Retro Gaming - The Bear and Badger

Wookienopants

mk64 wrote:

what's the best retro gaming handheld for £50?

Just bought an R36s from AliExpress for less than £40 with delivery included. It's brilliant. Plays everything up to and including Dreamcast.
Comes with a full SD card with the complete library for nes, SNES, megadrive, game boy, Gameboy advance, mame, game gear, some DS and PS1 as well as some Dreamcast games.

It's excellent!!

Wookienopants

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006385613227.html

ChopperByrne

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/266713195841?itmmeta=01HRT011FNZDRDGQFJ4NTEB435&hash=item3e19586541:g:4nAAAOSwkbpl2Lmb&itmprp=enc:AQAIAAAA4FJjJSFZ0JjG53zFU2GCr8sQQ63ooLOpMvYBwqNZcgRypHBcUE4KwM4VmoSGl+z1rWZWBZsJebSWnVbeSDQC4SFQxOcWMETsTLmZasiu/T/QAN0N5WRS5IwDoqtDlbqeOnQAyWaHy6p9qRZ56KXjDzvSQjR9VCxBefQNZK6zuxXOV7aG2NcMkGjox9fqHjBwTce3wYdHb/Up7g3YU0yFYUNJr+ag1nGUhY81YqZpHwORaI8Utie4DJhkG5lnRqXx6Efny3b84aDojWVriXfU8AvpRzIYvDZl2Ct7O/RzlGgW|tkp:Bk9SR5qYhMDGYw

It's a great device for retro.

lastant

Moot_Geeza wrote:

...can't even get in it because I kept all my games magazines ever

I’m missing Issues 1, 3, 10, 11 and 12 of N64 Magazine and the later, admittedly really thin and crap, issues of GB Action (May 1995 onwards) if you happen to have those and are going to be getting rid of them…

Moot_Geeza

It's all Sega or multiformat I'm afraid. At one point there must have been 6 or 7 Mega Drive magazines each month and I usually got 3 or 4. I used to get a packet of Brannigans, an apple, a drink and a quid for lunch at school every day. I'd spend the money on mags (or arcade games in the cab office before school) and ate my mate's Marmite sandwiches before he binned them.

Ed_Flanders

Thanks all for the N64 pad recommendations. The Brawler64 looks fantastic and seems well reviewed and the bluetooth receiver is intriguing... less clutter, as it would allow me to use my xbox pad, although it's nearly the price of a wired pad. Lots to think about; thanks again.

Blue Swirl

Moot_Geeza wrote:

They're still doing the ridiculous double page spread of a blown up screenshot thing too (we still scan it at work, so I still get to read it)

Willing to read it, just not willing to pay for it, eh?

I like Retro Gamer. shrug.gif One of the first things I bought (and a copy of EDGE in the airport on the way out was the last) when I was in the UK this January/February.

Minnesänger

Wookienopants wrote:

mk64 wrote:

what's the best retro gaming handheld for £50?

Just bought an R36s from AliExpress for less than £40 with delivery included. It's brilliant. Plays everything up to and including Dreamcast. Comes with a full SD card with the complete library for nes, SNES, megadrive, game boy, Gameboy advance, mame, game gear, some DS and PS1 as well as some Dreamcast games. It's excellent!!

RG55 XX also a good shout - similar to the R36s, with the key difference (for me) being that the 55XX lacks analogue sticks, but makes up for it with a slightly better software experience and nice dpad + buttons (the 36s I found a bit stiff, but that's all personal preference). That said, the lack of analogue sticks means that PSP and DS emu are pretty much off the table on that one, which is a shame.

You can't really go wrong with either, if you're looking for sth budget but fun.

davyK

Blue Swirl wrote:

They're still doing the ridiculous double page spread of a blown up screenshot thing too (we still scan it at work, so I still get to read it)

Willing to read it, just not willing to pay for it, eh? I like Retro Gamer. shrug.gif One of the first things I bought (and a copy of EDGE in the airport on the way out was the last) when I was in the UK this January/February.

Retro Gamer has a real enthusiastic feel to it. I just never learned anything from reading it. It also has a focus on the UK 8bit micro scene which wasn't something I ever enjoyed. It was a time when I was almost put off gaming due its shortcomings. (If I had owned an Atari 800 I may have felt differently, but fuck tape loading).

Apart from Thrust, MM+JSW , Boulderdash and Chuckie Egg, I don't consider anything from that era remotely playable any more (to my tastes at any rate). So it really just isn't for me. I gave up on Edge a long time ago too of course.

ChopperByrne

I had both an Amstrad CPC 464, and then a Commodore 64, which I loved at the time, but I'd say most games would feel very bad to play now.

Flimbo's Quest would probably still play great.

hunk

I remember my dad having a atari2600 and me as an infant being obsessed with pacman and space invaders.
Gaming didn't grab me again until the gameboy and ms/gg hit. Stuff like Super mario land, tetris, ms R-type, gg shinobi and sonic1 were milestones for me.

Blue Swirl

davyK wrote:

I just never learned anything from reading it. It also has a focus on the UK 8bit micro scene which wasn't something I ever enjoyed. It was a time when I was almost put off gaming due its shortcomings.

They've shifted with time, as the window of what's retro moves forward.

And I still love EDGE. If I could afford a subscription I'd go for it.

davyK

hunk wrote:

I remember my dad having a atari2600 and me as an infant being obsessed with pacman and space invaders. Gaming didn't grab me again until the gameboy and ms/gg hit. Stuff like Super mario land, tetris, ms R-type, gg shinobi and sonic1 were milestones for me.

I loved the 2600. It, and the arcade, are what sparked my interest in computing.

Going from the 2600 to the superior 8 bit micros simply didn't impress me. They had cheap video circuits and most of the games, once you loaded them, were inferior. I had a CPC-464 and I had access to a C64 and an Apple II. Boulderdash on C64 was impressive and I played Thrust,MM/JSW on the 464.

I enjoyed some other games in the 464 - Bombjack was a notable port that I played a lot of. But precious little has aged well.

The immediacy of carts was gone, as was the craft of the Atari and Activision games which ran faster and had far more subtlety that in many cases made up for their simplicity.

The NES brought me back.

Moot_Geeza

I still enjoy Edge (another one I read without paying for - seems rude to just bin it immediately after scanning though) but there's not enough in an issue to warrant a sub for me. I'm usually done having a flick through in under 10mins.

My problem with Retro Gamer is that they rarely go satisfactorily deep on anything. Here's an eight page spread on Jet Set Radio, with text that could easily fit on three pages. I do like their reviews of nu retro games though - if they go potty for something retro inspired I pretty much know I'll like it (Donut Dodo was a RG rec) - but that's such a small section of the mag now. Most reviews are just a small paragraph these days.

Blue Swirl

I like the breadth of what RG cover. There'll be the 8-bit micro stuff, and then an interview with someone who made a SNES RPG in his basement is his spare time.

davyK

The depth , or rather the lack of it, was what disappointed me in Retro Gamer. But I suppose there's only so much info available and the net is awash with it. I'd be sad to see it go as it keeps retro's profile up.

I haven't read Edge in a long while. It has gone very mainstream and so rarely covers anything I'm interested in. It was just a parade of games all with characters running around in 3D environments which I have zero interest in. They also made the type very small which I didn't like. Can't fault it for going mainstream but I hated the small font.

The only magazine I read now is Private Eye - I have cancelled all my subs apart from that. There's nothing game related in print that interests me any more.

Blue Swirl

davyK wrote:

The depth , or rather the lack of it, was what disappointed me in Retro Gamer. But I suppose there's only so much info available and the net is awash with it.

RG is to retro gaming what I tell my students Wikipedia is to research: a good place to start, but not the end. Use it to pique your interest, then find out more.

Eric

C64 was my gateway into gaming and I still have fond memories of that era. Of course loads of games I played are terrible in retrospect but some of my favourites Cauldron 2, Blue Max, Hover Bover and Night Racer still stack up!

My Lighteningmodz V2 mini pc has opened my eyes a bit to what was available and there's some amazing stuff still being made. I was gobsmacked by an endless runner called Canabalt, check out that framerate!!!

Diluted Dante

Wookienopants wrote:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006385613227.html

Moot_Geeza

Lol

Moot_Geeza

Got all my shite out the loft today. Will post pics later. Getting rid of almost everything so if you see something you want just shout and I'll work out badger rates.

Eric

I'll take it all for many pounds.

Eric

Looking forwards to seeing whats there!

poprock

Eric wrote:

I was gobsmacked by an endless runner called Canabalt, check out that framerate!!!

I think Canabalt was the first iPhone game I downloaded when Apple launched the App Store! Still have it installed.

Wookienopants

Diluted Dante wrote:

Wookienopants wrote:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006385613227.html

Erm.... Well .. huh

Scout

Yup, I played a lot of Canabalt back in the day.

Eric

Mental that I have never heard of it. Great game for a quick blast!

Eric

Just downloaded Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story. It's £25 but I feel given his gaming legacy it will be well worth it. Made by the Atari 50 guys.

davyK

Have my eye on that. Rumours of a physical version - holding out to see if it's going to happen.

Moot_Geeza

There's a Llamasoft feature in Retro Gamer this month

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