BionicDodo

That is amazing cover art.

I am loving mine so far. Have loved little clicky sticks since I first bought a NEOGEO Pocket Color way back when. Lovely.

I just wish someone would make a left Joycon with a clicky stick and built in battery/wireless, so I could play shmups on the FlipGrip with it. I would then be in shmup heaven. I guess the arrival of this means there's some scope for DIY projects...

I've nearly bought the original a few times. The expanded version looks great, but I really can't stand Limited Run. Preferred the original cover too, especially as this one has not only a huge Press Run logo on it, but also a big Limited Run one too!

I am hopelessly behind in the Yakuza series, but I now want to buy this game just for the arcades! SEGA are constantly re-releasing the 16-bit era content in ranges like SEGA AGES, can we please have some standalone releases from this era? Pretty please?

Er.. Japanese language has been what?! Haha.

This was always a nice game, but this 16-bit version is fabulous and continues to get better.

I love how this is nice and subtle, yet still pays perfect tribute. I have no interest in a really garish watch and I would actually wear this. That said, I don't really spend that kind of money on watches, and have a perfectly good one already, so can't really justify it. Good effort by Seiko though.

2D hand drawn artwork and pixel art are not the same thing. I do expect that pixel art will start to disappear as fewer developers (and gamers!) have nostalgia for it, but a beautiful hand drawn 2D image will always be beautiful and someone will continue to make them. It is however a much more expensive and time consuming way to work than using 3D models on a 2D plane, so I doubt we'll see a lot of it.

Two that still stick in my mind are...

Cheat mode in James Pond on the Acorn Archimedes: YNGWIE J MALMSTEEN (name of a Swedish guitarist)

Wonder Boy in Monster Land on the Master System: Pause the game 45 times to gain 45 gold. As the buttons in controller 2 could be used to pause/u pause the game, we used a Quikshot Python joystick in controller 2 with the auto fire switch on and a rubber band around the trigger. Wander off for a bit and come back to endless riches!

My first thought when I saw the picture of the dirty statue was "I could clean him up nicely in PowerWash Simulator!".

Definitely going to pick this up. I love that they're including all versions of the game.

As someone currently sitting less than a metre from copies of Choplifter for the Master System, Desert, Jungle and Urban Strike for the Mega Drive and Soviet Strike for the Saturn, this is right up my street! Thanks for the heads up.

I can't stand their big head art style, so I would really rather someone else take on Golden Axe or Final Fight.

I am delighted to have this wonderful game on more systems, but I was really hoping it would arrive as part of a Bubble Bobble collection, along with the original, Bubble Memories, Bubble Symphony and Rainbow Islands (preferably all on a single cart together).

I love rom hacks, so this is a fabulous idea for an article. I'd love to see more of these features in future, that gather together lots of hacks that are worth checking out.

Maybe one on your favourite hacks that have been kicking around for years could work too?

This is a day 1 purchase for me as I love clicky NEOGEO digital sticks. Please can we have Switch support too though?

I would kill (lots of naughty in-game baddies) for a left JoyCon with one of these sticks and wireless so that it worked with the FlipGrip for shmups.

I had Heroes of the Lance for the Master System when I was young and couldn't really get anywhere in it, if memory serves me well. Still got the cartridge kicking around. I always see these old D&D re-releases and instantly add them to my Steam wishlist, but I usually find that in reality they're too archaic for me to enjoy them much. I generally find the old games that hold up best for me are the simplest ones. Nowt wrong with Pac Man, Galaga, Mappy or Super Mario Bros. in 2023.

I love a good fan translation, and I love Samurai Shodown, but these things usually take many years to release, so I generally try to forget about them until they appear in fully playable form.

Mine finally arrived this week. Pre-ordered from Funstock, so no question of authenticity. The overall package is beautiful and made me feel like a 10 year old again!

Loving the EXP so far, although I do find the L2 button really gets in my way when I try and play in TATE mode. Would be good to get some rapid-fire options for the TATE games as trying to rapidly press the buttons in that setup gives me cramp quite quickly!

First I get an email this morning saying that my limited edition Evercade EXP is finally ready to ship, and then this gets announced. What a great day!

My first thought on reading this was "They were still taking pre-orders for this?!"

Sega are a funny bunch. For years they have been championed as the ones who support their retro communities (Sonic fan games etc), often favourably compared to Nintendo's approach. And then recently they've started shutting books like this down. I hope at the very least that it is because Sega is about to launch its own glossy coffee table book all about the Mega Drive/Genesis. Otherwise it seems an odd decision.

I'm intrigued by the legality of the whole access to your entire library via the cloud part. Do they legally have the right to share ripped games to various devices via the cloud?

Can't really argue with the top 3. Love this series. Think you're a bit harsh on RR64.

These look great, will definitely pick up one or two. The start button isn't ideal, but it's not something I use much in anger so doesn't bother me too much.

Any news of a UK release date? I had a quick glance but could only see imported Genesis versions at a marked up price.

How could they not know it had been released as an Arcade Archives title? I was aware of both versions existing and I'm not developing a port of the game or even particularly into it. Odd.

This is looking great! As a big Master System fan I will definitely check it out when it's finished. Until then we'll just have to stick with Master of Darkness!

I must add that 'dire' is a very harsh word to use to describe the MS port of Golden Axe. It may have been improved by a hacker years later, but it was a decent port for the time and was enjoyed a lot in my household.

Thanks for this, it was an enjoyable read. I actually like this game, and I'm not alone...

https://videogamecritic.com/snesdd.htm?e=89720#rev4743

Haha, that's brilliant!

Divisive before people played it maybe, but Post-released most agreed it was a good or great game. Zelda II is surely more divisive.

I enjoyed light gun games with the Wii Remote, but they never felt quite right. I'm still waiting for a truly great light gun that works with modern displays. There was a recent one (forget the name) but there seemed to be quite a lot of complaints about it.

@Spider-Kev None of those things are fast though. If you're a low cash flow company and you now have to produce a load of extra stock of a discontinued item to meet previous orders, all of that will have to be paid for before any insurance company pays out. If they have enough cash to tide themselves over until it all gets sorted then they should be fine long term, but many businesses go bust because of short time cash issues, or at least struggle to pay staff due to them (never good at Christmas). And all of that is just finances, there is also the issue of working hard to produce a product you genuinely care about only for it to get stolen before it reaches the hands of your most loyal customers... that must be quite distressing.

I was devastated when I got the email. Was really looking forward to playing this over the holidays. I mostly just feel for Blaze though as they can't be rolling in cash right now and I'm sure they didn't need to be ordering more of the (out of production) Limited Edition units from their supplier. People can be such scumbags.

I used to play R-Type on my Mega Drive all the time... using the Master System Converter! Seriously though, brilliant as the MS port was it would have been nice to get a native MD version (if just to lose all that sprite flicker!) back in the day, but better late than never I guess.

Stone cold classic. Sign me up for that Soldier Collection too please!

I've made a lot of effort to make sure almost all of my old consoles are RGB scart and the difference is clear. That said, I voted for component as the SCART connector is one of the all-time worst connector designs. Too big and bulky, always pointing the wrong direction and often incapable of staying in under its own weight and loose connection.

Yes! YES! So much YES!!

Haha, that's very random but great!

Devastating. My favourite Batman. TAS is the perfect animated series. RIP Kevin.

Colecovision for the win!

Pretty cool. When I think about F-Zero games it usually just makes me think how I'd be happy just to have a 1080/60 Switch port of F-Zero GX.

Stone cold classic. Played the Saturn version and loved it.

Master System, then Saturn and then Dreamcast.

I'm keen to know if this rom runs on a real Mega Drive. Obviously current tech can make Space Harrier run just fine, but is this a legit improved Mega Drive port? Apologies if this is covered in the video, I haven't got sound right now.

Yeah, I'll buy anything Llamasoft, so this will be an easy decision for me if it sees the light of day.

This is great news. I hope the lineup is good. It's funny, but when I first got my Evercade I decided to buy all of the cartridges as I assumed it wouldn't be too successful and would prove easy to collect a complete set for. I already own more games than I expected to be released with no sign of it slowing down! Don't get me wrong, it's a good thing, but the collection is going to take up more money and space than I ever dreamed it would!

Was slightly surprised to see the adapters were 3 for $99 given the fact that the Game Gear one was $29. Sadly I can't order an Analogue Pocket or any accessories as the pound to dollar exchange rate right now makes them out of my price range. And that's even before potential taxes on the import.

So far I've played some Rod Land on Evercade, Amoured Warriors, Turtles in Time (arcade version), Giga Wing and Pinball FX3 on Switch and Strange Horticulture on Steam Deck. The latter has sucked me in far more than I ever expected it to.

Love this game. Definitely superior to the SNES DKC trilogy in my book. My most played game in my Super Famicom is this in a Super Game Boy. Will have to check this hack out. Thanks for the heads up!

I had the original Actua Soccer on PC way back in the day. Played the PS1 version recently on Evercade and it's... er... yeah. I can't actually remember if this sequel was any good. My go to retro football game is ISS 98 on N64.

Joking aside, I support all articles relating to John Carpenter. My favourite director of all time.