Dear Sega: I know you've been going around stomping on lots of different people writing books which promote your creations, but maybe just take a bit of a break, yeah? I'd kinda like to read this one.
@Diogmites So glad this is reaching Langrisser fans. The day was indeed incredible, lots of fun, two great interviewees, so many anecdotes, but processing all the material later was quite an undertaking - and then to receive email documents and not be able to use them for so long was stressful.
I mainly just feel relief that the words he entrusted me with are now out there. My quest is fulfilled.
Am I the only person who despises the 32-bit Doom soundtrack? As perhaps the only outlier in a comments section where everyone will proclaim their love for it, I respect everyone's free choice to enjoy and engage with what they like, and not engage with what they don't. I don't "cancel" because I'm not into something. If you prefer the 32-bit music, that's cool.
But I have to know: am I the only one who prefers the original Robert Prince soundtrack over the Aubrey Hodges music on PS1?
I only played the 32-bit games last year - prior to this I'd only known the PC versions, or the X360 port.
As soon as original Doom starts it pumps heavy metal and gets you pumped up. You feel energised, ready to give a demon a chainsaw enema. I mean, just listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSsfjHCFosw
I feel pumped and ready for carnage, and I'm just browsing the internet!
When I finally played the 32-bit ports (Saturn, actually, not PS1, but the music is the same), I was disgusted at how slow it was. This wasn't the adrenaline surge I craved. Where was the RIP AND TEAR? Where was the energy? Where was the maniacal gun-toting marine commando anthem to slay the armies of hell?
It was... Like the wrong game. Like it was meant for... An X-Files point-and-click adventure. I just could not stomach it. Have a listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAfg-9AX4qU
I'm ready to fall asleep now. Is this... even music?
Does anyone out there feel the same? Please. I need to know I am not alone.
(I know the PC version had a few non-metal tracks, but I hate those - Kitchen Ace, Sawed the Demons, Facing the Spider, various cover songs, all the heavy ones, those are the ones that stand out for me as perfection.)
Buying online and the JP address means nothing. As pointed out by @LowDefAl proxy sites solve this.
I spoke to Joseph of the GPS, and according to research done by Beep, the figure he quoted me was, something like 70% of games sold on Japanese auction sites end up leaving the country. Way above half.
I do it myself - scalpers and speculators on UK ebay have jacked up prices to such insane heights, with items that sit getting endlessly relisted (artificially inflating the sense of value these items have), that even after domestic shipping within Japan, handling fees, import tax, and postage out of Japan to my house, an item via proxy is STILL cheaper than from these filthy damned local scalpers.
I feel bad for the Japanese. Or people who live there, regardless of origin. Even foreigners in Japan.
Around 2001 it was a paradise. Even in 2013 when I went again, it was OK. Lose games, controllers, all sorts were fairly priced and abundant.
I absolutely blame the speculators. Places like Wata and Heritage Auctions. They put games in plastic coffins, sell stuff for millions, speculators see this and want in on the investing action. Boom! All domestic prices rise astronomically. So legitimate players turn to importing direct.
It's over for Japan. It'll never recover.
Now the wealthy collectors are travelling further afield in Asia. Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, etc.
They're buying the Japanese games which had been imported into these countries back in the day, and which still haven't yet been picked clean by speculators and scalpers.
@Poodlestargenerica There was a Superman 64 you never played!
A much earlier beta was leaked, and it was actually better than the retail version. The license holders apparently demanded whole sections be cut, leaving behind the drek we got. It's out there, incl vids and analysis.
(Unless you were referring to this - and I misunderstood)
I get nervous with SGB borders. They're static images. I actually had burn in on my cheap Goodman's CRT (upper left) due to a constant unchanging border image on something.
My guess, since these were not Wata graded yet, is they were bought by Wata staff or speculative investors, will be graded as 9.8 shortly, and then in 6 months will be auction by Heritage Auctions for 2 or 3 million.
Every time you see a silly high priced auction - think of Jobst's documentary.
The whole scene is a lie. I started investigating this myself, getting speculative investors to admit to it, and then I was like: screw this, just now I end up on someone's hit list.
Just trust in Jobst. Guy is putting his life on the line challenging this mafia.
@NatiaAdamo I've read this a lot. My 210 and 220 models (UK, PAL) do not. They boot up just fine. The clock reverts to the factory default? Actually, not quite. On my 210 it shows "0 January". (The 220 was sold years ago, but had the same problem.)
They load and play games. And they retain saves as long as they're kept powered. Cutting the power kills the saves.
Since I've not had a model that gets stuck in the boot loop described online, I had to assume it's one of the other models of CDi. Of which there are... Many! Even the 210/220 has several internal board revisions, which dramatically affects how you can mod them.
I'm just going to say there's over 50 different models / revisions / variants of what is the same basic hardware. I do not know which specifically suffer from that problem. Only that mine did / do not.
@RetroGames Can the SNES game even be considered a "port"? It's so utterly different to Rondo on PCE, it's like whoever made it overheard a drunk conversation between the original team in a bar and based it on that.
It's weird discovering years after the fact the original had a bad reputation. I only found it was considered kusoge by some when they started doing the updated versions a few years back.
Growing up with a Famicom this was a personal favourite of mine and my brother. Since it never had a Western NES release we never, ever saw talk of it in magazines. So it was one of our earliest obscure gems.
It was one of a tiny selection of simultaneous 2 player games on the system (Contra, Battle City, and TMNT III were other examples we owned). And in 2P it worked well as you had to cover each other to avoid the quick spawning enemies.
Even in single player, it was not too long or too difficult. You could rinse it in 20 minutes easily.
The music was funky.
Every stage was filled with weird diversity. One-off items that only appeared in one spot - which is impressive, given how early NES games would re-use assets to make a game longer. To have an item that filled only a few second of gameplay, was wasteful but enjoyable.
The controls were great. Top down view, fast movement, responsive, and your projectile weapons had a slight homing effect, so you didn't have to aim too precisely.
It featured extremely smooth multi-direction scrolling in the four cardinal directions! Not even Super Mario Bros did that (it scrolling in one direction only). Zelda didn't do that. Metroid didn't do that (again, two directional only). It did stuff on a technical level that some beloved classics didn't even do. Mario 3 and Snake Rattle n Roll had multi-directional scrolling, but they came out much later.
The invincibility items allowed you to wreak carnage.
Each of the... four levels? five levels? Were totally different. In terms of colour, graphics, and mechanics. The graveyard maze which restricted movement. The open fields with water that slowed you. The vertical level with the paper walls. The bonus level! Each felt different.
Once we got bigger and better games like Mario 3 and TMNT III, we didn't play it too much, but due to its short length we'd sometimes load it for a quick completion as a warm up before another better game. A very literal "B Game" that precedes the main feature.
I genuinely don't know why it has a poor reputation. Its simplicity? Short length? Easiness?
Not sure why he uses "JRPG" - I've been debating the meaning of the acronym with a friend.
I say it refers to any RPG (action, turn based, strategy, dungeon crawler) made in Japan. A cultural / regional export like Champagne (as opposed to sparkling wine).
He argues that's meaningless because Western players use JRPG to refer to any RPG that looks like Final Fantasy. He feels we should abandon the term.
This game is neither made in Japan nor does it resemble other JRPGs like FF.
Frankly I'm baffled by the use of JRPG here. And it's lending credence to my friend's argument the term has become meaningless.
A friend in the industry says part of the problem is rising costs. He predicts a crash which force a reset in many ways.
I'm just enjoying my backlog in the meantime.
@InsaneWade
Berners-Lee who ivented the web was British, so we had it. But I think the technology roll out was slower. My family only got a PC in 98, and some kids at school didn't one at home even at the millennium.
It's funny to think how reliant we were on libraries, TV, newspapers, and magazines for info.
You make excellent points. If in-game characters are adults, and a product is sold to adults, there shouldn't be content restrictions. I like legally binding age ratings. Because if it's rated 18 then only adults can access it, and parents complaining about their 12 year old playing it only have themselves to blame.
I thought I better check this - it seems Trump/Hitler said something slightly similar. I don't follow politics at all, so genuinely had no idea this had even been a thing in 2023.
For the record, I stole the line from Vladimir Nabokov.
Technically he said poison in the "wound", but blood sounded better to me. I've used this line more than once.
In future I will use the original literary wording of wound, to avoid comparisons.
I find the concept of the phrase valuable: that an event or action or situation can, like poison in a wound, or sepsis in blood, start off undetected and over time become a worse problem. I regard censorship departments in companies as being comparable to Fifth Columns. (Worth reading up on if you've not heard the term.) These departments and similar content alterers act as fifth columns - "poison in the wound" which is slowly undermining creative visions and will get worse over time.
Some label them "ethics departments" - do not be deceived by such Orwellian double speak. To censor is to be unethical. To be ethical is to not censor. They have deliberately chosen a name opposite to their actions. In 1984, a great book, the Ministry of Truth produced only lies to keep the populace in check. By calling these "ethics departments" the implication is that resisting them is unethical. It is cognitive deception to manipulate the narrative and your thinking. Resist, my fellow players.
Just for the record: not a supporter of Trump or Hitler. Was unaware of their use of a similar phrase.
I officially stopped writing for websites and mags to focus on books (HG101's CMS redesign was also really awkward; we longer hand coded html, which I missed), but Damien here encouraged me to freelance for TE a year or so back (link to articles in my name), and I've enjoyed researching forgotten topics.
I'm still writing books (collaborating on two with co-authors).
I was thinking about being more public and writing more for sites and mags again, but then I see sites shutting down, AI rising up, and all the editors I once knew having moved on. Also soc media is just pure anger. I'd be cancelled in five minutes.
I'm not sure modern journalism has a place for an old man like me. I suspect my free-spirited anti-authoritarian uncensoring chilled hippy ideology would be at odds with the totalitarian hit pieces and snark of some outlets.
EDIT:
Sorry, my name here goes to my user profile. Here's my author profile:
I don't immerse myself in modern games like I used to, so I will limit examples to stuff I read up on, rather than fringe examples friends message me about (there was some mascot platformer where a sole member of staff made the team uncomfortable until they reduced a character's bust - game didn't interest me so I didn't follow it). There are other examples which paint a background to my feelings, but do not form the core since I've not read up on them. Outrage over DOAX3? Removal of jiggle physics in Xenoblade 2? Quite a bit of censorship today is puritanical in nature, as if sex is evil.
Anyway...
To contextualise my earlier statement:
Square-Enix has an internal department, they forced the eevs to change Tifa's outfit, resulting in... I want to say a 17 gigabyte patch to change it? The details don't matter, the point is a titanic giant like SE now has staff badgering the devs.
Bandai-Namco, as above. The censor department was interviewed, saying and I paraphrase: "we just tell them to change stuff and they have to do it lol"
Again, a titan like BN has employees who dictate changes to original creators.
The Tomb Raider disclaimer. Good point. I actually see this as the CORRECT way to silence those demanding censorship. However, in the build up, there were calls to remove the content. Replace it with lizard people?
I mention the 3rd item above, in conjuction with #1 and #2, because 20 years ago nobody would be supporting removal of content.
It would be resisted.
Now we have two giant triple-A studios being forced to bend the knee because someone in the office basement is clutching pearls. And we have a major franchise which avoided content deletion, but there was consideration of removing it. Tomb Raider could be seen as both a victory, and the thin end of the wedge.
I am outraged that content removal is even considered. 20 years ago everyone in this comments would be valiantly defending creator freedom.
When I say censorship is worse now, I also mean that the public and press seem to be more tolerant of the idea. As @JayJ said, now there are those who support censorship. Ergo, the topic of "censorship" is now worse, all that it encompasses, because less people are resisting it. Because there is even a hint of supporting. Because there are actual censor departments. Did Rockstar have a censor department when making GTA III? They did not!
@JayJ Exactly. When I started in journalism, circa 2005, at places like The Gamer's Quarter, there was unity amongst players and the press alike, to resist Jack and politicians. We printed stickers with his face, saying "You don't know Jack", and dedicated pages of editorial.
Today I am horrified, truly deeply horrified that the censors are inside development now, running amok, tearing things down, causing chaos, while certain members of the press are, as you say, supporting censorship, encouraging censorship, and demonising those of us who oppose censorship and support creative freedom.
It makes me sick to my stomach.
As a journalist, international author, and academic speaker, I will NEVER condone censorship or gagging of the press.
@Impossibilium ROFLMAO - not even close mate.
I do not support Trump.
I do not support Hitler (he invaded my paternal homeland so I find this especially egregious).
I also do not support censorship of any kind. Those who wish to censor are now employed in the industry and they are causing chaos.
Why does Bandai-Namco have employees whose sole job is to censor what the dev teams create? And then they brag about.
These people have no place working in the industry. If they want to censor get a job with the BBFC.
WELCOME TO THE ABSOLUTE DUMPSTER FIRE THAT IS 2024 EVERYONE:
Saying you oppose censorship literally makes you actual Hitler now!
By your insane logic this comments thread is now filled with Hitlers.
My stance for the last 30+ years has always been based on a single broad rule: between consenting adults there are no rules.
If a creative person writes a book, makes a film, develops a game, and a consenting adult wants to consume that media, then both parties are free to do this. As long as this media doesn't violate the freedom of or impose upon any other human being.
I've found this simple ideology to be a solid foundation for exploration of thought.
If you don't like a game someone else is playing, just don't engage with it. Simple. You'll feel better, and they'll be left alone.
I don't like the call of Call of Duty games. You know what I do about it? Not a damn thing. I ignore them and let them get on with their thing, and I engage with games that I do enjoy. I don't go around screaming that the content is problematic and we need to put a stop to it. That's just stupid and insane.
I really miss the days of Jack Thompson. He seems so quaint by today's standards. Back then people wanting to censor games were outsiders looking in, and we resisted them. We put age restrictions on games so adults could partake in whatever they wanted.
Today the games industry has been infiltrated by activists wanting to tear down and destroy creativity. There are literal Censorship Departments in companies like Square-Enix and Bandai-Namco.
Look it up. Google the above two company names and various censorship terms, you'll find plenty of results. These Censorship Departments, part of the parent company, now publicly boast about forcing the development teams to censor their games. Tone down content they don't like. Enacting changes the devs don't want to do, but have no choice.
Hell, there are now entire consultancy agencies which have infiltrated development and force censorship or divergent creative paths on our creative auteurs.
When old games are re-released we have to put "disclaimers" on, warning people about the content. Some argue we should just remove and replace it.
I look back on Jack and realise, was he really the enemy we thought he was? He was harmless. He did no damage to us.
Today the enemy is within. The poison is now in the blood and there's very little we can do to stop it or regress.
Freedom of expression has been compromised, and creative people are not allowed to make what they want.
Censorship today is worse than it has ever been.
I want to buy Jack a beer and reminisce about the good old days.
@Blofse lol, I'm not the gatekeeper to this genre descriptor - if one can argue its inclusion in a list, then in the list it stands unless argued otherwise.
For me personally I'd say no, because there's quite a few spy themed point and clicks. Secret Mission for example, that's also a point and click. There were others in HG101's adventure book.
Like, in my mind, I'm envisioning either an action or turn-based RPG. Side quests could be presented as sub-missions. Towns could be various HQ around the world. Gaining EXP could allow you to improve your lock pick skill, or your kung fu for stealth take downs. So as someone pointed out earlier - Deus Ex actually fits nicely. You're a government agent and it's an FPS/RPG.
Which all points back to the mysterious forum poster - I can't even remember where it was, but his excitement that Alpha Protocol might be the first "spy RPG" made me ponder the concept.
@gingerbeardman Ah! Sorry. Was in a hurry and misread. Yes, that it hugely problematic. My own work requires contacting him on an ad-hoc basis for info, or scans. Though with the latter, their publicly accessible database is good if you just want box shots.
But rest assured, the restrictive nature of Japan's draconian legal system is something I think about a lot, and discuss often. It's almost as if it's designed specifically so the past cannot be preserved - the GPS and other places had to plead for ages for special government permission to do a lot of stuff openly.
@Poodlestargenerica I was thinking in the way spies have a large assortment of gadgets and items, and also physical skills / knowledge they acquire. These could lend themselves to RPGs - in a way, the 2D Metal Gear games fit this. MG, SR, MG2, and MG:GB are all sort of like action-RPGs with a spy theme.
@Zenszulu Exactly. As a concept, it feels like a "spy RPG" is a no brainer. And yet... When you sit down and try to think of some...
There's a few point-and-click adventure games, but like the Bond GB game, they're not a proper fit. (Even ISOE on DC isn't an exact fit, since it's mechanically very strange.)
Posting for one reason only: when it came out, someone on a forum very excitedly asked, "could this be the first spy RPG?"
I hadn't heard of it at the time, so could not reply, but years later I discovered "Industrial Spy Operation Espionage" on Dreamcast, which predates it.
So for this random forumite from over a decade ago, there was one earlier example you may enjoy. Or not. I hated Industrial Spy. Alpha Protocol is definitely the better "spy RPG". Did anything predate IS though? (Possibly 007 on GB?)
But yes, 10 years ago I was asked to redact the name over concerns about how some of the larger companies may react.
Since then I spoke to John Ray of Atari / Time Warner, and Stefan Gancer has interviewed multiple Sunsoft staff on their side of the license, so it's sort of an open secret by now.
If you check out the quiz in Surprise Attack, the woman looks a lot like Kim Basinger. About 60% of the original planned game went into Surprise Attack.
If you check out the publishing credits of the games, around mid-1992 they stop being published by Sunsoft. Sega handles the Sega versions, and Konami handles the Nintendo versions.
@TransmitHim There was a slight miscommunication here - apologies, and I'll try to clarify.
The crowdfunding was for a document scanner to facilitate scanning entire magazines quickly after de-stapling and separating all pages. It's a new scanner for a new project.
The other scanner they had was an A3 flatbed scanner, which they'd been using for 10 years when it broke. Hence the charity auction.
Ultimately they hope to end up with two scanners:
a workhorse for high volume bulk magazine page scanning
a replacement A3 flatbed scanner for other bespoke jobs
I was also told the 25% extra on the magazine scanner crowdfunding will be used to purchase a paper cutting machine and other expenses related to the magazine archive work. Which is being treated as it's own large side project (literally several thousands of magazines are sitting in their archives).
Short version: Two different types of scanner for different jobs, funded via different means.
I had problems with carts coming loose with WarioWare Twisted (the GBA game you need to move around a lot), so I use a bit of blue-tack to keep it fixed down. Would that fix your problem here?
Also I'm still secretly holding out for a Barcode Battler scanner adapter (or possible camera to photograph the barcodes).
I agree with @LowDefAl on the shipping. The prices are absolutely insane and a mean way to gouge extra profit from customers. Raphnet ships similar adapter items from Japan for $5 airmail. Just think about that.
@OldManHermit I do like 80s horror. Poltergeist and Elm Street are favourites. I think part of it is I like the production veneer these Hollywood films have.
If you play Sweet Home post back here and quote me so I get notification - curious to hear your thoughts in the context of liking the film. Will you love the game because the two resonate so well? Or will you feel the gameification of the narrative detracts from it?
"Square was planning to invest 70% of the company's capital (roughly £2 million)"
Maybe I'm misunderstanding what capital is. But this sounds like Square only had roughly £3 million of capital to start with? Which seems quite small...
@smoreon I avoided the main bug fans complain about (you can leave stuff in the metal detector and then end up on disc 2 with no way of getting it back). Also a lot of people end up in the boss fight at the end of Disc 1 with not enough supplies to beat the boss (luckily as a veteran of RE1, 2, and 3 by this point, I always kept myself overstocked).
The weapons access problem is less a bug and more bad design, in how the game itself functions, swapping characters at key points, which leaves certain items in the non-playable character's inventory, or the item boxes. This could be avoided by reading a guide and being prepared. For my replay I decided to do the whole thing blind, and basically forgot this was the case - so towards the end of the second disc, for the end game, I didn't have the gas grenade launcher. (I forget the specifics, but there was a long stretch of acquiring grenades, and thinking: huh, it sure would be nice if I had proper access to my inventory again.) I may be misremembering exactly how this worked.
I guess my advice is: if you play Code Veronica, spoil it by reading a guide and making sure you are prepared for the disc change (if on Dreamcast), and certainly prepped for the characters changes (DC and PS2). Otherwise it's quite possible to end up in bad situations.
In terms of old school Resi, 2 is my favourite, closely followed by 1, with CV coming below 3 after a recent replay.
Gaiden is the king. Everyone should play Gaiden. Remember: it saves literally everywhere, not just as checkpoints - reviewers who complain about only saving at checkpoints didn't read the manual.
I replay it semi-regularly and love it to bits. My favourite GBC game alongside MGS.
I used to think Code Veronica was my favourite, but replayed it a coupke years back, and hated it. Was shocked at how dramatic my change of feeling was.
As someone said, it's a slog. Also buggy (you can perma lose key items accidentally). Also it pulls annoying tricks leaving you without access to vital weapons. In my recent replay I never got to use the gas grenades because it swapped characters and left the launcher innaccessible.
@RaeDawnChonglingBay Nah, I'd have placed the controller near several spider webs, in the shed for example, or a beehive, then put a boombox nearby pumping out wrestlmania music. Let the match of titans commence.
So I rewatched this. As a film I still think it's godawful. But!
After the first viewing I went and replayed the entire game (maybe 10 hours?). The last time was around 2001 after the fan-translation. I loved it at the time - Sweet Home on Famicom is an 8-bit masterpiece.
But I had enjoyed it devoid of context.
Watching the film and playing the game again, however, elevates the game to god-tier status. (Even though the film still sucks.) Because as supplementary material, the films adds context to in-game events, subverts certain expected events, and makes the game experience even better.
Thus making Sweet Home possibly the greatest film/game tie-in the history of either medium.
Great film adaptations like Platoon, Batman, Robocop, Die Hard... Whatever. Etc. They all worked without the film, and knowing the film only improved the experience moderately. Here, the film feels like it was meant to be part of the game experience (which was fantastic anyway).
There have been a few similar attempts over the years. Exile on the BBC Micro had a novella included. Antiriad had a comic. Galaxy Odyssey had an audio novel on cassette. The Matrix games years later pitched themselves as missing segments from the movie, meant to dovetail together. That was more than a decade later though.
Sweet Home came out in 1989 and does the above far more elegantly.
On my second playthrough I renamed the characters to match how I saw them in the film (the reporter was renamed April). Knowing the character relations also improved the experience. I kept the father and daughter together, and I paired the pervy cameraman and reporter off, since they had a thing going on in the film
And you know what? Following the groupings in the film made the game easier - it was meant to be played like this. The cameraman and reporter work so well as a pair for reading the frescos.
I was also able to visualise each character as in the film, and imagine their voices. And items, such as the dress which heals mental power, made so much more sense now. Before it was just an arbitrary game item, now I mentally align it with the film, where the dress was Emi's late mother's, and gives them the will to fight on.
The game also adds a little more backstory to the film - notably what happened to the mysterious painter, which wasn't explained in the film itself!
Plus it alters some things, such as the coffin location, and other bits, to keep you on your toes.
I hated my 2nd viewing even more since I knew what happened. But by virtue of improving the game, I have to recommend it - watch it, then play the game. Consider it like reading the manual.
This might actually be the perfect film/game symbiosis. Not because the film is good, but because of how well the two are integrated.
I would buy the adapters, but not when the postage is literally a zillion-gajillion-quintrillion dollars for what should be no more than $15 tops. Raphnet can ship from Japan for $5!
Is it accepted knowledge they're using postage to profit gouge buyers? Or is this just my imagination?
The whole thing reeks of American style medical costs, where life-saving cancer treatment is extortionate, but they know people will just shut up and pay because they have no other choice, even though the actual costs are negligible.
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Re: New Book Aims To Celebrate Saturn, Sega's Beloved 32-Bit Console
Dear Sega: I know you've been going around stomping on lots of different people writing books which promote your creations, but maybe just take a bit of a break, yeah? I'd kinda like to read this one.
Re: The Making Of: Langrisser / Warsong - Fire Emblem's Oft-Ignored Rival
@Diogmites So glad this is reaching Langrisser fans. The day was indeed incredible, lots of fun, two great interviewees, so many anecdotes, but processing all the material later was quite an undertaking - and then to receive email documents and not be able to use them for so long was stressful.
I mainly just feel relief that the words he entrusted me with are now out there. My quest is fulfilled.
Please share it with any other fans you know.
Re: PS1 Doom Has Been Backported To PC, Along With Its Amazing Soundtrack
Am I the only person who despises the 32-bit Doom soundtrack? As perhaps the only outlier in a comments section where everyone will proclaim their love for it, I respect everyone's free choice to enjoy and engage with what they like, and not engage with what they don't. I don't "cancel" because I'm not into something. If you prefer the 32-bit music, that's cool.
But I have to know: am I the only one who prefers the original Robert Prince soundtrack over the Aubrey Hodges music on PS1?
I only played the 32-bit games last year - prior to this I'd only known the PC versions, or the X360 port.
As soon as original Doom starts it pumps heavy metal and gets you pumped up. You feel energised, ready to give a demon a chainsaw enema. I mean, just listen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSsfjHCFosw
I feel pumped and ready for carnage, and I'm just browsing the internet!
When I finally played the 32-bit ports (Saturn, actually, not PS1, but the music is the same), I was disgusted at how slow it was. This wasn't the adrenaline surge I craved. Where was the RIP AND TEAR? Where was the energy? Where was the maniacal gun-toting marine commando anthem to slay the armies of hell?
It was... Like the wrong game. Like it was meant for... An X-Files point-and-click adventure. I just could not stomach it. Have a listen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAfg-9AX4qU
I'm ready to fall asleep now. Is this... even music?
Does anyone out there feel the same? Please. I need to know I am not alone.
(I know the PC version had a few non-metal tracks, but I hate those - Kitchen Ace, Sawed the Demons, Facing the Spider, various cover songs, all the heavy ones, those are the ones that stand out for me as perfection.)
Re: Visions Of Mana's New Japanese Trailer Goes Heavy On Nostalgia
I'm not keen on whatever they're advertising (I've long since given up on modern games). But the intro to this is beautiful and resonates so strongly.
I was that child. (Except not in Japan, obviously.) I think many of us were.
Re: "The Tourists Have Taken Everything" Laments Japanese Resident As Retro Runs Dry
Buying online and the JP address means nothing. As pointed out by @LowDefAl proxy sites solve this.
I spoke to Joseph of the GPS, and according to research done by Beep, the figure he quoted me was, something like 70% of games sold on Japanese auction sites end up leaving the country. Way above half.
I do it myself - scalpers and speculators on UK ebay have jacked up prices to such insane heights, with items that sit getting endlessly relisted (artificially inflating the sense of value these items have), that even after domestic shipping within Japan, handling fees, import tax, and postage out of Japan to my house, an item via proxy is STILL cheaper than from these filthy damned local scalpers.
I feel bad for the Japanese. Or people who live there, regardless of origin. Even foreigners in Japan.
Around 2001 it was a paradise. Even in 2013 when I went again, it was OK. Lose games, controllers, all sorts were fairly priced and abundant.
I absolutely blame the speculators. Places like Wata and Heritage Auctions. They put games in plastic coffins, sell stuff for millions, speculators see this and want in on the investing action. Boom! All domestic prices rise astronomically. So legitimate players turn to importing direct.
It's over for Japan. It'll never recover.
Now the wealthy collectors are travelling further afield in Asia. Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, etc.
They're buying the Japanese games which had been imported into these countries back in the day, and which still haven't yet been picked clean by speculators and scalpers.
Re: The Making Of: Ride To Hell, The Open-World Epic That Became One Of The Worst Games Of All Time
@Poodlestargenerica There was a Superman 64 you never played!
A much earlier beta was leaked, and it was actually better than the retail version. The license holders apparently demanded whole sections be cut, leaving behind the drek we got. It's out there, incl vids and analysis.
(Unless you were referring to this - and I misunderstood)
Re: Metroid II Gets A Colourful Super Game Boy Upgrade
I get nervous with SGB borders. They're static images. I actually had burn in on my cheap Goodman's CRT (upper left) due to a constant unchanging border image on something.
Re: A Bunch Of Sealed NES Games Just Sold For Utterly Insane Amounts On eBay
Karl Jobst did an amazing investigative job documenting the scam that is high priced sealed games:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvLFEh7V18A
My guess, since these were not Wata graded yet, is they were bought by Wata staff or speculative investors, will be graded as 9.8 shortly, and then in 6 months will be auction by Heritage Auctions for 2 or 3 million.
Every time you see a silly high priced auction - think of Jobst's documentary.
The whole scene is a lie. I started investigating this myself, getting speculative investors to admit to it, and then I was like: screw this, just now I end up on someone's hit list.
Just trust in Jobst. Guy is putting his life on the line challenging this mafia.
Re: CEX Is Launching Its Own Repair Service For Retro Consoles
@NatiaAdamo I've read this a lot. My 210 and 220 models (UK, PAL) do not. They boot up just fine. The clock reverts to the factory default? Actually, not quite. On my 210 it shows "0 January". (The 220 was sold years ago, but had the same problem.)
They load and play games. And they retain saves as long as they're kept powered. Cutting the power kills the saves.
Since I've not had a model that gets stuck in the boot loop described online, I had to assume it's one of the other models of CDi. Of which there are... Many! Even the 210/220 has several internal board revisions, which dramatically affects how you can mod them.
I'm just going to say there's over 50 different models / revisions / variants of what is the same basic hardware. I do not know which specifically suffer from that problem. Only that mine did / do not.
Re: Batman Artist Calls Sonic The Hedgehog Casino Similarities A "Coincidence"
Didn't the Sonic Adventure team fly to a variety of locations, including South America, for research? That's where the Aztec ruins designs came from.
I can't find the interview now where I read that, but I wonder if they didn't visit Vegas too? Or at least look at photos.
I drove around Vegas once, there's all sorts of weird looking casinos.
Are we certain there isn't a casino which resembles the above, and has some sort of screen to the side to entice gamblers walking past?
Re: CEX Is Launching Its Own Repair Service For Retro Consoles
My Philips CDi needs a new timekeeper battery soldered in to maintain saves and...
No Philips CDi option on their web pages.
Jokes aside this is pretty cool. I wonder if they'll expand to do mods. 60Hz switches for everyone!
Re: Flashback: The Lost 32X Castlevania That Led To Symphony Of The Night
@RetroGames That would have been incredible. The non-linear progression and save system were excellent.
Re: Flashback: The Lost 32X Castlevania That Led To Symphony Of The Night
@RetroGames Can the SNES game even be considered a "port"? It's so utterly different to Rondo on PCE, it's like whoever made it overheard a drunk conversation between the original team in a bar and based it on that.
Re: Legendary "Crap Game" Ikki Gets A Second Chance On Switch This April
It's weird discovering years after the fact the original had a bad reputation. I only found it was considered kusoge by some when they started doing the updated versions a few years back.
Growing up with a Famicom this was a personal favourite of mine and my brother. Since it never had a Western NES release we never, ever saw talk of it in magazines. So it was one of our earliest obscure gems.
It was one of a tiny selection of simultaneous 2 player games on the system (Contra, Battle City, and TMNT III were other examples we owned). And in 2P it worked well as you had to cover each other to avoid the quick spawning enemies.
Even in single player, it was not too long or too difficult. You could rinse it in 20 minutes easily.
The music was funky.
Every stage was filled with weird diversity. One-off items that only appeared in one spot - which is impressive, given how early NES games would re-use assets to make a game longer. To have an item that filled only a few second of gameplay, was wasteful but enjoyable.
The controls were great. Top down view, fast movement, responsive, and your projectile weapons had a slight homing effect, so you didn't have to aim too precisely.
It featured extremely smooth multi-direction scrolling in the four cardinal directions! Not even Super Mario Bros did that (it scrolling in one direction only). Zelda didn't do that. Metroid didn't do that (again, two directional only). It did stuff on a technical level that some beloved classics didn't even do. Mario 3 and Snake Rattle n Roll had multi-directional scrolling, but they came out much later.
The invincibility items allowed you to wreak carnage.
Each of the... four levels? five levels? Were totally different. In terms of colour, graphics, and mechanics. The graveyard maze which restricted movement. The open fields with water that slowed you. The vertical level with the paper walls. The bonus level! Each felt different.
Once we got bigger and better games like Mario 3 and TMNT III, we didn't play it too much, but due to its short length we'd sometimes load it for a quick completion as a warm up before another better game. A very literal "B Game" that precedes the main feature.
I genuinely don't know why it has a poor reputation. Its simplicity? Short length? Easiness?
Re: Felvidek Is A PS1-Style JRPG Starring A Boozed-Up Knight
Not sure why he uses "JRPG" - I've been debating the meaning of the acronym with a friend.
I say it refers to any RPG (action, turn based, strategy, dungeon crawler) made in Japan. A cultural / regional export like Champagne (as opposed to sparkling wine).
He argues that's meaningless because Western players use JRPG to refer to any RPG that looks like Final Fantasy. He feels we should abandon the term.
This game is neither made in Japan nor does it resemble other JRPGs like FF.
Frankly I'm baffled by the use of JRPG here. And it's lending credence to my friend's argument the term has become meaningless.
Re: Controversial Retro Store DK Oldies Just Got Hacked
This is just one tiny aspect of a much larger problem regarding retro prices being artificially inflated by scalpers and speculators.
I've sold items to people who I later found out run stores which resell those items at quadruple the price.
Re: Star Fox Level Viewer Pulled From Source Code
This is cool. I wonder how many literal kilometres level 1 is.
Re: Jack Thompson, The Man Who Tried To Ban GTA, Thinks Video Games Can Be Good, Actually
@Weez The books are with Bitmap.
A friend in the industry says part of the problem is rising costs. He predicts a crash which force a reset in many ways.
I'm just enjoying my backlog in the meantime.
@InsaneWade
Berners-Lee who ivented the web was British, so we had it. But I think the technology roll out was slower. My family only got a PC in 98, and some kids at school didn't one at home even at the millennium.
It's funny to think how reliant we were on libraries, TV, newspapers, and magazines for info.
You make excellent points. If in-game characters are adults, and a product is sold to adults, there shouldn't be content restrictions. I like legally binding age ratings. Because if it's rated 18 then only adults can access it, and parents complaining about their 12 year old playing it only have themselves to blame.
Re: Jack Thompson, The Man Who Tried To Ban GTA, Thinks Video Games Can Be Good, Actually
@Impossibilium No worries, no harm done. Peace, oh fellow player.
Having Googled and discovered the similar phrase that caused a ruckus in December, I will word it more carefully in future.
Re: Jack Thompson, The Man Who Tried To Ban GTA, Thinks Video Games Can Be Good, Actually
@Poodlestargenerica
@Impossibilium
I thought I better check this - it seems Trump/Hitler said something slightly similar. I don't follow politics at all, so genuinely had no idea this had even been a thing in 2023.
For the record, I stole the line from Vladimir Nabokov.
Technically he said poison in the "wound", but blood sounded better to me. I've used this line more than once.
In future I will use the original literary wording of wound, to avoid comparisons.
I find the concept of the phrase valuable: that an event or action or situation can, like poison in a wound, or sepsis in blood, start off undetected and over time become a worse problem. I regard censorship departments in companies as being comparable to Fifth Columns. (Worth reading up on if you've not heard the term.) These departments and similar content alterers act as fifth columns - "poison in the wound" which is slowly undermining creative visions and will get worse over time.
Some label them "ethics departments" - do not be deceived by such Orwellian double speak. To censor is to be unethical. To be ethical is to not censor. They have deliberately chosen a name opposite to their actions. In 1984, a great book, the Ministry of Truth produced only lies to keep the populace in check. By calling these "ethics departments" the implication is that resisting them is unethical. It is cognitive deception to manipulate the narrative and your thinking. Resist, my fellow players.
Just for the record: not a supporter of Trump or Hitler. Was unaware of their use of a similar phrase.
Re: Jack Thompson, The Man Who Tried To Ban GTA, Thinks Video Games Can Be Good, Actually
@Weez Thank you!
I officially stopped writing for websites and mags to focus on books (HG101's CMS redesign was also really awkward; we longer hand coded html, which I missed), but Damien here encouraged me to freelance for TE a year or so back (link to articles in my name), and I've enjoyed researching forgotten topics.
I'm still writing books (collaborating on two with co-authors).
I was thinking about being more public and writing more for sites and mags again, but then I see sites shutting down, AI rising up, and all the editors I once knew having moved on. Also soc media is just pure anger. I'd be cancelled in five minutes.
I'm not sure modern journalism has a place for an old man like me. I suspect my free-spirited anti-authoritarian uncensoring chilled hippy ideology would be at odds with the totalitarian hit pieces and snark of some outlets.
EDIT:
Sorry, my name here goes to my user profile. Here's my author profile:
https://www.timeextension.com/authors/Sketcz
Re: Jack Thompson, The Man Who Tried To Ban GTA, Thinks Video Games Can Be Good, Actually
@InsaneWade
I don't immerse myself in modern games like I used to, so I will limit examples to stuff I read up on, rather than fringe examples friends message me about (there was some mascot platformer where a sole member of staff made the team uncomfortable until they reduced a character's bust - game didn't interest me so I didn't follow it). There are other examples which paint a background to my feelings, but do not form the core since I've not read up on them. Outrage over DOAX3? Removal of jiggle physics in Xenoblade 2? Quite a bit of censorship today is puritanical in nature, as if sex is evil.
Anyway...
To contextualise my earlier statement:
Again, a titan like BN has employees who dictate changes to original creators.
I mention the 3rd item above, in conjuction with #1 and #2, because 20 years ago nobody would be supporting removal of content.
It would be resisted.
Now we have two giant triple-A studios being forced to bend the knee because someone in the office basement is clutching pearls. And we have a major franchise which avoided content deletion, but there was consideration of removing it. Tomb Raider could be seen as both a victory, and the thin end of the wedge.
I am outraged that content removal is even considered. 20 years ago everyone in this comments would be valiantly defending creator freedom.
When I say censorship is worse now, I also mean that the public and press seem to be more tolerant of the idea. As @JayJ said, now there are those who support censorship. Ergo, the topic of "censorship" is now worse, all that it encompasses, because less people are resisting it. Because there is even a hint of supporting. Because there are actual censor departments. Did Rockstar have a censor department when making GTA III? They did not!
ALWAYS RESIST CENSORSHIP. Always.
Re: Jack Thompson, The Man Who Tried To Ban GTA, Thinks Video Games Can Be Good, Actually
@JayJ Exactly. When I started in journalism, circa 2005, at places like The Gamer's Quarter, there was unity amongst players and the press alike, to resist Jack and politicians. We printed stickers with his face, saying "You don't know Jack", and dedicated pages of editorial.
Today I am horrified, truly deeply horrified that the censors are inside development now, running amok, tearing things down, causing chaos, while certain members of the press are, as you say, supporting censorship, encouraging censorship, and demonising those of us who oppose censorship and support creative freedom.
It makes me sick to my stomach.
As a journalist, international author, and academic speaker, I will NEVER condone censorship or gagging of the press.
@Impossibilium
ROFLMAO - not even close mate.
I do not support Trump.
I do not support Hitler (he invaded my paternal homeland so I find this especially egregious).
I also do not support censorship of any kind. Those who wish to censor are now employed in the industry and they are causing chaos.
Why does Bandai-Namco have employees whose sole job is to censor what the dev teams create? And then they brag about.
These people have no place working in the industry. If they want to censor get a job with the BBFC.
WELCOME TO THE ABSOLUTE DUMPSTER FIRE THAT IS 2024 EVERYONE:
Saying you oppose censorship literally makes you actual Hitler now!
By your insane logic this comments thread is now filled with Hitlers.
Because we don't like censorship.
***** LOL!
Re: Jack Thompson, The Man Who Tried To Ban GTA, Thinks Video Games Can Be Good, Actually
@JayJ You've said it well, JayJ.
My stance for the last 30+ years has always been based on a single broad rule: between consenting adults there are no rules.
If a creative person writes a book, makes a film, develops a game, and a consenting adult wants to consume that media, then both parties are free to do this. As long as this media doesn't violate the freedom of or impose upon any other human being.
I've found this simple ideology to be a solid foundation for exploration of thought.
If you don't like a game someone else is playing, just don't engage with it. Simple. You'll feel better, and they'll be left alone.
I don't like the call of Call of Duty games. You know what I do about it? Not a damn thing. I ignore them and let them get on with their thing, and I engage with games that I do enjoy. I don't go around screaming that the content is problematic and we need to put a stop to it. That's just stupid and insane.
Re: Jack Thompson, The Man Who Tried To Ban GTA, Thinks Video Games Can Be Good, Actually
I really miss the days of Jack Thompson. He seems so quaint by today's standards. Back then people wanting to censor games were outsiders looking in, and we resisted them. We put age restrictions on games so adults could partake in whatever they wanted.
Today the games industry has been infiltrated by activists wanting to tear down and destroy creativity. There are literal Censorship Departments in companies like Square-Enix and Bandai-Namco.
Look it up. Google the above two company names and various censorship terms, you'll find plenty of results. These Censorship Departments, part of the parent company, now publicly boast about forcing the development teams to censor their games. Tone down content they don't like. Enacting changes the devs don't want to do, but have no choice.
Hell, there are now entire consultancy agencies which have infiltrated development and force censorship or divergent creative paths on our creative auteurs.
When old games are re-released we have to put "disclaimers" on, warning people about the content. Some argue we should just remove and replace it.
I look back on Jack and realise, was he really the enemy we thought he was? He was harmless. He did no damage to us.
Today the enemy is within. The poison is now in the blood and there's very little we can do to stop it or regress.
Freedom of expression has been compromised, and creative people are not allowed to make what they want.
Censorship today is worse than it has ever been.
I want to buy Jack a beer and reminisce about the good old days.
Re: Obsidian's Spy RPG Alpha Protocol Lands On GOG, 5 Years After Licensing Issues
@Blofse lol, I'm not the gatekeeper to this genre descriptor - if one can argue its inclusion in a list, then in the list it stands unless argued otherwise.
For me personally I'd say no, because there's quite a few spy themed point and clicks. Secret Mission for example, that's also a point and click. There were others in HG101's adventure book.
Like, in my mind, I'm envisioning either an action or turn-based RPG. Side quests could be presented as sub-missions. Towns could be various HQ around the world. Gaining EXP could allow you to improve your lock pick skill, or your kung fu for stealth take downs. So as someone pointed out earlier - Deus Ex actually fits nicely. You're a government agent and it's an FPS/RPG.
Which all points back to the mysterious forum poster - I can't even remember where it was, but his excitement that Alpha Protocol might be the first "spy RPG" made me ponder the concept.
I enjoyed playing through AP.
Re: The Japanese Game Preservation Society Is Selling Off Rare Items To Fund Its Vital Work
@gingerbeardman Ah! Sorry. Was in a hurry and misread. Yes, that it hugely problematic. My own work requires contacting him on an ad-hoc basis for info, or scans. Though with the latter, their publicly accessible database is good if you just want box shots.
But rest assured, the restrictive nature of Japan's draconian legal system is something I think about a lot, and discuss often. It's almost as if it's designed specifically so the past cannot be preserved - the GPS and other places had to plead for ages for special government permission to do a lot of stuff openly.
It is maddening.
Re: Obsidian's Spy RPG Alpha Protocol Lands On GOG, 5 Years After Licensing Issues
@Poodlestargenerica I was thinking in the way spies have a large assortment of gadgets and items, and also physical skills / knowledge they acquire. These could lend themselves to RPGs - in a way, the 2D Metal Gear games fit this. MG, SR, MG2, and MG:GB are all sort of like action-RPGs with a spy theme.
Re: Obsidian's Spy RPG Alpha Protocol Lands On GOG, 5 Years After Licensing Issues
@Zenszulu Exactly. As a concept, it feels like a "spy RPG" is a no brainer. And yet... When you sit down and try to think of some...
There's a few point-and-click adventure games, but like the Bond GB game, they're not a proper fit. (Even ISOE on DC isn't an exact fit, since it's mechanically very strange.)
Re: Obsidian's Spy RPG Alpha Protocol Lands On GOG, 5 Years After Licensing Issues
Not a bad game - the clunkiness was charming.
Posting for one reason only: when it came out, someone on a forum very excitedly asked, "could this be the first spy RPG?"
I hadn't heard of it at the time, so could not reply, but years later I discovered "Industrial Spy Operation Espionage" on Dreamcast, which predates it.
So for this random forumite from over a decade ago, there was one earlier example you may enjoy. Or not. I hated Industrial Spy. Alpha Protocol is definitely the better "spy RPG". Did anything predate IS though? (Possibly 007 on GB?)
Re: Konami's Sci-Fi Sidescroller Surprise Attack Heading To Switch & PS4
@RootsGenoa
@Poodlestargenerica
@PKDuckman
The film, Batman, was actually revealed here:
https://www.timeextension.com/features/interview-konami-legends-reveal-the-secrets-of-the-arcade-hit-factory
But yes, 10 years ago I was asked to redact the name over concerns about how some of the larger companies may react.
Since then I spoke to John Ray of Atari / Time Warner, and Stefan Gancer has interviewed multiple Sunsoft staff on their side of the license, so it's sort of an open secret by now.
If you check out the quiz in Surprise Attack, the woman looks a lot like Kim Basinger. About 60% of the original planned game went into Surprise Attack.
If you check out the publishing credits of the games, around mid-1992 they stop being published by Sunsoft. Sega handles the Sega versions, and Konami handles the Nintendo versions.
Re: Bitmap Books Celebrates 10th Anniversary, And We Were There
@BionicDodo Bitmap produced a very nice PCE box art book - I bought a copy and it's helped me fill out my collection of PCE games.
Re: The Japanese Game Preservation Society Is Selling Off Rare Items To Fund Its Vital Work
@gingerbeardman true, but thankfully there's like three+ different proxy companies for people interested.
Buyee was used in the above.
But there's FromJapan, which I signed up with, plus Google is showing me ZenMarket and Jauce.
Obviously readers need to see which services meet their needs best.
Re: The Japanese Game Preservation Society Is Selling Off Rare Items To Fund Its Vital Work
@TransmitHim There was a slight miscommunication here - apologies, and I'll try to clarify.
The crowdfunding was for a document scanner to facilitate scanning entire magazines quickly after de-stapling and separating all pages. It's a new scanner for a new project.
The other scanner they had was an A3 flatbed scanner, which they'd been using for 10 years when it broke. Hence the charity auction.
Ultimately they hope to end up with two scanners:
I was also told the 25% extra on the magazine scanner crowdfunding will be used to purchase a paper cutting machine and other expenses related to the magazine archive work. Which is being treated as it's own large side project (literally several thousands of magazines are sitting in their archives).
Short version:
Two different types of scanner for different jobs, funded via different means.
Re: Poll: What's The Best Shinobi Game?
I know it gets hate, but I personally love the Saturn game.
Re: The Japanese Game Preservation Society Is Selling Off Rare Items To Fund Its Vital Work
Neat - that was fast! I'm currently chatting with Joseph about translating their full list of rarities, and when they'll be going up.
Re: You Won't Believe How Little Ocean Paid For RoboCop's Global Video Game Rights
For anyone interested, there's some nice remasters of the Robocop games recently:
http://www.parkproductions.co.uk/robocop2dreloaded.htm
Re: Review: Analogue Pocket Adapters - Lynx, PC Engine And NGPC Support Is Finally Here
I had problems with carts coming loose with WarioWare Twisted (the GBA game you need to move around a lot), so I use a bit of blue-tack to keep it fixed down. Would that fix your problem here?
Also I'm still secretly holding out for a Barcode Battler scanner adapter (or possible camera to photograph the barcodes).
I agree with @LowDefAl on the shipping. The prices are absolutely insane and a mean way to gouge extra profit from customers. Raphnet ships similar adapter items from Japan for $5 airmail. Just think about that.
Re: Sweet Home, The Movie That Inspired Resident Evil, Just Got Remastered
@OldManHermit I do like 80s horror. Poltergeist and Elm Street are favourites. I think part of it is I like the production veneer these Hollywood films have.
If you play Sweet Home post back here and quote me so I get notification - curious to hear your thoughts in the context of liking the film. Will you love the game because the two resonate so well? Or will you feel the gameification of the narrative detracts from it?
Re: Square Had Huge Plans For The N64 Before It Fell Out With Nintendo
@sdelfin Ah! Yes, I see it now. That's what I get for skimming. Thanks.
Re: We Almost Got The "Definitive" Version Of Blaster Master In Arcades
Why would I want to play shorter linear levels?
That removes what I like about the game!
Re: Square Had Huge Plans For The N64 Before It Fell Out With Nintendo
"Square was planning to invest 70% of the company's capital (roughly £2 million)"
Maybe I'm misunderstanding what capital is. But this sounds like Square only had roughly £3 million of capital to start with? Which seems quite small...
Re: Best Resident Evil Games, Ranked By You
@Damo No Bio Hazard bootleg for the Famicom? I guess fan-games shouldn't really count... Though it's an amusing oddity.
https://bootleggames.fandom.com/wiki/Bio_Hazard_(Famicom)
Re: Best Resident Evil Games, Ranked By You
@smoreon I avoided the main bug fans complain about (you can leave stuff in the metal detector and then end up on disc 2 with no way of getting it back). Also a lot of people end up in the boss fight at the end of Disc 1 with not enough supplies to beat the boss (luckily as a veteran of RE1, 2, and 3 by this point, I always kept myself overstocked).
The weapons access problem is less a bug and more bad design, in how the game itself functions, swapping characters at key points, which leaves certain items in the non-playable character's inventory, or the item boxes. This could be avoided by reading a guide and being prepared. For my replay I decided to do the whole thing blind, and basically forgot this was the case - so towards the end of the second disc, for the end game, I didn't have the gas grenade launcher. (I forget the specifics, but there was a long stretch of acquiring grenades, and thinking: huh, it sure would be nice if I had proper access to my inventory again.) I may be misremembering exactly how this worked.
I guess my advice is: if you play Code Veronica, spoil it by reading a guide and making sure you are prepared for the disc change (if on Dreamcast), and certainly prepped for the characters changes (DC and PS2). Otherwise it's quite possible to end up in bad situations.
In terms of old school Resi, 2 is my favourite, closely followed by 1, with CV coming below 3 after a recent replay.
Gaiden is the king. Everyone should play Gaiden. Remember: it saves literally everywhere, not just as checkpoints - reviewers who complain about only saving at checkpoints didn't read the manual.
Re: Best Resident Evil Games, Ranked By You
Anyone else love RE: Gaiden on the GBC?
I replay it semi-regularly and love it to bits. My favourite GBC game alongside MGS.
I used to think Code Veronica was my favourite, but replayed it a coupke years back, and hated it. Was shocked at how dramatic my change of feeling was.
As someone said, it's a slog. Also buggy (you can perma lose key items accidentally). Also it pulls annoying tricks leaving you without access to vital weapons. In my recent replay I never got to use the gas grenades because it swapped characters and left the launcher innaccessible.
Re: 3DS Emulator Citra Is Dead, Along With Switch Emulator Yuzu
@MrModerate You could, but then you'd be... BREAKING THE LAW! BREAKING THE LAW! BREAKING THE LAW!
edit: lol, the backwards slash vanishes when posting, meaning I can't do the devil horns emoji. /m/ /m/
Re: 3DS Emulator Citra Is Dead, Along With Switch Emulator Yuzu
I ran Ocarina of Time on Citra, upscaled to 1080p, with 360 controller, mapping screen touches to hotkeys.
It was glorious!
Re: This Dreamcast Controller Full Of Ants Is Your Nightmare Fuel For Today
@RaeDawnChonglingBay Nah, I'd have placed the controller near several spider webs, in the shed for example, or a beehive, then put a boombox nearby pumping out wrestlmania music. Let the match of titans commence.
Re: Sweet Home, The Movie That Inspired Resident Evil, Just Got Remastered
So I rewatched this. As a film I still think it's godawful. But!
After the first viewing I went and replayed the entire game (maybe 10 hours?). The last time was around 2001 after the fan-translation. I loved it at the time - Sweet Home on Famicom is an 8-bit masterpiece.
But I had enjoyed it devoid of context.
Watching the film and playing the game again, however, elevates the game to god-tier status. (Even though the film still sucks.) Because as supplementary material, the films adds context to in-game events, subverts certain expected events, and makes the game experience even better.
Thus making Sweet Home possibly the greatest film/game tie-in the history of either medium.
Great film adaptations like Platoon, Batman, Robocop, Die Hard... Whatever. Etc. They all worked without the film, and knowing the film only improved the experience moderately. Here, the film feels like it was meant to be part of the game experience (which was fantastic anyway).
There have been a few similar attempts over the years. Exile on the BBC Micro had a novella included. Antiriad had a comic. Galaxy Odyssey had an audio novel on cassette. The Matrix games years later pitched themselves as missing segments from the movie, meant to dovetail together. That was more than a decade later though.
Sweet Home came out in 1989 and does the above far more elegantly.
On my second playthrough I renamed the characters to match how I saw them in the film (the reporter was renamed April). Knowing the character relations also improved the experience. I kept the father and daughter together, and I paired the pervy cameraman and reporter off, since they had a thing going on in the film
And you know what? Following the groupings in the film made the game easier - it was meant to be played like this. The cameraman and reporter work so well as a pair for reading the frescos.
I was also able to visualise each character as in the film, and imagine their voices. And items, such as the dress which heals mental power, made so much more sense now. Before it was just an arbitrary game item, now I mentally align it with the film, where the dress was Emi's late mother's, and gives them the will to fight on.
The game also adds a little more backstory to the film - notably what happened to the mysterious painter, which wasn't explained in the film itself!
Plus it alters some things, such as the coffin location, and other bits, to keep you on your toes.
I hated my 2nd viewing even more since I knew what happened. But by virtue of improving the game, I have to recommend it - watch it, then play the game. Consider it like reading the manual.
This might actually be the perfect film/game symbiosis. Not because the film is good, but because of how well the two are integrated.
Re: Analogue Pocket Firmware Update 2.2 Now Available
Hoping for Lynx and NGPC core soon.
I would buy the adapters, but not when the postage is literally a zillion-gajillion-quintrillion dollars for what should be no more than $15 tops. Raphnet can ship from Japan for $5!
Is it accepted knowledge they're using postage to profit gouge buyers? Or is this just my imagination?
The whole thing reeks of American style medical costs, where life-saving cancer treatment is extortionate, but they know people will just shut up and pay because they have no other choice, even though the actual costs are negligible.