no_donatello

I guess I'm a little confused about the difference between AI and "procedural generation," which is something that has been around for decades in gaming. I guess there's still a human touch in procedural generation, whereas AI is all computer-created?

Anyway, I will echo the sentiment that I have long lost interest in the kinds of games EA releases. Probably have not bought one since the PS2/GC/Xbox generation. I feel like the NFL license was kind of the nail in the coffin. I mean, the games they make no longer interested me anyway, but that was just really anti-consumer. They were awesome back in the Genesis days though. That's for sure!

EDIT: I take that back. Alice: Madness Returns in the PS3 era was legit. And then they refused to work with American McGee on the sequel (or so the story goes). BAH!

@PopetheRev28 I would pick the Dreamcast, but I totally get it. I feel like the Dreamcast was Sega at their creative peak, but there's no question the arcade conversions on Saturn are phenomenal, especially if you look into the Japanese library. That's the thing, too. You've got to import to get the most out of your Saturn. Less so with Dreamcast.

As for this thing, it is beautiful!

Interesting that they include a light gun game among these. Light gun games with controller input are pointless. However, if Evercade were to release a light gun (or add support for the Sinden light gun) and release some arcade carts with long forgotten light gun titles, the money would fly out of my wallet so fast!

And 3DO was likewise criticized for being overpriced. The difference is the 3DO at least promised to do something new, though the overall quality of its games ultimately held it back. The PS5 Pro offers marginally better graphics and high frame rate. They'll sell some to enthusiasts, but that's about it. Now, selling it for 700 WITHOUT a disc drive feels like a practice run to drop the optical media on the next PlayStation. Ugh..

Great article. It really is easier getting online nowadays because I don't have to share the phone line with the rest of my family! haha. Huge, huge kudos to the community that works so hard on this. Bringing unreleased games online (Dee Dee Planet) is just unbelievable. Gives me hope to one day play Propeller Arena online, though I think I heard that one is tricky.

Fortunately got a copy upon release, and it's a good survival horror title. Really disturbing story, though not for the reasons the media hyped up back in the day.

My preorder of the Tomb Raider cart has also not shipped and has no estimated ship date. I've got plenty to play and no time to do it, so it's okay. haha.

Good to hear demand is high if that is really the reason!

It really is worth it. Even the backlight alone is a game changer. I'm not some animal that plays video games with the lights on (particularly survival horror games), so I can now finally see the VMU screen without tilting it towards the screen to catch some of the light off the TV screen. I can see the health and ammo information on the VMU in Resident Evil games. And obviously the rechargeable battery is a game changer. Can actually enjoy the minigames without dealing with the abysmal VMU battery life.

I have one disc that I have a little concern has disc rot on the VERY edge of the disc. Because of the location of the spot, it plays perfectly fine. It was an eBay purchase, so it didn't happen on my watch. I have always kept my games in air conditioned spaces, and my media room where they are stored essentially gets no natural light. I don't think this is something that will spread now that it's in a controlled environment. Hope not! Not a cheap game to replace...

How strange but fascinating time capsule before video streaming was ubiquitous. Will have to check it out. I hope we eventually get a translation of the El Dorado Gate games, another early experiment with episodic releases (but actually a game).

I'm always skeptical these sorts of projects will actually release as a final product, but it does look cool. I love the respect that the 32-bit generation is finally getting with retro-inspired games.

Will never understand why people put so much effort (this looks very good!) into something that will get shut down by Nintendo if it gets any attention.

And here I am struggling to get my soundbar to reliably switch between five inputs! Need to show this to my wife so she stops calling me obsessed. haha. It does make me laugh that this guy with all these retro consoles (I even saw a Panasonic Q in there) is doing it wrong and connecting them to an HDTV. However, seeing his setup, I'm sure there's a CRT off camera somewhere.

Very cool, but I'm not sure why people continue with these Nintendo fan projects. We all know how they end up...

I applaud the effort, and I did my part in purchasing these games. There are so many PC ports of games that are more or less lost to time. Yes, you can get abandonware versions online and spend an evening trying to get it to work, but this is far more satisfying. Lots of Sega PC releases to be resurrected. I also recall having a version of FF7 for PC that I could never actually get to run properly back then (ah, PC gaming in the 90s..).

Harder than I imagined it would be...

Considering I have waited so long for orders from lrg that I have actually forgotten I even made them in the past, I wouldn't expect them to have a solution in two months. The right thing would have just been to refund everyone and move on probably. That would have done more to put the controversy behind them than a vague promise to make things right.

Not my thing, but I do find it funny that GameCube now has achievements before Switch. For all of its success, Switch feels like kind of a half baked effort from Nintendo. Wii U gets this whole social network, and Switch doesn't even have folders (at least last I checked).

@RetroGames It's called an opinion, and it's okay.

Kudos for the effort on this. I see Burning Rangers as Sega's first step towards the design aesthetic that would be popular on Dreamcast. It definitely does not feel like other Saturn games, and it proves that, if the Saturn had a longer lifespan, games could have been pushed a lot further. Really wish this game had received a sequel. Playing through the Burning Rangers level on Sega Allstars Racing really made me think about what could have been...

The OG Xbox was a legitimately interesting platform. It actually has a LOT of exclusive titles to this day that require me to keep that beast around. They really threw everything at that first attempt. I also find it funny that it only did a little better than the GameCube, yet the GameCube is considered a failure while the Xbox is not.

360 is the last Xbox I bought. Again, there were enough interesting exclusives to warrant it, Blue Dragon, Tails of Vesperia, some of Rare's games, etc, but it got a lot less use than the OG. Haven't seen anything interesting whatsoever about the Xbox One or later. And if there is a one-off title I'm interested in, I know they'll release it on PC.

Absolutely love going back and watching videos from E3 in the 90s and early 2000s. E3 was an event I anticipated all year, and back then, the announcements really delivered.

@Nahhhtendo Indeed. Played through it a few times when I visited the Galloping Ghost a few years ago. It's short and honestly not too difficult. Very grateful to have had the chance to play it "irl."

From what I can tell, at least people know up front what they're buying in this case, whereas there was no disclaimer that people would be receiving a CD-R. The USB-A being phased out claim is plainly nonsense. Just don't buy it if you don't like it.

I will shout out Mighty No. 9 here (don't hear that much!) and state that my Kickstarter pledge included a DRM-free PC version that came on a USB stick, but the body of the stick looked like an NES cart with the character's face on it. Very premium feeling. If Limited run did something like that, people would be happy.

@Gamer_X I think, with the exception of Nintendo, consoles are becoming redundant with PCs. Microsoft seems to care less and less about their Xbox consoles, and Sony is following suit with porting their games to PC now, too. Sadly, I feel the days of console generations and consoles having their own "personality" is coming to an end.

As for this article, how interesting! I did not know there was cross-play between Dreamcast and PS2.

I think I alone would make a Saturn mini or Dreamcast mini a profitable endeavor for Sega. Haha. I love the Genesis minis, but Saturn and Dreamcast are the ones that would really get me. At least one of every regional variant and then a few to give as gifts at Christmas? Come on, Sega! Take my money!!

I guess I'm impressed with the durability of those cases graded games are put in, but yes, games are meant to be played — ESPECIALLY rare and hard to find games.

@KitsuneNight Yeah. I have started the original Tomb Raider on Saturn a few times and fizzled out a few levels in. The lack of checkpoints makes mistakes (which are inevitable) really demoralizing. But that's the beauty of save states. Maybe I'll finally finish this game!

Very impressive achievement! Hopefully this will lure some bigger publishers.

Panzer Dragoon's art direction is still one of the best gaming has ever seen. Truly beautiful and unlike anything that came before or after it.

You know, I view the Gameboy Color as Nintendo's weakest "successful" console. It barely moved the needle beyond the OG Gameboy. Game Gear games look better imo (though NOT the Game Gear's screen!). Most GBC games aren't worth revisiting (again, imo). But man, these screenshots hit me right in the nostalgia. That weird limited color palette! Still not really interested in this game though. Sorry.

It's an excellent version of Tetris that doesn't get enough attention. So awesome that it is back online!

Excellent article, and I agree that the narrative around Saturn has been overly negative. Yes, it was a failure, but so was the GameCube. It only shifted twice as many units, and you have to consider that the industry was a lot bigger by 2002 compared to 1994. And I'm not knocking the GameCube either. I think it's probably Nintendo's best home console.

The Saturn has become frankly an obsession for me. I am fortunate that I started collecting before prices went mad, so I got a lot of the heavy hitters on the cheap. I "only" paid $300 for Panzer Dragoon Saga and scored Magic Knight Rayearth for $80. But I'm still collecting, so I am grateful for an understanding spouse who doesn't complain about my hobby.

I prefer real hardware 90 percent of the time, and so the extra features/convenience that software emulation offers are really the only thing that can convince me to not use real hardware. I'm sure FPGA is great, but if I want an authentic experience, I'll use authentic hardware.

Especially since these limited run companies pride themselves the idea of game preservation, a burned CD-R is not acceptable. In fact, they should be using the best possible media to ensure longevity. Excluding the exceptionally long wait times for orders, I've been happy with my Limited Run orders, but I'd be demanding a refund if I bought this.

@N64-ROX Godzilla Generations was a launch title for Dreamcast in Japan, aka 1998, before even Sonic Adventure hit the console. It's not a stretch to call it a tech demo made into a game. The fully destructible buildings would have been impressive at the time. Very tedious game. The sequel is actually pretty interesting and better because they made that one a rail shooter.

@smoreon Right. And compression is a thing, too. I need to point no further than Angel Studios (which later became ROCKSTAR) and RE2 on the N64, a two disc game on one N64 cartridge.

@UK_Kev The guy in the article literally said he thinks it could have run it, so I'm going to go with that. If it had been developed from the ground up for the Dreamcast, it obviously would have run on it!

@Uncharted2007 Indeed. Similar to how RE4 couldn't reverse the fortunes of the GameCube. Capcom couldn't wait to port that to the PS2.

I'm always a little sad we never got to see the Dreamcast's true potential. Later PS2 games look so much better than early titles, but the Dreamcast didn't really last long enough for devs to squeeze every drop out of it. I suspect GTA3 would have run on it.

Japan loves their mobile games. It makes sense. When my wife and I went to Japan in 2015 (can't believe it was so long ago ;_;), she took her 3DS and got more street passes walking in Akihabara than she received since getting the 3DS in the United States. I also recall the sheer wonder of walking in a store and seeing a LARGE display of PS Vita games. It was nice to see the Vita getting the respect it deserved for once.

I have been paying handily to rediscover the magic of the Sega Saturn for years now. The game prices are insane! I love those completely impractical longboxes. So fragile, but they really command respect on a shelf!

When I saw Creatures, I thought they meant the old PC artificial life game. But nope. That probably would not translate well to Evercade anyway. I'll be passing on this one.

I hope future cartridges include some of the more obscure survival horror titles from the PS1 era. Also a Jazz Jackrabbit collection. They ported Duke Nukem. Now give me Jazz!

I wonder what other changes are made to the exp, like maybe a screen downgrade. I do like the color scheme, but already having the exp and vs, I have no reason to buy these.

I do have this game, including its mammoth box, though it's the US version, which does not look quite as classy, I must say. It's interesting looking at Nintendo's pre-Wii dabbles with motion control. I find Kirby Tilt N Tumble pretty difficult and have never gotten very far. But I am seemingly one of the only people that enjoyed Yoshi Topsy Turvy. I'm not saying it's Yoshi's Island good, but I think it's pretty fun.

@Blast16 Yeah, for as popular as the Genesis was, a lot of its games have fallen into relative obscurity, things like this or Beyond Oasis or Landstalker. I find that a bit weird, but I have enjoyed discovering the games I missed when I was a kid and relying on birthdays and Christmas to get a new game.

And yeah, I'm grateful to have experienced those console generations in person. Every new generation brought games that literally couldn't be done before, unlike now where we're just talking about a fancy reflection or higher resolution. In my opinion, gaming peaked in the sixth generation. There have been good games since then, of course, but you just can't capture that magic again.

I got Dinosaurs for Hire back when it was released, despite no prior knowledge about the IP. I was probably just intrigued by the inclusion of dinosaurs and that they reminded me a bit of TMNT. It's a game that I enjoyed then and still revisit. Not a legendary title like Gunstar Heroes, but still a good time.

The first scene includes a giant dinosaur enemy that I believe you could either defeat or lose and the game continues regardless. But if you win, it makes some mention of an error in the blast processing unit or something. Obviously a joke, but it's the only in-game mention of "blast processing" I've ever seen. That always stuck with me for some reason.

Obviously the 32x was a mistake, and everyone agrees. I think Saturn was a case of perception becoming reality. I recall at the time having the perception that Saturn had no games. I remember teasing the one classmate we knew that had a Saturn that he had the bad console (Obviously considering it's now second behind Dreamcast as my favorite console of all time, I was a very misguided child, and I admit this). I was legitimately shocked years later when I decided to revisit the Saturn after falling in love with the Dreamcast just how many games it had. In fact, its North American library is within striking distance of the number of releases on N64 (Saturn's Japanese library of course putting it WAY ahead of N64, though both obviously massively below PS1). This perception issue comes down to bad marketing. I was a kid in middle school at the time, so I was basically their prime demographic, yet I didn't know.

I would love a new survival horror Dino Crisis with limited ammo and tank controls, but that will never happen, so no thanks.