

A Crazy Galaxy Ashley to mark the beginning of October!
Art comm'd from lulu_akituki on twitter


Art comm'd from lulu_akituki on twitter
Fun game but stage 5 boss is a run-ending bastard.
I remember really hating this one as a teenager and groaned as much as everyone else when it was announced for the AES+ lineup, but after reading a (now-deleted) post on this sub making the case for it and trying again, it's really not a bad little game. The concept of having a big course where you need to find all the shortcuts is a fun idea and the difference between all the different type of cards is well-felt, which is something these ovewrhead racers often struggle with.
It's well-known some PS3 games have separate framebuffers between 720p and 1080p and that some are 720p60fps 1080p30fps, but one thing I never see discussed is that some games also have a separate framebuffer for 480p and will straight up go from 30 fps / extremely unstable 60 fps to 60 FPS in 480p mode.
For most of its commercial lifespan, I played my PS3 on a CRT with composite so it was interesting when I finally got an hands-me down HDTV and saw which games ran worse in HD.
Some games that run in 60 fps in 480i/480p:
Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII
Blazing Angels II: Secret Missions of WWII
Bionic Commando
Terminator Salvation
Wanted: Weapons of Fate
Three of the games are by GRIN; Bionic Commando: Rearmed is by them and runs on the same engine so I'm curious if it does that too (I don't have it).
Do you know of any more?
Edited DeepL translation in replies:
****************************A Message for the Tech-Savvy Crowd****************************
Who on earth is going to read this stuff? Let’s just make sure we don’t stray from the straight and narrow! ROM dumps are a technique strictly off-limits to anyone under 18! If you’re a minor, make sure to get permission from Mom and Dad first. ☆Taking this opportunity to reveal all 7 secret commands at once!! Keep this a secret from your friends! ★○While the panel is closed at the start of a stage… press START + Right + C for Wide BG Mode. It makes it easier to assess the situation and actually makes the game pretty fun to play… ・Press START + Top-Right + A for Random CPU Colors. This way, even without an opponent, you can play as if you’re in a real match! (Compared to our other games)・START + Left activates the “Mysterious Win Mark” mode. I don’t think anyone in this world can figure out what it all means. Be careful not to overthink it and cause your brain to crash. ○ On the Alina stage, before Round 1 is displayed, press START + A + D to show the lyrics. All you karaoke-loving guys and gals, be sure to play while singing along. ○ On the character selection screen, press Down on the joystick + ABCD simultaneously to select a character and unlock the black color scheme. Fighting against the black CPU is totally confusing—and a blast! ○ On the MVS version, if there is income for that day, the “Waku Waku Calendar” will appear every 7 demo loops. Come by every month for a whole year. ○ On the character selection screen, spin both the 1P and 2P joysticks in circles to make the balls in the background spin faster! You can do this with just Player 1 or just Player 2, but if you let up even a little, it’ll slow down right away! Put your all into it! ○ On the MVS, if you have 7 or 77 credits, the opening demo plays in mirror image! That’s awesome! It’s a million-Gabas-level special move! Put in 7,700 yen and brag to your friends! ******************************* ★The Secret to Scoring -To those at GAMEST- ☆I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who think, “Games are all about the score! Aim for the HIGH SCORE!” So, as a guide on your path to a high score, I’ll explain the scoring system. ◎Bonus Points: Those bonus points that annoyingly pop up on your side of the screen. The more of them you can display on the screen at once, the higher your score will be. Displaying 6 rows at once is worth more points than displaying 3 rows twice. The scoring works like this: the first one is 100 pts, the second 200 pts, the third 300 pts, and so on. For example, if there are 10 bonuses, you’ll need 100 + 200 + 300 + 400 + ... + 1000 = 5500 pts. Additionally, the HITCOMBO and FIRSTATTACK POWERS are added based on the displayed numbers. For example, for a 30-hit combo, the score would be 100 + 200 + ... + 3,000 = 46,500 points. There are several types of these bonuses. ○ FIRSTATTACK & POWERS: This is a bonus for the first valid hit in that round. You receive a bonus equal to the power of that attack. FIRSTATTACK and POWERS are calculated as separate bonuses. For example, a FIRSTATTACK/16POWERS combo awards 17 points. ○HITCOMBO: Points are added whenever you land additional attacks while the opponent is taking damage. ○SUPER: Awarded when you enter Super mode. ○CHARGE: Awarded when you accumulate 1 Wakuwaku Power. ○DOKIDOKI/HARAHARA: Awarded when you perform a Dokidoki move or a Harahara move, respectively. ○GOOD!/GREAT!/EXCELLENT!/WONDERFUL!/WAKUWAKU!: These are awarded when the bonus count exceeds 10/20/30/40/50, respectively. After 50, a WAKUWAKU! is awarded for every additional 10. ◎Victory Mark Scores: After clearing the entire game, check the victory marks for each round to calculate the bonus. The following types of victory marks exist: ○ Draw: 500 pts ○ Regular Win: 1,000 pts ○ Win with a Throw: 1,500 pts ○ Win with a Special Move: 2,000 pts ○ Win with a Command Throw: 2,500 pts ○ Win with a special move using Wakuwaku Power: 3,000 pts ○ Win with a “Heart-Pounding” move: 4,000 pts ○ Win with a “Nerve-Wracking” move: 7,700 pts ・The basic point values for win marks are listed above, but there are also multipliers: ○ Win while in Super State: ×2 ○ Perfect Win: ×3 ○ Win with 0 Lives: ×4. For example, a perfect victory with a command throw while in Super Mode would be 2,500 × 2 × 3 = 15,000 pts. For each round, a bonus equal to this score multiplied by the remaining time is added. ◎ No-Miss Bonus: If you clear the game without losing a single match, you’ll receive 10,000,000 pts. A draw does not count. ・That’s basically it. If you clear the game with 45 seconds remaining in every round, in Super Mode, with 0 lives, a nail-biting finish, and no misses, the clear bonus alone would be 17 (total rounds) × 7,700 (nail-biting) × 2 (Super) × 4 (narrow) × 45 (sec) = 47,124,000 pts!!! Whoa!!!
A laughable direct-to-Netflix filled with every bit as much tonal whiplash as the premise implies, mustache-twirling villains and a cavalcade of incredibly forced sci-fi jargon.
Something I noticed when I first got my Neo Geo CD and that is on my mind again as I recently got a MiSTER and am playing the cartridge version of games is that a lot of the CD versions of the early games lack sound effects and voice clips. This is scarcely documented online.
Some I know of:
Alpha Mission II
-Lacks the "dun dun" when the title screen animates
-Lacks the "vomb" and "fwoosh" sounds when the ship blasts off at the end of stage 1
-Lacks the warbling sound when the third boss deploys its snake drone.
Cyber-Lip
**-**Lacks the "Get killed!" sound clip from enemy androids
Nam-1975
-Lacks the "thunk" sound when the stage 2 mid-boss appears
The Super Spy
Lacks the sound of someone running down a hallway in the intro (AES vs CD)
-Lacks the little jingle when a hostage heals you
In general, CD games lack the "Sphero Symphony" sound effect panning.
Obviously this is hardly "Literally unplayable" territory but my obsessive tendencies dictates this stuff is written down somewhere lol. Do you know of any other?
Had no idea if this is actually a new find or not, but I hadn't heard of it before.
Months ago I made a post about my thoughts on The New Avengers as someone a wee bit younger than the average Avengers fan, and at least one comment expressed interest in my thoughts on the original series. Why not. I continued my watch with series 4 of the OG series, because that's what is on bluray and also because my background research lead me to believe this is when the show took on its iconic qualities.
Enough preamble. I've finished my watch of S4 this morning and all I can say is: Woah nelly!
Prior to this, the oldest TV series I had watched was the original Star Trek, a show that was frequently cheap, glacially-paced, and creaky (I probably sound meaner than I intend). None of these words could be used to describe The Avengers. Indeed, what I got was a show that is every bit as charming, engaging and gripping as it presumably was to audiences watching it in 1965.
And that leaves me with quite the pickle because really, what is there to say? Why yes, Patrick McNee bring incredible charisma and a razor sharp sense of repartee to his character. Hmmm, yes, anyone can see that. Of course Diana Rigg is an uniquely gifted thespian (and a very pretty lady). That's obvious to anyone with eyes and ears. Really, what fresh and new insight to bring? Them the breaks I suppose.
Favourite episodes: The Girl from AUNTIE (for being really fucking funny), Castle De'ath (For Gordon Jackson's guest part and Steed bringing his funniest snark), The Cybernauts (For killer robots and the talks of listening to music made by a computer and the character of Dr. Armstrong being very relevant in $_CURRENTYEAR), Two's A Crowd (for the funny nervous Russian ambassador and death by model kit), The Danger Makers (for the creative nature of the problem and the brutal death of the main bad guy)
Other thoughts:
-For something that was made for tiny 60s-era TVs, this is so gorgeously shot and framed. Stunt doubles that don't look like McNee aside, this translates incredibly well to a modern 1080 mastering.
-I've seen fansites snark at The New Avengers for the quantity of good guys that bite it during the episodes and it's a criticism I don't get after watching these. All the episodes have sympathetic (or at least innocent) characters dying in damn morbid ways.
-Where were the Daleks in Death at Bargain Prices? I didn't see them!
-I was surprised by how many French words and expressions are uttered throughout these. You can feel this was made in era where French culture had this aura of prestige and desirability that perhaps is not as strong now with anglophones (Incidentally, McNee's french pronunciation is very good.)
-Did British character actors fall out of trees during the 60s, or something? There are so many strong acting talents with distinctive faces and voices throughout this run.
As an aside: In my original post, I stated that the show did "not appear to have been particularly successful or well-remembered.", but I didn't really do any research. I thought recently to ask my mom about the shows: her eyes lit up instantly and she replied "Chapeau melon et bottes de cuir? C'était les MEILLEURS!" So that was a nice bonding moment.
... with autofire, but what the hell. Not a popular game, but IMO very fun if you give in to temptation (or presumably, having the taping finger for it). Enemies from the 3rd opponent on will "outmash" you in neutral conditions and their AI is tuned to perfectly punish you if you whiff any moves so autofire doesn't completely trivialize the game either.
Bonne St-Jean! Wait none of you are from Quebec. Why the hell am I saying this.
Anyway I was surprised to see this on my porch today. I wanted something that had autofire faster than the PCB I was using previously and that lets you quickly disengage it (for games with "charge" mechanics. Ironclad is just way too annoying otherwise). Sticks and buttons are good and the autofire works as it's supposed to so I'm satisfied.
I got an Hamgeek Mister from Aliexpress. It arrived on Wednesday and I was able to run the usual set up. run update-all and mess with a few cores. I, however, could not get it to run with my retrotink 4k and tried various mister.ini files with recommended settings. At this point, the HDMI connection directly to my monitor stopped working.
I've tried reflashing the SD with a fresh Mr. Fusion install and the pattern is consistent: the monitor does not show a picture. During the install process, the monitor almost picks up the signal but then goes dead and does not do that again when the mister is done installing. If I let the monitor set on the input ,it periodically wakes up like the MiSTER is sending something to the monitor but it's not able to recognize it. Trying to connect the Mister to other displays with VGA or HDMI gives a "Frequency not recognized" error.
I am informed that a recent update has broke HDMI on "clone" (QMtech/Hamgeek) boards. However, reverting to an older MiSter file on the SD (which a few users reported as a working fix) does not work. As such I do not think my issue is linked to that.
Someone suggested to me the SD card could be a issue. I got one today and flashed it. It unfortunately does not work.
I've tried all way of fiddling with the SD. No variation of having or not having a mister.ini file on the sd works, whether it's the monitor or the retrotink. I'm at my wit's end and about to just return the damn thing.
I got a Hamgeek MisTer FPGA clone yesterday. It works fine for its intended purpose and is not reputed to have any issues, but I am struggling to make it display on the retrotink 4k.
-The tink is updated to the latest experimental firmware as of this writing. Prior to that, I tried with the latest "stable" release candidate. DV-1 is enabled in the profile options.
-The mister is connected directly to the HDMI input on the retrotink 4k. I am not using a switch
-Neither triple buffer or genlock work
-I made sure to put a mister.ini file by coping the sample file and set direct-video to 1. That didn't work, so I copied a recommend ini from the console mods wiki. Then I copied another ini recommended in the retrotink discord server. Then I copied an ini supplied by a member of the retrotink discord when I explained my problem. None of them worked.
-I tried 3 different HDMi cables (a generic one, a "8k-certified" one, and the one that came with my xbox series x); the first one didn't work at all. the other two work when the mister is connected directly to my monitor, but give "no signal" when it is connected to the retrotink 4k . Sometimes, it shows strange flashing red lines
-I am using the power supply and SD card supplied with the device.
I could not find any reports through Google or the retrotink discord of someone using that specific variant with the tink4k. Troubleshooting is welcomed, but i'm mostly looking to answer the question asked in the title before I waste money trying new HDMI cables or psus.
I got a Hamgeek MisTer FPGA clone yesterday. It works fine for its intended purpose and is not reputed to have any issues, but I am struggling to make it display on the retrotink 4k.
-The tink is updated to the latest experimental firmware as of this writing. Prior to that, I tried with the latest "stable" release candidate. DV-1 is enabled in the profile options.
-The mister is connected directly to the HDMI input on the retrotink 4k. I am not using a switch
-Neither triple buffer or genlock work
-I made sure to put a mister.ini file by coping the sample file and set direct-video to 1. That didn't work, so I copied a recommend ini from the console mods wiki. Then I copied another ini recommended in the retrotink discord server. Then I copied an ini supplied by a member of the retrotink discord when I explained my problem. None of them worked.
-I tried 3 different HDMi cables (a generic one, a "8k-certified" one, and the one that came with my xbox series x); the first one didn't work at all. the other two work when the mister is connected directly to my monitor, but give "no signal" when it is connected to the retrotink 4k. Sometimes, it shows strange flashing red lines
-I am using the power supply and SD card supplied with the device.
I could not find any reports through Google or the retrotink discord of someone using that specific variant with the tink4k. Troubleshooting is welcomed, but i'm mostly looking to answer the question asked in the title before I waste money trying new HDMI cables or psus.
For those not familiar with arcade game jargons, 1CC means "one credit clearing", or, beating a game on your first coin without continuing. Usually this is with the implication it was done on default or harder-than-default settings, but if you did one on easier or non-default I'm also interesting in hearing.
My list:
8 Man (my first one!)
Aero Fighters 2
Aero Fighters 3
Alpha Mission 2 (on AES mode, which removes the timer on the shop screen)
Fatal Fury
Last Resort (one life clear on first loop)
Metal Slug
Real Bout Fatal Fury (the Saturn port. the actual NG version feels harder from what little I played so I am not sure it counts)
World Heroes Perfect
I can also regularly reach the final stages of Galaxy Fight, Mutation Nation, NAM-1975 and Robo Army on one credit but have yet to properly clear any of them.
Art I commed from @ NicolasGravelQC last month for Crazy Galaxy's 9th. With the recent Ashley resurgence on social media, felt like the right time to post this!
Translation: "Thank you. My buddy from ROTD is also waiting for a reply from Plaion".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmKt8irA4F8
The Awakening was an unannounced expansion pack for Quake 4. It was developed by Ritual and was reported to be very close to completion before it was cancelled due to poor sales of Quake 4. The account has uploaded a few videos of the prototype but this is the first one without a stupid watermark in the middle of the screen.