ABOUT ME / F.A.Q.

weird old games most people forgot about

ALL MY GIFS

MY MOST POPULAR GIFS

GIF TUTORIALS

SEE MY T-SHIRTS

BUY MY T-SHIRTS

MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL

STUFF I WROTE FOR DESTRUCTOID

MY OTHER TUMBLRS:

  • Who runs this thing?  My name’s Steve, and I live in Atlanta, Georgia in the USA.  I’ve been playing video games off and on since the late 70s. My first console was Atari Video Pinball, and from there I moved onto the 2600, Colecovision, C64, NES, SNES, PSX, N64, GBC, GBA, PSP, DS, Gamecube, PS2, Xbox, PS3, 3DS and Vita.
  • Why do you do this? I started this blog accidentally, just because I joined Tumblr to follow other blogs, and they make you have a blog. Since GIFs are a big thing on Tumblr, I decided to try making some. People seemed to like them, so I kept doing it.
  • Why obscure video games? When it comes to visual media, I tend to prefer weird, over-the-top campy things, and Japanese pop culture — especially tokusatsu, anime, manga, and video games — is full of it. Unfortunately most Japanese video games never make it over to the West, and a lot of the ones that do usually aren’t very popular. I also have a strong nostalgia for the Western games I played back when I was young, but these days most of the new ones don’t have a style or gameplay mechanic that really interests me.
  • Where do you find these games? I find ‘em all over the place – podcasts, blogs, Tumblr, websites, etc. I even played some of these when they were new. So basically I’m old, and I spend too much time on the Internet.
  • What are your favorite games / genres? As far as genres go, these days I mostly play JRPGs and puzzle games for fun. My favorite JRPG franchises are the Dark Cloud/Rogue Galaxy, Megami Tensei, Disgaea, Front Mission, Grandia, Mega Man Legends and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance games. And for puzzle games, I love pretty much any variation of Bust A Move/Puzzle Bobble, Tetris Attack, Pipe Dreams/Pipe Mania, Puyo Puyo, and Dr. Mario. When it comes to making GIFs, I find that 16-bit action, platform and fighting games are the best source of material.
  • Where else can I find you? Oh, I’m all over the place. If you like this blog, you definitely should be following the pixelclash tumblr which I do with cipater and vgjunk (all of my posts are tagged “steve”). I also have a twitter account @obscurevgs. I don’t really have a “personal tumblr”, but if you just want to see random stuff I like that doesn’t fit on this tumblr, then follow mechattack. It’s mostly tokusatsu right now, but that could change. Who knows, I may even start making GIFs for it. And I don’t run the Obscure Video Games “.com” (which I refuse to link to) — that’s just some a-hole, who got the bright idea to leech off my following.
  • How do you make GIFs? Basically I use emulators, capture video, and then mess around with the frames using JASC. If you want a more detailed explanation, I have a series of tutorials you might enjoy.
  • How do requests work? NEW REQUESTS ARE CURRENTLY ON HOLD. When they are available, the best way to contact me is through the little mail icon at the top or the “Ask Me Anything” on my page. Please limit your requests to one game at a time — if you ask for more than one, then I will choose one for you. If I accept your request, I can only guarantee one GIF, though I may do more later if I feel like it. I post requests on Mondays and try to do as many as possible. Usually I can do everything requested from the previous week, but sometimes a few can get pushed to the next Monday. No PC games, please.
  • Wait, why no PC games? Two reasons. 1) They can be very difficult to emulate or run natively, and I don’t want to spend a lot of time getting them going. 2) I don’t like most PC games.
  • Why don’t you have a link for submissions? I have plenty of material of my own, and I think I do a pretty good job of scouring Tumblr for cool stuff to reblog. Also, I’m kind of picky about what I post, and I hate having to turn people down.
  • What are your favorite video game tumblrs? I probably should keep an updated list here, but for now, here’s a post where I answered this question awhile back.
  • Why do you think [some game X] is obscure enough to post on your blog? There are different degrees of obscurity, and just because you’ve played a game doesn’t mean everybody else has. My goal with this tumblr isn’t to dig up games that even hardcore nerds have never heard of; it’s to bring attention to weird, quirky games that most gamers have missed out on for one reason or another. If it really bothers you enough that you feel the need to tell me a game I post isn’t obscure, then please hit the “unfollow” button at the top of the page instead.
  • What’s up with your avatar?  It’s from the Jungle King Tar-chan game on Super Famicom.