@euan @euan Thanks for researching this to confirm!
So I can't remember the process since it was 1995 - - is it basically as long as you beat story 2, whenever you reset OR turn off the system, either way book 3 will be accessible? Since folks said they couldn't access it, I'm wondering if there is anything special you had to do to see book 3 without the cart.
I know folks mentioned from their recollection they could not access Book 3 so I'm curious as to what that obstacle might have been. It'd be good to document this process here in case RAM carts are like all dead long in the future lol
Is it worth someone testing with via emu w a PAL version in case that ver has an issue with the process too?
Fear Effect is still just $30, what's a Limited Run edition gonna cost?
And if you really want to play Bubsy you can't track down a cart?
Lol I got Fighting Force loose 2 years ago for $3 or $5
I really appreciate nice re-releases of super - expensive Genesis games and such. I don't really understand buying (licensed) repros when a real copy is cheaper. But I'm not their customer so whatevers
@Damo I am not doubting other people have had issues with this, and I understand thinking this is a "when I first played Zelda I swear I could choose between the sword and boomerang", but yeah, I'm ten thousand percent sure we played it without a RAM cart.
Someonr on reddit said that Wikipedia said that without a RAM cart your STATS do not carry over for your characters in Ch 3, and I know that was true for us.
Someone also said SFCD like secret saves something to internal. A SFCD save doesn't literally take up all internal though it's close.
Also maybe possible that the game remembers that you beat both chapters right after you beat Ch 2, but forgets if you turn off the system? This is just a total guess, I have no idea.
I remember being pissed we had to use characters we didn't really like for Ch 3 because our char levels didn't save.
So yeah, I don't doubt what other people are saying from their experience, but videogames are my life and especially renting the system and us playing through it an entire weekend, I wouldn't ever forget this, haha. And I'm 100% sure we didn't get a RAM cart with the rental.
Again, I was playing on a USA (Model 2) setup, unsure if there is a bug/glitch on certain regions /systems /etc
I would love to have this mystery solved lol but not sure what other info I could provide. Puzzling
@Spider-Kev Oh, I saw, and I was trying to alleviate your worries about opening up a console. You really have to try to mess it up or do something insane like leave the iron on a chip to kill your console.
It's just a very helpful thing for retrogames to comfortable with because inevitably there are mods you'll be curious about or maintenance you ll need to perform.
It's like a regular Mega Drive cart in that I'd have to tear the back label to unscrew it so I'd rather not unless I had to work on the cart, sorry. ;p
The PCB is a little thicker than a normal one though interestingly. Thicker than my Retrobit Gleylancer (the only two reissues/repros I own haha)
LRG though, it would take something really amazing for me to buy anything from them ;p I don't care for their business model, the choice of games, or what the extras are for what they make to each their own though.
I don't care who though but SOMEone needs to reissue more Mega Drive games. Twinkle Tale and Battle Mania 2 prices are insane
Lol I was just telling Kurt at HG101 about this for our Shining feature (upcoming SEGA book!) because he had added this to the feature.
You can access the 3rd story without a RAM cart on hardware.
I'm 100% sure because my mom let us rent it and a SEGA CD over summer, and my friends and I had to beg her for an extra night because chapter 3 came up after we beat it.
You just start the new chapter and have to delete your previous one.
I mean if you own a SEGA CD you absolutely should have a RAM cart, but the developers didn't lock non-cart owners out of chapter 3.
Edit: I guess I can't speak for the JP or EUR versions, but certainly in the USA version, and I strongly doubt they d be different.
I hope you guys retract this story or add an addendum ;/ one of the many things I hate about the Internet is someone says something when they don't know what they're talking about and years later people think it's a fact.
@bobrocks95 I'd have to open up my Panorama Cotton. If I do I'll post back here. But it seems like a quality release on the surface at least, from the box to manual to cart label, and the tea cup is really nice.
@Spider-Kev You have to TRY to break something irreplaceably when you're doing basic soldering, like leave the iron tip on the motherboard and go have lunch, lol
If something basic breaks you're going to have to do that anyway.
I thought my first SEGA CD died, so I got another. About 15 years later, after I started soldering, I opened it up and literally just the fuse broke, which takes about 2 min to replace! Some happens with SNESes.
My first solder job was doing an NESRGB. I had no idea what I was doing and certainly didn't do a perfect job, but it works great and my clumsiness and redoing things didn't harm the console in any way.
I was afraid of soldering, and eventually I didn't have anyone around to ask to fix basic buttons and things, so I bit the bullet and taught myself. If you're nervous there are a million youtubes but it's seriously easier than
@Andee Basic soldering is barely a skill. It's nothing to fear. I was afraid of it for like 20 years until I just decided to learn one day to do a NESRGB on my own. If you can play videogames or roast a marshmallow you can easily solder.
If you're into retrogames it can be borderline essential to fix random stuff that happens inevitably: broken buttons, the SNES / SEGA CD fuse dying, not to mention capacitor replacement.
You don't need expensive equipment either! A $10 soldering iron will be everything you need to get started (and if recommend a Radioshack $35 desoldering iron, if you get into it).
The only challenging soldering IMO is working on a CPU-style chips with lots of tiny legs, which for doing most retro stuff you will never need to mess with
@-wc- I wonder if this supports playing imports? If so you can get a JP Saturn even on ebay really cheap! Saturn def will always be my fav system, and there's so many weird awesome JP games to discover now matter how deep I think I've gone into the library
@KitsuneNight Some of the games it turns out are better than anything I heard about when it was new. The stuff I saw covered like Demotion Man was laughable to finally play, but then it has Immercenary, Slayer, and really cool stuff I never heard of.
JP 3DO games are usually not too expensive so I've been getting a few.
@Sketcz I killed my original 3DO trying the 240p mod (FU RetroRGB, no solder that requires messing with a CPU is "easy"), so I was amazed to learn that a JP model had it already, and I love it too! How awesome would it have been if Playstation 2's had that
@Nahhhtendo I mean everything is relative depending on your lifestyle and income. When I'm giving people advice on how to enjoy retrogaming in 2024 I start with the least expensive solution that meets their needs, and you can always go from there. I just don't like to assume, and what's "disposable" income is different for everyone.
@Nahhhtendo Yeah for you, sure, it def made sense.
You said you didn't understand other people having difficulty justifying the cost. So I explained how a person not with a retrogame collection to sell would maybe see the value proportion
@Psykomatik Real hardware will always be better, plus you have the satisfaction of actually owning what you're playing, legally.
I've used emulators, FPGA, and my own hardware/software and outside of subtle differences (usually with sound) they're all pretty similar.
For me it's emotional. I have zero attachment to a digital game, but knowing that I have ownership with a cart/CD, the original manual, OG controller, and experiencing it on a CRT the way they were designed to be, those are all part of what I love about experiencing videogames.
A lot has been made over FPGA but I'm 99% sure most people would not notice the difference. I ve been to gaming events where so-called gamers are running emulators and consoles through laggy LCDs and they can't even tell it looks horrible and is borderline unplayable.
And look at how popular Arcade1UP "cabs" are which look like trash.
So good emulation is plenty good enough for most people.
The coolest thing I like about a Mister is the variety of CRT filters! I like to show my kids games (which I own on cart/CD) on the family TV , and the CRT filters are really impressive.
@Nahhhtendo Most people don't have 5 grand to drop on their hobby... $600 is not an impulse purchase for lot of people. Esp when you can emulate for almost free on a device you probably already own, and most people really can't tell the difference between emu and FPGA.
Lol that's like saying "Why is so hard for people to afford a home? I just downsized my mansion and bought a condo."
And ad to the fact it's a device that isn't plug and play - you have to learn how to set it up and kind of know what you're doing with it.
All in all it's an extremely niche product compared to like a Nintendo or SEGA mini, for a very specific consumer.
Cool feature! My grandpa took me to Powerfest... I sucked at Rad Racer but it was an incredible experience for every kid who was there to not only compete but also see rows and rows and rows of Nintendo games, many of which weren't out yet!
It's so much harder for my wife, who didn't grow up playing videogames, to use a Playstation controller because there's no logical order to the buttons unlike with letters. And my kids (5 and 2) have to look down at the controller every time they press a button.
And by leaving no space for the diagonals, the Dpad is great for cardinal directions but ***** for Street Fighter motions.
I know obviously people are used to it by now but the decisions behind the original pad were totally arbitrary, and besides the grip shape, which is great, it was designed to be different, not better or more intuitive.
I buy a bunch of stuff from a JP seller on ebay, and you can def still get an OG GB that has issues and needs a recap for $20-35. Which means in actual stores over there non-functional units must be near valueless there. Looks like totally functional units are BIN for $70-80 which means they are def worth less than that in person.
There are SO MANY of these units in Japan it's insane, and they just never have collected crap like Westerners do.
@smoreon I doubt they own the rights to the name. Akklaim snaked it from Midway and Turmell somehow in the '90s with some chikannery in the contracts for the home versions.
And I think Raw Thrills is some b-stard zombie ghost carcass of Midway.
SFTM is a fun, tongue-in-cheek Saturday-morning-cartoon-style romp. I mean it's written by the guy who made Commando, The Running Man, and Die Hard hilarious, cmon.
Was it a great Street Fighter movie? Debatable.
All the new videogame-material movies lately have just been whatever to me. They feel pretty soulless and paint-by-numbers to me at least.
I miss when you could make wackadoo ***** like The Wizard or SFTM for sure.
I hope everything is OK with him... I don't always agree with him or anything but no one deserves to have all their ***** destroyed.
It does seem pretty bizarre on the surface to me too but let's give the guy the benefit of the doubt. No sense in piling on to his misery
I ve always been really unsure about doing videos to feature my games library / setup. I kind of wonder his often this type of thing happens to well-known YT people. :/
State Farm cam insure collectors items like baseball cards, but my local agent told me they looked into and couldn't do videogames because there isn't an official appraising agency for this stuff (I didn't even know there is one for cards).
Obv I know about WATA but the farther we keep them from being any kind of official agency the better for the hobby
If anyone has any info on getting your retrogames insured in the States I'd love to know
I love having a Mister on our family TV to show my girls games, but it would be so much better to be able to use my real carts / discs and controllers on it!
@Sketcz I actually just volunteered to help CJ with Shadowrun and they got me some resources. I know it's been in the works for a decade lol. I'm gonna poke around with it when I have time but haven't since I volunteered a few months ago
Basically there currently isn't much space available per line. I think Segagaga is a similar issue although it must have some additional problems too.
I'm gonna try to figure out if it's feasible to just accept the font and char limit and just create like double/triple the dialog boxes, or if this is like critical failure and a variable-width font needs to be created or something.
Yeah I saw too SEGA AGES DF was being worked on. I do wonder if that time could be better spent elsewhere but whatever people want to work on they should probably do since this is all unpaid and for fun (for most people?)
@DexTepa If you're playing Saturn for the 3D there are still lots of great games but that's kind of like buying a Toyota Supra to go to the grocery store and saying well I like my old Civic just as well.
2D (or games that mix both, like Dragon Force) is the real *****! It's a powerhouse.
PSX actually has lots of great 2D and hybrid games too.
@AllieKitsune Sometimes I'm glad that people would rather watch those guys than read long articles. I'm constantly discovering new games through HG101 and often look them up on ebay immediately, and so many random games are still cheap (and if not the JP ver likely is!)
@Razieluigi It's an excuse to collect something they think will be worth money someday. Or they're $45 wall hangings?
The best way to listen to NES at least is pull the audio from the CPU and wire new RCA jacks. This bypasses sound going through the muddy-ass RF (even if you're using the stock RCA jacks, it still goes to RF first). I did it like 5 years ago and the bass and clarity are amazing. I'm NOT an audiophile at all. But if you're an NES player it's a big difference.
I've heard of the Toslink mod for SNES and Saturn but have been told the difference is nearly imperceptible. I wish more people seemed to know about the NES mod tho
One thing I'd never buy on any format is a Genesis OST, because every revision MD/Gen is a little different, and whatever they cut might not sound like how you want it at all.
When the Sonic 1 and 2 OSTs finally came out they sounded tinny and way off, and I went right back to my mp3s I recorded with a tape player from Sonic Jam lolol
@Sketcz Actually I'm not sure I can possibly appreciate DF1 any more! I would bring it to sleepovers and eventually 3 or 4 of my friends bought a Saturn after it was dead, just for DF lol.
I guess I've always been like those "college SEGA guys" that SoA planted to pimp the Genesis, except I wasn't ever paid for it lol
Can confirm that the new Shout Factory set is inexpensive and excellent!
It's a totally legit special edition. GREAT 4K video, dir commentary, enough deleted scenes to be an alternate version of the movie, and high-level interviews w the cast and studio people on a whole 2nd disc of extras.
@RetroGames Thanks for the info and resources! Always looking for ways to experience retrogames the best way possible. I hope it supports Mischief Makers
@Gamecuber Yeah I forget about TR because it actually came out on Saturn before (tho essentially the same time) the PSX.
I hear a lot about TR and Wipeout from EUR folks especially. I can understand being European games that maybe Wipeout and TR were key sellers to the PSX library in Europe before FFVII. Tho TR was a big deal here too.
I bought it on Saturn because of the hype and I personally hated it, haha, same with the PSX ver! But obv it struck a cord with pop culture, and spoke to the disconnect between me and the new mainstream of gaming back then ;p
And I thought Honey was way hotter than Lara lol but she wasn't getting on any mag covers
@Gamecuber Yeah, Saturn was 2nd place in Japan and certainly a success.
Acc. to wiki, the Saturn has more Japanese EXCLUSIVE games than the entire SNES USA library.
The 64 library is 1/4 the size of the Saturn in Japan!
This is the problem with narratives, which most USA game mags started at the time: "The Saturn has a small library."
There are about 250 USA Saturn games, and 297 on the USA 64.
And the 64 lasted until, what 96-2001 in the States? And the Saturn 95-98? That's a nice load of games for a 4-year period, so basically if you had a Saturn in 96 and 97 you should have rolling in great games. I sure was. Most of those 250 aren't great, but the same is true for the other systems, maybe more so. The only PSX games I wanted to play were RE1 and FFVII, so I got a PSX in 98 after the Saturn was officially dead here.
I say this all the time - - success in '90s to '00s games industry was ALL marketing and perception in the USA.
The Saturn was poorly rolled out, poorly marketed, and games mags didn't give it the time of day besides Gamefan.
It wasn't about the games, outside of Mario 64 really selling the capabilities and promise of the 64.
What killer apps did the PSX have between launch to FFVII? Resident Evil is maybe the first significant one? (And ironically it was ported to Saturn). When people talk about PSX RPGs they love and all that, they ALL came out when the Saturn was about dead in US, unless you re holding a torch for Beyond the Beyond. Suikoden 1 is the only great RPG I can think of that came out before FFVII on PSX and that was 96 I think, when the Saturn lineup was strong
Sony did exactly what SEGA did successfully with the Genesis, and SEGA boned themselves. With the game mags not doing SoA any favors, it was over.
Comments 238
Re: Turns Out Shining Force CD Didn't Actually Need The Sega CD Backup RAM Cart
@euan @euan Thanks for researching this to confirm!
So I can't remember the process since it was 1995 - - is it basically as long as you beat story 2, whenever you reset OR turn off the system, either way book 3 will be accessible? Since folks said they couldn't access it, I'm wondering if there is anything special you had to do to see book 3 without the cart.
I know folks mentioned from their recollection they could not access Book 3 so I'm curious as to what that obstacle might have been. It'd be good to document this process here in case RAM carts are like all dead long in the future lol
Is it worth someone testing with via emu w a PAL version in case that ver has an issue with the process too?
Re: Limited Run Is Reviving Bubsy, Fear Effect And Fighting Force In New Collections
Fear Effect is still just $30, what's a Limited Run edition gonna cost?
And if you really want to play Bubsy you can't track down a cart?
Lol I got Fighting Force loose 2 years ago for $3 or $5
I really appreciate nice re-releases of super - expensive Genesis games and such. I don't really understand buying (licensed) repros when a real copy is cheaper. But I'm not their customer so whatevers
Re: This $30 PS2 HDMI Module Is Mod-Free And Lag-Free
It's RIDICULOUS and insane how much most HDMI mods / retroscaler products costs.
People really deserve entry-level/simple solutions instead of just $150+ options, so hopefully we ll get more of this kind of thing.
Re: Limited Run's New "PC Micro Edition" Hasn't Gone Down Well With Some Fans
@Blast16 On an original CD/cartridge preferably!
Re: Turns Out Shining Force CD Didn't Actually Need The Sega CD Backup RAM Cart
@Damo I am not doubting other people have had issues with this, and I understand thinking this is a "when I first played Zelda I swear I could choose between the sword and boomerang", but yeah, I'm ten thousand percent sure we played it without a RAM cart.
Someonr on reddit said that Wikipedia said that without a RAM cart your STATS do not carry over for your characters in Ch 3, and I know that was true for us.
Someone also said SFCD like secret saves something to internal. A SFCD save doesn't literally take up all internal though it's close.
Also maybe possible that the game remembers that you beat both chapters right after you beat Ch 2, but forgets if you turn off the system? This is just a total guess, I have no idea.
I remember being pissed we had to use characters we didn't really like for Ch 3 because our char levels didn't save.
So yeah, I don't doubt what other people are saying from their experience, but videogames are my life and especially renting the system and us playing through it an entire weekend, I wouldn't ever forget this, haha. And I'm 100% sure we didn't get a RAM cart with the rental.
Again, I was playing on a USA (Model 2) setup, unsure if there is a bug/glitch on certain regions /systems /etc
I would love to have this mystery solved lol but not sure what other info I could provide. Puzzling
Re: At $20, This Is The Cheapest HDMI Mod Yet - And It Works With PS2, Xbox And Dreamcast
@Spider-Kev Oh, I saw, and I was trying to alleviate your worries about opening up a console. You really have to try to mess it up or do something insane like leave the iron on a chip to kill your console.
It's just a very helpful thing for retrogames to comfortable with because inevitably there are mods you'll be curious about or maintenance you ll need to perform.
Re: 30 Years On, And Capcom Is Still Making "Millions" From Van Damme's Live-Action Street Fighter Movie
Fans to Capcom:
"You got... paid? "
I love SFTM so much I made an audio CD of it so we can listen to it on the long drive to tournaments lol
Re: Toaplan's Wardner Is Getting A Physical Re-Release On Genesis / Mega Drive
Thanks, that sounds interesting!
It's like a regular Mega Drive cart in that I'd have to tear the back label to unscrew it so I'd rather not unless I had to work on the cart, sorry. ;p
The PCB is a little thicker than a normal one though interestingly. Thicker than my Retrobit Gleylancer (the only two reissues/repros I own haha)
LRG though, it would take something really amazing for me to buy anything from them ;p I don't care for their business model, the choice of games, or what the extras are for what they make to each their own though.
I don't care who though but SOMEone needs to reissue more Mega Drive games. Twinkle Tale and Battle Mania 2 prices are insane
Re: Turns Out Shining Force CD Didn't Actually Need The Sega CD Backup RAM Cart
This isn't true. At all.
Lol I was just telling Kurt at HG101 about this for our Shining feature (upcoming SEGA book!) because he had added this to the feature.
You can access the 3rd story without a RAM cart on hardware.
I'm 100% sure because my mom let us rent it and a SEGA CD over summer, and my friends and I had to beg her for an extra night because chapter 3 came up after we beat it.
You just start the new chapter and have to delete your previous one.
I mean if you own a SEGA CD you absolutely should have a RAM cart, but the developers didn't lock non-cart owners out of chapter 3.
Edit: I guess I can't speak for the JP or EUR versions, but certainly in the USA version, and I strongly doubt they d be different.
I hope you guys retract this story or add an addendum ;/ one of the many things I hate about the Internet is someone says something when they don't know what they're talking about and years later people think it's a fact.
Re: Toaplan's Wardner Is Getting A Physical Re-Release On Genesis / Mega Drive
@bobrocks95 I'd have to open up my Panorama Cotton. If I do I'll post back here. But it seems like a quality release on the surface at least, from the box to manual to cart label, and the tea cup is really nice.
What's 8-bit Music Power?
Re: At $20, This Is The Cheapest HDMI Mod Yet - And It Works With PS2, Xbox And Dreamcast
@Spider-Kev You have to TRY to break something irreplaceably when you're doing basic soldering, like leave the iron tip on the motherboard and go have lunch, lol
If something basic breaks you're going to have to do that anyway.
I thought my first SEGA CD died, so I got another. About 15 years later, after I started soldering, I opened it up and literally just the fuse broke, which takes about 2 min to replace! Some happens with SNESes.
My first solder job was doing an NESRGB. I had no idea what I was doing and certainly didn't do a perfect job, but it works great and my clumsiness and redoing things didn't harm the console in any way.
I was afraid of soldering, and eventually I didn't have anyone around to ask to fix basic buttons and things, so I bit the bullet and taught myself. If you're nervous there are a million youtubes but it's seriously easier than
Re: At $20, This Is The Cheapest HDMI Mod Yet - And It Works With PS2, Xbox And Dreamcast
@Andee Basic soldering is barely a skill. It's nothing to fear. I was afraid of it for like 20 years until I just decided to learn one day to do a NESRGB on my own. If you can play videogames or roast a marshmallow you can easily solder.
If you're into retrogames it can be borderline essential to fix random stuff that happens inevitably: broken buttons, the SNES / SEGA CD fuse dying, not to mention capacitor replacement.
You don't need expensive equipment either! A $10 soldering iron will be everything you need to get started (and if recommend a Radioshack $35 desoldering iron, if you get into it).
The only challenging soldering IMO is working on a CPU-style chips with lots of tiny legs, which for doing most retro stuff you will never need to mess with
Re: Review: SAROO - A $60 Sega Saturn Flash Cart That's Worth Every Penny
@-wc- I wonder if this supports playing imports? If so you can get a JP Saturn even on ebay really cheap! Saturn def will always be my fav system, and there's so many weird awesome JP games to discover now matter how deep I think I've gone into the library
Re: Review: SAROO - A $60 Sega Saturn Flash Cart That's Worth Every Penny
Eff ODEs like that like $250. The monetization of the retrogame hobby right now is ridiculous. Support cheap, open-source, awesome projects!
Re: Random: Who Designed Konami's Famous "Bacon Strips" Logo?
@KingMike Is it Penguin Adventure? Sitting on my shelf w the logo, 1986
Re: Review: USB To 3DO ODE - A $60 Gateway To Interactive Multiplayer Bliss?
@KitsuneNight Some of the games it turns out are better than anything I heard about when it was new. The stuff I saw covered like Demotion Man was laughable to finally play, but then it has Immercenary, Slayer, and really cool stuff I never heard of.
JP 3DO games are usually not too expensive so I've been getting a few.
Re: Random: Who Designed Konami's Famous "Bacon Strips" Logo?
@KingMike whaaaaat? I never noticed this! Must verify now lol
Re: Random: Who Designed Konami's Famous "Bacon Strips" Logo?
@Sketcz I hated when I played MGS3 Subsistence, and the Konami logo was now gone since MGS3
Re: Review: USB To 3DO ODE - A $60 Gateway To Interactive Multiplayer Bliss?
@Sketcz I killed my original 3DO trying the 240p mod (FU RetroRGB, no solder that requires messing with a CPU is "easy"), so I was amazed to learn that a JP model had it already, and I love it too! How awesome would it have been if Playstation 2's had that
Re: Review: USB To 3DO ODE - A $60 Gateway To Interactive Multiplayer Bliss?
@KitsuneNight ah geez you're lucky. My current 3DO can't play burns almost at all.
Re: Meet The Man Behind The $99 MiSTer Clone That's Changing FPGA Gaming Forever
@Nahhhtendo I mean everything is relative depending on your lifestyle and income. When I'm giving people advice on how to enjoy retrogaming in 2024 I start with the least expensive solution that meets their needs, and you can always go from there. I just don't like to assume, and what's "disposable" income is different for everyone.
Re: Meet The Man Behind The $99 MiSTer Clone That's Changing FPGA Gaming Forever
@Nahhhtendo Yeah for you, sure, it def made sense.
You said you didn't understand other people having difficulty justifying the cost. So I explained how a person not with a retrogame collection to sell would maybe see the value proportion
Re: Meet The Man Behind The $99 MiSTer Clone That's Changing FPGA Gaming Forever
@Psykomatik Real hardware will always be better, plus you have the satisfaction of actually owning what you're playing, legally.
I've used emulators, FPGA, and my own hardware/software and outside of subtle differences (usually with sound) they're all pretty similar.
For me it's emotional. I have zero attachment to a digital game, but knowing that I have ownership with a cart/CD, the original manual, OG controller, and experiencing it on a CRT the way they were designed to be, those are all part of what I love about experiencing videogames.
A lot has been made over FPGA but I'm 99% sure most people would not notice the difference. I ve been to gaming events where so-called gamers are running emulators and consoles through laggy LCDs and they can't even tell it looks horrible and is borderline unplayable.
And look at how popular Arcade1UP "cabs" are which look like trash.
So good emulation is plenty good enough for most people.
The coolest thing I like about a Mister is the variety of CRT filters! I like to show my kids games (which I own on cart/CD) on the family TV , and the CRT filters are really impressive.
Re: Meet The Man Behind The $99 MiSTer Clone That's Changing FPGA Gaming Forever
@Nahhhtendo Most people don't have 5 grand to drop on their hobby... $600 is not an impulse purchase for lot of people. Esp when you can emulate for almost free on a device you probably already own, and most people really can't tell the difference between emu and FPGA.
Lol that's like saying "Why is so hard for people to afford a home? I just downsized my mansion and bought a condo."
And ad to the fact it's a device that isn't plug and play - you have to learn how to set it up and kind of know what you're doing with it.
All in all it's an extremely niche product compared to like a Nintendo or SEGA mini, for a very specific consumer.
Re: Meet The Man Who Supplies Netflix, Disney And EA With Vintage Arcade Cabinets
Reality cool piece!
Re: Cruis'n Blast Team's NBA Jam Spiritual Successor Is Called NBA Superstars
@smoreon oh true lol
Re: Former Nintendo World Champ Jeff Hansen On Teaming Up With Nintendo Again, 30 Years Later
Cool feature! My grandpa took me to Powerfest... I sucked at Rad Racer but it was an incredible experience for every kid who was there to not only compete but also see rows and rows and rows of Nintendo games, many of which weren't out yet!
Re: Ever Wondered What The Symbols On The PlayStation Controller Really Mean?
Still effing nonsense.
It's so much harder for my wife, who didn't grow up playing videogames, to use a Playstation controller because there's no logical order to the buttons unlike with letters. And my kids (5 and 2) have to look down at the controller every time they press a button.
And by leaving no space for the diagonals, the Dpad is great for cardinal directions but ***** for Street Fighter motions.
I know obviously people are used to it by now but the decisions behind the original pad were totally arbitrary, and besides the grip shape, which is great, it was designed to be different, not better or more intuitive.
Re: Sega's Shadow Dancer Comes To Analogue Pocket And MiSTer
Some great system 18 games... That'll be awesome to have them all
Re: Nintendo's Game Boy Is A Hot Item In Japan Again
I buy a bunch of stuff from a JP seller on ebay, and you can def still get an OG GB that has issues and needs a recap for $20-35. Which means in actual stores over there non-functional units must be near valueless there. Looks like totally functional units are BIN for $70-80 which means they are def worth less than that in person.
There are SO MANY of these units in Japan it's insane, and they just never have collected crap like Westerners do.
Re: Cruis'n Blast Team's NBA Jam Spiritual Successor Is Called NBA Superstars
@smoreon I doubt they own the rights to the name. Akklaim snaked it from Midway and Turmell somehow in the '90s with some chikannery in the contracts for the home versions.
And I think Raw Thrills is some b-stard zombie ghost carcass of Midway.
Who owns it now I wonder?
Re: Here's The Logo For The Upcoming Live-Action Street Fighter Movie
@JJtheTexan have you seen Legend of Chun Li???
SFTM is a fun, tongue-in-cheek Saturday-morning-cartoon-style romp. I mean it's written by the guy who made Commando, The Running Man, and Die Hard hilarious, cmon.
Was it a great Street Fighter movie? Debatable.
All the new videogame-material movies lately have just been whatever to me. They feel pretty soulless and paint-by-numbers to me at least.
I miss when you could make wackadoo ***** like The Wizard or SFTM for sure.
Re: Cruis'n Blast Team's NBA Jam Spiritual Successor Is Called NBA Superstars
Are their games any good or just hollow impressions of past great games?
Everyone I see Raw Thrills games running at 30 fps at the arcade I have little faith.
And it says "people who worked for Midway in NBA Jam" - - obv Turmell is not involved or they would trumpet that. And if not why isn't he?
Always skeptical of cash-in nostalgia
Re: Zeebo Emulator Makes "Lost" Double Dragon And Crash Bandicoot Games Playable Again
Never heard of this--very cool news. That DD looks nice
Re: New Short Film Shows How Video Games Can Connect Us Across Generations
Very cute!
Thanks for posting!
Don't blow in your carts thooooo although logically the main character would definitely do that
Re: Workshop Of Retro Modder And Engineer Voultar Has Been "Ransacked"
I hope everything is OK with him... I don't always agree with him or anything but no one deserves to have all their ***** destroyed.
It does seem pretty bizarre on the surface to me too but let's give the guy the benefit of the doubt. No sense in piling on to his misery
I ve always been really unsure about doing videos to feature my games library / setup. I kind of wonder his often this type of thing happens to well-known YT people. :/
State Farm cam insure collectors items like baseball cards, but my local agent told me they looked into and couldn't do videogames because there isn't an official appraising agency for this stuff (I didn't even know there is one for cards).
Obv I know about WATA but the farther we keep them from being any kind of official agency the better for the hobby
If anyone has any info on getting your retrogames insured in the States I'd love to know
Re: MARS FPGA Will Let You Use Your Original Carts And Support Legacy AV Connections
Sounds promising!
I love having a Mister on our family TV to show my girls games, but it would be so much better to be able to use my real carts / discs and controllers on it!
Wonder if the MSX will ever be in play with this
Re: Is It Time To Change The Narrative On The Sega Saturn?
@Sketcz I actually just volunteered to help CJ with Shadowrun and they got me some resources. I know it's been in the works for a decade lol. I'm gonna poke around with it when I have time but haven't since I volunteered a few months ago
Basically there currently isn't much space available per line. I think Segagaga is a similar issue although it must have some additional problems too.
I'm gonna try to figure out if it's feasible to just accept the font and char limit and just create like double/triple the dialog boxes, or if this is like critical failure and a variable-width font needs to be created or something.
Yeah I saw too SEGA AGES DF was being worked on. I do wonder if that time could be better spent elsewhere but whatever people want to work on they should probably do since this is all unpaid and for fun (for most people?)
Re: Is It Time To Change The Narrative On The Sega Saturn?
@AllieKitsune is anyone still working on Princess Crown? I saw it was stopped midway years ago
Re: Is It Time To Change The Narrative On The Sega Saturn?
@DexTepa If you're playing Saturn for the 3D there are still lots of great games but that's kind of like buying a Toyota Supra to go to the grocery store and saying well I like my old Civic just as well.
2D (or games that mix both, like Dragon Force) is the real *****! It's a powerhouse.
PSX actually has lots of great 2D and hybrid games too.
Re: This NES Clone Has RGB, S-Video And HDMI Output
@AllieKitsune Sometimes I'm glad that people would rather watch those guys than read long articles. I'm constantly discovering new games through HG101 and often look them up on ebay immediately, and so many random games are still cheap (and if not the JP ver likely is!)
Re: Limited Run Under Fire For "Horrible" Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vinyl Release
@Razieluigi It's an excuse to collect something they think will be worth money someday. Or they're $45 wall hangings?
The best way to listen to NES at least is pull the audio from the CPU and wire new RCA jacks. This bypasses sound going through the muddy-ass RF (even if you're using the stock RCA jacks, it still goes to RF first). I did it like 5 years ago and the bass and clarity are amazing. I'm NOT an audiophile at all. But if you're an NES player it's a big difference.
I've heard of the Toslink mod for SNES and Saturn but have been told the difference is nearly imperceptible. I wish more people seemed to know about the NES mod tho
One thing I'd never buy on any format is a Genesis OST, because every revision MD/Gen is a little different, and whatever they cut might not sound like how you want it at all.
When the Sonic 1 and 2 OSTs finally came out they sounded tinny and way off, and I went right back to my mp3s I recorded with a tape player from Sonic Jam lolol
Re: Is It Time To Change The Narrative On The Sega Saturn?
@Gamecuber always love to hear first-hand history from other regions. Appreciate it!
Re: Is It Time To Change The Narrative On The Sega Saturn?
@Sketcz Actually I'm not sure I can possibly appreciate DF1 any more! I would bring it to sleepovers and eventually 3 or 4 of my friends bought a Saturn after it was dead, just for DF lol.
I guess I've always been like those "college SEGA guys" that SoA planted to pimp the Genesis, except I wasn't ever paid for it lol
Thx for the analysis!
Re: This NES Clone Has RGB, S-Video And HDMI Output
@DestructoDisk great breakdown!
Re: The Making Of: The Wizard - An Oral History Of Nintendo's Hollywood Debut
Can confirm that the new Shout Factory set is inexpensive and excellent!
It's a totally legit special edition. GREAT 4K video, dir commentary, enough deleted scenes to be an alternate version of the movie, and high-level interviews w the cast and studio people on a whole 2nd disc of extras.
Re: Is It Time To Change The Narrative On The Sega Saturn?
@RetroGames Thanks for the info and resources! Always looking for ways to experience retrogames the best way possible. I hope it supports Mischief Makers
Re: Is It Time To Change The Narrative On The Sega Saturn?
@Gamecuber Yeah I forget about TR because it actually came out on Saturn before (tho essentially the same time) the PSX.
I hear a lot about TR and Wipeout from EUR folks especially. I can understand being European games that maybe Wipeout and TR were key sellers to the PSX library in Europe before FFVII. Tho TR was a big deal here too.
I bought it on Saturn because of the hype and I personally hated it, haha, same with the PSX ver! But obv it struck a cord with pop culture, and spoke to the disconnect between me and the new mainstream of gaming back then ;p
And I thought Honey was way hotter than Lara lol but she wasn't getting on any mag covers
Re: Is It Time To Change The Narrative On The Sega Saturn?
@Gamecuber Yeah, Saturn was 2nd place in Japan and certainly a success.
Acc. to wiki, the Saturn has more Japanese EXCLUSIVE games than the entire SNES USA library.
The 64 library is 1/4 the size of the Saturn in Japan!
This is the problem with narratives, which most USA game mags started at the time: "The Saturn has a small library."
There are about 250 USA Saturn games, and 297 on the USA 64.
And the 64 lasted until, what 96-2001 in the States? And the Saturn 95-98? That's a nice load of games for a 4-year period, so basically if you had a Saturn in 96 and 97 you should have rolling in great games. I sure was. Most of those 250 aren't great, but the same is true for the other systems, maybe more so. The only PSX games I wanted to play were RE1 and FFVII, so I got a PSX in 98 after the Saturn was officially dead here.
I say this all the time - - success in '90s to '00s games industry was ALL marketing and perception in the USA.
The Saturn was poorly rolled out, poorly marketed, and games mags didn't give it the time of day besides Gamefan.
It wasn't about the games, outside of Mario 64 really selling the capabilities and promise of the 64.
What killer apps did the PSX have between launch to FFVII? Resident Evil is maybe the first significant one? (And ironically it was ported to Saturn). When people talk about PSX RPGs they love and all that, they ALL came out when the Saturn was about dead in US, unless you re holding a torch for Beyond the Beyond. Suikoden 1 is the only great RPG I can think of that came out before FFVII on PSX and that was 96 I think, when the Saturn lineup was strong
Sony did exactly what SEGA did successfully with the Genesis, and SEGA boned themselves. With the game mags not doing SoA any favors, it was over.
Re: This NES Clone Has RGB, S-Video And HDMI Output
@DestructoDisk AFAIK lightgun functionality is a TV thing, not a software thing, so someone can correct me but I think it would work totally fine
And actually there are fanhacks for NES shooters now to make them work on HDTVs. No idea how that works but they're on RHDN for Duck Hunt etc