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[Shadowman16]

So I've been playing quite a bit of Gun.Smoke over the last day or so after finishing off Ghosts n Goblins.

I'm surprised GnG always gets the complaints about being "too hard" and "almost impossible" and not Gun.Smoke. GnG is far from a pushover but the enemies spawn in predetermined locations and once you learn the patterns it gets easier. Not easy by any means but possible.
But Gun.Smoke... Darn it gets a huge difficulty spike in the second half of the game. The bosses are already annoying thanks to the small windows of vulnerability they have but things get seriously tough in level 6 and up. Doesn't help that level 6 is 3 times the length of a normal level but its made worse by how manic the boss is. I still can't beat him legit.

I ended up giving up on my Saturn playthrough on Gun.Smoke and used save states through MAME. That... doesn't make it much easier. The only boss after that I didn't have an issue with I believe was the stage 9 boss.
The stage 10 boss just seems near impossible. Your weapon range even at its best is awful, and he just stays at the top of the screen safely out of harms way. Its suicide to run up there to attack him but I couldn't find any other way to beat him (eventually). Hat's off to anyone that can clear this game legit (my mind would melt at a 1CC run). Mega Man and GnG have nothing on this game for me! Heck, I'd rather play Ninja Gaiden or the original TMNT before attempting this game again!

Its a pity, as I really enjoyed the first few levels. But I don't like the power up system (a few bad deaths and you can really screw yourself over) and your weapon aiming/accuracy really isn't all that great. I miss so much, and its practically a death sentence if an enemy gets behind you.

 

[StevieWhite]

So I've been playing quite a bit of Gun.Smoke over the last day or so after finishing off Ghosts n Goblins.

I'm surprised GnG always gets the complaints about being "too hard" and "almost impossible" and not Gun.Smoke. GnG is far from a pushover but the enemies spawn in predetermined locations and once you learn the patterns it gets easier. Not easy by any means but possible.
But Gun.Smoke... Darn it gets a huge difficulty spike in the second half of the game. The bosses are already annoying thanks to the small windows of vulnerability they have but things get seriously tough in level 6 and up. Doesn't help that level 6 is 3 times the length of a normal level but its made worse by how manic the boss is. I still can't beat him legit.

I ended up giving up on my Saturn playthrough on Gun.Smoke and used save states through MAME. That... doesn't make it much easier. The only boss after that I didn't have an issue with I believe was the stage 9 boss.
The stage 10 boss just seems near impossible. Your weapon range even at its best is awful, and he just stays at the top of the screen safely out of harms way. Its suicide to run up there to attack him but I couldn't find any other way to beat him (eventually). Hat's off to anyone that can clear this game legit (my mind would melt at a 1CC run). Mega Man and GnG have nothing on this game for me! Heck, I'd rather play Ninja Gaiden or the original TMNT before attempting this game again!

Its a pity, as I really enjoyed the first few levels. But I don't like the power up system (a few bad deaths and you can really screw yourself over) and your weapon aiming/accuracy really isn't all that great. I miss so much, and its practically a death sentence if an enemy gets behind you.

I've always played the NES port, which I've found to be pretty manageable (though I have to confess, I've never beaten the whole thing). Might just be the fact that Gun Smoke has never been as popular for some reason.

 

[Peagles]

i'll put this here:

on the PS2 thread someone was asking about scratched surfaces and i posted some results of a clear canopy w/ deep scratches i did recently:



just for fun, i took a CD and just did 1/3 just to show it also works on CD's,

before: it's had to see in the pic but the whole CD is scratched all around


process: i decided to buff out the location by the serial bar code you see towards the center core of the CD


results: take a look at 1/3 of the CD toward the left side: rightside i left alone to contrast:

multiple pics in different positions to capture the light


i didn't do a thorough job, so there's a few scratches on the 1/3 side but much cleaner than before. anyways, i thought to share in case any of you have some games that may have been thought as a lost cause =)

This is very cool, but I feel like I'm missing what you actually used to do this? Any old cloth? Special type of cloth?

 

[Rich!]

just ordered a 30x20" print of this:

This is obviously resized, the full *.PNG is 90mb and 10,000 x 15,000 res.Put it together myself using hi-res scans of SFC boxart on the web. Cleaned up each one (got rid of physical creases/damage/labels etc) and compiled them into a poster. It's crystal clear at full size - the image above isn't representative of the full size version's quality.

What do you guys think? I'll post photos when it arrives and when I've framed it. I'll probably do a gameboy one next.

 

[Qwark]

just ordered a 30x20" print of this:



This is obviously resized, the full *.PNG is 90mb and 10,000 x 15,000 res.Put it together myself using hi-res scans of SFC boxart on the web. Cleaned up each one (got rid of physical creases/damage/labels etc) and compiled them into a poster. It's crystal clear at full size - the image above isn't representative of the full size version's quality.

What do you guys think? I'll post photos when it arrives and when I've framed it. I'll probably do a gameboy one next.

I like the covers that you used, but the layout is kind of bugging me. What's with the blank space in the lower left? And I don't really care for all the different sizes being used. Interesting piece though.

 

[Rich!]

I like the covers that you used, but the layout is kind of bugging me. What's with the blank space in the lower left? And I don't really care for all the different sizes being used. Interesting piece though.

I tell a lie, I haven't actually ordered it yet - but I'm about to.

How would you improve it? I struggled with the layout due to the amount of varying sizes the images were. I guess I could shove Chrono Trigger into the bottom left.

 

[Qwark]

I tell a lie, I haven't actually ordered it yet - but I'm about to.

How would you improve it? I struggled with the layout due to the amount of varying sizes the images were. I guess I could shove Chrono Trigger into the bottom left.

I'm no graphic designer, but that bottom left just constantly draw my eye. And the bottom 3 look too tiny, but they might look alright at full size. Sorry, I don't have any tips on how to rearrange it, maybe there's another logo you could put in that corner?

 

[Rich!]

SMW is throwing it off. Hm. I'll have a mess around with it.

edit: re-did SMW and added chrono trigger.

 

[blast processed]

Why don't you just put the Nintendo logo in the left corner?

 

[Shadowman16]

I've always played the NES port, which I've found to be pretty manageable (though I have to confess, I've never beaten the whole thing). Might just be the fact that Gun Smoke has never been as popular for some reason.

I'll be playing that port soon enough, from what I heard it takes the gameplay from the arcade version but completely changes the levels up (sorta like what Bionic Commando did).

I've heard its better in that regard than the arcade version. But yeah, like you say it sounds as though it was just not that popular at the time (it never got any sequels that I'm aware of).

 

[davidwhangchoi]

This is very cool, but I feel like I'm missing what you actually used to do this? Any old cloth? Special type of cloth?

thanks Peagles,

bc every disc has various degrees of damage, i didn't post a method used. i found that many first timers have failed attempts restoring their discs and may conclude it ended up making their disc worse, or ruining their discs.

rather, i usually ask anyone to post a pic of the damage disc before recommending a method.


but for the disc above, it had a lot of scratches deep and shallow. i started with generic gel toothpaste as mild abrasive which buffs out the deep scratches but makes the disc look cloudy and even more scratched)

before starting to go into detail, here's a look at how a CD is layered:

from there you can see that you have a lot of room to work with. this is important as when taking out deep scratches you have to use an abrasive that seemly makes the disc look worse. (this is where usually people quit and conclude it made it worse.)

there's a lot of youtube vids that say toothpaste works to remove scratches off disc and recommend only using actual paste not the gel type. bc gel introduces more scratches.

this confuses i lot of people bc it's saying using gel is a no no for discs but that's actually not entirely correct. (which is why i didn't post a method)

hopefully listing a complete overview may clear up any confusion:
here goes:

for deep scratches 3 steps are needed.
-rubbing compound abrasive to level out the heavy scratches
-polishing compound (gets rid of fine scratches but sorta makes it look cloudy or have alot of fine scratches)
-finishing polish (makes it look clear and shiny)

for shallow scratches, you only need 1 or 2 steps
-polishing compound and
-finishing polish

most youtube vids really are recommending only to use paste type of tooth paste bc it acts as a polishing compound getting rid of shallow scuffs and may or may not act as a finishing polish.

which is why there's a lot of error and failed results w/ users claiming either it doesn't work or makes the disc more scratched up.


for deep scratches i used gel tooth paste to act as a rubbing compound using a clean 100% cotton t shirt. but you can used 2000 grit sand paper and wet sand or household ajax mixed w/ some elbow grease which creates the same effect. (this is why i don't recommend a solution right away bc for first time users this sounds scary but it's really not)

then for rubbing compound i use white tooth paste or miguires scratch x
and for polish i use zymol which is a polisher for fine instruments w/ a microfiber cloth.

all these steps may or may not be necessary depending on the level of damage to the disc.

anyways, if you have a damage disc you'd like to fix, take a pic of it in sunlight and post it. =)

 

[Qwark]

SMW is throwing it off. Hm. I'll have a mess around with it.

edit: re-did SMW and added chrono trigger.

Looks really nice now! That would look great on any wall.

 

[StevieWhite]

I'll be playing that port soon enough, from what I heard it takes the gameplay from the arcade version but completely changes the levels up (sorta like what Bionic Commando did).

I've heard its better in that regard than the arcade version. But yeah, like you say it sounds as though it was just not that popular at the time (it never got any sequels that I'm aware of).

I will tell you this - the NES soundtrack is FANTASTIC.

https://youtu.be/ruuMCgS6VLk

 

[NormalFish]

David, ever try it on a game boy micro faceplate?

 

[brandonh83]

Holy shit I found a retro game store today with every old school console I want and even a few nice CRT sets... but they were going out of business. Believe me, I tried to haggle a bit but no dice. I was going to bring home so much stuff. Devastated.

 

[NormalFish]

Holy shit I found a retro game store today with every old school console I want and even a few nice CRT sets... but they were going out of business. Believe me, I tried to haggle a bit but no dice. I was going to bring home so much stuff. Devastated.

What do they intend to do with leftover stock, then....?

 

[sixteen-bit]

What do they intend to do with leftover stock, then....?

straight into the furnace

 

[Dicer]

Holy shit I found a retro game store today with every old school console I want and even a few nice CRT sets... but they were going out of business. Believe me, I tried to haggle a bit but no dice. I was going to bring home so much stuff. Devastated.

Going out of biz but wont haggle, fucking mom and pops sometimes...

Keep an eye on their dumpster, not even joking...

 

[brandonh83]

What do they intend to do with leftover stock, then....?

Going out of biz but wont haggle, fucking mom and pops sometimes...

Keep an eye on their dumpster, not even joking...

The guy said all of it was his and couldn't sell, I offered $200 for an SNES, Genesis and one of the CRT's and he wouldn't budge. That would've probably been the most money he was offered in the past six months. Oh well. I could Craigslist or eBay stuff but I don't really like those services for a variety of reasons. Walking into a store and physically seeing everything I wanted was awesome, but alas.

edit: just moved into my own house and am making a retro gaming room because I fucking can, which is why I'm after all this stuff. So walking into a store and seeing in person so much of what I'm after was like experiencing a slice of heaven.

 

[blast processed]

The guy said all of it was his and couldn't sell, I offered $200 for an SNES, Genesis and one of the CRT's and he wouldn't budge. That would've probably been the most money he was offered in the past six months. Oh well. I could Craigslist or eBay stuff but I don't really like those services for a variety of reasons. Walking into a store and physically seeing everything I wanted was awesome, but alas.

This makes no sense, what is he in business for then? Unless, he intends on selling it on Ebay for mad $$$$

 

[brandonh83]

This makes no sense, what is he in business for then? Unless, he intends on selling it on Ebay for mad $$$$

When I asked if he was at least looking to get rid of everything I started naming prices and he just said everything was his and couldn't sell. I dunno. Maybe there's more to it, perhaps illegal even lol.

 

[NormalFish]

straight into the furnace

don't joke

The guy said all of it was his and couldn't sell, I offered $200 for an SNES, Genesis and one of the CRT's and he wouldn't budge. That would've probably been the most money he was offered in the past six months. Oh well. I could Craigslist or eBay stuff but I don't really like those services for a variety of reasons. Walking into a store and physically seeing everything I wanted was awesome, but alas.

edit: just moved into my own house and am making a retro gaming room because I fucking can, which is why I'm after all this stuff. So walking into a store and seeing in person so much of what I'm after was like experiencing a slice of heaven.

odd.

This makes no sense, what is he in business for then? Unless, he intends on selling it on Ebay for mad $$$$

He found a way to convince the wife to let him spend exorbitant amounts of money on games.

 

[Teknoman]

This makes no sense, what is he in business for then? Unless, he intends on selling it on Ebay for mad $$$$

People do the same stuff at flea markets alot of the time. Boxed SNES DKC set with a really fresh looking SNES square on the table? Not for sale, and when you ask, they put it back in the trunk.

 

[davidwhangchoi]

David, ever try it on a game boy micro faceplate?

i only had a gameboy sp. depending the type of plastic material it is but i would say using meguiars scratch x 2.0 will most likely cause more fine scratches while getting out deeper scratches. meguiars plasticx is more delicate but i don't know if i'll help.

the most conservative safest would be to try a microfiber cloth bare and buff an area w/o anything see if it makes a difference.

 

[Rich!]

straight into the furnace

Well, that's what happened to the entire UK retro inventory Gamestation owned in the UK when GAME bought them originally. Shipped to distribution and destroyed.

 

[Ivan Amiibo]

Wtf, why wouldn't they just ebay that stuff

I guess I can understand why a large chain wouldn't, but a local retro store should

 

[blast processed]

Any reason why there is no thread discussing arcade games spanning the 80's to early 2000's? Or is it just broken up into those threads about cabinet building, emulation etc...?
Seems we need one, with a plethora of great games being forgotten.

 

[Lettuce]

Well, that's what happened to the entire UK retro inventory Gamestation owned in the UK when GAME bought them originally. Shipped to distribution and destroyed.

You being serious?

 

[KC-Slater]

Any reason why there is no thread discussing arcade games spanning the 80's to early 2000's? Or is it just broken up into those threads about cabinet building, emulation etc...?
Seems we need one, with a plethora of great games being forgotten.

There's this thread

 

[TeaJay]

How do you guys feel about buying a japanese version of a game and then having it translated/patched or even burning a backup from the english version? It's not the same as buying the legit western version (on some cases, there ARE none, like Secret of Mana 2) but is having the game in some form better than outright flashcart/burning a copy?

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

How do you guys feel about buying a japanese version of a game and then having it translated/patched or even burning a backup from the english version? It's not the same as buying the legit western version (on some cases, there ARE none, like Secret of Mana 2) but is having the game in some form better than outright flashcart/burning a copy?

It's better, but still not particularly satsifying.

 

[IrishNinja]

How do you guys feel about buying a japanese version of a game and then having it translated/patched or even burning a backup from the english version? It's not the same as buying the legit western version (on some cases, there ARE none, like Secret of Mana 2) but is having the game in some form better than outright flashcart/burning a copy?

The original devs don't see a dime either way, and literally no one cares about the law here. If redoing the cart makes you feel better than playing the ROM in a less specific shell, go nuts - as with most things, it's entirely subjective

 

[NormalFish]

The original devs don't see a dime either way, and literally no one cares about the law here. If redoing the cart makes you feel better than playing the ROM in a less specific shell, go nuts - as with most things, it's entirely subjective

yeah, pretty much my take. The devs don't see anything so just go with what makes you happy. I typically buy physical editions and burn backups which I translate, but my reasoning is mostly aesthetic.

 

[socksfelloff]

How do you guys feel about buying a japanese version of a game and then having it translated/patched or even burning a backup from the english version? It's not the same as buying the legit western version (on some cases, there ARE none, like Secret of Mana 2) but is having the game in some form better than outright flashcart/burning a copy?

I generally buy the japanese version of the game to put on my shelf. A good example of this was I recently beat policenauts. Great game but no way is that playable in japanese for me.

For some reason, if the game isnt physically in my collection I cant get any satisfaction out of playing it.

 

[StevieWhite]

The original devs don't see a dime either way, and literally no one cares about the law here. If redoing the cart makes you feel better than playing the ROM in a less specific shell, go nuts - as with most things, it's entirely subjective

Yeah, do what you gotta do. Nobody's gonna begrudge you. Unless you say bad things about repros, that is, in which case, you may get begrudged.

In other news, as there is no 3DO appreciation thread (that I am aware of) I thought I'd share THIS weirdness that just arrived in the mail today. I'll share some more pics once I unbox it.

Now I can finally have an unfair advantage over guests in Super Turbo.

 

[blast processed]

There's this thread

Thanks! That threads kind of beat tho and not thriving like these retro threads.

Yeah, do what you gotta do. Nobody's gonna begrudge you. Unless you say bad things about repros, that is, in which case, you may get begrudged.

Lol

 

[BocoDragon]

I generally buy the japanese version of the game to put on my shelf. A good example of this was I recently beat policenauts. Great game but no way is that playable in japanese for me.

For some reason, if the game isnt physically in my collection I cant get any satisfaction out of playing it.

I... totally understand you.

There's a kind of weird satisfaction I have when I'm playing a fan translation of a game that I own a Japanese copy of. Feels legit.

 

[sixteen-bit]

In other news, as there is no 3DO appreciation thread (that I am aware of)

Consider yourself aware
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=430854

 

[StevieWhite]

Consider yourself aware
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=430854

Right on! Thanks for the heads up.

 

[entremet]

I... totally understand you.

There's a kind of weird satisfaction I have when I'm playing a fan translation of a game that I own a Japanese copy of. Feels legit.

Probably one of the better uses for a Retron 5.

It's supports translation patches with Famicom/SFC/Mega Drive carts.

 

[Peltz]

i'll put this here:

on the PS2 thread someone was asking about scratched surfaces and i posted some results of a clear canopy w/ deep scratches i did recently:



just for fun, i took a CD and just did 1/3 just to show it also works on CD's,

before: it's had to see in the pic but the whole CD is scratched all around


process: i decided to buff out the location by the serial bar code you see towards the center core of the CD


results: take a look at 1/3 of the CD toward the left side: rightside i left alone to contrast:

multiple pics in different positions to capture the light


i didn't do a thorough job, so there's a few scratches on the 1/3 side but much cleaner than before. anyways, i thought to share in case any of you have some games that may have been thought as a lost cause =)

But how do we really really KNOW that it was you in those pictures?

 

[7DollarHagane]

This makes no sense, what is he in business for then? Unless, he intends on selling it on Ebay for mad $$$$

I've found a lot of Retro game or collectible stores fail for this reason.

Collector opens store with his collection as the stock.

Collector overpriced everything because they "own" the merchandise and are attached to it.

Collector never sells anything but buys more and more items that are brought in off the street.

Collector can't afford rent and goes out of business.

The things a lot of people don't understand is if something isn't selling in a few months and isn't snatcher or hagane or magical chase, you probably need to make it cheaper or list it online.

 

[Teknoman]

How do you guys feel about buying a japanese version of a game and then having it translated/patched or even burning a backup from the english version? It's not the same as buying the legit western version (on some cases, there ARE none, like Secret of Mana 2) but is having the game in some form better than outright flashcart/burning a copy?

Best way imo. Thats what I did for Dragon Quest I+II, FFIV,V,Romancing SaGa 3, Megami Tensei I+II, and other SFC games I missed out on that have english translations (really just rpgs). Famicom games too if I can help it.

Even for PS1 translations, just get the original (usually cheap) and rip it then apply patch. Best to play it on a modded system imo, but if you end up on an emulator, thats cool too. Speaking of which, you guys know that Bomberman Wars has a translation patch now?

 

[IrishNinja]

yeah, pretty much my take. The devs don't see anything so just go with what makes you happy. I typically buy physical editions and burn backups which I translate, but my reasoning is mostly aesthetic.

I generally buy the japanese version of the game to put on my shelf. A good example of this was I recently beat policenauts. Great game but no way is that playable in japanese for me.

For some reason, if the game isnt physically in my collection I cant get any satisfaction out of playing it.

yuppp, i do this too! bought scenarios 1-3 of SF III, burned the translations & put them in the cases with the legit JP discs, haha. soon ill do this for dragon force 2 as well!

 

[Ivan Amiibo]

How do you guys feel about buying a japanese version of a game and then having it translated/patched or even burning a backup from the english version? It's not the same as buying the legit western version (on some cases, there ARE none, like Secret of Mana 2) but is having the game in some form better than outright flashcart/burning a copy?

depends on what you mean by better. If you're buying a used copy and it's legit, you're technically in the legal clear, but that's not much different from burning it. No money goes to the publisher/rights holder either way.

I like that PSN/Wii gives you some opportunity to give money to an actual rights holder of older japanese games and I also own some originals that I play translated.

 

[masq]

Stay Hardcore fellas
=)

 

[NOLA_Gaffer]

I may have developed an addiction to tiny colorful cartridges.

 

[davidwhangchoi]

But how do we really really KNOW that it was you in those pictures?

LOL i just saw this... drat i shouldn't have photo-shopped that generic asian hand over my skeleton. next time i'll go full T-800 =D

 

[Shadowman16]

Got a couple more games for my Capcom collection yesterday - Ghosts n Goblins for the Gameboy Colour and Exed Exes for the Famicom.

GnG is an interesting one. Its based on the NES game graphically but the frame rate/performance is way smoother than the NES original. The music sound better as well, but there is less of it (the main theme plays on the first two levels, no boss music either). Also, there are far less enemies in the game for some reason. Its not uncommon to walk long stretches of the levels without actually being attacked by anything! Finally the Red Aremer enemies are slower, so they are easier to defeat.
Be interesting to see if they up the enemy count for the 2nd playthrough, but I quite like what I've played so far. A decent port that has been made easier but still has enough challenge to not be a pushover.

 

[Teknoman]

Anyone know how most of the "thrift store adventures" type guys film? Are they wearing cameras attached to clothing or something?