Is there an accepted minimum standard in terms of scanning resolution? Magazine archivists have a set of accepted standards when preserving magazines - guidelines.
Is there such a thing for 3D printing scans?
I just feel that after all this hard work, in 5 years it'll be decided it never reached the expected minimum threshold. Or something.
@EarthboundBenjy My interpretation was characters starring in their own game. So while Luigi is in Hotel Mario, it's ultimately a Mario game. I'd love to read the contract Nintendo and Philips signed for all this.
Sadly the whole deal has always been murky - at the time of interviewing DeSharone there was almost zero inside information - and now DeSharone is no longer around to elaborate on that statement.
I've always wanted to get hold of Radosh, the producer, and run DeSharone's interview by him, since they worked together.
There's an exclusive Bubsy game on the system - a sort of Bubsy III, different to all the other games. It looks genuinely beautiful. It plays like absolute trash sadly.
I played the PC version of Towers II quite a bit. The PC version does this weird dithering trick with its graphics - on LCD monitors everything has an awful tinge of green. I've never found a way to fix it. However, if you run the game on a CRT monitor, the inherent scanline dithering results in normal colours.
Contrarian POV: I never liked the collectathon nature of the early games, but loved the construction in Nuts & Bolts, making N&B my favourite in the series.
I have a vague recollection of reading an interview, years ago, where the devs said they were forced to make changes to the difficulty at the request of the publisher.
Am I imagining this? Because I can't find it anywhere...
This port is lacking a lot of the QoL updates that have been made to the base game over the years, and which I would expect as a selectable or toggleable option in any updated SNES port.
That automap hack is ESSENTIAL. I cannot play Zelda without it anymore.
@JohnnyMind I'm sort of inclined to agree with Rica's opening paragraph, purely because it reminded me of a module we did in my "Understanding Japan" course at University (Sheffield).
After Perry opened the country, and there was the Meiji Restoration, Japan sent out intellectuals to study various aspects of other societies, in order to reform every aspect of the country. Their military was modelled on Germany's military, the political system on... Britain? I forget the specifics (I read the book over 20 years ago), but everything was reformed: education, engineering, manufacturing, military, politics, etc.
I have often thought back to this and wondered: how different would videogames be today if Japan, in 1873, had adopted English? How different would all technology be? How would the two world wars have turned out? Once you start contemplating this the mind boggles at the far reaching implications.
Which is why I like Rica's opening paragraph. It alludes to the Meiji Restoration when Japan began assimilating, at a very fast rate, all forms of American and European culture. Sure, JRPGs were more directly influenced by modern pop culture, such as D&D and Wizardry, and Tolkein, etc. But the foundation for this, the interest with "the West", the precedent, began about a hundred years earlier I feel.
Maybe. That's what I like about anthropology. Any idea is only as factual as one is capable of arguing it.
@Cordyceps A good question - and one I suspect has an interesting though possibly problematic origin.
I've not done any research into this particular topic, but I have been interested in specifically Japanese lexicon - unique words in Japanese used to describe games (or any media) without a direct or literal translation.
One such word is "mukokuseki" - and I think this plays a part in it. I'll link to the TV tropes page for it, but basically it's the creation of characters without or lacking in ethnic features: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Mukokuseki
Though really you'd need to ask Japanese experts in the field of media history who could comment authoritatively on this.
Explaining a turn of phrase feels awkward, like explaining a joke (it's no longer funny then), and it also admits that the wording perhaps did not convey the intended feeling. But for clarity, here was my thought process:
The statement was less to do with fans caring, and more a holistic view of the last 30+ years, specifically regarding Western publishers. I know the fans have not ignored them, because they're making translation patches.
The Langrisser series sold well enough in Japan to produce... Over 20 different entries were released in Japan (I'm counting ports). I tried to convey in the article that the series was actually better well spread out than Shin Force or Fire Emb, in terms of hardware reach.
The first was localised and scored well, won an award, and developed a strong English fan-base which years later would produce 5x fan-translations for other series. (Maybe not a large fan-base, but those who loved it really loved it.)
Also: in America at least there was a steady trickle of SRPGs, such as the Ogre Battle series, Final Fantasy Tactics, Arc the Lad, and other titles. You actually even find them as far back as the NES, with Koei bringing over some of its strategy titles. So people were buying them.
So given that Langrisser was a successful known entity in Japan, and the first game seemed to make a good landing in the US, and there was clearly some sort of market for the genre in America, it felt like it was often ignored by publishers for localisation.
Did Treco have some contractual agreement that gave it exclusive rights to localise the sequels? Because there were other small publishers bringing over these sorts of games. I realise there were countless games that never left Japan... But having read the reviews of Warsong, the impression is that this almost reached orbit but not quite. Langrisser IV and V wouldn't have come out since the Saturn was dying, but I can imagine a world where Warsong 2 and Warsong 3 were a thing (Warsong 3 would probably have had swathes chopped out). Shining Force got localisations right up to III - a "Warsong 2" on Mega Drive could have been seen as viable competitor to the MD releases. What about the PS2 version? Tons of niche junk made it (but also plenty did not; Goemon being an interesting counter point).
The remakes from 2019 got localised, but it felt to me like there was this gap between the first release, and the last few years. As in, after its initial English localisation, there were viable market opportunities which never seemed to be capitalised on.
Oh, and as for name-checking Fire Emblem specifically in the title, as opposed to Shining Force, it's simply a more current series than SF.
Really the title should be read in conjunction with the opening two paragraphs, which I'm hoping conveyed a more accurate representation of my thoughts.
It will feature all the gubbins you used to take into GCSE maths class. A ruler, compass, protractor, circle thing to do angles, and fancy calculator with SIN and COSIN buttons.
Each move requires painstaking maths equations to calculate the trajectory of grenades.
However, so is Snake's Revenge, which never gets any love. Sure it's not canon, but it's a fun time with interesting ideas.
I wish more people had access to Snake's Revenge.
Come to think of it, Konami hasn't done much with Ghost Babel either (EU version was best since it had the radio play which was stripped from the US version).
@alexybubble Interestingly several Western dev companies got 64DD dev kits. I was speaking with a guy from Acclaim who said they got them in, and he converted one of their sports games to it to see how it worked - had it running in a few days. He stated there was, initially, every intention for an international release. So there's no doubt in my mind Rare had them too.
@killroy10 Well done and thank you for your efforts making a patch! There's a few examples of obscure little bugs like this - SMB2 on NES is another, in that it incorrectly skips out on a frame of animation unless patched. As you say, there's not always much (if any) coverage of the minutiae like this, so it's up to enthusiasts like yourself to provide solutions. I'll be looking into this one.
@Magrane There is a fan-translation for Huang Di by another person, and it's compatible with the jump fix, so you can apply both and enjoy it in English.
@Nio_Darkwind Thank you! Given that the Phoenix KS had succeeded when I made the interview, I was also somewhat concerned that releasing a negative interview may push an already fragile project over the edge.
Sadly, 10 years later, we can all see that it came to nothing.
Thanks also for posting the link so the other backers can see it.
@smoreon Indeed! It's a bit like outsider art. Raw, but interesting due to coming from outside the expected norms. I want to play it if I can find a safe download.
@smoreon Good call on African devved games. Wolf's book amalgamated all the African countries into one chapter. But it did reveal a 3D action-adventure, developed in Kenya, called "The Adventures of Nyangi".
I've not played it, and videos look ropey, but the curiosity is strong...
(A few other African continent developed games were also mentioned, so they do exist.)
I owned all three of the PCE games back in the day. The 3rd on CD is an absolute masterpiece of the 16-bit era - I even chatted with one of the pixel artists on it. That deserves a localisation, it is incredible!
This first one though... The jumping physics are broken, or just very strange. It's not remotely a good game. But everyone's mileage will vary. It had an interesting map system at least.
Unknown bidder? I'm sure that wasn't an inside job at all.
These graded games ruin the hobby. Sellers of loose cartridges now see them, and the alleged value, and suddenly something which cost a fiver a couple years back now sits with a triple figure starting price and zero bids on eBay.
BioTetris. I'm not just saying this to justify the price tag. Or am I? Actually, as part of that group, there's Giga Tetris, which is interesting since it allows combos.
I also have a weird phantom memory of a fan game on PC, from around 2003, using NES sprite rips of Contra and other characters, battling Tetris pieces? Maybe. Googling yields nothing, so I'm no longer sure anymore.
EDIT:
This is not what I was thinking of, but here is a gameplay mash up of Mario and Tetris. have you played Tuper Tario Tros.?
I've just seen Hook on the SNES has a FastROM patch. I'm going to try that one first. It's pretend sequel Skyblazer ran fast, and is a favourite, so I went to try Hook, but that game is painfully slow compared to Skyblazer - like being stuck in treacle. I'm wondering if this improves it at all.
When people say they like The Duke, I always assumed they were being ironic. Like when you say you like Tommy Wiseau's The Room. No one really "likes" it, but it's kinda funny for everyone to pretend. You know, like you're momentarily living in opposite land.
Before I break out my flashcart and laboriously update the folders... Can anyone comment on how much of a difference these actually make? Because controls always seemed fine to me...
It was the most uncomfortable interview of my career.
Anyway, had a look at the KS page, and a Brandon E posted a comment with a link here, stating that if they had read this interview back then they would not have backed it.
Just to reiterate, the Project Phoenix Kickstarter ran from 12 August until 11 September, and my interview with Yura was on 13th November. Roughly 2 months after the campaign ended.
So he already had all of the backer's money by the time I sat down to chat with him. And the project seemed quite buoyant for at least a year afterwards.
I am deeply sorry for anyone who backed - but I could not have saved you. And more significantly, at that time, it was still possible that with the assistance of the rest of the team, it may have somehow reached fruition.
I'm not a backer, but @gingerbeardman is - I'm not sure how the comments page on the KS is going to go down, but if it gets heated, please copy and paste my statement there?
@-wc- Given that I had no idea producers did that for music, YES! It is fascinating. I sort of just assumed that radio and TV broadcast whatever was the best or highest quality gold standard recordings they had. Though thinking about it, I suppose it makes sense to adjust media based on the distribution method.
I say this as someone who mostly listens to music via YouTube and a mono speaker, so I suspect the higher quality versions are lost on me, lol
@Hexapus Earlier in the article I mentioned "the scrolling is jerky and the colour dithering an eyesore on modern LCD monitors" - in fairness to the game, I also played it on an old CRT monitor, on my legacy computer for DOS stuff, and a CRT monitor at the native resolution does look OK (much like 16-bit consoles on CRT as opposed to LCD). The dithered pixels and scanlines produce a better look. So I agree with you, the EGA graphics ARE actually nice, but only if you're rocking old hardware - emulating on a modern HD LCD screen it's going to look ugly. I figure only a few people are going to have an old PC to run it.
As for clunky, I just prefer the smooth scrolling on the later console ports and PC sequels.
EDIT: As an aside, Towers II: Stargazer on DOS has an even more noticeable problem with colours. On LCD screens everything is tinged green, but run it on a CRT monitor and there's a subtle blending of colours so it looks very nice. Old computer games suffer from the same problem as old console games, in that newer screens (higher res, LCD, etc.) harm the original graphics output. I couldn't find any options for smoothing or blending in D-Fend / DOSbox. Though I didn't look especially hard given I had the CRT monitor.
I was at this! I think I was like #7 in the queue. See the guy with brown hair and glasses, just peaking through at the bottom right of one of the photos - that's me! We slept on the street that night, in the cold, having laid out cardboard boxes. A random Dutch woman bought us all burgers and coffee in the middle of the night. The Red Cross handed out space blankets. When the nightclubs emptied in the small hours we watched a guy get kicked in the head. The whole night was pretty crazy, trying to keep warm from the light of our GBAs. All in all, good times, would be homeless again for the night, 9/10.
Crystal Warriors - turn-based strategy RPG which is basically a precursor to Shining Force, but with Pokemon mechanics (defeat a monster and you can send it into future battles for you).
@KingMike It probably doesn't come across in the photo and caption, but he was embarrassed not about the quality of the games (his portfolio is mostly great), rather he expressed embarrassment - and surprise! - that anyone remembered or cared about these old games, or would want to interview him. The majority of the devs I spoke with did not realise anyone outside of Japan even liked their games, and they had kind of forgotten about them - not all, but most I would say. Many of them also ended up being promoted into managerial roles, so it probably felt a bit weird discussing stuff from their earliest days, 20+ years ago.
This might be a contrarian view, but seldom has any game in the history of videogames disappointed me as much as Fusion.
Super Metroid for the longest period was my favourite game of all time. I loved the non-linearity and ability to sequence break and explore.
Fusion railroaded you with that stupid computer, and didn't allow backtracking. I entered a new area and wasn't allowed to go back because it locked the door. So I had to reset my game, start again, and fully explore that earlier area before moving onwards.
It induced paranoia about getting ahead, because I kept thinking: that damn computer is going to lock the door behind me again.
I finished it once, hated it, and never went back.
I keep hoping ROM hackers will make a patch that disables the computer, so I can just play the game. Super Metroid had precisely zero cut-scenes. New abilities (like Sparkshine and Wall Jump) were taught by watching indigenous creatures doing them.
Not gonna lie, I have a soft spot for Super Hydlide, and not just because I had lunch with its creator. It has that weird sort of old fashioned jank I find intriguing in games. Your money weighing you down is my favourite bit! Then again I also loved needing to shave in Deadly Premonition, so YMMV.
I can think of more than one game which was recalled or modified suddenly through patches to correct or remove potentially offensive material, after someone complained.
There's probably a feature in this: the history of games recalled or modified due to causing or potentially causing offence.
There's been several interesting game competitions over the years.
There was that British kid who got to visit Nintendo Japan, who was interviewed online about it a few years back (I forget his name).
Plus that big Alien 3 compo, where you could win every version of Alien 3, plus an actual tank top by Ripley (the guy who won it posted on the Insert Credit forums many years back).
Mysteries like this are pretty cool to uncover.
I have, sadly, never won any of the game competitions I've entered.
@bippity_bop Novelisations of films are a secret fascination of mine. They're usually based on very early script drafts and, I've found, contain scenes later cut from the movie. I've not read Last Starfighter, but the film was scripted by Jonathan Betuel, and I read the novel of his next film, My Science Project, which contained several scenes cut from the movie. I know they were filmed because the credits contain still out-takes, and some of the dialogue in the film references earlier scenes which never made it - so it wasn't just artistic license on the part of the author.
In a way, it's like peeking into an archive.
If you ever did watch the film, I wonder what differences you would find?
Comments 507
Re: Archivist Preserving Video Game Toys 1 Piece Of Plastic At A Time
Is there an accepted minimum standard in terms of scanning resolution? Magazine archivists have a set of accepted standards when preserving magazines - guidelines.
Is there such a thing for 3D printing scans?
I just feel that after all this hard work, in 5 years it'll be decided it never reached the expected minimum threshold. Or something.
Re: Worms For Teletext Is Real And Runs On A Commodore Amiga
@JJtheTexan We even had a daily games magazine called DIGITISER on Teletext. Its comedy jokes are legendary in the UK.
Re: Here's Why Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night's English Dub Is So Iconically Amusing
@Gitface Many would agree, myself included.
Now consider that Sony Computer Entertainment America didn't want it released in the US due to it being 2D, and Konami having to strong arm them.
I sometimes try to imagine a gaming landscape where it only had a Japanese and EU release...
Re: Like Zelda And Mario, Donkey Kong Was Supposed To Get A Philips CD-i Game - What Happened?
@EarthboundBenjy My interpretation was characters starring in their own game. So while Luigi is in Hotel Mario, it's ultimately a Mario game. I'd love to read the contract Nintendo and Philips signed for all this.
Sadly the whole deal has always been murky - at the time of interviewing DeSharone there was almost zero inside information - and now DeSharone is no longer around to elaborate on that statement.
I've always wanted to get hold of Radosh, the producer, and run DeSharone's interview by him, since they worked together.
Re: Phøde Is The Optical Drive Emulator To Rule Them All
Ordered mine. Due October. Nervous about needing to solder it into the CDi. Anyone else have one on order?
Re: Sonic Fans Want To Raise $4,000 To Preserve Insanely Rare 'SegaSonic' Arcade Game
Some years back, at a London Japan expo (I forget the name), someone had set up one of these (original rollerball hardware).
No one touched it, to my surprise.
Knowing how rare it was I sat and made sure to play all the way through, knowing I'd never get another chance.
The final section, if you die, doesn't allow you to continue sadly.
Re: Meet The Unsung Pioneer Behind The Most Hated Zelda Games Of All Time
I am hoping more people play the remasters on Windows, by Dopply.
They are so good, with plenty of QoL improvements.
Make sure to get the patched versions from the Internet Archive. Very easily Googled.
Re: Best Atari Jaguar Games
Interesting article.
There's an exclusive Bubsy game on the system - a sort of Bubsy III, different to all the other games. It looks genuinely beautiful. It plays like absolute trash sadly.
I played the PC version of Towers II quite a bit. The PC version does this weird dithering trick with its graphics - on LCD monitors everything has an awful tinge of green. I've never found a way to fix it. However, if you run the game on a CRT monitor, the inherent scanline dithering results in normal colours.
I am unsure of the technical reasons for this.
Re: Review: 'First-Person Shooter' Is An Uneven Yet Fascinating Trip Through FPS History
I see AVGN.
Is Civvie 11 in it?
Re: Rare Co-Founder "Always Intended" Banjo-Kazooie To "Grow" As A Franchise
Contrarian POV: I never liked the collectathon nature of the early games, but loved the construction in Nuts & Bolts, making N&B my favourite in the series.
Re: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Is Coming To Master System
The NES port had extra levels added. Has there been mention of if this is a pure arcade port, or will it have NES extras?
Re: The Making Of: Aliens: Infestation - The Nintendo DS Metroidvania Classic
@KGRAMR I thought it was on Gamasutra / Game Developer. But furious Googling produced nothing across the interwebs
Re: The Making Of: Aliens: Infestation - The Nintendo DS Metroidvania Classic
I have a vague recollection of reading an interview, years ago, where the devs said they were forced to make changes to the difficulty at the request of the publisher.
Am I imagining this? Because I can't find it anywhere...
Re: The Original Legend Of Zelda Has Now Been Ported To SNES
Can you cycle your secondary items using L & R buttons?
Does he upgrade the max rupees from 255 to 999?
Why has he not implemented the map in the upper left corner like in this romhack patch?
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/796/
Bit sad that none of the graphics are updated.
This port is lacking a lot of the QoL updates that have been made to the base game over the years, and which I would expect as a selectable or toggleable option in any updated SNES port.
That automap hack is ESSENTIAL. I cannot play Zelda without it anymore.
Re: Talking Point: Why Do So Many Japanese RPGs Take Place In European Fantasy Settings?
@JohnnyMind I'm sort of inclined to agree with Rica's opening paragraph, purely because it reminded me of a module we did in my "Understanding Japan" course at University (Sheffield).
After Perry opened the country, and there was the Meiji Restoration, Japan sent out intellectuals to study various aspects of other societies, in order to reform every aspect of the country. Their military was modelled on Germany's military, the political system on... Britain? I forget the specifics (I read the book over 20 years ago), but everything was reformed: education, engineering, manufacturing, military, politics, etc.
What I found most amusing in the book was there had been debate on abandoning the Japanese writing system and adopting English. Here's the first link I could find on this:
https://qz.com/1188049/japan-once-considered-switching-its-national-language-to-english
(Lovely art in that article.)
I have often thought back to this and wondered: how different would videogames be today if Japan, in 1873, had adopted English? How different would all technology be? How would the two world wars have turned out? Once you start contemplating this the mind boggles at the far reaching implications.
Which is why I like Rica's opening paragraph. It alludes to the Meiji Restoration when Japan began assimilating, at a very fast rate, all forms of American and European culture. Sure, JRPGs were more directly influenced by modern pop culture, such as D&D and Wizardry, and Tolkein, etc. But the foundation for this, the interest with "the West", the precedent, began about a hundred years earlier I feel.
Maybe. That's what I like about anthropology. Any idea is only as factual as one is capable of arguing it.
Re: Talking Point: Why Do So Many Japanese RPGs Take Place In European Fantasy Settings?
@Cordyceps A good question - and one I suspect has an interesting though possibly problematic origin.
I've not done any research into this particular topic, but I have been interested in specifically Japanese lexicon - unique words in Japanese used to describe games (or any media) without a direct or literal translation.
One such word is "mukokuseki" - and I think this plays a part in it. I'll link to the TV tropes page for it, but basically it's the creation of characters without or lacking in ethnic features:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Mukokuseki
Though really you'd need to ask Japanese experts in the field of media history who could comment authoritatively on this.
Re: The Often Overlooked Metal Gear Sequel 'Snake's Revenge' Is Finally Getting A Reissue
One of my all-time favourite NES games. In my top 3.
I'm hoping this will include the original Japanese ROM and manual, since it never got released in Japan. I'm assuming one was made.
Everyone, please give it a go on release. It really is a very nice and underrated NES game.
Re: The Making Of: Langrisser / Warsong - Fire Emblem's Oft-Ignored Rival
@RetroGames Thanks for the comment.
Explaining a turn of phrase feels awkward, like explaining a joke (it's no longer funny then), and it also admits that the wording perhaps did not convey the intended feeling. But for clarity, here was my thought process:
The statement was less to do with fans caring, and more a holistic view of the last 30+ years, specifically regarding Western publishers. I know the fans have not ignored them, because they're making translation patches.
The Langrisser series sold well enough in Japan to produce... Over 20 different entries were released in Japan (I'm counting ports). I tried to convey in the article that the series was actually better well spread out than Shin Force or Fire Emb, in terms of hardware reach.
The first was localised and scored well, won an award, and developed a strong English fan-base which years later would produce 5x fan-translations for other series. (Maybe not a large fan-base, but those who loved it really loved it.)
Also: in America at least there was a steady trickle of SRPGs, such as the Ogre Battle series, Final Fantasy Tactics, Arc the Lad, and other titles. You actually even find them as far back as the NES, with Koei bringing over some of its strategy titles. So people were buying them.
So given that Langrisser was a successful known entity in Japan, and the first game seemed to make a good landing in the US, and there was clearly some sort of market for the genre in America, it felt like it was often ignored by publishers for localisation.
Did Treco have some contractual agreement that gave it exclusive rights to localise the sequels? Because there were other small publishers bringing over these sorts of games. I realise there were countless games that never left Japan... But having read the reviews of Warsong, the impression is that this almost reached orbit but not quite. Langrisser IV and V wouldn't have come out since the Saturn was dying, but I can imagine a world where Warsong 2 and Warsong 3 were a thing (Warsong 3 would probably have had swathes chopped out). Shining Force got localisations right up to III - a "Warsong 2" on Mega Drive could have been seen as viable competitor to the MD releases. What about the PS2 version? Tons of niche junk made it (but also plenty did not; Goemon being an interesting counter point).
The remakes from 2019 got localised, but it felt to me like there was this gap between the first release, and the last few years. As in, after its initial English localisation, there were viable market opportunities which never seemed to be capitalised on.
Oh, and as for name-checking Fire Emblem specifically in the title, as opposed to Shining Force, it's simply a more current series than SF.
Really the title should be read in conjunction with the opening two paragraphs, which I'm hoping conveyed a more accurate representation of my thoughts.
I shall endeavour to be more precise in future.
Re: Team17 Classic 'Worms' Is About To Become A Board Game
It will feature all the gubbins you used to take into GCSE maths class. A ruler, compass, protractor, circle thing to do angles, and fancy calculator with SIN and COSIN buttons.
Each move requires painstaking maths equations to calculate the trajectory of grenades.
In 1995 we'd have called it "edutainment".
Re: Sonic Team Co-Founder Yuji Naka Handed Prison Term And Fine
He should embrace this. Create a new company once outta the joint, call it: OUTLAW DEVELOPERS.
Maybe get some prison tattoos and ride a motorbike too.
Re: Here's Why Sega of America Killed The TeleGenesis Modem
I often read about early online services allowing banking.
Does anyone know how this worked, for real?
Could you see your balance? Make transfers?
Re: Random: Super Mario Bros. (1993) Memo Reveals Keanu Reeves Was Considered For Luigi
With AI soon we may see the original film with these other actors injected in.
Re: It's Confirmed! Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol.1 Will Include MSX Classics
The two MSX2 games are still supremely playable.
However, so is Snake's Revenge, which never gets any love. Sure it's not canon, but it's a fun time with interesting ideas.
I wish more people had access to Snake's Revenge.
Come to think of it, Konami hasn't done much with Ghost Babel either (EU version was best since it had the radio play which was stripped from the US version).
Re: Rare Co-Founder Under Fire For "Teasing People" With 1997 Space World Zelda Cart
@alexybubble Interestingly several Western dev companies got 64DD dev kits. I was speaking with a guy from Acclaim who said they got them in, and he converted one of their sports games to it to see how it worked - had it running in a few days. He stated there was, initially, every intention for an international release. So there's no doubt in my mind Rare had them too.
As for Earthbound 64... One can only dream.
Re: I Just Fixed This Obscure Unlicensed NES Game
@killroy10 Well done and thank you for your efforts making a patch! There's a few examples of obscure little bugs like this - SMB2 on NES is another, in that it incorrectly skips out on a frame of animation unless patched. As you say, there's not always much (if any) coverage of the minutiae like this, so it's up to enthusiasts like yourself to provide solutions. I'll be looking into this one.
@Magrane There is a fan-translation for Huang Di by another person, and it's compatible with the jump fix, so you can apply both and enjoy it in English.
Re: The Man Behind The $1 Million Vapourware RPG, Project Phoenix
@Nio_Darkwind Thank you! Given that the Phoenix KS had succeeded when I made the interview, I was also somewhat concerned that releasing a negative interview may push an already fragile project over the edge.
Sadly, 10 years later, we can all see that it came to nothing.
Thanks also for posting the link so the other backers can see it.
Re: The Making Of: Chandragupta: Warrior Prince - The Indian 'Prince Of Persia' Published By Sony
@smoreon Indeed! It's a bit like outsider art. Raw, but interesting due to coming from outside the expected norms. I want to play it if I can find a safe download.
Re: The Making Of: Chandragupta: Warrior Prince - The Indian 'Prince Of Persia' Published By Sony
@smoreon Good call on African devved games. Wolf's book amalgamated all the African countries into one chapter. But it did reveal a 3D action-adventure, developed in Kenya, called "The Adventures of Nyangi".
I've not played it, and videos look ropey, but the curiosity is strong...
(A few other African continent developed games were also mentioned, so they do exist.)
Re: 'Cyber Citizen Shockman' Getting First Western Release Later This Month
I owned all three of the PCE games back in the day. The 3rd on CD is an absolute masterpiece of the 16-bit era - I even chatted with one of the pixel artists on it. That deserves a localisation, it is incredible!
This first one though... The jumping physics are broken, or just very strange. It's not remotely a good game. But everyone's mileage will vary. It had an interesting map system at least.
Re: "Forgotten" Zelda Adventure Gets Ported To Game Boy
@JohnnyMind Sadly the GB ver crashed twice, deleting my save both times.
I'm not sure why you need to push a button to pick up hearts.
A remaster with QOL improvements would be nice. Faster screen transitions. Better controls and collision.
Re: "Forgotten" Zelda Adventure Gets Ported To Game Boy
Am I the only one who found the awkward stop-motion, puppet / claymation graphics, plus bad voice acting, of the original to be weirdly charming?
I keep hoping it gets remastered for Windows like Gamelon and Faces of Evil were. It's emulatable, but not without a lot of fuss.
Re: You Can Now Raise Tamagotchi On The Analogue Pocket And MiSTer
Is there any word on how accurate the underlying code and logic is?
Did they reverse engineer the ROM on an actual Tamagotchi unit?
Or is it simply a simulacrum of how they think the original worked?
CVG once had a supplementary booklet on Tamagotchi clones. There were dozens and dozens of copies in the late 90s.
Re: Someone Just Bought A Graded Copy Of Nintendo Power For $108,000
Unknown bidder? I'm sure that wasn't an inside job at all.
These graded games ruin the hobby. Sellers of loose cartridges now see them, and the alleged value, and suddenly something which cost a fiver a couple years back now sits with a triple figure starting price and zero bids on eBay.
Re: Henk Rogers And Alexey Pajitnov Pick Their Favourite Versions Of Tetris
BioTetris. I'm not just saying this to justify the price tag. Or am I? Actually, as part of that group, there's Giga Tetris, which is interesting since it allows combos.
I also have a weird phantom memory of a fan game on PC, from around 2003, using NES sprite rips of Contra and other characters, battling Tetris pieces? Maybe. Googling yields nothing, so I'm no longer sure anymore.
EDIT:
This is not what I was thinking of, but here is a gameplay mash up of Mario and Tetris. have you played Tuper Tario Tros.?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIFhxCMPKgg
Re: Dedicated Romhacker Converts More Than 80 SNES Games Into FastRom
Thanks for the explanations all.
I've just seen Hook on the SNES has a FastROM patch. I'm going to try that one first. It's pretend sequel Skyblazer ran fast, and is a favourite, so I went to try Hook, but that game is painfully slow compared to Skyblazer - like being stuck in treacle. I'm wondering if this improves it at all.
Re: "I Hated The Duke Controller" Admits Xbox Co-Creator
When people say they like The Duke, I always assumed they were being ironic. Like when you say you like Tommy Wiseau's The Room. No one really "likes" it, but it's kinda funny for everyone to pretend. You know, like you're momentarily living in opposite land.
Re: Dedicated Romhacker Converts More Than 80 SNES Games Into FastRom
Before I break out my flashcart and laboriously update the folders... Can anyone comment on how much of a difference these actually make? Because controls always seemed fine to me...
Re: The Man Behind The $1 Million Vapourware RPG, Project Phoenix
@Siambretta Sorry, it was not @gingerbeardman who backed this, it was Siambretta. I tagged the wrong poster. My apologies.
Re: The Man Behind The $1 Million Vapourware RPG, Project Phoenix
It was the most uncomfortable interview of my career.
Anyway, had a look at the KS page, and a Brandon E posted a comment with a link here, stating that if they had read this interview back then they would not have backed it.
Just to reiterate, the Project Phoenix Kickstarter ran from 12 August until 11 September, and my interview with Yura was on 13th November. Roughly 2 months after the campaign ended.
So he already had all of the backer's money by the time I sat down to chat with him. And the project seemed quite buoyant for at least a year afterwards.
I am deeply sorry for anyone who backed - but I could not have saved you. And more significantly, at that time, it was still possible that with the assistance of the rest of the team, it may have somehow reached fruition.
I'm not a backer, but @gingerbeardman is - I'm not sure how the comments page on the KS is going to go down, but if it gets heated, please copy and paste my statement there?
Re: The Making Of: Sorcerian, The Most Groundbreaking JRPG You've Never Played
@-wc- Given that I had no idea producers did that for music, YES! It is fascinating. I sort of just assumed that radio and TV broadcast whatever was the best or highest quality gold standard recordings they had. Though thinking about it, I suppose it makes sense to adjust media based on the distribution method.
I say this as someone who mostly listens to music via YouTube and a mono speaker, so I suspect the higher quality versions are lost on me, lol
Re: The Making Of: Sorcerian, The Most Groundbreaking JRPG You've Never Played
@Hexapus Earlier in the article I mentioned "the scrolling is jerky and the colour dithering an eyesore on modern LCD monitors" - in fairness to the game, I also played it on an old CRT monitor, on my legacy computer for DOS stuff, and a CRT monitor at the native resolution does look OK (much like 16-bit consoles on CRT as opposed to LCD). The dithered pixels and scanlines produce a better look. So I agree with you, the EGA graphics ARE actually nice, but only if you're rocking old hardware - emulating on a modern HD LCD screen it's going to look ugly. I figure only a few people are going to have an old PC to run it.
Here's a fun video on CGA which kinda explains the theory (yeah, I know it's CGA not EGA, but same idea):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niKblgZupOc
As for clunky, I just prefer the smooth scrolling on the later console ports and PC sequels.
EDIT: As an aside, Towers II: Stargazer on DOS has an even more noticeable problem with colours. On LCD screens everything is tinged green, but run it on a CRT monitor and there's a subtle blending of colours so it looks very nice. Old computer games suffer from the same problem as old console games, in that newer screens (higher res, LCD, etc.) harm the original graphics output. I couldn't find any options for smoothing or blending in D-Fend / DOSbox. Though I didn't look especially hard given I had the CRT monitor.
Re: Flashback: 20 Years Ago Today, Shigeru Miyamoto Came To London
I was at this! I think I was like #7 in the queue. See the guy with brown hair and glasses, just peaking through at the bottom right of one of the photos - that's me! We slept on the street that night, in the cold, having laid out cardboard boxes. A random Dutch woman bought us all burgers and coffee in the middle of the night. The Red Cross handed out space blankets. When the nightclubs emptied in the small hours we watched a guy get kicked in the head. The whole night was pretty crazy, trying to keep warm from the light of our GBAs. All in all, good times, would be homeless again for the night, 9/10.
Re: Best Sega Game Gear Games
Crystal Warriors - turn-based strategy RPG which is basically a precursor to Shining Force, but with Pokemon mechanics (defeat a monster and you can send it into future battles for you).
Re: Flashback: Persona Only Exists Because Atlus Switched Directions 35 Years Ago
@KingMike It probably doesn't come across in the photo and caption, but he was embarrassed not about the quality of the games (his portfolio is mostly great), rather he expressed embarrassment - and surprise! - that anyone remembered or cared about these old games, or would want to interview him. The majority of the devs I spoke with did not realise anyone outside of Japan even liked their games, and they had kind of forgotten about them - not all, but most I would say. Many of them also ended up being promoted into managerial roles, so it probably felt a bit weird discussing stuff from their earliest days, 20+ years ago.
Re: CIBSunday: Metroid Fusion (Game Boy Advance)
This might be a contrarian view, but seldom has any game in the history of videogames disappointed me as much as Fusion.
Super Metroid for the longest period was my favourite game of all time. I loved the non-linearity and ability to sequence break and explore.
Fusion railroaded you with that stupid computer, and didn't allow backtracking. I entered a new area and wasn't allowed to go back because it locked the door. So I had to reset my game, start again, and fully explore that earlier area before moving onwards.
It induced paranoia about getting ahead, because I kept thinking: that damn computer is going to lock the door behind me again.
I finished it once, hated it, and never went back.
I keep hoping ROM hackers will make a patch that disables the computer, so I can just play the game. Super Metroid had precisely zero cut-scenes. New abilities (like Sparkshine and Wall Jump) were taught by watching indigenous creatures doing them.
Re: The Worst Sega Mega Drive / Genesis Games Of All Time
Not gonna lie, I have a soft spot for Super Hydlide, and not just because I had lunch with its creator. It has that weird sort of old fashioned jank I find intriguing in games. Your money weighing you down is my favourite bit! Then again I also loved needing to shave in Deadly Premonition, so YMMV.
Re: Elevator Action Returns Is Coming To Modern Consoles
Now everyone will know of JAD THE TAFF!
Videogaming's first Welshman?
Also, is "taff" considered offensive?
I can think of more than one game which was recalled or modified suddenly through patches to correct or remove potentially offensive material, after someone complained.
There's probably a feature in this: the history of games recalled or modified due to causing or potentially causing offence.
Re: Flashback: Did Anyone Actually Win Castlevania III's Trip To Transylvania?
There's been several interesting game competitions over the years.
There was that British kid who got to visit Nintendo Japan, who was interviewed online about it a few years back (I forget his name).
Plus that big Alien 3 compo, where you could win every version of Alien 3, plus an actual tank top by Ripley (the guy who won it posted on the Insert Credit forums many years back).
Mysteries like this are pretty cool to uncover.
I have, sadly, never won any of the game competitions I've entered.
Re: Flashback: How InXile's 'Baby Pals' Found Itself At The Center Of A Moral Panic
Sounds like a classic case of pareidolia to me.
Re: Flashback: Why Did We Never Get A True 'Last Starfighter' Video Game?
@bippity_bop Novelisations of films are a secret fascination of mine. They're usually based on very early script drafts and, I've found, contain scenes later cut from the movie. I've not read Last Starfighter, but the film was scripted by Jonathan Betuel, and I read the novel of his next film, My Science Project, which contained several scenes cut from the movie. I know they were filmed because the credits contain still out-takes, and some of the dialogue in the film references earlier scenes which never made it - so it wasn't just artistic license on the part of the author.
In a way, it's like peeking into an archive.
If you ever did watch the film, I wonder what differences you would find?