Retro Games Worth Playing

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Rogue Boob said:
I knew it was by Troika and needed various patches to run properly even back when it was new, but the extent of the problem is kind of surprising. Then again with performance like that, no wonder they didn't really last.
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That story was repeated with their Vampire the Masquerade game. It was using Valve's new Source engine, a big deal at the time, but Half-Life 2 got delayed and so they were forced to push Vampire's release up from the planned date to sometime in the future.

Troika groaned about it because they had to postpone the release and sit twiddling their thumbs until Half-Life 2 was released - not releasing a Source game before HL2 was part of the licensing agreement of their engine. That was the story at the time at least and people were pissed at Valve for pushing poor Troika around. After that contractually forced delay the game was released on the same day and date as HL2, really selling the idea that the game had been sitting on a shelf for months. But it was released in an unfinished and buggy state, with that extra time you'd think that they would've fixed some things or prepared a patch in advance.

Some dude I talked to back then said that the game was nowhere near finished when the delay happened and that they were working like crazy after that, Valve's mandated delay was apparently a lucky break(Activision couldn't really slap them around for that kind of delay).
 
So finally finished cleaning my NES for the first time last night. Took me two nights to do (because spare time, spare time!) but after collecting my patience, I got that 72 pin connector off and slightly bend every pin up with a paper clip, cleaned the contacts on both the motherboard and connecter with isopropyl alcohol, and after struggling for like 40 minutes to get the RF Shield back on properly, I fixed everything back together and... Each game I tried loaded fully 95% the first time!

I wanted to disable the 10 NES chip so the flashing screen doesn't happen, but didn't seem that comfortable compared to the necessary steps.

Now for the next step, load up on NES carts from Ebay.
 
The original metroid 2 is very playable and well designed. The level design is probably the best in the 2d series as even without a map I never got lost. The level design also felt the most realistic and much less slapdash then other the other 2D metroid games. I actually think I liked it more then AM2R and Samus Returns, though AM2R was pretty good too. Samus returns was pretty mediocre though.
 
Cool kitties club said:
The original metroid 2 is very playable and well designed. The level design is probably the best in the 2d series as even without a map I never got lost. The level design also felt the most realistic and much less slapdash then other the other 2D metroid games. I actually think I liked it more then AM2R and Samus Returns, though AM2R was pretty good too. Samus returns was pretty mediocre though.
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back in GBA flash carts days playing Game Boy games meant you had to run a GB emulator off the flash cart because as a GBA cart it wouldn't trigger the GB hardware, worked okay anyway, and it offered a jerryrig screen extending by drawing the background layer to the right and left, worked really well with Samus Returns. You'd still walk into monsters like a dark cave but you could see the hallways more like you had cyberradar in your suit.
 
Out of ancient console stuff, I personally like Aerobiz Supersonic for the SNES. Business management games is not something you'd expect to see on consoles, let alone 16-bit consoles like SNES, but yet it somehow manages to work. The interface is weird, though - you'll need a manual to understand it the first time you play the game.

Also, Outrun games for the Sega Mega Drive are kind of fun.
 
Speaking of Secret of Mana, the remake recently made it's way onto my playlist (Currently working on Zelda:BotW and Smash Ultimate's single player when I'm not doing raid related shit in WoW, but Soon™) It's very pretty but apparently it's kind of a crap shoot whether it will actually run on your computer. It's pretty cheap on Humble Store right now.

While I'm thinking about it, the best ARPG on the SNES is Seiken Densetsu 3 (Secret of Mana 2). Basically Secret of Mana with 6 playable characters and a class tree. I also have a soft spot for Secret of Evermore which a lot of people have mixed feelings on but it's definitely one of the more unique ARPGs on the SNES story wise and the game play is fine but sometimes grindy because spells cost materials.
 
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I was lucky as hell to get a Secret of Mana to my island when I did.

Shit got expensive.
 
The original Spyro trilogy on the Playstation 1.

There was nothing more satisfying than collecting gems and eggs at obvious open areas and hidden cracks n corners you normally wouldn't find without taking the time to look to torching the little critters that gave you butterflies to give your dragonfly Sparx health, to flying as fast as you could to win the challenge and racetrack levels.

Spyro gameplay vids
Spyro 1


Spyro 2


Spyro 3

 
Diddy Kong Racing for the N64 is at my Florida importing address. NES carts of Little Nemo and Ninja Gaiden are on their way.

And tonight, I hope to win some CIB of Dragon Warrior and Burger Time.

I'm dipping my toes into things and loving buying games on eBay again. Little Nemo was $4!
 
Langrisser 2 on the Genesis or the added feature version Der Langrisser on the SNES is pretty sweet tactical RPG with sweet music.

That game and possible the remake of the first one is supposed to be on the Switch and PS4 this year if they release it in English.
 
Guardian G.I. said:
Out of ancient console stuff, I personally like Aerobiz Supersonic for the SNES. Business management games is not something you'd expect to see on consoles, let alone 16-bit consoles like SNES, but yet it somehow manages to work. The interface is weird, though - you'll need a manual to understand it the first time you play the game.
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That's a great game. The first time I played it I completely lost track of time, it was an accidental time machine. There's that joke about starting to play a game and after a while noticing that the sun is rising, that happened to me with Aerobiz. Upon checking what time it was I also realized that I had to be at work in two hours even though in my mind I had just come home from work.

Another good business sim that I still play sometimes is the overlooked Capitalism for the PC, released in 1995.
It's about starting stores and selling things and to have something to sell you must buy goods, or you can manufacture them, that involves building factories and setting up the production line and optimizing output. That requires base materials/components going from basic to complex, those can be bought on the open market or you can go full vertical integration and control everything from mining silica, pumping up oil that gets refined into plastic, some other components I don't remember and then finally put the finished product, a computer in this example, in your stores.
But there's competition so it might be a good idea to research who holds which parts of the market and at what price point, and what the market cap is. There's also R&D to be done to make better products. Plus a stock market. The goal is to squeeze out your competition, they either close or start selling off shares to cover costs, then buy those shares until you're the majority shareholder.
 
Heavy Metal Geomatrix for the Sega Dreamcast. It's a fighting type game for the Dreamcast and Arcade based off of Heavy Metal Magazine, and it's sort of like Power Stone mixed with Anarchy Reigns (Which makes sense since quite a bit of the staff from HMG worked on Anarchy Reigns, but Anarchy Reigns has a Hip-Hop soundtrack)
 
Streets of Rage 2, and the NES Castlevania are still extremely fun to go back to for me.
SoR2 visuals still stand out and look great, the gameplay can be very fast and you really have to manage the enemies on the screen, and of course the soundtrack is still one of the best of all time. You get four different characters all with different movesets and stats in different categories. You have a special attack that will level up and change effects as you get a higher score, if you have to use a credit you lose the levels on the attack, but they greatly increase your survivability in later game. Lots of stage and enemy variety. To me this was the height of beat 'em ups.
Castlevanias level design, enemies, and general challenge all have a good flow to them. It teaches you very early on of the types of patterns and movements enemies have, and of course as you keep going it throws more and more at you. Eventually you'll end up in hallways where guys are dropped from the sky or medusa heads coming off screen and you have to apply what you learned or you just get melted. You have several different subweapons to compliment your whip, you can get extra attacks on screen with sub weapons by finding pickups with [II] and [III] on them hidden in the castle walls or occasionally dropped by enemies. Boss variety is very strong with a clear progression as well, Death and Frankenstein would be the major obstacles for any player though. There are plenty of items and collectibles hidden around by breaking walls or just doing goofy stuff, like if you jump over the door frame before you enter the castle you pick up a crown worth lots of points, or if you drop from a staircase really high to the floor one will show up.
Both of these really have a sense of momentum that help them hold up well, you have to play aggressive, smart and fast. You can get through both probably about 5-8 hours each depending on your skill level.
 
Just won a Bionic Commando. Hope to win a Pro Wrestling from the same seller to save on shipping.

But next to end is Cool Spot. A Snes game I wanted in 1993 but didn't get. It's got marker and stickers on it so it should be cheap, right?
 
TrippinKahlua said:
Just won a Bionic Commando. Hope to win a Pro Wrestling from the same seller to save on shipping.

But next to end is Cool Spot. A Snes game I wanted in 1993 but didn't get. It's got marker and stickers on it so it should be cheap, right?
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Also available on Mega Drive / Genesis, and PC. It's fairly good but not world-beating and better than a lot of licenced games.
 
I see it's been mentioned at least four times already in various Farms threads, but my pick today is Crusader of Centy for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. It's a Zelda clone and the closest you'll come to Link to the Past on the Genesis, but it's more than a bland copycat. It has its own style and charms and a lovely little concept/story that might take you by surprise. Great soundtrack, too!

I had a hell of a time finding a copy in middle school after reading about it in... GameFan, I think? (We didn't have Amazon back then, kids.) But when I found it, it was totally worth the price. I have such great memories of playing it far into the early morning hours at a time when I never did things like that.

If you're going to play it, you probably want the European localization (under the name Soliel). CoC was translated for the U.S. by Atlus at a time before they had a reputation for quality, and yeah... it's a little rough, though understandable. But the Euro translation seems a lot higher quality from what I've seen.

(Apparently the developer also made a similar game on the Saturn called Linkle Liver Story. I'd love to play that but it's never been translated.)

And while we're talking about Zelda clones, Gunple: Gunman's Proof is a weird as hell Japanese-only Super Famicom title (that has been fan translated) that's a fun diversion.

Imagine if Link to the Past was a cartoonish Western with a wacky, Japanese sense of humor, and imagine that some dev you never heard of made it instead of Nintendo. That's Gunple. Instead of melee weapons, you have guns, and instead of a fantasy world you have a weird semi-Wild West setting that's inexplicably on an island completely surrounded by water. It's more arcadey than Zelda though it feels and looks very similar. Also, sometimes you get an invincible donkey to ride around the screen and run over enemies.

ProfDongs said:
Streets of Rage 2, and the NES Castlevania are still extremely fun to go back to for me.
SoR2 visuals still stand out and look great, the gameplay can be very fast and you really have to manage the enemies on the screen, and of course the soundtrack is still one of the best of all time. You get four different characters all with different movesets and stats in different categories. You have a special attack that will level up and change effects as you get a higher score, if you have to use a credit you lose the levels on the attack, but they greatly increase your survivability in later game. Lots of stage and enemy variety. To me this was the height of beat 'em ups.
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If there is any chance at all you aren't aware of it... find and download a copy of Streets of Rage Remake. I think it's one of my favorite games of all time, fan made or not. It's essentially replaced the original games for me.
 
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