What was you favorite console game to play with siblings or family?
For console games, I prefer to play alone.But there is a game that I love to play with my brothers.Pro Evolution Soccer
KONAMI: Why isn't there a Contra game app?
You can download NES emulator for mobile/desktop and then can play any NES ROM in it. NES ROM can be downloaded online for free.Download the NES ROMs of your choice, install NES emulator app and then play all your classic NES/SNES games to your heart desire.
What are some of the best retro games songs you ever listened to?
Here are some of my favorite retro game songs, hope you like ‘em!Mega Man 2 - Dr. Wily's CastleBest VGM 40 - DuckTales - The MoonLink's Awakening DX Perfect Ending (note: the song starts at about 2:30 of the video)And ok this ones not so retro but i’ll add it here cause I just plain love it!Ocarina of Time: Gerudo Valley
Why were old videogames so sadistically hard?
Games are made with the simple objective of getting from point A to B. Over time games became more complex and new technology allowed more objectives and hidden rewards, but somewhere along the way developers tried too hard to make hard games for "hardcore" gamers. Very few games (like Mario and Sonic) were well made with the right balance of difficulty and excellent gameplay (but were regarded as "kiddie" games like they are today) and are far and between. However some games were poorly made and are unplayable or regarded as insanely difficult due to poor controls and bad play mechanics (a problem that still persists today). Before current gaming the challenge bar was dropped to accommodate new players and kids of all ages and games have evolved to the point where modern titles are simple and short with virtually no effort to earn extra lives or continues. Some are even trial and error games with multiple save points and unlimited chances in order to make it bearable to casual and non-gamers Tiny Toons was a fine game because Konami was one of those companies that cared, I have a copy on SNES along with a few Capcom Disney games because they hold up well today. If only there could more like them today (or if they came out on virtual console) And games were always made the same way as they are today, a development team taking plenty of development time to produce a game for the current hardware. No games are ever made as a "hobby", and the few that are take forever because they're made independently and don't have the same budget and resources as big company games. In fact "Hobby" games are only possible in today's download market (Shantae: Risky's Revenge, Retro City Rampage) but are made by passionate people who believe in the project, not hobbyists
What video game systems have Pac-Man available?
The most popular game systems today are the Wii, Xbox360, and PS3. Out of these, which ones have Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-man, Donkey Kong, Galaga, Frogger, Gorf, Dig-Dug, Joust, Defender, Stargate, and Bosconian available? Do the controllers have a regular joystick and fire buttons? On these systems, do they have less-popular games available, such as Gyruss, Elevator Action, Pengo, Time Pilot, Zoo Keeper, and Guzzler? All games mentioned are from 1980-1983.
Why do many NES game graphics flicker while SNES games don't have that issue?
The NES Picture Processing Unit (PPU) has a limit of the number of sprites it can display on any given scanline. That limit is eight. Sprites are eight pixels wide.The PPU also has a limit of 64 total sprites that can be in its internal sprite memory at any given time.Sprites are usually things in a game that move, relative to a static background. Player characters, enemies, movable platforms, etc. usually are sprites.As example, Mario is 16 pixels wide. So the NES uses two sprites aligned horizontally to display him (well, six in all for his whole body).So on any given game frame, two of the eight possible sprite slots in the scanlines that vertically contain the Mario sprites are consumed.That leaves six sprites for anything else. Enemies are typically 16 pixels wide also, so three enemies on the same scanlines as Mario will use up the PPU's scanline sprite display abilities.Then what happens if a moving platform scrolls vertically through these scanlines? The PPU can't display them. It has no slots left in its pixel priority pipelines to put any more sprite data.Most games would be unplayable if this situation occurred - the moving platform would disappear and the player's timing would suffer. Mario would die.So in order to work around this, games shuffle the deck. They rearrange the sprites. Why does this help?Because the PPU scans through the 64 sprites to be displayed looking for sprites on the scanline it is currently drawing. Once it finds eight, it stops*. So by shuffling the ordering the game causes different sprites to be visible or not for any given frame.Flicker results.*there is a bug in some PPUs where it doesn'g actually stop and will start processing sprite metadata as Y-coordinates. Since the Y-coordinate of a sprite is what tells the PPU when to draw it, but the bug only occurs when eight sprites have already been selected into the pixel prority queues, this bug doesn't cause visual anomalies.The sprite metadata for a sprite is its X- and Y-coordinates, its tile number, and palette and horizontal flipping control. It takes four bytes per sprite. A 6502 "page" of RAM is 256 bytes. Thus 64 sprites fit nicely into a single page. Some custom periphery on the CPU die (it's a 6502 plus audio synth plus DMA controller) provides for DMA transfers of this 256-byte page from RAM into the PPU.I don't know SNES but I would guess they removed the limitation of sprites per scanline thus no flicker.
Why wasn't "The Simpsons" arcade game ever released on a Nintendo or Sega console during the 1990s?
Acclaim had the rights to make Simpsons games for the NES, SNES, GB, Genesis, Master System, and Game Gear. I’m not sure if this applied to all territories or just in the US and Europe. Because of that, Konami could not port the game to consoles without getting into trouble with Acclaim. It’s a shame because I think the Sega CD could’ve done a close to arcade perfect port, especially if Sega handled it themselves.
Which gaming generation do you prefer: 8-bit era (NES, Master System) or 16-bit era (SNES, Genesis)?
I not only prefer the 16-bit generation over the 8-bit generation I see that generation as the best generation to date.Some of gaming's greatest companies and third parties at the height of their powers produced and/or refined some of gaming most enduring and fondly remembered games and franchises in this era.Nintendo, Sega, NEC, Hudson, Konami, Capcom, Square, and EA all had some of their biggest hits this generation.Sega: Streets of Rage 2The other great thing about this era was platform diversity. The play experiences were different between the systems. You knew if you were playing a SNES game, a Genesis/Mega Drive game or a PC Engine/Turbografx game.Turbografx 16: R-TypeA great example is Konami’s Castlevania games each 16-bit console got a different Castlevania. They were all brilliant, all different and all took advantage of the host system.Sega: Bloodlines/New GenerationSNES: Super Castlevania IVPC Engine CD: Rondo of BloodThere are things the Genesis/Mega Drive could do that the SNES couldn’t and vice versa due to the different custom chips, processors and sound chips.The only unfortunate thing it was very expensive/difficult to be a multi console owner in this generation due to the price of games.All genres seemed to have defining games in this generation.SNES: Secret of ManaAnd seeing as you mentioned 16-bit era rather than just focusing on the consoles (especially for us guys in Europe and Australia) there were also the Amiga and ST. Again these systems delivered a plethora of great games not available on console although they were not as competent at action games or arcade ports as the consoles (they could still deliver when coded correctly) they were better at the sim and adventure categories.Fortunately in this age of emulation, flashcarts and floppy drive emulators we are now in a position to enjoy all these great systems.Go on dive in but be warned you may not want to come back out.