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

[Baraka Obama]

Try the FPGBC. $70 plus shipping, a bigger screen (the device is the same size as the real thing, just smaller bezels), USB-C charging, 1.25x speed up, and some other good stuff. The only problem I know of is that flash cart compatibility is hit or miss, and it doesn't play roms. I'm all for more FPGA systems, but $200 is pretty bad for a worse version of something that already exists for much cheaper.

Do you own one of these?

I bought one because I figured it might be nice to have until the Chromatic comes out.

It's really not good.

Compatibility with flash carts isn't hit or miss, it's bad. I own two Everdrives, a v1 from the moment it was announced and an X7. The v1 will boot and program games but will not boot any games, you get a garbled Nintendo logo every time, even if programmed on another GB. The X7, which others seem to say works fine, I can't imagine because with multiple SD cards I get FAT & SD related errors almost every boot. The only way I can get it to boot is in GBP mode, even that is like 25% of the time, and then program there & switch modes back to GBC before starting the game, which is not reasonable.

OK I have a ton of carts. They must be better, right? I've tried 6 games and 2 have sprite errors including Donkey Kong Land and Pokemon Blue. At least they aren't popular, common games that anyone would own to test with, right?

The included speaker is very loud, but it also has way too much bass. Even at a reasonable volume the whole unit vibrates to a ridiculous degree.

Worst of all the power switch is very stiff and they can never fix that with a software update. Maybe they can fix the other things, and hopefully make this not feel like a beta unit, but every time you try to turn it on feeling like something is stuck isn't great.

On the plus side the shell they provide is good quality, much better than some of the Chinese shells I've encountered in the past; it's good you don't have to cannibalize a GBC to make this; the screen it comes with looks good if a bit off -- in fake pixel mode it's even nicer but a bit too dim.

But yeah really not worth buying. I'd rather use any other Game Boy I own, and at this point I own four GB Pockets, three GB Colors, five GB Advances, and two GB Players. Even the an AGS-001 with its crummy side-light and shitty clicky buttons is preferable.

 

[Lone MacReady II]

Covid lockdowns made a lot of people say “ I want to experience the games of yesteryear and relive the good old days!”… which wouldn’t be a problem, except those same people either didn’t know what emulation was or were morally opposed to it. I’m still kicking myself for not getting a N3DS back when they were $70 new with a digital copy of Mario Kart 7.

Imagine being "morally opposed" to emulation with the absolute greedy-kike-nigger state of the current industry. Yar Har fiddle dee dee piracy is okay with me.

 

[Celebrate Nite]

Imagine being "morally opposed" to emulation with the absolute greedy-kike-nigger state of the current industry

I mean if Maximillion Dood is anyone to go by, according to him, the MVC Collection that's coming out for the switch/pc/ps5 is the greatest thing that could have happened because according to him, and now I'm quoting, "nobody wants to play those games on emulation", and the fact that they were stuck on FightCade was a crime against humanity or some shit.

Which just tells me that normalfags have COMPLETELY taken over gaming as a whole, which is a horrifyingly terrible thought if true.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

Optimum technique is to drive sideways. Hate the game, not the player. Or both I guess.

I was pretty good at snaking too, which is why I suspected them of cheating. They are lapping ne and I was already lapping the other players myself. But they could've just been some speedrunning autists I guess.

A set of boring "diversity squad" characters and an entire level that takes place in a gay wedding.

It's not that bad. I was able to look past it. I just mention it because I know some people can't stand any of it.

Sounds exactly "that bad" lol.

 

[Two Dollars]

*snip*

Well that’s disappointing, the reviews I saw looked pretty good aside from flash carts.

Maybe someone who knows more about FPGA can answer me this: If it doesn’t have flawless hardware compatibility, then what the hell is the point of FPGA? I thought that was the entire appeal.

 

[Baraka Obama]

Well that’s disappointing, the reviews I saw looked pretty good aside from flash carts.

Maybe someone who knows more about FPGA can answer me this: If it doesn’t have flawless hardware compatibility, then what the hell is the point of FPGA? I thought that was the entire appeal.

An FPGA allows for reimplementing hardware at the hardware level. At best an implementation is going to be like a really good clone console, but ultimately that's up to the implementer and whatever reverse engineered docs he is working with.

It doesn't mean it will be flawless or more compatible than a software level emulation, just that it allows for the implementation to interact with controllers, cartridges, add-ons, displays, etc the same way as the real thing.

 

[deeman]

So as i'm getting lazier and more fat comfortable in life i have decided to try out some gamesticks and stuff like that, thinking about Super Console X, but i've heard they can get overheated and shit, what would be the best lazy solution to buy if my main interest are PSX / Saturn?

 

[I am Jack's dead arm]

So as i'm getting lazier and more fat comfortable in life i have decided to try out some gamesticks and stuff like that, thinking about Super Console X, but i've heard they can get overheated and shit, what would be the best lazy solution to buy if my main interest are PSX / Saturn?

I have a X Pro II and it doesn't overheat. My main issue with it is that the included controllers are garbage and a lot of the included games don't work because of bad ROM dumps, missing BIOS, etc. But I was able to fix everything pretty easily, and it runs most everything up to PSP/Saturn.

 

[Lone MacReady II]

Which just tells me that normalfags have COMPLETELY taken over gaming as a whole, which is a horrifyingly terrible thought if true.

The Wii (and the 2020 lockdowns) and its normalfag consequences, have been a disaster for the gaming community.

 

[Two Dollars]

Smartphones (and the 2020 lockdowns) and their normalfag consequences, have been a disaster for the gaming community.

FTFY

 

[X Prime]

FTFY

This is correct. Gachas in particular have utterly decimated many old franchises, because they are relatively easy money.

Pour one out for Breath of Fire.

 

[BrunoMattei]

One thing I'll say for save states is it actually teaches you the game if you let it. When I first ran through Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! I had to constantly abuse the save states to survive Great Tiger's magician move (where he goes invisible and spins around), now I can consistently understand how the move works and work through the game 100% straight until I get to Soda Popinski.

Same. I did that with Ninja Gaiden 1 and 2 to figure out the timing for the "fuck you" jumps.

 

[Lone Wandering Courier]

I got filtered by Mega Man 2 and probably by extension I got filtered by a large chunk of NES games.

 

[BrunoMattei]

Hot take: Mega Man 2 is overrated. I hate the boss battles in particular because it usually devolves to knowing which weapon kills which boss the quickest and just avoiding the boss directly running into you. The later games have better boss battles that are much more fair if you didn't get the right weapon.

 

[CharlesBarkley]

You know, you will never get the same feels as you did as a kid. You won't pick up some shitty game like Aerobiz 2: Supersonic and think, "Boy howdy, well, this is the only thing I can rent at the grocery store, so I better enjoy it" as you mash out three or four days to trying to figure out some overworked Japanese salary man's idea of boardgame if he was crippled from insane autism.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

An FPGA allows for reimplementing hardware at the hardware level. At best an implementation is going to be like a really good clone console, but ultimately that's up to the implementer and whatever reverse engineered docs he is working with.

It doesn't mean it will be flawless or more compatible than a software level emulation, just that it allows for the implementation to interact with controllers, cartridges, add-ons, displays, etc the same way as the real thing.

Yeah but that would require purchasing adapters for them, and when you introduce adapters you're already introducing new technology that may not match the implementations of stuff 100% and can be an issue if you were autistic about that sort of thing. None of these have what the real thing has (like the expansion port, which every console up to the Wii had). If you were hard convinced that playing NES games with the original NES controllers (or stuff like the NES Advantage) was the way to go, just use a USB adapter and an emulator.

 

[DavidS877]

Yeah but that would require purchasing adapters for them, and when you introduce adapters you're already introducing new technology that may not match the implementations of stuff 100% and can be an issue if you were autistic about that sort of thing. None of these have what the real thing has (like the expansion port, which every console up to the Wii had). If you were hard convinced that playing NES games with the original NES controllers (or stuff like the NES Advantage) was the way to go, just use a USB adapter and an emulator.

Ackshully, MiSTer can run native hardware but it only has 7 pins available. But with high speed muxes you can get delay well below USB for multiple controllers. Sadly some of the implementations are not public so you can't be sure what they're doing. Also you can run a real Commodore 1541 drive if you want.

 

[Dojima's Dragon]

So when it comes to 7th gen era multiplat titles which console is better 360 or PS3 early ps3 multiplats i've heard suffers from all sorts of issues and even late ps3 titles had some issues here and there, whereas 360 ports started to be downgraded post 2011

 

[Judge Dredd]

So when it comes to 7th gen era multiplat titles which console is better 360 or PS3 early ps3 multiplats i've heard suffers from all sorts of issues and even late ps3 titles had some issues here and there, whereas 360 ports started to be downgraded post 2011

Cop-out answer. It depends on the game.

Actual answer, you should likely stick with Xbox 360. The reason being is that was the "lead platform". I remember Giant Bomb getting shit back in the day for covering 360 versions of games so much, and they said that's just what publishers send them.

Generally speaking, most multiplats are fine on PS3, but there's some high profile releases that shit the bed completely. Skyrim and Bayonetta being the most famous, but unless you're playing on actual hardware you should be playing those on native PC instead of by emulation. On the other side of the coin, Alone in the Dark is supposedly better on PS3, being a revised version of the game.

As for downgrades. Games like Destiny 1 being held back for feature parity on current and next gen versions. Ubisoft notoriously did this for Watchdogs even though the ps3/360 versions have less traffic. On the other side of that coin, Forza Horizon 2 has a few parts of the map missing on 360. GTA got an upgrade port on "next gen" systems.

 

[Baraka Obama]

Yeah but that would require purchasing adapters for them, and when you introduce adapters you're already introducing new technology that may not match the implementations of stuff 100% and can be an issue if you were autistic about that sort of thing. None of these have what the real thing has (like the expansion port, which every console up to the Wii had). If you were hard convinced that playing NES games with the original NES controllers (or stuff like the NES Advantage) was the way to go, just use a USB adapter and an emulator.

I don't do Mister, though I was tempted by Mist when it was Atari ST / Amiga focused.

The only FPGA thingies I have are that FPGBC now and an Analogue NT Mini.

I feel there's a sliding scale of authenticity which makes the experience better for me. I really never took the time to sit down and play Zelda 2 until I had a real cartridge and put it in my real NES, something about that package works better. I sit and try for longer with an Everdrive than I do an emulator. Somewhere along that scale plugging an SNES Classic Controller into a Wii using SNES9X RX on a CRT is certainly pretty good, but I'd still prefer using a SNES & a real cartridge when that's an option.