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

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Tom Nook's Gloryhole said:
In fact I only really thought CHD was meant for CD compression, so discovering it actually works for DVD ISOs is pretty nifty.
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Also works for PSP discs too.

Any CD games (PS1, Sega CD, Saturn, Dreamcast PC-Engine, PC-FX, 3DO, CD-i, some early PS2 games, some old Japanese computer games) can be compressed down to .chd.
PS2 and PSP DVDs can be compressed to either .chd or .cso using maxcso, with generally similar results between the two.
Xbox DVDs have extract-xiso to remove empty data from the ISO rips and compress them smaller.
GameCube and Wii DVDs have their own lossless compression format with .rvz which Dolphin itself can convert ISOs in and out of.

Games after that though tend to lack any good compression method. I might be out of date on my knowledge, but I think the best you can do with PS3, 360, Vita, and Wii U discs is gut out the contents (I think all the emulators for them like you doing that by default anyway) and then rezip the folders into a .7z file or whatever if you want to save some storage space while you're not actively playing them.
 
MongolianMongoose said:
I'm pleasantly surprised how much simpler the new Xbox 360 BadUpdate "update" is. Not only is it more reliable, it's easier to use because it longer requires having to patch every game/homebrew. Everything just works.
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And it's about to get even better.

MongolianMongoose said:
Upgraded my old PSP from 5.00 M33 to 6.61 Ark-4. It's so satisfying to have every decent game sitting on a console (even if I'll never play them).
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Does it still have an active homebrew scene? And does it have better memeulators than the ones I used as a kid?
 
Speaking of the Dreamcast, what are the must have games for the system? It's one of the only consoles I don't actually have an emulator for because practically everything of value was ported to another system in superior quality.

And does the Dreamcast have any ports that are significantly better than any other system? I remember playing Tony Hawk's 1 on my friends Dreamcast back in the day and thinking about it, the quality SHOULD be better than the PS1 version but it could just be that it displayed things at a higher resolution and my Duckstation version is probably superior.
 
Tom Nook's Gloryhole said:
Speaking of the Dreamcast, what are the must have games for the system? It's one of the only consoles I don't actually have an emulator for because practically everything of value was ported to another system in superior quality.
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The one thing Dreamcast has over the systems some of its games were ported to is you can emulate it on lower end hardware. So like, if you want to play Shenmue on your Anbernic device, you can play it on Dreamcast, but the Xbox version likely won't run. Some of the ports of DC games to other consoles also have little tweaks, so I could see someone wanting to play the Dreamcast original for nostalgia reasons.

Other than that, I honestly can't think of a thing worth playing today that wasn't ported elsewhere. Games like Seaman were novel at the time, but not really worth playing today. Is the Dreamcast version of Chu Chu Rocket better than the GBA port?

Tom Nook's Gloryhole said:
And does the Dreamcast have any ports that are significantly better than any other system? I remember playing Tony Hawk's 1 on my friends Dreamcast back in the day and thinking about it, the quality SHOULD be better than the PS1 version but it could just be that it displayed things at a higher resolution and my Duckstation version is probably superior.
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I want to say Dreamcast has the best home version of Marvel vs Capcom, but if you're emulating anyway, you could just play the arcade version.
 
Tom Nook's Gloryhole said:
Speaking of the Dreamcast, what are the must have games for the system? It's one of the only consoles I don't actually have an emulator for because practically everything of value was ported to another system in superior quality.

And does the Dreamcast have any ports that are significantly better than any other system? I remember playing Tony Hawk's 1 on my friends Dreamcast back in the day and thinking about it, the quality SHOULD be better than the PS1 version but it could just be that it displayed things at a higher resolution and my Duckstation version is probably superior.
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The Dreamcast has a lot of great games but most of them have since been moved to other consoles or PC. @Never Scored pointed out that what makes Dreamcast special today is that most of it's games can be emulated really well, but back in the day Dreamcast was special for having PC accurate ports of games as well as games that are better than the arcade versions which is actually really crazy when you really think about it. Imagine a console being released today that's more powerful than the most powerful gaming pc, the fucking thing would melt lol.

The only exclusive Dreamcast game that I can think of that I think is still exclusive is Soul Calibur 1, which also one of the greatest fighting games ever let alone one of the greatest Dreamcast games. Soul Calibur is a perfect example of a game that looked and performed way better on the Dreamcast than it did in arcades.

All of this said, I do end up playing the Dreamcast versions of some because they are pretty much PC comparable but without all of the compatibility issues you get with trying to run old PC games on new software. I struggle getting Star Wars Racer to run properly on my PC so I just play the DC version and it's pretty PC perfect anyway. I could download Shadow Man on GOG I think, but I'd rather just throw the DC version on because it's easier and ready to play. I've heard that Omikron's DC version is better than PC but I honestly don't even think the DC version is that good, people really want Omikron to be considered a hidden gem but the game honestly kind of sucks even if it is very ambitious.

Ultimately, I'd recommend just experimenting with games. You'll find some good stuff on Dreamcast and it's usually not worth worrying about if you should play official pc versions of DC games because they usually are very close and DC games are much easier to run.
 
Tom Nook's Gloryhole said:
Speaking of the Dreamcast, what are the must have games for the system? It's one of the only consoles I don't actually have an emulator for because practically everything of value was ported to another system in superior quality.
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I haven’t gotten around to it yet, but Metropolis Street Racer is an open world racing game made by the same people who would later go on to make Project Gotham Racing, so it’s basically PGR0. And some of the music is by the same duo of Richard Jacques and TJ Davis that did the music for Sonic R.
Never Scored said:
Is the Dreamcast version of Chu Chu Rocket better than the GBA port?
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I think the core gameplay is the same, but visuals and music are much better, plus non-link cable multiplayer.
 
BullfrogBill said:
Ultimately, I'd recommend just experimenting with games. You'll find some good stuff on Dreamcast and it's usually not worth worrying about if you should play official pc versions of DC games because they usually are very close and DC games are much easier to run.
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Yep, I can't think of any "must play" games, it's mostly weird niche stuff that stayed on DC. Things that might be classed a hidden gem but not ever be on any best game ever list like Cannon Spike or Zombie Revenge. Only way to find out is to try different stuff in the library. It's relatively small game wise and file sizes aren't huge so you can get a torrent of the whole library.
Tom Nook's Gloryhole said:
Speaking of the Dreamcast
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In terms of picking something to play I like using this site VGC to browse games. Pretty sure it's just some dude doing little reviews since the 90s. Every review has a little blurb and a screenshot and are organised by console and alphabetically.
 
Tom Nook's Gloryhole said:
Speaking of the Dreamcast, what are the must have games for the system? It's one of the only consoles I don't actually have an emulator for because practically everything of value was ported to another system in superior quality.

And does the Dreamcast have any ports that are significantly better than any other system? I remember playing Tony Hawk's 1 on my friends Dreamcast back in the day and thinking about it, the quality SHOULD be better than the PS1 version but it could just be that it displayed things at a higher resolution and my Duckstation version is probably superior.
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The Dreamcast version of Grandia 2 is still the best way to play it as the HD remasters/ports all have fucked audio/lighting
 
Two Dollars said:
Metropolis Street Racer is an open world racing game made by the same people who would later go on to make Project Gotham Racing
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I completely forgot that Project Gotham Racing was a thing, I remember picking it up as a pack-in with my Xbox 360 and it genuinely blew my mind just how insane graphics could be on consoles (granted I wasn't really a PC gamer at the time and even if I was, I was fucking poor and my rig was shit). It's a shame that it'll take forever for those games to become emulatable because Xenia is still a complete fucking joke.
 
Tom Nook's Gloryhole said:
Speaking of the Dreamcast, what are the must have games for the system?
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For fighting games (specifically arcade ones), it's the better "accurate" port machine. Things like MVC2 and CVS2 fair better on the Dreamcast than they did on the PS2. Rayman 2 is also better on the Dreamcast, supposedly.

There's also Space Channel 5. That game is a must-have.
 
Give Them Enough Rope said:
Does it still have an active homebrew scene? And does it have better memeulators than the ones I used as a kid?
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I didn't see any new homebrew but the emulators from back in the day are still there and still as awesome as I remember.

The two coolest pieces of PSP homebrew I've seen.
Custom XMB themes plugin

PSP savestates plugin
The savestates plugin is incredible IMO. I don't know of any other consoles that can do this besides the Nintendo DS with some flashcarts.
 
For anyone here who enjoys gaming on a crt, the arcade archives ports can be stretched to fit the screen window in the display settings, meaning you can render them in the proper aspect ratio on a CRT, even without a setting for widescreen.
 
hey yall, quick question. is Koudelka worth a play through? i never played it so the story would be new to me if that helps.
 
HONKHONKTIME said:
hey yall, quick question. is Koudelka worth a play through? i never played it so the story would be new to me if that helps.
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The combat isn't very good, and the final boss was a pretty large spike in difficulty (losing to the last boss is the canon ending). I did enjoy the atmosphere and the story and the voice acting was surprisingly good, especially for a ps1 game. It's also pretty short, around 10-12 hours.
 
So Xenia had a recent update and it's actually really fucking good now. Barebones customability but fuck it, Banjo Kazooie and Goldeneye Remastered is good enough for me.

Not a big fan of emulators deciding to literally "it just works" without letting us tweak things, but maybe that's just because Dolphin/Duckstation/PCSX2 are just THAT good that everything else feels like a downgrade. Kinda like how when I was playing Spider-Man on the Saturn emulator I couldn't help notice that any decent option was locked behind a paywall.

My emulation goals are to finally see if Metal Gear Solid 4 is viable on the PS3 emulator and if Project Gotham Racing works on Xenia to a decent extent. It's bizarre how all of a sudden the 360/PS3 gen are finally starting to look as if they're viable because that unlocks hundreds of potential games to add to an emulator box.
 
Tom Nook's Gloryhole said:
So Xenia had a recent update and it's actually really fucking good now. Barebones customability but fuck it, Banjo Kazooie and Goldeneye Remastered is good enough for me.

Not a big fan of emulators deciding to literally "it just works" without letting us tweak things, but maybe that's just because Dolphin/Duckstation/PCSX2 are just THAT good that everything else feels like a downgrade. Kinda like how when I was playing Spider-Man on the Saturn emulator I couldn't help notice that any decent option was locked behind a paywall.

My emulation goals are to finally see if Metal Gear Solid 4 is viable on the PS3 emulator and if Project Gotham Racing works on Xenia to a decent extent. It's bizarre how all of a sudden the 360/PS3 gen are finally starting to look as if they're viable because that unlocks hundreds of potential games to add to an emulator box.
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Are you using the canary branch or master? Xenia is how Dolphin used to be where the master branch would never get updated and canary is the intended way to use it. And Xenia does have a good amount of customization, are you using Xenia Manager?
 
I've been playing the PS2 Wizardry through AetherSX2 in 5k on my MBP. Great game, if a bit of a departure from the core of Wizardry in a few ways. Has a bit of a Berserk vibe that I am digging. Yet another great game deprived of an audience thanks to Atlus' scalperbait print runs in the PS1/PS2 era.
 
GreenTips said:
Some of my fondest memories as a child were watching my dad play Jedi Knights and Outlaws on his big ass CRT monitor in his home office.
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