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GUYS GUYS GUYS!!!

OH MY GOD!! AN UNRELEASED RARE REPLAY BEHIND THE SCENES VIDEO FOR GOLDENEYE HAS LEAKED!!

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"It's not the same experience unless you're in the same room as somebody else where you can elbow them in the face"

A prophet and a scholar!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Playing with Power: The Nintendo Story has its first episode (of five) coming to Crackle on 1st March. 

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Written and directed by Jeremy Snead, executive produced by Sean Astin and featuring interviews from Wil Wheaton and Alison Haislip to Ron Judy (Co-Founder Nintendo of America), Nolan Bushnell (Co-Founder Atari), and Tom Kalinske (Former CEO Sega Of America), the docuseries covers the origins and journey of Nintendo from the 1800s until today. Playing With Power: The Nintendo Story joins the growing list of exciting new Crackle Original Series and will be available to watch for free when it makes its World Premiere on March 1, 2021 exclusively on Crackle.

Playing With Power: The Nintendo Storypeels back the curtain on the famously-secretive Japanese company that would eventually take the global videogame industry by storm. Discover the humble beginnings of a gaming business that began many decades before the invention of television, and ride along the bumpy road of hits, misses, and wild ideas that turned Nintendo from a local playing card maker into a worldwide household name. Narrated by Sean Astin, the electrifying story is presented by an ensemble of Nintendo personnel, celebrity icons, and industry veterans including Wil Wheaton, Alison Haislip, former Nintendo CEO Reggie Fils-Aimé, and head of Xbox Phil Spencer.

This five-part series will have its world premiere on March 1, 2021 as a Crackle Original Series.

Looks fantastic! Hopefully we can get similar things for other companies in the industry, but this is obviously the natural place to start. And it's always great to see others in the industry cherishing Nintendo. 

Edited by Julius
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9 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

Looks a bit dramatised and very "American" (for lack of a better term); but if they've got Howard Phillips, Ron Judy, Perrin Kaplan, Phil Spencer and Reggie on board? I'm watching :) 

Oh yeah, totally agree. I watched The Social Dilemma a couple of months ago, and while it raises some excellent points, I feel like it dramatising it's events depicting how social media impacts family and personal life was just as extreme. I get they're making a point, but yeah, totally a thing. 

Also, I know you were interested in checking out the Console Wars adaptation, have you been able to check it out yet? I couldn't find anything on a UK release back when it came out in the US, but on a whim looked it up last night, and turns out it was released on Sky Documentaries a little while back, so is also available on demand through the Now TV Entertainment Pass (which has a free 7 day trial available). Thought I'd mention it to you just in case you hadn't got a chance to see it yet! 

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22 minutes ago, Julius said:

Oh yeah, totally agree. I watched The Social Dilemma a couple of months ago, and while it raises some excellent points, I feel like it dramatising it's events depicting how social media impacts family and personal life was just as extreme. I get they're making a point, but yeah, totally a thing. 

Also, I know you were interested in checking out the Console Wars adaptation, have you been able to check it out yet? I couldn't find anything on a UK release back when it came out in the US, but on a whim looked it up last night, and turns out it was released on Sky Documentaries a little while back, so is also available on demand through the Now TV Entertainment Pass (which has a free 7 day trial available). Thought I'd mention it to you just in case you hadn't got a chance to see it yet! 

Oh yeah, I watched it a few months back.  It was alright; nothing too amazing or really revelatory (and very dramatised; just like the book), but a decent watch nonetheless.

The best part was seeing Howard Phillips, Peter Main and Howard Lincoln again! It's Been 3,000 Years indeed; and it was really nice to see some old favourite faces again after SO many years, even if only briefly :) 

Edited by Dcubed
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3 hours ago, Julius said:

Don't think it really warrants its own thread, but I know a few here were interested in the Panzer Dragoon remake, and it seems like Square Enix have got Forever Entertainment onboard for some remake projects with them. Should be interesting to see what comes of it! 

Given the state of that game, this isn't exactly good news. :p 

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11 hours ago, Julius said:

Don't think it really warrants its own thread, but I know a few here were interested in the Panzer Dragoon remake, and it seems like Square Enix have got Forever Entertainment onboard for some remake projects with them. Should be interesting to see what comes of it! 

Willing to bet money that the S-E IP in question is Legacy of Kain...

... sorry LOK fans!

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Just looked it up: Forever Entertainment is Polish. Considering how most visible Polish nerd media is dark fantasy (or dark in general), I can see S-E giving them Soul Reaver.

I wouldn't complain. That franchise shouldn't get continuations, but remakes and rereleases I'm fine with. In fact, if they somehow get Blood Omen in the public space again (that game is notoriously hard to find. There isn't even a digital version), I'm even giddy.

...That said, could they handle the notoriously thick English script/writing? Please outsource that part, as well as the voice acting.

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I don't know if it's been posted already but I stumbled upon this wonderful itch.io user.

Most of the pdfs work on a "Name your own price" basis. The PS2 Encyclopedia is free to get right now, but it's usually priced at $1 (with the option to give more, if you want).

I don't know how accurate these collections are but the PS2 one seems to be put together with a lot of care. Worth a look :)

(you need an itch.io account, as far as I know)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Funnily enough, this announcement just pushed me over the edge to buy the Japanese version just now (There was a UK based seller on eBay selling the unit for about £145; which nicely saves me a ton in shipping/import costs I'd otherwise have to pay!)

Also helps a lot that the Mayflash USB adapter now works on it; meaning that I can use my existing arcade stick on this thing now (No way am I paying the outrageous price for the Astro City specific one!).  Also works with the Japanese Mega Drive Mini 6 button controller too, so that's my controller needs covered :) 

Can't really argue with getting 37 SEGA arcade games for about £4 a pop (plus a mini arcade unit to play them on!); plus... you know, Revenge of Death Adder at home!! At last! :D 

Edited by Dcubed
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So my Astro City Mini is here!

VUy6zGA.jpg

An arcade machine for ants

I really like it so far! The build quality is very good! It uses proper arcade Sanwa parts and the sticks/buttons feel premium quality; with those lovely micro switches that give the satisfying “click” that a proper Arcade stick should.  I haven’t tried out my Mayflash adapter on it yet, but I’m happy to report that the Japanese 6 button Mega Drive Mini controller works flawlessly on it (the Mode button acts as the Insert Coin button; so every button is indeed accounted for!).  The screen on the unit is of decent quality, though certainly nothing that’s gonna make your Switch blush.  It’s kinda similar to the 3DS’ screen in terms of overall quality (though features twice the vertical resolution of the 3DS’ top screen) and while colour representation isn’t the best? It definitely gets the job done and looks way better than the NeoGeo Mini screen for instance.

Do wish that this thing had a built-in battery, but thankfully it’s able to run off an external battery via its micro USB port (not USB-C sadly).  Have had no trouble using the same external battery I use with my phone, making it a truly portable system when unteathered from the TV :) 

The emulation quality is generally very good from what I’ve tested of it so far.  It’s not quite the same quality as you’d expect from M2, but it’s really very good and pretty comparable to the Mega Drive Mini (which, considering the various different machines being emulated here instead of the one? is a very impressive feat!).  You might spot some small issues here and there (the most obvious one being the slowdown during Virtua Fighter’s end of match replays and its skybox occasionally flickering) but overall I have very little to complain about so far; and the value on offer here (With the RRP being around £120; you’re getting each game for around £3.25, generally emulated very well, WITH a mini arcade machine to play them on) is just absolutely ridiculous!  The quality is way, WAY ahead of most previous SEGA mini consoles & el-cheapo compilations, and while it’s not quite M2? I reckon that most people will be very happy with the overall emulation quality on this thing.

In terms of emulation? If I have any complaint to make? It’s with the lack of options available for each game (you’re locked to the Japanese ROMs and you cannot change the dip switch settings) and the lack of video scaling options (you get full screen 4:3 and that’s it, no true integer scaling and no interpolation).  Generally most games look good on both the TV and the small screen, but games that play in Tate mode do look kinda rough... with shimmering all over the place and there’s nothing you can do to fix it; thankfully the grand majority of games look good and shimmering generally appears to be minimal, particularly with the System 16 & System 32 games (AKA, the most important ones).

Sound is also well represented and the speakers on the unit itself are pretty nice & punchy; which I wasn’t expecting! The sound emulation is generally pretty decent, but it’s not perfect.  Those with a keen ear will probably spot some minor inaccuracies here and there; but overall I’d say that the sound emulation is generally good quality all around (which in of itself is very impressive given the large bevvy of games across multiple systems being represented here!); really can’t complain for the price!

The overall emulation quality is definitely comparable to the Mega Drive Mini overall, if not quite on the same level, and the menu is a bit basic (with some pretty hilarious Engrish in the game descriptions), but overall I’m very happy with this little thing! :D 

Edited by Dcubed
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  • 4 weeks later...

Started playing Persona 3 FES upscaled to 4k this weekend through "special means". I've only ever played Persona 3 Portable so it's nice to get some of the charm of the series back that I felt was lacking in the more visual novel style of that PSP remake. Also added a patch to let me control the rest of my team, something that wasn't possible in the 3 games until P3P.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So I bought a PS1 off of eBay last night. Mostly because I wanted to play Ape Escape again. There are alot of cheep PS1 joblots on there too so i might pick one or two of them up and start collecting for the PS1 again.

Still looking for a decently priced Gameboy Player for the Gamecube with no luck.

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4 minutes ago, martinist said:

So I bought a PS1 off of eBay last night. Mostly because I wanted to play Ape Escape again. There are alot of cheep PS1 joblots on there too so i might pick one or two of them up and start collecting for the PS1 again.

Still looking for a decently priced Gameboy Player for the Gamecube with no luck.

Outside of a few games, the PS1 market is pretty good in terms of the price of games. Did you get the original model or (IMO) the better PSOne?

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Discovered this last night:

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This little cartridge jacks into the Video CD port of your Saturn, and lets you play all your games off an SD card!

Watching some YouTube reviews it seems to be pretty damn good. Definitely going to look into picking one up given the ever inflating price of some of the games for the system.

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Hey you retro bitches, need your help.

I remember playing a demo of a fighting game on my PSX back in the day and the only characters you could fight as were a soccer player and a baseball dude. Does anybody know what game I'm talking about?

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1 minute ago, drahkon said:

I remember playing a demo of a fighting game on my PSX back in the day and the only characters you could fight as were a soccer player and a baseball dude. Does anybody know what game I'm talking about?

Rival Schools

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11 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Did you ever place the sequel on the Dreamcast? Both games are fantastic but the sequel pips it for me.

I've only ever played the demo on PSX :D

Never even owned a Dreamcast. I've actually never seen one in real life :o

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