Good example how short-term corporate greediness (Nintendo wanting to keep banking off that cart manufacturing) can screw your entire company's future.
@-wc- I played it a little when it came out on ios. Was pretty choppy, but this was a decade ago now. I would hope it runs perfect on modern devices. Seemed just like the PSX version otherwise
@Sketcz Glad you wrote this, as I forgot all about this game. I've been on an RPG kick after I played Suikoden 1 and 2 last year, but Shadow Hearts (which seems cool), Star Ocean 2 (seems fine), and Xenogears (takes forever to do anything, kinda ugly, pretentious-but-nonsense Evangelion vibes) haven't held my interest.
I absolutely love Quintet and was introduced to Terranigma through Hg101, and now it's one of the top 16-bit games I've ever played!
Slapstick sounded cool but this was the best analysis of the game I've seen anywhere. Everyone's been petty dismissive of it. I really wish the Quintet games got more respect. I found Chrono Trigger to be a good RPG but nothing affected me like even simple stuff in each Quintet game.
After I concert my SFC cart to EN I'll finally play this! Quintet games all have a unifying God/nature thing I really like.
I was hoping you'd played through Granstream and give it a write up because I found the story / setting pretty interesting but playing it sucks, lol.
@Sketcz Magazines were spoiling FFVII regularly by 1998. Before I had a Playstation, a mag in their tips section showed how to meet Aeris in Tactics, and said "see what she's been up to since her supposed death in FFVII."
I tried to make my brain forget what I read, but alas.
I'm sure the Remake will handle things differently, whatever happens, so I'm skeptical the average gamer is going back to play Lego FFVII on PSX honestly
Wonderful feature! These remained on my to-play list since release until late last year. I sure wish I had played them back then. Loved S1, and S2 is without a doubt one of the best written and localized RPGs I've ever played (yeah, it has some typos, but I'll take this over bad writing any day.) All-time great for sure, and certainly has aged better than the angsty, nonsensical, flashy randomness FFVII left in its wake.
Thanks for this! LucasArts games were best of the best back then. Really great to hear how this came about and bring me back to it, since it's rare I play back through them now.
@LinktotheFuture thanks for the feedback, yeah, I just did the best I can with these. I'm sure there are much better videos to show the actual guts of what I'm doing, but I wanted to mostly explain what I was doing at least in case it was helpful for anyone
Normally I wouldn't have anything to say about ad-running ROM sites, but CDRomance is run and maintained by a really dedicated videogame fan. He actively updates the fanhacks on his sites and writes lengthy and accurate descriptions, respects fan translators who ask if their work not be posted in pre-patched form, and works pretty tirelessly to answer people's questions quickly. Everytime I have a little update to my PSIV retranslation he has it updated within 24 hours with a reply, which is pretty amazing considering how big the site is and he probably has a real life beyond it!
It's not because of the pre-patched ROMs that the site has gotten to be such a great resource.
I am sorry to be a dbag but I IMO you don't need any of these devices to make your NES work almost completely error-free, and it's just as much work as putting one of these devices in your NES.
Idk no one talks about this, but the NES screws up almost completely from the pins bending from the toaster action, not from corrosion.
If you disable 1 pin of one of the chips (I know this is common knowledge) you don't have to push down carts for them to play.
You just take the additional step of replacing the springs on the toaster device with a screw or bolt so the toaster can't be pushed down.
My channel isn't monetized so I don't pimp my videos, but I made a how-to because I hate BLWs so much as they make it impossible to get your carts out.
Retrogaming feels like it's all about selling people crap now. I know not everyone wants to mod their own stuff but it's fun and a lot cheaper if you do, haha. And these things won't work forever so it's really good to learn basic maintenance. https://youtu.be/ZNL98-9dYk0?si=4CdN6J0hnrbQtSdT
You also can bend the pins in your connector back manually and it'll be good forever if you clean it quickly. DO NOT buy those replacement 72-pins. They're cheap crap. The one in your console is way better!
@Sketcz Nice! I just found a copy of that at a reasonable price a few years ago, always wanted to try the 4P mode since Nintendo Power featured it in their 4P issue!
From experience, I feel like I can try to address some of the questions in the comments here.
@KingMike 1. This isn't about pixel-perfect razor-sharp unnatural emulation-style graphics from a SNES. It's making most SNESes look more akin to a 1CHIP, which is just a baseline/clear signal as opposed to a muddled picture.
2. If you re happy with your SNES output, then don't do/buy anything else!
@-wc- 3. The video output on most SNESes (the 2CHIP) is blurry across all inputs when compared to a stock Gen/TG16/etc. The 1CHIP fixes this (tho all stock SNESes have certain issues).
I'm not a OMG SCANLINES 4K kind of guy, I just want games to have a CRT look that's on par or better than Svideo. I don't really think the RetroRGB page really shows the difference. I feel like it's Emperor's New Clothes when I'm staring at comparisons EXTREME CLOSEUP screenshots.
The 2CHIP has almost a N64-like vasoline-y video output. If you're happy with it, that's fine! You can probably notice though on even a nice CRT in Svideo as long as you play other game systems on it. If you play on an HDTV via RGB+OSSC or whatever you will REALLY notice.
I ve used 20 SNESes over the last few years and I have 5 or 6 1CHIPs, and I use consumer CRTs and HDTVs. Each SNES revision is honestly a little different. But the 2CHIP models' signals are overall poor compared to any other retro console.
If you can't tell or don't care then no worries! But it's a huge thing to be able to fix this for most SNES consoles.
That said, just look in the wild for SNES consoles with a serial of "UN3XXXXX" (idk what the British or JP equivalent is but I believe it's similar).
You can probably find a 1CHIP out there eventually used. Just flip it over and look at the serial. Most likely it hasn't been MOBO swapped. If you open it up the mobo does say "1CHIP" on there.
Even if you get one for like $150 it's better to have a whole new console than pay $100 for a mod where you have to do all the work (and used shops will usually give you controllers / AC adapter included for that price) . If it were a $35 chip like the old N64 RGB chip for early consoles that'd be different.
@somnambulance man I tried to get my daughter into Balan, but she looks watching games but not playing ;( I wish she was into it so I'd have an excuse to power through it
I forgot if the list mentions Doom Resurrection, but it's basically remade to be Doom 1 and 2 more like the PC version, but on 32x. Idk why you wouldn't just play it on PC with kb/mouse support now (mods) but it's cool to see on the 32X for sure.
Popful Maaaaaail! Woo!
I'd put it at 4th-best SCD game (Lunar, Lunar EB and Snatcher) , and a must-play for every retro gamer for the script and voice acting! It has like 3 hours of audio, and it might be WD's best voice over work because of how much there is and how entertaining to boot.
If you find it too hard just play the Unworked Designs patch ver, which keeps the top-notch localization with the breezy JP difficulty.
This is another reason why it's one of my favorite movies, haha. Glad to see this as a story on the site!!
It perfectly captured a brief snapshot in history where the DC was the supreme hotness.
It's kind of ironic to be so excited about all the SEGA branding when the point of the film is that branding is assaulting us everywhere and it's a terrible way for us to exist.
Every time I play Chaotix I just wish it was 10x better than it actually is. The level design is atrocious. So much wasted potential ;(
I hate being that guy who criticizes these lists but I really think Star Wars doesn't belong here, even considering the 32X library.
NBA Jam 32X is one of its best ports!
MKII is in a few ways better than the SNES (and a few ways not), but either way it's one of the best 32X games too.
Just a bummer that it couldn't have gotten more time or been designed to enhance Genesis games in some way.
I always try to find the games on every system that every real gamer should play, but really I don't think there's anything really great on the system. Shadow Squadron is prob the closest game to that, but even then you've got the sequel on Saturn (which just got fan translayed into EN!) I still have my launch one :/
@GOmar Seeing as how Strictly Limited re-release is just as prohibitively expensive to get, yeah I'd say it's news. I'd love a cart of this, and it'd be fun to have this tea cup. Just put in my order actually, will be curious to see a Columbus Circle release.
From doing a ton of research on why the ones with RCA jacks are so regarded, supposedly DO NOT use the RCA jacks. It's the regular multi-out connector that yields the audio benefits of this machine. Supposedly.
I'm deaf in one ear plus have tinnitus in it now. But that's what I read. I have both versions of PSX and use all my retro systems regulaly and I can't tell a real difference. But it's not expensive to get"the best"model and replacing the laser is pretty easy if you just get a broken one. So it's nice to have.
@NatiaAdamo I believe he said the money they were offered wasn't worth their time to implement the changes needed to get it on there.
I believe him that I'm sure it was a lot of work for not much payoff, but it's still really unfortunate that this was his best chance to expose WD's amazingness to a wide audience, possibly for the last time.
People are paying so much for these dumb pixel remasters when what they could really use is a playthrough of a game they missed out on, like Lunar:EB.
Is Vic gonna just sit on his copyrights forever and not do anything with their classics?
I'd really be interested in your list of Playstation 2 exclusives. A bunch of games on here aren't even the best version from its generation (Okami? RE4?? Cmon!), let alone re-releases/ports. Generally if it's a available on something else it's usually best to avoid the Playstation 2 ver, even if it's just because of the 480i flicker fest.
I was reading John S's (can't spell his last name off the top of my head) obscure HG101 pieces and just picked up Raw Danger for cheap. A list of best stuff that you can ONLY find on the system, please! You can do it, you guys are great writers and historians.
The Playstation 2 is the biggest example of using smoke and mirrors to will something to success that I've ever seen. People buying a product on promise, or as an "investment" (investments make you money, they don't take your money), is a reality but is really foreign to me.
It was really disappointing to me to see it have such a big launch and watch the DC die when there were no decent games to play for a full year (MGS2 and GTAIII were the first really fantastic games), unless you were obsessed with Tekken.
For sports fans, I was like, WTF, you have 2K sports games!
The Playstation 2 obviously ended up with an extensive library, but it's not a credit to the hardware (I'm still pissed about the lack of progressive scan when almost every DC game supports 480p - - and the optical port promising surround sound was a joke in practice), it's a credit to marketing.
I remember an article on Gamestop that some country's government was trying to get them at launch because they were "supercomputers". It was just launching a console with complete bullcrap.
And they're made so poorly, but people were just like "I'll buy another" when the disc-read errors started showing up in like year 3.
Still depressed that Sony (and then MS who just followed their lead - - brute force, spend money) run the console industry.
Nintendo does a lot of dumb stuff, but at least they're a first-party, games-first company that has creativity and forward-thinkingness to pair with last successes.
SEGA's (mostly self-inflicted) death left a vacuum we re still feeling in the games industry. Almost every 1st-party release on a console being good, creative, or at least experimental/wacky is something we ll never seen again.
Thank you guys for the article! I never knew the thing about the Saturn ver backgrounds running at 60 fps. Introduced my 3 YO to NiGHTS last year and I told her he's Sonic's cousin, lol. She really likes it.
Aaargh I was hoping this was about NiGHTS JoD though from the picture with the article! It's like the most under-appreciated game of all time.
My Sonic 1 console doesn't have TMSS so I lucked out.
Shining Force II and Alien Soldier are the only imports I have that still don't play on it (not that I have many).
You didn't mention this but you can also just dremel away the tabs on a JP game to fit in your western console. I ve done this on a few since I don't intend to sell them, and didn't want to harm the dust cover on my original Genesis.
I didn't do it on Alien Soldier tho lol, Game Genie is fine to break the code.
Just wanted to share my experiences, as for the last 10 years I use retrogame consoles for event entertainment (and have been loving videogames since Atari/Commodore). So they get a lot of use and a lot of dirty hands on them.
Most retro problems are STUPID easy to fix. I was really nervous about soldering until I just taught myself in 2018. Stuff like replacing a fuse is something literally anyone can do!
AliExpress has replacement laser units for disc-based systems (PSX, DC, etc) that will do the job for you. It takes like 20 min to replace, and the units are like $10.
32Xes, Model 1 SEGA CDs, and Turbo Duos WILL die, but just Google "cap kit" and you'll find kits with instructions for what to replace.
Handhelds also die and basically MUST have certain caps replaced, but will prob be good as new after, and again, ppl sell kits for each system.
Yeah, the custom chips on systems like the SNES can die and you're hosed. But that's still rare.
It's not some foregone conclusion that your retro stuff will 1 day be 100% dead and unrepairable. If you care about your systems, there is tons of info online to repair and maintain them. If you're really nervous, start by buying a cap kit and replacing them in your fav system.
Pre-2000 systems can last you "forever" unless you have bad luck.
Yeah disc rot is a thing too, but the Library of Congress says with proper care some CDs can last into the 27th century (!)
Get a dehumidifier for your games space, if you're a retrogamer! And keep them alive!
I just don't see any point in this device outside of having a trophy to sit on your shelf.
If you have tons of old copies of games, don't you care about authenticity enough to play them on actual hardware too? Do you really get a swell of nostalgia from plugging Sonic into some new random black box?
And if you don't care and just prefer emulators, what modern (even non-gaming) computer can't emulate the hell out of these systems?
Everyone is free to spend your money on what makes you happy! And we all love old games. Just seems like this device doesn't have an audience. But if you find it it's for you, I do hope you enjoy it, and it would be great for publishers to be able to legally sell their old games instead of pirates and unlicensed repro makers capitalizing
Comments 238
Re: We Almost Got The "Definitive" Version Of Blaster Master In Arcades
@Sketcz exactly lol!
Re: Square Had Huge Plans For The N64 Before It Fell Out With Nintendo
Good example how short-term corporate greediness (Nintendo wanting to keep banking off that cart manufacturing) can screw your entire company's future.
Re: Former PlatinumGames Staffer Accused Of Sexual Exploitation Of 13-Year-Old Boy
It's really terrible to learn someone you really respected has a problem as deep as this. Man, wtf NickRox.
Re: Lunar: Silver Star Story Touch Arrives On Android Devices This Week
@-wc- I played it a little when it came out on ios. Was pretty choppy, but this was a decade ago now. I would hope it runs perfect on modern devices. Seemed just like the PSX version otherwise
Re: Is Quintet's Robotrek The Most Underrated SNES JRPG Ever?
@Sketcz Glad you wrote this, as I forgot all about this game. I've been on an RPG kick after I played Suikoden 1 and 2 last year, but Shadow Hearts (which seems cool), Star Ocean 2 (seems fine), and Xenogears (takes forever to do anything, kinda ugly, pretentious-but-nonsense Evangelion vibes) haven't held my interest.
I absolutely love Quintet and was introduced to Terranigma through Hg101, and now it's one of the top 16-bit games I've ever played!
Slapstick sounded cool but this was the best analysis of the game I've seen anywhere. Everyone's been petty dismissive of it. I really wish the Quintet games got more respect. I found Chrono Trigger to be a good RPG but nothing affected me like even simple stuff in each Quintet game.
After I concert my SFC cart to EN I'll finally play this! Quintet games all have a unifying God/nature thing I really like.
I was hoping you'd played through Granstream and give it a write up because I found the story / setting pretty interesting but playing it sucks, lol.
Re: The Making Of: Suikoden II, A JRPG To Match 'Game Of Thrones' In Intrigue And Impact
@Sketcz Magazines were spoiling FFVII regularly by 1998. Before I had a Playstation, a mag in their tips section showed how to meet Aeris in Tactics, and said "see what she's been up to since her supposed death in FFVII."
I tried to make my brain forget what I read, but alas.
I'm sure the Remake will handle things differently, whatever happens, so I'm skeptical the average gamer is going back to play Lego FFVII on PSX honestly
Re: The Making Of: Suikoden, Yoshitaka Murayama's PS1 RPG Masterwork
Wonderful feature! These remained on my to-play list since release until late last year. I sure wish I had played them back then. Loved S1, and S2 is without a doubt one of the best written and localized RPGs I've ever played (yeah, it has some typos, but I'll take this over bad writing any day.) All-time great for sure, and certainly has aged better than the angsty, nonsensical, flashy randomness FFVII left in its wake.
Great stuff here! Loved it!
Re: Random: Facebook And Instagram Suppressing "Mega Drive" Searches Over Child Abuse Fears
Just shows you how dumb these algorithms are and why having these tech companies serving as our thought police is probably bad.
Re: MSX Cyberpunk RPG 'Illusion City' Finally Gets An English Translation
@KGRAMR Man, I hope so. I know some of those MSX guys a little and I'm not sure they would be interested in working on another system besides MSX.
But that's awesome if they're close!
Re: Interview: "An Enormous Headache" - The Amazing Story Behind Indiana Jones & The Fate Of Atlantis
Thanks for this! LucasArts games were best of the best back then. Really great to hear how this came about and bring me back to it, since it's rare I play back through them now.
Re: NES Modders Fix The "Sin" Committed By Nintendo 39 Years Ago
@LinktotheFuture thanks for the feedback, yeah, I just did the best I can with these. I'm sure there are much better videos to show the actual guts of what I'm doing, but I wanted to mostly explain what I was doing at least in case it was helpful for anyone
Re: Fan Translation And ROM Hack-Sharing Site CDRomance Forced Underground After Legal Threat
Normally I wouldn't have anything to say about ad-running ROM sites, but CDRomance is run and maintained by a really dedicated videogame fan. He actively updates the fanhacks on his sites and writes lengthy and accurate descriptions, respects fan translators who ask if their work not be posted in pre-patched form, and works pretty tirelessly to answer people's questions quickly. Everytime I have a little update to my PSIV retranslation he has it updated within 24 hours with a reply, which is pretty amazing considering how big the site is and he probably has a real life beyond it!
It's not because of the pre-patched ROMs that the site has gotten to be such a great resource.
Glad the site is continuing!
Re: NES Modders Fix The "Sin" Committed By Nintendo 39 Years Ago
I am sorry to be a dbag but I IMO you don't need any of these devices to make your NES work almost completely error-free, and it's just as much work as putting one of these devices in your NES.
Idk no one talks about this, but the NES screws up almost completely from the pins bending from the toaster action, not from corrosion.
If you disable 1 pin of one of the chips (I know this is common knowledge) you don't have to push down carts for them to play.
You just take the additional step of replacing the springs on the toaster device with a screw or bolt so the toaster can't be pushed down.
My channel isn't monetized so I don't pimp my videos, but I made a how-to because I hate BLWs so much as they make it impossible to get your carts out.
Retrogaming feels like it's all about selling people crap now. I know not everyone wants to mod their own stuff but it's fun and a lot cheaper if you do, haha. And these things won't work forever so it's really good to learn basic maintenance.
https://youtu.be/ZNL98-9dYk0?si=4CdN6J0hnrbQtSdT
You also can bend the pins in your connector back manually and it'll be good forever if you clean it quickly. DO NOT buy those replacement 72-pins. They're cheap crap. The one in your console is way better!
Re: Poll: What Is Rare's Best Game?
@Sketcz Nice! I just found a copy of that at a reasonable price a few years ago, always wanted to try the 4P mode since Nintendo Power featured it in their 4P issue!
Maybe when my girls get older ;/
Re: Poll: What Is Rare's Best Game?
You guys need to hear Anticipation's soundtrack before submitting any final answers. #10stars
Re: Amazing "Holy Grail" SNES Mod Fixes One Of The Console's Biggest Problems
From experience, I feel like I can try to address some of the questions in the comments here.
@KingMike 1. This isn't about pixel-perfect razor-sharp unnatural emulation-style graphics from a SNES. It's making most SNESes look more akin to a 1CHIP, which is just a baseline/clear signal as opposed to a muddled picture.
2. If you re happy with your SNES output, then don't do/buy anything else!
@-wc- 3. The video output on most SNESes (the 2CHIP) is blurry across all inputs when compared to a stock Gen/TG16/etc. The 1CHIP fixes this (tho all stock SNESes have certain issues).
I'm not a OMG SCANLINES 4K kind of guy, I just want games to have a CRT look that's on par or better than Svideo. I don't really think the RetroRGB page really shows the difference. I feel like it's Emperor's New Clothes when I'm staring at comparisons EXTREME CLOSEUP screenshots.
The 2CHIP has almost a N64-like vasoline-y video output. If you're happy with it, that's fine! You can probably notice though on even a nice CRT in Svideo as long as you play other game systems on it. If you play on an HDTV via RGB+OSSC or whatever you will REALLY notice.
I ve used 20 SNESes over the last few years and I have 5 or 6 1CHIPs, and I use consumer CRTs and HDTVs. Each SNES revision is honestly a little different. But the 2CHIP models' signals are overall poor compared to any other retro console.
If you can't tell or don't care then no worries! But it's a huge thing to be able to fix this for most SNES consoles.
That said, just look in the wild for SNES consoles with a serial of "UN3XXXXX" (idk what the British or JP equivalent is but I believe it's similar).
You can probably find a 1CHIP out there eventually used. Just flip it over and look at the serial. Most likely it hasn't been MOBO swapped. If you open it up the mobo does say "1CHIP" on there.
Even if you get one for like $150 it's better to have a whole new console than pay $100 for a mod where you have to do all the work (and used shops will usually give you controllers / AC adapter included for that price) . If it were a $35 chip like the old N64 RGB chip for early consoles that'd be different.
Re: You Can Now Enjoy Nights Into Dreams At 60FPS On PC
@somnambulance man I tried to get my daughter into Balan, but she looks watching games but not playing ;( I wish she was into it so I'd have an excuse to power through it
Re: Best Sega 32X Games Of All Time
I forgot if the list mentions Doom Resurrection, but it's basically remade to be Doom 1 and 2 more like the PC version, but on 32x. Idk why you wouldn't just play it on PC with kb/mouse support now (mods) but it's cool to see on the 32X for sure.
Re: Best Sega 32X Games Of All Time
@shouryuuken a redesigned Chaotix would be like the greatest thing SEGA has done in 20 years!
Re: Best Sega CD Games Of All Time
Popful Maaaaaail! Woo!
I'd put it at 4th-best SCD game (Lunar, Lunar EB and Snatcher) , and a must-play for every retro gamer for the script and voice acting! It has like 3 hours of audio, and it might be WD's best voice over work because of how much there is and how entertaining to boot.
If you find it too hard just play the Unworked Designs patch ver, which keeps the top-notch localization with the breezy JP difficulty.
Re: This Game Preservation Group Wants To Archive LaserDisc Games Before They're Lost Forever
Amazing news!
Re: Polymega's Latest Update Removes Some Pre-Installed Games
Brave New World
Re: Flashback: How This Cult 2000s Movie Became The Ultimate Dreamcast Advert
This is another reason why it's one of my favorite movies, haha. Glad to see this as a story on the site!!
It perfectly captured a brief snapshot in history where the DC was the supreme hotness.
It's kind of ironic to be so excited about all the SEGA branding when the point of the film is that branding is assaulting us everywhere and it's a terrible way for us to exist.
But whatever. We make an exception for SEGA lol
Re: Best Sega 32X Games Of All Time
Every time I play Chaotix I just wish it was 10x better than it actually is. The level design is atrocious. So much wasted potential ;(
I hate being that guy who criticizes these lists but I really think Star Wars doesn't belong here, even considering the 32X library.
NBA Jam 32X is one of its best ports!
MKII is in a few ways better than the SNES (and a few ways not), but either way it's one of the best 32X games too.
Just a bummer that it couldn't have gotten more time or been designed to enhance Genesis games in some way.
I always try to find the games on every system that every real gamer should play, but really I don't think there's anything really great on the system. Shadow Squadron is prob the closest game to that, but even then you've got the sequel on Saturn (which just got fan translayed into EN!) I still have my launch one :/
Re: Streets Of Rage 2, ActRaiser And Story Of Thor - Ayano Koshiro On Her Career In Games
Wow, I had no idea she also worked on Lunar!
Great piece as always!
Re: This Ridiculously Expensive Mega Drive Game Is Getting A Reproduction
@GOmar Seeing as how Strictly Limited re-release is just as prohibitively expensive to get, yeah I'd say it's news. I'd love a cart of this, and it'd be fun to have this tea cup. Just put in my order actually, will be curious to see a Columbus Circle release.
Re: Flashback: "No Hamburgers On The Ground" - How McDonald's Sabotaged Its Own Game
@Chinesus @-wc- Roy Crock told business classes all the time that his business was real estate, not burgers.
Their success was built on location and turnkey franchising/food production, not quality of the food.
Re: Review: EON XBHD HD Adapter For Xbox - Bring Your OG Console Into The Modern Age
$200??? Holy crap man.
I would really be curious who needs this when you can do SCART->GBC-C for RGB HDMI for a little over $100.
Re: Random: Music Fans Are Modding Early PS1 Consoles To Use As CD Players
From doing a ton of research on why the ones with RCA jacks are so regarded, supposedly DO NOT use the RCA jacks. It's the regular multi-out connector that yields the audio benefits of this machine. Supposedly.
I'm deaf in one ear plus have tinnitus in it now. But that's what I read. I have both versions of PSX and use all my retro systems regulaly and I can't tell a real difference. But it's not expensive to get"the best"model and replacing the laser is pretty easy if you just get a broken one. So it's nice to have.
Re: The Making Of: Popful Mail, The Game That Nearly Became Part Of The Sonic Series
@NatiaAdamo I believe he said the money they were offered wasn't worth their time to implement the changes needed to get it on there.
I believe him that I'm sure it was a lot of work for not much payoff, but it's still really unfortunate that this was his best chance to expose WD's amazingness to a wide audience, possibly for the last time.
People are paying so much for these dumb pixel remasters when what they could really use is a playthrough of a game they missed out on, like Lunar:EB.
Is Vic gonna just sit on his copyrights forever and not do anything with their classics?
Just a bad scenario for everyone
Re: Best PS2 Games Of All Time - PlayStation 2 Titles You Need To Play
I'd really be interested in your list of Playstation 2 exclusives. A bunch of games on here aren't even the best version from its generation (Okami? RE4?? Cmon!), let alone re-releases/ports. Generally if it's a available on something else it's usually best to avoid the Playstation 2 ver, even if it's just because of the 480i flicker fest.
I was reading John S's (can't spell his last name off the top of my head) obscure HG101 pieces and just picked up Raw Danger for cheap. A list of best stuff that you can ONLY find on the system, please! You can do it, you guys are great writers and historians.
Re: The Making Of: PlayStation 2, The World's Most Successful Video Game Console
The Playstation 2 is the biggest example of using smoke and mirrors to will something to success that I've ever seen. People buying a product on promise, or as an "investment" (investments make you money, they don't take your money), is a reality but is really foreign to me.
It was really disappointing to me to see it have such a big launch and watch the DC die when there were no decent games to play for a full year (MGS2 and GTAIII were the first really fantastic games), unless you were obsessed with Tekken.
For sports fans, I was like, WTF, you have 2K sports games!
The Playstation 2 obviously ended up with an extensive library, but it's not a credit to the hardware (I'm still pissed about the lack of progressive scan when almost every DC game supports 480p - - and the optical port promising surround sound was a joke in practice), it's a credit to marketing.
I remember an article on Gamestop that some country's government was trying to get them at launch because they were "supercomputers". It was just launching a console with complete bullcrap.
And they're made so poorly, but people were just like "I'll buy another" when the disc-read errors started showing up in like year 3.
Still depressed that Sony (and then MS who just followed their lead - - brute force, spend money) run the console industry.
Nintendo does a lot of dumb stuff, but at least they're a first-party, games-first company that has creativity and forward-thinkingness to pair with last successes.
SEGA's (mostly self-inflicted) death left a vacuum we re still feeling in the games industry. Almost every 1st-party release on a console being good, creative, or at least experimental/wacky is something we ll never seen again.
Re: You Can Now Enjoy Nights Into Dreams At 60FPS On PC
Thank you guys for the article! I never knew the thing about the Saturn ver backgrounds running at 60 fps. Introduced my 3 YO to NiGHTS last year and I told her he's Sonic's cousin, lol. She really likes it.
Aaargh I was hoping this was about NiGHTS JoD though from the picture with the article! It's like the most under-appreciated game of all time.
Re: New Alien Soldier Romhack Adds Highly-Requested 6-Button Controller Support
This is prob the coolest 16-bit game, that I can think of at least. It's just a hardcore, amazing, game's game.
If this gets more people playing it than awesome!
Re: Guide: How To Play Mega Drive Games On Sega Genesis - Region-Locking And TMSS Explained
Thanks for putting this together!
My Sonic 1 console doesn't have TMSS so I lucked out.
Shining Force II and Alien Soldier are the only imports I have that still don't play on it (not that I have many).
You didn't mention this but you can also just dremel away the tabs on a JP game to fit in your western console. I ve done this on a few since I don't intend to sell them, and didn't want to harm the dust cover on my original Genesis.
I didn't do it on Alien Soldier tho lol, Game Genie is fine to break the code.
Re: A Rare Castlevania Arcade Game Has Just Been Preserved, And Is Almost Playable
Wow!!
This game isn't amazing but every CV fan should play it. It's Def one of my fav modern arcade experiences.
The OST is incredible. Best in-game renditions of all CV's most famous works. Even Crucifix Held Close / Cross on the Breast from Haunted Castle/PoR!
At least DL the OST if you like CV in any way！
Re: Feature: Your Beloved Games Console Is Slowly But Surely Dying
Just wanted to share my experiences, as for the last 10 years I use retrogame consoles for event entertainment (and have been loving videogames since Atari/Commodore). So they get a lot of use and a lot of dirty hands on them.
Most retro problems are STUPID easy to fix. I was really nervous about soldering until I just taught myself in 2018. Stuff like replacing a fuse is something literally anyone can do!
AliExpress has replacement laser units for disc-based systems (PSX, DC, etc) that will do the job for you. It takes like 20 min to replace, and the units are like $10.
32Xes, Model 1 SEGA CDs, and Turbo Duos WILL die, but just Google "cap kit" and you'll find kits with instructions for what to replace.
Handhelds also die and basically MUST have certain caps replaced, but will prob be good as new after, and again, ppl sell kits for each system.
Yeah, the custom chips on systems like the SNES can die and you're hosed. But that's still rare.
It's not some foregone conclusion that your retro stuff will 1 day be 100% dead and unrepairable. If you care about your systems, there is tons of info online to repair and maintain them. If you're really nervous, start by buying a cap kit and replacing them in your fav system.
Pre-2000 systems can last you "forever" unless you have bad luck.
Yeah disc rot is a thing too, but the Library of Congress says with proper care some CDs can last into the 27th century (!)
Get a dehumidifier for your games space, if you're a retrogamer! And keep them alive!
Re: Hardware: Polymega Review - The Ultimate All-In-One Retro Machine
I just don't see any point in this device outside of having a trophy to sit on your shelf.
If you have tons of old copies of games, don't you care about authenticity enough to play them on actual hardware too? Do you really get a swell of nostalgia from plugging Sonic into some new random black box?
And if you don't care and just prefer emulators, what modern (even non-gaming) computer can't emulate the hell out of these systems?
Everyone is free to spend your money on what makes you happy! And we all love old games. Just seems like this device doesn't have an audience. But if you find it it's for you, I do hope you enjoy it, and it would be great for publishers to be able to legally sell their old games instead of pirates and unlicensed repro makers capitalizing