@Daniel36 How could I have forgotten that one?
I do remember one of the canceled Capcom Mega Man games they were going to put in Bad Box Art Mega Man, but I don't think they were ever going to put the ugly Captain N Mega Man in any games.

@MysticX How else are you going to play 3DS games in the far future when the chips in genuine DS/3DS/Switch carts degrade?

There is genuine uses for emulation besides that such as being able to preserve and restore saves, screen and video capture beyond what the official hardware provides.

Has Metroid been previously represented in TV shows?

The lightning attack was definitely a killer. I don't mind password saves as much as the fact that, as I recall, you had to travel to a specific spot in order to get one.

Well, the Sega version is a "Mega Drive" game as it was a PAL-exclusive. I suppose that would be just one of another factor raising the SNES price (as it was the only NTSC release). Still I'm glad I picked up my copy back when GameStop still had SNES games in stores. I should at some point give the game another try.

@DemonKow It's hard to really judge a console that was only given new games for about six months after release.

Those were the days companies usually tried to push consoles to get as much as they could. The Atari 2600 was made as a Pong machine and the NES was a Donkey Kong box (for which the port was still compromised). Obviously both went far beyond their designers' intent. What if Game Boy only had falling block puzzle games and early era arcade game ports?
Virtual Boy didn't get to that point.

Certainly we'll be able to play Pac-Man on this machine for eternity.

@Quick_Man I do find it amusing and amazing the report I've heard that for Zero Wing on one of its collections, M2 went to the effort of putting the Mega Drive meme intro into the arcade version when people complained it was "missing".

How do they know the data is a complete match to the final version if they can't read the data?
Also, ROM dumpers (the devices) aren't going to care about the Version Number data. If they can't read the rest of the data, then there's other issues.

Something smells about this.

Officially Game Boy mappers are nearly interchangeable, at least as far as dumping the ROM goes. The only ones that aren't are MMBC1 (I think it was called, the one for official multicarts that a few publishers utilized in Japan in the late '90s to rerelease multiple related games.)

@gmar The 2014 cracking of the 1993 original arcade release of Raiden II is not "recent", and it's safe to say that AI was not being used in 2014.

@StyrofoamCup I under it is situational that I would have wanted controller changes for playing Sonic Wings Special on my PSP (and was glad that Sony's digital offerings gave the button remapping option missing from much of Nintendo's classic game services, so I could at least attempt to work something out). But that is because I was playing on a device with the controller and screen as one. But that is not what the original hardware was.
I'm not sure how controller changes would have been necessary on an actual PS1 connected to an actual TV.

@DashKappei The original arcade version of Raiden II was notorious for its copy-protection that was unbroken until 21 years after its release.
I don't know if that would be an issue if Hamster would not want to just lift MAME's code (which they might not).

Who was asking for a nude code in Mortal Kombat II.

Actually, the game was censored because that was where Sega drew the line of licensed content. (So I read that publisher Razor Soft was considering suing Sega in dispute.)
Shooting shooting small children and the elderly to bits in TechnoCop was fine, but no nudity.
Razor Soft very much the Rockstar Games of its era. (yes, I know Rockstar technically existed then, making more family-friendly games as DNA Design, but the spirit changed once they made the first GTA)

The NES version ("Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt") certainly could've done better, especially for a 1993 release, having solid backgrounds and no music.
But that was probably far too late for Ocean to want to devote too much effort to it.
As a kid, I rented the SNES version and enjoyed it so much, that I asked my parents for and got the Game Boy version (which had even more cuts than the NES).

@Guru_Larry I can only imagine likeness rights licensing. The TurboGrafx-CD game used the power of CD to bring us the 1960s theme song because surely in 1991, MC Hammer was expensive to license.

I've seen one of the Tetris Attack denim jackets listed before (that I recall was some kind of Blockbuster promotion prize), speaking of '90s Nintendo memorabilia. I'd have so much wanted that, if not for that the asking price was out of my range for an article of clothing (though probably almost nothing for the really hardcore). I recall it was also not my size, but that's probably about the last thing most people in that market would care about.

Not being able to own video games and everything being made with Unreal Engine or AI is going to do more damage to the industry than someone playing illegal DS ROMs.

@Van_Helsing When I hear Tom & Jerry, I have to think of the Game Boy game, which Beam Software developed and they got A LOT of mileage out of that engine with multiple games reusing it. That included the game sold in America as a tie-in to the Steven Spielberg animated movie We're Back: A Dinosaur Story but it had something like six regional variants, and I don't remember if that was including the unreleased variations or not.

@Guru_Larry The Satellaview game was like two years later.
I do remember EGM reviewed this game in early 1995.

The ESA would want the government to spend their resources fighting a device that plays old and forgotten games. Clearly one of the most significant threats to the US public. Let's not worry about the other ways we can be scammed or otherwise.
No, let's make playing unauthorized copies of 10-20+ year old video games a priority that must be stopped.
Thank you, ESA for entertaining us with your whining.

@-wc- It is correct though, the game is titled "Super Smash Bros." and it is for the Nintendo 64.
It sounds like even when it was in development, Nintendo needed to be convinced it was going to take off. They didn't expect it to turn into the franchise it has.

"Edward Randy" Hopefully then M2 is breaking the trend Data East had of reusing game titles. It originally had Cliffhanger in the title, but Data East had already made a Cliffhanger FMV game, which recycled footage from a Lupin the Third movie, so I've heard it gets copyright-striked if you try to play it online.
(likewise Data East made both a FMV and not-FMV shooter titled Cobra Command, I believe it was).

@gmar No, I meant, they do tricks to buy digital from other regions.
While Nintendo has allowed you to make accounts for different regions on the same Switch, the credit card and Paypal options available to buy eShop credit will only be accepted if they match the region (my US CC and PP accounts will be declined to pay for a JP Nintendo Account). So one would have to go through a trusted code reseller to get eShop credit for a different region.

@Damo The first Mana game (on the Game Boy) was the first FF-related game to get a European release, I believe.
Such that in an article in 1993 about video game titles, Nintendo Power told us that "Mystic Quest" was the European localized title for Final Fantasy, and then they joked asking what the SNES Mystic Quest was going to be called there. "Mystic Quest: Mystic Quest", they suggested. (I think it was actually Mystic Quest Legend.)

I think at least part of the issue with bringing RPGs over (and I suspect what dropped Final Fantasy VI, which I read was a contender for getting an official PAL release) was that if Nintendo of Europe wanted to commit to a release of a text-heavy game there, they wanted it in at least English, French and German (and with SNES games struggling to properly localize even a single-language localization, releasing multi-language cartridges was out of the question, so then it became an issue of how many would they make for each, I'd imagine.)

@-wc- I've wondered if patents could possibly be the reason neither the PSP nor the DS made such a button layout as friendly as the WonderSwan was to being played in either landscape or portrait orientation.
I tried playing Contra on the Konami Arcade Hits collection for the DS and it was not comfortable to hold the DS sideways and play the game while holding the D-pad and buttons on opposite ends of the screen. I think I tried button mapping to do something similar on the PSP with the PS Classics Sonic Wings Special (the PS1 port of Aero Fighters which one of such shooters on the console to support rotating the TV). It didn't work out so well (though of course, you can't fault the game itself since it's a port of a console game that wasn't designed for the display and the controller to be a single device).

@gmar Well, I'd take "selling as-is" over not selling them at all to the west (without the hoops some people will jump through to get them from the Japanese store anyways, probably the reason they do it).

@RenderSpotlight The early NES games also used standard Phillips screws, no special tool needed. I can't remember if Nintendo switched to the special screws before or after the switch to three-screw cases.
I want to say I have a game like Ice Climber or Kid Icarus that was a three-screw with Phillips screws but I'm not certain. Ice Climber is the one US launch game I know that was different from Japan so they couldn't just stick an extra Famicom PCB on it and call it done, so I don't know if they would've still used a Famicom PCB for that. I would say Kung-Fu but I know a Famicom Kung-Fu exists (apart from Spartan-X) and is a rare collector variant, so it would be hard to say which came first.

@Martin_H Yes, as demonstrated by the different between the OG and New 3DS hardware, the 3D is only good when it is well-implemented. I could only take a few minutes of 3D on the OG in Ocarina of Time 3D before I had to turn it off. You need to be able to have a firm focus on the screen for it to work, I'd imagine, and I can't, so it didn't. The New did indeed have some hardware to compensate for that.

@RenderSpotlight It wasn't just any copy of Gyromite, it had to be a very early print. I thought I could just buy a random copy of Golf from the nearest FuncoLand and be done, but no, not that easy.

I ended up buying the converter itself from an eBay seller (as much as it made me sad to think the game attached to it probably got junked), as well as a Game Genie so I could put it into the console without getting stuck.
But I'm sure I eventually damaged the NES pins with that.

I do have the Famicom Battletoads they put out years ago but what I've heard of these modern reprint cartridges is they may not healthy to put in vintage consoles.
I believe when this is put out next month, it will actually be 35 years since the original Famicom release (was that by Toaplan itself? Was it just internationally that Capcom published its NES counterpart?)

@Kotonete A good quality process doesn't need to be "accelerated". When they care about the project, they will care to work on it as they see fit.

I'm certain at least part of what allowed DS to take an early lead over the PSP was those early years of the PSP. When UMD Movies were more prevalent than games.
That and Nintendo knew they had the price advantage. (I know the media features are relevant for 2005, but I'm not sure how many were willing to pay the premium for such a pre-smartphone device. See UMD Movies.)

Unfortunately history repeated with the Vita and Sony was like "portables are for children anyways, adults use smartphones".
I bet there's an irony there that children are probably more accustomed to smartphones these days, and its probably adults with nostalgia for portable game devices that would have more interest.

I read so many years ago that Sony could've made the iPod before Apple did, as @Martin_H said.
Well, if you were the same corporate family operating one of the top CD printing labels, you'd probably also be too cowardly to think to the future.

I'm guessing Big Jumbo was related to Jumbo Ozaki, a real player who had a licensed Super Famicom golf game.

Though I can't remember which one it was, after localization. Was it HAL's Hole in One Golf (one of the only golf games I picked up after seeing it in a video and spotting how incredibly Iwata that game is ), or was it Mecarobot Golf by Toho, a game that doesn't seem like it did much if anything with the potential of its reskin?

The PCE-CD version (combining two games) was notable as the final licensed release, and by at least a couple years, maybe three.

Naturally the eBay sellers are going to ask a gajillion dollars for it these days.

@-wc- The only thing I can think of that could be investigated is "underage" characters. I have no familiarity with this company to know the validity of such a question.
(That's just something I've had pointed out in retro circles, you may want to take care to avoid questionable retro titles when importing as some could be legal in Japan but illegal in the US for that reason.)

@Hexapus The TurboGrafx, yeah, they really botched it in the west. It's know among fans, but just WHO was responsible is still a mystery. I've read it wasn't unusual for the American team to forward their Japanese wishlists to corporate, and out of like 20 games they'd like to see, get maybe two get licensing approval.

NEC wanted people to pay $400 for the CD add-on in 1990 (in 1990 money!) and yet buyers were treated to a grand total of under 40 games to play with their device (many requiring the further "Super CD System Card" upgrade, for which the US card is now itself an expensive purchase). I'm not sure the grand total of CD games released in Japan, but I feel like there has to be close to that many RPGs alone released in Japan, and that's not even the console's most famous genre.

Sure, as much as Konami has let us play Gradius II and Rondo of Blood these days as the current rights holder of the TurboGrafx IP, those would have been a risky (due to how late and shaky the platform was in the US) third-party license back in the day to bring to America when they were contemporary. (the SFIICE port as well, no way Capcom would've gone easy on the licensing terms in 1993)
I mean, PCE still had quite a number of titles released into 1994 and 1995, while in North America the final three CD games were released in all of 1994 and then it was closed.

Yes, the western covers are charming in their own way.

On the other hand, Konami's artist (I think his name was Tommy Dubois?) did great western art. Castlevania IV is one of those games that makes a good case for the localized art being better.

One thing that I've had to consider is the danmaku effect.

How does giving the player a larger field of view to look at affect their reactions? How does it change the gameplay that now you have more screen space for your eyeballs to scan and process?

@Damo "the upper section is reserved for the map" Have you been playing single-player games with the second player controller?

And if they're going to throw the WWF(E) cast in there without permission, why not Paul Schaffer and the entire CBS orchestra in reference to the gun guy in Renegade who can insta-kill Kunio (or whatever they called him).

Fan games are fine but I don't like it when they try to be mistaken for official games such as calling themselves "lost" sequels.

I'm surprised they didn't keep the English text from the original box.
"In 2363, secretly developed VECTOR replaced SEED, which has been a capital weapon. Now, they restart war to find the secret."

I had not heard of capital weapons before so I wondered if that was even a real thing. They are.

Just as I had finally bit and bought a loose original release Japanese cart last year, I had wondered where this went.

Well, Nintendo did partner with Mattel for whatever reason.
Mattel, the company that had abandoned their own console several years earlier and let their game development staff go in order to found their own company. That Intellivision company had actually tried making a relaunch of their own console around the same time as the NES in North America.

But as to the NES getting beaten in the UK... Nintendo/Mattel, it didn't really help when more or more I check dates, it looks like you were regularly releasing games three or four years behind the US, when they were published at all, did it?

@Teksette It's Space Invaders, but mistakes leaves gaps in the surface, eventually restricting you to a sitting duck.

I suppose at the least it shouldn't be a terribly difficult to port to make as it would be a fairly small game to disassemble and the GB and SMS used related CPUs with a similar memory map.
(though Nintendo did make numerous modifications to the GB variant of the Z80. Enough that a few developers back in the day did target both the GB and Game Gear with coding careful to use instructions common to both for much of the game logic, though the IO definitely needed to be console-exclusive).

Will they port the Mega Drive-exclusive intro into the game too?

That intro has become such a colossal meme that I've been told M2 had to retroactively put it into the arcade version when they rereleased it after enough complaints it was "missing".

@Martin_H AI isn't going to "unlock the potential" or however the AI Bros want to spin it every time these come up.
What AI gives is a quick answer for people who weren't going to spend the time to learn the skills or techniques to do the work themselves. Once they've gotten their instant gratification of the AI doing the work for them, they're not going to bother learning or thinking about how they can improve their work. They're going to be moving on to their next slop.

Surely, Jeremy Parish will save this at least.
If there's one thing to know about him, this and Heiankyo Alien are surely dear games to him.

I am kind of curious what Capcom was even considering for the NES version, but then again SonSon II for the PC Engine exists which resembles Black Tiger so much (other than its reskin to match its IP based on the same lineage as Dragon Ball) that it has to have some relation.

When I had previously looked, even searching for TH Strikes Back on YouTube immediately revealed what was explicit about the game.