Latest News: August 4th, 2008 
 - We Aim To Please - | |
Hey everybody. This update is both light and substantial. We won't waste a lot of words this time, so let's get to business. This update is being truncated because we're still waiting for a few games to come in the mail and we need one of them to put together an article. The next update may be altered as well, since we're having technical difficulties with one of our articles. Anyhoo, this update has a nice article on the Atlus-published RPG, Eithea. It's a two-disc game developed by "TamTam", the same folks who developed the strange strategy game, Jyutei Senki for the Super Famicom/ Japanese SNES. Included with this article is loads of scans from the normal game and limited edition version, a few audio samples, a few thousand words describing the game and a whooping 500 extra images. Yeah, it's huge, and we seriously doubt you'll find more screenies for it anywhere on the web. We'll be working on more articles and doing more scans in our next update and probably add a piece to our "Other News" section. Until next time.
 July 26th, 2008
Do you believe in magic? Me and Bel sure do. With the news of one life passing from this all too short life of ours, another is born from the proverbial ashes. We recieved news over the week that our first niece was born a day before our birthday and that she's nice and healthy. They're not here with us, but I want to say congats to our older brother and his girl down in NYC. What? You never knew we had an older brother? Well, let me tell you that we have two. Still surprised? Then let us blow your mind by telling you that they are also twins. Our family sure is weird...even a little ecentric. Who cares! Big whoop, wanna fight about it?
First off, the site has been tweaked some more. These changes actually simplify the site, instead of expanding on what was already present. You won't have to worry about pages and the like that you've bookmarked; all the links and such should be intact. Things have been organized more by Bel Cain, which is pretty neat. He's also designed the simple new background that we're using, which is a tad brighter than the old one but still has a darker tone overall. He also spruced up the news and the like which we didn't organize last update, so that's all well and good.
This update covers some Super Famicom games (yeah, it's been a while) that we feel you may take interest in. Chain Reaction is in the house...which is Magical Drop for folks like me who don't go to the arcades that much. Well, you're getting served the first and Magical Drop 2, so bon appetite. We've also finished our article on the strange Rouge-RPG Ascii published, Milandra. It's got something to do with some tower, some princess, some guy called Shairok, Nosferatu, puppet thieves, monkeies named Mephisto, blibitty blah. You know, it's supposed to be one of the "creepier" RPGs on the system along with Rapurasu no Ma...aw, forget it. You'll get a better understanding of the game if you read the article, cuz we suck at making Earth-shattering news. As usual, we're going back and spicing up older articles when we get the time, because it's the cool thing to do. We have a revised article for Congo's Caper, aka Tatakae Genshijin 2, aka Caveman Ninja 2, aka Joe and Mac 2: NOT LOST IN THE TROPICS AND NOT STARRING JOE OR MAC. We got up a few scans up too, though they aren't anything to important. As always, take care everybody. Until we meet next.
 July 9th, 2008
Hello again everyone. We want to keep this brief because this isn't a good time for us. A relative within our family has passed away, which is why we've hardly been online. She was a good person...and one of many people that our nephew looked up to. We can honestly say that it hasn't impacted us directly, but it has indirectly, because we never knew much about this person he looked up to, but whenever he asks us about her, we can't help but feel sorry for him and those that suffered. He's too young to understand right now, but he will soon enough.
This update includes two great Sega Genesis/Mega Drive articles revolving around Battle Mania and Battle Mania Daiginjou, a.k.a Trouble Shooter and unofficially Trouble Shooter Vintage to the English speaking folks. We've also got a Playstation article for the strange game, Shake Kids, where a cocktail shaker is your weapon against evil. Bel Cain has also done some great revisions and editing for the following articles: Bubble and Squeak, Chiki Chiki Boys, Elemental Master, and Marko. Oh, and a special thanks to Video Game Central for wishing us a happy b-day a few hours ahead of time and for the anonymous birthday cake in our inbox. We won't have to worry about Alzheimer's Disease for many years, but we're glad someone wants to fight it anyway. It makes us feel a little better. We had a lot more planned, but we'll just tack the additions on as time goes by. Look forward to some cool stuff in the future everybody.
 June 16th, 2008
And so we meet again! Greetings to everyone, Vtd in the house! Do you celebrate Father's Day? If you do, I hope you got your pops something good. I won't lie to you...me and Bel usually don't get him anything special because, well, none of us guys in the family really expect big presents and stuff, and there's five of us in all (no girls...weird). We don't really think it's a big deal...this time is different though. Our mother kept badgering us to get him something nice since he's sixty years old this year, so we HAD to get him something nice. I hope he appreciates it...we're broke, and it cost a couple hundred dollars. We're pretty sure mother dearest will want something nice and expensive too since she'll turn fifty only two weeks later...but what's money when you have family, right? I sometimes wish I was the Grinch! Seriously though, we wouldn't be here today if it weren't for them and we never would've been hardcore gamers too I guess...might've taken up sports or gymnastics or something. On that note, we'd do everything within our power (and budget) for them! [/mushy praise]
Anyhoo, as promised, we've gotten a little quicker about these updates. In this update, the lover and the fighter in us made us write about the Playstation release of Taito's Arcade-style dating-sim, Magical Date. We also decided to finish up an article we had on freeze for over a month...primarily because we didn't have the will to finish it. Speaking of "will", that's the name of the hero for our next game, Knight Quest. Coincidence? They're both good articles. We also finished uploading all our Kensei Sacred Fist videos as requested on YouTube, so have at them! We'd also like to answer a question we received through e-mail about videos for the reviews we have. We will slowly be making videos for the games on the site and possibly link one for each game. We only have a video for Dragonseeds, Magical Date, SCD Terminator, and a game we'll be talking about in the near future, but we'll have more, rest assured. We'll continue to make tweaks here and there, add more scans and illustrations, and most likely have another update before the end of the month, maybe even two, but don't quote us on the latter. Peace!
 June 5th, 2008
We're back! BCTE speaking! We've been through a lot over the past month. Me and Vyse have dusted off our Paypal account, which hasn't been used in over a year. The reason? We've been earning a little more money lately. Of course, the majority of it goes to paying bills...but we have a little extra to allocate towards games. We've covered a portion of the Japanese and PAL games that we have, so we're making sure we have plenty to work with so we don't run out of things to talk about anytime soon. We can't tell you what we bought...that would take the fun of it. All we can say is that we have picked up a few gems and uber-rare games.
In any event, the more important news...my computer broke down while I was adding material to the site. The hard drives are fine, but the motherboard is toast...warm, buttery toast. I transfered my work to Vyse's computer and have more or less taken a break from programming. I'll probably install Windows 2000, XP or dare I say Vista onto one of the smaller hard drives and get back to work in early June. We've gotten a lot accomplished in this update though. I've added over 500 new images to older articles and expanded the content slightly. This covers The Krion Conquest (NES/FC), Alisia Dragoon (GEN/MD), Dahna Megami Tanjou (GEN/MD), Magical Taruruuto-kun (GEN/MD), Syd of Valis (GEN/MD) and Twinkle Tale (GEN/MD). You'll be able to look at those much-needed additional screenies as well as check out the whole article redesign, which has hit nearly every article on the site. Things just keep getting better and better...
Vyse has been doing a lot of work too. He's gotten some more outside assistance, getting some cool scans from scir of GameFAQs (scir91 on YouTube) and has been contacting folks to get some really rare game-related crap. With the scans, scir has also contributed his spirited Rad Racer article for NES. Speaking of contributions, the contributor section has gotten updated. Major contributors will be highlighted in the contributor section. We haven't worked out all the details, but we are going to make links to their work (if necessary) for the time being. It will likely be adjusted in the future. Next, Vyse has made some interesting new articles. He's finished Factory Panic, the Game Gear game that has a little more under the hood than one might suspect. In addition to that, we'll also be taking a look at Crystal Warriors, the predecessor to the excellent "Royal Stone", and Nail 'n Scale, the monster slaying game where you can climb walls and jump off of thin air. This update is chuck full of so much material, we had to throw some by the wayside to get this update out. In any event, I can't tell you what lies ahead, but with all the new import games Vyse ordered from all across the globe (this includes a PAL release or two), we're just as excited as our fans are! It should be noted that updates will be more frequent (hooray!) in the coming days. Until next time!
 May 1st, 2008
Greetings y'all! Bel Cain here. We've been pretty busy last month, so we couldn't get as many site related activities done as we wanted. You know that saying "April showers brings May flowers"? Well, we definitely had our share of showers down here in VA (Virginia). Not only that, we got hit by several very nasty tornadoes estimated to be roughly category three (or even CATEGORY FOUR)...so talk about devastation. The damage is quite extensive and between the whole "Election 08" matter and everything else that's wrong with this world, those suffering from this natural disaster aren't getting the attention they deserve. Of course, those of us who live in the United (Recession) States of America probably don't see this as anything new. We just try to lighten the mood by bringing joy and relief to those in the best way we know how: Through hardcore gaming.
Vtd and I have increased our YouTube portfolio by over fifty percent...or in other words, we've made roughly fifty new videos. What? You say that doesn't sound like much? Perhaps, but we've got a life too...wait, WHAT??? You say you didn't know we even HAVE a YouTube channel? Wow...well, I can't say we advertise our site very well. You can check us out on YouTube too, where we have interesting video intros and endings, a few sick level runs and much more to come in the future. Additionally, we have one new article for the SNES that consist of two games. We take an extensive look at The Jetsons: Invasion of the Planet Pirates which has an unusual connection to Kadokawa Shoten and Sting when combined with it's Japanese counterpart, Youkai Buster Ruka no Daibouken. It's a pretty lengthy, though interesting read. Also, JJ Hendricks of Video Game Price Charts was kind enough to add a link to our site and stated that he feels that many of his readers would like our site. Thanks JJ! As courtesy, his site link can be found on the bottom of this page as well. It's almost like the stock market for video games. You can see the rise and fall of game value as times change and things appreciate and depreciate. It's pretty neat.
One last note: We've been adjusting all our articles and experimenting with new article designs as well as developing a site mascot (an original one that will be used in certain instances). Our new article designs haven't spanned the whole site yet, but you'll see what we mean if you read our latest article. Let us know what you think! Later!
 March 31st, 2008
HEY! Bel here, bringing more Gaming Sanctuary gospel!! YEAH!!! [/Sugar Rush]
I'm pumped, and for good reason...we actually have a half decent update, and its been a while. Now that we've searched over the site and maintenance is at a minimum, we've got more time to do the things that make people love GS; Expand our horizons. As March Madness draws to a close, the site comes up with another update. We've made some other news which pays homage to Ziff Davis Media, since (if you haven't heard) they have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy...so we had to say our piece (you can read Joystiq's article too). We're also adding another new element (of course) to the Game Info Archive, "Game Mags 'N Ads". The news of ZDM touched us and made us realize that we've got to do our part...we had hundreds of mags in our youth, but they were thrown away during our teen years...oh, the horror! Still, we've got a little bit up our sleeves that we'd like to share with you folks. With the unveiling of this section, we'd like to highlight one of the coolest things so far in this section, the original Nintendo Power Ninja Gaiden II comic! You never knew there was one? Well, it's not particularly easy to come by on the net...actually, we couldn't find it, so we scanned it up. Oddly enough, Nintendo only made this awesome comic for the second game in the series...the rest you'll find were either drawn by folks not from Nintendo Power or in a sprite comic somewhere. We've also got strange books that talk about canceled titles and of course, a few obligatory art books that will all make an appearance with time. You want to expand our archives? Just let us know at [worldofgaming@yahoo.com].
The new articles on our roster today are interesting to say the least. For starters, we're taking a look at an incredibly obscure Super Famicom click-and-pick adventure game, Motoko-chan no Wonder Kitchen. Besides being one of the only SFC/SNES games to have cooking-sim elements like "Ore no Ryouri" and "Purumui Purumui" (besides the just as obscure SFC "Yoshi no Kuruppon: Oven de Cookie"), it's also a text adventure with lots of imagination and with a demographic geared towards children. It's even weirder because you couldn't buy this one in stores, it was only originally available to fans of Ajinomoto products, specifically mayonnaise...but we payed a hefty sum to bring this one out in the open the way it deserves. Next, let's expand our Game Boy and Game Gear realm with a couple of games, since those oldies don't get enough love these days. We've procured another tough find, Kaito(u) Saint Tail. It's one of the last titles made for Game Gear and is a Kids Gear title. Is it worth a play? Read within to find out. We've also got Mr. Chin's Gourmet Paradise (our last encounter with Mr. Chin was in Thunder & Lightning). We've also covered three games you can play on your PC folks, and they're all regarding Chrono Trigger. No, we aren't talking about THE original Chrono Trigger (there will be time for that later), and we aren't talking about Chrono Cross or Radical Dreamers...even though they can all be played on you computer if you know where to look. We're talking about "Chrono Killer", a Chrono Trigger beat-em-up made with the "Beats of Rage" engine as well as "Chrono Trigger Arcade: Zenan Defense", a Space Invaders-esque game starring my favorite CT character, Frog, not to mention its "sequel", CTA2: Battle Trainer! The Chrono Trigger Arcade games are counted as one article and can be read here. That should do it for now, at least regarding unrevised articles. With hundreds of new scans and screenshots (500+), this update pleases us at GS!
Note: We have updated the text version of our SD Hiryu No Ken section in the Game Guides section (image guide update comming soon). A huge thanks goes out to GameFAQs member EkaSwede, who provided so much additional information on the game that I could have perhaps made another mini-guide for the game alone! It also shows me just how advanced SD Hiryu No Ken is among other SNES/SFC fighters, even though it doesn't appear that way on the surface. Speaking of text versions of FAQs, you can now access them without clicking into the picture FAQ. Actually, you can do something similar regarding reviews too. You'll know what I mean if you are scrolling through the Game Reviews section. We've also partially upgraded the graveyard forum and finally got rid of our test banner for something slightly more flashy (we'll focus much more on the forum in the future). We'll be making more great updates in the future so stick around!
 March 11th, 2008
Greetings everyone, Bel speaking. We're putting up another small update to tide things over during our site maintenance period. We've fixed even more articles with new upgrades as well as some minor coding issues (things that we aren't even sure if people encountered such as unusual page obstructions in some EX pics areas like Keio Flying Squadron). We've also spiced up a few of the more minor sections of the site and have gone back to scanning more games and illustrations for the public. Speaking of scans, we've discovered that the quality of our scanners from 2007 and 2008 aren't up to snuff with a scanner we bought back in 1999, which resulted in some of the scans having lower (though tolerable) quality. It's embarrassing but true, so we made a generic computer with a 20GB hard drive and installed Windows 2000 on it to run ol' reliable so we can get back the quality scans that we really like (currently getting Sega Genesis caught up). We also got some requests to put up new pictures for our game collection, so we've gotten some pics of games in our new place in the Collection Section. They are certainly better than the ones we had for starters, and I know a lot of people are probably saying "it's about time", though we still need to get a decent picture of the handheld games, among other things.
Jonokuchi! In the world of Oozumou (or what Westerners call Sumo Wrestling), it's an expression meaning this is only the beginning. Unfortunately, it's likely to be the end in the U.S., at least as far as titles starring Sumo Wrestlers are concerned. If you thought U.S. gamers didn't get a title with a Sumo Wrestler, you should think twice after reading Sumo Fighter. It's a little known Game Boy game with a slightly sad story to tell and it's drenched in Japanese culture and weirdness. Next, we edited numerous articles as far as text and MP3s, but I gathered additional images for Flink for the Sega CD. We've also talked about the Game Gear version of Shikinjo...we don't care what the Japanese experts have to say about the pronunciation, since it says "Shikinjo" in plain English on the box and it's not that important arguing the semantics at the moment. It's a lot like Soukoban, except it's unusually colorful and you assume the role of a Chinese vampire. We contacted a representative of Toei Animation, Shirahama Yukiko (from the Press Section), to answer some of our inquiries surrounding the popular game, such as why they sought to publish certain versions of the game (NES/Family Computer and Game Boy) and if there was any animations based on the game that they may have developed. After all, they are a world famous animation studio and many of the games we have seen published by Toei also have cartoons and the like (Puss 'n Boots, some Hokuto no Ken games, Magical Taruruuto-kun/Magical Troll Adventure, and more) so we figured we should ask. We confirmed our suspicions when Yukiko stated that they simply produced/published the games, but it allows us to better inform our fans and it was kind of Yukiko to get back to us. We don't like always taking the easy way out. We'll be talking about a few strange games in our next update, since our shipment from Japan has arrived.
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