Random Gaming Thoughts

[Ack]

I do miss ten year olds smoking Camels though.

[Raging Justice]

Wow, I wasn't expecting Bowser in Bowser's Fury to basically be Nemesis from Resident Evil. I also wasn't expecting that every time he shows up his theme music would make me want to stop playing and just:



I also wasn't expecting big kaiju battles with epic boss music that sounds like Sephiroth's theme from Final Fantasy 7.

It's also interesting having an AI partner basically functioning as a player 2 (basically Tails from the Sonic games, but way more useful)

This is an interesting Mario game, not at all what I was expecting.

[BoneSnapDeez]

We're unironically getting an official digital release of Xanadu in the West.

https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/produ ... sr-switch/

[marurun]

I saw that. It’s such a crazy time to be playing old games. I’m not sure there’s much actual western market demand for old PC-88 games, but I respect the hell out of them for trying.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Thexder and Relics are already on the eShop btw. Not that they're exemplary.

I've been using Project EGG on the PC for some time now. It's fantastic.

[opa]

What is project egg? An emulator front end or something? Never heard of it.

[BoneSnapDeez]

https://www.amusement-center.com/project/egg/

"EGG" stands for Engrossing Game Gallery (obviously!!!).........

Project EGG is a website / PC client by D4 Enterprise, who specializes in officially-emulated digital reissues of retro Japanese games, most specifically retro computer games. The service feels a bit like Steam, Arcade Archives, and Nintendo Switch Online, all rolled into one, if that makes sense. D4 also releases physical game compilations (in very limited quantities) and is also involved in retro gaming music (CDs? I haven't looked into that).

Here's their current selection. Over 1000 games:
https://www.amusement-center.com/project/egg/game/

(You can use something like Google Translate, and it's probably intuitive enough without it, but the drop-down boxes are for publisher, system, and genre)

The selection is phenomenal. Lots of great old stuff by Falcom, Compile, Micro Cabin, Square, Bothtec, Hummingbirdsoft, and more. Plenty of obscure finds too (no hentai though lol). The lack of FM Towns is a pretty big omission; thankfully most of the best games for that computer were multiplat (ie: also on PC-98 and X68000).

As far as the "front end" element goes, once you buy/download a game you click on it to open it. That's it. No fiddling with multiple emulators. Now, the whole thing is subscription based, priced in yen it's less than $5 a month. Everything I've read indicated that you keep all content once you cancel -- but you can't download or update anymore. I can't confirm with 100% certainty as I've never cancelled, but just by looking at the ROM files I'd wager this is correct (there's no Steam-like DRM).

Everything is in Japanese obviously, both the games and service itself, so it's not exactly user-friendly to those outside of Japan.

But

Mere months ago D4 launched something new called the "EGG Console." This is not subscription-based; it's old Japanese computer games tossed onto the eShop -- in multiple regions!!! Relics and Thexder are already there, with Xanadu coming in a week. Possible upcoming releases look pretty enticing too. Will be mind-blowing if we get an official PC-88 Ys on Switch.

[Ack]

And here I thought it stood for Elemental Gimmick Gear...

[RCBH928]

And here I thought it stood for Elemental Gimmick Gear...

now here is a game I haven't heard of in a looooong while...

[Raging Justice]

I'm having so much fun with the Switch, I wonder if I should invest in a Steam deck too. Not for Steam though, I would like to play DRM free games from GOG. Can you do that on a Steam deck? Probably a dumb question, but I'm asking anyway.