Retro gaming

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Suits
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Re: Retro gaming

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Picked this up, just prior to the outbreak with the hope of getting into it rather recently.

Dez speaks very well of it and I'm keen to try it out.

So, it's a NTSC-JP copy of Star Twins (rather blooming lovely it is too) - Jet Force Gemini to us UK people and is coming up on the podcast September-ish.


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Lovely condition example of the game, which delivered cost me £16.48 direct from Japan.

Now, the reason I went for this is the its the 60hz version of the game.

There's a bit of tech chat here so you may want to zone out.......

I don't have a NTSC N64 and PAL N64's use a fiddly Checking Integrated Circuit (CIC) as I understand it, so region releasing them isn't possible, or tricky to do anyway and it would still run at 50Hz if I modded my existing PAL N64.

Another inherent characteristic of the N64 is that it doesn't naturally put out RGB video signal, it generates it, but processes it internally into a Composite signal and outputs natively as that.

It's pretty simple to mod a N64 to re-activate the RGB single output though, you just need a little daughter/sister board that jumps in and stops the Composite signal conversions and outputs, lovely, crisp, darling RGB and sync.

So, the goal is a get a NTSC-JP N64, RGB mod it and use that to all it's vibrant, clear 60Hz glory.

I've ordered the necessary RGB to SCART cables from Retro Gaming Cables, ordered the console and have the game.


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As with many other things, my N64 is now delayed and I have no idea when it will arrive.

Plenty worse things going on at the moment mind.

But yeah, she will wait until then.
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Michiel K
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Re: Retro gaming

Post by Michiel K »

Wow, that Star Twins cart and box look amazing! Decent alternative title to Jet Force Gemini, I suppose!

RGB-modded NTSC-J N64 might get me into the system again. Very tempting.
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Suits
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Re: Retro gaming

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Michiel K wrote: April 2nd, 2020, 1:24 pmRGB-modded NTSC-J N64 might get me into the system again. Very tempting.
Mate, that’s my excuse exactly. Darran is helping me out with suggesting some hidden gems etc...

There’s a few different boards and routes you can go with RGB’n a N64, so I’ll let you know how this method pans out.
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Michiel K
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Re: Retro gaming

Post by Michiel K »

Great, man. Very keen to see the results.
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Flabyo
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Re: Retro gaming

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I think the low framerate hurts JFG a fair bit, or maybe I’m just used to playing the rare replay version which adds twinstick controls to it, making it a lot easier to play.

Absolutely stunning music in it though. The character select theme, and the one for SS Anubis are standouts.
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Suits
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Re: Retro gaming

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Check out how good Wario looks on the Wii with his scanlines.

It's really very hard to capture on camera, also seeing him in motion is best, but the Wii can look blooming fantastic.

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OldBailey
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Re: Retro gaming

Post by OldBailey »

Looks great!

I love the Wii for it's 240p output. Such a great, versatile console. I had mine hooked up to a hdtv for years. Picked up a second machine and an RGB scart cable a couple of years back and it's been connected to a CRT ever since. I did have it hooked up to a widescreen Trinitron until it sadly died last year which I kinda miss. It was nice to have the option for Wii/GameCube titles that support it.

I've gotten a lot more use out of it for virtual console and emulation since putting it on a 4:3 display though. Brilliant little console.
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Suits
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Re: Retro gaming

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BaileyBoy wrote: April 13th, 2020, 11:34 pm I love the Wii for it's 240p output. Such a great, versatile console. I had mine hooked up to a hdtv for years. Picked up a second machine and an RGB scart cable a couple of years back and it's been connected to a CRT ever since. I did have it hooked up to a widescreen Trinitron until it sadly died last year which I kinda miss. It was nice to have the option for Wii/GameCube titles that support it.

I've gotten a lot more use out of it for virtual console and emulation since putting it on a 4:3 display though. Brilliant little console.
Ah, great stuff.

Yeah, it seems like things had only just started to get going with CRT's, before they were ended by the more compact, higher resolution modern panels like the TFT, LCD and Plasma's of the early-mid 00's.

I only use my Wii on a CRT as well, it's fantastic to see these things in action.

Yeah, there's a few games that the Wii natively puts out in 16:9, Resident Evil 4, Skyward Sword, New Super Mario Bros (menus are 4:3 though) to name a few that spring to mind.

I was messing about with the PCE-CD emulation but wasn't getting it like I wanted, I ended up having to mess with the geometry so much, it was panicking me :lol: .

What set are you using at the moment ??
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OldBailey
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Re: Retro gaming

Post by OldBailey »

I have it hooked up to a 20 inch flat screen Trinitron and it looks fantastic on there. For PCE-CD stuff I found Wii mednafen by far the best and simplest emulator. Just set double strike (240p mode) and go! The others I tried had issues with some of the oddball resolutions that system outputs causing scrolling shimmering etc. Give that a go if you haven't already 👍
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Suits
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Re: Retro gaming

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BaileyBoy wrote: April 14th, 2020, 11:46 am I have it hooked up to a 20 inch flat screen Trinitron and it looks fantastic on there.
Ah, lovely. I have a Sony PVM 20L4 that I run everything via RGB SCART - BNC into.

That'll be my CRT now until it dies.
BaileyBoy wrote: April 14th, 2020, 11:46 am PCE-CD stuff I found Wii mednafen by far the best and simplest emulator. Just set double strike (240p mode) and go! The others I tried had issues with some of the oddball resolutions that system outputs causing scrolling shimmering etc. Give that a go if you haven't already 👍
Ah, OK, cool.

I forget what emulator I was using, I don't think it was Wii Mednafen - perhaps I'll have another mess about with things.

I found all sorts of stuff amiss with things, one of the biggest issues I had was the sound, it was awful.

So I just left it alone after about 10 minutes.

I don't normally touch emulation but I'm having trouble getting hold of the right PCE-CD, so was tempted to dip my toe in, but my efforts made it far too cold and rotten :lol: .
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OldBailey
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Re: Retro gaming

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Yeah I only really use emulation for certain systems/titles that I'm unlikely to be able to play on og hardware. I've found that the Wii through a CRT is the only setup I've tried that I'm happy with, set up correctly I've found it's virtually indistinguishable in many cases.
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Flabyo
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Re: Retro gaming

Post by Flabyo »

New package this morning, going to be getting my ninja on:

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Re: Retro gaming

Post by Alex79 »

Oh god I had that Ninja game, it was hard as nails!
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Suits
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Re: Retro gaming

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Boxes 😳, that’s unlike you Flabyo !!
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Flabyo
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Re: Retro gaming

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I tend to buy loose carts most of the time, but I’m not averse to getting ones in boxes if they’re cheap enough. This was about a tenner for both, it was really only ‘the ninja’ I was looking for, but I also like playing stuff I know nothing about too.

(Which reminds me, I need to get back to that ‘playing random games from my box of Megadrive games I know nothing about’ thread).
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Suits
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Re: Retro gaming

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Suits wrote: April 2nd, 2020, 1:19 pm As with many other things, my N64 is now delayed and I have no idea when it will arrive.

Plenty worse things going on at the moment mind.

But yeah, she will wait until then.
So, my NTSC N64 (NUJ1 series) , with a RGB mod showed up yesterday 8-) .

It's about two months late but better late than never.

When it arrived, I was in the middle of work, but couldn't help myself and had to open it up to see the work.

N64 if anyone wonders what they look like with the shell off.

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Here you can see the bridging work carried out to intercept the Composite signal and convert it back to RGB signal and out of the console.

Wires feel nice and thick and the board is printed with the company name, so things are looking good quality if a little messy with the glue on the solder.

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Once I'd had a good poke around and put it back together I put it to one side for later to test and calibrate.

After a quick set up and quick calibrate (nothing really) it was good to go on the current settings, images started to appear.....

** the forum board insists that images don't exceed 1000 pixels, tall or wide, so these have been resized and have lost a lot of quality sadly :cry:

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Very happy it must be said.

I then played three hours of Star Twins and lost myself in that which is a very surprising game 8-) .
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Re: Retro gaming

Post by KSubzero1000 »

I don't think your devotion to all sorts of old-school Nintendo hardware will ever stop being extremely endearing. :heart:
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Re: Retro gaming

Post by Magical_Isopod »

Can someone explain the Vectrex to me? Let me provide some context...

I'm watching a video wherein the narrator is reviewing ever Vectrex game, presumably through an emulator. But I'm absolutely amazed at this machine. I understand that vector displays and raster displays are fundamentally different, and I'm seeing a bit of footage filmed off an actual Vectrex machine... And it APPEARS as though actually playing a Vectrex would be different from what any TV screen could actually display? It's like every line is its own fluorescent tube light... Is that an accurate assessment?

A lot of these games seem incredibly creative for the time period as well. They look amazing, and the mechanics seem a hell of a lot more interesting than the majority of games from the 1980s, even inclusive of early Famicom games. And something about the way these games animate, too... It looks so smooth, in a way I can't really describe. There's nothing else like it.

Hypothetically, if one were to make a Vectrex successor... Could it even be done with a modern display? Or would it require a vector display? This machine is such a bizarre... Thing. I feel like it died too young, and that the technology ought to be iterated upon. Perhaps it has? I have no idea.
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Re: Retro gaming

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Yeah, the way the monitor on the vectrex works is not like a normal crt. If you’ve ever seen an asteroids or battle zone arcade machine, they’re the same.

Short version: a normal crt tv works by scanning the electron beam left to right across the screen turning it on or off to light individual pixels, and it repeated this for each line of the screen vertically.

In a vector display like on the vectrex the electron gun is driven directly to draw the lines onto the screen. It results in very crisp lines. If you’ve ever used an oscilloscope, it’s like how those displays work too.

You can’t really replicate that exactly with any modern tv hardware, you’re always going to get some pixelisation of the line even on a 4k tv (though you’d probably need to look quite closely to se it).

Emulators usually ‘fake’ the phosphor ‘glow’ bleed effect to try and look as much like the original hardware as they can.

(Trivia: the vectrex only had a single short run because they were made after someone got hold of a bunch of unused medical display monitors on the cheap, but was then unable to source a new supply once they’d all been used)
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Suits
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Re: Retro gaming

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Flabyo wrote: April 30th, 2020, 7:46 am (Trivia: the vectrex only had a single short run because they were made after someone got hold of a bunch of unused medical display monitors on the cheap, but was then unable to source a new supply once they’d all been used)
I did not know that, brilliant.
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