sdelfin

@MeloMan Ha ha. Same here. I was disappointed by the lack of Sunsoft here.

I always appreciated when developers would "copy" concepts, especially from exclusives to other machines. I wasn't familiar with this one, but I have always been a fan of the first two Virtual On games. I'll have to check this one out, even if just for curiosity. But it looks like it plays well. Plus, sticking some anime robots into this concept is not a bad idea.

I recently started using AI for search quite often and have to say that I'm largely impressed. So as someone who likes it, I'll say the article is fair and accurate in my view. I have no problem with it. AI comes with issues, largely on the datacenter side and all the power requirements, along with the sudden spike in RAM and NAND which is absolutely because of AI and the corporate gold rush associated with it, so calling it out doesn't bother me in the least. It is relevant enough to cover too.

@Gs69 My understanding is there was some amount of subsidization when it first game out. Still, considering the state of the memory market, I'm not shocked by a 40 percent increase with most of that being directly from component prices.

@X68000 Would the arcade version be easier to use though? It's an ST-V game.

Edit: The post above mine makes my comment redundant, but I'll leave it since it already posted. The prior comment was not visible to me until I clicked the button to post.

The controllers were always the biggest sign that they had no idea what they were doing in terms of design. First, the layout is the worst element of the original console to revive for nostalgia's sake. Controllers evolved in a certain way for a reason. Second, when they announced the system concept, they were targeting $150-$180, so going with wireless controllers that need batteries, and giving each one a screen seemed like the worst way to keep the price down. Once the price target moved past $200, there was no point at all, assuming there ever was a point.

If the assessment that they designed the shell first is right, then that's just the perfect cherry on top after the saga of the Coleco Chameleon which also started with the shell.

@turboxray Way to totally miss every single point there, buddy.

Whatever helps you sleep at night.

@Przemyslaw It looks like the rotating screen is for making the device easily fit into pockets.

Yeah, I would also like to know what "AI Powered" means in this case. I'm not against AI in a blanket way. It has been genuinely useful to me on a number of occasions for finding out information. And saying "AI Powered" makes me think it's an on-device feature which should take away one point of contention. I'm curious what the use case for that is other than just marketing trends.

I prefer the horizontal form factor for gaming handhelds, so the Pocket Air Mini is more my style. But I love the fact they have officially-licensed IGS PGM games. I love the PGM.

@h3s The way I remember it, Saturn was right on the edge as far as what the Mister could do and to make ST-V work, the developer made a separate core where they removed unnecessary components like the logic pertaining to the optical drive which was a clever approach. Model 2 sounds like it would be quite out of reach.

Because Shining is such a weird property, I bet there was a lot of disappointment on both sides of the divide. Despite not being the biggest RPG fan, I picked up Shining the Holy Ark shortly after it came out. I had a good time with it, but also never did finish it.

I'm pleased with my 11/15, totally legit. I didn't look anything up. I'm surprised I did so well since my Konami arcade knowledge is spotty and these flyers aren't the most common things to come across.

I missed Le Mans, Dark Adventure, MIA, and Martial Champion.

@Daniel36 These are arcade games and these advertisements were directed at arcade operators which explains why they mentioned earnings. Operators wanted games that would collect the most quarters. As for kits, they mean conversion kits. Instead of buying a whole new cabinet, they could buy a conversion kit that would allow them to use an existing cabinet.

@h3s if you don't mind the question, why do you specifically want that fixed but not by overclocking? The only reason that comes to mind is that it would then be full speed on original Neo Geo hardware. Other than that, emulation, FPGA, and even this upcoming AES+ can all do overclocking. I'm just curious what you see as the benefit.

@turboxray "Worst case scenario, snes game music is average - not garbage."

Captain Commando would like to have a word with you.

The rest of your reply is not really responsive to the point I was making. I even said I know why people say that. But that means they're ignoring the MANY great sounding Genesis games to draw the conclusion that the sound chip was trash. The fact that many games have great music proves my point that it was not. I am not forcing people to like it. I am not attacking anyone's preferences. Calling it trash is an extreme reaction that, in my experience, results from confirmation bias. The results within many US-made games definitely was trash. The chip, though? It was a standard FM-synthesis chip with only a few technical weaknesses. And it could reproduce many arcade soundtracks nearly perfectly. I've never heard people call the YM2151 trash.

"I get why people don't care for certain types of sounds for music. It's a thing. I love me some of the traditional FM sound of the Genesis.. but don't begrudge people that don't."

I agree with this. I'm simply pointing out my disbelief and sharing a disingenuous argument I have come across from people in the past. Extreme blanket statements like that rarely have any value and are often not well thought out either.

@Sketcz The argument that the MD sound chip was trash is just stunning to me. I know why people think that. I literally ran into someone who said that all the games that have great sound are the exception. I can rattle off dozens and dozens of games with amazing music, and that's just from memory. So when Sega's 16-bit machine had great music, it was a rare exception, but when plenty of SNES games had garbage sound, that was also an exception. In reality, it was a matter of what the developers did with both.

I consider Gauntlet IV to be the ultimate mic-drop game.

I love how there is that connection between Street Fighter and Fatal Fury. It is the same thing with Virtua Fighter and Tekken. I do think that Street Fighter 2 was ahead in the early days. But I felt that SNK came up with fresher ideas before long while Capcom kept iterating on Street Fighter 2. I also grew to prefer SNK's character design more. Years down the road, it was the KOF that really pulled me back towards 2D fighting games, and KOF wouldn't exist without Fatal Fury.

Before Street Fighter 2 was on the Genesis, Fatal Fury was. I stumbled upon it as a rental and remember having a good time with it. In my opinion, it wasn't up to the standard of SF2, so it remained a rental for me, but I'm glad I played it. And Fatal Fury Special spent a lot of time in my Game Gear, and it is apparently well regarded these days.

@swiller What kind of emulation are you talking about? In typical setups, Neo Geo is basically perfect with reliable save states and no crashes. Big games like Metal Slug 5 run like a champ.

Nice little story. It's a good looking statue, to my eyes, so nice that it's in the hands of people who are happy to have it. Imagine seeing that driving by on the flatbed trailer.

@Martin_H With regard to Saturn's design, I wonder if Sega being an arcade leader at the time blinded them to what was possible for the home. First of all, when the consoles were in development in the early 1990s, and it typically took at least two years of development, it was a transitional period. NEC and Hudson guessed wrong. Sega guessed a bit wrong. 3DO was too early, perhaps. Sony guessed right. But in the arcades, Sega was contracting with Martin Marietta for their arcade stuff and perhaps concluded 3D would not be viable for the home at that point, unaware of advancements that were being made in the lower market segment.

It makes sense. It's a different context, but the way a game communicates hits in beat-em-up games makes a big difference. And you don't need screen shake to do it. Golden Axe did visual and sound feedback very well for the hits. But a good example of the difference is Turtles in Time. I've chatted with people about it and one thing people prefer in the SNES game, whether they know it or not, is the hit stun of the Foot Soldiers. The SNES version has a beefy sound and the enemies have stun frames. And the enemies shake a bit instead of the screen. In the arcade, the sound effect is much lighter and the Foot Soldiers flail about when hit, so it makes it feel like the attacks don't hit as hard. They're both good games in their own ways, but that change for the SNES port I think makes it more satisfying for many people.

Very nice piece. Cool to see the creator and designer of the Strider arcade game come up in this too. While I always liked Strider, I decided to do a deep dive into that game a couple of years ago to master it, which I succeeded in doing, and I enjoy it so much more now. Their friendship may go back to when Osman, the spiritual sequel to Strider, was made as Mitchell handled that game, or perhaps their friendship led to Osman being made. I'd love to master Osman too, but it's so much harder for me, though I do still enjoy it. Anyway, on top of that, this piece also filled in some gaps as to what Mitchell Corporation was exactly and what their relationship to Capcom was. It was obvious there was some connection as, at the very least, they had a shared arcade board, and a few Mitchell games were on the CPS1 & 2.

Mr. Ozaki sounds like he was a very interesting fellow. Sad to hear of his passing.

Edit: I did get around to learning at least a good amount of the ins and outs of Osman. I enjoyed it quite a lot, but it's brutal in spots. But that made it satisfying to figure out.

@NicolausCamp You can add me to the list. I never thought the PS1 original was the best design aesthetically. The PSOne, however, I alwaya thought was a great looking machine. And the white always looked better to me than the grey of the original. I've always considered it one of the best console redesigns ever done, at least aesthetically, though I think it also worked very well. In fact, I think Sony was very good as redesigns and the PS2 slim is another one of my favorites.

One thing I like about this SuperStation One is that they modelled the housing on the PSOne. Back when the Raspberry Pi was still somewhat new and people were making retro cases for them, PSOne and PS2 slim were things I was hoping to see. I even considered such a project, myself.

@KingMike Yeah, most of the criticism is fair, but not everything bothers people the same way, so I get why it's not all that well liked by some. And sometimes even very popular games don't hit for some. Yeah, the sword reach is short, but it didn't bother me. I enjoyed fighting the darknuts, though there is a bit of an exploit for them. As for Thunderbird, I used a guide for much of my time with the game so I avoided stuff like that. Contrast that with Castlevania 2 which just wasn't fun for me even with a guide, though it has its fans as well. I didn't expect to like Zelda 2 as much as I did upon revisiting it due to its reputation, but it surprised me.

Great piece, John. I was probably previously aware of the book, but had forgotten about it if that was the case. Metal Slug is the kind of game property for which I'd likely want such a deep dive. I also was either unaware or forgot that Ollie Barder has contributed a few pieces here recently. I should have known that the Omega Boost piece came from him due to all the mentions of the Layzner anime. When I got back into anime about a decade ago, my main interest was old super-robot shows and Ollie became one of my top sources for learning about the topic and I've been periodically checking in on his writing every year since then.

I didn't realize until I did some reading on Irem that it was founded by the same man who founded Capcom. Capcom, Irem, and SNK seemed to be the Osaka faction of the gaming industry of the time. I know from articles on later fighting games that while there was a strong rivalry between Capcom and SNK, especially among the executives, there was a lot of respect and friendship among the people doing the work of game development since that Osaka game-development community was so small and many of them would move from one company to another.

I love seeing the art provided with the article. Speaking of art, I last watched Dominion Tank Police a few years ago and that reminded me of how much the Metal Slug tank looks like the tank from Dominion. I wonder what Kujo was protecting with that first answer. Perhaps there was a legal concern and he was being careful. It would be hard to believe Dominion wasn't an influence unless both of them pulled from another influence. Good to hear he did acknowledge it as "likely" and influence.

I can understand changing it from a tank-only game. First, people tend to relate more to human characters, even in 2D. If the original concept played like the tank sections in Metal Slug, it would feel sluggish and it would be hard to avoid damage. That's the beauty of Metal Slug. In the tank, you can take damage and fire in all directions, but you can't turn around, the shooting is tricky and slow to aim, and it's hard to avoid damage. Outside the tank, the characters are faster and more dynamic since they can jump high, but can't absorb damage. That dynamic is very good for an arcade game. I also liked reading Meeher's thoughts on game design and I have observed some of the same things. I've observed in beat-em-ups that the start-stop stage progression is a big reason those work so well because certain areas can be planned better. It works well in Shock Troopers and Metal Slug too and is a design element I really appreciate.

Since Metal Slug came out relatively late as far as 2D run-and-gun games go, the success of the franchise, which probably built up with each game, would have been realized right as SNK was facing its financial issues. If there was one question I'd want to know from any of the devs of those early games is about the slowdown in the first two and how they cleaned that up for X and 3.

Back then, we'd see attempts by developers to try a different concept for a sequel. So in that sense, seeing Zelda 3 as the true sequel to the first because it's an extension of the original concept makes sense. Once a game is a hit, people tend to want that formula mostly to remain intact. Zelda 2 has a reputation for being very difficult, a bit cryptic, and maybe a bit clunky. About a decade ago, I decided to revisit Zelda 2 to give it a fair shot with a different perspective from when the game was new. And to be clear, I revisited Castlevania 2 as well and couldn't get into it. For Zelda 2, I ended up liking it a lot, much to my surprise. As a kid, I remember being impressed with the swordplay that being a side-scrolling game allowed, especially against the Darknuts. Also, I'm often not a fan of farming experience, but I liked it in Zelda 2. Levelling up extensively early and then being able to one-shot the early bosses was quite amusing. It's a weird Zelda game, but it's a great NES game.

Cyberbots is not a game I would have expected to get the "limited edition" treatment. I would guess that it probably did somewhat well in Japanese arcades then. I wasn't aware of Cyberbots even though I was following the import scene at the time, but it was easy to miss some stuff here and there, and this was not one of Capcom's well known games here.

@FeRDNYC That's basically correct. I don't know if you have seen that there are a series of articles On Polygon on the development of a number of Capcom fighting games from the original Street Fighter to X-Men: Children of the Atom. They're all a good read if you haven't seen them and, of course, the X-Men one is relevant to this, though they don't touch on this particular detail of Juggernaut. But there was a lot of back and forth between Marvel and Capcom over which characters they could use, which ones made sense, etc. They even had to make sure certain characters like Spider-Man were cleared due to contracts for games made by other companies. Marvel Super Heroes had more back and forth than X-Men which makes sense because they were choosing characters from the broader universe. But they took it one game at a time and the end result and general reception were good that they kept going. When Capcom pitched the crossover between Marvel characters and Street Fighter characters, Marvel was much more open because of how the prior games had gone. And let's not forget there were also the two SNES beat-em-up games that probably also factored in as well.

@AnonUser That's even cooler that you did it without RunAhead. People have convinced themselves that beating Tyson was literally impossible in emulation, so I love to hear of people actually doing it. And people like to overstate the issue of lag in emulation. People forget that there is a certain amount of lag on original systems. In my experience testing emulators, most systems that I can test have one or two frames of lag. Interestingly, I tested Simpsons arcade and it had zero frames of lag without RunAhead. And, of course, with RunAhead, it can be zero in every case making emulation the best method for those seeking the lowest latency for supported systems. It's crazy some of the things I've seen people say. I've seen people convinced Super Mario World was literally unplayable in emulation due to lag(one frame??). And even here, a few people made accounts to tell me how wrong I was despite them knowing nothing about how emulation and RunAhead work. They literally made up nonsense on the spot when I pointed out the holes in their arguments. Someone told me I'd be shocked at how much lag I actually had if I did a camera test when I already knew for a fact the response was next frame. And someone told me doing frame testing doesn't work because processing one frame at a time is too easy on the CPU. But that's how emulation works, one frame at a time even at full speed. It also was only about one percent CPU usage at full speed anyway, so that argument fell apart. People think they know better than the actual emulation developers. It's very amusing.

I agree. Based on how you describe it, that's totally legit. I practiced in a similar way when I beat Ninja Gaiden. Eventually, I got to a point where I did legit runs from beginning to end only using save states to save time with regard to continuing on the final stage.

I did some lag testing with Punch Out last year. I forget exactly how many frames of lag I counted, but since NES emulation in my experience is typically and consistently one frame , it seems that Punch Out has a certain amount of lag built into the game. That means you can reduce it beyond original hardware, which would be cheating as you said. But you'd be able to do that without seeing any visual anomalies you'd typically see when reducing below original hardware.

I also picked up an extra Ultimate 2C Wired because of how good it is and the value of it, and it's still in the box. I think I even had a coupon for it. It really is a fantastic pad. That D-pad is a joy to use.

@GravyThief The first time I tried playing Actraiser, I was baffled by the sim part. I read a guide for the game to get an idea of how it all worked when I decided to revisit it. I ended up really enjoying it once I understood it, so I'd recommend doing something like that since it sounds like it has some appeal to you.

@EarthboundBenjy As I recall, there is at least a little bit of variability to the sim parts. I played the game several years ago and I recall there were certain things you could do that resulted in a higher population. It may be fairly basic though. The side scrolling parts on their own are also quite straightforward and basic. The real magic of that game, in terms of gameplay, is combining the two and making it all work. I ended up really enjoying the sim aspect much more than I expected to.

Yeah, Actraiser 2 is brutal. It's a gorgeous game to look at. It's among the best looking SNES games, in my opinion. The player character moves too slow for a lot of the enemies, especially boss fights. I got the impression you really need to know the boss patterns very well and make moves way before the bosses do anything. There was one boss fight where it just felt like the character was way too slow and any mistake was basically certain doom. I've been meaning to check out hacks for the game.

@Razieluigi I would guess that it comes down to a couple of things. There is probably a significant cost advantage. Also, since this seems based on a widely used FPGA core, it's probably considered mature and extensively tested already. I suspect they're doing even more testing as well, especially if there is some modification to the existing core, but they probably have good reason to be confident that it won't need updates. But I did have the same thought as you. There's no functional downside to using FPGA. That's why I think cost explains that, especially since the development had already been done mostly, so the ASIC is probably much lower cost.

I've never played Elden Ring, so this seems like a great starting point....

A few years back, I played one of the Game & Watch collections extensively and unlocked the Zelda game which was quite good for an LCD game. It was quite fun. This will probably be worth it in case I am in the position where I would have to unlock it again.

Directing a movie based on a video game, or at least titled after one, and then taking a shot at the people who play said game certainly is a choice.

@AnonUser Always cool to hear about people beating Tyson in an emulator. I know it's been done, but the old myth that it's impossible due to lag still persists, and people forget that RunAhead is a thing now. But I saw that you mentioned the 8bitdo Ultimate 2C Wired. I have a couple of those. They are fantastic and an amazing value. Of all the first-party controllers back in the day, the Saturn D-pad is my favorite. It feels the best in terms of inputs, and I prefer the Sega-style D-pads. With that said, the most important thing about a D-pad is how it feels and works overall. 8bitdo has nailed that one some of their controllers. In terms of function, the D-pad on their Pro+ was as good as the very best D-pads I had previously used. The D-pad function of the original Ultimate C Wired wasn't bad, but was a step down. When I got my first Ultimate 2C Wired, I immediately noticed the D-pad was upgraded. They made it feel and function as well as the Pro+. I consider both to be just as good as the Saturn pads. The fact that they are Nintendo-style cross pads doesn't hold them back because that's the least important thing when it comes to D-pads.

I've never loved the Neo Geo stick, especially the button layout. Maybe there's a way where the button positions feel better, but I tend to use arcade sticks on my lap, so that would create a poor arm position with the Neo Geo stick. But as good as sticks are, they are tougher to use. It's harder to lean back and relax while playing with an arcade stick. Having the option to use a gamepad is a very good thing. The versatility is huge and could make the whole thing more enjoyable overall. SNES controllers are common. It also reminds me of Capcom's CPS Changer, which was their attempt at selling high-end gaming hardware to consumers in Japan. It was similar to Neo Geo in that they were real arcade games, but it was different in that the system was nothing but an adapter. The games were giant arcade boards instead of carts. And Capcom decided to use SNES controller ports for it which allowed people to use their own controllers on it, and they were abundant, but also allowed Capcom to push their Super Famicom arcade stick as an official solution. It's not a bad solution for this. Playstaion 1 and 2 pads are also abundant, so such an adapter would also make sense. Even though the PS1 pad is not in the same league as the Saturn pad, I was surprised how much I liked it for fighting games. I learned to play The Last Blade on a PS1 D-pad.

I pre-ordered the original Neo Geo Pocket with King of Fighters R-1. It was a lot of fun and was a cool experience having this system so early on when so many people didn't even know about it. I put together a nice library for myself between the original and color systems. The quick upgrade to color was frustrating, but necessary, and I just loved the platform and hardware. I ended up doing a website for the system with a friend of mine. It was a fun time, despite the short lifespan of the system.

I don't remember when SNK first announced the Neo Geo Pocket and when that was relative to the announcement of GBC. I remember being under the impression that Nintendo announced at a later time. I assume Nintendo did a lot of R&D, and probably on many things we never saw. It's how the DS was ready to go so suddenly after the PSP was unveiled. So I assume Nintendo had the GBC ready to go for whenever they felt it necessary. I also wonder if Nintendo may have known about the Wonderswan well ahead of its unveiling.

I like the idea of USB-C options for old systems and other devices. I've seen some things which appear to be good products in that space. I don't have a 32X, but the sight of a Sega Genesis, Sega CD, and 32X running off of a single GaN charger was a sight to see and I can understand the appeal. I wouldn't just buy any cable or adapter that wasn't vetted. It's always been the same way when it comes to electrical power. You have to know the basics about power, especially voltage and polarity(especially for the old systems since many are center negative). I've seen people who know nothing about voltage and I've had to help them out. But it's the same as it always was. You need to understand the specs of everything involved, and you need to have a sense for which items appear to be properly designed.

@Dr_Fresh I generally agree with your comment. I think it is a bit harder to exclude SNK from coverage because of its history and franchises from back in the day. I suppose the counter to that could be that you can cover the games, but not new products. It gets messy quickly. The disclaimer idea crossed my mind as well and seems reasonable. But people will complain about that as well. modretro has no history, so it is easier to just choose not to cover them. Whether that is right or wrong is up for debate. But I have seen so many people misrepresent, whether due to being unaware or intentionally, why TE ceased their coverage of modretro. palmer having his other company alone was not the issue. The issue was using modretro to help do PR for palmer and his drone company with a dual branded Game Boy clone. The site drew a clear line in the sand there. Again, that part is debatable, but it's striking how many people leave out that important detail when they leave their comments. Some of those people also like to leave out all context when they make the tired argument of, You boycott this, but don't boycott that. And the arguments get absurdly granular. Again, they leave out all context that makes such situations different. Of course, the counter to that is that such an argument is essentially in favor of having no standards at all. Once again, good post and it largely echoes my view of this as well.

Sengoku 3 was already mentioned. That's a great one. One of the Last Blade games would be good as they're among the best fighting games on the system. Then, in the same vein as Windjammers, one that I'd suggest but has licensing issues is Neo Drift Out. That one did get a modern re-release a few years ago, so I guess it's not impossible. It's a great game.

@PXAbstracftion The original article on the announcement of it mentions the memory card included with the Ultimate Bundle. And the graphic also lists the card.

@murty I'm glad to hear that other people really liked 2008 Prince of Persia as well. I saw that it had mixed reviews with the negative ones often claiming that the game plays itself, which I think is silly. But as a result, I didn't know what to expect from it. At the price I paid, I was happy to give it a shot, and I was very pleasantly surprised. I was worried about the combat mechanics going in, and they were decent. I thought it might feel too much like a QTE slog, which I don't like. Also, I really liked the story and thought the characters were very well written and voiced.

I bought the GOG version. I'm not sure if the same applies to Steam, but I ran into one issue setting it up. I had to edit a file to get the game to output 1080p. I found the info in a reddit post which I believe is titled "Prince of Persia (2008) launcher issues." in which there's an explanation of how to change the resolution as the values are in hexadecimal. I mention this in case this info is helpful to you in the future.

@SlangWon There's at least one view of the back, of one of the white ones, in the trailer toward the end. I assume it's a render, but the back shows what look to be power in, HDMI out, and a DIN connector for A/V out like the original system. So it's possible that it can output RGB just like the original, and that would be a strange detail to get wrong since they are trying to cater to everyone here, including those who prefer to use CRTs. Of course, the only way to be sure is to ask them directly, but the possibility does exist based on what the render shows.

I would have been very interested in this a while back, if only because of the aura of the Neo Geo. I don't need this approach anymore because I'm happy with the setup I have. And I should say I've bought plenty of officially licensed Neo Geo emulation releases. I did buy a Neo Geo X back in the day. As poorly executed as it was, I still think of it fondly because it was a big part of me getting back into gaming after a while. I discovered Mutation Nation on that, and I managed to beat King of the Monsters on it despite the limit on credits. And then I scratched the collecting itch for a while by buying a few Neo Geo arcade boards and a handful of carts. Plus, I'm trying to buy fewer things and save money, so this is even easier for me to pass on. Hopefully it's great quality for those who are interested and I hope everyone who does buy gets a lot of enjoyment.

Hopefully they get the details right like shaders and filters, BIOS options so games can be played in MVS mode, etc.(all that stuff is mentioned, but we'll see if they get those details right) Game selection is interesting. Surprised KOF 98 is not in the mix, but the series is represented. Metal Slug and Neo Turf Masters make a lot of sense, and legit carts are absurdly expensive, so those are good picks in multiple ways. I'm surprised Over Top was chosen. It's not a bad game, but it's light on content due to its arcade origin. It was fun finding the shortcuts in that game. I'm also surprised to see Shock Troopers, which is a great game, but never got a home AES release. It's cool that they're making an AES version for this release.

I just played the Prince of Persia 3D trilogy just about a year ago. I hadn't played the first two since they came out on Gamecube. The third game I never got around to playing then despite buying it. I also played the 2008 unrelated Prince of Persia game for the first time. The first game remains my favorite of them by far. I bought it because it got rave reviews as the Prince of Persia name meant almost nothing to me back then. And I agreed with those reviews. If a modern remake/remaster was done well, that would have been cool to see. Though it is good to see the games available through stores like GOG.

As for the 2008 game, I tried it because it was very inexpensive, as all of them are when they are on sale, and I was pleasantly surprised. I had a great time with it. It's easily my second favorite game of the four I played.

It may not be for everyone, but it's a cool project anyway. Maybe there is someone out there with nostalgia for this game. Obviously, Game Boy changed everything, but these LCD games were pretty popular right before that. They were limited, but I have fond memories of some of them. I remember really liking Konami's first Turtles LCD game. I saw that I could play the Tiger Gauntlet game online a couple of years ago. I had that one as a kid. I thought it was pretty good for what it was and had fun. I also managed to beat it which I couldn't do back in the day. I remember playing some other decent LCD games on a website that had a bunch recreated.

Of course, Nintendo was the best at LCD games. Their Game & Watch collections are proof of that. Oddly, Super Mario Bros. LCD was never included in any of those as I recall. That one looked pretty good in videos. I do remember liking the LCD Donkey Kong Jr. and The Legend of Zelda which is one of the last ones they ever did and was dual screen.

@Porco "not that i would want a square display"

The 1:1 makes more sense the more I see and hear about them. And I've heard people say they like them a lot. As you point out, there will be black bars, but the ratio would still be very good for 4:3 content. It would also be pretty good for the 3:2 GBA. To me, the standout feature is that vertical games would be the same size as horizontal games, just rotated to 3:4. I remember not too long ago there was a portable that had a vertical 3:4 screen, and I left a comment saying a 1:1 screen would be better. The vertical games could be the exact same height as the 3:4 screen, while gaining a lot more versatility. 1:1 seems to have a lot of upsides.

This is not the first time for a situation like this. The article mentioned the Saturn core being similar, and a different developer said some of his own arcade cores needed workarounds to function. There has been this assumption among some that FPGA is inherently accurate, but we can see that is not quite the case. Accuracy has just been a high priority, as it should be, for various cores that were well within the capabilities of the DE10-nano. And perhaps there will be cores for the tougher systems that achieve the desired accuracy on a future FPGA platform. It's interesting to hear about the challenges of development. I wouldn't have expected the 3DO to create such an issue, but it involves a detail that people like me who are not developers wouldn't come across otherwise. In the end, having a working core with some workarounds sounds like a good result. If everything appears to function as it should when playing the games, then the level of accuracy is high enough where it matters. It's better to have working cores like 3DO and Saturn than not have them.

@naoki-horii Thank you for the additional detail. I think Tengen was right in that situation. So much had changed in terms of game design and the preferences of players in the years since the original Gauntlet arcade game. I think they were right that the game just would not sell without more features. Implementing the extra features resulted in a great game, in my opinion. I last played Gauntlet IV two years ago almost exactly and I enjoyed it more than I ever had before. The "Quest Mode" is my favorite way to play Gauntlet now. And the music in the game is some of my favorite in any video game, especially of the systems at the time. The end result of all that work was an excellent game.

@slider1983 It's a good story behind that game. I heard about it a couple of years back. It started off as a hobby project before M2 was a proper company. It was a recreation of the original arcade game for the X68000, then shifted to the Mega Drive/Genesis to make it a viable product. They made it just by observing the arcade game since they didn't have access to anything else. They submitted it to Tengen and the US branch told them they needed extra features like the quest mode in order to release it. They didn't expect M2 would follow up, but a few months later they submitted the updated version with nearly all the suggestions included. Very cool way for M2 to get their start.