phillv85

We’ll never become the Silicon Valley of Europe because our competition commission makes any company that might look like it may actually compete with American companies sell chunks of itself every time it gets close.

And I don’t see this merger/buyout creating jobs either Bobby….. that’s not how mergers/buyouts usually work.

Yeah that’s worth a try. I’ve never had a Saturn that’s got a 100% reliable cart slot.

Yeah the US market is just a monster. Even shipping from there is super expensive. Japan on the other hand is less accessible but much, much cheaper.
 

I can’t vouch for eBay, but buying direct from Japanese sellers using a proxy, paying internal postage in Japan, fees to package and bundle the items, then onward shipping and taxes often still works out cheaper than buying directly in the UK on a lot of mid-priced games. This works out more so when buying in bundles and splitting shipping across all your items. 
 

I spent most of my gaming budget over the last couple of years doing just this and have had some incredible deals. It’s not easy to see often, but these games in Japan when not being sold in obvious places to westerners are dirt cheap. You can pick up an X-Men vs. Street Fighter in box with RAM cart in ok condition for about 4500 yen if you’re willing to wait.

1 hour ago, klargon said:

Funny enough, this title came to mind for me. I picked this up when I bought a Dreamcast and was surprised how much I enjoyed it. Hitting a wall with the sword is a bastard, though!

Yea the narrower areas are a right pain in the spuds 😆

You could try Berserk: Guts’ Rage. Not a long game, but I enjoyed it.

Some good shmups on the DC as well. 

1 minute ago, spatular said:

isn't the s-tribute stuff the saturn ports which don't seem well received so far? hopefully they've been fixed up/batsugun one is good anyway.

Yeah, the emulator they use seems to have a few frames of lag by default that is added. If it’s released physically I’ll probably grab it, but if it’s download only I’ll do what I did with Elevator Action Returns and just stick to playing it on Saturn.

Edit: No idea why I’m so happy, I already have it on the Saturn, but…. 

We’re (PAL regions) actually in a bit of a dip from all time peak prices at the moment. Not sure we’ll get back to where it was pre-pandemic, but looking at average selling prices on pricecharting for a bunch of console libraries and also seeing (and buying) higher end games for a little less than they were previously.

If you’re holding NTSC-U games at the moment then you’ve won the lottery, their prices have gone batshit and even with a dip on some systems, prices are stupidly high.

Looking at my currently outstanding pre-orders, only three currently:
 

1. Grimgrimoire Oncemore

2. Rayz Arcade Chronology

3. Shikigami no Shiro II

I’ll probably give Redfall a go if it comes out on GP with a couple of buddies. Interested in Starfield as well.

From that graph it looks like numbers will probably be up for the next quarter, presumably for all the new console sold around Christmas. If it still drops then there’s definitely a tail off happening.

Yeah that’s nearly 2m users no longer subscribing. That has to become a worry at some point.

It’s an FPS, certainly not text heavy. The corridors all looking the same will probably be a bigger barrier than the language 😅

Yeah the NesicaX Live and All.net services are brutal. Although the op’s no longer have to pay for the hardware, so there is less risk on a big title actually being shit.

One of EXA Arcadia’s main selling points is that the operator gets to keep all the money.

Just had another run and died after the stage 3 mid-boss, lost my tank by getting a little gung ho and it’s hard when there’s two tanks firing at you on foot and a couple of guys throwing grenades. 
 

Managed to get 2 of the 50k point bonuses on the second stage, if you get the doll quick enough it’s 50k, otherwise 5k, then the frog that goes down with the bridge when it gets blown up.

My high score so far: 329580

MK9 was great from what I remember. Mortal Kombat 2 is still my favourite. The fatalities on that at the time were unbelievable to 10 year old me. I’m also hugely nostalgic for the first game, when we found out the blood code it was a great time.

Just had my first credit on it in ages, managed to get to the stage 3 boss, although I dropped two silly lives along the way. My best ever run on 1 credit was the stage 4 boss so I’m going to work towards getting there again. I have credit fed in the past and the last stage is an utter twat, it’ll take some learning.

I’m fairly sure that Chain Reaction on the Saturn is the first MD game as well.

I think Dune 2 was superseded by Dune 2000 on PC but happy to be corrected.

Yeah the smaller items appear to be random, but the big items need to be triggered. I’m not as familiar with the first one as two, but in 2 you can do things like kill the helicopters in order for big points and bundle over the NPC’s so they drop stuff etc.

7 minutes ago, MagicalDrop said:

 

Sorry to veer slightly off topic but I almost chose Magicaldrop III, purely to reference my username. I still play it a LOT but stuck in a score rut of c. 37000. I might start a topic on that game for some tactical chat. 

 

Anyhow congrats on MVS ownership, I used to own a cab with both those games too. 

Thanks! It was my first, and now my last cab. Please do start a topic, I’ve still never 1CC’d the Challenge mode despite coming close a few times.

I think I have that on both Mega CD and CD32 but have never played it, guessing it’s regarded as a stinker?

Good choice! I’ll load it in my cab tomorrow and gave it a blast. Not played the first game for ages, spend most of my MVS time on Metal Slug 2 or Magical Drop III.

Mine’s arrived today 😐

29 minutes ago, Colonel Panic said:

Cold is okay. Damp is not. 

This

Just in case someone else wanted to have a guess 😅