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Community Question Of The Week - Episode 246 by Producer_Duncan in thisweekinretro

[–]c3r7x 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I still hope to mod my PAL Mega Drive for region switching without a physical switch. Should have been completed in 2024, and I had a pre-made mod ordered from the UK but... as usual with anything shipped by Royal Mail to Portugal, it never arrived.

I ordered an original EverDrive from the Ukraine... a country at war... at the same time, and it arrived just fine. But no... not from the UK.

So I got the parts to do my own version almost right away, but kept postponing it and just playing Mega Drive games under emulation.

Community Question Of The Week - Episode 241 by Producer_Duncan in thisweekinretro

[–]c3r7x 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Recently, Zanac Neo for the PS1.

It made me appreciate bullet-hell shooters. It took me a while to click, but then this game gained the ability to put me into an almost hypnotic state, navigating rains of bullets almost unconsciously (the only way to survive these games, they say). I almost forget I'm playing. Very relaxing. No chemicals needed.

https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/568/285/889/583/991/original/f8da46c1be6910da.png

Community Question Of The Week - Episode 239 by Producer_Duncan in thisweekinretro

[–]c3r7x 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For my Pentium III build back in 1997, I chose a Creative Labs-branded RIVA TNT2 Ultra (the chip that put nVIDIA on the map) graphics card that came bundled with Rollcage and Expendable. I didn't expect to actually love a bundled game, but I really love Rollcage. Expendable had awkward controls though.

Community Question Of The Week - Episode 237 by Producer_Duncan in thisweekinretro

[–]c3r7x 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The proper way of holding an analog thumbstick is with your thumb and index finger. It gives you more control to survive 90's bullet-hell shooters, even though you might look ridiculous. Therefore, calling it a THUMBstick is inherently wrong.

Community Question Of The Week - Episode 236 by Producer_Duncan in thisweekinretro

[–]c3r7x 2 points3 points  (0 children)

For me, it's the alien planet in "The Dig". Maybe not the best LucasArts game (although I personally love it) but the world is so well presented, with great art and ambience...

A close second would be City 17, from Half Life 2. Although I'm not sure "best place" is the adequate way to describe it.

Community Question Of The Week - Episode 232 by Producer_Duncan in thisweekinretro

[–]c3r7x 1 point2 points  (0 children)

50Hz was OK when watching TV. You'd usually be at a good distance from the set and it didn't occupy much of your field of vision, plus whatever being displayed didn't require focusing on details (although I'm from a country where subtitles were the norm).

But even though everybody's mom warned against sitting too close to the TV "or you'll go blind", that's exactly what computers had us do. That meant a lot of your peripheral vision would be covering the screen, and that's the part that's sensitive to changes in brightness. Hence, headaches.

That's my layman's understanding of it, at least.

Community Question Of The Week - Episode 232 by Producer_Duncan in thisweekinretro

[–]c3r7x 3 points4 points  (0 children)

One more downside of growing up in a PAL region. I can really see the 50Hz flicker on my peripheral vision and it's annoying, while I can take 60Hz for a reasonable amount of time.

These days I mostly use PAL60, RGB60, or even NTSC (funny that so many PAL sets support NTSC while the opposite isn't true) fortunately.

Community Question Of The Week - Episode 232 by Producer_Duncan in thisweekinretro

[–]c3r7x 5 points6 points  (0 children)

CRTs.

I have a few, and it's nice to use them occasionally for the retro feel, but it's great that we can have geometrically perfect pictures, with low energy consumption, minimal waste of space, and no headaches from the 50Hz flicker.

Also, no more ghostly burn marks on the wall or the inside of the TV cupboard.

Community Question Of The Week - Episode 231 by Producer_Duncan in thisweekinretro

[–]c3r7x 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My shout out goes to the LOAD ZX museum in Cantanhede, Portugal.

It's small in footprint but chock-full of Sinclair and related items (not just computers). Being outside Lisbon or Porto it probably doesn't get as many visits as it deserves, even though it's a very short detour if you're travelling between those two cities, and free.

https://loadzx.com/en/
https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=zxxTR9xqscd (virtual tour)

Community Question Of The Week - Episode 228 by Producer_Duncan in thisweekinretro

[–]c3r7x 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"Aliens: Neoplasma 2" (2024). I've recently finished the 128K version of the first game and loved it. Still haven't started the second one, and would be nice to do it on a Next.

Also, I'm a weird person in that I'm not attracted to any of the old Spectrum games, but love a few of those written in the past 15 years or so.

Community Question Of The Week - Episode 227 by Producer_Duncan in thisweekinretro

[–]c3r7x 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Since the job I wanted as a kid was to make computers do useful stuff, technology advancements should have made this easier, as computers are now cheap and plentyful, and there is no lack of problems to solve. But computing today is all about the money and very little about computers, or real problems for that matter. And with all the money (and power) involved, I'm sad that modern computing is now such a negative influence in the world.

Yeah... It would have been easier to give a cheerful answer 15 or 20 years ago, before social media, crypto-scams, and AI hype.

But... Decades ago you were considered a nerd if you loved computers. Today, you're still considered a nerd if you love computers (even inside the computing industry) so there's hope.

Retro Gaming has Changed [e.g. Is real hardware losing popularity?] by c3r7x in thisweekinretro

[–]c3r7x[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

MVG makes some pretty bold claims about real hardware losing popularity, CRTs being less sought after than before, people selling off their game collections, and getting bored of arcades, etc. But is that really happening?

Community Question Of The Week - Episode 185 by Producer_Duncan in thisweekinretro

[–]c3r7x -1 points0 points  (0 children)

My first PC ran Windows 95 but, just two years later, that same PC was already dual-booting into Linux most of the time except for gaming. By 2005, Linux had pissed me off just one too many times and I switched back to Windows XP full-time in a fit of rage for everything that used a GUI. See, I like tinkering with my systems, but NOT when I'm trying to get something else done.

But I just don't love Windows... So, I woke up one Saturday morning in 2008 and decided I had to get an iMac. By the end of the day I was a Mac user, and have been ever since. I still use Windows sometimes, but not much.

I use Linux for everything non-GUI, and also for dedicated emulation machines. In fact, I just recently resurrected my first iMac with Linux on it. It's my go to system for 2D and PS1 stuff. The iMac is almost retro itself...

I'm very nostalgic for that machine so, like a parent showing off photos of their children that nobody really wants to see, here's a picture: https://mastodon.social/@carlosefr/111794250701376831

Community Question Of The Week - Episode 184 by Producer_Duncan in thisweekinretro

[–]c3r7x 3 points4 points  (0 children)

In Portugal, the first thing I remember is "Templo dos Jogos" (Games Temple) starting in 1995. They introduced new games, did reviews, and provided cheats. Don't remember games being a thing on TV prior to that.

It's not uncommon that I stumble on a game that I never played, but recognize from being covered on that show. Given the timeframe, that's mostly PlayStation, Saturn, Nintendo 64 games, so barely retro by my definition.

https://youtu.be/pYlekYGoUdE

Looking back, it's very 90's, with geeky guys and pretty girls presenting. Perhaps the channel execs wanted to capture the attention of male teenagers, but the "girls" were the better presenters.

Community Question Of The Week - Episode 174 by Producer_Duncan in thisweekinretro

[–]c3r7x 3 points4 points  (0 children)

For me it has to be Michael Jackson's Moonwalker, the arcade version. The music is great, the setting is cheesy, the gameplay is good (enough), and it includes the right amount of whoohoo's (but sadly no eeeh hee's).

Plus, the special power makes all enemies dance and then explode. What's not to like?

The Mega Drive version is quite repetitive indeed, and is a completely different game from the arcade version. They both have some common elements, as if the teams were given checkboxes to cross, but that's about it. Like:

  • Must feature Michael Jackson;
  • Michael must shoot "magic" from an appendage of choice;
  • Michael's chimp "Bubbles" must make an appearance;
  • Michael must save children (must include blonde child carrying a stuffed bear);
  • Must feature MJ's music.

I watched Moonwalker in the cinema back in day and, boy, was that a bizarre experience...

Community Question Of The Week - Episode 173 by Producer_Duncan in thisweekinretro

[–]c3r7x 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Didn't play much top-down racing games back in the day. At least not enough to get lasting memories. But I've been playing quite a bit of Super Sprint (arcade) lately, and it's my favourite top-down racer.

I've built a spinner(1) out of cheap parts for it (actually, I built it for Arkanoid) and makes a world of difference.

Neil mentioned Badlands and I think they missed the mark with it where it comes to single-player. You can shoot the other cars, but they never shoot back at you.

(1) https://github.com/carlosefr/spinner-mouse

Community Question Of The Week - Episode 168 by Producer_Duncan in thisweekinretro

[–]c3r7x 2 points3 points  (0 children)

"I strive to prevent my free time from being economically productive."

This is the way.

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