Game Sack

[Tatsujin]

How much of that stuff in the video belonged to Beemer? Thought I recognized the mixer, midi modules, etc.

I think le everything

[Joe Redifer]

What does pekes mean? Is that some sort of foreign word?

[BlueBMW]

What does pekes mean? Is that some sort of foreign word?

I think its an alternate fan name for the X68000...  kind of like how some call the Sega Genesis the "Feka"

[Joe Redifer]

Interesting. Anyway to address Tat's comments, yeah the FM is really awesome. I wish it had more bass, though. It sounds kind of thin sometimes. It could use more lower frequencies but the amount of stellar music on the system is amazing. I'm still in the process of recording game soundtracks for my own personal collection. I always like to record from the actual hardware instead of emulators or Winamp-type stuff or what have you.

What are some of your favorite X68000 soundtracks? I wanna make sure I don't miss anything.

[Mathius]

What does pekes mean? Is that some sort of foreign word?

I think its an alternate fan name for the X68000...  kind of like how some call the Sega Genesis the "Feka"

I never heard that about the Genesis before. Crazy. Thanks for clearing that up though. I felt kinda out of the loop where the X68k was concerned.

Interesting. Anyway to address Tat's comments, yeah the FM is really awesome. I wish it had more bass, though. It sounds kind of thin sometimes. It could use more lower frequencies but the amount of stellar music on the system is amazing. I'm still in the process of recording game soundtracks for my own personal collection. I always like to record from the actual hardware instead of emulators or Winamp-type stuff or what have you.

I'm with Tats on this one. Maybe it's because I don't have a MIDI setup yet but well produced FM has such a cool style that has always been hard for me to ignore. On the other side of the coin poorly produced FM can really grate on my ears. Poor Mega Drive output comes to mind with all the "fart" noises it made that people still make fun of. Overall though the X68k has some truly stellar FM soundtracks that should always be checked out even if MIDI is an option.

[Mathius]

Joe, I have only just scratched the surface with the X68k's library but off the top of my head (and excluding the obvious choices) I would check out the tunes for Mad Stalker. I first heard them when I was alone, at night, and messing around with my X68000. Due to the setting (and time of year I played it) it always brings the warm and fuzzies for me.  I'll never forget it.

Computo Obscurio Episode 3: MAD STALKER FULL METAL FORCE

[Joe Redifer]

Yeah I've already recorded tunes from Mad Stalker, Aquales, Crossfire EX, Etoile Princesse, Geograph Seal, Star Cruiser and Akumajou Dracula (all 3 sound options). There's plenty more I need to do so gimme suggestions if you see I haven't already recorded it.

Geograph Seal sounds about 1000x better in FM than it does in MIDI and it always seems to want to default to MIDI.

[TR0N]

I tried to ask him some questions in preparation for this episode. He wouldn't answer.

He didn't ask for a favor did he !? Maybe that's why hmmmmm 

Umm WTF is this bullshit?  Fun fact, I have all ads and monetization options on my youtube account disabled and always have, my videos are out of pure passion, no interest in fame/money.  I've never even said "plz subscribe" in any of them ever.   

As for joe, I'm rather busy these days, haven't done a video myself since October.  My personal backlog is large enough as it is, and I have no interest in being part of gamesack, hence no response.  I get messages from people about the X68K daily and the majority go unanswered. 

Just joking for my response still joe cover enough in the video so take what you will.

[Tatsujin]

What does pekes mean? Is that some sort of foreign word?

I think its an alternate fan name for the X68000...  kind of like how some call the Sega Genesis the "Feka"

"peke" is an alternative expression for the letter "X" in japanese. so they really call it "peke rokujuuhachi" "ペケ68".

[SuperDeadite]

Just watched the video, it was about what I expected.  My biggest issue is the Cotton comment of "nothing special beyond the keyboard lights."  I'm guessing you guys played the first stage and then went with the awful HG101's article of it being a straight port of the arcade game......   This is flat out wrong, if you actually compare it to the arcade you'll notice most of the sprites are completely redrawn, tons of added parallax, and the stage 5 and 6 bosses are completely new and exclusive to this version, while all returning bosses have completely different attack patterns.  Instead of doing a cheap port, Success went all out and made more of a Cotton+ or remix.   Yet know one seems to realize this due to good old HG101's failures.

For internal, my favorite soundtracks are Direct-X, Code-Zero, and Y2.

[Joe Redifer]

I noticed that Cotton's second level boss didn't ripple the ground like even the PCE version does. They did add transparency to the clouds in stage 1, though. I never read HG101's article. I didn't even wanna include Cotton except to show the lights anyway.

Will check out DirectX Code Zero and Y2. What are your favorite MIDI tracks?

[SuperDeadite]

You can't play Y2 I'm afraid.  It's one of the few games where the copy protection has never been broken.  You can boot the game, watch the intro and begin the first stage, but it will be unplayable without an original disk in the drive.  I do have a capture up on youtube, as I've never met anyone else with a real copy...

For MIDI:

Neural Gear (CM-64)
Metal Orange EX (SC-55)
Group X (SY22)
SION II
Choujin
Gemini Wing
Angel Dive (SC-55 and MIDI only, there is no internal music)

Choujin and Gemini Wing support the CM-64 PCM expansion cards.  Choujin has 7 different music configurations by itself.  SION II was a free game made by a magazine, it has completely different music for each module made by different people.  (play at 10mhz only or the music will be out of sync) The SY22 is a very unusual keyboard that blends FM and Samples via Vector Synthesis.

I'm assuming you don't have the hardware for a lot of the above, but I have vids up on youtube about most of them.  Also SFII' SSFII, Daimakai are actually pure GM, not GS, and the SC-55's GM support is a bit shit.  Greatly benefit from a better module like Yamaha MU100 and after, or Roland SC-88 and after.

The games Afterburner, Thunder Blade, Super Hangon, Neural Gear are all meant to be controlled via analog joystick, hence the digital controls are a bit shit as they were just tacked on.  You can change speed in AB when using the mouse by pushing the XF keys, they are presets for 25% speed changes iirc.

[SmaMan]

I seem to remember seeing footage of a port of Kunio-Kun/River City Ransom/Street Gangs on X68k. The MIDI soundtrack was... interesting. I think it was just weird to hear a fully done version of songs I'd only heard in 8-bit on the NES at that point.

[SuperDeadite]

River City Ransom is FM only iirc... I don't remember it having MIDI.  The game itself is extended with lots of new areas to explore, a bit maze like though.

Oh and for FM, how could I forget:
Bosconian (Flash!Flash!Flash! is one of the best ever)
Space Soldier II

[Joe Redifer]

I'm having a difficult time telling the homebrew apart from the real stuff as I browse through the file directory. All the homebrew stuff should be in its own folder and the official stuff in the regular folders. I am not a fan of the organization. It's not logical. That Y2 game seemed homebrew to me mainly because it had the phrase "Gradius-style" in the options screen and it wasn't a Konami game. The name Space Soldier sounds pretty homebrew so I haven't launched it yet.

I accidentally included a homebrew game in the Game Sack episode, Azukin Cha Cha Cha. I would not have included it if I had known. I'm not saying it's a bad game, I'm just saying I wanted to stick with official releases. Again I'm not sure why the directories are organized the way they were. Games 4 is ALL CAPS for some weird reason.

EDIT: WOW Bosconian has awesome music.

[Mathius]

I'm having a difficult time telling the homebrew apart from the real stuff as I browse through the file directory. All the homebrew stuff should be in its own folder and the official stuff in the regular folders. I am not a fan of the organization. It's not logical. That Y2 game seemed homebrew to me mainly because it had the phrase "Gradius-style" in the options screen and it wasn't a Konami game. The name Space Soldier sounds pretty homebrew so I haven't launched it yet.

I accidentally included a homebrew game in the Game Sack episode, Azukin Cha Cha Cha. I would not have included it if I had known. I'm not saying it's a bad game, I'm just saying I wanted to stick with official releases. Again I'm not sure why the directories are organized the way they were. Games 4 is ALL CAPS for some weird reason.

EDIT: WOW Bosconian has awesome music.

From what I have heard Azujin Cha Cha also had a Super Famicom release. Not the same game, I believe, more of an RPG I think. It may not have been full on homebrew. I will have to do more research. I am glad you included the game in the video though, Joe. I wouldn't sweat it too much.

[kazekirifx]

Akazukin Cha Cha Cha is from a homebrew group called Sprite. Here's their home page.
http://spritesoft.web.fc2.com/game/x68k.html

The anime title is "Akazukin Cha Cha" (like the licensed game based on the anime for PC-FX). It's usually considered acceptable in Japan for dojin groups to rip off licensed characters as long as they slightly change the title, thus the extra "cha" in the X68k game name. You'll also notice on Sprite's home page that R-Type becomes "X-Type", Cotton becomes "Potton", and Sailor Moon becomes various combinations of the word "Moon" or "Lady". For some reason or another, they did use the Darius title without changing it. (Could be because it was apparently a school project by the author and never sold for money.)

[Tatsujin]

湯のみよけゲー・・・・・・。
『ＰＯＴＴＯＮ』

I LOL'd

[SuperDeadite]

I'm having a difficult time telling the homebrew apart from the real stuff as I browse through the file directory. All the homebrew stuff should be in its own folder and the official stuff in the regular folders. I am not a fan of the organization. It's not logical. That Y2 game seemed homebrew to me mainly because it had the phrase "Gradius-style" in the options screen and it wasn't a Konami game. The name Space Soldier sounds pretty homebrew so I haven't launched it yet.

I accidentally included a homebrew game in the Game Sack episode, Azukin Cha Cha Cha. I would not have included it if I had known. I'm not saying it's a bad game, I'm just saying I wanted to stick with official releases. Again I'm not sure why the directories are organized the way they were. Games 4 is ALL CAPS for some weird reason.

EDIT: WOW Bosconian has awesome music.

The games directories were originally created based on how much RAM is required to run them off Compact Flash.  Meant to be easy to use for low-ram users.  The version you're using was highly customized by me, (for people with the full 12mbs), and I never messed with the original directories, as it's very easy to corrupt things, most games were never meant to be run off HDD, and they use various tricks and exploits to run.

As for official releases and doujin releases, it gets quite complicated.  For example, Star Trader is official, but it was only sold from Takeru vending machines, all you got was a set of disks and text only print out manual.  You even had to write your own disk labels.

However some doujin releases were also sold in these machines right next to the official games, such as C-ON-Z.  However other doujins were sold via mail order and from Comiket and the like, and a few even have full boxes.  In later years doujins were sold on CDs.

[Mathius]

Akazukin Cha Cha Cha is from a homebrew group called Sprite. Here's their home page.
http://spritesoft.web.fc2.com/game/x68k.html

The anime title is "Akazukin Cha Cha" (like the licensed game based on the anime for PC-FX). It's usually considered acceptable in Japan for dojin groups to rip off licensed characters as long as they slightly change the title, thus the extra "cha" in the X68k game name. You'll also notice on Sprite's home page that R-Type becomes "X-Type", Cotton becomes "Potton", and Sailor Moon becomes various combinations of the word "Moon" or "Lady". For some reason or another, they did use the Darius title without changing it. (Could be because it was apparently a school project by the author and never sold for money.)

Thanks for the info.

[SmaMan]

River City Ransom is FM only iirc... I don't remember it having MIDI.  The game itself is extended with lots of new areas to explore, a bit maze like though.

Huh, maybe I was looking at a different console or something then.

If I may ask a potentially long, painful question, where does one begin on finding one of these things to buy?

[PunkCryborg]

Really cool episode but I think the high price, failure rate and vintage computer skills needed should have been emphasized more.

[Opethian]

Really cool episode but I think the high price, failure rate and vintage computer skills needed should have been emphasized more.

why?

[chany60126]

Really cool episode but I think the high price, failure rate and vintage computer skills needed should have been emphasized more.

why?

I think he did an adequate job mentioning the high price of the system. He also talked about the high failure rate of the PSU's.

[Joe Redifer]

You don't really need any vintage computer skills beyond loading floppy disks. They'll load at power up or if RESET is pressed. You just need to make sure you have the correct disks in the system and this is where it can get tricky as some games have many disks that are labeled as Disk 1, Disk 2, Data 1, Data 2 etc etc and that can be confusing. Basically you'll need Data 1 and Disk 1 to start the game and then you'll eventually need to swap out for Disk 2 but leaving Data 1 in and eventually when you get to a new town or area you'll need to change the data disk. Lagoon was a bitch. It took me a while to learn how to boot up Ys 3 and this is how I found all this out.

[Mathius]

You don't really need any vintage computer skills beyond loading floppy disks. They'll load at power up or if RESET is pressed. You just need to make sure you have the correct disks in the system and this is where it can get tricky as some games have many disks that are labeled as Disk 1, Disk 2, Data 1, Data 2 etc etc and that can be confusing. Basically you'll need Data 1 and Disk 1 to start the game and then you'll eventually need to swap out for Disk 2 but leaving Data 1 in and eventually when you get to a new town or area you'll need to change the data disk. Lagoon was a bitch. It took me a while to learn how to boot up Ys 3 and this is how I found all this out.

That can be a real pain in the ass. Not one of the system's endearing traits.

[SuperDeadite]

Easy as hell if you read the manuals.

[kazekirifx]

You don't really need any vintage computer skills beyond loading floppy disks. They'll load at power up or if RESET is pressed. You just need to make sure you have the correct disks in the system and this is where it can get tricky as some games have many disks that are labeled as Disk 1, Disk 2, Data 1, Data 2 etc etc and that can be confusing. Basically you'll need Data 1 and Disk 1 to start the game and then you'll eventually need to swap out for Disk 2 but leaving Data 1 in and eventually when you get to a new town or area you'll need to change the data disk. Lagoon was a bitch. It took me a while to learn how to boot up Ys 3 and this is how I found all this out.

You forgot about keys you have to hold during start up to enable midi, high memory mode, etc. (which you mentioned in the video). I don't know how anyone does it without having the original manuals and being able to read them, frankly.

Try getting into PC-9801 gaming. Then you oftentimes have to deal with required installs, boot disks you have to make manually using elements of your own system software, and tweaks you have to make to the config.sys and autoexec.bat. And, since it was such a long-lived line of computer architecture, you have to take into account the system requirements and whether your machine meets them, or is so much newer than the game that the programmers never expected it to be run on such a fast processor, or on such a large hard drive. It all just leads to stuff not running correctly, and oftentimes having to come up with clever workarounds on your own. It's basically like relearning the ins and outs of the American"IBM Compatibles" of the early 90's, except with different rules, and in Japanese. For me, trying to get a game to run can sometimes be part of the fun. I wouldn't recommend getting into PC-9801 if that's not your idea of "fun".

Other Japanese retro PC's are relatively straight forward, and similar to what you described above. X68k, MSX, PC-8801, X1, FM7. FM Towns maybe qualifies as medium difficulty if you delve into games that don't just simply boot from CD... Okay. I'll shut up now.

[SuperDeadite]

Towns can get quite difficult as it has some rather odd quirks to deal with.  Even after reading the manual, getting Illusion City to boot on my Fresh was one of the most ass-backwards processes I've ever seen.

Oh, by the way I saw you Ace issues post on toku.  Remove the battery, let the system sit unpowered a few days to clear out the corruption.  Then it should work fine again.  If not you have other issues...

[kazekirifx]

Towns can get quite difficult as it has some rather odd quirks to deal with.  Even after reading the manual, getting Illusion City to boot on my Fresh was one of the most ass-backwards processes I've ever seen.

Yeah. A lot of things suck about Towns for me. I like the crazy-looking tower design of the early models, so that's what I bought after I decided a Marty with a broken floppy drive just wasn't cutting it. But there are actually a lot of games that run too slowly with the slower processor speed, even if you increase the RAM so that they will start. Also, the CD-ROM and floppy drives don't seem very well-made, or reliable. I'd get something newer like the Fresh, but the design just looks like a typical PC from the late 90's. Just so boring-looking from a collector's perspective.

Oh, by the way I saw you Ace issues post on toku.  Remove the battery, let the system sit unpowered a few days to clear out the corruption.  Then it should work fine again.  If not you have other issues...

Thanks! Do you think it would be better to replace the battery or just remove it entirely for now? I'm only using floppy drives right now, so I'm fine as long as it can boot from floppy.

Anyway, we should probably be discussing all of this over at Tokugawa. That forum could use some lovin', and we're probably just derailing this gamesack topic.

[SuperDeadite]

I'm not registered at Toku, just lurk.  That place is mostly warez/emu stuff.  On rare occasions they find a peke doujin I don't have, but mostly I'm the one who's suppling these days.

Remove it, and let the computer sit untouched for a week.  This will be sure to drain you're corrupted SRAM.  In fact if you leave the system in stand-bye mode, SRAM will be kept powered and all switch settings are saved, the battery is only used when fully powered off.   The complicated software SRAM reset is pointless really, just pull the battery, unplug the machine for a week.  As long as you have a working Human68k disk to run switch, you're fine.

For Towns I have my Fresh as the main workhorse, a UX20 for looks and fun, and a Car Marty because it was cheap lol.

[kazekirifx]

Joe, BTW, do you know how to run in Etoille Princesse? I didn't see you doing it in the video.

If I remember correctly you get the item that lets you run in the second stage. Then you can press and hold the jump button a second time in mid-air which will allow you to move faster for the remainder of the jump and run after you land. Weird, I know, but it works. It's a fun game, and even more fun when you can move around quickly when you need to. Maybe my favorite title overall for the X68k (bonus points for being a platform exclusive).

I will also pick Etoille Princesse for my favorite FM soundtrack, to answer your question earlier.

[Joe Redifer]

I had no clue what all of the items did except for the one that replenishes your life. I don't think I would like to run in that game since you're so close to the character and can't see very far in front of you. Running would mean almost certain damage by a suddenly-appearing enemy.

[kazekirifx]

I had no clue what all of the items did except for the one that replenishes your life. I don't think I would like to run in that game since you're so close to the character and can't see very far in front of you. Running would mean almost certain damage by a suddenly-appearing enemy.

You might be surprised. Check it out.

(Can't figure out how to link to a timestamped video on this forum. Skip to 1:58.)

The running is especially useful when you need to backtrack.

[Joe Redifer]

I was never in much of a hurry.

On a side note, I wish the X68000 ran games at 60fps instead of 55fps.

[CrackTiger]

On a side note, I wish the X68000 ran games at 60fps instead of 55fps.

That is very unfortunate.

[SuperDeadite]

Original monitors were basically arcade monitors.  Hence this was not an issue during it's lifetime.

[Xak]

i dont mind 55 fps

[Tatsujin]

i dont mind 55 fps

yeah sure, you dont even know what that is.

[JoshTurboTrollX]

i dont mind 55 fps

yeah sure, you dont even know what that is.

faps per second?

[Xak]

who cares, take it for what it is

[TR0N]

Game Sack - Left in the Arcade 3

[dingsbums]

Great Episode as always guys  .

A few suggestions for part 4:

1. Riding Fight (Taito, 1992)
2. Pirates (Nix, 1994)
3. Bonk's Adventure (Kaneko, 1994)
4. Nostradamus (Face, 1993)
5. Ken-Go (Irem, 1991)
6. JJ Squakers (Athena. 1993)
7. Sand Scorpion (Face, 1992)
8. Dogyuun (Toaplan, 1992)
9. Outzone (Toaplan, 1990)
10. Fixeight (Toaplan, 1992)
11. Joe & Mac Returns (Data East, 1994)
12. Macross Plus (Banpresto, 1996)
13. Ghox (Toaplan, 1991)
14. Gundhara (Banpresto, 1995)
15. Bomb Jack Twin (NMK, 1993)

[Tatsujin]

yeah, that ep was kewl..also funny to lissen to daves crying about why they didn't release that stuff on the snes

it's because IT COULDN'T HANDLE NOT EVEN 1/10 of whats going on there

[Xak]

oh precious acrade boards!! How i've spent many many nights with you . I played through literally hundreds of games, it was funnest beating the game with a friend. Man so many games where quarter muchers even when you set it to Easy.

I beat and loved DJ Boy on the aracade, I will have to get around to that 'sequel' one day, awesome. I only ever played DJ Boy in the arcade. I have many of the games in the video and beat most of them.

Great episode. I like the console ones better since I burnt myself out on the Arcade library over the years 2004-2006

[Tatsujin]

well MAME play.. comes not even close to the real deal.

[Xak]

on a Giant LG it is gaming heaven. Enough room for 4 players too seeing as the screen so large (thats what she said)

[Tatsujin]

on a Giant LG it is gaming heaven.

[Xak]

5 player Xmen widescreen, whats not to like? , as long as you have 5 360 controllers, your good. This is what my old ass PC looks on my old 2007 LG LCD 43'




GBA on screen

[SuperDeadite]

Those GBA shots look terrible.