KingMike

For some reason I am remembering one of the letters to GamePro back in the day, had a reader with a bunch of random questions, must've been a reader from South Africa, and one of them they asked was like "Why was Final Fantasy VII released here on December 27th?", and the editors responded like "Because the 26th was too soon."
Given this story, now it sounds like complaining about getting a game (I'm guessing officially) three months after the US seems like a very small question to ask.

"Some games will be too big" Aren't the video rips for almost any LD games in MAME like 10+ GB?

And then I've heard rips of LaserActive games can be 100+ gigs.

@KainXavier Whether or not Konami is losing anything financial, the court wouldn't be able to just tell them to get out. Konami would at least be entitled to something on copyright violation, if they could actually find and bring the individual to court.
But, it's 4Chan. I've only heard a number about that service. I've heard it's about the darkest side of the Internet you can find.

Putting those names together, I remember Nintendo Power calling Yoshi's Cookie "2D Rubik's Cube" but am I misremembring to say that they also said Pajitnov was involved in developing the puzzles for the Puzzle Mode exclusive to the SNES version? (the mode where you had 100 preset levels to clear within a predetermined number of moves)

@JackGYarwood Was it actually released on Xbox in Japan? I'm not sure, I only know there has been a leaked (incomplete?) English build for the original Xbox but that was literally the extent of this franchise's official entry into the English-speaking world.
(I see: GameFAQs says that, yes, the Xbox version did release in Japan.)

@Damo Once as a kid with a lot of SNES games bought loose at FuncoLand, I had considered the idea of writing my own game instruction manuals in the form of videos I'd record into my VCR while "typing" them up in Mario Paint (using its stamp feature).
A real terrible idea that is a good thing I quickly abandoned. I mean, theoretically one probably could make a SNES video newsletter recorded in MP on VCR (there's probably an audio jack device you could use to splice in narration audio into the mix).

Though on that note I don't recall if getting bonus raises the "rank" (what serious arcade players call it when the difficulty becomes more agitated as it decides you're playing well) but I recall I've been told collecting the Lucky Panels raises it, so you wouldn't want to unless you're a skilled player playing for high score more than completion.

@Damo You think the Blazing Star voiceover is annoying? You know what you need to get?
BONUS.
And GET IT MORE.

Yes, good on this guy for coming out as an example of the reason stores wanted receipts for returns.

@AndyVGR I watched just one video. It was like "Dad hated the 3DO" or what, and I was wondering why did he have so many cuts to footage of the Saturn shelf at Software Etc. (a console that wouldn't be available for like two years after)?
Yet my YouTube recommendations got filled with those "Dad banned/returned (popular well-liked game)".

@PopetheRev28 Emulation is where a lot of retro stuff gets first heard of.
I don't think the TurboGrafx had a huge audience outside Japan until about the mid 2000s (a decade after the original hardware was discontinued in America). I know there are some fans who were playing it when it was current, but not too many.

"you can also run Game Boy, Game Boy and NES games using emulators – another neat bonus."
I assume that meant "Game Boy, Game Boy Color..." but it's too bad if it couldn't use the GBA/SP/Player's built-in hardware BC to support those first two. (I know it's physically separate.)

I didn't realize that Sega had left Super Monaco GP II in print so long on the Genesis (or did a rerelease) such that they had to later remove his name from the game (presumably after their contract expired).

One on the PlayStation? That has to be one of Visual Concepts' last games before Sega bought them out and turned them into their sports game team.
I know it sounds like I'm alone in saying I enjoyed Claymates for the SNES as a kid.

@PKDuckman I thought those games you mentioned are owned by Piko.

@benjaminer I looked up how many versions there were.
3DO, Amiga/CD32, GBA, PS1, SNES, Jaguar (though that seems to be one of the games released after the original Atari was shut down).

I remember in the early days of emulation there were sites set up to share Super Famicom RPG Maker 2 games (by sharing save files). The fact that the first SFC RPGM wasn't properly emulated for several years made it an allure to me even though the second game was undoubtedly better.
I spent a number of hours in high school working on my own RPGM2 game even though it went absolutely nowhere.
Though people were playing the incomplete translation patch made by the same group who fan-translated RPG Maker 95 (for Windows 95, released in 1997) before famously ASCII (Enterbrain!) caught them and, because they took credit/responsibility for the warez distribution of the PC game, shut them down. Yet that game as well as the 2000 and 2003 PC editions no doubt gained quite a community of English speakers even though those versions wouldn't see legal English distribution for more than another decade (where I recall at least the latter two were put up on Steam).

@Damo I wonder if that would include the Namcollection (I think it was called) on Switch which amounted to about 30 Famicom games (which is still a little over a third of the library Namco published on the Famicom alone). There's certainly a few titles there like Namco Star Wars which obviously weren't going to be brought back.

Sealed copy dated to 1986 found inside a Control Deck bundle.

But Nintendo has reported they didn't bundle Super Mario Bros. until 1987.

From what I was told, launch consoles were the Deluxe Set with Duck Hunt and Gyromite and the needed accessories, not Super Mario Bros.

Something's not adding up. @Oyaji_Music

I haven't followed this closely but has Langdell actually made any games that have been finished and released in quite a long time?

I seem to recall that was part of EA's case against him over Mirror's Edge. If he spends all his time filing lawsuits and not making actual product, I don't think he'd be eligible for trademark protection.

@Thad Though I do find it hilarious that they completely mistranslated a location name only like five minutes into the game. So it's not out of the question something got botched in this game.
Even when eighth grader me first played the game, I was thoroughly confused like "the Underground Castle looks neither underground nor a castle". Looking at the Japanese text, "mining site" or something fancier would've been more accurate.

@Martin_H I'd be surprised if Universal wasn't in control of that too.

@JackGYarwood I only recently learned that of the PAL versions, the English version was published by a different compared to the French and German versions.
Might explain why the PAL English version is supposedly one of the rarest PAL SNES games. Was it one of the Scandinavian exclusives, I wonder?
The French and German versions were published by UBI Soft. I wonder if they did any different?

@Yamanii If "censorship" is such a high concern, I can only advise learning Japanese to play it exactly as it was originally written. You are just not going to avoid something being "censored" otherwise.

I'm betting this patch also doesn't de-buff the boss fights? Granted, the result was far from the most egregious difficulty spike Enix America had done.

I think having the three retail-released SNES/SFC Wizardry games is probably enough Wizardry for my lifetime.
But those who have been able to keep up with them, that's great. What I've heard of them is they're really games you have to be able to devote your time to to finish.

@SukiSEGA Licensing. Didn't they have to give one port a generic name like Sega Classic Arcade Racer because of it?

@FR4M3 The 1989 MD version? It is indeed a mystery, with so few packaged copies reported in existence. Did it actually release and then get pulled almost as quickly? Did they withhold from release but a few copies escaped destruction (as is the case with NBA Elite 11, and the pre-9/11 version of PS1 Spiderman 2?)

I've heard Sega hid it within their Sega Ages Tetris PS2 game they released in Japan.

@Deuteros Yes, the SNES port was titled "On the Ball" in western territories.

The Tokaidou game sure is a very early Famicom platformer. I had enjoyed but it is definitely a tough game with a large part of it the control. Jumps are a commitment in that game.
I don't think it's 53 stages but definitely a large number for an early title. Quite a number for a game where you only get a few lives and some extras can be earned with points, but that's all you get.

I'm not sure how badly the issues are with this version, compared to the GBA version, which even at the time of the release was reviewed like "definitely play the original".

@Thad I do remember a couple of the Game Gear ads went a little personal, let's put it, towards Game Boy owners. Better to not discuss what they said at let it remain in history.
As one, it felt a little bad but fortunately I think they probably got enough feedback to show restraint further on.
(One can argue that trying to compare Tetris and Sonic GG might not have been the best choice for them. Sure, Sonic was more marketable and surely they were aiming for a certain demographic but Tetris... is Tetris.)

I forgot that "ZX Spectrum Next" is a mini-console.
I thought this was saying that someone was porting Sonic to the actual Spectrum. Somehow.
Well, it couldn't have been worse than the Tiger handheld version, at least.

@HammerGalladeBro Maybe it was Marko's Magic Football. From D()MARK. I only say because it's the only other soccer-themed platformer I know of, and because I think it's such a niche idea that it sounds odd two different companies decided to do it.

@Deuteros I don't see how the Genesis is even physically capable of 16:9.
It only has horizontal resolution options of 256 and 320, with a vertical resolution of 224, and additionally 240 in PAL.
(and apparently also an interlace mode, which is how Sonic 2's 2-player mode worked. A double height screen vertically squished on the output)

@N00BiSH Atari was an American company that went out of business in 1996. Its legal assets, after a period of ownership by Hasbro in the late '90s, were eventually purchased by a French developer and publisher named Infogrames who had, since at least the mid-2000s, been publishing under the Atari label.

That is definitely not an elegant solution.

A base N64 has 4MB RAM (with Expansion Pack, it raises it to 8MB).
I'm not sure how much would actually be available to dump, but I assume the smallest games (8MB) would probably need three passes at least. The largest (64MB) would need more than 16.

@no_donatello But how would they know otherwise? I'm sure this isn't the only case something similar has happened.

@ddlevine I was sure it was always legal to do for your own personal backups for the purpose of discs you actually own and retain possession of.
I believe it would also pass for software for consoles that are out of production and the publisher isn't selling or distributing replacements.

I've got a handful of Saturn RPGs to play at some point, including this one.
But they will be the Japanese versions, since as we know those are (and surely have been, for quite a long time) more affordable than the English versions.
(I do recall getting the JPN Shining Wisdom for a buck-fifty many years ago, while to get an American copy at that same time I'd have to remove the decimal. )

The LordBBH stream had made me familiar with Aerobics-chan and her friends. But how familiar is the question to remain...

@Stormkyleis The foolish humans who resurrected Dracula's soul have all been wiped out, leaving only the animals left.
Maybe the timing just seems appropriate, with I just watched one of my favorite streamers play through Pokopia. That being the basic theme, the humans have exiled themselves to space to leave the Pokemon to rebuild the ruined world with their materialistic remains.

I bet they don't have the same level of developer support as the Wii had.
That's kind of the most important obstacle to their quest to match the Wii sales.

@slider1983 I'm not sure if I'm missing something but the Retrode is designed to support both with cartridge slots and controller ports for both consoles included in the device.
Was the Retrode 1 different than the 2, which is the device I have?
I thought the differences between Retrode 1 and 2 were pretty small, such as the latter including a small adjustment needed to support Sonic & Knuckles.

@JJtheTexan I know Victor Ireland claims copyright to his existing localizations.
(such as the issues raised when the Lunar games were only included on the Japanese version of the Mega Drive Mini II)

@PKDuckman Yes, I was one of the beta testers on the GoH4 fan translation patch and if I had been playing that growing up with the RPGs I played (unfortunately just through rentals), it probably would have been one of my favorites.
There's supposed to be 100 characters to unlock but I found maybe like 80-some % before finishing the story. This was one of the only SNES RPGs I can name with a postgame mode, something I don't think was popularized until Pokemon.
That menu UI, though, I can only imagine the crazy amount of effort that ROM hacker Nightcrawler had to go through to make it work. Even then we surely gave him more trying out all the party member skills to find things that broke. That would not have been possible to localize nearly as well by most ROM hackers' skills (might ended up looking like the GBC Dragon Quest localizations ).

From what I recall of seeing it streamed online, Tag Team Wrestling is a very noisy game. Prepare for that, decide if you are a fan of games with GOOD NOISES.

The original Glory of Heracles. One thing to be aware of, anyone who wants to play an untranslated Japanese RPG, this game had equipment that can wear out and break, two years before even the original SaGa/Final Fantasy Legend. I think all of the sequels did away with that feature (though only the sixth game, for the DS, made it to the west. It was also the one made after Data East had gone defunct, so I don't know how different it was.)

Funny thing is there was some very early magazine screenshots showing that Data East wanted it to be even more like Dragon Quest (though it looked like the durability feature was still there) but changed stuff.

@Martin_H I do think Sega was probably a thinking a lot about their consoles with an "arcade at home" philosophy.
I'm sure it was a year or so ago we saw someone dig up an old Sega magazine ad promoting their arcade history as a point for buying the Saturn claiming that Sony doesn't have that (of course they wouldn't want to mention Namco as their surrogate rival in that situation. Namco themselves even touted in their earliest PS magazine ad "one side has gained an unfair advantage").

I've heard that with Genesis developer documentation, Sega even expressed expectation that developers would make games with an arcade features such as attract modes, limited lives and continues and ensuring every button on the controller does something (even if they have duplicate functionality).

@DestructoDisk I'd imagine the Xbox announcement was what did it. Sega would've had to have known that historically too many consoles competing in the same space isn't going to end well for someone and they probably wouldn't to make Bill's billions their third adversary.

I agree that a flash cart probably isn't going to affect much.

The NeoGeo is not a new platform. People who are going to buy a AES+ are going to buy it and the games are going to do that because that want official, physical products. People who want cheaper options to play the games, which may or may be means beneficial to SNK, are surely already doing that anyways.

Pu-Li-Ru-La is the one game I immediately recognize in that headline photo. I don't know if that's a good thing.

Now I think see a Final Fight back there but it's at a bid of an odd angle.

@gmar That's the Williams Electronics family for you. There's certainly much to appreciate of their creative spirit, very loud, very edgy.
But they were also probably one of the most forward about wanting to take your money. Many other sports games let you keep playing if you were winning (though the CPU would try its best to keep you from doing that) but Midway was like, nope, you're going to pay 50 cents a quarter for NBA Jam and like it.
I've heard the arcade version of Gauntlet Legends was a game people figured out how to last on skill, so they released one or more updates specifically to counter that.

I'm sorry but I've been around since the beginning of fan translations and in my day we didn't do "hype" posts.
You just told people what you were working on and put it out when it was done.
(Though in those days, when people got "hype" they put out incomplete patches but I am very understanding why people stopped doing that. There are definitely good reasons to not do that.)

@Martin_H I thought I read an interview some years ago here where even the people who made the 32X thought it was superfluous by the time it was finished.
"Sega's internal politics" The supposed Japanese team's "do what it takes to make Tom Kalinske look foolish" agenda?