Retro gaming

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Alex79
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Re: Retro gaming

Post by Alex79 »

Am I missing something, because it seems like people are selling this all over the place for around £20. And the game unboxed for about £6-7.
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Flabyo
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Re: Retro gaming

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It’s extremely easy to find cheap bootlegs of it.
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Suits
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Re: Retro gaming

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Alex79uk wrote: March 24th, 2019, 8:52 am Am I missing something, because it seems like people are selling this all over the place for around £20. And the game unboxed for about £6-7.
Yes, sadly, much like anything desirable and often hard to come across, there are many copies of these flying about - good ones too.

Hence my initial trepidation, even at £40.

Not sure how good the ROM's are on them, probably quite good I'd expect but if you want originals you normally have to pay quite a bit more for them.
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Suits
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Re: Retro gaming

Post by Suits »

Castlevania: The New Generation

So, I'm playing on normal with the live count upped from 3 to 5.

I got to stage 3-3 on my first proper go and it's fun, real fun.

I think it's fun because you can trust the controls, the movement is sharp enough to be confidant with the jumping while a swinging your whip is quick, sweeping and satisfying like you'd expect from a Castlevania game

I'm playing as John Morris (great name)who is your usual character, although forgive me if he's a massive character in the lore, I don't seem to remember his name over the other mote popular ones.

Erci Lecarde is the other character and at first glance appears to be faster on foot with a lance and a some sort of special move which involves holding down to build up a change - my next play through will be with him I think.

The second world (Atlantis) has no chill and was quite happy to simply, randomly confront you with three sub-bosses mid level :lol: .

It also feels fair, things might seem a little out of hand but once you learn their movement and where to stand it becomes rather simple.

I'm taking a lot of inspiration from Ben Cartilage and his One Credit Classic series in how I approach this and chip away at it and get that little bot further each time.

RAD.
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Michiel K
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Re: Retro gaming

Post by Michiel K »

^^^^Excellent stuff. I'm currently making bits and pieces of progress on Donkey Kong Country 2. For how incredibly successful and mainstream these games were, they sure were no joke in the difficulty department! Poor kids of the 90s.

That is one lucky find for sure, Suits. Very jealous.
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Flabyo
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Re: Retro gaming

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A lot of the MD games with shorter print runs are easy to find if you don’t care that it’s actually a bootleg burned into a cheap chip and shoved in the wrong shape cartridge shell with crappy stretched sticker art.

But if all I cared about was playing it, I’d just find a ROM.

The MD was a large part of my childhood, so for me the fun of it now is having original games and original hardware (albeit the original hardware I have is very close to death, hence the reason for the analogue Sg). I’m not a collector, so missing boxes and manualas don’t bother me, but I *am* a video game developer so something about bootlegs and pirate copies rubs me up the wrong way.

For Castlevania on the MD you need to know three things to tell if it’s likely a bootleg:

1) it was called Castlevania: The New Generation for the PAL Megadrive release, and came out before the change to the blue bordered boxes.
2) it was called Castlevania: Bloodlines for the US Genesis release, but it came out *after* the change to the red bordered boxes.
3) it’s called Castlevania: Vampire Killer in Japan.

Another example of a game where I’d like to own it but probably won’t is Mega Turrican (which is the Megadrive version of Turrican 3, sort of...). One of the last games released in Europe and so not that many copies ever made it into the world. And my word the bootleggers know it.
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Alex79
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Re: Retro gaming

Post by Alex79 »

Interesting. It both fascinates and impresses me that there's such a market for bootleg old games. It's not something I'd ever even knew existed until the GBA games someone (sorry!!) mentioned the other week.

So, this New Generation on Megadrive, is it the same as the Bloodlines PSP release?

EDIT: No its not. Because that was Rondo Of Blood. :lol:
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Re: Retro gaming

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As far as I know the Megadrive game has never appeared on any other platform. Would be nice to see it in the upcoming collection.
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Suits
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Re: Retro gaming

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Flabyo wrote: March 24th, 2019, 7:49 pm Would be nice to see it in the upcoming collection.
I thought it was already was, then checked this morning saw the games.

It may well be one of the other 3 unannounced games mind - I’d expect it to be really.
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Michiel K
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Re: Retro gaming

Post by Michiel K »

Flabyo wrote: March 24th, 2019, 4:22 pm 1) it was called Castlevania: The New Generation for the PAL Megadrive release, and came out before the change to the blue bordered boxes.
2) it was called Castlevania: Bloodlines for the US Genesis release, but it came out *after* the change to the red bordered boxes.
3) it’s called Castlevania: Vampire Killer in Japan.
I was just eyeing a copy of The New Generation on eBay for 77 EUR. The pics looked legit; it even had the Konami imprint on the back of the cart. Still kind of wary.
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Flabyo
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Re: Retro gaming

Post by Flabyo »

Nearly all the bootlegs I’ve seen of it are the US boxart and cartridge sticker, but on a Japanese shape cartridge shell.

Like this: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Castlevania- ... 2839326410

At least that one says it’s a ‘reproduction’.
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Flabyo
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Re: Retro gaming

Post by Flabyo »

Here’s a bootleg of the European release:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Castlevania- ... 3692940347

Most bootleg carts will be in a shell like that, it’s the US/EU shell shape, but with a notch cut in the side so it’ll fit in a Japanese machine too. (The Japanese MD has a little slider thing that comes across to hold the cart in when you power the machine on, like the first Gameboy did)

Also common for them to use sticker art that clearly isn’t designed to fit it. (Japanese carts tended to have art that runs into the top surface, but very few western ones do, they tend to just have the game name on a solid colour background on the top.

(Oh, you do get that cart shell type on modern stuff for the machine too, like Pier Solar from Watermelon)
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Flabyo
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Re: Retro gaming

Post by Flabyo »

Well my Analogue Sg is sitting in a warehouse in Camberley, and I’ve just had to drop 40 quid on import duty in order to get it cleared for delivery tomorrow.

The reviews going up about it today seem universally positive.
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Suits
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Re: Retro gaming

Post by Suits »

Nice, I'm well jealous man.

I want one because they make stunning products and this is top top draw.

Bit of a sour note on the import tax mind......


I'm making good progress on Castlevania:THG, I've upped the difficulty to normal, which is just one continent as opposed to 3 on easy, there's no change to gameplay from what I can see and I'm also sticking with John Morris.

I can clear Stage(world) 1 now without dying which is satisfying and allows me to carry more lives and make more mistakes as I progress through the stages.

Level 3-4 has a nasty set of jumps, which wiped out a good four lives until I worked out how I was doing to wrong.

Stage three, The Leaning Tower of Pisa has some cool pixel effects going on, a-la Mode 7 on the SNES and is a very platformy stage - which I'm fine with as I don't mind the controls.

Knockback can be a cruel way to end a life though and is generally what catches you slipping.

I can to the boss on Stage 3-8 now, I think I've worked him out though, to which I nearly beat him on my last life just a moment ago - but I'll wait until tomorrow to give it another go I think.

Also, point of note - this game runs fantastically well, not a sniff of slow down or any hitches so far. It doesn't really get too busy at many points but worth mentioning I think.
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Michiel K
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Re: Retro gaming

Post by Michiel K »

Fwukk, I need that game now as well.
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Suits
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Re: Retro gaming

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Michiel K wrote: March 26th, 2019, 7:48 am Fwukk, I need that game now as well.
I love you man, but I might keep this one 😄.
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Flabyo
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Re: Retro gaming

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My Analogue Sg has arrived and it’s really rather nice.

It does come with a pretty old firmware instead (v2.1, dated January) so I need to go find an SD card to reflash it to the current version (v4.2) in order to get all the newest options (the auto region detection appears to not be there in the shipped version, for example).

I expected that though, this is a specialist toy for people who tinker with stuff anyway rather than a mass market device.
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Suits
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Re: Retro gaming

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I’m so jealous.

I watched the My Life in Gaming review last night, and I literally had on and a pad in the inbox.

The audio is notably impressive too, from what I have heard/seen very close to the Mk1, the closest I’ve heard anyway.

Have you not got an EverDrive you can borrow the card from to update the firmware ??
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Michiel K
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Re: Retro gaming

Post by Michiel K »

Suits wrote: March 26th, 2019, 8:51 am
Michiel K wrote: March 26th, 2019, 7:48 am Fwukk, I need that game now as well.
I love you man, but I might keep this one 😄.
Heyyyy, I wasn't even suggesting... :) Really want a copy of my own.
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Suits
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Re: Retro gaming

Post by Suits »

Michiel K wrote: March 26th, 2019, 5:10 pm
Suits wrote: March 26th, 2019, 8:51 am
Michiel K wrote: March 26th, 2019, 7:48 am Fwukk, I need that game now as well.
I love you man, but I might keep this one 😄.
Heyyyy, I wasn't even suggesting... :) Really want a copy of my own.
No, I know, just pulling your whiskers 😄.
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