Oof... some elements of this are sad, frustrating, and making me feel really old (when I'm not even 40).
On the other hand, it's great to see game history being taught by those who are knowledgeable and passionate about it, and these problems of disinterest being discussed and worked through! I'm optimistic, considering both this and the interest that a small number of younger gamers have shown about gaming history. I think the potential is there for younger people to come to appreciate these older games and the accompanying context. They all just need to keep an open mind.
@Mario500 I had a hard time even figuring out what you were talking about, but I eventually found it! There doesn't appear to be anything remotely offensive past that point, from what I can tell, so you should be able to continue on and finish the article- assuming that's what you're here for.
TE's material typically seems to aim for a roughly "PG" level of family-friendliness, however, so future articles probably won't agree with you.
Now we non-Japanese gamers will be able to fight muscular snowmen and muscular Renaissance paintings for the first time, on top of the muscular Elvis submarine and muscular Thomas the Tank Engine from the first game (previously on Wii VC).
@Daggot Whether it's the originals, or DD Neon vs SoR4, Streets of Rage has always been better than Double Dragon, in terms of depth, balance, and polish. Though, in fairness, DD1 and Neon are both much older than their SoR counterparts.
Neon does have more depth than might be apparent on the surface, however, and is well worth another try- even just to play through it once on the standard difficulty, if nothing else. And I really like its presentation, especially the soundtrack!
@mariteaux Good points, especially this line: "they have made me appreciate games I've never cared about before".
It might sound crazy at first (and sure, there are people who will play a game only for its achievements, but that's a different matter), but I think this is really the secret strength of achievements: encouragement to play and appreciate the game more.
For those of us who weren't gaming in the early '80s, achievements are an incentive to take a closer look at these seemingly repetitive games and understand their depth a bit better, rather than simply putting in five minutes and then walking away.
And even for somewhat newer titles, they can provide an excuse to go back and play an old favourite in a new way.
@AFourEyedGeek Are you sure you're not thinking of the 32X version? That one had simplified levels and "fart like music", IIRC.
The SNES version was ironically more faithful to the original level designs than the other consoles' ports were, and the worst thing I could say about its music is that the guitar in "At Doom's Gate" sounds like a muffled cello. (So many SNES games had lame instrument samples with no punch to them. Less a technical issue than a stylistic one.) The slower, darker, more atmospheric tracks might even be better than the PC version, but that's a matter of opinion.
"every sound file being normalized to 10 full seconds long" Why, just why?
This is one of the great things about emulation, though. Some games are awful and borderline unplayable because of performance problems, and emu features like overclocking and fast loading can make these issues simply go away.
Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly wouldn't have been so badly received if it had run at a silky 60fps, already great titles like Perfect Dark and Blood Omen would've had nothing to criticize if their performance issues were ironed out, and even the legendarily awful Sonic '06 would have been more palatable if the loading screens weren't constantly getting in the way.
"Football Soccer"? That's already sounding pretty evil. (Most Brits already get upset by the word "soccer" in itself. I don't want to see how this will go over.)
Correction/clarification: This is still 30fps, just like the original.
They're claiming that it's "60fps", but in this case, it only means that the emulated Neo Geo is outputting the full 60Hz, regardless of what the actual game is doing.
In other words, it's a roundabout way of saying "full speed".
@LowDefAl Yeah, if there was a non-zero chance of it corrupting, then that'd be a game breaker. No point in making the third chapter more accessible, if the save could just go bad by the time you get there.
Or, maybe they were just being over-cautious. I never had a physical Sega CD, so I don't know how reliable the internal memory was.
In any case, I'm glad to have left behind the days of tiny storage media that can only hold a few save files!
What's that bit about "former Sega Rally composer Johnny Gioeli"? I think that's a mistake... unless Gioeli worked on some later Sega Rally games, and I somehow never knew it. (Within the Sega fandom, he's best known for doing the vocals in a number of Sonic games.)
Otherwise, really enjoyed the interview. Here's hoping this game can see a release, with or even without Sega.
@Spider-Kev Oh, yeah, I get that! Some have criticized the obsessive "hoarding" mentality around preservation, and while I get that a lot of games and materials have seemingly little historical relevance, I still have to disagree with the idea that these lesser-known things should just be dropped.
We each have our own favourites: games that we might remember fondly, and treasure as part of our collection. Maybe we want to see them remastered or re-released, or we're craving any development materials and prototypes that may turn up. And not everyone has the same short list of favourites!
My most-wanted prototype is an obscure one, as are many of my most-wanted games: games that other people may think are unimportant and not worth preserving!
@Azuris My point was more that they seemingly had no clue what Puyo Puyo was, even despite there being multiple western releases at that time.
But yeah, that trend of calling things "Doom clone", etc., was especially prevalent back then- now we just add "-like" to the end of everything (e.g., soulslike), which is obviously different and so much better! The more things change...
I think the bigger issue is that they treated this like an all-new Tetris "clone", having apparently never heard of Kirby's Avalanche/Ghost Trap or Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine! (Or, you know, Puyo Puyo itself, seeing as they also covered imports.)
Strange that they'd be partway through developing a GBA game in 2007, when the DS had already been around since 2004. I know it wouldn't have been the only GBA game to release in '07-'08, but it's still unusual, especially for something that's not a kids' TV show tie-in.
The thing that makes this so difficult and obscure, which some sources (including this article) are missing, is that you have to deliberately neglect your pet in a specific way after spending all of that time taking perfect care of it!
Any clues as to when these were made? Some of those renders remind me of Kameo, so I wouldn't be surprised if they were made around the time Kameo's own design was established (2001?) for the GameCube version. But that's not much to go on.
@tektite_captain They might be going for a '70s or early '80s aesthetic with those stripes... charming in its way, but definitely not to everyone's taste!
@Gamelore If you experience struggles and difficulties in day-to-day life, then why would you want to also have virtual struggles and difficulties while you're unwinding?
I guess Cicero (who wrote what became the "lorem ipsum" filler text) was wrong about no one wanting pain for its own sake!
PS: I get the appeal of overcoming challenges in a game, having beaten some tough games in the past, and I also feel that reloading a state specifically is a mild form of cheating, but what is the point of video games, if you're not having fun?
Correction: the article says 500 rounds, not hours. I imagine this would take more like 10 hours, assuming there aren't other criteria for unlocking everything!
@Sketcz My thoughts exactly, except I figured my career would've started with countless hours of designing particle effects for Assassin's Creed under crunch conditions... and then moved on to the lame GaaS type stuff!
Ah, well, we've still got the old games. And N64-style sensibilities are starting to come back, so maybe there are some decent game dev jobs waiting for us at some smaller studios?
So they have "locations related to prostitution" in the games, but it's the colour pink that's the problem? Interesting logic.
I guess it's along the lines of some kid-friendly depictions of pirates: they can dress and talk like pirates, but they aren't allowed to actually do any piratey things, as that would be inappropriate.
I just have to wonder: who thought it was a good idea to have the primary button on the right, and the secondary button on the bottom? No human's thumbs reach across the buttons at such an angle!
Nintendo must have already realized the insanity of this by 1990, as they used B as the jump button in Super Mario World... but that's a launch game, which makes me wonder why they didn't just move the buttons around so that A is on the bottom!
Even stranger is that they switched to the more ergonomic setup of B on the left and A on the bottom with N64, but then reverted to the weird layout for systems like DS, Wii U, and Switch. Meanwhile, Nintendo and PlayStation games alike have been a hodgepodge of B to jump, A to jump, triangle to cancel, X to cancel, circle to cancel, etc. etc., and this still hasn't been fully settled!
@Spider-Kev Well, to be fair, you can "cross" something out when it's false... However, we have the early PS1 instruction manuals on our side! Early game releases with the long boxes actually spelled out the button names, and sure enough: "EKS BUTTON"
All it took was Sony Europe's community manager making a single post on Twitter, and suddenly everyone switched to "cross".
@GravyThief Yeah, it's only fair that people not have their original ideas stolen, when applicable.
What really bugs me is how wide and far-reaching some of these patents can be (as some trademark registrations have also been). Sometimes a concept is simply the logical solution to a problem, and it's only natural that many different parties would have that same idea, independently of each other. But the first one through the gate claims it, forcing everyone else to come up with convoluted workarounds- or just leave the problem unresolved.
Hmm, it seems that the egg references are no coincidence: this is quite Tamagotchi-inspired. I might've had my fill of virtual pet shenanigans for one lifetime, though this is on a whole other level compared to the original Tamagotchi...
It's unfortunate that a tool like this has never been implemented at a system/emulator level, but it's apparently way harder (if not impossible) to do that on PS2, compared to something like GameCube (which has had Free Look for a long time now).
On the plus side, this per-game camera mod sounds a lot more full-featured! I wonder if the game even knows the camera is being moved, and adjusts the culling to match, as that could be interesting.
Is it just me, or is there something unintentionally funny about the name "Marble of Souls"?
I guess it's the way they took a typical Castlevania-sounding name and then injected this ordinary-sounding object ("Marble") into it.
PS: I'm gathering that some people don't already know... look up Konami's pachinko/pachislot games based on their best franchises. And then weep.
What's this bit about the Cowabunga Collection (CC)? If I'm understanding it correctly, LRG recorded (or outright copied) the OGG files from a jukebox feature in the CC's bonus content?
They could've just downloaded the NSFE (a file containing the exact music data extracted from the ROM, with track names and timings added), played it from start to finish, and logged the output. It would've produced better results, and taken less work at the same time!
(Before anyone mentions it: yes, they could use a real NES, but that's a lot harder, and I imagine that the CC tracks were recorded from emulation, anyway.)
Looking forward to seeing more of this, for sure! I'd already be down for what seems to be "Quest 64, but better", but seeing Lambert's technical wizardry used in a real game is an exciting prospect. And I hadn't encountered pyroxene's work before, but their 3D art here looks great, from the small sample that we've seen!
PS: The name "Spellcraft" has already been taken, but I suppose that's not as much of an issue yet, seeing as this is just using it as a working title. It would probably be good to get a new name soon, however.
@nocdaes Fortunately, they still showed more effort than just rehashing the same few titles of yesteryear, as there are only so many different combinations, and I think most of them have been used up: Fight'n Rage, The Rage, Raging Justice, Final Vendetta, etc.
And I have to agree with Poodlestargenerica on "brawl" evoking bar fights, etc... with the one exception being a certain unusually sedate fighting game where everyone floats around in slow motion, and the most intense action and violence is caused by tripping over one's own feet.
More on topic: old-school Ys is great (the Turbografx version of 1&2 even holds up surprisingly well), and I'm intrigued by Anodyne 2, despite not having gotten around to playing it yet. (Classic backlog problem.) If this new game combines the two, then that sounds like a good sign!
@Sketcz Yeah, I don't know if it's a setting or what, but it seems your Steam installation was hit with a glitch of some kind, rather than intentional sabotage.
I can't say I use folders quite the way you do (alphabetical sort + liberal use of subfolders does it for me most of the time!), but I was still pretty annoyed at the removal of that option. I didn't realize it was still there in 7 (albeit hidden). Supposedly, people were "losing" icons by stacking them over top of each other- and rather than just keep it disabled by default, M$ saw fit to just remove the feature to serve the lowest common denominator. (sigh...)
Linux Mint allows fully manual arrangement, and it has been such a relief to be able to push icons around in arbitrary groupings, in the handful of cases where I need that. It has tabs in explorer windows like Win11, too, which is the feature I didn't know I needed! And of course, it doesn't restart itself without asking.
Unfortunately, not everything is sunshine and roses, and game compatibility has been a bit more hit-or-miss than I'd like, even with Proton. I have a similar plan as you, where the next rig will probably be just for gaming, the Win7/Mint desktop can remain as the main workstation, and the old XP computer(s) will continue to handle specific cases.
@Sketcz That's strange, as mine just shows an empty threat of "Windows 7 will stop working in 0 days", while otherwise working fine. You might be able to get your installed games working via workarounds like Steam emulation, swapping/removing certain DLLs, etc., but I've never delved into this myself to see how easy/effective it is.
Regardless, having games that aren't tied to a launcher (i.e., everything on GOG) is preferable, especially in the long run!
PS: In case any busybodies feel the need to point out that Windows 7 is EOL, I'll preemptively point out that we're quite aware! I sometimes need to hop over to it for various reasons.
@UK_Kev It's all right, not a big deal. I was just kind of curious, as everything I'd heard indicated that some/most of these were native 720p (in the actual rendering). For those games that are upscaled- whether that's all of them, or just some- that's a lot less interesting, especially considering the TV can already do that itself!
@UK_Kev Yeah, ports and remasters can be a messy business, even to this day. I'd go as far as to say that almost all of them downgrade something, whether the issue is with graphics, performance, art direction, censorship, or bugs. But that's a whole other topic! Despite all that, a system two generations out-of-date can receive a feature-complete port these days, which was completely unheard of in the past!
Do you have any sources regarding the OG Xbox's 720p mode? From what I can find, a bunch of games apparently do support true 720p, but there are also quite a few that upscale and/or are only 480p (despite reporting 720p on the back of the box). I've never gotten to try out the system's "HD" modes myself, so I'm just going by what I've read.
@UK_Kev The old consoles were so interesting, and I think this kind of thing is a big part of that!
I would also include the GameCube, though, as its fixed-function GPU had specific things it could or couldn't do in hardware. This made it more like an old console in some ways, as opposed to the modern-style Xbox. And it could apparently do a lot of tasks and effects faster than the Xbox for this reason, despite being a lot weaker on paper. (In some ways, it kind of parallels the Genesis and SNES, with one having more advanced features, and the other being faster.)
But yeah, it has become a lot more uniform since then. There are still pros and cons to each system, and they have their own quirks, but it's nowhere near what it was before.
Didn't 720p Xbox games usually run in true 720p, or close to it? I know the 360 cheated a lot, though, especially with the supposed "1080p" titles.
@Poodlestargenerica That's what I love about these basic enhancements like HD, 60fps, widescreen, or extended draw distance: were getting all of the original artwork as-is, but we're seeing it look cleaner than ever!
It's not like a remake (or even a lot of remasters), where things are refined or reworked, and the art direction is tampered with. Even if those look stunning, they're still different, and they can fail to capture the appeal of the original.
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Re: The Challenge Of Teaching Game History In The Age Of Minecraft, Netflix And ChatGPT
Oof... some elements of this are sad, frustrating, and making me feel really old (when I'm not even 40).
On the other hand, it's great to see game history being taught by those who are knowledgeable and passionate about it, and these problems of disinterest being discussed and worked through!
I'm optimistic, considering both this and the interest that a small number of younger gamers have shown about gaming history.
I think the potential is there for younger people to come to appreciate these older games and the accompanying context. They all just need to keep an open mind.
Re: The Challenge Of Teaching Game History In The Age Of Minecraft, Netflix And ChatGPT
@Mario500 I had a hard time even figuring out what you were talking about, but I eventually found it! There doesn't appear to be anything remotely offensive past that point, from what I can tell, so you should be able to continue on and finish the article- assuming that's what you're here for.
TE's material typically seems to aim for a roughly "PG" level of family-friendliness, however, so future articles probably won't agree with you.
Re: Super-Camp Shmup Series 'Cho Aniki' Is Making A Comeback
Now we non-Japanese gamers will be able to fight muscular snowmen and muscular Renaissance paintings for the first time, on top of the muscular Elvis submarine and muscular Thomas the Tank Engine from the first game (previously on Wii VC).
Re: A Double Dragon Revival Is Coming To Modern Consoles In 2025
@Daggot Whether it's the originals, or DD Neon vs SoR4, Streets of Rage has always been better than Double Dragon, in terms of depth, balance, and polish. Though, in fairness, DD1 and Neon are both much older than their SoR counterparts.
Neon does have more depth than might be apparent on the surface, however, and is well worth another try- even just to play through it once on the standard difficulty, if nothing else. And I really like its presentation, especially the soundtrack!
Re: GameCube Gets Achievements Thanks To The Dolphin Emulator
@mariteaux Good points, especially this line: "they have made me appreciate games I've never cared about before".
It might sound crazy at first (and sure, there are people who will play a game only for its achievements, but that's a different matter), but I think this is really the secret strength of achievements: encouragement to play and appreciate the game more.
For those of us who weren't gaming in the early '80s, achievements are an incentive to take a closer look at these seemingly repetitive games and understand their depth a bit better, rather than simply putting in five minutes and then walking away.
And even for somewhat newer titles, they can provide an excuse to go back and play an old favourite in a new way.
Re: The Soundtrack To SNES Doom Just Got An MSU-1 Upgrade
@AFourEyedGeek Are you sure you're not thinking of the 32X version? That one had simplified levels and "fart like music", IIRC.
The SNES version was ironically more faithful to the original level designs than the other consoles' ports were, and the worst thing I could say about its music is that the guitar in "At Doom's Gate" sounds like a muffled cello. (So many SNES games had lame instrument samples with no punch to them. Less a technical issue than a stylistic one.) The slower, darker, more atmospheric tracks might even be better than the PC version, but that's a matter of opinion.
Re: The "Worst PlayStation RPG Ever" Is Getting A Fan Translation
"every sound file being normalized to 10 full seconds long"
Why, just why?
This is one of the great things about emulation, though. Some games are awful and borderline unplayable because of performance problems, and emu features like overclocking and fast loading can make these issues simply go away.
Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly wouldn't have been so badly received if it had run at a silky 60fps, already great titles like Perfect Dark and Blood Omen would've had nothing to criticize if their performance issues were ironed out, and even the legendarily awful Sonic '06 would have been more palatable if the loading screens weren't constantly getting in the way.
Re: This FIFA 98 And Silent Hill Mash-Up Could Be The First "Survival Horror Football Game"
"Football Soccer"? That's already sounding pretty evil.
(Most Brits already get upset by the word "soccer" in itself. I don't want to see how this will go over.)
Re: This Dreamcast Metal Slug Port Is Even Better Than The Neo Geo Original
Correction/clarification: This is still 30fps, just like the original.
They're claiming that it's "60fps", but in this case, it only means that the emulated Neo Geo is outputting the full 60Hz, regardless of what the actual game is doing.
In other words, it's a roundabout way of saying "full speed".
Re: Sega Almost Ported Shining Force 1 And 2 To Saturn
"Empty shell of a dream" has to be the saddest sounding console name I've ever heard, real or fictional.
Re: Turns Out Shining Force CD Didn't Actually Need The Sega CD Backup RAM Cart
@LowDefAl Yeah, if there was a non-zero chance of it corrupting, then that'd be a game breaker. No point in making the third chapter more accessible, if the save could just go bad by the time you get there.
Or, maybe they were just being over-cautious. I never had a physical Sega CD, so I don't know how reliable the internal memory was.
In any case, I'm glad to have left behind the days of tiny storage media that can only hold a few save files!
Re: Meet The Solo Dev Whose Sega Rally Tribute Could Become An Official Sequel
What's that bit about "former Sega Rally composer Johnny Gioeli"?
I think that's a mistake... unless Gioeli worked on some later Sega Rally games, and I somehow never knew it. (Within the Sega fandom, he's best known for doing the vocals in a number of Sonic games.)
Otherwise, really enjoyed the interview. Here's hoping this game can see a release, with or even without Sega.
Re: Talking Point: Is Nintendo Erasing Its Own History In Its War On ROM Sites?
@Spider-Kev Oh, yeah, I get that!
Some have criticized the obsessive "hoarding" mentality around preservation, and while I get that a lot of games and materials have seemingly little historical relevance, I still have to disagree with the idea that these lesser-known things should just be dropped.
We each have our own favourites: games that we might remember fondly, and treasure as part of our collection. Maybe we want to see them remastered or re-released, or we're craving any development materials and prototypes that may turn up. And not everyone has the same short list of favourites!
My most-wanted prototype is an obscure one, as are many of my most-wanted games: games that other people may think are unimportant and not worth preserving!
Re: Talking Point: Is Nintendo Erasing Its Own History In Its War On ROM Sites?
@Spider-Kev On the real NES, even if I admittedly haven't played much of it.
Sorry, though, I don't quite follow- where are you going with this?
Re: Talking Point: Is Nintendo Erasing Its Own History In Its War On ROM Sites?
@Spider-Kev Yes, actually. Hope I'm not ruining your point by saying that!
Re: Random: Hilarious Puyo Puyo SUN Review Mistake Resurfaces Online
@Azuris My point was more that they seemingly had no clue what Puyo Puyo was, even despite there being multiple western releases at that time.
But yeah, that trend of calling things "Doom clone", etc., was especially prevalent back then- now we just add "-like" to the end of everything (e.g., soulslike), which is obviously different and so much better! The more things change...
Re: Random: Hilarious Puyo Puyo SUN Review Mistake Resurfaces Online
I think the bigger issue is that they treated this like an all-new Tetris "clone", having apparently never heard of Kirby's Avalanche/Ghost Trap or Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine! (Or, you know, Puyo Puyo itself, seeing as they also covered imports.)
Re: Early GBA Build Of The Nintendo DS RPG Black Sigil Released Online
Strange that they'd be partway through developing a GBA game in 2007, when the DS had already been around since 2004. I know it wouldn't have been the only GBA game to release in '07-'08, but it's still unusual, especially for something that's not a kids' TV show tie-in.
Re: After 27 Years, This Tamagotchi Mystery Has Been Solved In "Absolutely Brutal" Fashion
The thing that makes this so difficult and obscure, which some sources (including this article) are missing, is that you have to deliberately neglect your pet in a specific way after spending all of that time taking perfect care of it!
Re: Former Rare Artist Shares Early Concept Art For Perfect Dark Zero
Any clues as to when these were made? Some of those renders remind me of Kameo, so I wouldn't be surprised if they were made around the time Kameo's own design was established (2001?) for the GameCube version. But that's not much to go on.
Re: Check Out Capcom's Bizarre Unreleased Vulgus Sequel, Titan Warriors
How did such an unremarkable shooter have such a wild sequel? This is like some crazy combo of Life Force and Abaddox!
Re: Retro-Bit Is Relaunching Rod Land On NES And Game Boy
This was a neat one. Even if you're not into single-screen games, the NES version pulls some interesting twists!
Re: Chromatic Is A FPGA-Based Game Boy From Palmer Luckey
@tektite_captain They might be going for a '70s or early '80s aesthetic with those stripes... charming in its way, but definitely not to everyone's taste!
Re: Soapbox: Here's Why I Can't Ditch Software Emulation Handhelds For The FPGA Analogue Pocket
@Gamelore If you experience struggles and difficulties in day-to-day life, then why would you want to also have virtual struggles and difficulties while you're unwinding?
I guess Cicero (who wrote what became the "lorem ipsum" filler text) was wrong about no one wanting pain for its own sake!
PS: I get the appeal of overcoming challenges in a game, having beaten some tough games in the past, and I also feel that reloading a state specifically is a mild form of cheating, but what is the point of video games, if you're not having fun?
Re: Deadly Metropolis Is A Streets Of Rage-Style Scrolling Fighter You Should Keep An Eye On
Cool, it looks kind of like Strider 2, visually speaking.
Almost like it's from a lost era of 32-bit beat-em-ups.
Re: References To Street Fighter Characters Found In Sega's Fighters Megamix
Correction: the article says 500 rounds, not hours. I imagine this would take more like 10 hours, assuming there aren't other criteria for unlocking everything!
Re: Flashback: It's 1997, And The BBC Is Hyping Up The Battle Between N64, PS1 And Saturn
@Sketcz My thoughts exactly, except I figured my career would've started with countless hours of designing particle effects for Assassin's Creed under crunch conditions... and then moved on to the lame GaaS type stuff!
Ah, well, we've still got the old games. And N64-style sensibilities are starting to come back, so maybe there are some decent game dev jobs waiting for us at some smaller studios?
Re: "The Colour Pink Is Associated With Sex" - Yakuza Creator's Battle With Sega Over Video Game Nookie
So they have "locations related to prostitution" in the games, but it's the colour pink that's the problem? Interesting logic.
I guess it's along the lines of some kid-friendly depictions of pirates: they can dress and talk like pirates, but they aren't allowed to actually do any piratey things, as that would be inappropriate.
Re: This Game Boy Won't Fit In Your Pocket
Finally, a handheld system that doesn't cause hand cramps!
Re: Ever Wondered What The Symbols On The PlayStation Controller Really Mean?
I just have to wonder: who thought it was a good idea to have the primary button on the right, and the secondary button on the bottom? No human's thumbs reach across the buttons at such an angle!
Nintendo must have already realized the insanity of this by 1990, as they used B as the jump button in Super Mario World... but that's a launch game, which makes me wonder why they didn't just move the buttons around so that A is on the bottom!
Even stranger is that they switched to the more ergonomic setup of B on the left and A on the bottom with N64, but then reverted to the weird layout for systems like DS, Wii U, and Switch.
Meanwhile, Nintendo and PlayStation games alike have been a hodgepodge of B to jump, A to jump, triangle to cancel, X to cancel, circle to cancel, etc. etc., and this still hasn't been fully settled!
Re: Ever Wondered What The Symbols On The PlayStation Controller Really Mean?
@Spider-Kev Well, to be fair, you can "cross" something out when it's false...
However, we have the early PS1 instruction manuals on our side!
Early game releases with the long boxes actually spelled out the button names, and sure enough: "EKS BUTTON"
All it took was Sony Europe's community manager making a single post on Twitter, and suddenly everyone switched to "cross".
Re: Konami Once Held A Patent For Transparent Walls In Video Games
@GravyThief Yeah, it's only fair that people not have their original ideas stolen, when applicable.
What really bugs me is how wide and far-reaching some of these patents can be (as some trademark registrations have also been). Sometimes a concept is simply the logical solution to a problem, and it's only natural that many different parties would have that same idea, independently of each other. But the first one through the gate claims it, forcing everyone else to come up with convoluted workarounds- or just leave the problem unresolved.
Re: Cruis'n Blast Team's NBA Jam Spiritual Successor Is Called NBA Superstars
@GhaleonUnlimited Yeah, I'm sure they'd use the name if they actually had the rights!
I was just making fun of the lazy reboot titles that have been so common for the past decade or two.
Re: Yolk Heroes: A Long Tamago Is A Game Boy-Style RPG With Digital Pet Mechanics
Hmm, it seems that the egg references are no coincidence: this is quite Tamagotchi-inspired.
I might've had my fill of virtual pet shenanigans for one lifetime, though this is on a whole other level compared to the original Tamagotchi...
PS: "A Long Tamago"? 😆
Re: Cruis'n Blast Team's NBA Jam Spiritual Successor Is Called NBA Superstars
@Guru_Larry As far as lazy titles go, this is all right. At least they didn't call it "NBA Jam"... not to be confused with the 1993 NBA Jam.
Re: Zeebo Emulator Makes "Lost" Double Dragon And Crash Bandicoot Games Playable Again
I've always found the Zeebo interesting, especially after seeing that it has an N64-style demake of Resident Evil 4!
Re: Peter Molyneux Declined McDonald's Video Game Because "Kids Imagine Ronald Skewering Them"
"the prospect of working with McDoland's"
Is "McDoland's" a really sketchy knock-off of McDonald's, possibly featuring as its mascot a misshapen duck that says and does vulgar things?
Re: Handy PS2 Camera Tool Lets You Have A Good Look Around The Console's Best Horror Titles
It's unfortunate that a tool like this has never been implemented at a system/emulator level, but it's apparently way harder (if not impossible) to do that on PS2, compared to something like GameCube (which has had Free Look for a long time now).
On the plus side, this per-game camera mod sounds a lot more full-featured! I wonder if the game even knows the camera is being moved, and adjusts the culling to match, as that could be interesting.
Re: Konami, This Isn't The New Castlevania We Wanted
Is it just me, or is there something unintentionally funny about the name "Marble of Souls"?
I guess it's the way they took a typical Castlevania-sounding name and then injected this ordinary-sounding object ("Marble") into it.
PS: I'm gathering that some people don't already know... look up Konami's pachinko/pachislot games based on their best franchises. And then weep.
Re: Konami, This Isn't The New Castlevania We Wanted
@PinballBuzzbro That's modern Konami for you.
Re: Limited Run Under Fire For "Horrible" Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vinyl Release
What's this bit about the Cowabunga Collection (CC)? If I'm understanding it correctly, LRG recorded (or outright copied) the OGG files from a jukebox feature in the CC's bonus content?
They could've just downloaded the NSFE (a file containing the exact music data extracted from the ROM, with track names and timings added), played it from start to finish, and logged the output. It would've produced better results, and taken less work at the same time!
(Before anyone mentions it: yes, they could use a real NES, but that's a lot harder, and I imagine that the CC tracks were recorded from emulation, anyway.)
Re: Portal 64 Dev Shows Off New N64 RPG, Spellcraft
Looking forward to seeing more of this, for sure!
I'd already be down for what seems to be "Quest 64, but better", but seeing Lambert's technical wizardry used in a real game is an exciting prospect. And I hadn't encountered pyroxene's work before, but their 3D art here looks great, from the small sample that we've seen!
PS: The name "Spellcraft" has already been taken, but I suppose that's not as much of an issue yet, seeing as this is just using it as a working title. It would probably be good to get a new name soon, however.
Re: Streets Of Rage-Like Beat 'Em Up 'Fallen City Brawl' Gets Updated Steam Demo
@nocdaes Fortunately, they still showed more effort than just rehashing the same few titles of yesteryear, as there are only so many different combinations, and I think most of them have been used up: Fight'n Rage, The Rage, Raging Justice, Final Vendetta, etc.
And I have to agree with Poodlestargenerica on "brawl" evoking bar fights, etc... with the one exception being a certain unusually sedate fighting game where everyone floats around in slow motion, and the most intense action and violence is caused by tripping over one's own feet.
Re: Angeline Era Is A New 3D "Bump-Slash" Adventure Inspired By Hydlide & Ys
More on topic: old-school Ys is great (the Turbografx version of 1&2 even holds up surprisingly well), and I'm intrigued by Anodyne 2, despite not having gotten around to playing it yet. (Classic backlog problem.) If this new game combines the two, then that sounds like a good sign!
Re: Angeline Era Is A New 3D "Bump-Slash" Adventure Inspired By Hydlide & Ys
@Sketcz Yeah, I don't know if it's a setting or what, but it seems your Steam installation was hit with a glitch of some kind, rather than intentional sabotage.
I can't say I use folders quite the way you do (alphabetical sort + liberal use of subfolders does it for me most of the time!), but I was still pretty annoyed at the removal of that option. I didn't realize it was still there in 7 (albeit hidden). Supposedly, people were "losing" icons by stacking them over top of each other- and rather than just keep it disabled by default, M$ saw fit to just remove the feature to serve the lowest common denominator. (sigh...)
Linux Mint allows fully manual arrangement, and it has been such a relief to be able to push icons around in arbitrary groupings, in the handful of cases where I need that. It has tabs in explorer windows like Win11, too, which is the feature I didn't know I needed! And of course, it doesn't restart itself without asking.
Unfortunately, not everything is sunshine and roses, and game compatibility has been a bit more hit-or-miss than I'd like, even with Proton. I have a similar plan as you, where the next rig will probably be just for gaming, the Win7/Mint desktop can remain as the main workstation, and the old XP computer(s) will continue to handle specific cases.
Re: Angeline Era Is A New 3D "Bump-Slash" Adventure Inspired By Hydlide & Ys
@Sketcz That's strange, as mine just shows an empty threat of "Windows 7 will stop working in 0 days", while otherwise working fine.
You might be able to get your installed games working via workarounds like Steam emulation, swapping/removing certain DLLs, etc., but I've never delved into this myself to see how easy/effective it is.
Regardless, having games that aren't tied to a launcher (i.e., everything on GOG) is preferable, especially in the long run!
PS: In case any busybodies feel the need to point out that Windows 7 is EOL, I'll preemptively point out that we're quite aware! I sometimes need to hop over to it for various reasons.
Re: The Dreamcast Version Of Dead Or Alive 2 Has Been Unofficially Remastered
@UK_Kev It's all right, not a big deal.
I was just kind of curious, as everything I'd heard indicated that some/most of these were native 720p (in the actual rendering). For those games that are upscaled- whether that's all of them, or just some- that's a lot less interesting, especially considering the TV can already do that itself!
Re: The Dreamcast Version Of Dead Or Alive 2 Has Been Unofficially Remastered
@UK_Kev Yeah, ports and remasters can be a messy business, even to this day. I'd go as far as to say that almost all of them downgrade something, whether the issue is with graphics, performance, art direction, censorship, or bugs. But that's a whole other topic!
Despite all that, a system two generations out-of-date can receive a feature-complete port these days, which was completely unheard of in the past!
Do you have any sources regarding the OG Xbox's 720p mode? From what I can find, a bunch of games apparently do support true 720p, but there are also quite a few that upscale and/or are only 480p (despite reporting 720p on the back of the box). I've never gotten to try out the system's "HD" modes myself, so I'm just going by what I've read.
Re: The Dreamcast Version Of Dead Or Alive 2 Has Been Unofficially Remastered
@UK_Kev The old consoles were so interesting, and I think this kind of thing is a big part of that!
I would also include the GameCube, though, as its fixed-function GPU had specific things it could or couldn't do in hardware. This made it more like an old console in some ways, as opposed to the modern-style Xbox. And it could apparently do a lot of tasks and effects faster than the Xbox for this reason, despite being a lot weaker on paper. (In some ways, it kind of parallels the Genesis and SNES, with one having more advanced features, and the other being faster.)
But yeah, it has become a lot more uniform since then. There are still pros and cons to each system, and they have their own quirks, but it's nowhere near what it was before.
Didn't 720p Xbox games usually run in true 720p, or close to it? I know the 360 cheated a lot, though, especially with the supposed "1080p" titles.
Re: Crash Team Racing For PS1 Just Got A 60FPS Widescreen Mod
@Poodlestargenerica That's what I love about these basic enhancements like HD, 60fps, widescreen, or extended draw distance: were getting all of the original artwork as-is, but we're seeing it look cleaner than ever!
It's not like a remake (or even a lot of remasters), where things are refined or reworked, and the art direction is tampered with. Even if those look stunning, they're still different, and they can fail to capture the appeal of the original.