For the GD ROM disks, I would imagine someone capable of programming an FPGA would be able to write custom firmware for a CD ROM drive. The Dreamcast used the same hardware as a CD ROM drive, but it was programmed to read disks at different speeds than an off the shelf CD ROM drive.
I wonder if the Mega Drive portion has 32x and Sega CD support included or at least planned to add to the FPGA in the future. It would be pretty complete at that point.
Hope this project becomes reality. Then I will just be waiting for someone to do a Windows 98 and Macintosh System 7 FPGA, and my gaming hardware will be complete.
My favorite fighting game of all time is CVS2. So many characters and 3 grooves from each side. Hidden characters and bosses. Many modes. It really feels like all the classic 2D characters got to shine and play in a way of the players choosing from their favorite series. The ultimate dream Zangief vs Raiden, Ryo vs Ryu, Mai vs Chun. What more could you ask for? A part 3 I guess.
I'd be down for a metal FPGA. Analogue Pocket's dpad doesn't work right so I sold mine. That stripe is turning me off though. GB and GBC are 90s systems, why have that ugly late 70s design plastered on a premium build device?
@sdelfin The dude mentioned in this article, Taki Udon actually has a video on his YouTube channel where he does an input lag test. The NES emulator he checked on Android had 75ms of lag. Frankly that is unbearable on its own. But the test was done on an Android handheld game device… meaning the input was hard wired to the board and there wasn’t as many background processes going on as a normal Android device. Most people emulating on Android are using a phone and a controller grip that has USB or Bluetooth lag to add in as well.
Greater than 30ms total input lag I can easily feel on NES games I am super familiar with. Greater than 60 ms and I just won’t even bother playing, because it messes up my muscle memory and at that point I am not having fun anymore.
Input lag on emulation is definitely not a myth. It has been verified through thorough tests for years. On top of that you are playing on USB or Bluetooth controllers which both add a lot of lag, and you are playing on modern TVs which also add lag, so add all that to the overhead of whatever OS you are on and the emulator’s own lag, and you end up with a totally different gaming experience for many people who are sensitive to input lag.
For action games I prefer FPGAs that I can connect to a CRT, but even in a handheld its noticeably faster than emulation.
@Bonggon5 Actually "Funny Playing" has an FPGA handheld too. You do have to put it together yourself, but it's super simple. It's just a few pieces and no soldering required.
@nocdaes as @Bonggon5 said, those other handhelds you are talking about are just emulators or in some cases a NOAC 😬. I am in a similar boat as the other guy. I have been playing NES games so long, I am super sensitive to lag, and most emulators are unbearable for me, especially ones that run on top of Android, as that OS introduces significantly more lag.
I did have an Analogue Pocket for a while, but I sold it because the Dpad is not accurate (it was designed by 8bitdo and this is a common issue with them). I did put Pokemon Red in at first, but then I decided I didn't want to potentially mess up my cartridges, and used it exclusively with the SD card.
Another advantage is lightgun support. I don't know if Analogue ever got their dock and DAC to work together with light gun games, but I know they said they were going to add that feature at one point. I have used lightguns with other FPGAs in the past though. Not gonna happen on an emulator.
@Azuris That would be cool if possible, but that seems like it would have to be a rather large leap in technology. The MiSTer can't even do Windows 95 at a useable performance level. I am hoping to see perhaps Windows 98 and Mac System 7. A solid Windows 95 experience would be the minimum to get me to buy.
@Guru_Larry I was hoping for a title like “Conmen Can’t Jump” taking inspiration from Bill Clinton’s NBA Jam appearance, but now featuring all the famous world leaders from the last 30 years.
Imagine Putin’s “He’s on fire” and he charges across the screen on a flaming horse, Biden “From downtown!” and the ball rides a jet plane cross court, only to stop short at the basket and fall down the stairs of the jet, with a random chance to fall in the hoop. Trump’s “Razzle dazzle” turns one opposing team member into a zombie that helps you for 15 seconds. Kim Jong Un has missiles. Gotta fit Blair in there somehow.
@UK_Kev 16:10 is the standard “tall” display in laptops these days. Used by productivity minded users who have more vertical work flows. 15:10/3:2 is taller than that. Like I said before, 3:2 is basically the tallest aspect ratio you can purchase these days and even then its hard to find a screen that tall. It isnt considered widescreen.
@UK_Kev nah the GBA had a 3:2 aspect ratio. Thats about the squarest screen they sell these days and kinda rare to find in a device. Its close to a 4:3 display. Neither 4:3 or 3:2 are considered wide screen.
The Neo Geo Pocket Color was on the market at the same time as the GBA and it has a 20:19 aspect ratio (basically 1:1).
PSP was the first notable handheld game system with 16:9.
@UK_Kev I mean that’s optional if you want to play online. If you wanted just buy one and treat it like a Game Boy Advance but with PS1 graphics, you could do that too. Although you could also connect through your PCs wifi with a Bluetooth adapter too and still game online without paying extra. Or you could just have bought this as your phone. Thats what I did. I needed a phone anyway and I got a game system too.
The screen is fine. Many handhelds had near 1:1 aspect ratios, so handheld games were not wide like a 4:3 CRT, let alone 16:9. 11:13 is hardly that much different than 1:1. So game development would not be hindered at all, worst case scenario the tiny sliver of extra pixels at top or bottom could be used for a HUD data. Heck a year later the greatest selling handheld of all time popularized vertically tall games.
It just had the disadvantage of being sold by a phone manufacturer with no experience. You had to buy it in a phone store. They didn’t get enough marketing or enough publishers on board.
I was really hoping to get a Steam announcement, or at least any other digital store on computers that isn’t the Microsoft Store. I highly doubt they have an exclusive deal with Microsoft on their store, so it seems baffling to put these games on the least popular gaming store. Not to mention that also cuts of Mac and Linux sales.
Ngage didn't really suck, it just failed. I guess similar to TurboGrafx in the west. I mean sure the TG16 only had one controller port and it had a two button controller. I guess you could equate that to the first generation Ngage having the weird cartridge loading method. But even that they fixed with the second model.
The thing just didn't catch on, and I don't blame the hardware. The hardware could play PS1 quality games on a handheld 1 year before the PSP and DS. Plus it was always online via a cell signal, something handhelds of today don't do. It was pretty wild to play Tony Hawk in the palm of your hand in 2003 and not have it be some weird 2D reinterpretation.
@sdelfin yep different people are definitely sensitive to different levels of lag. You may notice the lag of a TV not set to game mode. But not be able to sense lesser lag that other people do. For me Im fine with RPGs and slower action games. But there are a lot of NES games I am sensitive to because I have played them so many times I am used to having my input trigger on a single pixel.
Some people will claim stuff like their controller has “zero lag” because they don’t personally notice it. For me I notice heavy controller lag on every Bluetooth controller. USB controllers are hit and miss for me as far as enjoyment goes, but I can feel the lag in all of them, some bearable and some too much for me to accept.
Same goes with Android emulation. I can feel the lag in all my most played NES games and it sucks the fun out of it for me personally, unless its a turn based game or less heavy on the action.
@NinChocolate Atari 2600, 5200, Colecovision, Intellivision, etc are all 8bit consoles as well. They were all coaxial only. And I mentioned earlier the NES model 2 also wasn’t composite compliant. It only did coaxial. The Sega Genesis Model 2 in at least some if not all variants, did not come with a composite cable in the box.
As far as late 90s systems and composite, yes some people were using it, some weren’t. Nintendo 64 had a warning on the box that said “RF modulator sold separately”. Some region PlayStation 1s came with a coaxial cable in the box, some did not. Not sure what the sentence “ Also PS1 and Saturn released only with A/V on the console.” was supposed to mean. A/V just means “Audio Visual”. Coaxial, HDMI, component, S Video, etc are all A/V cables/jacks. If you were implying they only had composite jacks, that is incorrect. Even the launch PS1 that has composite RCA jacks built right onto the system, had a multi port for using other connections such as S Video and Coaxial.
Of course Sega and PlayStation were trying to push composite cables. Both of their machines had built in audio CD players. But they also both realized this wasn’t completely practical because so many homes had TVs without these connections and especially if the console was going into a kids room. That is why all 3 major console manufacturers of that era produced first party coaxial cables for their systems.
But yeah as the other person said RF modulators were a common thing in that era, especially when DVD players started being sold.
I got my first brand new TV in 1996 from Circuit City, a 19 inch Daewoo, for my bedroom and it had coaxial and no other inputs. My sister got her first new TV for her room a year earlier, a 13 inch RCA, which also only had coaxial. Its safe to say if brand new TVs were being sold at the time, with no composite jacks, then not everyone was using composite, and it wasn’t the standard.
There were TVs of course that had composite, but they tended to be upper mid range or higher end home theater enthusiast TVs that not everyone was gaming on. Back then TVs weren’t cheap things we bought every couple years. Many homes in the 90s had 80s TVs.
I noticed even many people with composite capable TVs just used the coax input anyway because that is what they knew. Most people back then had no idea about the technical differences of A/V cables. They saw they could get away with only 1 cable instead of 3 and thats what they did.
And yes the consoles are being emulated with great accuracy, so I think its really great to use RGB. Most of the consoles you spoke of (the post Atari era consoles) had chips that produced RGB video signals. So thats really the best option for most folks who want an analog experience.
@sdelfin I definitely notice it to the point it is unbearable, especially on Android. Android has unavoidable heavy input lag due to the way the OS processes everything through the software layer.
On Switch playing directly on the built in screen with attached joycons it is good enough for me to enjoy. Not sure what kind of emulation sorcery they cooked up for their Nintendo Online retro games, but it likely has to do with the fact that their emulators have direct access to the hardware.
On everything else (PC, MacOS, Linux, Apple TV, iOS, etc) it is always noticeable to me in 8 and 16 bit games.
The one that hurts me the most is Super Mario Bros., because my muscle memory is so well tuned to the game, but many other players will be affected by other mainstream classics like Contra, Punch Out, and Tetris.
Of course there are many casual players who arent that heavy into retro games and may not have muscle memory trained or may have never been able to beat some of these games in the first place, that want to get in on the hobby and will be very happy with one of these devices.
@-wc- I am wondering if the stick can be removed and replaced with something else? Or perhaps that is just a design choice to have that box shaped indent?
@NinChocolate In the picture there is an RCA style composite video jack along with left and right RCA sound jacks.
Though I would disagree all TVs back in the day had this option. In the states, many TVs in the 80s and 90s gaming era were sold with only coaxial jacks, and many of us even gamed on older TVs that only had VHF style twin screw cables.
I would say most homes I visited in the 80s and 90s had their game consoles hooked up to coaxial. Either because that was their only choice, or because they could be daisy chained with other consoles, or because it was an easy way to connect to everything through your VCR. It was actually popular to buy converters that would take a composite signal/cables and convert it to a coaxial jack.
Along with many TVs only having coaxial, most of the 80s consoles only had them too. Heck when the version 2 of the NES came out in America in the 90s, Nintendo thought it made more sense to cut out the composite jack, even though the factory in Japan was already tooled with composite jacks for the Japanese NES version 2. This was because composite still had less adoption than coaxial in America at the time.
In other parts of the world some TVs only had 21 pin connectors. Though some of those did composite style signal through that port, I think most were doing RGB quality signal.
Composite oddly was mostly used a bit later in the PS2 era, even though by that time component video was the best option.
The most widespread I ever saw composite used for video games, was in 2000s era plug n plays, and 2000s-2010s era clone consoles.
I don’t think anyone deserves this. I don’t know of anything that he has done wrong in general. But I do know he makes a lot of enemies and likes to engage with people online a lot, as well as rival communities and personalities. As far as I know he has never done anything scummy, but he does lose control a lot on social media.
No reason for anyone to do something like this… but still provides possible answers of what could have led to this.
Other possibility could just be a thief familiar with him, looking for something that is valuable like a rare prototype.
@-wc- I would personally say it is better to pass them an uncompressed digital file than a vinyl. If they really want to hear it on vinyl they can have it pressed for a pretty decent price. But if you pass them an analog copy, copying that data gets corrupted more and more with every new copy.
Its like having a TIFF or a JPEG. Pass a JPEG around enough and eventually it becomes an unrecognizable blur of graphics. Pass a TIFF around and it will be forever perfect. Heck you can even view a TIFF that has been shared millions of times on an analog CRT monitor, and it will look like the intended picture. The JPEG shared a million times will look nothing like the original picture whether you view it on an analog or digital device. Same goes with audio, physical sound waves may be analog, but if they are cast from a lossless digital source, they will always be recognizable as the same song. If the sound waves are cast from analog sources, over time the sound will change. Maybe not enough for most to notice in our lifetime, but eventually the song will be completely different.
That is why vinyl is not suitable for archival purposes. 1s and 0s will forever be 1s and 0s. Even if the media doesn’t last long, you can keep making new copies until the end of time and your archive copy will sounds exactly the same during the universes heat death, as it did in 1984.
Vinyl is cool, vinyl is fun, vinyl can provide a unique experience and sound. I own the Phantasy Star vinyl for the beautiful art and fold out insert. But it has no business being seen as an archive copy.
@-wc- The analog vinyl press may last a long time, but it isn't a good method to archive digital music. Analog is analog, it is not an exact replica and its playback methods are not exact sound reproduction. Digital music exists perfectly in 1s and 0s. As long as you transfer it to a new digital format in raw data, the 1s and 0s will always be exactly the same. Its can continuously be archived forever across many different digital mediums this way. Once it hits an analog medium, it is forever changed and no longer preserved.
Analog has its purpose, but its purpose isn't preservation, its purpose is sound taste and preference. And the really cool giant art doesn't hurt either.
I’ll take it with a grain of salt. They put the dpad in the wrong place, especially for a primary 2D system. They got only 4 face buttons. And the final nail in the coffin.. most fighting game players that play on pad, use a 4 point dpad like classic Nintendo or PlayStation style. It might feel good to roll out a hadouken on this 8 point, but accuracy and feel for cardinal direction is much more important. Every time a company makes a “fighting game controller” with this style dpad, no one uses it in tournaments or buys it for anything other than a collectors item. They stick to the classic 4 point in tournaments. Fireballs are kind of easy on some modern games because the game is programmed to autocorrect if you accidentally are off by a bit. But some oldschool or indie games aren’t that forgiving. But the fireball is the basic beginners special move. People choosing a dpad for fighters are doing 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 and 360 circles while in the middle of other stuff that requires tight 4 point inputs, like dashes, half steps, other specials, command inputs, charge motions, etc. And yeah just charge motions alone on these pads can be trouble. Going from downback to down forward to up after a charge is slippery and results in a lot of misses.
Aside from fighting games, games like Contra and Tetris require quick panic moment 4 direction presses, and if you are off slightly on this round dpad, you could trigger a diagonal, leading you to walk forward into a bullet rather than ducking the bullet or moving your piece over to the right rather than executing the fast drop. Even 4 point dpads these days have been failing in that regard (Switch Pro Controller and several 8bitdo controllers). So I have even less faith in dpads with diagonal press-able areas.
They are fun to use on games like beat em ups where you walk around in all directions or overhead action games like Ikari Warriors.
But if I was to make the claim I was designing “the best dpad”, it would definitely be a 4 point dpad and it would have the primary position on the controller, not angled at the bottom where you have to contort your thumb.
Couldn’t they just have the new firmware check to see if your device is different from the legit one? If it’s an exact replica then shouldn’t they release a new model and try harder next time? People don’t like when you punish them, the consumer, to get at the competition.
@GhaleonUnlimited It’s actually both. You need a CRT to get a fast enough picture displayed for a lightgun. But also the consoles software (programming of the fpga) has to be fast enough too, in reading controller input. Part of this system is FPGA, and part of it is real hardware. Without knowing what the FPGA controls and how it controls it, its hard to say if it will process inputs and signals fast enough. So I am hoping someone tests this.
I like the optional feature of MP3s, but even as an American I prefer the stock sound of the Genesis over SNES. SNES and Genesis produce sounds in two different ways, and it is down to opinion in which you enjoy more. But technically speaking, SNES does not produce clean sound, so no matter how good the composition, the audio quality is going to be poor, using compressed sound samples. I love me some SNES tracks, but it is hard for me to enjoy the original versions due to how flat and muddy they are. I prefer redone soundtracks for SNES games, whenever they are available.
Genesis gets a bad wrap due to a lot of western games using premade sound engines, like GEMs. But on the Japanese side of things there are some legendary soundtracks, and the audio is perfectly clean, and the original versions of tracks can be enjoyed with absolute clarity.
Stock SNES sounds like Napster era MP3s, and Genesis sounds like a live electronic keyboard show.
@damo is there any chance that stories with embedded YouTube videos on this site, would also have a regular text link to the video? For whatever reason, they just don't appear for me on any of the sites in the NintendoLife family. Embedded Twitter videos work fine. Embedded YouTube videos on other websites work fine. Just YouTube videos in particular on this family of websites in particular, seems to be the issue. I Have tried steps such as clearing my history, clearing my cookies, and right now I am typing this on a laptop that was just factory reset and the problem persists. I have seen others discuss the issue too, but not really sure if they found a solution. Would like to fully enjoy the videos the article discusses, but this usually means I have to open another tab and search out the video myself and hope I find the right one. So a lot of times I just end up skipping out on the story, if the video seems essential to me.
@TransmitHim I felt similar, but initially held off on commenting because I don’t like being negative. But given the article has been live for a long time now and there are hardly and comments, and yours is one of them.. yeah this is pretty insignificant.
A beta has some slight bugs. We knew that without having to dump the ROM. Wake me up when they discover something that shows the game originally had a different intent or different assets or the story was changed.
@Przemyslaw I can see the appeal of using original chips to play the games. It is really for purists and not the average retro gamer. Personally I don't like to emulate anything on Android. I play a lot of games that require fast input, like 2d fighters. Unfortunately Android has very noticeable input delay for those types of games if you play at a high level. It isn't something that can be overcome with a higher specced phone or choosing a different brand. It has to do with how Android itself operates at base system level, so you would need to boot to a different OS on a phone to get around this.
So yeah for the average retro gamer I would say indeed Android is a good go to and the most appropriate choice. But there are some niches where Android is not acceptable. Another one would be privacy and security focused people. Anything Google or Microsoft is an instant no for them.
@Arcata That is your personal preference, but not everyone wants to purchase a whole other device when they already have one that plays games. Not to mention they now have to carry that whole other device around with them wherever they go of they expect to be able to game portably, while a phone is already going to be with you. You literally have to bring a bag to carry it in too. Where as a phone and a slim controller attachment or an 8bitdo Zero just fit in your pocket or in the case of something like a jrpg, you can just grind XP with the touch screen at anytime without a controller. Then you have to worry about an outlet wherever you are, because in my experience, Steam Deck has the best battery life of these handheld PCs, but I still need to plug in after 2 hours on the average game. There were demanding games that killed my Deck in 75 minutes. And then phones have built in cameras so you can live stream on the go. Capturing and sharing pictures and video to social media is a lot easier.
There are a lot of advantages of a phone. So that is the reason many choose it.
I personally don’t use Steam Deck as portable device. Its a couch and bed device. Bringing it outside the home is a hassle. So my sentiment would be if you want to game portably, you probably want to do it on a phone not a Steam Deck or Switch. Those consoles aren’t stationary, but they are also only somewhat portable.
@_NetNomad I haven’t played the series but I came here to ask if the game plays like “Escape Velocity”, because it looks similar and I love that game. Anyway if it is indeed similar, I can recommend “Endless Sky” on Steam. Its completely free
@OldManHermit The worst part is, they are calling it (Lower Decks) canon. It is literally impossible for the stuff that happens on that show, to take place in the same universe as TNG. Every character on that show would have been kicked out of Star Fleet numerous times over.
@damo Any updates on this? I am wondering if I buy it today, will I get an English patch down the road? Perhaps it would be a different store listing and I’d have to buy again?
@Coalescence For me personally I like having my games on a versatile device like my iPhone. I have super easy built in screen recording. I have the option to play handheld with a controller grip on a super nice OLED screen. I have the option to play on my TV or monitor with my dock. It’s easy to transfer saves and games through iCloud to play on other devices if I want to. I can stream my gameplay live and I have a built in webcam that is better than pretty much any webcam. I can look up guides on the same device. I can take screenshots to share on social media, without having to transfer to another device.
I honestly can’t think of a better way to play. I do enjoy original hardware and a crt the most, but I can’t deny that a smartphone is probably the best most practical way to play. Runners up would be laptop, but it’s not handheld, or a Steam Deck, but using a lot of sharing features and a couple other things I mentioned on that is a lot more complicated and time consuming and there is no webcam for streaming. Not to mention the battery life being poor and it being a lot less practical to bring on the go, due to its bulk.
@Jhena There is nothing in this article about “using an emulator for illegal ROMs”. You just injected that yourself. This article is about a perfectly legal emulator and someone else copying that emulator illegally.
Yes, I will continue using legal emulators with my legally backed up ROMs that I dumped myself.
Just don’t appreciate the snark and negativity in our hobby that degrades people’s hard work.
@Jhena You still make no sense. Anything can be used illegally. The original emulator that is the topic of discussion here, is a legal platform. Same thing as this very website you are commenting on.. it is a legal platform. Can people use it for nefarious purposes? Yes. Several news blogs have been caught plagiarizing other people's writing. Blogs in general have been known to distribute IP infringing software, videos, music, games etc. Does it make sense to crack on WordPress's software for piracy? Nah, not really. It's a joke that doesn't make sense.
Every major console manufacturer has released games bundled inside an emulator, along with countless software publishers and developers. You are just choosing to try to pull something out and shade emulators as something raunchy. It's not cool when people put a lot of work into their project and people go around trolling it making comments that get their work pushed into the shadows.
Other people rely on these emulators too, to do their work. In the last few years we have seen a huge boom in new games for retro consoles. This negativity also hurts their work, as the developers rely on these platforms to do their work.
Courts and governments do look into public opinion on matters to make decisions. If you keep perpetuating these stigmas, it could bring real world repercussions, and cause problems for innocent people who are bringing positive things into the world.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinions of course. But it really bothers me when people constantly use their public expression to just dole out snide comments that can bring nothing good to the world and just spreads negativity. It's bad enough on big social media platforms like FaceBook, but when people bring that over to our niche little corner of the internet, it really makes me feel frustrated. Can we just enjoy our hobbies and respect each other, especially those actually putting work hours into the community?
@KGRAMR I don't think that is what they were getting at. The way I read it was that they were frustrated someone was equating everything related to emulators, to piracy. I didn't read it as them supporting the guy who uploaded stolen work to the App Store. I could be wrong though, just the way it sounded to me.
I don't see why personal beef with a YouTuber would cause someone to stop working on a public project like MiSTer. Just ignore them and stay positive with the community.
Anyway I am not really interested in hearing about the drama and waring between communities here on TE, just coming here to get updates and history. Seems like something that would be better for a book in 10 years, or reserved for one of those drama based investigative YouTubers (eww), or even an article here in 10 years about the struggles of these platforms.. long after the hate has dissipated.
@Diogmites Crossed Swords is awesome. I actually first played it on Switch. I am always on the hunt for good retro games I never heard of, and when I saw a video of it, I had to pick it up. Classic medieval fantasy, with anime tones, and Punch Out style combat!? Incredible. I hope they throw these games up on Steam eventually. I do have a GOG account, but I stopped buying games there and am trying to consolidate everything on Steam. Even re-bought some stuff I already owned on GOG, like Lords of the Realm II, and the Gold Box DnD games.
One of these is a visual novel, so if it's true there will really be a full English version, I think that's great for the community, and even though there are only 3 games included, I think whatever price they put on this would be fair, given the work.
When I saw the heading picture, I was like dang why does that Ultra screen look 100x worse than my regular Apple Watch 8? Oh it's a clone lol.
Actually would be a cool emulation side kick for VMUs and stuff Nintendo put out over the years like the Pokewalker and that little Pikachu pocket device,
@drstory thats been going on for years already. Sega has many roms in an emulator container on the app store. Back in 2011 Capcom released Street Fighter II collection and Final Fight collection for iOS.
This is new terms to allow independent emulator devs to publish to the App Store. They actually put in the guidelines that developers may not include games they don’t own the ip to in the software they publish. I doubt Apple put that stipulation in to warn Nintendo and Xbox.
@jesse_dylan Yeah Sega has been hard headed since the 90s and that is what killed their console business. Even going to today, the Sega people think they can make better Sonic games than any third party, yet they constantly put out low quality stuff that gets critically panned. Sonic Mania came out and was the biggest success the franchise has had in decades.. but then Sega was like.. yeah thats enough of that, our guys can do Sonic better. They never learn.
In Japan isn't that considered defamation, and punishable by prison time or a half million Yen? I think he just needs to stay quiet and lay low before he makes things worse for himself.
@sdelfin Correct, the article states that the folks who bought the games at the estate sale, turned around and resold them on eBay, as shown in the pictures in the story here.
@jesse_dylan I remember looking it up one time and a couple sources said it had Redbook Audio, but perhaps those sources were incorrect or they were confusing the fact that the PS1 disc does have a playable audio track on a regular CD player, but it is only one bonus song, not the soundtrack.
@Cboyung Hopefully these are better than those. The $10 replacements are junk. They grips carts way too tight, making using them a pain, and grinding the connections on your carts isn't good for them. They also use cheap metals that corrode quickly, further threatening your old hardware and causing you to have to replace them. through the years.
Generally it's best practice to use original connectors and just repair or clean them appropriately. The third party replacements are bad news.
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Re: 'SuperSega' FPGA Console Will Play Genesis, Master System, Saturn And Dreamcast Games
For the GD ROM disks, I would imagine someone capable of programming an FPGA would be able to write custom firmware for a CD ROM drive. The Dreamcast used the same hardware as a CD ROM drive, but it was programmed to read disks at different speeds than an off the shelf CD ROM drive.
I wonder if the Mega Drive portion has 32x and Sega CD support included or at least planned to add to the FPGA in the future. It would be pretty complete at that point.
Hope this project becomes reality. Then I will just be waiting for someone to do a Windows 98 and Macintosh System 7 FPGA, and my gaming hardware will be complete.
Re: Street Fighter 6's Season 2 Crossover Might Pave The Way For Capcom vs. SNK 3
My favorite fighting game of all time is CVS2. So many characters and 3 grooves from each side. Hidden characters and bosses. Many modes. It really feels like all the classic 2D characters got to shine and play in a way of the players choosing from their favorite series. The ultimate dream Zangief vs Raiden, Ryo vs Ryu, Mai vs Chun. What more could you ask for? A part 3 I guess.
Re: Backlash Against $99 MiSTer FPGA Clone's Name Results In Creator Offering Alternatives
Going by the poll with new options, it’s apparent that he is just bad at naming things. All the options are corny or generic
Re: Limited Run's New "PC Micro Edition" Hasn't Gone Down Well With Some Fans
@BHPM Given the choice between ewaste and nothing, always choose nothing.
Re: Chromatic Is A FPGA-Based Game Boy From Palmer Luckey
I'd be down for a metal FPGA. Analogue Pocket's dpad doesn't work right so I sold mine. That stripe is turning me off though. GB and GBC are 90s systems, why have that ugly late 70s design plastered on a premium build device?
Re: $150 Analogue Pocket Rival Will Use An AMOLED Screen
@sdelfin The dude mentioned in this article, Taki Udon actually has a video on his YouTube channel where he does an input lag test. The NES emulator he checked on Android had 75ms of lag. Frankly that is unbearable on its own. But the test was done on an Android handheld game device… meaning the input was hard wired to the board and there wasn’t as many background processes going on as a normal Android device. Most people emulating on Android are using a phone and a controller grip that has USB or Bluetooth lag to add in as well.
Greater than 30ms total input lag I can easily feel on NES games I am super familiar with. Greater than 60 ms and I just won’t even bother playing, because it messes up my muscle memory and at that point I am not having fun anymore.
Input lag on emulation is definitely not a myth. It has been verified through thorough tests for years. On top of that you are playing on USB or Bluetooth controllers which both add a lot of lag, and you are playing on modern TVs which also add lag, so add all that to the overhead of whatever OS you are on and the emulator’s own lag, and you end up with a totally different gaming experience for many people who are sensitive to input lag.
For action games I prefer FPGAs that I can connect to a CRT, but even in a handheld its noticeably faster than emulation.
Re: $150 Analogue Pocket Rival Will Use An AMOLED Screen
@Bonggon5 Actually "Funny Playing" has an FPGA handheld too. You do have to put it together yourself, but it's super simple. It's just a few pieces and no soldering required.
@nocdaes as @Bonggon5 said, those other handhelds you are talking about are just emulators or in some cases a NOAC 😬. I am in a similar boat as the other guy. I have been playing NES games so long, I am super sensitive to lag, and most emulators are unbearable for me, especially ones that run on top of Android, as that OS introduces significantly more lag.
I did have an Analogue Pocket for a while, but I sold it because the Dpad is not accurate (it was designed by 8bitdo and this is a common issue with them). I did put Pokemon Red in at first, but then I decided I didn't want to potentially mess up my cartridges, and used it exclusively with the SD card.
Another advantage is lightgun support. I don't know if Analogue ever got their dock and DAC to work together with light gun games, but I know they said they were going to add that feature at one point. I have used lightguns with other FPGAs in the past though. Not gonna happen on an emulator.
Re: Did The Stampers Really Think Miyamoto Copied Sabre Wulf With Zelda?
@Serpenterror why do you have to call the games awful?
Re: Yolk Heroes: A Long Tamago Is A Game Boy-Style RPG With Digital Pet Mechanics
@jesse_dylan Has a bit of a deeper meaning I guess if it means egg in Japanese. All of our pasts began as an egg.
Re: Yolk Heroes: A Long Tamago Is A Game Boy-Style RPG With Digital Pet Mechanics
@jesse_dylan I just thought it was a meaningless made up word on first glance. Second glance Tamagotchi-Time Ago?
Re: A Powerful New FPGA Rival To MiSTer And MARS Is In Development
@Azuris That would be cool if possible, but that seems like it would have to be a rather large leap in technology. The MiSTer can't even do Windows 95 at a useable performance level. I am hoping to see perhaps Windows 98 and Mac System 7. A solid Windows 95 experience would be the minimum to get me to buy.
Re: Cruis'n Blast Team's NBA Jam Spiritual Successor Is Called NBA Superstars
@Guru_Larry I was hoping for a title like “Conmen Can’t Jump” taking inspiration from Bill Clinton’s NBA Jam appearance, but now featuring all the famous world leaders from the last 30 years.
Imagine Putin’s “He’s on fire” and he charges across the screen on a flaming horse, Biden “From downtown!” and the ball rides a jet plane cross court, only to stop short at the basket and fall down the stairs of the jet, with a random chance to fall in the hoop. Trump’s “Razzle dazzle” turns one opposing team member into a zombie that helps you for 15 seconds. Kim Jong Un has missiles. Gotta fit Blair in there somehow.
Re: The Nokia N-Gage May Have Sucked, But It Had Rollback Netcode In 2003
@UK_Kev 16:10 is the standard “tall” display in laptops these days. Used by productivity minded users who have more vertical work flows. 15:10/3:2 is taller than that. Like I said before, 3:2 is basically the tallest aspect ratio you can purchase these days and even then its hard to find a screen that tall. It isnt considered widescreen.
Re: The Nokia N-Gage May Have Sucked, But It Had Rollback Netcode In 2003
@UK_Kev nah the GBA had a 3:2 aspect ratio. Thats about the squarest screen they sell these days and kinda rare to find in a device. Its close to a 4:3 display. Neither 4:3 or 3:2 are considered wide screen.
The Neo Geo Pocket Color was on the market at the same time as the GBA and it has a 20:19 aspect ratio (basically 1:1).
PSP was the first notable handheld game system with 16:9.
Re: The Nokia N-Gage May Have Sucked, But It Had Rollback Netcode In 2003
@UK_Kev I mean that’s optional if you want to play online. If you wanted just buy one and treat it like a Game Boy Advance but with PS1 graphics, you could do that too. Although you could also connect through your PCs wifi with a Bluetooth adapter too and still game online without paying extra. Or you could just have bought this as your phone. Thats what I did. I needed a phone anyway and I got a game system too.
The screen is fine. Many handhelds had near 1:1 aspect ratios, so handheld games were not wide like a 4:3 CRT, let alone 16:9. 11:13 is hardly that much different than 1:1. So game development would not be hindered at all, worst case scenario the tiny sliver of extra pixels at top or bottom could be used for a HUD data. Heck a year later the greatest selling handheld of all time popularized vertically tall games.
It just had the disadvantage of being sold by a phone manufacturer with no experience. You had to buy it in a phone store. They didn’t get enough marketing or enough publishers on board.
Re: "Arcade Archives 2 Neo Geo" Will Bring SNK's Classics To PS5 And Xbox Series S/X
I was really hoping to get a Steam announcement, or at least any other digital store on computers that isn’t the Microsoft Store. I highly doubt they have an exclusive deal with Microsoft on their store, so it seems baffling to put these games on the least popular gaming store. Not to mention that also cuts of Mac and Linux sales.
Re: The Nokia N-Gage May Have Sucked, But It Had Rollback Netcode In 2003
Ngage didn't really suck, it just failed. I guess similar to TurboGrafx in the west. I mean sure the TG16 only had one controller port and it had a two button controller. I guess you could equate that to the first generation Ngage having the weird cartridge loading method. But even that they fixed with the second model.
The thing just didn't catch on, and I don't blame the hardware. The hardware could play PS1 quality games on a handheld 1 year before the PSP and DS. Plus it was always online via a cell signal, something handhelds of today don't do. It was pretty wild to play Tony Hawk in the palm of your hand in 2003 and not have it be some weird 2D reinterpretation.
Re: AYANEO's Game Boy-Style Pocket DMG Boasts An OLED Screen
@sdelfin yep different people are definitely sensitive to different levels of lag. You may notice the lag of a TV not set to game mode. But not be able to sense lesser lag that other people do. For me Im fine with RPGs and slower action games. But there are a lot of NES games I am sensitive to because I have played them so many times I am used to having my input trigger on a single pixel.
Some people will claim stuff like their controller has “zero lag” because they don’t personally notice it. For me I notice heavy controller lag on every Bluetooth controller. USB controllers are hit and miss for me as far as enjoyment goes, but I can feel the lag in all of them, some bearable and some too much for me to accept.
Same goes with Android emulation. I can feel the lag in all my most played NES games and it sucks the fun out of it for me personally, unless its a turn based game or less heavy on the action.
Re: MARS FPGA Will Let You Use Your Original Carts And Support Legacy AV Connections
@NinChocolate Atari 2600, 5200, Colecovision, Intellivision, etc are all 8bit consoles as well. They were all coaxial only. And I mentioned earlier the NES model 2 also wasn’t composite compliant. It only did coaxial. The Sega Genesis Model 2 in at least some if not all variants, did not come with a composite cable in the box.
As far as late 90s systems and composite, yes some people were using it, some weren’t. Nintendo 64 had a warning on the box that said “RF modulator sold separately”. Some region PlayStation 1s came with a coaxial cable in the box, some did not. Not sure what the sentence “ Also PS1 and Saturn released only with A/V on the console.” was supposed to mean. A/V just means “Audio Visual”. Coaxial, HDMI, component, S Video, etc are all A/V cables/jacks. If you were implying they only had composite jacks, that is incorrect. Even the launch PS1 that has composite RCA jacks built right onto the system, had a multi port for using other connections such as S Video and Coaxial.
Of course Sega and PlayStation were trying to push composite cables. Both of their machines had built in audio CD players. But they also both realized this wasn’t completely practical because so many homes had TVs without these connections and especially if the console was going into a kids room. That is why all 3 major console manufacturers of that era produced first party coaxial cables for their systems.
But yeah as the other person said RF modulators were a common thing in that era, especially when DVD players started being sold.
I got my first brand new TV in 1996 from Circuit City, a 19 inch Daewoo, for my bedroom and it had coaxial and no other inputs. My sister got her first new TV for her room a year earlier, a 13 inch RCA, which also only had coaxial. Its safe to say if brand new TVs were being sold at the time, with no composite jacks, then not everyone was using composite, and it wasn’t the standard.
There were TVs of course that had composite, but they tended to be upper mid range or higher end home theater enthusiast TVs that not everyone was gaming on. Back then TVs weren’t cheap things we bought every couple years. Many homes in the 90s had 80s TVs.
I noticed even many people with composite capable TVs just used the coax input anyway because that is what they knew. Most people back then had no idea about the technical differences of A/V cables. They saw they could get away with only 1 cable instead of 3 and thats what they did.
And yes the consoles are being emulated with great accuracy, so I think its really great to use RGB. Most of the consoles you spoke of (the post Atari era consoles) had chips that produced RGB video signals. So thats really the best option for most folks who want an analog experience.
Re: AYANEO's Game Boy-Style Pocket DMG Boasts An OLED Screen
@sdelfin I definitely notice it to the point it is unbearable, especially on Android. Android has unavoidable heavy input lag due to the way the OS processes everything through the software layer.
On Switch playing directly on the built in screen with attached joycons it is good enough for me to enjoy. Not sure what kind of emulation sorcery they cooked up for their Nintendo Online retro games, but it likely has to do with the fact that their emulators have direct access to the hardware.
On everything else (PC, MacOS, Linux, Apple TV, iOS, etc) it is always noticeable to me in 8 and 16 bit games.
The one that hurts me the most is Super Mario Bros., because my muscle memory is so well tuned to the game, but many other players will be affected by other mainstream classics like Contra, Punch Out, and Tetris.
Of course there are many casual players who arent that heavy into retro games and may not have muscle memory trained or may have never been able to beat some of these games in the first place, that want to get in on the hobby and will be very happy with one of these devices.
@-wc- I am wondering if the stick can be removed and replaced with something else? Or perhaps that is just a design choice to have that box shaped indent?
Re: MARS FPGA Will Let You Use Your Original Carts And Support Legacy AV Connections
@NinChocolate In the picture there is an RCA style composite video jack along with left and right RCA sound jacks.
Though I would disagree all TVs back in the day had this option. In the states, many TVs in the 80s and 90s gaming era were sold with only coaxial jacks, and many of us even gamed on older TVs that only had VHF style twin screw cables.
I would say most homes I visited in the 80s and 90s had their game consoles hooked up to coaxial. Either because that was their only choice, or because they could be daisy chained with other consoles, or because it was an easy way to connect to everything through your VCR. It was actually popular to buy converters that would take a composite signal/cables and convert it to a coaxial jack.
Along with many TVs only having coaxial, most of the 80s consoles only had them too. Heck when the version 2 of the NES came out in America in the 90s, Nintendo thought it made more sense to cut out the composite jack, even though the factory in Japan was already tooled with composite jacks for the Japanese NES version 2. This was because composite still had less adoption than coaxial in America at the time.
In other parts of the world some TVs only had 21 pin connectors. Though some of those did composite style signal through that port, I think most were doing RGB quality signal.
Composite oddly was mostly used a bit later in the PS2 era, even though by that time component video was the best option.
The most widespread I ever saw composite used for video games, was in 2000s era plug n plays, and 2000s-2010s era clone consoles.
Re: Workshop Of Retro Modder And Engineer Voultar Has Been "Ransacked"
I don’t think anyone deserves this. I don’t know of anything that he has done wrong in general. But I do know he makes a lot of enemies and likes to engage with people online a lot, as well as rival communities and personalities. As far as I know he has never done anything scummy, but he does lose control a lot on social media.
No reason for anyone to do something like this… but still provides possible answers of what could have led to this.
Other possibility could just be a thief familiar with him, looking for something that is valuable like a rare prototype.
Re: Limited Run Under Fire For "Horrible" Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vinyl Release
@-wc- I would personally say it is better to pass them an uncompressed digital file than a vinyl. If they really want to hear it on vinyl they can have it pressed for a pretty decent price. But if you pass them an analog copy, copying that data gets corrupted more and more with every new copy.
Its like having a TIFF or a JPEG. Pass a JPEG around enough and eventually it becomes an unrecognizable blur of graphics. Pass a TIFF around and it will be forever perfect. Heck you can even view a TIFF that has been shared millions of times on an analog CRT monitor, and it will look like the intended picture. The JPEG shared a million times will look nothing like the original picture whether you view it on an analog or digital device. Same goes with audio, physical sound waves may be analog, but if they are cast from a lossless digital source, they will always be recognizable as the same song. If the sound waves are cast from analog sources, over time the sound will change. Maybe not enough for most to notice in our lifetime, but eventually the song will be completely different.
That is why vinyl is not suitable for archival purposes. 1s and 0s will forever be 1s and 0s. Even if the media doesn’t last long, you can keep making new copies until the end of time and your archive copy will sounds exactly the same during the universes heat death, as it did in 1984.
Vinyl is cool, vinyl is fun, vinyl can provide a unique experience and sound. I own the Phantasy Star vinyl for the beautiful art and fold out insert. But it has no business being seen as an archive copy.
Re: Limited Run Under Fire For "Horrible" Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vinyl Release
@-wc- The analog vinyl press may last a long time, but it isn't a good method to archive digital music. Analog is analog, it is not an exact replica and its playback methods are not exact sound reproduction. Digital music exists perfectly in 1s and 0s. As long as you transfer it to a new digital format in raw data, the 1s and 0s will always be exactly the same. Its can continuously be archived forever across many different digital mediums this way. Once it hits an analog medium, it is forever changed and no longer preserved.
Analog has its purpose, but its purpose isn't preservation, its purpose is sound taste and preference. And the really cool giant art doesn't hurt either.
Re: A1 Unicorn Will Have "One Of The Best D-Pads" Of Any Handheld, Says ZPG
I’ll take it with a grain of salt. They put the dpad in the wrong place, especially for a primary 2D system. They got only 4 face buttons. And the final nail in the coffin.. most fighting game players that play on pad, use a 4 point dpad like classic Nintendo or PlayStation style. It might feel good to roll out a hadouken on this 8 point, but accuracy and feel for cardinal direction is much more important. Every time a company makes a “fighting game controller” with this style dpad, no one uses it in tournaments or buys it for anything other than a collectors item. They stick to the classic 4 point in tournaments. Fireballs are kind of easy on some modern games because the game is programmed to autocorrect if you accidentally are off by a bit. But some oldschool or indie games aren’t that forgiving. But the fireball is the basic beginners special move. People choosing a dpad for fighters are doing 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 and 360 circles while in the middle of other stuff that requires tight 4 point inputs, like dashes, half steps, other specials, command inputs, charge motions, etc. And yeah just charge motions alone on these pads can be trouble. Going from downback to down forward to up after a charge is slippery and results in a lot of misses.
Aside from fighting games, games like Contra and Tetris require quick panic moment 4 direction presses, and if you are off slightly on this round dpad, you could trigger a diagonal, leading you to walk forward into a bullet rather than ducking the bullet or moving your piece over to the right rather than executing the fast drop. Even 4 point dpads these days have been failing in that regard (Switch Pro Controller and several 8bitdo controllers). So I have even less faith in dpads with diagonal press-able areas.
They are fun to use on games like beat em ups where you walk around in all directions or overhead action games like Ikari Warriors.
But if I was to make the claim I was designing “the best dpad”, it would definitely be a 4 point dpad and it would have the primary position on the controller, not angled at the bottom where you have to contort your thumb.
Re: Three Years On, PS1 ODE PSIO Gets An Update - Along With Some Terrifying DRM
Couldn’t they just have the new firmware check to see if your device is different from the legit one? If it’s an exact replica then shouldn’t they release a new model and try harder next time? People don’t like when you punish them, the consumer, to get at the competition.
Re: This NES Clone Has RGB, S-Video And HDMI Output
@GhaleonUnlimited It’s actually both. You need a CRT to get a fast enough picture displayed for a lightgun. But also the consoles software (programming of the fpga) has to be fast enough too, in reading controller input. Part of this system is FPGA, and part of it is real hardware. Without knowing what the FPGA controls and how it controls it, its hard to say if it will process inputs and signals fast enough. So I am hoping someone tests this.
Re: This NES Clone Has RGB, S-Video And HDMI Output
Anyone tested light gun games on RGB? I know it's an FPGA, but you never know how accurate these things are.
Re: Someone Has Finally "Fixed" The Mega Drive's Audio Shortcomings
I like the optional feature of MP3s, but even as an American I prefer the stock sound of the Genesis over SNES. SNES and Genesis produce sounds in two different ways, and it is down to opinion in which you enjoy more. But technically speaking, SNES does not produce clean sound, so no matter how good the composition, the audio quality is going to be poor, using compressed sound samples. I love me some SNES tracks, but it is hard for me to enjoy the original versions due to how flat and muddy they are. I prefer redone soundtracks for SNES games, whenever they are available.
Genesis gets a bad wrap due to a lot of western games using premade sound engines, like GEMs. But on the Japanese side of things there are some legendary soundtracks, and the audio is perfectly clean, and the original versions of tracks can be enjoyed with absolute clarity.
Stock SNES sounds like Napster era MP3s, and Genesis sounds like a live electronic keyboard show.
Re: Stories From Sol: The Gun-Dog Is A Visual Novel With A PC-98 Vibe
@damo is there any chance that stories with embedded YouTube videos on this site, would also have a regular text link to the video? For whatever reason, they just don't appear for me on any of the sites in the NintendoLife family. Embedded Twitter videos work fine. Embedded YouTube videos on other websites work fine. Just YouTube videos in particular on this family of websites in particular, seems to be the issue. I Have tried steps such as clearing my history, clearing my cookies, and right now I am typing this on a laptop that was just factory reset and the problem persists. I have seen others discuss the issue too, but not really sure if they found a solution. Would like to fully enjoy the videos the article discusses, but this usually means I have to open another tab and search out the video myself and hope I find the right one. So a lot of times I just end up skipping out on the story, if the video seems essential to me.
Re: Zelda Prototype Could Be Hiding Big Differences Compared To Retail Version
@TransmitHim I felt similar, but initially held off on commenting because I don’t like being negative. But given the article has been live for a long time now and there are hardly and comments, and yours is one of them.. yeah this is pretty insignificant.
A beta has some slight bugs. We knew that without having to dump the ROM. Wake me up when they discover something that shows the game originally had a different intent or different assets or the story was changed.
Re: The Sony PSP Gets Upgraded For 2024
@Przemyslaw I can see the appeal of using original chips to play the games. It is really for purists and not the average retro gamer. Personally I don't like to emulate anything on Android. I play a lot of games that require fast input, like 2d fighters. Unfortunately Android has very noticeable input delay for those types of games if you play at a high level. It isn't something that can be overcome with a higher specced phone or choosing a different brand. It has to do with how Android itself operates at base system level, so you would need to boot to a different OS on a phone to get around this.
So yeah for the average retro gamer I would say indeed Android is a good go to and the most appropriate choice. But there are some niches where Android is not acceptable. Another one would be privacy and security focused people. Anything Google or Microsoft is an instant no for them.
Re: iPhone NES Emulator Pulled From App Store "Out Of Fear"
@Arcata That is your personal preference, but not everyone wants to purchase a whole other device when they already have one that plays games. Not to mention they now have to carry that whole other device around with them wherever they go of they expect to be able to game portably, while a phone is already going to be with you. You literally have to bring a bag to carry it in too. Where as a phone and a slim controller attachment or an 8bitdo Zero just fit in your pocket or in the case of something like a jrpg, you can just grind XP with the touch screen at anytime without a controller. Then you have to worry about an outlet wherever you are, because in my experience, Steam Deck has the best battery life of these handheld PCs, but I still need to plug in after 2 hours on the average game. There were demanding games that killed my Deck in 75 minutes. And then phones have built in cameras so you can live stream on the go. Capturing and sharing pictures and video to social media is a lot easier.
There are a lot of advantages of a phone. So that is the reason many choose it.
I personally don’t use Steam Deck as portable device. Its a couch and bed device. Bringing it outside the home is a hassle. So my sentiment would be if you want to game portably, you probably want to do it on a phone not a Steam Deck or Switch. Those consoles aren’t stationary, but they are also only somewhat portable.
Re: Kickstarter For Star Control Successor Free Stars: Children Of Infinity Funded In 3 Hours
@_NetNomad I haven’t played the series but I came here to ask if the game plays like “Escape Velocity”, because it looks similar and I love that game. Anyway if it is indeed similar, I can recommend “Endless Sky” on Steam. Its completely free
Re: Popular PSP Emulator 'PPSSPP' May Be Coming To The iPhone App Store This Year
There is a Saturn emulator that was submitted on April 6 as well:
https://twitter.com/miyaxdev/status/1776581649636958369?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1776581649636958369%7Ctwgr%5E56b72266167cff262b43db3d13e258f4dd5f2421%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.segasaturnshiro.com%2F2024%2F04%2F08%2Fyaba-sanshiro-applies-to-apples-app-store%2F
Hope it makes it through.
Re: Golden Axe Is Getting A 10-Episode Animated TV Series From Comedy Central
@OldManHermit The worst part is, they are calling it (Lower Decks) canon. It is literally impossible for the stuff that happens on that show, to take place in the same universe as TNG. Every character on that show would have been kicked out of Star Fleet numerous times over.
Re: 'Sunsoft Is Back! - Retro Game Selection' Will Get English Options After All
@damo Any updates on this? I am wondering if I buy it today, will I get an English patch down the road? Perhaps it would be a different store listing and I’d have to buy again?
Re: Game Boy Emulator That Topped iPhone App Store Gets Yanked For Copyright Infringement
@Coalescence For me personally I like having my games on a versatile device like my iPhone. I have super easy built in screen recording. I have the option to play handheld with a controller grip on a super nice OLED screen. I have the option to play on my TV or monitor with my dock. It’s easy to transfer saves and games through iCloud to play on other devices if I want to. I can stream my gameplay live and I have a built in webcam that is better than pretty much any webcam. I can look up guides on the same device. I can take screenshots to share on social media, without having to transfer to another device.
I honestly can’t think of a better way to play. I do enjoy original hardware and a crt the most, but I can’t deny that a smartphone is probably the best most practical way to play. Runners up would be laptop, but it’s not handheld, or a Steam Deck, but using a lot of sharing features and a couple other things I mentioned on that is a lot more complicated and time consuming and there is no webcam for streaming. Not to mention the battery life being poor and it being a lot less practical to bring on the go, due to its bulk.
Re: Game Boy Emulator That Topped iPhone App Store Gets Yanked For Copyright Infringement
@Jhena There is nothing in this article about “using an emulator for illegal ROMs”. You just injected that yourself. This article is about a perfectly legal emulator and someone else copying that emulator illegally.
Yes, I will continue using legal emulators with my legally backed up ROMs that I dumped myself.
Just don’t appreciate the snark and negativity in our hobby that degrades people’s hard work.
Re: Game Boy Emulator That Topped iPhone App Store Gets Yanked For Copyright Infringement
@Jhena You still make no sense. Anything can be used illegally. The original emulator that is the topic of discussion here, is a legal platform. Same thing as this very website you are commenting on.. it is a legal platform. Can people use it for nefarious purposes? Yes. Several news blogs have been caught plagiarizing other people's writing. Blogs in general have been known to distribute IP infringing software, videos, music, games etc. Does it make sense to crack on WordPress's software for piracy? Nah, not really. It's a joke that doesn't make sense.
Every major console manufacturer has released games bundled inside an emulator, along with countless software publishers and developers. You are just choosing to try to pull something out and shade emulators as something raunchy. It's not cool when people put a lot of work into their project and people go around trolling it making comments that get their work pushed into the shadows.
Other people rely on these emulators too, to do their work. In the last few years we have seen a huge boom in new games for retro consoles. This negativity also hurts their work, as the developers rely on these platforms to do their work.
Courts and governments do look into public opinion on matters to make decisions. If you keep perpetuating these stigmas, it could bring real world repercussions, and cause problems for innocent people who are bringing positive things into the world.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinions of course. But it really bothers me when people constantly use their public expression to just dole out snide comments that can bring nothing good to the world and just spreads negativity. It's bad enough on big social media platforms like FaceBook, but when people bring that over to our niche little corner of the internet, it really makes me feel frustrated. Can we just enjoy our hobbies and respect each other, especially those actually putting work hours into the community?
@KGRAMR I don't think that is what they were getting at. The way I read it was that they were frustrated someone was equating everything related to emulators, to piracy. I didn't read it as them supporting the guy who uploaded stolen work to the App Store. I could be wrong though, just the way it sounded to me.
Re: All Is Not Well In The World Of FPGA Retro Gaming
I don't see why personal beef with a YouTuber would cause someone to stop working on a public project like MiSTer. Just ignore them and stay positive with the community.
Anyway I am not really interested in hearing about the drama and waring between communities here on TE, just coming here to get updates and history. Seems like something that would be better for a book in 10 years, or reserved for one of those drama based investigative YouTubers (eww), or even an article here in 10 years about the struggles of these platforms.. long after the hate has dissipated.
Re: Over 20 Classic SNK Games Have Just Been Released On GOG
@Diogmites Crossed Swords is awesome. I actually first played it on Switch. I am always on the hunt for good retro games I never heard of, and when I saw a video of it, I had to pick it up. Classic medieval fantasy, with anime tones, and Punch Out style combat!? Incredible. I hope they throw these games up on Steam eventually. I do have a GOG account, but I stopped buying games there and am trying to consolidate everything on Steam. Even re-bought some stuff I already owned on GOG, like Lords of the Realm II, and the Gold Box DnD games.
Re: 'Sunsoft Is Back! - Retro Game Selection' Will Get English Options After All
One of these is a visual novel, so if it's true there will really be a full English version, I think that's great for the community, and even though there are only 3 games included, I think whatever price they put on this would be fair, given the work.
Re: Random: Here's A Horrifying Vision Of What Retro Emulation On Apple Watch Could Look Like
When I saw the heading picture, I was like dang why does that Ultra screen look 100x worse than my regular Apple Watch 8? Oh it's a clone lol.
Actually would be a cool emulation side kick for VMUs and stuff Nintendo put out over the years like the Pokewalker and that little Pikachu pocket device,
Re: Retro Emulators Are Coming To iPhone's App Store
@drstory thats been going on for years already. Sega has many roms in an emulator container on the app store. Back in 2011 Capcom released Street Fighter II collection and Final Fight collection for iOS.
This is new terms to allow independent emulator devs to publish to the App Store. They actually put in the guidelines that developers may not include games they don’t own the ip to in the software they publish. I doubt Apple put that stipulation in to warn Nintendo and Xbox.
Re: Double Dragon Studio Wanted To Make A New 2D Golden Axe
@jesse_dylan Yeah Sega has been hard headed since the 90s and that is what killed their console business. Even going to today, the Sega people think they can make better Sonic games than any third party, yet they constantly put out low quality stuff that gets critically panned. Sonic Mania came out and was the biggest success the franchise has had in decades.. but then Sega was like.. yeah thats enough of that, our guys can do Sonic better. They never learn.
Re: Sonic Co-Creator Yuji Naka Has Beef With Outgoing Dragon Quest Producer
In Japan isn't that considered defamation, and punishable by prison time or a half million Yen? I think he just needs to stay quiet and lay low before he makes things worse for himself.
Re: A Bunch Of Sealed NES Games Just Sold For Utterly Insane Amounts On eBay
@sdelfin Correct, the article states that the folks who bought the games at the estate sale, turned around and resold them on eBay, as shown in the pictures in the story here.
Re: Flashback: The Lost 32X Castlevania That Led To Symphony Of The Night
@jesse_dylan I remember looking it up one time and a couple sources said it had Redbook Audio, but perhaps those sources were incorrect or they were confusing the fact that the PS1 disc does have a playable audio track on a regular CD player, but it is only one bonus song, not the soundtrack.
Re: The NES Slotmaster Is An Open-Source Replacement For The 72-Pin Cartridge Slot
@Cboyung Hopefully these are better than those. The $10 replacements are junk. They grips carts way too tight, making using them a pain, and grinding the connections on your carts isn't good for them. They also use cheap metals that corrode quickly, further threatening your old hardware and causing you to have to replace them. through the years.
Generally it's best practice to use original connectors and just repair or clean them appropriately. The third party replacements are bad news.