The UKFF Retro Gaming Thread

[Big Bully Busick]

10 hours ago, Jazzy G said:

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. 

Good choice 

 

 

[Merzbow]

The game choices on the things are much better than the days of 999 fake NES games like back in the day, but you'll get some odd stuff still. I'd probably not go for the bigger SD card, keep one smaller and limit what you put on it so you're actually playing games and not forever scrolling.

[Ironic Indie Lad]

Lovely to see some Castlevania chat in here. 

I've mentioned in other threads that I just cannot be bothered with modern games at the moment. Star Wars Outlaws, Elden Ring DLC, Astro Bot, Stellar Blade, Space Marine 2, Dragons Dogma 2...all games I could easily see myself buying and putting a lot of time into in most other years.

Pretty much playing only retro stuff just now. With that in mind, I bought the Castlevania Dominus collection on the Switch for 17.99 in the sale.

These are probably the Castlevania games I am least familiar with as they generally havent been as accessible in recent years. I am a huge fan of Aria of Sorrow so I have started with Dawn of Sorrow and I am having a lovely time. 

 

[Jesse]

Continuing Castlevania chat, over the weekend I finished Dracula's Curse and then plowed through Super Castlevania IV and the two Gameboy games (Castlevania Adventure and Belmont's Revenge). SCIV has some lovely boss fights, though that gauntlet at the end was rough to get through. The two GB games are fine for what they are, but the gameboy wasn't up to much and they're significantly less interesting and easier than the rest in this pack.

Only Bloodlines/Next Generation and Kid Dracula to go before I either take a break from Castlevania or figure out what to buy next!

[Merzbow]

I'm actually playing yet another Castlevania myself, this time it's a classic that's often overlooked. It's essentially a remake of a remake, in 1993 Konami remade the NES original for a Japanese home computer and then a few years later that version was ported to the PSX with an included brand new mode that has some of the best music the series has ever heard.

[Ironic Indie Lad]

3 hours ago, Merzbow said:

I'm actually playing yet another Castlevania myself, this time it's a classic that's often overlooked. It's essentially a remake of a remake, in 1993 Konami remade the NES original for a Japanese home computer and then a few years later that version was ported to the PSX with an included brand new mode that has some of the best music the series has ever heard.

I got halfway through your post and started replying to mention the music. Read on and you've got it covered already. 

Edited November 25, 2024 by Ironic Indie Lad

[Ironic Indie Lad]

3 hours ago, Jesse said:

Continuing Castlevania chat, over the weekend I finished Dracula's Curse and then plowed through Super Castlevania IV and the two Gameboy games (Castlevania Adventure and Belmont's Revenge). SCIV has some lovely boss fights, though that gauntlet at the end was rough to get through. The two GB games are fine for what they are, but the gameboy wasn't up to much and they're significantly less interesting and easier than the rest in this pack.

Only Bloodlines/Next Generation and Kid Dracula to go before I either take a break from Castlevania or figure out what to buy next!

Bloodlines is a great game and feels way more like the 8 bit ones than IV does. 

I would really recommend the Castlevania advance collection if you have any interest in the "metroidvania" style of games. It comes with a port of Dracula X which, while miles off of Rondo of Blood, is a pretty decent old school Castlevania in its own right. 

[FLips]

Big fan of most of the Castlevanias mentioned so far. I, III, Super IV, and SoTN are all classics. I enjoyed Chronicles even if I stood no chance at completing it, the music is fantastic. I'm less familiar with the GBA/DS ones but I did play some of them back when they came out and enjoyed them.

I have the Mirror of Fates and other various 3D ones on my Xbox but didn't think much of what I played of those.

[Jesse]

Beat Kid Dracula tonight meaning I've put the classic collection to bed. Charming to look at, but probably the least fun to play of the lot. Bloodlines was definitely my favourite of the pack, could play that again easily.

Torn now between continuing my Castlevania journey or taking a break to relive the original Halo trilogy since I'm getting the Master Chief bug again. Kind of wild to me that Symphony of the Night doesn't have an official PC release, so I'm going to have to look into emulation if I want to have a go of that one.

[Dr. Alan Grant]

Just received my R36S retro console. If I had kids, I’d probably sell them so I could have more time to play this. 20,000 games, so it says. 
 

Booted up Castle Of Illusion and it looks and sounds great. Fantastic piece of kit. Many thanks to @Big Bully Busick and @Merzbow for recommending them. 

[Retro Red]

1 hour ago, Dr. Alan Grant said:

Just received my R36S retro console. If I had kids, I’d probably sell them so I could have more time to play this. 20,000 games, so it says. 
 

Booted up Castle Of Illusion and it looks and sounds great. Fantastic piece of kit. Many thanks to @Big Bully Busick and @Merzbow for recommending them. 

I would echo the thanks, mine arrived on Friday. Tip for anyone getting one you can favourite games as you find/play them which makes it easier to get back to them later. It’s a fantastic little unit, few games I’ve found that haven’t worked but only a handful - I might give updating/adding games a shot at some point.

[Merzbow]

Just done a complete refresh of my RetroPie, I was on such an old version that I couldn't actually update without redoing a whole new image on the SD card.. luckily my roms were all on a USB stick anyway. The main reason for doing it was that newer PS1 emulators allow for CHD files to be loaded so now there's zero messing with multiple BIN & CUE files plus they're much smaller while being lossless.

They work on the above handheld too, there should be an archive on the internet with them all from each region.

[Dr. Alan Grant]

33 minutes ago, Retro Red said:

I would echo the thanks, mine arrived on Friday. Tip for anyone getting one you can favourite games as you find/play them which makes it easier to get back to them later. It’s a fantastic little unit, few games I’ve found that haven’t worked but only a handful - I might give updating/adding games a shot at some point.

I had a bunch of 2D beat-em-ups in my favourites section already, which made me think that the console had a previous owner. Was your favourites folder the same or empty?

I’d love to know how to (easily) add games to it. Especially with later gen consoles like N64 and Dreamcast where there are a lot of omissions. I want to play Jet Set Radio.

[Merzbow]

7 minutes ago, Dr. Alan Grant said:

I had a bunch of 2D beat-em-ups in my favourites section already, which made me think that the console had a previous owner. Was your favourites folder the same or empty?

I’d love to know how to (easily) add games to it. Especially with later gen consoles like N64 and Dreamcast where there are a lot of omissions. I want to play Jet Set Radio.

In theory you should just be able to put the SD card into your PC and drop roms into the folders.

This looks like a good basic tutorial. Just ignore the bit about joining his Telegram to get roms, search Roms Megathread instead, it's the first link in google.

 

Edited December 1, 2024 by Merzbow

[Dr. Alan Grant]

I shall have to try that with my ancient, shitty, barely working, doesn’t charge anymore, janky laptop.