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Messages - Ben

#1
I wanted to pick up on the issue of composite and NTSC Genesis consoles.  All of the Sega consoles through the Saturn, meaning the Master System and Genesis/Megadrive also, do native RGB output. If you live in a European country you may have a SCART input on your TV, in which case it's the way to go.  If not, you can get RGB to component converters (which is what I use).  I personally use a CYP brand converter with component input, you can see Joe Redifer demonstrate one in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip6WuOvK8EU
The only issue with those is that it's hard to find a dealer in the U.S. but there are plenty of European dealers.  I snagged mine directly from their website when they still did direct orders, but they don't anymore.  There are a bunch of other brands of these, but I've read a lot of mixed reviews so I'd grab a CYP if you can find one cheap enough.
#2
Quote from: "TrekMD"Wasn't this game supposed to be ported to the 7800?
I *believe* it was in beta when it was cancelled and I know that it leaked online several years ago because I fired it up with MESS.  I found a short video on Youtube someone made of the 7800 version running in MESS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkLK1sWHMuw

As an Atari and Sega guy it drives me crazy seeing some of these cancelled games, the 7800 had so much potential.
#3
Retro News & Chat / Re: Retro VGS: New Retro Game Console
September 26, 2015, 15:09:09 PM
Quote from: "zapiy"Not through a lack of trying, more a lack of understanding the demograph they are going for.
That was always my problem with it and I think it hurt equally as much as the price jump along with Indiegogo.  In the U.S., I could buy for $170 (just under the original cost):
For $80 a refurbished small form IBM ThinkCentre that could emulate any console through the 32 bit era easily running Linux or a BSD.  I could then buy a high quality USB gamepad to go with it for around $40.
For $50 a quality used Dreamcast with controller I could obtain new indie/homebrew games for + plus play native Dreamcast games and even emulate some older consoles.

The reason to back it would be for exclusive retro style games and the cartridge format, if that is really important to you.  I don't really care too much about disc vs. cartridge but I would have been up for a new "retro" console with exclusives.  $300 for what was looking more and more like a console that wouldn't have exclusives and that I could achieve more or less the same with using a refurbished PC + Dreamcast at $170 just doesn't make a lot of sense.
#4
Commodore Chat / Re: Amiga CD32!
September 26, 2015, 14:57:32 PM
Quote from: "WiggyDiggyPoo"The gamesack review annoyed me a little as although they were right in their criticism of the quality of the games against what the hardware was capable of and its relative obscurity I think they didnt really explore the reasons why.

I agree with you on that, but they're still 100 times better than the AVGN who will deliberately misrepresent consoles to make his videos work as rants.  I think the GameSack guys try to go into a console blind and that's good sometimes, sometimes not.  I remember a video awhile back where Dave got stuck in a game and gave up rather than look up info online, I'm not sure when they are trying to re-create experiencing a console like back in the day or are just tight on time.  Metal Jesus is probably my favorite reviewer because of that, he will consult people who know more than him about obscure consoles and try to give historical background.  He did one of the more even handed Jag reviews, hopefully he'll get around to the CD-32 at some point.

I enjoyed the video overall though, it's definitely the best CD32 review I've seen.
#5
General Retro Chat / Re: The NEC PC-FX
September 26, 2015, 14:35:45 PM
If you guys ever take a notion to do it, you can pick up enough Japanese to play through most games with some cheap study at home resources.  Rosetta Stone will teach you basic conversational proficiency along with hiragana and katakana and there is an RPG called Project LRNJ you can get for a $20 download fee that teaches most of the common kanji you need to know to play JRPGs.  Rosetta Stone disc only versions are pretty heavily discounted now because they're switching to an online model like Adobe to combat piracy so the older versions are a great deal, the only issue with it is that it teaches by immersion and you might get stuck picking up the grammar.  There is a Youtube Channel called Puni Puni Japan that covers most of the basic grammar you can use if you get stuck and you could always buy a grammar dictionary to go along with it, there are a bunch of free software kanji dictionaries so buying one of those isn't really necessary.  A few good links:

Puni Puni Japan - https://www.youtube.com/user/PuniPuniJapan
Project LRNJ - https://lrnj.com/
Kanatest (kana learning tool) - http://clayo.org/kanatest/
Kanatest for Windows - http://sourceforge.net/projects/delugeb ... /kanatest/
Tagaini Jisho - Kanji dictionary plus study tool - http://www.tagaini.net/
Exhaustive list of counter words if you get stuck - http://www.tofugu.com/guides/count-anything-japanese/

The one thing I'd mention about Rosetta Stone, I've helped a few people I recommended it to that got stuck in the past, and what tends to lose them is when it introduces counter words.  The Japanese language is really weird in that they have somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 different counter words and they have weird variations on those words by context.  An example would be counting people; you use -nin, but only for three and up.  One person = hitori two people = futari three people = san-nin four people = yon-nin, etc.  You just have to know hitori and futari. It gets more complicated, like with animals you use -piki for 1,6,8,10 -biki for 3 and -hiki for everything else.
#6
Retro News & Chat / Re: Retro VGS: New Retro Game Console
September 21, 2015, 03:29:30 AM
Quote from: "TrekMD"It is at $59,507 right now.  They still have 44 days left but, at that pace, it seems unlikely it will reach the $2 million mark.  I think going to Indiegogo is a factor that is not helping.
I have to agree, I make a point of never backing anything on Indiegogo.  I wasn't too thrilled with this console when it was planned for Kickstarter, since I still hadn't seen a good explanation of who the target audience was and they kept expanding the plans for it with retro console emulation. At this point, I think it makes more sense and  it would be preferable to just keep backing more Dreamcast homebrews since it's a given they'll get release if funded and I at least won't have that much money on the line if something doesn't work out.
#7
General Retro Chat / Re: The NEC PC-FX
September 21, 2015, 01:09:53 AM
Quote from: "zapiy"Is there not a way to get that raw data? So you can do one anyway?
It varies by console and your knowledge of coding.  Princess Crown for the Sega Saturn has been translated for around 20 years and there still isn't a patch for the iso that I know of because of how hard it is to pull text from Saturn games, the original translation was done by someone playing through the game and taking screen caps which were then used to do the translation.  By comparison, there are software utilities you can download to dump text from quite a few SNES games.  That's why there aren't too many SNES games left untranslated at this point but the Saturn's amazing JRPG library remains untranslated entirely.

I'd be interested to hear from someone who knows more about the NEC PC-FX, I have no idea about how hard it is to get text out of those isos.
#8
Retro News & Chat / Re: Controversial Games
September 14, 2015, 03:31:01 AM
They were weekly for a long time, but got away from it.  They've been putting out a video every Sunday again recently, so maybe they're back to that pace.  Anyway, I enjoyed that video, the only thing they left out was all of the controversy over light guns.  That's why we went from the awesome Zillion gun:

to this on the Saturn after those hearings with Joe Lieberman:

to the Dreamcast not having an official gun in the U.S. due to Columbine.  That's why Japan got a pack in House of the Dead 2 with a gun, but we didn't.
#9
I enjoyed the DC video a lot Pixel, it always interests me to see what games people like the most.  Giga Wing was an underrated shmup for sure, it's nice to see it get some recognition.  If you ever get in the mood to collect Saturn imports, it has a huge number of excellent shmups as well.  It has some that are very cheap and some that are crazy expensive much like the Dreamcast, but some of the best ones aren't necessarily the highest priced.  I have a decent list of them in the Under-Appreciated Saturn Games thread if you ever want to take a look.
#10
Retro News & Chat / Re: Controversial Games
September 13, 2015, 22:38:40 PM
I'm setting down to watch this now, but does anyone know if they are going back to one video a week for their schedule?  It seems like they're knocking out videos at a pretty good clip again.
#11
I remember this being a huge deal on the Genesis, then all of the controversy with Michael Jackson caused people to forget about it.  I had no idea it was ported to so many platforms with so many variations though, the C64 and ZX Spectrum in particular surprised me.
#12
Sega Chat / Re: Underappreciated Megadrive/Genesis Games
September 13, 2015, 22:30:15 PM
Quote from: "deKay"Has anyone mentioned Junction yet? Sliding puzzle game with an armadillo in it. I think it was my first Japanese import, and loved it even though I struggled to get very far in!
I don't think anyone has and it's a good looking game based on the video I just watched.  It's fairly cheap too, I might have to pick that one up the next time I go back to collecting for the MD.
#13
Retro News & Chat / Re: Happy National Video Games Day!
September 12, 2015, 22:02:40 PM
Someone should try to advertise this as an Independent Games Shop day, similar to the Record Store Day that has helped spur vinyl sales.  I've noticed that since retro gaming has gotten hot, a lot of chain stores have started popping up and really put the squeeze on independent stores.
#14
I've been going through my Saturn import collection again lately, trying to find good games to add to that list of under-appreciated imports.  I did find another one that is playable, but I don't think it's all that good really, so I won't add it to the list.  It's called Keriotosse!, it's kind of like if Bomberman met Power Stone.  It's an okay game, but the Saturn has a lot of great multiplayer titles already. 
[spoiler]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jTgdh8T4Vg
[/spoiler]
#15
Introductions / Re: Greetings!
September 12, 2015, 06:19:52 AM
Welcome Bart.