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

[Leon Retro]

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. .

Yeah, it was truly amazing tech for 1985. It's just a huge shame that the next gen AGA chipset wasn't cutting edge when it was released in late 1992.

The Amiga, in capable hands, can compete well with the Mega Drive and SNES. There are plenty of games that attest to this with their excellent graphics and sound. It's just a sad fact that a lot of Amiga games fall down in the gameplay department.

It's easy to see that a next gen Amiga in 1992/1993 that could have run something like Doom really well, would have kept the brand relevant through the '90s. Just imagine if all those Doom style games -- Heretic, Rise of the Triads, Shadow Warrior etc.. -- had kept the Amiga brand alive with the most relevant genre of the '90s. It would have been similar to what the A1000/A500 did for 2D games.

The Amiga brand could have survived because it was a big thing in the UK and across Europe. But bad management sealed its fate. Then expensive PCs took over and gave people the sort of games that the AGA chipset couldn't run well.

When I think of the Amiga brand, it's all about what the A500 delivered. Such a great machine.

[Leon Retro]

I played the patched version of Gradius 3 for the SNES, which uses the SA-1 chip. The 10MHz chip does wonders for the game, so it feels silky smooth to play. Also, the excellent music and meaty sound effects still impress me. Such a great game.

As much as some devs managed to overcome the machine's slow clock speed, it's still a huge shame that the clock speed wasn't at least 7MHz. When you think of what the SNES could do with graphics and sound, Nintendo should have chosen a reasonably decent CPU to make the overall architecture really impressive. 3.5MHz was too slow for an early '90s machine, but at least it didn't hold talented devs back too much.

The guy behind the patch has also released SA-1 patches for Contra 3 and Super Mario World.

[CAPCOM]

Looking at these graphics and some others plus videos I really need to check out the arcade version as the detail on the cut scene graphics and in-game is much improved...plus the speed of play.

Would love a new arcade internet-enabled version of this during covid lockdown with mass 16 player battles over multiple giant maps. Somebody get on it.

[Cepp]

Day 5 of Parasite Eve. Still love the look, sound and atmosphere. The writing isn't too hot honestly, but the setting is cool AF. I feel a bit overpowered with all of my upgrades and I'm pretty much near the end of this chapter. I just need to figure out how to get through this 4th floor door to Eve to have my boss fight.

[Hirst]

I've been tinkering with the PS2 lately and after a lot of issues with broken pads, I'm now back into actually playing it. Currently alternating between Space Invaders Collection (which has turned out to be a surprisingly entertaining diversion) and Outrun 2006 (which looks incredible in 480p widescreen mode through the OSSC).





I prefer short arcade experiences nowadays, they fit into my life better.

[Cepp]

Had to beat the final boss (who has 4 forms) three times on Parasite Eve tonight, due to some post fight in-game cutscene garbage that results in instant-death. Quite a frustrating way to finish an otherwise excellent game.

[fallenangle]

I'd forgotten how long that final PE boss fight was. Just looked at a YT video of it and reminded myself of the trouble I had too.

Chrysler Building now unlocked? That's challenging too.

[S3M]

Started back up on Shining in the Darkness on MegaDrive, still never not around to finishing it despite having doing Shining the Holy Ark and being a huge fan of the series, hence my handle name. Certainly has a lot of old school RPG issues, but it's a solid dungeon crawler it's a shame Camelot aren't still making Shining games.

[samanosuke]

Started back up on Shining in the Darkness on MegaDrive, still never not around to finishing it despite having doing Shining the Holy Ark and being a huge fan of the series, hence my handle name. Certainly has a lot of old school RPG issues, but it's a solid dungeon crawler it's a shame Camelot aren't still making Shining games.

Funny you just started a Shining game as I’ve just started one myself: Shining Force CD. Had the game in the collection for years but never really given it the time before now. Really enjoying it so far and I don’t mind at all that it doesn’t have towns/NPCs like the cart versions do.

[S3M]

Funny you just started a Shining game as I’ve just started one myself: Shining Force CD. Had the game in the collection for years but never really given it the time before now. Really enjoying it so far and I don’t mind at all that it doesn’t have towns/NPCs like the cart versions do.

It's a collection of two of the three Game Gear games with extra content, excellent stuff, but yeah all the town section are just single screen shops being it was intended for handheld release first. Need to finish playing through CD myself at some point. Along with the Final Game Gear title Final Conflict, which links SF1 with SF2.

[vanpeebles]

Started back up on Shining in the Darkness on MegaDrive, still never not around to finishing it despite having doing Shining the Holy Ark and being a huge fan of the series, hence my handle name. Certainly has a lot of old school RPG issues, but it's a solid dungeon crawler it's a shame Camelot aren't still making Shining games.

The little choon what plays at the tavern is wonderful.

[Cepp]

Playing a bit of everything tonight. You know what its like when everything's been in storage for donkeys and you suddenly have room to set it all up again? I've got two PCs, a CRT monitor and TV, my NES and PSX all going. I'll finally be able to set up the motherboard [MENTION=3621]Hohum[/MENTION] sold me a while back now to test out as well.

[Hohum]

Glad to hear you got it sorted!

[dataDave]

Gran Turismo 4.

I've never played it before. It sure holds up. I can't imagine graphics being able to go much further within this resolution.

To also think that it has a 1080i mode!

[dvdx2]

Gran Turismo 4.

I've never played it before. It sure holds up. I can't imagine graphics being able to go much further within this resolution.

To also think that it has a 1080i mode!

I remember playing it in 1080i through the old blaze vga cable for the ps2 - it did look rather nice