• 15 Posts
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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 15th, 2023

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  • Extreme G 2 on pc loses the analog steering from N64, which turns out is a big deal. Throwback Entertainment made a port-of-a-port and introduced a speed hack in the launcher menu where you can slow down the game a bit, which helps, but doesn’t fix the issue.

    In some other cases like Hexen, there were alterations on console that I find generally more appealing, like an ost remaster or lighting effects.

    The Genesis game Zero Tolerance and Dreamcast version of Expendable are games I prefer on console simply because of the control schemes on pc.










  • 32X Doom tried to be like the original PC game, but it was rushed through development as a launch title with a small team. The result is…tragic. Specifically: half the maps were missing, both the game window and resolution are reduced to get playable framerates, the original soundtrack famously sounds a bit like a farts at times, several visual effects like parallax texture scrolling, transparency, and lighting effects are gone. (there’s a room in E1M5 near the end that the lights alternate between on/off, but the monsters on 32x are always visible.) This also means no invisibility power-up, or Spectre monsters.

    My favorite jank is after the credits when you finish the game, it dumps you into a fake DOS prompt. It just shows C:\DOOM> and you are unable to interact with it in any way.



  • I noticed a few things while playing the N64 campaign.

    It’s not 1:1 parity with the console version, and it’s not meant to be (and that’s a good thing, actually).

    How it works is they use N64 textures, OST, and maps. Everything else is from the new engine - including the new enemy AI changes and balance adjustments, etc.

    A good portion of the game is spent in anti-gravity. You may not have the rocket launcher, or much ammo for it yet, relying on grenades to take down bigger baddies like enforcers or tanks. The trajectory of a grenade on authentic hardware is net positive, so it’s about impossible to aim. On Q2 Enhanced, it just means the grenade fires straight out of the barrel. Little things like that stand out.

    The Nintendo 64 campaign on Hard, with deaths, took me about 3 hours. This is how I have always wanted to play this version of the game. It’s indescribably better than trying to play it on an actual Nintendo 64 or even emulated.










  • When Retro-bit announced their licensing partnership with Sega, I was really excited. I got their first wave Saturn USB pad, and I now have a Big 6 that combined a 6-button pad with the style of the 3-button Genesis pad. Still waiting for that dual analog variant they promised though…

    It was around the same time I think that Retro Fighters came out with a new original port Dreamcast controller, the Striker. Awesome controller. I got a Raphnet adapter just to use it on pc from time to time.

    Then there’s the arcade stick I custom built for the specific purpose of authentic arcade gaming at home. Uses a Suzo Happ lever (even though they used to be made by Industrias Lorenzo), and Industrias Lorenzo buttons.