Daggot

@Blofse Without question.

Trailer looks amazing. Nintendo recently added Super R-Type to online and it's been a blast to revisit the game. I TOTALLY suck at now. I used to have the whole thing memorized and could finish it in one sitting. Now I can barely get through stage 1 on easy. LOL!!! But the music is still as epic as ever.

It isn't just games either. Just look what happened with anyone that "bought" digital content from PSN store. Poof. Gone. Same with Amazon toon. Stories that Kindle books were revoked. I've seen it myself where a season of a TV series I "bought" suddenly was missing episodes because they got locked behind P+ licensing.

I fear eventually all media will come down to a pay per use model. We're mostly there with music streaming, and are a part of the way through with video streaming. I assume all buy buttons will evolve into n-year viewing rights and after those n years have elapsed the title disappears from your library. Or worse, the extreme is that all displays have hardware to track eyeballs so the fee is per viewer per each time viewed, or by the minute. Watching the extended versions of LOTR would end up costing you a full day's pay. Think of the shareholder value that brings!

Just watching the video, idk if I'd say the sound should have been better. It seems fitting for both that style of game and the era it's trying to relate to. Not my type of game, but it looks like someone put a lot of passion in the project.

I mean... uh, on the surface and at that time, yeah, kinda. It's true that for a period of time when Japan was kicking it into gear and dominating the global market, ya, there were some US and Japan stuff going on. It's why Die Hard uses a Japanese company and leader in its story, right? I remember back then think I should learn Japanese because they might take over the world. I should have pushed to learn Japanese anyways because now who doesn't love anime in the original language? But, for a Japanese dev to put that in their game? IDK. It was a game based on world characters. Why center just on the US vs Japan like that? Yes, the timing fits, but it also feels like she's reaching just to have something to say. A quick google on her I see she's not just a fly-by-night commentator, so maybe she knows more than I'm giving her credit for.

Eh. Missile Command meets Centipede meets Asteroids? I can't see why you'd mix those game mechanics. Seems rather unintuitive.

The visuals instantly took me back to an old mobile game I had to really hunt for:
https://youtu.be/fYTYHiwdb7A

And another that I just cannot remember. I think I played off Amazon's app store when things were free. It was some giant robot fighting game with vector graphics like that. Total blank and google is no help. OH! Robotek. Eh, maybe not so much now that I see it.

@Poodlestargenerica The audience for these PC-xx releases seems pretty small outside of Japan. Initially I was excited about some of the titles that were announced since I had played the MS-DOS versions. But, I found out after some research those are not the same. The graphics and presentations are different from what I experienced. Thinking back, some of the titles I'd want were distributed by Sierra. Who knows where the NA publishing rights are with now, if they didn't revert back to the original owner. Hopefully the original devs are getting just enough money to be willing to do some wider releases of other versions of their games (Silpheed and Thexder for me). I played those on a Tandy 1000 with the enhanced graphics and sound options.

The key thing will be if the enhancements can be realized or not. And, not just in terms of slight upgrades from existing titles. Hopefully that will come, but it needs to be talked about a lot starting in like March or early Q2. The problem with consoles today is they're too similar to a PC and it's getting harder to separate them in terms of platforms. I feel this is where MS is getting bogged down and Sony is feeling it too with how much they've been moving to support PC ports more and more. MS's original intent with DirectX and such tech was to make it easier to develop game and easier for end users for the game to just work. 20+ years later we're still not there (is it closer to 30+ years?) in terms of drop-in and play on the PC. That's kind of the last mile to make it nearly ubiquitous between console and PC in terms of tech.

Stillllllllll, I wouldn't mind owning a Pro. I didn't upgrade the PS4 Pro. I was expecting to get a PS5 launch system. That didn't pan out (stupid scalpers), and the launch lineup never got me to come back to get one later. I was hoping the Pro might push move to do it, but not at that price. Maybe if the slim was dropped by $100, maybe I'd do that.

I wish the soundtrack was available at a lower tier, or maybe as an addon. They can do that later when you can adjust the pledge. Still super tempted especially since I didn't play most of this and didn't play anything on the Amiga.

Metal Black is tempting. I'm not familiar with the game, but the video looks interesting and it's near an impulse price.

I didn't own a Dreamcast, and I only had one friend that had a system back then. I can't even remember which games we played on it. There's so much love for this system that there are times I'm tempted to pick one up just to experience it. But, collecting has gotten a lot harder; especially if you try to go with original hardware. There are definitely key titles I want to pickup. Is it really worth it these days? I guess 5min on Ebay would tell me. Too the one great used game store in town that wasn't GameStop gave up and switched to pure tabletop games. I loved that store, but I get that sales were just declining too much for them not to pivot.

Nothing to share here other than it's obvious there is still a lot of love for this system. I know Sega will never make another system. I would like for Sega to do a deep partnership with MS and come up with a killer system seller for the next Xbox. MS can't seem to do it. Maybe Sega and one of their legendary teams with an established IP can.

This was unexpected. I haven't played since the first C64 game. I have no idea why I never played the others. I still remember the first time I saw the screens for the game. I was totally blown away the C64 could have graphics like that. I didn't see mention of QoL enhancements or features like music players, etc. I hope those aren't overlooked for a collection like this. For the moment, I'm pretty tempted to back this, but I'd like some more details.

How awesome. I wonder how he handled the backgrounds. Some of them look like they could be simplified a little more. I wish I had the energy to do something like this. Love to see someone's passion project get finished like this. Kudos!

@RetroGames If I remember right, wasn't Sonic's main trick for speed just DMA? It wasn't widely used yet so it was a leap from a technical standpoint.

@-wc- That's what I'm thinking. I don't see a lot of reason to buy this unless you're just at the right age to have missed the 2600 and this was first system. Otherwise, you'd just get the 2600 version.

I assume there's a market for this. Given that EA has pretty much wrecked all sports games to be only retreads, there needs to be a lower entry point. This is a decent IP to give it a shot. Wanting to release on lots of platforms is a big challenge. I hope they've invested well into the games themselves. Updating visuals and QoL enhancement to the originals might not be enough. I didn't play much of these games when they came out. I was already on the EA Sports bandwagon in the early days; back when it was Madden and NHL, etc.

I'll have to try this, but I love that someone thought to give this kind of idea a shot. With the mass layoffs happening in the gaming industry, I'm kinda worried the games for the next couple of years are going to be pure sequels and rethreads. There will be few fresh ideas and all games will be safe bets. I guess it's time to double down on indie or we're going to keep getting the same games over and over.

I wonder if you can pause this game if you don't type fast at all.

@gingerbeardman It's on the Kickstarter page

I had re-read and read the kickstarter to make sure I understood the digital tier. tl;dr: the digital tier is really a 3 mo sub to a site that hosts the digital version - NOT a digital copy of the rag for you to keep. Meh.

If they do what they setout to do, then I'd want to keep a copy of it and maybe even save it and pass it to my kids later to help reflect back on the influence of games and gaming to their generation, etc. But, that would have been easier to do if it was digital. I'm kinda tired of having to make room for boxes of mags. I eventually threw out my entire collection of Next Gen, Boot, and Maximum PC mags. I had a select collection of other stuff from EGM, PC Gamer, etc, but got rid of everything when I just got tired of having to deal with storage and never taking the time to look back on any of it.

Give me digital so I can keep it mostly forever, find it easier, and not have to worry about running on space so easily. I haven't decided if I'll back the print tier. That price tag is def on the premium side.

If it's meant to be irony, then it's actually a little funny. But, I can't help think this was really just the normal cost saving move. While emotionally I would have wanted that Sierra-era style box, it's not a Sierra game originally and not made by Sierra. We're kinda inferring that because it's the Williams that made the, uhh, is it fair to call it a remaster? Reimagining? Oh well. I bought the VR version on Steam, but I think I may need to get the regular version instead. Not really enjoying it in VR, but that might be because I don't really have enough room for VR so most games don't "feel" right to me. I stopped playing Ancient Dungeon when I had a near miss knocking something over.

Never played the N64 game, but I remember the SNES title fondly. I think I was on the hunt for more games that pushed the graphics beyond the basic color sets and I stumbled upon Legend of the Mystical Ninja. I see the character from time to time in articles, but most don't mention the localized version. Maybe it'll make the online service.

Putting the internet connection aside for a second, to me the biggest issue that it's emulation. We have an awesome retro arcade chain in the area that is adamant about using hardware vs emulation. It makes a different. Yes, they have upkeep costs, but the games all play correctly. No issues with input lag, dropped frames or wonky controls that aren't part of the game itself. That and playing on real CRT screens so the graphics blend as the designers intended the pixels to do.

You just cannot replicate any of that with online emulation. Ya, it's nice to remember some games, and it probably works better for console games. Just not arcade games that were designed with switch based controls, sticks, knobs, trackballs, etc. In addition to emulation latency and having to translate controls to a gamepad. And then you've got your crappy ISP who doesn't want to spend a penny to keep their network modernized or optimized for the sake of all the all mighty shareholder value. "Won't someone please think of the shareholders!" All of that makes it worse. Even if the ISP wasn't an issue at the very least you're still dealing with gamepad vs original controls.

Anyways, fine to remember a game and knock around the first level for a bit. Better for console games of yore. But, this is not the way to preserve the arcade game experience. In truth, we really need a solution for the CRT part. That is growing as the most significant issue to keep old cabinets alive. I think there aren't any new CRTs of the right size for most games being made any more. LCD will give you a display, but it's such a different experience. I'm sure some 12yr old right now will dream up a solution in some English class, patent it and make some money off of it. Hopefully before I'm too old still enjoy playing on real hardware.

I LOVE this. I have quiet dream to do something similar for a game starting to roll around in the far back of my mind. I'm not likely to ever even start on that idea since it's just an idea to see if I could even build the tool/engine to make it work - no idea for a game. But, point is someone took the time to create something like this for a game that doesn't get a lot of attention. This is awesome. Enjoyed seeing how he approached a few different things. I'd want to tinker with the game's engine, and well really tile engine specifically to see if I could find a way to squeeze even more detail out of a more efficient memory design - it's all just data to me and I work in data al day long.

Now I gotta go find the old game and fire it up. It's been so long I don't think I remember much of the game at all.

LOL, I watched the whole thing too. So much glue. I'm glad there are people that know how to do stuff like this, are brave enough to do something like this, and are in a position to not worry too much if stuff goes wrong. Or at least are willing to mess up on camera.

@Hydra_Spectre I picked Under Cover on the Quest 2. It plays a lot like a TC style shooter. It's ok. I couldn't put my finger on why it didn't grab me. Probably that the controllers don't have enough feedback/recoil. I'm not entirely sure.

IDK, if those people were licking GB carts back then, maybe the system/games did give them cancer.

Rats, was hoping for Amiga. Having played a lot, most?, of the games on the Amiga it's the version I'm most familiar with. I keep getting tempted by Evercade, but the decision to go with 2nd tier console ports of these games keeps turning me off. It might be different if I first played the games on a Sega system, but I was a big Amiga fan when it hit the A500 era.

I would love to see Bluth's designs come to life in a game world. His world building is great. While not all of his films were commercial successes, the worlds he developed for those films were fun to explore. I suspect there might have been budget concerns to bring his vision to life especially during that restructuring time.

Forever the first thing that will always pop into mind when I read anything about U VII is Voodoo Memory Manager. I remember feeling like a total genius being able to get my system to run this game with as many system components still enabled as possible. Master level autoexec.bat and config.sys stuff to make it run right.

I never got far in the game. It was truly next level stuff and I just didn't have the time to invest to learn the systems, but man it looked it at the time. I may need to start a full retro run of some classic games. Yars Recharged has already gotten the itch going, then the article about Epyx Rouge is fanning the flames, and now this... uuuggghhhh

Co-op Rastan? Yes please! This looks hopeful. I do wish the movement looked a bit tighter. Hopefully the controls aren't floaty, but it kinda looks like they might be. But, I really like the idea behind this. I need to go ring up the ol' gaming group that I used to hang with and do local Halo era stuff together.

That was a fun read. It's great to get some bit of history that most of us hadn't heard before. More like this please!

@smoreon I think I still have it installed. LOL. I'll give it another shot. I def don't remember the soundtrack, but my friend and I were talking so much smack at each other I wouldn't have heard any part of it.

The Dreamcast did not get the life span it should have. Just too bad for the business decisions that Sega made; specifically Sega US. Several great games on the platform and it's amazing to think they were thinking bigger picture with some concept that we're just now finding out about.

I bought Neon just to play something co-op with a friend. I bashed around on it for like an hour or so until he had to go. I never played it since. I need to go back and see what the game never grabbed me. SoR4 grabbed me from the beginning and I still fire it up once in a while to test myself in survival or trying to get S tier in every level on every difficulty. SoR4 just feels so good compared to most other beat 'em up and brawlers. Maybe Neon was just off in many ways that SoR was spot on?

Backed this without hesitation. While I do hope there is new info, it'll be fun to have a single documentary with all of the history together. A lot of it that i've seen is broken up in various interviews, or covered by retro community outtakes, etc.

Secretly hoping it'll end with the announcement of a new project they've already started on. Now that Ken's gotten his leg back after Colossal Cave, I'm hoping the next project will have a little more technical chops to it. He was well known for pushing the tech with the early games. I doubt he'll be on the bleeding edge like before. That just takes too much of a large investment and usually a large team. I get the feeling that's not what he wants to do again.

Think the retro community is going to be ok with this. Just deliver a quality product that doesn't need to be patched to hell. We'll manage.

I need to try this. It looks like a mix between your standard Tycoon game with a good dash of Kairosoft style games mixed in.

@amongtheworms You're not wrong. Fortunately, the retro community cares not and wants people to do what they love.

I LOVE that these games exist. I didn't know about some of them. I can't say why, but KQ 4: The Perils of Rosella has a special place in my heart, and part of it is owed to the EGA graphics. Or, did I play with Tandy graphics on that one? Anyways, there's something special about the graphics of that era that really captured the imagination, and these devs understand that fully. Great article.

Been following The Crimson Diamond for a while. So glad to read it has a release date. Can't wait to play it. It looks exactly like a classic Sierra adventure. Actually, all of these do. That's awesome. I need to read more on these games. Sounds like a few titles to queue up for when I get a week off later in the year and just relive a bit of the glory days.

There are trends that served their time, but needed to not progress further. FMV games is one clear example. I think at least it showed that games can do more and more with story. So, it wasn't all bad. Just didn't need to progress any further.

This looks like a pass. Action is so stiff and the art isn't all that interesting. Looks a lot like a basic cash grab game.

@cdog555 And sakes. Roller skating was big back then.

I think we may see the end of consoles as we know them. The whole reason Sony/MS and even Nintendo to a smaller scale have been pushing cloud gaming is because it avoids all these things. Games will only run in data centers making it much harder to pirate games. Yes, even handheld devices as stuff like 5G becomes more available. I'm not advocating this, just saying there are reasons these companies are pushing cloud and what it means for preservation. We're going to suffer more problems like game servers getting shut down. However, in an ideal world, you'd also think games should expand to take more advantage of cloud power vs single console CPU/GPU constraints. MS tried to pitch this that games could partially run in the cloud, but we've not really seen that beyond basic multiplayer games - not running whole parts of the game for bigger world destruction like in their pitch video. The point being EVERYTHING is based on profit and shareholder value. It's unavoidable.

Everything doesn't have to be a "metroid" style, so I appreciate this 'classicvania' idea. I've been really itching to replay Super Castlevania VI. I haven't played is several decades, but I believe the gameplay holds up. The music certainly does!

This fan work looks good. I'll have to grab this before any takedown notices start flying around.

I was out of my teens when PS2 came around, so the marketing didn't grab me like that. Nothing was as in-your face as the "Blast Processing" stuff from Sega. LOL

I loved the PS2. I think it was my #2 system behind the SNES. The library for the PS2 was just nuts. My kids still play SSX and Tricky. It was such a jump from the earlier systems on several fronts. I still have my PS2. I'd forgotten about the whole Emotion Engine marketing stuff. Putting the marketing aside, the technical capabilities was just amazing at the time.

This is a really interesting product offering. It's a first to sit between console and handheld. I haven't tried an Evercade yet, but I like this. And, the price point seems reasonable to me for being a variant of a Switch concept in pure tabletop mode. I appreciate they thought to include the 2 cart feature. Having 3 full sets of games in the system at all times is nice QoL feature. Now, if only a demo unit would show up in a Costco or Best Buy or something to try. Might put this on my wish list for my birthday.

OH man, this stokes embers of the old Steel Battalion controller. I never owned that, but I loved the idea on how it would build the immersion factor. This is similar in concept, but on a smaller scale. ~$200USD isn't a terrible price for something like this as a specialized controller. But, like @bkd777 mentioned, need a game to go with this.

I wonder if there will be new info. A lot of the story has been covered before. But, there are always nuggets that haven't been given publicly. Looking forward to see what this comes out to be.

That's not the way to handle the camera on a racer. Interesting concept, but ehhhh.

The really interesting thing here for me is getting a better understanding at how games work. It wasn't always this way, but now that most games run on an engine, it's possible to add things like this after a game is published. It's just fascinating to see people able to de/construct what the console's rendering is able to do and how to add their own hooks for some general purpose like this. I never would have thought to even look into this kind of approach. The base idea should be possible for other retro consoles. That's really starts the mind to wonder what else could be possible. What game would I really like to see with the added resolution, RT support and higher frame rate? Hmmm

@Darknyht Would be kinda hard to go back and ease the sting. Instead you'd just go watch a walkthru video. Seen some speed walks and while it was neat to get the beat of the game, uuggghh, watching that really ruins the exploration of the game and neat interactions throughout the game world. It really took a lot of the soul out of the game.