Your Daily Dose of Gaming.

[offsidewing]

Ys IV is the underrated one, even though it isn't underrated. It's the best Ys game for PCE. Period. It's actually a really good game, unlike 1-2, which is pretty mediocre (ALL NOSTALGIA ASIDE!!).

I'd kind of have to agree with 'Dane on this one, but I wouldn't call it mediocre.  I'm playing the game for the first time in over a decade and while it's lost none of it's luster and I love the game, at face value I remember Ys 4 being better.  I'll fire that up next to give an honest evaluation.  I may try to english text patch thing.  However, Ys 1&2 is a must play for any Turbo enthusiast and any 'gamer' who dabbles in anything beyond the brain cell lemmings of Sports games, MMORPGKLJOPIJ:SDF, and First person shootaz.

One thing I'd like to point out is how wonderfully matched the music of Ys 1&2 is to the game.  Throughout the game the music appropriately conveys the mood and the anxiety level of the game.  Although the solomon shrine song gets a little repetative and the goddess in the title screen needs to hold the Cleria stone above her head, dammit.

[termis]

If you had a side-to-side comparison, Ys IV is certainly a better game.  But only marginally, IMO.  Ys IV didn't really provide anything new for its time, whereas I-II blew away a lot of people with its music, cut-scenes, etc.

[nat]

I'm already extremely frustrated in the shrine in Ys I.

I'm only able to play in small doses thus far-- I can't open a single treasure chest that I find, and the enemies dwelling there all seem significantly stronger than me as to kill me in like two or three hits. What's worse is they respawn as soon as the edge of the screen moves to where they initially appeared, sometimes before I'm even out of sight.

The whole thing is a big frickin' maze and I keep finding new places to go, but that's it. Last go I had I got to some part where it said some nonsense about a statue's eyes glowing when I got close. Whoop-tee-doo!!

I'm guessing there must be some key somewhere I need to find in order to open the chests but I'm coming up blank so far. I'll give it another shot later tonight.

[Keranu]

Seldane sure is some Ys fan, eh!? 

[Joe Redifer]

Nat, you're rushing.  Take some more time to build yourself up.  The shrine or whatever it is that you are at is extremely easy since the entire game is the Ys-iest game ever made (LOLOL at my awesome pun).

[nat]

I thought Ys III was pretty easy, up until the final battle with Demonicus.

If this is game is easier than that, well, it just might be the easiest game ever made.

[termis]

Babel, an PCE RPG with modern weapons and vehicles in exchange for fantasy/sci-fi themes.

Holy cow, this has been the most import-unfriendly J-RPG I've played in quite some time since I started my J-RPG binge.  Lots and lots of dialogs between characters to advance the storyline, and just searching for the right character to talk to can take quite a bit of time -- even when you know where you're supposed to go (this capital city I'm in right now is damn huge - about 4-5 sections, and each one is like a normal, full-blown town in other RPGs).

Review to come once I'm finished - though I think it'll be awhile till I finish this one due to some upcoming things on my schedule.

[nat]

Ys I - Got quite a bit farther... found my groove tonight. Good game, although definitely feels dated. I guess I can say that because I have no nostalgic bias. That said, the music is great, and the game is quality. This would have been phenomenal to experience back in 87/88/89. Unfortunately, I didn't get a CD add-on for my TG until around '97.

[Seldane]

Currently playing Halo 2 Vista. Which I illegally downloaded (of course - it's a shit port of an ancient game that costs $5). I had to illegally download and pirate Windows Vista to get it to run as well. And man, Vista fucking sucks. It's a horrible OS. Easily the worst since Mac OS 9... actually, it's even worse than that one, and that's saying a lot. It renders a three-fucking-year-old game unplayable on a modern computer. That's just insane. I can play high end games like Oblivion just fine, but old junk like Halo 2? Practically unplayable. Fuck Vista. I'm never going to use it for real. XP forever.

XP forever...

MAN I can't get over the fact that Vista sucks so much! While idle, XP uses up about 1% of your CPU power, whereas Vista  takes AT LEAST 25%. It also eats up 500 MB of RAM for nothing, and it's slow. REALLY slow. Forget Aero, I'm using the old Windows 95 interface, and it's STILL slow!

Oh right, I had to install some weird drivers for my sound card as well, because Creative (a crap company) doesn't make drivers for their Sound Blaster cards anymore. They make cards, but that's it. Drivers? Screw that. So needless to say, the sound is messed up in the game. Why did they even make Vista? Why render EVERYTHING incompatible? I just don't understand Micro-penis-soft. I fucking hate them so much.

[NecroPhile]

Bitch, bitch, bitch - my ancient hardware won't work with the newest software - boo hoo. 

Buy a Macintrash, it's so much better.  Except when the same thing happened with the switch to OS10 or the slow software emulation with the switch to x86 code.

[nat]

Buy a Macintrash, it's so much better.

Absolutely. My nearly-10-year-old computer can run the newest version of the OS! Quickly! On 0.5 GB of RAM! No slowdown! No crashing! No upgrades necessary! My aging G4 will outperform your 2005 souped-up-wham-bam "I love Micro-penis" 1.34557656578 Ghz heap in 7 out of 10 benchmarks! Imagine that!

[Kitsunexus]

Just you wait until AmigaOS gets all the legal kinks sorted out. IT SHALL BE THE SECOND COMING!!!

[Keranu]

Ys I - Got quite a bit farther... found my groove tonight. Good game, although definitely feels dated. I guess I can say that because I have no nostalgic bias. That said, the music is great, and the game is quality. This would have been phenomenal to experience back in 87/88/89. Unfortunately, I didn't get a CD add-on for my TG until around '97.

Things just keep getting better in this game. I think you'll be really impressed after you've beaten it .

[GUTS]

vista does suck, I don't know what they were thinking, everybody hates it.  XP is still the best OS of all time.

[TR0N]

PS2
Odin Sphere
Taito Legends 2

NeoGeo MVS
RealBout Fatal Fury:Just got this in kit form today 
Twinklestar Sprites

Just been jumping around as late for games i play.

[offsidewing]

Arr, I'm rockin' out with Cap'n Margan on ye ol' Dragon SLayer.  ARRR!

[CrackTiger]

I finally got my hands of a Ys III Famicom cart and am in Ballantine(?) Castle.

So far, it looks like it may be the best console version of Ys III with very little visual sacrifice, awesome music, better(?) gameplay, the biggest sprites and some nice redrawn art.

[Keranu]

Wow, I'm surprised to hear that ab00t the Famicom version of Ys III. I know I've briefly tested it on an emulator a couple of times and remember thinking it wasn't too good, but I could surely be wrong since I didn't even play through the first dungeon. Did Adol have green hair in that game by chance? Why do I keep thinking there was some game where he did.

[MotoRoaderMike]

Tiny Toon Adventures - Buster's Hidden Treasure

[Kitsunexus]

Am I the only one who thinks that the SNES version of Ys III's translation SUCKS?

[Turbo D]

It sucks

[NecroPhile]

Absolutely. My nearly-10-year-old computer can run the newest version of the OS! Quickly! On 0.5 GB of RAM! No slowdown! No crashing! No upgrades necessary! My aging G4 will outperform your 2005 souped-up-wham-bam "I love Micro-penis" 1.34557656578 Ghz heap in 7 out of 10 benchmarks! Imagine that!

You keep telling yourself that, if it makes you feel better.  The oldest G4 is nearly 8 years old (not 10) - they were first released in August of 1999 at the blazing speed of 400mhz.  Your definition of 'quickly' is obviously a little bit different than mine if you think that 400mhz + 512MB + 16MB Rage 128 video = quick.

[Keranu]

Am I the only one who thinks that the SNES version of Ys III's translation SUCKS?

Who didn't thought it sucked?

[nat]

Absolutely. My nearly-10-year-old computer can run the newest version of the OS! Quickly! On 0.5 GB of RAM! No slowdown! No crashing! No upgrades necessary! My aging G4 will outperform your 2005 souped-up-wham-bam "I love Micro-penis" 1.34557656578 Ghz heap in 7 out of 10 benchmarks! Imagine that!

You keep telling yourself that, if it makes you feel better.  The oldest G4 is nearly 8 years old (not 10) - they were first released in August of 1999 at the blazing speed of 400mhz.  Your definition of 'quickly' is obviously a little bit different than mine if you think that 400mhz + 512MB + 16MB Rage 128 video = quick.

My comment is full of half-truths and sarcasm, but the message behind it is genuine. Not that the hardware ultimately makes a big a difference in my comparison-- it's just that Windows is simply a bloated piece of crap. It needs a complete rewrite from the ground up, like, now. Is Vista finally a rewrite or a further bloating of the same framework that's been in use for 15+ years? I stopped paying attention after Windows XP was released.

[NecroPhile]

Vista's further bloating because MS stubbornly won't abandon legacy hardware or remove the crazy amount of customization settings.  Windows bloat isn't only attributable to sloppy coding, not that there isn't plenty of that as well, but also to the number of options and settings that 95% of users will never touch.  I'm not a Mac hater (yeah I am, but I hate everything equally), but I always cringe when Mac humpers (which I don't consider you to be nat) bitch about copy cat Windows.  MS and Apple have been copying each other for years, so don't saddle up the high horse just yet Mac lovers.  Many of Leopard's new features (resolution independence, time machine, spaces, and boot camp) are improvements of current Windows features.

[nat]

Vista's further bloating because MS stubbornly won't abandon legacy hardware or remove the crazy amount of customization settings.

I'm disappointed to hear that. When will it end, Lord, when?

Windows bloat isn't only attributable to sloppy coding, not that there isn't plenty of that as well, but also to the number of options and settings that 95% of users will never touch.  I'm not a Mac hater (yeah I am, but I hate everything equally), but I always cringe when Mac humpers (which I don't consider you to be nat) bitch about copy cat Windows.  MS and Apple have been copying each other for years, so don't saddle up the high horse just yet Mac lovers.  Many of Leopard's new features (resolution independence, time machine, spaces, and boot camp) are improvements of current Windows features.

I agree with you, nearly 100%. I'd say 85% agreement, only because I don't hate everything. 

Today, in 2007, I love my Mac. I believe OS X to be the superior OS right now. Actually, I have ever since it was released. My problem with Windows has nothing to do with feature copying, the superior lame-o-factor of Micro-penis-soft, or Bill Gates's astonishingly bad haircut. It's the aforementioned bloat, useless features, and Micro-penis's refusal to drop "legacy" (read: 20 year old hardware) support that gets me going.

Believe it or not, this wasn't always the case-- I used Windows almost exclusively in the 90's. The only Apple hardware I owned in the 90's was the Macintosh Plus my family purchased new in 1988. I believe the classic Mac OS to be inferior of it's Windows contemporaries for EXACTLY the same reason I believe Windows is inferior today. By the time MacOS 9 rolled around, the OS was suffering from the same problems: layers upon layers of new features and settings on top of a 15 year-old framework. But Apple wised up and rewrote their OS on top of a Debian framework (NExT?), thanks largely to Steve Jobs.

As for hardware, there is a fine line anymore between Apples and generic PCs, what with the switch to Intel and all. I think this was an excellent move on Apple's part. This opens all sorts of doors for Apple to expand it's user base.

But until I see a rewritten Windows on the table, I'm going to remain happily on the Apple side of the fence (although I won't be humping any).

[nat]

Back on topic:

MegaMan X4 (GameCube compilation)
Midway Arcade Classics (GameCube)

Man, I love the GameCube. It gets far too little love in my household-- rarely played. Maybe I'm alone here, but I think the GameCube has one of the best controller designs on a home video game console, ever. I prefer the third-party "MadCatz" version better though, cuz it's a little bigger. And transparent.

There's nothing like playing a nostalgic round of Marble Madness... That was one of the first arcade games I ever played. I was like 7 years old.

[Turbo D]

Mac is just a glorified Linux and is just as vulnerable as any OS. 

[offsidewing]

Mac is just a glorified Linux and is just as vulnerable as any OS. 

Shampoo is better!

[Seldane]

Dude, it's the customization settings that make Windows so good! That's why I can't stand Mac OS - it's like it was designed for old people. Really old.

[Joe Redifer]

Dude, it's the customization settings that make Windows so good! That's why I can't stand Mac OS - it's like it was designed for old people. Really old.

Bullshit!  Mac OS X crashes every bit as much as Windows!  An OS designed for old retarded people like myself would never crash.  It'd just work!  Though I do find it amusing that a crapload of people "skin" their Windows to make it look like OSX.

[Seldane]

I meant more like 80-year-olds.

[Kitsunexus]

Back on topic:

MegaMan X4 (GameCube compilation)
Midway Arcade Classics (GameCube)

Man, I love the GameCube. It gets far too little love in my household-- rarely played. Maybe I'm alone here, but I think the GameCube has one of the best controller designs on a home video game console, ever. I prefer the third-party "MadCatz" version better though, cuz it's a little bigger. And transparent.

There's nothing like playing a nostalgic round of Marble Madness... That was one of the first arcade games I ever played. I was like 7 years old.

Dude, you are so right. Gamecube was a gift to the world that was sorely ignored. I <3 it.

[Seldane]

Maybe the Gamecube would've been playable if it featured a real controller. You know, one that was possible to play with.

[Kitsunexus]

Maybe the Gamecube would've been playable if it featured a real controller. You know, one that was possible to play with.

Are you kidding!? I LOVE the Gamecube controller! I love it more than the Sony Dual-Shock, so much more that I bought a converter so I can use my Gamecube pad on my PC.

[nat]

Maybe the Gamecube would've been playable if it featured a real controller. You know, one that was possible to play with.

Oh no you didn't!

The GameCube has one of the best controllers of all time. Don't ask me why I think this, but it just kind of dawned on me yesterday. It's extremely comfortable, and there is something very natural about the placement of all the controls.

[Seldane]

It is very comfortable to hold, but not necessarily to play. It is fairly good for 3d games, but I just can't get used to the AB/XY button setup. I NEVER press the correct buttons, which makes games like Mario Party a real nightmare sometimes (especially when you play it with friends- and lose- because you pressed the wrong buttons repeatedly). Playing 2d games is impossible, fortunately there aren't many on the Gamecube.

[Kitsunexus]

It is very comfortable to hold, but not necessarily to play. It is fairly good for 3d games, but I just can't get used to the AB/XY button setup. I NEVER press the correct buttons, which makes games like Mario Party a real nightmare sometimes (especially when you play it with friends- and lose- because you pressed the wrong buttons repeatedly). Playing 2d games is impossible, fortunately there aren't many on the Gamecube.

Mario Party sucks.

[Turbo D]

ya, I remember when I rented it for my n64. Man did that game piss me off 

[nat]

It is very comfortable to hold, but not necessarily to play. It is fairly good for 3d games, but I just can't get used to the AB/XY button setup. I NEVER press the correct buttons, which makes games like Mario Party a real nightmare sometimes (especially when you play it with friends- and lose- because you pressed the wrong buttons repeatedly). Playing 2d games is impossible, fortunately there aren't many on the Gamecube.

Mario Party fucking rules (don't listen to Kitsunexus and Turbo D). Although they didn't need to come out with quite so many sequels.

You really think the 2D games are hard to play? I rather like the D-pad on that controller. I've got quite a few retro collections with 2D games (MegaMan, MegaMan X, Sonic, etc) and I think they play fine. The one conceit I will make about the standard controller is that it's too small for me. I have to use the slightly larger MadCatz one. Interestingly, MadCatz also makes a controller that is slightly smaller than the standard, which is hard for me to fathom.

[CrackTiger]

Wow, I'm surprised to hear that ab00t the Famicom version of Ys III. I know I've briefly tested it on an emulator a couple of times and remember thinking it wasn't too good, but I could surely be wrong since I didn't even play through the first dungeon. Did Adol have green hair in that game by chance? Why do I keep thinking there was some game where he did.

Adol's hair is red and he actually looks like Adol in the ending cinema. The game mixes the best art from every other version and even improves on some.

Here's a preview of what it looks like.

It also plays and sounds great. 

Am I the only one who thinks that the SNES version of Ys III's translation SUCKS?

I once read a stunning article covering the other three console ports which found that the SNES version actually has the best translation.

[nat]

Is there an NES port of that game, or is it Famicom-only?

[Turbo D]

I'm pretty sure its famicom only

[CrackTiger]

Is there an NES port of that game, or is it Famicom-only?

Yeah its famicom only, which is why it took me so long to find it.

[nat]

I once read a stunning article covering the other three console ports which found that the SNES version actually has the best translation.

That's one hardcore opinion!

[Seldane]

Yeah, Mario Party rules. It's probably not fun to play alone, but with some friends it's a blast. I often drag my Gamecube out to some friends and then we play Mario Party for hours.

I've been playing a LOT of Chrono Trigger lately (11 hours in two days, I normally don't even play 5 hours a week!). I'm absolutely hooked! I played this one a long time ago but got stuck and completely gave up with it. This time, I will not give up - I will play through the entire game, and possibly try to get as many endings as I can. FUN FUN FUN!!

[Kitsunexus]

Yeah, Mario Party rules. It's probably not fun to play alone, but with some friends it's a blast. I often drag my Gamecube out to some friends and then we play Mario Party for hours.

I've been playing a LOT of Chrono Trigger lately (11 hours in two days, I normally don't even play 5 hours a week!). I'm absolutely hooked! I played this one a long time ago but got stuck and completely gave up with it. This time, I will not give up - I will play through the entire game, and possibly try to get as many endings as I can. FUN FUN FUN!!

Chrono Trigger is one of the best RPGs EVER. Remember the awesome 3D remake that got a cease-and-desist letter from Square? FUCK SQUARE.

[Turbo D]

chrono trigger is my favorite rpg of all time. seriously.

[Seldane]

I got to the final boss. Seriously sad! I don't want this beautiful thing to be over! I refuse to even attempt to fight it, until I have uncovered all the mysteries of this glorious game!

[Joe Redifer]

I am about to partake in the legendary glory that is Syd of Valis on the Sega Genesis.  Who here is jealous of me?