General Retro Discussion

[Hero-of-Time]

Finally got the Dreamcast set up but it took a while. My mate forgot to pack the power cable and scart lead. Luckily I could use my PS2 power cable and I ordered a VGA cable on Friday from Amazon. Once the cable arrived I tried putting it into my TV but it would produce a picture for some reason. I have a couple of spare LCD monitors up the attic so tried one of them out and it worked. 

I played Virtua Fighter 3TB for a while and finished it with a few characters. I forgot how hard and technical the game is compared to other fighters. Lion was my main in the second game but I couldn't get to grips with him on this. Same when I played it back in the day. Jacky was a more to my liking and was a faster fighter to use. I got a laugh at Kage's shiny pants when I fought him.  

I then fired up Chu Chu Rocket. I love this game. What a great little puzzler it is. I remember I needed my mates help to complete the harder puzzles when I originally had a Dreamcast because I wasn't fast enough to place the arrows myself. The game looks gorgeous using the VGA output.

[Dcubed]

I'm still amazed that we haven't gotten a modern port of Chu Chu Rocket! Aside from the surprisingly good GBA version and the long abandoned mobile version, there's nothing!

 

It would be amazing on Switch! Each Joy-Con has the full compliment of 4 face buttons, making it ideal for on-the-go tabletop multiplayer fun! 8 Player CCR would be a riot!

[Happenstance]

I did loves me some Chu Chu Rocket.

[nekunando]

1 hour ago, Dcubed said:

I'm still amazed that we haven't gotten a modern port of Chu Chu Rocket! Aside from the surprisingly good GBA version and the long abandoned mobile version, there's nothing!

 

It would be amazing on Switch! Each Joy-Con has the full compliment of 4 face buttons, making it ideal for on-the-go tabletop multiplayer fun! 8 Player CCR would be a riot!

The ability to easily create and share puzzles with friends would be awesome too

I think I want to play the Dreamcast version when I get home..

[Ike]

Chu Chu mania!

The Dreamcast version was unplayable online due the lag. Got my copy free due to SEGA doing a promotion due to it being one of the first online games for the system.

[Happenstance]

Ok then, here we go!

[lostmario]

Got my Dreamcast keyboard out of the loft and just played this. Only got to Chapter 4.

 

[Happenstance]

I've played about an hour of Grandia so far and I'm not really sure what I think of it yet. It has some nice camera movements during "cutscenes" which makes everything feel cinematic which is nice. The graphics I kind of do and don't like. The designs seem good but the 2D style being pushed into the 3D world, I'm just not sure it works. I keep running into the problem of exiting areas in the world as well without realising it as there is no real indicator. This gets annoying with the load times. The worst thing though is the voice acting!

It's kind of just making me want to play FFVII as that is a much tighter RPG with a better sense of world and purpose immediately.

[Ike]

Got my Saturn from my parents, must've only ever used the RF cable as I couldn't find a composite cable or anything. Tuned it into my TV but getting a terrible picture and just getting static from the audio so looks like I'll have to get an RGB cable. Think I need a new standard controller as the connector end is loose and has come out the casing, I'm scared to plug it in. 3D controller works fine. Don't want to spend more money at the moment though so might be a couple of months before I get them sorted.

Oh, and @S.C.G before I forget, the Framemeister I got didn't come with a UK power plug, it had the japanese style pins (2 flat pins) so you either need to get an adapter, new power cable, or use the one for the Vita TV like I am.

 

[S.C.G]

2 minutes ago, Ike said:

Oh, and @S.C.G before I forget, the Framemeister I got didn't come with a UK power plug, it had the japanese style pins (2 flat pins) so you either need to get an adapter, new power cable, or use the one for the Vita TV like I am.

Thanks, that's what I thought, I double checked everything and got an adapter to go over the Japanese style pins so that should be fine.

Now I've just got to get around to setting everything up, got another Expansion Pak and Power Adapter to go with my RGB modded N64 the other day, so I'm good to go.

Just all of the clearing up/tidying which needs to be done before the setting up and testing each console... I might be properly set up by the time I have my next holiday...

...you never know, maybe even before.

It'll be worth it though I'm sure.

[Fierce_LiNk]

On ‎06‎/‎04‎/‎2018 at 8:24 PM, Hero-of-Time said:

Yeah, it worked out great. Sealed copies of Plasma Sword and Phantasy Star Online usually go for £40+ on their own, so there's £80 right there. Probably £10 each for the VMUs and Rumble Pack and £30 for the pad. That's already more than I paid for and that's without the other games added.

Providing that I get my mates console tomorrow, I think I'll start with Jet Set Radio. I've never actually played it and I'm eager to give it a go after listening to the Sega Bits episode about it.

I adore Jet Set Radio. The controls are a bit of a pain, but it's such a fun game. Would love to see a new game as I love the style and look of it. 

[S.C.G]

 

[Hero-of-Time]

I watched the DF video yesterday afternoon and really enjoyed it. I've only played through Sonic CD the once ( on the Gamecube collection ) and I never really cared for it. It's interesting to see just how different it was compared to the other games and I was completely unaware of just how many changes that could be done per level. It's certainly made me see the game in a new light.

10 hours ago, Fierce_LiNk said:

I adore Jet Set Radio. The controls are a bit of a pain, but it's such a fun game. Would love to see a new game as I love the style and look of it. 

I played quite a bit of it yesterday and have really enjoyed it so far. The missions where you have to tag the rival gangs are a bit fiddly. Sometimes they won't tag despite me hammering the L trigger. It took a while to do the first one of these as I had to learn the layout of the stage and find out which route they were going.

13 hours ago, Happenstance said:

I've played about an hour of Grandia so far and I'm not really sure what I think of it yet. It has some nice camera movements during "cutscenes" which makes everything feel cinematic which is nice. The graphics I kind of do and don't like. The designs seem good but the 2D style being pushed into the 3D world, I'm just not sure it works. I keep running into the problem of exiting areas in the world as well without realising it as there is no real indicator. This gets annoying with the load times. The worst thing though is the voice acting!

It's kind of just making me want to play FFVII as that is a much tighter RPG with a better sense of world and purpose immediately.

The voice acting is pretty rough, especially Justin. You do have to remember what era it was made in, though. What do you think of the battle system? I found the battles to be very slow. It felt like an age to get through one of them.

In other news, I finished Virtua fighter 3TB yesterday. I went through the game with the remaining characters and then put it on the complete shelf. I figured it would be the easiest of my games to finish due to just how little content there actually is. When you look at all the other fighters that are on the system I think this one is definitely one of the weakest. Most of Capcom's fighters have plenty of unlocks or a story mode whereas this has a starting roster that doesn't change and an Arcade or Team Battle Mode and that's it.

[Happenstance]

34 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

The voice acting is pretty rough, especially Justin. You do have to remember what era it was made in, though. What do you think of the battle system? I found the battles to be very slow. It felt like an age to get through one of them.

The battle system, along with a lot of the rest of the game it seems isn’t very well explained. I see there is some kind of combo system but at the moment I’m just selecting that when I can and seeing what happens. I’ll stick with the game for another few hours to see if it pulls me in but if it doesn’t then I think I will switch to FFVII.

[Hero-of-Time]

58 minutes ago, Happenstance said:

The battle system, along with a lot of the rest of the game it seems isn’t very well explained. I see there is some kind of combo system but at the moment I’m just selecting that when I can and seeing what happens. I’ll stick with the game for another few hours to see if it pulls me in but if it doesn’t then I think I will switch to FFVII.

It's a retro game. It's probably all in the instruction manual.  

[Hero-of-Time]

I was going to start Plasma Sword this evening but i've just checked the list of games that aren't VGA compatible and sadly that is one of them.  Guess i'll continue with Jet Set Radio and order a scart cable so that the Dreamcast can be plugged into my HDMI adapter thingy.

[S.C.G]

54 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I was going to start Plasma Sword this evening but i've just checked the list of games that aren't VGA compatible and sadly that is one of them.  Guess i'll continue with Jet Set Radio and order a scart cable so that the Dreamcast can be plugged into my HDMI adapter thingy.

I think there's a way to force VGA mode on those kind of games...

 

Essentially... start it in TV Mode on the box, turn on Dreamcast, wait for the swirl and then press the button when you hear the Dreamcast has finished loading.

It takes a litttle bit of practice but once you've got the timing down, it's fine... I had to go through this so that I could play Cannon Spike. Worth it.

[Happenstance]

Not that I'm using it at the moment after you all reminded me that the PS3 plays PS1 games but CEX have confirmed they've sent out the correct power cable to my for my PSOne.

[Hero-of-Time]

1 hour ago, S.C.G said:

Essentially... start it in TV Mode on the box, turn on Dreamcast, wait for the swirl and then press the button when you hear the Dreamcast has finished loading.

It takes a litttle bit of practice but once you've got the timing down, it's fine... I had to go through this so that I could play Cannon Spike. Worth it.

Thanks for the suggestion but i'd rather not have another box sitting under the TV.  

[S.C.G]

 

[Happenstance]

Guys, guys, guys, guys, guys, guys!!!!!

Croc has arrived!

[Fierce_LiNk]

11 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I played quite a bit of it yesterday and have really enjoyed it so far. The missions where you have to tag the rival gangs are a bit fiddly. Sometimes they won't tag despite me hammering the L trigger. It took a while to do the first one of these as I had to learn the layout of the stage and find out which route they were going.

Glad you're enjoying it. It's such a really fun and quirky game.

I struggle a little going back to the Dreamcast controller. The single analogue throws me off a bit and it just feels a bit unbalanced. 

[Hero-of-Time]

43 minutes ago, Fierce_LiNk said:

Glad you're enjoying it. It's such a really fun and quirky game.

I struggle a little going back to the Dreamcast controller. The single analogue throws me off a bit and it just feels a bit unbalanced. 

Yeah, it does take some getting used to, especially when you go to use the right stick to move the in game camera and it's not there.  I have the same problem when playing N64 games.

[nekunando]

When I first got the Dreamcast controller into my hands, I was really worried about how odd it initially felt. I had similar feelings with the Switch Joy-Con!

After a little while, the reservations melted away and I ended up really liking the pad

The lack of buttons certainly limited what could be done but throwing in a VMU and Rumble Pak gave it some satisfying extra weight.

[Hero-of-Time]

9 hours ago, S.C.G said:

 

Nice video, @S.C.G.

I'm often grateful for being able to grow up when I did. Being able to see the different consoles from the C64 all the way to now has been a great experience. Many younger gamers will never get to see the graphical leaps that were achieved in the early years of gaming. Sure, it still is a little exciting when a new console releases but I don't think the magic of seeing something like Mario and Sonic finally in 3D will ever be replicated again.

Retro gaming for me is a lot about reliving my childhood and getting that nostalgic buzz, but it's also about being able to play games that I never got around to playing back in the day. Case in point, i've been playing Jet Set Radio and Virtua Tennis 2 over the past couple of days, both of which were new experiences for me. I also like having that option of being able to go back and revisit games to see how well they hold up or just to play them because they are just so good to play. I think it's easy to just concentrate on modern gaming but I do enjoy going back and replaying things that brought me joy and got me excited about gaming in the first place. 

Another thing I enjoy about retro gaming is the simplicity of the games. I was playing MSR last night and I loved how I got to just jump into a car and get racing on a single track straight away. There was no open world to worry about. I just selected a course, completed that and then moved on to the next one. Virtua Tennis 2 was the same in that the game just throws you in at it without any lengthy tutorials to make your way through. I have this same issue with modern Pokemon games, where you have to stop every 5 mins for the game to be explained to you and there is a whole bunch of tat that i'm simply not interested in. It's why I  prefer the older games over the newer ones because they actually allow me to play the game and also have a bit of challenge to them. There is definitely a pick up and play value with a lot of retro games that has simply been lost in the modern era.