FLips

4 minutes ago, air_raid said:

I bet there have been tons of "vans" over the years gone by. We used to have a pop van/man who delivered Masons lemonade, cola, limeade, cherryade, raspberryade, orangeade, ginger ale, cream soda, dandelion & burdock and probably others I've forgotten. But we only ever ordered at Christmas because we were poor before a bereavement dividend.

We used to have a video man who would rent out VHS tapes, games and DVDs. I remember hiring a few bits off him when I was a kid. I think my Mam would get films and we would get a Mega Drive game.

12 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

Remember when someone on here said their local dealers used fireworks to let everyone know when their drug delivery had been? Great days.

Ours still use the classic shoes round the telephone wires. 
I suppose drugs from the ice cream van is only the natural evolution of it as even when we were kids they did bread, milk and fags.

My wife told me they used to have a Jolly Van up in Sunderland when she was a kid, which was a plain white transit van full of sweets where they’d open the back doors and let all the kids in. 

I remember the yellow Walls van back when I was a kid. Used to play Greensleeves as it drove down my Granny’s road.

It was an expensive do, that. My Aunt (Granny’s daughter) and my two cousins lived with them but my Uncle (Granny’s Brother) used to also live next door, so the Fridays we stayed round there my other cousins also stayed next door. At one time there must have been 8 kids between two houses all playing in the garden and who’s ears all pricked up when Greensleeves started blasting down the road.

It was an ideal situation for my Uncle to be fair because he was well into his woodwork and he used to collect ice lolly sticks and make things out of them. He made an entire dolls house for my cousin once. 

I guess the goddamn cribbage game is over.

3 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

Edit: @FLips They only come out in the winter???

I was exaggerating as you rarely see them when it's sunny and only when it's pissing down, freezing or night time.

We have a couple round here. They only come out during the winter or (if it's hot), after 7pm when you're settled for the night.

We have Stewy's Ices which I think is a franchise as there's a few vans that pop up and some are Stewy branded, some Mr Whippy and a couple of others. The best one is the ones covered in Simpsons artwork you'd see spray painted onto the side of a fairground ride.

Their usual ones are more your standard fare, nothing gaudy on the artwork and plays the Match of The Day theme. A look on their Facebook and they oddly only follow a few pages, including The Isle of Man TT Race group, a Premier shop in Bolton, and Freddie Starr.

They have loads of photos of kids and families enjoying these fantastic looking desserts which surprised me because a couple of years ago when one of them came out during the warm summer weather for a change, I got us a couple of 99s with Flakes and sauce and had to get it on a Pay in 3. I'm sure they get so few requests for actual ice creams it just confused him. God knows how much ones of these big desserts costs.
Years before that I got a Zzap lolly, an old favourite, and like everything else I think they've took all the sugar out of it and it tasted beige.

I don't know at what point I stopped getting excited about hearing the ice cream van and just started being confused or suspicious but it was probably after that Zzap, or maybe when they stopped selling the ones shaped like Mario's face.

29 minutes ago, Scratch said:

Double post, but now emulators have been allowed on the App Store, I’ve been having fun with the Backbone controller my wife got me for Christmas.

It means I can play PSP Ridge Racer (aka the best game ever made) using PPSSPP on the train in 1080p and it’s made a 90 minute journey flash by.  Wonderful stuff.

Ridge Racer really is a fantastic pick up and play racer isn't it?
When the 3DS launched with fuck all on it and everyone hated it so much it made Nintendo apologise and give out free games, I was happy as you like with my copies of Ridge Racer and Nintendogs.

15 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

But she did, didn't she? Big Time Becks. And it was worse.

I couldn’t differentiate between The Man and Big Time Becks other than what she would refer to herself to during promos. 

1 minute ago, Supremo said:

Becky Lynch is an interesting case study, isn’t she? Empirical evidence of how shit everything used to be. You could become the biggest star in the whole industry by simply putting a bit of base in your voice and slightly lifting your chin during your entrance, to show confidence. Such was the tragic wasteland of the Gratitude Era that having any type of swagger about you would immediately shoot you to the top.

It’s wild that we’re only a few years removed from when this act took the entire business by storm, and yet watching her now, doing pretty much the exact same stuff, it’s borderline embarrassing. Genuinely difficult to watch. She feels like a caricature. What was once revolutionary now feels like a stale throwback. It’s not even as if everyone else has these amazingly deep, interesting characters. But they all have just enough about them, and feel rooted just enough in the real world, that The Man sticks out like a sore thumb. It’s just lame, basic attempts at peacocking. Minimal mogging. Like someone trying to recreate themselves and act cooler than they are on the first day of high school. Completely transparent.

And yet somehow, despite all this, she’s still a better choice as Champion than Liv Morgan, who’s rubbish then, now and forever.

Best bits on this show were Gunther’s amazing empty-arena promo, Jey Uso’s phenomenal entrance and Bron Breakker’s preposterous tan. They’ve clearly given Bron some 1998 Nitro tapes to study, in order to nail down the Goldberg act, but in doing that research he seems equally as inspired by Hulk Hogan’s ridiculous neon tan during that era. Bron’s well on his way to matching it. You could almost smell the sunbed looking at him.

What’s happened to Becky Lynch is exactly how the business should work. Be over one minute and then not the next. It forces you to either reinvent yourself or lose all your stock until you’re gone.

Everyone has to change it up eventually. If even the likes of Hulk Hogan, The Rock and The Undertaker had to change gimmicks to stay on top then what chance does Becky Lynch have. 
Trish evolved over time, Lita moving from the Hardyz to Edge, Mighty Molly, Right to Censor Ivory. The list goes on. 

7 minutes ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

IT'S DISAPPEARED!

 

Ah I knew I'd heard that before. Public Service Broadcasting used it on their debut album (which is fantastic by the by)

What happens to the numbers? Do they change shape as we get older or do you excrete the old ones and birth new ones each birthday?

12 minutes ago, hallicks said:

Inspired by numbers on football shirts, I thought there was a physical manifestation of a person’s age inside their back, like a white number on an old football shirt, sort of somehow wedged in there between skin and skeleton. It seemed plausible for young kids like me, but I always wondered how it worked when people got to 105 or something. I’ve never discussed this with anyone so I presume this is actually a thing as nobody’s told me otherwise. 

Hallicks what are you talking about?

Get out your McNuggets, it's the McDonald's Demo Disc 1 featuring Alfred Chicken and friends.

First on the menu is Vib Ribbon. By this point I've made my thoughts clear on Vib Ribbon with my review quoted from the PS1 thread a couple of pages back. It's inventive, creative, fun to play and looks fantastic. It deserved to be more than a PAL/JPN only release. A full worldwide NTSC inclusion could see it named more often in the Playstation Hall of Fame. The whole presentation, even in the demo, is a winner.

The demo on the Maccie's disc is an exlusive DJ Cam one, he's a French DJ apparently, maybe one of you will know more. His song isn't that good and doesn't give as fun a representation of the game as it could. Still a bunch of fun though and the demo makes sure you know that on full release you can use any CD you have on the game. This game would have eaten up all my time as a kid, but alas I had to wait until Guitar Hero 2 to get addicted to rhythm games. A definite buy.

Gran Turismo 2 comes racing up behind with a playable demo of the Arcade Mode featuring two A Class cars and one B class. The demo is very transparent in that it lets you see all the cars that will be featured in the full game and even access the Simulation mode to go in all the North/East/South/West garages and look at the cars there too.
The Arcade demo is decent. It's the best controlling racer on the console outside of maybe Ridge Racer, and some of the attention to detail is impressive even now. If you race underneath the trees to the side of the road they cast a shadow over your car. Little things like that in this era really impress me, the same way the dirt and water physics in World Rally Championship did.
I've always been more of a kart/arcade racing fan, so Crash Team Racing was my driver for this console. That being said if I was looking for something more realistic, this is way better than V-Rally 2 that I had so it would have been in for a shout for sure. The only thing lacking in the demo is the soundtrack, both the licensed stuff in the races and the lovely jazz stuff in the simulation mode.

Wip3out is next and is also a great demo for showcasing the game with a few unique tricks up it's sleeve. If you like the previous Wipeouts or F-Zero then this is for you. Smooth racing, though the weapons are uninspired. I think the game would be better without them to be honest. The Health/Boost management of F-Zero is a much better system.
Has one of the more creative demos as when you finish the first race it thanks you for playing, gives you a cheat code for the full release and unlocks a new faster vehicle for you. I don't know if the second vehicle is a joke or if I'm just bad at the game but it moved at the speed of light and after three attempts I couldn't finish the race without blowing up bouncing off the walls.
A fantastic game and it's a treat to have this and Gran Turismo on the same disc to really show the options racing fans had on the console, It's what I love about the PS1, there's something for everyone. I know people who swore by the likes of Speed Freaks and London Racer too.

Last and very much least is Alfred Chicken. I have no idea why but it's the second remake of the original Alfred Chicken, the first being on the Gameboy Colour. The original was junk and this one isn't any better. Looks and feels cheap, poor gameplay, poor sound.
It's a one-hit death and the camera angles mean you miss hazards just off screen and they catch you off guard.
It's very much a Euro-platformer. Random powerups and collectables that aren't explained, gems everywhere that mean very little and you can't progress without collecting all the balloons, which I found out when I reached what was clearly the final balloon but missed one early in the level so couldn't end it. Thankfully I think the demo is timed and it kicked me off before I had to slog back for it. Real low budget stuff I wouldn't have touched even for £3 for a chipped copy. Rubbish name too, who does it appeal to?

On the whole though a very satisfying demo disc. 3/4 are really good, with two of them what I would consider some of the best the PS1 has to offer.

Always watch Sopranos clips when they get recommended to me on Youtube and they still crack me up.

Little Carmine absolutely fucking the Tony/Phil peace offering has me chuckling away.

Just so many funny lines in one 2 minute clip.

"I know Vito's bottom was impacted if that's what you're referring to"

"WHATEVER HAPPENED THERE?"
"Alright then!"

"Let's call it a meeting of the minds... now for whatever reasons certain incidents have expired lately..."

I just want to watch it all over again.

21 minutes ago, Arch Stanton said:

I felt the exact same way when I first stumbled into St Denis by myself. It didn't feel like somewhere I belonged at all. I resisted the temptation to explore and decided to leave until the game took me back there in storyline. I played like this for pretty much every main town or settlement on the map to be honest. I know this goes against the principles of open world exploration games somewhat, but it makes the story feel more real to me that way.

I think I'm approaching it the same way. I very rarely go into town unless I need a bath or a mission sends me there.

Not sure if I've reached your favourite bit yet Keith, but these are my latest goings on in Red Dead Redemption 2. I'll be putting spoiler tags for some bits from here as it feels like there are the rumblings of major story plots starting.

Went fishing with Jack when

We've since moved camps and I much prefer the new camp to the old one. Thoroughly enjoyed the mission taking Sadie into town to go shopping and post a letter. I like how they take time to give everyone in camp a personality.

Also enjoying the Lemoyne Raiders as disposable goons that are now constantly on my travels holding up carts and trains. I've been trying to play as a good guy and don't particularly love the missions where I have to go and rob houses and stuff like that, so getting the chance to play the hero is appealing to me on a character level.

I'm also liking the plot thread they've put in where every big job we take somehow goes completely off the rails and isn't as successful as we'd hoped. It feels like every time we do, as they're always pitched to Arthur, an easy job, the absolute worst case scenario happens. Examples so far being

Feels like we have the worst luck in the world but I suppose it wouldn't be much of a game if we got rich quick.

Oh and I thoroughly enjoyed fishing out in the lake with Dutch and Hosea. They really know how to make little moments like that count in this game.

Indigenous artist Vincent Namatjira recently did a painting of Gina Reinhart, Austalia's richest woman and a billionaire heiress to a mining empire that by most accounts everyone thinks is a rancid human being including some of her own kids. She wants the painting taken down and the gallery is refusing to. It's wonderful.

That He-Man game looks incredible. Love the animation style on it. With a little more depth it could be like the Dungeons and Dragons beat em ups.

The VIP Demo Disc I won arrived earlier today so I've had a little go of it. It thankfully isn't a demo of the Pamela Anderson vehicle, but a regular demo disc. The playable games are:

• ESPN Extreme Games
• Mickey's Wild Adventure
• Mortal Kombat 3 (UK and France only)
• Total NBA '96
• Twisted Metal
• Warhawk

As you can probably tell it's from 1996 so you're looking at early games and ports from the last gen. There's no preview videos here oddly, and of all the discs so far it has the worst title music. Real ear-piercing stuff.
I've had a go of Mortal Kombat 3 which was exlcuded from the German release due to their strict laws at the time. It's always weird to go back to stuff like the old Mortal Kombats or the original GTA games and see what all the fuss was about. Even as someone who lived through it and knew how, for a kid at least, realistic those games could feel, you would think adults would find them comical.
MK3 has Kano and Sonya playable and The Streets level as the only stage. It does taunt you with the full roster including Smoke visible, but alas they're locked away. As someone who had this on the Mega Drive I can tell the graphical and sound differences but I would never say it was worth the console upgrade, especially as Mortal Kombat Trilogy was out not long after and was amazing. They miss a beat by not having the AI do a fatality by default to really demo the game.

Mickey's Wild Adventure is another port, this one of Mickey Mania from the previous gen. Again, great game but unless you owned both you won't be able to really appreciate the differences. The playable level here is one of the worst and most boring ones too, being the ghost level. It's a brilliant platformer with some stunningly creative levels and this demo shows none of that sadly.

I tried NBA 96 as well but it's not for me. I've never been a fan of basketball both on the TV or in games (though NBA Jam, Space Jam and Inside the NBA all get a pass) and this didn't change my mind. For as amazing as the PS1/N64 era was for other genres like platformers, RPGs and action/adventure, it really is a no-man's land for sports games other than racers. A clunky middle period between the pick up and play simplicity of the 16 bit era and the fluidity and speed of the PS2 onwards.

Warhawk was an early big-box game (which are just lovely) and apparently received critical acclaim and releases. It's not my kinda thing though. Maybe I'm just bad at it, but I imagine if you like stuff like Ace Combat it might be up your alley. It's like a grown up Starwing. I just flew into everything I saw like a daddy long legs though. It does look impressive for 1995 though.

Twisted Metal is up next, I assume a spinoff of the Samoa Joe tv show. We all know what Twisted Metal is and while the demo is very generous with the character select (you can pick anyone from what looks like a full roster) it's lacking in the gameplay department. One Arena Duel and it kicks you back to the demo menu so good luck with the load times trying to get multiple goes of this one. Combat racers have never been my jam the same way battle modes on kart games haven't. If you like that sort of thing though then Twisted Metal and Carmageddon are the two PS1 big names to look at.

And lastly a game that pleasantly surprised me was ESPN Extreme Games. I expected a Tony Hawk knockoff but instead got a very responsive and fun Road Rash style brawling racer. Skateboarders, BMX bandits, Lugers (not Lex, but the guys that lay on their backs on skateboards downhill) and Rollerbladers all race from A-Z with all four shoulder buttons throwing left and right high or low punches and kicks to knock the other racers on their arse.
There's big stunts and jumps to do, cash to be won and, though I didn't quite work out what it did, a count for how many hoops you've raced through. It's even got those pixelated digital graphics that Road Rash has. Looks good, plays great. Only thing missing was music which the full game has, so that's an all-rounder.

A little something for everyone on this demo. Not taking into account what I owned on previous gens and only judging them on face value, MK3, Mickey and ESPN would all be potential buys for me, though a better level choice on Mickey would turn it into a definite yes. NBA 96, Warhawk and Twisted Metal don't do anything for me but I see the value in the latter two, especially in 1995 when the console was fresh out and there wasn't a full library to compare them to.

32 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

That looks amazing @Carbomb!!

Seems my girlfriend has a gluten intolerance (RIP chippy tea) so thinking a bread maker is a wise investment. Any recommendations for a budget one?

I know it's not what you asked but I started making a really good pizza dough lately after playing around with a youtube recipe. I just looked and you can subsitute regular flour for gluten free 1:1 so if you ever want to make a decent pizza give me a shout. Another thing I just looked up is that plain yogurt is gluten free. You can make really nice flatbreads with nothing but plain yogurt, flour and baking powder, excellent for a curry or kebab or whatever.

I dont know anything about breadmakers but I do make other bread type things!

Just now, Big Bully Busick said:

Fair point

 

I'll do more of that moving forwards

 

Admittedly I droppthe last one whilst cooking 😂

Sorry not trying to backseat mod or anything, I just don’t think you’re doing them justice!

3 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

There's a list of games here with CD audio tracks, but I'm sure some are missing and it doesn't include Japanese titles.

https://en.everybodywiki.com/List_of_PlayStation_games_with_CD_audio_tracks

Some are definitely missing (Mega Man 8!) but that‘s a cool list i’ll definitely be having a try of.

@Big Bully Busick I watch your Youtube stuff during work but it might be worth talking a bit about the links you post rather than dead dropping them! They’re interesting stuff and it would be nice to get some discussion going.

15 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

As a slight aside, I am sure I once played the original GTA on my stereo once and it played the music from the game.

Have I made this up or did it happen?

No there are games that let you do that. I did the same with GTA as well. Mega Man 8 lets you too I know that for sure. Loaded as well has exclusive Zool 2 tracks if you do it.

22 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:
 

Although you’ve deffo did the bit where Arthur and Charles look like they’re about to get into a huge saloon brawl in Valentine and it jump cuts to something different!

I have done that bit! That was good fun. 
In terms of story missions I’ve just done the bit where you have a welcome home party for the Irish lad you rescue and they’re all singing a song about fannies.

Been playing more Red Dead Redemption 2 in spurts during work or on a morning before.

Fully invested in this game now and I'm quite shocked how glad I am it's not like GTA at this point. They've done such a good job with all the NPCs that I can't bring myself to kill any of them, same as all the wildlife. I'm genuinely gutted when I accidentally trample a rabbit and I don't enjoy the hunting at all because compared to other games it all seems too real.
Recently did the mission with the Bison poachers and it took all my might to spare the guy.

Enjoying the random encounters. So far highlights have been helping a guy hid up a tree from a cougar, getting into a shootout with some guys blocking a bridge (who by the way killed my fucking horse! Thankfully I had a horse revival) and some cult or something executing people by a river. When I killed them and started dumping their bodies into the river, the biggest crocodile I've ever seen just ran at me full speed and it was squeeky bum time let me tell you. I didn't even know they were in the game, you all could have warned me!

I was completely lost when I got to St Denis. It seemed so out of place for what I'd seen so far. Civilized life, trams and roads. I had no idea where I stood with it so I made my excuses and left back into the less impressive but easier to navigate frontier.

Encountered a few deaths by this point too. A couple in shootouts, one because I accidentally ran my horse into another horse trying to round up bison, and my most recent one was being kicked to death by a horse trying to loot it's saddle bag. Live and learn.

Really enjoying it now though. There's definitely improvements I would make like the amount of buttons you have to hold or press to do basic things like speak to people or access your weapons. The health/stamina bar and core systems confuse me a bit too. I'd also like to be given time to loot during missions without being shouted at please and thank you.

My demo disc bundle arrived and it's absolutely fascinating some of the stuff on there. I'll go into them in more detail individually at some point but some highlights so far from scouring the covers and contents, and sneakily playing a few during work.

• Official UK Playstation Magazine 46 (OPM from here on out) has a demo for Live Wire which is a confusing and low budget looking puzzle game where you play as some fish thing on a spherical grid and have to dash between the lines to flip the squares that make up the grid, while other colour fish things do the same. It's a mess, but the interesting part is it's hugely promoted with involvement from prolific House DJ Allister Whitehead "of Ministry of Sound and Cream fame". It's very 90s and not the only musical guest on the demo.
• OPM 46 also has Judge Jules' Music Tune which isn't a demo as much as it is a music player that features what looks to be a lot of CoLD SToRAGE music tracks remixed or promoted by Judge Jules (I'm not sure). Seems you can also save them to your memory card, I imagine to maybe play in the CD Player function? Again, very 90s.
• OPM 71 is a beast of a disc. Playable demos for Metal Gear Solid, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Twisted Metal and WWF Smackdown among others. It's the non-playable demos on this one though that get me all giddy. Promo videos for Final Fantasy IX, Alone in the Dark 4 (which is so early in development it isn't using the New Nightmare subtitle yet) and the cream of this particular crop, a promo video for the eventually cancelled console version of Black & White.
• OPM 49 is misleading. To promote Tekken 3 getting a Platinum release the inner sleeve says "Here's Tekken. Free" and shows a screenshot of Tekken 1. It is in fact just a 2 character demo of Tekken 3 though which is a crying shame. Thought I'd got a full copy of Tekken 1 there. Still, good game to have a demo of and it gets rounded off by the likes of Speed Freaks and Tony Hawks Skateboarding so can't complain too much.
• OPM 44 has a first look video for Ridge Racer Type 4 which is fascinating because  on the very next demo disc it was a playable demo. Excited to watch the trailer then play the demo and see what it was like in what I assume is a month's time between magazines.
• OPM 45 has video footage of a Tekken 3 Tournament, which someone like JLM might be able to share more knowledge on what the fighting game community was like around that time as I had no idea competitions like that existed outside of GamesMaster. The previously mentioned Ridge Racer Type 4, R-Type Delta and Gex: Deep Cover Gecko make up some of the playable games.
• OPM 47 comes in hot and heavy with playable demos for Syphon Filter, Ape Escape, Bloody Roar 2, Driver and Final Fantasy VII. A who's who of Playstation icons, even if the quality is a mixed bag.
• OPM 52 is another big slugger with exclusive video footage of Gran Turismo 2 backed up by playable demos of Spyro The Dragon 2, Tomb Raider The Last Revelation, the underrated Kingsley's Adventure, and the rightfully trashed Fighting Force 2. If that's not enough for you, how about "top video footage of The Polygonal Whirlwhind - Jimmy White's Cueball".
• OPM 54 is still promoting video footage of Gran Turismo 2 (featuring an exclusive track by Propellerheads) alongside a world exclusive playable demo of Toy Story 2. At this stage I'm beginning to get really confused by when Gran Turismo 2 came out because this disc also has downloadable cheats for Tekken 3 and Crash Bandicoot 3. Both those games seem really late in the cycle for me, I would have sworn GT2 was out at this point.
• OPM 67 has a lot going for it with playable Time Crisis Project Titan and Bugs Bunny and Taz: Timebusters, along with exclusive previews for Tomb Raider Chronicles and Spyro: Year of The Dragon. The most interesting thing (to me at least) on this disc is a playable demo of Asterix & Obelix Take on Caesar which has jogged my memory that I might have had this full game as a kid if it's a war-based strategy game. Can't wait to see if I understand it more than I did back then.
• The Magical World of Disney on Playstation is a demo disc The Sun (I know, I know) gave out to promote the release of Lilo & Stitch in the cinemas. 7 playable Disney games here, sadly long past their golden years. Junglebook Groove Party without a dance mat and Aladdin in Nasira's Revenge I don't think will hold up as well as Lion King or non-straight-to-VHS Aladdin.

There are more contents to each disc, and more discs, but those are my first glance highlights. There's plenty to be played here though across a healthy stretch of the console's life. There's a playable demo for almost every big game you can think of here, but oddly a lack of a Demo One disc means playing Demo Disc Bingo would leave everyone with some pretty empty cards. No sign of Nightmare Creatures, Kula World, Battle Arena Toshinden, Kurushi, Medievil, Overboard or Abe's Oddysee (though I did win an Abe's Oddysee and Exoddus demo disc for £2 earlier).

Sorry for the big boring list but I'm sure someone will find it as interesting as I do!

In other news I finished Loaded and did give Re-Loaded a go. While the sequel does add some welcome features like a trail of where you've been on the minimap and less key-card based levels, it does almost everything else worse. Worse soundtrack, less interesting graphics, more boring gameplay and it's pretty laggy. I think Loaded sits firmly in my Average-Good pile with it's grungy feel and non-stop blasting gameplay. Re-Loaded is pretty low down in comparison though.

Got a PS1 VIP Demo disc and the Abe Demo Disc on the way in the post currently. Need to get a copy of Demo One so I can watch the T-Rex and Manta Ray demos at some point. The OPM demos being numbered is a worst case scenario as well as now I know which ones I'm missing. It's going to be a long year.