hunk wrote:

I believe it has something to do with continuesly syncing players up at a steady interval (ms) to prevent them going way out of sync? Not sure tho, you'd have to ask the hardcore pro's around here. Fightcade is more than fighting games tho, there's md and snes support too if I'm correct.

They would need to be kept in lockstep for it to work at all but I could imagine that causing really jerky play. Seems it doesn't. Impressive stuff.

WH Smith deal on retro "bookazines"

https://fusionretrobooks.com/collections/crash-magazine/products/wh-smith-bookazine-boxset-limited-to-300?variant=39614161518686

The GBA port of Super GnG might well be the toughest game I've ever finished. I had the MS and MD games as a kid, and the latter definitely had infinite continues. Super was too harsh imo. Very good though.

I love Gunsmoke. Only played the NES version though.

Megadrive GnG was a game I mainlined back in about 91.

I did eventually get to the point where I could 1CC it - probably could do about the first 2 and a half stages now from memory. The last couple are bit fuzzier!

Drifted into GAME when in town yesterday and picked up an Atari handheld. This isn't the sort of thing I'm into - but - it's Atari - my first love. It also has Asteroids and 7800 games. Also has a microSD card slot so I picked it up. £18 and I had £4 on my loyalty card so why not.

At the price I wasn't expecting much and there are several shortcomings - but - this is kind of OK.

It has 60 built in games inc. 5 7800 games. It has an AV out for composite to a TV - haven't tried that yet - and a headphone output too.

Many of the games work fine. I continue to be baffled by the inclusion of paddle games though. They are next to unplayable and a waste of time. But there they are - inc. Super Breakout, Circus, Night Driver - all nice little games but unplayable without a spinner or equivalent. Even analogue sticks are useless.

However with non paddle games the control works well. It has a spongy dpad and 2 buttons (7800 games use 2 buttons). Missile Command requires good dpad control and it works just fine. 7800 Centipede is an excellent port and it's intact here and controls fine. 

The screen is small but it works just fine - nice and clear.

Now the downside. Sound is crap. It's the one thing that cheap emus never get right and this is no exception. It doesn't really bother me that much. It's functional. And some games sound OK. Yars' Revenge - one of my favourites - sounds OK-ish (and is further proof that the dpad works well - as this game requires pretty accurate movement). The sound is no better with headphones.

Sprite multiplexing. Atari devs , trying to port arcade games like Pacman etc had to create a game well beyond the hardware's limits. So multiple sprites (>2) on the same vertical position have to be displayed on alternate frames - creating the infamous Atari flicker. Originally on a CRT isn't wasn't as bad as on modern screens because of the persistence of phosphor glow. But on this device in particular the sprites disappear for longer than they should - rendering some games unplayable - Pacman, Space Invaders are 2 examples - ghosts and bullets disappear for far too long to be playable. According to reviews the AV out image on a TV doesn't suffer from this - you get normal flicker - so the screen refresh rate must be screwing the game up.

Difficulty switches. There fucking aren't any! And the default appears to be the B setting which is the easier mode in any 2600 game that uses them. This means - on 2600 asteroids - no ufos. What an idiotic decision. Clearly made by someone who knows fuck all about Atari 2600. It also means some games are not playable - the ones like Space Shuttle which use them and the bw/color switch as controls.

Some of the 7800 games run too fast. Far too fast. Guess which one is unplayable? That's right - bloody asteroids. 7800 asteroids is still the best port of the game to a console that isn't an emulation. But they managed to fuck that up here. Centipede plays just fine, as does the excellent Food Fight. But not Asteroids. Gnnnnnnnnn.

There are plenty of the better 2600 games missing because of licencing (though why Pacman is on here instead of the superior Ms. Pacman or Pacman Jr. is anyone's guess).

However the sd card slot comes to the rescue. It really does. I dumped the contents of my Harmony cart onto a card and stuck it in and they all work. Even the homebrew stuff.  The Activision games in particular play great on this unit. This is mainly because those guys were the elite Atari devs who left to get a better deal, but also because they didn't do arcade ports , which means they designed games to the strength of the console. So no flickering for example.

Being able to copy ROMs means I will be able to hack up a version of Asteroids set to difficulty A and other games that are similarly hampered by that.  Some tech videos on YT look at its innards and apparantly the spec of this is decent enough so the thinking is the sound should have been better.... shrug.

I have tried the PAL60 roms I created for my PAL woody console and a few suffer from overscan (you lose  portion of the screen at the bottom). But one NTSC ROM (Pitfall) seems to have the wrong colours so I'm not sure what the emulator is doing re PAL and NTSC. Another YT video I saw showed the overscan issue absent when using the AV out. So another thing I need to try.

For £14 I can't complain, but this should have been the definitive 2600/7800 fan's handheld because of it's natty styling with fake woodgrain and the classic Atari joystick styled dpad and buttons.  2600 games when well presented with good control are perfect for handheld quick 5min blasts - and you need real buttons - fuck mobiles.

hylian_elf wrote:

Reminded how damn tough Super Ghouls and Ghosts is. It's comedically tough.

I had it.  Managed to get to the 'end' after many tries.  Immediately took out the cart and smashed it open in rage.  Anger issues as a teenager.  (I've broken SNES pads too in frustration at some games.) I still actually had the PCB until a few years ago when I sold all my SNES games.  (Was only looking at my list earlier today and sighing at the fact I had to sell them to pay off debts.  Ultimately was a good thing, but sometimes I mourn the loss.)

I've been lucky enough to be able to hold onto my SNES carts. Still have them all boxed with manuals.  But I never had Super G&G. Gorgeous looking game too.  I've seen off a few controllers in my time too. Megamania on 2600 had me wrecking a joystick when I was a teenager.

Reprise of the Robots is overdue.

Was playing some PuchiCarat yesterday. It's an 90s arcade game in the Taito Legends 2 compilation but I was playing the PS1 port.

The game is best described as a cross between Breakout/Arkanoid and Bust-A-Move. Gems are taken out by bouncing a ball into them but hanging structures dependant on a gem you remove will also fall a la Bust A Move. Layouts gradually move down the screen toward you and when they get too low it ends your game (missing the ball causes the gems to drop 3 levels).

The PS1 port is superior to the bare bones arcade game as it adds in several new modes such as Time Attack, endless mode etc. But it's greatest trick is the addition of a paddle controller that came with the special edition (which sadly doesn't work with the Taito Legends disc version on PS2). Some of the modes are really tough but there's a good spread of challenge here. It's the PAL version which has borders etc so I've ordered the JP version for the full speed experience. There's a story mode that has you going up against CPU characters in a versus mode and the translation seems to be extremely ropey which adds to the fun. Will report back when the JP version arrives.

Nice.


Meanwhile, bloody PuchCarat hasn't arrived yet - ebay seller assures me it will arrive this week.

Hello everyone.

It’s been a while, I didn’t actually realise quite how long!

Chatting to Eric on Friday Night Forza a few weeks back, he asked why I hadn’t posted on here (retro thread) for a while. Well, basically Child 1 wanted her own room, so I lost my games/Transformers room. I barely find much time to play anything these days, although I did just buy Zombies Ate My Neighbors on Xbox - it’s even harder than I remember! And the collision detection seems super iffy.

Last night, again during FNF, Eric asked me if I knew about/owned a Mega Drive Megatron. I did know about it. And yes I have one. So, after speed reading nearly 2000 posts I’m up to date.

Lovely to see some of my favourites mentioned, like NiGHTS, Sega Rally and Rez. I have Mizuguchi’s autograph btw

I sold off most of my retro games/consoles, keeping a select set of Mega Drive, Saturn and Dreamcast, a lot of which are up in the loft. This is now my display….



It’s a never ending disappointment to me, having sold off so much, and I found reading this thread at the time didn’t help.

My Transformers and EDGE collection are in the loft, leaving two display cases in the lounge now….

]


Apart from Mega Drive Megatron (which I’m coming to), I also mentioned to Eric I have a couple of Transformers Nikes….





And here we go, the reason I’m back here posting (and derailing the thread ( ) ….

optimark_prime wrote:

This is now my display….

Sexy.

Except for the placement of Mad World for Wii. That's setting off my OCD something chronic.

Blue Swirl wrote:

optimark_prime wrote:

This is now my display….

Sexy.

Except for the placement of Mad World for Wii. That's setting off my OCD something chronic.

Sorry

I planned on getting rid of all my Wii stuff too, except for Mad World, although I’ve never played it, my mum bought it for me before she became ill. The only game she’s ever got for me, so I was keeping it for sentimental reasons.

In the end I did keep some other stuff too, which is in a cupboard. Mad World should probably join it.

That's a nicely curated Saturn collection too.  Story of Thor 2 is one I'll play through when emulation is up to scratch/simple.  Never finished it 'cos I got stuck for hours.

davyK wrote:

I prefer curated collections to the "get everything" mentality. I was a bit like that until I had a clear out. I still have a big collection (500 or so) but most of what I have now reflects my gaming tastes.


I keep the English edge of my JP imports outward facing. 

My Japanese Saturn isn’t working, so it doesn’t matter which games they are at the moment, lol.