Retro console and games thread

Kobi · 18 May 2016 at 14:51

Silly question, but I take it any Japanese games languages are all in Japanese. No English settings or anything? Got a Japanese GameCube and N64 coming. Other half is gonna go mental when she sees everything that's coming.

barmyllama · 18 May 2016 at 15:05

kinger8938 said:
Nice, must get into shmups! Any recomendations for megadrive/dreamcast?

Mega Drive

MUSHA
Thunder Force 2,3 and 4
Zero Wing
Arrow Flash
Gynoug
Steel Empire
Bio Hazard Battle

Good article here http://www.racketboy.com/retro/sega/genesis/the-sega-genesis-megadrive-shmup-library

MUSHA is my favourite but an original is way to expensive, so I'd recommend getting a reproduction from Ali Express.

I'll leave the Dreamcast list to others as I don't have the system or any games.

Article here http://www.racketboy.com/retro/sega/dreamcast/sega-dreamcast-shmups-2d-shooters

It's worth noting that the DC doesn't have any copy protection so you can "try before you buy"

Kobi said:
Silly question, but I take it any Japanese games languages are all in Japanese. No English settings or anything? Got a Japanese GameCube and N64 coming. Other half is gonna go mental when she sees everything that's coming.

I'd guess that anything other than PS3 games won't have an option for English language. Unless the game is region free then you could be OK. I know some of the Jaoanse shmups for the Xbox 360 were region free so I'd imagine they play in in English on a PAL system.

As for Japanese consoles, I wouldn't know for sure if there's an option to change the language to English.

kinger8938 · 18 May 2016 at 15:19

Thanks for the list will look into some! Didnt realise reproduction carts were a thing!

phatboy · 18 May 2016 at 15:36

If you have deep pockets shall we say the dc has some amazing shooters including ikaruga, under defeat, giga wing, bangai-0 and the absolute king of them all Border Down! (Check a vide out of this one the gfx are phenomenal for a DC games)

There are few indie studio ones too....names I cannot remember though

barmyllama · 18 May 2016 at 15:37

kinger8938 said:
Thanks for the list will look into some! Didnt realise reproduction carts were a thing!

Other than MUSHA on my list the rest you can pick up for reasonable money, £10-30 mark.

Thunder Force 3 wasn't a PAL release but the Genesis version works fine in a PAL Mega Drive.

I've bought a few reproductions from Ali Express, cartridge only are less than £3 delivered. They take 2-3 weeks to get here and are cheap quality, but they work in an original system so it's better then emulation.

The other alternative is an EverDrive flash cartridge. From Ali Express you're looking at around £30 delivered. That'll give you more or less every Mega Drive and Master System ever released. It's a great way to try a game before you go looking for it. I certainly haven't stopped buying games since I got my EverDrive.

phatboy · 18 May 2016 at 15:38

barmyllama said:
Looking for a Japanese PS2 at the moment or a region free one. Too many shmups didn't make it over here so needs must.

Few unlocked and jap ones on the bay but they are not cheap

barmyllama · 18 May 2016 at 15:42

phatboy said:
If you have deep pockets shall we say the dc has some amazing shooters including ikaruga, under defeat, giga wing, bangai-0 and the absolute king of them all Border Down! (Check a vide out of this one the gfx are phenomenal for a DC games)

There are few indie studio ones too....names I cannot remember though

Same goes for the Saturn as well. 2D games were definitely its strength. But as you said, deep pockets required.

But as I said, the DC will read CDR's without modification so you can try out some of the DC shmups library before you get your wallet out.

GigaWing is an arcade port so there's always MAME. And Under Defeat was released on the Xbox 360 and PS3 and probably available a bit cheaper.

barmyllama · 18 May 2016 at 15:43

phatboy said:
Few unlocked and jap ones on the bay but they are not cheap

Watching a few.

I don't really want a "region free" console if it means having to swap discs.

phatboy · 18 May 2016 at 15:46

I don't want to talk about the cost of my saturn collectiom lol. I adore the system though so who cares

cee-S-dee · 18 May 2016 at 16:40

This is mostly what i play on now. The two 20" monitors are stored away at my mothers house due to lack of room. Just wheel this out with what ever console i want to play on hahaha.

Larrs888 · 18 May 2016 at 19:34

kinger8938 said:
Nice, must get into shmups! Any recomendations for megadrive/dreamcast?

I can speak for the mega drive in detail but MUSHA is meant to be amazing, on the DC front you really are spoiled for choice. There are so many perfect arcade ports to choose from at least in Japanese format but you can just get an import disc like Blaze Exploder and play gems such as Ikaruga, Karous, Trigger Heart Excela, Borderdown etc.

There are also loads of new indie games that have been developed in the last few years including Sturmwind, Redux/Dux, Ghost Blade and posts of Neo Geo Dev Team games like Gun Lord, Neo XYX, Last Hope and Fast Striker.

barmyllama · 18 May 2016 at 19:54

When I had a Mega Drive first time around the first game I played on it was Thunder Force II.

I played a few other shmups like Biohazard Battle, Gynoug and Steel Empire. But mostly I played platformers, fighter and racing games.

Having a Mega Drive second time around the internet allowed me to find out a lot more about the system and the games that came out for it that I'd never played or heard of.

Watching Classic Game Room on YouTube encouraged me to try MUSHA out. The game is prohibitively expensive for me to buy, so I played it first via emulation and absolutely loved it. Since I found out about reproduction and flash cartridges, I can now play it on original hardware and it's become a game I play at least once almost on a daily basis.

It's one of the best games I've ever played and I think it has replaced Streets of Rage 2 as my favourite music in a game. And even though I'm 36 years late to the party at least I didn't miss it altogether.

Power Strike on the Master System and Robo Aleste on the Mega CD are part of the same series, but MUSHA is definitely the best of the bunch. It's not an arcade port either so it only appeared on the Mega Drive in Japan and the Genesis in the US. No PAL release so it runs a 50Hz with slow music on PAL consoles, which ruins the experience a lot if you ask me. See my video a page back.

I think it's on the Virtual Console for the Wii.

kinger8938 · 19 May 2016 at 09:12

Tempted by a ps2 slim, comes with 2 controllers and 21 games that are basically all the final fantasys, metal gears, shadow of colosus and the ps1 final fantasys aswell

Priced at £80 not sure if thats good or not?

barmyllama · 19 May 2016 at 10:06

PS2 slims are worth around £25.

Most PS2 games are worthless, including the MGS games, you can buy MGS 2 from CEX for £2. Certainly the games that tend to come in bundles I wouldn't pay more than 50p for. FF games n PS2, I wouldn't pay anymore than £5 for. Shadow Of Colossus is probably the only game that you don't really see anywhere other than eBay. But maybe worth getting the HD version on PS3, if you have the console, as prices are similar but you get Ico too.

The PS1 FF games go for £15-25 depending on condition, which one and black or silver labels.

phatboy · 19 May 2016 at 10:13

I looked how much robo aleste was for mega cd last night.....yeah maybe not for now lol

barmyllama · 19 May 2016 at 10:36

It is a bit pricey isn't it.

Mega CD plays CD-Rs too. It's a bit of a fiddle to get them working but there are plenty of guides. Mainly because the music files are in MP3 format when you get the zipped ROM files. So they need converting to WAV, plus a few other things.

phatboy · 19 May 2016 at 10:53

Like the idea of owning a real version better

kinger8938 · 19 May 2016 at 10:54

barmyllama said:
PS2 slims are worth around £25.

Most PS2 games are worthless, including the MGS games, you can buy MGS 2 from CEX for £2. Certainly the games that tend to come in bundles I wouldn't pay more than 50p for. FF games n PS2, I wouldn't pay anymore than £5 for. Shadow Of Colossus is probably the only game that you don't really see anywhere other than eBay. But maybe worth getting the HD version on PS3, if you have the console, as prices are similar but you get Ico too.

The PS1 FF games go for £15-25 depending on condition, which one and black or silver labels.

Hmm maybe the ps1 games make it a reasonable deal? Not sure its worth it then maybe ill hold off, kind of want to play silent hill 2 as i missed it at the time

The ps1 games are ix vi vii and viii

barmyllama · 19 May 2016 at 11:12

phatboy said:
Like the idea of owning a real version better

So do I, but it's nice to have the option of trying games out first. Especially when some are so expensive.

kinger8938 said:
Hmm maybe the ps1 games make it a reasonable deal? Not sure its worth it then maybe ill hold off, kind of want to play silent hill 2 as i missed it at the time

The ps1 games are ix vi vii and viii

The PS1 games probably make it worth the money, along with SotC. As long as they are all complete.

If you said £15 for each FF and £20 for SotC then there's £80 there.

kinger8938 · 19 May 2016 at 11:17

barmyllama said:
So do I, but it's nice to have the option of trying games out first. Especially when some are so expensive.

The PS1 games probably make it worth the money, along with SotC. As long as they are all complete.

If you said £15 for each FF and £20 for SotC then there's £80 there.

Yea perhaps, not that im looking to sell it on but trying to help justify if i buy it or not! Its probably sold anyway i havent heard back yet!

*its still available so just asked if its from a smoke free home, i think it sounds rude to ask but ive bought stuff before and as a non smoker opening a box from a smoker home is awful for me

If its fine maybe ill make a bit of a cheeky offer, its 5 mins away