[Official] EHW Retro - The EHW Retrogaming club

[neurotix]

Hey @UltraMegayou playing any retro games on your phone lately?

[UltraMega]

50 minutes ago, neurotix said:

Hey @UltraMegayou playing any retro games on your phone lately?

Not lately. As much as I like the controller I have for my phone, ultimately it's not very comfortable for me to game on a handheld because it makes my neck soar pretty quickly. 

 

My GF has been playing Dark Cloud for PS2 on an emulator lately though. Shes probably like half way through it. 

 

I've been bouncing around between a lot of games lately. Kinda feeling bored of gaming lately in the sense that I have beat all the games I'm currently interested. Feels like gaming has been pretty slow this gen so far with so many UE5 games having long dev times and barely being able to even run on current gen consoles. 

 

Played some BF2042 lately. I'd say that game finally feels adequate as a BF game. Still a let down over all, and doesn't hit the high notes that BF4 did, but it's passable. 

 

What have you been playing lately? 

[neurotix]

Not been playing anything. I finished Cosmic Star Heroine for Vita a few months ago. If you like JRPGS, I highly recommend it. It's not that old, made by a Western developer, and is fully pixel art graphics similar to FF6 in quality. It should be available for Switch or PS4. It was pretty fun.

 

My brother bought me another similar game called Sea of Stars, also on Switch, for Christmas. That will probably be what I play next. I also need to get and play Octopath Traveller.

 

I've been doing more reading and watching movies of a futurist or cyberpunk nature as research for a novel. So I've read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, 1984 and Brave New World+ Brave New World Revisited.

Edited February 8 by neurotix

[UltraMega]

12 minutes ago, neurotix said:

Not been playing anything. I finished Cosmic Star Heroine for Vita a few months ago. If you like JRPGS, I highly recommend it. It's not that old, made by a Western developer, and is fully pixel art graphics similar to FF6 in quality. It should be available for Switch or PS4. It was pretty fun.

 

My brother bought me another similar game called Sea of Stars, also on Switch, for Christmas. That will probably be what I play next. I also need to get and play Octopath Traveller.

 

I've been doing more reading and watching movies of a futurist or cyberpunk nature as research for a novel. So I've read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, 1984 and Brave New World+ Brave New World Revisited.

 

Do you play many modern games? Though older now, Mad Max is one of my favorite post apocalypse game worlds. It's simple, but well done. 

 

Have you seen Reign of Fire? One of my favorite post apocalypse movies. 

 

I love a good sifi movie as long as it has good world building. The plot can be bad but if the world building is still strong, I'm into it. Like the Scarlet Johanneson Ghost in the Shell movie. I actually liked the movie quite a bit more than the anime. That movie got a lot of undeserved hate when people who had zero understanding of what they were taking about assumed it was a white washed movie. IDK how anyone can white wash a character that isn't even human in the first place. No one in Japan cared at all, and most of the actors in the movie were Asian. If you go back and watch the original anime, it kinda sucks. It's really slow and just kinda boring. The animation really isn't that good either. But the movie is great, the world building is fantastic. It's got to be one of the most realized sifi settings of any modern movie. 

 

Anyway, side rant, but if you haven't seen the Ghost in the Shell movie, check it out. I could rant about sifi movies for days. 

[neurotix]

1 hour ago, UltraMega said:

 

Do you play many modern games? Though older now, Mad Max is one of my favorite post apocalypse game worlds. It's simple, but well done. 

 

Have you seen Reign of Fire? One of my favorite post apocalypse movies. 

 

I love a good sifi movie as long as it has good world building. The plot can be bad but if the world building is still strong, I'm into it. Like the Scarlet Johanneson Ghost in the Shell movie. I actually liked the movie quite a bit more than the anime. That movie got a lot of undeserved hate when people who had zero understanding of what they were taking about assumed it was a white washed movie. IDK how anyone can white wash a character that isn't even human in the first place. No one in Japan cared at all, and most of the actors in the movie were Asian. If you go back and watch the original anime, it kinda sucks. It's really slow and just kinda boring. The animation really isn't that good either. But the movie is great, the world building is fantastic. It's got to be one of the most realized sifi settings of any modern movie. 

 

Anyway, side rant, but if you haven't seen the Ghost in the Shell movie, check it out. I could rant about sifi movies for days. 

 

I don't play very many modern games though I have like 80 or so I got that I need to play. I played Tomb Raider 2013 a few years ago and cleared it though it frustrated the s--- out of me with cheap deaths etc. I have Rise and Shadow and need to play them. I have a PS5 and I love the beat 'em up genre and got Streets of Rage 4 and thought it sucked. I also got the Ninja Turtles game for it and thought it sucked, too and would rather play my copy of Turtles in Time for snes. Since the PS5 is backward compatible and I never had a PS4, I have like 10 or so PS4 games I bought on discount for it that I need to play. Uncharted 4. Yakuza 0. Etc. all physical copies.

 

I will check out the Ghost in the Shell movie, I remember that being a big social justice warrior crapstorm and I agree 100% with your opinion and yes, the Japanese didn't care.

 

If you haven't, watch the anime Gunnm aka Battle Angel Alita. Its only two 50 minutes episodes or something. They made a Hollywood movie out of it called Alita: Battle Angel and James Cameron was trying to get a movie made out of it for like 20 years. The movie, I thought, was fantastic despite the "uncanny valley" thing with Alita being CGI. James Cameron didn't direct it but was heavily involved and it's pretty awesome and despite some changes its a really good Hollywood adaptation.

Edited February 8 by neurotix

[neurotix]

An addendum: regarding modern games, I love Forza Horizon 4 and 5. They're so much fun. I like the rally races a lot. I really only play those on my PC (3440x1440 144hz FreeSync Premium HDR400). I also play a very old MMO (well it's sort of an MMO) called Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst which is basically a Dreamcast game ported to PC with expansions and much more content than the DC version. (I guess PSO qualifies as a retro game though).

[axipher]

Following and joining the club:
 

Portable: Gameboy Colour, Gameboy Advance, Gameboy Advance SP, DS Lite, DSiXL, PSP-1000

 

Console: NES, N64, GCN, Wii, PS2 Slim, PS3 Fat, Xbox 360

 

PC: Q6600 / 8800 GTS

[neurotix]

21 hours ago, axipher said:

Following and joining the club:
 

Portable: Gameboy Colour, Gameboy Advance, Gameboy Advance SP, DS Lite, DSiXL, PSP-1000

 

Console: NES, N64, GCN, Wii, PS2 Slim, PS3 Fat, Xbox 360

 

PC: Q6600 / 8800 GTS

 Added to the club, good sir. That's a very nice collection, but there's no Sega stuff lol! (I'm a huge retro Sega fanboy).

 

Around how many games do you have? What is your favorite system and game for it? What's your favorite genre, and favorite game of all time?

[axipher]

10 minutes ago, neurotix said:

 Added to the club, good sir. That's a very nice collection, but there's no Sega stuff lol! (I'm a huge retro Sega fanboy).

 

Around how many games do you have? What is your favorite system and game for it? What's your favorite genre, and favorite game of all time?

 

I unfortunately never had a Sega myself, my friends had Sega, and then PlayStation and Xbox so I stuck to Nintendo so we would all have something fresh to experience at each other's house.  Luckily I pay for Switch Online Expansion, so able to start to enjoy some older Sega games again.  But I did play the absolute rings our of Sonic Adventure 1 & 2 on the GameCube.

 

 

A lot of my games are safe in storage until I finish my basement renovations, but I have on average 10 games per TV console, 20 games per hand-held console, and on PC, well that's easily way above 200.

 

 

Favourite System would be the GameCube and Game on there would be Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles.

 

Favourite Genre would be RPG for sure.

 

Favourite Game of All Time would be Final Fantasy IX by a fantasy mile.

[neurotix]

1 hour ago, axipher said:

 

I unfortunately never had a Sega myself, my friends had Sega, and then PlayStation and Xbox so I stuck to Nintendo so we would all have something fresh to experience at each other's house.  Luckily I pay for Switch Online Expansion, so able to start to enjoy some older Sega games again.  But I did play the absolute rings our of Sonic Adventure 1 & 2 on the GameCube.

 

 

A lot of my games are safe in storage until I finish my basement renovations, but I have on average 10 games per TV console, 20 games per hand-held console, and on PC, well that's easily way above 200.

 

 

Favourite System would be the GameCube and Game on there would be Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles.

 

Favourite Genre would be RPG for sure.

 

Favourite Game of All Time would be Final Fantasy IX by a fantasy mile.

Favorite genre is JRPG for me as well.

 

FFIX is fantastic, we got the Switch version last year and I helped my wife through it. We laid in bed for multiple weekends playing it. She loved it. (Our bed can be raised with a remote and we raised the head up. 55" on a dresser.) However, my favorite game of all time is FFIV on SNES (aka Final Fantasy II back in the day), even if its not the best FF. (The best overall is definitely VI, this is pretty well agreed upon I think.)

 

Read through this thread, Ultra posted something interesting called FFIX Moguri Mod that runs in an emulator and upscales the backgrounds using AI for FFIX. I need to look into this myself and try it out but I've beaten that game and gotten every chocograph treasure etc  like 10 times and just played it with my wife so...

 

I have a SNES flashcart and need to play FFIV Namingway Edition which is supposed to be the definitive translation of FFIV, better than the bad J2E translation of that game from around 2000.

[UltraMega]

59 minutes ago, neurotix said:

Favorite genre is JRPG for me as well.

 

FFIX is fantastic, we got the Switch version last year and I helped my wife through it. We laid in bed for multiple weekends playing it. She loved it. (Our bed can be raised with a remote and we raised the head up. 55" on a dresser.) However, my favorite game of all time is FFIV on SNES (aka Final Fantasy II back in the day), even if its not the best FF. (The best overall is definitely VI, this is pretty well agreed upon I think.)

 

Read through this thread, Ultra posted something interesting called FFIX Moguri Mod that runs in an emulator and upscales the backgrounds using AI for FFIX. I need to look into this myself and try it out but I've beaten that game and gotten every chocograph treasure etc  like 10 times and just played it with my wife so...

 

I have a SNES flashcart and need to play FFIV Namingway Edition which is supposed to be the definitive translation of FFIV, better than the bad J2E translation of that game from around 2000.

 

Moguri Mod for FF9 is great. It doesn't use an emulator, it's for the steam version. 

[neurotix]

Next time I replay that game, I will definitely use it. Thanks for the explanation.

 

Any love for FF7? Last time I played that game I beat the whole game, including beating Ruby and Emerald Weapon, in 42 hrs.

 

What do you guys think of the FF7 Remake?

Edited February 10 by neurotix

[The Pook]

I loved FF9 (and 7) as a kid but I tried replaying 9 when it came to Steam and couldn't get into it. Nostalgia glasses strike again 

[UltraMega]

4 hours ago, neurotix said:

Next time I replay that game, I will definitely use it. Thanks for the explanation.

 

Any love for FF7? Last time I played that game I beat the whole game, including beating Ruby and Emerald Weapon, in 42 hrs.

 

What do you guys think of the FF7 Remake?

There are similar mods for ff7, though I don't think quite on part with the moguri mod. Been a while since I checked though. 

 

I haven't played the remake simply because I want to wait until they finish making the game (all three parts) before I play it. 

4 hours ago, The Pook said:

I loved FF9 (and 7) as a kid but I tried replaying 9 when it came to Steam and couldn't get into it. Nostalgia glasses strike again 

 

Check out the moguri mod. It goes a long way towards cleaning up the rough edges. 

 

I still genuinely enjoy the older style turn based FF games, I wish they would make more like em. FFX was the peak of the combat system for the entire series. 

[neurotix]

Ultra and Axipher, what are your guys votes for best JRPG of all time? Putting away your bias for FFIX.

 

FFVI (the one with Kefka and Terra, Locke, Sabin, Cyan etc.) is generally regarded as the high point of the series.

 

Chrono Trigger is a masterpiece in every regard.

 

I personally think its a toss up between those two but I can't decide which is better.

 

Also, either of you play Xenogears? Man, the story in that is crazy...

Edited February 11 by neurotix

[UltraMega]

I haven't played hardly any JRPGs outside of Final Fantasy. I would have to say 9 is my favorite in terms of plot and style, with 10 being my favorite in terms of gameplay. 9 is actually the one the creator of the series considers to be the most faithful to his overall vision. I think if 9 had come out when 7 did, it would be regarded as a better game but coming at the end of the ps1 life cycle, it got overlooked by many. 

 

I would love to see Square do an FF9 remake. Supposedly there was supposed to be an FF9 anime in the works, but I haven't heard any updates about that in a while. 

[axipher]

2 hours ago, neurotix said:

Ultra and Axipher, what are your guys votes for best JRPG of all time? Putting away your bias for FFIX.

 

FFVI (the one with Kefka and Terra, Locke, Sabin, Cyan etc.) is generally regarded as the high point of the series.

 

Chrono Trigger is a masterpiece in every regard.

 

I personally think its a toss up between those two but I can't decide which is better.

 

Also, either of you play Xenogears? Man, the story in that is crazy...

 

I chose FFIX as favourite game overall strictly for the content, the 3D graphics, and the amazing characters.  I think it hit really hard when it came out which is why I praise it, but it does have many flaws that the re-release on Steam/Switch/etc. with the QoL enhancements fixes.


But if I were to say that a JRPG to me is mainly the turn-based variety or the action battle like Tales and Star Ocean, I would actually have to give my favourite JRPG crown to Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age on GBA.  Those games just are a great mix of class construction, the story, the towns, and the technical marvel of fitting that on GBA cartridges along with a killer looking battle system.


I'm currently working on developing a game with heavy inspirations from Golden Sun on the GBA because it just brought me so many hours of pure enjoyment in playing it different ways with self-imposed challenges much to how Pokemon on handheld spawned an entire category of self-imposed rulesets for challenge runs.

[neurotix]

So, FF9 and Golden Sun for the two of you.

 

I tried to get into Golden Sun at one point and didn't care for it.

 

I would have to recommend playing FF6 and Chrono Trigger to both of you if you haven't. However you can play it

 

Personally I think its a toss up between those two, though FFIX would rank top 5 on my personal list as well.

 

Xenogears is fantastic despite the lengthy text and slow pace. It is also quite difficult compared to all these others. Not unmanageable but you'd probably want to use a walkthrough. If you can deal with the slow opening it gets really good eventually.

 

And this is supposed to be about best JRPG of all time, excluding personal favorites, if that wasn't clear. (As stated, FFIV is my personal favorite followed by Xenogears).

Edited February 11 by neurotix

[pio]

Huge shoutout to @LabRat, but figured this is as good a spot as any to share the pictures.

My GeForce 6800 SLI set of cards is almost on its way back to me, and they're looking GORGEOUS! 

 

 

[neurotix]

Nice dude!

[pio]

Also:  ISO a large tower case with LOTS of 5.25 bays..........  

One day, one day.  This is more a teaser for @LabRatthan anything since I'll probably never find the case I need for this board.

ASRock crossover style board, 785G chipset, but on Socket 939.  785G was an AM2+ / AM3 chipset for Phenom II's.  Socket 939 was K8 (Athlon64 / Athlon64 x2's).  DDR2 vs DDR1.  This board literally shouldn't have existed.   

[Andrew]

If the 10 year rule is what this thread is going on, doesn't that now make the PS4 and Xbox One retro gaming consoles?

[The Pook]

1 hour ago, pioneerisloud said:

Also:  ISO a large tower case with LOTS of 5.25 bays..........  

One day, one day.  This is more a teaser for @LabRatthan anything since I'll probably never find the case I need for this board.

ASRock crossover style board, 785G chipset, but on Socket 939.  785G was an AM2+ / AM3 chipset for Phenom II's.  Socket 939 was K8 (Athlon64 / Athlon64 x2's).  DDR2 vs DDR1.  This board literally shouldn't have existed.   

 

that was before the IMC moved to the CPU ... so couldn't/shouldn't it be DDR2? 

Edited February 12 by The Pook

[pio]

13 minutes ago, The Pook said:

 

that was before the IMC moved to the CPU ... so couldn't/shouldn't it be DDR2? 

K8 (Socket 939) the IMC was on die (first AMD socket to have it).  So nope, DDR400 it is.  You're right, the board SHOULD have DDR2 or DDR3 given its a 785g chipset.  That's why I love that board.  It really "shouldn't" exist.  

Edited February 12 by pioneerisloud

[The Pook]

3 minutes ago, pioneerisloud said:

K8 (Socket 939) the IMC was on die (first AMD socket to have it).  So nope, DDR400 it is.  You're right, the board SHOULD have DDR2 or DDR3 given its a 785g chipset.  That's why I love that board.  It really "shouldn't" exist.  

 

could've sworn Intel did it first with Nehalem but just did a Google and you're right 

 

Asrock had a couple dual socket 754/939 boards with a single chipset too (K8M800 or M1689 depending), but no weird RAM shenanigans on those