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

[Carpenter Trout]

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)

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.

Otherwise you may be extremely lucky and find an used GPD or Ayaneo UMPC for a bargain price.
I still wish UMPCs like the GPD Win Max (or the EEE Pc) would become affordable and more commonplace.
There's the Acer Aspire 3, as a small factor laptop you can carry around and it's said to cost around 300$. It's nothing to write home about, but I always loved compact PCs, especially since portability is in the name of a PC Portable. I can't understand why some manufacturers makes those giant slabs that are anything but portable. They don't perform that good either.

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

Mayan Adventure is pretty solid, especially the Sega CD version. The "enhanced" sounds and music add a good deal.

Mayan was okay but it was very bog-standard floaty 90s platformer from my recollections of the PC version
also it had a mine cart level which means it can eat shit and die

Yume Penguin Monogatari: Really weird game where you play as a penguin and try to avoid food so you don't get fat and become a reddit mod that gets cucked by a gigachad penguin.

the best part is that this is actually the story, minus the reddit part
but yeah that's a fun one

The PS2 had major supply issues and a lack of games, so once those details were ironed out, it just took off.

there was a minute I was getting an industry weekly trade for game stores, and when the PS2 launched in the USA and sold out Sega took out a double-page ad gloating that there were Dreamcasts available
like, bruh. that's some Johnny Turbo levels of flailing around

 

[Judge Dredd]

The system is great but it's all on the ps2 as well so people pick up the better versions.

Exactly, which is why you should play the Dreamcast versions.

I'm serious too. Grandia 2 messed up the textures, 18 Wheeler has engine sounds that drown out everything (and the textures look different I think?). Even Code Veronica X is worse for a first playthrough because some of the deleted scenes ruin later scenes. eg. The Wester reveal is just plain odd in X because they already show him, then the next half of the game is them acting like there is a mystery man opperating from the shadows.

Let's be honest, people choose the PS2 version because that's the console people had.

Take the red pill and erase the wikipedophilia numbered generation bs from your mind.

I have nothing to add, but I agree 1000%.

Okay, how in the fuck do you get vita roms compatible for Vita3K? The emulator installs and seems to work well enough, but it won't recognize my rom folders, nor my rars etc., and numerous videos talk about having to "dump" shit or changing its format/needing extra software. It's getting frustrating enough to just give up on the single game I wanted to play on it...

I don't know as I've not used Vita. If it's anything like RPCS3, you have to open the iso/rar/zip/whatever format using 7 zip and drag the files out of there.

What kinda chinesium box should I buy to emulate everything under the moon?

There was a thread on this, but is out of date.

The big one at the moment is the Ambernic RG35XX series. The SP is the GBA SP-like, but they're basically the same with different shapes. It doesn't play everything, but it's similar in size to old handhelds like the GBA, and can be cheap. I think they can do everything to PS1, while N64 and Dreamcast it starts to struggle. There are Steam Deck-likes if money is no object, but I don't consider them portable as they don't fit in a pocket.

 

[UnsufficentBoobage]

@Koi Fish @Judge Dredd
Thank you for advice.

 

[Banana Hammock]

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)

If you're fine with playing older games, you can just use one of those cheap Walmart smartphones. They can emulate SNES/GBA and down. Maybe DS, though you'd have to test it yourself.

 

[Pepe Cortisona]

Both of them blew the Intellivision and Atari 2600 out of the water. They were comparable consoles (the ColecoVision actually has more video RAM) but the ColecoVision died a quick death soon after its introduction while the NES dominated in the late 1980s.

That generation was strange, the Intellivision had a 16-bit processor, albeit a primitive one, while the Coleco Vision had an 8-bit one.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

That generation was strange, the Intellivision had a 16-bit processor, albeit a primitive one, while the Coleco Vision had an 8-bit one.

At the time, "more bits = better graphics, bigger games" hadn't yet entered marketing terminology.

GameCube was hyped as being "128 bit" but all the bit-talk was swept under the rug when all three "sixth generation" consoles were competing.

 

[Celebrate Nite]

GameCube was hyped as being "128 bit" but all the bit-talk was swept under the rug when all three "sixth generation" consoles were competing.

That, and the Atari Jaguar pretty much ended the bit war argument when people found out bits really didn't matter considering it was SUPPOSED to be as powerful as the N64, but developers didn't really know how to utilize the other 32 bits. So you basically had a console with false advertisement.

 

[UnsufficentBoobage]

If you're fine with playing older games, you can just use one of those cheap Walmart smartphones. They can emulate SNES/GBA and down. Maybe DS, though you'd have to test it yourself.

I have a smartphone. I need physical buttons, that is why I play on the fliphone when it can take it.

Also, I'm Russian, we do not have Walmarts, and most non-chinesium consoles cost a lot.

 

[Banana Hammock]

I have a smartphone. I need physical buttons, that is why I play on the fliphone when it can take it.

Also, I'm Russian, we do not have Walmarts, and most non-chinesium consoles cost a lot.

Ah, gotcha. Not sure if you'd be able to get these in Russia, but they've got these bluetooth controllers that you can stick your phone into, kinda turning it into a small handheld console.

https://www.amazon.com/Joso-Wireless-Controller-Bluetooth-Joysticks/dp/B0BHMXLDK5/

https://www.amazon.com/JahyShow-Controller-Wireless-Bluetooth-Gamepad-Joystick/dp/B0BN3CXJBP/

(Just examples of what I'm talking about.)

Edit: Looks like you can.

https://www.ozon.ru/product/dzhostik-dlya-telefona-geympad-wireless-controller-x3-geympad-dlya-smartfona-tsvet-chernyy-758005445/

https://www.ozon.ru/product/mocute-geympad-062-controller-bluetooth-chernyy-1607050245/

https://www.ozon.ru/product/geympad-oy1072829-slonovaya-kost-1598481762/

No idea how affordable those are.

 

[Pepe Cortisona]

At the time, "more bits = better graphics, bigger games" hadn't yet entered marketing terminology.

GameCube was hyped as being "128 bit" but all the bit-talk was swept under the rug when all three "sixth generation" consoles were competing.

I'm well aware of that, I was trying to convey that the hardware differences didn't marked the generations in the 80s.

That, and the Atari Jaguar pretty much ended the bit war argument when people found out bits really didn't matter considering it was SUPPOSED to be as powerful as the N64, but developers didn't really know how to utilize the other 32 bits. So you basically had a console with false advertisement.

If I'm not mistaken, the main processor was 32 bit and all operations happened in 32 bits. The 64 bit number comes from the bus that the graphics used to transfer operations inside the console.

The other thing that made the console look weak, was that it had a Motorola 68k processor shoved in there, and lazy ports used that instead of the dedicated one, making all the raw power of the console just an afterthought.

 

[UnsufficentBoobage]

No idea how affordable those are

Affordable, but my smart phone is absolute ass.
I just saw a lot of mini consoles in same or 1.5x price range, and got confused, as most seem to have preloaded game libraries, and often SNES/GBC to boot.

 

[Banana Hammock]

Affordable, but my smart phone is absolute ass.
I just saw a lot of mini consoles in same or 1.5x price range, and got confused, as most seem to have preloaded game libraries, and often SNES/GBC to boot.

Ah, well if you can get a mini-console for the same price, you might as well go with that. Better yet if it's one that you can mod or hook up to your PC to add more games.

 

[UnsufficentBoobage]

Ah, well if you can get a mini-console for the same price, you might as well go with that. Better yet if it's one that you can mod or hook up to your PC to add more games.

And that is why I came into thread asking which ones are good)

 

[Judge Dredd]

I just saw a lot of mini consoles in same or 1.5x price range, and got confused, as most seem to have preloaded game libraries, and often SNES/GBC to boot.

There's a few channels that talk about this stuff. Retro Game Corps and ETAPrime come to mind, but there are others I forget the name of. Retro Game Corps can get very autistic about buttons, but I guess people want to know that. The chinesium handheld market is moving fast at the moment, so even my knowledge (which comes mostly from said videos) might be out of date. I've never pulled the trigger to buy one myself.

 

[Banana Hammock]

And that is why I came into thread asking which ones are good)

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.

 

[IsaACKRepentance]

And that is why I came into thread asking which ones are good

I currently use the RG35XX SP! It takes a bit of tinkering with the firmware (I decided to use MuOS, very easy and has lots of theme support.) It was 60$ and I liked it more than the RG35XX line for ergonomics because I grew up with the GBA SP.

If you need something with a little more oomf, the Retroid Pocket 2S is pretty good, it's 100$ and can run basically all PS1/N64 and a good few PS2 games pretty decently, everything below is no issue for any of these systems. The 2S is the 3+s PCB in the Retroid Pocket 2 Shell (which was their most popular model for a long time, so people like the shell).

The SP can also do some PS1 but since there's no analog stick, it's probably not ideal to play it on there.

Honestly anything from Ambernic and Retroid are good, I would just try to figure out what your needs are for handhelds and base it off of that!

I personally use my steam deck for any game that requires analog sticks or more power, so the 35XX was perfect for me for SNES/GBA/NES stuff along those lines.

And yeah, as mentioned earlier, the scene moves FAST. I looked away for a year and retroid had two new consoles out and announced the Retroid Pocket 4. Anbernic reuses PCBs a lot so they probably release a new handheld every 3 months.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

Here’s a message to analysts/journalists/YouTubers everywhere:
STOP CALLING PS5/XBOX SERIES “NEXT GEN”, THEY’VE BEEN OUT FOR 3.5 FUCKING YEARS. “NEXT GEN” MEANS THE GENERATION THAT’S NOT OUT YET YOU ABSOLUTE RETARDS. A CONSOLE STOPS BEING NEXT GEN THE MOMENT IT’S RELEASED.

It makes sense early on, but not years after. 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.

I have FFX physically handed down to me I could play on my PS2 with an iffy disc drive and iffy DS2 controller or just emulate it on PC. Though I also figured it wouldn't hurt to look at the remaster of FFX that is on Steam.

The original is considered better but whichever is easier works. I prefer the remaster due to the improved OST (both are awesome).

 

[Shinkai]

In regards to the retro handheld/emulator suggestion the only handheld one I have outside of a modded psp is the R36S. I have it all stock no changes and it struggles with most PS1 games. Crash 1 ran fine but crash warped was painful. If you had the money I'd just suggest a steam deck for it. I've got up to Wii U and a handful of switch games on it but it's choc full of PS1, PS2 N64 etc

 

[ZipDisk]

bmth finally released next gen, so that shit is over

some SEGA guy saying they considered adding a DVD drive but then the price would have jumped from $199 to $249

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.