How's Your Sega MegaDrive/Genesis Gaming Going On?

[Tanooki]

Believe it or not, never played a Thunderforce game before, bumped into 3 games for $20 today with that, Virtua Racing and Chakan. I still HATE Chakan, but it will be my sacificial lamb board to repair Grind Stormer! Virtua Racing though I love and Thunderforce 2 seems like a really cool game too so far.

[marlowe221]

Believe it or not, never played a Thunderforce game before, bumped into 3 games for $20 today with that, Virtua Racing and Chakan. I still HATE Chakan, but it will be my sacificial lamb board to repair Grind Stormer! Virtua Racing though I love and Thunderforce 2 seems like a really cool game too so far.

I like Thunderforce 2 a lot. It was one of the games that my wife bought me along with my Genesis for Christmas a few years ago.

I am still waiting to run into Thunderforce 3 for a decent price...

[Gunstar Green]

It was almost time to hit the sack last night and I thought, "I'll just play the first couple levels of Shadow Dancer." It's my favorite Genesis game (so far...).

Three hours later I discovered that I still hate the level with the dark patches and it was 2 am... Oops.

Shadow Dancer was always overlooked as the ignored middle child between Revenge of Shinobi and Shinobi III but it's a damn great arcade action game that's only really getting the respect it deserves in recent years, probably because people have been discovering it in compilations.

I also like it quite a bit more than the arcade Shadow Dancer, much like E-SWAT.

Believe it or not, never played a Thunderforce game before, bumped into 3 games for $20 today with that, Virtua Racing and Chakan. I still HATE Chakan, but it will be my sacificial lamb board to repair Grind Stormer! Virtua Racing though I love and Thunderforce 2 seems like a really cool game too so far.

Some people might disapprove of me saying this but I'm all for murdering Chakan to revive Grind Stormer.

Similarly to Shadow Dancer, Thunder Force 2 is really underrated because it's so overshadowed by its sequels. People tend to give it hell for the overhead levels but I really enjoy those. In my opinion it was the best of the Genesis launch titles.

That said, Thunder Force 3 is one of my favorite horizontal shmups of all time. 4 is insanely impressive visually and aurally but the difficulty is a little much for me.

Thunder Force 3 is right in that sweet spot though. I love it.

[Tanooki]

Well at least I'm not alone hating it.


I'm having serious trouble trying to figure out how to get the solder off. I've removed a little with a pick that came with my soldering gun, and it is enough that Chakan no longer will boot, but it's still stuck in there and I don't want to crack the board, plus I need to get this down right so I can pop n' swap Grind Stormer.

USPS shows it arrived a day early in town, should be here when I'm off work tomorrow so I'm trying to clear this board of Chakan now and it's being mean.


Minor update -- I did get it loose, but can't get it off, so I got curious if I f'd up the board, so I got out my little spool of solder and re-attached every pin --- came back to life after confirming it was detached and not. I can do the job, IF I can figure out how the hell to detach the chip safely as I don't want to jack up Grind Stormer removing it. UGH.

[marlowe221]

Shadow Dancer was always overlooked as the ignored middle child between Revenge of Shinobi and Shinobi III but it's a damn great arcade action game that's only really getting the respect it deserves in recent years, probably because people have been discovering it in compilations.

I also like it quite a bit more than the arcade Shadow Dancer, much like E-SWAT.

Since I didn't come to the Genesis until recent years (I grew up an SNES kid), my purchasing decisions are based more on modern opinions of the library.

I like all the Shinobi games actually. They are all REALLY good games and all feel unique in their own ways.

Shadow Dancer is definitely my favorite, though to be fair I haven't played Revenge as much as it deserves yet. I have also been playing the original arcade Shinobi (which plays a lot like Genesis Shadow Dancer) and the arcade version of Shadow Dancer and enjoying those as well.

[Tanooki]

What can I do to remove these solder joints? I can't get them off no matter what I try.

All I have is a good tip soldering iron, a little metal pincer with a spring to snap it closed, a 2 sided tool one with a pick point the other with an angled flat edge and that's basically it. I have no idea if this old solder just refuses to go or if I'm doing it wrong. I got most but now it just won't even lift anymore.

[Cronozilla]

It sounds like you need some solder wick. If you can't get all the solder out in one go because you need to heat from multiple places, this is what you want to use. Also, if you're messing with a board that has a thick ground plane or something, it'll take a lot of time to heat up the solder that's not visible. The board will distribute a lot of the heat the iron is applying away from the joint you're heating.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Exile is one of my favorite games ever. The religious backdrop is just insane. I still need to get that TurboGrafx CD port.

[nightrnr]

Exile is one of my favorite games ever. The religious backdrop is just insane. I still need to get that TurboGrafx CD port.

And Wicked Phenomenon too, I'd imagine .

Played through the Genesis port of Exile over a decade ago and enjoyed myself well enough (I think). Kind of wish I bought it off the friend who lent me the game (all nice and complete), but I figured I'd never play it again; probably sound reasoning in this case, actually.

Genesis had some really good ARPGs. How do I convince an indie team like the Pier Solar team to make another one for Gen?

[Tanooki]

Good question, but there's also Piko Interactive too. He's got 2 games out on Genesis already and I'm familiar with the unannounced upcoming library next year so if someone were after relatively new/new stuff for the Gen/MD it's something to keep an eye out for. None of it is Exile like, but there's a little variety. Currently it's just Duke Nukem which is not the public ROM as some added work and repairs were done to make it not suck, and then there's Water Margin a side scrolling 'final fight' like combat game.

Exile I'm mixed on due to the bad start but it's pretty nice, confusing puzzle mansions in a few spots but there's pictures online to deal with that garbage. In the end when I got the game the battery had blown up and the person just refunded me entirely so it was free. I was able to clean up the damage and resurrect it with a spare battery so it has been a fun run with it so far.