RetroGaming

I started playing this game not expecting much, but I was pleasantly surprised, because it's a solid game by itself, despite its age. It's not all sunshine and rainbows, but overall the game is very well done. There is no nostalgia here, I never even saw this game on the few shareware discs of the late 90s that I had. I played the GOG version, but it's also available on Steam.

Keep in mind that 1996 was the year Quake and Duke Nukem 3D were released, so a number of less technologically impressive games were more easily ignored by players. It's also interesting to note that the game began development under Apogee, but ended up sold to Inner Circle, who finished the development.

The good stuff:

• Really good looking pixel graphics
• If you like violence and gore, there's plenty here
• Death sends you back to the last checkpoint with full health - the only setback is that you lose 20% of your cash and some enemies respawn. I never would've expected this mechanic in a game from 1996
• Levels will take around 15-25 minutes to finish the first time and offer a good variety of platforming and exploration
• Plenty of speedrun possibilities - jumping is much faster than walking, shooting while walking allows you to rapid fire by tapping a direction, dying can be a time saver.^[Judging from the times available at the archived Hall of Fame, a legit run can be done in 41 minutes and possibly less (#18 Locritani Nicola's time is 0:41:40). There are a number of sub 10 minute entries, which means there might be some exploits or level skips - or those fellas actually cheated and got away with it :)]
• Decent enemy variety
• Only bugs I've encountered were sound related, and only twice during ~5h of total playtime
• My overall feeling regarding level design is that they're well done for the most part, with some light puzzles and help from the friendly ape aliens. Only 2 times I really felt like I had no fucking clue of what to do or where to go.

The meh:

• I can't enter the hall of fame at www.alienrampage.com anymore :(
• The fucking camera not following you properly while you're jumping
• Money is only used to buy ammo, no shop sells health packs
• Action keys can only be remapped between CTRL, ALT, SHIFT and SPACE BAR.
• Couldn't get a XInput controller to work with the game, the analog kept reading/inputting up for some reason. The face buttons worked fine, tho.
• You're better off playing with the Numpad instead of the arrow keys - easier to aim. Also, the camera will only pan downwards if you're aiming down (1 or 3 on numpad), crouching won't do.
• Most of the free ammo you find on stages is to renew your bolter, which has regenerating ammo.
• The first boss is much harder than the 2nd, the latter is only hard because of bats.
• Saving is only between levels. Can't replay levels unless you load a game for that specific level.

The shit:

• Fucking bats
• No music. Not a bug or a version problem, the only bit of music in the game is in the short opening cinematic.
• Some levels are really asshole-ish in design, this happens more later on. Lots of leaping towards places you can't quite see. The last 4 levels have some mines that are like 5x3 pixels.
• Tiny enemies that swarm you will shred your face in no time
• Armor and Cloak powerups border on being useless, given how short their effect is (i think 15 seconds?)
• The levels where you pilot a ship. The last level even crashed the first time I actually beat it, after 20+ deaths.

First seen on hackaday: https://hackaday.com/2025/12/05/blue-hedgehog-meet-boing-ball-can-sonic-run-on-amiga/

I thought it was neat.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/54431427

I believe this is the first official fork after the GZDoom drama

Found this site a while ago. It's more or less a "museum" of free games made with tools from Clickteam^[the most famous game made with Clickteam Fusion 2.5 is possibly Five Nights at Freddy's]

Most games aren't exactly good, but it's good to see this kind of preservation, especially from a time when most such games were made with Flash instead

R.I.P. Nick Thorpe :(

I had this game as a child and played it a lot, but I never completed the game. I just played through it again on my steam deck and it holds up pretty well for a game boy game.

The game play is similar to Link's Awakening, but instead of one open overworld, each level is a somewhat open world contained level.

The difficulty feels really well balanced in this game and there are strategies to fight back against any of the enemies or any sets of enemies, so it never feels unfair.

The dialogue in this game, especially when known characters or star characters are interacting with James Bond feels really authentic to the Pierce Brosnan in earlier movies.

The music in this game is recognizable. You will hear the James Bond theme over and over again and it does the loop which does get a little annoying at times, but overall the music is enjoyable.

The art for this game is really well done too. I don't think I ever looked at something and thought it could look any different or any better. I thought it was all pretty great.

This game does require you to pay careful attention to what people say sometimes especially during trade quests you need to pick up on all the people's clues. I needed to use a strategy guide two times to figure things out due to ambiguity.

Another issue I had is that you are required to do a casino blackjack mini game to progress the story as a kid that was difficult for me because I didn't know how to play these games. But you can get unlimited money just by talking to the cashier and she will give you another thousand dollars, which you can use to gamble to the undefined dollar amount needed to progress the story.

The last issue I had is there is an item that I believe is required to defeat the boss of that level and the way to get it is by killing an enemy on the map. The reason I don't like this is because this is the only instance in the game where an enemy drops a key item that is needed to progress and it's easy to just walk past enemies in certain places to get to the next screen so on my most recent play through I forgot about this, and I made it all the way to the boss without the item that I believe is required to defeat him.

Have you played this game? If so, what did you think of it? This game is definitely enjoyable for James Bond fans, but even if you don't know anything about James Bond it's still a fun game.

PS3 is one of the few systems I have ever owned or really ever played.

I want to get one for some ps3 exclusives, but I would like to be able to run home brew software on it.

I know the original fat model is the best one, but I’ll skip that as they are really pricey.

Can someone give advice on whether I should get slim or super slim or anything else to look out for when making the purchase?

Hi Retro gamers on Android,

Papaya is now available in Google Play! 🥳

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sebschaef.papaya

✅ With this Alpha version you can:

• Easily add 19 platforms through 36 emulators to your games collection (There is more to come of course)
• Add additional custom platforms and emulators through a guided configuration
• Easily manage your collection (quickly switch emulators for specific games, scrape more fitting covers for a game etc.)
• Pin game streams from Artemis to your collection
• Display your collection in two different Layouts: Carousel and Grid
• Change the appearance through the Android settings: (Live) wallpapers + Material 3 color schemes
• Start your normal Apps and App Shortcuts

🔄 Some shortcomings at the moment:

• You can’t edit the game details with custom covers yet. But you can source the details from IGDB and TheGamesDB though a search mask.
• No custom scraper settings yet. Currently, IGDB is queried first and TheGamesDB afterwards for the automatic scraping.

Please note that this is an Alpha version, so it’s very possible that you experience crashes or other issues. Please report them either directly through Google Play or in the Discord so I can fix them in time.

📤 Feel free to share the link with others who might be interested in Papaya. The more of us use the Open Alpha, the easier we can resolve issues and identify wanted features, thank you 🧡

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sebschaef.papaya

🎫 You can use all features of Papaya for free for 30 days to test if it fits your needs. If you like it, you can then buy the unlimited license for a one time purchase (No subscription!).

I've been interested in the retro handhelds I've been seeing by companies like miyoo and AYN for a while. I'm curious to see this community's thoughts on the available options. I'm thinking of asking my girlfriend to get me something like the Miyoo Flip V2 for Christmas. Basically what I want is a small handheld that is easy to bring with me everywhere and take out and play with for a few minutes while I have breaks at work. My budget would be around $100, but I'd be happy to hear thoughts on the more expensive options like the AYN Thor.

I do already have a steam deck for home, but I'm hoping for something a little more portable for playing around with older games.

So I'm very large and strong, I think I may be the cause of this. But does anyone know of a strong replacement? I'm capable of installing it myself, but my cursory Google search turned up nil for "strong game sticks"(let the jokes flow)

Just curious if I'm stuck playing d-pad game.

(Invidious link)

From the video description:

As much as I enjoy a good emulator, nothing really beats the experience of playing games on original hardware. And to help us enjoy that experience to the fullest, a Flash Cart is a must.

But have you ever wondered how it’s possible to cram thousands of games onto a cartridge that still works with original consoles? Well, in this video, you’re going to find out - because we’re diving into the design of modern flash cartridges.

The Xbox 360 just had it's 20th anniversary. I'm not sure how I feel about it as a console today as most of the games are available on pc with only a few exclusives. I guess most of the nostalgia will be from playing online, which I never got the chance to do.

Patrick was the man that actually started coding what would become Warcraft: Orcs & Humans before "real" development began. Some highlights:

• The main motivator for the game was "Dune 2, but with multiplayer"
• While there were plans for making it a Warhammer game, most of the team was against that idea, wanting freedom and being burned out from previous work with DC
• The name "Warcraft" was idealized by Allen Adham, who wanted a game series of historical conflicts
• The game originally allowed you to select as many units as you wanted, but that was later limited to only 4

Part 2 - https://www.codeofhonor.com/blog/the-making-of-warcraft-part-2
Part 3 - https://www.codeofhonor.com/blog/the-making-of-warcraft-part-3

Just obtained my first ps2 and so far my gf and I like playing:

• test drive eve of destruction

• ssx tricky

• lotr return of the king

• the warriors

A new ROM hack adds full 60FPS support to the GBA classic Mario Kart: Super Circuit. While the game has always rendered at 60FPS, Nintendo originally updated the track rotation at only 30FPS, causing a mismatch between the sprites, backgrounds, and the Mode-7-style track. This new hack updates the track rotation to 60FPS as well, creating a fully cohesive gameplay experience with no extra performance hit.