Re-Playing Flashback

[Tanegashima]

Man oh man did I forget how fun this game is! Just finished up the Death Tower and took a break (playing all the way through and earning passwords...not into the ''skip ahead'' philosophy.

This game is absolutely amazing, I love it! Death Tower, so far, is my favorite stage (I honestly have not played the game from start to finish in about 9 years) and I'm really enjoying it and re-living memories. It's so crazy what you remember considering I bought the game in 1993.

Y'all know how I know I bought it in 1993? Crazy enough, I took the manual out (to see how to do the fancy ledge leaps) and I found my original sales receipt!! Imagine that!

I got the game from Kay-Bee toys on 07/26/1993! Ha...funny what you can find when you look...ahaha.


Interesting little tid bit there...

[old man]

This was one of my favorite games back in the day. I never did beat it. When I played the craptacular PS1 sequel, I almost cried.

[MrMatthews]

When I got back into Sega games last year, this was the first game I replayed, since I never was able to beat it originally.

It's definitely one of my favorites.

[johnnyb]

I have been trying to find this game as it looks like a bloody good one!:D

[j_factor]

How much did you pay for it?

[Tanegashima]

How much did you pay for it?

49.99 +8.25% sales tax for a total of 54.11; purchased at the Long Beach Plaza which no longer exists :(

[Elusive]

49.99 +8.25% sales tax

Eh? Are you expected to work out the 8.25% in your head and then add that onto the price tag? Madness!

I found a GAME receipt inside my copy of The Story of Thor, as well as the little fold-out sheet that's promoting the 32X ('Makes pixels virtually disappear'...). Behold!

(still unbelievable they left the full card details up on the receipt back then)

[j_factor]

Eh? Are you expected to work out the 8.25% in your head and then add that onto the price tag? Madness!

The receipt says the amount of tax on it.

[edojapan76]

I love this game Even have 3 copys of it & the SegaCD version & the SNES version. God I need a life!

[jerry coeurl]

I got this complete for 3 dollars a couple months ago. Haven't put any time into it yet though.

[Devil N]

Flashback was near the top of my wanted list when I restarted my Megadrive collection. It's a wonderfully tense and atmospheric game and has a really well told story. I mean, cutscenes! In a 16-bit game!

I must admit I never actually finished the game though. The battles in some of the later levels can get nasty if you haven't mastered use of the force field yet. But I will complete the game someday.

Speaking of which, who here has played Flashback's underrated sequel, Fade to Black? I have the game for the Playstation, and unlike its predecessor I did finish that game once. It too has a really good story and plenty of gory death scenes as a bonus. It hasn't really aged well, unfortunately...

[sketch]

I need to re-collect this as well. It's definitely one of the top 20 Genesis games and has not only (what was for the time) unique and fluid graphics, but great level design. It's like a thinking mans' action game. Must track this down soon now, as this thread really makes me want to play it.

Edit: Okay, I'm a loser. I just checked my collection and I have already re-acquired Flashback. I have a dim recollection of finding it cheaply some time last year. Guess I'll be booting this up tonight;)

[MN12BIRD]

I love that game but I've never played it on the Genesis only the SNES. I want to pick up the Genesis version sometime.

[Scooter]

This game remains my all-time favorite Genesis game. It was one of the few I paid full price for back in the day. Usually I bought games on sale or after they had been out for a while and were discounted or I bought some used. This one got a 6-7 page write up in Sega Visions and I was sold! Bought it the day it was released, I sure didn't do that very often. And it was worth every penny. I've probably played through the game completely about two dozen times. I have both the cart and CD versions, I actually like the cart version better. The cutscenes are still the same albeit with lower resolution graphics, but the music is much more moody and fits the game better in the cart version.

I also bought Fade To Black as soon as it was released. While the controls are a little clunky and the graphics were a little chunky, I still really enjoyed the game.

If you like Flashback, don't miss Out of This World and Heart of the Alien which were both made by the same studio.

[Tanegashima]

Alright, I'm on the Morphs planet...time to kick some alien ass...

[edojapan76]

Now I want to play Heart Of The Alien

[stalepie]

If you like Flashback, don't miss Out of This World and Heart of the Alien which were both made by the same studio.

No, OotW and Heart were made by Eric Chahi (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUxunNnFLAA) and a guy that did the music, which in the Amiga version was just an ending track I believe.

He said he wasn't happy with Heart of the Alien.

[j_factor]

Eric Chahi worked at the same studio that made Flashback, although he wasn't involved in the latter.

[edojapan76]

Didn't Tommy Talarico do the music for OoTW on the Genny?

[Dark Sol]

Flashback on genny is just pure awesomeness. I love it so much i even snagged a sealed copy!

[Alianger]

Is there anything unique about the MD port?

[TmEE]

it has lower color count cinematics compared to PC and SNES version, but way faster than SNES ones.

[j_factor]

Is there anything unique about the MD port?

I've played every version except PC and Jaguar, and I honestly think the Genesis/MD version is the best. I didn't care for the new style of cutscenes that the CD versions had. I don't like the SNES version's audio, and the cutscenes are choppy looking. The Jaguar version might be better.

[Alianger]

Agreed on the MCD scenes looking worse, the original sprite art is so much more stylish and clean looking, and the animation is pretty good for the time. They're not quite as good as Another World though.
The PC version is the one I played first. It came in one of those huge cardboard boxes that had art of all the main character animation frames on the back just to show off :)

I do have the MD version now since a few months back, just need to find the time to play through it.

[Elusive]

I have the demo version of Flashback for the Mega-CD - the only way the Mega-CD port reached PAL shores! - but it's faulty.

How is it different from the Mega Drive cartridge?

[j_factor]

The cutscenes were re-done. Now they use 3D models, with a similar look to early Playstation/Saturn FMVs. I guess it was uncommon and impressive at the time, but they're a bit stiff, and generic looking compared to the original cutscenes, which I love the look of. They also added in some voice acting, and it sounds like they took random passers-by off the street in London, rather than professional voice actors. The in-game audio is upgraded but it doesn't really make much of a difference in this case.

Between the two I'd rather play the cartridge version, but not by a huge margin. By direct comparison, it's not exactly bad, but it's a disappointment considering the CD is supposed to make it better, and they did try with the cutscenes, they just failed.

[stalepie]

I like the original cut scenes too. The original game, which I think of as being a Sega Genesis original instead of for PC ;), was quite an experience. I liked the futuristic city levels (2, 4) the best. Getting jobs was cool and the subway was neat. It took a long time to get used to the controls, but that experience helped in playing Tomb Raider a few years later.