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Retro Achievements!

IrishNinja

Member
djKieBD.png

RetroAcehievements - pretty much exactly what it sounds like; you download custom emulators there & login to track your achievments! Game List is here; in addition to the glorious Genesis, SNES, NES, GB/GBA & Turbo are seeing support as well!

Gonna try out Strider tomorrow, much love to Neo-Geo forums for showing me this.

sorry if this dampens your project any, stumps!

Come play with your fellow Gaffers!

IrishNinja
Noisepurge
ShinobiFist
Coxy
Godofnerdiness
 

IrishNinja

Member
okay guys we can totally talk about how nintendo is gonna put all their future games on boring phones and everything sucks and all that

OR

we can play some of their best games, WITH METASCORES
 

Robin64

Member
This is neat. What are the mechanics of this? Does the emulator just look for certain memory addresses being triggered?
 

IrishNinja

Member
Achievements are stupid.

no u

This is neat. What are the mechanics of this? Does the emulator just look for certain memory addresses being triggered?

i'm assuming something like that? i didn't get a chance to mess with it last night, was totally gonna post back tonight after spending some time with it to see how it works & how the emus play as well.
 

mclem

Member
I assume the mechanics of NES Remix are an initial attempt at applying the same philosophy to VC games.
 
But what does Metacritic have to do with any of this?

Metacritic is not the only definition of a meta score. It would really mean any score beyond the first most obvious one. Achievements in general are a form of meta scoring, being separate from the game itself while still being linked to your in-game actions.
 

Seraphis Cain

bad gameplay lol
Metacritic is not the only definition of a meta score. It would really mean any score beyond the first most obvious one. Achievements in general are a form of meta scoring, being separate from the game itself while still being linked to your in-game actions.

Huh, interesting. Never really thought about that before.

Lesson learned!
 
As interesting as this sounds, it definitely sounds like piracy - especially since a lot of retro games are commercially available via services like Virtual Console. I can't see Nintendo being cool with this.
 

Knurek

Member
As interesting as this sounds, it definitely sounds like piracy - especially since a lot of retro games are commercially available via services like Virtual Console. I can't see Nintendo being cool with this.

Providing an emulator isn't piracy. Don't see any ROM download links on site. Should be safe.

Wish they'd use some recent emulators, though, Gens is pretty bad when it comes to emulating Genesis. :(
 

BGBW

Maturity, bitches.
Super Mario Bros

Nothing like get multiple 1ups from bouncing on a shell. No find all the warp zones. No enter world minus 1. It just falls foul of the usual beat the game normally to unlock most of the achievements problem that people complain about.

Not even a get killed by the first Goomba achievement called "We've all done it".

Super Mario World is even worse. Beat the bosses doesn't need to be an achievement. You do that normally when playing the game. Achievements should be extra challenges.

I despair...
 

Khaz

Member
As interesting as this sounds, it definitely sounds like piracy - especially since a lot of retro games are commercially available via services like Virtual Console. I can't see Nintendo being cool with this.

I guess in the FAQ they'll say you're supposed to dump your own roms, which would make it legal
depending on the country
.

* Achievement unlocked: post in the thread twice *
 

Mask

Member
Neat idea. Could use with support for letting people submit achievement ideas for games that don't have them though. The list of games is pretty short at the moment.

Aw man, I browsed through the Genesis list, and no Splatterhouse 2! I could definitely 100% any achievements for that game.
 

Hasney

Member
This is awesome and give me an incentive to play some more classic games to see if I can get the harder ones.

I guess in the FAQ they'll say you're supposed to dump your own roms, which would make it legal
depending on the country
.

* Achievement unlocked: post in the thread twice *

Yup. If I wanted to be pedantic, I could even dump the Virtual Console games I have bought and extract the ROM to use.
 

Glass Joe

Member
I assume the mechanics of NES Remix are an initial attempt at applying the same philosophy to VC games.

A pretty bold assumption considering Nintendo's the one console manufacturer without any type of achievement system. Would be nice though, even if it ends up being some stamp thing... Maybe unlocking a few special ones per game for use through all Miiverse?

Anyway this does look interesting so I'll check into it closer later. One thing I've noticed right off the bat is the total point value for each game varies, and I don't really like that inconsistency. Unless maybe they max at 400 and not every game offered has a full list yet?
 

mclem

Member
A pretty bold assumption considering Nintendo's the one console manufacturer without any type of achievement system. Would be nice though, even if it ends up being some stamp thing... Maybe unlocking a few special ones per game for use through all Miiverse?

Well, it might only take the form of NES Remix-alikes, of course - rather than building it into an achievement system, build the achievements themselves into a standalone game. It worked for me!
 

Celine

Member
Fortunately I grow up in an era where achievements weren't needed and you could set up your peculiar conditions by yourself just for fun.
 

yatesl

Member
I've been talking about something like this since I first got the 360 on launch, but lack any programming knowledge.

Just give me super Metroid achievements, Nintendo
 

IrishNinja

Member

they're clearly adding games & tweaking stuff, given that this is a free effort i'd chill & see how it pans out before getting crazy

This x100000000.
"Retro" and "achievements" together in one single sentence are such a blasphemy.

right, because the simple option to play old games a new way is terrible
could the "GOD I HATE ACHIEVEMENTS" crowd please keep it moving

So did I but I still want to try and do some of those Shining Force 2 ones

fuckin thank you, i need to finish part 2 one day anyway
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
I'm really glad someone finally did this in a more holistic way. They're doing it a very smart way, by actually using a custom emulator implementation. I did my project by using lua scripting functions already built into emulators. They've got more flexibility for sure. I hope they choose good achievement sents and that the in-game UI is well implemented and interesting. From a quick poke around they appear to have done a great job.
 

Khaz

Member
they're clearly adding games & tweaking stuff, given that this is a free effort i'd chill & see how it pans out before getting crazy



right, because the simple option to play old games a new way is terrible
could the "GOD I HATE ACHIEVEMENTS" crowd please keep it moving



fuckin thank you, i need to finish part 2 one day anyway

The thing is, you're not playing a new way, you're playing it the old way with popups and a meaningless metascore.

Look at the screen you posted, you gain achievements by obtaining the Laser, powering it up once, and maxing it. Thats fucking playing the game how it was meant to be played!
 

IrishNinja

Member
The thing is, you're not playing a new way, you're playing it the old way with popups and a meaningless metascore.

Look at the screen you posted, you gain achievements by obtaining the Laser, powering it up once, and maxing it. Thats fucking playing the game how it was meant to be played!

uh-huh
i havne't gone through all the games yet, i imagine some will have challenges - others, i might simply try to push past a particularly tedious level or difficult boss that i had not before, as that's kinda what metagaming does if you get into it.

again, if you find it "meaningless" that's fine but then this very niche application is clearly not for you.
 

IrishNinja

Member
Although I hate emulators, this looks cool.

But there are already achievements for classic games in PSN/XBox Live. Every game from the Sega Vintage Collection has trophies/achievements:

true, but it's usually only the popular (and non-licensed) stuff that gets this treatment, sadly. even though they were largely done by backbone, i dug em! fuck if ill ever finish Comix Zone, and honestly, i'dve had all the chaos emeralds in Sonic 2 but i always forget to turn off AI tails and he fucks shit up for us both towards the last one, hard. like, even savestates couldn't save me, ugh
 

test_account

XP-39C²
Achievements are stupid.

Make it high-scores, then we can talk.
This x100000000.
"Retro" and "achievements" together in one single sentence are such a blasphemy.
High Scores and Achievements serves basically the same purpose though. They are both things that serves the purpose of having something to work towards in a game, besides enjoying the gameplay itself. You dont have to work towards getting a higher score, and you dont have to work towards getting the achievements, both things are completely optional, yet people like or dislike them for various reasons. I dont see what there is to dislike though, concidering that both things can be ignored completely without affecting the gameplay at all.
 

Khaz

Member
If you need achievements to entice to you carry on with the game, maybe the game itself isn't for you.

I'm all for achievements for extra challenges, like "don't use the bomb the whole level" or "finish the game without losing a life" or "kill the boss using only the weakest weapon". These are funs and encouraging to be overall better at the game, bringing replayability. However most achievements are NOT like these: they are just rewarding you for playing the game how it was meant to be played and give no additioonal value at all. Most achiements are just "play the game up to this point".
 

Piccoro

Member
true, but it's usually only the popular (and non-licensed) stuff that gets this treatment, sadly. even though they were largely done by backbone, i dug em! fuck if ill ever finish Comix Zone, and honestly, i'dve had all the chaos emeralds in Sonic 2 but i always forget to turn off AI tails and he fucks shit up for us both towards the last one, hard. like, even savestates couldn't save me, ugh

I never really understood the Backbone GAF hate. I enjoyed their ports since the PS2 days. And Gunstar Heroes PSN is awesome.

True about the licensed stuff, the achievements in your link for Michael Jackson's Moonwalker are cool! :)
 

BGBW

Maturity, bitches.
they're clearly adding games & tweaking stuff, given that this is a free effort i'd chill & see how it pans out before getting crazy

Maybe, but it would have been better if they only posted achievements that are extra challenges even if it meant a game only had one or two achievements rather than padding the list with task you have to complete in order to beat the game.
 

IrishNinja

Member
If you need achievements to entice to you carry on with the game, maybe the game itself isn't for you.

alternatively: maybe my own quirks & incentives for gameplay aren't yours to decide.

look, i take your point about handicaps/interesting goals, and i hope to see this develop into that too; again it's clearly early on for this project and it seems like more effort is going into supporting more systems/titles than said achievements, but with the system in place i don't think that'd be as difficult to work with over time.

as it stands, yeah many seem to be just for getting through the game - just like regular achievements/trophies. and that's something i kinda dig, i personally like looking at friends' lists and see if they completed a game or not, or how far before the lost interest/gave up. it's an option i didn't have before gamercards & always thought was neat. we've well established that you don't.

Maybe, but it would have been better if they only posted achievements that are extra challenges even if it meant a game only had one or two achievements rather than padding the list with task you have to complete in order to beat the game.

again, just like the widely-popular 360/PS3 achievements have done for a while now? i don't see why not to start with the same. it's not like their existence somehow negates the logically more weighted ones for beating the game on hard.
 

Glass Joe

Member
If you need achievements to entice to you carry on with the game, maybe the game itself isn't for you.

I'm all for achievements for extra challenges, like "don't use the bomb the whole level" or "finish the game without losing a life" or "kill the boss using only the weakest weapon". These are funs and encouraging to be overall better at the game, bringing replayability. However most achievements are NOT like these: they are just rewarding you for playing the game how it was meant to be played and give no additioonal value at all. Most achiements are just "play the game up to this point".

Looking at how they're being implemented so far, most of them are the "Beat Level 1, Beat Level 2..." etc kind of stuff. In a way that's still nice though. Not to entice me to carry on with the game, but to have a chronicle of how far I'd gotten in each game for personal remembrance.
 

Kai Dracon

Writing a dinosaur space opera symphony
Looking at how they're being implemented so far, most of them are the "Beat Level 1, Beat Level 2..." etc kind of stuff. In a way that's still nice though. Not to entice me to carry on with the game, but to have a chronicle of how far I'd gotten in each game for personal remembrance.

This is what a whole lot of people use achievements for and there's nothing wrong with that. Plus, look at it this way: people love to check Steam or Miiverse to see if someone has really played a game. Achievement systems let you see if someone has actually done anything significant in a game, or they played it for five minutes then ran off to talk shit about it.

So much of the disdain for cheevos is based on people who actually do act stupid about it and say there's no point to playing a game without cheevos because then it is boring. But people will be stupid with -any- invention. We may as well say the internet should go away because 12 year olds can scream on Xbox Live.
 
This is awesome. Best way to keep track of my games. And love what the site is doing as well, props. Time to play Shadowrun again :)
 

Khaz

Member
again, just like the widely-popular 360/PS3 achievements have done for a while now? i don't see why not to start with the same. it's not like their existence somehow negates the logically more weighted ones for beating the game on hard.

They kind of do. The metascore entice people to go for the easy "play the game normally" achievements, and it doesn't encourage the people making the achievements to come up with bright new gameplay ideas. Your point would hold up if there wasn't a metascore and it was just competition within a game.

You can't say 360/PS3 achievements are "wildly popular" given they are activated by default and can't be turned off (or can't be easily turned off, I haven't looked into that). So most players do have achievements, but it doesn't mean anything about their popularity.
 
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