Comments 215

Re: "What If Your Favourite '80s Computers Were Portable?" - Evercade Maker Blaze Is Teasing Something Spectrum And C64-Related

Ristar24

Well I can play Last Ninja and International Karate on my Switch OLED so there is that...thing is, it's not so much the C64 I have nostalgia for, but the specific games I played. Some of those favourite games were movie or arcade licences like Platoon, Rambo, Buggy Boy or Power Drift, so cant be included on collections. Having said that, I would take an 8-bit Micro Dizzy collection. A 'themed' Hyper Mega Tech couldn't include thise games, plus I wonder how it would cope with the 50Hz output these Micro computers had in the UK.

Re: Shuhei Yoshida Reveals Resident Evil Almost Had Green Blood

Ristar24

I bought a Japanese Saturn copy recently and that uncut intro is quite different. Not just Chris smoking but a lot more Zombie dogs. Green blood would have been weird, glad they decided against it. I liked that in House of the Dead on Saturn you could at least change it to red.
@MisterStu yep much more gory first cut scene, creepier than the one in REmake too I think.

Re: Turrican: Director's Cut Gets Another Chance To Shine, In New Cartridge Release From Columbus Circle

Ristar24

Super Turrican is a lesser favourite of mine, misses those sprawling levels which defined the game for me when I first played on the C64, the cassette version. Turrican 2 on Amiga remains my favourite (though that remastered soundtrack on the anthology version is also great), but nice they do these types of rereleases, I was only playing my Universal Soldier cart on the Mega Drive last weekend, the 'not Turrican' port of Turrican 2, it's a fairly decent version.

Re: "Humbling And Deeply Inspiring" - Neo Geo+ Production Forecasts Increased After "Overwhelming" Response

Ristar24

@carlos82 Im kind of suprised with the interest, as no one could afford one when I was child, and it's not a device I'd want to buy myself. I had played some of the ports on Saturn, Dreamcast, and various emulated collections over the years, but I still prefer the Mega Drive and Saturn Libraries. Guess it is the gap thing as you say, and having an actual affordable unit for real carts, thats not simple emulation.

I wonder how they'll deal with the 50/60Hz matter, I think the carts were multi region and the console determined which version was played, so perhaps not an issue, depending on whether this new unit has region coding or lets you swap it out.

Re: More Neo Geo Games Are Coming To Evercade In 2027, And It's One Of The Cheapest Places To Play Them

Ristar24

I don't really have nostalgia for Neo Geo, the first place I played the KoF series and Metal Slug was on Saturn and Dreamcast. Sold my joysticks since, though the Saturn pad is always great for KoF. Still have my discs (and RAM Carts) but the actual console, I never saw one at the time, and my favourite genre of scaling racing games, was not well represented. There is no OutRun to be found. I've kind of stopped with Evercade too, I preferred the weird UK stuff like the Dizzy collection, would have been great to see a Dizzy 8-bit micro cart. I do like that Midnight Resistance is on the System though, that never seems to get an official emulated release these days and the Mega Drive cart is very expensive. The Last Ninja or the Lotus games would be welcome too, the recent Switch System 3 collection release is great.

Re: Double Dragon Creator Yoshihisa Kishimoto Has Passed Away

Ristar24

Darn, very sad to hear. I always remember school taking my class to the swimming baths in the 80s, and I just wanted to play the Double Dragon arcade that was in the foyer instead. My local video rental shop had the arcade a little later and any pocket money I could get together was playing the arcade with my friend who lived locally. The C64 port was awful, so glad I got to play the amazing for the time arcade game. Master System version was great fun too.

Re: Evercade Nexus Has A Better Screen, Dual Analog, Banjo, And Nintendo's Most Consumer-Friendly Feature

Ristar24

One of my guesses was '...just a more powerful emulation system with analog controllers'... so, I was close. The Tate mode using the analog stick seems less than great, plus be quite heavy to hold vertical I would think. I've actually started to sell a few of my carts and I think just be sticking with the Vs. and my Capcom Hyper Mega Tech. Use my Switch OLED for a lot of retro games portable, as they look really nice on the screen.

Re: The Company Behind Evercade Just Teased A New Console

Ristar24

I am wondering an online shop, but would seem to go against the principle they started with, or online multi player gaming maybe. They started with the hand held you plug in the TV and have progressed to separate units. Or, just a more powerful emulation system with analog controllers. Be interested to see, I still have a VS though don't use it much these days.

Re: The "Last And Greatest Mystery" Of The Sega Saturn Has Been Revealed

Ristar24

Funny, I'm playing Shenmue 3 on PS5 at the moment and thinking how that series started on Saturn really says something of Yu Suzuki's ambition. I still regularly play my Saturn, and SEGA did amazing work with SEGA Rally and Virtua Fighter 2 on the console. We can only imagine at this point what could have been.

Re: They Buried My Beloved CeX

Ristar24

@Madbury Me too! Would often head from Rathbone over to Game Focus in Goodge Street, which sold imports for about every console you could Imagine even after CEX stopped selling them. Bought my modded Saturn in Rathbone place and I still play it.

Re: Game Changer: Forget Pokémon And Magic: The Gathering, Fantasy Top Trumps Was My Introduction To Card-Based Gaming

Ristar24

@Damo Cheers! Will give that a read. They've republished some recently and I went back to read The Forrest of Doom. Freeway Fighter and Robot Commando were also favourites of mine branching into other fantasy genres. The cover art of those books in the 80s captured my attention like nothing else. Top Trumps in the playground also really takes me back.

Re: After 25 Years, Google Has Finally Killed Dreamcast Web Browser Support

Ristar24

Even 20 years ago on dial up most pages wouldn't load. I did like that you could download save games direct to the VMU on GameFAQs though. How else would you get Green Hill Zone in Sonic Adventure 2, those Chao races were infuriating. Getting any pictures you liked off the internet to use as graffiti in Jet Set Radio was also very cool.

Re: Turrican And Taito Collections Are Coming To Evercade

Ristar24

If Switch didn't have the excellent two anthology collections with their outstanding extra features, I'd be more interested. I really like Turrican but even if they'd included the C64 versions of 1 and 2 would give me more reason to buy it. As is, I'm sure these will be the straight Amiga versions adapted for 60Hz, so wont compare to the Switch versions on the TV or how great they look on the OLED portable. Still, great games and always happy to see a new release. Also be interesting if they could include Universal Soldier on the Mega Drive as its a pretty good Turrican 2 port with some rearranged elements, though of course licensing means we never will, at least I still have my original cart.

Re: Review: Neo Geo Arcade 2 (Evercade) - Garou Alone Makes This A Near-Essential Buy

Ristar24

I have the Japanese Dreamcast version of Garou, it's where I first played it. For me with Evercade it's the more weird and UK centric collections that have interested me, Dizzy, Codemasters, Bitmap Brothers, Gremlin. I do like the NeoGeo and first had the chance to play SNK games when I imported various ports back on the Saturn, but probably not something I'll buy for Evercade.

Re: "Nintendo Has Made Serious Objections" - Last Ninja Collection Delayed On Consoles

Ristar24

@HammerGalladeBro and @Tropicallo.
I was one of the people who had to chase a refund! I had to contact Commodore gaming directly as Nintendo pretty much said it was 'not their problem'. I think they had to buy Wii points and send me a code.
That was the C64 version, it was impossible to leave the first stage, but the high score table didn't feature these graphics like the Amiga, to my recollection of playing a working version on an emulator.

A disclaimer seems like a sensible option to me, I feel it's better to contextualise the past and seek to understand it, rather than alter or delete it.

Re: Revisit This Amazing Fan-Made Ridge Racer Album And We Might Just Manifest A New Game

Ristar24

SEGA Rally on Saturn is one of my favourite games of all time, I think the US also has the 'plus' edition release which adds support for the analog contoller. I have the Japanese version so I play that at 60Hz on my modded Saturn as also supports the controller.

SEGA Rally 2 on Dreamcast did slightly disappoint me on release, as the PAL 50Hz version was not optimised unlike the Saturn game, and the frame rate drops were really noticable with the slower refresh rate. I prefer the US version and lock it to 30fps with the code which I find much better to play.

Both great games either way.

Re: Game Changer: Donkey Kong II Game & Watch - My First Ever Taste Of Video Games

Ristar24

For me was an Atari 2600, a friend of my sisters brought one over and in my memory I believe I played Moon Patrol, which would put the date at '82 a least. I was quite young but I still feel I was amazed that I could control something on the TV, I think this was before we even had a video recorder. I suppose my enjoyment of video games started right there though I never got my own Atari and then C64 until a few years later. I did have a few Grandstand hand held games in the 80s (UK based company which was really popular here), still have my BMX Flyer and it still works. I do remember playing Game and Watches at friends houses, Donkey Kong, Mario's Cement Factory and Spitball Sparky to name a few.

Re: Four More Evercade Carts Are Being Removed From Circulation

Ristar24

I only buy the ones I want, just Piko 2 from these. I get the older ones from CEX as I can trade in, they are fairly competitively priced at the moment, and come with a warranty. Evercade carts are not the most reliable in my experience, so being able to take one back to a shop on the high street if they stop working is preferable.

Re: Random: "That's Wild" - The Fact That Two French Devs Didn't Play Nintendo As Kids Appears To Have Upset Some People

Ristar24

I never owned a Nintendo console until the GameCube, and mainly then as I though SEGA would put stuff on there after the Dreamcast failed. I went from Atari 2600 to C64 to Master System, to Mega Drive then to Saturn...

In late 80s early 90s in the UK the home micros were still big, three quid for a game on tape was much easier to get your parents to buy for you than super expensive cartridges. Also, when we did get consoles we had to put up with slowed down and squished 50Hz versions, I guess we knew no better at the time.