18 November 2023, 13:19 | #21 |
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I have sometimes the impression that we forgot here that we are the remains or a much broader population that didn't have any clue about 50/60hz frequencies, parallaxes, CPU or sprites counts. The only technical thing that most of peoples had was 8/16/32 bits.
Buying japanese imported games was a tiny fraction of the European market. A very tiny one. Last edited by sokolovic; 21 November 2023 at 13:22. |
18 November 2023, 13:22 | #22 |
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@dreadnought
on my crt it was something like this, raising the tv contrast at max [ Show youtube player ] |
18 November 2023, 13:23 | #23 | |
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18 November 2023, 13:58 | #24 | ||
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Sure, imports were expensive and available for everyone but it doesn't mean people didn't know about them. I read everything about Amiga when I had Spectrum, everything about PC when I had Amiga in later years, and even when I had PC I used to go to arcades to check out the likes of Virtua Fighter 3. I'm pretty sure if I had MD I'd do the same. I'm not quite sure what the argument here is anyway. If a kid wanted to compare X2 to something they could just look at Euro releases or walk into any arcade. But Xenon 2 was a big hit and people mostly bought it based on reviews, word of mouth etc...not some nerdy comparisons. |
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18 November 2023, 14:10 | #25 |
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The adapters that required one PAL game and the imported game were quite cheap too. You wouldn't need any additional hardware (power or 50/60hz converters) to play the games on your PAL console.
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18 November 2023, 14:27 | #26 |
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I think you're overestimating the influence of those magazine on the mass market. There is a reason why most of them went broke in the mid 90's (and same for the shops).
You could find a pair a shops with imported games in some of the biggest cities of France (mostly Paris, Marseille or Lyon) but the vast majority of buyers just went to their local big supermarket to buy games. The first game that was heavily imported and seeked around by peoples there is probably Street Fighter 2 on the SNES, at a price that was close to a NeoGeo game. |
18 November 2023, 14:30 | #27 |
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Xenon 2 is a game I've grown more fond of over the years. I'd imagine it's a little muddy looking on MD compared to how pretty it looks on both the ST and Amiga
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18 November 2023, 14:37 | #28 | |
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after the SuperNintendo release def more inherent shops started to pop out |
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18 November 2023, 15:00 | #29 | |
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Over here magazines that covered all systems were converted to PC only in the mid 90s. Parallel to that console only magazines emerged. Couldn't think of many major games magazines that 'broke' in the mid-90s. |
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18 November 2023, 15:22 | #30 | |
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But I'm pretty sure that not everyone read them intensively (nor all of them) to the point of being aware of every japanese release or others insiders info. Plus it isn't because Musha was released in Japan and reviewed in Europe that you could instantly go to any shop and buy a copy here. Do you seriously imagine a 10/11/12 years old kid buying imported games by mail order, sending checks or making distant payment order ? It was a niche market, mostly for people in big cities with some money and at a certain age. Certainly not the average console gamer of the early 90's. I love to read old magazines by now and I'm often amazed by the number of information I've personally overlooked at that time. Probably because I was 12 years old at that time and didn't care (nor understand) at all about many article around technical things or deep stories on game making. I was mostly looking to previews, reviews and tips. Tilt went broke in 1994. But you're right, I'm maybe a bit influenced by Amiga press. But most of biggest general French VG titles went broke around 2000. Last edited by sokolovic; 18 November 2023 at 16:17. |
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18 November 2023, 16:19 | #31 | |
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As for Xenon 2, I have to point out that on LemonAmiga it averages less than Hybris and Battle Squadron (as well as Silkworm, R-Type and Datastorm on the horizontal side) - all of which are older games. My honest opinion is that Hybris and Battle Squadron are better in almost every way - Xenon 2 has interesting enemies and a nice shop sequence, but that's about it. I find Xenon 2 slow, ugly, unfair and boring. Sadly those two are Amiga exclusives developed by unknown coders and imported by relatively small companies, whereas Xenon 2 had the Bitmap Brothers brand, celebrity musicians involved, a smug name and Robert Maxwell's marketing budget, so Amiga Xenon 2 probably outsold Hybris and Battle Squadron combined. |
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18 November 2023, 17:24 | #32 | |||
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18 November 2023, 17:36 | #33 | |
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And this opinion seems conforted by the advertising politics of major VG publishers or console makers (or even dedicated console magazines of that time) and by the charts on the said machines. Of course, by 1995/96, with the PlayStation in Europe, the same kids would have grown up a bit, and the market went bigger with more games aimed at a "mature" (mostly teenagers, young adults) audience. I'm speaking for the console market, the computer one was obviously different. |
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18 November 2023, 17:52 | #34 | |
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imo more than less colorful is like both red and green gradients were turned off, or just the blue one oversaturated |
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18 November 2023, 18:52 | #35 | |
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We went from "nobodies" to "99%" to "vast majority". Allright - that was pretty much the point all along
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If you concentrated on the thing about missing levels you'd have much more of a case though. |
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18 November 2023, 19:14 | #36 | |
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And Musha wasn't a very seeked game amont Megadrive users by that time. Last edited by sokolovic; 18 November 2023 at 19:33. |
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18 November 2023, 20:48 | #37 |
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18 November 2023, 20:51 | #38 | |
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is indeed a good thing, but i didnt like too much the interruption also in the middle of each level (with double loading on Amiga) maybe just at end of each stage would have been better, at least to me |
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19 November 2023, 00:28 | #39 |
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Huh? Sending checks via mail? In Germany we could drive to many shops that were selling import games, this all started at the end of the 80s.
Or you could call the shops directly, phone numbers were in games magazines all over the place. You got the packages via cash on delivery. Not really a problem, even for teenagers. I personally bought a lot of import games since 1989. Ordered some Amiga games via phone too. Mostly much cheaper than in normal malls. Around 1991/1992 video stores also started to rent import games. So, it was easy enough to get access here. Last edited by Retro-Nerd; 19 November 2023 at 00:40. |
19 November 2023, 10:53 | #40 | |
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he had the Megadrive and bought also Turrican, cause all the previous good plays at my house well, the best comment he said is that it was 'decent' at Ballistic, maybe they wanted fast releases from the developers, i remember Onslaught quite different from the Amiga version Last edited by kremiso; 19 November 2023 at 10:58. |
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