On #HuCardHuesday here’s “Xevious: Fardraut Densetsu”. This is a 1990 port of the 1983 arcade shoot-em-up, developed & published by #Namco. The game features 2 modes: the original game, plus the Fardraut mode which adds new levels and enemies.
#Retrogaming #NEC #PCEngine #HuCard

On #MasterSystemMonday here’s “Great Volleyball”. This is a 1987 volleyball simulation game developed by Sanritsu and published by #Sega. The game features eight teams of six players, each representing a different country.
#Retrogaming #MasterSystem

https://tilvids.com/w/f1cgPgckuGZKAjmdEk5fA5

#technology #retrogaming #AI #coding #video

Game copy protection was an art form, as well as #cracking these protections. This cat and mouse game evolved over time, with protections including more and more complicated and well-hidden checks trying to identify poor or quickly made cracks. The best protections hindered the release of a crack long enough for the game to hit enough initial sales. After the initial sales the eventual release of a crack would no longer hurt (much).

Rewind to 2025 and legal purchase of early 90s PC games from palaces such as COG: Apparently, there are plenty of releases that have the poor crack built-in, and where the anti-crack checks kick in, making the game unplayable. The irony is that the only way to play is to get a proper "real crack".

Cool write-up of the protection in "The Games: Winter Challenge" and the associated problems of "legal releases":
https://mrwint.github.io/winter/writeup/writeup.html

#retrogaming #hacking

On #SaturnDay here’s “Hexen”. This is a 1997 first person shooting game developed & published by Id Software. This runs on the Doom engine and is a medieval/fantasy version of Doom with some light RPG elements. The #Sega #Saturn port is considered better than the PS1 version.
#Retrogaming