A number of Tactics Ogre fans will tell you that the PSP version, whether vanilla or with the One Vision mod, is superior to the recent Reborn PC release. Each version has its pluses and minuses, so it’s largely a matter of taste. The port itself was fine on release, despite the recent trend of SQEX PC ports that were messy on release but were fixed later (like Chrono Trigger and Cross).

I still play the Intellivision’s Treasure of Tarmin on my phone from time to time. People would probably call it a first-person roguelike or something today. Amazing how a little randomness can give even a 1983 game so much replay value.

For actual hardware, I doubt I’ll ever play anything especially retro/vintage now. I’m spoiled by today’s gamepad ergonomics (I’d never play much Treasure of Tarmin on an Intellivision pad, woof). However, I do sometimes think about setting up some sort of hardware to play on a CRT with a wireless gamepad.

Oof, I can’t agree with this at all. Departure is one of my favorite tracks from the whole era, and the ending song was also excellent. I felt the soundtrack did a lot of heavy lifting to carry the game’s somber tone.

Notable though that Miyoko Kobayashi was on “Departure,” not Hikichi. Hikichi only had a few tracks on the game.

At this point, AliExpress is my #1 choice for anything a) made overseas anyways and b) that I don’t need right away. It’s usually parts or trinkets; for example, the last thing I bought was a kit to supplement my mahjong playing set.

In this case though, this feels overpriced for a used/refurbished model. If you were going to take on this much perceived risk, I’m surprised you didn’t go with one $150 or less on eBay or a local exchange like Facebook Marketplace or something.

I got a good feeling!

Mostly newsworthy because Matsuno said last year there were no plans for it. The bigger news for me is Schreier saying down-thread that Naoki Yoshida’s team is on the project. I was concerned Asano’s might be, and I don’t want him anywhere near this.

I’d be deliriously happy with the Tactics Ogre Reborn treatment. A similarly arranged, orchestrated soundtrack is my #1 ask; I think this is still Sakimoto and Iwata’s best work, and the PSX audio doesn’t do the compositions justice. Additional animated cutscenes and additional dungeons/sidequests are probably not happening, but like in Reborn, high-quality voice overs and something small to mix up the gameplay or tweak the difficulty would be nice.

A lot of people succumbed to fear after 1992, especially the types like Ken Williams that were newly rich.

There’s a excellent, recent OJ Simpson documentary called Made in America that does a dive into 1990’s Los Angeles police culture and the riots. Highly recommended.

I got my copy in a trade with my younger cousin. I don’t even remember what I gave up, one of the later Mega Man games, I think. Still feels like I got the better deal.

The original Dragon Quest was my first JRPG, but it was Destiny of an Emperor that got me into the genre, I think. Cool early example of a turn-based battle system.

This feels like a perfect example of the era, love it.

Video games weren’t great about credits in general back then. A little while ago I was trying to find who did a music track from Mega Man and only figured it out because there was an interview about it with the guy.

This headline would have blown my mind years ago.

I wasn’t big on it at release, but a lot of people were. In hindsight, there was still too much of the earlier DNA in the game: a lot of people just talking at you, and otherwise mostly a focus on driving around and shooting things. It wasn’t engaging enough for someone like me that mostly played RPGs.

The move to 3D was impressive, though, and a necessary step for not just the series but a lot of games of the generation. Now that they had a big hit, they were able to take big swings by bringing in Ray Liotta and all the elements to make an amazing period piece with Vice City.

My retro favorites are Rikku (especially in FFX-2) and Celes from FF6. Rikku’s the type to light up a room, and it turns out I have a thing for quirky, techie girls from persecuted minority groups which would later come up with Tali’zorah in Mass Effect. Of course, Rikku’s more daughter goals than girlfriend goals now that I’m older. Awkward.

With Celes, there have been better, deeper portrayals of depression in RPGs since, but back in the 90’s I really appreciated seeing a character that isn’t boundlessly confident and has trauma to work through. Love her story.

I also really liked Aranea from FF15. Still feeling robbed that we never got her DLC.

Some Nintendo 64 games got up to the $80 range in the late 90’s before PlayStation really started taking off.

What made matters worse was the publishers didn’t have as much price control as they do now, so game and accessory prices would vary store to store as retailers tacked on additional margins.

While the software for current games is substantially cheaper, the hardware is more expensive at this point in time. The Switch is spendy for a nearly 7-year-old system. The PS5 has had a price increase, when we saw a big price cut for the PS2 at two years in. Accessories, depending on where you live, are up 25% or more from retro eras (especially Joy-Cons).

PC prices have come back down to earth now, but during the GPU shortage, it hadn’t been more expensive to put together a gaming PC since the 90’s/2000’s.

For platformers, definitely try Yoshi’s Island if you haven’t already. If the visual style is a turn off, try to roll with it until at least the second boss. Great gameplay.

For a turn-based RPG, you’ll frequently get Final Fantasy recommended but if you’d like to also try the other big series, give Dragon Quest V a shot. Otherwise I second the recommendations for Advance Wars (strategy) or Tactics Ogre (strategy JRPG, go with the PSP version for your hardware).

Highly recommend a good pair of headphones for Panzer Dragoon Saga as well when playing on a handheld. It has an excellent soundtrack.

This is one of my all-time favorites that I first played so long ago, so I sometimes wonder “is it nostalgia or is the game just that good?” Posts like this always make me think it’s a big dose of the latter.

The game just gets so much right, especially a very satisfying last 10 minutes.