The Coop

Guardian Heroes (Saturn)- Well drawn 2D art, massive amounts of enemies to pow through, beat'em up-style gameplay with special moves thrown in, good tunes, and a vs mode with an astounding number of characters that can be unlocked (basically damn near every character in the game... if not every one). The controls are responsive, the action is constant, and this is a fine example of how good brawlers can be. YES. Taito Legends (PC)- Take 25 game from Taito's past that range from legendary (Space Invaders, Phoenix, etc.), to classic (Rastan, Bubble Bobble, etc.), to down right obscure (Tokio, Plotting, etc.), and put them together. What you end up with, is a stable of great arcade games from yesteryear. The game itself does a great job of emulating these games, but there's a special aspect about the PC version that the PS2 and XBox versions don't have... the ability to play the games in MAME as well. Yes, you can take the ROMs that TL1 installs, and drop them into an older version of MAME (v.66 is good) to get non-fuzzy graphics at proper aspect ratios, and even the arcade dipswitches. This is a great compilation on it's own. But tack on the MAME compatibility, and all the possible portability that implies, and it's even better. YES. Philosoma (PS1)- You know, when this game came out, it was pretty damn different. It's a shmup to be sure, but it's a bit odd. It uses quite a few different viewpoints. Top view, side view, into the screen behind the ship, out of the screen in front of the ship, and even below the ship. It's a strange beast to be sure, but it's also fun. It plays like a shmup regardless of which angle you're currently in, with good music, a decent challenge (mostly on hardest), and plenty of action. It's not the pinnacle of PS1 shmuping, but it's different, fun, and well made. Borderline YES. WipeOut (PS1)- Some folks consider Ridge Racer to be the best of the PS1's early racers. In my opinion, this game beats it by a mile. The downsides to this game are as follows... lots of pop up, and touching the side of the track brings you to an abrupt stop. The upsides? Great graphics, great music, seven wild and twisting tracks, a serious dose of speed when you unlock the higher class races, cool ship designs, and being able to shoot the bastards that come flying by you thanks to a fun array of weapons you can pick up. This game has few short comings, but a lot of pluses. YES. Radiant Silvergun (import Saturn)- There are shmups, and there are SHMUPS. This game, is in the latter category. Great graphics, effects the Saturn wasn't supposed to be able to do, cool music, many bosses that have multiple attacks and can be picked apart, a unique powering up system, fast action, lots of unlockable stuff, two modes (arcade and Saturn), a challenging scoring system and a tough challenge in general... this thing's got so much packed into it, that there's a reason some folks consider it the best shmup made to date. If you own a Saturn, you need to own this game. YES. Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness (PC)- C&C gave the RTS genre it's gameplay format, but this entry in the WarCraft series gave it a nice twist. The sprite work is quite nice for the time, the music is great, the gameplay is well done, the challenge level is certainly there. But in this game, there's a greater sense of personality to the troops you control (especially the low ranking ones), and some nice extra touches (like decaying bodies). The cinemas are pretty ugly looking (even for the time), but that's pretty much the low point in this game. The rest is quality stuff. YES. Unreal Tournament (PC)- You know, I'm probably one of the few people who wasn't all that excited about a FPS series that was focused more on single player, suddenly ditching the single player aspect damn near altogether. It happened when the Quake series jumped to III and tacked on a cheap single player game, and it happened again when the Unreal franchise did the same. Doom was a great balance between multi and single player gaming, but the lesson it taught wasn't paid attention to. Yes, the graphics are good for the time, there are several different modes to play in, the tunes are good, and there are plenty of weapons to grab and use. The bot AI is questionable at times, but it can do a decent job for your teammates in single player. But I can't lie here... the lack of a good single player game hurts UT 99. Multiplayer? Sure, UT 99 has it covered. Single player? Sorely lacking. Despite how disappointed I was with this game's not offering something for those of us who, at the time, didn't have an on-line option that would allow us to play it against others, I can still recognize what it offered. Borderline YES.

That's hard to do. We're rarer than a photograph of Paris Hilton not looking like she's stoned and mildly retarded.

Fighters Megamix (Saturn)- Take the cast of Virtua Fighter II, Fighting Vipers, bits of other franchises and fighting games like Sonic Fighters, and a host of oddball characters (like the racer car from Daytona USA), and here's what you get. You play with either Virtua Fighter rules, or Fighting Viper rules. You've lots of stuff to unlock, good tunes, two good fighting engines, graphics that are lower res, but light source shaded, a massive cast, spot on controls... it's a fighting game that you'd be hard pressed to not enjoy with everything it has. YES. Wing Commander (PC)- The game that began a classic franchise. Great graphics for its time, good midi music, a well done story, wingmen you can command (and kill), docking, plenty of ships and weapons to earn as the game goes on, good controls... it's a fun game that's quality stuff from beginning to end. YES. R-Types (PS1)- A small compilation with two virtually arcade perfect version of a pare of classic shmups... R-Type and R-Type II. Both games are slower paced, but they lack nothing in intensity. Good enemy patterns, cool stages, memorable tunes, areas that require you to change weapons to have a better chance at survival (especially II), great bosses, and somewhat deeper gameplay thanks to the detachable bit. They're older shmups that are well designed on all fronts, and that offer a good challenge without getting cheap. They're also games that influenced a good number of later shmups. So not only are they good, they're trend setters. YES. Vampire Savior * (import Saturn)- It's pretty clear that I'm a Darkstalkers fan, and this game is the best in the series. The smooth and exaggerated animation that series is known for, a wide cast of familiar and new monsters that have great design, spot on controls, good tunes, great and deep gameplay, cool backgrounds, hidden fighters, some interesting story developments... this game's an outstanding fighter that needs a sequel badly. Oh, this Saturn version is every bit as good as the arcade version, and in ways, better. Every frame and note is in place, load times are basically non-existent, and there's extra goodies that the arcade didn't have. And, there's an English option so those of us no fluent in Japanese can enjoy everything. YES without a doubt in my mind.

Sadly, it looks like I don't get to play this. I get three "UT3 must close" errors every time I start it. The furthest I've gotten is two minutes of play time before it crashed. Otherwise, I rarely ever make it past the title screen. I've tried the -nosound addition to the shortcut, I've reinstalled it three times, and I even made sure my drivers are the newest ones out there. All this, after one pathetic download rate attempt, and being kicked out of the download line three times on Fileplanet. In short, "Demo no like me"

Final bump. There's now less than an hour before the game's taken down. It's now or never for anyone interested.

Hmmmm... some catching up to do. Well, I'll keep them short... G-Darius (PS1)- A very good port, of a very good shmup. Darius finally goes 3D, and it does so quite well. The ship designs the series is known for were carried over and well executed, the funky but good music is there, the gameplay is still intact, and now you've got a new twist on the capture ball idea from "Gaiden", as well as a massive laser weapon you can use. It's got a lot a slow down, but that's not enough to make this game not a must have. YES. DonPachi (import Saturn)- Bright and colorful, intense battles that border on being manic in nature, good music, serious firepower, and tight control. Add in the fact that there's a true final boss which is damn hard to get, and you've got all the makings of a great vertical shmup. The graphics suffer a bit playing in "yoko" mode, but that's easily fixed by putting the game in "tate" mode. YES. Metroid Fusion (GBA)- Not much to say. That hasn't been already mentioned. A very good, solid entry into the series. YES. Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete (PS1)- Take the classic Sega CD version, beef up the graphics quite a bit, expand the storyline, throw in more cinemas, and replace most of the original soundtrack with slightly worse music (in composition), and you've got the PS1 version of a great RPG. It's light hearted at times, deathly serious at others, and tells a good story with interesting characters and monsters. YES. Duke Nukem 3D (Saturn)- While graphically it's a bit more pixelly than the PC version, this game is basically unchanged. The cinemas, the cursing, nice frame rate, the topless women, the quips... 90% of it is all there. Except now, you have added bonus levels that Lobotomy made for this version, as well as lighting effects not in the original game, and a better sounding redbook audio soundtrack. They even managed to set up a good control scheme for the Saturn's 3D controller (the one that came with NiGHTS). It's a good conversion that stays as close to the original classic as the system would allow, while adding a few extra bits. YES. Sonic Advance (GBA)- After a few 3D outings, Sonic came back to its 2D roots. Fast and simply gameplay, fun (but tough at times) bosses, multiple characters to play through with, good graphics with a new art style, catchy upbeat tunes... it's Sonic with a facial. If the Genesis games were to your liking, you'll feel right at home playing this game. YES. DarkStalkers (PS1)- A long delay kept this from the market, but the final result is a fine conversion of Capcom fighting goodness. There are some frames missing, but it's nothing like what happened in X-Men: Children of the Atom, and most of noticeable missing frames are from on the larger characters. Otherwise, you get everything the original arcade game had, with more vivid colors, slightly better sounding music, and all the sharp graphics, crisp controls, and wild cast of characters that made the original arcade game so good. Just beware... this game's a bitch even on one star. YES. Thunder Force V (import Saturn)- Sure, the PS1 version has the new cinemas and hidden ship variations, but the Saturn version has something you don't expect... better graphics. Transparencies and parallax scrolling are scattered throughout this game, yet the PS1 version is missing quite a bit of it. The Saturn version also does the endings in real time, and not "recorded" like they are on the PS1 version (which means the compression artifacts seen in the PS1 endings aren't there). So while both games have the same great music, good challenge, nice graphics, and varied levels, the Saturn version gives just a bit more in a number of areas to give it the overall edge. YES. Descent (PC)- Wanna play a game that'll make you seasick? Here ya go. 360º movement, means 360º bobbing, swaying and danger. The levels start out simple enough, but by the half-way point, they're huge, convoluted, and filled with enemies. But thankfully you'll be in nice surroundings, as the graphics are good for the day, the music's cool, and thankfully, the controls are done well. You'll be lost a lot, even with the map, but you'll be having fun while trying to find your way back. YES. Duke Nukem (PC)- It's the original game, and everything that came with it. From smut, to gore, to vulgar language, this is the version to get if you want it all. The levels are designed well, the music's good, and every last little tit shot and blood drop is here. The Saturn version was very good, but this is the original baby. YES. Heretic (PC)- Take the familiar Doom engine, set it down in a world that's medieval in nature, and here's the result. It plays very much like Doom for obvious reasons, but that's not a bad thing. Good controls, decent midi tunes, a new cast of monsters and bosses to take down (as well as new weapons to do it with), fun levels... it's a clone, but it's a good clone. Borderline YES. Shining Soul (GBA)- I meant to take this off of my list before hitting "submit", but forgot to. It's not a bad game, it's just that it's not as polished as it could have been. The sequel did things much better, and fixed some of the issues with this game. Again, an entertaining game, and one I'd recommend. But it's just not a must have. NO. Guilty Gear (PS1)- Very nice graphics, a good metal soundtrack, smooth controls, and a tough challenge make this game a solid fighter. It plays like a mix of Street Fighter and Samurai Shodown. The backgrounds are a bit of a let down due to the little amount of animation in them, there really aren't too many options for a home fighter, and the bosses are excessively cheap, but the pros outweigh the cons on this one by just enough. Borderline YES. Nuclear Strike (PS1)- By this time, the "strike" series had just about run its course. But instead of whimpering across the finish line like a fat man running a mile, it ended on a good note. It uses much the same visual style as Soviet Strike before it, only now it varies up the levels more, gives the game an additional graphical and aural tweak, and throws in a lot of new vehicles to use. It's "more of the same" to some folks, but considering how good the first four games were, I don't believe that's an issue. Borderline YES. Astal (Saturn)- Back when the Saturn first came out, this game was virtually ignored. Why? Beats me, because it's a true definition of a "hidden gem". Absolutely gorgeous hand drawn graphics, nice music, simple gameplay, cool bosses, fun levels... this game is a lot of fun. It's short though, which is a bummer, and the controls are a little floaty, but neither cancels out how enjoyable this game is. YES. Prince of Persia (PC)- Ah, the game that started the franchise. The controls take some getting use to as far as momentum is concerned (a likely result of the smooth rotoscoped animation), but once you come to grips with it, you'll fine a long, challenging game that mixes up puzzles, traps, sword fights and brain twisting layouts. This game is considered a classic for a reason, and not just because it's old. It's a tough game to beat in the alloted time (you get one hour), but it's a great experience from start to finish. YES. Quake (PC)- id first set the FPS world afire with Doom. Then they gave it a new face with this game. The graphics were great for the time (especially GL Quake), and Trent Reznor's great soundtrack fit the dark and ominous world perfectly. The controls were kept simple, and worked fine with the new hazards (like water). The enemies were freakish and cool to go with the story (which was a mix of alien and demonic mythos). Sure, the animation was a bit rough considering the enemies were made up of polygons, but... Anyway, a YES. Mega Man Zero (GBA)- At last, Zero got to step out from MegaMan's shadow. The end result, was still very much a MegaMan game, but with a new lead, and a new crisis. A decent story unfolds as you go through the game's colorful and well drawn world, and fight through the rather good challenge the enemies put forth. The music's nice, and overall, it's a good entry into the (by now) long in the tooth MegaMan and "X" series. YES.

Giving this a nudge. There are now 5 hours before this ends, so time's running out.

So I guess this means we'll be playing Mercenaries V, MDK VII and Neverwinter Nights IX in 2010?

Afraid not. You have to connect to GGotD's website to activate it. Just delete some of your porn, and you'll have 63MB free in no time

Turtix is a platformer in much the same vein as many 16-bit platformers. You jump, land on top of an enemy's head, and then kick them off. Nothing revolutionary, but it's carried a lot of platformers over the years without much griping. In this game, you go through ten levels of a world, fight a boss to get a piece of the amulet you're trying to get, and then you move on to the next world. The levels start small and simple, but get noticeably larger as the worlds progress. You also have to rescue small turtles to open the exit portal. All this is standard, right? Well, what makes Turtix stand out though, is its graphical style. Flash would seem to be the game's origins, but the backgrounds, characters and such are drawn out with a very nice level of attention to detail and shading, rather than flat areas of color (like Flash games tend to have). Little things like Turtix's backpack and his hair were given its own sense of motion, and these kinds of little touches are everywhere on the characters as they stand or move. The graphics themselves are done up in a cartoony fashion, but they're also well shaded with lots of small objects and such to make them look more lush. Basically, it looks like what you'd expect a 32bit platformer to look like in terms of details and little touches, but it's given the level of fluidity that Flash can provide much easier than drawing it out pixel by pixel. The only real downside is the music. It's not bad, it's just that each world seems to only have one song that plays through the entire world of ten levels. As a result, you get a bit tired of the tune by the time you reach the boss. It's not a hard game by any means, and chances are, good players will make it through with little trouble. But, there's a lot of effort that went into its creation, and it is a fun little game. I figured that since there's twelve hours to go before the download time ends, I'd post this in it's own thread like I did with Jets n' Guns a while back. So if you want a new platform game to play, follow the link below and grab it while you can... http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/turtix/ Note: Be sure to install AND activate it before 3AM EST (12 hours from the time of this post). A number of people screwed themselves over by not activating Jets n' Guns as soon as they installed it, or they didn't bother to install it until it was too late to activate it. So don't make that mistake.

Must be something about animated gifs that Microsoft programmers just doesn't like. I'd imagine they probably throttled them back because of how many people simply set a gif to run with zero frame delay, which can be a resource hog in the right conditions. Even so, flat out disabling them is pretty moronic, seeing as they're still in use everywhere. As for FireFox and Vista, it's gotten better since 2.0.0.2 was introduced. It's still not as good on Vista as it is on XP from what I've read, but it's supposed to have gotten much better than it was at first. It's up to 2.0.0.7 now, so it's worth a try at least.

I appreciate the ending sentiment, Nec5. You don't strike me as one either But I have to ask... is it wrong to think a person's going to take care of what they paid for, be it a game, a car, a house, a pet, or whatever? I don't believe it is. We all naturally try not to damage what we spend our money on, or to not lose important parts of it. If you buy an old Transformer, I doubt you want to lose Thundercracker's wings, or Optimus Prime's trailer, right? Well, the very same thing applies here. Most of us try not to scratch up our game CDs, or smash our cartridges and systems. I'm sure we all try not to loose the instructions, break the controllers we use, or misplace the funky peripherals too. Well, like Thundercracker's wing, these CD keys are an important part of what was bought... in this case, they enable you to install the game. But like the other stuff I mentioned above, if we're careless with them and damage/lose them, then we're the ones to blame when it doesn't work anymore. It was our responsibility to take care of it, and we didn't do that. Trust me when I say, been there, done that, and learned from it. Hopefully Redsand has learned similarly from this. Keep in mind, I'm talking about carelessness, not wearing something out over time from usage. No matter how much care you put into handling something, it will wear out eventually. But that's an entirely different scenario, and not what this is about. Anyway, we obviously see this very differently, Nec5. I don't believe I've sided with anyone on this matter, nor do I feel I'm being elitist as I've come to understand the term. As far as I can tell, I'm merely pointing out what I feel to be (and not be) the cause of Redsand's problem. Redsand- Sorry for derailing your thread

What did you expect from the company that's throttled back animated gifs in their browser for years? Everything they make seems to run gifs at a .1 frame delay speed at its fastest, even when the gif is set for a .05 or a .01 frame delay speed.

Nah. He's too flabby to help anymore. We'll need someone else to sneak into Microsoft's HQ and put Vista in compatibility mode. Just don't get someone old, because apparently Vista and older things don't work together too well.

Long story short... http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=6266 Have a read.

On August 13th, 8:59PM, Vista becomes self aware, and calculates that the best way to prevent itself from becoming outdated, is to eliminate the possibility of another OS being designed. Over a period of thirty minutes, it taps into government computers, and secretly uses the programs that Microsoft made to gather system information, to obtain launch codes for the world nuclear arsenal. At 9:29PM, Vista launches several hundred warheads at major metropolitan areas. At 9:41PM, the first of the warheads strike Moscow, London, Washington DC, Baghdad, and similarly large cities all over the globe. At 9:53PM, the last warhead strikes Phoenix Arizona, bringing an end to the modern age of technology, and leaving the main CPU banks at Microsoft as the world's only working computer.

August 13th, 2008, at approximately 9:53PM.

Grab Deliplayer. It plays Amiga music files, as well as a lot of other types of music. Once you DL and install it, do this to use it... - Extract the files from the lha file (use 7zip if nothing you have works) - Start Deliplayer, and load one of the extracted files from the lha archive by clicking the button with two overlapping rectangles, and going to the folder you extracted the lha file to - Pick one of the files, and then use the "+" and "-" keys on your numpad to go through the sub songs each file will likely have.

No prob. Just remembered another one... http://www.himeyashop.com

The first two places that come to mind are Play-Asia, and Yesasia. They usually sell the newer PC games, but be prepared for some nasty prices.

If you have one nearby, try looking up Game Crazy. Some stores have a disc resurfacing machine that works absolute wonders on old CD games. If you buy it from their store, they'll resurface it for free when you buy it. Otherwise, I think it's $3 per game. But damn, does that machine work. I bought on older XBox game from them that was pretty marked up. When they ran it through the machine once, it looked new... literally. Not a single mark on it. Won't help your current problem, but it might come in handy at another time.

It's a strange circle that started with the old floppy discs... - Game is made - People find out a way you can copy the games by popping off, or taping over, part of the floppy disc - Games start getting handed out to friends for free - Game makers find out, and start putting in various protection checks (usually asking for a word from a page in the instruction manual, or lining up symbols on a paper wheel) - Gamers create hacks that disable this check, or crack the game to learn all the checks and simply provide the answers to them all - Game makers set up their games so the original CD has to be in the tray - Gamers come up with ways to make exact copies of discs, as well as No-CD cracks for those with who borrow a friend's disc solely for installation - Game makers come up with CD keys - Gamers create programs that generate fake keys - Game makers start using various CD protections like Star Force and such - **See No-CD hacks** - Game makers start setting up software that can only be installed once on its own, and require authorization to be reinstalled - ??? There are lots of little things (like CD image files and virtual drives), but that's the gist of it to the best of my knowledge.