General Retro Discussion

[drahkon]

1 hour ago, Hero-of-Time said:

a younger member

But isn't he 30 something yea...

[Julius]

3 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I can't wait to read your thoughts on the series as you play through them.

I'll have to take a nose around and revive some old threads when I get around to them I think  from what I understand and can see on HLTB they're not terribly long games, probably a few weekday nights, so I'm hoping it gets me back to playing some relatively shorter games. I've played a lot of longer games this year, and while I've loved most of them, I haven't exactly put a dent in my wall of backlog games, hopefully they'll be a nice change of pace! 

I'm hoping to cap off playing these and God of War III Remastered by getting back to God of War (2018), as I never got the Platinum for it. Having now played Red Dead Redemption II I'm really looking forward to reviving the 2018 GOTY debate 

3 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

It's great having a younger member on here who is experiencing these games for the first time.

I won't lie, it can definitely be daunting playing some of these games for the first time, just knowing how much they mean to so many people, especially when I feel I'm fairly entrenched in the gaming landscape now – it's hard to escape how important some of these games are when they're in 'Best of' lists. Playing through Ocarina of Time all the way through for the first time earlier this year was a huge example of this for me, it's hard to not occasionally find yourself wondering "does this still hold up?" 

It's like watching a classic film from the 60's or 70's today for the first time, things like The Godfather or Apocalypse Now, where you've heard how great it is, and I think it puts a lot of pressure on the film up until that point where you just find yourself sinking into it. 

Despite some of the intimidation, just getting on with it always immediately quells that feeling, and I do always enjoy going back and having the conversation about these games, whichever side I land on, especially on here with people who are open to having discussions and hearing other thoughts about those games 

1 hour ago, drahkon said:

But isn't he 30 something yea...

Edited July 28, 2022 by Julius

[drahkon]

3 hours ago, Julius said:

I'm hoping to cap off playing these and God of War III Remastered

Get ready for the best quick time events in gaming history.
And I'm not talking about boss fights.

[Dcubed]

GOW 1-3 are solid gold.  Really really solid games that most people liken to Devil May Cry, but I would personally liken much moreso to pre-BOTW Zelda; just... much more linear.

They're all really solid action adventure titles with good level design with a nice mix of exploration and linear setpieces, good puzzle design and good combat.  If you can look past the surface level teen angst and surface level comparisons to Devil May Cry? I think you'll be pleasantly surprised

Chains of Olympus & Ghost of Sparta are also good games, but they don't really push the formula forward in any real significant way.  They're nice side stories that kind of feel like DLC expansions to the PS2 titles; worth playing, but I wouldn't play them back to back after GOW 1-3, or else I reckon you'll get burnt out on the series gameplay.

GOW Ascension is primarily a multiplayer game with a tacked-on single player mode; not bad or anything, but don't expect something that lives up to the first 3 games.  By this point, the series gameplay was really feeling pretty tired, much like the original Mega Man games.

[Dcubed]

Excuse me, but what the hell!?

How the hell did this go undiscovered for so long!?!?

[Dcubed]

So my GBHD Advance finally arrived! After more than 3 months of waiting!!

Wireless Switch NSO SNES controller works a treat!

This is a new version of the GBA Consolizer that takes real GBA hardware, hacks it up and turns it into a console that outputs in native 720p over HDMI.  Also features a SNES controller port (that does indeed work with the 8bit-do SNES Wireless adapter as pictured above), USB-C for power and the original GB/GBA link cable port.

Looks and plays fantastic! Way better than the GCN GB Player!

Now... if only that damn Mister Multisystem would finally come back in stock already... My DE10 Nano is looking real lonely...

Edit:  HOLY SHIT! I just snapped a Mister Multisystem up from eBay!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Should be coming in the next few days! Can't wait!

Edited August 23, 2022 by Dcubed

[Dcubed]

Speaking of incredibly late deliveries...

More toys = More fun!

This was supposed to originally be shipped by Strictly Limited Games all the way back in bloody May! And was released in Japan all the way back in March! It's an absolute joke!

Now.  SLG have said that they have fixed the charging/input lag problem that plagued the original Japanese release; so I'll have to give it a try with various chargers (including my portable charging brick) to put that to the test.  If that's the case? Then I can forgive them for the huge delay.

Haven't really tried it yet, but I had a quick look at the included Arcade Strategy Book and it looks very nice; very professionally done.  The paddle controller also feels fantastic; and that's before even turning the Egret 2 mini on! (I hear that smart people are currently getting it working with the MiSTer as well, so that's very well timed for me too! )

Impressions to follow!

[Dcubed]

So... some impressions after getting my hands on some of the games for the Egret 2 Mini.  Overall? It's a very nice piece of kit.  The screen is a lot nicer than the Astro City Mini, and the extra screen real-estate (at a proper 4:3 no less) really makes a big difference when it comes to playing on the device itself.  The controls are lovely, very clicky & responsive; and the trackball/paddle controller is brill! It has a very nice mechanical feel to it that just feels great! I'd love to be able to use this thing on other devices at some point...

The TV experience is less ideal though.  This thing has very limited controller compatibilty and the only thing that works on it outside of the official Egret 2 Mini controllers/arcade stick is, oddly enough, the 6 button Japanese Mega Drive Mini controller (no, not the western version; or the Retrobit one, it HAS to be the Japanese 6 button MD Mini controller; nothing else will do!).  Luckily, I just so happen to have a couple of them and thankfully they work very well; with the Mode button acting as the Insert Coin button.  Unfortunately, there's no menu button of any kind, so you have to physically get up and press the menu button on the device itself to go back to the menu and switch games.  Not ideal.  Also, you know, it's wired only... (Though the Brook Wingman SD adapter, which I happen to have, was apparantly updated to work with the Egret 2 Mini, I couldn't for the life of me get it working with any controller).  The emulation quality seems solid, but it does suffer from annoying screen scrolling shimmer with some games, much like the Astro City Mini did; also, the bilinear filter setting is backwards for some bizzare reason, but thankfully it can be turned off for razer sharp pixels.

The menu is kinda spartan and workman like, not much personality; though the menu music is nice enough.  And as for the game selection itself? It's a real grab-bag from Taito's history that really runs the gamut of quality.  You have some absolute A-grade classics, like the original arcade Bubble Bobble & all of its various sequels, as well as the absolutely stellar Elevator Action Returns, but then you have some absolute bottom of the barrel stinkers like Kaiser Knuckle; and also some real oddball games that defy convention like Puchi Carrot and Syvallion.  It's a real eclectic mix of titles, but that's kind of what I like about it.  You've got all sorts of weird & goofy games here, even though a good chunk of them aren't very good.

While I've not played everything on it yet, it's a nice little system and I'm happy with the purchase

Edited August 28, 2022 by Dcubed

[Dcubed]

The bigger thing however, is the long-awaited arrival of my MiSTer Multisystem!

That's this thing

 

This is a MiSTer in a console form factor.  If you don't know what a MiSTer is, it's basically a magic FPGA system that can physically transform itself at the transistor level into various target hardware; with no software emulation (some might call it "hardware emulation" rather than the traditional "software emulation" approach).  In short, it offers 100% hardware accuracy with zero input latency, but with the bells & whistles you'd want from an emulation solution; the holy grail.

This is essentially what the Super NT and Mega SG are, only here, it is a community led project that is designed to simulate many different hardware platforms, instead of the single console targets that the Super NT & Mega SG represent.

Normally, a MiSTer requires you to bolt all sorts of different hardware bits & bobs together to a DE10 nano FPGA, and generally looks something like this...

Beautifully ugly

The MiSTer Multisystem then is an all-in-one unit that contains all of the various bits of hardware you need onto a single PCB, that then goes inside a console form-factor case that's around the size of a SNES/N64.  Much nicer!  It also includes the analog IO board, meaning that it's capable of dual-video output over both HDMI and RGB Scart (the latter being something that is normally very hard to get working with a MiSTer system, as most analog IO boards prioritise other analog forms of output such as VGA or Composite).  I also added a real-time-clock to it (for games that use RTC, such as the GBA Pokemon games) as well as a Gameboy Link Cable port via SNAC (don't worry if you don't know what a SNAC is) and four 8bit-do bluetooth wireless controller adapters (bet you'll never guess what these do!).

Now, I've only just had the thing up and running for a day, so I'm still working out all the kinks, but this thing is pretty freaking amazing!  Arcade games? NES games? SNES? GBA? PS1? Mega CD? TG16? Everything I've thrown at it is running flawlessly so far!  Me and @Glen-i just did a full game runthrough of Kirby Nightmare in Dreamland in 2 player splitscreen (yes, this thing is capable of playing GBA games in multiplayer, either via splitscreen or having two seperate video outputs on two seperate TVs!) and we had a blast!  And just for funzies, I tried hooking up my old Game Boy Color to the link cable port to try it out with Super Mario Bros Deluxe and yep! Sure enough, the link cable functionality does indeed work! (GB/GBC only right now, GBA games don't work with the physical link cable port yet).

I'm well chuffed with this thing! But it isn't an immediate plug n' play experience.  It takes a lot of tinkering to get everything up and running fully, and I'm not fully there with everything yet.  But yeah, this thing is tits!

Edited August 28, 2022 by Dcubed

[Dcubed]

My Astro City V arrived today... now the collection is complete...

Can you tell that I like arcade games?

Speaking of which... Taito just announced a new batch of games coming to the Egret 2 Mini as an expansion SD Card set!

Quote

'Arcade Memories Vol.1'
10 games:
- Cleopatra Fortune
- Gekirindan
- Light Bringer
- Riding Fight
- Grid Seeker
- PuLiRuLa
- Daisenpuu (Twin Hawk)
- Slap Fight
- Ougon no Shiro (Gladiator)
- Great Swordsman

Release: 22nd December 2022

8778 yen with 32 page book & 10 mini cards

One day I'll get a real, full-sized arcade cab... one day...

Edited September 2, 2022 by Dcubed

[Helmsly]

I thought some of you would really enjoy this, it’s a hour long tour through E3 in 1999. Aside from the nostalgia, it’s interesting to see some of these games in their early builds and compare it to the final version. You also get a look at the axed mode to scan your face and put it onto characters in Perfect Dark:

 

[Josh64]

1 hour ago, Helmsly said:

I thought some of you would really enjoy this, it’s a hour long tour through E3 in 1999. Aside from the nostalgia, it’s interesting to see some of these games in their early builds and compare it to the final version. You also get a look at the axed mode to scan your face and put it onto characters in Perfect Dark:

 

i LOVE stuff like this, it's a bit late now to watch an hour long video but I'll definitely check this out soon. I was always fascinated by that axed Gameboy Color mode too so will be interesting to maybe see it in action

[Hero-of-Time]

I gave it a watch yesterday and really enjoyed it. It was a great flashback to what E3 used to be like.

I remember N64 magazine really hyping up the Perfect Dark face transfer feature. It's such a shame it never made it but it's obvious why it didn't. I imagine Nintendo would have gotten a lot of flak from the media for having a game where you could shoot your mate or family member in the face.

[Dcubed]

On 21/09/2022 at 7:28 AM, Hero-of-Time said:

I gave it a watch yesterday and really enjoyed it. It was a great flashback to what E3 used to be like.

I remember N64 magazine really hyping up the Perfect Dark face transfer feature. It's such a shame it never made it but it's obvious why it didn't. I imagine Nintendo would have gotten a lot of flak from the media for having a game where you could shoot your mate or family member in the face.

At least we got the ability to shoot Miyamoto in the face as a result…

Good, wholesome family fun!

[Hero-of-Time]

Pretty interesting video about memory cards.

I could never bring myself to write on the memory card stickers, that's if I even used them in the first place.  

[Hero-of-Time]

Splash Wave/Strafefox is back with another video.

I always appreciate the production values and effort he puts into his content.

Edited September 24, 2022 by Hero-of-Time

[lostmario]

I've gone on a bit of a spending spree on eBay over the last couple of weeks to slowly rebuild my N64 collection.

4 of my favorite N64 games now back in my possession.

There's so many more I want to buy but I'm going to hold off and buy a couple every 2-3 months.

 

I also bought 20 empty mega drive/master system cases off eBay as well for the loose master system games that I bought earlier in the year.

Printed a few covers off and I think they look pretty good on the shelf. Not as good quality as the original cases or the universal game cases but they do the job.

 

[Hero-of-Time]

I love seeing collection shots like this. Nice to see some Master System games there. Not many people seem to go for those games.

[Dcubed]

@Ike Have you tried out any of the new Open FPGA cores for the Analogue Pocket? Any impressions you can give so far? Really wishing that I bought one earlier on now… (Decided to nab one and a Dock when the Open FPGA update came out… Being part of Group C really sucks ).

[nekunando]

On 27/09/2022 at 8:14 PM, lostmario said:

I've gone on a bit of a spending spree on eBay over the last couple of weeks to slowly rebuild my N64 collection.

4 of my favorite N64 games now back in my possession.

There's so many more I want to buy but I'm going to hold off and buy a couple every 2-3 months.

I'm so glad I picked up most of my collection when I did a decade or more ago. The prices are eye-watering these days

I'd be heartbroken if anything ever happened to my games!

[martinist]

bidding on another gamecube / gameboy player combo ending today. Was also thinking about buying Dreamcast games then i remembered i could just copy CD-Rs and stick them all in a folder.

If i win the player I'll probably go on a bit of a gameboy collecting spree, all those loose carts are all pretty cheep aside from pokemon fire and leaf.

[Hero-of-Time]

Just be careful when buying GBA games, especially loose. The market is flooded with fake copies.

[Dcubed]

4 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Just be careful when buying GBA games, especially loose. The market is flooded with fake copies.

The GBA second hand market actually isn’t that bad at the moment.  Outside of the Pokémon titles, the likes of eBay aren’t nearly as flooded with bootlegs as they used to be! As long as you keep your wits about you, now is actually a pretty great time to buy GBA games! And they’re (mostly) not too expensive either!

Now DS on the other hand? Don’t bother.  99% of copies floating around on eBay are bootlegs now; good bloody luck finding legit copies of DS games right now!

[Hero-of-Time]

Fake DS listings are hilarious. You get people selling games with US boxart but UK boxes and sealed Nintendo games that don't have the proper Nintendo seal. If you have your wits about you the fakes aren't that hard to spot. 

 

[nekunando]

Curious if anyone here has a different system?