JB0

I'll just be pulling parts of this post out. Parts of it just don't interest me, and others I don't feel like commenting on right now. Personally, I never cared for Street Fighter. Fasn't into fighting games in general in my youth, actually. But I've always had a soft spot for Samurai Shodown. It wasn't just the fighting games, though. AeroFighters and Metal Slug stick out as other "must-plays" of the NeoGeo library. Anyways... it was a FAR more sound concept as originally pitched. They wanted NeoGeos in Blockbuster, or something similar. You plunked a few bucks down , dragged home your arcade sticks and game deck, and enjoyed arcade-perfect gaming for the weekend. Beat the hell out of a 600$ game deck and 200$ carts. Also note that SNK lied about system specs in their ads. They ran the silly 24-bit ad campaing insisting that 24>16, and the SNES and GEnny were only 16. But they glossed over the fact that the NG used the EXACT SAME processor setup as the Genny. A 16-bit 68000 CPU and an 8-bit z80 sound processor. SNES had a 16-bit CPU and... I THINK the SPC700 sound processor was 8-bit, but I'm not sure. Yes. It IS all about the software in the end. I've got a bit of everything from a 2600 on up because of it. I intensely dislike Sony, but I've got a PS1 and PS2 both lying around simply because there were a lot of good games on both. http://www.atariage.com/forums/ AKA my haven from idiocy(no offense to anyone here). There's healthy discussion about everything up to and including the upcoming 3 systems. And a lot less "OMG MY MEGAHURTZ CAN BEAT UP UR POLLY COUNT!111" and "THE XBOX IS 256-BIT BECAUSE IT KICKS THE PS2'S ASS AND PS2 IS 128-BIT!111" (fun fact: XBox is a 32-bit machine, just like your standard IBM-compatible PC(unless you're running an Athlon 64). I've thought people get pretty irrational about sports and politics too, personally. I've heard of fistfights started over 2600 VS INTV. That was was a little before my time, but I've been interested in the history of the industry for some time, and I've picked a bunch up form people that WERE there. *nods* I have to say, even though they rode it WAY too long, I was sad to see SNK retire the NeoGeo last year. Was the last dedicated sprite hardware on the market, and having it axed was the end of an era. Yah. The entire industry moves in cycles. Even in terms of retorgaming. I guarantee you, a decade from now people will moan about how there's no good games anymore and the PS1 was so great the same way they moan about the SNES/Genesis now. Pr'ly done in software. The Genesis video chipset only provides for 2 background layers. But if you have the power available, you can re-draw it on the fly, to create an arbitrary # of "virtual backgrounds" on your 2 real backgrounds. And it's easy to do on the Genny due to the raw CPU power available. Most impressive example I've seen is Metal Storm on the NES, which has three independent background layers running at once on a underpowered system with only one hardware layer. ... Or you can just fake it by scrolling diffrent parts of the screen at diffrent speeds to create the ILLUSION of diffrent layers. The train scene in Ninja Gaiden... 2, I think... does this. There's only one layer, but it's animated in such a way that it looks like multiple layers scroling in parallax. there are probably various ways to cheat the effect of having more depth in the backgrounds of games: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallax_scroll but me != a games programmer I don't care how it works, so long as it looked pretty and gave a pseudo 3d effect it was enough. I'm not a programmer either, really. But I've picked up my share of trivia, along with 4 other people's. And multiple background layers was more common on the SNES because it was easier to do. Sure Sega had the power, but Nintendo had a hardware interface for it, so you didn't have to write a software routine. Nah. There was a lot of vehement sparring about which system was technically superior, too. Sadly, I took part in it, and I knew very little of what I was talking about. Truth is it just depended on what you were doing. Blast processing was VERY clever. It was a way to explain to people that had no clue what a CPU or megahertz was that the Genesis' 68000 could run rings around the 65816 of the SNES when they were clocked the same, and the Genny chip was clocked faster anyways. Fancy marketing buzzword for a very valid advantage.

You have the final conclusion. Hikaru picks Misa over Minmay, and our heroes successfully repel the assault of the Bodol fleet on humanity.

I got mine long time ago....just like Ico... 321835[/snapback] Then you're not one of the guilty.

Don't forget the neogeo ads complete with specs showing the superiority of the beast in graphics and sound and how it brought the arcade home. Ahhh the days of fighting over crappy system capabilities and minute crap instead of focusing on the games. Brings back memories.. Well, they had to do SOMETHING. Marketing took a system that was inteded as a reantal and made it for sale, and it was priced WAY over the competition. Having said that, it I Strue that you get what you pay for. The NeoGeo was damned impresssive hardware, and unlike everyone else that claimed arcade quality, it actually WAS(identical hardware save the BIOS, and used the exact same software. They didn't even burn new ROMs, just stuck them on a new board). Ummm.... the genesis only had 2 background layers. And 1 had to be used for the game field. So there was only 1 parallax layer. The SNES, by comparison, had a max of 4 layers(which varied with mode, down to NO background layers for any screen region in graphics mode 7 unless you count the 3D object), for 3 parallax layers. Flickering was a graphics chipset problem, actually. I forget the exact cause, though. Slowdown, though, was the CPU, and one of the SNES' great handicaps. It had incredible AV hardware, but lacked the processing power needed to make full use of it except in RPGs and action-adventures. Damn right. Most companies are content to ride the hardware they have until someone else starts making a competitor. Damn right.I tend to be somewhat anti-sequel. Not because the sequels are inherently bad, but because I'd rather see the effort they poured into Legend of Zelda 37 expended on a fresh new title. And all of oyu that kick back and wait for an interesting non-sequel to hit the bargin bins... YOU KILLED BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL!

STEALTH!

I can remember in the 8 bit days when a system had to survive or fail on it's own merits... I really don't recall that much competition between the NES and the SMS. They both seemed to exist in on their own and have their own circle of users and a few, here or there, had the good fortune of owning both (and had a store nearby that actively stocked stuff for both systems) One of the few stores in the nation. The NES didn't survive on its own merits. It survived on the fact that once Nintendo America picked up some steam, they used their position to bully everyone else into backing them. A lot of stores that carried SMSes and 7800s started "mysetriously" losing shipments around Christmas time. Stores that carried unlicensed games(specifically Tengen's) recieved notes TELLING them that they would start losing shipments if they carried said games(allegedly because they didn't meet Nintendo's rigorous quality control standards and damaged Nintendo's reputation... yeah, sure, uh-huh...). And most developers on the NES had to sign exclusivity contracts. If you developed for the NES, you ONLY developed for the NES. Because NINTEY-FIVE PERCENT of the market was the NES. Step back a bit to the 1st era. 2600 VS Intellivision(first system war). Followed by 5200 VS INTV, INTV VS Colecovision, and 5200 VS CV. All were hotly debated subjects, with people on either side insisting their system was the only one worth owning and infinitely superior to the others. All were also successful consoles that enjoyed healthy competition from other platforms. No one ever argued the merits of an Arcadia or Channel F against a 2600, because there WERE NO Arcadias and Channel Fs out there. Legacy. The developers weren't going to break away from Nintendo and risk their necks on an unknown. And then when the Genesis took off and developers decided it was worth the risk to jump the NES ship, SEGA started in with exclusivity contracts. "Genesis does what Nintendon't." Enough said. I've already documented the history. Every time there've been two serious players in the market, there've been fanboys duking it out. A PS1 game that's a bad port of an SNES game, at that. Personally, being late to the game, I'm dumping my free time into Star Ocean 3. The staff at tri-Ace are like a bunch of little gods.

That's what they call "thievery" 321438[/snapback] I thought it was called "getting raped in the ass."

Except that MS is matching the rumored PS3 pricepoint, with a "lite" model to undercut the PS3's rumored tag. It looks an awful lot to me like PS VS Saturn all over again. ... The early days when both sides were sitting there undercutting each other, not the later days when Sega said screw it and dropped US support after pissing retailers off bad enough that a lot of them wouldn't carry Saturns anyways.

Yah. They're using a proprietary comm protocol and encrypting it, as I understand things. Any attempt to break the encryption puts you n the wrong side of the DMCA, and MS sues you into oblivion. Hence, no unlicensed peripherals. Funny how everyone gets bent out of shape when MS does it, but no one cares that Sony's been doing it for 5 years with PS2 memcards. 321245[/snapback] That's been a Sony complaint as far as I can remember...but I suppose it's a fact of life for everyone now. I don't recall ever hearing much noise about it. Ah. I hadn't heard that. Just that there'd be no unlicensed controllers.

Or think at all. When I was a kid, right alongside Voltron, Transformers, Robotech*, and Captain N, in the list of shows I watched regularly was Mister Wizard. In a prime afternoon time slot, no less. That sort of programming only exists on PBS anymore. And evne then, it's (generally) dumbed down severely, with a lot more smoke and mirrors added. *RT was notable in it's own right, despite the decidedly negative view most of the board members, mtyself included, have of it. Hell, most ADULT entertainment doesn't/didn't have the balls to decimate the planet and then NOT go back in time to stop it so it never happened. Actually, kids back then had video games. A little thing called the NES launched in the early 80s. You may have heard of it. Of course, the games WERE far less detailed. I don't know about other kids, but I used my imagination to fill in the blanks. Was actually one of my comments about WindWaker when the first previews came out, was that it looked the way I'd always imagined the original game looking when I was a kid.

Yah. They're using a proprietary comm protocol and encrypting it, as I understand things. Any attempt to break the encryption puts you n the wrong side of the DMCA, and MS sues you into oblivion. Hence, no unlicensed peripherals. Funny how everyone gets bent out of shape when MS does it, but no one cares that Sony's been doing it for 5 years with PS2 memcards.

The Transformers got blown away occasionally. Not that it mattered since you rebuild them, unless they died in a theater.

Ahhh.... it's just like the old days... Saturn VS PS1... And the 360 "lite" is the first shot in the price wars.

*blinks* The 1J is beating every VF-1 but the strike-pack 1S? Is it true? Has the world finally realized the 1A is ugly? JOY!

Milia's in the lead, with Misa a close second. All is right with the world.

This thread sucks super monkey balls.

Msut... stop staring... long enough... to... comment...

I did consider this, but then I remembered that Veffidas in comparison to Millia. Veffidas ' build is closer to a body builder than someone of Millia's size. She was a professional street fighter at one time and she did have to play with the boys who were also quite well built. So they do retain strength (imagine have 7 kids, where 2 of them were twins) but beyond a certain point, it falls to the individual, otherwise Millia should be able to do what Veffidas did, which she probably can't. 320649[/snapback] Yah. I chalked it up to a combination of superior fitness and "karate focus thing" as opposed to a human-zentran disparity. It's also possible that Veffidas' bloodline was engineered for raw physical strength and Millia's was for speed and agility. ... Or that Veffidas is decended from an upper-echelon breed and Millia was a rank&file soldier with the mindset needed to rise above others of her genetic stock. I believe it's established that, at least on the male side, the higher-ranking officers are(for the most part) larger and stronger than the common soldiers(Bodolza towers over Britai, who looms suitably large over the average zentran).

uhmm, I actually did. 320855[/snapback] That's actually a vague sentence. It could mean all transformation-capable VFs featured in animation, or all VFs with an animated transformation.

Not to mention that Dana was born on earth. . . 320748[/snapback] And in a diffrent universe that we dare not speak the name of.

With only 20-items allowed for the poll, I tried to give each series a standard of three-valks. Fwiw, M7-series already has four choices instead of the standard three. 320778[/snapback] You could've saved 3 slots by keeping the standard and FAST pack sets to one slot instead of two for the VF-1s.

HELL YES! I want to see that resurrected. I could hear Capcom and Konami crying from halfway around the world at the mere thought. 320763[/snapback] Hey I just remembered that! The dwarf MegaMan ruled. Nintendo had 2 shows thoguh, they also had Mario Bros, live action, which was horrible, then every Friday it was a Zelda cartoon hosted by the Mario Bros. I thought Zelda was kinda cool only because when I was a kid I wanted to kill people with swords. 320767[/snapback] They also had Super Mario 3 as a standalone cartoon. And Mario World.

YF21. Closely followed by the VF-1J

HELL YES! I want to see that resurrected. I could hear Capcom and Konami crying from halfway around the world at the mere thought.

IIRC, the ships had underneath handles shaped like guns ( i.e. pistol grips and triggers) And you could shoot the TV and score points by some counter. On the flip side, the TV would emit some kind of signal and if your ship got hit, the cockpit and canopy would eject. Yah. Based on flicker rate. If you were pointed at something flickering at one rate, it viewed it as a target, and pulling the trigger scored a point. If it was flickering at another rate, it was a shot, and being pointed at it would lose a point, unless you were firing at it(if I recall, it was possible, but dangerous, to actually score a point by shooting shots). Funny you mention Duck Hunt. We still have light gun games now. And they're a LOT more popular than they were then(let's be honest, most people only had Duck Hunt because it came with the NES, and there weren't exactly a lot of other uses for the zapper). And the Power Pad... see DDR. But the Power Pad was very much post-Captain Power. ANYWAYS... Captain Power was killed at the end of the first season because A. people were throwing fits about the over-comercialization of children's entertainment(Something to the effect of "not only does every show now have a toy, but you HAVE to buy the toy to enjoy the show now!111"), and B. the company making it had more profitable ventures to pursue. This may have been due in part to people not believing it really worked. I know my mom only got me and my sister our Powerjets because we wanted them REALLY bad. She was pretty sure all the shooting at videotapes and other toys was just a load of marketing crap that didn't actually work.