Retro games and emulation - Discuss retro shit in case you're stuck in the past or a hipster

[Celebrate Nite]

Since this IS the Retro thread, I felt like giving appreciation to a retro mascot. Might do more of these, not sure, so excuse the autism for a moment.

Q*BERT

You're an alien (?) who has to turn blocks into different colors. Other enemies such as snakes, pigs, red balls, and green things that revert your colors show up to mess you up. There's spining discs that you can step on that take you back to the top of the platform, but give you bonus points if you leave them alone. You can fall off platforms which will result in a life loss. When Q*Bert gets hit, he says a curse word (actually it's whatever language he speaks, just jumbled up as "@!#?&"). You can "finish" the game, as there are only 9 levels, but after you finish level 9 it just loops forever until you get a game over.

Came back into the mainstream in the movie "Wreck-It Ralph", but ever since then the series is now permanently tied to the movie (which is a good/bad thing depending on who you ask).

List Of Games:

• Q*Bert (Original Game)- Was released in 1982 in Arcades and was ported to everything under the sun
  • Atari 2600
  • Atari 5200
  • Intellivision
  • ColecoVision
  • Atari 8-bit computers
  • VIC-20
  • TI-99/4A
  • Commodore 64
  • Philips Videopac
  • Othello Multivision
  • Nintendo Entertainment System
  • Java based Mobile Phones (2003) - Link
  • Adobe Flash game (2004) - You can play online here and download the updated 2005 PC version here
• Faster, Harder, More Challening - Unreleased game that was supposed to make Q*Bert even more difficult (as the name implies). ROM image got leaked online, you can play it here and download it yourself here
• Q*Bert's Quest - Pinball Machine

• Q*Bert's Qubes - The actual arcade sequel, although it didn't gain as much popularity as the original, only getting two home ports (Atari 2600 and ColecoVision). The cubes are seperated from each other and spin when you jump off of them. The goal is to make the cubes spin to the correct color. One that happens they turn transparent with a green outline, but you can still jump on them and they won't turn over to the wrong color. Introduces new enemies.
• MSX Q*Bert - Seperate from the other releases for a reason. It's developed by Konami and they decided to butcher the hell out of it. For one thing, it keeps the name, but changes the characters (now you're a dragon thing insteadof an alien thing). Second, it's based off of the sequel (Qubes) rather than the original game. Finally, there's a 2p mode that's a competitive "see who can match the most cubes first" game.
• Q*Bert GameBoy - There's 64 levels with all of them having differently-shaped boards. when you reach a certain point, you unlock a "movie" to watch. When you finish the game, you can watch them all in sequence via a code at the title screen.
• Q*Bert 3 - Super Nintendo game. Similar to the gameBoy one in that it has it's own levels. There is an ending to this one as well and a couple codes you enter in the options menu that does stuff (altherante screens, special ending, etc...)
• Q*Bert 1999 - Released on the PS1 (Main SKU) with the ports going to the DreamCast, Windows, Mac, and even GameBoy Color. The main game is now an adventure-style game in which the snake enemy got so powerful, he sent his friends (and girlfriend) to other dimensions, so now he has to go rescue them by changing block colors. The original mode is here as well and the graphics can be changed between modern or retro for that mode.
• Q*Bert Rebooted- Released in 2014, as the name implies, it's a reboot of Q*Bert. Was made purely because of Wreck-It Ralph getting people interested in it again. You go through 5 Stages spread out into 40 levels with three rounds for each level. There's also goals/missions you have to complete if you want to 3 star everything, which means you'll be playing the same level multiple times. You collect gems to unlock different skins for Q*Bert. Also comes with the original arcade mode. This was released for the following platforms..
  • Steam (currently de-listed due to "publisher request")
  • Android - Link
  • iOS
  • PS3
  • PS4
  • PSViTA
  • XBONE
• Q*Bert 2019 - Android (Link) and iOS game. Basically Q*Bert for casuals, or if you need something to keep busy while you take a dump. Made it TOO easy to where you can't fall off the platforms. You can unlock skins, but some are hidden behind ads (which IMO is a dumb decision). Also Wreck-It Ralph is in it as a skin, because of course he is.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

That's not how I remember it.

PS3 basically lost except for fanboys who had lots of money. The PS3 gained ground in the end because MS messed up the 360 interface with ads, PS3 was easy to mod with large hard drives at the fraction of the cost, and more importantly the PS3 slim reduced the price significantly. So much so that I got my PS3 fairly late due to an unadvertised sale I heard about through word of mouth for about £120. Most of the games were super cheap by then too.

I'm talking in total sales. The Wii captured the mind and interest of the public, especially people who had never bought a video game console before, while a lot of the people who actually liked Nintendo games moved on and skipped the Wii U. Nintendo's "blue ocean" strategy worked great exactly once.

The Xbox 360 also enjoyed a late-era marketing push with the Kinect and the Wii Sports knockoffs. I know PlayStation 3 had the "Move" controllers but those didn't catch on. At least the Kinect offered something a little different.

 

[Baraka Obama]

That's not how I remember it.

PS3 basically lost except for fanboys who had lots of money. The PS3 gained ground in the end because MS messed up the 360 interface with ads, PS3 was easy to mod with large hard drives at the fraction of the cost, and more importantly the PS3 slim reduced the price significantly. So much so that I got my PS3 fairly late due to an unadvertised sale I heard about through word of mouth for about £120. Most of the games were super cheap by then too.

Outside the USA (and Canada and maybe Mexico), the Xbox 360 never really did well. In Japan & Asia it was a non factor. In Europe it always trailed PlayStation immensely. Just from that alone it may have been a toss-up.

In the US market though I am 100% confident Xbox 360 hardware issues were a factor in the turnaround. I know several people who had 360s that broke and instead bought a PS3, and swore off Xbox altogether, of course by this time PS3 was a lot cheaper and it's game selection was less of a shitshow. It's anecdotal but for sure but I'm sure everyone has similar anecdotes.

 

[Pissmaster]

I'm another guy who jumped from the Xbox 360 to the PS3 late.

The final interface designed around Kinect really was awful. Every time you started it up, there was just a giant ad in the middle. Usually some menacing-looking black guy to advertise whatever new basketball or football game was out, regardless of what you actually played. So that was unpleasant. There was no way around that, either.

PlayStation 3 also had free multiplayer, and something else most have forgotten: free access to apps. On Xbox 360, you needed a Gold account to even just use its web browser, and any streaming services. So even if you paid for Netflix, you had to pay for Gold, too, if you only had a 360. This wasn't the case with PS3 or Wii.

I think around 2012, they launched PlayStation Plus, and actually had a lot of really good games you could claim monthly. It was actually well worth the cash. It made PlayStation look a whole hell of a lot better than Xbox at the time, with how you actually got stuff for your $50 yearly fee, as opposed to Xbox's $50 yearly just to use features that were already free everywhere else.

And then came Xbox One, its mandatory Kinect, plans to make it mandatory to keep it online, plans to eliminate used game reselling, and that one clip of Don Mattick saying "We have a console for people without an internet connection. It's called the Xbox 360." Yeah, it's no wonder Xbox fell out of favor with its already small fanbase over just a few years. The 360 was a success in America, and then they just threw that all the hell out, and cursed the entire brand forever.

 

[Baraka Obama]

I'm another guy who jumped from the Xbox 360 to the PS3 late.

The final interface designed around Kinect really was awful. Every time you started it up, there was just a giant ad in the middle. Usually some menacing-looking black guy to advertise whatever new basketball or football game was out, regardless of what you actually played. So that was unpleasant. There was no way around that, either.

PlayStation 3 also had free multiplayer, and something else most have forgotten: free access to apps. On Xbox 360, you needed a Gold account to even just use its web browser, and any streaming services. So even if you paid for Netflix, you had to pay for Gold, too, if you only had a 360. This wasn't the case with PS3 or Wii.

I think around 2012, they launched PlayStation Plus, and actually had a lot of really good games you could claim monthly. It was actually well worth the cash. It made PlayStation look a whole hell of a lot better than Xbox at the time, with how you actually got stuff for your $50 yearly fee, as opposed to Xbox's $50 yearly just to use features that were already free everywhere else.

And then came Xbox One, its mandatory Kinect, plans to make it mandatory to keep it online, plans to eliminate used game reselling, and that one clip of Don Mattick saying "We have a console for people without an internet connection. It's called the Xbox 360." Yeah, it's no wonder Xbox fell out of favor with its already small fanbase over just a few years. The 360 was a success in America, and then they just threw that all the hell out, and cursed the entire brand forever.

I bought a PS3 when it hit $299. Felt like a good time.

I ended up selling it because the games were awful. I can stomach some jank but Uncharted is a terrible shooter with terrible non-exploration sections and a junk story. KillZone 2 has the worst lag I've ever seen.

Eventually PS4 was announced and I was ready to jump in. But I realized the launch lineup was shit and there was nothing even remotely interesting lined up. Meanwhile HD Remakes and some better late PS3 games like Tales of Graces F made it worth buying another PS3. Ended up spending the early PS4 years taking advantage of rock bottom prices on PSN.

 

[Lone MacReady II]

I bought a PS3 when it hit $299. Felt like a good time.

I ended up selling it because the games were awful. I can stomach some jank but Uncharted is a terrible shooter with terrible non-exploration sections and a junk story. KillZone 2 has the worst lag I've ever seen.

Could be worse, you could've bought a PS4 just to play MGSV on it - then discovered that not only did the PS4 have no games, but that MGSV was a literal unfinished game that scam sites like IGN gave perfect 10/10 reviews for whilst simultaneously having wall-to-wall MGSV ads on their site banners. Grew up pretty quickly after that little waste, and sold my PS4 soon after.

 

[whatever I feel like]

An important thing to remember about PS3 vs 360 numbers is than, from the point of view of western 3rd parties, Japanese sales practically didn't count because Japanese gamers don't buy western games (thats broken down somewhat over the past 15 years but was definitely true back then.) As such, their potential sales bases were skewed more towards Xbox than a worldwide count would suggest. And then for JP publishers the opposite was true because JP gamers were only on PS and Nintendo and were buying their games. Helps explain why stuff like Bethesda titles and CoD were so Xbox-centric back then.

 

[Baraka Obama]

Could be worse, you could've bought a PS4 just to play MGSV on it - then discovered that not only did the PS4 have no games, but that MGSV was a literal unfinished game that scam sites like IGN gave perfect 10/10 reviews for whilst simultaneously having wall-to-wall MGSV ads on their site banners. Grew up pretty quickly after that little waste, and sold my PS4 soon after.

I played MGS5 Ground Zeroes and thought it was amazing. I replayed it many times.

For some reason I smelled the scam shortly before release and instead pirated MGS5 TPP. Yeah it sucked. It's like they surgically removed all the fun from MGS: GZ and instead gave us a boring 40h chore using the same mechanics.

I ended up buying a PS3 version for very cheap later to now own every Metal Gear game on ever released on a single console, thePS3.

 

[Shinkai]

I did the same thing a few days ago! Now to figure out how to load PS1 games.
OpenPS2Loader supports ZSO for compression, but A ) There's not much of a space difference (usually ~10-20%) beyond a few outliers, and B ) You may have to set different modes depending on the game/ZSO and I don't want to screw with that. Oh well, a 256GB SSD is plenty for what I have.

I haven't looked into adding in PS1 yet. With the PS1 classic that kind of does that for me that I've got retroarch on it. But I'll definitely look into it the more the merrier! Found the whole process relatively easy actually the longest part of the whole thing was waiting for parts.

The only issue I've had so far out of any single game I've put on it is both kings field 4 and shadow tower abyss the cutscenes echo/delay. So I hear the voice and it follows with another and the same sound effects. But the moment I'm ingame it's gone. I figured maybe I had added American/Japanese NTSC/J iso's on there but setting the TV to either 50 or 60hz gave same issue so meh. Every other game is solid though .

 

[ZipDisk]

Handhelds always get fucked in battery life. They should be designing the whole fucking thing around the battery, but they won't. They'll release it with a low-capacity battery because they want it SLIM

That and shoulder buttons still suck on handheld, the chinee machines think putting L2 on the same row as L1 is just fine. IT'S NOT.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

I ended up buying a PS3 version for very cheap later to now own every Metal Gear game on ever released on a single console, thePS3.

Barring the Acid series and Survive (though I guess not having Survive could be seen as a boon).

Handhelds always get fucked in battery life.

I thought DS and Vita were good. Can't remember PSP but I think it was okay. 3DS was oddly shit.

 

[Vyse Inglebard]

Q*Bert 2019 - Android (Link) and iOS game. Basically Q*Bert for casuals, or if you need something to keep busy while you take a dump. Made it TOO easy to where you can't fall off the platforms. You can unlock skins, but some are hidden behind ads (which IMO is a dumb decision). Also Wreck-It Ralph is in it as a skin, because of course he is.

The theme song for this version unironically slaps:

 

[Pissmaster]

Barring the Acid series and Survive (though I guess not having Survive could be seen as a boon).


I thought DS and Vita were good. Can't remember PSP but I think it was okay. 3DS was oddly shit.

PSP was great if you were pirating and running games off the memory stick. You’d get about 5 hours. Discs, about 2. High end games like GTA VCS off a disc could bring it down to about 1 1/2 hours.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

PSP was great if you were pirating and running games off the memory stick. You’d get about 5 hours. Discs, about 2. High end games like GTA VCS off a disc could bring it down to about 1 1/2 hours.

That sounds about right. It's pretty bad that it can dip so low. I guess I do remember my Crisis Core disc killing the thing fairly fast.

 

[Shinkai]

@Two Dollars With your Open PS2 Loader do you find it a bit dodgy sometimes when adding ISOs to a usb? So far everything I've put on the internal HDD has worked fine but it seems 7/10 games I try on the USB throw up a Game is fragmented error at me. I got Tony hawk 3, Obscure and The Suffering to work on it but couldn't get anything else really to not. Gonna try throwing them on the internal but it's handy to quickly throw a game onto the usb and plug in even if I'll get slower load times

 

[Stasi]

@Two Dollars With your Open PS2 Loader do you find it a bit dodgy sometimes when adding ISOs to a usb? So far everything I've put on the internal HDD has worked fine but it seems 7/10 games I try on the USB throw up a Game is fragmented error at me. I got Tony hawk 3, Obscure and The Suffering to work on it but couldn't get anything else really to not. Gonna try throwing them on the internal but it's handy to quickly throw a game onto the usb and plug in even if I'll get slower load times

FYI in case you don't already know but OPL isn't 100% compatible, I found this site a while ago with a compatibility list and suggested fixes for certain games: OPL list

Speaking of PS2, has anyone gone through and compressed their library and if so which format is best these days? There are a handful of different methods according to the wiki. I did this for Gamecube a while ago and the size difference was pretty insane, not sure what method to use for PS2 though.

 

[Friendly Primarina]

Speaking of PS2, has anyone gone through and compressed their library and if so which format is best these days? There are a handful of different methods according to the wiki. I did this for Gamecube a while ago and the size difference was pretty insane, not sure what method to use for PS2 though.

I compressed my collection using CHD and it lowered the size by around a third, maybe more.

 

[Shinkai]

FYI in case you don't already know but OPL isn't 100% compatible, I found this site a while ago with a compatibility list and suggested fixes for certain games: OPL list

Cheers for that man helps a lot 4 of the games that didn't work are incom and the other 3 aren't even on the list. Shame I wanted to play some fallout: brotherhood of steel on the CRT as on pcsx2 there's a very weird texture issue I can't sort out. Ah well it's bearable

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole 2]

@Two Dollars With your Open PS2 Loader do you find it a bit dodgy sometimes when adding ISOs to a usb? So far everything I've put on the internal HDD has worked fine but it seems 7/10 games I try on the USB throw up a Game is fragmented error at me. I got Tony hawk 3, Obscure and The Suffering to work on it but couldn't get anything else really to not. Gonna try throwing them on the internal but it's handy to quickly throw a game onto the usb and plug in even if I'll get slower load times

One popular alternative for both PS2 and Xbox was to hook it up to a router and just load the games from a share on your computer.

 

[Shinkai]

One popular alternative for both PS2 and Xbox was to hook it up to a router and just load the games from a share on your computer.

That's really cool. I don't suppose with this I can burn my own dvds and run it? I have a choice to launch disk and wondered if that just meant normal ones alone or non official ones.

I've been having a blast getting all these things set up it's nice to play on a CRT again. It's crazy how much motion blur modern monitors add in comparison and the response time is the best. I have a Wii U sat about with like 3 games I've been considering getting it home-brewed up