BigJag

On 4/24/2023 at 10:31 PM, Merzbow said:

There's a retro game market in Birmingham at the Custard Factory next month on the 21st, I've been before when they held it in the college near by and outside of the million modded Gameboys and merch tat there's some really cool finds, especially weirder import stuff. I mostly just look for bootleg multicarts because they're always thrown in the bargain bins and I think they're weirdly cool.

www.biminghamgamingmarket.com

That's the web link for the event on the 21st. Looking forward to it. I'll be hoping to speak to some people about MAME and Light gun setups.

7 hours ago, scouseman said:

i wonder how much the disabled wheelchair areas will cost? Never been to a wrestling event and even if I am on my own I would love to go to this to support AEW.

I was at the Leicester Everton game on Monday. We briefly stepped onto the wheel chair area in error. The view from that area was pretty amazing. I can only imagine that Wembley will have superior wheelchair areas with assistance should you require it. 

Got a ring cart for Andre. Need a Bobby Heenan to go with him.

The ring cart is a 3d printed item from wrecollect.

https://wrecollect.com/product/hasbro-scale-ring-entrance-cart/

It's nice and solid. Rolls effortlessly too.

I've done a bit of reading on it.There doesn't seem to be an explanation for the usage of Hybrid in the name. Possibly something that has been lost in translation. There's a lot of die cast used in the construction of the figure. They've also engineered in an impressive amount of articulation. Which had the knock on effect of compromising the aesthetics of the tractor mode. Hence the slightly bulky appearance. I still have to open mine.

I was fortunate enough to pick this up the other day. I haven't had time to open it up yet. Not sure if I should use it as a desk bot or display it with MP 10.

I'm not sure why it's called "Hybrid Style". 

They need an education.

15 hours ago, FelatioLips said:

Lotus III: The Ultimate Challenge

This one has always been on my radar due to having heard the soundtrack a million times when I had it running on the display Amiga back at my old work, but I never got round to playing it. What a mistake that was!

Everything about this game is fantastic. It looks beautiful, with some truly impressive stages that see you ducking in and out of tunnels in a starry nighttime cityscape, or carefully drifting around the rocky terrain of a cloudy cliffside. Each stage, even on Easy mode, have unique and game-altering hazards and effects. Stage 1 sees leafy shrubs blown across the road as the wind pushes your car sideways, whereas the final stage has road construction signs that divert you left and right into narrow paths to avoid smashing into them. It also has Outrun-style terrains that depending on their texture have your car control differently.
All this was just on the first 7 stages in the Easy Cup. The showcase demo for later stages show some gorgeous fog and rain weather effects too.

The soundtrack is up there as one of the best on the machine with some proper pumping, high octane radio tracks to play as you blast through the stages at top speeds. You may also recognise one of them from Zool, also by Gremlin. I guess the song was so good they had to have it in both!
While I would argue all (I think) 7 available tracks are top tier, it would have been nice to also have them alongside sound effects, which is an option you can pick instead of music but not as well as. If it could do both it would be the complete package.

Gameplay is near perfect for this type of arcade style racer. You get three cars to choose from, a red one, a yellow one and a green one. I don't know if there's a cheat or secret car or maybe the in-game graphics just don't match the menu colours, but I ended up racing as a white car?
Regardless, each car has it's own stats (as shown in the GIF above) so it adds decent variety if you want to change it up a bit.
The racing handles a lot like similar games, notably Outrun and Super Hang-On, with manual and automatic transmissions available. One thing this game has over both of them, and I say this as a huge fan of both, is because this wasn't made for Arcades it loses the cheap coin-op tricks the former two use. The time limit is replaced with a fuel meter that instead of being topped up at Checkpoints or running out if you don't play perfectly, can be refuelled by parking after each checkpoint and then racing back off once you're happy with the amount filled up.
The crashing too is brought to a console standard so instead of hitting rocks or walls blasting you into a wrecked heap as your time chugs down, the hazards lower your speed but only knock you around a bit meaning you might fall behind a bit but you can get right back into it.
Little quality of life improvements like this mean you can do a full cup run and never once feel like the game is there to have you topping up credits or replaying the same races over and over until you learn the track inside out. On my blind first play of Easy Cup, I finished 1st in 6/7 races and 3rd in the finale.

The only gripe I have about the gameplay is the AI seems unaffected by stage hazards, which is fine for the most part, but in Stage 7 with all the construction areas, the AI racers just drove and clipped right through them so it was only me having to weave in and out of diversions. They also seemed to be unaffected by crashes as if I hit them I'd slow down but they wouldn't, but they also never once bumped into the back of me.

I haven't personally had a go of them but there is also a track creator called RECS (Racing Environment Construction Set) and 2 Player Split Screen. I imagine if I had this as a kid, me and my Brother would have played both modes to death. I got V-Rally 2 on PS1 purely based on the fact there was a track creator they showed off on an episode of Big Breakfast, so this would have been right up my street.

The combination of tight controls, stunning and varied stages and one of the Amiga's very best soundtracks has this ranked right up there now as one of my favourites on the system. I'll definitely be going back to try the harder cups and as far as arcade racing simulators from this time, you won't get much better. I hear Lotus 1 and 2 are decent too so will give them a go at some point!

 

 

I fondly remember playing Lotus 1 and 2 on the Amiga. Somehow I seem to have completely missed Lotus 3. Although I do vaguely remember the RECS track creator. I may have read about that in a magazine. Lotus 3 looks to be a greatest hits compilation of the first two games. They've used the presentation from Lotus 1 and the in game seems to be more Lotus 2. Which is pretty much exactly how I would have done it. Lotus 1 had gorgeous character models, loading screens, and menus. Whereas Lotus 2 had the more developed game engine with a more arcade looking graphics style. Fun times.

I don't doubt that Wembley know what they're doing. I'm questioning whether AEW have the capacity to hold up their end. Who within AEW is the bridge between whatever production contractors that will be employed. They seem to have quality talent in TV production. Will they be able to adapt  to this massive space? 

How many outdoor events have AEW run? How many AEW wrestlers have experience of performing in this type of venue and environment? 

AEW are shifting from arena shows to a massive stadium. Seemingly on a whim. A venue that is brand new to them. In a different country. With a team of people that may consist of some people that have WWE experience. Only WWE have put on shows at such venues in recent times. Those have been huge affairs. Managed by WWEs legendary production crew. Have AEW got a workable plan for this event? They have got to organise promotion, production, logistics, talent. As well as put on a presentable wrestling show. Can they do all those things coherently and effectively?

New trailer for ROTB. Looking forward to this.

Yeah. They did run that tennis venue in NY too. I'm just fascinated by the scale they seem to have gone for. Is anyone on the AEW inside doing some sort of blog?

40 minutes ago, Infinity Land said:

Isn't Live Nation the co-promoter?

You're right. They are. I'm guessing Live nation will provide the the local workforce and liasons. Has a managment structure for AEW been established? I'm perplexed as to how they inted to run such a large venue with seemingly very little experience. It's a wrestling show. It's going to be different to the likes of other sports events and entrtainment shows. The AEW version of 24/7 should be an ineresting watch.

Do AEW have a management structure to run an event like this? Who's gong to be handling the logistics of dressing the stadium? Is that something that Wembley would handle? Even then. AEW would need to provide them with graphics and similar material. Will Tony be drafting people in from the other businesses that the Khans own?

Thanks for the heads up on that. Which area of the Custard Factory will it be at?

They're from a coffee shop in Leicester. Coffee Obsessive. 

10 hours ago, BigJag said:

Haven't tried them yet. The packaging suggests that they'll be of high quality.

Hmmm. They were nice. Quite a subtle flavour. The purple bag had an almost smoky bacon flavour about them my niece certainly enjoyed them. The other bag was a bit flowery. Nothing offensive.

Haven't tried them yet. The packaging suggests that they'll be of high quality.

Does Retromania have a CAW system? It's crying out for that type of element. I followed it's early development. Unfortunately the luke warm response on its release put me off from picking it up. The developers seem to have decided upon a strategy that didn't have the overall appeal that I saw in the original concept. @TibBo has done a good job of explaining the development process. 

Cheers. What's the general consensus on the game itself?

Musk is wearing an Optimus Prime shirt on the BBC. 

Does anyone know where the shirt is available?

8 hours ago, TibBo said:

A few years ago I got involved in a bit of a homebrew scene that were going to update Wrestlefest to include new characters etc (which eventually evolved into Retromania Wrestling).
I worked on a few different characters and just found this on an old memory stick.  Thought you guys might like it

Brilliant! I still need to play Retromania Wrestling. Is it still being supported by the developer?

I thought this was quite cool. At the Forest of Dean bike shop.

On 4/8/2023 at 10:25 PM, Wretch said:

Put them under the rim of your plate or lean them against your mug of tea while you make a start on your brekkie. Be grand after two or three minutes.

I put the butter packets between my two slices of toast. Making a butter packet toasted sandwich. That usually gets them to a suitable temperature quite quickly. Then you can peel back the foil. Exposing the warm butter. No knife required. Use the handy foil packet. Apply and spread the butter on the stil warm toast. Dispose of the clean foil. Eat your buttered toast.

I think the game gave the player a very short time to make a selection before it auto selected for you.

@jazzygeofferz

I'm pretty sure you could select both your characters on WWF Superstars. It is a tag team game. Where you'd select your team from the available characters and progress through a tournament until you met the Megabucks, Andre and Dibiase in the tournament final. Multiplayer player options were great fun. You and a friend could team up against upto two other friends and have a four player tag team match. Or 2 Vs 1. The victorious team would then progress in the tournament. The game is available on MAME and is definitely worth checking out.

WWF WrestleMania by Ocean tried to copy the look of WWF Superstars. I don't think they had the tag team element in WWF WrestleMania. 

Home versions were always a bit hit and miss in those days. I remember playing Super WrestleMania on the SNES. My favourite has always been WWF Superstars in the Arcade. Produced by Technos, the same people that made Double Dragon.

Ocean made WWF WrestleMania for the 16bit machines. Which tried very hard to be WWF Superstars. Unfortunately it was a bit glitchy and I ended up taking it back to WH Smith. Can't remember what I exchanged it for. Possibly Super Skidmarks.