@drypaphmrbro The official reason is because the Steam client runs on... Some lame browser, Chrome or something? And that no longer supports older OS, so they can't be bothered to use bespoke software or make a workaround.
Microsoft doesn't support Linux, yet Steam does. It's not a MS issue.
@Zeebor15 Is it insane though? Databases of information such as that are the foundation upon which society is built. I don't see why such a new medium as games should not have a reliable listing for all retail releases.
There's a contact form too. Do you have access to Games Press? That's a different entity for journos, housing press releases. The Japanese GPS has an entry with further contact deets there.
The GPS is small and non-profit, so replies might be slow. But they're attempting a similar goal to yourself - albeit only JP releases.
@Zeebor15 Have you chatted with Joseph Redon of the Japanese Game Preservation Society? They're an NPO and I believe their database of JP games is public access. They don't cover doujin, and there's a cut off point (I forget when), but it may make it easier keeping track of that side.
Tempo - I don't like it personally, but some people rave about this 2D platformer
Chaotix is good in theory, but the physics actually suck. I have never mentally grasped how to play it. Both characters constantly cancel each other out. Also you can sometimes get screwed by being partnered with a statue which weighs you down.
I looked into this years back. Fascinating part of the lineage of Action RPGs. The important thing to consider here is that is achieved full colour scrolling on a PC-88. Which was a pretty big deal, since the hardware wasn't really meant to achieve it. Part of the reason Ys 1~3 was popular on PC-88 was they achieved scrolling.
Waiting for Gandhara to drop next. Another Action RPG on PC-88 with scrolling.
Since the Steam client no longer supports Windows 7, meaning I cannot download or play any of my Steam library, GOG is my new go to. Their installers still run. Also **** Steam. They support Linux, which had a SMALLER active userbase than Win7, but they threw the rest of us to the wind.
Never understood the love for Ridge Racer (or Sega Rally). I hated it - made me think the new generation was a waste of time.
I had loved Mario Kart with its 20 tracks. Ridge had three tracks. THREE! You'd see all the content in about 20 minutes. Friends were raving about it but to me there was literally no game there. It was nothingness. THREE TRACKS!! It was like a demo more than a game.
I came to love the PS1, but only much later. The launch games, for me, were vacuous nothings.
The first game I loved for it was Resident Evil. Now that was jam packed with content.
@sdelfin I might, eventually, switch. I've been considering it for years - once the faffing pushes me over a certain limit I'll do so.
However, let us now discuss photosensitivity, fellow sufferer!
How do you feel using OLED screens? I discovered recently, when using a Switch, that I have a severe sensitivity to OLED. It was my first OLED of any kind, and after 2 or 3 hours I felt dizzy, nauseaus, and had a severe migraine. The migraine lasted all the next day - one of the worst of my life. Looking it up, turns out the method for regulating brightness (pulse width modulation) affects some people.
Tested it again, same result. Swapped for an LCD and felt fine. Trawled the net to find lots of people with the same problem when using the OLED Switch or OLED TVs.
Which was a surprise, because I'd always thought photosensitivity related to epilepsy only.
@N64-ROX @sdelfin Thank you both for sharing your experiences. I feel like we should start a forum topic on OS choices.
All of these posts has put the fear into me.
Somehow my old Win7 dedktop upgraded to Win10, for free, and kept the old Win7 interface. It snaps to grid, but it's better than Win8 or whatever else came after. My brother had a Win8 laptop and I thought I was having a stroke - I couldn't "see" how to interact with it properly. Just awful.
Another reason I prefer legacy OS is using an old 2002 version of MS Word. It allowed white text on a dark blue background, which is easy on the eyes if you're a writer spending 10 hours staring at the screen.
Later updates removed this. Forcing black text on bright white. This is like writing text on a lightbulb and trying to it read it when turned on.
I felt like a mugger had punched me in the gut. They had stolen my ability to use the software.
Why?! Why does MS remove good functionality?!
Anyway both your posts, while informative, make me want to continue using legacy rigs, but then have a cheap laptop for online use. I'll do work on the legacy rigs, then hop on the Win11 laptop just to use Firefox and connect online for banking etc.
I'm too old and tired for faffing about endlessly with new OS.
My time on the leading edge of technology has ended.
@sdelfin Yeah, I don't use forums anymore. Too much meanness these days. Everyone always angry.
The PCE with TerraOnion is incredible. I run it via RGB on a CRT. The only downside is you don't have QOL stuff like save states or cheats.
Re Linux: what prompted the switch? Given how awful Windows has become, when they stop support for Win10, I was thinking maybe I should switch too.
Biggest complaint: Microsoft disabled the ability to turn off suto-arrange in folders. I had to hack my registry to get it on Win7.
I'm very visually oriented, so I need files inside folders to ve clustered in groups at different places. Bottom left is WIP. Bottom right backburner folders. Etc. I walk my mouse and my eyes between the gaps like a man wabsering a warehouse.
When Win10 didn't allow registry hacking, and every folder is a filled grid pattern wiyh no gaps, my brain switches off and I literally struggle to see anything.
Does Linux allow old school folder visualisation?
This probably sounds a bit mad. Trying to explain it is often met with confusion unless I have visual aids.
Of the 32 bit era it's my favourite system. Not for nostalgia - I bought in after it was dead. But because I discovered it offered various games I couldn't experience anywhere else.
It's 2024 and there's still not really anything quite like (or as good) as the original Dragon Force. Not even its own sequel. Nothing like Dark Savior. Nothing as divine as Panzer Dragoon Saga.
You know the rest of this list. A long list of defiant weirdness.
Even the games with similar equivalents, like Bulk Slash. Sure there are mecha games on PS3 et al. But Bulk Slash had so much colour.
I prefer Saturn because there's a unique flavour found nowhere else.
And if I'm wrong, please tell me! Because I really, REALLY want to scratch that Dragon Force itch.
@sdelfin And the worst thing? What sanctimonious ***** the authors are when you try to point out these problems.
The PCE / TG16 fan scene is populated by the most unpleasant human beings I have met on the internet.
Their responses range from "you should only be using original discs not pirating" to "you need to learn how to use command lines" or "it works for me so it must be fine".
Not one of them seems remotely interested or capable of creating a functional emulator that works as smoothly as various others.
There's a forum they all hang out on. Half the members are banned. Most of them dislike me immensely. Last I checked there was a forum topic dedicated to trash talking me. Utterly loathsome sub-humans.
second message
@sdelfin
So I ended up in this super ****ed up situation where I'd try to download a game, and to save download space it'd be data and APE files, or WAVs, or some crap I had to convert. When I tried ripping my own discs there'd be errors, or bytes out of alignment. Or I'd download a single ready to burn ISO which the emus couldn't handle, because the authors are idiots and only allowed mixed file folders.
So I would then burn this ISO to CD-RW, then I would rip this CD-RW into the required mixed data/audio format. Every. Single. ****ing. Time. And I did it over 50 times to play the games I wanted.
So I'm ready to go, right? I've download an ISO, burned it to CD-RW, then ripped that to iso/mp3 format, and I have the correct cracked emu (because I refuse to pay for crap that won't work right), so now, at last, I can play? Right?
Nope!
Do you have a TOC? Do you know what a TOC is? Without a TOC nothing runs! So I try to make a TOC using the ripping program and CD-RW disc. "Sorry this TOC does not match the directory of files". So I try downloading a TOC. "Sorry this TOC does not match the game you are trying to load."
Eventually I swapped to MednafenX on the OG Xbox, which came with every TOC. I had to rip all my games as usual, but I could select the right TOC from a list and force it to run. No PCE CD emulator should ever ask about TOC. These should be baked in and auto-detected. Why?! WHY does it even ask for a TOC and refuse to run without one? Logically I cannot understand this. If it needs a TOC to function then it should come with TOCs. They're not like BIOS, they're a Table of Contents, so like a CUE file. But, you still needed a CUE file anyway! That's the insane thing! You needed a TOC and a CUE!
There were all sorts of sound problems. Audio mixing problems. And if I wanted a new game I'd have to go through the above 30 minute process.
I hated it! So eventually I just bought a PCE with TerraOnion.
Now?
Download game from CDRomance, enjoy.
No fuss. No problems.
I cannot fathom how in 2024 the PCE CD emu scene can be such an abhorrent trainwreck.
Look at BigP. For Jag CD games you just load and go. No fuss.
For PCE CD emulation... Let me ask you: have you got a TOC? Is it the right TOC? Does this TOC match the file length of the ISO data track? Did you name the data track and audio tracks correctly? Do those names match the CUE file? Is the TOC and the CUE file named correctly? Are you absolutely sure that god damned TOC is set-up right?
@sdelfin Thanks for the polite write up. Kudos also for battling through with command lines. I too took the time to learn them, and then created BAT files to make it easier (specifically with CDi emulation; I ended up making a custom BAT for for each game). Once I learned how I felt only resentment for having been made to do so. Some authors claim it improves performance not having a GUI, but they're just lazy. GUIs have not impacted performance since after the millennium. Jeez, upgrade your rig if the few megabytes of RAM needed are dragging your system down.
So, PCE CD emulation. Good question.
I've since stopped even trying, and bought a PC Engine with a TerraOnion add-on to run CD games flawlessly. So maybe they fixed it in the last few years, I dunno.
But basically all the authors seem to be raging nutjobs who INSIST on making the interface as annoying as possible.
I'm just gonna list random things I despise about PCE CD emulation.
1) Scum authors who refuse to allow ISO use, forcing the need for the CD, because "I don't want to encourage piracy." Yeah, they can GTF. That system hasn't been commercially viable since 1993. This forces you to burn CDRW or image mount. I have never found a decent image mounting program that did not BSOD my to death. Every computer I've loaded DaemonTools or whatever on to has died in about a month. Malware? Probably.
2) Eventually some emulators starting allowing ISOs. Except not in any normal or easy to use way. I don't want to have to rip it into some weird data/audio ISO/MP3 mixed format. I just want to use one file ISOs.
Why can't they code this to work right? There's always some lame excuse about mixed data/audio being more accurate or some crap. Again, they can GTF with that childish nonsense.
Rich Whitehouse is a legend. He had (has?) cancer and still kept trucking with the emulator - and on PC it's flawless, including Jag CD support. I was tempted to buy a Jag again, but this emu is better than the real thing, with lots of neat QOL extras. So I bought a Jag controller and an adapter.
It's also the best emulator I've seen. Portable, no installs. Lots of easy to use options. Great filters. Just and click and go. No tricky set-up. I don't know why people like or use trash such as RetroArch - you spend hours fiddling and still nothing works! BigP just works, first time, no fuss. The rest of the emulation community can learn from Rich Whitehouse. (Is PC Engine CD-ROM emulation fixed yet? Because that has been a dumpster fire for over 20 years.)
I hope Rich finds success and money with this new release.
€5 for a port of a Nintendo game available elsewhere? Why would anyone pay €5 to play an inferior port when you can buy an accurate port from Nintendo for other systems?
I was ready to defend the guy assuming it was just a freebie. But this is well cheeky.
I'm not saying this because I want it without paying. I wouldn't play it if you gifted it to me.
But there's a big difference between fan-made games shared with everyone out of passion, which get unfairly taken down (ie: AM2R), and this, where a guy copied and then sells a copyrighted game.
I look at the intensity of emotion those customers are feeling, so strong that they're queueing and desperate to own a dinky little 8-bit title, and I ask myself: will I ever feel that level of excitement about a new game again?
I did in the past for some things. FF7. The N64. Valkyria Chronicles. But the volume has decreased with time, as has the intensity of excitement.
Age, or a reflection of where modern games are now?
@slider1983
Oh I know! I watched most of them back in the day. But given lack of time, and the fact I know the original gags, RTS' condensed commentaries on provide nostalgia, fill in episodes I missed, and provide insight, all in less time than it would take to rewatch the originals.
@GlamorousAlpaca He condensed 10 episodes of GM (5 hours worth) into 90s minutes, with analysis, summaries, insight, and jokes.
I have zero interest in sitting through the original series, but he put the work into producing something analytical and entertaining. This is not a breach of copyright. It's transformative as someone said.
Stolar was a bad, bad person. Just a terrible businessman all round. Awful POV. Shortsighted.
Separate point, unrelated to Stolar:
But Sega of America... Damn. I have heard nothing but insane self-defeating craziness about that company (from insiders). Sega Japan too. So self destructive. So many internal conflicts.
Pity Vic didn't name the Sega USA person resonsible for the PSIV debacle.
"Ya no duermo, debo permanecer despierto. ANALOGUE usa su tecnología para leer mi mente, succiona mis pensamientos, para robar mis ideas. Una guerra psíquica que usa telépatas arcanos. Así que me balanceo hacia adelante y hacia atrás. No puedo dormir. El payaso me comerá. Papá Sega me protegerá. Debo proteger a papá Sega de que ANALOGUE no le quite sus poderes. ¡USB conectado a 500 gigavatios de jugo de electrones!"
allegedly an unverified statement from Alejandro Martin
Thank you to all for battery recs - I also didn't even realise it could be modded for newer batteries! Though to be fair, 90% of the time I use it plugged in. Will try Ostent first.
All the third-party batteries I've bought for the PSP die within a month or less. In my experience they are all garbage - seemingly cheap Chinese knock-offs that don't work or hold a charge. Nothing like the Sony originals.
Can anyone recommend a good working third-party PSP battery please?
Look on the back of the UK manual for FF7. See how it says to try beating it without a memory card? (It's an advert to buy mem cards.)
I told my school chum that finishing FF7 without a memory card brings Aerith back. That's why the manual challenged you to do so - it was giving you a hint on how to do it!
I've seen several fan-trans groups over the years lay claim to a game, do 10%, then let it rot for years and years. No one else wants to then take it on, because group XYZ are working on it.
Like someone else said, this is akin to holding the game hostage.
Either get it done, or publicly announce you abandon it and let others get on with it.
In 20 years I've seen this countless times! Someone asks on the RHDN forum: "I'm fluent in Japanese / a master hacker, anyone want to team up on COOL GAME?"
Rando: "Don't you dare touch COOL GAME! Fifteen years ago LAZYGUYS called dibs on that. They're 7% done, just give them time! Thread locked!"
@GravyThief This was exactly my situation. As a teen it seemed so cerebral. The fan retranslation is very good; very professional. Funny, silly, exciting, serious where needed. The story made more sense - notably Red XIII dialogue. Two soldiers in Midgar having a conversation.
Full disclosure: I only reached the Yufi island bit, I still need to finish it. I was playing both versions of Midgar side by side which burned me out a little.
But I love the retranslation because it's gone ftom this bizarro sci-fi nonsense to something I actually understand. The Jenova experiments by Shinra, etc.
If you ever replay it, give the fan version a try.
Square spent years, and millions, crafting this gem in Japanese, and then... Just crapped out some translations as quickly and cheaply as possible, reckoning it was good enough, because they wanted to rush it to market.
Man. I am glad we moved beyond 90s era localisations.
I played the English fan retranslation, and it highlights what an incoherent hack botch job the official English localisation was. I loved it at the time but know better now. (I actually played the entirety of Midgar in tandem, comparing the two; the original was baaaad and nonsensical in places.)
Ice Climber on Famicom also had the seals swapped for little yeti creatures. I grew up playing the JP version so found it weird after emigrating and seeing the game again in the UK.
Dev anecdotes like these from various staff are intensely fascinating.
@MSaturn I also subbed to Play! In the UK though - everyone here mixes up Halvey's Play with the UK PlayStation Play. Were you a US subscriber or UK? I ended up with all the issues from... I think the Sonic 2006 issue, right up to the last, Mass Effect 2 issue. Which Julie had to personally send because by that point foreign subscribers weren't getting them.
That was honestly the last print magazine I actually enjoyed.
I went through them recently. Still fantastic. Epic 10 to 12 page interviews. Like the Persona 4 issue. A normal 4 page review, followed by... I want to say 8 pages of interviews, but it might be 6, or even 10. Whatever, they did incredible long form interviews.
@GhaleonUnlimited
There is no way for me to make a repro Virtual Boy cartridge at home. Not without buying a ton of expensive equipment. The price was fair.
They use fan patches and translations, but had permission from the authors (I've seen them all hang out on the VB forums too).
So if everyone is a consenting adult, then I'm quite happy giving money for said products. Again, £30 for Jack Bros versus £1000 for Jack Bros? No question.
VB flash carts SUCK so badly. I need to reflash the ROM each time. I bought a cheap £100 flash cart. The one with the onboard flasher is £250+. So I figured, I just want 5 specific carts. It was cheaper to buy those 5 than a flash cart.
I now have a set of nice looking cartridges for each game that works. Plus Wario now has a fancy flash-RAM save, instead of hattery powered! To me these cartridges are valuable and cost effective. I love them.
Just to give a scalper example: I spoke with a guy who buys up every game for a certain hardware format on eBay. If it's below a certain price he bids or BINs automatically. He then flips it for 4x that price. And over two years I monitored him hoover up every title and flip them. I only stumbled across this because he was bidding (and won) a game I was selling, despite having that same game on his eBay store page for 4x the price.
Was tempted to name and shame. Then I figured I don't want some crazy fraudster targetting me.
I hate these speculators though. Truly hate them.
When I asked him, he openly admitted it's his hobby.
@GhaleonUnlimited Modern retro collector is a depressing hellscape of scalpers and speculators.
Put the English ROM on? Do you desolder the PCB ROM and replace it?
I basically now use flashcarts or ODE, buying physical only where needed. Paid £100 for WarioWare Twisted on GBA, because the gyroscope can't be replicated.
Comments 534
Re: Linda Cube Rights Transfer Reignites Hopes That The Cult Classic RPG Could Get A Remaster
@Zeebor15
Pretty much anyone can get access to Games Press. Try the GPS site - there's a form and address.
They're pretty good with helping people. They exist to provide this data.
Re: GOG Plans To Preserve "At Least 500 Games" Through Its New Program By The End Of 2025
@drypaphmrbro
The official reason is because the Steam client runs on... Some lame browser, Chrome or something? And that no longer supports older OS, so they can't be bothered to use bespoke software or make a workaround.
Microsoft doesn't support Linux, yet Steam does. It's not a MS issue.
Re: Powermonger's Developers Hated Its Name, But The Alternatives Weren't Much Better
I remember first reading the title "Three Dirty Dwarves" for an unseen game and had to investigate. Turned out to be an all time favourite.
So I totally would have looked up Rupert the Battlesheep.
Re: Linda Cube Rights Transfer Reignites Hopes That The Cult Classic RPG Could Get A Remaster
@Zeebor15
Is it insane though? Databases of information such as that are the foundation upon which society is built. I don't see why such a new medium as games should not have a reliable listing for all retail releases.
Here's the web URL with info:
https://www.gamepres.org/en/dbsearch/
There's a contact form too. Do you have access to Games Press? That's a different entity for journos, housing press releases. The Japanese GPS has an entry with further contact deets there.
The GPS is small and non-profit, so replies might be slow. But they're attempting a similar goal to yourself - albeit only JP releases.
Re: Linda Cube Rights Transfer Reignites Hopes That The Cult Classic RPG Could Get A Remaster
@Zeebor15
Have you chatted with Joseph Redon of the Japanese Game Preservation Society? They're an NPO and I believe their database of JP games is public access. They don't cover doujin, and there's a cut off point (I forget when), but it may make it easier keeping track of that side.
Re: Don't Forget The Sega 32X Turns 30 This Year, Too
@HammerGalladeBro
Kolibri is great (2D shooter with hummingbird)
Metal Head is good (mecha combat)
Tempo - I don't like it personally, but some people rave about this 2D platformer
Chaotix is good in theory, but the physics actually suck. I have never mentally grasped how to play it. Both characters constantly cancel each other out. Also you can sometimes get screwed by being partnered with a statue which weighs you down.
Re: Random House's PC-88 RPG 'Riglas' Arrives On Nintendo Switch Today
I looked into this years back. Fascinating part of the lineage of Action RPGs. The important thing to consider here is that is achieved full colour scrolling on a PC-88. Which was a pretty big deal, since the hardware wasn't really meant to achieve it. Part of the reason Ys 1~3 was popular on PC-88 was they achieved scrolling.
Waiting for Gandhara to drop next. Another Action RPG on PC-88 with scrolling.
Re: GOG Plans To Preserve "At Least 500 Games" Through Its New Program By The End Of 2025
Since the Steam client no longer supports Windows 7, meaning I cannot download or play any of my Steam library, GOG is my new go to. Their installers still run. Also **** Steam. They support Linux, which had a SMALLER active userbase than Win7, but they threw the rest of us to the wind.
Re: Linda Cube Rights Transfer Reignites Hopes That The Cult Classic RPG Could Get A Remaster
I have had the fan-translation on my PSIO for ages now.
Been playing a lot of RPGs recently though, so taking a break.
For those who have played it - should it be bumped higher on the "to play" list?
Re: Anniversary: 30 Years Ago Today, PlayStation Changed Video Games Forever
Never understood the love for Ridge Racer (or Sega Rally). I hated it - made me think the new generation was a waste of time.
I had loved Mario Kart with its 20 tracks. Ridge had three tracks. THREE! You'd see all the content in about 20 minutes. Friends were raving about it but to me there was literally no game there. It was nothingness. THREE TRACKS!! It was like a demo more than a game.
I came to love the PS1, but only much later. The launch games, for me, were vacuous nothings.
The first game I loved for it was Resident Evil. Now that was jam packed with content.
Re: Atari Jaguar Emulation Has Arrived On iPhone
@sdelfin Good luck - you're aware of it so can take appropriate actions if feeling unwell.
I was honestly really shocked to discover this aspect of OLED.
I kept thinking it had to be something else, but a repeat attempt confirmed it.
I avoid them now.
Re: Star Fox 64 Is Getting A Fanmade PC Port With High Framerate Support
Will it work on Windows 7?
The Mystical Ninja 64 port only worked on Win10 and above.
Re: Atari Jaguar Emulation Has Arrived On iPhone
@sdelfin
I might, eventually, switch. I've been considering it for years - once the faffing pushes me over a certain limit I'll do so.
However, let us now discuss photosensitivity, fellow sufferer!
How do you feel using OLED screens? I discovered recently, when using a Switch, that I have a severe sensitivity to OLED. It was my first OLED of any kind, and after 2 or 3 hours I felt dizzy, nauseaus, and had a severe migraine. The migraine lasted all the next day - one of the worst of my life. Looking it up, turns out the method for regulating brightness (pulse width modulation) affects some people.
Tested it again, same result. Swapped for an LCD and felt fine. Trawled the net to find lots of people with the same problem when using the OLED Switch or OLED TVs.
Which was a surprise, because I'd always thought photosensitivity related to epilepsy only.
Does OLED affect you?
Re: Atari Jaguar Emulation Has Arrived On iPhone
@N64-ROX
@sdelfin
Thank you both for sharing your experiences. I feel like we should start a forum topic on OS choices.
All of these posts has put the fear into me.
Somehow my old Win7 dedktop upgraded to Win10, for free, and kept the old Win7 interface. It snaps to grid, but it's better than Win8 or whatever else came after. My brother had a Win8 laptop and I thought I was having a stroke - I couldn't "see" how to interact with it properly. Just awful.
Another reason I prefer legacy OS is using an old 2002 version of MS Word. It allowed white text on a dark blue background, which is easy on the eyes if you're a writer spending 10 hours staring at the screen.
Later updates removed this. Forcing black text on bright white. This is like writing text on a lightbulb and trying to it read it when turned on.
I felt like a mugger had punched me in the gut. They had stolen my ability to use the software.
Why?! Why does MS remove good functionality?!
Anyway both your posts, while informative, make me want to continue using legacy rigs, but then have a cheap laptop for online use. I'll do work on the legacy rigs, then hop on the Win11 laptop just to use Firefox and connect online for banking etc.
I'm too old and tired for faffing about endlessly with new OS.
My time on the leading edge of technology has ended.
Re: Atari Jaguar Emulation Has Arrived On iPhone
@sdelfin
Yeah, I don't use forums anymore. Too much meanness these days. Everyone always angry.
The PCE with TerraOnion is incredible. I run it via RGB on a CRT. The only downside is you don't have QOL stuff like save states or cheats.
Re Linux: what prompted the switch? Given how awful Windows has become, when they stop support for Win10, I was thinking maybe I should switch too.
Biggest complaint: Microsoft disabled the ability to turn off suto-arrange in folders. I had to hack my registry to get it on Win7.
I'm very visually oriented, so I need files inside folders to ve clustered in groups at different places. Bottom left is WIP. Bottom right backburner folders. Etc. I walk my mouse and my eyes between the gaps like a man wabsering a warehouse.
When Win10 didn't allow registry hacking, and every folder is a filled grid pattern wiyh no gaps, my brain switches off and I literally struggle to see anything.
Does Linux allow old school folder visualisation?
This probably sounds a bit mad. Trying to explain it is often met with confusion unless I have visual aids.
Re: Anniversary: Sega Saturn, The Most Successful Console "Flop" Of All Time, Turns 30 Today
Of the 32 bit era it's my favourite system. Not for nostalgia - I bought in after it was dead. But because I discovered it offered various games I couldn't experience anywhere else.
It's 2024 and there's still not really anything quite like (or as good) as the original Dragon Force. Not even its own sequel. Nothing like Dark Savior. Nothing as divine as Panzer Dragoon Saga.
You know the rest of this list. A long list of defiant weirdness.
Even the games with similar equivalents, like Bulk Slash. Sure there are mecha games on PS3 et al. But Bulk Slash had so much colour.
I prefer Saturn because there's a unique flavour found nowhere else.
And if I'm wrong, please tell me! Because I really, REALLY want to scratch that Dragon Force itch.
Re: Atari Jaguar Emulation Has Arrived On iPhone
@sdelfin
And the worst thing? What sanctimonious ***** the authors are when you try to point out these problems.
The PCE / TG16 fan scene is populated by the most unpleasant human beings I have met on the internet.
Their responses range from "you should only be using original discs not pirating" to "you need to learn how to use command lines" or "it works for me so it must be fine".
Not one of them seems remotely interested or capable of creating a functional emulator that works as smoothly as various others.
There's a forum they all hang out on. Half the members are banned. Most of them dislike me immensely. Last I checked there was a forum topic dedicated to trash talking me. Utterly loathsome sub-humans.
Re: Atari Jaguar Emulation Has Arrived On iPhone
second message
@sdelfin
So I ended up in this super ****ed up situation where I'd try to download a game, and to save download space it'd be data and APE files, or WAVs, or some crap I had to convert. When I tried ripping my own discs there'd be errors, or bytes out of alignment. Or I'd download a single ready to burn ISO which the emus couldn't handle, because the authors are idiots and only allowed mixed file folders.
So I would then burn this ISO to CD-RW, then I would rip this CD-RW into the required mixed data/audio format. Every. Single. ****ing. Time. And I did it over 50 times to play the games I wanted.
So I'm ready to go, right? I've download an ISO, burned it to CD-RW, then ripped that to iso/mp3 format, and I have the correct cracked emu (because I refuse to pay for crap that won't work right), so now, at last, I can play? Right?
Nope!
Do you have a TOC? Do you know what a TOC is? Without a TOC nothing runs! So I try to make a TOC using the ripping program and CD-RW disc. "Sorry this TOC does not match the directory of files". So I try downloading a TOC. "Sorry this TOC does not match the game you are trying to load."
Eventually I swapped to MednafenX on the OG Xbox, which came with every TOC. I had to rip all my games as usual, but I could select the right TOC from a list and force it to run. No PCE CD emulator should ever ask about TOC. These should be baked in and auto-detected. Why?! WHY does it even ask for a TOC and refuse to run without one? Logically I cannot understand this. If it needs a TOC to function then it should come with TOCs. They're not like BIOS, they're a Table of Contents, so like a CUE file. But, you still needed a CUE file anyway! That's the insane thing! You needed a TOC and a CUE!
There were all sorts of sound problems. Audio mixing problems. And if I wanted a new game I'd have to go through the above 30 minute process.
I hated it! So eventually I just bought a PCE with TerraOnion.
Now?
Download game from CDRomance, enjoy.
No fuss. No problems.
I cannot fathom how in 2024 the PCE CD emu scene can be such an abhorrent trainwreck.
Look at BigP. For Jag CD games you just load and go. No fuss.
For PCE CD emulation... Let me ask you: have you got a TOC? Is it the right TOC? Does this TOC match the file length of the ISO data track? Did you name the data track and audio tracks correctly? Do those names match the CUE file? Is the TOC and the CUE file named correctly? Are you absolutely sure that god damned TOC is set-up right?
Rage inducing. Absolute rage inducing.
Re: Atari Jaguar Emulation Has Arrived On iPhone
@sdelfin
Thanks for the polite write up. Kudos also for battling through with command lines. I too took the time to learn them, and then created BAT files to make it easier (specifically with CDi emulation; I ended up making a custom BAT for for each game). Once I learned how I felt only resentment for having been made to do so. Some authors claim it improves performance not having a GUI, but they're just lazy. GUIs have not impacted performance since after the millennium. Jeez, upgrade your rig if the few megabytes of RAM needed are dragging your system down.
So, PCE CD emulation. Good question.
I've since stopped even trying, and bought a PC Engine with a TerraOnion add-on to run CD games flawlessly. So maybe they fixed it in the last few years, I dunno.
But basically all the authors seem to be raging nutjobs who INSIST on making the interface as annoying as possible.
I'm just gonna list random things I despise about PCE CD emulation.
1) Scum authors who refuse to allow ISO use, forcing the need for the CD, because "I don't want to encourage piracy." Yeah, they can GTF. That system hasn't been commercially viable since 1993. This forces you to burn CDRW or image mount. I have never found a decent image mounting program that did not BSOD my to death. Every computer I've loaded DaemonTools or whatever on to has died in about a month. Malware? Probably.
2) Eventually some emulators starting allowing ISOs. Except not in any normal or easy to use way. I don't want to have to rip it into some weird data/audio ISO/MP3 mixed format. I just want to use one file ISOs.
Why can't they code this to work right? There's always some lame excuse about mixed data/audio being more accurate or some crap. Again, they can GTF with that childish nonsense.
Re: Atari Jaguar Emulation Is Coming To iPhone Today
Rich Whitehouse is a legend. He had (has?) cancer and still kept trucking with the emulator - and on PC it's flawless, including Jag CD support. I was tempted to buy a Jag again, but this emu is better than the real thing, with lots of neat QOL extras. So I bought a Jag controller and an adapter.
It's also the best emulator I've seen. Portable, no installs. Lots of easy to use options. Great filters. Just and click and go. No tricky set-up. I don't know why people like or use trash such as RetroArch - you spend hours fiddling and still nothing works! BigP just works, first time, no fuss. The rest of the emulation community can learn from Rich Whitehouse. (Is PC Engine CD-ROM emulation fixed yet? Because that has been a dumpster fire for over 20 years.)
I hope Rich finds success and money with this new release.
Re: How Do You Improve Street Fighter II? By Adding RPG-Style Experience Points, Of Course
I'd like to play a SFII RPG akin to the Samurai Spirits RPG.
Re: The ZX Spectrum Just Got An Amazing New Donkey Kong Port, But Don't Expect It To Be Around Long
€5 for a port of a Nintendo game available elsewhere? Why would anyone pay €5 to play an inferior port when you can buy an accurate port from Nintendo for other systems?
I was ready to defend the guy assuming it was just a freebie. But this is well cheeky.
I'm not saying this because I want it without paying. I wouldn't play it if you gifted it to me.
But there's a big difference between fan-made games shared with everyone out of passion, which get unfairly taken down (ie: AM2R), and this, where a guy copied and then sells a copyrighted game.
Re: Remember When Dragon Quest III's Launch Triggered Arrests In Japan?
I look at the intensity of emotion those customers are feeling, so strong that they're queueing and desperate to own a dinky little 8-bit title, and I ask myself: will I ever feel that level of excitement about a new game again?
I did in the past for some things. FF7. The N64. Valkyria Chronicles. But the volume has decreased with time, as has the intensity of excitement.
Age, or a reflection of where modern games are now?
Re: "Thank You To Every One That Boosted This" - Terminated YouTube Retro Gaming Channel Gets Reinstated
@slider1983
Oh I know! I watched most of them back in the day. But given lack of time, and the fact I know the original gags, RTS' condensed commentaries on provide nostalgia, fill in episodes I missed, and provide insight, all in less time than it would take to rewatch the originals.
Re: "A Slap In The Face Of All Creators" - YouTube Terminates Popular Retro Gaming Channel Without Warning
@GlamorousAlpaca
He condensed 10 episodes of GM (5 hours worth) into 90s minutes, with analysis, summaries, insight, and jokes.
I have zero interest in sitting through the original series, but he put the work into producing something analytical and entertaining. This is not a breach of copyright. It's transformative as someone said.
I fail to see the problem here.
Re: "A Slap In The Face Of All Creators" - YouTube Terminates Popular Retro Gaming Channel Without Warning
I've been bingeing his GamesMaster series. Hilarious, wonderful work. Which led to me viewing his back catalogue of videos.
Baffled his entire channel was deleted. Nothing remotely offensive anywhere. Gutted actually. Was looking forward to my next binge.
YouTube today actually deleted one of the vids on my channel (non-game related). Been up for years. No problems.
Besides RTS, two other channels I follow got hit with demonetisation this past month.
The algorithm has def changed recently.
Re: Flashback: "The S**t Absolutely Hit The Fan" - When WipEout (And Sara Cox's Bloody Nose) Shocked A Nation
I assumed they'd been in a car accident. Because it's a racing game. Never even considered drugs.
Re: Sega Wanted Phantasy Star IV To Flop In The West, Hence The Sky-High $100 Price
@UK_Kev
I know. I was making two diff points.
Stolar was bad.
Sega was always in conflict.
In the podcast Vic says a lot about Stolar; and I've read plenty elsewhere. He was toxic to the industry.
Re: Lunar Remastered Won't (Currently) Include The Original English Voice Acting, But It's Been Offered "For Cheap"
I love WD.
Victor Ireland is also a really cool person to interview. He's not just a suit, but an enthusiast like us.
They get a free pass from me. In 1992 no company was localising weird coold Japanese games. They did it first.
Atlus gets a lot of good press. But look at their Persona 1 localisation. Absolute butchered trash.
Vic allowed me to play games I would never had access to.
Popful Mail benefitted from a higher difficulty. Dragon Force was thanks to him.
Did he make mistakes? Sure. But I can forgive them.
Fun fact: I was part of a group of journos he called upon to help try pursuade Sony to allow Goemon on PS2.
Re: Sega Wanted Phantasy Star IV To Flop In The West, Hence The Sky-High $100 Price
Stolar was a bad, bad person. Just a terrible businessman all round. Awful POV. Shortsighted.
Separate point, unrelated to Stolar:
But Sega of America... Damn. I have heard nothing but insane self-defeating craziness about that company (from insiders). Sega Japan too. So self destructive. So many internal conflicts.
Pity Vic didn't name the Sega USA person resonsible for the PSIV debacle.
Craziness!
Re: This Proto-GamesMaster TV Show Predicted Our Impending AI Hellscape 40 Years Ago
It seemed so optimistic back then.
Anyone else hate carrying around a constantly online computer? Or is it just me?
The promised paradise has turned out to be nightmarish.
Re: SuperSega Explains Why It Produces Such "Crappy" Videos, Says It's Afraid Analogue Will Steal Its Ideas
"Ya no duermo, debo permanecer despierto. ANALOGUE usa su tecnología para leer mi mente, succiona mis pensamientos, para robar mis ideas. Una guerra psíquica que usa telépatas arcanos. Así que me balanceo hacia adelante y hacia atrás. No puedo dormir. El payaso me comerá. Papá Sega me protegerá. Debo proteger a papá Sega de que ANALOGUE no le quite sus poderes. ¡USB conectado a 500 gigavatios de jugo de electrones!"
I machine translated it and it seems plausible.
Re: Next-Generation Dreamcast VMUs Are Getting An Absolutely Essential Feature
@BulkSlash
Yup. Bricked one VMU doing that with Shenmue. Well, not forever. But all the saves on it were corrupted and it needing formatting.
I kept a piece of paper nearby after that, listing what on each VMU.
Never hotswap VMU. I thought it would be fine as long as I was at the title screen, not the load menu. I was young.
Re: PSA: Check Your PSP Battery Right Now
Thank you to all for battery recs - I also didn't even realise it could be modded for newer batteries! Though to be fair, 90% of the time I use it plugged in. Will try Ostent first.
Re: "There Are No Bad Options" - The SNES 2CHIP Vs 1CHIP Debate Just Got Put To Bed
I have a 50/60hz modded PAL 2CHIP SNES.
What is the best and easiest option to mod this sucker for razor sharp RGB SCART output?
Re: PSA: Check Your PSP Battery Right Now
All the third-party batteries I've bought for the PSP die within a month or less. In my experience they are all garbage - seemingly cheap Chinese knock-offs that don't work or hold a charge. Nothing like the Sony originals.
Can anyone recommend a good working third-party PSP battery please?
Re: Final Fantasy VII Speedrunners Have Found A Way To Save Aerith In The PS1 Original With Glitches
Look on the back of the UK manual for FF7. See how it says to try beating it without a memory card? (It's an advert to buy mem cards.)
I told my school chum that finishing FF7 without a memory card brings Aerith back. That's why the manual challenged you to do so - it was giving you a hint on how to do it!
He was unable to prove me wrong. LOL!
That's the only true way to revive her.
Re: There's Some Drama Surrounding The New Princess Crown English Patch
Snooze you lose
I've seen several fan-trans groups over the years lay claim to a game, do 10%, then let it rot for years and years. No one else wants to then take it on, because group XYZ are working on it.
Like someone else said, this is akin to holding the game hostage.
Either get it done, or publicly announce you abandon it and let others get on with it.
In 20 years I've seen this countless times! Someone asks on the RHDN forum: "I'm fluent in Japanese / a master hacker, anyone want to team up on COOL GAME?"
Rando: "Don't you dare touch COOL GAME! Fifteen years ago LAZYGUYS called dibs on that. They're 7% done, just give them time! Thread locked!"
Honestly sick of that crap.
Also, everything @Cyber_Akuma said.
Re: Random: Did You Know Super Spacefortress Macross Is "Probably The Most Seen Arcade Game In British History"?
I have never once seen an episode of Eastenders. But this is a cool bit of trivia!
Re: Random: The Story Behind Final Fantasy VII's "Worst" Translation
@GravyThief
This was exactly my situation. As a teen it seemed so cerebral. The fan retranslation is very good; very professional. Funny, silly, exciting, serious where needed. The story made more sense - notably Red XIII dialogue. Two soldiers in Midgar having a conversation.
Full disclosure: I only reached the Yufi island bit, I still need to finish it. I was playing both versions of Midgar side by side which burned me out a little.
But I love the retranslation because it's gone ftom this bizarro sci-fi nonsense to something I actually understand. The Jenova experiments by Shinra, etc.
If you ever replay it, give the fan version a try.
There's also Tim Rogers playthrough vids.
Re: Random: Here's The Story Of Why Capcom's SNES Aladdin Game Didn't Feature A Sword
I wanna know more about the Sega Master System version. That was totally different to the SNES and MD and kinda amazing!
Re: Random: The Story Behind Final Fantasy VII's "Worst" Translation
@slider1983
True, but I meant even the US English release was rushed out, based on interviews I've read. The English deserved better treatment.
Re: Random: The Story Behind Final Fantasy VII's "Worst" Translation
Square spent years, and millions, crafting this gem in Japanese, and then... Just crapped out some translations as quickly and cheaply as possible, reckoning it was good enough, because they wanted to rush it to market.
Man. I am glad we moved beyond 90s era localisations.
I played the English fan retranslation, and it highlights what an incoherent hack botch job the official English localisation was. I loved it at the time but know better now. (I actually played the entirety of Midgar in tandem, comparing the two; the original was baaaad and nonsensical in places.)
Re: Random: That Time Sega Got Donald Duck In Trouble With Disney For Animal Cruelty
Ice Climber on Famicom also had the seals swapped for little yeti creatures. I grew up playing the JP version so found it weird after emigrating and seeing the game again in the UK.
Dev anecdotes like these from various staff are intensely fascinating.
Re: New EGM Compendium Project Smashes Kickstarter Target In Under 24 Hours
@MSaturn I also subbed to Play! In the UK though - everyone here mixes up Halvey's Play with the UK PlayStation Play. Were you a US subscriber or UK? I ended up with all the issues from... I think the Sonic 2006 issue, right up to the last, Mass Effect 2 issue. Which Julie had to personally send because by that point foreign subscribers weren't getting them.
That was honestly the last print magazine I actually enjoyed.
I went through them recently. Still fantastic. Epic 10 to 12 page interviews. Like the Persona 4 issue. A normal 4 page review, followed by... I want to say 8 pages of interviews, but it might be 6, or even 10. Whatever, they did incredible long form interviews.
Re: Taito Arcade Memories Volume 2, An SD Card With ROMs On, Is Now Selling For Crazy Money
Exactly. So why don't they just make more?
Serious Q. It's cheap media in high demand, so... Money?
Do they just not know?
I'm reminded of how SunSoft re-released all the GB Final Fantasy games around 1998 or so. Probably to capitalise on surhing beand recognition.
Re: New EGM Compendium Project Announced To Celebrate History Of The Iconic Magazine
Loved EGM, so looking forward to this.
Loved GameFan even more though. Might have to ping Dave and suggest it...
Re: "This Could Be Crippling" - Fake PS1 Discs Just Got Harder To Spot
@GhaleonUnlimited
There is no way for me to make a repro Virtual Boy cartridge at home. Not without buying a ton of expensive equipment. The price was fair.
They use fan patches and translations, but had permission from the authors (I've seen them all hang out on the VB forums too).
So if everyone is a consenting adult, then I'm quite happy giving money for said products. Again, £30 for Jack Bros versus £1000 for Jack Bros? No question.
VB flash carts SUCK so badly. I need to reflash the ROM each time. I bought a cheap £100 flash cart. The one with the onboard flasher is £250+. So I figured, I just want 5 specific carts. It was cheaper to buy those 5 than a flash cart.
I now have a set of nice looking cartridges for each game that works. Plus Wario now has a fancy flash-RAM save, instead of hattery powered! To me these cartridges are valuable and cost effective. I love them.
Re: "This Could Be Crippling" - Fake PS1 Discs Just Got Harder To Spot
Just to give a scalper example:
I spoke with a guy who buys up every game for a certain hardware format on eBay. If it's below a certain price he bids or BINs automatically. He then flips it for 4x that price. And over two years I monitored him hoover up every title and flip them. I only stumbled across this because he was bidding (and won) a game I was selling, despite having that same game on his eBay store page for 4x the price.
Was tempted to name and shame. Then I figured I don't want some crazy fraudster targetting me.
I hate these speculators though. Truly hate them.
When I asked him, he openly admitted it's his hobby.
Re: "This Could Be Crippling" - Fake PS1 Discs Just Got Harder To Spot
@GhaleonUnlimited
Modern retro collector is a depressing hellscape of scalpers and speculators.
Put the English ROM on? Do you desolder the PCB ROM and replace it?
I basically now use flashcarts or ODE, buying physical only where needed. Paid £100 for WarioWare Twisted on GBA, because the gyroscope can't be replicated.
If I knew in 2006 what I know now...