Random retro thoughts

Adobe are officially ending support for Flash Player at the end of today. That's not such a big deal, but this news made me feel nostalgic for all those NES games I was introduced to on online Flash emulators. I remember playing through a bit of Little Nemo on Bebo via a Flash Player widget and using my keypad to control the game.

For me Flash was all about watching stupid animations on Newgrounds. Youth really is wasted on the young . . .

I remember Newgrounds! With "games" that just let you dress up sports cars. That era was all about slime football though, anyone remember that?

Spoiler:

 

YESSSS! We played it on the computers at school!

And sure, it was cars that I used to dress up . . .

@Buskalilly wrote:

For me Flash was all about watching stupid animations on Newgrounds. Youth really is wasted on the young . . .

This was me too! Anything that had a 4* rating was getting watched. It had the odd absolute cracker though. Salad Fingers anyone? What about the game starring the elephant, Achievement Unlocked? Good times. Tears in rain etc.

@gjones wrote:

I remember Newgrounds! With "games" that just let you dress up sports cars. That era was all about slime football though, anyone remember that?

Spoiler:

 

I remember Slime Football. Great game. Hex Empire was quite big in our school as well

@Balladeer wrote:

 Salad Fingers anyone?

Haven't thought about him in a while! Had him as a Mii on my Wii.

Salad Fingers pops in to my head far too often, Burnt Face Man as well. Did anyone ever watch XiaoXiao? I feel that was a flash animation and for a while it was my absolute favourite thing to the point I spent any free time I had at school drawing Stickman Ninja comics.

YES MATE! I loved Xiaoxiao, I actually went back and watched them all a couple of months back after reminiscing with a pal.

I also used to watch BFM, though I'm hesitant to revisit that . . .

I know some of this has been grabbed in a naughty way (wait, not like that) but people have found a load of old Ocarina of Time beta stuff on an N64 development cart. Now, knowing a little bit about game development, as we all probably do, a lot of the stuff that wasn't in the final game was done as a sensible choice to make the end product more coherent; nothing was cut as such, it just wasn't part of the final version of things. However, with a game like OoT which was so magical and amazing beyond anything else that had come out, every extra piece of it that could be found was exciting - especially in 2001 when we'd only had Majora's Mask since. It still sort of is now.

Here's it summarised in an article if you're interested
Here's 90 minutes of someone doing stuff if you're interested

@Jimbob wrote:

...a lot of the stuff that wasn't in the final game was done as a sensible choice to make the end product more coherent; nothing was cut as such, it just wasn't part of the final version of things.

On that topic, Nintendo Life just posted an article about Nintendo asking for content to be cut from Donkey Kong 64. Nothing about Donkey Kong 64 was sensible or coherent. I'd be up for more Ocarina of Time, but Donkey Kong 64 is a game that would benefit from a remake that takes about half of it out.

I'd just want it to be easier, and never to have to see that sodding jack-in-the-box ever again.

And about half the stuff to be cut out. And remove the guns. Basically I don't want to see DK64 ever again either.

I don't know where else to ask this but hopefully somebody can give me good advice.

I see that all the Dead Rising games are going cheap on PSN. Which is the best one? I've liked the look of them since the 360 days but never really bothered to give any of them a go. Where should I start?

I only had the first one, back when it was seemingly relevant and the number of enemies on screen was a selling point. It was fine, but believe the second one is superior. Probably not that helpful, other than I reckon the first one isn't the best one!

I found 3 to be enjoyable single player, though I believe 2 is better regarded, however I've only played 2 in co-op which was frankly the only thing that made the game particularly enjoyable.

1 is very basic and doesn't hold up very well I'm led to believe, it certainly lacks the features that the series is best known for. I haven't tried 4, I should some time.

The 3rd is an Xbox exclusive still, so doesn't help Cappa if that's the best one.

I played the first when it was new on 360 and seemed at the time as big deal as early next gen exclusive, I thought it was shite and not played one since.

Do you think we will have a crash on retro game prices as I did think they come down and haven't seen Wii's selling for £90+ like during the first lockdown?

Why I ask as I saw today in one of the Nintendo groups someone wanted to play Pokémon XD but was moaning they can't as it is now £250 rightly so and brings up the whole make games available on modern systems, same for Fire Emblem which I bought in an actual game shop for £120 and now I could double what I paid, it's better than GameStop stock.

Then things like Castlevania SOTN SE which I would have said is a £200 game now goes for £400 or Klonoa if you got mint is just the £300 and even something like Sonic & Knuckles has gone for £80 this month, which seems like utter madness.

I reckon they will stay high. Not just because we are in lockdown and people are playing more games, but because as mental health worsens, more people will want to relive the good times. Nostalgia and happy childhoods were defined (for many) by the games they played and the fun that was had with friends. There's also going to be less and less stock in good working order. I'd love to pick up a Dreamcast and go down that road, but it's one thing to find one that isn't going yellow, and another to find one that won't conk out. These disc-based systems are now over twenty years old and imagine they will need maintaining. Maybe one day we will see a Retron system that plays all the different discs (imagine that!!).

The guy I bring up that brought up Pokemon XD wanted to play because Nostalgia and now Cube is what now 18 years old, so can certainly see the nostalgia.

You have the Polymega but news on that isn't great at the moment, I'm hoping Analogue do something.

@gjones wrote:

I reckon they will stay high. Not just because we are in lockdown and people are playing more games, but because as mental health worsens, more people will want to relive the good times. Nostalgia and happy childhoods were defined (for many) by the games they played and the fun that was had with friends. There's also going to be less and less stock in good working order.

I think you're absolutely right. Looking back, I feel I was buying so many retro games in the early 2010s because they gave me a little bit of joy at a time when I didn't really have much (personally or professionally) to be happy about. It's not like my life was miserable or depressing or anything, but it was a bit empty in places. When current-day things weren't going brilliantly, reliving the good times with these nostalgic interactive collectables just made me feel a bit better.

I also clocked that they weren't going to get any cheaper, and that I'd rather just have them back then than pay through the nose for them. I was right - I can go back to the old 'Yesterday I Bought' threads from eight years ago and be wowed by how little I paid for some seriously expensive stuff.

@masofdas wrote:

Klonoa if you got mint is just the £300.

I've only ever traded in 2 games, some football game that came with the PSP and, at the same time, Klonoa Beach Volleyball on PS1 as it was the only PS1 game I owned. I've always regretted the latter and one day I intend to rebuy it. I got something like 50p trade in. I just looked up how much it goes for on ebay D:

Guess why shouldn't trade in, but then I don't know where I would I keep possibly ten's of thousands of games then again might not be that amount if I couldn't trade in especially in my teens during the DC, PS2, Cube and Xbox era.

Nintendo Life have recently published a couple of things about the cost of Nintendo games, this here and this here:



I really love that Doshin The Giant has become a posterboy for expensive retro gaming 

Yeah saw it like the day after I posted that I seen somewhere about Pokemon XD, which might have been a Nintendo Life Facebook group.

Also seen a video from them about GameCube games that should be ported.

Whilst looking at the crazy prices, seen a Pikemin 2 on £102 yesterday and God of War II (PS2) for £28 which compared to Cube games not a lot but is for what has to be a common game.

Anyway Illbleed which I put in my worst games list is a $300 game, that I'm kinda tempted to flog as that's a lot of money and could go on retro I'm more likely to play or even stuff like Evil Twin for my PAL Dreamcast collection as get me closer to a complete collection. What puts me off though is I'll never be able to get it again and it is still a Dreamcast game, sure its American but I've got a few of them.

Nothing emphasises the dramatic rise of GameCube game prices more than WWE WrestleMania X8. It's £3 on CEX now. It wasn't even £3 when it was new.

Anyway, £102 Pikmin 2 means you're shopping at the wrong place!