General Retro Discussion

[Hero-of-Time]

Ah, I see you went with the fire kitty as your starter. Good man for not picking the water Pokemon. I hate that thing....but not as much as I hate Hau. Smug little git. 

[Happenstance]

Just now, Hero-of-Time said:

Ah, I see you went with the fire kitty as your starter. Good man for not picking the water Pokemon. I hate that thing....but not as much as I hate Hau. Smug little git. 

I was tempted by Popplio after Giant Bomb’s obsession with it but with having 2 new actual cats recently I felt like I couldn’t betray them lol.

Just leaving the first island anyway.

[Happenstance]

Also, what the fuck was up with this moment???

Spoiler

Why is this Professor having sexual relations with his Pokemon?!

 

[Hero-of-Time]

7 minutes ago, Happenstance said:

Also, what the fuck was up with this moment???

  NSFW! (Reveal hidden contents)

 

Why is this Professor having sexual relations with his Pokemon?!

 

Eh? Are playing some weird bootleg version?   Saying that, I blocked out most of the story beats of Sun and Moon and from what you've described it's probably for the best.  

[Happenstance]

This forum is weird, it shows images working and then when you post them they don’t show up.

Lets try again.

[Goafer]

2 new games for the Saturn collection. Both are in great condition and have manuals.

[S.C.G]

Nice, two solid Sega Saturn titles there @Goafer

Reminds me that I really need to get my old Sega Saturn console hooked up again soon, its been too long and I have a few titles I've been wanting to try out on it for a while.

Top of the list for me at the moment has to be Saturn Bomberman.

Before that though I have a feeling that I should be checking them for disc rot I really hope none of them have been affected by it and I'm not convinced the problem is that rife, especially not with Saturn and Dreamcast games but you never know... I was trying out some Sega Mega CD games recently and sadly one or two of the demo discs had pin point holes in them all the way through, lncluding the Keio Flying Squadron demo disc, which is a shame as I was hoping to use that to play the whole game.

I think it's mostly 80's - early 90's discs we should probably be most concerned about, I'd been going through some CD's and even some of those have started to degrade.

Anyway, hopefully not though as there's still plenty of disc-based Sega games I plan on playing, it's just always in the back of my mind.

Edit - it might not be that bad though, sometimes apprently if there's just a few see-through holes that might not be disc rot... I need to watch a few videos.

This video is interesting...

This video's quite informative...

It also had me checking my copy of Metal Gear Solid: Thw Twin Snakes just in case... it might just be the US versions that had the bad pressings.

Edited May 25, 2019 by S.C.G

[Goafer]

I always ask to check the discs when I buy from CeX. I've yet to find a single disc with actual rot. One of my Panzer Dragoon Saga discs has a single pinhole, but it hasn't got worse and the entire game is playable.

I may go through my collection at some point and have a fresh check, but I don't think it's as rife as the internet would have you believe.

[S.C.G]

On 25/05/2019 at 8:46 PM, Goafer said:

I always ask to check the discs when I buy from CeX. I've yet to find a single disc with actual rot. One of my Panzer Dragoon Saga discs has a single pinhole, but it hasn't got worse and the entire game is playable.

I may go through my collection at some point and have a fresh check, but I don't think it's as rife as the internet would have you believe.

This is what I've been thinking, after discovering some of those Sega Mega CD demo discs have gone bad though, I think I'll start checking some of the older stuff.

I've got a load of Phillips CDi games stored away somewhere... I've got a bad feeling about those, I did have a copy of Zelda's Adventure at one point but I sold it years ago.

I'll likely be checking the Phillips CDi unit over soon anyway as I think it might be time to sell it as I haven't used it in years, so if it works, that may be on the cards.

Damn... I feel for you on Panzer Dragoon Saga though fortunately from what you've described, that pinhole doesn't sound like it's anything bad so I reckon it'll be fine.

- - - - - - - - - -

Anyway, assuming that the majority of people's disc-based games are fine, which titles is everyone looking forward to playing or replaying?

For me it'd have to be...

Saturn - Dark Savior, Deep Fear, Night Warriors, Radiant Silvergun, Saturn Bomberman, Shining (series), Shinobi X, Torico

Dreamcast - 18 Wheeler, Cannon Spike, Carrier, Daytona, Dino Crisis, Ecco, Giga Wing, Half-Life, Samba De Amigo, Tech Romancer

When it comes to other disc-based systems, I'd probably have to think about it for a bit more, there are Playstation games I want to play but they just aren't at the top of the list.

Although, I will say that I played Strider and Strider 2 on the PS1 which I enjoyed a lot.

Edited May 27, 2019 by S.C.G

[Hero-of-Time]

I love both the original Strider and its sequel. I picked up Strider 2 a couple of years back. It's just as well I did because the price of it seems to have now gone up.

I also enjoyed the reboot on the Xbox One/PS4.

I really need to play through Dino Crisis at some point. When I was a teenager I never did finish the original game which is weird as I remember loving it. I picked it up for the PSOne around the same time I bought Strider 2 but found that the character voices audio level is stupidly low, so much so that it's hard to make out what they are saying. Apparently it's a known issue. I wonder if the Dreamcast version fixed this problem?

[S.C.G]

Another great Top 10 video from The Happy Console Gamer, it was great hearing some of his memories of NES titles from back in the day.

Most of my memories of buying games in stores from around when they came out mostly come from the 16-Bit era onwards so anything from before is always interesting to me.

[Hero-of-Time]

Just fired it up how and seen he's only got Super Mario Bros. 2 as an honorable mention. His top ten better be something special to have kept that game out. If not, the dude deserves a slap! 

[S.C.G]

2 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Just fired it up how and seen he's only got Super Mario Bros. 2 as an honorable mention. His top ten better be something special to have kept that game out. If not, the dude deserves a slap! 

I have a feeling you'll hopefully be pleasantly surprised.

[Hero-of-Time]

30 minutes ago, S.C.G said:

I have a feeling you'll hopefully be pleasantly surprised.

Decent list. 

I love how he gives his own personal history to each of the games he chose. I knew The Wizard would get a mention.  

[Goafer]

10 hours ago, S.C.G said:

Damn... I feel for you on Panzer Dragoon Saga though fortunately from what you've described, that pjnhole doesn't sound like it's anything bad so I reckon it'll be fine.

I just had a read up on disc rot and from what I can tell, pinholes are more likely an error in disc manufacture, rather than rot. Given that the pinhole will have been there since the 90s and hasn't gotten worse, I'd say I'm pretty safe.

I've played PDS from start to finish with no issues, so the pinhole can't be in a critical place.

From what I can tell, disc rot seems to come from damaged/faulty/cheaply manufactured discs letting in moisture, casing the data layer to literally rot away. I'm no expert, but surely any early disc games that have survived this long aren't going to suddenly develop rot? If they were faulty/damaged when they were originally in regular use, they'd have shown pretty clear signs by now.

[S.C.G]

1 hour ago, Goafer said:

I just had a read up on disc rot and from what I can tell, pinholes are more likely an error in disc manufacture, rather than rot. Given that the pinhole will have been there since the 90s and hasn't gotten worse, I'd say I'm pretty safe.

I've played PDS from start to finish with no issues, so the pinhole can't be in a critical place.

From what I can tell, disc rot seems to come from damaged/faulty/cheaply manufactured discs letting in moisture, casing the data layer to literally rot away. I'm no expert, but surely any early disc games that have survived this long aren't going to suddenly develop rot? If they were faulty/damaged when they were originally in regular use, they'd have shown pretty clear signs by now.

Yeah, this seems to be the case with a lot of discs from that era, I've been going through just general music CD's today and found a few with pinholes but they seem to be fine.

I'm not going to worry about it any more but I will do the usual checks when I get around to it soon.

I suppose the more pressing issue is probably checking to see if my Sega Saturn is still working, its been a while since I last booted it up, my old Mega CD II still works though and that hadn't been used in a good long while so I'm pretty hopeful, will be good to try out those new Sega Saturn pads I picked up recently.

[Goafer]

19 hours ago, S.C.G said:

I suppose the more pressing issue is probably checking to see if my Sega Saturn is still working, its been a while since I last booted it up, my old Mega CD II still works though and that hadn't been used in a good long while so I'm pretty hopeful, will be good to try out those new Sega Saturn pads I picked up recently.

Mine is fortunately working, but the battery has died. Fortunately, I've kept my important saves on the memory card. I did have a scare when the console didn't recognise it, but pulled it out, blew the cartridge and slot and it worked fine.

Annoyingly, I've lost my spare batteries, so I've ordered some new ones. Not exactly expensive, but annoying none the less. To make things more annoying, Dark Saviour can't save direct to the cartridge, so I have to manually transfer the saves every time I turn on/off the console until the batteries arrive.

One thing I may look into at some point is an SD card mod. I've got a spare Saturn, so I may do it to that or buy another Saturn to tinker with. I'm a bit reluctant to do it to my spare one, as I have a model 1 and 2, so would like to keep them original if possible.

 

[Hero-of-Time]

A new video from The Gaming Historian has popped up. 

 

[Dcubed]

@Hero-of-Time, @S.C.G

 

 

A follow-up Q&A wih the chaps from M2 on the M2 ShotTriggers project and Battle Garegga!

[Hero-of-Time]

Thanks. I'll give it a watch this evening.

I watched this yesterday afternoon.

I've owned the game for over a year now but I've still not played it yet. Given the state of the voice acting I'm not sure I want to.  

[S.C.G]

I just wanted to say that the Q&A with the Shot Triggers development team video was nothing short of spectacular.

It was really enjoyable to hear about how they broke down this seemingly complicated STG shooter genre into something more understandable.

These kinds of insights into the Japanese game industry are rare, so I'm really glad to see My Life in Gaming covering fantastic developers such as M2.

- - - - -

Also, Sega Lord X has a new video out which focuses on Sega Saturn games which aren't that bad.

I'd have to agree on some of them, others though? Nope... I still don't want to play them really.

I have heard only good things about In The Hunt though, I didn't know about the slowdown in the Saturn version, just that it was rare, a very good game and worth getting.

It's one Saturn game that I don't own though but I'd consider getting it if I saw it for a good price.

[Hero-of-Time]

9 hours ago, S.C.G said:

Also, Sega Lord X has a new video out which focuses on Sega Saturn games which aren't that bad.

I'd have to agree on some of them, others though? Nope... I still don't want to play them really.

Yeah, there's no way Street Fighter The Movie is anything but hot garbage. I never even knew about Final Fight Revenge and honestly it didn't look that bad. Sonic 3D gets a bad rep purely because it wasn't what people wanted from a Sonic game but I thought it was fine for what it was. 've often heard good things about In the Hunt but i've never had the opportunity to play it.

Yesterday evening I was doing some intense level grinding on Dragon Quest V and I had a bunch of gaming YouTube videos just playing in the background. The following video popped up.

I've only ever watched a couple of his videos before but I found the conversation he was having with the other guy quite interesting. They speak about inflated prices, the collectors mentality and how the retro novelty seems to be wearing off for a lot of gamers. The point about people trying to get full collections and then just having them sitting of their shelf is a good one. I just don't see the point in trying to get a hold of garbage games just to fill a collection, especially if you have no interest in playing any of them.  

[S.C.G]

2 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Yesterday evening I was doing some intense level grinding on Dragon Quest V and I had a bunch of gaming YouTube videos just playing in the background. The following video popped up.

I've only ever watched a couple of his videos before but I found the conversation he was having with the other guy quite interesting. They speak about inflated prices, the collectors mentality and how the retro novelty seems to be wearing off for a lot of gamers. The point about people trying to get full collections and then just having them sitting of their shelf is a good one. I just don't see the point in trying to get a hold of garbage games just to fill a collection, especially if you have no interest in playing any of them.  

Funnily enough, I ended up watching the same video last night. I was going to post it in here but it was getting late by that point, but it certainly was interesting.

I've seen a few videos from Pat the Nes Punk before and all of the conversations and stoires are really interesting, especially this latest video about collecting, I've only ever tried to go for one full set because the console has always fascinated me and that's the Neo Geo Pocket Color, but then I do intend to play most of the games as well, realistically I don't know if I'll keep the collection long term but I'd like to think that I will, it's something that I'd like to write a feature about one day or maybe even make a video.

On the whole though, for all other platforms I'm purely going for games that I'll actually play and enjoy, otherwise... what's the point really?

That's part of why I sold Zelda's Adventure on the Phillips CDi all those years ago, part of Nintendo history? Certainly. A good game? Nope... and I don't regret selling it.

I was checking the values of other games after watching that last night such as EarthBound which I bought years ago and I'm surprised at the price now but then I did buy it to play and to have in my collection do I don't regret buying it around eleven years ago, and it was a fair price for the game back then.

Edited June 4, 2019 by S.C.G

[Dcubed]

3 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Yeah, there's no way Street Fighter The Movie is anything but hot garbage. I never even knew about Final Fight Revenge and honestly it didn't look that bad. Sonic 3D gets a bad rep purely because it wasn't what people wanted from a Sonic game but I thought it was fine for what it was. 've often heard good things about In the Hunt but i've never had the opportunity to play it.

Yesterday evening I was doing some intense level grinding on Dragon Quest V and I had a bunch of gaming YouTube videos just playing in the background. The following video popped up.

I've only ever watched a couple of his videos before but I found the conversation he was having with the other guy quite interesting. They speak about inflated prices, the collectors mentality and how the retro novelty seems to be wearing off for a lot of gamers. The point about people trying to get full collections and then just having them sitting of their shelf is a good one. I just don't see the point in trying to get a hold of garbage games just to fill a collection, especially if you have no interest in playing any of them.  

Yeah, I've noticed this as well.  NES/SNES has really come down in the last few years, while N64 is coming back down now as well.  PS1 is generally not worth much, while MD is much lower now too.

 

GCN is the new N64 though; those prices have really skyrocketed in the last couple of years!

 

Likewise, I've never been one to collect for collection's sake.  I only buy and keep the games I actually want to play.

Edited June 4, 2019 by Dcubed

[Happenstance]

I only buy games I know others want to play so I have them and they don't.