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Post by Deleted on Jul 16, 2021 16:50:18 GMT -5
As the title asks - what systems did you pick up on launch? What games did you get? And do you have any memories of system launches to share?
So my first system I picked up on launch was Nintendo Gamecube. It came out not too long after I got my first job and so after having to beg parents for previous systems over the years it felt like a big moment to me. As for the actual launch, it was pretty clear the platform was DOA here. I remember going along to the store with my brother and though the official price was only £129.99 and retailers had generally added an extra £10 on top of that, we were able to get it discounted for just £110. It was the early afternoon and the shop assistant told us it was the first one they'd sold. Anyway between us we took home a bunch of controllers, a memory card and Luigi's Mansion, Super Monkey Ball, Star Wars Rogue Leader and (just so we could pick two games each) Bloody Roar. Anyway after quickly being blown away by the visuals on Luigi we pretty much spent the rest of the weekend becoming addicted to Monkey Target. I remember trading in Bloody Roar not long later, but having a great time with the others.
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Post by blackdrazon on Jul 16, 2021 17:28:32 GMT -5
The Wii only, which turned out to be a good move, since I outpaced the system and game shortages that followed. I got the pack-in Wii Sports, and pre-ordered copies of Trauma Center SO and Twilight Princess. Yeah, the buggy version of Twilight Princess, with the dead-end glitch. I know someone who fell into that pit, even.
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Post by Apollo Chungus on Jul 16, 2021 17:30:50 GMT -5
Absolutely none of them. I've always ended up getting into things long after the fact, and game systems are no exception.
The closest I ever got anything to its launch was the Nintendo 3DS just after a year after it first came out, and that was as my 16th birthday present.
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Post by spanky on Jul 16, 2021 19:12:06 GMT -5
I tend to wait a bit - like for a price drop, or an upgraded model. Also a lot of systems have really crappy games when they launch and it takes a while to build up a good library. There's a few exceptions though.
GBA - This actually had a pretty good launch lineup. We were really due for a next gen Nintendo handeheld at this point. I had to have Circle of the Moon and Super Dodge Ball (I was really into Technos stuff at the time).
GC - I didn't get this quite at launch, but very close. It came out around Christmas and I wanted to play Smash.
Switch - Yeah, there was no way I was not going to play Breath of the Wild. I got up really early and waited in line at Target. I was 4th in line I think? There were about a dozen people there and but they had enough systems for everybody. When I got home I also downloaded Blaster Master Zero which was a nice palate cleanser after marathon BotW sessions.
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Post by dsparil on Jul 17, 2021 6:23:31 GMT -5
I almost had a Wii at launch but was too clever at the last minute and went to a store that must have figured it was going to flop and didn't stock any. If I had gone to my first choice, I would have one at launch day since they had enough stock to cover everyone that was there when the store was open. I ended up getting one around a year later because I saw one at Target when I was buying plates.
3DS I just preordered right away. I was sold from the original announcement. Same thing with the New 3DS.
With the Wii U, I was going to wait until I had an HDTV, but I ended up getting one slightly before launch so I ended up getting it right away.
Switch I also preordered right away.
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Post by ommadawnyawn2 on Jul 17, 2021 7:00:22 GMT -5
Almost nothing since I was a kid, but we did get the SMS, MD, GB and GG around their launches here. After that I think I got the GBA and PS3 around launch. GBA had a nice lineup. |
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Post by 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 on Jul 17, 2021 8:19:45 GMT -5
I got three systems at launch (see if you can spot the pattern). The 3DS was the first, which was the most excited I have ever been for a system (and likely ever will be). That was the first time I could actually afford a system at launch, as I was finally old enough to work in a supermarket instead of having a shitty paper round that payed 4 bucks a week. I got Street Fighter IV with it, which was a stupid choice. Not that it's bad, but I don't really care about fighting games (why did you get it then? IDK), and it doesn't really show off the 3D effect. I should've gotten Pilotwings. I remember the mail was really late that day and I was worried I wouldn't get it that day. Next was the Wii U. Again the mail was really late and this one actually never came, so I ended up going to the nearest video game store to see if they still had one. They had a single black one left, so I got lucky. I got it with Nintendo Land and NSMBU, neither of which are particularly exciting launch titles, but Nintendo Land was good fun. Most recently was the Switch, which was a much better launch as it came with BotW. If you want to get really anal about it the SNES Mini and SMB G&W. Next one most likely will be whatever Nintendo does next, though I am sort of half-thinking about pre-ordering a Playmate. By the way, am I the only one who pre-orders stuff online for delivery? I have never tried to get something in-store on launch day or pre-ordered anything for pickup. As for the actual launch, it was pretty clear the platform was DOA here. I remember going along to the store with my brother and though the official price was only £129.99 and retailers had generally added an extra £10 on top of that, we were able to get it discounted for just £110. It was the early afternoon and the shop assistant told us it was the first one they'd sold. Damn, that's sad...discounted on launch day, you wouldn't wish that on your worst enemy. |
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Post by windfisch on Jul 18, 2021 9:17:37 GMT -5
As for the actual launch, it was pretty clear the platform was DOA here. I remember going along to the store with my brother and though the official price was only £129.99 and retailers had generally added an extra £10 on top of that, we were able to get it discounted for just £110. It was the early afternoon and the shop assistant told us it was the first one they'd sold. Damn, that's sad...discounted on launch day, you wouldn't wish that on your worst enemy. Right. Why in the world would I wish them, whoever they may be, a discounted Gamecube – a well-designed system with a great library of games at a good price? For what they have done to me, whatever that might've been, they deserve the exact opposite, which would probably be the Intellivision Amico or something.
Surprising no one, the system I got around its launch was the good old Watara Superv…, no wait, it was the Nintendo Game Boy! My best friend and I decided to get one each. It came bundled with Tetris and in addition to that I got Teenage Mutant Hero* Turtles - Fall of the Foot Clan. (*What the hell is a “Ninja”?!), my friend got Super Mario Land instead. Now Tetris is unquestionably a great game – for people who enjoy working in conveyor belt factories that is. But to me the real star was Fall of the Foot Clan. It was the perfect game for someone who, like most kids my age, was very much into those anthropomorphic reptiles. Prior to that I had enjoyed the animated show and a bit later discovered the grimdark and shockingly, yet intriguingly violent original comic books. The cover of the game is even drawn in the style of the latter, made by one of the original creators nonetheless:
The actual game however looked more like this:
Highlighting the odd duality of the franchise in one single package, literally.
Not that this mattered to me, as the game perfectly captured the cartoon show's vibe, looking and sounding absolutely phenomenal. Sprites were huge and nicely animated, everything moved smoothly, only some flickering hinted at the system's limits. Backgrounds were drawn with attention to detail and care, foreground elements remained clearly visible at all times. There even was some parallax scrolling, which to me was like actual 3D, man! The icing on the cake were the cutscene looking like they were directly lifted from the show. It also has to be pointed out that, by default, few other characters were a better fit for the screen's yellow/green/blue-hues than the turtle-quartett. The original screen was actually colourful, not black and white, remember? And individual pixels would cast shadows on the screen (again: 3D, man!). That LCD still looks gorgeous to me.
Another thing that immediately won me over was the catchy, rocking music, channeling the show's intro theme, combined with occasional hints of blues. And the robotic standard enemies exploded out of existence accompanied with a fittingly tinny clang.
Back then Game Boy titles just didn't get more impressive than this. Roughly a year after its Japanese debut, Konami's developers really had the system figured out completely. In contrast to that, other action games at the time, like Super Mario Land took a much more minimalistic approach in terms of presentation, which worked perfectly fine in SML’s case (and to be fair, that game was made earlier). For FotFC, however, the bigger and bolder-approach was clearly the way to go.
Being a Spartan X-variant with some added platforming, it wasn't the most complex game around. In fact, it can be considered relatively easy and short, being beatable in under 25 minutes. But for the beginner that I was (only being used to playing VCS 2600 games at my friend's home), it was the ideal entry game. Requiring quick reflexes it was reasonably challenging and offered just enough variety to keep things fresh, including some neat bonus games. And the highly responsive controls made it fun to master. Since the buttons are mapped to A for attack and B for jump by default, this was how I initially used to play it. Only after being exposed to other action games, which somehow all got the button layout wrong (I mean A obviously stands for "attack" and B for...err... "bump"..."bop"?), I started reassigning the buttons in FotFC, which the game thankfully allowed for. To this day I still like to give it a quick go. And it’s still leagues better than Tetris. Btw.: Recently I found out about this shameless FotFC clone, Tough Guy, made for a Game Boy clone called "Gamate". It looks pretty terrible and yet its mere existence makes me super happy:
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Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2021 10:26:19 GMT -5
I've only really messed around with them a little but all of the Game Boy Turtles games seem to be pretty fun. Generally speaking, in terms of comic book interpretations, they've got a great batting average of nice conversions. There even was some parallax scrolling, which to me was like actual 3D, man! Parallax scrolling thread incoming??? |
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Post by dsparil on Jul 18, 2021 10:41:14 GMT -5
windfisch I think that's a reference to Nintendo not the purchaser. GameCubes weren't flying off the shelves even at launch. I know a few people that pretty much just strolled into a store on launch day and grabbed one.
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Post by windfisch on Jul 18, 2021 11:29:09 GMT -5
The Game Boy TMHT games are all worth looking into. The second one in particular, Back from the Sewers, is one of the best action games on the system. Compared to FotFC, it is even more impressive ausiovisually, featuring almost Strider-esque set-pieces. It also offers more substance and a much higher challenge than the first game. Radical Rescue, the final Game Boy entry, is a bit of a departure by adopting a Metroid-like structure. It's pretty decent, but a bit rough around the edges. It's a shame that it never got a direct sequel to smooth things out. And while not an official Turtles game, Konami's own Zen - Intergalactic Ninja is pretty comparable to FotFC, albeit a bit more platforming-heavy and not quite as well programmed (it'll slow down easily).
At the time I don't have enough time to make my own threads, I'm afraid. But I sure wouldn't mind such a thread, it's a cool topic!
Off topic: In fact, I had a similar thread in mind a while ago: "Prettiest/most extravagant Amiga-style colour-gradients". Examples:
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Post by jackcaeylin on Jul 18, 2021 11:29:13 GMT -5
i was extremely poor until I got my degree, thus I only had three systems on launch.
Playstation Vita, Wii U and the Playstation 3
On hindsight, it were good decisions, because the Oled was great on Vita and I could play some classics. The playstation 3 had some unique features and could play some ps2 games. The Wii U had some great games, but the ports to the switch system made it kinda forgotten. Not quite sure, if it counts, but I got the NDS 11 months after the launch and it is my favourite handheld, due to the games. I mostly played the games from the previous generations on my launch console (the PS3 with ps3 and the NDS with some GBA games). Backwards compatibility was an important thing to me, because it could combine two generations into 1, thus the prices never felt unfair.
There even was some parallax scrolling, which to me was like actual 3D, man! Parallax scrolling thread incoming???
I support this!
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Post by windfisch on Jul 18, 2021 11:31:47 GMT -5
windfisch I think that's a reference to Nintendo not the purchaser. GameCubes weren't flying off the shelves even at launch. I know a few people that pretty much just strolled into a store on launch day and grabbed one. Hehe, I'm aware. I was just messing with suzy-san. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2021 16:06:10 GMT -5
i was extremely poor until I got my degree, thus I only had three systems on launch.
Playstation Vita, Wii U and the Playstation 3
On hindsight, it were good decisions, because the Oled was great on Vita and I could play some classics. The playstation 3 had some unique features and could play some ps2 games. The Wii U had some great games, but the ports to the switch system made it kinda forgotten. Not quite sure, if it counts, but I got the NDS 11 months after the launch and it is my favourite handheld, due to the games. I mostly played the games from the previous generations on my launch console (the PS3 with ps3 and the NDS with some GBA games). Backwards compatibility was an important thing to me, because it could combine two generations into 1, thus the prices never felt unfair. The DS had a bit of a soft launch in my opinion with little in the way of software. At the same time though the GBA was being supported with some great titles even after the successor released. That made the backwards compatibility all the more important I think, since it bridged the gap. I remember using the system more for GBA games in the early days than for software released specifically for DS. I have to wonder how much the launch for the platform was rushed considering that not only was there a shortage of new games early on, but the hardware was pretty clunky and ugly. Of course it was quickly replaced with the Lite model. The Wii U launch lineup was unfairly criticised I thought. There was a good number of very nice games across a diverse selection of genres. The fact that many ports were included was simply a result of lengthy modern game development and would be considered normal by now. Since I hadn't experienced them elsewhere I found a nice number of enjoyable games to play. |
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Post by ZenithianHero on Jul 18, 2021 19:16:32 GMT -5
GBA - Mario Advance and Pinobee
DS - Feel the Magic XX/XY, Mario 64 DS
Gamecube - Luigi's Mansion. Also got Monkey Ball, Smash was within launch window too.
Wii - Trauma Center Second Opinion
Wii U - Warrior's Orochi 3
PSP - Lumines
Gamecube was definitely a strong launch period. Super Monkey Ball remains one of the best multiplayer games I ever played.
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