That's a tough one.
In terms of graphics and general vibe, Unreal, hands down.
When it comes to gameplay, I'm leaning towards either Soul Reaver or OOT, which I see other people here have already mentioned. I also quite like San Fransisco Rush 2049, even though I only find it enjoyable in short bursts.
It set the stage for many a truly 3D Person Shooter. Plus, the atmosphere, the motif. Dark Gothic game with Sci-fi and Eldtrich horror elements.
The pace is always breathtaking and it's just perfect for me. Action, suspense, and sometimes just looking around in the moments where you have time to spare.
I own an N-Gage and a copy of Rifts: Promise of Power for it signed by the creator of Rifts (famously batshit and dubiously designed Tabletop RPG), Kevin Siembieda.
...It was too funny of a thing not to pick up when I saw it at a relatively cheap price. :P
I really wanted an N-Gage. Like, so badly. But I was a broke student, so hand-me-down flip phones was what I got. Probably for the best, but I'd still leap at one if I found it for a decent price.
too bad i have never seen anything about donkey kong 64, i loved mario 64 though and on snes the donkey kong games, especially the baby kong who was huge hahaha
Half-Life as it's one of the first PC games I ever played and I still play it to this day. Plus, the speedruns are very enjoyable to watch, and it probably has the best bunny-hopping out of any video game in my opinion.
The game has a strong atmosphere, with an interesting gameplay mechanic where you can move between the underworld and the overworld. In the underworld, the geometry of everything twists and warps and different enemies spawn, which adds another dimension to the puzzle elements of the game.
The world building, atmosphere, voice acting, music, puzzles, and combat are all great for the time.
It's not in this video, but another 16 bit hidden gem is Gunstar Super Heroes on GBA. It's a full-on sequel to Gunstar Heroes which very few people seem to know about (or they think it's a remaster).
I have a partially-built bartop arcade cabinet that I started in high school woodshop and never completed - I thought I was going to jam a full gaming PC with GPU inside. I bought all the expensive things like joysticks and button adapters, but never finished it up as I didn't know what to do for artwork or marquee.
Do you know of any resources where I might be able to re-familiarize myself and finish my cabinet? Would be appreciated :)
Main differences would be that I used a kit that you might have to get your vinyl decals cut to match your cab's measurements (if you used on of the several common sets of cab measurements when building, this increases the likelihood of just being able to order decals, though), and you'll be needing USB adaptors for your sticks and buttons (sounds like you already have these though).
And here's a bunch of the resources I used when writing up my build:
Also, try not to be like me and lose track of where you've plugged your spade connectors on the buttons. Especially: test before you tie the wiring loom out of the way. I had to reconfigure my BAR XYZ buttons in software blushes in intense professional shame.
In this regard, I recommend 3 stores, in no specific order: GOG, Project EGG and Zoom Platform (not to be confused with Zoom Meetings)
Those 3, to my knowledge, are the stores that are the most actively seeking to bring back games of yore. (Do mind, however, that the store Project EGG is only in Japanese and also requires a subscription, as well as having some basic DRM)
Ooh, thank you Project EGG is new to me. I'm going to have a linguistically bemused browse.
Zoom Platform has loads of games that just don't get release anywhere else.
I've also noted a bunch of (slightly dubious) purchases of old game IP by a couple of companies that are putting a raft of 16-bit era titles out on Steam (mostly DRM-free, though). Unfortunately, in many cases, these "official re-releases" lack key materials that even bootleg/"abandonware" versions included.
From simply publishers, afaik, the ones that are the most actively seeking old titles are Piko Interactive (for console games, all emulated in PC releases) and SNEG (for native PC games). And SNEG is also founded by former GOG staff members, if you'd be interested in knowing (and they also release their games on GOG).
The VGA is actually the input - all these signals can be piped in over a single VGA input port, which makes it extremely versatile provided you get the right cables/adapters.
VGA out would be a different story. I've done this already with the Retrotink 5x + an HDMI to VGA adapter into a PC CRT monitor, which works really well. PC CRTs in general are an amazing use case for these scalers that doesn't get enough attention.
I have to say that the voice acting in the KQ6 demo on that CD came as quite a shock to me, as I'd somehow never imagined the cast of the games as having US American accents!
I built this cab for a work thing - there's a Raspberry Pi 4 in there, running Recalbox - and while I have stuff that's more valuable in my games collection, this is definitely the most immediately eye-catching thing I have. It gets a lot of play, too, making it a genuinely practical addition to the collection.
How is Recalbox vs something like RetroPie? I have a bartop cabinet I'm finishing up that's running RP, but it's in a state where I can replace it easily.
I find RecalBox much better for arcade machines in particular, while RetroPie is my usual choice for desktop emulation.
Its interface is cleaner with big libraries, looks more attractive - especially from across the room, and has a helpful browser based remote configuration interface.
Retrogaming
Hot