DF Retro NES/Famicom Tech Showcase Triple: Batman: Return of The Joker, Moon Crystal, Haradius ZERO

[@ralfk.7767]

I think most viewers just want the "old style" DF Retro episodes, for example your "Silent Hill 2" episode John, that was great.

[@Ficehdulah]

Hey DF thanks for the great content as always but I miss the scripted mini-documentary formats.

[@someguy3186]

Same. I know that they take a lot of work, but those are among the best and most informative retro game content on KZbin. They're actually what made me subscribe.

[@odinsplaygrounds]

100% agree. I understand they're more time consuming. But they are also soo much better. Wish there was less time put into live streams and unscripted videos.

[@anthonyaoun2919]

These are really interesting but bring back the scripted in depth ones please!

[@startedtech]

Same, I loved those deep dives. This is just kinda boring, might as well be a stream.

[@Ficehdulah]

Absolutely agreed

[@charoleawood]

I love seeing the games played for real, this was a blast to watch because it wasn't just about the art or tech, but you could see the game design at work, scripted episodes don't tend to feature any in-depth gameplay.

[@psygnozis]

agreed

[@MrKongosnake]

I miss DF RETRO episodes dedicated to old school games and technology, I love to know how the games were made in different plataforms , in this case the ports , I would like to see a new episode talking about Resident Evil4 with a million ports and Zone of Enders. Also it could be interesting to talk about Street Fighter 2 ports.

[@MoonSarito]

Am I the only one who prefers DF Retro over normal DF ?, it's so cool to try to understand how old games were made and how technically impressive they were at the time. I really wanted to see a Digital Foundry video about all SNES Super FX games similar to what they did on Sega32x.

[@mynthon0]

Well, "proper" DF Retro videos are pretty much the best content on KZbin as far as I'm concerned, but these are very different. Not that I have anything against them per se, and I'm sure they're much easier to make, but there's no comparison.

[@allluckyseven]

That Moon Crystal game is indeed pretty impressive. Opening it in an emulator and seeing the Tile and Sprite refreshes going on there for every movement you make, jumping, crouching, attacking... And they do that for the enemies too!

[@szynkers]

In Poland in mid to late 90s, when everybody had a rip-off NES/FAMICON console made in china and sold on your local market by russian merchants, that Batman game was a god damn hit.

[@fabrb26]

it's funny because i just bought a Chinese made Russian rifle sold to me by guy from Poland !

[@saratov99]

Dendy, Pegasus, MicroGenius!

[@Hopkins955]

Yess I had the "Ending Man Terminator" console - the funny thing is I believed for many years that mine is "The real Nintendo Famicom" console - I found only much later that this console with the yellow cartridges was only a good copycat Chinese console lol

[@szynkers]

@@tomol6 Probably you are right, yes. I don't think the rip-off cartridges had additional internal chips like this one. And now that I took a look, it was the other batman game.

[@ThatGamingGuyfromthe70s]

Its great seeing these games. I never would have known about them otherwise. Your insight and commentary is really interesting.

[@charoleawood]

This was a blast. I don't have a lot of nostalgia for 8-bit games but watching these games here get played by John and Audi made the time fly by, thanks :) Wonderful artwork and ingenuity in these three titles

[@Myako]

A great video as always, and I particularly love the return to more intimate fare. It's truly something to see you and Audi shoot the breeze and enjoy yourselves in your craft, contagious even. 😊 I would definitely love a DF Retro video (or even continuing series) on 8/16bit homebrew. I could list lots of very interesting stuff in that subject.

[@Juicemanfly85]

Love how you guys explain the details of the games. It makes me watch even more.👍

[@kupokinzyt]

Please do a DF Retro on Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 on OG Xbox. I've donated 3 times to your Patreon and have been asking for almost a year lol. This comment always gets thumbs upped as well. It would be interesting to see how the ports were managed and too see real stats based on todays tech. Thank you.

[@Horos_de_Vega]

3 great games! Thank you both. That was awesome.

[@Canma890]

Oh my, Return of the Joker brings me back into 1995....we had the NES very late back in Croatia then. The game was HARD !

[@hkoizumi3134]

I am super impressed with the graphical presentation. I used to program in assembly back in the day which is used for GAMEBOY. I can fathom what they did to squeeze in so much graphical elements and animations.

[@Sedifet]

I enjoyed learning about these games. Thanks for the video

[@Whacintosh]

Do the most technically impressive SNES/SFC games next!

[@balaam_7087]

Ah, Lester the Unlikely. One of the first AVGN videos i watched. Good stuff.

[@cookman08]

You guys should totally start a series looking at games that really pushed the limits of their hardware.

[@mindblockandroid]

Great games for a retro tech showcase! I’d love it if you guys did a df retro on tales of phantasia for the snes. It has awesome tech tricks and techniques, as well as a very interesting story with the dejap translation and all

[@FultonRecovery]

yea that would be amazing

[@fakeshemp9599]

The retro episodes are the best 👍

[@pferreira1983]

It's what I subbed for.

[@tolkienmaster]

I grew up with a Famicom, and Batman: Return of the Joker was one of my favorite games! :D To this day I still hum the amazing soundtrack from time to time.

[@CassidyListon]

My GOD does Moon Crystal look incredible!!

[@fensoxx]

Yep, more technically impressive nes games would be great

[@griffgames9538]

Some real NES tour de force: Metal Storm G.I. Joe Heavy Barrel *in-level parallax scrolling *tons of detail/animation *huge damage and effects

[@akaimizu1]

In Batman, I am kind of impressed by the scene with the Palm Trees. That looks like they're almost Donkey Kong Country level with those graphics and animation. Truly an 8-bit game disguising itself as a 16-bit one. I'm almost reminded of Super Stardust on the Amiga, where they had a 3d tunnel section, and used some keen animation tricks (and other stuff I'm still unsure of), and having the tunnel seemingly perspective shift with your ship and camera movement, made it visually look like hardware beyond what existed, in home computing, at the time. It looked like they were using 3d hardware accelerated graphics when the machine had none.

[@taramjwi57]

I played one of these when I lived in korea for a couple years as a kid. My cousins had a disk with cheats they could plug in. My mind was blown.

[@TheManOnTheHill]

This is kinda cool but I really miss the REAL DF Retro....

[@FilmCompos3r]

This makes me want you to cover Access software’s early uses of FMV and digital audio in PC titles running on floppy disks from the early 90s.

[@EvilLucario]

Nothing like a new DF Retro out of nowhere to start the day.

[@conorallen1653]

Wow a Metal Storm shoutout. I blind-rented that game back in the day and thought I’d found a hidden gem. It’s probably not nearly as cool as it is in my memory but it’s neat to hear someone reference it.

[@MisticDW]

I miss the real DF Retro :(

[@charoleawood]

This was excellent to watch, the highlight of the artwork and techniques on an 8-bit system was awesome. How is that not "real" retro?

[@2007excalibur2007]

@@charoleawood I think he meant the old style DF Retro videos, where the topics are presented more like a review/retrospective video than a Let's Play one.

[@charoleawood]

@@2007excalibur2007 Thank you. I'm sure that is indeed what was meant. However, there is a lot of value in let's plays and if we like hearing John's perspective in a more curated video we should also be able to get a lot out of his, and Audi's, perspectives in a let's play format, especially because we get to see real, actual, uninterrupted gameplay. How these games feel to play gets lost in a more curated video. John can say about any given game "it feels great to play" but that means nothing, I want to see the frustration and the gameplay loop to understand how somebody could find it fun, it's much more informative than the generalizations we get from the other videos.

[@Rebelscum264]

@@charoleawood no

[@charoleawood]

@@Rebelscum264 Well, that was a nuanced and intelligent response.

[@MetalJody1990]

Batman: RotJ is freakin' amazing for an NES game. I love it. Its ost is so metal.

[@tcbvgames]

Return of the Joker is certainly the best-looking game on the platform. But it's nowhere near the hardest. Unlike Battletoads, it has passwords and some VERY generous checkpoints. I managed to beat it in a few hours. Maybe Dynamite Batman is harder, though.

[@MetalJody1990]

Yeah. I like that it's accessible to players with almost any level of skill. Later, I'll load up Dynamite Batman on Nestopia and see if it's harder.

[@rafadono]

Lagrange Point for the Famicom looks really nice too, it uses the VRC7 sound chip, and sounds great!

[@Romerco77]

I'm glad you left the UI in place so we can be sure they are the NES versions instead of the SNES ones.

[@serfillustrated4018]

A true NES showcase needs some of The Guardian Legend.

[@Comtar]

“What shooter let’s you take more than one hit?” AXELAY!

[@tcbvgames]

Space Megaforce (Super Aleste) Super Star Solider etc.

[@rsmith02]

Lords of Thunder

[@Elrinth]

there's a nes demonstration of axelay by @upsilandre , it looks amazing.

[@yeti4954]

I would love a df retro on Vectorman tbh. My favorite genesis games and he gets excluded from all the sega all-stars stuff :(

[@retractingblinds]

Damn you recorded this in the Summer? Must have been hectic. Something laid back like this took so long to put out, yet you put out modern stuff sometimes several times within a week. I hope as releases slow down for the new consoles you can begin to ramp up your DF Retro output.

[@Victorino007]

As usual great material. In the next episode if possible please cover G.I. Joe for NES (first one) - one of the greatest games on NES/Pegasus :)

[@eqjase]

John continues to carry the entire channel on his shoulders. Guess benchmarking ray tracing takes 4 people.

[@kirkden71]

Love the retros guys...keep it up!

[@AndreasElf]

Holy qwap. That is smooth.

[@gamingblowsofficial]

Should render these out at 4:3.

[@TesseractE]

A few of my favorite shooters allow multiple hits. Tyrian 2000 and Raptor: Call of the Shadows on DOS and the Silpheed series.

[@moosemaimer]

Area 88 / UN Squadron gives you a life bar, but reverses the usual invulnerability you get after taking a hit: your plane flashes for a time (which varies based on which pilot you're using) and if you get hit while flashing it's an instant kill.

[@TesseractE]

@@moosemaimer Ah, forgot that one! I've not played it anywhere near as much as I have the others, though.

[@nknicolas]

Any chance to have a Paprium analysis ?

[@RetroGamingReplay]

My god it's beautiful. Love me some batman

[@millrrs]

Moon Crystal reminds me so much the NES Jetman. Still waiting for a proper Digital Foundry RETRO about Master System.

[@THELEGENDARYK2]

You hardly see slopes in PC-Engine games! I've always wondered why.

[@sassydog5399]

That Haradius boss is a Destroid HWR-00-Mk.II "Monster" from the Macross franchise

[@rade-blunner7824]

I was definitely not expecting Cho Aniki to be brought up in this discussion...

[@theinvisibleman-e8v]

Need more of these videos

[@johngoe420]

NES 8 bit games have such a homelike atmosphere reminding me of childhood wonder. They fill me with nostalgia like vcr font on Bible text memes do. It feels so innocent, so pure and so... _us_

[@TVsMrNeil]

I love how Batman blows up when he dies. It's like Metal Storm.

[@tmsphere]

I love how its the only batman game thats also a shooter cuz they were trying to rip off Contra.

[@doloresdebeauvoir4960]

Lester the Unlikely was one of the first games created by... Visual Concepts. I still can't believe it to this day, lol

[@MrKnightlore]

Love you guys!

[@Teknoman]

Haradius ZERO, i'll grab a US copy day one.

[@eduardosanchezbarrios5810]

Cool video 👍👍👍 btw when you will talk about HROT? the retroFPS using a custom Engine tha looks like a classic software renderer

[@DrGamelove]

I’m glad you brought up playing retro games on newer big TVs being not optimal. I was wondering if that was just me. Something like Smash TV or Xenocrisis is especially tough since you need an idea of everything going on but the screen is too big to see everything without looking all around and it’s JUST enough of a distraction to impact the gameplay.

[@mahatmagandhiful]

31:50 - Yo they just straight up ripped a Destroid Monster into the game! :D

[@zachreddy]

The Monster boss was also in the original MSX game from 1991. At least this one has new music, the original ripped off the entire Salamander soundtrack too

[@zzzzUS]

Blaster Master... Oh boy, that's title I haven't heard about for quite some time now.

[@TaimatCR]

I believe John did a df retro on it a few years back, just in case you didn't know

[@woodroez]

I think this is my first time seeing Return of the Joker, i had always assumed it was going to be just like the first BATMAN game. Impressive! The shooting aspect of it is kind of silly on it's face, but then, years later, Clockwork Tortoise makes The Adventures of Batman and Robin for the Genesis/Mega Drive and it is also a run n' gun with occasional horizontal shooting stages. Hmmmmm.

[@MeatPopsycle]

"This is the pot. This is the spart." lol

[@supercompman]

For a modern retro game, I'd love to see you take a look at Sam's Journey on the C64 (and it's also being ported to the NES). Hessian on the C64 would also be great. If Dread for the Amiga ever gets released, that would be amazing too.

[@videogameobsession]

BATMAN on the Mega Drive/Genesis is excellent. It's one of the few movie based games that I love. The level design is excellent. The side scrolling shooter (Bat Mobile, BatWing) are a nice change of pace from the platforming and beat 'em up stages, and the OST.... One of the best on the platform. If you haven't played it do yuourselkf a favor and try it!

[@JFinns]

7:35 time to do a DF Retro comparing SNES/Genesis Aladdin games

[@HueyTheDoctor]

04:55 Beefy guy holding axe explodes for unknown reasons.

[@yellinginmyear]

John is like this really nice guy whereas Audie comes across as the guy from 'On the Cinema at the cinema' 😂

[@hellbillymods45]

Yay, awesome game to cover!

[@thefightscout]

I love Return of The Joker NES

[@christiansimon9182]

11:07 looks especially funny and "borderless" on an OLED panel :)

[@urdad1984]

Hmmm not familiar with Moon Crystal but it def looks interesting. Not super well versed in the FC only games outside of the shooters. May have to fire up the FC n try it out tonight. Thanks for the heads up on this one

[@DaleCoop]

Great video

[@Craider79]

Wow that Moon Crystal game is NES? Really? That looks awesome for a NES game!

[@keypath4389]

These guys are like the much better version of metal jesus and reggie

[@tmsphere]

My first ever console, this thing had better sound than the NES and had modability well beyond the NES. Remember playing duck hunt with the infrared gun & many other games. Then I became a PC only player up until the Switch was released.

[@EpicLebaneseNerd]

batman return of the joker is without a doubt, a really good nes game, the music alone, especially stage 1-1 is maybe one of the best 8bit music ever made, people hate it because they suck at gaming and it is a very challenging game but super fun, loved it as a kid and i still humm the music from time to time, i even made lyrics for it....yup, i am that weird.

[@thegaia6992]

next df retro : summer carnival 92 recca

[@harundalkilinc1636]

The sinking city comparison ??😊

[@MrLindenluke]

Great video. Also, off the top of my head, pop n twinbee on super famicom uses a life bar-can’t think of any other shooters that do atm

[@geoffreyberry1160]

Great vid guys! Any chance of uploading that last level of Batman when you beat the Joker? Would love to see that. Even the whole play through. You did record it, right?

[@tonygeddes9558]

How many TFLOPS did these things have?

[@Jpilgrim30]

I remember a game I think it was called MiG 29 that was cool for a Nintendo game back then. I pretty sure the cartridge looked like it was gold plated.

[@samgao]

Wait... was that Neuschwanstein in the second cutscene?

[@burnsarm2]

Sunsoft games had the best NES osts and BASS !!!

[@pferreira1983]

Not bad games but NES? Come on guys. So some power of the Master System! 😊👍

[@mrnemo204]

I remember seeing those cutscenes in English for Mooncrystal

[@Mickey2099]

I think there's a translation patch out there

[@geminijinxies7258]

This reminds me of how they pushed the C64 hardware during the mid 80s with moving border sprites and other "impossible" tricks.

[@Nukle0n]

It wasn't a "no-no" for western games to have expansion chips, all the MMC "mappers" are enhancement chips, what the NES couldn't do was expansion audio, which Batman: Return of the Joker also doesn't feature, since the cartridge slot was not wired up to pass audio through to the mixer. What you might be thinking of is that most western games didn't use 3rd party chips, but Sunsoft did around to this. When they ported Castlevania 3 they converted it from Konami's VRC6 mapper to Nintendo's own MMC5. Ironically the Japanese version of the MMC5 also did expansion audio.

[@FultonRecovery]

26:21 "that stupid 'N weapon... (laughs)"

[@elzabbul]

-NES- -Famicom- *Pegasus !* At least in Poland ;)

[@zeherbh2632]

With the source code for GTAIII get leaked all people ask is it possible to get the Dreamcast port of the game????

[@LeodiAstoriaXIII]

That Batman's title in Japanese is : Dynamite Batman lol

[@GurkenhobelF1]

Maybe you can look at WRC9 on the next gen consoles. It has 30, 60 and 120 fps modes😁👍

[@FaizanJaved]

Do Captain Tsubasa 2 by Tecmo, probably the most technically impressive game on the NES and the soundtrack is great too

[@EM-ks5my]

You guys should review Ninja Gaiden one and two, they have same cut scenes and anime style.

[@kendric_BUF]

Great showcase guys! Honestly from a viewer perspective, I wouldn't mind if you used invincibility/God mode just for demonstration purposes. Just to show off all the cool level designs.

[@riaz8783]

Personally think this would've been better as a scripted video

[@MegaTeeSmith]

Wait, does Audi know how the rest of that Nelly song goes??? 🚫👕👖

[@kristovicaccipoloska6028]

Damn I like this awesome ass content ayy!!!