GravyThief

GravyThief

Catching up on PS1 and PS2 games...

Comments 447

Re: Gallery: Unboxing Retro-Bit's 'R.C. Pro-Am II' And 'Battletoads & Double Dragon' Re-Releases

GravyThief

I bought the Retro-Bit Jaleco Brawlers pack for SNES, and PIKO’s release of 40 Winks for N64. I couldn’t believe how low quality everything looked and felt. And with 40 Winks the sound on the game was really low volume. I’ve since sold them both.

What this has taught me is that I’ll never buy these “new releases for old consoles” ever again. They’re just low quality charged at premium prices.

Re: Review: The 2025 Evercade EXP-R And VS-R Models Please Me As A Nintendo Fan

GravyThief

@LastFootnote oh gosh yes, I never noticed that before. I’ve never had an Xbox nor Dreamcast, so I could never get used to that layout. Decades of muscle memory have put a stop to that. I can just about manage going between PlayStation and Nintendo consoles. Though I do still sometimes mix up the X button, and the differing placement of confirm and cancel buttons gets me too.

Re: Forget Nintendo Switch, You Probably Own A Great Way To Play Virtual Boy Games Already

GravyThief

I need to hack one of my 3DSes. I don’t want to touch the Zelda ones, so it will have to be the New 3DS I have. I’ve always been put off by the fact you can’t reverse it once it’s hacked.

Last time I looked into it there were like a billion steps to go through, and there was never any explanation as to why you were doing things or what all the stuff you were adding did. I like to understand the whats and whys when hacking. It was a few years ago when I looked into it, so hopefully it’s improved. Being able to play VB games in 3D really does tempt me.

Re: Mega SmartDrive Is "The Ultimate Accessory" For Your Genesis / Mega Drive

GravyThief

PAL Mega Drive, NTSC Genesis, Mega Everdrive Pro and RGB Scart cable is all I need.

I used to have a PAL Mega Drive with the 50/60hz and language switches. Never worked right. Forcing 60hz on PAL games never looked right, and it never worked properly with Genesis games either. I much prefer just having two consoles and playing the games they were intended for, works much better.

Re: Review: GameBook: The Unofficial DMG Companion

GravyThief

@PMurphy1978 no idea if you still frequent this site, but as you’re ignoring my emails I don’t know what else to do. I ordered two books from you over three weeks ago. I’ve heard nothing since and you’re not replying to my emails. My wife ordered another book from you afterwards and that was posted out and received in good time. No idea what’s going on. If there’s a delay then please just tell me. If I don’t hear from you soon I’ll have to request a chargeback from my bank.

Re: Nintendo Wii Games Are Finally Getting RetroAchievement Support Next Year

GravyThief

I have never once played any game (retro or modern) wishing it had achievements / trophies / medals / badges / commendations / smiley faces / ticks, or whatever nonsense it is games have these days.

I remember once seeing a comment somewhere where the internet person basically said “there was no point in games without trophies”. How ridiculous. Although that person’s parents wouldn’t have received a trophy for giving birth to them, so in that context it makes sense.

Re: The Making Of: Geoff Crammond's Formula One Grand Prix Series

GravyThief

Despite never having an Amiga or owning this game, I still have massive nostalgia for the first GP game.

My best friend had an Amiga which I was fascinated by when I went to his house. It was some mysterious machine that took loads of effort just to load a game, but when it did the games looked so far ahead of their time. This game in particular. I couldn’t believe it was true 3D (I was used to Outrun style racing games at the time). I vividly recall being blown away by things like buildings on the side, the men waving flags and, best of all, when a car crashes out you’d see it being winched off the track the following lap! It was amazing to my child eyes.

Re: WipEout's Getting Another Soundtrack This Year

GravyThief

I much prefer the soundtrack of the first Wipeout game to any of the others, and that’s purely for the Cold Storage tracks. I loved it at the time. I used to play the disc in my hi-fi, and always forgot to skip track 1 straight away, so got that horrible data noise coming through. Why does it make that sound?

Re: 'One More Win' Is The Ultimate Love Letter To Ridge Racer Type 4

GravyThief

Not really into digital versions of books like this. Where you have to zoom in and out constantly to appreciate it. Shame it’s already sold out physically, I don’t recall ever seeing it advertised. Oh well, I’m sure there will be YouTube videos of ‘influencers’ reviewing a physical book I can no longer buy. And if I’m lucky someone on eBay will sell a used copy for double the price.

Re: Four Classic Final Fantasy Games Have Just Got The "DX" Treatment For Game Boy Color

GravyThief

I’m currently playing through the DX hack of Final Fantasy Adventure / Mystic Quest / Seiken Densetsu. (I can’t believe it has a different name for each major region!).

It certainly looks better than the non-colourised version. I’m quite enjoying the game. It’s difficult playing it now in 2025, but if I’d played this back in the day I would have loved it. It’s cool seeing stuff that I recognise from Secret of Mana too.

Re: Interview: "Localization's Come A Long Way In The Last 25 Years" - The Incredible Story Behind Final Fantasy IX's Epic Translation

GravyThief

This was really interesting to read, thank you. It sounds like they did a great job with the translation.

I played FFIX a few years ago, on the PS1, for the first time. I never played it originally and read good things about it, but I have to say I didn’t really enjoy it much. I don’t know why specifically, whether it’s because I’m just not into JRPGs like I used to be, or because I don’t have that connection to it like I did FFVII or earlier ones.

Re: This Custom Game Boy Color Takes A Forgotten '90s Hardware Trend To The Next Logical Stage

GravyThief

As someone who really doesn’t like clear cases on electronics (it makes the aesthetics look busy and messy to my eye), you can imagine how much I’m not a fan of this 🤣

However, I didn’t realise clear PCBs were a thing so that’s cool. And I’ve recently started basic soldering myself, so I can only dream of having the skill to solder this together when the board has a melting point of 200c. Kudos to their skill!

Re: Three Years Later, And Hyperkin's PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16 Clone Is Finally Coming Out

GravyThief

I got one of Hyperkin’s SNES clone consoles (I forget the name). It was pretty bad. I recall it looked ok when everything was still, but the moment there was movement it just went all blurry and weird looking. Plus the audio delay was really off-putting (why is there always audio delay on these types of devices?). I can handle a bit of audio delay but this was really obvious and distracted from just enjoying the game. There was also noticeable input lag. I’m pretty forgiving when it comes to input lag, but I couldn’t forgive this.

I returned it for a refund and it’s put me off ever buying a Hyperkin product ever again.

Re: Rare And The ZX Spectrum Are Coming To Evercade

GravyThief

@RupeeClock not only that, but its save data can only work on one version at a time, so if you had save data for the GBC version, and popped it in a DMG/Pocket, it would wipe the save data (with a warning first I believe) before it would let you start that version of the game. Very strange!

Re: ModRetro's Chromatic Is Back In Stock, Alongside Sabrina The Teenage Witch

GravyThief

@RupeeClock also how do you find it to play games on? Does it feel responsive etc? I find the GBCs with the Funnyplaying screens, aftermarket shells and buttons feel horrible to play. They may have amazing looking screens, but the games feel unresponsive and it doesn’t always recognise button presses. I much prefer having everything original, with just a basic drop-in IPS screen so you can actually see it. Im just wondering which side of the camp the Chromatic falls into. (Sorry for the questions, it’s just nice to hear the experience from a real person rather than a YouTuber wanting those likes!).