Time Gal & Ninja Hayate (PS1) - dip menus & gameplay
4Compilation of me fumbling my way through two separate attempts (1:17 and 3:34) at "Time Gal," and one double attempt (6:59 and 10:21) at "Ninja Hayate"--these are Japanese PS1 ports of what were interactive laser-disc arcade games with hand-drawn animation, where you press a joystick direction or the action button at specific intervals during the animated scenes to supposedly direct the on-screen character and save them from an immediate violent demise during their extremely hazardous adventure--basically, anime versions of Space Ace and Dragon's Lair.
I had to cut two dinosaur-heavy Time Gal scenes originally starting at 2:17 in the video due to an automated copyright claim reported by YouTube.
The games came together as a double-pack, with Time Gal as "DISC 1" and Ninja Hayate as "DISC 2." Both have an English-language "DIP MENU" where you can adjust various settings, some slightly different between the two games (Time Gal's is at 0:38; Ninja Hayate's is 5:59 and 10:01 -- I had to go back to adjust the visual prompts setting, 'cause blinking areas on the backgrounds just weren't enough for me to understand!) as to how they play, for instance whether the scenes play in some sort of random order, and what type of prompt, if any, is shown when an input is required. Even on the easiest setting and with the most obvious prompts, though, the input window for many of the scenes feels very, very brief--or possibly I'm just getting old and my never razor-sharp reactions are now just plain super-bad. : P It does seem to allow you to mash at least some of the inputs leading up to the prompt, though--as long as you don't input an incorrect one, which would mean instant death--so memorization would in theory get you through things eventually; I was hoping the inputs required would match up more intuitively with the on-screen action, but the 4 (Time Gal) or 8 (Ninja Hayate) direction inputs are so basic that they were never going to be all that obvious from the complex animation, I suppose.
Time Gal is beautifully animated! The art quality in Ninja Hayate seems just as high, but the animation can be much more repetitive, as you'll see in the pit scene of the first play attempt.
But I have to face facts finally and admit to myself that I just can't play these types of game, no matter how lovely they are--in fact that probably makes it tougher for me, since I just want to watch the beautiful artwork, but you can't really do that because then you won't be ready to read and react instantly to the command prompt.
Recording: PS2 component 240p to OSSC 4x 960p to Framemeister bordered 1080p to Elgato HD60