themightyant

I had no idea Terranigma was rare, I sold my boxed copy years ago.

I’m pretty staggered the Memory card port both has the bandwidth to run games and is hooked up in a way to make playing games via this connection possible. Seems like a pretty large oversight. I wonder if they had planned for some peripheral down the line that never came.

Cool trailer. Smart to look back and update their past like this.

@MikeOrator Interesting question. I think we all like different things so it would need to be easily... ahem... modable.

I remember reading this and being really excited. I'll still have this issue somewhere and will have to dig it out. I think 2009 was still the older larger magazine format, that changed a few years later if memory serves.

That was a lot of fun. Crazy impressive it's just 13kb. Was also impressed by Animal Well at 30Mb. The PS5 version is 100Mb because of the obligatory high res home screen and trophy art. lol.

Interesting interview. I'm definitely in that position where a MiSTer is outside what I want to spend on something like this, but this falls inside it. Watching this space.

Depends on the content. If it was a choice between this or altering the game / censorship i'd take the warnings.

More generally I think trigger warnings are important, sadly a lot of plenty of people are f**ked up over all sorts of events in their lives, if we can help we should.

@RupeeClock If a game has been ported then it has been preserved, in some form, for now. My point was I don't believe every version of every piece of media should be preserved in perpetuity.

I still have quite a few copies of these mags. Along with Super Play, Maximum, EDGE and a few fanzines like Role Call they were my childhood and I love to go back and have a look from time to time.

I am all for preservation generally. But I don't believe EVERYTHING has to be preserved forever.

Probably reading too much into it, but it says "The Adventure BEGINS 2024". Just wondering if it might be a live service ongoing game.

@gingerbeardman If you correctly use features like HTML localStorage performance isn't much different and you can also then use some features offline.

I'm not saying an app is a bad idea to be clear, just that it's not at all necessary

@gingerbeardman Counterpoint: Why do you need an App that costs more money to maintain and update? (even if it is just a web wrapper). People are comfortable using their preferred web browser, and many like to keep their apps limited. The days of every niche website needing an app is in the past imo.

I'd say FPGA 'everything' system, but that's not a smart business decision.

Good idea in theory but the trouble is, with joysticks and controller buttons getting in the way I can't see this being much easier to use as a keyboard as a virtual touchscreen one. It's not like you can hold it on both sides and use the keyboard. Meaning the only real advantage here is it saves screen real estate when using the keyboard. It has it's uses but it's niche imho.

A mix of both. I prefer to play on TV usually. But Retro games on big modern day screens often look AWFUL to my eyes. For many older games designed to be played handheld or on a (smaller) CRT the smaller screen on a handheld often looks better, but it's tiresome for longer play sessions. Aesthetics vs ergonomics.

It's seemingly not kilometers or miles per hour as that are doing about 1 - 1.5. Unless these are tiny micromachines.

Kilo parsec's per hour perhaps

Great list. I've played, or at least bought, almost all of these. (Racing Lagoon I don't think i've ever heard of!)

Though both Lunar SSS and Tactics Ogre LUCT i've bought at least twice on different platforms but never got past the first few hours. Still on the backlog. Next time Gadget!

Always great to be reminded of Vagrant Story & FFT, they don't get enough love in my book!

I still have my OG CeX card handed to my Charlie Brooker back in the 90s. He did a cool comic at the time. Not bought retro from CeX but never had a problem with them otherwise. Never understood why so many hold them in distain!

Looking forward to this... and any small chance this might spark Konami into making a proper Castlevania game. It's been almost 10 years since Lords of Shadow 2 and 15 years since the last new 2D game Order of Ecclesia.

@RupeeClock The Goomba is straight out of SMB3, not sure about Mario or Link.

Loved them all, this was a favourite. But it was the first game which pushed me to get my first console. The fact you could move in 2 dimensions and duck too seemed to offer so much flexibility (though not by today's standards. lol). And those inter-level shuriken mini-games were amazing. Blew my mind and had me saving my pennies for a Master System. Never looked back since.

I remember the days when I would buy games purely based on their box art. Obviously they were much cheaper back then but it was a joyous lottery. Especially when you won.

I'm slightly amazed a product like this even exists. Has to be tiny a niche within an already niche market. Glad it does though!

This looks INCREDIBLE. And they fixed the wall crash response!!! When I went and played it recently this was BY FAR the worst thing about it and almost made it unplayable at high speeds or on twisty tracks. You only had to skim a wall and your ship almost entirely stops, it was an awful gameplay mechanic that was fixed in all later entries. Glad to see that fixed. Downloaded.

@UK_Kev If there is it will likely be as in your first post... rushed! Absolutely expect the first version to be on a par with the first eFootball

It was reported EA were paying FIFA about $150 million per year. Yet they were making around $5.5 billion on the game annually (in FY 2021 it was £1.6bn in 'game sales' and around $4bn in 'live services and other' in their annual report)

For all the brand recognition, and preventing the competition using it, paying around a 2 - 3% fee was probably worthwhile. But FIFA got greedy and wanted to double it at least.

@UK_Kev Agreed and EA FIFA, as with all their sports games, has been built iteratively over the years to start up a new franchise is going to be EXPENSIVE and be years behind in some ways, you can't do it all year one. They will need to find some USP for it to be successful I feel. Fun factor perhaps.

I am pro-game conversation but I don't necessarily think the goal should be to preserve EVERYTHING. Some things aren't worth preserving IMHO. Though one mans' chalk is another's cheese and all that. But 87% is worryingly high.

@UK_Kev I had it well before 2000 maybe 1995. Until this article I genuinely thought MiniDisc was completely dead by the early 2000s. I just remember a lot of issues with mine and super expensive discs compared to CD-R. Then the iPod hit in 2001.

@UK_Kev Sony it looked very similar to the one of the black ones with the circle on it in the pics above. Had one of those thin stick batteries

Strangely I had more minidiscs that broke due, apparently, to scratches despite the protective case than I did CD's. Were they more susceptible or not have error correction or something.

But I gotta say I was not expecting a MiniDisc is still alive article. lol

Room for many views but to me this looks AWFUL. The position of the D-pad looks like it would be hard to hold and give cramps within minutes. And is that one button and a second analogue nub or two buttons. Regardless seems severely lacking in almost all ways imho. Might want to try designing around ergonomics BEFORE aesthetics.

I think Molyneux's endless self promotion worked FAR better in an older era where videogames weren't subject to 24/7/365 news and we might read ONE or perhaps two articles about a game in the odd magazine we bought. Back then his enthusiasm showed through.

But with the internet, a never ending news cycle and access to all the different sites simultaneously at no cost this quickly became tiresome. Sadly he didn't adapt in time.

Some of the runs looks great!

@jorel262 I did some wine tasting in Rioja and at one they showed us three different bottles/labels.

• To my eyes one looked like a premium wine with elegant typography and classy / reassuring stamp.
• Another looked fairly low-end with a fairly tacky picture on the front and inelegant lettering.
• And the last looked mid-range to my eyes, trying a bit too hard to be minimalist, though it had some modern touches like Braille.

It turned out they all contained exactly the same wine but were aimed at the European, Asian & US markets respectively. They had been extensively tested over years to see which appealed to each region and demographic.

Worth bearing in mind it’s unlikely one developer has the full picture. Number of discs were no doubt ONE reason but that may not have been the whole reason.

But it does get complicated at multiple discs. Not only do you have the production costs of the additional discs but you also have to use non-standard cases which are (relatively) expensive, especially if they have to be made bespoke. (There were no 4+ disc Xbox branded cases)

Furthermore 3 discs is about the maximum you can fit in a standard width DVD case too, meaning this would likely have to be a double width case, on top of the added cost for the custom case and additional discs, it would also at least double shipping costs too (size and weight).

It all just makes logistics harder and more expensive, cutting into potential profits.

@smoreon Yes. Rage was 3 discs. 2 for the campaign and one for multiplayer. Agreed probably not the sole cause, but likely a major factor.

A few are quite close but many are a stretch or vague enough that it makes no difference. Oh! black woman, snap! /s

I got more of a general future dystopia vibe than Bioshock specifically. Statues, skyrails, subversive posters are all par for the course for this long before Bioshock. They're just borrowing from many of the same sources, including a bit from Bioshock.

@Damo I think that was it (it's been a while and aforementioned colander brain) but that was a joy to reread. Thanks

Always liked Peter Moore, seemed to have his finger on the pulse more than most suits, with very little nonsense and usually to the point. He's also great when recounting history. The legendary Podcast Unlocked 201 with him, Seamus Blackley and Phil Spencer discussing Xbox is a hoot!

@Damo Brilliant! Love it when a plan comes together.gif

Always shocked how small the core of this hobby is. I still get a kick out of still seeing Rich (Leadbetter) from Digital Foundry all these decades later and the occasional sightings online from Jaz, Gaz, Rad, Oz et al. Happy times.

I seem to remember, though me memory is woeful, you had an interview with some of those MM Alumni. Does that still exist somewhere?

As an aside Super Play also advertised a JRPG Fanzine which I subscribed to for a few quid via postal order, how things have changed. I always wondered what happened to the writers of that. Will try and dig a copy out next time i'm at my folks and see if any names jump out! (Edit: after a bit of digging it was called Role Call)

@Kirk Maximum. What a dream mag that was that, which never quite took off. Still have a few copies of that, despite having a mass clearout, it was another, along with Super Play I couldn't get rid if.

My favourite magazine at the time, and possibly of all time, still have many issues arrived just as I was falling for J/RPGs.

@Dazza @Damo I had no idea it was you guys who did MM Archive. Spent many hours there, much appreciated.

Sadly I have played most of these. It's 95% bad, phoned in hammy performances. At which point you might as well get a Z-lister.

@Gerald It wasn't till years, or more accurately decades, later someone informed me that spelt CHEAT.

Loved this game, yet can recall so little about it apart from that and frosted sweets.

It's such a good game. But I remember, seemingly with the rest of the world, having a giant WFT? moment when it was revealed. I honestly thought it was a late April Fools or perhaps even a mini-game in GTA IV. They should have done that actually!

You can read most of the Nintendo Power magazines, including this issue, online at the internet Archive. Many other magz too.

https://archive.org/details/NintendoPower1988-2004

There just saved y'all $108,000

Honestly i'm confused by Aya Neo's lineup, as a casual observer with a Steam Deck, who MIGHT be tempted by a higher powered device it just seems very messy to me.

Their website has 9 models listed in the last 2 years but as least 2 more have been announced. Confused.com

Realised I never played Monster World III or IV. Might have to address that soon.

The 'best' is Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom imho, but my favourite is The Dragon's Trap, was one of my favourites as a kid and still holds up, especially with the remaster/remake. Nostalgia goggles.

@-wc- I must be going mad and responded on the wrong thread. My bad.

@-wc- The cookies thing will be on your end. The 'eupubsonsent-v2' and 'OptanonConsent' cookies are both 1 year. It is likely your browser settings but could also be your router, network or VPN settings.