
Retrophies: achievements system for emulators - marbartolome
http://retrophies.win/
======
endemic
Cool from a tech standpoint, but trophies/achievements are lazy game design.
Rather than motivate players with story progression, skill mastery, etc.,
they're just checklists to complete.

~~~
JoshTriplett
Sometimes they are, but for people who would self-impose an additional
challenge anyway, achievements can provide some extra fun.

I've also seen achievements used for humor and story purposes; they can
provide that bit of levity that helps ameliorate an excessively dark moment,
or turn a nasty trap into a chuckle, or provide a fourth-wall-breaking moment.

For an example of that last case, see the Portal 2 achievement "This Is The
Part Where He Kills You".

~~~
roblabla
A fun example of this is magicka, that has some of the most hilarious
achievements I've ever seen in a game, full of references. Some examples :

\-
[http://magicka.gamepedia.com/Let_off_some_steam](http://magicka.gamepedia.com/Let_off_some_steam)
(Notice the logo)

\- IMMA FIRIN' MAH LAZER!!!!: Successfully cross two beams into a more
powerful one.

\- It's over nine thousand!!!!: Deal over 9000 damage to one enemy.

Well-made, well-placed achievements certainly do have a place, even in casual
gaming.

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freshyill
Is this something new? It seems exactly like Retro Achievements, which I think
has been around for years.

[http://retroachievements.org](http://retroachievements.org)

~~~
marbartolome
Author speaking. I had no idea that thing existed =) But yes, retrophies seems
to be exactly the same idea, implemented the same way as well. Plus with a
mature community already!

Takes a bit the motivation off continuing the work on retrophies, although it
was an interesting and fun experiment nevertheless.

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chungy
I had to:
[https://github.com/rephus/retrophies/pull/1](https://github.com/rephus/retrophies/pull/1)

Funny enough, I find it a little more difficult to achieve than when playing
on the original console. A combination of the keyboard and emulation slowdown
seems to be in play.

~~~
marbartolome
Merged! ;D

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anonbanker
achievements might actually be cool, but should be done sparingly and in a
very limited fashion; When you find crazy stuff in the game, for instance (
_small_ fire mario, minus worlds), or something rather impressive (beat the
game in less than 18 minutes, beat the game without warping, etc), rather than
"ACHIEVEMENT GET" the first time you get a mushroom.

Extending this to games like the Mega Man series (Beat Quick Man Stage first,
kill Rock Monster boss without pressing start) or even Contra (Beat on three
Lives) would be great. Just remember that less is more, and 3-5 achievements
_maximum_ is where you want to be.

~~~
marbartolome
I agree with you, achievements, when well designed, should trigger for things
that are hard enough to provide, well, a sense of achievement!

However, for the mario demo, what I wanted was to showcase the achievements
feature to people who likely are not gonna play further than the first level.
This is why I abused silly achievements at the start.

~~~
anonbanker
Seeing as you have competition in this space, you'd be wise to differentiate
yourself by providing quality over quantity. if people care about the gamer
points they've earned on your system vs. the competition's easy handouts,
you've won.

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qwertyuiop924
Ummm... I hate to break it to you guys, but the lack of achievements is one of
the things a lot of people LIKE about retrogaming.

~~~
rubbingalcohol
It's borderline cruel to come into a Show HN post solely trash someone's work,
assuming that your personal lack of interest in a project somehow reflects on
whether others would find it interesting or useful. I've downvoted you due to
your tone.

Personally I think this project is awesome. I often hunt for achievements in
games after I finish playing them, as they can often add a new dimension to an
otherwise completed game.

Also the name is super cute.

~~~
qwertyuiop924
you're actually right. I'm sorry. Plus, the tech is actually really cool.

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Hydraulix989
How does it work? Is it just checking for patterns in the emulated memory?
More details?

~~~
Mahn
Not just patterns, full disassemblies of the game exists[1], so I imagine the
locations in RAM where each particular piece of info is stored are known and
can be tracked easily.

[1]:
[https://gist.github.com/1wErt3r/4048722](https://gist.github.com/1wErt3r/4048722)

