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Ofecks
May 4, 2009

A portly feline wizard waddles forth, muttering something about conjured food.

Charles Get-Out posted:

I picked up the Shooting Legends boxset off of PCE Works and than sent me Dungeon Master - Theron's Quest in a cardboard sleeve along with it. I don't know what I was expecting, but I had no idea Legend of Grimrock was basically just a remake of Dungeon Master. It has the same combat system, the same item system, the same "look for secrets" dungeon design, etc., so it's pretty dang good and the PCE dungeon master has some really nice music.

There were a lot of grid-based dungeon crawler RPGs for PC like this. Eye of the Beholder, Dungeon Hack, Might And Magic, etc. Check GoG.com for these if you're interested in delving further. I know there's a port of one of the M&M games on PCE CD, and probably a JP Wizardry or two because it was really popular over there. Anyway, Grimrock didn't specifically remake DMTQ, it's just a modern game in that previously long-dead subgenre.

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Random Stranger
Nov 27, 2009



Charles Get-Out posted:

I picked up the Shooting Legends boxset off of PCE Works and than sent me Dungeon Master - Theron's Quest in a cardboard sleeve along with it. I don't know what I was expecting, but I had no idea Legend of Grimrock was basically just a remake of Dungeon Master. It has the same combat system, the same item system, the same "look for secrets" dungeon design, etc., so it's pretty dang good and the PCE dungeon master has some really nice music.

There were a fair number of dungeon games from the late 80's-early 90's that used extremely similar systems. The most notable ones beyond the Dungeon Master series were the Eye of the Beholder games.

Ofecks posted:

There were a lot of grid-based dungeon crawler RPGs for PC like this. Eye of the Beholder, Dungeon Hack, Might And Magic, etc. Check GoG.com for these if you're interested in delving further. I know there's a port of one of the M&M games on PCE CD, and probably a JP Wizardry or two because it was really popular over there. Anyway, Grimrock didn't specifically remake DMTQ, it's just a modern game in that previously long-dead subgenre.

I actually didn't mention Might and Magic because I felt the combat system was different enough to separate it, but it's another good example.

A few years ago someone gave me a boxed copy of the historically interesting but not really fun to play Shadows of Yserbius which is another of these. That one started out as an online RPG for Sierra's network service and then got a single player home port...

Random Stranger fucked around with this message at 21:05 on Jan 22, 2017

Karasu Tengu
Feb 16, 2011

Humble Tengu Newspaper Reporter

Endymion FRS MK1 posted:

Is there any differences between flat and round CRT TVs? I was at my local Goodwills and I suddenly decided I wanted a CRT

The flat ones don't really work with lightguns, but otherwise no.

fishmech
Jul 16, 2006

by VideoGames
Salad Prong

Elliotw2 posted:

The flat ones don't really work with lightguns, but otherwise no.

That's not true at all. We only ever had cheap "flat" CRTs when I had consoles as a kid (we had a rounded front one when I was younger, but my little brother knocked it over and it broke, so we never had games on it). The NES Zapper and SNES Super Scope worked just fine on them

You might be thinking of how some later flat CRTs were also ones that could display HD signals, and had added latency that would interfere with lightguns?

DMorbid
Jan 6, 2011

With our special guest star, RUSH! YAYYYYYYYYY

falz posted:

Aren't the flat ones usually stretched out at the edges a bit? Or did late 90s technology overcome that.
My Panasonic Quintrix did that, but it was a... special case in many ways.

"Oh, you've been sperging out in the service menu all day to get your screen geometry just right? Well, let me just completely ignore that and automatically adjust your geometry based on what's onscreen! Of course you can't turn that feature off, why would you?"

vvv It kinda is, but it still would've been okay if it wasn't for that stupid auto-setting bullshit :argh:

DMorbid fucked around with this message at 21:48 on Jan 22, 2017

TeaJay
Oct 9, 2012


I've always found that setting geometry is harder on flat screen CRT's but your mileage may vary.

Nancy
Nov 23, 2005



Young Orc

Ofecks posted:

There were a lot of grid-based dungeon crawler RPGs for PC like this. Eye of the Beholder, Dungeon Hack, Might And Magic, etc. Check GoG.com for these if you're interested in delving further. I know there's a port of one of the M&M games on PCE CD, and probably a JP Wizardry or two because it was really popular over there. Anyway, Grimrock didn't specifically remake DMTQ, it's just a modern game in that previously long-dead subgenre.

Random Stranger posted:

There were a fair number of dungeon games from the late 80's-early 90's that used extremely similar systems. The most notable ones beyond the Dungeon Master series were the Eye of the Beholder games.


I actually didn't mention Might and Magic because I felt the combat system was different enough to separate it, but it's another good example.

A few years ago someone gave me a boxed copy of the historically interesting but not really fun to play Shadows of Yserbius which is another of these. That one started out as an online RPG for Sierra's network service and then got a single player home port...

FPP dungeon crawlers are pretty much my favorite genre, so I'm aware that Grimrock is like a ton of different games. Dungeon Master Theron's Quest has almost the exact same system though - item alcoves along the walls, most of the hints being delivered via scroll, fonts, sounds, item storage and usage, food, throwing weapons needing to be returned to your empty hands, hell there's even a symbol-based magic power system and a low-res copy of the Grimrock fungus slice.

It's pretty much late 80s/early 90s "Grimrock." No other FPP dungeon crawler has given me this same sense, even ones with similar pseudo-active battle systems like Ravenloft and Anvil of Dawn.

Captain Rufus
Sep 16, 2005

CAPTAIN WORD SALAD

OFF MY MEDS AGAIN PLEASE DON'T USE BIG WORDS

UNNECESSARY LINE BREAK

Charles Get-Out posted:

FPP dungeon crawlers are pretty much my favorite genre, so I'm aware that Grimrock is like a ton of different games. Dungeon Master Theron's Quest has almost the exact same system though - item alcoves along the walls, most of the hints being delivered via scroll, fonts, sounds, item storage and usage, food, throwing weapons needing to be returned to your empty hands, hell there's even a symbol-based magic power system and a low-res copy of the Grimrock fungus slice.

It's pretty much late 80s/early 90s "Grimrock." No other FPP dungeon crawler has given me this same sense, even ones with similar pseudo-active battle systems like Ravenloft and Anvil of Dawn.

Look into the Amiga. The amount of Dungeon Master clones on that platform are absurd. Knightmare. Black Crypt. Bloodwhych. Captive. Like there are even split screen multiplayer ones that were even ported to the C64.

I'm more a turn based guy myself so I am more happy Japan adores Wizardry even if we never got the best versions of these games in English in spite of them being originally English language! Hell, even Elder Scrolls 0.5 Ultima Underworld has a superior looking version on the PS1 though only in Japan.

Yet there are US CRPG franchises who have Jpn only sequels like Phantasie and yes Dungeon Master. Because if there is a divine being he hates us. (But gives us coffee so we just don't completely give up on existing.)

I would say that Grimrock is the best of that style of Dungeon Master clone and not even automapper programs for Eye of the Beholder make it comparable. There are a couple DM styled games for IOS and Steam has a couple out or soon to be out. RpgCodex is a good site to learn of these things but they have a old GBS styled sense of humor so it could offend the more sensitive out there. Like if classic FYAD smoked a bowl, had a wank, and really loved 80s CRPGs.

I do keep looking out for a fairly priced copy of Black Crypt and Bloodwhych though. Sadly the former is only Amiga. (Also the Dungeon Master 2 Sega CD port is pretty inferior to the PC and I cannot recommend it if you are a graphics person. http://wargamedork.blogspot.com/2014/06/retrocomputing-why-bother-special.html you can see the differences here. Also we learn a valuable lesson in never using Facebook as an image host because they always end up breaking links. I just don't want to waste more of my time fixing 2 year old blog posts about dork stuff. This post was also before I had or someone gave me the bright idea to just put a USB numeric keypad to the left of my PC keyboard when playing numpad move games where I still need active mouse handling on the right.)

Captain Rufus fucked around with this message at 00:22 on Jan 23, 2017

Nancy
Nov 23, 2005



Young Orc

Captain Rufus posted:

Look into the Amiga. The amount of Dungeon Master clones on that platform are absurd. Knightmare. Black Crypt. Bloodwhych. Captive. Like there are even split screen multiplayer ones that were even ported to the C64.

I'm more a turn based guy myself so I am more happy Japan adores Wizardry even if we never got the best versions of these games in English in spite of them being originally English language! Hell, even Elder Scrolls 0.5 Ultima Underworld has a superior looking version on the PS1 though only in Japan.

Yet there are US CRPG franchises who have Jpn only sequels like Phantasie and yes Dungeon Master. Because if there is a divine being he hates us. (But gives us coffee so we just don't completely give up on existing.)

I would say that Grimrock is the best of that style of Dungeon Master clone and not even automapper programs for Eye of the Beholder make it comparable. There are a couple DM styled games for IOS and Steam has a couple out or soon to be out. RpgCodex is a good site to learn of these things but they have a old GBS styled sense of humor so it could offend the more sensitive out there. Like if classic FYAD smoked a bowl, had a wank, and really loved 80s CRPGs.

I do keep looking out for a fairly priced copy of Black Crypt and Bloodwhych though. Sadly the former is only Amiga. (Also the Dungeon Master 2 Sega CD port is pretty inferior to the PC and I cannot recommend it if you are a graphics person.)

I'm definitely more into turn-based ones too, which is probably why I haven't looked at Dungeon Master until I got it as a pack-in. Half the reason I got into MSXs was to play some of the weird JP ones, like Arcus and Phantasie IV funnily enough :v:

You make an Amiga sound really tempting considering I really shouldn't be looking at a new machine right now.

Karasu Tengu
Feb 16, 2011

Humble Tengu Newspaper Reporter
The Amiga is a bigger pain because all the games you want to play are PAL only, so have fun with that.

Captain Rufus
Sep 16, 2005

CAPTAIN WORD SALAD

OFF MY MEDS AGAIN PLEASE DON'T USE BIG WORDS

UNNECESSARY LINE BREAK

Elliotw2 posted:

The Amiga is a bigger pain because all the games you want to play are PAL only, so have fun with that.

http://www.indieretronews.com/2014/02/fs-uae-240-best-all-round-amiga.html this friends is what emulation is good for. Why deal with bullshit when you can just play? But yeah Elliot is kind of correct that most stuff is pal format. Or had somewhat inferior DOS PC ports.

http://www.rpgcodex.net and the RPG Codex link for those who like their RPG discussion to be more douchey but less console focused.

Captain Rufus fucked around with this message at 00:37 on Jan 23, 2017

Nancy
Nov 23, 2005



Young Orc

Captain Rufus posted:

http://www.indieretronews.com/2014/02/fs-uae-240-best-all-round-amiga.html this friends is what emulation is good for. Why deal with bullshit when you can just play? But yeah Elliot is kind of correct that most stuff is pal format. Or had somewhat inferior DOS PC ports.

http://www.rpgcodex.net and the RPG Codex link for those who like their RPG discussion to be more douchey but less console focused.

I'm a hardware junkie mostly, but dang does that emulator look slick.

fishmech
Jul 16, 2006

by VideoGames
Salad Prong

Charles Get-Out posted:

I'm a hardware junkie mostly, but dang does that emulator look slick.

You really don't want to deal with Amiga hardware, trust me. Ultimately it's just a computer, any nice old style keyboard and mouse you attach to your own computer is going to feel the same, plus you have better options for game controllers with a modern system.

Random Stranger
Nov 27, 2009



fishmech posted:

You really don't want to deal with Amiga hardware, trust me. Ultimately it's just a computer, any nice old style keyboard and mouse you attach to your own computer is going to feel the same, plus you have better options for game controllers with a modern system.

Also 95% of the good RPG's on the Amiga originated on other systems or were ported away. So while there's good stuff on the platform (and in the late 80's it was generally the best version of those games), you're generally better off looking at other platforms for it.

However, the Amiga is the native home of terrible games from European developers trying to copy Japanese console games!

Karasu Tengu
Feb 16, 2011

Humble Tengu Newspaper Reporter
The Amiga and C64 are premier eurotrash consoles if you can play PAL formats, otherwise probably the Genesis has the most eurotrash.

Random Stranger
Nov 27, 2009



Elliotw2 posted:

The Amiga and C64 are premier eurotrash consoles if you can play PAL formats, otherwise probably the Genesis has the most eurotrash.

"No! Shadow of the Beast is a great game! I swear it!" -- the cry of the desperately nostalgic Amiga nerd.

Wise Fwom Yo Gwave
Jan 9, 2006

Popping up from out of nowhere...


How bad is the Amiga on the "uses the unholy poo poo out of arpeggios" scale?

falz
Jan 29, 2005

01100110 01100001 01101100 01111010
I was always wanted an Amiga so badly when I saw an a500 running shadow of the beast in Walden Software. That's probably pre Genesis release.

mariooncrack
Dec 27, 2008
I hope this is the right thread for this but does anyone have any book recommendations for books related to retro gaming? I've read Console Wars and listened to the audiobook version of Masters of Doom. I was wondering if there was anything else out there that was worth checking out. I know it only goes up to 2001 but has anyone read the Ultimate History of Video Games? Amazon has recommended me it a few times.

d0s
Jun 28, 2004

If you want Amiga hardware you pretty much need to import one form the UK. It is kind of bullshit to deal with but not that hard or expensive as they were dirt common there, the only model really worthwhile for someone who just wants to play games is the A500 with a 512k RAM expansion card (so 1mb total, as it has 512k on board). You should have an RGB monitor that takes a PAL signal tho. Also please note that hardcore Amiga fans are kind of crazy people who hype the thing up way more than it should be, it was sold on the level of the SNES or something in the UK and Europe so there are tons of people with crazy nostalgia goggles for it. For RPGs you should be fine though, as they're not gonna betray it's horrible framerates/choppiness when playing action games (and the action games are mostly bad copies as mentioned before tho there are some standouts)

e: definitely emulate it and get totally familiar with it before dropping cash on one

e2: if you do go the hardware route this is pretty much the "flash cart" for the amiga, it replaces the floppy drive: http://amigastore.eu/en/323-usb-floppy-emulator-gotek.html

d0s fucked around with this message at 02:32 on Jan 23, 2017

RodShaft
Jul 31, 2003
Like an evil horny Santa Claus.


I broke out some steering wheels tonight and played MX vs ATV Unleashed with my 4 year old(a small break from wrestling games)

I landed a helicopter, a dune buggy, and a motorcycle on the train and managed to get a picture of it. That blue thing way up there is the helicopter.

RodShaft fucked around with this message at 02:52 on Jan 23, 2017

Turbinosamente
May 29, 2013

Lights on, Lights off

mariooncrack posted:

I hope this is the right thread for this but does anyone have any book recommendations for books related to retro gaming? I've read Console Wars and listened to the audiobook version of Masters of Doom. I was wondering if there was anything else out there that was worth checking out. I know it only goes up to 2001 but has anyone read the Ultimate History of Video Games? Amazon has recommended me it a few times.

I preferred Replay: The History of Video Games by Tristan Donovan over The Ultimate History. Mostly this is because Ultimate History got a bit dry and boring late into the book when it came to the 90's lawsuits. Both work just fine as histories of Vidja Games. Outside of those all I can think of are closer to coffee table books. The Art of Atari was nice if you like 70s illustration and packaging design discussion and Supercade is almost purely a look at the pretty pictures book with a small description about the old arcade game shown.

Also Pat the NES Punk's NES guide book is okay I think? I never bothered to get it.

fishmech
Jul 16, 2006

by VideoGames
Salad Prong

d0s posted:

Also please note that hardcore Amiga fans are kind of crazy people who hype the thing up way more than it should be, it was sold on the level of the SNES or something in the UK and Europe so there are tons of people with crazy nostalgia goggles for it.

One thing to note about this is that they only sold 6 million Amigas of all the models, across the whole 10 years it was out, worldwide, and at least like a million of those ended up used for Video Toaster and other such video editing stuff (and thus barely used for gaming at all). And of course that install base is heavily split because the Amiga was so heavily tied to the local display standard that there were serious changes in clock speed for NTSC vs PAL systems.

With that small actual install base, it explains a lot of why so many of the games were at Eurotrash levels of quality, even from big publishers. There was no way to really make a ton of money off selling any single Amiga title, so budgets and dev teams stayed pretty small even at the height of popularity - same sort of deal with Atari ST things, which sold about the same amount over about the same time period.

fishmech fucked around with this message at 02:47 on Jan 23, 2017

Do not even ask
Apr 8, 2008


The Amiga is why Rise of the Robots happened, and I'll never forgive it for that.

Discount Viscount
Jul 9, 2010

FIND THE FISH!

Ofecks posted:

The NA selection was piddly, sure, but I had Ghosts N Goblins and it seemed perfectly fine (minus the inherent input lag).

Yeah, I was mainly casting aspersions on the selection, I figured the emulation was pretty okay. Exed Exes/Savage Bees should not be sold for that price standalone.

The Kins posted:

Giant Bomb has a number of lengthy videos showcasing the Arcade Archives games, starting from before they escaped Japan. The gameplay skill showcased isn't exactly top of the heap, of course, but it should give you an idea of the feature set and emulation in these releases.

Ooo, thanks for this, and for the reminder that I never finished watching him tackle the XBLA Game Room.

PaletteSwappedNinja
Jun 3, 2008

One Nation, Under God.
Hamster Arcade Archives' emulation isn't always perfect but they're quite reliable about patching their releases and I don't think they've ever left any of them in a poor state.

There's now three separate companies handling Neo Geo on PS4 right now - Code Mystics does a lot of the standalones like Metal Slug 3 and Garou, Dotemu's doing Windjammers and now Hamster has their own line of releases.

If you're a Darius fanatic you'll soon be able to buy Arcade Archives Darius on disc with lots of other junk for ~$150: http://ebten.jp/p/s/7015016102503/

The Kins
Oct 2, 2004

Charles Get-Out posted:

I'm a hardware junkie mostly, but dang does that emulator look slick.
FS-UAE is great, and I highly recommend it.

Wise Fwom Yo Gwave posted:

How bad is the Amiga on the "uses the unholy poo poo out of arpeggios" scale?
The cracktros on your Totally Legitimate .ADF dumps are typically as arpeggio-filled as you'd expect, but the games themselves typically aren't because the Amiga was where Tracker Music became a thing.

DalaranJ
Apr 15, 2008

Yosuke will now die for you.

PaletteSwappedNinja posted:

If you're a Darius fanatic you'll soon be able to buy Arcade Archives Darius on disc with lots of other junk for ~$150: http://ebten.jp/p/s/7015016102503/

I was wondering why someone stole Razer's "Project Valerie" laptop, but now I have my answer.

Karasu Tengu
Feb 16, 2011

Humble Tengu Newspaper Reporter

Wise Fwom Yo Gwave posted:

How bad is the Amiga on the "uses the unholy poo poo out of arpeggios" scale?

The Amiga is more of overused PCM samples because they learned how to compress and decompress poo poo.

Quiet Feet
Dec 14, 2009

THE HELL IS WITH THIS ASS!?





Beat Duck Tales 2 tonight with what I guess is the "bad" ending. Funnily enough I have yet to beat Duck Tales 1. Mostly focused on 2 because holy poo poo this is worth how much now I need to get rid of it.

Edit: Also, Dig Dug 2 is fun as hell y'all.

Quiet Feet fucked around with this message at 06:09 on Jan 23, 2017

Captain Rufus
Sep 16, 2005

CAPTAIN WORD SALAD

OFF MY MEDS AGAIN PLEASE DON'T USE BIG WORDS

UNNECESSARY LINE BREAK
If you need to buy parts for Amigas and are in the us: http://www.amigakit.us This dude too maybe: http://kipper2k.com

But yeah. Owning an Amiga as an NTSC land person is kind of like owning a couple pinball tables. You WILL be doing some hardware work with it no matter what. And there are like 4-6 different OS and ROMs in them and various RAM amounts and types. While there are things like the MCC and the Armiga they are emulation or FPGA solutions anyhow so why waste money on them when a fair PC or Android device already does the same thing albeit maybe not looking as cute?

And as folks have said a lot of stuff is also on the PC or Genesis though not all and not always in the best form. Though honestly the Atari ST has the leg up over DOS and Amiga for best versions of some games. But only for like 86-89 era computer titles really. (DOS was utter Garbo for action games until like the 386 33 and a good VGA card with Roland and Sound Blaster. For RPGs and flight sims and wargames if you don't mind 16 color EGA you can do ok, or a Tandy 1000 with a 286 CPU and hard disk which in some DOS cases is the only format that isn't CGA PC speaker hell.)

The question is as always what do you the retro person WANT? Is it ease of use? Hardware tinkering? Games of a certain type? Nostalgia goggles? The look of a machine? Price of hardware? Price of software? Homebrew support?

I mean depending on one's level of sperg even the NES can be a project of money and time sunk into it if you wanna go X on it. And some PC people like Lazy Game Reviews have a good dozen different PCs for various eras and formats. Sometimes just because the dude likes the silly case a machine is in!

Everyone has their own level and desire. I have an Amiga but it's NTSC and right now I mostly just emulate when I have the need and the Genesis and DOSBOX doesn't cover the need. (Or the odd Turbografx or SNES port. Turbografx has the best and actually only GOOD version of Shadow of the Beast. Better graphics, difficulty, control, and music oh god the music....)

Captain Rufus fucked around with this message at 06:13 on Jan 23, 2017

Ballz
Dec 16, 2003

it's mario time

mariooncrack posted:

I hope this is the right thread for this but does anyone have any book recommendations for books related to retro gaming? I've read Console Wars and listened to the audiobook version of Masters of Doom. I was wondering if there was anything else out there that was worth checking out. I know it only goes up to 2001 but has anyone read the Ultimate History of Video Games? Amazon has recommended me it a few times.

Ultimate History is great, I still pull it out to reference something from time to time.

d0s
Jun 28, 2004

Captain Rufus posted:

If you need to buy parts for Amigas and are in the us: http://www.amigakit.us This dude too maybe: http://kipper2k.com

But yeah. Owning an Amiga as an NTSC land person is kind of like owning a couple pinball tables. You WILL be doing some hardware work with it no matter what. And there are like 4-6 different OS and ROMs in them and various RAM amounts and types. While there are things like the MCC and the Armiga they are emulation or FPGA solutions anyhow so why waste money on them when a fair PC or Android device already does the same thing albeit maybe not looking as cute?

And as folks have said a lot of stuff is also on the PC or Genesis though not all and not always in the best form. Though honestly the Atari ST has the leg up over DOS and Amiga for best versions of some games.

Dude please stop with the misinformation, you don't have a clue what you're talking about and it confuses the poo poo out of people. There is ONE important Amiga configuration for games, it's a PAL A500 with a 512MB RAM expansion, that is all you will ever need, it's the most common one to find by a mile. No need to worry about ROMs (they mostly all have kickstart 1.3) and the OS is inconsequential since you never have to use it, it boots the games direct from floppies. Yes you can get an A1200 for AGA games but there are like 3 good games for that setup and it's not worth it. Also suggesting the Atari ST for better versions of games over an Amiga is flat bullshit and you need to stop letting your insane fanboy poo poo color objective reality.

e: and if you get a working machine there is literally no hardware work to do, "like owning pinball tables" is so profoundly stupid jesus christ

d0s fucked around with this message at 07:10 on Jan 23, 2017

Karasu Tengu
Feb 16, 2011

Humble Tengu Newspaper Reporter
In my small experience with emulators, trying to play games on an Amiga that ISN'T the A500 baseline + maybe 512k of extra ram just causes them to explode horribly.

d0s
Jun 28, 2004

Elliotw2 posted:

In my small experience with emulators, trying to play games on an Amiga that ISN'T the A500 baseline + maybe 512k of extra ram just causes them to explode horribly.

Yeah, everything is designed to work with that one configuration, because it's what was sold in normal stores and not specialty places to be used as workstations/"real" computers. Just think of the A500 as a video game console and ignore everything else unless you're the sort of person who likes messing with old rear end obsolete operating systems and general computer history stuff.

Captain Rufus
Sep 16, 2005

CAPTAIN WORD SALAD

OFF MY MEDS AGAIN PLEASE DON'T USE BIG WORDS

UNNECESSARY LINE BREAK

Elliotw2 posted:

In my small experience with emulators, trying to play games on an Amiga that ISN'T the A500 baseline + maybe 512k of extra ram just causes them to explode horribly.

The thing is even the 500 has a few revisions with different chipsets and Kickstarts. In general for games a 500 with trapdoor ram, mouse, and a second disk drive will cover a good 80-90 percent of worthwhile games. Though some really want a hard drive unless you love disk swapping. Luckily most of those are PC DOS titles so if you wanna Lucasarts or Sierra it is easier and cheaper to play them there. (Plus most had CDROM releases and thus no terror of making it deep into Monkey Island 2 and finding a dead disk. It happened then and it's more likely now. Course replacing drives with the gotek type drives in those stores deals with that fuckery..)

There was also the 500+ and 600 which were mostly 500 but with chipset changes that could cause derp and in the latter it stripped out the numeric keypad which could take a few games out of play. (But has options for hard disks and flash cards that are stupidly easy to do. And it's smaller and has the tv modulator built in if you need it.)

But if one sticks with 1.3 Kickstart Amiga, PAL you can be mostly groovy for games. Not so much using other stuff but how much need does one have for Deluxe Paint and the Video Toaster in 2017 really? (Edit : and if people do someone let me know about that cool but nutter stuff! All I would want in that arena is the AMOS family of game makers.)

Captain Rufus fucked around with this message at 07:48 on Jan 23, 2017

d0s
Jun 28, 2004

Captain Rufus posted:

The thing is even the 500 has a few revisions with different chipsets and Kickstarts.

Yeah and they generally don't matter as long as the kickstart is 1.3 which is the vast majority of the systems (very early ones are 1.2, and that's it, there are no other kickstart versions for the 500). A500+ and A600 are easily spotted and can be avoided but even with those systems there shouldn't be much if any noticeable incompatibility, the real reason to avoid them is they had onboard batteries that tend to leak, and lovely capacitors. As long as you stick with a system that's just an A500 you should be fine. If you're really concerned about getting the wrong kickstart version, ask the seller to turn it on and tell you what it says at the boot screen, you want this:

pinacotheca
Oct 19, 2012

Events cast shadows before them, but the huger shadows creep over us unseen.

d0s posted:

A500+ and A600 are easily spotted and can be avoided but even with those systems there shouldn't be much if any noticeable incompatibility

Have to disagree, I had an A500+ back in the day and the compatibility with games written specifically for the A500 was very hit or miss. Even better, Commodore said nothing about potential incompatibilities around the launch of the 500+ and there were no lists available of which games would work and which wouldn't, leading to much traipsing back and forth from game shops trying to explain to hapless staff why the game worked on their A500 but not my A500+ and could I swap it for something else please. The 600 is basically a 500+ with the numpad removed and a couple of extra hardware connectors added on so has the same issue.

The problem was fixed to a certain extent after the Relokick disk was released, which takes the 500+/600 back to 1.3 Kickstart, but I seem to remember that even then there were a few games which still wouldn't work.

mike12345
Jul 14, 2008

"Whether the Earth was created in 7 days, or 7 actual eras, I'm not sure we'll ever be able to answer that. It's one of the great mysteries."





Captain Rufus posted:

Look into the Amiga. The amount of Dungeon Master clones on that platform are absurd. Knightmare. Black Crypt. Bloodwhych. Captive. Like there are even split screen multiplayer ones that were even ported to the C64.

I'm more a turn based guy myself so I am more happy Japan adores Wizardry even if we never got the best versions of these games in English in spite of them being originally English language! Hell, even Elder Scrolls 0.5 Ultima Underworld has a superior looking version on the PS1 though only in Japan.

Yet there are US CRPG franchises who have Jpn only sequels like Phantasie and yes Dungeon Master. Because if there is a divine being he hates us. (But gives us coffee so we just don't completely give up on existing.)

I would say that Grimrock is the best of that style of Dungeon Master clone and not even automapper programs for Eye of the Beholder make it comparable. There are a couple DM styled games for IOS and Steam has a couple out or soon to be out. RpgCodex is a good site to learn of these things but they have a old GBS styled sense of humor so it could offend the more sensitive out there. Like if classic FYAD smoked a bowl, had a wank, and really loved 80s CRPGs.

I do keep looking out for a fairly priced copy of Black Crypt and Bloodwhych though. Sadly the former is only Amiga. (Also the Dungeon Master 2 Sega CD port is pretty inferior to the PC and I cannot recommend it if you are a graphics person. http://wargamedork.blogspot.com/2014/06/retrocomputing-why-bother-special.html you can see the differences here. Also we learn a valuable lesson in never using Facebook as an image host because they always end up breaking links. I just don't want to waste more of my time fixing 2 year old blog posts about dork stuff. This post was also before I had or someone gave me the bright idea to just put a USB numeric keypad to the left of my PC keyboard when playing numpad move games where I still need active mouse handling on the right.)

I just wish Wizardry VI came with an auto-mapper. I loved VII, but drawing your own maps is probably where I draw the line. I realize that's part of the charm, but eh.

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Kea
Oct 5, 2007

mike12345 posted:

I just wish Wizardry VI came with an auto-mapper. I loved VII, but drawing your own maps is probably where I draw the line. I realize that's part of the charm, but eh.

Sounds like you need http://www.davidwaltersdevelopment.com/tools/gridcart/ which im fairly certain is goon written. Though of course this is to work with dosbox so if you want to play a different version you are likely out of luck.

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