So, what you playing at the mo? Retro Edition

Retr0gamer

Beat sweatin' mode and unlocked the elite beat divas hard rock mode for the ultimate challenge. I'm a good bit in but at the final 4 stages which give the most issues so I guess I'll be stuck here.

The hard rock mode has the same icon patterns as sweatin' except they mirror them, make the icons smaller and give you half the time to react to the icons appearing. It's a real ball buster.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121947944#Comment_121947944

I did enjoy circle of the moon when it came out but it retrospect it's a bit weak. There's boss fight with two dragons that near killed my progress in the game.

Mr.Saturn

Based on my experience with the Post-SOTN games and my little tinkering with the DSS system, surely there has to be some utterly broken combination to trivialise any difficulty spike? Like in Aria, where you get that item that turns enemy HP into XP and you can just roll up the counter in a matter on minutes.

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121948197#Comment_121948197

Oh of course there is but it's not as customisable as you'd think. And while there might be broken combinations, the DSS system is also based on totally random drops so by that point you only have a few cards to play with and I had nothing but junk.

Retr0gamer

Played way too much EBA last night as I've had serious Tetris effect from it all day.

Retr0gamer

Finally last night I beat Jumping Jack Flash on the hardest difficulty in Elite Beat Agents. I'd been trying on and off for days. It's absolute insanity. Even when I had most of the song off by muscle memory there were always moments when my execution was just off. The penultimate stretch in the song is a series of very fast stretches of 13 notes, each punctuated by a spinner. Absolute pain in the ass as you really have to spin like crazy to complete the spinner. You don't really have time to hit the next note so you have to stop the spinner early to move to the next note string.

On this attempt my fingers were getting very sweaty on the final spinner so they were right down to the nub of the stylus but I managed to keep it together.

Haven't felt this sort of an achievement in a videogame since I beat Mike Tyson.

The only bad news is that there's still Ouendan 2 to beat...

o1s1n

How's your DS screen doing after all that? 😂 sounds mental!

I'm just approaching the end of Chrono Trigger myself. Second last chapter. Thought I was taking my time on this run through but looks like I'll have it beat in about 15 hours total.

Just to reiterate, the Analogue Pocket is amazing for 16 bit RPGs. The screen is just the absolute perfect size for reading text and menus. I think its going to be go to for that genre now in future for that era of consoles. Trying to figure out what to do next, maybe another runthrough of Earthbound? Should probably try something I haven't played before though.

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121964875#Comment_121964875

There's definitely signs of the spinners when you catch the light right!

What makes the final difficulty so hard is that only perfect '300' hits will gain you back meter. '100' hits seem to loses net meter and '50' hits might as well be a missed hit.

9jamie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121964875#Comment_121964875

Might be an obvious one but have you played Super Metroid? It's still an absolute classic.

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121989113#Comment_121989113

Yeah played through it a few times, one of my favourites on the Snes for sure! I really wish I'd played the first time around when I was a kid, say I would have loved it. Didn't actually have a run through of it until the early 00s when I started collecting SNES games.

Played through Super Double Dragon last night on real hardware. Have a nice little PVM setup in the front room now. It's one of those games I grew up playing with my cousin a lot as he had a copy, so the nostalgia is through the roof whenever I play it, really really love the game.

Taking the rose tinted glasses off for a moment, it really can't hold a candle to the Likes of Streets of Rage 2.

I know it's slow by design with the grab mechanic (which is great fun), but the game really struggles pushing more than three enemies on screen at once. The character sprites themselves have some lovely little animations, but they really are tiny. The levels are also all very bland with not a lot going on. Particularly when it comes to the bosses. If I didn't have such a huge nostalgic connection to it, I'd say it's a very bland game.

KeRbDoG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121989113#Comment_121989113

…I had a large box Super Metroid 'back in the day', one of those 'I really should have kept it' regrets

Retr0gamer

After a rocky start I'm really getting into Castlevania Order of Ecclesia. The game starts tough with two boss fights that take way more damage than they really should but once you get past that it gets really good.

There's a bit of Simon's Quest DNA here with each stage being its own mini metroidvania and all interconnected. There's also a town that you fill up with villagers that gives side quests that expand the shop inventory.

It looks stunning as well, it might be the last example of traditional pixel art from a big Japanese developer.

Retr0gamer

About a year ago I was dared to play Kingdom Hearts RE: Chain of Memories by a... Friend. Not sure I can call them a friend anymore but I guess forcing this game on someone is not grounds for dismissing a friendship.

I decided to finally get this game off my backlog and I'm mixed about the game but it's mostly bad.

It's remaster of a PS2 game which was a budget remake of a GBA game. It has kingdom hearts combat but also throws in card mechanics. It's sounds ****, and it kind of is, but it also kind of works.

The problem is that there's an actual good battle system here. Boss battles are excellent and I have to admit the last few boss battles were challenging and a lot of fun. The problem is you have about 30-45 minutes of the same random battles over and over between boss fights. It really drags the game down. The move to 3D apparently doubled the length of the game, although this remaster did add extra balancing.

There's other issues, it being a Kingdom Hearts game means the story is absolute ballocks.

I beat Sora's story which opens up the very difficult Riku story so I'm not done with the game yet but I did make sure to drop the game difficulty ro easy this time as those random battles are hell to slog through.

o1s1n

Playing some games on the original Nintendo Switch this evening.

My original Revenge of Shinobi cart I got for my birthday in 1992. Peeled off label where my mam tried to remove the Quinsworth price sticker but failed miserably.

Was actually having a great non infinite shuriken run and the bloody game froze at The Terminator! Noooooo

o1s1n

Well that's Chrono Trigger finished.

It's one of those games I never want to end so kept putting off the last boss. Decided today it was time to say goodbye to the gang.

romperstomper

That analoue pocket looks neat. How does it compare to R36s (which I was also considering)

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122047148#Comment_122047148

You're comparing a 50 euro device to a 300 euro device, there's no contest really.

I will say that the power button and the volume buttons on the pocket are pants. Everything else about it is glorious though. The screen is stunning!

romperstomper

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122047904#Comment_122047904

thank you for replying. I'm guessing the AP is aimed at those with original carts for the systems it supports?

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122047958#Comment_122047958

Thats the idea alright, you can also run 'Open FPGA' though which lets you play ROMs on FPGA emulators, so can use it as a portable emulation machine too.

Retr0gamer

The OLED screen also makes a massive difference.

Inviere

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122047964#Comment_122047964

Worth noting too, that it's hardware emulation….a far cry from those cheap Ali handheld thingies.

Colonel Panic

I’ve got a play through of Chrono Trigger I need to finish. Was having problems with one of the final side quests in terms of fire resist and was grinding in the prehistory era.

Tom Mann Centuria

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122047148#Comment_122047148

Personally speaking I'd be inclined to give a cheapie device a go first, you can get the r36s for under 40 euro, before splurging 300 euro.

As has been hammered home they're in different leagues with regard to quality, and for purists that is probably a deal breaker, but for an awful lot of people the cheap and cheerful crap will scratch the itch.

If you enjoy that, there's significantly better software emulation devices, you enjoy that then there are FPGA devices (that are at the cheaper end), enjoy that, then the serious money FPGA devices....….

The devils advocate argument is go the whole hog on the Analogue Pocket and if it isn't for you, sell it, I don't see a scenario any time soon where you'll lose money on one.

Retr0gamer

Also remember that it isn't emulation 🤣

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122049881#Comment_122049881

That's probably the Son of Sun boss in the Sun Palace?

He's actually not too bad once you figure out you can only hurt him by hitting one of the fire orbs around him at a time in single attacks. (Avoids him doing a big counter attack) He then does a roulette wheel type spin and the orb that can be hurt changes. Repeat until dead.

Chrono Trigger is really well balanced, shouldn't have to grind at all, just try not to run away from fights as you go through. If you're having difficulty with a boss it's probably more down to him having some trick to killing him rather than being under levelled.

Colonel Panic

yeah that’s the one.

I meant fire resist gear rather than levels but perhaps the same statement about ballance applies there too.

Will try it out.

I’ve never actually finished the game before despite owning it for years!

Quigs Snr

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122024224#Comment_122024224

What Screen Mod do you have in the Nomad ?

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122050531#Comment_122050531

Ah yeah you get all that by trading horns and bits and pieces in 65 million BC alright. Best of luck, it's definitely a game worth seeing till the end :)

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122051442#Comment_122051442

It was back before the days of folks making handy drop in kits! Inviere modded it for me well over ten years ago now. I think the LCD was from a car reversing camera that a few of us bought from Dealextreme.

Quigs Snr

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121890214#Comment_121890214

… you weren't wrong on N64 Sin and Punishment. Officially have everything I care about on N64 now and it seems like I left the best until last. On the one hand I can't believe this didn't get a release outside of Japan. On the other hand… the sequel on Wii does not appear to have sold well either. We dont deserve to have nice things over here in the west folks.

Inviere

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122051514#Comment_122051514

It's also the old composite mod, whereas the new ones use rgb. Still, even composite is a huge improvement over the stock screen.

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122051836#Comment_122051836

Honestly I actually rather composite on this occasion. I've a million and one ways of playing Megadrive games in RGB. My Nomad is the only way I can see dithering effects in Megadrive games. The screen is so small it still looks nice and sharp too.

The mode button being linked up to the 50/60hz switch is also a great way to show people in real time the difference between PAL and NTSC speeds.