Yeah, modern arcades are a far cry from the cabinets of my youth. I mean, I get it, but it still doesn’t inspire the same energy from me anymore.
Yeah, most western makers of arcade cabinets have kind of given up. But have you heard of a chain called Round One? Their strategy is to open up in closed department stores in dying malls. I went to the one in Exton, PA, and ho lee shit. Bigger than Dave & Busters, and like 75 percent of their arcade games are Japanese imports. Loads of old favorites plus new stuff you probably haven't heard of. (Did you know there's a Final Fantasy Theatrythm arcade game? I was able to play it.) Plus a bowling alley, karaoke rooms, pool, darts, beer, etc. I seriously geeked out while I was there. They can be in weird places (Exton is a small town an hour outside Philadelphia), so check to see if there's one in your state.
...er, maybe after the pandemic dies down; you don't want to handle the same joystick everyone else has. I hope they survive this thing okay; their location list has a crazy ambitious list of future locations, which can often stretch growing companies too thin.
Holy shit my mall is listed as a future location. Didn't expect that. Here's hoping it comes to fruition and I get to check it out. Stupid plague.
I'm lucky enough to live near Southen Fried Gaming Expo, who send their machines to other other nearby nerd cons throughout the year. Well, normally. Their main event would have happened this weekend.
Alas, it'll probably be another year before we can experience the dulcet JPOP tones of Music GunGun 2 or delicately slam the table-shaped plastic controller of SUPER TABLE FLIP.
Add this to the list of games that suggest an upcoming sequel in the credits but then never materialize. The other, that I've seen, is Mutant League Basketball.
As a kid, I don't remember how long I was strung along waiting for Crash 'n' the Boys Ice Challenge thanks to the teaser at the end of Crash 'n' the Boys Street Challenge.
Yeah, modern arcades are a far cry from the cabinets of my youth. I mean, I get it, but it still doesn’t inspire the same energy from me anymore.
I'm grateful every time I go to Taiwan that franchise-chain arcades like SegaWorld are still a thing in my hometown, even if the smaller arcades that used to flourish have kind of bled into the background radiation of game and toy stores, internet cafes, or quasi-convenient stores, there's still a demand for public arcades. But it's a lot more sustainable in a country that is overwhelmingly urbanized and has mass transit options (and a "24 hour" marketplace). The SegaWorld in Taichung is the first place I got to play King of Fighters XIII, years before it came to consoles (hence why KOFXIV's half-assed arcade release after PS4/PC was frankly a travesty).
Highspeed internet was supposed to kill off physical retailers of this sort of thing, but it was thankfully never completely successful.
My turbografx-16 controllers arrived. Kinda weird that you couldn't get the American controllers (they are PC Engine style) but check your mailboxes.
Yeah, I'd love if they made them with the TG-16 style instead of the PC-E, but glad they are sending out controllers. I almost bought a second but restraining myself.
My turbografx-16 controllers arrived. Kinda weird that you couldn't get the American controllers (they are PC Engine style) but check your mailboxes.
Yeah, I'd love if they made them with the TG-16 style instead of the PC-E, but glad they are sending out controllers. I almost bought a second but restraining myself.
Yeah, they aren't doing them in CoreGrafx colours here either, just regular PC Engine (but with the turbo switches), same as you guys. Still not heard about mine - I'm sensing a theme here, Amazon. But that's why I preordered an 8BitDo as well, in case.
I don't know if I'll ever have need to use it - too few people around here who might even think of playing Bomberman - but a spare will be handy, at least. (I realise my other three minis are all ones that came with two controllers in the box...)
Fantasy Zone is beginning to grow on me. Having the alternate version which apparently is much closer to the arcade version has been helping a lot. The music is so much better on the alternate version.
Fantasy Zone is beginning to grow on me. Having the alternate version which apparently is much closer to the arcade version has been helping a lot. The music is so much better on the alternate version.
Which Fantasy Zone version. I'm pretty sure it's on multiple consoles.
God, firing that up took me back. Used to beg my parents to let me rent a game at PharMor on our way home from church, and most of the time it was Fantasy Zone with that little bug winged pod blowing stuff up.
Fantasy Zone is beginning to grow on me. Having the alternate version which apparently is much closer to the arcade version has been helping a lot. The music is so much better on the alternate version.
Which Fantasy Zone version. I'm pretty sure it's on multiple consoles.
God, firing that up took me back. Used to beg my parents to let me rent a game at PharMor on our way home from church, and most of the time it was Fantasy Zone with that little bug winged pod blowing stuff up.
Talking about the Turbografx-16 mini version. If you hold "Select" before starting the game, you get an alternate version closer to the arcade.
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augustwhere you come from is goneRegistered Userregular
Started playing through Ys Books 1 and 2 on the turbografx-16 mini and man, for the longest time I didn't know I had to explicitly equip the initial gear that I bought. So I was wandering around grinding for a while trying to figure out what I was suppose to do, eventually earning enough money to buy some of the more powerful gear early on. This chick kept telling me "buy a sword, shield, and armor and then talk to me" and I was like, "I DID!". FINALLY, when looking at a guide on what to do in the beginning, I saw it said "buy said items and equip them". That was my "are you fucking serious?" moment. However, since I grinded for a while, I was supremely overpowered and was breezing through some areas. Did some more grinding for gold and bought all the best stuff before I got the first book.
Just completed Ys Book 1. If anyone was curious, the max amount of gold you can carry is a 16 bit integer.
Welcome to Ys II, where you actually get a button to attack (for magic attacks only)!
I found a hilariously awesome place to grind to get shit loads of gold super fast to buy all the best stuff. There's a house in the main town where the NPC asks you if you want to inspect his basement which, if you have a specific item, opens a passage of infinitely spawning monsters. I turned the turbo switch to the highest and sat there with the fire rod just racking up cash. It was so great.
I'd say it's more a combination of the controller being too expensive to manufacture, a relative lack of games (Nintendo's own output was light that gen, especially with Rare stuff now unavailable), and the thought that there would be less affection for that awkward generation.
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augustwhere you come from is goneRegistered Userregular
I'd say it's more a combination of the controller being too expensive to manufacture, a relative lack of games (Nintendo's own output was light that gen, especially with Rare stuff now unavailable), and the thought that there would be less affection for that awkward generation.
I mean.. did you watch the video? Those are all reasons but the thing is that emulating the N64 well would take more horsepower than the garbage companies can afford to put into these mini consoles. Also, I disagree about there being less affection for the n64, n64 nostalgia is fucking huge.
I'd say it's more a combination of the controller being too expensive to manufacture, a relative lack of games (Nintendo's own output was light that gen, especially with Rare stuff now unavailable), and the thought that there would be less affection for that awkward generation.
I mean.. did you watch the video? Those are all reasons but the thing is that emulating the N64 well would take more horsepower than the garbage companies can afford to put into these mini consoles. Also, I disagree about there being less affection for the n64, n64 nostalgia is fucking huge.
I still stand by what I said. Nintendo's emulated N64 stuff before, so I'd trust their word over the emulation community. And we probably aren't getting their word. There's probably a bunch of other factors that played into their decision.
The Wii still has a more powerful GPU than what you would find in a Pi 4, and at that each N64 game had to be heavily customized such that hackers injecting random roms into the same emulator usually fails compared to their SNES VC and the like. Nintendo can certainly put this stuff on a Switch or Wii U, and seem to have already done so with the NVIDIA Shield in China, but not on a dirt cheap SoC right now, and certainly not without major tailor-made optimiziation for each title.
Sony only had a product because the OG PS1 3D used integers instead of floating point, which makes pure software/CPU rendering far less demanding. At that they used an open source emulator, rather than building on their own internal ones, to cut dev costs, something I don't see Nintendo ever doing.
I think MVG could be proven wrong in like a decade or so, assuming all the other reasons don't block Nintendo, but no tech on the horizon is cheap enough to be feasible.
The most important thing is that I predicted there wouldn't be an N64 Mini a few years ago during one of the thread's previous discussion about it. Nintendo, don't make a liar of me!
Ys Book 2 complete. The last third of the game was fairly annoying, with lots of backtracking through a huge area (the shrine) and I had a to grind a bit to beat the 2nd to last boss and once more for the final boss. Ys 1 had some backtracking in Darm Tower as well, but the shrine felt worse to me. The final boss sucks too. I think I was 1 off from the max level, since the max required 99999 experience and my stats were 251 Strength 255 Defense.
The Wii still has a more powerful GPU than what you would find in a Pi 4, and at that each N64 game had to be heavily customized such that hackers injecting random roms into the same emulator usually fails compared to their SNES VC and the like. Nintendo can certainly put this stuff on a Switch or Wii U, and seem to have already done so with the NVIDIA Shield in China, but not on a dirt cheap SoC right now, and certainly not without major tailor-made optimiziation for each title.
Sony only had a product because the OG PS1 3D used integers instead of floating point, which makes pure software/CPU rendering far less demanding. At that they used an open source emulator, rather than building on their own internal ones, to cut dev costs, something I don't see Nintendo ever doing.
I think MVG could be proven wrong in like a decade or so, assuming all the other reasons don't block Nintendo, but no tech on the horizon is cheap enough to be feasible.
If anyone's old enough to remember the state of contemporaneous emulation for Playstation 1 and the Nintendo 64--the best-remembered example probably being Bleem! five years into the PS1's lifespan though definitely not the first--these seems less surprising I think. Obviously present-day systems-on-chip aren't the same thing as the x86 computers of twenty years ago, but the requirements for PS-emulation were a good bit more forgiving from what I remember--so long as you could manage the game storage media itself.
Oh for fuck's sake I didn't know you could scroll in the store in Fantasy Zone! It makes it A LOT easier when I can actually buy some extra lives and get extra weapons...I did manage to get to the 2nd to last boss on just the stock 3 lives though, but fuck man. Argh.
I hope this is ok to post here. I assure the mods I own legit copies of Sonic 2 on more than one console and collection. I hooked up my PS Classic outside tonight and we played a bunch of games. The fun part was the extra player you see right below the screen. Not my cat but she spent a good chunk of the evening in my lap or chasing the moths the light attracted.
I have some worries about the turbo switches on the Turbografx-16 mini controllers. Playing Fantasy Zone, I'm frequently switching between full auto and none (stupid Laser not working correctly with turbo on). Since these are just pieces of plastic, I feel like eventually the top of them will snap off like all those ASCII SNES controllers...
I have some worries about the turbo switches on the Turbografx-16 mini controllers. Playing Fantasy Zone, I'm frequently switching between full auto and none (stupid Laser not working correctly with turbo on). Since these are just pieces of plastic, I feel like eventually the top of them will snap off like all those ASCII SNES controllers...
They always remained solid as a rock after years on my old PC Engine GT. These feel just as solid, I'm not worried.
I just had to remember to turn them off for Super Star Soldier, that's effectively got autofire coded in. And having autofire on completely breaks the green lightning power-up weapon, which is otherwise great.
I'd say it's more a combination of the controller being too expensive to manufacture, a relative lack of games (Nintendo's own output was light that gen, especially with Rare stuff now unavailable), and the thought that there would be less affection for that awkward generation.
Never really thought about the n64 having a lack of games, but now that you mention it, the only games I really got into were mario 64 and paper mario, and even then that was pretty late in that gen. Although I was more of a PS1 kid.
Bonk's Revenge complete! The controls aren't great, the hit detection is weird, and there's a little delay/Bonk feels heavy, but it's a fun game. The game starts off easy, but by the 4th stage the difficulty ramps up quite a bit. It's also one of those games where you can extend your health bar, but if you die, they only give you 3 hearts back instead of the full amount. This is a bit nerve wracking because sometimes you just can't get any healing items, making your extra hearts worthless.
Completed so far on the Turbografx-16 mini:
1. Legend of the Valkyrie
2. Neutopia 2
3. Ys Books 1 and 2
4. Fantasy Zone
5. Bonk's Revenge
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Holy shit my mall is listed as a future location. Didn't expect that. Here's hoping it comes to fruition and I get to check it out. Stupid plague.
Alas, it'll probably be another year before we can experience the dulcet JPOP tones of Music GunGun 2 or delicately slam the table-shaped plastic controller of SUPER TABLE FLIP.
I'm grateful every time I go to Taiwan that franchise-chain arcades like SegaWorld are still a thing in my hometown, even if the smaller arcades that used to flourish have kind of bled into the background radiation of game and toy stores, internet cafes, or quasi-convenient stores, there's still a demand for public arcades. But it's a lot more sustainable in a country that is overwhelmingly urbanized and has mass transit options (and a "24 hour" marketplace). The SegaWorld in Taichung is the first place I got to play King of Fighters XIII, years before it came to consoles (hence why KOFXIV's half-assed arcade release after PS4/PC was frankly a travesty).
Highspeed internet was supposed to kill off physical retailers of this sort of thing, but it was thankfully never completely successful.
Yeah, I'd love if they made them with the TG-16 style instead of the PC-E, but glad they are sending out controllers. I almost bought a second but restraining myself.
Steam: betsuni7
Yeah, they aren't doing them in CoreGrafx colours here either, just regular PC Engine (but with the turbo switches), same as you guys. Still not heard about mine - I'm sensing a theme here, Amazon. But that's why I preordered an 8BitDo as well, in case.
I don't know if I'll ever have need to use it - too few people around here who might even think of playing Bomberman - but a spare will be handy, at least. (I realise my other three minis are all ones that came with two controllers in the box...)
Steam | XBL
Which Fantasy Zone version. I'm pretty sure it's on multiple consoles.
God, firing that up took me back. Used to beg my parents to let me rent a game at PharMor on our way home from church, and most of the time it was Fantasy Zone with that little bug winged pod blowing stuff up.
Talking about the Turbografx-16 mini version. If you hold "Select" before starting the game, you get an alternate version closer to the arcade.
Welcome to Ys II, where you actually get a button to attack (for magic attacks only)!
My Backloggery
You are correct.
I found a hilariously awesome place to grind to get shit loads of gold super fast to buy all the best stuff. There's a house in the main town where the NPC asks you if you want to inspect his basement which, if you have a specific item, opens a passage of infinitely spawning monsters. I turned the turbo switch to the highest and sat there with the fire rod just racking up cash. It was so great.
Like Mega Man Legends? Then check out my story, Legends of the Halcyon Era - An Adventure in the World of Mega Man Legends on TMMN and AO3!
I mean.. did you watch the video? Those are all reasons but the thing is that emulating the N64 well would take more horsepower than the garbage companies can afford to put into these mini consoles. Also, I disagree about there being less affection for the n64, n64 nostalgia is fucking huge.
I still stand by what I said. Nintendo's emulated N64 stuff before, so I'd trust their word over the emulation community. And we probably aren't getting their word. There's probably a bunch of other factors that played into their decision.
Sony only had a product because the OG PS1 3D used integers instead of floating point, which makes pure software/CPU rendering far less demanding. At that they used an open source emulator, rather than building on their own internal ones, to cut dev costs, something I don't see Nintendo ever doing.
I think MVG could be proven wrong in like a decade or so, assuming all the other reasons don't block Nintendo, but no tech on the horizon is cheap enough to be feasible.
If anyone's old enough to remember the state of contemporaneous emulation for Playstation 1 and the Nintendo 64--the best-remembered example probably being Bleem! five years into the PS1's lifespan though definitely not the first--these seems less surprising I think. Obviously present-day systems-on-chip aren't the same thing as the x86 computers of twenty years ago, but the requirements for PS-emulation were a good bit more forgiving from what I remember--so long as you could manage the game storage media itself.
I never had any brand new. All the used ones I have or have seen always have a few of the turbo buttons broken on the top.
They always remained solid as a rock after years on my old PC Engine GT. These feel just as solid, I'm not worried.
I just had to remember to turn them off for Super Star Soldier, that's effectively got autofire coded in. And having autofire on completely breaks the green lightning power-up weapon, which is otherwise great.
Steam | XBL
Never really thought about the n64 having a lack of games, but now that you mention it, the only games I really got into were mario 64 and paper mario, and even then that was pretty late in that gen. Although I was more of a PS1 kid.
Completed so far on the Turbografx-16 mini:
1. Legend of the Valkyrie
2. Neutopia 2
3. Ys Books 1 and 2
4. Fantasy Zone
5. Bonk's Revenge