What have you been up to lately with your Genesis / Mega Drive?

[+GoldLeader]

Life On Mars is Great!

[newtmonkey]

Dungeons & Dragons: Warriors of the Eternal Sun

After completing Dragon Quest III, I was in the mood for another RPG but wanted to play something closer to a western/PC-style RPG but in my living room.  So this seemed like the perfect choice!

 

I had a friend who had this back in the day, and I remember we never got anywhere in it.  It seemed massive and complicated compared to what we were used to (most console RPGs).  It features a decently sized world you're mostly free to explore, "tactical" combat that's sort of similar to the combat the "Gold Box" AD&D PC RPGs, and even first-person dungeons to explore (strangely, with real-time combat akin to Eye of the Beholder).

 

I spent a couple of hours on this last night.  I created my party (Fighter, Cleric, Thief, Magic-user), explored the town (absolutely full of secret doors leading to some awesome treasure), and explored a bit of the world.  You can see the enemies walking around on the map, so you can avoid combat if you want.  I've outfitted all my characters with slings, and ranged combat seems absolutely overpowered so far, since you can often get one or two hits in from each character before the enemy gets into range.

 

The interface is pretty unique and takes a bit of getting used to, but it makes a lot of sense and works well.  Each character can be assigned a weapon, ability, spell, or item to each hand, and then you just press either the A or B button to use whatever is in that hand.  The game also has a built in world map that shows your location on it, and an automapping function for the dungeons (though the map is cleared if you leave the dungeon).

 

It looks good and the soundtrack is really great so far.  It's nice to play a non-Japanese MD/GEN game with an excellent soundtrack.

[+jeremiahjt]

I was going to start up Dungeons & Dragons: Warriors of the Eternal Sun soon too. It has been on my to play list and with the release of the movie I figured now would be a good time. Plus it seems like it will be similar to Dungeons & Dragons: Order of the Griffon which I really enjoyed.

 

That being said, @newtmonkey I thought you were going back to Phantasy Star II?

[newtmonkey]

@jeremiahjt

I did originally plan to go back to PSII, but I'm a bit burned out from mapping Dragon Quest III.  I'll probably go back to PSII after WotES (I definitely want to complete PSII this year...)

[newtmonkey]

Dungeons & Dragons: Warriors of the Eternal Sun

Hmm I dunno about this one.  It got off to a good start with some nice exploration, and fine graphics and music, but it feels extremely grindy.  Right now I seem have two options forward: a hidden waterfall cave, or crossing the bridge to the SW of the town.

 

The waterfall cave starts out easy, but soon you encounter powerful enemies capable of killing nearly my entire party in what seems like just a few seconds.  Since the combat in caves is sort of in real-time, it's hard to be tactical.  The game interface really starts to suffer here, since you can't just go into the menu to use items, spells, etc.  Instead, you need to assign it to a free hand, use it, and then go back into the menu and assign the next thing.  Clunky.

 

Crossing the bridge brings me into contact with ridiculously powerful enemies capable of killing my party in an instant, so it seems I'm not supposed to be here at this point.  The game even throws up a warning when I cross the bridge.

 

I really have no other options, unles I missed something.  As you level up, the stores in the town start selling new equipment, and I've been able to keep my stuff updated without a problem.  It's possible I'm meant to cross the bridge, avoid all the tough enemies, and explore?

 

Of course, another possibility is that the game was designed poorly, and I'm supposed to just go around in circles grinding up levels until I can survive.  That would be pretty disappointing.

Edited June 1, 2023 by newtmonkey

[newtmonkey]

Dungeons & Dragons: Warriors of the Eternal Sun

I played this for another hour or so this morning, and made some progress.  The game has some weird issues indeed.

 

Issue #1 is that the game really handicaps you from the beginning; the shops only sell leather armor (!!!) and slings at first, and your spellcasters start out with just a single spell.  You can't even select which spell your magic-user starts out with, so you're stuck with Magic Missile until you can find/buy scrolls to learn new spells.

 

Issue #2 is that the game awards experience points only to the character that strikes the killing blow on an enemy.  This makes absolutely no sense, and doesn't even follow the D&D rules.  This means that your fighter(s) will hog all the experience unless you go out of your way to let your weaker characters chip away with their 1-2 damage attacks round after round (if they can even hit the enemy).

 

Issue #3 is the weird layout of the world.  You have to pass through an area full of extremely powerful enemies (my level 3 party with the best equipment I can buy/find at that point can barely even hit them) to reach the area you're "supposed" to go to first.  How does this make any sense?

Edited June 3, 2023 by newtmonkey

[jetset]

I am trying to figure out which version Mega-Drive I have. Just bought from a member here, he said it’s
“99% the v2 /X7 version:. I can’t find any info on the web. Can anyone tell which version this is?

TIA!

 

[Tanooki]

it's a last generation model, the newest uses a microSD card.  Either way you're fine, I don't think it was all that largely changed, more of a refresh with parts going out of cycle.  The details either way would be easier found spread out on stone age gamers site since they tend to carry past and present things.

[jetset]

18 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

it's a last generation model, the newest uses a microSD card.  Either way you're fine, I don't think it was all that largely changed, more of a refresh with parts going out of cycle.  The details either way would be easier found spread out on stone age gamers site since they tend to carry past and present things.

So it's not an X7 ? That's what I paid for. Is there any way to tell for sure?

[newtmonkey]

@jetset

There's a chart on the official site that should help you figure out which version you have.  Just check and see if your cart offers any of the X7 exclusive features:

 

https://krikzz.com/our-products/legacy/megax7.html

[jetset]

2 hours ago, newtmonkey said:

@jetset

There's a chart on the official site that should help you figure out which version you have.  Just check and see if your cart offers any of the X7 exclusive features:

 

https://krikzz.com/our-products/legacy/megax7.html

I'll be honest I'm not much of a tech intellect, not sure how to tell what's what, but it mentions the x7 takes a micro sd, this one has a port for a regular sized sd card.

[Tanooki]

The problem of that chart it is only the modern X7 vs the x5/x3 which doesn't bother to touch on the older model that doesn't so much say X this or that on it.

 

I found this in the legacy (retried) space on krikzz site

 

It has a picture of the old V1.x board, and what I see lines up perfectly with the placement of the USB-B jack, reset button, and the old style(and location) of the SD card
https://krikzz.com/our-products/legacy/mega-everdrive-v1.html

 

If you paid up on this as a v2(Mega Everdrive X series) you got the wrong item, and he's either a scammer or truly clueless as to what he sold you and I'd get a refund.  Compare the info on that link to the info in the other modern link and see if any feature changes bother you as to decide on a total refund or a good discount given.

[+remowilliams]

That does look exactly like my v1 cart.

 

 

[jetset]

Yeah, I was sold a V7, this seems to be a V1. Ballpark what would those normally go for? I bought from member here (still selling stuff) so I'll PM him to work it out.

 

 

[newtmonkey]

Well, I finally became insane and/or drunk enough, and won an auction for a used 32X in working condition with most of the accessories included.  This is probably the most I've ever spent on an expansion, or even a console.  The prices here are nuts for this thing.  Anyway, there are definitely some 32X games I want to play (mostly the Sega scaler games, and Mortal Kombat II), but I mostly wanted the 32X for its allegedly superior composite video quality.  It will be interesting to see how it compares.

 

Why spend so much money for (possibly) better composite video?  First of all, the stock composite video quality of the Mega Drive is horrible.  It's just a blurry, saturated mess.  Second of all, I personally don't think that the Mega Drive was "meant" to be played in RGB, although it natively supports it with an aftermarket cable.  I don't believe Sega ever released an official RGB cable in Japan or the US, for instance, and I know that a lot of US-developed Genesis games, and even some Japanese Mega Drive games, take advantage of the quirks of NTSC composite video.

 

There's this accessory that was released in Japan that pulls RGB video from the console and outputs S-video and (probably) clearer composite video, but good luck getting your hands on that thing for less than 20,000 yen.  The 32X I won was a little more expensive than that, but I would have access to the 32X library, so it seems worth it.

 

The next step, assuming the 32X works, will be to get one of those 2-in-1 power supplies, so I don't need to power the Mega Drive and 32X separately.

Edited August 6, 2023 by newtmonkey

[Asaki]

On 6/7/2023 at 1:17 PM, jetset said:

Yeah, I was sold a V7, this seems to be a V1. Ballpark what would those normally go for? I bought from member here (still selling stuff) so I'll PM him to work it out.

There is no "V7", it's an "X7 v1". I know, it gets a little confusing.
Really, any of them are great, it's just nitpicking at features, most of which the average gamer won't need. I did upgrade mine (X5 I think?), but only because I had an older one where ROM transfers took a while, and the new Sega CD features suckered me in. Yours has all of that.
 

 

10 hours ago, newtmonkey said:

Well, I finally became insane and/or drunk enough, and won an auction for a used 32X in working condition with most of the accessories included.  This is probably the most I've ever spent on an expansion, or even a console.  The prices here are nuts for this thing.

I remember, not too many years ago, finding 32x bundles for $20, and thinking "Do I really -need- one?"
Oops.

 

10 hours ago, newtmonkey said:

...I know that a lot of US-developed Genesis games, and even some Japanese Mega Drive games, take advantage of the quirks of NTSC composite video.

And there are a lot of games that DON'T (especially really lazy SNES-to-Genny ports). It's kind of annoying sometimes.
It's kind of nice emulating on the Wii, being able to have the best of both worlds. I don't think you can overclock on the Wii though, and I still need to get a controller adapter.

[+Gemintronic]

Trying to find the best main palette for my new Genesis games.  Sure, you have palettes for title screens and portraits.  But, there is the need for a general palette you can count on for, er, general stuff.  The user interface, power ups, basic level backgrounds and walls.  The first color (pure magenta) is transparency.

 

[jetset]

1 hour ago, Asaki said:

There is no "V7", it's an "X7 v1". I know, it gets a little confusing.
Really, any of them are great, it's just nitpicking at features, most of which the average gamer won't need. I did upgrade mine (X5 I think?), but only because I had an older one where ROM transfers took a while, and the new Sega CD features suckered me in. Yours has all of that.
 

Oh for sure. I'm happy with my purchase, and the seller sent me a few things extra afterwards to offset the cost. And yes LMAO it *is* confusing. I'll soon be looking for an N64 sd cart so I'll likely be in that forum soon asking "What do I do"? 😁 

[newtmonkey]

The 32X that I won on Yahoo Auctions arrived today, so I got it all hooked up to my OG Mega Drive.  It's in great condition and everything works fine.  At first I wasn't sure how I was gonna get stereo from this thing, but the manual just advises using the same headphone connection you'd normally use, plugged into your stereo.  I guess the 32X feeds its audio back into the Mega Drive?  Pretty cool.

 

I got this primarily due to its allegedly better composite video quality than the stock Mega Drive.  It is indeed nicer, but not as good as I was hoping. It's eliminated the "jailbars" noticeable in certain solid colors that my MD1 suffers from, and it puts out an overall cleaner picture.  It still suffers from color fringing, especially around bright red and yellow, but it was probably too much to expect that to go completely away.

 

The actual 32X games were secondary for me, but I had fun testing some out.  The Afterburner and Space Harrier ports are very impressive indeed!  I was also very impressed with Mortal Kombat II, which plays just as good as the excellent MD version, but looks much better.  I also played a bit of Blackthorne, which is alright but I definitely prefer the pixel art of the original version to the pre-rendered graphics in this one.

 

I also played some homebrew, or rom hacks, or whatever you want to call them:

Mortal Kombat II 32X Arcade Edition (v1.5b)

Very impressive upgrade over the regular game.  Some sound effects have been added, the graphics have been touched up a bit, and even the move timing has been adjusted to more closely match the arcade version.  There's basically no reason to play the regular version of this anymore.

 

Doom 32X Resurrection

Wow!  With this hack, this is definitely the best console version of this classic game, now.  It's almost an insult to call it a mere "rom hack"; better frame rate, better resolution, better enemy behavior, and even the music is now amazing.

Edited August 8, 2023 by newtmonkey

[newtmonkey]

Phantasy Star II

After completing the mindless but still somehow enjoyable Cosmic Fantasy 2 on the PC Engine, I was in the mood for something a bit more challenging... so I decided to resume my this one.  I must admit that it was quite difficult at first to get back into this, with its massive labyrinths, but stuck with it for a bit and got back into the swing of things.

 

I'm still exploring the underwater lab, which is thus far the most complicated dungeon in the game (I know there is much, much worse coming up).  I had already mapped the first few floors, so I picked up where I left off and mapped a couple of floors.  I think I've finally come with a method for mapping that works with this game.

 

Anyway, I swapped out Anne (medic) for Amiya (hunter), and combat is so much quicker and easier now.  I thought I'd miss Anne's healing spells, but I'm surviving much longer before I need to heal with four strong fighting characters.  For healing, I use the basic healing spells (Nei, hero) and have also loaded up on cheap healing items.  I know the twist that's coming up, so I'll add Anne back in once that happens.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

On 8/8/2023 at 7:24 AM, newtmonkey said:

The 32X that I won on Yahoo Auctions arrived today, so I got it all hooked up to my OG Mega Drive.  It's in great condition and everything works fine.  At first I wasn't sure how I was gonna get stereo from this thing, but the manual just advises using the same headphone connection you'd normally use, plugged into your stereo.  I guess the 32X feeds its audio back into the Mega Drive?  Pretty cool.

Yes, all audio from the expansion devices including the SegaCD feed back through the main Genesis audio circuit and can be heard on the headphone jack. Audio from the AV port on the model 1 however, is mono output only so you pretty much have to use the headphone port, or if you have a SegaCD attached, you can use the RCAs those provided for audio as well. Mine all have audio modifications in them to improve the audio output so I have separate RCAs installed on the main Genesis console that I use for all the audio output. I only use the 32x for the video output to my HDRetrovision cables.

 

[+GoldLeader]

On 8/8/2023 at 6:24 AM, newtmonkey said:

The 32X that I won on Yahoo Auctions arrived today, so I got it all hooked up to my OG Mega Drive.  It's in great condition and everything works fine.  At first I wasn't sure how I was gonna get stereo from this thing, but the manual just advises using the same headphone connection you'd normally use, plugged into your stereo.  I guess the 32X feeds its audio back into the Mega Drive?  Pretty cool. ...

 

Waitaminute!  Does Yahoo Auctions still exist in Japan??   We haven't had that in Years!!  (As far as I know)...

[Tanooki]

Exists and thrives, Japan loves it far more than crappy ebay.  They're ahead of the curve knowing it's exploitative and sucks.   It also is a good gatekeeper from a lot of western buyers because unless you want to pay a fee and double shipping (in country, then broker to you) charges you can't get the goodies.  On there largely the prices are notably less because of this as well so it kind of pays off if you know what to look for and best ways to hunt it out.

[+Gemintronic]

For Phil Barnharts birthday I made a birthday card kinda genesis ROM.  He demonstrated it on his YouTube channel Retro Bliss Gaming

 

[Tanooki]

I just started playing Genesis again after a long stretch this month because I finally had some run of luck finding games that not only are good, but very worth playing, even stuff I wish I could get but the price was distasteful (until now.)

It started a couple weekends ago with just one game and it was a DOS era throwback something I had then on that format.

The Lost Vikings: To my surprise I found this one was very on par with the DOS version, and reading online, not there yet, it was the biggest version of the game with an added set of stages.  The look, play, even the sound seem to match the old adlib/sound blaster era quality which was a nice throwback.

 

The if you watch that find/thrift thread we have this weekend I scored gold at two locations, first were three games, then the second was the jackpot with two more.  I've not had but a moment really with any of these given my time but I'm pleased so far.

 

Dino Land: I saw these on a table bagged up this one made me most curious, it's a Renovation and Wolfteam cart so I went for it.  It's on the easier side of things in the last of digital pinball but it's oddly quite relaxing and pretty fun, has some cute moments and personality to it, even has some ways to pull A to B to C to get to a boss fight with a larger dinosaur target.

 

Kid Chameleon: Oddly enough I never have touched this in decades of its existence or ever saw a copy about either as far as I can remember.  it's quite fun, like the mechanics, physics, and all the helmets you get that add special abilities and attacks make it a pretty amazing game so far.  I did read that it's overly too long and no save/password which blows meaning I'll probably never finish it on a real cart, or are there stage skips?  I'd key that in to play it through.

 

Sonic 3D Blast: It gets hate, I don't agree with it, but whatever.  it's like a pre-cursor of the near Dreamcasty adventure future to me as you have a few loops, a few places to really go nuts on speed, but like the later game it's a lot of slower moving calculated hunting, exploring, and adventuring to save your friends and onto the next act and I like that, a lot.  It still gets me how nicely they did that out of nowhere FMV when the game boots up, and despite the high a/v bar for quality surely that's most the storage.

 

And the surprises to me still...

El.Viento: I was not going to pay 120+ for this so I avoided it despite thinking it looked amazing, and well I was right, it is, and it's also damned hard, not frustratingly cheap hard, just a challenge and you need to figure it out, and so far I've figured my way into around 2 stages(worlds?) of the game before I had to flip it off.  I like the mechanics here, so far, but I need to read up a bit with no manual as I think there's more to the magic attacks that would help.  That life bar is pretty generous and it handles quite well, really makes me want to still track down Earnest Evans.

 

Streets of Rage 3: This one I've been aware of but never really had, not sure I ever have, so it's fresh, so far fun, but also a lot harder than 2 I think.  I was told you have some SF2 style basic combos to do special attacks, but I've yet to come across that one, so maybe again, I need to read up.

 

**It was initially 165 for the pair (sor3 had box), talked it down to 120, someone I know needed that box and gave me 40 so I got out at $80 for the pair that's why I'm surprised.   (The first 3 were just $20, Lost Vikings before hand was $10.)