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What I'm Playing this Week 002

This week has consisted of becoming a Peggle Master, and completing a few more Left 4 Dead campaigns. Not really had a lot of this on my hands... Oh well! There's always tomorrow.

The Origin of SimCity

Will Wright's first game was a shoot em up, where you controlled a helicopter called 'Raid on Bungeling Bay'. The design of the levels inspired Wright to develop a city simulation, which he thought it closely resembled.

Eventually this resulted in the SimCity we all know and love! Which reminds me, I should really reinstall Simcity 4, while we wait for a proper SimCity 5!

Via Reddit

Retro Gaming...

I've always played old Nintendo games on the PSP, and DS and never really gotten into it much. I've even tried using Virtual Console on the Wii but still I can't seem to find the sparkle.

This week, I've been playing Pokemon Blue on a Gameboy Colour (green, if you're interested; which you're probably not!) and I'm really (really, really) getting into it. I really can't work out the difference, from playing on Lameboy on the DS to actually using the proper hardware.

The difference is amazing, and as I mentioned on the previous post I can see absolutely why I loved these old games. Now this is okay for easy to obtain games like Pokemon and Mario but some of the Zelda games such as Oracle of Ages and Seasons are unfortunately rather expensive on eBay! What about games for the SNES that I missed? Earthbound, Secret of Evermore? Suppose I might have to actually buy a console at some point in time!

The Dragon Quest games are being remade for the DS, along with Chrono Trigger (Just about to start playing the DS version!) which is awesome. Except that Hand of the Heavenly Bride is out of print already and hard to find at a resonable price. I really don't want to have to download them, but if they are impossible to buy, what are the other options?

What old games do you play, that you just don't feel the same about when you emulate them? Let me know by leaving a comment!

One Button Civilization

Want to play Civ, but don't have the time? Try War and Peace, instead. Looks kinda fun. I haven't had a chance to play it yet, but according to one of my friends it's quite challenging! :)

What I'm playing this week (001)

So this week I bought Pokemon Blue from eBay, and got a real copy! How cool! I've made it to the first gym so far, and am really remembering why I loved these games ten years ago. Now I really cannot wait for Soul Silver and Heart Gold to be released!

On the PC side of things, I bought Tropico 3 from Steam when it went for sale. It's simply amazing. Kind of like a cross between Sim City, Caesar 3 and Civilization.

The game is set on a tropical island called Tropico, and it is your job as El Presidente to run the island as you see fit. It's more challenging than you may think and you'll be dealing with rebel factions, Russia and the US (either helping or being a hindrance by invading you!) and attempts on your life. Help your island to flourish by exporting cigars and rum. Or perhaps you'd rather intimidate your people and employ martial law? Up to you!

There is about 15 campaigns to complete (each rather hard!) and a sandbox mode to keep you interested for quite a while!

Be sure to check out the screenshots and videos!

Nintendo DSi XL

Yay, I've preordered my 'Wine Red' to replace my aging DS Lite! :) Only another month until release.

Until then, here's a review.

How to play Gameboy Games on the Nintendo DS

To play GBC games such as Pokemon Gold and Silver on the DS, you have a few options. One of them is to use Goomba Color to create a Gameboy Advance rom package, and then play using a Slot 2 flash device. The other way (that I use!) is to use Lameboy DS.

I think Lameboy is the preferable option, because it does away with the need for a Slot 2 flash cart (If you haven't already got one!), and secondly because it emulates the Real Time Clock needed to play Pokemon games properly.

To get started, you'll need to have:

• DS Flash Card
• DLDI File for your card
• DLDI Patcher for your Operating System
• Latest Version of Lameboy

Start by downloading the latest version of Lameboy, along with the apropriate DLDI file for your card. Using whichever patcher runs on your system, patch Lameboy's NDS file.

Copy it over to the storage of your card, along with your GB/GBC roms. [Do NOT ask me where to find roms!] Launch Lameboy from the menu of your card, and hopefully you should be able to play some classic games!

If it crashes, or you get a solid colour screen, check you've used the correct DLDI file. If that doesn't fix the problem, I'd redownload each file to ensure against corruption. Otherwise, you might ask for help on the Pocket Heaven, or GBA Temp Forums.

Permanently saving progress is a little different in Lameboy. In games such as Pokemon, you save like normal using the menu. This only saves into RAM, however. To save to your flash cart, press the X button and Lameboy will transfer the save into a .sav file! Otherwise, you'll be scratching your head wondering why it didn't save!

I've managed to play up to Goldenrod City in Pokemon Silver without any trouble. One thing to note though, is to not press X immediately after you Save in game. It'll lock up, without saving (As I found out!)