GravyThief

I’m not a Mega Man fan. I don’t like the platform games at all. Not sure what it is, probably a mixture of no nostalgia, not being able to shoot diagonally or upwards (even though I know the game is designed to accommodate this), and it not really being an exploratory platformer, which I much prefer.

That being said, I very much enjoyed playing Mega Man Legends a few years ago. So I’m probably one of the few people who much prefers the Legend games over the original platformers 🤣

Never heard of this game before. I would have loved it back then, seen as gaming and Games Workshop were my two main hobbies.

@MysticWangForce coz they go fasta!

I don’t know what it is, but I find a Super Famicom on top of a Satellaview aesthetically pleasing 🤣

I’m actually glad I was never exposed to import hardware in the UK back in the day (I did have US SNES games, but never NTSC hardware). I was blissfully unaware how terrible PAL games were in the 8 and 16 bit era.

If I’d have known I don’t think I could have enjoyed PAL games again. I certainly couldn’t have afforded to go the import route for all of my gaming.

@MegaManFan yes I get that, but if it goes China > US > Customer, then every customer will get the price hike regardless of whether they’re in the US or elsewhere. So what I don’t understand is why is he stopping sales to US customers only? That’s what I’m trying to understand. I’m obviously missing something.

@MegaManFan thanks for the reply, but that still doesn’t explain it for me.

If it goes China to San Diego to End Customer, then they’ll have the tariffs on the ‘China to San Diego’ leg of the journey, regardless of whether the end customer is in the US or elsewhere. That’s the part I don’t understand.

If it went China to End Customer (and so never touched the US for customer outside the US), I would understand it. Is that what happens?

Why does this not impact orders being made from outside the US? I thought the issue with the tariffs meant the cost of the components for the RetroTINKs (from China I presume) will increase dramatically, in which the cost of their products would need to increase to compensate. I don’t understand how this impacts where their customers are based?

I never knew anything about this guy when the whole Chromatic stories started. I didn’t even know he created the Oculus. I don’t mind a mention of these things in reviews of software/hardware, but I don’t want people’s opinions on the matter shoved down my throat either. I can do my own research (if I’m bothered) and can make up my own mind on the subject thank you. If I’m honest, it wouldn’t change my view of the product (I’d still like to have a Chromatic for example). Although at the same time I won’t say I like this guy or agree with any of his opinions - he sounds like a tool (to put it mildly).

One of the worst examples of someone’s opinion being shoved down my throat in the guise of a review was Eurogamer’s ‘review’ of the first Kingdom Come Deliverance game. They didn’t really cover much of the game, they just ranted on about whatever the controversy was (I can’t even remember what it was). If they’d have tagged the article as an opinion piece or whatever, fine, but no, apparently it was a review of the game.

Anyway, I suppose what I’m saying is I’ve lived long enough on this Earth to be completely apathetic to most ‘controversies’ these days. I’d rather they weren’t forced upon me when trying to gather information about my hobby, but I’m also equally capable in ignoring such pieces and gathering the information elsewhere. I’m not going dictate what people should and shouldn’t talk about.

But people paying those prices aren’t buying them to play. They’re buying them to put on a shelf and make numerous posts on Facebook about them.

The rest of us simply burn a copy of the game on to a blank disc. Or in my case, I bought a US copy for £80 (I’m in the UK so US copies are cheaper, although this was a few years ago admittedly) so I can play it and still have a genuine copy.

I do hope the second hand value drops, but not sure being part of the NSO will make much difference.

I found this really interesting. Thanks!

I must say the beat em up genre (2D or 3D) holds no appeal to me these days. Back in the 90s I loved them, and spent so many hours with the likes of Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Killer Instinct and Tekken. I don’t know why I don’t enjoy them.

I prefer scrolling beat em ups, but even then I get bored very quickly. I played Shredder’s Revenge and got a fair amount of the way through it, but I realised I was just playing it because it was a present and I felt I had to.

I’ll definitely keep my eyes on this. I’ll be intrigued to see their approach for an FPGA N64. I really liked their take on the Game Boy Color, using a like for like screen in terms of resolution and also allowing the use of AA batteries. But obviously none of that applies with an N64 so it may be a more standard approach.

“ Another bonus is that you can now connect USB pads to the MemCard Pro 2.”

Does the MemCard Pro 2 have a USB socket? I’ve never noticed it in pictures of it before.

Isn’t this the same guy who did the amazing Secret of Mana soundtrack? A man of many talents!

I need to play this. I really want to play the two Shadow Hearts games on PS2, but I feel I should play this first. Plus it looks good on its own merits too.

@-wc- I was seeing the picture at the top where it looks like two screens. I’ve just noticed picture (CGI mock-up?) further down… still looks weird 🤣

@avcrypt everyone’s talking about TATE mode for this (I’m presuming Shmups?), but wouldn’t there be a big gap between the two screens?

@ruiner9 I did think of that, of course. But wouldn’t you want to get a different, more normal looking system for other game systems? This just seems very DS specific, which is why I made the comparison.

Emulation devices are not for me, so I’m probably missing the point. But why would you get one of these for DS games when you could get a second hand DS Lite and R4 card for a similar, if not cheaper price? The screens on the DS Lite are great.

Like I say, I’m probably missing the point 🤣

@Profchaos I have both a PVM and a small no brand (Maxim?) Consumer CRT. I think both look better than the RetroTINK 5x, but obviously this is subjective. I just prefer the colours and the way CRTs smooth off the early 3D games. I would love to try the RT5x on an OLED TV, but as I can’t see myself getting one for a few years (when they’re cheaper and have better options at smaller screen sizes) I guess I’ll never know.

I understand the RT5x is better than most/all other scalers. I haven’t tried many, but I can clearly see the difference against the RAD2X cables for example.

I’ve never really messed around with the settings of the RT5x. It’s not my thing, which is why I always avoided the OSSC and I always love the plug n play aspect of CRTs.

I guess the RT5x (and mods like this one) just aren’t for me. If I didn’t have a CRT I’m sure I’d be much happier, but as I do I can’t feel anything but underwhelmed with it. I just hope my CRTs last another couple of decades!

I tried my GameCube with component cables to a RetroTink 5x and a 1080p TV, and I must say, I was not impressed by the picture whatsoever. I use a CRT, and I bought a RetroTink to see if I’d be happy using it so I didn’t need a CRT anymore. I’m quite annoyed by all the hype from YouTubers and review sites over the praise they gave the RetroTink 5x (that most received for free). I’m extremely underwhelmed by it, for all the consoles I’ve tried. Especially for the price. Maybe I’m spoilt with CRTs or my expectations are too high, I know it’s better than most other upscalers. But still, it didn’t convince me to get rid of my CRT.

On topic, I wonder if I’d prefer these console based solutions. I’ve never seen one in person, and I probably never will as I’ll never buy one. Would be good to see one though.

I just want Shantae Pirate’s Curse for Switch at a reasonable price. I don’t see why they can’t just do another time limited order window for their more popular games. it would still be a Limited Run, just more than one Limited Run 😀

It would stick one up at the people who buy these games just to sell at a future date for an inflated price. Most LRG games I see on the second hand market are still sealed, so clearly a lot of their customers aren’t buying their games to play.

I’d also like them to work with a distribution partner in the UK and/or Europe. To make the total price after postage and duty a bit cheaper for us.

I got the Mega ED X5 a few years ago and I’ve been very happy with it. It’s great value at $60 odd, and I recommend it to anyone who’s interested but doesn’t want to pay $200+ for the Pro. It plays Mega Drive and Master System games flawlessly. It does 32X games, but I don’t have one so not something I’ve ever used. It also does cheat codes too.

So really what you’re paying for is Mega CD support with the Everdrive Pro. I am tempted by it. I’ll never buy a Mega CD myself (too unreliable and I’m not bothered about buying genuine games for it), and I would be able to play Snatcher without forking out over £500!

Is that 24% of all people in this age group in the UK, or just 24% of gamers in that age group? Because there’s a big difference, and without any absolute numbers of either, a % figure is meaningless.

Also, what’s classed as retro? To these whippersnappers, the Wii U might be deemed retro. Does it include the whole gamut of someone played a game of PAC-Man on an Android emulator for 10 mins, right up to those who buy and play on real hardware?

I don’t believe any of these recent stats about how popular retro gaming is to be honest. Not without any specific details provided (in the articles I read anyway, maybe they dumb it down for internet audiences).

On a side note, I hate all this calling different age groups by stupid internet names. I would have had no idea what Gen Z was, without this article providing the age range. Why can’t people just write a few extra words and say “people born between these years” or “people aged between x and y”. I literally have to Google every time these silly terms are used. I suppose it helps the internet folk with limited attention spans.

I’ll never again buy new games for old consoles. I bought an N64 game from Piko (40 Winks) and a SNES game from retro-bit (one of the generic fighting games). They just look and feel really cheap and nothing like a proper, original game. The idea is way better than the reality. Whoever manufactures these cartridges for old consoles do not do a good job. Sounds like LRG are no better.

Over the past week I’ve just set up my PS2 to play games from the hard drive. All I had to do was buy a SATA adapter and freemcboot memory card from Amazon. Delivered the next day, I could return it easily if I couldn’t get it to work, no soldering, and up and running in a matter of hours (most of that time was loading the ROMs).

I wish it was that easy for all disc based retro consoles.

@Azuris maybe, but even including emulation I still think the number is way off. Retro gaming is a very niche pastime. And using emulators just as much. The increase in popularity of gaming in the last decade is driven by mobile games and a very select few games like CoD, FIFA/Madden and a few of the epics like Witcher, Skyrim etc.

I just find this number hard to believe.

I find that hard to believe. As of 2024 there were approx. 345m Americans. 14% of that is 48m. So 48m people actively play retro consoles? Hmmmm.

To be fair, it is pretty forgettable 🤣

Only joking, but it certainly isn’t as memorable as his best stuff from Streets of Rage 2 and Actraiser

I recommend people watch MVG’s video on YouTube on this. He mentions additional issues with it:

1) This works best on a fat PS2. Similar to this review, he noted mostly flawless performance on games that played.

2) This memory card is NOT suitable for PS2 Slims. FMV sequences stutter really badly. Only games with minimal or no FMV would be worth using this on a Slim. Damo - I see you say you used a PS2 Slim in your review, do you think certain Slim models work better than others? Any word from the manufacturer?

3) Apparently PS1 games do NOT work at all, even if converted to an ISO file. I don’t know if you specifically tested PS1 games Damo and can prove this comment wrong? Again, what does the manufacturer say?

4) He mentioned additional games that wouldn’t play, such as two of the Daxter games.

Personally I’m going to try the SATA adapter for the PS2 fat, which lets you use a standard SATA HDD to play your games from with a free McBoot memory card (which I already have). I can get one got £26 from UK Amazon and I already have a spare HDD. If I can’t get it to work, I can just return it.

@makankosappo I’m guessing RGB on the Dreamcast would be 480i not 240p, so technically wouldn’t be double the resolution, just no interlace flicker.

Also at the time of release you’d have needed a computer monitor to use VGA, consumer CRTs wouldn’t have had a VGA socket.

Even today, if I were to play this, I wouldn’t be able to use my CRT via RGB, I’d either have to use composite or plug the VGA into a flat panel monitor, which never looks as good as a CRT, even at 480p.

Not that it really matters as I don’t have a Dreamcast anyway 🤣 but as an avid retro gamer in the UK I’m always trying to find the optimum way to play my games, which is why I usually go for the NTSC versions via RGB, so I find this interesting regardless.

@Tasuki I just found this from Googling how to do it blind.

————————————

To get the PlayStation 2 into YPBPR (component) mode do the following:

1) Plug the PS2 in with either your component cables or HDMI adapter.

2) Start up the PlayStation 2 without a game in it.

3) Wait about 20 seconds.
4) Press Down.
5) Press X.
6) Wait 5 seconds.
7) Press Down three times.
8) Press X.
9) Press Left.
10) Press X.

The PS2 should now start displaying on your TV.

How many games have you tested, PS2 and PS1, and did you test PS2 CD, DVD, and Dual Layer DVD games?

I’m interested in this, but if you only tested like 10 games I’ll probably wait until I read more anecdotal evidence of people trying a lot more games across all the supported formats.

Sounds like a bit of a 🥜 job

Polygon Man 🤣 Back in the 90s, the Japanese truly were much better at coming up with mascots. Polygon Man just sounds so… naff.

I’ve had an Everdrive 64 v3 (pre-cursor to the X7) for nearly 10 years now, and even though it was expensive I have no regrets whatsoever. It’s still going strong and I expect it to be still going strong in another 10 years.

This Summercart looks to be good value, and if I was buying an N64 flash cart today I’d seriously consider it. However, we’ll have to wait and see if they prove as reliable as Everdrives are, only time will tell. Not sure if I’d ever buy a flash cart from AliExpress either, even MVG says in his video that the link to where he bought it probably won’t work after a few weeks!

I must have seen this ad at the time, but I have no distinct memory of it. I do, however, have distinct memories of the GameCube TV ads in the UK a couple of years ago.

They were, I think, the right mix of ‘edgy/artistic’ and showing the gameplay. In particular I recall seeing the advert for Eternal Darkness as it effectively got me to buy a GameCube in the first place.

Didn’t help their sales though, the PS2 destroyed the GameCube in terms of sales 🤣

If we can get more players in the FGPA retro console market alongside Analogue, that can only be a good thing.

@GhaleonUnlimited I completely agree with your N64 comment. I started playing Ocarina of Time on NSO to show my daughters what Daddy’s favourite Zelda game looks like. I quickly realised it looked way too clear and sharp on NSO, and just didn’t look right.

So I did what any good parent would do and I subjected my daughters to Ocarina of Time on real hardware via composite and a 15” CRT and they loved it! Blurriness and fog reinstated, we played it all the way through it to the end. It was great.

I guess anything like this on YouTube just needs censoring. It’s better to have the video up, making the creator money, with some bits censored, than for it to be taken down entirely and making the creator no money.

Most viewers probably wouldn’t care, and for those who do, couldn’t they just find the uncensored footage elsewhere on the internet? Or am I being naive with my understanding of the issue?

Can uncensored footage be hosted elsewhere on a different site, for those interested to go and seek out if they want to? YouTube obviously has the mass market covered and most reach, and it would only be a minority who would then want to seek out full footage elsewhere.

Again, maybe I’m being naive. Ultimately you just have the play to the system, I can’t see YouTube ever changing in this regard.

I’ve never planned to have a Saturn, as I never had one back in the day so I don’t have any nostalgia for it. However, I am acutely aware there are some bangers for the system, they’re just really expensive.

Does this cart work like an Everdrive i.e. you can just play ROMs directly from it? How reliable is that given games normally play from the CD drive?

And I see you mention you can use it to play copied CDs, is that a more reliable way to use this flashcart?

I think I may be talking myself into getting a Saturn 🤣

@sdelfin yes I can see the pixels when up close on my consumer CRT, there’re just none of the scanlines everybody goes on about. I agree about preference for scanlines, they really do look great on retro games, I just don’t believe it’s actually an authentic look (for most people) despite the rhetoric around the internet.

@BulkSlash I play both PAL and NTSC consoles on my consumer CRT and there are no scanlines for either. However, on the PVM, the scanlines are noticeably thicker for NTSC games because of the line resolution as you say, so it does have an impact on the PVM.

Both TVs look great to me. The consumer CRT definitely gives me the most nostalgia (especially when using RF or composite!), but there’s no doubt the PVM looks great, even if it’s less authentic.

I do wonder if people really, truly want scanlines because that’s what they remember?

I have a Consumer CRT and a PVM, and there are literally no scanlines visible on the Consumer CRT. They are visible on the PVM, but nobody was playing their consoles on PVMs back in the day.

Also, hardly any of us were playing these consoles with RGB cables. We were using RF or composite, and scanlines are even less visible with these signals.

Scanlines look nice on the PVM, absolutely. I just feel like some revisionist history has taken place in the retro videogame scene.

Thank you for setting up and running this site. I really love the retro and videogame history angle you’ve adopted here, I can’t think of another site that covers the same subjects in the same way you do. Also a big thanks to John and Jack, you have written some excellent pieces that are a joy to read, and they’ve clearly had a lot of time and effort put into them with research, interviews, tracking down whatever nuggets of info you can find etc. Long may they continue into 2025 and beyond!

This is awesome. Always wondered who ‘Nasir’ was when it mentioned him on the title screen of Secret of Mana. It certainly didn’t sound like a Japanese name and I’d never seen a programmer quoted on the title screen before or since.

Great to hear he made enough money to travel the world afterwards. Did he get back into programming work (outside of videogames) afterwards or did he effectively retire?

Shame the interview is in Japanese. If ever it gets translated I’d certainly give it a read.

I much preferred Lego when it had the generic themes of Castle, Pirate, City and Space (and the ‘Legoland’ branding). It’s all licensed nonsense now (except for City), and seems to use so many bespoke pieces it’s hardly Lego anymore.

Of course, it probably helped that I was about 7 years old back then, and now it’s just nostalgia clouding my preference. I’ll have to check out for more detail on this game, as it looks interesting on the face of it.

I’ve tried various analogue switch boxes in my time for my CRT and every single one of them has introduced issues with video quality, sound quality, or both.

In the end I’ve found the best solution is also the cheapest. I bought a male to female Scart adapter cable that you can run to the front of the TV (hidden in a cabinet) and just plug your console into this when you want to use it. No reaching around the back of the TV. No spending loads of money on switch boxes that could be spent on other stuff. No degradation of signal quality. Simple.

I had and played the second game when it released in the UK (as just King’s Field of course). I loved the atmosphere but I was only about 14 and with no guidance I didn’t have a clue what to do or where to go so eventually traded it in. I remember me, my brother and Dad deciding there must be a game-breaking bug as we couldn’t get anywhere!

Obviously now I know you’re just supposed to explore, and slowly build up your experience and gold to make progress in small steps. I may have to revisit it again.

It always reminded me more of Dungeon Master on the SNES. The slow pace, brooding atmosphere, ambient sounds rather than full blown music. Shame I never got further with it back in the 90s.

Could someone explain this to me in laymen’s terms please? I think have some understanding of Mister in general - I believe it’s a DIY FPGA thing that you have to build yourself and add ‘cores’ which are effectively all the different consoles and systems.

So is this effectively just a pre-built version of that in a special case, to make it more console like and ready to go out of the box? If so, what cores/consoles come with it?

And what do these ‘cartridges’ do? Are they for using your real game cartridges with the system or something else?