jamess

@smoreon

I think the situation is that the censorship on the PlayStation and Nintendo platforms is now bad and Xbox is even worse.

I can understand that developers want to just release one version of a game across multiple platforms (in terms of game content). It makes sense. In practice however this will result in game content being watered down to meet the requirements of the platform with the most strict censorship.

From that perspective it’s good that City Connection has decided to release a separate, more censored version for Xbox.

But… that still leaves anyone interested in buying this game with a choice between playing the original versions or spending money on a watered down version.

The censorship of the platform holders therefore puts developers in a difficult situation, particularly with retro releases like this where comparisons to the original releases can be made.

In fact it’s these retro releases that are shining the light on how bad the current censorship policies of the platform holders are.

@littlemisskittn

Me too! Just spent the last 3 months archiving old games, films, anime. Not a techie but bought a NAS to get lots of storage space. Mainly because the world is going the wrong way with censorship.

@Sketcz

“Enough is enough with this puritanical crap.”

Hallelujah.

I’d love to play modern games that genuinely challenge and shock me with their content. There’s so much scope to do this with modern games technology.

It’s utter madness as, handled in the right way (i.e. clearly labelled as adult) it would sell very well. It’s totally possible to have adult and child-friendly games on the same platform.

Same applies to all other forms of entertainment - music, films, TV, anime. Remove the content filters and label stuff properly as adult.

We’ve absolutely gone backwards on this over the last 20-30 years.

“While there are various standards for each platform, we have repeatedly adjusted the content of the content.
We have come to the realization that some significant changes to the content of the Xbox version are necessary.”

That’s a Google translation of an extract from the City Connection announcement.

I think what they’re saying is they’ve had to tone the games down for all platforms for the re-release due to the censorship standards of the modern platform holders. They were trying to get a consistent approach to the censorship across all of the platforms but the Xbox censorship pushed them too far so they need to delay the Xbox release to give them time for the extra censorship…

UGGGHHH!!!

Any censorship of the original content is bad enough, particularly as the Saturn versions were censored from the original PC-98 releases in the first place!…

I’ve played the games on Saturn and it’s all pretty mild… The thought the we’ve regressed from then due to platform censorship standards is just depressing.

@Vectrex

Which ones have you been playing? The one I really noticed as OTT was SaiDaiOuJou which I’ve been playing a bit recently but I’ve actually started to find their constant chuntering endearing.

“exAclusive”

Whilst I’m p*ssed off I can’t play these games (easily) I’m really pleased with the good stuff exA-Arcadia is doing to bring life back to the arcade scene.

“…it's clearly inspired by Nintendo's machine, but copies the SP's design even more closely; in terms of overall size, it's almost exactly the same as the GBA SP“

I thought it **was** a GBA SP on first glance when scrolling my X feed… Maybe crossing a line with copyright here?

Great interview.

@Sketcz

Yes think it’s just a matter of time. Trying to be patient waiting for it…

Video Game Esoterica posted a video about it a couple of hours ago, looks like he has it running in RPCS3. I’m keeping an eye on the comments there too in case anyone figures it out (nothing yet, just some people saying they can’t get it to work).

No idea on the OS question. I tried Scetoolgui on Win 11 last night but don’t think the OS was a factor, more that I didn’t know what I was doing! Scetoolgui is in Aldostool’s PS3 tools collection.

Ok, I’m going to admit defeat on this. At least for now. I’ve downloaded scetool and tried to take the DRM protection off of the EBOOT.BIN file. But no luck and TBH I’m not really sure what I’m doing - it’s going beyond my (fairly limited) PS3 tech experience.

I’ve messaged again to see if the person who offered the advice above can help but no response yet. If I hear back I’ll update.

Hopefully someone posts a version that can just be copied across and work - it looks like a fun game.

@Sketcz Yeah! this is going to test my PS3 abilities, not had to do anything like it before either. Will take a look late tonight. Thanks for the luck.

Reply from the guy who dumped it in response to me asking how to get it to work. Going to try it later.

“The EBOOT.BIN is a FSELF. It requires to be resigned as npDRM free retail SELF (EBOOT.BIN) using scetool.

It also works on CFW DPEX or PEX with DEX patches to allow FSELF.”

@axelhander LOL

Thanks for the review Damien.

I’m very interested in this - also the exA-Arcadia version but not spending that kind of money!

Any chance they’ll sell a ROM version?

Just tried it on my jailbroken PS3 and getting a message that it’s corrupted when I run it. If anyone gets it working please share how.

Don’t agree. Konami outsourced the translation to a third party. They’re giving credit to the company that provided the service to them. They likely had no direct control over who actually worked on the translation, and probably limited visibility.

So the product he took money for isn’t going to happen and he’s not issued the refunds he said he has. I don’t think he’s going to win this dispute!

I’d like to see how it fares in real world tests before buying. The ad blurb looks carefully worded “8BitDo, 8Speed delivers an exceptionally stable 2.4G connection with ultra-low latency as low as 1ms”. It doesn’t say straight that it delivers a stable 1ms latency.

And the feel of the controller is also really important as others have noted.

If it can actually deliver a stable, reliable 1ms latency over wireless then that’s very good indeed.

For reference, the best I have over wireless at the moment is the DualSense which is tested at 6.3ms or the 8BitDo NeoGeo controller at 4.5ms.

If I was playing a game that relied on very fast responses on Windows my first choice would always be a wired arcade stick with about 1ms response via the Brook Universal Fusion board. It also has the advantage of wide compatibility, it works well on PS2-5, Switch and Xbox 360 and later Xbox.

But if a standard modern controller layout is required I’d go with the DualSense and a wired connection which is tested at 1.8ms. I very much like the feel and weight of the DualSense.

1ms latency over wireless? Big news if true.

A unicorn would’ve been cool.

Not sure about a moose. Although if Nintendo had leaned into it and maxed the moose-ness it might have been cool too.

@BulkSlash

Video Game Esoterica was talking about this in his 0.274 update video (YouTube). Apparently getting the analogue right for arcade driving games is really difficult as they’re bespoke implementations for each game. It can involve taking measurements of the cabinet… I can understand why it’s the hardest part to emulate accurately. Also - some of the games were just jerky to control in the first place.

VGE is well worth a watch if you’re not already.

MAME really is awesome and well worth the effort to set up well. So much goodness available in it. Last night I was mucking about with Muchi Muchi Pork!, Pink Sweets: Ibara Sorekara, Ibara Kuro: Black Label, XII Stag and Demon Front. None of that available in FPGA yet, all played really well. Gonna do more tonight.

Hamster is doing good work.

The 9th bit - like the discovery of the 9th planet.

It’s a great book. But!

I personally think it would have been better with far less text. Some of the pixel art on the GBA is utterly fantastic and the book presents it beautifully. It does a great job of stitching some of the artwork together from different screenshots to show large scenes all together. This part is amazing.

I just wish the art had been given more room to breathe… I mean I would have been happy to just have pages and pages of pixel art with minimal words.

@pomegran Yes. Hopefully there’s recourse for people who’ve preordered through payment protection schemes like those offered by the credit card companies and PayPal. Sega’s demand that the project is cancelled should help anyone who’s looking to do this as it strengthens the argument that the company behind SuperSega is unable to deliver what it promised.

Sega will argue that the SuperSega project generated a bunch of cash on the back of their brand name and IP. A strong argument IMO.

They can also argue that this venture is bringing their name into disrepute - another strong argument IMO.

I think these guys are well and truly screwed. A name change won’t save them.

TBH I’m glad - they’re clearly scammers and they deserve this.

In terms of the Dreamcast core - the useful quotes:

“Over the last 2 years we got a running DC core”

“The videos showing DC games (Crazy Taxi etc..) were using a 3000 euros evo board”.

So they’re saying they have a working DC core on a EUR 3,000 FPGA evo board.

Assuming this is true - any views on this + the challenges of getting it into a board they can sell for less than EUR 500?

For anyone who’s given their credit card details for this - I’d check your credit card company’s dispute resolution period. I think you generally get 6 months after a transaction hits your card to dispute it. In that 6 month period you can reclaim any charge against it if what has been promised hasn’t been delivered.

@Razieluigi I’m not going to watch the video but pulling up in a Lamborghini like that is expert level trolling.

It’s getting quite entertaining. What’s next? Can he do a video from a private jet dressed like James Bond whilst being waited on by some hot flight attendants?

My first impression of “The Cliffhanger: Edward Randy” was - holy crap I’ve stumbled across one of the best hidden gems ever.

It looks fantastic and there’s a bat-sh*t crazy level of stuff going on.

But a few more minutes of play time later and - no - definitely not one of the best games ever.

Well worth a play through though.

Video game industry - “You can only play what we sell. And you don’t own that, we’re just letting you use it for a bit”.

Erm, no thanks!

@pomegran Yeah not taking up too much space and keeping the wife happy is an important factor in all this too.

@Stegosaur1589 Interesting.

@pomegran

Oh right, perhaps I should calm my expectations down a bit then! Both SuperSega and MARS have suggested DC is possible in the near future which I think is where my optimism comes from but… well… nothing here yet. We’ll see.

TBH I’m happy playing all the stuff beyond MiSTer on original hardware at the moment. The move to FPGA for the formats you’ve listed would be great but it’s not like the MiSTer where there’s the convenience of playing about 30 formats in one small box.

The main thing I’d love to see on FPGA is new arcade stuff, beyond what the MiSTer / Pocket can do. There’s a lot I’m using software emulation for at the moment and FPGA versions would be awesome.

@pomegran I’m not sure the next generation of FPGAs is 3-5 years off - is that what you meant? The Analogue 3D looks like a big step forward on MiSTer in terms of its FPGA and that’s releasing early next year.

Dreamcast was kind of mid-generation but I guess it was still a big step up on what came before. I’ve no idea how much work is involved, how long it would take, who’s working on it and how far they’ve got. I suppose my point was that the common consensus about what’s possible and the timing of cores has been proven wrong before. Hopefully someone’s far enough along the process and a powerful enough FPGA is close enough to bring that timeline forward. I wouldn’t be surprised.

@Razieluigi

So I just re-watched the video and you’re right - there’s a jump edit when starting each game. I hadn’t picked up on that before.

Giving him the benefit of the doubt, it may be stuff he wants to keep hidden in the boot sequence or something. Or it may be a scam.

I’m going to temper my enthusiasm until this is proven to be genuine. Certainly not parting with any money! But will be keeping an eye on it in case it pans out.

@pomegran In terms of scepticism about getting Dreamcast FPGA in the near future - people said the same about the PS1 and N64 you know. N64 was deemed a step too far and boom - there it was.

So I don’t understand Spanish and the YouTube translate thing is a bit dodgey, but he’s playing Dreamcast Gunbird 2 on the FPGA at the end of the video right? Just loading from a storage card rather than CD?

If so - that’s the first time I’ve seen FPGA Dreamcast. And I love Gunbird 2. Potentially good stuff!!!

@Jalex_64 Yeah I’m interested to see how the CRT effect they’re talking about looks in 4K. They say on their website that it does 1080p but 4K is the better experience. I’m sure the FPGA implementation is at an advanced stage so videos would definitely have been possible. My guess is you’re right and it’s them trying to keep a low profile particularly with how litigious Nintendo have been recently. Not sure if they took the same approach with their NES and SNES consoles in the run up to their launches (I bought them after launch).

@Jalex_64 I’ve found Analogue’s products have been high quality and unmatched in terms of FPGA solutions supporting real carts. I’ve ordered with full faith that they’ll deliver again, TBH the thought that they won’t deliver hasn’t even crossed my mind. They’ve said it will ship Q1 2025. The black controller is a separate purchase so won’t affect this (and 8Bitdo are reliable IMO). I guess that anyone who’s concerned about their ability to deliver will be able to order further down the line - so no need to take a risk if you’re uncomfortable with it.

@Bod2019 No, I’ve been checking through the day and it’s not been available. The white was actually available on Amazon a couple of hours before the 3D. But no black that I’ve seen.

@Coalescence Yeah thanks for explaining. I read up on all that this morning before deciding to buy and reached the same conclusion. I do own a number of the other Analogue consoles and some of them do play other cores when jailbroken but understand it’s not open to other developers, just Analogue. My main hope was that the extra logic elements would make more possible on the arcade side, beyond what’s currently possible on MiSTer / Pocket. I appreciate that’s very unlikely on the 3D but am happy to buy based on what it could do just for N64 carts + anything else is a bonus (I’m a big N64 fan with a decent cart collection). The main thing this has made me want though is a new MiSTer equivalent with the additional logic elements, particularly if it’s around the USD 250 mark - much lower than the price bracket that was being discussed for MARS a while back!

Got one in black. Completed check out at 16:01 with some hardcore shmup-like focus but looks like it was unnecessary as they’re still taking preorders now.

@bronZfonZ Understood. Based on what @mrfield was saying above it would still be possible via jailbreak if one existed though? Appreciate it’s dependent on one being available but there is a good track record of that. At the moment I’m planning to take a punt (availability permitting).

@bronZfonZ Wow that’s quite a difference. Impressed they’ve hit that price point if it’s that much bigger than the MiSTer. Sounds like it’s the first “next gen” FPGA device to market then. I’m not at all technical but I guess that opens up quite a bit in terms of what would be possible on it?

@mrfield Cool. Thanks for the reply. I may well get one then. Will give it some thought.

“The system makes use of the 220k LE Altera Cyclone 10GX FPGA chip, "the most powerful FPGA Analogue has ever used in a product."”

How does that stack up against MiSTer and Pocket? Any chance it can give us new stuff?

@ganonms Honestly I think not raising those subjects is the best thing to do in this interview. Better to focus on the positives.

Pramod’s doing good work. He clearly takes pride in what he’s doing. The points he makes about helping other people to become developers should be supported. Clearly he’s a busy guy, doing all this on top of a job. I’m personally really thankful for what he’s doing. And I’m looking forward to what he and the Coin-Op Collection / MARS team bring in the future with more powerful hardware. They have a track record of delivering good stuff, although maybe not delivering in line with what they promise at times.

Yes - some of what’s been said in the past has not been good. But that’s true on both “sides”. And it’s easy to take offence to something critical when you’re working really hard on something and doing your best. IMO people are free to say what they want. Better to tune the words out and focus on what they’re actually doing.

To put that in full context - I’m also looking forward to any other next gen FPGA devices in the near future.

Good interview, thanks. Interesting to hear about the relative strengths of the MiSTer and Pocket. I’d (wrongly) assumed that MiSTer was the more powerful of the 2 across the board but Pramod’s explanation helps to understand why some cores play better on the Pocket. I’m having a lot of fun at the moment with the Batrider and Garegga cores on the pocket. Garegga is repeatedly kicking my arse but it’s a lot of fun.