youxia

Hard Hat Mack - 4400 Threshold - 30500 If the rest is as good as these two this is going to be a FUN round. HHM is an insta classic, I love this Chuckie Egg/Miner 2049er design style. And Threshold, just wow - so simple and yet so clever.

https://gematsu.com/2018/08/streets-of-rage-4-announced Big news, since this is one of the most respected brawler series out there. From what I remember Dotemu has rather chequered history plus I do not really dig the gfx (pixels or bust), on the other hand the devs seem capable - teh Wonderboy remake got good scores - and the gameplay itself looks solid. We'll see...

I've asked this elsewhere some time ago and the answers were mostly negative. This was in regard to PSX memory cards but I'd imagine it's a similar scenario with PS2. And I was particularly warned about the big un's, the ones which use bank switching or some such, I suppose the 128MB would fall into this category. I'm usually skeptical when people recommend branded products only, but did not want to risk my saves and went and bought a few used Sony original ones on ebay.

Agree on Autoduel being a bit out of place here, looking forward to your quantum-level scoring algorithm

Well, they aren't There might've been periods when it was true but certainly not in the last decade or two. Unless you talk about highest grossing or most expensive of course, but to me it does not translate as "best". This mantle goes to the US TV output these days. As for "Nintendo ruining videogames", not sure if anybody can really take it seriously. It's just a variation on the "Sony/MS ruined videogames" trope which occasionally arises depending on posters tribal orientation. If anything ruined videogames it was greed and corporisation of previously enthusiast-driven industry.

Perhaps unwittingly, but you've just answered your own question

It took me some time (approx 25 years but I finally started playing text adventures again this year. More importantly, I'm totally enjoying them. Yes, it's possible! (without any hint of nostalgia). The key here is applying the appropriate mindset and remembering this is a different form of videogame entertainment. One bit of advice I have is this: do not try to play them in "one sitting" sessions like other games, expecting huge progress everytime. Sure, sometimes it's possible but mostly you will get stumped real quick and if you don't walk away - frustrated. So now I play in small chunks and whenever I get stuck - quite often almost immediately - I try for a bit and then leave it be. Then return the next, or few days later, play other similar games in the meantime. It's amazing how often after such break a seemingly impossible puzzle gets solved real quick. Perhaps there is something to the claim your brain works on problems subconsciously, or maybe it's just a fresh look that helps. No matter, it works If it does not, then I leave it again, come back later...and so on. Text adventures are puzzle games of a peculiar kind, for those who enjoy syntax-related conundrums and also find fun in using abstract thinking to untangle others' imaginations. Quite often those seemingly illogical puzzles actually make sense if you look at them in a certain way and also have appropriate clues scattered around. Some, yeah, can be only broken by brute force approach or looking up the clues...luckily in 2018 it has never been easier, there are large repositories of solutions. If you're of an impatient sort, you can use them to enjoy the stories and narratives, because these are often really great too. Overall, I think it's a totally unique and still immensely rewarding and entertaining pastime. Not for everyone, for sure, but also not as dated and impossible to enjoy as the modern received wisdom has it.

Probably not important, looking at the table, but I dragged up my LLama score to 45980... Every now I then I think I "get" it, and then lose 3 lives pronto in the next level

Alas! Alley Cat: 014-3922 (or 007-7717) Meta Llama: 29450 Disclaimer: I've redefined the control scheme in AC replacing UP (on my gamepad's stick) with one of the buttons. Not sure if this counts as a "tampering", if yes then disregard my first score and use the one in brackets. So I was trapped in the Arcade HSC for half of this round, completely addicted to Time Pilot. But also put off a bit by AC's diffculty curve. My word...I can't think of any other game which I would equally love/hate. It's cute, innovative & hilarious but also controller-hurlingly infuriating. I still don't quite understand how jumping works.... The present delivery stages drove me to despair, only managed to complete the three by some sheer luck alignment. I once failed despite having FIVE presents to drop for other cats. Madness After the 3rd present stage the things go just way too wild for me so I don't think I can improve that score. You guys operate on some different Mhz frequency to manage these scores, especially the 300K Still, glad I finally played the AC properly...great stuff. If the jumping wasn't so wildly unpredictable it'd be even better. Also, what's that minigame where you have to sip milk from bowls all about? Couldn't figure it out. LLamas are an interesting curio, but somehow I can't wrap my mind around this to compete with the top scores here.

I had a feeling that this thread might be yet another of Keatah's EMULATION IS GOD proselytizing exercises and it sure did end up in the now familiar territory. To be honest, I find it a bit tiresome by now, I've been here only few months but it's like a regular fixture. Now, if emulation works for you and you enjoy it, it's perfectly fine but is there really need to try to convert everybody to this method? Especially while painting the usage of the original hardware as some hellishly painful and cumbersome exercise and people undertaking it as stuck up luddites with mental issues? Never even mind the laborious and questionable pro-emulation arguments such as the one that "it attacks the problem from complex and "weird" angles"....not sure what does that even mean. Or the one about colour adjusting, as if people do not spend endless hours tweaking their emulator/PC settings. I'm saying this as someone who uses emulation for about 80% of my vintage gaming neeeds and owns literally one retro-machine at the moment (in storage anyway). So yeah, it's my prefered method, but it does not mean I look down on those who use the real stuff. In fact I do love it myself and in other circumstances I'd definitely have a bit more of it up and running. For various reasons, but mostly because I have great respect for that old hardware and like to keep it alive and happy...just because. Sounds silly? Perhaps, but as long as it's my little harmless thing then it's nobody's business really. It's similar with game collecting, is the fact that there are some obsessive douchebags and narcisstic show-offs out there a reason why I can't enjoy a box-filled shelf or three of my own? Sure, compulsive hoarding of anything can be a problem but I don't think it's some infectious malady endangering the community. I also know rom hoarders who have so many games that they can never decide on what to play and quit everything after a minute or two. tl, dr: live & let live

No, to the contrary. Yes.

When it comes to drifting I was always pretty much a High Plains kind - participating in some projects and conversations but mostly keeping to myself. Perhaps because a curious thing about the retrogaming scene is how many people seemingly loathe the "retro" bit. Do you love CRTs and want to talk about them? You will be told they suck and you should upgrade to a flat tv already. Original consoles/micros? They suck too, take up too much space, you can't save a game or put a crappy filter on: use emulators, same for games: who needs boxes, go digital. That old game you really like to play? Guess what - the gameplay & fx suck: play the remake or let's just talk about modern games anyway. Scene, uh, it can be hard work, I tell you Some of these elements are present here too of course, but the good thing about AA is that it's rather big and there's room for maneuver - unlike some smaller, clique dominated boards which can be quite suffocating. There's also lots of devs, modders and generaly people who do stuff and keep the hobby alive. Plus, people who actually play games - the HS clubs are really great, especially the 8-bit one, not so much about scoring high but more about just playing games and talking about them (shoutout to therelalbountybob for keeping it so fun) One bit of advice to folk perhaps bored with it all is: try the microcomputers. The games for them may not be the snazziest fx-wise but there are heaps upon heaps of amazingly fun and inventive ones.

I'm not really a fan of this whole "aged well/unwell" angle regarding gfx (aside from the 2D > 3D mentioned above). It's obvious that the early efforts are not technically up to scratch compared to the modern games but personally I still enjoy them, and not because of some weird nostalgia fetish. Some of the first-gen 3D games were technically astounding at the time and lots of clever art/tech tricks went into designing them. I did not have a Saturn, but PSX titles such as Syphon Filter, Covert Ops: Nuclear Dawn, Klonoa, Driver, Gran Turismo, Ridge Racer, Tekken and others still look amazing to me. I treat it as a different style rather than an inferior one. A bit like when I'm watching, say, a Harold Lloyd movie.

From the Disruptor's Handbook 1. Start a new service 2. Gain large client base by offering massive discounts/low fees/no ads 3 ??? Wait a few years then get rid of discounts/raise fees/add ads 4.

This is sacreligous to somebody like me, who kinda grew up slouched next to a Defender cab. Never even mind you'd need three hands to play it properly. I get it they're trying to squeeze multiple games into these units but then you need to rethink the pairings. Defender is all about total control, you can't just randomly place some buttons around.

Lol, 168K - that's another level. No way I'm touching that. Sort of glad this round is over, can go back to playing other games

132,700 It's definitely good to have a carrot score to beat. But now I'm the target 36 hours left, gentlemen.

Lots of good stuff banded together in this short paragraph "DICE, Psygnosis, physical release, 1994, Amiga, SWIV, metroidvania, Vita". Not bad!

Wow, this one will go down to the wire 100K has been truly breached. I thought a lot about the spawn paterns and think they're actually quite random. I had stuff appear just about everywhere, regardless of map position and timing. That's why you can sometimes clock 40K plus in the first stage and sometimes barely 20K. There's lots of luck involved in this game when playing for HS so it's sort of "unfair", but it's also so addictive and great that it doesn't matter really. My only real gripe is with the inconsistent lock-on for missiles...it's why I die a lot when trying to pull some super tight maneuvres and it does not catch on. In the run with the score below I had everybody and their dog appear in Stage 1, so managed to get 42K, then the biplane spawned next to me so I of course had to crash right into it EDIT: Actually, Zoyous could be right, the trench seems to have higher probability to spawn things: I got the jets like 3 times in a row there and the ground thing also appears maybe more often. But only on the first level. That makes me think, perhaps different levels have different probability zones. There's got to be something happening in the desert, right? Damn, I really wish I had arcade stick for this. My thumb is dying. 113,700

Both Raspberry Pi and modded Wii can do the emu-box job and output composite to a CRT, but that requires a bit of setting up. Wii is probably easier of the two. Other option is building a CRT capable PC but that's a Hard Mode.

So, which one is it guys? My bottom line is: no matter which console or microcomputer, the difference between the source quality is not as great as the received wisdom has it. I'm not sure there's really need to be "shocked" by the "notorious" SNES output since the quality of gfx viewed on a CRT screen in some games is simply mouthwatering, no matter if viewed via composite or RGB. And the whole obsession with "sharpness" in retro games is purely a modern thing. There's nothing wrong with a bit of softness, it varies from game to game of course but overall it was a part of the artist's toolbox back then - along with dithering and other methods, going past those few oft-mentioned tricks such as the waterfall - not something inherently bad. I remember very well the feeling of superiority when comparing my Amiga's TV output with my mate's early 286 VGA. Its pixelitis and the lack of natural TV's AA was very jarring, something even he reluctantly admitted. That superiority of course ended when the SVGA and the likes of Wolfenstein et al appeared and won on another level, but I always turned my nose up at those silly pixels anyway. I guess others were of a similar opinion since anti-aliasing has become sort of popular

131K, ha, I knew there's more to come I managed to scrape just over 100K couple of times but that's probably as good as it gets from me. I'm curious if anybody managed to shoot down the original Time Pilot biplane? It's super rare, I saw it only once and it got away.