Your Daily Dose of Gaming.

[esteban]

Aki: Some folks here have suggested that Kaze Kiri = Spartan X for PCE. I personally wouldn't give Kaze Kiri that distinction, because I have much more fun with Spartan X.

Finally got time to play some games.  I actually beat some too!

Crystal Beans (SFC)
Not sure how I feel about this game.  I like Dungeon Explorer and this version seems to be a mix of DE dungeons and SFC (only?) dungeons.  This version seems to be more of a straight action game w/o the general exploring of DE.  There's a map where you just select your destination and it's off to whatever town or dungeon you select.  Basically you go into town to "unlock" the next dungeon.  I'd hardly call them puzzles since just speaking to everybody in town will unlock the next path.  Hell, probably just going into the town and leaving would be enough.

The dungeons seem pretty short.  Toward the end of the game, you have to go thru successive dungeons and fight a number of bosses.  But even during that marathon you can still exit the dungeon and go back to town... although there's no reason to.  

The music is decent.  It was nice to hear a number of the PCE tracks remade for this version.  

Out of the 15-20 or so bosses, only like 4 or 5 of them were actually tough.  The last boss wasn't that hard either.  The only reason why he was hard to beat was that you had to do a ton of damage to him.  Most other bosses died pretty quickly.

Hey, are you interested in selling me Crystal Beans? I've wanted to play this game! Have you determined if there is a multiplayer mode in CB?

[FM-77]

There is a multiplayer mode in Crystal Beans (2/3 players only). I played it with my brother once.

[GUTS]

Haha awesome, Steve just said Kung Fu was better than Kaze Kiri!  Finally somebody who agrees with me, Kaze Kiri is weak sauce and Kung Fu rocks its face off.

[rolins]

Been playing Splatterhouse alot on the FM-Towns. I'm so damn impressed by the music which is redbook, and near identical graphics of the arcade. Last night I went back to playing the pce version and notice how much smaller the playing field is in comparison to the FM-Towns port. This game really could have been remade on the PC-Engine arcade cd or some kind of Namco anthology for todays consoles. Splatterhouse fans are really missing out on this gem.

[esteban]

Been playing Splatterhouse alot on the FM-Towns. I'm so damn impressed by the music which is redbook, and near identical graphics of the arcade. Last night I went back to playing the pce version and notice how much smaller the playing field is in comparison to the FM-Towns port. This game really could have been remade on the PC-Engine arcade cd or some kind of Namco anthology for todays consoles. Splatterhouse fans are really missing out on this gem.

GODDAMN, the legend is true! I've always heard that this was a godly port, and you're corroborating the hearsay. Damn!

And this game, IIRC, goes for MAD $$$, even in Yahoo Japan auctions.

I honestly don't understand why Namco has abandoned this game.

[rolins]

Been playing Splatterhouse alot on the FM-Towns. I'm so damn impressed by the music which is redbook, and near identical graphics of the arcade. Last night I went back to playing the pce version and notice how much smaller the playing field is in comparison to the FM-Towns port. This game really could have been remade on the PC-Engine arcade cd or some kind of Namco anthology for todays consoles. Splatterhouse fans are really missing out on this gem.

GODDAMN, the legend is true! I've always heard that this was a godly port, and you're corroborating the hearsay. Damn!

And this game, IIRC, goes for MAD $$$, even in Yahoo Japan auctions.

I honestly don't understand why Namco has abandoned this game.

Most reviews I've read say the samething that the FM-Towns ports is the best, and they're entirely true. I played thru both the FM-Towns and Arcade (via mame) up to stage 4 and did a side by side comparison. Almost perfect IMO, slight differences in sound effects and resolution is somewhat smaller in FM-Towns port but expected in console game. Why Namco isn't re-releasing this gem is like Konami hold back Dracula X and Policenauts from the rest of the world. It's blasphemy I say.

[Black Tiger]

Been playing Splatterhouse alot on the FM-Towns. I'm so damn impressed by the music which is redbook, and near identical graphics of the arcade. Last night I went back to playing the pce version and notice how much smaller the playing field is in comparison to the FM-Towns port. This game really could have been remade on the PC-Engine arcade cd or some kind of Namco anthology for todays consoles. Splatterhouse fans are really missing out on this gem.

GODDAMN, the legend is true! I've always heard that this was a godly port, and you're corroborating the hearsay. Damn!

And this game, IIRC, goes for MAD $$$, even in Yahoo Japan auctions.

I honestly don't understand why Namco has abandoned this game.

Most reviews I've read say the samething that the FM-Towns ports is the best, and they're entirely true. I played thru both the FM-Towns and Arcade (via mame) up to stage 4 and did a side by side comparison. Almost perfect IMO, slight differences in sound effects and resolution is somewhat smaller in FM-Towns port but expected in console game. Why Namco isn't re-releasing this gem is like Konami hold back Dracula X and Policenauts from the rest of the world. It's blasphemy I say.

Drac X and Policenauts are original games though. I don't blame companies for not releasing emulations of virtually perfect arcade ports when they can just put out a quality port/emulation of the actual arcade game itself.

Personally, I'm not that interested in playing perfect ports for systems like X68000 (I don't know how perfect FM Towns ports are), because they're too perfect and the hardware isn't greatly inferior to the original.

Forgotten Worlds on PCE is amazing. A near perfect FW on X68000 would be expected.

I am interested in seeing them compared to the originals on websites and such, but if it looks, sounds and plays like the arcade, I might as well be playing Mame instead of an X68000 emulator.

[rolins]

@Black_Tiger

Jeez, no love for the Sharp X68000?
I'm the opposite, I'd rather be playing games on the X68000 than on mame.

[Black Tiger]

@Black_Tiger

Jeez, no love for the Sharp X68000?
I'm the opposite, I'd rather be playing games on the X68000 than on mame.

I think its cool and I would love to have the real deal, but I wouldn't spend too much time emulating the 'perfect' arcade ports.

Of course, this is going on third hand knowledge, I've never managed to get an X68k  emu to work. If I did, I might get hooked.

But regardless, I think its understandable that companies wouldn't offer emulations of perfect ports instead of perfectly emulated ports.

[Bonknuts]

You should try to get the x68k emu to work - you're missing some cool titles. Genocide 2 is soo much better than the first one.

[GUTS]

Its worth using the X68000 emulator just to play the awesome Geograph Seal, an early (maybe first?) game made by the guys who made Jumping Flash.  Its like Jumping Flash mixed with Starfox, it rules and looks damn good for an old polygon game.  If you have a modded Xbox there's an X68000 emulator that runs it flawlessly, that's what I play it on.

[rolins]

Of course, this is going on third hand knowledge, I've never managed to get an X68k  emu to work. If I did, I might get hooked.

It doesn't take much to get a X68000 emulator going.
You'll only need two things...
1.) Win68K v0.95 High speed version
2.) X68000 system roms

source: http://www.jcec.co.uk/X68emu.htm

[Keranu]

I agree with Black_Tiger here; I'm not intersted in playing arcade or near-arcade perfect titles for a computer system like the X86000 because I really don't have a point to if I already played it on the arcades. I'd love to play any games originally made for the system, but just playing perfect ports of games I've already played would be a waste of my time honestly. If it was a port on a console from back the on the other hand, I would certainly be interested in playing it just to see the differences and how well the console tried to handle the game.

[Black Tiger]

Of course, this is going on third hand knowledge, I've never managed to get an X68k  emu to work. If I did, I might get hooked.

It doesn't take much to get a X68000 emulator going.
You'll only need two things...
1.) Win68K v0.95 High speed version
2.) X68000 system roms

source: http://www.jcec.co.uk/X68emu.htm

Thanks a lot. Now that I got it running, I remember that the problem was actually figuring out how to load games.

Is it the same for any game? Is there a tutorial out there?

[rolins]

@Black_Tiger

First, make sure you put the system roms in the same folder with the Win68k app.

Loading games in Win68k ain't difficult. If the game is on a single disk then load it in FDD0. Then goto File --> Restart

If the game is on more than 2 disks. Load the first disk in FDD0 and the second disk in FDD1. Then goto File --> Restart. Thats should get things going.