General Retro Discussion

[Hero-of-Time]

4 minutes ago, Happenstance said:

 

Finished the test prints for the dust covers I was talking about the other day. I was originally just gonna go with the smaller bottom only one but I quite like the way the carts sit in the full size cover. Just need to get myself some black filament now so it matches the majority of Mega Drive carts and I can print more for my whole collection.

Very nice. Yeah, the full cover is definitely the way to go.

[Ike]

On 14/08/2018 at 9:41 AM, Hero-of-Time said:

I've been looking at Super Famicom stuff and it's crazy how cheap some of the games are compared to its Western equivalent. Most of the games seem to be in much better condition as well. I imagine a lot of games can be bought, played and enjoyed due to the nature of a lot of the games being platformers or shooters. Obviously JRPGs would be a problem but the rest would probably be okay to play. 

@Ike I know you collect DQ titles but have you picked up any games that never made it out over here purely just to play through? I watched a couple of videos last night and it seems there a host of titles that never reached these shores that seem easily playable, despite being in Japanese.

Yeah that's one of the factors that made purchasing a Super Famicom a lot of sense. 60hz, cheap and easy to get games for. I got Chrono Trigger for £25 and it's possible to get it cheaper than that and the US version is selling for 10x that amount. Obviously there's the language barrier but hoping it'll help with my Japanese practice once I study it a bit more.

There's a worrying number of ebay listings of a "PAL" version of Chrono Trigger I noticed.

A lot of games aren't text heavy around the SNES era, plenty of platformers have very little text and are playable without being able to read it, I was asking about Castlevania IV, but even if it was text heavy, it should be easy to play through. A lot of games have bad translations so you may as well play some of them in Japanese anyway. 

I actually haven't really picked up many SNES games as of yet, aside from the DQ games I've got Super Metroid, the Japanese and US versions are 100% identical, ALttP, although that is one US, I did buy the Japanese one on the 3DS, again for one day being Japanese practice, Ys, Chrono Trigger and Star Wing.

Torneko's Great Adventure and Hyper Dimension are the 2 that weren't released outside of Japan I'm most interested in at the moment. I have been considering getting a Puyo Puyo game though.

Although I'm open for suggestions. 

[Hero-of-Time]

1 hour ago, Ike said:

Yeah that's one of the factors that made purchasing a Super Famicom a lot of sense. 60hz, cheap and easy to get games for. I got Chrono Trigger for £25 and it's possible to get it cheaper than that and the US version is selling for 10x that amount. Obviously there's the language barrier but hoping it'll help with my Japanese practice once I study it a bit more.

There's a worrying number of ebay listings of a "PAL" version of Chrono Trigger I noticed.

A lot of games aren't text heavy around the SNES era, plenty of platformers have very little text and are playable without being able to read it, I was asking about Castlevania IV, but even if it was text heavy, it should be easy to play through. A lot of games have bad translations so you may as well play some of them in Japanese anyway. 

I actually haven't really picked up many SNES games as of yet, aside from the DQ games I've got Super Metroid, the Japanese and US versions are 100% identical, ALttP, although that is one US, I did buy the Japanese one on the 3DS, again for one day being Japanese practice, Ys, Chrono Trigger and Star Wing.

Torneko's Great Adventure and Hyper Dimension are the 2 that weren't released outside of Japan I'm most interested in at the moment. I have been considering getting a Puyo Puyo game though.

Although I'm open for suggestions. 

When i've been looking at the Super Famicom games a lot of the artwork on boxes is much better than what we got. I'd say that most Super Famicom artwork is better than what both the US or PAL regions got. Some of them are great in comparison.

As for suggestions, I was watching these videos the other day. While I don't have a Super Famicom myself I was interested in what kind of import games could be played without the language barrier being an issue.

 

 

 

 

As for the PAL Chrono Trigger carts, yeah there are a lot of those and others kicking about now. I guess there's a market for these kinds of repros. It makes it easier for people to play them on their native machines. You can also find translated versions of a lot of the JRPGs that never made it out over here and the Zelda BS games.

Edited August 15, 2018 by Hero-of-Time

[Nicktendo]

There's a great GameCube retrospective on Colin Moriarty's Knockback podcast feed. Definitely worth a listen.

[Hero-of-Time]

14 minutes ago, Nicktendo said:

There's a great GameCube retrospective on Colin Moriarty's Knockback podcast feed. Definitely worth a listen.

Thanks for the heads up. Gonna listen to it now.

[Nicktendo]

Even though they don't focus TOO much on the GameCube for the duration of the discussion and certainly don't focus on many of the games, it was a fascinating insight into the industry at the time and how it really has changed since them. It's such a damn shame that Colin was essentially hounded out of the mainstream, I could listen to him talk for hours. Some of these Knockback episodes have been great, especially the ones related to topics other than gaming. 

[Hero-of-Time]

5 minutes ago, Nicktendo said:

Even though they don't focus TOO much on the GameCube for the duration of the discussion and certainly don't focus on many of the games, it was a fascinating insight into the industry at the time and how it really has changed since them. It's such a damn shame that Colin was essentially hounded out of the mainstream, I could listen to him talk for hours. Some of these Knockback episodes have been great, especially the ones related to topics other than gaming. 

Agreed. 

Ive only listened to half if it ( saving the rest for the drive into work ) and it's been very enjoyable so far. 

It's nuts how arrogant and bitter Nintendo were towards Sony. I suppose it's not surprising seeing as they help create their biggest rival.

Like you I could listen to Colin all day. He's got so much knowledge about the industry and I love how he knows all the dates and figures off the top of his head. There's not many, if any, in the industry who can do that.

I think it's disgusting he's banned on Era and you can't even talk about him unless you're speaking negatively about him. It's all because of his political opinion, as well as that joke he made that upset the feminists. Even many in the industry still shun him because of this. Morons.

[drahkon]

33 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

It's all because of his political opinion, as well as that joke he made that upset the feminists. 

I'd like to hear that joke.

[Hero-of-Time]

7 hours ago, drahkon said:

I'd like to hear that joke.

The internet went into an uproar over it, with many calling him out for being sexist. Both Tim and Gregg turned on him and essentially stabbed him in the back, which caused him to leave Kinda Funny, a company he helped co-found and gain popularity. People from IGN and other outlets kicked off on him and many distanced themselves from him and still do to this day.

I remember when Brandon from Easy Allies went and appeared on one of Colin's shows and people went off it. A fair few of them thought it was disgraceful and even stopped supporting EZA on Pateron because of this. Idiots.

I don't use social media but if I did and one of my mates posted what Colin did it certainly would have got a laugh out of me. Hell, even Colin's girlfriend found it funny and replied to his tweet laughing.

It comes back to people being outraged over the simplest thing and wanting to be seen as defenders for every little thing. It's pathetic really. 

[Happenstance]

The guy is a nasty piece of work and I won’t be using this thread anymore if I’m gonna have to read posts from you gushing about him, especially if you go calling people who don’t like him morons.

[Hero-of-Time]

7 minutes ago, Happenstance said:

The guy is a nasty piece of work and I won’t be using this thread anymore if I’m gonna have to read posts from you gushing about him, especially if you go calling people who don’t like him morons.

No idea if you're serious or not but if you are then feel free to click the ignore button on me. That way you can at least still enjoy the Retro topic.

I like the guy and I think he's been hard done by angry gamers and many people who were supposed to be his friends and colleges. His political opinion is irrelevant to me. I go to him for gaming banter and not what his thoughts are on politicians, governments or how the US is run.

[drahkon]

3 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

The internet went into an uproar over it, with many calling him out for being sexist.

Seriously? Because of this?

I'm glad that my friends and I aren't public figures because we make jokes like that on a daily basis. We'd be crucified if people heard what we make fun of  

Quote

It comes back to people being outraged over the simplest thing and wanting to be seen as defenders for every little thing. It's pathetic really. 

Yeah, it's really gotten out of hand these days. No matter where you are and what you do you have to be careful with what you say. Yes, there are certain boundaries you shouldn't cross, but in this instance it was a harmless tweet - a funny one at that. 

1 hour ago, Hero-of-Time said:

His political opinion is irrelevant to me. I go to him for gaming banter and not what his thoughts are on politicians, governments or how the US is run.

Good attitude  

This is why I still follow JonTron, even though there has been some controversy about certain statements he's made. I like his videos and his political view doesn't change the fact that he makes me laugh.

Edited August 17, 2018 by drahkon

[Hero-of-Time]

13 minutes ago, drahkon said:

Seriously? Because of this?

I'm glad that me and my friends aren't public figures because we make jokes like that on a daily basis. We'd be crucified if people heard what we make fun of  

Yeah, sadly it was over that. Although many were looking for an excuse to jump on him anyway.

Yeah, when me and the lads get together to watch the football or meet up to go to the cinema we can get a bit rowdy and, like you said, we'd also probably be hung up online for some of the banter that comes out of us. 

13 minutes ago, drahkon said:

Yeah, it's really gotten out of hand these days. No matter where you are and what you do you have to be careful with what you say. Yes, there are certain boundaries you shouldn't cross, but in this instance it was a harmless tweet - a funny one at that. 

Funnily enough, I was thinking about this the other day. A guy over on Era mentioned Bottom (british comedy TV series from the early 90's) and I decided to watch an episode of it on Netflix. It had been years since I seen it and while watching it I was laughing my back off but, at the same time, I was thinking how outraged many would people would be over it today. It's not really that far fetched either because you had people lobbying on the internet trying to get Friends removed from Netflix when it arrived on the service this year. Crazy world we live in.

What thread is this again?  

Edited August 17, 2018 by Hero-of-Time

[Jonnas]

5 minutes ago, drahkon said:

Seriously? Because of this?

I'm glad that my friends and I aren't public figures because we make jokes like that on a daily basis. We'd be crucified if people heard what we make fun of

 

3 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Hell, even Colin's girlfriend found it funny and replied to his tweet laughing.

These are pretty weak arguments. Ironic humour depends heavily on context and audience. What works with your friends won't necessarily work with your boss. I'd wager his girlfriend found it funny precisely because she's familiar with the way he thinks, and there's also the fact that she is the specific subject of the joke. "Even the subject of the joke laughed" means nothing, because she's the woman who's likeliest to find the tweet funny. On a wider audience, such a joke easily falls flat, and Twitter is the widest of audiences.

Me, I don't have any opinion on Moriarty as I don't quite know who he is (what I see in this thread is all I know). I just wanted to rebuke this notion that jokes that work on a personal level are somehow above criticism when put on twitter. It's a completely different playing field.

Also, I highly doubt it was just that tweet. It's far more likely that, being an internet personality, he already had his fair share of haters who'd jump on him for any transgression, small or otherwise. It's always like that. Whether it's deserved or not tends to be beyond the issue.

[Goafer]

I played Skies of Arcadia once. It was great.

[drahkon]

2 minutes ago, Jonnas said:

These are pretty weak arguments. Ironic humour depends heavily on context and audience. What works with your friends won't necessarily work with your boss. I'd wager his girlfriend found it funny precisely because she's familiar with the way he thinks, and there's also the fact that she is the specific subject of the joke. "Even the subject of the joke laughed" means nothing, because she's the woman who's likeliest to find the tweet funny. On a wider audience, such a joke easily falls flat, and Twitter is the widest of audiences.

If you don't find the tweet funny, do you really have to be offended or outraged? I understand that humour is always subjective but if someone tells a joke I don't think is funny and deals with something I had troubles with in the past or even on a grander scheme I simply don't laugh and move on. 

 

I'll say it again: These days you have to be careful what you say and it sucks. Even saying that you had a steak for lunch can get you death threats in the mail. I will never agree with all the outrage over every little thing in these times.

[killthenet]

The guys Twitter handle is notaxation, he's clearly an asshole.

[Goafer]

My Pi screen showed up and It's more beautiful than I could have ever imagined:

And also accepts HDMI in, as Illustrated by my PS4:

[Ike]

On 07/08/2018 at 11:14 AM, Happenstance said:

I'll let you know how well it works then.

Curiosity got the best of me and I ordered a new adapter and it's been working fine so I guess my original one was faulty. I just assumed it was due to the technology, I guess I should have looked into it more earlier. 

Been playing ALttP with it, playing the US version and I've definitely noticed more slowdown than I remember from the PAL or GBA versions, I think I remember @Hero of Time mentioned noticing it as well.

[Dcubed]

3 hours ago, Ike said:

Been playing ALttP with it, playing the US version and I've definitely noticed more slowdown than I remember from the PAL or GBA versions, I think I remember @Hero of Time mentioned noticing it as well.

Yup, it does indeed have more slowdown than the PAL version; same with Super Metroid (particularily during the fight with Kraid), it's perfectly normal and the same thing happens on the original SNES cart.  The US version is much faster and smoother overall though so I'd always choose it over PAL, regardless of a few brief moments of slowdown here and there.

Edited August 18, 2018 by Dcubed

[Hero-of-Time]

Which company was better in the 80s and 90s? Game Sack aims to find out.

[S.C.G]

One for @RedShell

[Hero-of-Time]

I was wondering what was happening with these. They are gearing up for a November release.

 

[Ike]

12 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I was wondering what was happening with these. They are gearing up for a November release.

 

Haven't seen anything about those since they were announced, was hoping they hadn't been cancelled silently. Hoping these are close to the original controllers as they seem to best option for getting a new Saturn controller.

[Hero-of-Time]

I found one of my old issues of N64 magazine in the cupboard the other day. This was said issue.

I kept it all these years as I had my name printed in it. Last night I sat and just read through the magazine and absolutely loved it. It was great looking at the now old games and reading the review for Pokemon Puzzle League. The GBA section was great as it was hyping up the launch of the little purple handheld.

I also came across a section about Animal Leader, which eventually became Cubivore on the Gamecube. I completely forgot that it started life as a N64 game!

I also enjoyed looking through the challenge section of the magazine. They would give you a load of tasks that needed to be completed, such as getting all the stars in Mario 64 or achieving a set time on a certain track in Mario Kart 64. I think you had a year to get through as many challenges as you could. You would reach different tiers (bronze, silver, gold, platinum) depending on how many you completed and the list would be updated every month so you could keep track of players who were rising through the ranks. Had something like this been around now I would totally be getting involved with it.

I really do miss the days of gaming magazines. Sure, it's nice to get info on a regular basis via the internet but there was something special about picking up an issue every month and going over the it with a fine-tooth comb, getting every bit of information you could from the magazine before the next one was released. Honestly, sometimes I think there is too much gaming info out there and that magazines seemed to get the balance just right. They would give you a few screenshots and some information and that would be it. Games would still have plenty of surprises in store for players, whereas now you are bombarded with trailers, screens, previews and videos to the point where a good portion of the game has already been spoiled.

Basically...