/vr/ - Retro Games

Mega Man X allows for some fun experimentation with its pw system

>>10569632
>Who cares about batteries
you clearly don't want to understamd

Even in cases where a password is useful, a game could still have both saving and a password so you can choose either. Like Ys on TurboGrafx CD.

Like nothing pissed me off more than when any GameBoy or GameBoy Color game used a password system to track progress.
The absolute fucking worse being the Golden Sun games that actually generated a unique like, 256 character password for you to manually input in the sequel to continue your save, it was so fucking stupid when gamelink cables existed. It also meant you could just skip playing both Oracle of Zelda games and skip straight to the extra Linked Game content if you had access to two Gameboys. I don't think Golden Sun allowed for that and needed you to input the entire fucking password manually, and the password was six fucking pages to go through what the fuck is the point at that point

>>10569652
Actually fifty characters across six pages equals a 300 character password, not 256

>>10569652
What the fuck, my guy? This is such a retarded take. The game DOES LET YOU transfer via cable; the password is just for kids who DON'T have access to a second $120 handheld or a link cable, and even then it gives you three tiers of manual transference to choose from.

Guess who used it? Me. Guess who was real damn thankful it was there as an option. ME. It's literally just an accessibility option for poorfags.

>>10569652
Got you real quick at writing though
Or mad as hell

>>10569757
>>10569767
>sperging out because the average anon didn't own two GBAs at launch
Holy fucking shit

>>10569774
>write a novel getting mad at [THING]
>"[THING] isn't true, retard"
>UM WOW IMAGINE BEING SO MAD LOL
Go drown yourself in a bathtub.

>>10569795
>I have a 100 word essay due next week!!
I can't even assume you're ESL and literally struggle through reading basic English anymore, I know you're a North American zoomer by your inability to hold attention to anything past five seconds.

>>10569632
If the game has a save system then by it's nature it is a linear experience. Play a level, save, move on and pick up where you were last time. If it has passwords then you can choose to revisit and play any level you want any time. Depending on the type of game that can be a huge plus in my eyes.

>>10569632
Password systems are kino. You wouldn't get it

>>10569632
I know saves are way more convenient, but there was something to passwords that felt special... it feels similar to the difference between physical and digital media, the latter being way more of a convenience, but the former had that feel to it, a special feeling of putting the cartridge in, to me it was the same for passwords, especially if they were short and sweet, progress was satisfying...

I especially loved it the password screen had its own OST and/or artwork, it made if feel so nice to input, when they weren't long, it's something saves can't replicate, despite still being superior.

One title that stuck out to me was Spider-Man on Game Boy Color, it's nothing special, though the OST in the password screen, alongside the art... it has this dark atmosphere that pulled me in a lot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRceigsypc0

When you're not playing that cartridge copy of the game. I'm sure for some kids with a PS1 but with no memory card passwords were a God send.

>>10569632
Passwords were good to have back in the day when renting was the norm. Plus it was nice just being able to see every part of a game whenever you felt like it or get creative and force bizarre game states like having Chill Penguin beaten without the boots in Mega Man X.

>>10570079
Wait, some password systems were just straight up hex-editors for some games and not locked into per-determined combinations to perform specific tasks/go to specific levels?

I've never played a game console that used memory cards/internal storage that didn't also have plenty of room for me to keep save states at key segments of video games I wanted to re-experience

>>10570079
>Passwords were good to have back in the day when renting was the norm.
That's actually understandable. I wonder if they made it with this in mind. Video tapes renting was at least a popular phenomenon.

Putting save game support in the cartridge was expensive, whatever the implementation was, be it battery, SRAM chip, etc.
Publishers would often forgo saves in favour of saving money per cartridge manufactured.

When the N64 introduced memory paks, some publishers like Konami chose to offload the cost onto the consumer.

Publisher cost cutting affected more than just save game support too. They would often only pay for a certain ROM size, so developers would be forced to cut content if they were unable to optimise it to fit within size limits.

Point is that the developers were usually keen to do more but their publisher wouldn't finance it.

>>10569980
>>10570028
Yeah but why not a level select in this case?
pic related. I like the game but one can't help but think a password when other games got saves is ridiculous kek.

>>10570138
In the case of megaman, yes. The passwords were the save data bits scrambled around.
http://www.mmhp.net/Passwords/PassCrackX2.html

>>10569632
Passwords are cool if its literally the difference between continuing a game at a later point or not, like if Jurassic Park had passwords on snes, its pretty universally agreed on it would have been a good addition. Likewise, systems like ps1 that required buying a memory card. Was nice as a kid to get rayman and still play it fine without needing another 20 something dollars spent just to save progress.

It allows for cheat codes.

>>10569632
Password systems are generally pretty shit. Unless you can do really cool shit like weird progression stuff that shouldn't normally be possible if you break it, then, eh? It's just a pain to enter and most are bigger than 3-5 characters to enter
However, battery saving did go into the cost. So if the game was short enough, it's fiiiine? Aladdin Snes for example has a short password system. Claymates instead goes with findable secret messages that gives you world warps. That's pretty cool. Most others goes with level select cheat
>>10569637
This is one of the cool games that allows it
>>10569774
>>10569757
You could just use a friend's GBA

It's not preferable, but it made cartridges cheaper.

>>10569637

I used to love randomly mashing buttons in MMX until I get a valid password, which doesn't take as long as you'd think. Unfortunately Capcom killed in 2/3 by adding a delay

>>10571068
>You could just use a friend's GBA
holy retard. why would you go to all the trouble to ask for your pal's GBA to link it just to avoid typing a password one time?
>y-you uhh show your friendship?
more like,
>hey bro gibbe gba to link zelda
>use password retard
I'd fucking exclude you from the friend circle right there. You'll be ALONE for the rest of your life due to being that fucking stupid.

>>10570878
Spider-Man 2: The Sinister Six really was a superb title, better than the original too, at least in the controls and level variety, I still replay it from time to time. I agree, a level select is more convenient than this password system to replay levels, I admit saves are better at essentially everything, I'm just biased and like the feel of all the passwords I used to love, like I mentioned in (>>10570028).

>>10571102
You certainly have friends.

>>10569652
That much text means it's probably just the save data in ASCII or some other text encoding. Makes me wonder if you can reverse engineer the save data password scheme.

>>10571102
Because that's a massive amount of characters and you're very likely to fuck it up like I did, so I gave up the transfer and just asked my friend that I knew that a gba and a link cable. Problem solved
Or maybe I didn't even try and I'm just recalling the issue with the Oracle games, which I was playing during the GBA time which I could also have done it with my friend's help

It's weird that games ALL THE WAY UP TO THE N64 still had an annoying password system with long passwords that were like 16 characters.

Doom 64 had such a password system

That shit is so annoying.

>>10569632
>I can't think
Truer words have never been tapped

>>10570079
>like having Chill Penguin beaten without the boots in Mega Man X.
Which doesn't do anything to make the game more interesting and is literally the only quirky thing you can do with that game's passwords.

>>10569632
>I can't think of a single example where a password system is preferable over a save file.
save files require the platform to have some form of persistent storage
not every platform has that

>>10569632
Transferring savefiles between carts is impossible. Transferring between memory cards is impractical. Passwords can be distributed easily and are eternal.

>>10572480
>Transferring savefiles between carts is impossible.
For zoomers, maybe.

>>10572483
Show me how to transfer a savefile between two different Genesis or SNES carts. Pre-1995 technology only.

>>10572480
>Transferring savefiles between carts is impossible.
No it's not.
>Transferring between memory cards is impractical.
I would love for you to explain what's so impractical about it.
This is sounding like you're grossly tech illiterate.

>>10572484
What game before 1995 would you need to transfer the save state from? And you obviously know about the transfer cart for the Gameboy made for Pokemon if you're specifying 95.

>>10572491
Stop dodging the question, pedo.

>>10572494
>angerly projects when even mildly challenged
Yikes, kiddo.

>>10572494
Same to you. What's impractical about transferring saves between memory cards? It couldn't be any more convenient and simple.

>>10572480
>>10572484
>>10572494
On top of that, what fucking games used memory cards for save files before 1995? The 1995 goal post shift makes no sense with your original bitching, unless we accept you're an idiot who doesn't know what he's talking about and his now flailing.

>>10572504
The logistics, you're eight years old and want to give someone a savefile, it's gonna be a pain in the ass isn't it?

>>10572508
>The 1995 goal post shift
>Fucking retard doesn't know what a goalpost shift is.
It's a ban on post-cartridge technology so you don't say "Ummmm achkssusaallhy there's this 2009 hardware..."

>>10572525
You're retarded.

>>10572531
ANSWER THE QUESTION

>>10572531
Stop dodging the question, faggot.

>WHYS THE PASSWORD SO LONG
because you're impatient
>THIS SHIT IS ILLEGIBLE
take better notes
>I KEEP FUCKING IT UP
read above again

>>10572534
>>10572537
The only question asked was whether memory cards made giving savefiles to someone a pain in the ass or not, which is so fucking stupid it doesn't deserve answering. Especially when you didn't answer your question yet. Asking, "isn't using a memory card a pain in the ass?" didn't answer anything. This is like cam footage of when niggers desperately try to yell every accusation possible to avoid accountability during an arrest.

>>10572480
>Transferring between memory cards is impractical.
Eh.. not the simplest thing, but even as a kid I managed.
>Transferring savefiles between carts is impossible.
It isn't... but I agree that it's a pain, back then especially, so passwords were good in this regard.

Save files were one of the greatest things about renting SNES games back in the day. Meanwhile, Genesis games with codes were ruined for me as I would just go online (family got internet in 1996) and skip to whatever part of the game I wanted to play. By the time Sonic The Hedgehog 3 came around I was just used to skipping entire games and playing the last level.