dare to ask for anything else if you need!". I stood quiet and still on the backseat of the car, lowering my head between my shoulders...

I was also very lucky to buy two other JRPGs that I loved to play a lot. Unfortunately, the majority of the best Squaresoft RPGs never came out in Europe, so I missed theose. After the great experience I had with Final Fantasy VII, I wanted to try out other RPGs. Playstation Power made an article about this game called Vagrant Story, which was made by Square and was coming to Europe. I immediately wanted to get that game. When the release date finally arrived, history repeated itself and I had to go to the store several times and come back empty handed until they finally had the game available. 

Some time later, I went to my friend Rui's home. He hated Final Fantasy and RPGs in general. Visiting his home was great. He had a Game Boy, a Game Gear and a Mega Drive. Later he also owned a PS1 console, chipped of course. Even though he hated RPGs, there was this game called The Legend of Dragoon that caught his attention. He was playing it and he was quite far already. He kept an older save file at a certain ghost ship and he loaded that file just to show me some FMV sequence about a Dragoon Campaign. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the quality of the animation. This was another game I had to hunt down. On a random visit to a store named Fnac, I saw the game and I instantly bought it. Another awesome decision was made!

As for Final Fantasy VIII and IX, well, those were easy purchases, to my surprise. The same story repeats with both. I could hardly wait for any of those two games, but at that point I was not paying much attention to the release dates anymore, since they were very inaccurate over here. I went to the usual shopping mall with my parents and they were visiting a large clothes store. I was bored, so I told them I was going to visit that music store named Strauss where I previously bought my Tomb Raider II copy. As I approached the store, I immediately noticed the big pyramid made of Final Fantasy VIII copies at the front display, including limited editions. At that time I didn't even care about the limited edition. I was lucky enough if I could afford the regular game but I had no money at that time. I rushed back to my parents, I almost begged my mother to get me that game, saying stupid things like "my life depends on this"... and she did buy the game! This was the first time something like this actually happened! Me asking my mother to buy a game and she saying "yes" at first attempt. Wow! Things were slowly changing. I'm guessing having good grades at school kinda helped as well. Getting Final Fantasy IX  many months later was not much different from this story.

Read More »

Real Saturn Chronicles Episode 7: Final Fantasy VII

Last time, I've mentioned how I randomly decided to buy Final Fantasy VII, even after being unimpressed with the gameplay videos I had seen on TV a few months before. I also told the reasons why I took the game home with me. This next post might be filled with spoilers about Final Fantasy VII. I assume most people who wanted to play the game have already done that, so read at your own risk.


Shortly after arriving home with the game, I've decided to try it for a little bit. I was fairly impressed with the intro sequence and its powerful soundtrack, which kinda revealed that the game was something big. The battles were a little boring because I wasn't used to the turned based system with an active time bar. I was completely inexperienced in the RPG field because it was the first I was playing one by myself. I knew Phantasy Star for the SMS and Shining Force 3 for the Saturn but I never had the chancre to own those games, so my experience with them was very limited. As expected, I did a lot of mistakes while playing this game and got stuck on several bosses. Even regular enemies would give me tough times. At the beginning I also didn't know how to save the game, so I missed the first checkpoint several times.

The first obstacle I faced was the scorpion guard boss at the first reactor's core. I obviously took a beat, mostly because there was a message saying something like "it's going to counter" followed by "attack while the tail is up". These were two different lines displayed individually and I honestly didn't understand what they truly meant. I assumed that the scorpion was going to counter my moves, so I had to attack while its tail was up. I was supposed to do the exact opposite. What a big mistake that was, but it was also Square's fault. I died and had to restart the game. Then I had to stop playing because my parents sent me to bed. The next day I came back early from school and started playing again. I was killed by the scorpion boss a few more times, doing the same stupid mistake. I eventually managed to beat it just a little before dinner, by attacking all the way and surviving its counter attacks. I paused the game and resumed playing after dinner. This is when the game became boring as sh!t. Just talk, talk, talk and no action. I started to complain about how bad the game was and my mistake on spending all my money on a stupid game with silly combat. I still didn't know how to save and I was already on my way to the next reactor when my mother walked in and asked me to shut down the console and go to bed. - "But mom, I've been playing this for so long, I finally beat that boss, everything I did in the last hour was just listen to these stupid characters talking forever and I still don't know how to save the game... If I have to do this all over again I will never play this game again!". Since my mother was a very comprehensive person about videogames, all she said is: - "I don't care. Shut that thing down and go to bed. You have a long time to play the game."

Next day, I didn't have school during the afternoon but I was kinda reluctant to play the game again. Well, I didn't have anything else to do that afternoon anyway... Thankfully this time, things went better. I've finally learned how to save the game. I never realized that the shiny thing that sparkles when you get close was a save spot. I didn't know you actually had to stand right next to that and the save option was already selectable. I managed to save the game before the scorpion boss fight, I literally wiped his ass and I just bashed the X button in order to skip all the conversation that follows shortly after. I managed to get past the spot where I turned the console off the day before and arrived at the second reactor. I beat the boss on first try and as soon as Cloud is separated from the party and meets Aeris I finally started to like the game a little bit. 

I kept playing the game for the next few days without too many difficulties. I still didn't fully understand the limit break system nor how the characters leveled up... I knew how to equip items and materia, but some of the most basic stuff was still unknown ground for me. I eventually arrived at that point of the game where I've become very interested in paying more attention to the story. That moment was when Biggs, Wedge and Jessie finally die and Aeris gets kidnapped by the Turks. From this point onward, my interest in the game kept rising and rising. I climbed to the ShinRa tower, I've had problems with some of the bosses along the way, I eventually met more characters and things became rough when I finally left Midgar. I was so confused with the World Map. I didn't understand where I was or why the graphics were so different. I was a complete noob at RPGs...

Everything about the game and its plot started to become more and more interesting. Cloud's past, Barret's story, the visit to North Corel, the Gold Sauccer, the Desert Prision, Cosmo Canyon... everything was pretty interesting.

The first boss that gave me a lot of trouble was the Materia Keeper in Nibelheim mountains. I was completely underleveled and with a terrible setup with most of my characters. It took me one entire week to beat that thing. I did not even consider grinding before fighting it again. Whenever it used Trine, only Cloud was left alive. The only reason why I was finally able to kill it was because Cloud reached its limit break and Cross Slash left the enemy paralyzed. It was the first time it ever happened and I had absolutely no idea why. This gave me enough time to heal all characters and keep attacking. It finally died after a long time. The next boss that gave me nightmares was the Demon Gate at the Temple of the Ancient's exit. This was hell on earth. I was absolutely underleveled and there was no way I could beat it. At this point I finally started to learn the importance of grinding. I spent a few days fighting regular enemies in the room before, where you fight the red dragon boss. Materia started to grow a lot, my characters started to gain levels and I finally started to get a hang of the battle system. 

I eventually managed to beat the Demon's Gate and shortly after I finally witnessed Aeris' death. I just couldn't believe it. I seriously thought it was a joke and she hadn't died. She remained in my party for a long time due to her powerful healing spells and she was gone. At that point I was completely hooked on the game. 

I kept playing the game with lots of problems beating some bosses. Hojo gave me a terrible time to beat. It took me many tries. The only reason why I was able to defeat his last form was because I only had one character alive and I randomly used Phoenix summon on him. I just couldn't believe this summon had a side effect that would bring the other two characters to life! I took that random chance I was given to finally wipe out his ass. I also had a terrible time breeding chocobos and even beating the final bosses. I arrived at the final bosses so underleveled that I had to come back to the world map and do some serious grinding. Meanwhile, I also found some of the 3rd dis sidequests and spent some time doing random things. One month later, I went back to that final boss and ended up defeating it in just a few tries.

After I finished that game, I didn't know what to do anymore. I left the console playing those stars at the end for more than 10 minutes, expecting something to happen. It seemed there was nothing else interesting enough that could match the amazing experience it was to play that game.

Read More »

Real Saturn Chronicles Episode 6: Maybe I should buy it...

So, in the last post, I've mentioned how I obtained my Tomb Raider II game for the brand new Sony console. I eventually finished the game with all the secrets, I made myself a hand written strategy guide and I finally got my own memory card. As I promised, I've lent the game to my friend Angelo after I completed it and he lent me his copy of Tekken 2, which I played quite a lot. Angelo was a really nice kid.

Within the next couple of months I was able to get a few more games to play. I don't remember exactly which ones were. I know my second game was Dragon Ball: Final Bout. Being a huge Dragon Ball fan, I obviously had to get that game. I saw the intro on a TV show and I couldn't believe how epic it was. That game was a Christmas gift. As soon as I inserted the game disc in the console and the opening intro started playing, my mind was blown. Unfortunately the game was not that good. It was extremely slow and the gameplay was poor, but I was still glad with it.

On that TV show about videogames that I used to watch, they started to talk about this really popular game which was already a huge hit in Japan and was coming to Europe. They mentioned that game in more than a single episode. They made quite a big fuss over it, but I wasn't impressed at all. To be honest, I was not even slightly interested. That was until March or April 1998. 

My Grandmother used to give me a monthly allowance. I also had some money left from Christmas, so a few months later I had saved almost enough money to buy a brand new game. I just didn't know which one to pick. On a certain day my parents picked me from school and we went to a small local shopping center that had an electronics store. They didn't have a big stock of games but it was still nice to visit and I was trying to make up my mind about what to buy next.

Sitting on a shelve there was this weird, fat box with a rather uninteresting cover. When I originally started buying games for the PS1, those fat boxes had already been replaced by the smaller formats. Fat boxes were scarce. They were mostly available for multi-disc games and I didn't even know there were PlayStation games with more than a single disc. I picked that game merely out of curiosity. "What the heck is this?" was what was on my mind when I first picked it. As I turned the box around I instantly noticed three things about it that immediately caught my attention. The first thing was the price. I knew the game was just released because I had never seen it before. New games over here would all cost around 50 or 60 euros but that one was priced at just 45. The second thing was that small symbol saying the game had 3 discs. The last thing was... I immediately recognized the small gameplay screens. It was that game they were talking about a lot on that TV show. I also remembered how unappealing the game seemed to me, so I immediately placed in on the shelve.

We came back home for dinner and for some reason that game was stuck in my mind. I knew I was very limited to buy just a few games per year and at that time I was old enough to know exactly what I wanted. I was no longer buying games just because I needed something new to play. I had become more selective. I needed to buy good games that lasted as long as possible because I knew I couldn't buy another one so soon. The fact that the game has so many discs had me thinking... If it had three discs, it probably would take a lot of time to beat and that's something I was looking for. At that time I still didn't have enough money to buy a 60€ game, but I did have almost 50€, which was enough, so that had me thinking as well. The only thing that was bothering me a little was the fact that I didn't like that game when I saw it on TV.

I kept thinking about the game for a couple of hours before going to bed: "Maybe I should buy it... Maybe it's not that bad and I should give it a chance. It's 'cheap', it probably takes a lot of time to beat

and those guys on TV said the game is very good... yeah, maybe I should buy it." So that same night I asked my parents if we could go to the store again the next day so I could buy the game. The next day I've bought it. Needless to say, it was the best decision in my entire life.

I'm very sure you've already realized what game I am talking about: Final Fantasy VII. Best. Decision. Ever. I'll leave the rest of the story for the next post :D

Read More »

Real Saturn Chronicles Episode 5: Miss Croft returned! This time on Playstation!

It's been a while since I wrote some stuff about my past as a collector. So just bear with me, cause now it's time to continue what I already started. Previously, I've told you why and how I was able to buy my original PlayStation console (which I still own).

I was finally the proud owner of a Sony PlayStation console after the disappointment I felt when Sega decided to abandon its Saturn console in Europe to focus on Dreamcast. It was the summer of my 14th birthday :D

Playstation was the console I really needed. And the only reason why I originally wanted to buy it was just to play Tomb Raider II. I told that to a couple of friends and they said I was crazy for buying a particular gaming system just to play a single game. It was pretty obvious to me that I wouldn't play just one game and I'm pretty sure they thought the same. The main problem was... I already had a Sega Saturn. Back in those days, it was very unusual to find a kid my age with two different systems from the same generation. The few lucky kids who already had a current gen console either had a Sega Saturn or a Sony Playstation, but not both. Parents were not very fond of this idea either. If you had two systems from the same generation, many would be jealous of you and consider you rich. That's how it was.

Much like Saturn, as soon as I bought the Playstation I had to wait some time until I finally had one game to play. My nice parents would usually buy the console but not a single game. They always made me wait. Thankfully, this time I had a demo disc to play instead of looking at a spaceship floating in space while playing free music discs (I'm referring to what happened when I bought the Sega Saturn in the previous episode I wrote). 

After a few weeks waiting, Tomb Raider II was almost being released in Europe and I was literally dying to get my hands on that game. However, I knew that games would usually take much longer to arrive in Portugal and release dates over here were incredibly inaccurate. Knowing this, I still had to go to the store on release dates to see if the game I wanted was already available, even knowing the game wouldn't be there. I was a very impatient kid and I would usually come out of the store with a major disappointment. My parents used to go shopping many Fridays at night. When they were at the supermarket checkout line, I'd rush to the music store to check out the games. On that particular night, it was Tomb Raider II's European release date.

As usual, the store had nothing. The employee told me the game was expected to arrive next week on a certain day. On that certain day I went back to the store just to find out that the game would only be available some other day later. And this happened a few more times until I finally gave up waiting. Almost one month later my parents were at the checkout and my mother found strange that I still hadn't gone to the store. She asked me why and I replied with a hopeless voice: "it's no use... the game will never come out...". Ya know, childish stuff.... She eventually motivated me to go to the store. I walked in the store and the guy at the counter already knew me. I hopelessly asked: "The game is not here yet, right...". To my surprise, his reply was: Actually, it is!". I was overwhelmed!

Next day I immediately told a friend of mine that I had finally bought the game. His name was Angelo and he also had a PlayStation console and a ton of pirated games - something very common back in those days and one of the main reasons why most people over here in Portugal would prefer a PlayStation instead of other consoles. I survived all the pressure from friends who called me stupid for paying so much for a game that I could get for little money through piracy. I always loved to own the original copies of the games I've bought, so piracy was out of question. As I was talking to Angelo on the phone, he came up with some temporary bad news for me: "Cool, nice to know you already have the game, but do you have a memory card to save the game data?"

Needless to say, it was the first time I ever heard about such a thing. Even though I had my Saturn for a couple o years and knew about that expensive card called "Backup Memory", Saturn had an internal memory and I simply didn't know what that thing called "memory card" exactly was until he mentioned it to me for the first time. I figured I needed more cash to buy that thing if I wanted to play the game and save the game progress. For a brief moment I started to worry, but thankfully my friend Angelo ended the conversation saying something like: "Don't worry, I'll lend you a memory card if you lend me your game after you finish it. I'll take it to you tomorrow". PHEW!

And there I was, finally playing Tomb Raider II on my brand new Playstation system, Hell Yeah! Just a few months later I made the best decision of my life with another videogame I've randomly decided to buy. That one had such a huge impact on me and PlayStation became my favourite console soon after. But I will leave this for another post some time in the future!:D

Read More »

Real Saturn Chronicles Episode 4: Playstation, I chose you!

Okay, so I already told you about how I got my second console, the Sega Saturn. Now it's time to talk about how I managed to get a Sony PlayStation over 1 and a half years later...

I was happy with my Sega Saturn, but at a certain point I felt that something was wrong. When I first decided to buy the console, I already knew about how good PlayStation was doing. However, being an old Sega Fan, I preferred to continue buying Sega consoles instead of moving on to new territory. The main reason that made me chose Saturn was the fact that I trusted Sega. They didn't abandon Mega Drive until very late. I wasn't so sure about Playstation. It was the first time Sony was making a videogame console and it didn't appeal me that much. I knew nothing about the release titles such as Tekken or Ridge Racer, but a friend of mine actually bought the console and insisted it was as good or even better than Saturn. I just didn't care. What were you expecting from a 13 y.o. who would still argue over ridiculous stuff with poor arguments?

At a certain point I started to play the PS1 in the usual spots and I eventually became quite fond of it. Ridge Racer, Air Combat, Tekken, Battle Arena Toshinden... all those titles were actually pretty good! But I was still loyal to Sega and of course it was unimaginable to own two consoles of the same generation. No kid I knew had that chance. The few kids that had one console were lucky enough actually, as most didn't have one.

One day, during summer break, my father arrived earlier at home from his night shift and dropped me a magazine on my bed before going to sleep. The magazine was just a complement of a well known newspaper and was mostly about computer and videogames, with news and reviews. One of the news was about this fantastic game that had been announced called... Tomb Raider 2. If you've read the previous episodes I wrote, you probably know how much I loved Tomb Raider. Needless to say, my mind was blown with the news and the images of Venice levels. However, I partially died inside when they mentioned that it would only be available for PS1 and PC. I panicked. No, really, I did.

The game would be released later that year before Xmas holidays. I had about 6 months to save enough cash to get a PS1, but that was nearly impossible. I talked to my parents about buying another console, explaining that I wouldn't be able to play Tomb Raider 2. I was expecting my mother would actually be interested in buying it but instead she just stepped out. So basically, for the next couple of days, I couldn't think of anything else. I wanted to buy the PS1.

... Time went by and the release date was approaching. There were maybe a couple of months left. Well, actually, the release dates over here were useless, thanks to the worst Mafia business called IGAC and the terrible distributors involved with them: Ecofilmes. Nowadays it's different but at that time games would come out whenever they wanted, several days or even weeks after the official dates.

At that point I only had saved half the money I needed to buy the PS1. I thought I wasn't going to make it, so I was thinking on investing some more money on Saturn games. But suddenly something happened and my hopes were raised again. A big supermarket decided to make a huge promotion for its birthday campaign. For two weeks, they decided to cut the price of many products which were published in a leaflet. Several products were available each day but the day and the final price were kept a secret. I'm guessing they were trying to force costumers to visit the supermarket every day during the promotion in order to attract more clients. PlayStation was on the list. By that time the retail price was 50.000$ (something close to about 250 euros). I only had around 120 euros - yep, only half the money.

The supermarket was half ways between my home and my dad's workplace. He went there every day when coming from work to try to pick a Playstation. After several days, a nice lady working at the supermarket realized that my father was visiting the store every day and decided to inform my father of the day the console would be at a lower price. It was one Friday.

My father went there on that Friday and he called home to tell me about the console. I kinda expected him to say that the price drop was not big enough. But, to my surprise, he actually called me to tell he had bought the console. Mind blown! The price was reduced to 120 euros! About half the price for a single day and I had enough money for that. I was delighted. Eventually, my parents didn't even ask for the money. I kept the console and my money! :P

Read More »

Real Saturn Chronicles Episode 3 - the 3D Era

As you can probably tell, I skipped the Mega Drive and the 16bi age in general. Unfortunately, I missed one of the greatest gaming generations... I managed to play several games at my friends' homes but I didn't have my own console. Some of the games I loved the most were Road Rash, The Simpsons Bart VS the Space Mutants (I know this one's not that good), Sonic, Sonic and Knuckles, Donald Duck in Maui Mallard, Street Fighter II Championship Edition, Virtua Racing, Lion King, Shinobi, Golden Axe, Mortal Kombat 1 and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, Streets of Rage 2, Comix Zone and several others.

It was 1996 when I then got my Sega Saturn.

I used to be a member of the Sega Club over here, and as such I would receive the leaflets at home, announcing new products. One of those products was the Sega Saturn. As you would expect, seeing those images of a brand new Sega console was something amazing and I instantly wanted to get one. Well, at least until I heard about the price. I didn't even ask my parents to buy me that. They wouldn't buy me a Mega Drive, it had to be my Grandmother to offer me the Master System II, let alone a Sega Saturn that was so expensive when it came out... So there I was. My master System was gathering dust because I didn't have more games for it and I had finished everything several times, not missing a single thing on any of the games I owned. I was almost 13 by that time.

Some time after Saturn's release, when the model 2 was about to come out, the day finally came when I managed to get it. That console came to my hands out of nothing. I used to visit a music store that also sold videogames. It was called Strauss. Unfortunately, that store went bankrupt many years ago but it was one of the places I loved to visit and where I'd buy some of my games. As I was walking by the showcase, I noticed the Saturn console. Suddenly I checked the price. It had dropped to less than half and that dau June 1st, Children's day (I didn't even know what that day meant, but as much as it meant gifts, I didn't even care!). I immediately called my parents and made a huge fuss about the price drop and everything. My mother was reluctant to buy the console and we went away from the store. She then left me and my father waiting for a couple of minutes to make a phone call and when she came back she said something like "okay you won't be receiving anything on your next birthday if we buy you that console now, if you really want us to buy it". Needless to say I was speechless. Out of NOTHING they bought me the Sega Saturn. WOAH!

However, my awesome mother bought the console, but forgot about the games. That cheaper console didn't come with a single game. It was just the console alone. I actually had to suffer for weeks, just watching the airship from the audio player because I had no games. Even to this day, I still tell my mother how bad that was. Eventually, she gave me the money to buy one game before my birthday - THANK GOD.  I decided to get BUG! The game was awesome. Then, on my birthday, a friend of mine lent me a copy of Virtua Fighter 1. I've had that game for a couple of weeks before returning it and had GREAT FUN playing.

The next Christmas something completely changed my mother - well, not completely, but substantially. She was actually a videogaming fan but she didn't want me to play games all the time and that's the main reason why she tried to keep me away from them. She used to play Prince of Persia when I was younger on the PC at her work with her mates during breaks. She would come home telling stories about how good that game was. On that Xmas - 1996 I believe - Dragonball Z The Legend came out. At that point I didn't care about how good or bad that game was - it was BDZ, 'nuff said! Grandma got it for me. Then, when I was walking on yet another shopping center, I had the chance to play a game that had just come out very recently. It was called Tomb Raider. Nobody was playing in on the kiosk, so I gave it a shot. I was wowed. My mother came while I was playing and even she was amazed by the game as it reminded her of a much better version of Prince of Persia. She bought me the game several days later and she liked that game so much that she only allowed me to play while she could be watching, mostly during rainy weekends. Over the years that has to be the game I finished the most number of times: 21 times only in my Saturn. Later on I also played the PS1 version.

Several months later, I managed to save enough money to buy another game. I saw some awesome videos about Guardian Heroes, Shining Force III, Shining The Holy Ark and Dragon Force on a TV show. Guardian Heroes was the one I wanted the most. I was also so close to enter the RPG world, a world I never tried before... I wanted to buy one of those games, so the next time I went to a shopping center I searched for them. But... unfortunately, none of those games were there because they were kind of scarce. As you can probably guess, an  impatient kid like me with enough money for a new game after several months without anything new to play had to get SOMETHING and couldn't wait. It's been a while but I can remember that I was quite disappointed to see none of those titles I've wanted the most were available. So I had to pick something else instead of looking elsewhere. And I got Nights. I loved the game, but honestly I'd rather have played one of the other games instead of paying good cash for a second hand copy many years later...

And finally, the last two games I bought for the Saturn were thanks to João Hugo, one of my best childhood friends. I wanted to buy Bug Too! because I loved the first game, but at that time classic games like Virtua Cop 2 and Daytona USA CCE had already dropped to half their original price. As a result, he convinced me to get those two games for the price of one instead of getting Bug Too! Best decision ever! I played those two to exhaustion.

In the end, my collection was limited to seven games, again, like the Sega Master System:
Bug!
Tomb Raider
Dragon Ball Z The Legend
Nights into Dreams
Virtua Cop 2
Daytona USA CCE
Sonic 3D (I remember buying this one, I just don't remember when and I didn't like it that much, unfortunately...)

I still have the console with everything including the box (it's the one pictured in the first post of this blog) and all the seven games, but over the years I replaced Dragon Ball Z with a better copy because mine had a few scratches.

Read More »

Real Saturn Chronicles Episode 2 - Let me play at home! - Part 2

I must start by telling that these posts should be in a different blog, and not this one. A while back when I mentioned I've lost my job, I also said I would be creating a new blog just to write these things. In the end, I decided to write my messages here. It would be a little pointless to create a new blog nobody would visit.

Okay, so in the previous message I told about my Timex, a computer I still wish to find someday for collection purposes.

This time I'll be telling you about my Sega Master System II

For the next years, there were no videogames for me. I wanted a Game Boy and Dark Wing Duck game, or a NES with the Turtles game - I was such a huge Turtles fan... But my parents just wouldn't buy one. The only way I could play videogames was when we went to the shopping center and they had those kyosks with Gameboy, Game Gear, even SNES. I managed to play many games like that: Super Mario, Tetris, Final Fight (not sure which one), Power Rangers, Sonic 1 to 3 and Knuckles, Street Fighter II and several other titles I hardly remember.

One day, my parents and I were invited to dinner at a friendly neighbour's house who had a daughter my age. I was 7 or 8 I believe. I knew the girl since I was a baby as we were born in the same year and my parents were close friends to her parents - we lived in the same building until I was 2, before my parents moved back to my grandma's home not too far.

As I was there, I realized she had a Sega Master System which was offered to her very recently, and she also had one of the most fantastic games I've ever played: Land of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse. I remember I went back to her home a couple of days straight just to play because, to me, it was so amazing she actually had a videogaming system. I wanted to have one as well but no matter how much I asked my parents, they wouldn't get it. It wasn't because they didn't have the money... It was mostly because my mother didn't want to see me playing video games. See, the trauma... Had she given me the console back then, would I be this crazy for videogames?

I kept playing in shopping malls because those were the only places where I could actually play. I even knew the bullies and gipsies who would go there just to play. They were kids like me. After a few times I got used to them and we would switch turns in the consoles every time one of us lost. Obviously, I couldn't spend the entire day playing, I only had maybe a couple hours at best before my parents decided to go away. My parents always visited shopping malls and I learned how to be alone in those from a very young age. I am not exaggerating when I say that I used to go to the toys section alone by the age of 3 while my parents would be shopping other things. I was too young and I had to search for them when I wanted to go back of if they didn't return after I got bored. If I couldn't find them after a few minutes searching I would probably start crying.

One day, my life partially changed. I was about to turn 8 or 9. I'm not really sure any more. My birthday was close, and just a couple of days before it, I received my first gift. It was a rather large box. Yup, my Grandma's gift was... a Sega Master System II, the Alex Kidd Box set with a bonus Sonic I game. By that tim,e Mega Drive was already well established in the market and most kids were getting one. Master System received a significant price drop. When I received that Master System, I could hardly believe. Having my own console was amazing.

I've had my bunch of games for it. The first game I bought was Flintstones. Oh boy, how bad was that game? It was fairly bad, honestly, but I still played it 'till the very end (it was only 4 levels, and that bowling game was tough). Some time later I borrowed two awesome games from my friend: Streets of Rage 2 and Psycho Fox. I was amazed by those two games. Later on I also bought Aliens 3 because I loved the movie, and for some reason I also asked my parents to get me of the games I enjoyed to play the most: Daffy Duck in Hollywood. I loved that game! It was far different from the Mega Drive or Game Gear versions. I just loved it! I don't know why I chose that game in particular, but I'm glad I did. Then I also had The Lion King and managed to play a bit of Jungle Book and Desert Speedtrap. Later on, I managed to get Land of Illusion as well, when the price dropped to less than half.

This was the list of games I had: Alex Kidd in Miracle World (console memory), Sonic I,  Flintstones, Aliens 3, Land of Illusion, The Lion King and Daffy Duck in Hollywood. And I'm not sure if I am missing another one but I have this impression there were 7 games total. I don't know which one's the last game I'm missing from the list...

Unfortunately, I no longer have that Master System. It was complete with everything it came with. Even the games were in perfect condition with instructions and all, but my parents decided to give it to another kid not too long after I got my Saturn. Another thing I agreed on and I'm regretting, especially because later on I found out the other kid didn't deserve it at all.

Read More »

Real Saturn Chronicles Episode 1 - Let me play at home!

As I've said before, I decided to tell my story and my best moments as a video gamer and collector. Today I am kinda annoyed. Since I've lost my job I've had a few things to take care and I really don't feel like searching for another job. I'd rather try to do something by myself, making a video game, I don't know. I need to think for a while, maybe find a part time and develop my skills so I am able to work by myself and eventually open my own business/company... who knows... but the economy over here is crap and it makes me want to get out of here. Unfortunately I can't do that for several reasons and I don't really want to leave the country, unless of course is to spend some nice holidays somewhere else for a short period of time :).

Anyway, this is the first episode, where everything started.

So let's start!

The first time I was able to play video games at home was by the time I was 5 or 6. My mother used to work as an office worker to a store/company that sold truck parts. My father used to shift work in a large gas factory. Every now and then we would pick my mother from her job by the time she came out. I used to love the ride.

One of those days, she came out of the store with a bag. That bag was something one of her mates brought to her. I was still young back then, but I knew about video games - don't ask me how. The thing that was in the bag was nothing less than a Sinclair Timex 2048, an official licensed "Spectrum" made in Portugal, also sold in the US. The spectrum had an internal memory problem it seemed, that's why it was given to my mother. It was still playable but most games wouldn't even start. It came with plenty of pirate games.Here in Portugal most stores would copy the games and sell pirate copies instead of the original version. It was such a common practice that nowadays it's actually hard to find original copies for sale.

My father managed to make the thing work. It was a little complicated and it required a tape player, something I fortunately had. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to play that many games. I remember Indiana Jones would start running but froze right before the game start. What a shame... I know I managed to play Pac Man and a few other games, but the one that I played the most and remember well was a shooter. It took me years to find out which game it was. Actually, I only figured it a few months ago and it wasn't that hard to figure out to be hones. The game was Xenon. As soon as I saw gameplay videos and the cover, I immediately remembered that was the game. I already ordered a factory sealed copy off eBay, which now lies in my collection. It's the only Spectrum game I have besides Turtles.

I remember I made it to the first boss, a large round ship. I only managed to beat it once but died right after the start of the second level, where the difficulty was greatly increased.

For some particular reason, I stopped playing that Timex. Maybe because it wasn't working properly and couldn't run the games very well... It ended up stored in the attic until my mother decided to clean the attic and threw it away, several years ago... I told her it was okay to do that. How stupid was that!!!

And that was my first video gaming experience. The second experience only came about 4 years later. My mother was against children playing video games for many hours and she didn't want to buy me a console.

Read More »