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Ristar
Jan 7, 2011 23:16:49 GMT -5
Post by Discoalucard on Jan 7, 2011 23:16:49 GMT -5
www.hardcoregaming101.net/ristar/ristar.htmThis here's a mascot platformer by Sega that never quite caught on. I never played it when it came out, but recently experienced it on one of the recent compilations and found it was quite good.
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Ristar
Jan 8, 2011 0:30:05 GMT -5
Post by Shellshock on Jan 8, 2011 0:30:05 GMT -5
I'm curious about the Game Gear version. Do I understand right when it says that you need a Japanese system and Japanese game to play that extra level? I guess it can be done on an emulator, right?
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Ristar
Jan 8, 2011 4:40:36 GMT -5
Post by Sketcz-1000 on Jan 8, 2011 4:40:36 GMT -5
I had no idea the Game Gear hardware affected how games ran - I had assumed, like all handhelds, that it was region free and standardised across the world. Fascinating.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Ristar
Jan 8, 2011 9:17:01 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2011 9:17:01 GMT -5
I really should play this game seriously at some point. The first 15 minutes or so that I tried a long time ago were really memorable. I still remember the intro well and the music that I had heard so far.
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Ristar
Jan 8, 2011 10:48:04 GMT -5
Post by muteKi on Jan 8, 2011 10:48:04 GMT -5
I'm curious about the Game Gear version. Do I understand right when it says that you need a Japanese system and Japanese game to play that extra level? I guess it can be done on an emulator, right? Yeah, it can definitely be done on an emulator (I used Fusion -- some GG emus seem to be finickier about regions than others). Also, www.smspower.org/Development/RegionDetection has information on the region-encoding mechanism in the unit. I don't think there's any full lockout on any games (it's import friendly in general) but I haven't played enough GG games to be completely certain.
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Ristar
Jan 8, 2011 11:21:51 GMT -5
Post by KeeperBvK on Jan 8, 2011 11:21:51 GMT -5
Another fond childhood memory...it's sad to see so many characters dying almost immediately after appearing for the first time (Dynamite Headdy, Ristar, Astal, Flink, that green music-affiliated guy, etc.).
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Ristar
Jan 8, 2011 20:47:27 GMT -5
Post by Jave on Jan 8, 2011 20:47:27 GMT -5
that green music-affiliated guy Tempo?
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Ristar
Jan 8, 2011 21:20:57 GMT -5
Post by muteKi on Jan 8, 2011 21:20:57 GMT -5
That was my guess. Also, caught a couple errors, figured I'd put them here, with help from my GF: That's what I get for doing this in notepad. Also, I'd say that the first two pictures on the Japanese side of the comparisons are mixed up. The first one probably ought to show the picture of Oruto missing from the intro (compare to the presence of text in the foreign version), and the second the shot from the ending. Again, my fault for saving screenshots out of order I guess
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Ristar
Jan 9, 2011 3:09:07 GMT -5
Post by syntheticgerbil on Jan 9, 2011 3:09:07 GMT -5
Ah, I'm so glad you wrote this! I love this game, although I can't beat it without save states. I played it when the Sonic Mega Collection came out and was able to finish it that way on there. Funny thing is, I recently got around to buying a Game Gear to accompany my Game Gear version of the game which I had purchased years before and then found out about the missing level. I was coming to this article to see if you knew of a way to mod the Game Gear to think it's Japanese because I don't want to import one if I don't have to (seems like it would be hard to find a Japanese Game Gear) and I don't like playing on emulators in general. I've asked about modding the Game Gear on a few other forums, but no one seems to know. I also can't find a solution through a Google search. Maybe it's possible to use a Game Genie for Game Gear to trick the game into thinking it was plugged into a Japanese console much like you can do with the Genesis? I can't seem to find a code and will not track down Game Genie unless I know I have a working code. Then you posted this link: Also, www.smspower.org/Development/RegionDetection has information on the region-encoding mechanism in the unit. I don't think there's any full lockout on any games (it's import friendly in general) but I haven't played enough GG games to be completely certain. I just want to say thank you! Honestly, I can't tell what's going on here much at all. I think the solution lies in this site but maybe I am not looking in the correct place? I had my father change the region of my Saturn long ago by just handing him a schematic and the system. He understands circuit boards, soldering, and all that crap as part of his job. Just seems like I'm missing the bit of information he needs to mod the Game Gear region. Or maybe I'm mistaken and there's only seems to be this software modifcation, no hardware one available? If I could just find something like this for the game Gear Gear on the same site I think I'd be good to go: www.smspower.org/Development/RegionChangingAnyway great article. The main criticism was that I was hoping there'd be more pictures of earlier prototypes in magazines since there is still some speculation on whether it can be said for certain Ristar was developed directly from the early Sonic rabbit or used a lot of the same code. There's a vague Yuji Naka interview that people use as indication, but he the guy never explicitly mentions Ristar or the code being reused at a later date (in fact the interview is from 1992 anyway). I guess a lot of these things are covered on the Ristar Cluster site, and maybe it would be rude to use a lot of their screenshot comparisons or magazine scans? I think there was an another old Ristar fansite that had other screenshots and magazine scans, but it seems gone from the internet. The information that Feel/Ristar developed from the rabbit prototype for Sonic may have been on there somehow, but I have no idea. I'm not saying it's impossible or unlikely Ristar's origins lay in the Sonic the Hedgehog prototype, it's just that I wish the information were solid. What seems originally happened is someone connected the dots, then it was repeated as fact over and over throughout the years. The Ristar Wikipedia article is being held up by "reliable sources" for such information like IGN or Gamesradar that don't actually have their own sources in the article published and instead are probably just the work of lazy game journalists using Wikipedia as their primary facts source to pepper their article with trivia. After those waste of time sources, the only other horse's mouth type source is still the '92 Naka interview. Speaking of Yuji Naka, who I think is kind of a butthead, I'm so glad you mentioned Hirokazu Yasuhara. The guy hardly gets enough credit for what seems to me to be the major link of what made classic Sonic games good compared to the newer junk. Naka also has made many disparaging comments towards the guy over the years which I think is unfair. I also would like to commend you for addressing the misconception that Ristar is a Sonic Team game. It is somewhat accurate in a way, like you say, but I think a lot of fanboys have started adopting certain games that to the Sonic Team roster that don't necessarily fit. In my head it would be like crediting many early Capcom games as Clover developments simply for having future members of Clover doing development work on them. Either way, a large rundown of the Ristar developer's history on Mobygames show a very small percentage worked on much else before beyond some of the side Sonic games or Sonic CD as well as Nights as you said. Hardly any of the developing staff outside of Yuji Uekawa stuck around at Sega past the Saturn era let alone the Genesis area. Also the chief designer for Ristar, Takumi Miyake, was the chief graphic designer for Knuckles' Chaotix (also not exactly a Sonic Team game), which may explain why the games look so similar in environments and color scheme. There was a different art director for Ristar though, but my guess was Takumi Miyake probably did some art and design for Ristar in addition to lead design as the head designer usually takes on a few jobs. This is just a theory though, I have no proof. It's possible I'm the only one who thinks Ristar and Knuckles' Chaotix have a more similar style than Knuckles' Chaotix and any Genesis Sonic game from that era. He also did visual work on Sonic CD, which also sort of looks similar to Ristar and Chaotix, but maybe not as much with the Genesis games. Er... those rants and tangents aside, definitely great article and the text is all completely informative. Thank you!
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Ristar
Jan 9, 2011 4:04:26 GMT -5
Post by KeeperBvK on Jan 9, 2011 4:04:26 GMT -5
that green music-affiliated guy Tempo? Exactly, thanks.
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Ristar
Apr 3, 2013 18:13:42 GMT -5
Post by muteKi on Apr 3, 2013 18:13:42 GMT -5
I've realized that we've got to, if NOTHING else, include the photos from SAASRT since he's the flagman in that one.
Might be good to see if we can get a shot from segagaga somewhere since he was in that too. Can't think of any other obvious cameos for that guy though.
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Ristar
Apr 4, 2013 10:57:58 GMT -5
Post by Discoalucard on Apr 4, 2013 10:57:58 GMT -5
Shouldn't be a problem, I've bought Sonic Racing Transformed like three times now.
I MIGHT have a pic of him in Segagaga lying around on one of my old hard drives when I capped that screen, if it's not already in that article.
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Ristar
Apr 4, 2013 16:22:28 GMT -5
Post by drpepperfan on Apr 4, 2013 16:22:28 GMT -5
I've been playing this game recently. I've heard a lot about how great and underrated this game is for close to a decade now, so I was preparing myself to be either dissappointed or impressed, and somehow the game managed to live up to all it's hype and more! It's just SO fun to play, and there are so many hidden treasures to find in it and wow it's fun.
I think it's safe to say this is better than any of the Genesis Sonic's. Or at least imo it is.
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Ristar
Apr 4, 2013 17:13:40 GMT -5
Post by muteKi on Apr 4, 2013 17:13:40 GMT -5
I agree. One of the things it can do by virtue of its much slower pace is spend less time with 'padding' -- interesting challenges can all be placed closer together, and thus every piece of every level feels a lot more thought-out (or 'intentionally designed' or however you'd like to call it) than most of Sonic; Ristar having a couple more moves than Sonic also means he gets to interact with levels in a more varied set of ways, though most levels rarely have more than one or two main ways of beating it compared to a lot of Sonic's games' level paths.
Like I think Sonic is very notable for providing a really accessible challenge -- and I still find it pretty fun -- but this is a whole other level. It's like comparing Mozart and Bach.
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Ristar
Apr 5, 2013 13:22:26 GMT -5
Post by The Great Klaid on Apr 5, 2013 13:22:26 GMT -5
You know I was actually never impressed by this game, the controls felt kind of weird to me. It was a pretty game, but always felt like there was not a whole lot there. I do keep coming back to it so it's got to be, at the very least, good.
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