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Nathan Tolbert pushes the limitations of new games on old consoles

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Re: Nathan Tolbert pushes the limitations of new games on old consoles

#21

Post by qooiii2 »

I've done a bit of NES programming and really enjoy trying to cram stuff into such a tiny system.

One benefit of developing games for these old systems is that they are not moving targets. For hobby programming, you probably don't want to keep testing and recompiling old stuff to keep up with OS updates.

Even better, you'll have a small army of emulator developers making sure your games will work forever on every new platform. That includes browsers, since there are Javascript emulators for many systems. If your games are particularly tricky to emulate, that's no problem. They will probably be added to everyone's test suites.

Re: Nathan Tolbert pushes the limitations of new games on old consoles

#22

Post by galaxyofdoom »

eru wrote: post #19
BaculumMeumEst wrote: post #14

> One of my favorite games for the NES was Ninja Gaiden. > My kids helped design some of the characters, and they love to play it together, which makes it a lot of fun as a family. > My family (my wife and 4 kids) loves hanging out with neighbors at Morrissey Park in Champaign. Champaign has great parks, and we’re fortunate enough to have a neighborhood community that regularly gets together at the park in the evenin…

You can replicate some of his winnings. Eg unicycles are really cheap, and it took me a few idle afternoons (about twenty years ago) to get going on the unicycle. Mind you, I didn't learn any tricks, just how to go forward and how to get on without holding onto anything. Getting a spouse and 4 kids is a bit more involved, but doable for most people with a bit of dedication.

[dead]

Re: Nathan Tolbert pushes the limitations of new games on old consoles

#23

Post by hnlmorg »

erickhill wrote: post #20
hnlmorg wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Gameboy and GBA have seen a surprising number of new games in recent years. And I don’t mean stuff created in GB Studio (which is itself really awesome), but actual games written from scratch in C or assembly. They seem to be quite a popular couple of platforms to develop on even today. Personally, I tend to look out more the indie Mega Drive releases but I really love the fact that people are still developing fo…

There is a constant drumbeat of excellent new releases for both C64 and Amiga games as well. It's... amazing.

Pretty much ever retro system still sees new releases, albeit at varying rates

Re: Nathan Tolbert pushes the limitations of new games on old consoles

#24

Post by hnlmorg »

pbj1968 wrote: post #16
hnlmorg wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah seen that before. It’s definitely impressive but it’s worth noting that there are a few 3D games for the Mega Drive. Albeit games like Virtua Racing did have additional chips in the cartridge (I have a boxed copy of that cart sat behind me). The Master System had stereoscopic 3D games too. As did the Famicom. I have both of their respective 3D addons too. Missile Defence in 3D is pretty cool. Hard to believe it’…

Virtua Racer was the only game with an extra chip for 3D. Everything else on that system is running straight off a ROM.

For some reason I thought Sega had released other games with the SVP but you’re right Virtua Racing was the only one.

I think maybe I got my wires crossed with Virtua Fighter 2, which did see a Mega Drive release but as a 2D fighter (the VSP port being cancelled - presumably because of the cost of the VSP).

Re: Nathan Tolbert pushes the limitations of new games on old consoles

#25

Post by ativzzz »

eru wrote: post #19
BaculumMeumEst wrote: post #14

> One of my favorite games for the NES was Ninja Gaiden. > My kids helped design some of the characters, and they love to play it together, which makes it a lot of fun as a family. > My family (my wife and 4 kids) loves hanging out with neighbors at Morrissey Park in Champaign. Champaign has great parks, and we’re fortunate enough to have a neighborhood community that regularly gets together at the park in the evenin…

You can replicate some of his winnings. Eg unicycles are really cheap, and it took me a few idle afternoons (about twenty years ago) to get going on the unicycle. Mind you, I didn't learn any tricks, just how to go forward and how to get on without holding onto anything. Getting a spouse and 4 kids is a bit more involved, but doable for most people with a bit of dedication.

> Getting a spouse and 4 kids is a bit more involved

Raising 4 kids without community support is extremely challenging - the church involvement here is more crucial than you think

Re: Nathan Tolbert pushes the limitations of new games on old consoles

#26

Post by BaculumMeumEst »

ativzzz wrote: post #25
eru wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can replicate some of his winnings. Eg unicycles are really cheap, and it took me a few idle afternoons (about twenty years ago) to get going on the unicycle. Mind you, I didn't learn any tricks, just how to go forward and how to get on without holding onto anything. Getting a spouse and 4 kids is a bit more involved, but doable for most people with a bit of dedication.

> Getting a spouse and 4 kids is a bit more involved Raising 4 kids without community support is extremely challenging - the church involvement here is more crucial than you think

Exactly right. I had the full quote for a reason.

Re: Nathan Tolbert pushes the limitations of new games on old consoles

#27

Post by pbj1968 »

hnlmorg wrote: post #24
pbj1968 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Virtua Racer was the only game with an extra chip for 3D. Everything else on that system is running straight off a ROM.

For some reason I thought Sega had released other games with the SVP but you’re right Virtua Racing was the only one. I think maybe I got my wires crossed with Virtua Fighter 2, which did see a Mega Drive release but as a 2D fighter (the VSP port being cancelled - presumably because of the cost of the VSP).

I went down some Covid quest of lunacy where I made literally hundreds of genesis cartridges. Yes, I’m aware of and own everdrives and multicarts, too. Got very intimately familiar with those pcbs by the end of it.

Re: Nathan Tolbert pushes the limitations of new games on old consoles

#28

Post by eru »

ativzzz wrote: post #25
eru wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can replicate some of his winnings. Eg unicycles are really cheap, and it took me a few idle afternoons (about twenty years ago) to get going on the unicycle. Mind you, I didn't learn any tricks, just how to go forward and how to get on without holding onto anything. Getting a spouse and 4 kids is a bit more involved, but doable for most people with a bit of dedication.

> Getting a spouse and 4 kids is a bit more involved Raising 4 kids without community support is extremely challenging - the church involvement here is more crucial than you think

Agreed. I just stopped commenting on the code point by point after a while.

Church (or other community) involvement is also people can decide to get into. Whether you're religious or not, though I admit being a-religious would make it a bigger compromise.

Re: Nathan Tolbert pushes the limitations of new games on old consoles

#29

Post by hnlmorg »

pbj1968 wrote: post #27
hnlmorg wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For some reason I thought Sega had released other games with the SVP but you’re right Virtua Racing was the only one. I think maybe I got my wires crossed with Virtua Fighter 2, which did see a Mega Drive release but as a 2D fighter (the VSP port being cancelled - presumably because of the cost of the VSP).

I went down some Covid quest of lunacy where I made literally hundreds of genesis cartridges. Yes, I’m aware of and own everdrives and multicarts, too. Got very intimately familiar with those pcbs by the end of it.

That sounds interesting. Why did you create so many? What were they used for?

Re: Nathan Tolbert pushes the limitations of new games on old consoles

#30

Post by pbj1968 »

hnlmorg wrote: post #29
pbj1968 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went down some Covid quest of lunacy where I made literally hundreds of genesis cartridges. Yes, I’m aware of and own everdrives and multicarts, too. Got very intimately familiar with those pcbs by the end of it.

That sounds interesting. Why did you create so many? What were they used for?

Just to have a pile of them to run my fingers down while picking one to play. I started with a small list and then recreated my childhood. Then it was all those “always wanted to play that” games and the finally modern homebrew.
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