Keep Calm And Discuss Retro Generally!

Jack burton · 07-01-2013 6:02pm

Anyone whos a member of the A&R Social Group should go over and take a look at what I just put it, it would make me happy

Myrddin · 07-01-2013 6:43pm

Andrew76 wrote: »

Is the general consensus here that Doom 3 was/is sh1te or something? Wasn't that the game with the excellent Trent Reznor sound pack and had it's own level editor etc? I thought it was fun enough.

I didn't stick with the game long enough to even judge it properly. The darkness just ruined any gameplay that might have even existed, which is why I'm kinda looking forward to the version where the lights are turned on {BFG Edition}

CiDeRmAn · 07-01-2013 7:39pm

Being a lover of mediocre fps', I really enjoyed Doom3 and played it, on the Xbox, to completion!
Swapping between the weapon and torch ceased to be a problem after a while and I found the game to be quite enjoyable.
I did find some certain similarities between Dead Space and Doom 3, especially in the use of sound and future industrial "torture" tech, machines that sound and look like they are for tear people apart but are actually part of the normal function of the mechanisms that surround your character as he moves towards his objectives.
No, I liked it tbh.
At least it never disappeared up it's own backside and checking the rooms became akin to using the scanner in Metroid Prime, just something you did.

The Last Bandit · 07-01-2013 8:32pm

Thought Doom 3 was a bit poo as well, they really over done the scary dark atmosphere stuff.. Now the two Riddick games are much better

o1s1n · 07-01-2013 8:35pm

back when Doom 3 and Half Life 2 were looming, I put together a new PC on the Dell website and bought it on higher purchase. Think the thing cost me about 1500! Absolute madness. Spent a very long time paying that off as a broke student.

Funny thing is, I never finished either of them. Probably played more Half Life DM than both of them combined. A game my previous PC was more than capable of running.

johnny_ultimate · 07-01-2013 8:38pm

Let's never put Doom 3 (mediocre game is mediocre) and Half-Life 2 (wonderful in every way) in the same sentence again :eek:

The Last Bandit · 07-01-2013 8:39pm

o1s1n wrote: »

back when Doom 3 and Half Life 2 were looming, I put together a new PC on the Dell website and bought it on higher purchase. Think the thing cost me about 1500! Absolute madness. Spent a very long time paying that off as a broke student.

Funny thing is, I never finished either of them. Probably played more Half Life DM than both of them combined. A game my previous PC was more than capable of running.

At least you had a decent PC which should be still serviceable. I once handed over £1400 to Dell for a Pentium II

moonlighting · 07-01-2013 8:59pm

http://www.instructables.com/id/Nintendo-Projects-1/

CiDeRmAn · 07-01-2013 9:07pm

I bought my first PC back in 95, got Quake and Mechwarrior 2 with a Sidewinder Pro as well, the whole thing cost me in or around £2,500, that's punts.
It was a 200mhz CPU, just prior to the MMX series.
I got a Rendition graphics card and Quake and Tomb Raider flew on it, looked amazing too.
Later, I upgraded to 32Mbs of ram and got a 3dFX graphics accelerator instead.
Never been without a PC since, but really only played PC games until around 98 or so, then console gaming became the one and only!

Tomb Raider looked quite remarkable on the thing though, certainly better than on the original host hardware, the Saturn.

Myrddin · 07-01-2013 9:13pm

My first pc was a Compaq Presario 5812, can't remember the specs I think it was something like AMD 600Mhz proc, 6GB hdd, 64MB ram. I eventually got a Voodoo3200 PCI card with 128MB video memory & never forget the day I changed the settings in Half Life from software rendering to 3dfx...:eek:

o1s1n · 07-01-2013 9:19pm

Ah yes, from software to OpenGL? It was a revelation wasnt it?!

Jaggies be gone!

Touch Fuzzy Get Dizzy · 07-01-2013 9:28pm

Jack burton wrote: »

I didnt get it yet, worth getting or wait till it goes for a bit cheaper?

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

My son has it but he seems far more interested in DQIX, pity if something as cool as AT turns out to produce a m'eh video game, given the opportunity.

The length is the only disappointing part. It's a really good game, looks beautiful, fantastic OST, plays well, loads of references and characters.
It was about >14 hrs long for me (guesstimate).

You leveled up with stars hidden in stages and random battles just gave you items, so IMO, if it was EXP for battles and money to buy items in shop, it may have been a bit longer. I would have loved to play BMO's games as well.

johnny_ultimate · 07-01-2013 10:02pm

Can't recall the specifics of our first family PC, but I do remember it came with a Windows 95 bonus CD that contained:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pigv8bf_Mo

and a highly compressed version of:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kemivUKb4f4

That CD got a lot of use in the Ultimate household!

Retr0gamer · 07-01-2013 10:50pm

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

I bought my first PC back in 95, got Quake and Mechwarrior 2 with a Sidewinder Pro as well, the whole thing cost me in or around £2,500, that's punts.
It was a 200mhz CPU, just prior to the MMX series.

You'd want to check your dates, Quake and the sidewinder pads weren't out until '96 and I believe the 200 MHz pentium wasn't out until then as well.

Also you were an awful high roller then weren't you, that rig would have cost £2000+ in 1996.

I got my first PC for X-Mas 1996, a bottom of the range P100 but it was good enough to run all games until 1998. For Xmas 1997 I got a Power VR graphics Accelerator. It was far better than the more popular 3DFX but unfortunately it didn't have the same support as the 3DFX. It ran everything beautifully in Direct 3D but wouldn't work on most Quake 2 engine games due to them using Open GL Glide wrappers. Still for the short time it was useful it ran the likes of Tomb Raider, Mechwarrior 2, MDK and Jedi Knight gorgeously in 1024x768 while 3DFX was limited to 640x480 or even 800x600 for the 3DFX 2.

The Last Bandit · 07-01-2013 10:56pm

Bring back IRQ conflicts..

Sparks43 · 07-01-2013 11:46pm

The Last Bandit wrote: »

Bring back IRQ conflicts..

Weirdly enough i ran into one of them today

Old pc that the video card and network card clashed on

Quite funny to watch new techs trying to sort it out:D

CiDeRmAn · 08-01-2013 12:12am

Retr0gamer wrote: »

You'd want to check your dates, Quake and the sidewinder pads weren't out until '96 and I believe the 200 MHz pentium wasn't out until then as well.

Also you were an awful high roller then weren't you, that rig would have cost £2000+ in 1996.

You're right, it was the year after Win 95 came out,
We were after moving back into the Nurses Res after renting an apartment in 95-96, then I bought my PC.

I got my first PC for X-Mas 1996, a bottom of the range P100 but it was good enough to run all games until 1998. For Xmas 1997 I got a Power VR graphics Accelerator. It was far better than the more popular 3DFX but unfortunately it didn't have the same support as the 3DFX. It ran everything beautifully in Direct 3D but wouldn't work on most Quake 2 engine games due to them using Open GL Glide wrappers. Still for the short time it was useful it ran the likes of Tomb Raider, Mechwarrior 2, MDK and Jedi Knight gorgeously in 1024x768 while 3DFX was limited to 640x480 or even 800x600 for the 3DFX 2.

Yeah, sounds like around the same time I jumped into PC waters.
Lots of messing about with Direct X to get stuff working!

o1s1n · 08-01-2013 12:16am

Coin door on my cab is locked, keys for it are upstairs and not a single 20c in my pocket.

I feel like kid who just ran out of money in an arcade!

Sparks43 · 08-01-2013 12:30am

o1s1n wrote: »

Coin door on my cab is locked, keys for it are upstairs and not a single 20c in my pocket.

I feel like kid who just ran out of money in an arcade!

DinoRex · 08-01-2013 1:40am

If Super Mario Bros. came out today:

http://imgur.com/a/VRg4v

CiDeRmAn · 08-01-2013 8:14am

DinoRex wrote: »

If Super Mario Bros. came out today:

http://imgur.com/a/VRg4v

And you'd only get the first 10 levels, everything else would be dlc!

08-01-2013 10:01am

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

I bought my first PC back in 95...

Apart from a Commodore Vic 20 and a copy of Blitz in the mid 80's, i didn't get into computers till late in the whole PC boom. I was determined to figure it all out, so i bought a 128mb Celeron system with the ill fated (and awful) windows ME on it from PC world in 2001. Cost me about £1000 in old money at the time (eek).

Anyways, it very quickly became apparent that WinME was a slow, buggy pile of crap and the box i bought wasn't able to do what i was told it would, so i rang them up and demanded a replacement for days on end. I got the name of a manager and called her ten times a day every day giving out about how i'd been shafted by the sales guy until she was so sick of me that she swopped the original machine for a 512mb HP box with a 1.3 Pentium and 20gb HDD, and one of the first retail copies of Xp Home on it, just to get rid of me.

That got a lot of upgrades over time, and was my faithful servant for many years. It eventually ended up being the brain in my first mame cab when i retired it. As far as i know it's still out in the wild somewhwere in the wexford/waterford area bringing retro goodness to a new home...:D

Retr0gamer · 08-01-2013 1:08pm

New pokemon announced for 3DS. I can hear atavan squealing from here.

Myrddin · 08-01-2013 1:11pm

Retr0gamer wrote: »

New pokemon announced for 3DS. I can hear atavan squealing from here.

Isn't he saving up for a Japanese Schoolgirl on Adverts though?

CiDeRmAn · 08-01-2013 1:38pm

Of course, spending 2000 punts on a pc in 96 was serious money but then, I had a wage and no mortgage or kids so, what did I care?
I could also buy a 3DO, PS, N64 and so on, without worrying.
Now, I have to plan months ahead on the new releases, although I lucked out with the Wii U and Christmas!
But, the Vita is a distant maybe and I have to plan now for the new effort from MS, I'm guessing that the PS4 will be must have purchase some 18 months after the launch, so I figure aim for buying one some time in early 2015!

deathrider · 08-01-2013 2:20pm

Pokémon X and Y look amazing. The graphics are beautiful, and the new fire type looks like it would be my choice of the three. Also, how cool is that legendary in the first with the antlers? I want it now! This might be the thing that pushes me over the edge to buy a 3DS.

o1s1n · 08-01-2013 2:27pm

Anyone else here from the generation who were adults when Pokemon came out, saw it as a kids fad and now find it all very odd to see adults talking about Pokemon?

One of my sisters (she's 20) is a Pokemon lunatic. Any time she talks about how great the franchise is, I just see her as a 6 year old with a toy screaming 'Pikachuuuuu!!!' and making eletricity sounds.

Dr Bob · 08-01-2013 2:29pm

I used to sell computers back in the mid nineties, and my first one I actually got to buy would have been an AST advantage (611 I think), which had a weird 5x86 processor (basically a psuedo pentium made by a crowd called cyrix), 8 mbs of ram and an 800mb hard drive , Paid about 800 quid for it (staff discount ftw).Got a 28.8mb modem as well (cardinal I think) and went in to merriom square and signed up with an ISP there (indigo) put it this was , I was given a very early version of netscape navigator that came on floppy)
Upgraded the memory about a year later to 16mb as a lot of games like shadow warrior and the like didnt like 8.
A few years later when the harad disk ied I put a 6 gb one in which was MASSIVE. Ended up building a new pc a few years later with parts a mate gave me , including a p200MMX that had been thrown out of Intel (he worked there) as it had been jammed in a drawer and had bent pins.An hour of pin straightening later and I had it working!Got my first 3d card for that to, a voodoo 1 3dfx.Amazing for the time.
Balls , now I want to buy a 3dfx card off ebay!

Myrddin · 08-01-2013 2:30pm

o1s1n wrote: »

Anyone else here from the generation who were adults when Pokemon came out, saw it as a kids fad and now find it all very odd to see adults talking about Pokemon?

One of my sisters (she's 20) is a Pokemon lunatic. Any time she talks about how great the franchise is, I just see her as a 6 year old with a toy screaming 'Pikachuuuuu!!!' and making eletricity sounds.

Yep, & with all due respect to Atavan, I've still not got the foggiest what the whole thing is about. Then again, give me Pokemon fans over Bronies any day

o1s1n · 08-01-2013 2:31pm

EnterNow wrote: »

Yep, & with all due respect to Atavan, I've still not got the foggiest what the whole thing is about. Then again, give me Pokemon fans over Bronies any day

Ah yeah, I wouldn't mean any disrespect, I've heard the games are brilliant. But I can't help shake those images of my little sisters running around screaming Pokemon names at each other.

I guess it's the same feeling my folks get when I keep banging on about the Megadrive

Dr Bob · 08-01-2013 2:32pm

o1s1n wrote: »

Anyone else here from the generation who were adults when Pokemon came out, saw it as a kids fad and now find it all very odd to see adults talking about Pokemon?

One of my sisters (she's 20) is a Pokemon lunatic. Any time she talks about how great the franchise is, I just see her as a 6 year old with a toy screaming 'Pikachuuuuu!!!' and making eletricity sounds.

misé.
Always associated Pokemon with 7 year old kids battering each other in the playground for cards.Other peoples retro I guess...

Mr.Saturn · 08-01-2013 2:34pm

Well, I'm buying a 3DS come October.

I'm honestly quite surprised the announcement wasn't for Ruby/Sapphire remakes, considering the Gen 3 stuff that was found in the code of Black 2/White 2, that was not present in the first Black/White or Diamond/Pearl/Platinum, implying an intended further connectivity between Gen 5 and the once rumoured remakes.

I guess with so much still to be revealed about X and Y, it might just make sense yet.

Nerdkiller1991 · 08-01-2013 2:42pm

So, they finally ran out of colours and gem types and are now resorting to letters? Be more inventive, Ninty.

08-01-2013 2:43pm

I'm honestly not too bothered about buying early for the next generation of consoles. After the shambles that was the version 1 Xbox 360 I'll be taking the "wait and see approach" this time, at least for a year or so. Im fed up of ending up with bug ridden fat versions of consoles at twice the price they eventually drop to, or boxes that sound like a jump jet taking off in comparison to their whisper quiet newer iterations.

No, I'll wait till prices come down a bit, and I think I'll pick where my loyalties are going to lie this time too. The days of buying the lot are behind me because if the PS3 and wii are anything to go by, the number and console exclusives just don't cut it to justify the price tag for the hardware. My PS3 has basically been an expensive dust trap over the last year or 2.

Retr0gamer · 08-01-2013 2:46pm

o1s1n wrote: »

Anyone else here from the generation who were adults when Pokemon came out, saw it as a kids fad and now find it all very odd to see adults talking about Pokemon?

When Pokemon became big I was way too old for it being 16-17 at the time. However I still loved it. I used to finish school, walk home and watch pokemon before doing homework since it was the only thing on TV and you know what, it's a pretty excellent TV series. It also helps as well that the games have been superb.

OwaynOTT · 08-01-2013 2:48pm

F*ck you attic!

o1s1n · 08-01-2013 3:07pm

Retr0gamer wrote: »

When Pokemon became big I was way too old for it being 16-17 at the time. However I still loved it. I used to finish school, walk home and watch pokemon before doing homework since it was the only thing on TV and you know what, it's a pretty excellent TV series. It also helps as well that the games have been superb.

I was actually quite excited about Pokemon first airing as I was really big into Manga Entertainment VHS releases at the time. Knew nothing about it other than that it was a Japanese animated show being shown on TV.

The only other Japanese stuff I'd even seen broadcast was late night on Channel 4. So I rather naively had visions of something akin to Akira/Patlabor/AD Police etc. Sat down to watch the first episode and then realized it was a kids show

Retr0gamer · 08-01-2013 3:12pm

The first episode is pretty naff, I always hated it. The second episode is when it gets great with Misty going nuts at Ash for wrecking her bike.

Also if you didn't have a tear in your eye during that Butterfree episode then you are an inhuman monster.

johnny_ultimate · 08-01-2013 3:18pm

Was the perfect age when for Pokemon's initial run - Red / Blue came out around my last year of primary school so it was a 'thing' so to speak in the schoolyard. Link cables all over the gaff.

I played Trading Card Game on GBC and Gold (both imports, which was particularly exciting at the time) but secondary school did not have an active Pokemon community, and thus I grew out of it fairly promptly. Have always been meaning to try one of the more recent titles, but they all seemed to have followed the same basic template. Might give this X / Y a go if its a significant upgrade, but then I said that about B&W too and that never happened.

Also, I got unreasonably annoyed when I heard there was a Pokemon called Vanillite who was a ****ing ice-cream cone. Seriously Gamefreak?! 1st Generation Pokemon FTW.

the groutch · 08-01-2013 3:40pm

o1s1n wrote: »

Anyone else here from the generation who were adults when Pokemon came out, saw it as a kids fad and now find it all very odd to see adults talking about Pokemon?

maybe they were watching this one?

CiDeRmAn · 08-01-2013 3:51pm

It came way too late for me, I had watched Robotech/Marcross some years before so Pokemon just looked like another fad, like TMNT or the like.
So while Pokemon emerged in was watching the new generation of Warner Bros toons, from Tiny Toons, Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain to Batman animated.
I know those toons were nominally kids shows but they were so creative it was compelling viewing for someone on their twenties like I had been.
Earthworm Jim was also doing the rounds at the time... Groovy!

Atavan-Halen · 08-01-2013 4:10pm

Definitely looking forward to this new pokemon game! The battles look very pokemon stadium-esque and with a lower camera angle gives it the look of a proper 3d game. There also seems to be a small element of a platformer looking at the trailer which is a bit random, but not surprising due to previous gym puzzles.

This definitely will be a new generation and a new feel to the series. Can't wait to try it!

The Last Bandit · 08-01-2013 4:12pm

Ever understood that whole Pokemon stuff at all.

deathrider · 08-01-2013 4:25pm

I was fairly late to the poképarty, to say the least. The first one I played was Diamond in 2008, and at that stage I was about 25. Didn't take me long to become hooked on it. I played the hll out of it, and for some reason or other I put it away a few months later. I finally rediscovered it last febuary, wiped my old 70(ish) hour file, and restarted it again. Since then, I've become a huge fan of the series since. Certainly not a kid's fad in my eyes, just good fun, simple gaming.

Atavan-Halen · 08-01-2013 4:25pm

I think anyone who hasn't played pokemon since the gameboy era or at all owes it to themselves to play one of the modern games.

The great thing about them is that they can be played casually or you can play it "hardcore" for lack of a better word. There's a lot more depth than people think. Not only do you have type advantages or disadvantages but individual stats that change depending on with pokemon you defeat, natures which give certain stat boosts, abilities and hidden abilities, items, egg moves, ev's, iv's, breeding for certain stats and so much more!

Myrddin · 08-01-2013 4:32pm

The Cinemassacre & JamesNintendoNerd youtube accounts seem to have been terminated...

deathrider · 08-01-2013 4:32pm

atavan-halen wrote: »

I think anyone who hasn't played pokemon since the gameboy era or at all owes it to themselves to play one of the modern games.

People who haven't played since the first generation seem to have a bit of a stick up their arse about the fact that the games kept going on without them. Anywhere you go where Pokémon is being discussed, there's always someone bellowing on about how the games have been ruined when they started adding extra pokémon into it, and how he/she poted out at that stage. I never really understood this mentality myself. Pokémon games are really games of discovery. Seeing all the new types and evolutions that appear in each game always makes the game feel like a journey. If I was catching nothing other than the original 150 (or was it 151?) game after game, I'd find the franchise astonishingly boring.

Retr0gamer · 08-01-2013 5:12pm

Even more annoying are people that denounce the series as being a kids game. It's one of the deepest RPGs available today and has a fantastic battle system. Even the writing is really good, there's usually a fair few giggles to be had and you can tell Nintendo Treehouse had a blast translating it.

OwaynOTT · 08-01-2013 5:47pm

I've only ever played Pokemon yellow and that was only recently but I sunk a ridiculous amount of hours into it. If Pokemon is a opioids game then so is Mario and most of the other nintendo games. There's a nice bit if strategy to it and at times it can be very humorous.
I haven't tried any of the newer ones only because I thought they would be more of he same. Any I particular that I should try?
Pokemon conquest looks to be a bit different, worth a try?

A bunch of my games and stuff have for destroyed being in an attic for a few weeks. All the lovely cardboard nintendo games squashed because a relative throw a box of books on it!
Haven't went through it yet but I hope noting too expensive is ruined!

Nerdkiller1991 · 08-01-2013 6:58pm

EnterNow wrote: »

The Cinemassacre & JamesNintendoNerd youtube accounts seem to have been terminated...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moHt_nQNoe0

As for Pokemon...yeah, I was around 8 when the show first aired. It was great for the first few years, but I think it really outwore its welcome, but hey. Anything to advertise the series.

Also, did anyone else have this strategy magazine which detailed the first 251 Pokemon and where you could find them in Gold and Silver as well as other tips and tricks?

Keep Calm And Discuss Retro Generally!

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