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

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

With older systems, you could just download every single game ever made for them and it wouldn't take up that much space, so you could just copy them all onto your emulation machine and go to town. But once discs started rolling in, that stopped being much of an option. I think PS1 alone is just short of a full terabyte, which even today is a healthy chunk of even a big hard drive. Compare that with its contemporary, the N64, which is around 5GB. Warehousing 10 years worth of Madden and FIFA games isn't so bad when we're talking a hundred megabytes, but you start to feel like an idiot when those games you'll never even consider touching are taking up several gigabytes, and you can't delete them because you won't have a complete collection, and that kind of travesty would cause any one of us to start autistically screeching.

It grow in size if you want to be super-complete as well.
This is a complete SNES set for spergs, good if you want to play the Quebec release of A Link to the Past in french or the official Swedish translation of Shadowrun(they translated a couple of games and for those laughing at mistakes in the FF6 translation, oh boy. "open chest" became "open breast" where the singular 'breast' reads as the plural titties, language is funny).

There's a lot of overlap of course and uncompressed it gets big.

Emulation is great for older home computers and with WinUAE games like Elite 2 can run at more than 2 fps by emulating the A4000. The one at the bottom is the Vampire accelerator for the physical Amiga, but it gives you an idea of how it runs.

 

[Sexual Chocolate]

What could people even emulate in the 90´s tetris?

So what are you guys feelings about playing on real hardware vs emulated?
Personally i like playing on real stuff except for ps2 for some reason no matter what i do with it it looks awful on hd tvs.

Real hardware and a CRT I picked up for basically free.

Emulation is great, it's awesome how the world's smartest autists have coded cycle accurate virtual machines. But it's not as TRUE and HONEST as having real old Commodore or Sega or Playstation or whatever hardware.

Same with the display, these old machines look better than you remember in glorious CRT.

 

[Pissmaster]

Not really sure where to post this, but this thread seems like it'd have the most people who'd laugh at it.

On the Nintendo Switch, they have a couple of emulator apps that they add new games to a few times a year: one for NES, and one for SNES. They already hit most of the obvious games you'd want on those, all of the Mario and Zelda games are already on-board, but the later additions are just... weird. This month, we got Shadow of the Ninja and Eliminator Boat Duel on NES, and Pop'n Twinbee and Smash Tennis on SNES. (Super Tennis is already on there, by the way)

And with every addition, they do an announcement video.

Nearly every single one of these get ratio'd, and the comments are nothing but people making fun of it. The month where all we got was Wrecking Crew and Donkey Kong 3 is sitting at 3.3k likes to 10k dislikes, and Nintendo doesn't give a shit, they're just carrying on being Nintendo and making bizarre decisions about everything.

It'd be one thing if these were free, but you know how other services like Xbox Live and Playstation Network give you free games monthly of varying quality? This is Nintendo's version of that, as an extra perk for spending $20 a year on their service, which isn't exactly great to begin with.

 

[Takayuki Yagami]

Do games made in a deliberately old style go here? If so which boomer shooter do people think is best between Dusk, Amid Evil, and Ion Fury? I’m thinking Dusk or Amid Evil move a bit ahead if only because Ion Fury’s weapons seem a bit redundant at times. Do you really need 2 different grenades and a grenade launcher?

 

[TaimuRadiu]

Has anyone here

What could people even emulate in the 90´s tetris?

So what are you guys feelings about playing on real hardware vs emulated?
Personally i like playing on real stuff except for ps2 for some reason no matter what i do with it it looks awful on hd tvs.

NESticle. There were people emulating stuff like the Spectrum and C64 but they weren't in my age group. Back then you didn't need DOSbox to emulate DOS games (we all had slow PCs) but a program called MoSlo was needed for really ancient DOS games that were synced to whatever processor you had.

Do games made in a deliberately old style go here? If so which boomer shooter do people think is best between Dusk, Amid Evil, and Ion Fury? I’m thinking Dusk or Amid Evil move a bit ahead if only because Ion Fury’s weapons seem a bit redundant at times. Do you really need 2 different grenades and a grenade launcher?

No. Just download Duke Nukem 3D and a bunch of .wads. LGR is right by testing DN3D on EVERYTHING he finds.

 

[Pissmaster]

No. Just download Duke Nukem 3D and a bunch of .wads. LGR is right by testing DN3D on EVERYTHING he finds.

Archive.org has a shitload of DN3D WADs, including some of those compilation CDs they used to sell with a bazillion WADs, look up Duke!ZONE

 

[Varg Did Nothing Wrong]

Also I got the SNES version of Sim Ant because there's no way in hell will that get an official release in a modern media format ever again..

I had Sim Ant on CD ROM as a kid. I'm sure you can still find it on eBay if you look. Might be expensive and it will require a Windows 3.1 computer

 

[XYZpdq]

Games are designed for specific hardware, and emulating changes that part of the experience.

Emulation has it's places, however.

First, any retro games enthusiast ought to emulate a game they aren't familiar with rather than buying the game "blind" just because you think you might like it.

Second, no one, and I mean NO ONE, should be paying $5000 for a copy of Little Samson on NES. Emulate that shit until you can find a bootleg at a reasonable price.

Third, eventually, every machine on the planet will fail and die, meaning that one day the ONLY way to play old games will be via emulation, even if via hardware like the "Nintendo on a Chip"(NOC) clone consoles from China. If the emulation infrastructure isn't "built" while the original hardware still functions, it'll be too late to do it when the equipment fails.

As an example, NOC machines can't play Battletoads or Castlevania 3, along with a list of other games. If the means of emulating those games aren't achieved before those original cartridges fail, those games, as examples, could be lost forever.



Go third party, homie.

As far as I understand famiclone chips are expected to rot away before actual hardware of an AV Famicom or an NES?
but yeah they're fun but they're basically a dedicated emulator

 

[muh_moobs]

As far as I understand famiclone chips are expected to rot away before actual hardware of an AV Famicom or an NES?
but yeah they're fun but they're basically a dedicated emulator

Never heard that, and to be honest I kinda doubt it. But even if they did, those things are produced for pennies and sold dirt cheap. so it's not really a big deal to get another one.

 

[BrunoMattei]

Not really sure where to post this, but this thread seems like it'd have the most people who'd laugh at it.

On the Nintendo Switch, they have a couple of emulator apps that they add new games to a few times a year: one for NES, and one for SNES. They already hit most of the obvious games you'd want on those, all of the Mario and Zelda games are already on-board, but the later additions are just... weird. This month, we got Shadow of the Ninja and Eliminator Boat Duel on NES, and Pop'n Twinbee and Smash Tennis on SNES. (Super Tennis is already on there, by the way)

And with every addition, they do an announcement video.

Nearly every single one of these get ratio'd, and the comments are nothing but people making fun of it. The month where all we got was Wrecking Crew and Donkey Kong 3 is sitting at 3.3k likes to 10k dislikes, and Nintendo doesn't give a shit, they're just carrying on being Nintendo and making bizarre decisions about everything.

It'd be one thing if these were free, but you know how other services like Xbox Live and Playstation Network give you free games monthly of varying quality? This is Nintendo's version of that, as an extra perk for spending $20 a year on their service, which isn't exactly great to begin with.

I don't bother paying for that shit and it's a shame that licensed games are never added because there's a lot of gems.

If I can't play NES Batman or Gremlins 2 then fuck it.

 

[H&K Hates You]

Not really sure where to post this, but this thread seems like it'd have the most people who'd laugh at it.

On the Nintendo Switch, they have a couple of emulator apps that they add new games to a few times a year: one for NES, and one for SNES. They already hit most of the obvious games you'd want on those, all of the Mario and Zelda games are already on-board, but the later additions are just... weird. This month, we got Shadow of the Ninja and Eliminator Boat Duel on NES, and Pop'n Twinbee and Smash Tennis on SNES. (Super Tennis is already on there, by the way)

And with every addition, they do an announcement video.

Nearly every single one of these get ratio'd, and the comments are nothing but people making fun of it. The month where all we got was Wrecking Crew and Donkey Kong 3 is sitting at 3.3k likes to 10k dislikes, and Nintendo doesn't give a shit, they're just carrying on being Nintendo and making bizarre decisions about everything.

It'd be one thing if these were free, but you know how other services like Xbox Live and Playstation Network give you free games monthly of varying quality? This is Nintendo's version of that, as an extra perk for spending $20 a year on their service, which isn't exactly great to begin with.

The Virtual Console's not been worth paying attention to since the Wii. You go from Sin and Punishment, C64 and MSX games on the Wii, then you jump into the 8th generation and realize Nintendo's abandoning all this work and starting from scratch. On each console/handheld. With less effort every attempt.

 

[MysticMisty]

I had Sim Ant on CD ROM as a kid.

Same here, I got it in a 3 pack with SimFarm and classic SimCity. I also had SimTown, which is basically SimCity for kids except you place individual buildings and landscape props to build a funny, wacky looking town. I loved those games and easily spent hundreds of hours playing them for years.

 

[FuckedUp]

Gonna drop in this thread to say if you're playing on original hardware, get an OSSC and/or RetroTINK 2x. If you don't wanna fuck around too much with video connections, get the latter, but the OSSC looks better even when using the same connection (e.g. 480i PS2 component).

Real hardware and a CRT I picked up for basically free.

Emulation is great, it's awesome how the world's smartest autists have coded cycle accurate virtual machines. But it's not as TRUE and HONEST as having real old Commodore or Sega or Playstation or whatever hardware.

Same with the display, these old machines look better than you remember in glorious CRT.

Main beef I have with emulators is that despite what everyone says, there's still a decent amount of input lag. It's just not as obvious if you haven't played on original hardware for a while (if ever).

 

[byuu]

Main beef I have with emulators is that despite what everyone says, there's still a decent amount of input lag. It's just not as obvious if you haven't played on original hardware for a while (if ever).

Have you tried different controllers? Different USB input devices can have very different latencies, an hub between it can make it even worse.
Theoretically the latency can be as low as one 1ms (still higher than old consoles which used hardware interrupts but not noticeable for a human).

 

[FuckedUp]

Have you tried different controllers? Different USB input devices can have very different latencies, an hub between it can make it even worse.
Theoretically the latency can be as low as one 1ms (still higher than old consoles which used hardware interrupts but not noticeable for a human).

I've used a DualShock 4 over USB 3.0 immediately after having no problems with a hard 2D indie game, and not even anticipating emulator lag, only for it to hit me like a brick wall. Sounds autistic, but it's true.

 

[Marissa Moira]

I've built up quite a collection of mini consoles

My Arcade Officially Licenced Data East Gameboy Clone handheld
Chinese KO of NES classic that's one of those 500 in 1 consoles
The Super VIB TV Micro console that came in a very snazzy clear and red color (it was only 8 bucks and everything was transparent which was why I got it)
The Retrobit Super Retrocade (contains official roms licenced by their respective companies and many of the roms were only available on the wii shop like Final Fight 3)
NES Classic
Super NES Classic
Playstation Mini
Sega Genesis mini

I'm always on the lookout for weird shit like these, the NEO GEO ones still seem too expensive for what they are and the Turbo grafix micro console seems to be MIA with no concrete release date.

There was a line of KO micro consoles that came in bright colors like hot pink and electric green and blue and the package claimed that they glowed in the dark, and I regret not picking them up. I'm still looking for them to this day. No youtube videos exist, but the Super Vib was one of the same molds used for one of them. The text on the box was a re-use of the Space Jam and Beast Wars font.

 

[Pissmaster]

I'm always on the lookout for weird shit like these, the NEO GEO ones still seem too expensive for what they are and the Turbo grafix micro console seems to be MIA with no concrete release date.

There was a line of KO micro consoles that came in bright colors like hot pink and electric green and blue and the package claimed that they glowed in the dark, and I regret not picking them up. I'm still looking for them to this day. No youtube videos exist, but the Super Vib was one of the same molds used for one of them. The text on the box was a re-use of the Space Jam and Beast Wars font.

Ashens reviewed the Neo Geo Mini, it's shit so I'd only pick it up if it were ultra-cheap (which it won't be):

You could probably just build one yourself and have it turn out better than the official one.

 

[Notgoodwithusernames]

My PS2 copies Battlefront 2 and Ace 5 have stopped working and Ive used the toothpaste method. Just in case in doesnt it doesnt work what are some good cheap alternatives

 

[Trashfire Garbagefuck]

My PS2 copies Battlefront 2 and Ace 5 have stopped working and Ive used the toothpaste method. Just in case in doesnt it doesnt work what are some good cheap alternatives

for under 30 dollars you could buy a memory card with freemcboot on it and a spindle of DVD-Rs to burn those games onto. if you've got a ps2slim or your phat's disk drive wont play nice you're out of luck on that end. otherwise, if you have a phat you could spend twice that on a network adapter, a hard drive or sd card, and the right adapters to make them work with the network adapter. a cheaper option than any of this would be loading the games over ethernet from your computer. absolute cheapest is emulation but I'm pretty sure ace combat is a bitch to get running even on a good computer.

 

[tehpope]

Gonna drop in this thread to say if you're playing on original hardware, get an OSSC and/or RetroTINK 2x. If you don't wanna fuck around too much with video connections, get the latter, but the OSSC looks better even when using the same connection (e.g. 480i PS2 component).

Just want to mention RetroTINK 2x only works with 240p or 480i. If you want to run games from systems like Dreamcast, PS2, Xbox, Wii, Gamecube in 480p or above, it won't work. An OSSC or another upscaler is your only option. Its not too bad for ps2 since most games were designed with 480i in mind. But I would consider it a deal breaker with the other systems. Especially Xbox since the majority of titles run in 480p stock and a number of them can run in 720p or 1080i.

for under 30 dollars you could buy a memory card with freemcboot on it and a spindle of DVD-Rs to burn those games onto. if you've got a ps2slim or your phat's disk drive wont play nice you're out of luck on that end. otherwise, if you have a phat you could spend twice that on a network adapter, a hard drive or sd card, and the right adapters to make them work with the network adapter. a cheaper option than any of this would be loading the games over ethernet from your computer. absolute cheapest is emulation but I'm pretty sure ace combat is a bitch to get running even on a good computer.

FreeMcBoot with OPL over usb might be the cheapest option, but I would check to see if the games you want to run don't have issues in usb mode. The ps2 uses USB 1.1 and the speeds aren't as fast as 2.0 or using a HDD. I know certain games that use streaming audio (like Initial D) have problems.