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PANG looks rock hard.  I thought I'd played it before but that showed me I hadn't. Or my memory of the game was completely false. Anyway, good vid. Cheers.

You're welcome, Tips!

I would say Pang's pretty well balanced, really. It ramps up in challenge the further into it you go, which I think these kinds of games should do. Sometimes, all it requires is a balance of timing, strategy and reflexes.

Without the two-player, I found it a bit dull, and without the physical GB controls very difficult to play at speed.

It's definitely not as smooth as other conversions of the game, whether you're emulating it or playing it on real hardware. I spent a bit of time with some other ports of this one as I was researching this video, and it's honestly kind of surprising that Hudson Soft couldn't quite nail down the fluidity of the controls. When you play another port, you almost IMMEDIATELY notice how much easier the handling is.

Glad you're enjoying the videos, Tordels!

ALART! ALART! A new vid-me-do has just gone live.

I've fired up the Gameboy capture kit for what I gather is a fairly rare look at the version of PANG that was released for it. There are plenty of videos on the North American release, which was retitled as 'Buster Bros' but this here is a jin-yoo-wine look at the game as it was packaged for Europe.

It's, uh... pretty much the same bar the title. But, you know how it is. Some people obssess over this stuff. ANYWAY. Here's a pretty picture:



And here's a link to the video:
https://youtu.be/1IPp7QjB_4U

Heads up folks - got something a *bit* special planned for tonight's video.

This latest one represents a bit of a milestone. I sank more hours into it than I reasonably should have, because the nature of the hardware it's captured from, and a few other techie details, made it an extremely demanding video to edit.

The review was originally written WAY back, and intended to appear early on in the first run of reviews. But it turned out capturing a clean video signal from an N64 was near impossible. So I've had to get a bit creative witht he tools I have to hand.

Anyway, this review goes live tonight at 8:00PM as a YouTube Premiere. Read below the pic to see why that's a big deal:



So, why is it going up as a Premiere? Well, because it allows you the opportunity to watch it for the first time LIVE, with an interactive chat window! Yes... you can actually TALK TO ME! OR EACH OTHER! OR ANYONE ELSE WHO SHOWS UP! The wonders of modern technology, eh?

I'll be online at 7:50PM. If any of you fancy it, it'll be great to see you there. Standard rules apply: just basically be nice to each other and bring popcorn.

The video lasts approximately 10 minutes, and will be viewable as normal after the premiere.

I checked out the channel and really liked the way it's presented. I also share the same sentiments on Homefront. It's great to see Atari and PC engine there too. Keep it up you got a new subscriber. (More Atari!)

Cheers! I'm always trying to refine these videos and make them the best they can be for you guys. My tribe may be small-ish, but you're worth it!

More Atari stuff is a dead cert. I'm BIG into the 2600, and I'm actually trying to swing something to bring Lynx games to the channel in the near future.

Watch this space!

WOOHOO! I'm twenty videos old!

The latest review's gone out today in a bit of an experiment to see if I can snag more viewers by posting at the weekend. This time, I snag something cheap on the Nintendo Switch eShop and see if it's really as much of a bargain as it seemed. It's REFUNCT, a low-stress game about jumping and pushing buttons and things.



https://youtu.be/qSN0XdtoXDQ

Yeah it is steep for the physical versions, I stuck with the digital myself. Maybe I'll upgrade tiers down the line if possible, would be pretty crazy to get my name in the credits of an R-Type game!

I'm thinking about springing for a physical copy now - I had a bit of bonus pay come through on something yesterday afternoon, so I may have to nab it on PS4! Decisions decisions... pay out for juicy Kickstarter swag, or save money for survival in the inevitable wasteland setting of post Brexit Britain? Agh!

I did spot that one of the stretch goals was for a recreation of stage 3 from the original R-Type. Doesn't look like it'll happen, but how awesome would that be?

Quick note to say how much I enjoyed the latest two videos - I'd never played either of the games (Homefront and Alien Crush - or even heard of the PC Engine!), but they were very enjoyable reviews, and made me want to.

Cheers, Tordels! I'm happy to say the show's getting a LOT of positive reaction at the moment. I mean, that doesn't equate to views, necessarily, but people are enjoying what I'm doing and even sticking their hands in their pockets to finance production. So I must be doing something right.

Regarding the PC Engine, a few folks have mentioned to me after this last review that they didn't know it even existed. That's a real shame, as it was an absolutely awesome little console! It had a very interesting catalogue of games, too, including ports of some beloved arcade titles, and even a few notable Sega games.

If you fancy seeing a bit more of what it can do, be sure to check out my review of Override for it as well.

Back the kickstarter and you'll get it mate!

Checking it over, I REALLY want to. Tempted to spring for the physical edition, but maaaan... almost £50 is a lot to find on short notice.

I'll chew it over for a bit.

Thought this would be a good place to link the R-Type Final 2 Kickstarter!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/granzella/r-type-final-2-aiming-for-a-brand-new-the-best-shmup-ever

I backed it straight away, I'm not an R-type superfan precisely, but I'm getting more into shmups and I'd love to see more old developers coming out of the woodwork like this.

I do loves me some R-Type! Really hoping that'll somehow find its way to the West.

last year, I was given the loan of a PSVR headset and The Persistence and the demo disc for what was supposed to be a week. I lasted two days with it. Turns out I'm one of the tiny percentage of people who absolutely cannot, under any circumstances, on pain of very prolonged discomfort use VR.

A friend very kindly allowed me to use his headset to see if I could get on with it and add PSVR content to my YouTube channel. After minimal use on the first day, I felt quite unwell. After a similar amount of use on teh second, I felt worse, had to lay down for the rest of the evening, and was fighting the urge to be violently sick for a good week after that.

In a way, I'm not too disappointed about my experiencem though, because - and I cannot stress this enough - I really think PSVR is massively over-rated. The technology felt to me like it was already outdated, with the fuzzy, low resolution graphics and cables permanently attached. Having to provide your own decent headphones was kind of aggravating as well.

The kicker for me, though, is that I just can't imagine spending much time playing games on PSVR even if it DIDN'T make me feel like vomming spectacularly. The Persistence - which I'd been told was a killer app for PSVR - was utterly woeful. Uncomfortable to play, extremely fuzzy visuals, and far too prone to dumping me in a position where I'd be killed by something I couldn't even see. Such a shame, as it was really looking like the kind of thing I'd enjoy. Looking over write-ups for other popular PSVR games, a lot of them sound like glorified tech demos.

Alas, I'll never do VR again.

I miss pinball, the real thing I mean, computer simulations are never quite right. I used to be an absolute whizz at Pinbot back in the 80s, but my list of Manchester pubs that still have a machine is now down to just one.

I do have a real fondness for good quality pinball machines. I don't think anything beats the real thing.

Funny that you mention Pinbot. I was actually given copies of both that and High Speed for the NES to review right back when I started the show. I've heard good things about both of them. Sadly, I've never been able to play either of them, as they simply don't work in the NES clone console I use to capture footage. In the case of High Speed, I think the cartridge has simply upped and died.

I also have Video Pinball for the Atari 2600, which is entertainingly dreadful. At least, it's entertainingly dreadful if you're considering writing a review of it. Otherwise, it's just dreadful.

I think a lot comes down to the development with these kinds of games. Some publishers seem to think 'Ah! Pinball! People love that! We'll wang out a quick pinball sim and rely on getting easy money for it!' while others are more committed to doing a decent job.

I particularly remember Pinball Dreams and Pinball Fantasies on the Commodore Amiga being absolutely fantastic.

Latest review is up now - and it might be the last one for a bit, as I have a mix of real life and comics stuff that I need to concentrate on for a bit. Got a few too many balls in the air right now.

And, speaking of balls... well... pinball...



Here's a direct link:
https://youtu.be/hXZ2d3e6oP0

[VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED.]

Alright... who wants another one?

This one releases into the wild a good bit later than I'd intended. I've had LOTS of comics work on these last few weeks, plus a hundred and one technical issues in the recording of the commentary turned it into a bit of a beast to get finished.

It's also something of a labour of love. This time, I look at the PS3 version of HOMEFRONT - a first person shooter that's seldom mentioned in an especially positive light. However, it's premise is really quite interesting. And unsettling. So I give the game a thorough dissection to see if that makes it worthwhile.

By the way, folks: VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED. This one contains some imagery that viewers may find distressing, as well as some in-game strong language. As a result, it's age restricted.



Direct link to review:
https://youtu.be/O5RQPr4gdSo

[Hellblade: Senua's sacrifice]

Hellblade: Senua's sacrifice Amazing game. Never played anything like it.

No word of a lie - that game made proper emotional mincemeat out of me. I think it may have one of the all time great video game endings. Absolutely loved it!

Yeah its a minefield isn't it, there's the 16-bit generation of which I'd say the TG-16 is an early member of, and then whether the hardware itself warrants the term 16-bit.

This is the exact point that caused the trouble I mentioned earlier. Those sneaky marketing types were all about passing off the PC Engine as a 16 bit system in the States. It took me an AGE to get to the bottom of what the deal was there.

That console is a WEIRD bit of kit. Two 8 bit processors tied to 16 bit graphics handling. Kind of interesting, seeing how it gave it the edge in performance over the other hardware you could get at the time. But I'm reliably informed that doubling up on 8 bit processors doesn't equate to 16 bit horsepower.  I tried looking into it a bit further but... eh. I had comics to letter and my head was already starting to spin.

It really is fascinating to see how some of those older machines worked, though. A point of particular interest for me is how we have a growing market for single board computers which are now being used quite commonly to emulate console technology. Looking at how similar so many of those SBCs are, and how unique the internals of certain consoles were, it's amazing to me that people can make the one behave like the other!