jdodson | Cheerful Ghost

Blizzard Giving Warcraft III Some Amazing New Updates!

When WarCraft III launched back in 2002 I was hooked. I played a ton of WarCraft II and as a fan I was really excited to play the next installment and WarCraft III's focus on heroes, amazing 3D graphics and the story made it one of my most played RTS's of that era. I believe WarCraft III is an important game and since many have been getting the remastered treatment it seems like Blizzard might agree.

"Warcraft III's PTR is back and ready for your scrutiny. Join us in testing widescreen support, hero balance changes, and updates to Map Pools for 1's, 2's, 3's, 4's and Free-for-All. We've also added some experimental modes like 24 player support for custom games. "

Getting widescreen support in WarCraft III is a great addition as the it natively only supports 4x3. Many people seem to think that these new rounds of updates coupled with the special WarCraft III invitational tournament next month mean that Blizzard is revving up to give it the StarCraft Remastered treatment. This certainly might suggest it and if that's the case them i'm in because this game is well deserving of one and it might give gamers that didn't play it originally another chance to do so.

https://us.battle.net/forums/en/bnet/topic/20762056755

Mega Man Legacy Collection 1 & 2 Switch Trailer!

Capcom is releasing the Mega Man Legacy Collection 1 & 2 as part of a single release on the Switch which seems like a must buy for Switch owning Mega Man fans. That said, it's not all 8-bit perfection as it looks like Mega Man Legacy Collection 1 is the only release physically on the Switch cart as Collection 2 is a redeemable code. It's not a matter of size either, both games could fit on a single Switch cart. But beyond not putting all the games on a single cart the fact that we're getting Mega Man 1-6 and 7-10 in one release is awesome.

Oh and Capcom is adding a rewind feature to both games which looks like it will make getting past those tricky Mega Man areas much easier.

Let me know if you own a Switch and plan on picking this up on May 22nd.

I've reviewed the Mega Man Legacy Collection on the 3DS and it looks like most of that applies to the Switch version too beyond some new features.

https://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/3577/opening-thoughts-on-the-mega-man-legacy-collection-3ds

I Finally Know Why The Game Is Called Chrono Trigger!

As I continue on with my playthrough of Chrono Trigger the game keeps getting a bit better each time. Since the game has been out for over twenty years i'm going to talk about some plot spoilers so if you are planning on playing this fresh, you might want to avoid reading more.

Firstly as someone that didn't play much of Chrono Trigger when it was originally launched on the Super Nintendo I don't have any particular nostalgia for this title. That said, the game does borrow some graphical and sound elements from past Square games, such as the wind sound effect from Final Fantasy VI. That said, I do have some pretty minor nits about the game and the biggest one is that it throws a lot of new plot level characters at you pretty quickly to the point that I was confused a few times. That said the game does stop adding new plot characters at one point which allowed me to catch up. I imagine if you've played this game a lot it's easy to make sense of all of it but Chrono Trigger is so quickly paced that it's hard to keep your finger on what's going on.

SPOILERS AHEAD. FOR REAL PEOPLE YOU CAN'T UNREAD THIS ONE BELOW

So I just got to the part in the game where Crono sacrifices himself to save the group when they are fighting Lavos. It's a surprising turn, which I didn't see coming and I am now working on bringing him back. It's an interesting choice to kill of the main character and for a bit I wondering if he would just be out of the game entirely? That said, since it's sci-fi the group already has a plan on how to bring him back of sorts which involves a Chrono Trigger, time egg and a replica doll of Crono himself. It's cool that the game is totally going all Search for Spock to bring him back and these kinds of moments are why Chrono Trigger is widely considered to be one of the best games of all time.

I'm not sure how much more I have of the game yet to play before "the end" but it feels like i'm at least half way or more through it. Playing the DS version has been great because I can play it anywhere and if you have the chance to play that version I highly recommend it. In the future if I want to play Chrono Trigger again I'll play the original Super Nintendo version but you can't beat playing it on the go so if you want to give Chrono Trigger a shot you can pick it up on your smartphone or DS.

If you want to read more about this playthrough of Chrono Trigger check out my other post below:

https://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/3594/chrono-trigger-it-s-about-time

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 02/18/2018 at 08:06pm

Awesome! I'm glad you're enjoying it. There is actually another Chrono game, called Chrono Cross. I have it for the PS1 and I'm sure Travis remembers me playing it while we were roommates. I wish that game would get an HD makeover and come to Steam. Oh and speaking of which, Secret of Mana is available on Steam now, I think.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 02/18/2018 at 11:11pm

Yeah, the HD remake of Mana is on steam and it seems to be getting mixed reviews. I disliked the Mana version they brought to iOS and I do plan on playing the new HD PC version at some point even though it’s getting savaged with reviews.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 02/18/2018 at 11:30pm

It's on my wish list. There was a classic Final Fantasy I didn't buy on Steam. It was the DS version or something, I wasn't too fond of the portable remake, so I understand what you mean.

Travis Admin wrote on 02/19/2018 at 02:20am

I not only remember you playing it, Greg. If you remember, I played it too! It’s a really good game. Very different from Trigger (though I admittedly haven’t played much of Trigger). I don’t think either of us enjoyed it as much as Ed though, that dude loved it.

It took me a long time to convince him that JRPGs weren’t demonic but once he was there, man, he was all in.

Travis Admin wrote on 02/19/2018 at 02:24am

And it looks like the Secret of Mana mixed reviews are due to bugs so hopefully those get hammered out.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 02/19/2018 at 02:38am

Ah, great memories, Travis. Thanks for the reminders. I tried to play it again years ago, but I couldn't get over how bad it looks now.

And of course I remember you got me into JRPGs, too!

Travis Admin wrote on 02/19/2018 at 04:07am

There are certain games from that generation (especially on PSX, but also things like Goldeneye on N64) that looked incredible at the time but definitely haven't aged well. It was kind of a transitional generation. Most everything before that holds up graphically, most everything after does as well. I guess it makes sense-- it was when they were first trying for more realism.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 02/20/2018 at 03:04am

Yeah, I don't find most of the early gen Playstation to hold up well at all compared to 8 or 16 bit. PERSONALLY I think the 64 games hold up better but it's because of the limitations of the system and they had less textures to work with making the plain color polygons hold up better when blown up. At least to me eye they look a bit better.

Travis Admin wrote on 02/20/2018 at 03:20am

Especially Nintendo-made games on the N64. They've always made games that use the generation's capabilities while never striving for that kind of realism, so they stand the test of time.

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Lizard Is a Brand New Game Out On The NES!

Lizard is a brand new game made for the original Nintendo Entertainment System that was successfully Kickstarted and has now officially launched. You can check out the trailer above and download a demo of the game on Itch.io. The game demo is a NES ROM, Mac or PC downloadable and the game is available for purchase digitally on all those platforms + Linux. The Lizard developers will make an NES cart release and if you are interested in getting that when it releases you can sign up for an email list on the Lizard website.

The NES fan community is pretty strong these days and it's awesome seeing new games continue to come out for these older systems.

https://rainwarrior.itch.io/lizard
http://lizardnes.com/

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 02/15/2018 at 05:27pm

That video doesn't tell me anything.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 02/16/2018 at 08:57pm

The video asked more questions than it answered. Which means it was written by JJ Abrams.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 02/16/2018 at 09:04pm

No. JJ knows how to market. The Lizard crew does not.

Travis Admin wrote on 02/17/2018 at 01:37am

I mean... it seems like it’s one dude doing literally everything so I can’t blame him for not being great at marketing.

But I dunno, it had some brief gameplay to show what kind of game it is. And it’s a teaser, which if he’s going by the rules of movie trailers vs teasers is meant to just hint at what’s to come. I didn’t really have an issue with it.

Honestly I think if he just released a video with half of those gameplay clips and the voiceover said “look I know my market and if you want to play a brand new NES game you’re going to play this” it would be enough :D

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 02/17/2018 at 04:08am

I thought the trailer was cool but not a ton of detail. Plus they have a demo available so if you're not sure what it is you can try it out.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 02/17/2018 at 04:10am

I expect something more from something that was kickstarted and has been released. I doubt people kickstarted it based on this video. There must be more.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 02/17/2018 at 05:19am

Yeah, his Kickstarter video did explain it pretty well.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1101008925/lizard

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 02/17/2018 at 05:56am

Yes! His Kickstarter video is 1000% greater. I got a sense of the game.

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EA Is Giving Away Dead Space Free On Origin

If you are looking for a new game to play, EA is giving away Dead Space which is the first entry in the franchise that dropped back in 2008. Dead Space received great reviews and is already considered a horror classic by some people in gaming.

"You are Isaac Clarke, an engineer on the spacecraft USG Ishimura. You're not a warrior. You're not a soldier. You are, however, the last line of defense between the remaining living crew and deadly reanimated corpses. The undead have become Necromorphs; horrific zombie-alien hybrids that won't succumb to traditional means. Fortunately, your offense is equally unique, as the high-powered mining tools at your disposal provide the means to fight against the threat."

https://www.origin.com/usa/en-us/store/free-games/on-the-house

Speedrunner SethBling Explains His Sub 1 Minute Super Mario World Speedrun

Speedrunner SethBling recently figured out the first sub 1 minute credits warp for Super Mario World and made a pretty detailed video explaining how it works. Seth uses 4 controllers and by doing that it puts certain values in RAM pushing the game into the right state to get the credits.

Seth provided a detailed Google Doc below that details how you can route this run yourself and all things you need to achieve it such as the Japanese version of SMW.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Cgr0jFw4AU8hF00JcQlOTRb8I1qPd-tF73LtTF4lzZE/edit
https://pastebin.com/V3EtvyGT

The Super Nt Is A Modern FPGA Super Nintendo That Faithfully Adapts The Super Nintendo Without Emulation

Analogue are the creators of the new Super Nt a moderinization of the Super Nintendo that looks to recreate it entirely in hardware. Thing is, most retro remake systems that allow you to play original NES, SNES or Genesis games often use emulation to achieve this which essentially does a ROM dump of the game to play it. The Analogue hardware developers have worked to create a FPGA Super Nintendo that reduces the emulation educed game lag to zero and allows the games to run at a crisp 1080p with authentic audio. At about $200 the system costs as much as the launch Super Nintendo back in the 90's and even includes a built in game Super Turrican. If you are wondering how it plays check out the Metal Jesus review above and if you want to know more how this machine came to be there is an incredible interview with the creator of Analogue on Polygon I've linked below.

Nothing beats the price and convenience of the Super Nintendo classic but as someone with a lot of SNES carts and counting these kinds of systems are pretty incredible.

https://www.analogue.co
https://www.polygon.com/2018/2/5/16965328/analogue-super-nintendo-super-nt-making-of

Awesome Games Done Quick Roundup 3: Ocarina of Time & Those Turtle Games!

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time by ZFG in 4:33:19 Embedded above, this run is a 100% of Ocarina of Time which means it's longer than a run where someone tries to race to the end of the game as quickly as possible using whatever glitches they can as part of an ANY%. Ocarina of time gets a ton of accolades for being one of the best games around and this run is proof why as it's a great thing to watch too.

Super Mario Sunshine by AverageTrey in 3:06:29 Did you play Super Mario Sunshine on GameCube? I didn't as I entirely missed the GameCube era of Nintendo games but if you're looking to see what Super Mario Sunshine is about this run is a good primer. Did you know that in Sunshine Mario uses a spray washer to platform around? It's an interesting mechanic and doesn't seem to have continued on in future games.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xu7jY3OkvVY

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by whitman_price_ in 21:49 Ninja Turtles on NES is really hard and Whitman Price running it in 21 minutes makes it look easy. I had NES Turtles and even though it was REALLY hard I didn't think too negatively of it even though I never was able to actually beat it even though I tried really hard. I got as far as the Technodrome which is pretty far but Whitman keeps the game going to return Splinter to his human form? Apparently NES Turtles thinks Splinter needed to be a human again? I guess it's a sad ending by design.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wMJtIgFO6I

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist by Turbo Gilman in 24:22 Hyperstone Heist is one of the best Turtle brawlers on consoles that only made it's way to Genesis. I played this a lot in the arcade but not sure I have seen the Genesis version but it looks like a great port and Turbo Gilman makes short work of it in 24 minutes!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-Ca-HOfg9k

Watch This 1990 VHS Tape Dub Of The Nintendo Power World Championships

YouTube channel Archades Games recently recorded and uploaded a VHS tape from the 1990 Nintendo World Championships. The actual video starts at 1:05 and is only about 5 minutes. It's a world Championship highlight reel sent to the Championship finalists so only a limited run of these existed. By the end of the Championships Thor Aackerlund was crowned the winner and has gone on to be a retro gaming legend and was featured in the Tetris documentary Ecstasy of Order.

"Got a special one for you all today! I am happy to bring you the footage from one of the few surviving NWC 1990 VHS tapes! This tape was only given to finalists who competed in Universal Studios Hollywood. This tape was loaned to me by Gabriel of the Utah Retro Gamers group for the purpose of preservation and sharing of history! Thank you again Gabriel!"

Into The Breach Is Coming To PC Feb 27th!

Into the Breach is the upcoming turn based strategy mech vs monsters game from Subset Games the creators of the Indie mega hit Faster Than Light. They dropped the new recently that the games is coming to Windows on Steam, GOG and Windows store on February 27th! I imagine the game will get a Mac and Linux port at some point but it looks like the first release of the game will be Windows only. If you want to know more about the game you absolutely must watch the video above of the developer Justin Ma giving a talk about the game and how they approached it's design. It's a really great behind the scenes talk on how they created the game and their focus on using simple design mechanics seem to have made a very approachable game that is easy enough to understand but can create some very challenging scenarios.

Does Into The Breach look like something you are getting at launch?

https://mobile.twitter.com/ChrisAvellone/status/961039565774512128

jdodson1

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