I believe Neils idea about about physical rental stores for digital distribution is interesting. Might be a good promotional idea for... a new movie set in the 80s-90s, or a streaming or gaming (interweb) service that want to ride on the retro wave. Perhaps promotional pop-up stores? I would definitely fall for something like that :)
I have lived in Japan for 5 years. The retro scene is alive and well in Japan. It is just the language barrier mostly I reckon. How about Mad Panic Gaming as a guest? He could fill you in! I personally have only heard of arcades closing down. I am not hearing of any arcade resurgence out in the sticks here... There are two arcades in my city and their quality rhymes with "city". The Book Off "fami-clones" are about the footprint of a GameCube but much shorter. There are soooo many fami-clones readily available for cheaper though so I would grab one of them instead if I did. Retro games are relatively popular with younger kids over here as they are much more readily available here and ripe for kids with a 100 yen coins rattling in their pockets... I would put the retro revival down to the cost of living rising here. Retro games are so readily available here and often sooo much cheaper than overseas. It makes sense for that market to be enjoyed if you are a little stuck for cash. Keep up the great podcast guys!
Games have never been pulled from user's libraries on Steam. Some games have been removed from the Store front for purchase, but they're always available for download for people that already own them. The only thing I can think of which is vaguely similar is some soundtracks have had tracks patched out due to licensing.
My bro in Japan said it's getting fairly difficult to find older consoles and computers at Hardoff and similar recycle stores, as they call them. He said more and more of these stores are selling that stuff on Yahoo Auctions. Yahoo still has a strong presence in Japan and it's kind of their equivalent to eBay, as far as popularity.
EA Play is included in Game Pass Ultimate and has been for years now. You get access to both EA Play on Xbox and on PC (through the EA app. Understand the hesitance on subscribing to multiple services, but it’s literally included in Game Pass Ultimate. I really wish the commentary on modern services was more informed, many of us retro enthusiasts are also very keen modern gamers.
Modern gaming is definitely a blind spot for us, the console and subscription side of things even more so. I hope we don't come across that we're pretending to be experts on it. Both of us are immersed in retro and tech, but even with that there is so much going on we can't know everything. We try to focus on current events and how it reflects on retro, but that does of course often stray into areas we don't know. We do try our best though and thanks for letting us know about game pass!
The problem is we retro gamers are always mindful of the longer term future of any console. Look at the 360 right now, as it just becoming retro. Microsoft are just about to shut down the online store for it. What happens when the Series consoles get to that stage in their life and there is no physical media for them? It seems with current plans, from this current generation on there will be no future retro systems.
Here's a bloke in Japan, an Englander married to a Japanese woman who's about to hit his 500th episode of 'Battle of the Ports'- www.youtube.com/@RetroCore/videos might be worth having him on the show. On the subject of vhs rental, I think it should make a comeback specifically in caravan parks. Perhaps the movies are free, but you rent the crt and vhs player, and perhaps include the option for a console with lightgun games. Down here in Australia, it's a bit of a struggle to get tourists to go inland, with people mostly visiting coastal towns. Recreating vhs rental shops within caravan parks could be a unique way of pulling tourists away from the coast, into the bush, and perhaps further along into the outback
That video store thing could work. If they did first release only copies of special releases. Yknow, like un altered star wars, theatrical releases of things... Ones before they remastered the effects.
I still have my DK 1 and 2 disks and ~I have access via EA play (game pass) An older series I really wish I could buy is the Black & White games. Have the AO486 image for MiSTer but i'm going to get that exodos release as I've got some spare space to fill on my pc, Love the DM T btw.
Anything you have online will be gone, when they close the servers. You don't really own it. I miss going to the VHS store or blockbuster in later years on a Saturday night
Do those EA Steam releases require an awful EA launcher? I wouldn't call The Saboteur retro by any means, but if you're into GTA sandbox games, but want to run around WW2 France liberating the country bit-by-bit, it's well worth a look. Re: retro gaming in Japan (and in general), I think we're actually doing the games a disservice by our "retro" classification. I think plenty of people are playing older games not because they're old and nostalgic, but simply because they're classic games. I'd say this is especially the case with kids who are playing old games. I think they view these games more like cinema: you don't watch something like Star Wars or Die Hard because they're "retro", you watch them because they're classics and age isn't necessarily a factor.
yeah! I think a dedicated RMC app that allows you to interact with the boxes as stated (with a tap/scan) or other items for extended info/videos etc within the museum itself - also it could have info re upcoming exhibits etc. skys the limit :)
When talking about Origin I can't believe you didn't mention another franchise... Crusader! According to the Bank of England £2 in 1984 is £6.20 in Jan 2024. 1986 becomes £5.69.
I believe all those games are on GOG as well, so why not avoid the DRM that comes with Steam? Edit: Ooops, I commented prior to Dave's comment - Dave is right and correct!
The original Durell Saboteur! was re-released for the Switch in 2018, and was followed up by a PS4 release in 2020. The latter features both modernized graphics, and classic graphics modes.
As an aside: Clive Townsend who authored it has also ported this remastered Saboteur to the ZX Spectrum Next, and is selling it direct from his web site - as a physical release.
Even the Scottish gentleman who is enthusiastic about game preservation was hesitant when informed about a Nintendo switch game being pirated a million times. It has to be serious then
Wasn't 'Space Rogue' mentioned by Neil, a CGA and EGA only game? After him saying he didn't really play anything before VGA? I remember finishing this one, back in the day. Was this the first RPG type game to have a 'playable' arcade game within the main game? Akihabara district in Tokio is something different for retro. Japan in gereral has much more retro shops but Akihabara is full of small (mostly back street) retro shops selling a variety of things. I was happy to be able to go when most of the arcades were still there. The fami clone things do take origonal cartridges. Wouldn't a PC88 and PC89 'reproduction' console be good.
To an IF aficionado it is a bit sad how Zork (and sometimes Colossal Cave) is all people ever seem to talk about when some of the later titles had more atmospheric writing, understood more, made more sense, had an actual plot, etc. - but I must admit the primal rawness of Zork has its own dungeon crawly appeal!
I just wonder in 15 years time when the XBox Series consoles are retro, will they turn into useless paperweights with no physical media to play, or will Microsoft: A) Release a patch that jailbreaks the console for us all in an act of charitable benevolence. B) Support the console and it's library/ digital functions forever. Which of these is most likely?
Pff.. I've only ever seen ONE product (line) that did this. I have a license for Adobe Audition, an audio editor that used to be Cool Edit Pro before Adobe bought it from Syntrillium. When they started offering the creative suite, they emailed their legacy users and offered a download link to grab an installer that didn't have an activation check anymore. It was shockingly generous -- especially from Adobe. So, I guess it's possible. But I would not hold my breath. (Where's the official Windows XP activation deactivation patch, Microsoft?)
Clone famicoms have been around since the '80s, the really cheap ones like you refer to are quite buggy in terms compatibility with certain games & exotic mappers etc. Every time someone makes a "new" one, even now, they use the same old chinese rubbish famicom-on-a-chip internals from years ago even if it has HDMI and other modern perks, so they are of little interest to peope looking for a quality experience. As you said, definitely only of casual interest. FPGA-based clones (and MiSTer) exist and are far superior, but at a cost of course.
The last Command and Conquer games I played were Red Alert 2 and 3. Still have the soviet march and hell march stuck in my head! Wish bullfrog or EA would rerelease the theme park games and syndicate too.
I mentioned it in a quite lengthy comment 2 episodes ago, so I won't go into that detail again, but I think it's important to mention that exodos is still just a pirated catalogue, which is, also damaging platforms like GOG...and yes, EA will not be happy either (though I guess with EA people might view it differently, than if some Indie Developer's game (Like 8-Bit Guy) is pirated in there). Each time exodos is mentioned, it's being made more popular and more of a problem, and without clearly stating it's piracy, it is basically eroding the awareness of being piracy, and making it more and more unviable for commercial aspects for any DOS Games, whether thats's new releases by indie developers, or 40 year games someone like EA want to milk further. If I was a retro game developer this would be a (an)other good reason to not develop for DOS but for Amiga or C64 instead (or these weird platforms you are using in the UK ;) ) Also this illegal aspect might be problematic for any museum. So for that alone, you should make sure to curate it, and only make games available you actually own a copy of.
I sometimes get suggested videos from Japanese retro RU-vidrs, and one I think would be of interest to Neil is a somewhat risky but highly effective way of restoring old boxes: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-lbwvBPJcEao.htmlsi=aoOr7-jcK8igr9Fy Kinda tangential on this is a manga (it got a kinda spin-off anime adaptation last year) based on the 90s bishoujo games industry called 16-Bit Sensation. It's very focused on the tech (very early on there's an explanation of dithering and other techniques used in 16-color games) and a point of tension is the lead coder, a PC-98 fanatic, having to come to terms with Windows machines becoming the standard) and was written by people who worked in the industry back then, so it's probably worth a peek.
I still have my DK 1 and 2 disks and ~I have access via EA play (game pass) An older series I really wish I could buy is the Black & White games. Have the AO486 image for MiSTer but i'm going to get that exodos release as I've got some spare space to fill on my pc, Love the DM T btw.
