Emulation — Page 2

APB: twitchy siren

Posted on 04/08/2025 Written by Xexyz

Maybe it’s the conversion to the Xbox pad, but APB is incredibly difficult to control. In order to arrest someone you have to have your cursor over them and press the siren, because obviously criminals are only going to pay attention to a police car which is an exact distance away from them. The thing is that the cursor is not at a set distance from your car, but instead varies with the speed you’re going. In order to have enough of a gap between your car and the cursor to be able to arrest someone, you have to be going quite fast, certainly faster than the criminals you are chasing. For littering this isn’t so much of an issue, since you need to signal to them once. By the time you get to chasing down dopers, it’s much more difficult because you have to signal on them three times, meaning you are almost guaranteed to crash; too many crashes and you’re out.

I’ll have to see if there’s an original cabinet next time I go to somewhere like Arcade Club, because the concept of the game – a semi-open world, different criminals to find, extending time through fuel and doughnuts – is quite attractive. It’s just the controls which frustrate.

Mario’s Tennis: what a racquet

Posted on 30/07/2025 Written by Xexyz

I have only played on a Virtual Boy twice: once at a museum, and once at a UGVM meeting in honour of Owen. Both times were brief, uncomfortable, and underwhelming. I suspect there were some hardware adjustments which may have helped, but the screens were dim and blurry, and I had to sit at an awkward angle to use it. Nevertheless, the 3D nature of the console was very clever, and the games I played (3D Tetris and Golf, I believe) used that to good effect. I did once try Virtual Boy emulation on my computer, and it just seemed a bit pointless because of the fact it lacked the third dimension, meaning you are left with middling games in monochrome.

Having modified my 3DS, however, I now have access to a 3D screen which is perfect for trying out Virtual Boy games as they are supposed to be seen. The screen is, obviously, of a much higher quality as well, and there’s no restricted positioning. All good, yes?

Mostly. I started with Mario’s Tennis, having recently been playing the N64 game with Edward. It’s a pretty standard tennis game, but with a much lower viewpoint than normal. This would make it more difficult to place the ball, but of course the 3D is supposed to help with that. It sort of did, but it took some time to work out the best way to judge and also when to press the button. I lost my first match 6-0 to Toad, but by the second I was mostly keeping serve, and I narrowly lost to Peach after a very long game of alternating advantages and deuces. I won my third match, against Yoshi, quite comprehensively. Maybe I should move off the easy difficulty level.

Of course, I can’t really show the 3D nature of the games here

Things improved a lot when I investigated the options for the emulator and found that I am not constrained to the original red and black. You can set any colour you like, but there are two presets – red and grey – and the latter makes the games a lot easier to see and play.

I completely forgot about those options when I played other games.

Mario’s Tennis: what a racquet

Posted on 30/07/2025 Written by Xexyz

I completely forgot about those options when I played other games.

Hero GP: 6000 mph

Posted on 14/04/2025 Written by Xexyz

Hero GP is a brand new Game Boy Colo(u)r game, released via itch.io for download to play in any emulators but also able to be used on a GBC itself via a flashcart or on an Analogue Pocket. It is obviously inspired by Hang On, but the constraints of the GBC make the game more streamlined, with more immediate controls and with a simpler game structure. Within a few minutes of buying the game you’ll be at the end of the first track, possibly even doing well enough to unlock the second.

And possibly not. Despite the console’s limitations, this game is fast. This doesn’t show too much in terms of following the track – it’s a very standard 8-bit style single straightish road where the curves just simply nudge you along in the opposite direction a bit – but instead in terms of avoiding your opponents. As you ride along, you will see another rider appear ahead of you, and you’d better get out the way because you shoot past them in less than a second. There’s no speed indicated on the display, but if feels as if your opponents are going about 10 mph, and you’re going 1000.

This disparity in speeds does reveal the stark cheating of the AI, with you catching up to bikes near the end of the course who are going half your speed, and so should never have the lead that they are enjoying. Some of the frontrunners are, at least, going a bit faster than the gold-coloured mopeds who seem to be reversing, but none of them have anything like your speed.

There is one possible exception. I’ve played through 22 races, and never have managed better than a second place; I’ve never seen the rider in first. A single collision in a race seems to mean you’ll not win; luckily a second place is good enough to unlock the next stage.

The levels are all visually distinct, and through an emulator the saturation seems quite harsh – but I suspect this is an attempt to make the game look polished on actual hardware.

It’s a fun game, technically impressive, and the races are short enough to give it an addictive edge. I recommend it.

Densetsu no Stafy: spin spin spin

Posted on 11/04/2025 Written by Xexyz

When renewing my subscription to Nintendo Online it was only marginally more to upgrade to the expansion pass, which has given my sons access to the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC, will provide me with upgrades for Tears of the Kingdom on the Switch 2, and also gives me access to the N64, GBA and MD libraries. Tempted as I was to immediately start playing through Streets of Rage 2 again, I instead had a look for anything new and interesting. The first thing in the GBA list was a Japanese exclusive game, with a picture of a star on the cover, and a title which reads 伝説のスタフィー. Some research after playing indicates that this is Starfy, although that’s his Westernised name from the fourth game in the series, and a more literal translation is Staffy or Stafy. I knew none of this to start with, and so he became known as “Mr Spinny”.

In fact, he can’t spin at first, and his moveset is restricted to just swimming around and jumping out the water. I’m sure the Japanese introductory screen gave some idea what I had to do, but I went into this blind, and wandered around for ages until I found a big crab, who I naturally avoided. Having run out of anything else to do, I tried to swim past the crab and found that he gave me some more instructions (no idea what) and then let me past. I swam around more, found some random junk (a teapot, a big shell, something like that), and eventually returned to the crab who seemed pleased to have his junk back. I had to find other stuff, he showed me new moves (which I only understood from the A, B and D-pad buttons in the text, and then experimenting afterwards), and then eventually I found a big yellow clamshell who, I think, asked me to do the same thing. I had to explore lots, go through many doors, use my new spinny move to defeat fish and crab enemies, and after lots of getting lost I finally found a boss.

Stafy is OK to control, though his attack move is a bit woolly and he has a little too much momentum in water.

There was nothing tricky in this first level, including the boss who was in a big spiky shell but who didn’t seem to attack at all. The most difficult part is just keeping track of which door leads to where. All through the first level there were big scary orange face blocks, which I never worked out how to get rid of (other blocks could be destroyed once I got the spinny move), and I assumed I’d be able to go back to clear them after getting a new move, but after defeating the boss I’ve now moved onto a new level, seemingly alongside a whale.

Stafy looks like he’s not happy at being interrupted.

I thought it might help to understand some of the Japanese text, and tried to use Google Translate’s camera function. That really didn’t help a lot at all.