smoreon

"He has also 'Summoned Satan'"
Er, that's one way to gain insane, ungodly Tetris abilities, I guess?

I got a pretty decent Mad Catz SNES controller for just a few dollars (brand new!) in the early 2000s. It was slightly bigger and more ergonomic than Nintendo's own design, and I got years of use out of it.
However, its D-pad didn't have the usual plastic rocker under it to prevent opposing directions from being pressed, and this could cause odd effects in a few games: by pressing all four directions at the same time, Mario could moonwalk at high speed in Super Mario Bros. 3! It also could cause Aero the Acro-Bat to crash when manually panning the camera in opposite directions at the same time.

Ah, the internet. If you're not seeing incorrect/incomplete info from a single source, regurgitated ad infinitum by search engines and AI, then you're seeing this done by other humans!

@UK_Kev @poodlestargenerica Sorry, I should have been more thorough. There are a lot of conflicting numbers, but (TL;DR) my point stands, in that the actual game data appears to fit within DC/GCN media specs.

• The PC version of GTA3 came on 2 CDs, so the data can definitely fit in some form! This doesn't tell us how much (de)compression is involved, though I see that the system requirements say it needs just 700 MB of free space for installation.
• CHDs, 7Zs, etc., are indeed compressed. These often come pretty close in size to the amount of actual game data, as most games already have compressed assets that don't re-compress well. But this can be very misleading in other cases! Download sizes for PS2 and Xbox ISOs appear to be between 500 MB and 1 GB, for what it's worth.
• Raw rips of DVD-based games always end up the same size (4.3 GB for a single-layer disc), because the discs are made that way. Rarely is there 4.3 GB of actual game data on the disc. (See also: GameCube games always being 1.35 GB, even though Animal Crossing is just 32 MB!)
• The PS2 version of GTA3, when unpacked, has 2.4 GB worth of actual files. However, this includes 1.3 GB of duplicate IMG files which are 100% identical, so we can probably disregard those as padding: junk data added for performance reasons. (There's also a 50MB file explicitly listed as padding.) This brings us just under the 1.1 GB limit of a Dreamcast disc.

@Serpenterror The GameCube version of RE4 (along with the Wii, 360, and PS3) was only 30fps. But it did look considerably better, with way more geometric detail and lighting effects. The PS2 made all kinds of smart downgrades that aren't too noticeable at a glance, but do make it look a little less impressive overall. And then there are its cutscenes, which were just recordings of the GameCube graphics!

As a general rule, the GameCube could handle PS2 ports just fine, with few/no downgrades, whereas the PS2 always struggled with GameCube ports: halved framerates, less geometry, worse textures, etc.

@KGRAMR I wouldn't be surprised, but on the other hand, I wouldn't know how to check. Pretty sure Evans was using the same sample library across different games, at least (a common practice- see Sakuraba's work across Golden Sun, Mario Golf Toadstool Tour, and Tales of Symphonia, as another example).

@KingMike Yeah, it's only later games that had region locking, IIRC.
I thought I had lucked out by finding one of the relatively few PAL games that would work on my console without issue... though again, that copy of GnG might have technically been a western release.

@UK_Kev This claim about disc space keeps circulating around the internet, but it's false: GTA III is under 1 GB, so it could have fit on a Dreamcast or GameCube disc.

San Andreas, on the other hand... its audio alone is too big to fit on a GameCube disc!

@Spider-Kev If I'm understanding this correctly, it is saving, but it keeps missing the last part of each play session? I wonder if Minish Cap has invisible checkpoints like the Metal Gear series, where you can save at any time, but it still rolls you back to the last checkpoint, with any progress after that being lost.

(I can only guess. I picked up Minish Cap for Wii U recently, but ended up putting it on hold after having had enough of a Zelda binge for the moment!)

Hardware/battery failure doesn't seem too likely, as I'm pretty sure the 3DS family uses a form of solid-state memory, just like all Nintendo systems from the past 20 years.

I don't know, might be more of a European thing?
All of the cartridges I've encountered in Canada have been North American, aside from a PAL copy of Ghouls 'n Ghosts, which works flawlessly without modding. (And from what I've read, this may have actually been sold as the Canadian version at the time- our games market was a little more separated from the US back then, with games like Sonic the Hedgehog using the PAL box art.)

@jesse_dylan The Game Boy's CPU wasn't a Z80, though I think it had some similarities. There was a ton of famous game hardware that used the actual Z80, though, including various Sega and arcade systems.

Speaking of bad games with great music, Dean Evans teamed up with Barry Leitch (San Francisco Rush series) on Eek the Cat for SNES. It's a frustrating game that's essentially made up of awful escort missions, but it has a surprisingly good soundtrack! A couple of the tunes on there resemble Evans's work on Waterworld.

This would seem to tie in with the wave of casual DS titles aimed at adults. Brain Age 1 and 2 immediately come to mind, and there were also some standalone Sudoku games. And, of course, the wine-tasting and astrology games mentioned in this article!

I can't see that article about the DS's audience being kids, as it's paywalled (could try getting around that later), but I'm taking statistics like that with a grain (if not a whole shaker) of salt.

@Daggot It's frustrating to see the game industry taking so long to figure this stuff out, but I think you're right that they'll come around eventually- if only because they realize there's money in it!

Even as live service nonsense dominates, and as companies are experimenting with streaming, re-releases of classic games continue to provide a slow, but seemingly endless, revenue stream. And behind-the-scenes content and dev materials have made their way into commercial releases as a selling point, so I'm somewhat optimistic.

I wanted one of these as a kid, but only got to play when my friends lent me theirs. The idea of playing video games on a long, boring car ride seemed so cool!

A friend/coworker gave me his old Game Boys about 15 years ago, complete with a few games and that super-rad box art showing the robot hands. I've managed to have many hours of gaming on those since then, but the days of being a passenger on four-hour car trips were mostly behind me!

A Genesis/PC hybrid, as well as Myst-like CD-ROM games releasing in 1989 (predating Ys Book I&II, but following the TG16/PCE's first CD games)? Must've been a really exciting time for those who could afford cutting-edge tech (and who were old enough to play games back then)!

@RetroGames Yeah, I'd agree that there have been some cultural changes (including the internet's role in our lives) since around 2010, but things like YouTube, online gaming, gaming discussion, and social media were alive and well even before then. Doesn't the very existence of these videos on a major gaming channel make that self-evident? (I don't know, I suppose this could vary depending on perspective and age. But 2010 wasn't that long ago!)

Good point about Doom 2016: until that, the last entry was what, Doom 3? That was definitely not a "rip and tear", speedy, action shooter! (The more action-heavy "BFG Edition" didn't exist back in 2010, either!)

@Lanmanna I don't remember, as it's been a full year since then.
It might have had something to do with seeing multiple "Shining Rogue" stories/articles lately, as more than one game had that title.

I somehow ended up with half a copy of Descent 3 in the past.
It looked cool, but I never did get to play it, thanks to one disc being missing.

Good to know that it's being future-proofed, so if I buy it on GOG and it doesn't run well or look good, there'll be a better way to play.

@RetroGames Er, that "older footage" is only from 2010.

Aside from that, as a total n00b at Doom, I can appreciate where you're coming from! Jumping in for a first playthrough a few years back, I had to tread carefully, looking around for keys and traps, and using resources and the level layouts to my advantage in combat. In terms of later FPSes, I'd put my Doom experience more in Goldeneye territory, as opposed to Call of Duty. Someone who grew up with the game might see it differently, though!

Later games (including Doom II) might amp up the "rip and tear", but the first one does a good job of balancing the tension of navigating creepy environments and being ambushed by powerful enemy forces- and I think the soundtrack generally fits well, with the metal tracks showing up more often in simple, combat-oriented levels, and the more spooky, atmospheric stuff accompanying exploration.

Haven't played the PlayStation version of Doom 1, but Doom 64 similarly tips things further in that horror/exploration direction, and both the atmospheric soundtrack and coloured lighting work in tandem to enhance this. But you probably won't find me humming the soundtrack afterwards!

@KingMike Is the dynamite actually less forgiving, or is the issue just that it has such a deceptively small sprite for the explosion? (IIRC, the SNES uses some kind of scaling trickery to make the explosions ridiculously huge, like the arcade version.)

The Genesis version is the weakest of the three, and I don't think many would debate that, but I like how it has so many changes and additions which make it unique- kind of like TMNT: Hyperstone Heist.

Nice! I might actually be most intrigued by that fourth cup (which is apparently not based on the SNES game?), though!

Richard Jacques has done some great soundtracks, but I didn't know he worked on Headhunter- I never got the chance to build up much of a Dreamcast collection, unfortunately.

This is supposed to be one of the most modern-feeling Dreamcast games, isn't it? (Launching alongside the likes of GTA3 and MGS2, as opposed to what was out when the DC launched, like MGS1 and Ocarina of Time, probably has something to do with it.)

@PKDuckman That's unfortunate.
There really is no definitive version of this game for English speakers: the PAL version only works well on a proper 50Hz setup (and plays a bit slower than the NTSC), and the Virtual Console versions have broken audio (as they simply run the PAL ROM at 60fps, making the music go too fast and the PCM samples play off-key).

Well, unless you patch the original Japanese version of Hebereke with an unofficial translation patch- I can confirm that's a great option! I wonder if the ROM can be easily extracted from Enjoy Edition.

@Azuris The GameCube might not look like much, but it's a beast!

British organisation selects a British character designed by a British studio as the most iconic? Seems legit.

Recca for NES had an opening sequence with the "S?GA" logo getting blown up and replaced with "Nint?ndo". It even has the Sega jingle from Sonic the Hedgehog, recreated in Recca's soundfont!

Someone at Naxat (or Nintendo) must have shot this little gag down at the last minute, though, as it's only accessible with a Game Genie code.

@SuntannedDuck2 Strange, I either hadn't heard of this 2025 limit before, or I forgot. At any rate, I see that people have tested this and found that the clock naturally rolls into 2026 and beyond- it just can't be manually set higher, which could prove to be a small problem when the servers are down, and the internal battery dies. But at that point, I guess you can just set it to 2005 again, and the system will keep running. They really should have patched it to include 2099, though.

About the 2038 problem, I'd hope that a 64-bit console from the 21st century already uses a 64-bit number for the date. Not sure if anyone has confirmed this, however!

I expect that back compat on 360 would allow you to play your OG Xbox games indefinitely, if you install all of the patches before the servers go offline.

These cases are kind of niche (even compared to other game preservation topics), and not a lot of people will care, but I can see why it's frustrating!

@RG-Riven To play the Phil's advocate, the Xbox 360's store and online services have been open for a very long time. The 360 is turning 19 years old this year, and it predates the Wii and PS3 by a full year!

Consider that Nintendo has already pulled the plug on the Wii (2006) and its successor (2012), and MS is doing quite well by comparison. Even more so, when you consider that a decent percentage of 360 games can still be purchased, re-downloaded, and played on a brand-new Series X!

I would prefer that every game stay available indefinitely, though it's understandable that licensing and technical issues sometimes prevent that. Microsoft's approach has been far from perfect (esp. around older generations), but it's a big step in the right direction, and well ahead of what anyone else has done!

Weird, I thought this was fairly common knowledge, at least back when the game was new(ish). It's like the recent "discovery" of the alternate GameCube startup jingles, all over again.

And it's true: you do only need to get the Venom medal in Expert mode. Not sure I would have been able to unlock this feature, otherwise!

The Halo remarks don't ring a bell, but I distinctly remember Miyamoto taking shots at the outsourced F-Zero and Star Fox games. I interpreted this as partially a jealous jab thrown at Sega, especially in light of Nintendo's seeming inability to top the brilliance and production values of F-Zero GX.

@RootsGenoa A very big movie from 1989... you can't mean... UHF?

So instead of a spaceman with a gun, was the protagonist originally Stanley Spadowski with a fire hose?

Shinobi III is the obvious answer, but Shadow Dancer and especially Revenge of Shinobi have a special place in my heart. The latter is really tough, but satisfying to get right. And where else can you fight blatant rip-offs of Rambo, Batman, Spider-Man, Godzilla, and the Terminator, all in one game?

(Er, I mean, bald flamethrower dude, devil dude, Marvel™ Spider-Man™, a dinosaur skeleton, and an inexplicably uncensored Terminator... at least that's how it is in my copy.)

Still need to give the GG and PS2 games a proper try- they both look good!

This is throwing around a heck of a lot of polygons for a Nintendo 64 game, and staying above 30fps to boot! It's safe to say that the N64 could handle a pretty good port of Sunshine, with enough work. Didn't someone (probably Kaze) already port a lot of the FLUDD functionality into the SM64 engine, anyway?

Of course, water and objects are all missing here, but the N64 should be able to handle those as well, especially after some more optimization.

@KingMike See also: the "Marioro" billboards in Mario Kart 64 (JP version only, of course!)

Look closely: that's "Titan Mogan", not Hulk Hogan. Clearly a totally different guy, who obviously gave Sega permission to use his likeness!

What is the bottom portion of this? I don't recognize those buttons, but there must be some purpose to it. Does it have switching hardware for the video and power? (And speaking of power, maybe at least one of the PSUs is hidden in there?)

If this device is a simple N64+Wii hybrid, you'd think it'd be simpler to put the Wii directly under the N64, but there must be some reason for the layout here.

Looks great, but- and I know this is probably sacrilege- I hope there's an option to play in HD. There's an old-school survival horror game on Steam, called Vaccine Rebirth, which does the same pseudo pre-rendered trick, and it looked amazing when I played it with an HD graphics mod. It retained the PS1 aesthetic, but was crystal-clear and way easier on the eyes.

Similarly, games like Lunistice and A Short Hike make the pixelation filter optional (though they do more of a general PS1/DS style, not mimicking pre-rendered graphics), and I really appreciate that the option is there, even if it's not the intended way to play!

It's neat to see Lugosi's likeness used officially, though pretty much every depiction of Dracula prior to Symphony of the Night (which gave the character a very different look) was based on him, anyway!

There are already so many games out there that fit that description (of "a 2D-pixel art platformer", and so on), but Triple Trouble 16-bit was really good. I'll want to keep an eye on this studio's output in the next couple of years!

Looks like the gameplay of previous games, mixed with the graphics of that one map from Perfect Dark Zero (I mean similar era/style/techniques, not literally the same assets).
This seems to be faithful to the series, and quite promising as well. It's a shame it didn't go anywhere.

Always glad to see interesting prototypes being dumped, at least!

@Azuris 8192 bytes is 8 KB. That's too small for even the smallest NES games, unfortunately.
Unless you meant 8192 KB, but a quick search didn't turn up any evidence of cards that large (let me know if these do exist)!

"Another issue is with Software Development Kit (SDK) libraries embedded inside the original ROMs," he says. "We developed tools that replace these libraries so the copyrighted code doesn’t remain on the ROM"

This is an interesting point that I've never heard mentioned before. The obvious examples that come to mind are the drivers/libraries bundled in a folder on PS1 and PS2 discs, but this kind of thing is probably more widespread and complex than that, even!

@HammerKirby Yeah, the GameCube would have had to knock it out of the park on all counts, in order to have any hope of beating the PS2.
It also had the N64's failings, its own "kiddy" and toy-like image, and a so-so launch to overcome.

What do you think it would have sold, though, had it used full-size DVDs (all other factors staying the same)? Considering how narrowly it missed the #2 spot in console sales, I'd say beating the Xbox is a given, if nothing else. Or would the larger discs even provide a real advantage in sales, considering that Nintendo surely wouldn't be willing to shell out for movie playback? (See also: Wii and Wii U.) At least it would have allowed for more and better multi-platform games, and that must count for something.

FWIW, I played Code: Veronica for the first time last year, and thought it was a solid entry. Not able to touch 1 or 2, but I think it edges out 3, and is way better than Zero (now that one is a slog). So, right about in the middle of the classic RE series.

I didn't get hit with any bugs or other game-breaking issues like Sketcz mentioned, but I'm sure my opinion would be much harsher if I had!

Nintendo being awful as usual.
Emulators like Citra have been an amazing way for me to enjoy the games that I already own, unshackled from the hand-cramping controllers, low resolutions, and sluggish performance that Nintendo hardware tends to bring.

Couple of nitpicks: Daytona USA 2001 hit Japan in 2000, ironically enough!
Also, the original Daytona USA saw a limited release in 1993, making it even older than most people think. I know test/beta releases don't usually "count" (unless it's the NES for some reason), but it's worth mentioning, as a lucky few gamers got to witness this when it was even more futuristic!

But anyway, about the game itself: I'd heard of this legendary Sega racer for a while, but never actually saw it in action until maybe 8 years ago. It was thoroughly "old" compared to 2010s tech, but I was still blown away! It's no secret that arcade machines were better than anything you could get at home back in the '80s and '90s, but I didn't know that Sega had stuff quite so advanced, that long ago. (And of course, the Model 3 took it to the next level, introducing PS2-like graphics in 1996, the same year as the N64's launch!)

@DestructoDisk I hope so, too. Good to hear that there's hope!

I do have mobile devices I could play on, but I don't especially like the portable gaming experience, not to mention that these closed platforms are generally terrible for backwards compatibility (see Apple's recent purge of 32-bit support across all platforms). If Lunar works on Bluestacks, then that could be a decent Plan B... though for now, I plan to wait and see if a PC version comes along instead!

@Poodlestargenerica That comment is spot-on. I'm not familiar with the show (it probably doesn't help that I'm Canadian), but looking it up now, the premise and the topics of choice sound fun!

@wiiware I know this is getting off-topic, but I find it funny how Bond is impossibly good at everything except being a spy. Whether it's motorcycle riding, fencing, piloting a plane, skiing, playing video games, or knowing exactly which buttons and levers he can kick to operate a proprietary machine he's never seen before, 007 is a master of all skills, all sports, and all technology- no matter how tangentially related (or unrelated) to his job.

But he makes no effort to conceal his identity, is seduced by the enemy on every second mission, and gets ambushed every single time he searches a room!
(He also seems to be better at fencing and swordfighting than some more relevant skills like marksmanship and hand-to-hand combat, but I'll let that one slide, given all the variables there.)