Column #5
Hello and welcome back gamebrainers, this is the first offical cross syndicated edition of Rated Mature!!! I am glad to announce the offical affiliation between The Game Brain Networks(http://www.thegamebrain.net) and Blaze Legacy Entertainment (http://www.blazelegacy.com). As much as I'd like to celebrate, I have a very serious topic to discuss in this column so shall we start?...okay then......
On March 16, 2001 one of the worlds largest hardcore gamers, Mr. Isao Okawa passed away at exactly 3:47pm due to heart failure at the Tokyo University Medical Hospital. Mr. Okawa was Sega's Corporation President and honorary chairman and a wonderful man. Sure he may have not been as popular Yu Suzuki or Yuji Naka, but he has a legendary status nonetheless. Back in 1984 he demonstrated his personal commitment to Sega Corporation by spending about 10 billion yen ($81.6 million) of his own funds to buy a minority stake in Sega from Gulf & Western Industries Inc., the former parent company of Sega. He continued his personal involvement with Sega Entertainment Ltd, by joining with David Rosen (the founder of Sega in 1951) to buy the remaining Japanese assets of Sega. In 1986 he took Sega public in Tokyo and New York. In the last year he was a primary source of support for Sega, donating personal assets valued at 135 billion yen ($1.281 billion). It was his vision that help make Sega such a power house software company as it is today. He along with his vision will be missed by videogamers all around the world. The Staff here and at Blaze Legacy would like to think of his life actually as a celebration of an elustious time of wonderful games and consoles brought through by his vision, but we give out deepest condolences to Mr. Isao Okawa's family .
The Tokyo Game Show has come and passed with a ton of news and if you tuned in last weeks columns you can see that most of my predictions came true. Sure the Dreamcast hardware in the X-box hasn't came to light just yet but Sega did announce that they will have 11(thats right count them!!) games around the launch time of the X-Box. Plus Sega also mentioned that Smilebit(creators of Jet Grind and up-coming Hundred Swords) will be an in house exclusive for the X-Box!?! Sega showed off Virtua Fighter 4 in playable form for the first time at there booth at the AOU arcade show. I got my hands on some small video clips and I must say..wow! I'm really looking forward to this title no matter what system( or systems) this wonder is released on.
As many of you know, the Game Boy Advance was released in Japan and will be launched here on June 11. I am really impressed at how many developers are creating games for the GBA, if my sources are correst there are currently over 400! companies. Since i'm very excited about this portable revoultion I decided to share some of my fav games (listed to the right) that I have played or am looking forward too. Thats right I played the GBA, thats actually the next topic i'm going to touch upon here. When the offer came up between The Gamebrain Networks affiliation with Blaze Legacy, naturally I went to their site and too if they fit the bill (well of course they did or you wouldn't be reading this on Blaze huh) and I was checking out some of the features on there site and saw a feature speaking of GBA emulation. Since the system wasn't out anywhere at the time I was naturally curious. I checked into some of the Emulation sites and found some of the actual demos Nintendo used to show off there new portable technology, plus I found roms of full version fan made games for the emulator. I found all kinds of tidbits from a full blown original Legend of Zelda bitmap layout, and Chrono Thrigger rom,a killer shooter called M Type, a kooky demo called fitzy, and a really cool demo called Leonard GBA displays GBA 3d graphics abilitys. On top of all of this I was bored on night so I decied to serch around some more and found acutal full version Japanese GBA games such as F Zero, All Japan GT, Fire Pro Wrestling, and WAI WAI Racing. Not only did I find these games, but I found them onay ONE day after the Japanese GBA launch!!! Being a good gamer I did download them but deleted them after I messed around with them some. But the real point i'm getting at here would have to be is there a difference between good emulation and bad emulation? I say we lookat the pros and cons of the situation....
Pros....
1. Emulation offers the chance for consumers that want to get in the video gaming business a chance to see what the programming stand point is like....
2. As I stated earlier console developers could release an emulator on the wired to show off demos...
3. I truly beleve in releasing emulators for older console games that are hard to find....
4. Umm...hum...there COOL!!!
Cons.....
1. Its an awful way to rip off hard working programmers...
2. It is the same as walking in a store and stealing the game...
3. There is a nasty fine that can go all the up to $15,000 even more if your running the site that produces them...
4. There illeagal and wrong...
If you ask me I think that all the major console companys could come up with a plan as to where they could do as I have seen with the GBA but in a Leagal way... They could release the technical specs and/or do the demo themselves so that gamers can get a taste of future games to come...
Well I guess i'm done rambling on this week Gamers...you can go back to doing whatever ileagal activites your doing now...don't forget to check out my new Retro Gaming Flux column which features King of Fighters 94, and tune in next week for another hard hitting edition of Rated Mature...your back ground checks out now...you may leave....
The Top Five CD's That Are The Current Soundtracks of My Life
5. Frank Zappa- Strictly Comercial....a good friend of mine turned me torwards this hilarious cd.
4. Life House-No Name Face....This band has a great style..
3.Pantera-Reventing The Steel IT'S.....UPLIFTING!?! haha
2. Tom Petty - Anthology.. A true legend in the music industry...
1.Full Devil Jacket - Self titled...One of the absolute best Indy bands gracing this earth.
Top Five Webpages of the Week
5. Zelda The offical Lagend of Zelda website has been going through some major changes and it looks great! Plus you can find some cool info on the upcoming two Zelda games for the GBC...
4. Route 101 Guitars You can actually design your own guitar here!!
3. Naked News about the only thing I can think of to say is...Your born nude, so why not tell the news nude too...
2. Blaze Legacy Enertainment A very enertaining site where this and Retro gaming Flux are current'y being syndicated...
Top Five Game Boy Advance
Games I want...
5. Lady SIA--An awesome looking anime action/adventure title that spans 16 levels and features some sweet FMV's..
4.Breath of Fire I--An SNES classic and since I am a big fan of the series, I naturally am looking forward to this killer app.
3. Super Mario Advance--The remake of SMB2 for the Nes not a fav. in my book but still fun...
2. Golden Sun--an RPG that looks just....amasing!!!
1. Castlevania: Circle of the Moon--known as Akumajou Dracula: Circle of the Moon in Japan its a cross between the Snes castlevainas and SotN of Playstation fame.
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