General Retro Discussion

[Glen-i]

On 17/03/2020 at 3:03 PM, Sheikah said:

Consider me educated, never knew Pokemon typing adventure was a thing.

Made by the people who did Pokémon Colosseum.

I went into heavy detail into that and every other spin-off in this thread.

You'd be surprised at just what stupid stuff has the Pokémon name on it.

[Julius]

Got my bonus last week, and after being sensible with most of it, finally decided to treat myself to some things I've stopped myself from picking up for a while now. Wasn't sure if to put this in the "What Have You Bought?" thread, but with it all being older console/retro-related, figured it would be best to just share it here. Plus, I want to share some stories about one purchase in particular...

I'm sorry Square Enix, but you took WAY too long bringing the 2D Final Fantasy games to the Switch/modern consoles, so I caved and picked up the SNES Classic Mini.

And you know what? I have zero regrets. I picked this up a bit before my bonus arrived and have been loving my time with Final Fantasy VI for the last two weeks. Not pictured is me picking up Final Fantasy II, III, IV and V on the Vita store so that I didn't feel too bad about hacking them onto these consoles. For the latter two, I decided to go with SNES versions with modern translations which have been very well received. Also not pictured is the SNES Nintendo Switch Online controller and an 8BitDo Retro Receiver - the Receiver hasn't received an update for the Retro Receiver yet, so I'll be using cabled controllers for now, and honestly, I've quite liked it. It's made for a unique experience needing to sit so close to my TV!

I also hacked on Chrono Trigger, mostly because it'd be wrong not too considering my love for that game and with this being the console it was originally crafted for, but after paying a small fortune for that on DS a couple of years ago from CeX, and mainly because I don't want to support how S-E have totally shafted that game with the PC/mobile releases, I didn't pick that up; that'll be for when they give that game a modern release worthy of the game. 

Okay, now I know what you're saying: Final Fantasy II and III weren't on the SNES! And you're right! That's because I'm hacking them onto my...

NES Classic Mini! And the NES Switch Online controllers! Yep, I caved twice. I know most of these games are on NES/SNES Online, but I don't know what it is, I just can't bring myself to play the games like that for some reason. I've had trouble with games in-between games as of late (mostly results in me playing FIFA, something I don't greatly enjoy) so the shorter games on this and the SNES Mini should provide a well-placed relied with their shorter titles. 

Not a console, or exactly a retro purchase, but I also picked up the Mega Man and Mega Man X Legacy Collections digitally on my Switch. I've known about Mega Man my whole life, yet have never played any of the game's. What tipped me over the edge was undoubtedly the start of insaneintherainmusic's Jazz Video Game Medley. The whole thing is beautiful, but the start especially so.

It opens with the opening to Mega Man 2, and it gave me goosebumps and a wave of nostalgia for something I've never played, so yeah the music pushed me over the edge on those. Normally I'd go physical, but I got both of the Mega Man and Mega Man X Collections for an overall total of around £30, around the same cost of the physical Mega Man 1+2 Collection for Switch! Looking forward to playing those with my new controllers at some point 

Finally, onto the big fish. 

I have literally been waiting over a decade to get a PS3. I picked up the Slim because I'd read about how a lot of the original, fat models are quickly dying out (that would have been my preference otherwise). This is one of those rare purchases which is fulfilling in the sense that it felt like I was doing my younger self a favour. Let me explain. 

Back in 2011, I wanted to finally upgrade to a modern console, after years of waiting - I have always been a generation behind in some sense, outside of the DS and Wii (which I guess I got mid-generation). 

I had a PS1 for as long as I could remember, a hand-me-down from one of my dad's friends, which included a game which last year I identified as Dino Crisis, which yes, I played as a young child. No, I did not complete that game, yes it did terrify me, and yes, I do think that game had something to do with me not falling in love with the Jurassic Park films the first time I saw of them. I have fond memories of sitting on my living room floor in my old house playing games like Tomb Raider, Destruction Derby, Spider-Man, Spider-Man: Enter Electro, Beyblade, Yu-Gi-Oh, a football game (can't remember which exactly), you get the picture. 

That was my main console up until March 2005, when I bought a secondhand fat PS2 model for £60 from the Cash Converters at the bottom of my high street. Some lady tried to sneak it out from under me after the salesman had to pick up a controller from around back, but he politely put her in her place and that was that. I picked up Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith from WHSmith that day (no video game stores in my town centre at that time, believe it or not!), and the family friend who before had passed on his PS1 gave me an extra controller and an extra memory card for my PS2. I spent tens of hours in that game; thousands of hours in Battlefront II (I was playing that game on my PS2 until I had a PS4!); and hundreds of hours in other things like PES; the LEGO Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Batman games, and so on. 

I was a little PlayStation trooper who just loved the games I'd played on that family of systems to that point, even if most weren't exclusive. 

Then, in 2011, there I am wanting a new console, to be told by my parents that a PS3 was just out of the question - they gave us a £100 budget for each our birthday and Christmas at that stage, and with my birthday being Christmas Eve, I could combine my budgets for a bigger and better present. Unfortunately, the PS3 I remember seeing at that point in time was mostly going for £230+; I think we found one below £200, but there wouldn't be enough of the budget left for a game that I'd want, so that was that. 

So, instead, I got the Collector's Edition of Forza Motorsport 4 with an Xbox 360; they were much cheaper at the time. A present I was happy with, and still am to this day, but I'd always regretted not having a PS3, and jumped ship back to the PlayStation family at the first opportunity back in 2015 with the PS4, bought with money from my first job. Fitting, I suppose, that this was bought with my first bonus. I'm looking forward to playing through some of the games that I never got a chance to growing up from that generation (the 360 became a PES-turned-FIFA and Forza machine). 

So, speaking of games, this is what I picked up to start my PS3 (and I suppose revive my PS1!) collection: 

Left stack: Metal Gear Solid, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman: Arkham City, ICO & Shadow of the Colossus HD, inFamous, inFamous 2, Mafia II; right stack: Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, Metal Gear Solid 4, Portal 2, Red Dead Redemption, Resistance: Fall of Man, Resistance 2, Resistance 3, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Ultimated Sith Edition, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II, The Orange Box. 

Some Essentials cases, a steelbook - last time I pick them up from CeX I guess!

Very happy with my buys, and to finally have something sizeable to contribute to this thread! 

Edited March 27, 2020 by Julius

[Hero-of-Time]

Lovely pick ups!

You're in for a treat with the Infamous games. The story in the first game is fantastic but the gameplay is better in the second.

Resistance is another good series and one is love Sony/Insomniac to bring back. I'lol warn you now though that the second game is pretty bad. Probably the worst Indomniac game I've played. Thankfully they come back stupidly strong with third game but sadly the damage had been done and I think most people had moved on by then. Shame.

Have you not played Metal Gear Solid 3 or 4 before? If not...man, you're in for a wild ride.  MGS3 is one of the greatest video games ever made, IMO. Absolute masterclass of a game and peak Kojima. 

[Julius]

24 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Lovely pick ups!

You're in for a treat with the Infamous games. The story in the first game is fantastic but the gameplay is better in the second.

Resistance is another good series and one is love Sony/Insomniac to bring back. I'lol warn you now though that the second game is pretty bad. Probably the worst Indomniac game I've played. Thankfully they come back stupidly strong with third game but sadly the damage had been done and I think most people had moved on by then. Shame.

Have you not played Metal Gear Solid 3 or 4 before? If not...man, you're in for a wild ride.  MGS3 is one of the greatest video games ever made, IMO. Absolute masterclass of a game and peak Kojima. 

Thanks!

I've had a hankering to pick up inFamous Second Son and First Light, but figured I might as well start from the beginning now that I've got a PS3. 

And warning definitely appreciated. I'll stick it between some games I'm confident I'll enjoy to soften the blow to get to the third game when I get around to playing them, or just move on as soon as I'm finished too that third game! 

And I haven't, I only have a very brief history with playing a few hours of V before dropping it because I knew I'd probably appreciate the game and the series much more if I were to start from the beginning, so I've been holding out for this and I'm really looking forward to it! Weird thing about that though is that I knew who Solid Snake was well before seeing him in Smash Bros. Brawl (when most my age were really made aware of him for the first time), so I probably have some vague memory of seeing him in some capacity at a cousin's house or in a magazine or something! 

[Dcubed]

@Julius PS3 has a huge selection of PS1 games available on the PSN store, and you can get access to the US 60hz versions of those games through the US PSN store.  They have some pretty rare games on there (like Mega Man Legends 1 & 2 and Mis Adventures of Tron Bonne - these would easily cost you $100 a piece on eBay!) that I would strongly suggest looking into! You can build up a nice big PS1 collection for a mere fraction of the price of buying the physical CDs!

Edited March 28, 2020 by Dcubed

[Jonnas]

18 hours ago, Julius said:

Not pictured is me picking up Final Fantasy II, III, IV and V on the Vita store so that I didn't feel too bad about hacking them onto these consoles. For the latter two, I decided to go with SNES versions with modern translations which have been very well received.

I can't speak for FFIV, but I believe the GBA version of FFV is considered the best, with the best translation for that game so far, a lot of extra content, and a lot of its original charming SNES look preserved (sound quality being the only real con against it). If hacking isn't a problem, I recommend finding a "Sound restoration patch" for the GBA version, and going with that version for the ultimate FFV experience.

[Julius]

3 minutes ago, Jonnas said:

I can't speak for FFIV, but I believe the GBA version of FFV is considered the best, with the best translation for that game so far, a lot of extra content, and a lot of its original charming SNES look preserved (sound quality being the only real con against it). If hacking isn't a problem, I recommend finding a "Sound restoration patch" for the GBA version, and going with that version for the ultimate FFV experience.

Thanks for the heads-up! I think I went with the SNES version hacked with the GBA translation for V in the end, as I was mainly after an experience as close to the original SNES game was possible just with an English translation. I'm not usually one for extra content in the classic JRPGs I've played so far (with Chrono Trigger on DS for example, I steered well clear of the extra content where I could - though that might have something to do with it being poorly received!), but out of curiosity, what extra content does the GBA version have? Is it mostly bonus dungeons and optional (super)bosses, or is there more to it than that?

For IV, I just went with the original Japanese difficulty (heard about the American version being a bit too easy) and the most widely lauded English translation that I could find. 

[Glen-i]

Any translation that has the gall to remove "You spoony Bard" doesn't deserve to be on FFIV.

[Dcubed]

24 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

Any translation that has the gall to remove "You spoony Bard" doesn't deserve to be on FFIV.

Actually, no official localisation of FF4 has ever gotten rid of that line! It's so iconic that they left it in when they completely redid the script for the GBA release.

 

Quote

I can't speak for FFIV, but I believe the GBA version of FFV is considered the best, with the best translation for that game so far, a lot of extra content, and a lot of its original charming SNES look preserved (sound quality being the only real con against it). If hacking isn't a problem, I recommend finding a "Sound restoration patch" for the GBA version, and going with that version for the ultimate FFV experience.

Yeah, FF5 GBA is rock solid.  It's easily the best version of the game.

FF4 GBA is fine as well... but only the EU version.  The original US GBA release was marred with horrible slowdown and game breaking bugs; most of which were fixed in the EU release (though it still isn't perfect).  The PSP version is the best way to play it these days mind you, it's basically the GBA version in higher resolution, with all the bugs fixed, with the original SNES OST (or the DS OST as an option) and some neat extras.

As for FF6? Stick with the SNES original.  The original US SNES release was perfect as it was.  Same with Chrono Trigger.

Edited March 28, 2020 by Dcubed

[Happenstance]

I still need to playing my FF SNES carts. Spent all that money buying them it’s a waste to just have them sitting there.

[Julius]

23 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

Any translation that has the gall to remove "You spoony Bard" doesn't deserve to be on FFIV.

Yeah, I checked to see if the translation I chose had that first, and it does!

 

[Jonnas]

26 minutes ago, Julius said:

Thanks for the heads-up! I think I went with the SNES version hacked with the GBA translation for V in the end, as I was mainly after an experience as close to the original SNES game was possible just with an English translation. I'm not usually one for extra content in the classic JRPGs I've played so far (with Chrono Trigger on DS for example, I steered well clear of the extra content where I could - though that might have something to do with it being poorly received!), but out of curiosity, what extra content does the GBA version have? Is it mostly bonus dungeons and optional (super)bosses, or is there more to it than that?

One bonus dungeon, two superbosses (one of which is a souped-up version of a SNES superboss), and 4 extra classes. Fair if you don't care for the dungeon and bosses, but the classes are really fun endgame stuff, and they definitely improve your customization options even further (one of the new classes, the Cannoneer, even comes with snazzy 18th century style shoulder pads).

Edited March 28, 2020 by Jonnas

[S.C.G]

My Life in Gaming Mini - PC Engine Mini

This should be an interesting video to watch.

I didn't pre-order one but I am interested in playing a select few PC Engine games at some point, especially as we used to get them on the Virtual Console.

I've always thought of it as an interesting system which did more at its time of release for gaming than I fully appreciated at the time.

[Dcubed]

Damn, that's a real bummer to hear about the input lag and the shimmer.  Hope it's not as bad in person as I'm still planning on getting one...

[S.C.G]

Sega Lord X with a video titled Better on the Mega CD 

I definitely agree with most of the games on this list, the Sega Mega CD had some fantastic ports and versions of classic games.

It was where I got to first experience Final Fight CD which is still my favourite version, despite the excellent port which is in the Capcom Beat 'em Up Bundle.

I must get around to playing Ecco the Dolphin on it as well, I've listened to the Mega CD soundtrack many times as it's fantastic, I've just never played the CD version.

The Terminator is one game I would like to get on the console which I don't own as it looks fantastic and who knew about that NTSC only Demolition Man tie-in?

It's still one of my favourite pieces of Sega hardware which I owned and enjoyed back in the day, though today it really comes into its own with its fantastic library.

Of course, like all retro machines of its era, especially being disc-based, it's just a shame that the games are so expensive now.

[Happenstance]

Decided what to use my other two hdmi ports on with the new monitor! I'm hoping this will actually get me using my Mega SG and Super NT again more. It was great having them connected to the projector but I found they were so out of the way that I barely used them. Plus as you can see in the second photo, I can even use these picture in picture!

[Happenstance]

Think I might have to get one of these later this year

 

[Dcubed]

If they can get the VMU to work wirelessly, that'll be really impressive!

[Ike]

8Bitdo Corefx mini wireless controller is up on Amazon. 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0872RB7K9

[Dcubed]

1 hour ago, Ike said:

8Bitdo Corefx mini wireless controller is up on Amazon. 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0872RB7K9

And it looks like the TG16 mini itself is coming out in the US next week!

Let's hope that the EU release isn't far off now.

[Happenstance]

 

[Dcubed]

Where the sodding hell is the EU release!?!?

This is a joke! I pre-ordered this thing almost a year ago!!

[Ike]

The 8Bitdo controller was also delayed. 

[nekunando]

7 hours ago, Dcubed said:

Where the sodding hell is the EU release!?!?

This is a joke! I pre-ordered this thing almost a year ago!!

You've somehow made me wonder if I ever cancelled my old Metroid Prime 4 preorder..

[Dcubed]

FUCKING FINALLY!!