I remembered I had a mostly finished blog post about the series. So I put a little bit more time in to finish it and it’s now published:
For me it’s THE golf game series. Great physics, great control, stylish graphics, minimal TV- inspired presentation, glorious blue skies, and sweet FM synth music.
Any other fans of this series?
It’s on at least: MSX, FM7, PC60, PC98, X68K, FMT, MD, SNES, 3DO, SAT, PS1, N64, PS2 & DS!
I’ve never played any of these, but I feel like I’ve seen them all over the place. Given one can emulate most games for, say, MD, SNES, PS1, Saturn, N64, DS, is there one game in the series you’d recommend as a good starting point?
As mentioned in the blog post, my faves are the Mega Drive games. They’re just so stylish. I prefer the look of the Japanese releases (dithered graphics) but the USA releases have a more forgiving power meter.
BUT, if you choose MD, play them with the emulator CPU overclocked (I choose 400%) in emulator settings for a more modern and pleasant experience. Pico Drive core does a great job.
Other than that the final two games on SFC are great (no English release, tho). They’re a little slow, but graphically equivalent to the first games on 3DO and Saturn.
And the DSiware edition of Touch Golf is truly excellent.
i made a gif from devil’s course on the mega drive, where i took a screenshot for each direction you could aim, then put them together to see what the game would look like at a higher framerate (it’s on neocities because it’s too big to upload to the forum):
I think I mentioned to you on social media about playing with overclocked emulator for faster, more modern play. See my previous comment in this thread, just above yours.
you indeed did share that with me on social media! @gingerbeardman.com on Bluesky
i haven’t messed around with overclocking yet, but if i ever get retroarch set up again, i’ll have to give it a go.