GhaleonUnlimited

@Azuris how long was Commodore popular in parts of EUR? We got one in '86 and I loved it, but the NES was plastered and demoed all over stores by '87 and I think that was kind of the end for gaming on the C64 in the States AFAIK

@Poodlestargenerica When I walk into the regional chain I've been frequenting since the early '00s see every major console for $150 when I remember them on the same shelves for $40 "not that long ago" (that's how it feels), it's surreal.

Youtubers have really ruined how fun, innocent and inexpensive videogame appreciation used to be

Thank you for this fantastic read!

And holy crap, I knew I knew Todd Holland's name from somewhere. I don't think the Larry Sanders shown is like mainstream famous, but it's def one of the best TV shows ever. I hope people maybe check it out too. It has nothing to do with The Wizard besides sharing a Director lol but it's fabulous.

The movie was on great hands with this director and crew, and it shows. Think of all the garbage kids '80s movies like Mac and Me, and it's easy to imagine how awful this could have been. (That's obvious too from how little Universal cared about the project.)

Luke sounds like a very insightful guy. Wonderful stuff.

I wonder if Jenny is annoyed by people asking her about The Wizard when she'd prob rather talk about her music career.

Nice that DVD and the Internet helped them finally realize how much people love the movie, and what, a great job they did. This took FOREVER to come on DVD, and you'd think with the popularity of Nintendo, Universal would finally bother putting a little effort into its video release.

There is a newer Collectors' Edition on BR that says it last has "interviews" on it. Ordering it to find out lol

It's pretty funny how mass film taste has devolved where this was considered cynical. Wizard is pretty innocent and has a lot of heart to the story.

On top of that, it's not like Nintendo sploshed their branding all over it. "Nintendo" is only verbally or visibly referenced once or twice in the film I believe (the game counselor says it for sure; that might be it).

And usually in TV shows in the '80s and' 90s people act like ***** idiots or make up random stuff about the game they purport to be playing, like Rosanne playing LttP on SNES and saying "One more key and I'm king of the monkey people."

Beau Bridges acts goofy the one time he plays, but everything he says about TMNT is actually accurate. The people who made this actually gave a ***** and you can tell.

Anyone who's young and never seen (or maybe heard of this), if you like videogames at all you might certainly enjoy a viewing!

"I love the Power Glove... It's so bad."

Even as a kid Fred Savage was a db according to other kids who worked on the Wizard (I forgot if I read Luke or Jenny talking about this as adults) . I feel like we need a way to acknowledge bad things people have done without damning all the work everyone else on the piece along with that.

@Azuris Actually most NES game I see used are still like 10-20 bucks loose.

Used places are trying to scam you into paying like $60 for Zelda 1 but deals are to be had everywhere.

The NES was so popular there are still a billion copies out there of so many games.

Like I just got Cobra Triangle for less than $15 on ebay. So many fantastic games are still cheap.

@Poodlestargenerica It is, but unwitting folks are already paying $150 for used, stock NESes out there now.

And an NESRGB mod by itself is $100 and you have to install yourself. And we haven't even gotten to HDMI yet.

Not that this is a product for everybody, but for what it's giving you out of the box, is actually a very good value.

@RetroGames Interesting on the rumble, I think I've tried it Starfox with the pack like once and never bothered again.

I want to force myself through Mario 64 eventually so I'll remember that. I know there's a JP rumble edition

And yeah agreed, the controller itself is a huge innovation from Nintendo that is deservedly remembered!

I have a strong suspicion that Sony just put 2 analog sticks on their pad for symmetry, and it just happened to work out lol. No games came out that Sony championed as like "This dual-analog thing is gonna set the world on fire, and this game will show you!" a la Mario 64.

@Sketcz Nice! I bought DF2 and I'm really put off by how cheap the art and music seem. And yeah something just feels crappy and kind of soulless about it.

Everyone seems to say it's not really worth playing, despite the appeal of having a new map/generals/command 2 troop types st once. Would that match your recommendation or should I give it more time?

@RetroGames I gotta honest, I think the N64 pad was great for designing it in a vaccum, but I don't have anything good to say about that analog stick. It's stubby, is rough on the thumb, has SUCH a shorter lifespan than other pads...

I run gaming entertainment for kids often, and kids have zero idea how to even hold this thing lol. I didn't either when I saw it in magazines. When they try to use it, all these young gamers, you'd think they were drunk how all over the place they are in Kart 64.

We are all allowed to have our preferences! But yeah. No one has ever made another stick or pad like the 64, and even at the time I would argue that Hori's (and even whoever made the Mako pad) take on the pad is SO much better. No one's ever replicated the Saturn analog either but I think it's more the tech in the pad and that people seem to dislike large controllers

Yeah, anyone finds Saturn fans a little bruised and defensive, I mean if it's all about the games, both at the time and now - - you remove the marketing, system specs, brand loyalty, etc. The Saturn just has unique, badass, really fun games. And it doesn't all have to be a zero-sum game at all. By giving the Saturn more shine it's not saying the other systems suck or something.

I have every major system, and I love games on every system, and these days I mostly try to explore stuff that is unique and different. I'm trying PSX RPGs I missed (SO2, Suikoden 1 and 2, Xenogears, Parasite Eve).

I think the scenario and writing in Suikoden 1 and 2 is steller, and Parasite Eve is really cool because the gameplay and story are unique, but like, a lot of the library is like, here s another above-average RPG but now with added emo or Evangelion psuedo-intelluctualism. Like, we have no shortage of those, even at the time.

If more people actually PLAYED Saturn games when it was new, it would have done better. People didn't know. It had no pop-culture power in the West.

And everyone reading this site knows the intense personal connection we all get with videogames.

So yeah, a lot of Saturn fans are in love with it, and you feel like you have to tell people because no else you knew was!

Because of how much I brought my Saturn to my friends' houses, 3 or 4 of them bought a Saturn after it was dead in '98 or' 99 literally just for Dragon Force, because it's that fun.

You just have to think of it like, imagine that FFVII or Mario 64 or whatever was your fav game, if literally it was in no magazines except the one you loved most, and none of your friends knew anything about it till you showed it to them lol. That was what it was like being a Saturn fan!

@Sketcz I never even heard of Cyber Doll or Taromaeru! Always discovering new ***** from other Saturn fans!

I'd never heard of Bulk Slash until the fan translation was almost out, and it's like, wow, this might be the coolest 3D action game of this entire generation, at least for me and a pair of Twin Sticks!

@sdelfin marketing. It's not anything except great marketing.

@wiiware more than half those games are on Saturn actually, haha

@cidninja IDK what country you're from, but a lot of the issue is that game mags at least on the states covered the Saturn as an afterthought while pushing any anything Sony put in front of their faces.

If I hadn't discovered Gamefan on a newsstand when they put Chaotix on the cover , idk where my gaming tastes would be.

@PowerStone05 you can't dismiss the Saturn's library by saying "most of it is unknown / junk" while championing the PSX, the shovelware king

@RetroGames I have to interject about the controller - - everyone has their preferences, but the 3D pad is badass. You have have so much control with a giant thumb pad rather than these tiny analog sticks still have.

We don't have small analog sticks because it's better, we have them because it's what they think is the most comfortable form factor for most people's hands.

The 3D and Mission Stick actually function in a different way too than all other analog sticks ever made. Idk the tech details but it's apparent just using them

@Sketcz Yeah man, 100%, I think that sums up what's so lovable about the Saturn. So many truly unique games, creative genre-crossing, etc. Like, what else is like Dragon Force??

@_NetNomad Yeah, it used to seem like Saturn had almost no fan translations, but it's gotten crazy the lazy few years.

Like Volholian is a huge RPG I'd never heard of even till it got a full fan EN release a few years ago!

And games like Grandia, Ogre Battle and Tactics, and Vandal Hearts that did get EN releases have been EN hacked for Saturn.

Sakura Wars 2 and Lunar Magical School are being worked on. Bulk Slash and Shadow Squadron 2 came out recently.

I'm sure there are more Holy Grail "if only we had this in EN" games but I can't even think of any huge ones off the top of my head now

@KitsuneNight Probably, but ebay is not AliExpress (which also actually has decent shipping times now too).

I'm buying from a huge volume import seller on ebay with great prices and they (like many JP sellers) ship to the West via FedEx, so it takes about a week to get your stuff.

Such a long way from the '90s, when I'd buy stuff from Gamefan's import partner and get the wrong thing months later, then I had to pay for return shipping to get the correct thing!

@-wc- For sure! Those are great games you already have so I hope you can again make use of them.

JP Saturns and 4-in-1 carts are both pretty cheap in case that ends up being a better buy for you, too. I shake my head at Saturn console prices at used places now ;p

@Poodlestargenerica That's cool - - I was just wondering because the Saturn has what I feel like is a lot of adventure games, RPGs, etc - - the arcade and arcadey games on Saturn are overall awesome, but I would say it's non-arcade stuff that made it a success in Japan, at least. Baku is a sweet game BTW!

No one can play everything but I was wondering if there are more Saturn games you might enjoy, if that was your take on the system.

Even if "arcade at home" did cause systems go be less successful, the Genesis experiences could also be labeled rather arcadey but it was huge in NA, which of course the Saturn was not.

The older I get the more I realize that marketing can literally sell anything, at least in the USA, and you probably won't find a single person who thinks the Saturn was well marketed in the West. The PSX launched with total trash, and I was always so confused by people bejng impressed by ESPN X Games or Criticom or whatever the eff at Blockbusters and Best Buys on the display kiosks. I was like, these games suck lol. Why is no one playing Saturn games?? ？

Honestly, I'm glad people on the West "know" about the Saturn now, but it also blows that games have gotten so expensive because of that awareness.

And a lot of people aren't doing it because they altruistically love the Saturn. It's to promote their monetized brand, whether its they YT or their media group or whatever.

Time Extension and HG101 are prob the only sites that I read about games, because they're the closest thing you can find to journalism in retrogames. The features are fair and IMO as objective as reviews/info can be, and writers are paid. And they let you know when they're potentially making money off links or sponsored content.

If you want to hear some Saturn hype in English, read some old Gamefans (you can find PDFs online, as collecting issues up to 1998 will be expensive)!

I've always just been super into games, and getting people into the Saturn has probably been my fav thing to introduce people to. And I'm still learning about amazing JP games I've never heard of!

Also the "success" thing really depends on where you're from. Saturn did great in Japan and the 64 finished last. The Saturn was sometimes ahead ahead, but FFVII single-handedly made the PSX really explode there.

Ultimately arguing about sales or what's "better" is a fool's task because there's no one metric that can tell you what games you should like best. Just like whatever. It doesn't have to diminish other people's tastes. Personally the only 64 game I love is Wonder Project J2, and I had to force myself through OoT and find the 3D platformers boring. It doesn't mean I'm stupid or that a 64 fan is stupid either. Who cares?

It's nice people "get" the Saturn more I guess, but it's not like increased fandom is going to help SEGA now, lol.

The library is so big that there are so many weird games to try, and that was the era where it was still "safe" and commercially viable to make bizarre stuff. So if you like retrogames just try everything you re remotely interested in for yourself! Don't rely on other people telling you what to play either way

@Poodlestargenerica I'm curious as to what Saturn games you've experienced?

I dremel the back tabs off my cheap JP MD games! Plastic ***** goes flying everywhere so it's a little messy.

They're your carts, just do whatever you want with them.

If you plan to sell them someday, maybe that's a different story, but it's really nice not to need a Game Genie to play your imports.

Of course when you get into ***** like Alien Soldier, even if you re going to keep it till you die, it's a tougher decision hacking up a $300 cart. I can't do it to my expensive games. But a $10 JP Landstalker? Hell yeah.

If you cut your Genesis system cart tab, then dust can get in 100% of the time, so that's a no-go for me.

@Fallingshadow actually I only saw for myself a few years ago that this doesn't work with every 32X! We re the lucky ones if it works with our imports

Excellent piece, thanks to the author!!

I got to load a backup up of stuff in 2009 and 2010 and I was FLOORED how cheap everything was (this was even before retrogaming got totally stupid in the US).

Now scalpers/hoarders/YouTube dbags have absolutely ruined everything domestically (and I assume in Europe).

People can do whatever but it sucks, these games were meant to be played, not encased in plastic like a museum piece. So I'll like buy Panzer Azel for $30 and just stick EN burns in with it instead of rebuying it at a $600 loss. I recommend this!!! And hey if you like Japanese, start learning, it's really fun!

Anyone looking for good JP prices, I cruise ebay and wait for stuff to go on auction instead of BIN. If you're patient you can find excellent, fair deals.

There are def many Japanese stores selling tons of ebay now. Find a seller you like and see what else they have. Sometimes they mislabel games with Engrish so even more likely you'll get a fair price

One bummer tho is that Mega Drive did so poorly in Japan that a bunch of games are more expensive than their USA version, and the rare games are crazy, like $500-1500 ;(

Since the author mentioned Gimmick, which is like $1500 CIB, you can make your own circuit pretty simply and solder it to a $10 game (I forget which Fami games, but google knows).

I'm sure there are many of you who also want to experience the actual game on real hardware and have real art/case/manual, so I think these ways are as close as you can get without shelling out $1000 for Saturn games

The other thing that's so bizarre about this is why not buy this on ebay for cheaper? Even if you absolutely have to play the 3DO directors cut (which Ive read has the same content of the Saturn and other versions), why not just get the real deal?

JP gamers really take care of their stuff in general and you'd be able to find in great condition whatever extras it came with without looking too hard

Or the OG 3DO JP ver of D I got for like $4 lol

@-wc- buy another and install a phantom chip!! 1 little thing to solder.

Still my fav console. I'm glad people rediscovered the Saturn later but it sucks ass how prices are so dumb.

JP games are often cheap tho still and I'm discovering new games all the time. Amazing library

I mean it's great they are officially licensing these games so people don't have to consider repros as much, but it's ready disingenuous IMO to act like these guys are bastions of game preservation.

They are charging ASS loads of money when the bonuses generally seem to be cheaply produced trinkets.

What do retro and physical lovers actually like? How about a good effing manual. I've seen the manuals on reddit that they make for switch lol.

And the artificial scarcity thing is Sales-Dbag-101.

I see tons of bitching about them online. The solution gamers need to do but will never do is stop supporting garbage lol.

Limited Run absolutely prints money.

I bought Columbus Circle's Panarama Cotton reissue this year. I like that they don't put their logo and crappy styling all over their packaging, and I got a nice Cotton-engraved tea cup I'll actually use.

If you love LRG, by all means, buy them all! Options are great. As someone who still cherishes Working Designs releases, LRG is not for me at least

I'm old in videogame terms (almost 42) but I still use FAQs. It only (me at least) a few seconds to find just the part I need, and I can keep one open and follow along as needed (playing FO1 with one right now actually).

I wonder how many other people do though lol

I hate spoilers too so I'd rather see the game for myself, even when I just need a little advice on how to proceed

Thanks for this piece, I never heard of any of this and saw it reported anywhere

Thanks for the feature! I've been in love with Starcon2 since it came out, and it's pretty exciting the original creators are finally continuing their story.

Great interview! Great questions and great answers.

I've never backed a KS before, but I gave them enough for the physical books and stuff since my grandpa pirated SC2, so it's back interest for that too lol.

I hope they get to the voice acting tier!

In case anyone isn't familiar and doesn't pick it up through the interview, The Urquan Masters is Star Control 2 with a bunch of enhancements for PC, and it's free.

I'm not sure how it would feel if you've never played it before, but it's def one of the best games ever. It was easier to merge genres while keeping them all serving the core game back then, and SC2 does it better than most any game I can think of off the top of my head. And the story / writing are the main draws, and just fantastic.

This project is basically Star Control 3. There IS a Starcon3 as mentioned in the piece, but it wasn't made with their involvement and it pretty much sucks on top of it.

Cool, I wondered what the story was worth this game when it showed up in the Switch NES games!

They've STOPPED the Library of Congress from actually doing something about this???

They know where their bread is buttered, and everyone loses except for the publishers.

It's def up to fans to do this stuff. The question is funding then ;/

How's the reliability on these? And are they are easy to fix as SEGA CDs or more complicated?

For the lover of God, if you like retrogames, explore the Saturn!

The most popular games, the JP version is generally still dirt cheap!

Carpetbaggers have ruined the US secondary market so the Phantom mod chip is about $40 and easy to install, and now the Pseudo Kai cartridge does mostly the same thing and is like $40 (and no install).

If you talk to a Saturn fan, there's a good chance they will tell you that it has a bunch of the greatest games ever that for some reason no one in the States except for Gamefan covered.

Most of the great games have aged REALLY well too since it's a sprite-pushing monster. And tons and tons of hidden gems.

And there s no modern update or equivalent to many of the games, or even indie homages - like there is nothing, anywhere, exactly like Dragon Force, for instance.

I just got Nanatsu no Kaze Shima Monogatari (umm The Tale of the 7 Winds Island?), which I only heard of like a month ago, and it's one of the best-animated games of all time. It's been my fav system since 1995 and I'm still finding amazing new games from Japan I've never even heard of. There's more than 800 JP games!

This system is crazy! I hope you check it out.

Thanks for the post! These are awesome

Thanks for the piece! I've never played MSR but have heard reality good things. Will finally give it a shot myself

@JayJ Yeah, I know these YouTube people expose people to games they didn't know about, but it sucks ass reading about some obscure Playstation 2 or Mega Drive game and you already know it's going to be $50-200 on ebay now.

SNES is the worst. "Oh, Metal Warriors. I never heard of this before... Oh, it's $400 loose. Wtf".

And worse is that people let these sit on ebay way overpriced, so you really have to wait for an auction go get a remotely fair priced game. And if there's like one auction up you have a bidding war to deal with.

I started being able to buy lots of old games in 2000, when I started college (USA) , and it was so exciting to go to a used store and find something you'd read about years before. "Oh cool, Mega Man 7 for $7." "Awesome, Snatcher! $15, cool." (Real pickups).

And yeah, JP stores are amazing. It sucks to see stuff that was super cheap like boxed SNES RPGs steadily climbing just because people want to stare at it.

YouTube culture really emphasis just having these things sit on a shelf for your video background, and people even back to AVGN are completely disingenuous about the actual games.

I enjoy the fan translation scene a lot because people are working really hard so people can just enjoy games they couldn't otherwise and (generally) aren't doing it for money, it's a passion thing.

DC version with Twin Sticks is the way to go!

That's an expensive solution though so cool to see this on so many platforms now

@Gridatttack No, I/they know to play in 480p... You won't find a more knowledgable community about its game than Melee.

I also used to hook my DC up to my HD CRTs via a ready nice Audio Authority VGA->Component converter, and it def slightly lagged because I used it for a national Marvel tournament as our flagship monitor and the players could tell it was slightly laggy, to my dismay.

It isn't crippling LCD lag but it's there. The Melee kids told me that every HD CRT has that lag. I haven't done any testing myself so can't speak to it more than that, but I've had 4 HD CRTs myself.

I do think they're great for 480p though despite the ever-so-small lag.

The tink is the best solution I've found for 480i, so I hope you enjoy it!

@Poodlestargenerica So Square flipped over the expense and limitations of carts, upending the entire console industry and abandoning a key ally, which in Japanese culture is EXTREMELY risky, because they're lazy. You might want to take that to a conspiracy YouTube channel or something.

@Diogmites It's fun, unique, and never gets old, kind of quintessential SEGA!

@Gridatttack A few years ago, from getting into the Smash scene I found out that all CRT HDTVs lag some. Always assumed they had zero lag. And yeah, they aren't great for retrogames.

Kind of the only reason I wish I had one available still would be 1-player GC and Xbox games, but it's not worth having a giant extra tube just for those when I can use a Retrotink 5x for those, along with Playstation 2 and its 480i slop, on a PC CRT :/

@Poodlestargenerica So because everything worked out OK 25 years later, this wasn't a mistake in your eyes? You're entitled to your opinion. Probably the 64 and Cube could have done much better. Japan LOVES RPGs and was a huge source of dominance for the SFC

If not for Pokémon, and later Nintendo trying radical new things with the DS/Wii that paid off (which VB/Wii I did not), they could be a 3rd party like SEGA now

@DanijoEX-the-Pierrot Make sure to do some research - HD CRTs actually suck, more or less

@Cboyung Good question! Answer is the replacement 72-pins are all garbage. The pins bend VERY easily on the replacements, so you'll just be in the same position again except much sooner.

It's a way better option to maintain your original one (and it's free) . Optimally, you can bend the pins back manually once like every decade and/or lightly mod your console in a few easy ways, without soldering.

BLWs make it almost impossible to get your carts out, and for anyone not used to manhandling videogame carts, it's seemingly impossible.

If you re gonna pay anything for a mod, something like this is the way to go.

Crud. I have one hooked one up to my main reteogaming CRT last week and was wondering how long they would keep the store open.

@Sketcz keep fighting the good fight man!

Really excellent book. Read it!!