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Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️

@sharkabytes.bsky.social

22K followers 3.9K following 25K posts

Freelance Writer│Magazine Editor│UK VG & Anime Historian│🦈 fur │Transfem she/her│AuDHD │❤️ : @kitnibbles.bsky.social │Business Enq: [email protected] More info in pinned ❤️ : https://ko-fi.com/retrobytes ❤️ : patreon.com/SashasRetroBytes

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Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️ @sharkabytes.bsky.social · Oct 17

New pinned post and info sheet!

I'm curious and passionate about a whole bunch of nerdy and cool stuff! I also publish a fortnightly retro gaming and anime 'zine and write on several blogs:

Scanlines zine: betweenthescanlines.itch.io
Main blog: scanlineartifacts.wordpress.com

A pixel campfire themed info sheet giving an introduction about how I'm a self-employed freelance writer, a zine publisher, a collector and enthusiast of older games and computer/console hardware and also run a racing competition, and very much into 90s and 2000s anime!

Passionate about PS1, Amiga, Wii, and Mega Drive in particular!

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Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️ @sharkabytes.bsky.social · 7m

📖 Bytes of Game Ads 📺

60% ear, 100% hero: Klonoa. Flip-flapping those long, fluffy ears onto PlayStation 2 in 2001.

A magazine ad for Klonoa 2 for PS2, with an anthropology book motif, comparing elephants (40% ear and 100% memory), beagles (20% ears, 100% cute), and Klonoa.

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Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️ @sharkabytes.bsky.social · 12m

Ah, yeah, from the dialogue boxes, it looks like the MGS3 version.

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Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️ @sharkabytes.bsky.social · Jul 15

Solid Snake? More like Solid SnEGAke!

Though the NES version is the most well-known version outside of Japan, Metal Gear also received home computer versions, including DOS PC.

A snap of Metal Gear for DOS's title screen with the iconic trace-over of a Michael Biehn publicity shot from The Terminator.

His jacket is *very* green and there's much dithering.

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Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️ @sharkabytes.bsky.social · Jun 27

Chibi adventures in the lands of Sosaria. ⚔️ A peek at the artwork and more comical character styles of the Ultima III: Exodus guidebooks released in Japan.

"Combat power explodes!" A very dynamic energy party on the cover of this book of chestnut-haired male warrior in armour, a mage with a pointed black hat, what looks like a monk flexing his arms, and a blonde-haired gal with a glowing yellow fireball between her hands and wearing pointy pink boots

Another chibi party, this time with a white-bearded mage and a guy in armour who looks like Jil, the Tower of Druaga protag. There's also a blue haired gal armed with a sword, plus another martial arts looking monk with a long face.

The text gives a run down of what happened between Ultima Ii and III

"This is Ultima."

"To improve your ability scores, you must donate a large amount of gold to the temple."

A warior gal with a tear drop is handing over a $ bag of money while the Jil-like also looks perturbed as he mutters "Too good to waste." The priest looks rather happy with himself.

Chibi Ultima Jil fights off a horde of Dragon Quest-alike cutesy rotund enemies, and is surrounded by coffins, presumably his fallen comrades.

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Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️ @sharkabytes.bsky.social · Aug 17

📖 Bytes of Game Ads 📺

"Watch your back... shoot straight... and never, ever, cut a deal with a dragon."

Another cool ad for one of three 16-bit Shadowrun games released in the early-mid 90s, each of them having a unique vibe and take on a video game adaptation.

A magazine ad for Shadowrun on Super Nintendo, with a digitized bald head in silhouette looming over a night city skyline and game screenies.

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Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️ @sharkabytes.bsky.social · 2h

Quietly... Move very, very quietly...

📺: Aliens Neoplasma, Sanchez Crew, 2019. (ZX Spectrum)

A crt TV screenie of the side scrolling gameplay with the protag, LtAshley, in a vent running horizontally above a scifi base room with a xenomorph stalking right to left

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Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️ @sharkabytes.bsky.social · 3h

Yeah! The original Unreal Tournament from 1999 still defaults to arrow keys. Not sure when the switch-over to WSAD as default came about.

Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️ @sharkabytes.bsky.social · 4h

Yeah! I love this kind of what-it's.

Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️ @sharkabytes.bsky.social · 4h

Yeah! It really does. Been playing it and Ecstatica again lately and enjoyed both.

Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️ @sharkabytes.bsky.social · 4h

Yeah, Shinji Mikami confirmed its influence on Resi and that he played AITD, and that if he hadn't, Resident Evil would have stayed as the original vision, an FPS.

I remember reading that he wasn't allowed to mention AITD for many years, which, if true, didn't help recognition.

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Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️ @sharkabytes.bsky.social · 5h

Two investigators come knocking at mansion Derceto's door, where something fiendish waits with sharpened claw.
Will they discover the truth as they hunt their respective mark? Only time will tell as they find themselves... Alone in the Dark.

📺: Alone in the Dark, Infogrames, 1992 (DOS)

A DOS VGA pixel artwork cinematic of a red-gold sunset sky above Louisiana swamps with a polygonal 1920s car travelling along the dirt road.

The old mansion rises above the swampy trees and bushes, with a cracked pot in the corner, the sky now dark and gloomy.

One of my favourite cinematic framed shots in gaming. A pair of inhuman clawed hands clutch an opened window frame, the otherwise unseen creature looking down on one of the investigators walking along the path to the mansion's entrance.

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Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️ @sharkabytes.bsky.social · 6h

And to the left of that is Gundam Seed.

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Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️ @sharkabytes.bsky.social · 6h

Sure! It's Zone of the Enders.

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Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️ @sharkabytes.bsky.social · 6h

True, I'm pretty sure Colony Wars is the game where I first used a dual shock.

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DARIA ROMERO @negativecrepe.bsky.social · 7h

One of my absolute most favorite games ever made! A visual triumph for the PS1, incredibly atmospheric, solid combat and of course the trailblazing controls. Literally DOOM 3 on the PS1 but w xenomorphs instead of demons from hell.

Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️ @sharkabytes.bsky.social · 7h

Happy 25th birthday, Alien Resurrection! A game that clawed its way out of development hell three years after its planned release date. Released to mostly middling reviews, including its legacy: Gamespot's, who criticised it for what would soon become the standard: modern controller FPS controls.

A photo of Alien Resurrection for PS1 with a little xenomorph statue next to it

A snap of Gamespots website with its review of Alien Resurrection and 4.7 score.

The game's control setup is its most terrifying element. The left analog stick moves you forward, back, and strafes right and left, while the right analog stick turns you and can be used to look up and down. Too often, you'll turn to face a foe and find that your weapon is aimed at the floor or ceiling while the alien gleefully hacks away at your midsection. Add to the mix a few other head scratchers - such as how the triangle button controls item and health use - and you'll be wondering how Sony let this get by without requesting a few different control configuration options.

Beyond the control issues, Alien Resurrection is gruelingly hard. That is, it's hard to the point where you'll spend as much time reloading your save file as you will spend playing the game. The near-mythical PlayStation mouse peripheral is supposed to solve many of the game's control problems, but the 99.9 percent of PlayStation owners who've never even seen the device will find the game almost unplayably difficult to control and unreasonably hard to enjoy. It's a dramatic answer to a problem far more easily solved by adopting the control scheme from EA's Medal of Honor.

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Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️ @sharkabytes.bsky.social · 6h

Yeah, I think it works well for vehicular stuff.

Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️ @sharkabytes.bsky.social · 7h

Oh, it honestly holds up pretty well these days. It can be a bit find-the-right-button-to-open-a-door mazey at times, but the gunplay holds up well and it's still got some cracking atmosphere.

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Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️ @sharkabytes.bsky.social · 7h

And before that, in 1997, a little known PS1 game: Shadowmaster, got it almost right with them. Just one input off!

Just to head off the Goldeneye thing; I know; just talking about PS1 and on a single pad.

Shadowmaster's cool polygon pad on a crt TV with turn left/right on the left stick and not the right.

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Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️ @sharkabytes.bsky.social · 7h

Ohhh right, yeah. It's a real mishmash of prices, yeah. Some going for 20-30 and some still asking for upward of £200.

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Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️ @sharkabytes.bsky.social · 7h

Little bit of trivia about twin sticks in FPS on PS1: Medal of Honor in 1999 pips Alien Resurrection to the post on having modern FPS controls. BUT, the only reason why it's a lesser-known example is because they're buried away as the *fourth* option after a couple of really odd ones.

A snapshot of Medal of Honors control config screen with a render of a dual shock. The fourth option is left stick move, right stick look, and having fire buttons on triggers.

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Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️ @sharkabytes.bsky.social · 7h

This commands a high price physically now, but it isn't one of those games where rarity = gem. It's okay? And can be cruelly difficult and there are other reasons to critique it. I've had a lot more fun playing Alien Trilogy over the years.

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Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️ @sharkabytes.bsky.social · 7h

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Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️ @sharkabytes.bsky.social · 1d

"Welcome home, hero."

A blast from the turn of the '10s with Skyrim half price at GAMESTATION.

Now to go watch Malukah's Dragonborn cover vid. Almost as nostalgic as the game itself.

#VideoBytes

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Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️ @sharkabytes.bsky.social · 23h

A peek at GAME FREAK (Yep, *that* Game Freak!) tips 'zine issue 22 from 1985 where the solution to arcade Time Gal is lovingly and painstakingly illustrated and written out scene-by scene. 💜

A scan of the photocopied zine with an illustration of protag Reikas sat coly with legs crossed and a marker pen held in one hand, with cheeky doodles drawn over the game's villain's face and a piece of paper. "Time Stop!"

A snap of one of the pages, with painstakingly drawn recreations of hte various scenes of the QTE based animated footage gameplay with directional inputs for each of them.

Another snap of inked illustrations of Reika in one scene and line artworks in the other. Directional inputs can be seen below.

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Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️ @sharkabytes.bsky.social · Jun 16

The End of the Millennium... from Mega Drive!

Love, love, LOVE the live-action bits and how awesome the costumes are and the big ol' electrified arm that looks like it's a particularly crude bit of cyberwear.

📺: Phantasy Star IV Japanese commercial

#VideoBytes

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