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Dross posted:FF7 made me buy my first dedicated graphics card (a Voodoo3). I bought FF7 for PC specifically because I lacked a PSX, but it barely ran on my low-end computer. Later summons pretty much crashed the game because of how hefty the game was for my system. I almost beat it, but at that point I had help in finally buying a real PSX and FF7 for it. That said, FF7 PC is still interesting and worth jumping through the hoops to get working on modern systems(it's very finicky) if just because of all the interesting mods people have been working on for it, including massive graphical upgrades. One even being a project to make all the 3D at least as good as the combat character models, meaning they were amassing a collection of entirely new sprites for every single NPC in the game.  OSI bean dip posted:FF7 and FF8 for the PC were superior due to that aforementioned MIDI. Is there a way to play the awesome MIDI files without having to use a virtual machine? univbee posted:MIDI support from Vista onwards was all but edited out of the OS, and is actually one of the few things that newer Macs (I think) still support better than the newer Windows OSes. What also doesn't help is that the AWE64 I mentioned earlier doesn't have drivers past Windows XP (and was an ISA card anyway, so good luck having a mobo with the required slots), and you're similarly SOL for the Yamaha XG stuff which was the next-best thing, but was usually in the form of a daughter card that clipped onto the side of an existing sound card (again, I think they did away with this well before the move to PCI-based sound cards). I remember the yamaha synth and software that came with FF7 PC was one of my favorite things ever, because I loved midi music and it made it sound absolutely wonderful, comparatively anyway. I was massively disappointed when I finally upgraded, and Vista had not only a default midi soundbank that almost was worse than the default from my previous windows computer, but had gutted all synth changing support, and everything that came with FF7 PC wouldn't work with it at all. That said.. Whenever people discuss sountfonts and midi software, my eyes glaze over with lack of understanding like if one was trying to explain how a combustion engine works to a monkey. Isn't there some kind of simple solution, like a program that one can plug in dated soundfonts into and then play midis with? Like how there are programs that one can use to emulate vintage video game music by having the appropriate soundfonts/synths and emulating them? Ideally ones that can possibly be operated by someone who isn't an expert at this kind of thing in the least. I've been wanting to use my old yamaha FF7 synths for years and years, and still have a sizable midi collection that doesn't even play correctly on this machine. Edit: This was one of the variants of the synth I think, the distinct lead once the music kicks in really takes me back. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeENYGva7R8 Midnight Raider fucked around with this message at 04:00 on Jan 11, 2013 |
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Jan 11, 2013 03:45
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Midnight Raider posted:I bought FF7 for PC specifically because I lacked a PSX, but it barely ran on my low-end computer. Later summons pretty much crashed the game because of how hefty the game was for my system. I almost beat it, but at that point I had help in finally buying a real PSX and FF7 for it. There's something about static backgrounds/bitmap backgrounds I love in games, for some reason. Resident Evil 1 remake for the Gamecube still looks gorgeous to this day because of it. If someone wants to recommend some (good) games with bitmap backgrounds I'd love to hear about it (other than obvious ones like Lucasarts games). I am thinking more like FF7 and RE1 for Gamecube! zenintrude posted:I should have been more specific, sorry. Yeah s-video cables got REALLY expensive for the Saturn for some reason. How does a free pair sound to ya?  Just PM me your info (I don't save those things).
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Jan 11, 2013 03:54
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I'm talking about proprietary S-video cables for each system, i.e. has S-video + RCA stereo at one end and the system specific plug at the other end, not standard male-to-male S-Video cables.
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zenintrude posted:[edit] It looks like if I want a Saturn cord, it's going to set me back $37... that's gonna have to wait. Were you looking at that one on eBay from the UK where shipping is like double the cost of the cable? I emailed them and they said they could send it the equivalent of First Class Mail in the USA without tracking for like $6 USD instead of like $27 or whatever. I just haven't got one because I'm cheap as hell There are also those boxes on eBay with the terrible photos that you can install into the Saturn itself but I have things like a MPEG decoder card where the plugs are supposed to be. Bing the Noize fucked around with this message at 03:57 on Jan 11, 2013 |
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Jan 11, 2013 03:54
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Just started the Stonehenge dungeon in Earthbound, anyone want to make a pool how long it takes me to get a Sword of Kings? 
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Jan 11, 2013 03:57
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For the Genesis, you really want to keep Composite around as an option even when using the better connections. Many developers felt pressured to heavily abuse dithering in response to the SNES' superior color capability, Earthworm Jim being one of the most obvious examples.
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Jan 11, 2013 03:58
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Miyamotos RGB NES posted:Yeah s-video cables got REALLY expensive for the Saturn for some reason. You continue to be the Patron Saint of Retrogames... thanks so much!
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Jan 11, 2013 03:59
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Miyamotos RGB NES posted:There's something about static backgrounds/bitmap backgrounds I love in games, for some reason. Resident Evil 1 remake for the Gamecube still looks gorgeous to this day because of it. If someone wants to recommend some (good) games with bitmap backgrounds I'd love to hear about it (other than obvious ones like Lucasarts games). I am thinking more like FF7 and RE1 for Gamecube! Is there any minor retro videogame accessory you don't have? I'm just picturing a back room full of cables, adapters, various daughterboards and mechanical parts for obscure consoles at this point.
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Jan 11, 2013 04:18
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Quidnose posted:Just started the Stonehenge dungeon in Earthbound, anyone want to make a pool how long it takes me to get a Sword of Kings?
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Jan 11, 2013 04:28
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Midnight Raider posted:Like how there are programs that one can use to emulate vintage video game music by having the appropriate soundfonts/synths and emulating them? Ideally ones that can possibly be operated by someone who isn't an expert at this kind of thing in the least. I've been wanting to use my old yamaha FF7 synths for years and years, and still have a sizable midi collection that doesn't even play correctly on this machine. Oh man you're getting into some complicated poo poo. The long story short is there are several different soundfonts and module file formats out there, most of which are legacy and proprietary in nature. I never had FF7 for PC so I know nothing of this Yamaha MIDI software but seeing as they designed most of the important FM chips out there as far as older computer and consoles are concerned I'm not surprised it sounds good. For almost all legacy formats like that, there are players for things like xm/mod/s3m etc. Could you or someone tell me more about this FF7 MIDI thing though? If I knew more about how it worked I'm sure I can tell you how to listen to what you want to hear on your system. e: controller acquired thankz broz Bing the Noize fucked around with this message at 05:07 on Jan 11, 2013 |
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Jan 11, 2013 04:41
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Miyamotos RGB NES posted:There's something about static backgrounds/bitmap backgrounds I love in games, for some reason. Resident Evil 1 remake for the Gamecube still looks gorgeous to this day because of it. If someone wants to recommend some (good) games with bitmap backgrounds I'd love to hear about it (other than obvious ones like Lucasarts games). I am thinking more like FF7 and RE1 for Gamecube! Baten Kaitos for the Gamecube has some really gorgeous static backgrounds. It's just an excellent game all-around.
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Jan 11, 2013 04:51
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Miyamotos RGB NES posted:There's something about static backgrounds/bitmap backgrounds I love in games, for some reason. Resident Evil 1 remake for the Gamecube still looks gorgeous to this day because of it. If someone wants to recommend some (good) games with bitmap backgrounds I'd love to hear about it (other than obvious ones like Lucasarts games). I am thinking more like FF7 and RE1 for Gamecube! Can you read Japanese? Because if so: El Dorado Gate for DC. Beautiful art by Amano as well.
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Jan 11, 2013 05:02
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ACID POLICE posted:Oh man you're getting into some complicated poo poo. The long story short is there are several different soundfonts and module file formats out there, most of which are legacy and proprietary in nature. I never had FF7 for PC so I know nothing of this Yamaha MIDI software but seeing as they designed most of the important FM chips out there as far as older computer and consoles are concerned I'm not surprised it sounds good. shoot me a pm. I've got a spare one of these guys. I'll just have to check and see if it works. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBDHZdAEflA
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Jan 11, 2013 05:03
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Midnight Raider posted:Isn't there some kind of simple solution, like a program that one can plug in dated soundfonts into and then play midis with? Like how there are programs that one can use to emulate vintage video game music by having the appropriate soundfonts/synths and emulating them? Ideally ones that can possibly be operated by someone who isn't an expert at this kind of thing in the least. I've been wanting to use my old yamaha FF7 synths for years and years, and still have a sizable midi collection that doesn't even play correctly on this machine. I think the big problem with MIDI is more legal than anything else; Roland and Yamaha were basically the two companies with decent-sounding instrument libraries but they weren't very forthcoming to sharing either the library or certain odds and ends about how they worked. While the MIDI standard itself is well-documented and well-known, I think the actual hardware-level "make this noise when you get this MIDI signal" isn't and is a much tougher nut to crack. This is an MT-32 emulator that requires  dumps of the MT-32 ROM. I'm not sure how common similar projects or ROM dumps of MIDI devices are outside of the MT-32.Final Fantasy VII and VIII on PC came with a software synthesizer Yamaha put out, but both of these games are incredibly old by PC game standards and the software in question is hopelessly bound to Windows 95 and 98. The more I think back to those two games, the more I realize how much has changed with computers (and the games industry) since then. Then I looked at the boxes I still had on my shelf, oh boy. Final Fantasy VII PC is so old I played it on a passthrough Voodoo1 card. ISA slots were standard on a PC and on-motherboard sound cards didn't exist yet (for those not familiar with computer inner workings, ISA slots are the predecessor to PCI slots and haven't been on motherboards in over 10 years). The game used DirectX 5 and even the later French PC release doesn't mention Windows 98 on the box, since it hadn't been released yet. Supported 3D graphics cards include PowerVR, 3dfx, an impossibly old ATI3D logo and something called "3Dlabs 2 Permedia Power Pervasive 3D". Nvidia wasn't a contender at this time. Finally, PEGI hadn't come to fruition in Europe yet so my French version is rated by the "European Leisure Software Publishers Association" who say the game's OK for ages 11 and up. Final Fantasy VIII doesn't fare much better. My boxed copy only mentions Windows 95 and 98, and while the list of supported 3D accelerators has the more recent ATI and Nvidia logos, it also includes 3dfx and Matrox. It was a DirectX 6.1 game, and its system requirements for RAM and CPU are equivalent to the best computer you could buy when Quake was released (200 MHz Pentium 1, 64 megs RAM)
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Jan 11, 2013 05:55
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midge posted:He also did an interview with Retro Gamer magazine some time ago on the same topic. It's easy to hate on EA these days but they really did pioneer modern game development in the west. Electronic Arts was incredibly innovative when they started out in the 80s (Atari 800 / Apple II / Commodore 64 era). Archon and M.U.L.E. are particular standouts, plus Pinball Construction Set, Racing Destruction Set, Realm of Impossibility, Seven Cities of Gold, Starflight, Bard's Tale -- all games which either defied genre or majorly pushed the envelope. h_double fucked around with this message at 12:14 on Jan 11, 2013 |
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Jan 11, 2013 12:11
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Anyone have any idea why Capcom directly ripped off Namco's Rolling Thunder with their (better, in my opinion) game, Code Name: Viper? I mean, I can understand the reasoning, maybe a better question would be 'how'? Specific art aside, the games are absolutely identical. Movement animations, death animations, gameplay... everything. I've always wondered what the deal was. I could understand if both games were made by the same company, but they weren't.
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Jan 11, 2013 14:28
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Miyamotos RGB NES posted:There's something about static backgrounds/bitmap backgrounds I love in games, for some reason. Resident Evil 1 remake for the Gamecube still looks gorgeous to this day because of it. If someone wants to recommend some (good) games with bitmap backgrounds I'd love to hear about it (other than obvious ones like Lucasarts games). I am thinking more like FF7 and RE1 for Gamecube! It's insane how much you guys are in my head sometimes: I'd been reading a screenshot LP of Saga Frontier recently and it made me want to gush about how awesome Squaresoft's pre-rendered backgrounds were in the PSX era, the irony being that despite the relatively low resolution they pack an incredible amount of detail that often puts modern games to shame. One of my favorite examples of Squaresoft's mastery of the pre-rendered background is FFVII's Wall Market:   It's a shame that I couldn't find GIFs of these because the subtle movement in the backgrounds, like the rising and dissipating of steam or the gentle pulse of colored lights, is fantastic and really ties the character into the world. With pre-rendered backgrounds, designers could really create worlds that felt lived in and real as opposed to the somewhat sterile locations that occupied, and to some extent continue to occupy, the 3D games that have come since. testtubebaby fucked around with this message at 14:37 on Jan 11, 2013 |
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Jan 11, 2013 14:33
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Neddy Seagoon posted:Is there any minor retro videogame accessory you don't have? I'm just picturing a back room full of cables, adapters, various daughterboards and mechanical parts for obscure consoles at this point. haha I'm a freakin' hoarder with video game stuff to the point where it's a near sickness; but I'd rather GIVE my cable to zenintrude who graces us with his Virtual Boy info than sell it to some random dude on eBay for $40 because they stopped making them for whatever reason. El Estrago Bonito posted:Can you read Japanese? Because if so: El Dorado Gate for DC. Oh drat, this needs to get translated post haste. Panic Restaurant posted:Baten Kaitos for the Gamecube has some really gorgeous static backgrounds. It's just an excellent game all-around. Thanks! This game has been on my "to do" list since its release  zenintrude posted:It's insane how much you guys are in my head sometimes: I'd been reading a screenshot LP of Saga Frontier recently and it made me want to gush about how awesome Squaresoft's pre-rendered backgrounds were in the PSX era, the irony being that despite the relatively low resolution they pack an incredible amount of detail that often puts modern games to shame. YES! That was my favorite pre-rendered background in all of FF7. I know the resolution is super low but for some reason, even pixelated prerendered backgrounds still look good to me.
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Jan 11, 2013 14:43
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zenintrude posted:--Squaresoft's pre-rendered backgrounds-- I've always had a soft spot for games with pre-rendered backgrounds. They're just so lively and full of fun little details and in-jokes tossed in by the artists. It's something that quite often isn't done in fully-rendered games (admittedly it's often due to technical reasons so it's understandable). They just seem so much more lived-in and interesting than some of the more sterile environs you get in newer games.
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Jan 11, 2013 14:46
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Neddy Seagoon posted:I've always had a soft spot for games with pre-rendered backgrounds. They're just so lively and full of fun little details and in-jokes tossed in by the artists. It's something that quite often isn't done in fully-rendered games (admittedly it's often due to technical reasons so it's understandable). They just seem so much more lived-in and interesting than some of the more sterile environs you get in newer games. Seriously, Resident Evil for the freakin' Gamecube, a system barely capable of 480p, is the only game EVER that ~my wife~ had to comment on how beautiful the graphics were. I really recommend any fan here of the original play the GC remake. It also got a Wii port; though I am not sure which is the superior version. I don't believe the Dolphin emulator would improve either version though, since there's not much in the way of 3-d models in that game (and upscaled 3-d models with low-res prerendered backgrounds looks kinda weird anyway). edit: Actual gameplay footage:  The chandeliers rock back and forth and the lighting/shadows moves too and stuff  Edit: it actually looks better than I would've guessed in Dolphin: 
Chumbawumba4ever97 fucked around with this message at 14:55 on Jan 11, 2013 |
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Jan 11, 2013 14:51
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h_double posted:Electronic Arts was incredibly innovative when they started out in the 80s (Atari 800 / Apple II / Commodore 64 era). Archon and M.U.L.E. are particular standouts, plus Pinball Construction Set, Racing Destruction Set, Realm of Impossibility, Seven Cities of Gold, Starflight, Bard's Tale -- all games which either defied genre or majorly pushed the envelope. Even back then their business decisions made some enemies. Feel free to ask Richard Garriott about how they handled distribution of Ultima 4. Origin was still slinging slightly veiled insults at EA in their games when Ultima 7 came out...
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Jan 11, 2013 14:56
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I don't know if this even counts but I love this Shadowrun kinda smokey feel in some parts of Final Fantasy 8. (Shadowrun reference explained below) 
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Jan 11, 2013 15:26
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I am currently in the midst of collecting all the GC Resident Evils. I only lack Resident Evil 2 and 3 now, being the two harder to acquire ones. I could round it off with the Limited Edition RE4 Gamecube and sold-seperately RE4 Chainsaw Gamecube controller. But yeah, I absolutely love what Capcom did with the REmake (and RE0 effectively). I kind of miss the era of pre-rendered backgrounds, they always seemed to have more of an atmospheric vibe about them than completely 3D backgrounds do now. The background image files from the discs (a subject I'm trying to avoid getting too into lest it constitute warez/a no-no activity) contain a few images that are stripped of textures, showing you that a lot of the detail is purely from textures alone, just executed really well. Throw in some ambient candle light flickers, lightning flashes and water reflections in the shark area... you got yourself a bucket of awesome. Wondering if Shinji Mikami's next offering will bring back the vibe: http://tangogameworks.com/project/index_en.html
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Jan 11, 2013 15:29
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Midnight Raider posted:That said, FF7 PC is still interesting and worth jumping through the hoops to get working on modern systems(it's very finicky) Didn't they release a newer version of FF7 PC not too long ago? I seem to remember them rolling one out that had achievements. Is it still finicky?
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Jan 11, 2013 15:35
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Tyson Tomko posted:I don't know if this even counts but I love this Shadowrun kinda smokey feel in some parts of Final Fantasy 8. Hell's yeah; I love that FF8 screen shot and I never even played the game. Also, I absolutely love the 3/4th view or whatever it's called that Shadowrun and Super Mario RPG used. gredgie posted:The background image files from the discs (a subject I'm trying to avoid getting too into lest it constitute warez/a no-no activity) contain a few images that are stripped of textures, showing you that a lot of the detail is purely from textures alone, just executed really well. Post these; there's pretty much no way that would be because then so would  and  emoticons. gredgie posted:Wondering if Shinji Mikami's next offering will bring back the vibe: http://tangogameworks.com/project/index_en.html Please, please post when this game comes out. In this thread post. Post post post. Post.
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Jan 11, 2013 15:37
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Well, there use to be RAR files of all the REmake and RE0 backgrounds on Bioflames back in the day, but the file hosting links have long since expired and there doesn't seem to be a complete set anywhere any more. I attempted to grab the REmake ones myself, but a good 5/6ths of them were corrupted. By which, the image extractor mistakes when the end of a JPG occurs, shrinking it down, which can be corrected with some hex editing but... when you would have to piece together each JPG then repeat it for 5,533 images... it becomes a thing. It seems a better way of grabbing the images, is to make use of Dolphin's texture ripping. Which I haven't done for these reasons: 1) It basically requires you to complete the game, because it only rips what's in memory. 2) I'm not the greatest player, let alone on Dolphin :P 3) It saves ALL the textures and frames of animation. I tested it on the body bag rising up screen and had thousands of images within 30 seconds. I'd like to believe that somewhere out there, the RAR files still exist. Because that would save a lot of work for everybody :>
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Jan 11, 2013 15:51
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Had 15 min to spare before pizza was ready so I swung by Goodwill to see what they had. http://imgur.com/a/dmfqG My first Dreamcast and a bunch of games.
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Jan 11, 2013 15:58
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lilcasino posted:Had 15 min to spare before pizza was ready so I swung by Goodwill to see what they had. You did very well for yourself. Now play D2 and understand why the DC is the most  of systems.
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Jan 11, 2013 16:01
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triplexpac posted:Didn't they release a newer version of FF7 PC not too long ago? I seem to remember them rolling one out that had achievements. Is it still finicky?
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Jan 11, 2013 17:35
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Oh man, I want this (links to a chinese video site) Backlit GBC http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDYyODI0ODgw.html Edit, it appears that this guy somehow stuffed a gba sp into the GBC shell... it's not really a backlit gbc. fatpat268 fucked around with this message at 18:09 on Jan 11, 2013 |
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Jan 11, 2013 18:03
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fatpat268 posted:Oh man, I want this (links to a chinese video site) I bet the IR port no longer works 
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Jan 11, 2013 18:22
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Miyamotos RGB NES posted:I bet the IR port no longer works Considering that I've never once used it, I can't see that as a deal breaker.
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Jan 11, 2013 18:25
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I figured I would promote my latest selling off of video game poo poo, so that I can keep buying more. I'll give you a discount if you're a retro threadder. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3527794
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Jan 11, 2013 21:39
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Heads up: Gamestop is starting to clear out their Gamecube inventory, starting with a 75% off sale that runs through the 27th on used Gamecube stuff (don't know if it includes systems). Online got picked over pretty quick but if you know a Gamestop in your area has Gamecube stuff, it's not likely to get cheaper than this (for anything worthwhile).
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Jan 11, 2013 23:13
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Discount Viscount posted:Heads up: Gamestop is starting to clear out their Gamecube inventory, starting with a 75% off sale that runs through the 27th on used Gamecube stuff (don't know if it includes systems). Online got picked over pretty quick but if you know a Gamestop in your area has Gamecube stuff, it's not likely to get cheaper than this (for anything worthwhile). This is excellent news. I've been waiting for some kind of sale to start stocking back up on GameCube games. Thanks for posting!
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Jan 11, 2013 23:22
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Would this or this be an acceptable S-video switcher, or do I need to go all  and get this?
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Jan 11, 2013 23:39
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Discount Viscount posted:Heads up: Gamestop is starting to clear out their Gamecube inventory, starting with a 75% off sale that runs through the 27th on used Gamecube stuff (don't know if it includes systems). Online got picked over pretty quick but if you know a Gamestop in your area has Gamecube stuff, it's not likely to get cheaper than this (for anything worthwhile). I didn't know Madden '08 got released for the GameCube... Now I kind of want a copy but not at $10...
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Jan 12, 2013 00:13
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Discount Viscount posted:Heads up: Gamestop is starting to clear out their Gamecube inventory, starting with a 75% off sale that runs through the 27th on used Gamecube stuff (don't know if it includes systems). Online got picked over pretty quick but if you know a Gamestop in your area has Gamecube stuff, it's not likely to get cheaper than this (for anything worthwhile). Not bad, maybe I'll luck out and get one of those 
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Jan 12, 2013 00:37
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ohnoitschris posted:Not bad, maybe I'll luck out and get one of those Whoa, expand on this. I didn't know of this either.
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Jan 12, 2013 00:49
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I finally got back to the thrift store I saw that $10 N64 w/ expansion and picked it up as well as some Saturn stuff I saw the last time I was there (which amazed me since I've never seen Saturn stuff in person before). Saturn Multi-tap: $2 Saturn Controller: $3 N64 w/ expansion pack and power cable: $10 I tested the N64 with a copy of Rogue Squadron I picked up a while back, but never tested since I didn't have easy access to a N64. I'm happy to say that both appear to be working perfectly. I just wished I had a controller to actually play it, but I can ask my brother who took our old gaming stuff if I can borrow one the next time I talk to him. The Saturn controller and multitap seem to be in good condition, but I can't test them since I don't have a system. I'm gonna hold on to them until I hopefully get a Saturn. So yeah, I think I did pretty well.
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Jan 12, 2013 00:58
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ohnoitschris posted:Not bad, maybe I'll luck out and get one of those Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?! Explain!
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Jan 12, 2013 01:08
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