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Love the 32X and am super psyched about Stellar Assault. Parasquad (aka Zaxxon Motherbase 2000) I just got for cheap, I'm not actually such a huge fan of the game, but it's nice to have a legit shoot 'em up for 32X.
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Game blew my mind when it came out. Loved buzzing the flag ships. Never could 1 CC it, but made it to the last stage a few times.BIL wrote:Stellar Assault
95/96 was the height of coherent box design, with Sega Japan's blue, red, yellow, and gold spines for all its systems.FinalBaton wrote:Hell yeah! jap 32x boxes with the yellow spine. these look so damn rad
If you crunch the numbers, 32X's Japan lineup barely edges out by 64.9% quality versus 60% quality on SuperGrafx.BIL wrote:Stellar Assault, awesome pickup! 32X might have too much junk in its roster to compete with the SuperGrafx's John Cazale-esque quality/quantity ratio, but I think of 'em as spiritually akin regardless. The good stuff really is worth having 'em around for.
I've played Kolibri, but didn't much care for it either. Iirc it had terrible wobble when switching from left to right. Graphics were pretty but stages quite bland. More of a tech demo than a real game, imo.Speaking of 32X shooting, have you played Kolibri? I gave it a brief spin years ago, couldn't get around the Real Hummingbird Physics. Flappy bastard! I dig Ecco's sensibly floaty handling but that's survival horror, a bit of jank is expected.
You actually turned me onto this one a while back - if I remember right it, it's entirely YM2612-powered? Absolutely incredible work. I've left this track playing on repeat for hours while writing, got that kinda end-to-end quality.CIT wrote:Cyber Brawl (complete garbage, but beautiful OST)
Not sure if that's a good or bad thing since the cart slot is so poorly made, but I ordered KoF '95 Saturn with ROM cart recently and can't wait to play it (though I will have to).CIT wrote:*Same reason I still love the KoF 95 port for Saturn. Real shame we only ever got two ROM carts for the system.
Yep, afaik it doesn't use any of the additional sound capabilities. Someone should do a romhack and add that OST to Bare Knuckle III!BIL wrote:You actually turned me onto this one a while back - if I remember right it, it's entirely YM2612-powered? Absolutely incredible work. I've left this track playing on repeat for hours while writing, got that kinda end-to-end quality.
Interesting, I didn't know about the regional differences in VRDX. I hate the Doom port for 32X. I think the disproportionately poor quality of most of the console ports did more to promote PC gaming back then, than any real strengths of PC games.Virtua Racing DX would justify the 32X all on its own, I think. Alchemic translation of analogue gas & brakes to digital pad. The one thing I used to find a little bittersweet is thinking of what AM2 could've done on Saturn, had that one not gone to TWI - but given the beautiful Switch version, it's easy to forget now.
That's one where the JP cart has a real advantage over the NTSCU one, too - no onboard memory in the latter, and the Desert track's final section is significantly less challenging. I've still got my old US copy, generic photo cover and all. plus 32X DOOM, my original "32X Justifier" BITD, less so nowI'm sometimes weirdly tempted to add the JP ver to my little 32X cache of VRDX, Stellar Assault and Space Harrier, but those crash bugs leave me cold... the PS1 port also has a few, but they're strictly triggered by deliberately alerting masses of enemies on certain maps without killing any. 32X just locks up at random, AFAIK (with a DOS prompt-styled error message!).
It's visually quite impressive, but a bit too bare-bones and lacking in terms of playability. There's nothing gravely wrong with any of the game's aspects, but they don't really come together to form something coherent and engaging, if you know what I mean. For example, the animation is great, but a lot of 2D games with lots of animation frames actually feel a little less precise, particularly if certain frames aren't cancelable. Thankfully, the controls are still good enough, but I find the visual stylings in Tempo to be disorienting sometimes. There's always some crazy effects going on in the background, but they're fixed in the screen, so you often lack a sense of spatiality, particularly when making jumps on higher up platforms. Add to that the 3/4-view on the platforms but without any drop-shadows, and it unnecessarily complicates what is really just a simple hop'n bop game under the surface. Also: the boss battles suck.Been curious about Tempo (by RED, if I recall - one of those devs that commands my attention whatever the setting), but I'm always a bit lethargic with cuter sidescrolling. Sometimes to ridiculous extents, as with ignoring Gimmick! for years...
For a serious answer, it has all those buttons because it was meant to be a 1:1 hand-held replacement for the original Cyberstick.CIT wrote:Hahaha, yeah, that Dempa analogue pad is like a pocket Tekki controller. What did they think people would need to use all those buttons for!? Would definitely like to give Street Fighter II a go with it though.![]()
I've been increasingly impressed by digital controls in Moto Racer Advance (although, from the very beginning, series was obviously going to be played this way by many gamers, so it always had to be good or else). The entire game works so well on the GBA that I keep wishing Saturn had more such exclusives. Some of the best-selling PSX games were 2D, so there surely was a room for a beautiful scaling racer, maybe even running at 60 fps on Saturn.BIL wrote:Virtua Racing DX would justify the 32X all on its own, I think. Alchemic translation of analogue gas & brakes to digital pad.
A lost art form, the scaling arcade powerhouse. Such beautiful inefficiency, timeless largesse.Obiwanshinobi wrote:Some of the best-selling PSX games were 2D, so there surely was a room for a beautiful scaling racer, maybe even running at 60 fps on Saturn.
Kiken wrote:
Picked up the SPI mobo and cart of Senkyu/Battle Balls.
The PS port (Mezase Senkyu Ou) is stupidly difficult to find for no discernible reason. When it does pop up, it normally sells for around $15, making it's rarity all the more strange. I've owned a copy for years now, but it was sourced by a good friend of mine who came across two complete copies for sale while doing some random searches and just scooped them both up (as they cost no more than $25 each at the time).BrianC wrote:Sweet. Any tips on searching for the PSX version? Searches only turn up one match when they do turn something up.
Seimitsu LS-32s and Sanwa OBSF series buttons. I replaced all of the sticks, buttons, dust covers and ball tops on both my cabs after I cleaned them up.BrianC wrote:Are those Seimitsu sticks and buttons on the Astro City cab? Sweet!
Yeah there is something special about itBIL wrote:Beautiful.One of those quintessentially photogenic title screens, especially in cab context.