A Sprite

What system do you think is Sega's most misunderstood? Sega Dreamcast: Polygon count took a hit to deliver superior texture quality. Years later, this same approach was used to create FFXII's superior visuals. The Dreamcast has never been pushed the way other systems have. Soul Calibur is just a taste of it's potential. What system do you think has yet to see it's full potential? Sega Dreamcast: See above. Which system do you like the best? Sega Dreamcast: Great memories there. Which system do you think has the best games? Sega Saturn: Heart: Panzer Dragoon Saga, Shining Force 3, Dragon Force, and Nights into Dreams were just fun... Mind: The Dreamcast library is the overall better choice for most gamers.

No, but the Amiga 32 conversion of the original comes close. Fall through glitches to your death as you struggle to master the single button on a six button pad that controls both jumping and attacking at the same time...

Level 3. First game that comes to mind is a helicoptor game covered by Retro Gamer a year or two ago for computers in the 80's. Sorry I can't be more help than that. The others I know that can't be beaten were either unfinished (BS Zelda), or are due to a glitch that can occur in normal play, but can easily be avoided with the help of a detailed online FAQ. ( Shenmue for Dreamcast, and Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars for GBA)

Next question would be - how would records of ownership be kept? Who keeps track of the database? This question is personal to me, because I do emulate games that have been stolen, or stopped working - I can't afford to replace them. Could there also be a possibility of creating more of a museum setting? The idea being you can play a game one time for free, with no saves, and then are kept from replaying it for a certain time unless you purchase it. That way, historians and academics have access to whatever is needed, but those who might wish to take the game with them have a chance to become hooked first. Especially if a certain amount of the sales go to the people involved in the creative decisions behind the game, and the presentation gives people a chance to get a feel for the human element behind it all. It's easier to support an artist than it is a company.

It wasn't cheap to make. Not just the high development costs - it was a large cart (24 meg), with 16k battery back-up. Not surprisingly, it was a smaller scale release than other flagship titles. Before FFVII made little kids cry, it was treated as a given that American gamers didn't like RPGs. Finding one wasn't easy - you could sit out the better part of a year waiting. Phantasy Star IV was one of the first games to be marketed as a premium release - if you wanted the quality, you paid for it...

Anyone know why Retrogamer refuses to review it's versions of classic games? The system was made and released before the 7800, which is included... I'd love to know how well the NES would do on an even playing field with the other systems of the time.

The C64 is way ahead of anything the PC88 can do. Check it out. I got schooled about it in the 7800 forums, when I asked if it and the 7800 were roughly equal. They assured me the 7800 wasn't even close.

I'm a fan of the Intellivision, original gameboy, and I even had a crush on the Speccy. I agree with the kids. Sorry, but 80% of the people in any given PS2 game look like zombies covered in spraypaint. The lighting is clinical, shadows nearly non-existent... It's the system that defined the uncanny valley for me.

The trouble with this idea is that current Jaguar emulators, as far as I know, are limited in their ability to accurately emulate the original games. You'll be asking people to pay for a product of questionable quality, which may or may not be acceptable to the people involved in making it.

The Smurfette.

Here's your rabbit hole... Games are rated based on graphics, control, and more times than can be attributed to a joke: whether or not the sprites make him question his sexuality...

It's a little to the side of the topic at hand, but can i ask what anyone sees in this game? It seems to be on a lot of recommendation lists when people rush to the defense of the N64. Now, i'm not a huge fan of said console, but i've tried to buy the games that justify keeping it hooked up. I picked up Excite Bike 64, and it seems to me that it's just a generic motocross game with terrible graphics and questionable play control. Excite Bike is good, Excite Truck is good, and it seems like Excite Bike 64 is just this terrible little thing in the middle that people recommend because it's got "Excite" in the name, as if that were a guarantee like the words "Smash" or "Kart". This is a serious question, maybe i didn't play the game long enough to get to the good parts, because my eyes hurt and the whole thing just felt bland. But i'll pick it back up if there's something good in there. The appeal to it's fans is the unforgiving physics - the idea is that every high jump is a challenge to master. Think EA's Skate; what other games do for you automatically, this game requires you to earn. Obviously not for everyone. It might have been served better with a new name.

Seconding Ninja Spirit, for both of you. Think Contra meets Shinobi - old school arcade action in it's purest form.

This is the holy grail.

What game was this? The only game i was aware of with a full vocal track was Real Bout Fatal Fury Special and only the CD version had the full vocal track. Nearly every track in Matrimelee is sung, with full vocals. Other games had a few tracks in them, but I'd need to look it up. Or play through the games to the credits again and try not to get myself killed... If I'm not back in a month, assume I went for that plan....

I'll take a stab at it. Some of these may be wrong... But I expect to be taken out behind the tool shed if I'm off again. Awards in Music 1. First console system to have an in game soundtrack - Intellivision, with Snafu. Since Snafu was originally a handheld Surround game, the code was small enough that 4k left room for musician/sound effects artist Russ Lieblich to work a small miracle with it's limited sound chip. He later described the experience as "Simonizing a garbage can." 2. Oldest console system to have a licensed soundtrack from a mainstream artist - The Atari 2600, with the game "Journey: Escape". Featuring "Don't Stop Believin" in a form so dead on that I was able to place it immediately 20 years later after a google search and an extended mp3 comparison. 3. First licensed song that actually sounds like a licensed song, and not an autistic car alarm's first attempt at a ring tone: Masters of the Universe, for the Intellivision. I realize this is a subjective award; Who am I to ignore the 2600's stabs at "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "ET", especially when I can actually recognize the latter? I'll tell you who: A 12 year old, with nearly 200 games between the two systems, who's jaw dropped the first time he heard his Intellivision turn into a casio keyboard. ( We couldn't afford an NES.) The song is dead on, and a good thing too, because the game is otherwise kinda boring. He-Man fights off the last boss without you needing to even touch the controller, probably because the directions you gave him on the way there murdered him a few dozen times, and he's realized you're Skeletor's last hope. ( 'No, I meant away from the fireball! Sorry!' ) 4. Oldest console system to attempt actual lyrics in a song - The Nes, with Skate or Die 2. Everyone sing along:"SKATE! OR! DIE! D-d-d-d-die! SKATE! OR! DIE! D-d-d-d-die!" 5. First game system to actually pull it off: Was the Amiga, with Cannon Fodder. Even now, the song is contagious...at least until you get to the "W-w-war" part. Take a listen here. 6. Oldest non CD based, non-computer, game console system to pull off an entire vocal song without stuttering: SNK's Neo-Geo system. At $200 per game. 7. Earliest use of karaoke instead:

Instructions are in the link. Either X or Z starts it. Otherwise, you're watching the cpu kill itself over and over...

Advertising, yes. But innovation through new games and designs? Not really. Mostly each gen has the same base gameplay from the previous gens, with a few extra sprinkles. Legend of Zelda NES is pretty much Adventure, but with better graphics and a bigger map and slightly deeper gameplay. Link to the Past is NES Zelda, with better graphics and bigger map and better movement options and slightly deeper gameplay. Ocarina of Time is Link to the Past, with newer graphics (3D polys), bigger map, better movement options, deeper gameplay. Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, etc. etc. etc. Seriously, new ideas are very few and far in between. It's the illusion of having "new" things that captures consumers. And, indeed, Adventure in 3D, during the mid '90s, would've been seen just as new as Ocarina of Time was on N64, years before Ocarina of Time, which itself wasn't really all that new. It was the old...with new window dressing. MK fighting with the fatalities was a complete sellout back in the early 90's. you had a ton of quarters with a bunch of people lined up. street fighter II with that fighting system revolutionized the fighting game era. i remember seeing two lines (player 1 side and player 2 side at my college campus) both those games changed fighting games period and no two fighting games in the arcade caused so much attention back in those days. sports? madden football change and revolutionized the home sports era. tecmo bowl was making a killing, and madden football plus the national madden challenge tournament across the US was crazy. a complete new era of sports. innovation? how does a company compete with the 360 and ps3 technology? The Wii has sold more units in North America than the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 combined in the first half of 2007. Nintendo went the other way with creative technology/design and games while maintaining its identity. creation and innovation does have its place. had atari backed up their works of art of video game consoles, they'd still be around today...easily. Would a good console and innovative games be enough? Atari still suffered from short term decision making, and a failure to reward their best programmers. With a strategy of releasing enhanced versions of classic games, they'd still be where they were when they released the 7800... Atari published Highlander in 1995. It's not too far removed from being an Adventure update...

I suck, so I'm qualified to answer that. It is too easy. Despite it's claims that the difficulty was set to Insane, and the speed at 200%, I was able to take a tour through the first 10 levels without being in any real danger. The level names started becoming threats: "You will die!" "I will crush you!" And I actually started feeling sorry for the computer. Maybe it needed a handicap? Should I close my eyes? Play it one handed? It was hard to concentrate, what with all the screams in the background as the last survivors of humanity were killed off. That's when it occurred to me - I was supposed to be saving humanity, because they were worth bonus points. The game murdered me. Destroying the robots is easy, even on the hardest setting, but if you race them to the survivors, the game achieves a twitch beauty that's the equal of it's inspiration. Worth noting is the advanced human AI, that allows this woman to decide saving me isn't worth the bonus points. The actual playing field. the game doesn't get really challenging until around level 40 then it gets hard.. The first 30 levels are basically practice. Who needs to practice that long? My theory is they heard complaints of cheap deaths in the PSX version, and zoomed the camera out without considering how much easier the game becomes... That said, I love it this go round, and I hated it before, so you guys did win this one... Thanks for reintroducing me to it.

And it shows. This version is terrible! It plays like something that you'd see on the C64 or Apple II. Tempest That's because it's on a computer older than both, not a game console. No sprites, no scrolling. Apologies for my love of these kinds of games, it's entirely nostalgia based, I'm beginning to suspect. My school only had an Apple, long after everyone else switched to PC. I'll make it up to you guys with the next one.

Was that a hack? As far as I know, this is the only licensed Super Mario Bros. platformer game not made by Nintendo. I thought the same, until I changed the settings on the emulator's screen refresh from 60 to 30 - it still flickered, but played more like the NES game.

One of three Mario games only available for the Japanese PC88, Super Mario Bros. Special deserves to be rediscovered... Though the challenge is closer to Lost Levels, and there's no scrolling; it's still got that "One more try" vibe. Now that it can be found on the net, has anyone else ever played it?

That'll teach me to listen to geocities. Can you guys hook us up with any screencaps, reviews, or vids?

Thanks. I would have thought it was a Madden, but according to some website I vaguely remember, THPS4 was the last. Far from authoritative, but it's a happy ending if true.

Has anyone seen any video or screencaps of the PSX version of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4?