Damo

Damo

The boy who never grew up.

Comments 797

Re: Intellivision Names Amico Mascot, Still No Sign Of The Console

Damo

@Razieluigi Nobody, and that's the issue; they burned through all of the pre-order funding and are now looking to leverage what assets they still have (games, the controller) to generate more capital so they can actually create the console people paid money for four years ago.

I think it's obvious by now that that isn't likely to happen.

Re: Best WonderSwan Games Of All Time

Damo

@metak @KingMike @Poodlestargenerica This list is by no means definitive and we'll update it with some of the suggested games - although Tetris is staying because I think it's a great version

Re: Best Tekken Games Of All Time, Ranked By You

Damo

@MARl0 @BlaizeV The list is based on user votes, so it will change over time. Tekken 5 is low because it wasn't in our database prior to this list being created; if you want to see it move higher, vote for it and you'll change the running order.

Re: Best Sega 32X Games Of All Time

Damo

@Uncharted2007 @GhaleonUnlimited @RootsGenoa Our lists tend to evolve over time, so I'm not against bumping this from 10 to 15 entries and including MK2, NBA Jam, Doom etc - watch this space!

Re: GameShark Is Back From The Dead, But As AI

Damo

@BulkSlash Your assumption is correct, I think - it will probably just spit out hints and tips based on what it has scraped from the internet. Something I hope becomes illegal on copyright grounds sooner rather than later.

Re: Review: Polymega - Now With N64 Support, But Is It Still Worth A Look In 2024?

Damo

@bring_on_branstons Hopefully things will improve this year. You cite Analogue as an example of how to do things, but it's worth pointing out that, until very recently, the wait for Analogue Pockets was almost as bad. Ant, who works with me here at Hookshot, had to wait almost a year for his. These issues have impacted many companies, not just Playmaji.

Re: Review: Polymega - Now With N64 Support, But Is It Still Worth A Look In 2024?

Damo

@blondeandy I'm sorry to hear you've had such a poor experience with Playmaji. Rest assured, we've been filtering back issues with pre-orders to them for the past year or so. The situation with the Polymega is awful, and while it's not totally Playmaji's fault (component shortages and civil wars are beyond the company's control), the lack of communication over the past couple of years isn't good, and we've said as much to them.

I can only hope that 2024 is a more positive year for Playmaji and Polymega, because, as you can see from this review, I feel the system itself is excellent.

Re: Review: Polymega - Now With N64 Support, But Is It Still Worth A Look In 2024?

Damo

@gingerbeardman Having re-read the review for what feels like the millionth time today, I realised that I'd already stated in the text that issues like discs being spat out or showing as unsupported were remedied by a previous system update (it's important to remember the original review was based on beta hardware / software). However, I've given that paragraph another go-over to make it clearer to readers in 2024.

"According to Playmaji, the retail firmware features some low-level changes in the way the system behaves, so these could just be teething troubles that will be fixed with future software updates – or, as we just mentioned, it could be down to decades-old CDs starting to become unreadable (it's worth noting that we've since had another update of the retail firmware which has fixed some of the incompatibility problems we encountered previously). Whatever the reason, Playmaji has spent the past three years fine-tining compatibility and ironing out any issues, and the abovementioned problems have largely been eradicated in 2024. Like many other pieces of modern consumer hardware, Polymega is likely to continue to evolve and improve over its lifespan."

Re: Review: Polymega - Now With N64 Support, But Is It Still Worth A Look In 2024?

Damo

@gingerbeardman The review is based on the one originally written in 2020, so it has been adjusted accordingly to reflect 3 years of software updates. I changed the con you mentioned to better reflect the situation now, in 2023, when compatibility has improved dramatically.

The disc-spitting is also a thing of the past (at least in my experience) so I'll probably give this another pass to update it. I didn't want to totally re-write the review, but there's some legacy stuff in there which perhaps needs amending (I'm technically on holiday at the moment but wanted to get this updated asap).

Returning to the matter at hand, I would continue to recommend this system to anyone with a sizeable collection of retro games who wants to play them on a modern TV. It's a great option for that particular gamer, and, as I said before, it's been my most played system for the past 3 years. I just wish Playmaji could get them into people's hands faster.

Re: Review: Polymega - Now With N64 Support, But Is It Still Worth A Look In 2024?

Damo

@gingerbeardman You're perfectly entitled to your opinion, of course. But speaking personally (I wrote the review), Polymega has been my most played system since I got the review unit in 2020. Compatibility has improved massively since then, with only a small handful of games not working 100% (as is the case with a lot of emulation-based options - in fact, even FPGA systems have compatibility issues). The user experience is also fantastic (not sure where you got 'uneven' from?) with games installing easily and the end user getting a rich library to browse, complete with screenshots, descriptions and other data. Compared to many other emulation options, it's incredibly streamlined.

And there's no hand-waving here, as you say - 9/10 suggests a product which isn't quite perfect, and Polymega certainly could be better - but, if you own a large collection of physical games and you want a one-stop solution for playing them on a modern TV (with the ability to use save states, patches, etc) then it doesn't really have any rivals at the moment.

I'm not sure why this review should leave a bad taste in your mouth when you haven't used a Polymega personally, but I would highly recommend you give it a go. It's a wonderful way to reconnect with your physical retro games.

Re: Review: Steam Deck OLED - The Best Just Got Better

Damo

@BulkSlash You can migrate everything using a MicroSD card - EmuDeck even has the option to move everything over. I had all of my emulation stuff on a MicroSD card already, and it was all retained when I popped it into the OLED model.

Re: Review: Analogue Duo - The Best Way To Enjoy The Entire PC Engine / TG16 Library

Damo

@KingMike Sorry, I think I may have misunderstood your first question. I'm fully aware of all of the system cards (spent far too much money collecting for the PCE back in the day) - I assume the Analogue Duo simply picks the right 'card' for each game? I loaded up CD-ROM2, Super CD-ROM2 and Arcade CD games and they all played flawlessly. I didn't test Altered Beast though, which is apparently one of the CD-ROM2 games which refused to run on any of the more advanced System Cards.

Re: Flashback: How An American Businessman Tried To Turn Akira Into A Blockbuster Game

Damo

@-wc- "In 1988, the same year as the film's release, the Kyoto-based developer Tose partnered with the publisher Taito to release a Japan-exclusive adventure game based on the magazine for the Nintendo Famicom, which received somewhat of a lukewarm response from magazines at the time like Famicom Tsūshin"

The 'magazine' in this case is the original manga, on which the film was based.

Re: "I Didn't Want Mario Lemieux Hockey, I Wanted Super Mario Hockey"

Damo

@Zenszulu If you read the full interview, Atari (and Nintendo's other rivals) were pretty bummed by Nintendo's practice of getting third parties to sign over the exclusivity of their games in order to get them released on the NES - a practice which was later deemed to be anti-competitive.

Not saying this little episode was justifiable, but you can see why Atari and Sega would be annoyed.

Re: Review: Anbernic RG ARC - The Dream Handheld For Fighting Game Fans

Damo

@-wc- Fair enough on the 'second stick' wording, that was confusing (I meant second control input), so I've amended that.

However, with N64, my point is that there are plenty of amazing games which require you to use both the D-pad and the stick at the same time (Sin & Punishment being my personal fave) and that means the RG ARC isn't the ideal system.

TBH, this issue aside, I wouldn't recommend this device for ANY system that relies on analogue input, so the conversation is moot anyway