"state something completely random time!"

My stupid wife has actually caused some problems with her big mouth in the past with the things she's been telling other people about me. My son's babysitter heard all about my unnatural obsession with video games, for instance. So when my son started running around her house with her insufferable jerk of a son, pretending his hand was a gun, the babysitter immediately assumed it was because I was letting him watch me play all those murder simulators she's been hearing about on Dateline.

The sheer amount of stupidity of the situation nearly made my head explode.

This is the kind of thing that led to my divorce. I'm typically a pretty private person by nature, but when someone close to me is sharing intimate details of my life with other people, she ceases to be a spouse and becomes a liability.

Man. What a nightmare!

^I'm sorry, man. I've not been in a situation like that; my input would be useless. All I can say is I'm truly sorry for how things worked out for you and I hope it gets better in the long run.

Now I apologize for changing the subject, but I was going through my old stuff and I came across this:

http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/8526/1000308t.jpg

My old GBA flash cartridge! It's still got Super Mario Advanced 2 on there as well from when I last used it in 2005. It's a bloody good thing I just got a desktop PC not that while ago; this thing runs through the parallel port and needs to be connected to the EXT port of the GBA in order to flash games onto it. Only got a GB Player, so I'm gonna to have both the CRT and LCD in order to get this thing working; that's gonna be a laugh...

Not that I want to encourage pirating games, Jackal, but I highly recommend that you track down and try out Wade Hixton's Counter Punch once you get everything up and running.

Other than a handful of games, however, I'm not terribly enthusiastic about the GBA's library.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by QuickSciFi

Man. What a nightmare!

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Quite. The funny part is that she cannot fathom why I would want to divorce her. From her perspective, I'm losing out on so much more than she is (she really does think that little of me, apparently, yet didn't actually want to split up). And did I take the opportunity to explain in detail all of her "deal-breaker" faults that I've been living with for 7 years? No. I don't like confrontation!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MrMatthews

Not that I want to encourage pirating games, Jackal, but I highly recommend that you track down and try out Wade Hixton's Counter Punch once you get everything up and running.

Other than a handful of games, however, I'm not terribly enthusiastic about the GBA's library.

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Nah, I'm against piracy myself; this is for testing and sampling games like I do with my Megacart, if I like something, I'll buy the actual proper version of it. That and running protos and homebrew as well.

Not even heard of that game, but yes, I'll check it out. Thanks for the suggestion. Just need to find the CD driver and I'll give it a try.

I'll concede that the GBA's reputation is justified: there are a lot of really good games in its library. However, it seems like a lot of the "best" games on the system are pretty much ports or sequels, which draws attention away from the original games. Wade Hixton is one of those.

I like to scroll through IGN's game reviews and look for obscure titles that are scored highly. Craig Harris was the primary reviewer for the GBA and DS, and I have learned to trust his opinions. He'll give an unknown title a perfectly respectable 7 or 8, but if it wasn't a high-profile game it would go completely unnoticed, which means they can be gotten from Ebay for chump change. I got Wade Hixton sealed in the box for about $12 shipped.

A lot of the games in my DS collection were discovered that way, as well. See, people? "Professional" internet game reviews do serve a purpose!

If you say he's a trustable reviewer, I believe you, and I'll check out his IGN reviews. 90% of the time though, I don't agree with reviews; they never match what I think.

Most of the time, if I see a game I like, I'll grab a ROM of it and play it myself; if I like, I'll add it to the list; if not, I delete it and forgot about it.

Here's a few games that I bought specifically because he gave them good reviews. Without them, I would have never given them a second thought, had I known at about them at all.

HamTaro: HamHams Unite: GBC - http://gameboy.ign.com/articles/376/376301p1.html
Warlocked: GBC - http://gameboy.ign.com/articles/163/163959p1.html
Astro Boy: GBA - http://gameboy.ign.com/articles/539/539347p1.html
TMNT: GBA - http://gameboy.ign.com/articles/539/539347p1.html
Wade Hixton's Counter Punch: GBA - http://gameboy.ign.com/articles/501/501206p1.html

Oh, and he was singing the praises of Shantae on the GBC when it first came out. I remember reading this review but not having much desire to downgrade to a GBC game when I was so used to the GBA's graphics with the recent Castlevania and Metroid games. I wish I could go back in time and kick my ass.
http://gameboy.ign.com/articles/361/361919p1.html

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net...03833046_n.jpg

Wade Hixton looks pretty cool. Thanks for the tip MrMatthews. I would like to make you a suggestion, but I don't really know of anything that hasn't appeared on racketboy or other sites.

Mathews, you should check out Dragon Ball Advanced Adventure; a great little game I discovered myself a few years back. I was going to link to IGN's review of it, but I don't agree with it - you really don't need to know of the series to get into it and enjoy it; it's just a good, old-school brawler/platformer with a decent fighting mode thrown in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skib_...c1RVAAAAAAAAAw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBR9tgTM0bI

Man, Cotton stuff is expensive! Even the stupid teacup is $200.

though well worth the money as all Cotton collectibles are awesome