Damo

Damo

The boy who never grew up.

Comments 797

Re: The US Copyright Office Doesn't Want To Give You Access To Video Game History

Damo

@TransmitHim You've missed the point of this by some margin. Many games are now unplayable due to the nature of their media (floppy discs, cassettes, etc) and even CDs and carts aren't going to last forever. If the industry wants to be serious about preserving its history, then what the VGHF is suggesting should be happening. It's not because the ESA and the industry at large is only concerned about making money, not preserving history.

And besides, anyone who merely wants free games doesn't have to look very hard online to find them.

Re: The US Copyright Office Doesn't Want To Give You Access To Video Game History

Damo

@GrailUK Video games can be studied on an academic level, too. And, as this site hopefully attests, there's the historical aspect to consider, too.

And to take your 40K example, sure, why shouldn't issues of White Dwarf and the associated battle manuals be preserved in some way so people can study / learn about the history of tabletop gaming?

Re: Review: PlayCase Turns Your iPhone Into A Game Console, With A Few Catches

Damo

@Gryffin This is primarily intended for emulation, so it only needs to match the button layout on a per system basis (NES, SNES, etc) in emulators like Delta and Ignited. There are different physical modules to match the number of buttons, and the creator is making new ones to match N64 and DS button layouts.

Sorry if I didn't make that clear in the review.

Re: Review: MiSTer Pi - A $99 Gateway To FPGA Retro Gaming

Damo

@_Ex_ In the best hands and on the best hardware, yes. But for anything under $200, software emulation for platforms like Saturn and N64 isn't going to be perfect (at least not yet, and from my own personal experience).

Given that cheap emulation devices are massively popular these days, I'd argue that is the way most people are going to experience software emulation – or on systems like Switch, where latency is a huge problem, even with official releases.

Re: Review: MiSTer Pi - A $99 Gateway To FPGA Retro Gaming

Damo

@_Ex_ Quite the opposite, as you can see from the review section of this site, we've covered all kinds of emulation devices, including handhelds and devices like the Polymega. I'm a big fan of both emulation and FPGA, and can see the benefits of both:

https://www.timeextension.com/features/soapbox-heres-why-i-cant-ditch-software-emulation-handhelds-for-the-fpga-analogue-pocket

I'm also fully aware that FPGA emulation isn't perfect (as mentioned in this very review, in fact), but on the whole, because it is emulation at a hardware level, it's usually more accurate and less prone to latency – especially if you're directly comparing devices at this price point ($160).

None of the software emulation devices in this price bracket can match MiSTer Pi when it comes to performance. A more powerful PC wil close the gap of course, but we're talking about sub-$200 products here.

Re: Here's The "Hidden Meaning" Behind The Dreamcast's Start Button

Damo

@-wc- I'm inclined to agree but let's not forget that Sega had just witnessed its market share get eaten by Sony, and perhaps assumed that six buttons would be off putting for a more casual, mainstream audience? I definitely see the logic of reducing complexity in terms of controls.

Re: "If Bach Wrote Video Game Music, It Would Be Castlevania"

Damo

@-wc- My fully boxed copy of CV2 on the GB cost me £12.99 from a local indie game store in the late '90s. Last time I checked, I think it was worth about £400-£500 in that condition. I'll be passing it down to my kids!

(Unless, of course, it begins to drop in value as all of us old gits pass away and nobody wants to pay that stupid price)

Re: GameStop Is Selling An Exclusive ModRetro Chromatic

Damo

@RetroGames At least somebody gets it!

We push a lot of 'new' retro products, including the Analogue Pocket, MiSTer, Polymega, 8BitDo, 8BitMods, Evercade, etc. Feels odd to be attacked for covering another, but we live in an odd world, I guess?

Re: Sega Forever, Sega's Dedicated Retro Channel, Appears To Be Dead

Damo

@KitsuneNight The 'old' Sega Forever was that, sure - but, more recently, it was a vehicle for Sega Europe / Danny's efforts to preserve and celebrate the company's history. That work now seems to have ended, which is a crying shame, and the fact that Danny's tweet alludes to a less-than-satisfactory working environment makes it worse.

Re: Falcom's Popful Mail Is Coming To Nintendo Switch

Damo

@KitsuneNight None of the EGGCONSOLE games have English localisations, as far as I'm aware. They're the Japanese PC88 versions, none of which were released in English.

However, this isn't a text-heavy RPG, so you should still be ok.

Re: Turns Out Shining Force CD Didn't Actually Need The Sega CD Backup RAM Cart

Damo

@kkalata Given that you need to complete the first two books to access the third and fourth, how does the game know that you've done that without the save data?

EDIT: So, as I understand it, the character stats are the only thing you can't carry over in this case - so the 'rumour' is still true in one way, as most people are going to want to retain their progress from books 1 and 2 when playing the other two books.

I'm happy to update this piece to finally put this to rest, if it is indeed incorrect!

Re: Turns Out Shining Force CD Didn't Actually Need The Sega CD Backup RAM Cart

Damo

@GhaleonUnlimited I encountered this issue myself (with the EUR version admittedly) and there are numerous other reports online of people hitting the same roadblock regarding the save data. Are you 100% sure your memory isn't playing tricks on you?

I'm happy to be proven wrong but I'm almost 100% sure I didn't get around to playing the third book for precisely this reason back in the day. Unless I was just being dumb!

Some other posts on this matter:

https://gendev.spritesmind.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1280
https://forum.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?146983-Shining-Force-CD-RAM-cart-MegaCart
https://segaretro.org/Shining_Force_CD

While I take your point on people parroting what they've read on the internet, what makes me think this is legit is the fact that A) I was aware of this problem before the internet came along, and B) several forum posts seem to indicate other players hitting the exact same problem independently. But again, I am happy to be proven wrong here if you can get solid evidence - and I will update this post to reflect it.