General Retro Discussion

[Happenstance]

Maybe the review version was online only?

[Goafer]

Just now, Happenstance said:

Maybe the review version was online only?

That's what I was thinking.

I only tested it a couple of times and didn't really give it much of a chance, so maybe it does work. I have a proper copy anyway (and the superior Ver.2) so I never really needed to play this version.

[Goafer]

Oh go on then, since you all asked to see it. My Phantasy Star collection (I meant to post this yesterday, but Instagram was down and that's where I host all my photos):

Phantasy Star 4 even has the (possibly original) sales receipt in it:

Shout out to Simon the Ass Manager!

Edited July 4, 2019 by Goafer

[S.C.G]

Another informative video from Sega Lord X every time this guy puts out a video I think... surely there isn't much of Sega he hasn't covered?

Then I watch the video and I always end up learning about something I didn't even know existed, some of those early Sega arcade games are amazing.

[Happenstance]

Well I very nearly bought a copy of Adventures of Batman & Robin today at the video game market but I couldn't bring myself to pay the £95 just yet. They did have a copy of X-Men 2 for £58 which is good but the case looked a bit too much like a repro so I didn't trust it enough.

Only game I bought was Ahhh Real Monsters. Not on my expensive list but it was a good deal at £6 and part of the list of games I had as a kid that I eventually want back.

One guy did pay £230 though for the 90s animated series Spider-Man game which I'm sure is way too much.

Some really good stalls there though. I'd probably go to another one of theirs. 

I'll leave @Goafer to say how he did.

Edited July 6, 2019 by Happenstance

[Hero-of-Time]

7 hours ago, Happenstance said:

I'll leave @Goafer to say how he did.

Did he at least find and buy Shining Force III?

I've just watched this after seeing it pop up over on Era.

Its a great watch, with interviews from people who worked on Jet Set Radio, Seaman, Crazy Taxi, Soul Calibur, Skies of Arcadia and more.

Part 2 is also out but it's late so I'll probably watch this one in the morning.

 

[Goafer]

I ended up buying Guardian Heros as I'd heard it was good. Haven't played it yet, but will do soon.

 

I also got a Japanese copy of Panzer Dragoon Saga/Azel: Panzer Dragoon RPG to match my PAL version:

 

Was also very tempted to start expanding my Phantasy Star collection to include the Japanese exclusive games, but the Game Gear game I found was £80 and I'd already spent over £100 by that point.

[Goafer]

8 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Did he at least find and buy Shining Force III?

Nope. That was my plan, but I couldn't find a single copy.

[Hero-of-Time]

I've just finished watching the second part of that Dreamcast documentary. Great viewing.

It was sad to watch a few of the developers apologise for their games not being good enough. I don't think Sega's internal team have anything to apologise for. They gave it their all on the Dreamcast and created some amazing games, despite the console on lasting a few years.

Sadly, I don't think there was anything Sega could have actually done in order to make the console a success. I mean, the numbers at the end of the documentary say it all. Not even 10 million consoles sold, yet the PS2 sold 150 million in that same generation. People just didn't want to play on Sega hardware anymore.  

[Ike]

Anyone replaces a GBC speaker before? Wondering where to get a replacement from, preferably OEM but anything reliable would do as well.

My GBC badly needs cleaning, sometimes it doesn't turn on so was thinking about doing a backlight mod at the same time but it requires cutting the shell so that's a nope.

[nekunando]

7 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I've just finished watching the second part of that Dreamcast documentary. Great viewing.

It was sad to watch a few of the developers apologise for their games not being good enough. I don't think Sega's internal team have anything to apologise for. They gave it their all on the Dreamcast and created some amazing games, despite the console on lasting a few years.

Sadly, I don't think there was anything Sega could have actually done in order to make the console a success. I mean, the numbers at the end of the documentary say it all. Not even 10 million consoles sold, yet the PS2 sold 150 million in that same generation. People just didn't want to play on Sega hardware anymore.  

I need to watch this!

Dreamcast > PS2 

[Hero-of-Time]

5 hours ago, nekunando said:

I need to watch this!

Dreamcast > PS2 

Is it a question of you loving the Dreamcast or simply hating the PS2?  

I love them both. Those two, along with the GameCube and Xbox, made for a cracking generation. So many good games spread across all 4 platforms.

Edited July 7, 2019 by Hero-of-Time

[Happenstance]

When you think about it that really was a great gen. Getting past the awkward first gen of 3D we got some amazing games that are still replayable.

[killthenet]

I love everything about this corporate promo from Sunsoft. 

[Goafer]

23 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Is it a question of you loving the Dreamcast or simply hating the PS2?  

I love them both. Those two, along with the GameCube and Xbox, made for a cracking generation. So many good games spread across all 4 platforms.

I find the Dreamcast, GameCube and PS2 have aged a bit better than the Xbox. I always look back at the Xbox and find most of the games a bit grimy and bland. Dreamcast and GameCube had such vibrant games filled with style and the PS2 had some proper blockbusters.

[Hero-of-Time]

6 minutes ago, Goafer said:

I find the Dreamcast, GameCube and PS2 have aged a bit better than the Xbox. I always look back at the Xbox and find most of the games a bit grimy and bland. Dreamcast and GameCube had such vibrant games filled with style and the PS2 had some proper blockbusters.

I rate the original Xbox purely for its online. Playing both Halo 2 and Star Wars Battlefront online, as well as Phantasy Star Online with added voice chat, were great experiences. 

Saying that, the console did have some great games on it though. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Kung Fu Chaos, WWF RAW, Spikeout, Knights of the Old Republic, Splinter Cell, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Amped, Sega GT, Jet Set Radio Future, to name a few. Plus, it was the first console to allow Championship Manager to be played due to having a hard drive. Me and my mates spent countless hours playing that. Man, I miss those days.  

[S.C.G]

My Life in Gaming video about ROM hacks which improve certain games, some interesting ones in there.

[Goafer]

45 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I rate the original Xbox purely for its online. Playing both Halo 2 and Star Wars Battlefront online, as well as Phantasy Star Online with added voice chat, were great experiences. 

Saying that, the console did have some great games on it though. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Kung Fu Chaos, WWF RAW, Spikeout, Knights of the Old Republic, Splinter Cell, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Amped, Sega GT, Jet Set Radio Future, to name a few. Plus, it was the first console to allow Championship Manager to be played due to having a hard drive. Me and my mates spent countless hours playing that. Man, I miss those days.  

Oh there were definitely some great games on there. I just think the sort of games it had relied heavily on being cutting edge games. Now that they've been surpassed, they don't have much else to keep them good by today's standards.

The other consoles had a more timeless quality to them IMO.

That said, JSRF is incredible, although that was only really a enhanced Dreamcast game.

[S.C.G]

Now that it's basically confirmed that we won't be getting any more backwards comaptible Xbox original games on the Xbox One, I might as well look at digging out my original Crystal Xbox from back in the day and hooking it up with an RGB Scart cable I got for it, so that I can play every other game on it that isn't Panzer Dragoon Orta which looks amazing on the Xbox One.

[Grazza]

2 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I rate the original Xbox purely for its online. Playing both Halo 2 and Star Wars Battlefront online, as well as Phantasy Star Online with added voice chat, were great experiences. 

Saying that, the console did have some great games on it though. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Kung Fu Chaos, WWF RAW, Spikeout, Knights of the Old Republic, Splinter Cell, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Amped, Sega GT, Jet Set Radio Future, to name a few. Plus, it was the first console to allow Championship Manager to be played due to having a hard drive. Me and my mates spent countless hours playing that. Man, I miss those days.  

 

Thinking about it, that was the only generation where I (eventually) had all four consoles: the Dreamcast in the beginning because I was a Sega fan, the GameCube because I was also a Nintendo fan, the PS2 because it had Dragon Quest and the Xbox because I wanted to own OutRun 2.  A truly great generation.

[Hero-of-Time]

8 hours ago, Grazza said:

 

Thinking about it, that was the only generation where I (eventually) had all four consoles: the Dreamcast in the beginning because I was a Sega fan, the GameCube because I was also a Nintendo fan, the PS2 because it had Dragon Quest and the Xbox because I wanted to own OutRun 2.  A truly great generation.

I completely forgot about that game. It was soooooooooooooo good. It's such a shame we will probably never see it again due to the license issues.  

[S.C.G]

1 hour ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I completely forgot about that game. It was soooooooooooooo good. It's such a shame we will probably never see it again due to the license issues.  

OutRun 2 was the game which made me purchase an Xbox.

I would read about it in game magazines, see footage of it playing in Game and when I finally saw that unbelievable deal in Woolworths which was for that Crystal Xbox with Outrun 2, Halo 2... possibly another game and an extra controller (I think) for around £100 or so, that's when I knew that there was no excuse not to buy one anymore.

Then I started buying up all the Sega games I would see cheap and all the exclusives that I missed out on, good times.

[Goafer]

Outrun 2/2006/Coast to Coast are all only slightly behind Sega Rally as my favourite racing game of all time. It's a shame they'll never be re-released or get sequels. I'm fairly sure I have copies on Xbox and PSP though, so I should be good.

It's a shame Sega did a lot of their best work on other people's consoles. Dreamcast had most of their best games, but GameCube and Xbox had a few superior ports/better versions (PSO, SoA and JSRF) or sequels (Outrun).

[S.C.G]

I just finished watching both parts of A Dream Cast which @Hero-of-Time posted recently.

Wow, such a well produced video and set of interviews in general, I had no idea the channel making these videos existed but Archipel now has another subscriber for certain.

That was really insightful, getting to hear from some of the industry greats who worked on all of those amazing games.

Also, shamefully I had no idea about Isao Okawa and what he did for the company (his company) at the time, I mean this was in 2001 so I suppose I might not have been that aware at the time but I certainly am now... he basically saved Sega from going bankrupt by selling off most of his personal assets and gave it to the company, it was only months later that he passed away.

If it wasn't for him, then there might not even be a Sega around today if I'm understanding this correctly, so I just wanted to say that I'm grateful for everything he did for the company and for everyone who has worked at Sega to bring us all of these amazing games, as sometimes I feel like I probably haven't expressed it enough so it feels right to say it now.

I've got to get that Dreamcast set up and play a load of games on it soon.

[Hero-of-Time]

5 minutes ago, S.C.G said:

I just finished watching both parts of A Dream Cast which @Hero-of-Time posted recently.

Wow, such a well produced video and set of interviews in general, I had no idea the channel making these videos existed but Archipel now has another subscriber for certain.

Yup. I loved them both. 

It broke my heart when Rieko Kodama was saying how their games just weren't good enough. With her working on Skies of Arcadia I assume that was what she was referring to. Nothing could be further from the truth. That game is a masterpiece and there hasn't been a JRPG like it since. I was disappointed in the N-E community when I seen it didn't make the top 10 Gamecube list but Tales of Symphonia ( such an overrated game ) did. Disgusting.