Comments 162

Re: "They Lied" - New Research Casts Doubt On Analogue 3D Accuracy Claims

Coalescence

Exhausting is right. Analogue should have tempered that marketing just a little so they didn't come across like the 3D would be absolutely bulletproof - especially when their previous consoles haven't been either. But this constant clickbait/outrage porn everyone is slinging is way too incendiary for the actual problems.

Analogue's products are great plug and play options for using original carts and controllers. They'll never be as robust or ever-evolving as a mister solution. They also aren't going to magically make decades old games look like modern ports, and the silly people who bought the 3D in a rush without understanding the product are a big part of the pile on.

stfuajpg moment

Re: "We Believe This Is The Right Step" - Unofficial FPGA Sega Neptune Gets Pushed Into 2026

Coalescence

Not a shocker. Fpga based retro consoles are crazy complicated and expensive to pull off, and the tiny audience of people willing to pay that premium have high expectations. There's good reason why Analogue has almost no competition outside of a crazy person like Palmer, and why they probably keep Kevtris locked down with a massive salary. I'll be pleasantly surprised if this thing gets finished. I have a Mega SG and love it, but I'd double dip for a unit with the 32X built in.

Re: Random: Tommy Tallarico Got Bodied So Badly He's Now Using A Fake Name

Coalescence

Shame he biffed so badly. I didn't kickstart because it sounded pretty dubious from the start, but video games live was a fun show. I attended a few shows, my wife sang in one of them, and I did the Kickstarter for most of the CD releases which all came through with the promised bonuses. No doubt he screwed up bad and deserves the exodus, dude probably needed someone to reign in his out of control hypesmanship and keep him away from the big dollar decisions.

Re: Review: Analogue 3D - The Ultimate Way To Play Nintendo 64?

Coalescence

Great review. Analogue is always late, always lousy at communication, but always comes through in the end. Can't wait to add this to the collection. I'm way past the days of wanting to tinker with mods and other solutions. The plug and play setup of these consoles is second to none for playing old carts on a modern set.

@RupeeClock They've said from day one the 3D will not get openfpga, like the Duo.

Also worth noting that while the 3D probably will get a leaked official unofficial 'jailbreak' firmware (which isn't actually a jailbreak, just alternate official firmware with the load from sd feature), these have been coming later and later with each console and the Duo's is very far behind the official firmware release, so getting the option to play roms from the sd card comes at the cost of missing fixes and features. The Duo has save states, but the 'jailbreak' firmware doesn't have that update.

Re: This Ingenious App Could Be A Game-Changer For Fans Of Japan-Exclusive RPGs

Coalescence

Big pass on that. There's a world of difference between a brute force machine translation and a proper translation & localization. Just as there's a world of difference between Mato's Mother 3 translation or Neill Corlett's Seiken Densetsu 3 translation, and the J2E Final Fantasy IV translation. If I'm going to sink time into a big text heavy game, I want some quality behind the translation.

Re: Final Fantasy Composer Nobuo Uematsu Has Never Used AI, "And Probably Never Will"

Coalescence

He's spot on about the unstable aspect of live music. That's also why I can't jive with music made by 100% virtual instruments most of the time (Celeste's soundtrack being one big exception). There's a roughness to music and other art that I crave. People who have been fine with ultra glossed processed & homogenized music will probably be able to slide right into AI stuff and not even know the difference, but for me there's no substitute. The tech isn't going away when there's money to be had, it'll just take artists like Nobuo to have the discipline to keep original art alive.

Re: NES Endings Compendium Vol. 2: 1990 - Will You Ever Reach The End?

Coalescence

I backed this one and couldn't have been more pleased with the final product. The print quality is vibrant, top notch, with nice layouts. The regional differences are pretty fascinating, and his commentary is all worth reading. I've ended up checking out a whole pile of NES games based on how cool the endings looked or how he described some of the experience. I'm a bit exhausted of all the video game related books coming out lately but this one is absolutely solid.

Re: ModRetro Is "Contributing To" The MiSTer FPGA Project And Not Looking To Replace It With The M64, Says CEO

Coalescence

As an enjoyer of Internet misery it is absolutely hilarious that the two options for plug & play fpga N64 consoles are Analogue and Modretro - with people constantly crying about the former's lack of communication & closed sourcedness, and people constantly crying about the latter being a Palmer Luckey joint. Meanwhile the misterbros are doing their usual thing and Takibros are a rising force in smugness. It's going to be a new fandom war, with the extra spice of politics & business ethics as people buy their M64 or 3D or Superstation and the tribes start to really balkanize.

Re: You Can Now Grab Two Of The Best Castlevania Games For Less Than $5 On PS4/PS5

Coalescence

It's a deal, but definitely the lesser version of SOTN. The new dialogue lacks the theatrics of the original, the new voiceovers are flat, and it's a good deal buggier than the original while fixing helpful glitches like the money duplication. But the biggest issue is that the music volume is too low compared to the sound effects (which are also handled poorly) and there's no way to adjust. The closing credits song is also changed. One of the best OSTs ever recorded and they nerfed it. 4.99 is probably worth it for checking out Maria mode, but this is such a lousy port. At least Rondo wasn't manhandled so badly.

Re: "I Still Think The Virtual Boy Was Probably Just Too Ahead Of Its Time" - Japanese Developers On Nintendo's Most Infamous Flop

Coalescence

Gotta say, the system reminds you about breaks on startup and many titles prompt you in-game. If you didn't take breaks, that's on you. 2 hours isn't healthy to stare at any screen directly with no breaks. Even my stupid 12 year old self took the breaks and I never had any eye strain or headaches.

Neck discomfort and awkward positioning though, all day. The playing on your back with the VB on your face was the lie sold on that Nintendo Power letters section. There was that photo a kid sent in where he supposedly took his on a camping trip and enjoyed the bliss of nature by laying in the grass with the headset balanced on his eyes. I tried that immediately after getting the VB as I suspect many did and yeah there's no way. Going facedown into the unit presents its own challenges.

Worth it though. I got mine in 96 when it was already marked a failure, so my mom was able to get a gently used demo unit dirt cheap as a birthday present. It even came with a free Teleroboxer because it was left in the slot (along with the Mario Tennis pack-in). I grew up in a crowded small house. The TV was a fiercely defended resource. Portables were better but still invited unwanted over the shoulder attention. Sticking my head into the VB was the perfect escape.

Re: Sega Accused Of Using Police To Recover Nintendo Dev Kits It Had "Negligently Disposed Of"

Coalescence

I would guess Nintendo's legal team became aware of the situation and put the screws to Sega (or Sega was doing a CYA measure before that happened). They definitely don't want to lose their now-ally, and so they jostled up the police who in that region are all too eager to do some seizure and roughing up of the citizens. Sucks for the guy caught in that but it's quite a ripping yarn.

Re: ModRetro Version Of Tetris Gets Updated With Battle Mode It Really Should Have Shipped With

Coalescence

Weird that I grew up with the Game boy and Tetris, and never once played the multiplayer mode. Mostly because I had no link cable and never knew anyone with a link cable until the Pokemon days.

Anyway, it's crazy cool that they are releasing updates that can be applied to the cart but it's also introducing the annoying release a game incomplete and patch it later that modern console gaming has never escaped ever since the units went online.

Re: Three Years Later, And Hyperkin's PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16 Clone Is Finally Coming Out

Coalescence

Really bizarre choice for a company that just seems in it to make money. The Analogue Duo isn't perfect but it's only a bit more expensive with fpga power and a drive to play burned games since there's no copy protection. The alternate firmware allows loading roms though no save states yet.

The Pocket + Dock is an option as mentioned already. Mister options are getting cheaper and more accessible. Anyone who wants to dip their toe into the libraries without the more expensive fpga solutions has any number of cheaper software emulation devices with all the bells and whistles.

This thing is not even aesthetically pleasing.

Re: Retroid Issues Response Regarding Retroid Pocket Flip 2 Hinge Issues

Coalescence

Back in high school I had a summer job quality checking car sunvisors (part of an under the table paid crew slipped in to pick up union slack, but we won't get into that). For 10-14 hours a day we'd be sitting there going through crates of sunvisors, checking for any visible blemishes and more importantly, exercising the pivot and hinges from all angles. We were told they always did these checks by hand because a machine couldn't predict for the random ways a human would stress the parts. That was a while ago, but it looks like tech still isn't able to catch things like this. Maybe if these companies weren't pumping out new models every five minutes there could be more money invested in quality control.

Re: Tomb Raider Composer Jailed For COVID Loan Fraud

Coalescence

I mean he's among the most forgettable composers who worked on big games. Not super shocked he'd be in desperate times. Also that prosecution for a fraudulent loan five years ago is definitely working at the speed of government just like with all the other COVID loan criminals. If only there was some way to audit a request before handing someone a big check.