The Nintendo classic (not so) mini thread

[Nico87]

I only play on real hardware except for the SNES Mini. The only reason I bought GB/GBC and GBA EverDrive’s is because I couldn’t be bothered to swap cartridges when playing short bursts of different games, which in turn helps preserve the cardboard boxes. I can also save at any time I want. I wanted JP collections of said systems and there’s a good amount of games which have gotten fan translations that I’m now able to play in English. I don’t have a single game on either of my two EverDrive’s that I don’t own a physical copy of.

I managed to put the idea of a SFC collection to bed fairly quickly. Decided on a moral middle ground solution - only add games which I also own on Wii/3DS Virtual Console! I removed some games that I didn’t want, such as Star Fox 2, Super Street Fighter II, Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts and Kirby’s Dream Course, and added Mega Man X2 and X3, Do-Re-Mi Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, The Legend of the Mystical Ninja, and DKC 2 and 3. I better go to heaven when I die

[Leon Retro]

and added Mega Man X2 and X3, Do-Re-Mi Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, The Legend of the Mystical Ninja, and DKC 2 and 3.

Do-Re-Mi Fantasy and Mystical Ninja are enough to secure you a place in retro heaven.

If I set up a retro machine, say the Saturn, I will usually keep playing it for a week until I pack it up again and move on to something else. It's always nice to use real hardware, but it's easier to explore all sorts of games using the Raspberry Pi on the TV in the living room.

[Nico87]

Does anyone know how to enable scanlines on the 4:3 mode on the NES Classic with Hakchi CE? From what I’ve gathered the magfilter command doesn’t work?

[samanosuke]

The missus was working late last night so took the opportunity to give the SNES Mini a run on the living room plasma. I don’t get to play it that much as I have a SNES/CRT setup in my gaming room and the living room TV is always in use for silly things like TV programmes.

Anyroad so I figured I’d better get back into Super Metroid and, dang, I haven’t a clue where I am or what I’m supposed to be doing next. Been too long since I last played it so I guess if she’s late again tonight I’m going to have to start over again.

As a side note I really do like the 8bitdo wireless controllers and find them the perfect complement to the SNES Mini, making a retro system truly modern. If it had online play as well then how marvellous it would be!

[Leon Retro]

Does anyone know how to enable scanlines on the 4:3 mode on the NES Classic with Hakchi CE? From what I’ve gathered the magfilter command doesn’t work?

I had to use RetroArch to get a sharp image with scanlines - the Magfilter option doesn't work.

Here's Importaku's guide how to install RetroArch and set things up:


Right now you have hakchi hopefully running it's time for settings tweaks, the first important thing is to install the retroarch cores so you can play unsupported games that use currently unsupported mappers. first you need the retroarch with cores zip file from here.

https://github.com/ClusterM/retroarch-clover/releases

With hakchi up and running and your mini connected to your pc drag the newly downloaded retroarch with cores zip file into the hakchi window it will bring up a menu asking which cores you wish to install if you are not bothered you can leave them all checked but the only one you really need to be installing is the retroarch one. Once you have selected what you wish to install follow the instructions and let it write them to your console. Now you have the power to play unsupported games, the retroarch core contains 2 nes emulators fceumm and nestopia. When you add a game that is unsupported hakchi will warn you of such and ask if you wish to continue, it will automatically now use the fceumm emulator core instead of the built in one however i have discovered the fceumm is not that good for some games as for example using it to run Gimmick the sound will stutter pretty badly at random points where as using the nestopia core it has no problem at all so i would use nestopia for all games that the built in emulator can't run.

To make any added game use retroarch insted of the built in emulator you can use either
--retroarch --core nestopia (recommended to use this one)
or if there is a game that isn't working nicely then try the other
--retroarch --core fceumm

the commands are entered into the command line option above the box art window, you can also do other things in here like adjust the individual volume of games and a whole pile of other things. Here in this example on Gimmick im using the nestopia core, remember to leave a space in between commands.


Now when you have a game running using retroarch you can open the retroarch menu in game by holding in start & select, it's time to change a few things in these menus. Firstly we need to change the colour palette to something that matches the colours of the built in official emulator.

Press B to back right out to the front of the menu then goto
quick menu > options > select palette and then use left & right to scroll through till you get nes-classic-fbx-fs and then select it.

now it's time to turn off the sprite limit so you don't get flickering when the screen gets busy, it's optional but it's a nice thing to have on.
quick menu > options, and scroll down to select remove 8 sprites per scanline hardware limit & enable it

now retroarch has a nice scanline filter thats activated when you select the analog tv mode in the main console tv options screen, it's a bit like the snes mini but if you want to make them pin sharp instead of having a bit of a blurry bilinear filter effect theres an opton to turn it off.

goto
main menu > settings > video, then scroll right down to the very bottom there is an option called bilinear filtering just turn it off.

Once you are done playing with the settings just select quick menu & resume to go back to your game. The settings will be remembered across all games that you have specified to use the retroarch nestopia core. If the start and select menu is annoying and you want to disable it then there is an option in the retroarch menu under settings > input but it's not recomended as once you disable the only way to get it back is to uninstall the retroarch cores from the hackchi modules menu and then reinstall them to reset all the settings. Also do not play around with the extra video filters in retroarch as i have no idea how to get the original one back so soon as you play around and exit it will save that setting so it's best to leave it as.

[Leon Retro]

Anyroad so I figured I’d better get back into Super Metroid and, dang, I haven’t a clue where I am or what I’m supposed to be doing next. Been too long since I last played it so I guess if she’s late again tonight I’m going to have to start over again.

I always get lost in Metroid style games, so I end up quitting due to frustration. It's why Symphony of the Night wasn't my cup of tea.

[Leon Retro]

I put Super Tetris 3 on my SNES Mini. It's such a great game for puzzle fans. The mode called 'Sparkliss' is my favourite, so that's what I would recommend to people new to the game. The graphics and music change every couple of rounds, which keeps things interesting. It's a really addictive game with nice graphics and catchy music. I've been a big fan of these games from Bullet Proof Software since back in the day when I imported the first version.

[importaku]

I put Super Tetris 3 on my SNES Mini. It's such a great game for puzzle fans. The mode called 'Sparkliss' is my favourite, so that's what I would recommend to people new to the game. The graphics and music change every couple of rounds, which keeps things interesting. It's a really addictive game with nice graphics and catchy music. I've been a big fan of these games from Bullet Proof Software since back in the day when I imported the first version.

Usually i play tetris battle gaiden for my tetris fix on super famicom not really thought to try the others out there, decided to give that one you posted a whirl. Suprisingly fun, magicliss & sparkliss do add some new variety to the standard game. Does the colour change from rotation in magicliss do anything? noticed you can cycle through the colours if you keep spinning.

Had a bit of a goemon blowout this weekend, battled my way through the first 2 on famicom then went through the first 2 on super famciom and finally for dessert i did 2 of the gameboy ones, the very first (Ganbare Goemon: Sarawareta Ebisumaru) and very last one. The last one (Ganbare Goemon: Hoshizorashi Dynamites Arawaru) is pretty impressive for a handheld goemon game it plays very similar to the 2nd super famicom one hell it even has impact battles. Don't have the time to do the RPG ones this weekend but im slowly replaying my way through a couple of those in between my other gaming sessions as they are fun.

Love having all the best goemon games together in collections like this, minus the steaming turd that is Ganbare Goemon: Kurofune Tou no Nazo on gameboy, that one is the only crap goemon game on nintendo platforms the rest of the crap ones thankfully were on ps1.

[Nico87]

After a lot of back and forth, this is my final SNES Mini games list:

Original:

Contra III: The Alien Wars
Donkey Kong Country
EarthBound
Final Fantasy VI
F-Zero
Kirby Super Star
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Mega Man X
Secret of Mana
Star Fox
Super Castlevania IV
Super Mario Kart
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
Super Mario World
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island
Super Metroid
Super Punch-Out!!

Added in:

Chou Jikuu Yousai Macross: Scrambled Valkyrie
Chrono Trigger
Cosmo Gang the Video (thanks to importaku)
Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest
Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong’s Double Trouble!
Do-Re-Mi Fantasy: Milon no DokiDoki Daibouken
Flying Hero: Bugyuru no Daibouken
Ganbare! Daiku no Gen-san
Ganbare Goemon 2: Kiteretsu Shougun Magginesu
Ganpuru: Gunman’s Proof (thanks to importaku)
GS Mikami: Joreishi wa Nice Body
Hagane
Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius
KiKi KaiKai: Nazo no Kuro Manteau
Magical Pop’n
Mega Man X2
Mega Man X3
The Great Battle IV
The Legend of the Mystical Ninja
The Ninja Warriors Again
Wonder Project J: Kikai Shounen no Piino

[Nico87]

Usually i play tetris battle gaiden for my tetris fix on super famicom not really thought to try the others out there, decided to give that one you posted a whirl. Suprisingly fun, magicliss & sparkliss do add some new variety to the standard game. Does the colour change from rotation in magicliss do anything? noticed you can cycle through the colours if you keep spinning.

Had a bit of a goemon blowout this weekend, battled my way through the first 2 on famicom then went through the first 2 on super famciom and finally for dessert i did 2 of the gameboy ones, the very first (Ganbare Goemon: Sarawareta Ebisumaru) and very last one. The last one (Ganbare Goemon: Hoshizorashi Dynamites Arawaru) is pretty impressive for a handheld goemon game it plays very similar to the 2nd super famicom one hell it even has impact battles. Don't have the time to do the RPG ones this weekend but im slowly replaying my way through a couple of those in between my other gaming sessions as they are fun.

Love having all the best goemon games together in collections like this, minus the steaming turd that is Ganbare Goemon: Kurofune Tou no Nazo on gameboy, that one is the only crap goemon game on nintendo platforms the rest of the crap ones thankfully were on ps1.

Which controller are you using with your Nincade board?

[importaku]

After a lot of back and forth, this is my final SNES Mini games list:

Original:

Contra III: The Alien Wars
Donkey Kong Country
EarthBound
Final Fantasy VI
F-Zero
Kirby Super Star
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Mega Man X
Secret of Mana
Star Fox
Super Castlevania IV
Super Mario Kart
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
Super Mario World
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island
Super Metroid
Super Punch-Out!!

Added in:

Chou Jikuu Yousai Macross: Scrambled Valkyrie
Chrono Trigger
Cosmo Gang the Video (thanks to importaku)
Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest
Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong’s Double Trouble!
Do-Re-Mi Fantasy: Milon no DokiDoki Daibouken
Flying Hero: Bugyuru no Daibouken
Ganbare! Daiku no Gen-san
Ganbare Goemon 2: Kiteretsu Shougun Magginesu
Ganpuru: Gunman’s Proof (thanks to importaku)
GS Mikami: Joreishi wa Nice Body
Hagane
Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius
KiKi KaiKai: Nazo no Kuro Manteau
Magical Pop’n
Mega Man X2
Mega Man X3
The Great Battle IV
The Legend of the Mystical Ninja
The Ninja Warriors Again
Wonder Project J: Kikai Shounen no Piino

A solid selection of games there Nico. maybe swap out that horribly dumbed down & censored version mystical ninja for it's japanese version instead. The western version is horrible.

As for the nincade board, i have yet to pick one up but i'm planning to. I have a 8bitdo snes blutooth controller thats sat here unused so it will be a good choice to use on it.

[Nico87]

A solid selection of games there Nico. maybe swap out that horribly dumbed down & censored version mystical ninja for it's japanese version instead. The western version is horrible.

I’d do it in a heartbeat if I could read Japanese

[Leon Retro]

Suprisingly fun, magicliss & sparkliss do add some new variety to the standard game. Does the colour change from rotation in magicliss do anything? noticed you can cycle through the colours if you keep spinning.

Sparkliss is my favourite - I love the music and graphics. In Magicaliss you cycle the colours to match them up with the same colour to wipe the blocks.

Love having all the best goemon games together in collections like this, minus the steaming turd that is Ganbare Goemon: Kurofune Tou no Nazo on gameboy

I might try out all the Goemon games, except for Kurofune.

I’d do it in a heartbeat if I could read Japanese

Maybe there's a English translation hack for the first game. I will look around. I know there are for other Goemon games on the SFC.

[Nico87]

Maybe there's a English translation hack for the first game. I will look around. I know there are for other Goemon games on the SFC.

None of the SFC ones have translation patches as far as I know. Aeon Genesis is working on the second game but the progress is only at 40%. There are translation patches out for three Goemon FC games though.

[importaku]

Seems weird that they haven’t been translated considering some of the crap that has been given fan translations over the years. The first sfc goemon was released over here as mystical ninja, but it’s a crap translation stripped of all its wordplay jokes & charm plus calling them kid Ying & dr yang the worst kind of insulting dumbing down, gone are the weird funny stuff like ebisumarus farting dance sideshow and the strip shows along with food items been replaced with western stuff to make it easier to understand for those fragile western minds. I remember eagerly waiting years for it to be released in the uk and been gutted what they did to it when I finally got to play it. Still pisses me off even now, it was one of the final straws that pushed me abandoning domestic gaming and going to importing.

The first game is easily playable in Japanese the only tricky part is the town where they speak a totally different language, all you need to do is buy the dictionary from the shop then talk to everyone, they will give you the clue to the secret passage which is you just go to the palace courtyard and bash the crap out the yellow statues as some have passages behind them which will lead you out the level.

Goemon 2 is pretty much playable too. 3 & 4 are pretty tricky though and need guides for certain parts due to the language barrier, must admit goemon 4 has me stumped for a while when I first played it.