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

Just sort of polling the room. How have your PS1, PS2, Saturn, Sega CD, and Gamecube discs been holding up? Has disc rot / age been a big issue?
I've been holding off on disc based consoles, sticking to mostly collecting cartridge based stuff. Out of around fifty Sega Genesis, fifty SNES and sixty NES games, I've got 1 Sega game that didn't work, as in wouldn't start despite not having visible damage to the board inside the cart or anything and 2 SNES games that likewise didn't have damaged boards or contacts but didn't start even after deep cleaning both console and game cart. I'm okay with a like 2% fail rate with stuff that's thirty and forty years old.
Has disc rot totally killed collecting for those older consoles? Would it be worth it to pick up modded systems and just burn games? Or would I be better off just emulating?
Every disc I own is fine every time I check them, even my oldest PS1 and PC Engine games. GameCube has this weird online soy community that is very low IQ and had a freak out about disc rot a few years ago, but it was a weird issue with the label on some discs in some climates.

On the other hand I have a couple GBA games that do not work, my copy of Pokemon Crystal does not work, and a Famicom Tiny Toons game came DoA.
Noted. If that's the case, I may pick up that Sega CD one of the retro game stores near me had for sale if it's still there. Might grab a Dreamcast if I can find one with the hookups and controllers for a reasonable price with a few decent games. Can't you can just burn cd-rw discs with Dreamcast ISOs and they just work? IIRC you can, but that might be another console I'm thinking of.
Most DCs made except very rare late VA2 can play burned games. For Sega CD they also just work with burned discs, there was no copy protection but it's picky about which discs you use, you get the best results with Taiyo Yuden derived discs which you can still buy as CMC Pro blank CDs.
 
Most DCs made except very rare late VA2 can play burned games. For Sega CD they also just work with burned discs, there was no copy protection but it's picky about which discs you use, you get the best results with Taiyo Yuden derived discs which you can still buy as CMC Pro blank CDs.
Not gonna lie, I gutted a VA2 to fit an equally uncommon VA0 board with components swapped/removed to make it ODE safe and even then the VA2 board was loading burned discs just fine so I dunno where the claims about it came from
 
PS2 is a such a bitch with the hard drive compatiblity. Had to do format it as a PS2 hard drive which meant it was unallocated...after having placed the isos on the hard drive.
If you're using Grimdoomer's OPL, you could just format as exfat and drag the ISOs on to that drive. It's significantly easier than the older method.
 
Not gonna lie, I gutted a VA2 to fit an equally uncommon VA0 board with components swapped/removed to make it ODE safe and even then the VA2 board was loading burned discs just fine so I dunno where the claims about it came from
That means you got an early VA2 board. The batch from early November and before uses the VA1 BIOS and retains the compatibility.
 
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PS2 is a such a bitch with the hard drive compatiblity. Had to do format it as a PS2 hard drive which meant it was unallocated...after having placed the isos on the hard drive.
If you're using Grimdoomer's OPL, you could just format as exfat and drag the ISOs on to that drive. It's significantly easier than the older method.
Another thing about this, make sure you have already extracted your games from zip/7z/whatever to ISO/BIN+CUE before copying them to the PS2 hard drive and do not directly download+extract them to the PS2 hard drive, otherwise OPL will bitch about the games being fragmented
 
Another thing about this, make sure you have already extracted your games from zip/7z/whatever to ISO/BIN+CUE before copying them to the PS2 hard drive and do not directly download+extract them to the PS2 hard drive, otherwise OPL will bitch about the games being fragmented
Yeah I recommend using something like OPL Manager for managing PS2 games as not only as games need to be a certain title length, but also need to be put in a corresponding DVD or CD folder depending on game size.
 
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Got this beefy thing today, it's a Lenovo legion go, it has detachable controllers like the switch, and is powerful enough to emulate games like Kirby the forgotten land, and totk
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I've just discovered lossless scaling, it artificially boosts the framrate in games, and it also works with emulators, I'm currently running Mario Sunshine in 60fps
There's also a mod of Super Mario Sunshine called Super Mario Eclipse that adds native 60fps and widescreen support as well as 120+ new levels. I know nothing about the new levels but the QOL additions to the mod make it good for entry for me. If you don't give a shit about the extra levels, Super Mario Sunburn is also effectively the same thing just without the new content.
 
Been playing Stuntman: Ignition on Xbox. Fun game, too bad it killed the studio and no one ever did anything else with the concept. Never tried the first one, since it had a reputation for being annoyingly difficult, but not the case with this one. It's very forgiving unless you're going for a five-star rating.

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edit: what's with the thunk provoking reactions? Is an 18 year old game not considered retro, or what?
 
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I've been on a retro handheld gaming mood as of late. Been dumping a lot of time into Neo Turf Masters on the Neo Geo Pocket, along with a variety of other NGP titles like Metal Slug and Dark Arms.

Also picked up a game called Miracle Adventure of Esparks, never heard anything about it online prior. Checking out gameplay it looked pretty cool for a Gameboy game, supposedly based off a manga series that was an evolution of a line of stationary paper that had manga panels throughout which led to schools banning them for distracting students, or so I've heard from a video I saw reviewing the game.P_20250417_005500.webpP_20250417_005521.webp
 

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Nintendo Seeks Damages & Broad Injunction Against ‘Pirate’ Game Streamer (archive)
Nintendo is hoping to wrap up its lawsuit against gamer Jesse Keighin, aka EveryGameGuru, after he failed to answer the complaint. The game giant seeks $17,500 in damages for copyright infringement, including streaming pre-release games and sharing links to emulators. In addition, Nintendo requests a broad global injunction to prevent future infringements, even for games that do not yet exist.
 
I've been on a retro handheld gaming mood as of late. Been dumping a lot of time into Neo Turf Masters on the Neo Geo Pocket, along with a variety of other NGP titles like Metal Slug and Dark Arms.

Also picked up a game called Miracle Adventure of Esparks, never heard anything about it online prior. Checking out gameplay it looked pretty cool for a Gameboy game, supposedly based off a manga series that was an evolution of a line of stationary paper that had manga panels throughout which led to schools banning them for distracting students, or so I've heard from a video I saw reviewing the game.View attachment 7233528View attachment 7233532
CLAKICKALACKITACKAALIKATAKCKAKCLICKAKTCK


I have a new favorite Space Invaders spinoff since the last one I played
space-invaders-frenzy-768x768.webp
Space Invaders Frenzy
Space Invaders but it's a gun game and you're tweaking the FWUACK out
the wife and I played it until it wouldn't let us anymore while we were waiting for the kids to show up for a relative's birthday party at Chuck E Cheese
 
CLAKICKALACKITACKAALIKATAKCKAKCLICKAKTCK


I have a new favorite Space Invaders spinoff since the last one I played
View attachment 7259917
Space Invaders Frenzy
Space Invaders but it's a gun game and you're tweaking the FWUACK out
the wife and I played it until it wouldn't let us anymore while we were waiting for the kids to show up for a relative's birthday party at Chuck E Cheese
I like that and Centipede Chaos, although it's kinda bullshit that Centipede Chaos uses joysticks instead of trackballs

centipedechaos2_1024x1024@2x.webp
 
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I have a new favorite Space Invaders spinoff since the last one I played
View attachment 7259917
Space Invaders Frenzy
Space Invaders but it's a gun game and you're tweaking the FWUACK out
the wife and I played it until it wouldn't let us anymore while we were waiting for the kids to show up for a relative's birthday party at Chuck E Cheese
I remember really liking Space Invaders Extreme. The first one was on several systems but the second was a DS exclusive for some reason.
 
I don't get this, they already say customs is due from the recipient. Just add a warning and links to the shipping company saying that the US will tarriff items from China and here's how you'll have to pay.
yeah but that's, like, hard and stuff
much easier to just never do business again than figure out the form
 
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