GRcade Retro Gaming Chat

[kerr9000]

Crazy taxi is on PS2 and GameCube I have both of them. I might be wrong but I don't think the Xbox got it, but they did get crazy taxi 3.

[Green Gecko]

Nobody told KK, poor guy

[Drumstick]

Banjo Tooie update:

I've almost 100%-ed the first five worlds. I can't do the timed chop the TNT maze in Glitter Gulch though. I'm missing three jigsaw pieces and a couple of cheat pages in Grunty Industries.

Hailfire Peaks... at first it seemed overwhelmingly large and, because of the lava everywhere, difficult. Now I know the layout it doesn't seem like either of these is as true now. I'm missing one last jigsaw: I've won the kickball tourney; beaten the dragons; gone inside the volcano; gotten the jigsaw piece in the bottom left window of the colosseum; fed Boggy a fish; gone inside the ice train station; rescued Sabreman; rescued the aliens; and done something else that I can't remember but it earned me a jigsaw piece. I've also activated the mining factory thing, but that seems to have sent another jigsaw piece into the oil container in Grunty Industries. Which is odd as there's already two jigsaw pieces I can't get in that same room (behind the grate at the bottom of the pool of green water, and inside the glass box at the far end of the same pool) plus a piece behind the giant fan, which makes four pieces where I've already gotten seven. And I'm yet to beat Weldar. Hmm.

Cloud Cuckoo Land is fun so far but I can't shake the feeling they ran out of ideas for themes and figured "we're not making another game, so let's put all our leftover ideas together here". Four out of ten pieces so far but two of those from shooting mini games.

Update?

[Herdanos]

Finished it, done Stop & Swap (which was a big part of my motivation for getting through the whole game) across the two games. The final boss was just annoying but not as difficult as Weldar. The quiz this time was much easier than in B-K but not as memorable.

There are two jigsaw pieces I'm yet to get: the TNT maze in GGM and the Canary Mary race in CCL. Forget those. I've already got all 360 achievements anyway so I consider the game complete.

The main issue with B-T isn't necessarily its backtracking; it's that its best levels are all toward the end of the game. The first two aren't great and the third is only good once you've connected it to later levels. JRB isn't great either - the town feels like a half-baked idea and the underwater sections are frustrating, though playing as the submarine is more fun.

Once those levels are done, though, you get a run of three of the best from both games. CCL was a bit hit and miss in my opinion but still enjoyable in the main.

[Kriken]

Good to know the 3DS Sonic 2 is one of the better versions. Tails finally got annoying on the third special stage - I'll jump way ahead of time to avoid a ring of spiky balls and he's still way too slow to follow me. I found out you could just play through the game as just Sonic by himself, and that I was accidentally on 'Ring Keeper Mode', so decided to just start again. Didn't take long to catch up so it's all good now.

Also started playing the original Yakuza. Everything online seems to say Kiwami is just superior in every way, so of course I just ignored that. Among other things, the dub has me curious, and I'm sure I'll play Kiwami in future anyway.

[Dangerblade]

Space Channel 5 and Space Channel 5 Part 2 are the only DC games on PS2 to care for

[Trelliz]

Space Channel 5 and Space Channel 5 Part 2 are the only DC games on PS2 to care for

I have sealed PS2 copies of both of those, found them in a charity shop in guildford for £3 each

[Dangerblade]

Space Channel 5 and Space Channel 5 Part 2 are the only DC games on PS2 to care for

I have sealed PS2 copies of both of those, found them in a charity shop in guildford for £3 each

You're quids in on the latter: https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from ... 5573.m1684

IIRC it was only released PAL in Australia. I remember getting it on eBay for like £30 about 15 years ago

[Corazon de Leon]

I was going through some old PlayStation magazines and noticed that many SEGA Saturn titles were scheduled to appear on PSone, such as Daytona, but ultimately never did. Anyone know what happened there? As far as I can remember very few Dreamcast games/sequels made their way over to PS2 either. Crazy Taxi and Virtual Fighter being the two most notable ones.

Black and White and a new Duke Nuken were scheduled to appear on PSone in late 2002/2003 as well but never did.

With Saturn being a freak of a console with multiple processors the code base was probably a mindfuck to port and not worth it, but there were definitely some cross format titles.

They were very different systems. Saturn actually had better 2D and Sprite scaling abilities, for example the backgrounds in Daytona were probably driven by that. That's why there were some amazing shooters and other 2D games.

Conversely, PS2 was a bitch to code for, which is why it took a while for the really nice looking title to transpire like MGS3, ico etc. (And mostly games heavily funded by Sony)

I'm pretty sure crazy taxi was on at least some other systems than dreamcast (GameCube?)

GameCube, PS2 and XBox 360 at least, yeah.

[kerr9000]

I spent £22 today on a small bundle of games from an indy place. I got Lemmings for the Philips CDI complete, lego harry potter years 1-4 complete for the wii, trauma center second opinion complete for the wii, prince of persia the forgotten sands complete for the wii, blazing angels complete for the wii, trauma center second oppinion complete for the wii, pokemon stadium n64 cart only, Banjo kazooie for n64 cart only, snowboard kids for the n64 cart only and DiddyKong racing for the n64 cart only.

[KK]

When did Space Channel 5 Part 2 come out on PS2? I remember playing the demo of that with OPS2 but the game was then never released.

The same thing happened with a game called Lamborghini on Xbox. I played the demo with OXM (and it was actually pretty good) but then it never came out. This was either 2002 or 2003.

[Trelliz]

It was pulled at last minute because it has a legally distinct but clearly referential Michael Jackson character, who at the time was in the spotlight for dubious child relations. I have no idea where my PAL copy came from or why it was still sealed and in a charity shop

[Ironhide]

It was pulled at last minute because it has a legally distinct but clearly referential Michael Jackson character, who at the time was in the spotlight for dubious child relations. I have no idea where my PAL copy came from or why it was still sealed and in a charity shop

MJ was also a playable character in Ready 2 Rumble: Round 2 on the Dreamcast, yet oddly that wasn't pulled from sale (AFAIK).

[Jazzem]

Space Channel 5 Pt2 is bloody amazing, finally played it a month or two back and was mesmerised at the spectacle of lunacy! Can't recommend it enough, whether on DC/PS2 or the recent X360/PS3/PC versions.

Amongst other treasures, it features the lines "Looks like a turd," "the galaxy depends on your funky moves" and "all that's left is dance and jiggy power"

[Pedro]

Q. How good is a Dreamcast? Do the games hold up? I've always fancied one and it looks like a console and controllers can be obtained for reasonable money. I know some games are super pricey mind.

[Green Gecko]

It holds up fine especially if you get a VGA box or mod. I think it is RGB SCART by default as well.

The games are all noticeably arcadey and follow that SEGA/Namco sort of arcade feel from late 90s, think Daytona, Time Crisis etc. Yeah the transition to 3D isn't as smooth as something like later PS2 or XB and things can be a little janky but there is always a gameplay sort of focus that makes most titles very fun.

If you can get away from the relative drop in things like texture and rendering resolution it's fine. Also a lot of games run at a good frame rate which is very noticeable alongside PS1 and N64 games from the same time period. If you bear that in mind, it's awesome. Its as if the games from that same period (mid 90s) were made on 5x better hardware.

It's also very small and quiet, although the 2nd hand stock is a little prone to error I'd say it's probably better than second hand PS2s and certainly not as bad as PS1 (disk drives etc).

The controller is also pretty nice.

There are also some good ports for things like Tomb Raider, Resident Evil 2 to CVX, THPS and others that run at higher frame rates and resolutions than their 5th Gen counterparts.

You'd probably want to focus on racing, simulation, arcade action, shooting and lightgun games to get the most out of the system, obviously Shenmue is a must although there is the HD version now so it's probably not worth the cost.. Actually a lot of the good games have been ported to other systems. There are some good multiplayer games too like Powerstone and Re-Volt.

Sonic Adventure doesn't hold up in my option, but it was clearly tuned very finely for the DC analogue stick so is a good way to play that (this aspect sucks on PC for example). The second game might be a bit better but I haven't tried it.

[Pedro]

Are backups a thing on it? I know they were in it's lifetime.

[Green Gecko]

I have no idea, but I think the console is fairly easily modded or chipped because it's based on Windows CE (although I think maybe it had two operating systems Windows CE and something else? Or even some games also worked on Windows CE, I can't remember).

[Victor Mildew]

You can buy mine

[kerr9000]

Vandal Hearts for PS1 for £15 complete. I dont often like to pay much for PS1 games but its a game I have wanted to own for a long time. I remember playing it when younger long before I even knew what Fire Emblem was.