The UKFF Retro Gaming Thread

[FLips]

Operation Starfi5h (SNES)

The SNES port of James Pond 3: Operation Starfi5h which inexplicably drops the James Pond name from the title.
I grew up playing the Mega Drive version, in fact it remains one of my favourite games on the console and it's vastly underrated compared to it's Christmas-themed older brother, which like DOOM I think has been ported to fridges and calculators by this point.

Knowing the MD version as I do, it's shocking how rough this port is. It seems US GOLD took the reins over Electronic Arts on this one, and they drop a load of features that I can't think why they would.

• The world map is missing details, for example the goopy pink yogurt rivers are just gone now, but I don't mean fully removed, I mean the shape is all there but they removed the colour so it's empty and black.
• The levels themselves, some of them are missing wholesale while others remove minor features like moving platforms, or major features like lighting effects in the caves.
• The first boss (The Lumpsville Lurker) seems to be completely missing, and you fight the awful chicken one twice instead and in different areas of the game
• The graphics are worse
• The sound is worse
• There's awful slowdown in some levels
• Whole sections of levels and puzzles are missing, with the usual secrets and items just taken out of the game
• There's no Bad/Good Ending so finding the secrets that are left don't matter
• Textures are missing from fonts, items and characters

It's shocking to be honest in comparison to the MD version. If you're playing it without that knowledge, it's still enjoyable for what it is though. One thing it I would give it praise for is it feels better to control on the SNES than the MD. If you change it to controller type 2 you get controls very similar to Donkey Kong Country/Mario so running and jumping is a lot more fluid than it is on the ABC pad of the MD.

Another thing it does have, oddly, is one of the music tracks from the Amiga version that wasn't in the MD version.

I think on return I'd sooner go back to the MD version for another playthrough but if you only have a SNES or want to play a different version of the game then go ahead, it's still really good, just not in comparison.

Edited September 17, 2025 by FLips

[Scratch]

3 characters missing? Boo!

But, they can take my money nonetheless.

 

[Merzbow]

Another banger video from Kim, about one of the most infamous feuds in the UK scene.

 

[johnnyboy]

Oh to be rushing home from the newsagents with an Amiga Power under my arm once more.

[DazzM]

Has anyone ever bought one of those arcade dealies that are frequently advertised on FB? 

I would love to have one of those pieces of kit for my retro emulation needs, though I can't help but think it'd be easy to do yourself? Aren't they essentially just rasperry Pis, with stuff uploaded to it for you? 

Sorry if this has been covered earlier, but I'll bow to your superior knowledge.

[RedTwoster]

On 9/27/2025 at 8:10 PM, Merzbow said:

Another banger video from Kim, about one of the most infamous feuds in the UK scene.

A great video, that. I was an Amiga owner, but one that had no idea about this feud (likely because I was a very young child at the time). Cheers for posting this!

On 9/17/2025 at 7:09 AM, FLips said:

The SNES port of James Pond 3: Operation Starfi5h which inexplicably drops the James Pond name from the title.
I grew up playing the Mega Drive version, in fact it remains one of my favourite games on the console and it's vastly underrated compared to it's Christmas-themed older brother, which like DOOM I think has been ported to fridges and calculators by this point.

I’ll need to give it another chance, based on your praise here. I’ve always enjoyed Robocod but I never really gelled with this game. It might well be because I wanted more Robocod, and this obviously isn’t that.

[theringmaster]

After going down a youtube rabbit hole the other days of 00's games I decided to give vice city a play again this week! Had to get a connecter from amazon but it worked fine (and was only a tenner). Spent about 3 hours playing last night, graphics aside it still holds up incredibly well. The characters are all so well written (and funny) and the soundtrack is ridiculously banging. I also gave Smackdown vs Raw 06 a spin and that has aged terribly. I got some other PS2 games out in the garage somewhere and all being well i'm heading in there this weekend to find some of the hidden gems, State of Emergency i'm particularly keen to find again.

[TibBo]

Vice City is amazing.  I managed to get it working on the R36s that someone recommended on here last year.  I wish GTA 6 was jumping to a more retro time-period rather than modern day.

[BigJag]

On 9/20/2025 at 8:29 PM, Scratch said:

3 characters missing? Boo!

But, they can take my money nonetheless.

 

I didn't know about this. Very tempting.

Retromania wrestling have just released some new DLC. Demolition Ax and Smash are the main addition to the game. I'll probably end up getting the game. It looks to have developed into quite a fun game. The play mechanics seem to be a hybrid of WWF Superstars, WWF Wrestlefest, with a bit of Fire Pro. 

[The King Of Swing]

Started a fresh game of the original PS2 version of Persona 4.

The opening couple of hours are still a pretty brutal slog but at least there is no Marie, stinking out the joint.

[Arch Stanton]

On 10/4/2025 at 10:26 AM, BigJag said:

I didn't know about this. Very tempting.

Retromania wrestling have just released some new DLC. Demolition Ax and Smash are the main addition to the game. I'll probably end up getting the game. It looks to have developed into quite a fun game. The play mechanics seem to be a hybrid of WWF Superstars, WWF Wrestlefest, with a bit of Fire Pro. 

It's a pretty fun game for a quick bash, though the mish-mash roster makes it quite hard to lose yourself in it, as you might otherwise do if it was all from the same era. The new names added are all big legends, do you have to pay for the DLC or is it free if you've bought the game previously?

Edited October 9, 2025 by Arch Stanton

[BigJag]

This new DLC will cost an additional $/£ 9.99.

[Merzbow]

This brand new Wrestlefest arcade cabinet looks cool, right? Nuh uh, they've gutted the games and took out a bunch of wrestlers including Sergeant Slaughter and The Legion of Doom! The rom hack botch job has brought in a bunch of bugs, too.

It's also £700 which seems to be way above the 1UP Arcade machines

[BigJag]

Big Fun have also removed Macho and Andre from WWF Superstars. Macho was one of the best characters in WWF Superstars and Andre is one half of the boss tag team. These massive omissions will have greatly altered the gaming experience. Will have to stick with the MAME version.

 

 

 

[Abe_Knuckleball_Schwartz]

Tail ‘Gator for the Gameboy, I really enjoyed this, believe it came out fairly early in the Gameboy’s life

You play a gator (what else?) and have to open chests to find a key to allow you to progress to the next screen all whilst dodging enemies or you can use your tail to attack them

A lot of the chests are on different levels or floating clouds, which if you stay on them for too long you sink through them and have to navigate back to the chest again

A decent little puzzle platformer, can get a little repetitive towards the end but the boss battles are fun