The Bill's Now Playing Video Game Thread (Now with Bames)

[THE KILL]

Let me recommend arcade games to you again, especially bullet hell shooters from the late 90s and 2000s.

16-bit Jap Shmups are the best form of entertainment invented by our species. I'll never, ever, ever get sick of those games, and the graphics have aged like fine wine too.

You said you had a Mega Drive growing up, didn't you? So, Thunderforce 4, the Aleste games, and maybe Gleylancer? I did play the 16bit SNES shooters like Axelay and R-Type 3, but bullet hell games like Dodonpachi are where it's really at for me... I must have sunk thousands of hours into Cave's games (but I still suck at them - my single greatest achievement is making it halfway through level 5 of Dodonpachi Daioujou).

[The Bill]

Let me recommend arcade games to you again, especially bullet hell shooters from the late 90s and 2000s.

16-bit Jap Shmups are the best form of entertainment invented by our species. I'll never, ever, ever get sick of those games, and the graphics have aged like fine wine too.

You said you had a Mega Drive growing up, didn't you? So, Thunderforce 4, the Aleste games, and maybe Gleylancer? I did play the 16bit SNES shooters like Axelay and R-Type 3, but bullet hell games like Dodonpachi are where it's really at for me... I must have sunk thousands of hours into Cave's games (but I still suck at them - my single greatest achievement is making it halfway through level 5 of Dodonpachi Daioujou).

I rather like the 2.5 era of Shumps. Daruis G, Raystorm, Einhander… It’s thee biggest reason why I continue to fiddle around with PS1 emulation when not counting Symphony of the Knight or Metal Gear. That fucking huge laser whip you get in Raiden DX is a true definition of the word EPIC.

[THE KILL]

I rather like the 2.5 era of Shumps. Daruis G, Raystorm, Einhander… It’s thee biggest reason why I continue to fiddle around with PS1 emulation when not counting Symphony of the Knight or Metal Gear. That fucking huge laser whip you get in Raiden DX is a true definition of the word EPIC.

That is one generation of shmups I completely missed. Well, still so many games to look forward to when I finally get around to playing them!

Talking of which, this thing might be of interest to some of you:

... a HAT for raspberry pi that will output an RGB signal via SCART and VGA/ Dsub. If you use the most recent Recalbox version with it, it will automatically choose and output the correct original resolution, which, when used with a CRT TV, is supposed to make emulation indistinguishable from playing on real consoles. We'll see how much lag it will introduce though; I remember getting a raspberry pi around eight years ago (I think I installed retropie on it, can't say for sure though), and the amount of lag was so ridiculous that it made the games unplayable for me. I'm not one of those sissies that complain about a lag of a frame or three, but with the rpi it wasn't a vague feeling, you could see the delay between the button press and Mario jumping.

[The Bill]

Scanlines were just a graphical band-aide developers used back in the day. Personally, I find filters like HQ4x or xBR on emulators to be far superior. Maybe because I’m a fan of painting and art versus photography that I prefer a vibrant/blended look.

[spacehamster]

You said you had a Mega Drive growing up, didn't you? So, Thunderforce 4, the Aleste games, and maybe Gleylancer?

I actually bought a Mega Drive again last year. Sadly the NTSC compatibility mod doesn't seem to be all there, it runs Japanese cartridges, but not perfectly. Which is all the more frustrating because I actually had a modded Japanese MD as a kid that ran fine. But yeah, Thunderforce III/IV and Musha Aleste always have been and always will be the absolute shit. I'll never get sick of these games.

In other news, I bought a PS5 today. I had to pick up a stupid bundle with a second controller I don't need and a 1TB SSD that I'll probably end up sticking into my PC instead, but I was so thrilled to finally find an available one that I bought it anyway. The backwards compatibility means I can get rid of my PS4, and I just can't live without my Sony exclusives, even though there aren't that many anymore.

But... I set it all up, excitedly fired up the PSN store to buy the Demon's Souls remake (which, let's be honest, is the real reason I just blew an insane amount of money on this stupid console) annnnd... I'm getting an error. Downloading a game I'd already paid for on the PS4 works fine, but I can't buy anything new. LOL.

So I'm going to fire up my PS4 and get done with Spider-Man now. I refuse to install this on the PS5, finishing this one was supposed to by my PS4's last hurrah before it disappears into the basement. Sigh.

[spacehamster]

Correction: I just had to buy it on the website and initiate the download from there. And that's my weekend cancelled.

[THE KILL]

Scanlines were just a graphical band-aide developers used back in the day. Personally, I find filters like HQ4x or xBR on emulators to be far superior. Maybe because I’m a fan of painting and art versus photography that I prefer a vibrant/blended look.

Not sure what you mean by that, but my stance is that pixel art is an art form that was developed for CRTs, which is why they look like shit on modern LCDs. Not saying you shouldn't prefer the filters you mentioned (personally I think they look horrible), but have you seen a console hooked up via RGB to a high quality CRT? Nothing beats that. Also, with the powerful rig you have, you could use HLSL shaders at least for MAME emulation:

I actually bought a Mega Drive again last year. Sadly the NTSC compatibility mod doesn't seem to be all there, it runs Japanese cartridges, but not perfectly. Which is all the more frustrating because I actually had a modded Japanese MD as a kid that ran fine. But yeah, Thunderforce III/IV and Musha Aleste always have been and always will be the absolute shit. I'll never get sick of these games.

Huh. Which mod did you do? Have you tried one of them switchless mods? I did that on my German MD2, and it works flawlessy with every game from any region... you have to do a bit of soldering, though, but it's completely doable even for beginners.

[spacehamster]

Huh. Which mod did you do? Have you tried one of them switchless mods? I did that on my German MD2, and it works flawlessy with every game from any region... you have to do a bit of soldering, though, but it's completely doable even for beginners.

I bought it modded on an auction website, no idea what's been done to it. There's two switches, and one seems to switch from 50 to 60 Hz and the other from NTSC to PAL, but it's behaving pretty unpredictably. I dunno, soldering's a bit above my pay grade at the moment, I'll just live with it for the time being.

[The Bill]

Talking visual esthetics is obviously an opinion game. Due note that even my PC is plugged into a big ass widescreen TV. So, scanlines are probably way more obvious then on my dinky little tv I had as a kid. Another reason I don’t care for straight up square pixels. They’re these huge squares and they freak me out, man. The companies that put out compilations like Sega or Capcom know this, thats way their software comes with a filter. Now, not any old filter will do, especially the older ones that blur and distort. The new ones I use do voodoo magic and perfectly blend while remaining sharp and actually “pop” the colors and details. I tell you, it is a game changer even on the PS1.

[THE KILL]

Eh, each to his own... but switching on scanlines is only a rough approximation of what an image looks like on a CRT. There are even some graphical tricks (waterfalls and such) which only worked because pixels weren't sharp on CRTs.
I'm also not too fond of square pixels... fuck them...

[The Bill]

I have actually been playing Witcher 2 again, after all. So strange. I’m getting one shot killed. Especially by the poisonous huge bug things in the forest. Honestly, don’t remember this being a thing. Also, I need to get into the manual save habit, as I’ve now had to replay at least 2 hours worth lost to instant death and lack of save.

After that, in a few weeks I think I want to do some old school RE and Silent Hill play throughs.

[The Bill]

Witcher 2 is amazing. Completely different outcome from how I handled the first fight against the “king slayer”. Now theres a huge party for my in town.

[spacehamster]

Witcher 2 was one of those games I replayed so autistically because of the different plot variations that it's really a bit embarrassing in hindsight. The best part was that I lost all of my saves before TW3 came out, so I couldn't even import them.

Anyway, Demon's Souls remake is fucking amazing. I think I'm almost as pathologically addicted as I was the first time in 2009.

[The Bill]

I’m going to have to add Arena First Person Shooters to the list of new gaming fads like Souls-like and Rouge-like/lite that I just don’t like anymore. Looking through upcoming FPS’ers and they’re mostly arena shooters. Yes, Doom 2016 was cool and all, but shit like Half-Life is superior. Honestly, all three of these fads are fucking lazy.

[spacehamster]

I'm taking a break from the Demon's Souls platinum to finally play the 2018 God of War game, right on time to find out there's a PC port and this is not, in fact, an excuse for the PS5. But it does run at a buttery-smooth 60 fps and looks fucking great.

I did remember why I lost interest in this game when it first came out, though - the combat REALLY takes a lot of getting used to. It's meant to be slower and more methodical than in the old games, but initially it just feels clunky and weird because the camera's so close to Kratos. It didn't really click for me until sometime around the end of the elves level. For some reason the story really sucked me in this time, and something about that and the puzzle solving is making this super addictive.

It's also kind of funny how it initially feels like a totally different game, and then the more you play it, the more you realize that it's totally a God of War game in absolutely every way.

[Chigurh]

Beat Metroid Dread. Harder than I expected, and good

[The Bill]

2018 God of War

That’s the only God of War game I’ve stayed for the whole ride and finished. Even so, I doubt I’ll replay it. These God of Wars and Devil May Crys and so on, I look on them as the children of the Final Fights, Double Dragon, Turtles in Time…. Beat ‘em Ups with combos and a RPG system of some description tacked on. Loved Final Fight, back when. Bores me to tears now. Another victim of age. I HATE having to do combos. And I pretty much wont (thereby also removing Fighting Games (MK, SF2) from future play as well). Okay, I’ll still play Bats Arkham what have you, but that’s an different bird in the flock. I mean, even a Zelda or Witcher has a chunk of “Beat ‘em Up” in their blood. But the pure breed? Just tires me out and I never comeback after I get the initial taste.

Jesus, I’m becoming such a cranky bastard.

Meanwhile, I got the Chapter 3 of TW2. I know letting baldy live adds to TW3, but I really do hate that bastard.

[The Bill]

I had been very slowly playing through Super Ghouls n’ Ghosts (Snes) since Halloween. Finally beat it. Or so I thought. It does that bullshit “now replay it with this weapon for the real ending” the first game had.

I HATE Super Ghouls n’ Ghosts!


Anyone know of a good rom hack download site? I know they have hacks that are easily available but you have to modify the rom yourself. I can’t be bothered with all that. I used to be able to find already English patched Japan only Snes game roms. Now I can’t find that, damn you.

[cxwx]

Lol. I'm pretty sure every version of ghouls n ghosts/ ghosts n goblins does that. I had the Genesis version. An angel does give you a pretty badass holy fireball weapon when you start the game over at least.

[The Bill]

Finished Witcher 2 AGAIN! This was the first time was sble to collect all the chapter 3 fancy weapons & gear. Wonderful maroon set. Or is it burgundy? Powerful it made. Crushed Letho in seconds.

This of course means I re-downloaded 3. Will slowly mod it, so it doesn’t have issues like my last attempted play through. Meaning, I need a different game first. RE0 vs Silent Hill vs Metal Gear Solid (PS1) I think.

[spacehamster]

That’s the only God of War game I’ve stayed for the whole ride and finished. Even so, I doubt I’ll replay it. These God of Wars and Devil May Crys and so on, I look on them as the children of the Final Fights, Double Dragon, Turtles in Time…. Beat ‘em Ups with combos and a RPG system of some description tacked on.

Never really thought of that, but yeah, makes sense. I can't really make it through a classic Beat 'em Up anymore either, but it's mostly just because they're always clunkier than I remembered them being and it just isn't any fun if you're mostly fighting the controls while you're being attacked from all sides. And that's the big difference with the GoW games, you can tell they playtested these fucking things until everyone lost the will to live. The first one was a bit janky at times, but then Sony just decided to throw all the money at these games and it seems they hired an entire special ed school full of autistic children to beta test them until they were perfect.

Couldn't really ever get into Devil May Cry except the reboot game with the emo kid that everyone hated. The others are just too Anime for me. It's like, hey, here's God of War, but gay.

[spacehamster]

Anyway, finished God of War, back to work on the Demon's Souls platinum. I forgot how much harder NG+ is. Sigh.

[The Bill]

After several days of careful modding and learning from past mistakes I think I’ve got Witcher 3 up and running as good as mods can improve it to my desired effect. It looks a hell of a lot better than I remember especially the lighting and I’m not using a reshade or lighting mod. I do have a weather mod, perhaps that’s doing something. Oh, I am using the nVidia thing as well. Anyhow, here we go again. Hopefully no quest retarding bugs that stopped my last 2 attempts.

[The Bill]

Man, I’ve never played nor finished most of these. The contra clones look cool. I should get on this. I should do a lot of things:

[Eight Bit Alien]

Man, I’ve never played nor finished most of these. The contra clones look cool. I should get on this. I should do a lot of things:

The SNES had some great software, I'm a sucker for anything which looks/feels like this. I've given most of these at least a taste.
I will tell you an odd disappointment I had - that Terranigma game felt pretty boring. I'm not sure if I just didn't get far enough in, but it seemed like the same simple gameplay loop over and over. The graphics really were incredible though, pretty cool to look at.