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I was just thinking about this, and why Sunsoft don't get more love, specifically their fighting games.  Waku Waku 7, Galaxy Fight and in particular Astra Super Stars (probably my all time favorite fighter, either it or KoF 97').  Team SANTACLAUS especially were underrated, and I don't see them mentioned much anymore (granted, not making games will cause that).  Hardcore Gaming has a great retrospective on these:  http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/sunsoftfighters/sunsoftfighters.htm   I'd also throw out Journey to Silius and Gimmick as very underrated Sunsoft games on the NES, especially for their soundtracks.

So with that in mind, who are some of the defunct, or just downtrodden developers/studios that you feel are worth remembering?

*Honorable mention for Atlus here, the only reason I didn't pick them is that they seem to be on the radar recently.

Reminds me I still haven't played Pier Solar.

I bought it for the Genesis, and I have to say that while it was good for a homebrew, I wasn't that wowed by it from a gameplay standpoint.  I think it relies more on the self aware humor and genre callbacks, and if you're into that sort of thing it's probably worth your while.  I'm more of an old school dungeon crawler fan, and am kind of burnt out on these ironic, self aware sort of games, so it just wasn't meant for me so much.

I am stoked about Elysian Shadows though, I'll be keeping my eye out for it if a physical release materializes.

I could swear a couple of those kids were featured in a documentary about arcade games I saw on Hulu a year or two ago, maybe someone else knows the one I'm talking about?  Cool video also, thanks for posting it!

I have to say, I always felt like Conker's Bad Fur Day was the spiritual successor to Mr. Nutz. 

I am a HUGE Turrican fan, can't believe I just noticed this.  Anyway, I have a couple of questions to submit:

1. How do you feel about writing music for games today, when consoles rival most consumer grade audio equipment, as opposed to the 80's and early 90's when the hardware posed a real limitation?  Does no longer having to factor in how your tracks sound via MIDI change the writing process, or is this something you have ever had to consider for that matter?

2.  As someone who is regarded as one of (if not the) best Western videogame music composers, are there any Japanese composers who you admire (Yasunori MItsuda, Nobuo Uematsu, etc.)?

Not one game so much, but for Squaresoft, I did.  I was always a Sega guy, but finally picked up a SNES for FFVI, and I bought a PSX solely in anticipation of FFVII (and didn't bother with an N64 since Squaresoft dumped them).  That ended with the PSX, though, by FFIX I felt like they had lost their luster a bit, and when Hironobu Sakaguchi left I was pretty well done with Square.

My crushing disappointment is all of the fantastic Saturn games that staid in Japan, specifically the RPGs.  I actually think the Saturn had a superior RPG library to the PSX, such a shame.   

Mine would all be older, this is one of my gripes with games since the 32 bit era.

1. Xenogears - PSX - I love philosophy, sci fi, and religious themes, and this game has them all.  My all time favorite RPG.
2. Shadowrun - Megadrive/Genesis - One of the few RPGs outside of Japan with a great story, another cool sci fi one in the near distant future.
3. Phantasy Star IV - Megadrive/Genesis -  Another great sci fi storyline, not as deep as the first two, but still great.
4. Kartia - PSX - Very underrated PSX RPG, set in a medieval/fantasy environment.  It defied most of the genre conventions and gave a more plausible explanation for how magic could work in a fantasy setting, plus had a conflicted heroine and non-depressed/emo male protagonist.
5. Final Fantasy VII - PSX - It's easy to hate on this one because of all the horrible add on content that came later (Advent Children), but the original game did have a fantastic sci storyline dealing with ecological issues.  I just pretend everything else never happened when I play it, now.

The real issue is the cost in building a console like you're describing, retromod.   It's not as simple as adding those outputs to a console using real hardware, it would require the addition of a built in scaler at the very least to work with modern HDTVs.  So let's look at a quality scaler, like the XRGB-3, that supports all the outputs you would need:  http://www.amazon.com/Micomsoft-SCAN-CONVERTER-XRGB-3-Japan/dp/B000WLXOU0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1400791740&sr=8-1&keywords=xrgb-3  Conservatively, it retails for $300-400.  If I am going to spend upwards of $200 for an Atari console with the same components, why not instead just buy an old 2600 for $50, pipe it through the XRGB-3, and then have the XRGB-3 for all of my consoles, LD player, VCR, etc.? 

*For more on why a scaler is necessary, check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip6WuOvK8EU

Looks really interesting.  I'm a big fan of the Dreamcast homebrews, I just wish more of them made full use of the hardware, it looks like this game comes closer to that than a lot of the other recent ones.  Definitely will pick it up when/if it comes out.

I posted this in another thread about IPs, but I think they are going to do it, a Steam Machine is the best possible answer.  http://www.pcgamer.com/tag/steam-machines/  It would be built with off the shelf hardware, as all the others, and so the makers of these are going to be looking for ways to differentiate.  With it already being a box running Debian GNU/Linux, why not just go ahead and include a built in Atari emulator, a couple of USB joysticks for playing your pack in games, and maybe a few 3d classic recreations (a la Tempest 2000 and Defender 2000) to sweeten the pot?  Then style it to look like a classic Atari console, or arcade game cabinet, something like that.  Just my two cents.

This might be the cliched answer, but I have to go with Tempest 2000.  That, to me, was the last console game I played that truly captured the spirit of classic arcade gaming, and was really Atari's swan song along with Defender 2000 (which I like a lot, just not quite as much).  The music also is another factor in going with Tempest 2000, granted Minter didn't compose it.

Pretty nifty article over at Ars Technica, I really want to hit up this place someday. http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/05/a-visual-tour-of-galloping-ghost-the-largest-arcade-in-the-usa/

If you live in the Chicago area and are a fan of classic arcade games, you really need to visit Galloping Ghost. The arcade is open from 1pm to 2am daily and offers unlimited gameplay for $15, a fact that would have blown my mind when I was 14 years old. Galloping Ghost boasts over 400 games, from classics like Galaga, Pac-Man, and Donkey Kong to really obscure titles such as Super Zaxxon, Wild West Cowboys of Moo Mesa, and Blasteroids. Ars Deputy Editor Nate Anderson and I spent about four hours wandering around and revisiting childhood memories. The only old game I had been looking forward to playing that wasn't there was Moon Cresta.

 

One of the best STGs ever my friend.

Cool.  I'll have to look into it, then.  Here is what arrived for me today...

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GREAT pick ups!  One of my all time favorite Megadrive games, my 2nd favorite 32x game, and Mercs is a great game also.  I don't know why Gunstar Heroes doesn't get mentioned more often, although you could say that about all of Treasure's stuff.

I just thought I would bring this up, as this really bothers me.  IMHO, the best USB gamepad ever made for emulators is the Sega Saturn USB gamepad done by Sega's ST Labs circa 2004.  I bought one years ago, but it has worn out, and they now sell for $80+ on ebay!  There are some junky Play Sega branded controllers you can take board out of and put in a vintage Saturn controller, but you're either going to pay crazy money or break out a soldering iron to get one of these now.

So here's my question:  Why aren't Sega selling these?!  The ebay/Amazon prices show the demand is there, why not produce them?  Maybe Sega could try a Kickstarter, even?