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Mak0rz posted:Doesn't the GBA also not have a dedicated SPU? If so it's a wonder how the sound turned out as good as it did (i.e. serviceable for a nickel-sized speaker and not much else). Most of the functionality is CPU-driven, yes, but the GBA overall had a lot more power to spare so it wasn't as big a problem, on top of it still having the GBC audio chip which you could offload some of the tasks to. Meanwhile just rendering Doom was pushing the Jaguar architecture nearly to its limit, because the Jaguar design was really oriented to the 16 bit console generation and primarily focused on 2D rendering. Nevertheless, there's tons of GBA games with terrible sound because the developers stuck with low-CPU usage and low quality but fast to implement sound engines and never had time to replace that with better quality sound engines and samples. The processing hardware of the Jaguar is like this: The 2 main chips, clocked at 26.59 MHz with a custom instruction set. The "Tom" chip did general processing and also acted as a GPU, controlled memory, and handled all video output. The "Jerry" chip did general processing and provided DSP functionality, handled all sound including synthesis, and did control of inputs - the DSP functionality was mostly intended for sound, but games like Doom would use the DSP functionality primarily for calculating 3D render tasks. There was also a plain old Motorola 68000 at 13.295 MHz which was supposed to be used to coordinate tasks between the main CPU cores, but a lot of development used it as the sole processing core and strictly used the custom cores as a plain GPU and a plain audio chip, resulting in games that ran lovely and looked pretty ugly. Incidentally, the Jaguar CD didn't add any processing power or RAM besides the bare minimum required to read and cache data from the disc, in contrast to something like a Sega CD where you got a whole second Motorola 68000 running faster than the host Genesis which games could take advantage of.
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Mar 20, 2017 18:56
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TheRedEye posted:stop As a former software QA guy this post cleared my skin. I've had engineers yell at me for code they messed up. Jokes on them, now I'm an engineer. I'm really nice to the QA people because I remember the struggle.
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Mar 20, 2017 19:01
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I like that people believe QA has any sort of power, or the insinuation that they weren't aware of the 5,000 bugs that were marked as low priority and not game breaking therefore they exist
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Mar 20, 2017 19:07
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God, the more I think about the Highlander cartoon game on the Jaguar CD, the more the implications of the pathology behind it bother me. What would drive anyone to devote a bunch of time and development resources towards producing a game based on a cartoon series no one gave a poo poo about (no comments from the peanut gallery mutants please), for a hardware platform made up of masochists who decided to get burnt twice by Atari (once by the Jaguar, and again by purchasing a CD unit). Either there was some serious drug-fueled planning behind it all, ending in a fog of regret, sunk costs, and foisting the game off on a desperate Atari to recoup some dignity and resources - or the developers cynically figured they could release any old poo poo based on a cheap license and be the big fish in a small, desperate, and hungry pond of Jaguar CD users. The latter sounds worse than the former, actually...
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Mar 20, 2017 19:17
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Anyone who cared about Highlander after the 2nd movie deserves pain.
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Mar 20, 2017 19:22
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FireMrshlBill was saying that QA input was obviously not considered (enough). That's not a criticism of QA testers at all. No need to dogpile on him or take it personally.
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Mar 20, 2017 19:24
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TheRedEye posted:stop I used to know someone who did QA on an infamously bad game. He offered me a personal apology for playing it.
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Mar 20, 2017 19:29
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Random Stranger posted:I used to know someone who did QA on an infamously bad game. He offered me a personal apology for playing it. My name is in the credits for some real terrible rear end games. If you've ever played Zathura, all I can say is "I'm sorry"
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Mar 20, 2017 19:43
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Code Jockey posted:Commodore 1702 supremacy 1084 would like a word 
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Mar 20, 2017 20:27
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wa27 posted:FireMrshlBill was saying that QA input was obviously not considered (enough). That's not a criticism of QA testers at all. No need to dogpile on him or take it personally. Yep, thank you for that. I used to do software/hardware QA (not gaming, but still). I was blaming lack of USING and/or CONSIDERING QA, not saying it was QA's fault.
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Mar 20, 2017 20:55
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Just blame everything on management, the chain of command is there for a reason.
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Mar 20, 2017 21:12
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rule#1: its always the bosses fault until we seize the means of production, then its the kulaks fault
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Mar 20, 2017 21:44
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You know this thread has gotten into your brain when you get excited when you spot a by the side of the road. (It was a Sanyo and it was larger than I want to keep around for retrogames anyway.)
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Mar 20, 2017 21:51
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It's very rarely, if ever, QA's fault.
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Mar 20, 2017 23:15
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The guys at My Life in Gaming, which is a fantastic channel on its own, recently uploaded several gaming VHS tapes in full on a separate channel. It has those Nintendo freebies, game strategy stuff, etc. https://www.youtube.com/user/VideogameBRoll/videos
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Mar 21, 2017 00:01
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For the first time in my life, I tried out the Atari 2600 port of Gyruss. To my complete shock, it is actually  a good port! Seriously, the person who coded it seemed to give a poo poo about all the right things.I must now own this spectacular piece of crap.
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Mar 21, 2017 02:28
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Nice, 2600 Gyruss was one of the highlights of my collection back in the day. Got off to a rocky start with that "port" of Zaxxon, though. Kind of wish I hadn't given all my 2600 carts away when I was in college. Although they wouldn't be doing me much good now, seeing as my Vader won't even power on anymore. 
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Mar 21, 2017 02:42
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Ludicrous Gibs! posted:Nice, 2600 Gyruss was one of the highlights of my collection back in the day. Part of my shock has to do with me being generally dismissive of the Atari 2600 on the whole. Like, I have a heavy sixer and a jr model sitting here plugged into my setup, but I don't use the system at all and decided on a lark to try the 2600 port in an emulator and got a supreme shock. From #retrochat: <WiseFwomYoGwave> Like, for real - the person who must've programmed the thing seemed to give a poo poo about the right things. <WiseFwomYoGwave> Like, keep the pacing, keep the patterns (the Atari 800/5200 port hosed these both up). Hell, even the music is not lovely. <WiseFwomYoGwave> They cheated on the "leftover enemies in the pot" bit. And the enemies all suffer from "changeshape blocks". Also, the double-shot graphic is easily misinterpreted as a single wide shot, but it's the double-shot and it hits just like it. <WiseFwomYoGwave> The game also doesn't tell you how many warps to a particular planet, or that you're on a bonus stage when you get to it. <WiseFwomYoGwave> It's the closest thing to a Coleco Mini version of Gyruss as one could get.
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Mar 21, 2017 02:52
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Kthulhu5000 posted:God, the more I think about the Highlander cartoon game on the Jaguar CD, the more the implications of the pathology behind it bother me. What would drive anyone to devote a bunch of time and development resources towards producing a game based on a cartoon series no one gave a poo poo about (no comments from the peanut gallery mutants please), for a hardware platform made up of masochists who decided to get burnt twice by Atari (once by the Jaguar, and again by purchasing a CD unit). Yeah, Atari didn't have the luxury of turning down games during the Jaguar days. It wasn't as though they could say "The Highlander cartoon? Nah, we'll hold out for a game based on The Bots Master or Stunt Dawgs." My favorite example of Jaguar desperation is Atari Karts, a Mario Kart clone clearly meant to round up classic Atari characters. The most recognizable face there is Bentley Bear from Crystal Castles.
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Mar 21, 2017 02:59
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shyduck posted:The guys at My Life in Gaming, which is a fantastic channel on its own, recently uploaded several gaming VHS tapes in full on a separate channel. It has those Nintendo freebies, game strategy stuff, etc. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5DMTRxl2Y8 I had this tape as a kid. I just love rewatching it all the time. It still neat to watch, especially the really cheesey theme song at the start.
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Mar 21, 2017 03:30
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I'm going to call this round-about-retro, because I couldn't find an arcade thread. Therefore, the concept of arcades is retro, and I can share this here. There's a relatively new bowling alley / arcade near Seattle, it's part of a chain called Round 1. It was phenomenal, it felt like what big arcades felt like in the early '90s. Highlights: Luigi's Mansion arcade  The table flipping game  My favorite, DEVICE PLUGGED INTO WRONG PORT  Mario Kart and Cruis'n.  Silent Hill  Great ticket prizes like Gundams  There is a world where a new Sega console came out recently, and this was basically an arcade full of the Dreamcast 3's library.
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Mar 21, 2017 04:24
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Kid Fenris posted:Yeah, Atari didn't have the luxury of turning down games during the Jaguar days. It wasn't as though they could say "The Highlander cartoon? Nah, we'll hold out for a game based on The Bots Master or Stunt Dawgs." Of course there's no reason that a terrible license can't become an awesome game. I mean beyond the fact that weak licenses go to weak developers who churn out something quickly. Also, you're not kidding that those Atari Kart characters are obscure. I had no clue who any of them past Bentley were supposed to be. You'd think they'd have some fun and throw in Yar or the yellow block hero from Adventure or something...
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Mar 21, 2017 04:26
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My girlfriend and I beat that Luigi's Mansion arcade game. We spent like 20 bucks or so, but the original is her favorite game ever, and this one was really well done.
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Mar 21, 2017 04:28
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Chainclaw posted:Great ticket prizes like Gundams I wasn't aware Bowling Alleys were giving away hard narcotics as prizes now  . No, seriously, kiss your disposable income and empty shelf space goodbye if you so much as open that box.
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Mar 21, 2017 07:49
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Dang is that the place in Southcenter? I've never bothered going in.
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Mar 21, 2017 08:15
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Chainclaw posted:Silent Hill
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Mar 21, 2017 16:26
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So Seiken Densetsu/Secret of Mana collection is getting made for the Switch, but no mention if it is Japan only or will get a NA release. I have only played part of Secret of Mana (need to go back and beat that) and have Final Fantasy Adventure for GB but haven't played more than an hour of it. Still, finally getting an english translation of 3 would be cool. However at $43, that is a lot and I would just get the fan translation ROM at that point. They should have ported Adventure of Mana from the Vita as well.
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Mar 21, 2017 18:22
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FireMrshlBill posted:So Seiken Densetsu/Secret of Mana collection is getting made for the Switch, but no mention if it is Japan only or will get a NA release. I have only played part of Secret of Mana (need to go back and beat that) and have Final Fantasy Adventure for GB but haven't played more than an hour of it. Still, finally getting an english translation of 3 would be cool. However at $43, that is a lot and I would just get the fan translation ROM at that point. They should have ported Adventure of Mana from the Vita as well. Isn't Adventure of Mana a graphical remake of Seiten Densetsu 1/Final Fantasy Adventure?
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Mar 21, 2017 19:55
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TheRedEye posted:stop Yeah blame the producers in charge who decided QA wasn't worth the cost.
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Mar 21, 2017 19:57
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Got home from vacation and added the buttons to my control panel for this Korean cab: Need to touch up some parts on the paint, but it came out a lot better than I expected. I'll probably make a new one from the lessons learned here but I can at least start with this.
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Mar 21, 2017 20:09
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Prism posted:Isn't Adventure of Mana a graphical remake of Seiten Densetsu 1/Final Fantasy Adventure? It is, and it's pretty neat even if it's clearly made for smartphones (and not the Vita). They could probably include the DS and GBA Mana games in the Switch collection without too much trouble, but the Game Boy and Super NES titles are the best of the series. It'll be nice if they release that anthology here. Seiken Densetsu 3 was the number one "Why Don't They Translate This?!" game from my childhood. The answer turned out to be "software bugs made localization too much trouble for a game that wouldn't be out in the U.S. until the Super NES market faded," but try telling that to the RPG-crazed kids who wrote 90,000 letters a month to Nintendo Power and GameFan.
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Mar 21, 2017 21:09
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Prism posted:Isn't Adventure of Mana a graphical remake of Seiten Densetsu 1/Final Fantasy Adventure? Yep, but still something they should port as well. Sword of Mana too. If you are going to do the collection, may as well include the remakes. Though maybe Nintendo made it easy for GB/SNES game emulation and not GBA? And porting from mobile/Vita is probably more expensive man-hour-wise.
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Mar 21, 2017 22:08
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So a couple months of lurking this thread has caused me to picked up an n64 and snes off ebay. How is it I'm feeling nostalgia for a retro console I never even owned (SNES)? What is happening to me?
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Mar 21, 2017 22:29
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Are you really that young?
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Mar 21, 2017 22:30
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sudo rm -rf posted:So a couple months of lurking this thread has caused me to picked up an n64 and snes off ebay. It's not nostalgia, you just have love for  poo poo.
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Mar 21, 2017 22:40
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sudo rm -rf posted:So a couple months of lurking this thread has caused me to picked up an n64 and snes off ebay.
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Mar 21, 2017 22:44
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sudo rm -rf posted:So a couple months of lurking this thread has caused me to picked up an n64 and snes off ebay. Because pop culture wants you to remember, whether you were actually there or not. I also blame my generation of youtube vidiots for driving up the prices.
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Mar 21, 2017 22:59
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FireMrshlBill posted:Yep, but still something they should port as well. Sword of Mana too. If you are going to do the collection, may as well include the remakes. Though maybe Nintendo made it easy for GB/SNES game emulation and not GBA? And porting from mobile/Vita is probably more expensive man-hour-wise. I personally don't think they really need more than one version of the same game in there, and if you're going for maximum nostalgia it's the Game Boy one. (It should not be Sword of Mana. Sword of Mana was not good.) If I wished for a game to be added to it, it would be Legend of Mana, but that's probably too much to ask. Comedy option: Secret of Evermore. Japan's never gotten that one.
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Mar 21, 2017 23:43
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Caitlin posted:Are you really that young? I'm almost 40 and I never owned a SNES until 2017 
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Mar 21, 2017 23:44
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RZA Encryption posted:Dang is that the place in Southcenter? I've never bothered going in. Do it. Round1 is incredible and I spend at least one lunch hour a week there since they have a ton of music game machines (brand new ones like Beatmania Sinobuz and the new Sound Voltex, and Theatrhythm Final Fantasy) and it's near where I work. Avoid the three prong claw machines, they're rigged as hell. Two claw UFO catchers are good. I have so many anatomically correct stuffed corgis... Thanks Yakuza series. 
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Mar 22, 2017 00:01
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