Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
The Neo Geo AES+ got announced recently and it got people interested right away since it's a hardware recreation of the original AES without emulation. SNK instead decided to license the work out to Plaion, or maybe it was Plaion's idea all along. In this video, I give my own thoughts on the system, the positives as well as my concerns about it.
Sources:
presse.plaion.com/SNK-and-PLAION-Announce-the-Return-of-the-King-The-NEOGEO-AES-Comes-Ho
retrorgb.com/jotego-confirms-neo-geo-aes-features.html
plaionreplai.us/products/neogeo-aes
00:00 A New Neo Geo In 2026?
01:08 What's Good About It
04:29 My Concerns About The System
The Neo Geo AES+ got announced recently and it got people interested right away since it's a hardware recreation of the original AES without emulation. SNK instead decided to license the work out to Plaion, or maybe it was Plaion's idea all along. In this video, I give my own thoughts on the system, the positives as well as my concerns about it.
Sources:
presse.plaion.com/SNK-and-PLAION-Announce-the-Return-of-the-King-The-NEOGEO-AES-Comes-Ho
retrorgb.com/jotego-confirms-neo-geo-aes-features.html
plaionreplai.us/products/neogeo-aes
00:00 A New Neo Geo In 2026?
01:08 What's Good About It
04:29 My Concerns About The System
![Pole Position [Gamecube/Arcade] - ALL Clear 59850 pts (Namco Museum)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kRvcyg2SEEc/mqdefault.jpg "Pole Position [Gamecube/Arcade] - ALL Clear 59850 pts (Namco Museum)
Played on Namco Museum with default difficulty/time settings using the Dolphin emulator.
Pole Position is among the most influential racing games of all time. Without this, there would probably be no Outrun, no Super Hang On, no Ridge Racer, no Daytona USA, or any other famous arcade racing games that would come after it. I used to play it all the time as a kid as a kid on different Namco Museum collections, but I was horrible at it back then.
This port is overall pretty faithful to the original arcade version considering its part of a console compilation versus a sitdown cabinet. The developer did make an interesting design choice for this port by adding some tiny amounts of auto-steering on the slightest of corners, probably to compensate for the lack of a proper wheel. That still doesnt help you to get through the harder turns or dodge the other cars, but it works out quite well because it does not have analog turning even if you use an analog stick. Maybe this was based on the PS1 Namco Museum port, which I have not played?
This was my first time making pole position on a complete run, and Im pretty happy with this run considering that I played on D-pad. I only had one crash. There is some RNG in terms of where the other cars will be, which is not unusual for arcade racers as Super Hang On would do this later on as well for example. Of course, the handling is primitive and slippery compared to later arcade racers.")
![Castle Of Illusion [Sega Master System] - 1CC Full Game 128,480 pts](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kbuDPqxz1IY/mqdefault.jpg "Castle Of Illusion [Sega Master System] - 1CC Full Game 128,480 pts
Castle Of Illusion wasnt just a Genesis game. It was also on the Sega Master System and a different game to boot. I beat this one on one credit and got just about all of the secrets, including plenty of 1-UPs and hidden treasure chests. This is definitely one of the better platformers on the console and would get an excellent sequel in Land Of Illusion, exclusive to the Master System and Game Gear.
Also, this and Land Of Illusion are the first two Sega Master System playthroughs Ive done on my QMTech MiSTER FPGA, which I got earlier this year. It feels extremely responsive playing on it and looks great with a little bit of scanlines applied in post-processing. The Land Of Illusion playthrough is coming soon, and there may also be a separate discussion video reviewing both games. I may also make another video just on my thoughts on the MiSTER FPGA so far.
00:00 Intro
00:30 Stage 1
04:22 Stage 2
07:35 Stage 3
12:26 Stage 4
18:51 Stage 5
24:49 Final Stage")
![Top Gear Rally [GBA] - Great Heights Plus All 1st Place Playthrough](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ksmBrptbwCk/mqdefault.jpg "Top Gear Rally [GBA] - Great Heights Plus All 1st Place Playthrough
Top Gear Rally on Game Boy Advance shares the same name as the N64 racer, but it is an entirely different game developed by Tantalus Interactive and released in 2003 for the GBA. This game is known for being the last game in the Top Gear Rally series as well as utilizing a 3D graphics engine. It is also one of the few traditional rally games on the handheld along with Colin McRae Rally 2.0.
The first thing that stands out when people play this game is the 3D graphics. While the graphics arent even PS1 quality, it was pretty impressive before the DS/PSP era to be able to play a racer on a handheld with 3D graphics, though it does use a lot of sprites and was quite pixelated even on real hardware. The game engine does have some limitations though like its field of view being a bit fisheye at times and the fact that you cannot turn around and drive backwards. The fisheye like view in particular occasionally leads to some issues running into objects along the road, which will slow you down. However, its not too hard to adjust to this and on some courses, you wont notice the effect much.
As far as the gamplay goes, Top Gear Rally on GBA plays pretty well overall. While I did mention the issue regarding the field of view just now, the cars do control surprisingly well and you have some basic tuning options appropriate for a rally game, like gearbox, brake sensitivity, and of course tire choices to name a few. Unlike in the original N64 game of the same name, this game features actual rally stages instead of rally-cross style tracks, so youll actually be going for checkpoint to checkpoint like in actual rallying. The cars have some weight to them though many of them feel pretty similar outside of top speed and acceleration, but thats understandable considering the limitations of the handheld it was made for. However, the handling is definitely better than the second Top Gear Rally game on N64, which suffered from an identity crisis overall.
The meat of the game is the Championship mode. The first two Championship leagues, Amateur and Professional, are not very hard. However, the difficulty does ramp up during the Top Gear World Series, particularly once you get to the mirrored tracks. Great Heights Plus is the last of the mirrored rallies and like the regular version, is set along a mountain road where one false move could lead to you falling off of a cliff. Its a great idea, though it may be partially inspired by the famous Pikes Peak International hillclimb course. I managed to get first place on all three parts of Great Heights Plus, which is what this video shows. Its not the hardest of the rallies in the Top Gear World Series despite being the finale, but it is one of my favorites. I especially enjoy the final part which features gravel instead of tarmac, as the gravel gives you less grip on the track. You also get a nice sense of speed on these courses.
Overall, this game is more than worthy of the Top Gear Rally name and may even be better than the two games on the N64.
Played in RetroArch using the VBA-M core and the NTSC-SVideo shader.
00:00 Intro
00:50 Stage 1
02:54 Stage 2
04:56 Stage 3
07:25 Ending")
![Ridge Racer 64 [N64] - Extreme Extra 1st Place (Z Class)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/lGkZ1Zkc2C8/mqdefault.jpg "Ridge Racer 64 [N64] - Extreme Extra 1st Place (Z Class)
Ridge Racer 64 is a game Ive been working toward beating on and off for a while now. This is the final track on the Grand Prix mode, played in Z Class.
These later cars are quite hard to control and you have to abandon the classic drifting for the most part when youre using them because theyre so fast and have tons of handling and grip.
Ill also be uploading the Screaming Eagle Car Attack race soon, which is arguably the hardest race in the game along with Lizard Nightmare.
00:00 Intro
00:26 Race
03:44 Galaga 88 Mini-Game And Results
Played in Simple64 using my Qanba Crystal Mixbox setup.")
![Scramble [Atari 7800] - Atari Homebrew Brilliance + Talk About The Homebrew Scene and AtariAge News](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/lUdzXcVqBfQ/mqdefault.jpg "Scramble [Atari 7800] - Atari Homebrew Brilliance + Talk About The Homebrew Scene and AtariAge News
In this video, I discuss the homebrew port of Scramble for the Atari 7800 as well as my personal experiences with Atari (particularly the Lynx), the Atari homebrew scene, and some recent developments from AtariAge that will affect the homebrew scene.
One small correction: the AtariAge announcement mentions the games getting pulled after July 23rd. My apologies for not being specific enough with that in the video.
Rikki & Vikki on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/893690/Rikki Vikki/
Bob Decrescenzos Atari 7800 homebrew ports: https://forums.atariage.com/topic/352599-most-recent-binaries-for-the-games-of-mine-being-pulled-all-in-one-place/
AtariAge Announcement: https://forums.atariage.com/topic/352472-atariage-store-last-chance-sale/
AtariAge Store Link: https://www.atariage.com/store/
#shmups #atari #atari7800 #homebrewgames #retrogaming #retro #retrogames")
![SonSon [PSP/Arcade] - First Loop 1CC 507,020 pts (Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/mjh5dXzb-AY/mqdefault.jpg "SonSon [PSP/Arcade] - First Loop 1CC 507,020 pts (Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded)
SonSon is an arcade game created by Capcom and released in 1984. This was only Capcoms second game after Vulgus earlier that year. It was loosely inspired by the Chinese novel Journey To The West, kind of like Dragon Ball initially was. Development was led by Yoshiki Okamoto, who later went on to produce Final Fight and Street Fighter II for Capcom.
The gameplay here is a bit hard to describe. Its part hori shmup because it autoscrolls and you move horizontally, but the movement is more like a run and gun or platformer. You cannot move freely up and down like in a shmup, as you have to press up or down to switch between several different lanes on screen, where the ground enemies appear. Also, unlike most shmups, your main enemies is not so much bullets but other enemies trying to run into it, kind of like in a platformer. However, you can manipulate where enemies go like you would aimed bullets in a shmup, so shmup skills are surprisingly applicable.
The scoring system mostly comes down to collecting food such as fruits, vegetables, and even french fries from a certain fast food place that isnt mentioned. Some of these are worth more than others and the further along you go, the better the food gets in terms of points. Also, if you grab the POW symbol, youll turn all the enemies on screen into some of the higher scoring foods. This is not just a good way to score points but also a good survival item. In addition to food, you also get bonuses for taking out entire waves of enemies.
There are some odd quirks that you have to get used to in order to get far. One, your shot is limited in range. You cannot simply shoot everything from all the way across the screen, so you do need to get somewhat close to enemies in order to shoot them. Two, as I mentioned before, switching between lanes does take some getting used to as there is a bit of an animation to it. The animation is slightly longer when jumping down to a lower lane, so youre more vulnerable doing that than going up. Three, whenever you die, you return to the field of play in the middle lane on a cloud. You can stay on this cloud and keep your invulnerability frames going for several seconds, as long as you do not move in any direction. If you make the mistake of moving immediately after coming on screen, you lose your iframes, leaving you exposed to potential enemies. However, you can shoot and stay on the clouds. One more smaller quirk that this game counts levels from higher number to lower number, starting with 19 and ending with 1.
One thing youre going to want is a high rate of autofire for point blanking larger groups of enemies, the silver shields that often pop up before boss fights, and the small castle walls that have to be taken out to end the boss fights. I played this port on Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded in PPSSPP, which does have a built in rapid fire. However, this is only about 10HZ, which is a bit slow. I decided to set another fire button for 25HZ with my Brook PCB, and I mostly stuck to the higher autofire throughout this run. Occasionally, Id switch over to the slower one on a different button if I needed to shoot one or two quick shots.
As far as the difficulty goes, its no cakewalk, but the loops dont last long and boss fights are pretty easy. Between the boss fights is where most of the difficulty lies, as the screen gets filled up with more and more enemies especially later on. Things starts to ramp up somewhere around Stage 14 and beyond, though the last few stages are pretty easy because they consist of boss fights and you can time those out somewhat quickly.
Unlike some games from this time period, the second loop is not the exact same as the first loop, since the enemies move faster and there are extra patterns that are thrown your way, like birds flying in from the back. My run ended on Stage 13 of Loop 2.
If youre a shmup or run and gun that likes old school arcade games and wants something a bit unconventional, this game might be for you. Its the free game included with Capcom Arcade Stadium 2 and has been featured in quite a few compilations prior, like Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded on PSP, Capcom Classics Collection on PS2, Capcom Arcade Cabinet on 360 and PS3, and Capcom Generations 3 on PS1/Saturn.
00:00 Intro
00:23 Stages 19 to 16
02:47 Stages 15 to 12
05:35 Stages 11 to 8
08:07 Stages 7 to 4
10:55 Stages 3 to 1 (Ending)
13:12 Loop 2
#capcom #sonson #arcadegames #retrogaming #hardgames")
![Toki [Atari Lynx] - Full Game Playthrough/1CC](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/mslHJ0Io4xE/mqdefault.jpg "Toki [Atari Lynx] - Full Game Playthrough/1CC
Toki was originally an arcade game developed by Tad Corporation and released in 1989. It did get quite a few home ports, but the only handheld port was the Atari Lynx version of the game, handled in-house by Atari Corporation. In particular, this port was programmed by D. Scott Williamson, the programmer behind the excellent conversions of S.T.U.N. Runner and Roadblasters.
Toki is known for being a slower paced action platformer/run and gun. You play as a man that got turned into an ape by an evil wizard who just kidnapped your girlfriend. I like to think of it as the R-Type of side scrolling run and gun. Like R-Type, it is memorization heavy and required precise routing in various sections. You spit out bullets from your mouth and can get powerups that make your shot temporarily stronger while changing the type of projectile that you shoot out. Theres a bigger shot, a triple shot, a twisting shot, a fireball that can be charged as long as you dont shoot, and a flamethrower style shot. You can also grab the sneakers powerup to jump higher as well as a football helmet in order to make you invulnerable against anything that touches it. Both of these again are temporary like the shot pickups.
The game features six stages total. The first two stages are mostly easy, but the difficulty ramps up dramatically by the third stage. Back when I would play this on a real Lynx, I could never get past Stage 3 but with my current skills, I could figure out the routing.
The gameplay here as I said earlier is slow and could also be described as methodical for a side scroller like this. Your jump feels a bit low of the gravity, almost like youre on the moon, and theres no way to jump just a little bit so you have to be careful. You seem to hang in the air longer than you do in the arcade version in fact. Also, Tokis hitbox is quite big. Plus, there are some minor collision detection issues when trying to jump on enemies in order to kill them. Sometimes, its a bit easy to be a bit off and lose a life.
There is also a bit of Gradius Syndrome at times with the way the powerup and checkpoints work. If you die on certain boss fights like on Stage 4, you can get yourself into a bind. In particular, what happens is that once you grab a weapon pickup, it doesnt respawn even after dying once you get to the checkpoint that comes after it. This is especially problematic for Stage 4 because youll get a checkpoint right before the boss but the big shot powerup is before that. So if you grab the powerup, get to the last checkpoint of the stage, and then die on the boss fight, youll have to go into the next attempt severely underpowered.
Presentation wise, this is a strong port of the Lynx for sure. The music sounds good, albeit limited, and the graphics are quite detailed with nice sprite work for the Lynx. Sound effects are solid as well. The only knock in terms of presentation is that the frame rate is lower than the original game and makes the game even slower than it already was.
The run itself went perfect until the early parts of Stage 4 where I had a couple of deaths. After that, I didnt die again until the final boss. Autofire was used in this run but was janky to set up. Apparently, it seems like Lynx games dont like high rates of autofire at all. I had to set the autofire via my Brook PCB to either 5 or 10 HZ in order to get it working somewhat effectively. 15HZ doesnt work right. It didnt give me much of an advantage as I could have tapped manually and gotten to almost the same rate of fire if I wanted to. In fact, I do manually tap at one point when I was using the triple shot in Stage 1 and killing the spiders.
Overall, this is one of the better games on the Atari Lynx and a great port overall despite a little bit of collision detection jank. I feel like the Lynx could have used more games in this style, as the system lacked in action platformers and run and guns.
One last fun fact: this is the first run of this version of the game posted to Youtube thats not a tool-assisted playthrough.
00:00 Intro
00:18 Stage 1
03:07 Stage 2
05:02 Stage 3
09:03 Stage 4
12:40 Stage 5
16:53 Stage 6
Hardcore Gaming 101: http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/toki/
AtariAge: https://www.atariage.com/software_page.php?SoftwareLabelID=1886")
