5. (60 FPS Genesis) The Forge - Gargoyles
Please pick the 720p60 or 1080p60 resolutions to play back in 60 frames per second. (Internet Explorer, surprisingly, appears to be the best browser for playback.)
Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7IEN-HGlR44kgf9A9YvVZDsxmrPpnbZ6
The horrible sound glitch from last level's boss follows us into the intro! It does dissipate, no worries.
This level is mean. There's lots of traps and fall through platforms and other stuffs. There's one point where you ride on a tethered floating platform and it may *look* easy, but one hit and you fall ALL THE WAY DOWN THROUGH THE PLATFORM and have to redo the section. I had plenty of practice in a playthrough before, and with a little luck got through on my first attempt, here.
There's also another section with a molten metal pot that you have to stay clamped on while moving through narrow corridors. I make it look easy, but.. .IT ISNT. The timing is ridiculously wonky when moving from a side to the bottom and it is completely unintuitive and looks wonky and bad. If I remember correctly... you have to do it later than it makes sense to do it. Even once you know how to do it you're still fighting your instincts 'cause it feels so wrong.
Apart from that it's a fun level! Yup.
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Hey, there! This is a series that'll be featuring the Sega Genesis at 60 frames per second! Why? Well... have you ever watched an older game on YouTube and noticed the main character turn invisible when hit, or some other such nonsense? That's because some older games use some ridiculously high speed flicker effects to achieve those crazy hitflashes on bosses or that "ouch I'm hurt!" flicker! These are not displayed properly at 30 fps, but now that we're able to upload at 60 fps we can see all the special effects that older games would use! (They'll be smoother, too!)
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Based off'a the hit TV show, it's Gargoyles on the Sega Genesis! It's a bit of a wonky platformer of sorts that looks really pretty, but very dark! If only Gargoyle had space in that loincloth for a flashlight... I say wonky because this game has plenty of "moments" where you feel that it's gypping you somehow. And it is. Be it that you are taking too much damage for some random situation, or that the platforming/claw grasping physics don't work just as you feel they should... the game could be just a tad tighter. I may be making it sound bad, but it really isn't. It's just that the moments when these things happen really stick to you, like, the molten-magma vat ride in the final level that requires totally unintuitive movement to hold on. Or the bosses that are a MILLION hits and require you to learn cheap tactics to win. *shudder*
Anyway, this game does good at looking pretty and allows for a fun time as the super brawny Goliath. You don't do any gliding in this just a flap to allow some lift, so, you gotta rely on those claws to ascend and rend! Oh, one other neat feature is that when you lose a life you start pretty much exactly where you died. Not many Genesis/SNES games do that! A precursor to the modern death system?
Item Descriptions:
Hammer - Has the Gargoyles theme play and allows you to OHKO anyone during the period
Shield - Makes your health bar flash allowing invincibility
Gold chalices/goblets - Health
Tiny little Goliath Totem - 1-UP
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Some additional notes for those technically inclined:
This was captured from an original Sega Genesis system via composite output along with stereo sound to get as authentic a recording as possible. The Genesis used is one of the "good" models with proper sound and video output. Genesis can also output an RGB signal which is clearer, but I vetoed the idea because it breaks the dithering effect (color blending and transparencies) as seen here:
http://retro-sanctuary.com/comparisons%20-%20differing.html
Also, the vast majority of people could not use the RGB signal even if they wanted to, so the experience they remember would be the composite signal as shown in this video.
There are a couple things to note about the quality of the video, however. Sega Genesis has a very dirty video signal that often "breaks" attempts to capture it with a capture device. The capture device I use is considered one of the most capable when it comes to older systems, but the Genesis' video signal still introduces some inconsistencies. These usually manifest where there are extremely thin lines in game, mostly the text, and in some other places as well. As a whole, it is more than manageable, but it is worth noting.
Also, the original sega genesis resolution is, in essence, 240p at 60 frames per second. To take advantage of YouTube's higher bitrate offerings and to enable 60 fps I need to upscale that resolution to 1080p. There is also a step of video deinterlacing before that to create crisp video. That is a significant amount of video processing to the image, so I want to note that here as well.