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Post by Apollo Chungus on Jul 13, 2020 14:53:50 GMT -5
I've been trying to emulate Un Jammer Lammy so I can play it and attempt to review it for the website, but I'm having a lot more trouble with it than I expected. I've tried using ePSXe (what I normally use for playing and taking screenshots), where everything works up until it attempts to load a level - the music plays, but it hangs on the loading screen. I also used the pSX emulator (literally the worst emulator name in that I'm unable to look up any info specific to that emulator to help me out), and while it does load up the level without any hassle, the guitar sounds don't work at all.
At this point, I'm not sure what to do. Is there something with the configuration I'm using, or is Un Jammer just a tricky game to emulate for unknown reasons? I've tried to find info to help me, but all I could find were threads from 10+ years ago - and I've got the most recent version of ePSXe, so I don't know what the problem is.
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Post by dsparil on Jul 13, 2020 15:23:07 GMT -5
I've been trying to emulate Un Jammer Lammy so I can play it and attempt to review it for the website, but I'm having a lot more trouble with it than I expected. I've tried using ePSXe (what I normally use for playing and taking screenshots), where everything works up until it attempts to load a level - the music plays, but it hangs on the loading screen. I also used the pSX emulator (literally the worst emulator name in that I'm unable to look up any info specific to that emulator to help me out), and while it does load up the level without any hassle, the guitar sounds don't work at all. At this point, I'm not sure what to do. Is there something with the configuration I'm using, or is Un Jammer just a tricky game to emulate for unknown reasons? I've tried to find info to help me, but all I could find were threads from 10+ years ago - and I've got the most recent version of ePSXe, so I don't know what the problem is. I tried it in OpenEmu and it works fine. It uses Mednafen for PSX emulation so I'd give that a shot.
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Post by Apollo Chungus on Jul 13, 2020 16:16:01 GMT -5
I've never tried using Mednafen for whatever reason, so I might give that a shot tomorrow. Thank you.
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Post by retr0gamer on Jul 13, 2020 17:45:21 GMT -5
Have fun trying to have any fun with it once you do get it working. Parappa and Um Jammer are made with CRTs in mind and even the best modern TV screen adds enough lag to make the games near unplayable. Hopefully the emulators have some form of lag compensation built in?
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Post by mainpatr on Jul 13, 2020 20:12:22 GMT -5
Got to be better than the horrible PSP version though.
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Post by lurker on Jul 14, 2020 9:28:34 GMT -5
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Post by dsparil on Jul 14, 2020 9:46:41 GMT -5
Modern HDTVs generally only have about 10ms of lag which is less than a frame even at 60fps and close to what CRTs have in practice. I have a super cheap HDTV from 2012 and I had zero issue with Parappa 2. That was a serious issue with really early LCD displays, but it's been a nonissue for a long time.
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Post by ZenithianHero on Jul 14, 2020 10:11:15 GMT -5
Modern HDTVs generally only have about 10ms of lag which is less than a frame even at 60fps and close to what CRTs have in practice. I have a super cheap HDTV from 2012 and I had zero issue with Parappa 2. That was a serious issue with really early LCD displays, but it's been a nonissue for a long time. I have an older HDTV too and don't appear to have problems with any rhythm game. Although I may need to update sooner than later and I worry about the lag and if retro games actually look nice on it (which is to say, how are hookup sets looking on newer TVs, are they mindful of older technology?!)
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Post by dsparil on Jul 15, 2020 6:51:34 GMT -5
Finished the main part of Mary Skelter now, and the extra dungeon and true ending are still locked off... From what I've read, maybe you don't actually need to start a new game after getting the true ending in the sequel. I really hope that's the case since even if you can skip a long ways, you get dumped a few hours from the end and 10 or more levels under where I was depending on the exact point.
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Post by retr0gamer on Jul 16, 2020 3:16:22 GMT -5
Modern HDTVs generally only have about 10ms of lag which is less than a frame even at 60fps and close to what CRTs have in practice. I have a super cheap HDTV from 2012 and I had zero issue with Parappa 2. That was a serious issue with really early LCD displays, but it's been a nonissue for a long time. I have an older HDTV too and don't appear to have problems with any rhythm game. Although I may need to update sooner than later and I worry about the lag and if retro games actually look nice on it (which is to say, how are hookup sets looking on newer TVs, are they mindful of older technology?!) Maybe it's just me but heard a lot of complaints about how unforgiving the Parappa family of games are compared to others. Input timing seems to be very strict and I find them much harder than they were on release whereas something like Gitarooman is more forgiving. It's the same with the PSP and remaster releases, they never accounted for the screen lag and unfortunately they are a lot harder to enjoy. I must give it a go on my framemeister and or an emulator and see if that makes a difference.
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Post by dsparil on Jul 16, 2020 6:55:00 GMT -5
I finished the first episode of Curse of the Moon 2, and it is so much harder than the first game. I blasted through that on Veteran on my first try and the sequel was just too much on it. Part of my issue is that the while you aren't technically required to use specific characters in the earlier levels, they have sections heavily designed around them so you're put at a significant disadvantage if they're dead. Casual doesn't actually change that much so it's a pretty misnamed difficulty setting. I do wish the difficulty was more granular instead of giving you two options. Infinite lives is nice for the first time through, but I would have preferred to have kept knock back. The only other change I noticed is that candles will respawn if you can reenter the screen.
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Post by Apollo Chungus on Jul 16, 2020 14:14:42 GMT -5
Sorry for the late reply on this, but I got round to trying out Un Jammer Lammy through Mednafen, and it worked like a dream! No issues, and the sounds were all there - thank you so much for the advice, dsparil !
I played through the first four stages, and I'm honestly having a much better time than I was expecting. This mainly comes down to the inputs, which register a lot more consistently than PaRappa 1. Maybe it's because of the emulator (I've not tried PaRappa through Mednafen) or perhaps it's the fact that I'm using an in-game guitar that allows me to freestyle a bit more easily, but I managed to clear Stages 1-3 on my first go. The game is much more difficult than PaRappa in the sense that stages are much faster, you're expected to press more buttons and the rhythm of those button presses can repeatedly and anarchically change. However, in terms of how the game registers your inputs, it's considerably more reasonable and easy to understand. If I screwed up a section, I was able to pick up on what I did wrong and when I changed my approach, the game recognized my improvement when PaRappa frequently wouldn't.
If I were to make a comparison, I'd say that Un Jammer is like the original Crash Bandicoot games - very tricky, but fair in what it's expecting of you and consistent in what you need to do to improve - while PaRappa is more like the PS4 Crash remakes - bullshit hard because it's so inconsistent that you can't figure whether it's you or the game that's screwed up, and incredibly frustrating for it. I'll try to play through the rest of UJL and see how PR fares on Mednafen, so I'm quite excited about that!
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Post by retr0gamer on Jul 17, 2020 3:16:57 GMT -5
PaRappa isn't so bad once you learn to freestyle. The scoring requirements are way too tight otherwise.
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Post by 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 on Jul 17, 2020 5:48:58 GMT -5
The new Paper Mario shares the same design flaw as the last two - the battle system isn't integrated into the rest of the game. Battles gain coins which can be spent...to make battles easier. Other than bosses there's no reason to go into battles. That really is the biggest design flaw with Sticker Star and Color Splash, but Color Splash was still pretty good despite that. I don't remember why it wasn't such a big problem in that game. Maybe battles were kind of hard to avoid or something? Personally, I'm more concerned about this part from an interview about the game:I mean, it's kind of clear from recent Mario spin-offs, but it's still kind of sad to see it explicitly mentioned. Mario Sunshine had a great start but had some real dumb missions and hated Yoshi who vomited juice everywhere. But of course you cannot call a Mario game bad on the internet. Sunshine has its fair share of problems (and I'd say it's one of the weakest Mario games), but it's only really subpar for Mario standards. It's still a really good game, but the Mario games just set the bar really high. That said, it's probably the one Mario game that's deserving of a remake.
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Post by dsparil on Jul 17, 2020 6:17:34 GMT -5
It was the cards that made battles annoying in Color Splash. I think I gave up when I was fighting endless bats and kept getting whatever they're immune to. Origami King seems less combat heavy so far and battles are much faster.
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