Awesome stuff you've just bought (+pics please)

[Obiwanshinobi]

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I am not very fond of the English title Phantoms (as if, most literally, Spectres wouldn't suffice). A most valuable recording nonetheless.

[Mischief Maker]

Sorry to say the thing that actually caught my eye in your pic was the combo Bleed & Bleed 2 case. Why is that awesomeness still in the shrink wrap?!!

[JBC]

Yesterday I bought all 33 existing volumes of the Judge Dredd Complete Case Files and preordered the 34th. $620 lol. I'll post pics when they're on the shelf but shipping says Nov 8th+ since I'm not in the UK. I've read them all digitally before but I just gotta have the real thing. Best comic of all time imo but sadly overlooked here in the US. Also threw Dark Judges: Fall Of Deadworld 1 & 2 in my Christmas list. I've read the first and it was something very special

[drauch]

^Damn, nice. I think I've only got up to volume 9. I gotta have physical myself, so I get it.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Audio-tech-oriented people may like this bit of trivia...

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[GaijinPunch]

So, I won't go into this, but once upon a time, there was a Japanese musician named Susumu Yokota that produced some amaze balls albums. If you really want to hear his best, here they are (some links will require following other links - sorry if they are disjointed):

Sakura
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRGZLh3 ... rgtkVN2Lms

Grinning Cat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxWi7AXtJ1Q&t=81s

The Boy and the Tree
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qmNBqvtdjY&t=911s

Okay, so those are the quintessential listens for ambient music fans. For other music fans (House, and acid techno, there are other releases you must seek out).
I can't dream of writing anything that sums this shit up, so read this:
https://www.factmag.com/2019/09/25/lo-r ... mu-yokota/

And then buy the album here:
https://susumuyokota.bandcamp.com/album/cloud-hidden

tldr; One of Japan's brightest stars passed away a few years ago, and someone found a DAT of some unreleased tracks. After polishing it, released it in a manner deemed appropriate. If you're not familiar w/ Susumu Yokota, the good news is you get to experience his work for the first time right now. If you are familiar with Yokota's previous work, download the new album above.

[Shelcoof]

Sorry to say the thing that actually caught my eye in your pic was the combo Bleed & Bleed 2 case. Why is that awesomeness still in the shrink wrap?!!

I bought them both digitally already

Funny thing is about 75% of my games are all still factory sealed. Not that I don't plan on opening them but because I'm far too back logged. I also do have a problem buying too many games I can plat as well

[Ghegs]

Bit of a random haul.



Mega Drive Mini (Asian version): I've never had the system, and I never knew anybody with it growing up, so I haven't really played its games other than outside some collections. Truth be told, the system's overall library doesn't hold much appeal to me, but most of the titles I am interested in are included here (namely Contra: Hard Corps, Castlevania Bloodlines and Alien Soldier) so it seemed like a good package for me to get.

SN30 Pro+: I got curious if I could comfortably use the same controller for my PC, Switch and Analogue NT Mini.

Double Dragon set: I "finished" my Famicom collection some years ago but I miss getting those boxes and cleaning the carts and all that jazz, so I picked up a few more games. Maybe I'll get just a few more...

[BIL]

Beauties, those three Manuals are chock-full of sharply-illustrated Hokuto no Ken-style brutality, too!

Alien Soldier is my single favourite MD game, and one of my favourite action games period - tremendous longterm replay value. By the same token though, pick up and play isn't one of its strengths. Arcade pace plus involved controls, mechanical idiosyncrasy, and ammo-hungry weapons can make the early going rough. Here's a brief startup guide I wrote years ago, RE: weapons and ammo (slightly edited for mild lategame boss spoilers, original thread here):

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AFAIK, double lancer + double flame is objectively the best setup, at least for speed. MrMonkeyMan and Hebo use it in their killer speedruns, IIRC switching to a third lancer before

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. Both weapons deal heavy damage, the former from any range and the latter making brisk work of organic enemies. As you suggest though, there are serious drawbacks requiring an experienced operator. Both exhaust fast and recharge slow, lancer's shot rate is sluggish, and flame is useless on anything metal or underwater. Definitely not a magic bullet setup.

I don't go for sheer speed (all respect to runners, as always - there's just way too much zipping past zako I want to burn and shred with cyber violence*). So I find Lancer2/Flame/Buster very comfy. Buster takes a lot of strain off the power weapons in the early game. Starts with generous ammo and gains steeply, recharges super-quickly, and does good all-round damage with no elemental weakness. Great set for getting to grips with the game. I like to get the third lancer now, to speed up

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, but it's not advisable until survival is down cold and you can focus on doing maximum damage. Too many missed shots or hits taken, and you're crippled.

Sword is too thirsty and slow to recover for my liking. Spread and homing are useless AFAIK. Weapon balance isn't the game's strong suit, haha. It's about learning to compensate for Lancer+Flame's shortcomings via ammo management and deftly aggressive Phoenix Forcing. Note that Phoenix cancels anything Counter Force can - you can demolish projectile-happy bosses like Bugmax and Sunset Sting by burning their attacks for scads of HP gems.

Might still be interesting to try a run with one's less-favoured weapons, though. My goddamn gamepad died, imma wait until payday and try for something a bit sturdier...

About ammo, a critical bit of info that's not made explicit: weapons start recharging a short time after being deselected, and only stop recharging upon re-selection (merely cycling through the menu is harmless). Never select a weapon unless you're ready to use it; you'll needlessly interrupt its recharge. A related tip - if you're waiting for a boss to finish its intro, cue up your desired weapon in the menu and wait. It'll keep charging until you hit [fire]. Much cleaner than waiting for the fight to start, then switching. Oh weapon menu... I disliked it at first, but much like Ex-Ranza's mobile gun rack, it feels pro as hell switching instruments of annihilation in the heat of battle without missing a beat.

*also, this game's boss RNG is brutally unhelpful for clear times. In my dodgy current run I totally screw around post-Stringer, having damn near let him drag me away. Then I get an ideal final boss fight. I've had better runs where his RNG torpedoes any hope of a PB time. Not that I mind. It's a harrowingly fun attack to dodge and it looks so MFN cool!

**at the screen edge where possible. It'll burn in place, devastating enemy HP. Witness the appalling Cyber Violence Against Fishman: CLICK 4 SPEEDKILL

Uh, speaking of my run again - make sure to employ the game's Shinobi-style tier switch in the dark tower before Sunset Sting. I couldn't work out why I failed that first jump half the time. Hold [up] then hit [jump] for guaranteed success.

TLDR: focus on building up your ammo stocks, early on. Shoot an item box to switch it to your current weapon, grab it for a full ammo recharge + capacity boost. The controls and boss techniques will fall into place much quicker when you've got a healthy supply. I've since realised you can, in fact, go KILL EM ALL with the "speedrunning" setup. It just takes experience, knowing when to let off the trigger and when to dump clips straight into a boss's face.

Also, don't be fooled by Alien Soldier's (even more exaggerated than usual) mainstream rep for unspeakable hardcore cruelty. It's a signficant undertaking, with tons to master at both system and stage/boss levels, but it's not an aggressive player-killer. You can take a lot of abuse before you kick the bucket. Sort of game that's deadlier to your pride than your survival.

[BrianC]

Awesome triple double dragon!! I like my Asian mini quite a bit. I just got the wireless M30 for the Mini, which I like quite a bit and works great with the switch. Stock controllers are also nice, as well. One nice surprise is that the MD Mini came with a mini replica sonic cart. I ended up ordering an actual JP 6B and the actual carts of Sonic 1 and 2, as well, even though the latter is AFAIK identical to the US version, game wise.

[it290]

Not posting a pic b/c I'm lazy, but I just bought a stack of about 25 Heavy Metal magazines dating from '78–'84. Definitely a great period for the magazine and a trove of unreal psychedelic fantasy art of a sort that scarcely exists today; in addition to all the great European artists there's stuff from the likes of Steranko and Chaykin that pushes layout and illustration way beyond their normal comics work. This stuff blew my mind when I was a kid and it's too bad that nothing of the sort really gets released these days.

[Steamflogger Boss]

Not posting a pic b/c I'm lazy, but I just bought a stack of about 25 Heavy Metal magazines dating from '78–'84. Definitely a great period for the magazine and a trove of unreal psychedelic fantasy art of a sort that scarcely exists today; in addition to all the great European artists there's stuff from the likes of Steranko and Chaykin that pushes layout and illustration way beyond their normal comics work. This stuff blew my mind when I was a kid and it's too bad that nothing of the sort really gets released these days.

This is one of the coolest things posted here in recent memory. SICK find.

[BrianC]

Sonic 1 and 2 JP arrived.

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[kitten]

had this on order for like a year and am so happy to have it. dobby <3

you have to actually arrange the wires on this yourself but it looks pretty great, might take a couple of extra pictures tomorrow

[BIL]

Nice. I love how closely it reflects the in-game sprite's look. There've been some cool grim/creepy/slimy renditions of Dobbers over the years (MSX coverart's "cybernetic jumbo shrimp from the blackest bowels of hell" comes to mind), but his iconic arcade sprite was always nice n' biometallic-lookin'. Rad detailing on his circuitry! It only just hits me, looking at him in three dimensions, that he appears to be under construction... waiting for Christmas when Santa will bring his arms and legs.

[Shelcoof]

Sonic 1 and 2 JP arrived.

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Never get tired of Sonic. Especially Sonic 2!

[kitten]

overart's "cybernetic jumbo shrimp from the blackest bowels of hell" comes to mind), but his iconic arcade sprite was always nice n' biometallic-lookin'. Rad detailing on his circuitry! It only just hits me, looking at him in three dimensions, that he appears to be under construction... waiting for Christmas when Santa will bring his arms and legs.

i'm really glad they went with a design based on the original sprite, as well. i'm really happy with this figure! i grabbed the thunder force ships that figma did a while back, too, and really enjoy those. never grabbed the iron fossil from darius, but i was never as into darius. r-type is one of my favorite games, ever, and probably the first shooter i actually ever beat my head against enough to get the seed for loving the genre really planted via that $10 copy of r-types sitting in the ps1 bargain bin in a wal-mart as a kid. dobkeratops has to be the single most iconic shooter boss, ever, too. i've always thought he was waiting on arms & legs, tbh, and feel like he's the biggest source of subtle comedic irony in the series - rebuilt and killed before being completed a second time in 2, on life support and falling apart in final... really only gets respect in delta, tbh!

amiami still has some for sale, i'd recommend scooping this up now before it becomes exorbitantly priced on the secondhand market, if it's something you're interested in https://www.amiami.com/eng/detail/?gcode=FIGURE-044547

[BIL]

tbh I've always been a contented spectator of figures and other tangibles - bit of a noob really. Thanks though, if I ever quit rooting about in GoodROMs for more carts to buy, that's the sort of thing I'd go for!



^ tribute to Dobby from no less than the nascent NAZCA CORP, yeaaa boyee!

Yeah his Delta incarnation is pretty terrifying and decidedly un-sympathetic, he comes out looking to eat your ship like a chicken wing. Particularly coming after a slow procession of obscenely bouncing, humping abominations and what can only be termed a wiener of mass destruction, and being a Shump Noob at the time, I was feeling pretty intimidated by it all (stage 5 is darkly phantasmal, stage 6 is blunt butchery) and then - "BWAAAAAAR" aww sheeit, there he is! It's that dude who was in all the magazines!

I could - and do! - go on at length about Delta's style, it's so masterful from start to finish. Wears its razor-sharp PS1 polys with bravado. One of those games I like to check back in on to make sure I'm not exaggerating its prowess. I'm not, was my jam while visiting my folks this summer, still rocks hard on OEM hardware.

[Steamflogger Boss]

overart's "cybernetic jumbo shrimp from the blackest bowels of hell" comes to mind), but his iconic arcade sprite was always nice n' biometallic-lookin'. Rad detailing on his circuitry! It only just hits me, looking at him in three dimensions, that he appears to be under construction... waiting for Christmas when Santa will bring his arms and legs.

i'm really glad they went with a design based on the original sprite, as well. i'm really happy with this figure! i grabbed the thunder force ships that figma did a while back, too, and really enjoy those. never grabbed the iron fossil from darius, but i was never as into darius. r-type is one of my favorite games, ever, and probably the first shooter i actually ever beat my head against enough to get the seed for loving the genre really planted via that $10 copy of r-types sitting in the ps1 bargain bin in a wal-mart as a kid. dobkeratops has to be the single most iconic shooter boss, ever, too. i've always thought he was waiting on arms & legs, tbh, and feel like he's the biggest source of subtle comedic irony in the series - rebuilt and killed before being completed a second time in 2, on life support and falling apart in final... really only gets respect in delta, tbh!

amiami still has some for sale, i'd recommend scooping this up now before it becomes exorbitantly priced on the secondhand market, if it's something you're interested in https://www.amiami.com/eng/detail/?gcode=FIGURE-044547

That's pretty neat and the price honestly isn't that bad but I just ordered a couple more used figures and shipping bled me out. >_>

[scrilla4rella]

So, I won't go into this, but once upon a time, there was a Japanese musician named Susumu Yokota that produced some amaze balls albums.

Susumu Yokota is one of my top 5 fav artists. I was stoked to see Leaf putting out some of his unreleased material, even if I was a wee bit disappointed that a lot of the tracks seem to be alternate takes from previously released music.

In the 2000s I was primarily into his ambient albums. Sakura, is one of my favorite records of all time. I managed to snag a copy on vinyl back in 2003 at Tower Records in Davis, California (I wish I could have shaken the hand of whoever was buying records for that store, and thank god DJ Shadow wasn’t into electronic music back then). It remains the most valuable record in my collection and yet I’d really like to see it get a repress. More people need to dig on this.

I’ve recently gotten into more of his dance floor-oriented material and surprise, surprise, it’s also brilliant. Ebi - Space Teddy EP is killer and the repress of his Acid Mt. Fuji record sounds amazing. Apparently the Germans really know how to cut a techno record…

https://midgar-records.bandcamp.com/alb ... remastered

Such a shame he died so young. I guess even his parents didn’t know he had such a following and were surprised when the records labels and fans started reaching out. Not telling your own parents about your acclaimed catalogue of music is the most Japanese thing ever, lol.

[werk91]

Apparently there was a recent vinyl repress of Susumu Yokota's Sakura by Leaf Label UK which is now nowhere to be found
Kinda gutted I never heard about it but such is life. Its been really good years for ambient music, we've had releases of albums by Midori Takada and Hiroshi Yoshimura which have never been outside the shores of Japan until now and they're well mastered, printed in enough quantities so they should be available for many years ahead.

And so I'm still on topic here's a few recent picks and a photo of my current Shooting Game Historica collection:

Samurai Champloo OST LP
Shooting Game Historica Vol. 4 + Bayonetta 2 Switch
Shooting Game Historica Collection

[GaijinPunch]

In the 2000s I was primarily into his ambient albums. Sakura, is one of my favorite records of all time.

It's God Tier, no question. I actually found two copies (on separate occasions) at Disk Union in Shibuya for a whopping 1000 yen each circa 2013 or so. Of course, snagged them. One has issues but is livable.

I’ve recently gotten into more of his dance floor-oriented material and surprise, surprise, it’s also brilliant. Ebi - Space Teddy EP is killer and the repress of his Acid Mt. Fuji record sounds amazing. Apparently the Germans really know how to cut a techno record…

Zen under his Ebi moniker is dope. A pristine copy popped up on YJ just a few days ago. I got outbid unfortunately. The price got up to about what people ask for on Discogs. You can hear it on Youtube though. I have the CD of Ten, which is equally amazing.

They broke the mold w/ this guy.

[scrilla4rella]

Apparently there was a recent vinyl repress of Susumu Yokota's Sakura by Leaf Label UK which is now nowhere to be found
Kinda gutted I never heard about it but such is life. Its been really good years for ambient music, we've had releases of albums by Midori Takada and Hiroshi Yoshimura which have never been outside the shores of Japan until now and they're well mastered, printed in enough quantities so they should be available for many years ahead.

That Yoshimura material is great. From what I've heard, Waseda University (Yoshimura's alma mater) was a real hotbed for experimental electronic music back in the early 80s.

Leaf records released a weird statement saying that they had cut ties with the pressing plant that handled the most recent reprint of Sakura because of some imperfections that the plant refused to acknowledge (So that may be one reason why they're hard to find). Leaf went onto apologize for the situation before adding something to the effect of, 'hey, at least your record with some surface noise is worth many times what you paid for it.'

Zen under his Ebi moniker is dope. A pristine copy popped up on YJ just a few days ago. I got outbid unfortunately. The price got up to about what people ask for on Discogs. You can hear it on Youtube though. I have the CD of Ten, which is equally amazing.

That's some killer Disk Union finds.

I thought the Space Teddy ep had some of the material from Zen but after checking track listings is seems they're different. Damn, looks like I need to dig though some shady blogs to find a DL. Someone has got to repress that album eventually.

[BrianC]

Mega Drive 6 button controller SJ-6000. I was surprised to find out it's the same size as the MD Mini controller. I took a picture of it next to the mini one. Funny thing is that the actual controller presses down in the middle like the retro bit controllers, but the MD Mini controller doesn't. I tested it with a few games and it works great, including the mode button.

Edit: The SJ-6000 also has a shorter cord than both the MD mini controller and the MK-1653.

[Sumez]

Went to the US last weekend, and were finally able to pick up this thing!

[GaijinPunch]

Went to the US last weekend, and were finally able to pick up this thing!

Did you buy a gun?

[Sumez]

Yeah, getting a gun and using that to rob someone of their Bubble Bobble PCB is a lot easier and cheaper than just buying the PCB on its own. Pretty neat trick.

[GaijinPunch]

Yeah, getting a gun and using that to rob someone of their Bubble Bobble PCB is a lot easier and cheaper than just buying the PCB on its own. Pretty neat trick.

It's the American way!

[BIL]

Went to the US last weekend, and were finally able to pick up this thing!

That's a momentous PCB Sumez, superb pickup! Even if you had to rob it from some poor fuck at gunpoint!

[Steamflogger Boss]

Ami Ami "B" condition is basically like new lol. These were quite cheap. Honestly this is a great series to be into, several more I want are cheap and sitting and I can pretty much buy them at my leisure.