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Post by elmer on Mar 14, 2019 4:34:29 GMT
Are Taiyo Yudens colored differently on the data side of the disc? They are the green(-ish) discs. They are the *most* compatible with very old CD-ROM drives ... BUT they are also the most susceptible to UV light destroying the contents (i.e. store the discs in the dark!!). See ... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD-RBTW ... Taiyo Yuden stopped manufacturing a few years ago and sold the old manufacturing hardware to another company. It is getting REALLY difficult to find 650MB CD-R discs that are as compatible with our 1st-generation CD-ROM drives as those discs are.
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Post by spenoza on Mar 14, 2019 19:16:31 GMT
The expensive Mitsui Gold Archival discs also read pretty well in older hardware, as I understand it. And they're designed to be extra durable. But they are also costly. So probably do test burns and temporary stuff on cheaper discs and save those for the good stuff.
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Post by Mathius on Mar 14, 2019 22:38:50 GMT
It wouldn't surprise me if a company starts manufacturing these old 650 MB CD-Rs just for old guys like us. There's surely a market in it. I'm kinda kicking myself, years ago I had a large spindle of Taiyo Yudens saved in my cart at Amazon but never bought them. Shameful.
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Post by filler on May 9, 2019 4:23:34 GMT
Whether it's something you've played a little or a lot, something you're playing right now or a while ago, or whatever the case, feel free to post your impressions and thoughts here. About 6 months ago I started playing Last Imperial Prince thanks to someone I follow on Twitter playing it but giving up partway. It's one of the few games with an FAQ so I figured it would be pretty straightforward. Unfortunately, it was more tedious than I was expecting. I think the trouble is that there aren't any random battles and you don't grind for levels. Consequently, it feels like an adventure game with forced battles that amount to busywork. The adventure portion is not any better. It's just talking to the right people or going to the right locations to trigger the next flag to progress. It's a bummer since I really want to like the game. The graphics are beautiful, but the design decisions make playing the game more boring than it ought to be. It also seems to be rather long. I made it through the first chapter but it took a lot longer than I expected. I also found the FAQ lacking in spots, and possibly incorrect at times. I eventually started taking notes on discrepancies, but I don't know if I'll post them someplace or even finish the game at this rate. Then I popped in Tonari no Princess Rolfee (about time I bought the system mascot's game). I play a lot of visual novels, and many don't even have animated character art at all, so I was impressed that not only are there lip flaps here but they even change expression mid-line on a regular basis. But oof, that scrolling text in the background. Very distracting. I was turning on and off some elements of the GUI, so I wonder if I just missed a way to do anything about the background. To me, the most interesting thing about Rolfee is that the in-game events are genuinely random. You can't save-scum at all because even performing the same activities after loading a saved game will result in a different outcome. This is both cool and a bit frustrating since it makes any kind of written walk-through impossible. I really like the style of Rolfee though, and I intended to play it to completion at some point. I read that it has a big plot twist and is actually kind of difficult so I'm worried it may be quite a commitment to finish. Not sure how reliable that information is though. Lastly, I played a little Miraculum. This one seems promising for those who want a very traditional-style RPG on PC-FX. It doesn't seem like a huge step up from a 16-bit RPG, but there are some nice touches. There are way more sprite animations than I was expecting. When one character shushed another, they even had an animation for putting a finger to their lips. One kind of dumb thing is that as soon as you first get to the overworld, you can encounter enemies that inflict poison. You don't seem to automatically receive anything that can cure it, and since I was just playing carelessly as I was giving the game a try, I didn't bother to load up on any supplies. So I was wandering around poisoned for a while, and the screen flashes red incessantly all the while. I really enjoyed what I played of Miraculum. It plays to the PC-FX's strengths since RPGs are one genre that truly benefits from FMVs. I think action-game players hate FMVs for what they do to a game's rhythm. In RPGs however, they act like rewards and work within the structure of the game-play as natural resting points. Rather than "interrupt" the game-play they serve to spice up the narrative. Miraculum seems pretty traditional, but again I'd call that a strength. I felt like what I played had a good dash of humor and thrills with cool new companions and other trappings you'd expect of a 16/32-bit era RPG. I'd like to finish it sometime too.
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Post by Mathius on May 10, 2019 0:03:24 GMT
I'd have to agree on your last point. Final Fantasy X, for me, was the pinnacle of that style of RPG where you were rewarded with awesome FMVs at certain intervals. They still look gorgeous even after nearly 20 years of advances in tech. Nothing released since has really gotten that right in my opinion. I could always be mistaken though.
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Post by AggieTsubi on May 13, 2019 13:02:25 GMT
Hey, Filler, it's good to see you around here!
I enjoyed Last Imperial Prince myself, but I'm probably a little extra forgiving because it's an exclusive and there isn't anything else on PC-FX like it. There are definitely better side-scrolling adventure games on other platforms. I do like the straightforwardness of only scripted battles (never been a fan of random battles myself), but the going back and forth to find the right NPC to progress the game is a bit much. The length of the game was pretty average for me. Not notably long or short. I don't recall how much time I took in total, but I know I took a few hours each on the first couple chapters, and there are five chapters total in the game. One thing I really like about the game is how there are two versions of the soundtrack (CD and PSG), and you can switch on the fly. It's also got a cool magic system with tons of different spells to discover. It's just a shame that the difficulty isn't high enough to make magic all that needed.
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Post by filler on May 14, 2019 2:39:40 GMT
Hey, Filler, it's good to see you around here! I enjoyed Last Imperial Prince myself, but I'm probably a little extra forgiving because it's an exclusive and there isn't anything else on PC-FX like it. There are definitely better side-scrolling adventure games on other platforms. I do like the straightforwardness of only scripted battles (never been a fan of random battles myself), but the going back and forth to find the right NPC to progress the game is a bit much. The length of the game was pretty average for me. Not notably long or short. I don't recall how much time I took in total, but I know I took a few hours each on the first couple chapters, and there are five chapters total in the game. One thing I really like about the game is how there are two versions of the soundtrack (CD and PSG), and you can switch on the fly. It's also got a cool magic system with tons of different spells to discover. It's just a shame that the difficulty isn't high enough to make magic all that needed. You too!
Thanks for sharing your perspective on LIP. It's helpful to hear from someone who's had a more positive experience than I have (so far at any rate). It's only been 6 months but I feel like I barely remember specifics about the game. It seemed flexible in that you can give stones to various characters. There's some kind of chain attack or something you can do by performing a set of actions. I was scouring the manual and I discovered one or two things in doing so, but I don't remember if I managed to implement what I read. I did try that chain thing though. Anyway, I have to take another crack at it.
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Post by ndiddy on May 14, 2019 4:26:39 GMT
Are Taiyo Yudens colored differently on the data side of the disc? They are the green(-ish) discs. They are the *most* compatible with very old CD-ROM drives ... BUT they are also the most susceptible to UV light destroying the contents (i.e. store the discs in the dark!!). See ... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD-RBTW ... Taiyo Yuden stopped manufacturing a few years ago and sold the old manufacturing hardware to another company. It is getting REALLY difficult to find 650MB CD-R discs that are as compatible with our 1st-generation CD-ROM drives as those discs are. Is it *that* important on every old CD system, or just the PC-FX? I've used 700 MB CD-Rs on older systems (PC Engine Duo and Sega CD) without any issues. What sort of problems happen?
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Post by Mathius on May 14, 2019 20:15:21 GMT
From what I've heard older gen optical lasers have to work harder to read standard CD-Rs. Someone with more knowhow can come in and unpack that more hopefully.
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Post by elmer on May 14, 2019 22:15:01 GMT
Is it *that* important on every old CD system, or just the PC-FX? I've used 700 MB CD-Rs on older systems (PC Engine Duo and Sega CD) without any issues. What sort of problems happen? The lasers on the old system weren't designed to read CDR discs, which generally aren't as reflective as pressed discs. If you couple that with reducing the track-to-track spacing from the original Red Book CD-standard, which is what the 700MB discs do, then the CD drive is going to find it harder to seek to specific spots on the disc. If the laser is weak, it may sometime fail to lock on to a track at all, and keep on moving towards the edge of the CD until it is physically stopped at the end of its limit ... which isn't good for the mechanism. The original PCE CD-ROM2 drive was definitely engineered-down to meet a price-point. Even in the 5th-generation, Sony cost-reduced the CD mechanism on the original revision of the PlayStation, and told developers not to seek too much, because the drive's specification was for a limited number of seeks (the developers at Naughty Dog discussed that in an article). It's entirely up to you, but personally, I'd like my original PCE/PC-FX hardware to last as long as possible.
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Post by spenoza on May 14, 2019 23:32:31 GMT
All that said, no, CDRs don’t kill systems. Using your system, and also letting it sit unused, is what kills your system. Which is to say, time will get you no matter what you do.
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Post by elmer on May 15, 2019 3:11:07 GMT
All that said, no, CDRs don’t kill systems. Using your system, and also letting it sit unused, is what kills your system. Which is to say, time will get you no matter what you do. That's the other side of the equation ... time kills everything. If you're not hearing the sound of excessive seeks, and getting read errors, then it's really hard to argue against the perspective of "don't fret about it, and just enjoy the games".
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Post by spenoza on May 15, 2019 19:01:51 GMT
I actually communicated with an engineer who helped design CD standards, and he indicated that while CDR reflectivity is a little lower, the difference shouldn’t be enough to have significant impact on drive wear and performance, unless you are really investing in substandard media. Track spacing from CD data capacity, however, did not factor into my inquiry.
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Post by Deleted on May 17, 2019 18:29:10 GMT
Are Taiyo Yudens colored differently on the data side of the disc? They are the green(-ish) discs. They are the *most* compatible with very old CD-ROM drives ... BUT they are also the most susceptible to UV light destroying the contents (i.e. store the discs in the dark!!). See ... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD-RBTW ... Taiyo Yuden stopped manufacturing a few years ago and sold the old manufacturing hardware to another company. It is getting REALLY difficult to find 650MB CD-R discs that are as compatible with our 1st-generation CD-ROM drives as those discs are. Which reminds me to buy another laser for my Duo, a spindle of japanese That's 650 and a Pioneer CD burner later and nothing has really changed, I always have issues with edge of disc jams and seek failures.
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Post by elmer on May 18, 2019 18:04:23 GMT
Which reminds me to buy another laser for my Duo, a spindle of japanese That's 650 and a Pioneer CD burner later and nothing has really changed, I always have issues with edge of disc jams and seek failures. Ouch! Sorry that you went to all that expense to find that your problem is in the laser mechanism itself!
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