HoyeBoye

I’m 3 “levels” into this game and am in love with the experience. This is the first playdate game that has engaged me as much as Bloom did. It’s so skillfully crafted in the way it creates the world and sets the mood. And much like Bloom, I’m probably gonna be bummed when I reach the end because I’ll just want more!

Not gonna lie, that’s a pretty good flex.

Was the Tapwave Zodica brought up for consideration? Came out at the same time as the Gizmondo and N-Gage, but had a much better design. Also had a very active homebrew scene making emulators, media players, and games. It was such a great console and a great PDA too!

I would also point out that a Riff Trax exists for this movie. https://www.rifftrax.com/street-fighter
If you’re gonna watch it, might as well make it funny.

Did the internet just pull a Morbius on Atari?

@-wc- After trying to rate the games in another post, I realized the best crank games are the games that ONLY use the crank (or maybe crank and one button). It’s the difference between playing arkanoid with the knob vs a joystick. Knob is just a much better experience for it. Not trying to sell you on it because it’s still a relatively high price, but the crank provides a great experience when implemented properly.

@vidjagames No kidding! I realized there are some from the original 24 that I completely skipped over.

Awwww. No hardware news??? I wonder if they’ve abandoned the stereo dock altogether.

Hope you’re able to interview Gilchrist. I only knew him for his amazing restoration work on Thief and the Cobbler.

As a society, are we still doing the “characters you know, but they’re kids” thing? It was definitely a think in the late 80s/early 90s.
I feel like Killer Instinct Babies is edging toward to the line of bad taste. Better than Mortal Kombat babies.

Seeing that keyboard on top of that thick base gave me a flashback to the Pyra/OpenPandora handheld computer. Not sure which has a better layout for gaming, but I think I’d rather type on the Pyra. https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/pages/pyra/

I’m looking forward to the new games. I got mine in the first batch and haven’t played it much in the last few months because I’m really into narrative games right now and I’ve kinda played through em all (Bloom was fantastic!). If you like arcade games, Playdate has em in spades. I’m still eagerly awaiting a turn-based RPG.

Oh wow! This would be so much fun to bowl with. I wonder what the animation is for when you get a turkey?

Good article, Damien! I think you nailed the tone and covered the story accurately.

Wow. That neo geo ad has so many layers of innuendo! (Is it still innuendo if it’s not subtle?) Did the ad agency ask SNK for games with penis-like sprites and then they picked the most obvious?

That beating re-enactment sounds hilarious!

Hrmmm… never considered having my kids grind for XP.

Having never played the game, I assumed that joke was plastered throughout the game! How did they exercise such restraint?!

I love getting glimpses into these communities and the work they do. History will eventually weed out the duds, but these are still relatively young and I don’t think their suitability for preservation can be assessed yet.

Let’s get this on the list! https://www.timeextension.com/guides/best-sega-console-every-sega-system-ranked-by-you

Anyone else getting SMB 2 vibes from the graphics? Looks like so much fun!

Hrmm… playing this is Japanese may be worth the frustration of not knowing any Japanese.

I’m play the SegaCD version on my Genesis mini right now and I’m trying to figure out why I love it so. Maybe it’s because of the super simple systems in the game and me not wanting to think very hard right before bed 😆. I do hope the modernized versions at least have descriptions of items and equipment.

I did not see any mention of the size. As cool as it is, it seems just too tiny!

I hope Sega Santa visits my house this year!

Just got a shipping notification! That was quick.

This’ll go great next to my handful of Sega Vision.

Mad props to you for this undertaking!

Can’t wait to try this out. Even to this day I play games like Popful Mail and Lunar with 16-bit anime cutscenes and voice acting (regardless of quality) and get excited that things like that existed back then. I just never got to play them.

@Vellosia Ahhh. I suppose “high definition” was a relative term back then

Did they model the US version off the Genesis Mini??? I don’t recall “High Definition Graphics” being printed on the original Genesis. And image searches are backing me up on this.

I did roll my eyes when I first read “mobile app”, but I have give this new CEO a bit of praise for finding creative ways to get games out the door without the hardware. The hardware was inside you(r pocket) the whole time!

Maybe I’ve not paid attention before, but have other 16-bit games used scaling effects for camera movement like this?

@samuelvictor Thank you for putting into words why the gameplay felt so difficult. As a kid, I played it for the sillynes and lack of other games, but died all the time! I can still hear him say “what could possibly go wrong?”

Anyone know how you interface with it? Was someone able to make those using the N64 controller??? That would make it extra impressive!

I’m obviously an American because my first thought was “why isn’t that gun con covered in bright colors?” Guess they don’t have that law in Japan.

These are the stories I love seeing on this website!
@TwistC - My suggestion: mount it on your wall like a taxidermied deer head. Give it the glory it deserves!

There was obviously a curse placed on that statue. They disturbed Sonic’s slumber and released the curse. I hope the Sega Forever team survives whatever plague Sonic has put upon them.

@ParadoxFawkes I think IceWhale is using that statement very broadly. Just moving your activities away from cloud hosted solutions (streaming movies, file storage, web hosting) takes you out of the data harvesting business models. Kinda like making an argument to go “off-grid” to hide from “big brother.” It’s true, but takes a lot of work and time.

If I had know about this when it came out, pretty sure one of my student loan checks would’ve been used to purchase it. Could not have resisted the temptation.

What on earth is a “decompression pulley?” It’s already got volume buttons on the side.

Glad you’ve got someone working the Playdate beat. It’s such a fun console but I have a hard time keeping up with the indie scene.

I’ve been playing a lot of diagonal-isometric games (earthbound, Mario RPG) with a d-pad and it’s been driving me insane trying to walk diagonally. This looks like my salvation.

I really need to splurge on an everdrive so I can try out all these homebrews.

@Christopher_Jones The surfing game is honestly the best use of that crank. That game will get you onboard.

Oh sweet! I loved this game as a kid but never had the full game. Lots of shareware in my childhood.

My life is better knowing there’s a Sailor Moon beat-em up.

Great article! I just tried out the ROM hack and that interface is 90’s TO THE X-TREME!!! I got the chance to play it 2 times at my friend’s house growing up and I didn’t remember it being so bold looking. But I guess everything was like that?

So happy to see this game get some love and attention! My kiddos recently pulled it off my shelf and have been playing it (and accidentally overwrote my game 😭). The heavier themes go right over their heads; they just love running around, cleaning up messes, and talking to wacky characters.

Wow! And I thought I knew all the weird media/game crossover tech of the late 90s. Missed this one completely.