Damo

@gingerbeardman I'm still sore about that whole episode. Last time I spoke to the developer, he said he basically has no control over when the game gets released. A real shame, given how promising it looked, even a decade ago.

@GhaleonUnlimited This cart totally overcomes the region lock out, it will play games from any region, regardless of the console's origin

@NinChocolate Most of the games have English fan translations now

Ah sorry, yeah, I misread your comment, I don't think GBA games can be dumped to the Polymega yet, but perhaps in the future?

@Gerald You can use the N64 GB transfer pak to do that https://www.timeextension.com/news/2023/12/polymegas-n64-module-allows-support-for-game-boy-and-game-boy-color-games

@-wc- It's an odd choice, for sure. I'm not sure what they were thinking.

@smoreon It's been a long day (thanks for the save!)

@Steel76 Many 'modern' carts are going to go the same way. DS and 3DS both use flash memory for save data, and sooner or later, that will refuse to be written to any longer, making some games unplayable.

The Switch will last longer as there's no read / write function on those game cards (I think?) - save data is on the system, not the card.

@Profmcstevie My point with the easy mode is that even an average player can blast through it on their first try, and if they're not bothered about getting better at the game and chasing scores, they might not return to it. I agree that it's wonderfully accessible, but I do think the ease in which you can get to the end credits might reduce some people's interest in the wider game.

@-wc- I had to say something because I love this handheld. It's literally my dream portable, thanks to that D-pad.

@Moroboshi876 As far as I'm aware, this is digital-only.

@Poodlestargenerica RetroArch has no emulation capability whatsoever. All of that is down to the inclusion of cores, which are entirely optional – you can remove and download the cores you want, so it's absolutely a front-end.

@Azuris Exactly.

@gingerbeardman I meant to tag the first poster as well, so apologies for that.

Not sure what you mean by the second bit of your message?

@gingerbeardman And my point is you don't know how much he paid, and you also don't know the motivation of the seller - perhaps he was happy to let the game go for a lower-than-normal price because he knew it would get played and not put in a sealed protective case and resold on eBay?

My point is, we don't know, so if we don't know, then "being excellent to each other" surely extends to not jumping to conclusions on such things?

@gingerbeardman How can he be "scalping" GameStop when they set the price? It's not like he forced them to put the games on sale for massively below their retail value.

And we don't know what he paid the seller for PDS, so to speculate that he paid under the odds seems a bit presumptuous to me, personally.

The tweet suggests that both parties were happy with the 'deal', so I'm not sure it's worth throwing shade at, certainly not with all of the genuinely bad stuff that's happening in the world right now.

Scoring a bargain is one of life's little pleasures, and if the seller was happy with the price he got, then I don't see any reason to react negatively to any of this.

@Diogmites Massive respect for the Herzog Zwei love. Absolutely stunning soundtrack.

@Kushan The review cart I have is a NA one and has a plain, printed label on it - so you'd know for sure.

Maybe that version got out in the wild in small numbers somehow?

@Kushan Magazines in the UK were sent a review ROM which had the anime pictures still in place, but the final retail version I played had them removed.

Perhaps you remember seeing the screenshots in magazine reviews, and your mind has filled in the blanks?

I was actually gifted one of the review carts by a games journalist from the '90s, so I can verify the anime portraits were still there.

@nilcam Long story short, it's an arcade standard with replaceable carts, very much like the Neo Geo MVS. It's also very expensive and aimed squarely at arcade operators.

https://exa.ac/en/?v=0f177369a3b7

@Uncle_Franklin There's a huge community behind the Game Boy, not just in terms of modding / restoring / upgrading the original hardware, but creating new software, too. As the recent 35th anniversary proved, lots of people still care a lot about this machine.

@Andee Quite possibly - Jaz Rignall was quizzed on this recently but he had left EMAP by that point.

@RetroGames Probably worth remembering that Leslie was a pretty big name in TV back then, but yeah, he's not ideal casting for sure!

@Hexapus @DanijoEX-the-Pierrot We've tried to keep it limited to one system per entry here, so a vote for KOF 97 basically counts all versions of the game. If we'd have opened this up to every port, the list would have need huge

@mrfield Quite right - thanks for the save, this has been amended.

@bring_on_branstons They got into trouble for selling import Nintendo games and R1 DVDs, is what I heard. I think there are news reports online somewhere

@BulkSlash My Nomad cost £99 fully boxed and mint. So, yeah.

@GhaleonUnlimited From what I've heard, they're a bit of a nightmare to open up and fix / mod.

@Impossibilium Bingo

@JabooMooseKeys As the OCuLink port was referenced in our Flip KB review I didn't mention it here (outside of the spec sheet) but you're quite right, it's worth pointing out - I've added something in.

@-wc- I know what you mean - we've certainly lost a certain something in the shift to capacitive screens when it comes to input. The DS stylus is still a wonderful means of interacting with a touch interface. That's why I still love firing up the 3DS even today.

@-wc- Resistive screens are no longer used on any touch-based hardware, as far as I'm aware, so yes, I would claim the tech is primitive by modern standards. And as for reliability, I have two DS consoles which now have faulty touchscreens; what seems to happen is that dust gets stuck under the edges of the display, applying subtle pressure and thereby registering a touch (or, as in the case of one of my DS Lite consoles, no touch input at all).

Regarding your opinion on the review score, you're perfectly entitled to make that call, but it might be wiser to instead attempt to try out this device first. Yes, it cannot play DS or 3DS carts like a DS or 3DS can, but neither of those machines are capable of playing Wii U, PS3, Xbox 360 or Baldur's Gate 3, as far as I'm aware

@Spider-Kev A) Resistive touchscreen panels are generally less reliable than capacitive ones.

B) The 8840U is more powerful than the 7840U.

C) Yes, that's a typo, it's fixed now - thanks!

D) It has TV-out via the USB-C port, yes.

@JJtheTexan Nope

https://www.timeextension.com/features/an-open-letter-to-tim-and-chris-stamper-founders-of-rare

@ralphdibny That's not mine - it belongs to the Retro Computer Museum in Leicester. Not sure about all the signatures but Simon Butler's is one of them!

@-wc- Thanks! I'm pretty proud of it! There are some amazing custom GBAs out there now, and they're not too expensive, either.

@atrac17 Apologies if this article or any of the others we've posted has led to unwelcome or unpleasant behaviour being directed to yourself on social media; the intention has always been to provide some context to delays relating to MARS.

Launching a piece of hardware is something I don't think I'd ever have the skill, talent or patience to do myself, so I'm very sensitive to people jumping to conclusions when they don't know all of the facts - that was the sole reason for including personal information (which I wouldn't have included had it not been posted to a public social media platform).

I realise TE isn't blocked by the MARS account but by blocking it from your personal account I won't see stuff related to the other FPGA projects you're working on - for example, the WWF core wouldn't have gotten a news story the other day (I assume you blocked the account recently).

I've been on the end of social media hate many times myself and can fully appreciate how difficult it is, but I can assure you TE's intention has never been to create such issues; we're here to report on exciting developments in the world of retro gaming, which MARS / your FPGA work certainly counts as.

@atrac17 Apologies, the information was included here because it offers a valid and understandable explanation as to why the MARS project was delayed. There was no intention to offend, and I'm happy to remove that portion of text from this piece.

Having said that, I hope it's obvious from the amount of coverage we've given MARS (and your FPGA cores) on this site that we're not the "enemy"; blocking us on Twitter simply means we won't have the chance to report on the good work you're doing, which seems a shame to me.

@Diogmites I know what you mean. Just looking at that photo makes me want to grab a polishing cloth!

@KingMike Shadow Dancer on the MS is essentially a port of the arcade game, so we've left it off here. The MD version is a totally new game

I realise there are some inconsistencies with this as we've included the SMS version of Shinobi here as well, but rest assured, it will all make sense in the final list!

@DestructoDisk As noted in the piece, they said it wasn't compatible but it fits my OLED fine. The issue is that the screwdriver included in the package won't remove the screws, so you have to buy another one.

@michaelf I must have missed it! I've edited the review to reflect this. Thanks!

@-wc- Ah yes, the famous "quality over quantity" approach that gave us (check notes) Superman 64, Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue and Blues Brothers 2000

Joking aside, while Nintendo's strategy, in the beginning, was (reportedly) to focus on a smaller group of developers (the ill-fated "Dream Team" - that was a marketing dud if ever you saw one - Acclaim? Gametek?!), I don't think there's a single person who was at the company during this time that would tell you with a straight face they were happy with the level of third-party support the console got during its entire lifespan.

I mean, look at the pathetic number of RPGs on the machine – the genre that is basically the difference between success and failure in Japan.

There's definitely a case of "reframing" that narrative in this interview to make out that it was all part of Nintendo's masterplan, when we know for a fact that developers hated carts and were sick of paying the massive fees to manufacture them.

@VeldinX This was a mistake, we've corrected the piece. Apologies for the confusion

@BulkSlash Doh, I've added that in!

@JJtheTexan We picked PlatinumGames as it was the role he seemed to be the most proud of (and certainly the most high profile), but point taken - I've edited the headline.

@KingMike He means the 2021 VCS.

@Diogmites @madgears @somnambulance The rankings are based solely on user votes. These will likely change over time - you can even change them right now by voting for your favourite games

@Poodlestargenerica It's definitely not one of their best songs but that is often the way with a lot of bands, I find. I still love the song myself; it's dumb but technically quite clever.

@-wc- @Poodlestargenerica I take your point, but this is literally a puzzle game in which you can jump from platform to platform, so it's perhaps the purist example of that definition