So, what you playing at the mo? Retro Edition

Mr.Saturn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119649265#Comment_119649265

Really loved it, but can take a lot of its criticism as valid. The 3rd and the 5th level are especially long and repetitve, though they are still absolutely stunning spaces to explore. Did you play through the first one on 360 as well, by any chance? Gave it a quick go as it came included and wasn't convinced.

I'm giving The Darkness a punt out of curiosity and it's one of those times I'm start to feel like my curiosity my be the death of me. Picked up Dishonored 2 having finished the first one and it's infinitely more appealing at the minute.

Retr0gamer

I really didn't like the Darkness at launch. Seemed to me to be overrated based on it being an exclusive at a time when there was very little worth playing on the 360. I remember the AI being absolutely atrocious and the story being a bit try hard. I'm sure the performance is egregious in his day and age. I doubt it's aged well.

Colonel Panic

I agree there’s some issues with the game but it didn’t stop me enjoying it.

Never bothered with the first game. I’m pretty sure I redeemed it to my Xbox account, but it doesn’t show under games I own on the Series S.

Quigs Snr

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119651648#Comment_119651648

Played them both to the finish. I probably the only person on the planet who preferred the first one ! Decent atmosphere in it for its time. Wasn't a patch on AAA titles around at the same time, but both games were respectable B or C level offerings. Worth a bargain bin punt back in the day.

And for some reason early in the life of the 360 the first one was the cheapest game every time I went into GameStops preowned section. Even cheaper than the sports games for a while.

Retr0gamer

Finished Clock Tower (SNES) today with ending C. Such an interesting game and one I really enjoyed other than getting stuck because I was missing a key that I hadn't pixel hunted enough for. I enjoyed it so much I'll probably go for some of the other endings.

Retr0gamer

Started Deep Fear last night on Saturn. Slightly worried about this one. I had a lot of trouble before with multidisc games on saturn emulation (namely Enemy Zero) and this is another multidisc game. I looked up a youtube video and I think, this game saves automatically at the disk swap so restarting the emulator after the disc swap should hopefully work.

Anyway I only played about 20 minutes because the landlord won't put the heating on and it got too cold but I'm looking forward to seeing Sega's answer to Resident Evil. The voice acting so far might be even worse!

CiDeRmAn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119724736#Comment_119724736

It might be good, but it isn't Blue Stinger good

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119725249#Comment_119725249

It never will be. It's doesn't have dogs bower.

Inviere

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119724736#Comment_119724736

I think that disc change bug is either specific to that game, or just a certain minority of games. I'm playing through Policenauts currently, the Saturn version, and have had no issues changing discs. M3u files ftw.

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119725487#Comment_119725487

What emulator are you using? Seems to be a mednafen bug which all the cores on retroarch are based off. Usually the game supresses the boot back to the CD player if the disc tray is opened but the emulator doesn't emulate that check and will jump to the CD player. So it makes games with no save on disc swap not playable past the first disc.

I've only seen this on enemy zero (it's the easiest game to check also as disc one is just a skippable intro). You didn't have the same in policenauts? I'm using a m3u file as well.

Inviere

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119725677#Comment_119725677

Retroarch, Beetle Saturn....no issues whatsoever with disc swapping in Policenauts. When it asks, I eject the disc, select the next one, close the virtual disc tray, and game continues on perfectly. I remember looking at Enemy Zero for you when you mentioned this previously, and I could replicate what you were seeing, though it seemed to only apply to that game. The standalone Mednafen didn't exhibit the bug the RA core was showing us, as I checked that afterwards. Must check the RA core again with Enemy Zero again, as I think it's been updated recently.

Retr0gamer

Enemy zero still wasn't working. Good to hear it probably won't be an issue!

TechnoFreek

Got myself a PS1 (thanks Quigs!) And installed an xstation ode. Trying out lots of games I put on a 256gb SD cardb but settled on original tomb raider for a while.

Its tank controls kill off nostalgia very quickly l can tell you.

Inviere

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119727375#Comment_119727375

Yeah it's a strange bug, something in the code just isn't hooked up or isn't hooked up correctly I'd say.

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119727429#Comment_119727429

I don't know, played the PC version a few months ago and felt it still held up and had a blast. Controls take a little getting used to but you have to play it more cautiously like prince of persia and line up jumps

Quigs Snr

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119727429#Comment_119727429

Glad that one worked out. Better under your TV than sitting in my attic.

What killed the nostalgia for me with Tomb Raider 1 was the save system. Those blue crystals. I didn't notice doing a lot of backtracking/retrying back in the day, but I was probably a lot better at video games back then. TR2 didn't have the same atmosphere but was the better game. Three drained my will to live and I quit halfway through. I couldn't even bring myself to look at 4 which I have on the dreamcast too and the reviews kept me away from the 5th one. That being said I played and loved every mainline game thereafter on xbox360 onwards with just 3,4 and 5 from the original series outstanding ... any of them worth a run these days ?

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119728399#Comment_119728399

Play the PC versions. None of that save crystal BS and much better games at 60 FPS. Much prefer TR1 to TR2 on PC.

TR3 I never finished. It runs better on PC but missing a lot of visual effects that the PS1 version has. I played it on PS1, got to the penultimate level and my memory card corrupted and never went back. Tried to play it on PC and got quite far but it's missing a lot of charm and the levels are waaaaaay too big.

Retr0gamer

So had a bit of a Saturn night. Played a good bit of Deep Fear. It's got quite a slow opening but once it gets going it's a lot of fun. It's a very impressive looking games, somewhere between Resi 1 and Resi 2, and one of the best looking games on the saturn. The CGI cutscenes are very impressive for the time, again a little better than say FF7 but not quite up there with the best Square had at the time. It's a big improvement over Panzer Dragoon Saga whose CG seemed a bit low budget.

As a game it's a little more action orientated than Resi. You have limited ammo but can refill at ammo stations. There's an air meter as well in rooms which counts down when you are in them. You switch over to a respirator when it's depleted which has a limited air supply. It adds a bit of tension and a new dynamic. I'm enjoying it but the only area it beats Resident Evil in is the voice acting which is somehow worse, especially the character Dubois who has the most over the top camp accent ever, although kudos probably have to be given for 'attempting' a gay character, although its never said so far if he is or isn't.

Had a quick spin of Radiant Silvergun again. Got a little bit further than I usually do, I usually get stumped in Stage 3 at a multi-stage boss where you are trapped in a cordoned off area that gets surrounded by lasers. Thought I got to the boss before the end of stage 3 but looking at a walkthrough I'm about halfway through, Stage 3 is over twice as long as the previous 2 stages together.

Someday I'll beat this game, but I think I'll only really have beaten it when I get to the end starting the game with base level weapons, but I'll work on that later.

o1s1n

Fired up my Dreamcast for the first time in ages last night. Totally forgot about those Atomiswave ports I'd stuck on the SD card, were a really nice surprise! Had a nice long session of Dolphin Blue.

I'll have to have a look in on that project again soon as I'm sure there are loads more games ported over now since I last checked.

Colonel Panic

I’ve been playing a lot of light gun games on my DC lately. House of the Dead 2 and Confidential Mission are not so much fun.

I think I’m going to get a GunCon and PS SNAC adapter for Mister so I can play some Time Crisis and Point Blank too.

Other retro, kinda is the Switch Klonoa port, still, which is hateful from 5-1 onwards. On 6-2 now after a long break.

Technically retro is Dead Space. On chapter 10 so almost done. Still holds up today. And there’s some Vanquish happening on Steam Deck.

Retr0gamer

Got to the disc swap in Deep Fear.

Opened the disc and inserted disc 2. Dumped back to the CD player. But when I loaded CD2 it loaded straight into Disc 2. Might actually be designed to work that way. Anyway looks like I can stop worrying as I can finish the game now!

Retr0gamer

Deep Fear finished. I enjoyed it but it's no classic. The first disc is more linear with small hub areas and a lot of fun. It's closer to something like Dino Crisis 2 than resident evil as you can stock up on ammo and health at ammo/health stations rather than having to ration it. The second disc falls apart a little as there's a lot of backtracking to hit arbitrary checkpoints to progress the story.

Combat is a little lacking as well. You can get new weapons but the machine guns are kind of useless and the shotguns really are the only choice for the majority of the game. The normal enemies are fun but bosses are very basic bullet sponges. The story is hokum but the voice acting is hilarious. The acting is dreadful with actors stumbling over lines making it into the final audio and there's a very offensive portrayal of a camp character. The CGI cutscenes are very impressive for the time they came out. The music is the real standout as they somehow managed to get the composer of the Ghost in the Shell anime on board. It only really plays in cutscenes but its really good.

Mobius2021

Getting great use out of my handheld Retroid Pocket 2+ which I have mentioned on a different thread.

Have finally gotten into and completed a Metroidvania, thanks to Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow on the GBA. Really enjoyed it - thought it was a good game for a newbie as it wasn't terribly difficult and it has the ability to grind and level up if needed. I got the bad ending first and then reloaded to get the good ending.

Still working through Warioland 2 on the Gameboy. Very different to the original Warioland. That was more of a traditional platformer where this has a little bit more puzzle elements.

After my enjoyment of Aria of Sorrow I decided to take a break from the Castlevania series and have started Metroid Zero Mission (GBA). Was criticised at the time for maybe being a bit short but that doesn't matter now that I'm emulating. I like the fact that it points the player to the next area they need to get to in order to progress the game. That might be a little too much hand-holding for some.

After those games I'm going to dig out my DSi and Acekard 2i flash cart in order to play Aria's sequel, Dawn of Sorrow. And I recently got a SD2Vita for my OLED Vita as well so I'm well catered for handheld retro gaming.

Retr0gamer

Metroid Zero Mission is superb. The short length didn't bother me. I just loved every moment of it and it's wide open for sequence breaking if you go back to it.

Colonel Panic

I only played Zero Mission and Fusion prior to Dread’s release. I then went back to Samus Returns and Prime.

Zero Mission was brilliant! Deadly music too.

I’m WFH in my shed atm so easy access to my retro stuff. I’m currently working on something that takes 20 mins to deploy so gives me time for some F-Zero!

Final cup on standard. Still can’t manage on expert!

CiDeRmAn

Have you tried the last title in the franchise release, F-Zero Climax?

It was a Japan exclusive title for the GBA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wnAvHg809o

Colonel Panic

No! I didn’t even know about it. I’d got the GBA launch F-Zero but that was it.

I’ll have to check it out.

CiDeRmAn

It is obscenely expensive as an original cart, but I imagine that Aliexpress could sort a brother out, or one of the myriad of other means to play GBA games...

Mr.Saturn

Never got on with the original F-Zero the way I did with Maximum Velocity and never quite sure why - guessing it's cause they'd refined the brakes/turns by the time they got to the GBA, but the orignal isn't that far off in feel so bit of a head-scratcher.

CiDeRmAn

Just clicked into Aliexpress and picked up the english translation of FZero Climax for the GBA.

Yes, it's a repro but at least it is not fooling anyone, as a fan-translation