So, what you playing at the mo? Retro Edition

Mr.Saturn

Pokemon Legends Arceus. It's definitely the evolution the series had been screaming out for since forever, but, Christ, how does the most profitable media franchise in history produce a title that looks like a Unity asset flip?

Retr0gamer

Took a break from TotK and played some snes.

First up Run Saber. It's a blatant Strider clone from Atlus. It's not quite as good but still well worth your time and a pretty easy game to beat. It adds a few of its own twists on the formula including a really fun 2 player co-op mode.

The level design is great and there's loads of mini bosses. The soundtrack is good but a bit too upbeat. The art design is excellent with some really creepy looking enemies.

Next was the hard route on starfox and this doesn't pull it's punches. I was locked by the game. Only made it to stage 2's boss.

I did like the little Easter egg in the opening stage. If you choose the hard route the commander comments that you are getting the jump on andross by going this route. Stage 1 then ends with enemies carrying pieces of the usual stage 1 boss as it hasn't been constructed yet right before taking on a new tank boss.

Colonel Panic

Quadraxis DEAD. That was a great boss fight for sure. Really tricky as you need to keep on top of the damage to get health items.

Really loving Metroid Prime 2. Im torn now between 3 next, or back to the Remaster of 1 despite finishing it on GC in March 2022.

Retr0gamer

I think I found the power bomb boss more aggravating but more so because it was a big change in boss fight mechanics. Quite clever all the same.

Colonel Panic

I remember the Power Bomb Guardian taking a few attempts on my side too. Very fiddly trying to navigate its arena.

gouche

I really want to replay Prime 2 after Prime 1 remaster. I have Prime trlogy but still hoping we'll get 2 and 3 remaster on switch.

tonyotonyo

I've been playing through a few of the irem m72 games.

I beat Dragon Breed, very good! Using your dragon as a shield is a cool thing even if it takes a while to get the hang of it. Ending screen with you dead is a bit strange.

Image fight, I already had but didn't properly play. Very tough so only got a few levels in but this has legs.

Air Duel, nice looking game but quite average. The difficulty ramps up big time after an easy first level.

Armed Police Unit Gallop, not as good as dragon breed, but it's close. Big chunky sprites and very fast. Can get to 4th level so far.

Ninja spirit is the bees knees, excellent. Swapping between the different weapons on the fly is what it's all about. Dynamite for the second boss. The third level the difficulty jumps up significantly and that's as far as I've gotten so far. Great music, very catchy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ataT3FIK2pI

Retr0gamer

Starfox hard route is kicking my ass hard. Stage 3 looks amazing but the slowdown really kicks in here. The boss is a real piece of work. Couldn't beat him.

Mr.Saturn

Pokemon Legends Arceus is the jankiest masterpiece since the first Deadly Premonition.

Colonel Panic

The collect-a-thon begins

o1s1n

Had great fun last night testing out my Snes carts, haven't really gone near them in quite some time.

A surprising amount of batteries have died in them though. Chrono Trigger, FF VI, Super Metroid, ALTTP, etc etc the list goes on and on - all full of missing save files!

Think my last 'great battery replacement' was at least 10 years ago. Might have been longer at this stage. Luckily though (with the help of The Artist formerly known as Enternow) we had a bit of foresight and put battery holders in them all. So it'll just be a matter of buying a rake of new CR2032s and snapping them into place.

Interesting observation, has anyone noticed how text heavy Japanese Snes cart labels are?

I've noticed in passing over the years but didn't notice quite so much until last night when I was trying to put the carts into some kind of order. A very large proportion of Jap labels are literally just the game's title. Maybe with a tiny image. As opposed to my PAL/NTSCU carts which have pictures and characters all over them.

Inviere

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120803318#Comment_120803318

Now THAT makes ignoring the passage of time very difficult....all those brand new batteries I fit are all dead? Christ 🙁

To be fair I think the battery holder idea was your own, and a great one at that, will make popping in new batteries a breeze.

o1s1n

I know right? it's weird to arrive at a stage in time that you actually future proofed for a decade ago 😅

I remember trying to figure out what holders to use, most of them didn't actually fit with the cart shell closed.

Went with these half moon ones if I remember correctly:

I must see what's the best possible CR2032 battery you can get for longevity when replacing them this time.

Inviere

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120803486#Comment_120803486

Yep, they look familiar alright. I'd say that's them

Retr0gamer

Must check my carts. I'm still amazed that mine all still worked from the carts I tested but that was over 5 years ago.

I'm a bit of a limbo again with the retrogames set up. Got my own place, well on the way to setting up my retrogames set up and now I'm moving job and moving into the girlfriends who is less enthused about any retrogames set up so I've to start all over again.

CiDeRmAn

So, a new Sauron...

So soon since your liberation from the last one...

Deary deary me...

Inviere

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120811544#Comment_120811544

Aw man, so you're moving back out of your own house? Meaning you can't set your gear up in your girlfriends place? Talk about being cursed...get yourself a Mister system and be done with it 😑

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120811544#Comment_120811544

Simple solution - keep your house as a hobby house! 😁

I had mad dreams of doing that with my old apartment in D1 when I moved out to my new place. Clear everything out and fill it with consoles and arcade machines. Mini arcade in the city centre, would have been amazing!

Then along comes reality as usual and crushes all such dreams /sob

CiDeRmAn

I now am "stuck" with an attic room that is just too uncomfortable to use.

I am considering investing in a large shed and to move the hobby, kit and caboodle, into it.

There is a spare room, but that is currently filled with what can be kindly referred to as crap, but crap that I can't/not allowed to bin.

I reckon a decent shed, for my purposes, would run me around €3k...

We shall have to see what the piggy bank has and work from there!

o1s1n

Could you swap out the crap room for the attic and move your gaming stuff into the spare room?

The only thing I suppose is I'd be worried about the spare room continuing to be the crap room, just now with crap piled on top of all your gaming stuff!

A separate stand alone thing like a shed is the dream alright. I'd absolutely love that if I had the space. Be amazing to just be able to buy things as they came up and not have to continually turn stuff down due to lack of space.

Could even have some proper dedicated arcade machines like lightgun games or machines with just one PCB in them.

I find that's continually been the one thing I've had to do over the years myself, I've had some cool machines and that but you end up having to make everything as multi purpose as possible.

Inviere

I found with a shed, that once you have to leave the comfort of the house to go out to it, you're less inclined to bother. Granted mine wasn't a modern warm/insulated/comfortable one, but I'm not sure that'd have made a difference for me.

What's up with the attic that makes it uncomfortable Cidey? Is it height? Space? Is it something a full clear out and re-jig might solve?

CiDeRmAn

There is only so much I can do with it and, in fairness, it has done little but accumulate stuff for the past 20 years!

A clear out, clean, and re-organise might do the trick, but a big part of me wants more vertical space and places to put everything, aside from those filthy current consoles that do not deserve to be named.

I'll have to look into it and decide then, but a large secure wooden or metal shed, supplied with power and a storage heater, good lighting, it could be fantastic, install a nice path through the back garden to it.

We shall have to see!

SuperBowserWorld

I don't think you'll get that for 3 grand. If you want something to escape to.

Hmmm, looks like one of our 2DS XLs was put into a charity clothes bag by accident and is gone. With a Tomadachi Life cartridge 😁. Have a backup 2DS XL which I thought was overkill, but not now.

I kinda hope the next switch has a flip screen and they'll port the big DS titles over or emulate them. I can see it happening ... how else does Nintendo bring these to its online service without some horrible single screen UI hacks.

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120812840#Comment_120812840

Re the DS titles, I wonder could a compromise be met as you have a screen in your hands with the Switch and also a TV in front of you. Some games might work in a hybrid TV/Switch mode, with the TV being the top screen and the Switch screen being the bottom.

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120812790#Comment_120812790

That's the one big downside of attic rooms alright, vertical space. I love games on shelves and it's almost impossible to do with that kind of shaped space.

Would it be possible to partition the room into two spaces with shelving maybe? I've seen some great uses of shelves to split a room in half.

SuperBowserWorld

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120813069#Comment_120813069

Like the Wii U - for me there is too big a disconnect looking from TV down to device. Works with some stuff, but not where you need to see both screens "at once".

CiDeRmAn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120813131#Comment_120813131

I don't know what might be possible, to be honest.

This will require some delicate negotiations with the venue manager (aka Mrs Ciderman) and see what can be done.

The spare room is supposed to be my art studio but, with one thing and another, I haven't quite got that mojo back yet.

Inviere

Those Ikea Kallax units can have their cubes split in half, so two consoles per cube (if the console fits.) Makes a reeeeaallly nice display. If you were able to consolidate your consoles into a much smaller space Cidey, it could leave a lot more space for games, shelves, etc etc. You could put the main consoles into action on display, and have the more obscure stuff semi-stored but easily accessible and easily put into use. Here's x13 consoles on a very simple 8x2 unit. You can buy these in bigger and smaller sizes, and combine them etc.

o1s1n

Ever sit down to play a game some evening, have it all go tits up and two hours later you're suddenly surrounded by screwdrivers and pieces of electronics?

Had a bit of time this evening to sit down and continue playing Sweet Home. It's a game I've been meaning to play for years, so finally decided to stick a translated rom image on my Everdrive N8 last night and had a crack at it. It's absolutely brilliant, got about 2 hours in, saved and left it there.

Thought I'd pick up this evening - save not there. Poo!

Fecked about with the N8 and it turns out the firmware I have on it is from 2013 and the newer ones had save state support, so whipped out the micro SD, updated the firmware and got it going again. Save stats were now working, hurrah!

Turned the console off and back on again to see if my saves were still there - I get an error saying the Everdrive had been reset to the default settings (with save states off)

Rather puzzled by this and with much messing about, it occurred to me that the N8 has a CR2032 battery inside. It's ten years old so it must have died and as a result, isn't saving my changes. No big deal, I've loads of them here, so would open it up, change the battery and start Sweet Home again.

I've never actually opened a Famicom cart case before. Did notice before that there were no screws, but thought it must have just popped open. Oh how wrong I was! They are an absolute pain in the TITS to open without breaking the internal tabs that hold both halves of the shell together. I actually had to look up a youtube video.

Finally got it open, no tabs broken but some cracks along the way...about to go and look for my stash of CR2032 batteries and I notice that the battery on the board is a bit smaller. What the absolute feck - it's a CR1220. A button cell battery I have never seen nor used before.

So off to ebay I went to order one. No Sweet Home for me this evening. Couldn't even close the N8 PCB back up into the cartridge shell as it was such a pain in the hoop to open in the first place.

Retrogaming, eh?? 😂

KeRbDoG

First thing I thought reading that was, is the N8 card a China version? Seemily those can't be upgraded, if they are they get bricked...I haven't dared to find out :D

But yes, I pop out to have a look at a game/machine for '5min' as I tell the boss and a hour or so later I arrive back f'ing and blinding that ever I was to look at as it doesn't work or needs fixing. Retrogaming is fun!