So, what you playing at the mo? Retro Edition

Prices back then were insane. My first Amiga 500 cost me (well, my old man) 520 punts. In 1989 or whenever. About €1000 in todays cash.

What was he thinking?!

I still have it though and it still works.

I'd one friend with an A600 and another even more well off friend with an A1200.

Both had divorced parents and both computers were purchased for them by their dads.

I had to make do with non divorced parents and a Sega Megadrive. The inhumanity! 😃

Hah that's gas! Is that still the same Megadrive you're using these days? Mad to think it spent a portion of it's life sitting on display in a store with folks playing it in the centre of town.

We were so skint in the early 90s my parents bought my Megadrive on higher purchase. Was an absolutely massive deal at the time.

To be fair, I still use it 30 years later so it was quite the investment!

Finished DQ7 on the 3DS. They ironed out some of the more archaic elements from the original, but there's still enough late-90s obscure JRPG horseshit in there for anyone who's into that sort of thing. Really satisfying loop of slowly restoring the world then re-exploring it and the game is actually the ideal length for all the stick it gets, especially since it's so episodic you can dip in and out at ease.

Moved onto the new Pokemon game and, while it's everything you'd ever want from a Pokemon game in 2023, it is still so janky 3 months after launch I can understand a bit of bitterness directed towards it.

The ruthless timing in HarmonKnight (3DS) has me about frisbee my 3DS across my flat.

So great game.

I'm playing Marble Madness on and off on my NES. It's fun and irritating.

Still tipping away at Chrono Trigger. Another side quest where fire resist seems to be required so I had to Google where to get some more of that. First time I've had to look anything up!

Also playing Metroid Prime 2. Not as nice as the first one structurally, but great atmosphere and very playable.

Yeah, you 100% don't need to be on the levels folks are suggesting. They're all talking about being on the same level as the bosses, the game would be far too easy.

I'd basically gotten myself into a bit of a hole as I hadn't been watching the weather forecast and the fog was coming the next day. I hadn't really gone near a dungeon in ages and then suddenly had to do the whole thing start to finish in one go, at a very low level.

My original plan was to try to skip as many battles as I could in the dungeon to save on MP and then hit the boss. This actually worked and I beat Shadow Rise - of course I was unaware at the time that there was a second, more powerful boss to come! Wiped out in one move.

Some game though! Have you played Persona 5? I've heard it's really great.

"everyone knows that you should only play Thief games on the highest difficulty level" (can't partial quote with this new awesome boards:)

Well this is disappointing to know, just picked up the Thief bundle on Steam and this goes against my 'take it easy" policy where I now only play in Easy mode or Normal at a push cus I've no longer got the time/patience/skills/eye sight for anything else :(

Playing a lot of arcade games at the moment, mainly Rastan Saga and The Last Blade the last few nights.

Got a lovely 1cc with Moriya in The Last Blade. Absolutely blitzed through the game, really gratifying. I recently stuck new cam locks on the control panel so you can really bash the hell out of the sticks without the panel flipping forward 😁

On the other hand, I absolutely suck at Rastan Saga. Played it a lot in a pub in Wicklow when I was a kid but I must have credit fed it as I can't seem to get anywhere on 1cc at the moment! It feels like it should be easy so I keep going back to it for another go and then failing miserably.

I imagine most modern/actively developed snes emulators are past things like this now, outside of obscure tech demos etc. Bsnes was probably the first you could essentially call 'perfect'.

Re the game itself, agreed, it's a very fun little game.

I only played Battletoads for the first time there last week. Was looking for some NES games to play and realised I'd never actually given it a go.

It's actually really quite visually impressive. The mech boss at the end of level 1 where it changes to the bosses POV and you're trying to dodge his crosshair / throw projectiles back towards the screen is very cool and a bit 4th wall breaking - interesting to see in an 8 bit game.

I then stumbled across Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti. Thought it was just a Famicom Splatterhouse port but it's actually a Splatterhouse parody game - another surprisingly well put together one that really pushes what the Famicom can do.

As a side point, I am still seriously impressed with the Retrotink 5X. Famicom games look absolutely gorgeous running through it.

While messing about with the Wii U last month, I noticed my one and only play through of Earthbound, was in oct/nov 2013. Hard to believe that was a decade ago, I can still remember so much about it, the music too. I think a 10 year anniversary playthrough of it this winter is on the cards.

As good as Mother 3 ended up being, still morbidly curious how Earthbound 64 would’ve turned out given what Itoi’s said about its tone.

I’m playing Pokemon Yellow on the 3DS. These Gen 1 Pokemon games are broken beyond belief. It’s got that ‘about to collapse under its own ambition’ vibe.

I did, I finished that a good few years back. Wonderful game alright.