@KingMike True. And the old Resi games are also on GOG now. But that actual interview which I'm satirising continues to blow my mind. The execs were approached by GOG and had to be pursuaded people cared about old games. The fact such an attitude exists makes me think every old game release is someone desperately trying to convince one of the higher ups. It gives me constant anxiety.
@SlangWon @Magrane
Capcom is the same company, that when GOG suggested putting older Resident Evil games up for sale, they replied, and I quote:
"Nah, why would you want to sell old games? People buy old games? No one is interested in old games, there's remakes of the Resi games which is obviously the best versions now because it's new, so we deleted the archives of all that old *****, because ***** old ***** man, we only care about the bestest and latestest versions, man, stop being silly and talking about old stuff, it's so old, we're all about the NEW games! Now, if you'll excuse me GOG, I appear to have fouled myself and need to change again."
~ an actual Capcom Executive
I miss the old days. Lavish colour manuals. Obi strips / spine cards. Paper maps. Cloth maps. Sealed tips leaflets. Art books. Bonus music CDs. Flexible vinyl records. Company catalogues. Making of discs. Weird and wonderful omake and "feelies" as they were called.
@PKDuckman I see! Honestly, don't worry about the reports. Hunting them down is tedious. If all enemies die the mission ends, so you need to keep one alive until you've found it. If you're unlucky the lone survivor will be holding it, forcing a restart. And your reward at the end is just some challenge missions in a generic square room - not very interesting. Just play the main campaign and savour it. The last few missions are difficult, but not insurmountable. Make sure you've attached the skill which auto-uses healing items when knocked out. That's going to be doing a lot of heavy lifting. Good hunting!
@PKDuckman
Exactly! I remember watching YT videos, and thinking: this looks really fun. Good music, nice art style, cool vamps vs werewolf story, complex systems, large battlefields, funny things like werewolves punching tanks to death. And then the YT commentary was all "this totally suuuuucks!!"
And there was this weird disconnect for me. Like, it can't be THAT bad based on what I'm seeing. So I had to import a US system immediately with copy of the game.
A lot of complaints about the camera, but I found it was mitigated by using L&R to quickly swap between targets, which is such a great QOL feature.
I can understand if its average score was in the low 70% range, given that tactics games are an acquired taste. But the overwhelming hatred it got... I wonder if it's because the X360 target demographic at that time just wasn't into that kind of game, and maybe it would have done better on PS3?
I did an exhaustive write up on HG101, including an interview taken from the strategy guide, and then years later had a surprise interview of my own with its creator in Japan. It really didn't sell well, and he was kinda surprised at my interest. I have no shame in geeking out about how much I liked it. He needed to know!
The only complaint I personally have, is that the special reports you can find on random enemies is tedious. You need them all to unlock the Eagle Has Landed dungeon campaign. The string of battles are themselves quite dull, being devoid of story, and it's so easy to miss the special report during the story campaign. There's a bunch of them, and you need to search every corpse, hoping it's not being held by the last surviving enemy.
But I really enjoyed the guerilla warfare aspect of sending your team in without gear, so they were light and had earlier turns, then scavenging weapons from the enemy.
Did you finish it? Did you collect all the special reports?
@Babybahamut I literally bought a X360 to play Operation Darkness. Loved that game so much. Unavailable anywhere else. Lost Odyssey is another good exclusive. Import Tuner Challenge. Naruto: RoaN (I think?). The Outfit. Project Sylpheed is incredible - INCREDIBLE. WarTech, or was that ported? Culdcept Saga - it was released all over, but X360 is the best in English.
There's also a bunch of good games which were on PC and the only console port was X360. Depending on your criteria for exclusivity.
Op Darkness and Sylpheed are my two recommendations.
I finished this last month - the original. Fantastic FPS. Still feels inventive even in 2025. But yeah, those water gates were tough. I only discovered by accident the switches because I was shooting my gun off in anger. A lot of quick saves later and I beat it.
Using a guide didn't help because it's a maze with variable heights - not specific levels like in a house, but water tunnels that go slightly up and down, meaning it's not easy to see a 2D map of.
Was well worth getting past though. The game has some exquisite set pieces beyond this. Feels like proper 90s PC gaming.
@Xerox1919
Exactly this. I know some players prefer the cryptic nature of the original, but after playing Redaction, I thought to myself: it should have always been like this. I realise it's not "realistic" to have some peasant villagers know detailed arcane knowledge, but it made searching for them, and talking to them worthwhile, and it meant you could play and finish the entire mystery solely by using the game itself, rather than looking up a FAQ or opening Nintendo Power and having it win the game for you.
I'm not a kid any more, and none of my friends are going to play this, so the old style of sharing playground knowledge is gone. If the game itself doesn't explain stuff, I'm just going to visit GameFAQs on my phone and cheat my way through, which neuters the experience.
In the year 2025, I think we should be allowed to just have the game explain itself to us.
I'd really like to see other fan hack improvements added.
The NES version has hacks which remove invisible holes, and increase hearts collected. Since it gets very grindy.
I also dislike Bisqwit's retranslation. It keeps all the nonsense from the JP original.
Simon's Redaction by The Almight Guru is much, MUCH better. He took the time to rewrite all the clues so each of them was a real clue, and made real sense.
People complain about the original localisation, but the JP original's script was also garbage, with lying NPCs, false clues, and just gibberish. A retranslation fixes nothing. You need a full rewrite, as done by TAG and his Redaction patch.
This is the best retranslation, since dialogue is now actually no longer useless *****:
@The_Nintendo_Pedant 😆 Nice. I love that scene. Fun dialogue, surprisingly good editing of game footage, well integrated, and it foreshadows the narrative arc of the film itself. It was perfect.
@AllieKitsune Exactly! Hence I'm surprised the desire to make it more public now. I had hoped the need to sign up and log in at least deterred casual search engine lawyers et al from finding it. I dunno. Maybe it did nothing at all in the grand scheme of things?
It's not like the IRC days of the original Xbox, where it was a PITA to get any emulators because they were coded using a stolen XDK.
@romanista I do not have Protector. I've got... 13 overlays. Only TdF is misaligned. Most don't have precise alignment boxes, other than Clean Sweep and Starhawk, both of which are fine. What an odd anomaly.
So, so glad this can reach a wider audience, rather than only physical FC / NES owners.
If you decide to take a dip, please be bold and try out the hardcore difficulty mode - "God of Game" - it's honestly not as scary as it sounds! But it adds a lot to each stage, in terms of enemy waves and projectiles. Besides, with a rewind feature it won't be that difficult anyway.
Interestingly... Since this will be emulated, you can disable sprite flickering, but it was coded to avoid this on real hardware. So it was never really an issue (unlike Parodious and other hori-shmups on NES). I'm curious and looking forward to seeing the reception to this within a different market.
@romanista Cool cool. Happy to help a fellow Veccy fan out. Which 3 did you get?
Are you participating in the forum tournament? It runs til Saturday. Still plenty of time to qualify and climb the rankings. Though you'll need a flashcart for all the homebrew.
@romanista Indeed the shipping is high. There's a reseller on UK ebay, who charges £12 per overlay, but every time I buy them I get 4 or 5, so there's a reduction so they work out to £10 each. Which is reasonable enough. I use a Vectmulti cart, so have all the games, and I now have pretty much a complete set of overlays for what I enjoy playing.
Look up "consoleboxes" on ebay. He has all of them. Except... You're based in Holland, so the shipping might again be high? Good luck in the search.
But yeah. I bought a boxed copy of Crush of Lucifer from Kelly in the US, and with shipping to UK the overall price came to £80.
@romanista Sean Kelly has reprinted all the original overlays. You can buy them either individually (about £10 each if you buy multiple), or buy the entire set. I nearly bought the set, but then realised that I don't need the sports overlays etc.
All my overlays are Kelly repros, and they are very high quality. There's a discreet marking stating they are OEM reproductions.
I own a real Vectrex. Plus a modded NeoGeo CD controller for better analogue control. It is a lovely machine. Still going strong despite being literally older than me.
Right now the big Vectrex forum is enjoying Vector Wars XV, a week long tournament. It only accepts real hardware, not emulation, so will be interesting to see how the tournie evolves once this is out.
I'm not an elitist gatekeeper. The Vectrex is a wonderful system, and every year brings dozens of new homebrew games, thanks to a university professor named Peer, who has made Vectrex development part of the games design course. There really are HUNDREDS of homebrew titles out there.
If this can raise more awareness for the system, and increase the number of homebrew projects, I am all for it.
However, I'll continue to enjoy my original.
It's a pity the methods to make new vector CRTs no longer exists. Are there any such factories still around? Doubtful.
@jygsaw
Back in the day I preferred them to Tekken. I didn't like Tekken or Virtua Fighter at all. Very drab, in terms of characters, moves, backgrounds, and actual fighting.
BAT though, incredible! So full of energy! I was stuck with the original Tekken for a month, as the pack in game, hating it, and was so glad to trade it in for BAT.
Would try the sequels as they came out, and every time I found myself left cold by Tekken and VF.
Psychic Force ended up my favourite PS1 fighter, but the BAT trilogy follows close by.
To this day I still feel a bit confused by the love Tekken and VF titles still get, while PF and BAT are forgotten.
I've always preferred the Japanese boxes and the art, and find the US designs garish. The console redesigns too.
The US just seemed to arbitrarily do the exact opposite of Japan for no good reason.
This sentence from the guy is laughable:
"Our role, therefore, lay in the re-interpretation of Japan-originated games and rebuilding that content for American audiences."
They didn't reinterpret anything!
They slashed and burned. They destroyed beautifully creative and iconic artwork, and then just churned out their own junk in place of it.
The smug hubris of this man is off the scale! Unbelievable.
I know lots of people feel a warm happy nostalgia for the NES and SNES packaging, and that's nice. But objectively speaking... I think it's all awful. Really pause to look at it and assume you have never played games.
Look at Zelda.
US box: who knows what it's about. Maybe an edutainment game about the British monarchy? Some coat of arms. Lame!
Japan: guy with a sword! A huge map to explore! The distant horizon and adventure beckoning!
I think this guy has an inflated sense of self. To put it constructively. Classic case of thinking they knew better, throwing everything else out, so as to showcase only their own "superior" ideas.
Nobody will ever convince me the US Zelda box art has any merit whatsoever.
The sad thing is we will never know how the market would have reacted with the original art.
@devil76
There was an interview with the GameCube Star Wars guys. In EGM. Way back when. And they said in this interview: everyone hates escort missions, so we decided to put the escort mission early to get it out of the way.
I read this interview 25 or so years ago. And even at the time I thought: why not just not do it?
Every time I see Pop'n Magic, I think of that Jonathan Ross special, introducing manga and anime to British audiences in the late 1990s. For some reason they edited a fair bit of footage of Pop'n Magic into it, despite it not really having anything to do with the subject matter.
@Blast16 Indeed. I also recall getting to know various shop staff on a first name basis - it was more than just an employee & customer dynamic. And when an exciting new release came out you'd chat about it, because obviously they had first access to it.
The kids today will never be able to understand this.
Feels like a punch in the gut. The past really, really was better. It's not just nostalgia. I don't think any of us realised how good we had it back then.
I was in South Africa at the time, and it's interesting to note how similar the shopping malls looked in 1994, just with a few different names. Someone came up with a template for commerce and exported it globally.
Love the Keikzz brand and entire range of carts. I've never had problems with Krikzz. Build quality is solid. Sturdy. High compatibility.
To the point where I'm more than happy to pay the premium prices. I've seen various carts on places like AliExpress for a fraction of the price, and alongside them complaints on forums about things not working or damaging hardware.
Buy cheap, buy twice.
This GB X7 works great on Analogue Pocket, Super Game Boy, and GameCube GB Player. I can move it between each while retaining all my save data, which is why I never went with a GB core on AP.
@bring_on_branstons I think we chatted in the comments years ago about this topic, but worth repeating. Spot on about the fabricated drama of the dam level. I died once, on my first play through, and then forever after this found it not only easy but really enjoyable.
I don't understand how or why people get stuck on it. There's like what, three branching paths? And only one of them requires taking and doubling back.
There were maps in magazines back in the day.
It's such a short maze anyone with a basic attention span can get through it. And by the end there's always plenty of time left over. The whole urban myth about the dam being impossible for everyone to complete feels like an egregious fabrication.
I used to suck at games when I was a kid. And I did not like difficult games. But this dam level was not one of them.
As for the rest of the game... I really like it, but I can appreciate if others don't.
Does this port include SRAM saving between levels? Failing that I suppose the level select still works...
Anyone else secretly hoping Danielle enters the ring to throw counter claims at Harry, airing his most sordid of secrets, so we have a proper 1980s style WWF wrestlemania grudge match ?
@KGRAMR Carl Forhan is such a nice, friendly, reasonable, well adjusted person, isn't he? I get the feeling you too have enjoyed delightful interactions with this perfectly normal human being?
There is nothing wrong with old monochrome low-res images. They add charm, to be honest.
My imagination is perfectly good at colourising the b&w photo inside my mind.
And everyone is right. It's going to become exponentially more difficult to preserve history, now that AI exists. Even now, researching anything via Google is a nightmare because the algorithm brings up slop or Reddit, rather than actual old information, and the proliferation of AI written text and images makes good sources harder.
I genuinely feel I would not be able to produce The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers if I'd started the project in 2025. The tools available are broken and less functional than they were in 2013.
I had such an awful wretched experience dealing with Songbird once, including being directly threatened by the owner with legal action if I spoke negatively about them in public tha...
Songbird is a lovely company and I will happily buy from them again. So professional. So pleasant.
Look at the photo from 2022. NATO ships training alongside Japanese maritime defence ships.
The flag is still being flown! It's still in use! This is not something anyone should compare to Nazism. Please enjoy some further reading on the topic.
"At present, the flag is flown by the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, and an eight-ray version is flown by the Japan Self-Defense Forces and the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force. The rising sun design is also seen in numerous scenes in daily life in Japan, such as in fishermen's banners hoisted to signify large catches of fish, flags to celebrate childbirth, and in flags for seasonal festivities."
The flag is still being flown, right now, in Japan, as you read this statement.
The rising sun flag with rays is still in use. You can still find it in real life in Japan, unlike the German Nazi flag which is illegal. The Germany government needs to allow special dispensation for films, like Indiana Jones, to be shown in the country if it depicts the flag. Unlike the rising sun flag - ergo the comparison is wrong.
I see absolutely nothing wrong with this flag, it is a part of Japanese cultural heritage which predates WWII.
I do not have first hand knowledge of what executives at Capcom and Nintendo personally think. But given that it is not illegal, my guess - and this is pure assumption on my part - is that removal of the flag is due foreign sensitivity outside Japan, either in neighbouring East Asian countries, or in America which is especially sensitive to such things.
If you notice, one of the big complainants regarding the flag at the Olympics in 2020 was Alexis Dudden, from Connecticut. As far as I'm concerned, I'm filing complaints against the Japanese flag in my mind under tearing down statues and other benign historical artefacts.
Some people might not like the flag and feel triggered, but please, let's stop being inaccurate and saying this is like the Nazi flag, when it 100% is nothing like it.
@BrianJL I bought that Gravis pad. The shell was replicated 1:1 for the Philips CDi controller. So I reskinned my CDi pad, so it looks like a clown now. The CDi pad didn't have numbers or letters, but rather: • •• •+••
When I was a contestant on Games World they had import copies of this from Japan, which is how I discovered it. Loved it.
Square was on fire during the PS1 era. Einhander, Parasite Eve, Xenogears, Tobal series, Ehrgeiz, not even counting its "other" flagship RPG series. (I realise the fighting games were only published by Square, not developed by them, but the sentiment is that the company was publishing so many great games.)
Comments 721
Re: Mighty Final Fight Forever Will Launch Just In Time For Christmas
@KingMike
True. And the old Resi games are also on GOG now. But that actual interview which I'm satirising continues to blow my mind. The execs were approached by GOG and had to be pursuaded people cared about old games. The fact such an attitude exists makes me think every old game release is someone desperately trying to convince one of the higher ups. It gives me constant anxiety.
https://www.timeextension.com/news/2025/10/capcom-almost-didnt-reissue-resident-evil-1-3-on-gog-because-we-already-have-their-hd-remakes
Re: Mighty Final Fight Forever Will Launch Just In Time For Christmas
@SlangWon @Magrane
Capcom is the same company, that when GOG suggested putting older Resident Evil games up for sale, they replied, and I quote:
"Nah, why would you want to sell old games? People buy old games? No one is interested in old games, there's remakes of the Resi games which is obviously the best versions now because it's new, so we deleted the archives of all that old *****, because ***** old ***** man, we only care about the bestest and latestest versions, man, stop being silly and talking about old stuff, it's so old, we're all about the NEW games! Now, if you'll excuse me GOG, I appear to have fouled myself and need to change again."
~ an actual Capcom Executive
EDIT: I might be paraphrasing just a little
Re: Random: Remember When Games Came With Instructions? This Guy Does, And He Wants To Find The Heaviest PS1 Manual
I miss the old days. Lavish colour manuals. Obi strips / spine cards. Paper maps. Cloth maps. Sealed tips leaflets. Art books. Bonus music CDs. Flexible vinyl records. Company catalogues. Making of discs. Weird and wonderful omake and "feelies" as they were called.
We have lost so much.
Re: Best Xbox 360 Games Of All Time
@PKDuckman
I see! Honestly, don't worry about the reports. Hunting them down is tedious. If all enemies die the mission ends, so you need to keep one alive until you've found it. If you're unlucky the lone survivor will be holding it, forcing a restart. And your reward at the end is just some challenge missions in a generic square room - not very interesting. Just play the main campaign and savour it. The last few missions are difficult, but not insurmountable. Make sure you've attached the skill which auto-uses healing items when knocked out. That's going to be doing a lot of heavy lifting. Good hunting!
Re: Best Xbox 360 Games Of All Time
@PKDuckman
Exactly! I remember watching YT videos, and thinking: this looks really fun. Good music, nice art style, cool vamps vs werewolf story, complex systems, large battlefields, funny things like werewolves punching tanks to death. And then the YT commentary was all "this totally suuuuucks!!"
And there was this weird disconnect for me. Like, it can't be THAT bad based on what I'm seeing. So I had to import a US system immediately with copy of the game.
A lot of complaints about the camera, but I found it was mitigated by using L&R to quickly swap between targets, which is such a great QOL feature.
I can understand if its average score was in the low 70% range, given that tactics games are an acquired taste. But the overwhelming hatred it got... I wonder if it's because the X360 target demographic at that time just wasn't into that kind of game, and maybe it would have done better on PS3?
I did an exhaustive write up on HG101, including an interview taken from the strategy guide, and then years later had a surprise interview of my own with its creator in Japan. It really didn't sell well, and he was kinda surprised at my interest. I have no shame in geeking out about how much I liked it. He needed to know!
The only complaint I personally have, is that the special reports you can find on random enemies is tedious. You need them all to unlock the Eagle Has Landed dungeon campaign. The string of battles are themselves quite dull, being devoid of story, and it's so easy to miss the special report during the story campaign. There's a bunch of them, and you need to search every corpse, hoping it's not being held by the last surviving enemy.
But I really enjoyed the guerilla warfare aspect of sending your team in without gear, so they were light and had earlier turns, then scavenging weapons from the enemy.
Did you finish it? Did you collect all the special reports?
Re: Best Xbox 360 Games Of All Time
@Babybahamut
I literally bought a X360 to play Operation Darkness. Loved that game so much. Unavailable anywhere else. Lost Odyssey is another good exclusive. Import Tuner Challenge. Naruto: RoaN (I think?). The Outfit. Project Sylpheed is incredible - INCREDIBLE. WarTech, or was that ported? Culdcept Saga - it was released all over, but X360 is the best in English.
There's also a bunch of good games which were on PC and the only console port was X360. Depending on your criteria for exclusivity.
Op Darkness and Sylpheed are my two recommendations.
Re: Review: Analogue 3D - The Ultimate Way To Play Nintendo 64?
@gingerbeardman
LGR does a lot of heavy comparisons. I think... He compares several alternative options with side by side footage.
Re: Review: Analogue 3D - The Ultimate Way To Play Nintendo 64?
Were you able to test any weird controllers or peripherals?
Tetris Bio Sensor
Pikachu voice unit
Densha train controller?
Re: "I Probably Wouldn't Do That Again" - Outlaws Level Designer Shares The Story Behind Its Most Infamous Level
@MysticWangForce Civvie reference?
Re: "I Probably Wouldn't Do That Again" - Outlaws Level Designer Shares The Story Behind Its Most Infamous Level
I finished this last month - the original. Fantastic FPS. Still feels inventive even in 2025. But yeah, those water gates were tough. I only discovered by accident the switches because I was shooting my gun off in anger. A lot of quick saves later and I beat it.
Using a guide didn't help because it's a maze with variable heights - not specific levels like in a house, but water tunnels that go slightly up and down, meaning it's not easy to see a 2D map of.
Was well worth getting past though. The game has some exquisite set pieces beyond this. Feels like proper 90s PC gaming.
Re: The Best Version Of Castlevania II Is Being Ported To The SNES
@Xerox1919
Exactly this. I know some players prefer the cryptic nature of the original, but after playing Redaction, I thought to myself: it should have always been like this. I realise it's not "realistic" to have some peasant villagers know detailed arcane knowledge, but it made searching for them, and talking to them worthwhile, and it meant you could play and finish the entire mystery solely by using the game itself, rather than looking up a FAQ or opening Nintendo Power and having it win the game for you.
I'm not a kid any more, and none of my friends are going to play this, so the old style of sharing playground knowledge is gone. If the game itself doesn't explain stuff, I'm just going to visit GameFAQs on my phone and cheat my way through, which neuters the experience.
In the year 2025, I think we should be allowed to just have the game explain itself to us.
Re: The Best Version Of Castlevania II Is Being Ported To The SNES
I'd really like to see other fan hack improvements added.
The NES version has hacks which remove invisible holes, and increase hearts collected. Since it gets very grindy.
I also dislike Bisqwit's retranslation. It keeps all the nonsense from the JP original.
Simon's Redaction by The Almight Guru is much, MUCH better. He took the time to rewrite all the clues so each of them was a real clue, and made real sense.
People complain about the original localisation, but the JP original's script was also garbage, with lying NPCs, false clues, and just gibberish. A retranslation fixes nothing. You need a full rewrite, as done by TAG and his Redaction patch.
This is the best retranslation, since dialogue is now actually no longer useless *****:
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/868/
Re: We Took Part In Vector War XV, The Vectrex Community's Version Of Bloodsport
@The_Nintendo_Pedant
😆 Nice. I love that scene. Fun dialogue, surprisingly good editing of game footage, well integrated, and it foreshadows the narrative arc of the film itself. It was perfect.
Re: "Is Coming Back A Mistake? I Don't Know" - Fan-Translation And ROM Hack Site CDRomance Gets Rebooted
@AllieKitsune
Exactly! Hence I'm surprised the desire to make it more public now. I had hoped the need to sign up and log in at least deterred casual search engine lawyers et al from finding it. I dunno. Maybe it did nothing at all in the grand scheme of things?
It's not like the IRC days of the original Xbox, where it was a PITA to get any emulators because they were coded using a stolen XDK.
Re: "Is Coming Back A Mistake? I Don't Know" - Fan-Translation And ROM Hack Site CDRomance Gets Rebooted
It was never dead - you just needed a secret account to access the updates.
I prefer it that way.
Let the surface level normies think it's gone, while the cognoscenti among us can seek it out.
Re: The Vectrex Mini Kickstarter Is Now Live
@romanista
I do not have Protector. I've got... 13 overlays. Only TdF is misaligned. Most don't have precise alignment boxes, other than Clean Sweep and Starhawk, both of which are fine. What an odd anomaly.
Re: The Vectrex Mini Kickstarter Is Now Live
@romanista
Yeah, I picked up TdF recently too. It's one of the prettier overlays, even though the game is quite frustrating.
I find the white square does not quite line up with the gearbox though. Is that the same for you (when it arrives)?
My favourite overlay is Narzod. It's just a shade of green / blue, but it works for multiple games.
Starhawk's overlay is good but the game...
Armor Attack is another special one given the broken buildings. But you can't really use it with anything else.
Now... If only I could find cheap reproductions of the Intellivision overlays!
Re: One Of Last Year's Most Impressive NES / Famicom Games Is Coming To Steam & Consoles
This is a nice surprise to see!
So, so glad this can reach a wider audience, rather than only physical FC / NES owners.
If you decide to take a dip, please be bold and try out the hardcore difficulty mode - "God of Game" - it's honestly not as scary as it sounds! But it adds a lot to each stage, in terms of enemy waves and projectiles. Besides, with a rewind feature it won't be that difficult anyway.
Interestingly... Since this will be emulated, you can disable sprite flickering, but it was coded to avoid this on real hardware. So it was never really an issue (unlike Parodious and other hori-shmups on NES). I'm curious and looking forward to seeing the reception to this within a different market.
Re: The Vectrex Mini Kickstarter Is Now Live
@romanista
Cool cool. Happy to help a fellow Veccy fan out. Which 3 did you get?
Are you participating in the forum tournament? It runs til Saturday. Still plenty of time to qualify and climb the rankings. Though you'll need a flashcart for all the homebrew.
https://vectorgaming.proboards.com/thread/2772/vectrex-tournament-vector-war-2025?page=1
Re: The Vectrex Mini Kickstarter Is Now Live
@romanista
Indeed the shipping is high. There's a reseller on UK ebay, who charges £12 per overlay, but every time I buy them I get 4 or 5, so there's a reduction so they work out to £10 each. Which is reasonable enough. I use a Vectmulti cart, so have all the games, and I now have pretty much a complete set of overlays for what I enjoy playing.
Look up "consoleboxes" on ebay. He has all of them. Except... You're based in Holland, so the shipping might again be high? Good luck in the search.
But yeah. I bought a boxed copy of Crush of Lucifer from Kelly in the US, and with shipping to UK the overall price came to £80.
Re: The Vectrex Mini Kickstarter Is Now Live
@romanista
Sean Kelly has reprinted all the original overlays. You can buy them either individually (about £10 each if you buy multiple), or buy the entire set. I nearly bought the set, but then realised that I don't need the sports overlays etc.
All my overlays are Kelly repros, and they are very high quality. There's a discreet marking stating they are OEM reproductions.
Re: The Vectrex Mini Kickstarter Is Now Live
I own a real Vectrex. Plus a modded NeoGeo CD controller for better analogue control. It is a lovely machine. Still going strong despite being literally older than me.
Right now the big Vectrex forum is enjoying Vector Wars XV, a week long tournament. It only accepts real hardware, not emulation, so will be interesting to see how the tournie evolves once this is out.
I'm not an elitist gatekeeper. The Vectrex is a wonderful system, and every year brings dozens of new homebrew games, thanks to a university professor named Peer, who has made Vectrex development part of the games design course. There really are HUNDREDS of homebrew titles out there.
If this can raise more awareness for the system, and increase the number of homebrew projects, I am all for it.
However, I'll continue to enjoy my original.
It's a pity the methods to make new vector CRTs no longer exists. Are there any such factories still around? Doubtful.
Re: James Pond Is Getting His Own Collection On PC, PS5, Xbox And Switch 2
What about the unreleased NES port of 2?
Review copies were sent out, but it's never been dumped.
Re: The Battle Arena Toshinden Trilogy Is Coming To Modern Platforms
@jygsaw
Back in the day I preferred them to Tekken. I didn't like Tekken or Virtua Fighter at all. Very drab, in terms of characters, moves, backgrounds, and actual fighting.
BAT though, incredible! So full of energy! I was stuck with the original Tekken for a month, as the pack in game, hating it, and was so glad to trade it in for BAT.
Would try the sequels as they came out, and every time I found myself left cold by Tekken and VF.
Psychic Force ended up my favourite PS1 fighter, but the BAT trilogy follows close by.
To this day I still feel a bit confused by the love Tekken and VF titles still get, while PF and BAT are forgotten.
This BAT trilogy sounds a treat!
Re: It Looks Like That Bizarre Scarface PC Reissue Was Too Good To Be True, After All
@devil76
The impression from the EGM interview was "we have to have an escort mission"
Like, he felt obligated?
Re: Feature: "This Is Where The Game Truly Begins" - The Secret Weapon Behind Nintendo's Most Iconic Box Art
I agree with @bring_on_branstons
I've always preferred the Japanese boxes and the art, and find the US designs garish. The console redesigns too.
The US just seemed to arbitrarily do the exact opposite of Japan for no good reason.
This sentence from the guy is laughable:
"Our role, therefore, lay in the re-interpretation of Japan-originated games and rebuilding that content for American audiences."
They didn't reinterpret anything!
They slashed and burned. They destroyed beautifully creative and iconic artwork, and then just churned out their own junk in place of it.
The smug hubris of this man is off the scale! Unbelievable.
I know lots of people feel a warm happy nostalgia for the NES and SNES packaging, and that's nice. But objectively speaking... I think it's all awful. Really pause to look at it and assume you have never played games.
Look at Zelda.
US box: who knows what it's about. Maybe an edutainment game about the British monarchy? Some coat of arms. Lame!
Japan: guy with a sword! A huge map to explore! The distant horizon and adventure beckoning!
I think this guy has an inflated sense of self. To put it constructively. Classic case of thinking they knew better, throwing everything else out, so as to showcase only their own "superior" ideas.
Nobody will ever convince me the US Zelda box art has any merit whatsoever.
The sad thing is we will never know how the market would have reacted with the original art.
Re: It Looks Like That Bizarre Scarface PC Reissue Was Too Good To Be True, After All
@devil76
There was an interview with the GameCube Star Wars guys. In EGM. Way back when. And they said in this interview: everyone hates escort missions, so we decided to put the escort mission early to get it out of the way.
I read this interview 25 or so years ago. And even at the time I thought: why not just not do it?
Re: It Looks Like That Bizarre Scarface PC Reissue Was Too Good To Be True, After All
About 5 years ago I downloaded a fan-made package containing the PC version with numerous bugfixes and QOL improvements for modern hardware.
I very quickly realised the game relied on randomly generated escort missions.
You'd need to do these little missions, which the game would generate: take person X to place Y, etc.
In every instance the person to be escorted would start opening fire on police, resulting in a maximum wanted rating, and quick game over.
It was relentlessly difficult. Like doing self dentistry.
I deleted with extreme prejudice.
Any game which so feverishly relies on badly design escort missions is in fact trash. And can stay forgotten.
Insufferable.
I actually can't understand why a particular era of games was obsessed with adding escort missions to everything. They are universally awful.
Re: Six PC Engine Games From Telenet Japan Are Being Reissued On Nintendo Switch Early Next Year
@KingMike
It was def Pop'n Magic, since I recall the big smiling tree. Also tell a lie, not the late 90s, the mid 90s! Found it on YT:
https://youtu.be/NM77Rrnu1Wc?si=_I8_j5TVTYH59ObE
I've not seen this in 30 years. I make no apologies for the duration of PnM. Lol.
But I have vivid memories of wanting to know what the game was but not having internet access. I only discovered it many years later.
I played Magical Pop'n at a concention once. 15 years ago. Guy was saying how expensive it was. Comparitively it was much cheaper then!
Re: Six PC Engine Games From Telenet Japan Are Being Reissued On Nintendo Switch Early Next Year
Every time I see Pop'n Magic, I think of that Jonathan Ross special, introducing manga and anime to British audiences in the late 1990s. For some reason they edited a fair bit of footage of Pop'n Magic into it, despite it not really having anything to do with the subject matter.
Re: "Not A Funko Pop In Sight" - Step Back In Time With This Amazing '90s Electronics Boutique Footage
@Deuteros
A fellow Game Zone collector? I have every issue, bar two. How's your set look?
Re: "Not A Funko Pop In Sight" - Step Back In Time With This Amazing '90s Electronics Boutique Footage
@Blast16
Indeed. I also recall getting to know various shop staff on a first name basis - it was more than just an employee & customer dynamic. And when an exciting new release came out you'd chat about it, because obviously they had first access to it.
The kids today will never be able to understand this.
Re: "Not A Funko Pop In Sight" - Step Back In Time With This Amazing '90s Electronics Boutique Footage
Feels like a punch in the gut. The past really, really was better. It's not just nostalgia. I don't think any of us realised how good we had it back then.
I was in South Africa at the time, and it's interesting to note how similar the shopping malls looked in 1994, just with a few different names. Someone came up with a template for commerce and exported it globally.
Re: McDonald's Japan Launches Special Street Fighter-Related Burgers
@Brilliant_Bird_Man
You must defeat Sheng Ronald to stand a chance!
Re: Capcom Almost Didn't Reissue Resident Evil 1-3 On GOG Because We Already Have Their HD Remakes
"Munee? What is this so-called mah-knee you keep talking of, and why do we want it?"
= a Capcom executive, allegedly
Re: McDonald's Japan Launches Special Street Fighter-Related Burgers
Am I the only one secretly hoping for a SFII rom hack that makes this real and playable?
Every character with Maccy D related special moves and sprites?
Re: Review: EverDrive GB X7 - The Best Game Boy Flash Cart, Now With Save State Support
Love the Keikzz brand and entire range of carts. I've never had problems with Krikzz. Build quality is solid. Sturdy. High compatibility.
To the point where I'm more than happy to pay the premium prices. I've seen various carts on places like AliExpress for a fraction of the price, and alongside them complaints on forums about things not working or damaging hardware.
Buy cheap, buy twice.
This GB X7 works great on Analogue Pocket, Super Game Boy, and GameCube GB Player. I can move it between each while retaining all my save data, which is why I never went with a GB core on AP.
Re: "We Are A Community Geared Toward Authentic Creativity" - OC ReMix Makes Its Position On GenAI Music Clear
@hisownsidekick
"Imagine 'culinary arsenic' getting popular enough that a bakery felt the need to assure us it doesn't use any."
I love this analogy so much.
Welcome to 2025!
Re: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Is The Next NES Classic To Get A Native SNES Port
@bring_on_branstons
I think we chatted in the comments years ago about this topic, but worth repeating. Spot on about the fabricated drama of the dam level. I died once, on my first play through, and then forever after this found it not only easy but really enjoyable.
I don't understand how or why people get stuck on it. There's like what, three branching paths? And only one of them requires taking and doubling back.
There were maps in magazines back in the day.
It's such a short maze anyone with a basic attention span can get through it. And by the end there's always plenty of time left over. The whole urban myth about the dam being impossible for everyone to complete feels like an egregious fabrication.
I used to suck at games when I was a kid. And I did not like difficult games. But this dam level was not one of them.
As for the rest of the game... I really like it, but I can appreciate if others don't.
Does this port include SRAM saving between levels? Failing that I suppose the level select still works...
Re: Random: "F**K YOU, DANIELLE!" - NSFW Fighting Game Variable Geo's English Translation Has Equally NSFW Patch Notes
Anyone else secretly hoping Danielle enters the ring to throw counter claims at Harry, airing his most sordid of secrets, so we have a proper 1980s style WWF wrestlemania grudge match ?
Bring the HEAT!
Re: Random: "F**K YOU, DANIELLE!" - NSFW Fighting Game Variable Geo's English Translation Has Equally NSFW Patch Notes
"a second patch is included here that removes the adult content so you can focus on the gameplay"
Is there a third patch that instead removes the gameplay? Asking for a friend...
Re: The Atari Jaguar Is Set To Get A New 3D, Multi-Directional Shoot 'Em Up & A New Virtua Cop-Style Shooter Next Year
@KGRAMR Carl Forhan is such a nice, friendly, reasonable, well adjusted person, isn't he? I get the feeling you too have enjoyed delightful interactions with this perfectly normal human being?
Re: "You Are Vandalising Your Own History" - Taito Caught Using AI To "Undermine" Its Gaming Past
I feel a bit sick to be honest.
There is nothing wrong with old monochrome low-res images. They add charm, to be honest.
My imagination is perfectly good at colourising the b&w photo inside my mind.
And everyone is right. It's going to become exponentially more difficult to preserve history, now that AI exists. Even now, researching anything via Google is a nightmare because the algorithm brings up slop or Reddit, rather than actual old information, and the proliferation of AI written text and images makes good sources harder.
I genuinely feel I would not be able to produce The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers if I'd started the project in 2025. The tools available are broken and less functional than they were in 2013.
We have regressed as a species.
Re: The Atari Jaguar Is Set To Get A New 3D, Multi-Directional Shoot 'Em Up & A New Virtua Cop-Style Shooter Next Year
I had such an awful wretched experience dealing with Songbird once, including being directly threatened by the owner with legal action if I spoke negatively about them in public tha...
Songbird is a lovely company and I will happily buy from them again. So professional. So pleasant.
Re: Ghost In The Shell On PS1 Happened Because Masamune Shirow Loved Jumping Flash
One of the absolute best games on the PS1, Ghost in the Shell.
Regret selling my copy for peanuts.
The ability to walk on any surface is still mindblowing.
Re: "Nintendo Has Made Serious Objections" - Last Ninja Collection Delayed On Consoles
Just to double down on this.
The flag is NOT like the Nazi flag!
https://www.pacom.mil/Media/News/News-Article-View/Article/3058491/nato-ships-train-with-japan-maritime-self-defense-force-in-mediterranean-sea/
Look at the photo from 2022. NATO ships training alongside Japanese maritime defence ships.
The flag is still being flown! It's still in use! This is not something anyone should compare to Nazism. Please enjoy some further reading on the topic.
@Zach
@jfp
@JohnnyMind
@RupeeClock
@Exerion76
@Damo
Direct image hotlink:
https://media.defense.gov/2022/Jun/09/2003014981/600/400/0/220606-O-ZZ099-0101.JPG
Re: "Nintendo Has Made Serious Objections" - Last Ninja Collection Delayed On Consoles
It is not remotely like the Nazi flag - everyone saying this is putting my teeth on edge due to the sheer wrongness of such statements.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rising_Sun_Flag
"At present, the flag is flown by the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, and an eight-ray version is flown by the Japan Self-Defense Forces and the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force. The rising sun design is also seen in numerous scenes in daily life in Japan, such as in fishermen's banners hoisted to signify large catches of fish, flags to celebrate childbirth, and in flags for seasonal festivities."
The flag is still being flown, right now, in Japan, as you read this statement.
The rising sun flag with rays is still in use. You can still find it in real life in Japan, unlike the German Nazi flag which is illegal. The Germany government needs to allow special dispensation for films, like Indiana Jones, to be shown in the country if it depicts the flag. Unlike the rising sun flag - ergo the comparison is wrong.
I see absolutely nothing wrong with this flag, it is a part of Japanese cultural heritage which predates WWII.
I do not have first hand knowledge of what executives at Capcom and Nintendo personally think. But given that it is not illegal, my guess - and this is pure assumption on my part - is that removal of the flag is due foreign sensitivity outside Japan, either in neighbouring East Asian countries, or in America which is especially sensitive to such things.
If you notice, one of the big complainants regarding the flag at the Olympics in 2020 was Alexis Dudden, from Connecticut. As far as I'm concerned, I'm filing complaints against the Japanese flag in my mind under tearing down statues and other benign historical artefacts.
Some people might not like the flag and feel triggered, but please, let's stop being inaccurate and saying this is like the Nazi flag, when it 100% is nothing like it.
Re: Here's Why Controllers Have 'A, B, X & Y' Buttons, And Not 'A, B, C & D'
@BrianJL
I bought that Gravis pad. The shell was replicated 1:1 for the Philips CDi controller. So I reskinned my CDi pad, so it looks like a clown now. The CDi pad didn't have numbers or letters, but rather:
•
••
•+••
Re: Remember Square's Einhänder? The Developer Behind Metal Crisis Certainly Does
When I was a contestant on Games World they had import copies of this from Japan, which is how I discovered it. Loved it.
Square was on fire during the PS1 era. Einhander, Parasite Eve, Xenogears, Tobal series, Ehrgeiz, not even counting its "other" flagship RPG series. (I realise the fighting games were only published by Square, not developed by them, but the sentiment is that the company was publishing so many great games.)
Re: You Can Now Grab Two Of The Best Castlevania Games For Less Than $5 On PS4/PS5
Nonuple dip? Why not!