SoulBlazer

Came across this article on Yahoo today that they re-posted from Digital Trends. It's very well written and makes some very good arguments as to why it's a good thing we're going to be waiting a over a year for another console from MS or Sony:

http://news.yahoo.co...BHRlc3QD;_ylv=3

So today I was talking to a co-worker during lunch about old school space shooters, and the Gradius series came up. Gradius 3 is still my fav in this series, and I played the game all the time on the SNES. One one of the hardest, but most fun (and some of the best music!) was the fire stage:



Ah, my co-worker said, you never played the hell that was the original arcade port! He proceeded to find it for me on YouTube:



All I can say after watching that is: Oh my *beep*ing God!

As the comments indicate of the guy who was playing this:

"All right people, hell has begun. There will be no mercy.

Fire Stage is VERY difficult. Unlike on the SNES version, the smallest fireballs cannot be destroyed. This makes it insanely hard just to survive. If you die, you're out. If I made it seem easy, practice goes a LOOONG way."

Easy? I think I could probaly play that version 300 times and not make it through the fire stage!

So, that got me thinking -- which console vs arcade versions do you have experience with, and which do you prefer? Which version is harder or easier and what do you like better? Do you hate the fact the console port often got 'toned down' in difficulty, or prefer the console port be more 'ramped up' in kicking your ass?

When I was a kid in the 80's, I was a big fan of the Choose Your Own Adventure book series. For those of you who have not had the chance to read one, it was basicaly a book with a adventure in which you played yourself and got to decide how the story went, by flipping to certain pages when persented with a choice. There were many other copy cats on this formula over the years -- some quite good -- but this was the original.

As a kid also with very limited income, I also recall seeing advertised in the back of some of the books two Choose Your Own Adventure computer games. These were 'new and original' games not based on any of the existing books, but designed to play like one. They were available for the Commodore 64 and Apple II, with a list price of (I believe) $35 each. That was more then I could afford in the day.

Over the years, I've tried to find copies of these games to try them out with no success. Never seen them online, nor talked to anyone who has played them. I'm starting to wonder they never got released. No clue who was designing or publishing them either.

Does anyone have any info?

I know this is a older game, but a friend I was talking to last night about a old game that we both mutaly love, Star Control II, was saying how many things that Mass Effect has in common to SC2 or were directly inspired by it. I passed this game up when it first came out, but that got my attention.

What formats is the game available for and does it have any replay value? Does anyone on here have the game and can say if they directly like it or not?

I've heard it's a RPG game but not in the the 'old school' style. I really don't know much about this one since, like I said, I kind of missed it when it came out. Yes, I know there is YouTube and reviews but I'd rather get honest and fair reviews from people like yourselfs.

An unexpected bill is causing me to sell a XBox Live Points card that I recently bought. The card is for 1600 points and has a list price of $20.

If you'd like it, please contact me here or send me a PM. Once you PayPal me the money I'll send you the code so you can use it right away.

Trusted seller here, please check my feedback.

Thanks!