Retro games and emulation - Discuss retro shit in case you're stuck in the past or a hipster

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It's an easy rabbit hole to fall down. I keep coming across it because I've been trying to backup a massive collection of VHS tapes. If you don't want to spend a fortune, your only options are boomer proof but give questionable results (eg. turning 50fps video into 25fps) or they require a bunch of autism and tweaking only to not work.

斯尼 德之王 said:
This sektor of autism never stays out of petty drama, from Voultar and Bob from RetroRGB screeching in their Xitter page, to the maker of the XBOX HD+ (a og xbox hdmi mod) buying website domains to spite people that criticized his shitty 300 dollar mod.
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I remember MetalJesusRocks complaining that the GameCube HDMI mod was fragile because he bought one, and then during a house party people bouncing on the sofa knocked the GameCube and broke it. Maybe it was fragile, but I'm guessing if you're kitbashing electronics for niche enthusiasts, you don't build it to be jumped on by drunk nerds. (I don't remember the exact story, but it was something like that.)
 
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Takayuki Yagami said:
So, I have a slightly weird thing. I’m using an Anbernic 35xx with garlicOS to play all the usual shit you do, and for some reason in Aria of Sorrow the game is not keeping my saves. I haven’t played anything else in the gba library and I’m wondering anyone knows why it would be doing this and how to fix it. The dual pack version for some reason is keeping a save right after the first boss but it nothing else sticks.
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I had the same problem with Ecclesia(I think? it was a castlevania), the solution was to patch/resave the rom.
 
Just found out this dumb controller is worth a lot of money now for some reason. I have one I got as a joke twenty years ago for like five dollars that's been sitting in a drawer. It's insane what some of this garbage is worth.

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Dr. Geronimo said:
My Life in Gaming made a video on the RetroTINK 4K:

I watched it and said "huh. Maybe I should get one for my Wii." Went to the store page annnnd:
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Is shit like this actually that in demand? Why in god's name would I spend a gaming PC budget (That I can just emulate these games) for a damn upscaler?
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this shit reads like a snake-oil scam, its like the same dumb goofy m-cables many of retrotubers tried shilling for
 
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Retro Game Corps did his list of favorite custom made video game handhelds of this year, and to be honest, this list was almost accurate from beginning to end.

He even put the full list in the description box below for those interested:

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Even though the year will end in the next week and a half, I could probably buy one of these on a budget. Though, I’m probably going to save up to get a Valve Steam Deck next year, so all in all this is a good video from him.
 
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Anyone who has a Steam Deck has probably already used it but there is now a version of EmuDeck for Windows. Its basically an all-in-one emulator installer and configuration tool that integrates into Steam. It pre configures your emulators, gives you a single interface for set-up, scrapes artwork and all that good stuff. Retro Game Corps put out a video recently showing the setup
I've not got around to messing with it yet but will try setting it up on my PC when I get some time, already use it on Deck and this looks like a much more convenient way to play retro games as opposed to manually managing a dozen emulators.
 
The emudeck is a bit of a shitshow.
the installer keeps bloating your library with entries for each games for each system, and all it does is a glorified "sudo pacman" command. both PCSX2 and Duckstation have bigpicture mode and can get covers, and retroarch runs decently. Maybe it can be useful for mame or yuzu, but then again you're better installing both separately. And good luck getting rid of it. I guess to each their own, but it's pretty useless imo.

It reminds me of LaunchBox and other similar programs which I never understood the appeal of.
 
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I'm finding I'm kind of stuck in a sort of preemptive buyers remorse over an emulation handheld. And have been for the last couple years, and thus despite the fact I've meant to pick one up for a couple years now, I never have.

The problem is, they keep getting better at such a pace. I remember only a very few years ago when emulation handhelds were a mix of cobbled-together junk out of raspberry pi zeros and Chinese junk that was little better than the cheap single-system SOCs you would find in mall kiosks to plug into your TV. Now I'm finding myself watching reviews of sub-$100 units and finding myself judging them critically because they "only" play "some" Gamecube and PS2 games, and having to pick which features that would have seemed ridiculous 5 years ago I can live without... Do I get the one that can only do bluetooth and wifi, but has no HDMI out, or do I get the one that does have HDMI out but it's joysticks aren't Hall Effect joysticks?

And I know whatever I buy, in 6 months something will be out that's meaningfully better for no more money.

All I really want is something to play SNES and arcade games. I don't need to play Gamecube games. But... Damnit... I want to be able to? I don't know.

It's sort of like reverse FOMO. Instead of being psychologically compelled to jump in feet first without thinking, I'm being pushed away.
 
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MembersSchoolPizza said:
I'm finding I'm kind of stuck in a sort of preemptive buyers remorse over an emulation handheld. And have been for the last couple years, and thus despite the fact I've meant to pick one up for a couple years now, I never have.

The problem is, they keep getting better at such a pace. I remember only a very few years ago when emulation handhelds were a mix of cobbled-together junk out of raspberry pi zeros and Chinese junk that was little better than the cheap single-system SOCs you would find in mall kiosks to plug into your TV. Now I'm finding myself watching reviews of sub-$100 units and finding myself judging them critically because they "only" play "some" Gamecube and PS2 games, and having to pick which features that would have seemed ridiculous 5 years ago I can live without... Do I get the one that can only do bluetooth and wifi, but has no HDMI out, or do I get the one that does have HDMI out but it's joysticks aren't Hall Effect joysticks?

And I know whatever I buy, in 6 months something will be out that's meaningfully better for no more money.

All I really want is something to play SNES and arcade games. I don't need to play Gamecube games. But... Damnit... I want to be able to? I don't know.

It's sort of like reverse FOMO. Instead of being psychologically compelled to jump in feet first without thinking, I'm being pushed away.
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Either go for a steamdeck or an ayn loki, avoid ARM-based handhelds like the plague they are, most of them break after a while because the OS is always some sort of Android spin which breaks the moment you go off the designed rails. I heard some horror stories that will make you wonder if they're just designed to scam people.
I'd advise against an Asus ROG Ally, Lenovo GO, anything made by GPD due to the absurdity of the price, unless you're really going to never use a tower pc ever again. I, personally, got a Steam Deck, and it's pretty good as is, although with it being based on linux, bluetooth mices and keyboard may or may not give you a headache. Also some people in the community just won't shut up about the firmware not being open (yeah, no shit it's not. it sucks, but it's also the way it is to avoid shit like LogoFail)

Also avoid anything ayaneo.

It's true that they keep getting better, but they're also getting worse when it comes to price/quality ratio, some aliexpress chink shit is better than some amazon three/four figures handheld when it comes to quality-price ratio. Or you may end up buying one of those "Sup" tik-tok handhelds only to end up with a pricey paperweight.
My honest advise is to keep looking at channels, if you care for some blogger's opinion, like taki udon and game retro corps. And keep in mind your use-case, if it's "just" emulation, the deck would be a decent go-to device.
 
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Koi Fish said:
The emudeck is a bit of a shitshow.
the installer keeps bloating your library with entries for each games for each system, and all it does is a glorified "sudo pacman" command. both PCSX2 and Duckstation have bigpicture mode and can get covers, and retroarch runs decently. Maybe it can be useful for mame or yuzu, but then again you're better installing both separately. And good luck getting rid of it. I guess to each their own, but it's pretty useless imo.

It reminds me of LaunchBox and other similar programs which I never understood the appeal of.
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Yeah. Some programs like OpenEmu for the Mac will help themselves to every game they can find on your device.

I'm going to use the NES as an example—unless you're a shitter who downloaded each ROM individually from something like EmuParadise or something, if you're into emulation you probably have basically all of them but you really don't want all 1000+ NES games (not including multi-carts like SMB/Duck Hunt, multiple versions, test carts, PAL versions) in ANY program beyond the basic Finder/Windows Explorer, partially because 90% of them you'll never play for more than five minutes.
 
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I recently played Quake 2 on the PowKiddy V90 and it was a surprise to see that it actually worked. The downside is that even though the game worked, it was before that I tried out some of the PS1 games that were roms on there, and it almost bricked the system.

Funny to think that Quake 2 did not do this, but playing Crash Bash did.
 
PixarsTedKennedy said:
Just found out this dumb controller is worth a lot of money now for some reason. I have one I got as a joke twenty years ago for like five dollars that's been sitting in a drawer. It's insane what some of this garbage is worth.

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I remember seeing that thing pre-lockdown everywhere at used game conventions and thrift stores for dirt fucking cheap as well.My guess is it was a recent post lockdown "reddit value speculator" or some "influencer" claiming it was super rare instead of just a funny infamously uncomfortable to hold licensed controller. People want 200 to 800 dollars for these fucking things and the ones I'm seeing at that price are caked with filth. fucking at least CLEAN them before listing them as a scalper mother of god!
 
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Not sure if this counts, but I've been messing around with an FF6 randomizer.


Basically it strips out all the story stuff, randomizes character abilities and Espers, semi-randomizes loot, and is more of a boss rush focused thing. I've only done a single full run of it, but it's pretty damn fun and brings a lot of replay value to the game if you enjoy the combat system.
 
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