Wonderful video, man! I totally understand the complaints you have with this game, especially with the inconsistent pacing, the lack of checkpoints, and the Security Drill room (And the downgraded Sword). But I also like the fact that the Jet Pack Auto Charges and has a second charge level. I think this is the better version of Sparkster, because it's the only version I've actually beaten! Why? Stage 7 of SNES Sparkster. Anyways, I'm rambling too much. Good stuff!
Thank you! Yeah it's not a bad game at all and it definitely has some thing sit improves over the original like the auto charging jet pack. I really like the faster paced aerial combat too!
@@tunnotron3000 Same! The roulette system it has for the blue and red gems are kinda pointless, since in the Harder difficulties, it'll just spawn Bombs, which give me Mario Lost Levels flashbacks.
Oh yeah and if it's not a bomb then half the time you've moved past the area where the goodie has landed. It really adds nothing other than a frequent "fuck you" from the sky!
@@tunnotron3000 SERIOUSLY! I also get the feeling the devs really liked Sonic (The Second game specifically), because Golden Sparkster is a thing. It's still pretty cool (and OP), but it feels generic.
Nah, the OSSC is still only outputting 720p and you have all the normal issues with TV and capture card compatibility. However, if your capture card is capable of XRGB, then upscaling this 720p output to 1440p (and beyond) is really simple.
That's cool! I think a lot of it can be dependant on which version you grew up with. You can handle a lot more BS as a kid and I think I battled through a good bit of it with the Megadrive version!
I'm sorry if you heard this before, but _Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2_ (Genesis) and _Sparkster_ (SNES) aren't two versions of the same game; They're two different games that, for whatever reason, share the same name. Having said all this, I also prefer the SNES game.
Good video! I still prefer the original Rocket Knight Adventures over either version of Sparkster (SNES and Genesis). Though, the SNES version of Sparkster is pretty good, it still just couldn't reach the same heights of the original game. Sparkster just lacked something compared to the original. Even when I first played Sparkster on the Genesis, it just didn't feel like the same series. It just felt more generic than the original game.
Excellent video, mate. I enjoyed your review and this format. Made me wanna play the first game while also checking out the OST to part 2. More Retro 500 please!
I like the review, but the uncessary self-branding throughout the video makes me not want to watch this channel again. maybe that's just me that gets really annoyed by these things.
I completely disagree, I loved Sparkster, it improves upon the original in every way, graphics, gameplay are all improved over an already gorgeous and fun game. I think I heard some people say it has some slowdown issues, but that can all be fixed using emulation hacks which overclock the emulated CPU.
The only slowdown I ever noticed was when you beat a boss and I thought it was for cool dramatic effect! It's great that you love Sparkster, I loved the hell out of it when I first got it back in the day. And you're totally welcome to disagree, this is just my opinion and nothing more. Thanks for watching!
If anyone's interested in playing Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2, you can find it in the Rocket Knight Adventures: Re-Sparked compilation for modern consoles.
Other way round! I recorded the Sparkster footage by downscaling 1080p Under Optimal to 240p then back up to 1440p plus some aspect ratio correction all within OBS. It was a fun experiment!
"Good but not good enough" is a pretty apt way to describe Sparkster. I think for me, the aesthetic itself is just not as appealing. RKA is a lot more expressive, and in the sequel, Sparkster's new look and proportions are really strange. I think it was kind of the shift in anime art styles at the time, going from a more late 80s, early 90s rounded Tatsunoko look to something more modern and angular. Just interesting how suddenly the shift happened, considering this one came out just a little over a year later.
Hm I'm not sure. I think I did see some posts saying that it was possible but the issues with those boards is they don't deal with audio at all. That means you'd need to find a way to inject the audio into the hdmi out. I've found the shmups thread in the GBS to be pretty helpful!
@@tunnotron3000 Yeah, but that's really just a general issue with those boards, not really mod related. - A couple of years ago I did manage to find an active DVI to HDMI adapter with 2 RCAs for injecting audio. It was a bit hard to find since adaptors for extracting audio for some reason are far more common, so you kind of drown in hits on those instead. I have obviously forgotten the brand and model of it, and can't find it at the moment either. But at least I can confirm that they do exist... - It's likely in a box with accessories for my Checkmate 1500+ A1200 build, since that was what I bought it for.
i had the mjpeg capture for some time, but now i got the humpy dump, but for some reason the audio keeps crackling, it's weird, the old mjpeg has no audio crackling, i tested both of them in obs using the same console cables and all, the mjpeg has no audio issues but i just cant get a decent audio from the humpy dump ever, can someone help me? I've also tried to update and do all sorta stuff with audio and video drivers.
Hm, I'm not sure about the audio I'm afraid. Does this happen with all input sources and is the audio just in your monitoring or is it also present in the resulting video file?
THPS2? Better to place it on the Dreamcast classic since a better version exists on the Dreamcast. Devil Dice and Parasite Eve are already on the Japanese version of the PlayStation Classic.
Personally, I really liked both Rocket Knight Adventures, and the Genesis sequel. There's a third game for the SNES also titled Sparkster, but it's seen as more of a spin-off. My thoughts on that One? Pick an all-powerful being and pray that you make it past Stage 7. Especially on Hard and Very Hard.
Sparkster on the Megadrive was actually the first game in the series I played. I got the prequel a little later on and initially didn't like it because I found it so difficult (I did not have gamer skills as a kid). I've been playing the SNES one and ran out of patience with the space shooting segment!
Thank you for this amazing video! I've had the RetroTINK 5x for over 2 years and haven't ever felt like I knew how to properly calibrate profiles. I do now, thanks to you!
Not bad... just a bit goofy to my ears and, for me, the soundtrack is a distant last to Sonic 1-3. A few stages like Rusty Ruin and Diamond Dust are definitely bangers and I think some of the "goofy" sounding tracks were let down by poor instrumentation (definitely too much vibrato). The ones that ended up getting re-used in Sonic Adventure definitely benefited from better instrumentation, that's for sure.
Your list is great but you may wanna mix it up and possibly add a few more genres of great games Crash Team Racing Final Fantasy Tactics Bishi Bashi Special Klonoa Beach Volleyball Silent Bomber Legend of Dragoon Shadow Tower Future Cop: LAPD R/C Stunt Copter Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Memories
I started to lean back toward original hardware. Got a good CRT broke out the og consoles and......after hours of realizing its a pain to adjust the yoke to a CRT, and after all the messing around, and hooking up a sea of wires to an av switcher, using component cables for my ps2, and trying to play original hardware, i realized my powerhouse pc can emulate any game at anytime and it looks amazing. So now Im torn again. Asking myself why did I set up all this stuff? I dont know anymore lol
@@tunnotron3000 I will still likely use it with a good VGA CRT that I have, a Samsung Syncmaster 957MB. I presume I can get the GBS-C to line-double to 960i, and presumably the monitor will handle it just fine. Will be interesting to compare the image I get with that versus using the GBS-C's deinterlacing solutions. Whether I play on my Samsung, or my LG C2, it certainly looks like the best option below the RetroTink 5X. I have seen some problems with people losing sync over component cables, but hopefully that won't be a problem with RGB SCART. Hope you have a good day, mate!
hey thanks for the video! i know "open source" nature of the hardware made a great material for chinese reproductions, which debatable for having it stolen cause it has no credit whatsoever, but people forgot country like mine don't have too much money for both the product AND shipping. retroscaler gbs-c is using their own modified firmware for their hardware (and also they built it from scratch, not from available gbs). it has SCART in and HDMI out atleast (and weird saturn video out port for some reason?) and i don't think they modifed so much that it feels too different from original, so it should have similar performance and compatibility. that being said, honestly there are some problems especially when you try to stretch; it has glitched vertical lines like it was too stretched to fit into it's intended frame, so i had to adjust to closest thing it can before getting glitched (oh but atleast it only happens when you stretch it horizontally. vertical is very fine). ofc this might be mitigated by just doing it on software (like cropping on obs) but doing this in the upscaler is pain and some stuffs you do in the upscaler can be resulted in some artifacts (like video noises and some things i mentioned earlier) that can be fixed by restarting the whole thing (fun). this maybe the fault of the modifed version and maybe bit faulty on what i got, but i prefer to save money and buy retrotink5x. tho, for what it is and the price tag, i still gonna recommend it to anyone (atleast the retroscaler version, tho it does not have composite in, but am fine as i bought it for SCART in and component) but please be patient about it and get used to some of their artifact (also for retroscaler, this has first updated firmware on april 2024, and it deletes the config. please backup before update)
Thankfuly, it plays better than the unfinished and buggy first impression you might get. Traveller´s Tales was a Sega Fanboy company and all thier games were designed on Sega hardware first and if there was extra time a SNES version was developed with another team, using the Sega console assests. If you are interested, try the japanese Super Famicom version. Capcom distributed the game in Japan, and somewhat tried to fix some of the bugs left by TT, improving the game a little but sadly they didn´t finished all the things TT left unfinished in the game. Even with all the bugs and problems. the SNES game still manages to play nicely and also without noticeable slowdowns in game, the music is also very good, maybe better than the Megadrive´s compositions. Again, Mickey Mania, all the versions there, Mega CD/Sega CD, Megadrive/Genesis, Super Nes and Play Station, are very good. I personaly own and enjoy the SNES version but i would also get the Genesis version if i have the chance to caught one in the wild.
Im looking at upscalers to have my whole collection working and the common response is "just emulate". And you said what ive been thinking. I bought the dang things. I wanna play them.
That's exactly it! There's nothing wrong with going either way and there's positives and negatives to each side. If you've spent the money on buying and maintaining a physical console then you should enjoy it!
@tunnotron3000 I mean with homebrewing I can dump my physical collection and play on emulators 'legally', so technically I can have a clear conscience.
Yeah, I definitely think a lot of it was licensing and the rest was corporate shenanigans/tone deafness. When you're licensing Metal Gear Solid from Konami, why not get Silent Hill too? I'm sure there was a lot going on behind the scenes that could potentially explain it but, in some ways, maybe it was better to just not release a mini console at all.
@@tunnotron3000It would be great to include Silent Hill since that game never got re-released as is. However, I wished a light gun was included with the PS Classic, and if Silent Hill gets included, imagine having to use the Hyper Blaster weapon on a modern display using an IR-based light gun.
Twisted Metal 2 was all-around an improvement over the first game and should have been the one included, but like the point of the video, just add it yourself.
Yeah I don't think I could win with Twisted Metal. It was never a game I played when the PS1 was big and I'm terrible at both of them. I did actually capture footage of the second one but I did so poorly I thought it might just be best to leave Twisted Metal as is!
Just got a ps2 that only reads ps1 games. Fired up thps 3 and wow. 240p looks just unreal on a CRT thru component. It's so sharp! Can't wait to get my actual PS1 working
I think I'll keep emulation on something like a PC. I can't see myself buying any of the "classic" consoles. My brother has a SNES classic and I had fun modding it but I wouldn't go out of the way to buy one in this point in time
Oh yeah, if you've got all the original gear there's not much need to get one of the mini consoles. I got mine pretty cheap so it was just a fun modding project. It's currently set up in the living room for when I need it.
Tunners talk time is always good! I'd have had Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha instead of Soul Edge and most of the other games aren't really my thing, but I appreciate how beloved SH and RE2 are for sure.
I was debating Ex Plus Alpha but I'm so shit at it I couldn't get past the first one or two stages. A lot of the games here aren't massive favourites of mine either, but the original game list was sooooo bad and even these would do a much better job of repping the ps1.
Definitely been catfished! Saw Robot Wars and thought we were getting Metal Mayhem, though must asdmit this was a blast from the past, one of the earlier ps1 games I played and thought it was absolutely fantastic at the time. Looks like a migraine in the making now
I mean you seem like a pretty horny guy while I was watching this paying lots of attention to the female aspects lol and it's a bit much, but I have to leave a like for Gregory Horror Show being in this. Seriously that deserves a like. (Of course other favs of mine are in this like TimeSpitters 2, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, Most Wanted etc) But GHS is just special.
Haha don't worry, I'm just taking the Mick with how ridiculous and in your face the breast physics are in these games. If anyone is horny, it's those Devs! And yeah, Gregory Horror Show really is something special, I wish it got more recognition!
I have the orange McBazel GBS-C box from Amazon and it works great. I feed it with a component switcher that switches between my PSOne (via a SCART to component converter), PS2, Wii and XBox 360 (passthrough at 720p). I use it as a line doubler to 960p, and a tripler (with scanlines) for my PSOne. The one limitation is you can’t use the component and SCART inputs on the device simultaneously. The audio will default to the component input if it senses a cable is plugged in, so I had to unplug the component cable every time I wanted to use the PSOne. So instead I just converted the SCART output to component with an inexpensive converter (also from Amazon) which solved the problem. Resolution switches in-game are seamless too in my experience with the PSOne.
I'm lucky enough that I'm not super sensitive to input lag but I agree there's something special about holding the original controller in your hands. It was amazing to be able to beat my original Dynamite Headdy cartridge!
Saturn emu still needs alot of work and 64 emulation needs much to be desired but most games play decently and with the games being abled to be recompiled on PC we may not longer need emulation for N64 just have every game a PC native or Linux/android port
