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

[I am Jack's dead arm]

bmth finally released next gen, so that shit is over


Sega was always shooting themselves in the dick like that. I got a PS2 for my birthday off the DVD playback, and I honestly think that thing spent more time spinning movies than games.

The ability to play DVDs was a huge feature for the PS2, just regular DVD players were still $200-300 at that point.

 

[I am Jack's dead arm]

What kinda chinesium box should I buy to emulate everything under the moon?
I can not make myself enjoy games emulated on a computer, we used to have a PSP for that, but it died so I only game what my old fliphone can emulate (up to certain GBC games and that is it) , and it craps out a lot.
Have not played any Pokemon past gen3 due to that...

I use a Kinhank Xpro II, it's kinda shit out of the box (lotta bad ROM dumps and missing BIOS) but once I worked on it, it's pretty decent. Even runs some of the more finicky emulated systems like PSP and Saturn. Also the PS Classic is solid but that takes more work.

 

[3deadniggers]

PS1 was already such a huge deal it's hard to see the DVD stuff in the PS2 being a selling point on it's own.

Anbernic has a bunch of options at different price-points. The RG35XX H (60 $USD) can handle up to PS1/N64 no problem, though anything beyond that will struggle to play. If you want to play 3DS/Dreamcast/Gamecube/PS2, you can get the RG556 for 100 $USD more.

Go to Aliexpress to find what's on sale and in your price range. Check the video reviews to see what machines they run up to then buy one of those. They're really energy efficient and batteries last forever when turned off.

I don't understand people's obsession with early FF games. There's a big rom hack thing going on at the moment where they're doing randomized job challenge runs of FF4. Of all the games you can play emulated why pick middle of the road JRPGs?

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

The ability to play DVDs was a huge feature for the PS2, just regular DVD players were still $200-300 at that point.

yeah, the still-new-to-humans DVD format, AND all the PS1 games AND all the new PS2 games was a hell of a library to offer

DVD was a huge factor in its long-term success when parents could justify the new game machine a lot more easy as the new media gizmo too

 

[Celebrate Nite]

I honestly think that thing spent more time spinning movies than games.

I used the PS2 as a back-up DVD player. Back then, I had an entertainment center with a 6-disc changer DVD/CD player, and sometimes it would just have issues playing some DVDs to completion, whereas the PS2 would play them just fine, especially if I fucked around with the fast forward function.

And back then you had all sorts of tools to not only clean your discs, but the lense inside the drive as well (those special discs with brushes on them... i'm not sure if they even worked like they were supposed to, never saw a difference in quality)

 

[Calandrino]

One of those games where if you die even once in the later stages, you're completely fucked. Can't touch the walls, and everything kills you with one hit.

It's a space shooter where you go into a planet that's sentient (even has a mouth), so you're practically fighting it's guts on the inside. All to save your girlfriend who may or may not have her tits out in the ending (the western release is censored). The perspective changes between left-right to up-down in each stage, of which there are 5 of them with 2 levels with a boss battle for each of them. Aside from the different weapons, there's also shield and barrier power-ups that absorb bullets and keep you living longer. You're real main condern is avoiding obsticles, and there comes a time where you would need to AVOID the speed-up power-up you get at the start of each stage otherwise you wind up going TOO fast even with a tap of the directional pad, which wil cause you to fly into something you didn't intendo to do.

I'd recommend it to anyone that likes those hard-as-balls toe-curling games. It was my first ever space shooter as a kid, and I enjoyed it for all it's faults. Music is breddy gewd.

On closer inspection, we have been largely ignoring NES shmups altogether, and there are a number of respectable ones, worth a look even with the arcade versions readily available:

• Dragon Spirit
• Gradius
• Life Force
• Recca

Even some fine racing games:

• Rad Racer I-II
• R.C. Pro Am 1-2

The dreamcast has 70 exclusive titles and only 4 of them are anything people remember. Toy commander, Pen pen, Crazy Taxi 2 and Blue Stinger.

Oooh I'm sorry, the answer we were looking for was: Chu Chu Rocket, Mr. Driller, Illbleed, and House of the Dead 2.

 

[Two Dollars]

Oooh I'm sorry, the answer we were looking for was: Chu Chu Rocket, Mr. Driller, Illbleed, and House of the Dead 2.

Ummm no sweaty. Mr. Driller is on PS1 (and if you want to be pedantic, Game Boy Color/Wonderswan Color/an old iOS port), and Chu Chu Rocket got a GBA port. Great games, though.

 

[Banana Hammock]

I don't understand people's obsession with early FF games. There's a big rom hack thing going on at the moment where they're doing randomized job challenge runs of FF4. Of all the games you can play emulated why pick middle of the road JRPGs?

1-3 aren't great, but 4-6 are fantastic.

 

[Baraka Obama]

1-3 aren't great, but 4-6 are fantastic.

I'm not a big FF guy but 2 is delightfully weird. It's pretty much a proto-SaGa game.

Then 1 is just iconic, 3 has a really neat job system that gives you a lot of ways to approach the game.

 

[cybertoaster]

I think it's because this generation was a flop that people still consider it new since there's been no generation defining game yet.

Yeah I get the same feeling, the previous PS4/XO gen was also incredibly underwhelming, it feels like everybody stopped even trying to make new stuff in this space. Consoles are dead, the only reason these things are still around is because steam hasn't released a non-portable deck yet, after all consoles have been rebadged PCs for 2 gens now, X360 and PS3 were the last time companies bothered to think outside the box, the Switch is just a repackaged tablet with a tegra processor nobody else wanted.

 

[Two Dollars]

Consoles are dead, the only reason these things are still around is because steam hasn't released a non-portable deck yet

Same power as the Steam Deck, 512GB SSD, $199, bundled with a basic Xbox-style controller. It would sell gangbusters.

 

[Banana Hammock]

I'm not a big FF guy but 2 is delightfully weird. It's pretty much a proto-SaGa game.

Then 1 is just iconic, 3 has a really neat job system that gives you a lot of ways to approach the game.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed all three of them. I'm just saying that I could understand if he was talking about them modding those three games, rather than 4. Especially since, if you want a job system, 5 does it better.

 

[cybertoaster]

Yes, carry around - my gripe with gaming on pc emulator boils down to "can not curl around the device cozily". Laptop is too huge, psp style hits about the right spot.
I am also kinda poor. I only have ok computer bc of guys in a charity)

...As many Pokemon as possible (I like other games, these are just an easy measure)

maybe some piece of ARM shit like this one would do the trick. That or a portable console modified. I still love the N3DS and Vita for how versatile both become when modded.

Just use a phone, this thing has a 3yo mediatek chip that barely qualifies as midend now, coupled with a weird screen just above 720p.

Same power as the Steam Deck, 512GB SSD, $199, bundled with a basic Xbox-style controller. It would sell gangbusters.

Don't know if you could hit that price tho, even without the battery and screen, would've to see the current BOM for the device, but people might expect better specs from a console-like deck.

 

[Two Dollars]

Don't know if you could hit that price tho, even without the battery and screen, would've to see the current BOM for the device, but people might expect better specs from a console-like deck.

I don’t know, the Xbox Series S regularly went down to $249 even years ago, and a Steam Deck is more or less comparable to that. It could go even lower if Valve didn’t bundle a controller, but I’m no expert on this stuff.

 

[Shinkai]

The steam machine/console things kinda fizzled out into nothing in the end. But I'm glad out of it came the steam deck. I hope it leads to more stuff like this. I'm a complete convert at this point it handles everything I've thrown at it besides a handful of titles that I didn't expect it to run. And even some it's 5x simpler to get it running on the deck and will just boot out of the box Vs spending an hour googling fixes and finding obscure files to make a game work. I still use the ps5 on occasion but I've smashed through so many games plus played through loads of fan translations.

 

[3deadniggers]

The steam machine/console things kinda fizzled out into nothing in the end. But I'm glad out of it came the steam deck. I hope it leads to more stuff like this. I'm a complete convert at this point it handles everything I've thrown at it besides a handful of titles that I didn't expect it to run. And even some it's 5x simpler to get it running on the deck and will just boot out of the box Vs spending an hour googling fixes and finding obscure files to make a game work. I still use the ps5 on occasion but I've smashed through so many games plus played through loads of fan translations.

What games have you enjoyed more because you played them on deck homeboy shinkai?

 

[Shinkai]

What games have you enjoyed more because you played them on deck homeboy shinkai?

I wouldn't say more so much that it's just a really nice screen and the back buttons/track pads have so much customisation. Holds well in the hands. Dunno maybe more incentive to play through games that are smaller because it's easy to just play anywhere. Shadow Tower Abyss was the last retro game I finished on it and I'm waiting a little while before I play Kings Field 4 cause Shadow Tower was exhausting. That and whatever Proton already has sorted for older games a lot just boot no problem that I've never been able to even get to launch on Windows 10. The side bar being able to lock FPS/refresh on the fly aswell is a lifesaver because even if a game doesnt quite hit 60 consistently or is hard coded to 30fps i can just press a button and have change it right then and there to something like 40/45 FPS and you get the best of both worlds

 

[Judge Dredd]

Same power as the Steam Deck, 512GB SSD, $199, bundled with a basic Xbox-style controller. It would sell gangbusters.

I don't think that would be enough while the Steam Deck exists, but in spirit, absolutely. Console with comparable power. Perhaps a dedicated gpu (even if not a good one) lowish price, HDMI out instead of a screen. I'm not sure if being pure steam or having physical media would be the way to go. My preference is for physical, but so many games on physical are incomplete these days it might be pointless.

The OS could be a big deal. Should it be open allowing for emulation and homebrew, or locked down to prevent cheating? Maybe both?

 

[3deadniggers]

I updated emulation station and it decided to change where roms are looked for and I can't figure out how to make it point to the SD card. Really annoying.

 

[Two Dollars]

I don't think that would be enough while the Steam Deck exists, but in spirit, absolutely. Console with comparable power. Perhaps a dedicated gpu (even if not a good one) lowish price, HDMI out instead of a screen. I'm not sure if being pure steam or having physical media would be the way to go. My preference is for physical, but so many games on physical are incomplete these days it might be pointless.

The OS could be a big deal. Should it be open allowing for emulation and homebrew, or locked down to prevent cheating? Maybe both?

I think you may be overcomplicating it. Power is debatable, but everything else should just be the exact same as the Steam Deck. Same OS, same mod-ability, digital only, Steam as the focus but it can technically run other things, all that stuff. A cheaper, non-portable Steam Deck.