What have you been up to lately with your SNES/SFC?

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

4 hours ago, frankodragon said:

Hey, whaddyaknow.

 

I would love to know the final straw that was done to achieve this. I mean it's awesome but HOW? 😲😎😏🤔

Either way, I look forward to Snes forums/threads settling down and getting to some level of normal again..........

Edited January 19 by OldSchoolRetroGamer

[Tanooki]

Maybe he got so fed up with the comments he was even making he tried to ignore himself, and it created a paradox where it would have caused the board to collapse in on itself fracturing time and to stop this abyss from forming, that was enough to do it.

[Bloodreign]

Not a purchase or games played, but I finally got a 3 way AV splitter, now I don't have to juggle the one AV input jack on the back of my TV for 3 different consoles, now I can just power my SNES, PS2, or Wii up, and not have to constantly plug this set of wires in, or that set of wires in. Since I put my PS3 away, and put my SNES back into regular rotation, and my PS2 was plugged in to the TV for Ganbare Goemon Oedo Daikaiten (PS1), I always felt having to juggle wires into the TV tiring, and was making me not really want to play anything anymore, but no excuses anymore. My top loader NES and my Genesis, well no AV input for them, my front loader NES doesn't play well anymore enough to rotate it in, and my toploader out.

 

To think, bringing my SNES back into the rotation is what finally got me to buy this splitter. 206 SNES/SFC games to choose from, plus a Super Game Boy and at least 125 GB or black GBC carts to put into the SGB and play them (At least 27 more are either GBA, or the clear GBC carts, the GBC carts are the only ones I can't play on a backlit screen. Wish the SGBa had support for them too), that SNES can get quite a lot of use.

[Tanooki]

Wow that's a shame, over 200 titles and over 50% more with SGB and it just sat.  You really don't have an excuse now.  I know if I ever found a 2-3 split like that at a thrift I'd grab it, just not going to pay some online price/shipping for one just to put on my little monitor.  It would be handy, keeping a couple items with their cables ready to jack in for easy use.  I don't want extra stuff on the bench, but when a 16bit handheld like a supaboy s when I replace it or a nomad are in play that's not a problem then.

[KidGameR186496]

14 hours ago, OldSchoolRetroGamer said:

I would love to know the final straw that was done to achieve this. I mean it's awesome but HOW? 😲😎😏🤔

Either way, I look forward to Snes forums/threads settling down and getting to some level of normal again..........

Geez, finally peace and tranquility at last! Let Kirk speed his bullcrap claims on his personal echo chambers XD

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

5 hours ago, KidGameR186496 said:

Geez, finally peace and tranquility at last! Let Kirk speed his bullcrap claims on his personal echo chambers XD

Agreed for sure though considering how much he was posting here I wonder what his next move is, he's been banned elsewhere so he may just have to stick to a personal blog 😂

[KidGameR186496]

1 hour ago, OldSchoolRetroGamer said:

Agreed for sure though considering how much he was posting here I wonder what his next move is, he's been banned elsewhere so he may just have to stick to a personal blog 😂

We have to be on guard if he pops up again with an alt account

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

5 minutes ago, KidGameR186496 said:

We have to be on guard if he pops up again with an alt account

If he does I suspect it will be pretty obvious considering his style and content 😏

 

Edited January 19 by OldSchoolRetroGamer

[Bloodreign]

15 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Wow that's a shame, over 200 titles and over 50% more with SGB and it just sat.  You really don't have an excuse now.  I know if I ever found a 2-3 split like that at a thrift I'd grab it, just not going to pay some online price/shipping for one just to put on my little monitor.  It would be handy, keeping a couple items with their cables ready to jack in for easy use.  I don't want extra stuff on the bench, but when a 16bit handheld like a supaboy s when I replace it or a nomad are in play that's not a problem then.

It was that mind hurdle of having to constantly swap wires out of the back of my TV that was the culprit. Now if only Super Game Boy 2's weren't so damned expensive. I like my original, but the overclock thing of the first one just makes me laugh. I have a couple platformers I bought for my GB, the Momotaro Dengeki duo of platformers. now I just have to wait for a day off when I am not so tired after a day of work. I did get my splitter on Amazon, Wal-Mart had it listed on their website, the stores themselves, idn't have them. But no worries, the splitter was just 10 bucks, and I really had to make the thing read the SNES signal; at first. Three times I powered the SNES on and off, the thing wouldn't read it (it read the PS2 and Wii on the first try), but how did I get the thing to finally read the SNES's signal? I hit rest on the console on the third try, the damned thing read, and I was pleased, the game tested, SMB All Stars (I have three of those, my original copy is buried somewhere in the pile of games I have, it's the Over a million cart sales labeled one, basically a re-release, the other 2 are the first released ones, ones I somehow got for free).

 

Thankfully my monitor isn't little, that's why I don't play my GBA much anymore (try playing the original Puyo Puyo on one at my age, no chance), instead, the monitor that also acts as my PC monitor is a 32 inch Insignia Firestick TV. More than enough to enjoy GB/GBC black cart games on.

 

Honestly though, a big part of why I haven't played as many games recently, fatigue, and after work, hyping myself up to playing something when I get home, can be a real bitch (I work retail, people can wear you out). I finally landed my white whale of PS1 games, the third Goemon game for the console, and I just started working on it once I got the game, I forgot how the drums you jump on work, and I kept dying over and over till I got info on how to make jumps on those things consistently. Those are also in Goemon 2 SFC, and they did give me issues in that game, though I did beat that one.

Edited January 20 by Bloodreign

[The Mr. Video]

Got Bust-A-Move aka Puzzle Bobble for the SNES a few days ago. It's easily one of my favorite versions of the game because you can use the shoulder buttons to make fine adjustments to your aim. Are there any other ports that have that feature?

[Razzie.P]

21 hours ago, OldSchoolRetroGamer said:

so he may just have to stick to a personal blog 😂

I think that's his best move, really.  And that's not even knocking the guy... but he clearly wants to present a "I be da expurt..." type of impression without any pushback or correction whatsoever, so something like that would let him control the optics however he sees fit.  Posting that stuff here just opened the door for responses and feedback and generally made him look, um... not like he wanted, no matter how many people he adds to his ignore list.  Hopefully at the very least, Jeffy is replying to all of his blog posts to make sure he feels the love.

 

 

[Tanooki]

19 hours ago, Bloodreign said:

It was that mind hurdle of having to constantly swap wires out of the back of my TV that was the culprit. Now if only Super Game Boy 2's weren't so damned expensive. I like my original, but the overclock thing of the first one just makes me laugh. I have a couple platformers I bought for my GB, the Momotaro Dengeki duo of platformers. now I just have to wait for a day off when I am not so tired after a day of work. I did get my splitter on Amazon, Wal-Mart had it listed on their website, the stores themselves, idn't have them. But no worries, the splitter was just 10 bucks, and I really had to make the thing read the SNES signal; at first. Three times I powered the SNES on and off, the thing wouldn't read it (it read the PS2 and Wii on the first try), but how did I get the thing to finally read the SNES's signal? I hit rest on the console on the third try, the damned thing read, and I was pleased, the game tested, SMB All Stars (I have three of those, my original copy is buried somewhere in the pile of games I have, it's the Over a million cart sales labeled one, basically a re-release, the other 2 are the first released ones, ones I somehow got for free).

 

Thankfully my monitor isn't little, that's why I don't play my GBA much anymore (try playing the original Puyo Puyo on one at my age, no chance), instead, the monitor that also acts as my PC monitor is a 32 inch Insignia Firestick TV. More than enough to enjoy GB/GBC black cart games on.

 

Honestly though, a big part of why I haven't played as many games recently, fatigue, and after work, hyping myself up to playing something when I get home, can be a real bitch (I work retail, people can wear you out). I finally landed my white whale of PS1 games, the third Goemon game for the console, and I just started working on it once I got the game, I forgot how the drums you jump on work, and I kept dying over and over till I got info on how to make jumps on those things consistently. Those are also in Goemon 2 SFC, and they did give me issues in that game, though I did beat that one.

Unless you're in love with the link cable DO NOT NEED IT with the SGB2.  You like that timing right?  It's currently out of stock, I'd message them, but I've seen it cycle as they're made and sold.  Pretty near idiot proof drop in couple spots(balls) of solder mod job for the SGB we got to correct the clock speed problem with a bypass.  That's what I did to mine.   https://www.tindie.com/products/qwertymodo/super-gameboy-clock-mod/

 

Those two being Momotaru Dengeki and MD Thunderbolt?  Are they that good?  Got a link to the exact games or the product codes on the stickers?  I liked the idea of the franchise but nearly all of it are RPGs.

 

I have monitor options too.  If I want to stay on my computer I have GB Operator ($50 if you want one) and I can sit here on my 17.5" screen here, or I can run the Roku/TCL TV I have which is 32" and has the Super Nt on it.  I'm fine using tiny, should see what I just repaired/upgraded   I had a busted DMG that has been decked out with the modern panel for it and a new body as well.

 

I hate being tired at least 3 days a week from having a 15hr day, usually by then it's shower/veg out to some daily YT stuff I care about, and if I don't pass out for a bit I'm usually too put off to care even if I want.

[Bloodreign]

Dengeki and Thunderbolt are one and the same, pretty decent platformers for the GB.

 

The first game:

The second game:

 

Edited January 21 by Bloodreign

[Bloodreign]

Magical Drop II, and I still can't 1CC this one, Father Strength always puts a stop to my run, bastard's tough. I have to go back to a tweet I made to get the code to unlock the 3 extra characters, as it isn't a short code. Enter the character selection screen. Highlight the following characters and press Down each time (in order): The Fool, Magician, High Priestess, Chariot, Justice, Star, then World. Devil, Strength and Empress may now be selectable (this code is a right bastard to remember). The SFC version also adds a playable Black Pierrot upon code completion.

 

Magical Drop 1 I have been able to 1 credit in the past, though the game is harder due to rounds can be never ending due to Data East forgetting to implement the Quota system the arcade game, and sequels would have (to ensure rounds can't go forever, clear 250 of the drops in a round, you win, the CPU can do the same to you, beating you to 0). Both SFC Magical Drop games though, are simply marvelous, though the 7th row of drops are missing in these ports due to smaller than arcade screen res, amazing that Puyo Puyo managed to retain every row of Puyo's that can be made in the arcade version.

[Austin]

On 1/20/2024 at 1:56 PM, Razzie.P said:

no matter how many people he adds to his ignore list.

I for one am sad that his ignore list is no longer available to the public, and will never be again. I was happy to wear it like a badge of honor!

[Trinity]

 

[Wayler]

I had planning on to start exploring Marvelous, but the translation patch resulted in a corrupted file and wasn't in the mood of troubleshooting. I was still thirsty for some overhead zelda-style adventure, so I ended up with:

 

Seiken Densetsu 3

One of my late childhood's biggest disappointments was reading from a gaming magazine that Square would not release Secret of Mana 2 in the west. An utterly stupid decision if you ask me. Luckily there is the mod and hacking scene to save us. I previously played this around 20 years ago, got to a point where the game seemed to come to a halt, couldn't make progress and all the shops seemed to stagnate, giving the same crappy equipment while the enemies kept getting stronger. Haven't touched the game since.

 

I'm very much liking it so far after all these years. The battle system seems to be a random cacophony at times where all the characters decide to bunch together for a little ball of violence. I like it better than the first game, as there is less of a cooling period for the next strike and you don't have to power-up your special moves. Musically good, though it doesn't have the same punch as the first one. I like the nods here and there to the original OST. But my oh my is it a treat for the eyes. Probably the best pixel art that the SNES got. Still haven't got to the point where this class system upgrade happens, looking forward to that.

(picture not from my playthrough, just as a reference for some eye candy. I went with a combo of Hawk, Lise and Angela)

[Tanooki]

That's one game I felt the same about, and then as pathetic as it has been looking on 25+ years now since it was first translated online I've NEVER played it.  Even now as Trials of Mana and the standard old release of it just hanging out there, I've not picked it up.  I almost kind of do feel bad about it at this rate since that's one juicy carrot being dangled on Steam, Switch, and path of least always on you resistance, mobile. :\  It looks like something really great.  It was so SO dumb of them to shelve this but also Final Fantasy V. :\

[WavyGravy]

I dunno, it was a pretty late release and the code is apparently a basket case behind the scenes, so it would have taken a long time to translate. It likely would have been late 96 or into 97 by the time it released if they'd kept at it, and at that point the SNES wouldn't have been the platform for a big blockbuster release like that.

[Tanooki]

I know it's just a wish.  It was amazing even some fairly untested to be big stuff showed up so late like Harvest Moon.  So in that train of thought and the greed market we're suffering I could only guess what the cost that cart would have now had it released in the states.

[Wayler]

Code schmode I say. Square dropped the ball on this one. And out of pure spite I skipped FFVII. Ha, serves you right, you destroyer of dreams and innocence! 

 

(Well not really, just didn't have a PS1 back then. Got it '98 and moved on straight to FFVIII. But seven did look blocky and wonky to me.)

[Tanooki]

I skipped FF7 initially as I felt what Square did was a backstab given them showing off that FF 3D demo for N64 to then have Sony run a spin media campaign to tout it as the first real JRPG for grown ups, a mass media wonder that has never had anything as good as it before and so on.  The lies and butter were enough I took no interest, not until a PC release came out and had caught a decent sale.  In the end I found it to be a decent but mediocre one, I'll never understand so many people sucking it off like it's the second coming of gaming christ.  I haven't then still don't now, other than it's proof positive just how powerful media manipulation and the power of suggestion (open and subliminal) really is on people open to it.  It is blocky and wonky, large stretch of it range from average to boring, it drags out way too far.  The asinine unskippable long FMV for espers and more, having a 10+min video before a fight you can always get stuck re-watching if you end up dead, and various other stupid problems.  The only good (great to be fair) one on PS1 was FF9, which I considered the FF apology tour as it was like the best aspects of FF4-6 rolled into one.

 

The amusing thing, the most valuable part of that game for me on PC, was the utterly wicked fully licensed Yamaha Sound Synth program that could handle all sorts of utterly massive sound sample kits.  You could take a lowly MIDI and have the music it spit out sound as good if not better than what a CD with redbook gave you.  A number of FF7 scores using like the largest sound sample sets combined on the disc were superior to the original renditions PS1 had.  I used that tool for years until it aged out of Windows, then about 8 years ago on my last PC I found someone resurrected the thing, got it working using coolsoft media and another tool combined and damn did MIDI in old games to the actual pieces sound utterly amazing even still.

Edited January 30 by Tanooki

[SUPER STREET FIGHTER II TURBO]

What I've been up to lately is that I sold my multitap. Haven't used it in a decade or so and have finally accepted that cramming four of the fellas into the retro game room is a thing of the past. Just never ends up happening anymore. Too difficult to find a night/time that more than one friend is free to come over to play old games.

[Wayler]

Seiken Densetsu 3

Taking a break from this one during the weekend but perhaps I should recollect my thoughts now that I'm roughly 11 hours in. 

 

Gameplay has some pros and cons compared to the original. I like that the combat is more streamlined but I also miss the different weapons. No one has a ranged one, so every fight is close quarters. Magic is learned through leveling up and there is less spells, which is a bummer. But you don't have to lvl up your spells which was a slog in the first game. 

 

You can't win by spamming magic in this, which broke the system previously. There's a casting time to the spells which leaves the caster vulnerable to attacks. And most bosses seem to have some sort of counter mechanic to them because they will instantly do a nasty special attack after getting hit by magic.

 

Item usage seems much more prominent and you really have to stock up on healing items. There's also lots of different variety in them overall. Basically most of the stat magic in the first game have been reverted to items here and I kinda like this change. 

 

I managed to do a class change to all my characters. It was basically a palette swap (they look a bit worse now), a slight stat increase in all categories and the ability to learn new magic. Nothing game changing but a nice little mechanic. 

 

And lastly the music. While the world has gotten even more colorful, the sounds have taken a step back, which seems a bit odd. There is a lot more ambiance now and the real tracks don't have that eclectic touch from the first one. Many songs do have a good base melody but feels like they could be fleshed out more to become earworms. The good ones also seem to be reused more often than not. Audio direction also seems lacking at times. For example, there's this 10 second "all clear" melody loop after a boss fight that you'd think should go away rather quickly. Nope, it stays on and you have to fight your back to the dungeon entrance until the music changes. I just wonder if there was some deadline pressure regarding the music because the quality isn't quite there. 

 

But all in all, really liking the play through. There is still not a dull looking locale to be found in this candy store of a world. The battle continues some time next week. I'll leave things for now with another pretty picture:

 

[WavyGravy]

As per the boxart thread, I've been giving Robotrek another look. I'm a few hours in now, and it's definitely an interesting little game, although I can see why I've bounced off of it in the past.

 

Robotrek does not do a great job of explaining itself in-game. The entire level-up system is particularly odd. Early on, you gain access to the R & D machine, a gigantic SNES pad-shaped manufacturing console staffed by gnomes. It's awesome and I want one. Normally, you can only use this by finding one in the world, and these are where you repair your robot, customize their programming(stats), and create programs for them. When you level up, you get to use the Portable R&D machine, which lets you do these things right then and there, but it doesn't explain that you also gain additional Programming points to distribute among your robots' stats, and if you don't allocate them, your robot doesn't get any stronger. I'm almost certain I missed that on my last attempt.

 

Which brings me to my next issue with the English version of the game: the translation. One of the things that always really irks me when people talk shit about Ted Woolsey is that you need to look at the context of the day and the FF games' contemporaries. FF6's script, for all its flaws, is Shakespeare compared to most other translations at the time, and this is a great example. Wooden, obviously truncated, and full of typos, it's honestly tough to know what the game is telling you at times. This game is a prime candidate for a retranslation, as this isn't a case of there being some liberties taken with the script (insert localization vs. translation debate here), it's just wrong in parts. I'm quite certain that this game is better if you can read Japanese.

 

What do I like about the game? The robot customization is really cool. I don't have many inventions yet, but weapons have different behaviours and attributes, and being able to build different robots for different situations is fun and interesting.

 

The battle system is pretty unique, sort of a cross between an SRPG grid and ATB Final Fantasy. You have a meter that fills and then your robot can go, where you then can move (amount determined by your robot's boot level) and do one of three types of attack (melee, ranged, and bomb), use items, or execute programs. Each action knocks off a different amount of your action bar, and you need to wait for it to recharge, so while bombs are powerful and can go over obstacles, they take a huge chunk of your bar, leaving you a sitting duck while it charges up, while your sword doesn't use much at all, allowing you to attack quickly once you're in range. You'll fight multiple enemies at once, but you can only use one robot at a time, even if you have more robots. There are also capsules that appear on the battlefield, and they do some interesting stuff. There are EXP boosts, energy recharges, bombs, equipment level-ups, and poison traps. There's a little timer in the corner that gives you 10 seconds per enemy, and if you can complete the battle under that time, you get bonus experience, and if the time expires, any uncollected capsules are destroyed and if you got an EXP bonus, it no longer gets applied. This should be a cooler mechanic than it has wound up being so far. The problem is that the game makes the time limit artificially short by having enemy movement and attack animations be very slow and not pausing the timer while they're happening. An enemy will take several seconds to slowly shuffle over to you, and then play an attack animation that is usually slow, all to chew up your bonus timer, making the capsule and bonus system quite difficult to engage with and frustrating besides. It also just slows the whole game down, and you kinda need those bonuses because you get very little experience from fights if you don't get an EXP capsule and finish in time.

That being said, though, once you start pumping up the Charge stat (makes your ATB gauge full more quickly), you can act a lot more often, and enemies seem to be getting faster, so maybe this is only a problem in the early game. It's very frustrating early on, though, and is a large part of why I think I had trouble getting into the game previously. 

 

Other than that, I love the colourful and charming graphics, the theme is light-hearted and fun, and it's got loads of that Quintet charm I get on with so well. You can save anywhere (YES!) and the theme of being an inventor leads you to inspect everything looking for inspiration, bringing elements of exploration and investigation into the mix that are often lacking in JRPGs, and the game rewards you enough to feel encouraged to keep doing it. 

 

So, I was pretty meh at the beginning, but a few hours in and I feel like it's getting a lot better. It might be a good game that just has some pacing problems, which is unfortunately common in the genre. I haven't bounced off, though, and will continue on with the game!