Austin

Congrats! Eight Ball is an all-time classic in my book. Wish I could own another (I don't now).

I personally prefer sticks in the $150+ range, but for ~$60, the Mayflash sticks are pretty good. There’s also the Qanba Carbon for $60. Good look, solid base, it has desk clamps and you can easily swap out the generic stick and buttons down the road if you find yourself using it a lot.

Word.

I do like the look of that a lot more.

It looks too grainy for my liking. *edit: I assume you are trying to model it after the computer version of Super Pitfall? Whenever I hear that name I immediately think of the NES version, which is what I was picturing and has a cleaner style (not that it's necessarily good either, but that's asides the point, haha).

It's a neat version of the game. Good to see you were able to get it running fully. I have the DOS versions and could never get it functioning with my sound card(s) for sound effects, only music. I also tried the Windows version and it refused to run smooth (it was like, 3fps on a 2ghz Athlon, which makes me think there's some kind of incompatibility or glitch). I don't have a 486 or 386 setup, so in order to get it fully working I ended up using the 486 core on the MiSTer. I do have complaints with the game. The web shading is pretty bog standard with none of the shifting/warping effects of the Jag game. The colors are also pretty muted in comparison (lower available color count, I'm guessing). Some of the physics are slightly off too and the enemy balancing is crazier later into the game. At the time a few years back I was on a quest to finish every Tempest 2000 version, but had to give up with the DOS one because the difficulty was through the roof. Still, it was cool to have it on PCs at the time. I'm not sure if I'd really have a desire to go back to this version when a 60fps Jag version exists in packages like the Atari 50 and Jeff Minter collections, but it was solid enough for the time. Raiden is an interesting one and the quality of it is going to depend on your setup. When I first played it in the '90s I was running it on a P166mhz based system. It never once slowed down (it was a tad speedy, but you got used to it). The sound effects are pretty awful and are nearly non-existent. You can have them running alongside the CD audio soundtrack, but for me I could barely hear them. The gameplay itself is okay if you can get it to run smoothly, and the remixed CD audio is pretty good IMO. The rest of the game is pretty disappointing though. There's zero added layers of background scrolling (i.e., no Stage 2 bridges/highways scrolling faster, adding a cool depth effect), no massive bomb explosion when you drop one (the screen just flashes white or something like that), etc. Being a big fan of the series (and especially the first game), I'd probably notice lots of other issues if I could get the damn thing running again, but I just haven't had any luck on either of my old PC setups. Couldn't get it functioning right on the MiSTer either, so one day I might resort to DOSbox and see what the results are. I believe they both include the DOS version. The updated one by Interplay should have the Windows '95 version as well.

NES or PS2.

Why not? They sell them in all sorts of shapes and sizes.

PS1 is great on the MiSTer. Can't vouch for Saturn or PS1 as I still haven't gotten around to troubleshooting my unit yet. It's been out of commission for like.. a year now. 😅

I think that's the first time I've ever heard someone call Klax tedious, but alright.

Anyone with eyeballs knew better. However, we were also aware our Game Gear and Lynx batteries weren't going to last all the way through school field trips. Game Boys did.

I really don't see the point of this. The visuals are also lackluster and the gameplay looks stiff and not fun.

Man, you're trying some real bangers there. More power to you. 🤣

Sheesh, a 2025 release date? This is sure to get smacked down by Nintendo before then. It looks… interesting, but I am not sure the point given Mario World already exists. This just seems like a less-good version of that.

I had a similar stance on the Wii when it was relatively new. I got into it near the end of its life (by purchasing my own system), ended up really getting into it and had wished I had done so sooner. I think it's a great console that's easy to dismiss because of the shovelware and budget releases that were overly abundant. Cool to see you getting into it! All-time favorites on it for me are Mario Galaxy, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Xenoblade Chronicles and Punch-Out. That last one in particular is a great "pick up and play" kind of game. More recently I've been dabbling with Excite Truck which has been super fun, along with the Ultimate Shooting Collection, which includes three Milestone shmups (Karous, Radirgy and Chaos Field). Chaos Field in particular is one of those STGs I completely dismissed when it released on Dreamcast and Game Cube, but I got into it recently via that collection and think it's pretty sweet. The Wii version is probably one of the better ways to play it, same with Radirgy/Radio Allergy. With the console I still have, I had downloaded lots of stuff from the Virtual Console over the years, but transferred it all to my Wii U when that system launched. So, with no digital downloads remaining on it for the most part, I decided to go ahead and softmod it a couple months back. The process for that was pretty easy and now I can use Nintendon't to load up Game Cube stuff off the SD card, another great use for the Wii. There's also some goofy homebrew releases that may or not be worth trying, but having the option to do so allows for even more options with this platform. Regarding its emulators (after modding the system), the ones for 8 and 16-bit platforms are generally pretty decent, but a CRT is a must. If you run them through a HD display (even via an upscaler), they look terrible. Also, a Classic Controller is a must. Just buy one and keep it with your Wiimote wherever you store it (it has to attach to it anyway). Also, do the Classic Controller Pro, not the standard one (the shoulder trigger locations are awkward on the original). You'll use it for emulators, arcade compilations and other more traditional console-style games.