Agozer

You haven't said a word about what version of nullDC you're using.

Sounds like your conversion failed or your bootdisc failed, and nullDC doesn't like it and rebels. Try the disc image in Demul and see what happens.

I already listed the games that stand out the most on the system. :/ Well, those are just my picks, so others mileage may vary.

The entire "console" was a poorly conceived add-on, that was Sega's ticket to mainly riding on the god-awful FMV wave of the mid-90's and pushing the CD-ROM format. The 32x wasn't much better even with the backing of Virtua Racing and Virtua Fighter (because at the time that was the closest you could get to the arcade versions at home), although the plus side was that 32x cut back on the FMV shovelware.

The Sega CD doesn't have any good games. Seriously. Ok ok, you might want to try: Night Trap (just for the strangeness factor) Robo Aleste Snatcher Sonic CD Terminator No, not even Virtua Racing and Virtua Fighter have the same kind of 'wow' factor that they did back in the day.

Please do not revive threads that have been dead for five years. There usually a good reason for a topic starter not coming back to one of their threads asking why anyone hasn't given a decent answer.

Girlfriend?? I WISH

I would have a lot longer gaming sprees if it weren't for the need to share this apartment (and the best TV) with another, a very anti-video game personality.

I wish I could find an original copy somewhere for relatively cheap.

Yeah, fixed.

An ncrypted romset contains individual ROMs with their copy protection data intact. Durin loading the emulator (be that MAME or any other emulator that supports encrypted sets) decrypts the information and thus allows the game to load properly. A CHD file is often the same as say, a disc image of a game (i.e. it contains an exact replica of data found on a CD-ROM or a HDD depending on what medium the arcade system used) and used to stream additional data to the game that was too big to fit on regular ROM chips. I haven't lokked into Street Fighter Alpha 3 or any other CPS-2 game as of late, but I suspect that you might either Mix CHDs with XORs or Street Fighter Alpha 3 with Street Fighter III (which does require a CHD).

Title: Bayonetta Platform: PlayStation 3 (PAL) Developer: PlatinumGames Publisher: SEGA Release Date: January 8, 2010 Misc: Online Leaderboards, Trophies, No HDD install option, Video: 720p/1080i/1080p (uses highest available) Originally released for the X360, the PlayStation 3 port of Bayonetta was handled by SEGA. There has been a lot of talk about problems with the port, mainly framerate issues and very long loading times, as well as the texture work not being as sharp as in the original X360 version. So let's see how this EU PS3 version stacks up against expectations. "500 Years In a Box Does Nothing to My Complexion" aka The Story Being part of an ancient sect called the Umbran Witches must be cool: Call upon the powers of the moon and the dark, as well as demons from the depths of Hell to do your bidding. Adding to the allure is the fact that these powers manifest through the witch's hair, to the point where even her clothes are made of hair. However, things are not going too well with our Umbran Witch heroine Bayonetta, who was sealed in a coffin and dumped at the bottom of a lake, after being treated as an outcast and then apparently falling prey to the witch hunts that ravaged across Europe. Fast-forward 500 years and Bayonetta was freed, having no memory whatsoever of her past. Wasting no time in trying to unlock the mysteries surrounding her past her past, she teams up with a demonic arms dealer Rodin and a sleazy, cowardly, trash-talking informant named Enzo. One day, Enzo found info about something called "The Eyes of the World" which the angels apparently want very much, and are willing to go to war in order to get it. "Demons Have Some Serious Attitude" aka The Characters Bayonetta: The titular heroine, with a huge bag of tricks at her disposal. Her penchance for lollipops is weirdly endearing. Rodin: A demon who took a human form. Works as an amsdearler/bartender/record collector in his bar at The Gates of Hell. Has a way with vocabulary and mannerisms that perfectly match Bayonetta's. Enzo: a Human working for Bayonetta as an informant and researcher of sorts. A fat, sleazy and cowardly man. Jeanne: Another Umbran Witch that Bayonetta meets early in the game. Her skills are easily on par with Bayonetta's and two seem to have a long, sordid history together. Luka: A womanizer and a journalist who witnessed Bayonetta's awakening all those years ago. Due to the trauma of the event, he's become obsessed with Bayonetta and tries to track her down, despite witches and humans living in different planes of existence. "TNA + Funky Hair = Did I Just Witness Something Great?" aka The Graphics From a comparison standpoint between the screenshots from the X360 and the real-time graphics on the PS3, the PS3 has less detailed textures. However, the graphics are still superb nonetheless. Whatever loss in quality the PS3 graphics have suffered, the game moves in such a fast pace that you often don't have the time to start gawking at the finer details. When you do stop to look at your surroundings, it's great a great view for sure. Chapels, gardens, cities and other locations feel and look the part, complemented by some nifty lighting and particle effects, not to mention gore - and lots of it. Character models are wonderfully crafted, from the humanoids to the often grotesque and downright bizarre angelic creatures. Also, whatever screen-tearing/framerate issues the original japanese release had, they seem to be mostly gone now, although there are a few places where I thought I spotted some tearing or a dip in the framerate. "Umbran Witch's Breakdance of Bullets" aka The Gameplay Where to even begin? The Devil May Cry series is know to have a fluid, highly customizable and fast paced combat system with swordplay and gunplay integrated nearly seamlessly together with lots of different ways to experiment way to lay down the punishment. Bayonetta runs with all of this, and kicks it up to 200. Bayonetta's main selling point have been the quadruple-weilded pistols, two for each heel, two for each hand, and the use of Witch Time, Bayonetta's answer to Bullet Time. The basic fighting repertoire consists of punches and kicks (or whatever additional weapons you might have) that can be combined in a mindboggling number of ways. Each combo can be "extended" to include gunplay in the end. Then there's the "Wicked Weave" in Which bayonetta's hair forms a giant fist or a foot bursting out of a portal, and they act as combo finishers. However, because of the way the combat system is designed, Wicked Weaves are more like powerful combo linkers. The combat system in general is so flexible that it allows very long combo strings, provided that the player is fast enough. Any weapons you get can be assigned as either 'Set A' or 'Set B' and you can freely switch between the two at any time, similar to the system found in DMC3. Witch Time is activated when you dodge an enemy's attack at the last possible moment. The world slows down for roughly five seconds, making Bayonetta faster and leaving enemies completely defenseless. Witch Time is an integral part of the game as it makes Bayonetta invulnerable during her dodge, and certain enemies can only be defeated during Witch Time. Then there are the much-hyped Torture Moves that can be pulled off when Bayonetta has enough Witch Magic in store. These moves are basically instant kills where Bayonetta summons various torture devices from the Underworld, such as an iron maiden and a guillotine, and let's a poor angel receive punishment unlike nothing else. Highly entertaining to watch (require some button mashing to reap additional benefits) and required to finish off certain enemies. "Gravity? What Gravity? - And More Lollipops Please" aka The Gameplay Part 2 Bayonetta's sense of style is completely off the wall, and the game loves to showcase improbably physics, spectacular action and Bayonetta's "assets" every chance it gets. The game's fully aware of its naughty antics and often plays around with the design concept, so the game's 18 / M rating is deserved. Quick Time Events are also prominent in the game, and they are very well integrated, be it during battle or during cutscenes. Chapters are broken into Verses or fights, which are graded after completion. At the end of a chapter, each Verse is tallied and final ranking revealed. Many stages contain several verses, many which are sometimes well hidden. Some of these hidden Verses are portals leading to special, often very difficult fights, with very stringent rules. Outside of combat, you need to get more weapons and items. As an arms dealer and a record collector, Rodin is more than happy to take the Angelic LP's you find in exchange for new weapons at his shop. Aside from weapons, Rodin also sells items, techniques, accessories and a number of other things - for a certain number of Angel Halos of course. Rodin isn't cheap either, you'll find that many weapons and techniques are can be very expensive, ranging from 15,000 to 100,000 easily to start. The developers also give the player a choice to compound items using materials found in pots, vases and the like. A great option so that you don't have to worry about whether you have enough Halos to buy more lollipops to suck on. "Stuck In Your Head" aka The Sound effects, Music, and Voice Acting The soundtrack is fantastic, featuring many upbeat battle tunes, be it akin to J-Pop or not. Bayonetta's own theme is ridiculously catchy and plays during regular battles. Sound effects are also on par with the rest of the presentation, with a special mention going to the bone-crunching effects of the various torture devices. Voice acting is also great. How did they manage to find a voice actress for Bayonetta that fits the character so well? It's wonderful to hear Bayonetta talk, and all the other characters certainly don't get overshadowed - voice acting in the game is really that good. Another aspect that surely plays into the Mature rating is the raunchiness of the dialogue. Strong language such as motherfuckers, fucks and shits can be heard during cutscenes, but in some weird twist these profanities fit well into the game's dialogue and they aren't overused. Well, it's not like the game would be worse without them and Bayonetta doesn't seem use them at all. "Twitching Fingers" aka Difficulty, Controls, Camera At first Bayonetta gives you two cohices for difficulty: Easy, which automates many battle-specific aspects, and Normal. The game starts easy enough and boasts a very comprehensive tutorial for every imaginable technique. After the first chapter, the game does get noticeably harder, though. each new encounter is harder than the next, and mastering Witch Time and dodging becomes essential - stages are surprisingly long, and you'll face lots of enemies simultaneously with unexpected boss/mid-boss fights. With penalties for damage, items used and continues it can be quite an effort in perfection if you want the best rankings. The game's first "true" boss fight in Chapter IV drives the point home that bosses require some really twitchy fingers and even better understanding of their attacks. Multiple health bars certainly don't do any favors in lessening the beatdown. In the controls side of things, they are as tight as they can be in a game like this. Each button is in use with multiple uses for each button depending on the situation. Of course, the Taunt button is also there, which can be used to pose, taunt and thus enrage enemies for a bit of gained magic power. The camera is once again somewhat problematic in a game of this genre. You won't have time to adjust the camera in the heat of battle, so it's inevitable that some enemies will attack you from off-screen, making any audible cues crucial. The Lock-on feature helps in some situations, but it's not an all-purpose remedy. "Game of the Last Year?" aka The Conclusion The PS3 Bayonetta has nothing to be ashamed of. Period. The game is so well designed all around, that whatever gripes anyone might have had based on prior info will be playing second fiddle to the sensory overload and gaming joy that Bayonetta offers. The game's funny, downright naughty, technically competent despite some hitches in the port, and completely off the wall with it's presentation. The music is great, the action and art direction is something you have to see for your own eyes. Having its roots in the same pit as DMC, Bayonetta borrows a number of features from DMC while polishing them to a whole new shine. Bayonetta has an incredibly deep battle system with countless way to string up moves, and after a while you'll become fixed at getting the best rankings, grinding chapters just because the game is so much fun. Even if the difficulty eventually shows it's darker side to the player, you'll blame yourself and not the game. For the final touches, a few words about the loading times in the game. I can't really compare with anything since I've never seen the japanese release in action, but the loading times can be fairly long. It's not really a problem for me personally, as there is a practice mode you can occupy yourself with and try out different moves while data loads. PlatinumGames' (or SEGA's) decision to completely omit an option for HDD installation strikes me as a bit strange though, as such an option would undoubtedly help with the loading times. Make your own call on this one. For whatever graphics or other technical problems remain in the game I'm that future patches alleviate them. Had Bayonetta come out in the West in 2009, it would have been the best game of the year. No such luck now, but man what a way to start 2010. Pros: +Great audiovisual presentation +Story is surprisingly good and makes Bayonetta a very likable protagonist. +Action is over the top and non-stop +Gameplay is deep, involving and very satisfying +Angelic enemies are a sight to behold, bosses especially +Dialogue is often funny, even in the more darker parts +Soundtrack is catchy +Excellent characters and voice acting Cons: -Loading times are still pretty long -Some slowdown and tearing issues still remain. -No HDD installation option -Hard to put down when you get into it -Soundtrack is maybe too catchy at times -Can get difficult fast if you're not paying attention -Camera isn't the best possible. Again. Story (so far): 9 Graphics: 9.5 Sound/Music: 10 Controls: 10 Difficulty: 9 Feel: 10 Total 9.6

No Neo-Geo game requires a CHD to run. The Neo-Geo isn't that complex of a system despite featuring some form of copy protecting in games released in 1999 or onwards. The reason the romsets you have now do not work is because MAME requires the encrypted romsets for these games. As for the CHDs themselves, you can't create one unless you have the original arcade board, its peripherals and proper equipment to dump the needed disc image as a CHD file. If MAME tells you that a game needs an additional CHD file, then you need to hunt one down. Granted, most games do not need a CHD because the arcade hardware for those games didn't rely on any HDD or CD-ROM drives for additional data. Not so with newer, more complex hardware and games. If you want to know what MAME games use CHDs, check this link: http://maws.mameworld.info/maws/srch.php?chd=yes

Well, let me put it this way... if a game makes you laugh out loud and pick your jaw off the floor after the first five minutes, you're going to have a hell of a good time playing. The game 1 Ups itself constantly, too. It's really no surprise what made Famitsu give the game 40/40. Well, the developers are the same who worked on DMC, so I was expecting over the top presentation - just not at this scale. The game's also fairly hard, at least on Normal (and if you're trying to get the best rankings, which requires no items usage among other things), and you're often fighting many enemies at once and there's lots of unexpected boss/mid-boss fights. The combat system is really deep while not being too hard to understand. Go play it, or at least play the demo first.

Bayonetta. The loading times are still pretty long, but so far I haven't seen any horrendous framerate issues or anything like that. It's nice that after a certain point, the game let's you practice combos while waiting for stuff to load. Yes, the game is absolutely balls awesome. Dante and Nero met their match, and now all the gamers have a new hottie to gawk at.

The disc image might not be selfboot, which is an issue right off the bat, since no emulator boots non-selfboot image without a bootdisc. Have you tried Demul?

Pick any Mass Effect (2) trailer on YouTube.

Yes, you did. That's only like, just a small fraction of the awesome packed into the game.

Word of gaming god said that Sega has fixed the loading times and the framerate issues for the EU version at least. I'll get my copy tomorrow night, so we'll see. The demo alone is made of so much awesome and win that I'd get Bayonetta loading times and framerate issues notwithstanding. The soundtrack is great, too.

If Mass Effect 2 eventually gets ported to the PS3 as speculation goes, I'm so getting it.

Both Ninja Gaiden Sigmas are great, thought the second game is arguably better because of more streamlined combat system and additional chapters for Rachel, Ayane and Momiji. Plus, a kickass Mission Mode that can be played offline or online. Sigma 2 is also easier than the first thanks to the Easy (Acolyte) difficulty setting and regenerating health to a certain point, although bosses can still be a handful (not to mention that the first chapter alone throws three bosses at you before it's over, with two encounters back to back) The first game is much harder (no Easy difficulty level), and both games are the kind that you really have to learn how to play. My personal best buys, still.

Yeah, I remember the reading the same thing. What I can't remember is where I read it.

and then some. I'm on the fence about whether I should get this, based on how nail-bitingly hard the game seems to be.

Yes, I do. From what I understand, BeautifulPeople.com is a business, and not just someone's hobby website, and based on how the site's marketed, it's a place only for the truly beautiful, whatever that entails. If 5000 members are now considered ugly, it's just business sense to revoke their membership.

I like the PlayStation Network - it's nice when you can input those special codes to get a specific amount of spending money and buy whatever you want (after buy one of those PSN cards from a regular store first). No need to fiddle with credit card stuff.