The UKFF Retro Gaming Thread

[Jazzy G]

7 minutes ago, BigJag said:

My memory of Virtua Racing is playing it in a huge sit down motion cabinet. Which was an incredible experience. I can't help but think that even a quality conversion. Will be a disappointment on a handheld device.

@jazzygeofferz what does the home version offer over the arcade game?

It now runs in 1080p (720p in handheld mode) at 60FPS, the graphics have been cleaned up so the shadows etc don't look as patchy as they did in the arcade, and it has simultaneous 8-player offline or 2 player online racing. The experience isn't quite the same as that huge cabinet unless you've got the right peripherals, but it looks, sounds and plays like a dream. Definitely the best way to play Virtua Racing at home now. I remember owning it on Megadrive (a technical marvel(, 32X (more cars and tracks), and Saturn (a really weird port). The excellent Digital Foundry have a video explaining the differences between every version. I'd been playing Big Shot Racing (which is fine), and Formula Retro Racing (better, but still not quite there) to try and scratch my Virtua itch, but none of them measure up to the original.

 

[BigJag]

https://air.tl/FIG5z5Hg

If you're going to Winston, Salem. You may want to book this Air BnB.

[Merzbow]

Digitizer is back and the first episode at least is nearly all retro games, I'd expect the next few to get far weirder.

 

[BigJag]

@jazzygeofferz have you seen this retro styled racer?

 

[Jazzy G]

That looks interesting.

[Merzbow]

Replaying Ghost in the Shell on the PS1 and it's still a really solid mech shooter, they got in the English cast from the film and Production I. G. made brand new animation clips and story for it.

Gameplay isn't deep at all but being able to traverse all over surfaces like a spider makes it stand apart from others like it, unfortunately it's very very short but there's a cool training mode that ranks you based on how well you do and it's tough to get that A rank.

[FLips]

I've been hooked on F-Zero 99 the last couple of months and that ended up with a lot of play time on the Switch Virtual Console verions of F-Zero and F-Zero X.
I went into town on Saturday under the guise of taking my wife for Japanese food but it was a trick so I could go retro games shopping. I was looking for the two F-Zero games but only found the SNES one, but also came away with Killer Instinct, the Mario/Duck Hunt combo cartridge on NES and a NES Zapper. Shop owner was kind enough to throw Mario/Duck Hunt in for free so £12 saved there.

F-Zero and KI are great additions to my little SNES collection and look great on the CRT. Killer Instinct especially looks a lot nicer not stretched out over a big flat screen.

Finally found the wire for my NES so I have it hooked into the CRT finally. Duck Hunt plays like a dream but it's insultingly easy and one-note. Shoot one duck, shoot 2 ducks or shoot clay pigeons. No challenge there whatsoever but it's a fun thing to own.

Had my mate over today for some DnD stuff but afterwards we ended up on the NES for a good session. Played 20 or so levels of Gauntlet 2 which is much more fun in 2 player than it is alone, we finished Mega Man 2 and got to the last boss on Shadow Warriors: Ninja Gaiden.
The last time he was over we were playing Mario 1 on the SNES All Stars collection and we got stuck on World 8. We decided to give the original a go and noticed a couple of things (some of which I had to research). One is that the sound is slightly fast and apparently the Duck Hunt combo has that because due to the 50/60hz difference what they did with re-releases of Mario is manually sped the music up to match the NTSC pace but overshot it so now some copies (like this one) play faster than even the NTSC versions.
Another, and I don't know if it's to do with the speed because the timer was also counting down really fast, is the game seemed more responsive than the All-Stars version. Still a bit floaty and stiff, but noticeably different.
Finally, the NES version is a lot harder. You don't know how easy you have it with the save games on All Stars until you game over on World 5 and go back to 1-1. I think after multiple tries the furthest we got was 6-4.

To round off a nice day on the NES I scooped up a bargain on Ebay and got Castlevania for £30. Since Mario/Duck Hunt was the final game I needed to fully complete my childhood collection, Castlevania officially marks the first NES game I'll have bought that's a new addition to my collection. A dangerous path to be heading down, I had to talk myself down from buying Marble Madness off the same seller.

 

[FLips]

Castlevania is really good and nowhere near as difficult as I remember it being. After a couple of goes I could get most of the way through the game no problem. The Medusa heads are still the worst though!
It handles responsively, almost being like Ninja Gaiden gameplay but with the speed and movement of Ghouls N Ghosts. The forward momentum jumps pose nowhere near as much of a problem though as there isn't much pin-point platforming. The enemies have distinct patterns (for the most part) so it has a lot of replayability because the patterns are there to learn and I was getting decent hits of dopamine whenever I got 30,000 points and the extra life jingle played.
It's another 50hz game so imagine my surprise when Vampire Killer started playing 17% slower. That being said, even with the soundtrack going in slow motion it's still a cracker; "Wicked Child" on Stage 3 I'm going to be bold and argue sounds actually better slowed down. It has a very intense beat to it.

Call me a snob, but I still find something really fun in playing the original games as they were originally intended, small tv and slow sound and everything. I was worried I was on a dangerous path and my constant browsing of the "ending soonest" category on Ebay has confirmed that.

 

[westlondonmist]

I've tried Castlevania a few times and I find it really hard, to point it's not actually fun. I like a challenge but I also resent things being too hard.

 

I'm playing Donkey Kong country 3. That's really good fun. the DKC games look amazing for a Super Nes game too, and the game in general has good level design and good game play.

[Merzbow]

Castlevania 3 is where it gets even stupider with the difficulty, but it's also the coolest NES one with the multiple characters. The second game is just obtuse with a broken translation that makes it impossible without a guide.

I was just watching another MD v SNES video and it had me thinking, did anyone here make the "wrong" choice in console as a kid, did someone's parents make a gamble on the Jaguar? I was perfectly right, of course, Amiga over ST, Master System over NES and PlayStation over the Saturn etc

I did also get a Game Gear instead of the Game Boy but I think the only thing that really let that down was the zero battery life, I even had a converter to play all my Master System games.

[westlondonmist]

 

I had a Dreamcast that had some great games like Chuchu rocket, shenmue, Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio. Despite the console failing I don't regret it. I had a GameCube too, which was less memorable. Since then I've only had Nintendo consoles.

 

[FLips]

On 2/16/2024 at 10:17 AM, Merzbow said:

Castlevania 3 is where it gets even stupider with the difficulty, but it's also the coolest NES one with the multiple characters. The second game is just obtuse with a broken translation that makes it impossible without a guide.

I was just watching another MD v SNES video and it had me thinking, did anyone here make the "wrong" choice in console as a kid, did someone's parents make a gamble on the Jaguar? I was perfectly right, of course, Amiga over ST, Master System over NES and PlayStation over the Saturn etc

I did also get a Game Gear instead of the Game Boy but I think the only thing that really let that down was the zero battery life, I even had a converter to play all my Master System games.

Everyone I knew had one of the big hitters apart from one lad across the street had a Saturn instead of a Playstation. This is the lad I mentioned in the Mega Drive thread had Michael Jackson's Moonwalker. I remember playing some Saturn round there but being baffled by the console itself as I was confused why it had a cartridge slot but took CDs. Don't even remember what games he had because he was always coming round mine to play Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha on my chipped PS1.
One of my good mates had a PS1 but also due to having a few siblings there was an N64 and Dreamcast in his house so I have fond memories of playing Fighters Destiny and Ocarina of Time on the N64, and Spawn and Chu Chu Rocket on the Dreamcast there.
Another mate had a Sega Game Gear but I only ended up playing it when he dug it out the loft during the build up to Wrestlemania 20. We were big into borrowing/exchanging tapes and DVDs at that point so I have great memories sitting in his room playing on Sonic 2 on the GG and reading copies of Power Slam to see what news there was of Undertaker coming back as the deadman.

A little update from myself on recent purchases. My mate attended a retro games market in Newcastle on Saturday which annoyingly I couldn't attend as I was working during the day, but even though I was in Newcastle that night and today to see Stornoway, the market was only Saturday and not Sunday. I got him to pick me up a few bits and in exchange went to CEX in the city center to grab us both a few bits as it's a decent size.
Between what he picked up for me and what I got myself, I came away with:
Marble Madness for £5 and Little Nemo: Dream Master for £10 on the NES.
F-Zero X for £10 and WCW/NWO Revenge for £5 on the N64
Toy Story for £8 and Battletoads: Battlemaniacs for £15 on SNES

A couple of bargains I'm happy with there but a week from payday I should maybe save some money for food. The only reason I could splurge a little there was because our gig and hotel was pre-paid a couple of months back.
Marble Madness was a nightmare though and took 8 cotton buds to clean enough to work, but when Shadow Warriors started acting daft that I knew definitely worked I made the tough decision to open my NES up and give it a good cleaning.
It's absolutely rotten. It looks like the previous owner had already been inside decades ago because there was screws missing and I think they'd bodged a soldering job on the motherboard because it seemed stuck down. I could thankfully do enough to clean all the dust/hair/weird orange residue out of it, clean the motherboard connecter and dislodge and clean the 72 pin connector.
Closed it all back up, put Shadow Warriors in and it turned on instantly. Buzzing.
 

[Scratch]

My friend from a few doors down knocked on our door earlier with his youngest, who excitedly asked me if I’d like to go to Arcade Club in Leeds with them for his 9th birthday.

Just had a look on YouTube and the place looks amazing, so colour me excited for a few weeks’ time.

Has anyone here been?

[FLips]

4 minutes ago, Scratch said:

My friend from a few doors down knocked on our door earlier with his youngest, who excitedly asked me if I’d like to go to Arcade Club in Leeds with them for his 9th birthday.

Just had a look on YouTube and the place looks amazing, so colour me excited for a few weeks’ time.

Has anyone here been?

A few of us went down there for a mate's birthday earlier last year and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Pay to enter and you can stay all day, and there's a decently priced canteen at the back corner that does hot/cold food and drinks. It's nothing flash but it'll do you ok for knocking about an arcade.

Ground floor is mostly the heavier machines so you're looking at your light gun shooters and motorbikes. Mostly "modern" arcade stuff but you'll find a few of the brilliant special arcade units in the back corner for older games, so Outrun, Space Harrier, Crazy Taxi, etc. If the machine requires you to sit down or move about it's on this floor. There's also two rows of Street Fighter/Marvel games that are back to back so you can play VS on seperate cabinets.

Middle floor is all classic standard cabinet stuff. This is the main floor for proper button mashing arcade stuff. One side is mostly your really classic stuff like Gauntlet, Paperboy, Donkey Kong, etc and the other side is mostly multiplayer fighters and beat em ups like Simpsons, Turtles, Mortal Kombat, and NBA Jam. There's also a little offshoot room that has smaller light gun stuff in like Jurassic Park (which was sadly broke when we were there) and Point Blank.

Top floor is for the youngsters. There's a couple of arcade cabinets up there but it's mostly shoot em ups and bullet hell games, with Tekken and Soul Calibur I think there too. The majority of the floor is taken up by PC games so when we were there it had Dead by Daylight, Fortnite and PSVR. I think it's basically the floor older kids can go basically slouch in while the adults play the proper stuff.

I really can't stress how many games are there though. You could spend all day there and even on a busy Sunday when we went, aside from one older guy hogging Gauntlet for hours and never moving we got a go on everything without having to wait that often.

There's parking right outside but basically has no spaces. We ended up parking in the retail park just across the road, but there's also a pay and display around the corner that's a bit closer. Have fun!

 

[Scratch]

That’s awesome, thanks for that excellent summary!