Isn’t this the same guy who did the amazing Secret of Mana soundtrack? A man of many talents!
I need to play this. I really want to play the two Shadow Hearts games on PS2, but I feel I should play this first. Plus it looks good on its own merits too.
@ruiner9 I did think of that, of course. But wouldn’t you want to get a different, more normal looking system for other game systems? This just seems very DS specific, which is why I made the comparison.
Emulation devices are not for me, so I’m probably missing the point. But why would you get one of these for DS games when you could get a second hand DS Lite and R4 card for a similar, if not cheaper price? The screens on the DS Lite are great.
@Profchaos I have both a PVM and a small no brand (Maxim?) Consumer CRT. I think both look better than the RetroTINK 5x, but obviously this is subjective. I just prefer the colours and the way CRTs smooth off the early 3D games. I would love to try the RT5x on an OLED TV, but as I can’t see myself getting one for a few years (when they’re cheaper and have better options at smaller screen sizes) I guess I’ll never know.
I understand the RT5x is better than most/all other scalers. I haven’t tried many, but I can clearly see the difference against the RAD2X cables for example.
I’ve never really messed around with the settings of the RT5x. It’s not my thing, which is why I always avoided the OSSC and I always love the plug n play aspect of CRTs.
I guess the RT5x (and mods like this one) just aren’t for me. If I didn’t have a CRT I’m sure I’d be much happier, but as I do I can’t feel anything but underwhelmed with it. I just hope my CRTs last another couple of decades!
I tried my GameCube with component cables to a RetroTink 5x and a 1080p TV, and I must say, I was not impressed by the picture whatsoever. I use a CRT, and I bought a RetroTink to see if I’d be happy using it so I didn’t need a CRT anymore. I’m quite annoyed by all the hype from YouTubers and review sites over the praise they gave the RetroTink 5x (that most received for free). I’m extremely underwhelmed by it, for all the consoles I’ve tried. Especially for the price. Maybe I’m spoilt with CRTs or my expectations are too high, I know it’s better than most other upscalers. But still, it didn’t convince me to get rid of my CRT.
On topic, I wonder if I’d prefer these console based solutions. I’ve never seen one in person, and I probably never will as I’ll never buy one. Would be good to see one though.
I just want Shantae Pirate’s Curse for Switch at a reasonable price. I don’t see why they can’t just do another time limited order window for their more popular games. it would still be a Limited Run, just more than one Limited Run 😀
It would stick one up at the people who buy these games just to sell at a future date for an inflated price. Most LRG games I see on the second hand market are still sealed, so clearly a lot of their customers aren’t buying their games to play.
I’d also like them to work with a distribution partner in the UK and/or Europe. To make the total price after postage and duty a bit cheaper for us.
I got the Mega ED X5 a few years ago and I’ve been very happy with it. It’s great value at $60 odd, and I recommend it to anyone who’s interested but doesn’t want to pay $200+ for the Pro. It plays Mega Drive and Master System games flawlessly. It does 32X games, but I don’t have one so not something I’ve ever used. It also does cheat codes too.
So really what you’re paying for is Mega CD support with the Everdrive Pro. I am tempted by it. I’ll never buy a Mega CD myself (too unreliable and I’m not bothered about buying genuine games for it), and I would be able to play Snatcher without forking out over £500!
Is that 24% of all people in this age group in the UK, or just 24% of gamers in that age group? Because there’s a big difference, and without any absolute numbers of either, a % figure is meaningless.
Also, what’s classed as retro? To these whippersnappers, the Wii U might be deemed retro. Does it include the whole gamut of someone played a game of PAC-Man on an Android emulator for 10 mins, right up to those who buy and play on real hardware?
I don’t believe any of these recent stats about how popular retro gaming is to be honest. Not without any specific details provided (in the articles I read anyway, maybe they dumb it down for internet audiences).
On a side note, I hate all this calling different age groups by stupid internet names. I would have had no idea what Gen Z was, without this article providing the age range. Why can’t people just write a few extra words and say “people born between these years” or “people aged between x and y”. I literally have to Google every time these silly terms are used. I suppose it helps the internet folk with limited attention spans.
I’ll never again buy new games for old consoles. I bought an N64 game from Piko (40 Winks) and a SNES game from retro-bit (one of the generic fighting games). They just look and feel really cheap and nothing like a proper, original game. The idea is way better than the reality. Whoever manufactures these cartridges for old consoles do not do a good job. Sounds like LRG are no better.
Over the past week I’ve just set up my PS2 to play games from the hard drive. All I had to do was buy a SATA adapter and freemcboot memory card from Amazon. Delivered the next day, I could return it easily if I couldn’t get it to work, no soldering, and up and running in a matter of hours (most of that time was loading the ROMs).
I wish it was that easy for all disc based retro consoles.
@Azuris maybe, but even including emulation I still think the number is way off. Retro gaming is a very niche pastime. And using emulators just as much. The increase in popularity of gaming in the last decade is driven by mobile games and a very select few games like CoD, FIFA/Madden and a few of the epics like Witcher, Skyrim etc.
I recommend people watch MVG’s video on YouTube on this. He mentions additional issues with it:
1) This works best on a fat PS2. Similar to this review, he noted mostly flawless performance on games that played.
2) This memory card is NOT suitable for PS2 Slims. FMV sequences stutter really badly. Only games with minimal or no FMV would be worth using this on a Slim. Damo - I see you say you used a PS2 Slim in your review, do you think certain Slim models work better than others? Any word from the manufacturer?
3) Apparently PS1 games do NOT work at all, even if converted to an ISO file. I don’t know if you specifically tested PS1 games Damo and can prove this comment wrong? Again, what does the manufacturer say?
4) He mentioned additional games that wouldn’t play, such as two of the Daxter games.
Personally I’m going to try the SATA adapter for the PS2 fat, which lets you use a standard SATA HDD to play your games from with a free McBoot memory card (which I already have). I can get one got £26 from UK Amazon and I already have a spare HDD. If I can’t get it to work, I can just return it.
@makankosappo I’m guessing RGB on the Dreamcast would be 480i not 240p, so technically wouldn’t be double the resolution, just no interlace flicker.
Also at the time of release you’d have needed a computer monitor to use VGA, consumer CRTs wouldn’t have had a VGA socket.
Even today, if I were to play this, I wouldn’t be able to use my CRT via RGB, I’d either have to use composite or plug the VGA into a flat panel monitor, which never looks as good as a CRT, even at 480p.
Not that it really matters as I don’t have a Dreamcast anyway 🤣 but as an avid retro gamer in the UK I’m always trying to find the optimum way to play my games, which is why I usually go for the NTSC versions via RGB, so I find this interesting regardless.
How many games have you tested, PS2 and PS1, and did you test PS2 CD, DVD, and Dual Layer DVD games?
I’m interested in this, but if you only tested like 10 games I’ll probably wait until I read more anecdotal evidence of people trying a lot more games across all the supported formats.
I’ve had an Everdrive 64 v3 (pre-cursor to the X7) for nearly 10 years now, and even though it was expensive I have no regrets whatsoever. It’s still going strong and I expect it to be still going strong in another 10 years.
This Summercart looks to be good value, and if I was buying an N64 flash cart today I’d seriously consider it. However, we’ll have to wait and see if they prove as reliable as Everdrives are, only time will tell. Not sure if I’d ever buy a flash cart from AliExpress either, even MVG says in his video that the link to where he bought it probably won’t work after a few weeks!
I must have seen this ad at the time, but I have no distinct memory of it. I do, however, have distinct memories of the GameCube TV ads in the UK a couple of years ago.
They were, I think, the right mix of ‘edgy/artistic’ and showing the gameplay. In particular I recall seeing the advert for Eternal Darkness as it effectively got me to buy a GameCube in the first place.
Didn’t help their sales though, the PS2 destroyed the GameCube in terms of sales 🤣
@GhaleonUnlimited I completely agree with your N64 comment. I started playing Ocarina of Time on NSO to show my daughters what Daddy’s favourite Zelda game looks like. I quickly realised it looked way too clear and sharp on NSO, and just didn’t look right.
So I did what any good parent would do and I subjected my daughters to Ocarina of Time on real hardware via composite and a 15” CRT and they loved it! Blurriness and fog reinstated, we played it all the way through it to the end. It was great.
I guess anything like this on YouTube just needs censoring. It’s better to have the video up, making the creator money, with some bits censored, than for it to be taken down entirely and making the creator no money.
Most viewers probably wouldn’t care, and for those who do, couldn’t they just find the uncensored footage elsewhere on the internet? Or am I being naive with my understanding of the issue?
Can uncensored footage be hosted elsewhere on a different site, for those interested to go and seek out if they want to? YouTube obviously has the mass market covered and most reach, and it would only be a minority who would then want to seek out full footage elsewhere.
Again, maybe I’m being naive. Ultimately you just have the play to the system, I can’t see YouTube ever changing in this regard.
I’ve never planned to have a Saturn, as I never had one back in the day so I don’t have any nostalgia for it. However, I am acutely aware there are some bangers for the system, they’re just really expensive.
Does this cart work like an Everdrive i.e. you can just play ROMs directly from it? How reliable is that given games normally play from the CD drive?
And I see you mention you can use it to play copied CDs, is that a more reliable way to use this flashcart?
I think I may be talking myself into getting a Saturn 🤣
@sdelfin yes I can see the pixels when up close on my consumer CRT, there’re just none of the scanlines everybody goes on about. I agree about preference for scanlines, they really do look great on retro games, I just don’t believe it’s actually an authentic look (for most people) despite the rhetoric around the internet.
@BulkSlash I play both PAL and NTSC consoles on my consumer CRT and there are no scanlines for either. However, on the PVM, the scanlines are noticeably thicker for NTSC games because of the line resolution as you say, so it does have an impact on the PVM.
Both TVs look great to me. The consumer CRT definitely gives me the most nostalgia (especially when using RF or composite!), but there’s no doubt the PVM looks great, even if it’s less authentic.
I do wonder if people really, truly want scanlines because that’s what they remember?
I have a Consumer CRT and a PVM, and there are literally no scanlines visible on the Consumer CRT. They are visible on the PVM, but nobody was playing their consoles on PVMs back in the day.
Also, hardly any of us were playing these consoles with RGB cables. We were using RF or composite, and scanlines are even less visible with these signals.
Scanlines look nice on the PVM, absolutely. I just feel like some revisionist history has taken place in the retro videogame scene.
Thank you for setting up and running this site. I really love the retro and videogame history angle you’ve adopted here, I can’t think of another site that covers the same subjects in the same way you do. Also a big thanks to John and Jack, you have written some excellent pieces that are a joy to read, and they’ve clearly had a lot of time and effort put into them with research, interviews, tracking down whatever nuggets of info you can find etc. Long may they continue into 2025 and beyond!
This is awesome. Always wondered who ‘Nasir’ was when it mentioned him on the title screen of Secret of Mana. It certainly didn’t sound like a Japanese name and I’d never seen a programmer quoted on the title screen before or since.
Great to hear he made enough money to travel the world afterwards. Did he get back into programming work (outside of videogames) afterwards or did he effectively retire?
Shame the interview is in Japanese. If ever it gets translated I’d certainly give it a read.
I much preferred Lego when it had the generic themes of Castle, Pirate, City and Space (and the ‘Legoland’ branding). It’s all licensed nonsense now (except for City), and seems to use so many bespoke pieces it’s hardly Lego anymore.
Of course, it probably helped that I was about 7 years old back then, and now it’s just nostalgia clouding my preference. I’ll have to check out for more detail on this game, as it looks interesting on the face of it.
I’ve tried various analogue switch boxes in my time for my CRT and every single one of them has introduced issues with video quality, sound quality, or both.
In the end I’ve found the best solution is also the cheapest. I bought a male to female Scart adapter cable that you can run to the front of the TV (hidden in a cabinet) and just plug your console into this when you want to use it. No reaching around the back of the TV. No spending loads of money on switch boxes that could be spent on other stuff. No degradation of signal quality. Simple.
I had and played the second game when it released in the UK (as just King’s Field of course). I loved the atmosphere but I was only about 14 and with no guidance I didn’t have a clue what to do or where to go so eventually traded it in. I remember me, my brother and Dad deciding there must be a game-breaking bug as we couldn’t get anywhere!
Obviously now I know you’re just supposed to explore, and slowly build up your experience and gold to make progress in small steps. I may have to revisit it again.
It always reminded me more of Dungeon Master on the SNES. The slow pace, brooding atmosphere, ambient sounds rather than full blown music. Shame I never got further with it back in the 90s.
Could someone explain this to me in laymen’s terms please? I think have some understanding of Mister in general - I believe it’s a DIY FPGA thing that you have to build yourself and add ‘cores’ which are effectively all the different consoles and systems.
So is this effectively just a pre-built version of that in a special case, to make it more console like and ready to go out of the box? If so, what cores/consoles come with it?
And what do these ‘cartridges’ do? Are they for using your real game cartridges with the system or something else?
What I find ironic is that a good few of Koji Kondo’s iconic melodies (and other Nintendo music) sound like they have sections outright copied from other pieces. I know there’s the “interpolation” argument, but they go way beyond that to my ear. I forget what exactly, there was a good YouTube video demonstrating loads of examples. I suppose it’s one rule for Nintendo, a different rule for everyone else!
It’s no exaggeration to say this game had a profound impact on me as an 11/12 year old. And the main reason for that was the soundtrack.
At the time I’d never played such an epic adventure, nor heard such realistic sounding music on my SNES. Playing it again recently, the story and dialogue certainly doesn’t hold up anymore through an adult’s point of view (I can see now the translation was rushed out and bits of the game cut out from transition from CD to cartridge), but the music absolutely does.
I played music from this game to my daughters when they were babies and I was bathing them.
I can only imagine what the game would have been like had it been able to release to its full potential on CD as it was first envisaged.
@occamyDG yeah I’d like to understand what this means in practical terms. Or maybe that is the big change? I know my login details got exposed from emuparadise when that got hacked, so maybe most people would think twice about creating a login on a rom site again.
I haven’t used CD romance in well over a year, but I always see it as a reliable place to get ROMs and pre-patched translated ROMs, so if this was to go away fully it would be a sad day indeed.
So was the SNES version not 60fps? Most 2D pixel games of this era were typically 60fps as standard I thought?
@DanijoEX-the-Pierrot I’m guessing their point was that as this is a UK site and the writer is from the UK, it seems odd they would use the US name for the console. I would agree. I’m British and would never refer to the console as the Genesis, even though I know what the Genesis is.
I remember finding the SNES Pixel book difficult to read. I can’t remember why exactly but I didn’t enjoy it and stopped reading the text. Obviously I could still enjoy the pictures. I totally forgot about it until seeing mention of it in this review, maybe I’ll have to try it again.
@LuigiBlood I did look at the User Guide, as I was struggling to work out the default button mapping. I just didn’t notice (or understand) the toggle you mention.
Yes I also remapped R to ZR so it matches ZL for Z, feels more natural.
Although what this is telling me is that it’s just better to play them with the official N64 NSO controller, which alleviates all of these issues.
@LuigiBlood I didn’t know about that trick of holding down ZR to then use XYAB as C buttons. I’ll have to give it a try. Although I think I’ll have a problem. I’ve changed the button mapping on the right Joycon for N64 games, so A is mapped to B and B is mapped to Y. This mimics the original N64 layout for A and B more closely, but will mess up this little trick I suspect for the C button.
To be honest I mainly use the N64 NSO controller for N64 games as it really does feel like a genuine controller. It’s just sometimes it would be nice to play in handheld with the joycons as normal.
I’m a big retro gamer. I have all the main original consoles for Nintendo, Sega and PlayStation, and two CRTs to play them on (got to have a back-up!). I do play on original hardware a lot, but I also find the convenience of NSO to be too tempting to resist. I completed Super Metroid recently and played Ocarina of Time over the weekend (to show my daughters what Daddy’s favourite Zelda game looks like). And I must say I haven’t really noticed any major input lag. I’m sure if I played them side by side at the same time I would, but to just casually play them it feels absolutely fine. Admittedly I will never play shmups, but platformers need decent response times and I can play them fine.
The main thing I noticed was with Zelda: it looks way too clear and clean for my tastes! I know this is a result of the upscale to HD, which does look very clean, but I like my N64 games blurry and foggy. That’s how they were originally made and it loses so much atmosphere as a result of being so clean.
I definitely see the usage of AA batteries as a massive plus point. I have lots of handhelds from the past 20 years (GBA SPs, DS Lites and 3DSes), and I have to make sure I charge them up every 6 months if I haven’t used them in a while, just to try and keep the batteries going as long as possible.
Until manufacturers work together to create a set of standard sized lithium ion batteries to be used by all mobile and handheld devices, I’ll always prefer AA/AAA batteries.
As for this device, I’m glad it seems to be reviewing well. I really like the look of it. The only thing putting me off are the postage and import prices into the UK. It’s too expensive. Unless they arrange a deal with a UK based distributor, I won’t be buying this unfortunately.
These marketplace sites are idiotic, with idiots working for them. Before I had an eBay account, I used their guest checkout over the course of a few years. I eventually decided to open an account properly. After 6 months to a year they banned me saying I’d set up loads of different accounts. Unbeknownst to me, everytime I’d used their guest checkout, they set up an eBay account with my name and address. They never told me this, so it looked like I had loads of accounts. I tried explaining this to the idiots who work there, but they couldn’t understand this simple situation and decided I’d set them all up myself in order to defraud their precious community. Morons.
They then banned my wife because she had the same address. I’m glad eBay has had to drop seller fees because they’ve been performing so poorly. I keep my fingers crossed that they will one day go bust. I don’t hold grudges 🤣
I have a 1 chip PAL SNES and a 2 chip Super Famicom. The 1 chip PAL SNES definitely looks sharper, without a doubt. But do I play it the most? Do I heck! My Super Famicom can play NTSC versions of games, and that far outweighs having sharper pixels for me. I literally cannot play PAL versions of SNES games after playing the NTSC versions. Not just the speed difference, the borders on PAL games are MASSIVE!
I feel sorry for my 90s self. Not only did I only play PAL games, it would have been a 2 chip console too 🤣
I could never get into Killer Instinct. I loved the look of it, and hearing it in the arcades back in the day. But I could never string the combos together.
Comments 303
Re: You Can Now Wirelessly Connect Controllers To PS1 Via Your 8BitMods MemCard Pro
“ Another bonus is that you can now connect USB pads to the MemCard Pro 2.”
Does the MemCard Pro 2 have a USB socket? I’ve never noticed it in pictures of it before.
Re: Director Of PS1 Horror RPG Koudelka "Surprised" People Are Still Interested In It 25 Years Later
Isn’t this the same guy who did the amazing Secret of Mana soundtrack? A man of many talents!
I need to play this. I really want to play the two Shadow Hearts games on PS2, but I feel I should play this first. Plus it looks good on its own merits too.
Re: This $75 Handheld Could Be The Best Way To Emulate Nintendo DS In 2025
@-wc- I was seeing the picture at the top where it looks like two screens. I’ve just noticed picture (CGI mock-up?) further down… still looks weird 🤣
Re: This $75 Handheld Could Be The Best Way To Emulate Nintendo DS In 2025
@avcrypt everyone’s talking about TATE mode for this (I’m presuming Shmups?), but wouldn’t there be a big gap between the two screens?
Re: This $75 Handheld Could Be The Best Way To Emulate Nintendo DS In 2025
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Re: This $75 Handheld Could Be The Best Way To Emulate Nintendo DS In 2025
@ruiner9 I did think of that, of course. But wouldn’t you want to get a different, more normal looking system for other game systems? This just seems very DS specific, which is why I made the comparison.
Re: This $75 Handheld Could Be The Best Way To Emulate Nintendo DS In 2025
Emulation devices are not for me, so I’m probably missing the point. But why would you get one of these for DS games when you could get a second hand DS Lite and R4 card for a similar, if not cheaper price? The screens on the DS Lite are great.
Like I say, I’m probably missing the point 🤣
Re: This Mod Brings Crisp And Clear HDMI To GameCube
@Profchaos I have both a PVM and a small no brand (Maxim?) Consumer CRT. I think both look better than the RetroTINK 5x, but obviously this is subjective. I just prefer the colours and the way CRTs smooth off the early 3D games. I would love to try the RT5x on an OLED TV, but as I can’t see myself getting one for a few years (when they’re cheaper and have better options at smaller screen sizes) I guess I’ll never know.
I understand the RT5x is better than most/all other scalers. I haven’t tried many, but I can clearly see the difference against the RAD2X cables for example.
I’ve never really messed around with the settings of the RT5x. It’s not my thing, which is why I always avoided the OSSC and I always love the plug n play aspect of CRTs.
I guess the RT5x (and mods like this one) just aren’t for me. If I didn’t have a CRT I’m sure I’d be much happier, but as I do I can’t feel anything but underwhelmed with it. I just hope my CRTs last another couple of decades!
Re: This Mod Brings Crisp And Clear HDMI To GameCube
I tried my GameCube with component cables to a RetroTink 5x and a 1080p TV, and I must say, I was not impressed by the picture whatsoever. I use a CRT, and I bought a RetroTink to see if I’d be happy using it so I didn’t need a CRT anymore. I’m quite annoyed by all the hype from YouTubers and review sites over the praise they gave the RetroTink 5x (that most received for free). I’m extremely underwhelmed by it, for all the consoles I’ve tried. Especially for the price. Maybe I’m spoilt with CRTs or my expectations are too high, I know it’s better than most other upscalers. But still, it didn’t convince me to get rid of my CRT.
On topic, I wonder if I’d prefer these console based solutions. I’ve never seen one in person, and I probably never will as I’ll never buy one. Would be good to see one though.
Re: Interview: "We’ve Certainly Made Mistakes" - Limited Run's Boss On Winning Back The Trust Of The Community
I just want Shantae Pirate’s Curse for Switch at a reasonable price. I don’t see why they can’t just do another time limited order window for their more popular games. it would still be a Limited Run, just more than one Limited Run 😀
It would stick one up at the people who buy these games just to sell at a future date for an inflated price. Most LRG games I see on the second hand market are still sealed, so clearly a lot of their customers aren’t buying their games to play.
I’d also like them to work with a distribution partner in the UK and/or Europe. To make the total price after postage and duty a bit cheaper for us.
Re: Review: Mega Everdrive Pro - The Best Flash Cart For Your Genesis / Mega Drive
I got the Mega ED X5 a few years ago and I’ve been very happy with it. It’s great value at $60 odd, and I recommend it to anyone who’s interested but doesn’t want to pay $200+ for the Pro. It plays Mega Drive and Master System games flawlessly. It does 32X games, but I don’t have one so not something I’ve ever used. It also does cheat codes too.
So really what you’re paying for is Mega CD support with the Everdrive Pro. I am tempted by it. I’ll never buy a Mega CD myself (too unreliable and I’m not bothered about buying genuine games for it), and I would be able to play Snatcher without forking out over £500!
Re: 24 Percent Of Gen Z Brits Own A Classic Gaming System, While 74 Percent Say Retro Is "More Relaxing"
Is that 24% of all people in this age group in the UK, or just 24% of gamers in that age group? Because there’s a big difference, and without any absolute numbers of either, a % figure is meaningless.
Also, what’s classed as retro? To these whippersnappers, the Wii U might be deemed retro. Does it include the whole gamut of someone played a game of PAC-Man on an Android emulator for 10 mins, right up to those who buy and play on real hardware?
I don’t believe any of these recent stats about how popular retro gaming is to be honest. Not without any specific details provided (in the articles I read anyway, maybe they dumb it down for internet audiences).
On a side note, I hate all this calling different age groups by stupid internet names. I would have had no idea what Gen Z was, without this article providing the age range. Why can’t people just write a few extra words and say “people born between these years” or “people aged between x and y”. I literally have to Google every time these silly terms are used. I suppose it helps the internet folk with limited attention spans.
Re: "This Cartridge Is A Tiny Time Bomb" - Limited Run Accused Of Selling Carts Which Can Damage Your NES
I’ll never again buy new games for old consoles. I bought an N64 game from Piko (40 Winks) and a SNES game from retro-bit (one of the generic fighting games). They just look and feel really cheap and nothing like a proper, original game. The idea is way better than the reality. Whoever manufactures these cartridges for old consoles do not do a good job. Sounds like LRG are no better.
Re: A New (And Cheap) PS1 ODE Option Is Now Available
Over the past week I’ve just set up my PS2 to play games from the hard drive. All I had to do was buy a SATA adapter and freemcboot memory card from Amazon. Delivered the next day, I could return it easily if I couldn’t get it to work, no soldering, and up and running in a matter of hours (most of that time was loading the ROMs).
I wish it was that easy for all disc based retro consoles.
Re: 14 Percent Of North Americans Still Play Gaming Systems Released Before 2000
@Azuris maybe, but even including emulation I still think the number is way off. Retro gaming is a very niche pastime. And using emulators just as much. The increase in popularity of gaming in the last decade is driven by mobile games and a very select few games like CoD, FIFA/Madden and a few of the epics like Witcher, Skyrim etc.
I just find this number hard to believe.
Re: 14 Percent Of North Americans Still Play Gaming Systems Released Before 2000
I find that hard to believe. As of 2024 there were approx. 345m Americans. 14% of that is 48m. So 48m people actively play retro consoles? Hmmmm.
Re: Streets Of Rage Composer Yuzo Koshiro Worked On SNES RPG Terranigma, He Just Forgot About It Until 28 Years Later
To be fair, it is pretty forgettable 🤣
Only joking, but it certainly isn’t as memorable as his best stuff from Streets of Rage 2 and Actraiser
Re: Review: 8BitMods MemCard Pro 2 - Run PS2 Games And Manage Your Saves From This $50 Memory Card
I recommend people watch MVG’s video on YouTube on this. He mentions additional issues with it:
1) This works best on a fat PS2. Similar to this review, he noted mostly flawless performance on games that played.
2) This memory card is NOT suitable for PS2 Slims. FMV sequences stutter really badly. Only games with minimal or no FMV would be worth using this on a Slim. Damo - I see you say you used a PS2 Slim in your review, do you think certain Slim models work better than others? Any word from the manufacturer?
3) Apparently PS1 games do NOT work at all, even if converted to an ISO file. I don’t know if you specifically tested PS1 games Damo and can prove this comment wrong? Again, what does the manufacturer say?
4) He mentioned additional games that wouldn’t play, such as two of the Daxter games.
Personally I’m going to try the SATA adapter for the PS2 fat, which lets you use a standard SATA HDD to play your games from with a free McBoot memory card (which I already have). I can get one got £26 from UK Amazon and I already have a spare HDD. If I can’t get it to work, I can just return it.
Re: 25 Years On, Skies Of Arcadia's Technical Issues Have Been Fixed
@makankosappo I’m guessing RGB on the Dreamcast would be 480i not 240p, so technically wouldn’t be double the resolution, just no interlace flicker.
Also at the time of release you’d have needed a computer monitor to use VGA, consumer CRTs wouldn’t have had a VGA socket.
Even today, if I were to play this, I wouldn’t be able to use my CRT via RGB, I’d either have to use composite or plug the VGA into a flat panel monitor, which never looks as good as a CRT, even at 480p.
Not that it really matters as I don’t have a Dreamcast anyway 🤣 but as an avid retro gamer in the UK I’m always trying to find the optimum way to play my games, which is why I usually go for the NTSC versions via RGB, so I find this interesting regardless.
Re: Review: 8BitMods MemCard Pro 2 - Run PS2 Games And Manage Your Saves From This $50 Memory Card
@Tasuki I just found this from Googling how to do it blind.
————————————
To get the PlayStation 2 into YPBPR (component) mode do the following:
1) Plug the PS2 in with either your component cables or HDMI adapter.
2) Start up the PlayStation 2 without a game in it.
3) Wait about 20 seconds.
4) Press Down.
5) Press X.
6) Wait 5 seconds.
7) Press Down three times.
8) Press X.
9) Press Left.
10) Press X.
The PS2 should now start displaying on your TV.
Re: Review: 8BitMods MemCard Pro 2 - Run PS2 Games And Manage Your Saves From This $50 Memory Card
How many games have you tested, PS2 and PS1, and did you test PS2 CD, DVD, and Dual Layer DVD games?
I’m interested in this, but if you only tested like 10 games I’ll probably wait until I read more anecdotal evidence of people trying a lot more games across all the supported formats.
Re: Tekken Boss Katsuhiro Harada Reveals Decade-Long Beef With Tomonobu Itagaki - And How It Ended
Sounds like a bit of a 🥜 job
Re: Shuhei Yoshida Reflects On 'Polygon Man', The PlayStation Mascot That Never Was
Polygon Man 🤣 Back in the 90s, the Japanese truly were much better at coming up with mascots. Polygon Man just sounds so… naff.
Re: This New N64 / 64DD Flash Cart Offers A Cheaper Way To Play Your Favourite Games
I’ve had an Everdrive 64 v3 (pre-cursor to the X7) for nearly 10 years now, and even though it was expensive I have no regrets whatsoever. It’s still going strong and I expect it to be still going strong in another 10 years.
This Summercart looks to be good value, and if I was buying an N64 flash cart today I’d seriously consider it. However, we’ll have to wait and see if they prove as reliable as Everdrives are, only time will tell. Not sure if I’d ever buy a flash cart from AliExpress either, even MVG says in his video that the link to where he bought it probably won’t work after a few weeks!
Re: Flashback: Remembering David Lynch's Memorable Early 2000s PS2 Ad
I must have seen this ad at the time, but I have no distinct memory of it. I do, however, have distinct memories of the GameCube TV ads in the UK a couple of years ago.
They were, I think, the right mix of ‘edgy/artistic’ and showing the gameplay. In particular I recall seeing the advert for Eternal Darkness as it effectively got me to buy a GameCube in the first place.
Didn’t help their sales though, the PS2 destroyed the GameCube in terms of sales 🤣
Re: Taki Udon's Groundbreaking FPGA PS1 Gets Detailed, Pricing Starts At $149
If we can get more players in the FGPA retro console market alongside Analogue, that can only be a good thing.
Re: Tech Boffins Are Simulating The Raster Scanning Of Old-School CRTs On Modern Hardware
@GhaleonUnlimited I completely agree with your N64 comment. I started playing Ocarina of Time on NSO to show my daughters what Daddy’s favourite Zelda game looks like. I quickly realised it looked way too clear and sharp on NSO, and just didn’t look right.
So I did what any good parent would do and I subjected my daughters to Ocarina of Time on real hardware via composite and a 15” CRT and they loved it! Blurriness and fog reinstated, we played it all the way through it to the end. It was great.
Re: Why YouTube Censorship Is Causing Headaches For Retro Game Historians
I guess anything like this on YouTube just needs censoring. It’s better to have the video up, making the creator money, with some bits censored, than for it to be taken down entirely and making the creator no money.
Most viewers probably wouldn’t care, and for those who do, couldn’t they just find the uncensored footage elsewhere on the internet? Or am I being naive with my understanding of the issue?
Can uncensored footage be hosted elsewhere on a different site, for those interested to go and seek out if they want to? YouTube obviously has the mass market covered and most reach, and it would only be a minority who would then want to seek out full footage elsewhere.
Again, maybe I’m being naive. Ultimately you just have the play to the system, I can’t see YouTube ever changing in this regard.
Re: Sega Saturn 'Saroo' Flash Cart Gets Cover Art And Improved Save Management
I’ve never planned to have a Saturn, as I never had one back in the day so I don’t have any nostalgia for it. However, I am acutely aware there are some bangers for the system, they’re just really expensive.
Does this cart work like an Everdrive i.e. you can just play ROMs directly from it? How reliable is that given games normally play from the CD drive?
And I see you mention you can use it to play copied CDs, is that a more reliable way to use this flashcart?
I think I may be talking myself into getting a Saturn 🤣
Re: Tech Boffins Are Simulating The Raster Scanning Of Old-School CRTs On Modern Hardware
@sdelfin yes I can see the pixels when up close on my consumer CRT, there’re just none of the scanlines everybody goes on about. I agree about preference for scanlines, they really do look great on retro games, I just don’t believe it’s actually an authentic look (for most people) despite the rhetoric around the internet.
Re: Tech Boffins Are Simulating The Raster Scanning Of Old-School CRTs On Modern Hardware
@BulkSlash I play both PAL and NTSC consoles on my consumer CRT and there are no scanlines for either. However, on the PVM, the scanlines are noticeably thicker for NTSC games because of the line resolution as you say, so it does have an impact on the PVM.
Both TVs look great to me. The consumer CRT definitely gives me the most nostalgia (especially when using RF or composite!), but there’s no doubt the PVM looks great, even if it’s less authentic.
Re: Tech Boffins Are Simulating The Raster Scanning Of Old-School CRTs On Modern Hardware
I do wonder if people really, truly want scanlines because that’s what they remember?
I have a Consumer CRT and a PVM, and there are literally no scanlines visible on the Consumer CRT. They are visible on the PVM, but nobody was playing their consoles on PVMs back in the day.
Also, hardly any of us were playing these consoles with RGB cables. We were using RF or composite, and scanlines are even less visible with these signals.
Scanlines look nice on the PVM, absolutely. I just feel like some revisionist history has taken place in the retro videogame scene.
Re: Editorial: Merry Christmas, You Filthy Animals
Thank you for setting up and running this site. I really love the retro and videogame history angle you’ve adopted here, I can’t think of another site that covers the same subjects in the same way you do. Also a big thanks to John and Jack, you have written some excellent pieces that are a joy to read, and they’ve clearly had a lot of time and effort put into them with research, interviews, tracking down whatever nuggets of info you can find etc. Long may they continue into 2025 and beyond!
Re: The Elusive Programming Genius Behind Final Fantasy And Secret Of Mana Breaks His Decades-Long Silence
This is awesome. Always wondered who ‘Nasir’ was when it mentioned him on the title screen of Secret of Mana. It certainly didn’t sound like a Japanese name and I’d never seen a programmer quoted on the title screen before or since.
Great to hear he made enough money to travel the world afterwards. Did he get back into programming work (outside of videogames) afterwards or did he effectively retire?
Shame the interview is in Japanese. If ever it gets translated I’d certainly give it a read.
Re: Unreleased Nintendo DS Lego Game Sells For Around $1000 On eBay
I much preferred Lego when it had the generic themes of Castle, Pirate, City and Space (and the ‘Legoland’ branding). It’s all licensed nonsense now (except for City), and seems to use so many bespoke pieces it’s hardly Lego anymore.
Of course, it probably helped that I was about 7 years old back then, and now it’s just nostalgia clouding my preference. I’ll have to check out for more detail on this game, as it looks interesting on the face of it.
Re: The Scalable Video Switch Might Be The Ultimate AV Solution For Retro Gaming Fans
I’ve tried various analogue switch boxes in my time for my CRT and every single one of them has introduced issues with video quality, sound quality, or both.
In the end I’ve found the best solution is also the cheapest. I bought a male to female Scart adapter cable that you can run to the front of the TV (hidden in a cabinet) and just plug your console into this when you want to use it. No reaching around the back of the TV. No spending loads of money on switch boxes that could be spent on other stuff. No degradation of signal quality. Simple.
Re: Anniversary: 30 Years Ago, Elden Ring And Dark Souls Dev FromSoftware Released Its "Mind-Boggling" Debut
I had and played the second game when it released in the UK (as just King’s Field of course). I loved the atmosphere but I was only about 14 and with no guidance I didn’t have a clue what to do or where to go so eventually traded it in. I remember me, my brother and Dad deciding there must be a game-breaking bug as we couldn’t get anywhere!
Obviously now I know you’re just supposed to explore, and slowly build up your experience and gold to make progress in small steps. I may have to revisit it again.
It always reminded me more of Dungeon Master on the SNES. The slow pace, brooding atmosphere, ambient sounds rather than full blown music. Shame I never got further with it back in the 90s.
Re: Here's A Better Look At The Promising "All-In-One" MiSTer FPGA Console, Multisystem 2
Could someone explain this to me in laymen’s terms please? I think have some understanding of Mister in general - I believe it’s a DIY FPGA thing that you have to build yourself and add ‘cores’ which are effectively all the different consoles and systems.
So is this effectively just a pre-built version of that in a special case, to make it more console like and ready to go out of the box? If so, what cores/consoles come with it?
And what do these ‘cartridges’ do? Are they for using your real game cartridges with the system or something else?
Re: Talking Point: Are Nintendo's Legal "Ninjas" Stifling The Creativity Of Tomorrow's Game Makers?
What I find ironic is that a good few of Koji Kondo’s iconic melodies (and other Nintendo music) sound like they have sections outright copied from other pieces. I know there’s the “interpolation” argument, but they go way beyond that to my ear. I forget what exactly, there was a good YouTube video demonstrating loads of examples. I suppose it’s one rule for Nintendo, a different rule for everyone else!
Re: Interview: Secret Of Mana Composer Hiroki Kikuta Reflects On The Timeless SNES Soundtrack
It’s no exaggeration to say this game had a profound impact on me as an 11/12 year old. And the main reason for that was the soundtrack.
At the time I’d never played such an epic adventure, nor heard such realistic sounding music on my SNES. Playing it again recently, the story and dialogue certainly doesn’t hold up anymore through an adult’s point of view (I can see now the translation was rushed out and bits of the game cut out from transition from CD to cartridge), but the music absolutely does.
I played music from this game to my daughters when they were babies and I was bathing them.
I can only imagine what the game would have been like had it been able to release to its full potential on CD as it was first envisaged.
Thanks for the interview.
Re: Fan Translation And ROM Hack Site CDRomance Is No Longer Being Updated
@occamyDG yeah I’d like to understand what this means in practical terms. Or maybe that is the big change? I know my login details got exposed from emuparadise when that got hacked, so maybe most people would think twice about creating a login on a rom site again.
I haven’t used CD romance in well over a year, but I always see it as a reliable place to get ROMs and pre-patched translated ROMs, so if this was to go away fully it would be a sad day indeed.
Re: This Christmas, You'll Be Able To Play SNES Batman Returns On Your Genesis, For Free
So was the SNES version not 60fps? Most 2D pixel games of this era were typically 60fps as standard I thought?
@DanijoEX-the-Pierrot I’m guessing their point was that as this is a UK site and the writer is from the UK, it seems odd they would use the US name for the console. I would agree. I’m British and would never refer to the console as the Genesis, even though I know what the Genesis is.
Re: Review: The GBA Pixel Book - A Gorgeous Tribute To The Last Great 2D Console
I remember finding the SNES Pixel book difficult to read. I can’t remember why exactly but I didn’t enjoy it and stopped reading the text. Obviously I could still enjoy the pictures. I totally forgot about it until seeing mention of it in this review, maybe I’ll have to try it again.
Re: "Absolutely Horrid" - Is Nintendo Switch Online's Emulation Really That Bad?
@LuigiBlood I did look at the User Guide, as I was struggling to work out the default button mapping. I just didn’t notice (or understand) the toggle you mention.
Yes I also remapped R to ZR so it matches ZL for Z, feels more natural.
Although what this is telling me is that it’s just better to play them with the official N64 NSO controller, which alleviates all of these issues.
Re: "Absolutely Horrid" - Is Nintendo Switch Online's Emulation Really That Bad?
@LuigiBlood I didn’t know about that trick of holding down ZR to then use XYAB as C buttons. I’ll have to give it a try. Although I think I’ll have a problem. I’ve changed the button mapping on the right Joycon for N64 games, so A is mapped to B and B is mapped to Y. This mimics the original N64 layout for A and B more closely, but will mess up this little trick I suspect for the C button.
To be honest I mainly use the N64 NSO controller for N64 games as it really does feel like a genuine controller. It’s just sometimes it would be nice to play in handheld with the joycons as normal.
Re: "Absolutely Horrid" - Is Nintendo Switch Online's Emulation Really That Bad?
I’m a big retro gamer. I have all the main original consoles for Nintendo, Sega and PlayStation, and two CRTs to play them on (got to have a back-up!). I do play on original hardware a lot, but I also find the convenience of NSO to be too tempting to resist. I completed Super Metroid recently and played Ocarina of Time over the weekend (to show my daughters what Daddy’s favourite Zelda game looks like). And I must say I haven’t really noticed any major input lag. I’m sure if I played them side by side at the same time I would, but to just casually play them it feels absolutely fine. Admittedly I will never play shmups, but platformers need decent response times and I can play them fine.
The main thing I noticed was with Zelda: it looks way too clear and clean for my tastes! I know this is a result of the upscale to HD, which does look very clean, but I like my N64 games blurry and foggy. That’s how they were originally made and it loses so much atmosphere as a result of being so clean.
Re: Review: ModRetro Chromatic Is So Close To The Real Thing You'd Think Nintendo Made It
I definitely see the usage of AA batteries as a massive plus point. I have lots of handhelds from the past 20 years (GBA SPs, DS Lites and 3DSes), and I have to make sure I charge them up every 6 months if I haven’t used them in a while, just to try and keep the batteries going as long as possible.
Until manufacturers work together to create a set of standard sized lithium ion batteries to be used by all mobile and handheld devices, I’ll always prefer AA/AAA batteries.
As for this device, I’m glad it seems to be reviewing well. I really like the look of it. The only thing putting me off are the postage and import prices into the UK. It’s too expensive. Unless they arrange a deal with a UK based distributor, I won’t be buying this unfortunately.
Re: Etsy Accuses Game Boy Publisher Of Piracy For Selling Its Own Games
These marketplace sites are idiotic, with idiots working for them. Before I had an eBay account, I used their guest checkout over the course of a few years. I eventually decided to open an account properly. After 6 months to a year they banned me saying I’d set up loads of different accounts. Unbeknownst to me, everytime I’d used their guest checkout, they set up an eBay account with my name and address. They never told me this, so it looked like I had loads of accounts. I tried explaining this to the idiots who work there, but they couldn’t understand this simple situation and decided I’d set them all up myself in order to defraud their precious community. Morons.
They then banned my wife because she had the same address. I’m glad eBay has had to drop seller fees because they’ve been performing so poorly. I keep my fingers crossed that they will one day go bust. I don’t hold grudges 🤣
Re: "There Are No Bad Options" - The SNES 2CHIP Vs 1CHIP Debate Just Got Put To Bed
I have a 1 chip PAL SNES and a 2 chip Super Famicom. The 1 chip PAL SNES definitely looks sharper, without a doubt. But do I play it the most? Do I heck! My Super Famicom can play NTSC versions of games, and that far outweighs having sharper pixels for me. I literally cannot play PAL versions of SNES games after playing the NTSC versions. Not just the speed difference, the borders on PAL games are MASSIVE!
I feel sorry for my 90s self. Not only did I only play PAL games, it would have been a 2 chip console too 🤣
Re: Anniversary: Killer Instinct Is 30 Years Old
I could never get into Killer Instinct. I loved the look of it, and hearing it in the arcades back in the day. But I could never string the combos together.