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

[Baseley09]

Such a relief when you see real Daytona, my local arcade has replaced it with that Daytona 3 abomination, it's hideous.

[Hirst]

Such a relief when you see real Daytona, my local arcade has replaced it with that Daytona 3 abomination, it's hideous.

I’ve only ever seen that once, didn’t look great!

Other survivors included Manx TT (coin mech broken), Time Crisis 4 (one gun out of calibration), F355 Challenge (all gears broken except 2nd and 5th) and a Sega hunting game I forgot the name of but I played it once at Orlando International Airport and it wasn’t much special. Everything else more-or-less was a ticket machine or the latest Raw Thrills junk.

[randombs]

I spotted an Outrun 2 arcade cab at Heathrow airport last month.

It was battered beyond belief. The steering wheel was wonky; the gear stick didn't work so I was stuck in 1st gear (why didn't I just choose automatic??); and I couldn't adjust the seat at all.

1/10 worst 2 quid I've ever spent

[fallenangle]

Started Doom 3 RoE on the original Xbox last night - starting to enjoy it.

Only annoying thing is the torch/flashlight and weapons' swapping system which I know was considered flawed in the original game too. The amount of pistol ammo you find seems to dwindle very quickly and so the pistol stops being any use as a weapon which means it is essentially just a torch/flashlight.

You need that a great deal of the time so the weapon swapping system needs to be fast and reliable. It isn't..........it swaps between the last two weapons which means if you've been using the Grabber it'll swap to that rather than a more appropriate weapon you actually have the ammo for.

On Auto select, which I don't use, it will swap to the last weapon you picked up. Not helpful.

Apart from that a solid enough horror/sci-fi shooter I think.

EDIT 24.07.23
Finished this last week, not that long to complete but I liked it as far as it went. It is very linear though and there are few reason to explore beyond the primary route as there is usually no reward for doing so.

Not that tricky either and I could have gone up from the 'Normal' difficulty setting without it getting too annoyingly hard for my taste. Only the second to last area stretched me (a dozen tough spawning enemies) and that was actually harder than the final boss fight which felt anti-climatic because of that.

However I as I enjoyed in general I think I might go back and try Doom 3 itself on original Xbox too.

[Hirst]

I spotted an Outrun 2 arcade cab at Heathrow airport last month.

I saw one at Manchester Airport T1 last time I was there, but it was at the gate and I’d already got a deal on a lounge, so by the time I saw it I was already in the queue to get on. Ruined the entire holiday.

[randombs]

I saw one at Manchester Airport T1 last time I was there, but it was at the gate and I’d already got a deal on a lounge, so by the time I saw it I was already in the queue to get on. Ruined the entire holiday.

Next time, just assume it's as battered as the Heathrow one and you can enjoy your holiday

[Baseley09]

Been on Side Pocket for megadrive, I'm absolutely sh!t at it but love its charms, determined to get a little way into it.

[Hirst]

Been on Side Pocket for megadrive, I'm absolutely sh!t at it but love its charms, determined to get a little way into it.

Great entry in a series I really like, I love the music (and the sound test screen with the palm trees). Best advice I can give is that the physics are slightly weird and rely heavily on using “English” to follow/draw, but it doesn’t really work exactly as physics do. Don’t be afraid to jump the ball over stuff too.

In Greece in the 90s, loads of bars would have the slightly ruder spin-off Pocket Gal. Specifically a bootleg translated to English with the copyright hacked about so it says Yada East instead of Data East. Some of the locals were absolute wizards at it.

[Baseley09]

It's a rad one, played the arcade game a bit as a kid deffo under the radar - cheers I never even looked at the manual didnt realise there was another set of shots, just trying out that chip shot - will take some getting used to but opens up a new world.

[Colin]

Sat down with a steely determination that I was finally going to beat Rayxanber III on the PC-Engine, a game I've never managed to finish. Put a good few hours in to a good few runs. And failed. Again.

[Goemon]

Sat down with a steely determination that I was finally going to beat Rayxanber III on the PC-Engine, a game I've never managed to finish. Put a good few hours in to a good few runs. And failed. Again.

The game has infinite continues doesn’t it? Where were you getting stuck?

[samanosuke]

Been on Side Pocket for megadrive, I'm absolutely sh!t at it but love its charms, determined to get a little way into it.

Yeah, Side Pocket is great even though the physics are kinda whack.

Me, I’ve been playing Sim City for the SNES and it’s fookin’ great. Never played the SNES version before but played the hell out of the Amiga version BITD. I love how the SNES version has upgraded graphics and added features yet retains the simplicity of the original game. I can’t be dealing with any Sim City 2000 or anything like that - far too much depth for my liking - so the original on SNES is a nice balance.

Inspired by England’s performance today, I’ve also been playing a bit of Brian Lara on the Megadrive. Set up a 20/20 England Vs Australia and was out 9-10 in just five overs. Ouch! Had to play a couple of games to get in the swing (geddit?) of things and doing a bit better now… at least reaching double figures in an innings

Now got to find another retro gamer who also likes cricket to set up a two player match… not sure I’ll ever get to try it with the maximum four players! It’s aged pretty well for a sports title, I’ll give it that.

[Colin]

The game has infinite continues doesn’t it? Where were you getting stuck?

Going for one credit clear.

[dataDave]

Yeah, Side Pocket is great even though the physics are kinda whack.

Me, I’ve been playing Sim City for the SNES and it’s fookin’ great. Never played the SNES version before but played the hell out of the Amiga version BITD. I love how the SNES version has upgraded graphics and added features yet retains the simplicity of the original game. I can’t be dealing with any Sim City 2000 or anything like that - far too much depth for my liking - so the original on SNES is a nice balance.

Inspired by England’s performance today, I’ve also been playing a bit of Brian Lara on the Megadrive. Set up a 20/20 England Vs Australia and was out 9-10 in just five overs. Ouch! Had to play a couple of games to get in the swing (geddit?) of things and doing a bit better now… at least reaching double figures in an innings

Now got to find another retro gamer who also likes cricket to set up a two player match… not sure I’ll ever get to try it with the maximum four players! It’s aged pretty well for a sports title, I’ll give it that.

LOL! I don't give a **** about the cricket but I've been thinking of booting up Brian Lara lately as well.

Super International Cricket was always our go-to, but it's very easy to exploit.

[Goemon]

Going for one credit clear.

Ah, this makes more sense. I chased that one too but eventually settled on using one continue for the final stage.

Massively underrated shooter IMO. It fetches a princely sum but every review I’ve ever seen rates it pretty low. Shmupjunkie, who I really like, put it in C tier for his PCE shooters list.