So, what you playing at the mo? Retro Edition

o1s1n

You'd need to be getting to the end of stage 3 without being hit even once, nevermind using up your whole 1 credit on the mini boss :P

Yeah sure give it a go. Report back with how you're doing. The first half of the game isn't too hard at all. I got to stage 4 last night without dying once and I wasn't trying particularly hard. The difficulty just really spikes towards the end.

Be interesting to give a new game a go every few weeks. Even to see who can get the highest score. I think there was a videogame club idea posted before wasnt there?

Retr0gamer

Yeah I started it, it started off well and was killed when people started suggesting a few obscurities and I couldn't keep up with it due to college. Did discover how good choplifter is out of it!

o1s1n

How about a voting system? Everyone throws in a vote over a day or two and then which ever one is most popular we play. That way we don't get stuck playing all your obscure Japanese Mah Jong and Hentai/high school rubbish

Highest scores/1cced games get coke and hookers.

jakeskorpio

Playing Touhou Project, M.U.G.E.N, Crash Bandicoot 2, Tekken 3, Final Fantasy 1 on the NES and the original Gran Turismo.

(I do not have actual copies of Touhou Project or Final Fantasy, I downloaded them.)

Retr0gamer

We could try and open it up again.

Played some genesis and snes games on my new classic controller. A much better experience. I was horrified when I noticed the borders on some of the megadrive games I was playing and switch to force NTSC. It's amazing the difference it makes. The games actually feel smoother and and far more playable. They are better games for it. Also, still have my contra hard corp skills, if a little diminished.

o1s1n

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Also, still have my contra hard corp skills, if a little diminished.

Glad to hear it

Ive found that game (Well, I'm still playing the Probotector variant) is slightly easier on 60hz than 50hz. As you said, it's smoother. Makes the game a lot more playable.

I've also been playing lots of Streets of Rage 3. Christ is it hard. Had to throw on Bare Knuckle 3 on an emulator afterwards just to make sure I wasn't completely ****e. Plus I wanted to check out Ashe's moves. Only just noticed that the level with Ash is down the docks. With him dropping a load of guys off from a boat. I am shocked and appauled :pac:

Never thought it was as good as SOR 2, but I'm starting to change my mind. It's actually a pretty nice game. The added controls and moves are great. Only bad thing is the obvious nonsensical censorship...blaze was changed from her red to be less sexual, but she still has bouncing boobies. As do some of the other boss characters.

SOA, you are insane.

Augmerson

Stuck on Snot a Problem level in Earthworm Jim SE.

Keep getting to the 3rd round and dying in the most dramatic, heartbreaking circumstances. The snot guy will be down to his last thin stretch of green mucus and I'll somehow die tragically. I was actually screaming with frustration on the last death, I was so close

polyfusion

Haven't had time to play anything in months, but dug out a few shooters over the weekend. Psyvariar and XII Stag on the PS2, and Gekioh on the PS1. Had a lot of fun on that one. Got it months ago (if not longer), but only checked it was working then. Bit of a Raiden clone. Apparently the Saturn version is the one to get. Also had Mobile Light Force 1 and 2 out, both butchered versions of Gunbird and Shikigami no Shiro, but the gameplay is mostly there.

Also managed to get a 21" CRT monitor gratis that was being thrown out at work. It's a 12 year old Gateway, and as you can imagine it's a monster, but the screen is immaculate, no marks or scratches, and the picture is beautiful. Have it connected up to a Dreamcast, and slowly making my way through some favourite arcade games on that. Being forced to use a decent pair of headphones multiplies the experience.

o1s1n

Played the first couple of levels of Desert Strike Last night. First time I've gone near that game in many many years. It really is a lot of fun. I was on very low armour and a little guy with an RPG took me down. Had me shouting at the tv. Needless to say I fired a hellfire at him the moment I came back to life.

Then on to Streets of Rage 2. Been playing so much 3 lately I thought I'd boot that up..it's no longer my favourite, I much rather 3 now. The extra moves really make it more enjoyable. (Yes yes I know Retr0, it's been hacked to bits, is **** hard and the music is nowhere near as good as the first two..but it'll do until I get Bare Knuckle 3!)

Skeleton Krew was after. Gameplay wise it's fun but not as fast paced as it should be. Looks really lovely though.

That gave me a hankering for more eye candy, so I threw on Toy Story. I still have absolutely no idea what I'm meant to be doing in that game. Can't even get passed the first level. Doesn't matter though, I just keep running back and forth looking at the backgrounds.

Finally, I thought I'd give the Megamouse some love, so whipped out go oul Cannon Fodder. Addictive is too tame a word. The only annoying thing is it's a ball mouse. If they weren't hard to get I'd see if I could convert it to being optical.

CiDeRmAn

Ah, Toy Story on the Megadrive, my son was playing that and it's a very old fashioned game now, well, it is some 16 years old, and while the visuals look great the gameplay can't keep up, you don't know what you can jump on, Woody moves too slowly as does his attack with the whip, the slowest whip in all of christendom!
It is not a patch on Cool Spot or Aladdin for megadrive platforming.

Augmerson

Played some Killswitch for the PS2, one of my favourite action games.

Retr0gamer

Kill.switch, where Gears of War got all it's ideas from.

Augmerson

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Kill.switch, where Gears of War got all it's ideas from.

Could be. Kill.Switch came out first and the mechanics are very alike.

Atavan-Halen

Chest-high walls?

Augmerson

atavan-halen wrote: »

Chest-high walls?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rh0Q57J9EH4

Atavan-Halen

That looks very decent actually.

CiDeRmAn

Woohoo!
Nearly finished Batman:AA at long last!
Sick of the Titan battles though, same thing over and over again, wait til it runs, hit it with a quick batarang then smack the beetch up, repeat til snuffed out.... Then do it again a little while later.
It's like the developers ran out of genius and thought no one would notice!

o1s1n

I now see why is it a crime that I didn't own Gradius V. It is absolutely perfect. The controls..the visuals..the sounds...it's all mind blowing. Some of the backgrounds and bosses had me wondering if someone snuck a 360 inside my ps2. Then the RGB was just the icing on the cake.

Also tried out my ps1 joystick for the first time as I just wasn't feeling it with a joypad. With a stick the game just felt so precise. Weaving in and out of laser shots with ease.

Retr0 - you were spot on. I still can't believe the game is so damn cheap!

Retr0gamer

It really is damn good. The rotatable options are so damn good. I think it's almost as good as radiant silvergun and even that is arguable. Stage 5 with the asteroids is a ****er and the next stage with the liquid can be just as difficult but the way they are handled is very original.

It was released at budget price as well. It was in the shops brand new at 30 euros.

Can't believe the stick I got from people though when it came out. Got loadsof nasty pm's saying I was an elitist (explicetive deleted) for saying it was probably the best game on the system. At least I did get a few from people thanking me that took a chance

Adyx

At last I have a PC capable of running Outcast and I have the game running! On Windows 7 in 640 x 480 no less. Happy days. One of the greatest game scores too.

CiDeRmAn

It was/is a great game alright, I remember being stunned by it back in the day, it made most 3rd person rpg games a bit limp afterwards, at least until Oblivion came out.

Retr0gamer

I really have to play it. I bought it years ago and never got around to playing it. It's been rereleased on good old games so must pick it up off that excellent service.

Augmerson

Still playing Kill.Switch and Earthworm Jim SE.

Still stuck on Snot a Problem

Adyx

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I really have to play it. I bought it years ago and never got around to playing it. It's been rereleased on good old games so must pick it up off that excellent service.

Yeah that's where I got it. It's only $5.99. They have made it Windows XP/Vista/7 compatible but it still runs at resolution of 512 x 384 so there's black bars around the game. The unofficial patch helps though.

CiDeRmAn

Picked up AvP and Ghostbusters for 10, when I dropped in the finished BatmanAA and the never to play again Bioshock2, happy enough with that.
Want to get back to Far Cry 2 though, have yet to play the PS3 version of Riddick and have Infamous not touched and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed barely played too, not to mention Fuel, Ace Combat, and all the other games not yet played.
What a great time to be a gamer, after a great 2008/9 all the games that were so highly rated are now available at pocket money prices, nice!

Augmerson

Augmerson wrote: »

Still playing Kill.Switch and Earthworm Jim SE.

Still stuck on Snot a Problem

Finally beat Snot a Problem!!!

I just sat down and with one go, without losing a life, I beat it! I love when that happens, when all the accumlative experience of previous efforts finally coalesces and you achieve a Zen like state of unbeatability. I can't believe I spent that much time on one level and then sat down just awhile ago and beat it no problem : D

I played some Kill.Switch again, some Pro Evolution 6, bit of Splatterhouse 2 (need serious practice).

Atavan-Halen

Been playing some Worms Armageddon and Wave Race 64 (Which is my personal favourite jet-ski game ever) on the N64.

o1s1n

Last night -

Rocket Knight Adventures - Such a loveable game. I've play bits and pieces on emulators, but never on an actual Megadrive. Seems long enough too. Felt like I was playing for ages but only got to the end of the second stage.

Probotector - Played to the junkyard level but got mangled by a guy on a motorbike. Bah. Turned off in a rage. I WILL COMPLETE THIS GAME!!!!

Lethal Enforcers - Was the first time I'd played Lethal Enforcers on 60hz. The sped up music and gameplace was really weird at first! Especially when you've played it so many times you know the patterns..then all of a sudden people are jumping out quicker. Keeps you on your toes. My girlfriend came in for a bit and had a game too. Annoyingly enough, she cleared the first section, went up a level, but had executed some poor civilian at the start so wasn't allowed to proceed.

Then turned on the ps2 -

Gradius V - The first level boss keeps taking reams out of me. There's something about the rotating beams that makes my brain shut down. I need more practice. Unfortunately the arcade stick I was raving about has started locking into different positions. It might have to come apart for a fix.

Vib Ribbon - was lazy so I didn't bother plugging in a pad and tried to play it with an arcade stick. If there was ever a game that was made to not be played with a stick, this was it! It just doesn't work at all.

Incredible Crisis - How the hell did this game get released outside of Japan?

For anyone who hasn't played it, here's how it opens -

You're a Japanese business man in an office. Your team decides to have a break and dance. - queue dancing mini game

Then a boulder from a building site thing smashes through the window so you have to run out of the office - queue a boulder chase mini game where you have to keep bashing x and jumping over things

You finally get into a lift..the boulder smashes through the lift ceiling and makes it plummet out of control - queue a mini game where you again have to keep bashing x to press the lift emergency stop button.

It was at that exact point I lost faith in videogames entirely and turned everything off.

CiDeRmAn

I have found a spare copy of Megaman 2 for the NES, anyone want to trade for it?

Retr0gamer

o1s1n wrote: »

Probotector - Played to the junkyard level but got mangled by a guy on a motorbike. Bah. Turned off in a rage. I WILL COMPLETE THIS GAME!!!!

I hate to tell you this but the game only gets to it's toughest at the boss of stage three. Took me a long time to get past him. And then got stuck on the boss of the jungle stage for ages. After that the game splits into 4 separate routes, each one rock hard. My advice is on your first time through stick to brownie. He has a smaller hit box and his A laser is the mac daddy.

o1s1n wrote: »

Gradius V - The first level boss keeps taking reams out of me. There's something about the rotating beams that makes my brain shut down. I need more practice. Unfortunately the arcade stick I was raving about has started locking into different positions. It might have to come apart for a fix.

Hmm... Not doing to well. Think I made it to the end of stage 2 on my first go. When he does the rotating lasers just stay dab bang in the middle and make small adjustments to your position. Also get a SF4 fightstick! They are cheap now that the Super SF4 sticks are out and piss easy to modify with Sanwa or seimetsu parts if the buttons or stick wear out.

o1s1n

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I hate to tell you this but the game only gets to it's toughest at the boss of stage three. Took me a long time to get past him. And then got stuck on the boss of the jungle stage for ages. After that the game splits into 4 separate routes, each one rock hard. My advice is on your first time through stick to brownie. He has a smaller hit box and his A laser is the mac daddy.

I had a feeling you'd be on to say something like that :pac:

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Hmm... Not doing to well. Think I made it to the end of stage 2 on my first go. When he does the rotating lasers just stay dab bang in the middle and make small adjustments to your position. Also get a SF4 fightstick! They are cheap now that the Super SF4 sticks are out and piss easy to modify with Sanwa or seimetsu parts if the buttons or stick wear out.

The levels themselves are easy enough to get through on one credit. It's just the bosses that seem to be giving me hassle. I'm pretty new to the whole Gradius experience, havent given too much time to any of them. Still trying to figure out how the weapons system works!

I never thought of using one of those SF4 sticks with a ps2. I will most certainly be looking into that.

Retr0gamer

Oh PS2 sorry, You'll need to do a very difficult mod to get it working on PS2 unfortunately.

Weapon system isn't too bad once you know what to prioritise. I always go for two speed ups, missiles, lasers or options before finally going for the shield. An alternative to that is to get two speed ups then go straight for the options which are the most important before settling on lasers and missiles when you have 2 options. Shields should be prioritised last. It sounds weird but getting powered up will keep you alive longer than the shield. Also the bosses get way tougher! Just like the other treasure games when you finish it you can play through it on higher difficulty levels and the bosses change up their attack patterns. And there's also a nice bonus for when you do finish it, that lets you design your own ship with all the weapons from the older games like ripple lasers.

You really should try out the Gradius series. Gradius is still really playable despite it's age. Gradius 2 is a stone cold classic, bloody brilliant game. Gradius 3 is excellent but too hard, once you lose a life you are ****ed. You might be better off playing the much fairer SNES version. Gradius IV gets a lot of flak but it's not a bad shooter. Gradius Gaiden on the PS1 is just godly, one of the best shooters ever made.

Also worth trying are the parodius games which are best on the Saturn and Playstation. They are essentially gradius games but take the piss out of all the Konami franchises and are really well worth playing.

Retr0gamer

Incredible Crisis sounds like the most awesome game ever.

Josey Wales

Well I was playing some Super Mario Sunshine on the Wii until I discovered that you need a Gamecube memory card to save your progress.

Butch Cassidy

Just playing 007 Racing PSX game on the PS2 there today. By christ it's dreadful! It's infuriatingly crap as in the game is practically broken. You shoot misiles but your car takes on damage if you're not far enough away and you have to be close enough to the target to hit it. To progress on in some missions a special type of missile is suppsoed to appear after you destroy the last car or whatever it is but sometimes it doesn't!

In one level you've to crash through tents to retrieve stuff to progress - a laser and a special seeking misile- but you take on a hell of a lot of damage crashing into these tents and you can't shoot them down. You can use normal missiles but then you're into the taking on damage territory.

Gamespot gave this a 6.5 "Fair" review 10 years ago when it came out though I think it's line for some kind of Angry Video Game Nerd review now because it's really atrocious. I just put it in for the nostalgia cause I thought it wasn't half bad at the time.

Retr0gamer

I'm back on the Pokemon wagon big time.

Atavan-Halen

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I'm back on the Pokemon wagon big time.

F*ck yeah!

Been playing some Sonic (1,2 & Sonic + Knuckles) myself

CiDeRmAn

I must get back to Burnout and Burnout 2 on the PS2, they were some of best of the series, asking the driver to not hammer into every other car on the road, unlike the later games in the series.
Love those Crash Junctions though!

Atavan-Halen

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

I must get back to Burnout and Burnout 2 on the PS2, they were some of best of the series, asking the driver to not hammer into every other car on the road, unlike the later games in the series.
Love those Crash Junctions though!

Love the Crash mode in Burnout 2. Was great fun! Must play them myself again.

Butch Cassidy

Burnout really is a fantastic series. They seemed to mix the gameplay up a bit in each. Some were better than others. But again what a great series of games! You're just in a car driving around the gaff having a big mess. I was hooked on Gran Turismo 3 when the first Burnout came out though. I think I much prefare something fun like Burnout now to the racing sims.


Need For Speed had some great games but a few duds as well didn't it?

Butch Cassidy

Most Wanted was pretty good I thought so much so I bought it for 2quid again .

CiDeRmAn

I've been banging on about the glory of the first 3DO version of The Need For Speed, it was amazing! Still fun to play now, was playing it a couple of nights ago and it's still great.
The Saturn and PS conversions added some circuits but the colour depth dropped and they increased the game speed making everything move faster but losing the sense of weight and momentum the cars had.
Great cheat mode in the 3DO version too, allowing you to race as a fat guy on a motor scooter!

The next best one has to be Need For Speed: Road Challenge, brilliant stuff, local PD in the local language, you make them all speak english but you just find yourself listening to the police band in a german forest to cops who are american!

The first one one the PS2 was great as well, Hot Pursuit 2, very good, nice tracks too, none of it ruined by that car customisation crap that came in, perversely introduced by Angel Studios Midnight Club series and then spread throughout racing games until we were treated to sh1te like NFS:Underground, NFS:Undercover, the truely deplorable NFS Prostreet a series low, not including the runny bowel movement that was NFSII on the PS.

The best current gen version, for my money, was Most Wanted, away from the night time, neon lit nonsense and a decent open world, a good tutorial perhaps for Burnout Paradise.

The most overlooked game in the Need For Speed series was NFS3, a fantastic game sadly released at the same time as Gran Turismo, a game that completely eclipsed ever racing game made in that year. Yet NFS3 was, for me, a more fun game, a really good looking game, beautiful use of colour, used the new analog stick to excellent effect too.

NFS Porsche Challenge was good on the PS but amazing on the PC, very nice indeed, an early example of getting an original story into a game, very good indeed and one that'd be great to see on the current gen of consoles.

For me the closest modern equivalent of the heady early days of Need For Speed lie with Burnout Paradise and Test Drive Unlimited, gorgeous games that let you do as much or as little as you like, define your own driving experience, nice that the progenitor of Need For Speed was, in fact, Test Drive and Test Drive II on the PC, Amiga and Megadrive and the torch has been handed back to Test Drive Unlimited 2 that is die out this year, awesome! This time we'll have two islands to race around, the original Oahu and Ibiza, with dynamic weather and a day/night cycle to boot, can't wait!

Augmerson

Hot Pursuit on the PSX was my favourite, brill game, played it to bits. Saw it on a demo machine in Gamesworld when it was in the back of Chapters? Excellent game! Soundtrack was really good too.

valleyoftheunos

Have been playing Wind Waker all week and loving it. I realise it barely counts as retro in the first place but I'm having a hard time telling it apart from many of the games on Wii.

o1s1n

Two hours into Panzer Dragoon Saga. Just taking a break to eat some dinner and then I'm going to jump back in. This really feels like the beginning of something epic.

I my dragon.

o1s1n

This game rocks. My only complaint is it's too short. I started it last night and am an hour or so into disc 3 already. I don't want it to end

It really reminds me of Shadow of the Colossus. Just you and your steed in a vast space up against massive creatures.

The soundtrack is absolutely amazing. Especially the battle music. The way it fits in with the pace of the fights is just perfect. It really adds to the power and size of the enemies you come up against.

More people need to play this!

Retr0gamer

It is very short, each disc is about 3-4 hours long except the last disc which is a bit longer especially if you go for the biggish side quest. I actually think that the shortness of the game is a blessing. Everything you do is story related and relavent or helps build up the world of PDS. There's no filler like FF13's 20 hour tutorial or boring sidequests and fetch quests.

As for the soundtrack, it's probably one of the finest collections of music ever, not just in videogames. I read that the two composers created the instruments electronically so they would sound familiar yet alien.

Have you noticed the Panzer Dragoon Zwei references like the battleship Shelcoof making an apearance? I think it's really cool how it ties the whole story together.

Also I suggest playing through Panzer Dragoon Orta once you've beaten the game. Orta has a fantastic story but you won't understand just how brilliant it is unless you played PDS.

o1s1n

Retr0gamer wrote: »

It is very short, each disc is about 3-4 hours long except the last disc which is a bit longer especially if you go for the biggish side quest. I actually think that the shortness of the game is a blessing. Everything you do is story related and relavent or helps build up the world of PDS. There's no filler like FF13's 20 hour tutorial or boring sidequests and fetch quests.

It's crazy when you think about it really. One of the best RPGs ever made can fit entirely into the tutorial time of FF XIII. And then some. They really did lose the run of themselves with that game. Saying that, I'm going to try and finish it once I'm done with PDS. Although I can only imagine that it's not going to be very enjoyable coming off the PDS high.

Retr0gamer wrote: »

As for the soundtrack, it's probably one of the finest collections of music ever, not just in videogames. I read that the two composers created the instruments electronically so they would sound familiar yet alien.

It really does pull on the heart strings at times. Always a sign of a good soundtrack. Me being a man of steel and all with absolutely no emotions.

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Have you noticed the Panzer Dragoon Zwei references like the battleship Shelcoof making an apearance? I think it's really cool how it ties the whole story together.

Also I suggest playing through Panzer Dragoon Orta once you've beaten the game. Orta has a fantastic story but you won't understand just how brilliant it is unless you played PDS.

To my shame I haven't gone near the Panzer Dragoon series at all due to only really being new to the Saturn. I'll be picking them up after this though for sure!

Retr0gamer

Well I wouldn't pick up Panzer Dragoon for 2 reasons. Firstly it's aged really badly and isn't that good of a game. The story isn't even that big a deal in the PD universe since it's just boy finds dragon, boy destroys evil empire and tower. Secondly if you get Orta the entire Panzer dragoon game is unlockable in it.

Panzer Dragoon Zwei is another story, it's ****ing brilliant and ties in nicely with PDS. It's one of the very best on the rails shooters and has multiple paths so there's some a good bit of replayability. Even better is that it should be dirt cheap and if you have a PAL saturn, the PAL version is fully optimised and has a widescreen option (so if you have a NTSC console go for the US verison since it cuts out the top and bottom of the screen).

Orta is quite possibly along with Rez the pinnacle of the rail shooter and far and away the best game on the original xbox. It's absolutely stunning and a must have since it rounds off Sagas story in the best way possible.

Call yourself a Sega fan... tsk :P

97i9y3941

cant forget this effect in panzer saga ,and yes the game is best one on the saturn!