Thread 12029806

ITT: Things that you can NEVER experience with an emulator. Let me tell you a story.

The Bard's Tale (2004) had a comment printed on the cover of the disc that said "For A Really Disturbing Image... Flip Disc Over". Twenty years ago when I first saw this I immediately turned the disc over expecting to find some sort of holographic engraving or laser etching on the back of the disc. I stared at it a long time, shining it against the light, but all I could see was rainbow colors. I stared at it long enough that my eyes unexpectedly changed focus and suddenly I saw my face reflection. I though that shit was hilarious and I laughed about it for a week.

Any other games that do this? Basically, anything that you really can't experience without the physical media or console.

>inb4 pressure sensitive buttons
>inb4 game genie/shark
>inb4 power tower or expansion packs

>>12029806 (OP)
Not retro, but zelda Phantom hourglass has a puzzle reliant on the fact its being played on a DS (and has nothing to do with the touchscreen)

>>12029817
the one where you close the ds? you can replicate that on melonds, not quite as kino though

>>12029823
Yea, i got a good kick out of it when i figured that out.

>>12029806 (OP)
The raidio frequency in Metal gear solid requiring looking at the back of the cd case. Its pretty much the same as the startropics letter now, but you lose out on the 4th wall break of figuring out that the in-game character is literally talking about the cd case you have in the real world.

Also another not retro example, but No More Heroes uses the speaker in the Wiimote to deliver phone calls.

>>12029806 (OP)
R.O.B.

To be honest, I can't really think of anything special I ever experienced like this, outside of the typical stuff like reading the manual to a game on a car ride home as a kid. The only other example I can think of would be MGS1 and the CD case, but frankly I found that more of a "wooow, cool dude..." tinged with annoyance, rather than being charming and entrancing. I just don't think there's a lot to miss with this stuff. Your example is actually pretty clever and I probably would've had the same reaction, but that kind of effort and soul is few and far between. Most of my best gaming memories have come from emulating, and frankly physical games/hardware have mostly been a hindrance to my enjoyment throughout the years.

>>12029806 (OP)
damn, you're fucking dumb, bro. i got that shit immediately.

NES examples:

Encountering the weird switch on the back of a rented Quattro 4-in-1 compilation cartridge
The letter from Mike's uncle in StarTropics (I actually got to have this experience as a kid)

Shouting into the Controller II microphone to kill Pols Voice on the FDS version of Zeryd

>>12029806 (OP)
>having physical media means not using an emulator
Huh? I have many Mac discs that I can only meaningfully use with Sheepshaver. There's also the handful of DOS games I have, which require DOSBox on modern systems. And plenty of Win95 games run best on virtual machines.

>>12030054
Stop it, just please. I love emulation and I think it's amazing but there are some experiences that cannot be replicated even if you are using the intended controllers. I think the Dreamcast VMU is a good example. We are talking about the vast majority of people that emulate who only use their PC and ROMs/ISOs. Also why the hell are you not simply making copies of those games to keep inside your computer? I can see how it would be nostalgic the first few times, but after the 10th time of putting the physical media inside your computer it must be inconvenient.

In MGS when it asked me to look at the back of the box I couldn't figure it out. I was sure I was supposed to look at the back of some inventory items I had and that there was a way to inspect them but I didn't know how. It'd never have hit me that they'd break the 4th wall.

>>12029817
>>12029823

Didn't they port it to Wii U? How'd they get around that shit?

>>12030260
>>12029847
>>12029837
Isn't the famous one in MG1 where whatshisface makes controller two 'move' by itself with his psychokinetic powers?

>>12029806 (OP)
anon it was referring to the rainbow colors the fact that you also happened to be hideous was just a coincidence

Karateka on the Apple 2 where you had the entire game on the other side of the disk again but upside down which was done as a practical joke so if customers would call the service hotline the guy on the other end could snarkily tell them to flip the disk.

The DOS game "If it Moves, Shoot it!" has some peculiar screen transition effects upon death that don't work in DOSBox.
https://wwe.youtube.com/watch?v=7eNflid1XXE

>>12030386
>guy on the other end

>>12030392
How'd they program that? Surely it'd be easy enough to patch in...

>>12030404
Apparently it does some funky shit with the EGA's internal framebuffer.

>>12029806 (OP)
Wasn't there some DS adventure game where you had to close the lid in such a way for one puzzle that the reflection of one screen could be seen in the other one?

>>12029806 (OP)
Holding your place in a gamebook with one hand while you check to make sure the page you're turning to isn't an instant death.

>>12029839
rob games suck fat dick though
>>12030421
that's the zeldor game
>>12030447
>savescumming on a book
you didn't read the story

>>12030156
"Missed the point" award. The thing is that the OP example is retarded because you can have a physical copy, and still need to use emulation. They're not mutually exclusive.

Games having unique color carts like Zelda or Turok.

>>12029806 (OP)
Boktai

If the mgs1 radio frequency counts then feelies and other crypto-copy-protection from old PC games are surely the same but better

>>12030375
probably just opening and closing the suspend menu if i had to guess. maybe they added a different way though, i know that for animal crossing wild world they removed the requirement for a friend to visit your town and buy something for the last shop upgrade.

>>12030997
I came here to say this.

>>12029806 (OP)
One of my favorite things to do is sift through my box of gb/gbc/GBA games. I love going through my games but gameboy carts are like sci-fi/cyberpunk tech looking cartridges that come straight from an anime and I love them. Same with game gear and neogeopockect game to a lesser extent. The notch and grey color scheme really sell the aesthetic for me.

Bump. I like this thread. This is a good thread.

>>12029934
That seems like something that wouldn't be super hard to emulate though, whether it's been done yet or not. OP's example is something nobody would EVER emulate unless we got into like a Holodeck situation or something where it just became trivial to throw a holographic (yet tangible) simulation of game console hardware, including cartridges and discs that you could pick up and look at, into an emulation software package.

The first fifty copies of Seaman were packaged with suppositories containing viable samples of Leonard Nimoy's actual semen.

>>12030548
That's more of a aesthetic physical media argument than a unique feature one

There are multiple secret levels you can only unlock by pointing a TV remote at the infrared port.

Bump. Please don't let this thread die.

>>12030378
You're conflating two gimmicks:
Psycho Mantis "demonstrates" his telekinetic powers by asking you to put down your (player 1) controller on the table and moving it (turning on the rumble motors) with his mind. I'm pretty sure he has separate dialog if you don't have a Dualshock.
2) Psycho Mantis is very good at dodging your attacks. You're informed that's because he's able to "read your mind," but if you plug your controller into the Player 2 port he can't "read your mind" anymore and stops dodging your attacks. If you can't figure this out, your support team gives you a call and tells you that destroying the 4 statues in the room will also disable his mind-reading powers.
However, both of these can be done with an emulator, all you need is a controller that vibrates.

the sanity effect on Eternal Darkness. Rip CRTs

>>12029806 (OP)
Whatever this did

>>12029806 (OP)
I laughed really hard when MGS made me look at the back of the box and I saw my reflection there. I'm so funny.

>>12029837
You don't even need the CD case. Call Campbell enough times and Meryl's frequency will appear on the quickdial list.

>>12029806 (OP)
Emulation is abomination. There. I said it.

>>12030421
I think Another Code did that

>>12029837
>No More Heroes uses the speaker in the Wiimote to deliver phone calls.
Silent Hill Shattered Memories as well

>>12029817
that one puzzle game where you play the white haired chick also did this

>>12035956
That was Another Code as I said

I don't know if it counts but you actually got 3 free Yugioh cards when you bought this PS2 game.

>>12029806 (OP)
The manual for Earthworm Jim on the SNES said that the X button did something like 'turns on Mrs. Schultz's porch light somewhere in Germany. So stop pressing it!'

Simon The Sorcerer 3D had a puzzle where you had to open the CD drive of a computer but it didn't have a button.
Given the thread topic, you can probably guess how the solution for this one went.

>>12035879
It's even easier than that. The registration paper in the manual is right on the same page as all the codec numbers including Meryl.
So if you ever decided to look at the manual at all, you'd have immediately seen the correct codec frequency.
This is true for both the NTSC and PAL releases.

>>12037426
Were they any good in actual tournaments?

Of course my copy didn't come with this letter so I had to look up the gimmick.

>>12037426
>>12038964
i know that in Japan pretty much all yu gi oh vidya had cards that came with it and apparently some were really good but it was random and some were exclusively obtained this way.

>>12035879
This puzzle fucked me over because there's a damn disk item in the game. I kept trying to do something with that.

>>12035931
>>12029837
No More Heroes' entire gameplay is different through emulation unless you're using a wiimote, to be fair
>muh wagglin
Yeah, but having to jerk off to recharge the beam saber is legitimately different then slapping a button

Trading Pokemans with your friends from school so you could evolve them or just complete the entire Pokedex. I'm sure it can be easily done on an emulator, but I actually don't know how to. How would you do this anyway? Say I wanted to evolve my Kadabra to Alakazam?

>>12040064
there's a program you can use to change the evolution method called universal pokemon randomizer. for gen 1-3 trade evos they all evolve at i wanna say level 37 except for the split evos in gen 2 (so slowking and politoed), who evolve with a water stone. but for later gens they evolve while holding their evolutionary item (except gen 1 trade evos obviously, as well as conkeldurr and gigalith) item, which consumes the item.

>>12040090
actually with poliwhirl it's the leveled method, water stone is just for slowpoke iirc. maybe also for clamperl's other evo but i can't remember. they have the lists on their github.

>>12033385
When did you pick up the game?

>>12038990
That's too bad. I couldn't imagine not knowing about it, go figure