I loved Commander Keen as a kid, we had a couple of the games on our 486.
Tried it again recently and uhh it's HARD!
The shareware episodes are fairly simple. And then the paid episodes very much go "okay, you gave us money, that means you're serious". As a kid I remember getting really mad at one of the city levels in the first game's episode 2 where you're supposed to ride a horizontal elevator and then pogo jump up into an opening above and there were enemies walking up there.
I can honestly call the first game's sharewere episode a formative experience for my younger self. Because of the way the levels were fairly vertical, with keys you needed to find to unlock sections of them, and there were secrets with platforms that you could only spot if you paid attention, it really made my imagination run wild as to how much bigger the game could be.
I spent so much time trying to reach places I could see, or getting out of bounds, I must've replayed that episode dozens of times. Probably why one of the things I still prize most in games is exploration- if you sell me on your world you can be as jank as you want, I'm in there.
After seeing bits of these online, I really wish they'd get gathered up into a collection and sold on consoles.
Not even asking for a remaster or anything, just a console-compatible bundle.
That would require id to recognize that it has anything in its portfolio beyond Doom, which is a problem id has had since... well, Doom.
Bethesda to some minimal credit tried to do something with it a couple years ago, but at the same time some executive gorilla decided the route to go with it was a mobile tactics game... which went over with fans about as well as you'd expect and was ultimately cancelled.
So now we only have what they dumped onto Steam: Eps 1-5, a glorified fanmod version of Dreams that nobody asked for that they also pulled the original off of Steam to replace it with, and 6 being entirely verboten in the halls of copyright. And that's likely all the effort we'll ever see put into the IP.
I forgot what happened with 6. I need to look that up later.
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I got a PS3 guitar when I bought a complete PS3 RB1 set on Craigslist a few years ago (came with drums, a mic, and a bunch of PS3 RB games), but I think the seller might have (on purpose or by mistake) given me a different dongle that doesn't work for that guitar. It's grey and my research indicates the RB1 guitar dongle should be black.
Maybe the guitar is broken but I've not gotten it to connect to the dongle and be useful at all.
I am just loving how these Amazon reviews are making it uncertain that the PS2 controller to USB adapter works.
There is one review saying that it works with a Guitar Hero guitar and a PC. He is saying that the whammy bar does not work. Not certain why that would happen. It is supposed to directly map a PS2 controller.
There is another review saying it works great in Retroarch.
The rest of the reviews bitch about it not working. I assume they are idiots.
Ok. Maybe I am being too harsh. I just hate it when people contradict each other.
You can't get Rock Band 4 on the XBox store. I had to find a disc copy on eBay. It seems like they tried to force people to get a guitar with the game.
I assume you can still buy songs for it on XBox One.
Do any of the emulators have anything to deal with audio/video latency? I remember most of the old music games didn't have in-game calibration options, which made a lot of them unplayable on modern TVs.
Do any of the emulators have anything to deal with audio/video latency? I remember most of the old music games didn't have in-game calibration options, which made a lot of them unplayable on modern TVs.
That I don't know about. I would have to look into it.
Personally, I just don't really like Guitar Hero after Harmonix left. Activision didn't really put as much care into the note charts, and I don't think they did a good job of translating the OG art style into HD. It just seemed uglier and less fun to play, unless you were obsessed with skittle-vomit tracks.
Personally, I just don't really like Guitar Hero after Harmonix left. Activision didn't really put as much care into the note charts, and I don't think they did a good job of translating the OG art style into HD. It just seemed uglier and less fun to play, unless you were obsessed with skittle-vomit tracks.
It's weird to say, but it felt like Harmonix had musicians on staff and the note charts were more intuitive because of it.
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Harmonix definitely had musicians in their staff. Back before music labels were on board with offering master track access, they relied on covers, and I think those were done in-house.
There's also just a huge difference in design philosophy between a studio that was literally founded to make music-based video games and a studio that was simply assigned to music games because they were available.
I remember one reviewer back in the day describing the difference as words to the effect of "Guitar Hero (meaning GH3 or later) is the game, Rock Band is the fantasy". And I think that was broadly accurate - GH really started to lean into skittle-vomit tracks (thanks @Dirty ) for challenge and game-y purposes, while Harmonix's Rock Band went more for accuracy in note charts as well as the feel - obviously aided by the whole up-to-4-player, different instruments, you-guys-ARE-a-band setup (which GH tried to ape later). Rock Band even managed to achieve that feel in single-player up to a point, especially in RB2 when you could finally wilfully choose to be the bassist in single-player!
There was even the competition with the instruments - I played on 360 so I don't recall well the situation on PS3, but on 360 at least, Rock Band (Harmonix) maintained compatibility with GH guitars, but Guitar Hero 3 onwards (Activision) very deliberately would NOT work with RB guitars due to Activision wanting players to buy their hardware and more of it. If I'm remembering right, anyway.
That had the weird knock-on reversal effect of some players who didn't keep up on the news thinking that Rock Band/Harmonix was in fact stopping their instruments from working on Guitar Hero. Which I'm sure suited Activision just fine.
The Beatles Rock Band games are dirt cheap for some reason. I found a PS3 copy with Rock Band 2 for $17.
I guess it had a really high print run.
They're dirt cheap because they were put out as if they were going to be as popular as a Rock Band 4. Boomers are delusional about the stuff they like.
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I forgot what happened with 6. I need to look that up later.
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I can actually play Getsu Fuma Den now.
So, I learned that the Chinese knockoffs do not work as well. They don't support all the games.
I like to get the red cases on them to make it more obvious it is an Everdrive.
Launchbox is kind of touchy.
Do you really need to config a controller on MAME or are the defaults fine. It usually seems like the defaults are ok.
Not certain if I want to plunk down money for a fake guitar.
Reminds me of that South Park episode.
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I wonder if they would work with PCSX2. Not certain if the mapping is the same.
I may also try it on a PS3.
I guess as long as it has USB it should be okay?
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Forget it...
Maybe the guitar is broken but I've not gotten it to connect to the dongle and be useful at all.
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There is one review saying that it works with a Guitar Hero guitar and a PC. He is saying that the whammy bar does not work. Not certain why that would happen. It is supposed to directly map a PS2 controller.
There is another review saying it works great in Retroarch.
The rest of the reviews bitch about it not working. I assume they are idiots.
Ok. Maybe I am being too harsh. I just hate it when people contradict each other.
So, the adapter should work. I suspect that the Playstation 3, 4, and 5 consoles also use SDL.
I thinK I can get it to work with the emulators. I assume it uses X-Input.
No one has tried it out yet, which is odd. It works with Clone Hero and Fortnight.
The 360 version of GH2 was good too, although I guess fundamentally the same game.
After that there was the Harmonix/Activision schism. I followed Harmonix and went over to Rock Band. Still happy with that choice.
Steam | XBL
I assume you can still buy songs for it on XBox One.
Edit. Ah. I see what they did. They made a new bundle.
https://www.xbox.com/en-us/games/store/rock-band-4-rivals-bundle/brs6zckhrnvx#activetab=pivot:overviewtab
That I don't know about. I would have to look into it.
Edit: It seems like latency on PCSX2 is fine, but people are complaining.
https://github.com/PCSX2/pcsx2/issues/7268
Do the PS3 Guitar Hero games have more songs than the PS2 versions or is it the same?
It does seem like the PS3 versions are better versions.
You need this utility.
https://github.com/TheNathannator/RB4InstrumentMapper/blob/main/README.md#rpcs3
The guitar uses special packets that need to be translated to X-Input. Someone already figured it out.
It's weird to say, but it felt like Harmonix had musicians on staff and the note charts were more intuitive because of it.
There's also just a huge difference in design philosophy between a studio that was literally founded to make music-based video games and a studio that was simply assigned to music games because they were available.
There was even the competition with the instruments - I played on 360 so I don't recall well the situation on PS3, but on 360 at least, Rock Band (Harmonix) maintained compatibility with GH guitars, but Guitar Hero 3 onwards (Activision) very deliberately would NOT work with RB guitars due to Activision wanting players to buy their hardware and more of it. If I'm remembering right, anyway.
That had the weird knock-on reversal effect of some players who didn't keep up on the news thinking that Rock Band/Harmonix was in fact stopping their instruments from working on Guitar Hero. Which I'm sure suited Activision just fine.
Steam | XBL
Here is a pretty good guide to the guitars.
https://wiki.clonehero.net/books/guitars-drums-controllers/page/all-first-party-guitars
I guess it had a really high print run.
No other band-specific ones. Guitar Hero had a few others though: Aerosmith, Metallica, and Van Halen.
Both had other spin offs like Guitar Hero: Rocks the '80s and Lego Rock Band.
Steam | XBL
They're dirt cheap because they were put out as if they were going to be as popular as a Rock Band 4. Boomers are delusional about the stuff they like.
I might as well just use the Riffmaster guitar and the PS3 emulator.
Edit: I found some on Amazon, but they are like $89 and $94.
That is absurd.
The 360 guitar uses a generic 360 controller receiver. Much easier to come by. More standardized.
Yesterday I got the 5X-Pro and it works! Looks pretty good and it's a trip playing Super Mario Kart again on original hardware.
Edit: I updated the firmware. HDR and CRT emulation! Oh, this is nifty.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/10/24217643/vision-pro-nintendo-virtual-boy-emulator-virtualfriend-impressions
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I was going to try out Lightning Returns. That was a game that seemed to have emulation trouble a couple of years ago.
I am assuming the emulation is pretty much licked now. RPCS3 seems to have a pretty good reputation.
The game list on the emulator does have this annoying thing were, if you hide a game, it is permanently marked as hidden. They need to fix that.
Edit: Ah. I found a way to disable that.
I tried Lightning Returns and Jak and Daxter and the emulator works really well.
There is a slight bit of jankiness when it loads things.