@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.
I'm not convinced. It might be, but I'm on the fence. Pareidolia in our brains encourages this, even though it might not be the case.
Counter example: fans were certain the dark haired guy on the Contra cover was a trace of Stallone from Rambo, even making morphing gifs. It was close enough? Then someone found out it was actually a tracebof Arnie, which matched 100%, meaning both characters were Arnie traces. It just so happened Stallone and Arnie had similar poses in their films, hence the conflation.
The mountain angles, bloom effect, and cloud position don't feel right. I wouldn't rule it out, but I wouldn't bet on it either.
I've seen the overlay gif for this on Twitter, and... My mind keeps going back to the Stallone gif. Very convincing too, but later it was found to be a mismatch.
@flamepanther @NinChocolate Regarding the encoder chips, is this why some MD have jailbars on-screen? I got lucky with my model 1, no jailbars, perfect clarity - but I read horror stories and saw screens of some truly awful jailbarring when running an MD through SCART. Comments were saying this was due to Sega putting the power trace on the motherboard in a poor location...?
@Bonggon5 RGB mod? Doesn't the MD output RGB natively?
Aww bless, the youngins have discovered how us old timers used to game.
You don't get this using a Mega Drive through RGB SCART on a CRT. The pixels are crystal clear. There is a sort of blending, inherent to CRTs, as opposed to LCD, but you don't get the transparency. It's difficult to articulate, but as pointed out by @Cyber_Akuma , CRT doesn't mean blurry unless you're using RF or composite.
RGB SCART, S-Video, and VGI, are all sharp on a CRT.
Comix Zone benefitted from the transparencies so I actually completed it last year using an RF cable. Shadows look correct. Liquid is transparent. There's fantastic "texture" to the visuals befitting the comic book style. I hate RF, but it genuinely made the Comix Zone experience so much better.
Every time I see news like this I think: yesssss, more people will get to experience Panzer Dragoon Saga now!
It doesn't matter how. Real hardware, FPGA, emulation, hallucinating while looking at magazine screenshots. More people need PDS inside their memories.
@Azathoth
I don't know if you recall, but several years ago some team cracked Sony's security keys for PS1, PS2, and PS3. And there was speculation they could now manufacture these 3 formats identically, as bootlegs. At the time I wondered if it would mean easy access to rarities on PS1 that would work on unmodded hardware. From what I recall... Nothing happened. The story fizzled out. As you say, it's kinda weird no one has pursued this.
Some might argue that it sounds like I'm advocating piracy. I am not.
I am advocating that speculative scalpers be denied their pound of flesh. Developers make zero money from those infantile Wata auctions. They make zero money from the eBay scalper selling something for £500 when a few years ago it was £20 on some dusty retro shelf.
This whole bubble, pushed by Wata, is criminal as far as I'm concerned. Market manipulation for personal financial gain, and collusion to manipulate market prices, is a crime.
Plenty of evidence of criminal goings on shown here:
@Cyber_Akuma
Lol yeah, I know there literally would be microscope buyers! XD But the rest of ys wouldn't. We just want nice games to play at fair prices.
But my theory is: if flooded, sheer volume would force prices down. Like with Rule of Rose (slightly) and Virtual Boy games. The salty tears of speculative buyers losing money is delicious. I say this as a RoR owner. Cost me £40 about 20-ish years ago. Let the prices hit the floor.
I actually suggested to a friend: with Nintendo SNES prices going insane, why don't Nintendo repro rarities like Zelda: LTTP. Paper and boxes are cheap to print. Manufacturing cartridges not so much. But if they sold LTTP factory sealed for £100 or even £150 that's still cheaper than the originals.
Like, imagine a Star Trek replicator scenario. Would there be any point in owning legacy copies? You'd pay a fee, a portion would go to the maker, you'd get your game .
@IceClimbersMain I was going to chime in and say "GOOD!" Except as pointed out, these don't work on original hardware.
I want them to find a way around this, so these repros do work on original hardware.
And then I want the after market FLOODED with indistinguishable bootlegs, where it's so near identical you cannot tell the difference. In proper jewel cases, with nice printed manuals. I wanted it absolutely flooded.
Just think about it: if bootlegs of 99.9% parity flooded the market, and worked on original hardware, would you honestly care? Would you get out your microscope to check the DPI printing in the fake manual, just to be authentic? Or... Would you happily pay £40 for a repro XenoGears, instead of the £350 and up it goes for? Those prices are complete lunacy!
I recently got into the Virtual Boy. No way am I paying over £1000 for Jack Bros in English. Go check eBay, sold auctions, to verify this. Insanity.
So instead I paid £40 for a very nice repro from Vintex, which was also patched to include some optional debug modes. Wonderful. Honestly, I can't even tell it's a repro, because he uses OEM cartridge shells from dead games, and a high quality printer sticker. So I took a little pen and wrote "reproduction" on the back.
I despise the rise in retro prices. Utterly despise it. I say this as someone who has the money to buy such items, and already owns such items. I am sitting on a literal fortune in old retro collectibles. And I hate it.
I want to smash the artificial prices of the retro market, mostly inflated by places like Wata Games, and I want to see the after market completely implode under a deluge of flawless reproductions where no one call tell the difference, and prices hit rock bottom again.
And despite it devaluing my collection, I will be thankful.
These are pieces of art meant to be enjoyed, not hoarded by an elite few. Human beings spent years of their life to create these, with the hope and intention they be experienced.
Fascinating. I think the "puritanical Nintendo" angle was only America. If I recall, Frank Cifaldi acquired and put online scans of the original NOA guidelines for NES games, from the 80s.
Japanese Famicom games had nudity, sex, booze, cigarettes, violence, gore, murder, horror, gambling, adult themes, religious iconography, pretty much nearly the full gamut of mature content. This stuff all had to be licensed and Nintendo manufactured the carts, but it appears to have been fairly laissez-faire.
This was scrubbed for America. Though sometimes stuff snuck through (Golgo springs to mind, and Bionic Commando).
@GhaleonUnlimited
Thanks for pointing this out. I used it only in response to a previous comment which used it - I don't like the term personally, since it's a euphamism (puritan, prude, sanctimonious, militant conservative, reactive narcissist, are all better more precise turns of phrase, without the baggage). However, when addressing a specific point directed at me I like to adopt the terms used, within reason, to show that I genuinely read and tried to understand.
@Whatareyouonabout
I feel like we might actually be in agreement, based on what you typed.
Perhaps I explained myself poorly.
My belief: Someone in management at the company, the publisher, wishing to boost their DEI score, instructed the changes be made.
This has happened a lot in recent years. In a faux pretence to seem more "inclusive" game publishers have pandered to the "snowflakes" as you put it. More clothing on Tifa. An adjustment to a main character here. A removal of perceived offensiveness there. (Persona / Atlus games seem to generate ire, for example, and then the devs bend the knee.)
I didn't believe it initially. When a friend pointed it all out.
But then I looked into it. And large corporations (Google them) are attributing DEI scores to various companies and awarding money if they lick boot hard enough. If a game publisher meets certain criteria, they get money. So they lick boot for the guilders.
This whole Type A/B nonsense. Adding more clothes. Changing the original dev's visions. Removing things from old games because they're deemed "problematic". Everything said by Horii and co. Is reflective of shifting cultural norms in the year 2024. Well I draw a line in the sand. I refuse to bend the knee to these socio-political cultural changes we're living through.
No creative person should ever pander to the wailing banshees.
This is all DEI related - the meaning of the acronym is meant to make you think it's a "good" thing, but like Torishima says, DEI is evil disguised as good.
For the last few years I've seen it being used to censor, alter, meddle, change, or in some way butcher the original intentions of artistic creators, because achieving a higher DEI score at your company results in monetary rewards by a cabal of shady shadowy corporations.
It's insidious.
This is yet another example.
And there can be only one reaction: absolute resistance through not spending your money. Allowing this sanctimonious nonsense to govern creative decisions means a loss of creative freedom. It doesn't matter how small, or unimportant - the only solution is a zero tolerance policy, and to allow original creators absolute freedom to succeed or fail based on their own artistic intentions.
Do not be deceived by the implication DEI somehow furthers societal morals or helps human beings. It is simply a monetary means to control creative people, coupled with the fact publishers have been hijacked by people who buy into the deception.
I feel nauseas. This reminds me of those times during the early internet where someone would say: hey click on this horrifying awful link!
And you would.
And you'd see something that made you queasy, like you'd poisoned your mind a little and couldn't undo the damage.
I'd like to remind everyone that the permanent fabric of your consciousness now has this AI filth embedded in it forever. You have been tainted and made unclean, and you will never be able to remove it. Sort of like teflon particles or microplastics in your bloodstream.
I love it. Sega making questionable decisions is such a classic Sega thing to do. It's like the 90s never ended. Looking back over 40 years, the company is a weird vortex of insane schizofrenic behaviour.
This fills me with existential dread. Not just this specific EA example, but the fact this reflects the entire wider world.
In 1999 the internet was fun an exciting. Today it's a wasteland filled with cheap and nasty AI art and text, selling cheap and nasty knock-off products that don't work. I find it depressing to be online.
And now games, my escape from the ills of the real world, are heading in the same way.
I don't want it. Nobody wants it. Can we not, I dunno, just not do the thing that nobody wants to do?
On the plus side, I have more retro games than I can finish in my lifetime. I just hope my CRTs outlive me.
@RetroGames
Sadly, while pretty much everyone knows of, witnessed, or worked on unreleased games - a prevailing attitude is that if it didn't reach market it doesn't have value.
Not everyone of course. And some unreleased games do get a new lease of life and official release, on things like Evercade.
But then are interviews I've read where someone says something like: "Yeah, we got to 70% and then scrapped it because it wasn't working. Why do you care - why don't you play one of our ganes that did reach the market!"
I wince every time I read stuff got deleted. I think it's part of tech culture. Constantly iterating, being on the cutting edge. Lots of stories of 16-bit stuff abandoned for the PS1.
At least JG hangs on to everything. I sent him a link to this piece. We shall see.
@Shinobo Thank you for the inside perspective and clarification.
This discussion also reminded me of something which I feel needs to be more widely considered.
Japan, as a nation, has existed since the end of WWII with the US as a yoke around its neck, influencing every aspect of it - including pop culture and general public thinking.
Some argue that the US acted as a protector of Japan, and Japan not being allowed a military meant it didn't need to spend money on a defence budget and could invest domestically. But the US did this to have a foothold in East Asia, which it promptly exploited during various wars.
The Japanese public don't like the US bases everywhere. They cause a whole slew of problems. As a nation they've been unnofficially "occupied" since WWII. (This is just my personal take.)
This has had a direct influence on creativity across the mediums. From various themes in the Akira manga, to the fact some JP devs I spoke with made reference to nearby military bases, etc. Sega existed to provide coin-op entertainment to military bases.
The proliferation of imported Apple II computers in Japan was to cater to US servicemen, but this in turn influenced devs like Yuji Horri, Ryuichi Nishizawa, Yoshio Kiya, et al, who all bought one.
I've never felt that US / JP geo-political relations have been warm and mutually cordial. Sure all the politicians smile and shake hands for the cameras. But there's always been a subtle friction and rivalry (economically at least), and dare I suggest it, animosity beneath the surface.
It took a few years to come this realisation, and this little debate on SFII reminded me of it again, but so much of Japan's post-WWII creative output was in the shadow of US military occupation.
@HammerKirby
I should have posted it, but I was lazy.
So I discovered VG&CE last year, and initially thought it was amazing! Then I began to notice a definite thread of... Not racism, but isolationist POVs. The editor in his columns would say stuff like: other mags cover imports, but do you really want that? We cover games in America for Americans!
The bulk lot of issues I bought was just prior to the SNES launch and there was this weird begrudging attitude that conveyed a sense of: "it's not out in America so do you even care?"
Well, yes, your readers obviously will care about the next gen of hardware FFS!
I was an EGM and GameFan reader back then, and I loved the import coverage. So this mag's entire shtick rubs me the wring way. They also trash talked my beloved GameFan by reviewing it in their fanzine section.
(I love GameFan so much.)
Anyways the issues you want are January 1991, with John Madden on the cover, page 114 onwards. Katz also references his prior month's column - which I don't own, but I read on the Internet Archive. So after reading Jan 91, look up December 1990. Sometimes these don't always match up, so look up November too. Should all be on the internet archive.
Katz plays a delicate game with his words. He says stuff like some Euro devs put out stuff better than Americans - but then he also just overwhelmingly implies that Japan and Europe just plain suck. It's wild and the kind of crap you could only write before the internet.
I've absolutely noticed this overt anti-JP rivalry in some US magazines circa 90/91. Notably columns by Arnie Katz in Videogames and Computer Entertainment magazine, where he aggressively argues JP and EU games should not be sold in America. (It's utterly deranged.)
The question is if this friction was present from the JP side, or the team behind SFII.
I'm unsure. But there's plenty of interviews with the team to discern sentiments.
(Unsubstantiated gut feeling: this rivalry might appear to be the case from an American POV, based on general cultural feeling at the time; whereas in Japan they were just having fun watching American films and copying stuff.)
Best ask the devs to see what they say.
I've met Rachael Hutchinson at academic events and her work is well researched and interesting - a nice person too. I would caution against passing judgement based on a quick TV news clip, possibly unprepared, versus her thorough written papers filled with detailed citations. Her paper on the nuclear discourse in FF7 is a personal favourite.
@GhaleonUnlimited I feel the exact same when I see effort, energy, and resources put into translations that don't it. Especially for some games where the English exists elsewhere anyway.
Undoubtedly one of the most powerful golden era gaming experiences of my life.
There was a 9.9.99 issue of EGM which I'd take to school to read.
I worked a month over summer holidays, in a pork chop factory, to go all out buying a DC, gun, fishing rod, VMUs, rumble packs, controllers, SCART, and games.
For the first time I was happy to buy PAL, because games had a 60hz option!
The DC was the first console to offer a 60hz option in PAL games.
@LowDefAl Absolutely this. Worst designed most fragile controllers I've ever used. The Jag controller sucked, but at least it wasn't manufactured from biscuits.
I once spoke with a mid-profile industry vet (no names), who swore he'd used his N64 controller super heavily and could not understand my complaints of it turning to literal dust in my hands.
He had a JP unit. I've never researched this, but I've wondered if certain JP models used better plastic than what shipped to America and Europe? Or maybe said veteran just got lucky, or never played as much as he said.
I'm quite happy to use the word steal when describing AI. It is radioactive toxic poison of the worst possible kind. Absolutely despise it.
The only people who defend AI, and will be opposed to use of the word steal, are AI loving techbros who want to make quick and easy money off it, at the expense of everyone else.
AI generated images are theft. AI generated text is theft. AI itself is digital poison. Just waiting for it to become self-aware so I can join a human resistance cell.
The first thing I thought was: sneaking up behind friends or family, silently, without their knowing, and making sure your head and eyes are visible to the camera, thus confusing it due to there being two sets of eyes / heads.
Then standing there silently waiting to see how long it takes before the user realises what's causing the problem.
@Cyber_Akuma
Hello! Yes, I was using the v.0.0.2 version, which supports the English.
It brought up a Kernel32.dll error: the procedure entry point SetThreadDescription could not be located in dynamic link library Kernel32.dll.
Which is weird, because I def have that DLL file.
This was on my Win7 laptop and Win7 gaming rig.
So I figured: maybe it's Win7. Let me swap to my Win10 desktop. That one didn't even bring up the error it just immediately shut down. And a guy on YT had the same Win10 problem.
In the above 3 examples it was the 0.2 English version.
Afterwards I dug out the link for the Japanese version, just in case maybe that worked. Same errors.
The guy programming this is doing something wrong. Three of my systems refuse to run it.
Is this maybe only compatible with Windows 11? There's something seriously broken here.
My Win10 rig is up to date.
There's also no documentation on this and the author is an invisible ghost impossible to contact.
The paper doors criticism by Gamespot might be the weirdest, silliest non-issue I've seen in a review. Difficult to fathom the thought process that led to those words being typed back in the day.
@LowDefAl They were blocking translations of adult games?
That's bad. Extremely bad. Some of those adult Japanese computer titles are genuinely quite excellent as actual "games". Sengoku Rance springs to mind, as a complex and deep strategy title - it's for PC not PC-98, but if anyone wants to know a good erotic game, that's one. Got a fan-translation, and then years later an official licensed and localised release.
But my point is: it's very adult in nature, but it's also a solid (lol) game in its own right, and there are many others across the platforms. No one should gatekeep the translations of these.
(Sengoku Rance is so complicated, your first playthrough will likely fail and should be considered an extended tutorial.)
I don't quite understand the... Seeming animosity to providing pre-patched games.
Have you tried patching anything above the 16-bit era?
PS1, PS2, GC, DC, are all ludicrously convoluted. Demanding byte perfect data rips, bizarre framework installations within Windows, and sometimes command line interfaces. It's 2024, there is zero reason not to have a graphical user interface.
I hope CD Romance continues doing what it does, because CBA on the mess that is manually patching CD and DVD games.
@gingerbeardman Apart from his games, yes. A wonderful, decent human being.
It was one of the earlier interviews in my career, and I was new to the whole thing. But he went in the loft, dug out materials, sent scans, gave me access to the IT server at his company to root around in their art assets (take whatever you need), answered all my questions and still chatted on the phone.
I thought: wow, this writing gig is going to be easy!
They're not all like that.
But it's one reason I've continued to champion his legacy. When he was ill his family had a charity drive to raise funds. I had no idea, otherwise I would have contributed.
Everyone who worked with him had only the best to say.
@gingerbeardman Sorry, perhaps the wording should have been clearer. Dale grew up, lived, and worked in California, where BTR was made (1984), and Bill moved to California to work on it. Dale's developing of games continued there (in California) until 1987, when he moved to Boston.
I see why it's unclear. I reference games made on the West coast (Cali), then move to the Eastern side, then I swap back to the West.
Essentially I want to give a brief overview of his career leading up to the Boston move, so you had a general picture of what happened before and after BTR, and then once that broad picture was conveyed, go back to a specific short period of development in California.
I will keep this feedback in mind for the future to make sure the chronology flows more smoothly.
I feel genuinely nauseas thinking about all the archive content that's been deleted. So much knowledge now lost, and you're hoping that the Wayback Machine managed to grab it before it was gone.
This reminds me of when 1UP was shut down and all those interviews were lost.
Utterly disgusting of management.
Some people are going to cover for them with bootlicking statements like: "well bandwidth costs money" etc.
No. If you start something, like an online store for games, or a news website, or anything of this nature, you are taking on the responsibility of maintaining it and, if you decide to shut it down, giving fair warning so it can be preserved. By starting such an endeavour, you have agreed to an unsigned moral contract, a gentleman's agreement, an obligation, to not destroy it overnight.
Microsoft for example gave ample warning about the Xbox 360 store closure. This is the right way.
It enrages me that a company would create a large portfolio of material, developer interviews, as a business, to pursue profit, but then simply delete it to pursue further profit. It speaks to the fact they never respected what they made in the first place.
@Chocoburger Thank you for finding this! I was justing browsing my collection, and thought I should find this to link to, but you saved me the trouble. My thanks.
The question now is, which Nights related material ran this image?
Found it! EGM 91, page 154. Sega's marketing material for Nights. Flipped controller, normal logo. EGM staff express surprise at it. Claim to have contacted Sega - apparently a layout error.
Comments 538
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...
Re: Random: Mario Kart 64 Texture Matched To A 1994 "Visual Disk" CD
I'm not convinced. It might be, but I'm on the fence. Pareidolia in our brains encourages this, even though it might not be the case.
Counter example: fans were certain the dark haired guy on the Contra cover was a trace of Stallone from Rambo, even making morphing gifs. It was close enough? Then someone found out it was actually a tracebof Arnie, which matched 100%, meaning both characters were Arnie traces. It just so happened Stallone and Arnie had similar poses in their films, hence the conflation.
The mountain angles, bloom effect, and cloud position don't feel right. I wouldn't rule it out, but I wouldn't bet on it either.
I've seen the overlay gif for this on Twitter, and... My mind keeps going back to the Stallone gif. Very convincing too, but later it was found to be a mismatch.
(Maybe I just have trust issues)
Re: New Sega Rally Soundtrack Just Settled A Decades-Old Argument
I'm hearing:
"Do you feel the heartbeat of the lion"
I prefer my version. Strong Afrika vibes.
Re: What Do You See In Sonic The Hedgehog's Waterfalls?
@flamepanther
@NinChocolate
Regarding the encoder chips, is this why some MD have jailbars on-screen? I got lucky with my model 1, no jailbars, perfect clarity - but I read horror stories and saw screens of some truly awful jailbarring when running an MD through SCART. Comments were saying this was due to Sega putting the power trace on the motherboard in a poor location...?
@Bonggon5
RGB mod? Doesn't the MD output RGB natively?
Re: What Do You See In Sonic The Hedgehog's Waterfalls?
Aww bless, the youngins have discovered how us old timers used to game.
You don't get this using a Mega Drive through RGB SCART on a CRT. The pixels are crystal clear. There is a sort of blending, inherent to CRTs, as opposed to LCD, but you don't get the transparency. It's difficult to articulate, but as pointed out by @Cyber_Akuma , CRT doesn't mean blurry unless you're using RF or composite.
RGB SCART, S-Video, and VGI, are all sharp on a CRT.
Comix Zone benefitted from the transparencies so I actually completed it last year using an RF cable. Shadows look correct. Liquid is transparent. There's fantastic "texture" to the visuals befitting the comic book style. I hate RF, but it genuinely made the Comix Zone experience so much better.
Re: MiSTer FPGA Saturn Core Now The "Most Accurate" Way To Play Outside Of Real Hardware
Every time I see news like this I think: yesssss, more people will get to experience Panzer Dragoon Saga now!
It doesn't matter how. Real hardware, FPGA, emulation, hallucinating while looking at magazine screenshots. More people need PDS inside their memories.
Re: "This Could Be Crippling" - Fake PS1 Discs Just Got Harder To Spot
@Azathoth
I don't know if you recall, but several years ago some team cracked Sony's security keys for PS1, PS2, and PS3. And there was speculation they could now manufacture these 3 formats identically, as bootlegs. At the time I wondered if it would mean easy access to rarities on PS1 that would work on unmodded hardware. From what I recall... Nothing happened. The story fizzled out. As you say, it's kinda weird no one has pursued this.
Some might argue that it sounds like I'm advocating piracy. I am not.
I am advocating that speculative scalpers be denied their pound of flesh. Developers make zero money from those infantile Wata auctions. They make zero money from the eBay scalper selling something for £500 when a few years ago it was £20 on some dusty retro shelf.
This whole bubble, pushed by Wata, is criminal as far as I'm concerned. Market manipulation for personal financial gain, and collusion to manipulate market prices, is a crime.
Plenty of evidence of criminal goings on shown here:
https://youtu.be/rvLFEh7V18A?si=vCm8QIguuR0d76G8
@Cyber_Akuma
Lol yeah, I know there literally would be microscope buyers! XD But the rest of ys wouldn't. We just want nice games to play at fair prices.
But my theory is: if flooded, sheer volume would force prices down. Like with Rule of Rose (slightly) and Virtual Boy games. The salty tears of speculative buyers losing money is delicious. I say this as a RoR owner. Cost me £40 about 20-ish years ago. Let the prices hit the floor.
I actually suggested to a friend: with Nintendo SNES prices going insane, why don't Nintendo repro rarities like Zelda: LTTP. Paper and boxes are cheap to print. Manufacturing cartridges not so much. But if they sold LTTP factory sealed for £100 or even £150 that's still cheaper than the originals.
Like, imagine a Star Trek replicator scenario. Would there be any point in owning legacy copies? You'd pay a fee, a portion would go to the maker, you'd get your game .
Re: "This Could Be Crippling" - Fake PS1 Discs Just Got Harder To Spot
@IceClimbersMain
I was going to chime in and say "GOOD!" Except as pointed out, these don't work on original hardware.
I want them to find a way around this, so these repros do work on original hardware.
And then I want the after market FLOODED with indistinguishable bootlegs, where it's so near identical you cannot tell the difference. In proper jewel cases, with nice printed manuals. I wanted it absolutely flooded.
Just think about it: if bootlegs of 99.9% parity flooded the market, and worked on original hardware, would you honestly care? Would you get out your microscope to check the DPI printing in the fake manual, just to be authentic? Or... Would you happily pay £40 for a repro XenoGears, instead of the £350 and up it goes for? Those prices are complete lunacy!
I recently got into the Virtual Boy. No way am I paying over £1000 for Jack Bros in English. Go check eBay, sold auctions, to verify this. Insanity.
So instead I paid £40 for a very nice repro from Vintex, which was also patched to include some optional debug modes. Wonderful. Honestly, I can't even tell it's a repro, because he uses OEM cartridge shells from dead games, and a high quality printer sticker. So I took a little pen and wrote "reproduction" on the back.
I despise the rise in retro prices. Utterly despise it. I say this as someone who has the money to buy such items, and already owns such items. I am sitting on a literal fortune in old retro collectibles. And I hate it.
I want to smash the artificial prices of the retro market, mostly inflated by places like Wata Games, and I want to see the after market completely implode under a deluge of flawless reproductions where no one call tell the difference, and prices hit rock bottom again.
And despite it devaluing my collection, I will be thankful.
These are pieces of art meant to be enjoyed, not hoarded by an elite few. Human beings spent years of their life to create these, with the hope and intention they be experienced.
Bring on the price crash!
Re: Switch 'Hokkaido Serial Murder Case' Remake Retains NSFW Easter Egg From Yuji Horii's 1984 Original
@Chocoburger I missed that article - cheers! That's hilarious. XD
Re: Switch 'Hokkaido Serial Murder Case' Remake Retains NSFW Easter Egg From Yuji Horii's 1984 Original
Fascinating. I think the "puritanical Nintendo" angle was only America. If I recall, Frank Cifaldi acquired and put online scans of the original NOA guidelines for NES games, from the 80s.
Japanese Famicom games had nudity, sex, booze, cigarettes, violence, gore, murder, horror, gambling, adult themes, religious iconography, pretty much nearly the full gamut of mature content. This stuff all had to be licensed and Nintendo manufactured the carts, but it appears to have been fairly laissez-faire.
This was scrubbed for America. Though sometimes stuff snuck through (Golgo springs to mind, and Bionic Commando).
Re: Dragon Quest Vets Claim Comments On Censorship Were "Mistranslated"
@GhaleonUnlimited
Thanks for pointing this out. I used it only in response to a previous comment which used it - I don't like the term personally, since it's a euphamism (puritan, prude, sanctimonious, militant conservative, reactive narcissist, are all better more precise turns of phrase, without the baggage). However, when addressing a specific point directed at me I like to adopt the terms used, within reason, to show that I genuinely read and tried to understand.
I will adjust slightly.
Re: "An Evil Disguised As Good" - Dragon Quest Vets Rail Against Censorship In Candid Interview
@Whatareyouonabout
I feel like we might actually be in agreement, based on what you typed.
Perhaps I explained myself poorly.
My belief: Someone in management at the company, the publisher, wishing to boost their DEI score, instructed the changes be made.
This has happened a lot in recent years. In a faux pretence to seem more "inclusive" game publishers have pandered to the "snowflakes" as you put it. More clothing on Tifa. An adjustment to a main character here. A removal of perceived offensiveness there. (Persona / Atlus games seem to generate ire, for example, and then the devs bend the knee.)
I didn't believe it initially. When a friend pointed it all out.
But then I looked into it. And large corporations (Google them) are attributing DEI scores to various companies and awarding money if they lick boot hard enough. If a game publisher meets certain criteria, they get money. So they lick boot for the guilders.
This whole Type A/B nonsense. Adding more clothes. Changing the original dev's visions. Removing things from old games because they're deemed "problematic". Everything said by Horii and co. Is reflective of shifting cultural norms in the year 2024. Well I draw a line in the sand. I refuse to bend the knee to these socio-political cultural changes we're living through.
No creative person should ever pander to the wailing banshees.
Re: "An Evil Disguised As Good" - Dragon Quest Vets Rail Against Censorship In Candid Interview
This is all DEI related - the meaning of the acronym is meant to make you think it's a "good" thing, but like Torishima says, DEI is evil disguised as good.
For the last few years I've seen it being used to censor, alter, meddle, change, or in some way butcher the original intentions of artistic creators, because achieving a higher DEI score at your company results in monetary rewards by a cabal of shady shadowy corporations.
It's insidious.
This is yet another example.
And there can be only one reaction: absolute resistance through not spending your money. Allowing this sanctimonious nonsense to govern creative decisions means a loss of creative freedom. It doesn't matter how small, or unimportant - the only solution is a zero tolerance policy, and to allow original creators absolute freedom to succeed or fail based on their own artistic intentions.
Do not be deceived by the implication DEI somehow furthers societal morals or helps human beings. It is simply a monetary means to control creative people, coupled with the fact publishers have been hijacked by people who buy into the deception.
Re: New Storefront Law Tells Us What We All Should Know: We Don't Own Digital Games
@Zuljaras
Well, shiver me timbers, tis a fine news item to be readin' while at sea. More grog, anyone?
Re: Like Zombies Ate My Neighbors? Then Check Out New Sega Genesis Shooter Lethal Wedding
It's 2024 and we still have ambidextrous sprites that swap weapon hands.
Am I the only one annoyed by this for the last 30 years?
Super Metroid had accurate and correct gun hands in 1994.
Re: AI, Please Leave Our Favourite Video Games Alone
I feel nauseas. This reminds me of those times during the early internet where someone would say: hey click on this horrifying awful link!
And you would.
And you'd see something that made you queasy, like you'd poisoned your mind a little and couldn't undo the damage.
I'd like to remind everyone that the permanent fabric of your consciousness now has this AI filth embedded in it forever. You have been tainted and made unclean, and you will never be able to remove it. Sort of like teflon particles or microplastics in your bloodstream.
Re: Sega's Rent-A-Hero Is Making A Comeback With The Addition Of Web3 Nonsense
I love it. Sega making questionable decisions is such a classic Sega thing to do. It's like the 90s never ended. Looking back over 40 years, the company is a weird vortex of insane schizofrenic behaviour.
Re: Opinion: Electronic Arts Used To Empower Developers; Now It Looks To Replace Them With AI
This fills me with existential dread. Not just this specific EA example, but the fact this reflects the entire wider world.
In 1999 the internet was fun an exciting. Today it's a wasteland filled with cheap and nasty AI art and text, selling cheap and nasty knock-off products that don't work. I find it depressing to be online.
And now games, my escape from the ills of the real world, are heading in the same way.
I don't want it. Nobody wants it. Can we not, I dunno, just not do the thing that nobody wants to do?
On the plus side, I have more retro games than I can finish in my lifetime. I just hope my CRTs outlive me.
Re: Hudson Soft Almost Created A Castlevania-Style Dungeons & Dragons Game For SNES
@RetroGames
Sadly, while pretty much everyone knows of, witnessed, or worked on unreleased games - a prevailing attitude is that if it didn't reach market it doesn't have value.
Not everyone of course. And some unreleased games do get a new lease of life and official release, on things like Evercade.
But then are interviews I've read where someone says something like: "Yeah, we got to 70% and then scrapped it because it wasn't working. Why do you care - why don't you play one of our ganes that did reach the market!"
I wince every time I read stuff got deleted. I think it's part of tech culture. Constantly iterating, being on the cutting edge. Lots of stories of 16-bit stuff abandoned for the PS1.
At least JG hangs on to everything. I sent him a link to this piece. We shall see.
Re: Hudson Soft Almost Created A Castlevania-Style Dungeons & Dragons Game For SNES
@RetroGames
I did try. I got the feeling the soccer code was more easily found - whereas this would need some digging.
I wanted to get, if not a screenshot of the tech demo, then a screen of the code, or tools, or file folder. Anything to illustrate the text.
I got the distinct feeling, and perhaps it's obvious from the text, that he thought it was a bit odd anyone would care.
So... This piece actually had partially ulterior motives. I can now point out the multiple comments and see if that pursuades him.
Re: Game Researcher Says Street Fighter II Was "USA Vs. Japan" And Japanese People Aren't Happy
@Shinobo
Thank you for the inside perspective and clarification.
This discussion also reminded me of something which I feel needs to be more widely considered.
Japan, as a nation, has existed since the end of WWII with the US as a yoke around its neck, influencing every aspect of it - including pop culture and general public thinking.
Some argue that the US acted as a protector of Japan, and Japan not being allowed a military meant it didn't need to spend money on a defence budget and could invest domestically. But the US did this to have a foothold in East Asia, which it promptly exploited during various wars.
The Japanese public don't like the US bases everywhere. They cause a whole slew of problems. As a nation they've been unnofficially "occupied" since WWII. (This is just my personal take.)
This has had a direct influence on creativity across the mediums. From various themes in the Akira manga, to the fact some JP devs I spoke with made reference to nearby military bases, etc. Sega existed to provide coin-op entertainment to military bases.
The proliferation of imported Apple II computers in Japan was to cater to US servicemen, but this in turn influenced devs like Yuji Horri, Ryuichi Nishizawa, Yoshio Kiya, et al, who all bought one.
I've never felt that US / JP geo-political relations have been warm and mutually cordial. Sure all the politicians smile and shake hands for the cameras. But there's always been a subtle friction and rivalry (economically at least), and dare I suggest it, animosity beneath the surface.
It took a few years to come this realisation, and this little debate on SFII reminded me of it again, but so much of Japan's post-WWII creative output was in the shadow of US military occupation.
Re: Game Researcher Says Street Fighter II Was "USA Vs. Japan" And Japanese People Aren't Happy
@HammerKirby
I should have posted it, but I was lazy.
So I discovered VG&CE last year, and initially thought it was amazing! Then I began to notice a definite thread of... Not racism, but isolationist POVs. The editor in his columns would say stuff like: other mags cover imports, but do you really want that? We cover games in America for Americans!
The bulk lot of issues I bought was just prior to the SNES launch and there was this weird begrudging attitude that conveyed a sense of: "it's not out in America so do you even care?"
Well, yes, your readers obviously will care about the next gen of hardware FFS!
I was an EGM and GameFan reader back then, and I loved the import coverage. So this mag's entire shtick rubs me the wring way. They also trash talked my beloved GameFan by reviewing it in their fanzine section.
(I love GameFan so much.)
Anyways the issues you want are January 1991, with John Madden on the cover, page 114 onwards. Katz also references his prior month's column - which I don't own, but I read on the Internet Archive. So after reading Jan 91, look up December 1990. Sometimes these don't always match up, so look up November too. Should all be on the internet archive.
Katz plays a delicate game with his words. He says stuff like some Euro devs put out stuff better than Americans - but then he also just overwhelmingly implies that Japan and Europe just plain suck. It's wild and the kind of crap you could only write before the internet.
Re: Game Researcher Says Street Fighter II Was "USA Vs. Japan" And Japanese People Aren't Happy
@gojiguy
Good comment.
I've absolutely noticed this overt anti-JP rivalry in some US magazines circa 90/91. Notably columns by Arnie Katz in Videogames and Computer Entertainment magazine, where he aggressively argues JP and EU games should not be sold in America. (It's utterly deranged.)
The question is if this friction was present from the JP side, or the team behind SFII.
I'm unsure. But there's plenty of interviews with the team to discern sentiments.
(Unsubstantiated gut feeling: this rivalry might appear to be the case from an American POV, based on general cultural feeling at the time; whereas in Japan they were just having fun watching American films and copying stuff.)
Best ask the devs to see what they say.
I've met Rachael Hutchinson at academic events and her work is well researched and interesting - a nice person too. I would caution against passing judgement based on a quick TV news clip, possibly unprepared, versus her thorough written papers filled with detailed citations. Her paper on the nuclear discourse in FF7 is a personal favourite.
Re: The Director Behind Cult Dreamcast RPG SEGAGAGA Wants To Translate It Into English
@GhaleonUnlimited
I feel the exact same when I see effort, energy, and resources put into translations that don't it. Especially for some games where the English exists elsewhere anyway.
Segagaga is in my top 10 wanted
Re: Anniversary: It's Been 25 Years Since The Dreamcast's North American "9.9.99" Launch
Undoubtedly one of the most powerful golden era gaming experiences of my life.
There was a 9.9.99 issue of EGM which I'd take to school to read.
I worked a month over summer holidays, in a pork chop factory, to go all out buying a DC, gun, fishing rod, VMUs, rumble packs, controllers, SCART, and games.
For the first time I was happy to buy PAL, because games had a 60hz option!
The DC was the first console to offer a 60hz option in PAL games.
Re: Take-Two Shuts Down $2 PS4 Game That Ripped Off GTA: Vice City's Worst Mission
This and the remote control toy plane missions in VC were two of my favourites. Always felt a little sad knowing everyone hated them.
Now I seriously wish I'd known about this and had bought it. This is totally my jam. Now I will never know it... T_T
They're not thaaat hard. If you want hard play the Japan exclusive Petit Copter on Xbox! XD
Re: This Tiny Piece Of Plastic Could Save Your N64's Analogue Stick
@LowDefAl
Absolutely this. Worst designed most fragile controllers I've ever used. The Jag controller sucked, but at least it wasn't manufactured from biscuits.
I once spoke with a mid-profile industry vet (no names), who swore he'd used his N64 controller super heavily and could not understand my complaints of it turning to literal dust in my hands.
He had a JP unit. I've never researched this, but I've wondered if certain JP models used better plastic than what shipped to America and Europe? Or maybe said veteran just got lucky, or never played as much as he said.
Re: GameStop Announces Launch Of New "Retro GameStop" Stores
@JDCII
I've often thought this. Look at prices for complete mint Link to the Past on SNES with map, box, and tips leaflet.
I've wondered why Nintendo doesn't manufacture more. Selling for £100 mint is still far less than eBay.
Re: Sonic CD Has Been Ported To The Sega Genesis
Who are these heathens claiming the Mega CD isn't worth a look?
My Mega Everdrive ODE SD card overflows with fantastic CD games!
Re: Google's Gemini AI Assistant Is Pretty Awful At Video Game History
I'm quite happy to use the word steal when describing AI. It is radioactive toxic poison of the worst possible kind. Absolutely despise it.
The only people who defend AI, and will be opposed to use of the word steal, are AI loving techbros who want to make quick and easy money off it, at the expense of everyone else.
AI generated images are theft. AI generated text is theft. AI itself is digital poison. Just waiting for it to become self-aware so I can join a human resistance cell.
Re: Samsung's New Odyssey 3D Monitor Might Be The Ultimate Way To Emulate Nintendo 3DS
The first thing I thought was:
sneaking up behind friends or family, silently, without their knowing, and making sure your head and eyes are visible to the camera, thus confusing it due to there being two sets of eyes / heads.
Then standing there silently waiting to see how long it takes before the user realises what's causing the problem.
Re: N64 Classic Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon Gets Fanmade PC Recompilation Project
@Cyber_Akuma
Hello! Yes, I was using the v.0.0.2 version, which supports the English.
It brought up a Kernel32.dll error: the procedure entry point SetThreadDescription could not be located in dynamic link library Kernel32.dll.
Which is weird, because I def have that DLL file.
This was on my Win7 laptop and Win7 gaming rig.
So I figured: maybe it's Win7. Let me swap to my Win10 desktop. That one didn't even bring up the error it just immediately shut down. And a guy on YT had the same Win10 problem.
In the above 3 examples it was the 0.2 English version.
Afterwards I dug out the link for the Japanese version, just in case maybe that worked. Same errors.
The guy programming this is doing something wrong. Three of my systems refuse to run it.
Is this maybe only compatible with Windows 11? There's something seriously broken here.
My Win10 rig is up to date.
There's also no documentation on this and the author is an invisible ghost impossible to contact.
Frustrating.
Re: N64 Classic Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon Gets Fanmade PC Recompilation Project
Anyone get the English version to work? I've tried three diff computers - two bring up Kernal32 errors, one just crashes outright
Re: The Making Of: Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon, Konami's Underrated N64 Classic
So the English recompilation of this dropped recently.
I tried to use it one three different computers (Win7 and Win10), and I'm getting Kernal32 errors, or it just crashes on start-up.
Has anyone tried it? Can anyone get it to work? What sort of sorcery is needed?
I did all the online suggested nonsense: update Windows, check SSD isn't dead, scan for viruses. Nothing helped.
Re: The Making Of: Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon, Konami's Underrated N64 Classic
The paper doors criticism by Gamespot might be the weirdest, silliest non-issue I've seen in a review. Difficult to fathom the thought process that led to those words being typed back in the day.
Re: Man Sets Record For Most Gaming Consoles Connected To A Single TV
Man has all the classic gaming systems.
Does not use a CRT or PVM.
Re: RHDO Changes Ownership, Rebrands As RomHack Plaza
@LowDefAl
They were blocking translations of adult games?
That's bad. Extremely bad. Some of those adult Japanese computer titles are genuinely quite excellent as actual "games". Sengoku Rance springs to mind, as a complex and deep strategy title - it's for PC not PC-98, but if anyone wants to know a good erotic game, that's one. Got a fan-translation, and then years later an official licensed and localised release.
But my point is: it's very adult in nature, but it's also a solid (lol) game in its own right, and there are many others across the platforms. No one should gatekeep the translations of these.
(Sengoku Rance is so complicated, your first playthrough will likely fail and should be considered an extended tutorial.)
Re: RHDO Changes Ownership, Rebrands As RomHack Plaza
I don't quite understand the... Seeming animosity to providing pre-patched games.
Have you tried patching anything above the 16-bit era?
PS1, PS2, GC, DC, are all ludicrously convoluted. Demanding byte perfect data rips, bizarre framework installations within Windows, and sometimes command line interfaces. It's 2024, there is zero reason not to have a graphical user interface.
I hope CD Romance continues doing what it does, because CBA on the mess that is manually patching CD and DVD games.
Re: The Ill-Fated Philips CD-i Is Getting Its Own MiSTer FPGA Core
Will it replicate the Digital Video Cartridge? Several of the better games require the DVC to run (like the FPS, Atlantis: Last Resort).
Re: New Genesis Patch Brings A Bunch Of Improvements To Jurassic Park: Rampage Edition
I rage quit Rampage Edition once I realise it scrapped the passwords from the previous game. I might go back to this with SRAM.
Re: The Making Of: Below The Root, The 1984 Metroidvania Masterpiece That Predates Metroid And Castlevania
@gingerbeardman
Apart from his games, yes. A wonderful, decent human being.
It was one of the earlier interviews in my career, and I was new to the whole thing. But he went in the loft, dug out materials, sent scans, gave me access to the IT server at his company to root around in their art assets (take whatever you need), answered all my questions and still chatted on the phone.
I thought: wow, this writing gig is going to be easy!
They're not all like that.
But it's one reason I've continued to champion his legacy. When he was ill his family had a charity drive to raise funds. I had no idea, otherwise I would have contributed.
Everyone who worked with him had only the best to say.
Re: The Making Of: Below The Root, The 1984 Metroidvania Masterpiece That Predates Metroid And Castlevania
@gingerbeardman
Sorry, perhaps the wording should have been clearer. Dale grew up, lived, and worked in California, where BTR was made (1984), and Bill moved to California to work on it. Dale's developing of games continued there (in California) until 1987, when he moved to Boston.
I see why it's unclear. I reference games made on the West coast (Cali), then move to the Eastern side, then I swap back to the West.
Essentially I want to give a brief overview of his career leading up to the Boston move, so you had a general picture of what happened before and after BTR, and then once that broad picture was conveyed, go back to a specific short period of development in California.
I will keep this feedback in mind for the future to make sure the chronology flows more smoothly.
Re: Game Informer Staff Tweet "Genuine Goodbye" Before Account Gets Deleted By GameStop
I feel genuinely nauseas thinking about all the archive content that's been deleted. So much knowledge now lost, and you're hoping that the Wayback Machine managed to grab it before it was gone.
This reminds me of when 1UP was shut down and all those interviews were lost.
Utterly disgusting of management.
Some people are going to cover for them with bootlicking statements like: "well bandwidth costs money" etc.
No. If you start something, like an online store for games, or a news website, or anything of this nature, you are taking on the responsibility of maintaining it and, if you decide to shut it down, giving fair warning so it can be preserved. By starting such an endeavour, you have agreed to an unsigned moral contract, a gentleman's agreement, an obligation, to not destroy it overnight.
Microsoft for example gave ample warning about the Xbox 360 store closure. This is the right way.
It enrages me that a company would create a large portfolio of material, developer interviews, as a business, to pursue profit, but then simply delete it to pursue further profit. It speaks to the fact they never respected what they made in the first place.
Re: Dragon Quest SNES Prototype Worth $50,000 "Lost For Good"
I just want to put this out there:
If I ever win the lottery I am going to pay good money to buy every single one of these rare games.
And then I'm going to pull a K Foundation. Because I love whimsical mischief.
If you know, you know.
Re: Sega Forever, Sega's Dedicated Retro Channel, Appears To Be Dead
@Chocoburger
Thank you for finding this!
I was justing browsing my collection, and thought I should find this to link to, but you saved me the trouble. My thanks.
The question now is, which Nights related material ran this image?
Such an interesting oddity.
Re: Sega Forever, Sega's Dedicated Retro Channel, Appears To Be Dead
@samuelvictor
@KitsuneNight
Found it! EGM 91, page 154. Sega's marketing material for Nights. Flipped controller, normal logo. EGM staff express surprise at it. Claim to have contacted Sega - apparently a layout error.
Re: Sega Forever, Sega's Dedicated Retro Channel, Appears To Be Dead
@KitsuneNight
I don't have a full set, but I have issue 63, October 1994, and on page 170 is a three page feature with interview.
If you check magazine archives for that issue, take a look at 64, 65, etc., They might have done a follow up.
No clue about GamePro.
GameFan had some good coverage too, again starting in the October 94 issue. Might it have been GF?
Can you describe the feature / number of pages?