@Right_Said_Brett @slider1983 Indeed, I've left several reviews on GOG, without Galaxy.
So... Cheevos? It really does just come down to cheevos. And controller inputs on Steam. But mostly cheevos. (Toy Story meme.gif) Cheevos, CHEEVOS EVERYWHERE!
@slider1983 Ah, I have never, ever used Galaxy. Honestly I don't even understand what it is or why I'd want to use it.
I buy games on GOG, save the installer to my massive back-up HDD, write it down on a paper list, and then I want to play it I plug the HDD into whatever computer I'm using and install.
Galaxy is some sort of Steam like wrapper which... Installs stuff for me? And it needs an online connection?
Hard pass.
If GOG ever makes it mandatory, and removes the portable standalone installers, I will be very upset.
I treat the installers like digital game CDs. They sit on my shelf until needed.
@Thad Valid points. Which reminds me: another reason I prefer GOG is because their installs still work on Windows 7. Steam no longer supports Win7, and the Steam client refuses to function, with all previously installed Steam games no longer working after the update.
I'm a bit jealous Steam supports you but not me. After my Win7 laptop refused to load any pre-installed Steam games, my main powerful Win7 rig had to go offline only forever so I could at least play what was on there. But I still install new GOG games.
So, I totally get what you're saying - we both experience this albeit in opposite ways.
@Azuris I love GOG. From your wording... Do people boycott GOG for some reason? I don't really follow current events. I don't even know why anyone would choose Steam over GOG. I buy from Steam, but only if it's not on GOG first. I will always buy GOG first, and even pay more than the Steam release.
Like, why would anyone use Steam over GOG? I can see the benefits of GOG (portable offline installs; permanent ownership of said install packages). There's no benefit to Steam that I can see. Cheevos? Is it cheevos? I hope it's not something lame like "I can only get cheevos on steam and I can't play a game unless it has cheevos."
@Martin_H "What I've found over the years is that I've enjoyed far more things going in blind than I would have if I obsessively followed reviews or community advice"
Exactly this. I've found this too, especially with films. I'll enjoy something on its own terms, having zero knowledge going in, then afterwards will look up reviews for fun and be shocked at the negativity. And I'm glad I never checked before hand, because that inevitably taints one's judgement.
There is genuine benefit to ignorance when consuming a new media title.
(I knew I shouldn't have mentioned the Gundam review. 😭 The import PS3 and games rocked up around 4pm, and we all got a couple hours on our game with copy due next day at 9am. As I seem to recall.)
Love this article and the movie still. Time for a rewatch. I don't understand Ebert claiming it was filmed ineptly. The video photography, lighting, etc., all seem high quality, or of equal quality to other films of 1989.
Can anyone give a specific example of inept filming? As in, not the script or story, but problems on a technical level?
I've always thought he was a bit of a jerk, praising crap for no reason, and giving scathing criticism to plenty of great films, just because something rubbed him the wrong way.
I will never understand why he is so respected as a film critic.
@SinjaNinja
Traditionally writers don't proof read. They hand it to copy editors to proof. Is this about the lineline / timeline typo? Take a chill pill. Typos happen. It's inevitable with a small team.
I'm only stepping in here to comment because every single one of my articles have a typo on first draft.
My focus is good research. And generally readers say my writing is good because it's well researched.
Your entire criticism is around a single typo, which is enough for you to condemn a writer's entire career.
Seems about right for a modern internet troll.
If your metric for quality were implemented we'd have nothing but insufferable safe guff to read, or AI slop. Both Hunter Thompson and Lester Bangs made all sorts of typos, but they brought energy, and Thompson did incredible first hand research.
That's what you should judge a journalist on.
Have they uncovered or documented things no one else has?
And I can safely say @damo has, in his long career. Interviews and information never documented before.
But by your metric it's all worthless because timeline was spelled wrong?
This article and its replies remind me of a recurring thought:
The fate of so many games in the 80s, 90s, and even early 00s, was tied to the whims of random freelance writers, most of whom had low pay, short deadlines, and bad hangovers. I know because I was one.
I wrote my own unnecessarily harsh review for Gundam on PS3, at launch. 4 / 10 maybe? Anyway, I later went back and honestly, it's not bad. 6 or maybe 7 if you're a fan is a fairer score.
And I think to myself: how many games sold poorly, lost money, missed out on sequels, ended careers, etc., because some rando was given a game and told to hand copy in less than 24 hours later? And because the internet didn't yet have ways of amplifying signal or broadcasting video through YouTube?
I've already mentioned Gunstar Heroes, and another good example is Tombi. Today: beloved classics commanding a small fortune due to the limited quantities available. Back then: crap scores, with readers told not to buy it.
How many copies went unsold and were later destroyed as a tax write off?
I'm not saying every low scoring piece of trash was actually a masterpiece. But so many of these low scoring games were genuinely not bad, and were pleasantly good or enjoyable, and deserved better.
And the bitter irony is: there was plenty of genuine trash which got high scores!
Headhunter is another example. Mags trashed the bike sections. Personally, they were the best part for me. I used to enjoy just driving around Los Angeles, taking in the sights. Sort of like a proto-GTA III. Still, mags hated these sections, so they were cut from the sequel, which ended up bring crap due to a broken aiming system.
The past is rife with the damage done by malicious and cruel reviewers.
That review is unnecessarily harsh. I for one really like collecting XP and then selling it.
Then again it's NextGen, the lukewarm leftovers of Edge magazine which were microwaved and sent over to America, so it doesn't surprise me. These same people gave Gunstar Heroes a 6 out of 10, and I am never, ever going to shut up about that.
@PopetheRev28 I've been hearing about the death of shmups since the PS2 era. We faithful few will keep the ancestral songs of Hori and Tate alive, adorned in our traditional Danmaku, while hunting the fabled one-see-see.
@SegaAges I'd agree with this. I only suggested Ninja Penguin because it was, in effect, an already finished game by a third party. Whereas the Sonic Jam level was just a level. But when I played Jam, I hoped so badly for a full game based on that. It was wonderful.
Feared that with today's political climate the sexy nymphs would be missing. Sees sexy nymphs are still included. Breaths a sigh of relief that Japan continues to be based with zero ***** given. Carry on Japan, carry on.
@-wc- As already pointed out, there are such things (fictional enhancement chips?), and which also work on my FPGA flashcart.
Tokimeki Memorial's fan-translation has an FMV intro and fancier CD style music.
And... Was it the homebrew ports of the NES Zelda games, where they stuck a cinematic in?
Basically you download these homebrew efforts and the extra gubbins are in the folder, and the flash cart does the rest.
Mostly it's been music and cinemas, or the Road Avenger port as mentioned. I suppose if someone wanted to, they could program a fancy 3D game like Starfox, which uses a non-existent chip, but would function via FPGA on a flash cart?
Eventually the question becomes, to what extent are you making a SNES game, or making a game that runs in FPGA and simply uses the SNES as a video output adapter?
There's probably some sort of bandwidth limitation at some point. (I am not a programmer.)
@profkross
His behaviour isn't completely without precedent. I find that some programmers can be arrogant - and I suppose rightfully so? Their expertise facilitates everyone else's vision. They are, or were at the time, the core link between all other staff (design, art, sound, etc). Because there were no game engines back then - raw coding skill was everything.
Other programmers, like Yoshio Kiya, also had a rep for being somewhat arrogant. But again, I can see why. By achieving things no one else had, they sort of became rockstars in their sphere.
My personal opiniated guess, is that since the concept of reusable shared engines wasn't yet commonplace, another division taking Naka's code would have felt like they were stealing his glory? Maybe?
I've never interviewed Naka, but programmers in general have that lone wolf attitude. Keep in mind, at one period in the very early 1980s, like 81 or 82, games were often made by only one person: the coder.
So it's a role that emerged as an isolated position, with collaboration arriving later.
Some coders are super nice of course. Dale DeSharone let an artist live in his house until he found accomodation. But when someone says a coder is difficult to work with, it tracks. And I'm not that surprised.
@MG4M3R Haha! Yes. I thought so too. It happens around... The 3rd or 4th stage? The one where the triple jump become mandatory to progress. Right at this level's start there's a huge gap.
At that point they start introducing platform puzzles where you need to run and triple jump on platforms filled with enemies that instantly aggro and home in, knocking you off.
Also they start putting spike traps everywhere, so you need to do blind triple jumps and hope you don't overshoot in spikes.
Spikes, homing enemies, blind jumps, triple jumps, moving platforms, death pits, a constant timer... Hoho!
Please, please do try it. And report back.
For me the triple jump was the worst, since it had such precise timing. Sometimes the 3rd jump needed you to swap directions as you jump. The cloud level's triple jump reversal on a postage stamp is the product of a sick mind.
I hacked the gravity, which slows your fall speed, but there are no hacks to increase the jump.
You better put infinite lives on too.
I did think: it looks like it's aimed at kids, and I bet many tears were shed over it.
I finished it. Then watched a long play with commentary. The streamer said in the last level something like: "Why would you do that?! Who hurt you to make you this sadistic?"
I interviewed Chris decades ago for Retro Gamer, when I was freelancing - there are so many wild anecdotes about this game. It's crazy. Another aspect was that Yuji Naka had taken a very personal dislike to it - my memory is hazy, but one of the other teams was reusing his code from something else, to make Sonic-X, and Naka flew off the handle saying no one else was allowed to use his code. He was maniacally possessive.
This latest anecdote from Chris is new - but it's fascinating, adding yet another dimension to the chaos of mid-90s Sega, and the animosity between the US and Japanese branches. I always got the feeling the JP branch was the arrogant one, since they seemed to resent that their success in the US was due to what the Americans were doing, which was different to how they did things (bundling Sonic with the Mega Drive, anti-Nintendo ads, etc.). And then of course the jealousy between sections.
There are various rough builds of Sonic X-treme in the wild, and also fan attempts to recreate it. The biggest problem is that, fish-eye lens or not, the 3D feels like Bug on the Saturn. It just does not have that free flowing movement that Mario 64, or Tomb Raider had. Or Sonic R for that matter. Or even Ninja Penguin!
Worth looking up Ninja Penguin on the Saturn. The game is insidiously difficult - like a sadistic kaizo hack. Brutal beyond description.
But!
Its 3D engine is fantastic, and its graphics glorious.
I used a bunch of Action Replay hacks to take the slight edge off the difficulty, and honestly... Sega should have just bought the entire game, and reskinned the blue penguin as Sonic, and replaced the coins with rings.
Because in a lot of ways it looks like Sonic, and the 3D is some of the absolute best on the Saturn. As in Burning Rangers / Bulk Slash quality. Great draw distance. Lots of colourful detail. Smooth.
They could have added the ring loss mechanic, kept the levels as is, made it easier, reskinned the characters to be Tails, Robotnik etc. And you'd have had a solid 8 or 9 out of 10 Sonic game, with smooth platforming.
I bet a fan-hack could even do this.
They just need to make it easier. The base game is like doing invasive dentistry on yourself.
Now, compare Sonic R and Ninja Penguin to the playable builds of Sonic X-treme, or the above video.
X-treme is kinda fun? I was playing a fan remake a while back on an actual Saturn. It's not bad. But it's like an enhanced version of Bug. Very limited.
Glad to see Chris is still around talking about stuff.
He had a website and forum where he put all his Sonic materials, but then when I checked a few years ago and he'd removed it all.
I love these ports. For example, the N64 to Dreamcast ports.
I own both an N64 with flashcart and DC with ODE. And a CRT TV. I would rather play a finely tuned DC port of an N64 game on my CRT, with improved performance, than emulating said N64 game via a PC on and LCD screen.
The port is more authentic than emulation, even though it obviously goes beyond what the N64 was capable of.
It is, for me, that perfect niche of more authentic and accurate than emulation, benefitting from a CRT display, but ever so slightly nicer than the original experience. I dare say it's probably even better than putting an N64 cart in the Analogue 3D, since that is still working with the original game, and would be upscaling for HD LCD use.
These ridiculous ports are my jam!
(Secretly hoping infidelity does a Metal Gear / Snake's Revenge port to SNES, so I can run them both side by side on my CRT.)
@NeonPizza Astute points. 20 years ago, when the PS3 came out and we got that JP unit in, I didn't even own a smartphone. Then the next year, someone from work mentioned being on "Facebook", which I'd not heard of until then.
Such a different innocent time. Everyone was broadly aware of the same cultural trends, even if they didn't follow them. As you point out, it was unified. Today everyone has broken off into their own little curated reality. They might watch someone online with an audience of 3 million that you or me have never even heard of.
@MSaturn I feel I have the same or very close POV to you. In the 90s, I would have defended the right to expression even of those I disagreed with. What I never expected was that in having such a laissez-faire attitude, it would allow people to assume positions of power in media with diametric opposite views.
I also never considered it as being a tool as you describe it. But it makes sense, given how everything has flipped around. Which is so bizarre.
I'm from the UK, but back in the day games were a smaller cottage industry with not much oversight, the same with niche magazines. It was a bit of a wild west in many ways.
I've honestly struggled to comprehend the present day. It feels like the culture I grew up in, and the norms and values I had and shared with my peers, is now gone. It's difficult to pinpoint when it happened, but maybe from around 2011 or so? It was a slow shift.
Now I don't even recognise the socio-cultural landscape any more. And speaking too loudly about the changes will incite so much rage that it hardly feels worth going online.
I never once imagined things would change like this. Change in the way you've astutely described.
I mean, I remember when Jack Thompson was yapping his mouth, and everyone banded together to protect the medium from censorial influence. And banded together when the media tried to use games as a scapegoat. Creative freedom was also paramount.
And now? We have ethics departments in American studios wagging their fingers and forcing Japanese developers to change what they're doing, and they don't know what is happening or even why.
I look at 2026 and feel like we lost the culture wars. There's an Orwellian tone of "thought crimes" pervading everything now. And should you admit to such thought crimes you get dog-piled and cancelled. I hate it so much.
I was working on Retro Gamer magazine, in the actual office, when a Japanese import PS3 was brought it in, so the other mags could do import reviews before it launched in the UK. It felt like being on the absolute cutting edge of technology and media culture. I reviewed Gundam for Play. It wasn't great, but I knew MGS4 would eventually be out.
Has it really been 20 years?
Culture seemed so vibrant and alive back then. No moralising or moral sentinels, no pearl clutching, no cancel culture, no tyranny of virtue, no ethics departments, no sensitivity training.
Just pure freedom to make, and play, and enjoy, and write whatever the **** you wanted.
God, I miss it so badly you cannot even begin to imagine.
The kids today, the new generation that entered the media based work force, are only interesting in tearing everything up and burning it down. Someone should have filtered and kept them out.
We will never have it as good again as we had it 20 years ago.
This news story makes me sad. It's like when I've read about we've lost the ability to traditional artisanal things, and just use something artificial instead thinking no one will really notice or care.
I'm thinking things like rare food flavours, but we just cheaper synthetic flavours instead, or we no longer use ambergris as a fixative for perfumes. Or moulded plastic instead of hand-carved woods or metals. Or how we're losing the knowledge to make traditional Japanese ink stones, or the wooden barrels to ferment soy sauce (kioke).
And now I see this. Transparencies it would seem are the modern day videogame equivalent of kioke soy sauce. We're literally losing the ability to use proper transparencies due to the way modern hardware and graphics works. It's too complicated, or too much of a strain, so we'll just stick some holes in and call it a day.
Older games really were better. Those transparencies you saw on PS1 through to PS3, proper artistry at work.
@Eocene84 "The people on here happy about this make me sick. Seriously, people like you should be banned and then even IP banned so you can't come back."
I like this comment so much I'm quoting it.
I fully support IP bans on toxic posters ruining things for the rest of us.
In the mean time I just put them on ignore. I've got like 20+ people on my ignore list and it's just going to keep growing every time I see such posts, ROFLMAO.
I don't understand anyone here taking glee in the destruction of someone else's property. It's sickening.
I also despise the sanctimonious, puritanical, tyranny of virtue that's being espoused due to the content.
Let consenting adults buy whatever they like from other consenting adults. Nobody was exploited in the creation of this content.
The screaming pearl clutching and virtue signaling of these morality sentinels is insufferable.
@RupeeClock "It's in the same way that people are getting accused of leaving AI generated comments in discussions, because of their writing style or just trying to give a well written response."
Exactly! More than once a comment of mine on YT was accused of being AI. My profession is writer. If I give a response it will (hopefully) be intelligent, reasoned, correctly spelled, while providing references, so as to build on the discussion.
Now I'm like: eh, ***** it. And either don't comment or just hash out something quick and mispelled. Because it is rage inducing to read some low IQ response that utterly dismisses you entirely, thinking you're not real.
I generally spend very little time online now (these articles notwithstanding).
The AI conditioning also produced something disturbing recently.
I tried to watch the original Alien film, from 1979. And throughout the film are strange arbitrary visual details which are not explained. To give it a lived in feeling. The famous "agaric fly" keyboard being one.
And I knew the backstory to the film's production, and the effort to crew put into everything.
And yet my brain was constantly having an allergic reaction to it. Because AI adds lots of non-symmetrical details, and arbitrary details. So I kept having these moments of revulsion, briefly thinking: this looks like AI! Despite knowing it is not. And having to fight this feeling and sensation.
But then there would be a wall panel. Or patterns on a helmet. Or even that agaric fly keyboard. And my neurons would scream at me, that all of these have the tell-tale signa of generative AI.
A colleague suggested that the reason could be that AI was trained on richly detailed media such as this film, hence it adopts that style.
Because look up the agaric fly keyboard in HD. Look over all the keys. Doesn't it look AI? Weird nonsensical keys. Like a fever dream hallucination. But I've read interviews on its creation in 1979, and they were just trying to create a visually interesting, lived in world, with mystical elements.
AI has severely poisoned my mind and my ability to appreciate media. And I don't know how to cure this.
@Henchdog My Afrikaans is sadly terrible after all these years. I only learned it at school. But my mother was bilingual; I think it's fantastic you're keeping it alive. I hope you find the time and motivation to finish a few.
If you know anyone at SABC, I would really appreciate the ask actually! Even if it's just to confirm they remember it.
At the moment none of us know the actual name, actors, production company, anything.
So while I wouldn't expect there to be a tape in the archives, even just the recollection of it would be very helpful.
I tried emailing the SABC, but not sure if it actually reached anyone.
I know what you mean about finding stuff. Do you remember the candy easter eggs you could get, with a hard white sugar shell, abd chocolate interior? I was surprised to discover this was an SA only thing. No one in the UK has even heard of it. I'm going on holiday soon - I hope to buy a few boxes. It's my first time back in 30 years.
Other notable things I recall but can't find in the UK: Zambuck, TV Bars, and Grandpa Powders.
Also! A request...
Do you happen to have any old M-Net TV guide magazines? Circa from when it first started up until around 1999 or so? We left 95, but I'd love to see one again even from after we left.
We used to get it every month, but sadly never kept any, and now I have nostalgia for them. I ask every SA who I come across, and none do. Who keeps 35 year old TV guides?
If by some weird fluke you have one, would you be willing to sell it? I'd pay shipping from Australia to UK.
@Henchdog Your native language is... (checks profile) Indigenous Aboriginee?
Probably not, but I salute your attempt to fan-translate into a language that isn't English.
I always think it's cool seeing announcements of a fan-translation into something like Polish or Norwegian, or whatever. It reminds me that the videogame industry - games culture - has for the longest time been dominated by America, with a little bit of Europe, and a sizeable portion by Japan.
Thus leaving the Dreamcast controller with a spare Y+B button!
Two of the yellow C buttons can be fitted to the Y+B, or just doubled up, since sometimes you want to activate a deku nut or swing a deku stick. But it'll work perfectly.
Granted, you won't have the convenience of the 4x C buttons in the upper right, but it'll be good enough. One of the C buttons is the camera, and the other 3 are items, so have 2 of them doubled on Y+B. So the d-pad will replicate the 4, and Y+B will act as a duplicate of say... the left and bottom C button?
That way when playing the Ocarina tunes, you can intuitively use the D-pad for the C button directions.
The N64's d-pad was never needed for OoT so that's fine.
I emulated OoT on the 3DS on my PC using a wired X360 controller, and it was super easy to map - I even had some leftover buttons to map touch screen hotspots. As long as the person do the port is smart and implements an optimised solution, or provides the option to remap buttons when compiling it, this will work absolutely fine.
EDIT:
just to get pedantic here...
C up = d pad up
C down = d pad down
C right = d pad right
C left = d pad left
C left = Y (duplicate)
c down = B (duplicate
This way you can put action oriented C button stuff on the Dreamcast action buttons (deku stick, hookshot, etc.). Z trigger and shield R from the N64 map nicely to L+R.
C right isn't going to have a duplicate face button, but you can just assign less important stuff to that, like using a milk jar, or activating some secondary item which is only used in low stress areas. And C-up isn't a big deal on the d-pad up direction.
By duplicating two C buttons, but keeping them all on the D-pad, this still allows you to intuitively use the ocarina music notes.
@PZT
I've read readme files describing the time needed to hack (not translate) certain games. Assume 12 weeks x 40 hours, that's 480 hours. Now, granted, the Mega CD is not a platform architecture I know well. That game I believe uses weird compression? And a three month schedule wouldn't be all hacking, or all translating. One side is usually idle waiting for the other to do their task. But based on my understanding of the topics, having spoken with both translators and programmers, I still feel that a professional top level programmer whose sole day job is cracking the architecture to extract the text, could do it in the time. The 90 day deadline is ambitious since one translator would struggle. I think Metal Gear Solid took Blaustein about 6 months working on his own? And that used complex military jargon. So OK, I revise my statement: 3 months to hack, 6 months to translate. Unless we had a team of 4 translators to split the workload.
Whatever. I'll admit my statement was hyperbole, if you'll admit CJ taking 14 years is excessive. I looked it up. He announced the project in 2012!
Somewhere between 90 days and 14 years is the answer to this.
Let this be a lesson to everyone: do not sit on your projects thinking you have forever.
I agree with what @Phara128 says - this was never going to come out.
I say: good.
These guys sat on it for over a decade.
Then eadmaster comes in and is like: I'd like to play this, so would others, here it's done.
This is exactly what needed to happen.
There are a multitude of other fan-translations where this exact same thing needs to happen again.
CJ Iwakura has sat on Shadowrun for the Sega Mega CD for about 20 years now. Where TF is the translation already!? Nobody else wants to take on the job, out of respect for other groups who raise their hand and earmark a game.
If I had limitless wealth I would hire a hacker and a translator, and say to them: you have 90 days to release the Shadowrun CD patch, I don't care that another group is pretending to do it. 90 days and you get a bonus paycheque. This is your new day job, 40 hours a week! I'm paying you by the day! GO GO GOOOOO!!!
Enough of this nonsense. Some of these projects end up constipated and not shifting, and everyone just sits around being all: "Well gee, it'd be bad etiquette to do it ourselves."
Nah. If someone raises their hand and a decade goes by and NOTHING happens, it's fair game.
Well done to eadmaster. I hope these two have a learned a valuable lesson in speed and efficiency and not being bone idle. Their work was not a waste of time - it motivated eadmaster to get it done, and it's also a valuable life lesson they have paid for in full.
This sets a valuable precedent for the entire fan-translation community.
If you raise your hand, and you announce a project, you are beholden to get it done, not sit on it for decades like a dragon atop a pile of gold coins. "The game is mine! Only I shall translate it!"
Nope. Someone else is going to usurp you and do it themselves.
These two sat on it doing nothing since 2014. In the year 2024 it had been a decade. That's just silly nonsense.
This was absolutely the best thing to happen. THE BEST THING. Great, great work eadmaster. It needed to happen, he made it happen, now please, take all of this to heart. Absorb this lesson into the fabric of your souls.
@Bakamoichigei I think the download has expired. It only lasts 3 days. The CMYK explanation is spot on. I leave it to you to adjust / sort.
To be honest the Zelda card game is insanely difficult I found. Even when cheating I found it borderline impossible. So the "game" could honestly just do with some fresh custom barcodes.
@Peteykins
I didn't know about any drama, so looked this up. He is sketchy as hell!
For 10 years people donated expensive games because he promised to make a museum. Then he decides just to send the games to a private company.
The worst thing I dug up though...
Guy sent Hancock CIB SNES games, under the agreement Hancock would pay a pre-agreed upon fee to buy the games.
Time goes by, the seller contacts Hancock who says he took the SNES games to a local expert, who said they're fake, so he's not paying him.
Seller refutes they were fake.
Sellers says, well, can I at least have my games back?
Hancock says no because he threw them in the bin.
ROFLMFAO
Fully boxed SNES games? Fake? I don't buy that. But let's pretend the cart, box, and manual are repros. Those are not cheap! They're just cheaper than a £500 original.
You don't just throw them in the bin.
WTF. You agreed cash on delivery, you decide you don't want them due to suspicion of forgery. YOU GIVE THEM BACK. What sort of imbecile just bins someone else's stuff?
"Some guy said it was probably fake so I just threw the cart, box, and manual in the trash and never even bothered to tell you."
@VITIMan @Bakamoichigei I've just initiated a WeTransfer of a ZIP file, about 160mb, with the final PDF of the Metroid deck, and folders with the art I used. The barcodes were taken from the Zelda cards, which I had a folder of, and are not included, just to make this small.
The design program I used was a very old version of PagePlus. I've not included it since I doubt anyone can open it, and when I tried opening on my other computer it was full of dead links.
The final PDF should not have any security. Meaning you should be able to open it up and manipulate it using a powerful design software? Maybe? Anyway, that PDF was good enough for the printer.
I discovered the problem with my initial batch was that printing in colour it did not scan well. I think because the barcode section was not just black ink lines, but rather... Black lines which included colour inks, since I just dropped the scans in and did not alter the files. I hope that makes sense. I dropped in scans of the Zelda cards, which were scanned in colour, and when I zoom in I can see random colour pixels. Presumably this comes through in the printing.
Because! When I did a basic B&W photocopy of the cards, they worked flawlessly. So the size is correct, and the sharpness is fine. But the colour printing, and perhaps also the glossy finish, made them impossible to scan.
If you decide to print these, please keep this in mind. The barcode section will need adjusting into monochrome, and do not have a glossy finish.
I tried playing the game (using the photocopied cards), and it is INSANELY difficult. Impossible maybe? I'd like to readjust the barcodes to make the game much easier. Keep in mind it was just a reskin of the Zelda game. But I've moved on from this project.
The folder also contains some word docs, unused art, an excel file, and other stuff I was working with to make these. If anyone wanted to make their own card designs, the hi-res art is there, and you can probably generate your own barcodes.
I can't sell these because it's Copyright Nintendo. But if you share them online freely, maybe mention that I've got some interview books on Amazon, if people want to support me while also owning something physical (and which I have the rights to sell).
Any questions ask, but I'm kinda washing my hands of these. It was great gag to play on Damien, and I'm now moving on to the next gag!
@dodgykebaab Just to show that I am not without a sense of humility, someone pointed out the following to me online elsewhere:
You underestimate the power of SPITE! With this fan translation pissing so many people off, the interest in a better translation for this game will more likely skyrocket. That's what happened with Suikoden on PSP (woven web of something or other) it got a very ***** machine translation, literally unedited Google Translate. Within 2 years (or so I recall) someone else made a much better patch literally out of spite.
I was completely unaware that Woven Web had two fan-translations, first a terrible Google Translate one, unedited, and then a spite fuelled proper translation.
I am going to cling to the hope that Sega fans are as passionate and as crazy as the Suiko fandom, and unite together to redo this.
@dodgykebaab Thank you for the kind words, I'm glad you enjoyed the books.
I would really like to believe your point #1 to be true. And I will eat humble pie if someone takes the tools and redoes the translation on this. But I am not the optimist.
@dodgykebaab I need to log in to retro game talk to view these, but you appear to be showing me retranslations of retail games (Phantasy Star, Target Earth), not retranslations of fan-translations. Which tells me you didn't understand my original post.
I was confused when you claimed thousands, given I could not think of one, and I've interviewed people in the scene and written lengthy history articles on fan translation.
Now I get it: you were referring to translations of games which had commercial localisations back in the day. Which is not what I'm talking about.
Which is fine, I'll explain it again:
When a Japan only game gets fan translated, meaning it receives its first English fan translation, this has a chilling effect on other fan translators taking on the same project.
No fan group is going to say: hey, let's redo the work a rival group did!
The exception being the FF games, where there's weirdly a bunch of different fan translations.
After our earlier chat I went looking for feedback on Segagaga, and found multiple people stating the same thing as me.
When a Japan only game receives a fan translation, that's it. People are not going to do a second fan translation.
The fact you're showing me translations of games that had retail localisations proves to me you didn't get what I was saying.
The same with the apology.
As I stated clearly, in English: if Segagaga receives a second proper fan translation, I will apologise.
I'm not apologising for anything else.
I said this will never get a second fan translation, and if it does I'll apologise.
You go and list a bunch of fan translations for games that had retail localisations back in the day thinking that's the same thing.
I don't really know how to simplify this any further: fan translators don't bother making second fan translations once someone else comes out.
I mention Bangaio because by pure fluke both teams released at the same time.
Anyway, as I said:
If someone does a second Segagaga translation, properly, you go ahead and let me know.
As for this translation: I spent an hour on my desktop going through the CD Romance thread, YouTube, Reddit, and Tw/Bs, to see people's reactions. I chatted with a guy on YT briefly.
Everyone who has played it is saying the same thing. This is crap.
@dodgykebaab You want me to prove non-existence of something? You realise that's impossible, right? That's basic philosophy.
I followed the Reddit complaints with people citing other examples: in manga, adult only VNs, general games. Someone craps out a machine translation and other teams quit.
You cite 1000s. Name just 5. Some rules:
No final fantasy games; those are a unique exception with dozens of retranslations
No retranslations of commercial localisation; only retranslations of fan translations
The recent Bangaio one doesn't count. Those two teams worled concurrently, not one trying to redo the other
Princess Crown doesn't count; the first was abandoned hence the 2nd team
Here is my promise: if someone redoes this from scratch, @ me here. I will publicly apologise to you for my hubris. I will apologise in the new news article on it too.
I am happy to be proven wrong.
I want to be proven wrong!
We will NEVER see a proper from scratch manual translation of Segagaga, taking into account the nuance. This AI slop is all we will have forever.
@dodgykebaab
Just for the record I'm not on twitter or bluesky, that was simply the only source to find screens.
I know full well the story behind the hacking. I've been following this game's fan translation attempts since 2006.
I hear what you're saying: the main thing here is the tools. Now someone else can do the translation.
News flash: nobody is going to do anything.
Once a fan translation comes out, regardless of quality, it has a chilling effect.
Nobody else is going to touch this now.
We had one chance, one shot, this was it.
They blew it.
Don't try to placate me with "well now others can fix it".
Not gonna happen. This will be the only English version, now and forever in perpetuity. Giving me 3 options:
1) become a native level JP reader
2) play garbage
3) accept that Segagaga is dead forever and never play it
I'm going with #3
Why is it garbage Sega Saturn RPGs manage to find multiple peope to hand translate them, but this team of hackers couldn't find even ONE bilingual person to translate it, so they cheaped out with AI? Did they even advertise? "We solved the hacking! Translators apply within!"
Do not presume I am clueless on the background to this.
The previous fan translation team extracted and 100% manually translated the script, but could not reinsert it.
So why, WHY, did these chuckleducks not contact that team and collaborate?
Now it's too late.
This dumpster fire is all we will have forever now.
This AI slop translation looks like unplayable dogshit.
All of the wit, and satire, and nuance, and exquisite humour in the writing has been DESECRATED.
This project has officially turned into filthy rotten trash fire.
I had been looking forward to this for so long, and everyone involved has basically poisoned the well. I'm not suffering through this crap. It's worthless.
I can only hope someone who knows what they're doing redoes it from scratch.
But seeing as it's taken 20+ years to get this, I doubt we will ever see the translation this game deserves.
To the team responsible:
I hope you're happy. Instead of finding a fan who is bilingual, laziness and impatience got the better of you, and you have KILLED Segagaga. This is an absolute disgrace.
@slider1983 As pointed out by @GhaleonUnlimited - users on Reddit are saying the AI translation is dry, which is not good for a game meant to be a comedic satire.
Worse still are claims that references to Sega have been botched or messed up. This is much more severe, and I can see AI doing that. If there's a subtle play on words, the AI will miss that and just translate it based on the next expected word. Remember - these LLM are just text predictors.
I'm actually keen to see specific examples, but I can imagine it. Sega specific puns or mispelling jokes won't be picked up by a text predictor.
Myrient in many cases was the only place that hosted extremely rare aftermarket homebrew titles - games made and put out there after a system died, which are not part of any ROM set elsewhere, because it was not an official retail game.
Give how terrible fan communities are at preserving these efforts, Myrient has been my one stop go to for such obscure oddities. Notably all the weird Lynx homebrew, where the original author's website is now 404 and forgotten.
Myrient didn't forget it.
(sigh)
I don't where else you'll find some of this stuff, because it's simply not hosted anywhere else! Not even on the Internet Archive.
The archive page says: "The only way to play it as of now is on Retroarch with CD Speed set to X8 (must be changed in the menus for the specific core, in this case beetle PCE) or on real hardware with a turbodrive."
I have a Terraonion ODE for my PCE. Will this run? I don't feel like downloading 800mb, getting my system out, popping the micro SD, going back to my computer, configuring it to the correct file type (assuming it's not already), putting it in a new folder, going back to my PCE, popping the micro SD card back inside, hooking it up to my TV, booting into the ODE menu, trying to load the game...
Only to find that as per the archive text it does not run.
Anyone willing to take the hit and try it first then report back here?
We need to bring back the sexiness in games. So many these days seem po faced and restrained, like they've been developed by Puritans and prudes. Bring back the T&A, I say!
@smoreon An excellent point. With different ammo types, you'll use the gun with the most ammo, if you're being careful.
I hated this decision. I think it's beyond idiotic, I think it's bad design, and I'm shocked anyone signed off on it.
The ammo **** up in Invisible War killed the entire game for me and I didn't play more than a couple of hours. Absolute trash.
With the original I was switching between guns, and switching between ammo types constantly, same with System Shock 2 from that time period. Also Jagged Alliance 2. Different ammo types are intensely fun to play around with. Armour piercing, explosive, regular, hollow point, sabot, sedative, non-lethal, etc.
It's funny that what they say contradicts a previous thing I'd read in interviews. I'm not sure of the source, but a different interview someone stated something like: They were testing with focus groups, and someone was complaining that it was too complicated to keep track of different ammo types, or they didn't like the fact they had to keep track of limited ammo for something, and kept getting confused, so the dev team - to "fix" this - just stripped the whole system out and implemented a single ammo pool.
I cannot stress how much I hate this new idea.
The joy of the first game was having all these tools, to be used as you see fit in different situations, and suddenly it's like: no tools for you! The whole thing was dumbed down.
One of the absolute worst design decisions in the history of videogames.
For the record: I'm fine with and love a high volume of tools to work with. Give me a hundred different weapons and 50 different ammo types to juggle. I'm not the only person who will be delighted to spend money on such a rich and complex game.
Comments 868
Re: More Classic Capcom Titles Have Arrived On Steam, But, Of Course, There's A Catch
@Right_Said_Brett @slider1983
Indeed, I've left several reviews on GOG, without Galaxy.
So... Cheevos? It really does just come down to cheevos. And controller inputs on Steam. But mostly cheevos. (Toy Story meme.gif) Cheevos, CHEEVOS EVERYWHERE!
Re: More Classic Capcom Titles Have Arrived On Steam, But, Of Course, There's A Catch
@slider1983
Ah, I have never, ever used Galaxy. Honestly I don't even understand what it is or why I'd want to use it.
I buy games on GOG, save the installer to my massive back-up HDD, write it down on a paper list, and then I want to play it I plug the HDD into whatever computer I'm using and install.
Galaxy is some sort of Steam like wrapper which... Installs stuff for me? And it needs an online connection?
Hard pass.
If GOG ever makes it mandatory, and removes the portable standalone installers, I will be very upset.
I treat the installers like digital game CDs. They sit on my shelf until needed.
Re: More Classic Capcom Titles Have Arrived On Steam, But, Of Course, There's A Catch
@Thad
Valid points. Which reminds me: another reason I prefer GOG is because their installs still work on Windows 7. Steam no longer supports Win7, and the Steam client refuses to function, with all previously installed Steam games no longer working after the update.
I'm a bit jealous Steam supports you but not me. After my Win7 laptop refused to load any pre-installed Steam games, my main powerful Win7 rig had to go offline only forever so I could at least play what was on there. But I still install new GOG games.
So, I totally get what you're saying - we both experience this albeit in opposite ways.
Re: More Classic Capcom Titles Have Arrived On Steam, But, Of Course, There's A Catch
@Azuris
I love GOG. From your wording... Do people boycott GOG for some reason? I don't really follow current events. I don't even know why anyone would choose Steam over GOG. I buy from Steam, but only if it's not on GOG first. I will always buy GOG first, and even pay more than the Steam release.
Like, why would anyone use Steam over GOG? I can see the benefits of GOG (portable offline installs; permanent ownership of said install packages). There's no benefit to Steam that I can see. Cheevos? Is it cheevos? I hope it's not something lame like "I can only get cheevos on steam and I can't play a game unless it has cheevos."
Re: The Making Of: The Wizard - "I Couldn't Get A Job For 7 Months After That" - An Oral History Of Nintendo's Hollywood Debut
@Martin_H
"What I've found over the years is that I've enjoyed far more things going in blind than I would have if I obsessively followed reviews or community advice"
Exactly this. I've found this too, especially with films. I'll enjoy something on its own terms, having zero knowledge going in, then afterwards will look up reviews for fun and be shocked at the negativity. And I'm glad I never checked before hand, because that inevitably taints one's judgement.
There is genuine benefit to ignorance when consuming a new media title.
(I knew I shouldn't have mentioned the Gundam review. 😭 The import PS3 and games rocked up around 4pm, and we all got a couple hours on our game with copy due next day at 9am. As I seem to recall.)
Re: The Making Of: The Wizard - "I Couldn't Get A Job For 7 Months After That" - An Oral History Of Nintendo's Hollywood Debut
Love this article and the movie still. Time for a rewatch. I don't understand Ebert claiming it was filmed ineptly. The video photography, lighting, etc., all seem high quality, or of equal quality to other films of 1989.
Can anyone give a specific example of inept filming? As in, not the script or story, but problems on a technical level?
I've always thought he was a bit of a jerk, praising crap for no reason, and giving scathing criticism to plenty of great films, just because something rubbed him the wrong way.
I will never understand why he is so respected as a film critic.
Re: "This May Be The Best Keitai Fighting Game We've Preserved" - This Rare Gundam Game For Japanese Phones Is Finally Playable Again
How did I miss this article? Fascinating. Glad it was linked in the i-mode closure article.
Re: "I Hold My Work To A Strict Standard" - The Driving Force Behind Xbox 360 Recomp Tool 'ReXGlue' Speaks Out
@SinjaNinja
Traditionally writers don't proof read. They hand it to copy editors to proof. Is this about the lineline / timeline typo? Take a chill pill. Typos happen. It's inevitable with a small team.
I'm only stepping in here to comment because every single one of my articles have a typo on first draft.
My focus is good research. And generally readers say my writing is good because it's well researched.
Your entire criticism is around a single typo, which is enough for you to condemn a writer's entire career.
Seems about right for a modern internet troll.
If your metric for quality were implemented we'd have nothing but insufferable safe guff to read, or AI slop. Both Hunter Thompson and Lester Bangs made all sorts of typos, but they brought energy, and Thompson did incredible first hand research.
That's what you should judge a journalist on.
Have they uncovered or documented things no one else has?
And I can safely say @damo has, in his long career. Interviews and information never documented before.
But by your metric it's all worthless because timeline was spelled wrong?
Re: Japan-Only Sequel To "Crap In A Box" Action RPG 'Blaze & Blade: Eternal Quest' Is Now Playable In English
@Daniel36 @KingMike @jojobar
This article and its replies remind me of a recurring thought:
The fate of so many games in the 80s, 90s, and even early 00s, was tied to the whims of random freelance writers, most of whom had low pay, short deadlines, and bad hangovers. I know because I was one.
I wrote my own unnecessarily harsh review for Gundam on PS3, at launch. 4 / 10 maybe? Anyway, I later went back and honestly, it's not bad. 6 or maybe 7 if you're a fan is a fairer score.
And I think to myself: how many games sold poorly, lost money, missed out on sequels, ended careers, etc., because some rando was given a game and told to hand copy in less than 24 hours later? And because the internet didn't yet have ways of amplifying signal or broadcasting video through YouTube?
I've already mentioned Gunstar Heroes, and another good example is Tombi. Today: beloved classics commanding a small fortune due to the limited quantities available. Back then: crap scores, with readers told not to buy it.
How many copies went unsold and were later destroyed as a tax write off?
I'm not saying every low scoring piece of trash was actually a masterpiece. But so many of these low scoring games were genuinely not bad, and were pleasantly good or enjoyable, and deserved better.
And the bitter irony is: there was plenty of genuine trash which got high scores!
Headhunter is another example. Mags trashed the bike sections. Personally, they were the best part for me. I used to enjoy just driving around Los Angeles, taking in the sights. Sort of like a proto-GTA III. Still, mags hated these sections, so they were cut from the sequel, which ended up bring crap due to a broken aiming system.
The past is rife with the damage done by malicious and cruel reviewers.
Re: Japan-Only Sequel To "Crap In A Box" Action RPG 'Blaze & Blade: Eternal Quest' Is Now Playable In English
That review is unnecessarily harsh. I for one really like collecting XP and then selling it.
Then again it's NextGen, the lukewarm leftovers of Edge magazine which were microwaved and sent over to America, so it doesn't surprise me. These same people gave Gunstar Heroes a 6 out of 10, and I am never, ever going to shut up about that.
Re: Classic Cute 'Em Up Series 'Cotton' To Celebrate Its 35th Anniversary With New Japan-Themed Entry
@PopetheRev28
I've been hearing about the death of shmups since the PS2 era. We faithful few will keep the ancestral songs of Hori and Tate alive, adorned in our traditional Danmaku, while hunting the fabled one-see-see.
Re: "This Is A Regret In My Life" - Sonic X-treme Designer On The "Fork In The Road" That Killed Saturn's Most Famous Unreleased Game
@SegaAges
I'd agree with this. I only suggested Ninja Penguin because it was, in effect, an already finished game by a third party. Whereas the Sonic Jam level was just a level. But when I played Jam, I hoped so badly for a full game based on that. It was wonderful.
Re: Classic Cute 'Em Up Series 'Cotton' To Celebrate Its 35th Anniversary With New Japan-Themed Entry
Feared that with today's political climate the sexy nymphs would be missing. Sees sexy nymphs are still included. Breaths a sigh of relief that Japan continues to be based with zero ***** given. Carry on Japan, carry on.
Re: "I'm Officially Debunking The Myth" - Homebrew Dev Thinks A "Faithful" SNES King Of Fighters Is Possible
@-wc-
As already pointed out, there are such things (fictional enhancement chips?), and which also work on my FPGA flashcart.
Tokimeki Memorial's fan-translation has an FMV intro and fancier CD style music.
And... Was it the homebrew ports of the NES Zelda games, where they stuck a cinematic in?
Basically you download these homebrew efforts and the extra gubbins are in the folder, and the flash cart does the rest.
Mostly it's been music and cinemas, or the Road Avenger port as mentioned. I suppose if someone wanted to, they could program a fancy 3D game like Starfox, which uses a non-existent chip, but would function via FPGA on a flash cart?
Eventually the question becomes, to what extent are you making a SNES game, or making a game that runs in FPGA and simply uses the SNES as a video output adapter?
There's probably some sort of bandwidth limitation at some point. (I am not a programmer.)
Re: "This Is A Regret In My Life" - Sonic X-treme Designer On The "Fork In The Road" That Killed Saturn's Most Famous Unreleased Game
@profkross
His behaviour isn't completely without precedent. I find that some programmers can be arrogant - and I suppose rightfully so? Their expertise facilitates everyone else's vision. They are, or were at the time, the core link between all other staff (design, art, sound, etc). Because there were no game engines back then - raw coding skill was everything.
Other programmers, like Yoshio Kiya, also had a rep for being somewhat arrogant. But again, I can see why. By achieving things no one else had, they sort of became rockstars in their sphere.
My personal opiniated guess, is that since the concept of reusable shared engines wasn't yet commonplace, another division taking Naka's code would have felt like they were stealing his glory? Maybe?
I've never interviewed Naka, but programmers in general have that lone wolf attitude. Keep in mind, at one period in the very early 1980s, like 81 or 82, games were often made by only one person: the coder.
So it's a role that emerged as an isolated position, with collaboration arriving later.
Some coders are super nice of course. Dale DeSharone let an artist live in his house until he found accomodation. But when someone says a coder is difficult to work with, it tracks. And I'm not that surprised.
Re: "This Is A Regret In My Life" - Sonic X-treme Designer On The "Fork In The Road" That Killed Saturn's Most Famous Unreleased Game
@MG4M3R
Haha! Yes. I thought so too. It happens around... The 3rd or 4th stage? The one where the triple jump become mandatory to progress. Right at this level's start there's a huge gap.
At that point they start introducing platform puzzles where you need to run and triple jump on platforms filled with enemies that instantly aggro and home in, knocking you off.
Also they start putting spike traps everywhere, so you need to do blind triple jumps and hope you don't overshoot in spikes.
Spikes, homing enemies, blind jumps, triple jumps, moving platforms, death pits, a constant timer... Hoho!
Please, please do try it. And report back.
For me the triple jump was the worst, since it had such precise timing. Sometimes the 3rd jump needed you to swap directions as you jump. The cloud level's triple jump reversal on a postage stamp is the product of a sick mind.
I hacked the gravity, which slows your fall speed, but there are no hacks to increase the jump.
You better put infinite lives on too.
I did think: it looks like it's aimed at kids, and I bet many tears were shed over it.
I finished it. Then watched a long play with commentary. The streamer said in the last level something like: "Why would you do that?! Who hurt you to make you this sadistic?"
I had to agree with them.
Looking forward to your own thoughts!
Re: "This Is A Regret In My Life" - Sonic X-treme Designer On The "Fork In The Road" That Killed Saturn's Most Famous Unreleased Game
I interviewed Chris decades ago for Retro Gamer, when I was freelancing - there are so many wild anecdotes about this game. It's crazy. Another aspect was that Yuji Naka had taken a very personal dislike to it - my memory is hazy, but one of the other teams was reusing his code from something else, to make Sonic-X, and Naka flew off the handle saying no one else was allowed to use his code. He was maniacally possessive.
This latest anecdote from Chris is new - but it's fascinating, adding yet another dimension to the chaos of mid-90s Sega, and the animosity between the US and Japanese branches. I always got the feeling the JP branch was the arrogant one, since they seemed to resent that their success in the US was due to what the Americans were doing, which was different to how they did things (bundling Sonic with the Mega Drive, anti-Nintendo ads, etc.). And then of course the jealousy between sections.
There are various rough builds of Sonic X-treme in the wild, and also fan attempts to recreate it. The biggest problem is that, fish-eye lens or not, the 3D feels like Bug on the Saturn. It just does not have that free flowing movement that Mario 64, or Tomb Raider had. Or Sonic R for that matter. Or even Ninja Penguin!
Worth looking up Ninja Penguin on the Saturn. The game is insidiously difficult - like a sadistic kaizo hack. Brutal beyond description.
But!
Its 3D engine is fantastic, and its graphics glorious.
I used a bunch of Action Replay hacks to take the slight edge off the difficulty, and honestly... Sega should have just bought the entire game, and reskinned the blue penguin as Sonic, and replaced the coins with rings.
Because in a lot of ways it looks like Sonic, and the 3D is some of the absolute best on the Saturn. As in Burning Rangers / Bulk Slash quality. Great draw distance. Lots of colourful detail. Smooth.
They could have added the ring loss mechanic, kept the levels as is, made it easier, reskinned the characters to be Tails, Robotnik etc. And you'd have had a solid 8 or 9 out of 10 Sonic game, with smooth platforming.
I bet a fan-hack could even do this.
They just need to make it easier. The base game is like doing invasive dentistry on yourself.
Now, compare Sonic R and Ninja Penguin to the playable builds of Sonic X-treme, or the above video.
X-treme is kinda fun? I was playing a fan remake a while back on an actual Saturn. It's not bad. But it's like an enhanced version of Bug. Very limited.
Glad to see Chris is still around talking about stuff.
He had a website and forum where he put all his Sonic materials, but then when I checked a few years ago and he'd removed it all.
Here's a wayback link:
https://web.archive.org/web/20120618184842/http://www.senntient.com/hire/s_xtreme.html
Maybe I should dig out my raw interview materials from 20 years ago and give them to @damo ?
Re: Anniversary: 25 Years Ago, Nintendo Put SNES Games In The Palm Of Your Hand With The GBA
My school trip to Japan coincided with the launch, so I picked one up and was playing it on the flight back. Epic memories.
In hindsight - I can't believe I put up with such a bad screen. LOL.
Re: "I Could Not Give Less Of A S**t If Anyone Else Plays Them" - Developers Behind 'Pointless' Homebrew Ports Defend Their Work
I love these ports. For example, the N64 to Dreamcast ports.
I own both an N64 with flashcart and DC with ODE. And a CRT TV. I would rather play a finely tuned DC port of an N64 game on my CRT, with improved performance, than emulating said N64 game via a PC on and LCD screen.
The port is more authentic than emulation, even though it obviously goes beyond what the N64 was capable of.
It is, for me, that perfect niche of more authentic and accurate than emulation, benefitting from a CRT display, but ever so slightly nicer than the original experience. I dare say it's probably even better than putting an N64 cart in the Analogue 3D, since that is still working with the original game, and would be upscaling for HD LCD use.
These ridiculous ports are my jam!
(Secretly hoping infidelity does a Metal Gear / Snake's Revenge port to SNES, so I can run them both side by side on my CRT.)
Re: Xbox 360, PS3 And Nintendo Wii U Are "Officially Retro", Says GameStop
@NeonPizza
Astute points. 20 years ago, when the PS3 came out and we got that JP unit in, I didn't even own a smartphone. Then the next year, someone from work mentioned being on "Facebook", which I'd not heard of until then.
Such a different innocent time. Everyone was broadly aware of the same cultural trends, even if they didn't follow them. As you point out, it was unified. Today everyone has broken off into their own little curated reality. They might watch someone online with an audience of 3 million that you or me have never even heard of.
Re: Xbox 360, PS3 And Nintendo Wii U Are "Officially Retro", Says GameStop
@MSaturn
I feel I have the same or very close POV to you. In the 90s, I would have defended the right to expression even of those I disagreed with. What I never expected was that in having such a laissez-faire attitude, it would allow people to assume positions of power in media with diametric opposite views.
I also never considered it as being a tool as you describe it. But it makes sense, given how everything has flipped around. Which is so bizarre.
I'm from the UK, but back in the day games were a smaller cottage industry with not much oversight, the same with niche magazines. It was a bit of a wild west in many ways.
I've honestly struggled to comprehend the present day. It feels like the culture I grew up in, and the norms and values I had and shared with my peers, is now gone. It's difficult to pinpoint when it happened, but maybe from around 2011 or so? It was a slow shift.
Now I don't even recognise the socio-cultural landscape any more. And speaking too loudly about the changes will incite so much rage that it hardly feels worth going online.
I never once imagined things would change like this. Change in the way you've astutely described.
I mean, I remember when Jack Thompson was yapping his mouth, and everyone banded together to protect the medium from censorial influence. And banded together when the media tried to use games as a scapegoat. Creative freedom was also paramount.
And now? We have ethics departments in American studios wagging their fingers and forcing Japanese developers to change what they're doing, and they don't know what is happening or even why.
I look at 2026 and feel like we lost the culture wars. There's an Orwellian tone of "thought crimes" pervading everything now. And should you admit to such thought crimes you get dog-piled and cancelled. I hate it so much.
Re: Xbox 360, PS3 And Nintendo Wii U Are "Officially Retro", Says GameStop
I was working on Retro Gamer magazine, in the actual office, when a Japanese import PS3 was brought it in, so the other mags could do import reviews before it launched in the UK. It felt like being on the absolute cutting edge of technology and media culture. I reviewed Gundam for Play. It wasn't great, but I knew MGS4 would eventually be out.
Has it really been 20 years?
Culture seemed so vibrant and alive back then. No moralising or moral sentinels, no pearl clutching, no cancel culture, no tyranny of virtue, no ethics departments, no sensitivity training.
Just pure freedom to make, and play, and enjoy, and write whatever the **** you wanted.
God, I miss it so badly you cannot even begin to imagine.
The kids today, the new generation that entered the media based work force, are only interesting in tearing everything up and burning it down. Someone should have filtered and kept them out.
We will never have it as good again as we had it 20 years ago.
Re: "The Sega Saturn Was Truly Ahead Of Its Time" - Here's Why Modern Games Use 'Dithering' Instead Of Transparency
This news story makes me sad. It's like when I've read about we've lost the ability to traditional artisanal things, and just use something artificial instead thinking no one will really notice or care.
I'm thinking things like rare food flavours, but we just cheaper synthetic flavours instead, or we no longer use ambergris as a fixative for perfumes. Or moulded plastic instead of hand-carved woods or metals. Or how we're losing the knowledge to make traditional Japanese ink stones, or the wooden barrels to ferment soy sauce (kioke).
Here's an article:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/travel/article/20190225-a-750-year-old-japanese-secret
And now I see this. Transparencies it would seem are the modern day videogame equivalent of kioke soy sauce. We're literally losing the ability to use proper transparencies due to the way modern hardware and graphics works. It's too complicated, or too much of a strain, so we'll just stick some holes in and call it a day.
Older games really were better. Those transparencies you saw on PS1 through to PS3, proper artistry at work.
Now all gone.
Re: This Long-Running Website Has Apparently Been Nuked From Google Thanks To AI-Written Resident Evil Review
The Escapist too?!
Oh man. I started my career on that back in 2005. The absolute best website at the time.
This is all grim reading. Media is in a very sad state of affairs. I swore 2026 couldn't possibly be worse than 2025...
(monkey's paw curls a finger)
Re: "Literally Crying Right Now" - 50 Copies Of This Adult-Only Visual Novel Demo Exist, And One Just Got Destroyed In Transit
@Eocene84
"The people on here happy about this make me sick. Seriously, people like you should be banned and then even IP banned so you can't come back."
I like this comment so much I'm quoting it.
I fully support IP bans on toxic posters ruining things for the rest of us.
In the mean time I just put them on ignore. I've got like 20+ people on my ignore list and it's just going to keep growing every time I see such posts, ROFLMAO.
I don't understand anyone here taking glee in the destruction of someone else's property. It's sickening.
I also despise the sanctimonious, puritanical, tyranny of virtue that's being espoused due to the content.
Let consenting adults buy whatever they like from other consenting adults. Nobody was exploited in the creation of this content.
The screaming pearl clutching and virtue signaling of these morality sentinels is insufferable.
Re: "Definitely Not Created By AI" - How An Innocent Conker Celebration Drew Rare Into A GenAI Debate
@RupeeClock
"It's in the same way that people are getting accused of leaving AI generated comments in discussions, because of their writing style or just trying to give a well written response."
Exactly! More than once a comment of mine on YT was accused of being AI. My profession is writer. If I give a response it will (hopefully) be intelligent, reasoned, correctly spelled, while providing references, so as to build on the discussion.
Now I'm like: eh, ***** it. And either don't comment or just hash out something quick and mispelled. Because it is rage inducing to read some low IQ response that utterly dismisses you entirely, thinking you're not real.
I generally spend very little time online now (these articles notwithstanding).
The AI conditioning also produced something disturbing recently.
I tried to watch the original Alien film, from 1979. And throughout the film are strange arbitrary visual details which are not explained. To give it a lived in feeling. The famous "agaric fly" keyboard being one.
And I knew the backstory to the film's production, and the effort to crew put into everything.
And yet my brain was constantly having an allergic reaction to it. Because AI adds lots of non-symmetrical details, and arbitrary details. So I kept having these moments of revulsion, briefly thinking: this looks like AI! Despite knowing it is not. And having to fight this feeling and sensation.
But then there would be a wall panel. Or patterns on a helmet. Or even that agaric fly keyboard. And my neurons would scream at me, that all of these have the tell-tale signa of generative AI.
A colleague suggested that the reason could be that AI was trained on richly detailed media such as this film, hence it adopts that style.
Because look up the agaric fly keyboard in HD. Look over all the keys. Doesn't it look AI? Weird nonsensical keys. Like a fever dream hallucination. But I've read interviews on its creation in 1979, and they were just trying to create a visually interesting, lived in world, with mystical elements.
AI has severely poisoned my mind and my ability to appreciate media. And I don't know how to cure this.
I despise genAI so damned much.
Re: "What A Terrible Waste Of Time All Of It Was" - Princess Crown's Original Translation Is Dead
@Henchdog
My Afrikaans is sadly terrible after all these years. I only learned it at school. But my mother was bilingual; I think it's fantastic you're keeping it alive. I hope you find the time and motivation to finish a few.
If you know anyone at SABC, I would really appreciate the ask actually! Even if it's just to confirm they remember it.
At the moment none of us know the actual name, actors, production company, anything.
So while I wouldn't expect there to be a tape in the archives, even just the recollection of it would be very helpful.
I tried emailing the SABC, but not sure if it actually reached anyone.
I know what you mean about finding stuff. Do you remember the candy easter eggs you could get, with a hard white sugar shell, abd chocolate interior? I was surprised to discover this was an SA only thing. No one in the UK has even heard of it. I'm going on holiday soon - I hope to buy a few boxes. It's my first time back in 30 years.
Other notable things I recall but can't find in the UK: Zambuck, TV Bars, and Grandpa Powders.
Also! A request...
Do you happen to have any old M-Net TV guide magazines? Circa from when it first started up until around 1999 or so? We left 95, but I'd love to see one again even from after we left.
We used to get it every month, but sadly never kept any, and now I have nostalgia for them. I ask every SA who I come across, and none do. Who keeps 35 year old TV guides?
If by some weird fluke you have one, would you be willing to sell it? I'd pay shipping from Australia to UK.
Re: "What A Terrible Waste Of Time All Of It Was" - Princess Crown's Original Translation Is Dead
@Henchdog
In fact, let me ask you, did you ever watch this lost SA film? Various people are trying to find it!
https://youtu.be/B19ru_O4pzI
Re: "What A Terrible Waste Of Time All Of It Was" - Princess Crown's Original Translation Is Dead
@Henchdog
A fellow South African? Greetings! So then... Is dit Afrikaans?
(We moved to the UK in 1995.)
Re: "What A Terrible Waste Of Time All Of It Was" - Princess Crown's Original Translation Is Dead
@Henchdog
Your native language is... (checks profile) Indigenous Aboriginee?
Probably not, but I salute your attempt to fan-translate into a language that isn't English.
I always think it's cool seeing announcements of a fan-translation into something like Polish or Norwegian, or whatever. It reminds me that the videogame industry - games culture - has for the longest time been dominated by America, with a little bit of Europe, and a sizeable portion by Japan.
Re: Zelda: Ocarina Of Time Is Being Unofficially Ported To Sega Dreamcast
@shiningpikablu252
An excellent question, but I think there's enough? It won't feel perfect, but there's technically enough.
stick = stick
start = start
Z+R = L+R
4x C buttons = 4x D-pad directions
A+B = X+A
Thus leaving the Dreamcast controller with a spare Y+B button!
Two of the yellow C buttons can be fitted to the Y+B, or just doubled up, since sometimes you want to activate a deku nut or swing a deku stick. But it'll work perfectly.
Granted, you won't have the convenience of the 4x C buttons in the upper right, but it'll be good enough. One of the C buttons is the camera, and the other 3 are items, so have 2 of them doubled on Y+B. So the d-pad will replicate the 4, and Y+B will act as a duplicate of say... the left and bottom C button?
That way when playing the Ocarina tunes, you can intuitively use the D-pad for the C button directions.
The N64's d-pad was never needed for OoT so that's fine.
I emulated OoT on the 3DS on my PC using a wired X360 controller, and it was super easy to map - I even had some leftover buttons to map touch screen hotspots. As long as the person do the port is smart and implements an optimised solution, or provides the option to remap buttons when compiling it, this will work absolutely fine.
EDIT:
just to get pedantic here...
C up = d pad up
C down = d pad down
C right = d pad right
C left = d pad left
C left = Y (duplicate)
c down = B (duplicate
This way you can put action oriented C button stuff on the Dreamcast action buttons (deku stick, hookshot, etc.). Z trigger and shield R from the N64 map nicely to L+R.
C right isn't going to have a duplicate face button, but you can just assign less important stuff to that, like using a milk jar, or activating some secondary item which is only used in low stress areas. And C-up isn't a big deal on the d-pad up direction.
By duplicating two C buttons, but keeping them all on the D-pad, this still allows you to intuitively use the ocarina music notes.
It's flawless!
Re: "What A Terrible Waste Of Time All Of It Was" - Princess Crown's Original Translation Is Dead
@PZT
I've read readme files describing the time needed to hack (not translate) certain games. Assume 12 weeks x 40 hours, that's 480 hours. Now, granted, the Mega CD is not a platform architecture I know well. That game I believe uses weird compression? And a three month schedule wouldn't be all hacking, or all translating. One side is usually idle waiting for the other to do their task. But based on my understanding of the topics, having spoken with both translators and programmers, I still feel that a professional top level programmer whose sole day job is cracking the architecture to extract the text, could do it in the time. The 90 day deadline is ambitious since one translator would struggle. I think Metal Gear Solid took Blaustein about 6 months working on his own? And that used complex military jargon. So OK, I revise my statement: 3 months to hack, 6 months to translate. Unless we had a team of 4 translators to split the workload.
Whatever. I'll admit my statement was hyperbole, if you'll admit CJ taking 14 years is excessive. I looked it up. He announced the project in 2012!
Somewhere between 90 days and 14 years is the answer to this.
Re: "What A Terrible Waste Of Time All Of It Was" - Princess Crown's Original Translation Is Dead
Let this be a lesson to everyone: do not sit on your projects thinking you have forever.
I agree with what @Phara128 says - this was never going to come out.
I say: good.
These guys sat on it for over a decade.
Then eadmaster comes in and is like: I'd like to play this, so would others, here it's done.
This is exactly what needed to happen.
There are a multitude of other fan-translations where this exact same thing needs to happen again.
CJ Iwakura has sat on Shadowrun for the Sega Mega CD for about 20 years now. Where TF is the translation already!? Nobody else wants to take on the job, out of respect for other groups who raise their hand and earmark a game.
If I had limitless wealth I would hire a hacker and a translator, and say to them: you have 90 days to release the Shadowrun CD patch, I don't care that another group is pretending to do it. 90 days and you get a bonus paycheque. This is your new day job, 40 hours a week! I'm paying you by the day! GO GO GOOOOO!!!
Enough of this nonsense. Some of these projects end up constipated and not shifting, and everyone just sits around being all: "Well gee, it'd be bad etiquette to do it ourselves."
Nah. If someone raises their hand and a decade goes by and NOTHING happens, it's fair game.
Well done to eadmaster. I hope these two have a learned a valuable lesson in speed and efficiency and not being bone idle. Their work was not a waste of time - it motivated eadmaster to get it done, and it's also a valuable life lesson they have paid for in full.
This sets a valuable precedent for the entire fan-translation community.
If you raise your hand, and you announce a project, you are beholden to get it done, not sit on it for decades like a dragon atop a pile of gold coins. "The game is mine! Only I shall translate it!"
Nope. Someone else is going to usurp you and do it themselves.
These two sat on it doing nothing since 2014. In the year 2024 it had been a decade. That's just silly nonsense.
This was absolutely the best thing to happen. THE BEST THING. Great, great work eadmaster. It needed to happen, he made it happen, now please, take all of this to heart. Absorb this lesson into the fabric of your souls.
Re: Random: I Was Pranked By These Metroid Barcode Battler Cards, And Now I Wish They Were Legit
@Bakamoichigei
I think the download has expired. It only lasts 3 days. The CMYK explanation is spot on. I leave it to you to adjust / sort.
To be honest the Zelda card game is insanely difficult I found. Even when cheating I found it borderline impossible. So the "game" could honestly just do with some fresh custom barcodes.
Re: The National Videogame Museum Has Acquired A "Mythical" Nintendo PlayStation
@Peteykins
I didn't know about any drama, so looked this up. He is sketchy as hell!
For 10 years people donated expensive games because he promised to make a museum. Then he decides just to send the games to a private company.
The worst thing I dug up though...
Guy sent Hancock CIB SNES games, under the agreement Hancock would pay a pre-agreed upon fee to buy the games.
Time goes by, the seller contacts Hancock who says he took the SNES games to a local expert, who said they're fake, so he's not paying him.
Seller refutes they were fake.
Sellers says, well, can I at least have my games back?
Hancock says no because he threw them in the bin.
ROFLMFAO
Fully boxed SNES games? Fake? I don't buy that. But let's pretend the cart, box, and manual are repros. Those are not cheap! They're just cheaper than a £500 original.
You don't just throw them in the bin.
WTF. You agreed cash on delivery, you decide you don't want them due to suspicion of forgery. YOU GIVE THEM BACK. What sort of imbecile just bins someone else's stuff?
"Some guy said it was probably fake so I just threw the cart, box, and manual in the trash and never even bothered to tell you."
Outrageous insanity.
Re: Random: I Was Pranked By These Metroid Barcode Battler Cards, And Now I Wish They Were Legit
@VITIMan @Bakamoichigei
I've just initiated a WeTransfer of a ZIP file, about 160mb, with the final PDF of the Metroid deck, and folders with the art I used. The barcodes were taken from the Zelda cards, which I had a folder of, and are not included, just to make this small.
The design program I used was a very old version of PagePlus. I've not included it since I doubt anyone can open it, and when I tried opening on my other computer it was full of dead links.
The final PDF should not have any security. Meaning you should be able to open it up and manipulate it using a powerful design software? Maybe? Anyway, that PDF was good enough for the printer.
I discovered the problem with my initial batch was that printing in colour it did not scan well. I think because the barcode section was not just black ink lines, but rather... Black lines which included colour inks, since I just dropped the scans in and did not alter the files. I hope that makes sense. I dropped in scans of the Zelda cards, which were scanned in colour, and when I zoom in I can see random colour pixels. Presumably this comes through in the printing.
Because! When I did a basic B&W photocopy of the cards, they worked flawlessly. So the size is correct, and the sharpness is fine. But the colour printing, and perhaps also the glossy finish, made them impossible to scan.
If you decide to print these, please keep this in mind. The barcode section will need adjusting into monochrome, and do not have a glossy finish.
I tried playing the game (using the photocopied cards), and it is INSANELY difficult. Impossible maybe? I'd like to readjust the barcodes to make the game much easier. Keep in mind it was just a reskin of the Zelda game. But I've moved on from this project.
The folder also contains some word docs, unused art, an excel file, and other stuff I was working with to make these. If anyone wanted to make their own card designs, the hi-res art is there, and you can probably generate your own barcodes.
I can't sell these because it's Copyright Nintendo. But if you share them online freely, maybe mention that I've got some interview books on Amazon, if people want to support me while also owning something physical (and which I have the rights to sell).
Any questions ask, but I'm kinda washing my hands of these. It was great gag to play on Damien, and I'm now moving on to the next gag!
I'll email you both too.
Re: "Time To Expose Everything" - GamersNexus Digs Into Sega's Police Raid To Reclaim Dev Kits
JUSTICE FOR DARIUS KHAN!
Re: English Translation Of Cult Dreamcast RPG SEGAGAGA Is Complete, But There's A Catch
@dodgykebaab
Just to show that I am not without a sense of humility, someone pointed out the following to me online elsewhere:
You underestimate the power of SPITE! With this fan translation pissing so many people off, the interest in a better translation for this game will more likely skyrocket. That's what happened with Suikoden on PSP (woven web of something or other) it got a very ***** machine translation, literally unedited Google Translate. Within 2 years (or so I recall) someone else made a much better patch literally out of spite.
I was completely unaware that Woven Web had two fan-translations, first a terrible Google Translate one, unedited, and then a spite fuelled proper translation.
I am going to cling to the hope that Sega fans are as passionate and as crazy as the Suiko fandom, and unite together to redo this.
Re: English Translation Of Cult Dreamcast RPG SEGAGAGA Is Complete, But There's A Catch
@dodgykebaab
Thank you for the kind words, I'm glad you enjoyed the books.
I would really like to believe your point #1 to be true. And I will eat humble pie if someone takes the tools and redoes the translation on this. But I am not the optimist.
Re: English Translation Of Cult Dreamcast RPG SEGAGAGA Is Complete, But There's A Catch
@dodgykebaab
You seem to labour under the belief I don't understand the fan translation scene.
This is a bit old now, but I wrote this:
https://hg101.kontek.net/fantranslation/Romhacking.htm
Rest assured I have followed the scene closely for over 20 years, documenting it along the way.
Re: English Translation Of Cult Dreamcast RPG SEGAGAGA Is Complete, But There's A Catch
@dodgykebaab
I need to log in to retro game talk to view these, but you appear to be showing me retranslations of retail games (Phantasy Star, Target Earth), not retranslations of fan-translations. Which tells me you didn't understand my original post.
I was confused when you claimed thousands, given I could not think of one, and I've interviewed people in the scene and written lengthy history articles on fan translation.
Now I get it: you were referring to translations of games which had commercial localisations back in the day. Which is not what I'm talking about.
Which is fine, I'll explain it again:
When a Japan only game gets fan translated, meaning it receives its first English fan translation, this has a chilling effect on other fan translators taking on the same project.
No fan group is going to say: hey, let's redo the work a rival group did!
The exception being the FF games, where there's weirdly a bunch of different fan translations.
After our earlier chat I went looking for feedback on Segagaga, and found multiple people stating the same thing as me.
When a Japan only game receives a fan translation, that's it. People are not going to do a second fan translation.
The fact you're showing me translations of games that had retail localisations proves to me you didn't get what I was saying.
The same with the apology.
As I stated clearly, in English: if Segagaga receives a second proper fan translation, I will apologise.
I'm not apologising for anything else.
I said this will never get a second fan translation, and if it does I'll apologise.
You go and list a bunch of fan translations for games that had retail localisations back in the day thinking that's the same thing.
I don't really know how to simplify this any further: fan translators don't bother making second fan translations once someone else comes out.
I mention Bangaio because by pure fluke both teams released at the same time.
Anyway, as I said:
If someone does a second Segagaga translation, properly, you go ahead and let me know.
As for this translation: I spent an hour on my desktop going through the CD Romance thread, YouTube, Reddit, and Tw/Bs, to see people's reactions. I chatted with a guy on YT briefly.
Everyone who has played it is saying the same thing. This is crap.
Re: English Translation Of Cult Dreamcast RPG SEGAGAGA Is Complete, But There's A Catch
@dodgykebaab
You want me to prove non-existence of something? You realise that's impossible, right? That's basic philosophy.
I followed the Reddit complaints with people citing other examples: in manga, adult only VNs, general games. Someone craps out a machine translation and other teams quit.
You cite 1000s. Name just 5. Some rules:
Here is my promise: if someone redoes this from scratch, @ me here. I will publicly apologise to you for my hubris. I will apologise in the new news article on it too.
I am happy to be proven wrong.
I want to be proven wrong!
We will NEVER see a proper from scratch manual translation of Segagaga, taking into account the nuance. This AI slop is all we will have forever.
Please prove me wrong. Please.
Re: English Translation Of Cult Dreamcast RPG SEGAGAGA Is Complete, But There's A Catch
@dodgykebaab
Just for the record I'm not on twitter or bluesky, that was simply the only source to find screens.
I know full well the story behind the hacking. I've been following this game's fan translation attempts since 2006.
I hear what you're saying: the main thing here is the tools. Now someone else can do the translation.
News flash: nobody is going to do anything.
Once a fan translation comes out, regardless of quality, it has a chilling effect.
Nobody else is going to touch this now.
We had one chance, one shot, this was it.
They blew it.
Don't try to placate me with "well now others can fix it".
Not gonna happen. This will be the only English version, now and forever in perpetuity. Giving me 3 options:
1) become a native level JP reader
2) play garbage
3) accept that Segagaga is dead forever and never play it
I'm going with #3
Why is it garbage Sega Saturn RPGs manage to find multiple peope to hand translate them, but this team of hackers couldn't find even ONE bilingual person to translate it, so they cheaped out with AI? Did they even advertise? "We solved the hacking! Translators apply within!"
Do not presume I am clueless on the background to this.
The previous fan translation team extracted and 100% manually translated the script, but could not reinsert it.
So why, WHY, did these chuckleducks not contact that team and collaborate?
Now it's too late.
This dumpster fire is all we will have forever now.
Re: English Translation Of Cult Dreamcast RPG SEGAGAGA Is Complete, But There's A Catch
@ja3 @HoyeBoye @ChronosZero86 @slider1983 @GhaleonUnlimited
Spent months editing it my arse.
Look at all the threads and screens on social media.
https://bsky.app/profile/moomanibe.bsky.social/post/3mfvap2dbu22a
This AI slop translation looks like unplayable dogshit.
All of the wit, and satire, and nuance, and exquisite humour in the writing has been DESECRATED.
This project has officially turned into filthy rotten trash fire.
I had been looking forward to this for so long, and everyone involved has basically poisoned the well. I'm not suffering through this crap. It's worthless.
I can only hope someone who knows what they're doing redoes it from scratch.
But seeing as it's taken 20+ years to get this, I doubt we will ever see the translation this game deserves.
To the team responsible:
I hope you're happy. Instead of finding a fan who is bilingual, laziness and impatience got the better of you, and you have KILLED Segagaga. This is an absolute disgrace.
Re: English Translation Of Cult Dreamcast RPG SEGAGAGA Is Complete, But There's A Catch
@slider1983
As pointed out by @GhaleonUnlimited - users on Reddit are saying the AI translation is dry, which is not good for a game meant to be a comedic satire.
Worse still are claims that references to Sega have been botched or messed up. This is much more severe, and I can see AI doing that. If there's a subtle play on words, the AI will miss that and just translate it based on the next expected word. Remember - these LLM are just text predictors.
I'm actually keen to see specific examples, but I can imagine it. Sega specific puns or mispelling jokes won't be picked up by a text predictor.
This is why AI is bad for this project.
The entire game is satire requiring nuance.
Re: "This Is What AI And Greed Does" - Video Game 'Preservation Service' Myrient Is Shutting Down
Myrient in many cases was the only place that hosted extremely rare aftermarket homebrew titles - games made and put out there after a system died, which are not part of any ROM set elsewhere, because it was not an official retail game.
Give how terrible fan communities are at preserving these efforts, Myrient has been my one stop go to for such obscure oddities. Notably all the weird Lynx homebrew, where the original author's website is now 404 and forgotten.
Myrient didn't forget it.
(sigh)
I don't where else you'll find some of this stuff, because it's simply not hosted anywhere else! Not even on the Internet Archive.
Re: The PC Engine Version Of Popful Mail Is Now (Partly) Playable In English
The archive page says: "The only way to play it as of now is on Retroarch with CD Speed set to X8 (must be changed in the menus for the specific core, in this case beetle PCE) or on real hardware with a turbodrive."
I have a Terraonion ODE for my PCE. Will this run? I don't feel like downloading 800mb, getting my system out, popping the micro SD, going back to my computer, configuring it to the correct file type (assuming it's not already), putting it in a new folder, going back to my PCE, popping the micro SD card back inside, hooking it up to my TV, booting into the ODE menu, trying to load the game...
Only to find that as per the archive text it does not run.
Anyone willing to take the hit and try it first then report back here?
Re: Random: "They Wanted It Dark And Sexy" - Maximo: Ghosts to Glory Artist On The "R-Rated" Version We Never Got To Play
@Martin_H
Love the slogan! I hope the T-shirt has a screencap of this scene alongside it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfVbybGk5_g
Re: Random: "They Wanted It Dark And Sexy" - Maximo: Ghosts to Glory Artist On The "R-Rated" Version We Never Got To Play
We need to bring back the sexiness in games. So many these days seem po faced and restrained, like they've been developed by Puritans and prudes. Bring back the T&A, I say!
Re: Deus Ex Designers Still Disagree On This Unique Solution To "An Immersive-Sim Problem"
@smoreon
An excellent point. With different ammo types, you'll use the gun with the most ammo, if you're being careful.
I hated this decision. I think it's beyond idiotic, I think it's bad design, and I'm shocked anyone signed off on it.
The ammo **** up in Invisible War killed the entire game for me and I didn't play more than a couple of hours. Absolute trash.
With the original I was switching between guns, and switching between ammo types constantly, same with System Shock 2 from that time period. Also Jagged Alliance 2. Different ammo types are intensely fun to play around with. Armour piercing, explosive, regular, hollow point, sabot, sedative, non-lethal, etc.
It's funny that what they say contradicts a previous thing I'd read in interviews. I'm not sure of the source, but a different interview someone stated something like:
They were testing with focus groups, and someone was complaining that it was too complicated to keep track of different ammo types, or they didn't like the fact they had to keep track of limited ammo for something, and kept getting confused, so the dev team - to "fix" this - just stripped the whole system out and implemented a single ammo pool.
I cannot stress how much I hate this new idea.
The joy of the first game was having all these tools, to be used as you see fit in different situations, and suddenly it's like: no tools for you! The whole thing was dumbed down.
One of the absolute worst design decisions in the history of videogames.
For the record: I'm fine with and love a high volume of tools to work with. Give me a hundred different weapons and 50 different ammo types to juggle. I'm not the only person who will be delighted to spend money on such a rich and complex game.