Kurt @ Hardcore Gaming 101

Kurt @ Hardcore Gaming 101

@hg101.bsky.social

He/him. Now available: Ys and Other Falcom Classics, and Metal Gear/Silent Hill and Other Konami Classics! Buy our books!: https://amzn.to/4czMqP9 Icon by Rusty Shackles. Patreon: http://patreon.com/hg101

8.8K followers805 following3.2K posts

Kurt @ Hardcore Gaming 101 reposted

Todd Ciolek
@kidfenris.bsky.social

Art of The Guardian Legend's heroine! She's Miria in Japan but is never named in the translated version, apart from being called The Guardian. Some folks refer to her as Alyssa, but I don't think that's canon. Anyway, I love these. The last one looks like it came from an old Nintendo Power spread.

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Kurt @ Hardcore Gaming 101 reposted

Pixels and Polygons
@pixelsandpolygons.net

Whoops! I forgot to post this on the web store, but the latest issue of Pixels and Polygons Quarterly is now available for purchase! This is a rad one, if I say so myself. Includes contributions from @marcdachamp.bsky.social, @mathewkumar.com, @othatsraspberry.com & more!

pixelsandpolygons.netPixels and Polygons Quarterly 2026 Q4Pixels and Polygons Quarterly is a retro gaming zine. It measures 8.5” x 5.5” and includes 98 pages of premium color paper and a heavy soft-touch cardstock cover. Inside each issue you'll find game an...
Kurt @ Hardcore Gaming 101
@hg101.bsky.social

This is one main reason I am not too keen to overly romanticize Japanese arcade design. It was a strain of philosophy wherein 1CCer folks were the only ones allowed to behold these types of games, which somehow teetered into both "I studied the blade" territory and morphing into a reactionary crank

vibe-free lifestyle and smiling apple purveyor@ellaguro.bsky.social

been waiting for some younger internet dirtbag to reinvent icycalm from first principles and start talking again about how japanese arcade games are the only true form of game and that anyone who has ever made an art game should be disemboweled. he was like the curtis yarvin of game criticism.

Kurt @ Hardcore Gaming 101
@hg101.bsky.social

Come to think of it, while beat-em-ups like Double Dragon 1/2, Final Fight and Golden Axe were popular, eventually they were overwhelmed by the licensed Konami games, which are gorgeous as heck but mechanically a little rough

Kurt @ Hardcore Gaming 101
@hg101.bsky.social

Quick site update - I created a new server and imported the SQL, but I definitely need to find a new theme and need to comb over any plugins that may be deprecated. Due to the size of the site, I'm transferring everything else (images) over with FTP, which may still take a least a few days

Kurt @ Hardcore Gaming 101
@hg101.bsky.social

so even once everything is transferred and uploaded, it may still be some time until things get in a presentable state (but at least the new server has the upgraded PHP!) I do have something planned for the interim though, so stay tuned

Kurt @ Hardcore Gaming 101
@hg101.bsky.social

I think a lot about where this divide between the American and Japanese audience came from, and it's hard to find any empirical evidence beyond hazy recollections what it was like being a kid in the 1990s

Derek Yu@mossmouth.bsky.social

Painful review of the Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle on Steam that really highlights how destructive the continue system was to people's perception of arcade games. The beat 'em ups mentioned play wildly different from one another if you're actually trying to survive on 1 credit.

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Kurt @ Hardcore Gaming 101
@hg101.bsky.social

I've been thinking about this since I was diving back into 1980s and 90s shoot-em-ups over the past two years. It was a huge genre in Japan until the fighting game book, but the number that made their ways to the USA was miniscule by comparison

Kurt @ Hardcore Gaming 101
@hg101.bsky.social

We have a retro arcade in town with a good stock and the only shoot-em-up they have is Thundercade, which I don't even think is particularly well known in Japan. I talked to the owner and he said they were just never that popular.

Kurt @ Hardcore Gaming 101
@hg101.bsky.social

I think a lot about where this divide between the American and Japanese audience came from, and it's hard to find any empirical evidence beyond hazy recollections what it was like being a kid in the 1990s

Derek Yu@mossmouth.bsky.social

Painful review of the Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle on Steam that really highlights how destructive the continue system was to people's perception of arcade games. The beat 'em ups mentioned play wildly different from one another if you're actually trying to survive on 1 credit.

View full thread
Kurt @ Hardcore Gaming 101
@hg101.bsky.social

it's also the fact that Japanese developers seemed to be aware of the nature of gamers trying to play as much as they could on a single credit, but you had manufactures like Williams who made stuff like NARC where that was not even a consideration

Kurt @ Hardcore Gaming 101
@hg101.bsky.social

I do wonder if the walkability of Japan had an effect on this. As a kid in suburban NJ, you'd spend maybe 10 mins at a pizza place, or 30 mins at the mall if your parents were being generous. You had no autonomy so your time was limited, and probably wanted to play more than one game anyway

Kurt @ Hardcore Gaming 101
@hg101.bsky.social

I think a lot about where this divide between the American and Japanese audience came from, and it's hard to find any empirical evidence beyond hazy recollections what it was like being a kid in the 1990s

Derek Yu@mossmouth.bsky.social

Painful review of the Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle on Steam that really highlights how destructive the continue system was to people's perception of arcade games. The beat 'em ups mentioned play wildly different from one another if you're actually trying to survive on 1 credit.

Kurt @ Hardcore Gaming 101
@hg101.bsky.social

trying to recall the Pizza Hut that had Final Fight in the 1990s, I feel like the dip switches were always set so you had only a single backup life and died in a few hits. I think the only way anyone saw beyond Damnd is if you were playing off someone else's game.

Kurt @ Hardcore Gaming 101
@hg101.bsky.social

under those conditions, trying to beat the game in one credit is a frankly insane feat. I know folks bristle at calling these games "quarter munchers" but I do not believe anyone can say with a straight face that a lot of these games were very tuned to keep turnover extremely high.

Kurt @ Hardcore Gaming 101
@hg101.bsky.social

Well, I started up a new server to begin the HG101 move. Got the SQL database imported, going through plug-ins to see which ones still work and how to figure out alternatives if they don't. Still have many many GBs of images to transfer over

Kurt @ Hardcore Gaming 101
@hg101.bsky.social

HG101 is on old-ish infrastructure and it is impossible to just apply a PHP update. The whole site needs to be moved to a new server, which is why it'll be down a little longer. Older sites that are not actively or regularly maintained may just disappear.

Kurt @ Hardcore Gaming 101 reposted

KaL the GhouLecKo
@kaly.myatproto.social

what the fuck the new Ecstatica re-release is insane. The game offers multiple versions of the games art and a...software renderer that does the whole thing in real time that goes up to crazy resolutions in an extended graphics settings. It also lets you toggle different versions graphic adjustments

Kurt @ Hardcore Gaming 101
@hg101.bsky.social

they were very iffy about letting us use in-game images which is why this doesn't include maps (they also would've bloated the size and they liked them small since this was still the modem days. I had a 2400 baud, if you had a 28.8k you were really flying)

Kurt @ Hardcore Gaming 101 reposted

Thomas Nickel
@tapirfortuna.bsky.social

Important PSA - if you haven't heard yet, the two new Leisure Suit Larry games by Assemble Entertainment will be delisted on October 23, which is a pity. So before they become lust in time, I really urge you to give them a try. They´re on sale on major platforms and much, muuuch better than...

Kurt @ Hardcore Gaming 101 reposted

Retro Game Books 📚
@retrogamebooks.com

🆓 Win the proof copy of the sold out Video Game Maps: NES & Famicom - Deluxe Edition! 𝚃̲̲𝚘̲ ̲𝚎̲̲𝚗̲̲𝚝̲̲𝚎̲̲𝚛̲: Like and comment with your favorite NES game. Reposts greatly appreciated. A winner will be selected this Wednesday. retrogamebooks.com/products/vid... What's a proof? It's the first printed copy.

retrogamebooks.comVideo Game Maps: NES & Famicom - Deluxe EditionDo you have what it takes to navigate through the Lost Woods? Are you brave enough to battle the evil that awaits you in Dracula’s castle? What mysteries will you discover on the road to rescue Super ...
Kurt @ Hardcore Gaming 101
@hg101.bsky.social

Expanding my collection of 90s Japanese PC games released in English, here's Graduation for Windows 95, technically a port of the second game. From Mixx Games, the same folk behind Tokyopop. It's the first anime game to hit American Shores!!!

Kurt @ Hardcore Gaming 101
@hg101.bsky.social

Wracking my brain for a forgotten late 1990s PC game. It was one of those 3D characters/2D backgrounds, except the backgrounds had FMV transitions. Released for both Windows and PS1, console was Europe-only. I thought it was by Cryo but I can't find it again. What is this!!!

Kurt @ Hardcore Gaming 101 reposted

Cargodin
@cargodin.bsky.social

Please ignore the MTL release of Meremanoid that came out today. We have had a hearty band at work (Chapu, Popi, Mr. Nobody, Misty, Shentok and I) working hard on an all-human patch. Fully playable in English, in it final editing pass now. Popi provided these screencaps today. More news later.

Chapu@chaputranslations.bsky.social

So, "Schrödinger no neko" isn't up your alley? How about a fully 3D JRPG about an amnesiac siren? This is "Shinkai densetsu Meremanoid". Already hacked the thing, got a half-width font, script dumped, the whole kit and caboodle. Ping me if you know Japanese and want to translate it!