Comments 341

Re: Say Hello To The Retroid Pocket 4 And 4 Pro

ArcadeRacingCENTRAL

Looking forward to this! I ended up getting a Powkiddy RGB10Max3 Pro to compliment my RGB30 recently. It feels great, but sadly I got a dud screen out of the box, so I'm waiting on a replacement screen at the moment. I got it mostly for PSP and Dreamcast, and also for multiplayer.

The Retroid Pocket 4 Pro might be my first Android handheld console though... I've been waiting for something with the Retroid aesthetic that can handle PS2 and Gamecube well, so I might get this for myself as a birthday present next year.

Then I'm done with buying handhelds... everything I want to emulate will be fully covered

Re: Sega Is "Evaluating" A New Virtua Fighter

ArcadeRacingCENTRAL

@-wc- I just don't think they had much identity initially. I didn't like the gameplay in the first game, and the second game didn't grab me either. I feel like Tekken 3 was when it found it's groove and became a series to be absolutely mentioned in the same breath as Virtua Fighter 2. I felt the same way about Soul Edge... Calibur changed that series forever.

I wish it was simple brand loyalty to SEGA, but I really dig the PSX at the time too, so I can't blame my teenage brain, haha.

Don't take me too seriously, I'm not very good at fighters, but I love them all the same, haha! Hell, I still love the first couple of Toshinden games to this day, although I think that's more because of the character designs and stellar music, if I'm being honest

Re: Sega Is "Evaluating" A New Virtua Fighter

ArcadeRacingCENTRAL

@Ryu_Niiyama Yeah, it's a great game, and it is still gorgeous

What I love about the VF series is that you can go all the way back to the first game and still have an experience that is fantastic. They nailed it right from off, which was an astounding achievement, considering it was the first 3D fighter out there! VF1 is just pure arcade goodness, and VF2 is just as brilliant now as it was on release. The same goes for 3 and mostly 4. 5 is timeless also.

I didn't like Tekken until Tekken 3, and I stopped caring about the series after Dark Resurrection.

Re: 26 Years Later, Virtua Fighter 3tb Is Returning To Arcades

ArcadeRacingCENTRAL

@-wc- Agreed! The Dreamcast was the first console I purchased with my own hard earned money.

I remember back when just standing in Electronics Boutique, ogling the Sonic Adventure demo. And then SoulCalibur started to play and my jaw hit the floor. I'd never seen anything like it, and neither had anybody else. That's what made it so special. It made VF3 look a generation behind, and that's saying something, because VF3 was the gold standard!

Re: Review: Demons of Asteborg / Astebros - Two Excellent Mega Drive Games On Evercade

ArcadeRacingCENTRAL

I love Demons of Asteborg. It's a great game that plays really, really well. I do wish the audio (including the amazing SavagedRegime OST) were in this one too, as I really don't get along with roguelikes like Astebros, but what's there is great, just not as refined as Astebros, unfortunately.

RecalBox comes with the Astebros demo, and I really tried to give it a shot, but yeah, the roguelike nature of it is incredibly off putting to me.

Re: Poll: What's The Best WipEout?

ArcadeRacingCENTRAL

@UK_Kev You can use analog controls with pretty much any emulator these days, so give it a try if you want!

It took me a while to come around to Wip3out, but when I did, it quickly became my favourite, just piping out 2097 to the post.

To be honest, I really loved Pure when I got it at the PSP launch, but I am not really a fan of the floaty controls these days. The controls are FANTASTIC, they're just not for me. The Pure vibe though, is brilliant. I love its' style, it's got it's own thing going on. Pulse, not so much... never got along with that one for some reason.

Re: Poll: What's The Best WipEout?

ArcadeRacingCENTRAL

@UK_Kev The original games did have analog control. Neg-con support for the first two, but Wip3out had full dual-shock support.
The digital controls are great, but the analog control options for the original trilogy are superlative.

Re: Poll: What's The Best WipEout?

ArcadeRacingCENTRAL

@UK_Kev Respectfully completely disagree. The control system of the earlier WipEout trilogy was and is still amazing. Pure is great, but I don't revisit it nearly as often as the older titles.

Although gameplay-wise, BallisticNG outdoes both kinds of WipEout, since it has refined and contains each style of gameplay.

Re: Gears Of Rage Brings "Mode 7-Like" Scaling To Sega Genesis / Mega Drive

ArcadeRacingCENTRAL

I'm equally excited, for sure. Finally - a homebrew racing game!!!

I would love to see more. Raster, Mode 7 style, all the styles

And in relation to the nonsense above, didn't somebody create a homebrew port of Sonic for the SNES to prove that it could be done for that system? Hmmmm. I thought that was a great technical achievement, personally.

What is with people in the comments sections here crapping on any homebrew effort that attempts to push the hardware? All of this stuff should be celebrated.

Re: Yep, More Analogue Pocket Limited Editions Are On The Way

ArcadeRacingCENTRAL

@-wc- Yeah, I think I'm gonna want one of those FunnyPlaying things too eventually. I actually like the kit form, and enjoy putting stuff together as long as it's not ridiculously difficult to do.

I will wait until the bugs are sorted and the firmware is better, and also when the other handhelds are playable on it

Re: Footage Of Marvel Super Heroes Running On Sega Genesis Raises Eyebrows

ArcadeRacingCENTRAL

@bobathefett So you're discounting all the additional processors NES carts had which ran on the original hardware. SuperFX and SuperFX2, all which ran on and enhanced the original hardware. Right.

This will only require a flashcart because it's the easiest way to run rom files on legit hardware. Just because it's new technology doesn't discount it. This IS playing on original hardware. Using these carts to play roms on original hardware is legit - the hardware doesn't know any different.

Anyways, agree to disagree or whatever, I don't care.

I said hardware a lot.

Re: Footage Of Marvel Super Heroes Running On Sega Genesis Raises Eyebrows

ArcadeRacingCENTRAL

@bobathefett Gabriel Pyron is a scene legend, and you can go out and download his stuff and run them all on stock hardware. He's been doing these large sprite tests for a while now. Seriously, you should educate yourself and actually follow his work and the scene if you're interested. Blanket statements like 'it can't be done' will make you look a little silly when it comes out working on real hardware.

Also, it's not 'clearly running with emulation', because he's got video editing software in the background of that vid, likely capturing from his own hardware.

Re: 'Dracula: Dark Reign' Is A Castlevania-Style Adventure Authorized By The Stoker Family

ArcadeRacingCENTRAL

Dracula is my favourite book of all time (along with the novelization of the Buffy The Vampire Slayer movie ), and the 1992 film is tied with Blade Runner as my favourite film of all-time. So this is very, very cool for me. Awesome to see something legit tied to the legacy.

EDIT: Since the whole 'Stokerverse' is a thing, I assume it takes place in the exact universe as 'The Last Voyage of the Demeter'? This game is all about Harker's escape, and the movie is the Demeter's voyage to Whitby. That would be neat!

I've downloaded the demos for this, Dragonhym and Zephyr's Pass to give them all a go today.

Also, the GB/GBC scene is just exploding right now, and I'm totally here for it. In particular, it's great seeing what people can do with the colour palette for the system. I always felt most Japanese developers back in the day were, by and large, very conservative with their use of colour on the system. At least in comparison to companies like Way Forward and VD-dev.

EDIT: Yeah, this is totally legit. Loving the demo. It goes for about 5 minutes, but it's pretty spectacular. Great visuals, music and gameplay. Shot right to the top of my 'wants' list!

Re: Anniversary: Game Boy Color Turns 25 Today

ArcadeRacingCENTRAL

I love the GBC. I didn't even mind some of Nintendo's own games on it - somewhat strangely, I don't buy Nintendo systems for Nintendo games.

I've been pumping it on my RGB30 since I got it. Lots of V-Rally, Wacky Races, Game And Watch Gallery 3, any and all Looney Tunes/Tiny Toons games and a lot of rom hacks, colour hacks and new indie games. Such a great system with loads of memories attached!

Re: Powkiddy RGB30 - A $90 Analogue Pocket Rival? You'd Better Believe It

ArcadeRacingCENTRAL

I think people get too stuck on semantics on the internet.

All I know is that I would have loved an Analog Pocket, and I would have loaded it full of ROMS and FPGA cores, since I sold off my cart collection years ago, but a combination of price and wait time led me to getting a handheld emulation machine. And the RGB30 fit the bill perfectly.

At the end of the day, no matter what you're playing on, all the options we have play these games really well, and that's what matters to me.

Re: Powkiddy RGB30 - A $90 Analogue Pocket Rival? You'd Better Believe It

ArcadeRacingCENTRAL

I got mine a couple of weeks back, and I'm absolutely enamored with it. It is indeed amazing for handheld emulation. SNES I bump up to 8:7 and it looks great without looking squished. All 4:3 content, I bump up to 5:7 to claim back some more screen real estate, and again, they look great without looking squashed.

I'm not sure what he meant in the review about PS1 not playing all that well, it really does. But only at native resolution. If you use the double-res setting in RetroArch on the default core, then it plays well, but the sound skips a bit. You'll get the flawless performance at native res from the default core though.

I also found the buttons really great, not at all cheap feeling. They look it, but they don't feel cheap in-game. I also found with some higher thumb grips, the analog sticks work super well, with a better range of motion than I expected from the 'Nintendo Switch-style' descriptor people tend to lump on them. Build quality is pretty fantastic on my black unit too. I thought the plastic would feel cheap, but it doesn't. It feels more solid than any of the GBA models ever felt to me, at any rate.

My only issue so far is battery life. Even the 6 hours quoted here seems generous in comparison to mine. It drains too fast for my liking. I usually turn Wi-Fi off and bring it down to 50% brightness, which still looks good, but I'm seriously considering just getting a mini power bank and taping it to the back of the unit to play for much longer sessions and to crank up the brightness just a tad.

The screen is a superstar though, and is absolutely perfect for all the LCD shaders I have applied to my handheld systems. If they release a model with the same resolution, but OLED, man, I'd get another in a heartbeat!

I absolutely love the RGB30, and I'd absolutely recommend it for anybody on a budget, and even then, it'll be worth picking up just for the screen, especially at this price. I'd only ever consider getting either an upgraded model, or an additional system with widescreen for those other systems. I think I'll wait for a linux machine that can play PS2 and Gamecube perfectly though, before I splurge on another.

Re: Nightdive CEO Pitches Potential Way To Remaster More Classic Titles

ArcadeRacingCENTRAL

It'll be fine, they won't get sued or anything that dramatic. Before all the official work, Kaiser was creating builds of games - like Doom 64 - that required you add your own rom/data files. So they could very well do the work to build the container to run the improved versions, but then require you to add your own game files from your own collection. I don't think there's anything illegal about that if they're not selling the actual game, which they won't be. They're paying people to create the builds, not charging for the finished product.

I say good on them. I'd definitely be interested in supporting them with this endeavor should it come to pass

Re: Anbernic Might Be Working On A Nintendo 2DS-Style Emulation Handheld

ArcadeRacingCENTRAL

@RupeeClock I just purchased the Powkiddy RGB30! This will be my first emulation handheld that isn't Raspberry Pi based! I have a RetroFlag GPI unit with a Pi Zero 2 W in it. I love the actual unit, but the screen is pretty horrid. So I'm eagerly awaiting this unit and the fantastic screen it seems to have. That aspect ratio is perfect for what I want it for, and I can deal with the bezels for other systems. The price was excellent too... with some discounts, it was around $140 AU with a 32gb card included.

Super pumped!!!

Re: Best Gundam Games Of All Time

ArcadeRacingCENTRAL

@Damo I can't say I've heard anything negative about them myself. I got the three volumes for next to nothing years ago and gave them a crack - they're right up there with my faves on the Saturn. I've actually wondered why nobody ever mentions them these days. Give them a go, they emulate well!

Re: Best Gundam Games Of All Time

ArcadeRacingCENTRAL

This list is SERIOUSLY lacking Mobile Suit Gundam Side Story: Blue Destiny on the SEGA Saturn.

The three episodic volumes played together make for a fantastic game. Awesome graphics, sound and brilliant controls.

Re: Guide: All 8BitDo Controllers & Accessories - Which Should I Buy?

ArcadeRacingCENTRAL

I really, really love the form factors of the SN30 Pro and the Pro 2, but I find the input lag to be a hindrance; if it's all you play with then you won't notice, but if you switch controllers regularly, then the input lag tends to stick out, at least to me.

I got the Bluetooth Ultimate controller on release, and it is a darn sight better on the lag front. Bluetooth Mode is great, the hall sensor sticks are sublime and the 2.4ghz mode on Switch and PC is flawless. I wish it was made out of the same materials as the Pro 2, but it still feels great in the hand.

That being said, I wish that 8bitDo would just bite the bullet and release a 2.4ghz variant of the Pro 2; now THAT would be my Ultimate controller!

Re: Sega Rally Homage Over Jump Rally Now Has A Steam Page

ArcadeRacingCENTRAL

@Dogemaster21777 There's also a really great portable version of the PC port of Sega Rally 2 on archive.org. It has full controller support, is able to run at high resolutions, and there's a widescreen mode in there too! It's my go-to way to play right now, much smoother than the Dreamcast port even with the 60fps cheat, and with less input lag too: something that has always irritated me about the Dreamcast version.

Search for Sega Rally 2 Portable on archive.org and you'll find it!

Re: WipEout Phantom Edition Is An Enhanced PC Port Of The PS1 Classic

ArcadeRacingCENTRAL

So I just sat down with it. The combination of high framerates, analog controls and the Ballistic NG collision model makes the game an absolute breeze, haha. Won both championships and just unlocked Firestar.

I did notice some physics oddities. Some of the animated background elements go super-fast, and there's some weird physics quirks sometimes once the game takes over playing when you finish a race. Nothing too crazy though, and nothing that ruined the actual gameplay. I'm sure these will be ironed out eventually

For the ultimate experience, I added in the Saturn Soundtrack, along with the WipEout: The Music album and put it on random. Having both albums on there is god-like.

This first WipEout will always hold a special place in my heart. I owned the Saturn port back in the day and played it over and over and over and over, haha.

Yeah. The other PS1 WipEout games kinda need this treatment now too, phenomenal work.