no_donatello

I prefer real hardware 90 percent of the time, and so the extra features/convenience that software emulation offers are really the only thing that can convince me to not use real hardware. I'm sure FPGA is great, but if I want an authentic experience, I'll use authentic hardware.

Especially since these limited run companies pride themselves the idea of game preservation, a burned CD-R is not acceptable. In fact, they should be using the best possible media to ensure longevity. Excluding the exceptionally long wait times for orders, I've been happy with my Limited Run orders, but I'd be demanding a refund if I bought this.

@N64-ROX Godzilla Generations was a launch title for Dreamcast in Japan, aka 1998, before even Sonic Adventure hit the console. It's not a stretch to call it a tech demo made into a game. The fully destructible buildings would have been impressive at the time. Very tedious game. The sequel is actually pretty interesting and better because they made that one a rail shooter.

@smoreon Right. And compression is a thing, too. I need to point no further than Angel Studios (which later became ROCKSTAR) and RE2 on the N64, a two disc game on one N64 cartridge.

@UK_Kev The guy in the article literally said he thinks it could have run it, so I'm going to go with that. If it had been developed from the ground up for the Dreamcast, it obviously would have run on it!

@Uncharted2007 Indeed. Similar to how RE4 couldn't reverse the fortunes of the GameCube. Capcom couldn't wait to port that to the PS2.

I'm always a little sad we never got to see the Dreamcast's true potential. Later PS2 games look so much better than early titles, but the Dreamcast didn't really last long enough for devs to squeeze every drop out of it. I suspect GTA3 would have run on it.

Japan loves their mobile games. It makes sense. When my wife and I went to Japan in 2015 (can't believe it was so long ago ;_;), she took her 3DS and got more street passes walking in Akihabara than she received since getting the 3DS in the United States. I also recall the sheer wonder of walking in a store and seeing a LARGE display of PS Vita games. It was nice to see the Vita getting the respect it deserved for once.

I have been paying handily to rediscover the magic of the Sega Saturn for years now. The game prices are insane! I love those completely impractical longboxes. So fragile, but they really command respect on a shelf!

When I saw Creatures, I thought they meant the old PC artificial life game. But nope. That probably would not translate well to Evercade anyway. I'll be passing on this one.

I hope future cartridges include some of the more obscure survival horror titles from the PS1 era. Also a Jazz Jackrabbit collection. They ported Duke Nukem. Now give me Jazz!

I wonder what other changes are made to the exp, like maybe a screen downgrade. I do like the color scheme, but already having the exp and vs, I have no reason to buy these.

I do have this game, including its mammoth box, though it's the US version, which does not look quite as classy, I must say. It's interesting looking at Nintendo's pre-Wii dabbles with motion control. I find Kirby Tilt N Tumble pretty difficult and have never gotten very far. But I am seemingly one of the only people that enjoyed Yoshi Topsy Turvy. I'm not saying it's Yoshi's Island good, but I think it's pretty fun.

@Blast16 Yeah, for as popular as the Genesis was, a lot of its games have fallen into relative obscurity, things like this or Beyond Oasis or Landstalker. I find that a bit weird, but I have enjoyed discovering the games I missed when I was a kid and relying on birthdays and Christmas to get a new game.

And yeah, I'm grateful to have experienced those console generations in person. Every new generation brought games that literally couldn't be done before, unlike now where we're just talking about a fancy reflection or higher resolution. In my opinion, gaming peaked in the sixth generation. There have been good games since then, of course, but you just can't capture that magic again.

I got Dinosaurs for Hire back when it was released, despite no prior knowledge about the IP. I was probably just intrigued by the inclusion of dinosaurs and that they reminded me a bit of TMNT. It's a game that I enjoyed then and still revisit. Not a legendary title like Gunstar Heroes, but still a good time.

The first scene includes a giant dinosaur enemy that I believe you could either defeat or lose and the game continues regardless. But if you win, it makes some mention of an error in the blast processing unit or something. Obviously a joke, but it's the only in-game mention of "blast processing" I've ever seen. That always stuck with me for some reason.

Obviously the 32x was a mistake, and everyone agrees. I think Saturn was a case of perception becoming reality. I recall at the time having the perception that Saturn had no games. I remember teasing the one classmate we knew that had a Saturn that he had the bad console (Obviously considering it's now second behind Dreamcast as my favorite console of all time, I was a very misguided child, and I admit this). I was legitimately shocked years later when I decided to revisit the Saturn after falling in love with the Dreamcast just how many games it had. In fact, its North American library is within striking distance of the number of releases on N64 (Saturn's Japanese library of course putting it WAY ahead of N64, though both obviously massively below PS1). This perception issue comes down to bad marketing. I was a kid in middle school at the time, so I was basically their prime demographic, yet I didn't know.

I would love a new survival horror Dino Crisis with limited ammo and tank controls, but that will never happen, so no thanks.

@wiiware Amen. Would buy in an instant. I used to make a yearly pilgrimage to an arcade about two hours away (also at the beach, so it was for that, too), and I'd play all the way through The Ocean Hunter. Love that game! I did get it working on an emulator with the Sinden light gun, but honestly, it's just a lot of hassle.

@Uncharted2007 It's their arcade and toys division, which mostly focuses on the Japanese market. I know Sega Toys was a thing, and I guess arcade was separate, too, and now they're combining them. At least that's what I think happened.

With the recent news about Clockwork Knight 2 secretly containing the entire first game on the disc and only getting discovered recently, this didn't seem too far fetched. Haha. Nice one.

Okay. Now release a home version of House of the Dead: Scarlet Dawn.

It's an obvious choice, but the correct answer is Shenmue.

Also have to say I miss the old Game Informer, before Gamestop gutted their staff. Spent a lot of time watching their YouTube content. Still go back and watch it sometimes, especially their Super Replays of "bad games," like Overblood and Blue Stinger. Had a subscription for a while, but since their magazine focuses on modern games unlike their YouTube content, I really didn't find it interesting.

The complexity of the Saturn hardware was a factor, sure, but that was not what sunk it. PS2 was famously MUCH harder to develop for than the other consoles (and weaker), but it dominated the market in a similar way to the PS1. In an alternate universe where a huge Japanese corporation (Sony) with limitless cash didn't enter the console market at that very moment, Sega Saturn would have dominated, thanks to Nintendo's mistake of sticking with cartridges. But that's not what happened, and the Saturn is still best in my opinion.

@DestructoDisk Oh, I'm sure there are quality of life improvements that can be made. But playing the original games on original hardware as I did 20+ years ago just give me warm nostalgia feelings, so I need something significant to pry me away from that. But I love these games, and more people should play them. So a collection, even if I pass on it, is a good thing.

I remember buying the first game on or around its release day. I want to say it was sold at a bargain price, like $20, probably because they had low expectations. Glad that the series is still going, though I do feel like it kind of peaked with the second game.

Sadly, Game Arts has been coasting on past glory for a long time now. I expect a collection. Already have the Working Designs releases for SCD and PS1, so I'm not sure I'd pick up the collection, unless they do something like localize Magic School Lunar for the first time...

With oddballs like the Gamate, Super Vision and Gizmondo on here, I wish the GP32 had been included. Though it didn't sell huge numbers, it was pretty much the grandfather of all the emulation handhelds that exist today, and a lot of the emulators on PSP got their start on GP32. You could even buy digital versions of the few commercial games that existed for it. Really groundbreaking. Wikipedia is claiming 30,000 sold, so on par with the Gizmondo but actually on the market much longer.

What a weird list. I've literally never even heard of Re:Verse, and it's above the original PS1 title! For me, this series kind of ended when RE4 came out. RE4 is a fine game, but they've essentially been action games since then. Revelations was a nice halfway point between the two genres, though I never finished Revelations 2.. some day. My list would go:

1. Resident Evil (PS1/Saturn)
2. Code: Veronica
3. Resident Evil 2
4. Resident Evil 3
5. Resident Evil Zero

At this point, I've played the first game so many times I can complete it in a single evening. I did enjoy some of the side games, too, like the light gun games on Wii. Also Dino Crisis is essentially an RE game with a different theme, and I love it.

I just don't think there's a great need to carry your entire psp collection anymore. 32 gb is fine. I doubt many people are playing emulators on it anymore with much better and more powerful handheld available now. Also I agree the psp 2000 is just more comfortable, and I prefer it over the go.

Indeed the games that utilized the expansion cart might not have been huge draws outside of Japan, but Sega could have... you know, made games that utilized it that would appeal to Western audiences. Haha, yeah, crazy. I know.

I love the Saturn, and I suppose its failure led to the Dreamcast, which is my favorite console of all time, so I shouldn't really complain. But Sega management just lost it during the Saturn days. So many major titles passed over for Western release. Playing the Japanese Saturn library is almost like playing a completely different console compared to what we got in the West. In that respect, It's fortunate how easy it is to bypass region locking on Saturn with a Game Shark/Action Replay. Pretty sure my Action Replay actually has this memory expansion built in (right?), though I don't think I own anything that used it.

Pretty good selection. I'm in for this one.

No, it's stupid. I'm pretty sure the remaster of Yakuza 3 (probably all of them) includes one of these trigger warnings. Yeah, so sorry that this game that came out barely a decade ago about a different culture than yours might not align with your ultra sensitive sensibilities.

An okay cart. They're good, but none of them really stand out. Unfortunately, Pri Pri looks like a pretty basic GB puzzle game. It's a maybe on this one.

Indeed, I think I recall hearing that lag issues sprung up on the latest update and will be corrected, along with restoring the removed built-in games with the next update. No clear date on when that's coming though. The only things I've tested extensively yet are PS1 and Saturn, which seem to run fine.

@jackanape Yeah. Might be a few more days before you see activity. That's how mine worked. But things ARE shipping.

I ordered the Ultra module recently, and it shipped a couple days later, so I can confirm things are working as they should. But I need that light gun now! Then I can play the Saturn version of Policenauts the proper way, with a light gun and the translation patch applied.

@KingMike Yes, indeed there was an English version of Digimon Anode/Cathode. I followed these "rumors" (I mean, they were true, but exactly what to look for was a bit unclear) and found a bundled console on eBay that matched the description. Worst case, I got myself a new-in-box WSC. But yep, entire game in English!

Edit: Looking at my cart, It looks like a Korean release, since it has Korean text on the cartridge's sticker art (yet the game is in English). It's an odd release. Happy I own it!

It is so hard to say. I would say the ones I spent the most time with were Yakuza 0 and probably Yakuza 5, but I did love 6 and the way it wrapped up Kazuma's story. Yakuza 3 took place in Okinawa, which was such an interesting setting and has solidified my desire to some day visit that part of Japan. Dead Souls is the most hated, I think, but it is so silly, and I love it for that. I played through both Kenzan and Ishin using translations off of YouTube and GameFAQs and absolutely loved them. I can't even remember which one I hunted a giant bear in (Yakuza 4??), but that was awesome.

I honestly don't know how to answer. If I must pick one, then it's Yakuza 6!

Xbox won't have to be hardware because it will be an app on every "smart" device. I mean, I don't really pay a ton of attention to modern gaming, but that's basically what "Game Pass" is already, right? I hate it, but it's smart.

I was always fascinated by this console. I remember picking up a magazine that was previewing the device and had an "actual size" image of the device on one page. Indeed, it was tiny, and I wanted it. Of course, it never left Japan. I ended up picking up each version (B&W, Color and Swancrystal) and a smattering of games on eBay when they were all fairly cheap. Klonoa is my favorite title. However, the Wonderswan's library is very Japanese language-heavy, so most of its more notable titles are out of the non-Japanese speakers' reach. Even this hamster-raising game I picked up is filled with text!

There's also a blatant Zelda clone on the console called Star Hearts that looks great and remains high on my "some day I'll get around to it" list.

I mean, you could have called it Until Dawn 2: The Quarry, and people would have accepted it was Until Dawn 2. They play almost exactly the same.

Move Dreamcast to number one and Saturn to number two, and you've got an accurate list, though I understand this order as well. I do wonder who voted for Pico. As an educational toy, it is pretty cool. And since it only has 20 or so released games in the US, it's an easy platform to get a complete collection.

@ChromaticDracula I remember when they announced the original Yakuza, there were a couple screenshots but the description almost sounded word for word like Shenmue. Explore a specific area of Japan, immersive story, minigames, gambling, fighting mechanics. And I do think that the original Yakuza was sort of Shenmue if you sort of zoom out a bit. You can't interact with every object and NPC, but it did follow a similar structure. I love them both (though Shenmue remains my favorite game ever) and have played basically all the games. Not entirely sold on this new RPG mechanic, but they're still making the brawler ones, so it's cool.

The new "Like a Dragon" series is a good starting point if you like RPGs. If you want to start from the beginning — and the first game's story is easily one of the best and most memorable — you should start with Yakuza Kiwami, the remake of the OG game.

I remember being very offended by memory cards in the 32-bit era. Yet another way to nickel and dime gamers! In a world of microtransactions and loot boxes, it's a take that makes me laugh now.

Outside of the VMU, I can't say I have any fond memories of memory cards. They were just something you had to have, and, if you had a third party memory card, something you constantly feared would cut your progress off cold when it corrupts.

The VMU, however, is a special device. I would sneak it to school with me in middle school and play minigames or the homebrew version of pac-man I downloaded off of a terrible-looking Dreamcast web browser compatible website. It was great. Too bad their battery life was kind of bad.

Ghostbusters is a franchise that, like Jurassic Park, seems absolutely perfect to translate to video games, but they've mostly failed. Ghostbusters The Video Game was definitely the closest they came to getting it right. I remember it being a little tedious at times, but I definitely liked it. Still waiting for a Jurassic Park game that captures that movie as well. Trespasser is probably the one that tried hardest to make you feel like you were in that world. I have a weird fascination and fondness for Trespasser, though I can't say it's a good game.

Absolutely I identify games and consoles with certain periods of my life. I bought my Dreamcast in middle school and right around the time my wife and I started dating. I had a lot of time to game, and because the Dreamcast was on the way out, I gathered a collection quickly. The Wii was the first console I bought with my "own money," so I identify it and its games with starting my "adult years." Replaying these games does "take me back."

But while these consoles and games are linked to certain periods of my life, retro games are just better and more interesting than games being released now. I still keep a toe in modern gaming. Yakuza, for example, is a series I continue to enjoy. But by and large, "modern gaming" has moved beyond my taste, and that's okay. I have more games from the third to sixth console generation (and maybe some seventh gen — they were okay) to play than I will ever be able to in a lifetime, especially since I so often replay my favorites. I'm fine with this.

@NatiaAdamo Yes, indeed (At least that's the story). But it's also a completely different 3d platforming game developed by Westone, aka dev behind Wonder Boy, and only released in Japan (despite literally including English voice acting and mostly English text) because Sega. https://youtu.be/HSdQenLqOnI?si=SJgNumE3y5Rl6HDn

Can someone point me to compatible paper for the Gameboy Printer? I have one, but I thought it was basically obsolete tech since the paper is unavailable now. Just as a curiosity, it would be nice to get it running again.

I don't think anyone will ever agree on this list. The Nintendo DS has such a huge and diverse library you're really going to get a lot of opinions.

I am pleased to NOT see Spirit Tracks on this list. Take the freedom of sailing and put it on rails, making it unbelievably boring AND frustrating? FUN! But enough about my contempt for that particular game. I would add Feel the Magic XY/XX to this list, the Sonic Rush series, Yoshi's Island DS.. I could go on, I'm sure.

I've gotta say I thought Nintendo's handheld dominance was going to end when I saw the PSP, but their ridiculous looking and underpowered (in comparison) console turned out to be amazing. (PSP was pretty great, too.)

Did not know about this. According to the link, it unlocks when you press start 15 times per second for an unspecified amount of time. Sounds tough, but if that's all it is, wouldn't any controller with a "slow" mode switch work (which generally just rapid fires the pause screen)? Fairly common feature on third-party controllers back then.

I got the Saturn one. I wasn't able to get my hands on the Master System one, but this one I MUST have! I mean, I have no idea what I'll use any of them for, but that's not important!