Super Nintendo - Official Thread (Now with added poll)

[Exodist]

The music is good in it then? I've never played it before and I know a lot of people give it stick because its 'RPG-Lite' but I love RPGs and I couldn't pass this up for £4, I welcome pretty much anything SNES into my small collection now.

[Jazzem]

Mystic Quest isn't worthless, it just gets far far too repetitive for its own good. I'd like to see something like it done right, as when I started playing it I loved the idea of a simple, easy to get into RPG with amazing music. Unfortunately the dungeons go on to become an absolute slog due to all the incredibly samey battles you have to get through.

I have played it all the way through mind you

[Exodist]

Might be a slow complete for me, is it long?

[Jazzem]

About 10-12 hours It's the sort of game that's pretty easy to dip in and out of as long as you make sure to save at points in which it won't be difficult to figure out where you're supposed to go next.

[Christopher]

It's much better to import better games though. I strongly recommend Illusion of Time from Enix to anyone who enjoys SNES JRPGs, it was actually released here too.

[Exodist]

Yep, I got that a few days ago, played it before but never got far in it or completed it.

[Cosmo]

It's much better to import better games though. I strongly recommend Illusion of Time from Enix to anyone who enjoys SNES JRPGs, it was actually released here too.

Illusion of Time was the European name. It was Illusion of Gaia everywhere else.

[Hello You]

I'm lucky that I have older brothers, so I grew up with the SNES. The first console I properly played (and I found an old one in my attic the other day, which was nice).

On a few points I've read over the last page or so...

Illusion of Time is a good game, but it's always been one of those for me that I prefer to watch people play than to play myself. Also, if I remember, it's the kind of game you've really gotta master because bits of it can really piss you off if you're not good enough. Might just be that I was about 7 when I played it though.

Mystic Quest might actually be the first FF game I ever played, though it's so long ago I can't remember. Like someone else said, there's a good concept and some neat ideas buried under a lot of repetition. Worth it for maybe one play-through, but otherwise definitely not essential.

Somewhere I have an American cart of FF6 and a special converter thing that plays it on a European SNES (a bit like the Super Game Boy thing you slot stuff into). Bought it off a neighbour years and years ago. If there's any way you could get that on your SNES then you should look into it (no idea whatsoever of the availability or price of it though). The sheer scope of FF6 for a SNES game is incredible, and the music is insanely good.

Other decent games I'd recommend are Sim City and Street Racer. Everyone knows what Sim City is, so no need to go into that, but Street Racer was a fantastic Mario Kart clone that I personally preferred (more variation of characters and levels, more frenetic and more play options).

The very best SNES games are still Link to the Past and Super Metroid though. Kept me coming back again and again for years they did before I finally found everything in them. Learning all the speed run and sequence break techniques in Super Metroid is so awesome, and much more fun than in Zero Mission where they're deliberately put in and piss easy to execute.

[Exodist]

I might wait on some import games because ultimately I'd love a copy of Earthbound, even if its just the cartride. Unfortunately this is one of the later games they made, so like Super Mario RPG its virtually impossible to play unless its on an actual NTSC console. So yeah eventually I want to get a cheap NTSC console then I can get a few more games, but its nice to hear Final Fantasy III will work on a converter. Do you know which model it is?

At anyrate, I got 96 goals on Super Mario World this morning. On the GBA version I did all the dragon coins too but seriously screw that, all goals is good enough for me. Started on Illusion of Time and got to the village Freejia or something. That first boss was just as difficult as I remembered it being as a kid. Not the hardest thing ever but it is pretty hard for the first boss. Good game though, enjoying it.

[Dig Dug]

If you ever get earthbound make sure that you don't end up with a pirate cart. The game screws you over big time.

[Exodist]

I think it does it on the normal cart as well, its anti-piracy measures. The anti-piracy measures in that game are deep making it really hard to play, apparently if you use a converter for PAL snes it'll still come up with a screen on boot up saying "This game is not designed for your console" or something to that effect. Of course I know about the piracy measures too, the extreme difficulty and game deletion. Thats why I want an NTSC SNES to play it on, no hassle and no surprises, just extra cost.

[Dig Dug]

I think it does it on the normal cart as well, its anti-piracy measures. The anti-piracy measures in that game are deep making it really hard to play, apparently if you use a converter for PAL snes it'll still come up with a screen on boot up saying "This game is not designed for your console" or something to that effect. Of course I know about the piracy measures too, the extreme difficulty and game deletion. Thats why I want an NTSC SNES to play it on, no hassle and no surprises, just extra cost.

There is a guy on racket boy selling an ntsc snes console for $18.
With postage you might be able to get the console for $40.
Then there is the $100+ needed to buy earthbound. Gotta admit nintendo really went OTT with that anti piracy. It must suck to play the game to the endv and then have the game data wiped when you reach the last boss.

[PCCD]

That's still not even the worst one I've heard of. There's an old space shuttle simulator where supposedly if you fluffed the anti piracy check the game made you go through all three days of pre flight checks in real time

[Dig Dug]

You know PC games used to come in big boxes full of novelty items, they were for anti piracy, there were sections of the game that could only be beat if you owned the diary that came ith the game or head the puzzle that came with the game and so on. It was quite a cool method of 4th wall breaking.

[Exodist]

I think it does it on the normal cart as well, its anti-piracy measures. The anti-piracy measures in that game are deep making it really hard to play, apparently if you use a converter for PAL snes it'll still come up with a screen on boot up saying "This game is not designed for your console" or something to that effect. Of course I know about the piracy measures too, the extreme difficulty and game deletion. Thats why I want an NTSC SNES to play it on, no hassle and no surprises, just extra cost.

There is a guy on racket boy selling an ntsc snes console for $18.
With postage you might be able to get the console for $40.
Then there is the $100+ needed to buy earthbound. Gotta admit nintendo really went OTT with that anti piracy. It must suck to play the game to the endv and then have the game data wiped when you reach the last boss.

I've just checked around and apparently Earthbound works 100% fine with a 'Retro Duo' system. As you said, the anti-piracy works in two ways: The rom itself is a hack and its a pirate cart, and secondly, you try and play it via a converter, thus telling you your console is wrong. This is why it works on the retro duo, although I think a lot of clones do have trouble. Not sure if you've heard of the Retro Duo but just about anything works on it. I can get one in the UK with a power supply converter thingy for about £40 I think which I'm willing to pay if I can't find cheaper alternatives such as an actual NTSC console. I've seen the Racketboy thing, never heard of the site I must admit but it says Pending Sale and you have to be registered for 14 days to post in that forum etc so not sure I can get that.

I was planning on getting a Retro Duo in the first place but it has a bit of trouble with some key PAL games. Since most of my games will be PAL I figured I'd just get a PAL console then a retro duo or NTSC SNES down the line. Retro Duo plays mostly NTSC and JP games (even Super Mario RPG) so I think thats what I'll do. Buy retro duo, then buy a cart of Earthbound for which I'm willing to pay up to about £100 for. I'd love the full thing: box, manual, players guide but that will take it up an extra £100 or even more, its just to expensive. Just the cartridge would do me fine. Its my birthday in a few months so I'll try and bag them around that time, looking out for deals on consoles between now and then.

Also on topic of the PC copy protection, that is something I remember. Mainly from the LucasArts adventure games, you'd get asked questions on start up. Scummvm just bypasses them completely but once I admit I downloaded Day of the Tentacle which helpfully supplied the anti-piracy sheet as an image so you could play it.

[Christopher]

Those Retro Duos any good?

[Exodist]

Not sure to be honest. Apparently though they work with a lot of games but they have trouble with a lot of PAL games, its more for the NTSC and JP type. However a lot of people seem satisfied with them and you can use official accessories with it. It works, it plays Earthbound, thats all I care about. Also plays Super Mario RPG but only the original version, since Nintendo did two software updates of it which had even more copy protection. There's a list of the incompatibility on Wiki too.

[Christopher]

Ah ok cheers. Might just track down a Super Famicom and a universal adaptor.

[Dig Dug]

Those retor duos are meant to be alright, it is two consoles in one and it playes them at 60 hz which is never a bad thing.

[Exodist]

Not sure when but I think I'm definitely going to get one. Checked on ebay and you can get Mother (the JP NES one) pretty cheap. Then I'll have the whole set if I buy Earthbound. Very tempting.