Quick Look: Super Stardust Ultra

WOO! This looks awesome!

I mean, obviously.

I wish 1080p60 was a video option :(

(at a bandwidth & storage-sensible bitrate and used for games that actually are 1080p60 so they get to shine and look different from their predecessors running on ten year old consoles)

(and this game is one of unfortunately many 1080p60 titles including PS3 titles that absolutely murder bitrates)

Man, Housemarque games just wreck GBs compressor settings so bad every time.

I love them for it, too.

This game totally does have 3D support, at 60fps no less.

I prefer Super Stardust Turbo.

The Amiga had Super Stardust which was pretty much like this, only without the 3D rotation-stuff I guess.

Saw Stardust, thought he had gloriously returned to the site.

I have Stardust and Super Stardust for the PC, maybe that'll be easier to run than the Amiga version?

For people wondering: It was an asteroids clone with prerendered graphics, looked pretty nice for the time.

I really liked HD, so I might be down for this.

I thought they had finally made a fighting game of the hot -07 banger with Rober De Niro as a sky pirate

Is there something up with the video? I have it set to HD but the video sure doesn't look HD.

Learning that Housemarque also made original Stardust was pretty cool.

You probably already know about all these games, but if you ever fire up that Amiga for a stream, do check out Moonstone. That game had some nefarious jump-scares, but was still rad!

IK+ is cool too... Not many modern 3 player fighting games that are fighting games.

While Halloween is way off, I keep thinking about how cool it would be to see some sort of blind run of one of the Elvira games.

That's at least the ones I can think off that aren't just lesser versions of arcade games.

Super Hexagon > Geometry Wars > Super Stardust

What a bummer, came to hear about the game not complaining about anything but.

Looks good, wish it had a PC version.

IIRC the big hype for Amiga Stardust was the between-level bonus tunnel sequences, which were technically pretty special for the time. The game itself was a competent Blasteroids clone with shiny raytraced graphics. I had no idea Bloodhouse were Housemarque these days, though.

While I have a soft spot for the Amiga, Jeff's right that those games mostly haven't aged too gracefully. LemonAmiga's Top 100 is a decent place to find those that have, though most ended up on the PC sooner or later (or started there).

Damn, never knew Housemarque was that old and actually behind original Stardust. That's pretty damn cool. Resogun and Super Stardust would be lovely over at Steam.

Boost.

Does anyone have sauce on Brad's out-of-context audiophile tumblr?

Please, please, please have Dan play Moonstone on the Amiga if you ever do a stream!! He´d love it!

I wish every QL involved a discussion about Neil Young's history with drugs.

@development: Other way for me

I like Super Stardust better than Geometry Wars. There, I said it.

@jasoncourt: I'm sorry.

@sanprofe: The tumblr Brad mentioned is this one, and it's AWFUL!

http://wathifi.tumblr.com/

The products are clearly being mocked, but I implore you to follow some of links just to see how expensive some of these bullshit cables are. All of these products are useless and are in no way more superior than their $10 alternatives. Hell, a metal close hanger and soldering iron can give you the same effect.

Who's excited for MALL COP 2??

"Fuck gold." should be the tagline for the review of this game from Jeff lol.

Is it done in Kermit's voice?

@beef_melody said:

That's a nice looking list oozing with nostalgia. Though it naturally has some omissions that I personally remember fondly along those listed, such as: Project-X, James Pond 2: Robocod, SWIV, (original) Alien Breed, Rainbow Islands and Rampart.

Haven't tried my hand at most of the games within nearly twenty years, but surely there would be some enjoyment to be had playing them (or watching them being played) even if only for a quick burst. With TAC-2 joysticks and a mouse that has the stiffest clicking buttons imaginable.

I'm with Jeff,

FUCK GOLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That conversation went off the rails at record speed.

Fun fact. I spent more time playing this at PSX than anything else. Enjoying the full version quite a bit. I had never played Super Stardust before.

I'm a former jeweler. And yeah... fuck gold.

Amiga, YEAH!

Moonstone was the shit! Also- LOTUS was great, and Cannon Fodder.

Oo man at 17:37. The ship poo's are back!

Where are the Cosmic Keys??

What's the obsession with Geometry Wars? It's as if it's the only twin-stick shooter they've ever played and it shows. Super Stardust far surpasses anything Geometry Wars has put out and fans of dual stick shooters know this for a very long time now. It's also hilarious that there apparently is just place for a single dual stick shooter in your life after hearing Brad. Ridicilous.

Shout out for better Knobs! WOO!

or maybe they just like geometry wars better

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@darkbeatdk: Wow.. Moonstone was great! Kinda wanna play it again now. Maybe it's time to check out some of that emulator stuff.

Moonstone is probably my favorite Amiga game and just one of my favorites in general. Awesome that there's someone else who remembers it! :D

Stunt Car Racer was a pretty cool and unique racing game.

Lemmings is a classic, though most people probably remember the ports. So is Syndicate. And I think that's the main problem with the Amiga. Most of the real classics were ported or came out on a dozen other systems. Though the Amiga version was often the best one as far as sound and graphics go.

I mean, there's stuff like Pirates!, Cannon Fodder, Speedball 2, Gobliiins and a bunch of other point'n'click adventure games, Dune II, UFO: Enemy Unknown, North & South, etc.

@brad You should definitely get this instead of playing more Geometry Wars 3, if you did not play much of Super Stardust HD on PS3.

As someone that put a lot of time into SSHD, it's definitely up there as one of the best modern dual stick shooters if you put the time into it. GW3 was not a good game. (especially when compared against previous entries in the series)

That said, this really does look like the exact same game again.

I really hate this trend of re-releasing games on consoles these days. Considering that on a PC you can still run all your old games from 20+ years ago at 1080p and beyond, being resold games which are less than ten and often less than five years old is insane to me. I don't know how anyone accepts it.

@jeff Considering that you sit close to your TV, I'm surprised that you're not looking forward to 4K. It starts to bring TV resolution close to the pixel density of a standard PC monitor. (still nowhere close to a "retina" class display)

Even if your source content is not 4K native, at least it doesn't look like you're watching through a screen door any more. And of course PC gaming can benefit from it if you have a fast enough system.

∙

As for all the audio stuff: gold is for corrosion resistance, not improving signal quality.

Pono is just selling FLACs, not some special audio format. They are trying to sell you "high resolution" files though, which is totally unnecessary for people with human ears.

There are some reasonable arguments that could be made for delivering 24-bit files (say 24/48) rather than CD-quality 16/44, but there's nothing wrong with CD audio. It's only once you start applying lossy compression (AAC/MP3/OGG) to it that things start to sound bad.

Oh and those isolation racks make some amount of sense if you have a high-end turntable. But "audiophiles" will try to tell you that it also matters for digital components as well.

This is an awesome game. I'll never understand why Brad or Jeff only have room for one dual-stick shooter in their gaming hearts and can't enjoy another ever again.

If Brad actually wants a sequel to Super Stardust HD, it's right there on his Vita in Super Stardust Delta. It has new mechanics, planets, modes, and all that and it's a fantastic game for that device.

Thanks for the link. Some great stuff in here to share with some "friends."

I don't know if its just the quality of the capture or what, but this seems to look a good deal worse than the PS3 versions.

Like, it legit looks like a mobile game blown up to fit on a tv.

If it's not Geometry Wars, Giant Bomb doesn't give a shit about your dual-stick shooter.

Geometry wars 3 is great. I thought I wouldn't like the new changes but it is the best version.

This just reminds me that Geometry Wars 3 almost made my top 10 list last year. That game was so good!

The original Stardust on Amiga

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c35y_rBOrDY