Comments 763

Re: Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy Gets Confirmed Release Date, First Trailer And Screenshots

Atariboy

Looks like a surprisingly high quality job. Wasn't expecting to be impressed by the first footage, but these look nicely updated visually while still not losing the aesthetic feel of the original versions.

If the gameplay mechanics are as nicely updated like I'm confident they will be (They've already said they're modernizing this area), they have a winner here. Some of it is hard to go back to when revisiting these on the PS2/Xbox and didn't even go over terribly well when they were new, like starting from square one when failing a mission and the close quarters combat mechanics.

About the only thing that sadly won't be here are custom soundtracks. Such a cool feature on the original Xbox with how mp3's were seamless integrated into the driving experience. Felt like a feature ahead of its time back then, but sadly it's a future that never came to pass. Sure, you can play your own music such as with the simple background music app on the Xbox One, but it's not integrated into the experience like on the original Xbox.

Edit: Well that didn't age well. At least I wasn't alone in being fooled by the reveal trailer.

Re: Gallery: Breaking The Seal On Retro-Bit's 'Undercover Cops' Reissue

Atariboy

Thanks to jailbroken Super Nt's, Super Everdrives, Super Powerpaks, and SD2SNES/FX Pak Pro's, I'm surprised there's a market here for these unlicensed (By Nintendo, that is) reproductions.

Judging by what HamatoYoshi says, I'm glad the Super Nt can reduce or even eliminate sprite flicker (Optionally upping the sprite limit from 32 sprites per line to 64). If I ever fire this up off my SD card, I'll be sure to enable that option.

Re: 'Disney Classic Games Collection' DLC Upgrade Will Be Available for $9.99

Atariboy

@AG_Awesome Thanks

I actually noticed that a while after posting. I don't believe that variety of options were present on the original version. My PS4 isn't hooked up atm so I can't easily check, but I think it was just the usual no filter, scanlines, and smoothing options in the original release.

Nothing to blend dithered patterns like appears to perhaps have been added here, judging by the brief clips in the trailer.

Re: 'Disney Classic Games Collection' DLC Upgrade Will Be Available for $9.99

Atariboy

We have to remember that SNES Aladdin is a Capcom property that's newly licensed. So I suppose it's fair enough for them to ask us to contribute to that license, since I'm sure Capcom didn't give them access for free.

That said, Capcom did do that once for Activision Anthology on PS2 (Provide a free licensing deal to another publisher). But it was only to enable Activision's average at best 2600 port of Commando to appear rather than one of the flagships from their classic IP lineup.

Looking at the emulation itself, I hope it's improved this time around. While I wasn't too bothered by the very poor quality Game Boy emulation the first time around since the included GB/GBC games weren't very good anyways (The audio emulation isn't even close to accurate), it still would be nice to see it actually work correctly this time.

And perhaps most of all, implement a decent dither blending feature for The Lion King on the Genesis. It looks so much nicer with the blending feature of the Analogue Mega Sg than it does on the official compilation. Goes from ugly to looking almost as nice as the SNES counterpart.

Re: Horizon Chase Turbo Honours F1's Ayrton Senna In New 'Senna Forever' Expansion

Atariboy

Wasn't a Senna fan (I prefer Formula One drivers that raced hard but didn't forget that they were gentlemen, like Jackie Stewart) , but this looks great.

I wonder if there's any chance of Top Gear (SNES) style pit stops. Never was a fan of the fuel icon pickups and always have been puzzled that a bunch of Top Gear fans went that route when developing this spiritual sequel.

Re: Two Namco Classics Join Hamster's Arcade Archives This Week

Atariboy

@DeathByLasagna This one's an emulation while the one in Namco Museum is a port. Traditionally that's meant that things like old patterns don't successfully work in the latter, but I've not personally dug into the Pac-Man port on Switch and have just played it casually a couple of times.

So this port may be more accurate than it was in past Namco Museums, which other than the 50th Anniversary Collection on XB/GCN/PS2 that featured emulation by Digital Eclipse, have always been ports going back to the original Playstation line.

But with Hamster always going the emulation route and with their reputation for accurate emulation with the Arcade Archives line, you're guaranteed this one will behave exactly as it should.

That said, if you're a casual Pac-Man player and already own Namco Museum, I don't see that you're gaining a whole lot by double dipping for the utmost accuracy when Namco Museum looks, feels, and plays as one expects from Pac-Man.

The only thing you're gaining is the confidence that any old Pac-Man pattern will work as it should, where as ports usually miss some of the nuances of the ghost behavior and break those old patterns.

Edit: And this may be ideal for flip grip owners. I recall some sort of problem with trying to use Namco Museum with that (I think the screen rotated the exact opposite way of other vertical arcade releases on the NS, leaving the game upside down).

Re: Nintendo 64 And Sega Genesis 'Expansion Pack' Announced For Switch Online, Launches This October

Atariboy

Switch Online launched with NES downloads and everyone immediately was whining that they were bored with Nintendo's NES classics and were demanding SNES games.

SNES games later came and they immediately started to whine that they didn't actually care about SNES games and the demands for N64 games were born.

Now, they've gotten their announcement and a very nice bonus with Sega's greatest home console platform, and again the situation is unacceptable.

You people...

Re: Exclusive: Eugene Jarvis Talks Cruis'n Blast And The "Joy" Of Working With Nintendo Again

Atariboy

@Daddoo Roadblasters has actually seen the light of day since then on home consoles, courtesy of Lego Dimensions.

It's one of two dozen or so arcade classics from the Bally Midway/Williams/Atari Games catalog that were emulated by Code Mystics and patched into Lego Dimensions as unlockables.

Alas, it doesn't do much good for Switch owners (And a late patch on Wii U caused severe visual artifacts in the arcade classics which was never rectified). But if one owns a Xbox One or Playstation 4, it's at least an option (I think 360/PS3 has the same issue as the Wii U port does). And while I'm unsure about PS5, the XB1 game and the USB portal accessory are fully Xbox X/S compatible.

Reminds me though that I need to revisit the game on the Xbox One and unlock some more arcade classics. It's a real slog for me, with whatever charm Lego Dimensions was supposed to have being lost on me. But I slowly whittle away at it from time to time with the goal of unlocking most all of the arcade classics (With Roadblasters sadly still locked away for me at the moment).

Re: Court Orders Popular ROM Website To "Destroy" All Of Its Unauthorised Nintendo Games

Atariboy

@jsty3105 You're right, of course. If it's modern day content, Nintendo has little recourse but to pursue action.

Like many here, I picture them going after sites with NES romsets and such. Something many of us right here in the comments have on our PC's, loaded up in our Powerpaks and Everdrives, etc.

That classic era content is so widely available that there's no going back. Nintendo could empty their coffers of every cent going after uploaders and it would still be out there among the masses in large numbers.

Re: Analogue Is Restocking The Super NT And Mega SG Later Today

Atariboy

@Frankstarr Don't get uptight about it, bud. It wasn't a big mistake that you made. But it was an incorrect one and it didn't hurt to explain why.

Lots of factors could be at play. One significant problem with these mini consoles is the rise of newer 4k displays (i.e., what many people like possibly yourself now own for their biggest television in their household).

TV manufacturers have decided 720p isn't pretty enough and are butchering the signal by overprocessing it for their latest 4k displays, which adds input lag (And damages the visuals). And sadly all these mini systems output 720p.

If you're perhaps comparing across native 4k displays and 1080p displays, it wouldn't shock me if you're noticing the fallout of that move with your SNES Mini.

Re: Analogue Is Restocking The Super NT And Mega SG Later Today

Atariboy

@Frankstarr No, it's not true. What possibly makes you think that the bigger the display, the more input lag that your SNES Classic Edition/Mini is going to have?

If you're just going off personal experiences with the displays in your home, the answer is simple. You're noticing it more on the bigger display not because of the size of it compared to your smaller televisions, but because it's simply not as great of a tv.

Not every LCD panel is created equal. Not every scaling chip is created equal. Not every manufacturer's firmware is created equal. It has absolutely nothing to do with the set's physical dimensions when one outperforms the other with gaming hardware.

About the only time that size has ever entered the equation in a manner anything like you're describing, was the rise of much larger CRT televisions on the eve of the HD age. Many of these would have significant screen geometry issues right out of the box. Advanced users could alleviate many of the issues, but it's not something that typically was a significant problem for those gaming on smaller CRT's.

Re: Nintendo To Spend Up To $900 Million To Buy Back Its Own Shares

Atariboy

Doesn't strike me as a great thing like the article and comments seem to think it is. I'd rather see the company re-invest in itself such as by upping the capacity of its 1st party development capabilities.

Reducing the number of shares on the marketplace does little for anyone except those that now will own a little bigger slice of Nintendo for their share of stock, with Nintendo retiring up to 900 million dollars worth of their own stock. It won't reduce outside influence or reduce dividend payouts.

And while I've done nothing stock market related as a career, if I remember classes talking about it when I went for my MBA, this move is often done when a company feels like their stock is undervalued (i.e., Nintendo thinks their stock is worth more than the investing community, Wall Street, and so on do and is trying to inflate the value). That's not a great thing to have happen, but we'll have to wait and see if Nintendo's expensive move succeeds in inflating the value to the level Nintendo perceives it should be at.

Re: Nvidia Shield Shutting Down Nintendo Wii Game Downloads In China

Atariboy

@Don Everywhere else got zero, not hundreds. Wii downloads for the Nvidia Shield were exclusive to China and presumably was part of the deal that Nintendo cut with Nvidia during the gestation phase of the Switch.

The closest other regions have seen to this is the underlying emulation technology (Or possibly an equivalent) being repurposed to get Super Mario Galaxy on Super Mario 3D All-Stars up and running on the similar Switch hardware.

Re: Scrapped Wii "Bulletin Board Channel" Uncovered In Nintendo Gigaleak

Atariboy

Wii Shop last I looked a few weeks back hadn't been shut down. What ceased was first the ability to add Wii Points to your balance and later on, the ability to actually spend those to buy content.

But unless something this summer has killed it off, the Wii Shop is still very much online. Past purchases can still be redownloaded, the Skyward Sword save fix can still be "purchased" and downloaded, and the Wii to Wii U transfer app can still be acquired and utilized.

It's of course a hollow shell of what it once was by killing off the ability to acquire new games, but it's obviously not shut down.

Re: Food Fight Is Making A Comeback In 2022

Atariboy

Doubt it will be any good, but if it possibly opens up the path for the arcade original to appear on current systems, I'd be happy. The Atari 7800 and Atari 8-bit ports would be nice as well (Also as a note to the editor, the 7800 game is an arcade port and not a sequel).

The arcade original was one of the "killer apps" for Microsoft's somewhat lackluster Game Room service on the Xbox 360 and remains the only time the arcade game has popped up in the era of commercial videogame emulation. Was a refreshing change of pace from the same small lineup reappearing every time like Asteroids.

Food Fight along with Konami's Juno First and Jackal are the primary reasons Game Room is still installed on my Xbox 360's in 2021.

Re: Where To Pre-Order The Taito EGRET II Mini

Atariboy

@joey302 Coleco Holdings is a modern company that popped up about 15 years ago. They're also known as River West. The Coleco Chameleon disaster is what they're best known for now.

I'm not sure they legitimately bought any rights to the Colecovision. I suspect they "acquired" the Coleco rights the same way they did the Zaxxon trademark, with the Colecovision trademark inactive since the implosion of Coleco Industries at the end of the 1980's.

Hasbro never did anything with the Colecovision brand, so I bet they just let the trademark lapse after buying the remnants of Coleco Industries (Mainly to get Cabbage Patch Dolls), with it likely entering the public domain in the 1990's until River West came long in the mid 2000's to re-establish a trademark that had been inactive.

There might be more to it since they act as if they own the software that Coleco developed and published back in the day. Unlike trademarked game titles that expire and have to be renewed, copyrighted software code won't lapse for decades to come. If they don't truly own that stuff and the real owner (Hasbro?) were to come after them, they'd be in serious trouble.

So maybe they actually purchased some of the rights to the Colecovision from Hasbro, unlike the shady things they did with stuff like Zaxxon.

Re: Where To Pre-Order The Taito EGRET II Mini

Atariboy

@joey302 @KingMike

Jungle King indeed was the original with Jungle Hunt the revised version after legal action was taken. Pirate Pete is an obscure spiritual sequel.

Sadly, Taito screwed up their filing for a trademark renewal for the Jungle Hunt name and Coleco Holdings claim jumped it several years ago (As they also did with some other classic arcade trademarks like Zaxxon and Bump 'n' Jump that the owners were delinquent on filing for renewals).

Coleco Holdings though has failed themselves to file their Section 8 declaration in a timely manner for Jungle Hunt, so if Taito is watching, they could re-secure this trademark.

Presumably these troubles are behind why Jungle Hunt is sitting on the sidelines while the little known follow-up is seeing the limelight. At least Pirate Pete is a cool reskinning with more advanced graphics and audio, harder difficulty, etc. So it's nice to see it seeing the light of day officially (Never made the cut for the three Taito Legends volumes or the four Taito Memories releases during the PS2 era).

Re: 'Castlevania Advance Collection' Possibly Revealed By Rating In Australia

Atariboy

While good news if it happens, I have other great ways to play these. What excites me is that another M2 developed anniversary collection being potentially on the way perhaps gives hope for even more projects down the road.

I'd love for instance to see a single screen adaptation of Contra IV and the Castlevania titles from the Nintendo DS generation with the touch screen elements removed.

Re: Metroid 5 Is Coming To Switch As Metroid Dread, And It's 2D

Atariboy

@MegaVel91 I've not portrayed anything as more than my personal opinion.

If one wants to think that Metroid Prime 4 is safe and still in development, that's fine and I very much hope that indeed is the case.

I quite possibly have been too hasty in thinking that the project has likely been reimagined away from the Prime formula and that this is it, but we'll see.

Either way, what's getting lost in this back & forth is that a new Metroid game was unveiled today. That's all I care about, so consider our sidetrack closed from my end.

Re: Metroid 5 Is Coming To Switch As Metroid Dread, And It's 2D

Atariboy

@MegaVel91 What assumptions, buddy? That this perhaps isn't the remnants of the Metroid project that got handed over to Retro Studios after stalling out at Namco Bandai?

If so and Metroid Prime 4 is still in the works, than that's great to hear. While I'm rather skeptical that they've quietly had a completely different Metroid project underway simultaneously, I'd love to find out that indeed has been the case.

So while I doubt it, I'm hoping that's correct.

Re: Metroid 5 Is Coming To Switch As Metroid Dread, And It's 2D

Atariboy

Guess they weren't able to save Metroid Prime 4, but as one that prefers Metroid in 2D, I'll happily take a 2.5D style Metroid game in the place of what we've been expecting for four years now.

Hopefully for the Prime fans (Of which I'm also one, although I do give a slight edge to Metroid in 2D with my personal presences), that long rumored Metroid Prime Trilogy HD collection actually ends up happening as a consolation prize.

Re: Fatal Frame: Maiden Of Black Water Jumps From Wii U To Switch And, Surprisingly, Other Platforms

Atariboy

Can tell the author never played the Wii U game much, if at all.

"Relied on its second screen Gamepad functionality so heavily made it an unlikely candidate for a Switch port."

Nope, the game includes full traditional dual analog controls as an option. While it's the default setup, the gyroscopic camera aiming is 100% optional.

With them perhaps regaining the reigns to this franchise, I hope the Wii sequel finally gets a proper western release. The Final Frame 2 remake that North America missed out on also would be great.