The UKFF Retro Gaming Thread

[FLips]

23 minutes ago, Jesse said:

Got into a real slump lately so I picked up the Castlevania Anniversary Collection and started working my way through it. Beat Castlevania (NES) for the first time and that was a really fun, tough game. That last fight was brutal to get the timing down on.

Immediately moved onto the sequel and it's absolutely baffling. Had to restart twice and then give up and start following a guide. Fun now I know what I'm doing but such a radical, confusing departure from the previous.

Even following the guide it's wildly vague. I gave up and moved onto 3.

[Jesse]

I haven't found it too bad, but I'm having my hand held very hard. I really like having a project to work on, and the only Castlevania's I've ever beaten were the Lords of Shadow games, so this is fun (even when it's baffling).

Just put it to bed and it's definitely worth a skip if you're not a completionist. Baffling without a guide, unchallenging with one. Really disappointing boss fights and even the level layouts aren't particularly challenging. Started Dracula's Curse and this is already much more my speed, feels like a proper update of what CV1 was doing.

Edited November 22, 2024 by Jesse

[RedTwoster]

I’m playing my way through Super Paper Mario on Wii at the moment, and it pisses all over Thousand Year Door, in my opinion. I hope they remake this one next, with some quality of life improvements - main one being, remove the section where they make you run in a hamster wheel for six whole minutes in order to pay off a debt.

If you’ve not played the game, I’m being literal - you go in a hamster wheel and hold tight for six f’ng minutes in order to make money. Madness, to include something like that.

[Merzbow]

It's kinda funny that the ideas behind the worst classic Castlevania ended up being turned into Symphony of The Night, arguably the best of them all. Igarashi's era is just impeccable to me, although retconning Circle of the Moon was still a dick move by him.

I finished it again recently and yeah it's stupidly easy compared to earlier titles but it nails the exploration and aesthetic, one of the best looking PS1 games while being 2D.

I love future titles but being on the GBA took away from the art.

[Fog Dude]

3 hours ago, Merzbow said:

It's kinda funny that the ideas behind the worst classic Castlevania ended up being turned into Symphony of The Night, arguably the best of them all. Igarashi's era is just impeccable to me, although retconning Circle of the Moon was still a dick move by him.

I finished it again recently and yeah it's stupidly easy compared to earlier titles but it nails the exploration and aesthetic, one of the best looking PS1 games while being 2D.

Hadn't considered this before but one of those bad ideas which somehow turned out even worse than in classic CastleVania was the HUD: 

 

[Arch Stanton]

I started playing SOTN just last month, my first ever CastleVania game. The HUD confused the fuck out of me! 

[Merzbow]

Yeah you're given no idea what the magic bar is for, or even that there are magic spells. Even finding the spells is esoteric as hell, and I'm pretty sure if you do the button combo you can use them without ever needing to find them. There's so much hidden stuff there yet I kinda love it, when you find out just what the "Shield Rod" can do with certain shields... makes the game stupidly easy but fun.

I spent about 30 minutes just killing a single enemy over and over for a certain sword to drop that keeps hitting things as you run.

Edited November 23, 2024 by Merzbow

[Arch Stanton]

I'm finding it hard, but I'm coming at it from a place of being:

a) Unfamiliar with CastleVania games, and

b) Generally pretty shit at retro games.

[Merzbow]

There's a spell called "Summon Spirit" (←→↑↓ + Attack) which really helps, it's a homing projectile and while not powerful if you're out of range from enemies you can spam it. I'm not great and will sometimes cheese enemies myself.

Also, if you find the Fairy she's great and will help heal you in battle if you have potions and stuff.

[DavidB6937]

If you don't mind digital only magazines, the Black Friday deal for Retro Gamer is decent - £15 for a year (13 issues).

https://pocketmags.com/retro-gamer-magazine

 

 

[Jazzy G]

On 11/14/2024 at 5:44 PM, Big Bully Busick said:

https://a.aliexpress.com/_EJUXJRj

 

 

These things are great value for money 

I picked one up for Vicky for Christmas. She was going to buy one of those Tetris keyring things just to keep in her emergency hospital bag in case she hasn't time to actually get ready to head in. 

[Dr. Alan Grant]

On 11/22/2024 at 8:50 AM, Merzbow said:

https://a.aliexpress.com/_EyvvgNf

They're even cheaper now and you should get another three quid off with the app, this seller is one of the few Reddit recommends, too.

There's actually bootleg R36S consoles all over the site, they use a different board and OS that can be bricked if you try to update.

I’m incredibly tempted by this. I bought a Steam Deck to play retro games, but it’s a bit of a ballache having to install roms and copy files all the time. There are 2 different models of that R36S, a 64GB and a 128GB. I’m assuming the 128 has more games installed. 

[Dr. Alan Grant]

Edit: Double post gimp.

Edited November 25, 2024 by Dr. Alan Grant

[Devon Malcolm]

42 minutes ago, Dr. Alan Grant said:

I’m incredibly tempted by this. I bought a Steam Deck to play retro games, but it’s a bit of a ballache having to install roms and copy files all the time. There are 2 different models of that R36S, a 64GB and a 128GB. I’m assuming the 128 has more games installed. 

Same. Getting the retro stuff to work on a Steam Deck is an absolute pain in the arse and I haven't seen one guide out there that isn't complete fucking gibberish or written by someone who assumes you have a PhD in computing. I think it's a rib, personally. RetroArch is like that post in Mario 64 on Tiny-Huge Island that you run round thinking you'll get a star out of it.

[TibBo]

57 minutes ago, Dr. Alan Grant said:

I’m incredibly tempted by this. I bought a Steam Deck to play retro games, but it’s a bit of a ballache having to install roms and copy files all the time. There are 2 different models of that R36S, a 64GB and a 128GB. I’m assuming the 128 has more games installed. 

It probably has an extra 5000 versions on Mahjong installed knowing how these usually get supplied. 64/128gb is the size of the memory card they are supplied with, which by all accounts are awful and will need replacing within a week to avoid issues, so get the cheaper one and buy a better memory card.

here is a Google doc I found showing compatibility:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1gWxtr-GmwWop-_qGUq022RXxK2aTLpPg9Qra68TQLI8/htmlview?pli=1