So, what you playing at the mo? Retro Edition

Colonel Panic

Back to… Chrono Trigger. I’m on the endgame side quests and underequipped with fire gear for Rust Tyrano. Dammit, I remember now why I stopped playing.

Worztron

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120260903#Comment_120260903

Hi. What does ":pac:" mean?

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120260881#Comment_120260881

If you are using a switch for anything other than indie and nintendo games you are doing it wrong.

The analogy doesn't really work either, the Switch is just underpowered.

On the other hand the C64 had fancy graphical hardware that let it push sprites and do scrolling which is why the game looked better. The Spectrum on the other hand had a much beefier CPU but bugger all graphical hardware. I meant it couldn't do sprites and had to brute force that stuff. But it meant 3D and processor intensive games ran better and most games ran smoothly despite the jank. I think the Megadrive and SNES are a better comparison.

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120264114#Comment_120264114

Before the vanilla update on boards, there was a pacman emoticon. :pac: is how you would get him to appear.

We lost him in the recent update.

Swear to god, aside from all the numerous other issues with Vanilla, that was the one that almost pushed me over the edge!

Colonel Panic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120260905#Comment_120260905

Managed to do it despite being short on fire resist. Used Haste a lot on Chrono to spam his big damage and Frog's Sword Strike was good too. Also used Barrier consumables to take the edge off Tyrano's Fire.

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120264242#Comment_120264242

Good man! Definitely a game worth sticking with. Is it your first playthrough?

That's one of the first games I ever truly bought as a 'rare retro' game, think it was also one of the first things I ever bought from the US on ebay too. Must be about 20 years ago now, in fact it's been so long the replacement save battery has died in it for a second time in it's life 😁

Colonel Panic

This is the furthest I've ever got on play throughs that go back to ZSNES through to the Nintendo DS version, where I got to The Fated Hour as well.

I got the US version from VideoGameImports for maybe £80 over 15 years ago and didn't get around to it until the height of the pandemic before my son way born.

I'm picking up that play through now and it looks like I've done half the side quests now!

I'd better check the voltage on the battery. I dunno if it's ever been replaced!

There's a whole bunch of games like this for me. I only finished Metroid Prime last year having got to Ridley in 2002 and I have yet to do the final part of Skies of Arcadia. It's a blast revisiting them now. I was a crap and much less patient gamer back then.

o1s1n

Yeah I was the same for years and years, so many games left unfinished near the end! I did something similar a few years ago and went back to either finish off a lot of the big hitters I hadn't completed, or just restarted them again and played the whole way through.

Finally finished Metroid Prime on the WiiU rerelease of Trilogy 2-3 years ago. Did something similar around that time with Windwaker too actually.

Quigs Snr

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120260905#Comment_120260905

Anyone know how the DS version holds up to the SNES ? I fluked an underpriced version of it for DS but because its such a classic apparently, I want to play it on the best system for it.

o1s1n

I think the DS version has some extras towards the end but it's the same game otherwise.

Funnily enough I bought that game cheap on release and kept it sealed as I had a feeling it was going to be worth a few quid.

Of course, I now cannot figure out where it is 😁

Colonel Panic

It’s great. Having the menus on the bottom screen worked really well and the translation was apparently improved.

It also includes the PS FMV.

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120266890#Comment_120266890

It's an excellent. They took on all the criticism of the gba FF games and went all out on the DS port. It's pretty much a perfect ports, even the music sounds spot on. There's a few rows of pixels missing due to the resolution but it's not noticable really.

They also added in a new dungeon which was meant to be in the final release, the music track was left on the snes cartridge. It's nice to have but it's kind of a slog unfortunately.

Retr0gamer

I'm really enjoying Deus Ex Invisibile War. Once you forget that it's a sequel to arguably the best game ever made and start taking it for it's own game there's a lot here to enjoy. I've one big issue though which is related to the game's console roots. I've finished the first major area of the game and with the Biomods I have I'm quite powerful and usually have an excess of multitools and bio energy to perform all tasks. I remember the original Deus Ex had a much steeper upgrade path where you were always on the verge of having an ability that would make your current situation much more comfortable (Etrian Odyssey also pulls this balance off nicely). The only big trade off I've had to make was to sacrifice my cloaking ability for hacking but hacking is just way more fun and the stealth is too janky in this game to make non lethal viable on a first playthrough.

CiDeRmAn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120260903#Comment_120260903

As one of those Speccy nerds I am currently very annoyed with myself and will probably not be talking to him for some time to come.

Colonel Panic

I see that Star Fox just turned 30. The latest thing to make me feel old.

In work sometimes I talk games with my team and often they haven’t played games because they hadn’t been born yet!

Anyway, I’ll put on Star Fox at lunch today!!

o1s1n

30 years old! that's hard to believe alright.

Nobody I knew back then actually owned it but we rented it out a lot. It's a great rental game really, straight into the action from the moment you press start.

The Nal

Slippy is down

The releases were mad back then. Wasnt released until June here. February in Japan.

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120278686#Comment_120278686

Megadrive owners had to wait until Virtua Racing for something that came close.

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120278913#Comment_120278913

And then when it came out it was £75!

I remember picking up a copy in the videogame section that used to be in the back of Quinnsworth Bray and my eyes nearly popped out of my head.

Edit - just ran that through an inflation calculator

£75 in 1994 was worth about €153.57 in 2021.

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120278935#Comment_120278935

I rented it. Definitely couldn't afford it!

accensi0n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120148069#Comment_120148069

Nice work!

CiDeRmAn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120278913#Comment_120278913

Bought Starwing on release and loved it, the choppy PAL frame rate not withstanding.

But Virtua Racing, now that was astonishing, far far better than Stunt Race FX on the SNES.

Inviere

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120278935#Comment_120278935

That's insane

The Nal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120279965#Comment_120279965

Prices back then were insane. My first Amiga 500 cost me (well, my old man) 520 punts. In 1989 or whenever. About €1000 in todays cash.

What was he thinking?!

I still have it though and it still works.

Inviere

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120280001#Comment_120280001

That's why I never had one, and why to this day, they retain an special aura for me...I'd never have been lucky enough to have one. I went from Atari 2600, to C64, to the Snes and onwards

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120280008#Comment_120280008

I'd one friend with an A600 and another even more well off friend with an A1200.

Both had divorced parents and both computers were purchased for them by their dads.

I had to make do with non divorced parents and a Sega Megadrive. The inhumanity! 😃

Retr0gamer

I found out tears later that my megadrive cost my parents nothing because my aunty worked at arnotts and it was the display model they were going to throw out.

I think I told the story about the C64 I got before being confronted by the neighbours playing their imported snes next door.

A few of my friends had amigas as well when I just had a C64. I was so jealous of the games on them. I absolutely adored the port of r-type on the Amiga.

o1s1n

Hah that's gas! Is that still the same Megadrive you're using these days? Mad to think it spent a portion of it's life sitting on display in a store with folks playing it in the centre of town.

We were so skint in the early 90s my parents bought my Megadrive on higher purchase. Was an absolutely massive deal at the time.

To be fair, I still use it 30 years later so it was quite the investment!

CiDeRmAn

I started with the Spectrum, but spent the years before playing on any arcade machines and pong consoles I could find!

I had a two year break from gaming before coming back to the Gameboy and C64 in 90 to 91.

I had a Spectrum +3 in there somewhere, and I remember a couple of kids laughing when I was looking for a game at the counter in Easons in 1990.

A step then to the MD, SNES and so on, but I remember playing the hell out of the Gameboy.

Things changed so quickly.

I mean, I went from playing Lemmings on the GB to playing Super Mario World in less than two years.

Another two years and it was Need for Speed and Return Fire on the 3DO, and a year later it was WipeOut and Ridge Racer on the PS.

The evolution of gaming was insanely fast.

It does seem like the past 15 years have been less about such revolutionary change and refinement, which has involved looking forward and bringing the best of the past along for the trip.

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120283162#Comment_120283162

Yep still going last time I had it out!