After my first experience at Classic Game Junkies, I had to go back. They’re right next to a pizza place and the place I get my birdseed, not to mention 2 minutes from work (luckily in the other direction). So I will be back fairly often. I perused there very limited selection of Dreamcast Games, and found two that I wanted, Sonic Adventure and Shenmue, but they were both higher then I wanted to spend, not that they were overpriced. I got 3 games: Zoop, Eternal Champions (with box and instructions), and 4 in 1 Funpak, for the Genesis, Genesis and Game Boy respectfully. Unfortunately this haul was not nearly as good as the last, but for unusual reasons. I’m not too upset about it thought, because the hobby is both collecting and playing retro games, in time I want to amass a vast (if not complete) Genesis and Gameboy collection, not to mention the other systems, so it’s not like I’ll be returning them.

Zoop – this game is advertised as a “puzzle game” but it is almost half a puzzle game and half an Avant-Garde space shooter. The game seems to be much more mature then the typical video game. At the beginning there is a blue screen with copyright legalese written on it that looks like something you might read on a VCR options menu. The BGM is a more Jazzy number then you typically hear in a video game (I don’t like Jazz, but this is not the biggest problem with the game). The game has simple selection screens that are reminiscent of computer games of that era as opposed to consul games. For me the game is virtually unplayable, but that may not be the case for you. You shoot objects of different colors (each object has only 1 color) your shooter or space ship has to match the color of the object your shooting to make it disappear, if it is a different color then your space ship changes to that color and the object changes to color your space ship was. Does that sound complicated to you? Maybe, maybe not. Well for me, being color blind, I can only keep a game going for, at best 2 minutes. I don’t know how long normal people can go, but I would assume it would be longer. I’m actually surprised I can last as long as I did, since I’m not 100% colorblind I can match some of the things some of the time, but I can’t last for very long.

Eternal Champions – I got this game for 3 reasons: it came in a box, it was well within my price range, and I remembered it from when it was new. I remembered it because I used to think that the one guy on the cover was the cowardly lion from the wizard of oz, who had apparently gotten braver and more viscous and armed with a morning star, and I also remembered that it was one of the first games that “required” a 6 button controller. I checked the back of the box before buying it and it said “six button controller recommended.” Now here’s the kicker, I have a six button controller somewhere, a third party clear controller with turbo switches on it, but I can’t seem to find it at the moment. When I do I will probably put this game through the 8 hour test, because it does look promising, and if I can’t find the controller I’ll pick up one from the junkies. Without the six buttons you have to use the start button to switch between punch and kick attacks, a little yin-yang icon next to your health bar moves up or down to tell you which way your oriented. The controls seem difficult but learnable, the opponent can seem to block most of your moves, but I have no idea how to guard myself. Aside from the controller problem, there is another problem where it won’t let you get out of the tournament mode, you lose and it keeps resetting your first match, no game over, continue count down, etc. so get use to hitting that reset button. There is a promising story line and 9 unique and interesting fighters to choose from, all with much different histories and background. The overall story tells you they all died too early in one way or another and they have been brought to this eternal championship to fight their way to the top and to get one more shot at life if they win. Sounds good, I’m not sure why this series never caught on. I will give it more time in the future I’m sure, probably the best of the 3 games I got.

4 in 1 Funpak – it might not be the best game I’ve ever played but since it was out of the dolor bin I can’t complain. This has 4 different board games in it: Checkers, Backgammon, Reversi, and (my all-time favorite) Chess. The Chess game gives you 6 levels of opponent difficulty, and I devastated the computer on both level 1 and level 3. The only problem with the chess game is the think time, the computer takes forever, but I can’t be too critical, I don’t know how chess games work from the computers end. It was getting too late to finish the second game but I had taken way to much material from the computer for it to have a chance. I lost the checkers game, I’ve never been too good at it, but maybe I should play it more often, and get better. I have checkers app on my phone, to try and improve. I tried playing the Backgammon game but I don’t remember how to play the game, so I gave up quickly. Reversei I’ve never played before, and couldn’t really figure it out. But now I have someone (or something) to play with.