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Weeeeeeeeee! The Twinbee thread!!!

Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 12:31 am
by JunkerMike
Sorry, I just felt an urge to put "Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" in the subject line. Anyway, I've had a SLIGHT fixation with "Twinbee" lately, and I have no clue WHY. I recently purchased the japanese only "Twinbee Deluxe Pack" for Sega Saturn. Luckily I have the Action Replay cart to play it on an american system. This disc contains arcade ports so I probably don't need japanese reading skill to play it. The only Twinbee game that was released in the US was the second one, "Moero Twinbee!" or something like that, which was released here as "Stinger". We purchased it back in 1998 while on vacation in NC. When I first played it, I just thought it was okay, but lately, I've had a sudden fixation on it, and just several minutes ago, I downloaded the original Twinbee arcade game for MAME. Several weeks back I also got a ROM of the PC Engine Twinbee game, but I only played it once so far. The "Twinbee Deluxe Pack" will be only the SECOND Twinbee game to enter my game collection, and the first Twinbee game to enter my collection in 9 years. It's also my first Konami title for the Saturn, and it's not even a US release! No biggie, I got an Action Replay like I said. I look forward to playing both the games on it. Maybe one of these days, Konami could release a Twinbee collection in The States, and give it some sort of tagline like "The greatest japanese export franchise you've never heard of!" or something like that. AND, I just found out that the Famicom port of the first Twinbee game was ported to the GBA in Japan as part of the mini Famicom line. > : ( Wish I'd known that! I can't find any place selling it! There's also currently a Twinbee game for PSP, but I don't know if it's a new game or a compilation of older Twinbee titles, and I don't know if the PSP has a territory lockout. Anyway...........

Image

Isn't Twinbee cute? He's in the middle.

Re: Weeeeeeeeee! The Twinbee thread!!!

Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 7:59 am
by 87th
JunkerMike wrote:I don't know if the PSP has a territory lockout.
If it did, my collection would have been a lot smaller. (I have a Japanese PSP, and no Japanese games)

I haven't ever played Twinbee before, but I've heard it's quite similar to Parodius, so I might pick up a copy when I'm in Osaka in a couple of months (I just booked the accommodation, so I'm really excited).

Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 9:16 am
by Henry Spencer
Lucky you, Osaka eh? Have you been to Japan before? Me and my family are very interested in the country, can you recommend anywhere to go?

As for this game; I have played it before via the wonderful MAME emulation system, and it was very good, it does become quite hard towards the end though.

Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 10:40 am
by Marc
Henry Spencer wrote:Lucky you, Osaka eh? Have you been to Japan before? Me and my family are very interested in the country, can you recommend anywhere to go?
Is this for a vacation? You can go almost anywhere and have a great time. If you're interested in finding out what the "center" of Japan feels like, you should check out Tokyo. You'll never be able to see it all in one visit, so you need to try to have a plan.

Kyoto is great if you're more into the history (though you can find this in just about any city if you know where to look). Take a drive past Mt. Fuji as well if you can. It's particularly nice outside of summer when the top is covered in snow.

How long do you think you would be staying for? I've been to quite a few places there, so I should be able to offer some sort of advice. Just be sure and have your camera with you at all times. The one day I didn't put my camera in my backpack when I was heading out for school, I ended up seeing something I wish I'd been able to capture (and I somehow knew this was going to happen as I left the house, but didn't go back for it anyway). I was walking through AKihabara when I noticed a crowd of people had gathered up ahead. When I got up there I saw they were all crowding around this family of cats that was living on the main street there. There was this mother and 3 kittens. They were so cute, and I knew I didn't have my camera. I couldn't believe my "premonition" had come true. That was the ONLY day during the time I lived there that I didn't have my camera on me.

Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 10:50 am
by 87th
Henry Spencer wrote:Lucky you, Osaka eh? Have you been to Japan before? Me and my family are very interested in the country, can you recommend anywhere to go?
This will be my first time in Japan, but I'm going with a friend who has been before (I also have a friend who's already in Osaka). It was up to us where we went, but Osaka seemed to make the most sense. Apparently, it's a cheaper alternative to Tokyo. Den Den Town is supposed to concentrate more on Retro gaming than Akihabara does. It's also very cheap to travel between towns in the same prefecture, and there's much more I'd like to see in Kansai than in Kanto. I've heard that Kansai is stereotyped in the same way as Texas, but stereotypes are widely inaccurate.

Of course, I won't be able to form my own opinion until I've actually been there. The hotel I'm staying at (Hotel Raizan) has internet access, so I should be able to report back, when I'm there.

Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 1:27 pm
by Henry Spencer
Osiris wrote:
Henry Spencer wrote:Lucky you, Osaka eh? Have you been to Japan before? Me and my family are very interested in the country, can you recommend anywhere to go?
Is this for a vacation? You can go almost anywhere and have a great time. If you're interested in finding out what the "center" of Japan feels like, you should check out Tokyo. You'll never be able to see it all in one visit, so you need to try to have a plan.

Kyoto is great if you're more into the history (though you can find this in just about any city if you know where to look). Take a drive past Mt. Fuji as well if you can. It's particularly nice outside of summer when the top is covered in snow.

How long do you think you would be staying for? I've been to quite a few places there, so I should be able to offer some sort of advice. Just be sure and have your camera with you at all times. The one day I didn't put my camera in my backpack when I was heading out for school, I ended up seeing something I wish I'd been able to capture (and I somehow knew this was going to happen as I left the house, but didn't go back for it anyway). I was walking through Akihabara when I noticed a crowd of people had gathered up ahead. When I got up there I saw they were all crowding around this family of cats that was living on the main street there. There was this mother and 3 kittens. They were so cute, and I knew I didn't have my camera. I couldn't believe my "premonition" had come true. That was the ONLY day during the time I lived there that I didn't have my camera on me.
It is a vacation that we want, yes.
And please don't get me wrong; it is something my parents are really wanting to do in the future, not this year specifically or anything. It is a holiday my parents are expressing keen interest on though (they watched a television program documenting Tokyo as a holiday destination, this was on the program; 'Holiday' on BBC1 and it caught their eye; me and my brother have been wanting to go for years now, so this was sort of convincing my parents to go really), so yeah, the infroamtion you just provided me with is very useful, for that I thank you.

I've heard about the beauty of Mt Fuji before, off another friend of mine. I know what you mean by planning the trip also; since there is such vastness in each and every country that I go to and fine I missed a lot out that I wanted to see. So yeah, I'm definitely going to Tokyo, that's for sure either next year or the year after, I'll be saving up for it once I have my job.

And that's a shame about not having your camera on that day, I can understand what you mean there also; that's happened to us on a countless number of occasions. However, it's good to hear you still remember that event in particular; so in one way you may see it as being bad, not being able to see those cute kittens again on a photograph and remembering the event better, however, in another sense, you can still remember the event, so you can look at it both ways really, if you understand my meaning. :smile:

We've already decided if we were going to head that far away from home; then it just has to be at least for two weeks, otherwise there is just no point at all.
87th wrote:This will be my first time in Japan, but I'm going with a friend who has been before (I also have a friend who's already in Osaka). It was up to us where we went, but Osaka seemed to make the most sense. Apparently, it's a cheaper alternative to Tokyo. Den Den Town is supposed to concentrate more on Retro gaming than Akihabara does. It's also very cheap to travel between towns in the same prefecture, and there's much more I'd like to see in Kansai than in Kanto. I've heard that Kansai is stereotyped in the same way as Texas, but stereotypes are widely inaccurate.

Of course, I won't be able to form my own opinion until I've actually been there. The hotel I'm staying at (Hotel Raizan) has internet access, so I should be able to report back, when I'm there.
Osaka is another place I am really considering heading to in the future. It's cheaper than Tokyo is it? Interesting. I just don't know which one I would like to go to first (since both are on my short list for 'holidays that are imperative I should go to').

Cheap is good as well ( :smile: ), especially considering travel; since it can boost up considerably in other foreign holidays I have been on (Italy especially).

The actual reasons for me wanting to go to Japan so much is really down to the look of the place, it does appeal a lot to me. I certainly became attached when I read up about its history, locations and culture as well and from what I've heard of the place from a friend as well; it all seemed to fit a chord with me, something that I want to experience in my life.

Since that's what vacations/holidays are to me, some of the finest experiences I shall ever have in my life, it's so wonderful to just travel freely, wherever you like and get a taste of the world. Sure, it costs and that, but it's worth it on the long run; you get so much out of it, and out of life. Travelling has certainly changed me in the way I think and the way I feel about the population on this planet, we live on such a beautiful planet and with such a little time limit as life is; let's get a taste of it before it is too late. You know?

Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 1:32 pm
by JunkerMike
I've never been to Japan myself, let alone any country other than my own, but it seems like it'd be a nice place to visit since it's all retro and stuff. But I probably might never go, because, well for one thing, I can't speak (except for words like baka, hentai, etc) japanese or read it, and I don't really like to travel. Anyway, I finally figured out how to play "Twinbee Yahhoo!" on MAME, which is one of the two games in the bundle I got, and you needed a BIOS file, and the game's crazy fun!