sdelfin

@hste My understanding is that what comes loose is a heatsink or some kind of cover. Of course, that's still bad and may also lead to other problems. It probably wasn't necessary either.

@cawley1 I'm seeing info that an English version existed titled Alice in Wonderland, but I think you're right that it's Japan only. It looks like they intended a wider release and decided not to. I wonder if it made it as far as location tests.

@Damo Makes perfect sense. When I tell people about that Neo CD pad, I describe the thumb stick as feeling like an arcade stick but controlled by your thumb.

@Sketcz I'm glad you found it because I have no doubt I would have been trying to find it as well. And as much as I like this site, the search is not the best element of it. I wouldn't be surprised if I still that a browser tab open for the game from last year. I need to come up with a better way to keep track of these things. It reminds me of the experience I had with a game called Steel Assault, which is quite good. I had seen it when it was first shown as an 8-bit-style game. It was then changed to a 16-bit look. Somewhere along the way, I forgot the name of the game and had very little to go on until it came up in the news again and I suddenly noticed a few familiar elements that I could have easily missed. Just yesterday, I remembered a game I didn't list in my prior comment and had no luck finding it on here. The game is Spidersaurs and luckily I remembered something else about it which helped me find it. It's so easy for these games to pass you by.

This is an interesting project. I immediately wondered how the developer was approaching this port as the CPS line of boards all have a strange internal resolution that is different from the Neo Geo. That makes a port a little less straightforward, especially compared to the recent System 16 projects. As stated in the article, it won't be 1/1, but that's what makes it a bit more interesting.

To follow up on my previous comment, I seem to recall hearing of one or two game pads that also used micro switches for the D-pad. Some people may want and like that. Clearly Madlittlepixel seems to like it here and that's fine. That kind of D-pad is probably quite good for most other retro genres besides fighting games. I'm reminded of one of my favorite retro-style controllers, the 8bitdo Neo Geo CD pad. It uses a thumb stick and micro switches. It has a large amount of travel before actuation which ends up feeling really good to me and I think it's fantastic for fighting game inputs. It's definitely not ideal for shmups but you can get by. And all that echoes the review. I think some of the disappointment comes from how much this looks like a Saturn pad, and then ends up not feeling like it.

@Axelay71 @PKDuckman Yeah, I know what you mean. But it wa also inevitable with the expansion of gaming in general and indie developers being able to get their games out there. To be fair, Metroidvanias can be great games and they inspired a lot of people to make their own. I think part of it is that Metroidvanias are easier to sell because enough people are always going on about game length. And they are probably easier to balance as far as difficulty. I like them, but I also tire of them after a while. And I've seen people complain about everything, too many Metroidvanias, too many retro games, too many 3D games, too many 2D sprite games, too many 8-bit-style games, etc.

I think the problem with classic early console and arcade style stuff is that those games have trouble breaking through. It helps to find sites or channels that can curate those a bit. I just found a youtube channel that may prove useful for that. But those retro-style games are out there. I plan to play Iron Meat. Prison City is pretty good. Huntdown was excellent. Steel Assault is fun. Blazing Chrome is very Contra like. Same developer made Moonrider, a ninja action game. There's Valfaris. There are others and I have to do a better job at keeping up as well.

Not a bad collection of games. I always thought Night Strikers and Space Gun looked quite appealing in particular.

Getting D-pads right seems to be a tricky thing. You definitely can't judge a D-pad by looks alone. There's a lot of variability in feel. I also think there are misconceptions as to what works best. I've seen people who thought they wanted arcade sticks with super short throw and be hyper responsive only to realize that's not the feel they want for fighting games after all. That's why some people prefer different stick types for shmups and fighting games. I like a loose stick and longer travel for fighting games and the same applies to D-pads. A longer travel without actuation or contact is more forgiving for fighting games and I think is generally more reliable for most people. Clickly switches with short travel really change the feel of things and require more precision in my experience. Good to know about this design decision as I might have looked at getting this pad which is definitely not for me.

I wish I could say this was surprising, but this seems to be common in the development end of the retro hobby. It's been that way on the software emulation side. It seems to be the case on the FPGA side. What's also sad is that there is gratitude out there. But those people are less likely to send a message. I've interacted with a few project leads here in the comments and have expressed my appreciation in those cases, but I'm not sending emails. The entitled types and toxic people are more motivated, for whatever reason, to go direct to the source. I don't know why people do this, other than being toxic. Maybe there's some desire for sabotage for some. Whatever it is, it's shameful that this goes on and developers who are basically volunteers deal with this.

I was just reminded of this game a few days ago. The PC Engine introduced me to this one, and that's the one I played. The change to the direct overhead perspective was a concession to make the port a bit easier, but it seemed good and otherwise faithful from what I could gather. The game is fun. Good to see the arcade original get a modern release.

@Willonious You can laugh all you want, but there's one problem. The tariffs on China have not been paused. Swing and a miss there. Plus there was another point in the article about the uncertainty and its effect on these small operations. Did you read the article?

I would be more inclined to agree with the sentiment that this is what people voted for, except for the fact that trump blatantly lied about what tariffs actually are. Plus, doing a trade war with no clear strategy is also a problem.

I was recently thinking about this game and how I should go back to it soon. The hack changes sounds interesting. As I recall, one of the game's issues was a high damage rate, so this sounds like a nice adjustment to the game's balance. The general combat mechanics of the game are good, so this sounds like it should be more fun.

@Dramlin I generally agree with you that sometimes we may just be unaware of other people's perceptions or experiences. With regard to audiophiles, that can go in two directions. You have audiophiles who are seemingly always looking for "better" speakers and equipment. I put better in quotes because sometimes something can be better on paper, but be wrong for a specific space. Other than the diminishing returns, at least their pursuit is legitimate. But the reason for the reputation of audiophiles as gullible is because there are examples of devices that technically function, but literally do nothing. These are devices that claim to optimize the laser by modifying the edge of the CD to block scattered light, things that ionize or deionize the discs(I don't remember which) to somehow "improve" the sound. Those things simply do not work, but because people can't see sound, the marketing claims work on people who want such things to be true.

A theme song and printed manuals. That's like 99 percent of the work for a project like this. Coleco Chameleon didn't have a theme song and didn't come out. Coincidence???? Sarcasm aside, I mention the printed manuals because people defended that as if it's normal to have manuals and a mock up of a box when it was clear this whole time this was not a legitimate product or project. Even if it was legit, they were nowhere near far enough along for that to make any sense. And speaking of not making sense, they have a theme song.

@Serpenterror The person doing this recently ported Shinobi. It was mostly for the sake of learning the process of porting from System 16 to Neo Geo. Of course, it's unnecessary. Because Shinobi was ported recently, it's now much easier to port other System 16 games. People asked for Golden Axe and it sounds like it's fairly easy(and moving along quickly). That's all there is to this.

Revenge of Death Adder would be a tough port. The CPU architecture is much different, and that game does some things the Neo Geo would have issues with. Plus the System 32 is much more advanced. Any color issues it had seem by choice rather than a hardware limitation.

@CopyX1982 if you're asking how FPGAs work, they're chips that can change their internal configurations based on the specific cores to replicate old game consoles on an electrical level. Essentially, if the core is properly done, the end result is basically a one-chip version of a game console that would function the same way the console would. This can lead to higher accuracy with lower overhead, but also lacks some of the convenience features you get with software emulation.

@avcrypt what you described in your comment here reminds me of how I felt watching the saga of the Coleco Chameleon unfold in real time. I joined the breaking news in the middle of a very large forum thread on AtariAge and there was new info coming out every day. I must have read through thousands of forum posts before it slowed down, and it was enjoyable. Some of the stuff they pulled was so ridiculous that it would have fit right in with this SuperWhatever.

I love the Japanese F-Zero box art and was just thinking about it recently. The art Mr. Nichols provided for it was very well executed. I don't know if I came across his work when I was heavily into comics as it looks like his main work was for companies and books that weren't what I was buying. But just seeing some of his work, his talent and skill was undeniable. On the bleedingcool website referenced here, there's an inked Team Titans splash page with no color showing some kind of dragon creature, and it's excellent. Sad to hear of this loss.

I took part in the Discotek livestream because I really love what they do. No announements really landed for me this time, which happens sometimes, but I have a lot to catch up on. They announced quite a few western cartoons this cycle which was surprising. Apparently, those have done well for them, so I assume there's enough of an audience for these. Based on the the description of the extras for Street Fighter, they're doing a nice job adding value to the release. They showed an image of original storyboards that Egoraptor has and it sharing for the release. It's not my thing, but it's cool for people who are interested in this one.

Nice to read this. Golden Axe arcade, the Genesis sequel, and the arcade sequel Revenge of Death Adder are games I enjoy very much. There's something about the first Golden Axe that really resonated with me. They really nailed the character designs in it and the presentation of the world. I don't often feel compelled to 1CC games, but Golden Axe just never stops being fun for me, so I did that, which is not especially difficult. I also loved how Altered Beast and Golden Axe both had silly endings. That doesn't always work, but I thought that worked in both of those.

@Porco I did see at some point that people solved the memory card issue, which was great to see. I don't remember if the mod existed at the time I was looking at the system, or if I was just unaware of it. I seem to recall that there was no such mod at the time. Either way, I lost interest in the platform after a while because of that whole situation.

I was tempted to buy a Vita two or three times when it was current. I didn't get one because of those memory cards. I had to remind myself about that aspect after the first time I was tempted as that had slipped my mind. The pricing of those things was ridiculous. They didn't have to be the same price as SD cards, but Sony got way too greedy with that.

I decided to extensively play and learn Strider back in August of 2023. I prefer the way the arcade version plays, but the Gen/MD port is really impressive. It does fall short in a few spots like the final stage where there are graphical cutbacks and changes to the design overall. But many people do prefer the Strider sprite on the home version. In fact, the arcade version has some garbage pixels on the sprite box at some points(like inclines). Plus, the arcade version is surprisingly buggy though not nearly as much as the NES game, so you can make a case for the home version being better in that regard alone.

There are a bunch of arcade ports that I or others consider better. Shadow Dancer is mentioned in the article, and I do prefer the home version, though it's only a "port" of the arcade concept instead of the actual game. I hear Rygar for NES is better than the arcade. Many people consider Turtles in Time for SNES better than the arcade, though both versions have things going for them and the arcade obviously is more technically advanced. Rolling Thunder 2 on Gen/MD is better than the arcade version to me, though I like both. Atomic Runner is quite enhanced on Gen/MD over the arcade. Bloody Wolf on PC Engine is widely considered better than the arcade, despite the loss of the two-player option. This is one of those things where I have trouble recalling examples if I haven't played them lately. I might add some to this comment if I remember some. I also want to mention games like Captain America and the Avengers, Zero Wing, Midnight Resistance, and Vapor Trail as a few examples of the home version having better music according to many.

Certain things really need tactile feedback. Game controllers are one. I've said the same about touch screens in cars. That feedback is so important for games, especially the kinds not designed for touch controls like classics from the 16-bit era. It's funny that they claimed precision in the marketing, because that's one thing touch controls are not good at.

@BulkSlash From the looks of it, they reduced the number of characters on screen due to sprite flicker. With a beat-em-up game like that with such large characters, you'll be up against the horizontal sprite and pixel limits pretty quickly. Plus they had to leave a bit of room available to accommodate the second player. It's almost like that option was there for testing during development.

Vista and Win 8 may have improved over time, but I recall they started out in states that were not well received. Windows 8 is what finally motivated me to start experimenting with Linux to seriously switch over. My original plan was to dual boot, but it went so well for me that I eliminated my Windows partition within six months. I didn't really need anything Windows specific on that machine. If or when I do, I'll set up something on another machine for that. I realize that's not going to work for everyone, so for those that need or want Windows machines, that's fine. For me, however, switching to Linux has been an excellent decision. It's not without its issues, but the consistency and stability are great.

I've heard Nvidia support has gotten better, but I have an older AMD GPU so I can't speak from experience. Wine and Proton have come a long way and work very well for so many things. I just recently played all four of the main Batman Arkham games(yes, they're old, but not nearly as simple as a modern-retro game) through WINE via Lutris and it was seamless. I'm really impressed with what Valve has finally been able to do after their Steam Machine push failed. Seeing more devices with Steam OS and more availability of it will be very good.

When the GBA first came out in North America, supplies were somewhat limited. I got my GBA a few weeks after launch. At the time, most stores were only selling the GBA in bundles. I wasn't exactly thrilled by that, but I had already decided to get into GBA early on and had been eagerly anticipating it. The bundle I decided on came with a few accessories and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2. I read reviews of it, so I knew what to expect and knew that it was well received. I was pretty impressed with it and had a lot of fun with it. Just talking about it makes me feel like playing it again. I definitely did not regret my choice. As for the accessories, I don't remember the full bundle, but it did come with a worm light which came in very handy some years later when my area lost power for several days and I needed a fun way to pass the time. I didn't play Tony Hawk then, but I should have.

@deVriestron I've seen some limited testing of a couple of the Linux handhelds. They run a very light OS, but the input lag seemed to be about the same as anything else using software emulation without RunAhead which reduces the lag on the fly(and requires more power than those specific devices had). That's typically one or two frames, depending on the emulator. It could vary depending on the emulator. The results were about the same as on Android. I've also tested on Android and it ends up being about the same as I've seen on PC.

@Tryffel @-wc- it's hard to tell. Certainly a lot of people preferred the SP in its own time due to the clamshell design and the screen being easier to see. But I've seen a lot of people express a preference for the form factor of the original GBA design. I'd be among that group. I have a strong preference for a horizontal orientation for handhelds now.

I'll have to take a closer look at this later. I read a well known series of articles, the "Untold History" of various Capcom games as I recall it was called. Really fascinating getting a glimpse into development of those games. I always wondered what went into character selection, especially with the Marvel aspect of it. There are probably elements of licensing involved in keeping those characters out at that time, even if we don't know or see what other things were going on at that time.

So nice to see hand-drawn art. I've recently been diving into topics related to old comics and cel animation, so I have an appreciation for this kind of art done entirely by hand from the looks of it.

@poyo_pie Shovel Knight remains the gold standard as Kickstarter games go, to me. Shantae 1/2-Genie Hero also seems to be one of the better Kickstarter success stories.

Bloodstained as a project had a lot of issues. I won't go too deep on that because I don't want to try to dump on anyone's enjoyment of the game. But them cancelling versions six months before release and also lying about the performance of the Switch version(and taking a long time to patch it) really left a bad taste in my mouth(I blame the publisher for that). At least they delivered a game and it seems to have been well received.

@RenderSpotlight I really appreciate your post here. You've gotten to do what I've wanted to do for a while, but I no longer have any CRTs and it's not worth it to me to get one. But I would have liked being able to do such a side-by-side comparison to see what differences there are and to compare various overlays and shaders to see just how close things could get to a CRT. I've long suspected you could get them pretty close. I'm very happy with the image I see on modern screens with my scanline setup and things look generally correct to me. Using CRTs is cool too, but that's only going to get more difficult as time goes by, so it makes sense to seek other options.

@GravyThief I agree that it's not authentic in that sense. That's why I suggested arcade monitors may have had them as they were definitely not TVs. That or the PVM look just got popular among enthusiasts early enough to shape tastes. Plus they're simple to make. Speaking only for myself, I'm not after perfect authenticity to what I had, but I do want the games to look right which they definitely do not with raw pixels. I do like the image I get with either good PVM scanlines or a grille overlay. I tend to prefer the PVM lines just a bit more whenever I compare them.

@GravyThief For some it may be nostalgia, but for others it may just be genuine preference. I think various overlays improve the end result for the old systems. Perhaps the explanation for what you bring up comes from arcade monitors, but that's just a guess. And the arcade side of things may have had a lot of influence over display preferences. Most home TVs were shadow mask then. While they may not have had the lines like a PVM, I distinctly remember seeing pixel separation from the mask on the TVs I used as a kid.

Something about that email doesn't sound like a legitimate statement from an actual legal department. And when I say that, I mean that as a considerable understatement. This is quite an entertaining development.

I had a feeling Taki's MiSTer clone was going to turn out well as he seems to know what gamers want in such products and has a good eye for detail from what I can tell from his videos. Good to see that it turned out so well, especially with the original MiSTer having become so expensive and with limited availability, so that more people who are interested can jump in.

I still don't know what happened with the name. It started as Mr. Pi, which I liked, then went up for a vote and ended up being super generic(and worse, in my opinion), and then it was suddenly MiSTer Pi.

In addition to having worse music, the officially released Ninja Gaiden Trilogy on SNES is also missing music.

@PZT It has limited continues, so I assume the rest of the changes made to the US version are there intact. I agree there should be an option to play the Japanese version, which is really good and a favorite of mine. I didn't see any such options in this release.

I have a Pro+ and I can confirm the membranes are weak and do eventually tear. They do sell replacements last I checked and they were not expensive. Whether that's a deal breaker will vary from person to person. However, the Pro+ was phenomenal in my opinion as far as ergonomics and button feel. The D-pad was one of the best I have ever used, and I say this as someone who has used the Saturn pad a ton. For me, that outweighs the bad and I have bought some other 8Bitdo controllers since, specifically the Ultimate C Wired(they were 20 bucks each) which have D-pads that aren't as good, but not bad for me, and the Neo Geo CD pads with the clicky sticks, and those pads have been wonderful as well. Hopefully the switches inside last a long time.

That's a fun discovery. I often put in SNK as initials, so there's a decent chance I'd stumble across stuff like this, but I never bothered putting initials into this particular game when I played it.

Even back in the day, I always enjoyed seeing creative ways to make underpowered hardware do things that were never intended. GBC was an interesting platform for that. Not every attempt worked out to be a great game, but it was cool seeing what good programmers and planners could do. This is a good example of that approach and it's interesting to read about that. I'm surprised they got such quick approval as it's a video-based game from the early 1980s pitched for a late-90s portable system that couldn't replicate the clean visuals, but that's a different matter altogether.

As I recall, this idea to remake GG Shinobi was what Pigsy was working on first and seemed to be a project for which he had a lot of enthusiasm. It's a great idea as there is room to spruce up the concept of GG Shinobi for the Genesis. Both GG Shinobi games are among the very best on the Game Gear, but ports to the Genesis may make them more accessible for some who don't like the limitations of the Game Gear. Nice to see how things are progressing.

I can't say I'm familiar with Screamer. I'll have to have a look at that.

I didn't get on well with Okami back in the day. I played the original PS2 version and I know they made some improvements in some of the remakes, but I had a number of issues with the PS2 version. I'm not excited for the sequel, but I'll look into reviews when it's done to see if it leaves some of the worst parts of the original behind. I'm cautiously hopeful.

Ninja Gaiden is the highlight of these announcements for me. I bought but haven't played Blasphemous yet, but it looks like The Game Kitchen does good work. Visually it looks nice(and nice to see a decent amount of gameplay in a trailer). It looks like quite an update since the NES games in terms of mechanics. I think that will be fine, though I can understand other people wanting a 2D revival to feel more like the NES games. We'll have to wait and see. From the looks of it, it looks like it may take elements of the NES originals, various Shinobi games, and maybe Hagane. I'm looking forward to seeing more of this one.

@Gofixmeaplate I found it through a search which led to pixel artis Henk Nieborg's twitter. That particular image appears to be a mock up for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The pixel art in the game looks very similar, but I don't know for sure if that particular area is in the game as it's a mock up, though I suspect it is, more or less.

@KitsuneNight The Chromatic already got articles and review.

@SilentBluntman I know. That was your point originally. My point is you can make a good argument for both names.

@SilentBluntman The counter to that would be that a majority of systems sold had Genesis written on them and their boxes.

@Null2 I always appreciate a recommendation, so thank you. However, I've already played that one. You're right. It is fun. It's not a great gameplay concept for a Batman game, but getting past that, it's a fun maze-action game with a Batman coat of paint and killer music.