cawley1

Jesus! These are the kind of articles that make me feel old.

I think it's important to state that any perception that Edge was elitist or 'stuck up' was driven by the desire of the launch team to deliver a different type of magazine. The UK magazine market at the time was full of titles which were fairy juvenile, or aimed at a younger market (and to be fair, there is nothing wrong with these, titles like Your Sinclair, Amiga Power etc are hugely popular in their own right). I think for a lot of people entering their college years, who had grown up with C&VG and Mean Machines, they were looking for a more grown up approach to videogame journalism. It really did convey a different style of writing - also remember this was some years before the Internet became popular, so titles like Edge were the only way you'd read about stuff like the FM Towns Marty, or such in-depth coverage of 3DO or Atari Jaguar.

I was there, all the way at the beginning. I waited for the launch issue (it had been hyped in other Future magazines for a couple of months). I was doing a BTEC in Computer Studies at the time, and with a bunch of like minded lads. Those first 50 issues are some of my favourite magazines, the first 20 issues in particular with the coming (and going) of some 32-Bit systems really felt on the cutting edge at the time. The issues building up to the launch of the PlayStation (and to a lesser extent Nintendo 64) conveyed a type of hype I can't really remember since.

I can map out some key points in my lift with those issues of Edge! My time in higher education, the early days of my career, people I knew back then, places I went.

The funny thing is, after all these years I am still a subscriber, although approaching the dreaded 50, don't find much that interests me in 'modern' videogaming, and I am more at home with Retro Gamer these days! For some reason every time I think of cancelling my subscription, I think of those early issues and can't bring myself to do it, even though it's a bit like being in a loveless marriage these days, just going through the motions!

@Martin_H The simple answer to Stu Campbell's question I would say is in the case of the other devices, they lend themselves to a smartphone perfectly.

In my opinion, a gaming device must have physical controls. Try and play one of the Mega Drive releases like Sonic on an iPhone screen - total crap. For 95% of games (notable exceptions like Angry Birds or Doodle Jump) they don't translate well to a flat screen.

As some others have said, while I agree with the sentiment, the 2DS isn't a handheld I have any interest or time for. I bought a 3DS at launch, then I bought a New 3DS when that released. Have to say I wasn't a massive fan of the original 3DS, but like the DS before it, the hardware revision made for a much nicer system overall.

I did end up buying two 2DS, though - for my twins who were around six and a half at the time. They both got the light blue Pokemon system, one got Sun and the other got Moon, so at one point we had four 3DS variants in the house!

Love NewZealand Story - even have the original PCB rotting up in my loft somewhere!

As others have said, the graphic style isn’t all that fantastic, but it’s not horrendous either. We had a remake on the DS years back and that also had a bit of an odd style, plus pointless touch screen sections, so hopefully any puzzles in this don’t stray too far from the original.

I always think people doing these kind of updates or remasters should look to Lizardcube’s Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap to see how to update and at the save time stay faithful to the original.

What is the purpose of the 16 colour version? Does it run faster, or smoother, or something?

Given the OCS/ECS Amiga is 32 colour as standard, I don't understand why a 16 colour version would be necessary.

I remember when Computer & Video Games had news that US Gold had licensed Sonic for the 8 and 16-Bit computers in the UK, but I guess Sega quickly realised the title as mascot material and didn't go through with the deal.

Can you imagine what a US Gold version of Sonic back in 1992 would have played like?!

@Quick_Man See this is where I disagree with you, I think due to the niche nature of the products, people that complain still willingly spend more with them and then continue to complain, or see all these posts around quality or lead times, place orders and are surprised when it takes ages for what they have bought to be sent, or it's not the quality they were expecting.

I personally believe from multiple reports that items they make for vintage hardware are often not the quality you would expect them to be, and I would advise avoiding these. I would have no problem buying a PS5/Switch title from them (outside of wondering how long it would take to arrive), because I don't see the same issues with modern media. I personally would rather buy the title from Japan if possible, leaving the limited print companies as a last resort.

I'm simply stating my opinions. I am not '/going/ for' anything.

I’d follow my comment up with (specifically relating to vintage system versions) and the Rondo of Blood comment further above - just go the way of PCE Works if you are after that.

Yes, it’s just a high quality knockoff, but (these days) it’s got identifying marks to not be confused with the real thing, and due to their unlicensed nature, anything they put out has the correct company branding and system logos on it - no idea how they still get away with it, but they do, so at this point I don’t really see the harm.

All I ever see on comments relating to any of these ‘limited print’ companies is wave after wave of negativity. There’s two things to point out that seem to get lost in that noise;

1) ***** loads of people are still buying from the likes of LRG and SLG, despite all the bad press and long wait times.

2) In most cases, the only way you’ll see physical copies of niche digital titles is through these outfits, hence why point 1 occurs.

I am certainly not defending them, and have had plenty of experience of being mugged off myself (I did amazingly get my copy of Paprium from Watermelon, although First Press is clearly never going to send my Crimzon Clover!) I just don’t understand why all the moaning about business practise in terms of waiting for titles to release. At this stage we all know you are looking at 9-12 months, or longer. Go into it with your eyes open and you’ll feel less pain.

Outside of supply issues, seems that anything most of them do for vintage systems always has issues, so just avoid that (get an Everdrive if you can’t afford the real thing - who the hell wants a Mega Drive or Super Nintendo game without the correct Sega/Nintendo branding on the packaging anyway?!) and the ‘Collectors Editions’ are usually stuffed full of cheap tat, so sticking to the regular editions will save you money and get what’s important anyway - the physical game.

Just my opinion, but the above has seen me right most of the time.

Yeah, what a load of toss - on the other hand, if the AI bubble bursts, the flood of cheap RAM available would benefit everyone. It might also have the benefit of some of these companies not announcing a different handheld variant every other week...

Anyway, specifically in terms of emulation handhelds, I cannot complain, my Odin 3 Ultra was delivered a week ago, and it's fantastic, so that should be all I need for a couple of years.

Awful news, I have bought a few of his DivMMC devices, and he helped me out with an Opus Discovery I got hold of a few years back - a very knowledgeable and helpful chap. Always put a smile on my face when I found the Stroopwafel he included in the box with an order. Looking at his recent Facebook posts it must have been sudden, can't think of anything more awful for his family, especially at this time of year. Rest in Peace Ben Versteeg.

Had the original before selling my GBA collection off, but I did keep Orbital's other release, Racing Gears Advance - now that truly is a 'hidden gem', it's fantastic.

@slider1983 What do you find flawed about it? I think it’s pretty perfect, given the time it was released, and its contemporaries.

I've not really bothered getting into FPGA yet, I am lucky enough to own most original hardware and I find emulation on PC and handhelds to be a good enough interpretation of what I remember 30-40 years ago for my 50 year old senses to cope with!

I would say that I personally find the constant push (and belief) for a core to be a perfect recreation something of an impossible pursuit. As others have mentioned above, different chipsets on FPGA deliver different results, and with the various subtle revisions of the original hardware, how would it ever be 100% accurate anyway, even a handful of different original consoles would have produced different results, based on different components used in them.

I got a VB bundle off eBay US, with a new in box VB system and new, sealed copies of Mario Clash, Tetris 3D and Warioland. I unsealed those games and probably played them once or twice! Wish I'd kept them sealed these days!

Retrogames.co.uk got some of these rare, expensive Japanese VB games in a few years back (you can still see them if you include sold items, think it was probably around 2019) - he wanted £750 for Virtual Bowling, £1000 for Virtual Lab and £500 SD Gundam. I am pretty sure they were originals, based on the timeframe. I have a complete set of US VB games, and these three are the only ones I need to complete the Japanese set, but post-COVID the prices went mental and you just wouldn't bother these days. As with many things in this hobby, I was lucky to get in early while things were not too expensive.

Sold my new in box one last year, and the 8 games I had dripped out slowly - the console itself had gone gooey, and removing the nasty rubber coating gives it a shiny black finish, which -for a purist- is not how it was intended to me, which annoys my OCD!

Never bothered with it, I think I may have booted it once when I first got it from Comet for a few quid after it all went tits-up!

What a *****-show. I guess it all depends on how the items were disposed of originally, and how they ended up with the individual who sold them on to the anonymous individual who has been implicated.

Around 2010 I happened across a skip load of data, assets and documents relating to a videogame company who had relocated from a site in North London. I literally excavated that skip and took everything that was of interest to me. In my opinion, the company was not that 'exciting', but some of the documents run back to the late 80's and make for very interesting reading as the 8 and 16-Bit eras are those of most interest to me. In addition I got crates of media, lots of backups on tapes and CD-R's etc, Betacam video cassettes, most of which I have never had a chance to do anything with.

I made a decision at the time not to go around publicising this as the company was still trading from their new premises. They went bust a couple of years later, and I still have all this stuff in my loft, although I don't have the time to go through any of it.

My concern back then, while they were still trading, was that even though they had binned everything and it was left sitting in a skip for some time before I realised what it was, could be that publicising it's discovery could have led them to legal issues for me, so I fully empathise with this individual.

Assuming they weren't taken from the old Sega office, and were indeed recovered at the point of disposal, do they really have the right to be so heavy handed?

I have the X68000 version - imported a computer a few years back, then had a chap in Japan bidding on games on Yahoo Auctions in a bit of a haphazard way (I am amazed we ever won anything!)

It is a fantastic game, definitely worth a play. I have managed to get the X68000 emulation in RetroArch going, and found that to be a quick and easy way of running these games, rather than firing up the old beast!

I loved my Odin Pro, and now love my Odin 2 Max! I can't see the need at the minute to upgrade to another Odin, though - there's little need for that power.

Would be better (and less costly) to wait until Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 emulators have made their way across to Android in a more stable manner.

The only thing wrong with the modern ports is the removal of the Testarossa.

Both 3DS and Switch versions are great, but the car graphic is off, thanks to licensing issues...

@Shaw_Brothers

GTI Club is a Konami game that ran on their Cobra hardware, not System 22…

Agree I’d love to see a port if that arcade version, though…

While not technically a home console, I am certain Rave Racer got a PC port to some random 3D video card format in the mid-90's. I am sure it was PowerVR, but could have imagined that. They probably sold all of ten copies! (I actually just Googled it and it was never released!)

Outside of Ridge Racer 2 and Rave Racer, the only other one that would be of real interest to me is Prop Cycle.

I loved that game in the arcades, and even managed to get the massive deluxe sit-down in my rented house back in the early-00's. I got some lads from work to help carry it in through the patio door, and had to leave the marquee box off the top, as it was too tall for the ceiling! I paid about £100 for it, not working (or at least the rear-projection TV wasn't) and I somehow tracked down parts from an Arcade seller I found online and picked them up from Somerset or somewhere. A few evenings were spent trying the get the RGB lenses to converge properly and I got it good enough. My wife should have realised what she was letting herself in for at that point...

Fantastic game!

I'll go to my grave with Revenge of Shinobi's music playing in my ears! Can't wait to see what Ancient has planned next.

I've just ordered the standard Switch physical version from Amazon.jp - it costs as much to ship it to the UK as the game, but I would prefer the Japanese version over the Limited Run release.

@HammyHavoc
At the end of the day, I am certain that Ancient will make more back on Earthion than Mega Cat will on ZPF.

The other thing -and this will be the kicker- is there are pirated carts of ZPF on eBay for significantly less than the real deal.

It is obvious that by the end of the week, there will be knock-off Earthion Mega Drive carts on eBay and AliExpress etc. I think that will be an even more painful situation for Koshiro and his team to stomach.

When I went looking the other evening, it did not take me long to find the ZIP file with Earthion and other related files. At the same time, I looked around for recent Mega Drive releases (mainly Homebrew) as it's a while since I put anything on my flashcart - the Ghostbusters hack, Final Fight MD etc.

I knew that ZPF had also been recently released, but the only ROM of that I could see is a demo.

This struck me as odd, given that on the one hand you have a homebrew release that's only on a Mega Drive cart currently (I believe) and no commercial game ROM has been leaked, and on the other you have Earthion, which has released via Steam and now seems to be easily available if you go looking.

So, what is causing the above? Is it that there is more respect for ZPF developer Mega Cat Studios, as it appears people have chosen not to release the ROM. Is it because it is only on a vintage cart currently, so maybe less people who would be inclined to leak it to the internet have the relevant hardware to get the ROM off the cart? Is it because Earthion is on Steam, and easier to extract the ROM file from?

I feel bad for Ancient, and it must be causing them stress knowing it's been pirated, but I still believe that people who were going to buy the game will still do so, even if they have got hold of the ROM beforehand.

I just wish the console releases had happened at the same time as Steam, then I could have bought it as well.

To be fair to Ancient, they held off releasing the Mega Drive cart first as they want to release it in its most ‘perfect’ form when bugs etc. have been ironed out via the Steam and console releases.

I understand and support this. But it doesn’t change the fact that lots of people want a 16-Bit version now!

In fact, I’m surprised the release has gone Steam > Modern Consoles > Original Hardware.

Surely releasing it on Steam and the console digital stores on the same day would have been the right move? Then physical and original hardware a little later due to manufacturing.

Why is it Steam exclusive for now?

I commented on this scenario on the review page last week. Unfortunately it was always going to happen…

I’m surprised they didn’t offer the ROM to purchase, surely would have been simple enough and satisfied the need for people who want to run under emulation on x device, or on original hardware.

I’ll be honest here - I’ve played it via the ROM. I don’t have a Steam account (yes, seriously) but I will buy the physical release on Switch when available (hopefully a JP retail release, but Limited Run if not) and plan to buy the physical cartridge for my Mega Drive as well, although that looks like it’s going to be Limited Run only.

I’m pretty sure the ‘nasty pirate’ comments don’t apply to too many 40/50 something gamers who are always likely to support and even double dip on a game like this - the majority will always want to support the developer.

@Relikk "They ROMs were decrypted yesterday. It works just fine on my MegaSD."

Bit of a shame, really - I find it nuts that they wouldn't have foreseen this outcome, but I am guessing they decided to not release the ROM for purchase as they know people who pirate the game and play it on original hardware will likely buy a physical release regardless.

@JetmanUK

Agree totally, Ultimate should be named on the plaque somewhere.

@jesse_dylan

They absolutely should have done this, especially if the ROM is easily ripped and spread like wildfire.

Given they extracted Darius and Tetris from the Mega Drive Mini, and Star Fox 2 was extracted from the SNES Mini and runs on original hardware, I can't imagine this won't get ripped and be running on flash carts long before the official 16-Bit release.

Hmm, something smells fishy to me!

All the reviews of these games back in the day had these kind of puns! Let's not waste the opportunity!

To be fair, the original James Pond on the 16-Bit computers and Robocod on Amiga and Mega Drive scored well - I'm sure Mean Machines said it was better than Sonic (I can see they gave it 95%!) which seems nuts in hindsight.

This new game looks rubbish, which is maybe to be expected. Appears to be little love for the character these days, outside of nostalgia.

@mjparker77
Just your typical retrogaming nobhead, hiding behind a keyboard and monitor. This kind of comment baiting is an example of why this hobby isn't always as much fun as it could be!

I am all for using eBay to determine the market price of an item, but in this case -given the rarity- it's just not appropriate. You just wouldn't bother listing it, but let it be know via social media and community channels that it is available - the seller has done exactly the right thing IMHO.

Doesn't sound like they have read the article at all, given the snarky comments towards @VGEsoterica...

Sold my unopened copy on eBay last year for £600! I had no idea they had failed to fulfil as many orders as it appears they did, nor do I have any idea how I got lucky and received mine. It’ll be interesting to finally play it.

Have to say I am perplexed at the amount of posts in favour of a Lynx or Jaguar Plus. I have a soft spot for both consoles having bought them near launch back in the day, but why would anyone bother in 2025?

Outside of a small handful of genuinely decent games on either platform, once you add in licensing issues it's pretty much slim pickings. What would you want on a Jaguar+? Mutant Penguins, Chequered Flag, Club Drive and Fight for Life? I mean, let's be serious!

If they want to keep going with Plus releases, rehash the 400 Mini in an 800XL mini case (it was the best selling Atari 8-Bit, after all), and do an ST Mini - both would have a far bigger reach than Lynx or Jaguar. You could go all out on an ST Mini and give it Falcon functionality, although that has fewer games than the Jag!

I think the current Atari continuing to buy up vintage publishers and titles (they should seriously talk to Microsoft about getting the 2600 releases from Activision, as they don't seem to have any interest in using them) and then capitalising on them is the way to go. There's plenty of other 80's publishers they could have a crack at - Broderbund, Synapse, Datasoft, First Star etc.

While I agree, it's fantastic to see Atari doing this sort of thing, it's pretty niche!

That boxart is incredible - Loving it... Truxton 2 next, please!!!

Finally, been waiting for this for years - 32 of them, actually! Seriously, the only way this could have been better news is if it had been a compilation wirh Ridge Racer 2, Rage Racer and the PS1/2 ports and games.

Also another of the LikSang GameBoy Player gang. To be fair it was an ugly slab of grey plastic, and as it slotted over the feet made the base of the Q look rubbish! Should have also had the mirrored finish with another set of feet! As with the Q, more than made my money back even then, but makes me chuckle when I see what they go for now!

Had a Q back in the day, it was my first GameCube! It had been modded to play both Japanese and US games, but at some point I foolishly unplugged it while the tray was closing and for some reason it stopped the mod working? 🤷🏻‍♂️ I ended up selling it as it still went for more than I paid for it and bought a bog standard Platinum US Cube.

I’d wager there’s plenty of games on the 8-Bit computers that are far worse than any Saturn game!

Cascade’s Cassette 50 or Firebird’s Don’t Buy This spring to mind.

Can’t go wrong with Amiga or ST version of Shufflepuck Cafe! The older stuff is all late 80’s/early 90’s Domark, who were generally OK in terms of quality. Doubt there’s much exciting in there, maybe if they have some SAM Coupe games, or Prince of Persia.

Not as good as the G.I. Joe versions we got in the West!

(only kidding!)

Always an odd tale with this one, looks like it’s hugely taken its inspiration from Capcom’s 3 Wonders sub-game Midnight Wanderers.

I remember coming across the SNES ROM years back and being surprised how much of a rip off (even down to the sound effects) it was. No wonder Nichibutsu never released it.

Probably not a popular opinion, but I fail to see the attraction of any of these retro releases, anyway.

Without the Nintendo or Sega branding, and weird stuff like funky coloured cartridges, they all look ***** to me.

PCEWorks put out a bootleg MD Darius release a few years back, complete with all the knockoff Sega branding these ‘official’ releases can never use, and it looks incredible!

Maybe one day Nintendo and Sega will see the benefit of releasing some of their back catalogue on the original format (well done Atari in this respect), but until then, I’ll give them a pass.

I pre-ordered this (wasn’t a backer) and amazingly was one of the lucky ones who got the game. I left it on a shelf, sealed, as despite wanting to play it thought I’d see how much I wanted to, then after a few years decided I’d just sell it. I don’t regret it, just wish so many other people hadn’t been effectively scammed.

It came out on the X68000 as well as PC Engine - that version is a more faithful port of the Arcade. Think the original was only released in Japan, hence no European computer ports. It’s definitely one of Namco’s more obscure titles.