Retro Gaming

[JetJockey]

4 hours ago, dizman said:

Fair enough and as long as it's easily available and you don't have to pay scalper prices like with the NES and SNES Mini then more power to ya. Yeah I'd assume it won't take too long for someone to crack the PS Mini.

No more scalper prices for NES and SNES mini as the last time I was in Target they had a bunch of them.

 

I wonder what the hot Black Friday release will be? Nintendo always seems to have a special version of a portable. I'm fine with my SNES 3DS XL since I have the SNES mini. But I still kind of want a clear 3DS XL since Nintendo has shown clear plastic prototypes. But I think they are all about the 2D version now and I like the 3D option.

[JB0]

3 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

If the PS mini gets cracked, has enough storage, and can be made to work with another controller (no dual analogs is a deal breaker) I'll try to pick one up. Otherwise I'm sticking with my Nvidia Shield and an emulator.

Standard USB inputs, it looks like. If it gets cracked, you can put arbitrary emulators on it instead of being stuck with Sony's fork of PCSX. So once cracked, it supports arbitrary USB controllers and emulates DualShock, almost by default.

[mikeszekely]

10 hours ago, JB0 said:

Standard USB inputs, it looks like. If it gets cracked, you can put arbitrary emulators on it instead of being stuck with Sony's fork of PCSX. So once cracked, it supports arbitrary USB controllers and emulates DualShock, almost by default.

It sounds arbitrary, but to me once you replace the default emulator you might as well just use an Android TV or Raspberry Pi box.  It's why I didn't put Retroarch on my SNES Classic despite Canoe having issues with some games.

[JetJockey]

Anyone collect other retro stuff? Perhaps arcade machines, marquees, flyers, artwork, arcade tokens, vintage game magazines or anything else? I posted that Dragon's Lair Castle print on the last page. Limited Run Games put together this Laserdisc sized box set for the trilogy of Dragon's Lair, Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp, and Space Ace. Limited to 2,300.

 

I've seen some nice retro rooms with cels from the games.

 

I know I have some old Neo-Geo flyers when the home system first arrived. I still need to get some of the more rare and expensive shooter titles on that system like Viewpoint. That one is pure nostalgia though as I remember playing it in the arcade and only barely getting to the third level. But the music was cool as were the graphics for the time.

 

Edited November 15, 2018 by JetJockey

[jenius]

I visited my friend recently who repairs and collects old arcade games. He has a Dragon's Lair and we played it for a bit..... sooooooooooooo hard. He left the quarter receptacles completely beat up rather than restoring them because he likes to think about all the thoroughly frustrated kids slamming quarters in trying to get further in the game.

I think that's the first time I've ever seen Viewpoint. That same buddy has a bunch of NeoGeo cabinets, next time I'm there I'll look for that one because it does look really cool.

[efisher]

Bought a loose Super Grafx system (controller, ac adapter, and av cables not pictured) and some games.

 

Looks really good going through the OSSC!

 

 

Edited November 15, 2018 by efisher

[JetJockey]

On 11/15/2018 at 12:55 AM, jenius said:

I visited my friend recently who repairs and collects old arcade games. He has a Dragon's Lair and we played it for a bit..... sooooooooooooo hard. He left the quarter receptacles completely beat up rather than restoring them because he likes to think about all the thoroughly frustrated kids slamming quarters in trying to get further in the game.

I think that's the first time I've ever seen Viewpoint. That same buddy has a bunch of NeoGeo cabinets, next time I'm there I'll look for that one because it does look really cool.

 

Does your friend repair them for sale or just fun? I remember years ago when I first looked into owning arcade games, I didn't know that they could be restored. I saw a few with poor repairs and in bad condition with missing or torn decals. Now I wish I got a few as they were cheap. I don't think the guy selling them was really into games or condition as he just said put the one with the bad decals against the wall so you can't see the missing decal. I couldn't deal with that.

 

Dragon's Lair was and is still difficult. I didn't see anyone beat it in the arcade. Even if a person made it to the Dragon's Lair, it was like seeing something rare. No one could believe someone made it. The game was something to see back then compared to the other game graphics at the time. Both Space Ace and Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp are easier games. Dragon's Lair II is the easiest. I think that one gives you flashes for just about every move. I could beat that one.

 

Viewpoint is kind of slow but I remember owning a portable version of Zaxxon and Viewpoint is like a far better version of that.

 

18 hours ago, efisher said:

Bought a loose Super Grafx system (controller, ac adapter, and av cables not pictured) and some games.

 

Looks really good going through the OSSC!

 

 

I love that Ghouls n Ghosts cover. I think Last Gamer said it was rare or expensive. I think it's on my list as the best games in the series to me are Ghouls n Ghouls on Genesis and Super Ghouls n Ghosts on SNES. A guy I knew loved PC Engine stuff back in High School. I think he had a Super Grafx. I know he wanted it for Strider but according to wiki it never came out.

[efisher]

5 hours ago, JetJockey said:

I love that Ghouls n Ghosts cover. I think Last Gamer said it was rare or expensive. I think it's on my list as the best games in the series to me are Ghouls n Ghouls on Genesis and Super Ghouls n Ghosts on SNES. A guy I knew loved PC Engine stuff back in High School. I think he had a Super Grafx. I know he wanted it for Strider but according to wiki it never came out.

Yeah, the artwork is amazing! I think the Mega Drive cover looks just as cool as the Super Grafx cover art.

 

Super Ghouls n Ghosts is a good game and all, but does not hold a candle to original Ghouls n Ghosts. Super Ghouls n Ghosts plays so damn slow. The second part of level two really drags the game to a halt, in my opinion. Also, taking away the ability to shoot up or down was a step backwards. I still one credit clear through it every once and a while, but I always find myself playing original Ghouls n Ghosts (Sega Saturn version) a lot more just because the faster game play and snappier controls.

 

I remember reading in an old issue of EGM that Strider was to come out for the Super Grafx, but the system sales were poor so they ended up porting it to the CD system instead.

[JetJockey]

On 11/16/2018 at 9:04 AM, efisher said:

Yeah, the artwork is amazing! I think the Mega Drive cover looks just as cool as the Super Grafx cover art.

 

Super Ghouls n Ghosts is a good game and all, but does not hold a candle to original Ghouls n Ghosts. Super Ghouls n Ghosts plays so damn slow. The second part of level two really drags the game to a halt, in my opinion. Also, taking away the ability to shoot up or down was a step backwards. I still one credit clear through it every once and a while, but I always find myself playing original Ghouls n Ghosts (Sega Saturn version) a lot more just because the faster game play and snappier controls.

 

I remember reading in an old issue of EGM that Strider was to come out for the Super Grafx, but the system sales were poor so they ended up porting it to the CD system instead.

I remember bringing the Genesis game to school just because I wanted to study that box art. It is really cool. I like that water stage in Super Ghouls n Ghosts with the thunder and waves going up and down. The music is good too. There was a Capcom compilation disc with remixed Ghouls n Ghosts tunes. I think a remixed Strider tune is on there as well.

 

I haven't played a good Ghosts n Goblins or Ghouls n Ghosts game since those two. I didn't like Maximo that much. I thought it was easy. I didn't get the second one. I thought about getting Ultimate Ghosts n Goblins on the PSP but I looked at some of that and it didn't seem that good. The last good thing from the series was probably the artwork on the GBA cover.

[Black Valkyrie]

 

Panzer Dragoon and Panzer Dragoon Zwei remake !

 

[jenius]

Panzer Dragoon SAGA needs the remake.

[JB0]

I thought Sega forgot they owned that! Color me pleasantly surprised.

[Convectuoso]

https://www.google.com.co/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2018/12/10/18135086/sony-playstation-classic-hack-ps1-games-usb-drive&ved=2ahUKEwi9ktap4pffAhVsvFkKHRsHC4YQFjAAegQIBRAB&usg=AOvVaw2f5EG42fXON9KxvFG2EM3M&ampcf=1

Took less than expected 

[JB0]

57 minutes ago, Convectuoso said:

https://www.google.com.co/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2018/12/10/18135086/sony-playstation-classic-hack-ps1-games-usb-drive&ved=2ahUKEwi9ktap4pffAhVsvFkKHRsHC4YQFjAAegQIBRAB&usg=AOvVaw2f5EG42fXON9KxvFG2EM3M&ampcf=1

Took less than expected 

Private keys stored on the device? No signature checks at all on the boot code? No protection against dumping the boot ROM? Yup, it's a Playstation all right.

...

Seriously, I thought SCE had learned these lessons after the PSP debacle. Whatever, good for the users. Especially since the hardware is so much more capable than the Minitendo units. (Nintendo chose hardware that was more than acceptable for Nintendo emulation, but continued to use the same hardware for Super Nintendo emulation, where it wasn't really up to the task and numerous corners had to be cut.)

[Mazinger]

1 hour ago, JB0 said:

Private keys stored on the device? No signature checks at all on the boot code? No protection against dumping the boot ROM? Yup, it's a Playstation all right.

...

Seriously, I thought SCE had learned these lessons after the PSP debacle. Whatever, good for the users. Especially since the hardware is so much more capable than the Minitendo units. (Nintendo chose hardware that was more than acceptable for Nintendo emulation, but continued to use the same hardware for Super Nintendo emulation, where it wasn't really up to the task and numerous corners had to be cut.)

What I find really interesting is this, from the wiki on it:

"The Classic uses the free and open source emulator called PCSX using the ReARMed branch to play its games."

That seems, uh, bold to me, in that they are basically taking some open source project off-the-shelf and repackaging to sell in a fancy plastic shell.  I wonder how many others have done that.  There's plenty of emulation going on left and right in for sale devices or networks such as Nintendo's, but I've never heard of someone straight up selling one since it's basically free advertising for that software.

That being said, when there's a good port, such as the Street Fighter 30th anniversary collection, I don't mind paying up even though I've run emulators since 1998 on just about anything that could run them, because hey, I need my classic arcade games. 

[JB0]

Using existing open-source emulators is pretty common. Nintendo is notable for NOT doing it. 

The weird thing is that Sony actually obeys licenses and makes the source available instead of going "GPL, schmeePL. Sue us if you don't like it."

https://doc.dl.playstation.net/doc/psclassic-oss/PCSX_ReARMed.html

 

Actually, the other surprising thing is the PSClassic is Linux-based. Sony Computer Entertainment is a huge FreeBSD fan(likely because the BSD license is far easier to work with than the GPL).

Edited December 12, 2018 by JB0

[Mazinger]

2 hours ago, JB0 said:

Using existing open-source emulators is pretty common. Nintendo is notable for NOT doing it. 

The weird thing is that Sony actually obeys licenses and makes the source available instead of going "GPL, schmeePL. Sue us if you don't like it."

https://doc.dl.playstation.net/doc/psclassic-oss/PCSX_ReARMed.html

Actually, the other surprising thing is the PSClassic is Linux-based. Sony Computer Entertainment is a huge FreeBSD fan(likely because the BSD license is far easier to work with than the GPL).

Somewhere Richard Stallman is smiling and playing Final Fantasy VII, barefoot.

[JB0]

6 hours ago, Mazinger said:

Somewhere Richard Stallman is smiling and playing Final Fantasy VII, barefoot. 

Stopping only to eat the stuff between his toes.

 

Honestly, I think it is because a lot of those ARM chips only have Linux drivers, so they were stuck unless they wanted to develop everything from scratch and add tons of R&D costs to their cheap cash-in(which is apparently so cheap they couldn't even check if all of their disk images were NTSC games).

If I were Sony, I'd see if there was a couple crates of Vita parts left over somewhere, maybe a few fully-assembled Vita TVs left over that they could recase. It woulda made this thing really easy to make, since all the work was done years ago. But I'm guessing they couldn't get more of the CPUs at a reasonable cost.

[Black Valkyrie]

 

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2018/12/video_snes_classic_runs_psone_games_better_than_the_playstation_classic

 

[JetJockey]

On 12/10/2018 at 11:18 AM, Black Valkyrie said:

 

Panzer Dragoon and Panzer Dragoon Zwei remake !

 

Finally. But it should be the trilogy. But they are remaking Streets of Rage as well. Or making a new game. So it seems like they are finally getting around to something. Hopefully these will be good.

On 12/10/2018 at 12:03 PM, jenius said:

Panzer Dragoon SAGA needs the remake.

The story posted somewhere is that Sega deleted or destroyed the program. But that should just make things more expensive than necessary because of their own incompetence.

[Black Valkyrie]

 

More NES custom cover, 

 

[Convectuoso]

Hi. 

Just a quick question:

What's the best Android emulator to run the old Macross arcade games?

 

Thanks 

[Black Valkyrie]

 

 

[mikeszekely]

On 1/5/2019 at 8:56 AM, Convectuoso said:

Hi. 

Just a quick question:

What's the best Android emulator to run the old Macross arcade games?

 

Thanks 

I haven't tried to play any Macross on Android, so I don't have a definite answer, just some advice. There are a few different versions of MAME for Android, and part of the reason for that is because a ROM that works great on one might be totally unplayable on another. So it's probably a matter of trying them to see which one might work with your ROMs.

The alternative is RetroArch. RetroArch isn't an emulator in and of itself, though, it's a unified frontend for running ROMs through a collection of emulator cores. It's not as user friendly as a lot of stand-alone emulators and can take some effort to tweak and tune before it's set up the way you like it. However, I hear that the fba core has excellent compatibility with a lot of arcade ROMs

[Mazinger]

I’d also put in a vote for retro arch. It has touch screen support and seems to try to be a good front end for emulators of the various systems on mobile devices. Configuration beyond the defaults can be complex though.

[Black Valkyrie]

 

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2019/01/the_retro_champ_is_a_switch-like_hybrid_console_that_plays_your_original_nes_games

 

 

 

 

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

Anyone else tinkering around with Launchbox for their retro needs? I really dig the UI on this one. Got MAME up and going for it and so far I have no issues with. For the SEGA consoles, it's apparently easier to use Retroarch within Launchbox. It just strikes me as odd to use a frontend within another one.

[ScrambledValkyrie]

On 1/8/2019 at 8:49 AM, Black Valkyrie said:

 

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2019/01/the_retro_champ_is_a_switch-like_hybrid_console_that_plays_your_original_nes_games

 

 

 

 

As some of the comments on the article state, I think this device has too many strikes against it by trying to look too much like a Switch (no d-pad, wide screen, etc). 

While the portability is nice, consoles like this don’t hold much interest for me any more. I’ve kind of gotten to the point where I just want a truly authentic retro game experience: original hardware, CRT, etc. I hardly ever use my Retron 5 any more.

[Mazinger]

27 minutes ago, ScrambledValkyrie said:

I’ve kind of gotten to the point where I just want a truly authentic retro game experience: original hardware, CRT, etc. I hardly ever use my Retron 5 any more.

Whoa, CRTs?! They still get used plenty with old-school 2D fighting game tournament because of the need to minimize input latency on screens and the fact old hardware lacks modern ports display ports. There are some very expensive mini-boards that translate analog to digital signals but they are still expensive.

Do you do speed runs and such?

[Black Valkyrie]

 

Crystalis, 

 

[mikeszekely]

20 hours ago, Valkyrie Hunter D said:

Anyone else tinkering around with Launchbox for their retro needs? I really dig the UI on this one. Got MAME up and going for it and so far I have no issues with. For the SEGA consoles, it's apparently easier to use Retroarch within Launchbox. It just strikes me as odd to use a frontend within another one.

Launchbox, no. I've thought about it, but on my Windows machine I just have shortcuts to individual emulators with custom icons. Frontends like RetroArch and Launchbox gave seemed like an unnecessary extra layer.

I've used Lakka as a minimal OS on PC hardware I stuffed into an old NES as a dedicated emulation machine, though. Results were mixed.

[Convectuoso]

On 1/6/2019 at 11:04 AM, mikeszekely said:

I haven't tried to play any Macross on Android, so I don't have a definite answer, just some advice. There are a few different versions of MAME for Android, and part of the reason for that is because a ROM that works great on one might be totally unplayable on another. So it's probably a matter of trying them to see which one might work with your ROMs.

The alternative is RetroArch. RetroArch isn't an emulator in and of itself, though, it's a unified frontend for running ROMs through a collection of emulator cores. It's not as user friendly as a lot of stand-alone emulators and can take some effort to tweak and tune before it's set up the way you like it. However, I hear that the fba core has excellent compatibility with a lot of arcade ROMs

 

On 1/6/2019 at 11:13 AM, Mazinger said:

I’d also put in a vote for retro arch. It has touch screen support and seems to try to be a good front end for emulators of the various systems on mobile devices. Configuration beyond the defaults can be complex though.

Thanks. 

[davidwhangchoi]

been playing 

 

Edited January 9, 2019 by davidwhangchoi

[JB0]

10 hours ago, ScrambledValkyrie said:

As some of the comments on the article state, I think this device has too many strikes against it by trying to look too much like a Switch (no d-pad, wide screen, etc). 

Fortunately, it is far from the first famiclone with a screen. Heck, there's always the Retro Duo Portable, which plays Nintendo AND Super Nintendo carts.

[Mazinger]

I'm not sure if this qualifies as retro with for our greying generation:

The Street Fighter 3rd Strike Cooperation Cup went down in Japan over the past weekend.  Essentially this is a team event where, at first teams are formed of players using the same character up until the finals portion where the surviving team players can then choose other characters.

This game came out in 1990 when the arcades were closing up and consoles began to dominate.  People are still discovering new "tech" to this day and character that were once considered weaker, are now, 20 years later, considered stronger, such as Oro. Anyways here are some highlights.  This was recorded off of sitting style cabinets using the original Capcom CPIII boards using CRT displays.

I love this game all that beautiful, hand assembled pixel art from back then.  I think it's taken 20 years for 3D art to reach that same level of execution.