Comments 46

Re: The Must-Have RetroTINK 4K Upscaler Now Has A Cheaper Alternative

Porco

@NeonPizza you sound very knowledgable on the subject and i feel comfortable taking your word for it! and i agree about the ultra sharp pixel look generated by the OLED not living up to the presentation of a CRT. that said, personally, i'm not overly concerned about the more technical aspects/downgrades of OLED vs CRTs since i would complement my CRT set with the OLED (not trade one for the other). ultimately, i just find it much more comfortable to play a ps1 era jrpg on the big screen OLED since it is easier to read the text. for me, that's the big selling point — the larger scale of the picture, not to mention the soundbar is connected to the OLED so the sound is more immersive as well. even so, i'll never part with my CRTs, so long as they are in working order. i recently completed jak and daxter and maximo: ghosts to glory on the CRT and it was a great experience in its own right!

Re: The Must-Have RetroTINK 4K Upscaler Now Has A Cheaper Alternative

Porco

isn't it about time the 5X pro finally got a decent price drop? $375USD with shipping is still way too much for a sub 4k device. and they never go on sale either i'll consider one at $250, but if that day never comes, i'll just continue to play retro on the old CRT. where an upscaler+OLED has the CRT beat, without question, is the text sharpness and being able to read text heavy games such as jrpgs much easier... that and being able to view the game on a far larger screen makes the upscalaing cost and trouble worthwhile in many ways... but i look at this issue on a game by game basis. now, if i didn't have CRTs at my disposal, i likely would have gotten the 5X pro a long time ago....

Re: Almost 20 Years After It Ended Production, A Brand-New PS1 Motherboard Is In Development

Porco

@AJB83 it almost feels like we have too much at our disposal and are just looking for excuses to justify yet another novelty item into our lives. so many people don't appreciate what they already have... they enjoy the new item for a minute and then on to the next thing. all the emulation devices coming out of china or FPGA consoles from analogue is exactly this; designed to take advantage of a vulnerable group of people by way of FOMO tactics... and on and on it goes. i do wonder sometimes... with so many great ways to play retro games these days, how many people are actually sitting down to game versus being more concerned with their setups or finding new, unneccesary ways to play said games? i'd argue it is the latter which is a bit concerning. materialistic isn't the right word... it's more like some gamers have become tech enthusiasts and collector's of novelty hardware first and foremost and have forgotten what it means to be a gamer. well, that's my rant on this subject haha.

Re: Shuhei Yoshida Explains Why The PS Vita Flopped

Porco

@Tasuki @sdelfin
with a modded vita, you can use everyday microSD cards. thankfully, the community solved that problem at least. but i agree, the software library on the vita is lackluster at best. most of the notable games have since been ported elsewhere. that said, a modded vita is best used as a machine to play the pletheora of great ps1 and psp games. they look and run perfectly on the vita.

Re: You're Not Seeing Things, PS1 Games Are Playable On GameCube

Porco

kind of cool i guess for the novelty factor? but with so many superior options to play ps1 games (modded ps3 with native emulation being my preferred choice), i see no reason to even try this if it means a lesser experience. it would be wrong on so many levels, especially with that weird gamecube controller dictating the action haha

Re: "This Could Be Crippling" - Fake PS1 Discs Just Got Harder To Spot

Porco

sorry, but the cover art on aliexpress reads as "station" instead of "playstation". they are using single disc jewel cases instead of chubby cases for multi-disc games... no manual included... another flag. those are the worst reproductions i have ever seen and won't fool even a child haha. as for the discs, yea, could be an issue for collector's purchasing games off ebay. simply do a test immediately after receiving the game... if it doesn't boot in your ps1, then simply send it back for a refund for false advertising. i don't think this is anything to be overly weary of. cart reproductions have been around for ages and have yet to cripple the retro scene. all that said, it is somewhat impressive that people have access to the black cds and are going the extra mile to press them like OEM. and yes, you might need to do a little homework and research as to what to look out for, but generally speaking, reproductions are never going to be perfect. chances are, if you can't spot the fakes, you aren't the demographic who is buying games for hundreds of dollars a pop.

Re: Nintendo Is Now Going After YouTube Accounts Which Show Its Games Being Emulated

Porco

too little, too late for nintendo. if they continue to waste resources on a fool's errand, so be it. that is nintendo's loss. there is no way to stop the sharing of digital files and information... nintendo would need a time machine (to go back to a period prior to the creation of the internet) in order to stop the preservation of video games. complete and utter nonsense. the sooner nintendo comes to terms with the reality of the situation — that the gaming community is doing more for the presevation of gaming history than it ever could — the better off everyone will be as nintendo won't have to be the villain any longer. all that lawyer money could be going into new game projects instead and earning nintendo far more revenue in the end. this struggle is completely counterproductive.

Re: Interview: Legendary Composer Hitoshi Sakimoto Talks Final Fantasy, Vagrant Story And Sword of Convallaria

Porco

what separates sakimoto's music from his contemporaries is that it is generally far more focused on atmopshere and mood, rather than melody. while you may not be able to hum most his music in the way you would with say... uematsu's scores, sakimoto's music is much more distinct. you will always know that you are listening to a sakimoto score as nobody else writes music in this style which often includes harp and flute sections.

if i am not mistaken, sakimoto has contributed to every single vanillaware game. his sound is integral to the experience of vanillaware's output now, to the point where their games would simply not be the same without sakimoto. outside of his work with s-e, i would say that some of his best scores were with sega and the valkyria chronicle series... fantastic work there.

appreciate the interview!

Re: Review: MiSTer FPGA - Still The Best Option For Hardcore Retro Gamers In 2024?

Porco

other cons of the mister:

  • it is 2X the cost that it should be and i simply will not give in to price gouging
  • most cores do not have save states implemented. it is impressive that gameboy, gba, nes and ps1 cores indeed have save states, but other notable cores do not, such as genesis, snes and neogeo. this is going to be a dealbreaker for many people, myself included. the possibility of save states in the future for said cores remains to be seen.

Re: Flashback: 24 Years Ago, The BBC Asked If Xbox Could Dethrone PlayStation

Porco

i'm surprised by how much credit some people give microsoft during the 360 era. sure, xbox innovated on live services and the online storefront that has become common place, but as far as sales go, at least 50% of its 80m units sold were second, third or even fourth time buyers due to the RROD fiasco. i.e. 360 sales were MASSIVELY inflated due to a manufacturing defect. it is no coicidence that the xbox lineup of consoles weren't competitive in any generation of consoles outside of the 360 era (and for the wrong reasons at that). talk to any 360 owner and they will tell you that they owned multiple units due to failure. ps3 had some failure cases of its own, but was not nearly as widespread or common.

Re: Taki Udon's $99 MiSTer FPGA Clone Won't Be $99 - It Will Be Even Cheaper

Porco

this could be the most refreshing and positive outcome in the retro scene since...ever? i'm never an early adopter of tech so i will see how this plays out from the sidelines. if it reviews well and doesn't surprise us with a bunch of caveats, i may pick one up later this year. but to be honest, emulation quality is so good these days, that it is getting harder to justify FPGA devices now more than ever.

Re: Poll: What Do You Think Of Jo's New Look In Perfect Dark?

Porco

her jawline is too sharp. her face is more squared than aloy's. sorry, but she could easily pass for a man and that is not something to be proud of when discussing "sexy" female characters (that is the precendent they set with the original character designs afterall).

Re: 8BitDo Just Dramatically Expanded Its Keyboard Range

Porco

awesome! sign me up for a numbpad. i've been trying for a couple years to get one from keychron but they are never in stock. this looks like a great compromise. it is cheaper and works as a standalone calculator which is a weird, novel idea.

Re: Soapbox: Here's Why I Can't Ditch Software Emulation Handhelds For The FPGA Analogue Pocket

Porco

agreed 100%. save states are the one feature that saves (no pun intended) retro gaming from being intolerable in many cases. say what you will about watering down the purity of the retro gaming experience, but it was never fun losing progress, starting all over or dealing with unfair, cheap or overly challenging sections (keep in mind that many console games of the 80s and 90s were stuck in the arcade design philosphy where sucking up your quarters were paramount). save states remedy this problem entirely and i will always be appreciative of them.

Re: Miyoo Mini Flip Takes Inspiration From The Nintendo GBA SP

Porco

the analog sticks ruin the device. since it will primarily be used for consoles prior to the ps1, there is no need for them. heck, i never even owned analog controllers for my ps1 and wouldn't miss them for ps1 games either (i believe ape escape may be the only ps1 game that actually required the feature). and let's no kid ourselves, i'm sure they will feel terrible to use anyways as this is a budget device afterall.

Re: $13 Mod Makes Sony's PSP Go Useful Again In 2024

Porco

@pepsilover2008 the psp go can use wireless ps3 controllers and has a dock with video output that essentially turns it into a switch (long before the switch existed). and more portability is never a bad thing. so if you have a CRT+pspgo+dock+component cables, it is a great experience. would also work well with a retrotink if you prefer to play on an even bigger screen.

Re: Poll: What's The Best Gran Turismo?

Porco

very difficult discussion because while the earlier entries have better single player content/campaign than the latter entries, obviously the presentation and physics models cannot hold a candle to the more recent entries. also, the latter entries have great online modes, while the earlier ones don't have them at all or were limited during their time of release. it might be best to call this our "favourite" gt game rather than "best" gt game.

i put the most hours into gt5, both online and in single player. solid game with lots of content but suffered from a terrible damage model, poor looking shadows, screen tearing, etc. the framerate didn't hit 60fps consistently which was a shame. also, the quality of the car models varied drastically in gt5/gt6 since pd decided to upscale gt4 models to artifically increase the car count. the high res models were referred to as "premium" cars. i thought this was unprofessional and really hurt the overall presentation. when discussing hd era gt games, gt 7 is the clear winner since it finds a nice middleground of content, overall package and best presentation. it is essentially gt sport (+plus).

gt4 is quite literally the culmination of gt 1 through 3 and is probably the best entry in the series as far as single player content is concerned but will suffer in the presentation department in 2024 for most gamers. it looks great even today on a CRT though.

so...
favourite retro gt game for me is gt4. runner up: gt2.
favourite hd era gt game is gt7. runner up: gt5/gt6.

Re: All Outstanding Polymega Pre-Orders Will Ship This Year, Says Playmaji

Porco

considering the fact polymega utilizes emulation and does not strive for FPGA accuracy, it seems like a fruitless effort in my opinion and not worth the investment. you are better off getting an n64 from analogue and (hopefully) getting core support for all the other 8/16/32 bit consoles. or get yourself a mister. emulation can be done very well on a pc so i cannot understand the appeal of paying for a box that will likely emulate the games worse than the free options at your disposal. that said, i did understand the appeal of the mini consoles since at least you got a nice display piece for the shelf, not to mention authentic controllers included!

Re: Analogue 3D Is An FPGA-Based N64 With 4K Output

Porco

not a fan of the n64, but i am intrigued as to how powerful the hardware is and the possibilities that may bring. once analogue makes an fpga that can run all games (including sideloading) from the 5th gen and down, i may jump at the opportunity to own one. seeing as a mister will cost you hundreds of dollars nowadays and will top out at the ps1, getting a slightly more powerful fpga that can also get saturn running would be the icing on the cake. such a device would kill 3 birds with one stone as you would not require: 1. the original hardware any longer 2. an external upscaler of any kind seeing as it will render up to 4k and 3. hdmi modifications of any kind on original hardware. exciting times ahead!

Re: Best SNES RPGs Of All Time

Porco

the two best console generations in history for jrpgs was either the SNES or the PS1 in my opinion. it is up for debate as to which is the winner, but i would go with the ps1 since the narrative and storytelling elements really took off during that era and generally reached higher levels of sophistication and maturity. in either case, the golden age for the genre began with the SNES and ended with the PS1. only recently have people been able to play many of the hevy hitters on the SNES due to english fan translations. otherwise, so many great games would have been lost to time and obscurity (particularily much of the squaresfot catalogue which is incredibly impressive for this time). i mean, you could literally spend the rest of your life trying to get though all the jrpgs that the SNES and PS1 have to offer and you likely wouldn't even get through half of them unless you prioritized that above all else in your life haha. you have to be selective and find the gems. you also have the psp, ds and 3ds to contend with which have great jrpg libraries as well. SNES jrpgs are a bit more foreign to me since i got my start with xenogears and FF7 on the PS1, but i would like to get through the breath of fire, fire emblem and a bunch of the more obscure squaresoft games at the very least. currently i have beaten: chrono trigger, mario RPG, front mission and final fantasy 6 from the SNES era.

Re: Where To Pre-Order The Atari 2600+

Porco

so this device will actually accept old carts and has emution software inside the box to emulate them... i have a feeling emulation quality will be subpar. can't see a large market for this era of gaming. this will be dead on arrival if i had to guess, especially at those prices.

Re: Best Nintendo 3DS RPGs Of All Time

Porco

isn't that ALL of the jrpgs on the 3ds? haha. the 3ds was a beast for jrpg's no doubt. almost on par with the psp and ds but each console has its unique, exclusive gems at any rate. i think i'll be playing these games for the next couple decades — there is just so much to get through!

Re: Taito Egret II Mini Arcade Memories Vol. 2 Coming This December

Porco

yea, the first volume costs over $100CAD (including shipping) just for 10 games on amazon japan. i have been watching for a price drop and still nothing of note. these expansion carts should have been priced at $40CAD. hopefully they will slash the price of volume 1 in the near future and then i'll consider it. unfortunate that the egret II never got hacked by the community to allow us to add more roms to it either.

Re: New 8BitMods MemCard Pro2 Works With Both PS One And PlayStation 2

Porco

@Tobunari the good news is ps1 games are fully backwards compatible with the ps3 — physical discs on stock ps3's or in bin/cue format (if you mod your ps3). the emulation of ps1 games on ps3 is quite good as well. you don't necessarily need a memcard pro2 in that case and will have ample storage on the ps3 hdd for ps1 save files. as for ps2, you likely don't have the ps3 model that runs ps2 games natively since they are hard to come by (if you do have one, that is great). but to answer your question: there are literally hundreds of notable ps1 and ps2 games that never got remastered and cannot be streamed on ps4/ps5. that is not hyperbole, either. the ps1/ps2 is an absolutely treasure trove of obscure/interesting/hidden gems that have no equal in the modern era of gaming. however, if you are intolerant of the quirks and lack of polish some games from this era are known to have, relative to AAA modern gaming and do not fancy retro gaming in general, then you might not need to fall down this rabbit hole

Re: New 8BitMods MemCard Pro2 Works With Both PS One And PlayStation 2

Porco

excellent! been holding out on the pro 1 for this inevitable release. this will be the one memory card to rule them all without question. the flash memory of the official sony cards will eventually fail, not to mention fills up quite quickly with ps2 games, so this is certainly a must-have item for retro gaming enthusiasts.

Re: Shocking Study Reveals 87% Of Classic Games Are "Critically Endangered"

Porco

there is nothing wrong with piracy so long as the games are legacy or the publisher has already made its revenue back 3 times over. i will never understand people who live by the highest level of self ritious, ethical nonsense just so that they can say "you are stealing!" or "it is morally wrong!". you know what is wrong? allowing classic games to die and be forgotten just because the publishers themselves didn't care enough to provide a reasonable means of purchasing their content in the modern era. i can assure you that those who created the games would be happy to know that 15, 20, 30 years later, people are still enjoying their art, whether they paid for it or not. the market has proven time and time again that if you provide a classics collection release of some kind on modern platforms, people will buy it... now, how do you think those same people were aware and exposed to many of those titles to begin with, making the re-release viable? oh, right, through "piracy"... see how it all works?