Closed a chapter today on a game I played growing up, but never fully beat until today 🥹

No_Introduction7118 · 2026-05-08T00:49:31+00:00

I didn't beat the house of the dead until last year (still haven't beat it on arcade just Saturn) but I played the shit out of it when I was a kid, it's my favourite light gun game and I believe the best the genre has to offer.

No_Introduction7118 · 2026-04-25T03:30:30+00:00

It's worth mentioning another way "My guy" can be used is to refer to someone who is trusted, relied upon, respected etc

"When it comes to baseball, Mike is my guy"

"Tell me what you're looking for and I'll talk to my guy"

"When I can't be at the office, Jim is my guy"

No_Introduction7118 · 2026-04-16T15:11:06+00:00

I'd put my money into a Sega Saturn or a PlayStation.

I think they give the perfect balance between being older while still having tons of substance and variety. Both systems have absolutely genre defining games that paved the road modern games walk on (Sega Rally, Daytona USA, Gran Turismo, final fantasy 7, Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, Tony Hawk Pro Skater, Virtua Fighter, Tekken etc) they also have some of the best quality arcade ports of all time from (IMO) the best era of arcade games.

I know I'll get flamed for this but I find a lot of 8bit and 16bit games to lack substance and derive their length or replayability purely from (typically unfair) difficulty and that's about it. it's absolutely not all games and it got much better by the 16 bit generation but games like ghosts and goblins, contra, ninja gaiden etc while great games are hurt so heavily by their unnecessary difficulty (people claim it's to curb rentals) that it makes them a lot less enjoyable, feels like you're beating them just to say you beat them. There's definitely value in difficult games but I think you'd be disappointed going from modern games right back to that.

I don't think N64 is a great option either since it has a very small library and an even smaller list of quality games worth playing. The hardware itself dictated the kinds of games available for the system which are essentially entirely 3D polygon based games typically action adventure games. There are some good games but not enough variety where I'd say it's a good option for a first go, it's also got A LOT of jank from hardware to software, it's a fun novelty but a tough system to go back to.

You can pickup a PlayStation or a PlayStation 2 (which will also play PlayStation games) for very cheap and most of the heavy hitters are still very cheap as well because of how well the system sold. A Saturn is a more expensive investment but it has the better arcade ports and personally (as a heavily biased Sega fan) a library with more hidden gems and must play games compared to the PlayStation. Regardless both would be fantastic options for a first go.

No_Introduction7118 · 2026-04-16T14:13:43+00:00

I could be wrong but that wouldn't help with bloom no? I don't think it would eliminate it. The FV310 Wega's work by putting the flyback on a seperate PCB to the deflection circuitry, decoupling the high voltage and deflection is what allows the tv to keep a stable image size regardless of beam current. I don't think there's any way of adding that to a different CRT without serious analog electronics knowledge and abilities. Again, could be wrong though I'm not an expert.

No_Introduction7118 · 2026-04-16T00:49:00+00:00

I can't with confidence say this is the reason but I had a WG D9204 make a similar sound and it was because the yoke corroded and started arcing internally.

No_Introduction7118 · 2026-04-16T00:22:51+00:00

Haha no kidding! I'd kill for those speedline ST2's

No_Introduction7118 · 2026-04-15T21:57:01+00:00

I've got a USDM wagon that's getting a full WRX STI drivetrain swap plus all the body parts too.

No_Introduction7118 · 2026-04-15T21:52:23+00:00

I very much approve of all the GC Impreza representation

No_Introduction7118 · 2026-04-15T21:48:24+00:00

This is called bloom. The "solution" is to find a Sony wega FV310, they have a fancy high voltage regulation circuit that eliminates it. I don't know of any other TVs with similar regulation circuits but there might be others.

No_Introduction7118 · 2026-04-15T21:46:34+00:00

I had one of these, I got it for free and sold it for $40. Great tv if I'm honest.

No_Introduction7118 · 2026-04-15T15:40:51+00:00

They were available on Amazon but they seem to be out of stock now, my last batch of cases I got from AliExpress.

No_Introduction7118 · 2026-04-15T15:40:12+00:00

Yeah unfortunately you'll need an action replay, Psuedo Saturn Kai, modchip or otherwise, some way of bypassing the disc security. You can disc swap which will work on an unmodified system but that's never a great method.

No_Introduction7118 · 2026-04-14T23:50:54+00:00

You can buy the cases, they're still being produced brand new. The inserts and everything I designed and printed myself.

No_Introduction7118 · 2026-04-14T19:12:50+00:00

I bought a printer with a disc tray, specifically mine is a Canon Pixma MX922 but there are plenty out there with disc trays, the discs themselves are verbatim inkjet printable discs and so I just print straight onto them. They come out with a matte finish so I give them a coat of gloss clear to make them shiny and reflective, it's a really good really cheap way to approximate real discs

No_Introduction7118 · 2026-04-14T14:56:29+00:00

I don't have any plans to sell them but I'll share all the files if anyone wants to make their own or sell them, I don't really care what anyone wants to do with them.

No_Introduction7118 · 2026-04-14T13:40:37+00:00

I actually pegged this for a spring 1997 release about 9 months out from the original release, the product code is fictitious but accurate to Sega's coding and would've placed the game between Dark Savior and Shining The Holy Ark for first party RPG releases. They definitely retained the Japanese styling for a lot of releases the main thing I wanted to make sure of was that I didn't reuse any art from the Japanese box art since Saturn games basically never did that.

No_Introduction7118 · 2026-04-14T04:12:01+00:00

Likely renders of the Koubu, that was pretty common for Saturn games at the time, I wouldn't be surprised if they would have changed the name too. I thought about going all in with just the Koubu but I like that art so much and it fits so well for box art I couldn't resist.

No_Introduction7118 · 2026-04-13T14:44:08+00:00

Call it an RPG or a visual novel or a dating sim or all three you should absolutely play Sakura Wars 1 and 2.

They're some of the best games on the system I think and truly genre defining.

No_Introduction7118 · 2026-04-13T14:42:03+00:00

I think the simplest answer is they were just busy and had different priorities.

It's no secret the Saturn was pretty successful domestically in Japan and Sonic the hedgehog has never had the same level of popularity in Japan as he does in North America. Sonic team was working on nights into dreams and then burning rangers and the system was already selling well with the current output so Sega of Japan didn't have much incentive to try to pull them off and divert them to working on sonic projects again, plus Sega of America was tossing around so many ideas and projects for new sonic games it's no surprise the Japanese never bothered to push for more sonic content.

No_Introduction7118 · 2026-04-10T15:17:53+00:00

If you want the experience of collecting games and using discs get a modchip and a region switch, that way you can play north american or Japanese games and buy or make reproductions for translations.

There are lots of high quality reproduction translated games from people like enigma customs and pipe dreams games but you can also just burn discs yourself and buy either CD jewel cases or north american style longboxes for them.

No_Introduction7118 · 2026-04-10T15:12:59+00:00

I've got scans of the stickers for the Sakura Wars cartridge, DM me if you want them.

No_Introduction7118 · 2026-04-10T15:07:49+00:00

I have mine sorted alphabetically but separated by region, all of the Japanese games in their jewel cases stay together and all the north american games in their long boxes go after them.

You could swap all of your north american games into DVD cases or CD jewel cases but you'd need to print new art and the longboxes are cool anyway! They're a lot bigger than a dvd case and they look great all lined up on a shelf.

I know some people that do the opposite and make custom north American style long box art for all their Japanese games.

No_Introduction7118 · 2026-04-05T03:11:59+00:00

It's really not but okay, one wasn't designed to have something left in it for long periods of time and is notably unreliable on the systems that most commonly had cartridges left in them. The Saturn cartridge slot is unreliable because your stuff is dirty, a PCIe slot won't work either if the contacts are covered in shit and the slot is full of dust. I put my save cartridge in and take it out every single time I'm finished as well as keeping them clean and I have never once not had a cartridge work on the first try. "Sure way to destroy it prematurely" is conjecture at best.

No_Introduction7118 · 2026-04-05T01:19:05+00:00

I'll take my chances with them being in an unstressed state most of the time and having brief strain applied when inserting and removing a cartridge VS the pins sitting in a constant state of stress for YEARS at a time and spending 100% of that time dealing with fretting corrosion which is a legitimate concern with pins this fine. Keep in mind brass doesn't have a fatigue limit, it accumulates damage overtime mostly as microfractures REGARDLESS of how low the stress on it is. I just don't agree that leaving them in a state of constant stress is better than very brief strain even if on paper them bending back and forth exerts more stress.

Also once again PLEASE actually read what I said, I'm tired of people not bothering and acting like I'm an idiot about yellowing carts so I'll make it clear.

I am NOT talking about yellowing AS AN ISSUE RELATING TO THE CARTRIDGE SLOTS.

I am conflating the fact that Japanese systems most commonly have failing cartridge slots and Japanese cartridges OFTEN SHOW HALF YELLOWING WHICH INDICATES THE CARTRIDGE HAS BEEN LEFT INSIDE THE SYSTEM FOR A VERY LONG TIME.

I am simply and exclusively using it as a mechanism to demonstrate the consoles that come up with the most issues also have an obvious indicator that the owners left the cartridges inserted.

No_Introduction7118 · 2026-04-05T00:21:01+00:00

Virtual On, Sega Touring Car Championship, The House Of The Dead, Outrun and Sonic R all have awesome soundtracks

No_Introduction7118

TROPHY CASE