Retro Gaming Megathread: Disconnect from the present, and Go back to the nineties.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Retro Gaming Megathread: Disconnect from the present, and Go back to the nineties.

XtraSmiley: Oct 4, 2002

Turbinosamente posted:

The SNES market is why I have 11 games for it and 6 are SFC games, with almost none of the flagship titles for it (no Marios, Metroid, Megamans, Final Fantasy etc). I wouldn't have the system at all if I didn't stumble into one for $24 in a thrift store. I also don't bother looking at the SNES games in a game shop anymore.

Is there any reason no one mentions flash carts for SNES? I mean the SD2SNES is a great choice to play most of the classics, cult hits, and poo poo that is more expensive than it's worth, all on original hardware.

# ¿ Aug 30, 2017 23:01

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# ¿ May 15, 2024 13:20

XtraSmiley: Oct 4, 2002

MrLonghair posted:

The SNES market is why I dropped $80 on an Everdrive�

Nice. I haven't done either yet, but during the annual Black Friday (TM) sale, I'll likely get one. Leaning toward the SD2SNES, but I have many of the special chip games that I want (although they are the SFC ones mostly), so maybe not. What are your thoughts on the ED?

The new sound capabilities of the SD2SNES seems interesting, but I don't know if I would play with the upgraded music, as the chip tunes are what I really love being retro and all.

# ¿ Aug 30, 2017 23:59

XtraSmiley: Oct 4, 2002

Wamdoodle posted:

WTF!? Does anyone have one of these to confirm it works?

Edit: Oh, you have to have a hacked Vita.

Yes they work fine with a CFW Vita. Although the cheap Chinese ones may need to be sanded down a little as the quality control isn't 100%, but nothing 20 seconds won't fix.

# ¿ Aug 31, 2017 02:44

XtraSmiley: Oct 4, 2002

univbee posted:

words..

You could argue the legit SNES cart is a "superior" product but is it $170 or whatever superior?

I wouldn't argue it's a superior product, b/c I don't think it actually is, but...

for some people, $170 isn't that much money, and it's an easy purchase.

For others, having the thing they had as a kid is what's important. No they won't play it that much, they just have it.

# ¿ Aug 31, 2017 18:09

XtraSmiley: Oct 4, 2002

Sir Tonk posted:

Too bad he put it in a Porsche.

Yeah, especially since there was the exact toy in a Ferrari made for Outrun to begin with he could have used...

# ¿ Sep 5, 2017 05:29

XtraSmiley: Oct 4, 2002

I've been doing a lot of traveling lately, and I always stop by the local "retro game" store. Today I'm at Dulles, so I stopped by https://www.estarland.com which was literally across the street from where I'm staying.

What a big store with a ton of new poo poo! I was impressed with the selection, but not with the price. WTH is it with stores charging more than eBay prices? I mean a little bit higher is one thing, but everything was 10-20% or more higher. I mean, WTH? Also, so many people were bringing in used games to trade in while I was there, and getting like 10% of what they could have selling on craigslist or eBay. Are people just that lazy?

Rant over. I'm just made I can't get old games at reasonable prices anymore. Time to order some more flashcarts.

# ¿ Sep 11, 2017 21:00

XtraSmiley: Oct 4, 2002

OK, those of you local to that store... any good places to eat? I love Mexican and BBQ, no chains please..

And to make this a retro themed post, what's the biggest change in a 16-bit game in regards to food items? I'm thinking Mystical Ninja, but maybe there were others? (i.e. changing Japanese cuisine into American).

# ¿ Sep 12, 2017 00:38

XtraSmiley: Oct 4, 2002

You Am I posted:

Previous owner had hacked the slot to be wider to take US SNES cartridges.

And I do mean hacked, it's loving ugly

Geezus, especially when he could have just bought a $15 plastic converter... drat.

# ¿ Sep 14, 2017 04:04

XtraSmiley: Oct 4, 2002

falz posted:

Has anyone made an attempt to hack the roms in those 161 carts to remove a fighting game and plop in windjammers instead?

Seems like you could dump one of the roms, hack it in, solder in new rom. Or just someone that speaks Chinese to ask whoever actually makes them?

Surprisingly, this has been asked many times over the years (I'd love some other games on there in including WJ), but alas, it's NEVER happened.

I'm waiting for the DS cart too, this poo poo has gotten ridiculous as far as prices have gone.

# ¿ Sep 16, 2017 18:12

XtraSmiley: Oct 4, 2002

Pegnose Pete posted:

Kind of a random/niche question but I live in Japan and want to order an SD2SNES when they go on sale on Black Friday.
My issue is that flashcarts were made illegal a few years back after Nintendo pushed a case through. I think at first it was just prohibiting the sale of flashcarts because of shops in Akihabara, but was extended to include importing from overseas as well.

Never heard of anyone getting personally nailed for something like this, but I've heard horror stories of customs letting contraband through and waiting until the recipient signs for the package to be delivered and punishing them after.

Anyone have any experience with this? Am I worrying too much? Might ship it to my folks in Canada and just wait until I go home and visit in a year or two.

I actually order 2 every year during BF myself! I'd be happy to bring it to you as I come to Tokyo for work (from Hawaii) or mail it to you if you like. You'd have to cover all the costs/shipping, but if it helps you out I'd be happy to do it.

# ¿ Sep 25, 2017 04:34

XtraSmiley: Oct 4, 2002

Pegnose Pete posted:

That is very kind, I may take you up on that!

You mean you order 2 into Japan every year?
I actually ordered one of those custom back lit GBAs with an Everdrive when I didn't know the laws here. It made it through fine and I'm still a free man, so I assume they aren't checking for old stuff too carefully. Even the DS cart thing was about 4 or 5 years ago so I bet they are more concerned with 3DS ones now.

No, I mean during BF I order two everdrives. I live in HI, I only visit Japan. I had no idea Flashcarts were illegal. That's interesting.

# ¿ Sep 25, 2017 07:21

XtraSmiley: Oct 4, 2002

BattleMaster posted:

Why though? Every year? You order not 1, not 3, but exactly 2? What do you need exactly 2 per year every year for?

It's not about cost really. I'm slowly building up my retro collection and although I can, I don't want to go hog wild on the Everdrives. I want to enjoy them as I play, and having access to everything all at once is too much for me! As to why 2 not just 1, well, 1 a year is a long time, I think 2 is a good number to hold me out to the next BF deal! This year I got back into SNES and Master System, so I will probably finally pull the trigger on the SD2SNES and maybe the ME, but maybe I'll go the route of the Gameboy... who knows!

# ¿ Sep 25, 2017 08:42

XtraSmiley: Oct 4, 2002

Also, to be clear, I get 2 different ones, not just the same every year!

Anyway, enough about my Everdrive buying habits. Any of you guys ever played Ghost Chaser Densei? I thought TMNT 4 was the best brawler on the SNES, but I think this is my new favorite. Anyone have one that tops it?

# ¿ Sep 25, 2017 08:44

XtraSmiley: Oct 4, 2002

PaletteSwappedNinja posted:

Ghost Chaser Densei is a port of an arcade game called Denjin Makai and they had to cut out a lot of content for the port, so definitely check out the original arcade game (and the sequel which is just as good if not better). Even as hacked up as the port is, it really might be the best brawler on SNES/SFC.

If you want something weird, try Gourmet Sentai Bara Yarou - it was made by the Cho Aniki people and it's not much fun to play but it's packed with goofy bullshit.

Awesome, thanks for the tip. I'll check that game out and the arcade versions of the brawler if I get a chance (may have to MAME it).

As for the BF deals, yes every year, 20% off, which for the SD2SNES is like $40 off. Well worth it, IMO.

Dude, you got a sweet Saturn in box for $13! WTF! Can you link this site? I can't find them that cheap in loving Japan.

# ¿ Sep 26, 2017 05:12

XtraSmiley: Oct 4, 2002

Ofecks posted:

A while back, I bashed RetroArch for its clunky interface and usability issues, and I've been a staunch BizHawk defender... until now. I'll explain.

I really loving hate input lag. There's always going to be a little bit of it in PC/LCD retrogaming, but Vsync absolutely needs to be off, as it adds a ton. I learned a few years back that BizHawk lacks a true fullscreen mode. I have no idea why, but I googled it and apparently the devs are adamant about never adding one. This wasn't an issue on my old desktop, which ran Windows 7. You can select the Basic theme and it disabled Aero's automatic vsync/triple buffering on windows. You cannot do this on Windows 10, the Desktop Window Manager does this now and is always forced on. So while BizHawk is still feature-rich and nice and easy to use, it is laggy as gently caress on Win8+ and there's nothing you can do about it. Turns once enjoyable games into LJN shoestring garbage.

Using RetroArch does have a learning curve, but there are three really important things that if I had known at the start, would've made the process a whole lot easier:

- Use your controller to navigate the UI. It was actually designed specifically for this, and mouse/kb support is crap. It auto-detects and configures Xinput devices. A is confirm, B is cancel, L/R are page up/down, LB/RB scrolls through your rom list a letter at a time. The home key pauses emulation and returns you to the UI (also crashes the program sometimes, they still have work to do).
- Turn "Hard GPU Sync" on, and never turn it off. Via some kind of computing wizardry, this gives you the smoothness of Vsync but without any perceptible input lag. I'm serious, with it enabled I can't tell the difference between vysnc on or off. This is a RetroArch-exclusive feature and it's worth screwing around the UI for. Apparently it has some CPU overhead, but even with BSNES my i5-7600k handles it fine.
- Stick to their OpenGL driver. The XMB (default) UI is the only one that provides descriptions of options (which are really important for beginners), but for whatever reason, is not compatible with D3D. The other graphics drivers they had completely hardlocked my PC. If you want to tinker around with filters/shaders (they have some neat CRT ones), you'll use the GLSL ones.

There are still some things I don't like - having to choose system cores, the weird "quick menu" thing during games, some options are only available once you load both core and game ("content"). Last time I tried it, the library scanning function slow as hell and didn't detect everything.

And finally, I learned recently that there are full No-Intro romsets on archive.org. The D/L speeds can be slow at times, and you have to make an account to access them, but it beats trying to leech dead torrents.

Dude, if you're worried about input lag, I assume you are somewhat concerned with accuracy, in which case BSNES or MAME is the way to go, RetroArch loving sucks.

# ¿ Oct 5, 2017 20:34

XtraSmiley: Oct 4, 2002

Ofecks posted:

But it doesn't, that was the point of my post. The good cores are very accurate, and there's very little input lag thanks to their Hard GPU Sync feature.

Again, the UI is a lot easier to navigate using a controller. I gave it another chance and am now pleased with it.

Oh, my bad. My usage of RA was way old, now I see it's more of just a front end to actual, good emulators. Back in the day it didn't play the well with the good emulators, like MAME/BSNES. Anyway, whatever floats your boat, I just thought you'd be after close to perfect emulation since you were worried about input lag.

# ¿ Oct 6, 2017 04:31

XtraSmiley: Oct 4, 2002

Rirse posted:

Got the 'dog bone' controller for the NES as I always liked how it felt compared to the brick controller, plus my other controller was getting really stiff to use. It came in and is great, but man it controller length is almost NES Classic controller short. Is there a good extension for it?

Sounds like you got the Japanese version, the US has a cord length of 6 feet. I got the same controller (for just $7 last month!) and ended up buying a pair of extension cables from eBay for $2.50 shipped for the pair! They came from China, took 3 weeks to arrive, and are thin as hell, but work fine with no troubles yet. I figure if the one does finally go bad from being so cheap, I have the second one to use as well.

That controller rocks by the way! What I may look at next is an adapter to allow me to plug in a SNES controller into the NES though, that might be the perfect way to go.

# ¿ Oct 11, 2017 07:46

XtraSmiley: Oct 4, 2002

Tree Dude posted:

So tell me about this Kirkzz black friday sale. Is it something he (?) does every year? What sort of discounts are we talking? Are enough people jumping on it that I have to act fast to get something?

Yes, 20% off, which is great for a thing that cost $200 usually. He also lets it run for a few days, but be warned, last year I waited until the 2nd day to order and the back order was so long, I didn't get my cart until Feburary.

I think the demand will be based on which cart you're buying, but if you want it for xmas or early use, I'd order within the 1sth hour of the sale to up your chances.

# ¿ Oct 11, 2017 07:48

XtraSmiley: Oct 4, 2002

Sir Tonk posted:

Waiting for black friday to get the others I need, but yeah totally doing that.

Forgot to cut out the drat Japanese tabs on the N64 before I sent it off, gonna have to open it back up now

No need to mutilate your system, the Everdrive works on both system types.

# ¿ Oct 13, 2017 07:40

XtraSmiley: Oct 4, 2002

Pull off the PCB connector (at the top of your pic), it's a JAMMA connector. Clean it with alcohol like you do a SNES edge and put it back on, see if it makes a difference. Arcade machines are pretty easy to fix, and if nothing else you can slap another JAMMA game in that cabinet and be ready to rock. How does the cabinet look on the outside?

# ¿ Oct 14, 2017 08:43

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# ¿ May 15, 2024 13:20

XtraSmiley: Oct 4, 2002

Dude, is it a lovely golf game? A new board might only be $50, check on eBay. Also, that cabinet is worth more as a dedicated Mortal Kombat than a lovely golf game (actually, maybe not, depending on which game it is). But really, you need to head over to KLOV to ask these types of questions. The dudes there will help you out.

https://forums.arcade-museum.com

# ¿ Oct 14, 2017 19:44

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Retro Gaming Megathread: Disconnect from the present, and Go back to the nineties.