So I suspect that IIRCADE might have had a separate classification in regards to licensing that allowed them to do it. Kind of like the mini consoles. It's like the CAPCOM arcade stick thing that has roms on it (including Aliens vs Predator) when Capcom themselves were unable to secure that license for Capcom Arcade Stadium since the CAPCOM arcade stick thing was not a normal "console" and more like a collectable or toy and so the licensing requirement was different. I suspect IIRCADE also fell more into collectable/toy versus game system, but I don't know for sure.
All I can tell you is if you look at the list of available legal arcade roms that IIRCADE had, much of it was for games that have yet to be seen on our current game consoles (full disclosure, I got it for Rtype Leo), why hasn't IREM released that one on console!
Hamster may have its flaws, BUT, they ported Sōkyūgurentai to Playstation (allowing me to play the Saturn/Titan STV classic shmup on my trusty Anbernic handheld. For that, I will always be grateful to them!)
The TOKI arcade rom WAS released on the IIRCADE game platform about 5 years ago. I was able to snag it legally and officially for 7 bucks. Shame that platform failed (had lots of other TAD games that have yet to be rereleased too).
Been importing since at least 2000, starting with Saturn games (Lik-Sang comes to mind, I also used NCSX and I once used "YesAsia" but didn't like them as much they lost my package). Been importing ever since. Imported PS2 games (yay for swap magic disks), PS3 games, I STILL import today, mostly Switch carts (I just imported Game Center CX 1 + 2) off Play Asia a few months ago!
I also got a JP PSN account and regularly get PSN Japanese store credit through Play Asia to spend on downloads... Been doing that since PS3 PSN era...
This reminds me. My buddy travelled to Japan around 2008 or 2009 and this was during the wave of Cave LTD. shmup releases on the 360. He told me "I'm flying to Japan to see the sights, want me to look out to get anything for you." I said, yeah get me a Japanese 360 and some cave shmups (I brushed it off didn't think he'd do it). A few days later I got a call from Tokyo around 5 AM my time, it was 30 second call: "I got the system and 4 games for you, you owe me $740.35. I'm like 'O_O'
Convenience trumps price sometimes. Consoles allow me to not fret about pc configurations, all those options! I just want to buy and play and not concern myself with setting it up. Im not alone, not everyone wants to make the meal or decide what’s in the meal, they just want to eat it.
Sounds like someone who's never owned an Xbox system. Despite some of their decisions, Xbox still wins with backward compatiblity, game entitlement (games I purchased and downloaded in 2005 STILL fully mine and playable on a system 2 generations removed from the one I got it on). Free cloud saves from 2005 still load on my current system.
Xbox is a great ecosystem, it feels like the Sega successor. I just wish they made some better decisions sometimes.
The split screen was so annoying to middle school me I never even bothered with this game because of that. Had it been full screen I would have loved it. Bravo!
One thing I didn't see is that when the game released it was one of the most buggy and glitch filled launches ever. Look that up. Game couldn't be completed at 1.0. I remember passing on the game in 96 because I did not want to deal with the installation woes.
Maaaan! First year in forever I can't make it to IAAPA. My friends are going, I'll have them give me the lowdown.
On a related note, I'm not a fan of VR arcade games especially at trade shows (IAAPA is full of them). The attendants never clean the headgear very well and after 15000 people putting on that same visor after 5 days you always end up with a strange case of acne a few days later
All those releases mentioned landed on IIRCADE a few years ago. That's where I ran into them, amazing gems. Glad more people can get exposure to them now.
Great work Jack!!! Uniracers is in my SNES top 10. I remember the crazy ad campaign Nintendo did to promote the title here in the US. I rented the game for multiple weeks and played through it on release.
It’s not a bad game, something MUST have happened. Whatever it was, had the issue not happened, I'm sure Nintendo would have kept the title in it’s gaming pantheon (maybe a sequel or two) and at the very least it would be in the SNES Switch online app today!
This is why I love Xbox. First time I unboxed my Series X and logged in over 40 XBLA games I had bought between 2005 and 2013 were instantly downloaded as they still maintain full entitlement AND my saves were transferred as xbox has free cloud save without requiring any paid subscription tier.
People hate xbox for some dumb reason but they're the only ones who have consistently maintained BC catalogs and haven't forced me to rebuy anything that was made backward compatible.
You forgot to mention that 7200 only gets you the pip boy and a mostly static creature. You need at least 10,600 to get the mini playfield, the upper deck, the multiaxis motorized cannon etc (apart from the better trim). The real story here is the Pro model is missing the best mechs and large chunks of game code that go with those gimmicks.
That said, the Premium/LE variants probably offer the highest bill of materials Stern has ever produced, definitely puts it on par with the more boutique pinball companies that are pushing out super loaded games.
Yup. IIRCADE got away with some very interesting licensing agreements, they had several games (like NBB) that hadn’t been officially available for years. Stuff like R-Type LEO, Armed Police Gallop (they also had rare DE games like Boogie Wings and The Cliffhanger Edward Randy) etc.
Among the IREM stuff, sadly no Fire Barrel or Undercover Cops. They went under too soon to release those….
I'm not surprised at all. All of Cave's shmup designers left after the 360 port of Saidaioujou released in 2013. Today most of those guys are actually hanging around M2. Ikeda-san himself retired a few months ago. Cave hasn't been a shmup company for over a decade, it's why they were doing all thos GATCHA games on phones.
I'm actually impressed they created a stage 6 and new character(s)???
Something he just voiced less than 4 months ago was all the custom callouts in the new Stern Transformers Gen 1 Pinball Machine that recently released. I played one last week and was overjoyed to hear his voice. He and Frank Welker did all new callouts for that.
Loved the GBA Micro's form factor and size, it's the main reason I went with the Anbernic RG28xx. It's very similar footprint to the Micro makes it VERY handy for pocket gaming on the Go.
I go to the IAAPA trade show in Orlando every November and if you ever go, Drew is always there (he's like the head of Adamiro USA) and I approached him a few years ago and mentioned NBB. He was overjoyed. I told him I actually purchased the game for my IIRCADE system (you can look that up) and he was very surprised IREM had licensed it for that device.
Anyway he was super cool and told me the whole story of how it came about. He was very proud of his work on that even if it didn't do well. Cool pinball side note, Gordon Morrison (the god of 1970's Gottlieb pinball art) did the concept sketches for him that the irem pixel artists eventually used to make the characters and sprites in the game.
You guys really should reach out to Drew, could be a wonderful feature for this site!
@OdysseyPoint
To play devil's advocate, he DID say that the part of the work he enjoys the most is the pixel art he is presumably still doing by hand. The coding part was just a means to an end for him. "Most importantly, I can now focus on the parts I enjoy most: manually crafting the pixelart, adding enhancements, and ultimately realizing my vision." (he does SAY this at the bottom of the post).
I don’t know what to tell you. I kept all my games and media in cases on shelves and 90 percent of everything i purchased was new at the time and not used. It might be me. Only thing i can think of is environmental factors. I live in South Florida, we have jungle humidity sometimes and salty air off the ocean. I have A/C, but it’s not on all the time.
I wrote in another thread but I've had terrible luck with physical (corroded gba carts rendered unplayable I bought new, optical PS2 disks that warped and became unplayable, my current PS5 I bought in 2022 has a faulty laser and can't read optical disks).
Physical is no guarantee of play. Even if you get a disk the day one patch would render the game not the way it is after it's been out a while.
Bottom line, the only way to preserve games really is through legal or illegal backup to HDD's or emulation. Until we go to streaming and no longer have the software on our side, then it's really over.
Honestly... Given everything I'm seeing regarding memory needs, graphics limits, cost of components.... I see server farms doing distributed processing of game content and then streaming that content directly to a smart TV with a controller paired via btooth. Aka no physical console, just a game streaming service.
"Digital Backups are the only way to preserve games"
Exactly right. I've had 4 separate GBA carts fail due to wear and corrosion. I've lost optical drive on 2 PS2 systems, my CURRENT PS5's optical drive doesn't read disks currently due to a defective laser.
Physical isn't what it's cracked up to be sometimes. Piracy or archiving to hdd/digital backup is the only way to really go for the long term imo.
Great story! Thinking back on my own first gameplay encounter with this game, it was actually a bit unusual. In 1997 I was almost in college and thought N64 was for kiddies, I was a Saturn guy ya know lol. Anyway so I didn't pay the game much attention, Until early 1999 as it turns out. That month, a small program called "Ultra HLE" appeared online and low and behold, it was essentially an interpreter that could run N64 in higher resolution on anyone that happened to be lucky enough to own a 3DFX Voodoo 2 Graphics companion card. The N64's graphics were compatible with the 3DFX architecture. Coincidentally, I had managed to purchase a 12MB (tons of video RAM for that era) variant about 6 months earlier in 1998 at a staggering 400 dollars.
Suffice it to say, despite my reservations that N64 had been a kiddie system I gave the program a whirl in late January 1999 and OMG! What an amazing game I was able to play and nearly beat Starfox 64 on my PC at high settings and full speed before the end of the millennium (albeit with sound disabled). I eventually tried the game on original hardware about 2 years later and the experience wasn't as impressive that said, still an amazing game, and one I cherish to this day!
I still remember going to "Best Buy" here in the States (big box electronics retailer) in early 2001 and seeing about 50 NIB NGPC's stacked in a wall by the registers on closeout for $29.99
I agree. As much as I love this site and like Damo's articles generally. This kind of pot stirring seems to smack of someone desperate to fill the news page every day. He should stick with straight entertainment articles even if it means he doesn't hit his usual daily posting quota.
I really hate to be that guy but.............How is this going to look on a contemporary flatscreen TV? (4k or otherwise)? Is it going to be scaled, is it going to be a blocky muddled mess?
Not all of us are CRT purists............
Just wondering, given my contemporary TV, if I should splurge on this or just keep my Xbox Series x with recently updated Neo Geo ACA ports and Hori Fight Stick Alpha...
That's all I ever wanted. To the rest of you, don't sleep on that game. Jack understands its importance by posting this article. It's an amazing, game that until next week, was only playable with TP or if you were in Japan or had access to a Taito Type X in your area. The fact that it was never ported, the fact that it's not in Retroarch or Mame or anywhere is why nobody seems excited by it, but trust me, I would have paid 80 for it or more. I am SO excited that it's finally available easily.
He has one fully restored. He bought it broken and bought parts from a second one to restore it. I have video of me playing the primary one when he first got it (before the restoration). It worked OK then. I don't know if I can post links here but I can assure you he has one. Also I AM actually in that video above at exactly 2:38 (the glasses guy), it's random to see yourself on screen lol.
Fun fact, Arcade Odyssey is 10 minutes from my house, I was the first ever paying customer when they opened in December 2011 and I even operated one of my pinballs there for over 4 years.
It's an unbelievable treat to have Rick (who I've known now for over 14 years) as a great friend and someone who is close by.
The craziest thing about his collection isn't even everything in that video or what's currently available to play. The craziest thing is his private collection that he WILL NEVER place in there for fear of damage or things too expensive to replace. He owns a Williams Star Rider working arcade sit down, he has an EDOT, he has games like Sega Time Traveler, he has nearly all of the SEGA TAIKAN deluxe sit down series fully working. Hang On, Outrun, Enduro Racer, the Afterburner motion sit down like what John Connor played in T2, he even has fully working Galaxy force II rotational sitdown cab WORKING (I jokingly told him once that I think I know how Michael Jackson felt when he played arcade games at his house). These gems are in a separate building, his own playground. And that's all separate from his library of PCB's and arcade boards that number in the hundreds or his game console collection where he owns every game console ever released with only a few exceptions. He's one of a kind...... a true gentleman and a good friend....
Come on guys! Given what they have access to and what they have done before, the most likely game is Time Crisis. Thats as “aaa” (the guessing email from hamster is listed as aaa) as hamster has access to. Unless they really blow us away with something new. It’s not salamander 2 (that’s already out on gradius origins), it could be outfoxies but that’s only big for us diehards, not for general casual aca buyers, I don’t think it qualifies for 500 game level. It might be raiden dx, but again, not big enough. It would be super interesting if it were Sim Drive, the unreleased ridge racer predecessor, but my money is on Time Crisis 1.
Hi, this is my favorite website (read it every day) and finally posted to say that I believe I know exactly when this was taken. At the very end of the video is a shot of the counter. You can see (and I may be totally wrong in this) EGM2 issues in the cabinet pockets in front of the staff members. Looking closely, I believe these are of EGM2 issue 3 (cover with darkstalkers), which says clearly on the cover (if you look it up) to display only until October 18, 1994 (bottom left side below barcode). Also, another clue are the doom 2 boxes front and center! Doom 2 launched October 10 1994 in the US! This would put the video in an 8 day window in October 1994! Finally, it’s probably that time as the mall goers are still wearing Tshirts (if it were Dec to Mar they’d have jackets or coats on. So mid October 1994 is my guess!
Thanks for these great articles! I’m always looking forward to your content!
Comments 48
Re: New Old Pixels' Toki Ports Will Include Physical Editions For Sega Mega Drive, Neo Geo, And Amiga
@Moroboshi876
So I suspect that IIRCADE might have had a separate classification in regards to licensing that allowed them to do it. Kind of like the mini consoles. It's like the CAPCOM arcade stick thing that has roms on it (including Aliens vs Predator) when Capcom themselves were unable to secure that license for Capcom Arcade Stadium since the CAPCOM arcade stick thing was not a normal "console" and more like a collectable or toy and so the licensing requirement was different. I suspect IIRCADE also fell more into collectable/toy versus game system, but I don't know for sure.
All I can tell you is if you look at the list of available legal arcade roms that IIRCADE had, much of it was for games that have yet to be seen on our current game consoles (full disclosure, I got it for Rtype Leo), why hasn't IREM released that one on console!
Re: Join Big Pharma: Japan-Only PS1 sim The Drug Store is Console Archives' Latest Prescription
@gmar
Hamster may have its flaws, BUT, they ported Sōkyūgurentai to Playstation (allowing me to play the Saturn/Titan STV classic shmup on my trusty Anbernic handheld. For that, I will always be grateful to them!)
Re: New Old Pixels' Toki Ports Will Include Physical Editions For Sega Mega Drive, Neo Geo, And Amiga
@Moroboshi876
The TOKI arcade rom WAS released on the IIRCADE game platform about 5 years ago. I was able to snag it legally and officially for 7 bucks. Shame that platform failed (had lots of other TAD games that have yet to be rereleased too).
Re: Poll: Have You Ever Imported A Video Game?
Been importing since at least 2000, starting with Saturn games (Lik-Sang comes to mind, I also used NCSX and I once used "YesAsia" but didn't like them as much they lost my package). Been importing ever since. Imported PS2 games (yay for swap magic disks), PS3 games, I STILL import today, mostly Switch carts (I just imported Game Center CX 1 + 2) off Play Asia a few months ago!
I also got a JP PSN account and regularly get PSN Japanese store credit through Play Asia to spend on downloads... Been doing that since PS3 PSN era...
This reminds me. My buddy travelled to Japan around 2008 or 2009 and this was during the wave of Cave LTD. shmup releases on the 360. He told me "I'm flying to Japan to see the sights, want me to look out to get anything for you." I said, yeah get me a Japanese 360 and some cave shmups (I brushed it off didn't think he'd do it). A few days later I got a call from Tokyo around 5 AM my time, it was 30 second call: "I got the system and 4 games for you, you owe me $740.35. I'm like 'O_O'
Suffice it to say, he came through LOL!
Re: New Footage From Xbox's Cancelled Perfect Dark Reboot Surfaces Online
@CookieByte
Convenience trumps price sometimes. Consoles allow me to not fret about pc configurations, all those options! I just want to buy and play and not concern myself with setting it up. Im not alone, not everyone wants to make the meal or decide what’s in the meal, they just want to eat it.
Re: New Footage From Xbox's Cancelled Perfect Dark Reboot Surfaces Online
@Van_Helsing
Sounds like someone who's never owned an Xbox system. Despite some of their decisions, Xbox still wins with backward compatiblity, game entitlement (games I purchased and downloaded in 2005 STILL fully mine and playable on a system 2 generations removed from the one I got it on). Free cloud saves from 2005 still load on my current system.
Xbox is a great ecosystem, it feels like the Sega successor. I just wish they made some better decisions sometimes.
Re: This Super Mario Kart ROM Hack Removes the Game's Annoying Single-Player Shortcoming
The split screen was so annoying to middle school me I never even bothered with this game because of that. Had it been full screen I would have loved it. Bravo!
Re: The Making Of: The Elder Scrolls II - Daggerfall - "The Next Thing I Know, I'm Building One Of The Largest Procedurally Generated Games Ever"
One thing I didn't see is that when the game released it was one of the most buggy and glitch filled launches ever. Look that up. Game couldn't be completed at 1.0. I remember passing on the game in 96 because I did not want to deal with the installation woes.
Re: Sega Is Resurrecting 'House Of The Dead' In Arcades Using VR
Maaaan! First year in forever I can't make it to IAAPA. My friends are going, I'll have them give me the lowdown.
On a related note, I'm not a fan of VR arcade games especially at trade shows (IAAPA is full of them). The attendants never clean the headgear very well and after 15000 people putting on that same visor after 5 days you always end up with a strange case of acne a few days later
Re: Thunder Hoop Collection Brings Two Explicit, Obscure, And Unhinged '90s Arcades To Consoles
Now what we really need is Alligator Hunt. THAT game is Gaelco's magnum opus!
All the best elements of the 1990's pop culture in one game!
Re: SGDK Fan Project Ports Capcom's 1987 Fantasy Arcade Actioner Black Tiger to Sega Mega Drive
@kirby2000
Kris is a graduate of Galaxy High. He’s used to AI by now. 😊
Re: Thunder Hoop Collection Brings Two Explicit, Obscure, And Unhinged '90s Arcades To Consoles
All those releases mentioned landed on IIRCADE a few years ago. That's where I ran into them, amazing gems. Glad more people can get exposure to them now.
Re: Random: The Curious Case Of Pixar Vs. Nintendo, And The Uniracers' Lawsuit That May Have Never Happened
Great work Jack!!! Uniracers is in my SNES top 10. I remember the crazy ad campaign Nintendo did to promote the title here in the US. I rented the game for multiple weeks and played through it on release.
It’s not a bad game, something MUST have happened. Whatever it was, had the issue not happened, I'm sure Nintendo would have kept the title in it’s gaming pantheon (maybe a sequel or two) and at the very least it would be in the SNES Switch online app today!
Re: PS3 Emulator RPCS3 Now Lets You Play Physical Discs Directly From Your PC's Optical Drive
@SlangWon @Bizzy
This is why I love Xbox. First time I unboxed my Series X and logged in over 40 XBLA games I had bought between 2005 and 2013 were instantly downloaded as they still maintain full entitlement AND my saves were transferred as xbox has free cloud save without requiring any paid subscription tier.
People hate xbox for some dumb reason but they're the only ones who have consistently maintained BC catalogs and haven't forced me to rebuy anything that was made backward compatible.
Re: Ahead Of GTA 6's Release, DMA Design's Original Founder Is Set To Make A Rare Public Appearance Later This Month
Great!
You know, now that Rockstar is so big and powerful I wish they would bring back their BEST game....Unirally/Uniracers......
Am I rite??????????
Re: Stern's $7,299 Fallout Pinball Machine Invites You To Join The Brotherhood of Steel (Balls)
@Kris
You forgot to mention that 7200 only gets you the pip boy and a mostly static creature. You need at least 10,600 to get the mini playfield, the upper deck, the multiaxis motorized cannon etc (apart from the better trim). The real story here is the Pro model is missing the best mechs and large chunks of game code that go with those gimmicks.
That said, the Premium/LE variants probably offer the highest bill of materials Stern has ever produced, definitely puts it on par with the more boutique pinball companies that are pushing out super loaded games.
Re: The Egret II Mini Is Getting Universal And Irem Games In Its Next Physical Collection
@Moroboshi876
Yup. IIRCADE got away with some very interesting licensing agreements, they had several games (like NBB) that hadn’t been officially available for years. Stuff like R-Type LEO, Armed Police Gallop (they also had rare DE games like Boogie Wings and The Cliffhanger Edward Randy) etc.
Among the IREM stuff, sadly no Fire Barrel or Undercover Cops. They went under too soon to release those….
Re: The Egret II Mini Is Getting Universal And Irem Games In Its Next Physical Collection
@Moroboshi876
@gmar
It was released digitally (unaltered) officially for IIRCADE in 2023, not that anybody but owners of said machine noticed lol.
Re: "Utterly Disappointing" - Early Reactions To Cave's Latest Bullet Hell Revival Aren't Exactly Positive
I'm not surprised at all. All of Cave's shmup designers left after the 360 port of Saidaioujou released in 2013. Today most of those guys are actually hanging around M2. Ikeda-san himself retired a few months ago. Cave hasn't been a shmup company for over a decade, it's why they were doing all thos GATCHA games on phones.
I'm actually impressed they created a stage 6 and new character(s)???
I bought it just for that, silly me
Re: The Egret II Mini Is Getting Universal And Irem Games In Its Next Physical Collection
Armed Police Gallop is such a hidden gem (I believe IREM even retconned it into R-Type Delta timeline era iirc years later).
Re: Peter Cullen, The Voice Of Optimus Prime And Mario, Has Died Aged 85
WOW Devastated. RIP.
Something he just voiced less than 4 months ago was all the custom callouts in the new Stern Transformers Gen 1 Pinball Machine that recently released. I played one last week and was overjoyed to hear his voice. He and Frank Welker did all new callouts for that.
Re: Gallery: Here's The Cyberpunk 2077 C64 In The Flesh On Commodore's Gamescom Stand
Seeing that makes me wish someone would make a Cyberpunk 2077 demake C64 game instead (ala halo 2600)...............I'd be much more excited for that.
Re: Feature: 5 Things A Short Trip Taught Me About Nintendo's Smallest Game Boy
Loved the GBA Micro's form factor and size, it's the main reason I went with the Anbernic RG28xx. It's very similar footprint to the Micro makes it VERY handy for pocket gaming on the Go.
Re: An Obscure Irem Beat 'Em Up Is Getting A Revival Later This Year, Courtesy Of City Connection
I go to the IAAPA trade show in Orlando every November and if you ever go, Drew is always there (he's like the head of Adamiro USA) and I approached him a few years ago and mentioned NBB. He was overjoyed. I told him I actually purchased the game for my IIRCADE system (you can look that up) and he was very surprised IREM had licensed it for that device.
Anyway he was super cool and told me the whole story of how it came about. He was very proud of his work on that even if it didn't do well. Cool pinball side note, Gordon Morrison (the god of 1970's Gottlieb pinball art) did the concept sketches for him that the irem pixel artists eventually used to make the characters and sprites in the game.
You guys really should reach out to Drew, could be a wonderful feature for this site!
Re: "I'd Rather Disappoint Some People" - Dev Behind Tool That "Ports" Game Boy Games To GBA Pivots To AI
@OdysseyPoint
To play devil's advocate, he DID say that the part of the work he enjoys the most is the pixel art he is presumably still doing by hand. The coding part was just a means to an end for him. "Most importantly, I can now focus on the parts I enjoy most: manually crafting the pixelart, adding enhancements, and ultimately realizing my vision." (he does SAY this at the bottom of the post).
Re: "A Small Part Of Gaming History" - This Unique Sega Naomi 'Cosmic Smash' Cab Is Up For Sale
@Shaw_Brothers
Fairly sure it's based on a naomi universal cab, so that would be yes?
Re: "A Small Part Of Gaming History" - This Unique Sega Naomi 'Cosmic Smash' Cab Is Up For Sale
My buddy Rick has one of those cabs (owner of Arcade Odyssey), it's a nice unit and fun to play the game on.
Re: "What Passion Is There In Watching Everything Get Done Automatically?" - Final Fight MD Dev Opens Up On AI
Forget the AI debate, all I want to know is when are these great looking games releasing!!!!! (That shmup looks awesome!).
Re: "Piracy Did Help The PlayStation Market" - How Bootlegs Allowed PlayStation To Take Over South Africa
Great piece John! Fascinating stuff (presenter Heather was cute, wonder what happened to her lol). Anyway great insights and neat photos!
Re: Retail Therapy: Trawling South Africa's Retro Gaming Stores
Awesome article! Fascinating dynamics in SA.
Re: Random: Evercade Pokes Fun At Sony Killing Physical Media On PlayStation
@KingMike
I don’t know what to tell you. I kept all my games and media in cases on shelves and 90 percent of everything i purchased was new at the time and not used. It might be me. Only thing i can think of is environmental factors. I live in South Florida, we have jungle humidity sometimes and salty air off the ocean. I have A/C, but it’s not on all the time.
Re: Random: Evercade Pokes Fun At Sony Killing Physical Media On PlayStation
@AnonUser
I wrote in another thread but I've had terrible luck with physical (corroded gba carts rendered unplayable I bought new, optical PS2 disks that warped and became unplayable, my current PS5 I bought in 2022 has a faulty laser and can't read optical disks).
Physical is no guarantee of play. Even if you get a disk the day one patch would render the game not the way it is after it's been out a while.
Bottom line, the only way to preserve games really is through legal or illegal backup to HDD's or emulation. Until we go to streaming and no longer have the software on our side, then it's really over.
Re: Random: Evercade Pokes Fun At Sony Killing Physical Media On PlayStation
@MSaturn
Honestly... Given everything I'm seeing regarding memory needs, graphics limits, cost of components.... I see server farms doing distributed processing of game content and then streaming that content directly to a smart TV with a controller paired via btooth. Aka no physical console, just a game streaming service.
Re: The Video Game History Foundation Wants "Meaningful Solutions" From The ESA For "Preserving Digital-Only Content"
@Exerion76
"Digital Backups are the only way to preserve games"
Exactly right. I've had 4 separate GBA carts fail due to wear and corrosion. I've lost optical drive on 2 PS2 systems, my CURRENT PS5's optical drive doesn't read disks currently due to a defective laser.
Physical isn't what it's cracked up to be sometimes. Piracy or archiving to hdd/digital backup is the only way to really go for the long term imo.
Re: Nintendo On Drugs, No TV Until '76 And Rampant Piracy - How South Africa's Crazy Video Game History Shaped Me As A Gamer
Awesome read!!!! I look forward to the next part.
Btw, love your Japansoft book, I proudly have it in my personal library
Re: Game Changer: Star Fox 64 / Lylat Wars - The N64 Classic That Cast A Spell Over My Childhood
Great story! Thinking back on my own first gameplay encounter with this game, it was actually a bit unusual. In 1997 I was almost in college and thought N64 was for kiddies, I was a Saturn guy ya know lol. Anyway so I didn't pay the game much attention, Until early 1999 as it turns out. That month, a small program called "Ultra HLE" appeared online and low and behold, it was essentially an interpreter that could run N64 in higher resolution on anyone that happened to be lucky enough to own a 3DFX Voodoo 2 Graphics companion card. The N64's graphics were compatible with the 3DFX architecture. Coincidentally, I had managed to purchase a 12MB (tons of video RAM for that era) variant about 6 months earlier in 1998 at a staggering 400 dollars.
Suffice it to say, despite my reservations that N64 had been a kiddie system I gave the program a whirl in late January 1999 and OMG! What an amazing game I was able to play and nearly beat Starfox 64 on my PC at high settings and full speed before the end of the millennium (albeit with sound disabled). I eventually tried the game on original hardware about 2 years later and the experience wasn't as impressive that said, still an amazing game, and one I cherish to this day!
Re: Flashback: Almost 30 Years Ago, SNK And Bandai Made The Exact Same Mistake Trying To Take Down Nintendo
Great article!
I still remember going to "Best Buy" here in the States (big box electronics retailer) in early 2001 and seeing about 50 NIB NGPC's stacked in a wall by the registers on closeout for $29.99
Still regret not grabbing one or two!
Re: SNK's Street Smart And Tecmo's Ninja Gaiden III Come To Consoles This Week
@Guru_Larry
I think the last game was SAR: Search and Rescue, it released in 1990. Fantastic Ikari style run and gun btw!!!
Edit: Aaand yes, If you look at the arcade flyer for SAR it has a 1990 copyright on the bottom.
Re: Talking Point: "We, The Consumers, Need To Vote With Our Wallets" - The Moral Dilemma Of Supporting SNK In 2026
@X68000
I agree. As much as I love this site and like Damo's articles generally. This kind of pot stirring seems to smack of someone desperate to fill the news page every day. He should stick with straight entertainment articles even if it means he doesn't hit his usual daily posting quota.
Re: The Neo Geo+ Will Be "Better Than Emulation" Says Modding Legend Furrtek
I really hate to be that guy but.............How is this going to look on a contemporary flatscreen TV? (4k or otherwise)? Is it going to be scaled, is it going to be a blocky muddled mess?
Not all of us are CRT purists............
Just wondering, given my contemporary TV, if I should splurge on this or just keep my Xbox Series x with recently updated Neo Geo ACA ports and Hori Fight Stick Alpha...
Re: Interview: "You're Always Facing The Risk Of It Coming To An End" - M2 Co., Ltd.'s Naoki Horii On Creating Retro Perfection
@naoki-horii Thank you for everything M2 has released over the years. Very grateful for the work you’ve done.
Still holding out hope for Senjin Aleste on console or steam one day…
Re: After Last Year's Delay, ININ Games' 'Parasol Superstars' Is Now Less Than A Week Away
Spica Adventure, Finally!
That's all I ever wanted. To the rest of you, don't sleep on that game. Jack understands its importance by posting this article. It's an amazing, game that until next week, was only playable with TP or if you were in Japan or had access to a Taito Type X in your area. The fact that it was never ported, the fact that it's not in Retroarch or Mame or anywhere is why nobody seems excited by it, but trust me, I would have paid 80 for it or more. I am SO excited that it's finally available easily.
DON'T SLEEP ON THIS GAME!!!!
Re: How Miami's Arcade Odyssey Is Preserving The Heart And Soul Of The Arcade Experience
@ghostwolves
He has one fully restored. He bought it broken and bought parts from a second one to restore it. I have video of me playing the primary one when he first got it (before the restoration). It worked OK then. I don't know if I can post links here but I can assure you he has one. Also I AM actually in that video above at exactly 2:38 (the glasses guy), it's random to see yourself on screen lol.
Re: How Miami's Arcade Odyssey Is Preserving The Heart And Soul Of The Arcade Experience
Fun fact, Arcade Odyssey is 10 minutes from my house, I was the first ever paying customer when they opened in December 2011 and I even operated one of my pinballs there for over 4 years.
It's an unbelievable treat to have Rick (who I've known now for over 14 years) as a great friend and someone who is close by.
The craziest thing about his collection isn't even everything in that video or what's currently available to play. The craziest thing is his private collection that he WILL NEVER place in there for fear of damage or things too expensive to replace. He owns a Williams Star Rider working arcade sit down, he has an EDOT, he has games like Sega Time Traveler, he has nearly all of the SEGA TAIKAN deluxe sit down series fully working. Hang On, Outrun, Enduro Racer, the Afterburner motion sit down like what John Connor played in T2, he even has fully working Galaxy force II rotational sitdown cab WORKING (I jokingly told him once that I think I know how Michael Jackson felt when he played arcade games at his house). These gems are in a separate building, his own playground. And that's all separate from his library of PCB's and arcade boards that number in the hundreds or his game console collection where he owns every game console ever released with only a few exceptions. He's one of a kind...... a true gentleman and a good friend....
Re: 30 Years On, Namco's Smash Bros Precursor 'The Outfoxies' Is Finally Coming To Consoles
@Teksette
The only taito arcade game that would BLOW EVERYONE’S MIND would be something like Vertexer. Unemulated, unavailable, legendary, beautiful.
I still think next week is Time Crisis 😝 (even if it means 2 namcos in a row)
Re: "Lost" Space Harrier Sequel Planet Harriers Runs Great In This Updated Dreamcast Emulator
@N00BiSH
Air Twister! It's really great and a sequel in all but name by Suzuki-san
Re: The Company Behind Arcade Archives Is Teasing Something Big For Its 500th Release
Come on guys! Given what they have access to and what they have done before, the most likely game is Time Crisis. Thats as “aaa” (the guessing email from hamster is listed as aaa) as hamster has access to. Unless they really blow us away with something new. It’s not salamander 2 (that’s already out on gradius origins), it could be outfoxies but that’s only big for us diehards, not for general casual aca buyers, I don’t think it qualifies for 500 game level. It might be raiden dx, but again, not big enough. It would be super interesting if it were Sim Drive, the unreleased ridge racer predecessor, but my money is on Time Crisis 1.
Re: "Not A Funko Pop In Sight" - Step Back In Time With This Amazing '90s Electronics Boutique Footage
Hi, this is my favorite website (read it every day) and finally posted to say that I believe I know exactly when this was taken. At the very end of the video is a shot of the counter. You can see (and I may be totally wrong in this) EGM2 issues in the cabinet pockets in front of the staff members. Looking closely, I believe these are of EGM2 issue 3 (cover with darkstalkers), which says clearly on the cover (if you look it up) to display only until October 18, 1994 (bottom left side below barcode). Also, another clue are the doom 2 boxes front and center! Doom 2 launched October 10 1994 in the US! This would put the video in an 8 day window in October 1994! Finally, it’s probably that time as the mall goers are still wearing Tshirts (if it were Dec to Mar they’d have jackets or coats on. So mid October 1994 is my guess!
Thanks for these great articles! I’m always looking forward to your content!