TimeWalk builds its games fresh upon order, so there is a 4 to 6 week waiting period after you place the order so they can build your game as well as print your manual and box if the game comes with such things. Super Star Fox Weekend happens to be one of those carts and they currently don’t offer a version that doesn’t come with a box. Not a huge deal for me as I’ve been wanting to get as many CIB games as possible lately and the fact that I could get one for SSFW was a bonus. 4 and half weeks later after I placed my order, I received an automatic tracking notification that my game was on the way. 2 days later, the package was in my mail box and I quickly opened it to see for myself the high quality product that TimeWalk makes. The problem was that upon opening the box, I had only had the game cart; there was no box, no manual and certainly no double sided poster.

Nice products. Poor service.

Now this was most likely an honest mistake and I want to make it clear right now: I’m not knocking TimeWalk Games for the fact that didn’t ship my game complete the first time around, its the fact of how poorly the situation was handled for me to finally get the rest of my package.

I quickly contacted the company via its online message submission form, letting them know that I was missing a portion of my order and what could be done to get rest of it. After 3 to 4 days of not getting a reply, I found their direct e-mail address and sent them a follow up message. I then received a reply that night, following up with my original e-mail from the online submission form that it would taken care of the Monday of the following week. That Monday passed and I waited 3 days for the items to arrive and had received nothing, so I decided to write a follow up email on the item; asking if it did go out and was met with no reply. The weekend came and went with no items arriving. I sent two more e-mails with the later of the two messages taking them to task about their customer service and finally got a reply. I was told that the company was pretty sure the rest of my order went out and that they would follow up first thing in the morning with a tracking number on the package the items were sent in. Can you guess what happened in the morning? You guessed it! I didn’t get that e-mail.

At this point, I had decided that I was going to write the company one more e-mail and if the reply didn’t have my tracking info at this point, I was going to dispute the issue with Paypal, I was sick and tired of having to essentially babysit this whole transaction and I either wanted a chunk of money back or the rest of my order! I almost felt like I was dealing with a deadbeat eBay Dealer for a moment. I shot another email over, taking them to task AGAIN on customer service and finally got a reply: My stuff was on the way, tracking number and all.

I quickly popped in the tracking number and started matching the dates up, the items were shipped the day the owner was suppose to be e-mailing me my tracking number on the items that were allegedly already sent out. He obviously had to take time out to get a label made for the items and to get a tracking number for me generated, so why couldn’t he take the extra time to apologize, tell me he made a mistake and that he just shipped them out. A "Oh and here’s your tracking number too and we are sorry for the repeated mistakes!", would of it least indicated to me that the company appreciated my business and patience.

As someone who worked in customer service for years, I tend to know the signs that show you’ve seriously damaged your image to a customer. To fix that, you start with the most human thing to do and you apologize and do your very best not to piss that customer off again by getting them what they should have received the first time. If the situation continues to get worse, you offer the customer a discount or a coupon and you do this to show that you want them coming back to you so you can do them right the next time they order, 100 percent right. TimeWalk Games showed me none of these very basic customer service skills and that’s a shame because for what its worth, the overall package of their games is excellent; but that won’t fix the poor service I received. I’ll be taking my orders for any other reproductions elsewhere.

Customer service folks, it makes people come back and buy from you again!

~Michael Mertes

Over 50 games across 6 different game consoles. Over 50 games that I will never play!

Taking a look at my library, I found a slew of sports titles that I really will never play for the SNES, Genesis, N64 and a few other platforms. These games will be taken to my local retro game store and traded in for credit, perhaps for another retro game or towards something else. I can’t imagine getting much credit for any of these games, but its certainly better then having them take up room on my shelves! You might be thinking: “What will you do if you suddenly have a desire to play some of these sports games?” My answer: is flash carts!

So if you are looking to trim down the fat of your collection and you are not a huge fan of sports games like myself, take a good luck at your library and cut these sports games off your roster!

~Mike M

Flash forward about a year later and inside a 1994 Nintendo Super Power Club catalog was the very same Super Star Fox Weekend carts we played on at the tournament for 45 bucks. That may not seem like a lot even for 1994, but trying to explain to my parents that I wanted a 45 dollar game that literally lasts 5 minutes didn’t go over very well. I had no allowance either so my plans of getting another crack at that game was ruined.

20 years have passed since I played at that tournament and the Super Star Fox Weekend Cart is now one of the more expensive 16 bit video game related collectables on the market. Going anywhere from 500 to 700 bucks, it is above and beyond anything I would pay for a 5 minute game (Oh man, now I sound like my parents did 20 years ago!). Thankfully, we live in an age where people know how to make their own reproduction carts and despite my lack of interest in adding repros to my game library; I decided it was time to pick up a reproduction of that very cart that has eluded me for so many years. Enter Time Walk Games, a reproduction company that not only provides reproductions of certain games, but makes them with a custom box, manual and double sided poster! From the website all of their products look great with sharp looking boxes and clean looking manuals. This is where I decided to purchase my Super Star Fox Weekend cart, even though I kept cringing at the 100 dollar price tag (It’s still cheaper then the real thing!). With my order placed, I was prepared to wait the typical 4-6 weeks it takes for the company to make the game and just a few days ago; I received the shipping notification for it. I became pretty excited and I couldn’t wait for it to come so I could pop it open and finally get a “Winning Score”. Today was that day, but unfortunately the moment got somewhat soured when the shipping package was opened up.

Inside the box was the game and when I say game, I mean the physical cart. No manual, no game box and certainly no double sided poster. I instantly became pissed, I waited 4 weeks for this and they forgot more then half the stuff! I took a few deep breaths and wrote them an e-mail asking if they could kindly send the rest of my 100 dollar purchase, hopefully they’ll respond quickly.

A few minutes later, I was off to do a workout and while I was driving in the car, I realized something: I just scored the cart that I’ve been wanting for 20 years and I’m pissed that its missing the box and the manual? The original DIDN’T have a manual and it certainly DIDN’T have a box! I should be thankful I got the game at all!  My 10 year old self would of counting his blessings for being able to acquire the cart and here I was 20 years later having a hissy fit about it. Realizing how stupid I was being, I snapped out of it and realized that at home sits something that I am going to really enjoy, even without its extra piece of card board and paper. It’s the game and the memories that count folks! Time to do a barrel roll!

-Mike M

The great thing about this game is how much it reminds me of Super Metroid, but with a lot of enhancements. More to come as I dive into this game.

During my quick live 35 minute play session, viewers watched as I repeatedly died at the same screen section over and over again. This game is certainly not for those that do not have patience, but if you can handle the repeated visits to the game over screen, you begin to develop muscle memory as to when to jump, shoot and when to run in the very tough sections of the game.

I didn’t get very far in the game during the live session, but I did enjoy the music, game play and look of the game. I’ll dive into it hard one day.

Battle Kid: Fortress of Peril is a home brew title that can occasionally be purchased from Retro USB. If you want to take a stab at it, you can buy it here: http://www.retrousb.com/product_info.php?cPath=30&products_id=86

Watch live video from thegamerlogic on TwitchTV

My original video discussing “How Much Is Too Much?”

The first time I thought about doing this video was one day back in 2009. I had fired up YouTube to watch the latest video from a channel I enjoyed watching and was completely taken back by what I saw. Instead of the usual carefree, relaxed guy I had been watching for awhile on this channel, I was seeing a broken man with tears streaming down his face. With a long explanation and tearful good bye, the host of the channel signed off with a haunting piece of advice: “Don’t let your hobbies take over your responsibilities and more importantly: Family. My wife and my kid left me because I allowed my hobbies to do so.” As soon as the video ended, I had to take a step back and question myself. Was I doing the same thing? As it turned out, I wasn’t; but from that point onward I started purchasing games with a much more level head.

Reaching out to the gaming community on this subject was very fun for me and it received tons of great comments and even better video responses. Originally, I was going to feature just a few of them, but I have decided to feature of all of them, because each one is fantastic in their own way! Thanks to everyone who responded!

HWC1218’s Response

Ryan AirZonkWorldChamp’s Response

SegaCDUniverse’s Response

DeadlyAneurysmGaming’s Response

Israelpacheco89’s Response

Jferio’s Response

Atarileaf’s Response

Croooow111’s Response