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General Retro Discussion


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Posted (edited)
On 11/05/2024 at 12:07 PM, Cube said:

Someone has created a tool that massively helps people in making native PC ports of N64 games. Some tinkering is still needed from developers and it won't allow changes as easily as decomplication-based ports (the recompiled code isn't readable), but it looks like it's going to be a great tool that will allow people getting N64 games running smoother with higher resolutions, widescreen and other stuff. It also automatically builds a version that doesn't contain any game assets (the user will need to provide those themselves) - the person that developed this software has released a Majora's Mask port.

One advantage is that this is as accurate as the most resource-heavy emulation, but much easier to run. And it's a lot easier to modify than emulated games as well (just not as easy as decomp ports). 

Games with unique code libraries (Factor 5's stuff) still needs work until they would be compatible, but it's a great start in making N64 games easier to play. I'll probably be near the end of playing N64 games by the time a good amount of these come out (I got quite far ahead before I started posting my daily write-ups), but it's still exciting, especially for some of the underrated N64 games (one of them even shown off in the video) to give them a chance to shine. 

Oh, and they're working with raytracing mods. They ported Superman 64 to PC and added raytracing.

 

 

That ray-traced Mystical Ninja tease at the end! :o:love:

g0ErvnyVsp7nJyfmxF.webp

Edited by RedShell
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Grabbed myself a new handheld that I'll be using as a dedicated retro machine, the AYN Odin 2 and I think I'll use the opportunity to get back to Final Fantasy VI. It was either that or Chrono Trigger but I put a good amount of time into that a few years ago while a lot of FF6 I feel like I've forgotten.

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1 hour ago, Happenstance said:

Decided against going with FFVI yet again on the new Odin 2 and I'm finally going to try Suikoden V instead as I never got around to playing it.

It's never a bad time for FF VI but you gotta go where your gaming heart takes you.

Have you polished off all those Switch games you treated yourself to six months ago?

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51 minutes ago, darksnowman said:

It's never a bad time for FF VI but you gotta go where your gaming heart takes you.

Have you polished off all those Switch games you treated yourself to six months ago?

If by polished off you mean realised I made a mistake buying them and sold them on along with the Switch then yes, yes I have 😜

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1 hour ago, Happenstance said:

If by polished off you mean realised I made a mistake buying them and sold them on along with the Switch then yes, yes I have 😜

Wouldn't even have needed polished up before you sent it on. :laughing: 'Twas very much a kid in a sweet shop approach you took to blowing through your Christmas bonus—few would have been able to stick it through all the hours of gaming you'd enlisted yourself for.

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2 minutes ago, darksnowman said:

Wouldn't even have needed polished up before you sent it on. :laughing: 'Twas very much a kid in a sweet shop approach you took to blowing through your Christmas bonus—few would have been able to stick it through all the hours of gaming you'd enlisted yourself for.

Thankfully it was one I got a good deal on secondhand from someone at work so I didn't particularly lose any money. I just realised I wasn't enjoying the games. Zelda as I mentioned in it's thread the other day I was finding boring and Super Mario Wonder ended up feeling soulless, giving me none of the enjoyment I'd gotten from previous titles. I enjoyed it at the beginning until I realised I just seemed to be playing the same levels over and over again with mechanics I didn't care for.

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Just been playing a bit of Black which I haven't played probably since it came out. It's still pretty good. Would have been interesting to see what shooters would have been like if this exploded instead of Medal of Honor and COD.

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Here's a blast from the past for any long-time Cube-Europe forumites still knocking around. I found some old footage of Game Stars Live from 2004 on a cover disc and uploaded the video to YouTube. One of my old C-E friends CubeChris got in touch to say he's in the video (and the thumbnail!). Thought there might be a couple more of you oldies featured, so if you went along to the event and checked out the Nintendo booths have a watch and see if your younger self is in it too. Any newer Nintendo fans curious about mid-noughties fashion are also welcome to check it out of course :)

 

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1 hour ago, Happenstance said:

Kind of fancy starting to get the Bitmap Books again. Got the NES and SNES ones when they were first on Kickstarter but it looks like they've got some nice genre specific ones now that I'd like to go through.

I've seen these too. They look cool. From time to time I've noticed my mouse head towards the buy button* on the N64: A Visual Compendium book.

N64: a visual compendium

* could likely do with running a malware scan.

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15 minutes ago, darksnowman said:

I've seen these too. They look cool. From time to time I've noticed my mouse head towards the buy button* on the N64: A Visual Compendium book.

N64: a visual compendium

* could likely do with running a malware scan.

I love the idea of a visual compendium for a console known for fog and blurryness 😜

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1 hour ago, Happenstance said:

Kind of fancy starting to get the Bitmap Books again. Got the NES and SNES ones when they were first on Kickstarter but it looks like they've got some nice genre specific ones now that I'd like to go through.

Strongly recommend the JRPG and CRPG ones, they're lovely to look at. The cover art for the JRPG one especially! 

021_JapaneseRPG_1200x600_crop_center.jpg

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1 hour ago, darksnowman said:

I've seen these too. They look cool. From time to time I've noticed my mouse head towards the buy button* on the N64: A Visual Compendium book.

N64: a visual compendium

* could likely do with running a malware scan.

I can't be the only one who's bothered by Ness being there?

He's about as relevant to the N64 as Samus is!

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1 hour ago, Glen-i said:

I can't be the only one who's bothered by Ness being there?

He's about as relevant to the N64 as Samus is!

With moves like pika thunder and pika fire, you're the last person we thought it'd bother.

1 hour ago, Cube said:

But it has so many other important N64 characters: Wario, Lakitu, Kirby, Virus, Charizard, GoldenEye Guy and Zelda.

Lakitu was there from day one, livestreaming it all to Bowser.

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1 hour ago, Cube said:

But it has so many other important N64 characters: Wario, Lakitu, Kirby, Virus, Charizard, GoldenEye Guy and Zelda.

Man, I'm glad you pointed that one out. Because that one's almost as bad!

You can't convince me for one second that the target audience wouldn't be able to recognise Zelda's N64 model! Nuh-uh! Not buying that!

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I've recently been feeling nostalgic for the PS2 (this was before the Days of Play announcement) and was searching ebay and found this bundle of games, which arrived today.

GO1zOc8XEAAT2mV?format=jpg&name=large

Moto GP was also included but I didn't want it and put it straight in the trash. I've a lot of fond memories from these games, although I never did play any of the SSX series and so that will be a new experience for me.

GT3 is what I started playing this evening. It was a pure nostalgia hit when I watched the intro.

Of course, my starting car was the Mazda MX-5. Just like old times. I won the Sunday Cup and will probably grind it out a few more times in order to get credits to tune the car. 

I'll probably dabble with a bit of Timesplitters and Tekken Tag over the weekend.

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Another FPGA GBC clone is on the way... from Trump Campaigner Palmer Luckey of all people...

https://www.timeextension.com/news/2024/06/chromatic-is-a-fpga-based-game-boy-from-palmer-luckey

That being said though, what's interesting here is not the hardware itself, but that his company seems to be comissioning brand new GBC releases, including an all new, officially licensed version of Tetris!

Looks like we may be seeing a surgence of new GBC games released for Nintendo's old workhorse coming in the next couple of years :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Game Sack have been recently putting out B-roll footage of various classic E3 showfloors that have been sent their way by people who visited the showfloor back in the early 2000s!

Here's E3 2001...

And here's E3 2002...

Supposedly there's more to come in the coming weeks/months.  A neat little time capsule from better times :)

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Not sure if this is the right topic for this, but... It seems GOG is releasing the original Resident Evil trilogy on its store. Not the remakes, it's the 90s originals, with all of their jank, cheese, and nonsense.

https://www.gog.com/en/game/resident_evil

With all the focus that the remakes get, how long has it been since the originals have been available? Significant victory for Capcom's game preservation department, for all they do with preserving their Arcade and/or 2D games, they typically have had difficulty preserving their 3D classics. Between the MvC Collection, and now this, hopefully this is a sign of much more to come.

(Incidentally, MvC2 is also technically a 3D game!)

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