onmode-ky

StephenJ, if you're still here, I'm kind of curious how this ended up. Did you ever get any other games for your mother-in-law? If so, did she enjoy them? onmode-ky

I've kept watch for new activity for 2013 in the plug-n-play games market, looking through CES and NY Toy Fair media online, and my conclusion is: the ghost town that has been the PnP market for years will be nearly a null void this year. The only inkling of a new release I could find was a light-gun-style shooting game from Jakks Pacific, the Star Wars Clone Wars Blaster that had a mock-up product box at Toy Fair. They've done one such game each year since 2009, with only 2010's Toy Story Mania model not being developed by Merge Interactive (used to be known as Super Happy Fun Fun). And, coincidentally, Merge's website reported in December that they had signed a new contract for a project with Jakks. Last year, Toy Fair revealed new plug-n-play products coming from Bandai America (the Pac-Man Connect-and-Play), Jazwares (a Fruit Ninja tie-in that, like the Fruit Ninja electronic accessories that were simultaneously announced, never released--so maybe Jazwares' license collapsed), and Jakks Pacific (their Walking Dead light gun game and their touchpad TV Games did release, but not the Cut the Rope model they announced). This year, in contrast, nothing at all from anyone besides Jakks, who has just one. Sure, later this year, maybe AtGames will do yet another set of Atari Flashback and Sega Genesis/Mega Drive emulation units, but those are becoming like the sports games of plug-n-play. This looks the deadest year for plug-n-play since the resurgence ~10 years ago, by far. It's kind of a pity, too. In 2011, systems from Jakks Pacific proved that the relatively new Generalplus chips were powerful enough to do not only fairly good emulation of older arcade hardware (Code Mystics' Taito Space Invaders TV Game system--remember that everything else retro from Jakks had been ported, not emulated), but even polygon graphics. Really, I played the 2011 Golden Tee Golf TV Game system (developed by HotGen) recently, and the course landscapes in that are polygon maps (trees and shrubs are size-scaled sprites, though). Radica's Golden Tee Golf from about 5 years earlier was all 2D, overhead views, aside from tee-off. The tech is so much more capable now . . . but the market has moved on. C'est la vie. onmode-ky

I've had it since release (preordered from Newegg.com with a $12-off coupon several months ago), but I've only played up to the first town so far. I liked what I played, though, and yeah, it is one very pretty game. An odd bit with the localization: that neighborhood friend's name is changed in the English audio, even though it's already an English name even in the Japanese audio. I've forgotten what the names are, but it was something like changing Mark to Philip. What to make of that? onmode-ky

I've been hearing that it's a really good game, and that it's essentially a crime that Sony's letting such a good game die in sales thanks to nearly nonexistent promotion, but I haven't bought it myself. My gaming budget is already maxed out lately (thanks a lot, imports), and this wasn't on my "buy soon" radar before due to my general lack of interest in platformers; I suck at them. I wouldn't consider myself a Sly fan, but I've played a little bit of the HD remake of the first game in the series and enjoyed it. Since I typically don't like platformers, that's already a very good sign. Do you have a PSV? The interactivity between the PSV and PS3 versions of the game is pretty interesting, where you can use the PSV as something like X-ray vision for locating collectible objects in the PS3 game screen. onmode-ky

? It sounds a lot like you're talking about DariusBurst Another Chronicle, which I discussed in my last paragraph 3 posts up. AtariAge member Shaggy the Atarian has it in his arcade, but that is unfortunately the only example of the machine I know about in the entire country. Pac-Man Battle Royale can be found at Dave & Buster's locations. In fact, I think the chain hosted the North American launch exclusively. onmode-ky

I think I'm the resident big Darius fan (despite never having played Darius II and having only beaten 1 or 2 stages of original Darius via MAME), so I'll add some thoughts. That could certainly be it. Gaiden was released to arcades in 1994, so in comparison to the first Darius (1986), it's a dramatically different visual and aural experience. Gaiden has a very memorable sound effect for the black hole bombs (which themselves are unique to Gaiden), for example, and those boss explosions are kind of psychedelic. Also, in terms of Taito Zuntata's music, Gaiden marked the point in the Darius series where Hisayoshi Ogura's style dove headlong into the surreal. I'm not sure if this is what you meant, but it sounds like you're saying Gaiden was just a variant of the original Darius. It's the third arcade game in the series, taking place between Darius and Darius II in the series' story chronology. The original Darius was adapted several times for the PC Engine. There was also a Western-developed home computer conversion that bore little resemblance to the arcade game. Horizontal. I think you knew that and simply slipped. Incidentally, the most recent Darius arcade game, 2010's DariusBurst Another Chronicle (and its later EX expansions), uses twin side-by-side 32-inch 16:9 displays, for nearly as wide an aspect ratio as the original Darius'. DBAC is an outgrowth of the 2009 Japanese PSP release, DariusBurst--the only non-arcade title that is included as part of the series' official history. I imported that and really liked it. If you have an iOS device, it was remade last year on that platform as DariusBurst Second Prologue. onmode-ky

I want to pre-order it but what if a special edition comes out? I'm not sure I follow. Are you drawing a distinction between "special edition" and "collector's edition"? As noted in Mendon's post, XSEED already said they won't be doing a collector's edition. Or are you saying you think they might change their minds? Seems unlikely to me, with just 2 months until release. onmode-ky

156,500 for me. That's more than twice my second-best score. I was really on a roll this run. onmode-ky

Pictures I've seen of the North American NeoGeo X box show that it has text on it saying it's designed and made by Tommo, who is the North American distributor of the product. However, I find this hard to believe, for assorted reasons. If anyone here has a NeoGeo X from Europe, Japan, or somewhere else in Asia, what does that region's box or manual say for who created it? onmode-ky Edit: Never mind. I thought to check the other regions' distributors' sites, and they all use the same box. The Japanese support site also explicitly names Tommo as the producer. So apparently, to my surprise, it really is Tommo, the firm who bootlegged the Atari Flashback 2.

Several years ago, I met Ralph Baer and Eugene Jarvis at a museum event on games. Some years later, I met Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall after a Video Games Live concert. Other than that, I've e-mailed with Voldi Way and Matt Bozon of WayForward, plus Jesse Schell, and I've had brief exchanges with Walter Day, Robert Mruczek, and Mark Stephen Pierce. If you consider game voice actors to be celebs, I've met many of them. Well, assuming you pronounce your last name the German way, I would have spelled it properly had I never seen it before. onmode-ky

I played Sorcery last September and enjoyed it a lot. In fact, I actually played all the way to the end, which is rare for me. I found the combat a lot of fun, and the controls were very responsive and accurate (there is a bit of automatic lock-on, so you just need to cast your attacks in the right general direction of the enemy you want to hit). Mixing your attack methods is where the game really shines (aside from some very varied and lush world designs), and it's a shame that the opportunity to use your full complement of spells is only available for the last couple of hours of the game. The beginning of the game is a bit on the repetitive side, since you only have one attack for that whole section. But, once you get further in, it becomes very engaging. I think you may have some sort of problem (radio interference?) with your setup, because I never had any such issues with the Move controller. In fact, mine actually connects to my PS3 faster than a DualShock. I've also never seen any other accounts of Move controllers constantly losing connection, so I assume it isn't a common thing. As for the boss fights, some were difficult, yes, but I managed to play through the entire "Gamer" difficulty--wherein enemies have regenerating health, mind you--without upgrading any stats or spells until the final boss fight. I don't consider myself particularly good at video games, so I'd say the difficulty were balanced well, overall. onmode-ky P.S. If anyone out there can actually beat the final boss fight on Gamer or higher without any upgrades, nor using any health potions, I salute you!

I don't have confirmation, but it's most likely hardware previously used by the developer, Merge Interactive, in their earlier gun-based TV Games systems for Jakks Pacific. Namely, it's probably either a Generalplus GPL1625x-series microcontroller or a Sunplus SPG293 microcontroller. Neither of these is ARM architecture; the former uses the u'nSP instruction set, and I think the SPG29x chips use a 32-bit expansion of that same instruction set (sorry, can't quite remember). The motion sensor uses the same basic concept as the Wii's, yes, having an image processor track a set of infrared LEDs. I don't know how good or not good it is, especially since I've never seen the TV show, but I did see gameplay footage on YouTube at one point, so maybe that will help your decision. onmode-ky

Hehe, true, but then Ninja Gaiden doesn't have an actual pronunciation guide right there in its logo--which Tecmo then tells you to ignore! Seriously, though, no go on using the "dagger" word for your subtitle? I thought it would make a pretty cool subtitle. Then again, I don't know anything about the gameplay, so maybe "dagger" doesn't make any sense as the subtitle. "BurgerTime: Dagger" would certainly send a mixed message. onmode-ky

This topic has been dormant for a while, but I'm resurrecting it because it seems to be the one topic where there was more than a little bit of discussion about the PSV. I'm curious to know whether anyone here is [still] playing on a PSV. I bought one recently and have a PSN voucher code for the system's PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale fighting game that I'd like to either sell or trade, but perhaps this is just totally the wrong community to be in for talking about this system. . . . Personally, I don't find it disappointing at all. At least not the hardware; there is the fact that I still haven't played any games on it yet. onmode-ky

If you are using the backup utility as a fallback for your game saves in case the PS3 dies, you should know that those backups can only be restored to the PS3 system from which they were taken. The backups cannot be restored onto another PS3; they are meant to save your butt should your PS3 experience a failure in the hard drive, not a complete system death. For transferring your data to another PS3, there is another utility (but it does a full-on data move rather than a copy, and it obviously requires both PS3s to be functional). For preserving your game saves for the ability to use in another PS3, should your existing unit suffer spontaneous combustion or other such malady, you should manually copy your game saves to a USB drive. I do this periodically myself (though my copy destination is a PSP-loaded Memory Stick rather than a flash drive, and that in turn is copied to my computer's hard drive--which itself gets periodically backed up to an external hard drive). Granted, if you've never done it before, then the first time will be a pain. Subsequently, though, you only need to do it for saves that have been made/updated since the previous backup (it helps a lot that PS3 save data is always timestamped). Heck, I even have backups for my PS1, PS2, PSP, GameCube, and Wii game saves. My username here is a dead giveaway that I'm serious about data integrity. onmode-ky Edit: The previously mentioned PS+ cloud storage is also a viable alternative to my second paragraph above, though you need to continue subscribing to maintain access to it. Notably, it is the only way that copy-protected saves can be backed up.

I think you're misinterpreting how the scenario played out. In all likelihood, it was not Sega who turned to AtGames to produce the Genesis/Mega Drive emulation systems, but rather AtGames who approached Sega offering to give them licensing revenue for the legal right to make and sell those devices. Thus, Sega invested very little into the project (just paying their lawyers for the licensing bit and risking their brand image), and they got income from legacy properties that otherwise weren't bringing in much revenue. If some other firm were to approach them with a binary-compatible hardware solution (and assuming AtGames' contract were either expired or non-exclusive at that time), I think Sega would make the same deal with them--but is there anyone making that offer? I'm guessing the answer is no. Marty will correct me if I'm wrong, but I recall that the Atari Flashback project came about in the manner I described above. It was not Atari that went to Legacy Engineering wanting to do the project but rather Legacy approaching Atari. Atari replied, "Okay, but only if you can prove the market for it exists by making us something on a really tight timeframe to sell this holiday season," resulting in the NOAC first Flashback. onmode-ky

Is the "kiken" meant to be an actual Japanese word (like 危険, "danger," typically pronounced with stress on the second half, in my listening experience)? If so, you, um, don't really get to choose to pronounce it differently (especially with a conflicting pronunciation written phonetically right on the logo!). If you're particularly taken with "kaiken" as the pronunciation, it looks like 懐剣 means "dagger." Sounds like it could make for a good game subtitle. And, coincidentally enough, it's also a mere 1 letter different from "danger," heh. I don't know why the forum is suddenly unable to display Japanese typed into the post entry field, but just copy and paste the ampersand sequences into Google to see the actual kanji. onmode-ky

To temper any interest in that yoga game for the Wii sponsored by the model, read some of the plentiful user reviews at Amazon.com. I have no interest in yoga, but I remember this game for its reputation. Wii fitness games have a pretty wide range of consumer reaction, but this one was reviled to nearly tangible levels. onmode-ky

I recall (from information in Midway Arcade Treasures) that in Sinistar, if you manage to get shot by one of the grunt enemies right before Sinistar chomps down on your ship, then the life counter will decrement twice. So, if you had only one life left, you will come out of the experience with 255 lives. In certain renditions of Pac-Man, though I unfortunately don't know if it ever occurs in the original arcade, you can occasionally pass right through a ghost without interacting with it. For those of you who watched Wreck-It Ralph, did you actually watch all the way through to the end of the credits? If so, you would have seen another glitch. . . . By the way, for the results you were looking for, ComputerSpaceFan, it might have been more effective to put this in the Arcade Coin-Ops section. onmode-ky

Bill Loguidice previewed the system on his blog, with video, and we discussed that in the Dedicated Systems topic he created to preview AtGames' Atari Flashback 4. As I noted in the post after the one I just linked, I don't think that whatever improvements AtGames may have made to their emulator extended to fixing the sound fidelity. The music in a number of games still sounds cacophonous, no matter whether you're familiar with the game or not. The 40 non-Sega games are nothing to write home about and really have no reason to be there. Anyway, see the link in his post for the video preview. onmode-ky

Thanks for the news. I get the feeling he's got an uphill battle ahead of him, though. The "they" who want to bring it to North America may be entirely made up of him alone. But, at least there's a minimum of one major figure in the firm who's pushing for it, rather than zero. onmode-ky

I don't find it particularly encouraging that the first and last things you hear in that trailer are grating pronunciations of Adol's name. It isn't a pronunciation that makes much sense, either; as an analogy, who looks at the name "Adam" and reads it as "A-Dam" or "A-Dum"? Then again, I suppose there's the English reading of the name "Abraham." Oh, well. I only read this thread because it said "Ys," not because I have hardware that would play this, so I guess I'm really complaining about nothing. onmode-ky

Looks good. I wish you had taken and posted pictures of the board while it was out, though. I'm guessing it's a globtop, but still. So is the Bandai unit's shell now just functioning as a decorative object? I asked Bandai whether the software was made up of ports or emulations, pointing out the differences from the arcade appearances, but they just reiterated the "original code" line without elaboration. Still no leads on who programmed it, too. But, at least they actually talk about the product. Jazwares, in contrast, seems intent on talking about all their other products rather than the one I try to ask them about (the Fruit Ninja plug-n-play they're supposed to have out this fall). onmode-ky

I have played (halfway through) Super Robot Taisen: OG Saga: Endless Frontier, and the gameplay we're seeing for Project X Zone is different. Endless Frontier was an RPG, where your party, eventually 7 members in size, though only 4 participated in battles at a time, had random enemy encounters while walking around. Your party was those characters, and that was as far as it went. I've never played Namco X Capcom, but I believe it was like what we're seeing for Project X Zone, a grid-based tactical RPG with a large cast of characters. I don't think you have a party per se; on each grid, you have a team of characters whom you direct, but I think the team is different depending on which chapter of the story, which location, you're currently playing. Namely, I think characters from different universes run into each other in confusion in some location 'A,' get attacked by enemies, and then you take over; then, in some location 'B,' a different set of characters from different universes meet and get attacked by enemies, followed again by your control for the battle. Eventually, in later chapters, maybe the assorted protagonist teams meet and sort out what's going on, then split up again to accomplish different tasks. This is all just a hypothesis, but I think that's how these kinds of games go. You get to play as everyone in the enormous cast, but you switch between groups as the story progresses. Maybe you get to pick who gets to go out on the grid later on, as the groups get bigger; maybe it eventually becomes one massive group, and you can custom-pick per battlefield from there. But right from the beginning, almost definitely not. I would personally like to see this game come to the West. It would nearly be a system seller for me, honestly. Sakura Shinguji in her first (playable) North American release, the Valkyria Chronicles 3 characters and the return of Selvaria Bles, KOS-MOS and the Xenosaga crew, all that kind of material would be quite the enticement for me. However, I think the chances of localization happening are low, not because of licensing but because this type of game is very niche in the West. This form of tactical RPG is, I believe, how the Super Robot Taisen (Wars) games typically play, and very few of those have ever made it across the ocean, despite their enduring popularity in Japan. I don't think this type of gameplay is what Westerners would expect out of a super-crossover game, unfortunately. Granted, tactical RPGs aren't completely absent from Western shelves, but Japan, at least, seems loathe to bring these particular ones over. I think our best hope would be NIS America, who have brought over a few crossover games before, including titles with Sega and Capcom content. They also have a lot of experience with tactical RPGs. Still, it's certainly far from a lock. onmode-ky

Actually, the company is (was) named "Acclaim"; their logo just made it look as if there was a letter 'k' in the name. I thought it was "Aklaim" for over a decade, but the Internet revealed otherwise. The system only contains straight ports from the arcade, no variants or graphical updating going on. Xevious was one of the world's first vertically scrolling shooters, quite a classic. It has a lot of secret elements in it, and they're preserved in this port. It's one of the high points of this system for me. onmode-ky