(Retro) What have you been playing this week? Vol.2

[Leon Retro]

I’ve got Double Dragon somewhere on a boat in the pacific, although I have done my research and it doesn’t review well.

Well, I've always really disliked it. It feels far too slugglish and repetitive. But some people manage to get some fun out of it. It just felt really weak next to Final Fight and Streets of Rage etc... Hopefully it will click with you.

Undercover Cops is probably too rich for me these days. Did it ever get re-released?

Yakumo was selling a nice quality repro a while back.

I noticed this: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33007864298.html

Some muppet on Ebay is charging $126 for it.

[Ghost]

Are there any big differences with these reproduction copies quality wise?

[Leon Retro]

Are there any big differences with these reproduction copies quality wise?

I've read that some repros are good quality, some reasonable, and others pretty bad. So you have to be cautious and do a bit of research.

[fallenangle]

Near the end in Silent Hill. I've started it several times but never finished it. This time though, absolutely in love with it.

Really enjoyed exploring the town, the 'dungeons' don't outstay their welcome and it looks incredible.

I found the story and atmosphere in SH2 amazing but all the interior levels were super repetitive with exact same floor layouts. SH3 was the same and I didn't finish it. SH1 has amazing pacing and level design and I'm enjoying it so much.

I haven't play Silent Hill since I first did it very early on in my gaming life. I'd enjoyed RE2 and RE Directors Cut so I was ready for another dose of survival horror but SH was almost a shock. Its disturbing atmosphere, weird enemies, that claustrophobic slow encroachment of the darkness and ever present fog meaning you can get lost very easily - nothing like it at the time. A genuinely new experience.

It was never pretty though and even real fans have said they'd love a REMake like update.

SH2: addressed the graphics issues adequately, maintained the atmosphere, the music and general presentation were excellent and it did not disappoint with the story either. I've always considered it a positive improvement and as such one of the best survival horror games of that generation and, arguably, in the top ten of all time.

SH3 I played much later. Although in places it felt like going over old ground again ie. had few new ideas I didn't mind that at all. It didn't feel stale and if it was just more of the same it still held my attention right to the end.

[Zaki]

64th Street amazing!

[phillv85]

I was playing some Brutal Sports Football on the Amiga CD32 today. I forgot how bad the frame rate is on that game, I thought I’d have to switch it off in the first couple of minutes, but I persevered and ended up playing it for over an hour.

[samanosuke]

Fair play mate, I don’t know how anyone can use a CD32 pad for more that ten minutes without developing rheumatoid arthritis, never mind over an hour!

[phillv85]

Haha, must admit my left hand feels like a crab claw now. It’s certainly not one of the best controllers, but I’ll be damned if I’m spending £70 on one of those competition pads to play crap like Dangerous Streets.

[Leon Retro]

I was playing some Brutal Sports Football on the Amiga CD32 today. .

I bought it for the Jaguar a while back and it plays pretty well. I've had a lot of fun with it.

I just looked on LemonAmiga and one of the reviews for Brutal Sports Football mentioned that the A500[OCS] version runs better than the slow AGA version. So that's why it runs badly on the CD32.

I wonder if the OCS version can run on a CD32?

[CAPCOM]

Rampart on the Megadrive via emulation...its bloody impossible to get past the third area even on beginner...however it is addictive and I am getting closer each day...did the arcade machine not have trackballs? Such a simple concept like tetris mixed with crossbow and catapults...has there been an updated version of this anywhere or anything similar? Underrated classic.

Playstation Network 2007 no longer available...arcade version available on Midway Arcade Compilation for Gamecube PS2 and XBOX.

This little bit about strategy sums it up well.

"Within Rampart each element of the game interacts with the others in subtle ways. It is generally easier to capture an unowned castle than repair the wall around a starting castle, but without the benefit of the home castle's cannons the player will have a tough time. Building close to the water will allow the player better aim, and to get more shots off during battle (each cannon may only have one cannonball in the air at once), but enemy ships will also get more shots and castles close to the water are more vulnerable to grunts. Building more cannons gives the player more shots in battle, but once placed cannons cannot be removed, and too many cannons can make it almost impossible to survive a repair phase. These tradeoffs give Rampart its charm but also make the game difficult to master."

Playing the arcade version via MAME on a RG350M might be fun plus I just read about Hostile Tides a smartphone game.

[Ghost]

Just one stage left and I have finished Shinobi on the PS2. Must say I enjoyed it quite a lot, its not perfect; the lock-on camera can have issues, especially with some of the later bosses which makes fighting them very tedious. I remember at the time of release people were expecting a sega ninja gaiden game on the PS2 and were disappointed that it was nothing like it. The areas in this are much narrower and theres more of an emphasis on close quarters combat and using the dash move to chain combos. How was the sequel?

[phillv85]

Yeah I've got the Jag version, I haven't played it for a while, but I remember it being quite a bit smoother.

I've never delved into non-PC computer hardware before, but just having a look now, I didn't realised there was so much variation in it.

[chopemon]

Just one stage left and I have finished Shinobi on the PS2. Must say I enjoyed it quite a lot, its not perfect; the lock-on camera can have issues, especially with some of the later bosses which makes fighting them very tedious. I remember at the time of release people were expecting a sega ninja gaiden game on the PS2 and were disappointed that it was nothing like it. The areas in this are much narrower and theres more of an emphasis on close quarters combat and using the dash move to chain combos. How was the sequel?

I played Kunoichi recently. The soundtrack is great! It has a bit more exploration/platforming than Shinobi and the combat felt a bit better. I think I remember it feeling snappier than Shinobi, like they shortened the transition animations down so it was a bit faster.

[Leon Retro]

did the arcade machine not have trackballs?

Yeah, it uses a trackball. I played the Mega Drive version ages ago and was really bad at it. I'll give it another go and see if I can get to grips with it.

I've never delved into non-PC computer hardware before, but just having a look now, I didn't realised there was so much variation in it.

Yeah, you have the original OCS chipset(A1000 & A500), ECS chipset(A500+ & A600), and the AGA chipset(A1200, A4000, CD32).

The graphically advanced AGA version of Brutal Sports doesn't run very well for some reason. Seeing the clock speed is double that of the A500/A600, you'd think it could have run even better. Something went very wrong with the development of the AGA version.

[samanosuke]

I've never delved into non-PC computer hardware before, but just having a look now, I didn't realised there was so much variation in it.

When you consider the A1000 was released in 1985 it’s understandable why there would need to be newer revisions/chipsets. People tend to overlook that when they attest that the Amiga hardware was teh suck compared to the SNES or a mid-nineties Pentium. That it would be compared to those later machines in the first place is testament to how revolutionary it was. To put it into perspective, the Amstrad CPC was released just a year prior and the Sega Master System the same year.