@ramu-chan I know, I even said I played through Disaster Report and Raw Danger in the comments.
I'm assuming you neglected to look at the comment I was responding to. Ralek said "considering this started out as a PS3 game, it is really disheartening to read that even the PS4 version is anything but smooth sailing."
When I told him that while it started out a PS3 game, none of that heritage is here since Granzella started from scratch, I wasn't talking about the franchise. I was talking specifically about Disaster Report 4.
No PS3 era code, art, music, voice acting, or models were recycled from the cancelled Irem game that originally was going to be Disaster Report 4.
Was a pleasant blind buy on Game Room on the Xbox 360, so I'll happily double dip here.
I had my suspicions the audio emulation fell well short on the 360, so it will be nice to have a version with faithful sounds.
I hope we get Juno First. That one also had lackluster audio emulation on Game Room, but was a joy to play. Would love to see it get an Arcade Archives release.
I hope the PS4 version performs a bit better (Or can at least have the performance issues ironed out someday when I buy a PS5).
That said, I never thought Disaster Report or Raw Danger were technical masterpieces, but the underlying game still pulled me in. I'm willing to play this even if the frame rate count falls well short of perfection, and suspect the uniqueness will again overcome the presentation.
@BANJO The Galaxy games were very small, so I don't see why not. Galaxy 2 for instance is only 1.3 GB and even Super Mario 3D World on Wii U was only 1.6 GB. I think a 8 GB cartridge could probably accommodate it easily and at worst, definitely 16 GB with lots of room to spare.
But everyone needs to reread the leak. It immediately backtracks from predicting a "Super Mario All-Stars 2" style release and states "while it’s possible the older 3D Mario games could come in a single compilation, it’s also likely that Nintendo will release them individually as it did with its Zelda remasters."
I'm not sure why the leaker even suggested a compilation format to start with when they immediately follow it up by saying this.
@BanjoPickles Super Mario Sunshine is no trouble. The analog trigger essentially acted as two buttons for FLUDD.
A gentle trigger press was a low power setting that let Mario still run while full power was done by pressing the trigger in all the way (Forcing Mario to stand still).
All they have to do is map the two separate functions to their own individual buttons. People have already been doing that for years in Dolphin (And I believe it also can be done with Nintendont on Wii U).
@AtlanteanMan Namco Museum Virtual Arcade for the Xbox 360 has by far the largest lineup. 28 arcade classics, 3 arrangement games, Galaga Legions, Mr. Driller Online, and Pac-Man Championship Edition.
Namco Museum 50th Anniversary Collection only had 16 arcade classics. Namco Museum Battle Collection for the PSP from the same year even bested it, with two more arcade games and 4 arrangement games. And 2008's MegaMix had 18 arcade classics as well as 6 arrangement games.
I suspect and hope that this virus will be yesterday's news by that point, so I suspect something more is afoot here than just "protecting" people from a virus that God willing won't even be an immediate concern in three month's time.
I rather suspect if this comes to pass, that E3 itself is dead. It may have sadly been viewed a necessity to cancel or delay in several week's time, but it's hardly a decision that needed to be made in early March. Money is already spent, commitments already made, and hotel's and flight's are already booked. They could've been cancelled in 6 week's time as easily as now.
But what it is, is a good out for an event that perhaps was underselling floor space to vendors and so on, that allows them to financially get out from under their commitments and look good while doing so and avoid industry criticism, just in case the concept can be reawakened in the future and be made more viable.
An outright cancellation without what on the surface appears to be a very good reason that can't be argued with, would be a death knell to the Entertainment Software Association ever attracting major publishers that can't count on them to follow through. But with this virus, it allows them to cancel, regroup, and evaluate options for 2021 to perhaps make the model work.
Or more likely, it's just gone for good. E3 has been on the verge of collapse for years now.
@Agent721 My post got too long above, so wanted to post these links separately. They're the active threads at AtariAge dealing with the Retron '77. The top one is going to be the one you want to look at if you want to update Stella.
@Agent721 The folks in the AtariAge community don't seem to think too favorably of the new Atari VCS (Or the Polymega for that matter, but the upcoming Intellivision Amico that I haven't paid much attention to seems to be drawing a lot of optimism).
The main thing the Atari system has going for it from my perspective is the out of the box installation of Atari Vault that each system includes. But I already own that same classic compilation for my Windows PC (Atari Vault) as well as the three individual Atari Flashback Classics releases for my PS4 and the combined 150 game Atari Flashback Classics collection on Switch and Vita.
It hopefully manages to surpass expectations, but Atari SA has done a poor job so far of communicating and the financial situation over there isn't great. So it probably will live up to the low expectations most have and be an expensive low end PC for video streaming and emulation for many of their buyers.
@Agent721 I actually just got a Retron '77 about two days ago. While I've had a Retro-bit clone system in the past (The Retro Duo), this is my first experience with a Hyperkin product.
Haven't yet given it a full workout though. The process to update it to the latest build of the Stella emulator sounds slightly complicated at AtariAge, and I want to read through the long threads there to make sure I don't screw anything up.
I also have the Atari Flashback 9, which is very similar to the out of the box state of the Retron '77 with a similarly old version of Stella under the hood (Although the Flashback system lacks the cartridge port of the Retron '77).
But an updated Retron '77 with the latest version of Stella should make that purchase obsolete and provide a good way to play these on my HDTV (I'll keep my genuine 2600 connected to my Trinitron).
I think this has promise, but have my heart set on the higher end Analogue Pocket to go with my Super Nt and Mega Sg (And hopefully one of these days, an AVS or Nt Mini successor as well).
Rather surprised it's such a low percentage. If I had to have took a shot in the dark, I'd of guessed that at least over 60% of Switch owners had another modern game console connected to their television.
While I'm a fan of even obscure consoles like the Vectrex, as a Nintendo fan I'm still happy to see a substantial percentage of current gen Nintendo hardware owners that are happily getting by with just a Switch.
If fans end up enjoying this and I decide to take a chance, I wonder if I could use an extension cable for the receiver.
Seems like a safe bet that would work and it sure would help the looks if the receiver could instead rest next to the system or even be tucked behind it, since it's a real eyesore plugged into the console.
The problem is this picture is showing the box of the 2017 model, which utilized the lackluster in-house AtGames developed emulator rather than Genesis Plus GX like the 2018 version.
Anyone considering this in Ireland, look at the circles on the front of the box to tell these apart. The 2017 version has four circles, as shown in the lower left hand corner of the front of the boxart pictured in this article.
The 2018 iteration has five circles. "Save, Resume, and Rewind Games" from the 2017 version was split up into two circles marked as "Save and Resume Games" and "Rewind Games".
If it's four circles, you're buying a shoddy product. If it has five, you're buying a quality product that you'll likely enjoy (And which can do a lot more than the Sega Genesis Mini can).
The main virtue of FPGA tech is that it's reconfigurable on the fly, as seen in past Analogue products like the NT Mini where it can reproduce the NES at one minute and the Atari 2600 the next (And 16 other game systems on top of those two, all with a single FPGA). They're not including a 2nd FPGA here just to enable homebrew for additional aftermarket cores.
Further clarification has been made thanks to Kevtris participating on Discord, and the 2nd much less powerful FPGA is there purely for things they want locked down like the operating system (Such as the menu), video scalers, etc. Homebrewers can't touch this one and Analogue doesn't have to hand over any of their proprietary source code now to enable homebrew, or risk homebrew programmers causing issues with the primary functionality of the Analogue Pocket. It's locked down and can't be touched.
The system cores themselves all use the main FPGA though that has been carried forward from the Mega SG and Super NT, and homebrewers will be able to access this one to run their homebrew cores on.
Other than being skeptical of their promise of adapters (Mega SG fans are still waiting for the variety of cartridge adapters promised before release to be made available), it all sounds great.
I wish the dock had a SNES controller port on it though, but USB and Bluetooth will get the job done.
Hopefully the jailbreak firmware fairy will visit shortly after release.
@Nagi Not too realistic, alas. Emulation would be so complex that they'd have to resort to porting games, just like how the more modern games in Midway Arcade Treasures 3 that got offshored to China were handled years ago.
We'd be lucky to see 4-5 games a year and they'd be limited to just candidates with surviving source code.
@masterLEON The number of owners among the KLOV membership was posted as anecdotal evidence of the success of this game back in the day and its popularity today among classic arcade fans today. They weren't intended to be posted as sales numbers.
A poorly received game doesn't have that type of numbers at KLOV. A sales failure of that vintage that didn't sell well and didn't do well on location is going to be teetering on the edge of extinction in 2019, not surviving with dozens of machines alone owned just by the somewhat limited membership at KLOV.
That this one has such numbers tells us three things about how it performed in the west back in 1984. One is that it sold well and was relatively common. Secondly, it performed well on location since poor performers are quickly converted or written off entirely.
And lastly, it tells us that it's a fun game to play since there's no major historical element to this game like something like Computer Space has to skew the numbers among KLOV membership. Collectors simply don't dedicate funds to buy a poor game or waste limited space that could go towards housing a far better game.
@Moroboshi876 Not aware of Hamster publishing sales numbers.
The numbers I posted are the ownership numbers for the actual arcade machine among the registered membership of the Killer List of Videogames website, which is the biggest site out there for classic arcade game collectors in the English speaking world.
The purpose was to point out to the naysayers that act as if this is a worthless addition to the Arcade Archives lineup, that this was actually a successful arcade game. That this one survives in such numbers among the KLOV membership suggests that it sold well in the West back in 1984/1985 and is a game appreciated by classic arcade collectors in 2019.
Many a classic arcade game has between 0 and 5 registered owners in the KLOV database. They sold in just small numbers, perhaps didn't perform in the marketplace and were quickly junked or converted, or aren't games that are fun enough to play or historic enough for a collector to justify dedicating limiting space to holding on to one.
Not so with Karate Champ, although it obviously doesn't have the presence of something like Joust for instance.
@RyanSilberman I suspect this was a hit game in Japanese arcades.
Even seems to have been a success in the west, judging by the statistics over at KLOV. 46 Karate Champ machines are owned by KLOV members, 7 more are conversions with Karate Champ inside, and 71 others have the board set.
One of the more common games among KLOV members when you look past the huge hits like Pac-Man and Defender. Must've been a money maker and a common game in western arcades back in its day to survive in the numbers that it does.
I must admit though as a fan of classic arcade gaming, especially from the pre-crash era (Roughly pre-1985), this one doesn't excite me. But I've also never played it before, so I might be pleasantly surprised if I ever take a chance.
@Bondi_Surfer Just watch the sales. Arcade Archives and ACA Neo Geo releases regularly are included.
And the three Konami anniversary collections have also been on sale at least twice already over on the PS4, and I'm sure have also seen equivalent eShop sales. The arcade centric one is of course all Hamster emulations and is a great way to add 8 classic arcade games to your Switch at a much lower cost than the MSRP of these standalone releases.
@Silly_G The DOS originals are not 16:10. Not sure where you dreamed that up from an era years before 16:10 computer monitors even existed. The games were developed with the intention of filling a 4:3 computer monitor.
@kepsux Not sure where you've been, but the exact opposite has happened.
The previous model wasn't working that you're speculating Nintendo now wishes they had stuck with. The Wii U was by far their worst performing console in the sales department and suffered from long software droughts.
And only the casual hit with the Wii turned things around temporarily for their console business which throughout the 1990's and 2000's sold fewer systems every generation while at the same time the size of the console marketplace itself exploded.
And worst, Nintendo was losing millions of dollars consistently the last generation and the handheld line that usually bolstered Nintendo's fortunes was under fire by the rise of the smartphone.
The successful in the end 3DS only sold a mere fraction of what the DS did, despite Sony not being a serious threat like they were the previous generation with their PSP. It also required emergency surgery early in life to save it with that drastic price cut a few months after launch and also suffered severe software droughts since 3rd party support that usually concealed those 1st party gaps was a shadow of its former self.
Now, Nintendo is selling essentially one product to everyone and every game they develop can be sold to every current generation Nintendo hardware holder. It's that software (And now, their online service) where the real money is made, which is why platform holders, including Nintendo themselves, sometimes sell the system at below cost to get it into people's hands so they can start buying games and so on.
So I can't imagine any regrets at Nintendo's headquarters or with investors. Nintendo made the brave decision needed to preserve their position as a hardware maker in both the handheld and console marketplace and it has paid off handsomely.
Playing through Wind Waker HD right now and loving it (First time through the game since 2003), but no thanks on a Switch port of the Wii U effort. I'd rather see the GameCube version be emulated like we're seeing with GameCube and Wii classics on the Nvidia Shield in China.
Screenshots of Wind Waker rendered in HD were many people's first exposure to the fan-made Dolphin emulator. The GameCube original is very beautiful in HD and I'd argue the only difference of note with the Wii U port is the bloom lighting, but it's of course a huge difference that greatly changes how the game looks.
So if Nintendo wants me to buy and play it a 3rd time, give me the regular lighting of the GameCube original, but with it rendered in HD like via Dolphin.
That all said, what I really want is to see A Link Between Worlds be ported to the Switch and upgraded to high-definition.
@Zach The arcade game (And the unrelated mid 1960's tv show) are both quite good.
Fans of early 80's arcade gaming will enjoy this one. I spent a lot of time playing it on one of the Taito Legends Volume 2 packs for the PS2 in Japan.
@Jayofmaya Nobody said it sold poorly. I'm sure it still sold well back in 2013. It just didn't get the attention it would've had it appeared earlier in place of Grid 2, or been also made available in XB1/PS4 versions at launch. If anyone wonders why Grid Autosport oddly skipped the XB1/PS4 (Although it's now on the XB1 backwards compatibility list), Codemasters was in a precarious state at that time and was slow to adapt next-gen hardware.
They didn't want to put a game out on the XB1/PS4 without an engine to best take advantage of their added processing power, but didn't have the financial resources after a string of poor decisions like Dirt Showdown to create one (Although Dirt Rally later on fared nicely using their old last gen EGO 3.0 engine from Grid Autosport, which for an example of their dire financial straits at the time, had to have development be funded via Steam Early Access).
It wasn't until 2015 that Codemasters entered the XB1/PS4 scene with F1 2015 and their in-house next gen iteration of their EGO engine. They were pretty much the last developer/publisher of significance to make the jump, years after everyone else did. And it's all because they came awfully close to having to shutter the business.
@Jayofmaya Not entirely sure what you mean, but I assume you're referring to the statement made in the review that it flew under many people's radars?
That indeed seems to be the case. The review explains their reasoning for saying it since it was a last gen exclusive that was released months into the new generation of hardware, with many people focused on games for their new system rather than the old one at that point. But another reason was that Grid 2 simply wasn't terribly old at that point.
One must remember what Grid Autosport was at heart. It was Grid 2 with the fluff removed and the physics made more realistic in response to the lukewarm reception that Codemasters had received with Grid 2. So it came quite quickly after Grid 2 and many people that were still willing to play a 360/PS3 game simply weren't ready for another Grid game so soon after having played Grid 2 and being disappointed with it.
Thankfully they did get it right even if it didn't sell in the numbers it deserved, and the company's fortunes have been on the rise ever since. We're getting good racing games now from Codemasters like Dirt Rally these days rather than X-Games junk shoehorned into rally games in a misguided attempt to broaden the appeal of their games past traditional racing game fans, which only resulted in alienating their fanbase rather than expanding it.
Hopefully the review is amended soon to explain that multiplayer features are on the way.
@Wormold The review explains the origins of this game in one of the opening sentences.
"Originally released in the summer of 2014, it’s fair to say that GRID Autosport went under a number of gamers’ radars, mainly because it only launched on Xbox 360 and PS3 even though the Xbox One and PS4 had already been out for eight months."
I wish Hamster would do some SNK games not already included in SNK 40th Anniversary Collection. I'd love to see Satan of Saturn/Zarzon, Lasso, Pioneer Balloon, Sky Adventure, Safari Rally, and Jumping Cross that all got overlooked for that compilation and the earlier line of PSP Minis.
Glad to see that In the Hunt and Time Tunnel are in the works. And happy that Vs. Balloon Hunt apparently is still happening. Got announced quite sometime ago.
Still hoping for a Mega Man Legacy Collection 3 with Mega Man I-V for the Game Boy, Mega Man for the Game Gear, Mega Man & Bass, Mega Man Xtreme 1 & 2, and if Sega doesn't have locked it up, The Wily Wars for the Genesis.
Slightly correcting the article, last year's AtGames system actually had very solid emulation. It utilized the open source emulator Genesis Plus GX, replacing the flawed AtGames programmed emulator from their 2017 system which first brought HD capabilities to their Sega line.
It was an unpublicized release which was presumably due to the recent divorce with Sega. I assume the split came about so late that the systems were under production already and as a compromise, they were allowed to be sold as if they were left over 2017 stock with AtGames not allowed to state that it was a new for 2018 product.
I didn't buy that system last Fall, but I did buy the arcade oriented spin off called the Legends Flashback with the same guts and Genesis controller ports (But no cartridge slot). It had a few Genesis games preloaded alongside dozens of arcade games (And a few NES games) and via the SD card slot, I was able to put it through its paces with dozens of other games. Everything for the Genesis (And Sega CD) that I threw at it played beautifully except for Virtua Racing with its SVP processor running slow.
It's what AtGames should've been selling 5 years earlier. I'm confident that the Sega relationship would be alive today and their reputation with fans would've been much improved at this point had they done that.
@Pazuzu666 Great collection, but my DS and 3DS isn't particularly well suited to playing Track & Field effectively.
Still, I've logged something like 20 hours on the 3DS alone with it, and that's not counting the 7-8 years prior where I was exclusively playing it on my DS and DS Lite. Lots of great games on that.
Comments 763
Re: Review: Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories - A Totally Unique Experience Marred By Technical Problems
@ramu-chan I know, I even said I played through Disaster Report and Raw Danger in the comments.
I'm assuming you neglected to look at the comment I was responding to. Ralek said "considering this started out as a PS3 game, it is really disheartening to read that even the PS4 version is anything but smooth sailing."
When I told him that while it started out a PS3 game, none of that heritage is here since Granzella started from scratch, I wasn't talking about the franchise. I was talking specifically about Disaster Report 4.
No PS3 era code, art, music, voice acting, or models were recycled from the cancelled Irem game that originally was going to be Disaster Report 4.
Re: Take To The Skies In Hamster's Latest Arcade Archives Release MX5000
Was a pleasant blind buy on Game Room on the Xbox 360, so I'll happily double dip here.
I had my suspicions the audio emulation fell well short on the 360, so it will be nice to have a version with faithful sounds.
I hope we get Juno First. That one also had lackluster audio emulation on Game Room, but was a joy to play. Would love to see it get an Arcade Archives release.
Re: Review: Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories - A Totally Unique Experience Marred By Technical Problems
@Ralek85 It started out a PS3 game, but none of that heritage is here. Granzella started fresh when they bought the Disaster Report IP.
Re: Review: Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories - A Totally Unique Experience Marred By Technical Problems
I hope the PS4 version performs a bit better (Or can at least have the performance issues ironed out someday when I buy a PS5).
That said, I never thought Disaster Report or Raw Danger were technical masterpieces, but the underlying game still pulled me in. I'm willing to play this even if the frame rate count falls well short of perfection, and suspect the uniqueness will again overcome the presentation.
Re: Review: SEGA AGES G-LOC: Air Battle - A Limited But Hugely Enjoyable Arcade Romp
@GrailUK No recent announcements, but we still have Thunder Force AC and Herzog Zwei coming.
Re: Fatal Frame's Return Is Up To Nintendo, Says Series Producer Keisuke Kikuchi
I'd love to see more Fatal Frame. Either an original entry or a HD remaster of the Wii release that never left Japan.
Re: Super Mario 35th Anniversary Rumours Intensify
@BANJO The Galaxy games were very small, so I don't see why not. Galaxy 2 for instance is only 1.3 GB and even Super Mario 3D World on Wii U was only 1.6 GB. I think a 8 GB cartridge could probably accommodate it easily and at worst, definitely 16 GB with lots of room to spare.
But everyone needs to reread the leak. It immediately backtracks from predicting a "Super Mario All-Stars 2" style release and states "while it’s possible the older 3D Mario games could come in a single compilation, it’s also likely that Nintendo will release them individually as it did with its Zelda remasters."
I'm not sure why the leaker even suggested a compilation format to start with when they immediately follow it up by saying this.
Re: Nintendo To Remaster 'Most Of Super Mario’s 35-Year Catalogue' For Switch in 2020, New Report Says
Sounds much too good to be true.
@BanjoPickles Super Mario Sunshine is no trouble. The analog trigger essentially acted as two buttons for FLUDD.
A gentle trigger press was a low power setting that let Mario still run while full power was done by pressing the trigger in all the way (Forcing Mario to stand still).
All they have to do is map the two separate functions to their own individual buttons. People have already been doing that for years in Dolphin (And I believe it also can be done with Nintendont on Wii U).
Re: Bandai Namco Announces The Namcot Collection For Nintendo Switch
@AtlanteanMan Namco Museum Virtual Arcade for the Xbox 360 has by far the largest lineup. 28 arcade classics, 3 arrangement games, Galaga Legions, Mr. Driller Online, and Pac-Man Championship Edition.
Namco Museum 50th Anniversary Collection only had 16 arcade classics. Namco Museum Battle Collection for the PSP from the same year even bested it, with two more arcade games and 4 arrangement games. And 2008's MegaMix had 18 arcade classics as well as 6 arrangement games.
Re: Bandai Namco Announces The Namcot Collection For Nintendo Switch
@chocolate_supra Glad to see another westerner that enjoys Mappy Land.
Re: It Sounds Like E3 2020 Is Going To Be Cancelled
This is scheduled for June, isn't it?
I suspect and hope that this virus will be yesterday's news by that point, so I suspect something more is afoot here than just "protecting" people from a virus that God willing won't even be an immediate concern in three month's time.
I rather suspect if this comes to pass, that E3 itself is dead. It may have sadly been viewed a necessity to cancel or delay in several week's time, but it's hardly a decision that needed to be made in early March. Money is already spent, commitments already made, and hotel's and flight's are already booked. They could've been cancelled in 6 week's time as easily as now.
But what it is, is a good out for an event that perhaps was underselling floor space to vendors and so on, that allows them to financially get out from under their commitments and look good while doing so and avoid industry criticism, just in case the concept can be reawakened in the future and be made more viable.
An outright cancellation without what on the surface appears to be a very good reason that can't be argued with, would be a death knell to the Entertainment Software Association ever attracting major publishers that can't count on them to follow through. But with this virus, it allows them to cancel, regroup, and evaluate options for 2021 to perhaps make the model work.
Or more likely, it's just gone for good. E3 has been on the verge of collapse for years now.
Re: Speedway Racing Will Bring Daytona USA-Style Action To Switch Soon
Screenshots look very promising, so they have my attention.
Re: Feature: Hyperkin Explains Why Its Next Console Is Bringing The Game Boy To Your Living Room
@Agent721 My post got too long above, so wanted to post these links separately. They're the active threads at AtariAge dealing with the Retron '77. The top one is going to be the one you want to look at if you want to update Stella.
https://atariage.com/forums/topic/289929-stella-6-on-the-r77-the-eagle-is-landing/
https://atariage.com/forums/topic/281462-retron-77-community-build-image/#comments
https://atariage.com/forums/topic/266544-retron-77/#comments
Re: Feature: Hyperkin Explains Why Its Next Console Is Bringing The Game Boy To Your Living Room
@Agent721 The folks in the AtariAge community don't seem to think too favorably of the new Atari VCS (Or the Polymega for that matter, but the upcoming Intellivision Amico that I haven't paid much attention to seems to be drawing a lot of optimism).
The main thing the Atari system has going for it from my perspective is the out of the box installation of Atari Vault that each system includes. But I already own that same classic compilation for my Windows PC (Atari Vault) as well as the three individual Atari Flashback Classics releases for my PS4 and the combined 150 game Atari Flashback Classics collection on Switch and Vita.
It hopefully manages to surpass expectations, but Atari SA has done a poor job so far of communicating and the financial situation over there isn't great. So it probably will live up to the low expectations most have and be an expensive low end PC for video streaming and emulation for many of their buyers.
Re: Feature: Hyperkin Explains Why Its Next Console Is Bringing The Game Boy To Your Living Room
@Agent721 I actually just got a Retron '77 about two days ago. While I've had a Retro-bit clone system in the past (The Retro Duo), this is my first experience with a Hyperkin product.
Haven't yet given it a full workout though. The process to update it to the latest build of the Stella emulator sounds slightly complicated at AtariAge, and I want to read through the long threads there to make sure I don't screw anything up.
I also have the Atari Flashback 9, which is very similar to the out of the box state of the Retron '77 with a similarly old version of Stella under the hood (Although the Flashback system lacks the cartridge port of the Retron '77).
But an updated Retron '77 with the latest version of Stella should make that purchase obsolete and provide a good way to play these on my HDTV (I'll keep my genuine 2600 connected to my Trinitron).
Re: Feature: Hyperkin Explains Why Its Next Console Is Bringing The Game Boy To Your Living Room
I think this has promise, but have my heart set on the higher end Analogue Pocket to go with my Super Nt and Mega Sg (And hopefully one of these days, an AVS or Nt Mini successor as well).
Re: IGN Founder Offers Hint At One Of The Rumoured Wii U Ports Coming To Switch
Anything less than Super Mario 3D World would be a disappointment.
Re: Poll: What Other Wii U Games Do You Want To See On Switch?
I just spent $50 plus tax to download Fatal Frame yesterday on my Wii U, so there should be news of a physical Switch port for $40 any day now.
Re: More Than 40% Of Switch Owners In The US Have Another Video Game System
Rather surprised it's such a low percentage. If I had to have took a shot in the dark, I'd of guessed that at least over 60% of Switch owners had another modern game console connected to their television.
While I'm a fan of even obscure consoles like the Vectrex, as a Nintendo fan I'm still happy to see a substantial percentage of current gen Nintendo hardware owners that are happily getting by with just a Switch.
Re: Former Nintendo Of America President Reggie Says The Future Of Games Is In The Cloud
A future I have no interest in. Reggie can have it.
Re: Chucklefish Issues Apology For Voice Actor Casting Choices In Wargroove's DLC
Sad to see Chucklefish apologize here when they did nothing wrong and no legitimate issue existed.
Re: Hardware Review: Hyperkin Admiral - Wireless N64 Controller Goodness
If fans end up enjoying this and I decide to take a chance, I wonder if I could use an extension cable for the receiver.
Seems like a safe bet that would work and it sure would help the looks if the receiver could instead rest next to the system or even be tucked behind it, since it's a real eyesore plugged into the console.
The SD save backup is in itself tempting.
Re: PSA: Make Sure You're Buying The Right Mega Drive Mini This Holiday Season
The 2018 Sega Genesis Flashback HD was great.
The problem is this picture is showing the box of the 2017 model, which utilized the lackluster in-house AtGames developed emulator rather than Genesis Plus GX like the 2018 version.
Anyone considering this in Ireland, look at the circles on the front of the box to tell these apart. The 2017 version has four circles, as shown in the lower left hand corner of the front of the boxart pictured in this article.
The 2018 iteration has five circles. "Save, Resume, and Rewind Games" from the 2017 version was split up into two circles marked as "Save and Resume Games" and "Rewind Games".
If it's four circles, you're buying a shoddy product. If it has five, you're buying a quality product that you'll likely enjoy (And which can do a lot more than the Sega Genesis Mini can).
Re: Don't Expect Any New Classic Edition Consoles Soon, Says Nintendo - You've Got Switch Online Instead
I'd much rather have a N64 Classic Edition.
Re: Who Needs A Game Boy Classic Edition When You've Got The Analogue Pocket?
@SepticLemon You've misunderstood.
The main virtue of FPGA tech is that it's reconfigurable on the fly, as seen in past Analogue products like the NT Mini where it can reproduce the NES at one minute and the Atari 2600 the next (And 16 other game systems on top of those two, all with a single FPGA). They're not including a 2nd FPGA here just to enable homebrew for additional aftermarket cores.
Further clarification has been made thanks to Kevtris participating on Discord, and the 2nd much less powerful FPGA is there purely for things they want locked down like the operating system (Such as the menu), video scalers, etc. Homebrewers can't touch this one and Analogue doesn't have to hand over any of their proprietary source code now to enable homebrew, or risk homebrew programmers causing issues with the primary functionality of the Analogue Pocket. It's locked down and can't be touched.
The system cores themselves all use the main FPGA though that has been carried forward from the Mega SG and Super NT, and homebrewers will be able to access this one to run their homebrew cores on.
Re: Who Needs A Game Boy Classic Edition When You've Got The Analogue Pocket?
Other than being skeptical of their promise of adapters (Mega SG fans are still waiting for the variety of cartridge adapters promised before release to be made available), it all sounds great.
I wish the dock had a SNES controller port on it though, but USB and Bluetooth will get the job done.
Hopefully the jailbreak firmware fairy will visit shortly after release.
Re: Taito's 1985 Arcade Action Game The Legend Of Kage Is Now Available On Switch
@Nagi Not too realistic, alas. Emulation would be so complex that they'd have to resort to porting games, just like how the more modern games in Midway Arcade Treasures 3 that got offshored to China were handled years ago.
We'd be lucky to see 4-5 games a year and they'd be limited to just candidates with surviving source code.
Re: Taito's 1985 Arcade Action Game The Legend Of Kage Is Now Available On Switch
I'd personally like to see more golden age releases like Time Tunnel was. Not nearly enough pre 1984 arcade games in this program.
Re: Train Up And Compete In Hamster's Latest Arcade Archives Release Karate Champ
@masterLEON The number of owners among the KLOV membership was posted as anecdotal evidence of the success of this game back in the day and its popularity today among classic arcade fans today. They weren't intended to be posted as sales numbers.
A poorly received game doesn't have that type of numbers at KLOV. A sales failure of that vintage that didn't sell well and didn't do well on location is going to be teetering on the edge of extinction in 2019, not surviving with dozens of machines alone owned just by the somewhat limited membership at KLOV.
That this one has such numbers tells us three things about how it performed in the west back in 1984. One is that it sold well and was relatively common. Secondly, it performed well on location since poor performers are quickly converted or written off entirely.
And lastly, it tells us that it's a fun game to play since there's no major historical element to this game like something like Computer Space has to skew the numbers among KLOV membership. Collectors simply don't dedicate funds to buy a poor game or waste limited space that could go towards housing a far better game.
Re: Train Up And Compete In Hamster's Latest Arcade Archives Release Karate Champ
@Moroboshi876 Not aware of Hamster publishing sales numbers.
The numbers I posted are the ownership numbers for the actual arcade machine among the registered membership of the Killer List of Videogames website, which is the biggest site out there for classic arcade game collectors in the English speaking world.
https://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=8279
The purpose was to point out to the naysayers that act as if this is a worthless addition to the Arcade Archives lineup, that this was actually a successful arcade game. That this one survives in such numbers among the KLOV membership suggests that it sold well in the West back in 1984/1985 and is a game appreciated by classic arcade collectors in 2019.
Many a classic arcade game has between 0 and 5 registered owners in the KLOV database. They sold in just small numbers, perhaps didn't perform in the marketplace and were quickly junked or converted, or aren't games that are fun enough to play or historic enough for a collector to justify dedicating limiting space to holding on to one.
Not so with Karate Champ, although it obviously doesn't have the presence of something like Joust for instance.
Re: Train Up And Compete In Hamster's Latest Arcade Archives Release Karate Champ
@RyanSilberman I suspect this was a hit game in Japanese arcades.
Even seems to have been a success in the west, judging by the statistics over at KLOV. 46 Karate Champ machines are owned by KLOV members, 7 more are conversions with Karate Champ inside, and 71 others have the board set.
One of the more common games among KLOV members when you look past the huge hits like Pac-Man and Defender. Must've been a money maker and a common game in western arcades back in its day to survive in the numbers that it does.
I must admit though as a fan of classic arcade gaming, especially from the pre-crash era (Roughly pre-1985), this one doesn't excite me. But I've also never played it before, so I might be pleasantly surprised if I ever take a chance.
Re: Train Up And Compete In Hamster's Latest Arcade Archives Release Karate Champ
@Bondi_Surfer Just watch the sales. Arcade Archives and ACA Neo Geo releases regularly are included.
And the three Konami anniversary collections have also been on sale at least twice already over on the PS4, and I'm sure have also seen equivalent eShop sales. The arcade centric one is of course all Hamster emulations and is a great way to add 8 classic arcade games to your Switch at a much lower cost than the MSRP of these standalone releases.
Re: Switch Lite Added To Joy-Con Drift Class Action Lawsuit
I got a check a week or two ago for less than $3 for the class action lawsuit against Sony and the removal of the Other OS mode.
Not ever going to bother with one of these again.
Re: Classic DOOM And DOOM II Receive Performance Improvements On Switch
@Silly_G The DOS originals are not 16:10. Not sure where you dreamed that up from an era years before 16:10 computer monitors even existed. The games were developed with the intention of filling a 4:3 computer monitor.
Re: Classic DOOM And DOOM II Receive Performance Improvements On Switch
What about fixing their incorrect aspect ratio?
Re: Wall Street Journal Report Says Nintendo Tried To "Aggressively" Cut Costs Of The Switch Lite
@kepsux Not sure where you've been, but the exact opposite has happened.
The previous model wasn't working that you're speculating Nintendo now wishes they had stuck with. The Wii U was by far their worst performing console in the sales department and suffered from long software droughts.
And only the casual hit with the Wii turned things around temporarily for their console business which throughout the 1990's and 2000's sold fewer systems every generation while at the same time the size of the console marketplace itself exploded.
And worst, Nintendo was losing millions of dollars consistently the last generation and the handheld line that usually bolstered Nintendo's fortunes was under fire by the rise of the smartphone.
The successful in the end 3DS only sold a mere fraction of what the DS did, despite Sony not being a serious threat like they were the previous generation with their PSP. It also required emergency surgery early in life to save it with that drastic price cut a few months after launch and also suffered severe software droughts since 3rd party support that usually concealed those 1st party gaps was a shadow of its former self.
Now, Nintendo is selling essentially one product to everyone and every game they develop can be sold to every current generation Nintendo hardware holder. It's that software (And now, their online service) where the real money is made, which is why platform holders, including Nintendo themselves, sometimes sell the system at below cost to get it into people's hands so they can start buying games and so on.
So I can't imagine any regrets at Nintendo's headquarters or with investors. Nintendo made the brave decision needed to preserve their position as a hardware maker in both the handheld and console marketplace and it has paid off handsomely.
Re: Feature: A Look To The Past - All The Legend Of Zelda Remasters And Remakes
Playing through Wind Waker HD right now and loving it (First time through the game since 2003), but no thanks on a Switch port of the Wii U effort. I'd rather see the GameCube version be emulated like we're seeing with GameCube and Wii classics on the Nvidia Shield in China.
Screenshots of Wind Waker rendered in HD were many people's first exposure to the fan-made Dolphin emulator. The GameCube original is very beautiful in HD and I'd argue the only difference of note with the Wii U port is the bloom lighting, but it's of course a huge difference that greatly changes how the game looks.
So if Nintendo wants me to buy and play it a 3rd time, give me the regular lighting of the GameCube original, but with it rendered in HD like via Dolphin.
That all said, what I really want is to see A Link Between Worlds be ported to the Switch and upgraded to high-definition.
Re: Taito's Action Game Time Tunnel Joins Hamster's Arcade Archives Series
@Zach The arcade game (And the unrelated mid 1960's tv show) are both quite good.
Fans of early 80's arcade gaming will enjoy this one. I spent a lot of time playing it on one of the Taito Legends Volume 2 packs for the PS2 in Japan.
Re: Review: GRID Autosport - Finally, Switch Gets The Serious Racing Game It Deserves
@Jayofmaya Nobody said it sold poorly. I'm sure it still sold well back in 2013. It just didn't get the attention it would've had it appeared earlier in place of Grid 2, or been also made available in XB1/PS4 versions at launch. If anyone wonders why Grid Autosport oddly skipped the XB1/PS4 (Although it's now on the XB1 backwards compatibility list), Codemasters was in a precarious state at that time and was slow to adapt next-gen hardware.
They didn't want to put a game out on the XB1/PS4 without an engine to best take advantage of their added processing power, but didn't have the financial resources after a string of poor decisions like Dirt Showdown to create one (Although Dirt Rally later on fared nicely using their old last gen EGO 3.0 engine from Grid Autosport, which for an example of their dire financial straits at the time, had to have development be funded via Steam Early Access).
It wasn't until 2015 that Codemasters entered the XB1/PS4 scene with F1 2015 and their in-house next gen iteration of their EGO engine. They were pretty much the last developer/publisher of significance to make the jump, years after everyone else did. And it's all because they came awfully close to having to shutter the business.
Re: Review: GRID Autosport - Finally, Switch Gets The Serious Racing Game It Deserves
@Jayofmaya Not entirely sure what you mean, but I assume you're referring to the statement made in the review that it flew under many people's radars?
That indeed seems to be the case. The review explains their reasoning for saying it since it was a last gen exclusive that was released months into the new generation of hardware, with many people focused on games for their new system rather than the old one at that point. But another reason was that Grid 2 simply wasn't terribly old at that point.
One must remember what Grid Autosport was at heart. It was Grid 2 with the fluff removed and the physics made more realistic in response to the lukewarm reception that Codemasters had received with Grid 2. So it came quite quickly after Grid 2 and many people that were still willing to play a 360/PS3 game simply weren't ready for another Grid game so soon after having played Grid 2 and being disappointed with it.
Thankfully they did get it right even if it didn't sell in the numbers it deserved, and the company's fortunes have been on the rise ever since. We're getting good racing games now from Codemasters like Dirt Rally these days rather than X-Games junk shoehorned into rally games in a misguided attempt to broaden the appeal of their games past traditional racing game fans, which only resulted in alienating their fanbase rather than expanding it.
Re: Review: GRID Autosport - Finally, Switch Gets The Serious Racing Game It Deserves
Hopefully the review is amended soon to explain that multiplayer features are on the way.
@Wormold The review explains the origins of this game in one of the opening sentences.
"Originally released in the summer of 2014, it’s fair to say that GRID Autosport went under a number of gamers’ radars, mainly because it only launched on Xbox 360 and PS3 even though the Xbox One and PS4 had already been out for eight months."
Re: Video: Sega's Genesis Mini Gets The Tower Of Power Treatment
@ELRinley Sure it does. It's how you play the full Blue Sphere game.
Re: Hamster Is Bringing Balloon Fight, VS. Castlevania And More To Switch eShop
I wish Hamster would do some SNK games not already included in SNK 40th Anniversary Collection. I'd love to see Satan of Saturn/Zarzon, Lasso, Pioneer Balloon, Sky Adventure, Safari Rally, and Jumping Cross that all got overlooked for that compilation and the earlier line of PSP Minis.
Re: Neon Drive Brings Retro-Futuristic Arcade Action To Switch This Week
Doesn't look fun.
Re: Hamster Is Bringing Balloon Fight, VS. Castlevania And More To Switch eShop
Glad to see that In the Hunt and Time Tunnel are in the works. And happy that Vs. Balloon Hunt apparently is still happening. Got announced quite sometime ago.
Re: Video: Totaka's Song Returns In Link's Awakening On The Nintendo Switch
@NotTelevision Not a chance, I'm afraid.
Re: "No Additional Downloads Required" For Physical Version Of Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection
Still hoping for a Mega Man Legacy Collection 3 with Mega Man I-V for the Game Boy, Mega Man for the Game Gear, Mega Man & Bass, Mega Man Xtreme 1 & 2, and if Sega doesn't have locked it up, The Wily Wars for the Genesis.
Re: BurgerTime Party! Reimagines The Arcade Classic For Nintendo Switch This October
Looks cheap and the audio is annoying, but had they said it included the arcade original, I'd of happily given it a try.
Re: Hardware Review: The Genesis / Mega Drive Mini Finally Does Sega's History Justice
Slightly correcting the article, last year's AtGames system actually had very solid emulation. It utilized the open source emulator Genesis Plus GX, replacing the flawed AtGames programmed emulator from their 2017 system which first brought HD capabilities to their Sega line.
It was an unpublicized release which was presumably due to the recent divorce with Sega. I assume the split came about so late that the systems were under production already and as a compromise, they were allowed to be sold as if they were left over 2017 stock with AtGames not allowed to state that it was a new for 2018 product.
I didn't buy that system last Fall, but I did buy the arcade oriented spin off called the Legends Flashback with the same guts and Genesis controller ports (But no cartridge slot). It had a few Genesis games preloaded alongside dozens of arcade games (And a few NES games) and via the SD card slot, I was able to put it through its paces with dozens of other games. Everything for the Genesis (And Sega CD) that I threw at it played beautifully except for Virtua Racing with its SVP processor running slow.
It's what AtGames should've been selling 5 years earlier. I'm confident that the Sega relationship would be alive today and their reputation with fans would've been much improved at this point had they done that.
Re: Konami's Track & Field Joins Hamster's Arcade Archives This Week
@Pazuzu666 Great collection, but my DS and 3DS isn't particularly well suited to playing Track & Field effectively.
Still, I've logged something like 20 hours on the 3DS alone with it, and that's not counting the 7-8 years prior where I was exclusively playing it on my DS and DS Lite. Lots of great games on that.