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.

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Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Random Stranger posted:

I thought the Ys I & II version on steam was a port of the PSP version. It does have a 2000 PC port mode, IIRC, but that was an optional setting.

It's not so much an optional setting as it's that every time you load the game, it asks you if you want to use the Chronicles (PSP) or Complete (PC) version. Besides music/artwork changes it mostly just results in having a zoomed/cropped view of the action with UI elements overlayed. Personally I vastly prefer the PC/Complete take so you can see everything on screen more easily. It's also possible to mod in the TurboDuo music for any one of these versions if you feel so inclined, which I did because that's by far my favorite version of those games' outstanding soundtrack.

Rirse posted:

Here the N64...I have no idea what wrong.

Can't be the deblur, as it was more subtle then making everything look like a photoshop filter.

Any advice I can provide is largely worthless as I am not a professional, but one thing I found with my N64 at least was that it did not behave properly with certain displays. I would get visual artifacts every 10 seconds or so, and the only solution I could find was to turn off the low-latency "Game" mode on my LCD. It didn't matter input I used; composite, RGB, S-video, it would still have such problems. But if I put it on any other display it would be fine. So if possible, and in the end I don't know ho helpful it might be, try hooking it up to a few different displays to see if it behaves any differently? While also switching between output methods, if feasible.

Nate RFB fucked around with this message at 20:35 on Feb 14, 2017

# ¿ Feb 14, 2017 14:20

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 04:44

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Well, it's a bit late now but I think I've found the reason for why my N64 with RGB was behaving so poorly with my TV. The N64 outputs 59.82 Hz, while the SNES and NES output at 60.09 Hz. In my infinite wisdom I never thought to check into the "Full_status" option see what the input/output streams were actually doing. That 0.27 Hz difference apparently is what was causing my TV to stutter. I don't know why necessarily this matters, especially when the XRGB itself should be outputting 60 Hz exact anyway, but there it is. Conversely with the UltraHDMI it of course does 60 exactly when in 1080p mode and works flawlessly.

# ¿ Feb 15, 2017 23:05

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Jimmy Smuts posted:

Are you using a XRGB Mini/Framemeister? If so, my understanding is that the frame sync on it can be switched between running off the raw framerate that the console its hooked up to is using, or outputting straight 60Hz (with stutter if the console isn't running at 60Hz, like running PC emulators with vsync at 60Hz). Might wanna mess with that setting.
Personally, I leave it synced to my consoles, as my Atari 2600 absolutely hates running at a straight 60Hz.

That was one of the first things I tried, way back when. I remember it replaced the artifacts I'd screen on the screen with a less obtrusive screen judder that'd occur at roughly the same rate. Basically what this article describes in the When 60Hz isn't 60Hz is word for word what I was seeing. I just never had a tangible number to attach to what was "wrong" with the N64 signal vs. all of my other retro consoles. In a world with no UltraHDMI I'd probably just live with the screen judder since it was less annoying than the artifacts/lines, or I'd simply get a new TV I suppose.

Nate RFB fucked around with this message at 03:01 on Feb 16, 2017

# ¿ Feb 16, 2017 02:59

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

OoE is my favorite of that set, so I hope you like it. It's probably the most challenging of the three. Be sure to pay attention to different weapon types and how they hit each enemy.

# ¿ Feb 18, 2017 04:37

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Silly question, but is there a reason the XRGB reports RGB/SCART retro systems such as the NES and SNES as being 720x240 when you check Full_Status? Shouldn't it be 360x240?

# ¿ Feb 19, 2017 01:45

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

I'm fairly certain I was never able to do this as a child without cheating, but for whatever reason I decided today would be the day I'd beat SMB1 on the NES via the XRGB. I think it was specifically always that final lone Hammer Bros. in 8-4 that would do me in but here I just made a mad dash and somehow threaded the needle just right. I'd like to think that having been exposed to so much BS in Mario Maker helped prepare me but to be honest the original game controls so differently I don't think it really mattered.

# ¿ Feb 21, 2017 02:03

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

DK64 was a step too far, but I remember thinking that as far as collectathons went Banjo-Kazooie was very solid. At the very least I remember its hubworld being a lot more dense with things to find and unlock compared to say the castle in Mario 64. I still don't think I've ever been able to replay it since that initial playthrough though, whereas remains very approachable.

# ¿ Feb 21, 2017 13:59

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

I guess with the Retro games out people look back on DKC1, and the insane hype it got when it first came out, as being incongruous. It is a bit simple/easy compared to the rest of the franchise (including Returns and Tropical Freeeze) but it does still look, sound, and control very nice.

DKC2 is the refinement of that entire aesthetic married to much more ambitious design and challenge, before it got overwrought and convoluted in DKC3 and IMO very poorly balanced diffuclty-wise in Returns and Tropical Freeze.

# ¿ Feb 21, 2017 17:39

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

I remember it just being really annoying traversing the world in DKC3, as well as actually 100%ing it. The banana birds or whatever were just kind of a pain.

al-azad posted:

I felt the same way 20 years ago as I played DKC2 before the first. But some sequels make the originals obsolete. Like I can't recommend Metroid while the remake exists.

I love Zero Mission but I've replayed original Metroid far more frequently. I think the original is actually rather underrated, if you have a map available and don't reset/die too often it's pretty great.

# ¿ Feb 21, 2017 18:08

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

In terms of graphics I think DKC1-3 are more visually appealing and interesting than Returns or Tropical Freeze.

# ¿ Feb 21, 2017 18:50

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Turbinosamente posted:

Does any one know of a good seller of n64 replacement sticks on ebay? Or is there no real difference in the various ones posted? I got a couple controllers today with floppy sticks and normally I wouldn't have bothered, but atomic purple is a kinda nifty color.

I've found that if you buy the OEM sticks on amazon or ebay (NOT the Gamecube-style sticks), take them apart and apply some ceramic bike grease, it will be so close to an original that it will suffice just fine. I have a few controllers with tight original sticks and one with an OEM and I can't tell the difference. But if you don't apply the grease it will be way too stiff.

# ¿ Feb 26, 2017 14:47

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

worthless. posted:

I haven't posted in this thread in a long time but I just wanted to share with you all a photo of my new son, I love him very much.

Coincidentally today also marks the day that I've officially let this hobby get out of hand.

I know that I completely underestimated how far down the rabbit hole I'd go when I got my XRGB. At the time I figured I'd maybe do a N64RGB mod and get the cables for my SNES and leave it at that, with the NESRGB as my holy grail that I'd maybe get someday somehow. Since then I've:

-Gotten both N64RGB and UltraHDMI on the N64.
-Modded the SNES to mitigate the vertical line issue.
-NESRGB, of course.
-Essentially recreated my entire NES, SNES, and N64 childhood game libraries as well as several titles I didn't have before.
-Replaced every battery in each cartridge that has one, including GB/GBC/GBA carts.
-Misc things like getting cartridge covers, cleaning/polishing metal contacts, repairing controllers and getting extensions, etc.

It's surprisingly gotten a lot of use with company because everyone finds the lost art of couch multiplayer extremely alluring.

# ¿ Feb 28, 2017 13:54

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

I've found that metal polish has often been needed on my carts' contact pins to really get the tarnish off. I'm not sure if there is a specific type or brand you should look out for but I can't imagine it's too hard to look up either. After that I usually go at it with some 99% rubbing alcohol to clean it up further and get rid of excess polish gunk. Thus far this has rescued every bum cart I've come across.

# ¿ Mar 5, 2017 18:53

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

In a fit of stream of consciousness type thinking, the thought occurred to me that I could maybe use a Gameshark to complete N64 games that I at present do not have the patience (or skill) to go back and beat like I did back in the day. Is there a particular version (2.x or 3.x) that's worth pursuing, or is the idea of using it at all halfbaked in general?

# ¿ Mar 9, 2017 16:13

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

In Training posted:

I hope that Blaster Master Zero is a springboard into something more robust and unique. Although I am enjoying it.

It has to at least be better than that Wiiware one (Overdrive?). That game was tragic.

# ¿ Mar 16, 2017 02:00

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

I've usually felt that "Geese" without the G was the proper pronunciation.

# ¿ Mar 16, 2017 14:52

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Jim Silly-Balls posted:

Can you use the pc->gameshark connection to upload saves on N64? There are a couple games I want to get 100% saves for

I looked into this a little bit and it didn't seem like it was possible short of some insanely expensive/rare addons. What I was going to settle on, which I have not yet gone down the path of doing so yet, was to simply gameshark cheat my way to beating some of these older games that I lost saves to with as little effort as possible.

# ¿ Mar 16, 2017 15:41

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

fishmech posted:

I believe you can do it with GSCC XP. GSCC XP also allows you to copy saves to and from the Controller Pak for sure (though it's a little unreliable, you sometimes need to try a copy twice, it also only addresses the controller paks in slot 1 and 2). You can also dump cartridge ROMs, take screenshots live from the N64, and temporarily freeze game execution entirely.

The software also works with Saturn and PlayStation 1 cheat devices with PC connections, and can do memory card copy and write on the PS1.

The downside is it really works best in Windows 98, although it'll still work in NT 4.x, Windows 2000, and Windows XP. You'll also need a real parallel port, the usb-parallel adapters they sell to use old printers don't implement the full port - though a parallel port on an ExpressCard, PCMCIA card (for older laptops) or general add-in card for a desktop PC will work fine.

http://fishmech.info/gscc_xp.7z Here's the program and associated files, since I'm sure the site I got it off of in 2002 or so is long dead.

The next logical question I'd have is whether there's any way to connect serially to a computer without an add-in PCIe card, because lugging my machine out to add stuff to its internals is a big pain.

# ¿ Mar 18, 2017 14:53

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

It is definitely a pretty special game. I'm not sure how badly it has aged but I'd have to believe its still a lot of fun. I liked it enough at the time to actually play through it a full 3 times to get the extra ending.

# ¿ Mar 22, 2017 12:43

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

The fly walking across the screen effect remains pretty great and definitely something I'd like more games to do.

# ¿ Mar 22, 2017 12:48

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

I would blow Dane Cook posted:

What's the best way for fixing up an N64 joystick? I seem to remember it being buying a replacement on ebay and just using the plastic parts, not the electronic parts.

Taking them apart to clean them and apply some ceramic grease can work wonders, but you of course need the tools and grease. If the plastic has worn down too much or the spring is shot they might remain permanently a little loose though, at which point I'd recommend getting an OEM stick and ceramic greasing that.

# ¿ Apr 9, 2017 07:39

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

I've always felt like FF6 got pretty good when your party gets split up at the river, because that's when you meet a lot of other members like Celes and Cyan. The scope at that point appropriately expands.

# ¿ Apr 10, 2017 14:33

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Spirit Tracks is the only Zelda game I've played that I could find little to no redeeming factors. By contrast I kind of like Skyward Sword and Phantom Hourglass just fine despite both being very flawed, but Spirit Tracks made me actively angry.

# ¿ Apr 16, 2017 17:33

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

I feel like 75% of my problems with Spirit Tracks would be solved if navigating the overworld was not such a loving chore. Who honestly thought that "warp system" was anywhere close to an acceptable solution? Or the trains of instant death harassing you at every turn?

# ¿ Apr 16, 2017 18:46

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

For a Nintendo console launch, the Switch has been selling very well, better than any other console in their history apparently. Which means obviously that Nintendo is doomed once again.

# ¿ Apr 19, 2017 17:48

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Yeah I don't have a 1CHIP but my (childhood!) SNES still looks incredible on a XRGB-mini.

# ¿ Apr 27, 2017 23:29

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Wise Fwom Yo Gwave posted:

Segmented d-pads are the worst and no amount of market penetration shall change my opinion.

Still better than the garbage they tried to sell people on with the 360 controller.

# ¿ Apr 28, 2017 21:35

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

I've owned and beaten Jurassic Park on the SNES. It's definitely better than the attention it's usually afforded, but I do wish you could save.

# ¿ Jun 2, 2017 18:04

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

My favorite thing about JP SNES was how easy it was to load up on so many rockets and exploding bolas by entering/exiting this one room in the visitor's center that you could pretty easily set yourself to have infinite ammo, because even if you were "full" on a given weapon as long as you never picked up a different weapon ammo pickups would still add to your total. Then you spend the rest of the game one hit killing everything except the Rex and Triceratops.

# ¿ Jun 2, 2017 19:09

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Super random (and kind of dumb), but is there any way I might be able to get a blank/empty Game Boy game cartridge? The cartridge with no PCB or label even. I kind of want to get a filler for my Super Game Boy rather than let its connector be exposed to the elements.

# ¿ Jun 4, 2017 11:16

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

BigRed0427 posted:

Well, I tried to get PS2 games running on my PC today using PCSX2. I got it to load and everything but once the game gets going it chugs really bad. I looked of the emulator's forums and a guy who has a similar build to be (Intel Core i5, Nividia GTX 970) was told to overclock their CPU because it needs to be over 4 Gz. Kind of gave up there for now. I did find my old PS2 so maybe I'll just hook that up.

I emulated PCSX2 with a 3.2 GHz something or other and a far worse video card just fine. Play with the GSDx settings such as your Renderer, internal resolution, filtering, etc. Some games can run worse though (I'm not sure anyone ever got Shadow of the Colossus to be perfect) so maybe try one or two other ISOs if you can just to be sure. The multi-core MTVU setting also helps a lot.

# ¿ Jun 8, 2017 00:24

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Every now and then I get the urge to just hit ebay and browse carts (I've found this to be way cheaper than my local retro stores, sadly) and every single time if I ever actually wind up buying something it ends up becoming an avalanche where I just keep adding one more game to the list. The latest victims were ActRaiser (which I've never played, somehow), Uniracers, Gradius III, and Sin & Punishment for the N64.

# ¿ Jun 8, 2017 19:13

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

That was my plan!

Like I could get it on the VC presumably somehow, but my mindset these days is that if the cart is not prohibitively rare and expensive I'd might as well just do go that route instead. Having a Framemeister and not using it in that situation would look rather silly.

# ¿ Jun 8, 2017 19:33

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Might be worth checking out the Input Information (I forget what the setting is) to see what the Hz and general input stream info is. I found that there was a specific thresholds some of my systems had to be at in order to avoid synch issues (as in the N64 would be something like 59.82 Hz while the NES/SNES would be over 60 Hz, and the former would have issues unless I forced it to 60 Hz).

# ¿ Jun 9, 2017 17:12

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Anonymouse Mook posted:

Thanks, I had a play with the sync settings. Add this is D input, it did not give me the option to modify sync level. I did try modifying the timings, polarities and autosync in various combinations with no change. It looks like the PAL PS2 is outputting at 49.99 Hz.

I am going to look at getting a new D-component adapter. I noticed the sheath covering where the cables split off had pulled forward. The cables under it looked ok, but you never know.

Out of curiosity when you hook up the systems directly to your TV sans the Framemeister, does it still have this issue? When I was debugging my N64 that's what I did and it helped me determine it was my TV not liking the lower Hz. There should still be a way I think too to force the output to a HDMI standard 60 Hz, though that might not be possible if you can't mess with your Synch settings. Why would that be disabled with D input, I wonder?

# ¿ Jun 10, 2017 13:13

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Being able to save is something we take for granted and is a big reason why I also preferred World, as well as why both All-Stars the GBA releases were a big deal for me. It's also why I've always been on the Sonic 3 (& Knuckles) team over Sonic 2.

# ¿ Jun 12, 2017 19:19

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

The Chaos Emerald stages are also a lot better in 3, and it's neat that the game gives you a story/level incentive to get them all.

# ¿ Jun 12, 2017 19:46

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

Zaphod42 posted:

Chaos Emerald stages in 2 are the best

The kindest thing I can say about them is that they are an unmitigated disaster on every level.

# ¿ Jun 13, 2017 00:15

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

And yet one I am not too inclined to dispute.

# ¿ Jun 21, 2017 17:58

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 04:44

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

TWEWY has a steep learning curve at the start but it's probably the most fun I've ever had from a gameplay perspective in a RPG. I had to force myself at points to get on with the story because I was having so much fun mowing through mobs (the difficulty sliders help a ton). There's a certain rhythm you get into with the two characters where even though it looks so complicated you eventually just see everything unfolding just fine, Matrix-numbers style.

# ¿ Jun 22, 2017 23:27

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