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Celebrating the 25th anniversary of The Match of the Millennium, I present the Broken Combo Festival! (Rockman Pocket) (12:32:22 12/07/24 EST)

Well done, Rockman, that was fantastic. It actually showed up in my suggestions for youtube, of course I watched it immediately. Such a satisfying feeljng of nostalgia, I instantly felt like I was right back in my old bedroom, juggling Chun-Li with Ken. I really liked the Guile combos. That was just so fun to watch.

(a-star)

(16:38:14 12/07/24 EST)

So good!

(bluefour)

(09:23:44 12/08/24 EST)

New combos on the way? (SignOfZeta) (19:56:40 09/16/24 EST)

Oh shoot Rocky has a YouTube channel and I wasn't subbed to it. : D

(Paleface)

(13:19:55 09/22/24 EST)

oh nice! looking forward to it.

(exodus)

(21:18:43 09/27/24 EST)

This is exiting! Hopefully Terry and Mai in SF6, and the announcement of Ken and Chun Li in Garou:City have reinvigorated interest in MOTM, and it catches on so Rockman and MOTM can gain some cred in the process. CvsS3 2026!

(a-star)

(21:27:46 09/27/24 EST)

Will not attend. That 3D stuff all sucks.

(SignOfZeta)

(15:49:22 10/01/24 EST)

Thanks for posting the link! Time is on short supply these days, so there's barely a moment to post on the internet. All those compilations of Capcom fighting games put me in the mood to start playing MotM again. I thought, why not try capturing some combos with the Switch's built-in video capture feature? From there the ball started rolling. I'm capturing combos that exploit the bugs in Chun-Li, Dan and Felicia. Those bugs really open up what's possible in the game. I checked online to see if nobody else gave it a good try in the last 20 years, but it seems I'm good :) It's a nice way to celebrate the game (and the system's) 25th anniversary as well. So please look forward to it sometime later this year. It'll be massive, with something for every character. I'm doing this on the side, squeezing in half an hour where I can, so I can't tell when it'll be done yet. I'm posting hype videos in the meantime, also to push myself to complete this project :)

(Rockman Pocket)

(16:01:40 09/29/24 EST)

Fuck yeah.

(SignOfZeta)

(15:49:46 10/01/24 EST)

Ooh

(Paleface)

(22:11:01 10/07/24 EST)

Stoked!

(bluefour)

(14:13:23 10/05/24 EST)

I either didn't know about the neo geo pocket AC adapter or I forgot it existed, but I got one on the cheap just now. I figure why not!! It's got a little box with the logo on it and everything. Just in case others haven't seen it I've included a picture inside. (exodus) (15:16:18 06/14/24 EST)

Ohh... *shuffles boxes on top kitchen shelf around* Right! I've got one of those, totally forgot it! I should probably use that on the occasions I want to pull a NGP out, instead of rummaging around trying to find batteries. ^-^

(Paleface)

(11:46:32 06/27/24 EST)

the box and graphic design are nice at the very least!

(exodus)

(17:13:16 06/28/24 EST)

It's true, very bold and utilitarian. Goes great with the similarly styled smaller Link Cable box I have sitting right on top of it!

(Paleface)

(14:34:54 06/29/24 EST)

Got a NGP cart dumper and I'm dumpin' my carts! (Paleface) (23:44:16 02/17/24 EST)

Now, you could say, considering I don't have any unique carts that to preserve and share with the world that the world doesn't already have, this is all a bunch of silly privileged nonsense, and now I'm killing NGPCs for it! = o I don't know that I have a great come-back for that.

(Sillyface)

(05:54:44 02/18/24 EST)

Emulation fun: Dokodemo Mahjong Color running only in b&w in older emulators, etc! (inside)

(Paleface)

(17:15:53 02/18/24 EST)

I am curious, aside from just having something to do, why indeed are you dumping games that you can just download? heck of a lot of work for that.

(exodus)

(18:59:46 02/20/24 EST)

Just a big ol' square, I think.

(Paleface)

(19:50:38 02/20/24 EST)

that doesn't explain it!

(exodus)

(17:44:20 02/24/24 EST)

It doesn't?

(Paleface)

(20:57:33 02/24/24 EST)

Possibly also the thrill of the hunt and showing off a physical collection are factors, although I'm not sure how much since I do love it when a publisher like sells a ROM for cheap in a weakly packaged emulator.

(Paleface)

(14:15:37 02/25/24 EST)

The thing about your level of obedience to copyright is that it’s as retro as the games and you’re the only one who has it. The people who actually code and create this stuff do not care if you jack it 20 years later and there is no way to “support” the creators so after the fact. A large number of them are dead from old age or working for someone else and the company has been re-established a half dozen times…currently in the hands of an evil king who frankly should not be supported in any way. My biggest question wouldn’t be “Why do you insist on dumping only what own?” but rather “What’s the point of dumping what you own when YOU OWN IT and can just play the OG?”?

(SignOfZeta)

(14:44:06 02/26/24 EST)

I like having the games on the big bright screen. : ) Plus it's way better for screenshots and recording. Was finding Mednafen's fast forward hotkey quite handy for Faselei!, too. ; D And yep, don't buy any MBS SNK stuff!

(Paleface)

(18:46:20 02/26/24 EST)

And it's great to be able to use the translation patches for Unitron 2, CFC2, and Rockman B&F. : )

(Paleface)

(18:49:47 02/26/24 EST)

Various screenshots (Mednafen emulation): FF: 1st Contact, Kikou Seiki Unitron, KOF: BdP (;P), Dynamite Slugger, Neo Geo Cup '98 Plus Color (;P),

(Paleface)

(18:56:53 02/26/24 EST)

The 105 character screens shown in the Puzzle Link 2 intro. The smaller ones show for 2 frames each.

(Paleface)

(20:50:06 02/27/24 EST)

these certainly are cute!

(exodus)

(17:56:33 03/04/24 EST)

…but you can do all of this with identical ROMs dumped already by someone else. Everything you’re dumping has already been dumped and possession of those ROMs is exactly as legal/illegal regardless of who dumped them. Over on the Laserdisc forum we see a similar thing. So many people filling piles of hard drives with captures of ultra common Hollywood stuff you can buy on Blu-ray for $7. The scene seems divided between people who don’t see any sense if it at all and those who see it as the most logical thing in the world. Making copies of things just entertains people, I guess.

(SignOfZeta)

(11:55:14 03/01/24 EST)

Yeah probably. ^ D^ Anyway, you asked about using ROMs when I already have the physical stuff--at least, that's what I thought you meant--so that's what my answer there was specifically attempting to address.

(Paleface)

(20:49:18 03/01/24 EST)

You really know how to talk in circles…you’re dumping games to emulate them. Ok. Why not play games someone else dumped? Because it’s not ethical. So you buy the games? No, Satan owns them. So you don’t buy the games? I think “I like to copy stuff from one format to another all day” is the most accurate and honest answer. It doesn’t make a lot of sense but it’s not completely illogical.

(SignOfZeta)

(15:54:48 03/05/24 EST)

I stopped buying new stuff from SNK when MBS bought them. I think I probably wouldn't buy like physical discs of post-MBS SNK stuff even used since I dunno I would feel like that's still supporting the product in some way. I think I would be okay buying used pre-MBS stuff, but I haven't had to do that since I already had all the stuff I was after.

(Paleface)

(19:04:10 03/05/24 EST)

To put it a little more simply: I don't buy the stuff SNK is putting out now. The carts I dumped are carts I've had for over two decades.

(Paleface)

(19:24:19 03/05/24 EST)

it still doesn't make sense because if you aren't worried about supporting them and in fact can't ethically support them why not just use the roms that exist? the only thing can figure is you love copying stuff over! it's just a very mystifying thing otherwise.

(exodus)

(19:41:26 03/07/24 EST)

Well, in theory they could somehow shake whatsisname off some day and be cool again. Anyway, whatever their status, I don't feel like there's a legit excuse in there for me to turn to CRIME ; D just to play some games they made. There are always going to be plenty of games I can play that don't require theft, so I might as well play those instead.

(Paleface)

(13:54:09 03/08/24 EST)

right, I guess the key is that this isn't crime, but that's probably where we diverge!

(exodus)

(18:53:43 03/11/24 EST)

It reminds me of an old movie where they find a buried treasure and it turns out to be confederate money from the Civil War that was once a fortune that isn’t worth a broke dink anymore now that everyone who made it and everything it stood for has gone. These are all concerns for another era that will never come again.

(SignOfZeta)

(16:31:04 03/12/24 EST)

I believe that's an episode of Scooby Doo you're telling us about, Chad. I also believe that old Confederate currency has a pretty high value on the collector's market, which only goes to show that there's no accounting for people so don't insist on a logical explanation for what they do.

(One To Grow On and Opa Opa)

(21:03:49 03/12/24 EST)

It is an episode of Scooby Doo. It was also in The Dukes of Hazzard but before it was in many other things…Scooby Doo/Dukes not being things known for an original take very often. This was a useful evolution on the “confederate gold” plot device of movies going back…to the dawn of film, nearly. Confederate money/gold was almost as popular as quicksand. If its currency it can be instantly rendered worthless unlike actual gold. Either way, it’s hanging on to a dead idea in a vacuum.

(SignOfZeta)

(15:51:51 03/14/24 EST)

(Oh hey I did buy a used NGPC to extract the cart slot so yeah I guess buying used pre-MGS stuff doesn't bother me.)

(Paleface)

(19:31:27 03/05/24 EST)

The 12 b&w screens you get from MotM in a NGP:

(Paleface)

(04:07:33 03/03/24 EST)

yeah, I love these! I always felt the zangief one was a bit of a space filler though

(exodus)

(18:10:31 03/14/24 EST)

also shermie-morrigan's super long arm remains mildly disturbing to me

(exodus)

(18:11:39 03/14/24 EST)

On the Neo Poke, save data is part of the ROM and you dump them together, so that's one advantage. Maybe it's not important to Paleface, though, since he didn't mention it. I'm glad I made save backups for all my cartridges before I sold them off since it means I can play my original games with original saves on the 2DS now.

(Flat Pom and Opa Opa)

(19:29:55 03/07/24 EST)

Yeah that mystified me at first (I'd totally forgotten how far I'd played through some of my old catridges! ^ _^) but eventually I realized it explained why how I had access to loads of puzzles/pieces in Sonic Pocket Adventure, for instance, so yeah, definitely a cool feature! I'm not sure yet but I'll probably be pretty grateful for it in Neo Poke-Kun. What did you use to back up your cart saves?

(Paleface)

(13:58:13 03/08/24 EST)

I had the Bung-hole linker and flashcart in my erstwhile youth. The software that thing used was terrible (like almost everything unusual in Win9x days really), but it did have nice features beyond just writing the flash cartridge. It could separately backup the save data or rewrite it from/to regular cartridges in addition to being able to backup the whole game+save. I think it may have also had a "clean" game dump option that ignored the save region on a commercial cartridge.

(Lubrication and Opa Opa)

(20:45:59 03/12/24 EST)

Anybody know if there's a command to have Mednafen run a NGPC game as if it's in a (b&w) NGP? Mednafen took its NGPC emulation straight from NeoPop, bugs and all, and NeoPop has a menu setting for specifying whether you're running the game in a NGPC or NGP--so you can play the Yosaku minigame in KOF:BdP, for instance--but Mednafen's documentation doesn't list a command for doing so. I've asked about it on the Mednafen forum but no responses there so far.

(Paleface)

(10:56:45 02/22/24 EST)

Jab spam beats the highest level CPU setting in Gals Fighters. Doesn't work in the other fighters I tried: GD:1C, MotM, R1, R2. In R1/2 you have to be MUCH lighter on the button to get lights to come out; I think I prefer the heavier touch the others allow for lights.

(Paleface)

(12:07:51 03/13/24 EST)

Some new (since I last played it in 2018) info about the hidden b&w "Yosaku" minigame in KOF:BdP: the original arcade game was based on a popular song of the same name by Saburo Kitajima (video inside), the Epoch Cassette Vision port was unlicensed, and there have been some other bootlegs/hacks too!

(Paleface)

(03:54:37 03/14/24 EST)

That first wiki cites this very message board so you know their info must be 100% accurate. ; D

(Paleface)

(03:57:55 03/14/24 EST)

Oh like this Famicom Mario romhack (video inside).

(Paleface)

(04:08:36 03/14/24 EST)

Oops source link

(Paleface)

(04:11:24 03/14/24 EST)

Uh okay probably the last note I'll remember: Jeremy Parish did a long video about the Epoch Cassette Vision version of Yosaku (inside).

(Paleface)

(04:14:59 03/14/24 EST)

I wrote all about this in the SNK 40th anniversary collection!

(exodus)

(00:05:54 03/16/24 EST)

Hm I could go reinstall that on the PS4 to read it, I probably won't though. I don't suppose it's been handily transcribed somewhere online?

(Paleface)

(11:42:18 03/16/24 EST)

Okay I reinstalled and read it. : D So the obvious thing I was missing was that SNK is credited with developing and publishing 1979 arcade Yosaku, and scans of the arcade flyer seem to bear out at least the publishing aspect of it. But if they developed it, why credit development to "OLCA CORPORATION" on the title screen? Was it a joke? Were the Orca Corporation people working at SNK at the time?

(Paleface)

(12:05:42 03/16/24 EST)

Ah, some of the comments (Google translated from Japanese) below that one OLCA CORPORATION video (inside), mention that Orca Corporation produced a lot of pirated boards; so this could have been a pirate board by Orca of the SNK original.

(Paleface)

(13:00:38 03/16/24 EST)

(Paleface)

(13:08:47 03/19/24 EST)

Never knew there's a "security screw" holding NGPCs together. Gotta get a tri-wing screwdriver now. ^-^ (n/t) (Paleface) (17:14:15 02/05/24 EST)

I'm accumulating an increasing number of specific screwdriver heads just for video game cartridges.

(exodus)

(17:44:41 02/07/24 EST)

Ooh, whattaya got? The only other one I have is the one for the screws on like NES and GB carts. (Looks like I won't need to use the tri-wing for now, 'cause the NGPC-for-parts I had already sent to this person previously magically showed up after going missing for five days after USPS said it had been delivered. ^ D^)

(Paleface)

(03:20:31 02/08/24 EST)

I can't remember them all now, but there's one I needed for the genesis, one I needed for taking apart the switch joycon, uh... I think some significant others but they're not coming to mind!

(exodus)

(15:50:52 02/12/24 EST)

I've always just used a real small philips head for tri-wings. They don't strip easily, so it's always worked for me. Unlike those damned 5- and 6-pointed star screws that strip even if you use the right driver.

(Tool For The Job and Opa Opa)

(19:34:38 03/07/24 EST)

Good to know! Especially since the tri-wing I tried buying off eBay seems to have mysteriously gone missing after USPS reported "SHIPMENT RECEIVED ACCEPTANCE PENDING" over five weeks ago. ; D

(Paleface)

(12:04:04 03/13/24 EST)

SNK Fliers from E3 1999 (Paleface) (20:17:10 10/29/23 EST)

If you look close you’ll see a picture of a US Dynamite Slugger box.

(SignOfZeta)

(17:06:00 10/30/23 EST)

Oh hey yeah, forgot that didn't come to the States.

(Paleface)

(18:24:09 11/02/23 EST)

"Name your own team members!"

(Mike Chicago)

(15:24:52 01/04/24 EST)

I have a bunch of these myself! I wonder if I have any she doesn't.

(exodus)

(00:39:06 10/31/23 EST)

also now remembering how annoyed I was that they put metal slug in "fighting series"

(exodus)

(00:40:33 10/31/23 EST)

Definitely seems like that should'a been in the thin "Action/Adventure Series"!

(Paleface)

(18:21:56 11/02/23 EST)

There’s a crazy guy named Dion who can fix that for you.

(SignOfZeta)

(10:36:34 11/05/23 EST)

was he doctoring flyers? I don't remember that!

(exodus)

(14:11:00 11/08/23 EST)

Inserts. The colors for the different genre banners that nobody pays attention to were inconsistent from SNK and the Freeks would “correct” that for you…presumably spelling as well. This was the basis for the paper shredder stunt. They were claiming their stuff was better than the real thing and they shredded the real thing to prove how much they stood behind their fucked up bootleg pieces of shit. As far as I know they never did this with Pocket stuff, probably because they were so US-centric and US Pocket boxes suck.

(SignOfZeta)

(10:37:52 11/10/23 EST)

wow, I don't remember a lot of this stuff! what a time to be alive.

(exodus)

(17:07:49 11/14/23 EST)

Pac-Man: The cheapest title in the fliers, at $24.95.

(Mike Chicago)

(15:27:00 01/04/24 EST)

"Coming Soon: Cotton."

(Mike Chicago)

(15:27:31 01/04/24 EST)

I just realized I don't own ogre battle!? somehow!??!? how could I have such a blind spot in the library. bizarre. at least it doesn't cost Cotton prices, but I sure wish I had gotten it back in the day! (n/t) (exodus) (20:02:28 09/14/23 EST)

Ogre battle was one of the ones I thought would actually go up massively how wrong I was thankfully I didn’t sit on any more than my one copy lol. Cotton on the other hand I wish I would’ve kept the Japanese one as well….

(WebOfHair)

(18:16:39 09/19/23 EST)

yeah, then you could've sold it to me, because I never bought it!!! like a fool. like of course the only scrolling shooter on the platform is gonna get expensive, I should've known.

(exodus)

(20:00:21 09/24/23 EST)

I kept Cotton but threw away the box when I moved to New York.

(Mike Chicago)

(15:30:35 01/04/24 EST)

You want an ogre battle? I'll give you an ogre battle.

(Package of Lordly Caliber and Opa Opa)

(21:02:08 09/24/23 EST)

oh no

(exodus)

(19:59:24 09/25/23 EST)

I don't have it either. I think my major regret to not own by now is Metal Slug 2nd, I've passed it up as "too expensive" for so long it's about 3x what it was when I first passed it up.

(aerisdead)

(14:51:51 09/25/23 EST)

I think I got the japanese one cart only at some point? Or maybe I simply don't have it and played it on the flashmasta ;_;

(exodus)

(19:59:52 09/25/23 EST)

(turns out I do indeed have the japanese cart)

(exodus)

(16:41:30 11/15/23 EST)

update: I bought ogre battle in japan. also bikkuriman because it was cheap.

(exodus)

(06:56:26 09/26/23 EST)

Should be the last test necessary if it and the reply post okey (n/t) (Paleface) (23:33:34 07/27/23 EST)

All set!

(Paleface)

(23:33:43 07/27/23 EST)

NICE

(exodus)

(18:52:18 08/07/23 EST)

Post-migration check. If this posts we no longer in the host's "legacy" account ghetto and everything's shiny and new.

(Paleface)

(03:54:15 10/15/23 EST)

Testing (n/t) (Paleface) (23:22:36 07/25/23 EST)

Oh huh.

(Paleface)

(23:22:51 07/25/23 EST)

Looks like we're working okay. Server changed some protocols and so forth.

(Paleface)

(01:26:51 07/26/23 EST)

yepster

(Paletest)

(02:40:44 07/26/23 EST)

Managed to clear Biomotor Unitron 2 with the help of the partial fan translation. Too bad this one never got localized. Similar structure to the first, but much nicer graphics, and the ability to skip the initial levels of dungeons once you've played through them is really helpful. National Console Support still has a stash of new Japanese copies for sale strangely enough. (n/t) (bluefour) (11:42:01 07/07/23 EST)

biomotor 2nitron! I never gave it a serious try, and I should.

(exodus)

(18:48:17 07/13/23 EST)

If you do a short plot synopsis would be amazing ;)

(bluefour)

(13:38:02 07/17/23 EST)

The phones most of us have these days can (somewhat) translate the game as you play it. I rarely use this since Japanese language support is still super bad and I’d rather bumble through something than point a phone at it all day but it can be very helpful at times. The Google stuff works better for me than the Apple stuff.

(SignOfZeta)

(15:23:16 07/20/23 EST)

Testing.

(Paleface)

(23:23:15 07/25/23 EST)

Yar

(Paleface)

(23:33:28 07/27/23 EST)

It's still pretty subtle, but I do believe that the plastic of my Nintendo New 2DS LL is starting to yellow. I guess that makes it officially one of the all time great video game systems, like the SNES and the Dreamcast. Didn't Our Chad used to have a theory about this? (n/t) (A Little Yellow in your White Line and Opa Opa) (14:43:30 06/14/23 EST)

To be honest, I find it kind of surprising since there's hardly any good original games for the 3DS. Physically, it's a nice system, though, and almost perfect for emulation, so maybe that's it.

(Virtual Console and Opa Opa)

(14:47:10 06/14/23 EST)

there's some cool ones! but it definitely didn't get the cavalcade of weirdness the DS did. We made a little list here on insert credit

(exodus)

(14:32:35 06/15/23 EST)

That's a legitimately good list of games! Attack of the Friday Monsters, SMT IV, Ridge 'effin Racer DS.

(Jeurja)

(20:17:18 06/15/23 EST)

rediscovering ridge racer 6 2 years ago was a full-on delight. "the track is perfect, the car is perfect, and I feel perfect!"

(exodus)

(14:11:41 06/16/23 EST)

that's ridge racer six, two years ago, not ridge racer sixty two years ago.

(exodus)

(14:12:06 06/16/23 EST)

I never thought Ridge Racer DS or Ridge Racer 3D were all that good. I mean, they're fine, but they've just got no soul. Sometimes, I wonder if the reason 3DS games feel so uninspired is because I only have a 2DS, but the 3D can't be enough to make a bland game fun...can it? The Playstation Ridge Racer games emulate nicely on the 2DS and I do play them a lot. Playstation (3DO) Road Rash is what it's really about, though.

(Slim Jim and Opa Opa)

(14:43:21 06/16/23 EST)

it's true that ridge racer 3D isn't that good - it's just an upgraded version of the DS game which is an upgraded version of the n64 ridge racer... I think. I just included that one because it's a ridge racer you can't play elsewhere.

(exodus)

(14:49:55 06/20/23 EST)

I don't think the 3DS game is based on the DS/N64 games. I just played it a bit to compare and there doesn't seem to be much similarity beyond the common tracks and elements in all Ridge Racer games. If it's based on any of the games I've played, it might be Type 4, but I'd have to play that one again to see. It's pretty heavy on nitrous and slipstreaming, which are from Ridge Racer 6, right? It might even be an original game and not a remake, which would be quite a surprise since at least half of 3DS games seem to be remakes or something.

(Trial Size and Opa Opa)

(19:28:25 06/23/23 EST)

Thanks, I'll try out Attack of the Friday Monsters. It sounds interesting. I don't really like story-driven games, though, and that's what most of this list (and others I've seen) are full of. What was the discussion of Crash City Mayhem? I've been playing that recently, though I'd say the Dreamcast Runabout game is a lot better.

(Felonious Mayhem and Opa Opa)

(14:32:58 06/16/23 EST)

unfortunately I can't remember what we talk about after we do it so I'm not sure what was said!! it is a story-heavy list but kokuga is not, and I think you'd like that one. gotta protectors is also not, and that one's real fun, but more fun with friends. and I bet you'd get something out of the GG series games, or legend of dark witch.

(exodus)

(14:48:41 06/20/23 EST)

Is the G.G series all DSiware? No native 3DS games? Not that it matters. I never had a DSi and never have gotten around to looking at all those games on my 2DS. I think there's supposed to be a lot of pretty cool arcade and casual games.

(Stuffed Things and Opa Opa)

(22:03:45 06/23/23 EST)

There was a standalone DS cart of the G.G. Series. It's pretty great, though unlocking the games is a pain.

(Jeurja)

(15:34:18 06/26/23 EST)

I think it's dsiware probably yeah - and you can play them all on the 3DS. I've still got my ancient copy of that gameloft castlevania-like (soul of darkness) that I enjoyed. that was released as DSiware, an up-port from the feature phone Java original. if that doesn't get you excited I don't know what will!!

(exodus)

(18:29:56 06/27/23 EST)

Attack of the Friday Monsters is more than amazing. I would advise wearing headphones though! It's been literal decades since Guts told us to play Boku no Natsu Yasumi and that was by the same developer. Friday is a short and easy to play adventure to see if you like these games!

(Mental)

(13:48:47 08/13/23 EST)

I’m not sure what theory you’re remembering but I’ve restored a number of white things from yellow and my current understanding is basically that 1: all white plastic eventually yellows. If bleached back to white it will eventually yellow again and 2: if you want something to never yellow you have to paint it, which is a giant pain in the ass to do properly.

(SignOfZeta)

(16:34:36 06/29/23 EST)

I don't get it. Why would I not want these systems to be yellow? The yellow is what demonstrates their excellence.

(Sure We All Do and Opa Opa)

(13:32:26 07/02/23 EST)

While it is proof that they are loved hard working machines I guess it seems like just another reminder that people don’t need of their own entropy…or maybe they just don’t like piss and cigarettes which it also evokes. It is interesting that the PCE, Saturn, Dreamcast, GB, and DS are famous for turning yellow and also famous for being kick ass machines whereas nobody every complains about the XBox or 3DO or PS2 turning yellow. Also, I should say that even black plastic yellows, it’s just much harder to see. You can sorta see it on some Genesis systems.

(SignOfZeta)

(14:58:26 07/12/23 EST)

Hah, piss and cigarettes...I like that. Meanwhile, a white system evokes purity and colonialism. Actually, a yellow system might evoke colonialism, too, I guess. Piss and colonialism!

(Dreams Deferred and Opa Opa)

(21:28:01 07/18/23 EST)

Purity yes, but I’ve seen some seriously aged PC Engines and SNES systems that are probably about the color of Ponce de Leon.

(SignOfZeta)

(15:26:20 07/20/23 EST)

It's taken me most of my life to come to terms with what a dumb concept purity really is. I guess I used to think of it as a kind of excellence (or maybe even the other way around), but no, it's just emptiness. The thing of it is that it's so damned enticing until you understand that, though, and being a desirable thing with no value makes it a pretty good feeling to be co-opted by all the usual suspects that want to co-opt our feelings for stupid reasons.

(You Want and Opa Opa)

(16:13:58 08/04/23 EST)

Cool Boarders Pocket review by Sweater Fish in the early 2000s (Mike Chicago) (20:43:16 05/05/23 EST)

well it does make me want to pick it up again!

(exodus)

(14:58:54 05/09/23 EST)

I agree with this review.

(Snow Girl and Opa Opa)

(18:07:17 05/12/23 EST)

Cool Boarders Pocket sucks. This Sweater Fish guy sounds like a real douche.

(Vinaigrette and Opa Opa)

(18:29:56 05/26/23 EST)

I'm curious what your thoughts are on Neo Dragon's Wild.

(Mike Chicago)

(22:45:28 05/28/23 EST)

Posting here to ask Flavor if he's interested in making an NGP adapter for the Sanni Cart Reader. (Paleface) (18:07:53 03/14/23 EST)

Oh ah I suppose he probably isn't since he made his own "Linkmasta" NGPC cart reader 10+ years ago, but only 11 of them.

(Paleface)

(18:24:45 04/03/23 EST)

Bro, this forum is basically a startup. I bet you have front end, back end, hardware and administration all rolled up in this motherfucker. Perhaps it’s a wild assumption but I believe in you!

(a-star)

(03:48:09 04/30/23 EST)

I don't understand what you're saying here.

(Paleface)

(12:30:25 05/05/23 EST)

Yeah you guys always were pretty dense.

(a-star)

(08:54:06 05/07/23 EST)

Well duh.

(Paleface)

(18:33:47 05/10/23 EST)

Imagine showing up here randomly and seeing the second heading about yourself. I have a YouTube video somewhere about how to make these headers out of PCI sockets. Hmm.

(Flavor)

(15:31:08 05/24/23 EST)

YouTube Link Inside

(Flavor)

(15:33:19 05/24/23 EST)

Oh yeah I watched that one earlier. : D

(Paleface)

(21:42:45 05/25/23 EST)

But the official answer is that I am likely not engineering/producing any new products for a while. I'm hoping to keep making flash carts, but even that has become quite difficult to keep up with lately.

(Flavor)

(15:44:12 05/24/23 EST)

is it mostly the supply chain stuff or just your own time that's the limiting factor?

(exodus)

(17:00:34 05/24/23 EST)

Thanks for replying! If you ever do get interested in making something like this, gimme a shout, I'll probably still be looking for a way to dump my NGP/C carts. : D

(Paleface)

(21:44:34 05/25/23 EST)

Extensive MOTM 2 prototype footage! (bluefour) (21:52:57 12/19/22 EST)

Nice!

(SignOfZeta)

(10:24:32 12/20/22 EST)

The maker of these videos seems to have demonstrated every new animation and illustration over the course of these videos. Of the many delightful things to find, it was fun watching Hotaru perform a number of Gato's moves!

(bluefour)

(10:45:27 12/20/22 EST)

Hsien-Ko, K', Alex (SFIII), Rock Howard, Mega Man, Genan, Bishamon, Hotaru, and what may have been a new character

(Paleface)

(11:22:33 12/20/22 EST)

Looked like maybe Eri from Metal Slug?

(TMHC)

(12:06:41 12/20/22 EST)

Or maybe that's transformed Kaede or something.

(Paleface)

(12:06:41 12/20/22 EST)

screeny

(Paleface)

(12:10:09 12/20/22 EST)

Yeah pretty sure this is Eri!

(bluefour)

(12:12:50 12/20/22 EST)

Yeah you guys are right, that's definitely her headband!

(Paleface)

(12:39:37 12/20/22 EST)

It looks like Eri, Sagat, Rock, and Alex never got sprites. Gen-An, MOTW Terry, and Bishamon just have normal moves, whereas the other new characters have complete move sets. It also looks like they were figuring out how to get 4 color sprites.

(bluefour)

(12:14:47 12/20/22 EST)

Rock has a sprite, it's just partially see-through. ^ _^

(Paleface)

(12:42:10 12/20/22 EST)

I missed the Sagat bit, where is that? And I like how Terry is spelled "Teerry" in the selection list. =D

(Paleface)

(12:44:29 12/20/22 EST)

45 seconds into this video. Sagat, Rock, and Alex just seem to have weirdly colored Kyo's as their sprites :-p

(bluefour)

(16:22:06 12/20/22 EST)

Ah!

(Paleface)

(17:52:43 12/20/22 EST)

The new Ryo here seems to be partially based on MOTW Khushnood Butt!

(bluefour)

(16:58:45 12/20/22 EST)

And K' has a couple of Krizalid's moves!

(bluefour)

(09:31:40 12/21/22 EST)

So apparently at the bottom of the videos it says they are fake. If so, they did a hell of a job making them!

(TMHC)

(18:32:15 12/20/22 EST)

Strange. In his twitter feed he mentions something about this being made 20 years ago, and I'm pretty sure I remember this guy buying a bunch of prototypes. Maybe something is lost in translation or he's trying to cover his butt legally?

(bluefour)

(18:57:28 12/20/22 EST)

It includes notes on stuff like missing sound and crashes. I wonder if by "fake" it means they're videos of a homebrew or something, rather than the videos themselves being faked up.

(Paleface)

(20:35:51 12/20/22 EST)

Or that it's playing in an emulator? Although that would be fairly obvious anyhow.

(Paleface)

(20:41:18 12/20/22 EST)

Okay, here's what I found going through their tweets. It might be that they initially got some blowback, and so started putting disclaimers on things to be able to avoid some bother.

(Paleface)

(22:10:03 12/20/22 EST)

An interesting NGPC shot from their TGS '99 video:

(Paleface)

(22:22:35 12/20/22 EST)

Strange. These do make it seem like they are trying to avoid blowback since they never really say how or why they are “fake.” Interesting stuff. Thanks for doing the legwork!

(TMHC)

(02:39:41 12/21/22 EST)

That's some wild stuff. I could see this being fake, simply due to K's sprite using so many colors. But the quality of the sprites overall seems rather high, so it could just as well be the real thing. Who's to say SNK wouldn't figure out a solution for the color limitations of the NGPC. If this thing would've actually released it'd have been wild. I noticed Ryu doing a launcher attack and in one vid they demonstrated a special super attack where characters tagged out. There's a bunch of experimental stuff that likely would never make the final cut such as Zangief's fireball attack, but merging Hotaru and Gato's movesets seems like something SNK actually would've done. This seems to be captured on one of those shitty emulators that cuts part of the lower screen, making super bars invicible. Strangely enough what stands out the most to me is Gouki's sick P2 color. Giving him even more moves than in MotM seems like a bold choice, but that's part of the charm of the first game anyway. I guess one way to assess the ligitamcy of this prototype is to check if Terry in the vids matches with the MotM2 Terry sprite posted by Falcoon on Twitter some years ago.

(Rockman Pocket)

(18:10:33 12/25/22 EST)

As I recall, NGPC sprites were four-colors, but one of those was used for transparency, so it was really three in most cases. It seems like all the new sprites in this video are four actual colors plus transparency. They could just layer sprites to get extra colors, which is a pretty simple trick some other NGPC games used (and could easily be the case for K's glove), but then I wonder why the rest of the characters don't have more than four colors. Maybe they did figure out some trick.

(Old Blue and Opa Opa)

(16:27:04 12/30/22 EST)

Ganbare Neo Poke-kun: In reference to that other thread down there…I eventually checked out my copy and I have an absolute shitload of missing entries on the e page. This is the copy I got from Gutsman via this forum back when NGP games were still being made. I unlocked all the games years and years ago and I play it at least once a year. It’s never been reset. I wonder if anyone has ever maxed this game. (n/t) (SignOfZeta) (11:00:09 12/12/22 EST)

Wrong season! This is the once every four years you're supposed to boot up Neo Geo Cup '98 Plus.

(substance J)

(23:53:06 12/12/22 EST)

I actually did that for the qualifiers, mainly because that’s when I put the fancy new screen in. I walked the computer like 18-0 and put it away.

(SignOfZeta)

(08:07:42 12/15/22 EST)

I've unlocked 2 more profiles since that post. In fact, I wonder if the issue is that most of us just stopped saving the game once we unlocked the E page, so every time you unlock one it gets lost again when you turn off the system.

(Six Tray and Opa Opa)

(16:31:03 12/30/22 EST)

That…is probably right.

(SignOfZeta)

(19:50:14 12/31/22 EST)

Ngpc collection volume two 2 two 2 two 2 two (n/t) (zero) (13:46:14 11/04/22 EST)

I wonder if they actually translated Neo Poke Kun and Battle de Paradise.

(MHC)

(10:22:23 11/08/22 EST)

I hope so. I love it when people who have complained for decades that they “couldn’t play” a game changing that complaint to “after all these years…it didn’t live up to the hype.” It’s like seeing a long journey finally completed.

(SignOfZeta)

(15:03:22 11/08/22 EST)

Listing is up on the eShop and only lists Japanese for these 2 and Rockman. Probably should have known since Rockman was already available untranslated.

(MHC)

(10:22:01 11/09/22 EST)

so i bought vol 1 on switch and never opened it, because i hate playing on my switch. now i just realized the steam collection of vol 1 has crush roller. wondering if i should get vol 1 & 2 on steam. i prolly will.

(zero)

(13:13:57 11/09/22 EST)

Go ahead. Who needs money when you can spend it on stuff you’ll never use?

(SignOfZeta)

(13:37:18 11/09/22 EST)

Filling this with a bunch of sports games and untranslated Japanese games is kinda shitty. In a different time having all these games together would've been amazing, but now it just feels half assed.

(Rockman Pocket)

(13:17:58 11/10/22 EST)

I preordered it. The lack of translations is disappointing, but it's still cheaper than getting just Neo Poke Kun on original hardware at this point.

(bluefour)

(17:09:16 11/14/22 EST)

Volume 3 should be the B&W game collection

(WebofHair)

(12:04:29 11/16/22 EST)

Indeed.

(SignOfZeta)

(08:50:59 11/18/22 EST)

No way, casino collection!

(a-star)

(15:20:51 11/19/22 EST)

Yoo guys! I just bought NGPC Cotton for $1100, which as far as I know is a very ggood deal. AMA! (Jeremy T) (21:46:45 09/28/22 EST)

I'm so excited for it to get here, that I forgot to mention how excited I am!

(Jeremy T)

(21:49:36 09/28/22 EST)

this forum is too old and I'm too tired for social experiments I think, ha ha

(exodus)

(19:02:49 09/29/22 EST)

Do you have a game room for your hauls?

(MBS)

(04:11:04 10/04/22 EST)

Ok, seriously, who is this dipstick? It’s someone who remembers Andrew T but also someone who isn’t funny and isn’t actually Andrew T. Is it Mental? It has to be Mental.

(SignOfZeta)

(14:55:18 10/06/22 EST)

mental was my guess

(exodus)

(16:54:56 10/10/22 EST)

…poor mental.

(SignOfZeta)

(07:58:29 10/11/22 EST)

No reason to be rude. It wasn’t me, and I don’t see the joke here. Zeta has always been a very unkind person but I really expected others not to copy his behaviour.

(Mental)

(16:18:11 12/08/22 EST)

It wasn’t made to be rude, and it wasn’t a joke either. It was the genuine best guess. Sometimes the best guess is wrong. It seemed too stupid for a Fish post, surely you can see that. He’s stupider now though, I guess. Lesson learned. Sorry about the collateral damage.

(SignOfZeta)

(11:57:55 12/09/22 EST)

That's kind, thanks. And yes it is me. I'm a couple years older now and have two wonderful sons. Lovely wife, too. I got lucky. In most ways. To answer the security questions: I was once known as Neo here, until I received a message from Guts saying people might confuse me with his username which made me change to Mental Fear and eventually Mental. Fun fact: back then I had no idea that Mental also meant insane. I was in love with metal gear ghost babel and inspired by that. Good night!

(Mental)

(16:16:00 08/23/23 EST)

Some assholes are so prolific that the fart cloud surrounding them is thick enough to perpetually maintain an atmosphere of complete superiority.

(a-star)

(11:43:43 12/10/22 EST)

Knock it off. Mental already let us know we were hurting his feelings. Assuming that even is Mental.

(SignOfZeta)

(10:39:59 12/12/22 EST)

I admit that I was high when I posted it, but it still seems funny to me. I think the humor is in the absurd realization that there are real, live, even earnest people who pay $1100 for a game and are happy about it. Maybe also that such a fellow might try to share their enthusiasm on this forum of all places.

(Hippocampus and Opa Opa)

(00:40:49 10/14/22 EST)

I don’t believe you.

(SignOfZeta)

(07:28:50 10/15/22 EST)

As the record holder for annoying posts written while high I can definitely relate.

(a-star)

(10:01:30 10/16/22 EST)

SUSPICIOUS!!

(exodus)

(18:20:01 10/17/22 EST)

Also, I thought we'd figured out a while back that there never was an "actual" Andrew T.

(Being of Light and Sound and Opa Opa)

(00:46:04 10/14/22 EST)

Wait, is that true? I thought he was a real person.

(Jeurja)

(09:21:56 10/14/22 EST)

Now THAT is a funny joke.

(SignOfZeta)

(07:28:12 10/15/22 EST)

there's no Andrew T but there is an andrewt

(exodus)

(18:20:44 10/17/22 EST)

I got inspired to play Cotton on my NGPC over the weekend. It's a cute version of the game! It's wild how expensive it is, though. I'm glad I got it when it was first released.

(Jeurja)

(17:44:47 11/01/22 EST)

(bluefour)

(17:14:37 11/14/22 EST)

Me, too. Both very good!

(Jeurja)

(20:26:51 11/22/22 EST)

So I've been casually looking around at neo geo pocket games in tokyo, and the prices are just astronomical. I kind of couldn't believe it. But now I'm looking at ebay prices and the prices I'm seeing here are maybe half of ebay? or 1/3? this platform sure did go bonkers at some point. Maybe I should finally buy Cotton while I'm out here. (n/t) (exodus) (20:43:39 09/17/22 EST)

I haven't checked eBay for games in years but back in January I was doing a bunch of selling (not games, still hoarding mine) and noticed Cotton was going for something like $1500. Allegedly, anyway. There were a couple completed auctions at that price. It made me feel kind of ill to see that. But it's also nice to know I'm apparently sitting on 50-100k in merchandise (pre-eBay fees) if I ever have to live off video game sales. I'm guessing you should probably buy Cotton. I paid something like $60 for Densha De Go! when I was in Japan and felt kind of guilty for spending that much. That was in 2013, almost 10 years ago - I wonder how dismayed I'll be if I ever get the chance to go back.

(substance J)

(00:33:40 09/18/22 EST)

yeah, there's a place out here selling cotton for $180. feels weird though!!!!!!!! prices are sure not going down, that's for sure. I think some platforms like Saturn have leveled out, but some are still going up, like ngpc, wonderswan, and pc engine.

(exodus)

(08:55:04 09/18/22 EST)

somebody bought that cotton before I could, so I guess it's fate!!

(exodus)

(13:20:55 09/20/22 EST)

Also what's it like with essentially no tourists there? It'd be really funny if Super Potato went out of business with no French and UAE buyers to gouge. I get the feeling from people I know in Japan that there's a sort of tenuous sensation of decline not necessarily caused by the pandemic but certainly accelerated by it. But then the people who move to Japan tend to be a little moodier anyway.

(substance J)

(00:43:12 09/18/22 EST)

well, guess what, plenty of tourists arrived for TGS and Super Potato, like clockwork, raised the price of that Coryoon I'd been eyeing by 20k yen, so they certainly expected the foreigners to arrive. I wound up having to go there a couple times because a lot of other shops have folded and every time it was full of caucasians, so whatever white folks do arrive in japan, they go to super potato.

(exodus)

(08:56:42 09/18/22 EST)

There still doesn’t really seem to be established pricing for NGP. The stuff ranges from OK to completely insane on an auction by auction basis. I don’t think the scene is very big…

(SignOfZeta)

(09:27:57 09/23/22 EST)

Many many years later, glad to see everyone still around! I got MOTM for Switch a couple weeks ago and thought of this forum and the many great memories with the NGPC. Hey everyone! (n/t) (Mash) (00:30:02 09/13/22 EST)

everyone's more or less still here, posting once every 2 months ha ha

(exodus)

(21:16:25 09/13/22 EST)

Are you still doing modding?

(Jeurja)

(22:37:00 09/16/22 EST)

Hi! I've also been loving the Switch ports, in addition to breaking out the original hardware every so often.

(bluefour)

(04:59:29 12/15/22 EST)

I believe we've talked about this before, but has anyone here unlocked all of the E page notebook profiles in Ganbare Neo Poke-kun (tentative title)? I've been playing this game for 10 years now and I still only have about half the pages. Recently I've been playing it a lot again on an emulator and I unlocked the E page a while back, but I still haven't gotten all the profiles in the notebook. What does it take? Playing on certain days of the year or something? I was playing late at night recently and I think I saw some new gags involving the excitable girl in gingham and pigtails. Later when I checked, her profile was available in the notebook, but actually I don't know if it wasn't before. I should keep track of this stuff better. (n/t) (Vasu Gorgon and Opa OPa) (18:24:19 09/09/22 EST)

I have nothing helpful to contribute other than I went to look for a guide and found Substance J's, ha ha

(exodus)

(21:17:35 09/13/22 EST)

That guy used to really know his shit. Nowadays he's a ponce, though.

(Leverage and Opa Opa)

(15:23:13 09/14/22 EST)

I couldn’t figure it out IIRC, and I still have some fairly common visitors that aren’t unlocked. I also figured there were occult requirements like time and date involved. I’m missing 3,7,11,12,15,20,23,26,31 and 32. That’s assuming there aren’t any after 34. Maybe it’s impossible to complete.

(a-star)

(19:43:02 09/15/22 EST)

I seem to be missing a lot of the same ones as you, but some different ones, too. I'm missing 5, 17, 18, and 25 and I do have 19 (Kame Kimo-san, a tortoise that lays eggs on Poke-kun while he sleeps), 20 (Fujime Neko-chan, sexy girl in a bikini that excites Poke-kun), 26 (Rocket Man-san, guy in rocket car with parachute), 32 (Mackerel-san, a frozen fish). Most of those ones I have are people I tend to associate with playing late at night, which is something I do a lot. Time of day might be important then. I hardly ever play early in the morning, I guess, so I should give that a try and see if I get some new pages.

(Visual Rural and Opa Opa)

(17:44:43 09/26/22 EST)

I wonder if Fujime Neko is a reference to the Lupin 3rd character Fujiko Nime. I think that’s the name. My anime king fun is weak. Anyway, 5 is Black Rabbit, 17 is the clear amoeba with 3 cells inside it. The Kara is Zo-something. I thought it was referring to zygote but my Japanese translation karate is weak. And 18 is a Poke-Kun look alike. I forget what his visit was like. I have 26 but I’m actually missing 25 as well. I’m glad you made this thread because I haven’t played it this much since like 2002.

(a-star)

(11:24:48 09/27/22 EST)

That should have said "20 years." I've been playing the game for 20 years. Sorry for the confusion.

(Clearly and Opa Opa)

(14:57:06 11/16/22 EST)

And on this day in 2022 I have finally beaten Biomotor Unitron. Somehow the grind-heavy endgame didn't bother me as much now that I'm older. I'm also attempting to muddle through the Japan-only sequel, which seems much improved from the original. (n/t) (bluefour) (17:39:37 07/02/22 EST)

I gotta get back in on that one myself. I never really made it further than 15 minutes into it the first time round!

(exodus)

(19:09:57 07/03/22 EST)

I enjoyed some NGPC this morning, too! Puzzle Link 2, Crush Roller, and Cotton all got some playtime. Really nice way to start the day.

(Jeurja)

(12:20:32 07/04/22 EST)

Heck yeah! Honestly it's so soothing to play on a system with no internet connection.

(bluefour)

(11:57:07 07/05/22 EST)

YES!

(SignOfZeta)

(13:56:46 07/09/22 EST)

100%

(Mash)

(00:30:30 09/13/22 EST)

oooh, this is an intriguing idea. starting my morning with this instead of looking at my phone sounds nice. I just got the screen replacement done on my original clear NGPC that I've had since 1999 or whenever, and it really does look nice (my nngpc remains stock) - I could just put it by my bed! hmmm.

(exodus)

(14:22:04 07/11/22 EST)

Whenever I got interested to play Biomotor Unitron, I think I just decided to play Dark Arms instead. Are there more complex item combinations possible in Biomotor or anything? I never got into it, I don't think. I love Dark Arms, though. It's one of the few games I decided to keep when I sold most of my Neo Poke stuff.

(Crab Claw and Opa Opa)

(14:46:19 07/19/22 EST)

The mech building/weapon development aspect is the most engaging part of the game imo, but I won't pretend that it's not fairly simplistic. I think I mostly just love the fantasy/mech aesthetic.

(bluefour)

(16:30:34 07/22/22 EST)

I always wanted More Graphics out of it. I wonder if I'll be more forgiving now as an old person.

(exodus)

(13:59:17 07/27/22 EST)

I think that was my gripe too. Also the GB/GBC had a mountain of good RPGs to play that I still haven’t played.

(SignOfZeta)

(06:01:50 08/03/22 EST)

Last post got me thinking: With many years of hindsight, how would you rank the NGP fighters? My ranking contained within. (bluefour) (13:00:42 06/17/22 EST)

MOTM, R2, R1, Gals. Or something--anyway MotM way in front!

(Paleface)

(17:29:13 06/18/22 EST)

Although it's a moot point 'cause I can't play any of 'em now 'cause they're way too flashy.

(Paleface)

(17:29:57 06/18/22 EST)

Even on an actual NGP?

(SignOfZeta)

(08:47:14 06/20/22 EST)

I *think* so. Not sure I can remember, maybe I'll have to try again some time.

(Paleface)

(13:27:19 06/22/22 EST)

I only ask because I would assume contrast and brightness would be a factor and while the NGPC’s contrast isn’t bad it’s also not lit so you’d have some choice in how bright it is. The b/w NGP seems like it would be even more gentle but I of course couldn’t say as I don’t have your issue and only so many games work on that.

(SignOfZeta)

(10:42:30 06/23/22 EST)

Yeah, R1 on the NGP definitely seems okay. MotM on the NGPC is less so; single white screen flashes like Ryu's super fireball are not too awful, but multi-hit supers with loads of white screen flashes like Ryo's circle back, circle forward + punch super (or whatever it was) are pretty bad. Not sure if playing under a brighter light made it better or worse. Can just turn the screen away a bit of course when those go off but still, not my favorite thing. Can't remember if there are red screen flashes in MotM, didn't hit any.

(Paleface)

(06:24:54 06/25/22 EST)

I wonder if there is some technology similar to welding helmets that could help with this. Basically they have LCD dimming controlled by a light sensor so they are fully open unless light goes over a certain level and then they dim. It would have to be tuned differently but the technology is fast enough.

(SignOfZeta)

(09:44:44 07/03/22 EST)

Neat! : )

(Paleface)

(16:26:23 07/03/22 EST)

In order: Gals Fighters plays smoothest of them all and has the most unique mechanics. MotM is the most allround of them and the crossover aspect is really well done. Last Blade has good atmosphere and also has interesting mechanics. KoF R1/R2 play decent enough and play just different enough compared to MotM to still be fun on their own. Samurai Shodown! and its sequel are fun enough, though kinda basic. Fatal Fury just feels too sluggish to play, even back in the day :/

(Rockman Pocket)

(13:10:50 06/21/22 EST)

Yeah it's too bad about the laggy controls in FF, as it has fun combos and nice aesthetics.

(bluefour)

(18:45:24 06/21/22 EST)

I think my list is about what it would've been then, too: 1) MOTM (I love the extras, it just feels generous) 2) Gals Fighters (pacing, goofiness) 3) KOF R1/2 - (I like it! but I always like "weird KOF" and this certainly is it), 4) Fatal Fury FC (it's barebones, but it works for me and feels very deliberate), 5) Last Blade (great to look at, really impressive, but the series just doesn't so it for me) 6) Samurai Shodowns (kind of as above)

(exodus)

(18:03:46 06/27/22 EST)

I have to put Gals Fighters on top because it’s the most refined and perfected version of what they were doing, even though it’s pretty bare bones compared to other games. Match of the Millennium is second, and only just, because it’s huge and has everything and a bunch extras, peak SNK, IMO. Third is a tie for both KOFs, these are very well done games, perfectly shrunk versions of 97 and 98. Fourth is Last Blade…even though it’s just as much of a game as MotM, maybe more, I’m not as much invested, personally. It is fantastic though as a one player game. Last would be the Samshows because I don’t really care for the main SS series at that point and I don’t think the ports are any good compared to any of the other games. I don’t have Fatal Fury and haven’t played it in a very long time but I think I’d probably rate it above the SS games but nothing else even though Real Bout 2 is one of my favorite games. It just didn’t survive the process, IMO.

(SignOfZeta)

(08:00:24 06/29/22 EST)

They're okay.

(Kafkaesque and Opa Opa)

(14:47:28 07/19/22 EST)

Just noticing that Jin is mysteriously in this FF:FC art! (bluefour) (23:01:00 06/11/22 EST)

*official art. This is the image on the Nintendo Switch for the game.

(bluefour)

(23:10:54 06/11/22 EST)

That is odd. Neither of the brothers are actually in this game, right?

(SignOfZeta)

(07:24:20 06/12/22 EST)

I don’t own Fatal Fury 1st Contact so I don’t remember if SD illustrations of the boss brothers are in the manual or not. They aren’t on the box, US or JP.

(SignOfZeta)

(08:26:32 06/13/22 EST)

They are neither in the game, nor the manual.

(bluefour)

(16:21:55 06/13/22 EST)

very strange!!! in looking this up I remembered the unlockable multiplayer-only character Lao, who I never got to play because I never played the game against anybody else.

(exodus)

(17:19:07 06/13/22 EST)

where did this image come from, by the way?

(exodus)

(17:20:09 06/13/22 EST)

This is the main image for the game when you download it on Nintendo Switch. I actually downloaded it mostly to play Lao. His moveset is pretty funny!

(bluefour)

(19:02:38 06/14/22 EST)

And Mai's feet! : P

(Paleface)

(17:26:32 06/13/22 EST)

The game does feel kinda half-assed compared to the other fighters on the system. Perhaps they rushed it out the door, scrapping some characters in the process?

(Rockman Pocket)

(16:55:07 06/14/22 EST)

The mostly likely explanation, although I still love it. ;p

(bluefour)

(19:03:11 06/14/22 EST)

Yeah, they either ran out of time/money or the ROM size was the issue. Its also possible that since those two are honestly pretty boring that they cut them and put the weird ones in like Alfred since they are more interesting...but made this choice after the concept art was done. Its honestly kinda fuct that Alfred is in there but not Franco or Blue Mary or Bob or Duck King.

(SignOfZeta)

(12:35:04 06/17/22 EST)

Yeah! Although it is kind of fun that Alfred is there and that this is the only game with playable Lao. (although I really wish they had made him playable in single player)

(bluefour)

(13:10:13 06/17/22 EST)

Category: Things I never expected to post. Biomotor Unitron is now available on Nintendo Switch. This was the game I bought with my first NGPC (alongside Samurai Shodown) and I will always have a soft spot for it. Will wait for the inevitable NGPC collection vol. 2 though. (n/t) (Mental) (14:49:04 05/28/22 EST)

Whoa.

(Paleface)

(17:51:38 05/28/22 EST)

I don’t get it. What’s so surprising about this release, especially in a world where Vol 2 is “inevitable”? I would be a little surprised, just a little, if they translated Neo Poke-kun or Biomotor 2, something that required a new translation and extensive reworking of game.

(SignOfZeta)

(14:46:54 05/31/22 EST)

Biomotor still seems obscure to me for some reason. But yeah they already released Big Bang Pro Wrestling (which I'd managed to forget about already) so at this point probably nothing should be surprising.

(Paleface)

(21:04:29 05/31/22 EST)

The way I see it, every US NGP game was released by the same publisher in the same way. Everything is equally common or obscure. Big Bang was the first to not be part of that since it didn’t come out in the US at all. When we see Evolution and Faselei they will have made the leap to UK only games, when they actually translate something or do something more than just dropping ROMs into an emulator then we know they are doing something at least a little unexpected.

(SignOfZeta)

(09:30:37 06/06/22 EST)

The NGPC emulator for the 3DS is good, so I made a Ganbare, Neo Poke-kun virtual console title and it's actually the first game on my 2DS home screen and probably the one I play the most. If I knew how to autolaunch a game at boot, I would probably just turn the system into a dedicated Ganbare Neo Poke-kun machine.

(Jolly Fella and Opa Opa)

(14:53:32 07/19/22 EST)

Oh huh Steam is getting 10 NGPC in a pack on Sept 30th for $40. (No Biomotor in that one.)

(Paleface)

(21:00:33 05/31/22 EST)

Aaand it was announced last September. : P

(Paleface)

(21:01:34 05/31/22 EST)

Which is also when it came out. Okay I'm all sorted out now, whee.

(Paleface)

(21:02:14 05/31/22 EST)

Neo Geo Pocket Prototypes: there were some discussed/discovered recently. I don’t do Facebook or Twitter so I don’t know anything other than I saw mention of a colorized R-1 and of course what looks like SNK vs Capcom 2 with Bishamon fighting Haomaru. (n/t) (SignOfZeta) (11:20:49 05/09/22 EST)

it's a group of protos that one person has been collecting for about 20 years, and includes one of the unseen games that was recently in a yahoo auctions japan lot (though it's not very exciting - it's called casino nights - but the dates on the protos indicate it would be the last known worked-on NGPC game, so it's interesting in that regard)

(exodus)

(14:23:28 05/09/22 EST)

they also just showed off a demo of the kiosk version of KOF R-2, as well. Lots of neat stuff to see right now!

(exodus)

(18:30:34 05/09/22 EST)

Dark Arms "Ultimate Weapon" secret? (VortexSpin) (19:55:36 04/26/22 EST)

I never did it myself. IIRC I beat the game in a basic way and traded it back in. A lot of NGP games have absolutely ridiculous grind goals though so it seems plausible.

(SignOfZeta)

(11:39:10 04/27/22 EST)

heck, I sure don't know. would be cool to find out though!!

(exodus)

(17:46:29 04/29/22 EST)

does anyone know or remember who "cyclops" is...??

(exodus)

(17:47:19 04/29/22 EST)

I never played Dark Arms. : )

(Paleface is useless and also just deleted some new spam so he's testing to make sure posting still works)

(12:38:01 05/06/22 EST)

I should revisit this game someday. I played through most of it with a 102 degree fever. Maybe that skewed the experience a little.

(substance J)

(12:20:49 05/08/22 EST)

That seems like it could only help.

(SignOfZeta)

(11:18:29 05/09/22 EST)

I remember it being cool, but difficult to grind for the weapons to some extent? I want to get back to it as well.

(exodus)

(14:24:10 05/09/22 EST)

MBS now owns 96.18% of SNK; apparently up until this latest purchase (Feb 15th), he had only owned 33% (Wikipedia's wording had made it sound like he'd acquired a majority share shortly after the initial purchase in Nov 2020). (Paleface) (20:46:52 04/23/22 EST)

You don’t have to own a majority of the stock to have majority control, you just have to have more than anyone else and be over a certain percentage which in Japan is low, not sure about Korea. Ford had majority control of Mazda at one point when they only had like %40…this is all very fuzzy for me since I’m very dumb about money but I remember something like this…anyway, more importantly, this article values SNK at nearly half a billion dollars. How on earth is that possible?

(SignOfZeta)

(08:26:07 04/24/22 EST)

Ah I see. And the half billion would just be what the stock is at, I guess? I suppose MBS's aggressive rounding up of as many shares as possible drove the price up, because he was willing to pay whatever to get them. Maybe? I don't know much about that stuff either.

(Paleface)

(11:13:29 04/24/22 EST)

Also, it's the Korean stock market, and KOF XV for instance seems to be pretty popular there, at least as far as I can tell judging by the fairly high traffic it's getting from Korean Twitch streamers, so maybe SNK's profile there is a lot higher than it is here.

(Paleface)

(11:15:51 04/24/22 EST)

They can have it! The whole kettle of fish. Congratulations, Korea!

(SignOfZeta)

(12:20:23 04/24/22 EST)

They even recycled the bad animation from XIV. : PP

(Paleface)

(00:02:36 04/25/22 EST)

And now Twitter's board has okayed Musk buying the company, so it's back to Tumblr for me. (Shareholders or regulators could still reject that deal, seems unlikely though.) (Oh huh MBS's charity or whatever that does the actual owning of SNK is MiSK Foundation. MiSK, Musk, neither gets my patronage.)

(Paleface)

(19:14:59 04/25/22 EST)

When I started visiting/posting here I was 15, looking for a more advanced Game Boy Color. I logged onto a library computer and actually printed the site, page by page, for 10 cents a page so I could read it at home. My heroes were Guts and Jeurja, I was kind of intimidated by SignOfZeta. I am now 37, have a wonderful girlfriend and 2 sons. I still love Jeurja and Guts for what they meant to me iny teenage years and have added Exodus to the list of heroes. My god is Tim Rogers. I am still intimidated by SignOfZeta, even though I dare call him Chad now. Also, he too has meant a lot to me while “growing up”. I love his forum and cant believe its still here after all this time. Cheers guys! (Mental) (14:56:01 04/02/22 EST)

I can’t believe I made two typo’s while stating I am not drunk. I am not, officer. I am not.

(Mental)

(14:57:47 04/02/22 EST)

This made me glad to read.

(Jeurja)

(19:51:25 04/03/22 EST)

yeah, I'm glad we're all still checking this thing occasionally! it's nice to have something consistent across the years, and it's now been like... 23 years!? what a time.

(exodus)

(16:26:15 04/06/22 EST)

Adding my name to the list of those that will permanently have this forum in their bookmarks, and check it at least once a month. I posted a lot more back in the day, but I still read everything here. BTW, I saw that Big Bang Pro Wrestling got a US release just last week... neato! I thought that was super interesting: Since it had originally been a Japan-only release, I figured that this signaled that they were starting to do full English translations of NGPC games that had never reached the West.... But then I read that the game had English language support the whole time. How did I not know that back then?!

(Bean)

(18:55:31 04/08/22 EST)

Whoa, they're digging kinda deep there, that's neat I guess. (In less newsworthy portable port news, Eschatos finally came out on PS4 this past week, with WSC shmups Judgement Silversword and Cardinal Sins included, like on the 360.)

(Paleface)

(13:57:03 04/10/22 EST)

Yeah, Chad is the most intimidating person I've ever encountered. There's nothing more terrifying than liberal pacifists who collect laserdiscs and write 1000 word posts about the superiority of Japanese Sega Saturns to American ones.

(Maniac)

(11:37:54 04/15/22 EST)

love this place. my favorite moments specifically on the board was monkey and i annoying everyone so much that the monkey board was created. and chad and i arguing about something, and after a long winded post by him, i deleted my lengthy response and went with "no u"

(zero)

(00:52:06 04/20/22 EST)

I delete a lot of posts after writing them, and emails. It’s a solid move.

(SignOfZeta)

(08:48:05 04/20/22 EST)

Exodus, I backed your bundle. I can't believe this war is happening. What crazy times we live in. (n/t) (At) (14:50:27 03/17/22 EST)

it's really brazen - I did think it would be over by now, it's real depressing that it's not!

(exodus)

(13:15:48 03/27/22 EST)

It is getting even worse:/ . The horror stories coming out of previously occupied territories are getting more horrible by the day. And the war seems to be far from over. I really wonder how this is all going to end.. Probably not good.

(Atarianallstar)

(15:07:46 04/09/22 EST)

yeah, there's really no end in sight right now.

(exodus)

(19:42:02 04/18/22 EST)

What is the top piece of some Japanese NGPC cartridges used for? I see it in pictures sometimes and can’t figure out what the deal is. (MHC) (02:31:28 02/06/22 EST)

Link test 2

(MHC)

(02:32:18 02/06/22 EST)

I've never seen that thing. It didn't come with my U.S. version of Card Fighters Clash, bought new (and sealed?) when it came out. I never saw anything like it with any of the new NGPC imports back in the day, either. Maybe it's 3D printed to display a cartridge?

(Mike Chicago)

(22:38:22 02/06/22 EST)

I never really looked into this. Obviously it slots into the notch on the top of the cartridge... I bet it's in the manual if I had that handy! My best guess is it's to hold the dongle on the wireless communication thingie. It's just about the right size, it looks like it's meant to hold a cylinder, seems like the thing to me. See inside:

(exodus)

(17:58:21 02/08/22 EST)

I don't think I have that quite right as the dongle is meant to hang, but this image here has a descriptor for it, and it says "for wireless communication-compatible software," so it's definitely something to do with that.

(exodus)

(18:07:36 02/08/22 EST)

Nice! Thank you for checking into it.

(MHC)

(12:50:31 02/09/22 EST)

sure thing!

(exodus)

(14:23:32 02/09/22 EST)

Guys, we already talked about this like 21 years ago. I can’t believe you forgot already.

(SignOfZeta)

(09:56:07 03/05/22 EST)

like it was only yesterday...

(exodus)

(16:52:25 03/05/22 EST)

Started to read about/play a lot of the SaGa series the past month. These are extremely interesting and fun games! Currently into Romancing SaGa 3 and looking forward to trying out SaGa Frontier. Nice Switch physical editions, too. (n/t) (Mental) (13:29:59 02/05/22 EST)

I've always been too intimidated to get into these things, which I realize is stupid! but I usually want to go through games once, the "right" way, and the SaGa series seems pretty dedicated to not letting you do that! I should just give one a shot though.

(exodus)

(17:51:32 02/08/22 EST)

Hey, I totally understand… because I felt the same way :) I just started to buy them so I “had to” play them. Turned out to be a good decision. With the amount of games out there I understand that people don’t choose these first.

(Mental)

(17:47:54 02/13/22 EST)

I do remain curious about them though!! one of these days...

(exodus)

(14:26:09 02/14/22 EST)

I actually just finished RS2 on Switch! Really fun game, but definitely have a guide handy!

(bluefour)

(23:15:12 06/11/22 EST)

"SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters’ Clash gets surprise release on Switch" (Paleface) (14:34:16 01/12/22 EST)

Well, MOTM came out so I guess it's not that surprising. Makes me wonder how the vol. 2 collection is going to shape up, I hope it's got Ganbare Neo Poke Kun and stuff on it. Wonder if we'll be able to get any third party stuff or if they'll fill it out with the sports titles and call it a day.

(aerisdead)

(18:00:14 01/13/22 EST)

when last I spoke to snk (pre-acquisition) they were trying to get some third party stuff, and the capcom stuff was supposed to be just the start, so I wouldn't be surprised if they got, for example, sonic on there.

(exodus)

(16:58:26 01/18/22 EST)

(SignOfZeta)

(11:42:45 01/17/22 EST)

I bet he does want that!! man, what a time.

(exodus)

(16:57:44 01/18/22 EST)

I find it funny you give so much on the top a a different state head killing a citizen. The USA routinely kills thousands in drone strikes and lets not forget all the innocents that are gunned down by your police forces. You don't buy anything made in the usa either I presume?

(Atarianallstar)

(12:33:41 01/29/22 EST)

The USA doesn’t have a single ruler who controls everything. Is that actually beyond your understanding? I hate the American military as much as the next guy but there is no comparison there, please fuck off with your apologist bullshit.

(SignOfZeta)

(13:29:07 01/29/22 EST)

It has nothing to do with apologist bullshit. I don't care much for Saudi-Arabia. But you always focus on the fact that MBS owns SNK now is horrible. Like if the chinese are some much better or the Japanese who slaughtered cities in China and played football with unborn babies. Those dudes ended up creating our beloved SNK. So cut MBS some slack being an absolute monarch must pust some pressure on ones shoulders.

(Atarianallstar)

(14:03:41 01/30/22 EST)

this is incredibly stupid to explain but you are trying to compare *a person* to *a country* and that is not an equivalent comparison. Money given to SNK enriches *the person* who ordered the murder of a journalist. but your last sentence is so ridiculous I guess you're just trolling for fun or whatever.

(exodus)

(14:38:39 01/31/22 EST)

Atarian is definitely having a meltdown. Cutting the crown prince slack because other nations/leaders murder as well is just insane. HOWEVER, the one thing I do agree on with him is to stop believing there is a single big company in the world that has clean hands. That’s why I buy the stuff I want from whoever is offering it at the cheapest price because wherever I buy it, I’ll be making *a* pig richer.

(Mental)

(13:27:05 02/05/22 EST)

What did I miss on Vita? All I really every played on it was the annual Super Robot Wars game (which I always liked a lot). It died in Japan like five years after the US, its very powerful, as a great screen and amazingly good analog sticks. It could do an amazing job at something. I wasn't paying attention though and support in US stores was total crap so whatever is out there I missed it. Please reply with your Vita suggestions. I have Hot Shots Golf, Fifa 13, Ridge Racer, Gunhouse, Disgaea 3 (amazing intro but I just can't do these massive RPGs anymore...other than SRW), DoA 5. I was super into Gundam Breaker 1 and 2 so I know about those. I'd like a really good racing game. (n/t) (SignOfZeta) (15:16:25 11/25/21 EST)

A lot of the good stuff on Vita wound up coming out elsewhere as well, but the Earth Defense Force 2 port is good, if you want to play that on the go. Also TxK, Jeff Minter's (maybe best?) tempest version. Some people like Gravity Rush (I don't love it). There's Wipeout 2048, I think that was the last wipeout game. I also really enjoyed playing those danganronpa games on there. but realistically the vita died too fast to get much on there that you can't play elsewhere.

(exodus)

(15:24:25 11/26/21 EST)

Going through my notes on the games I played back then I liked Dragon's Crown, Guilty Gear Accent Core Plus R and Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 the best. When it comes to racing games I think Ridge Racers 2 is unrivaled on handheld systems, but it's a PSP game. On Vita I remember having some fun with Need for Speed Most Wanted as well. It isn't the best port, but the core racing is fun.

(Rockman Pocket)

(17:14:19 11/27/21 EST)

I thought Tearaway was really cool. It also came out on PS4, but it worked great on the Vita (which it was initially designed for). Lumines on Vita has some really nice tracks and production values. The Hatsune Miku games are good if you like rhythm games (though I think the 3DS iteration is my favorite). Soundshapes is pretty special, though I guess you can also play it on PS4. I like it best on Vita, though.

(Jeurja)

(23:23:29 11/27/21 EST)

Yeah the weird thing about the vita is that it lived so shortly that almost everything got ported to something else, BUT it's also a really brilliant wee system to play the games on anyway. it's actually one of the best ways to play PSP and PSOne games, so I've got loads of them on the system, even though now they've closed the webstore it's a pain to buy all this shit online and they don't do sales anymore ;_; TxK and EDF2 are great as Brandon just said but I'd be hard pushed to think of any other exclusives.

(aerisdead)

(17:20:04 12/07/21 EST)

I’m inclined to agree… keep seeing all these games released as late as 2020 but when I look them up they look like iPhone fodder or maybe good enough to be on Switch. There are for sure a number of full size JRPGs and creep sims later but not much but those and ports. My newest game is from 2017, Super Robot Wars V. I guess when Bandai left it really was the end. They never made a Gran Turismo! Not that I’d play it, but that’s fucked.

(SignOfZeta)

(15:38:30 12/16/21 EST)

yeah, the system really just never got its due. lately I've been thinking I should try that vita uncharted just because it's an impressive feat on that thing.

(exodus)

(17:49:46 12/17/21 EST)

I only bought my Vita because Bandai stopped making SRW games for PSP. I never planned to play much else but SRW, which is good, because I didn’t. I do wish there was a killer driving game or something that used these very very nice analog sticks. I got a lot of use out of Gundam Breaker 1 on Vita, and a lot of use our of cross play with the PS3 version, for me Bandai was it. I have other games and gave them some time but only Bandai junk kept me going, and of course Oh Deer!. Maybe I should try Macross Delta. All the PSP Macross games were pretty good.

(SignOfZeta)

(21:41:59 12/19/21 EST)

(Belated) SNK update: former Koei Tecmo / Zynga / Sega exec Kenji Matsubara is new SNK CEO. And the original MBS announcement of his SNK acquisition is no longer online. (Paleface) (20:43:27 08/14/21 EST)

interesting about matsubara. snk has been talking about how "the new ownership is going to help us a lot" for the last two ownership changes, so we'll see. I'm sure MiSK is still majority stakeholder, we'd have heard about it otherwise.

(exodus)

(17:09:38 08/18/21 EST)

Yeah, seems likely.

(Paleface)

(16:45:17 08/22/21 EST)

Don’t care. They only make shit aside from compilations and they are owned by a terrorist. Easiest boycott ever.

(SignOfZeta)

(08:29:58 08/20/21 EST)

that metal slug tactics game looks pretty cool, but I'm gonna have to buy it used.

(exodus)

(15:05:59 08/20/21 EST)

It doesn’t look utterly abysmal, I’ll give you that. I kinda don’t need a slower Slug that makes me think more though and there are more Tactics style games now than I’ll ever be able to play so I can very easily live without it. Just as easily as KOFXV.

(SignOfZeta)

(07:40:34 08/22/21 EST)

I used to be into tactics games but then I realized they had all just amounted to ganging up on individual opponents.

(Paleface)

(16:48:38 08/22/21 EST)

SF2 producer Yoshiki Okamoto interviews SF1 & Fatal Fury director Takashi Nishiyama. (Paleface) (14:40:18 07/17/21 EST)

oh man. this sounds like a good one. I never feel like I have time to watch videos, but I should try with this one.

(exodus)

(13:29:03 07/19/21 EST)

So anybody here gonna preorder the Playdate? (n/t) (Atarianallstar) (17:38:11 06/09/21 EST)

Not that I remember. I don’t even remember knowing what it is!

(SignOfZeta)

(18:37:44 06/09/21 EST)

I prooooobably will do it.

(exodus)

(23:39:58 06/09/21 EST)

Maybe. It's too expensive.

(aerisdead)

(10:02:04 06/11/21 EST)

This is pretty much where I’m at. It seems cool? That’s a decent chunk of change.

(PopaSmear)

(18:47:08 06/11/21 EST)

I'm hoping to.

(Jeurja)

(13:36:23 06/11/21 EST)

I just looked this up. So, it's a shovelware subscription?

(substance J)

(10:47:19 06/12/21 EST)

hmm, we'll see, but it's mostly from well known folks. it's different from shovelware because with a few exceptions in order to make games for this thing you have to already have enough money to make games like this in your own time without worrying about a return on it.

(exodus)

(13:05:17 06/14/21 EST)

Expensive? 179 for 24 games and a system. No nintendo or sony stuff will ever have that price... All funky and quirky games. Right up my ally. I hope I will be able to purchase it in europe and won't have to import it from the USA

(Atarianallstar)

(03:24:44 06/15/21 EST)

Absolutely agree.

(Jeurja)

(21:39:15 06/15/21 EST)

Because none of you fuckers actually link or describe anything here anymore I had to look it up on my own. It looks...stupid, to be kind. I hope you guys have fun with it.

(SignOfZeta)

(19:09:13 06/20/21 EST)

A link what is this, 1993? Use friggin Alta Vista!

(Atarianallstar)

(07:43:24 06/28/21 EST)

...I'm pretty sure links are the very foundation of the internet as much now as ever. When you Share on Facebook or Twitter, that's a link. Without a link to content your only other option would be to create your own. This was sort of neither, and we've been getting too many posts like that here. Shape up!

(SignOfZeta)

(17:06:45 06/29/21 EST)

Yes sir! I actually hate the modern internet. On FB you can spend hours searching for something you read just a day ago.

(Atarianallstar)

(13:36:31 06/30/21 EST)

Aw man AltaVista : D

(Paleface)

(22:43:04 07/04/21 EST)

Remember when your lab computer home page was just a link to seven different search engines? And although none of them worked very well compared to today, they didn't have today’s issue which is that every search is considered a product search so no matter what you type in the first three pages are either stuff for sale or squatting pages trying to steer you towards stuff for sale. Also, most of the people you talked to online had read a book recently because they were pretty much all in school. It’s not our imagination that the internet is stupider now. It absolutely is.

(SignOfZeta)

(11:33:01 07/20/21 EST)

I wasn't quite that tuned in to the web that early--the "had read a book recently" part, anyway. But good point about the product search, yeah AltaVista was pretty clean I think, although I could be remembering that wrong.

(Paleface)

(23:39:05 07/23/21 EST)

You were here in 1999 weren’t you? Was that your first day on the Internet? Even then it was massively better. Hell, the XBand network was more well read than Facebook.

(SignOfZeta)

(10:41:57 07/24/21 EST)

I didn't talk to random people on Facebook or Twitter back then, so I don't have that basis of comparison.

(Paleface)

(18:47:46 07/24/21 EST)

Come to think of it, my only basis of comparison might be this board. Technically, I'm reading fewer books now, so I guess you're right.

(Paleface)

(18:57:46 07/24/21 EST)

There was no Facebook or Twitter in 1999, there were very few random people online even. Everyone had some sort of reason, like genealogy or coming here for NGP shit. It wasn’t just a billion bored retards trying to own the other side while shopping for fraudulent products and philosophy. Like you, I also spend double digit percentages of my internet time on this forum. I also read less.

(SignOfZeta)

(10:35:15 07/25/21 EST)

Newish Polygon interview with SNK's Yasuyuki Oda and Eisuke Ogura about KOF, from the 90s 'til now. (Paleface) (22:19:40 05/23/21 EST)

Nice read! I miss the days of old school internet. With all that social medioa and stuff.

(Atarianallstar)

(06:59:55 05/25/21 EST)

Great read. One thing that sort of bums me out though is that it sounds like some SNK employees had a hard time enjoying (what I consider to be) their peak output, like 96-2000. I guess going out of business while being overworked isn’t much fun...I just wish they knew how much I love the Neo Geo pocket and KOF 99 and all that.

(SignOfZeta)

(09:06:16 05/26/21 EST)

Yeah, I hate it when I see a reviewer say something like "you just know they were having a blast making this game" because no, you don't know that, and there's a good chance at least some of them weren't. But they did it anyway because they really wanted to be able to make games for a living, just hoping that one day it would somehow get better.

(Paleface)

(03:00:33 05/31/21 EST)

Making games sounds like hell to me. I’m grateful people do it.

(SignOfZeta)

(17:05:50 05/31/21 EST)

@exodus - did you have fun making Oh, Deer!...? P.S. Will Oh, Deer! ever return?

(Jeurja)

(14:12:39 06/04/21 EST)

Paid up front...it was probably pretty fun. That makes a big difference.

(SignOfZeta)

(13:28:57 06/07/21 EST)

hmm, well it's still not finished, but the answer is kind of and also not really!? ha ha. we had a very small budget and 1/3 of it got wasted on someone who couldn't actually do the work we needed. then our art/tech director at the time was talented but caustic and basically alienated half our team forever until I had to get rid of him. We released it twice, paid for by a platform both times, but always a very small amount of money that basically just barely kept us going. I'm glad we made as much of it as we did but while I do have fond memories from the time I don't think it was very fun. I've had a little fun making our current thing though.

(exodus)

(14:35:49 06/07/21 EST)

That sounds exactly like an SNK lifer typed it. I had a lot of fun playing Oh Deer!, but its currently not on my Vita and getting it back on there is a massive PITA because it involves turning on my PS3, where my USA Vita backup exists, and remembering how to restore from there which will probably take the course of two evenings in itself. I should really do that though...now that the Vita has lived its life (maybe?) I can see that all that region switching I had to do for JP and HK imports was pointless (none of the DLC turned out to be worth anything whatsoever) so I'll leave it in USA mode now.

(SignOfZeta)

(11:17:54 06/08/21 EST)

eventually we'll (probably) release it somewhere for real, with all the updates and stuff, so you can probably just leave it??

(exodus)

(14:50:31 06/08/21 EST)

I would like that. I think the graphics look really nice and it's fun to play. I like it!

(Jeurja)

(17:22:14 06/08/21 EST)

thanks! yeah the plan is for when you hit more deer for the subsequent mile of graphics to get more horrifying, and when you avoid more they get more "happy" - kinda. there's just no real budget for finishing it is the problem. but we poke at it when we have the chance!

(exodus)

(14:41:01 06/09/21 EST)

If I manage to get rich I'll fund it and you just have to add a Raroo Games logo to the beginning somewhere. :p Kind of like the one linked inside.

(Jeurja)

(15:00:58 06/09/21 EST)

we all gotta get rich! and yeah, I wish that was a real game too!

(exodus)

(23:39:41 06/09/21 EST)

I’m not paying $400 for whatever machine it will run on.

(SignOfZeta)

(16:46:48 06/09/21 EST)

you don't have a switch? unless they completely replace it in the next couple years we'll put it on that at least.

(exodus)

(23:38:36 06/09/21 EST)

That’s good to hear, I do have a Switch, yes.

(SignOfZeta)

(05:24:01 06/10/21 EST)

I’m really enjoying the Super Mario Game & Watch. It only has three games, two of the best ever made plus Ball. The form factor is one of my favorite of all time. The games suspend very well so you walk away from it for a day and come back at 8-3 or whatever. I have to say though, the time keeping function isn’t what it used to be. Since it has a full color backlit LCD display it can’t be left on for hours unless it’s plugged in making it more of a Game & Clock than usual, and it has no kickstand. In a perfect world they could have hybridized the LCD a bit to have an always-on section but hey, it’s only $50. The box was also pretty cool. It has no home screen so you’re always in a mode that actually does something. Very direct and to the point, I love it. I suppose they may do a Zelda one but to be honest I don’t like the early Zelda games even a little. My wish would be that they do a Donkey Kong one and load it with Donkey Kong ‘94. Other than those two I don’t really want or need any more. Mario is the game, after all. (n/t) (SignOfZeta) (08:36:09 05/15/21 EST)

I bought a cool 3D-printed stand off eBay and am using it as a clock. Every now and then I pick it up and play Super Mario Bros because it's so fun and feels so nice to play on the handheld. Agree with your sentiments, definitely.

(Jeurja)

(15:11:32 05/16/21 EST)

I've thought about buying one of these for the inevitable time when it's hacked and you can put all the nes games in the world on there. (or maybe they defeated this by keeping the rom space really low)

(exodus)

(17:59:20 05/17/21 EST)

It's hacked, and rom space is really low. You could fit 10 games on unless you're wanting to solder in a new chip. Doesn't seem all that worthwhile overall.

(aerisdead)

(14:32:03 05/18/21 EST)

hmmm, right you are.

(exodus)

(23:58:13 05/19/21 EST)

Aren't there 378 other ways of doing that?

(SignOfZeta)

(16:36:39 05/18/21 EST)

definitely, but I don't have any of them (aside from a broken gp32). so I was thinking this cute form factor might be the one, but it seems not!

(exodus)

(23:58:41 05/19/21 EST)

Well, 10 games is a shitload of games if you’re actually playing them. I have a similar desire for the PCE mini but for different reasons. That is, the thing has so much lag that I want to replace all the shooters on it with RPGs and mahjong games and other titles were lag doesn’t matter. I enjoyed Ys I&II a lot, but Lords of Thunder is not really playable, IMHO. If I was new to the game I may not notice but I can 1CC LoT it on real hardware on the same TV I can’t even clear it on the Mini. There’s some intangible issue...the G&W seems much much better in the actual gameplay area. I think I like it more than an actual NES.

(SignOfZeta)

(12:40:33 05/20/21 EST)

interesting, I didn't know the lag was so bad on the mini. I bought the snes mini and never opened it, and that was pretty much the end of my mini-buying experience.

(exodus)

(19:36:29 05/20/21 EST)

Its weird but I'm not sure the lag is equal in every game. I'm also not sure exactly what lags, if all aspects lag the same, etc, its hard to pin down. It's just..off. The Japan scene would never complain and I think it didn't sell super well outside of Japan or to people super familiar to PCE and the overall package is SO good that I think people didn't notice. If the SNES lagged like this a million fans would bitch. The SNES one is almost perfect but to be honest the game list really is sort of small, half as many games as the PCE one. Great amazing games for sure but the variety of the PCE one is so much broader.

(SignOfZeta)

(17:50:08 05/23/21 EST)

What's the best homebrew/fan-made stuff on NGPC? I enjoyed the fan translation of CFC2 and am enjoying the Columns port, with its quirky soundtrack. (n/t) (bluefour) (10:46:04 03/20/21 EST)

you're already one up on me because I didn't know there was a columns port!

(exodus)

(15:00:55 03/22/21 EST)

There's also a fun port of "Barbarian"

(bluefour)

(18:21:28 03/22/21 EST)

oh yeah, there was some guy porting barbarian to everything a few years back - brought it to pc engine too.

(exodus)

(15:03:52 03/23/21 EST)

"Barbarian's advertisements, showing a scantily-dressed model known for topless poses, triggered significant outcries of moral indignity." -- Wikipedia

(substance J)

(13:15:18 04/03/21 EST)

this must be why it took so long to get ported to pc engine.

(exodus)

(00:21:49 04/08/21 EST)

Ha!

(SignOfZeta)

(23:24:58 04/10/21 EST)

Other than the CF2 translation (which is an essential NGP game) and Everything (by S:NGP’s own professor of returning to the trees) I don’t know of any. What I would LOVE though would be some hacks like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon 2003 Plus or The King of Fighters '98 Ultra Leona.

(SignOfZeta)

(18:23:59 03/22/21 EST)

Ever played Sonic Pocket Winter Edition on Neogeo Pocket Color before? A fully working homebrew game made from Sonic Pocket with 2 more characters (Tails and Knuckles).

(Drakedave)

(09:43:51 07/16/21 EST)

I will look into this!

(SignOfZeta)

(11:36:19 07/20/21 EST)

Well, no one posted a thread for the release of the Neo Geo Pocket Color Collection Vol. 1 getting released on Switch so I guess I'll do it. SNK Gals’ Fighters, Samurai Showdown 2, King of Fighters R-2, The Last Blade: Beyond the Destiny, Fatal Fury First Contact, SNK vs. Capcom: Match of the Millennium, Metal Slug: 1st Mission, Metal Slug: 2nd Mission, Dark Arms: Beast Buster 1999 and Neo Turf Masters. $40, which is probably what it cost to buy one of those repackaged Neo Geo Pocket blister packs back in the day but you don't get a clicky stick. (aerisdead) (10:40:58 03/19/21 EST)

I've been having a hard time posting anything about SNK lately! but in the abstract it's cool that these games are getting releases/collections and I think the 3D models of the case/cart are kind of fun.

(exodus)

(17:11:06 03/19/21 EST)

I took a minute to play 2nd Mission when I was home over the holidays. After maybe 8-10 years since my last play, that was pretty impressive. When those games came out, I felt a tinge of sympathy for the people who produced them knowing that the amount of effort needed to achieve success was probably disproportionately high when your task is to take the the pinnacle game of an era typified by high-spec, super-indulgent everything and reduce it to something like NES quality. The NGPC games turned out well, although I probably would've enjoyed them even more if they hadn't use the Metal Slug name. At the time it would have been crazy for SNK to forego the marketability of that series when the NGPC was still perhaps viable. Looking at it now, if they released those games with an original IP (especially if it was awesome sounding like CRASH IRON STOKER or MAD ORDINANCE RANGER ECSTACY or something), I bet they'd be selling for $1,400 instead of $140.

(substance J)

(10:20:19 03/20/21 EST)

Nice! I wonder if the non-fighting games will be offered ala carte at some point.

(bluefour)

(10:41:51 03/20/21 EST)

Loose Japanese cart for $60 in this listing:

(bluefour)

(13:57:31 03/20/21 EST)

I can't do loose. Everything else I have is complete.

(aerisdead)

(14:56:27 03/22/21 EST)

looks like somebody isn't ready to kick off his sunday shoes.

(exodus)

(17:51:38 05/05/21 EST)

I’m the same way.

(SignOfZeta)

(09:17:25 05/17/21 EST)

$50 for this IPS mod. I might actually try this. (Jason) (23:17:15 02/08/21 EST)

I watched the video intro and read the description and still have no clue what "IPS" stands for. I guess I'm an idiot because they seem to be perfectly comfortable not even putting "backlight" in the video title.

(Paleface)

(02:07:28 02/09/21 EST)

Did I just write that?

(SignOfZeta)

(08:11:09 02/09/21 EST)

I did hear echos of some of your posts in my head while writing it, you definitely beat me to grumpy old man state.

(Paleface)

(16:56:49 02/09/21 EST)

I don’t know what it is either but I was about to post the same thing before you did. With me it’s “Use an acronym only after the full version has been previously written in the same piece with caps for every word unless the acronym is extremely well known to the expected audience”. I guess I’ve read a great big shitload of magazines in my life...old habits.

(SignOfZeta)

(17:25:38 02/10/21 EST)

I dare say it's just that crotchety old men are clearly not the intended audience for this video.

(Super Guppy Bros and Opa Opa)

(17:45:47 02/10/21 EST)

They were the only audience available for this thread though.

(SignOfZeta)

(19:26:11 02/10/21 EST)

ha ha I was gonna say

(exodus)

(23:09:22 02/18/21 EST)

Sorry, it's a distinction between screen types. There's TFT, IPS, OLED, and lots more I assume. IPS is just a better-looking LCD screen. Cheaper monitors use a backlit TFT. Nice monitors like the Apple ones use IPS.

(Jason)

(12:09:48 02/09/21 EST)

In Plane Switching, it’s still an LCD.

(SignOfZeta)

(16:46:37 02/09/21 EST)

Ah thanks. I couldn't help noticing Jason still didn't say what it stood for, although since he specified I little I would probably have been motivated enough to look it up from that point.

(Paleface)

(16:58:00 02/09/21 EST)

Heck I don't know what IPS stands for either. TFT is thin film transistor though. Ask Jeeves I guess.

(Jason)

(23:56:52 02/09/21 EST)

In Plane Switching, Zeta just said. Guess I'm taking his word for it. ; )

(Paleface)

(00:59:16 02/10/21 EST)

I find changing terms like this very annoying. When people/makers describe an “LED” screen they don’t mean that at all. It’s still just an TFT LCD screen lit with LED (instead of fluorescence) backlight. TFT is LCD with transistors in the screen instead of outboard. IPS is simply LCD again with some sort of variable grill that modulates the amount of backlight that each pixel gets. It helps a SHITLOAD but it’s still mainly LCD. OLED is in fact something else but aside from monochromatic screens on small devices I’m not very familiar with them. I don’t know if there are in fact 4K screens where the visuals are generated by OLED or if it’s just a OLED backlight instead of an LED backlight which to me would be a meaningless distinction not worth mentioning except when it comes to maybe power consumption.

(SignOfZeta)

(13:13:14 02/10/21 EST)

Would you have any more of a clue if I had written "$50 for this In Plane Switching mod"?

(Jason)

(17:20:33 02/12/21 EST)

Only very slightly, but it would have been a first step. I commented on the video about this, suggesting that it might get more views if "backlight" was in the title, for instance, and the author said "that's a really good suggestion! I hadn't thought about that" and then didn't do it, of course.

(Paleface is an old man and he knows it)

(18:37:45 02/12/21 EST)

I concede that "backlit" would have been helpful. So would an edit button! Haha.

(Jason)

(23:27:19 02/12/21 EST)

No, because nobody would write that. I would probably just say “new and better backlit screen” because there was never a choice of technologies. There is only ever going to be an LCD. The fact that it’s IPS is meaningless since the NGP is barely color at all let alone in need of HDR levels of color depth and accuracy. The fact that it’s (well) backlit is the big news.

(SignOfZeta)

(20:46:24 02/12/21 EST)

I've always heard IPS screens have better viewing angles. I'm colorblind so the color subtleties are lost on me. Really though I was just subconsciously parroting the language used in the video. But yeah ANYWAY back to the mod, it does look nice, although naturally it kills the battery.

(Jason)

(23:30:55 02/12/21 EST)

I would assume viewing angle would be perfect. I'm looking at an IPS 4K iMac right now and there is literally zero limitation on viewing angle on either axis. I think the LCDs in quality phones have been that way for years and they aren't usually IPS. I very well may get one of these but only because I have more than one NGP. I wouldn't Frankenstein my only unit and slaughter the battery life.

(SignOfZeta)

(23:37:49 02/12/21 EST)

Most phones do have either IPS or OLED displays. I bought one with a non-IPS screen a a couple years and it's pretty poor. Lots of cheap handheld Famicom clones have those, too. If I was buying a replacement screen from Shenzhen off eBay or AliExpress, that's what I would assume it was unless it specifically said IPS.

(Kon-Tiki and Opa Opa)

(13:45:18 02/13/21 EST)

Good point. I stopped paying attention to phone screens when they got so good that I didn’t have a single complaint...which was iPhone 4 probably, now a decade ago.

(SignOfZeta)

(16:08:21 02/15/21 EST)

irritable powell syndrome

(exodus)

(23:09:44 02/18/21 EST)

IBS was about as far as I got, but it was an immediate association.

(Paleface)

(16:10:23 02/20/21 EST)

BTW, battery life, much like the similar screen for the WS, falls to...five hours. That's right. Batteries every week instead of every month.

(SignOfZeta)

(23:33:30 02/12/21 EST)

Yeah you'd want rechargeable for sure.

(Jason)

(19:29:08 02/13/21 EST)

I know I'm super late, but I figured I'd chime in quick. I think "IPS" is one of those buzzwords that everyone in the scene just uses without thought. We sell some handheld stuff (like the Freeplay Zero/CM3 and these LCD kits) and people often ask if they're IPS (if we don't specify). I think what they really care about is the viewing angle. The IPS LCDs are known to have a good view from all directions and at fairly wide angles. The LCDs that are not IPS will often have one angle that's better than others. For these small LCDs, it's often a portrait orientation that's best, but the LCDs get used in a landscape orientation (for handheld game consoles) and then the optimal angle isn't perfect.

(Flavor)

(12:36:34 05/17/21 EST)

that's interesting! thanks for that. I need to order one of these before they're gone, too.

(exodus)

(23:57:26 05/17/21 EST)

Fighting EX Layer, Arika's self-published fighting game with some of the wacky characters like "Skullomania" that they put in those Street Fighter EX games on PS1/PS2 that I haven't played, is on sale for the next few weeks for $7.99 on PSN, for PS4. The sole paid DLC character is Terry Bogard, for an additional $4.99. The game is fairly bare-bones as far as modes and stuff goes but I have succeeded in having fun with it in my first two hours with the game (and there's a randomized Survival-style "Kumite" mode tucked away in the CPU settings in Training mode); certainly worth $7.99, anyway, if you have any interest in a fairly solidly-built SF-style fighting game that does some different things. Quite nice stages and music, and some interesting-looking character designs I'm looking forward to trying out. (Paleface) (03:18:18 02/04/21 EST)

I played it on PC last year. It's rough around the edges, but certainly enjoyable. Wish they had released it on the Switch as well, could've filled a niche.

(Rockman Pocket)

(09:18:18 02/04/21 EST)

ah, I didn't realize it was on US PSN!! I'll go for it.

(exodus)

(19:02:09 02/04/21 EST)

Worldwide simultaneous release on 6/28/18, according to GameFAQs. : )

(Paleface)

(12:40:22 02/05/21 EST)

looks like I'm quite wrong then! anyway I bought it and played a few rounds - it seems fine!

(exodus)

(14:08:17 02/08/21 EST)

Damn the faint praise! So far I've been hot or cold on the characters. Darun (aka Zangief) is fun, but Kairi is just a colorless Ryu--and that's saying something. :P Jack is Boxer with more options, quite nice! Garuda is playable but I'm not sure what he is exactly. And I haven't played him yet, but I find it amusing that in such a small cast, they have a Dan analogue in Allen, and he's even voiced by Dan's voice actor. : D ... Say did you know that "Exodus" is a character from the prequel, Fighting Layer, and apparently survives in EX Layer as a musical theme?

(Paleface)

(17:51:03 02/08/21 EST)

if they'd kept the exodus character in I'd have to keep playing!

(exodus)

(23:12:46 02/18/21 EST)

Ha! You’re never going to play this game again.

(SignOfZeta)

(20:17:33 02/08/21 EST)

you may be on to something here!! but as with all fighting games, who really wants to play them without somebody else.

(exodus)

(23:11:53 02/18/21 EST)

I do anyway. : o

(Paleface)

(23:39:50 02/19/21 EST)

I do when there's a story or a world or something to grab on to, but there's not toooo much of that here.

(exodus)

(15:20:56 03/01/21 EST)

Yeah, it's kind of funny how the entire story for a character is a single screen with some text that shows up at the end. It's actually nice not having to fight a boss though. ; )

(Paleface)

(19:26:48 03/02/21 EST)

I prefer real in-person opponents but I also spend a lot of time in Practice and Arcade mode. I’ve played stuff like Soul Caliber DC a lot in its massive one player mode but in the end I feel cheated by mediocre fighting wrapped in glitz. I’d rather play Super Turbo by myself than grind for points to unlock silly hats. One exception might be Street Fighter EX on PlayStation since that had a crazy awesome practice mode, IIRC, even though the game was lame.

(SignOfZeta)

(21:20:15 03/01/21 EST)

Arika developed Street Fighter EX as well as Fighting EX Layer, and they did put something pretty neat in the practice mode here: you can set it to what it called "Kumite" mode, and face random opponents in endless fights at the difficulty level of your choice. They all take place on the training stage, but otherwise it's pretty much all I need in a fighting game, mode-wise; ever since I came across a mode like that in DOA5, it's felt weirder and weirder to me that more console fighting games *don't* have one. Virtua Fighter and Tekken do, and I guess that's a big reason why they're my most-played series at the moment. You can do something similar in a lot of SNK's console port training modes (and with randomized stages!), but usually not at a very challenging difficulty level.

(Paleface)

(19:34:39 03/02/21 EST)

KOFactoid: The difficulty setting in KOF 98 (MVS) also affects the demo. So if you want a really intense demo set it to 8, if you want them to just stand there looking at their shoes set it to 1. This probably affects all sorts of VS games, not just KOF or even fighting, but I just noticed it so I thought I’d write it down on the holy scroll. (n/t) (SignOfZeta) (12:57:36 01/31/21 EST)

Oh! I wonder if it does that in 2000 and 2003 as well; I suppose it probably does. I know I used to try doing that in the "Watch" setting in Practice mode in the console ports--cranking up the difficulty setting to get a better fight out of them, I mean--and it did work there, although high difficulty in the Practice modes is still generally not that tough, at best equivalent to stage 1 CPU in arcade mode.

(Paleface)

(13:56:03 01/31/21 EST)

I set the game to level 1 and I’ve been trying to beat it, turn up the difficulty, beat it again, repeat. So far Rugal on 7 has been the thing I couldn’t do but I’ll eventually do it. I’ve gotten close a few times.

(SignOfZeta)

(10:54:43 02/01/21 EST)

Whew, not bad. I'd do okay at that except for Rugal. I think the highest difficulty I've beat him on without using a continue is 3. :P I still have no idea how to fight him, really. Eh I guess just getting more used to his patterns, speeds of his fireballs, etc.

(Paleface)

(23:51:04 02/02/21 EST)

I’m continuing like a fool. That’s allowed here. I just beat it on 8 tonight. Switching to 2003.

(SignOfZeta)

(02:41:53 02/04/21 EST)

Oh ah. Are you using Continue Service? I just can't motivate myself to continue against Rugal; unless I was using CS to cut his life to 1/4 I could be there all night trying to win that darn fight. ; )

(Paleface)

(03:22:14 02/04/21 EST)

No Continue Service.

(SignOfZeta)

(12:51:57 02/04/21 EST)

Ah and in 2003, are you going to KO mid-boss Kusanagi with a super, so you have to face super-duper boss Mukai, or just with a normal move, so you only have to face Adelheid? : ) Rather to my surprise I 1cc'd the game in Single Play with Shingo on difficulty 3 a few weeks ago, thanks to the "bad" Adelheid ending. ; D Kusanagi's difficulty curve didn't seem messed up in Single Play, either, whereas in Team Play he's just ridiculous. Planning to try some more Single Play tomorrow night, probably still difficulty 3 w/ no continues for now.

(Paleface)

(03:37:02 02/04/21 EST)

That’s the plan, baby Rugal is too easy.

(SignOfZeta)

(12:53:32 02/04/21 EST)

I'm happiest when a game doesn't even have a boss, like FEXL. ; ) I don't have fun in boss fights, generally. So if a boss is only roughly as strong as a regular character, that's all right by me!

(Paleface)

(13:28:52 02/04/21 EST)

2003 does not support the memory card. Annoying...having to beat the whole game for every ending. I still get the “YOUR MEMORY CARD IS STILL INSERTED” message though, that must be system generated.

(SignOfZeta)

(01:10:13 02/05/21 EST)

I wonder if the lack of memory card support has its origin in the initial release being on the Jamma board.

(Paleface)

(10:58:03 02/05/21 EST)

Yeah, they probably never made the graphics for it. Like I was saying below, the whole “MVS” concept had sorta died out by then. I think for the JP market, before these stand alone JAMMA games, they were mainly only making one slots to go into Sega/Sammy cabs by then and publishing one or two Neo games a year. The Memory Card itself was probably discontinued for several years by then and it wasn’t very popular at any point. If the Memory Card doesn’t work with MS5 then that’s another reason that game isn’t that great. For the AES player that sorta sucks.

(SignOfZeta)

(16:43:16 02/05/21 EST)

Something I read said that 2003 was planned for Atomiswave but they changed their minds and made it for Neo. So that’s how hardcore they were about supporting old MVS gear by this point, not at all!

(SignOfZeta)

(04:15:30 02/06/21 EST)

Oh, ah yeah it says that on its Wikipedia page too: "The game was first revealed in Tokyo Game Show 2003, originally planned to be developed on the Atomiswave hardware before settling on the Neo-Geo MVS hardware." And I managed to find a 2003 GameSpot article about it. Now I wonder why they switched to the MVS.

(Paleface)

(23:06:35 02/06/21 EST)

My guess is that their research said that Atomiswave customers were a much smaller base at that point and they decided to wait another year for the main series and poop out that garbage Neo Wave to get their feet wet...and perhaps AES factored into that also, maybe not. “One more KOF on the Neo!” was exciting at the time. It would have only gotten them an extra fifty grand or so, but fifty grand is fifty grand when you’re SNK. :) I’m glad they did because I have come close to getting a Atomiswave a few times but never have and while 2003 isn’t my favorite KOF I do like it a lot. It’s also cool that there are 10 KOFs on Neo.

(SignOfZeta)

(00:13:34 02/07/21 EST)

Tried it on difficulty 4 and the curve started feeling a little messy again--and got desperate and KO'd Kusanagi w/ a Leader Super once (they sure didn't make those animations very impressive) and thus ran into the horror of the Chizuru/Maki fight, which I'd managed to forget about--even worse then Mukai, argh! Also started noticing attacks seeming to go through each other, although maybe this is just perceptual and due to the higher attack execution speed in 2003. Anyway I think I'll be sticking to 98 and 2000--more my speed I guess.

(Paleface)

(10:56:43 02/05/21 EST)

Switching from 98 to 2003 is pretty big. Having no CD attack is rough. Lots of things combo more easily or juggle more but normal two-in-ones are harder. The Tag thing is a huge adjustment. No maxing up, no normal SDMs, and no Takuma. I can’t play this the same way I played 98 AT ALL. I cleared level 1 last night after accidentally KOing Kusanagi with a non-super and ditching the game three times in a row. I guess my team is Ash, Ralf, Mary, but I may have to get rid of Marry if I can’t get her to work better. She is a little different from 98. I could probably make Terry work.

(SignOfZeta)

(20:03:44 02/05/21 EST)

I just cleared Level 3 with the Fatal Fury Team. I’m starting to get back into the flow of this thing. Combos are...Street Fighter, basically. You can’t two-in-one unless the first hit connects (not blocked) which makes my Ralf sorta weaker...Tizok rules, that’s all I’ll say about him. Terry’s Leader SDM is hilariously huge. Joe almost feels like CvS2 Joe. These backgrounds sorta suck! Eolith/SFZ1 looking bland garbage. Alternate colors also suck. After I get bored of this I need to get 2002...The Chizuru sisters confuse the SHIT out of me. For sure they are worse than Mukai.

(SignOfZeta)

(00:26:18 02/07/21 EST)

I like the desert night stage; I think it's one of the best KOF stages ever. Mukai's stage is pretty cool and the cobblestone street is okay, the rest are pretty forgettable yeah. I like some of the alt colors just because they're so weird but some *are* eyesores, I suppose that's what living on the edge gets you.

(Paleface)

(12:50:30 02/07/21 EST)

Yeah, both boss stages are really good. Most backgrounds have very little movement in them and if they do it’s a sort of full screen tile update sequence, FMV BGs I guess. You don’t see distinctive things catching your eye like in KOF 98. It’s also true that if you have a crappy TV KOF 98 has such uniform brightness of the BGs and characters that it can look bad and be hard to distinguish them. I think they muted the BGs on purpose to some extent to reduce this.

(SignOfZeta)

(15:56:11 02/07/21 EST)

Huh, didn't know that about 98. I haven't had that problem with it but I'm using a different type of monitor I suppose--I *do* have that problem with plenty of other fighting games, though. Fighting EX Layer has that problem in a few backgrounds, for instance. ; )

(Paleface)

(01:57:08 02/09/21 EST)

I think ‘97 is actually worse at this, IIRC. It’s more of an issue when you’re using stock composite out on the crappy TV that came with your one room apartment, which I was doing at the time the Saturn version was new. It was a lot easier to see Street Fighter Zero 2 on the same setup.

(SignOfZeta)

(08:35:59 02/09/21 EST)

'97 put more emphasis on making the locations look kind of realistic, eh in a way, so I guess that could make sense. SF always went for brighter colors.

(Paleface)

(17:00:29 02/09/21 EST)

Oh and this really weird thing happened: after three continues against King, who was delivering shocking beat-downs to my Ryo, instead of coming back in against King, I came back in against...Mai! What the heck? : o

(Paleface)

(20:13:51 02/05/21 EST)

Same team though. I never do Single so I don’t know how that normally works.

(SignOfZeta)

(03:50:36 02/06/21 EST)

speaking of 2003 did you all know they made a straight PCB, non-MVS version of that game? it's very odd, very small, and very cheap! or at least it was cheap when I bought it. But yeah, it's one of the smaller PCBs of the era I've seen.

(exodus)

(13:54:04 02/03/21 EST)

Yeah I think that's what I was thinking of in the 2003 discussion Zeta and I had a little earlier. A thread on neo-geo.com that I found says that's how 2003, SvC Chaos, and Metal Slug 5 came out in Japan: Jamma-only, no carts.

(Paleface)

(23:23:35 02/03/21 EST)

ah yes - SVC Chaos too! I didn't know about metal slug 5 though. curious!

(exodus)

(23:31:31 02/03/21 EST)

The standalone still has a MVS sticker on the board, which amuses me. They did release MVS carts eventually. I think the plan was to delay emulation/piracy as much as possible by building the Neo and the ROM into one and then glopping the chips. It didn’t work, it never works. This POS Pandora’s Box 9 I have here has NGDEV games on it...too bad it’s a pirate Pandora’s Box (yes, bootleg of a bootleg) so they’ll run like total shit on it.

(SignOfZeta)

(02:48:47 02/04/21 EST)

Did the carts come out in Japan, though?

(Paleface)

(03:19:49 02/04/21 EST)

I thought so, I thought it was just delayed a couple of months. I can only sort of remember this about Chaos. The timing is more important than the region since at this point in history once the MVS was out anywhere in the world the pirates would have it dumped and the internet would distribute it globally. I think the plan was to get summer money from the arcades before the kids went to college and just played the ROMs. Perhaps the JP JAMMA release was the only release world wide for a little while and then they sold carts world wide everywhere after that. Making the JP version JAMMA and then releasing carts at the same time anywhere else in the world would still see the ROM in my Final Burn folder just as quick and easy, it would just ensure that the person who dumped it wasn’t in Japan which is pointless because it’s probably going to be dumped from China, US. Mexico etc anyway. HOWEVER, all the complete kits I can find on eBay right now seem to be Chinese versions so perhaps the JP MVS never came out or perhaps it’s just rare because that game flopped and nobody needed any MVS carts. My KOF2003 kit seems to have everything but Japanese docs so maybe I’ve been wrong about this all along. The other use for JAMMA versions is of course for machines that don’t already have an MVS in them. KOFs tend to hog whatever machine they are in and SNK was barely releasing new Neo games then so the “Multi” in MVS wouldn’t be used much in whatever machine ended up with the game. These boards look pretty cheap to produce as well. IIRC the price was more for these ($1100 vs $700) but that’s still cheaper than a cart + any new MVS mainboard so for new arcades this would be a good way to go but in this period Japanese arcades were already in decline so...I’m about out of theories.

(SignOfZeta)

(13:44:15 02/04/21 EST)

Would people have been able to emulate the Jamma ROM as easily at the time? This way, there was an initial three month period (in the case of 2003, for instance) during which only the Jamma ROM would have been available, in theory.

(Paleface)

(16:16:16 02/04/21 EST)

I think emulation would be slightly different since the BIOS is different but I think the real challenge was probably just dumping the game at all. When you have both the system and the code fully separate (an MVS and a cart) breaking encryption is just a matter of time. But if you can lock the whole thing in, the machine, the ROM, the encryption, the key, then the game might be worthless by the time anyone dumps it (like CPS3). Looking at these excellent scans, it seems they didn’t glop the ROMs but whereas the KOF 2003 MVS uses normal looking boards and 24pin dip ROM chips the JAMMA version has totally different chips. I think the JAMMA versions were eventually dumped and emulated but probably much later than the MVS version. All three of these JAMMA games have slightly different boards too. The SSVP proto MVS board seems to be on some 3 volt flash, totally on its own.

(SignOfZeta)

(21:07:12 02/04/21 EST)

Googling "kof 2003 mvs cart" or "svc chaos mvs cart" brings up old, out of stock listings on places like neostore.com and arcadeshock.com that look reasonably legitimate--that would suggest there *were* MVS cart releases, just delayed, like you'd thought. I had thought they would be hard to find because they were relatively rare, and now in fairly high demand from collectors due to their scarcity. ... Ah, mvs-scans.com lists only US releases for those three. It's a little confusing, because GameFAQs doesn't list an arcade release for 2003 in the US at all; it does list a US arcade release for SVC Chaos, but the month is unspecified, so could have been delayed--same with MS5.

(Paleface)

(16:43:15 02/04/21 EST)

Ok, yeah, that list seems to confirm the theory that Japan only had standalone versions of 2003, Chaos, and MS5. I think what actually happened is that all exports of these games are MVS carts and were delayed by some time to get max money from (their own) arcades and protect local sales for a small window. Then they sold another wave of the games to gaijin, pirates be damned, as MVS/AES carts. Staging it like this may have made a lot more money, especially with KOF 2003 which was pretty hot looking for the time and would have gotten people more excited for MVS/AES layout.

(SignOfZeta)

(20:47:25 02/04/21 EST)

Yeah, that seems pretty sound.

(Paleface)

(22:47:51 02/04/21 EST)

Came across one of those "coated in dirt" MVS carts you were talking about. ; )

(Paleface)

(19:10:56 02/07/21 EST)

Dang, and I already have a filthy 98!

(SignOfZeta)

(20:19:36 02/08/21 EST)

Yeah, the temptation was strong. ; ) It was muted somewhat by the other, obvious bootlegs he's selling, but that one looks dirty enough to be legit. ; ) If I was really going to get one that dirty I'd feel obligated to open it up and clean the whole darn thing, because otherwise I'd worry about all the dirt it was dropping inside my Neo; would have to get a fair amount of rubbing alcohol, I guess. (I've never opened an MVS cart so I have no idea how feasible that sort of operation actually is.)

(Paleface)

(02:02:42 02/09/21 EST)

For that matter, I'm not sure I've ever cleaned electronics with rubbing alcohol. I just seem to recall that always being the thing the internet said to use for cleaning game carts. :P

(Paleface)

(02:09:44 02/09/21 EST)

I have some pretty dingy cases, all the PCBs inside are fine. I wouldn’t scrub anything unless it actually smelled. Scrubbing destroys things.

(SignOfZeta)

(08:13:20 02/09/21 EST)

Yeah I think at most I would immerse and gently wipe. Good to know the cases are pretty good at protecting the boards.

(Paleface)

(17:04:31 02/09/21 EST)

There aren’t any fans in these machines so even gnarled carts are usually fine inside, no dust. Most of the ugliness on these carts comes from them being moved around in stacks for 20+ years.

(SignOfZeta)

(13:48:44 02/10/21 EST)

Paleface: can you just give us a list of all the banned words so we don’t have to re-write our posts for 20 minutes replacing half the worlds to get through the filter? Thanks! (SignOfZeta) (19:41:43 01/25/21 EST)

Send me an email at smbhax@gmail.com and I'll mail it to you. Posting it or a link to it on the forum would potentially kind of defeat its purpose.

(Paleface)

(22:57:02 01/25/21 EST)

Ah well let's try something simpler. If the name is entered exactly as "SignOfZeta"--case sensitive, etc--then if you use a banned word, it will tell you the word.

(Paleface)

(23:40:54 01/25/21 EST)

Holy shit, really? Thanks! You should add “exodus” to that list as well.

(SignOfZeta)

(23:42:38 01/25/21 EST)

Oh hah nevermind, I actually already had it on the monkey board for *any* name--wonder how long that's been there? So it's the same here now--not name specific.

(Paleface)

(23:45:48 01/25/21 EST)

I remember it being here but for some reason I tend to use banned words here more, I guess.

(SignOfZeta)

(00:24:13 01/26/21 EST)

ahhh, that'll be handy!

(exodus)

(16:30:00 01/26/21 EST)

I wonder if I can type something like transformer now

(exodus)

(15:04:31 01/27/21 EST)

hmm, I guess that's an old one! well, it'll still be interesting when I hit on an illegal word.

(exodus)

(15:04:52 01/27/21 EST)

So if it returns "period INNFO(ormation)" and I didn't use this term or even use a link, what the fuck is that? I'm ripping Fish a new one on the other forum and I can't click "Submit Post", this sucks! I had to reword this port three times just to get it across. TOO SECURE.

(SignOfZeta)

(00:30:46 02/11/21 EST)

The problem turned out to be the word MISS IN FORM A SHUN. Sentence by sentence I eventually figured it out. Sorry for the fury there...

(SignOfZeta)

(00:44:09 02/11/21 EST)

Actually I'm glad you mentioned this, it was a bug in a recent addition I'd made to the banned words file: I tried to ban the dot "info" domain type, but the period character is also a search wildcard, so it was actually matching anything with a character before "info"--sinfo, misinfo, etc all would have set it off. I hadn't realized the script would read special characters as functional wildcards when fed to it from a text file, silly me. Actually that's kind of interesting... Anyway, should be fixed now. Dot "info" should still be banned but not the others... I think there was a recurrent spam attempt to post some dot info url or something. :P

(Paleface)

(15:10:09 02/11/21 EST)

Rad.

(SignOfZeta)

(16:36:42 02/11/21 EST)

Gematsu reporting Match of the Millennium has been rated for Switch in Korea (MHC) (08:49:46 01/22/21 EST)

what!!! maybe SNK actually has the full rights to it?

(aerisdead)

(18:54:51 01/22/21 EST)

they don't, they've just been working on "an agreement" in stages, and this is the biggest result so far (the first step was being able to mention the vs games in one of the collections)

(exodus)

(18:38:01 01/25/21 EST)

Reconciliation!

(SignOfZeta)

(23:43:31 01/25/21 EST)

Surprising! Remember to give MBS his cut.

(Paleface)

(19:54:07 01/22/21 EST)

Oof. Touché.

(MHC)

(22:09:43 01/22/21 EST)

Ah don't mind me, I'm just bitter that I can't in good conscience buy any new (or new old) SNK products now.

(Paleface)

(00:13:05 01/23/21 EST)

No, it’s fair. It really sucks that a monster can just buy something you have enjoyed for 20+ years, as basically just his play thing. He obviously didn’t for any sort of profit. And after the company came back from almost nothing :(

(MHC)

(10:31:06 01/23/21 EST)

Yeah, I mean I hope they can somehow get rid of him some day, but it doesn't seem likely. For a while I was thinking it would be for the best if Capcom bought them, but anyway I don't see how that would happen. Then I thought well all the decent developers could quit and form a new company and make a new fighting property, about time for one anyway, but then...are there any really inspired developers still there? KOF XV for instance is looking like a slightly spit-shined version of XIV, argh. Really all I would like is for possibly decent future conversions of the good old games not to be tainted by a horrible dictator. What a strange sentence to have to type.

(Paleface)

(18:42:04 01/23/21 EST)

I think it’s almost certain that we will eventually have a different majority stakes holder. SNK is the Aston Martin of video games. They just go out of business over and over and get sold off to the next rich fan boy. It will be years of course, maybe after the Switch store is discontinued, but I have little doubt.

(SignOfZeta)

(18:33:40 01/25/21 EST)

I admit I really want this. They should've released it before being bought last year... :/

(Rockman Pocket)

(11:55:15 01/23/21 EST)

that's one of the most frustrating things - I think they're going to actually start making more interesting stuff in the next few years.

(exodus)

(18:38:56 01/25/21 EST)

Oh?

(Paleface)

(18:59:37 01/25/21 EST)

I think you’re probably right but at the moment missing the (likely) KOF and Slug collections bugs me more than anything. I absolutely love studying all the details and finding all the hidden stuff in these games. MS3 and KOF98 particularly.

(SignOfZeta)

(19:45:52 01/25/21 EST)

What platform are you waiting for? MS3 and KOF98, at least, are already on lots of current stuff.

(Paleface)

(22:53:01 01/25/21 EST)

I have the MVS carts so I need nothing. That SamShow collection though, and 40th of course...a KOF/Slug one of those would have been nice. I really appreciated all the geegaw in those things. There has to be binders full of KOF trivia and such, and I know almost nothing about Metal Slug except what I know from playing the games. Also I can loan that stuff out, whereas I only know one other guy with an MVS.

(SignOfZeta)

(23:49:26 01/25/21 EST)

Ah yeah 98 and MS3 (and SamSho Collection, I think?) had only limited physical releases anyway I guess.

(Paleface)

(00:20:27 01/26/21 EST)

Yeah, I guess I preordered it or something. I have the 40th, it’s very nice. I saw that they sold Metal Slug 3 (Switch/PS4) all by itself in a giant ass shock box. Kinda...stupid. There are now more aftermarket “shock boxes” than genuine ones. Also, I love that game to death but selling it by itself in 2020 seems like...a single sided 12”. It seems like a collection of all the Neo ones should be the standard by now. Since there are ten KOFs it makes sense to break that series up into three sets like they usually do but in a pre-MBSNK world I would have really liked to see a well done box with all of them in it for Switch. If would genuinely deserve a great deal of printed material and at least one CD if not a DVD.

(SignOfZeta)

(00:35:04 01/26/21 EST)

There's a 98 presented as "NEOGEO Mode" in KOF 98 UM on PS2; you can run that whole game in 480p via component--the usual holding X and Triangle during boot to bring up the progressive screen option--and that way it's perfectly sharp, with no blur effects (hm unless they default to on in the Options, I don't remember, but anyway you can turn them off).

(Paleface)

(11:58:27 01/26/21 EST)

That does look pretty good from here. If I’m ever forced to play that again I’ll keep in mind that you can do that. Like I said though, I have an MVS. In fact I have rebuilt my CMVS into a 19” rack on wheels. A super duper super gun. It’s better than a CMVS, an AES, a candy cab, a big red, or anything else. All Metal on all sides, totally sealed up but with no locks and all operator functions on the outside. Rolls around on high quality castors. To change carts/PCBs there is a large 6U door to open and then the entire PCB slides out on a drawer. The same thing is true in the rear for the other electronics, PSU, encoders, etc. Sturdy enough to support any CRT ever made (rated for 1/4 ton at least) but fully compatible with wimpy new TVs. It outputs RGB, composite, s-video, component, and 480p over HDMI. The Ians have seen it but I’m waiting until it’s %95 done to take better pictures. I’m waiting for blank panels in the mail...

(SignOfZeta)

(14:14:39 01/26/21 EST)

Nice. I'm telling myself not to get MVS 98 because then I'd have to cart swap my CMVS, which takes a modicum of force, whereas if I just leave 2000 in full time it'll last longer. ; )) Also I don't have much money. Anyway such are my excuses.

(Paleface)

(17:17:01 01/26/21 EST)

And then I'm working on getting into PS2 2003 but that cart(?) is a whole 'nother matter I guess. :P

(Paleface)

(17:41:57 01/26/21 EST)

That cart is pretty cheap even now. I’m pretty sure they overproduced it. I bought mine as a nearly new complete kit for $70-80 about 7-8 years ago. I only have KOFs 95, 98, and 2003 since, as you point out, money is an object...to be honest I get so much playtime/value from MVS games that I don’t really care how slowly I buy them. The stuff is good! You can’t make an arcade game that’s obvious total garbage on site. Everyone can see it running when they go to the arcade so it has to be sorta good. This, IMO, is the main reason why Neo Geo games are so good on average. You can’t hide it behind a box or a flashy ad. And the MVS version of any game never has blurry sprites or missing animations because it’s the original. Even The Super Spy and League Bowling get more time than any PS2 game I ever bought that wasn’t called Outrun.

(SignOfZeta)

(19:30:28 01/26/21 EST)

Oh, I see; I glanced over eBay but didn't see any complete 2003 carts, just PCBs or open bootlegs, so I thought something was up. Don't remember hearing Evoga had wanted the Double Dragon license for Rage of Dragons--they should have known that wouldn't go easy. I think I played it once on emulator, long ago. I think I may like the actual Double Dragon MVS game (or what I've seen by way of PS1, anyway) a little more. ; )

(Paleface)

(23:34:56 01/26/21 EST)

The market on complete kits has gone nuts. I only got it that way because it was sold to me that way. When I shop for MVS my only requirement is that the PCBs and ROMs be original. I don’t care if it’s black with filth and reeks of tequila, in fact I prefer them that way. Speaking of bootlegs, I recently saw on eBay a counterfeit standalone KOF97. There is no legit one of these as they didn’t make all-in-one PCBs until SvC Chaos, I’m pretty sure. It’s in some sort of case so I couldn’t see the chips but I’d love to see what’s in there. They say ‘97 was a big hit in some parts of mainland China and I guess this proves it. I wonder when it was actually made?

(SignOfZeta)

(17:46:27 01/27/21 EST)

I actually have '97, the guy threw it in with my cMVS. I can't play it currently because my eyeballs aren't happy with red screen flash FX, and '97 has them the worst. I'd like to play it, it's pretty weird. And yeah as far I've seen from YouTube and Twitch, '97 is still super popular in China, I think maybe in Korea as well. I seem to recall one documentary or something saying it's because it has a story plus all kinds of crazy gameplay exploits.

(Paleface)

(19:35:53 01/27/21 EST)

Is it your eyes specifically or is it a brain thing? I know we’ve talked about being FLASH free several times but I can’t remember what the deal was exactly. I can see KOF97 being a problem, KOF98 has less FLASH, IIRC. I can see most Samurai games being a major problem. When did they add the FLASH switch (test mode menu in the MVS games)? I think 2003 has it.

(SignOfZeta)

(15:34:15 01/28/21 EST)

BTW, I just checked and KOF 98 MVS has the FLASH switch.

(SignOfZeta)

(02:49:43 01/29/21 EST)

Pretty sure it's just mostly because I don't get enough sleep, and then maybe to a much lesser degree because of the tricky lighting in my low-ceilinged apartment doing a little additional messing with my eyes. Working on the sleep thing, doing better at it now than I was a year ago--can finally play 2003, even though you can't turn off supers (and their screen flash fx; 98 and 2000 let you turn off supers, which I do; don't like supers anyhow :p). The Flash option in KOFs to turn off the red screen flash FX started in '98, the year after that Pokemon episode with the strobing red/blue sequence gave 300 Japanese kids seizures. It always defaults to ON though, and as far as I can see on YouTube, nearly everyone leaves the darn thing on. :P So I can play 98 and later KOFs, for the most part, but I can't watch other peoples' videos of them. ; ) And yeah SamSho is really bad, Last Blade is pretty bad too--really just about any typical NEOGEO game (plus the new SS is also still bad ; ). FF series mostly doesn't have the red screen flash.

(Paleface)

(17:47:06 01/29/21 EST)

Oh and for a while I was working without adequate light at my drawing table, that exacerbated things quite a bit.

(Paleface)

(17:55:03 01/29/21 EST)

yeah... I wonder who'll do those collections now, if anyone. really unfortunate as I was finally getting into something with the documentary/interview stuff as well. Would've loved to dig in with metal slug and KOF.

(exodus)

(16:31:46 01/26/21 EST)

Yep.

(SignOfZeta)

(17:10:12 01/26/21 EST)

Polygon's "An oral history" series of fighting game interview articles takes on Capcom vs. SNK. (Paleface) (20:56:41 01/16/21 EST)

I knew about capcom selling the IP to capcom USA - that's how they got street fighter IV off the ground too.

(exodus)

(23:13:46 01/21/21 EST)

That had something to do with Sirlin's design--or something else?

(Paleface)

(19:53:04 01/22/21 EST)

no, the sfII remake was the proving ground for "street fighter can be successful again" but it wasn't hinged on his design specifically. it was just a new successful street fighter game from the US side.

(exodus)

(18:39:48 01/25/21 EST)

Oh, I was thinking of something else: I looked up the development of IV trying to figure out what you meant, and there was something about Sirlin doing an early design for it--nothing to do with Turbo HD Remix, at least as far as Wikipedia mentioned. I don't know that I knew that game was such a success, in fact.

(Paleface)

(18:58:41 01/25/21 EST)

There's some wild anecdotes in there. I'm surprised they actually started working on CvS3. Also crazy to think there might be an old SNK workstation out there with a version of KoF'98 on it that has a playable Ryu, Ken and Goku. These interviews a great reads.

(Rockman Pocket)

(11:47:31 01/23/21 EST)

This was a great read. Video game journalism has come a long way. I think it would have read better with most of the white guys cut out of it and the gaps filled by the writer.

(SignOfZeta)

(19:36:31 01/25/21 EST)

Hi guys, been a while since I've posted. Since many of you know of my store, I am closing after close to 21 years of business. If anyone is close enough I'd love to see you come in and say hello one last time. Hardest decision I ever had to make. Bill Sandwald,you will like the end of this clip, they chose it themselves. (Web Of Hair) (11:19:57 01/14/21 EST)

That blows...but man, you really did something cool. That’s a long time to be in any one-man business. Most don’t last a year. I’d love to hang stop by but frankly I barely leave the house except to go to work these days. Maybe we can go to a show again some time when the plague is gone. Maybe even Helloween will come through since they are majorly into doing that massive show again...when they can.

(SignOfZeta)

(14:17:41 01/14/21 EST)

I'd LOVE to see the Helloween Pumpkins United #2, so upset I missed it first time around

(Web Of Hair)

(18:39:26 01/20/21 EST)

The Bluray is really good.

(SignOfZeta)

(00:37:58 01/26/21 EST)

sorry to hear this! I guess I never did make it to ohio in the 20+ years it was possible to see the store in person. how you're gonna be okay going forward! do you have any idea what to do next?

(exodus)

(15:28:37 01/15/21 EST)

Nah, you missed the *real* VGUG by some years. This place was like a Amazon warehouse by comparison.

(SignOfZeta)

(16:50:27 01/15/21 EST)

Moving it all online for the moment. A Game Con or two and maybe a whole new business. Whatever it is, it'll be DIFFERENT for sure.

(Web Of Hair)

(11:12:44 01/19/21 EST)

Cool video, I have fond memories of browsing stores such as yours. Most of those I knew in Seattle are closed now too.

(Paleface)

(16:08:24 01/16/21 EST)

Mohammed Bin Salman is buying SNK. (Paleface) (16:19:58 11/29/20 EST)

Why SNK? That seems random.

(Jeurja)

(21:35:15 11/29/20 EST)

I wondered that as well. The notice on the charity page does mention they have prior history together, making it sound as though he assisted them with some sort of game thing in the past, although it doesn't specify what that was. I've read that SNK games have had bouts of popularity in part of the Middle East--Khushnood Butt and all that--so possibly it was natural they'd have come to his attention as a gamer? Also, they're probably somewhat unusual among well-known-ish game companies in being publicly listed on the South Korean stock exchange; perhaps that made them particularly easy for him to invest in (could he even be banned from investment on say US and Japanese stock exchanges?).

(Paleface)

(16:40:56 11/30/20 EST)

I think he just likes the stuff, Neo Geo, and now he controls the whole company. I’ve read people are saying it’s part of a broader scheme to diversify Aramco’s portfolio or whatever but that’s nuts. A single tanker full of oil would buy every third party publisher in Japan. Get real, the guy’s a goddamned otaku. He’ll probably bring the company out of the discount bin of mobile phone hell too but I’m not buying any of it ever because fuck that piece of shit.

(SignOfZeta)

(20:47:05 11/30/20 EST)

Why couldn’t it be id Software...

(SignOfZeta)

(20:48:53 11/30/20 EST)

Yeah, that would be the thing that’s gets me to never buy a single thing they make from now on. Presumably the libtards have organized a divestment/boycott thing? I find this not surprising at all, btw. That dude has “AES collector” written all over him.

(SignOfZeta)

(07:52:52 11/30/20 EST)

I just remembered that this guy is most famous for murdering a journalist so...we’ll see what side of this people are on pretty quick, I’d assume.

(SignOfZeta)

(11:20:01 11/30/20 EST)

Oh man, ouch to the AES collector thing. Whoof!

(Not that Paleface can disagree with it--although he really only knows AES collectors from a few cartoonish appearances on internet message boards)

(16:34:02 11/30/20 EST)

I’ve long imagined Arab millionaires with AES collections. There isn’t THAT much money in France. Never in my wildest most xenophobic nightmares was it ever THE guy though. That’s honestly hard to believe even now. I bet he has a full set of Freaked AES carts and every day Dion wonders if some day the jig will be up and he’ll be headed to the acid vat too. The stress of living with that...may explain some things. Why we never see that guy anymore. Why he went broke. He’s probably wrecked with worry.

(SignOfZeta)

(17:26:44 11/30/20 EST)

Really makes Spanish incursions onto the forum seem kind of bushleague, doesn't it?

(substance J)

(13:03:11 11/30/20 EST)

I was thinking that too. Unless it was SPAIN under Franco or something, I suppose.

(Paleface)

(16:36:11 11/30/20 EST)

Deep cut! Very nice.

(Jeurja)

(01:10:55 12/06/20 EST)

(substance J)

(13:21:01 12/09/20 EST)

yep, it's real bad. sucks to watch a company you spent 15 years building a relationship with, whose history you've documented and raised up as a beacon in some ways just turn into this overnight. Like someone said somewhere else, I miss they days when they were just extorting money from people. Suffice it to say, I can't work with them anymore. The killing of the journalist is a pretty bad one but let's not forget the basically ongoing genocide in yemen. there's no way I could work on anything that has even a chance of enriching this guy. with US taxes and all the murdering our military does I have no choice other than becoming a citizen of another country. in this case here I have a choice.

(exodus)

(23:11:43 11/30/20 EST)

I would think any developers still at SNK worth their starch, or just halfway decent human beings, would be headed for the exit as well, regardless of how company-loyal Japanese work culture has traditionally been; when a murderous dictator buys your company, all bets have got to be off even in Japan, don't they? And MBS wouldn't be stupid enough to think he'd get the company with old developers--or even a good chunk of their nich audience--intact, would he? So did he just buy it for the properties, or the name?

(Paleface)

(21:01:34 12/01/20 EST)

you really overestimate... something, here. the integrity of human beings? I dunno. I doubt they'll lose a single person. SNK just got a lot of its old devs back and is starting to make traction. Frankly it'll probably be easier than ever for them to make new properties, revive old ones, etc, because their boss won't be as conservative about what games to make anymore. For people who don't care about ethics et cetera it'll be the glory days of SNK again.

(exodus)

(14:46:21 12/02/20 EST)

I wouldn't be surprised if they bring old shyster trump supporting ben herman back to lead a US division at this point.

(exodus)

(14:47:46 12/02/20 EST)

Hm...

(Paleface)

(16:55:50 12/02/20 EST)

A guy I used to work with quit my company to go do basically the same thing for Aramco. He makes 2x and the place is fully funded and clean as a whistle. This was a few years ago, before the Khashoggi situation, but when that happened I thought about what it would be like going to work while your boss is on TV around the world for ordering a gruesome hit on someone...basically for writing stories about him. I have no interest in being anywhere near anything like that. I’ve had headhunters trying to get me to work in the UAE or for Raytheon or whatever...they throw a lot of money at the people they need and it works because of the “get paid, damn the consequences” attitude of so many of the guys in industry. I’m the one guy that just wants to go home and hang out with the family all day. I myself have worked for Aramco! I probably told this story before... It was around 2000 or 2001 when I was doing digital graphics stuff for a museum company. The project was the Saudi-Aramco museum which was, I think, in Saudi Arabia. (I just made the signs...). There was a common graphical theme that ran through many of the signs where you’d see these towers...I don’t know what to call them. They look like a Russian church, with those little onion points on top. When all the towers looked exactly like dicks, partially at the end. Someone wasn’t good with illustrator and all the towers looks liked giant dicks...how do you bring this up with a client who is a committee or 70 year old men who think everything is a sin? Most of my company was female, so that would make it more difficult. One day the new versions of everything had normal looking towers and no dicks. I had to wonder how that happened though...did someone on our end fix it unprompted or did someone at Aramco who had looked at their own disc recently notice it? Was it a protest? From where? Anyway, I didn’t really understand who Aramco was during this time but I think now it’s a lot harder to feign ignorance.

(SignOfZeta)

(11:14:07 12/03/20 EST)

iOS autocorrected every one of those “dicks” with “discs”, I didn’t fix them all, seems to work either way...

(SignOfZeta)

(12:43:53 12/03/20 EST)

I already find myself already ceasing to put #snk on Twitter posts I make about their old fighting games. They haven't made anything I've wanted to play in ages, and I stopped following their Twitter channel when it because clear it was just cheesecake for their mobile game, but man, now they're just dead to me. I have no problem playing their old stuff but only because my head seems to have completely disassociated it from current SNK.

(Paleface)

(01:25:29 12/04/20 EST)

You must know that enriching and supporting people like Mohammed bin Salman is the result of almost every single economic interaction in your life. That's just the way society is organized today. Working for this company instead of that one or buying that product instead of this one doesn't change anything about who derives profit from you. Are you actually so upset that he's doing it with his real name instead of through the usual anonymous international banking and investment corp? I guess that does put a bit more stress on the implicit bargain we make by living in modern society doesn't it?

(Convenience and Opa Opa)

(16:51:12 12/02/20 EST)

obviously I'm aware of that, but like I said, if I can make a choice, I would rather do it than not. Some other considerations that factor in, for example: I did take money from google to make a game. But I was certain it wouldn't make its money back, so I was taking that money from them and distributing it to my team rather than contributing back to the source. of course they can write off any losses, but it's slightly better than actively giving them money. Choice is largely an illusion under our current systems but why not practice exercising the better choices available in anticipation of a better system existing some day, or as an example to future generations who might live under such a system. Also if I weren't leaning toward this side with my choices I could very definitely a be rich libertarian money hoarder like so any other bay area people. Though I can't eject myself from the economic interactions that prop up all these people I can at least choose not to support them *this directly.* It's not much but it's better than zero. Like obviously me recycling, reusing bags, and walking instead of driving doesn't do much in the grand scheme when most of our pollution problems stem from an extremely small number of companies, but that doesn't mean strewing my trash around and driving a humvee when I want to go two blocks wouldn't negatively impact the environment more than what I'm doing.

(exodus)

(17:04:37 12/02/20 EST)

I don't see what makes the choice of Royalty Investment Partners, Llc. better than the Muhammed bin Salman Charitable Foundation. Is there something other than a bargain you've made for your silence in the name of convenience that makes them different? If the difference really is only that the public attachment of his name makes it hard for you to turn the other way, then the problem with taking a stand over the choice is that it implicitly strengthens the current system and the people who profit from it by giving the impression that you think one of the two choices is acceptable. This strenthens the bargain, both in your own conscience and for other people. As a result any path to this "better system" you vaguely imagine becomes more and more untenable. You should thoroughly and equally condemn all choices made within this system. Focus all of your attention on your own hipocrisy rather than deflecting it with imaginary ethical decisions.

(The Little Death and Total Obliteration)

(17:51:54 12/02/20 EST)

There’s nothing imaginary about feeling like shit for taking a paycheck from a company known to be controlled by one of the worst dudes living on planet Earth, which is the situation exodus would be in if he didn’t abandon whatever project I’m sure he’s been thinking about since the Samurai collection finished up. Your emotional distance from the situation is perhaps easier given your physical distance from the situation. Would you take $20 to mow his lawn if you just saw him push a button that launched a missile into a hospital? Maybe you would because, after all, it wouldn’t bring the hospital back. Not everyone is so enlightened though. Frankly this situation is very shitty but also very simple. I wouldn’t like walking away from them, as a customer or a consultant, but it wouldn’t be a difficult choice at all.

(SignOfZeta)

(12:59:46 12/03/20 EST)

No, you haven't been paying attention to what I said. I don't think anyone should accept working for Muhammed bin Salman. Working for him would be absolutely terrible and a moral trap, BUT SO IS WORKING FOR ANY CORPORATION. My comment was not just in response to exodus, either. It was also in response to other comments here, like yours, about not buying from SNK anymore. Buying stuff from Muhammad bin Salman would be absolutely terrible and a moral trap, BUT SO IS BUYING STUFF FROM ANY CORPORATION. This is not just because of some @CapitalismIsEvil bullshit, it's because all of your economic interactions literally benefit Muhammad bin Salman and other people exactly him, regardless of whether their names are attached to the companies. You know this just as well as I do and the only reason you don't make the exact same connection is that you've internalized the terms of a bargain with your conscience in which you agree not to think about the how your actions support these people and their system. I make that bargain, too, but I cannot accept its terms.

(Cuckness Unto Death and Opa Opa)

(14:26:44 12/03/20 EST)

I think exodus and Zeta won't appreciate your distinction until they've delved deep into the Motörhead discography and steeped themselves in many hours of Lemmy interviews on Youtube. It'll be a long process. There was a thread probably 15 years ago where the same argument played out over the morality of shopping at Target vs. Walmart. You can guess exactly how the ideologies diverged on that one.

(substance J)

(14:24:19 12/05/20 EST)

I don’t think that was a similar argument...but you are right, I fail to recognize the distinction and it’s mainly because man cannot live on the word of God alone. I see little that is actionable in all his theory.

(SignOfZeta)

(16:55:27 12/07/20 EST)

What you consider "actionable" depends so much on how you view your actions and your ethical relationship to the world. If you think you're a pretty great person, with forceful convictions that you stick to, then you're probably not going to be willing to sacrifice much of your convenience to do better. Afterall, you're already doing so much. On the other hand, when you see more clearly the compromises you make to your ideals every single day and feel all the guilt of that failure, then you'll find yourself more and more willing to take actions. You can't understand this in advance, so your judgements now about what is actionable are just not relevant. It has to start with an honest assessment of yourself. There's nothing abstract or theoretical about this. It's devestatingly practical.

(Lieas and Alibies and Opa Opa)

(19:10:10 12/07/20 EST)

I think I don't really understand what you're talking about because I am directly inconveniencing myself (monetarily) by not working with SNK anymore. Of course the ultimate rejection would be to live outside the system entirely but that's not a practical possibility when you have ailing parents with no incomes and are born into a society et cetera. you can get all the way down to the metal and say I should go off to farm by myself and affect/take care of nobody else but that doesn't feel like a real argument to me. You seemed to be saying that my sacrifice of convenience was meaningless, so I'm not really sure what you're getting at with this last bit.

(exodus)

(16:45:21 12/16/20 EST)

what he's saying is, if you don't like the way a guy is pimpin', you won't change anything by going to the cops. You gotta become a pimp and run a better game. If you aren't prepared for that, don't fuck.

(a-star)

(13:13:32 01/09/21 EST)

there's definitely a difference between shopping at target and walmart but it's not as big as shopping at walmart and growing your own food, and I think that's where I'm diverging most from what sweater fish is trying to say here (as I understand it), because I think the distinction between target and walmart is easy enough to make, and that through myriad small decisions you can have a slightly less worse impact on humanity than if you either choose the slightly greater of the evils or if you make no choice at all.

(exodus)

(16:47:21 12/16/20 EST)

This is why I only work on mobile games financed by The Human Fund ("Money For People" TM).

(substance J)

(14:25:17 12/05/20 EST)

A game called "Misk Schools Quest" popped up on the PS4 PS Store today. "Misk Schools" is a private school in Riyadh owned by MBS; his "MiSK Foundation" logo appears at the start of the game's trailer. As far as I can tell from the trailer, in the game you control a fully-masked tech-suited humanoid running around lifeless tech scapes, zapping other tech/roboty-looking humanoids with lightning from your hands, Star Wars emperor style. // The latest update for SNK's page on Wikipedia says "In November 2020, the MiSK Foundation, a non-profit organization owned by the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed Bin Salman, acquired a 33.3% share of SNK, with the intention to acquire a further 17.7% share at a later time as to gain controlling interest in the company."

(Paleface)

(00:40:17 01/17/21 EST)

Last Blade: BTD is on Switch now, making it the 4th switch port! (n/t) (bluefour) (17:24:38 11/14/20 EST)

Fatal Fury: First Contact is out now.

(Paleface)

(00:10:15 12/24/20 EST)

Somebody ported Metal Slug 6 to the dreamcast. Pretty awesome! Hopefully somebody does Dolphin Blue next. (Atarianallstar) (13:51:39 11/02/20 EST)

Linky winky

(Linky)

(13:53:23 11/02/20 EST)

Cool!

(SignOfZeta)

(15:33:17 11/02/20 EST)

the widescreen hack they're doing is pretty interesting! i guess there are some plans to further improve it as well.

(exodus)

(18:54:50 11/02/20 EST)

And know KoF XI has been ported aswell

(Atarianallstar)

(13:40:18 11/09/20 EST)

there's like 4 games now!

(exodus)

(14:26:00 11/09/20 EST)

I know, crazy!

(Atarianallstar)

(14:40:07 11/10/20 EST)

I think Demolish Fist and Dolphin Blue wound be the big ones, right? What is Atomiswave exclusive?

(SignOfZeta)

(15:18:06 11/11/20 EST)

not a lot of it is exclusive but these ports are basically flawless on ODEs, they just feel like Dreamcast games. Some games I'm looking forward to are Rumble Fish 2 (never ported) Sushi Bar (unreleased but dumped, and I previewed it on insert credit), knights of valour, dolphin blue, faster than speed(lol), all the SNK games, hokuto no ken, and maybe we'll get hold of some more unreleased games like Kenju or force 5.

(exodus)

(23:33:59 11/11/20 EST)

What is an ODE?

(SignOfZeta)

(10:13:07 11/12/20 EST)

it's an "optical drive emulator" - basically it replaces your disc drive with a solid state thing that you can run roms on (but not discs). It reduces or removes most load time which is why it was relevant here. The big difference between the Atomiswave and the Dreamcast was apparently just the way it read data, and once the hombrew folks figured that out, they found it was incredibly easy to port Atomiswave games flawlessly to Dreamcast as long as it had an ODE (which replicates the data loading environment of the Atomiswave cartridge). But once they had THAT figured out they were able to retroactively make disc images too, albeit images that have black loading screens here and there, and some odd incremental load-ins of data. But otherwise it works great even on disc now, when you consider how long it's been since this all came to light (maybe two weeks).

(exodus)

(13:29:07 11/12/20 EST)

...this sure makes all those PS2 ports look even more offensive.

(SignOfZeta)

(20:55:53 11/13/20 EST)

it's pretty cool. 24+ "new" dreamcast games coming in 2020/2021.

(exodus)

(00:15:31 11/16/20 EST)

Dolphin Blue is ported !

(Atarianallstar)

(03:20:10 11/16/20 EST)

there's a bug that doesn't let you get past level 3, but yeah, it's getting there!

(exodus)

(14:36:46 11/16/20 EST)

KOF Neowave is out now too.

(exodus)

(14:20:46 11/17/20 EST)

Weak AI difficulty in that one, at least in the PS2 version.

(Paleface)

(17:51:10 11/17/20 EST)

That’s your complaint with this game?

(SignOfZeta)

(15:32:17 11/24/20 EST)

That's what's keeping me from going back to it.

(Paleface)

(17:03:02 11/28/20 EST)

To me NeoWave looked and felt exactly like what it was: a summer spent making an Atomiswave demo based on Geo assets so that SNK could get to work with a real game after that. I can’t even remember what was new for that game other than BGs.

(SignOfZeta)

(14:36:42 11/29/20 EST)

They altered the roster a little, put in not-so-great music, sped up meter charging, and added some highly technical "modes" and a 5th button whose toggle increases damage but drains life, according to my notes.

(Paleface)

(16:08:59 11/29/20 EST)

That’s worse than I remember. Was there at least a new boss? There must be new moves.

(SignOfZeta)

(09:22:42 11/30/20 EST)

Not sure about new moves but I think there was a new boss or two...aaaand no, I was completely wrong. The internet says the boss is young (AoF2) Geese Howard.

(Paleface)

(16:46:26 11/30/20 EST)

His sprite is from AoF2? That can’t look good. Or did they at least redraw one guy?

(SignOfZeta)

(17:28:25 11/30/20 EST)

I assumed it just meant he's styled like the Geese from that era, not actually the same old sprite. I haven't taken a look to check.

(Paleface)

(21:03:44 12/01/20 EST)

(it's a new sprite)

(exodus)

(17:05:48 12/02/20 EST)

Happened to be poking at this for a minute the other day and yeah, it's a weird-looking Geese. Thought at first from his (hidden) portrait on the character select screen that it was Andy Bogard. Not the best looking sprite, either; lacking physical definition, and a grungy color job.

(Paleface)

(19:28:18 01/20/21 EST)

games out now: KOF XI, KOF Neowave, Blue Dolphin (incomplete), Faster than Speed, Metal Slug 6, Samurai Shodown VI, Fist of the North Star. I'm waiting on rumblefish 1 and 2 now!!!

(exodus)

(23:21:11 11/19/20 EST)

I'm waiting on my GCDEMU to arrive!

(Atarianallstar)

(03:20:18 11/20/20 EST)

I guess I need one of those...

(SignOfZeta)

(10:54:53 11/22/20 EST)

Wait, is this going around to turn my functionally perfect all original DC into some hacker piece of shit? Does it physically replace the GDROM drive? I want to play real games on it still. I guess I can buy a broken DC if I have to...

(SignOfZeta)

(10:39:43 11/23/20 EST)

Wait, are these seriously $200+? I can buy Demolish Fist and an Atomiswave for that. That’s more than the DC itself cost new. It looks really cool but you guys can just bring yours when you swing buy, thanks!

(SignOfZeta)

(10:43:13 11/23/20 EST)

These days anyone can hook a desktop computer up to whatever TV they want to play on and apparently this Dell mini-computer I literally picked out of an e-waste bin can emulate Dreamcast and Atomiswave games just perfectly. The only reason I can imagine hooking up my original Dreamcast is if I want to hear the GD drive hocking and spitting at me again. Actually, they should add drive sound simulation as a feature to Dreamcast emulators. I'd use it.

(Bzzz-bb-bb-bb-vvvzhh and Opa Opa)

(13:07:17 11/25/20 EST)

Ok. You spend a weekend setting all that shit up and mail the machine to me. It better run everything.

(SignOfZeta)

(16:26:56 11/25/20 EST)

Nothing in life comes easy, but downloading some games and installing an emulator is definitely among the easiest of the challenges we're face with in this world.

(Confoundation and Opa Opa)

(19:38:42 11/25/20 EST)

Nope. Not doing it. Wasted too many evenings in the past to end up with nothing. I will pay someone to hack my WiiU but I’m never doing that sort of shit again ever. I’m paying for everything from now on, pirate or legit, or I’m just not playing it. I’m tired of the hunting and the FAQing and the preordering and things being limited edition and all that stuff...it’s more complex than the actual game I want to play, and it’s zero fun. It’s not a hardship related issue, it’s a self induced hardship issue. Trying to figure out which folder to put the CDROM2 BIOS into drives me NUTS, learning another way to do it four years later does too, so I’m just going to remove myself from the situation. I fix broken prototype crap all day at work, then I fix the house at home, fix the kid’s toys, everyone’s car, I’m completely burnt out on diagnosis. I just want to ski down the hill, I don’t want to build the chairlift.

(SignOfZeta)

(11:27:22 11/26/20 EST)

I had a longer reply for this but I couldn't figure out whatever word the forum didn't like, so I abandoned it. the short version is, as cranky as you sound I sort of feel similar!

(exodus)

(13:32:03 11/26/20 EST)

it does replace the gdrom drive - and if you wait the price will likely go down. Also, rumble fish 2 (as an example) is a game you can buy, atomiswave cart only, broken for $350, or working for $550, if that's the way you're looking at it. The bigger picture is a gdemu or MODE type thing won't break, the roms won't get disc rot, and a dreamcast laser/disc eventually will.

(exodus)

(13:46:00 11/23/20 EST)

(note: I'm going to install a MODE or GDEMU in an old spare dreamcast with a bunch of mods and use my hello kitty dreamcast for discs. I kind of wish I still saw sports dreamcasts in the thrift store all the time, that'd be a good candidate for this. black one for roms, pink one for discs)

(exodus)

(23:52:50 11/23/20 EST)

Excellent idea.

(SignOfZeta)

(19:02:52 11/24/20 EST)

I see your point. And aggregately, you are correct. There will be ISOs and ODEs long past the death of my specific DC and it’s drive, but I would for sure bet money that the ODE system in your DC will be dead before any of my discs rot. Those flashy game doctor things are almost always built like total crap, dead in a few years, and my DC games are unlikely to rot until my LDs do which hasn’t happened yet, despite hearing about rot nearly every time LD is mentioned. Is there some known-real wave of DC disc rot I don’t know about? If not, I’d say those game probably are safer on pressed discs than any other mechanism.

(SignOfZeta)

(15:41:58 11/24/20 EST)

there's been disc rot, yeah - I've got a copy of wipeout XL here for PS1 with disc rot, sadly! I mean, luckily it's just wipeout XL, but it's put the fear into me for sure. And it's kind of a different industry than the game doctor type things - these are all purposebuilt by individual people (thus the high price), which could really go either way in terms of longevity. But yeah, my goal is to have both, as I mentioned above. I'm just super excited about playing "brand new" dreamcast games in 2020 however it happens, it rules. Also for the time being you can get CD images of most of these games, they'll just have weird loading patterns, but once it's all loaded in it should be fine. So you can still enjoy the cool weirdness!

(exodus)

(23:04:00 11/24/20 EST)

Are you sure that copy of Wipeout wasn’t just defective? Did it ever play?

(SignOfZeta)

(16:29:17 11/25/20 EST)

it did! and it has that cloudy look that disc rotted games get.

(exodus)

(13:33:29 11/26/20 EST)

Isn’t it a black CD?

(SignOfZeta)

(18:13:17 11/27/20 EST)

yeah, it's still cloudy though. maybe it's not disc rot on this one! I can mail it to you if you want to find out, ha ha.

(exodus)

(23:44:58 11/30/20 EST)

I’ve been listening to CD singles a lot lately, pulling out a few hundred over the last two months. I’ve just today finally found a rotter! It’s Ruined in a Day by New Order, I have both discs and they are both developing pinholes. Looking at the inner circle...yep, PDO Blackburn. That fucking factory!!! This disc was already bronzing when I got in 27 years ago and its PDO so...this is about as fucked as CDs get from my experience...especially a CD single that probably cost, to get both discs, $24 and is really weird single anyway (Sly and Robbie!?)

(SignOfZeta)

(13:34:21 12/01/20 EST)

UPDATE: Both discs still play perfectly, for now.

(SignOfZeta)

(23:20:01 12/01/20 EST)

dang, cd singles!! I avoided those for space reasons even back in the day. you must live in a giant warehouse or your home is made of CDs

(exodus)

(18:27:40 12/16/20 EST)

I enjoy the unique contents of CD singles and the often clever packaging. They are the same size as any other CD. I do have a lot of space though which is why I have multiple spare CRTs and Laserdisc players. While going through all these singles I found a number of tracks that aren’t on any streaming services without even making a point of it.

(SignOfZeta)

(11:01:12 12/18/20 EST)

yeah, that's cool stuff! Any time I get a new cd I basically have to get rid of another, so this is a far-off dream for me. if you're ever in los angeles there's a store that has a bunch of 80s-90s japanese cd singles on the cheap - still reducing their stock from the actual era.

(exodus)

(18:10:37 12/21/20 EST)

Are they still selling off the soap operas on VHS? I ask because while I’ve never been there...I sort of have, in Chicago, SF, and even Novi, where it seems %99 of Japanese Michiganders live. Stock is dwindling! The used manga dried up some time ago but it used to be a place you could buy an entire Jump series shrink wrapped into a brick for $15 and then a brand new car magazine to go with it for another $15 because import magazines just never stop going up in price. The last time I was there I bought one of those solar powered lucky cats from the 90, not exactly because I wanted it but because I wanted a memento from one of my favorite stores on what was probably my final trip. It’s now on a high shelf in the kitchen now so it waves at the sun all through breakfast just like it waved at customers every day for probably 20 years or more.

(SignOfZeta)

(15:30:22 12/22/20 EST)

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