sdelfin

I remember coming across a video a while back where the creator made a pretty good case that Sega was considering making the SVP a separate lock-on cart. Obviously there has never been a lot of info about it, but I recall there may have been some excerpts that indicated it. If the SVP was going to make games that expensive, it made more sense to have it as a lock-on system so that consumers only needed to buy the SVP once. Of course, that makes it a lot more messy to market the games, much like how people find the PC Engine confusing with the CD systems and system cards. That was Nintendo's advantage, the simplicity, but then their customers were paying a premium on various chip-enhanced games each time they bought one, so there was a downside. It would be interesting to know more about how much the SVP cost versus the SuperFX chip.

@President_Leever That game is Nuclear Throne.

@Sketcz Yeah. I noticed it is shown as "Rev E" so I assumed there have been changes along the way. And I know in this one case, someone created a hack for this port changing the status screen.

Just so you know, the map is accessible from the status screen. It's not the mini map you've previously described, so that might still be better, but it's great to have a map of any sort.

@Sketcz I don't know if you have an earlier version of the Metroid port, but it has a map now, along with other improvements.

I actually like this porting project more than I expected. There are added options and improvements. There are often multiple soundtrack options, added saves(Metroid), some color improvements(Ducktales), and maybe some other things I'm overlooking.

@NinChocolate I've briefly tried Wolf Fang, but have not played it seriously, so I look forward to doing that. Always good to hear an endorsement of it. I have heard the Saturn version is very good so you should be in good shape there. I've heard that Skull Fang is not so great in either version, which is a shame.

I've been in a mood for mech games, so that's how I remembered I needed to come back to Wolf Fang.

@KingMike I was aware of the arcade version, but not aware of that particular detail. I went straight to TCRF(The Cutting Room Floor) and they have a bit of info on this under the entry for Top Gunner. In the case of the rotary version, it is suspected it was a version for location testing and may not have been officially released. It also mentions that the Japanese version of the game has the machine gun shoot the way the jeep is facing as opposed to upwards like the NA and World versions. I'm not sure if there are significant differences between those latter two to count them as two distinct versions of the game, but it looks like there are either three or four unique versions of the game, which is rather interesting.

Also interesting to see how significantly the NES version was changed from the FDS version. I never looked this one up before.

I love a good coincidence, and related to this, I was just looking up info and video on Wolf Fang over the last two days and it sounds like it's worth playing. I've been looking up mech games of that era in general, and that's how I remembered this one. Cool to see it getting a re-release.

@Spider-Kev as far as I can tell, that particular design came a good bit later than Voltron(Beast King GoLion). But it's probably no accident since Toei was behind both shows and both designs. It's a recycled design, which I'm totally cool with.

@Gamelore I always forget how close it looks to the yellow lion. Maybe it became a free agent and was signed by the super sentai team. The real answer is that Toei did both shows so they used an existing design.

@bryce951 okay. I didn't say anything about Yoshi's Island. This article is about Castlevania 4. The palette wouldn't be a issue there. As for the music, I can't think of any Japanese games that had that issue you describe, so generalizing like that is rather silly.

@Azathoth I don't know the reason for the removal of those ending pictures. It could be a content issue as I think many would assume. But it could also be that they are copyrighted photos used in the game either without permission, or they would need a new license for them. In that case, I can see why they would remove them.

It needs work, of course. The jump is definitely not right and is likely preliminary. It's not surprising that the Genesis can handle the basic look and feel of the game. It's nothing special in that regard. There are better looking games on both systems. As for the music, I like what they did with the stage two music. Simon's Theme from stage one is in Castlevania Bloodlines so we can compare. The version in Bloodlines is excellent.

I think the Genesis got the better end of things when it came to Castlevania. I found CV4 to be very disappointing because I prefer the look and feel of the other games of that classic period. CV4 deviated too much for me, and I also didn't like about half the soundtrack. So my only interest in this port is seeing how they handle things. As far as potentially increased performance, there are speed hacks for the original.

It struck me recently that Legendary Axe would have been a great framework for a sequel to Rastan compared to what we got. Apparently, a lot of other people have noticed the similarity as well including some reviewers at the time. I just recently revisited Legendary Axe a week ago and had a good time. It's a shame Rastan 2 didn't turn out well. The original arcade game and the SMS port are very good. They strayed too far from what worked, unfortunately.

I like the distinction of JRPG compared to WRPG. I think it's has been helpful. While I'm not a big RPG guy, I've tended to favor the Japanese kind. The distinctions might mean less due to the RPG-ification of so many other games. But I agree, many people would see the term JRPG as a positive thing.

I always feel a bit of the uncanny valley effect in modern games that try to make the characters look as real as possible. But game models like that are quite common now. This one is fine. It's based on a real person who many would consider attractive. The character looks good in this image and in the trailer.

Regarding the removed comments. I know it's fun to jump to conclusions, but I saw them before they were removed. They were not removed for simply having a different opinion.

@amishpyrate I never heard that about the lost code, but it's plausible. It has happened in other cases. They would have needed the code to port them to the GBA properly so losing it would be a sticking point. For later systems like 3DS, they would not need the code since they could just emulate the games making it much easier to release them again.

Wow, RetroFPGA is sooooooooooo much better, and I'm saying that sarcastically. And as a bonus, there's an extra month of waiting now. Mr. Pi actually had some thought to it. Some would argue they tried to get too cute. The super-generic name isn't going to be any better. Might as well just name it the "FPGA Board". I think this was much ado about nothing in the first place. I wasn't planning to buy it either way to be clear. The most important thing is for it to deliver. Just a shame it has to be delayed for this silliness.

@Spider-Kev The "real" term is "adventure game". That's what I remember all games of this sort, whether top-down like Zelda or side-view like Metroid, being called back in the day. Originally Metroidvania just described a Castlevania game in the Metroid style. It just caught on after that because it was catchy. You may find it dumb. You wouldn't be the only one. But there's no undoing it. I've never heard the term re-explore before. I can't say I like it. It gets a point across, but still falls short in my opinion. Metroidvania might mean nothing to those unfamiliar with the genre, but for those that know it even in passing, it communicates a lot more. Language and labels are just imperfect. I saw someone on Nintendolife yesterday saying they should be called "search action" games. But there are a lot of action games where you search for things that are not at all like Metroid or Symphony of the Night. The funny thing is they used "action" and "exploration" in the same sentence, but somehow missed suggesting "ExplorAction". The main reason the term Metroidvania persists is because most people are familiar enough with the namesakes for it to easily convey more than any other term does. Nothing else will catch on, and those that wish something would can't agree on what it should be. Again, such is the reality of language.

PS - A friend of mine had Caveman Games. I thought it was fun.

Maybe it's a case of low expectations from the anticipation after reading the headline, but I think the name is fine. The Mr. part is clever. I get the Pi part. It's goofy, but I get it. The most important part is that it delivers in performance. If the name continues to be an issue and they need to change it, especially on the Mr. part, I suggest they call it the (FPGA) MaSTer(without the capitalization if needed) just to be extra snarky.

@Hexapus I tend to agree when it comes to MSU hacks, as some of the new music doesn't fit with the visuals. With that said, I've heard a lot worse than what's here. It feels like it's somewhat consistent with the kind of music you might hear on the PC Engine CD or Sega CD, such as Lords of Thunder. Perhaps it's a bit poorly matched to the NES visuals compared to PCE.

But, to my main point. The good thing about these versions is they provide options, so there's nothing stopping anyone from sticking to the original music. In the case of Mega Man 3, they also provide a third option(Metroid has four soundtracks) for the Sega versions of the music. I have found the MSU to be useful here and there myself. One of my favorite uses was putting the NES chip tunes back into Super Mario All Stars.

@Blister There must have been some kind of problem with the link or original page. There's a page for it that works via search and all the other ones are still there so it doesn't seem like a takedown issue.

@N64-ROX Yeah, it was definitely a matter of when this would happen. I knew this would happen too. It did take longer than I expected, but backing stuff up like that was the smart thing to do. And storage has been relatively affordable, all things considered.

I seem to recall Sony being especially brazen in how they hyped some of their systems. I think they did more embellishing than their competitors at the time. In the case of the PS2, I think they exaggerated what the system would be able to do and how many polygons it would be able to push in a practical sense. With that said, the best hype for the PS2 was that it was the follow up to the PS1. The fact it could play DVDs no doubt helped it as well as many people still had not picked up their first DVD player, so the value proposition of that probably was a factor for many. But those early PS2 games definitely did not live up to the hype. I guess game development was behind what was technically possible. Eventually, though, it did go a lot farther and could push a ton of polygons, though probably not near as much as they said. I never did buy into the "emotion engine" stuff though, and never liked that branding either. I was already a Dreamcast fan, so that made me more sceptical, but it was obviously marketing and not magic. Sony's marketing tended to fall flat with me, but the PS2 ended up being a good system.

@amongtheworms Thanks for the further context. I remember that development video on Micro Mages and that really was enjoyable and impressive to see what approaches to take to make a NES game within 40kb. The game itself turned out pretty nice too. I love videos like that.

I know LRG's reputation was already questionable, but their recent missteps have been really close together which indicates to me that the decisions were made a while ago and most of the work to get these things out had also largely been done which is why they didn't reverse course. They probably couldn't. And one of the biggest issues with the 3DO thing was lack of communication. It does reflect on their leadership. In this case, I think some of the criticism presented here is silly. USB-A is going to be relevant for a long time and is probably the best choice for wide compatibility. Hardware manufacturers have dragged their feet on USB-C. Some have opted to reduce the number of overall ports to almost none rather than offer a bunch of useful ports. Because USB-A is less expensive, many manufacturers that still like ports will still include some. It's a silly thing to complain about. It's especially silly to complain about USB-A being obsolete while also saying a pressed optical disc would be grand. And this is also not the first time I've seen a company put out USB drives in a box. Essentially, in this specific case, they're in the business of making packaging and novelty items because some people value that more than anything.

If the USB drives are poor quality, then that's a valid criticism. But if people are serious about archival purposes, then they would know better than to rely on a USB drive and would back the data up to hard drives and other backup strategies.

@DestructoDisk I did not say input lag is a myth. I said myths are being spread about it as you are doing and you are disregarding my previous reply where I explained how lag can be reduced. I reduced lag on Android to under a single frame while using a Bluetooth controller just to make it more interesting. I verified this myself and it is easy to reproduce those results. I am well aware of Taki Udon's video as that is also my main source that Android does not add any additional lag in most cases. Yes, the NES emulator he shows added an extra frame(half, actually). But you have conveniently left out that the other emulators he tested showed no difference whatsoever and that his conclusion doesn't support your assertion. If it was as simple as Android adding lag, they would have all shown that.

Another misconception is that those numbers you cite, such as 75ms, are purely input lag. That's total lag. Even original hardware on a CRT has a tiny bit of lag. The games themselves have a certain amount built into them too. The 75ms is the total of all sources of lag.

As I have said previously, I tested the lag in Retroarch myself on both Linux and Android. It has the ability to advance frame by frame. I literally counted the frames of lag. In most of the emulators I tried, the additional input lag was a single frame, meaning that an action happened on the second frame(between 16ms and 33ms additional). You might find that uncomfortable to play and that's fine, but it's not heavy. It was also the same on Android with Bluetooth. Some emulators that had two additional frames. But the "run ahead" feature can eliminate it. This has been verified by many people for years as the feature is not new. I did it myself. To be absolutely clear, using an Android tablet with Retroarch(SNES, NES, Genesis, Arcade) and Bluetooth controllers I was able to reduce the lag(which was typically one additional frame, or two in some cases which was the same as desktop Linux with USB) to under a single frame, meaning that the input action would happen on the very next frame of video. That's under 16.6ms and can't be any lower unless you're using a CRT and the game polls inputs a specific way. Again, everything I said is completely verifiable. This is why I refer to myths.

I want to be clear on something else. I have no issue with you personally. I think FPGA is a great option for people that want it. I don't want to try to convert you or anyone else from it. I used to be interested in it as a concept. But it's also not magic. I think there are some that might be steered towards it solely because of misinformation regarding software emulation. I don't want people to think they need hardware they don't otherwise want because of misconceptions on this topic, and I have demonstrated that this is a huge misconception. The real surprise to me here was that my Bluetooth controllers, two early 8bitdo controllers from 2015 and 2016, added no additional lag whatsoever. Now, we both know they have some lag, but it's clearly under 16.6ms since the only thing that matters for this is number or frames, so effectively they are zero lag. Even if they weren't, any additional frames could be removed with the "run ahead" feature. There's really not more to say other than try it for yourself if you won't take my word for it. Or go see it demonstrated in a video. You'll see that I'm correct in what I have said.

@KingMike Splatterhouse 2 looks to be a 1992 release. It was close enough to the reported release target of this Famicom game that I figured they were tied together somewhat. What I was not aware of is how soon after that Splatterhouse 3 came out. Splatterhouse 2 looks to be an August 1992 release, and Splatterhouse 3 was March 1993. It looks like this Famicom RPG was set to come out alongside Splatterhouse 3 in March. But it looks like there was a big push starting with Part 2 to try to make Splatterhouse a bigger brand for Namco.

It seems like an odd thing to adapt Splatterhouse into an RPG, and one with a cutesy look, though they already used that aesthetic for Wanpaku Graffiti. I guess this would have coincided with Splatterhouse 2, more or less. Doing an RPG of this reminds me of Namco including quirky RPG modes in World Court Tennis and Final Lap Twin. Ultimately, this does seem like a case of bad timing.

There's not much here in the brief teaser. The perspective is unusually high, but it seems to work so far and could help it stand out visually. I'd have to see how other backgrounds turn out. The hit sound is quite good so far. I'll try to remember this one and check on it as development progresses.

Same here. Save states are an essential feature for me at this point. Rewind is similarly great too. I was intrigued at the idea of fpga gaming when I first heard about it in 2015. As there was no viable hardware for a few years, I just lost interest because software emulation was simply not deficient in any meaningful way for me. I do think fpga is a cool option for people, but I do think most would be better served via software for a number of reasons.

If they made it a movie, I wonder if it might still end up shorter than some of the cut scenes.

Since there are so many myths about emulation and lag that get perpetuated, I determined the lag myself on Android compared to a Linux PC both using Retroarch. I actually gave the Android tests an extra disadvantage by using two different Bluetooth controllers. The result was exactly the same, typically one or two frames of lag depending on the emulator core. This surprised even me because of the Bluetooth, but I wasn't surprised otherwise as I've seen testing that shows, in most cases, there is no additional lag. Provided there's enough CPU headroom, the lag can easily be mitigated to under a frame even with Bluetooth.

I do find it plausible other emulation software on Android would have the lag described, but I have verified it is not an issue on Retroarch, which really is miles better than anything else anyway.

I've heard this explained before and I've always thought it was misguided. The symbols have remained one of my least favorite aspects of PS controllers and the PS brand overall. I give them credit on other things. The controller grips looked really bizarre in 1995, but I saw the benefit after using them. It's especially apparent to me now if I go back to a SNES pad which is too flat by comparison. And the PS1 D-pad was way better than I thought it would be from looking at it. The construction of the controllers was also interesting. But the symbols were much harder for me to wrap my head around as far as remembering where everything is. When you use something like letters or numbers, if you know where one is, you know where the rest of them are by simple deduction. For the symbols, there's extra layers to that process because the symbols are not natural to remember. And what they symbolize does not really matter in practice. The explanation for triangle sounds especially useless. If they really wanted a specific pair of yes/no buttons, they should have just been color coded to differentiate them from the other buttons. And because of those symbols, the yes/no is the opposite in different regions, which demonstrates what a failure the original reasoning was.

It seems like there's a good bit of variation in the quality of DMG Game Boys. My DMG developed screen lines after just a few years and kept developing more as it went. It got pretty bad. Sounds like other units fared much better than mine, which I did take good care of.

@HoyeBoye I went into the comments of that video and the uploader indicated a right-handed version may be coming. It may be worth keeping an eye on that if this does look like something useful for your friend.

I think I've seen the Zeebo once before, but forgot about it. This looks like a version of Double Dragon that deserves to be played by more people. It looks great.

It looks interesting. It kind of reminds me of the Gundam Wing fighting game on the SNES, just because it's giant robots fighting. I was just looking at that game a few days ago, and it's really impressive for the SNES. For this Transformers demonstration, there are some things I like and some things I don't like. I understand that it's a work in progress, but one constructive thing I would mention is that the announcer is already annoying with whatever it's saying mid fight. I think one of the things it says is "counter". I can already tell that the voice samples during the fight can be too much depending on how a round goes. It's easier to get away with when it's the fighters, though Sagat saying "Tiger" all the time in SF2 was meant to be annoying, but when it's the announcer in addition to the fighters, it's harder to get away with it. Less would be more in this case.

@DestructoDisk I will accept that there are those more sensitive. I also think most people overestimate that. I'm not saying you are. But myths and misconceptions persist and seem to be a decade behind reality. So in my case, it's not that I can't feel added lag, but when it's only within a few frames, I can easily adapt. Once I'm calibrated to the game, I won't feel it. It's like how I stopped thinking about HD content on TV when it was new after a few minutes of watching early programs.

But this is all moot in the end. I used this as an opportunity to do some testing on lag mitigation, which I had only previously dabbled in because the games I enjoy already played fantastically. A good setup without lag reduction is already going to have about two or three frames. This is nowhere near unplayable as some of the more dramatic critics would say. But using Retroarch with "run ahead", you can literally reduce it to under a frame. It will display the action on the very next frame. On Android, I couldn't get frame advance to work, so I had to go by feel. With a wired controller, lag was very low. It felt like it was perhaps an additional frame, if at all. With my absolute worst Bluetooth controller, it felt like two to three frames, which felt identical to wired on Linux with "run ahead" turned off.

There are other good reasons to not go with Android for emulation. The fact the hotkeys were selectively working is one. I've had spotty results with wired controllers working with the libretro cores. The audio lag is a real problem, though not always. Sometimes, the convenience is nice, and it's the easiest way for me to play a vertical shooter as far as resolution scaling goes.

Don't get me wrong, I think FPGA is a great option that exists. I was interested in the concept a few years before the Mister was a thing. I prefer software emulation for other reasons that are specific to me, and I love the convenience of save states and rewind. But input lag can now be virtually eliminated in emulation with a good setup, and "run ahead" is very easy to dial in right. Even if it has to be tweaked by core and game, it's a trivial process.

@DestructoDisk I've seen lag testing done on different platforms including Android. Assuming the methodology is correct, there was little to no difference with cores tested with that particular setup. That's not to say it may not be an issue on some specific devices or versions, but I don't think there's generally any additional lag, let alone "heavy" which I am certain I'd feel because I've felt it on TVs without game modes. There is an annoying issue of sound lag sometimes however which is an Android issue. I've personally been able to go back and forth from emulation on a Linux machine to original hardware and it felt exactly the same. And that's without using "run ahead" to reduce lag further. Perhaps my upscaler box, which is old but fast at what it does, added just enough lag to feel the same, but we're still talking about a tiny amount.

I'm definitely well beyond casual and have beaten some rather difficult games via emulation. These are games where heavy lag would either make that painfully difficult or just not enjoyable enough for me to want to do that. So I think things like this can be viable for more than just casual people. I don't know what you feel and don't feel. Maybe you have heightened senses. I don't feel a difference at all. Perhaps it's that I don't have a CRT and that makes a difference. I've also seen claims and conclusions about lag that I knew to be overblown or incorrect because they didn't control the setup(different displays for example) or something like that. Based on my experience, I stand by what I said that claims about lag are overblown. FPGA boxes are beyond what a lot of people need, and that's really what started this conversation and why I joined in. I'd take save states over reduced lag because it's already not a problem for me, and I can still reduce it further if I needed to(which makes Shatterhand harder, somehow).

@ChromaticDracula input lag on emulation is very low and very hard to notice in most games. It's been overstated for years. I'm not saying the other commenter is exaggerating here, as Punch Out is a widely known example of a game where even a tiny amount of input lag makes a big difference because it's a game about recognizing patterns or tells and reacting immediately. While I've had fun with Punch Out as a kid, I'd still gladly leave it behind in favor of having save states. That convenience is too valuable to me. Lag doesn't effect anything I play in any noticeable way.

@LowDefAl I did consider that it may come down to unique titles or maybe licensing as well. I know the FM Towns wasn't a big seller, but the X68000 wasn't either. They're similar in that they were far more capable game machines than the NEC PCs which is why I think a "classic edition" is interesting, at least from an outsider's perspective. There are plenty of games from which to choose, but as you say not many are unique with a bunch of arcade ports and even some ports from the other computers(such as Mad Stalker from the X68000). Still, I'm surprised with some of these other mini systems, so a mini FM Towns doesn't seem crazy.

I know the NEC PC-88 line were the most popular of the Japanese PCs, but after the X68000 mini version last year, I was expecting to see someone do an FM Towns unit first. Fujitsu's platform was more purpose built for games and had a lot of arcade ports like the X68000. But this does make sense since the NEC machines were more widely available and there were more games overall. I'd still like to see an FM Towns version happen.

It's interesting to see that viewpoint on Ridge Racer. I wouldn't be able to play it that way with the camera being locked to the car so that it feels like you're spinning the background as opposed to controlling a car. I find that unpleasant and it might cause motion sickness for those prone to it. I realize it may be a limitation of this modification as opposed to if they built a game from the ground up.

This viewpoint would be helpful for figuring out ideal racing lines.

@LowDefAl By that I meant it's so easy to play Super Mario Bros. elsewhere, and a port to C64 in 2019 is largely useless other than "because they could".

I appreciate seeing these as tech demos. This is more of a challenge to the coder than it is about the game. I think it's cool to see what is possible, even if it will never be anywhere close to the best way to play it. And I'm not a fan of Mario 64, so I don't want to play it at all. It reminds me of getting a demo of Tomb Raider on the GBA which I also thought was really cool. Incidentally, there is a 2D Tomb Raider that isn't bad and is probably better overall. It also reminds me that someone ported Super Mario Bros. to the C64 and there's no good reason for that other than they could, and I'm fine with that.

@mashk I've long thought that Sega's arcade experience with 3D ended up being detrimental to them. There are multiple examples of systems that were designed too soon for good 3D or the companies were just caught flat footed. 3DO and PC-FX come to mind. But back to Sega, their arcade 3D at the time was all done in partnership with Martin Marietta and I wonder if they decided there was no way to do 3D on low-end hardware they could sell as a console in 1994(and in development probably starting in 1992). It may have skewed their expectation of what was possible at the time, and may have also been why they went with quads instead of triangles. Sony was starting from nothing and didn't have the influence of having an arcade arm with expensive hardware. It's just an idea. Sega obviously knew where things were going, but they misread the timing of things.

Reading this, I wonder what it was about the PS1 that appealed to people that were not already into video games. I was already into that, so any further appeal was lost on me.

I kept up with the gaming market back in those days through magazines here and there, and some early gaming sites. I was decently aware of the reality of Saturn at the time, that it was doing quite well in Japan, and even vying for the lead prior to Final Fantasy 7. I knew it had a strong library over there in terms of both quality and quantity. In the US, the library wasn't as robust due to sales, but the library was largely high quality, especially from 1996 forward once they learned from mistakes around the launch period. There were times when I saw things on N64 and especially PS1 and wished it was on Saturn, but I was extremely happy as a Saturn owner at the time and was well aware that it had some unique, though niche, quality titles. I knew then that I made the right choice going with Saturn, and still feel the same way.

Regarding other systems, I eventually picked up a used PS1 after Saturn releases dried up. It was very much a supplemental system to my Saturn and I did enjoy it. There was nothing like Tenchu on Saturn and it was games like that which I appreciated in the PS1 library. The N64 is probably the major system I like the least due to its unbalanced library. Mario 64 was impressive in 1996, and I'd be lying if I said it didn't make me wish I had one, but the novelty wore off really quickly. I'm glad I didn't get the system. I think I would have been very frustrated with the library as the approach to 3D game design popular during the time wasn't to my taste. Issues in games like Mario 64 that bother me now also would have bothered me then, and did in other games.

Someone earlier mentioned Gamecube, and I also like the Gamecube a lot despite its sales difficulties. The Saturn is similar to the Cube in some ways. The Wii U's life cycle also reminded me of the Saturn a lot. You could question the hardware design and the marketing of the thing, but because of the lack of third-party support, it ended up with a high-quality library.

I think the narrative of the Saturn has changed a lot in recent years. Back in the day, it seemed people simply viewed it as a complete failure, which it wasn't. Now, people are more aware of the quality library and success in Japan. The narrative of its marketing and launch failure in NA are well known at this point. Both Sega and Nintendo made it really easy for Sony in that generation, looking back at it. To me, one of the biggest weaknesses of the Saturn's library in hindsight was also one of its strengths back in the say, which was strong arcade ports, especially 2D games. The problem is that many of those can be easily played elsewhere in their arcade form, but it was great having those games available on the system back in the '90s.

@Diogmites That Spider-Man game also was a big part of why I got the Genesis as well. I did have a friend who got the Genesis earlier in 1991 which allowed me to try Sonic, which I loved. Seeing those Spider-Man screen shots in magazines and catalogs removed any hesitation I had. I was recently thinking of playing it again soon. And I ended up really liking the game and played it quite a lot. They did a great job of making Spider-Man control and move well within the limits of 2D. I also happened to get into comic books that year, so I was very excited for the game, which I thought looked very impressive for the time. I last played it several years ago and still enjoyed it. I wasn't previously aware you can use web to slow Mary Jane's descent at the end and I finally figured out a reliable way to hit the Kingpin.

@GravyThief That's mostly true as I recall, though I think that offer came in very early on. They decided to bring the console to shows to be displayed for people to see it for themselves. They also had it repaired by Ben Heck as it was not functional. It's not necessarily that they simply thought they could get more. And I think that shows that there's a certain amount of hype that goes along with it. That big offer came in right after the system was in the news. I think they knew those offers were as good as they would get.

@Sketcz My guess is simply timing. The retro collecting market has gotten bigger since then drawing in more speculators along with more shill bidders and services to drive prices up before the bubble pops.

I was a very young kid at the time and I remember briefly trying Rastan in an arcade. I didn't do very well, but it was memorable. I was quite surprised when my mom got me the game for the Master System because it was not a special occasion, I didn't know it was on the Master System, and because it was a Taito game for the system(what???). I revisited it. It's a little clunky to go back to at first, but after getting used to it, I still love it. It was one of my most played MS games back in the day. The arcade version is a bit different, and brutal, but I like it too. Both are worth playing.