My lil Anbernic is arriving today. Time to acquire some games for it!
Probably the NES game I played the absolute most, and beat several times (I'm not usually a "game-beater"), was JAWS. I don't think it's a very good game, but by gum I'm kind of excited to party like I'm 7 years old again.
Edit: Did I say 7? I must have been 12. Wat.
Which Anbernic are you getting? You'll have to give us a full review! You know, within forum rules and stuff.
My lil Anbernic is arriving today. Time to acquire some games for it!
Probably the NES game I played the absolute most, and beat several times (I'm not usually a "game-beater"), was JAWS. I don't think it's a very good game, but by gum I'm kind of excited to party like I'm 7 years old again.
Edit: Did I say 7? I must have been 12. Wat.
Which Anbernic are you getting? You'll have to give us a full review! You know, within forum rules and stuff.
My lil Anbernic is arriving today. Time to acquire some games for it!
Probably the NES game I played the absolute most, and beat several times (I'm not usually a "game-beater"), was JAWS. I don't think it's a very good game, but by gum I'm kind of excited to party like I'm 7 years old again.
Edit: Did I say 7? I must have been 12. Wat.
Which Anbernic are you getting? You'll have to give us a full review! You know, within forum rules and stuff.
My mini-review of the RG552 I got as a belated Christmas gift would be, pretty damn cool. Only major ergonomic issue for me is rhe placement of the L2 and R2 buttons and the outta the box multi-button functions/shortcuts.
But upgrading the Linux OS and firmware makes emulation on anything PSX and older incredibly smooth and easy, the d-pads are decent quality, no issues with stick drift or buttons sticking and screen is gorgeous.
On another note, I've got a chance to pick up a used PSTV with a dual shock 3 and power brick for bout $65 and its been tested and working. Main question is if the PSP and Vita libraries are available still on the TV's version of the Playstation store?
No matter where you go...there you are. ~ Buckaroo Banzai
Vita store has not been shut down yet. But there is the problem where like less than half the vita games have been properly whitelisted indicating they don't need Vita exclusive features like touchpad. Although a bit of hacking lets you fix this, I'm not sure how that interacts with buying non-whitelisted games through the PSTV itself. (maybe using a website?)
By the way, if you're curious about the Mister FPGA project for playing your retro games, maybe considering buying or just bought one, or are an easily entertained veteran that wants to pick up a few tips here and there, MLiG have an epic, fully scripted and produced 2 hours, covering all the basics of building, installing, and configuring the Mister, and showing off most of the major cores and unique adjustments within them with piles of varied game footage. Definitely the most comprehensive single video on the topic to date.
It's not the best Kirby by a long shot, but I think "Mass Attack" is underrated. 10 Kirbys running around, beating up enemies as a vicious gang, getting scattered like 10 pins. It's great.
Gross. I need the option for original music in jrpg remasters. FFX, FFXII, Xenoblade Chronicles. I appreciate the work put into the remixes and reorchestrations, but I have always wanted to listen to the original.
Gross. I need the option for original music in jrpg remasters. FFX, FFXII, Xenoblade Chronicles. I appreciate the work put into the remixes and reorchestrations, but I have always wanted to listen to the original.
Yeah. I may just play it in the emulator. Still, it is only $20.
The remastered game itself - Chrono Cross - uses a "refined" soundtrack. These tracks are not new arrangements, but instead, these are simply cleaned-up versions of the original music with small adjustments to noise compression, equalization, etc - as described by composer Yasunori Mitsuda. This is the only soundtrack found when actually playing the game, and you cannot toggle it.
So it is the original soundtrack, just cleaned up a little.
The remastered game itself - Chrono Cross - uses a "refined" soundtrack. These tracks are not new arrangements, but instead, these are simply cleaned-up versions of the original music with small adjustments to noise compression, equalization, etc - as described by composer Yasunori Mitsuda. This is the only soundtrack found when actually playing the game, and you cannot toggle it.
So it is the original soundtrack, just cleaned up a little.
Ok. That makes more sense. I will probably get it on the PC. It seems right to get it on the PC.
I have been putting allot of Final Fantasy games on my laptop.
So, something I started last summer is (almost) complete. I got back into game boy gaming a bit with an AGS-101, and decided I wanted to complete the collection. So I started looking around ebay and the like and last week I got the second last piece to the collection. I now have every game boy except the SP AGS-001 model, which I will eventually pick up an example of for completeness sake. This includes both versions of the Game Boy Pocket, and the Japan exclusive Game Boy Light. The Pocket with the LED indicator is a complete in box Japanese model that's, well, in the red box on the top shelf.
I personally owned the original game boy, Game boy colour, advance, and Micro. The only ones on the shelves that are the original ones I owned are the Advance and Micro, as over the years I shamefully got rid of the other models I had. But now the collection is nearly complete with working examples, sans the AGS-001.
Apparently, there are some performance issues with the remaster on the Switch because, God forbid, games run right on the Switch.
I don't know if it is some sort of weird emulation issue. Not certain if this is totally a port or emulation.
I am not certain if the performance issues are just accurate emulation.
Right, my Amiga Mini (officially THEA500 Mini) showed up yesterday and I've had a little time to start futzing around with it.
Hardware
The Amiga itself is delightful. Similar in scale to the assorted mini consoles of recent years, it has roughly twice the footprint of the SNES Classic; while slightly less tall, and similar in depth, it's twice as wide, but still tiny compared to an original Amiga. And as we've come to expect, it's a superbly detailed miniature replica of the original computer, complete with keyboard, and floppy disk drive slot on the right, both of which are of course purely decorative. On the back are a power button, USB-C port for power, an HDMI-out, and three USB-A ports - and you'll need all of them, if not more.
Also included are a USB-A to USB-C cable for power and an HDMI cable, both in the signature Amiga beige to match the miniature computer itself. And of course you get a controller and a mouse, both USB. The controller is loosely based on the shape of the Amiga CD32 controller, but with mercifully redesigned controls much more remiscent of a SNES controller - D-pad (segmented, PlayStation-style), ABXY (in the Xbox/Dreamcast layout), L & R shoulder buttons, and Menu and Home buttons. The mouse is a fractionally smaller replica of the original Amiga mouse, and sports two buttons (no scroll wheel or middle-click here), and it's optical instead of having the original's roller ball. (Purists may object, but those parts simply aren't made any more.) Both are PC compatible; the mouse worked immediately with no problems on my Windows 10 PC, and the controller I've not tried on PC yet. Extra controllers are available for two-player games, and some other USB controllers are supposedly compatible - I had no luck with an Xbox One controller though, sadly.
Software
The Amiga Mini comes with 25 built-in games and a now familiar carousel-of-games user interface. The included games are, it's fair to say, a mixed bag; some hold up well, such as Worms: Director's Cut and Stunt Car Racer, and others rather less so. The UI offers the expected feature set, with assorted video options, four save-state slots per game, and so on. One feature of note is the 50/60Hz option - as the Amiga was a much more popular machine outside of the US, many of the games (including many it comes with) were designed with 50Hz TVs in mind, so if your display can accept a 50Hz signal, that's the one to go for - 60Hz is really included mostly for compatibility's sake if you need it, but either will be fine really.
Right out of the box, the machine allows you to add your own Amiga games to play. This requires a USB stick formatted as FAT32, a download of the WHDLoad software from the Amiga Mini official website (you might want to grab the full manual in PDF from there too as it's not included in the retail box), and any added software needs to be in .lha format. Generally it works very well, but I've run into a couple of games which won't run and only offer a blank screen. More have worked flawlessly, but it's definitely a bit YMMV at the moment. Doubtless makers Retrogames will be offering a firmware update in the future (as they did with their previous Commodore 64 Mini, aka THEC64 Mini), and probably a WHDLoad update, so hopefully compatibility will be improved in time.
As the Mini's keyboard is just for show, and as the games often expect a keyboard to be present, the UI offers an on-screen keyboard, usually accessed by pressing the Menu button on the controller in-game. It's a slightly sluggish affair that pops out of the right side of the screen in four columns - the Amiga's natural 4:3 aspect ratio makes this a sensible choice so the keyboard doesn't obscure the game's display (which neatly slides slightly to the left to make more space for the keyboard, which is a nice touch). You can also plug in a USB keyboard instead, and for some games you may consider adding to your library (especially if you like flight sims or other complex 3D games of the era that would come with overlays), you'll probably need one. You really do have to remember the Amiga was not a console, it was a computer, and the games don't automatically expect the controller to be the sole source of input.
However, the UI does allow you to create your own control mapping per-game, at least for added games, and it can get fairly elaborate, even including the ability to hold one button to effectively "shift" every other button into having another function. One little quirk of note here - default layouts tend to map the A button to the same as Up on the D-pad. This is because most joystick controllers of the era only had one button, so you'd tend to use Up (or Forward) on the joystick to accelerate in a racing game, jump in a platformer (at least one that had another function on the sole Fire button), etc, so the controller mapping is trying to pre-emptively account for you using a button for those functions instead, while using B or X as Fire. But you can twiddle around with those settings to your heart's content. Also, the adding of WHDLoad via USB also allows you to unlock some "Expert" settings so you can get much more into the weeds with some other Amiga emulation settings, which are useful in case you run into a game that otherwise works but has issues such as weird flickering.
Conclusion
It's absolutely worthy of being held up alongside many of the other minis of recent years, especially given that it needs no hacking to add your own games to bolster its own line-up. Computer gaming of this particular era, post-8-bit but pre-PC-dominance, was far more varied than what the consoles of the time offered; compare the modern indie games scene with current "AAA" releases and you'll have an idea of what I mean by that. The passage of time has affected the games in just as varied a manner; some hold up extremely well, others you'll wonder what anyone ever saw in them (even for those of us old enough to remember them the first time around). The hardware is good quality and feels very solidly built, and the UI is accessible without ever getting overwhelming despite having more bases to cover than the typical mini console, while emulation seems largely solid with a few issues that will likely be resolved.
(Retrogames have said they may, as they did with the C64, produce a full-size version with a working keyboard if this one does well. If they do, that'll be a sight to behold, and will have a good effect on games that would like a keyboard to be handy. Whether they'll be able to include things like the Amiga's Workbench and so on is another matter - they aren't included here so this is purely a games machine.)
And thankfully, my old fave Midwinter II: Flames of Freedom (not included with the machine) runs just fine on it, which I've been happily enjoying (spoiler'd for fairly big):
Yeah. I will try Crono Cross in classic mode. I may just have to run it in an emulator.
It looks great in double resolution on an emulator.
They should have made it where you can increase the resolution in classic mode.
They tried to AI enhance the backgrounds, but they don't look right. They are too smooth. They kind of overdid it.
Looking at it some more, it seems like the classic mode uses a higher resolution than the PlayStation.
Edit: The game actually runs better on an original Playstation. I would recommend just running Chrono Cross in an emulator.
I may keep this since it has a legal copy of Radical Dreamers. Hopefully, they fix the framerate. It really does not make sense that it is running slow unless it is a poor emulator.
The OG probably runs better in an emulator than an actual PS1 if it's not a cycle-accurate software renderer. Not that there's any excuse for the remake.
The AI upscale does not retain the feel of pre-rendered graphics, the fan projects have done better on this regard. But if you accept that they are more like impressionist oil paintings there is some aesthetic to them. Although that would feel more intentional if the rest of the game's art was adjusted to match.
One thing to keep in mind for running chrono cross in an emulator is that only specific versions of the various psx emulators can emulate it properly due to some race conditions that show up when emulation accuracy isn't high enough. Even the emulator built into the ps3/psp have freezing issues in battles because of this.
One thing to keep in mind for running chrono cross in an emulator is that only specific versions of the various psx emulators can emulate it properly due to some race conditions that show up when emulation accuracy isn't high enough. Even the emulator built into the ps3/psp have freezing issues in battles because of this.
I guess Duckstation works. Beetle HW probably works. Duckstation works great with FF9. I got pretty far in it.
Posts
Which Anbernic are you getting? You'll have to give us a full review! You know, within forum rules and stuff.
Steam | XBL
RG280V. This lil guy:
Twitch: akThera
Steam: Thera
My mini-review of the RG552 I got as a belated Christmas gift would be, pretty damn cool. Only major ergonomic issue for me is rhe placement of the L2 and R2 buttons and the outta the box multi-button functions/shortcuts.
But upgrading the Linux OS and firmware makes emulation on anything PSX and older incredibly smooth and easy, the d-pads are decent quality, no issues with stick drift or buttons sticking and screen is gorgeous.
On another note, I've got a chance to pick up a used PSTV with a dual shock 3 and power brick for bout $65 and its been tested and working. Main question is if the PSP and Vita libraries are available still on the TV's version of the Playstation store?
~ Buckaroo Banzai
Best Harvest Moon for portable gaming is likely Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town for the Gameboy Advance.
Best Kirby for portable gaming is probably Kirby Super Star for the SNES.
Home of the Underdogs is still around.
http://homeoftheunderdogs.net/
The 13th Doll is a fan game of the 7th Guest that might as well be a true sequel.
https://www.gog.com/game/the_13th_doll_a_fan_game_of_the_7th_guest
https://www.gog.com/en/game/vampire_the_masquerade_bloodlines
The first 3 Thief games are like a buck each. There is a big sale on gog right now.
Yeah. I may just play it in the emulator. Still, it is only $20.
Thanks for info on Thief games. I might check that out. I think I only have the first.
Has bloodlines gone up in price? I remember that regularly being on sale for 5.
edit: ha oops nevermind.
So it is the original soundtrack, just cleaned up a little.
Ok. That makes more sense. I will probably get it on the PC. It seems right to get it on the PC.
I have been putting allot of Final Fantasy games on my laptop.
Here is the classic intro.
They may have re-sampled them. They might have had the original artwork.
The backgrounds all have a painted look. It really seems like they went back to the original art.
I personally owned the original game boy, Game boy colour, advance, and Micro. The only ones on the shelves that are the original ones I owned are the Advance and Micro, as over the years I shamefully got rid of the other models I had. But now the collection is nearly complete with working examples, sans the AGS-001.
I don't know if it is some sort of weird emulation issue. Not certain if this is totally a port or emulation.
I am not certain if the performance issues are just accurate emulation.
Hardware
The Amiga itself is delightful. Similar in scale to the assorted mini consoles of recent years, it has roughly twice the footprint of the SNES Classic; while slightly less tall, and similar in depth, it's twice as wide, but still tiny compared to an original Amiga. And as we've come to expect, it's a superbly detailed miniature replica of the original computer, complete with keyboard, and floppy disk drive slot on the right, both of which are of course purely decorative. On the back are a power button, USB-C port for power, an HDMI-out, and three USB-A ports - and you'll need all of them, if not more.
Also included are a USB-A to USB-C cable for power and an HDMI cable, both in the signature Amiga beige to match the miniature computer itself. And of course you get a controller and a mouse, both USB. The controller is loosely based on the shape of the Amiga CD32 controller, but with mercifully redesigned controls much more remiscent of a SNES controller - D-pad (segmented, PlayStation-style), ABXY (in the Xbox/Dreamcast layout), L & R shoulder buttons, and Menu and Home buttons. The mouse is a fractionally smaller replica of the original Amiga mouse, and sports two buttons (no scroll wheel or middle-click here), and it's optical instead of having the original's roller ball. (Purists may object, but those parts simply aren't made any more.) Both are PC compatible; the mouse worked immediately with no problems on my Windows 10 PC, and the controller I've not tried on PC yet. Extra controllers are available for two-player games, and some other USB controllers are supposedly compatible - I had no luck with an Xbox One controller though, sadly.
Software
The Amiga Mini comes with 25 built-in games and a now familiar carousel-of-games user interface. The included games are, it's fair to say, a mixed bag; some hold up well, such as Worms: Director's Cut and Stunt Car Racer, and others rather less so. The UI offers the expected feature set, with assorted video options, four save-state slots per game, and so on. One feature of note is the 50/60Hz option - as the Amiga was a much more popular machine outside of the US, many of the games (including many it comes with) were designed with 50Hz TVs in mind, so if your display can accept a 50Hz signal, that's the one to go for - 60Hz is really included mostly for compatibility's sake if you need it, but either will be fine really.
Right out of the box, the machine allows you to add your own Amiga games to play. This requires a USB stick formatted as FAT32, a download of the WHDLoad software from the Amiga Mini official website (you might want to grab the full manual in PDF from there too as it's not included in the retail box), and any added software needs to be in .lha format. Generally it works very well, but I've run into a couple of games which won't run and only offer a blank screen. More have worked flawlessly, but it's definitely a bit YMMV at the moment. Doubtless makers Retrogames will be offering a firmware update in the future (as they did with their previous Commodore 64 Mini, aka THEC64 Mini), and probably a WHDLoad update, so hopefully compatibility will be improved in time.
As the Mini's keyboard is just for show, and as the games often expect a keyboard to be present, the UI offers an on-screen keyboard, usually accessed by pressing the Menu button on the controller in-game. It's a slightly sluggish affair that pops out of the right side of the screen in four columns - the Amiga's natural 4:3 aspect ratio makes this a sensible choice so the keyboard doesn't obscure the game's display (which neatly slides slightly to the left to make more space for the keyboard, which is a nice touch). You can also plug in a USB keyboard instead, and for some games you may consider adding to your library (especially if you like flight sims or other complex 3D games of the era that would come with overlays), you'll probably need one. You really do have to remember the Amiga was not a console, it was a computer, and the games don't automatically expect the controller to be the sole source of input.
However, the UI does allow you to create your own control mapping per-game, at least for added games, and it can get fairly elaborate, even including the ability to hold one button to effectively "shift" every other button into having another function. One little quirk of note here - default layouts tend to map the A button to the same as Up on the D-pad. This is because most joystick controllers of the era only had one button, so you'd tend to use Up (or Forward) on the joystick to accelerate in a racing game, jump in a platformer (at least one that had another function on the sole Fire button), etc, so the controller mapping is trying to pre-emptively account for you using a button for those functions instead, while using B or X as Fire. But you can twiddle around with those settings to your heart's content. Also, the adding of WHDLoad via USB also allows you to unlock some "Expert" settings so you can get much more into the weeds with some other Amiga emulation settings, which are useful in case you run into a game that otherwise works but has issues such as weird flickering.
Conclusion
It's absolutely worthy of being held up alongside many of the other minis of recent years, especially given that it needs no hacking to add your own games to bolster its own line-up. Computer gaming of this particular era, post-8-bit but pre-PC-dominance, was far more varied than what the consoles of the time offered; compare the modern indie games scene with current "AAA" releases and you'll have an idea of what I mean by that. The passage of time has affected the games in just as varied a manner; some hold up extremely well, others you'll wonder what anyone ever saw in them (even for those of us old enough to remember them the first time around). The hardware is good quality and feels very solidly built, and the UI is accessible without ever getting overwhelming despite having more bases to cover than the typical mini console, while emulation seems largely solid with a few issues that will likely be resolved.
(Retrogames have said they may, as they did with the C64, produce a full-size version with a working keyboard if this one does well. If they do, that'll be a sight to behold, and will have a good effect on games that would like a keyboard to be handy. Whether they'll be able to include things like the Amiga's Workbench and so on is another matter - they aren't included here so this is purely a games machine.)
And thankfully, my old fave Midwinter II: Flames of Freedom (not included with the machine) runs just fine on it, which I've been happily enjoying (spoiler'd for fairly big):
Steam | XBL
tl;dr
the worst AI art upscaling the DF guys have ever seen in a commercial product.
worse framerate than the psx original
My conclusion: wait for modders to fix it just like all the other SE psx rereleases.
It looks great in double resolution on an emulator.
They should have made it where you can increase the resolution in classic mode.
They tried to AI enhance the backgrounds, but they don't look right. They are too smooth. They kind of overdid it.
Edit: The game actually runs better on an original Playstation. I would recommend just running Chrono Cross in an emulator.
I may keep this since it has a legal copy of Radical Dreamers. Hopefully, they fix the framerate. It really does not make sense that it is running slow unless it is a poor emulator.
The AI upscale does not retain the feel of pre-rendered graphics, the fan projects have done better on this regard. But if you accept that they are more like impressionist oil paintings there is some aesthetic to them. Although that would feel more intentional if the rest of the game's art was adjusted to match.
I guess Duckstation works. Beetle HW probably works. Duckstation works great with FF9. I got pretty far in it.
I’m such a nerd I’m going to stream myself playing through Zork. Why am I like this? It’s ridiculous.
twitch.tv/Taramoor
@TaramoorPlays
Taramoor on Youtube
Steam: betsuni7
Funnily enough, that's true of CC's remaster for me. I believe it was $50 on the PS1 when it launched?
It's true of many, but definitely different when it's an arguably collectible original copy (I assume?) of a 40+ year old game.
Steam | XBL
Try not to get eaten by a grue.
And a truly OG version of Zork would be a couple of personally copied off-brand floppies in a zip lock bag with labels written in Sharpie.
~ Buckaroo Banzai
In my defense, I was looking at the purchase of Zork II.
Steam | XBL