Retro Gaming

[efisher]

Really digging the retro style box art Black Valkyrie has been posting. I really wish Sega never ditched the grid box art in favor for the solid red ones.

Edited April 2, 2020 by efisher

[danth]

15 hours ago, efisher said:

Really digging the retro style box art Black Valkyrie has been posting. I really wish Sega never ditched the grid box art in favor for the solid red ones.

Same! The old school box art is so sick! Loving these posts!

[Black Valkyrie]

 

Thanks all, I appreciate your comments. 

 

[Black Valkyrie]

 

 

[fifbeat]

Man, has anyone ever beat the Arcade version of GRADIUS? Even with real-time, in-game saves, it's impossible to beat. 

I recently bought all those Konami collections that came out for Switch. I basically completed all of the games (Contras, Castlevanias, etc), but when I got to the Gradius games (Life-force, etc), I gave up.

Good stuff. Awesome thread. I love retro gaming and artwork. 

Edited April 4, 2020 by fifbeat

[Black Valkyrie]

2 hours ago, fifbeat said:

Man, has anyone ever beat the Arcade version of GRADIUS? Even with real-time, in-game saves, it's impossible to beat. 

I did, years ago on the Sega Saturn, its easy you should try Gradius II and Gradius III .   As for Salamander the Arcade version yes its hard to beat but the the other versions no issue.  

 

[fifbeat]

On 4/4/2020 at 12:39 PM, Black Valkyrie said:

I did, years ago on the Sega Saturn, its easy you should try Gradius II and Gradius III .   As for Salamander the Arcade version yes its hard to beat but the the other versions no issue.  

 

You're not human.  

[Black Valkyrie]

10 hours ago, fifbeat said:

You're not human.  

 

Practice   practice   practice    . 

 

[fifbeat]

23 hours ago, Black Valkyrie said:

 

Practice   practice   practice    . 

 

I did. And my ship died. Died. Died. Died. Died. =) 

[Black Valkyrie]

 

 

 

Edited April 9, 2020 by Black Valkyrie

[mikeszekely]

While I've been enjoying those mini consoles as they've trickled out, I recently found myself with a desire to complete sets of US-released games (with some well-regarded Japanese games sprinkled in for good measure, especially if they have English patches).

Long story short, I'm digging through the Sega CD's catalog right now.  Now, while the Genesis (or Megadrive for my non-American friends) was fairly popular my impression of the Sega CD was that it's only regarded as slightly better than the 32X (which in turn went over about as well as the Virtual Boy).  So I'm not exactly sure how many people are familiar with its library (to be fair, it looks like a lot of improved ports of games that were already on the Genesis, crappy FMV games, and ports of early PC games), but have any of you guys played Android Assault?  I'm not as into shmups as you guys, but it seems pretty fun and it's giving me serious Macross vibes.

[jenius]

I feel like I played every Sega CD game at some point but oddly, even though that game is 100% up my alley, I have zero recollection of it (just watched some gameplay on Youtube).  Looks pretty cool and definitely thick with the Macross vibes.

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

3 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

While I've been enjoying those mini consoles as they've trickled out, I recently found myself with a desire to complete sets of US-released games (with some well-regarded Japanese games sprinkled in for good measure, especially if they have English patches).

Long story short, I'm digging through the Sega CD's catalog right now.  Now, while the Genesis (or Megadrive for my non-American friends) was fairly popular my impression of the Sega CD was that it's only regarded as slightly better than the 32X (which in turn went over about as well as the Virtual Boy).  So I'm not exactly sure how many people are familiar with its library (to be fair, it looks like a lot of improved ports of games that were already on the Genesis, crappy FMV games, and ports of early PC games), but have any of you guys played Android Assault?  I'm not as into shmups as you guys, but it seems pretty fun and it's giving me serious Macross vibes.

I haven't played it in a while, but I remember Android Assault/Bari-Arm being a fun shooter and one that isn't terribly difficult.  It has a Thunderforce III type of feel to it, if that helps. Definitely worth a try.

[JB0]

4 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

While I've been enjoying those mini consoles as they've trickled out, I recently found myself with a desire to complete sets of US-released games (with some well-regarded Japanese games sprinkled in for good measure, especially if they have English patches).

Long story short, I'm digging through the Sega CD's catalog right now.  Now, while the Genesis (or Megadrive for my non-American friends) was fairly popular my impression of the Sega CD was that it's only regarded as slightly better than the 32X (which in turn went over about as well as the Virtual Boy).  So I'm not exactly sure how many people are familiar with its library (to be fair, it looks like a lot of improved ports of games that were already on the Genesis, crappy FMV games, and ports of early PC games), but have any of you guys played Android Assault?  I'm not as into shmups as you guys, but it seems pretty fun and it's giving me serious Macross vibes.

SegaCD was MUCH more successful than the embarrassment of the 32X, though it does seem to have an unusually high number of dog-turds.

And the 32X, for all its failings, did leagues better than the Virtual Boy(which is admittedly damning with the faintest of praise).

 

That said:
Lunar 2, SegaCD version. Best version of one of the best JRPGs ever made. Reason enough to own the system right there.

[Black Valkyrie]

 

Since a few years I'm trying to compromise some Sega-CD games, especially Final Fight CD to fit into the mini systems but no luck. 

 

[Black Valkyrie]

 

 

[Black Valkyrie]

 

 

 

Edited April 17, 2020 by Black Valkyrie

[JetJockey]

On 4/4/2020 at 12:02 PM, fifbeat said:

Man, has anyone ever beat the Arcade version of GRADIUS? Even with real-time, in-game saves, it's impossible to beat. 

I recently bought all those Konami collections that came out for Switch. I basically completed all of the games (Contras, Castlevanias, etc), but when I got to the Gradius games (Life-force, etc), I gave up.

Good stuff. Awesome thread. I love retro gaming and artwork. 

I think I did. I can't remember clearly. But I know Gradius III was the difficult one for me. At least I own the arcade version I think on the PS2 collection. And I was like what is this?! On the SNES Gradius III is easy and fun. But Gradius III in that collection, I couldn't get past that blue bubble stage. I think that is stage 3 or 4. The game slows down, my lasers don't cut through the bubbles fast enough, no where to move, and the ship's hit box is big. I gave up on that for a while and that was years ago.

 

On 4/4/2020 at 2:39 PM, Black Valkyrie said:

I did, years ago on the Sega Saturn, its easy you should try Gradius II and Gradius III .   As for Salamander the Arcade version yes its hard to beat but the the other versions no issue.  

 

I always loved Gradius II since it didn't come out on NES and I remember playing the Japanese version somehow back then.

 

But yeah on Gradius III.

 

On 4/9/2020 at 2:14 PM, Black Valkyrie said:

 

 

 

I love this series. I still have to play the original Valis on PC Engine CD. Although I heard it wasn't that good even though it came out last.

 

On 4/11/2020 at 12:47 AM, mikeszekely said:

While I've been enjoying those mini consoles as they've trickled out, I recently found myself with a desire to complete sets of US-released games (with some well-regarded Japanese games sprinkled in for good measure, especially if they have English patches).

Long story short, I'm digging through the Sega CD's catalog right now.  Now, while the Genesis (or Megadrive for my non-American friends) was fairly popular my impression of the Sega CD was that it's only regarded as slightly better than the 32X (which in turn went over about as well as the Virtual Boy).  So I'm not exactly sure how many people are familiar with its library (to be fair, it looks like a lot of improved ports of games that were already on the Genesis, crappy FMV games, and ports of early PC games), but have any of you guys played Android Assault?  I'm not as into shmups as you guys, but it seems pretty fun and it's giving me serious Macross vibes.

For some reason I passed on Android Assault. The name is familiar but I don't remember playing it at all.

 

I still want to check out Robo Aleste. It's possible that I owned it or maybe still own it and can't remember.

 

I've been listening to the soundtrack to Sol Feace recently. Great soundtrack. The game was so so if I remember correctly.

On 4/11/2020 at 5:03 AM, JB0 said:

SegaCD was MUCH more successful than the embarrassment of the 32X, though it does seem to have an unusually high number of dog-turds.

And the 32X, for all its failings, did leagues better than the Virtual Boy(which is admittedly damning with the faintest of praise).

 

That said:
Lunar 2, SegaCD version. Best version of one of the best JRPGs ever made. Reason enough to own the system right there.

I think I only have one game on the 32X, Virtua Racing.

I didn't like Lunar 2 as much as Lunar. From what I remember it was easier. And I didn't like the setting as much. But I'm going to play the games again when I get the artbook.

 

Edited April 15, 2020 by JetJockey

[Black Valkyrie]

 

You can check my page at deviantart, there are more covers.

 

 

[efisher]

Terraonion just announced a ODE for the Dreamcast/Saturn. So hyped for this! Now to get started ripping my collection.

 

[mikeszekely]

Neat.  I don't have many old consoles, but I do have a Dreamcast still.  I might pick one of these up.

[jenius]

So basically this device allows you to store ROMs locally and play them on the original hardware and gives you a nice interface for choosing the ROM. Did it say that you could put the Saturn ROMs in your Dreamcast and have a Dreamcast that plays ever Saturn and Dreamcast game?

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

Very interesting indeed.  I'll probably get one for my Saturn as I am still not happy with its emulation.

[Black Valkyrie]

 

I require it too, for my Saturn and I really need a proper HDMI cable, to go with it. 

 

 

[Black Valkyrie]

 

 

 

[Black Valkyrie]

 

 

 

Edited April 24, 2020 by Black Valkyrie

[mikeszekely]

Ugh.  I got a message from Amazon that the TG16 mini I preordered won't be in until January...

[Black Valkyrie]

 

Not surprised. 

 

[mikeszekely]

43 minutes ago, Black Valkyrie said:

 

Not surprised. 

 

I'm kind of surprised.  I mean, I know that the cornovirus was apparently holding up production, but I've seen a number of people review it already.  So it's like, is it out or not?

[Black Valkyrie]

 

Yeah but it was released all in Japan only. 

 

 

[mikeszekely]

1 hour ago, Black Valkyrie said:

 

Yeah but it was released all in Japan only

That's confusing. I mean, the PC Engine did better in Japan than the TurboGrafx did in the States, and Konami is a Japanese company, so it makes perfect sense that the lil' white PC Engine mini would release first. But I've seen reviews for the black TurboGrafx mini from US-based outlets, and US-based sellers hawking them on eBay. Meanwhile I thought it was supposed to be an Amazon-exclusive in the States, but now they're not getting them until nearly a year after they were supposed to. Oh well.

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

Some interesting insight into the redesigning of Blaze and Adam for Streets of Rage 4.  I'm kinda irked about Axel looking like a hobo that likes grunge, but I'm still gonna play the hell out of this game.

[Black Valkyrie]

 

 

[mikeszekely]

My daughter will turn five this summer, and she's old enough now that she's starting to take an interest in playing video games but young enough that she's not very good at them and struggles with games that have too many inputs (even holding in B to run and then hitting A for a longer jump in Super Mario Bros is kind of beyond her right now).  My solution has been to install MAME on my computer, and then every day we take an hour or so to play a old arcade beat 'em up like Turtles in Time or X-Men together.  We get to spend quality time playing together, I can help her through the game, she can handle walking around and mashing the attack button, and she can't really lose as long as we keep pumping virtual quarters into the virtual machine.

Anyway, today we played Metamorphic Force.  And the game raises a few questions for me.

1. It's a Konami beat 'em up from the early '90s, which is to say it's great.  How is it not more popular?

2. It's about four colorful characters who can power up into an anthropomorphic bull, wolf, panther, and bear, fighting waves of colorful anthropomorphic lizards, frogs, elephants and spiders that make up the army of the Evil King, who himself is like an evil barbarian who can turn into a dragon.  And this came out in 1993, at the peak of TMNT's popularity and around the time when stuff like Biker Mice From Mars, Street Sharks, and SWAT Kats came out.  How did Metamorphic Force not get a cartoon?

Anyway, yeah, if you were a fan of games like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Turtles in Time, The Simpsons, and X-Men then I highly recommend checking out Metamorphic Force if you've never played it.

[mikeszekely]

New addition to my family of mini consoles.

I guess they've been getting marked down on Amazon; I got this bundled with a white controller for $50. 

I... don't actually have a lot of attachment to the Neo Geo brand.  I played a little Fatal Fury and Samurai Showdown on the SNES, but on the occasions where I had money to play at the local arcade I was usually playing stuff like Turtles in Time, Street Fighter II, or Mortal Kombat II.  And while I was aware of the Neo Geo home console it was simply too expensive to be little more than some obscure thing the rich kid at school bragged about having (although I did nearly buy a Neo Geo Pocket Color when they were being sold for around $50 at the department store I worked at in college).  So I'm a tad confused are the games on it arcade roms or the AES versions?  Or is there really not much of a difference?  I guess it makes sense that SNK would want to bank on nostalgia for the arcade hardware, especially with the Japanese audience where arcades were popular a lot longer than they were here, but if I'm being totally honest I kind of wish that instead of going for the arcade cabinet (and dumping money on the speakers and display) that they made the hardware look like a miniature AES or Neo Geo CD and just bundled it with the controller.  As it stands, although it comes with a USB-C cable for power it doesn't come with an AC adapter (not a huge deal) or an HDMI cable (which wouldn't be a huge deal if it used a regular HDMI cable, but you actually need an HDMI mini cable for it, and I'm betting you don't have one of those laying around).  I think this thing launched at $109 with no controllers aside from the built-in one, and frankly that seems like a ripoff.  Even more so when you factor in the cost of one or two controllers ($26 a piece) and an HDMI mini cable (roughly $8).

On the other hand, while prices have crept back up since I bought mine, the built-in joystick is surprisingly usable, so for $30 alone it's worth picking up.  And even after bundling it with a controller ($20) and buying at second controller so my kid can play too ($23) I'm still a little under what I paid for my SNES Classic.

Now if I could just get my hands on a TG16 mini...