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Virtually Overlooked Week: JC's picks
Virtually Overlooked has taken over Wii Fanboy! All this week, members of the staff will be outlining their personal picks for future Virtual Console releases.Everyone can guess how my childhood was spent, since I talk about old games constantly. So, instead of relating a nostalgic anecdote for you, I'm going to use this intro space to tell you about the last week or so.When I'm not personally advancing the cause of random old games on next-generation consoles, I'm a full-time grad student at the University of North Texas, working on a master's degree in library science. From last Thursday until yesterday, I was in the midst of my capstone-- a seven-day marathon paper-writing session meant to be the final test of my suitability as a librarian. My wife and I were also preparing to move from Texas to Washington, which happened this Saturday. Add my regular coursework and job responsibilities to that, and, as you can imagine, I've been a complete wreck. My Fanboy colleagues are probably rolling their eyes right now as I complain again about my workload, but I feel like it was a pretty significant experience, one I hope never to repeat.I am now safely ensconced in a Washingtonian apartment, and I turned in my last essay in the early hours of Thursday morning. Getting a chance to write about a bunch of old games is like a vacation. I've been looking forward to this all week.Since this is a VO special week, I'm taking the opportunity to talk about more mainstream games than I usually cover. So there's a better chance that you guys have played this stuff, and we can all share in some retro-euphoria.
1UP's Retronauts go to Japan for NES classics and profit
We used to import games from Japan through shady specialty shops and mailing lists; creepy retail ads from the backs of magazines pleading for your American dollars. With the rise of the internet, it became a more legitimate form of shopping. And now that we're all old and bitter we just skip all that rubbish and go directly to Japan for our ancient video games.Or at least that's what 1UP's Jeremy Parrish and Game|Life's Chris Kohler do. For a rare glimpse of a weeaboo in its natural environment, 1UP's on-going video series of Retronauts takes us to Tokyo's Akihabara district for some vintage video game shopping. The duo try to land some choice picks to feed to the eBay masses while musing over just why a copy of the original Super Mario Bros costs so much over there. Special guest appearances by Hot Slots and the Dragon Warrior III original soundtrack ... on vinyl.
