koifish

Or worse, they turn into steam library tombstones. This is a problem for more and more games going forward; the final fantasy crystal chronicles remake being online-only multiplayer is another example coming up. The gamecube original is still just as playable as it was in 2003, but the same won't be said of its remake once the playerbase dries up and the online services close down.

Not to mention they will likely involve the similar process of heavily recycled assets. The biggest change I would say from those two examples has to be complexity, and it can't be understated. There is a lot more going on in breath of the wild than in the 64 Zelda games. This is almost universal across the board for these games, the laundry lists get longer and the games get harder to finish. Even the infamous horse shrinkage in red dead 2 was likely a non-trivial task; Add another thousand things like that and any game will take that much effort.

This, I bought a PS4 and sold it, and my switch is on the chopping block too. My PS3 exists for Netflix. This is funny though, as the target audience really is kids, I think, or at least, people without jobs. I laugh about it, just because no AAA company would ever listen to me, they'd go bankrupt!

I think that Nintendo is also less pressured by the push to release a big game. There are several factors for this, the first of which is that Nintendo makes their own hardware and software. They can control additional elements that 3rd parties, even ones closely aligned with other companies, cannot match. Likewise, Nintendo also has a very privileged status in the gaming world, in the form of being their own "big fish in a small pond." Nintendo is its own ecosystem; Even though other developers or companies are bigger, Nintendo makes software exclusively Nintendo, and they also use their privileged status as both creator and owner of the platform to make sure that their games stand head and shoulders above the other games on the system. This has been a tradition of Nintendo's operation for decades; They have, with few exceptions, given themselves a privileged status and positioned 3rd parties as second-class citizens in the Nintendo ecosystem, through giving them less information on development methods, less resources for development, pricing out of cartridges, etc. Through this and through careful brand cultivation, they also maintain a strong reputation and a loyal following, which continues to buy their hardware, software, and merchandise. There is also another privilege enjoyed by nintendo, that is, that they control their pricing and distribution. For many stores or digital platforms, the host takes a cut of sales, around 30% usually. This is true for big box retailers as well as for steam and the console platforms (I believe epic games store breaks the mold here and does a dramatically lower percentage, as incentive to developers to release there). Nintendo, assuming they move product digitally, pays no dues to anyone, whereas the same is not true for 3rd parties. Another, bigger element, is time. Many big 3rd party devs these days are publicly traded and depend on making their shareholders happy to continue making things go. Shareholders don't care about the subjective concept of game quality, they only care about hard numbers. Telling your shareholders that your big money project is going to take another year likely means a bad turnout for stocks and an unhappy investor base. Nintendo, in this space, enjoys two advantages. The first is that they have a strong record of good financial returns. Even during the desperation of the Wii U period, they were demonstrating sustainability and had a history to fall back on to mitigate investor distrust. Furthermore, Nintendo enjoys the fortune of being in a more consumer-friendly country. Japan and the United States are both investor-based corporate economies, but the United States investment world has a bigger reputation for being cutthroat, and for being investor-focused, whereas Japanese companies and investors tend to focus more on the consumer value created. I admit this is based more on what I have been told by potentially biased individuals, but the expression I have heard from Japanese is that "We invest in American companies, because they care most about their shareholders. We buy Japanese products, however, because those companies care most about their customers." This to me, taken at face value, seems to indicate that a company like Nintendo would be less pressured than, say, Naughty Dog, to release games on time and before critical market periods (holidays for example). Valve is another company that benefits from time, as they are essentially profiting infinitely off of other people's work, and thus do not have to make anything at all if they don't wish to do so. This is a dream come true, and is all but impossible for other developers. Thus, they must grind to get their gruel and cannot afford to sit in place. Another aspect of time is in Nintendo's products and their tendency to have legs in the market. Many games come out and sell the majority of their units in the first week, with dramatic dropoffs in the following weeks. Nintendo (and actually, some Indies more recently) games tend to be "slow burners" that come out and continue to sell for long periods. This is aided further by Nintendo's seemingly endless hold on their game's pricing; Surely you too have seen that Nintendo games tend to stay at full price for months or years after they release; By comparison, even games like Death Stranding or Last of Us 2 were being sold at reduced value within weeks or months of release. I will freely admit that this is not based on research but on my own experiences, and that I have no reason to suggest I am an authoritative source for these insights. That said, I feel this is a good set of observations to help explain why so many companies strain and struggle when others can afford an easier pace.

TOSE and T&E Soft are my picks. Both have had a big role in some personal favorites. I'm also fascinated by artdink and WARP and I'm trying to get to the point that I can play them. Also, sirtech for their gift of frustration that is wizardry.

Glad that my Ivan Stewart strat helped you. Jeopardy has some horrific design. You can get a few 1000 dollar questions right in the first round and then just set the game down; the AI will never fail to answer questions wrong and defeat their own progress. I may be exaggerating as it has been over a year since I conquered those games, but that's how I remember it going down. It was better that way tbh, actually playing the game was not very fun.

The sad reality seems to be that on many of these games, the animations and the character dialogue ARE the core of the game

I've got the game and watch bug. I want to specifically get the games that never got remade or pre-release on GB/GBA/DS. Condition just needs to be decent and fully working, without need to be complete, unless otherwise stated. That said, better condition is preferred. Here's what I'm looking for: Mario's Cement Factory (Tabletop) Donkey Kong Jr. (Tabletop or Panorama) Mario's Bombs Away (Panorama, I'd like top condition with box) Mickey Mouse (Panorama, top condition with box ideally) Life Boat Bombsweeper Gold Cliff Zelda Popeye (wide screen) Snoopy Tennis (wide screen) Balloon Fight (I want new wide screen AND Crystal screen, but I prefer opened ones. I want to play them, not stare at them on the blister pack I realize some of the stuff here is a bit expensive, so understand that I don't expect to buy them all at once. More like, if you have one or two you want to let go, then drop me a line. Condition-wise my priority is this: 1. It has to work, no compromises! 2. I'm happy if the artwork is in good shape 3. It's nice if the original battery cover is still there but it's not a requirement. That said, I do prefer a battery cover is there even if it isn't original. I'm willing to buy first and foremost, that said, I'm also looking to trade my nintendo switch and associated games/accessories. Mine is a hacked launch model (the earliest model number series) and I don't have the box anymore, but I do have two sets of joycons, two comfort grips, a 3rd party dock (one of the case mods for the original dock that puts it in a smaller body), the cables and chargers, a USB controller adapter (use Xbox and PS3 controllers on switch), a USB Ethernet adapter, a switch pro controller, and later (September) can add to this copies of smash bros ultimate and Mario odyssey, and a sealed copy of deadly premonition origins. The switch also has a screen protector on it. The internal memory is only 64gb, but that's trivial to upgrade these days. Let me know if you're interested, I would trade for probably either several of the "average" units above, or 1-2 of the really rare/valuable ones (Mickey Mouse panorama, Crystal screen balloon fight). Hope that wasn't too much info. If you have any questions about the switch or if you have models you want to show me then drop me a line. Thanks all, peace!

I know it's not really thread-accurate given the comparison between the thread title and this, but as for games with great trailers/prerelease but bad actual releases, I was pretty much prime target for Smash Bros Brawl, and the hype that game served up for the two years before launch could never prepare me for how much slower the pacing was on it, and how imbalanced some of the characters were, and how many "lol free kill" items were added. The whole thing was really a hard experience after spending years playing melee. Definitely a disappointing memory.

Oh, super easy. This game trailer burns a permanent marker in my mind: I remember this trailer coming out to a decent amount of hype, only to present an absolute turd for the "big reveal". The final game was pretty awful too. And then of course, this one got pretty famous, especially humorous considering the sonic twitter then parodied it, allowing us to come full-circle.

Forgive me for being "that guy" but I wanted to bring up a realization, a sort of "aha moment" I had recently, about trading cards. What I don't get is, so many people I know who play TCGs have spent tons of money buying or building decks, or spent a lot to get the main meta cards for a set, only to drop them like hot garbage for the next meta deck and to repeat the entire process once new cards come out/old cards get retired. What I don't get is, if they are just pieces of paper, then what's the point of buying them at inflated prices? Just print them off at home and stick em in sleeves, maybe with a cheapo card for backing, and it's functionally identical. I am aware this is a known practice (with some name I don't remember) but I feel that I almost never see people do it. I don't know why. If you are going to a tournament then fine, buy the real things, but what are you doing spending hundreds on cards if you aren't going to a tourney? If it is just for friendly play, then your official cards have no difference other than their price. I have brought this up recently with people, and the first (and only) argument I received against it was that it was enjoyable to open packs of cards, specifically for drafting, or for the surprise of what you would get. I would counter that you can draft just fine with a computer; Roll some dice to simulate which of the random pulls you would get in the pack and you have already achieved the same effect (give me numbers for common/uncommon/rare per pack and a given set of cards and I could whip out a computer program for this in under an hour). As for the joy of opening a pack, I admit that I too have a fondness for the memories of the feel and smell of a newly opened pack, but is that really worth the premium associated? Personally, I feel like people are overvaluing this sensation. I would like to hear other opinions however.

Love this movie, and John Carpenter works in general. Probably at my top of his selections next to Halloween. I would even go further than pure "unrestrained capitalism" and assign it the value of "anti-colonialism", it rather cleverly demonstrates the harm that can come out of subjugating another sentient population, and I found it particularly amusing that it presents it in such a way that even those in countries that largely benefited from colonial activities can side with the good guys and recognize the value behind the message (if you go even further, you can even draw from the terraforming goals of the aliens an environmentalist message as well). Ignoring my "death of the author"-laden reading into the plot, I also think the creatures are great, the use of black and white for the shades view gives a great throwback to classic horror/monster movies, while also offering a contrast that fits the message of the film, and I love their attitude and the comeuppance they receive. The tech is super cool, from the portal watch to the disguise units, and of course I can't deny how much the movie was an inspiration to the excellent Duke Nukem 3D. The action scenes are good, the story develops in a way that I like (my preference is to "slow boilers" over films that jump right to it), and it has a satisfying climax and conclusion that lets you think about and enjoy imagining it. I'm not sure who could do it justice, but I think that a modern "They Live" story, something that brought into it the rise of computer technology and its effect on society, would be an absolute treat. In fact, after seeing "They Live", I became suspicious that my computer and phone might be flashing subliminal messages at me! I absolutely think that this is a movie which needs to be seen and even re-seen, as a reminder of the very real evils which it hides in its otherwise cheesy action romp, and of course, a film that deserves to be watched just for the fantastic action and thrills. I happily give it a 10, definitely one of my tops, and the #1 reason I'm never afraid to mention that I'm all out of bubblegum.

Well I appreciate your offer lol. NES Freak reached out and suggested that the USB port might have busted, and he might be willing to help me out with it, so I'm not too worried. At worst, I can emulate the games on my quest, or just play mario clash until the end of time (a good fate to have IMO!). At the same time, I'm tempted now to buy a couple favorite games just to keep them on dedicated carts. At this point, I really should just invest in a permanent copy of games like galactic pinball, just cuz that game is such great fun. I'm not super knowledgeable about baseball or the games overall, but I do have a big niche interest in baseball games. From stratomatic and electromechanical pin games to the tabletop games and the early video games, the nature of simulated baseball has always fascinated me. I'm also a big fan of old golf games, though I admit NES Golf is one of my more challenging games to enjoy. I appreciate that it's a technical marvel, but the later famicom golf games are so much better that it's hard to enjoy the original by comparison. Anyway, if you're looking for someone to play and compare GB baseball games, or to offer comparisons to other games, then I would be happy to help. Just tell me more about the expectations (written review, video, some kind of rules-based criteria, etc.)

I feel that VB love. Was just playing it the other day, actually found out my Flash Boy cart might need repaired, but can't confirm until the weekend at the earliest. Baseball is done. After several unlucky finishes, beat the Bears 12-6. I feel like the game would be much better in 2-pilayer, but even then, Bases Loaded for GB is way, waaaaaaay better. Not sure why, only idea is that Baseball was a launch title, but Bases Loaded was a 1990 release, so not far off.

Indeed, casino should be okay. I was okay at the ones in Pokemon too. The Game-Killer Battleship Secret: The trick to solving battleship is that the enemy doesn't have truly random layouts to the boats. The game chooses ship layouts from a pool of possible pre-defined layouts, so while you don't know what the layout is when you start, it is pretty easy to figure out if you already have a map. That's how I realized it, I was playing the game in a second screen on my PC while working on other things, and inevitably I would get absentminded and accidentally launch an attack on a square that had already been scanned by sonar. Since sonar markers don't get recorded on the screen, I would forget the ship was there, or that I had spotted a ship. As such, I began using an excel spreadsheet to mark where things were, and afterward I would just move down to a new cell section to create a new map for the next level. Eventually, I started to see repeated patterns, and realized they were just reusing maps. It makes sense, given the limited scope of the game boy hardware, that a "true" random would not only be very impossible, but very taxing on the hardware to attempt. As such, they do what tons of games did over the decades, creating pre-defined sets of data to define the ship layouts. My trick is thus two-fold. 1. You gain a list of ship mappings from experience. 2. You use sonar in specific squares to identify what mapping you have. 1. I already have a ship map. Consult it in the attachments below. The 1 means it's a Hit, the 0 means it's a Miss. I color-coded it to show the ship outlines. It needs cleaned up (there are some incomplete maps early on, and some duplicates possibly as well) but is otherwise good to go. Maybe someone super-nice wants to clean it up for me to use in a GameFAQs listing? 2. What I found worked here was grouping ship maps into groups based on what the four center squares contained. If you use the square sonar, you can read the four middle squares. Note the pattern from hits and misses, and compare to the known maps. Any known that match it are possibly correct. This technique allows you to essentially cut the possible map group down to a 16th of what it was before (in theory; not every possible layout of four squares exists in the game). From there, just look at what maps have the same pattern of four center squares, pick out known ship locations from the map, and attack them in-game. If you get a hit, then you can confirm that map is correct. It only takes a few hits typically to find the right map. I would usually use one of the 5-shot spread weapons for this role, because you could hit multiple spots at once, and get more confirmations to prove/disprove which map you got in that level. You could also use another sub sonar, but I'm still debated as to whether it is a better idea to save your sonar for the end (in case it's a new map and you have to find the enemy sub, which is a pain in the butt once all your weapons are expended, and frequently this will be the case by the end) or if it is better to sonar in the beginning. I feel like it's better saved for the end, because the enemy is fast to kill your ships, but slow to kill your sub (barring extreme bad luck), so I would probably use guns first, sonar later. There it is, the game-crushing secret to beating GB Battleship. I give them credit, had I never been absentminded and not written them down, I would have never discovered the maps in the first place. Amusingly, I felt on some later fights that even with the maps I only barely won. The AI can really be brutal, and I wonder how far they tested the game as far as being able to be completed. I admit also, however, that I may have just had bad luck in some matches. Once you have the maps 100% down, and you confirm a map is being used presently, it's pretty easy to make swiss cheese out of the game. Some of my hardship was just not knowing the map yet. Perhaps now it would be easier, I leave it to someone else to give the game a try and report back on how the map treated them. game boy battleship map.ods

Thanks for reminding me, I still have my bombshell notes on Battleship if you're willing to see them. Just recall though, it totally changes the game, and may ruin it if you dig that authentic experience in the GB version. I started playing James Bond 007 and Baseball. Hopefully I will clear those without much trouble.

Vegas Stakes is done. Poker is the easiest money-maker. You have trouble at first because you have to play smart poker for most of the game. Trick the dealer, get them to lower their guard, make big gains when you can, bluff your way, etc. It is slow too because there is strict betting limit. Once you hit Laurel Palace, however, you have no betting limit. You still have to play scrappy to get the edge on the house at first, (you'll have 100k vs their 500k) but once you hit a million or two, you can then just steamroll the AI. They will rarely turn down bets, so all you have to do is learn when they will fold, then you can identify that they won't fold, despite all good judgment saying otherwise. In those cases, the dealer will always match you, even going all-in. All you have to do then, is make sure you have a really strong hand (or can reasonably believe you will win in high certainty) and then you just bet more than the dealer's total money. They will all-in immediately, the cards will be dealt out, and then (unless you read the situation horribly) you will bankrupt the dealer. You will be kicked back to the game select menu, but you can immediately go back to poker and the dealer will have another 500k to be drained. Just rinse and repeat about 20 times and you will beat the game. The final screens are interesting. In my case, I can't post all of them, because they involve your character name, and as with many games, I made my file name a curse word for laughs, and I'd prefer to keep this a clean thread XD Here is one of them though, found it interesting that Iwata was listed as executive producer. I suppose HAL did make these though, so maybe bgb00006.bmpit isn't as strange as I thought. bgb00002.bmp

Vegas Stakes will go down very soon. Turns out once you get to the high-roller casino and get a money edge, you can basically just steamroll your way to victory. I'll explain more later but right now I have 5 million, only an hour or two more left at this point to beat the game.

Off the top of my head, Sonic 2006. That game is the total package of bad, like the pinnacle of just doing so many things wrong. I crack up at something stupid every time I play it.

My bad! Even read those posts but apparently they rolled right off my brain like rain on a windshield.

Very close to 100k in Vegas Stakes, at which point I will be able to go to the no limits betting casino. Should accelerate the race to 10 million quite handily. I'm recently somewhat taken with the idea of all these game companies that existed almost exclusively to develop or port games to GB from other platforms, especially the "throwaway" games like sports ports or movie/tv license vehicles. Makes me curious to see if any of the people involved would agree to an interview about what it was like working on those kinds of projects. We frequently call them wasted space or shovelware, I wonder what they thought when they were making them!

Maybe it isn't worth saying on this forum, but there are some cool RPG and Strategy games on Mega CD if you can read Japanese. I'm only able to stumble through them, but the stuff seems cool. Shin Megami Tensei and SimEarth both seem fine, from my so-far limited play of them. I also really want to try ShadowRun soon, as it is distinct from both the MD and SNES versions. Also surprised that no one has mentioned Keio Flying Squadron or Silpheed, two pretty good shoot'em ups. Also, I understand there is one (and only one) port of The Ninja Warriors, and it is to Mega CD, exclusively. Besides the remake that came out just recently, no other home versions exist. I admit I have not played it yet however, just stating it is there out of my own personal interest. I'm sort of on a CD kick as well, so I may be exploring it further soon, and report back if I find this or other cool games.

I guess I'm curious to hear more about your general pitch. What direction did you want to go in to revisit the game and its character?

Did you provide a resume or portfolio or something too? Not gonna lie, if you ever got the go-ahead I would want to be on that team. Glover is just kind of lame in spite of it all. For me, it's definitely Lost Planet 3 - Just give it back to the LP2 team, release a new one, and pretend the 3 we got never happened. Also, please take LP2 off of Games for Windows Live, thank you.

A switch pro console might also be delayed past 2020 because of the coronavirus outbreak. There are already stories of different manufacturing centers being shut down in China due to fear of spreading the disease, and it has made some electronics, such as Oculus Quest, become more scarce than before. I wouldn't be surprised if it goes to affect further electronics as the situation progresses.