@Futureshark Not at this stage, since Android devices are typically ARM not x86/x64. The tool currently only recompiles for x86 devices like Windows or Linux desktop and laptop computers.
The screen resolution is a bit unfortunate. 480 width is going to be less than 2x scale for the DS's 256px wide screens. That'll be an awkward 187.5% scale, and Drastic as a standalone emulator doesn't have the nice scaling/shading options that Retroarch does.
Taki Udon mentioned that one of his projects is replacement Nintendo DS screens, in his recent video for the Switch Lite replacement screens. That's something I'd like to see come to fruition since DS Lite and DSi screens have not aged particularly well; they're known to yellow due to the use of adhesives within the screen.
Wonderswan being one of the licenses is interesting, considering that's an entire platform and not just one franchise. Still, if they're open to having some franchises return if other developers want to make it happen, in the way that Konami have done recently, I'm supportive.
I was astonished to see that we jumped from N64 static recompilation straight up to Xbox 360, I never imagined we'd see something like this. A fantastic cause too, Sonic Unleashed had become so inaccessible due to only being on 360 and PS3 (not counting the PS2 and Wii versions which are effectively a different game).
@AngelFox It'll probably end up getting a Carbon Engine release months after the GBA version. That's what they're doing for Shantae Advance, GBA physicals first for an exclusivity window.
What happened with their 3DO D release and Rugrats + PioPow NES releases, is by their own admission evidence that their QA processes are lacking at least as new releases or changes in process are concerned. I do hope that they learn from that.
It's not just QA issues with physical media, their Carbon Engine games developed in-house are known to have a few issues. The 1.0 release of Ninja Five-O that they shipped (weeks ahead of the digital release) has strange bugs like the intro video failing to play in Docked mode, or the gallery failing to display box art or game manuals.
LRG will be fulfilling the GBA physical release of Shantae Advance Risky Revolution soon, and I believe this is their first ever GBA release? Aftermarket GBA releases are rare so I'm keen to see if they get this right, especially as they just announced they're doing a GBA physical for Sigma Star DX, which I'm also interested in as a WayForward fan.
In terms of just fulfilling physical releases for modern systems, I do feel that LRG have turned it around and are back on track with made-to-order fulfilments, but the stigma of items instantly selling out and unfortunately long waiting times has stuck around. There's also that LRG doesn't seem to be a fully preservationist as they used to be, if they're willing to ship Switch physicals ahead of or in-line with digital launches so that they're not fully patched and updated, or may not have full DLC on-cart like with the Switch release of Rain World.
@Pillowpants There's a good chance that they'll support English language when you plug them in anyway. A lot of digital releases are true multi-region and set a language based on your Switch system.
I imported the SuperDeluxe release of Chicory, and it has full English language support. It also had the surprising advantage of being much cheaper to order from Amazon.co.jp versus the Limited Run Games release, so something to consider.
The key pad buttons are big you could punch them, that's hilarious. Adjacent to it looks like the back of a PC case with connecting ports, with oversized USB or VGA ports and 3.5mm audio jacks? So surreal.
I think the most notable thing about this release is probably the licensing involved. Othello is a trademarked brand and not something you can just use freely like with Reversi. Capcom had run into trouble with this as the original release of Breath of Fire II makes specific references to Othello, and subsequent releases had to remove the reference entirely.
@Hastor LRG used to really genuinely push for preservation in their releases and printing cards with the latest and most-likely final updates, but as of late they've opted to print physicals as pre-orders for upcoming digital releases. I had this with Ninja Five-O and Glover, where the physicals arrived much earlier than their digital launches.
Like you say, QA issues too. Ninja Five-O has pretty shocking issues in the v1.0 build where the animated video intro after the splash screens doesn't play on Switch when in docked mode, and where the box art and manual sections of the gallery fail to display images. These aren't small things, and for a project of this scope these sorts of issues shouldn't be here. Specifically mentioning this because this was an LRG published and developed release under their "Carbon Engine".
It's no wonder Josh Fairhurst seems to have disappeared online lately, this isn't a good look. Buying standard physicals for modern consoles will be fine since they order game cards or discs from the platform's own manufacturers, but this is really disappointing to hear their vintage stuff isn't up to snuff.
@Serpenterror The fact you needed two GBA systems and a link cable for any of the add-on content was also prohibitively expensive. It was a novel means of distributing content that could be played even without a GBA, like loading NES games into memory by swiping cards. The technical specification on e-Reader itself and the reverse engineering that's been performed to make decoding and encoding your own scannable bar codes is really cool though, Hunter R who does deep dives into Animal Crossing has a couple of great videos on them.
@Sketcz My brother has an e-Reader and the Analogue Pocket, and as you suspect it's impossible to plug the e-Reader into the Pocket since the EXT port isn't in the correct location. The e-Reader was only ever compatible with the original Game Boy Advance model and the Game Boy Player add-on for the GameCube; on the GBA-SP the EXT port was in a different location relative to the cartridge slot, and on the Game Boy Micro the EXT port was a smaller form factor that needed a converter.
@DonutPie I just tried it out on my RG35XXSP and it sure does. In the mGBA core settings, make sure you enable the "Game Boy Player" support option, it's in there somewhere.
@xzacutor
Cool, so they do have an offering! I might wanna consider it, though my current mechanical keyboard of 8 years is still doing really well. It's a HyperX with cherry blue switches; more of a typist's keyboard despite being marketed as gaming.
Edit: Unfortunately the Amazon UK link is for the US layout keyboard, and with a small enter key, that's no good.
I hope they consider international 108 numpad keyboards in the future since they've all looked nice.
This is nice, but I still won't consider a keyboard without a numpad on there. I get genuine use out of numpads and I'm using my keyboard for both work and gaming.
Brave Wave Productions previously made Giants, a "concept album" with much of the same talent working on this Gimmick arranged album.
I'm pretty excited to hear this full album, Tee Lopes doing an arrangement of "Strange Memories of Death", the famous unused Gimmick soundtest track, definitely got me interested.
That's a pretty strange direction, considering Rare apparently had to do multiple takes for the flower pots that say "thank you" in Banjo Kazooie's Mad Monster Mansion.
@ChaseIQ The article and Twitter posts state that the SS One will support discs via an optional dock add-on. It also has native support for PS1 controllers and memory cards.
As I recall, some versions of this game were licensed by Jelly Belly, you see it during the game's credits. I'd be curious to see if those licensing references get removed in the LRG release. Otherwise, I'm not itching to play this game, but did enjoy it on the SNES way back as a rental I think?
The hardware might be limited now, but the fact that the games can even run under these conditions is promising and encouraging for future hardware upgrades.
Yeah, that looks straight up like a super-sized GBA, the bezel is a bit weird though, it just looks off. That said, 720x480 screen? That's actually perfect for GBA games, you can integer scale the 240x160 GBA games 3x with that. They'll look flawless and have nice shader options with a 3x3 area detailing one GBA pixel.
@Daniel36 It's a matter of interpretation, in two ways. Interpreting the author's meaning, and interpreting the choice or use of language then how to translate them, which is especially challenging for the Japanese language which operates far differently from the English language.
Even so, whether the choice of specific words is up to interpreting author's meaning or author's language are separate, and choosing to alter the language is the translator's choice to infer their interpretation, rather than preserve the author's intention. Even your assertion of the author's "intent is to get players immersed" itself is an interpretation or assumption of what the original author wanted to achieve. What if the author had perhaps intended to disrupt immersion in a moment, or was perhaps not particularly talented as a scenario or script writer?
So, yes I can see that particular example being at odds with world building. There's examples of that in Nintendo's own games, like the infamous "I'm on your side, Einstein" line in Star Fox 64, or "Who do you think you are, Bruce Lee?" in Super Mario RPG. These were both altered in later re-releases Star Fox 64 3D, and Super Mario RPG (Switch), since they reference real people who should be unknown to these fantasy worlds unrelated to our own (though they may've also been removed as to avoid potential legal issues such as intellectual property rights under Bruce Lee's estate). These world-breaking shattering examples however, may've not existed in the original Japan releases and could've been inventions in the localisation processes (though I've not checked). Ted Woolsey was known for doing this sort of thing though because it made for very engaging scripts that broader audiences could get into.
In any case, if there are narrative choices, gaffs and mistakes in the work being translated, I'd prefer to see those preserved in fan translations which aim to be authentic, versus those looking to localise like the famous Mother 3 translation. Tomato's blog provides great insight and rationale into why he chose a localisation approach.
@Daniel36 Yeah, fan-lead translation efforts usually take the effort to preserve the original intent from the original releases, which is to take an effort to better understand a foreign culture versus adapting a work to better fit another market. This is especially prevalent when it comes to older works as it provides a better understanding of the state of things from a given time period. What you're advocating for is definitely localisation and adaptation, versus translation, which does less for historical preservation and study.
If the original work was a fantasy setting period that happened to have significant profanity, I wouldn't object to retaining that if that's simply what the author wanted to do.
It reminds me of the unfortunate incident of the Goemon 3 fan translation, where the original game did have an unfortunate and possibly intentionally demeaning choice of words for a trans woman (sometimes referred to as "newhalf" in Japan). The first translation patch that the translator released chose to retain that sentiment, but didn't disclose their rationale or that this was reflective of the original Japanese release, and this didn't go over well. https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/euq30j/translator_harassed_over_using_trans_in_goemon_3/
It's a meaningful case study of the role of the translator; are they providing direct translation to preserve meaning and wider context beyond the work, or are they editorialising to make for a more palettable product? Usually for publishers releasing commercial consumer products, they will opt for the latter. This was already the case for Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon, where the recurring villains in the localised release are frequently called "weirdos", but in the original release a derogatory term was used instead.
@axelhander
No, absolutely not.
The cover is an important part of the software package as a whole, whether if it's just a packet cover, a launcher icon, a title screen, etc.
That the developer or publisher in this case were content to generate some AI imagery that vaguely resembles the near-vintage game, is telling that they were unwilling to commission an actual artist to do the game some justice.
Or in the case of the Duke Nukem 1+2 Remastered for Evercade, that the artist they commissioned did not disclose that they were going to use AI in their processes. Blaze Entertainment were deceived and the fans were not happy, and they ultimately rejected this artwork and got a new artist.
These days, the use of AI generated imagery is openly broadcasting that you're cheap and do not care about your product, your employees, or your customers. Or at least, that's the sentiment so many people have, very understandably so.
@AG_Awesome Played on original hardware with no modifications. Whilst the speedrun community for SM64 does allow people to play on emulators, they're maintained as separate categories from N64, and also Virtual Console, with N64 being the preferred method for conventional play. https://www.speedrun.com/sm64
What you're referring to with people playing frame by frame in an emulator, is what's known as a Tool-Assisted Speedrun and are instead a demonstration of in-depth knowledge and execution of a game as software, rather than player skill. Research into TAS runs however inform strategies in conventional speedruns and are a big part of why they've progressed so far, as many human-viable techniques are learnt from them.
If you've got 8 minutes to spare, you can watch Suigi's 0 star run of SM64 in 6 minutes 16 seconds: https://youtu.be/rdx0TPjX1qE This record was set October 26th 2023 and has stood for over a year.
@mariteaux It's something that's unreasonable to explain every time there's a news article about an ongoing subject, however considering the special nature of SM64 and its multiple categories, yeah I think it would really add value to the article in this case.
SM64 world records are rarely broken these days, as there are fewer and fewer discoveries made to break minute barriers that runners strives for.
@Synecdoche To be fair given the game's widespread fame and history, it's pretty well known at this point by anyone that's followed the game with interest. There's plenty of good YouTube videos going over the history of how any% speedruns dropped from 70 stars, to 16, to 1, then 0. I think they too are probably by Summoning Salt?
@Spider-Kev To give a bit of context. 70 stars is the normal requirement to reach the final level and complete the game, whilst all 120 stars would be the 100% goal. Historically though, players figured out ways to beat the game collecting only 30 stars, and then later 16 stars. Eventually, ways to beat the game collecting only a single star, or no stars at all were figured out too.
The 30 star run was due to how access to the second Bowser level required 30 stars, which in turns unlocks the upstairs portion. Use of the backwards long jump glitch then makes it possible to skip the 50 star and 70 star requirements.
The 30 star requirement itself was also then skipped because they discovered that you can perform wall-clips through doorways using Mips the Rabbit, a character that appears in the basement when you've collected 16 stars. That 16 star requirement too eventually fell.
What the 0 star run still needs to do is defeat Bowser in all three Bowser stages. That part is unskippable because defeating Bowser gives you the keys needed to access the basement and the upper floor. Those keys are hard requirements as the doors to each part of Peach's Castle are what loads each new area, as opposed to having loading zones behind the door.
@RetroGames I think they missed a beat by not offering a purple Chromatic, considering that's what most people think of with the Game Boy Color. Although it looks like they're trying to strike out their own visual identity instead of just aping the established aesthetics and colour schemes of original systems like so many modern handhelds do.
Of what's on offer, yeah the black one is the one that I'd want. News that the d-pad and buttons feel much nicer than on the Analogue Pocket is also welcome news.
I gave it a quick spin and it's a really impressive effort. It's not 1:1 though, which is to be expected when the scale had to change, but there's pretty significant differences from the NES original that will throw you off. Things like air momentum is completely different, Mario will drop all horizontal speed quickly if you let go. You can't just run through World 4-1 like you used to, Lakitu throws spinys in a way that will probably hit you, and you can't clear the piranha plants with a tight jump either. Mushrooms emerging from ?-blocks are also much faster, which gives you less time to react to them to successfully collect them when they start moving (the hidden 1up in the ceiling of World 1-2, for example).
I reckon I'll give this a proper go on my Analogue Pocket later, nuanced differences aside this was still really cool.
@LowDefAl As you say, can't beat original hardware. However, there's a finite number of available DS and 3DS systems and their condition varies, it'd be great to see a new open handheld system that's specifically made for DS/3DS games especially with a clamshell design.
@MARl0 Yeah, I had some issues with the mandatory tutorial stage too.
The constant helper text overlaying your normal UI doesn't remind you that the super leaf power-up lets you fly (it assumes you know), and it doesn't communicate that your "double tap and hold B" powers that come with the super-super leaf and the frog-suit have a cooldown timer. That one bottleneck section where you have to swim through jellyfish twice is a problem when you don't know about the cooldown.
You can skip the section where you're expected to douse flames and freeze water to get through, by taking damage and just running through as small Mario.
Something like sign-posts you stand in-front of to show the text boxes would've been much better, but when the opening level of your hack features level design weaker than on Super Mario Maker, that isn't promising.
@Spider-Kev The NES and SNES minis are basically just ARM devices running Linux with a small storage space (less than 512MB), but they can access USB storage with a special adapter.
They can run Retroarch just fine and can actually run all kinds of systems, they're good at PlayStation games as I recall though will work best with a Wii Classic Controller instead of the bundled NES/SNES controller.
@Spider-Kev If you've Hakchi'd them then probably. If it turns out it's not compatible with the default NES emulator on the NES Mini (such as using special mappers not present in the official titles), you'll end up having to use the Retroarch core instead.
Mario Adventure was an old favourite of mine to be sure, but like the authors admit it wasn't the most accessible hack, as there was lot of that classic "ROM hack" difficulty where just because you can do something, doesn't mean that you should (e.g. put Boom Boom at the end of every single level).
Genuinely cool that what could be such an important part of a gaming series was recovered from a phone damaged in a house fire. Of course, I'm concerned about the circumstances around that house fire as there are more important things than just games.
@RetroGames Yeah, regrettably they had Logan Paul promote the Chromatic and the new officially licensed Tetris game, by playing against competitive Tetris players at the Tetris World Championship. This wasn't well received by the community.
@Serpenterror RHDN's downfall was just because the site admin had enough after two decades, and that they couldn't hand over the site to anyone because it shares infrastructure with other commercial sites they apparently maintain.
More sites popping up to pick up the slack is cool, but the Mario hacking scene is strangely fractured with different sites for Super Mario World, Super Mario 64, and now Super Mario Bros.
@Sketcz ROM hacking and "do it yourself" patching can operate cleanly; requiring users to provide their own dumps instead of illegally downloading ROMs unpatched OR pre-patched.
This is why it was necessary for Spike as the operator of CDRomance to step aside from operating a patches-only site. You can't really say the patches-only site is clean under that management, and we need a clean site for the practice of ROM hacking to keep going unabated.
I wonder if they're allowed to call it the Super FX 3? That would be like saying I'm making a Core-i9 15700K; Intel wouldn't be happy about that!
Apparently legal issues with the Super FX 1 and 2 chips from Argonaut are apparently why Star Fox 1 and 2 and other titles using the chips had legal issues being re-released.
It does admittedly look very simple, but I'm still rather charmed by it. It's probably too basic though, like on the level of the earliest Game Boy titles outside of the lovely animations being very nicely detailed.
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Re: New Xbox 360 Recompilation Tool Will Give Lost Classics Another Chance To Shine
@Futureshark
Not at this stage, since Android devices are typically ARM not x86/x64.
The tool currently only recompiles for x86 devices like Windows or Linux desktop and laptop computers.
Re: This $75 Handheld Could Be The Best Way To Emulate Nintendo DS In 2025
The screen resolution is a bit unfortunate. 480 width is going to be less than 2x scale for the DS's 256px wide screens.
That'll be an awkward 187.5% scale, and Drastic as a standalone emulator doesn't have the nice scaling/shading options that Retroarch does.
Taki Udon mentioned that one of his projects is replacement Nintendo DS screens, in his recent video for the Switch Lite replacement screens. That's something I'd like to see come to fruition since DS Lite and DSi screens have not aged particularly well; they're known to yellow due to the use of adhesives within the screen.
Re: Bandai Namco Is Launching A New Initiative To License Out IP Like Ridge Racer & Soul Calibur
Wonderswan being one of the licenses is interesting, considering that's an entire platform and not just one franchise.
Still, if they're open to having some franchises return if other developers want to make it happen, in the way that Konami have done recently, I'm supportive.
Re: This New Unofficial PC Port Of Sonic Unleashed Could Be The Best Version Of The Game Yet
I was astonished to see that we jumped from N64 static recompilation straight up to Xbox 360, I never imagined we'd see something like this.
A fantastic cause too, Sonic Unleashed had become so inaccessible due to only being on 360 and PS3 (not counting the PS2 and Wii versions which are effectively a different game).
Re: GBA Classic Sigma Star Saga Is Getting An Enhanced 'DX' Cartridge Release, 20 Years On
@AngelFox
It'll probably end up getting a Carbon Engine release months after the GBA version.
That's what they're doing for Shantae Advance, GBA physicals first for an exclusivity window.
Re: Interview: "We’ve Certainly Made Mistakes" - Limited Run's Boss On Winning Back The Trust Of The Community
What happened with their 3DO D release and Rugrats + PioPow NES releases, is by their own admission evidence that their QA processes are lacking at least as new releases or changes in process are concerned. I do hope that they learn from that.
It's not just QA issues with physical media, their Carbon Engine games developed in-house are known to have a few issues.
The 1.0 release of Ninja Five-O that they shipped (weeks ahead of the digital release) has strange bugs like the intro video failing to play in Docked mode, or the gallery failing to display box art or game manuals.
LRG will be fulfilling the GBA physical release of Shantae Advance Risky Revolution soon, and I believe this is their first ever GBA release? Aftermarket GBA releases are rare so I'm keen to see if they get this right, especially as they just announced they're doing a GBA physical for Sigma Star DX, which I'm also interested in as a WayForward fan.
In terms of just fulfilling physical releases for modern systems, I do feel that LRG have turned it around and are back on track with made-to-order fulfilments, but the stigma of items instantly selling out and unfortunately long waiting times has stuck around.
There's also that LRG doesn't seem to be a fully preservationist as they used to be, if they're willing to ship Switch physicals ahead of or in-line with digital launches so that they're not fully patched and updated, or may not have full DLC on-cart like with the Switch release of Rain World.
Re: "These Short Games Mean Nothing To Me" - Retro-Bit Translator Denies Wrongdoing In "Baffling" Rant
This kind of conduct is how you get yourself blacklisted from the industry.
Re: Superdeluxe Is Giving Us Serious FOMO With These Castlevania Deluxe Editions
@Pillowpants
There's a good chance that they'll support English language when you plug them in anyway.
A lot of digital releases are true multi-region and set a language based on your Switch system.
I imported the SuperDeluxe release of Chicory, and it has full English language support.
It also had the surprising advantage of being much cheaper to order from Amazon.co.jp versus the Limited Run Games release, so something to consider.
Re: Random: A Giant Telephone Keypad Is Causing Confusion In Tomb Raider's Remaster
The key pad buttons are big you could punch them, that's hilarious.
Adjacent to it looks like the back of a PC case with connecting ports, with oversized USB or VGA ports and 3.5mm audio jacks? So surreal.
Re: This Week's Arcade Archives Game May Be Worth Skipping
I think the most notable thing about this release is probably the licensing involved.
Othello is a trademarked brand and not something you can just use freely like with Reversi. Capcom had run into trouble with this as the original release of Breath of Fire II makes specific references to Othello, and subsequent releases had to remove the reference entirely.
Re: Someone Is Making New Games For The GBA's Unpopular E-Reader Add-On
@jtotal
Ah my mistake, I thought it was there for additional data transmission.
In any case, the placement of that EXT connector and the shape of the e-Reader makes it physically impossible to plug it into the Analogue Pocket.
Re: "This Cartridge Is A Tiny Time Bomb" - Limited Run Accused Of Selling Carts Which Can Damage Your NES
@Hastor
LRG used to really genuinely push for preservation in their releases and printing cards with the latest and most-likely final updates, but as of late they've opted to print physicals as pre-orders for upcoming digital releases.
I had this with Ninja Five-O and Glover, where the physicals arrived much earlier than their digital launches.
Like you say, QA issues too. Ninja Five-O has pretty shocking issues in the v1.0 build where the animated video intro after the splash screens doesn't play on Switch when in docked mode, and where the box art and manual sections of the gallery fail to display images. These aren't small things, and for a project of this scope these sorts of issues shouldn't be here.
Specifically mentioning this because this was an LRG published and developed release under their "Carbon Engine".
Re: "This Cartridge Is A Tiny Time Bomb" - Limited Run Accused Of Selling Carts Which Can Damage Your NES
It's no wonder Josh Fairhurst seems to have disappeared online lately, this isn't a good look.
Buying standard physicals for modern consoles will be fine since they order game cards or discs from the platform's own manufacturers, but this is really disappointing to hear their vintage stuff isn't up to snuff.
Re: Someone Is Making New Games For The GBA's Unpopular E-Reader Add-On
@Serpenterror
The fact you needed two GBA systems and a link cable for any of the add-on content was also prohibitively expensive.
It was a novel means of distributing content that could be played even without a GBA, like loading NES games into memory by swiping cards.
The technical specification on e-Reader itself and the reverse engineering that's been performed to make decoding and encoding your own scannable bar codes is really cool though, Hunter R who does deep dives into Animal Crossing has a couple of great videos on them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF0rM7cevfg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1d8XWf8dDk
@Sketcz
My brother has an e-Reader and the Analogue Pocket, and as you suspect it's impossible to plug the e-Reader into the Pocket since the EXT port isn't in the correct location.
The e-Reader was only ever compatible with the original Game Boy Advance model and the Game Boy Player add-on for the GameCube; on the GBA-SP the EXT port was in a different location relative to the cartridge slot, and on the Game Boy Micro the EXT port was a smaller form factor that needed a converter.
Re: Rumble Support Patch For Wario Land 4 Receives First "Major" Release
@DonutPie
I just tried it out on my RG35XXSP and it sure does.
In the mGBA core settings, make sure you enable the "Game Boy Player" support option, it's in there somewhere.
The rumble patch is also compatible with this Color Enhancement patch.
Re: 8BitDo's C64 & NES-Style Retro Mechanical Keyboards Are Getting European Layouts
@xzacutor
Cool, so they do have an offering! I might wanna consider it, though my current mechanical keyboard of 8 years is still doing really well. It's a HyperX with cherry blue switches; more of a typist's keyboard despite being marketed as gaming.
Edit: Unfortunately the Amazon UK link is for the US layout keyboard, and with a small enter key, that's no good.
I hope they consider international 108 numpad keyboards in the future since they've all looked nice.
Re: 8BitDo's C64 & NES-Style Retro Mechanical Keyboards Are Getting European Layouts
@NatiaAdamo
That's the thing, I don't want a detached numpad, that'd probably just be awkward for when I reposition the keyboard.
Re: 8BitDo's C64 & NES-Style Retro Mechanical Keyboards Are Getting European Layouts
This is nice, but I still won't consider a keyboard without a numpad on there. I get genuine use out of numpads and I'm using my keyboard for both work and gaming.
Re: Almost 20 Years After It Ended Production, A Brand-New PS1 Motherboard Is In Development
I'm very curious about the legaity of this.
Are they producing PS1 motherboard reproductions, or compatibles with components used in a PS1 system?
Such as if Sony has legal protections on the motherboard hardware design, whether they'd be copyrights, patents, or something else.
Re: Gimmick Is Getting A New Arranged Album, Featuring An All-Star Line Up
Brave Wave Productions previously made Giants, a "concept album" with much of the same talent working on this Gimmick arranged album.
I'm pretty excited to hear this full album, Tee Lopes doing an arrangement of "Strange Memories of Death", the famous unused Gimmick soundtest track, definitely got me interested.
Re: Yes, Knuckles Was Supposed To Sound Like He Was Swearing In Sonic Heroes
That's a pretty strange direction, considering Rare apparently had to do multiple takes for the flower pots that say "thank you" in Banjo Kazooie's Mad Monster Mansion.
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2022/11/random-no-the-flower-pots-in-banjo-kazooie-werent-swearing-at-you
Re: Interview: Taki Udon Explains How His FPGA PS1 Aims To "Remove Barriers" To FPGA Gaming
@ChaseIQ
The article and Twitter posts state that the SS One will support discs via an optional dock add-on.
It also has native support for PS1 controllers and memory cards.
Re: SNES And Game Boy Cult Classic 'Jelly Boy' Is Getting A Physical Re-Release
As I recall, some versions of this game were licensed by Jelly Belly, you see it during the game's credits.
I'd be curious to see if those licensing references get removed in the LRG release.
Otherwise, I'm not itching to play this game, but did enjoy it on the SNES way back as a rental I think?
Re: PS3 Emulation Comes To ARM64 Devices, Including The Raspberry Pi 5
The hardware might be limited now, but the fact that the games can even run under these conditions is promising and encouraging for future hardware upgrades.
Re: Anbernic's New GBA Clone Plays PSP, Dreamcast And More
Yeah, that looks straight up like a super-sized GBA, the bezel is a bit weird though, it just looks off.
That said, 720x480 screen? That's actually perfect for GBA games, you can integer scale the 240x160 GBA games 3x with that. They'll look flawless and have nice shader options with a 3x3 area detailing one GBA pixel.
Re: Saturn Cult Classic Princess Crown Is Getting An Uncensored Translation
@Daniel36
It's a matter of interpretation, in two ways.
Interpreting the author's meaning, and interpreting the choice or use of language then how to translate them, which is especially challenging for the Japanese language which operates far differently from the English language.
Even so, whether the choice of specific words is up to interpreting author's meaning or author's language are separate, and choosing to alter the language is the translator's choice to infer their interpretation, rather than preserve the author's intention.
Even your assertion of the author's "intent is to get players immersed" itself is an interpretation or assumption of what the original author wanted to achieve. What if the author had perhaps intended to disrupt immersion in a moment, or was perhaps not particularly talented as a scenario or script writer?
So, yes I can see that particular example being at odds with world building. There's examples of that in Nintendo's own games, like the infamous "I'm on your side, Einstein" line in Star Fox 64, or "Who do you think you are, Bruce Lee?" in Super Mario RPG.
These were both altered in later re-releases Star Fox 64 3D, and Super Mario RPG (Switch), since they reference real people who should be unknown to these fantasy worlds unrelated to our own (though they may've also been removed as to avoid potential legal issues such as intellectual property rights under Bruce Lee's estate).
These world-breaking shattering examples however, may've not existed in the original Japan releases and could've been inventions in the localisation processes (though I've not checked). Ted Woolsey was known for doing this sort of thing though because it made for very engaging scripts that broader audiences could get into.
In any case, if there are narrative choices, gaffs and mistakes in the work being translated, I'd prefer to see those preserved in fan translations which aim to be authentic, versus those looking to localise like the famous Mother 3 translation. Tomato's blog provides great insight and rationale into why he chose a localisation approach.
Re: Saturn Cult Classic Princess Crown Is Getting An Uncensored Translation
@Daniel36
Yeah, fan-lead translation efforts usually take the effort to preserve the original intent from the original releases, which is to take an effort to better understand a foreign culture versus adapting a work to better fit another market. This is especially prevalent when it comes to older works as it provides a better understanding of the state of things from a given time period.
What you're advocating for is definitely localisation and adaptation, versus translation, which does less for historical preservation and study.
If the original work was a fantasy setting period that happened to have significant profanity, I wouldn't object to retaining that if that's simply what the author wanted to do.
It reminds me of the unfortunate incident of the Goemon 3 fan translation, where the original game did have an unfortunate and possibly intentionally demeaning choice of words for a trans woman (sometimes referred to as "newhalf" in Japan).
The first translation patch that the translator released chose to retain that sentiment, but didn't disclose their rationale or that this was reflective of the original Japanese release, and this didn't go over well.
https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/euq30j/translator_harassed_over_using_trans_in_goemon_3/
It's a meaningful case study of the role of the translator; are they providing direct translation to preserve meaning and wider context beyond the work, or are they editorialising to make for a more palettable product? Usually for publishers releasing commercial consumer products, they will opt for the latter.
This was already the case for Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon, where the recurring villains in the localised release are frequently called "weirdos", but in the original release a derogatory term was used instead.
Re: Accusations Of AI Art Deflate Archer Maclean's DropZone 40th Anniversary Announcement
@axelhander
No, absolutely not.
The cover is an important part of the software package as a whole, whether if it's just a packet cover, a launcher icon, a title screen, etc.
That the developer or publisher in this case were content to generate some AI imagery that vaguely resembles the near-vintage game, is telling that they were unwilling to commission an actual artist to do the game some justice.
Or in the case of the Duke Nukem 1+2 Remastered for Evercade, that the artist they commissioned did not disclose that they were going to use AI in their processes. Blaze Entertainment were deceived and the fans were not happy, and they ultimately rejected this artwork and got a new artist.
These days, the use of AI generated imagery is openly broadcasting that you're cheap and do not care about your product, your employees, or your customers. Or at least, that's the sentiment so many people have, very understandably so.
Re: Mario 64 Speedrunning Declared "Dead" After Insane Feat From "The Greatest Speedrunner Of All Time"
@AG_Awesome
Played on original hardware with no modifications.
Whilst the speedrun community for SM64 does allow people to play on emulators, they're maintained as separate categories from N64, and also Virtual Console, with N64 being the preferred method for conventional play.
https://www.speedrun.com/sm64
What you're referring to with people playing frame by frame in an emulator, is what's known as a Tool-Assisted Speedrun and are instead a demonstration of in-depth knowledge and execution of a game as software, rather than player skill.
Research into TAS runs however inform strategies in conventional speedruns and are a big part of why they've progressed so far, as many human-viable techniques are learnt from them.
If you've got 8 minutes to spare, you can watch Suigi's 0 star run of SM64 in 6 minutes 16 seconds: https://youtu.be/rdx0TPjX1qE
This record was set October 26th 2023 and has stood for over a year.
Re: Mario 64 Speedrunning Declared "Dead" After Insane Feat From "The Greatest Speedrunner Of All Time"
@mariteaux
It's something that's unreasonable to explain every time there's a news article about an ongoing subject, however considering the special nature of SM64 and its multiple categories, yeah I think it would really add value to the article in this case.
SM64 world records are rarely broken these days, as there are fewer and fewer discoveries made to break minute barriers that runners strives for.
Re: Mario 64 Speedrunning Declared "Dead" After Insane Feat From "The Greatest Speedrunner Of All Time"
@Synecdoche
To be fair given the game's widespread fame and history, it's pretty well known at this point by anyone that's followed the game with interest.
There's plenty of good YouTube videos going over the history of how any% speedruns dropped from 70 stars, to 16, to 1, then 0. I think they too are probably by Summoning Salt?
Re: Mario 64 Speedrunning Declared "Dead" After Insane Feat From "The Greatest Speedrunner Of All Time"
@Spider-Kev
To give a bit of context.
70 stars is the normal requirement to reach the final level and complete the game, whilst all 120 stars would be the 100% goal.
Historically though, players figured out ways to beat the game collecting only 30 stars, and then later 16 stars. Eventually, ways to beat the game collecting only a single star, or no stars at all were figured out too.
The 30 star run was due to how access to the second Bowser level required 30 stars, which in turns unlocks the upstairs portion. Use of the backwards long jump glitch then makes it possible to skip the 50 star and 70 star requirements.
The 30 star requirement itself was also then skipped because they discovered that you can perform wall-clips through doorways using Mips the Rabbit, a character that appears in the basement when you've collected 16 stars.
That 16 star requirement too eventually fell.
What the 0 star run still needs to do is defeat Bowser in all three Bowser stages. That part is unskippable because defeating Bowser gives you the keys needed to access the basement and the upper floor. Those keys are hard requirements as the doors to each part of Peach's Castle are what loads each new area, as opposed to having loading zones behind the door.
Re: Review: ModRetro Chromatic Is So Close To The Real Thing You'd Think Nintendo Made It
@RetroGames
I think they missed a beat by not offering a purple Chromatic, considering that's what most people think of with the Game Boy Color.
Although it looks like they're trying to strike out their own visual identity instead of just aping the established aesthetics and colour schemes of original systems like so many modern handhelds do.
Of what's on offer, yeah the black one is the one that I'd want.
News that the d-pad and buttons feel much nicer than on the Analogue Pocket is also welcome news.
Re: Original Super Mario Bros. Gets Upgraded Game Boy Color Port, Complete With Yoshi And Wario
I gave it a quick spin and it's a really impressive effort.
It's not 1:1 though, which is to be expected when the scale had to change, but there's pretty significant differences from the NES original that will throw you off.
Things like air momentum is completely different, Mario will drop all horizontal speed quickly if you let go.
You can't just run through World 4-1 like you used to, Lakitu throws spinys in a way that will probably hit you, and you can't clear the piranha plants with a tight jump either.
Mushrooms emerging from ?-blocks are also much faster, which gives you less time to react to them to successfully collect them when they start moving (the hidden 1up in the ceiling of World 1-2, for example).
I reckon I'll give this a proper go on my Analogue Pocket later, nuanced differences aside this was still really cool.
Re: Leaked Handheld Could Be The Perfect Way To Play Nintendo DS Games In 2024
@LowDefAl
It can be a hassle to find one in good condition.
DS systems were prone to having badly scratched touch screens or faulty shoulder buttons.
Re: Leaked Handheld Could Be The Perfect Way To Play Nintendo DS Games In 2024
@LowDefAl
As you say, can't beat original hardware.
However, there's a finite number of available DS and 3DS systems and their condition varies, it'd be great to see a new open handheld system that's specifically made for DS/3DS games especially with a clamshell design.
Re: 20 Years In The Making, Mario Adventure 3 Is The Ultimate Mario 3 ROM Hack
@MARl0
Yeah, I had some issues with the mandatory tutorial stage too.
The constant helper text overlaying your normal UI doesn't remind you that the super leaf power-up lets you fly (it assumes you know), and it doesn't communicate that your "double tap and hold B" powers that come with the super-super leaf and the frog-suit have a cooldown timer.
That one bottleneck section where you have to swim through jellyfish twice is a problem when you don't know about the cooldown.
You can skip the section where you're expected to douse flames and freeze water to get through, by taking damage and just running through as small Mario.
Something like sign-posts you stand in-front of to show the text boxes would've been much better, but when the opening level of your hack features level design weaker than on Super Mario Maker, that isn't promising.
Re: 20 Years In The Making, Mario Adventure 3 Is The Ultimate Mario 3 ROM Hack
@Spider-Kev
The NES and SNES minis are basically just ARM devices running Linux with a small storage space (less than 512MB), but they can access USB storage with a special adapter.
They can run Retroarch just fine and can actually run all kinds of systems, they're good at PlayStation games as I recall though will work best with a Wii Classic Controller instead of the bundled NES/SNES controller.
Re: 20 Years In The Making, Mario Adventure 3 Is The Ultimate Mario 3 ROM Hack
@Spider-Kev
If you've Hakchi'd them then probably.
If it turns out it's not compatible with the default NES emulator on the NES Mini (such as using special mappers not present in the official titles), you'll end up having to use the Retroarch core instead.
Re: 20 Years In The Making, Mario Adventure 3 Is The Ultimate Mario 3 ROM Hack
Mario Adventure was an old favourite of mine to be sure, but like the authors admit it wasn't the most accessible hack, as there was lot of that classic "ROM hack" difficulty where just because you can do something, doesn't mean that you should (e.g. put Boom Boom at the end of every single level).
I will absolutely have to check this one out.
Re: After Surviving A House Fire, This Mobile Phone Has Helped Fully Preserve A Lost Professor Layton Game
Genuinely cool that what could be such an important part of a gaming series was recovered from a phone damaged in a house fire.
Of course, I'm concerned about the circumstances around that house fire as there are more important things than just games.
Re: ModRetro Is "Certainly" Going To Create An FPGA Game Boy Advance
@RetroGames
Yeah, regrettably they had Logan Paul promote the Chromatic and the new officially licensed Tetris game, by playing against competitive Tetris players at the Tetris World Championship. This wasn't well received by the community.
Re: ModRetro Is "Certainly" Going To Create An FPGA Game Boy Advance
@RetroGames
Modretro's Chromatic will be in consumer's hands by December.
Re: ModRetro Is "Certainly" Going To Create An FPGA Game Boy Advance
By all accounts I'm interested, but I need to see them deliver on their FPGA GBC first.
Re: SMB Arena Aims To Be A New Home For Super Mario Bros. ROM Hacking
@Serpenterror
RHDN's downfall was just because the site admin had enough after two decades, and that they couldn't hand over the site to anyone because it shares infrastructure with other commercial sites they apparently maintain.
More sites popping up to pick up the slack is cool, but the Mario hacking scene is strangely fractured with different sites for Super Mario World, Super Mario 64, and now Super Mario Bros.
Re: RHDO Changes Ownership, Rebrands As RomHack Plaza
@Sketcz
ROM hacking and "do it yourself" patching can operate cleanly; requiring users to provide their own dumps instead of illegally downloading ROMs unpatched OR pre-patched.
This is why it was necessary for Spike as the operator of CDRomance to step aside from operating a patches-only site.
You can't really say the patches-only site is clean under that management, and we need a clean site for the practice of ROM hacking to keep going unabated.
Re: Star Fox Will Take Advantage Of The New Super FX 3 Chip, Will Feature Rumble Support
I wonder if they're allowed to call it the Super FX 3?
That would be like saying I'm making a Core-i9 15700K; Intel wouldn't be happy about that!
Apparently legal issues with the Super FX 1 and 2 chips from Argonaut are apparently why Star Fox 1 and 2 and other titles using the chips had legal issues being re-released.
Re: You Can Now Explore Nintendo's Legendary Wuhu Island "In Glorious HD"
Bluntly speaking, doesn't this just repackage and distribute assets from Wii Sports Resort?
This seems like a bad idea.
Also unnecessary, Pilotwings Resort lets you explore Wuhu Island in full relatively "on foot" with the rocket belt (like a jet pack).
Re: ModRetro Exclusive 'Patchy Matchy' Is A New Puzzler Inspired By Tetris & Puzzle League
It does admittedly look very simple, but I'm still rather charmed by it.
It's probably too basic though, like on the level of the earliest Game Boy titles outside of the lovely animations being very nicely detailed.
Re: A Japan-Exclusive 'Bomberman Jetters' GBA Game Has Just Been Fan Translated
Consider me intrigued, I enjoyed Bomberman Tournament way back but never replayed it, and there was an unreleased sorta-sequel based on that anime?