Damo

@Beauville Apologies for that omission. I've added a note to the piece.

@Deuteros Games-X!

https://www.timeextension.com/features/the-inside-story-of-games-x-the-uks-first-weekly-video-game-magazine

@slider1983 Basically nothing.

@_Ex_ In the best hands and on the best hardware, yes. But for anything under $200, software emulation for platforms like Saturn and N64 isn't going to be perfect (at least not yet, and from my own personal experience).

Given that cheap emulation devices are massively popular these days, I'd argue that is the way most people are going to experience software emulation – or on systems like Switch, where latency is a huge problem, even with official releases.

@_Ex_ Quite the opposite, as you can see from the review section of this site, we've covered all kinds of emulation devices, including handhelds and devices like the Polymega. I'm a big fan of both emulation and FPGA, and can see the benefits of both:

https://www.timeextension.com/features/soapbox-heres-why-i-cant-ditch-software-emulation-handhelds-for-the-fpga-analogue-pocket

I'm also fully aware that FPGA emulation isn't perfect (as mentioned in this very review, in fact), but on the whole, because it is emulation at a hardware level, it's usually more accurate and less prone to latency – especially if you're directly comparing devices at this price point ($160).

None of the software emulation devices in this price bracket can match MiSTer Pi when it comes to performance. A more powerful PC wil close the gap of course, but we're talking about sub-$200 products here.

@RetroGames I realise that. It's going for the NES aesthetic in terms of visuals and sound, though - like Shovel Knight did, which you mention.

@UK_Kev Doubtful, unfortunately. The hands-on footage from the prototype in October will be vital to generating confidence in this, I suspect.

@Poodlestargenerica Fair point, I've changed it slightly. Appreciate the feedback!

@PopetheRev28 it's in the works, apparently!

@IceClimbersMain That's the early bird pricing - it will rise to $60 eventually.

@PopetheRev28 It's been available for a while now. The issue is that demand outstrips supply as this is basically a one-man operation. When pre-orders go live they sell out quickly.

Since this review went live a short time ago, the developer has explained that it's possible to put the VM2 into sleep mode by holding down the Mode button for 3 seconds. We've updated the review to reflect this.

@Guru_Larry That video still makes me shudder

@Poodlestargenerica OpenGL is the default renderer for that PS2 emulator. As stated in the review, switching to Vulken improved things, but not to a level that I'd deem fully playable.

@-wc- I'm inclined to agree but let's not forget that Sega had just witnessed its market share get eaten by Sony, and perhaps assumed that six buttons would be off putting for a more casual, mainstream audience? I definitely see the logic of reducing complexity in terms of controls.

@RootsGenoa I know what you mean, but it was one of the things raised in reviews of the remasters (the lack of autosave) so I thought it was best mentioned here, too.

@Spider-Kev No, that's just you

@RootsGenoa That's exactly why it was mentioned - modern gamers might expect autosave, which this doesn't have.

@RossoftheRobots Save states are manual, too

@RetroGames Sorry, I did include a note to point this out. There are literally no images of this thing yet!

@PFG9000 You know what, you're correct. I've altered that question. Those who have already voted, though, don't worry - your scores remain unchanged.

@-wc- My fully boxed copy of CV2 on the GB cost me £12.99 from a local indie game store in the late '90s. Last time I checked, I think it was worth about £400-£500 in that condition. I'll be passing it down to my kids!

(Unless, of course, it begins to drop in value as all of us old gits pass away and nobody wants to pay that stupid price)

@RetroGames At least somebody gets it!

We push a lot of 'new' retro products, including the Analogue Pocket, MiSTer, Polymega, 8BitDo, 8BitMods, Evercade, etc. Feels odd to be attacked for covering another, but we live in an odd world, I guess?

@KitsuneNight The 'old' Sega Forever was that, sure - but, more recently, it was a vehicle for Sega Europe / Danny's efforts to preserve and celebrate the company's history. That work now seems to have ended, which is a crying shame, and the fact that Danny's tweet alludes to a less-than-satisfactory working environment makes it worse.

@OldManHermit That film doesn't get enough praise; great soundtrack by Damon Albarn, too!

@Andee It certainly is. https://image.api.playstation.com/vulcan/img/cfn/11307TAFxlnwB1KK4tj7dWZ62MucOjFqg8GynfHKLxeORMrY27h_X_tArQK7IGY8uMB2xMVxHi-AXz518vAn-sbaulwbsSin.png

@KitsuneNight None of the EGGCONSOLE games have English localisations, as far as I'm aware. They're the Japanese PC88 versions, none of which were released in English.

However, this isn't a text-heavy RPG, so you should still be ok.

@MysticWangForce PSX was the codename for the PS1 during its early development, I think? Well, 'PlayStation-X' was, at least. I'd imagine this was to set it apart from the earlier SNES PlayStation project.

@BulkSlash Fixed - thanks!

@bring_on_branstons The video upload says July 1993, so yes, I think he might be incorrect on that one.

@kkalata Given that you need to complete the first two books to access the third and fourth, how does the game know that you've done that without the save data?

EDIT: So, as I understand it, the character stats are the only thing you can't carry over in this case - so the 'rumour' is still true in one way, as most people are going to want to retain their progress from books 1 and 2 when playing the other two books.

I'm happy to update this piece to finally put this to rest, if it is indeed incorrect!

@GhaleonUnlimited I encountered this issue myself (with the EUR version admittedly) and there are numerous other reports online of people hitting the same roadblock regarding the save data. Are you 100% sure your memory isn't playing tricks on you?

I'm happy to be proven wrong but I'm almost 100% sure I didn't get around to playing the third book for precisely this reason back in the day. Unless I was just being dumb!

Some other posts on this matter:

https://gendev.spritesmind.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1280
https://forum.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?146983-Shining-Force-CD-RAM-cart-MegaCart
https://segaretro.org/Shining_Force_CD

While I take your point on people parroting what they've read on the internet, what makes me think this is legit is the fact that A) I was aware of this problem before the internet came along, and B) several forum posts seem to indicate other players hitting the exact same problem independently. But again, I am happy to be proven wrong here if you can get solid evidence - and I will update this post to reflect it.

@jamess That press release says:

"The business also holds shares in Outside Xbox, Digital Foundry, and Hookshot (which operates Nintendo life, Push Square, Pure Xbox, and Time Extension)."

So it is correct, but perhaps could have made it more clear.

@jamess IGN hasn't acquired Hookshot. Ziff Davies (IGN's owner) has purchased Gamer Network, which has a shareholding in Hookshot. Ziff Davies doesn't "own" Hookshot, nor does it have any say in our editorial stance.

@gingerbeardman I'm still sore about that whole episode. Last time I spoke to the developer, he said he basically has no control over when the game gets released. A real shame, given how promising it looked, even a decade ago.

@GhaleonUnlimited This cart totally overcomes the region lock out, it will play games from any region, regardless of the console's origin

@NinChocolate Most of the games have English fan translations now

Ah sorry, yeah, I misread your comment, I don't think GBA games can be dumped to the Polymega yet, but perhaps in the future?

@Gerald You can use the N64 GB transfer pak to do that https://www.timeextension.com/news/2023/12/polymegas-n64-module-allows-support-for-game-boy-and-game-boy-color-games

@-wc- It's an odd choice, for sure. I'm not sure what they were thinking.

@smoreon It's been a long day (thanks for the save!)

@Steel76 Many 'modern' carts are going to go the same way. DS and 3DS both use flash memory for save data, and sooner or later, that will refuse to be written to any longer, making some games unplayable.

The Switch will last longer as there's no read / write function on those game cards (I think?) - save data is on the system, not the card.

@Profmcstevie My point with the easy mode is that even an average player can blast through it on their first try, and if they're not bothered about getting better at the game and chasing scores, they might not return to it. I agree that it's wonderfully accessible, but I do think the ease in which you can get to the end credits might reduce some people's interest in the wider game.

@-wc- I had to say something because I love this handheld. It's literally my dream portable, thanks to that D-pad.

@Moroboshi876 As far as I'm aware, this is digital-only.

@Poodlestargenerica RetroArch has no emulation capability whatsoever. All of that is down to the inclusion of cores, which are entirely optional – you can remove and download the cores you want, so it's absolutely a front-end.

@Azuris Exactly.

@gingerbeardman I meant to tag the first poster as well, so apologies for that.

Not sure what you mean by the second bit of your message?

@gingerbeardman And my point is you don't know how much he paid, and you also don't know the motivation of the seller - perhaps he was happy to let the game go for a lower-than-normal price because he knew it would get played and not put in a sealed protective case and resold on eBay?

My point is, we don't know, so if we don't know, then "being excellent to each other" surely extends to not jumping to conclusions on such things?

@gingerbeardman How can he be "scalping" GameStop when they set the price? It's not like he forced them to put the games on sale for massively below their retail value.

And we don't know what he paid the seller for PDS, so to speculate that he paid under the odds seems a bit presumptuous to me, personally.

The tweet suggests that both parties were happy with the 'deal', so I'm not sure it's worth throwing shade at, certainly not with all of the genuinely bad stuff that's happening in the world right now.

Scoring a bargain is one of life's little pleasures, and if the seller was happy with the price he got, then I don't see any reason to react negatively to any of this.