What's your most unnecessary gaming purchase?
Tuesday, September 19th, 2006 - 1:34pm
If you like, substitute unnecessary for esoteric, or even just wierd. Something interesting! 
For me, it would have to be the Myth 2 Handbook. This thing is so obscure I can't even find a shot of the cover. I guess it sold well. 
Anyway, when I was fully immersed into Myth 2's online, over Bungie.net, I picked this up for 30 bucks US, plus shipping. It's absolutely fantastic, and the love that Charles "Deathwhore" Holt had for the game just pours out of every page. Even with some filler like walkthroughs and interviews, it's a testament to his enthusiasm for the game that he managed to make the book almost 300 pages, and all of it funny and useful. I still consider it the best strategy guide I've ever seen, though it did come out more than a year after the game. The fact that it was self-published by a fan also makes me love it. Made me orders of magnitude better at the game, online. Very funny, as well.
So, what's yours? A three thousand dollar Neo Geo game? A life-sized Samus statue?
"PEACE ON EARTH. GOOD WILL TO MEN. PUBLIC SHELTER. ADMISSION 50¢"
I had Nights for the Sega Saturn shipped overnight at a cost of $30 extra the day it was released.
As a close runner-up, on the day of Starcraft's release I ordered it on EbGames.com. It was scheduled for delivery in 3 days. I then ordered an overnighted copy from Blizzard themselves hoping to get it sooner. Later that day I just begged my dad to drive 2 hours to the closest mall with an EbGames in it. Unfortunately all the boxes had the Zerg on the cover.
XBL: elliottxW
WoW: Jozak - 80 Death Knight
Probably the flightstick that I bought in order to fly choppers in BF2. I got a good deal on a refurbished one, at the suggestion of someone here...a year or so later, it's still sitting unopened in a corner of my living room. Hard to pick just one, though. I picked up a copy of Starlancer about four years ago at an EB Games for $2. It was unopened until this weekend, when I decided that I could pack it for my move more easily if I threw away the packaging.
Most NECESSARY purchase, on the other hand, would probably be the 2nd controller for Guitar Hero. In Cherry Red for $10 more, no less.
Quote:
- Legion, taking "keeping it in the family" to a whole new level.
Xbox Live: Fedaykin98
I'd have thought that no gaming purchase was necessary. They're luxuries.
Having clear that up, I'd have to say every game that I've not completed. And Steel Battalion.
HatchetJob.com - a netcast about more than videogames.
If we're going by the basis of things being bought that I never found an actual use for, that's easy.
The Nintendo 64
The Nintendo Gamecube
The Nintendo E-Reader
Donkey Konga & Bongos for the Nintendo Gamecube
But, of course Nintendo can't take all the blame. I would also add my collector's edition copies of Warcraft III and Age of Mythology to the list.
Oh, and my Tekken 5 gameguide. Zelda Windwaker gameguide. Civilisation game guide.
The Atari 2600 games I can't play. The Bandai LCD I've played three times.
Metroid Prime 2: still in its wrapper. Not finished Metroid PRime yet.
EyeToy and Sega Superstars. Used once.
Donkey Konga - used three times.
HatchetJob.com - a netcast about more than videogames.
I guess right now would be the large sized Sega Genesis I picked up this past weekend with an old SNES. Not only do then not make the A/V cable for the old genesis anymore, and not only do I already have another SNES (but in worse condition), I'll probably be able to play almost all the old games for them on the Wii when I pick one up.
Oh, and the Pocketstation my sister brought back from Taiwan for me. I could only use it with FFVIII and it's Chocobo game was beyond lame.
Xbox Live: Trachalio
Pipe Threader Manual wrote:
Trachalio reminds me something else: £15 on a Saturn at a carboot sale. Broken aerial lead not a problem. Broken laser-mechanism, more of a problem.
HatchetJob.com - a netcast about more than videogames.
1D - finish Metroid Prime! One of my favorite games of the last generation. Prime 2 I have not finished myself...
Quote:
- Legion, taking "keeping it in the family" to a whole new level.
Xbox Live: Fedaykin98
1Dgaf, do you happen to know which of the 3 Wind Waker guidebooks you bought? I'd really, really love to know and if it was the BradyGames one (which I wrote) I'd sure like to know what you regret about it (unless it was just because the game was so easy).
Yeah, it was the Brady games one. ANd, sorry to say this, but it was f*cking useless. Spelling mistakes everywhere, badly designed pages - inaccurate information.
HatchetJob.com - a netcast about more than videogames.
Just kidding. I bought the one by Piggyback books: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Legend-Zelda-Strategy-Authorised-Collection/dp/1...
Nicely designed, but the island names used it in aren't from the UK version; I think they might be Japanese. This complicates things.
Unecessary partially because of that, but mostly because I've not used the book. It just sits there, looking pretty.
HatchetJob.com - a netcast about more than videogames.
Gearing up for hitman blood money, I bought hitman 2 silent assassin, which ended up not being BC for 360 (hitman contracts is however). It completes my collection, but is no more than a shiny coaster.
I originally owned it on GC (way better with the GC controller). But I sold the GC and all the games for 360 funds.
XBL: Dr Papa Kilo
Halo 2 Stats
That and the Jaguar ($20 on eBay, not worth the plastic it's molded out of.)
MaxShrek .. The reason you keep falling, is there is no bottom.
Horror Vacui
Back when I was absolutely in love with MS Flight Simulator 4.0 I spent a lot of money buying a fancy CH yoke/throttle combo that mounted onto your desk, several books on flying and real airport landing charts. I think I also bought just about every FS4.0 expansion that existed. In my defense, at the time I was in high school and wanted to get my commercial pilot's license at some point.
XboxLive: georobGWJ
Gotten any calls from Homeland Security lately?
Xbox Live: NOVOCAIN1217
Steel Battalion. What a waste of potential.
"Time traveling terrorists are no laughing matter, Malor." - *Legion* quote #30201
XBox Live: Novopain
It's all about the games. The original AvP? That made fresh underwear an unnecessary purchase, since you'd crap the new pair in fear anyway.
RIP ChronicNecrosis
My Logitech Wingman Warrior. It looked like a flight stick with a red spinner off to the side and was supposed to be used for playing First Person Shooters. The spinner was intended to circle strafe and the product was endorsed by John Romero himself!
The thing sucked monkey doo doo. It's huge and must weigh 4-5 lbs. Anyone with a mouse and keyboard could tear you apart. It had to be manually calibrated after every session. Oh well, at least it'll make a decent flight stick right? Wrong! Unless you were running under Windows 98 it only functioned as a 4 button joystick. The serial cable was not recognized by Win 2K/XP.
I'm still right here
Giving blood, keeping faith
I lived in Japan when the Jaguar was released. I always wanted to try the original AVP, but had to settle for the two PC releases. Don't want to create a tangent, but how good was the Jaguar AVP? What would you compare it too?
My most pointless gaming purchases. there are sooo sooo sooo many, all filed under "The Collection"
Two I can think of:
My Sega Dreamcast. Total impulse buy on Day 1 (my wife regrets arranging a haircut appointment for me on that particular day). I ended up returning each and every game I bought for it, on the same day, which included Madden, the boxing game that would lock-up and some Aircraft Carrier adventure... I just couldnt find my dreamcast groove. So I have a gameless dreamcast still up in my closet.
I think I should also list a retail box of Borland Turbo C++ that I bought way back while i lived in Japan. I thought I would make time to learn to program my own games.. I never made that time. Pointless purchase. And its free now I think from Borland itself.
Xbox Live: Irongut | Playstation ID: Irongut_GWJ
I take it you didn't avail yourself of the inbuilt "bitch-making" function? I think you actually had to download and point to a profile file for that.
RIP ChronicNecrosis
Games go to gaming section.
Certis beat me to it. - Elysium
A lot of crappy games.
I'd say my force feedback MS steering wheel, but since it still works mighty fine after more than 4 years I probably have gotten it's money worth out of it. Even though I don't race too often.
A guide to making levels in NWN. One of those fads.
Roo: "Just to cheer you up if any of the above made you sad: Boobies."
Koning_Floris, on my online 'skills': "Stinking is a skill too!"
XBox Live|Tshirts|xfire | Last.fm
I bought a used Gamecube for $100 and a brand new copy of Resident Evil 4 for $50, played through the game once, and never touched either one of them since.
While I did enjoy the game, this was strictly an impulse purchase and essentially a waste of $100+...
Lag used to be a lot worse back in the day. Hell, it took Jesus 3 days to respawn.
Quintin_Stone wrote: The typical American eats 3.5 bigfoots in their sleep each year.
PSN: x93_confirmedx (message me for Socom!)
..my second 360.
Well, I don't like to toot my own horn, but I'm a pretty good amateur rectal photographer. Would you like to see my portfolio?
Song of the Week: ...on Facebook...
Doom3. Installed but never played. Uninstalled to make room for Battlefield2.
The there was last Christmas, bought Super Mario Kart (which was hard to find by then) with two new wireless controllers for the whole family to enjoy gaming time. Never used. When we're all actually home at the same time we tend to try and catch up on family shows on the Tivo.
dhelor wrote:
Xfire Profile
My son's computer had a sound card that was going bad. It'd cut out, and sometimes blast out a loud noise briefly. When it stopped working, I ordered a new one, about $78 shipped.
The day after it shipped, he put his foot against the base of the computer table, which pushed the power transformer back in and turned the sound back on. Everything worked fine.
Oops.
I also bought one of those little mini-keyboards that are supposed to let you have all your most commonly used keys easy to hand. If I had thought it through, I'd have realized that moving my hand off the keyboard to use another keypad with fewer keys was actually kind of boneheaded.
"Sometimes I go around saying, 'Kommisar Paulson has seized the commanding heights of the economy!'" - Paul Krugman, asked if recent changes to banking are socialistic.
The virtual boy..../puke.
Master of Orion 3 on day 1. 'Nuff said.
World of Warcraft Strategy guide..
hello not worth the paper its printed on 1week after release.
PA strips were good though.
Aint nothing new about the world order..it's been playing since the day they put George Washington on a quarter
85's face the truth you're too dumb.
http://www.myspace.com/armyofthepharaohs