That's a pretty strange direction, considering Rare apparently had to do multiple takes for the flower pots that say "thank you" in Banjo Kazooie's Mad Monster Mansion.
@ChaseIQ The article and Twitter posts state that the SS One will support discs via an optional dock add-on. It also has native support for PS1 controllers and memory cards.
As I recall, some versions of this game were licensed by Jelly Belly, you see it during the game's credits. I'd be curious to see if those licensing references get removed in the LRG release. Otherwise, I'm not itching to play this game, but did enjoy it on the SNES way back as a rental I think?
The hardware might be limited now, but the fact that the games can even run under these conditions is promising and encouraging for future hardware upgrades.
Yeah, that looks straight up like a super-sized GBA, the bezel is a bit weird though, it just looks off. That said, 720x480 screen? That's actually perfect for GBA games, you can integer scale the 240x160 GBA games 3x with that. They'll look flawless and have nice shader options with a 3x3 area detailing one GBA pixel.
@Daniel36 It's a matter of interpretation, in two ways. Interpreting the author's meaning, and interpreting the choice or use of language then how to translate them, which is especially challenging for the Japanese language which operates far differently from the English language.
Even so, whether the choice of specific words is up to interpreting author's meaning or author's language are separate, and choosing to alter the language is the translator's choice to infer their interpretation, rather than preserve the author's intention. Even your assertion of the author's "intent is to get players immersed" itself is an interpretation or assumption of what the original author wanted to achieve. What if the author had perhaps intended to disrupt immersion in a moment, or was perhaps not particularly talented as a scenario or script writer?
So, yes I can see that particular example being at odds with world building. There's examples of that in Nintendo's own games, like the infamous "I'm on your side, Einstein" line in Star Fox 64, or "Who do you think you are, Bruce Lee?" in Super Mario RPG. These were both altered in later re-releases Star Fox 64 3D, and Super Mario RPG (Switch), since they reference real people who should be unknown to these fantasy worlds unrelated to our own (though they may've also been removed as to avoid potential legal issues such as intellectual property rights under Bruce Lee's estate). These world-breaking shattering examples however, may've not existed in the original Japan releases and could've been inventions in the localisation processes (though I've not checked). Ted Woolsey was known for doing this sort of thing though because it made for very engaging scripts that broader audiences could get into.
In any case, if there are narrative choices, gaffs and mistakes in the work being translated, I'd prefer to see those preserved in fan translations which aim to be authentic, versus those looking to localise like the famous Mother 3 translation. Tomato's blog provides great insight and rationale into why he chose a localisation approach.
@Daniel36 Yeah, fan-lead translation efforts usually take the effort to preserve the original intent from the original releases, which is to take an effort to better understand a foreign culture versus adapting a work to better fit another market. This is especially prevalent when it comes to older works as it provides a better understanding of the state of things from a given time period. What you're advocating for is definitely localisation and adaptation, versus translation, which does less for historical preservation and study.
If the original work was a fantasy setting period that happened to have significant profanity, I wouldn't object to retaining that if that's simply what the author wanted to do.
It reminds me of the unfortunate incident of the Goemon 3 fan translation, where the original game did have an unfortunate and possibly intentionally demeaning choice of words for a trans woman (sometimes referred to as "newhalf" in Japan). The first translation patch that the translator released chose to retain that sentiment, but didn't disclose their rationale or that this was reflective of the original Japanese release, and this didn't go over well. https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/euq30j/translator_harassed_over_using_trans_in_goemon_3/
It's a meaningful case study of the role of the translator; are they providing direct translation to preserve meaning and wider context beyond the work, or are they editorialising to make for a more palettable product? Usually for publishers releasing commercial consumer products, they will opt for the latter. This was already the case for Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon, where the recurring villains in the localised release are frequently called "weirdos", but in the original release a derogatory term was used instead.
@axelhander
No, absolutely not.
The cover is an important part of the software package as a whole, whether if it's just a packet cover, a launcher icon, a title screen, etc.
That the developer or publisher in this case were content to generate some AI imagery that vaguely resembles the near-vintage game, is telling that they were unwilling to commission an actual artist to do the game some justice.
Or in the case of the Duke Nukem 1+2 Remastered for Evercade, that the artist they commissioned did not disclose that they were going to use AI in their processes. Blaze Entertainment were deceived and the fans were not happy, and they ultimately rejected this artwork and got a new artist.
These days, the use of AI generated imagery is openly broadcasting that you're cheap and do not care about your product, your employees, or your customers. Or at least, that's the sentiment so many people have, very understandably so.
@AG_Awesome Played on original hardware with no modifications. Whilst the speedrun community for SM64 does allow people to play on emulators, they're maintained as separate categories from N64, and also Virtual Console, with N64 being the preferred method for conventional play. https://www.speedrun.com/sm64
What you're referring to with people playing frame by frame in an emulator, is what's known as a Tool-Assisted Speedrun and are instead a demonstration of in-depth knowledge and execution of a game as software, rather than player skill. Research into TAS runs however inform strategies in conventional speedruns and are a big part of why they've progressed so far, as many human-viable techniques are learnt from them.
If you've got 8 minutes to spare, you can watch Suigi's 0 star run of SM64 in 6 minutes 16 seconds: https://youtu.be/rdx0TPjX1qE This record was set October 26th 2023 and has stood for over a year.
@mariteaux It's something that's unreasonable to explain every time there's a news article about an ongoing subject, however considering the special nature of SM64 and its multiple categories, yeah I think it would really add value to the article in this case.
SM64 world records are rarely broken these days, as there are fewer and fewer discoveries made to break minute barriers that runners strives for.
@Synecdoche To be fair given the game's widespread fame and history, it's pretty well known at this point by anyone that's followed the game with interest. There's plenty of good YouTube videos going over the history of how any% speedruns dropped from 70 stars, to 16, to 1, then 0. I think they too are probably by Summoning Salt?
@Spider-Kev To give a bit of context. 70 stars is the normal requirement to reach the final level and complete the game, whilst all 120 stars would be the 100% goal. Historically though, players figured out ways to beat the game collecting only 30 stars, and then later 16 stars. Eventually, ways to beat the game collecting only a single star, or no stars at all were figured out too.
The 30 star run was due to how access to the second Bowser level required 30 stars, which in turns unlocks the upstairs portion. Use of the backwards long jump glitch then makes it possible to skip the 50 star and 70 star requirements.
The 30 star requirement itself was also then skipped because they discovered that you can perform wall-clips through doorways using Mips the Rabbit, a character that appears in the basement when you've collected 16 stars. That 16 star requirement too eventually fell.
What the 0 star run still needs to do is defeat Bowser in all three Bowser stages. That part is unskippable because defeating Bowser gives you the keys needed to access the basement and the upper floor. Those keys are hard requirements as the doors to each part of Peach's Castle are what loads each new area, as opposed to having loading zones behind the door.
@RetroGames I think they missed a beat by not offering a purple Chromatic, considering that's what most people think of with the Game Boy Color. Although it looks like they're trying to strike out their own visual identity instead of just aping the established aesthetics and colour schemes of original systems like so many modern handhelds do.
Of what's on offer, yeah the black one is the one that I'd want. News that the d-pad and buttons feel much nicer than on the Analogue Pocket is also welcome news.
I gave it a quick spin and it's a really impressive effort. It's not 1:1 though, which is to be expected when the scale had to change, but there's pretty significant differences from the NES original that will throw you off. Things like air momentum is completely different, Mario will drop all horizontal speed quickly if you let go. You can't just run through World 4-1 like you used to, Lakitu throws spinys in a way that will probably hit you, and you can't clear the piranha plants with a tight jump either. Mushrooms emerging from ?-blocks are also much faster, which gives you less time to react to them to successfully collect them when they start moving (the hidden 1up in the ceiling of World 1-2, for example).
I reckon I'll give this a proper go on my Analogue Pocket later, nuanced differences aside this was still really cool.
@LowDefAl As you say, can't beat original hardware. However, there's a finite number of available DS and 3DS systems and their condition varies, it'd be great to see a new open handheld system that's specifically made for DS/3DS games especially with a clamshell design.
@MARl0 Yeah, I had some issues with the mandatory tutorial stage too.
The constant helper text overlaying your normal UI doesn't remind you that the super leaf power-up lets you fly (it assumes you know), and it doesn't communicate that your "double tap and hold B" powers that come with the super-super leaf and the frog-suit have a cooldown timer. That one bottleneck section where you have to swim through jellyfish twice is a problem when you don't know about the cooldown.
You can skip the section where you're expected to douse flames and freeze water to get through, by taking damage and just running through as small Mario.
Something like sign-posts you stand in-front of to show the text boxes would've been much better, but when the opening level of your hack features level design weaker than on Super Mario Maker, that isn't promising.
@Spider-Kev The NES and SNES minis are basically just ARM devices running Linux with a small storage space (less than 512MB), but they can access USB storage with a special adapter.
They can run Retroarch just fine and can actually run all kinds of systems, they're good at PlayStation games as I recall though will work best with a Wii Classic Controller instead of the bundled NES/SNES controller.
@Spider-Kev If you've Hakchi'd them then probably. If it turns out it's not compatible with the default NES emulator on the NES Mini (such as using special mappers not present in the official titles), you'll end up having to use the Retroarch core instead.
Mario Adventure was an old favourite of mine to be sure, but like the authors admit it wasn't the most accessible hack, as there was lot of that classic "ROM hack" difficulty where just because you can do something, doesn't mean that you should (e.g. put Boom Boom at the end of every single level).
Genuinely cool that what could be such an important part of a gaming series was recovered from a phone damaged in a house fire. Of course, I'm concerned about the circumstances around that house fire as there are more important things than just games.
@RetroGames Yeah, regrettably they had Logan Paul promote the Chromatic and the new officially licensed Tetris game, by playing against competitive Tetris players at the Tetris World Championship. This wasn't well received by the community.
@Serpenterror RHDN's downfall was just because the site admin had enough after two decades, and that they couldn't hand over the site to anyone because it shares infrastructure with other commercial sites they apparently maintain.
More sites popping up to pick up the slack is cool, but the Mario hacking scene is strangely fractured with different sites for Super Mario World, Super Mario 64, and now Super Mario Bros.
@Sketcz ROM hacking and "do it yourself" patching can operate cleanly; requiring users to provide their own dumps instead of illegally downloading ROMs unpatched OR pre-patched.
This is why it was necessary for Spike as the operator of CDRomance to step aside from operating a patches-only site. You can't really say the patches-only site is clean under that management, and we need a clean site for the practice of ROM hacking to keep going unabated.
I wonder if they're allowed to call it the Super FX 3? That would be like saying I'm making a Core-i9 15700K; Intel wouldn't be happy about that!
Apparently legal issues with the Super FX 1 and 2 chips from Argonaut are apparently why Star Fox 1 and 2 and other titles using the chips had legal issues being re-released.
It does admittedly look very simple, but I'm still rather charmed by it. It's probably too basic though, like on the level of the earliest Game Boy titles outside of the lovely animations being very nicely detailed.
Reminds me of the old USB Gecko, that too used the GameCube memory card slot as an internet and provided a USB connection to your PC for things like debugging, memory poking, etc.
I'm always conflicted on Arbitrary Code Execution (ACE) runs. On the one hand, the set-up and execution is fascinating where it can become possible to achieve so much and do nearly anything.
On the other, the majority of ACE runs are used to skip to the credits rather than fulfil the game's win condition (in this case; defeat Dracula at the end of the final stage and collect the stage clear orb). Speedruns should be about achieving the game's own win condition, rather than overwriting it with your own.
I actually have a USB drive exactly like this from years ago. It was from an Orthodontic Practice, and it has a 64MB capacity and is used specifically to share X-ray dental scans as jpeg files.
This gives insight into the meaning of cheat codes internally, with their development practices of not removing the cheats in the final ROM used for mass production.
Those cheats are present so that the developers and play testers can get through the game more quickly for greater testing coverage, they weren't viewing them as a means for players to enhance their enjoyment of a game. You can see more evidence of that with later Konami titles where using the then well known Konami Code would sometimes result in a self-destruct instead of anything helpful! You'd have to use a substitute code using the shoulder buttons instead of the horizontal d-pad inputs for the actual desired effect.
The idea of reviews "divulging intellectual property" however? That's absurd as the idea of not being able to talk about the commercially released products with other people.
Watching the gameplay, the way that one of the hazards is joining two preview pieces together and being forced to drop two stuck pieces together is really surprising, I've never seen that in any version of Tetris before!
@wiiware Unfortunately it seems like Ninty Media's PDF versions seem to be exclusive to Kickstarter backers, they don't seem to sell them on their store.
It's phenomenal that such a process exists that you can insert nearly any N64 ROM, and get a playable x86 binary on any desktop PC. It's remarkable that it keeps the N64 output incredibly intact, as it's full of tricks and quirks that make it notoriously difficult to emulate accurately.
It does appear that you need to tweak the output on a game-by-game basis for the best/desired results and error corrections, but it otherwise is just incredible to see, and makes me wonder if Nintendo's NERD division should implement this for NSO now or in the future.
One of the caveats of this process seems to be modding support, more specifically ROM hacks of the original ROM data.
If it's built using Citra's source code, that probably gives Nintendo grounds to issue a takedown, like they did with Suyu being forked from Yuzu. We'll see I guess.
I gave it a shot, but the tutorial was needlessly long and constantly introducing further and further mechanics into what should just be a straight forward kart racer.
It's trying to be the Super Smash Bros. of kart racers and sabotaging the actual racing aspect to accomplish that. Things like you have a ring meter, you can sacrifice rings to temporarily boost speed, but if you're out of rings you are vulnerable to taking hits but you can also charge up a melee attack?
I got fed up of the tutorial and just backed out of it, and didn't feel the need to try playing the game proper if it wants me to learn all THIS just to get started racing. A properly paced game would let you get started with just the basic, and introduce new concepts as you go. This ended up being a frustration exhibition of developer pride.
@Sisilly_G For many people, Dolphin on Android is viable because of the connectivity. You can hook up an Android device to TV sets and displays, connect BlueTooth controllers or USB controllers, and there are many dedicated Android handhelds. A few people are even accustomed to playing GameCube games with touch screen controls, somehow.
I was gonna say that Infidelity works fast... but this ain't him! Very cool to see a second someone doing NES to SNES ports like this, the more the merrier.
A lot of the credit also goes to Kaze Emanuar's extensive SM64 engine refactoring and optimisation work. I doubt that model would perform anywhere near as well in the original retail engine.
This is someone working with decades of hindsight and general expertise, and years of personal time too, luxuries that Nintendo EAD did not have when working on the original title!
Of course, this says nothing about Sunshine's main mechanic of spraying water to clean up paint, mud, goop, etc.
@OldManHermit The Virtual Boy only had a very small library of games, few of which people are keen to play. From a business stand point, it wouldn't have been valuable for them to try developing the necessary emulator just to sell a few little-known Virtual Console titles.
It's a shame too because on paper, the 3DS is a perfect Virtual Boy compatible system. Both have stereoscopic 3D displays, and the 3DS has a 400x240 resolution display whilst the Virtual Boy was 384x224! It's a near-perfect fit with only an 8px thick border.
There was an attempt at a Virtual Boy emulator on 3DS years ago called r3Ddragon, but it never got very far and couldn't emulate at full speed, even with the New 3DS. It's fantastic to see that someone's picked up that old project and continued it, and got Virtual Boy running full speed on original models!
@Serpenterror The Super NES is surprisingly capable of NES emulation, but in this case, Infidelity's NES to SNES ports are in fact ports, not emulation. They're running the same program logic but natively on the SNES instead. I recall Infidelity's process involves using Mesen's debugger to map out the NES assembly instructions and map that out to SNES instructions.
Whilst Infidelity's ports could just be 1:1 to the NES originals, he tends to add in stuff like optional MSU-1 soundtracks and video streaming, quality of life improvements, etc. His Duck Tales ports for example, changes Scrooge's sprite to properly resemble his animated series depiction; wearing a blue suit rather than a red one.
@ArcadianLegend99 I can't imagine it'll be difficult to dump either, I would imagine just putting the disc into a PC and using imgburn to copy the disc contents to an ISO file will work?
I'd be surprised if GamePakRat hasn't already done this and is just riding the wave of views this amazing find has brought his channel.
Comments 172
Re: Yes, Knuckles Was Supposed To Sound Like He Was Swearing In Sonic Heroes
That's a pretty strange direction, considering Rare apparently had to do multiple takes for the flower pots that say "thank you" in Banjo Kazooie's Mad Monster Mansion.
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2022/11/random-no-the-flower-pots-in-banjo-kazooie-werent-swearing-at-you
Re: Interview: Taki Udon Explains How His FPGA PS1 Aims To "Remove Barriers" To FPGA Gaming
@ChaseIQ
The article and Twitter posts state that the SS One will support discs via an optional dock add-on.
It also has native support for PS1 controllers and memory cards.
Re: SNES And Game Boy Cult Classic 'Jelly Boy' Is Getting A Physical Re-Release
As I recall, some versions of this game were licensed by Jelly Belly, you see it during the game's credits.
I'd be curious to see if those licensing references get removed in the LRG release.
Otherwise, I'm not itching to play this game, but did enjoy it on the SNES way back as a rental I think?
Re: PS3 Emulation Comes To ARM64 Devices, Including The Raspberry Pi 5
The hardware might be limited now, but the fact that the games can even run under these conditions is promising and encouraging for future hardware upgrades.
Re: Anbernic's New GBA Clone Plays PSP, Dreamcast And More
Yeah, that looks straight up like a super-sized GBA, the bezel is a bit weird though, it just looks off.
That said, 720x480 screen? That's actually perfect for GBA games, you can integer scale the 240x160 GBA games 3x with that. They'll look flawless and have nice shader options with a 3x3 area detailing one GBA pixel.
Re: Saturn Cult Classic Princess Crown Is Getting An Uncensored Translation
@Daniel36
It's a matter of interpretation, in two ways.
Interpreting the author's meaning, and interpreting the choice or use of language then how to translate them, which is especially challenging for the Japanese language which operates far differently from the English language.
Even so, whether the choice of specific words is up to interpreting author's meaning or author's language are separate, and choosing to alter the language is the translator's choice to infer their interpretation, rather than preserve the author's intention.
Even your assertion of the author's "intent is to get players immersed" itself is an interpretation or assumption of what the original author wanted to achieve. What if the author had perhaps intended to disrupt immersion in a moment, or was perhaps not particularly talented as a scenario or script writer?
So, yes I can see that particular example being at odds with world building. There's examples of that in Nintendo's own games, like the infamous "I'm on your side, Einstein" line in Star Fox 64, or "Who do you think you are, Bruce Lee?" in Super Mario RPG.
These were both altered in later re-releases Star Fox 64 3D, and Super Mario RPG (Switch), since they reference real people who should be unknown to these fantasy worlds unrelated to our own (though they may've also been removed as to avoid potential legal issues such as intellectual property rights under Bruce Lee's estate).
These world-breaking shattering examples however, may've not existed in the original Japan releases and could've been inventions in the localisation processes (though I've not checked). Ted Woolsey was known for doing this sort of thing though because it made for very engaging scripts that broader audiences could get into.
In any case, if there are narrative choices, gaffs and mistakes in the work being translated, I'd prefer to see those preserved in fan translations which aim to be authentic, versus those looking to localise like the famous Mother 3 translation. Tomato's blog provides great insight and rationale into why he chose a localisation approach.
Re: Saturn Cult Classic Princess Crown Is Getting An Uncensored Translation
@Daniel36
Yeah, fan-lead translation efforts usually take the effort to preserve the original intent from the original releases, which is to take an effort to better understand a foreign culture versus adapting a work to better fit another market. This is especially prevalent when it comes to older works as it provides a better understanding of the state of things from a given time period.
What you're advocating for is definitely localisation and adaptation, versus translation, which does less for historical preservation and study.
If the original work was a fantasy setting period that happened to have significant profanity, I wouldn't object to retaining that if that's simply what the author wanted to do.
It reminds me of the unfortunate incident of the Goemon 3 fan translation, where the original game did have an unfortunate and possibly intentionally demeaning choice of words for a trans woman (sometimes referred to as "newhalf" in Japan).
The first translation patch that the translator released chose to retain that sentiment, but didn't disclose their rationale or that this was reflective of the original Japanese release, and this didn't go over well.
https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/euq30j/translator_harassed_over_using_trans_in_goemon_3/
It's a meaningful case study of the role of the translator; are they providing direct translation to preserve meaning and wider context beyond the work, or are they editorialising to make for a more palettable product? Usually for publishers releasing commercial consumer products, they will opt for the latter.
This was already the case for Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon, where the recurring villains in the localised release are frequently called "weirdos", but in the original release a derogatory term was used instead.
Re: Accusations Of AI Art Deflate Archer Maclean's DropZone 40th Anniversary Announcement
@axelhander
No, absolutely not.
The cover is an important part of the software package as a whole, whether if it's just a packet cover, a launcher icon, a title screen, etc.
That the developer or publisher in this case were content to generate some AI imagery that vaguely resembles the near-vintage game, is telling that they were unwilling to commission an actual artist to do the game some justice.
Or in the case of the Duke Nukem 1+2 Remastered for Evercade, that the artist they commissioned did not disclose that they were going to use AI in their processes. Blaze Entertainment were deceived and the fans were not happy, and they ultimately rejected this artwork and got a new artist.
These days, the use of AI generated imagery is openly broadcasting that you're cheap and do not care about your product, your employees, or your customers. Or at least, that's the sentiment so many people have, very understandably so.
Re: Mario 64 Speedrunning Declared "Dead" After Insane Feat From "The Greatest Speedrunner Of All Time"
@AG_Awesome
Played on original hardware with no modifications.
Whilst the speedrun community for SM64 does allow people to play on emulators, they're maintained as separate categories from N64, and also Virtual Console, with N64 being the preferred method for conventional play.
https://www.speedrun.com/sm64
What you're referring to with people playing frame by frame in an emulator, is what's known as a Tool-Assisted Speedrun and are instead a demonstration of in-depth knowledge and execution of a game as software, rather than player skill.
Research into TAS runs however inform strategies in conventional speedruns and are a big part of why they've progressed so far, as many human-viable techniques are learnt from them.
If you've got 8 minutes to spare, you can watch Suigi's 0 star run of SM64 in 6 minutes 16 seconds: https://youtu.be/rdx0TPjX1qE
This record was set October 26th 2023 and has stood for over a year.
Re: Mario 64 Speedrunning Declared "Dead" After Insane Feat From "The Greatest Speedrunner Of All Time"
@mariteaux
It's something that's unreasonable to explain every time there's a news article about an ongoing subject, however considering the special nature of SM64 and its multiple categories, yeah I think it would really add value to the article in this case.
SM64 world records are rarely broken these days, as there are fewer and fewer discoveries made to break minute barriers that runners strives for.
Re: Mario 64 Speedrunning Declared "Dead" After Insane Feat From "The Greatest Speedrunner Of All Time"
@Synecdoche
To be fair given the game's widespread fame and history, it's pretty well known at this point by anyone that's followed the game with interest.
There's plenty of good YouTube videos going over the history of how any% speedruns dropped from 70 stars, to 16, to 1, then 0. I think they too are probably by Summoning Salt?
Re: Mario 64 Speedrunning Declared "Dead" After Insane Feat From "The Greatest Speedrunner Of All Time"
@Spider-Kev
To give a bit of context.
70 stars is the normal requirement to reach the final level and complete the game, whilst all 120 stars would be the 100% goal.
Historically though, players figured out ways to beat the game collecting only 30 stars, and then later 16 stars. Eventually, ways to beat the game collecting only a single star, or no stars at all were figured out too.
The 30 star run was due to how access to the second Bowser level required 30 stars, which in turns unlocks the upstairs portion. Use of the backwards long jump glitch then makes it possible to skip the 50 star and 70 star requirements.
The 30 star requirement itself was also then skipped because they discovered that you can perform wall-clips through doorways using Mips the Rabbit, a character that appears in the basement when you've collected 16 stars.
That 16 star requirement too eventually fell.
What the 0 star run still needs to do is defeat Bowser in all three Bowser stages. That part is unskippable because defeating Bowser gives you the keys needed to access the basement and the upper floor. Those keys are hard requirements as the doors to each part of Peach's Castle are what loads each new area, as opposed to having loading zones behind the door.
Re: Review: ModRetro Chromatic Is So Close To The Real Thing You'd Think Nintendo Made It
@RetroGames
I think they missed a beat by not offering a purple Chromatic, considering that's what most people think of with the Game Boy Color.
Although it looks like they're trying to strike out their own visual identity instead of just aping the established aesthetics and colour schemes of original systems like so many modern handhelds do.
Of what's on offer, yeah the black one is the one that I'd want.
News that the d-pad and buttons feel much nicer than on the Analogue Pocket is also welcome news.
Re: Original Super Mario Bros. Gets Upgraded Game Boy Color Port, Complete With Yoshi And Wario
I gave it a quick spin and it's a really impressive effort.
It's not 1:1 though, which is to be expected when the scale had to change, but there's pretty significant differences from the NES original that will throw you off.
Things like air momentum is completely different, Mario will drop all horizontal speed quickly if you let go.
You can't just run through World 4-1 like you used to, Lakitu throws spinys in a way that will probably hit you, and you can't clear the piranha plants with a tight jump either.
Mushrooms emerging from ?-blocks are also much faster, which gives you less time to react to them to successfully collect them when they start moving (the hidden 1up in the ceiling of World 1-2, for example).
I reckon I'll give this a proper go on my Analogue Pocket later, nuanced differences aside this was still really cool.
Re: Leaked Handheld Could Be The Perfect Way To Play Nintendo DS Games In 2024
@LowDefAl
It can be a hassle to find one in good condition.
DS systems were prone to having badly scratched touch screens or faulty shoulder buttons.
Re: Leaked Handheld Could Be The Perfect Way To Play Nintendo DS Games In 2024
@LowDefAl
As you say, can't beat original hardware.
However, there's a finite number of available DS and 3DS systems and their condition varies, it'd be great to see a new open handheld system that's specifically made for DS/3DS games especially with a clamshell design.
Re: 20 Years In The Making, Mario Adventure 3 Is The Ultimate Mario 3 ROM Hack
@MARl0
Yeah, I had some issues with the mandatory tutorial stage too.
The constant helper text overlaying your normal UI doesn't remind you that the super leaf power-up lets you fly (it assumes you know), and it doesn't communicate that your "double tap and hold B" powers that come with the super-super leaf and the frog-suit have a cooldown timer.
That one bottleneck section where you have to swim through jellyfish twice is a problem when you don't know about the cooldown.
You can skip the section where you're expected to douse flames and freeze water to get through, by taking damage and just running through as small Mario.
Something like sign-posts you stand in-front of to show the text boxes would've been much better, but when the opening level of your hack features level design weaker than on Super Mario Maker, that isn't promising.
Re: 20 Years In The Making, Mario Adventure 3 Is The Ultimate Mario 3 ROM Hack
@Spider-Kev
The NES and SNES minis are basically just ARM devices running Linux with a small storage space (less than 512MB), but they can access USB storage with a special adapter.
They can run Retroarch just fine and can actually run all kinds of systems, they're good at PlayStation games as I recall though will work best with a Wii Classic Controller instead of the bundled NES/SNES controller.
Re: 20 Years In The Making, Mario Adventure 3 Is The Ultimate Mario 3 ROM Hack
@Spider-Kev
If you've Hakchi'd them then probably.
If it turns out it's not compatible with the default NES emulator on the NES Mini (such as using special mappers not present in the official titles), you'll end up having to use the Retroarch core instead.
Re: 20 Years In The Making, Mario Adventure 3 Is The Ultimate Mario 3 ROM Hack
Mario Adventure was an old favourite of mine to be sure, but like the authors admit it wasn't the most accessible hack, as there was lot of that classic "ROM hack" difficulty where just because you can do something, doesn't mean that you should (e.g. put Boom Boom at the end of every single level).
I will absolutely have to check this one out.
Re: After Surviving A House Fire, This Mobile Phone Has Helped Fully Preserve A Lost Professor Layton Game
Genuinely cool that what could be such an important part of a gaming series was recovered from a phone damaged in a house fire.
Of course, I'm concerned about the circumstances around that house fire as there are more important things than just games.
Re: ModRetro Is "Certainly" Going To Create An FPGA Game Boy Advance
@RetroGames
Yeah, regrettably they had Logan Paul promote the Chromatic and the new officially licensed Tetris game, by playing against competitive Tetris players at the Tetris World Championship. This wasn't well received by the community.
Re: ModRetro Is "Certainly" Going To Create An FPGA Game Boy Advance
@RetroGames
Modretro's Chromatic will be in consumer's hands by December.
Re: ModRetro Is "Certainly" Going To Create An FPGA Game Boy Advance
By all accounts I'm interested, but I need to see them deliver on their FPGA GBC first.
Re: SMB Arena Aims To Be A New Home For Super Mario Bros. ROM Hacking
@Serpenterror
RHDN's downfall was just because the site admin had enough after two decades, and that they couldn't hand over the site to anyone because it shares infrastructure with other commercial sites they apparently maintain.
More sites popping up to pick up the slack is cool, but the Mario hacking scene is strangely fractured with different sites for Super Mario World, Super Mario 64, and now Super Mario Bros.
Re: RHDO Changes Ownership, Rebrands As RomHack Plaza
@Sketcz
ROM hacking and "do it yourself" patching can operate cleanly; requiring users to provide their own dumps instead of illegally downloading ROMs unpatched OR pre-patched.
This is why it was necessary for Spike as the operator of CDRomance to step aside from operating a patches-only site.
You can't really say the patches-only site is clean under that management, and we need a clean site for the practice of ROM hacking to keep going unabated.
Re: Star Fox Will Take Advantage Of The New Super FX 3 Chip, Will Feature Rumble Support
I wonder if they're allowed to call it the Super FX 3?
That would be like saying I'm making a Core-i9 15700K; Intel wouldn't be happy about that!
Apparently legal issues with the Super FX 1 and 2 chips from Argonaut are apparently why Star Fox 1 and 2 and other titles using the chips had legal issues being re-released.
Re: You Can Now Explore Nintendo's Legendary Wuhu Island "In Glorious HD"
Bluntly speaking, doesn't this just repackage and distribute assets from Wii Sports Resort?
This seems like a bad idea.
Also unnecessary, Pilotwings Resort lets you explore Wuhu Island in full relatively "on foot" with the rocket belt (like a jet pack).
Re: ModRetro Exclusive 'Patchy Matchy' Is A New Puzzler Inspired By Tetris & Puzzle League
It does admittedly look very simple, but I'm still rather charmed by it.
It's probably too basic though, like on the level of the earliest Game Boy titles outside of the lovely animations being very nicely detailed.
Re: A Japan-Exclusive 'Bomberman Jetters' GBA Game Has Just Been Fan Translated
Consider me intrigued, I enjoyed Bomberman Tournament way back but never replayed it, and there was an unreleased sorta-sequel based on that anime?
Re: 8BitDo's Anniversary Celebration Includes Gold And Silver Controllers
Huh, it looks like even the analogue sticks are made of metal, that's probably not very comfortable somehow.
These lovely looking controllers look like display pieces anyway, but very nice.
Re: GCNET Is A GameCube Network Adapter That Fits In Your Console's Memory Card Slot
Reminds me of the old USB Gecko, that too used the GameCube memory card slot as an internet and provided a USB connection to your PC for things like debugging, memory poking, etc.
Re: "We Passed A Somewhat-Obscure Game About A Plumber" - Terraria Overtakes Super Mario Bros.
For an added layer of irony, the developer started out by making a pretty good Mario fan game engine called Super Mario Bros X.
Good on Redigit!
Re: Castlevania's "Ultimate Glitch" Has Been Discovered
I'm always conflicted on Arbitrary Code Execution (ACE) runs.
On the one hand, the set-up and execution is fascinating where it can become possible to achieve so much and do nearly anything.
On the other, the majority of ACE runs are used to skip to the credits rather than fulfil the game's win condition (in this case; defeat Dracula at the end of the final stage and collect the stage clear orb).
Speedruns should be about achieving the game's own win condition, rather than overwriting it with your own.
Re: Limited Run's New "PC Micro Edition" Hasn't Gone Down Well With Some Fans
I actually have a USB drive exactly like this from years ago.
It was from an Orthodontic Practice, and it has a 64MB capacity and is used specifically to share X-ray dental scans as jpeg files.
Re: Once Upon A Time, Konami And Namco Didn't Want People To Share Reviews Or Cheat Codes
This gives insight into the meaning of cheat codes internally, with their development practices of not removing the cheats in the final ROM used for mass production.
Those cheats are present so that the developers and play testers can get through the game more quickly for greater testing coverage, they weren't viewing them as a means for players to enhance their enjoyment of a game.
You can see more evidence of that with later Konami titles where using the then well known Konami Code would sometimes result in a self-destruct instead of anything helpful! You'd have to use a substitute code using the shoulder buttons instead of the horizontal d-pad inputs for the actual desired effect.
The idea of reviews "divulging intellectual property" however? That's absurd as the idea of not being able to talk about the commercially released products with other people.
Re: Dreamcast Exclusive Sega Tetris Is Back Online, Thanks To Fans
Watching the gameplay, the way that one of the hazards is joining two preview pieces together and being forced to drop two stuck pieces together is really surprising, I've never seen that in any version of Tetris before!
Re: Hands On: GameBook Color - A Celebration Of Nintendo's First Colour Handheld
@wiiware
Unfortunately it seems like Ninty Media's PDF versions seem to be exclusive to Kickstarter backers, they don't seem to sell them on their store.
Re: New Tool Allows N64 Games To Be Played With Ray Tracing, Uncapped Frame Rates And Ultrawide Support
It's phenomenal that such a process exists that you can insert nearly any N64 ROM, and get a playable x86 binary on any desktop PC.
It's remarkable that it keeps the N64 output incredibly intact, as it's full of tricks and quirks that make it notoriously difficult to emulate accurately.
It does appear that you need to tweak the output on a game-by-game basis for the best/desired results and error corrections, but it otherwise is just incredible to see, and makes me wonder if Nintendo's NERD division should implement this for NSO now or in the future.
One of the caveats of this process seems to be modding support, more specifically ROM hacks of the original ROM data.
Re: Looks Like The iPhone Is Getting A 3DS Emulator Soon
If it's built using Citra's source code, that probably gives Nintendo grounds to issue a takedown, like they did with Suyu being forked from Yuzu.
We'll see I guess.
Re: Dr. Robotnik's Ring Racers Is A New Sonic Kart Racer Built Using Doom Legacy
I gave it a shot, but the tutorial was needlessly long and constantly introducing further and further mechanics into what should just be a straight forward kart racer.
It's trying to be the Super Smash Bros. of kart racers and sabotaging the actual racing aspect to accomplish that.
Things like you have a ring meter, you can sacrifice rings to temporarily boost speed, but if you're out of rings you are vulnerable to taking hits but you can also charge up a melee attack?
I got fed up of the tutorial and just backed out of it, and didn't feel the need to try playing the game proper if it wants me to learn all THIS just to get started racing.
A properly paced game would let you get started with just the basic, and introduce new concepts as you go. This ended up being a frustration exhibition of developer pride.
Re: Don't Hold Your Breath For Wii And GameCube Emulation On The iPhone App Store
@Sisilly_G
For many people, Dolphin on Android is viable because of the connectivity.
You can hook up an Android device to TV sets and displays, connect BlueTooth controllers or USB controllers, and there are many dedicated Android handhelds. A few people are even accustomed to playing GameCube games with touch screen controls, somehow.
With iOS? I don't see this being as viable.
Re: Have We Been Wrong About Ultimate Play The Game's Name All This Time?
Thinking about it, it's like EA Games' slogan "Challenge Everything".
Re: Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers Gets Fanmade SNES Port
I was gonna say that Infidelity works fast... but this ain't him!
Very cool to see a second someone doing NES to SNES ports like this, the more the merrier.
Re: This $500 Game Boy-Style Handheld Is All About Bitcoin
So it's a massive profit on cheap hardware designed to trick suckers, got it.
Re: Super Mario Sunshine On N64 Looks Better Than You Might Expect
A lot of the credit also goes to Kaze Emanuar's extensive SM64 engine refactoring and optimisation work. I doubt that model would perform anywhere near as well in the original retail engine.
This is someone working with decades of hindsight and general expertise, and years of personal time too, luxuries that Nintendo EAD did not have when working on the original title!
Of course, this says nothing about Sunshine's main mechanic of spraying water to clean up paint, mud, goop, etc.
Re: 3DS Virtual Boy Emulation Gives You 3D Without The Headaches
@OldManHermit
The Virtual Boy only had a very small library of games, few of which people are keen to play. From a business stand point, it wouldn't have been valuable for them to try developing the necessary emulator just to sell a few little-known Virtual Console titles.
It's a shame too because on paper, the 3DS is a perfect Virtual Boy compatible system.
Both have stereoscopic 3D displays, and the 3DS has a 400x240 resolution display whilst the Virtual Boy was 384x224! It's a near-perfect fit with only an 8px thick border.
Re: 3DS Virtual Boy Emulation Gives You 3D Without The Headaches
Wow, it finally happened!
There was an attempt at a Virtual Boy emulator on 3DS years ago called r3Ddragon, but it never got very far and couldn't emulate at full speed, even with the New 3DS.
It's fantastic to see that someone's picked up that old project and continued it, and got Virtual Boy running full speed on original models!
Re: Punch-Out!! Is Getting A Fanmade SNES Port
@Serpenterror
The Super NES is surprisingly capable of NES emulation, but in this case, Infidelity's NES to SNES ports are in fact ports, not emulation. They're running the same program logic but natively on the SNES instead.
I recall Infidelity's process involves using Mesen's debugger to map out the NES assembly instructions and map that out to SNES instructions.
Whilst Infidelity's ports could just be 1:1 to the NES originals, he tends to add in stuff like optional MSU-1 soundtracks and video streaming, quality of life improvements, etc.
His Duck Tales ports for example, changes Scrooge's sprite to properly resemble his animated series depiction; wearing a blue suit rather than a red one.
Re: Collector Finds Rare Philips CD-i Hotel Mario Prototype In Goodwill
@ArcadianLegend99
I can't imagine it'll be difficult to dump either, I would imagine just putting the disc into a PC and using imgburn to copy the disc contents to an ISO file will work?
I'd be surprised if GamePakRat hasn't already done this and is just riding the wave of views this amazing find has brought his channel.