I was loathe to edit and bump my post again (really can’t spell sometimes!) but was mucking around in the evening and found that that the widescreen mode in 2nd impact actually runs at 496x224, the only CPS game to do so. Just think how amazing games could have looked at 4:3 with such detail if they had used that resolution in future games!
Playing around with the game emulated it seems they have just got the visible area and scaled it to 16:9, I cant see any evidence of pre-scaling and then squishing the image the image to fit. At least with my experience of doing that in MAME it always results in a less sharp output or potential filtering issues which I don’t see here. Would be nice if more of these collections adopted interpolation options for each axis if they are just going to scale the image like that.
That explains a lot actually! I wondered how they kept the sprites at the right size in that mode but couldn’t find if that was the case before (too lazy to get emus up and running!). Thanks for finding out. Indeed, 4:3 games at that size would have been stunning!
Arrived yesterday. I’ve written about it elsewhere but the bottom line is I like it a lot. For Apex Legends, I moved a couple things to the back buttons that were annoying to reach in the course of play or aren’t used too often but often enough that it was easy to wrap my brain around the new button location.
I use my ring fingers on them after trying with my middle fingers and not liking that too much. It’s easy to use the defaults or customize. Hoping PS5 had these built in on the controller.
Nintendo’s last 3DS game, Mario & Luigi Bowser’s Inside Story DX, which is also Alphadream’s last game ever, was going at a clearance price this week so I picked it up. While the visuals are as carefully recreated as they were in the Superstar Saga remake I’m completely baffled as to why the game is locked to 30fps when the DS original was 60fps. It isn’t doing anything more technically demanding than Superstar Saga is visually, and that was 60fps, matching the GBA game’s 60fps.
I wouldn’t have minded too much if it weren’t an RPG that’s heavy on platforming and action elements, the whole thing just feels sluggish compared to what I remembered a decade ago. Shame.
That still doesn’t make sense to me when the DS game was 60fps.
The 30fps framerate might be down to the game’s design: BiS has you switch between action on both screens (Mario and Luigi are on the bottom screen, Bowser the top), but it does freeze the non-active screen so I’m not really sure why the game can’t hit 60 like the DS games or the full remake of the first game. Maybe it’s a CPU limitation, iirc the original 3DS only dedicated one core to games, the DS let developers use the ARM9 for one screen and the ARM7 for the other screen.
I’d recommend playing BiS, it’s pretty different to Superstar Saga. Superstar Saga is still my favourite. Dream Team Bros was much too long with a rote structure and boring script (NoE handled it which might explain that), Paper Jam Bros had an excellent battle system but the world was rather dull.
Yeah it’s silly that it received one when you can play the original on 3DS anyway.
Feels like Alphadream were mismanaged last generation after Dream Team Bros., really sad that they went bankrupt. They were masters of pixel art. I really need to play my JPN copy of Tomato Adventure at some point.
A productive trip to Hard Off today! Just a bunch of 100y games, but was surprised to find the Namco PS1 joystick for around 1000y, discounted because of a “loose dust cover”, which of course is how it’s supposed to be lol. The screws on the face are a little rusted and there’s a little bit on the face itself and shaft, but otherwise it’s fine! Can probably repurpose a Sanwa shaft cover (cbf fully modding, it feels good enough as is)
Great Circus Mystery is the last one i needed from that series. I’d seen it a few times before but not for that cheap, so glad to get it finally. Gunbarl (Point Blank) is a pre-emptive purchase for when i find a Guncon. Air Assault is the Japanese version of Warhawk! I can’t recall if i played it back in the day on a demo disc, or just watched a preview but I remember it looking cool. ESPN i definitely remember playing on a demo disc. It was a pretty average game but for a while we had fun just launching the guy off of tires into street lamps!
Omega Boost I only discovered recently while looking up what else Polyphony have done. Mecha by Shoji Kawamori (Macross) looks pretty cool, excited to give it a go! Ace Combat … Never played it before, but i’m looking to complete these Namco essentials. And finally TOCA Touring Car. Not sure if i played this back then, or if i’m getting confused with Colin McRae or something else, but it’s Codemasters so probably decent!
I’m not going to set up a shot of the whole set cause there are >30 main line Zelda games + the spinoffs (Hyrule Warrios, Tingle, etc) and it would be a pain. Here are the GB/C/A games though on a table. I didn’t include my variants either.
The GBA games were all bought new at the time and I immediately folded the boxes and put them in a shoe box like I did all my other GBA games because I didn’t display them and wanted to keep them in good condition. I bought the Oracle games off the GAF BST thread ~15 years ago for something like $50 US shipped for the pair. I bought LADX a couple of years ago and finally got LA just this week.
Nice deal on that stick. It’s actually my go to PS1 and PS2 stick. Not arcade quality by any means but not bad either. It’s more than serviceable for a budget stick. The stick itself feels remarkably accurate and tight enough for Shmups
Misinformed pricing: The best finds! Congrats on the stick - looks like it’s in good condition too. Mine was gifted by a friend, so I can’t be envious!
I’m over a decade late to the party but I picked up a sealed first print copy of Mushihimesama Futari on Xbox 360. Excuse the many photos but it’s not every day that we unseal games older than a decade…
