#ps1 classic controller

[smbhax]

8BitDo Mod Kit for Original PlayStation Classic Controller

Seems good. Wish it had a non-custom and longer than 1’ charging cable.

(Separate USB-A plug for scale only, not part of kit)

The charging plug for the kit comes detached from the PCB; you have to flip up a little plastic latch on one side of the PCB, slip the ~2 mm wide circuit membrane extending out of the charging plug into the revealed slit, and flip the latch back down to secure it–as detailed via diagram on a ~2 cm tall slip of paper included in the kit.

Order had said was shipping free from “CN” but USPS tracking showed up in Perth Amboy, NJ two days later, kit arrived at my eastern WA state USA mailbox a total of five days after ordering–beat out the PS Classic Controller I ordered same day from eBay that was shipping from NC, USA.

PCB has a micro USB port on it for updating firmware via 8bitdo’s firmware updater Upgrade tool - Support - 8BitDo ; micro USB cable not included. : P The USB port is inaccessible once the mod it encased in the PS Classic Controller so uh well fortunately it doesn’t seem likely they’ll need to update the firmware again; hasn’t been updated since 2021; I checked and my board was fully updated.

You can hardware map the buttons. From some documentation:

LEFT + Select : set Dpad as left analogue stick Up + Select : reset Dpad Right + Select : set Dpad as right analogue stick Down + Select : Swap A/B and X/Y mapping *Press and hold any of the key combinations above for 5 seconds to map the buttons. *LED will blink in red to indicate the success of each button mapping. *You need to reset the buttons manually.

Default seems to be as left analog (left+select); the documentation called up+select “Reset” but it sets it as PoV Hat, which it wasn’t initially; right+select sets it as right analog apparently, and that’s the one that moves the Z Axis and Z Rotation graphs in Windows’ USB Game Controllers properties window; as left analog it just moves the cross in the “X Axis / Y Axis” window.

There are three clips holding the small original PCB in place in the controller; once you just pry these lightly apart with your fingers, and detach the VERY thin and fragile-feeling ribbon cable plugged into it, it’s easy to lift the original board out.

“Never used” controller from eBay (not included in kit!):

The kit comes with a tiny Phillips screwdriver that fits the eight(!) tiny screws on the back of the controller perfectly.

The new PCB clicks into place very firmly. That thin ribbon cable is a little tricky to place into the very narrow slot, but it gets in there okay with a little delicate wiggling.

The light / charge port sticks out slightly from the case; that’s where it seemed to click in during assembly and it feels VERY solidly mounted so I don’t think I got it wrong, just slightly surprised it doesn’t sit flush; I suppose it’s easier to see this way.

I pressed /\ + Start and the controller came on and blinked the light; went to Windows’ Bluetooth panel, clicked Add, and there it was, “8BitDo P30 classic Modkit”–weird capitalization. ^ D^

There was a sticky pad on the back of the kit’s battery with a peel-off strip, and then you gotta just glom it on to the inside of the left handgrip, which it rounded rather than flat so maybe not the solidest attachment, but once I sorta jammed it under the big plastic d-pad housing thing where it was somewhat less rounded it seemed to stick in place solidly enough.

Man these old-style PS controllers were so skinny!

Does NOT show up in DS4Windows, darn. ; )

Lists generically as “Bluetooth Wireless Controller” (I think DS4 does, too, when not running through DS4Windows) in Windows’ USB Game Controllers window.

Steam recognized it by that generic name, click the Begin Setup or whatever button next to it and you go through a thing where you map the buttons to Xbox controller equivalents, using the first-assigned A button to skip any the controller doesn’t have (analog sticks, etc). Went swimmingly!

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania let me roll right around as soon as I set the d-pad as Left Analog in Steam Input. Everything just worked in Victory Heat Rally, a non-Steam game I have set up in Steam, and Steam precision platformer LOVE 3 just worked.

This thing is so much lighter than a DS4, feels weightless by comparison. Very solid plastic though, no creaking at all UNLIKE Creaky McCreakerson Mr. DS4.

There doesn’t seem to be a way to put it to sleep. The FAQ PS Classic Kit and PS Original Kit FAQ | 8BitDo doesn’t mention it. I think it went to sleep on me once when I hadn’t used it for maybe ~5 minutes or so.

Rough cell-phone-footage-frame-counting input delay comparison vs DualShock 4 ( https://youtu.be/ZjGtkG2JUbA ) seemed roughly equivalent, input lag wise.

So yeah, although I don’t know about long term like battery life or how my body will end up loving the ergonomics or not vs the ol’ DS4, it seems about as good as can be. I’ve ordered another “new”-from-eBay PlayStation Classic Controller to have as back-up for the kit, although the controllers do feel built like tanks. ; ) But you can’t order them new direct from the manufacturer like you can the kits (trying to convince myself not to be paranoid and order another kit, haha…although hm maybe I’ll have to do that if I’m still grooving with this in a few months, because at that point it would be a shame not to have it forever).

Update 1:

I'm not sure about the manual on like wake up and stuff; when I took it off the charger and it didn't register as connected and showed no light I tried /+Start like it said but that actually put the controller immediately into pairing mode. On the other hand, if I just press Start, the blue light goes on, it reconnects and everything's fine. So it's more like Start wakes it up, and /+Start -- no holding necessary -- puts it in pairing mode.

Update 2:

It's easy to wiggle the charger socket a bit along the vertical angle when unplugging the charging cable. Opened up the controller to see if I could re-seat the socket more securely somehow but didn't find a way to do it, so I guess that's how it's gonna be--it doesn't really have much to brace itself against in there, but it does have a fairly wide vertical cross-brace inside the casing, so I don't think it's in too much danger of actually pulling out, it just feels like it is. : P

[psxui]

Tekken 3 (1997) - Key Configuration

[zombiemnero]

Creepy PS1!! 😯😍🎈

[feverdreamjohnny]

"Why There Will Never Be a Peeb Adventures" otherwise known as "The Peeb Adventures Pre-Mortem"

Since 2020, I've made a good chunk of games. Hell, even though I've been doing this for 10 years to date, the majority of my progress as a creative began over the course of this 4 year period.

Out of all the games I've made - or otherwise had a hand in - there is only one that's apparently struck a chord so deeply with people that to this day I still get messages and comments asking when it will come out.

The title of this post already explains the whole deal so I'm not gonna be dramatic about it right here. As per usual, I will instead get heart-clutchingly dramatic about the subject by the end of this story.

I felt the idea of a "Pre-Mortem" might be a fun way to talk about games that will never be finished. Maybe I'll make more of these down the line for other old games, who knows.

"The Incredibly True Origins of Peeb Adventures" or "Wow! I Hate It!"

Peeb Adventures began as a gift game for my long-time friend Aaron. It was simple, mostly functioning as a fun little gag that stemmed from a 3D model I made of a character he doodled during a drawpile session. I gave Peeb a grapple hook just because I wanted to experiment with swinging mechanics and felt the gag gift was a great space to toy around in without having to actually ask myself how on earth I'd want to structure a game around a grappling hook. Foreshadowing!

Eventually, the gag gift did that classic thing all developers have experienced before where your game spirals out of control and grows into a hideous monster, and what started as a fairly abstract grappling toy convergently evolved into that dreaded state we call a "3D Mascot Platformer."

I made a very short demo in the summer of 2020. It went absolutely nowhere, and after an idol of mine caught wind and asked to play it (before sending about 3 paragraphs of feedback suggesting how to improve what was, in my view, a trainwreck of baby blocks stacked on top of eachother), I shelved the project.

"The Absolutely Tremendulous HPS1 Adventure of Peeb" or "My Friend Jam Suggested I Revive the Project and So I Did"

Shortly after Peeb was shelved for the first time, I joined a community of game developers called Haunted PS1. For those not in the know, HPS1 was essentially the nexus point for "retro horror games" in the indie sphere, and a lot of the resulting deluge (non-perjorative) on itch.io can find its roots in this community.

HPS1 was a good place. Lots of nice, talented people willing to tolerate the kind of mindless riffing I often do in voice calls, anyway. I made a decent chunk of friends there, some of which I'm still quite close to, even today.

HPS1 has this tradition called the HPS1 Demo Disc that began in 2020, and with the year coming to its end, there was talk of a new one set to arrive in spring 2021.

Unlike the first demodisc, however, 2021's disc required you to submit a game in-progress to a panel of judges. They'd then give their yay-or-nay, and you were either in or out.

One day, I was musing over the fact that I didn't really have anything to submit so I would likely have to sit out of 2021's disc. My friend, Jam, who you might know as the developer of the Heilwald Loophole (or Beton Brutal) suggested I consider reviving Peeb Adventures as my submission to the demo disc.

Why did I follow through on this? I don't know. It's funny to think a scenario this simple was the launch point for my career.

Over the next 6 months, I worked on turning the absolutely horrendous gag game into... Something still kinda trite but at least playable. I had some help from my longtime teammate drurylain, my longtime friend Aaron (the creator of Peeb's original design), and my longtime spiritual uncle Tim, and with our powers combined... A new kind of demo experience where you don't do anything of particular note besides swinging around was born.

Also quite important: the very same drawpile session that spawned Peeb also spawned Orbo, who would also make his own appearance in Peeb Adventures as a recurring side character (since I felt like Peeb needed a friend).

"Go! Incredible Friendship Unites in the Gameosphere! Peeb and Orbo are Born!" or "Peeb Adventures: Coming Never"

So the demo for Peeb Adventures was finished early March 2021, and the demo disc went live on itch.io on the 25th of the month.

The demo disc then proceeded to do a backflip and pick up a LOT of traction online. Which then meant Peeb itself was catching little bits of the traction in its mouth and smacking its lips.

I went from "guy who makes games for nobody" to "guy who makes games for that one very specific brand of teen on twitter who loves the object head show", and I was riding high.

Fanart poured in. People showed a lot of love. I was dazzled by it all, really.

Despite the love for the game and the potential on hand, progress was stagnant. My group of friends and I all got together in a google doc and wrote an entire planning bible for the game. Game mechanics, story beats, twists and turns, the whole thing. Despite having the structure lined up, I had other ambitions and began working on a multiplayer deathmatch game that quickly overtook my work schedule.

Peeb sat on the backburner, but at the time I still wanted to finish it one day. My main excuse was "well, I just need more money! If I'm going to work on this game it's gonna need more than one fulltime person and I can't just ask people to work for free!" That excuse worked on me for a while.

"I Don't Think I Want to Play With You Anymore Peeb!" or "There's Such a Thing as Too Much Love"

A while had passed at this point. My ambitions hadn't just grown, they'd completely shifted. Before long, I found myself working on yet another demo for the 2022 HPS1 Demo Disc, "The Spectral Mall."

Nowhere, MI wasn't just some random toy for me, but the culmination of all my love into one game. Despite its silly demeanor, the game was a product of a lot of pain, and even now I still desperately want to finish it. Except I have to make money to live, so... Oops!

Anyhow, there was a shift in demeanor for me during 2022. You have Peeb, a game that I made on a whim as kind of a joke with friends, and you have Nowhere, MI, a game that meant the world to me during really dark times.

And you know what? There were a lot of people that wanted Peeb. People that never stopped asking me about it.

I realized while working on Nowhere that I didn't really know what I would even do if I ever had the chance to work on the full Peeb Adventures. Not only did I find the nagging kind of annoying, Peeb was also something I couldn't really... Wrap my head around?

It occurred to me that Peeb wasn't really "my" game anymore, it was "his" game. The old Johnny.

I'd changed a lot since the game had come out in early 2021. In a year and a half my world got flipped upside down, and... I don't know, Nowhere was way more reflective of who I was now. Sure the humor was still pretty asinine, but there was a shift. It was hard to picture the "Peeb Adventures" people were actually looking forward to when my own sensibilities had drifted so far.

When the Nowhere demo came out along with Spectral Mall, it did... Alright? People liked it, but it wasn't the same as Peeb's release. Hell, even in Nowhere's release there were people pushing it aside to ask the same question they'd been asking every week leading up to it. "When is Peeb Adventures coming out?"

"Goodbye Peeb!"

It was increasingly harder and harder to not look back at Peeb and kind of hate it. It was rough in every respect, and yet it whenever I met people who'd heard of me online, they always cited Peeb Adventures.

Strangers continue to ask me when it's coming out. On rare occasion I'll get someone asking about Nowhere and I'll feel a bit excited anyone else cares about that game besides me and maybe my friends, but most of the time people just ask about Peeb.

To finally answer this question I've been asked for nearly 4 years: There will probably never be a Peeb Adventures.

"Goodbye Johnny."

I like to believe one of the reasons people are attracted to my body of work is because I make games to reach out to other people. That's probably not the real reason, but it's nice to play pretend and imagine your work has more significance than just "ha ha boner."

I put a lot of myself in my games and I rarely hold back, even if an idea is insanely stupid or strange. The result usually becomes something more like a scrapbook than a game.

It's hard to try and expand on a game like Peeb when the Johnny who made it isn't really with us anymore. If I worked on Peeb now, you'd get some kind of irregular frankenstein that'd never be as exciting as the original vision was.

By the time I get around to Nowhere again, am I still going to be this Johnny? Or will the next Johnny look back at Nowhere the same way I look at Peeb now? Who knows.

Anyway, look forward to more games from me and my friends. Even if it's not Peeb Adventures, it'll still be us.

[sim0nril3y]

Classic Games

Pairing: Simon 'Ghost' Riley x Civilian!Reader

Scenario: Whilst cleaning through some old boxes you find an old video game console and decide that rather than cleaning you want to play some old games. Note: Set in 2014 Warnings: No mask Simon (It's my personal headcanon in his regular life he probably wouldn't wear it), teasing, implied smut, canon-typical swearing, video game talk.

Simon was good at organising. He was diligent and meticulous. Being inside your chaotic little flat seemed to put him into an unreasonably bad mood. Constantly making little comments about your art supplies being everywhere, it was driving him mad and finally you gave him permission to help organise it into three piles: keep, throw and donate. It was very difficult and you seemed to fight Simon on almost everywhere he wanted to throw away. So, to get some needed space from you he sent you away to begin to sort through your old boxes that had been stacked in your cupboard since moving in, he wanted to change it into a storage place for your supplies instead of having them everywhere.

A sharp gasp found your lips as you opened the final box. It was your ancient PlayStation 1 sitting at the very bottom, it was covered in dust but everything was there, including two controllers and even a few games. “Oh my god~” A second later Simon came crashing into the room, eyes darting around trying to find the danger that caused your reaction. “What happened?” He pressed, stepping further in. “You cut yourself? Knew I shouldn’t have given you that knife-” “Si, I’m fine.” You laughed and then held up the PS1 like it was some holy artefact. “Look what I found~”

“You’re supposed to be-” “I need to see if this still works.” In a second you were up, collecting all the necessary wires and games and then rushing through to the living room. It seemed like Simon was making good headway on his side of the cleaning process. “Oi, you’re supposed to be sorting through that shit not playing games.” His voice was firm as he lingered in the doorway watching as you began to set up the old device. “Clearly I’m testing to see if this works so I can figure out if it needs to go in the keep or throw pile.” Then glancing over your shoulder at him. “C’mon, we can take like a five minute break, right? Look at it in here, like a different flat.” You commented gesturing around you.

A soft groan escaped Simon’s lips as he moved to flop onto the sofa and cover his face with his hand. “Yeah, but somehow all the chaos that was in here has somehow shifted to the bedroom…” Then those dark eyes found you as you continued to plug it in. “It’ll get done.” You responded with an easy shrug. Simon was more of the mindset that if a task of started it needed to be finished, but it was apparent to him that you were easily distracted and enjoyed procrastinating. You needed a firm hand, he was gonna get you in line whether you liked it or not.

Excitedly you pressed the power button and frowned heavily as it didn’t power up. “Bollocks…” You muttered, picking up the device and inspecting it. “Give it here…” Simon said, holding his hand out towards you from the couch. You walked it over to him and watched as he began to clean the power socket from any dust and debris that had collected in there. “Try it again now…” He coaxed and you moved over to plug it in and try again. A wild smile pulled across your lips as you heard the machine whirling and then the television light up. “It’s working!” You squeaked, placing a game inside and then grabbing a controller as you moved to sit beside him. “You are actually a genius, Simon Riley~” You cooed, leaning in to peck his cheek.

“Yeah. Yeah.” He sipped on his tea as he watched you playing Crash Bandicoot. It was actually amusing watching the nostalgia that littered your face, gasping and commenting about how you remembered certain sections, commenting on how hard that you found it when you were younger and how even now you were older it still wasn’t easy. At the third time the character feels down a seemingly endless pit because of a mistimed jump a smirk pulled from his throat. “Something funny?” You asked with a quirked brow. “Your inability to make a simple jump.” The statement fired back and made you gasp dramatically. “Oh, I’d like to see you do any better…”

From beside you his hand shot out, a silent request for the controller. You place it into his hands and sunk back beside him, watching as he negatived the level with a lot more patience than you had. You watched with mirth as he landed the jump that you had repeatedly missed and even went on to finish the level. “You made that look difficult.” He mentioned with that cocky smile on his face. “Beginners luck.” “Well, maybe I’m just better than you~” There was taunting to his voice and instantly your eyes darted in his direction.

“Not a chance.” Then leaning closer to him, up to his ear and whispering. “But we could always put that smart mouth to the test and see if you can prove me wrong~” You heard the hitch in his breath, saw the way his hands rubbed against his thighs before a low command responded. “Behave yourself.” It was practically a growl before leaping from the couch to insert another game, grabbing your own controller and sitting down beside him. “How about a game of Tekken to settle this?”

“You’re on.” Simon hadn’t played this game before but there was no way he was going to back down from a challenge. After selecting characters and a place to fight you began the first round. It was a closer round but you took it easily. You were beginning to remember some of the combo moves and Simon eyed you eagerly watching the television, tapping your fingers furiously against the controller. The second round was about to come to a closer, announcing you as the winner when suddenly Simon knocked the controller from your hands and yanked you up into his arms. “Cheater! I was gonna win!” You screamed as he gathered you into his arms and tucked you beneath him on the sofa. “Can’t win if you can’t reach the controller, love~” He purred in your ear. “Now, do you wanna continue your silly little fighting game or… play a different game with me instead?” He pressed his hips firmly against your own. “Different game.”

Masterlist | Ask | 06-09-2023

[redpanda5442]

Ranking my controllers via how easy it is to wrap the wire around itself (part 1)

(From worst to best)

Mega drive 3 button controller

The wire in theory wraps around the controller serviceably enough, but the wire feels really cheap and holds its shape after untangling. Feels like waking someone up after only 3 hours of sleep.

This shouldn't really count but what the heck, Topway PS1 multitap accessory

It wraps up awful, it's wire is thick and cheap which means it doesn't stay tight, holds it's shape when unwrapping and the chunkiness disallows it the ability to lie flat

Xbox "S" controller

This thing is quite chunky without really any satisfying curves for the wire to hold onto, causing them to sort of sprawl throughout the entire middle of the controller, they also often push down the stick too which makes me anxious it'll cause drift. Additionally, the need for the adapter like thing at the end of the controller and the size of the connecting piece itself causes lots of big lumps which make it very difficult to wrap on a way where it can be set down flat easily.

Xbox's "The duke"

The exact same issues as before but the controller is bigger and even less ergonomic, somehow however the extra chunk factor causes the extra lumps to be less impactful and I think the size somehow causes it to come out better when you tie it in the specific way I default to

Wii nunchuck

In theory, this would be fine. However, it has a really annoying flaw that boils my blood. When tieing it's difficult to tuck the connector anywhere which causes it to come just a little bit loose all the time, you could thread it but by the time you've made it to that point and realised you have to start over and do it all again with that in mind.

Sega Dreamcast keyboard

In theory it's fine but it's very big making wrapping it up feel precarious as you'll never get it very tight and the wire is at such a length where regardless which direction you tie it in, it'll never be fully tight and have the connector in a spot where you can set it flat. Only a minor annoyance but I'm feeling pedantic.

PS1 namco G-con

Despite having lots of wire, sits surprisingly flat, however the little extension of wire at the connector causes some slightly difficulties in getting a tight fit and the added lumpiness means prep is required for it to sit flat.

Sega Dreamcast arcade stick

This is getting into pretty okay territory here, this one wraps up pretty well however does have a little design flaw, the wire will be too thick to place it flat no matter what you do. Passable though.

Wii classic controller

It's fine, it's really small and has no thighs so the wire makes it rest in the least flat position possible but otherwise it's okay

Dualshock PSone controller

It's extremely standard, literally nothing of note. A nice baseline. (Ignore that this one is a little dirty, got it recently and haven't cleaned it yet)

[transparencyboo]

Got myself an 8bitDo Retro Receiver for the Playstation which makes it possible to connect a wide range of different bluetooth controllers to the good ol' friend. I thought it would be great to use a 20th anniversary Dual Shock 4 for the occasion as it matches perfectly. They're sadly not available anymore, but I was lucky to get a hold of one good as new second hand.

The Dual Shock 4 is also my favourite Playstation controller ever made, as it has the perfect weight, shape and grip in my opinion. Kiki prefers the Dual Sense because of its heft, but I am personally not as strong as her, which make it less optimal for my baby hands.

Initially the Retro Receiver sadly had problems that caused the Memcard Pro from 8BitMods to not work properly. If you ask me the Memcard is essential if you have an Xstation, PSIO or just play a lot of PS1 games, so having it malfunction together with the new Retro Receiver made it practically useless. Feels like 8bitDo might have rushed this one a little bit, but luckily the issue has been fixed with a recent firmware update.

Anyway, with that issue out of the way, I have finally been able to sit down and play a variety of different games with the Retro Receiver. Among the ones I tried out tonight were classics such as Final Doom, Spyro the Dragon, Ridge Racer, Crash Bandicoot, Cosmic Race and Klonoa: Door to Phantomile. And so far I am very happy with the little bastard.

It feels very responsive, and I couldn't really notice any delay on the button presses. I am sure a silly ass speedrunner could pin-point the exact amount of frame lag buffer on the Retro Receiver, but as a more average player I doubt you would ever notice. I swept through the first level of Crash Bandicoot flawlessly with a clear gem in my hand by the end on my first try, so I'd say the thing works pretty well. It helps that the Dual Shock 4 is so gosh darn sexy though.

All in all I have now transformed this meager old Playstation into a veritable battle station of 32 bit goodness. It now has memory cards for days and wireless controllers up the wazoo. The Retro Receiver gets 8 wobbly textures out of 10.

/Alicia

[trackerkitsune]

The only Goncharov adaptation that matters is the video game adaptation Super Goncharov (1992) on the Super Nintendo. Followed by Super Goncharov 2 : The Return of Goncharov (1994) released two years later. Both adventure games with role playing elements allowing the players to go deeper into the plot of the original film and developing a more intricate, intriguing and complex storyline. A perfect addition to the saga. I must also give credit to the attempt made by Nintendo of creating something unique and new with Goncharov Kart (1995) on the Game Boy, who mostly was a success thanks to the use of the original themes and soundtrack from the first film (not to mention it was released at the same time as the VHS boxset of the original film with THX remastered audio). Now I know my opinion will divide among the true fans of the saga but personally I think Goncharov 64 (1997) on the Nintendo 64 was a terrible adaptation despite being a commercial success. The switch to a 3D plateform game was a poor decision and imo it lost itself trying to edulcorate the original storyline and atmosphere of the movies to try to touch a broader and younger audience. Proof of it being the catastrophic follow up to this game : the awful Goncharov Evolution (1998) developed in a hast to capitalize on the relative success of the previous opus. Some will disagree but I believe the poor sales of it compared to the astronomical budget invested into it was the main reason why sales of the Nintendo 64 also dropped significantly the same year and why in the end the console was discontinued by Nintendo. It only got worse for Nintendo when they announced their new Gamecube console only one day before it was confirmed they’d lost the rights for Goncharov video games adaptations against Sony after a legal battle that costed several hundreds millions of dollars to both companies. A shame because I was excited by the (then tragically cancelled) Gamecube adaptation : Goncharov versus Goncharov (2001/unreleased) and especially by the two immersive accessories it was meant to be played with. The GonchaPad(tm) an innovative gamepad allowing the player to shoot with a customizable rifle-like pad all the while controlling the character, and the GonchActive(tm) interactive headset allowing you to connect with your character and interact with them in real time. I know Sony’s acquisition of the commercial rights gave us amazing adaptations on the PS1 and PS2 but they were imo classic and basic games with no risks taken. We’ll see if the recently announced Goncharov-VR (2025) on the PS5 will be up to the standards of these classics. I fear trying to innovate only for the sake of it could give us another catastrophic modern interpretation of the saga like last year’s Goncha’Party (2023)… I mean turning the Grand Orchestra and Opera scenes into a karaoke may help the players being more involved, but you will never change my mind about the fact it’s a complete travesty of the author’s work! I guess we’ll see next year.

Oh yeah, god the N64 3D adaptations were pretty bad... the platforming was clunky as heck and I really don't understand why they did Katya so dirty with the altered plotline either! Honestly I liked the Sony games for the franchise, something about their polygonal aesthetic really vibes well with the original film's styling.

[fght-ff-yr-dmns]

25 years of the Sega Dreamcast

Eventually toppled by the success of the PS2 and Game Cube, the Sega Dreamcast is still one of my favourite consoles.

The VMU (visual memory unit) was such a great novelty, even if the controller took a little while to get used to.

It may have failed to set the world alight, but it wasn't without it's classics and exclusive games such as Sonic Adventure, Shenmue, Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio and SoulCalibur. Which really stood out, as well as my personal favourite, Project Justice (Rival Schools 2).

It's hard to put into words just how ground breaking the likes of Shenmue actually was. There literally had never been anything quite like it before. I spent far too long in the in-game arcades and gacha machines.

The demise of the Dreamcast saw the end of Sega's involvement in the console wars, and it's full time switch to being solely a third party developer.

So, what killed the Dreamcast?

In my opinion it was a multitude of factors, one being the PlayStations dominance based on the success of the PS1, the other being how easy it was to pirate games which surely hit them hard.

There was also the fact that EA decided not to publish titles for the console, with their major output being sports games, this hit the console hard and will undoubtedly put certain fans off. Finally, they'd lost a lot of trust with gamers after the Saturn's failure.

Either way, it will always be an important console to me.

What are your Dreamcast memories?

[northwest-cryptid]

I think there are (at least) 3 kinds of mech game nerds I'm aware of...

Now I need to prefix all of this by saying I'm not claiming any single one of these to be better than another; just different interests for different people.

There's the people who just like big mechs, and the clunkier the better; these people are not keen on even really making the mechs, they just want to pilot them. It's mostly about the aesthetic, it's about "hey cool big mech go brrrrrr" more than anything else.

This kind of individual tends to enjoy games like Bulk Slash or Love & Destroy for the PS1. The more elaborate sci fi games with colorful neon lights and cyberpunk cities.

Anything with those classic bulky mechs is gonna be right up their alley since they tend to have a lot of that weight to them. People want to feel like they're trying to maneuver a clunky mess of a bipedal tank because when you actually get it down and understand it, the feeling of actually getting it to do what you want it do becomes enjoyable. These sorts of people probably also enjoy games like Steel Battalion but only those who really enjoy the specifics of like, complex systems working to make something move. This is where I feel like it becomes less about the aesthetic of "oh boy big mech" and more about the aesthetic of "oh shit I'm gonna pilot that big mech"

The game is pretty infamous for having a whole controller set up that even included pedals, and a UI interface that was pretty damn immersive all things considered:

These players also tend to be your MechWarrior types, but there's a good bit of overflow between people who like MechWarrior and people who like games like Armored Core, which brings my to the second type of Mech nerd I am aware of...

The people who really want to make their own mech, like they don't just want to pilot mechs, they want to build something entirely their own. They want to not only feel like they can flawlessly pilot the mech in a way others can't, but specifically they want to pilot a mech that is unique and undeniably suited to whatever specific style they go for.

It's not enough to just know it goes fast, or that it's light weight; or that it's heavily armored. A lot of these players enjoy the specifics of paying attention to all the minor details, the internals are as interesting as the externals. Sure you can slap a really big cannon on this mech, but that's not nearly as interesting as all the finer details of WHY you can slap a giant cannon on this mech. Tell me all about the engine and the weight distribution and what that allows for you as it's pilot, that's the good stuff.

This:

Is as interesting to these players, as this:

Because the two go hand in hand, with the first allowing the second to really shine.

These people do have some overlap with the last, because those big clunky parts moving around mean a lot more when you know what they are and why they are there.

I think this is most noticeably seen in MechWarrior fans, who are fittingly somewhere in the middle,

Not just the look of the mech matters, it's statistics are important, because a really stylish mech doesn't mean much if it gets shot down immediately; reputation is as stylish as cosmetics, and this is one of the few times when I'd argue a good mech pilot blames their mech; you can't make a shit mech perform on par with something well built if you and your opponent are of equal skill.

And the last type of person branches off from the first but instead of leaning heavily into controlling a mech and what makes a mech tick, and caring about all the finer details, they more heavily lean into that first mention of "the bright neon lights and big clunky mechs fighting giant robots and aliens and shit." Basically you have the "oh fuck yea, mechs!" Category of people, people who literally do not care about the specifics of the mech, they don't care how it works, they don't care how it feels to move it around a map, they only care about how it looks because holy shit look at that thing it's a giant fucking mech. These people are going to enjoy basically all mech media, but specifically they're going to hone in on the bright, flashy, colorful, explosive stuff. We're talking about shit like Xenogears, yea; an RPG.

But look at those mechs man!

They're so clunky and crusty it's hard to know what's what just by looking at it.

You've got brightly colored pink mechs with swords, you've got karate mechs, you've got pirate mechs, good shit man you've got so many mechs!

Oh fuck dude you can't fight a giant dinosaur on foot that's stupid...

If only you had like, I don't know-

OH FUCK YEA A GIANT MECH SEE NOW I'M HYPE.

Yea it's like that.

And again that's not a bad thing!

I don't want people to look at this and go "oh okay so there's smart nerds who are valid and good and right because they care a lot about the media and the mechs and they play the right games and they enjoy it in a smart and sophisticated way; and then you have the bad nerds who just like the pretty colors and bright flashy lights and think everything needs to have mechs and oh boy mechs are so cool... I get it I understand, I will be one of the good mech fans!"

Like no that's not the take away, that's literally such a bad way of looking at it. There are so many different kinds of ways to enjoy this sort of media, these are just the two branching paths from "I enjoy mechs" to "I enjoy mechs because I love to know what makes them tick, and getting to fly a mech around in Armored Core or skirmish other players in MechWarrior is rewarding because the time I put into my mech paid off with my performing well." And "Oh shit oh boy big mech holy shit look at the big mech that's so cool! It's such a cool giant fucking mech! Holy shit I want to pilot that thing!" Respectively.

Like Xenoblade X? Skells? Fuck yea dude sign me up! Look at this shit!

Also yea the skells are named Dolls in the original Japanese version, I'm assuming they were renamed for American audiences because they wanted to make them sound "cooler" or whatever, and also because the joke of the "Skell-eton Crew" doesn't make sense in English if they're the uh "Doll-eton? Crew???" So yea that makes sense I guess.

Don't even get me started on CASTS from like PSO/PSO2 like they may be small mechs but they're still mechs!

Oh and speaking of PSO you also have the AIS

These are all fine mechs! Very snazzy I like them a lot!

I think I exist somewhere between the two extremes, I enjoy the vibe and aesthetic of big fuck-all mechs with over the top rockets and big ass wings and guns and swords and glowy bits and neon lights and the whole nine yards. But I also just as much enjoy piecing a mech together in Armored Core and really tuning it to my exact liking because it feels so personalized when I can sorta just go "wow this new engine is really making all the difference in my movement"

[kawaiifoxreviews]

Resident Evil 2 Nintendo 64 Version/GameCube Version Comparison:

N64 V: "Ahh, what a beautiful day in the year 1999.

NGC V: "Hello there!"

N64 V: "Huh? Wha-?! Oh, it's you, small disc. What? Are you trying to fry all my 64 bits with a classic RE jump scare?! Huh? What's a matter with you?!"

NGC V: "Oh, I didn't mean to scare you. Sorry about that."

N64 V: "Wait a minute. You're...me?! You're Resident Evil 2 as well, aren't you?!"

NGC V: "I mean...I'm you...but more, I guess?"

N64 V: "What do you mean by "more"? You think you're better than me?!"

NGC V: "...Also yes."

N64 V: "Why I never! The nerve of this generation! Tell me, what makes you so special? Huh? You think you're so rad with your extra room for data on your small disc? Let me guess, you finally made the deal with the devil himself, didn't you? I told you; we don't make deals with the enemy."

NGC V: "The devil? Oh, you mean Sony? Dude, I had no part in that. Okay? They offered to help you move away from cartridge, but your generation said no to that sort of help."

N64 V: "Wha-? What else could ruin this sublime day for me?"

NGC V: "Okay, I'm going to tell you this one last time...it's not 1999 anymore...or 2003...unfortunately."

N64 V: *Speechless*

Hello and welcome, my fellow retro gamers, Kawaii Fox Reviews here. I apologize if that bit was too cheesy for you. Also, nothing against Sony. I enjoy that company, as well. But, right now, I wanted to review/ compare Capcom's Resident Evil 2 on the N64 to the Gamecube.

Fun fact about this fox: I love Resident Evil. Always have for years and fell in love with just about all of them. Well, I actually just like 5 and 6. I even fell in love with the movies. Well, except the Final Chapter. I know, some people might find that to be taboo, but I can justify those movies in another review.

Right now, I want to share my thoughts on the miracle, that is Resident Evil 2 on the N64. If you are interested in expanding your collection of retro games for your N64, then Resident Evil 2 is an absolute must have. However, I am not going to sugar-coat it, the Gamecube version is the far superior one.

"But Kawaii Fox, why are we here, then? Should we just get the Gamecube version, or the ps1 version, or the-?"

Yes, to all of those. Sorry to cut myself off like that. I know, it wasn't very nice of me. But Resident Evil 2 as a whole should be enjoyed across all accessible platforms. For me, personally, my favorite version is the one on the NGC. Just the Gamecube controller alone is enough for me to favor this version over the other versions. To this day, that controller is my favorite. Ironically, the original N64 controller is my least favorite of all time. But never fear, I have replaced mine with the Gamepads on eBay for like $25. Such a better quality, highly recommended.

Anyway, the purpose of this review is because I find the N64 version is very fascinating. To be honest, I played the hell out the NGC version. Then, at one point, to my surprise, I had discovered that the N64 version does in fact exist. Even though, at this time, I didn't have an N64. But I was still curious as to what this version was like.

After watching a comparison video between the different versions, it came down to the N64 version. Cutscenes were cut up, textures were blurry/muddy, sound was not as clear as it should be. My least favorite part was the fact that there was a certain scene where Ada Wong was talking to another character, but she had Claire Redfield's voice. I love voice actors, Sally Cahill and Alyson Court, and I expect to hear those voices played for their respective roles.

I think the Rock put it best, "It's the biggest piece of dog shit."

However, after I got my N64, I came across this version again. I had found a video by a YouTuber by the name of Lotus Prince that dived into more of what this version had to offer, along with the other ports. Something about it, made me say, "I have an N64, now I want to experience that for myself." I got my copy from eBay and started playing it. Of course, I'm breezing through it, since I've beaten it so many times on the Gamecube.

I'm actually in the middle of Claire: Scenario B, as of this moment. Is everything downgraded as expected? Yes. And it is horrific. But, to my surprise again, it's still the same game I played and still love on the NGC. It also plays very well on the N64. As long as it performs well, I can be okay with any version of any game. Is it perfect? Hell no. But again, it's still the same game I already love.

If I had a subtitle for this review/ comparison, I would have asked the question, "How can something so bad, be so good?"

After getting into this bizarre version of Resi 2, I came across another video by a Youtuber by the name of Modern Vintage Gamer. In this video, he manages to break it down to a science of how they manage to cram this masterpiece of a game into a cartridge. That video alone is intriguing enough to not only look at Resi 2 on the N64 as a game, but as a great concept in general as to how it was made possible.

I will link both of those videos at the end. Please take a look at them.

Now, I am going to wrap this up with these finale thoughts:

This may sound a little harsh, but I believe Resi 2 had no business being on the N64. With its limited cartridge space, and the fact that it's literally the only Resi game on the console. The fact they have to include cliff notes for the first game in this game, says a lot. But, just in case you didn't know this, Resident Evil 0 was supposed to be on the N64. That project was scrapped. But man, I still would have played it. With all the classic Resi-like games we have today, it would be so amazing to bring that project back from the dead.

Despite all that, I do find this whole thing interesting. The fact that that Resi-2 manage to bounce from one Nintendo console to another Nintendo console is brilliant to me, and then from there we got RE3, RE: Code Veronica, RE: remake, RE: 0, and even RE: 4 all on the NGC. What I mean by all this, is that Resi 2 on N64 may have never been the best version or maybe even the most popular, but the fact that they stopped, and said, "Hey, let's do the same game again on Nintendo's next, more advanced, console," Or however that idea was pitched.

It's sad to say, but some companies I think just put games on consoles and call it good, when in actuality, its not. We don't get a remake or an update. It just dies on the console it lands on. But not Resident Evil 2. Resi 2 was risen from the grave...and again with the 2019 remake...and its here to stay. With that, I will admit, I am so grateful I gave this version an actual chance.

Also, quick note: If you plan to experience your Resi 2 game on your N64, please be sure to install an expansion pak. If you do not know what that is. Its the thing that is stored between your Power Button and your Reset Button. What it does is provide you with 8MB of RAM instead of 4MB. This should clean up your Resi game. Won't make it perfect, but the graphics will be less muddy. However, I have heard that it can mess up transferring between screens in the levels. Like old VCR screen tearing. I haven't experience that, myself, but I am warning you, it is possible.

Thank you so much for sticking it out till the end, guys! It really means a lot to me. As you can tell, I have passion for RE games and was really excited to do this. If I forgot something, I apologize. Special thanks to angel studios (The original name of the developers), Capcom, and Nintendo for making the impossible possible. And thank you Lotus Prince and Modern Vintage Gamer for the inspiration.

That's it for now. This is Kawaii Fox Reviews, signing off. I hope you enjoyed your stay. Until next time, stay foxy. ;)

And hey, it's up to us to take out Umbrella.

See ya!

[smbhax]

Pooyan - in Konami Arcade Classics (PS1)

Session: https://youtu.be/z88j9vPsZ4Y

[gaymer-hag-stan]

Breaking my silence

I have defended Survivor Lara against the unbearable Core fans, and I still insist that she is a fine iteration of the character and she has her place in the series...

...but...

I think it's very important that, moving forward, her characterisation returns to her 2006-2008 era iteration.

Keep the new character model (get rid of her disgusting messy hair though) with the realistic proportions and musculature, but other than that:

~Bring back Keeley Hawes as the voice actress. She's been voicing the character the longest but other than that she has also given the definitive performance of the character. She is the perfect embodiment of a seasoned adventurer type of Lara and can give the character a huge array of emotions, from anger, to joy, to sorrow and even fear

~LAU Lara had a more detailed backstory than Core's Lara and a personal stake in her reasoning for adventuring but was still very much actively enjoying what she does. Survivor Lara, so far, has only been tomb raiding as a means to an end and looks visibly tired and traumatised each time. It was perfectly fine in the first Survivor game but this is no longer needed. She's been through hell and back, it's now the best time for her to be cynical, sarcastic, to throw out one liners and jokes and have a powerful demeanour. LAU Lara, even when cornered or outmatched, is still in control of the situation and appears mostly unphased. Relatable, next-door-type-of-girl Lara was not bad, but she also, really, doesn't need to be that 😅 She's been raised as a countess, she owns three manor houses in the English countryside, she's anything but relatable to your average person and that's fine. Playing as characters you can relate with in video games is nice and characters like that are perfectly valid and have a place in gaming, but for a game like Tomb Raider, playing as a sassy, strong, intelligent badass that cracks jokes at the face of danger is, to me personally, much more fun and empowering.

~LAU Lara is the perfect middle ground between Core's Classic Lara and Crystal's survivor Lara, and even the games themselves are kind of in the middle of the classic PS1 formula and the set-piece and combat heavy formula of the latest trilogy. It's the best "return to form" to avoid alienating fans of both eras.

~No more bow. Seriously. This is very important. Lara should have already had her pistols back by Rise. The bow was perfectly fine and made sense in TR13 but was extremely stupid beyond that. I honestly don't even want it as a secondary weapon. Give her back her pistols and have a shotgun, assault rifle and SMGs as alternate weapons. That's all she needs. Keep the jade pendant and the climbing axe(s) for Survivor rep, but the bow needs to go. It doesn't fit. The pants staying instead of shorts and ponytail instead of braid would be fine by me too tbh, but I know Core purists are gonna cry a lot about it so... Yeah...

~Last but not least, remaster LAU with all the extra costumes from the PSP versions of Legend and Anniversary, the extra Wii Croft Manor room from Anniversary, the 360 DLC for Underworld, and the Temple of Osiris model for all three games, which if you didn't know is a mix of Underworld and Rise Lara, so, already Unified Lara. Also add in more classic outfits such as the TR2 Bomber Jacket or TRIII Nevada, maybe even her Rise Syria tanktop outfit too as unlockables.

[amaryllis-sagitta]

This might sound strange, but at the age of 33, I bought FF VII-X and I'm going to play those for the first time ever. In a weird combo of growing up in a post-soviet country that was catching up to the West practically until joining the EU in 2004, being poor most of my life, and having strict, controlling parents who were generally hostile towards video games, I never had a console, and I never played the 90s-early 2000s classics everyone talks about.

Sooo.

A few hours into FF7 (the old one) and my only question is HOW CAN THIS SHIT FROM THE CONE TITS PS1 ERA SLAP SO HARD AFTER ALMOST 30 YEARS. Like, enemies spawning every 20 seconds and mildly infuriating navigation are to be expected but everything else?????

[scribe-of-ariel]

You will have a ‘wtf’ moment watching this and I apologise in advance. ‘90s ads were wild! 😂🤣

It’s fun listening to these classic reviews. Most are on-point, at least for me.

I was a huge Tomb Raider fan at the time and eager for my next 3D action fix. Soul Reaver sounded like it ticked all the boxes, but after playing a very wonky demo that came with one of those mags, I wasn’t feeling it.

I remember the wait for Soul Reaver’s release. I don’t mean the years, I mean the months of build up to release. We didn’t have much internet back then and you had to physically go to the store to see the guy behind the counter shake his head when you enter, because he knows what you’re going to ask, and ‘no it isn’t out yet’. There was an agonising six-month delay, from what I remember.

Worth it though, since they seemed to have fixed the awful controls and the full game played like a dream on PS1. Mad to think now, since I hate those controls these days, but yeah, they were still a vast improvement on that original demo…

(Which comprised of some kind of cavern, if I remember and I couldn’t get Raziel out of the water, lol, perhaps it was just a skill issue 🙈 But I had no such issues with the full game, so whatever they did worked).

[smoqueen]

What is the worst fighting game? What is your favorite dbz fighting game? And sorry about your haircut i hope you find a style or a cool hat while it grows back!

theres a lot of worsts, theres a lot of nonfunctional games and truuuly shitty stuff out there. i guess i can answer this question in an interesting way by explaining that most of them come from the same era -- "after sf2 came out and achieved god level popularity," but "before most developers could figure out why sf2 was fun at all" - and remember, for a lot of people, sf2 is fucking impossible.

this era is pretty long, too, because it stretches from the n64 all the way to the ps2. it transformed through that time, in ps1/n64 gen there were a lot of 3d fighter attempts that, like, weren't able to figure out how to make a 3d fighter. they either controlled horrifically, or didnt have a combo system so you just poked eachother, etc, etc...

but im getting ahead of myself. look at a game like shaq fu - a classic 'worst fighting game' (but nowhere near the 'actual worst'). the graphics are amazing, characters are cool (including shaq) and the premise isnt that awful. but the game just controls so horrifically that the only fun youll have from it is laughing at it. jumps take for-fucking-ever because theres a huge animation for it that has many many beautiful hand animated frames lol

mortal kombat armageddon, a game i love to death for including every MK character up to that point, is decent enough to play but it is a broken mess if you look at it for more than a second. there's infinite resetting air combos, ridiculous juggles, characters that can teleport and grab you from BLOCK CONFIRMING an extremely fast projectile (think 2 of them in a second)... cool game but its Really Bad, but ill still play it if its around because fuck it and i like it.

my favorite dbz game is fighterz even though ive barely played it because out of all the Anime Fighting Games its the Anime I Actually Respect and they did a bang up job of making a fighting game that feels like youre Watching A DBZ Episode. i watched a lot of it at ECT because it came up before my commentary and my god, i admit, its fun to watch characters like jiren in that game

send me cool hats