(Retro) What have you been playing this week? Vol.2

[Cepp]

Started up Super Robot Wars Portable A earlier this week doing a battle a night essentially.

My ATi Rage Pro gave out on my 90s PC recently so I've been messing around with PCem; managed to get Windows 98SE installed along with a working sound card and Voodoo2. So far so good, games like Motorhead, Rollcage, Sonic R and Diablo 1 work perfectly. It's nice to see 9x gaming finally have a viable alternative to real hardware; it's quite exciting to think we may eventually be able to game using 3D accelerators that never caught on using emulators like this.

[Atticus]

Super Monkey Ball - picked up today for a few quid and been playing with our youngest, taking turns. Still a real joy. I used to love Marble Madness in the arcades and this feels like the next generation.

Metroid Prime - first impression is it still looks (and sounds) incredible. It really does. Secondly, I'm reminded that the structure is sheer perfection. Thirdly, I think I prefer using the GameCube controller over the Wiimote version. It's more restrictive, and initially I kept hitting the c-stick to look around, but it's tighter feeling ... and mobility quickly becomes natural, rolling and strafing to great effect.

[Leon Retro]

Super Monkey Ball - picked up today for a few quid and been playing with our youngest, taking turns. Still a real joy. I used to love Marble Madness in the arcades and this feels like the next generation.

Yeah, it's still a great game. I remember getting it with my GameCube and thinking it was absolutely brilliant. And it's one of those games that doesn't age at all.

[Cepp]

I got sucked back into Diablo 1 and discovered a HD mod called Belzebub that allows you to run it in 1080p, has a handy scale/zoom option to keep everything looking great and has some nice additions like running in town. It doesn't work with Hellfire which is a shame but I guess you can't have everything


It's still my favourite game in the series.


Ah... fresh meat. He can open doors in this version, took me a few goes to kill him.

[Ghost]

Finished Mega Man and now going through Mega Man 2 with the aim of going through 1 to 10 before 11 comes out and before playing through the X Collection.

Also played through Space Harrier 2 on the Mega Drive Collection, was pretty surprised how different it is compared to the arcade version. Ive been playing Space Harrier a lot in Yakuza 0 recently so the downgrade was really noticeable. Also played through Golden Axe for the first time in 20 years and boy that game has not aged well at all.

[Leon Retro]

Also played through Golden Axe for the first time in 20 years and boy that game has not aged well at all.

I still enjoy the arcade version. The graphics and sound are nice, and I enjoy how it plays. It's a simple game, always has been, but fun to spend 45 minutes with now and then.

[Sam The Man]

PC Tomb Raider 4 - The Last Revelation played this for the first time in ages last year and I'd forgotten how good it was. I've been slowly redoing all the old TRs and re-completed them all with no medipacks and using pistols (default weapon only) etc.

I moved on from that to doing them 'no scratch', better described as minimum damage. A tough challenge and TR4 is probably the hardest so far whether it will stay on the right side of entertainingly challenging and not slip into irritatingly frustrating playing this way .............. I'm not sure. But so far so good,

I still find the level design of the first Tomb raider games to be amongst the best ever in videogames. The first might be the best level design iv ever seen with 2 and 3 being right up there. TR4 had some good level design early on but i thought the 2nd half went down hill especially with some of the dull locations like street bazaar.

A few years ago i completed Tomb Raider 1 & 2 without using Medi Packs and getting every secret with just one life so no re-loading if i lost too much health. I had to complete them in one sitting! I can't tell you how painful it was to die after 5 hours on the penultimate level or when you are right near the end!!! I twitch streamed both 1 & 2 and got a few hundred viewers whilst doing the 2nd. Atlantis was the toughest level to do on TR1. Wreck Of The Maria Doria & The Deck on TR2 were real tough and you actually needed a bit of luck on both levels to get through them.

TR3 is possible to do a no re-loading, no medi's all secrets run on as i have done each level separately and they are all possible. RX Tech Mines has to be done perfectly and there are only 2 parts you are allowed to lose health at before the long underwater swim near the end. As im doing the pc version the 6th secret on Luds Gate is a bit of a pain as to make sure the under water door is open you have to kill the guard without him setting of the alarm. This involves going far enough away from him that Lara doesn't auto target him then manually aiming at him and blowing him up with the grenade launcher!

I havn't played through TR4 though since i first did it way back in late 99 so i plan on going through it again sometime soon.

[fallenangle]

I've not tried that technique in the frogman room in Lud's Gate. Very interesting solution, if it works.

The conventional way has always struck me as one of the most maddeningly obscure 'puzzles' in any of the old TRs. How on earth are you supposed to work out anything that you have to do?

Sneak in underwater, find a hidden lever to operate an underwater hatch you don't know is there, let alone essential in getting the secret , get out of the water unseen, sneak behind crates, go down into the water and through the now open hatch so you can get out the other side unseen. Then sneak behind crates yet again to climb into a passage at the back of the room......unseen. Then after all that, whatever you do, you hit a trigger point which spawns a guard who immediately sets off the alarm.

The usual advice at that point is quickly jump down the slope onto the jetty and kill the frogman/frogmen in the water so they don't lock the underwater room - the secret. But the fact is if you've done all that previous ridiculous stuff, if he/they do actually eventually lock the gate you would have had to have been remarkably slow in killing them for that to have happened.

However the inconsistency here has always annoyed me as it is so un-TR; if you try to kill the guarding frogman conventionally before he can lock it, which should be easy to do with a couple of shots with the magnum, the game simply ignores it, the alarm is raised and the secret room is locked. But if you say a non-auto-aimed grenade works there it adds yet another level of inconsistency.

The real problem in that area is actually the save glitch. When you enter the main room If you save anywhere before you've entered the secret room it will be 'locked' with an invisible barrier. This glitch affects all versions of the game.

TR3 'no scratch' with default weapons only plus all secrets/pickups is about as tough as TR gets and TR3 is notoriously tough anyway. For me it was entertainingly tough but TBH I'm finding TR4 is so frequently crossing my tolerance threshold when played this way I've relented on using just the pistols. 90% of the time I still do but when you know there are certain tasks to come when you have to use other than the default weapons it does not seem as important.

One of my most pleasing 'no scratch' TR3 achievements was beating the Willard spider boss with just the pistols, 8 -10 minutes of fault free shooting, tumble-turning, running, sprinting, jumping and timed pickups. I will admit to using a couple of mid-fight saves. Good luck with that if you try.

[Sam The Man]

Haha yeah to be honest even though i love the game, i felt TR3 was a bit rushed. As you mentioned there are inconsistencies and also a few more bugs & glitches that i think could of been ironed out with more time. Not only that secret we mentioned but some misplaced textures particularly on the Madubu Gorge level.
Fortunately doing a no loads no meds all secrets run i don't have to worry about the save glitch but it's another sign that Core didn't have the time they needed. I think alot of the levels were made a bit shorter mainly due to development time but also due to their being multiple routes through the levels. How they managed to make it in 9 or 10 months is beyond me. The same with TR2 which didn't take much longer.

Im not sure if i will ever do a no loads no meds all secrets run of TR3 as i just don't know if i have the patience. I can easily see myself losing to much health on Madubu Gorge and not having enough left for the drop at the end or missing the standing guard on Luds Gate with the grenade launcher as it has to actually hit him and explode. RX Tech Mines is no cake walk either but i practiced on it alot so i wouldn't be as worried by that level. Not really a fan of the modern day TR games as i feel the level design isn't as good. I liked the square shaped level design of the original games and im also one of the few people that preferred the old controls. They felt tighter and the jumping mechanic felt better. I also liked how you had a longer underwater meter which allowed for more elaborate and longer underwater sections. Story segments were also kept for end of levels which i preferred.

Same with the Resident Evil games i preferred the fixed camera and pre rendered backgrounds and controls of Res 1,2,3 and Code Veronica so i was gutted to see how they have remade Res 2.

How are you getting on with TR4?

[Atticus]

Still chipping away at Metroid Prime. The control method is second nature again and I'm hooked into that classic drip-feed of upgrades and exploration. I never finished the game when I first owned it ... probably hit a roadblock somewhere ... hoping I'll have more success this time.

One feeling I'd forgotten about is memory card anxiety. I know official ones are generally pretty solid, but I might have to buy a second one to back up my save at some point.

[Nico87]

Still chipping away at Metroid Prime. The control method is second nature again and I'm hooked into that classic drip-feed of upgrades and exploration. I never finished the game when I first owned it ... probably hit a roadblock somewhere ... hoping I'll have more success this time.

One feeling I'd forgotten about is memory card anxiety. I know official ones are generally pretty solid, but I might have to buy a second one to back up my save at some point.

Official ones from the US are dirt cheap on eBay. Think I paid $9 + shipping for a 251 block one.

I’ve been considering getting both Wind Waker and the Primes on GC but I have the Wii U and Wii versions respectively already. Can’t help but feel that the Wii Trilogy is exceptionally better control wise.

[Atticus]

Ta for the tip [MENTION=15230]Nico87[/MENTION]

[fallenangle]

Im not sure if i will ever do a no loads no meds all secrets run of TR3 as i just don't know if i have the patience. I can easily see myself losing to much health on Madubu Gorge and not having enough left for the drop at the end or missing the standing guard on Luds Gate with the grenade launcher as it has to actually hit him and explode. RX Tech Mines is no cake walk either........."

How are you getting on with TR4?

Fine thinks; onto City Of The Dead, still hating the scarabs in the previous levels but there are two turret guns here I'm beginning to hate almost as much as there is no way to get past them no scratch.

On that last drop in the kayak in Madabu Gorge it is apparently possible to do it genuinely no scratch. A lot of paddling to get as low as possible on the waterfall and then a totally random fall right on top of a crocodile will cause no damage. Unfortunately the croc only swims into the right position for that about once in a dozen retries. I've never managed it but could minimise the fall damage to under 10% so very possible to do the whole thing no meds as long as you're careful in the rest of the level.

Trying to recall the guard in Lud's Gate you mean - on the longer museum route all the guards are a pain in the ass but the right tactics and strategic saving (on PS not a practical option) they can all be done, no scratch just with pistols.

Hate the grenade launcher in TR3 and TR4, rarely used it even when doing my earliest play-throughs for very much the reason described.

[Sam The Man]

Fine thinks; onto City Of The Dead, still hating the scarabs in the previous levels but there are two turret guns here I'm beginning to hate almost as much as there is no way to get past them no scratch.

On that last drop in the kayak in Madabu Gorge it is apparently possible to do it genuinely no scratch. A lot of paddling to get as low as possible on the waterfall and then a totally random fall right on top of a crocodile will cause no damage. Unfortunately the croc only swims into the right position for that about once in a dozen retries. I've never managed it but could minimise the fall damage to under 10% so very possible to do the whole thing no meds as long as you're careful in the rest of the level.

Trying to recall the guard in Lud's Gate you mean - on the longer museum route all the guards are a pain in the ass but the right tactics and strategic saving (on PS not a practical option) they can all be done, no scratch just with pistols.

Hate the grenade launcher in TR3 and TR4, rarely used it even when doing my earliest play-throughs for very much the reason described.

Yeah the 2nd half of TR4 in my opinion went downhill. I hated Street Bazaar and the similar levels that followed it as it just didnt feel like Tomb Raider in design.

I know every level in TR3 is possible no scratch as i have done each level in practice whilst allowing reloads but don't fancy trying to do the whole game in a single sitting no scratch as i think i would lose all motivation if after 5 or 6 hours of play i died near the end and realised i had to start the entire thing again. Doing TR1 like that wasn't too bad. TR2 was tough and a few times i died near the end but not sure if i would have the patience to do a TR3 1 sitting no scratch!

And yeah i always ignored the grenade launcher even back when i first did the game but i need it for that last secret on Luds Gate if i was to do a 1 sitting no scratch run on TR3

[Goemon]

I ended up back on NES Duck Tales and got my TT time to 7:42, which puts me 7th on the leaderboard.
I’m also on the front page - which displays the top 10 - so that’s pretty cool too.

Super chuffed with this time. It was a “good” run with everything I’ve practiced going pretty well. To break the top 5 I would have to do a lot more learning/practice. I tried one session and got literally no where in the entire time so I think I would prefer call it and move onto something else.

Highly recommend playing this for anyone looking for something old school but not too brutal.