Retro gaming

This is where you can deliberate anything relating to videogames - past, present and future
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Suits
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Re: Retro gaming

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Magical_Isopod wrote: April 18th, 2019, 2:43 pm So I know empirically that the 1-Up Card is just the better option.
Yeah. Cool.
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Simonsloth
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Re: Retro gaming

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All this passionate talk of cleaning products has made me feel like I’m missing out. I’ve got a pile of carts which don’t work which I’m going to try and resurrect. I may even take them apart. They are worth nothing unless you’re into Barbie, Dora et al.
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Suits
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Re: Retro gaming

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Simonsloth wrote: April 18th, 2019, 4:38 pm They are worth nothing unless you’re into Barbie, Dora et al.
Talk to me Tyrone, talk to me......
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Simonsloth
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Re: Retro gaming

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Suits wrote: April 18th, 2019, 4:46 pm
Simonsloth wrote: April 18th, 2019, 4:38 pm They are worth nothing unless you’re into Barbie, Dora et al.
Talk to me Tyrone, talk to me......

Haha I was going to say:

They are worth nothing unless you’re into Barbie, Dora et al........or you’re Nick :D

Sadly they aren’t on the GameCube otherwise I’d be throwing them north of the river.
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Magical_Isopod
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Re: Retro gaming

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Simonsloth wrote: April 18th, 2019, 4:38 pm All this passionate talk of cleaning products has made me feel like I’m missing out. I’ve got a pile of carts which don’t work which I’m going to try and resurrect. I may even take them apart. They are worth nothing unless you’re into Barbie, Dora et al.
You could do a few things:
- fix them as practice for restoring good games
- open them just to check for Easter eggs
- bin them (in the ewaste bin)
- send them to obsessive collectors
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Flabyo
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Re: Retro gaming

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The EU cart for streets of rage 2 only locks out on a a us ntsc machine, it’ll run if you set it to Japan instead (and boot as Bare Knuckle 2 instead).
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Suits
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Re: Retro gaming

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Flabyo wrote: April 21st, 2019, 4:13 pm The EU cart for streets of rage 2 only locks out on a a us ntsc machine, it’ll run if you set it to Japan instead (and boot as Bare Knuckle 2 instead).
Every day's a school day here on C and R.

Never thought to try it, for obvious reasons, but that's a cool little trick.

Got some ROM colour palette colour pixels at the bottom but a bit of jiggery pokery should sort that.

Shame it doesn't t work for 3 - just tried, to be sure :lol: .

Good shout Glen 8-) .

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Re: Retro gaming

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I only know that cause if you put it into the analogue Sg when it’s set to ‘default to ntsc us, but also automatic region lock detection’ it goes for Japanese on that one :)
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Alex79
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Re: Retro gaming

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I've been playing Castlevania Aria Of Sorrow this morning. It seems pretty good, although it's kind of basic it's got some nice ideas with using enemy skills for yourself.
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Simonsloth
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Re: Retro gaming

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Simonsloth wrote: April 16th, 2019, 10:56 pm https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/23 ... hanks-copy

Retro streaming service.

It seems like this has been “coming” for a long time but hasn’t materialised yet. They’ve now got a kickstarter with a vague launch window. Thought I’d spread the word and this seemed like the best thread to do that.
I don’t want to keep banging on about this but the Kickstarter is at 99%, the retro asylum podcast keep mentioning it and I just found a list of the games on the service. It also looks pretty incredible. Just in case any of you wanted to help nudge it over the line.

https://www.antstream.com/gameslist
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Re: Retro gaming

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Alex79uk wrote: April 22nd, 2019, 12:38 pm I've been playing Castlevania Aria Of Sorrow this morning. It seems pretty good, although it's kind of basic it's got some nice ideas with using enemy skills for yourself.
This was the one Gameboy Advance Castlevania I missed and I was disappointed the anniversary set they're doing didn't include this one.
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Suits
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Re: Retro gaming

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I had a couple of drinks the other weekend and had 10 minutes to kill while I was waiting on something – so I dipped into eBay and won some Mega Drive games for cheap with some cheeky last second bids.


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Outrun Turbo
Being the cheapest of the three Outrun Mega Drive games, I can see why. I thought this sucked.

I was quietly optimistic about it at least being fun to a certain degree but there are a number of issues I have with this game.

Firstly, the graphics are bad. The colours are nice and vibrant with some good sunsets and weather effects but the sprites are just badly drawn, with what I can only describe as what appear to be rushed with very little care or attention paid to porting them to the console requirements.

The vehicle gauges are literally incomprehensible and the sprite that’s used to show what gear you are in being totally indistinguishable. Often resulting a few quick gearchanges to work out what gear you are in after a Police car shunt or 959 run in.

Not even a nicely warmed up Sony PVM could do anything with this. Nasty and cheap.


Double Clutch
Now, I enjoyed this one.

Akin, to Micro Machines, Super Off Road, or even Super Pro-Am R.C. on the GameBoy, this is a top down racer – despite what it’s Le Mans esc cover art with suggest.

It was cool. It was fast, predictable (in terms of car control) and allowed you to earn cash from races and collect powerups during the race that you could use to upgrade your car between races.

There were a number of mildly interesting tracks, that once you knew, you could find some satisfying lines that would propel you ahead of your rivals. There’s also differing weather visuals and hazards like oil and puddles scattered around the circuits.

The only downside maybe was that it was militant in terms of Game Over. It wasn’t hard as such, just very unforgiving where if you finish outside of the top three in any race its an instant Game Over screen ! A simple nudge or tap from another car could put you off line and into a hazard moving you from 3rd to 4th on just before the finish line – Game Over.

Amazing cover art.


Ball Jacks
Man, what is this.

As what I can only describe as a Pong/Windjammers style sports game, you are pitted against an identical robot crab opponent with what seems to be tasked with stealing metal balls from.

I think there is a mechanic as to where you can damage your opponent, but I was unable to work out, how, or what the benefit of doing so was. I was blown up every round.

I didn’t dabble with this for long as it was dull, boring and extremely vague.


After all was said and done, sadly I had more fun cleaning them up whilst listening to the football than I did actually playing them – although notable praise must go to Double Clutch for being the best of a bad bunch, by a long way. That said, you’d just play Micro Machines for this type of fix which overall is better in almost every way **bar the cover art.

Also, worth pointing out that these are some of the better condition games I’ve picked up, most of the boards showed hardly any sign of use and all come with their manuals, only Ball Jacks missing its hanging tab.

Good bit of fun and overall, for what I paid, I’m glad I picked them up.
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Re: Retro gaming

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I love how your retro gaming stories so often involve copious amounts of alcoholic beverages. :lol:
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Suits
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Re: Retro gaming

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KSubzero1000 wrote: May 2nd, 2019, 9:23 am I love how your retro gaming stories so often involve copious amounts of alcoholic beverages. :lol:
Mate, I was flopped out the back garden, ale in hand, shades on, minted lamb on the BBQ, chilling - HARD.

Boy was loose on the freshly cut lawn playing with trains, wife was relaxed reading her book.

As the sun was going down, I was lagging drunk, buying moody Mega Drive games off eBay for less than what the postage costs.

What a time to be alive.
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Suits
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Re: Retro gaming

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I recently broke out my N64 for a bit of a play date.

The N64 is one of the Nintendo consoles that I find the hardest to go back to.

A combination of early polygon graphics and non native RGB video output, can make it hard to stomach at times - for me anyway.

That said, there's some outstanding games on this system that still hold up incredibly well.

But one that specifically draws me in each and every time I set the console up is Doom 64.

I don't have this boxed but still have the loose cart that I somehow managed to acquire via a school bag swap when I was a young teen.

It's just such a great step forward from Doom2 I feel and matched with the fantastic N64 controller feels great.

I remember changing the controls back in the day to better match my preferred play style and instantly needed to switch them again.

I'd change strife to the left and right C buttons and sprint to C down and action to R. There, perfect. Matched with the Z trigger and the stick makes this feel snappy and involving in a unique way only possible on the N64.

The game can come across a bit dark at times but sounds incredible and has some wonderful classic Doom style looping maps with touched up visuals and a few new additions makes it a great addition to the franchise I feel.

The real Doom 3.


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Michiel K
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Re: Retro gaming

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Suits wrote: May 2nd, 2019, 9:41 am
KSubzero1000 wrote: May 2nd, 2019, 9:23 am I love how your retro gaming stories so often involve copious amounts of alcoholic beverages. :lol:
Mate, I was flopped out the back garden, ale in hand, shades on, minted lamb on the BBQ, chilling - HARD.

Boy was loose on the freshly cut lawn playing with trains, wife was relaxed reading her book.

As the sun was going down, I was lagging drunk, buying moody Mega Drive games off eBay for less than what the postage costs.

What a time to be alive.
Haha, good stuff.

RE: Doom 64, I don't know if you use a PC for gaming But Sgt. Mark IV's Brutal Doom 64 mod is the definitive way to play the game for me. Goes a long way to smoothen out the rough edges and imperfections of the original. Very highly recommended.

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Suits
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Re: Retro gaming

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Michiel K wrote: May 5th, 2019, 1:40 pm RE: Doom 64, I don't know if you use a PC for gaming.....
I will simply say, I have an iMac :lol:

But yeah, I've used the Brutal Doom stuff in the past and it's decent.
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Suits
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Re: Retro gaming

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I went to a gaming market in Dagenham on the weekend and it was decent.

There were about 15 stalls in all, 8 of which were gaming stalls.

Prices were good, I picked up Wonder Boy three on the Master System for £6 - which I think may well have been priced incorrectly but there was a sense of community pricing here, as opposed to the perhaps commercially priced items you'll find at the bigger London Gaming Market.

This was the first of its type in Dagenham and speaking to the organiser, hopefully, it will be a regular event.

Enough with the chat, here's the goodies I picked up.


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I also picked up a stack of GameBoy cases that are always handy and gave them a good scabbing this morning. Nice.


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Suits
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Re: Retro gaming

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A friend of mine explained that he a GameBoy game that no matter what he did just wouldn't boot up.

It was Killer instant and it was in an awful state - one of the worst carts I'd seen.


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It wouldn't boot up on my test unit and all pins were non-responsive as per the blocked out Nintendo boot screen.


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It appeared to be mainly corrosion from what seems like a persistent over exposure to some sort of moisture.

Most of it came off with a simple dousing of isopropanol but the serious stuff seemed to have pitted the pins, which is a shame.


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After a serious scrubbing and clean, suddenly there seemed to be a sniff of life in some of the pins........


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So I kept on cleaning and testing and brought the sorry looking pins to this...


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Then, after a while of scrubbing, cleaning, polishing....


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Happy bloody days.
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Re: Retro gaming

Post by Simonsloth »

Love all of the above! Great haul and great work rescuing your mate’s cart. I’m slowly putting my dodgy carts aside for a possible suits makeover if ever I think I might want to play one of them in the future and you are so inclined to lend a hand.
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