RetroGames

What Sega really needed was a system that combined the Mega Drive, Mega CD and 32X all in one. And then people could have all the main systems Sega made specifically for the Mega Drive in that generation in one place--without the need for the terrible "Tower of Power" Frankenstein setup.

It's such a convoluted range of options there. And all these different add-on or combo systems didn't come cheap either. Sega was even planning the combo Mega Drive and 32X Neptune system too. It really didn't do itself any favours at all.

Still, this is a slick bit of hardware in and of itself for sure.

Happy Birthday Game Boy.

This is our new online/digital gaming world.

I would never have even thought it would still be selling today anyway, so the news that it was is the most surprising thing for me.

@smoreon "Er, that "older footage" is only from 2010."

True, but 14 years is eons in the Internet age, and I think just on the cusp of when everyone started letting the Internet tell them what they're supposed to think and how they're supposed to act. So my main point there was just to demonstrate how I think most people actually played classic Doom before them younger folks and Doom [2016] apparently corrected us all that Doom is about going all hell for leather at all times, focussing on racking up kudos and presumably a bunch of achievements/trophies, and little more.

Yeah, you wouldn't want to be humming the tunes from PSX Doom and Doom 64. One of the tracks [or more] has the sounds of babies crying. Creepy stuff.

@Spider-Kev Ah, my bad. The Wii could also play GC games though, right? So, I guess it's like half way there. Lol

OK then. Let's see it happen.

I actually really like this. The Wii Classic Mini really could be a thing.

Edit: Ah, wait, it doesn't take the small Wii discs? I think I would like it more if it still took those. Still, would technically still be in line with the rest of Nintendo's Classic Mini range, since none of those use the original physical game cartridges anyway.

@Sketcz I guess it comes down to what you're looking for, or, more precisely, listening for.

I'm not listening for some '90s heavy metal music track, but a soundscape that actually enhances Doom as a hellish fps game, that properly draws me in, and that creates a genuine sense of tension, discomfort and fear. I'm after a total immersion into that world and a more scary and tense experience, not some head banging moshing while I try to score kudos points for how creatively I can kill things. And I also don't rush through it like I'm just trying to get on some leaderboard or something.

Not that I don't like heavy metal (love me some Enter Sandman), and not that I don't think the original Doom tunes sound great for what they are either--I wouldn't have a single complaint if in some alternate universe the Aubrey Hodges version had never existed so there was only the original music and that's all I ever knew--but they're not even remotely as well matched to a game called Doom that's about all the terrifying forces of Hell ascending upon mankind with you as the only person there to try and stop them all on your own alone, as the Aubrey Hodges soundscape in my personal opinion. Unless that's not how you see the game at all.

Many people play Doom almost like a speedrunning or achievement/trophy exercise, where it's about trying to look cool and badass or whatever as they rush through it while never even stopping to smell the roses, even more so with the modern Doom games that lean way more into this style of play, and I have no doubt some fast-paced heavy metal soundtrack fits that kind of mentality more.

And, of course, the heavy metal soundtrack is the original, so most people are going to pick it because it's the original and it's not Doom without it to them. Which also rings true if you're in your late teens or whatever and the first Doom game you played was also Doom [2016].

But, to me, the original Doom soundtrack is very energetic and high intensity and quite obviously "gamey", whereas the Aubrey Hodges soundtrack is something I could genuinely believe the likes of Ridley Scott or Stanley Kubrick might have picked if they'd made a Doom movie back in the day. In video game land it's basically the Contra approach vs the Super Metroid approach in terms of audio. And I know what I'd personally pick every single time.

And, I mean, watch older footage of someone just playing the game naturally without any modern Internet mindset of how it's supposed to be played:

https://youtu.be/K0nlO87evhY?si=WF3CbwQuT33bkBQ4&t=30

They're not speedrunning, they're not "ripping and tearing", and, despite the music being more heavy metal and high energy in the original there, the way they are playing is very deliberate, considered and nuanced. In fact, they're playing in a way that seems to line up more with a Doom game like this imo:

https://youtu.be/A9xVaHDaQ30?si=E8nhjFHnKqeVKRfz&t=97

And that's exactly how I personally played it back in the day too. Of course, I played the PSX version first, so go figure.

And, remember, when the original DOS version of Doom first released, it didn't come with WASD + mouse control as the default. In fact, I'm not even sure that was an option at all originally. So, I question how many people way back in the days of the original game that started it all were actually zipping their way through it like possessed bats out of Hell using entirely keyboard controls, and, as I recall, clunky ones at that, even though the original music sounds like it would be more suited to that kind of play.

It's also interesting that when Quake rolled around, id and Trent Reznor didn't stick with the more high intensity, high action music approach, but went with something far more similar to that Aubrey Hodges ambient and atmospheric soundtrack there too:

https://youtu.be/dPQO03UmicE?si=GfPoSaF0M3hlmaKW&t=157

So, I go back to saying I guess it comes down to what you're looking for, or, more precisely, listening for.

Each to their own.

PS. I wonder how both versions would fair if experienced in VR, where total immersion and a sense of very real presence is key there.... I mean, I guess you could just pretend you were listening to some kickass Iron Maiden or Pantera on your Sony Walkman while killing the hordes of demons, kinda like the modern Guardians of the Galaxy movie action scene approach, but I know what approach I would prefer by a million miles. I'm more Alien Isolation VR and Half-Life: Alyx style all the way.

Infidelity is on a mission. And I support him all the way. These NES to SNES ports are opening up a lot of possibilities for "All-Stars" versions of so many NES games now that they are running directly on the SNES. And having bonuses like various QoL features plus MSU1 video intros and audio and such is great too.

@Daniel36 Personally, I'm not convinced people actually do adore that style, more that they simply don't know any better and have no reason to think what they're getting is crap because everything else looks the same these days anyway. But it is the current thing, so there's not much I can do but moan and hope we eventually get better.

Have you seen that Arcane animated TV show? Now that looks gorgeous and worthy of our times. I can only imagine how genuinely stunning a combination of everything else about Invincible with that general quality of art [not necessarily the exact same almost painterly style] and animation might be.

Best version of the game for me. Love that soundscape that takes the atmosphere to the next level.

I expect just like Rare, the name was supposed to be Ultimate. Having said that, why did they even change if from Ultimate to Rare in the first place? Ultimate, if that was the name, is kinda awesome already. You can't really get better than "Ultimate".

Silly move imo. Unless he's stolen Nintendo code or something, there should be no legit reaon he can't have an emulator like this on the App Store if Apple is okay with that. Again, unless he's actually stolen some Nintendo code or something, despite what it might actually say, Nintendo really shouldn't have any legit say in this at all. Emulators are legal in and of themselve and also protected under law as far as I am aware.

Another very nice port from NES to SNES to add to the growing list. Always appreciate the general updates and benefits of going to SNES, along with any MSU1 stuff if that's added too.

Wish there was something like that up in Edinburgh.

@Daniel36 Yeah, same for me with Castlevania too. Basically, many of these animations look like they were done by amateur fans of anime cartoons mimicking what they saw growing up, and probably not even from the likes of Japan where they were masters of this kind of look and feel back in the day, rather than the actual top class talented artists and animators that should be working on them imo. It get the impression these new artists and animators have learned simply through copying and replicating what they have seen instead of actually going to proper art and animation school to learn and understand the fundamentals of things like anatomy, line of action, slow in/out, overlapping actions, staging, appeal, squash and stretch, etc, which is also why so many characters in animations these days look like this are made from lots of unnatural sharp angles and such--one of my major pet peeves with so much modern TV animation.

@KGRAMR Not sure how you got anything contrary to that from my comments, but I'm in full agreement with you on that. I do not support someone taking someone else's emulator and basically passing it off as their own. But I support the creation and use of emulators, which are entirely legal as far as I'm aware.

Very nice.

I was watching Invincible the other day and lamenting how it's such a good show but the quality of the art and animation is just sub par, and it really doesn't to it full justice.

If Invincible had art and animation of this quality or beyond, the show overall would just be brilliant.

Today's TV animation standards really aren't great in terms of the art and animation imo, especially given where we're at with modern technology and such that should allow for TV animations basically on par with what Disney was doing decades ago with its feature films imo.

Anyway, that was just a tangent point. This guy's art and animation looks relatively lovely for what it is.

@Jhena OK, got it.

@Jhena Okily dokily.

"An emulator, which is stealing someone elses work. Quite ironic."

But, how is it "ironic" if not in that context?

I read your comment there are suggesting that stealing the other guy's emulator work when offering this "new" emulator on the App Store is the same as emulators themselves basically stealing the work of the original hardware creators in the first place, hence the irony here of this guy getting upset that someone else is taking his emulator and pretty much offering it as their own.

And hence my point that emulators are not stealing the original hardware creators' work, as emulators are perfectly legal. Taking someone else's emulator and basically distributing it as your own is a problem though.

@Jhena Well, whatever people ultimately use the emulators for, emulators are entirely legal in and of themselves as far as I'm aware. I mean, you can legit use them for playing homebrew games or for development purposes and such.

@Jhena Emulators are not stealing someone else's work. They are emulating something else, but are otherwise written from scratch by the emulator creator, and are totally legal so long as they don't use any original source code and such. You might be confusing emulators with illegal game ROM copies. Although, under certain circumstances, I think it's still legal to copy official game ROMS too, such as for backup purposes in case the original gets broken or something like that. At least that used to be the case, but the laws are constantly changing.

@Soupbones Ah, yeah. That one is certainly a very niche option. For the handful of people lucky enough to have both the Dreamcast and the twin stick controller though, it must be a very cool way to play the game.

Edit: Actually, I was just checking out the review below of the various ways to play the game on Dreamcast, @GhaleonUnlimited, and apparently the guy didn't really find the twin stick controller particularly great for it:

https://youtu.be/3s7SxGYfocw?si=B1V8OkosxSi5UiPQ&t=265

Now that I'm reminded the default Dreamcast controller has a d-pad and face-button layout similar to the SNES controller, I think I would personally just go with the default Dreamcast controller on that version to be honest.

Some very nice work there.

@KingMike Still, when you add all these things together, it's clearly the Japanese version is the way to go.

@madgears He will eventually release it for everyone, but the Patreon backers get to try it early.

I dunno what this really means or is good for, but it sounds kinda interesting.

Tried to use this myself the other day, and it's surprisingly easy to get to grips with and create something in really a matter of minutes and inject it directly into a GB rom.

I might make some proper borders myself at some point.

Really wish actual SNES development tools were this easy and intuitive to use. I'd be developing directly for SNES right now if they were.

@TransmitHim @Pillowpants You can set the palette colours to whatever you want with this tool.

@BitmapBureau This is great news.

@GhaleonUnlimited Which Dreamcast controller are you referring to with twin sticks?

Yay! Happy to see a review for this (well, a hands on). It's the only one I've seen thus far, despite the game being out on SNES for like two weeks already (at least being shipped to Kickstarter backers anyway). There's not even an official release trailer from Bitmap Bureau yet.

And really happy the developer did a great job.

I mean, I know it's ultimately just a port of a game that was really designed specifically with Genesis in mind initially, so it was never going to be a truly system-pushing game on the SNES, but they didn't cut it down in any crazy ways outside of the obvious horizontal resolution stuff, and they even added in a few little things specific to the SNES version too (some proper transparency effects, environmental effects like rain and mist in some levels, way more high quality voice samples, actually slightly faster loading times into the levels). Also, that default SNES controller really is ideal for this kind of dual 8-way movement and 8-way shooting in games like this, which is great for SNES players.

Thanks to the developer and whomever did the SNES port (who, rather than being internal Bitmap Bureau, I actually assume was some external SNES programmer hired just to do the SNES port?), and good times for any SNES fans looking for some great new indie/homebrew games for the system. The more the merrier.

@MARl0 It's a brand new 2024 indie/homebrew game for SNES [with even some elements unique to the SNES version], and I personally think it absolutely deserves to be covered even for that reason alone, especially on this site of all places.

For the literally tens of millions of SNES fans in the world--no idea how many of them visit here--I'm absolutely sure they'll be happy to hear more about this specific version, such as how good the game feels to play with the frankly perfectly-suited default SNES controller, how the transparency effects have been added and used uniquely in this version, how there's some added environmental effects like rain and fog in a couple of the levels, how the additional voice samples and audio that uses an extra chip sounds on SNES, how it has slightly faster loading times into levels, how it's been changed from the original to work on SNES specifically and sometimes that means a bit of a compromise in certain areas, etc.

For SNES fans specifically interested in the SNES version, it's actually really not been covered much at all. And I expect there are many people who are particularly interested in this specific version, with SNES maybe being the main retro system they own or follow, who would like to see more on it. I'm one of those people.

So, yeah, hopefully the gaming journalists on the site see the value in covering the SNES version properly, just like they did with other versions of the game over the years.

To Raphael, apologies for going off on a slight tangent. This SNES port of the Mysterious Song game looks cool too.

Nice to see something new coming to the SNES. Doesn't get near enough of it these days. So this is more than welcome.

PS. Also, despite the fact it started shipping to backers more than a week ago now [and me even messaging the site about it], I haven't seen an article on any of your sites covering the recent release of Xeno Crisis on SNES yet. So, I guess I'll just link the article below here, as there will surely be people who aren't even aware it's now out, since it's not really being reported on:

https://inceptionalnews.wordpress.com/2024/04/08/my-thoughts-on-xeno-crisis-for-snes/

I think there's some issue with Bitmap Bureau moving stock to their new warehouse or something, which has temporarily halted the ability to purchase the game from their online store, so maybe all the gaming sites are waiting for that to get sorted before they post any new coverage for the SNES version. I dunno.

Sweet. Can't wait to see all the borders people produce for various GB games on the SNES now, to give them just a wee bit more of an authentic SNES look.

Unlike some famous people who try to convince you they know anything about video games, I actually believe what he's telling me when he says "I wouldn't call myself a gamer", but clearly was back in the day.

I think the touchscreen is totally unnecessary, especially given it surely adds to the cost and just using the d-pad and buttons would clearly work better anyway, but the actual quality of screen looks lovely.

@drstory Yeah, that's probably what it's going to translate into.

It's Mario. We all know it, even if, for whatever reason(s), we won't allow ourselves to just come out and say/admit it and be honest about it.

@X68000 Well, the UK gave us this via the pages of Viz:

http://www.digitiser2000.com/uploads/4/0/6/6/40667199/published/viz1.jpg?1538380859

I wonder if there are any prior examples from other companies of the American-style console wars marketing around these two systems before Sega of America's Genesis Does and "Blast Processing" ads that were part of its often quite aggressive and confrontational Genesis marketing campaign, which it seems was then picked up by a bunch of eager and malleable American [at least initially] teenage Genesis fans who bought into that kind of attitude and mentality and reenacted it [originally] in school playgrounds, which still continues to this day, although obviously no longer restricted to school playgrounds in our modern global digitally-connected times.

If anyone can find any prior examples of whatever console/games company and fans of whichever system doing such a thing prior to Sega of America and the Genesis, it would be interesting to see them.

@X68000 Just like you, I don't know if anyone outside of the US had any clue as to what "Blast Processing" was about initially. And, yeah, both Genesis Does and "Blast Processing" definitely started as Sega of America marketing tools.

@Sketcz Yeah, it was definitely a let down for me. It's a shame really, because it would have been very interesting to see how a proper direct port with a few of the SNES' specific bells and whistles added on would have fared.

Is this another one of those cases where it's going to be put on everything but not the kinda most obvious next choice for a game originally made for Genesis. I think most of the upgrades made for the GBA port would translate well to the SNES too, including things like the much improved colour and added transparency effects. So, yeah, I'd really like to see an updated and tweaked version of this game on SNES as well, and ideally sooner rather than years later.

For what it is, looks pretty cool.

Do you think maybe all the 16-bit console wars stuff, which still goes on to this day, started with Sega of America and its Genesis Does and "Blast Processing" ads that were part of its often quite aggressive and confrontational Genesis marketing campaign, and was then picked up by a bunch of eager and malleable teenage fans who bought into that kind of attitude and mentality and reenacted it in school playgrounds.

@NintendoJunkie Nothing particularly unique about Genesis in that regard other than it has the likes of SGDK, which seems to be a really matured set of modern development tools that most people interested in working on Genesis can get to grips with pretty easily. But all it took was someone making that in the first place, and the rest happened from there imo.

The NES already has a very robust modern indie/homebrew scene. And the likes of NESmaker have opened that up to masses too. So it's sorted from everything I can see. There's plenty of new games coming out for it in modern times, possibly even more than Genesis, and lots of options for people to dive in.

PC Engine really only has one main dude working on it that I am aware of, but he is doing some very cool stuff. Outside of that, I have no idea what options are there for anyone interested in working on new PC Engine games.

SNES does have some modern indie/home support, with Xeno Crisis about to launch for it as one example, and at least one still underdeveloped SDK called PVSnesLib, but imo it needs both a more mature SDK and ideally a much more casual-friendly tool closer to something like NESmaker to really get the scene going there. And, just like with Genesis, I believe if either or both of those things eventually get made, the SNES support will dramatically increase. I for one would be on that in an instant.

For everything it did just utterly stunningly well at the time it released, and always keeping in mind I'm thinking of it relative to its time, I'm not going to argue with them.

@jesse_dylan Yeah, I agree that the port of Rondo on SNES is pretty meh. I think Castlevania IV is already a much better game than Rondo on SNES all round and overall, and I know for a fact the SNES can do even more than seen in that early title for the system. I mean, Castlevania IV wasn't even running in FastROM on SNES for a start. So, I'd have to guess that Rondo is just a bit of a lazy port that didn't properly play to the SNES' strengths. Outside of the cimatics and audio, which is due to the CD ROM attachment in the PC Engine CD version, the SNES version of Rondo really should have been better across the board. The fact it wasn't is on the developer rather than the hardware.

@EarthboundBenjy Now that these specific NES games are running natively on SNES, it becomes trivial for talented ROM hackers to go in and give them the "All-Stars" treatment visually and even add CD quality MSU1 audio too, as well as a bunch of other stuff, like the FMV intro infidelity already added to his port of DuckTales for example.

What this does is turn the SNES into basically a SNES plus NES in one system---some might argue that should have been the case all along--and with the ability to make any of these NES ports look and sound like SNES games too, without any of the negatives that might arise if someone were trying to create and program them entirely from scratch for SNES or just emulate them or whatever.

So it really a best of all worlds imo.

Well, we all guessed it was Contra.