General Retro Discussion

[S.C.G]

Annnnd suddenly I don't feel quite as guilty for not playing the Grandia games after you've both stated you haven't played the first game through either.

Should I just play the second game then?

Edited September 15, 2019 by S.C.G

[Happenstance]

It sounds like 1 might have a better story but 2 has better gameplay so I guess it depends which you want more.

[S.C.G]

22 minutes ago, Happenstance said:

It sounds like 1 might have a better story but 2 has better gameplay so I guess it depends which you want more.

I'll watch the cutscenes of the first game, while levelling up in the second game.

[S.C.G]

It looks like even Jim Sterling hasn't finished the original Grandia either, but he's determined to clear it this time so he can get onto playing Grandia II.

I might just give the first Grandia a go, just to see.

Edited August 20, 2019 by S.C.G

[S.C.G]

Happy Console Gamer with a review of Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors  I think he's redeemed himself somewhat with this video @Hero-of-Time

I already have the physical edition of this game pre-ordered and I can't wait for it, I didn't know a huge amount about it before, just that it looked cool.

Now that I know more about it and that the Switch version is moreorless the definitive version of the game, I'm really looking forward to it.

[Hero-of-Time]

11 hours ago, S.C.G said:

I've got to appreciate my retro games collection a lot more than I have been recently, this year and next year, less new games will be bought and more classics will be played.

 

 

[S.C.G]

Sega Lord X with a video entitled Fact or Fiction? which dispells a lot of myths related to the Sega Saturn.

[S.C.G]

SNES Drunk with another myth-busting video and I can honestly say that I had no idea about the one relating to StarFox... that's just madness!

[S.C.G]

Sega Lord X  with a video on the arcade version of Shadow Dancer  which I really hope gets a Sega Ages release as I'd love to play it.

[Hero-of-Time]

Here's a nice little article over on the BBC website that talks about old gaming magazines, like Mean Machines and Super Play, and how the internet basically killed off the gaming magazine industry.  

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-47896612

 

 

[Happenstance]

Coming up on the Dreamcast US launch 20th anniversary in the next few days. Damn I feel old!

I had all the consoles from that era at one point or another, mostly through trading one for another with people I think, I’m really fuzzy on those details but that must be it because there’s no way I could afford them all on my own. Anyway, I had the Dreamcast for a bit and played all the usual games but probably never really appreciated it until later, most likely playing stuff with @Goafer. I had skipped a Sega gen with the Saturn so my Sega fanboyism wasn’t as strong as it had or would be.

Such a shame that this was the end of Sega as a hardware company though. They were my childhood much more than Nintendo and I still think about that to this day. There’s a reason my Mega Drive collection sits proudly on my shelves while my SNES collection is in a drawer and it’s more than just that Mega Drive games actually had boxes that survive longer than a week lol.

[Happenstance]

Watching Giant Bomb play PSO on their Dreamcast stream. Really putting me in the mood to play it again.

[S.C.G]

Sega Lord X checks out the Terra Onion Mega SD  which is a very cool device that let's you play Mega Drive, Mega CD, Master System and 32X games all from one cart.

Pricey though and I prefer to play my original games but I'd consider this if my original Mega CD were to ever stop working.

But it hasn't, so to celebrate this, I finally bought Keio Flying Squadron and Keio Flying Squadron 2 for the Sega Saturn while I was at it as I'd been wanting those games for ages.

I only decided to do this as I'm about to sell a load of games which I really don't need and there's an eBay code PICKME10 valid until 10/09/2019 which gives you 10% off £100 or more.

Edited September 7, 2019 by S.C.G

[S.C.G]

My Life in Gaming  have just put out their own video on the Terra Onion Mega SD  which goes into a little bit more detail and some rather extreme technical testing.

It's a very cool device but I still maintain that so long as my Sega Mega CD II keeps working alongside my Mega SG that I'll keep using it until it doesn't.

[Ike]

34 minutes ago, S.C.G said:

My Life in Gaming  have just put out their own video on the Terra Onion Mega SD  which goes into a little bit more detail and some rather extreme technical testing.

It's a very cool device but I still maintain that so long as my Sega Mega CD II keeps working alongside my Mega SG that I'll keep using it until it doesn't.

Bonus points for the Road Avenger shout-out. That game was hard, even though I beat it a number of times I still sometimes couldn't finish it.

I think The Simpsons might have referenced it, or might be a coincidence since that would be pretty obscure.

That video taught me that the mega CD can read burned CDs, which may not have been their intention. 

[S.C.G]

16 minutes ago, Ike said:

Bonus points for the Road Avenger shout-out. That game was hard, even though I beat it a number of times I still sometimes couldn't finish it.

I think The Simpsons might have referenced it, or might be a coincidence since that would be pretty obscure.

That video taught me that the mega CD can read burned CDs, which may not have been their intention. 

Road Avenger is amazing, I got it with my second-hand Sega Mega CD II which I was lucky enough to have one Christmas, the same one I'm using today.

It came with a few games, Road Avenger was one of them plus Wolf Child I think... Sol Feace/Cobra Command and maybe a couple of others, from then I bought games sporadically.

Over the years I got some good deals on Mega CD games, Sonic CD was the only one I actively sought out back in the day as I'd never played it.

Aside from that, it's only in recent years that I started picking up such titles as Shining Force CD, Soul Star and only yesterday I finally bought Keio Flying Squadron.

I have a feeling that might be my last Sega Mega CD game, particulaly because of the fact that you can play burned CD's on them which I've known about for a while...

...I've never actually played a backup on my system though but I have a feeling that if one game were to lead me into doing this, then it would be Snatcher.

To think that I could have bought that game when it was less than £100, obviously back when I didn't have the money, now that I kind of do (sometimes) it's around £350...

Really it's just Snatcher, Robo Aleste and Lords of Thunder that I'd probably want on the Mega CD and it's very tempting to just play them off a backup copy.

[S.C.G]

Nice video from The Geek Critique all about The Hidden Value in Classic Sonic which pretty much hits the nail on the head regarding what makes the games so good even today.

[Dcubed]

On 08/09/2019 at 9:59 PM, S.C.G said:

Road Avenger is amazing, I got it with my second-hand Sega Mega CD II which I was lucky enough to have one Christmas, the same one I'm using today.

It came with a few games, Road Avenger was one of them plus Wolf Child I think... Sol Feace/Cobra Command and maybe a couple of others, from then I bought games sporadically.

Over the years I got some good deals on Mega CD games, Sonic CD was the only one I actively sought out back in the day as I'd never played it.

Aside from that, it's only in recent years that I started picking up such titles as Shining Force CD, Soul Star and only yesterday I finally bought Keio Flying Squadron.

I have a feeling that might be my last Sega Mega CD game, particulaly because of the fact that you can play burned CD's on them which I've known about for a while...

...I've never actually played a backup on my system though but I have a feeling that if one game were to lead me into doing this, then it would be Snatcher.

To think that I could have bought that game when it was less than £100, obviously back when I didn't have the money, now that I kind of do (sometimes) it's around £350...

Really it's just Snatcher, Robo Aleste and Lords of Thunder that I'd probably want on the Mega CD and it's very tempting to just play them off a backup copy.

For what it’s worth, the SEGA CD version of Lords of Thunder is inferior in every way to the much more widely available TGCD original.  If you don’t already have it on the Wii/Wii U; you’re much better off just getting the TG16 Mini when it comes out since it includes it anyway (and Snatcher... in Japanese...  ).

[S.C.G]

13 hours ago, Dcubed said:

For what it’s worth, the SEGA CD version of Lords of Thunder is inferior in every way to the much more widely available TGCD original.  If you don’t already have it on the Wii/Wii U; you’re much better off just getting the TG16 Mini when it comes out since it includes it anyway (and Snatcher... in Japanese...  ).

Fair point, in that case it's just Snatcher (if I see it cheap) and Robo Aleste (if I see it for a good price, at the right time) as there isn't much else I need to own on the Mega-CD... probably.

I missed this video yesterday, don't know how... it was 09/09/19 yesterday, so...

Sega Lord X with a video on 09/09/99  which was the launch of the Sega Dreamcast in America...

Where the hell did those twenty years go?

I remember picking up my Dreamcast at the end of 2001 I think for £50 new from Dixons and then I got a load of my Dreamcast games when they were cheap.

Then years later I went and bought a load of Dreamcast games that I always wanted to get, took me a while but I now have most of the DC games I'll ever want to play.

Now I've just got to get to a state where I can easily set up my Dreamcast and play it.

[S.C.G]

Sega Lord X  with a video on Owning and Collecting for the Sega Saturn in 2019  which covers a wide range of games, hardware, availability, reliability of games and consoles and more.

It even covers other ways of playing Saturn games such as the Polymega which I've been interested in for a while not just for Saturn games but for Turbografx and other machines.

You can't beat owning the original hardware though if you've got a working console in good condition paired with a nice cable and some games that you enjoy playing.

[Ike]

Shame my launch unit Dreamcast died. The replacement seemed to be going the same way as well sadly. CEX had one in for £45 which I was sorta tempted by, but I'd rather get a new boxed one if possible. Not sure if I would use it enough t justify though.

[S.C.G]

17 minutes ago, Ike said:

Shame my launch unit Dreamcast died. The replacement seemed to be going the same way as well sadly. CEX had one in for £45 which I was sorta tempted by, but I'd rather get a new boxed one if possible. Not sure if I would use it enough t justify though.

My condolonces... I have a feeling that my original launch model DC isn't far off that and I did buy a new boxed one last year with the intention of using it to play DC games.

I haven't tried it yet but I am now finally getting around to the point of testing various consoles I have, while clearing out some of the stuff I don't use, so I'm getting there.

I've been really wanting to play more Sega disc-based game consoles recently as well, especially as I just got Keio Flying Squadron which arrived today.

That's it now though, I'm not really going after anything as such, just focusing on pairing stuff down and enjoying what I have.

- - - - -

Sega Lord X  with a video on Sega Mega Drive Hacks and Translations I'm watching it right now as there's sure to be some interesting examples in it.

[S.C.G]

DF Retro on the Sega Mega Drive Mini

[Ike]

OK, so curiosity got the better of me and I went to dig up my Dreamcast. Couldn't find the power cable but I noticed it uses the same one as the PS4. Hooray for non-proprietary connectors!

Hooked it up to the Framemeister, crossed my finders and turned it on.

My Chao are still alive! Sorry for not feeding you for probably 8 years.

It's hooked up using s-video so I'm not getting sound and it didn't like 60hz. I'm going to have to buy an RGB cable, aren't I? It still looks good though, I must say.

The console itself hasn't yellowed much, but one my my VMUs and the Rumble pack has. The console is really noisy so it might need cleaning. Could do with a clean anyway.

[Dcubed]

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2019/09/prototype_wii_nunchuk_controller_included_a_rumble_motor_according_to_new_photos

 

 

Well this is interesting... Looks like the Wii's Nunchuck controller was originally going to have rumble; and not just any rumble, but the rumble motor that was originally used in GBA rumble carts!

Edited September 16, 2019 by Dcubed