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General Retro Discussion


tapedeck

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17 minutes ago, Happenstance said:

It’s things like Aventures of Batman & Robin and X-Men 2 that annoy me, being worth more now.

Yeah I’m glad I’m not trying to collect Saturn stuff. Don’t know what kind of chump would try that...

Is Goafer still collecting Saturn stuff?

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After the brief Saturn banter yesterday, I set up my Saturn yesterday afternoon and ended up playing it for a while. The game of choice was one of my favourite Saturn games...

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Last year I tried to play on my Saturn on my 55 inch TV and the results weren't great. I decided to go up the attic and get down the spare 22 inch LCD and hook the Saturn up with the HDMI converter that I have. With the screen being much smaller the results were much better than what I got last year.

Spoiler


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I've had a blast playing this again. It must be around 20 years since I played through the game to completion and i'm surprised by just how much I remember about the game.

I spent a fair bit of time just levelling up and grinding money in the Desire Mine. This allowed me to buy the best gear in Desire Village and that came in super handy for the Forest of Confusion. I got stuck in there for a bit. I knew exactly where I had to go, as well as the boss I was going to fight, but I couldn't remember how to open the crypt. Eventually I made my way back to Desire Village and once there I finally remembered what I had to do. Once that was done I went back to the forest and made my way through the cave.

When I came to Enrich Village the game's framerate completely collapsed. This game never had a good framerate but it REALLY takes a hit here. This is why things like this don't bother me much in modern games. I played stuff like this back in my youth so i've built up a resistance for these kinds of things. :D 

Enrich Dungeon is where the game really starts to hit you hard. I remember being stuck in this area for a long time back in the day. I was prepared for it this time and I used my experience of playing other JPRGs these past 20 years to get through the dungeon with relative ease. I was never in danger of dying but the dungeon still took a long time to get through due to the difficulty of the enemies and the sheer size of the thing. Once I beat the dungeon that's where I called it a night.

One of the things I love about this game is the Pixie system. Hidden around the world are pixies and collecting these really gives you an advantage in battles. There are different types and where the enemy spawns indicates which ones you should be using. For example, if an enemy spawns from the floor then you quickly select the leprechauns and hit the button for them to attack. This attacks as a preemptive attack and the more of the pixies you find the more damage they do. It's a very unique system and I don't think i've come across one like it before.

I've loved revisiting this game again. The gameplay loop is still very addicting and I look forward to putting more time into it. I'm only 7 hours into it and at level 12. I'm pretty sure it's about a 40-50 hour game so there's plenty of game left. 

 

 

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Just now, Hero-of-Time said:

@lostmario

I always disliked the light blue colour of the Saturn gun. The Japanese one was far superior.

Good to see your Super Scope doesn't seem to have any yellowing on it.

Have all your retro big boxed PC games sold on eBay yet?

Super Scope is in fantastic condition as is its box.

Sold 3 but 2 went to someone in Slovakia which I'm not sure how that happened as I restricted it to just UK sellers.

Cancelled the orders but he's refusing to confirm the cancellation. Had problems selling abroad before so not doing that again.

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4 minutes ago, lostmario said:

Super Scope is in fantastic condition as is its box.

Sold 3 but 2 went to someone in Slovakia which I'm not sure how that happened as I restricted it to just UK sellers.

Cancelled the orders but he's refusing to confirm the cancellation. Had problems selling abroad before so not doing that again.

How's the little box sensor thingy that you put on top of the TV? Those things usually are the first to show yellowing when it comes to the Super Scope. I've seen loads in eBay that were essentially brown in colour. Yuck! 

Yeah, I'm the same when it comes to selling stuff. I always put UK only in my listing and as long as you've done that then they don't have a leg to stand on if they complain to eBay.

3 minutes ago, Happenstance said:

I won Time Crisis and the G-Con in a competition as a teenager. Great gun.

Yet another game I regret selling.

I never used the original model. My first experience with Time Crisis was the second game on the PS2. I remember buying the G-Con 2 with the game while I was on holiday. After the holiday we went straight to see one of my brothers for the weekend. We done nothing but play that for 2 days straight. I remember his wife not being impressed by that. :D 

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5 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I never used the original model. My first experience with Time Crisis was the second game on the PS2. I remember buying the G-Con 2 with the game while I was on holiday. After the holiday we went straight to see one of my brothers for the weekend. We done nothing but play that for 2 days straight. I remember his wife not being impressed by that. :D 

I can't remember if @Goafer was on this trip but I was given around £30 for spending money on a school trip to France and ended up spending it all with a friend on a Time Crisis 2 arcade machine before we even left England.

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13 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

How's the little box sensor thingy that you put on top of the TV? Those things usually are the first to show yellowing when it comes to the Super Scope. I've seen loads in eBay that were essentially brown in colour. Yuck! 

Yeah, I'm the same when it comes to selling stuff. I always put UK only in my listing and as long as you've done that then they don't have a leg to stand on if they complain to eBay.

It has yellowed a bit but not gone brown just yet. I can always do what I did with the controllers if it gets bad.

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Ok then thats Mega Games 2 won so list updated:

Spoiler

Adventures of Batman & Robin
Air Buster
Alien Soldier
Alisia Dragoon
Batman
Bio Hazard Battle
Castle of Illusion
Comix Zone
Crusader of Centy
Desert Strike
Dr Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
Earthworm Jim
Earthworm Jim 2
Ecco the Dolphin
Empire of Steel
Flashback
General Chaos
Ghouls n Ghosts
Golden Axe
Golden Axe 2
Gunstar Heroes
Herzog Zwei
Jungle Strike
Landstalker
Mega Bomberman
Michael Jackson's Moonwalker
Out of this World
Phantasy Star IV
Pirates Gold!
Ranger X
Revenge of Shinobi
Road Rash
Road Rash 2
Road Rash 3
Rocket Knight Adventures
Rolling Thunder 2
Shadow Dancer
Shadowrun
Shining Force
Shining Force 2
Shinobi III
Starflight
Streets of Rage
Streets of Rage 2
Streets of Rage 3
Target Earth
Thunder Force 3
Toejam & Earl
True Lies
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
Valis III
X-Men 2: Clone Wars
Ys III
Zero Wing

 

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3 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Are you just going to go the repro route for X-Men, Alien Soldier and Batman & Robin? All 3 of them will cost a pretty penny and that's if they are even genuine in the first place. Usually if there are no instructions with them then that's a sure sign it's probably a fake.

Nah I like to avoid repro carts if I can. I don’t mind them existing (as long as they aren’t cheaply made), I just want originals. Only ones I’ve thought about getting were Japanese with English patches.

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I put a few more hours into Shining the Holy Ark this evening and I'm still loving it and able to remember the areas i'm visiting.

I entered a mansion area and it was like playing the original Resident Evil but in first person mode. :D It's a massive dungeon/level with multiple floors and I had to go back to the village multiple times in order to heal and save my progress. This highlighted an issue with the game in that you kinda have to do dungeons in one sitting as there are pretty much no save areas in them.

I nabbed my 4th party member. He is a dragon warrior named Basso. Apparently his species is very strong and can dish out a lot of damage.....Dude has already died twice on me and cost me 3000 gold in order to revive him. :mad: He's 5 levels below my original team so he probably needs to be levelled up some more in order for him to become useful.

 

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14 minutes ago, Happenstance said:

Not on my previous list but I just won Bubsy 1 and 2 for my Mega Drive collection.

I seem to remember that the box and the cart shape for those games are pretty interesting. :D

Might be the same for all Accolade titles but the carts seemed slightly larger and a different shape.

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Might head into CEX this week and start off loading some of my retro collection. Not doing the consoles yet but I could trade in most of the games for store credit and then put it back towards some Mega Drive games. Might even grab one or two of the expensive ones. Always feel better about buying them when it feels like I’m not using real money lol.

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I spent some more time on Shining the Holy Ark, yesterday evening and managed to complete a couple more dungeons. The first one was pretty straight forward but the second took nearly 2 hours of solid play.

The second dungeon requires you to look for hidden pathways and make your way across ice paths. The ice paths are like those ice puzzles in the early Pokemon games where you step on the ice and keep sliding forward. If you don't plan your moves carefully then you will ended up going round in circles and getting stuck in a loop of random battles. It was pretty stressful, especially when you are trying conserve your MP for the harder fights. I spent so long in the dungeon, uncovering the map, finding hidden items and making my way through the various floors, that I didn't want to leave to save the game ( you have to go back to town ) and then trudge all the way through the dungeon again. When I came across the boss I was really nervous. If I didn't pull off the win then it would be game over. Luckily my character levels were pretty high and I took care of the giant snake without any issues. There was a huge sense of relief once I was able to exit the area and head to the next town. :D 

Yup, still loving the game. Currently sitting on around 12-13 hours play time with a team around level 20. If I remember correctly, the next set of dungeons really step things up in terms of the size and puzzles. I'll have a go at the next one tonight but I may have to leave them until the weekend when I have more time and i'm able to do them in one sitting.

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