I'm not really of fan of GOG since they dropped XP support and is now making some games made for XP, incompatible on XP (using an old XP machine for old PC games). Some are fixable by removing a couple files they added, but others like Fear have more substantial edits that break them (saving in this case). Finding non-GOG versions are harder now ever since isozone died and abandonware sites remove their downloads whenever a GOG release comes out.

>>11 Agreed. Physical formats are much more preferable to digital in my book, although for certain games like arcade exclusives, I can understand having to resort to emulation or going to GOG if a game is very rare in its original format. Also, Chun-Li was one of those things that helped me realize I'm an ass man...

There's a retro vidya thread on /v/
>>>/v/9

>>20 True, but that one does not cover the Sixth Generation consoles, while this one does.

>>21
There's a 6th gen thread as well >>>/v/823

I think it's a better idea to keep all vidya discussion on vidya board instead of dividing the already small audience even further.

>>22 Ah, my bad. I don't usually hang around /v/ so I honestly didn't know about those threads.

I don't have much of an interest in fifth-gen console games (the NES being my favorite), but PC games really peaked in the '90s and early 2000s. It was a golden age for strategy games especially.

I will probably never get tired of playing Tekken 3 and Rayman 1.
Also there were many great RPGs for the PS1, like Suikoden 2 and all the Final Fantasies. But then again, when it comes to RPGs nothing beats the SNES.

>>96
>>121
Anons, come and support our >>>/v/, there's a variety of retro threads.

To liven this place up a bit, I'm gonna be sharing some lesser known vidya that I've played with a short description and review. Today's pick is... Sheep Raider (2001) also known as Sheep, Dog N Wolf. You may remember it as the third Looney Tunes game made by Infogrames on the original Playstation, alongside Bugs Bunny: Lost in Time (1999) and Bugs Bunny & Taz: Time Busters (2000). All of them are 3D platformers, however SR incorporates stealth and puzzle elements. In the game you control Ralph Wolf who suspiciously resembles Wile E. Coyote but is actually a separate character from the original Merrie Melodies and try to steal Sam Sheepdog's flock, one sheep at a time. All the while you're being involuntarily filmed by Daffy Duck who made you the star of his show about sheep stealing. Other Looney Tunes characters are featured in the game including Road Runner, but it's not on the menu and they either help you, or get in your way, or both. You use an assortment of ACME gadgets to help you steal sheep, or just traverse the environment, in both cases it's an extremely wacky and fun experience. The game is fairly challenging, allowing you to make mistakes without losing much progress, except for level 10 which was overly difficult because (actual spoiler!) it has the only boss fight in the entire game, and defeating said boss requires three successive steps, and if you fail at any step you restart the whole fight. Also worth mentioning is the last level which (spoiler!) was a wild goose chase, quite literally. The game was very creative with the puzzles, and kept surprising me with each level. Character control is smooth, and the graphics are gorgeous despite the 3D models being a bit low-poly, not that I'm complaining. If you're gonna play this then play the PC version with a joystick/gamepad; it has toon shading on the characters which the Playstation version lacks, along with various graphical enhancements (better detail, higher resolution, 60 FPS...etc) besides no "wobbliness" which plagues all Playstation games. The only downside is that the screen looks a bit dark, but nothing to worry about. GET: archive.org/details/looneytunessheepraider_201908

Reminder that sound technology has regressed massively in vidya since the 2000s. https://invidio.us/watch?v=7Yc2pODiZgU

>>471 The only thing that has improved is le ebin graphixx. The rest is worse under literally every aspect. Modern vidya is garbage. There's a reason why retrogaming is now bigger than ever.

>>472 >There's a reason why retrogaming is now bigger than ever. I'm certainly glad for that. With flash carts, new controllers, accurate emulation, and better distribution for both PC releases and ROMs, there's never been a better time to start get into old games since they started being considered old hat. I'm looking forward to building a MiSTer at some point and maybe even retiring my old consoles.

>>469 Thanks anon, I remember having the demos of Lost in Time and Sheep Dog N Wolf as a kid and enjoying them, but never had the full games.

>>474 Played the fuck out of Lost in Time back in the day. Pretty decent SM64 clone. I miss good obscure licensed games like that.

>>472 >The only thing that has improved is le ebin graphixx. I would say graphics have gotten worse actually, since the late 2000s with the whole "let's make everything brown, dim the lights, and overpopulate the screen with details" shtick. These games look like utter crap, not only are they not appealing aesthetics-wise, they're also painful to look at, oftentimes to the point of being unplayable. My take is that 3D graphics had a brief golden age between the late 90s to the mid 2000s; models had an adequate amount of detail, were properly colored to stick out without being an eye sore, and most of all had fluid animation. A game like Silent Hill 3 (2003) was a prime example of having realistic, but not uncanny valley, facial and body animations. I even consider it to be the game that perfected facial animations. >>473 Playing old console games is a piece of cake thanks to emulation, but old PC games are a pain in the ass to run because modern Windows versions (7, 8, and especially 10) are a compatibility nightmare... Not counting 2D games from the DOS / Windows 3.1 era, because those can easily run on Dosbox or a virtual machine. The problem lies with 3D games from beyond that time; they can't run on modern Windows, they can't run on Dosbox, and they can't run in VMs properly due to poor 3D acceleration. There's always dual booting but on current hardware that's impossible.

>>494 >The problem lies with 3D games from beyond that time; they can't run on modern Windows, they can't run on Dosbox, and they can't run in VMs properly due to poor 3D acceleration There's an emulator called PCem that can do everything from the original IBM PC all the way up to early Pentium machines, and it emulates Voodoo graphics as well. I've only used it a little, but I've successfully installed Windows 98 SE and run Tomb Raider 1, Dark Earth, and a couple of shitty abandonware games on it. It's significantly more demanding on the host system's CPU than DOSBox and VMs due to the fact it's emulating everything in software, but it runs at full speed on both my overclocked i5 4670K machine and my stock speed Ryzen 3700X machine. You can find all the required ROM files here: https://github.com/BaRRaKudaRain/PCem-ROMs Alternatively, assuming you can at least install the game on modern machines, there's dgVoodoo2, which is a graphics wrapper for anything using Glide or DirectX 1-9 APIs. You just drop the DLL files it comes with into the folder containing the games' executable, and then run the game. It comes with a control panel utility as well, so you can make various adjustments and enhancements such as 4:3 upscaling, rendering at higher resolutions, anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering, and phong shading. I recommend using it on pretty much every PC game from the late 90s to the early 2000s, even for games that seem to run fine without it, because it can solve all kinds of graphical glitches that you may not even be aware of.

>>494 >Playing old console games is a piece of cake thanks to emulation, but old PC games are a pain in the ass to run because modern Windows versions (7, 8, and especially 10) are a compatibility nightmare... Not counting 2D games from the DOS / Windows 3.1 era, because those can easily run on Dosbox or a virtual machine. The problem lies with 3D games from beyond that time; they can't run on modern Windows, they can't run on Dosbox, and they can't run in VMs properly due to poor 3D acceleration. There's always dual booting but on current hardware that's impossible. I guess I'm pretty lucky in that's not a problem for most of my favorite games. Granted I just installed Windows 10 not too long ago, but on Windows 7 most of the games I played either had modern remakes, fixes, or GOG/Steam ports that worked just fine. I have noticed a decent amount reviews mentioning that certain games on those services haven't even had any adjustments made to run on modern computers, which is completely ridiculous. Putting a game up to buy on there is a scummy thing to do if it's not even going to be compatible with the hardware most of your customers are going to be running it on.

Got another game to share with you anons, today's pick is... Ed, Edd n Eddy: The Mis-Edventures (2005). If the show wasn't enough of a fever dream for you, then boy are you in for a treat! Albeit being a bit short, this collaborative 3D platformer / puzzle game is super comfy, and a liiiiiittle too surreal. The game is divided into levels that are akin to episodes, where the Eds run scams and/or hunt jawbreakers. Although the levels are independent of each other story-wise, they have to be unlocked in a certain order. You can access unlocked levels through the "cul-de-sac", which is the neighborhood where all the characters live and basically the "central hub" of the game... You play as all three Eds but can only control one at a time by switching between them. Every Ed controls a bit differently, but the main uniqueness is the "ability" that each one has; allowing him to solve specific puzzles, reach certain objects, traverse special areas...etc. Saying anything more about the game will most probably spoil it so I'm gonna stop here. Just give it a try and you won't be disappointed, it's not that long. As is the case with Sheep Raider, this game is best played with a controller, because several areas require movement at precise angles. I originally got this game from IGG but the link seems to have died, so I'm gonna link the CD version on the Internet Archive. Mind you that I haven't tested this copy but it should work just fine. GET: archive.org/details/ededdneddythemisedventuresdisc1usa archive.org/details/ededdneddythemisedventuresdisc2usa >>474 >>476 Glad you guys liked the game!

who /combatevolved/ here?

Tron 2.0 (2003)

In this game you can find the e-mail your father sent to his coworkers when you were born.

>>579 Looks fantastic. Love the Tron aesthetic, even if it's a little overused these days.

>>587 What late 10s people call "Tron aesthetic" and related themes is quite different from this game's, and to some extent even from the original movie's. It is, however, similar to the Tron Legacy (2010) movie, black everywhere, when color appears it's flashing and the color palette isn't too wide. Tron 2.0 isn't late 10s neon obsession, it's /retro/. It has an optimistic feeling, all colors are present and they show up bold and solid with color-coding used extensively. Not every color has to be neon. Another unique thing is that the backgrounds are beautiful and animated, and many maps are floating with them also having a lot going on in the bottom. The soundtrack is also completely different from what Daft Punk composed for 2010 and even there the difference in cheerfulness is notable.

What have you guys been busy with lately? I've been playing Operation Flashpoint.

>>840 Heavy Barrel for the NES. Fun game but i just can't defeat the final boss.

>>841 I actually own that one, but my copy disappeared somewhere. I don't think I ever got all that far into it.

I got a MiSTer not too long ago and have been working on it lately. So far, I've got NES, Genesis, Game Boy, SNES, Master System, Colecovision, Turbografx-16, and Vectrex games working. I'm having problems with getting Atari 2600 games working, which I looked forward to playing. I can't get the wi-fi to work either. Regardless of the issues I've had, this seems like it's going to be a great option in the long term if you're autistic over accuracy and don't want a bunch of different game systems and accessories taking up space.

>>840 Operation Flashpoint is quite awesome. I have the GOTY cardboard box edition on my shelf. I've played a bit of Lost Vikings on Dosbox. It's ok, but like a lot of dos games, it doesn't have enough depth to keep me interested for long.

>>876 >Operation Flashpoint is quite awesome. I have the GOTY cardboard box edition on my shelf. At first glance it may seem pretty goofy due to how dated it looks, but it's surprisingly detailed. I love the way paratroopers land and local patrols start to come looking for you on the mission where the Russians are going to shoot the captured resistance fighters if you stick around your property long enough. >I've played a bit of Lost Vikings on Dosbox. It's ok, but like a lot of dos games, it doesn't have enough depth to keep me interested for long. I love DOS games, but I'm more into strategy games and the old-school FPS games as far as those are concerned. Princess Maker 2 was the last one I gave a shot, and I surprisingly enjoyed that one. The music is fantastic, and the artwork is surprisingly nice too. I do remember finding The Lost Vikings curious when I was younger and checking out the Super Nintendo version in that it was a Blizzard game from the pre-WarCraft days. But as far as puzzle games go, I much prefer the tile-matching kind to action platformers.

>>872 As an update on the MiSTer, I got my wi-fi working, along with several other cores (like the Atari 2600 and unofficial Intellivision core). It turns out that after adding your information for the wi-fi connection, an underscore is added to the name of the text file and so it's unrecognizable to the system unless you remove it. Next up I'd like to try getting DOS games working. The process seems like a laborious pain in the neck from the little I've looked at it though. I've been having fun playing Atari 2600 and arcade games in particular. Too bad I don't have paddle controllers. It's nice knowing that since this project is open source, it should only be increasing in accuracy and adding more features with time. The lack of save states are the biggest gripe for me right now. Once they start to add them to cores, it'll probably be my go-to choice for playing console games. Custom case options would be nice too.