@Angelus3K compared to what we’re used to now, dvds are laboriously slow, and I can’t imagine the ps2 has some kind of super fast optical drive. (That said, it could have been possible that the memory card read is slow since it never had to transfer much data, but happily, it apparently isn’t.)
I really wish more of these games would get English releases. There’s still a lot of Japanese stuff we’ve never seen in English. I get that it’s a niche within a niche but…
After this is out of the gate, I wonder if we’ll see comparable generalist devices. I dont have a ps1 controller and dont need specifically ps1 features. But a similar box that only plays games off microSD, similarly works with many system cores, has hdmi (maybe suited specifically for 4k tv—I don’t have tube!), and comes with a good controller that works for whatever… would be hard to say no to. At $150-200 anyway…!
I went to it with two friends for my birthday as a kid. Or one of their birthdays? Either way, we were not expecting it to be what it was and were pretty disappointed even at that age
@KitsuneNight yeah it’s depressing. I did notice that the English (only assuming you’re English) are more likely to keep old buildings rather than knock them down and build a new one. Small thing. But I can’t stand how over here we bulldoze everything more than ten years old.
Pentium 2 laptop is kind of awesome!! That said, I think I might have had a dell pentium 2 laptop myself which was decidedly not amazing 😂 had that until 2008 or something crazy… poor thing.
Edit: woops just realized you’re Dutch! I should know better than to make assumptions. Sorry!
@KitsuneNight I wish more old stuff was still in use. America is like that in general, usually replacing things that are still perfectly usable…
Suppose all those were before my time too, but I still feel like I missed out!! I borrowed an 088 as a kid, and my first computer was a 286, but they were both absurdly out of date by the time I got my hands on them. I really would have been better off with an amiga if I knew they existed (would have been cheaper too)
But I guess I’m making a point against the point I was trying to make
@KitsuneNight I live in the US. I’ve never seen a single C64. Or an Amiga. apparently my dad’s friend had an old C64, but it burned up in a fire. Sad days. I feel like I missed out.
I bet they’re more common on the coasts tho.
Definitely saw plenty of 088, 086, 286, 386, 486… in my time tho. And Macs and Apple IIs and… you get the idea
@DestructoDisk I almost always have the Japanese audio playing for stuff, so I can't really comment! It does strike me that one solution would be to offer a more literal translation to go along with Japanese audio, and a more localized version to go along with a dub. But of course that would be extra work/$$$, and there are probably only about 5 of us who care.
I bought it back in the day. It really is amazing. But in the end it was “just” dragons lair in 2001. I wonder if it would have sold better on snes or genesis, but I suppose no one had the idea in 1989-92, And by 1993, cd-rom was a thing on genesis and pc engine, and pretty soon there was Saturn and psx anyway.
@turboxray be that as it may, the WD translations went pretty far in the other direction. Some of that is normal practice now, but they kinda just said whatever they thought would be entertaining, more of a re-write at times. I speak enough Japanese that if there’s voice acting, I can usually tell how close the translated text is sticking. So I know most translations do some deviation. but I suspect the WDs really went for it back then!
I was certainly baffled by kings field 2, not least of all by it taking up my entire memory card! But… it was an rpg… and we weren’t getting the 2d jrpgs I wanted at the time…
Personally, I’d rather play the games with a more literal translation, and the original Japanese voice work. I realize others really want the original English voice work, and others really want the original WD localization. I get it.
Whole thing about clear as mud tho. I’d imagine what’ll happen is it will be a new localization, and there will probably be new English voice work.
Nothing I’m hugely interested in, except ninja gaiden if it turns out. The pac-man game does look kind of intriguing. And it’s hard to say no to an okami.
It’s weird to think of games like okami and onimusha as classic, at least in the same sense as ninja gaiden or pac-man.
@KingMike It would be interesting to know the thought process behind many decisions like that. I'd guess there is less thought behind them than we ever speculate.
And then we have other decisions, where we know exactly what was going on, such as Bernie Stolar (Playstation USA) refusing the localization of games that had no 3D, which prevented many I was interested in from ever being playable by me. One of my teachers had a daughter who worked "for Playstation," and I erroneously held her partially responsible.
@Astropez BUT IT HAS NO WORLD MAP ETC!! Man I loved FFX dearly. It's my fave combat system, even though it differs from classic 4-9. It's odd how much X actually innovates. I suppose Sakaguchi didn't realize it would be his last.
@KingMike It's hard to say. I seem to remember the RAM cart being more money than I wanted to spend, like $30-40 US, and games were... $30-60 I think on Sega CD. Back then, cartridges with lots of storage were expensive, like Phantasy Star IV, for instance, or Chrono Trigger... or Final Fantasy VI. And they were only like... 3 megabytes! But that's apples to oranges, because "space for game" on a cart, and "battery backed save memory" on a cart are different things. (Assuming the RAM cart did in fact use a battery like a normal cartridge)
Long way to say I guess I don't know!!!!!!! I think 2MB would have been pretty enormous. But I don't know that either. CDs were also enormous. I don't think many Sega CD games came close to using all that space, except blocky FMV and redbook audio.
@KingMike do you mean shining force cd? That one took up all my memory too, if not! 😂 forgot how small the memory was and how annoying that was. Altho I had two (?!?!) sega cds (first broke), I never had the ram cart.
How sad. I had no idea this existed. Probably for the best.
I did like sol-feace, tho, mostly because it came free with my sega cd! I actually really liked my sega cd. It didn’t have a lot of great games, but it had some I really enjoyed.
@Deuteros Those were the days too!!! Indy 3 was my first PC game, the only one I still have (I think I still have both my original, 3-disk EGA version, and the 256 color VGA version). For me, it was King's Quest IV on my friend's dad's work computer. haha
There's a section in Indy 3 where you get to Castle Brunwald, and I think that part probably has the most action/fight sequences. Of course, there are clever ways around it, but I didn't know that as a child. I remember crying because I was only using one save slot and saved myself into a bad situation. ha. (evidence of why I mostly missed out on Ultima--I was too young... I did play some Ultima on NES and SNES though)
@Deuteros ah, those were the days. I always felt like I missed out, not having had an amiga. I had an outdated pc instead! When I got an (insanely priced) upgrade in 1995, then I certainly availed myself of the compilations. There were several that made my life!
I always thought powermonger was a good title, but what did I know? I was a kid and couldn’t even figure out how to play it. The sega cd version was a little wonky, but I had to have everything bullfrog.
Comments 266
Re: Your Next Retro Emulation Handheld Could Cost You 35% More Than Usual
I had been waiting all this time to actually buy one. I probably waited a little too long. 😂
Re: You Can Now Run Your Entire PS2 Library From This $50 Memory Card
@Angelus3K compared to what we’re used to now, dvds are laboriously slow, and I can’t imagine the ps2 has some kind of super fast optical drive. (That said, it could have been possible that the memory card read is slow since it never had to transfer much data, but happily, it apparently isn’t.)
Re: You Can Now Run Your Entire PS2 Library From This $50 Memory Card
Can you run ps1 games on it like this too?
I’m not sure there are any ps2 games I want to play that I can’t play elsewhere better and more easily. But there are ps1 games!
Re: M2 And Compile Heart's New Shmup, Zaleste, Unites The Zanac and Aleste Series
@Steel76 It's too bad they can't do a Rebirth collection of some kind. I suppose that would be impossible with licensing.
Re: Over 30 Years Later, The Famicom Board Game RPG 'Sugoro Quest' Is Finally Getting A Western Release
I’m confused between this and their collection (where the super Famicom sequel to this is included but apparently not in English)
Re: Saturn Strategy RPG Classics Farland Saga I & II Are Coming To Switch And PS5
I really wish more of these games would get English releases. There’s still a lot of Japanese stuff we’ve never seen in English. I get that it’s a niche within a niche but…
Re: The English Version Of 'Cho Aniki COLLECTION' Has Landed On The Nintendo Switch eShop
It’s just two of the games, not the whole series? Sheesh.
Re: The English Version Of 'Cho Aniki COLLECTION' Has Landed On The Nintendo Switch eShop
@-wc- the guy left his email address at the bottom. I wonder if it’s still active 😂
Funny thing is if it had been full of goofy half naked women people might have had other opinions. Or who knows.
Re: Megami Tensei Author On Why The Game Got Two Versions For Nintendo Famicom & Japanese Computers
Does he still get royalties from Atlus on anything in the smt series, like persona for instance? Atlus made a mega franchise based on his stuff.
Re: M2 And Compile Heart's New Shmup, Zaleste, Unites The Zanac and Aleste Series
Castlevania the adventure rebirth needs a re release. And maybe a new name.
Re: Love The Genesis / Mega Drive? Then Check Out This Epic Eleven-And-A-Half Hour Documentary
Watch it all at once without stopping and
Re: Here's Your Best Look Yet At Taki Udon's SuperStation One FPGA PS1, And You Can Order It Now
@hste that’s true. I do like the 8bitdo controllers. I use a wired one (reluctantly!) with my Xbox in fact.
I don’t know if I want to early adopt. But if it ends up being twice the price in the future I’ll be sad that I didn’t!
Re: Here's Your Best Look Yet At Taki Udon's SuperStation One FPGA PS1, And You Can Order It Now
After this is out of the gate, I wonder if we’ll see comparable generalist devices. I dont have a ps1 controller and dont need specifically ps1 features. But a similar box that only plays games off microSD, similarly works with many system cores, has hdmi (maybe suited specifically for 4k tv—I don’t have tube!), and comes with a good controller that works for whatever… would be hard to say no to. At $150-200 anyway…!
Re: Looks Like Yuzo Koshiro's Earthion Isn't Far From Release
I’m really looking forward to getting it on switch or Xbox.
My friend is going to get the genesis cart!
Re: Team17 Co-Founder Martyn Brown Has Passed Away Aged 57
That’s really depressing. Very sad. Too young.
Re: Super Dimension Fortress Macross II Is Coming To Arcade Archives On Switch And PS4
What’s with the giant dancing ladies?? 😆
Looks fun! Reminds me of a wacked out snes game, like if the cd-rom had ever come out. But then I guess it would have redbook audio
Re: It's A Christmas Miracle, SuperSega Now Claims Sega Is Totally OK With Its FPGA Console
😂 the writing style reminds me of some of the spam I find in my inbox.
Re: Game Of The Year: UFO 50 Is The Gift That Keeps On Giving
@RetroGames I hate having fake plastic consoles around, but even I would be super tempted!
Re: Game Of The Year: UFO 50 Is The Gift That Keeps On Giving
Devil Blade Reboot needs a console release.
Super excited for when UFO 50 is out on consoles.
Re: Anniversary: Street Fighter's Live-Action Movie Is 30 Years Old Today
I went to it with two friends for my birthday as a kid. Or one of their birthdays? Either way, we were not expecting it to be what it was and were pretty disappointed even at that age
Re: Random: This US Bakery Still Uses A Commodore 64 For Sales In 2024
@KitsuneNight yeah it’s depressing. I did notice that the English (only assuming you’re English) are more likely to keep old buildings rather than knock them down and build a new one. Small thing. But I can’t stand how over here we bulldoze everything more than ten years old.
Pentium 2 laptop is kind of awesome!! That said, I think I might have had a dell pentium 2 laptop myself which was decidedly not amazing 😂 had that until 2008 or something crazy… poor thing.
Edit: woops just realized you’re Dutch! I should know better than to make assumptions. Sorry!
Re: Random: This US Bakery Still Uses A Commodore 64 For Sales In 2024
@KitsuneNight I wish more old stuff was still in use. America is like that in general, usually replacing things that are still perfectly usable…
Suppose all those were before my time too, but I still feel like I missed out!! I borrowed an 088 as a kid, and my first computer was a 286, but they were both absurdly out of date by the time I got my hands on them. I really would have been better off with an amiga if I knew they existed (would have been cheaper too)
But I guess I’m making a point against the point I was trying to make
Re: Random: This US Bakery Still Uses A Commodore 64 For Sales In 2024
@KitsuneNight I live in the US. I’ve never seen a single C64. Or an Amiga. apparently my dad’s friend had an old C64, but it burned up in a fire. Sad days. I feel like I missed out.
I bet they’re more common on the coasts tho.
Definitely saw plenty of 088, 086, 286, 386, 486… in my time tho. And Macs and Apple IIs and… you get the idea
Re: Random: This US Bakery Still Uses A Commodore 64 For Sales In 2024
That’s based. I wish C64s were used for more stuff 😂
Re: Working Designs Co-Founder Responds To Lunar Voice Actor's Comments On Ownership Of Localisations
@DestructoDisk I almost always have the Japanese audio playing for stuff, so I can't really comment! It does strike me that one solution would be to offer a more literal translation to go along with Japanese audio, and a more localized version to go along with a dub. But of course that would be extra work/$$$, and there are probably only about 5 of us who care.
Re: The Making Of: Dragon’s Lair’s "Impossible" Game Boy Color Port
I bought it back in the day. It really is amazing. But in the end it was “just” dragons lair in 2001. I wonder if it would have sold better on snes or genesis, but I suppose no one had the idea in 1989-92, And by 1993, cd-rom was a thing on genesis and pc engine, and pretty soon there was Saturn and psx anyway.
Re: Working Designs Co-Founder Responds To Lunar Voice Actor's Comments On Ownership Of Localisations
@turboxray be that as it may, the WD translations went pretty far in the other direction. Some of that is normal practice now, but they kinda just said whatever they thought would be entertaining, more of a re-write at times. I speak enough Japanese that if there’s voice acting, I can usually tell how close the translated text is sticking. So I know most translations do some deviation. but I suspect the WDs really went for it back then!
Re: Anniversary: 30 Years Ago, Elden Ring And Dark Souls Dev FromSoftware Released Its "Mind-Boggling" Debut
I was certainly baffled by kings field 2, not least of all by it taking up my entire memory card! But… it was an rpg… and we weren’t getting the 2d jrpgs I wanted at the time…
Re: Working Designs Co-Founder Responds To Lunar Voice Actor's Comments On Ownership Of Localisations
Personally, I’d rather play the games with a more literal translation, and the original Japanese voice work. I realize others really want the original English voice work, and others really want the original WD localization. I get it.
Whole thing about clear as mud tho. I’d imagine what’ll happen is it will be a new localization, and there will probably be new English voice work.
Re: Random: Here's The Awkward Moment When The Father Of PlayStation Was Left Hanging At The Game Awards
Looks like a simple misunderstanding. Not that I’d be surprised if they left someone hanging to squeeze in another mt dew and doritos crossover ad.
Re: Retro Indie Title "Moons of Darsalon" Is Headed To Consoles, Complete With Icky AI Art
AI be like: this art needs more nipples!
Re: Round Up: Virtua Fighter, Onimusha, Okami, Ninja Gaiden... The Game Awards 2024 Was A Good Night For Classic Gaming Fans
Nothing I’m hugely interested in, except ninja gaiden if it turns out. The pac-man game does look kind of intriguing. And it’s hard to say no to an okami.
It’s weird to think of games like okami and onimusha as classic, at least in the same sense as ninja gaiden or pac-man.
Re: Flashback: Before The Game Awards, There Was Cybermania '94
Gawd. The game awards don’t look so bad by comparison. Why’s keighly ubiquitous anyway? His parents were fancy-pantses? Nepo baby.
Re: Lost Screenshot Of Forgotten "Married With... Children" Video Game Surfaces Online
Man I would totally have played this as a kid.
Re: Japanese Gamers Just Picked The 30 Best PlayStation Games Of All Time
@KingMike It would be interesting to know the thought process behind many decisions like that. I'd guess there is less thought behind them than we ever speculate.
And then we have other decisions, where we know exactly what was going on, such as Bernie Stolar (Playstation USA) refusing the localization of games that had no 3D, which prevented many I was interested in from ever being playable by me. One of my teachers had a daughter who worked "for Playstation," and I erroneously held her partially responsible.
Re: Japanese Gamers Just Picked The 30 Best PlayStation Games Of All Time
@Astropez BUT IT HAS NO WORLD MAP ETC!! Man I loved FFX dearly. It's my fave combat system, even though it differs from classic 4-9. It's odd how much X actually innovates. I suppose Sakaguchi didn't realize it would be his last.
Re: Flashback: Remembering Sega's Dismal Mega CD Debut, Wakusei Woodstock: Funky Horror Band
@KingMike It's hard to say. I seem to remember the RAM cart being more money than I wanted to spend, like $30-40 US, and games were... $30-60 I think on Sega CD. Back then, cartridges with lots of storage were expensive, like Phantasy Star IV, for instance, or Chrono Trigger... or Final Fantasy VI. And they were only like... 3 megabytes! But that's apples to oranges, because "space for game" on a cart, and "battery backed save memory" on a cart are different things. (Assuming the RAM cart did in fact use a battery like a normal cartridge)
Long way to say I guess I don't know!!!!!!! I think 2MB would have been pretty enormous. But I don't know that either. CDs were also enormous. I don't think many Sega CD games came close to using all that space, except blocky FMV and redbook audio.
Re: Japanese Gamers Just Picked The 30 Best PlayStation Games Of All Time
@KitsuneNight ridge racer 1 was a big deal ps1 launch title! Very nostalgic. not for me tho. I rented it and was like ick
Re: Flashback: Remembering Sega's Dismal Mega CD Debut, Wakusei Woodstock: Funky Horror Band
@KingMike do you mean shining force cd? That one took up all my memory too, if not! 😂 forgot how small the memory was and how annoying that was. Altho I had two (?!?!) sega cds (first broke), I never had the ram cart.
Re: Flashback: Remembering Sega's Dismal Mega CD Debut, Wakusei Woodstock: Funky Horror Band
How sad. I had no idea this existed. Probably for the best.
I did like sol-feace, tho, mostly because it came free with my sega cd! I actually really liked my sega cd. It didn’t have a lot of great games, but it had some I really enjoyed.
Re: Japanese Gamers Just Picked The 30 Best PlayStation Games Of All Time
@KingMike it’s got the best battle system in the whole series babe
Re: Japanese Gamers Just Picked The 30 Best PlayStation Games Of All Time
@Matroska yeah I was thinking they had better taste than that. 😂 said as someone who did enjoy it
Re: Japanese Gamers Just Picked The 30 Best PlayStation Games Of All Time
They have better taste than we do.
Also arc the lad 2 was really, really good. And that’s about all I remember about it.
Re: Powermonger's Developers Hated Its Name, But The Alternatives Weren't Much Better
@Deuteros Those were the days too!!! Indy 3 was my first PC game, the only one I still have (I think I still have both my original, 3-disk EGA version, and the 256 color VGA version). For me, it was King's Quest IV on my friend's dad's work computer. haha
There's a section in Indy 3 where you get to Castle Brunwald, and I think that part probably has the most action/fight sequences. Of course, there are clever ways around it, but I didn't know that as a child. I remember crying because I was only using one save slot and saved myself into a bad situation. ha. (evidence of why I mostly missed out on Ultima--I was too young... I did play some Ultima on NES and SNES though)
Sorry for the wall--fun to reminisce.
Re: Powermonger's Developers Hated Its Name, But The Alternatives Weren't Much Better
@Deuteros ah, those were the days. I always felt like I missed out, not having had an amiga. I had an outdated pc instead! When I got an (insanely priced) upgrade in 1995, then I certainly availed myself of the compilations. There were several that made my life!
Re: Powermonger's Developers Hated Its Name, But The Alternatives Weren't Much Better
Also, Populous is a far better title than Creation.
Re: Powermonger's Developers Hated Its Name, But The Alternatives Weren't Much Better
I always thought powermonger was a good title, but what did I know? I was a kid and couldn’t even figure out how to play it. The sega cd version was a little wonky, but I had to have everything bullfrog.
Re: Arcanum Developer Troika Almost Made Its Own Version Of Baldur's Gate 3 In 2003
Excited to view his YouTube channel tho. Had no idea it existed. I wish more developers of classics would pop on there and tell us stories.
Re: Arcanum Developer Troika Almost Made Its Own Version Of Baldur's Gate 3 In 2003
It sounds kind of Awful! 😂
Re: Random House's PC-88 RPG 'Riglas' Arrives On Nintendo Switch Today
Obligatory, I’d love to play so many of these if they had English text, or an overlay that translates the text like others have done.