JAZZZZZZZZZZZZZA!!!
Supremely excited about this - hoping it has lots of inside stories and gossip from his time on all the mags he worked on.
Going to be intrigued to see which games he picks as well! Would be very interested in his views on games released after he left for the US.
Edit - Just spotted the KP Skips bag of crisps by the PC Engine on the cover!! 🤣👏
Droool.... We really do seem to be in a golden age of retro gaming with the wealth of retro systems being released or being made. As well as an abundance of mods and improvements to many classic games. Having these options and keeping classic games fresh and in people's minds is great!
@slider1983 Yeah I agree completely. I really hope it's real as it could be friggin amazing! Lot of scepticism about it's veracity but you never know... Until a reputable site like TE gets hold of an actual production model for review or sees one demonstrated in the flesh I (along with many others) do wonder! And if it's real I'm happy to eat humble pie!
Never owned it, but I have really fond fuzzy memories of playing this when visiting family friends. Having to wait patiently for a go as I was the youngest! Will have to pick this up.
Either this is the coolest thing ever or it's the videogame equivalent of those 'photos' of the Loch Ness Monster and fairies that fooled everyone. I really hope it's the former...
But what happened in Japan with Square and FFVII and did they get the Spanish version done in time? Left us hanging there...
I remember well that the PSX wasn't highly regarded at first, purely because Sony was such an unknown compared to Nintendo and Sega. Hype levels were off the chart for the Saturn based on Sega's rep - even when the machines were launched in 94 people were convinced Sega would come good.
A preview and feature on the next gen machines in (I think) CVG was quite dismissive about PSX as they just didn't know what Sony might do, with more column inches given to other manufacturers which is hilarious in hindsight after Sony steamrolled everyone. Even the 3DO and CDi seemed to get better coverage...!
Not really on topic but just a chance to say what a great great game Buster Busts Loose is. I think I have 3 copies... (2xSFC and 1xPAL SNES)
I always loved the train level on Stage 2 - it feels like a 16-bit precursor to the amazing train chase in Uncharted 2, but obviously within the limitations of the time.
@RetroGames Yeah I think it's a real power house performance from Rare and also the SNES doing these graphics. It really sets it apart from the Megadrive in this regard (which of course had it's own different strengths.)
OMG a Paul Davies article reminiscing on the good ol days. It's like I'm almost back in college reading this outside on the steps before going round my mates to play his imported N64 and be blown away by SM64 and Waverace.
1 - a chance for me to let Paul know how friggin great his tenure of CVG was in the mid 90s and to say Thanks! Your enthusiasm for the PSX, N64 and Saturn (and everything else) was infectious and really elevated that era for me and I'm sure many others. Halcyon days for me.
2 - With this in mind, I'd love to see more regular articles like this one from Paul recalling events and the industry back then. How about it Time Extension? The highs and lows on making CVG, the inside scoop on production companies offering bribes or getting peeved when their games scored badly, how the team got on with one another... There must be so many stories that can now be told.
And whilst you're at it, get Jaz, Rich, Paul G, Rad and anyone else in on it as well.
There's a StarWing poster in the corner so this surely cannot be 91/92.
We didn't get StarWing till Summer 1993 and the name change wasn't announced much earlier. Plus the control options screen from the start is shown on one of the monitors and there's no way we'd see that being leaked prior to release before 93.
Holy crucifix. That looks amazing - actually it looks and sounds almost too good for the Megadrive! The trade off is really minimal. Bit hard to fully tell from this video recording but this looks and sounds better than New Generation/Vampire Killer, which for me always paled in comparison to the SNES game in these departments. Amazing stuff.
Gaaawd this looks so good. I've always wanted to go to Japan and do this, not just to buy a few gems but also just to experience it. Have to take an empty suitcase with me to bring stuff back in. Hopefully one day...
Awesome stuff Jack.
A lot of these pics really remind me of the basement from the Rathbone Place CEX where they had the most insane amount of imported games in the early noughties. Treasure trove and most of them out of my price range which would probably be the case in Japan as well ha!
@bippity_bop And when games launched and almost always worked out of the box without post launch patches!!! Things sure have got better and worse in so many ways!
Brilliant! One of my fave games. I'd love a guide on how I could play these mods and games, like that new mod of MarioKart which was also recently released. I have no idea how to play these things and always been concerned about downloading dodgy viruses!
@obijuankanoobie I think you've hit the nail on the head! But we all know it happened and they released the thing! And wasn't the Warioland game supposed to be quite good?
Touched on this before on here - companies not releasing these oddities on modern digital services is odd and annoying imo - other perfect examples are the Super Famicom Satelleview and N64 DD software being (officially at least) locked to their respective systems...
Fun fact - they had to call it SegaSonic as Taito had the arcade copyright for the use of the word Sonic for Sonic Blast Man so they had to come up with a creative workaround!
@Ruka I'd be willing to play with an analogue stick regardless! Always wanted to try this. I don't get companies sitting on oddities like this. It's like Nintendo not releasing the VB games on 3DS which would have been brilliant! Considering how often Sega roll out bloody Megadrive era compilations again and again, why not give us something new and unique like this? (and also Saturn and Dreamcast games etc etc whilst they're at it!)
@MarkusM Nice tip about retromags.com nice one - not seen that before. 👍 The other obvious resource is Out of Print Archive - phenomenal job being done by Andy cataloguing old mags: https://www.outofprintarchive.com/magazine_catalogue_UK.html
Another lesser mentioned mag I enjoyed back in the day was Game Zone. (Edit - started typing this comment so long ago just saw Sketcz also mention this!)
A cheeky chap at my school (whose only machine was the Gameboy so he wasn't bothered about other consoles) used to take Go! out of CVG in the supermarket and place it in the trolley. The unsuspecting cashier would pass it through the till without charging him anything for it - it does say FREE in large letters on it after all!
@Azuris IKR! You're spot on. Considering Japan's smaller living spaces and the need to be economical even with things like controller cable length, this seems like a very convoluted and bulky solution. Kinda mad actually.
At the point of this pic (1988) Sega hadn't released the Power Base converter for the Megadrive which is a far more elegant solution.
Considering the whole SNES/SFC CPU debacle and Uemura going for the 5A22 to allow it to play 8-bit games and be backwards compatible, quite why Nintendo never released an official 8-bit adaptor is beyond me.
ie: since they didn't ever use this feature of the CPU and make an adapter, they could and should have put a more powerful processor in the base unit from the start. They knew it was too slow from the off as they were using DSPs in things like Pilotwings and were chatting to Jez San about the SFX chip as early as 1990! Quite why they shot themselves in the foot in this regard is... well.... very Nintendo like!
@Azuris The machine to the left with the SMB3 cartridge is a Famicom adapter you would plug into the SFC to play FC games via the SFC. This was Nintendo's original idea to get backwards compatibility on the new 16-bit system. This has been known for years - much much more info and pics on here: https://www.chrismcovell.com/secret/SFC_1988Q4.html
@rob7979 I don't know this for sure but I'm guessing they didn't ask for permission for the image on Christmas Issue 3! They would have just gone ahead and done it - all the magazines of the era seemed to use artwork from wherever often cutting them out of Japanese mags seemingly with no issues!? Back then maybe this slipped under the radar more easily? Plus this is bespoke artwork so maybe that also helps the copyright issue? Gary Harrod's Mean Machines images also spring to mind like his Turtles and UN Squadron covers which use copyrighted characters.
My issue of RG dropped through the letterbox today and it was a genuine joy to see this image again. Fantastic bit of artwork - what I like about Will's work is it doesn't slavishly copy the original but is his own interpretation but still instantly recognisable.
Another of my absolute fave's Will created (amongst many) is the one for Issue 36 where they reviewed Yoshi's Island.
I'd instantly buy a book with these covers collected together - kickstarter perhaps? I'm sure Will is reading this so how about it eh?!
@Damo Ahhh thanks for the heads up Damo. What a damn shame it was so cool going in there. I remember asking another importer just off Carnaby St what happened and he refused to say anything! 20+ years later mystery solved.
Don't think I ever went to the Whitfield St shop but the Rathbone Place shop was a regular haunt for me in the early noughties. It was right next to where I worked. They had an immense range of Japanese and American games in the basement it was epic. Picked up a mint copy of Super Mario RPG (USA) for only £60.
Something happened though and they were forced to shut down this side of the operation and suddenly all their stock vanished and staff that dealt in the retro section were seemingly let go. It went from having stacked shelves to virtually nothing. Never found out what happened - does anyone know? - but it was never the same again sadly. Good times.
Got my Collectors Edition SFC copy on my shelf - vertical format perfect for that artwork, love it! So nice that they supported the extra features on the SNES and put real care into plussing this version. Super excited to hear Bitmap Bureau have more SNES titles planned as well!
This looks interesting. Will probably pick this up sooner rather than later as I wonder how big a print run it will have.
If memory serves didn't Jez San talk about (on this very website probably) how he proposed a headset for the SNES with full colour and head tracking but Nintendo decided to go with their own in house system? Hopefully the book includes this story and goes deeper with that side of the story!
@RetroGames Yeah you hit the nail on the head - the SNES has it's own set of strengths I'd love to see pushed even more. With the massive gains programmers are getting out of the MD and also for eg the GBA (Tomb Raider!!) these days, imagine what might be done. A good example is the Sonic 1 Greenhill Zone level running on SNES (minus enemies and early prototype) - I don't remember seeing it taken any further than a tech demo but it looked great and pushed the boundaries by all accounts. The MD is getting really cool new ports of SF2 and Final Fight which seem to go beyond the expectations of what we thought the machine could do in the 90s - would love to see the same done on other properties on the SNES!
Man I love this website! That's so cool - imagine if we had seen this implemented in a game in the early 90s...! There's so much cool stuff being done on the Megadrive these days in the homebrew scene with ports and games that we thought were impossible back in the day! I wish more people were trying to push the SNES the same way people are pushing the MD - is it just me or do we not see as much as stuff being done? I'd love to see more SA-1 and Fast ROM games implemented on early SFC games!
Great selection - much better than my local store. Depending on the condition, Spiderman Mega CD aint too bad at £65. Chillout have had a few copies of that around the £100 mark in the last year or so... Also £55 for Mario Bros G+W seems quite good but again depends on condition...
Congrats Darran and team! Love the mag especially so in a time when printed media is so much rarer. Always a highlight when the mag drops through the letterbox. Here's to the next 20+!
If people want more stories on the waywardness of action movie stars like Van Damme there's a fantastic book on the shenanigans of 80s action stars by Nick de Semlyen called The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood's Kings of Carnage.
@smoreon Good call - add the original NES Batman in as well and I'd be laughing like the Joker. Loved that game haven't played it in ages and man what graphics and a soundtrack!
What a treat of an interview, thanks Jack. I loved this back in the day and beat all 3 paths. Golden period of adventure games from LucasArts. I remember there was some puzzle when you get to Crete and you had to use a surveyor's viewfinder thing to find an entrance or smth? And it drove me mad trying to make it work properly, but I guess I solved it eventually. Also the first time I'd seen the nautical use of Head to describe a toilet! This would be a great one to get remastered. Till then ScummVM will have to suffice.
@JohnnyMind Yeah agreed - it seems so obvious doesn't it! One of the nice things about the GBA Mario Advance 4 (SMB 3) on NSO is the inclusion of the Card Reader only levels which I don't believe were ever released over here at the time? (I think people who bought a 3DS early on might have got them as a sweetener when Nintendo dropped the price so soon after launch?) I recently played through them and had a blast and it was a great inclusion and extra incentive to check the title out - otherwise I'm just playing OG SMB3 on the NES which I prefer to the All Stars version. Quite why they're not making these extra features available for all games is a mystery and classic Ninty sitting on cool things but doing nothing about it despite having the perfect platform to do so...!
@JohnnyMind THIS! I own a load of bootleg cartridges and have the Satalleview Zelda and BS F Zero Grand Prix 1 carts and they're great fun. (Also have a fan made English language translation of Marvelous Another Treasure Island which is simply wonderful and a crime it never got an official Western release!) Surely it's so easy with today's digital market places and Switch Online to release these games to the masses. They did it with the first Mother so there's always hope? And why stop at Satalleview games - 64DD as well. Yes I'm looking at you F-Zero X Expansion Pack...
Comments 207
Re: Donkey Kong Country's Developers Are Reuniting For An EGX Panel Later This Year
Sounds great... but 30 years ago.... ouch... Can remember buying it like it was yesterday. Thanks for reminding me how OLD I am!!!
Re: This Adorable New Super Mario Fan Game Looks Absolutely Incredible
That looks AMAZING!!!
Re: SuperSega FPGA Team Understands Why You Think Its Console Is "Vapourware"
Excellent! Bring it on then!
Re: Video Game Legend Julian "Jaz" Rignall Has Written A Book About His Life In Gaming
JAZZZZZZZZZZZZZA!!!
Supremely excited about this - hoping it has lots of inside stories and gossip from his time on all the mags he worked on.
Going to be intrigued to see which games he picks as well! Would be very interested in his views on games released after he left for the US.
Edit - Just spotted the KP Skips bag of crisps by the PC Engine on the cover!! 🤣👏
Re: BurgerTime Is The Latest Classic To Join The Quarter Arcades Range
Yeah that's great and all, but JAZ Rignall is releasing a book about his life and fave games start on 2025!!!
GIBBER!!!!!!!
Re: Unofficial Sega Neptune FPGA Prototype Shown In Action
Droool....
We really do seem to be in a golden age of retro gaming with the wealth of retro systems being released or being made. As well as an abundance of mods and improvements to many classic games.
Having these options and keeping classic games fresh and in people's minds is great!
Re: World's First Dreamcast FPGA Core Shown In Action
@slider1983 Yeah I agree completely.
I really hope it's real as it could be friggin amazing! Lot of scepticism about it's veracity but you never know...
Until a reputable site like TE gets hold of an actual production model for review or sees one demonstrated in the flesh I (along with many others) do wonder!
And if it's real I'm happy to eat humble pie!
Re: World's First Dreamcast FPGA Core Shown In Action
@slider1983 Yeah I watched it.
Re: ZX Spectrum Classic 'Scuba Dive' Gets Surprising New PC Fan Remake
Never owned it, but I have really fond fuzzy memories of playing this when visiting family friends. Having to wait patiently for a go as I was the youngest! Will have to pick this up.
Re: World's First Dreamcast FPGA Core Shown In Action
Wow that was fast...
Either this is the coolest thing ever or it's the videogame equivalent of those 'photos' of the Loch Ness Monster and fairies that fooled everyone. I really hope it's the former...
Re: Interview: "The S**t Hit The Fan" - Ex-Sony Producer Talks PlayStation & Final Fantasy VII's Localization Nightmare
What a great read! Love this stuff.
But what happened in Japan with Square and FFVII and did they get the Spanish version done in time? Left us hanging there...
I remember well that the PSX wasn't highly regarded at first, purely because Sony was such an unknown compared to Nintendo and Sega. Hype levels were off the chart for the Saturn based on Sega's rep - even when the machines were launched in 94 people were convinced Sega would come good.
A preview and feature on the next gen machines in (I think) CVG was quite dismissive about PSX as they just didn't know what Sony might do, with more column inches given to other manufacturers which is hilarious in hindsight after Sony steamrolled everyone. Even the 3DO and CDi seemed to get better coverage...!
Re: SuperSega FPGA Console Shown In Action For The First Time
Holy crap... if they actually pull this off... IF!
Dream machine indeed!
Re: Konami Butchered This SNES Classic, So We Fixed It
What an interesting article.
Not really on topic but just a chance to say what a great great game Buster Busts Loose is. I think I have 3 copies... (2xSFC and 1xPAL SNES)
I always loved the train level on Stage 2 - it feels like a 16-bit precursor to the amazing train chase in Uncharted 2, but obviously within the limitations of the time.
Re: Rare Artist Shows Donkey Kong Country Concept Art 30 Years After It Stunned The World
@RetroGames Yeah I think it's a real power house performance from Rare and also the SNES doing these graphics. It really sets it apart from the Megadrive in this regard (which of course had it's own different strengths.)
There's a brilliant DF Retro on how they performed this magic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ7qtqqgTlo
Unpopular opinion - my favourite of the original trilogy is DKC 3. I very much seem to the loner in that regard!
Love em all though!
Re: I Was One Of The First To See Zelda At Space World '97, But I Wouldn't Go Back To Those Days
OMG a Paul Davies article reminiscing on the good ol days. It's like I'm almost back in college reading this outside on the steps before going round my mates to play his imported N64 and be blown away by SM64 and Waverace.
1 - a chance for me to let Paul know how friggin great his tenure of CVG was in the mid 90s and to say Thanks! Your enthusiasm for the PSX, N64 and Saturn (and everything else) was infectious and really elevated that era for me and I'm sure many others. Halcyon days for me.
2 - With this in mind, I'd love to see more regular articles like this one from Paul recalling events and the industry back then. How about it Time Extension? The highs and lows on making CVG, the inside scoop on production companies offering bribes or getting peeved when their games scored badly, how the team got on with one another... There must be so many stories that can now be told.
And whilst you're at it, get Jaz, Rich, Paul G, Rad and anyone else in on it as well.
Re: Unearthed Footage Shows Early '90s Office Of Star Fox Developer Argonaut
Cool!
There's a StarWing poster in the corner so this surely cannot be 91/92.
We didn't get StarWing till Summer 1993 and the name change wasn't announced much earlier. Plus the control options screen from the start is shown on one of the monitors and there's no way we'd see that being leaked prior to release before 93.
Re: Here's Super Castlevania IV On The Sega Genesis / Mega Drive
Holy crucifix. That looks amazing - actually it looks and sounds almost too good for the Megadrive! The trade off is really minimal.
Bit hard to fully tell from this video recording but this looks and sounds better than New Generation/Vampire Killer, which for me always paled in comparison to the SNES game in these departments.
Amazing stuff.
Re: 3 Cities, 17 Stores - Our Epic Retro Gaming Hunt Across Japan
Gaaawd this looks so good. I've always wanted to go to Japan and do this, not just to buy a few gems but also just to experience it. Have to take an empty suitcase with me to bring stuff back in. Hopefully one day...
Awesome stuff Jack.
A lot of these pics really remind me of the basement from the Rathbone Place CEX where they had the most insane amount of imported games in the early noughties. Treasure trove and most of them out of my price range which would probably be the case in Japan as well ha!
Re: Unseen Raw Footage Of E3 2001 Shows Why The Defunct Event Was Such A Huge Deal
@bippity_bop And when games launched and almost always worked out of the box without post launch patches!!!
Things sure have got better and worse in so many ways!
Re: Mega Man 3 Has Been Ported To The SNES, And You Can Play It Now
Brilliant! One of my fave games.
I'd love a guide on how I could play these mods and games, like that new mod of MarioKart which was also recently released. I have no idea how to play these things and always been concerned about downloading dodgy viruses!
Re: Insanely Rare Sonic Arcade Game Crops Up On Japanese Resale Site
@obijuankanoobie I think you've hit the nail on the head! But we all know it happened and they released the thing! And wasn't the Warioland game supposed to be quite good?
Touched on this before on here - companies not releasing these oddities on modern digital services is odd and annoying imo - other perfect examples are the Super Famicom Satelleview and N64 DD software being (officially at least) locked to their respective systems...
Re: Insanely Rare Sonic Arcade Game Crops Up On Japanese Resale Site
@KingMike They very well might have done and indeed the early Sonic promo stuff (in Japan at least) was marketed as SegaSonic as well. Here's an interesting article on it:
https://mdshock.com/2018/10/15/the-sega-vs-taito-trademark-dispute-why-sonic-was-rebranded-as-segasonic-in-japanese-arcades/
I read about the Taito thing in Steven L Kent's excellent books The Ultimate History of Video Games - both volumes well worth anyone's time!
Re: Insanely Rare Sonic Arcade Game Crops Up On Japanese Resale Site
Fun fact - they had to call it SegaSonic as Taito had the arcade copyright for the use of the word Sonic for Sonic Blast Man so they had to come up with a creative workaround!
Re: Insanely Rare Sonic Arcade Game Crops Up On Japanese Resale Site
@Ruka I'd be willing to play with an analogue stick regardless! Always wanted to try this.
I don't get companies sitting on oddities like this. It's like Nintendo not releasing the VB games on 3DS which would have been brilliant! Considering how often Sega roll out bloody Megadrive era compilations again and again, why not give us something new and unique like this?
(and also Saturn and Dreamcast games etc etc whilst they're at it!)
Re: 10 Forgotten Gaming Magazines That Are Worth Remembering
@MarkusM Nice tip about retromags.com nice one - not seen that before. 👍
The other obvious resource is Out of Print Archive - phenomenal job being done by Andy cataloguing old mags:
https://www.outofprintarchive.com/magazine_catalogue_UK.html
Re: 10 Forgotten Gaming Magazines That Are Worth Remembering
Another lesser mentioned mag I enjoyed back in the day was Game Zone. (Edit - started typing this comment so long ago just saw Sketcz also mention this!)
A cheeky chap at my school (whose only machine was the Gameboy so he wasn't bothered about other consoles) used to take Go! out of CVG in the supermarket and place it in the trolley. The unsuspecting cashier would pass it through the till without charging him anything for it - it does say FREE in large letters on it after all!
Re: Super Mario 64's "Unopenable" Door Finally Opened After 28 Years
Cool - but it never occurred to me to want to go back in there!
Re: Rare SNES Prototype Auction Cancelled After Passing The $2 Million Mark
@Azuris IKR! You're spot on. Considering Japan's smaller living spaces and the need to be economical even with things like controller cable length, this seems like a very convoluted and bulky solution. Kinda mad actually.
At the point of this pic (1988) Sega hadn't released the Power Base converter for the Megadrive which is a far more elegant solution.
Considering the whole SNES/SFC CPU debacle and Uemura going for the 5A22 to allow it to play 8-bit games and be backwards compatible, quite why Nintendo never released an official 8-bit adaptor is beyond me.
ie: since they didn't ever use this feature of the CPU and make an adapter, they could and should have put a more powerful processor in the base unit from the start. They knew it was too slow from the off as they were using DSPs in things like Pilotwings and were chatting to Jez San about the SFX chip as early as 1990! Quite why they shot themselves in the foot in this regard is... well.... very Nintendo like!
Re: Rare SNES Prototype Auction Cancelled After Passing The $2 Million Mark
@Azuris The machine to the left with the SMB3 cartridge is a Famicom adapter you would plug into the SFC to play FC games via the SFC. This was Nintendo's original idea to get backwards compatibility on the new 16-bit system.
This has been known for years - much much more info and pics on here:
https://www.chrismcovell.com/secret/SFC_1988Q4.html
Re: 30 Years On, And This Iconic Super Metroid Art Lives Again
@rob7979 I don't know this for sure but I'm guessing they didn't ask for permission for the image on Christmas Issue 3! They would have just gone ahead and done it - all the magazines of the era seemed to use artwork from wherever often cutting them out of Japanese mags seemingly with no issues!? Back then maybe this slipped under the radar more easily? Plus this is bespoke artwork so maybe that also helps the copyright issue? Gary Harrod's Mean Machines images also spring to mind like his Turtles and UN Squadron covers which use copyrighted characters.
My issue of RG dropped through the letterbox today and it was a genuine joy to see this image again. Fantastic bit of artwork - what I like about Will's work is it doesn't slavishly copy the original but is his own interpretation but still instantly recognisable.
Another of my absolute fave's Will created (amongst many) is the one for Issue 36 where they reviewed Yoshi's Island.
I'd instantly buy a book with these covers collected together - kickstarter perhaps? I'm sure Will is reading this so how about it eh?!
Re: Here's Some Footage Of A Young Matt Berry Exploring CeX's Legendary Retro Shop
@Damo Ahhh thanks for the heads up Damo. What a damn shame it was so cool going in there.
I remember asking another importer just off Carnaby St what happened and he refused to say anything! 20+ years later mystery solved.
Re: Here's Some Footage Of A Young Matt Berry Exploring CeX's Legendary Retro Shop
Don't think I ever went to the Whitfield St shop but the Rathbone Place shop was a regular haunt for me in the early noughties. It was right next to where I worked. They had an immense range of Japanese and American games in the basement it was epic. Picked up a mint copy of Super Mario RPG (USA) for only £60.
Something happened though and they were forced to shut down this side of the operation and suddenly all their stock vanished and staff that dealt in the retro section were seemingly let go. It went from having stacked shelves to virtually nothing. Never found out what happened - does anyone know? - but it was never the same again sadly. Good times.
Re: Hands On: Xeno Crisis On SNES Really Is A Dream Come True
Got my Collectors Edition SFC copy on my shelf - vertical format perfect for that artwork, love it! So nice that they supported the extra features on the SNES and put real care into plussing this version. Super excited to hear Bitmap Bureau have more SNES titles planned as well!
Re: SNES Port Of 2000 Freeware RPG Mysterious Song Is Finally Nearing Completion
@RetroGames Damn right!
Re: Interview: Meet The UK Collector Creating His Own Retro Game Museum
Ahhh the PC Engine LT. Saw a pic of that in CVG and wanted one ever since. Still one of the sexiest handhelds ever made.
Great article!
Re: Outgoing PlayStation CEO Claims PS2 Has Sold 160 Million, Yet Some Don't Believe Him
Stand down Cryin' Jim... stand down...
Re: New Book 'Seeing Red' To Shine A Spotlight On Nintendo's Virtual Boy
This looks interesting. Will probably pick this up sooner rather than later as I wonder how big a print run it will have.
If memory serves didn't Jez San talk about (on this very website probably) how he proposed a headset for the SNES with full colour and head tracking but Nintendo decided to go with their own in house system? Hopefully the book includes this story and goes deeper with that side of the story!
Re: Has This Indie Dev Completely Maxed Out The Genesis / Mega Drive?
@RetroGames Hadn't seen that later build or the hypothetical discussion - awesome thanks! Love the PSX version too.
Re: Has This Indie Dev Completely Maxed Out The Genesis / Mega Drive?
@RetroGames Yeah you hit the nail on the head - the SNES has it's own set of strengths I'd love to see pushed even more. With the massive gains programmers are getting out of the MD and also for eg the GBA (Tomb Raider!!) these days, imagine what might be done.
A good example is the Sonic 1 Greenhill Zone level running on SNES (minus enemies and early prototype) - I don't remember seeing it taken any further than a tech demo but it looked great and pushed the boundaries by all accounts.
The MD is getting really cool new ports of SF2 and Final Fight which seem to go beyond the expectations of what we thought the machine could do in the 90s - would love to see the same done on other properties on the SNES!
Re: Has This Indie Dev Completely Maxed Out The Genesis / Mega Drive?
Man I love this website!
That's so cool - imagine if we had seen this implemented in a game in the early 90s...!
There's so much cool stuff being done on the Megadrive these days in the homebrew scene with ports and games that we thought were impossible back in the day!
I wish more people were trying to push the SNES the same way people are pushing the MD - is it just me or do we not see as much as stuff being done? I'd love to see more SA-1 and Fast ROM games implemented on early SFC games!
Re: Duck Hunt Gets Pocket-Sized Demake For The Game Boy
@Martijn87 Couple that with the SEGA Virtua Cop games on Wii! We got Ghost Squad but to not give us the Cop games was a crime!!!
Re: CeX Retro Watch: March 2024
Great selection - much better than my local store.
Depending on the condition, Spiderman Mega CD aint too bad at £65. Chillout have had a few copies of that around the £100 mark in the last year or so...
Also £55 for Mario Bros G+W seems quite good but again depends on condition...
Re: "I Spent The First Year Worrying I'd Get Replaced" - Retro Gamer Magazine Turns 20
Congrats Darran and team! Love the mag especially so in a time when printed media is so much rarer. Always a highlight when the mag drops through the letterbox. Here's to the next 20+!
Re: 1994's Maligned Street Fighter Movie Is Free To Watch On YouTube, But Only In The US
@Poodlestargenerica JCVD is Belgian - not German.
If people want more stories on the waywardness of action movie stars like Van Damme there's a fantastic book on the shenanigans of 80s action stars by Nick de Semlyen called The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood's Kings of Carnage.
Re: 'Sunsoft Is Back! - Retro Game Selection' Coming Soon To Steam
@smoreon Good call - add the original NES Batman in as well and I'd be laughing like the Joker.
Loved that game haven't played it in ages and man what graphics and a soundtrack!
Re: Super Mario Bros. CD Is A New ROM Hack Inspired By A Console That Doesn't Exist
Well that looks completely wonderful. Captures the aesthetic perfectly.
Re: Interview: "An Enormous Headache" - The Amazing Story Behind Indiana Jones & The Fate Of Atlantis
What a treat of an interview, thanks Jack. I loved this back in the day and beat all 3 paths. Golden period of adventure games from LucasArts. I remember there was some puzzle when you get to Crete and you had to use a surveyor's viewfinder thing to find an entrance or smth? And it drove me mad trying to make it work properly, but I guess I solved it eventually. Also the first time I'd seen the nautical use of Head to describe a toilet! This would be a great one to get remastered. Till then ScummVM will have to suffice.
Re: Vanquish Was 2010's "Fourth-Best Shooter" And That's Why It's A Cult Classic, Says Producer
How uncanny. I had this on PS3 and loved it but never beat it. So I double dipped and just downloaded it to my PS5 last night!
Re: Fans Rebuild Two Forgotten F-Zero SNES Games Previously Lost To Time
@JohnnyMind Yeah agreed - it seems so obvious doesn't it!
One of the nice things about the GBA Mario Advance 4 (SMB 3) on NSO is the inclusion of the Card Reader only levels which I don't believe were ever released over here at the time?
(I think people who bought a 3DS early on might have got them as a sweetener when Nintendo dropped the price so soon after launch?)
I recently played through them and had a blast and it was a great inclusion and extra incentive to check the title out - otherwise I'm just playing OG SMB3 on the NES which I prefer to the All Stars version.
Quite why they're not making these extra features available for all games is a mystery and classic Ninty sitting on cool things but doing nothing about it despite having the perfect platform to do so...!
Re: Fans Rebuild Two Forgotten F-Zero SNES Games Previously Lost To Time
@JohnnyMind THIS! I own a load of bootleg cartridges and have the Satalleview Zelda and BS F Zero Grand Prix 1 carts and they're great fun. (Also have a fan made English language translation of Marvelous Another Treasure Island which is simply wonderful and a crime it never got an official Western release!)
Surely it's so easy with today's digital market places and Switch Online to release these games to the masses. They did it with the first Mother so there's always hope? And why stop at Satalleview games - 64DD as well. Yes I'm looking at you F-Zero X Expansion Pack...