That just triggered my memory of hunting all summer long before The Big Vacation, looking everywhere and anywhere for a Sega Nomad. No luck, terrible ride, would not buy again. Sure, I'd have been fortunate if the plastic brick didn't die within the span of nineteen minutes, but it would've been a GET! all the same.
So, Playstation, aka The PSX (before they went and manufactured the actual damned PSX).
Even though I had been planning to purchase one since '93, Nintendo Power's seduction rays sustained just long enough to hold out until summer '98.
One morning I awoke hungering to rip the undead to bits. A universal desire, I'm sure. Dropped by some Big Box store for an affordable Dual Shock w/ Mal Residente Dos, only forgetting that this was the same day of yet another Big Vacation. The still boxed system stayed behind, leaving my frame in jitters, longing to return to that of which I had no urgent desire for in the past five years beforehand.
After learning how to stop worrying and love the tank, I moved onto what else I had chosen to miss out on.
Wild Arms lasted into the first random battle, and then it was back into the rental case. A grand trick of hype and lacking selection, nothing more. Haven't experienced any others in the series since, but WA3 had a spunky enough style about itself to possibly checkout, maybe, yes?
Final Fantasy The Seventh I actually obtained on launch day... For the PC. It was likely that excruciating toll on the hardware that subconsciously justified a PSX purchase not a month later. Once I had listened to the Playstation internal MIDI as compared to the Yamaha drivers Eidos packed into their abortion, the wish to kick myself in the face was never greater. No complaints on Materia, as there was only so much to go around.
Body Builder Rape couldn't have been that much of an untapped market. Afterall, Sharkey's brother was buying systems for just that purpose.
Parappa is interesting just for the fact that he was the true mascot of Sony Japan, not Crash Bandihooha. Crash had a following, but Parappa was the one showing up in McDonald's commercials.
Oh, and here is the advertisement that had been alluded to:
Controversial not for the sexual subject matter, but because the recipient was Asian. Still a step above the marketing gauntlet of kids staring downward, their faces transfixed in awe, lit only by the glow of their console television.
For the PC, we were all over the map. Ultima Online, being as graphically impressive as J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings Volume 1 on the SNES (and just as arcane), didn't capture my attention (unlike my pals, who ran that sucker on Windows 3.1). While Blade Runner sat upon the shelves gathering dust, all eyes were directed toward Quake II's release date. Once the shareware dropped, the vidja card race lifted off like a jackrabbit on propulsion fuel.
To conclude, XBLA is also a nice future venue for the hardc0r3, Game Center CX &
Minami-ke were on the same wavelength, some arcade compilations from
after 1981 would be grand, and Kohler is super past dead for mentioning PartnerNet, but his hum of the Retronauts theme song will live on through my ring tone.
Any plans on more Bionic Commando retro, maybe bringing up other Capcom (Disney!) platformers?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqECtTE4Opk