What IS a GameBoy Camera?

Since it's a quite niche piece of hardware from the ancient late '90s era, I feel it will be a good idea to describe it shortly, before I write the bigger post about the silly game I made on it. It's super quirky so it perfectly fits my blog too!

Two GameBoy Cameras, my GameBoy,
and GB Operator to bring my saves to the computer.
Also a dinosaur, for a good measure.

GYAOPPI II in-depth overview and instructions

 

GYAOPPI II in-depth overview and instructions

part of Gyaoppi coverage (October 2018)

I have never really been able to post my writings and findings due to time limits, neither this file is fully finished. However, I have been receiving questions and inquiries about Gyaoppi so I decided to post whatever I have written (and abandoned) now. I hope this information will prove useful to some regardless. I will soon try to find a way to post my other findings and data I recorded in spreadsheets...

by Karolina 'Twarda' Twardosz

Gift - a tale of an odd gift

Fanart by yours truly.

Gift (known as Gift: Le Cadeau des Étoiles in France, and Gifty: Ein Geschenk des Himmels in Germany) was a result of a collaboration between Cryo Interactive and artist Régis Loisel, and was developed by Eko Systems (now called Eko Software). With its cheeky humour and challenging gameplay, it was aimed at an older demographic. Released in 2000 on PC, and later ported to PS2, it's definitely an odd game, perfectly fitting the theme of this blog. It's hard to find in a search engine due to its name, it's quirky, and has personality. But it also features a pretty solid gaming experience, accompanied by fantastic promo and concept art! But there is actually another secret reason I wanted to write about it. And it's a rather hilariously turbulent personal story, in fact, of experiencing a truly awful GBC port. Feel free to skip the next 2 small-text paragraphs, as they will be mostly my ramblings about the past. They are there to accent the disappointment I felt at that time. Note: since I played those games on original hardware, please excuse the potato quality of all my photos.

Mothra Tamagotchi: Ghogo & Mothra eggs

Back in mid-late 2019 I focused my v-pet attention onto Mothra Tamagtchi. Truth to be told, I'm not really fond of Bandai's vpets, but I find this one quite enjoyable. I really like the cocoon mechanics, and the overall gameplay feels a bit closer to my heart. Plus, I used to be a Godzilla franchise fan, and Mothra is a really cool Kaiju.

But anyway! Those who don't know, Mothra Tamagotchi was known for hiding a secret: decades have passed and no-one could get certain characters to lay those elusive, mystical eggs.

I remember being overly busy with my gamedev stuff in the late 2019, but I kept my Mothra alive to entertain myself while working. This vpet gets really needy in its late age, though! But somehow I managed to make both Ghogo and Mothra to lay the egg, and even recorded the process. And I also somehow forgot to write about it here... I blame it for being overworked at that time.

But enough about that, let's get to the main course, the video! 

Care details: Good care overall, killed after becoming too needy (17/18 days old). Some care mistakes were done.

Ghogo died on 7th Nov. 2019, Leo Mothra1 died on 26th Nov. 2019.

And the original Twitter post: Mothra egg (feel free to follow me there btw! I do dinosaurs & art, and RT adventure game things).

The Four Horsemen of Bad Minigames!

Good grief! I began writing this in November 2019. Now, since my own game is out, I think it's the right time to go back and finish this entry...

So, on my voyages through the low-end of the Nintendo DS gaming library (and beyond the DS as well), I noticed a notorious pattern in the minigames department. The same minigames (or iterations thereof) kept popping up, again and again. It reached the point where it's both hilarious and sad to me seeing them in a game, or even in a trailer of an upcoming product.

If there's a low-end game (be it a kids game, a girls game, a knock-off game, a quick-made game, etc, etc...), then it's guaranteed that one of the Four Horsemen (as I like to call them ;)) appear. And this isn't only a "cheap games" specialty, as these can be found in the more defined works - games considered good, or classic, as well.

Rikou No Koibito: clock setting shortcut

While Rikou No Koibito was covered numerous times on YouTube, I failed to find a clear answer to how to set up the clock again, after the game starts. So here it is, hopefully easy to find by anyone who also owns this rare pet (and I hope someday Google will show my posts higher so the info is easier to find).

If your dating sim has the inaccurate clock issue (running too fast), here's the trick:

On this screen press
Esc and Enter simultaneously.

On the default main character screen press Esc and Enter at the same time and hold them for about 1 to 2 seconds. You should hear a beep and you will be automatically taken to the clock screen, which is now paused. Press Enter to adjust the time, and the rest follows same formula as when starting a new game.

There, now you don't have to quit the gameplay because of the inaccurate clock.

Fossil League [DS] p.1 - Gameplay & Story

Contents:

1. The game begins... | 2. More about the gameplay | 3. The plot again (spoilers ahead!) | 4. End/postgame | 5. Personal notes and the score

Around early 2019 I played a rather obscure Nintendo DS game released in the West in 2007 (according to the Fandom Wiki), similar in gameplay to Pokemon. It was Fossil League: Dino Tournament Championship (Jap: 恐竜王者決定戦 恐竜グランプリ). Yeah, the full title is quite long. It was developed by MTO (in 2006) and localized by D3Publisher of America. Any other information is really scarce on the Internet, but MTO's website still has a page for this game (link). And it looks like they have yet another, and even more obscure, DS dinosaur game in their record... Hmmm, tempting.

But anyway! About 7 months have passed since I played Fossil League, and it's time to write about it, till I still remember what it was about. This post will focus more on the gameplay elements and the plot. The next one will be about the dinosaurs themselves.

Some screenshots were taken during my original DS playthrough, while others were taken via DS emulator to supplement the text.

Fossil League box art: Japanese and Western (US). Shows a quite change from the Japanese release, doesn't it?
I enjoy the clipart quality.