I got sick. Anyone feel like talking Neo Geo?

[celerystalker]

I passed out vomiting a little while ago, and I just woke up in bed with a fever. My wife apparently called into my job (I'm the overnight manager of a Wal-Mart), which I guess is okay, because I feel like hell, but I hate knowing that somebody else's night just got ruined having to do my job.

Anyway, I'm having trouble getting comfortable, and I'm looking at a long night of throwing up by the feel if it. Anyone feel like talking Neo Geo as a distraction? I've been in an arcadey mood lately, so really I guess anything'll do... I have Punisher and GI Joe boards coming in the mail this month from spending some Christmas money, so they'll be cool. I'm just thinking about Neo Geo because I finally learned to play Art of Fighting half-way okay last weekend.

I've never been good at Art of Fighting 1 or 2, but I've been a really decent Capcom fighter and Guilty Gear player for a long time. I hated Art of Fighting on SNES, but when I first bought my AES back in '03, I bought most anything I'd find in the wild, and the first two AoF games are cheapies. It was so much faster, smoother, and more responsive that I started to dig it, but I'd always get pissed... in, like, the second fight on normal I'd fight Jack, and he can KO you in literally three moves. I'd have fun in multi-player, but seriously, fuck single player. I was a little better in the faster second game, and could get pretty far with Yuri, even beating it once... but I still just sucked.

Anyway, Sunday night after my wife and son went to bed, I decided to play Art of Fighting. I just got competely wrecked by Jack again... but instead of switching games like usual when it pisses me off, I resolved to try new approaches. I'd been playing like I play Street Fighter; lots of jumping combos and fireballs for screen positioning and the liken, then blocking into combos. Turns out, I do insanely better if I stay ground based, moving back and forward to maintain a short distance, yet allowing time to block or counter, and using a lot more kicks. Turns out I could cancel or counter a lot of Jack's specials with better priority. All of a sudden, on my last credit, I cleared several fights, and went way deeper into the game than I'd ever done before.

I quit after that last credit, satisfied that I'd finally broken through on one of my personal bugaboos, and wilk beat it sometime soon. Anybody else have a love/hate relationship like that? Wanna talk Neo Geo or other arcade games here? There's a good chance I get dragged to Urgent Care if I don't stop losing fluids, so I'll likely be on a lot tonight if anyone is in the mood.

[bb_hood]

Im sorry to hear you are sick, Im sick as well but just a cold. Ive been chugging NyQuil so the last 3 days have been a blur.
Hope u feel better

[celerystalker]

Thanks, sorry you're down as well. NyQuil annihilates me... I can see how it'd make life one big, foggy mess. Take care!

[Tanooki]

I'm not sick though, so it's alright.

Neo-Geo -- sure. AoF never liked anything beyond the first much, but in the day I could roll the old game and I loved the atmosphere and how it worked, stood out from old SF2. As you saw, SF2 tactics don't work quite so well (MK for that matter too) with the jump in and strike. It's almost like Guile mixed with your own close quarters edge off and strike mechanics if I recall right. I don't believe that's on my 161in1 cart, may just have to buy it as it's cheap.

I've racked up 20 games for mine and 2 knockoffs...good stuff. One of my best hits was a generously wrongly listed ebay buy months ago I think you'll recall. I under paid on 8Man thinking cart only as they only showed the game on, not sure they even showed the cart but the price was worth the risk. Dude shipped it in the original arcade box with wrapping butcher paper around it! Matching serials, mini-marquee, other inserts, bubble bag...all there. I hadn't smiled at my mail that much in a long time. Ever watch the cartoon movie or the older black and white cartoon called Tobor (robot backwards) the 8th Man? It's like Astroboy old but good.

[celerystalker]

Heh, yeah, I know 8man. I suck at it. I've never had the chance to play it co-op, which I imagine would be fun.

You know what game surprised me? Legend of Success Joe. It's almost universally hated, but once I sat down and learned to play it on the multicart, I really loved it. It's actually a pretty competent boxing game, even if some of the animation is stiff. I had a buddy who loves the manga try it out, and taught him to play. He loved it. Even the games I'm supposed to hate on the Neo tend to turn out pretty enjoyable!

[Emperor Megas]

Thanks, sorry you're down as well. NyQuil annihilates me... I can see how it'd make life one big, foggy mess. Take care!

OMG, that's me, too. Nyquil knocks me flat on my ass.

Man, I hope you get better soon. What you're describing doesn't sound like anything you should ride out. Granted, I'd probably die before going to the doctor, but from your offerings here you seem a lot smarter than me, so maybe you should like, I don't know, check yourself in.

BTW, I didn't picture you being a Wally World manager. You just seemed too happy a person. My sister-in-law is a Walmart manager, and I've had a lot of friends who've worked at Walmart over the years and something about that job seems to suck the happiness out of them. Not working retail, but Walmart in particular.

BTW, the original The Art of Fighting, Jesus...just awful.

[celerystalker]

Thanks. Yeah, my job isn't particularly fun, but the one thing I'll give it is that they pay me okay. I've been with the company for 15 years now, and the quality of life it offers varies wildly based on who your boss is, but I hope to leave retail sometime soon if I can, so long as I can adequately replace my salary, which is pretty good, as I used to be a bit higher up the ladder before stepping down when my son was born. I stay pretty happy overall, though, as my home life is wonderful. My wife is so good to me, and my son is a good boy who just turned 2, and we place a heavy value on our family time.

[Tanooki]

I've not tried out that game, but despite reading it was supposely bad, it was just my lack of interest and not being influenced. With so many games I love from the past on there and others of certain types (shooters, action run/gun, etc) types it just never comes up. I'll probably try it sometime. Wasn't that Joe game that Victorious Boxers Wii title? I had it, controls were shit so I got mad eventually and dumped it but while it wasn't making me mad not swinging when it should I loved it and the atmosphere of the manga/anime.

[celerystalker]

It's based on the same property, but plays way, way differently of course. What I like about it over many boxing titles of its time is that it doesn't have absurd stamina and recovery systems that make fights last forever or loads of button mashing training segments. Instead, it tells its story through brief cutscenes and street fighting segments in between fights. I actually really like it a lot, even if it is kinda rough.

[wingzrow]

Eat some Garlic with Chicken soup. As far as neo geo goes, I'm thinking of picking one up now that there's a Flash cartridge for MVS.

[Tanooki]

Be prepared if you buy that Neo Flash SD it's extremely slow. Sure the few smaller sub100MB games load up fairly quick enough, but when you get into the few hundred up into the gigaspec type games it takes a long time for it to grab the data from the memory card and throw it through the works so it will pull up on the system. If you're patient cool, otherwise wait awhile for a faster option. That seems to be the divided choice of things to do on the neo geo forums.

[celerystalker]

I still haven't bothered with flash carts on, well, anything. Neo Geo, though... with, like, two multicarts you get 99% of the library for less than half the cost of the flash cart. You'd only be missing, like, Windjammers.

On that note, Windjammers rules. I'm running it in my cabinet right now. It was one of those games that was near the top of the list for me when I got my cabinet, and was money well spent. I usually play the US character or Spain. So good...

[celerystalker]

Feeling a bit better, but some lingering issues mean some tests for some bad stuff. Anyway, decided to play some Sengoku 2 on AES while my son napped today. That smell, even after so many years, of an AES game when you open the case... it's a unique thing to the AES, but part of the experience, and makes me grin a bit. Also, had a pretty good game where I made it half way through the final stage on default settings. Love that series.

[wingzrow]

Well now I feel like shit, so I guess sickness comes in waves. Gotta take some of my own advice & make one of those disgustingly healthy Garlic Lemon smoothies I keep hearing about.