The UKFF Retro Gaming Thread

[DavidB6937]

Pretty cool additions. 

 

 

[FLips]

I had no idea about the Japan exclusive game. Is that a track editor? Oh man these might eat a lot of my time.

[DavidB6937]

I remember reading about it a while ago but had completely forgotten about them to be honest. Always glad of new (old) F Zero to enjoy!

[RedTwoster]

Looking back at the early days of this topic, when it seems to have been a gaming book club, led to me learning that a translated version of the SNES game Clock Tower (which the UKFFers at the time played, presumably via a fan translation) is out later this month. I can’t wait to try that.

They also played Sonic Triple Trouble, and mentioning that gives me the flimsy excuse to recommend Sonic Trouble 16-bit, an excellent fan remake of that game which is one of my favourite Sonic titles ever, official or unofficial. It’s unbelievably polished, and plays brilliantly on the Steam Deck.

[FLips]

Puggsy

Horrible little character, possibly the ugliest I've seen in a platformer and not in an endearing way. Plodding physics-based gameplay with an item dragging mechanic which doesn't feel like it's made for anything other than because they wanted to show they can.
For every Psygnosis hit there were 20 duds and this one is in the latter bunch. In hindsight it's actually a wonder how the company lasted so long.

[Merzbow]

52 minutes ago, FLips said:

In hindsight it's actually a wonder how the company lasted so long.

Great Amiga game covers, the must have sold millions because of how cool the boxes looked alone.

They were pretty banging in the PS1 era though, even many of the lesser titles were fun. If you have 2 hours to kill or just want a good Irish lad on in the background then this is a pretty great video.

 

[FLips]

The Dreamcast arrived today all in working order, though sadly smells a bit smokey. Scruffers.

I burned a handful of games but immediately ran into issues with it. As a part of their anti-piracy they made their discs a propietary GD-ROM format which when dumbed down basically means they used CD-Rs that held over 1gb of Data and couldn't be copied onto a standard 700-800mb disc.
The way that got worked around was pirates would just alter and compress the files by lowering FMV quality, changing sound files, etc. So yeah it is as easy as burning roms onto a CD-R but this "CDI" format is usually an inferior version of the proper game. It's not noticeable really in smaller size games but if you take Sonic Adventure 2 for example, it lowers the sound quality from Stereo to Mono and loops shorter music samples instead of having whole songs. It's noticeable.

I have currently Marvel vs Capcom 2, Project Justice: Rival Schools 2, Sonic Adventure 2, Jet Set Radio, Street Fighter III 3rd Strike and Crazy Taxi. Only Sonic has noticeable differences so far.

Marvel vs Capcom and 3rd Strike play and look like a dream. Crazy Taxi is as fun as ever too.
The Dreamcast controller is still an oddity though with uncomfortably low triggers, a wire in the wrong end of the pad and that bizarre VMU Memory which makes a screechingly loud BEEP every time you turn the console on. You'd never have been able to sneak it on at night as a kid.

I think only maybe the Sega Saturn beats the Dreamcast in the "I guess you had to be there" reputation. Don't get me wrong it has upsides including some impressive graphics, great arcade conversions (a Sega strength overall) and a unique library but it's very easy to see why it wasn't as popular as either of the generations it was sandwiched between.

I've ordered a GDEmu which is a chip you replace the optical drive with (really easily, plug and play with only minor unscrewing and no soldering) that plays games off an SD card. This means I can get the proper full-size roms that will run 1:1 like the original discs. Should be here in a week or so.

As always with my retro console journey nothing has been as simple as you would hope.

[Jazzy G]

Dynamite Cop is worth a look, and don't forget the Powerstone games. Also Chuchu Rocket.

[Chest Rockwell]

No spam self promotion thanks. 

[Big Bully Busick]

22 minutes ago, Chest Rockwell said:

No spam self promotion thanks. 

Duly noted 

 

Apologies 

[FLips]

While I wait for my Dreamcast SD card thing to arrive I decided to finish Sonic Adventure 2 on my Xbox where I had old 360 versions of them both in my library. The Dreamcast disc copy won't get past less than halfway on both Story modes and it was winding me up that I couldn't finish them.

Can I shock you? I love Sonic Adventure 2.

It's riddled with faults, some of which they never ironed out of the 3D Sonic games, but it's a ton of fun if you can look past them. Wonky Capcom-esque dialogue including this bizarre thing where the characters voice lines cut into each other, egregious electric guitar riffs on every level except the Knuckles ones which all have a guy rapping "My name is Knuckles and we here in *insert stage name*" for every one of them.

They're campy, goofy nonsense and I even got suckered into raising and entering my Chao into races. When the Dreamcast copy works I'll be playing through it again no doubt, but in the meantime I've went back to Adventure 1 which due to the way it's structured I don't think I'll enjoy as much but it'll keep me busy.

In terms of games that do actually work on the Dreamcast though it's still been Marvel vs Capcom 2 and Crazy Taxi getting the most play. I've been grinding the arcade mode in MVC2 to unlock the fighters. I'm no good at the game though and there's some brutal input reading in later fights so I've just been picking Cable/Ryu/Cyclops and beaming my way through. When my house is unquarantined though and I can get 2 player on the go, I'll be going back to my old team of Felicia/T.Bonne/Servbot.

Crazy Taxi might be my favourite game on the Dreamcast. Pick up and play like a classic Sega Arcade game is, brilliant soundtrack that gets me pumped like the Tony Hawks games used to and a leaderboard and scoreboard that gets my wife frantically trying to top.

[Hannibal Scorch]

One of my favourite games on the Dreamcast was Virtua Tennis 2. Many a boys night in was spent playing each other on that. WWF Royal Rumble is also worth a look if you find it cheap. The last WWF/E arcade game and was a fancier PS1 Smackdown but with Royal Rumble mode. It’s short as it’s an arcade game but a fun curio if nothing else.

[DavidB6937]

I still play the older Virtua Tennis games rather than any new tennis ones. They're just so easy to get on with but can get really tough too.

But yeah the Dreamcast was like having an arcade at home. No other console has given me that buzz. Sega Rally. Crazy Taxi. House of the Dead. Just for games that were so easy to dip in and have a go at, that console has never been beaten for me.

And yet there's that other side to the classic arcade style which was the innovation stuff like the VM and online play. Definitely had some really interesting ideas you could argue were just a little too early to work as well as they could have.

[FLips]

Never going to top this. Where do I even go from here?

[RedTwoster]

18 hours ago, DavidB6937 said:

But yeah the Dreamcast was like having an arcade at home. No other console has given me that buzz. Sega Rally. Crazy Taxi. House of the Dead. Just for games that were so easy to dip in and have a go at, that console has never been beaten for me.

I never really thought of it that way, but this definitely helps me understand the enduring appeal of the Dreamcast. I don’t have nostalgia for it, I bought my Dreamcast in the mid-2010s, and I never really fell in love with it in the same way I did the GameCube. But ultimately, the GameCube caters for my tastes more than the Dreamcast did, and if you’re seeking Arcade-style gameplay, it’s hard to argue that the DC provided that in spades.

Edited October 9, 2024 by RedTwoster