Retro Gaming Thread
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Urlithani
Vyemm Raider
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Thought about the old MicroProse game Hyperspeed for PC, where you explore star clusters to find a new home for humanity. Come to find out it's on steam. Freakin' awesome.
Hyperspeed on Steam
Hyperspeed on Steam
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Tanoomba
ジョーディーすれいやー
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Played some SimCity on the SNES yesterday. I remember it having a lot of charm but being difficult to get the hang of. I always used to play until I ran out of money, which usually only took a few years. This time I decided to pace myself and be patient, and although it did allow me to make significant progress, it also exposed some of the game's flaws. It turns out the best strategy is simply to set the passage of time to maximum speed and DO NOTHING for years at a time. While you're doing nothing, you can watch your population rise and fall like the ebb and flow of the ocean, losing thousands and gaining thousands within a year, seemingly based on nothing. They also complain a lot about pollution despite my choosing railways as the exclusive form of transportation and keeping my industrial zones far from where people live. And despite paying attention to the residential/commercial/industrial bars in the top right, it was never clear when they mean surplus and when they mean demand.
Having said that, once I got used to putting down the controller for several minutes at a time (seriously, a "jump to December" function would have done wonders for this game), I had a lot of fun with it. Once you start making enough money through tax revenue to invest in things like an airport and a second power plant, it starts to get really satisfying. The charts and maps are well done and often come in handy. Watching neighboring zones combine to form larger buildings is great. I love the way the seasons change and, of course, the soundtrack is still fantastic. It's a great game whose most interesting feature is that you have to deny your gamer's intuition to actually play it and just let it play itself for significant stretches.
Having said that, once I got used to putting down the controller for several minutes at a time (seriously, a "jump to December" function would have done wonders for this game), I had a lot of fun with it. Once you start making enough money through tax revenue to invest in things like an airport and a second power plant, it starts to get really satisfying. The charts and maps are well done and often come in handy. Watching neighboring zones combine to form larger buildings is great. I love the way the seasons change and, of course, the soundtrack is still fantastic. It's a great game whose most interesting feature is that you have to deny your gamer's intuition to actually play it and just let it play itself for significant stretches.
Nirgon
YOU HAVE NO POWER HERE
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Szlia
Member
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Just played 'Another Metroid 2 Remake: Return of Samus' over the week-end. A very nice fan remake on steroid of the Gameboy Metroid as seen through the lens of Super Metroid / Zero Mission.
Nintendo obviously said "You must be kidding?", but I am sure the game can still be found through back channels....
Nintendo obviously said "You must be kidding?", but I am sure the game can still be found through back channels....
Tanoomba
ジョーディーすれいやー
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Metroid 2 for GameBoy was a fine game but the large, sprawling world pretty much all looked the same due to the extremely limited color palette. It's actually kind of surprising Nintendo never re-made it, especially since they did re-make the original Metroid.
radditsu
Silver Knight of the Realm
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Deception 2 was pretty fun, although it seemed like a bunch of stuff story stuff is missing. I seem to remember it just kinda...ending or getting jumpy. Plus I really wasn't a fan of the layout where you are in the cave protecting that thing. The first mansion levels were really well done. The castle was really big but the pathing was obvious sometimes, put an oil puddle down then a rolly ball on some stairs and most are dead.
Tanoomba
ジョーディーすれいやー
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I tried the Zelda Randomizer recently and I gotta say I really enjoyed it.
It makes Zelda 1 feel a bit like it felt when I played it for the first time as a kid. I was exploring again, figuring stuff out again, occasionally getting frustrated and not making progress again...
I gotta admit: I loaded up an overworld map in MSPaint and marked all the dungeon entrances as I discovered them for my convenience. That, combined with my pre-existing familiarity with The Legend of Zelda, minimized frustration and streamlined the experience to the point where it felt like a Brain Age-type exercise. I was systematically trying to progress as efficiently as possible mixing strategy ("if I save keys early on I'll be much less likely to run out of keys later on") and twitch mechanics (taking on a room full of blue Darknuts with the wooden sword can be pretty demanding) and I loved every moment of it.
...At least until I couldn't find the entrance to Dungeon 7. Then it became annoying as shit. Still, if you were ever a fan of the original Zelda you might get a kick out of it.
(I based the randomization of my play on ProJared's run, copying his flag string.)
It makes Zelda 1 feel a bit like it felt when I played it for the first time as a kid. I was exploring again, figuring stuff out again, occasionally getting frustrated and not making progress again...
I gotta admit: I loaded up an overworld map in MSPaint and marked all the dungeon entrances as I discovered them for my convenience. That, combined with my pre-existing familiarity with The Legend of Zelda, minimized frustration and streamlined the experience to the point where it felt like a Brain Age-type exercise. I was systematically trying to progress as efficiently as possible mixing strategy ("if I save keys early on I'll be much less likely to run out of keys later on") and twitch mechanics (taking on a room full of blue Darknuts with the wooden sword can be pretty demanding) and I loved every moment of it.
...At least until I couldn't find the entrance to Dungeon 7. Then it became annoying as shit. Still, if you were ever a fan of the original Zelda you might get a kick out of it.
(I based the randomization of my play on ProJared's run, copying his flag string.)
Kharzette
Watcher of Overs
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Mr_Bungle
Interstellar Botanist
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I don't know if this has been brought up and I'm too lazy to read through all these pages, does anyone know where I can find an emulator of Super Smash TV? I haven't been able to play this game in years and I remember it being a blast.
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Noodleface
A Mod Real Quick
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pharmakos
soʞɐɯɹɐɥd
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Download music, movies, games, software! The Pirate Bay - The galaxy's most resilient BitTorrent site
Probably any SNES emulator/ROM bundle on there has it.
Probably any SNES emulator/ROM bundle on there has it.
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Szlia
Member
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Played on emulator through the Super Famicom remake of Dragon Quest III with the fan made english translation patch... A pleasant classic RPG romp with the always nice Dragon Quest flair. A notable thing in this game is a very neat character creation system where you answer some questions - nothing very original here - but then go through a mini adventure where your decisions shape your character! Save state and speed alteration also make these old school RPG dramatically easier to enjoy.
As I dipped my feet in the sea of fan made rom patches, I also grabbed a couple of well known Super Mario World hacks: Super Dram World and Banzai Mario World... I probably need to play some more regular SMW because... well... even with save states I did not go very far in these.
As I dipped my feet in the sea of fan made rom patches, I also grabbed a couple of well known Super Mario World hacks: Super Dram World and Banzai Mario World... I probably need to play some more regular SMW because... well... even with save states I did not go very far in these.
Tanoomba
ジョーディーすれいやー
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I was playing Zelda 2 today (on 3DS) and realized it's one of those NES games that seems to get better with age. The sword fight mechanics are great. Every battle is built around attacking and defending high and low. Your attention is always required (even when fighting grunt enemies) so you're constantly engaged. Even some of the more difficult enemies (like the axe-wielding crocodile guys) can be made bearable through strategic use of terrain. The RPG elements are fun and it's satisfying to level up your stats. There are even minor puzzle elements that add something unique to every town. The palaces are suitably intimidating. The scope is large and the sense of adventure is there. It does very much feel like a Zelda game in many ways, and I give Nintendo credit for trying something different.
Having said that, there are some questionable design decisions. Every time you beat a palace, you automatically get enough XP to reach the next level. Ideally, then, you want to gain a level right before beating the boss so you can get 2 levels out of it. But wouldn't you know it? I was 69 XP short of my next level when I realized I couldn't backtrack in the palace to where the skulls were. Wasted a free level up for nothing. Rustled me fiercely, although I guess that's more poor timing than bad design. You lose whatever XP you had when you get game over, though, which sucks (you can lose what feels like a lot of progress). I don't even think the EXP bags scattered around the world respawn (although I might be wrong).
Still, overall I think I appreciate the game a lot more in adulthood than I did as a kid. Much of what the game was going for went over my head at the time. It's still worth playing, especially if you can remember some of the more esoteric actions required to make progress.
Having said that, there are some questionable design decisions. Every time you beat a palace, you automatically get enough XP to reach the next level. Ideally, then, you want to gain a level right before beating the boss so you can get 2 levels out of it. But wouldn't you know it? I was 69 XP short of my next level when I realized I couldn't backtrack in the palace to where the skulls were. Wasted a free level up for nothing. Rustled me fiercely, although I guess that's more poor timing than bad design. You lose whatever XP you had when you get game over, though, which sucks (you can lose what feels like a lot of progress). I don't even think the EXP bags scattered around the world respawn (although I might be wrong).
Still, overall I think I appreciate the game a lot more in adulthood than I did as a kid. Much of what the game was going for went over my head at the time. It's still worth playing, especially if you can remember some of the more esoteric actions required to make progress.
joz123
Potato del Grande
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