One of my absolute favorite game series of all time, is Road Rash.
I have played hours and hours of this game on various systems. My favorite of course being the Sega Genesis. I do want to collect all the versions of Road Rash out there, just to have them, even if I will never play them, like on the 3DO, who can afford one of those just to play Road Rash.
In the summer of 2014 I came across this copy for the original Nintendo Gameboy at Savers. The cartridge was in pretty good shape, and was $2.99. When we went to check out, the cashier moved the game over to a pile of books we were buying, and never rang it up. I wasn't going to say anything, not my fault if they don't do their job right. So I ended up getting it for free, which was good because once I got it home, it didn't work.
I tried it in my Gameboy Color
I tried it in my Gameboy Advance
I tried it in my Gameboy Advance SP
I tried it in my Gameboy Advance Player on the Gamecube
I tried it in my Super Gameboy
I took the cartridge apart, cleaned it really good, looked over the board, didn't see anything wrong. Oh well, will just have to keep an eye out for another copy I guess. Could even see if I could get one with a bad cart/label for cheap. At least it was free.
Fast forward to about 2 weeks ago, I was listening to a Sega Dreamcast Podcast, and they got off on a tangent, and someone had mentioned Road Rash on the Gameboy, and how it was like one of 10 original Gameboy games that will only work on the original Gameboy.
Now I have an original Gameboy, it was my sisters from back when, and I never did try the game in it.
And it worked!
I found it odd that I never thought to try it in the orignal Gameboy, but I always thought all original Gameboy games worked in the Gameboy Color and Advances, so didn't really think about it.
Listening to a Sega Dreamcast Podcast of all things, to find out about an original Gameboy Game, who woulda thunk it?
I have have never really bought or used Third Party controllers. I have just always preferred First Party or original manufacturer controllers and accessories for my systems. Generally OEM 1st Party Accessories are a better build quality, fit and work better and last longer.
Unintentionally however , I seem to have acquired a few from a company called Power A.
I am not the biggest fan of my PS3, I only bought it to play the exclusives, other wise it is pretty much just a Blu Ray/Netflix player in my kids room. 2-3 years ago I was talking to a guy at work, who mentioned his daughter preferred the Xbox 360 Controller over the PS3 (I had to agree) and he had found a controller for the PS3 designed and laid out like a 360 controller. Intrigued, I had to look this up and here is what I found:
This PS3 Controller by Power A
The buttons also light up, neat, but not necessary
It is a wired controller, which honestly is a nice fail safe, so a few years down the road I don't need to worry about an internal battery pack failing. I plugged in my new controller, and gave Killzone 3 a whirl. And I was impressed. It made playing on the PS3 not so bad. The Dual Shock is a fine controller, and I don't notice an issue playing PS1 or PS2 with one, it just didn't fit playing on the PS3.
Here it is with my favorite 360 controller and my PS3 Dual Shock
The rubberized grips are both nice but also at the same time, irritate my hands after extended use. It is not much of an issue really though, as I do not honestly play PS3 that often or long. Overall I recommend this for any PS3 player.
When I got my Forza Motorsport Edition Xbox One, it of course came with a controller. But that weekend the Wife and I went to pick up a few accessories. An extra controller for her (An Xbox Covert Forces Controller) a Play n Charge kit for my Forza controller and I saw this and got it for my daughter, who was 4 at the time (5 now) as it was smaller and would work better in her hands, she LOVES to play Minecraft. In the store I thought it was an actual Microsoft product, but once I got it home I realized that it wasn't. But after what she did to one my 360 controllers (it is strictly hers now) I wasn't going to complain, and I wanted her to have her own. Again, another Power A.
There was a Green One and Red One, She chose Red.
Here it is with my Forza Controller
She has been using it almost daily for over a year now and it still looks and works great. My only complaint is I wish it had a headset jack, then she could talk to her sister (who is 22) when they are playing Minecraft together. Again, I would recommend it.
My wifes mother and step father go to auctions and buy bid lots of things, and one night shortly after I got my Xbox One they came over and gave me an Xbox One Controller. They do not have an Xbox One and didn't need it. I was looking it over and found, again it was from Power A.
The Power A Spectra Xbox One Controller
With my Forza Controller
I also noticed on the back, some buttons.
Turns out after you plug it in, you can set the hand grips and center to light up. You can set it to be a solid color, or have it rotate through colors. The center and hand grips also can be set at different colors, or rotate through the colors separately. I usually set them to rotate separately.
Overall a good feeling controller, and actually is much better on the hands when playing Forza Motorsport for extended periods, as the Handgrips are thinner.
If anyone makes a quality, good looking & working Xbox One Controller in a Xbox 360 Controller shell, please Take My Money!
Another benefit, with it being wired all I have to do is plug it into my PC, when I need to play Xbox through Windows 10, if the kids are playing the Wii U or watching Netflix on the TV. Bonus!
My Complaints with this one are it is a little cheaper feeling than an official Microsoft contoller, and the Vibration motors are fairly noisy when playing Forza or Call of Duty. But, again these are just minor issues, and overall it is not a bad controller.
I will always prefer OEM 1st party controllers, but I would also if for some reason was a little strapped for cash, or was looking for something not provided by the Manufacturer (like the PS3 controller above), I would definitely give a look at Power A to see if they have anything that can full fill my needs.
Been a slow few weeks, but I haven't really been out much. Been working, and Playing Forza Motorsport, and Modern Warfare Remastered.
Had found out recently that Rockstar Energy Drink had some promos for Gears of War 4 (which I don't have, Yet, but will get eventually), and I really, really like my Rockstars (I drink 2 a day)
Here is my mini fridge after grocery shopping, Rockstar Juiced = Deliciousness!!
Here was the ad I saw.
Here are all 4 of my Gears of War Rockstar Promo cans, with my Gears of War Immulsion Energy Drink Can. The one on the Left was the hardest one to find, took 2 weeks to finally score at a Cub Foods. And the Gears of War Lapel Pin Set my Daughter picked up for me.
Now on to some Games!
Made a quick Goodwill pickup 2 Saturdays ago. A couple Original Playstation Games.
Air Combat, which I already have in the Long Box, but I like to get the Regular "Jewel Case" Releases to go along side them. And Battle Stations with Explosive 2 Player Action!
Complete, and in Good Shape!
And it wouldn't be a pickups blog if I didn't get something Sega related right? I have been looking for a Black VMU for my recently acquired Black Sega Sports controller. I was watching an eBay auction for one, that was listed as Untested to $5.60 shipped, and another new in box for $13 or 14.99 Shipped (I forget) and Sunday night I happen to hop on eBay, and found an auction for these:
A lot of 4: Red, Green, White and Black for $12.xx shipped.
I immediately clicked the Buy it Now. I am trying to get all the different colored controllers and matching VMU's, so this worked out. They all seem to work fine when I plugged them into a controller and turned on the Dreamcast, they displayed the logo when playing Demolition Racer.
I already had White & Blue VMU's, these are all in pretty good shape, except the Green One.
Lots of Stickers........
All Nice and Clean, and I even managed to keep the original battery sticker intact.
Now when I get a Green controller, I don't need to open my sealed one.
My Black Controller with a White VMU
With a proper Black VMU. Can't do much about the Rumble pack though, they only came Gray.
That's it for tonight, hoping to get a Dreamcast video shot and put up on my You Tube channel this weekend, we'll see.
