MSaturn

I shop at HPB all the time - but not for games. The prices are too high, and yeah they stick their dumb sticker on everything. HPB also doesn’t seem to be aware of the concept of “condition” as a factor in pricing games (or music or movies, but in practice only the games have these crazy prices). However HPB can be a good place to find reasonably priced books.

This looks fantastic, love the vibe. I will buy this if it comes out on Switch (or whatever the next thing is).

I have no idea since I’ve never played the game, but it wouldn’t be the first time an FAQ had misinformation in it… and it also wouldn’t be the first time a subtle mechanic went unnoticed by most players. I think without knowing more the situation here could go either way.

But since it’s vaguely in topic can I raise a question that’s been bothering me? Am I the only person who finds video guides basically useless? They are too hard to use and too time consuming to use effectively. I would much rather read a traditional FAQ. But apparently this is another area where I’m in the minority.

OoT is a very valid and acceptable choice. I would also have accepted Tetris, Pac-Man, Super Mario World, Link to the Past, Final Fantasy VII (not a typo), Metal Gear Solid and Shadow of the Colossus (for the sheer artistry). No game made since 2005 has mattered at all. 😜

The whole story is the greatest “what-if” in gaming. What if Nintendo had gone forward with their original CD hardware plans? There would be no PlayStation, and Square’s games would have been on Nintendo hardware… so many ramifications flow from that that it’s literally unimaginable. Fun to speculate!

Whoa, I was a big fan of GameFan and Play magazine, and definitely remember this name. Disturbing that he turned out to be doing stuff like this!

@mariteaux As a parent of two small children I worry about the internet and how and when to introduce it. I think keeping a 13 year old completely off the internet is basically impossible. For one thing in the US at least the school system issues almost every student a Chromebook, so even if you didn’t let them use the internet at home they could be doing it at school.

Amazing, hilarious prank! I feel like this would not happen today. Not just because there are no magazines, but I feel like corporate types would put the kibosh on it.

@Razieluigi “We've long passed the point of diminishing returns on hardware specs, no matter what kind of "technological leap" XBox supposedly has in store.”

This is right. Many gamers seem to not understand that the bottle neck is man power, not technology. Tech will continue to improve but graphics will only make modest incremental improvements from here on out. It takes far too many man-hours to make a AAA game. Therefore, every game is a huge gamble. Often these don’t work out and the result is rounds of layoffs, like we are seeing recently. Microsoft doubling down on tech/graphics should chill gamers blood, because it shows that this industry is on an unsustainable path and some kind of crash must be coming.

Now, to be fair, maybe they don’t mean what I’m assuming they mean. Maybe they have something other than just graphics that will make this a major “leap”, in which case my comments are off base.

@Hydra_Spectre this is exactly my feeling. Personally I think a lot of people are a little too easily offended these days. That said, some things from old media really ARE offensive… and then of course there is a fair amount of subjectivity that is just inherent in questions like this. Ultimately if a content warning is the compromise that gets settled on I’m okay with that. I would really hate if all this old content was censored or bowdlerized to fit current attitudes, partly because that would be a never ending process that would have to go on forever.

@-wc- Hey - you are NOT lame! You’re <i>conscientious </i>.

But as for this… thing. I think if it was meant to be a castle, probably it would look much more clearly castle-like? I think the very fact that there’s this uncertainty suggests it is not meant to be something specific, which they could certainly have drawn more legibly (and did in other games). I stand by my rock interpretation. The apparent details are just surface textures suggesting roughness.

Y’all… it’s rocks. It’s part of the rocks, like a jagged rock sticking up. I could be wrong but that’s really how it looks to me. I’m surprised no one else has said that. If you look at the still image it even looks like it’s composed of the same tiles as the rocks to the left. I realize I’m about late to this article so probably no one will see this comment but anyway… my 2 cents on this “controversy”, lol.

Don’t forget about Tekken: The Motion Picture, an anime film from 1998! I had this on VHS but the only thing I remember about it is that it had a completely gratuitous shower scene that made an impression on me as a kid, lol. A quick google search confirms that it is widely hated. But if you’re interested in obscurities…

I voted that I’m in between, because I feel that I am influenced by nostalgic memories to some degree but I wouldn’t say that’s the main or primary reason I play retro games. Instead I would say I’m after a certain feeling of fun and excitement that’s not exactly a “memory” but definitely was easier to access when I was a kid. I agree with those saying retro games are simply more fun. They are quicker to get into, faster paced, shorter (a good thing - many modern games are far too long), easier to understand and play (simpler controls, for example) but at the same time usually much more challenging. There’s a long list of further complaints which I won’t type out since I’m sure everyone on this site already knows and agrees with most of it. I will say I do play a lot of indie games and I find Nintendo’s games to be pretty good still, so there are a few bright spots in the gaming landscape still I’d say.

@-wc- I expected Virtual On and Steel Battalion… it will be a sad day when my Steel Battalion controller quits working… because nothing like that will ever be made again.

Personally I think a fair compromise might be striking his scores based on submitted video tapes, while reinstating his scores which were done on verified hardware or in front of live audiences. The man was not a complete fraud, as many of his impressive scores were achieved in live settings where he couldn’t possibly have cheated. I think he just got a little lazy and cut corners a few times, which is bad but I don’t think warrants completely striking him from the history books.

I mean I’m there for this but that sprite is still some of the most blatant… uh… borrowing from a classic game that I’ve seen. Oh well! Konami sure isn’t making a new one so go for it!

@-wc- lol, yes. I was never that good but I was competitive and could definitely hold my own with all my friends at pretty much any game. I had a couple of friends who I considered better than I was but I was probably in the top five or so of players I knew…. And then the internet came out and I realized I was garbage!

@sdelfin I love the tenchu series, especially the early games (say, 1-4). A collection or something would just be awesome.

@Fighting_Game_Loser I also hope it’s something new. Remakes, collections and remasters would be welcome, but an original game would be most exciting. I would take a sequel to one of their popular titles or if we’re really lucky a whole new IP!

One of my very favorite developers. Their business structure was like an indie studio before that existed. I think the time is perfect for them to come back. It’s possible for them to make games just like they used to with digital distribution and the modern indie scene . We’ve all suffered for lack of Treasure games!

@-wc- this is me! I have this repeated conversation with my wife where I tell her I’m done with modern games, I’m just going to focus on the retro stuff from now on, and there’s this new retro device maybe I’ll get that… but I never pull the trigger because there always seems to be something just a little wrong with it and also there’s a new one coming out in four months so maybe I’ll just wait for that one… meanwhile I keep buying more and more games for Switch. This has been going on for like three years now, lol.

I saw this on the eshop a day or two ago and I didn’t know what it was. I thought the graphics looked cool but I held off because I was suspicious lol. Now that I know what it is I think I’ll give it a shot!

@themightyant uhg I just felt a shiver of dread. You could be right. Mana is known for its coop, right? Therefore online multiplayer. Therefore live service. It’s such a square-Enix thing to do.

Well, I think the whole Fable series is an exercise in missed potential, so...

I enjoyed this game a lot. I think it’s high time for a rerelease!

I mean they brought a lot of excellent games which otherwise would have likely received no western release at all. They had outstanding packaging of course. And although they took a lot of liberties with the localizations, usually the result was perfectly acceptable to me, or even good. For example, the Lunar games on Playstation actually have really charming, funny scripts. I'm not sure those games would have been so fun and memorable with a more faithful localization (but one's mileage will vary of course). They brought over Alundra too, which is one of my all-time favorite games.

@Poodlestargenerica Yeah Working Designs also infamously reworked the difficulty of this game on PlayStation. The PlayStation version is really difficult in an annoying way, because all the cool weapons are too difficult to acquire and keep. The Saturn version (and the Japanese PlayStation version I believe) are considerably easier. Working Designs obviously thought that releasing the game in its original state would make it unsatisfactory to American gamers since they would "finish" the game in only a few hours. Overall I love Working Designs but their approach to difficulty balance was not my favorite thing about them.

I’ve known for a little while about the film Son of Dracula (because one of my other big interests is horror films), and it was pretty clear that the name Alucard came from that film as part of the general pulling from Universal horror that the early series is known for. I’m glad to see that fact start to get some publicity.

Beyond that I did assume the character was inspired by Vampire Hunter D. There are two VHD films, and the second one in particular (subtitle”Bloodlust”) is really excellent (the first one is quite dated). I assume there’s a considerable overlap between the users of this site and interest in vintage anime. But if anyone has not seen that film you really owe it to yourself to check it out this Halloween season. It’s the best not-Castlevania anime never made. It smokes the Netflix show in my opinion.

Alundra is one of my all time favorite games. Sad news. I wish there was more appreciation of these games today… especially Alundra I guess, lol.

This with a proper translation on a Saturn Mini would be a dream come true.

I’m a semi professional artist (I work in traditional media). This is just beautiful work. I really like the pixel art riff on Norman Rockwell. The ultra precise realism that he was evidently capable of despite limited palettes and low resolution is amazing. I feel like contemporary pixel artists don’t usually go for that style.

@BLAZINOAH absolutely, I am already experimenting with this in my hobby games. In the near future pixel art programs like Aseprite will have AI helpers specifically trained to do this.

Viable is a funny word. Does it mean it will be impossible to turn a profit with pixel art games? (That would be highly doubtful) Or does he simply mean that the percentage of players interested in that style will be trending down? (That’s more plausible).

Ultimately pixel art is popular because it looks good and it looks good because it employs art techniques that are well established. “Broken color” techniques have been a staple of painting for over 150 years. Artists discovered that these techniques enhance the visual interest of an image because the viewer becomes actively (subconsciously) involved in “completing” the image. Pixel art can work the same - our imaginations are more activated by the ambiguous graphics and people find that satisfying. At the same time, pixel art is very orderly. The whole image is constrained to a grid. It also represents maximum intentionality because it is pixel-level attention being paid to the art. So ambiguity, imagination, the grid, and enormous amounts of artistic intentionality, all combining. This is like modernist art! See Paul Signac or Chuck Close for comparisons.

So in that aesthetic sense I think pixel art will always be interesting and viable and there will always be games coming out with a pixel aesthetic.

Those who like Cybernator should check out Front Mission: Gun Hazard. It’s Japan-only but there’s a translation patch available. It’s very similar and is just an excellent game.

Steel Battalion is a thing of beauty. I do own it, and I found it to be extraordinarily difficult. I don’t think I ever got past like the fourth or fifth mission. But what a game! In any game the controller sits in between the player and the game, conditioning the whole experience. Most games try to make this as transparent as possible so that you don’t notice the controller but I think very interesting things happen when the controller itself is part of the design process. See also racing games with good steering wheel controllers, that Dreamcast fishing game, guitar hero, the best wii games, flight sims when you play them with a well made flight stick, etc.

This looks right up my alley.

This is a great list. Honestly the N64 doesn’t have the deepest library but it still has some outstanding high points. Ocarina of Time is still one of my favorite games.

I was born in 1986. Sometime before I can remember my brother got an NES. Pretty much my earliest memories are playing Super Mario with him. This would have been 89/90. He showed me the secret mushroom, where to go down the pipes, which blocks had power ups. Eventually I could get all the way through. My imagination filled in details in the scenery that weren’t really there. It was all very vivid for me. Another game we played a lot was Kid Niki, a game which not many people seem to remember. It was brutally hard but the graphics and imagery, with these weird colorful ninjas and stuff really stayed with me. In that game I always felt like I was having a great run if I made it to the little house by the river. That’s like halfway through level one FYI! That’s how hard that game was, but I played it over and over.

Lol, this story is kind of funny to me. I mean I'm glad the guy is alive, but other than that it's sort of a story of two villains. Who is more evil, armed robbers or scalpers? Hmmm... I'm going to have to think about that...

This is my favorite of the Shinobi games personally. I didn't really play this series back in the day for whatever reason, and when I did rediscover them a while later, this is the one that really stood out to me. It holds up really well.

I mean, my games stay in a glass cabinet/shelf thing in my house and I don't think receive any direct sunlight at all. Ambient sunlight from windows, bouncing off walls and stuff may gradually damage the games, but it will take a long time I should think.

No Area 51? The game was iconic! But anyway, this is a good list. I would choose the first Point Blank but that’s only a quibble.

I did get to see it. It was interesting I guess, a curiosity for sure. There was other cool stuff on display at the store too.

Maybe someone will make a translation and post a new version with subtitles. Pretty interesting, but I probably won't watch the whole thing until I can understand more of what's being said. But this is a very interesting historical find!

@Razieluigi yeah, I think this is the right interpretation of these comments. I would love for these classic Saturn games to get rereleased though. Especially Burning Rangers. I bought the Panzer Dragoon remake from a few years back and I was hoping they’d do the sequel but it looks like that isn’t happening. The Saturn library has got to be the most difficult to access library of any major system…

I backed this kickstarter and I bought the first three books (and I’ll be buying the upcoming vol 5 too). They are so important and interesting. My favorite thing about them is the way the various interviews bring out the culture and atmosphere (maybe nowadays we would say the “vibe”) of the early Japanese industry. A time when a handful of people sitting around a makeshift office and making up crazy stuff to stick in the game could produce a classic.

Looks great. Fingers crossed it comes out here!

I remember this well. A very sad and disturbing story. I had never heard of water poisoning before this and obviously no one at that radio station had either and none of the contestants either for that matter. It’s easy to point fingers after the fact but I think the most likely explanation is that every person involved was ignorant of the danger had no idea what they were doing.

I don’t think it’s correct to say this game is forgotten. I remember it quite well, in particular I remember the ads in magazines which they reprint here. The camera was the issue with this game. But I would say Croc is definitely in the top 10 of 3D playformer characters on the PlayStation, maybe even the top 5. (The PS1 did not have too many mascot platformers in my opinion). I think a lot about old 3D platformers… they were such interesting games precisely because the rules had not been codified yet. It would be great if some of these lesser games could get rereleased. I’m sure the rights make it unlikely but I would love to see a collection of some of these titles. Individually they would have to be budget priced but I think a collection of three or four games could sell for $30-40 comfortably.

I cannot recall if I knew about this. I believe I knew you could freeze the spikes in Ganon’s tower, which is basically the same idea. Don’t the ice arrows have an application in the Twin Rova fight? I thought in the beginning of the fight the twins were weak to the opposite element… but maybe I’m completely misremembering that. I know you mainly use the mirror shield. Anyway, it’s cool to see more discoveries. This game really holds up well I think.