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jprime
Title: Ex-GameWinners
Joined: Jan 27 2008
Location: Southern Ontario
Posts: 5810
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Why is it that I'm only just now discovering that you put up a new article eight days ago? Furthermore, when you posted about it in the News section, First Post Guy did his thing six days ago, before I even knew said post existed, despite frequenting that section to this point. This is far from the first time this has happened, too.
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aeonic
Title: Sporadic Poster
Joined: Nov 19 2009
Location: Kissimmee, FL
Posts: 2747
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I'm calling witchcraft. Obviously Christine O'Donnell is trolling the boards.
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Who likes role-playing games? Me. Way too goddamn much. |
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Syd Lexia
Site Admin
Title: Pop Culture Junkie
Joined: Jul 30 2005
Location: Wakefield, MA
Posts: 24869
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UsaSatsui
Title: The White Rabbit
Joined: May 25 2008
Location: Hiding
Posts: 7565
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Syd is a master of backdating.
Also, for some reason, new stuff never shows up on his page until I refresh manually.
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jprime
Title: Ex-GameWinners
Joined: Jan 27 2008
Location: Southern Ontario
Posts: 5810
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Ditto. That's not how it used to be for me, though.
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UsaSatsui
Title: The White Rabbit
Joined: May 25 2008
Location: Hiding
Posts: 7565
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About this article, pretty good one. I owned a fair amount of these, actually. I actually owned a ROB but I didn't have any of the accessories that came with it (except the Gyro-spinners), so it was pretty useless. It worked, though.
I also had a Stack-up cart, but not the pieces. Fun fact about those adapters you mentioned in passing in the Ice Climber section: you could take the cartridge apart, pull them out, and use them as a Famicom-NES adapter. You can tell if your game has the adapter, it's a little bottom-heavy. I know my Stack-up copy had one.
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Shut up, Dorn
Title: White Chocolate
Joined: Jan 04 2008
Location: Grate Whyte Norf
Posts: 1179
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I just got it, today. And by it I mean the "Article solely designed to raise Shut Up, Dorn's excitement and then to let him down" article. I'm kidding. But IT BETTER BE LEADING UP TO SOMETHING! I NEED TO BASK!
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JRA
Joined: Sep 17 2007
Location: The Opium Trail
Posts: 3474
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Question: As long as you're able to keep supplying your install base with new games at short, regular intervals, a small launch selection isn't a problem. If you're not able to do this, you're fucked; the N64 is a great example of this.
So...does that mean that the N64 is a great example of doing it right or doing it wrong?
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There are a lot of what if's in life Donny. What if I hit you really hard in the face, knocked yo shit to the back of yo skull? What if I....had you girl gargle my nuts? The fact remains, you are a fuckin mutant. |
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Syd Lexia
Site Admin
Title: Pop Culture Junkie
Joined: Jul 30 2005
Location: Wakefield, MA
Posts: 24869
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N64 got it wrong. As we've been over in the past, it would be damn near impossible to do a Top 100 N64 list.
The N64 had a great launch propelled almost entirely by Mario 64, then failed to keep up the momentum and fell apart. It wasn't necessarily Nintendo's fault, or rather Nintendo's IMMEDIATE fault, but it's what happened.
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Syd Lexia
Site Admin
Title: Pop Culture Junkie
Joined: Jul 30 2005
Location: Wakefield, MA
Posts: 24869
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UsaSatsui wrote: |
About this article, pretty good one. I owned a fair amount of these, actually. I actually owned a ROB but I didn't have any of the accessories that came with it (except the Gyro-spinners), so it was pretty useless. It worked, though.
I also had a Stack-up cart, but not the pieces. Fun fact about those adapters you mentioned in passing in the Ice Climber section: you could take the cartridge apart, pull them out, and use them as a Famicom-NES adapter. You can tell if your game has the adapter, it's a little bottom-heavy. I know my Stack-up copy had one. |
I'm pretty sure that all copies of Stack-Up had the adapter and most copies of Gyromite did as well. Both games have title screens that display their original names, Robot Block and Robot Gyro.
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UsaSatsui
Title: The White Rabbit
Joined: May 25 2008
Location: Hiding
Posts: 7565
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18 games is a pretty huge launch, actually.
Syd Lexia wrote: |
UsaSatsui wrote: |
About this article, pretty good one. I owned a fair amount of these, actually. I actually owned a ROB but I didn't have any of the accessories that came with it (except the Gyro-spinners), so it was pretty useless. It worked, though.
I also had a Stack-up cart, but not the pieces. Fun fact about those adapters you mentioned in passing in the Ice Climber section: you could take the cartridge apart, pull them out, and use them as a Famicom-NES adapter. You can tell if your game has the adapter, it's a little bottom-heavy. I know my Stack-up copy had one. |
I'm pretty sure that all copies of Stack-Up had the adapter and most copies of Gyromite did as well. Both games have title screens that display their original names, Robot Block and Robot Gyro. |
Not all copies of Gyromite had it. Mine didn't.
Here's a very, very old page with some details.
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JRA
Joined: Sep 17 2007
Location: The Opium Trail
Posts: 3474
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What's the story behind the rumor that the NES only sold a lot of copies because of ROB at first, but then most people actually played the games and ROB was a bust? Is that true or not?
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There are a lot of what if's in life Donny. What if I hit you really hard in the face, knocked yo shit to the back of yo skull? What if I....had you girl gargle my nuts? The fact remains, you are a fuckin mutant. |
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UsaSatsui
Title: The White Rabbit
Joined: May 25 2008
Location: Hiding
Posts: 7565
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JRA wrote: |
What's the story behind the rumor that the NES only sold a lot of copies because of ROB at first, but then most people actually played the games and ROB was a bust? Is that true or not? |
Slightly incorrect.
ROB was mostly a Trojan horse, they didn't have any plans to make any more ROB games, and it was pretty much a bust from the get-go. The video game market was dead in 1985 and while Nintendo believed the NES would sell, retailers wanted no part of it. ROB was part of the marketing, so they could say "This isn't a Video Game, it's a Robot Game!". Duck Hunt as the other pack-in was also part of this strategy ("It's a Gun Game!"), as was the unique design and calling it an "Entertainment System".
Once they got the foot in the door and proved there was still a market for video games, they dumped the ROB gimmick.
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Drew Linky
Wizard
Joined: Jun 12 2009
Posts: 4209
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I liked it. Never played a majority of those games, though.
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https://discord.gg/homestuck is where you can find me literally 99% of the time. Stop on by if you feel like it, we're a nice crowd. |
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Syd Lexia
Site Admin
Title: Pop Culture Junkie
Joined: Jul 30 2005
Location: Wakefield, MA
Posts: 24869
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I think if the robot had been well-received in America, it would have gotten more games.
One interesting thing: I remember SMB3 selling for either 44.99 or 49.99. I have an old catalog from shortly after the launch. The launch games retailed for 29.99, except Stack-Up, which was 34.99. Once they got their foot in the door, they jacked up the prices.
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Hacker
Banned
Joined: Sep 13 2008
Posts: 3129
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Syd Lexia
Site Admin
Title: Pop Culture Junkie
Joined: Jul 30 2005
Location: Wakefield, MA
Posts: 24869
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I can't believe it took 8 days for someone to find that!
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JRA
Joined: Sep 17 2007
Location: The Opium Trail
Posts: 3474
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UsaSatsui wrote: |
JRA wrote: |
What's the story behind the rumor that the NES only sold a lot of copies because of ROB at first, but then most people actually played the games and ROB was a bust? Is that true or not? |
Slightly incorrect.
ROB was mostly a Trojan horse, they didn't have any plans to make any more ROB games, and it was pretty much a bust from the get-go. The video game market was dead in 1985 and while Nintendo believed the NES would sell, retailers wanted no part of it. ROB was part of the marketing, so they could say "This isn't a Video Game, it's a Robot Game!". Duck Hunt as the other pack-in was also part of this strategy ("It's a Gun Game!"), as was the unique design and calling it an "Entertainment System".
Once they got the foot in the door and proved there was still a market for video games, they dumped the ROB gimmick. |
I think Trojan horse was more along the lines of what I was thinking of.
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There are a lot of what if's in life Donny. What if I hit you really hard in the face, knocked yo shit to the back of yo skull? What if I....had you girl gargle my nuts? The fact remains, you are a fuckin mutant. |
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Hacker
Banned
Joined: Sep 13 2008
Posts: 3129
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Syd Lexia wrote: |
I can't believe it took 8 days for someone to find that! |
The site seems a bit slow lately :/
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UsaSatsui
Title: The White Rabbit
Joined: May 25 2008
Location: Hiding
Posts: 7565
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Syd Lexia wrote: |
I think if the robot had been well-received in America, it would have gotten more games.
One interesting thing: I remember SMB3 selling for either 44.99 or 49.99. I have an old catalog from shortly after the launch. The launch games retailed for 29.99, except Stack-Up, which was 34.99. Once they got their foot in the door, they jacked up the prices. |
Possibly, but I remember reading that by the time it hit US shelves, it was already a flop in Japan, and no further development was planned for it.
Of course they jacked up the price (supply and demand, naturally, and NES games were in short supply for a while), but also remember that later games were more complicated to make and used more chips. Also, catalogs usually have cheaper prices.
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GPFontaine
Joined: Dec 06 2007
Location: Connecticut
Posts: 11244
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I remember being so happy when I got my NES and it had Mario/Duckhunt instead of the fucking ROB.
Anyone who played Gyromite and then Mario instantly knew that the games were on totally different levels as far as quality goes.
Syd, I feel like you were pretty damn harsh on Baseball. Back when it originally came out, it was a ton of fun and as far as I was aware, it was pretty unique. It wasn't like you could play another Baseball game at the time for some other system.
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Syd Lexia
Site Admin
Title: Pop Culture Junkie
Joined: Jul 30 2005
Location: Wakefield, MA
Posts: 24869
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Blackout
Title: Captain Oblivious
Joined: Sep 01 2007
Location: That Rainy State
Posts: 10376
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There's some grammar that is wonky in the article, but for the life of me I can't remember what it is. I'll go take another look.
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GPFontaine
Joined: Dec 06 2007
Location: Connecticut
Posts: 11244
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jprime
Title: Ex-GameWinners
Joined: Jan 27 2008
Location: Southern Ontario
Posts: 5810
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Quote: |
Whereas Hogan's Alley let you shoot at cardboard cut-outs of gangsters and women, this game put you in the Old West and let you shoot at bank robbers, livestock rapists, and other assorted outlaws. |
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