I don't understand how someone with a portfolio of excellent games can struggle so desperately to find work. Did he anger the wrong person? What has led to his downfall?
He's responsible for Silverload, the Wild West / vampires / werewolves themed point and click for DOS and PS1.
It had some flaws inherent to point n clicks, but otherwise was one of the most original and enjoyable examples in genre! Fantastic presentation too.
@RetroGames Same. I saw the title, with the overlaid sprites to give the impression of more colours (quite clever), and thought: this is almost maybe PCE quality? It was fleeting, but this homebrew definitely pulls a few tricks to punch above its weight.
When the enemies (top of screen) which drop projectiles turn up, just let them. You'll see cascading projectiles falling down with scarcely any flicker. It's quite a sight.
Someone mentioned Crisis Force - I thought the same. That's usually the game I reference as the pinnacle of FC commercial game graphics.
They've announced it now, so we'll see if any publishers take an interest.
Loved my 3DO. It had a fascinating selection of exclusives, especially Japanese imports like Doctor Hauzer (inspired Mikami for Resident Evil), Taiketsu! Rumizu (awful Bomberman clone), a chef-themed RPG (Grand Chef), and an Egyptian pyramid alien dungeon crawler (Seal of the Pharaoh, which I've checked, apparently got a USA release). I also liked the Demolition Man game, even though it's not great.
Thing is this was coming to the machine years after release when everything was still cheap. Today prices for the console are up again.
Has anyone else experienced this strange anomaly?
My FZ-10 R·E·A·L 3DO model could not play the in-game music in Road Rash. It would say "insufficient RAM" when trying to turn music on. It played in the cinemas, but not in-game.
I could never work out if this was my system being faulty, or just a glitch in the game.
This is actually one of the best Dungeon Master games. The fluid 3D movement is wonderful and makes it easier to orient yourself, cognitively, in the overall environment. It's so good I forced myself through the early sections despite the vertical cliff that was the language barrier. I urge anyone who enjoys the Saturn to give a go.
I loved TMNT III on NES. It shaped my taste in the scrolling brawler genre.
Controversial POV: TMNT III on NES is better than Turtles in Time / Hyperstone Heist on SNES / MD.
Firstly, you can swap turtles after dying and continuing - unless I didn't know how to do it right, I was stuck with the same turtle throughout the 16-bit outing. Each turtle has unique attacks, so this was annoying.
There's more variety, in terms of regular enemies. I actually checked the spriterip database. There's a huge variety in TMNT. There's also greater level variety compared to the MD game (which if I recall, only had like 5 levels?).
There's more vertical scrolling. I found this really weird actually - the SNES/MD games just scroll horizontally, with one level on an elevator that goes vertically.
TMNT III is swapping between vert and hori all the time!
The NES game lacks the Mode 7 gimmicks of the SNES game, but I found that the core game underneath was more fun and provided me with more.
I only really put serious time into the 16-bit outings a few years ago. And I was kinda shocked at how lacking they were compared to TMNT III.
@AJB83 Oh wow, I've just looked up a longplay. This looks like a high-speed high-action arena FPS and it looks fantastic. Thanks for the rec - I'll be adding it to my RHEA. As a fan of all the unsung Japanese FPS, I need to play this! O_O
The interesting thing about the Gundam games (mecha games in general) is they provide solid examples of Japan making good FPS.
Troy on X360 has been fan-translated into English (RHDN has it). If you've imported a copy and installed it to a modded 360, you just need to patch and overwrite a few files. Easy via USB.
These add saving, maps, change the way energy refills work, correct the RNG problems, plus a myriad of other things.
I've been using the "Metroid + Saving" hack, which adds three save files to the NES game, plus an assembly coded map via pause and a minimap in the corner. It brings it in line with Super Metroid. A map fellow enthusiasts - A MAP FOR THE NES GAME!
Also there are hacks to make Samus look Super Metroid Samus, and another which has you start the game with full energy, instead of the default which is almost no energy.
Not all of these hacks will be to everyone's taste, but for goodness sake, he should at least add the save file option and the minimap! Do you really want to play it on SNES with passwords when you could just play the NES original hacked to have save files?
I'll be honest, I am really starting to dislike Infidenlity's ports. What even is the point of these things?
They are bare bones, contain no extra features, and are inferior to playing the original game with hacks on an actual NES. His Zelda port didn't bother to add the auto-map which already exists, nor did it improve inventory selection. It is less than worthless when compared to an improved version running on the NES. Maybe you don't want an auto-map in Zelda, but at least he could have improved the controls so that L+R cycle your items? He did nothing - literally NOTHING - to improve the base game. It's complete madness.
The worst thing is: by creating these crappy, slapdash ports, he discourages others from doing so. Someone who was maybe considering making a premium port of Zelda or Metroid to the SNES, with bells and whistles and cool extra features, will now think: "Eh, someone already did a port, why bother?"
Maybe some players want a pure and authentic experience? Well then the bells and whistles should be togglable in a menu.
I'm going to raise my hand and say: RESIDENT EVIL GAIDEN might be my favourite GBC game. More so than MGS.
I put off playing it due to bad reviews, but when I finally did, I realised: this was absolutely my sort of game.
Tough survival horror. Limited ammo. Top down perspective with persistent free roam environment (like MG). Tense combat system. Good flow in terms of objectives, player characters, and bosses. Gorgeous pixel art and animation. Decent story (Barry!). Nice music.
Magazines back in the day complained you could only save at checkpoints, losing progress if you turned off mid-game. Which is untrue. There are checkpoint saves, but the game also constantly auto-saves allow you to turnnoff and resume as you please.
I've completed it three times I love it so much. Please try it if you can.
EDIT:
Random trivia: only get the EU edition of MGS. The US version uses a smaller ROM to cut costs, and thus has cut content only found in the JP and EU versions!
@GhaleonUnlimited Considering PM sells for £600 a piece now, I'm wondering why no one's looked into Limited Run or elsewhere relicensing it to manufacture new copies. It's worked for plenty of other old cartridge games - and CDs are easier and cheaper to manufacture.
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.
Comments 425
Re: Ex-Sony Creative Director Is Selling The BAFTA He Won For MediEvil 2
I don't understand how someone with a portfolio of excellent games can struggle so desperately to find work. Did he anger the wrong person? What has led to his downfall?
He's responsible for Silverload, the Wild West / vampires / werewolves themed point and click for DOS and PS1.
It had some flaws inherent to point n clicks, but otherwise was one of the most original and enjoyable examples in genre! Fantastic presentation too.
Re: The Making Of: Mario Artist: Paint Studio, The Japan-Exclusive Mario Paint Successor
I wonder who this NOA employee was, with the vendetta?
Re: The Making Of: Gunstar Heroes, Treasure's Mega Drive Masterpiece
The game is truly a masterpiece.
I'd also like to remind everyone EDGE gave it a 6/10 score. From that specific moment I knew EDGE was an absolute trash magazine.
Re: Zanac, Aleste And Gunhed Devs Join Forces For NES Shmup 'Chouyoku Senki Estique'
@RetroGames Same. I saw the title, with the overlaid sprites to give the impression of more colours (quite clever), and thought: this is almost maybe PCE quality? It was fleeting, but this homebrew definitely pulls a few tricks to punch above its weight.
When the enemies (top of screen) which drop projectiles turn up, just let them. You'll see cascading projectiles falling down with scarcely any flicker. It's quite a sight.
Someone mentioned Crisis Force - I thought the same. That's usually the game I reference as the pinnacle of FC commercial game graphics.
They've announced it now, so we'll see if any publishers take an interest.
Re: New Video Takes A Closer Look At The Internet's "First Emulation Streaming Series"
Watching that video - the nostalgia hit is strong and potent. Almost overwhelming. Wowsers.
I lived all of that. Checked Zophar often. What a time to have been alive.
Re: 27 Years Later, PlayStation Cult Classic 'Krazy Ivan' Is Getting A Soundtrack Release
That draw distance. It's about 2 metres.
Compare that to Doom which had zero pop in.
Yeah, this game sucked.
Re: A Fanmade SNES Port Of Metroid Is Now Available In Beta Form
@KingMike The extra work has already been done.
Someone else has already implemented the map in the NES version through assembly coding.
He could just port that version.
I mean, if he's going to port a NES game, he might as well port the best version.
Re: Best 3DO Games Of All Time
Loved my 3DO. It had a fascinating selection of exclusives, especially Japanese imports like Doctor Hauzer (inspired Mikami for Resident Evil), Taiketsu! Rumizu (awful Bomberman clone), a chef-themed RPG (Grand Chef), and an Egyptian pyramid alien dungeon crawler (Seal of the Pharaoh, which I've checked, apparently got a USA release). I also liked the Demolition Man game, even though it's not great.
Thing is this was coming to the machine years after release when everything was still cheap. Today prices for the console are up again.
Has anyone else experienced this strange anomaly?
My FZ-10 R·E·A·L 3DO model could not play the in-game music in Road Rash. It would say "insufficient RAM" when trying to turn music on. It played in the cinemas, but not in-game.
I could never work out if this was my system being faulty, or just a glitch in the game.
I have never seen it mentioned anywhere online.
Re: 25 Years Later, Dungeon Master Nexus Is Finally Playable In English
This is actually one of the best Dungeon Master games. The fluid 3D movement is wonderful and makes it easier to orient yourself, cognitively, in the overall environment. It's so good I forced myself through the early sections despite the vertical cliff that was the language barrier. I urge anyone who enjoys the Saturn to give a go.
Re: Best NES Games Of All Time
I loved TMNT III on NES. It shaped my taste in the scrolling brawler genre.
Controversial POV: TMNT III on NES is better than Turtles in Time / Hyperstone Heist on SNES / MD.
Firstly, you can swap turtles after dying and continuing - unless I didn't know how to do it right, I was stuck with the same turtle throughout the 16-bit outing. Each turtle has unique attacks, so this was annoying.
There's more variety, in terms of regular enemies. I actually checked the spriterip database. There's a huge variety in TMNT. There's also greater level variety compared to the MD game (which if I recall, only had like 5 levels?).
There's more vertical scrolling. I found this really weird actually - the SNES/MD games just scroll horizontally, with one level on an elevator that goes vertically.
TMNT III is swapping between vert and hori all the time!
The NES game lacks the Mode 7 gimmicks of the SNES game, but I found that the core game underneath was more fun and provided me with more.
I only really put serious time into the 16-bit outings a few years ago. And I was kinda shocked at how lacking they were compared to TMNT III.
Re: Best Gundam Games Of All Time
@AJB83 Oh wow, I've just looked up a longplay. This looks like a high-speed high-action arena FPS and it looks fantastic. Thanks for the rec - I'll be adding it to my RHEA. As a fan of all the unsung Japanese FPS, I need to play this! O_O
Re: Best Gundam Games Of All Time
The interesting thing about the Gundam games (mecha games in general) is they provide solid examples of Japan making good FPS.
Troy on X360 has been fan-translated into English (RHDN has it). If you've imported a copy and installed it to a modded 360, you just need to patch and overwrite a few files. Easy via USB.
Re: Metroid Is The Next NES Game Getting A Fanmade SNES Port
Direct link to the map and save hack (the only way to play Metroid now):
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/1186/
Updated version of the map hack which makes the game a tiny bit easier, might not be to everyone's taste:
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/4471/
Re: Metroid Is The Next NES Game Getting A Fanmade SNES Port
Forget the FDS version, there are 56 quality of life hacks for the original NES game on ROMhacking.net:
https://www.romhacking.net/?page=hacks&game=805
These add saving, maps, change the way energy refills work, correct the RNG problems, plus a myriad of other things.
I've been using the "Metroid + Saving" hack, which adds three save files to the NES game, plus an assembly coded map via pause and a minimap in the corner. It brings it in line with Super Metroid. A map fellow enthusiasts - A MAP FOR THE NES GAME!
Also there are hacks to make Samus look Super Metroid Samus, and another which has you start the game with full energy, instead of the default which is almost no energy.
Not all of these hacks will be to everyone's taste, but for goodness sake, he should at least add the save file option and the minimap! Do you really want to play it on SNES with passwords when you could just play the NES original hacked to have save files?
I'll be honest, I am really starting to dislike Infidenlity's ports. What even is the point of these things?
They are bare bones, contain no extra features, and are inferior to playing the original game with hacks on an actual NES. His Zelda port didn't bother to add the auto-map which already exists, nor did it improve inventory selection. It is less than worthless when compared to an improved version running on the NES. Maybe you don't want an auto-map in Zelda, but at least he could have improved the controls so that L+R cycle your items? He did nothing - literally NOTHING - to improve the base game. It's complete madness.
The worst thing is: by creating these crappy, slapdash ports, he discourages others from doing so. Someone who was maybe considering making a premium port of Zelda or Metroid to the SNES, with bells and whistles and cool extra features, will now think: "Eh, someone already did a port, why bother?"
Maybe some players want a pure and authentic experience? Well then the bells and whistles should be togglable in a menu.
Re: Best Game Boy Color Games Of All Time
I'm going to raise my hand and say: RESIDENT EVIL GAIDEN might be my favourite GBC game. More so than MGS.
I put off playing it due to bad reviews, but when I finally did, I realised: this was absolutely my sort of game.
Tough survival horror. Limited ammo. Top down perspective with persistent free roam environment (like MG). Tense combat system. Good flow in terms of objectives, player characters, and bosses. Gorgeous pixel art and animation. Decent story (Barry!). Nice music.
Magazines back in the day complained you could only save at checkpoints, losing progress if you turned off mid-game. Which is untrue. There are checkpoint saves, but the game also constantly auto-saves allow you to turnnoff and resume as you please.
I've completed it three times I love it so much. Please try it if you can.
EDIT:
Random trivia: only get the EU edition of MGS. The US version uses a smaller ROM to cut costs, and thus has cut content only found in the JP and EU versions!
Re: 'Curious Video Game Machines' Shines A Light On The Most Obscure Hardware Of All Time
Pre-ordered. Does it feature the Taiwanese Super A'Can? I couldn't see it listed, but I assume so?
Re: New 'Vectrex Plus' Controller Offers A Cheaper Alternative To The Original
This is great news - I love the surge of after market peripherals we're seeing for retro systems.
When will we see after market controllers for the Philips CDI? These things are, sadly, now triple figures.
Re: The Making Of: Popful Mail, The Game That Nearly Became Part Of The Sonic Series
@GhaleonUnlimited Considering PM sells for £600 a piece now, I'm wondering why no one's looked into Limited Run or elsewhere relicensing it to manufacture new copies. It's worked for plenty of other old cartridge games - and CDs are easier and cheaper to manufacture.
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.