-wc-

@beartown

GBA = SNES has been a common trope since the beginning. I tend to agree, they are different things, and even at the time I thought "man, if only this had two more face buttons it would be like a little SNES."

OTOH i'm kinda glad that it WASN'T a little SNES because the game library might've been full of crappy SNES ports and fewer original titles. 👍 Handheld gaming was all about constraints, something that is lost in the modern era.

@N64-ROX

@2ElvesVS1man

i have "all the consoles" and i worry that the next time i try to use some of my more neglected ones, they won't work 😟

in particular, my Jaguar hasn't been hooked up in many years.

I've been thinking about this game, and feeling its absence, since grade school.

@N64-ROX

ah! I had forgotten all about the Duke!

yes indeed, you are right. I was thinking of the ver. 2 controller. 👍

makes sense, though, that the largest controller possibly ever made is the one that has room for the 3x2 button layout with two sticks! 😅

there is a new hyperkin Duke controller out there but unfortunately it is wired/usb.

@Glassneedles

The World is not enough - I never played this one, but I'm very interested now because I happen to love the single player campaign in goldeneye!

Diddy Kong Racing - this one never quite "clicked" for me, but I almost put it on my list anyway. I always intended to give it another shot however.

Dr Mario 64 - I only didnt add this because I prefer the NES one, though iirc they are basically the same game. nothing wrong with the 64 version!

Pokémon Puzzle League - similarly, I just like Tetris Attack on snes a bit more! nearly the same though.

Harvest Moon - I have this cart! great game but again, the snes one edges it out for me.

Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine - wow is this really that good? Color me interested!

Rocket Robot on Wheels - I played this for a few minutes quite recently! great bouncy, cartoony graphics and general vibe.

Rogue Squadron - great game! it gets kind of overshadowed by Leader in my mind but both games were like mind blowing when they came out 🤯

ps - thanks for the tip on RetroDodo! 👍

@N64-ROX

im a bit confused, tbh. the controller linked does have the buttons in the og xbox layout, doesn't it? 🤔

I think the real reason you dont see twin stick pads with the "sega" six button setup is that no games have ever been designed with that setup in mind, because no OEM controllers have ever been designed that way.

also, things would get pretty crowded! take a look at the saturn 3d pad, and imagine where the second stick would go..

even that horrible looking gulikit twin stick "saturn" controller reverted to 4 face buttons to make it work (arguably)

I do get what you are after, though! one pad to rule them all 👍 personally I've given up on this and i'm up to four 😂

ult 2 (dreamcast, xbox, "modern")
pro 3 (s/nes, dual shock)
8bd64 (n64)
m30 (genesis, saturn, arcade)

@romanista

i am enjoying the combo of ultimate 2, pro 3, 8bd64, and m30 so much! i have pretty much stopped wanting for more controllers at this point. (and thats really saying a lot for me!)

I also love my 8bitdo lite 1 controller for its unique layout that ive never seen on any other controller, and I will be getting the new steam controller if it ever comes out. 🙄

ps that earthion m30 is a beaut! im not really a "special edition" type guy but that one is really fitting and it isnt half assed like the RE pro con for example.

@GordonBennet

IIRC 8bitdo did actually make such a controller, but took their more "blatant" 1:1 copies off the market when they eventually got threatened by Nintendo. (as though Nintendo had any such desire to please their own fans.)

FWIW this controller is very fun to play SM64 with! very intuitive.

i can also recommend the 8bitdo replacement stick for og n64 controllers. i have a blue controller with that stick, very high quality feeling controller that way

@AnonUser

I cant really argue with your points, except that in my opinion 5 is way too low.

Mario 64
Waverace 64
Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon
Goemon's Great Adventure
Banjo Kazooie
Banjo Tooie
Pilotwings 64
Rush 2 (kind of a personal choice but there's nothing else quite like it)
Bangai-O
Smash
Sin and Punishment
Bad Fur Day
Ocarina
Majora
Snowboard Kids (both games)
Mario Golf
a few solid Bomberman games including by far the most ambitious games in the series imo
Space Station Silicon Valley
Ogre Battle 64
Shadowgate 64
Blast Corps
Perfect Dark
Paper Mario
F zero X
Star Fox 64

lots more if you include games that were solid versions but just "better on X" (usually dreamcast) as youve alluded. I believe most of the games ive listed are both good games, and games best/only played on n64 ✌️

PS - my (many many) legacy consoles and crts have mostly collected dust, as I've been playing literally everything on my Steamdeck w/retrodeck since October of last year. so, I feel you on that!

I'm wanting to get into "native" pc ports and romhacks soon as well. its a big world out there! 😊👍

I wish theyd not moved the a + b buttons relatively drastically further from the c buttons on the new controller. I'm surprised ive not seen anyone else talk about this but i noticed it immediately.

otherwise, still a GREAT controller. i may get one of these retro color ones to go with my black one for 2p 👍👍

@AnonUser

I am sure that you get the benefits of which you speak, playing SM64's native PC port with dual analogue.

but, like, there are other n64 games besides SM64 😂👍

looks like he kinda struggles getting the cart back out 😅 oh, well.

definitely not just you.

it's not lined up in the open position 👀 can't unsee

@Yousef-

it's really great to have you back 😊👍

@Martin_H

"Retro" means "made to look/seem/feel old."

it has Latin roots and everything.

I feel you, in that if people are going to use it just to mean "old," it has lost meaning and can be safely ejected from usage in favor of words that do actually mean things.👍

@DestructoDisk

"I think that pretty much puts the final nail in the coffin on the definition of “retro” when it comes to video games."

sorry, "that's not how words actually work."

it kind of seems like you are saying that the word can rightfully mean anything to anyone as long as it's not the actual meaning of the word, reflected in it's definition and etymology.

im not going to debate about the definition of a word and not use the actual definition as a starting point. i can hardly imagine a bigger waste of time.

the relative fragility and thickness of a clamshell, but without the screen protection.

idk why y'all bother arguing about this if you don't care what the words actually mean.

snes classic mini is a retro console.
analogue 3D is a retro console.
evercade is a retro console.

Wii U is just getting old like everyone else.

which one of those "hilarious parodies" is the one where we killed 176 school girls?

so ***** embarrassing. we had a good run, y'all. ✌️

polls work a lot better if you dont split one of the answers among 3 different responses ✌️

46% - yes
32% - no
23% - IDC

PS - 0 people want movie without a tv series. interesting 🤔

I'm in the "new game or nothing, thanks" camp 👍

IIRC, the term for the other kind of transparency is "alpha blending."

Personally I would call them both "transparency effects." two means to the same end. ✌️

it's all optical illusions, afterall.

super cool article, thanks!

@PKDuckman

hang on, was it the microsoft windows 95 installation CD that had the "Buddy Holly" music video on it, by chance?

@PKDuckman

Fury³ was a sequel?! wow im learning so much today! 😂👍

i seem to remember getting Fury³ as a pack-in with a Microsoft Sidewinder controller I got at Sam's as a kid. either way, like most games I had back then, I played the hell out of that game!

you know things are getting weird when they show pics of the cardboard box and no screenshots.

PS - I'm pretty sure I played this back in the day! 🥰 i love being reunited with previously hazy early gaming memories.

I think this one got "snap-to-grid"-ed as Fury³, along with that game. gotta make room in there! 😅👍

"I think you might have ruined my phone when you made me that camera-phone...

and my camera".

How is it a shortcoming when the games are made for that controller?

is the NES pad lacking for analog controls?

let's all get ahold of ourselves and realize that contemporaneously, the dualshock was the only controller that had two sticks, ever... AND the second stick was sparsely supported, even at that. in fact, the first FPS game on PSX that even supported "modern" style twin stick controls came out after the Dreamcast launch, IIRC. (and, ironically, the controls were infamously not well received at the time)

looks great!

no mention of the size/scale, though ✌️

ive played these on 3DO, good times!

PS - were these not already playable on DOS box? what am I missing? 🤔

@Reko

wow, that was a while ago! thanks for pointing it out, not sure how i missed it 😂 ✌️

still, last blade 2 is a masterpiece on NeoGeo and is not to be missed! 👍👍👍

@Bod2019

"Poor use of layers I suspect when composing this."

yeah, it seems like he drew these separately on different layers or even as separate pieces, arranged them arbitrarily in one frame, and then strangely cropped random parts off of them using lines from the background as boundaries(?!,) apparently so that almost nothing would overlap. the more I look at it, the worse it gets 🫣

"I’m going to be negative, apologies... omgomgomgomg 🤓🍿
"but Lara kind of looks like One Punch Man with a wig on 🤔"

🥳!

"This bodes well for my own efforts in illustration."

Good luck in all of your endeavors! ✌️♥️

yeah if I hadn't read about it, I'd have no idea this was a SEGA related work.

EDIT - upon further inspection, what is going on with the interaction between the characters and back ground, here? why are Morrigan's wing and feet cut off at the edge of the stone that she is clearly in front of? Rami's dragon appears to be emerging from a crack between the stones. all kinds of stuff like that going on. Sonic looks like he is painted on the wall instead of existing in the space in front of it.

does anyone want that Seibu logo on their shirt? makes it look like corporate retreat swag.

thanks for the write up! I love to see articles that exist to share something the writer personally cares about, as opposed to obligatory news or contemporary game reviews. ✌️

I am similarly passionate about button layouts, but I prefer to play on a tv, so I've collected a number of 8bitdo pads for this.

my main two are an ultimate 2, which for me covers Dreamcast, "modern" games, and in a pinch, Saturn 3d pad games, and a pro 3, which obviously is perfect for SNES and PSX games. these two live on their docks, next to my docked steamdeck, just under the tv. 90% of the time I'm reaching for one of these.

(I'm actually surprised that more people dont talk about owning both of these pads, as it's usually presented as an either/or. I guess many people have a strong preference against one or the other, but to me they are different tools for different uses, and having the option each time i play is fantastic!)

for Saturn, Genesis, and most arcade games, I have an M30, which is brilliant and IMO the ultimate evolution of the 6 button pad, and an analogue 3D pad, which is the two handled N64 pad I always wanted.

anyhoo, for not that much money I am the happiest I've ever been with controllers!

If 8bitdo ever makes a handheld, believe I will be first in line! 😊✌️

@saffeqwe

i think you are correct about the technical modern definition of the word, but I'm quite certain that the home "port" of many arcade games especially before the 32bit era were more like new games built in the spirit of the original, yet we still called them "ports."

e.g. bionic commando on NES is/was considered a port even though it is a completely reworked (and better) game with wholly redrawn graphics, and different levels and everything.

Virtua Fighter 2 on Genesis is/was called a "port" but it was clearly a completely new game. I am sure it shares no code with the original. here is an article written 20 years ago, when the game was 10 years old:

https://www.sega-16.com/2006/03/virtua-fighter-2/

"Sega biggest achievement here was that they showed us how late ports of games much too powerful for the hardware are all too quickly forgotten."

my point in this conversation was not to nail down the definition of "port" in the modern context, but to discuss how we used to use the term as a catch-all for "games adapted to new/different hardware" before all this talk of remakes, demakes, remasters, etc etc. ✌️

@saffeqwe

"pure remakes made on the new engine with the new art and new game logic."

am i confused or is that what we used to call a "port?" 🤔

@Razieluigi

I miss when games would come out wildly different on each console and handheld. i considered Switch to be kind of the final nail in that era's coffin. those games were so interesting to me, back then. still are! ✌️

"remaster" never made sense as a videogame term, because games are not linear media.. I don't see why "port" fell out of favor but that's what they all are, afaik. i guess because "FF pixel port" sounds stupid 😂

good thing there's you-know-what.

just hearing of this, but it made me realize what i really want is mega man dodge ball!

anybody know why they changed the title to busy a move for Western audiences back in the day?

(thanks for the review! I've bought most of these enough for one lifetime 😅✌️)

@no_donatello

I came here to shout out Swampy's Revenge! I only recently finally tried it, and I love it! ✌️

"We have some bad news for people hoping to pick up the Retroid Pocket 6."

I think you meant "planning," as opposed to "hoping," as the implication as written would be that they will not or might not be able to get one at all. ✌️

i remember this game was getting hype in Nintendo power in the early n64 days ♥️ never played it myself.

@GodlessPreservation

these companies will never sell you a DRM free ROM that plays and looks exactly like the original, so the currently available slop is neither preservation nor the same product at all. 👍

I hope you are getting paid well from somewhere, because simply sniffing your own gas doesnt seem economically sustainable in the long view. ✌️

@GodlessPreservation

yeah, but my point is... scissors?

seems weird, don't these organizations have tools to open or cut open things in order to see whats inside?

it looks like they ripped that floppy disk open with the hands and teeth 🤔

"If one does, I will definitely be buying plane tickets instead of relying on any shipping company."

won't customs still do whatever they want with the stuff you bring back, though?

@RadioHedgeFund

oh man, plus shining in the darkness/force 1 + 2 🤤 thats the kind of stuff id want on a little thingy like this. 👍

it would probably have 4 or 5 sonic games and probably no shining games, alas.