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About Me
Episode 07: Duke Nukem 3D - PC
Episode 06: Resident Evil 2 - PS1
Episode 05: Deus Ex - PC
Episode 04: Mega Man Legends - PS1
Episode 03: Jet Grind Radio - Dreamcast
Episode 02: Mega Man 4-6 - NES
Episode 01: The Neo Geo Pocket Color - NGPC
Nostaljourney is a retro gaming podcast that features an new cast every episode. Each episode is based on discussing a particular game or series, then finding people who are nostalgic for it and people who have never played it before. If need be we go so far as to donate all the necessary gaming hardware to the newcomers. We compare the experiences of the two groups to find out how well a game has really aged as well as discuss its history.
For younger community members it may be a chance to learn what gaming was like in the past. For older community members it may be a chance to discover what games are truly classic and what games are not. In general the show exists to evaluate and discuss the nature of nostalgia and for everyone in the community to get to know each other better. Because the show involves giving out free games, it only records once every couple of months.
Recent changes to the game plan will hopefully entail the show recording every 2 weeks.
Shadows of the Damned - Multiplatform
Alice: Madness Returns - Multiplatform
Dead Rising 2 - Multiplatform
Radiant Historia - Nintendo DS
Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks - Nintendo DS
Ace Attorney Investigations - Nintendo DS
Wryviews are my personal review series where I try to do things different from the norm by asking myself how well the game achieved its goal, instead of if I liked the game or not. Wryviews are a personal challenge to stay objective and identify who would enjoy a certain game, rather than complain about who wouldn't. I feel that being a good reviewer entails being able to identify each game's audience.
Mega Man and Bass - Gameboy Advance
Maken X - Dreamcast
Gemnalysis is a series where I hunt down lesser known or neglected games and make a case for playing them despite the fact that they're older. Instead of flat out reviewing these games I look at them from the perspective of a collector and go over the game's history, and special trivia it may have.
Boss Battle - Mark of the Wolves
Boss Battle + Final Match - King of Fighters 98
Fatal Impact is a series of community tournaments revolving around SNK fighters; rather, it was. I happen to host the tournaments, but only once in a blue moon when I have the free time. I accept any and all callers, though I am not an entrant. Instead I am a trainer who organizes my entrants and helps to improve their game while introducing them to new and lesser appreciated fighting games.
The Fatal Impact tournaments will likely not continue until SNK releases games with better netcode. With recent promises from Atlus, King of Fighters XIII is likely to become the next big Fatal Impact game.
King of Fighters 94
King of Fighters 95
King of Fighters 96
King of Fighters 97
The King of Fighters Love Letter is a series dedicated to the storyline and history of SNK fighting games. Many people don't know anything about SNK in general, and with King of Fighters XIII on its way I'm going to bring everyone up to speed on the story in the series thus far.
Now that King of Fighters XIII has an actual release date this series may continue beyond the first story arc (Orochi Saga), but it's difficult to find solid information on the series' backstory.
Podsumaki Episode 09: Mortal Kombat Special
Podsumaki is a fighting game podcast that I hosted on and organized. There was a lot of random smack talk but it was a fun show. Currently it's on hold and none of the hosts are sure if it will ever come back. Our last episode was our highlight, where we spoke with three of the best Mortal Kombat players in the US and discussed the Mortal Kombat community and the upcoming game. If you were to listen to any one episode of Podsumaki, I'd recommend it be this.
The Top Three Things "Gamers" Should Care About Less
Somebody on Call of Duty: Black Ops screamed at me for not being good enough at the game, even though I wasn't on his team. Thanks to that I decided to write an article on some of the biggest problems with the gaming community, mostly their inability to care about things that actually matter.
Tainted Beauty: The Death and Rebirth of a Genre
What we have here is an article revolving around the 2D fighting game genre, the path one must go through to become good at the games, and all the obstacles in the way of this that I feel eventually led to the temporary death of the genre prior to the release of games like Street Fighter IV and BlazBlue.
Wry Guides: Goozex Training Manual
Wry Guides are a series where I try to educate the people of the community by writing about something that I in particular know a lot about. More than anything else though, it's just me unleashing a bad pun upon the world.
Top 11 Dreamcast Games You Probably Didn't Play
In this article I recap my experience as a guy who loved the Dreamcast, because he grew up with it as one of his primary forms of entertainment. The games listed aren't the popular and trendy choices so much as the lesser played B-list and C-list games that only true Dreamcast veterans touched.
Hey, I liked it: Mega Man VII
Hey, I liked it was a series where I reflected on games that I'm fond of that weren't appreciated by many people. As opposed to Wryviews which are meant to be impartial, this was a much more personal series. This series might continue some day but I could really not think of a bigger black sheep game than Mega Man VII.
Wry's Dreamcast Homebrew Guide: Pre-Brewed
There was a time when I was extremely, extremely into my Dreamcast. I didn't just play tons of regular games that I found on sale, I also researched the wealth of bootleg Dreamcast programs. These days I'm a collector and I'm not concerned with unofficial software. I'm too busy playing games I actually own. Still I created a quick guide to some of the easiest and best programs available for the Dreamcast that can be used with no hassle.
Untapped potential: Stop breaking my balls
I suck at games: But not forever
My Expertise: The Grand Jackass of Obscurity
Nothing is sacred: Sequels
Groundhog Day: Can you feel the sunshine, Sonic?
I started writing about games roughly a year and a half ago, and since then my viewpoints and my writing style have changed. Destructoid's Monthly Musings were a good way for me to get started when I didn't have many article ideas. These are all the ones I wrote that were promoted to the front page. I'm not super proud of them anymore, but if you want to see my writings evolve a little bit you can compare these to my more recent articles.
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Gamertag: WryGuy1987
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Gamertag: WryGuy1987
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Emulation is a pretty fondly remembered part of my past, far away from where I am now. Some--ALL--of you may not realize that most of my childhood took place in Idaho, where I'm currently on vacation now. Way back in probably the fourth grade an older friend of mine took me into the living room and showed me something that blew my tiny brain. I was 10 years old, it was 1997, and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening was playing on my friend's computer monitor. Now I don't remember at all what was going through my tiny retarded head, but it was probably something along the lines of "HOLY SHIT, I JUST CAME IN MY PANTS AND I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS!" If you want a more tangible idea of how long ago this was and how young I was, keep in mind Napster had just been invented. P2P file sharing was new and exciting, and dial up was considered tolerable.
My friend was using NO$GMB, a very old Gameboy emulator, and one of the best things the internet ever gave me access to. It changed my life, because soon after seeing it I hit the interweb and started cruising for my own emulators. It's pretty surprising when I think about it, how it affected what kind of gaming enthusiast I am today. First of all it's highly responsible for making me interested in the internet and making online buddies, which truly indited me into nerdom. It likewise turning gaming into a social hobby for me. Emulation back then was almost a central part of internet nerd culture. Back when I frequented goofy little Web Comic forums for sites like Bob and George, the comics themselves relied on emulation for sprites, and the communities relied on emulation as a means of sharing common interests. Most of the kids wouldn't have been able to discuss and share their fandom without it, since it was the only way we were genuinely able to actually choose our games. Likewise, it introduced me to socially competitive gaming. Without MAME and Kaillera, I'd probably have never gained a solid appreciation of fighting games. It gave me the ability to play arcade games I would never have had access to at the time, as well as let me actually play them with other people. Good times. Secondly it actually helped turn me into a productive member of the industry. Emulation is a touchy subject sometimes, very often resulting in debates of how unethical it is. I personally don't think it's all bad. I'd like to point out that I was in Grade School myself at the time. I had no money, I had no ability to contribute to the industry beyond Birthday presents and Christmas gifts, and as I previously mentioned I had little ability to freely choose my games. Emulation actually helped encourage me to pay for my games now that I do have the money, since it really helped drive my passion for the hobby in general. When I buy a Wii there's a good chance I'll actually a build a solid Virtual Console collection to help pay back some of the companies I mooched off of before. Emulation is even helping me out a little today. Emulation was the main reason I became interested in homebrew, which led me to discover the possibilities beyond that--all of which greatly enhanced my systems. Dreamcast Homebrew was a very active interest of mine in the day, and it actually helped me out a lot on my vacation back here in Idaho. The only game my old man has ever taken an active interest in is Solar Jetman for the NES. I just recently burned him a disc for the Dreamcast I left behind with not only Solar Jetman, but a variety of NES games that he now has easy access to. I'm hoping that disc is going to give him a stronger interest in games. Thanks, Emulation! *wink* Unfortunately these days emulation seems to have died out, and these little benefits it imparted onto me will probably not be passed on in the same fashion. One of the major downfalls of Emulation these days is they're impractical. Once 3D games started entering the ring, efficiency became a pretty big problem. Beyond use of the Nintendo 64 and Playstation, there hasn't been much promise for emulation. Someone here was kind enough to inform me of a new Wii emulator which shows promise, so perhaps the new generations will likewise be able to fuel their hobby in the same fashion I did. Let's hope emulation doesn't die out like I expect it might. That'd be a real shame.
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Living the dream since March 16, 2006
Living the dream since March 16, 2006
Buuuuuut I'll have to disagree with you about emulation "dying out". It's still going strong with homebrewed PSPs, homebrewed Wiis, hell even the Dolphin Wii emulator that's been going around for a while now on the internet. Yeah, I don't ever see emulation dying out.
I just noticed your awesome banner wry guy. You are the fucking man I must say.
@Diverse: When I say emulation's been dying out, I mean no recent systems actually have emulators. My own post mentions using homebrew, which technically counts, but it's not what I'm talking about. Wasn't Dolphin the codename for the Gamecube, though? What the hell's the Dolphin Wii Emulator? If it's a Gamecube emulator, that sounds pointless since the thing is backwards compatible.
Dolphin Emulator demonstration w/ SSBB
Dolphin Website
"I have fond memories of Harvest Moon, Chrono Trigger, and even Seikun Densetsu 3 thanks to the magic of emulation"
Without emulating these three games, I robably wouldnot be that into gaming. They really got me going. Add to my list Super Mario RPG which never saw release her until the VC, thugh I do have a Japanese cart for it and some othe RPGs.
To this day, I have both a hacked PSP and Wii and both are loaded with emulators (Wii handles SNES games the best along with my new TV, PSP for on-the-go, SegaCD, and PS1 games). The Wii is notable because the biggest screen I've been able to play games in the past was only 17". I have a 32" now and the games look nice given their age. And the PSP, if you needed a reason to hack it, the best answer is to put all of your PS1 titles onto there. I know I have, for the most part.
<3 emulation. =P
@Diverse, my brother had the Japanese version of Pokemon Silver and Gold :) SO I know here you are coming from.
As for emulation, it won't ever die down and I love it :) One question:
You can burn emulated games to play on the Dreamcast? I have a Dreamcast and emulated games, but I didn't think that was possible. Hook me up :]
I STILL remember when I discovered emulation as a child. I was in my friend's basement, and I saw this really weird icon with testicles on it (Nesticle, one of the first NES emulators). It had a file named "punchout.nes" next to it. It was my friend's older brother's program.
So we click on it, and nothing happened. Then we hit "load", and just clicked on Punchout: our eyes lit up when we eventually figured out what that meant. IT WAS MOTHERFUCKING PUNCH OUT ON A COMPUTER.
I went out and bought an NES-->USB remote and the rest was history.
@Zippyduda: Maybe I'll do a series on Dreamcast Homebrew. It's probably something very few people know about, and there are a handful of cool emulators, programs, and games available through it.
unfortunately though the focus on piracy today has made any mention of emulation = piracy
Don't you know the Dreamcast play's burned games without a modchip? You can find these emu cd's he's talking about on various torrent sites under their dreamcast section.