Comments 84

Re: Retro-Bit Accused Of Plagiarising Existing Fan-Translations

mariteaux

@RetroGames This company put this person's stolen work out there, charging for it, with their name on it--that's not "oh hey what a simple mistake, we'll blame the guy who did it". That's a company being sketchy. Companies are not your friends and they are here to sell you products. Hold them to the standard they hold their own employees to.

I also find the "just give them credit" thing pretty laughable. Translations are not some trivial task, they're a lot of work. Being put out for free is nice until they're not being put out for free. If someone went and made money off my work and then went "well, we'll credit you ", I'd find that to be in poor taste, to put it politely. I'm the reason your game is playable by anyone who can't speak Japanese, and I get a thanks in the credits? Nah.

Re: 14 Percent Of North Americans Still Play Gaming Systems Released Before 2000

mariteaux

@winlundn I expect a slightly less inaccurate headline. I've heard this from a few people now--you can't have it both ways. Either this is something noteworthy worth writing an article about or it's not that serious and we can let a tiny, insignificant, non-representative sample size slip. If it's one, I expect better data. If it's the other, it doesn't need to be an article, either from CR or from Time Extension.

Re: 14 Percent Of North Americans Still Play Gaming Systems Released Before 2000

mariteaux

I wouldn't go too crazy extrapolating anything out from these numbers. It's a sample size of about 2,000 people for two "interviews" each, but the results don't say how those interviews were actually conducted. I'd assume through phone, in which case you have a sampling bias towards people who would willingly do a phone interview right there.

I say this as someone who majority listens to CDs and majority plays PS2 these days. I really don't think that 14% number is accurate. 4,000 people versus the 335 million in the US as of the most recent survey.

Edit: methodology at the top of the PDF. Yeah, I don't think you can actually take anything from these numbers.

> The survey was administered by NORC at the University of Chicago through its AmeriSpeak Panel to a nationally representative sample. Interviews were administered both online and by phone.
>
> 51% female; median age of 47 years old; 61% white, non-Hispanic; 36% 4-year college graduates; and 60% have a household income of $50,000 or more.

Re: "Bravo, SNK! What A Greedy Company!" - King Of Fighters XIII Global Match's Steam Launch Has Upset Fans

mariteaux

@lordlad I don't expect anything--but the fact that they can shows you that it's not some out there idea. There's other examples of companies releasing patches for old games. The platform holder bit is irrelevant--this is a rerelease of the same game from the same codebase. It would take no effort at all to patch the game to include modern networking niceties, because it's already been done. It's been paywalled that's the issue.

Re: You're Not Seeing Things, PS1 Games Are Playable On GameCube

mariteaux

Cool! I think it's worth mentioning somewhere that this is not a recent update. The article (and the hacky video) makes it sound like this is some recent update, but it's actually from April 2023, with a few more updates since then. I was wondering why this was being reported on like it's a new thing when it's actually something that slipped under everyone's radar, apparently.

Re: Mario 64 Speedrunning Declared "Dead" After Insane Feat From "The Greatest Speedrunner Of All Time"

mariteaux

@romanista The runs are very very different. Shorter categories mean you can use riskier and more optimized strategies for each star, because if you fail, the barrier to restart is much lower. Longer categories require more in the way of nerves management--if you're an hour into a 120 star run and you're on world record pace, the stakes are going to be a lot higher than if you're playing 0 star and you're only three minutes into the run on WR pace.

Re: Fan-Made Doom 64 Port "Makes Dreamcast History"

mariteaux

@smoreon In general, and not to knock any homebrew project because they are all minor miracles in of themselves, I don't find myself especially into them if they're not up to the standard of your average game for that console. New GB/NES/Genesis stuff, feels right, is super impressive, but right around the time of the PS1, it sorta just becomes "emulators and Tetris" (Minecraft clones have also become popular on retro consoles, I've noticed). I understand why, because making 3D games is hard, but it definitely does disappoint me that it's moreso a hobbyist playground than actually making great games I'd wanna support. The Dreamcast scene is better than most in that regard, so hopefully folks keep pushing it, and maybe bring some of that genius to us PS1 peasants someday.

Re: Fan-Made Doom 64 Port "Makes Dreamcast History"

mariteaux

@GhaleonUnlimited Many people I talk to now say Doom 64 is one of the best in the series. I've never played it still.

Bumpmapping is cool and all, but I can't really make it out in the grainy, low bitrate Twitter video they posted. Not really the best demonstration of something so impressive.

Re: PS2 Emulation Just Took A Massive Step Forward Thanks To PCSX2 2.0

mariteaux

Very good milestone, but it's worth noting that basically no one recommends you use PCSX2 stable because of how ancient it winds up being. The headline makes it sound like it's a gigantic instantaneous leap ahead, but really, it's a culmination of years of work being pushed to a branch that only gets updated every few years that no one recommends people actually use. Not a particularly accurate headline, I must say.

Re: GameCube Gets Achievements Thanks To The Dolphin Emulator

mariteaux

@Coalescence Tell us how you really feel.

@Pastellioli Yeah like I said, I like them because it gives me something to do with both games that didn't work with me before and also games I already liked a lot. Basically every RA set I've done, I've walked away appreciating the game more (aside from Tetris GB, what a terrible version of that game).

Re: GameCube Gets Achievements Thanks To The Dolphin Emulator

mariteaux

@slider1983 I don't really see the point in trivializing mastery like that, especially since there's a good few sets that only have a few achievements or mostly completion achievements. You've either mastered a set or you haven't. There's no shame in not being able to master a set, but I don't think you should get rewarded for not being able to master it either.

I think it's pretty self-explanatory that cheats wouldn't allowed for achievements unless explicitly stated. Wouldn't be much of an achievement if you could just cheat your way to getting it. Save states are allowed in softcore but not hardcore.

Re: GameCube Gets Achievements Thanks To The Dolphin Emulator

mariteaux

@slider1983 I did look into making a set of my own at some point, for Lock n Chase for the 2600, but I lost interest. It was fascinating stuff, peeking at memory addresses on the Atari, punching in values and seeing what would happen. I still have all my address notes, and I'd still like to make that set happen someday.

Re: GameCube Gets Achievements Thanks To The Dolphin Emulator

mariteaux

@Summer235 That's the thing--I don't NEED achievements to enjoy a game, but they have made me appreciate games I've never cared about before (Pole Position is a great example, I'd never beaten it and never learned how to beat it before going for the Namcomuseum 64 set) and given new life to games that went stale for me years ago. It appeals to me to look at a list of games I've mastered on RA and go "I spent time in all of these clearing them out and now I appreciate them more", or remembering the grind for some of the really annoying ones.

Achievements are unique in video game culture in that the people who don't like them seem to get more enjoyment out of telling everyone they don't like them and find them stupid than the people who do like achievements get out of actually playing the games and getting the achievements. I find it fascinating.

Re: GameCube Gets Achievements Thanks To The Dolphin Emulator

mariteaux

Only in a comments section on the Internet could people take the announcement of a new feature as an opportunity to tell everyone they are not a fan of that feature and find it a complete waste of time. Thanks for contributing to the conversation folks 👍

For the record, anyone who finds achievements a waste of time clearly has never perused an RA set. They have some bonkers difficult ones. Space Invaders 2600 has an achievement for clearing only the top line of aliens without hitting any underneath. Hardly the most mundane task. Took me an hour of attempts.

Re: Konami Butchered This SNES Classic, So We Fixed It

mariteaux

@RetroGames It's not a gigantic jump to assume readers of an enthusiast publication might be more in tune with how those things work than the common person. Would you go to someone who wrote an article about how a car works for a car magazine and say "how dare you assume I can figure out how a car works?" No, it's not dead simple, any idiot can do it--but with time, it's perfectly possible to learn these things. It's not voodoo, it's step by step instructions for a glorified calculator.

Re: Minecraft Is Being Ported To Dreamcast And GameCube

mariteaux

@27celsius I stopped playing new versions of Java when 1.9 unnecessarily redid the combat. Apparently they've also added a ton of mobs that don't change anything about the game and redid all the textures for no reason other than they have to make the game look like it's still a going concern. No thanks, I'll just stick with the infinitely lighter r1.8 and earlier. All the mods I like are for those versions anyway.

Re: Brookwood Pocket Tactics Is A Tiny Redwall-Esque Strategy Game For Game Boy

mariteaux

@jolteon23 I mean, I'm sure it's not cheap putting something like this together, and comparing it to AAA stuff isn't really fair. The big publishers have economies of scale on their side, so it's a lot cheaper for them to press tons of copies in bulk than this, which is a small print run sorta thing. I'm also sure they'll be releasing the ROM for their usual £10 on their site as a "digital edition", like all the other games from this publisher.

Re: CeX Retro Watch: March 2024

mariteaux

I just got back from a long trip to see my girlfriend in Cardiff--their CeX (the one in St Davids, there's another one in town I've never been to) is really really good for complete retro PC games for super cheap. I grabbed the first Halo, Red Faction, No One Lives Forever, and Return to Castle Wolfenstein for £9.50 in total, it was bonkers. I've gotten Doom 3, Tony Hawk 3, and 007 Nightfire for PC there before at pretty similar prices. They're the only store I've seen that has some retro stuff real cheap and then other retro stuff at a ridiculous markup. We had to stop into another in London on my way back to the airport to pick up a 3DS charger since she forgot hers, and they had a boxed copy, complete with the wireless adapter, of Pokemon LeafGreen in the window--£160. I dare not look up what they go for online.

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