MontyMole

I’m happy that people who don’t/won’t engage in piracy will finally get a reasonable option to enjoy these games. Remember that the online subscription service is only a platform to hire and shouldn’t affect the physical collectors market greatly.

@Daniel36 If you like Goldeneye, then there’s a lot to like in this game. The main difference is that there are imposed stealth sections in this one, which I always find tedious. Haven’t played it since it was modern, but I spent a heap of time with it, trying to unlock everything. Much recommend if it’s your thing.

@slider1983

“ Remember the NES only took off around Christmas 1990 because of the great pack in of TMNT with an NES. That was to the NES what the Batman Pack did for the Commodore Amiga.”

Yes! I almost mentioned it, but didn’t want to get carried off on a tangent. I would have loved that bundle, but came from a poorer family and the SMB pack was cheaper no doubt. Just as well, because SMB is a certified classic. A lot of the games that are thought of as popular at the time were actually just less expensive and sold well for that reason alone. My grandparents got me excitebike, simply because it was half the price of other games. Nintendo have tried to milk that franchise, but don’t seem to realise that their sales figures are tied to what people were willing to pay at the time.

Not sure how long I’ve been living under a rock, but this is all news to me and it’s crazy how passionate people seem about it.

I was born in late 70s England. Aside from Atari and Pong machines, I only knew home computers and my friends were pretty much exclusively split between Spectrum and C64 users. The marketing was heavily weighted toward learning to code (especially for us Speccy owners.) Parents were no doubt tempted into buying a product that was educational in this sense and my spectrum came with a manual which taught the basics of “Basic”. When consoles appeared on the market, I remember a lot of grown up tutting that they were going to turn our brains to mush.

Consoles weren’t even really marketed to us until the latter end of the NES. I didn’t even know who Mario was until the early 90s. At that point, they were heavily pushed by retailers and playing SMB on the NES for the first time on Christmas Day was an experience I’ll never forget.

But yeah, my point being that there was no console crash here, simply because there wasn’t a peak yet. Most of us young people were unaware of console gaming.

@PopetheRev28 “ I liked this site better when it didn't have opinions on it”

Loving the irony!

For those not in the know, there’s at least one arcade clone of Gals Panic called Miss World Nude 96 (or something very similar,) which rewarded your diligence with a pixelated photo of a lady from one of the worlds five countries. All the while you’re Pacman on drugs, being chased by a giant tarantula and its babies, with a strangely catchy acid house music sample banging in your ear every few seconds. What’s not to like?

@Cronodoug Mobile gaming was a huge market at the time and it was no doubt all about the money. Many people seriously thought that Nintendo should ditch the handheld hardware and go full on mobile. Would have been horrible. Crazy to think how long ago it actually was!

@RetroMasters Freedom of expression is considered a basic human right. While the gore might not be absolutely necessary to the gameplay, it was a core mechanic of the experience and the artists vision. Removing the gore was a pointless act of censorship in the first place.

Absolutely not. Monkey island predates flash by a few years.

I don’t think Ron Gilbert is stereotyping his audience. He is laying to rest a project that he says has defined him publicly The majority audience is clearly those of us who played it in the 90s.

@Hexapus Thanks for that. I’ve been watching anbernic for a while, but they just release so many, it’s hard to keep up.

I’ll check out your link right away, thanks again.

@ludotaku thank you, I’m off to check,that now.

@slider1983

“ The art for Return is pretty bad so I'm not surprised. It looks cheap.”

The art is how Ron Gilbert originally intended the artwork ro be, all those year ago. Obviously it looks so much better now than it would have.

@slider1983 “ Alas those "middle aged baldies" are the ones who are most likely going to buy the game. Funny how that works”

I’m a middle aged baldy and I did buy the game, which is why I felt emboldened to make the comment. I loved it, even if the ending was a reminder of the fact.

What do people recommend for the best experience in retro handheld emulation thingys? This appeals, but I’d want to be able to run at least up to the PS1 generation at a decent level. It needs thumbsticks too.

Actually, I can’t be alone in saying I’d love to read an article which compares a few of the best, taking into account price, quality, functionality and emulation capability. There are just so many hitting the market in a daily basis and Amazon reviews are full of accounts of units that break in a day or two. Make it happen Time Extension. Pretty please!

@N00BiSH You’re right, I was surprised from my google to find how many people love it too. That certainly hasn’t always been the case.

And yeah, Return gets a lot of unearned criticism. Monkey Island fans are a bit like Star Wars fans on the toxicity scale it seems, which is weird because most of them are middle aged baldies who should have better things to do.

@N00BiSH Hey sweet cheeks, that’s the first time I’ve ever been bubbalah’d!

I hear you, but the detractors are a large and vocal bunch too. Just did a quick google for courage and the first thing I came across was a video by some guy sat in his car, literally shouting venomous hatred about the game. 28 years and the wounds are still fresh.

@Zuljaras Getting the tattooed treasure map is probably my favourite point and click puzzle of all time.

The Curse of… doesn’t get nearly the credit it deserves. Probably the best time I had with any of them, which is saying a lot. Larry Ahern’s art is always phenomenal.

This is already a classic and they haven’t even started making it yet.

@R-K “ Also, Persians at the time widely understood Arabic since it was the dominant literary and scholarly language in the region.”

At what time? This was studied for my language degree, albeit 30 or more years ago, so my memory is beyond hazy. I do remember though that there isn’t a definitive era and as you point out, the origin is murky, coming from a man who heard it from a man, who heard it from a man; criss-crossing cultures and languages etc. I hear your argument, but to say my comment” is just wrong”, just isn’t right.

I guess in your defence, if the question is “would Alladin have spoken Arabic”? The best answer is of course”why not”? He’s a folk tale character that’s been verbally recalled around billions of campfires, over many centuries, across a wealth countries, languages and cultures and was granted 3 wishes by a blue genie with probable adhd, as portrayed by Robin Williams.

Can’t help myself, but Alladin was originally Chinese, so not much chance of an ancient Chinese peasant speaking Arabic. The Arabian Nights fella was Persian, so also wouldn’t have understood Arabic, as they’re very different languages. I guess he could have made a wish to be multi lingual though!

@-wc- Haha, “the word of God made flesh” makes exactly the same amount of sense as this games title for me at least.

Reminds me of those 90s metal bands that called themselves things like murdermageddon, which I always found more comical than intimidating.

Now that I’m giving this more thought than anyone ever should, what even does Resident Evil mean?

@-wc- Not sure I agree that makes any more (or less) sense. Somehow the title suits the game though. Fingers crossed for a Natalie sandwich.

I read Tiger Heli, but my brain changed it briefly to “Mr Heli” and I got very excited, before gut wrenching disappointment sunk in. Tiger Heli is fine of course. Not Mr Heli fine, but it will do.

You know you’re getting old when your retrospectives are retro.

@TransmitHim Absolutely, yes. The video is saying the same thing. I’m a big fan and I’ve followed her for years. Sorry if it looks like I’m trying to argue something. It’s not the case and I can’t even see that there’s an argument to disprove?

I just think that it’s a question with a very straightforward answer until you add prerequisites (in the arcade, on gameboy, etc,) which are essentially new questions. It’s not something to lose sleep over and I only added it to my post as a trail of thought.

Critical Kate did a video on this a few years ago. I’m not sure I buy the “many flavours of first” angle. The first was definitely “Score” by Exidy Inc. but I guess that makes for a less interesting headline.

Here’s the video and the info on Score starts around 2:40.

https://youtu.be/CRyAjI1mXVY?si=CTAV19_Z-52tle9s

It serves to highlight the importance of preservation when such an important landmark in popular culture is destined to be forgotten.

Personally, I love the holiday special and it’s a crying shame that it’s not available to watch officially.

I love Super Star Wars too and this looks incredible. I like that it completely “gets” the philosophy of “fail, or fail harder; there is no try”.

I’m trying hard not to laugh at the letter, because the guy clearly has mental health concerns and that’s no joke. But also, it’s exactly the kind of letter my kid might slip into the postbox to try and trick us into backing down on some harsh parental decisions.

I might be in a minority by saying that I have a soft spot for the arcade game of this movie. It was a weird mashup between something that approximated a Street Fighter game, with the visual style of Mortal Kombat.

Plus you got to play as Kylie Minogue cosplaying as Cammy, which gives you an unsettling feeling of is this really happening? The only other time I got that feeling from a game was playing multiplayer as Dame Judie Dench in The World is Not Enough on N64.

“We are not a retro company”… which is why they’re currently reviving at least five 20 year old IP’s, with more expected to follow?

I’m pleasantly surprised by Netflix games. I wasn’t expecting a lot more than mahjong and minesweeper, but I got to play Hades for “free” and there’s a bunch of games that I had been thinking of trying out on a console, like Oxenfree and Immortality. It’s great to have them as a bonus to the content I’m actually subscribing for. I’m definitely looking forward to this one.

“Mobile gaming” isn’t what it was even a few years ago and most people’s tablets and phones are plenty capable of running modern games to a degree. You can cast them to your tv and use a decent Bluetooth controller, so really what’s the difference?

Nintendo seem to be trying to deny the industry its natural evolution. Imagine suing your children for looking like you. That’s what they’re doing… metaphorically speaking of course.