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

It's extremely easy to replace an N64 analog stick: unlike, say, the Dualshock (which is a NIGHTMARE to put back together), it's contained in its own little unit that's hooked up to the rest of the circuitry via a couple detachable wires. Just get a new N64 analog stick unit thing, unscrew the controller, swap the stick units, and you're good to go.
 
It's extremely easy to replace an N64 analog stick: unlike, say, the Dualshock (which is a NIGHTMARE to put back together), it's contained in its own little unit that's hooked up to the rest of the circuitry via a couple detachable wires. Just get a new N64 analog stick unit thing, unscrew the controller, swap the stick units, and you're good to go.
It sounds like it would be easy. My problem is that I don't want to get some cheap knockoff Chinese stick. I want something that feels like the original, which isn't something you can test over Amazon or eBay, and especially not if you're like me and the last time you touched an N64 controller was 16 years ago. Not to mention, gamecube sticks make stuff like Goldeneye and Mario 64 a pain, since they're apparently too sensitive.
 
I finally caved. I was unsatisfied with N64 emulation, so I bought an N64, an AV2HDMI, an Everdrive, and an 8 GB SD card. I even got the N64 version of 40 Winks out of it.

Afterwards, I downloaded a curated archive of N64 games consisting of NTSC games, PAL exclusive games, and easily playable Japanese games.

This leads me to several observations.
1. After deleting roms of cheat devices(?!) and of redundant games (Gauntlet: Legends, Animal Forest, and the 40 Winks prototype), I have a little under 3 GB worth of space. Does anyone know any good romhacks that I can use to fill the space? I already got SM64 Split Screen and Waluigi’s Taco Stand.
2. They made a rom out of this fucking thing.
I havent tested if it works, but I kind of want to.
What about this?
 
Seconding this, I'd like to know too. I just bought up whatever controllers I could find for cheap over time for replacements, though they got scarce after a while. I just ended up with a bunch of grey ones, didn't even manage to collect every opaque color. Blue N64 controllers are weirdly rarer than they should be.
Really? I have one, mom bought it for me when I first got my N64 because my first game was Mario Kart 64 and she wanted me to be able to play with friends. I didn't know blue was such a rare color.
 
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Well, I've always wanted to go through my storage unit with you guys, and I better do it now. Unfortunately it was a fucking mess and I'd have to pull everything out in order to get to the really good stuff, but I can at least show you a few boxes.

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(JFC Burning Rangers is selling for $600 now)

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Well that's about 1/20th of it. Couldn't feasibly get to the rest of my Saturn and TG-16 stuff or the rest of my Genesis/NES stuff. All of my Sega CD, Master System, and Vectrex shit is buried somewhere in that hoard. Hopefully we live long enough to where I can post it all.
 

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Well, I've always wanted to go through my storage unit with you guys, and I better do it now. Unfortunately it was a fucking mess and I'd have to pull everything out in order to get to the really good stuff, but I can at least show you a few boxes.

View attachment 1765423









View attachment 1765453 (JFC Burning Rangers is selling for $600 now)




Well that's about 1/20th of it. Couldn't feasibly get to the rest of my Saturn and TG-16 stuff or the rest of my Genesis/NES stuff. All of my Sega CD, Master System, and Vectrex shit is buried somewhere in that hoard. Hopefully we live long enough to where I can post it all.
Sweet collection. You keep them at the unit to hoard or moving into a better place for them? I used to collect but deciding to sell if I ever get the time.
 
Sweet collection. You keep them at the unit to hoard or moving into a better place for them? I used to collect but deciding to sell if I ever get the time.

Basically, yeah. Just waiting until I stop bouncing from apartment to apartment. It was supposed to be a short term thing but four years later and they are still in there. Today was actually the first time I had actually cracked any of the boxes open since I packed everything away.
 
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Well, I've always wanted to go through my storage unit with you guys, and I better do it now. Unfortunately it was a fucking mess and I'd have to pull everything out in order to get to the really good stuff, but I can at least show you a few boxes.

View attachment 1765423









View attachment 1765453 (JFC Burning Rangers is selling for $600 now)




Well that's about 1/20th of it. Couldn't feasibly get to the rest of my Saturn and TG-16 stuff or the rest of my Genesis/NES stuff. All of my Sega CD, Master System, and Vectrex shit is buried somewhere in that hoard. Hopefully we live long enough to where I can post it all.
What's that beneath Zool 2...
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Back in 1993 when people weren't familiar with furries it still stood out as a bit weird. I later read an interview with one of the people working on it and he thought the designer was into those cat people in an unusual way.
 
Downloaded pcsx2 and tried out ace 4. The game works however the frame rate keeps bouncing from 35-50
 
You need a specific video settings to make it work, i forgot but i saw it on a youtube video last year, i finished it without slowdowns
Running it in DX9 Software and from first person works without a problem and with no graphical glitches or slowdown. It seems that the rendering of the shiny, self-shadowing player aircraft is what slows things down, following a missile into another plane causes no slowdown either.
 
Just remembered another personal anecdote regarding emulators and their "nonexistent" input lag:

One time a friend and I were hanging out in my room with my oldschool vidya stash, and he was playing Punch-Out!! on my real NES hooked up to my PVM. Now keep in mind he wasn't like these teens; he'd actually gotten up to Mike Tyson on an emulator without save states.

So anyway, he started messing up relatively early on because he kept dodging prematurely, which as he said himself was due to muscle memory from emulator lag. He eventually unlearned it after a few minutes and suddenly managed to get from Great Tiger to Mr. Sandman without a single KO, so I really doubt he was making excuses. And no, his computer was reasonably high-end (for 2015).
 
Just remembered another personal anecdote regarding emulators and their "nonexistent" input lag:

One time a friend and I were hanging out in my room with my oldschool vidya stash, and he was playing Punch-Out!! on my real NES hooked up to my PVM. Now keep in mind he wasn't like these teens; he'd actually gotten up to Mike Tyson on an emulator without save states.

So anyway, he started messing up relatively early on because he kept dodging prematurely, which as he said himself was due to muscle memory from emulator lag. He eventually unlearned it after a few minutes and suddenly managed to get from Great Tiger to Mr. Sandman without a single KO, so I really doubt he was making excuses. And no, his computer was reasonably high-end (for 2015).
Mike Tyson's Punch Out is the gold standard for testing shit. It's crazy how significant the input delay is when you play on an emulator.
 
What's that beneath Zool 2...
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Back in 1993 when people weren't familiar with furries it still stood out as a bit weird. I later read an interview with one of the people working on it and he thought the designer was into those cat people in an unusual way.
I know it was another victim of Jack Tramiel cheapness that the developers cheapness and had to use basic cart resources with limited time. Not as bad as Fight for Life when Atari stop paying the developer and he withheld the final game and Atari had to release beta version.

The Jaguar is a system I like the history but would never get the system unless I find one in the wild with slew of games for cheap since the prices and quality of games are not worth it. I remember I saw a Jaguar with the CD unit for around $200-300 years ago but still wasn't tempted even back in my collecting heyday.
 
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Just remembered another personal anecdote regarding emulators and their "nonexistent" input lag:

One time a friend and I were hanging out in my room with my oldschool vidya stash, and he was playing Punch-Out!! on my real NES hooked up to my PVM. Now keep in mind he wasn't like these teens; he'd actually gotten up to Mike Tyson on an emulator without save states.

So anyway, he started messing up relatively early on because he kept dodging prematurely, which as he said himself was due to muscle memory from emulator lag. He eventually unlearned it after a few minutes and suddenly managed to get from Great Tiger to Mr. Sandman without a single KO, so I really doubt he was making excuses. And no, his computer was reasonably high-end (for 2015).
Screen lag is the biggest offender and John Carmack said it the best in 2012: I can send an IP packet to Europe faster than I can send a pixel to the screen. How f’d up is that?

You can hook up a PS1 to a modern screen that have RCA inputs and games like Parappa the Rapper would still be almost unplayable unless the player re-times the game in his head(like your friend did in Punch-Out). Future games like Guitar Hero that were meant to be played on flatscreens had lag calibration for that reason so emulation isn't to blame for this.
 
Huh, this emulators have input lag thing is interesting. ePSXe seems to be pretty damn good about things. I guess it depends on the game though- Parappa and UmJammerLammy in particular I always found un-fucking-playable. That said, I read that the actual rythm and process to actually getting a good score was an arcane process akin to summoning Cthulhu without a ritual guidebook. I ended up mashing my way through UmJammer and somehow got to the freestyling bonus rounds somewhat frequently, but emulated Parappa still gives me nightmares. That nananana-on-sha jingle haunts my dreams...

And yet Bust-A-Groove 1 and 2 worked beautifully and I didn't even have much trouble with the perfect timing on part 2. As for PCSX2, it also seems good enough about things, as long as you tweak the settings for each and every game, which gets tiring, but still. Use it to play mostly Resident Evil Outbreak and some lesser known titles and none of them have given me much grief, aside from having to switch video settings for every different game.
 
Screen lag is the biggest offender and John Carmack said it the best in 2012: I can send an IP packet to Europe faster than I can send a pixel to the screen. How f’d up is that?
He was almost definitely playing on his gaming monitor, so that barely would've been a factor.
 
Input delay comes down to how lenient an individual game is. For example, I'm a Rock Band fan and play mostly on PC nowadays since I have all the official DLC I could want converted for it plus customs. Phase Shift is super strict with its timing, but Clone Hero can also load Phase Shift songs and is much looser with the timing. CH makes a better party game whereas PS is more for the hardcore rhythm game fan.

This is also why Punch Out is such a good test. You can grab WR in Glass Joe easily with a frame perfect input, but good luck on emulator unless you're used to it. Most games are fine, but there are some notorious examples like timed hits in Mother 3 and Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door.
 
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