meppi

That being said, the PS3 has no games whatsoever and the 360 breaks down after 3.5 minutes of play.

For my next scan I'm returning to the Sega Saturn set. Its actually fun to go back to a magazine which requires very little editing relatively speaking. Well at least compared to the last one above. So you can expect this one to pop up in the next couple of days. Official Sega Saturn Magazine 018 - apr 1997 (UK)

Oh and Wildlele, I will need your Friend Code as well if you want to play. If you don't want to post it on here, simply send me a pm if you're up for a race or 2-3

It's that time of the month again. Numbers for hardware and software sales in the US for March: Industry Sales Mar-07 Mar-08 CHG Total Video Games $1.1B $1.7B 57% Video Games Hardware $377.9M $551.3M 46% Video Games Software $579.1M $945.6M 63% Video Game Accessories $139.5M $220M 58% HW Sales Hardware Mar-08 Wii 721K Nintendo DS 698K PlayStation Portable 297K Xbox 360 262K PlayStation 3 257K PlayStation 2 216K SW Sales Top-Selling VG Software - March 2008 Platform Title Publisher Release Date March Units WII SUPER SMASH BROS: BRAWL NINTENDO OF AMERICA Mar-08 2.7M 360 *TOM CLANCY'S RAINBOW SIX: VEGAS 2 UBISOFT Mar-08 752.3K 360 ARMY OF TWO ELECTRONIC ARTS Mar-08 606.1K WII PLAY W/ REMOTE NINTENDO OF AMERICA Feb-07 409.8K PSP GOD OF WAR: CHAINS OF OLYMPUS SONY Mar-08 340.5K PSP CRISIS CORE: FINAL FANTASY VII SQUARE ENIX INC Mar-08 301.6K WII GUITAR HERO III: LEGENDS OF ROCK ACTIVISION Oct-07 264.1K 360 MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL 2K8 TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE Mar-08 237.1K 360 *CALL OF DUTY 4: MODERN WARFARE ACTIVISION Nov-07 237K PS3 ARMY OF TWO ELECTRONIC ARTS Mar-08 224.9K Just for fun the Japanese Sales numbers for the week Mario Kart came out. (last week) Hardware - This Week | Last Week | YTD | LTD 1. PSP - 85,721 | 120,964 | 1,315,501 | 8,980,578 2. NDS - 47,158 | 55,190 | 1,152,496 | 22,325,546 3. WII - 46,296 | 44,618 | 1,146,357 | 5,762,516 4. PS3 - 8,232 | 11,303 | 366,125 | 2,007,796 5. PS2 - 6,834 | 10,423 | 184,353 | 21,111,393 6. 360 - 1,147 | 1,452 | 49,645 | 556,985 01./00. [WII] Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo) - 593,576 / NEW 02./01. [PSP] Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (Capcom) - 221,781 / 1,590,000 03./02. [PS2] Musou Orochi: The Evil King Returns (Koei) - 55,506 / 283,000 04./07. [WII] Wii Fit (Nintendo) - 31,325 / 1,865,000 05./06. [NDS] Pokémon Ranger: Batonnage (Pokémon) - 30,159 / 436,000 06./08. [NDS] Tottado! Yowiko's Deserted Island Life (Bandai-Namco) - 26,109 / 65,000 07./04. [PS2] Pro Baseball Spirits 5 (Konami) - 21,510 / 102,000 08./03. [PSP] Star Ocean 2: Second Evolution (Square-Enix) - 17,591 / 108,000 09./10. [WII] Deca Sporta (Hudson) - 17,171 / 133,000 10./09. [WII] Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Nintendo) - 14,297 / 1,563,000

Just a heads up that the first episode of the new "season" of RetroCore can now be downloaded over at Segagadomain.

Well I thought I heard that the game was being handled by the same team that did the DS version, so I knew it would be great. But then all kinds of disinformation started being spread around, by some sources like IGN actually, where Matt Cassimasima said the game was handed of to a second rate developer and not being done by Nintendo internally. Other crap was spewed about this game catering purely to the Wii Fit crowd and that all traces of hardcore Mario Kart games of the past had been erased and dumbed down to be the most casual game as possible. Suffice to say, all of that turned out to be the biggest pile of #$à@&. The game has indeed been made by Hideki Konno's team as can be seen in this Iwata Asks interview. Pretty much the father of Super Mario Kart. As his pedigree includes games like Super Mario Kart, Mario KArt 64,Super Mario World, F-Zero X, Yoshi's Island, Wind Waker and of course Mario Kart DS which went back to it's roots. So its shouldn't be surprising that it turned out so incredibly well. 2750-1228-5948 Just don't let my ugly mug put you off.

For the past 3 days I've been totally addicted to this game. Been getting out of bed early just to get a couple extra hours playtime in. And let me tell you, for me, that's extremely unusual. The more I play, the more I'm falling in love with just about everything in the game. (Still haven't touched the Battle mode though) The power sliding feels so perfect it's hard to put into words. The wheel is perfect for this game. At first I thought the new tracks were pretty good and some were well thought out, but after playing the game for about 24 hours total in not even 3 days time, I'm starting to see just how well thought out every circuit actually is. Take the Bowser Castle for instance, which is quite a challenge at first, I simply looooooooooooooooooove the track now, and for some strange reason almost always seem to win on it lately. The tracks just flow incredibly well once you start knowing your way around them well enough. And the parts that made you go "what the hell" at first just put a big smile on your face later on, when you drift through them pixel perfectly without breaking a sweat even though you know those are some nasty turns and bumps you're flying across and you can't afford to make the slightest mistake. For everyone who's on the fence or are thinking that IGN's words or EDGE's review make the game sound like shit, just ignore all that. Try it out for yourself and don't be put off by the initial learning curve that you will go though when you're getting used to the wheel. This is no Double Dash part 2, but instead this is the game which DS Mario Kart would be when put on a console. And many people call that one the best in the series. Sure it's way too soon to say anything like this about the Wii game just yet, but I would definitely not be surprised when in a couple of months time, the general consensus would be that this is the best Mario Kart game in the series up until this day.

True, true...

With the difference that we won't ever scan nor distribute magazines in any shape or form that might harm the publishers or editors which make them. As I've said a long time ago, I'm probably in the minority one here when it comes to dealing with emulating older software and such, but up to some point I can understand that. Pirating brand new Wii, PSP, DS, PS3 or 360 games or whatever is something that harms the industry much more than people realize or even care about. The reason why I still buy NeoGeo games among others on VC, even tough I already bought them on the original system years back is just to support the developers, so that they might be able to make more games in the same manner. And it does work. Just look at how Hudson is developing many games from their back catalogue after they saw how VC games were still in high demand. Just look at Start Soldier R as one of the examples.

Wrote this up this evening after playing since early in the morning: "I still haven't touched the battle besides one try, but I'm not too bothered really as I still get my battle mode fix on the DS every single day during lunch break and I don't see that changing anytime soon. I do understand why some people hate the wheel though, at least when they first try it. It's not that easy to pick the game up where you left off like you could do with the former ones. Perhaps they should just try to understand that they won't master the game from the get go, and instead will have to adjust to the new way of controlling. It takes a bit of time, but I dont even want to try the GC or CC for this game now. It's just more fun this way, and I'm doing pretty damn good.... sometimes. ;P Online play is extremely satisfying and I haven't come across anything that bothers me. Quick, painless and oh so addictive. I really should go back to the GP mode and Time Trials to unlock everything. You can clearly see that this is indeed the continuation of Mario Kart DS and not Double Dash. I was sceptical about the trick system at first, but for some weird, unexplainable reason it actually works perfectly the way they have included it. It adds a lot of strategy to the game as well. Just try some tricks on the handrails at the mall. I love some of the new courses and like the way the old ones have been given a tiny update. Nothing too big so that it ruins the original layouts, yet some things which can be usend in such a way that you can tackle a whole part of the track in a very different way. One thing I'm praying for is downloadable content for this game. I would absolutely love to be able to download more classical tracks. I don't care how much they would cost, just give me Super Mario Kart pack, Mario Kart 64 pack and a Super Circuit Pack. CG and DS packs would be welcome too of course, but that might not be very realistic as the DS game still sells quite a few copies and might even get a bit of a boost due to this one." It's now 3 past 12 midnight local time and I'm just done playing for today. The last time this happened to me was with Mario Kart DS. Needless to say, I love the game. Still don't know how Battle mode will turn out as I'm too bussy playing GP and online VS. Can't wait to play some more tomorrow. If anyone want to know something, just ask.

Yeah, they wouldn't die out so soon, but just look at what happened to Sega. I know apples and oranges, but still. I honestly believe that if every single person that downloaded Dreamcast games back in the day had bought official games we would still be getting the same high quality, coupled with high volume of games out of Sega instead of what's left of them now. Flashed of brilliance hidden away under a thick fog of mediocre and pure awefull products. :(

Because you would like to see another game just as good as this one??? If everyone starts doing this, before you know it all that we will be getting are those cheap Brain Training games and such, since those are actually still selling...

Tried to get the game yesterday but 3 shops out of the 4 I went to said the game wasn't in yet, (yeah right ) and the last one showed me a box full of Mario Kart packs but said they couldn't sell them until Friday. So since the game comes out tomorrow and we appearantly are able to import out actual Wii friends codes into Mario Kart here's mine: *deleted* If anyone is in the mood for some multiplayer post yours as well. *Edit* The friends codes does seem to be different so here's mine for Mario Kart: 2750-1228-5948

I always go for the dark skin as well. It's much nicer on the eyes reading white text on a black page then vice versa. I really wish they had a black, or at least a dark coloured version of this one: http://www.transversestyles.com/ipb/?skinid=171 The style is incredible but will no doubt wear my peepers out before too long. :pinch: Lavablue is quite nice as well but it's missing something and I can't put my finger on what it is exactly. So in the end I'd probably say your original Multitude choice is the best all around. Really like the fixed version. Too bad they don't let you have the ability to change the green into something like blue or perhaps even red, that would look very sweet.

My most difficult scan to this day. Hopefully the next one will a bit easier. Even though it was a hard project, I enjoyed working on it simply because almost every page has a truely classic game on it. Anyway, I'm very happy how it turned out in the end, so I hope you all will be pleased with it as well. Enjoy! Mean Machines 001 - oct 1990 (UK)

Couldn't help myself. :wink: Issue 1, 2 and 3 of the Official Sega Magazine.

Just about to start watching the first episode of the final season of Battlestar Gallactica. :happy: And also waiting for Lost to return in a couple weeks.

What I forgot to mention, when you're having trouble with the spine side of the scans you can also try this trick. Open the magazine at around the middle page or so, turn it face down so that the cover and back are facing you. Put it on a table or stable object and gently but firmly start pressing the spine downwards all the way. This won't ruin the magazine itself, not even the spine. The only thing it does is make it a bit looser, which shouldn't be a problem at all. The open the magazine at page 10 or so turn it over and do it again. Nice and steady from top to bottom. Repeat if necessary. When you now start to scan your first pages you'll notice that your scan alongside the spine will be much nicer. Combine this with putting another magazine on top of the part you're scanning and it should look very goo, with perhaps only minor editing necessary or even none. I'm using a flatbed as well, without debinding if at all possible, and I'd say I can scan about 100 pages in 2 hours time with my Canoscan 70, including renaming and saving the pages. Unless I need to scan the bottom strips as well, if the magazine is a tad too tall, then I'd say 3 hours. If certain pages still don't look right at the spine, you can always scan the magazine halfway, with the spine in the middle and edit both parts together. But this does take quite a bit more work. The result does look just about perfect though.

I'm working on putting a complete scanning, editing and releasing guide together but it's going a bit slow as I have lots of other stuff on my plate right now. I did come across the "warped pages" problem with my Maximum scans and sadly enough the only way I could get them scanned right was to debind them. You can try to not put the pages all the way into the corner of the scanner, but only have them aligned on the top and stay a milliliter or 2 away from the side. That might help. For the pages on the thin side of the magazine, the best you can do is to take another magazine of roughly the same thickness and size and put it on top of the page you're trying to scan. That way your pages which are on the thick side of the magazines won't be the only one that look great, while the others have that fuzzy effect on the spine side. Also putting some pressure on top of the scanning lid, but not too much helps a lot. In the editing department, it's indeed best to keep the files in their original state as long as they are being edited, and only when they are done they should be resized to a width of 1280 pixels and saved as a JPG. I would certainly keep the DPI at 300 and save at a JPG quality of 90, otherwise all your hard work in trying to keep the quality of your scans as high as possible are diminished greatly by one simple move. Also what I found out is that for rotating slanted pages your better of using GIMP which is a free program. Or perhaps Photoshop ( haven't tried this one myself) The using Photostudio I can only turn the pages 1 degree at a time, which imply isn't precise enough, and I noticed that using Irfanview and such tend to make the page a bit blurry for some reason.

Great topic! I don't have a digital camera yet, but I do have a scanner. :wink: My last retro game purchases were these beauties: De La Jet Set Radio (pretty hard to come by actually) Blast Dozer

Ah, I don't have any experience with that myself. But I read somewhere that only the latest DCs had some kind of protection built in. So for the majority of them it wouldn't be any problem.

Wow, have you played the DS game??? Going by the GC game only, I could understand what you're coming from though.

Hmm, what do you mean by version actually?

Very easy one for me, and not just because I only own a Wii. :tongue: I never liked any of the GTA games after 2. For some reason they just bore me to death. I've bought Vice City and San Andreas myself and have played GTA3 by borrowing it from a friend, but despite the obvious improvements the series has gone through, it simply leaves me indifferent. I don't hate the game or anything, I just can't seem to get any enjoyment out of it. Not my genre I guess...