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@RG-Riven To play the Phil's advocate, the Xbox 360's store and online services have been open for a very long time. The 360 is turning 19 years old this year, and it predates the Wii and PS3 by a full year!

Consider that Nintendo has already pulled the plug on the Wii (2006) and its successor (2012), and MS is doing quite well by comparison. Even more so, when you consider that a decent percentage of 360 games can still be purchased, re-downloaded, and played on a brand-new Series X!

I would prefer that every game stay available indefinitely, though it's understandable that licensing and technical issues sometimes prevent that. Microsoft's approach has been far from perfect (esp. around older generations), but it's a big step in the right direction, and well ahead of what anyone else has done!

Weird, I thought this was fairly common knowledge, at least back when the game was new(ish). It's like the recent "discovery" of the alternate GameCube startup jingles, all over again.

And it's true: you do only need to get the Venom medal in Expert mode. Not sure I would have been able to unlock this feature, otherwise!

The Halo remarks don't ring a bell, but I distinctly remember Miyamoto taking shots at the outsourced F-Zero and Star Fox games. I interpreted this as partially a jealous jab thrown at Sega, especially in light of Nintendo's seeming inability to top the brilliance and production values of F-Zero GX.

@RootsGenoa A very big movie from 1989... you can't mean... UHF?

So instead of a spaceman with a gun, was the protagonist originally Stanley Spadowski with a fire hose?

Shinobi III is the obvious answer, but Shadow Dancer and especially Revenge of Shinobi have a special place in my heart. The latter is really tough, but satisfying to get right. And where else can you fight blatant rip-offs of Rambo, Batman, Spider-Man, Godzilla, and the Terminator, all in one game?

(Er, I mean, bald flamethrower dude, devil dude, Marvel™ Spider-Man™, a dinosaur skeleton, and an inexplicably uncensored Terminator... at least that's how it is in my copy.)

Still need to give the GG and PS2 games a proper try- they both look good!

This is throwing around a heck of a lot of polygons for a Nintendo 64 game, and staying above 30fps to boot! It's safe to say that the N64 could handle a pretty good port of Sunshine, with enough work. Didn't someone (probably Kaze) already port a lot of the FLUDD functionality into the SM64 engine, anyway?

Of course, water and objects are all missing here, but the N64 should be able to handle those as well, especially after some more optimization.

@KingMike See also: the "Marioro" billboards in Mario Kart 64 (JP version only, of course!)

Look closely: that's "Titan Mogan", not Hulk Hogan. Clearly a totally different guy, who obviously gave Sega permission to use his likeness!

What is the bottom portion of this? I don't recognize those buttons, but there must be some purpose to it. Does it have switching hardware for the video and power? (And speaking of power, maybe at least one of the PSUs is hidden in there?)

If this device is a simple N64+Wii hybrid, you'd think it'd be simpler to put the Wii directly under the N64, but there must be some reason for the layout here.

Looks great, but- and I know this is probably sacrilege- I hope there's an option to play in HD. There's an old-school survival horror game on Steam, called Vaccine Rebirth, which does the same pseudo pre-rendered trick, and it looked amazing when I played it with an HD graphics mod. It retained the PS1 aesthetic, but was crystal-clear and way easier on the eyes.

Similarly, games like Lunistice and A Short Hike make the pixelation filter optional (though they do more of a general PS1/DS style, not mimicking pre-rendered graphics), and I really appreciate that the option is there, even if it's not the intended way to play!

It's neat to see Lugosi's likeness used officially, though pretty much every depiction of Dracula prior to Symphony of the Night (which gave the character a very different look) was based on him, anyway!

There are already so many games out there that fit that description (of "a 2D-pixel art platformer", and so on), but Triple Trouble 16-bit was really good. I'll want to keep an eye on this studio's output in the next couple of years!

Looks like the gameplay of previous games, mixed with the graphics of that one map from Perfect Dark Zero (I mean similar era/style/techniques, not literally the same assets).
This seems to be faithful to the series, and quite promising as well. It's a shame it didn't go anywhere.

Always glad to see interesting prototypes being dumped, at least!

@Azuris 8192 bytes is 8 KB. That's too small for even the smallest NES games, unfortunately.
Unless you meant 8192 KB, but a quick search didn't turn up any evidence of cards that large (let me know if these do exist)!

"Another issue is with Software Development Kit (SDK) libraries embedded inside the original ROMs," he says. "We developed tools that replace these libraries so the copyrighted code doesn’t remain on the ROM"

This is an interesting point that I've never heard mentioned before. The obvious examples that come to mind are the drivers/libraries bundled in a folder on PS1 and PS2 discs, but this kind of thing is probably more widespread and complex than that, even!

@HammerKirby Yeah, the GameCube would have had to knock it out of the park on all counts, in order to have any hope of beating the PS2.
It also had the N64's failings, its own "kiddy" and toy-like image, and a so-so launch to overcome.

What do you think it would have sold, though, had it used full-size DVDs (all other factors staying the same)? Considering how narrowly it missed the #2 spot in console sales, I'd say beating the Xbox is a given, if nothing else. Or would the larger discs even provide a real advantage in sales, considering that Nintendo surely wouldn't be willing to shell out for movie playback? (See also: Wii and Wii U.) At least it would have allowed for more and better multi-platform games, and that must count for something.

FWIW, I played Code: Veronica for the first time last year, and thought it was a solid entry. Not able to touch 1 or 2, but I think it edges out 3, and is way better than Zero (now that one is a slog). So, right about in the middle of the classic RE series.

I didn't get hit with any bugs or other game-breaking issues like Sketcz mentioned, but I'm sure my opinion would be much harsher if I had!

Nintendo being awful as usual.
Emulators like Citra have been an amazing way for me to enjoy the games that I already own, unshackled from the hand-cramping controllers, low resolutions, and sluggish performance that Nintendo hardware tends to bring.

Couple of nitpicks: Daytona USA 2001 hit Japan in 2000, ironically enough!
Also, the original Daytona USA saw a limited release in 1993, making it even older than most people think. I know test/beta releases don't usually "count" (unless it's the NES for some reason), but it's worth mentioning, as a lucky few gamers got to witness this when it was even more futuristic!

But anyway, about the game itself: I'd heard of this legendary Sega racer for a while, but never actually saw it in action until maybe 8 years ago. It was thoroughly "old" compared to 2010s tech, but I was still blown away! It's no secret that arcade machines were better than anything you could get at home back in the '80s and '90s, but I didn't know that Sega had stuff quite so advanced, that long ago. (And of course, the Model 3 took it to the next level, introducing PS2-like graphics in 1996, the same year as the N64's launch!)

@DestructoDisk I hope so, too. Good to hear that there's hope!

I do have mobile devices I could play on, but I don't especially like the portable gaming experience, not to mention that these closed platforms are generally terrible for backwards compatibility (see Apple's recent purge of 32-bit support across all platforms). If Lunar works on Bluestacks, then that could be a decent Plan B... though for now, I plan to wait and see if a PC version comes along instead!

@Poodlestargenerica That comment is spot-on. I'm not familiar with the show (it probably doesn't help that I'm Canadian), but looking it up now, the premise and the topics of choice sound fun!

@wiiware I know this is getting off-topic, but I find it funny how Bond is impossibly good at everything except being a spy. Whether it's motorcycle riding, fencing, piloting a plane, skiing, playing video games, or knowing exactly which buttons and levers he can kick to operate a proprietary machine he's never seen before, 007 is a master of all skills, all sports, and all technology- no matter how tangentially related (or unrelated) to his job.

But he makes no effort to conceal his identity, is seduced by the enemy on every second mission, and gets ambushed every single time he searches a room!
(He also seems to be better at fencing and swordfighting than some more relevant skills like marksmanship and hand-to-hand combat, but I'll let that one slide, given all the variables there.)

@Poodlestargenerica I was mainly poking fun at the convenient coincidences that drive so many stories, but you're right. I recall this being mentioned directly in From Russia With Love (with one of SMERSH's officers sending Tanya out to seduce Bond), but it's probably intended by the writers in half of the movies, at least.

Strange and unfortunate that these are stranded on mobile OSes.
I've been curious about Vay for a while, and Lunar is especially legendary, but these really need to get ported to other, more future-proof platforms such as PC!

@wiiware Bond has tried to have serious, long-term relationships a couple of times... they just haven't ended especially well.

@RetroGames You're definitely not alone- the vicarious aspect of 007's media comes up often (as does the idea that "you are James Bond", when video games are involved). I've never really found that side of it quite so appealing, though, especially the part about being in a different, shallow relationship every week or so.
I think I can see where Barwood is coming from, despite never being in a relationship quite as long as he has!

PS: How many times have Bond's relationships actually been an intentional part of the mission? Twice, maybe? Most of the time, they just put him in danger and jeopardize the mission, since he's apparently magnetically drawn to Russian spies and the like. This was played up for laughs in the 1967 version of Casino Royale, but it didn't stop mainline 007 from doing the same thing in subsequent movies. Ah, well, it's part of the cheesy charm, I suppose.

@-wc- I don't know... there's something oddly eerie about this one, even if it is the size of just two Stonehenges.
However, I think we've solved the mystery: when Dracula was having his castle built, one of the boneheaded skeletons messed up the measurements and ended up with this. Drac dropped the model castle on the edge of a remote cliff, and set about building another evil lair.

PS: Yeah, I used to play Metal Storm as a kid. Very cool stuff going on there, with both graphics and gameplay!

@-wc- The possibility of being nerds had briefly crossed my mind, but was promptly denied and dismissed. Moving on...

Somewhat more seriously, what I meant earlier was that the parallax effect, if done correctly, gives an element of realism (a fairly convincing illusion of depth) that anyone should be able to appreciate, even if they don't understand the technical aspect of it.
Or, if done incorrectly, it results in people writing about it, analyzing it, and arguing over it endlessly after 30+ years!

@-wc- I think we had the capacity to understand parallax effects intuitively back then, even if we didn't have the words to describe them! (Not that I'd personally know, as I'd only ever played 8-bit games back then.)

Still, you're probably right about it being the castle: either someone slipped up and put it in the wrong layer, or there's some technical limitation nonsense that forced their hand. (I don't know too much about the SNES's VRAM allocation... maybe they couldn't easily reuse foreground tiles in the background... or even visually speaking, the castle and cliff may not have blended with the repetitive patterns back there.)

PS: Come to think of it, I used to read a lot of gaming-related books in the late '90s, and I distinctly remember one SNES-era strategy guide book having a section that went into considerable detail about modes 0-7, palettes, layers, bits, and all that fun stuff. So that info wasn't entirely unknown to gamers!

@DestructoDisk The scrolling is also an issue here, not just the sprite animations.
Most console and arcade games were 60fps back then, as you said, but most '80s PCs didn't have smooth scrolling capabilities built in, and so a lot of their games were really jerky like this. Judging by the way the screen is refreshing in chunks here (with a vertical tear line appearing at times), the single-digit performance we're seeing here is most likely an accurate representation of Ys, and it's not just a video encoding issue.

PS: The Turbografx version was a little bit juddery as well, despite running at a decent framerate- it may have been 60fps, actually, but Adol's walking speed was not a multiple of 60 pixels per second (e.g., moving exactly 1 pixel on every frame), so it looked uneven.

It's quite cool to see that the original version of Ys is being rereleased, especially if it's also coming to the west, but on the other hand, is there any reason (besides novelty or nostalgia) to play this over the brilliant Turbografx version?

This footage is extremely jerky, fluctuating between 6-10fps by my count. And it otherwise looks very similar to the TG16, unlike, say, the Chronicles remake on Steam- which is good in its own way, but different enough that it can't replace the 16-bit version.

@BulkSlash Yeah, that frog mini-game was brutal, even through Nintendo's own mapping on GameCube. I wish 6-button layouts were available on modern dual-stick controllers, as all of the 6-button controllers seem to be made for 2D fighting games only. Well, I guess there's the Xbox's Duke controller... but it's the Duke.

Agreed, regarding repros! Someone once brought their repro N64 controller to me, and asked why it didn't seem to control as accurately as the real thing. It turned out that the stick only supported 8 directions, with no analogue!

All that said, I've played plenty of N64 games through emulation, and most of them (at least 75%) are perfectly fine with an Xbox controller and that right stick mapping that you described. It's not always ideal, but it's a good place to start.

@gwyntendo I'm a little behind the curve on the status of N64 emulation, but until someone comes in with a better answer:
Any of the most popular emulators (like PJ64, Mupen, and whatever core Retroarch uses) should do a good, reliable job with most games, right out of the box. Mupen, at least, comes with the GlideN64 plugin installed, and that one is quite accurate, while also allowing for plenty of enhancements such as HD resolutions.
There are also low-level (LLE) plugins that allow for maximum accuracy, but you'll be limited to the N64's native 240p resolution.

Personally, I mostly use Project64, since it's what I'm used to, and it's really good at overclocking, allowing for a consistent 60fps in games such as Goldeneye. It supports GlideN64 as well. Unfortunately, it has a nag screen that asks for money every time you start it- this can be worked around, but it makes PJ64 harder to recommend.

As for controllers, you should be okay to just start with whatever Xbox controllers you have lying around, as they work well with probably 75% of games, and the analogue sticks are so much smoother than the N64's. But like BulkSlash mentioned, some games (which map actual actions to the C buttons) do play poorly unless you have that genuine 6-button layout.

I hope this is more helpful than overwhelming!
N64 emulation is admittedly a little more fiddly than something like GameCube (which has set a very high bar in its accuracy and ease of use), but I think you'll find that it's not as difficult, glitchy, or intimidating as it was in the past.

Seeing as it's only certain packages being delisted, with the games still being available in some form, I wonder if Capcom just decided to consolidate their back catalogue a bit.

As for why... my best guess is fewer SKUs for them to inject their sketchy new DRM into, but who knows?

@Razieluigi The organizers had better keep an eye out for anyone trying to sneak in under a name like "Yuka Naji" or "Ohto Naoshima".

@DwaynesGames Frankenstein's Monster will be an assist trophy, and then everyone can complain that he's barred from ever becoming a playable character as a result.

Not a fan of these unexpected delistings. It would be much better if they were announced well in advance... or you know, not delisted at all (yeah, I know that's not always possible).

@Nahhhtendo Yeah, it's not like it's functioning as a battery or anything, but it does have to briefly hold a charge- which I'd imagine is to keep things running smoothly through the unpredictability of AC power?

Anyway, I'll be sure to wait those 15 minutes before licking the PSU's internals, so thanks!

@Nahhhtendo It's fairly common knowledge that PSUs can hold a charge for a short time, but it should be safe to start poking around after 15-20 minutes at most... well, at least in modern models, which this is definitely not!

Or is that figure outdated, such that the risk is practically zero now, even seconds after unplugging the PSU? I've never tried getting a reading on the components to actually verify this oft-circulated info; have you?

(I prefer to err on the side of caution in these situations!)

@Ristar24 Let's get sweaty!
This easter egg is already ripping apart the timeline, though, and a direct appearance by Ryo would just destroy it. Would it be the original Ryo, now 55 years old? Or this young American(?) kid who was following in his predecessor's footsteps by looking for sailors in the present day? So many questions...

I like how the character himself appears to be a fusion of Mega Man and Sonic.

I don't miss the reliability issues, or having to keep track of which card had which saves, or working around the frustratingly small storage space.

That last one, especially, was the worst:

• PS1 only had 128KB, or 15 blocks after formatting, and many games needed 2 blocks.
• N64 had about 128 pages, IIRC, and a single game could use up ~100 in some cases.
• GameCube started out with an insultingly tiny 512KB, which could also be eaten up by a single game. (Later on, Nintendo started offering 2MB and 8MB cards, at a higher price.)
• PS2 had a respectable 8MB from the start, but those fancy 3D memory card icons wasted a lot of space (even if they looked cool)!

Memory cards weren't cheap, either. Good luck if you wanted to build up a collection of 50+ games!

I chose "No". It's not that I don't have nostalgia and fond memories linked to certain games, but just that I don't consider those to be major factors that drive my interest in retro gaming.

I missed out on all kinds of top-tier games back in the day (due to not having my own game systems as a kid, not to mention simply being too young to play certain games when they were new!), so I'm still catching up on lots of classics that I missed, as well as discovering gems that I never heard of at the time.

There are many older titles that I played for the first time as an adult, and I still loved them for what they were, not for my (non-existent) memories of them!

@larryisaman Keeping silent would obviously be the foolproof way of staying out of trouble, but I imagine that it would be really difficult to make such a huge project without any feedback. If people are trying out a demo version, then their feedback can help refine the game, plus any positive feedback acts as a major source of motivation.

Some devs may be able to pull this off, but I imagine that most would lose interest halfway through.

@LordPieFace Portal 64 requires files from a PC copy of Portal in order to work, so it's not providing a loophole that lets people play it for free.

Of course, people could download a pre-patched ROM without owning Portal, but then, they could just as easily download Portal itself somewhere!

"Don't be mad at Valve"
So we should be mad at Nintendo, then?

@Poodlestargenerica Yeah, I suspect that the intent was for Marge to have an '80s perm, considering when the show began, but the ludicrous height makes me (and many others, apparently) think of a cartoonish beehive.

They must've dropped this idea pretty quickly- Marge was shown with normal-height, straight hair (and no rabbit ears!) as a kid, and I thought the first flashback like this was in the second or maybe third season at the latest- right around the time the game came out, in other words.

Impressive! All we need is for someone to get Tomb Raider running on a stock Genesis/Mega Drive, and then I really will have seen everything!

@bahooney That specific image of Ness is from (or at least used in) the opening scene from Super Smash Bros., when the secret characters briefly pop up on the screen. (Note that they only appear as silhouettes, until you unlock them.)