Alexlotl

Take it to Off Topic, Facebook or the Saloon Bar, we’re not here for culture wars.

The western version of Strider has missing sound effects too, famoulsy lacking the "Hyah!". I poked into the Strider ROMs once, and the JPN ROM had an August '90 date and the US one September '90. That's a tiny window, so either they were just chucking things out in haste to make room for western fonts/text, or the localisation was based on a non-final build of the Japanese game.

Well, that looks more interesting than I expected! I like: GBA support! Other portable consoles via jailbreak firmware *checks notes* cart adaptors, just like the ones they haven't bothered shipping for the Mega SG. Concave X & Y buttons, as mentioned above. The US SNES Pad had a hideous colour scheme, but those concave buttons are the business. Stereo speakers! Not too expensive, considering. The dock! I don't like: The positioning of that trio of start/select/homeish buttons on the right edge of the console. They're already annoying me. Too easy to press accidentally, too hard to press deliberately. The lack of price for the dock, and the suspicion that it won't be available day 1. I am wary of: The second FPGA - the way this copy is written makes it sound like this is sitting idle for all the shipping cores, and it's just there for developers, which if true is a pretty bewildering decision, cost wise. What the battery life will be like, particularly for two-FPGA cores. How that screen is going to handle different screen resolutions. Oh, and called it:

Still the best easter egg. The eating animation (one head bites, one chews, one swallows) is just perfect.

I think I can remember what to do on Monkey Island proper. The main thing is not forgetting the Fort exists, as it’s easy to miss on the map. I’m also curious about revisiting Last Crusade, in EGA this time. In contrast to Monkey Island and Loom, it doesn’t make much use of dithering (SCUMM couldn’t compress it) so it’ll be an interesting comparison Monkey Island - I’d imagine it’ll feel a lot more garish and 16 colour. Problem is, my laptop has no numpad…

Interesting seeing Monkey Island again with adult eyes. It’s often held up as an example of perfect puzzle design, but a few of the early ones are pretty obtuse. First, there’s the troll. The troll is basically a bunch of in-jokes that should have been cut. Ha ha, it’s like something from a King’s Quest game. Ha ha, the solution is to give him a red herring, take that Sierra! Ha ha, it’s actually George Lucas in a suit and he calls his club back with the force. Problem is, none of these jokes are actually funny, it’s jarringly unthematic, and the puzzle is awful. The troll says he wants something that “Attracts attention but serves no obvious purpose”, which I guess is a reasonable cryptic for a Red Herring. But with a text based inventory, it’s just “fish” - if Guybrush looks at it, he says “I think it’s a herring”, but there’s no mention of colour. It was red when you picked it up on screen 3 of the game (unless you’re playing on CGA or Hercules), but you’ve likely forgotten that by now. I can’t remember not knowing the answer to this one, but I can’t imagine being able to work it out other than by brute force. I guess the later graphical inventory made this a bit easier, at least. Next, there’s getting past the pirhana poodles. The pirate leaders suggest drugging them. Feeding them the meat is easy to intuit, but how are you supposed to know to use the yellow flowers with it? The only hint that I can see in the game is that Otis was jailed for allegedly picking the yellow “caniche endormi” flowers. The internet tells me this is French for “sleeping poodle” - great if you know French, screwed if you don’t. Just try using everything with everything else, I guess - I’m sure that’s how I worked it out back in the day. The swordfighting is still wonderful though. Roaming around learning all the insults and ripostes is clever enough (if a little frustrating if you have them all memorised), but the way the game makes you think on your feet against the sword master is still exciting after all these years. Can’t forget the first time I challenged her, cocky from winning all my battles on the island, only for total fear and confusion to set in when she started using unknown insults. Made it all the way to Monkey Island itself now. Did my favourite little Easter Egg, using the grog to free the rat in the other prison cell rather than Otis - pointless but fun. Always loved the brief chapter on the ship - the recipe puzzle is excellent, and the hints they drop about using the cannon, just like at the circus, are just right. Still generally amazed at how good the game looks. 16 colours! All the pallet choices for the backgrounds make much more sense in this context, and it’s impossible not to admire the artistry of doing so much with so little.

Market forces at work, I think. The Native Lens Showcase threads on mu-43.com are useful for scoping out which lenses are decent* : https://www.mu-43.com/forums/native-lens-sample-image-showcase.80/ *or are owned by decent photographers, which is not necessarily the same thing.

Fair enough - I was perhaps a bit harsh on a lens I’ve never owned, but it has an awful reputation and I’ve never been impressed with real-world shots by it either. Seems thoroughly outgunned by the P20.

The Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 has been around forever, can be had cheaply second hand, and is tiny and pin sharp. Focus is a bit slow on Olympus bodies though, and there are some banding issues with Olympus 16mp sensors (depending on which OMD you have). I use one on my Pen-F (20mp) and the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. Avoid the old old Olympus 17mm f/2.8, it's shit. The newer f/1.8 has its fans, but I've never got on with it - lovely colours, but can't compare with the other primes for sharpness, and I hate those stupid screw-on metal hoods. The old Pana Leica 25m f/1.4 is cumbersome but takes beautiful photos with wonderful colours and contrast. Makes a weird rattlesnaking sound on Oly bodies, though, and probably isn't that cheap still. I sold mine and I miss the images it made, but nothing else about it. But Lord, I miss those images. The Olympus 25mm f/1.8 (which I have now) is technically very good, but for some reason I've never really bonded with it in the same way - colours not as nice*. Should be cheaper, though. I've never tried the cheaper Pana (non-Leica) 25mm f/1.7. The Olympus 45mm f/1.8 is a wonderful lens and very cheap, but it's a bit of a specialist focal length - best for portraits. * Note that this is a totally unfair comparison between taking photos in NZ and the UK TL;DR - get the P20 f/1.7 if you can live with the slow AF and it doesn't band on your sensor.

Hmm. I’m onboard for a new FPGA NES, although I’m pretty sure they could have just released a cart converter for the Super NT. A Game Boy clone is a tricky one. Presumably, it’s got to be portable, not just a TV unit, particularly with that name. If it was just GB or GB+GBC, then I’m not sure that’s hugely compelling for me. GBA would be nice, but that’s an ARM chip, which feels like it might be legally dangerous for Analogue (given ARM are solely an IP house). If it was also a Game Gear, Wonderswan Crystal, Pokemon Mini and Neo Geo Pocket Colour, then I’d be interested, but I’m not sure how cart compatibility would work for that, though. It’ll be interesting to see how much they push the chiptune angle with any marketing. Built in fancy dan version of LSDJ and flat stereo output, boot logo tune by some scenester, etc.

Haven’t heard many rumours about this. Green on black is an interesting choice. Gameboy? Amstrad PCW? That computer terminal from Alien? A revised, cheaper, digital only version of the NT Mini seems like a logical and easy thing to put out, but that colour scheme has me foxed.

I'd like a port of the Scott Pilgrim brawler, with Anamanaguchi soundtrack, unavailable since 2014.

Just gave the MD colour fixed version a very quick runout on the Mega SG. Initial thoughts: Tunes! I know that sound driver, it's Sakimoto's Terpsichorean, same as the one used for the audio masterclasses that are Gauntlet IV and Midnight Resistance (the latter also Data East, come to think of it). Didn' t know he was in the chair. This isn't the equal of those others I've mentioned, but still sounds great. Who on earth is Vision? Hawkeye defaulting to hitting people and having to press two buttons together to fire an arrow seems... odd. As does having that third button sat unused. The brawling is pretty unsatisfying, to my mind. Your range is short, the z-plane is very hard to read, and the hits feel insubstantial. Using ranged attacks seems more effective. The chuckables are rubbish too - is that an empty coke can? It took me a weirdly long time to work out that big number at the top was my life bar. Also, what's with the blue blobs that restore health? Cap can throw about three shields at once, and looks hilariously goofy on his Scooty Puff Jr on the shooting stage. Do other characters (e.g Iron Man) just fly? This stage was too easy and got dull quite quickly, but the music is good. It looks OK, I guess. I don't mind the small sprites, although the enemies are a bit dull (are they robots or people in armour?). Makes a change from the endless stream of The Warriors inspired enemies in other brawlers, I guess. If I'm supposed to know who any of these bosses or sub-bosses are, I don't (apart from the Sentinel). It seems like a pretty average brawler to me, with only the music being top tier. I'd obviously rather play Streets of Rage, but I think I'd also rather play other average brawlers with more character, like Golden Axe. I'll give it a few more plays this month if I get spare minutes.

But I doubt Levy will want to pay him off to sack him, so he’s stuck there until someone stumps up his exit fee, unless some kind of mutual agreement is reached for him to walk away.