The retro gaming thread!

[Ingram85]

1 hour ago, Tegis said:

A 1TB spinning rust disk is about 35 quid. Cheap enough for a throw away buy. I would actually consider getting a SSD to improve on the patches, PSN-installs and loading-times. But that is a 100 quid undertaking for the same space. And installing from physical disks are likely not to be affected as they are slower than hard-drives anyway. So.....I dunno

Edit: I saw a video of someone loading GTA5 from a hard-drive vs a ssd. 80 seconds vs 26 seconds.

I did look at that but i couldn’t justify the price compared to £35. The faster speeds would be very welcome but it was more about space and fitting all the collection on it.

The load times and patch installs are a lot faster with an ssd but psn d/l throttling means downloading the patches still takes the same time as before (agonisingly long of it’s one of those with multiple updates in one, GoW Ascension and its nine patches and then the install took ages!) and like you say, disc installs remain the same. If you’ve got the spare cash to spend and not worry about I’d go for an ssd. 

[Keyblade]

Yeah now that I think of it, I might just get a 2TB HDD. Thanks @Tegis and @Ingram85.

Edited April 21, 2021 by Keyblade

[Ingram85]

41 minutes ago, Keyblade said:

Yeah now that I think of it, I might just get a 2TB HDD. Thanks @Tegis and @Ingram85.

Double check but I’m sure I read the PS3 could only go up to 1TB unless you go all ‘yarrr harrr matey’on it.

[Demitri_C]

Im thinking of buying a n64 as my brother took our one when we moved. 

They seem to hold a bit of value too.

My question is can you connect a n64 to a Qled TV?

[Tegis]

2 hours ago, Demitri_C said:

Im thinking of buying a n64 as my brother took our one when we moved. 

They seem to hold a bit of value too.

My question is can you connect a n64 to a Qled TV?

Depends if the TV has a Composite or a S-video input. It will look shit regardless though. Those systems are built for CRTs. What you need is a converter of some kind to process, upscale and convert to HDMI. That is a minefield of different ebay/amazon/china solutions though and I have no clue which ones will do a good job of it. Youtube/Google is probably your friend unless someone else on here already went down that rabbithole

[Demitri_C]

2 hours ago, Tegis said:

Depends if the TV has a Composite or a S-video input. It will look shit regardless though. Those systems are built for CRTs. What you need is a converter of some kind to process, upscale and convert to HDMI. That is a minefield of different ebay/amazon/china solutions though and I have no clue which ones will do a good job of it. Youtube/Google is probably your friend unless someone else on here already went down that rabbithole

Yeah thats my worry it will look bad.

I have a older led tv maybe might be better on that 

[Tegis]

On 23/02/2019 at 20:57, Tegis said:

I just bought myself a Pentium 90. Barring any major repairs I'm, going full retard retro

Just need a P2 with a Vodoo card as well so I can relive "3dfx glide" again.

Emulators are for the weak-minded

 

On 27/02/2019 at 20:06, Tegis said:

It has arrived. It works but the RTC battery is dead, so a bit of Dremel and soldering is probably the next step unless I can find a working "Dallas ds12887a". Might try a new old stock one first, but I reckon as they are all ancient, most of the will have crappy batterys as well. Moronic design and good thing manufacturers went witn coin cells after this.

It also has one of those stupid Matsushita MKE interfaces for the CD, so I have to hook it up to the Sound Blaster instead of the IDE slots.

Look at this glorous marble turbo button beast

Selling it today. Not to worry, the collection of other machines has grown to 5. Wife put the all mighty foot down.

Only thing missing is a VLB 486, then I'm happy

[Keyblade]

4 hours ago, Demitri_C said:

Yeah thats my worry it will look bad.

I have a older led tv maybe might be better on that 

I'd recommend the Retrotink 2X. It's the cheapest upscaler that does a clean scale (2 times from 240p to 480p, that modern TVs have a better time of understanding), crucially without any processing that some of the cheaper scalers always add. Importantly for the N64, it accepts both composite and S-video input. Basically you plug in your N64 video cable, and you get a clean digital HDMI signal out. I quite like how my N64 looks with it coupled with S-video.

But yeah, N64 looks rough in general really no matter how clean the signal, like @Tegis said they just weren't made to be viewed on modern TVs. I always say the cheapest (and best) solution is to get a CRT, but that's not always practical or easy to get a hold of.

[Chindie]

What happens when you take Super Mario 64, get it to run on a modern PC, give it greatly improved models, and then smash ray-tracing tech into it?

This.

It kinda looks weird and great at the same time. There's a bizarre clash of pretty terrible textures and basic geometry with high poly versions of basic models with no texturing and then with the ray tracing over the top of it. It's very weird, but cool. The metal Mario is just... Well it's incredible.

I'd love to see someone just go balls out with this.

[Keyblade]

19 hours ago, Chindie said:

What happens when you take Super Mario 64, get it to run on a modern PC, give it greatly improved models, and then smash ray-tracing tech into it?

This.

It kinda looks weird and great at the same time. There's a bizarre clash of pretty terrible textures and basic geometry with high poly versions of basic models with no texturing and then with the ray tracing over the top of it. It's very weird, but cool. The metal Mario is just... Well it's incredible.

I'd love to see someone just go balls out with this.

It looks kind of odd, but it definitely reminds me of the early 3D renderings of Mario for promotional material. That shot when they put the faux-CRT filter, although not a good filter was crazy.

I like this mod though, looks more natural, and retains the ray tracing:

Looks like how I pictured SM64 in my head when I was a kid.

[Rob182]

Oh man. This is a bummer. I’ve got my PS2 set up in the bedroom on a new 43 inch TV. The PS2 games I’ve tried work fine with the HDMI-to-old-PlayStation-connection lead I bought. 
 

Me and my wife were looking forward to a game of Destruction Derby 2 (PS1) that I got off eBay, and it’s not working. The PlayStation loads like normal, and the game even starts to load (the PlayStation logo and sound comes on), but then there’s a white loading circle before the TV says ‘No Signal’.

I’m guessing the TV isn’t agreeing with what the game wants to play. Graphics wise.

Does anyone know any fixes for this?

Edit:

https://youtu.be/orfE_zx-LHk

Edited May 6, 2021 by Rob182
Edit: I may have found a fix. This super enthusiastic youtuber seems to know the answer.

[Keyblade]

1 hour ago, Rob182 said:

Oh man. This is a bummer. I’ve got my PS2 set up in the bedroom on a new 43 inch TV. The PS2 games I’ve tried work fine with the HDMI-to-old-PlayStation-connection lead I bought. 
 

Me and my wife were looking forward to a game of Destruction Derby 2 (PS1) that I got off eBay, and it’s not working. The PlayStation loads like normal, and the game even starts to load (the PlayStation logo and sound comes on), but then there’s a white loading circle before the TV says ‘No Signal’.

I’m guessing the TV isn’t agreeing with what the game wants to play. Graphics wise.

Does anyone know any fixes for this?

Edit:

https://youtu.be/orfE_zx-LHk

I think what it is, is that your TV doesn't accept 240p signals (what the PS1 outputs) over HDMI (or in the video's case, component). There was a misconception that you can't play PS1 games on the PS2 through component, but it's really a TV compatibility issue. If you have the old composite cables (the red, white and yellow RCA cables), I think your TV should agree with that, although picture quality will likely take a hit.

Alternatively you can get something that upscales the signal to 480p which pretty much every modern TV handles (and handles well), but that will come at a cost. The cheapest (decent) option is the Retrotink 2X which is around 70 pounds, but is really good with early 3D games because it has a smoothing filter. On top of the cost of the device, depending on if you have the cables, you'll probably need either composite or component cables for the PS2, with the official versions of the latter not being terribly cheap. You can also get cheap ones off Amazon that will be better than composite. Welcome to the rabbit hole

[Rob182]

7 hours ago, Keyblade said:

I think what it is, is that your TV doesn't accept 240p signals (what the PS1 outputs) over HDMI (or in the video's case, component). There was a misconception that you can't play PS1 games on the PS2 through component, but it's really a TV compatibility issue. If you have the old composite cables (the red, white and yellow RCA cables), I think your TV should agree with that, although picture quality will likely take a hit.

Alternatively you can get something that upscales the signal to 480p which pretty much every modern TV handles (and handles well), but that will come at a cost. The cheapest (decent) option is the Retrotink 2X which is around 70 pounds, but is really good with early 3D games because it has a smoothing filter. On top of the cost of the device, depending on if you have the cables, you'll probably need either composite or component cables for the PS2, with the official versions of the latter not being terribly cheap. You can also get cheap ones off Amazon that will be better than composite. Welcome to the rabbit hole

Haha. And there’s me hoping the £8.99 memory card off eBay, loaded with random programmes would fix it

I’ve got the old cables, I’ll just need to find a converter connector digerywhatsit that can go into my TV.

I’ve been really impressed with the picture quality when playing my PS2 games. It’s not anywhere near as bad as I thought it’d be. It feels like I’m playing an old school machine in an arcade.

[Keyblade]

9 hours ago, Rob182 said:

Haha. And there’s me hoping the £8.99 memory card off eBay, loaded with random programmes would fix it

I’ve got the old cables, I’ll just need to find a converter connector digerywhatsit that can go into my TV.

I’ve been really impressed with the picture quality when playing my PS2 games. It’s not anywhere near as bad as I thought it’d be. It feels like I’m playing an old school machine in an arcade.

The problem with those converters is that they make the picture even worse, and since you're already using a poor signal (composite) it'll be nigh on unplayable, trust me I've been there with my PS2. They crush the black levels so much that any slightly dim part of a game would look almost pitch black.

It sucks but you'll have to do a bit of research to see which one of those converters are doing a simple analog to digital conversion and not doing their own post processing before that. Since you're in the UK, if your TV has a SCART input, that is definitely the way to go imo.

[Demitri_C]

22 hours ago, Keyblade said:

I think what it is, is that your TV doesn't accept 240p signals (what the PS1 outputs) over HDMI (or in the video's case, component). There was a misconception that you can't play PS1 games on the PS2 through component, but it's really a TV compatibility issue. If you have the old composite cables (the red, white and yellow RCA cables), I think your TV should agree with that, although picture quality will likely take a hit.

Alternatively you can get something that upscales the signal to 480p which pretty much every modern TV handles (and handles well), but that will come at a cost. The cheapest (decent) option is the Retrotink 2X which is around 70 pounds, but is really good with early 3D games because it has a smoothing filter. On top of the cost of the device, depending on if you have the cables, you'll probably need either composite or component cables for the PS2, with the official versions of the latter not being terribly cheap. You can also get cheap ones off Amazon that will be better than composite. Welcome to the rabbit hole

Where did you dind the retrotink 2x for £70? I havent seen it under £100!

[Keyblade]

5 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

Where did you dind the retrotink 2x for £70? I havent seen it under £100!

In that link there it's 65 Euros. When I bought it a couple of years ago it was $90. Shouldn't be 100 pounds unless it's one of the other models like the Pro.

[Demitri_C]

6 minutes ago, Keyblade said:

In that link there it's 65 Euros. When I bought it a couple of years ago it was $90. Shouldn't be 100 pounds unless it's one of the other models like the Pro.

Thanks !That does it mean with add a PSU? Shouldnt it come with a power supply as standard?

[Keyblade]

1 minute ago, Demitri_C said:

Thanks !That does it mean with add a PSU? Shouldnt it come with a power supply as standard?

I'm pretty sure it's optional, I personally use the USB port from my TV for power. It takes micro USB. 5V 1a should be enough.

Also I just realized that the link is for the Retrotink 2X Mini. The difference here being there are no component inputs, which may or may not be fine depending on the consoles you have. The original Retrotink goes by Classic now I think after all these new models (including the incredible 5X that just came out, but will cost $$$).

[Rob182]

6 hours ago, Keyblade said:

The problem with those converters is that they make the picture even worse, and since you're already using a poor signal (composite) it'll be nigh on unplayable, trust me I've been there with my PS2. They crush the black levels so much that any slightly dim part of a game would look almost pitch black.

It sucks but you'll have to do a bit of research to see which one of those converters are doing a simple analog to digital conversion and not doing their own post processing before that. Since you're in the UK, if your TV has a SCART input, that is definitely the way to go imo.

No scart. Unless scart has become something different I’m not aware of. I last had one on my TV about 6 years ago.

[Keyblade]

24 minutes ago, Rob182 said:

No scart. Unless scart has become something different I’m not aware of. I last had one on my TV about 6 years ago.

Ah okay, wasn't sure if they still included them in TVs in Europe or not. Looks like TVs are doing away with analog inputs completely, which makes it a pain to play old consoles. 

Now that I think of it, unless you're putting the RCA jacks directly into the TV, you'll end up with the same issue of your TV not accepting 240p over HDMI if you use some sort of adapter. Your only option really if you don't have any analog inputs on your TV is to get something that at least upscales it to 480p for it to understand.

Sadly there's no middle ground between the cheap upscalers that ruin your image and the very good ones that start at 70 pounds. Honestly, if you're up for it and have the space and can source one, I'd find a CRT on Facebook Marketplace or something and never have to worry about this issue again. Lots of ifs, but it's the cheapest, and funnily enough in most cases the best solution. It's the other logistical bits that are hard