What did you think of Mystaria? We loved it in our house - but then all three of us were big on Shining Force 2, and Mystaria played a lot like it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gryson
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What did you think of Mystaria? We loved it in our house - but then all three of us were big on Shining Force 2, and Mystaria played a lot like it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gryson
For me comparing early Playstation to Saturn was a no-brainer to go with Saturn. Daytona, Panzer Dragoon and Sega Rally. Plus was looking forward to future games from Sega.
I appreciate the awesome Saturn titles now, but my younger self at the time was completely awed by the PlayStation titles. Panzer Dragoon was a great launch title, though - I do remember wanting to play that.
We have to remember that the Playstation didn't sell that well in 1995 either. It took a while to really get going, kinda like the Genesis. It really picked up in late '96.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gryson
Personally I think the Saturn pulled through with a great lineup in 1995, and the Playstation doesn't hold up as well. Who still cares about the first Ridge Racer? Or Tekken 1? Or Toshinden, which was the most popular game at launch? They were impressive at the time, but they're all flash and no substance.
That said, I think you're mostly right about games driving sales. It's just, it's not necessarily "good" games. What matters is having the "right" games. Crash Bandicoot isn't that great of a game. But the character has a lot of appeal, the game follows an appealing jungle theme, it had a great marketing campaign, and it had a lot of presence. Crash Bandicoot was the right game at the right time. NiGHTS is a better game than Crash Bandicoot. Subjective of course, but I don't think that's a very controversial statement. But NiGHTS is about an androgynous jester who flies around in dreams. It was well-received critically. It had heavy marketing by Saturn standards. But it wasn't the right game for the time. It lacks that mass market appeal. Even in an alternate universe where the Playstation and Saturn had been running dead even up to that point, it'd still be true. Crash would still outshine it by a longshot.
Found it strange to be the only one who seen Ridge Racer and Toshiden and flash of substance. Finally, I am vindicated! ... But alas, this is a never ending trend where I can spot trends that will be looked back in shame, yet others can't.
I wasn't saying those games hold up well today, but at the time they were marketed very well and impressed a lot of people. I was trying to analyze the context from a purely historical standpoint - in my opinion, the PlayStation early lineup was what sold a lot of people on going with Sony. Of course, that could be due to the quality of the marketing rather than the games themselves.
does a saturn launch system look different in the us?Quote:
Originally Posted by gamevet
Toshinden was a crappy fighting game during the peak of fighting game mania, yet people still ate it up because of the superficial visuals. Half-ass porting it and the sequel to Saturn did more harm than good and both arrived far too late, even if they had been made right.Quote:
Originally Posted by j_factor
I'm not trying to be the annoying guy that comes out of the woodwork here, but Toshinden and Ridge Racer are two games that I have always kept coming back to over the years for a quick fix. I think Ridge Racer may actually be the PS1 game that I've spent the most hours with and while technically its not great, I always find it fun to pick up again at least once every year.Quote:
Originally Posted by j_factor
Quote:
Originally Posted by bultje112
No, it just has the manufacture date of May 1995. I have seen one on ebay that was manufactured in April.
I do know that the used Model 1 I got off of ebay was manufactured in August of 1995. It does not use the same power cord as the launch unit does.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gamevet
Probably because the magazine is published in the UK and is aimed at the UK gaming audience, if you don't like their coverage maybe check out a US based retro games magazine. If you can find one. :p
Also, just because the Spectrum went over like damp fart in the US does't mean a damn. The machine's importance in the UK market was huge and its coverage in magazine is definitely deserved since without the Spectrum most of the UK game development scene wouldn't exist, devs like Rare etc got their start on the system. The Spectrum was a cool machine if you give it a chance and half the price of the over-rated C64.
I've seen Spectrum ports to the C-64, they're pretty lame, with their colors clashing with background objects and other sprites. Over-rated would be the Apple II, which gets constantly covered for old computer games, and the people that talk about it in the States seem to forget about the existence of the C-64 and Atari 8-Bit computers, where those games originated.Quote:
Originally Posted by stu
There were plenty of UK programmers that got their start on the Atari and Commodore 8-bit computers. I have the Retro Gamer Commodore 64 Collector's guide, and it just so happens to also be the ZX Spectrum book. They also have a Genesis Collector's Guide, that just so happens to have the SNES on the other side.
The Spectrum wasn't as technically advanced as the C64 but as I pointed out it was half the cost of the C64 and yes the Spectrum has color clash and a whole manner of other graphical issues but it didn't get in the way of how well the games played.Quote:
Originally Posted by gamevet
As for the Atari and Apple, those were for elitists who could afford them and certainly the Apple was mostly irrelevant to the UK market the 8bit home computers that were most popular were the Spectrum, C64 and the Amstrad 464/6128.
As I pointed out already, the Spectrum was huge in the UK and that is why Retro Gamer, being a UK based magazine, covers it so much. At the same time, being that you are from the US, I can understand that you won't see the relevance of the Spectrum, however I don't see that as a reason to bash it. Sounds like there needs to be a Retro Gamer USA so that you can have your fill of Atari and Commodore 64.
I've heard that the Atari ST had early success in Europe, because of the user base that Atari 8-bit computers managed to get over there. The UK also has an affinity with the cassette drives for both the C64 and Spectrum, while that kind of died out over here with the C64 and later Atari 8-bit computers.Quote:
Originally Posted by stu
Yeah, I'm well aware of that, but it's goofy when you're reading an article about another computer, and they have to constantly bring in their cheeky rib jabs with comments about their Spectrum. That's is what I'd call being way over-biased. They are just as bad as the NES homers in North America.Quote:
As I pointed out already, the Spectrum was huge in the UK and that is why Retro Gamer, being a UK based magazine, covers it so much. At the same time, being that you are from the US, I can understand that you won't see the relevance of the Spectrum, however I don't see that as a reason to bash it. Sounds like there needs to be a Retro Gamer USA so that you can have your fill of Atari and Commodore 64.
We have a magazine called Retro Magazine, that started here in 2013. I didn't buy it, because I didn't trust the guy backing it. And sure enough, he ran it into the ground and someone else bought it out. http://readretro.com/retro-magazine-new-beginnings/
The market in mainland Europe was in some ways different to how the UK turned out, I think in Germany and France Atari had more success, however in the UK we had both Sinclair and Amstrad and a whole bunch of other machines (Acorn BBC Model A/B, Dragon 32, Oric 1 etc) The ST and Amiga were successful in the UK but they both came a few years later than the Spectrum.Quote:
Originally Posted by gamevet
Its just typical UK magazine editorial style, it was quite common in magazines bitd to see them cheekily making fun of rival machines, it was mostly done in jest and fun, it probably does seem goofy to you but its just their way. Its no different to the Sega magazines playfully making fun of Nintendo tbh. Also I think you'll find the C64 magazines and fanboys were quite happy enough to throw insults back at Spectrum fans. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by gamevet
As for that RETRO magazine, it looks like its still totally dependent on donations, frankly considering the huge noise retro gaming is making in the US I'm massively surprised that one of the major magazine publishers haven't had a crack at creating one. Maybe now that Future Publications owns Retro Gamer, they'll go ahead and bring a US specific version over.
I don't see a lot of British support for the Atari 8-bit computer. With the notable exception of Jeff Minter. A while back on some UK-oriented retro forum I saw a poll thread on the best 8-bit computer and Atari wasn't even an option. One person asked why and the OP said he wanted to keep it to the "main ones". The poll options were C64, Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, and BBC Micro. I think it did well in Germany though, and it seems to have been very popular in Poland for some reason. To this day a lot of the newer games being developed for it are coming out of Poland.
Personally I can't stand the look of Spectrum games, but that might be my Americanness showing. The only Spectrum-like computer released here (TS 2068) wasn't remotely popular.
The Atari 8-bit computers came out in 1979, so they did have an audience long before the Spectrum and C64 computers. A lot of the early computer programmers got their start with those Atari 8-bit computers, even though they weren't selling like crazy. I know that EA brought over a lot of C64 games from Europe to North America and a good portion of those were ported from the Atari 8-bit version.Quote:
Originally Posted by j_factor
I'll need to revisit my Retro Gamer magazine that covers the Atari 8-bit computers. Maybe it will shed some light on just what the Atari computer scene was like over there.
sometimes I really wonder how stuff like this happens. for instance the 3do is immensely popular in russia for no reason I can think off. I once asked a russian guy why and he didn't know it either but the 3do scene to this day is huge in russia.Quote:
Originally Posted by j_factor
the atari pc's were very popular in the netherlands though, like anything atari btw. even the lynx and the jaguar sold very well in the netherlands and can still be found rather easy on dutch versions of craigslist. in one very famous dutch sitcom of the early 90s the main actor, who was a huge atari fan, always played his atari lynx in smaller scenes while naming it as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by gamevet
That explains the Phoenix Tempest emulator from Russia that is capable of doing 3DO, Jaguar, Master System, and ColecoVision games.
I know the answer.Quote:
Originally Posted by bultje112
And I'm not even from Russia.
The thing is - poor families or children got Dendy's
Teenagers usually persuaded parents to buy or help to buy Sega Mega Drive
Families that had money to spend - bought SNES
Man childs or grown-up mens with cash, mafia bosses usually bought 3DO for no other reason than that it's the most expensive console on the market.
Thanks. Repped!Quote:
Originally Posted by Gryson
It sounds like that poll demonstrates my point perfectly. The 8 bit games market in the UK was essentially a 3 horse race between the Spectrum, C64 and Amstrad CPC series (the BBC Micro was popular for a while, mainly because of the BBC sponsorship and the big push in to the UK schools). I can't really speak for other European markets, essentially each country was very different, very fractured.Quote:
Originally Posted by j_factor
To someone who didn't grow up with the Spectrum its true that the games probably do look and sound awful, but to a lot of children growing up in the UK in the 80's, the Spectrum was their "NES". The NES didn't launch in the UK until 1987, by which time the 8 bit computers were still all the rage and the newer 16 bit home computers like the Atari and the Amiga made the NES look kind of crappy in comparison. The NES didn't really do anything like as well in the UK as it did in the US.
There's nothing really special about the Phoenix emulator, its just a front end running existing libretro core versions of existing emulators for the 3DO, Jaguar etc. You can download the same cores for RetroArch.Quote:
Originally Posted by sull56ivan2010
Not really since RetroArch doesn't have anything regarding 3DO and Jaguar.Quote:
Originally Posted by stu
Yes but because they are running on the same libretro architecture they will work with RetroArch as well. They just converted 2 existing 3DO and Jaguar emulators (4DO, which itself is a rework of the old 3DOPlay emulator and Virtual Jaguar respectively) over to the libretro architecture. I had both the standard versions of 4DO and Virtual Jaguar on my machine for years. To top it off some versions of Phoenix are paid versions, I doubt they compensated the original authors of these emulators for their hard work.Quote:
Originally Posted by sull56ivan2010
If you're using a phone. Who is going to play a CD system emulator on a phone?
I do. What's the difference?Quote:
Originally Posted by sull56ivan2010
Unless you got yourself one of them USB ports to put a controller in there, games being more complex as you venture past the Turbografx and Sega CD. Not as basic as a cartridge system emulator. Also, need a lot more storage due to the games on CD having more memory. Talking anywhere from 100 plus to 400 MB for CD discs. Maybe more if it's a multiple CD games. BIOS for a CD system. Anybody play emulation on stuff like Dreamcast, PS2?Quote:
Originally Posted by Black_Tiger
I believe it's because how it was advertised over there. If I remember correctly it wasn't exactly advertised as a game console, but an entertainment system replacement. It was your CD player, a VCD player(with card), and least of all played games. So it was an alternative for something like $5,000 worth of stuff for 1/8th the price. In all honesty the Russian advertisement system got it right because the 3DO was basically an entertainment system replacement.Quote:
Originally Posted by bultje112
Erm, you are aware that there are versions of Retroarch, not just for both 32 and 64 bit versions of Windows, but also for MacOS and Linux? Right? Not to mention versions for quite a few consoles like the Wii and the PS3.Quote:
Originally Posted by sull56ivan2010
So how does that make RetroArch "phone only"? :confused:
I've played numorous PS1 games on my tablet using RetroArch, Wipeout works fine for example, I've also played Sonic Adventure through the Android version of NullDC. I don't have have a USB OTG cable yet so I've been playing them using the touch controls. Most tablets and phones have anywhere from 8GB to 32GB of space on them and most will allow you to add MicroSD cards rendering the space issue irrelevant.Quote:
Originally Posted by sull56ivan2010
I am aware of RetroArch being on multiple computers. I'm confused. I thought we were talking Phoneix Tempest still, which required paying for a phone version of them.
How many games do you have on your tablet?
I just watched (listened) to it in the car. It was pretty on point.
I had 3 or 4 PS1 games running on it, both Wipeout and Wipout 2097, RRtype4, a bunch of Genesis roms and I had both Sonic Adventure and MSR running on NullDC, I had them all stored on a 32gig MicroSD card. I recently wiped the tablet as I started to have some issues on another app and haven't reinstalled RetroArch recently.Quote:
Originally Posted by sull56ivan2010
I wasn't sure which version of Phoenix was paid, but I've also heard that the libretro guys are converting these emulators without the express permission of the original authors. They are also claiming that the libretro versions are better than the regular ones which isn't true since they never actually contributed any work on the emulator itself.
Quote: "Retroarch basically takes Virtual Jaguar as-is from my repo, so there's nothing new there (N.B.: any VJ archives on Github are not mine, and not affiliated with me in any way--I do not do Github for projects I control). I would not expect any improvements to come those guys.
And I find it so funny that this guy is slagging off VJ when that's what's at the heart of Retroarch. Cluelessness abounds. http://atariage.com/forums/public/st...on_mrgreen.gif"
http://atariage.com/forums/topic/264...ist/?p=3788655
Quote: "Of course VJ is open source, but I'd say the chances that they made improvements are slim to none They're pulling sources from my GIT repo after all. And Cybermorph & FFL in the latest GIT works if you enable the BIOS (the demos at least, I haven't tried playing them)."
http://atariage.com/forums/topic/264...ist/?p=3788899
Quote" Nope. As far as I can see, they are a bunch of leeches who take and contribute nothing back (as they can't, since they aren't interested in improving other's work and are only interested in building up their little RA kingdom). And yes, I have had words with some of the lead developers; they are not nice people."
http://atariage.com/forums/topic/264...ist/?p=3789139
Directly from the author of the VirtualJaguar emulator.
I watched the Game Historian vid, same stuff we discussed here to death.
2. I think the SEGA-SONY deal makes a lot of sense from an American perspective. On the Japanese side I can see why they refused it. Japan only used SONY as a hardware supplier, SONY Pictures and all the studio companies weren't a thing in Japan, that was in America. If SEGA of America was in charge of SEGA there's a good chance we would not see the "PlayStation" brand as we know it today, or SONY would have transformed the SEGA to be the gaming division of the SONY Corporation. In the latter case the Genesis successor would be the PlayStation, and it probably would look like a Sega Saturn except the cartridge slot would actually support Genesis cartridges.
She was.Quote:
Originally Posted by MrMatthews
I decided to crack open my boxed up Saturn this weekend. I applied White Lithium Grease to the drive rails, and now it is working like the day I'd bought it.Quote:
Originally Posted by bultje112
Thank you for the tip.
Rep+1
On the original topic yeah I think the Saturn launch did hurt Sega. In Summer 1995 I found it confusing as hell to see the 32X and Saturn on store shelves. I saw the Saturn was 32-bit and had a cartridge slot + CD drive and thought maybe it was an all-in-one Genesis, Sega CD and 32X.
What was the cart slot even designed for? If it was just to add RAM later they should have made it smaller. I looked at it and thought maybe it was going to take cart-based games. Or maybe CDs. It was just an odd system however you looked at it.
Should have delayed and made a simpler, less expensive console, I do not know why they thought they needed to rush this out the door in November 1994 in Japan when the Mega Drive was still going strong.
Honestly the Ram cart was a damn good thing for the Saturn in Japan. Capcom was able to release perfect Arcade ports of the Vs. Fighting Games, and a few SNK titles like KoF 95 iirc also used the ram cart as well. It's a shame that it wasn't released in the U.S. but hey I imported the shit and it just was a kick in the balls we never got these in America. All we got was watered down buffalo shit ports of the games on the PS1 with loading times between character swapping. That just ruined the pace overall of the game.
I got my Vampire Savior with the 4MB RAM cart from EB games.
I also liked the cart port for the large game save carts. It was much more convenient that the small memory cards on the PlayStation. Just 2 carts stores all of my game saves, while one memory card was good for saving 4 or 5 different games.
KoF '95 actually used a ROM cart. Meaning it doesn't expand the system's memory, the cart contains data instead. So basically it's a game on both CD and cartridge. KoF '95 was also released in Europe. The only reason it didn't come out here was because Sony had an exclusive agreement with SNK for North America.Quote:
Originally Posted by BonusKun
X-Men vs. Street Fighter almost got released here, but Bernie Stolar was too cheap to release the RAM expansion.
Sega's biggest mistakes were Bernie Stolar.