@slider1983 It is as far as I can see but as it doesn't seem to have been directly addressed actual status is up in the air. The DLC expands the original endings and changes an important detail so the DLC is recommended. My original comment is about the secret scene which was always there.
@slider1983 The extended cut DLC expanded on endings and added a new one. I'm referring to the secret scene that plays if you get the assets above a certain amount and make certain choices (being vague so as not to spoil). That one, as far as I remember, was always there from the beginning.
@JohnSummers1025 The code was legally reverse engineered and the port is not distributed with any proprietary assets. What people do with their legally acquired ROMs is up to them so that would be tough to defend in court.
@nocdaes I agree but the original can be played in a Java emulator and would likely have taken a lot of effort to recreate beat for beat on Gameboy on top of remaking it.
Another lovely article covering properly researched retro hardware. This is exactly the sort of real journalism the games industry needs, please keep em coming!
Great, maybe they'll be able to get the full rights to DeathSpank back from EA and make a proper DeathSpank 3 with Ron Gilbert instead of whatever The Baconing ended up being.
Posting this after the latest update: "Every location, battle and interaction is more or less custom and requires manual implementation." Woah, that's crazy from a programming standpoint. No wonder the game had such a tough dev time.
@Martin_H One thing to bear in mind is that although Heart of China is supported, not all of the game has been reimplemented and ScummVM skips over the tank minigames as a result: https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Heart_of_China
Always important to check what issues the games might have before going for ScummVM as supported and fully playable aren't always the same.
Awesome work, hopefully it reaches maturation soon - more people must play this masterpiece. Seeing the polygons properly upscaled is a treat, current emulators can't do that fully due to the way the Saturn's rendering works although the game is completely playable.
@Sindayl I'm wondering the same thing. Apparently the Xbox version comes with some gameplay improvements but I have yet to see a port to port comparison (as this is so new).
@MisterStu Yeah, that's how I discovered it too. I seriously hope someone figures out a way to fix this once and for all, maintaining these PS3 boards is super important for game preservation.
I'd rather they release tools and the extracted+machine-translated script to allow others to make a proper translation and gauge the MTL version themselves via proper diffing. MTL lacks character from my experience so not a fan of that but at least with the research done others can help polish it up or properly translate it.
Awesome news! I hope someone figures out how to fix the faulty Bluetooth modules on these things as well. They're known to fail and unlike the Slim, they're integrated into the board itself so maybe this mod can address it by using the Pi's module instead.
Interestingly, Sega the game developer's name (a contraction of Service Games) is independently also the name of a traditional dance form from Mauritius.
@PinballBuzzbro Ah yes, that one was well implemented. That game was so ahead of its time. The in-world interactive UI screens are still some of the best in the medium.
Fantastic article Time Extension, this is the sort of real work that games journalism needs where you can learn something instead of turning into referral link farms like GameSpot. It's amazing how close the GBA and NDS versions of the soundtrack sound given they were led by different people across different hardware generations. A truly legendary soundtrack!
Btw, there's an error in the link for "Murder by Numbers", the Numbers part is a different URL compared to the first 2 words.
@GideonZhi Hi, I've followed you and your team's work with interest for several decades at this point and wasn't aware you were involved in what unfolded on RHDN some time back. I can understand your position given you were banned from the site but I also hope whatever was the issue and whoever it came from, everyone can sort it out peaceably and openly. Seeing legends fight like this is just sad.
Also, the unauthorised uploads on RHDN really should be stopped as they break the site's own rules, I've reported the upload.
Great work! The puzzling question that always comes up with Dreams: how come it hasn't been released to PC yet? That and Demon Souls remake are very odd omissions from Sony's PC catalogue given the fitness for the platform.
Nice release but really not cool to specifically forbid romhacking.net from hosting the patch in the readme. Someone apparently uploaded it anyway which is another issue but Aeon really should reconsider the ban.
Speaking of manuals, Virtua Cop Elite Edition for PS2 has several undiscovered cheat codes to unlock mirror mode, etc which a manual would be helpful to find. I just wish these manuals were all archived digitally with support from publishers and developers themselves.
That rollback implementation was simply genius, by a very young talented programmer too. Passion may be important, but talent also counts for actually achieving things. This funnily enough reminds me of Nightdive vs Forever Entertainment where the latter keeps butchering Panzer Dragoon games and Sega should take the license away from them.
Very technically impressive game. As with any game, it's all smoke and mirrors but what it achieves is an amazing experience completely unexpected for its target hardware.
@Babybahamut It's a unique show but calling it stark and bleak is doing it a disservice. It's about natural flows, sometimes things just go on but rarely if ever do chapters end badly.
Removing access to download a version that was paid for should be strictly illegal and states need to crack down on this. Anyway, yet another reason to support stopkillinggames.com although this is a case of even single player games having download access removed.
It'd be great if they officially added English localisations to their titles but even having these titles rescued is great work. Hopefully they get to the rest of the Persona mobile catalogue too, they've done a good bunch of them already.
@Peteykins This particular series seems to hold nostalgic value with the people who played it although it isn't my cup of tea either. The nostalgia factor seems to be what they're banking on. When they get around to remastering I-Ninja though, that's a great game worth replaying.
@montrayjak This kind of thing is why I wish we'd have proper benchmarking numbers available at least for popular filters and hardware targets. That way users would have guidance on what to expect and developers would have data to help optimise.
@gb_nes_gamer Yeah I agree those versions should be included. It's a common theme in all discussions about the game's content so far. Hopefully these are in the final complete game listing as that doesn't seem to have been announced yet.
@Razieluigi What's also funny is they released a proper PC port of House of the Dead Overkill but called it Typing of the Dead Overkill. That must have tanked sales as without closer inspection the fact a full PC port of the original game is included isn't obvious from the title and screenshots. A strange decision.
Given that romhacking.net is still up and allows new submissions properly, it would be great if it became the hub of new hacks again. The fragmentation of the scene after some people tried attacking it and caused it to be news-only for a while did no favours for visibility and none of the alternatives are as good.
Comments 67
Re: "At EA, We Were Voted The Worst Company In America Because Of The End Of Mass Effect"
@slider1983 It is as far as I can see but as it doesn't seem to have been directly addressed actual status is up in the air. The DLC expands the original endings and changes an important detail so the DLC is recommended. My original comment is about the secret scene which was always there.
Re: "At EA, We Were Voted The Worst Company In America Because Of The End Of Mass Effect"
@slider1983 The extended cut DLC expanded on endings and added a new one. I'm referring to the secret scene that plays if you get the assets above a certain amount and make certain choices (being vague so as not to spoil). That one, as far as I remember, was always there from the beginning.
Re: "At EA, We Were Voted The Worst Company In America Because Of The End Of Mass Effect"
@slider1983 I don't think so, it wasn't in the list of new endings I saw.
Re: Nightdive's Remaster Of The 1998 "Diamond-In-The-Rough" FPS 'Sin' Is Still Alive, And Coming This Year
The hope for Sin Episodes Emergence Episode 2 lives on if this remaster does well.
Re: "At EA, We Were Voted The Worst Company In America Because Of The End Of Mass Effect"
@slider1983 Well, there is a secret ending too that he hasn't spoiled so you still have that to experience!
Re: Zelda: Ocarina Of Time Is Being Unofficially Ported To Sega Dreamcast
@JohnSummers1025 The code was legally reverse engineered and the port is not distributed with any proprietary assets. What people do with their legally acquired ROMs is up to them so that would be tough to defend in court.
Re: "A Forgotten Castlevania Is Reborn On Game Boy" - 2007's Order of Shadows Lives On
@nocdaes I agree but the original can be played in a Java emulator and would likely have taken a lot of effort to recreate beat for beat on Gameboy on top of remaking it.
Re: Pure FX Appeal - Unpicking The History Of The PC-FX, One Of Japan's Biggest '90s Console Flops
Another lovely article covering properly researched retro hardware. This is exactly the sort of real journalism the games industry needs, please keep em coming!
Re: The Studio Behind The Simpsons: Hit & Run, Scarface, & Prototype Has Been Rebooted As New Radical Games
Great, maybe they'll be able to get the full rights to DeathSpank back from EA and make a proper DeathSpank 3 with Ron Gilbert instead of whatever The Baconing ended up being.
Re: After 25 Years, Rare Footage Of Space Channel 5's MTV Crossover Has Finally Resurfaced Online
Typo in the subtitle "Putting to bed decades of information" - it's missing a "mis".
Re: Panzer Dragoon Saga's PC Port Was Abandoned In 2020, But Its Developer Is "Motivated" To Work On It Again
Posting this after the latest update: "Every location, battle and interaction is more or less custom and requires manual implementation." Woah, that's crazy from a programming standpoint. No wonder the game had such a tough dev time.
Re: The Latest ScummVM Update Could Be "The Biggest Release" Yet
@Martin_H One thing to bear in mind is that although Heart of China is supported, not all of the game has been reimplemented and ScummVM skips over the tank minigames as a result: https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Heart_of_China
Always important to check what issues the games might have before going for ScummVM as supported and fully playable aren't always the same.
Re: A Native PC Port Of Panzer Dragoon Saga Is In Early Development
Awesome work, hopefully it reaches maturation soon - more people must play this masterpiece. Seeing the polygons properly upscaled is a treat, current emulators can't do that fully due to the way the Saturn's rendering works although the game is completely playable.
Re: Banjo: Recompiled Adds Better Frame Rates, Widescreen Support And More To Rare's N64 Classic - And You Can Play It On Steam Deck
@Sindayl I'm wondering the same thing. Apparently the Xbox version comes with some gameplay improvements but I have yet to see a port to port comparison (as this is so new).
Re: "History In The Making" - New PS3 Mod Unlocks "Impossible" Levels Of Performance, And Sony Can't Do Anything About It
@MisterStu Yeah, that's how I discovered it too. I seriously hope someone figures out a way to fix this once and for all, maintaining these PS3 boards is super important for game preservation.
Re: "I Was Always Very Against AI..." - Cyberpunk Saturn JRPG 'Cyber Doll' Is Getting A Fan Translation, But There's A Catch
I'd rather they release tools and the extracted+machine-translated script to allow others to make a proper translation and gauge the MTL version themselves via proper diffing. MTL lacks character from my experience so not a fan of that but at least with the research done others can help polish it up or properly translate it.
Re: "History In The Making" - New PS3 Mod Unlocks "Impossible" Levels Of Performance, And Sony Can't Do Anything About It
Awesome news! I hope someone figures out how to fix the faulty Bluetooth modules on these things as well. They're known to fail and unlike the Slim, they're integrated into the board itself so maybe this mod can address it by using the Pi's module instead.
Re: Sega Co-Founder David Rosen Has Passed Away
Interestingly, Sega the game developer's name (a contraction of Service Games) is independently also the name of a traditional dance form from Mauritius.
Re: Saturn RPG 'Airs Adventure' Is Finally Playable In English
It would be interesting if the Japanese version of Clockwork Knight was translated. It features a story that was completely cut from English releases.
Re: "I've Never Seen A Review Asking For More Escort Quests" - Fallout's Creator Comments On Why Escort Missions Are Rarely Done Well
@PinballBuzzbro Ah yes, that one was well implemented. That game was so ahead of its time. The in-world interactive UI screens are still some of the best in the medium.
Re: "I've Never Seen A Review Asking For More Escort Quests" - Fallout's Creator Comments On Why Escort Missions Are Rarely Done Well
@PinballBuzzbro I only vaguely remember that, could you detail it please?
Re: "I Was Really Close To Dying" - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney's Original Composer On The Hidden Struggles Behind Its Iconic Score
Fantastic article Time Extension, this is the sort of real work that games journalism needs where you can learn something instead of turning into referral link farms like GameSpot. It's amazing how close the GBA and NDS versions of the soundtrack sound given they were led by different people across different hardware generations. A truly legendary soundtrack!
Btw, there's an error in the link for "Murder by Numbers", the Numbers part is a different URL compared to the first 2 words.
Re: Cancelled Splatterhouse RPG 'Splatter World' Is Now Playable In English
@GideonZhi Hi, I've followed you and your team's work with interest for several decades at this point and wasn't aware you were involved in what unfolded on RHDN some time back. I can understand your position given you were banned from the site but I also hope whatever was the issue and whoever it came from, everyone can sort it out peaceably and openly. Seeing legends fight like this is just sad.
Also, the unauthorised uploads on RHDN really should be stopped as they break the site's own rules, I've reported the upload.
For the interested, this article seems to cover the situation and responses at the time:
https://retrohandhelds.gg/romhacking-net-shuts-down-after-20-years/
Re: This Banjo-Kazooie Fan Game Took 14 Months & 800+ Hours Of Work, But You'll Need A PS4 Or A PS5 To Play It
Great work! The puzzling question that always comes up with Dreams: how come it hasn't been released to PC yet? That and Demon Souls remake are very odd omissions from Sony's PC catalogue given the fitness for the platform.
Re: Cancelled Splatterhouse RPG 'Splatter World' Is Now Playable In English
Nice release but really not cool to specifically forbid romhacking.net from hosting the patch in the readme. Someone apparently uploaded it anyway which is another issue but Aeon really should reconsider the ban.
Re: If The Oliver Twins' Ghost Hunters Is The Future Of GenAI Gaming, Then We Have Nothing To Worry About
The very whiff of AI "art" on anything usually means incompetence and there's no point paying for incompetence, as the market is repeatedly proving.
Re: Random: Remember When Games Came With Instructions? This Guy Does, And He Wants To Find The Heaviest PS1 Manual
Speaking of manuals, Virtua Cop Elite Edition for PS2 has several undiscovered cheat codes to unlock mirror mode, etc which a manual would be helpful to find. I just wish these manuals were all archived digitally with support from publishers and developers themselves.
Re: The Oliver Twins Are Reviving Ghost Hunters Using (Shudder) Generative AI
Any developer falling into the trap of generative AI means they've gone creatively bankrupt. No buy from me.
Re: ZSNES Creator Explains How He Achieved 'Rollback' Netcode On Dial-Up Connections In 1997
That rollback implementation was simply genius, by a very young talented programmer too. Passion may be important, but talent also counts for actually achieving things. This funnily enough reminds me of Nightdive vs Forever Entertainment where the latter keeps butchering Panzer Dragoon games and Sega should take the license away from them.
Re: "You Wouldn't See Street Fighter Or Tekken Putting This Garbage Out" - Mortal Kombat Art Book Accused Of Using AI Upscaling
They think AI saves money. Sure, that of the ex-customer.
Re: Bandai Namco Is Holding A Big Event Next Year With Live DJs To Celebrate Rave Racer's 30th Anniversary
If instead of concerts they celebrated by releasing a "legacy collection" of Ridge Racer games, I'm sure more people would be appreciative.
Re: "I'm Literally Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants Here" - Saturn Version Of Wizardry VI Is Finally Playable In English
@MARl0 Why not use a compatibility layer to run it? There must be one even for Mac and there definitely are ones for Linux and Android.
Re: "A Good Song Will Be A Good Song On An Acoustic Guitar" - LittleBigPlanet Creative Director Shares New Look At His C64 Demake
LBP is filled with so much joy and creates so much of it. Learning about this project continues that legacy.
Re: "It's The Game We Wish Had Existed 40 Years Ago" - Ulysses 31 Is Finally Getting A Video Game
Hopefully this drives interest in a way where the original show gets a proper remaster rather than the messy cropped one currently available.
Re: Dev Reveals Secrets Behind Stunning New "3D" Platformer For The ZX Spectrum
Very technically impressive game. As with any game, it's all smoke and mirrors but what it achieves is an amazing experience completely unexpected for its target hardware.
Re: A Nintendo DS Life Sim Based On The Anime Series 'Mushishi' Just Got Fan Translated
@Babybahamut It's a unique show but calling it stark and bleak is doing it a disservice. It's about natural flows, sometimes things just go on but rarely if ever do chapters end badly.
Re: Sega Is Releasing An Awesome New Mega Man Collectible Figure In Japanese Arcades
Great figure, the Kotobukiya model kits are also great. Patiently waiting for the next game now.
Re: SNK Just Delisted A Bunch Of Its Games From The Google Play Store
Removing access to download a version that was paid for should be strictly illegal and states need to crack down on this. Anyway, yet another reason to support stopkillinggames.com although this is a case of even single player games having download access removed.
Re: Super Smash Bros. Mod 'Smash Remix' Hits 2.0.0, Adds Crash Bandicoot, Peach, Lanky Kong, & More
This mod has Mugen energy, mixing everything up beautifully but in 3D this time.
Re: G-Mode Announces Release Date For Armored Core Mobile 2, & Unveils Another New Archives+ Title
It'd be great if they officially added English localisations to their titles but even having these titles rescued is great work. Hopefully they get to the rest of the Persona mobile catalogue too, they've done a good bunch of them already.
Re: Please Find 22 Minutes To Watch This Video On The Genesis Of Sega's Virtua Fighter
Great channel, thanks for promoting it! They've been producing these super high quality documentaries for years and amply deserve the praise.
Re: Croc's Game Boy Color Debut Is Getting A Re-Release To Celebrate Its 25th Birthday
@Peteykins This particular series seems to hold nostalgic value with the people who played it although it isn't my cup of tea either. The nostalgia factor seems to be what they're banking on. When they get around to remastering I-Ninja though, that's a great game worth replaying.
Re: Nintendo Locking A Screen Filter Behind A Console Upgrade Hasn't Gone Down Well With Everyone
@montrayjak This kind of thing is why I wish we'd have proper benchmarking numbers available at least for popular filters and hardware targets. That way users would have guidance on what to expect and developers would have data to help optimise.
Re: Digital Eclipse's Next Interactive Documentary To Shine A Light On The Early Years Of Mortal Kombat
@gb_nes_gamer Yeah I agree those versions should be included. It's a common theme in all discussions about the game's content so far. Hopefully these are in the final complete game listing as that doesn't seem to have been announced yet.
Re: ThemSkates To Celebrate Jet Set Radio's 25th Anniversary With Stylish New Merch
Yeah, all the merch but no Jet Set Radio Future ports. Why not both Sega?
Re: After Resurrecting Croc, Argonaut Hopes To Do The Same With Another Classic 3D Platformer
Yes please, I love this game! We might even get the cancelled sequel too!
Re: Nintendo Locking A Screen Filter Behind A Console Upgrade Hasn't Gone Down Well With Everyone
@kirby2000 CRT filters are cheap to run from what I've seen, it isn't like xBR and other heavy upscaling shaders.
Re: Star Fox 64's Unofficial PC Port Has Just Got An Exciting New Update
Maybe this type of work will eventually result in the 3DS remasters getting native ports, would be really amazing to see.
Re: Free Warhammer 40k: Boltgun Spin-Off Pays Tribute To Sega's 'Typing Of The Dead' Series
@Razieluigi What's also funny is they released a proper PC port of House of the Dead Overkill but called it Typing of the Dead Overkill. That must have tanked sales as without closer inspection the fact a full PC port of the original game is included isn't obvious from the title and screenshots. A strange decision.
Re: Put Your Trivia Skills To The Test In This Newly Fan Translated SNES Game, Based On A Japanese Quiz Show
Given that romhacking.net is still up and allows new submissions properly, it would be great if it became the hub of new hacks again. The fragmentation of the scene after some people tried attacking it and caused it to be news-only for a while did no favours for visibility and none of the alternatives are as good.