"If you're on pretty much any social media platform right now" - thankfully I am not, and now more so than before am I glad not to be. (My old FB account is still up for fam & friends to access, but I don't visit it unless someone sends an attachment needing downloading to desktop.)
The internet was fun, I dipped into it in the 1990s. And it was good for a while. But today the internet is dead: AI has flooded it with dog**** content, which is then crawled by countless AI bots to generate clicks, thus telling the AI algorithm that AI content is what's wanted.
It's dead. It's now made by robots for robots.
This website is about the only place still clean enough to step into. Everywhere else is turning into the worst toilet in Scotland.
I love the fact that bounties are starting to appear for the preservation of this rare stuff. Money talks, and it'll encourage people to dig and keep their eyes open.
I'm hoping this news encourages someone to fan-translate it. Segagaga is higher priority, but this is the sort of bizarre experimental title I loved on DC. (Alongside games like Seaman and Tokyo Bus Guide.)
“I just feel like ‘the’ videogame archive belongs in the USA,” said Kelly. “Videogames were born here and their ultimate historical archive should also be here."
I am absolutely lost for words.
Thank you for sharing that.
EDIT:
I can't stop reading that sentence - I will be hyperlinking this in my essay. Thank you again for bringing t to my attention. Absolutely mind blowing. MIND BLOWING!
I'm working on a follow up essay to this topic regarding the US understanding of Japan - plot twist: high profile JP devs who directly influenced US devs, state in interviews they themselves were influenced specifically by Euro computer games.
This "Euro scene" nonsense is laughable once you start reading Japanese interviews.
There was a lot of interplay between the different regions. It's childish and reductive to attempt to dismiss or prioritise one over the other. Not even overt influence you'd notice - notable JP companies actually modelled their business on British software houses. They explicitly state this.
@Grackler - remember that Grubb wants to help bridge this divide. And you can help him by just accepting what he says is true.
LOL. I'm kidding. Grubb is borderline gaslighting with his nonsense. You've made good points.
I was debating wether to wade in on this debate, since Europe is not my speciality.
But in my view America - journos, writers, Youtubers, collectors, historians, academics, authors, etc. - absolutely 100% have a problem with bias.
I know based purely on documenting the history of Japanese games.
They view Japan entirely through the lense of what was localised and popular in America.
They ignore Japanese computers. There was a research paper which showed NEC had an over 80% monopoly on JP computers, and all three of the leading JP brands (NEC, Fujitsu, Sharp) created a galapagos scenario of isolation.
And JP computers were dominant for a time, with Nintendo only slowly getting bigger.
Even then, the console markets were different. Americans overlook landmark releases like Hydlide because they received them years later than JP.
It is infuriating. Because a lot of the US cobsole market was defined by JP, yet they have zero clue as to what was going on in JP to lead to that.
So this spat over the crash Vs Europe is amusing to me.
Everyone defending the Euro POV here: don't take it personally, America also utterly fails to understand Japan too.
But we can all help to educate this great nation. Let's do it together in solidarity.
@jygsaw Ted Woolsey, localiser on Secret of Mana, also said that SoM was planned for the SNES CD. If I recall correctly from his interview, he said "40% of SoM had to be nuked" due to moving to cartridge. Don't quote me - I'm paraphrasing from memory. But the Woolsey interviews are all over the net.
@jamess I have a jailbroken PS3 too. I look forward to your update.
What you typed makes no sense to me.
The PS3 is easier to use than my jailbroken PS4 (a right PITA). But it's usually install from USB, drop the license file in another folder, and away you go.
I have never had to patch anything...
Tbh I'm surprised they didn't make it available in a ready to use format. What does providing it like this serve? Anyone who intends to use it will be like us, wuth jailbroken systems.
@Aiodensghost I use a flash cart and run the system on a CRT. I used to use emulators, but abandoned them because there's no scroll blurring on a CRT (with an LCD and emulation, horizontal movement causes blurring or ghosting, and none of the CRT filters help). Also the aspect ratio of the SNES is super weird, and again it was a PITA getting it just perfect with emulation.
In the end I just like using an authentic controller, via RGB SCART on my Sony Trinitron CRT.
It'll be a sad day when emulation becomes the sole means of playing SNES games.
I wish AI could have waited a few decades until I was dead and buried. Or I wish I could have been born just 20 or so years earlier so it arrived when I was too old to care.
I resent that I have to spend the last couple of good decades where I don't have dementia having to witness AI poison. I've even started seeing AI art on food packaging now.
@BionicDodo It happens sometimes. One of the Ys games by Xseed licensed Jeff Nussbaum's fan translation officially. However... The hacker who partnered with Jeff to make a fan patch previously went nuclear at his "betrayal". The results were unpleasant.
There has been endless drama in the fan translation community for the last 25+ years.
My guess? Who wants the hassle? A professional company wants to spend some budget, get results, and move on, not deal with high strung prima donnas.
Most in the community are super cool. But there's always one or two whose ego causes atomic levels of trouble.
I voted for Tower of Druaga, since so many developers have stated taking direct influence either from it, or games influenced by it.
@Steel76
Haha! Indeed. Did you know Miyamoto loved Druaga so much he had the arcade machine installed in his office to play, while making Zelda? There's an interview with him on YouTube citing Wizardry and The Black Onyx too. And in a French magazine in 1994 he said in interview he loved European computer games from a decade ago (ie: circa 1984), which is an obvious reference to the 8-bit micros of the time.
I am 100% certain none of the games voted for and presented by BAFTA will be influential.
They'll simply be highly nostalgic for the people voting, but won't take into account the games which came before them, which did the actual influencing.
@slider1983
Installing cores on my AP was daunting. But I followed the guide on TE which linked to a utility that sorts it for you.
I don't install manually, I use the utility to go online and download the latest cores for me. I forget the name. But it made installing the Wonderswan on the AP super easy.
You could also invest in a GB/GBC flashcart. The X7 is great. Though if you're not moving between systems like I am, then a GBC core should suffice.
I can't recall the name. It's a Windows program. You stick a micro SD card in your computer, load the prog, tick the boxes for the FPGA cores you want, and it downloads the latest official builds. You just need to stick your games in the assets folder.
@slider1983 They shut down the entire bluray division. Also their music CD and DVD print on demand services. I thought it was weird since there isn't any alternative which offers direct sales on the Amazon marketplace. So a lot of people's work got the chop sadly.
I continue to wonder: Are these being scanned in a sufficiently high enough resolution?
I recall many years ago, when magazine scanning for internet preservation was in its infancy, gigabytes (terrabytes?) of data had to be thrown out, because the DPI was not high enough on initial scans, because no one had agreed on what constituted best practice. All of Mort's scans were discarded.
And then... Every page which had been scanned once before, had to be scanned again.
A major waste of everyone's time and resources because it wasn't don't correctly the first time.
Is there an official consensus on the correct resolution for scanning 3D objects? Is there even a "resolution" for them? Am I just not understanding the concept?
@slider1983
Huzzah! Many thanks! Ah yes, the Episode IV DVD. Copies of that are all sold out, but I had it re-edited by Coury of MyLifeinGaming, and turned into a higher res bluray. (Don't get excited, he still had to work with my shaky handcam footage.)
This was being sold on Amazon's print on demand bluray service. Until they shut the whole thing down. Annoyingly before I'd recouped my costs on editing. I ordered 50 copies for myself and have been selling them off one at a time.
You can buy one for £40 direct, or there are pirate rips on YouTube which I've become lazy with demanding they be taken down.
Everdrive GBA Mini (GBA games, and GBC for this test)
Tested on an Analogue Pocket.
The dedicated X7 cartridge runs GB and GBC games flawlessly, including Army Men. This cartridge replicates the functionality of an original GB or GBC cartridge. It will work in a GB and GBC and a Super Gameboy on SNES.
The Everdrive GBA Mini... This does not run GB / GBC games natively. You need an emulator on the cartridge. I did not have one. So I looked online. Krikzz explains you need to use Goomba as the GBC emulator. In the GBASYS/emu/ folder is a readme which states:
Store emulators in this folder. The emulator name should match to the target ROM extension example: "nes.gba" for .nes files, "gbc.gba" for .gbc and so on
currently supported emulation for the following systems:
[system] [recommended emulator] Game Boy goomba Game Boy Color goomba NES pocketnes Neo Geo Pocket ngpadvance MasterSystem smsadvance GameGear smsadvance
OK, so then...
I went to the Goomba site and downloaded the latest version (2019). I put it on my GBA flashcart, along with the Army Men games.
The emulation is awful. The title screen has garbled graphics, the digitised sound is wrong. It's just awful.
This isn't really the fault of the GBA Everdrive, since it's relying on the Goomba emulator to run GBC games. If you check your GBASYS folder on your cart you should see the emu folder, and files inside.
If you're using an Analogue Pocket, and don't want to faff with cores, etc., but want to play GBC games, I recommend the X7. I have one since I like to move it between the AP, the Gamecube, and SGB.
If you're trying to run GBC games on a GBA flashcart, then you're basically emulating the GBC on the GBA, with mixed results.
I hope that makes sense. Please feel free to ask for clarification.
Love it in fact. Though it was actually a bit pricey in my view - had to import it from a reseller in the US because Hyperkin's page seemingly doesn't exist. And I saw none on eBay. I paid £22.
Used the controller test app on my flashcart - the one that asks you to push the stick to 8 directions and then shows a red outline to compare to other alternatives (OEM, cheap knock-offs, modded GC sticks, etc.).
The limits of the stick are in line with the OEM stick by Nintendo. In fact, maybe even a smidge under? The program gives you an optimal baseline dot. Factory fresh OEM sticks are slightly over this. Broken-in sticks reduce with use. This is right on that optimal line. Also it is nothing like the red-line shown for modded GC style sticks - which produce a big square zone, showing how over-sensitive they are. This may seem like a GC stick, or be described as one, but it's been calibrated to function akin to an OEM stick.
I have no tested an actual GC stick that's been rewired to work in an N64 controller, the test program simply shows you the typical threshold range for one, for comparisons, so I'm working off that.
Mario can tip-toe slow walk. Goemon can run at full pelt. Mario Kart controls great. My OEM controller struggles to make Goemon run, because it's so worn down, but this doesn't have that problem. And it can detect subtle shifts when tested with Mario.
I have zero regrets. I know this post is way after the fact, but it took me a while to get around to buying one.
@slider1983 If I'm understanding correctly, you loaded a GBC game on the GBA Everdrive? As far as I known that GBA flashcart runs those older system games via a sort of inbuilt emulator I think. I don't know precisely because I never used it - I have a separate GBC Everdrive for GB and GBC games.
I play these on my Analogue Pocket, Gamecube Player, and Super GameBoy where appropriate.
I might be totally wrong. But I think if you pop a GBA Everdrive into a GBA and try to run a GB or GBC ROM via it, it doesn't load it in the same way as popping a GB cart or GBC cart into the GBA (or flashcarts for those systems). It will load those ROMs into a GB/GBC emulator.
Whereas a dedicated GB/GBC flashcart will run like a native GB/GBC cartridge.
I hope all that makes sense. It's late and my eyes are tired.
@Razieluigi
MID TYPING EDIT: Quickly checked the website and for the GBA cart it says:
NES, GB and GBC ROM formats are support (emulation mode)
Which probs explains it. But I'll pop my GB cart in and check out Army Men, just to be triply sure.
@slider1983
Oh? Does the GBA Everdrive not work with certain games? I bought one but haven't really used it at all (outside a couple romhacks). Please do tell!
I despise flash carts and ODE that require serial number input. My feeling is: I bought it new, why are you now ***** with me? Feels like a punishment. Updating my PSIO was like eating broken glass.
The Mega Everdrive allows custom backgrounds. I downloaded some nice ones, to improve the plain black
I've long had a fantasy about these devices, and I'm wondering if anyone with more knowledge can verify whether it's possible.
GBA eReader cards carry data visually along the edge of the card, like a barcode, but much more dense - based on photos I've seen. Even so, it's still based on the reflect of light from the LED scanner.
Is it at all feasible, theoretically, that the eReader could be plugged into the Analogue Pocket (GBA connector after all), and the eReader Hardware interface with some sort of customised Barcode Battler core, where the eReader can be used to scan barcodes for the Barcode Battler core to then use in replicating the BB experience?
I ask because I was thinking about handheld systems. And the Analogue Pocket cores are shaping up to replicate every system out there. I was playing WonderSwan and Game & Watch and they're great!
But to replicate the Barcode Battler on Analogue Pocket you'd need a way to "acquire" the visual data of a barcode. You could type the number in, but that's no fun.
Then I thought maybe a GB camera could be used? Interfaced somehow? But I figured that visual noise would result in bad readings.
Then I thought: what about the GBA eReader?
Is it possible? I'm looking at the above photo and it looks like it needed to plug into the GBA's link socket to function?
LOL at them pixelating out Nintendo's name on the FDS unit of that video! Probably for copyright safety? But I couldn't help think of Japanese pornography and the fact they pixelate the naughty bits on that too.
I had the PS3 game and sold it for the translated remake after looking up a detailed vid on the differences.
They were so minor I actually can't recall any specific details.
Biggest one was faces were changed to bring them in line with newer series character designs.
There was some minor change with how food power ups worked - you didn't need to eat the same item over and over? I forget exactly, but I recall thinking I preferred the old system. And something about forgeing weapons was made easier or less tedious?
I don'r know why anyone would play the PS3 version. It had less detail abd fewer people on the streets.
It's even worse than I remember! I forgot about the mandatory training centre opening. **** that noise.
It's nice that some peole enjoyed it. It means people did not spend years of their life toiling in vain.
But I honestly hate this game so much. It represents everything I have come to dislike from modern games.
6 minutes before you're actually playing properly in that video. Endless cut-scenes and dialogue. Onscreen button prompts! QTEs! Everything about it rubs me the wrong way.
N64 GE had none of these problems. When you had a dialogue scene, with Trev in the bottling room, it was discrete, pleasant, quick. I'd have liked voice acting, like Perfect Dark, but it's fine.
The remake seems to go to great lengths to take away your ability to actually "play".
And the imnediacy of the N64 version didn't reduce its depth. Some later higher difficulty missions had extremely complicated objectives.
I never even looked at the multiplayer in the remake. I played multiplayer on N64, but I have always, first and foremost, adored its single player campaign.
That reboot was such hot trash. It showcases how well designed the single player campaign in the original Goldeneye was.
I've heard a few high profile retro community figures try to change the narrative about the N64 game, saying it was fine for its time but it's aged badly and by today's standards is not a good game, and anyone praising it is doing so only out of nostalgia.
I call BS on this.
This reboot of Goldeneye is a perfect comparison tool to showcase the superior design sensibilities of 1996 versus 2010. Schools should use both to teach students.
Case in point: the opening level
2010 remake: excessive long cutscenes, tutorial instructions, and then a QTE to silently take down a guard.
Lame. I want to play, not jump through hoops.
I never even finished the first level. It's so long winded and boring. At one point I was in the truck? WTF? Then in the base, which turns out to be a confusing maze. Awful.
1996: immediate control once you click start level. One east guard to learn how to shoot. Guard tower is obvious point of interest, rewarding exploration with sniper rifle. Easy guards in distance to learn how to use it.
On easy mode the level can be finished in under a minute.
It's easy to learn, immediate, while higher difficulties increase complexity of objectives.
It is the perfect tutorial level.
It teaches you by letting you do things, not lecturing you with screen button prompts.
@sdelfin
I wouldn't even say it's the site. Google has gone to turds since the last search algorithm change. This is just one of at least 10 examples in the last few months, where despite deep dive searches using various keyword combinations, I could not find the result I knew I wanted.
My old articles where I searched for the title. The names of songs or bands I'd heard. Real world news events I know happened.
I use Yandex a lot now, but even then, the internet seems broken.
I've started to keep a TXT file of various URLs. This is the insanity we face today. Search engines do not work.
Whichever tech head at Google thought that Reddit should be the top result for EVERYTHING can go **** themselves.
EDIT:
Wow, rereading this I am clearly very salty about this whole thing. Not directed at you. But I face this every day, and often with more important things than a simple videogame. It's making me crazy. It feels almost like gaslighting. I know those results exist, but the search engines absolutely will not bring them up.
This reminds me of... I can't recall now. About a year back there was a similar run n gun, Metal Slug Metroidvania, with a touch of Metal Gear too, set in a jungle with an evil military and tanks and robotos and... I have completely forgotten the name. There was a news item on TE but trawling the site reveals nothing.
Any recall this?
@sdelfin ?
(I suppose there are now so many pixel art action platformers its difficult to search for a specific one; or the Google algorithm is just broken?)
@makankosappo
Interesting. Not to sound dumb, but how do you connect the VGA cable to a UK CRT television where the only inputs are an S-Video port, composite (YRW) ports, and RGB SCART socket?
I'm looking at a photo of it now, and I have three CRT TVs, and not one of them has VGA input. Including my sacred Sony Trinitron, which is the best consumer CRT on the market.
Unless you mean a PVM? But not many people have a PVM.
Fascinating. This man is doing some priceless work here. The number of times I've been faced with incompatible formats, and ultimately just abandoned using some files due to how irritating it was to fix. The PS1 tools will be especially useful - previously converting Dex, PS3, and raw mem card files required some pretty complex tinkering.
The only thing missing - unless I didn't see it - is the ability to change regional coding on PS1 saves. He mentioned Suikoden, and that's a great example, because the Sui 2 save data is compatible between PAL and NTSC-U, except the files are regionally separated by name. You have to use one of the PS1 memory card tools to load it and swap it so the file will then be "seen" by the other region's version.
@MontyCircus This is fantastic. For once, a list I actually agree with! For the MD... There is not a whole lot different from my own hypothetical list. The order would just be a little different. Ranger X at #1, Gunstar at #2. Maaaybe one or two end list substitutions for obscurities I like.
What I find fascinating and VALUABLE in your data, is you've collated all the different lists, so as to create a more... Robust? Reliable? Averaged? Accurate? A better list, that softens over egregious entries in others, and helps raise other titles which maybe made the list at various places, but only lower down.
I'm not kidding. If you have Excel files, containing aggregated lists of a system's games based on large datasets, taken from multiple other listings, then there is genuine value in the work you put in.
Thank you for sharing!
What other systems did you research? Did you do the same as you did for the Mega Drive?
You know... If you did, I feel this effort should be online for everyone to see. Did you keep a list or URLs of where the original lists were found?
No love for Blue's Adventure? I like the shrinking mechanic in this platformer a lot. Every NG fan I speak with however says they hate it (granted that's like only 3 people I know).
Also Neo Mr Do on MVS might be the only Mr Do game I like.
I never liked any of the NG fighting library. Just not to my taste. I preferred fighters like Psychic Force or Fighter's Destiny.
Comments 524
Re: "The Biggest Art Heist In History" - Castlevania Director Takes Aim At AI
@NinChocolate
Beautifully said. I went online looking for comments and, sadly, found plenty supporting it. Unsure if they were AI or not.
Nothing feels real anymore, does it?
Re: "The Biggest Art Heist In History" - Castlevania Director Takes Aim At AI
"If you're on pretty much any social media platform right now" - thankfully I am not, and now more so than before am I glad not to be. (My old FB account is still up for fam & friends to access, but I don't visit it unless someone sends an attachment needing downloading to desktop.)
The internet was fun, I dipped into it in the 1990s. And it was good for a while. But today the internet is dead: AI has flooded it with dog**** content, which is then crawled by countless AI bots to generate clicks, thus telling the AI algorithm that AI content is what's wanted.
It's dead. It's now made by robots for robots.
This website is about the only place still clean enough to step into. Everywhere else is turning into the worst toilet in Scotland.
Re: Lost F-Zero Tracks Found After $2,500 Was Offered For Their Preservation
I love the fact that bounties are starting to appear for the preservation of this rare stuff. Money talks, and it'll encourage people to dig and keep their eyes open.
Re: Random: A "Fictional" Band From A Sega Dreamcast Game Has Just Won A Music Award In 2025
I'm hoping this news encourages someone to fan-translate it. Segagaga is higher priority, but this is the sort of bizarre experimental title I loved on DC. (Alongside games like Seaman and Tokyo Bus Guide.)
We can but wait and hope.
Re: "A Kid's Desperate Wish In 1992?" - Yes, This Is Street Fighter II On The Philips CD-i
@jygsaw
It had Rise of the Robots. Which is awful. But it shows the system could handle two large sprites attacking each other at least.
I mean, the monochrome GB had SFII, so if you're willing to sacrifice enough, you could squeeze it on I guess?
Re: "Poorly Analyzed US-Centric Garbage" - Why Do Americans Keep Ignoring European Gaming History?
@slider1983
Wow!
“I just feel like ‘the’ videogame archive belongs in the USA,” said Kelly. “Videogames were born here and their ultimate historical archive should also be here."
I am absolutely lost for words.
Thank you for sharing that.
EDIT:
I can't stop reading that sentence - I will be hyperlinking this in my essay. Thank you again for bringing t to my attention. Absolutely mind blowing. MIND BLOWING!
Re: "Poorly Analyzed US-Centric Garbage" - Why Do Americans Keep Ignoring European Gaming History?
@slider1983
Did the VGHF say that? Interesting. Got a link? This might be useful. (I'll also go trawling for it.) But your comments are useful!
Re: "Poorly Analyzed US-Centric Garbage" - Why Do Americans Keep Ignoring European Gaming History?
@slider1983 Thank you for the confidence 😊
I'm working on a follow up essay to this topic regarding the US understanding of Japan - plot twist: high profile JP devs who directly influenced US devs, state in interviews they themselves were influenced specifically by Euro computer games.
This "Euro scene" nonsense is laughable once you start reading Japanese interviews.
There was a lot of interplay between the different regions. It's childish and reductive to attempt to dismiss or prioritise one over the other. Not even overt influence you'd notice - notable JP companies actually modelled their business on British software houses. They explicitly state this.
Re: "Poorly Analyzed US-Centric Garbage" - Why Do Americans Keep Ignoring European Gaming History?
@Grackler - remember that Grubb wants to help bridge this divide. And you can help him by just accepting what he says is true.
LOL. I'm kidding. Grubb is borderline gaslighting with his nonsense. You've made good points.
I was debating wether to wade in on this debate, since Europe is not my speciality.
But in my view America - journos, writers, Youtubers, collectors, historians, academics, authors, etc. - absolutely 100% have a problem with bias.
I know based purely on documenting the history of Japanese games.
They view Japan entirely through the lense of what was localised and popular in America.
They ignore Japanese computers. There was a research paper which showed NEC had an over 80% monopoly on JP computers, and all three of the leading JP brands (NEC, Fujitsu, Sharp) created a galapagos scenario of isolation.
And JP computers were dominant for a time, with Nintendo only slowly getting bigger.
Even then, the console markets were different. Americans overlook landmark releases like Hydlide because they received them years later than JP.
It is infuriating. Because a lot of the US cobsole market was defined by JP, yet they have zero clue as to what was going on in JP to lead to that.
So this spat over the crash Vs Europe is amusing to me.
Everyone defending the Euro POV here: don't take it personally, America also utterly fails to understand Japan too.
But we can all help to educate this great nation. Let's do it together in solidarity.
Re: Turns Out Ken Kutaragi Has A Nintendo PlayStation Kicking Around In A Cupboard
@jygsaw Ted Woolsey, localiser on Secret of Mana, also said that SoM was planned for the SNES CD. If I recall correctly from his interview, he said "40% of SoM had to be nuked" due to moving to cartridge. Don't quote me - I'm paraphrasing from memory. But the Woolsey interviews are all over the net.
Re: 30 Years Ago, The Grandfather Of Game Journalism Told 2D Fighting Game Fans To "Get A Life"
He references a journo at a newly launched mag catering to the hardcore.
I have my theories as to which mag this was... Diehard GameFan?
Anyone else have an idea?
Re: You Can Now Play Namco's Controversial Cancelled PS3 Remake 'Dancing Eyes'
@jamess
@dodgykebaab
I'm assuming someone will just patch and upload it somewhere.
If nothing happens I'll have a go myself.
It's obviously possible. Any rec on which PC OS to use with patching? Some obscure tools prefer XP, Win 7, Win 10, etc. depending.
Re: You Can Now Play Namco's Controversial Cancelled PS3 Remake 'Dancing Eyes'
@jamess
I have a jailbroken PS3 too. I look forward to your update.
What you typed makes no sense to me.
The PS3 is easier to use than my jailbroken PS4 (a right PITA). But it's usually install from USB, drop the license file in another folder, and away you go.
I have never had to patch anything...
Tbh I'm surprised they didn't make it available in a ready to use format. What does providing it like this serve? Anyone who intends to use it will be like us, wuth jailbroken systems.
Ah well.
Good luck good sir.
Re: Random: This Two-Sided NES Cart Is Blowing Our Tiny Minds
Where's the Requiem for a Dream style video of two NES making use of it while nerds stand around chanting aloud: SLOT TO SLOT!
Re: SNES Consoles Appear To Be Getting Faster As They Age
@Aiodensghost
I use a flash cart and run the system on a CRT. I used to use emulators, but abandoned them because there's no scroll blurring on a CRT (with an LCD and emulation, horizontal movement causes blurring or ghosting, and none of the CRT filters help). Also the aspect ratio of the SNES is super weird, and again it was a PITA getting it just perfect with emulation.
In the end I just like using an authentic controller, via RGB SCART on my Sony Trinitron CRT.
It'll be a sad day when emulation becomes the sole means of playing SNES games.
Re: SNES Consoles Appear To Be Getting Faster As They Age
@avcrypt
Thank you! I've had a couple systems recapped. Not the SNES yet. This is good to know.
However, this story reminded me of another similar SNES story about how the processor base was degrading.
https://www.timeextension.com/news/2024/01/does-your-snes-have-a-ticking-time-bomb-inside
Re: SNES Consoles Appear To Be Getting Faster As They Age
This horrifies me. I love my SNES. I want it to live forever. ; _ ;
Re: Square Enix Staff Discover Cache Of Pristine Retro Games, Some Of Which Date Back 30 Years
I see VHS tapes. Any word on what those were?
Might contain lost footage.
Re: Super Mario Bros., A Game From 1985, Is Being Used To Benchmark AI 40 Years On
I wish AI could have waited a few decades until I was dead and buried. Or I wish I could have been born just 20 or so years earlier so it arrived when I was too old to care.
I resent that I have to spend the last couple of good decades where I don't have dementia having to witness AI poison. I've even started seeing AI art on food packaging now.
Re: "These Short Games Mean Nothing To Me" - Retro-Bit Translator Denies Wrongdoing In "Baffling" Rant
@BionicDodo
It happens sometimes. One of the Ys games by Xseed licensed Jeff Nussbaum's fan translation officially. However... The hacker who partnered with Jeff to make a fan patch previously went nuclear at his "betrayal". The results were unpleasant.
There has been endless drama in the fan translation community for the last 25+ years.
My guess? Who wants the hassle? A professional company wants to spend some budget, get results, and move on, not deal with high strung prima donnas.
Most in the community are super cool. But there's always one or two whose ego causes atomic levels of trouble.
Re: "These Short Games Mean Nothing To Me" - Retro-Bit Translator Denies Wrongdoing In "Baffling" Rant
It pains me that such beautiful games have fallen into the hands of such people - Gleylancer, Valken, and Majuuou are all exquisite masterpieces.
@PinballBuzzbro is correct
Re: What's The Most Influential Video Game of All Time? BAFTA Needs Your Help To Decide
@Steel76
If you want sources, check out the YT video here:
https://www.timeextension.com/features/paper-peepshows-wargame-history-and-pooping-mascots-n-my-spanish-retro-gaming-adventure
Rough time stamps:
18:34
37:26
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Re: What's The Most Influential Video Game of All Time? BAFTA Needs Your Help To Decide
I voted for Tower of Druaga, since so many developers have stated taking direct influence either from it, or games influenced by it.
@Steel76
Haha! Indeed. Did you know Miyamoto loved Druaga so much he had the arcade machine installed in his office to play, while making Zelda? There's an interview with him on YouTube citing Wizardry and The Black Onyx too. And in a French magazine in 1994 he said in interview he loved European computer games from a decade ago (ie: circa 1984), which is an obvious reference to the 8-bit micros of the time.
I am 100% certain none of the games voted for and presented by BAFTA will be influential.
They'll simply be highly nostalgic for the people voting, but won't take into account the games which came before them, which did the actual influencing.
Ah well.
Re: A Full Set Of Street Fighter II Toys From The '90s Has Just Been Preserved
@KingMike
Indeed - when I was told they had to ditch Mort's catalogues of scans due to wrong DPI, I winced inside. >_<
Re: Please, Please, Please Treasure Your Offline Multiplayer Buddy
I still have all my multitaps. Just in case, one day...
Re: Review: Mega Everdrive Pro - The Best Flash Cart For Your Genesis / Mega Drive
@slider1983
Installing cores on my AP was daunting. But I followed the guide on TE which linked to a utility that sorts it for you.
I don't install manually, I use the utility to go online and download the latest cores for me. I forget the name. But it made installing the Wonderswan on the AP super easy.
You could also invest in a GB/GBC flashcart. The X7 is great. Though if you're not moving between systems like I am, then a GBC core should suffice.
I can't recall the name. It's a Windows program. You stick a micro SD card in your computer, load the prog, tick the boxes for the FPGA cores you want, and it downloads the latest official builds. You just need to stick your games in the assets folder.
EDIT:
Just grab one of the updater utilities:
https://www.timeextension.com/guides/all-analogue-pocket-openfpga-cores-and-where-to-download-them
Re: Review: Mega Everdrive Pro - The Best Flash Cart For Your Genesis / Mega Drive
@slider1983
They shut down the entire bluray division. Also their music CD and DVD print on demand services. I thought it was weird since there isn't any alternative which offers direct sales on the Amazon marketplace. So a lot of people's work got the chop sadly.
Re: A Full Set Of Street Fighter II Toys From The '90s Has Just Been Preserved
I continue to wonder:
Are these being scanned in a sufficiently high enough resolution?
I recall many years ago, when magazine scanning for internet preservation was in its infancy, gigabytes (terrabytes?) of data had to be thrown out, because the DPI was not high enough on initial scans, because no one had agreed on what constituted best practice. All of Mort's scans were discarded.
And then... Every page which had been scanned once before, had to be scanned again.
A major waste of everyone's time and resources because it wasn't don't correctly the first time.
Is there an official consensus on the correct resolution for scanning 3D objects? Is there even a "resolution" for them? Am I just not understanding the concept?
The Japanese Game Preservation Society started "scanning" laserdiscs, in order to capture all optical data; a single scan was 8 terabytes. But at least they know they're doing it right first time:
https://www.timeextension.com/news/2024/01/this-game-preservation-group-wants-to-archive-laserdisc-games-before-theyre-lost-forever
Re: Review: Mega Everdrive Pro - The Best Flash Cart For Your Genesis / Mega Drive
@slider1983
Huzzah! Many thanks! Ah yes, the Episode IV DVD. Copies of that are all sold out, but I had it re-edited by Coury of MyLifeinGaming, and turned into a higher res bluray. (Don't get excited, he still had to work with my shaky handcam footage.)
This was being sold on Amazon's print on demand bluray service. Until they shut the whole thing down. Annoyingly before I'd recouped my costs on editing. I ordered 50 copies for myself and have been selling them off one at a time.
You can buy one for £40 direct, or there are pirate rips on YouTube which I've become lazy with demanding they be taken down.
Leave an email or message me on Facebook?
Re: Review: Mega Everdrive Pro - The Best Flash Cart For Your Genesis / Mega Drive
@slider1983
OK, I tested this on my carts.
I'm using:
Tested on an Analogue Pocket.
The dedicated X7 cartridge runs GB and GBC games flawlessly, including Army Men. This cartridge replicates the functionality of an original GB or GBC cartridge. It will work in a GB and GBC and a Super Gameboy on SNES.
The Everdrive GBA Mini... This does not run GB / GBC games natively. You need an emulator on the cartridge. I did not have one. So I looked online. Krikzz explains you need to use Goomba as the GBC emulator. In the GBASYS/emu/ folder is a readme which states:
Store emulators in this folder.
The emulator name should match to the target ROM extension
example: "nes.gba" for .nes files, "gbc.gba" for .gbc and so on
currently supported emulation for the following systems:
[system] [recommended emulator]
Game Boy goomba
Game Boy Color goomba
NES pocketnes
Neo Geo Pocket ngpadvance
MasterSystem smsadvance
GameGear smsadvance
OK, so then...
I went to the Goomba site and downloaded the latest version (2019). I put it on my GBA flashcart, along with the Army Men games.
The emulation is awful. The title screen has garbled graphics, the digitised sound is wrong. It's just awful.
This isn't really the fault of the GBA Everdrive, since it's relying on the Goomba emulator to run GBC games. If you check your GBASYS folder on your cart you should see the emu folder, and files inside.
If you're using an Analogue Pocket, and don't want to faff with cores, etc., but want to play GBC games, I recommend the X7. I have one since I like to move it between the AP, the Gamecube, and SGB.
If you're trying to run GBC games on a GBA flashcart, then you're basically emulating the GBC on the GBA, with mixed results.
I hope that makes sense. Please feel free to ask for clarification.
Re: Hyperkin's "No-Drift" N64 Stick Is Available Now
I bought one and extremely happy with it.
Love it in fact. Though it was actually a bit pricey in my view - had to import it from a reseller in the US because Hyperkin's page seemingly doesn't exist. And I saw none on eBay. I paid £22.
Used the controller test app on my flashcart - the one that asks you to push the stick to 8 directions and then shows a red outline to compare to other alternatives (OEM, cheap knock-offs, modded GC sticks, etc.).
The limits of the stick are in line with the OEM stick by Nintendo. In fact, maybe even a smidge under? The program gives you an optimal baseline dot. Factory fresh OEM sticks are slightly over this. Broken-in sticks reduce with use. This is right on that optimal line. Also it is nothing like the red-line shown for modded GC style sticks - which produce a big square zone, showing how over-sensitive they are. This may seem like a GC stick, or be described as one, but it's been calibrated to function akin to an OEM stick.
I have no tested an actual GC stick that's been rewired to work in an N64 controller, the test program simply shows you the typical threshold range for one, for comparisons, so I'm working off that.
Mario can tip-toe slow walk. Goemon can run at full pelt. Mario Kart controls great. My OEM controller struggles to make Goemon run, because it's so worn down, but this doesn't have that problem. And it can detect subtle shifts when tested with Mario.
I have zero regrets. I know this post is way after the fact, but it took me a while to get around to buying one.
@Kobeskillz
@Skunkfish
@DeciderVT
@Shiesty
@ChromaticDracula
@slider1983
Re: Review: Mega Everdrive Pro - The Best Flash Cart For Your Genesis / Mega Drive
@slider1983
If I'm understanding correctly, you loaded a GBC game on the GBA Everdrive? As far as I known that GBA flashcart runs those older system games via a sort of inbuilt emulator I think. I don't know precisely because I never used it - I have a separate GBC Everdrive for GB and GBC games.
I play these on my Analogue Pocket, Gamecube Player, and Super GameBoy where appropriate.
I might be totally wrong. But I think if you pop a GBA Everdrive into a GBA and try to run a GB or GBC ROM via it, it doesn't load it in the same way as popping a GB cart or GBC cart into the GBA (or flashcarts for those systems). It will load those ROMs into a GB/GBC emulator.
Whereas a dedicated GB/GBC flashcart will run like a native GB/GBC cartridge.
I hope all that makes sense. It's late and my eyes are tired.
@Razieluigi
MID TYPING EDIT:
Quickly checked the website and for the GBA cart it says:
NES, GB and GBC ROM formats are support (emulation mode)
Which probs explains it. But I'll pop my GB cart in and check out Army Men, just to be triply sure.
Re: Review: Mega Everdrive Pro - The Best Flash Cart For Your Genesis / Mega Drive
@slider1983
Oh? Does the GBA Everdrive not work with certain games? I bought one but haven't really used it at all (outside a couple romhacks). Please do tell!
Re: Review: Mega Everdrive Pro - The Best Flash Cart For Your Genesis / Mega Drive
I despise flash carts and ODE that require serial number input. My feeling is: I bought it new, why are you now ***** with me? Feels like a punishment. Updating my PSIO was like eating broken glass.
The Mega Everdrive allows custom backgrounds. I downloaded some nice ones, to improve the plain black
Re: Someone Is Making New Games For The GBA's Unpopular E-Reader Add-On
I've long had a fantasy about these devices, and I'm wondering if anyone with more knowledge can verify whether it's possible.
GBA eReader cards carry data visually along the edge of the card, like a barcode, but much more dense - based on photos I've seen. Even so, it's still based on the reflect of light from the LED scanner.
Is it at all feasible, theoretically, that the eReader could be plugged into the Analogue Pocket (GBA connector after all), and the eReader Hardware interface with some sort of customised Barcode Battler core, where the eReader can be used to scan barcodes for the Barcode Battler core to then use in replicating the BB experience?
I ask because I was thinking about handheld systems. And the Analogue Pocket cores are shaping up to replicate every system out there. I was playing WonderSwan and Game & Watch and they're great!
But to replicate the Barcode Battler on Analogue Pocket you'd need a way to "acquire" the visual data of a barcode. You could type the number in, but that's no fun.
Then I thought maybe a GB camera could be used? Interfaced somehow? But I figured that visual noise would result in bad readings.
Then I thought: what about the GBA eReader?
Is it possible? I'm looking at the above photo and it looks like it needed to plug into the GBA's link socket to function?
Re: I've Just Resurrected This Zelda Scratch Card Game From 1989
@Asaki
Downloaded. Need to make time to peruse. So busy.
Re: This New Famicom Disk System Game Could Be A World's First
LOL at them pixelating out Nintendo's name on the FDS unit of that video! Probably for copyright safety? But I couldn't help think of Japanese pornography and the fact they pixelate the naughty bits on that too.
Re: The PS3 Version Of 'Like A Dragon: Ishin!' Is Now Playable In English
@no_donatello KENZAAAAAN!
I finished it via the lengthy inline FAQ. I actually printed the entire thing at work. Loved that game.
Waiting for the patch with my modded PS3.
I hope it's an easy install!
Re: The PS3 Version Of 'Like A Dragon: Ishin!' Is Now Playable In English
@N64-ROX
Titillation? What do you mean?
I had the PS3 game and sold it for the translated remake after looking up a detailed vid on the differences.
They were so minor I actually can't recall any specific details.
Biggest one was faces were changed to bring them in line with newer series character designs.
There was some minor change with how food power ups worked - you didn't need to eat the same item over and over? I forget exactly, but I recall thinking I preferred the old system. And something about forgeing weapons was made easier or less tedious?
I don'r know why anyone would play the PS3 version. It had less detail abd fewer people on the streets.
Re: James Bond Producer Didn't Want Guns In 2010's GoldenEye Wii Reboot
@gingerbeardman
Maybe the multiplayer saved it.
I played the PS3 game. I just looked up a video to make sure I was not making stuff up:
https://youtu.be/JbpIKLgl6AI?si=ZlRq_JAtkGP0C2cH
It's even worse than I remember! I forgot about the mandatory training centre opening. **** that noise.
It's nice that some peole enjoyed it. It means people did not spend years of their life toiling in vain.
But I honestly hate this game so much. It represents everything I have come to dislike from modern games.
6 minutes before you're actually playing properly in that video. Endless cut-scenes and dialogue. Onscreen button prompts! QTEs! Everything about it rubs me the wrong way.
N64 GE had none of these problems. When you had a dialogue scene, with Trev in the bottling room, it was discrete, pleasant, quick. I'd have liked voice acting, like Perfect Dark, but it's fine.
The remake seems to go to great lengths to take away your ability to actually "play".
And the imnediacy of the N64 version didn't reduce its depth. Some later higher difficulty missions had extremely complicated objectives.
I never even looked at the multiplayer in the remake. I played multiplayer on N64, but I have always, first and foremost, adored its single player campaign.
Re: James Bond Producer Didn't Want Guns In 2010's GoldenEye Wii Reboot
That reboot was such hot trash. It showcases how well designed the single player campaign in the original Goldeneye was.
I've heard a few high profile retro community figures try to change the narrative about the N64 game, saying it was fine for its time but it's aged badly and by today's standards is not a good game, and anyone praising it is doing so only out of nostalgia.
I call BS on this.
This reboot of Goldeneye is a perfect comparison tool to showcase the superior design sensibilities of 1996 versus 2010. Schools should use both to teach students.
Case in point: the opening level
2010 remake: excessive long cutscenes, tutorial instructions, and then a QTE to silently take down a guard.
Lame. I want to play, not jump through hoops.
I never even finished the first level. It's so long winded and boring. At one point I was in the truck? WTF? Then in the base, which turns out to be a confusing maze. Awful.
1996: immediate control once you click start level. One east guard to learn how to shoot. Guard tower is obvious point of interest, rewarding exploration with sniper rifle. Easy guards in distance to learn how to use it.
On easy mode the level can be finished in under a minute.
It's easy to learn, immediate, while higher difficulties increase complexity of objectives.
It is the perfect tutorial level.
It teaches you by letting you do things, not lecturing you with screen button prompts.
Re: Metal Slug-Inspired Metroidvania 'Guns Of Fury' Arrives On Switch & PC Later This Month
@sdelfin
I wouldn't even say it's the site. Google has gone to turds since the last search algorithm change. This is just one of at least 10 examples in the last few months, where despite deep dive searches using various keyword combinations, I could not find the result I knew I wanted.
My old articles where I searched for the title. The names of songs or bands I'd heard. Real world news events I know happened.
I use Yandex a lot now, but even then, the internet seems broken.
I've started to keep a TXT file of various URLs. This is the insanity we face today. Search engines do not work.
Whichever tech head at Google thought that Reddit should be the top result for EVERYTHING can go **** themselves.
EDIT:
Wow, rereading this I am clearly very salty about this whole thing. Not directed at you. But I face this every day, and often with more important things than a simple videogame. It's making me crazy. It feels almost like gaslighting. I know those results exist, but the search engines absolutely will not bring them up.
Re: Metal Slug-Inspired Metroidvania 'Guns Of Fury' Arrives On Switch & PC Later This Month
This reminds me of... I can't recall now. About a year back there was a similar run n gun, Metal Slug Metroidvania, with a touch of Metal Gear too, set in a jungle with an evil military and tanks and robotos and... I have completely forgotten the name. There was a news item on TE but trawling the site reveals nothing.
Any recall this?
@sdelfin ?
(I suppose there are now so many pixel art action platformers its difficult to search for a specific one; or the Google algorithm is just broken?)
EDIT: After trawling the site for over 90 minutes now, I have finally found it:
https://www.timeextension.com/news/2024/06/chasm-creator-reveals-wolfhound-a-slick-looking-metroidvania-set-during-world-war-ii
Re: 25 Years On, Skies Of Arcadia's Technical Issues Have Been Fixed
@makankosappo
Interesting. Not to sound dumb, but how do you connect the VGA cable to a UK CRT television where the only inputs are an S-Video port, composite (YRW) ports, and RGB SCART socket?
I'm looking at a photo of it now, and I have three CRT TVs, and not one of them has VGA input. Including my sacred Sony Trinitron, which is the best consumer CRT on the market.
Unless you mean a PVM? But not many people have a PVM.
Re: Meet The Man Who's Taking The Pain Out Of Managing Retro Game Save Data
@euan
Fantastic! That's great - and so simple and elegant too. Thank you very much.
Re: Meet The Man Who's Taking The Pain Out Of Managing Retro Game Save Data
Fascinating. This man is doing some priceless work here. The number of times I've been faced with incompatible formats, and ultimately just abandoned using some files due to how irritating it was to fix. The PS1 tools will be especially useful - previously converting Dex, PS3, and raw mem card files required some pretty complex tinkering.
The only thing missing - unless I didn't see it - is the ability to change regional coding on PS1 saves. He mentioned Suikoden, and that's a great example, because the Sui 2 save data is compatible between PAL and NTSC-U, except the files are regionally separated by name. You have to use one of the PS1 memory card tools to load it and swap it so the file will then be "seen" by the other region's version.
Edited: to correct a technical point
Re: The Making Of: James Pond: Codename Robocod
@MontyCircus
This is fantastic. For once, a list I actually agree with! For the MD... There is not a whole lot different from my own hypothetical list. The order would just be a little different. Ranger X at #1, Gunstar at #2. Maaaybe one or two end list substitutions for obscurities I like.
What I find fascinating and VALUABLE in your data, is you've collated all the different lists, so as to create a more... Robust? Reliable? Averaged? Accurate? A better list, that softens over egregious entries in others, and helps raise other titles which maybe made the list at various places, but only lower down.
I'm not kidding. If you have Excel files, containing aggregated lists of a system's games based on large datasets, taken from multiple other listings, then there is genuine value in the work you put in.
Thank you for sharing!
What other systems did you research? Did you do the same as you did for the Mega Drive?
You know... If you did, I feel this effort should be online for everyone to see. Did you keep a list or URLs of where the original lists were found?
Re: The Making Of: James Pond: Codename Robocod
@MontyCircus that's a lot of work!
Is your ultimate list available to read anywhere? Curious to see it.
Re: Best Neo Geo Games Of All Time
No love for Blue's Adventure? I like the shrinking mechanic in this platformer a lot. Every NG fan I speak with however says they hate it (granted that's like only 3 people I know).
Also Neo Mr Do on MVS might be the only Mr Do game I like.
I never liked any of the NG fighting library. Just not to my taste. I preferred fighters like Psychic Force or Fighter's Destiny.
But Blue's Adventure? Lots of fun.
Re: The Artist Behind F-Zero's Legendary Japanese Cover Has Passed Away
Given all this... Why was it changed for the US release?