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Saoshyant posted:I'm learning about the Atari 2600 what with never having owned one or known anyone who owned one, and I just watched this Computer Chronicles episode with a segment dedicated to this guy who made an actual Space Shuttle simulator on this ancient hardware. It's incredible as an achievement and possibly the most nerdy thing I've ever seen.
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Jan 12, 2018 13:41
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To me, the port of Double Dragon is the most surprising game on the Atari 2600. Not that it's any good as far as I know.
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Jan 12, 2018 17:10
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Quiet Feet posted:To me, the port of Double Dragon is the most surprising game on the Atari 2600. Not that it's any good as far as I know. Owned and beat it. I had to buy it mail order through the Sears catalog... It is both technically amazing and terrible to play. Best thing about it was my mother walking into the room as I was playing and saying, "Video games aren't any fun since you can't win them." Then I beat the boss and the words "YOU WIN" appeared on the screen.
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Jan 12, 2018 18:14
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Jimmy Smuts posted:That's what I love about the Atari 2600 and its hardware: its amazing how programmers figured out how to squeeze so much out of so little. The first 2600 games were very simplistic, such as Video Olympics (Pong) or Combat, and the hardware wasn't really meant to do much more. Hell, Atari intentionally half-assed the cartridge slot & thereby nerfed the CPU's capabilities just to save a few bucks per console. But by the end of its life the 2600 got insane borderline-impossible poo poo like Chess, that Space Shuttle game, Solaris, Pitfall 2 (which had its own custom chip to do stuff the console couldn't do; like a 1980s SuperFX), and Robot Tank. And they all ran at 60 fps. I'm almost surprised it didn't get a port of Elite. The 60 fps stuff on 2D consoles like the Atari is actually more of the norm than an exception. Unlike later 3D systems, there is no frame buffer that has to be written to and read out from. With an older system like an Atari 2600, the CPU and TIA are writing directly to the TVs electron gun. So games on the 2600 HAVE to run at 60 FPS, because if they try to take longer than a frame, you get flicker as the system is crunching whatever logic you give it rather than writing a frame onto the screen.
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Jan 12, 2018 18:15
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My ever drive came in the mail! Two things kind of weird. Ordered one with a red shell from retrogate and it came with a yellow shell straight from the ukrain. Not terribly bothered by color but does retrogate just take a cut and have Kris’s ship to you?
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Jan 12, 2018 19:18
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Instant Sunrise posted:The 60 fps stuff on 2D consoles like the Atari is actually more of the norm than an exception. Unlike later 3D systems, there is no frame buffer that has to be written to and read out from. With an older system like an Atari 2600, the CPU and TIA are writing directly to the TVs electron gun. So games on the 2600 HAVE to run at 60 FPS, because if they try to take longer than a frame, you get flicker as the system is crunching whatever logic you give it rather than writing a frame onto the screen. You can actually see this with the tic tac toe and chess games where the screen literally blanks between moves because the system needs all cycles for deciding an answer.
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Jan 12, 2018 19:40
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Ambitious Spider posted:My ever drive came in the mail! Two things kind of weird. Ordered one with a red shell from retrogate and it came with a yellow shell straight from the ukrain. Not terribly bothered by color but does retrogate just take a cut and have Kris’s ship to you? I think they're just one of the many authorized resellers. Back when Krikzz didn't have a storefront on his site, you would basically choose between Retrogate for the cheapest prices and bare boards (with airmail), or paying Stoneagegamer for domestic shipping and custom shells. Maybe krikzz's storefront is just another front end for Retrogate though, since they're both in the Ukraine. I've never bought from Krikzz directly. Now it seems like you can't buy many of the bare boards from anyone, and Stoneagegamer's prices are more in line with the overseas sellers. I got my Mega Everdrive from them and it worked out to the same price but shipped way faster.
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Jan 12, 2018 19:43
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wa27 posted:I think they're just one of the many authorized resellers. Back when Krikzz didn't have a storefront on his site, you would basically choose between Retrogate for the cheapest prices and bare boards (with airmail), or paying Stoneagegamer for domestic shipping and custom shells. Maybe krikzz's storefront is just another front end for Retrogate though, since they're both in the Ukraine. I've never bought from Krikzz directly. Ah I thought retrogate was in the U.K. for some reason. Makes sense it came from Ukraine.
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Jan 12, 2018 19:55
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Instant Sunrise posted:The 60 fps stuff on 2D consoles like the Atari is actually more of the norm than an exception. Unlike later 3D systems, there is no frame buffer that has to be written to and read out from. With an older system like an Atari 2600, the CPU and TIA are writing directly to the TVs electron gun. So games on the 2600 HAVE to run at 60 FPS, because if they try to take longer than a frame, you get flicker as the system is crunching whatever logic you give it rather than writing a frame onto the screen. Not a system "like" the 2600, the 2600 is pretty much the only retro system that requires you to build things "live" as the beam is flying besides non-programmable Pong type machines. The Fairchild Channel F had a framebuffer and it released before the 2600, and so did the Intellivision, Colecovision, 5200, etc. Only the 2600 was so dedicated towards price-cutting by eschewing expensive RAM for a framebuffer that it needed to race the beam. For instance, the Channel F had 2 whole kilobytes of RAM for the framebuffer plus 64 bytes of RAM for general use. The Intellivision had 512 bytes of dedicated graphics RAM, 704 bytes of system memory of which 480 bytes normally went to the graphics and the other 224 to system use, and 240 bytes of dedicated system RAM. The Colecovision has 16 kilobytes of graphics RAM and 1 kilobyte of system RAM. The 2600 had just 128 bytes of RAM, period. Because Atari wanted to get all the profit possible. And that's why so many programmers of the time loving hated it but had to program for it, because it was on top! Everything else had framebuffers like sensible people would design, although some of the minor systems were pretty scanty to try to save money too.
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Jan 12, 2018 23:31
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I got my gscartsw in the mail today and it works great. No image degredation, no sync weirdness with any of my consoles, and I don't have to keep switching SCART cables on my SCART/component converter when I want to play with a different console anymore. Just bought an n64 with expansion pack yesterday as well, ordered an everdrive for it that will get here someday, and ordered the parts to build an RGB amp for it as well as a SCART cable and a couple of controllers, extension cables, and a memory card. I now have every major console from the NES up to the current day. Neo Geo AES and a NeoSD is next
GutBomb fucked around with this message at 23:44 on Jan 12, 2018 |
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Jan 12, 2018 23:41
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GutBomb posted:
Oh man. I don't think I am gonna go with an AES because I just don't have the capital, but an MVS supergun with a NeoSD would be terrific if I could somehow find a way to afford it. That's my last piece. And then I am, as Clarence Carter would say, "sassified."
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Jan 12, 2018 23:59
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What Genesis RPGs would you recommend to someone who only ever had a SNES? I've played through all the major SNES titles. My Everdrive MD arrived, so any Genesis/Master System game recommendations are welcome. I grew up in a Nintendo household.
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Jan 13, 2018 01:51
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SpaceAceJase posted:What Genesis RPGs would you recommend to someone who only ever had a SNES? I've played through all the major SNES titles. Phantasy Star 4 and probably the Shining Force series are the two go-tos for me.
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Jan 13, 2018 01:54
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Prism posted:Phantasy Star 4 and probably the Shining Force series are the two go-tos for me. Starting at 4 if I've never finished the previous ones?
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Jan 13, 2018 01:58
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SpaceAceJase posted:Starting at 4 if I've never finished the previous ones? Yeah, they're not very tightly connected (1, 2 and 4 do take place on the same world(s) but there are thousand-year gaps, and 3 does not take place there). There are connections, but you won't be burned by not having played the earlier ones. You can play the earlier ones too, of course, but they are not as good IMO; 3 in particular is very divisive. 4 was the first I played and the one I recommend the most.
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Jan 13, 2018 02:00
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Phantasy Star 4's probably the best starting point, then the retranslation of Phantasy Star 1 and then PS2 with a guide because that game's loving evil.
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Jan 13, 2018 02:04
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https://twitter.com/RetroBitGaming/status/951925780501573632 Ooooooh yeah
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Jan 13, 2018 02:23
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Has Retrobit improved since the last time i bought a really lovely genesis controller from them?
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Jan 13, 2018 04:27
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SpaceAceJase posted:What Genesis RPGs would you recommend to someone who only ever had a SNES? I've played through all the major SNES titles. Crusader of Centy
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Jan 13, 2018 05:52
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Shadowrun's an interesting western action-RPG that's nothing like the SNES game. Landstalker's an isometric Zelda-style game by some of the Shining people, Beyond Oasis/Story of Thor is a more action-y Zelda-style game by the people behind Streets of Rage 2, and Crusader of Centy is pretty much just Zelda. If you want translated Japanese games, there's Rent-A-Hero (wacky action-RPG by Sega AM2) and Vixen 357 (sci-fi strategy RPG by the Langrisser team). The good Master System RPGs are pretty much just Phantasy Star and Ultima 4 (which is a relatively straight port, they didn't JRPG-ify it like the NES Ultima games). Golden Axe Warrior is the Zelda-est Zelda to ever Zelda, and Golvellius is kinda neat as well.
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Jan 13, 2018 06:19
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Elliotw2 posted:Has Retrobit improved since the last time i bought a really lovely genesis controller from them?
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Jan 13, 2018 06:50
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Visited a local Cash Converters this morning and picked up these games: Desert Strike, Pit Fighter and Turbo Sub for the Lynx and Columns for the Mega Drive. $70 the lot.
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Jan 13, 2018 08:29
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I love the strike games, I didn't know there was a lynx version. How bad is it?
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Jan 13, 2018 09:05
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I haven't tried it yet, will give it a run tomorrow and see what it is like
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Jan 13, 2018 09:36
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You Am I posted:$70 the lot. Is that zero a mistake or are lynx games just really expensive? (idk much about lynx)
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Jan 13, 2018 12:23
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d0s posted:Is that zero a mistake or are lynx games just really expensive? (idk much about lynx) Cash Converters generally goes by eBay pricing, or at least whatever looks profitable via a quick Google search.
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Jan 13, 2018 12:46
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d0s posted:Is that zero a mistake or are lynx games just really expensive? (idk much about lynx) 
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Jan 13, 2018 12:52
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d0s posted:Is that zero a mistake or are lynx games just really expensive? (idk much about lynx) The Lynx games were $19 each, which isn't too bad I guess, since there weren't a heap of them in Australia
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Jan 13, 2018 13:00
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ah ok thats like 50 bucks here which doesn't seem quite as bad but still high, drat I thought we had it rough in the us with prices 
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Jan 13, 2018 16:07
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Maybe I just suck but The Game Paradise on the Saturn is punishingly hard. Sure it has unlimited continues and that makes it so you can just suicide bomb your way through, but I mean it's seriously hard to play it "properly". It's such a cool game though. If you like retro games it is a sort of retro-game themed (forward thinking from the mid 90s) bullet hell shooter.
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Jan 13, 2018 16:24
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Did anyone order those Retro Bit / Data East NES carts? I'm reading reviews, and it looks like they don't even fit in the original front loading NESes. That seems insane to me. On the other hand, these cart collections generally seem like a bad idea in that none of these games particularly needed a re-issue.
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Jan 13, 2018 17:59
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GutBomb posted:Maybe I just suck but The Game Paradise on the Saturn is punishingly hard. Sure it has unlimited continues and that makes it so you can just suicide bomb your way through, but I mean it's seriously hard to play it "properly". It's such a cool game though. If you like retro games it is a sort of retro-game themed (forward thinking from the mid 90s) bullet hell shooter. technically it's not a bullet hell game which means something very specific, bit it is a port of an arcade shooter so yes it's going to be hard to beat on a single credit, it takes like a few months of practice to be able to do that to nearly any arcade shooter on its normal (arcade) difficulty and you need to learn how to control the rank etc. also you may not be playing in tate mode (with a rotated TV) so that might add to the difficulty. just concentrate on improving your score, not beating it right away like you would a game designed for consoles. game overs are natural and will happen often no matter what when you pick up a new arcade game, you'll know you're getting better by pushing the game over further and further away while scoring higher e: also don't sit down to play it with the idea of just grinding out the game, approach it literally like a game you like at a local arcade. play a couple credits at a time (letting the counter run out every time you game over instead of continuing) and see how well you each run do then come back tomorrow and you'll see a little improvement each time e2: in case anyone's wondering this is the game he's playing, really unique arcade-themed shooter where your enemies are UFO catcher toys and cocktail cabs and poo poo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1_V0l7YPlE&t=64s d0s fucked around with this message at 18:38 on Jan 13, 2018 |
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Jan 13, 2018 18:32
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d0s posted:technically it's not a bullet hell game which means something very specific, bit it is a port of an arcade shooter so yes it's going to be hard to beat on a single credit, it takes like a few months of practice to be able to do that to nearly any arcade shooter on its normal (arcade) difficulty and you need to learn how to control the rank etc. also you may not be playing in tate mode (with a rotated TV) so that might add to the difficulty. just concentrate on improving your score, not beating it right away like you would a game designed for consoles. game overs are natural and will happen often no matter what when you pick up a new arcade game, you'll know you're getting better by pushing the game over further and further away while scoring higher I called it bullet hell because it's a shooter that leans that direction. It's a lot more bullet helly than say, blazing lazers which is a more standard shooter. It's got a lot of bits where you're dodging hundreds of projectiles and weaving between enemies at the same time so it's got a similar feel to other bullet hell shooters. It's also a little different than those because in a pure bullet hell shooter your hitbox is a lot smaller so it's easier to dodge and weave smoothly in those Edit: after watching that clip, the Saturn version has a lot more enemies and projectiles than whatever settings that arcade emulation had turned on. GutBomb fucked around with this message at 19:15 on Jan 13, 2018 |
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Jan 13, 2018 18:59
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GutBomb posted:I called it bullet hell because it's a shooter that means that direction. It's a lot more bullet helly than say, blazing lazers which is a more standard shooter. It's got a lot of bits where you're dodging hundreds of projectiles and weaving between enemies at the same time so it's got a similar feel to other bullet hell shooters. It's also a little different than those because in a pure bullet hell shooter your hitbox is a lot smaller so it's easier to dodge and weave smoothly in those iirc game tengoku is more in the style of psikyo games where there are lots of bullets but bullet dodging isn't the focus of the game like cave or touhou or something like that, you don't see anything like danmaku patterns etc. the patterns and the way you play are the big difference and what really make something bullet hell, which actually doesn't have much to do with difficulty. there are plenty of really traditional non-danmaku shooters from the late 80's-mid 90's that are a lot harder to clear than something like dodonpachi or whatever. it's really common thing for people to play a really hard shmup and due to the difficulty call it bullet hell but technically not correct because it's a specific subgenre with really specific traits. you can tell something is bullet hell if the screen is entirely full of slow moving bullets you have to kind of navigate kind of like a maze at specific points of the stage or during boss fights. if there are just a lot of fast moving or aimed bullets everywhere, even kind of patterned but as something to completely avoid (because it's moving too fast) rather than move through it's not bullethell it's just a hard fuckin shooter e: regarding the clip the guy is playing arcade at standard difficulty, which should be harder than the home port at standard. are you playing the arcade mode and not some remix mode? e2: nm I figured out why, the saturn's yoko mode is bizarre and doesn't just show the whole arcade screen but zooms in. of course it's going to be ridiculous hard like that. try to play it in tate or just play it in MAME https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_CD7dtVCFM d0s fucked around with this message at 19:30 on Jan 13, 2018 |
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Jan 13, 2018 19:27
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making another reply because I don't want to edit again, also you may not see as much stuff on that screen because at that dude's level he knows how to control the rank which is like the metagame of shooters where you meet/don't meet certain conditions in order to drive down the game's difficulty as you're playing. in a lot of games just getting all the powerups/score items as they appear and becoming ridiculously powerful drives the rank way up and the game tries to annihilate you e: here's some strategy discussion for the sat version of this game, including what ships to use etc https://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=680 e2: menu translations https://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=3615 d0s fucked around with this message at 19:49 on Jan 13, 2018 |
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Jan 13, 2018 19:38
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There's no tate option for Saturn Arrange Mode so that might be a better option if you can't tate for whatever reason. I imagine this mode was re-worked to account for the lack of screen space, but I'm not sure, and it's been 10+ years since I've played it. Plus it has two extra stages, and they're kind of hilarious. FWIW I don't really care for this game aside from a quick credit-feed to see all the levels, which are pretty creative/wacky. It was probably my only disappointing Saturn shmup purchase (although Sokyugurentai comes close to being in that category).
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Jan 14, 2018 00:47
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GutBomb posted:I called it bullet hell because it's a shooter that leans that direction. It's a lot more bullet helly than say, blazing lazers which is a more standard shooter. It's got a lot of bits where you're dodging hundreds of projectiles and weaving between enemies at the same time so it's got a similar feel to other bullet hell shooters. It's also a little different than those because in a pure bullet hell shooter your hitbox is a lot smaller so it's easier to dodge and weave smoothly in those
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Jan 14, 2018 01:01
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Ofecks posted:FWIW I don't really care for this game aside from a quick credit-feed to see all the levels, which are pretty creative/wacky. It was probably my only disappointing Saturn shmup purchase (although Sokyugurentai comes close to being in that category). me neither, it's just not a lot of fun imo. which is a shame because aside from that it's one of the most incredibly well done "tribute to game culture in the form of a game" ever done e: Babylon Astronaut posted:Those games, and games like batsugun are sometimes called "manic shooters" which was bullet hell, until actual bullet hell showed up. I specifically tried not to use that phrase because in Japan and sometimes here people refer to bullet hell/danmaku as manic as well and it's kinda confusing. it's just standard shmup to me, like the only difference between it and something super traditional like raiden is more and faster bullets but the strategy is still fundamentally the same, whereas you kinda have to throw a lot of that out for bullet hell d0s fucked around with this message at 01:10 on Jan 14, 2018 |
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Jan 14, 2018 01:06
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The Game Paradise got a Steam/PS4 port at the end of last year, it's based on the Saturn version but with an extra mode that properly replicates the arcade version. I haven't played either version (they haven't patched in an English translation yet) but they got the original Jaleco programmers to do the port so I'd like to think they did a decent job: http://store.steampowered.com/app/663130/Game_Tengoku_CruisinMix/
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Jan 14, 2018 02:12
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d0s posted:e2: nm I figured out why, the saturn's yoko mode is bizarre and doesn't just show the whole arcade screen but zooms in. of course it's going to be ridiculous hard like that. try to play it in tate or just play it in MAME https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_CD7dtVCFM why is every loving bullet hell game also some creepy pedo bait poo poo for weirdos, jesus christ
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Jan 14, 2018 03:25
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