sdelfin

The joke here is that some Capcom arcade games have DIP switches or software settings that literally do nothing. I'm well acquainted with Strider, and its difficulty setting is not functional. Pretty sure regular Super Street Fighter 2 has the same issue. Others have pointed this out as well.

@slider1983 The general shape; rounded edges giving it its "bubble" name(not typical for most of these handhelds); the shape of the bezel is the same and is distinct to the GG; the recesses for the controls(not the same, but very similar); the D-pad shape chosen; that button shaped like a half moon, which is the same as the GG start button, and its placement are almost exact; this one is subtle, but the oval shape of the power LED and its placement are a nod to the GG's logo.

@slider1983 And yet it looks even more like a mini Game Gear. The design cues are very clear. That was your first question, and that's the answer.

@slider1983 It clearly takes a number of design cues from the Game Gear. I noticed the resemblance immediately. And those design cues are not by accident.

It sounds like they had fun developing Metal Slug 3 and basically throwing any idea they had at it. I wonder if some of these unused ideas would have actually worked once implemented in the game. It's hard to say just based on the descriptions what things would work, but some things may not have worked in a game like Metal Slug.

I look forward to seeing how Black Finger Jet develops.

@RealBroosh Wow. I didn't even have to go past the first comment on this to see the specific game, Tenchu Z, I was thinking of for this sort of thing. I wasn't expecting anyone else to mention it. Well done!

@HoyeBoye Sounds like a situation where you'd want to seek out a video showing the story mode and just get the spoilers. I already saw a video describing the ending to this thing, so I know how it goes......and it is messed up.

It's a good thing the games were good, because that ad wasn't going to sell any product. One of the worst ads I've ever seen, though many ads would fit that description.

It's interesting to see my old comment up top. I've since had the opportunity to play the two Tenchu games for the PS2 and I loved them both despite being a bit nervous based on some of the reviews. I loved the concept of Tenchu when the first game was new and it was the primary reason I got a PS1, as I was a happy Saturn owner in those days. Tenchu has always been a special game for me and one of my favorites on the PS2, and the two PS2 sequels also were very enjoyable for me and are now among my favorites for the PS2.

There are so many fighitng games, and games in general on PS2, but I had a great time playing Fist of the North Star for the system. It was a Japanese release and a port of an Atomiswave arcade game. It has flaws that make it not a great competitive fighter, but I really liked the way it played and how it handled the source material.

Such a shame that "totally real" Dreamcast FPGA core will have to be shelved after all. How shockingly unsurprising.

@jesse_dylan There were arcade games that did horizontal scrolling just fine before Super Mario Bros. existed. Many of those were shooters, so I stand by my claim that SMB would have little or no influence on something like R-Type. SMB, however, is very influential in many other ways, even if horizontal scrolling was already a thing. It was one of the first home games to do it well. But I'd say it was more influential in that it basically set many standards for the 2D platformer, a genre which would dominate for quite a long time.

@dconstantine I've been wondering about that in recent weeks and have looked into it with no new info. It's quite confusing. But it's still operating, much to my surprise.

@-wc- Thanks for replying. I know how tricky it is to find good D-pads. And then what's great for some is not so good for others. Ergonomics is another big issue. That's why I was asking, to see what people like and maybe get some ideas.

I mostly use 8bitdo as far as new controllers. I love the feel of the Pro+. The D-pad was extremely good. The controller membranes are now known to be weak and they tend to tear, unfortunately. At least they can be replaced last I checked and don't cost a lot. Of course, they should be more durable. I also use the 8bitdo Neo Geo CD pads with the thumb stick which I do love. And I have a current Xbox controller. It's nice, but the D-pad is mediocre to me.

I remember when I first used the Playstation controller. The D-pad felt way better than I expected it would. I was able to play fighting games with it without much issue. It's not my preferred style or feel, but it was good.

It's a very tough question. Something like Space Invaders really doesn't apply to platformers. Super Mario Bros, a very influential game, has no bearing on the likes of R-Type. And as someone pointed out, what most influential means is itself up for debate. But as far as a pioneering game, Pitfall does come to mind with the running and the jumping and the climbing across many distinct screens.

@-wc- @Slobbert Out of curiosity, which modern and/or third-party controllers do you think feel good. Always good to hear what people recommend for future reference and all that. I've liked the feel of all the 8bitdo pads I've used with the Pro+ being my favorite in terms of ergonomics.

Looks very nice in the video, and the visuals look like the typical high quality Bitmap Bureau is known for. A license like this is unexpected. Hopefully the licensing terms are good, perhaps perpetual, so that delisting isn't a problem in the future as far as digital distribution.

I'm lucky in that I've always viewed gaming as a mostly solo affair and I enjoy it the most that way. But I also miss connecting with friends with multiplayer sessions. I've had some great memories with old friends, such as some summers getting together with friends almost daily to play lots of things, especially fighting games.

A couple of years ago, I heard from one of those old friends for the first time in a while(that was on both of us). He moved further away, but we've managed to get together a few times to play some old favorites. I'm deeper into the retro hobby than he is, so I've been guiding him as to what hardware to get for the kind of setup he wants. And that's pretty satisfying for me. It was a bit of coincidence we started talking again when we did as he was about to start looking into that. I saved him a lot of headaches and money, I'd say.

A while back, I did get three friends of mine to spend a few hours playing some multiplayer beat-em-ups. When I suggested the idea of playing a four-player session of the Turtles arcade game, I didn't have to do much arm twisting to convince them. That was a lot of fun. I've also had various gaming sessions, retro and not so retro, with my nephews and that has had some interesting results.

"The reason he worked so hard to hide his illness was simply for his own self-respect as an artist."

I think that quote is the most important one here. If so, I wonder if he wanted to lose himself in the work to forget about his illness for a while. I would assume the leg amputation was unexpected. It may also have been unavoidable since his disease only got worse over the next few years.

As for the game, I didn't like it at first. I knew it had a good reputation and was well made, but it wasn't clicking with me. But it was that reputation that convinced me to give the game multiple chances. I think I tried it three or four times, but I eventually "got" it and ended up enjoying it quite a lot. Initially, I wanted to play it more like a beat-em-up, and it's just not designed that way. It's a nice feeling when a game you previously did not enjoy ends up being fun with a second look.

I second the first commenter's praise for the intro. I really love the concept of scanning these old figurines for old game properties. It's a cool project. If I ever get a 3D printer, I'll be in trouble.

I thought the screen shots looked decent. Looks even more interesting in the video. I played through the demo a couple of times and it's pretty good. I'll have to look at the documentation as there are a few things I still need to know more about, such as the power-up system, but I like what I played. The gameplay is well designed. There are even a few special graphical effects that are unusual to see on a PC Engine.

FPGA is a cool development in retro gaming in recent times, but there is so much hyperbolic marketing around them. That's why I've pushed back about various myths because there is misinformation and disinformation out there. Part of that comes from how a lot of officially released emulation products were extremely shoddy leading to derision. Software emulation started in a time when hacks were necessary if the goal was to simply get games running and playable with accuracy coming later. FPGA accuracy benefits from being a more recent development where accuracy has been the focus from the beginning.

While I've had good discussions with reasonable FPGA supporters here, I've also seen some wild disinformation from people who clearly know nothing, and who seem to make accounts here just to be disingenuous for one post and then disappear. For example, one person told me I was wrong because I did not consider "display lag", as if you wouldn't or couldn't use the SAME display if you were doing lag testing. I was told lag wouldn't show up in software emulation if I was testing using frame advance, and it absolutely does and that test is effective. I've seen people complain that Mario World is literally unplayable on software emulation, and SNES emulation I think has two frames(likely one frame) of lag max in the testing I have done. Two frames is very playable, but then there's also RunAhead to reduce that to no frames, so literally playable on software emulation either way.

FPGA is great and it's wonderful that the option exists for those that find it appealing. It has advantages and benefits, though sometimes those are not what people think they are. We must not let the marketing fluff displace reality.

@-wc- I've never seen it. Is that similar in some way or otherwise something you'd recommend to someone who liked Necessary Roughness?

I knew him best from Necessary Roughness, a film I watched many times as a kid and enjoyed. I watched it again several years back and still had a great time. I didn't know it was his first role. He definitely contributed to making it memorable. Sad news to hear.

At least at a glance, those boxes are nicer than I would have expected. I wonder how many systems they have over there. Also, PS1 is not the most robust system. I wonder how long they'll hold up without needing a drive or something. Maybe the drives are not original.

This brings to mind how Spielberg took guns out of a scene in ET and had them digitally replaced with walkie talkies. That change is a bit infamous. I can imagine them trying to replace the guns in Goldeneye with walkie talkies. Developers talk about how not everything translates well into good game mechanics. Even in some games that are narrative heavy, in reality the writing and the gameplay are two distinct parts. The only way that idea can work is to make a visual novel that doesn't require the same kind of active gameplay.

Miyamoto's idea was also quite silly. To be fair, having bad ideas is fine because they ultimately didn't go with it. Stuff like that would undermine the game. The context of the game is enough. Also, age ratings exist for a reason. You can't have it both ways with an adult oriented shooting/action game like that. To Nintendo's credit, they later figured out a way to make a shooter for all ages, but that wouldn't work for something like Bond.

Good features. I also like the idea of putting Maki in there as an extra character.

I saw a video showing the demo a couple of days before the public release and immediately knew it was something I wanted to try. I played Steel Assault(and remembered it from its initial reveal when it looked like a NES game) back last summer and really enjoyed it. I can see that Neon Inferno uses similar art in spots, which is a good thing. I played the demo last night and I thought it was very good so far. I've never been the biggest fan of gallery shooters — though I just recently have been wanting to go back to Wild Guns and "git gud" — but I like the way Neon Inferno is designed so far. The fact that it's a mash up of traditional run-and-gun with gallery mechanics means the controls are a bit more complex and it's fairly common to mix up buttons at times. One thing I didn't like so much was how hard difficulty had different checkpoints from normal. In the demo, hard mode has no checkpoints, so it's basically the same in that regard as arcade difficulty. Hard mode adds difficulty in game, such as more enemies and additional boss behaviors, so having fewer checkpoints seems unnecessary to me. This is a relatively small complaint on my part, and I do plan on getting the game when it is complete.

The aesthetic and gameplay seem, in some way, like an alternate take on the excellent Huntdown. I love how the dystopian, Blade Runner-style setting looks dark, but also somehow bursting with color. Really nice visual design here.

@Daniel36 It sure looks that way. And it is very nice to look at. Appears to be higher resolution for games of the era, which I assume is one of the features of the PC-98. The downside is the movement is choppy as it doesn't have the type of custom graphics hardware of the X68000 or FM Towns. But that seems like it wouldn't hurt as much in a game like this. The character art here is particularly nice.

@hste My understanding is that what comes loose is a heatsink or some kind of cover. Of course, that's still bad and may also lead to other problems. It probably wasn't necessary either.

@cawley1 I'm seeing info that an English version existed titled Alice in Wonderland, but I think you're right that it's Japan only. It looks like they intended a wider release and decided not to. I wonder if it made it as far as location tests.

@Damo Makes perfect sense. When I tell people about that Neo CD pad, I describe the thumb stick as feeling like an arcade stick but controlled by your thumb.

@Sketcz I'm glad you found it because I have no doubt I would have been trying to find it as well. And as much as I like this site, the search is not the best element of it. I wouldn't be surprised if I still that a browser tab open for the game from last year. I need to come up with a better way to keep track of these things. It reminds me of the experience I had with a game called Steel Assault, which is quite good. I had seen it when it was first shown as an 8-bit-style game. It was then changed to a 16-bit look. Somewhere along the way, I forgot the name of the game and had very little to go on until it came up in the news again and I suddenly noticed a few familiar elements that I could have easily missed. Just yesterday, I remembered a game I didn't list in my prior comment and had no luck finding it on here. The game is Spidersaurs and luckily I remembered something else about it which helped me find it. It's so easy for these games to pass you by.

This is an interesting project. I immediately wondered how the developer was approaching this port as the CPS line of boards all have a strange internal resolution that is different from the Neo Geo. That makes a port a little less straightforward, especially compared to the recent System 16 projects. As stated in the article, it won't be 1/1, but that's what makes it a bit more interesting.

To follow up on my previous comment, I seem to recall hearing of one or two game pads that also used micro switches for the D-pad. Some people may want and like that. Clearly Madlittlepixel seems to like it here and that's fine. That kind of D-pad is probably quite good for most other retro genres besides fighting games. I'm reminded of one of my favorite retro-style controllers, the 8bitdo Neo Geo CD pad. It uses a thumb stick and micro switches. It has a large amount of travel before actuation which ends up feeling really good to me and I think it's fantastic for fighting game inputs. It's definitely not ideal for shmups but you can get by. And all that echoes the review. I think some of the disappointment comes from how much this looks like a Saturn pad, and then ends up not feeling like it.

@Axelay71 @PKDuckman Yeah, I know what you mean. But it wa also inevitable with the expansion of gaming in general and indie developers being able to get their games out there. To be fair, Metroidvanias can be great games and they inspired a lot of people to make their own. I think part of it is that Metroidvanias are easier to sell because enough people are always going on about game length. And they are probably easier to balance as far as difficulty. I like them, but I also tire of them after a while. And I've seen people complain about everything, too many Metroidvanias, too many retro games, too many 3D games, too many 2D sprite games, too many 8-bit-style games, etc.

I think the problem with classic early console and arcade style stuff is that those games have trouble breaking through. It helps to find sites or channels that can curate those a bit. I just found a youtube channel that may prove useful for that. But those retro-style games are out there. I plan to play Iron Meat. Prison City is pretty good. Huntdown was excellent. Steel Assault is fun. Blazing Chrome is very Contra like. Same developer made Moonrider, a ninja action game. There's Valfaris. There are others and I have to do a better job at keeping up as well.

Not a bad collection of games. I always thought Night Strikers and Space Gun looked quite appealing in particular.

Getting D-pads right seems to be a tricky thing. You definitely can't judge a D-pad by looks alone. There's a lot of variability in feel. I also think there are misconceptions as to what works best. I've seen people who thought they wanted arcade sticks with super short throw and be hyper responsive only to realize that's not the feel they want for fighting games after all. That's why some people prefer different stick types for shmups and fighting games. I like a loose stick and longer travel for fighting games and the same applies to D-pads. A longer travel without actuation or contact is more forgiving for fighting games and I think is generally more reliable for most people. Clickly switches with short travel really change the feel of things and require more precision in my experience. Good to know about this design decision as I might have looked at getting this pad which is definitely not for me.

I wish I could say this was surprising, but this seems to be common in the development end of the retro hobby. It's been that way on the software emulation side. It seems to be the case on the FPGA side. What's also sad is that there is gratitude out there. But those people are less likely to send a message. I've interacted with a few project leads here in the comments and have expressed my appreciation in those cases, but I'm not sending emails. The entitled types and toxic people are more motivated, for whatever reason, to go direct to the source. I don't know why people do this, other than being toxic. Maybe there's some desire for sabotage for some. Whatever it is, it's shameful that this goes on and developers who are basically volunteers deal with this.

I was just reminded of this game a few days ago. The PC Engine introduced me to this one, and that's the one I played. The change to the direct overhead perspective was a concession to make the port a bit easier, but it seemed good and otherwise faithful from what I could gather. The game is fun. Good to see the arcade original get a modern release.

@Willonious You can laugh all you want, but there's one problem. The tariffs on China have not been paused. Swing and a miss there. Plus there was another point in the article about the uncertainty and its effect on these small operations. Did you read the article?

I would be more inclined to agree with the sentiment that this is what people voted for, except for the fact that trump blatantly lied about what tariffs actually are. Plus, doing a trade war with no clear strategy is also a problem.

I was recently thinking about this game and how I should go back to it soon. The hack changes sounds interesting. As I recall, one of the game's issues was a high damage rate, so this sounds like a nice adjustment to the game's balance. The general combat mechanics of the game are good, so this sounds like it should be more fun.

@Dramlin I generally agree with you that sometimes we may just be unaware of other people's perceptions or experiences. With regard to audiophiles, that can go in two directions. You have audiophiles who are seemingly always looking for "better" speakers and equipment. I put better in quotes because sometimes something can be better on paper, but be wrong for a specific space. Other than the diminishing returns, at least their pursuit is legitimate. But the reason for the reputation of audiophiles as gullible is because there are examples of devices that technically function, but literally do nothing. These are devices that claim to optimize the laser by modifying the edge of the CD to block scattered light, things that ionize or deionize the discs(I don't remember which) to somehow "improve" the sound. Those things simply do not work, but because people can't see sound, the marketing claims work on people who want such things to be true.

A theme song and printed manuals. That's like 99 percent of the work for a project like this. Coleco Chameleon didn't have a theme song and didn't come out. Coincidence???? Sarcasm aside, I mention the printed manuals because people defended that as if it's normal to have manuals and a mock up of a box when it was clear this whole time this was not a legitimate product or project. Even if it was legit, they were nowhere near far enough along for that to make any sense. And speaking of not making sense, they have a theme song.

@Serpenterror The person doing this recently ported Shinobi. It was mostly for the sake of learning the process of porting from System 16 to Neo Geo. Of course, it's unnecessary. Because Shinobi was ported recently, it's now much easier to port other System 16 games. People asked for Golden Axe and it sounds like it's fairly easy(and moving along quickly). That's all there is to this.

Revenge of Death Adder would be a tough port. The CPU architecture is much different, and that game does some things the Neo Geo would have issues with. Plus the System 32 is much more advanced. Any color issues it had seem by choice rather than a hardware limitation.

@CopyX1982 if you're asking how FPGAs work, they're chips that can change their internal configurations based on the specific cores to replicate old game consoles on an electrical level. Essentially, if the core is properly done, the end result is basically a one-chip version of a game console that would function the same way the console would. This can lead to higher accuracy with lower overhead, but also lacks some of the convenience features you get with software emulation.

@avcrypt what you described in your comment here reminds me of how I felt watching the saga of the Coleco Chameleon unfold in real time. I joined the breaking news in the middle of a very large forum thread on AtariAge and there was new info coming out every day. I must have read through thousands of forum posts before it slowed down, and it was enjoyable. Some of the stuff they pulled was so ridiculous that it would have fit right in with this SuperWhatever.

I love the Japanese F-Zero box art and was just thinking about it recently. The art Mr. Nichols provided for it was very well executed. I don't know if I came across his work when I was heavily into comics as it looks like his main work was for companies and books that weren't what I was buying. But just seeing some of his work, his talent and skill was undeniable. On the bleedingcool website referenced here, there's an inked Team Titans splash page with no color showing some kind of dragon creature, and it's excellent. Sad to hear of this loss.

I took part in the Discotek livestream because I really love what they do. No announements really landed for me this time, which happens sometimes, but I have a lot to catch up on. They announced quite a few western cartoons this cycle which was surprising. Apparently, those have done well for them, so I assume there's enough of an audience for these. Based on the the description of the extras for Street Fighter, they're doing a nice job adding value to the release. They showed an image of original storyboards that Egoraptor has and it sharing for the release. It's not my thing, but it's cool for people who are interested in this one.

Nice to read this. Golden Axe arcade, the Genesis sequel, and the arcade sequel Revenge of Death Adder are games I enjoy very much. There's something about the first Golden Axe that really resonated with me. They really nailed the character designs in it and the presentation of the world. I don't often feel compelled to 1CC games, but Golden Axe just never stops being fun for me, so I did that, which is not especially difficult. I also loved how Altered Beast and Golden Axe both had silly endings. That doesn't always work, but I thought that worked in both of those.