dvertov

Shantae and the Seven Sirens. It's not bad. Very Super Metroid-y. Probably not gonna bother to 100% this one for a while, though.

Ah, I've been looking at the RetroTINK-2X, but the HD60 is the piece I've been missing. Any complaints at all about that one? I was hoping not to have to spend that much on equipment because I'm not sure how much I'll use this thing, but I don't want to half-ass my way into a poor quality setup and end up having to pay more down the road if I go that direction.

I'm looking into doing some video capture for streaming and recording a/v from NES / Famicom via composite video for a few projects... I've worked with plenty of video but I've never done analog capture before, so I'm curious what everyone else had luck with. I typically use Adobe Premiere for any video work. Price point isn't a huge concern but I'd like to stay under $100 on any new equipment, if possible.

I'll tell you a little secret... Many of us who grew up in that era also sucked at these games. If I got through Bowser's castle once on SMB I was having a good day, and the three or four times I managed to make it all the way to 8-3 (just to get slaughtered by Hammer Brothers, of course) I thought I was some kind of Nintendo God. In fact, I didn't beat the first SMB for the first time until I was in my late 30s. But yeah, I'm curious to see how my kids' interest in NES changes as they get older and the games hopefully become more accessible.

I have the Turbografx version and I think it's great. I've had none of the issues with lag that I've seen some others complain about, and the unit itself is very high quality. I do wish it came with a power supply, but if you're buying from Amazon.co.jp you can pick up the official Hori AC adapter with your order and shouldn't have any problems with that.

My kids are still too young to really grasp the concept of "retro," so to them they're all just games, whether it's the shiny cartoon-looking stuff we play on the Switch or the chunky graphics of the games on the "other tv" (the CRT where I've got my NES hooked up). My son likes Mario Kart 8, but he also likes Mega Man (or at least, he likes to watch me play it). My daughter loves modern tennis games, but she also enjoys a few rounds of Donkey Kong or Pac-Man. Granted, a lot of the old stuff is never going to appeal to them -- I don't expect them to start asking to play Dragon Warrior anytime soon -- but the pick-up-and-play games especially still draw plenty of interest. Also, I kept my post about NES or earlier because I don't find SNES games to be a very hard sell at all with younger generations, especially when they look so much like a lot of the "retro" style indie games that are already popular at the moment.

It was a good response!

I'd like to hear others' experiences with playing NES or earlier-era games with young kids (maybe 6 and under), especially if you've had any luck where you didn't expect to find it. Personally, I feel most NES games are too hard or unintuitive to keep my kids' attention, especially when they already have plenty of modern games designed specifically for their age group on our phones, tablets, Switch, etc. There are exceptions though, and sometimes they're surprising. For example: my five year old son's favorite game to play right now is Smash TV on the NES. Since it's a dual-stick game, I can take the controller doing all the movement, and he gets the one with the firearms. So the first time through I spent 10-15 minutes running around like a nut while he figured out the controller. After a few levels he got the hang of it, and now we can usually get through Mutoid Man together. This has basically taught him how to use a directional pad. I'd appreciate responses drawn from experiences with actual children, not what you think a child might hypothetically enjoy if you had to play a game with one. Like, I know we all cut our teeth on Super Mario Bros, so "why not start there?" But watching my daughter's frustration / boredom after running into that first Goomba on 1-1 twenty times in a row made me realize I'd need a gentler approach for these... uh, modern sensibilities. So what are your thoughts?

I've always had good experiences with retroprotection.com. I like that they have information about protectors for odd shapes like Famicom boxes, since I collect a lot of those as well.

I sure as hell have, but thanks very much. If it's anti-Trump to expect my leaders to set an example for good behavior during this crap -- at the very least, better behavior than I expect from my own five-year-old -- then I am absolutely anti-Trump.

This is the event. No masks, no distancing, not following Trump's own health organizations' most basic guidelines. I am not the president, just a guy in the middle of the US. My county is under a mask ordinance and if someone tries to enter my business looking like this my staff is instructed to bar them from entering (I am tougher than most business owners and we get a lot of "f**k yous"). My grade-school kids haven't seen the inside of a school building since March and even they have learned to wear masks when they leave the house. The WHO didn't cause the president and his staff to treat this disease like a bunch of reckless idiots, and demonstrating this kind of behavior empowers more carelessness among the public, which makes my job harder and continues to spread the disease. So yeah, it is a big whoop.

Knocked these out of the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection: Chopper I, Ozma Wars, Munch Mobile, Time Soldiers, World Wars, and Sasuke vs Commander. Also, I wasn't sure from the comments if Ikari Warriors I or II still needed to get crossed off the list, so I beat them both. By my count 21 of the 24 games in this collection are now complete. The three left are Alpha Mission, Paddle Mania, and Athena. I cannot bring myself to play any more broken-ass old SNK so I am leaving those three to someone else. In particular, the arcade version of Athena was the most hateful, sadistic asshole of a game I have ever played, and apparently the NES version is somehow worse. Good luck and Godspeed to whoever takes on that one.

It's a standard NES case from https://www.customgamecases.com/. They aren't quite as durable as a Sega MD case, but I've had several for a few years and never had a problem with them. Just don't drop them on concrete and you should be fine (I knocked a chip out of one like that once).

All versions of SimCity prior to the 2013 disaster (OG, 2000, 3000, 4) helped teach me a ton of skills I still use every day, like budgeting and planning. Once I was old enough to grasp the idea of generative systems, I also got a lot out of learning how the different elements of the game connect. Understanding that one small change early on can have huge impacts far into the future is useful for anyone to know, and these games offer a great way to conceptualize how that happens.

Welcome from Twitter! This is a good community.

I'm all over this. The games look great, and I've already been having a ton of fun with the Cozmic Collection Arcade release.

Welcome!

Is that still frankensteining, or is that historical reconstruction??

I've been waiting to get one of these all year, and now that they're announced, I'm just... meh. The portability of the Switch has ruined me for these new consoles. Believe it or not my old PS3 is still the hub of my home media center, and amazingly that still works fine for Netflix, Prime Video, and dvds, the only thing the rest of my family still uses it for. I'll upgrade eventually (probably once my daughter starts ragging me about not having Disney+) but it's not as much of a priority as I expected.

I know, just throwing those out there if anyone wants to sell a copy.

I’ve been a mostly cart-only NES / Famicom collector but I’m looking to add a few black box and miscellaneous CIBs. I only buy what I’m going to play and I’m on a budget, so as much as I can admire a WATA-graded copy of Stack Up I am passing on those for now. Rev-As, oval seals, no inserts, etc are fine. I will also entertain box + cart or box only as I already have a lot of the carts and I can usually find manuals elsewhere. I have not bought or sold on VGS before, but here's my 100% positive rating on eBay. Condition: Decent but not necessarily mint. I really just want something with a clean spine that looks good on a shelf. If you’ve got backup copies to offload, I may be your guy. Black Box CIBs – Will consider any offer, but preferred titles are: Kung Fu Tennis Pro Wrestling Gyromite Mach Rider Soccer Wrecking Crew Ice Climber Konami CIBs Stinger Gradius Blades of Steel Life Force Double Dribble Jackal Homebrew CIBs Eskimo Bob Lucky Penguin Get Em Gary On a side note, I am also looking for Konami mail-away posters from those 1980s NES promo inserts.

Just backed for a CIB copy. Three things really sold me: the demo, the art style, and the "kids mode." I would love to see more devs follow your lead on that last one. Pretty much anything these days that says "AND you can enjoy this with your kids!!" will get me pulling out my wallet.

I took a break from 1980's SNK to play through Darius Cozmic Collection Arcade. This collection has four main titles: Darius, Darius II, Sagaia, and Darius Gaiden. There are extra variants of Darius and Sagaia included but the changes are minor enough that I don't think they're worth counting. This set was a real breath of fresh air after slogging through the worst of those broken old SNK shooters. Now back to work on that one...

Not according to Hardcore Gaming 101. The Japanese version was released in 1990, the NA version in 1991. They wrote a good article about it: http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/power-blade/

Power Blade for the NES was originally Power Blazer, starring a wimpy Mega Man knock-off. Not only did the character get turned into a badass Schwarzenegger knock-off instead, but the gameplay was changed to make him significantly more powerful, the levels and bosses were redesigned, and a lot of quality of life improvements were added.