Retro gaming

This is where you can deliberate anything relating to videogames - past, present and future
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Indiana747
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Re: Retro gaming

Post by Indiana747 »

I must have half a dozen CRT tvs of varying sizes in the attic, all working, some of em are bloody heavy too. Wife thinks im mad in the head, shes probably right too.
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Suits
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Re: Retro gaming

Post by Suits »

The thing that sets a lot of UK CRT's apart, is that some of them have the option to run at 60hz. Meaning you can import some of the NTSC consoles and play classic games at full screen and speed.

Most monitors and pretty much every PVM & BVM do this, which makes them pretty desirable.

That said, even a traditional domestic 50hz CRT will look great and be much, much better than modern panel screens.

Or you could grab a Framemeister.
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Indiana747
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Re: Retro gaming

Post by Indiana747 »

Anyone on the forums with knolwedge of getting Amiga emulators to run on Raspberry Pi 3? Ive watched Dan Woods(RetroHourUK podcast)on a Youtube video on this, he used Amibian to get it working but Im a total dunce on this end of stuff & dont really have the time to put all the Amiga catalogue on an SD card. If i could just buy a card with them already on it that all id have to do is pop the card into my RP3 with Amibian or Retropie running then id be in dreamland. Other than that, advice or a helping hand when i inevitably run into problems would be much appreciated. Be gentle with me, like i said, never done this before & i am quite stupidz at this kinda computery magic.
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Suits
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Re: Retro gaming

Post by Suits »

So, I recently picked up an original Perfect Dark cartridge in the hope of getting through it in time for the podcast but ultimately missed the opportunity due to life and other things.

But this week I thought I'd get in on it anyway.

Now, it gets complicated because of the way that the N64 puts out its video signal.

I have a Sony PVM that is ideal for displaying RGB signal systems. Such systems for example are the SNES and GameCube but the N64 does not. There are mods available but I'm not really one for that rabbit hole nightmare.

Now, I was aware of this so attempted to get around it switching the channel on my PVM to Component Line A and getting an RCA to BNC adapter for the Video cable running from my component cabled N64 - nothing.

Now, I'm fairly sure that should work but I'm obviously missing something somewhere, I think it may be a setting internally on the PVM but I don't know. I've asked on the CRT/PVM forum but due to most of the users being American there, they generally tend to think I'm mental and to just run it via S-Video on Line C, which is an option I guess but I feel I'll just get the same results.

Really getting on my nerves it is, by chance, anyone here got any ideas ??
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Michiel K
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Re: Retro gaming

Post by Michiel K »

From my past research and understanding, the odd thing about getting an 'upgraded' video signal from composite for the N64 is that the NTSC N64 can output RGB only and the PAL NTSC can output S-Video only. So last year, when my 25 y.o. Grundig CRT died and I obtained a Trinitron (and composite was in no way cutting it for that TV), I ordered an S-Video cable with SCART connector from consolegoods.co.uk.

It's a step up, definitely, but not as much as I would have liked. I'm told that's because my TV has no direct S-Video connection and I have to plug the cables in via that SCART connector.

Don't know if that's any help, but there you go.
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Suits
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Re: Retro gaming

Post by Suits »

Hey Michiel,

You are very much correct, for reasons I don't know the NTSC console is modifiable to produce a RGB output signal but the PAL ones are not, that said - the jump from S-Video to RGB on the N64 isn't as powerful as you'd like as the anti aliasing is the major factor in all this, which is unavoidable really.

S-Video is what I'm going for and for all intensive purposes I should be there. I have a RCA to S-Video converter on order, so I can use Line C on my PVM but really Line A through Video composite should be working to.

Turns out....... I have a faulty N64 Composite cable, as I'm not getting sound output either :lol: , so I have a few spare that I'm going to try tonight.


Your poor old Grundig, some of those CRT's were very good from what I understand but the Trinitron will be a step up I'd imagine unless you had a high end Grundig.

So, your (21 pin) SCART connector will be taking your video signal and splitting it into separate pins to clear up interference and give a better picture. In my opinion, SCART gives better results than S-Video (4 pin) but it's so close it's always pretty much application and opinion based.

Either S-Video or SCART will be a jump up over composite as your separating out the SYNC single, so either way you look at it you'll be close to optimum results.

When it comes to Nintendo, the poor old N64's results are often much less dramatic compared to the SNES or GC.
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Michiel K
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Re: Retro gaming

Post by Michiel K »

Suits wrote: May 5th, 2017, 12:49 pm When it comes to Nintendo, the poor old N64's results are often much less dramatic compared to the SNES or GC.
Definitely agreed. I still have some minor line crawl going on on screen with S-Video. Less than through the composite cables, though.

That Grundig was the first TV me and my brother bought, to connect our NES to. It wasn't particularly high end or anything, but it output a crystal clear image with plain old composite cables. The Trinitron is definitely a step up, but it required me to get aftermarket RGB cables for some of my systems. Now it's like seeing the games in a whole new way, though.

Good luck with the PVM and getting a decent N64 picture!
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stvnorman
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Re: Retro gaming

Post by stvnorman »

A couple of years ago on this very site, I put together a list of top 50 games going back to the 70's as part of a thread on that subject. I've spent a lot of time fine-tuning it and expanding on it with a grand plan to do something with it. This isn't the something I had in mind but it's intended to be a start... I'm quite a few posts into a retro gaming with a twist blog here: https://retroarcadia.blog

Hope the little plug is okay as it started here and a few of you might be interested.
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Re: Retro gaming

Post by Joshihatsumitsu »

stvnorman wrote: May 24th, 2017, 9:50 pm A couple of years ago on this very site, I put together a list of top 50 games going back to the 70's as part of a thread on that subject. I've spent a lot of time fine-tuning it and expanding on it with a grand plan to do something with it. This isn't the something I had in mind but it's intended to be a start... I'm quite a few posts into a retro gaming with a twist blog here: https://retroarcadia.blog

Hope the little plug is okay as it started here and a few of you might be interested.
Only after a quick scroll did I come to WWF on the Gameboy, a game still sitting on my shelf, and a game that I loved a
lot at the time too!

Thanks for sharing the link!
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Michiel K
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Re: Retro gaming

Post by Michiel K »

stvnorman wrote: May 24th, 2017, 9:50 pm A couple of years ago on this very site, I put together a list of top 50 games going back to the 70's as part of a thread on that subject. I've spent a lot of time fine-tuning it and expanding on it with a grand plan to do something with it. This isn't the something I had in mind but it's intended to be a start... I'm quite a few posts into a retro gaming with a twist blog here: https://retroarcadia.blog

Hope the little plug is okay as it started here and a few of you might be interested.
Looks like an interesting read, thanks!
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stvnorman
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Re: Retro gaming

Post by stvnorman »

Thanks guys. Appreciated.
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Suits
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Re: Retro gaming

Post by Suits »

Being a bit of a collector myself, these sort of stories fill me with excitement :) .

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017- ... ds-on-ebay
Joshihatsumitsu

Re: Retro gaming

Post by Joshihatsumitsu »

Suits wrote: June 30th, 2017, 1:30 pm Being a bit of a collector myself, these sort of stories fill me with excitement :) .

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017- ... ds-on-ebay
My co-worker always asks me jokingly (I hope!) threatens to sell off all my beloved, rare games... the thing that scares me is that she'll sell everything cheap!

Better put price tags on everything own, just in case... while I would be devastated of I was robbed, I would be outright offended if my things weren't sold for the maximum price!
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Michiel K
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Re: Retro gaming

Post by Michiel K »

Cool. A friend of mine from the UK is selling me his copy of Steel Batallion, complete with 1st generation, 40 button controller for a 100 EUR. Pretty excited about it as it usually goes for at least triple that price and I nearly had made peace with the idea that I was never going to get my hands on it.

I collect only games and hardware I would like to play (on) and was never interested in the monetary value. But getting older and facing mortality has caused me to rethink that, so I started looking up the current average worth of the games and hardware in my collection and adding it to my existing Excel list of owned games, so my wife can get something out of it, should I come to pass away. The pain of things I sold off for next to nothing in the nineties is eased now as I see what some games I got for very little years ago are worth now.
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Suits
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Re: Retro gaming

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I have a pretty solid collection, nothing too grand, about 600 physical games I'd say.

These are games that I love, like, or used to have has a youngster and like the idea of having my old games in my collection - even if I dislike them. I've certainly played them all.

I don't bulk buy, or scatter buy just to build up numbers, I find that silly, expensive and hard to find the space for. I generally avoid sport titles too.

I have a spreadsheet that I use to track what I have in my collection but it's fallen by wayside in the last year.

It's holds information like version, status (C,I,B) and cost. Cost represents what I paid for the game, that way I can track how much I've spent on things, as opposed to how much something is worth. Which is constantly changing.

Plus, more than anything, it's fun too see that I paid £29.99 for Bubble Bobble on the Master System, from the local video shop in 1992 and 50p for Streets of Rage 2, 10 years ago from That's Entertainment in Romford.

There's a good app that I use, (mainly to track just my Nintendo games as I can't be bothered to do the others at the moment) is Game Vault, it's linked to the Giant Bomb database and pulls things like boxart, title variants and release dates.

Things like new releases (BoTW for instance, saw a jump in prices for the older Zelda games) I see affecting the value of games the most in the last year, another one that saw the price jump was the recent release won Wonder Boy 3:TDT. I can only guess that it's where people pick the new game up digitally, then would like the chance to own in physically also. I understand that.

Finally, :lol: , I come to peace with the fact that I let so much go when I was younger for pennies, that would perhaps be worth a lot lot more nowadays - is the fact that by letting things go was the only way I could get the new console. Chopping in a Mega Drive and 15 games for £100 off a SNES was the only way I could make the leap. A necessary sacrifice :) .
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andrewbcalculating
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Re: Retro gaming

Post by andrewbcalculating »

We bought a Mega Drive Classic Game Console with the intention of playing games from original cartridges as there is a slot for them(my better half likes to play Desert Strike).

We used the wireless controllers that came with it but found them unreliable at best so we bought original wired Mega Drive pads as the console also has sockets for them. However we noticed that a button on one of the pads wasn't working.

So could I ask can someone recommend a modern (I imagine 3rd party) wired equivalent of a Mega Drive pad that will connect to an original console/Classic Game Console please?

Thank you in advance.

|<o>|
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Suits
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Re: Retro gaming

Post by Suits »

Honestly man, have you not just thought about getting another official Mega Drive controller ??

You can pick them up for about £10 from either eBay or CeX.

I'm not too sure when it comes to modern 3rd party Sega stuff, 8BitDo have some excellent modern-retro Nintendo stuff but nothing with Sega fitments as far as I know.

Of all my old pads, the Mega Drive ones seem to the ones with the highest fail rate.
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Flabyo
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Re: Retro gaming

Post by Flabyo »

If your buying replacement Genesis/megadrive pads, go for the official six button ones. You know it won’t be as ancient as a three button one could be, several of the better later games support it, and I think it’s just a nicer pad all round.
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Suits
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Re: Retro gaming

Post by Suits »

So, I was talking to a colleague of mine in work the other day about toys we had as kids and generally reminiscing.

He was telling me about a game that he used to have on his original GameBoy but couldn’t remember the name of.

After he explained a couple of key elements about it, I quickly came to the conclusion that it was probably Duck Tales.

After a Google image search, it was settled, that was it and we continued our found discussion about the game, its levels and how it handled. The cane jump mainly :lol: .

I didn’t let on that I had it at home, so I brought this in today.

The look on peoples faces when they see these sort of things and the want to touch the GameBoy is worth it every time.

It’s not the GameBoy he had but is my test unit and much easier to grab than getting one of my originals out of the box.

Image
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Sinclair Gregstrum
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Re: Retro gaming

Post by Sinclair Gregstrum »

I always liked the design of the Game Boy Pocket. Looks really nice in clear plastic as well!

That also looks like a particularly well kept copy of Duck Tales! Great little game that.

I'm going home to visit my Mum at the weekend and this is making me want to dig out my Game Gear...
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