Retro gaming

[exdeath]

Pics of setups If you have them!

Any hard core retro gamers here? I mean serious RGB elitists?

Im eagerly awaiting delivery of a Sony PVM-20M4U that I found from original owner with 100 hours on it along with a SNES SCART RGB cable and BNC adapter.

Can't wait to put arcade monitors to shame !

 

[Tristicus]

Sorry, I prefer my games with 1080p and the ability to save.

 

[JD50]

I almost made a post about this the other day. I've gotten back into The Secret of Mana on the wii virtual console. I'm about to go out and buy an snes and nes, I already have a small crt that I'm gonna hook up and use. I might buy an original playstation to play some of the RPGs that I missed out on, that was back when I was in high school and more into partying and drinking than video games.

I dunno, there's just something about those old games, simple controls but the games still had so much depth.

 

[Soundmanred]

I used to be a huge collector of game consoles. I had most of the US systems and a few Japanese systems (NEC, etc).
I sold most of it off over the last 5-6 years, but still have a few bits and pieces left over (like my Secret Of Mana cart I've had since I bought it new!). I mostly emulate these days if I do any "old school" gaming. Most of the games I've played to death and since being an avid collector I've lost the nostalgia of it.

 

[zerocool84]

Sorry, I prefer my games with 1080p and the ability to save.

Sucks for you that you miss out on tons of awesome games.

I just do emulators or PSN/Wii Virtual Console.

 

[JD50]

I've tried emulators and it just doesn't work for me.

 

[-Slacker-]

I've tried emulators and it just doesn't work for me.

Why? There's no disadvantage in using one, provided that you have a working game pad.

 

[Tristicus]

Sucks for you that you miss out on tons of awesome games.

I just do emulators or PSN/Wii Virtual Console.

Wrong.
Times change, as should games and technology. I played older games, and now I move on to newer ones. Two lines on a screen with one pixel bouncing back and forth might be heaven to you, but I prefer carjacking in HD.

 

[exdeath]

Sorry, I prefer my games with 1080p and the ability to save.

I prefer my 1080p games on a 106" 1080p screen over HDMI yes.

Not so much with pre 480p analog RGB game systems like Genesis, NES, SNES, PS1, etc. Even with the best scalers and processors, they look like absolute shit on a digital fixed pixel HD display.

 

[exdeath]

Why? There's no disadvantage in using one, provided that you have a working game pad.

Emulators are slow and jerky for starters.

And as far as SNES goes there is NO emulator whatsoever to this day that can emulate the SNES SPC700 sound chip properly or do it any justice. Example: the wind sound at the Square Logo on Secret of Mana startup is all fucked up on every emulator.

I even notice this on PS1 games played on PS2.

Take FF7 for example running on a PS2. The title screen text is very jerky as it scrolls. Smooth as butter on a original PS1. Try getting over 4000+ pts or whatever it is on Gold Saucer on the roller coaster ride on a PS2... controls feel laggy and not 1:1 and the frame rate is too jerky. When I went for my perfect save file run, I had to dig out my PS1 for that part. Soooo sooooo much better.

I thought it might be the scaler in my AE4000 projector upconverting to 1080p over component even though I turned off frame creation, put it on game mode pass through with no processing, etc. No change. Tried it on a CRT via composite just to see, sure enough same problem. When I hooked up the PS1, it was 3x smoother.

Xenogears as well, all sorts of glitches on the PS2. And this is official hardware emulation even.

It's not even close to the same. Emulation = meh.

 

[Sulaco]

Wrong.
Times change, as should games and technology. I played older games, and now I move on to newer ones. Two lines on a screen with one pixel bouncing back and forth might be heaven to you, but I prefer carjacking in HD.

Just out of curiosity, how old are you?

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I've got an Atari 2600 in the garage that I want to hook up to my plasma in the man cave (bought the connector) but I can't seem to find any cartridges around the house! Grrrr.

 

[fatpat268]

I don't really have any of my old consoles hooked up. All my old stuff (NES, SNES, GB, GBA, Genesis) and games are all boxed up. I do emulate though, and I only emulate the games I already have. And, from time to time, I'll buy some more old games if something catches my eye at a thrift store, flea market, or ebay.

But, emulation is by no means perfect; however, it's good enough for me.

 

[dfuze]

I've got an Atari 2600 in the garage that I want to hook up to my plasma in the man cave (bought the connector) but I can't seem to find any cartridges around the house! Grrrr.

I'm the opposite, got plenty of cartridges to play with but my 2600 doesn't work

 

[HeXen]

Sucks so many emulators are never updated and pretty old. I wish more were like mame in form and function, maybe one emu to do them all.
A few work great, like Gens. The worst has to be the Saturn emulators.

I got several on my Hacked PSP, it runs emus very well. I like playing on it better due to quick portability

I've got an Atari 2600 in the garage that I want to hook up to my plasma in the man cave (bought the connector) but I can't seem to find any cartridges around the house! Grrrr.

I was playing the atari flashback 2 last night, many of those 2600 games are just flat out awful. I just like the joystick. I want one with more buttons for my emus

 

[techwanabe]

Occasionally I retro game with my Commodore 64. Thats about as close as I come to retro console gaming. Yes, for all practical purposes it is a console. It has a cartridge slot in the back but all of my "cartridge games" were converted to 5 1/4-inch floppy and I have a pretty wide selection of "coin op" games ported to the C64 including Pac Man, Ms Pacman, Donkey Kong, Dig Dug, Galaxian, Galaga, Pole Position, Defender, Robotron, etc. Also some other cool games including: Jump Man, Gold Runner, Seven City's of Gold, Drelbs, Stellar 7, Raid on Bungling Bay, M.U.L.E., Zaxxon, Blue Max, Moon Patrol, and a few other titles I can't remember. A few of the games won't work but most still do!

If some people are like me, they have a hard time retro gaming games which they didn't play originally back in the day. For example, people say Zelda: Ocarina of Time is amazing, but since I first played Wind Waker, OoT looks clunky and dated and as much as I've tried, I can't get into it. It is probably like that for people who got spoiled with newer games first, and can't go backwards. But I find myself drawn now and then to old fond games of the past, and enjoy them still, despite their primitive graphics, as long as the game play is fun.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Occasionally I retro game with my Commodore 64.

I have my C128 and a 1571 on my desk, under my monitor shelf. I built a custom cable and it is connected to the plasma in my man cave.

I also refurbished my Amiga and have it on my desk (see sig) but I haven't spent as much time playing it as I would have liked.

 

[fatpat268]

Occasionally I retro game with my Commodore 64. Thats about as close as I come to retro console gaming. Yes, for all practical purposes it is a console. It has a cartridge slot in the back but all of my "cartridge games" were converted to 5 1/4-inch floppy and I have a pretty wide selection of "coin op" games ported to the C64 including Pac Man, Ms Pacman, Donkey Kong, Dig Dug, Galaxian, Galaga, Pole Position, Defender, Robotron, etc. Also some other cool games including: Jump Man, Gold Runner, Seven City's of Gold, Drelbs, Stellar 7, Raid on Bungling Bay, M.U.L.E., Zaxxon, Blue Max, Moon Patrol, and a few other titles I can't remember. A few of the games won't work but most still do!

If some people are like me, they have a hard time retro gaming games which they didn't play originally back in the day. For example, people say Zelda: Ocarina of Time is amazing, but since I first played Wind Waker, OoT looks clunky and dated and as much as I've tried, I can't get into it. It is probably like that for people who got spoiled with newer games first, and can't go backwards. But I find myself drawn now and then to old fond games of the past, and enjoy them still, despite their primitive graphics, as long as the game play is fun.

*ahem*

look at this:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=32028001&postcount=4

download here:
http://www.emutalk.net/threads/49340-Djipi-FINAL-CELL-MOD-2009-for-Zelda-OOT

 

[Anarchist420]

I prefer my 1080p games on a 106" 1080p screen over HDMI yes.

Not so much with pre 480p analog RGB game systems like Genesis, NES, SNES, PS1, etc. Even with the best scalers and processors, they look like absolute shit on a digital fixed pixel HD display.

Maxim's HQ filters look pretty good as long as the original aspect ratio is selected and in some cases I like to add scanlines. Kega Fusion is pretty accurate (definitely not 100%, but at least 90% overall) as far as I can tell.

IMO, the worst are the DCemul and nullDC suck because they don't support AA and don't support proper depth format. I'm not a programmer, but it has taken the makers of both way too long to emulate the DC properly. They should probably just emulate the graphics completely with shaders (not use the ROPs or the TMUs), and get it done with, although doing 32 bit fixed point blending and 32 bit fixed point textures can't be done accurately because neither nvidia's nor ATi's shaders do FX32 precision. If the current hardware supported FX32, then it would be a piece of cake to do it all in shaders--texturing and blending in FX32, and the depth testing in FP32.

 

[techwanabe]

*ahem*

look at this:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=32028001&postcount=4

download here:
http://www.emutalk.net/threads/49340-Djipi-FINAL-CELL-MOD-2009-for-Zelda-OOT

If I get inspired to try OOT again, I'll look for that. As it was, it wasn't just the graphics but the contols too that were different and put me off. Right now I think I'm inspired to retro a PC game from 2000, Icewind Dale. Dang, I'm missing disc two from the set!

 

[exdeath]

. It is probably like that for people who got spoiled with newer games first, and can't go backwards. But I find myself drawn now and then to old fond games of the past, and enjoy them still, despite their primitive graphics, as long as the game play is fun.

I find it's opposite with me. I was spoiled by the golden age of gaming during the 16 bit era, and now I'm tired of being franchised and nickel and dimed to death by EA and Activision for shitty games based on the 150th iteration of a reboxed Call of Duty, Madden, and Rock Band with 3 more textures.

Have to go back to when games were games that took 2+ years to make and not "how can we make something with no effort every month that can take ADHD people on another $59.99 ride for an hour or less?"

The consoles may be 100000x more powerful now, but the games were 1000x better from the NES through PS1 era. Now days there is no innovation, just rehashes, sequels, and downloadable content, and it's all available exactly the same across every platform. I mean COME ON, today's state of the art in gaming is that we are now SELLING CLOTHES AND ACCESSORIES FOR ONLINE AVATARS FFS! Console market has started looking more like the cell phone market; cheap shitty short simple "punch the monkey" games and ring tones that you pay monthly fees for. And today's ADHD "can't watch a movie or complete a game if it takes more than 45 mins or is more complex than Punch the Monkey" crowd is all over it.

I have about two dozen XBox 360 games that are unique that I really enjoy, but they they don't hold a candle to the 16 bit "must haves" and aren't going to leave me any unforgettable memories like my SNES and Genesis did.

I have about 20 games for SNES that I've never played before that have had homebrew English patches in the last couple years. Tales of Phantasia, Seiken Densetsu 3, etc. Some of the last games of the SNES era that were just starting to really do things nobody thought a SNES could do (Tales has a full vocal track intro and I swear you forget it's a SNES and not a PS1 or Saturn 2D game). And of course I'm going to replay binge all the classics in their newfound RGB glory, as well as the fact that my save files will be going forever to SD and not BBSRAM with dead batteries.

RGB monitor cannot get here soon enough. I'm mostly nervous I'll get the monitor in a couple days, and then be stuck staring at it waiting for SCART cables and RGB+sync breakout box... I hope UK mail is fast getting through customs.

 

[KaOTiK]

I have a bunch of old systems that I play quite a bit.
List of older stuff I have and I do play them all:

Master System
Genesis/CD/32x
Saturn
Dreamcast

NES
SNES
N64

3DO
Jaguar
PS1
Atari (can't remember which one atm)


The SNES/N64/DC/Genesis get the most use though out of those.

I end up playing them more then my Xbox/GC/Wii/PS2/PS3 normally, though I do most my gaming in general on the PC

 

[HeXen]

3DO?
they had games worth playing again?

 

[techwanabe]

I find it's opposite with me. I was spoiled by the golden age of gaming during the 16 bit era, and now I'm tired of being franchised and nickel and dimed to death by EA and Activision for shitty games based on the 150th iteration of a reboxed Call of Duty, Madden, and Rock Band with 3 more textures.

I only mentioned one game that I couldn't go backwards in the series because I started later on. In fact I have played very little of the latter day PS3 or Xbox360 games. I started in the late 70's in college with an Atari 2600 (mentioned earlier) playing games like Demon Attack, Missle Command etc, and many early/old school games. In addition to that and the Commodore 64 and Atari 512. Perhaps you didn't read past the first line in my last message, but I found game play was good despite the old style graphics, and that still draws me back to retro. I do think there are those if they never played the old game, might be put off by the lack of slick graphics and miss out on some good stuff. As a matter of fact, I'm planning on playing some 11-12 year old computer games that are 2D graphics but awesome on game play and story line from the Icewind Dale and Baulders Gate series, just gotta find a missing disc or find a cheap copy somewhere.

 

[exdeath]

System Shock 2 for PC gaming. Probably best PC game ever IMO. I don't know of any other PC game that I've replayed dozens of times or revisited every so many years. Most I just play once, rush to the finish, and forget about.