smoreon

@RetroGames You mean shadows cast by the characters? The only shadows I can see on the characters here are baked into the textures.

Though yeah, the overall point stands, as there were Saturn/PS1/N64/SNES(!) games with reasonably accurate real-time shadows casting on the ground, as well as GameCube/PS2/Xbox games that had self-shadowing (where characters' heads, arms, etc., could cast shadows across their torsos and legs). Yet there are much newer games that struggle to implement either of these.

@KitsuneNight I wouldn't say the GameCube was a failure, either. Not a huge success, sales-wise, but it did okay. Just not as well as Nintendo hoped- or it arguably deserved.

And its library had some real quality, too!

As far as accessibility and reputation in the present day, I don't see how that would make a system any more or less of a success... it's not even like Nintendo kept pressing more GameCube games for back compat during the Wii era, the way some companies did for other platforms (e.g., PS1 games like Metal Gear Solid being sold for PS2). But yes, I think it has seen a resurgence in popularity. Lots of people now see it as an underappreciated gem.

@gb_nes_gamer I'd like to buy some of the previous minis, but they were... well, delisted. Sold out. Whereas I can still buy and download decades-old games on GOG and Steam, thanks to the unlimited "print run" of digital. Pros and cons to both, of course!

Plus, there's nothing preventing them from releasing, let's say, a physical Xbox/PlayStation disc containing 10 Saturn classics.

@gb_nes_gamer I'm with you on wanting more Saturn games to be re-released, for sure! Not personally all that excited about having a dedicated emulation box to play them on, though, when they could just be released as software, either in a compilation or individually.

It's great that Guardian Heroes, NiGHTS into Dreams*, Panzer Dragoon, and Radiant Silvergun are already available on modern platforms (mostly Xbox), but let's get some PD Zwei and Saga over here as well! Maybe Burning Rangers, Dragon Force, Magic Knight Rayearth, and Shining Force 3?

*Note that Nights is being delisted in exactly 2 weeks!

@RetroGames Wii U has to be second- I always see the GameCube also described as a flop, due to its paltry 21 million sales (rounded down from 21.8, because who cares about math?) compared to the Xbox's impressive and respectable 24 million.

@RupeeClock Thanks for that! The 70 and 120 were obvious enough, but I was trying to remember what was so significant about collecting 16 stars in particular.

For anyone wondering: yes, it has music on the title screen.
No, it doesn't have that legendary theme from the SNES version.

@Arcticpandapopz Yeah, LRG has plenty of issues, but to their credit, they're also the ones stepping up and making these releases happen.

You'd think there's a lot of opportunity for other companies to do the same kinds of projects, just without the drama and quality issues, but maybe it's a difficult or risky business to get into.

@slider1983 It was a cost issue, no doubt. 4 MB carts were already expensive, and Super FX carts were also expensive, so putting the two together wouldn't have been feasible. Even without the Super FX, games were always skimping on ROM space if the devs/pubs thought they could pull it off!

@Raven9000 Oops, I had heard of Kronos before, but forgot. Looking it up now, however, it is a fork of Yaba Sanshiro.
And apparently there's a Beetle Saturn which is different from the Mednafen Saturn core? Beetle PSX is quite good, so this also might be worth checking out.

@slider1983 Sorry, I don't know what came of that.
I've said what I know (which isn't much.)
Guess we need that comparison article!

@slider1983 Yeah, I've been a bit out of the loop on this for a while, so it would be good to know where things stand.

• Mednafen seems to have very high compatibility and accuracy, based on my limited experience, but it's light on enhancements (no HD rendering).
• About a decade ago, I was using SSF, as it was also very accurate (and I don't think Mednafen existed yet), but it had noticeable input lag.
• Yabause (which I'm assuming is what Yaba Sanshiro is based on) was better in both of those areas (crisp HD graphics!), but as of a decade ago, had a lot of graphical issues. But I imagine that Yaba-something or other could very well be the best now!

PS: I don't mean to make emulation out to be this daunting mess that takes a PhD to understand (as it's often very simple!), but there are a lot of variables when it comes to getting the best experience with certain consoles. Like what's the best NES emulator these days? I don't even know. And is GlideN64 still the best N64 graphics plugin- and did it resolve the input lag issues on Mario 64?
A lot of the info you'll find on emulators either doesn't dig deep enough or is severely out-of-date.

@Damo The headline is also off, and should be something like: "Sonic The Hedgehog 2 For Master System And Game Gear Is Getting An Impressive Fan-Made Remake".

"if the manufacturer can stop you from modifying "your" car then it isn't really "your" car: it's really their car by definition and you're only renting."

I see they've discovered how the video game industry works!
(also phones, and movies, and tractors, and...)

@slider1983 The Xbox One version of KI 2013 used to include the two arcade games, so that was all three main entries in one place. (No Game Boy port, sorry!)
But you can't buy that edition of the game now, as it was updated to stay in line with the PC version or something.

Ah, yes, because Naruto invented the name Sasuke.
I hope no old media from the past also try to copy the name Hanzo from Overwatch.

I didn't realize Mega64 was still around! I remember a bunch of their videos being hilarious, back in the day.

PS: "What are ya buuyyyyin?"

This part is just ridiculous: "there simply aren't enough safeguards in place to ensure that users wouldn't illegally back up and distribute games they had borrowed from a library."

All of these games have already been backed up and illegally distributed! If people are going to an online library, then they're specifically choosing to play their games legitimately, as those same games are already out there for the taking.

Just like with the whole movie/game/TV DRM issue, these companies think that more people being able to back up their stuff somehow means that more people are going to steal things.

Too bad there isn't an easy way to do the opposite: transferring saves from the VMU to a PC, allowing for easy backups and the ability to continue playing on an emulator.

Though I guess this disc builder could be helpful for unlocking everything in Sonic Shuffle, if nothing else. That one is a grind!

@AlienX Funny how that works- in your case, it would seem to disprove the idea that the appeal is all just from nostalgia!

I had a similar experience with Star Fox Adventures. Gorgeous game, but it feels so, so shallow now (whereas I apparently didn't really notice this as a teenager). It just hit me on my latest playthrough that almost every item/power is just a key in disguise: instead of using the blue key on the blue door, you have to use the pole vault move on the pole vault tile.

Sonic Adventure (DX), though- I don't play it nearly as often as I used to, but I still love the feel of the controls, the ridiculously flexible and powerful move set, the rockin' soundtrack, and the sheer ambition that went into this game!

@Fighting_Game_Loser This is a good point.
Re-releases of older games are sometimes implied to be specifically for those who want to revisit them, and people will often dismiss older games as only being highly regarded because of nostalgia ("Goldeneye has aged terribly", "Sonic was never good", etc.). But these games have plenty of value in themselves.

This is obviously highly subjective, but there are plenty of games that I discovered late, but still saw the appeal in (as well as some that I didn't!), and even now, I still enjoy picking up and experiencing old games that I missed out on the first time around!

I'm not sure that I believe in bad nostalgia, per se, so much as misuse of nostalgia, i.e., pandering: when modern sequels, reboots, or tributes are too heavy-handed in their callbacks to the classics, rather than developing their own identity.

I also take issue with the idea that only the best media deserve to be preserved and/or re-released. Maybe you don't care about Croc or whatever, but for others, it's "literally [their] childhood!!!!1".
Or in my case: I'm fond of 3D platformers, I've already played the classics many times over, and I can handle a bit of jank. So I couldn't care less about seeing Mario 64 or Banjo pop up on NSO, but a remaster of Croc does appeal to me!

@GravyThief I think so. Barry, at least, was voiced by Barry Gjerde, who went on to act in a bunch more games. Definitely check out Deadstorm Pirates, if you haven't already- it's a lightgun shooter on PS3 (and still pretty common in arcades) with a light-hearted tone and goofy dialogue. And Gjerde's character accompanies you throughout, offering advice and lore.

@KitsuneNight After playing on emulators like Duckstation, I can't go back to the original hardware- at least not for lengthy playthroughs.
The graphics are so much cleaner*, loading times are basically a non-issue, and a good handful of games can be boosted to 60fps with few or no issues.

*Some people consider this a drawback, but it is optional! While I agree that PS1 doesn't benefit from HD as much as GameCube does, I still think the increased clarity is a benefit overall. The close-up objects are always going to look bad, regardless, but the distant details really pop in HD, instead of disappearing into a mess of pixel soup.

@Mgalens Yeah, a whole bunch of those old PS1/Saturn fighters ran at 60fps and 480i, and usually had nice-looking character models as well (as long as the camera didn't get too close!), making them age way better than most games from back then.

@bobby_steurer Nah, challenge him to the 1v1 mode in Double Dragon on NES!

@IceClimbersMain @REAVERZINE Come on, you guys have never heard of a power cable?

Speaking of British studios not completely understanding how much we all love certain platformer franchises, Rare seems to have been in the same boat for the past 20 years!

I know 3D platformers aren't the huge, mainstream, top sellers like they were in the late '90s, but there are so many players who feel nostalgic about the classics, or who just appreciate the styles of gameplay that these games feature. The recent wave of 3D platformers should make this clear!

Personally, I never got to play Croc (no nostalgia here!), but I've always been interested in it, so a remaster/remake definitely appeals to me.

@LadyCharlie A tool set (hammer, drill bits, etc.) can start to rust before long in an environment like that... I'd hate to see what would happen to game cartridges!

Looks impressive, great to see it's finally finished!

@NatiaAdamo Yeah, and I recall reading that the tinted water effect was missing because it relied on some specific hardware feature of mid-'90s graphics cards.
I don't think most of us realized we were playing the PC version at the time, though! Same goes for Sonic R in the same collection.

@IceClimbersMain I wonder if having this as a common "hub" for IP sales could make it easier to track down the owners of a particular property in the future.

Quite skeptical about this service, though, especially if it's presented as shown here: you can buy "all rights" to Dragon's Lair, except it's actually just the rights to specific ports? That sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. They really need to be up front about this stuff, and not leave it in the fine print, or we'll have more situations like that old anecdote about Microsoft thinking they owned Donkey Kong- or worse!

@mariteaux Yeah, I can't see the effect at all from that video. Someone should put up some proper HD footage on YouTube or something.

I'm hoping that this D64 port opens the floodgates and gets more devs really pushing the Dreamcast's graphical capabilities. There's been plenty of homebrew already, but most of what I've seen is on the simpler side, in contrast to the limit-pushers we've been seeing on older consoles.
I want to see what a AAA Dreamcast title from 2006 could've looked like, loaded up with normal maps and stencil shadows!

@GhaleonUnlimited Doom 64 is a worthy third Doom, I'd say- like an actual Doom 3, as opposed to the drastic departure we got with Doom 3 in 2004. Even before its resurgence, I think it was well regarded as a cult classic or ""hidden gem"" for quite a while... by the few who had actually played it.

It came out the same year as Goldeneye and Quake II, unfortunately. Releasing a simple, sprite-based FPS was maybe not the best thing for visibility, especially when it could be easily misinterpreted as a port of the 1993 original.

@MetaJ92 Shenmue I&II also has it, and you'd only need to keep a 10 GB installation!

Also, just want to say that I'm really impressed that these emulations were included in these games. That's a whole lot of effort, effectively given away for free (though it is making me even more interested in the series)!
The selection is also a surprisingly deep cut, especially coming from a company known for mostly releasing the same handful of 16-bit titles all the time.
What's next, Sunsoft bringing back Gimmick and Ufouria? (The state of gaming in 2024 isn't perfect, but it does have its upsides!)

@city952 You don't find it cool to see programmers and artists debunking those decades-old "x can't y" statements, just to see if they can?

Naturally, getting transparency on the Genesis was going to be a target, as scaling and rotation were before.
And on the other hand, we have stuff like the SNES running Sonic the Hedgehog at full speed, or playing a whole variety of Genesis music.

I get that some fanboys are overzealous, and maybe... let's say not exactly impartial. But then posts like yours are just throwing fuel on the fire.

Did portions of this doc get adapted into Shadowgate 64?
I've only played a bit, but its protagonist is also named Del, and it starts with his escape from a jail cell.

@Sketcz Yeah, it can be a real hassle to get certain patches to work, even with some cartridge ROMs.
Though I can see why, legally, it's safer to offer just the patches. And, of course, it's a lot cheaper than hosting full CD and DVD rips for people to download.

But I've noticed a certain paranoia and zeal, even, in some circles, where even a hint or reference to anything tangential to piracy is handled harshly. By that point, it's not a legal issue, but... a moral one? Or a misplaced sense of loyalty? I'm not even sure.

@RetroGames @KingMike I might've been thinking of the NES 2 (aka NES-101, aka the top-loader), which dropped composite support despite being so much newer than the old front-loader NES- or the SNES, for that matter!

@-wc- Nope. I have the Wind Waker bundle- got it used, but it has an exhaustive list of contents on the box- there's only HDMI, though the console works with a Wii composite cable if you have one.

So you're right. It's apparently the first console to only ship with an HDMI cable!
Key word is "only", though, as the Elite Xbox 360 (2007) not only supported HDMI, but also came with a cable.

I like the wording you used: that Wii U was the first console "purpose built for HD". Those fake HD 7th gen systems can go jump in a beautifully-rendered lake!

@wiiware Yeah, Wii U is a simple way to get crisp video over HDMI. It'll still be pretty pixelated, though.
From what I've seen, there's also some cool stuff you can do with GameCube games via Nintendont (homebrew for Wii U). which lets you play them with improved performance and I think widescreen as well.

@RetroGames I know a few of these, so I'll start it off:

• NES and SMS were fully mono, even internally.
• I believe Genesis always shipped with a mono RF adapter, but the capability for stereo is there if you buy a composite cable for the Model 2. IIRC, Model 1 can't do stereo over its main output, but does have a stereo headphone jack.
• Not sure about the launch SNES (I thought it might've come with a mono RF cable?), but later models came with a stereo composite cable, as did basically every console from then up to- and including- the PS3!

Personally, I used to run my consoles through a VCR to my TV, which was mono. At some point later on, when I had a stereo TV, I realized that this setup was still crunching everything down to mono, so I rewired it to skip the VCR and its cable, and things sounded so much fuller. It was just typical, muddy TV audio, but it still seemed so cool to finally have stereo, as I hadn't been spoiled by actual high-quality sound!

"the ginormous world that Volgarr has to run through [is] this absolutely insane texture"
This part is surprising, considering how much tiling there is in the background graphics.

I'm guessing the devs found that it was easier to assemble the environment in a graphical tool before exporting it as a single image, as opposed to just importing the individual tiles into the game editor and building the levels there. This is fine on modern systems- or the Neo Geo, which is built for that kind of thing- but very inefficient and very different from something you'd see on, say, the SNES!

@wiiware Maybe you already have experience here, but just in case:
Keep in mind that these upscalers are ultimately working with 480p video, so even the "good" ones will make the games look pixelated on a modern (especially 4K) screen.

Unless you use an emulator to play in actual, native 4K, you'll inevitably have to choose between blurry and pixelated, as that's all the Wii console itself can do!

@-wc- You can get male-male USB-C adapters for about $5, so I guess it would be possible to just attach this drive to one of those instead... but it would have to be pretty light, or the weight could cause problems.

In general, this kind of thing is a big- and all too often overlooked- problem with portable devices, especially of the Apple variety: what's the point of an ultra-slim device, when you need a USB hub and other adapters to make it fully functional? I'd rather just have a bulky laptop that has all that stuff built in, as that bulky, singular slab is a lot more portable in reality.

I don't remember hearing about any of this before, even the old news, so thanks for bringing it to my attention!

Pac-Man World 3 still ended up being a little darker than the previous ones, didn't it- but only slightly? I never did get around to playing that one.

From a practicality standpoint, it's hard to see the use case for any portable Wii, unless it's some kind of emulation-based thing like the Steam Deck. Way too many controllers, wires, etc., on top of the actual device and its deck.

Very cute, though, I will give it that!

Brett (usually credited as "B Jones") was also responsible for voicing Cassandra in Perfect Dark and hiding pieces of cheese everywhere in that same game- on top of being a major contributor to making Rare's games look so good, of course!

@Yousef- It's okay, no offense taken!
I just figured you had missed out on the wave of modern Contra-likes, and might want to know about them.

@Yousef- Unexplored by devs, or just by you?
Super Cyborg, Blazing Chrome, Balacera Bros, Biomech Hell, and Spidersaurs all come to mind, and I'm sure there are more!

Be sure to check out Blazing Chrome, at least!