Someone bought this rad FM Towns II computer via eBay late last week and now I'm sad

I'm sad, of course, because, in a perfect world, I would've won this particular auction, as I've wanted to own some sort of FM Towns system since I first laid eyes on one in an old issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine.

Granted, if I were to drop my hard-earned dough on one of maker Fujitsu's FM Towns machines, which were released in Japan between 1989 and 1997, it probably would make more sense for me to pick up an FM Towns Marty console rather than the PC variant seen below, but the latter won me over with its "original Macintosh" looks.



Anyway, this entire conversation is moot due to the fact that I only discovered this auction after it had wrapped up--and even if I'd come across it earlier, I wouldn't have had $960 to blow on it.

As for which games I would've bought alongside this FM Towns II (in the hypothetical situation that would've allowed me to do such a thing): the system's arcade-perfect Bubble Bobble and Rainbow Islands ports, for starters. I'd also love its supposedly spot-on Splatterhouse conversion, although I've heard copies tend to be pricey.

(Via retro-treasures.blogspot.com)

Three scary games I'm playing as part of #HorrorMonth

Although I had a lot of fun playing the shoot 'em ups that I chatted about in these recent posts and that were inspired by my blogging and podcasting pal Anne Lee's #Shmuptember game-along extravaganza, I'm about ready to move on to another genre now.

Thankfully, Lee is one step ahead of me and already has announced another such event for October, with the theme this time around being scary games.

The thing is, I've never been one to play overly scary games--games like Fatal Frame and Silent Hill and Siren and Resident Evil. Oh, I love reading about them and watching videos of them and stuff like that, but playing them? Not really--which is kind of funny when you consider how much I love scary movies.

Still, I really want to participate in #HorrorMonth (that's the official name of Lee's latest game-along, by the way), so I'm doing my best to put my fears behind me and play through the following trio of terror-ific titles between now and Halloween.

Sweet Home (Famicom)--Those of you who have visited this blog for a few years now may remember me mentioning Sweet Home in previous posts that were published around this time of year. That's because this isn't the first time I've attempted to play through this spooky, Resident Evil-esque (due to its setting more than anything) RPG. I've never made it more than a couple of hours into it, though, so this year my goal is do do a bit better than that (if not make it all the way to the cart's credit roll).

Splatterhouse (PC Engine)--Here's a game I've been curious about since it first caught my attention back when the PC Engine was still in its infancy and its North American counterpart, the TurboGrafx-16, had yet to be released. I've barely played it in the ensuing years, although I couldn't tell you why that is--other than this genre generally isn't my cup of tea. Thankfully, the few minutes I spent with Splatterhouse the other day were a blast, so I have a feeling it won't be all that difficult for me to complete at least a handful of its stages before I call it a night, so to speak.

Clock Tower (Super Famicom)--Unlike the pair of titles discussed above, I've purposefully avoided this Super Famicom spooker over the years because I knew its scissor-wielding antagonist would be too much for my rather delicate constitution. Although that mostly was proven true when I played a fan-translated version of this unique point-and-click title over the weekend, I'm not going to give up on it--mainly because I want to learn more about the aforementioned villain, the titular mansion and protagonist Jennifer Simpson.

Are any of you participating--or planning to participate--in #HorrorMonth? If so, which titles have you short-listed for this particular game-along?

Halloween-ish HuCards

OK, so the post I'm pointing you to--published earlier this morning on my other blog--doesn't solely focus on the PC Engine HuCards that I'm hoping will put me in a Halloween mood in the next weeks; it also includes a few of that system's CD-based games.

Surprisingly, NEC Avenue's Horror Story is unlikely to be among 

the PC Engine games I'll play in the run-up to Halloween.

I'd copy and paste that post's content here, but I'm planning to conjure up and publish a similar post--which will focus on spooktacular games from a number of systems, not just the PC Engine--later this week or early next.