Pilotwings demos act differently depending on when the cartridge was made • Hacker News Board

Re: Pilotwings demos act differently depending on when the cartridge was made

#41

Post by jplayer01 » Sat, May 11, 2019, 6:03 AM UTC

anyfoo wrote: post #4

I often enjoy foone’s discoveries, and this was a particularly interesting one. I just wish it wasn’t all on Twitter. Why not put the text, plus pictures and whatever else (links?), into a blog posting, or just some HTML page with basic formatting? And then link to it with just the first Twitter post. Provide an RSS feed if you feel extra charitable (which is the way I enjoy most of the content related to this that I…

Yeah, I don't have the patience or interest in putting up with Twitter as a platform for information sharing or real discussion. It's terrible.

Re: Pilotwings demos act differently depending on when the cartridge was made

#42

Post by LeoPanthera » Sat, May 11, 2019, 6:05 AM UTC

orionsbelt wrote: post #5

I've recommended @foone's feed on here before, but I'll do it again now. I don't even know who this guy is or how I started following him, but his feed is full of interesting fun threads like this, often looking at older tech like this. I think most people on here would really enjoy following him.

His Twitter is Patreon funded which he literally never advertises, so I will do it for him. https://www.patreon.com/foone

Re: Pilotwings demos act differently depending on when the cartridge was made

#43

Post by capsulecorp » Sat, May 11, 2019, 6:10 AM UTC

I enjoyed this but I hate twitter as the delivery method for things of this length. Its a terrible way to digest the content.

Re: Pilotwings demos act differently depending on when the cartridge was made

#44

Post by asciimov » Sat, May 11, 2019, 6:11 AM UTC

Infernal wrote: post #40

asciimov wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pilotwings (SNES) would like a word with you.

But SNES was before N64 - this person (me too!) wants a Pilotwings 64 sequel!

I was commenting about the SNES version of Pilotwings also not having a proper sequel. Been wanting one since '92 or so, don't remember when I beat it for the first time.

Also, my copy of Pilotwings the Biplane crashes, always thought it was weird that the demo would do that. Guess I'm gonna have to find a copy with the other chip.

Re: Pilotwings demos act differently depending on when the cartridge was made

#45

Post by funwithjustin » Sat, May 11, 2019, 6:19 AM UTC

spilk wrote: post #2

Twitter is the worst platform for long-form content like this.

I both agree and disagree. It's a terrible way to read anything long-form, but in the case of a suspenseful story like this it's pretty great.

Re: Pilotwings demos act differently depending on when the cartridge was made

#46

Post by the-tomster » Sat, May 11, 2019, 6:21 AM UTC

meddlepal wrote: post #31

I'm just gonna say Pilotwings 64 is one of the few games out there that really hasn't had a ~proper~ sequel. Come on Nintendo.

Pilotwings Resort was a launch title on the 3DS. Neat little nod to Pilotwings (SNES) and Pilotwings 64 launching with those consoles. It was really cool seeing it on the 3D screen.

Re: Pilotwings demos act differently depending on when the cartridge was made

#47

Post by thomasfortes » Sat, May 11, 2019, 6:39 AM UTC

Great content, and then I followed @foone and one of the recommended people was another account that I just followed because the pinned tweet was this: https://twitter.com/TubeTimeUS/status/732005292808900608

I saw it before and probably on HN itself, but was left hidden in some place in my memory, it is an amazing project!

Re: Pilotwings demos act differently depending on when the cartridge was made

#48

Post by skrebbel » Sat, May 11, 2019, 6:42 AM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #33

JohnBooty wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most hilarious enhancement chip is the SA-1, used in the Super Mario RPG and other games. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Super_NES_enhancement_... It's essentially the same exact chip as the SNES's main CPU. Except three times faster. Imagine buying a game for your 3ghz PC that ships on a flash drive. And that flash drive also contains a 9hz (edit: whoops, 9ghz, haha) Intel Core i9 CPU.

A 9hz microprocessor would indeed be something. Start the game up, come back 10 days later and one frame would almost be rendered...

Never had that centered Nintendo logo been a bigger disappointment.

Re: Pilotwings demos act differently depending on when the cartridge was made

#49

Post by [deleted] » Sat, May 11, 2019, 6:49 AM UTC

city41 wrote: post #13

Shakahs wrote: post #6

TLDR: Some NES game cartridges contained coprocessors. The Pilotwings math coprocessor had 3 revisions and one of them produces slightly different outputs, even though the game ROM is identical. Star Fox had a 2D/3D chip called Super FX that sounds a lot like a GPU. It’s pretty cool that console games of that era could augment your existing hardware to support their requirements.

Small correction, these are SNES games. The extra chips on NES games were primarily memory mappers and not as interesting as what SNES games did.

[deleted]

Re: Pilotwings demos act differently depending on when the cartridge was made

#50

Post by memco » Sat, May 11, 2019, 6:49 AM UTC

mwest wrote: post #7

Unrolled version: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1126996260026605568.html Great story!

For all those who hate trying to read this as a tweet: please see parents’ link. There’s a whole site built to compile all these into a blog like thing for you.