Favorite Type of Game?

[Demonic Weasel]

Oh, ZCRN is a fake agency that I made up with a couple of my buddies years ago and we basically ruled the world and all. I still like to use it though.

Anyway as for a good RPG to try I'd recommend Beyond Oasis. Although you may also like to try Gemfire, it's sort of a simulation war game, so the lines between RPG and war become a bit fuzzy here, but I count it as an RPG.

And I think you really should give Phantasy Star 2 another try. I agree that it's too hard, but beyond that I really love the game.

[Zebbe]

108 Stars: At least the connection between the Mega Drive and Sega CD will be the same. I don't think the power supply do any effect if it's the same volt. I don't know much about the import carts, but I guess they block the region lock the Mega CD tries to use.

[Drixxel]

I'm most certainly a fan of Genesis action games above all else.. but "action" is a little broad. Under that banner I hurl shmups, run-'n'-guns, and any platformer with an action focus. So, err.. "games with explosions."

[108 Stars]

A few minutes ago I got D & D: Warriors of the Eternal Sun and Super Hydlide on ebay, both boxed and with manual for about 22,-€.
There were some even more rare games from that guy, such as Gemfire, Exile, Romance of the three kingdoms 2, Arcus Odyssey and Warsong on ebay from the same guy too, but one guy with a biiiig wallett beat me to all of them.
I would have loved to get my hands on Warsong, but 38,30 € was too much. What do these games cost in the USA nowadays.

In two days an auction for the brazilian Master System version of Mortal Kombat 3 will be finished. This game must look awfull...!

[Demonic Weasel]

That's too bad. Gemfire's great. As of course is Warsong. And I like Exile. All of those games can be gotten for about $40, but that's about the minimum. Unless you're lucky of course.

[Alianger]

@108 Stars - Gemfire and Exile are likeable, yeah.. and Arcus Odyssey is a pretty good diablo-type game if you avoid the 2-player mode..
But the games you need to try out, judging by your previous posts, are Langrisser 2 & Monster world 4!

Regarding this Snes vs MD debate, I'd like to point out that while some of the top Snes rpg's are indeed slightly more polished & balanced than their MD equivalents, nearly all of them are made either by Square or Enix, who as we all know were veterans of the genre by the time Chrono Trigger or DQ6 were released.
I mean it's not hard to notice there's a 4 after the PS and a 6 after the FF, right? Square had 2 full games of additional experience () when trying to perfect their formula. Of course, this doesn't make the MD games any better, but I think it's something to consider in this kind of debate.

Oh and MK3 actually looks alright considering it's 8-bit, but it plays like crap.

[Demonic Weasel]

Experience doesn't mean a thing if the games are suck.

[108 Stars]

@Demonic Weasel
Pleeeeeaaaaaaaaase
not again the SNES-RPGs suck-debate, okay? Peace, man!
Though I did not get the rarest gems, I hope both games are worth the price I payed. What do you say?

As for the prices:
Don´t get a heart attack, but they were very low...
Exile went for 7,50 €
Gemfire went for 7,48 €
Romance of the three kingdoms 2 made 9,50 €
The Immortal made 5,50 €
Faery Tale Adventure made 5,60 €
Buck Rogers made 4,03 €
Sword of Vermillon made 10,61 €
and Arcus Odyssey finished at about 20,- €

Dammit, I´m totally broke already so I could not afford to go any further; I´ll have to cut my food already to pay the two games I actually got.
The problem was also that all those auctions ended within 2 minutes, so there was not much time to think and swich between biddings.
Placing a maximum bid of 10,- or 20,- € for every auction was too risky; I would have been dead if I won at that price and had to pay all that money.

No there are copies of Heroic Legend of Arslan (1,- € now), Blue Almanac (now 9,99€), Shadowrun US( 1,99 €), Shining in the Darkness US ( 9,99 € "buy it now"), Lunar 1 and 2 US (62, 90 € and 67,90 € buy it know), Phantasy Star 1 for Genesis (39,- €), Vay (14,99 € buy it now), Shining Force US (26,99 buy it now) and Phantasy Star 4 US (29,99 € buy it now) on the sale...
I NEED MORE MONEY!!!

[Zebbe]

108 Stars: Why do you buy Phantasy Star (1) for Genesis? It's only in Japanese as far as I know.

[Demonic Weasel]

I wasn't trying to say that all SNES RPG's suck as I have admitted to enjoying some of them. I was trying to imply that most FF's suck however. Since I know that's a sore point with you though I'll try to restrain myself in the future.

I wish I had more good moneys to be buying some of those games with, but collecting for the Saturn is expensive.

[Elusive]

108 Stars: Why do you buy Phantasy Star (1) for Genesis? It's only in Japanese as far as I know.

It's the Master System version with a built-in converter, if I recall rightly.

So I can use a modded PAL Mega Drive with a US-Sega CD? Aren´t there any problems regarding different power supply in PAL and NTSC-machines?
As for the import cart, how good does it work? The import-cartridges for normal MD-games were a mess, some working better, some worse.

Here's how Mega-CD protection works (coming from a guy with a fully-modded MD2 and stock MCD2):

Mega Drives worldwide have two settings that dictate their region: the 50 or 60Hz video signal output, and the location setting labelled by Sega as 'Domestic' and 'Overseas' - i.e. 'Japanese' and 'Rest of World'. So:

European Mega Drive: 50Hz output, Overseas
American Genesis: 60Hz output, Overseas
Japanese Mega Drive: 60Hz output, Domestic
(offshoot: Korean Mega Drive: 50Hz output, Domestic)

Mega CDs worldwide are identical internally - they only have a program that checks the region of the CD and the region of the Mega Drive that determines whether it'll boot or not.

First, the 50/60Hz difference. Once the Mega Drive is turned on, the CD console activates. The CD console then checks the video output of the Mega Drive: if a PAL (i.e. 50Hz) Mega-CD detects anything other than a 50Hz signal - from an American Genesis or Japanese Mega Drive - it displays a black error message on a turquoise screen and refuses to boot. If an NTSC (i.e. 60Hz) Sega CD detects anything other than a 60Hz signal, it displays the error message and refuses to boot.

Assuming it passes this test, the CD console then checks the location setting of the Mega Drive. If a European 50Hz Mega-CD detects an 'Overseas' console, it knows it is attached to a European Mega Drive, and so will go on to boot the game. Ditto American detecting 'Overseas', Japanese detecting 'Domestic'.

So now you have the following combination:

European Mega Drive (50Hz, Overseas) - European Mega-CD = will boot
European Mega Drive (50Hz, Overseas) - American Sega CD = fails video test
European Mega Drive (50Hz, Overseas) - Japanese Mega-CD = fails video test
American Genesis (60Hz, Overseas) - American Sega CD = will boot
American Genesis (60Hz, Overseas) - European Mega-CD = fails video test
American Genesis (60Hz, Overseas) - Japanese Mega-CD = passes video test, fails location test
Japanese Mega Drive (60Hz, Domestic) - Japanese Mega-CD = will boot
Japanese Mega Drive (60Hz, Domestic) - European Mega-CD = fails video test
Japanese Mega Drive (60Hz, Domestic) - American Sega CD = passes video test, fails location test

This is all assuming you have completely stock equipment. Adding the two switches to the Mega Drive is documented elsewhere - these change the video and location settings of the Mega Drive, so that you can match the video and location settings of your cart game or Mega-CD.

The power supplies are identical. A European power cable will work in an American machine, with the appropriate plug converter of course.

Import cartridges? Hit and miss. Expensive. Better off the modding route I'm afraid

[108 Stars]

108 Stars: Why do you buy Phantasy Star (1) for Genesis? It's only in Japanese as far as I know.

@Zebbe
Not going to buy it anyway, since I don´t have enough cash. But it would be a nice addition to any collection because from what I have heard there were only 1000 copies or so produced. For me it would be more important to get all the understandable RPGs first.

@Elusive
Wow, that wa a good explanation. As for the import carts I thought so; they were a pain with standard Genesis games as well.

[Zebbe]

Elusive: A big applause to you for giving me this info. I have a modded Mega Drive 1 (60Hz and language switches) and a Mega CD 2, which means I can play all American Sega CD games if I just put the Mega Drive switch to 60 Hz? Is it really that simple?

[Alianger]

No there are copies of Heroic Legend of Arslan (1,- € now), Blue Almanac (now 9,99€), Shadowrun US( 1,99 €), Shining in the Darkness US ( 9,99 € "buy it now"), Lunar 1 and 2 US (62, 90 € and 67,90 € buy it know), Phantasy Star 1 for Genesis (39,- €), Vay (14,99 € buy it now), Shining Force US (26,99 buy it now) and Phantasy Star 4 US (29,99 € buy it now) on the sale...
I NEED MORE MONEY!!!

But.. none of those are monster world 4 or langrisser 2.

[108 Stars]

But.. none of those are monster world 4 or langrisser 2.

Monster World 4 costs 49,95 €...

But I WILL play the fan-translation. Same goes for Langrisser Hikari 2.