Hardware Hunt - JVC X'Eye

I've owned a Sega CDX system for almost 8 years, and although I bought it originally from a pawn shop, it's lasted a lot longer than I ever expected it to. Especially given that I only paid $20 for it in the first place. Three months ago my Sega CDX finally bit the dust and I had to retire it. Having amassed a fairly large library of Sega Genesis and Sega CD titles over the years, I knew at some point I'd have to purchase a new Sega CD system. My original plan was to look each month to try and find a brand new Sega CDX unit on eBay. I've been checking almost weekly for the past few months to no avail. That is until I hit the paydirt recently and located a brand new in the box JVC X'Eye console. I had seen one of these at a Toys 'R Us store back in 1995, but at that time I was in college and could barely afford to eat, let alone buy a $500 game console. Needless to say, when I found this brand new X'Eye system, I just couldn't resist grabbing it up.

The first I noticed when I unpacked the unit from the box was how cool it looked. I always thought the CDX system was pretty nifty, but this console is downright sexy. It even had that "new" smell to it when I took it out of the wrap. It's actually smaller than I expected from looking at pictures of it, and it fit just right next to my PC Engine CoreGrafx 2 console in my classic gaming rig. The controller that comes with the unit is basically the original clunky Genesis controller that came out with the launch unit, it just has the JVC logo on it instead of the Sega logo. I didn't even bother taking it out of the plastic as I already had a brand new Sega 6-button controller brand new in the box that I had been keeping as a backup all these years. I plugged everything in and fired the unit up.

The first game I tried was Sonic CD. The bootup screen of the unit is quite a bit different from the usual Sega CD bootup screen. It's got this flying "X" that travels and rotates all around the screen. I played around with Sonic CD for awhile to make sure everything in the CD portion of the console worked alright and then moved on to the cartridge slot. I will say that the cart slot on the X'Eye is really import friendly with its width and as long as the game doesn't have a region check feature on it, this unit will play the Mega Drive imports from Japan. I even tried out the Batman cartridge I had to make sure. I popped in Sonic & Knuckles and Panorama Cotton to further check everything out and it all worked like a charm. It's worth noting that the CD drive on the X'Eye seems to load even faster than the CDX unit.

As much as I enjoyed my Sega CDX console all these years, I can't wait to enjoy this JVC X'Eye console for many years to come. If you have the means, I highly recommend anyone interested in the Sega CD console to pick one of these up. It's really nice to have an all-in-one unit, and if you're feeling playful, you can even use this system to perform a little Karaoke. (RATING: 9/10)

Dragon Quest IV (Nintendo DS) - Impressions

Well I finally got a break from all the WiiWare reviews and have put some time into Dragon Quest IV that was recently released on the Nintendo DS system. I've long been a fan of the NES Dragon Quest IV game, so I was quite excited when I heard that Square-Enix was doing a remake of the game for the DS. The visuals in the game are top notch and never before has a Dragon Quest title looked quite so nice on a portable system. Even the music and game play got a makeover and the end result is one of the best DS RPGs out there. I'm going to put some more time into the game before I post a full review of the title on here later in the week. I'll also have a little write up tomorrow on a new system I just recently snagged after chasing for many years. Tune in tomorrow. : )