The Retrogaming Thread! [8-bit/16-bit/32-bit/64-bit]



As a HUGE fan of the Ghosts N' Goblins/Ghouls N' Ghosts series, I'm surprised I had never heard of this one: Ultimate Ghosts N' Goblins for the PSP! Can't really comment on it much since I've ONLY just started playing, but it really retains a lot of the spirit of the older games (in a way, it seems like a combination of the 16 bit and GnG resurrection)! Can't wait to dive into this. :) Something about the GnG franchise is just really satisfying for me, despite the difficulty, the visuals, gameplay, and overall style of this series is amongst my favorite of all time.
 
millossobek said:


As a HUGE fan of the Ghosts N' Goblins/Ghouls N' Ghosts series, I'm surprised I had never heard of this one: Ultimate Ghosts N' Goblins for the PSP! Can't really comment on it much since I've ONLY just started playing, but it really retains a lot of the spirit of the older games (in a way, it seems like a combination of the 16 bit and GnG resurrection)! Can't wait to dive into this. :) Something about the GnG franchise is just really satisfying for me, despite the difficulty, the visuals, gameplay, and overall style of this series is amongst my favorite of all time.
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I really didn't like it when I played it many years ago. I really wanted to like it and this may sound bizarre but I think the graphics style hinders the gameplay. If you play an 8bit or 16bit version it just seems a lot tighter in the gameplay. The accuracy of movement is way better in the 8bit and 16bit versions. I was disappointed with it when I payed it.

@Juventino32 Castlevania is great on PSP purely because of the unlockable games.
 
PES4eva said:
I really didn't like it when I played it many years ago. I really wanted to like it and this may sound bizarre but I think the graphics style hinders the gameplay. If you play an 8bit or 16bit version it just seems a lot tighter in the gameplay. The accuracy of movement is way better in the 8bit and 16bit versions. I was disappointed with it when I payed it.

@Juventino32 Castlevania is great on PSP purely because of the unlockable games.
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The 2023-2024 Ghost'n'Goblins resurrection is closer to the controls and overall game's mix of humor and darkness but if you try it on hard, so with only 2 chance before dying like the true version, it's really too hard : it's way more dynamic than the 16bits arcade versions already hard.

But i like Ultimate Ghost'n'Goblins but i tried it on PPSSPP, never owned a PsP so... There's a special version called in jap Ultimate Gng revision / Goku Makaimurai Kai (Kai is often added on games or series/movies to say it's the max version) with the same difficulty as the Arcade version. No idea if it was out in our language.

It's not even because i'm used to play Ghost'n'Gobling/Ghouls'n'ghosts/Super GnG, but the Resurrection version is litteraly more than twice time Harder than both old versions.
Monsters Patterns are far less predictable, all is going too fast. Every stage looks like a Final stage.
 
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NeoRetro said:
The 2023-2024 Ghost'n'Goblins resurrection is closer to the controls and overall game's mix of humor and darkness but if you try it on hard, so with only 2 chance before dying like the true version, it's really too hard : it's way more dynamic than the 16bits arcade versions already hard.

But i like Ultimate Ghost'n'Goblins but i tried it on PPSSPP, never owned a PsP so... There's a special version called in jap Ultimate Gng revision / Goku Makaimurai Kai (Kai is often added on games or series/movies to say it's the max version) with the same difficulty as the Arcade version. No idea if it was out in our language.

It's not even because i'm used to play Ghost'n'Gobling/Ghouls'n'ghosts/Super GnG, but the Resurrection version is litteraly more than twice time Harder than both old versions.
Monsters Patterns are far less predictable, all is going too fast. Every stage looks like a Final stage.
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That sounds much better but I don't really play new games anymore. The newest system I own is a switch lite but I haven't used it for about a year. I just lack interest in new games for some reason. Probably getting old 😄
 
I also really prefer retrogaming in general (with the exception of strategy and sports games, which I like all generations), but I do think that a lot of the games like GnG resurrection have a retro quality to them.. "Metroidvania" platformers with more modern graphics, but more importantly, with the spirit of the 8/16/32 bit era. For example, Streets of Rage 4, and GnG.(Also Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze and the newest Contra for the Switch) IMO, these games, even though are more recent, maintain the overall things that made platforming games great, and I think they are great in the sense that they follow what we retrogamers like :)

 
millossobek said:
This looks and feels like RC Pro Am! (a successor to it). Looks really fun! :TU:
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Check it out when you get chance. There's quite a few exclusive games on the Jaguar which are very good. It's a bit of a niche system but there's definitely some gems in that library.
 
@PES4eva there's Power Drive on Snes, but i believe that the Jaguar one is probably the sequel (didn't searched i suppose).

I love too the racing games in Isometric 3D or sky view like Micromachines and the way to turn like if you drived a buggy with remote control.



There's also "1000 miglia" a pretty intersting one on Arcade and i just discovered they're a sequel 1000 miglia 2, Neo drift out for NeoGeo etc. i tried all of those as i found the controls pretty fun.



 
NeoRetro said:
@PES4eva there's Power Drive on Snes, but i believe that the Jaguar one is probably the sequel (didn't searched i suppose).

I love too the racing games in Isometric 3D or sky view like Micromachines and the way to turn like if you drived a buggy with remote control.



There's also "1000 miglia" a pretty intersting one on Arcade and i just discovered they're a sequel 1000 miglia 2, Neo drift out for NeoGeo etc. i tried all of those as i found the controls pretty fun.



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Yeah I'm a fan of Neo drift out but I haven't heard of 1000 Milglia.. that's a new one on me. Looks pretty decent.

@Juventino32 Yeah Off-road is a great game. I really do like the top down style of the older racing games. I prefer them to head on racing the road view which is used in most driving games, especially these days.
 
I found a basic controller more adapted for that type of racing games. Now i like the two styles with the cockpit or top down view but with a gamepad....
For having true fun with you need the whole package : Wheel, pedals and a racing chair....

Also a gearbox even if whatever the game direction (sim or cade) for those game, i don't mind and prefers driving already bores me i always choose automatic speed change.

There was only one game i played on Arcade with the gears, Ridge Racer. It wasn't as beautiful as Daytona or Sega Rally (out in the same time on my country) i remind that the controlling the car was far easier so i could focus on gears change.
 
I've been trying to play some games from my teenage lately (late '90s, early 2000s) and... It saddens me that I can't enjoy them as much as I remember I did back in the day.

I mean, I was anticipating playing with Total Soccer 2000 a lot as I seemed to remember having enjoyed it a lot when it came out...
Now? Yeah, interesting game, ice to play (it's pretty much a 3D-enabled version of Sensible Soccer) but it doesn't give me anymore the same feeling I seemed to remember.
NHL 99? I spent countless hours with it, it was one of my favourite games... Now? Good, but nothing special. The same applies to Actua Ice Hockey (a game about which I have many, many fond memories).
Also, NBA Live 2000 gives me the same feeling. I'm undecided about whether I should try ISS 64, FIFA 98 and FIFA 99 again as I'm afraid I'll spoil them too.

The only games that seem to have aged well to me are ISS Pro (the 1997 one if I reall correctly) and ISS Pro Evolution for the PlayStation.

Am I the only one?
 
*aLe said:
I've been trying to play some games from my teenage lately (late '90s, early 2000s) and... It saddens me that I can't enjoy them as much as I remember I did back in the day.

I mean, I was anticipating playing with Total Soccer 2000 a lot as I seemed to remember having enjoyed it a lot when it came out...
Now? Yeah, interesting game, ice to play (it's pretty much a 3D-enabled version of Sensible Soccer) but it doesn't give me anymore the same feeling I seemed to remember.
NHL 99? I spent countless hours with it, it was one of my favourite games... Now? Good, but nothing special. The same applies to Actua Ice Hockey (a game about which I have many, many fond memories).
Also, NBA Live 2000 gives me the same feeling. I'm undecided about whether I should try ISS 64, FIFA 98 and FIFA 99 again as I'm afraid I'll spoil them too.

The only games that seem to have aged well to me are ISS Pro (the 1997 one if I reall correctly) and ISS Pro Evolution for the PlayStation.

Am I the only one?
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Same experience here regarding some timeless classic masterpieces. Because I was a PC gaming nerd mostly all my life and thinking about that '90s and early 2000s golden age period playing all variety of genres (of course sports being one of my favorites) I was thinking to install some Win95 & Win98 PC emulator (with crt-shaders to get that authentic feel & look on my modern monitor) and relive again natively some of those moments:

(Windows 95)

win95games.png

(Windows 98)

win98games.png

I was positively surprised to see that everything looks and works great, even better than in my old days Pentium II MMX because I was able to add some better compatible specs to emulate that hardware configuration as Voodoo2 acceleration, EAX for sound, and so on.

Overall I have great fun and lots of nostalgia, but as you've pointed out there are some games that nowadays doesn't generate that gameplay impact like back in the day. Regarding sports games or racing games there is some simplicity combined with clunkiness, raw 3D polygons in games like NFS, FIFA 98/99 or even present in some FPS like Dark Forces II Jedi Knight. Of course, that doesn't take the nostalgic feel and fun or diminishing its value now at all but overall I can't play more than an hour just for those facts. Also there are lots of games (if not the majority) like awesome strategies, RPGs and platforms from that time that stands the test of time perfectly (played 2 weeks ago Heroes 3, StarCraft BroodWar, Commandos during and entire night :LOL:), games like Quake 2 or Unreal that I still enjoy those "retro" graphics plus platforms as Pitfall, Jazz Jackrabbit 2 or Rayman 2 that are gorgeously done.

As you've mentioned, it depends a lot which type of game: ISS could still be great because of that addictive gameplay and FIFA after years doesn't have that push, or other sports like NBA and NHL that were unique regarding innovative gameplay back then but nowadays the experience can feel really short... Mostly I enjoy those timeless classics again from time to time, some just for some nostalgia, but most of them because overall they aged perfectly...
 
@etb10dmk All I'm going to say is: Beavis and Butthead!! Hahahahah I had so much fun playing this one, as a huge fan of the series! :LOL:

In all seriousness though, like you guys mentioned I really think it depends on the type of game. I've found that most Pre-2000 sports games don't hold up too well nowadays IMO (with some notable exceptions such as Jimmy Connors Tennis, ISS Deluxe, NHL 95). For example, I love NBA 2k14, I think it's the best basketball game ever, but I tried playing NBA Live 96 PC and it didn't have the same impact it did then, even though I absolutely loved it and spent COUNTLESS hours on it as a kid.



Other games, such as BTA's like Streets of Rage 2, Final Fight, or classic adventure games such as the aforementioned GnG series, Yoshi's Island, Super Castlevania 4, all of the Mario games, and Seiken Densetsu 3 amongst so many others ABSOLUTELY have not only stood the test of time, but remain amongst my ALL-TIME favorite games. I would have to say that in general, I prefer 8-64 bit retrogaming to modern gaming, with the exception of strategy and sports games. In the end, it all comes down to fun factor and gameplay!

Here is the aforementioned Seiken Densetsu 3, easily one of my top games of ALL TIME, regardless of era! :TU:



Streets of Rage 2, another absolute classic that I consider amongst my ALL-TIME favorite games! :)



And Yoshi's Island, another masterpiece IMO! :BSCARF:

 
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millossobek said:
@etb10dmk All I'm going to say is: Beavis and Butthead!! Hahahahah I had so much fun playing this one, as a huge fan of the series! :LOL:
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Ohhh "Beavis & Butthead In Virtual Stupidity" :LOL:. I remember playing it a lot as a kid in 1995 with friends, didn't even knew how to exit the classroom searching for clues, then when I finally did it, was like going through a new level and see what happens. Entering girls toilet and spitting on people from the roof was fun...




Another awesome game that was imprinted into my brain on PC was "Pitfall A Mayan Adventure". So blown away back then in 1995 by those clear CRT pixels & smooth animations.




..... then also in 1995, there was also this fighting game called Battle Beasts where you can transform your cute animals into bloody cyborgs and have tournaments:




Those games and memories, there is too much.... not to mention DOS games, that was the decade just before this... 😍 Sorry guys, I'm going too sentimental... :CRY:
 
etb10dmk said:
Same experience here regarding some timeless classic masterpieces. Because I was a PC gaming nerd mostly all my life and thinking about that '90s and early 2000s golden age period playing all variety of genres (of course sports being one of my favorites) I was thinking to install some Win95 & Win98 PC emulator (with crt-shaders to get that authentic feel & look on my modern monitor) and relive again natively some of those moments:

(Windows 95)

View attachment 332418

(Windows 98)

View attachment 332419

I was positively surprised to see that everything looks and works great, even better than in my old days Pentium II MMX because I was able to add some better compatible specs to emulate that hardware configuration as Voodoo2 acceleration, EAX for sound, and so on.

Overall I have great fun and lots of nostalgia, but as you've pointed out there are some games that nowadays doesn't generate that gameplay impact like back in the day. Regarding sports games or racing games there is some simplicity combined with clunkiness, raw 3D polygons in games like NFS, FIFA 98/99 or even present in some FPS like Dark Forces II Jedi Knight. Of course, that doesn't take the nostalgic feel and fun or diminishing its value now at all but overall I can't play more than an hour just for those facts. Also there are lots of games (if not the majority) like awesome strategies, RPGs and platforms from that time that stands the test of time perfectly (played 2 weeks ago Heroes 3, StarCraft BroodWar, Commandos during and entire night :LOL:), games like Quake 2 or Unreal that I still enjoy those "retro" graphics plus platforms as Pitfall, Jazz Jackrabbit 2 or Rayman 2 that are gorgeously done.

As you've mentioned, it depends a lot which type of game: ISS could still be great because of that addictive gameplay and FIFA after years doesn't have that push, or other sports like NBA and NHL that were unique regarding innovative gameplay back then but nowadays the experience can feel really short... Mostly I enjoy those timeless classics again from time to time, some just for some nostalgia, but most of them because overall they aged perfectly...
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I get that nostalgia feeling of course, I'm currently playing the games which I mentioned through PCem and I'm surprised at how good the emulation is with that.
Basically I now have a totally functioning Windows 95 PC and a totally functioning Windows 98 PC within Windows 10.
The Windows 95 PC is hardly being used (I only got it to experiment some very old Office builds so I coulkd remember how it was) but the WIndows 98 one is being used pretty frequently. It has a 450 MHz Pentium II with 256 MB of RAM (yes I know it's an overkill) and a Voodoo 3 3000.
I wish the development of PCem would go on one day and that we could emulate also some more recent D3D cards (not too recent, something like the ATI RAGE series) as some games from around 2000 used to work better with D3D than they did with Glide (and Glide started not being supported anymore shortly after).
 
*aLe said:
I get that nostalgia feeling of course, I'm currently playing the games which I mentioned through PCem and I'm surprised at how good the emulation is with that.
Basically I now have a totally functioning Windows 95 PC and a totally functioning Windows 98 PC within Windows 10.
The Windows 95 PC is hardly being used (I only got it to experiment some very old Office builds so I coulkd remember how it was) but the WIndows 98 one is being used pretty frequently. It has a 450 MHz Pentium II with 256 MB of RAM (yes I know it's an overkill) and a Voodoo 3 3000.
I wish the development of PCem would go on one day and that we could emulate also some more recent D3D cards (not too recent, something like the ATI RAGE series) as some games from around 2000 used to work better with D3D than they did with Glide (and Glide started not being supported anymore shortly after).
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Man you totally nailed it, just for the fact that I was sharing 2 screenshots you already knew that I was using PCem (not 86box that's the more "advanced" version and the main competitor, even though it's a PCem branch using its core). Regarding my specs in PCem I use those:

Windows 95:
-Shuttle Hot 557 Intel Pentium MMX 166 with 64 RAM
-S3Virge/DX (without Voodoo coz' doesn't make any sense too early back then)
-SoundBlaster 16
- HDD 5 GB

Windows 98:
-Shuttle Hot 557 Intel Pentium MMX 233 with 128 RAM
-Phoenix S3 Trio64 (with Voodoo 2 graphics 4 MB)
-Sound Blaster PCI 128
-HDD 10GB

With those combos everything works great. Regarding the overall build, right now from what I was investigating, I think the best way to boot a game (that was a thing back then in 95-98) plus performance you'll get from games running with a PII 233, Voodoo2 after doing tests on different "builds". Regarding the D3D totally agree, I remember even on raw hardware I've experienced better performance on D3D than using Glide, I mean totally kills it).

PCem is awesome !!! Hope Sarah with the help of others will release new official versions to improve it after v17 released in 2021 (besides those reddit branches).
 
A bit late to the discussion, but I want to say mine too.

There are games I can't play anymore as well and I think it's pretty normal. Stuff like Fifa 98 or 99, that I consumed at the times, may be nice to fire up for nostalgia factor.. but playing it for even a whole game, don't think I could. Gameplay, visuals, animations, subtleties.. it all look so, how can I say, naive today. It's funny cause I remember seeing in particular Fifa 99 at a friends house for a first time.. looked incredible to my 13/14 years old eyes, like the most realistic thing ever, and absolutely loved it for all that year long after I bought it (also the Vieri italian cover:
s-l400.jpg
is one of my favourite of a football game ever 🤤), but even looking at youtube videos.. I just can't. I also find a bit hard to replay Iss Pro or Iss Pro 98, although they were both what probably made me fall in love with football games.. not as hard as going to old Fifas, but to me Winning Eleven 4 set a standard that is so hard to go back from.

Leaving aside football games, I also kinda find difficult to immerse myself in most of early 00s FPS/Third person polygonal games, even masterpieces like Half Life or Deus Ex.. I think that style aged really poorly. At the opposite, everything pixel like that looked good in the past, is still mostly beautiful today (take classic Doom and Doom 2 for example.. I still replay and refinish them from time to time. Or most of graphic adventures, RPGs and platforms of these days). But it's probably also case to case (Mario 64 came out in 96 and I think the 3d still looks absolutely gorgeous, for example).

millossobek said:
@etb10dmk All I'm going to say is: Beavis and Butthead!! Hahahahah I had so much fun playing this one, as a huge fan of the series! :LOL:

In all seriousness though, like you guys mentioned I really think it depends on the type of game. I've found that most Pre-2000 sports games don't hold up too well nowadays IMO (with some notable exceptions such as Jimmy Connors Tennis, ISS Deluxe, NHL 95). For example, I love NBA 2k14, I think it's the best basketball game ever, but I tried playing NBA Live 96 PC and it didn't have the same impact it did then, even though I absolutely loved it and spent COUNTLESS hours on it as a kid.

Click to expand...
NBA Live 97 was one of those games I played at my cousin house back in the days.. in my kid's memory it's also carved as an incredibly realistic game. So weird to look at it on youtube and find out how fantasy colored things back in the day 😅

etb10dmk said:
Same experience here regarding some timeless classic masterpieces. Because I was a PC gaming nerd mostly all my life and thinking about that '90s and early 2000s golden age period playing all variety of genres (of course sports being one of my favorites) I was thinking to install some Win95 & Win98 PC emulator (with crt-shaders to get that authentic feel & look on my modern monitor) and relive again natively some of those moments:

(Windows 95)

View attachment 332418

(Windows 98)

View attachment 332419

I was positively surprised to see that everything looks and works great, even better than in my old days Pentium II MMX because I was able to add some better compatible specs to emulate that hardware configuration as Voodoo2 acceleration, EAX for sound, and so on.

Overall I have great fun and lots of nostalgia, but as you've pointed out there are some games that nowadays doesn't generate that gameplay impact like back in the day. Regarding sports games or racing games there is some simplicity combined with clunkiness, raw 3D polygons in games like NFS, FIFA 98/99 or even present in some FPS like Dark Forces II Jedi Knight. Of course, that doesn't take the nostalgic feel and fun or diminishing its value now at all but overall I can't play more than an hour just for those facts. Also there are lots of games (if not the majority) like awesome strategies, RPGs and platforms from that time that stands the test of time perfectly (played 2 weeks ago Heroes 3, StarCraft BroodWar, Commandos during and entire night :LOL:), games like Quake 2 or Unreal that I still enjoy those "retro" graphics plus platforms as Pitfall, Jazz Jackrabbit 2 or Rayman 2 that are gorgeously done.

As you've mentioned, it depends a lot which type of game: ISS could still be great because of that addictive gameplay and FIFA after years doesn't have that push, or other sports like NBA and NHL that were unique regarding innovative gameplay back then but nowadays the experience can feel really short... Mostly I enjoy those timeless classics again from time to time, some just for some nostalgia, but most of them because overall they aged perfectly...
Click to expand...

Love what you did with those Windows emulators mate! So many memories for me as well 😍
 
Madmac79 said:
Love what you did with those Windows emulators mate! So many memories for me as well 😍
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Mostly I did it because for me and many others was one of the best periods in gaming history (late 80's, 90's and early 2000 was the golden era in everything regarding culture, entertainment or sports related in my opinion). In other hand I wanted also to experience fully my childhood again for some nostalgia factor. Was a challenge at first, because I needed a powerful program that could emulate that vintage hardware and software in its full splendor (don't like virtual machines so I excluded those), a CRT shader that could get those pixels and doble scan look, plus those authentic drivers (like DirectX and others). Then finally installing Win95+98, enjoying software & games with all those ancient classic setup steps plus as a bonus some authentic bugs & errors are included from that period of course :LOL:. I love it because emulates everything, you can go into Bios or get from Windows into MS-DOS itself. Feels like a nostalgic pandora box...

If someone has fond memories from that time and has some curiosity to go into this rabbit hole, here is some popular introducion to PCem:





Besides, accompanied with some compilation of games:


 
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