trickytree

I didn't even know that existed, as I've mostly skipped the Wii. Off to check now...!

I admit my 3DS is bought purely in hope that Nintendo remake lots of their N64/GC games, with the odd new Mario game thrown in. 1080 would go great with Wave Race, and obviously F-Zero.

I'm hoping Nintendo realise how well racing games work in 3d and therefore announce a remake of Wave Race 64. I'm impressed by the 3DS's build quality, it looks and feels like a super-deluxe DS. Quite happy taking 3d photos at the moment, I might get Pilotwings but this will probably go away for a while until Zelda, MGS3 and Starfox are out, none of the other launch titles grab me.

Comes with another half-peeled price 'sticker' on the front, which yet again I instinctively tried to remove... Grrr... Had a quick thumb through and looks like another good issue, I shall get the kettle on and then

They weren't really ports though, but different games. Ninja Gaiden changed from a beat-em-up to platformer, Double Dragon had very different levels. Same can be said of NES Bionic Commando. 16-bit did have quite a few - Mercs and Slap Fight on MD are two more which were good ports but had extra levels.

Don't knock Lynchinho - remember he was an ever-present during our amazing run to second place back in.. well, it seems like years ago now. He's obviously some kind of lucky talisman, regardless of not being able to kick the ball straight or stop giving away penalties. Can't wait for him to get back. I've decided to just relax and try to enjoy the rest of the season now, it's clear that crazy run was a fluke and we're now back in and around the position we've been most of the season, scrapping for a playoff place. Obviously I won't get too excited if we do make them as we're complete and utter shite at playoffs!

Spot on, they're all doing it wrong. Call me mental, but I'd much rather we just went at teams Blackpool-style, trying to score more than they do. The Swansea, Watford and Derby (first half) home games were all like this, they were awesome to watch and we won all three. No-one at the club seems to care that the fans pay good money to be entertained, not watch some defensive, percentage-based dross.

Epic post I'd say it's a mix of confidence and tactics. Billy does put attacking players out there, but that doesn't mean we play attacking football. This season we've got this awful habit of parking the bus, with all players in our own half defending. There's no way the players are deciding to do this themselves, it's the manager's call. Defending corners is a clear example, often we have everyone back in our own box with no outlet - that's tactics not player choice. Playing wide midfielders on their 'wrong' side is also negative, meant to narrow the play. Don't forget also at the start of last season Davies had the pitch narrowed considerably. It's all about containment and sneaking a goal, rather than having open exciting games which our squad does actually have the talent to win. Billy's teams have always been cagey and while it keeps us in the upper half of the table, it'll never be good enough to go up. Playing that way can't be great for confidence, which long-term stops us playing well. Bring back Scot Gemmill or Gareth Williams more like, we need a playmaker desperately. We can't bring Garner back, he's a bit of a prick unfortunately and disrupts the squad. He'll be out on loans until we can either sell him or his contract expires.

I had a F200 also, the battery's better than that. Probably about 4 hours on full screen brightness and overclocked. Most emulators don't need overclocking though, so 5-6 hours. Controls are much better too, a proper d-pad instead of an analogue stick. Stupidly for the successor (Caanoo) they went back to the analogue stick and LCD screen. It plays loads of different systems too, Mega Drive/Mega CD and MAME are particularly good. Here's a list: http://dl.openhandhelds.org/cgi-bin/wiz.cgi

If we're talking handheld emulation devices, the GP2X Wiz is the best. Pin-sharp 4:3 AMOLED screen, good (real!) controls and lots of great emulators.

I can't be doing with the 'new old school' games though, there's already plenty enough old school games already without needing imitations. I also don't agree that retro only gets played when new games run out, I barely play any new games any more (and therefore don't spend too much time here now). As to why this folder's dead, it's probably because it's just a sub-folder of a mainstream games forum, where retro isn't the main focus. Proper retro forums such as Retro Gamer's or Sega-16 are still alive and well.

I can think of loads of great arcade to C64 conversions, but not really any that improved on the arcade. I think 'nostalgia' is the key word here

He's too injury-prone yes, but when fit he's a huge presence in the centre which is something we badly lack at the moment. We also don't have a playmaker, a centre mid that drops deep to get the ball from the centre halves to play it out wide or though the middle - Raddy should be doing this but he's been uninterested all season, hence why the centre halves end up lumping it most of the time. We also won't get scoring again without playing McGugan through the middle, he's the most natural goalscorer and creator in the squad but has no pace so can't do anything from the wing. I do blame the tactics too, we play attacking players but ask them to be defensive. Anderson is the best example, goalscoring aggressive winger when at Swansea, some kind of deputy full back at Forest. No width means no crosses, allowing the opposition defence to narrow and block any play through the middle. When we do get a cross in there's usually only one player in the box, as the team are told not to overcommit. Of course there's no need to be this cautious as apart from 4 or 5 teams this league is mostly rubbish full of teams asking to be ripped apart. At the moment though we're one of those teams, as Saturday showed.

You're being quite complimentary there, of those midfielders I'd say only Moussi and McGugan have the talent to actually make a difference to a game, the others are average at best. As for swagger, Lewis had that earlier in the season when he was playing off the striker, but since being stuck on the wing he's been completely wasted and his confidence is shot. 3-2 was extremely flattering for Forest yesterday, even if we did hit the post in injury time. Can't see us staying in the playoffs really, big clearout in the summer coming. Now we've no chance of second place, I really hope Swansea can pinch it - one of the few teams in the country who try to play exciting football rather than that percentage-based bollocks most teams go for.

But why do demos only show a fraction of the game? It's nowhere near enough to represent the full game and make me want to buy it. Why can't they give you say the first hour of gameplay instead? For me thinking 'it's a bad demo but maybe the full game is better' is nuts, not the other way around.

No idea why I was negged for that comment, that IS what demos are for, to sell the game. Bad demo = fewer sales.

But I'm not going to buy the full game until it's cheap because the demo was a bit cack. That's how it works!

It's more other vehicles whacking you, which they love to do and can't always be avoided, particularly with the in-car view and now that you have to concentrate on the environment more than ever. I suppose Motorstorm's always had a huge random element, and I've always equally loved and hated the games so will just have to do the same with this one.

Yes, with the car. It's still no fun though.

Well the N64 game was also lacking in content, so not sure what difference that would make. We just accepted smaller games back then.

Another jarring thing for me was how many times you get nudged and turned 180 degrees, putting you miles behind which just isn't any fun at all. Seems to happen far too often for an arcade racer, much more than the first two games.

It may be just another case of a poor demo, like the first Pacific Rift demo. If you watch the newly released development trailer, you can see there's quite a bit of depth to the game, particularly online. Maybe the trailer should have been included with the demo. Rubbish to hear about the staff cutbacks, the UK games industry has always been more talented and innovative than the US.

Hmm... not sure judging by the demo. Making the game much faster has reduced the sense of weight that the first two games did so well - the car feels like it's made of paper. It feels too arcadey this time, quite Ridge Racer-like. The bike handling is very twitchy, almost digital. I also had problems making out where to go on the course, although that's always been an issue in Motorstorm. Quite like the graphics, the extra resolution from the pseudo-1080p helps but there are some dodgy 'overly busy' road textures which are a bit ugly and distracting. Maybe it's just the demo track, but it doesn't really get close to the epic dramatic feel of Split/Second.

Normally I tell you to behave and be optimistic, but I can't this time. We've gone from battlers to bottlers almost overnight, our defending tonight was shambolic. Roll on the international break and the return of the Moose.

Kris Boyd to Forest then, seems an odd one - he's always struck me as just a poacher who needs chances set up for him. Which is exactly what we're not very good at. Hmmm...