Comments 268

Re: Interview: "We’ve Certainly Made Mistakes" - Limited Run's Boss On Winning Back The Trust Of The Community

gingerbeardman

Every time they're caught out they say "oh, we'll change - it won't happen again" yet time after time it has happened, again and again. The fact that they're not learning from mistakes means that the problem is systemic within the company. The good will for LRG was burned long ago, and I don't see anything that rebuilds it. Even this sort of interview (that is perhaps damage control) is essentially worthless if they keep making mistakes. Given their track record you can bet that we'll be able to count in weeks until the next one.

Re: Three Years Later, And Hyperkin's PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16 Clone Is Finally Coming Out

gingerbeardman

@KingMike ok so i did some sleuthing! (watched a demo of the device on youtube) and the "12-frames" is just some had copywriting on their part.

What it actually features several seconds of rewind, with 12 little thumbnail images (they refer to them as "frames", d'oh) that you can scroll back through and choose one.

I would have said "12 seconds" or if they can't guarantee seconds then simply "12 rewind points"

https://youtu.be/li8KpjUv3cM?t=401

Re: Why Famitsu's 'Perfect' Zelda: Ocarina Of Time Review Highlights "The Sorry State Of Preservation"

gingerbeardman

@nocdaes sadly, Japanese copyright laws prevent digital distribution of scans by internet to your browser or email. Snail-mailing photocopies is OK though! See the blog link in my earlier comment. Photos are also OK. The key is that the total content shared by the OK methods is no more than a certain (I forget exactly how much) percentage of the item total.

So whilst it's technically possible for the publisher to do it, they'd be breaking Japanese law by doing it and would be at least fined and probably worse. The National DIET Library in Tokyo has everything scanned but most scans can only be viewed in person on site for the same reasons as above.

Re: Why Famitsu's 'Perfect' Zelda: Ocarina Of Time Review Highlights "The Sorry State Of Preservation"

gingerbeardman

@tektite_captain indeed, if you search in Japanese for "name of the magazine 519 ocarina of time 40" or ファミコン通信 519 ゼルダの伝説 時のオカリナ 40 ...a photo of the review is amongst the first handful of image results. Thanks to this kind blogger: http://obotukasan.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2011/06/40-c4b5.html

And DIET library in Tokyo would post you a photocopy of the page in question from their complete collection of Famitsu: https://blog.gingerbeardman.com/2023/05/24/ordering-photocopies-from-japans-national-library/

Re: James Bond Producer Didn't Want Guns In 2010's GoldenEye Wii Reboot

gingerbeardman

@Sketcz I honestly, seriously love the Wii version. Motion aiming adds so much to the game! Twitch gameplay fine accuracy.

We used to play 4 player split screen ( one quarter of 480p each!) and all became so good we would invent our own rules like having to wear white and pick a snow level so it became more difficult. The game also has a ton of it's own rule modifiers that you can use to setup the game.

And it can still be played online today. IIRC there was a test server URL left in the game and it was patched to point to a fan server. I think they've even created their own maps.

Re: Review: 8BitMods MemCard Pro 2 - Run PS2 Games And Manage Your Saves From This $50 Memory Card

gingerbeardman

Great to see compatibility mentioned. I find it interesting that the official OPL compatibility list says Gradius V should work, so I wonder what is going on?

https://www.ps2-home.com/forum/page/opl-game-compatibility-list-G

I generally play using OPL with my games stored on a tiny little network device with Samba share of a USB disk. But the memory card would surely be simpler.

Re: Taki Udon Teases FPGA PS1's "SuperDock"

gingerbeardman

@MysticWangForce I guess cost. I'd bet the majority of people won't be using discs.

Regarding the forked software, and reading between the lines that there's resistance from the MiSTer Devs (understandable, if they add code for this device the flood gates are open for more) all sounds like a ticking time bomb.

Re: Why Is N64 So Hard To Emulate In 2025? Modern Vintage Gamer Investigates

gingerbeardman

I'm unconvinced by the arguments presented in the MVG video. Feels like half-hearted and incomplete reasons, with some hand-waving and trust-me going on. A lot of things are repeated and badly worded, and none of it is quite convincing enough IMHO.

Plugins alone don't explain the poor standard of N64 emulation. They were just a way of dividing the work/complexity and allowing multiple people to tackle it in their own way to see what approach worked best/better. Like shaders in today's emulation scene.

The original N64 hardware and software setup is very complicated—RSP, microcode, RDRAM, floating point behaviour, weird timings—and the effort has yet to be put in to cover it all with sufficient detail. The 3 point texture sampling/filtering has long been solved but MVG words things as if it hasn't been.

Whether N64 emulation can be done well—performantly—on modern systems remains unanswered.