Dwarf Fortress is one of those games that I love to read about, but I don’t think I would actually enjoy playing. Like Eve Online.

Nope, it’s Zelda 3 on the SNES.

My heart says it should be Dark Souls, but my head reminds me I absolutely hated it until I’d figured out that the run from Undead Burg bonfire to Taurus Demon couldn’t be rushed, and the point of the game was to be slow and methodical. Then I loved it.

I love and hate the feeling in Animal Crossing that the world has just continued existing without you for the last 18 months that you haven’t booted it up. Feels like visiting old friends… but old friends that thought you were dead or something.

Yeah, it really was amazing to play blind. We especially enjoyed the DLC… when we first realised what it was all about, it nearly blew our minds!

It does seem to have been overshadowed by Shadow of the Colossus somewhat.

I picked it up blind after getting carried away in the magazine hype and excitement. I’d not played any FF games before that… man, that was quite an experience!

Considered Dark Souls… but, honestly, the first time I played it, I hated it. And every successive playthrough, I’ve loved it more and more. Playing it for the first time would feel like a step back.

It’s 20 years old… if Windwaker isn’t considered retro now, then Atari 2600 games weren’t considered retro in 1997 :)

I don’t have the other devices to compare, but I understands that it should handle those platforms better than the 2+ and slightly worse than the 3+. So some playable games, but not all.

I tried a few GC games (Mario Kart Double Dash and Monkey Ball). They seemed to run okay. Monkey Ball ran worse than Mario Kart.

More powerful chipset and different dpad/left stick placement is the main one. Here’s a breakdown:

https://retroabxy.com/retroid-pocket-2-plus-vs-retroid-pocket-2s/

Yeah, it’s confusing, and not helped by the fact that they release a new one every couple of months.

Funnily enough, that’s one of the reasons I went with the 2S over the 3+. I love the look of the old NGPC!

Except in the case of the Sega Master System, where the simplistic 8-bit graphics felt like a massive leap up from the terrible box art!

Often it was because the ports were given to different companies to do… one would get the Spectrum/Amstrad and another would get the C64. Also, the whole sound and graphics systems would need to be rewritten, given the Spectrum’s lack of hardware sprites or scrolling, or decent sound. Presumably it just made sense to build them separately.

Can’t believe I missed that one! Sounds like it made some interesting compromises.

I always thought that as well, and was similarly jealous. But in doing these port comparisons, I’ve found that the C64 often got a really bad port. See my Bomb Jack post the other day, for example.

If you can look past the visuals and sound, the Spectrum ports often capture the feel of the arcade the best of all. It’s probably about 45-45-10 (C64-Speccy-Amstrad), with the Amstrad getting some rare gems like Renegade.

I’m not sure that’s the case…

A lot of the time, the C64 and Spectrum/Amstrad ports were done by different companies, in isolation. You’d often see the C64 go its own way, changing up levels and gameplay. While the Amstrad port was usually a lazy port of the Spectrum. You can often see the colour limitations of the Spectrum ported across wholesale to the Amstrad as well.

In the case of Commando, the Spectrum and Amstrad teams had some overlap and the games share some of the same DNA (see the title screen, for example), while the C64 was distinct. It doesn’t feel like a lazy Spectrum > Amstrad port though, so it has that going for it. The C64, as usual, feels like its own thing.

I did a much smaller comparison over on Mastodon a few months back: https://mastodonapp.uk/@davetansley/109767977707445539

It’s one of my favourite games from that era, so I’ll maybe expand it and post here.

Ferries and other ocean-going vessels seem to be a rich source of arcade memories… I remember lurking around the sit down Galaxians cabinet on the Bowness to Ambleside ferry on more than one occasion.