RetroGames

@KitsuneNight I agree with everything you said there.

The PlayStation is a great example of a console that did pretty much every single thing right. It absolutely deserved all the success and praise it got back in the day. And it still deserves it very much now too. One of the all-time greats of the video games industry for sure.

@Toohats What would be really great is if there was actually a bunch of Saturn games that proved this by doing stuff more impressive than we saw on the PS1, which I just don't think is the case outside of some 2D titles. And let's be honest, I think most people would rather have what they see as a more powerful 3D system than what they see as a more powerful 2D system, whatever the full technical truth under the hood of each may be. The PlayStation delivered, it got the most games by far, a bunch of them all-time greats, sold the most games by far, sold the most consoles by far, had the better controller(s), had the cooler looking hardware (imo), etc. No reasonable person who isn't just bitter about their system of choice not being top dog can seriously backwards rationalise the situation and expect more than that of Sony and PlayStation. The PlayStation was an absolute master class in doing basically everything perfect for its time. And I think some people might need to learn to deal with that just a little bit better. As an N64 guy, I have done that without too much pain.

@Leynos Sure, in terms of the total number of games, the Saturn beats the N64. But I think a few people would argue that nothing on Saturn ever touched the genuinely revolutionary, greatest of all time, and enduring status of games like Super Mario 64, GoldenEye, Ocarina of Time, etc. And there's plenty of other total classics on the N64 too like F-Zero X, Wave Race, Banjo Kazooie and Banjo Tooie, Paper Mario, Diddy Kong Racing, Majora's Mask, Perfect Dark, Sin and Punishment, Smash Bros., Conker's Bad Fur Day, etc. So it's great to have lots of games for sure, but it's also great to have some of the best [exclusive] games ever created on N64 as well. And I mean games that still appear on most Best Games of All Time lists rather than just some games a handful of people think are great personally. Not that Saturn didn't have some greats too, just not many you'll see on most Best Games of All Time lists as I recall. Although Sega Rally on Saturn is absolutely one of my favourite racing games of all time. But let's not try to attack the N64, because it did far more for gaming than Saturn ever did and ever will--and it's not even close.

@KitsuneNight Exactly.

I think a lot of Sega fans are holding a lot of bitterness from multiple generations of consoles or something, so they get totally fixated these days on how their system's were hard done by and how everyone was wrong about them, as if everyone said they were weak or whatever, which most people actually never really did. But it's all largely completely irrelevant.

Console fans should just be happy with their system of choice if they truly enjoyed it at the time, whatever their system of choice was.

I picked the N64, which got its ass handed to it at the end of the day by PlayStation in many ways, and certainly in terms of the sheer size and breadth and depth of the games library and sales. If given the choice today, I might even pick the PlayStation--I technically did initially and then sold it to get my N64--but I totally loved my N64 and see no need to argue where it was more powerful than the PlayStation to somehow try and sooth the wound of the loss.

I loved my N64, and I can still say both the Saturn and PlayStation were great too, without having to cling to the blinkered belief that some under the hood spec of the N64 proves it was robbed of its deserved victory in that console generation or whatever.

Let's say we all accept he's 100% accurate. Well, shame it didn't matter when all is said and done, at least not to the over one hundred million people who picked the PlayStation over the Saturn and were 100% satisfied with that choice. And even now I guarantee you that the vast majority of people would still pick the PlayStation over the Saturn again if they had the choice today. So it still doesn't matter. It simply is what it is. Saturn is clearly a great little console. And the PlayStation is the PlayStation! Nuff said.

I expect for the vast majority of people this won't be an issue. But, for a minority of really hardcore and basically elitist types, I expect nothing will truly be ideal for them other than playing on real hardware, which, ironically, is a total pain in the *ss for the vast majority of people these days.

Really, while playing on the original consoles [and probably ideally on an old CRT too] is obviously the purest way to play these classic games, almost any other option these days is likely better for most people just wanting to spend a few minutes trying out these games for a bit of fun.

I'm sure most people are perfectly happy playing the likes of NES, SNES, Genesis, N64, etc, games on their Switch systems. And, really, this is the only official way you can do this on one system at this point in time, so it is what it is.

I wonder what these people think of say the SNES Mini and any lag there for example, as I personally think it's frikin' brilliant regardless of any minor lag, and absolutely the most enjoyable actually practical and hassle free way of playing these retro games that I've found in recent times.

Now, if I can go off on a wee tangent and talk about playing original Game Boy and Game Boy Color games for a moment, I think the ModRetro Chromatic looks absolutely brilliant and basically perfect for that purpose.

@Honkshot Well, it's clearly just a bit of a fun side project that's been created to hopefully make a few bucks for the charity.

Looks like a cool place.

By the way, Time Extension, there should be an obvious link in the article directly to the game's page on some store or whatever so people can actually purchase it and support the charity.

Here, let me: https://megacatstudios.com/pages/super-excidium-event

@snk2d4life Yup, basically this.

It's funny and frustrating how so many modern indie/homebrew SNES games look like they've been designed and made by school project teams over the course of a few weeks and in extremely restrictive conditions.

I think there's even some slowdown shown here, which is honestly just bonkers with a game this seemingly basic.

It's really not helping dispel all the modern mostly false narratives being peddled everywhere around SNES these days, pushed largely by a group of particular bad actors and disgruntled SNES haters.

Still, it's a new SNES game and looks fun enough for what it is, so I welcome it.

Keep em coming! And let's hope we see even more and even better stuff in the coming weeks, months, and years too.

Edit: By the way, Time Extension, there should be an obvious link in the article directly to the game's page on some store or whatever so people can actually purchase it and support the charity.

Here, let me: https://megacatstudios.com/pages/super-excidium-event

Yeah, all the in-game HD stuff looks phoned in and kinda "Flash" art fugly imo. It's the worst kind of "HD update" for me. But the original pixel art there still looks lovely.

PS. I don't really give a toss if the promo art was created using AI if actually looks good. And it looks pretty good to me at a quick glance. But the in-game HD visuals look meh to me, so if those are done with AI too then I have a problem with that purely because the end result just looks crap in my very humble opinion.

Ultimately, we ain't escaping the inevitable use of AI art in gaming and so on, so people had best learn to cope there. But the least we can ask is that the end result actually looks genuinely good and well put together.

Hey, at least it's actually real. But let's be real, dude who made this knew the audience he was playing--and it somewhat worked out for him. That's my hot take on it.

@smoreon Yes, shadows cast by the characters.

I don't even need self-shadowing in my VR games, but basic shadows being cast by the characters should be the minimum at this point imo.

Very cool. With this and the previous NES one, I'm now really hoping they make a SNES themed one for the upcoming SNES 35th birthday or whatever, in both the [ahem] American style and the lovely Japanese/European style.

@truerbluer Yeah, I've played that, but it doesn't quite capture what I'm after and is actually a bit more like Star Fox 64 than the original for me. I just want the original in basically modern output resolution and frame rate with no pop-in.

Kinda funny how there's shadows on the characters in this Saturn game, and yet most games on my Quest 3 still don't have shadows on the characters. Well, not funny, rather frikin' absurd and annoying actually. Quest 3 developers really need to get their **** together.

Great. But you know what I really want, a version of the original SNES Star Fox that runs at a proper 60fps [with gameplay speed adjusted to play properly at that frame rate], in full HD, and with no visible pop-in. I think that would be amazing, and imo it's actually a better game than Star Fox 64.

@Azuris Yeah, sounds like we're on a similar page there.

@smoreon Yeah, that's an interesting one.

'You might need to be a certain "vintage" to really get it'

Yeah, with many retro consoles there's some appeal for myself, but not quite with this system. Well, maybe some. I think I'd actually have to have it in front of my and try it out and see if any of the games truly stand the test of time.

Although, I think I did play Manic Miner on an old Spectrum recently at the games exhibition in Edinburgh, and it was honestly fun--with a joystick. But I might be remembering incorrectly and it was on a C64 or something.

I also played some home computer version of Defender with a joystick there as well, and it really was great.

Mind you, it did sell even less than the Wii U, and most people consider that a flop. So there's that.

Also, now that I think about it, and going by the conditions of the article, the Wii U might actually be the most successful console "Flop" of all time".

It didn't flop; it just came in last place in that generation in terms of sales.

Damn, the visuals here actually look awesome. And not just technically, but artistically too. I would love a new WipEout game that looked like this.

Now, I might have missed any links to video footage of the game in the article, but I would love to see that.

@AJB83 I think that should be long enough. Just have a couple of sets of batteries, one in the system and one charging/charged that you can swap out when necessary, and sorted. It's what I do with my Quest 3 controllers and it's all good. Mind you, they last for weeks before needing to be changed, but the point is the same. It works great in my experience and is a very simple and practical solution. And the best thing with that setup is that you can never run down the built-in controller battery and accidently forget to charge it again and thus not be able to use the controllers the next time you go to play on your Quest. It's actually one of the major benefits of just having rechargeable batteries you can easily switch in and out as and when required.

@jruasap Sorry, but you shouldn't get to dictate that. It's not for you to force everyone else into your worldview around weapons and the businesses that make them. Andural is a legitimate American company making legitimate products for satisfied clients, of which there are hundreds-thousands of similar legitimate weapons businesses in this world. It's not some shadow evil corporation or something out of a Jame Bond movie, and Palmer isn't some fantasy evil villain trying to destroy mankind and take over the world. You don't have to like weapons, but that's your personal choice, so leave it at that. You should be talking about the ModRetro Chromatic in here and save your politics for where they belong.

@XiaoShao Yeah, they do. They're basically just regular GB/GBC carts for all intents and purposes.

@Pho Again, don't just accept what the mainstream is feeding you, nor see some comments out or even in context and create a whole "he's evil" backstory out of largely fluff. It's never usually that simple, and it most certainly isn't in this case.

Dude was attacked for decades with hoards of people coming at him based on total lies and manipulation spread by a group of very powerful people with very insidious agendas, and then he was eventually fired and ousted from the company he created and removed from the public discourse for a long time for entirely false reasons, most of it very left/Dem politically driven and aligned too. And the people behind that have all come out and apologised for what they did*.

Don't allow the lies and liars to manipulate you too. I'm sure you're better than that.

*This bit is very important: The people who did all of this to him and led to him being cancelled, all came out and openly admitted their errors and apologized publicly to him for what they had done, far too late and after they nearly destroyed his entire life. Palmer clawed his way back to where he's at despite them. But remember, he just wanted to make VR headsets. That was his dream. And they tore it away just because he didn't have the same political views as them, which, after many years, we've come to learn is just like more than half of America that also doesn't share their views either. So blame those people who lied to and manipulated everyone and attacked him if you must blame anyone, because they turned a dude who just wanted to make VR the future into a dude who came up with another very successful business venture that you personally just don't happen to agree with this time around. And if you don't know who "them" and "they" are, it shows you haven't done any of that research I just told you about.

Here's just one example of that: https://x.com/boztank/status/1841623880609480803

And even John Carmack got in on that too:
https://x.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/1779171248083177500

@lemonjellydude I think you can get a rechargeable battery pack for it. You might need to check up if I'm correct or wrong there.

@RupeeClock No arguments from me there.

@gingerbeardman Just get the black one, as that looks lovely imo:

https://modretro.com/cdn/shop/files/CH_Midnight_copy.png?v=1719375388&width=823

It avoids the slightly cheesy garishness that some people might think is a negative with the other colour options, which I actually agree with to some degree. Although it's clearly very intentionally going for that retro almost '70s styling there, so it is what is is.

And, imo, it also has less of an unfinished characterless test mould look than the Analogue Pocket too:

https://images.analogue.co/product_pocket.7222b8472b28b96b77ea6ddfbc16444c.png?w=4000&auto=format&q=100&s=2ea5e74ea93cf0c0d9c8e7f1cb1189f3

@nocdaes I'll take that bet, especially given how long AA batteries have been around (it's like a hundred years, give or take) and how often those USB connections have changed in even the last decade or so. I hope to God you're right though, and the current USB C version sticks for at least a few decades, irrespective of whatever the future holds for AA batteries.

Yeah, the two cons aren't really cons for the people the ModRetro Chromatic is aimed at imo. In fact, it's precisely because it's so focused on just doing basically one thing entirely right that it's actually the most appealing of all these modern retro handhelds imo.

To me, the Analog Pocket comes with much of the faff and fuss that puts me off so many modern devices, while the ModRetro Chromatic returns me to a time where things were just simple and just worked--and worked exactly as you would intuitively and instinctively expect--and that's the thing drawing me to it more than anything else.

Christ, even something as simple as having a proper physical on/off switch that does exactly what it says on the tin and no more or less, with no way to possibly make just turning the device on and off remotely a pain in the *ss, feels like magic in 2024.

The only reason I'm every wavering at all with the ModRetro Chromatic is simply because I'm not as in love with old GB/GBC games as I am with GBA games. But, if this were a GBA version of such a device [which means it would also play GB/GBC games anyway] and it was made with this kind of love and attention to just getting all the core things absolutely right, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

But, hey, Kickstarter gets rich.

@MysticWangForce Well, the upcoming Doom Definitive Edition for SNES supports a brand new controller with rumble built in, so that's something actually rather cool. And there you can at least control the game fully properly too, which is just as important as frame rate, if not even more so. But I'm sure the five people who own a VMU that will mod it like this and for some reason want to play Doom on it over all the other options in 2024 will have a . . . time with it.

Looks very cool.

That car artwork looks so good. Imagine a modern game looking like that!

@bring_on_branstons He's been doing the quote thing a lot lately. It's the perfect way to plausibly deny any personal accountability for the sentiment of the article. And I'm sure some people buy that too.

On the topic of resolution, the Genesis does have a higher standard resolution on the horizontal axis (320x224 on Genesis vs 256x224 on SNES), but the SNES actually has the higher max resolution overall (512x448i on SNES vs 320x448i on Genesis).

Yeah, the SNES definitely doesn't get as much indie/homebrew love these days, sadly. But I'm hoping that will improve once "SNESmaker" finally releases at least.

And I'll add a few interesting new SNES games below just to show it's certainly not dead at least:

Till & Hat:

https://x.com/SokZaJelo/status/1818297535393591670

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnHwPpRxnO8

Rex Nobilis:

https://x.com/CommodoreKulor/status/1677789447964995584 (this is actually running in 512x448i resolution)

https://x.com/CommodoreKulor/status/1799527579906626033

Doom Definitive Edition:

https://youtu.be/0oEUF1Py5-4?si=wN_DS_Lq3I3Y1ih3

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2024/08/doom-is-getting-a-new-and-improved-definitive-release-on-super-nintendo

Maxwel Olinda's shmup:

https://x.com/MaxwelOlinda1/status/1821338448462045590

SuperDan:

https://x.com/Kannagichan2/status/1837394433802678276

https://x.com/Kannagichan2/status/1856078167942762605

https://x.com/Kannagichan2/status/1854276456232452601

Castlevania Bloodlines Port

https://x.com/Proteus_Ressus/status/1826693579290673213

https://x.com/Proteus_Ressus/status/1818108405183033722

https://x.com/Proteus_Ressus/status/1815403857075429746

Triple Impact:

https://x.com/MisterDigifox/status/1856301948116291841

https://x.com/landsat77/status/1852407255762686333

https://x.com/MisterDigifox/status/1850652158888480844

https://x.com/landsat77/status/1839371561935266090

Cooly Skunk (full release of previously unreleased game)

https://youtu.be/ICckn4X_AwU?si=xd8I38qq7XuFqhyT

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/483270682/90s-replication-of-cooly-skunk

I mean, it's obvious the modern SNES indie/homebrew dev scene is nowhere near as matured as the Genesis one, but at least there's some stuff happening there.

@bring_on_branstons Yeah, it's the title and some of the wording that gives away the slight fanboy bias to me. And it's just not necessary. Genesis fans don't need to try to undermine the SNES' greatness to feel better about the Genesis. The Genesis is great. But, boy, it seems some people really are carrying a lot of bitterness and resentment towards both SNES and its fans, and it's slowly leaking out more and more it appears to me. And that's doubly as sad when I see it coming from professional multi platform gaming journalists and such. Just not necessary at all.

@mashk Well, my personal favourite tunes of that era are the main themes in Streets of Rage 1 and 2 on Genesis along with Super Mario World, Yoshi's Island, Tetris Attack, Donkey Kong Country, Killer Instinct, F-Zero, Castlevania IV, Star Fox, Super Metroid, ActRaiser, etc, on SNES. And I'm sure many people will also pretty clearly swing one way or the other or indeed even land somewhere roughly in the middle of the two consoles.

Stop shilling.

No one is arguing the Genesis can't output great audio unless they are a troll. But a lot of people do still think the SNES' sound capabilities are superior or at least great in their own way, largely due to uniquely having all eight channels be PCM sampled audio plus the ability to officially support Dolby Surround sound too for example. And this is without anyone creating cutting edge sound drivers in modern times to push the audio to its absolute technical limits.

Now, the Genesis can certainly do some very close representations of whatever original SNES music, but in every example I've listened to it still can't quite 100% match the SNES' sound ultimately, mostly because many of the Genesis' sound channels still have to be synthesized FM audio trying to replicate the SNES' more realistic PCM instrument sounds. So it can sound almost as good to the untrained ear as SNES in the right hands in some cases, but still not quite as good, and in some use cases it can actually sound better.

What I've not heard yet is a single Castlevania IV tune on Genesis that sounds quite as good as the original SNES version when listened directly side by side imo. And bear in mind this is comparing decades-old SNES originals with brand new Genesis versions made in modern times and with far more advanced audio drivers and such.

Actually listen to them next to each other, as it's much easier to hear where they differ when you play them side by side:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsG2UMWEmyU (Genesis)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tug9a0X-mM4 (SNES)

I'd personally say the SNES version still ultimately sounds better overall. And again, that's without having over thirty years to figure out how to get the best possible compression and audio quality out of the console using the most advanced modern sound drivers and so on.

The tune on Genesis sounds great in its own right though, and that's largely due to a combination of Pyron doing a good job on that version and the original simply being a great tune in its own right independant of the tech behind it. Great music is just great music, and the Castlevania IV soundtrack is brilliant.

Both consoles are great, and both can lay claim to many stunning achievements, but I personally think Pyron is one of those shills trying to devalue the SNES and overhype the Genesis as the greatest thing in the Universe in the guise of "disproving myths" to make fans of that system feel vindicated or whatever, and it's just sad and needy literally three plus decades after these systems were truly relevant to be that desperate for validation.

Both SNES and Genesis are great, but the SNES can matter of fact technically do some things the Genesis cannot and never will, and visa versa. It's that simple, and some people clearly truly still have to learn to cope with that reality.

@nukatha I recall him saying that was removed. A bit unfortunate, but I guess balanced out by all the other improvements and additions. But I wouldn't quote me that it's for sure not going to be in there.

@hste @Steel76 Personally, if it runs directly on the SNES using what otherwise looks like a totally normal SNES cartridge and comes packaged like any other official SNES game too, etc, I'm very cool with that.

I don't want people to go so far that what I'm playing doesn't even look or sound like anything remotely possible on a SNES anymore, so no "SNES" Breath of the Wild that's just the original game running on some Raspberry Pie in a cart or such. But this isn't that at all; this is a legit SNES game by any reasonable definition imo. So it's all good.

I'd welcome many more titles like this Doom updated version and Xeno Crisis in a heartbeat, along with a bunch of new homebrew games that just run on the stock console with no extra in-cart chips as well, such as Till & Hat for example:

https://youtu.be/qnHwPpRxnO8?si=0LyfWKapH1ngGktm

The more of all this kind of stuff, the merrier as far as I'm concerned. Keep it coming.

@slider1983 There's not any live action from what I know, just some pre-rendered logo animations basically. But, still, it's kinda cool to see FMV like this in an actual physical cartridge SNES title.