Alexlotl

Done. I thought it was so massively underwhelming that it was fairly harmless, but fair point.

Job done! I both enjoyed that, and I'm glad it's over. The very last section of the game involves a lot of dark mazes which need to navigated solely by torchlight, and can frankly do one.

From memory, when I looked into it before, neither game supports a mouse even on a real C64. Can't imagine how stressful some of those timed events must have been when using a joystick to move the cursor.

While I admire your original-platform chops, the idea of playing Maniac Mansion on a C64 without a mouse or verb hotkeys sounds like hell. ScummVM makes the whole thing a lot more palatable.

I've been playing Zak McKracken & The Alien Mindbenders, the original C64 version, via ScummVM. I kicked off a semi-project last year (or the year before? Time is an illusion these days) to play the originally released versions of the Lucasarts adventures, rather than the "best" version of each. It's been very rewarding - I've tackled Maniac Mansion C64 and Monkey Island EGA so far. They're good for playing in those ten minute slots of dead time while I wait for my daughter to stop pissing about and actually go to bed. Like Maniac Mansion C64, Zak C64 is kind of ugl

The red SCPH-1080 seems to be the rare one - saw one at a good price a few weeks ago and added it to my watch list, but it was gone an hour later. I quite like the idea of a white one, but they're predictably prone to discolouration. The problem with used Dual Shocks are the analogue sticks - some people just seem to dissolve them! It's hard to find ones that still have nice texture. I might be interested in any spare PSX accessories you've got, let me know if you're looking to sell. I'd also be interested in the official PS3 adaptor for PS1/2 memory cards, looks like you can use i

£9.40 delivered. PlayStation stuff seems surprisingly cheap to me.

Started acquiring a few PSX accessories with the goal of having some kind of HDMI solution in the near future (be that a PS1Digital or some as yet-unannounced Analogue solution). This lovely SCPH-1080 arrived today. It’s in splendid condition, with the D-pad still as stiff as new. Planning to pick up two of these for non-analogue games, and two Dual Shocks.

Wow. Good stat, makes the point very nicely. PS2 is easily retro for me, it hasn’t reached the can’t-really-tell-the-difference threshold, which for me is PS3 generation onwards.

The first game also trolls you by giving you turbo shoes just before areas with spikes, lava or fatal drops. Sonic 2 & 3 emphasise speed, fast transitions and set pieces a lot more. I kind of prefer Sonic 1 though, always loved the curveball that was Marble Zone. Not only does it take the pace down, it makes you go in all directions rather than just charge to the right.

I played it for the first time on the GameCube. Took me a few tries to get into it, but I loved it once it clicked. The community system is great, finding how to help each character - sort of Chrono Trigger meets Groundhog Day. The moon is also legit terrifying, and the general sinister, doomed vibe that the whole game gives off is pretty unique.

I don't remember ever playing MK64 during the N64s heyday (we had Diddy Kong Racing), but all the guest tracks in later versions of Mario Kart have been massive, empty and dull. I've actually correctly guessed certain unknown tracks were from MK64 based on these attributes. I enjoyed the original and Super Circuit a lot back in the day, just find them a tough revisit now. The guest versions of their tracks in later games have been pretty solid though, particularly the Super Circuit ones. I loved DD, never understood the hate; it seems the parent of modern MK to me. Mari

Feels like sacrilege to say it, but the proper 3D Mario Karts (GC onwards, MK64 can do one) have killed the original for me. Too hard to go back to flatland with no sparks. F-Zero doesn't seem to have suffered the same way, but I was never a huge fan of that anyway.

Spoilers for the last boss of MW3, but look at this shit: The JP version looks way too easy, but about on a par with the other bosses in the game. The Western version adds the conveyor belt and the buzz saw, turning it into an attritional battle just to get near enough to the damn thing to hit it once. Glad to see all the YouTube videos I can find are as much of a mess as my final battle was.

Finished Monster World 3 (Wonder Boy in Monster World) last night. Used save states to let me retry the floating platform bit, because life is too short. I enjoyed the reference to the original Wonder Boy in the form of the Nightmare Castle boss. The final boss was less enjoyable - a mother brain knock off in space? Doesn’t seem very Wonder Boy, although I suppose the Meka Dragon was a similar twist. It was a right sod anyway, with the buzzsaw on the floor (apparently added to the western versions to spike the difficulty for the rental market) making strategy pretty much impossible