GravyThief

@sdelfin thanks for this, really appreciate it. That’s really interesting and very impressive, to say the least! It’s amazing what’s possible these days, I can only imagine what the developers back in the 80s and 90s would have thought of something like this, especially those coding in assembly. I’ll give those videos a watch when get chance.

I would guess to make your game stand out and feel different to others developed using the GUI, you’d have to start tinkering with the code to a degree. I recall someone on YouTube (can’t remember who now) reviewing a home brew game (a platformer) and they said they could tell it was made in GB Studio by how it felt to control, as it felt the same as other GB Studio games, and they didn’t like it. That was on my mind when reading this article, I guess the GUI can only take you so far. But I still find it amazing that it’s even possible. I’d love to have a go myself, but with a full time job and family, what limited spare time I have I’d rather use to play games, rather than try and make one as some hobby project. But maybe one day, when I’m retired!

Thanks again for the info.

@NoirConceit right ok. I am now fully enlightened by your explanation. It’s been a pleasure.

@NoirConceit I just want to understand how you can make a game without doing any programming. I genuinely want to understand how it works as I’m intrigued.

"to enable users with minimal or no programming knowledge to make games,"

How exactly does that work? I don’t understand how you could make any sort of unique game without programming.

I got one of these recently, although they’ve been around for years now. I too had the old Everdrive GB years, but I upgraded to the X7 for some other reasons you haven’t mentioned but I think are just as important:

1) The X7 draws much less power than the old Everdrive GB (and all the other cheap flash carts). As everyone mods their Game Boys these days with screens that were never meant to be in a Game Boy, the lower power draw of the X7 is essential, some flash carts won’t work on modded game boys at all.

2) Saving. The old Everdrive GB has a really annoying way of saving its games. When saving, it put the save into its temporary SRAM memory (which is powered by the battery like a normal cartridge). It did NOT hard code the save on to the SD card until you played another game. This meant you could play a long game like Zelda and it wouldn’t update the save on the SD card until you consciously played another game. I even lost a save because the battery died before I’d got the save onto the SD card.

The X7 eliminates this annoyance by putting the save from SRAM to SD card at boot up every time.

These were my main reasons for upgrading. While I like the idea of save states, I find them too glitchy and finicky to ever use them (this is an issue with all flash carts, not just the Everdrive).

I have loads of Everdrives across multiple consoles. I can say without a doubt they are the best quality and most reliable, and worth the extra price.

Does it still look and sound like a NES game, or have they improved the graphics and sound too? The MSU stuff aside (I won’t go on about how much I dislike MSU stuff in SNES games), couldn’t all the other improvements just be done on the NES game?

Maybe I’m missing the point of these SNES ports.

My favourite gaming memories are on the SNES, N64 and the PlayStation. So I’m certainly glad it went the way it did.

I’m not an “AI bros” the article refers to (what even is that?), but I have to say I find the quality of this article much lower than what I’ve come to expect from Time Extension. I really feel like I’m just reading a generic ranting comment from any random corner of the internet. Many of the articles, features, interviews and deep-dives you do on here are excellent, which makes this stand out even more.

As for the subject matter, I can definitely see some uses for AI to ‘update’ old, low res images such as this. But it clearly needs to a human to gatekeep and touch up the output. There are parts of the image where I’d say it’s done a good job (such as the detail below the screen of the cabinet), so in the right hands I could see these tools been put to good use. And of course it should never supersede the original. But obviously it doesn’t work when done lazily like this.

I thought this was about Rage Racer on PS1 at first. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of Rave Racer before, I’ll have to check it out.

I bought the Retro-Bit Jaleco Brawlers pack for SNES, and PIKO’s release of 40 Winks for N64. I couldn’t believe how low quality everything looked and felt. And with 40 Winks the sound on the game was really low volume. I’ve since sold them both.

What this has taught me is that I’ll never buy these “new releases for old consoles” ever again. They’re just low quality charged at premium prices.

Isn’t she the lady who ported Doom to 3DO in like 7 hours? You should have mentioned that Time Extension, come on!

@Professor_Icepick I don’t know why you’re getting grief. Your explanation makes perfect sense.

This looks excellent, I’ll be downloading it as soon as I can. I played and completed this a few years, but the battery has since died so I lost my save. It is excellent on the Super Game Boy but this gives me an excuse to play it again on my Game Boy Color

Why was he called Radion Automatic?

@PMurphy1978 I’ve received your email now, thanks for sorting everything out. I look forward to receiving my order!

Shame this game isn’t anywhere near as good as the first Vandal Hearts game. I played it straight after finishing the first one and really didn’t like it. I can’t remember what it was now, I just know I’d barely played it for an hour and could already tell I didn’t like it, I bounced straight off it.

I don’t recall ever having a Game & Watch growing up, although I definitely had other similar ones.

I’ve recently got into the Game & Watch gallery games on Game Boy. I particularly like Vermin and Fire, they’re just so addictive. There’s something pure about them, like Tetris, which is why they’ll always be timeless.

Doesn’t the GBC cart of this have the two original GB games and then the DX/GBC enhanced versions of those, so kinda four games in one?

@LastFootnote oh gosh yes, I never noticed that before. I’ve never had an Xbox nor Dreamcast, so I could never get used to that layout. Decades of muscle memory have put a stop to that. I can just about manage going between PlayStation and Nintendo consoles. Though I do still sometimes mix up the X button, and the differing placement of confirm and cancel buttons gets me too.

I need to hack one of my 3DSes. I don’t want to touch the Zelda ones, so it will have to be the New 3DS I have. I’ve always been put off by the fact you can’t reverse it once it’s hacked.

Last time I looked into it there were like a billion steps to go through, and there was never any explanation as to why you were doing things or what all the stuff you were adding did. I like to understand the whats and whys when hacking. It was a few years ago when I looked into it, so hopefully it’s improved. Being able to play VB games in 3D really does tempt me.

This was really interesting, thank you! I played the first AA game back in about 2010 or 2011, on the iPhone no less. And it made me a lifelong fan. So clearly they did a great job with the translation. I was literally hooked from the first case. Such a great game series.

PAL Mega Drive, NTSC Genesis, Mega Everdrive Pro and RGB Scart cable is all I need.

I used to have a PAL Mega Drive with the 50/60hz and language switches. Never worked right. Forcing 60hz on PAL games never looked right, and it never worked properly with Genesis games either. I much prefer just having two consoles and playing the games they were intended for, works much better.

@PMurphy1978 no idea if you still frequent this site, but as you’re ignoring my emails I don’t know what else to do. I ordered two books from you over three weeks ago. I’ve heard nothing since and you’re not replying to my emails. My wife ordered another book from you afterwards and that was posted out and received in good time. No idea what’s going on. If there’s a delay then please just tell me. If I don’t hear from you soon I’ll have to request a chargeback from my bank.

“ better level design”. Quite the bold claim.

I have never once played any game (retro or modern) wishing it had achievements / trophies / medals / badges / commendations / smiley faces / ticks, or whatever nonsense it is games have these days.

I remember once seeing a comment somewhere where the internet person basically said “there was no point in games without trophies”. How ridiculous. Although that person’s parents wouldn’t have received a trophy for giving birth to them, so in that context it makes sense.

I’m much better at games now (early 40s) than I ever was as a kid and teenager. I can only imagine how good I’ll be in my 80s. Probably the next speed-running champion.

It’s not worth $10k if nobody’s bought it for that price. I can list my yellowed cart of Super Mario Land on the Game Boy for $10k. Then according to the internet, that’s what it’s worth. I’m rich!

What next? Someone will track down all the actors from the live action sequences in Resident Evil 1.

C’mon. It’s 2025. Surely they all know by now we weren’t that into Nintendo in the 80s and 90s, for the same reasons repeated in this article and many times over the past decades? Is it really that difficult to understand?

Despite never having an Amiga or owning this game, I still have massive nostalgia for the first GP game.

My best friend had an Amiga which I was fascinated by when I went to his house. It was some mysterious machine that took loads of effort just to load a game, but when it did the games looked so far ahead of their time. This game in particular. I couldn’t believe it was true 3D (I was used to Outrun style racing games at the time). I vividly recall being blown away by things like buildings on the side, the men waving flags and, best of all, when a car crashes out you’d see it being winched off the track the following lap! It was amazing to my child eyes.

I much prefer the soundtrack of the first Wipeout game to any of the others, and that’s purely for the Cold Storage tracks. I loved it at the time. I used to play the disc in my hi-fi, and always forgot to skip track 1 straight away, so got that horrible data noise coming through. Why does it make that sound?

Not really surprised. It’s not like £3k goes very far these days, and it certainly won’t turn around a business if it’s unviable in the first place.

Not really into digital versions of books like this. Where you have to zoom in and out constantly to appreciate it. Shame it’s already sold out physically, I don’t recall ever seeing it advertised. Oh well, I’m sure there will be YouTube videos of ‘influencers’ reviewing a physical book I can no longer buy. And if I’m lucky someone on eBay will sell a used copy for double the price.

I’m currently playing through the DX hack of Final Fantasy Adventure / Mystic Quest / Seiken Densetsu. (I can’t believe it has a different name for each major region!).

It certainly looks better than the non-colourised version. I’m quite enjoying the game. It’s difficult playing it now in 2025, but if I’d played this back in the day I would have loved it. It’s cool seeing stuff that I recognise from Secret of Mana too.

This is my favourite of the Castlevania games I’ve played so far. I do still have to play SotN, a couple of the GBA ones and all the DS ones, so maybe that view will change. Although I’m really not into all the RPG and card collecting nonsense, so maybe not.

This was really interesting to read, thank you. It sounds like they did a great job with the translation.

I played FFIX a few years ago, on the PS1, for the first time. I never played it originally and read good things about it, but I have to say I didn’t really enjoy it much. I don’t know why specifically, whether it’s because I’m just not into JRPGs like I used to be, or because I don’t have that connection to it like I did FFVII or earlier ones.

Great read, thanks. I do like this game, despite never actually finishing it myself.

The Japanese version has an extra scene or two in the opening cinematic, where the prince is getting beaten while chained to the wall, which was cut from the European/US release. I guess because we can’t handle it or something.

Hopefully this ends up looking and sounding like a SNES game, and doesn’t have a 500 piece orchestra performing the soundtrack via the MSU.

He isn’t one of the main content creators I eat co on YouTube, but I have enjoyed numerous videos of his over the years so hopefully this means there will be more for me to enjoy in the future too.

As someone who really doesn’t like clear cases on electronics (it makes the aesthetics look busy and messy to my eye), you can imagine how much I’m not a fan of this 🤣

However, I didn’t realise clear PCBs were a thing so that’s cool. And I’ve recently started basic soldering myself, so I can only dream of having the skill to solder this together when the board has a melting point of 200c. Kudos to their skill!

I really need to play this. I’ve had it for the GameCube for years, but for whatever reason never get around to playing it. I like the sound of it too, I think I’d enjoy it….

Right that’s it then, play it I shall!

This looks like the artwork from the Puffin first run of Fighting Fantasy game books. It looks great!

I love how they’ve made that living room space look like it’s just come out of the early 80s. If I could ever have a games room, I’d aim for something like that, although I’d probably aim for an early 90s look. So a more modern CRT, and ancillary details like an Aiwa stack hi-fi system and some cans of Skol lager 🤣

Damn I spent hours polishing my pitchfork too. Seems a waste to just use it on the veg patch now.

I got one of Hyperkin’s SNES clone consoles (I forget the name). It was pretty bad. I recall it looked ok when everything was still, but the moment there was movement it just went all blurry and weird looking. Plus the audio delay was really off-putting (why is there always audio delay on these types of devices?). I can handle a bit of audio delay but this was really obvious and distracted from just enjoying the game. There was also noticeable input lag. I’m pretty forgiving when it comes to input lag, but I couldn’t forgive this.

I returned it for a refund and it’s put me off ever buying a Hyperkin product ever again.

I’ve never played JSR, as I’ve never had a Dreamcast (and have no plans to ever get one).

Looking at the list of platforms it’s on, it seems PS3 is the only system I have. Is the PS3 version any good?

@RupeeClock not only that, but its save data can only work on one version at a time, so if you had save data for the GBC version, and popped it in a DMG/Pocket, it would wipe the save data (with a warning first I believe) before it would let you start that version of the game. Very strange!

I hope he pulls it. Just so I can read the next article about random entitled internet people going off on one. I find it entertaining.

Hopefully they sell enough copies on Steam and on the Switch and PS5 for this to not really matter to them. It’s reviewed well and is priced well too, so fingers crossed.

@Guru_Larry those were the days.