I don't think that I have ever heard of that game.
Show me your Retro gaming collections!
- Thread starter The Predaking
- Start date
No, SNES Super FX Title Vortex Was Never A Transformers Game
Despite the rumours of the past few decades
www.nintendolife.com
For a long time, it was believed that the Transformers: Generation 2 game that was being developed was turned into Vortex.
This was not on my bingo card for this year.
Awesome! You are going to have quite the Arcade at this rate!
I went from having just the Rampage/Gauntlet/Joust/Defender, to in the last couple of months also having:
TMNT 2/TMNT Turtles in Time
X-Men Arcade (with Captain America and the Avengers, and the Avengers in Galactic Storm)
The Simpsons Arcade game (That also has Simpsons bowling)
Thankfully two of these are on a payment plan as I don't have that much money. >_<
All from the same friend who's been driving around his neighborhood looking for yard sales. He's apparently just gotten really good luck.
With these four I basically have all I really want. There are a couple that would be 'neat' to have, but I wouldn't go out of my way to get them.
I'd also have to re-organize my room. I might do that anyway as right now there is like a half ring of arcade games and then a bookshelf that ended up there for reasons.
TMNT 2/TMNT Turtles in Time
X-Men Arcade (with Captain America and the Avengers, and the Avengers in Galactic Storm)
The Simpsons Arcade game (That also has Simpsons bowling)
Thankfully two of these are on a payment plan as I don't have that much money. >_<
All from the same friend who's been driving around his neighborhood looking for yard sales. He's apparently just gotten really good luck.
With these four I basically have all I really want. There are a couple that would be 'neat' to have, but I wouldn't go out of my way to get them.
I'd also have to re-organize my room. I might do that anyway as right now there is like a half ring of arcade games and then a bookshelf that ended up there for reasons.
I am tempted to get a few of them, but space would be an issue for me. Heck, I have arcade cabinets in my garage that need fixing. I should get around to that one of these days.
Arcade games in my garage:
Simpsons: Needs the new artwork applied and the control panel rebuilt.
Mortal Kombat 2: Needs the ROMs switched over, and find out why one of the joysticks doesn't register the down movement.
Galaxian: Works great still. That thing is a tank.
Frogger cocktail: Some intermittent screen issues and needs a top glass.
Pacman cocktail: Doesn't work. Might need a board replacement.
Arcades Machines at my buddy's storage shed:
Blue Nintendo cabinet: Empty. Was going to make into a Wreck it Ralph
Galaga: Needs a monitor.
Pacman: Put a 60 in 1 in it and gave it to my friend to have in his man cave.
Arcade games in my garage:
Simpsons: Needs the new artwork applied and the control panel rebuilt.
Mortal Kombat 2: Needs the ROMs switched over, and find out why one of the joysticks doesn't register the down movement.
Galaxian: Works great still. That thing is a tank.
Frogger cocktail: Some intermittent screen issues and needs a top glass.
Pacman cocktail: Doesn't work. Might need a board replacement.
Arcades Machines at my buddy's storage shed:
Blue Nintendo cabinet: Empty. Was going to make into a Wreck it Ralph
Galaga: Needs a monitor.
Pacman: Put a 60 in 1 in it and gave it to my friend to have in his man cave.
I wish I had some actual arcade cabinets. Most of what I'd be after though are not easy to come by except maybe one.
I have had all of mine for well over a decade now. I got started on it finding the empty Galaxian cabinet and rebuilding it. Then I found more and more broken machines on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. I have fixed up and sold off a lot of nice machines like a Donkey Kong 2, several Ms Pacmans, Joust, and a really nice Neo Geo two slot. I also have a half finished home made MAME cabinet that I was working on but never finished. Life just got busy when I got married and started a family.
Also, I picked this up this weekend at my local retro store. I had it lose already but that box art is iconic! Not bad for $36.
Here is my messy NES shelf:
I need to reorganize this space and try to show off more of the games.
I need to reorganize this space and try to show off more of the games.
Well, I stopped by Game Exchange today while running errands and picked up a PS5 game and Battletoads Double Dragon for the Super NES! Not a bad add to the collection!
No, SNES Super FX Title Vortex Was Never A Transformers Game
Despite the rumours of the past few decades
For a long time, it was believed that the Transformers: Generation 2 game that was being developed was turned into Vortex.
I just saw a review of that game. It looks very starfoxy. That makes sense as aperently the company that made the game is also the one that made the Super FX chip and helped with Starfox.
So looking at this, I was wondering why Tecmo Bowl was so expensive at this point. I mean, this ad is at least from 1992 as T2 and Super Tecmo Bowl are from that year, so Tecmo Bowl is at least 3 years old with its sequel out. I also found out that Tecmo bowl is newer than Super Mario Bros 3.
Oooh, Mega Man 4... looks like the proto box art.
Same for SMB2 and some others.
Same for SMB2 and some others.
Probably a combination of it being KayBee, the generally slower release cadence of NES games, and popularity of the game itself. Super Mario 2 I don’t think EVER saw a price cut until after the system was on its wind down phase a few years later.
As a popular 3rd party title, there might not have been a need to clear out inventory. I know the NES, even at its height, never had a release cadence that would require retailers to rotate inventory as aggressively as they would in the later 90s onward. And if the game was more expensive to produce, that would also reflect in its price (be it in chips or licensing). As is, I suspect OG Tecmo Bowl was probably still selling for $40-45 until the sequel (priced at a whopping $54 here) finally came out.
Given its KayBee, the Deja Vu and Mission Impossible carts are interesting. I wonder if the low price was due to solely weak sales, or if KayBee got a deal on overstock of those titles and are using them to drive traffic. When your average NES game is $40-45, finding something less than $20 would certainly catch buyers’ attention.
MyArcade’s newest retro gaming handheld is on the cusp of release at the end of the month, after being initially revealed all the way back at CES 2025. Called the Gamestation Retro, this series of releases (handheld, console, and minicade) echo their Atari range from a couple years ago, bundling a large number of games in single device. Unlike the prior GameStation releases, the Retro range will feature games from Capcom and Namco, with Jaleco and Piko titles thrown in to bump the included game number.
Because MyArcade is a mediocre retro company, they’ve been very poor at marketing and still haven’t released a full, final, game list. GenXGrownUp had hands on last January and I (painstakingly) copied the shown titles, correlating them against a handful of package images (where I could, nobody seemed to care about the Piko offerings). With release just a couple weeks away, GameStop seems to have put up a more up to date title list, possibly copied from final packaging. I’d still caveat it that the list MIGHT not be final until we seen in hand samples. If the GameStop list is following a packaging list, the “alphabetical reset” is breaking up arcade titles and home console iterations.
Relative to prior lists I’ve seen, there have been a few changes, and more than a few oddities remain. Despite marketing, Pole Position is still absent in any form, and the Capcom selection is still odd in a lot of places. I’m not sure how the licensing situation is working, if that is an impact on the Capcom range.
My thoughts on the selections:
Namco-
While having a lot of usuals, I appreciate they DID got some solid deep cuts in there, relative to the usual suspects. Compared to what I recall from CES, they dropped a couple of early Dragon shooters, Splatterhouse 2, and Legend of Valkyrie (boo!). But Rolling Thunder 2 arcade and Rolling Thunder 3 are new to me for this selection.
Capcom-
I mean, more than a dozen Capcom games, and you got a pretty decent range of titles. But some of these selections are just…strange. No entries from G&G, but they get the Game Boy Spin off? FIVE entries for Street Fighter 2? All six NES Mega Man games are…fine, I guess, but then why include Wiley Wars? Why Mighty Final Fight at all? Other licensed stuff managed to get Breath of Fire and Mega Man X and it feels like there’s a LOT of redundancy with those two franchises. Depending on licensing, we could have gotten Street Fighter Alpha, Darkstalkers, Saturday Night Slam Masters, much less the G&G franchise. Console wise, there’s the aforementioned Breath of Fire and Mega Man X, but also Gargoyle’s Crest.
Again, on the weighted average, it’s pretty good stuff. But it feels oddly weighted, and the omission of G&G really stands out.
Jaleco-
I DO appreciate that, instead of the old AtGames days of piles of generic, no name, games used to fill out a marketing call out, MyArcade HAS tapped some actual known developers. Jaleco‘s selection is a solid supplement to the headliners. Jaleco’s sports range is pretty solid, and they have some nicely unique titles. Definitely some hidden gems in here.
Piko-
Piko offers a LOT of titles, but quality can vary. I don’t see any particular standouts, but the games they bring DO help expand the depth of the device’s library. Platformers, brawlers, fighters, racers, sports, shooters and even a couple RPGs. Again, nothing I would call device defining, and I think the above players have better offerings in each genre, but again, the number and variety help give the device some depth it might not other wise have. The Immortal was on early lists and seems to have disappeared.
All told, is it worth $200? I’m not sure. A vast majority of titles are available on other platforms (especially with Jaleco and Piko getting a LOT of exposure on Evercade, whose new Nexus model is launching same day at the same price), and while there is clearly solid value, it remains to be seen if MyArcade delivered on the quality of the play experience.
Because MyArcade is a mediocre retro company, they’ve been very poor at marketing and still haven’t released a full, final, game list. GenXGrownUp had hands on last January and I (painstakingly) copied the shown titles, correlating them against a handful of package images (where I could, nobody seemed to care about the Piko offerings). With release just a couple weeks away, GameStop seems to have put up a more up to date title list, possibly copied from final packaging. I’d still caveat it that the list MIGHT not be final until we seen in hand samples. If the GameStop list is following a packaging list, the “alphabetical reset” is breaking up arcade titles and home console iterations.
Relative to prior lists I’ve seen, there have been a few changes, and more than a few oddities remain. Despite marketing, Pole Position is still absent in any form, and the Capcom selection is still odd in a lot of places. I’m not sure how the licensing situation is working, if that is an impact on the Capcom range.
My thoughts on the selections:
Namco-
While having a lot of usuals, I appreciate they DID got some solid deep cuts in there, relative to the usual suspects. Compared to what I recall from CES, they dropped a couple of early Dragon shooters, Splatterhouse 2, and Legend of Valkyrie (boo!). But Rolling Thunder 2 arcade and Rolling Thunder 3 are new to me for this selection.
Capcom-
I mean, more than a dozen Capcom games, and you got a pretty decent range of titles. But some of these selections are just…strange. No entries from G&G, but they get the Game Boy Spin off? FIVE entries for Street Fighter 2? All six NES Mega Man games are…fine, I guess, but then why include Wiley Wars? Why Mighty Final Fight at all? Other licensed stuff managed to get Breath of Fire and Mega Man X and it feels like there’s a LOT of redundancy with those two franchises. Depending on licensing, we could have gotten Street Fighter Alpha, Darkstalkers, Saturday Night Slam Masters, much less the G&G franchise. Console wise, there’s the aforementioned Breath of Fire and Mega Man X, but also Gargoyle’s Crest.
Again, on the weighted average, it’s pretty good stuff. But it feels oddly weighted, and the omission of G&G really stands out.
Jaleco-
I DO appreciate that, instead of the old AtGames days of piles of generic, no name, games used to fill out a marketing call out, MyArcade HAS tapped some actual known developers. Jaleco‘s selection is a solid supplement to the headliners. Jaleco’s sports range is pretty solid, and they have some nicely unique titles. Definitely some hidden gems in here.
Piko-
Piko offers a LOT of titles, but quality can vary. I don’t see any particular standouts, but the games they bring DO help expand the depth of the device’s library. Platformers, brawlers, fighters, racers, sports, shooters and even a couple RPGs. Again, nothing I would call device defining, and I think the above players have better offerings in each genre, but again, the number and variety help give the device some depth it might not other wise have. The Immortal was on early lists and seems to have disappeared.
All told, is it worth $200? I’m not sure. A vast majority of titles are available on other platforms (especially with Jaleco and Piko getting a LOT of exposure on Evercade, whose new Nexus model is launching same day at the same price), and while there is clearly solid value, it remains to be seen if MyArcade delivered on the quality of the play experience.
Dude, I played SO MUCH of Raiden 2 with my co-workers at the old Pizza Hut we worked at in 2002, while we had it. I’m frustrated that Hamster never got Raiden II in the Arcade Archive series, but I guess this will suffice.
One other thing I noticed here. In 1992, around when this ad was published, you could get a NES with SMB3 for $90 with the game costing $45 by itself. So basically, you get the console and two controllers for the price of a game. That would be like getting a Switch with two pro controllers and Mario Kart 8 for $120 today.
So that same friend brought me my Christmas gift early:
I'm surprised I was able to arrange my room to fit it, but I did. The shelves are now completely messed up though as I haven't had time (Or the energy thanks to getting the stupid flu) to properly set everything back up proper.
I wanted to take a picture of it working, but I got the power plug for my Atari 2600, and it works just fine. Sadly the two controllers I bought for it do NOT work fine. One barely works, and the second doesn't let you go right at all. I think I can possibly get them fixed. I'll have to look into that.
I do have this old picture of me doing this:
One of my two working VCRs. Only issue with this one is it's mono sound only.
(Also just in case anyone is wondering, the bottles cans in the new tv stand were just shoved in there while trying to rearrange things. They are Japanese-only flavors I sorta washed out and kept.)
I'm surprised I was able to arrange my room to fit it, but I did. The shelves are now completely messed up though as I haven't had time (Or the energy thanks to getting the stupid flu) to properly set everything back up proper.
I wanted to take a picture of it working, but I got the power plug for my Atari 2600, and it works just fine. Sadly the two controllers I bought for it do NOT work fine. One barely works, and the second doesn't let you go right at all. I think I can possibly get them fixed. I'll have to look into that.
I do have this old picture of me doing this:
One of my two working VCRs. Only issue with this one is it's mono sound only.
(Also just in case anyone is wondering, the bottles cans in the new tv stand were just shoved in there while trying to rearrange things. They are Japanese-only flavors I sorta washed out and kept.)
So, if any of you are looking at Evercade as a gaming alternative this year (as prices continue going up and physical media discussion continues), Blaze is releasing some retailer exclusive bundles for this holiday season (keep in mind some prior bundles may still be available from some retailers, I know 3rd party sellers on Amazon still have the Tomb Raider handheld bundle, and Blaze/Funstock offers MANY different system/game bundles in Europe). For the US market, here are the ones I know about:
Evercade Nexus- Evercade’s newest iteration of their platform, the Nexus features a more premium design, dual analog (to, reportedly, support more 32/64 bit titles coming in the future), and larger screen from their prior EXP models. The current release of the Nexus comes bundled with the Banjo Dual cart. There were various preorder bonuses from some retailers (my preorder from Best Buy netted me the Data East Arcade Collection Volume 2). The Nexus may become available later at lower cost but minus any pack in cart.
Both Best Buy and GameStop have bundles featuring the Super Pocket (Game Boy styled systems with built in games that feature Evercade cart compatibility) Capcom iteration with a selection of 3 titles. Both are $130 and available now. Each retailer got a different set of titles-
Best Buy customers are offered Taito Arcade Vol. 1, Activision (2600) Vol 1, and Rare Volume 1.
GameStop customers‘ selection is Taito arcade Vol. 2, Atari Arcade Vol 2, and Interplay Volume 1.
Given the choice, I would lean towards GameStop’s bundle. Taito Arcade Vol. 2 has a stronger selection, IMO, while Interplay offers a more compelling average relative to Rare. Rare’s better games ARE better than Interplay’s, but Rare also has LOT of what I view as more dated content. Atari Arcade 2‘s selection is damned dated, but those dated titles are more concentrated in the Atari collection where the Best Buy range has more dated content across the full range of titles being offered.
I think Taito Vol 2 and Interplay are more compelling a combination, even being bogged down with Atari’s dated and forgotten arcade titles, than the Best Buy range. The Best Buy range I don’t feel is as compelling given the more dated nature of Taito Vol 1 selection, the dominance of early computer titles on Rare, and the Activision range being all 2600 titles.
ALL THAT said, if you just wanted a Super Pocket (since Capcom and Neo Geo stuff have been well exposed in the market), the Taito and Activision Super Pockets have REALLY solid game selections. I would put them (with the Data East one pretty close behind) as my top picks among the Super Pockets.
Evercade Nexus- Evercade’s newest iteration of their platform, the Nexus features a more premium design, dual analog (to, reportedly, support more 32/64 bit titles coming in the future), and larger screen from their prior EXP models. The current release of the Nexus comes bundled with the Banjo Dual cart. There were various preorder bonuses from some retailers (my preorder from Best Buy netted me the Data East Arcade Collection Volume 2). The Nexus may become available later at lower cost but minus any pack in cart.
Both Best Buy and GameStop have bundles featuring the Super Pocket (Game Boy styled systems with built in games that feature Evercade cart compatibility) Capcom iteration with a selection of 3 titles. Both are $130 and available now. Each retailer got a different set of titles-
Best Buy customers are offered Taito Arcade Vol. 1, Activision (2600) Vol 1, and Rare Volume 1.
GameStop customers‘ selection is Taito arcade Vol. 2, Atari Arcade Vol 2, and Interplay Volume 1.
Given the choice, I would lean towards GameStop’s bundle. Taito Arcade Vol. 2 has a stronger selection, IMO, while Interplay offers a more compelling average relative to Rare. Rare’s better games ARE better than Interplay’s, but Rare also has LOT of what I view as more dated content. Atari Arcade 2‘s selection is damned dated, but those dated titles are more concentrated in the Atari collection where the Best Buy range has more dated content across the full range of titles being offered.
I think Taito Vol 2 and Interplay are more compelling a combination, even being bogged down with Atari’s dated and forgotten arcade titles, than the Best Buy range. The Best Buy range I don’t feel is as compelling given the more dated nature of Taito Vol 1 selection, the dominance of early computer titles on Rare, and the Activision range being all 2600 titles.
ALL THAT said, if you just wanted a Super Pocket (since Capcom and Neo Geo stuff have been well exposed in the market), the Taito and Activision Super Pockets have REALLY solid game selections. I would put them (with the Data East one pretty close behind) as my top picks among the Super Pockets.