Eeeeehhhhh... The HD "remaster" is kinda weak. As far as remasters go it's a middling attempt at best. They totally remove filters that added a lot to the ambience in the game.
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- Thread starter IrishNinja
- Start date
Eeeeehhhhh... The HD "remaster" is kinda weak. As far as remasters go it's a middling attempt at best. They totally remove filters that added a lot to the ambience in the game.
D.Lo
Member
Really? I haven't really paid attention to that release.
Wind Waker HD messed up the lighting too. It still looks good, and the increased draw distance and obvious less aliasing due to higher res obviously benefit it, but I can't decide which version I prefer because of the wrecked lighting! If they just released the GCN version in HD (or left that as an option) it would have been so much better.
I guess TP would be similar then.
Pretty much. Gone is the surreal dreamlike filtering of the original. It looks rather bland in comparison, despite the lack of jaggies.
D.Lo
Member
Well that sucks. I guess it stays a CRT game forever for me then.
It was always a patchy looking game, some amazing looking parts, usually the mid-level rooms/corridoors (eg the market).
But some weak parts, especially the textures of the main field.
IrishNinja
Member
aw man, haven't even booted up my copy yet! i was okay with WW's super-blooming (for the most part), speeding up the ship was a godsend...and while i appreciated the off-putting field of the dark world, the dipped-in-sepia look of the overworld/etc in TP struck me as an art choice made via a bad instagram filter, so maybe it'll feel better for me here? though you make it sound kinda...sterile
D.Lo
Member
Just put up my article on the Nintendo Color TV-Game Block Kuzushi if anyone is interested. It is one hell of a cool device.
Internationally, ebay is pretty much the #1 by far. They just have a strangelhold on all major markets.
SMB and Zelda are two of my favourite G&W games as they managed to get the overall basic concepts of the games and squeeze them into LCD handhelds, sure they aren't a patch on the console games but I was impressed at just how much they got in there for the time.
Favourite wise I do love all the Donkey Kong games I've got so far - the original DK and DK Jr are fab games, I've spent hours on each of those maxing out my scores.
I love many of the Mario handhelds as well - Mario's Cement Factory is awesome, so much better than the version they put on one of the Game & Watch Gallery compilations, and the dual screen Mario Bros game was my first ever G&W so it holds a special place in my collection.
Green House is an awesome game as well, one of my more "recent" titles but is insanely addictive!
Managed to snap a few quick pictures of some of my collection, apologies for the quality:
Was an article in my norwegian newspaper today about Game & Watch collecting, including featuring a collector with about the same number of them as you. It wasnt you, was it?
Shadowman16
Member
Nope, must have been a coincidence!
NormalFish
Banned
Yeah, I agree with this. The original looks inky like a painting. On dolphin or wiiu the iq is nicer but it loses that inky quality.
davidwhangchoi
Member
Both Zelda HD remasters have their issues visually.
But I never considered TP to have an appealing ambience to begin with.
entremet
Member
I actually hated those filters lol.
But with the QoL updates (Less Tears of Light, Poe Radar item, Gamepad item switching, hero mode, instant wolf button) to the remaster, I find it to be the definitive version now.
I'm just happy to revisit one of my favorite for years to come without needing waggle and paying a mint for the GC version.
Never tried it on Dolphin. I would have thought it'd be more accurately rendered than the HD remaster... huh. The problem isn't that it's in HD and smoothly anti aliased, after all. It's the entirely missing filters. They made things a bit hazy and dream like in twilight areas. The heat wave and distortion filter in the volcano dungeon is also completely gone. It made things look hectic and made everything come to life on screen. You really felt like you were in there, inside a smoldering volcano. Now it's just visually boring.
I always liked it. Sure, the textures were assy and basic, but the twilight realm and volcano dungeon really came across like paintings.
NormalFish
Banned
I think dolphin is better, but the overall presentation suffers when you can easy make out the geometry and less flattering details of the textures.
One of many games that used the lower resolution to its advantage.
Shadowman16
Member
Today I get one step closer in my Game & Watch collection goal of getting all the handhelds, Thursday's 20% eBay discount code meant I got this for a decent price:
Manhole (Widescreen) alongside Spitball Sparky:
Contents of Manhole:
Really pleased at the condition, bar a tiny bit of wear round the edges of the box its in near mint condition.
As for Spitball Sparky - replacing the screen means the game has gone from this:
to this:
As you can see - all the graphics on the screen are now actually visible where as before a whole column of them were missing. Thankfully it was an easy process to swap the innards of one SS to another. Gotta say, I really love collecting these handhelds!
Manhole (Widescreen) alongside Spitball Sparky:
Contents of Manhole:
Really pleased at the condition, bar a tiny bit of wear round the edges of the box its in near mint condition.
As for Spitball Sparky - replacing the screen means the game has gone from this:
to this:
As you can see - all the graphics on the screen are now actually visible where as before a whole column of them were missing. Thankfully it was an easy process to swap the innards of one SS to another. Gotta say, I really love collecting these handhelds!
RadarScope1
Member
OK, so if I were to get one or two G&Ws, what are some of the best to seek out based on a combination of fun gameplay, affordability and cool factor (like shape or unique characteristics)? And are the GameBoy collections just toyak shit or are they worth owning?
D.Lo
Member
The collections are good, and a good way to try some of the games, but in no way match the real thing. I'd say it's kind of like arcade emulation collections - even if it's a perfect port, it's not the same thing as playing on an actual arcade machine.
I personally love the Micro vs. systems. So cool having the roll out mini-controllers. DK Hockey is IMO the most fun of the three.
Most later model games (wide screen, dual screen, panoarama etc) are pretty nice hardware though.
For gameplay, of those I've played I love Fire, Super Mario Bros, Balloon Fight, Zelda, Donkey Kong II, and DK Jr Panorama/Tabletop.
I haven't played all the games though, Shadowman is probably the best one here to comment on which are most fun of his set?
Shadowman16
Member
I'd definitely rank all the Donkey Kong games high for fun factor - DK, DK Jr and DK2 are all excellent games, and are fairly affordable as well so are well worth tracking down.
Super Mario Bros, Mario's Cement Factory and Zelda are three other big favourites of mine, but I believe Zelda isn't the cheapest game to come across these days (I want to say it was Euro only (or that it was excluded from one specific region, making it slightly rarer).
Greenhouse is a recent favourite of mine - very fast paced and addictive, its fairly middling in terms of cost though, definitely not the cheapest game out there. Parachute and Octopus are two other very addictive games that are on the low end of the rarity/cost scale so I suggest giving those a shot as well.
entremet
Member
Similar architecture--Power PC, which is IBM tech.
I don't really see what you see about the painting aspect.
D.Lo
Member
Even more than that, CPU, GPU, memory architecture, it's a complete clone of the Gamecube template, just with later generation chips.
Just wanna say thanks. I grabbed a copy and it arrived today. This is the first 16-bit game I've bought new.
I suggest anyone who's interested nab one now. The seller has bumped the price up a bit but it's still pretty low. Unfortunately that's probably because of the scumbag resellers who are buying up multiple copies and flipping them for $25-$50.
That's honestly amazing.
Interesting. I had no idea.
So by that logic, the Wii and Xbox 360 were more similar than meets the eye?
D.Lo
Member
Well sort of. The chips and memory were so many generations apart that the answer is 'not really' - but the architecture and design of the machine is clearly Dolphin 2.0.
It's subjective? I like it. I appreciate a lot about TP's aesthetic. It makes me more attuned to the changes in the remaster.
NormalFish
Banned
TPHD looks pretty amazing in certain places, though. Temple of Time, the forest by the master sword, etc.
It's mostly the 'moodier' areas that suffer notably.
It's mostly the 'moodier' areas that suffer notably.
If you're interested in the history/development behind the hardware in the PS3 and 360, read the book, 'The Race For A New Game Machine'. It explains the circumstances in which Sony footed the bill for the majority of the R&D cost for Microsoft's 360 processor. It's sad that the days of extremely custom console architecture is numbered, but it's easy to see why manufacturers are going for more standard x86 and ARM stuff now, rather than design their own chips after reading this.
Occasionally. Doesn't feel like it will hold my attention much longer though.
InfiniteNine
Rolling Girl
Yeah I'm even friends with Yoko Taro!
D.Lo
Member
Hah I never knew it was that dramatic, or that much PS3 tech went into the 360. The 360 was I guess therefore a combination of Nintendo and Sony ideas lol.
I'm guessing the Wii U is therefore also based on PS3-bound tech?
It's funny as Nintendo was using PowerPC since 2001 (and that was obviously planned earlier) in the Gamecube. The GameCube was a very efficient design because they were reacting to the reception of the N64 which was very powerful but massively inefficient in some areas (it was like 3 times more powerful than the Playstation, but the games only looked maybe 1.5 times better at best).
Man, if only they had made the Wii maybe double powered from where it was, it wouldn't have cost much more and the whole thing may have played out better long term. Not that Nintendo's accountants probably care given it would be by far the most profitable console of all time.
PumpkinSpice
Banned
Hah oh no. It's CPU is really old, it's pretty much 3 of the Wii's processors as 3 cores running at a higher clockspeed with some shims added in to handle multicore processing. Perfect backwards compatibility comes at a price.
D.Lo
Member
I'd never looked into it, but just remembered some early threads about it having some more modern on-die memory architecture or something ala the 360. But yes it makes sense that the BC would hold it back (just like it did the Wii ugh).
Goddamn it Nintendo, if you had to make the Wii U a tablet thing, use cheaper, more modern chips, and if you wanted it to be a BC Super Wii then release it with a Wii Remote. Either way it would have been cheaper and done better.
Sick! I love the Coleco. Enjoy it!! Get Pepper II!!
blast processed
Member
The Smurfs was amazing when it came out. Nice big sprites with good music.
D.Lo
Member
I have Smurfs!
I leave a controller plugged in port 2 to select the game at boot, but play with the Sega pad, to avoid the horrible joysticks!
Actually I might try my SG1000 II Joystick, that will feel great with the arcade games I reckon!
I leave a controller plugged in port 2 to select the game at boot, but play with the Sega pad, to avoid the horrible joysticks!
Actually I might try my SG1000 II Joystick, that will feel great with the arcade games I reckon!
I'll give it a go!
Shin Johnpv
Member
Retro pick ups for the week, cheers to the person who shared the ebay link for the sealed genesis game.
sixteen-bit
Member
Retro pick ups for the week, cheers to the person who shared the ebay link for the sealed genesis game.
Nothing like New Old Stock, haha.
Do you have images of the seal? I haven't seen a sealed Genesis game in ages. Curious if they have H-seams like SNES...
Shin Johnpv
Member
I don't but I could get them, though they're simple. Just a line at the top and a line at the bottom.
Damn D.Lo. Your collection is legit as fuck.
Other people probably have more games than you, but I like the things you choose to collect. It's definitely my favorite for retro stuff on GAF.
sir_kevith
Member
Tutankham on Coleco is good. I remember getting into Gateway of Apshai also.
D.Lo
Member
Haha thanks. I'm sure others have just as much cool stuff.
I kind of want my lot to be like a museum? I want it if it's historically signifiant. I like these things as artefacts, as well as toys, so I lean toward the 'interesting hardware' side of things.
Got my Nolan Bushnell-signed Secret Quest cart yesterday.
Video of signing - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c667je3lSCE&t=194
Video of signing - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c667je3lSCE&t=194
Eh, I got a cheap new copy of it last year. Pretty cool game with much more depth than the usual 2600 game. I've put my VCS aside until I could RGB mod it, but the mod for the Jr never came around
PumpkinSpice
Banned
HardOff. You need to go pretty far out to even find one but it's unbeatable for old game software and hardware when it comes to selection and price.Heading back to Tokyo next week (I go every few months). Any suggestions on places to go retro game shopping/hunting? Please don't suggest Akihabara or Nakano Broadway. Looking for new places
If you're willing to go very far out (like an hour down the odakyu line from shinjuku) the best one I found (of like 6 or 7 that I hit up in and near Kanagawa) was near Kozashibuya Station. It's huge, has a great selection of perfect condition and junk stuff, and is like a 3 min walk from the station.
But there are a lot of others that are pretty good; selection seems to depend on how heavily they get hit up by resellers lol. So definitely don't bother with the one in Hachioji.