(Part 2) Best products from r/retrogaming

The standard elgato may not be a great choice for twitch, since there is a ~2 second delay that can be a bit of an annoyance.

You basically need:
A capture card
GV-USB2 is pretty great quality for SD, but installing the drivers is entirely in japanese. They're pretty easy to figure out by just hitting random buttons and guessing, but people have made guides for "hit these buttons in this order". Once you set it up, it'll work perfectly from then on. The Dazzle DVC 100 used to be a pretty common choice, but I think the GV-USB2 is honestly better (I have a Dazzle, and even I'll admit the GV-USB2 is better).

As far as a splitter/switch, unpowered splitter cables would be fine, such as these plugged into the side of your NES, just make sure you get RCA cables that match up to go to your TV and to your capture card. If you want to get the best picture quality, a powered splitter/switch like this one will give a slightly better picture and will give you room to hook up more consoles as well (since it is a switch as well).

As for software, the standard entry-level streaming software is OBS, and for free software, it honestly is pretty great. If you want to spend money, there's some other good stuff out there, but OBS does everything you'd probably want to do. If you want something a bit better for a timer than your iPhone, try LiveSplit. You can setup splits to keep track of your pace (though considering how short the WR is, just a basic timer is probably fine, this will just allow you to let people watching on youtube or twitch see your timer too).

If you need any help otherwise, let me know.

Then I'd recommend a Sony PSP. Preferably the 3000 or Go models (though a 2000 works fine, it just has less vibrant colors; avoid the 1000 and the European-only E1000 Street since they have less hardware capabilities). Just hack the PSP with ProCFW using this guide (you'll need a valid memory card) and then it can run a bunch of different emulators; it does GB/GBC/GBA especially well. You can get the emulators I use here, and put them in your memory card at ?:\PSP\GAME (where ? is your PSP's drive letter after connecting it to your computer with a miniUSB cable like the old flip phones, not microUSB or USB type C like a smartphone). Homer's RIN is for GB/GBC games and has cleaner scaling than anything else, but has compatibility probs with a few games. EmuMaster (which plays GB/GBC and also Sega GameGear/MasterSystem) will handle some of the ones that RIN can't, but has ugly bilinear scaling. TempGBA is just the best GBA emulator you can get for the system and nothing else compares (it'll even play the Golden Sun games, with very slight frameskip in the overworld). You'll have to find/dump your own roms, though.

Also, you can get a microSD to MS Pro Duo adapter for cheap instead of paying up the arse for an official memory card (Warning: Doesn't work with the Go since it takes a Memory Stick Micro (M2) instead). Make sure your microSD cards aren't too high of a capacity, though; a PSP only officially supports up to 32GB total (that is, 2x16GB in the adapter I linked; these should work perfectly), and my friend got his working with 2x32GB Class-10 SanDisk cards, but I hear certain brands won't work at that capacity and we haven't found anything above those 2x32GB cards that work at all (they are seen as 'damaged' and unable to be formatted in the PSP). Not that you'll need that much space for GB/GBC/GBA games anyway... :P

On the other hand, most cheap smartphones nowadays can run the My Boy! and My OldBoy! emulators just fine, even for 'problem' games like Golden Sun, so getting a cheap tracfone and a decent bluetooth controller might be an even better idea than going for an aging PSP, and still cheaper than most of those clone consoles. Of course, that comes with Android's audio latency problems, and you won't be able to use save states in those emulators unless you get the paid versions (which are $4.99 and $3.99, respectively) but I think it'd still be better than getting any of the clone systems you mention, especially since Android emulators are so easily updated. Note that there are also other free GB/GBC/GBA emulators for Android, I just know from personal experience that the MyBoy ones work well...

You have to understand at the time, that the idea of just moving something on your own home TV screen was amazing. The graphics sucked compared to the arcade games but it was the best we could have at home, without having to put a quarter in for each play.

Arcade games at the time weren't very complex either. The Atari could generally duplicate the game mechanics of many games even if they looked like poor copies. Games on the Atari also did innovate. Pitfall may seem lame today but imagine it coming out in a world before platform games were common. A world where just rendering a player that looked somewhat human was a graphic breakthrough.

Atari was a phenomenon at the peak of the early 80s video game boom. It may be hard to believe but yeah we got genuinely excited about the games. The two player games were probably the best, since anything resembling "AI" was barely possible. Single player games usually used patterns for the bad guys (common in the arcade too) and getting a new high score was the goal. My brothers and had a book where we recorded the family high scores and we were always trying to beat each other.

Games were almost entirely skill based. The system couldn't handle new graphics for later levels, so everything is very similar throughout the games. There is no sense of beating a level to see the next. Pitfall impressed us because it had 256 screens, which were just rearrangements of a few types of hazards, but still it blew our minds.

The 2600 doesn't hold up, it's an early system with very basic games. The novelty to me is in how much they were able to accomplish with such limited hardware. In particular Activision pushed the system way beyond what Atari itself was producing. The book Racing the Beam offers an in depth look at how some of the games were made. It's really almost a kind of video sorcery. Nothing like how modern systems work.

When you look at the Atari you are looking at the formative years of home gaming. Games were simple but novel because they had never been seen before.

After the video game bust, those of us who were still playing moved on to 8 bit computers which were much closer to the NES in terms of gaming. The expanded amount of storage (160KB per disk side on a Commodore 64!) allowed for games with multiple levels and differing graphics. Computer gaming also gave rise to more sophisticated genres such as RPGs and strategy games.

I still play the 8bit computer stuff once in awhile as well as NES and beyond, but the Atari is only rolled out for the occasional bout of nostalgia. Even when playing with one of my brothers, the most we can stomach is a match or two of Combat or a round of Demon Attack.

You're correct, Atari games ARE generally poor in comparison to what came later. The best you can do these days is to try to appreciate them in context of where video gaming was at in the late 70s and early 80s. And also understand that these first steps directly led to the video games we have today.

I recently bought a 8bitdo joystick so my GF and I could improve our Burgertime/Galaga/Donkey Kong experience. I like the solid feeling of the case and the fact that you can use Bluetooth or a wired connection. I was less impressed with the joystick and buttons, so I ordered this sanwa joystick: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005BIC9QE And these sanwa buttons: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003KSB2YC

The bottom of the case comes apart easily with 6 screws. It only took a few minutes to pop out the old buttons and replace them with the new ones. The old joystick was then removed and the soldered-on leads were clipped. There are 8 leads, which include a ground for each direction. The Sanwa harness only has 5 wires(1 ground and 1 for each of the four directions). SO basically, I just wired the 4 ground wires from the board to the black wire in the sanwa harness. The other 4 wires were then connected to their counterparts. The wiring diagram for the joystick can be found here: https://www.focusattack.com/5-pin-wiring-harness/ The N30 usb board has each joystick direction printed on the board above the connector, so you don't even need to label anything. I set the joystick gate to 4-way, as these are the games we mostly play. All in all this was a very simple project, even for someone like myself that doesn't know anything about arcade hardware or electronics.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00021XQI0?tag=sportevery0f5-20

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This is one of the best CRT TVs you can find... If you can find it.

I got one when I was in college. I still have it. It's awesome. It has composite, component, and S-video inputs. The colors are very vibrant. It's just about the best image quality you can get on a CRT TV.

Otherwise, any CRT with s-video or component inputs would do a decent job.

A popular, inexpensive setup is a powered splitter like this one, a capture device like this one, and OBS Studio. Be sure to set the deinterlacing mode in OBS to "retro" for best results.

If you want a really high-quality capture like Darbian and Kosmic, things get a lot more expensive.

I use this to play Japanese imports on my North American PS1. I've only used it for 4 imports, but it's worked on all of them. It's just a boot disc that boots past the copy protection then lets you swap in the import. I have used this to play a few burned games as well. I ordered a copy of Diablo 1 off ebay but it wouldn't play, so I burned a disc of it and it worked great. Not as elegant as a modded system for sure, but cheap and effective!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00005N5Q2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

There are only two proper solutions in my opinion - original hardware + CRT OR modern tv w/ retroarch + runahead.

If you really want a lag free experience, there is no beating a CRT + original hardware and if you want a modern TV experience, then why not just go with Retroarch or Higan? Super NT is still emulation after all..

With Retroarch's Runahead feature, you are VERY close to 0 lag and with a few diff CRT shaders, the experience comes really damn close to the original real deal. You get the added benefit of rewinding, save stating, multiple roms, etc.

NES/SNES Classic/SuperNT... none of those really make sense. They are all still emulation and an old computer with snes9x can beat any of them with ease.

In this case, I would suggest staying with the laptop. Try Retroarch w/ SNES9x core and Runahead. It's free, easy to set up and packed with multiple features you can't find on original hardware, even with a flash cart. (rewind, speed up, save states, using diff controllers)

Get this Buffalo SNES controller: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XWD8QQJ/ The dpad is a bit stiff but it's prob the best USB snes controller I've used. I didn't care for 8bitdo cuz I didn't like the added latency from wireless, but you may want to try it because they are also very nice controllers, if you don't mind the added wireless input lag. (which isn't really that much)

I don't think you'd be completely satisfied with an clone console - HDMI, unless on an emulated system, will be basically just taking the composite output and upscaling it to HD. In other words, it's not true HD quality, and you can get a better result by buying the upscaler yourself. Also, the sound quality can be very inaccurate and make the experience sub-par.

If Genesis is mainly what you're after, they're pretty cheap and both the Model 1 and Model 2 output a very high signal, what is called RGB in technical terms. Most consoles require a mod to output this - not the Genesis. You can see the difference relatively summed up in this image. The problem? US TVs and most devices can't take this RGB output called SCART. It's a European standard. Since you want HD however, this doesn't matter. You simply buy a SCART to HDMI converter.

There are some on Amazon as cheap as $30, (here's what looks like the same on on eBay for $23). You can see more reviews and sample photos of games on Amazon.co.uk. Very good quality picture. If you're patient, head over to eBay and snag the correct SCART cable for your Genesis model - Model 1 or Model 2. That will set you back about $4.

So for $27 + buying the console itself, you can get the HDMI output plus the authentic experience and quality.

It really depends on what kind of subject matter and presentation you're looking for. For my money, the gold standard of all video game history books remains David Sheff's ["Game Over: How Nintendo Conquered the World"] (https://www.amazon.com/Game-Over-Nintendo-Conquered-World/dp/0679736220/) which, despite the ominous title, is a phenomenally well-researched and compellingly written account of how Nintendo came out of nowhere in the early 80s to resurrect and dominate the home gaming industry worldwide.

The more recent Console Wars is also a good one, covering in great detail the 90's era 16-bit rivalry between Nintendo and Sega in the US.

These are both fairly well known books; my favorite "off the beaten path" books are all 3 volumes of the "Untold History of Japanese Game Developers" series, which are giant tomes full of lengthy, staggeringly in-depth interviews with dozens and dozens of largely unknown developers behind very well known Japanese classics of the 80s and 90s. Pure treasure for anyone particularly interested in Japan's golden age output.

I'd love to have a spinner too, but regrettably, the only way to go about this is to roll your own with real arcade parts, or a reasonable facsimile.

https://www.amazon.com/ThunderStick-Arcade-Spinner-for-Arcade1Up/dp/B07P5WJ7BC

https://www.amazon.com/Arcade1Up-12-1-Interface-Board/dp/B07NKJ3SKH/ref=pd_bxgy_21_img_2/137-8884558-5695913?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B07NKJ3SKH&pd_rd_r=27bd6228-7203-40d4-9224-57fa99e25505&pd_rd_w=3SKaV&pd_rd_wg=ziJcR&pf_rd_p=a2006322-0bc0-4db9-a08e-d168c18ce6f0&pf_rd_r=2CKKVSS7M2FJQ73TFWBT&psc=1&refRID=2CKKVSS7M2FJQ73TFWBT

That costs over sixty dollars, plus a wooden container and whatever buttons you'll need to complete the build. It's annoying, but the MacGyver'ed solutions I've attempted have been unsatisfactory at best.

It's probably going to be the same deal with a twin stick, but that may not cost as much. I imagine two arcade sticks, a few buttons, and an encoder (along with another box) would do the trick. Maybe disassemble an old arcade stick from Hori or MadCatz, take out most of the buttons and replace them with a second stick, and wire up the action buttons (triangle, cross, square, blue diamond, purple horseshoe, et al) to the second stick for best results.

There are various ways to upscale. The cheap workable option is a $30 scart to HDMI converter/upscaler. This should work fine with the N64. A way better alternative is a OSSC upscaler. A Chinese produced (perfectly fine) version goes for $150 on Amazon. You have to use SCART-, component- or VGA output cables on your console, tho. There needs to be some kind of RGB output. But here is the gripe: N64 doesn't support RGB natively. so, I'm not sure how it will output, but probably not so well 🙄. So if your going to stream N64 only, and want really good quality, you need a RGB modded N64 and a OSSC. If you just want one step better than composite (Yellow, red, white cable) a Ali Express \ Amazon scart converter will do fine. Be aware: the Composite to HDMI converters are really bad!

I use an upscaler with a external capture device like an Elgato HD60.

Results for the cheap upscaler and Elgato you can see on my youtube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjnTS_mP8dBLyhWY1oarHfg


https://www.amazon.com/VCANDO-Converter-Adapter-Switch-Scaler/dp/B01N06Q9WH/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=scart+to.hdmi&qid=1568016489&s=gateway&sr=8-1

Eternal Champions, Aladdin, Sonic 1,2,3,Knuckles, Road Rash, Sub Terrania, Flashback, Street Fighter 2 Special Champion Edition, NHL '94.

Of course you can always just buy a Mega Everdrive for $54 off Amazon and be able to play any game you want: https://www.amazon.com/Mega-EverDrive-X3-Sega-Genesis/dp/B079X463L3/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=mega+everdrive+x3&qid=1562334362&s=gateway&sr=8-2

My Shield K1 tablet had to be RMA'd for a screen issue, so I'm without a gaming tablet for the next week or two. So instead of actually gaming, I've been reading some history on it instead, via Console Wars by Blake J. Harris.

It's a good read and I'm enjoying it a lot, though I'd prefer a more "pure" history and less of the embellishment and/or "simulated" conversations.

Also, not retro, but I managed to (somehow) finish Hitman: Absolution this week. I don't know what's wrong with me. I love stealth games in concept, but I'm so bad at them, and never really get better. It's been this way pretty much since the first Tenchu. Oddly though, I don't have this issue in 2D; Mark of the Ninja was a blast to play through.

I bought the following:

150-in-1 Multi-Cart

Clone NES

Clone NES Zapper

All in all I've been pretty happy with what I got. The multi-cart has a lot of really great games. The clone NES allows me to play almost any cartridge and the Zapper works great for light gun games. The clone NES was cheaper at the store as the company that imports these is local to my area. I spent $15 plus tax but the other stuff I ordered online. I spent about $40 total. I also like the fact that this stuff is brand new instead of 30-year old electronics.

Retr0Bright those working ones for full glory.
This stuff works very well. Pre-mixed, stable, effective:
https://www.amazon.com/Salon-Care-Creme-Developer-ounce/dp/B004OKDW20

I use two bandridge scart switchers daisy chained for 11 consoles total. They support a multitude of signals and you could daisy chain 3 of them for 16 inputs. ( or more for even more consoles). They amplify signal without any latency.

Still, for your case you should consider a matrix.
example

Also if you are to organize the connections from scratch, consider scart rgb instead of composite.

Best of luck!

Yes both are av switches. The one with s-video is http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00DSQMVKU/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1420291068&sr=8-1&dpPl=1&dpID=51uveTmBlCL&ref=plSrch&pi=AC_SX200_QL40 and the one with just composite is http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00DRGDBTG/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?qid=1420291068&sr=8-3&dpPl=1&dpID=41lebNURx6L&ref=plSrch&pi=AC_SX200_QL40

The S video switch has five inputs and two outputs, the composite switch has eight inputs and one output. The one with S video is autoswitching but requires power. If I had it to do again I would just buy two autoswitching S video boxes. They were cheaper and easier to use. Quality on both seems good.

haha! I love it! Related: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07W1DB7JB/ref=sr_1_122?qid=1564936060&s=gateway&sr=8-122&srs=17348249011

for Virtual console hack you need to follow this tutorial : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vip4edkBAS8


This will let you play wii and gamecube games.


For wii u games you need to install Mocha : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnwB2Yfsnk8


Besides games on Loadiine you can install retroarch, its a lot of work but totally worth it, the Wii U is basically 3 consoles in 1 and everyone should have one, specially if you want to play gamecube over component or hdmi without purchasing that expensive cable : https://www.amazon.com/Nintendo-GameCube-Component-Video-Cable/dp/B00005QDJU

This is my absolute favorite:

The Ultimate History of Video Games: from Pong to Pokemon and beyond...the story behind the craze that touched our lives and changed the world

Link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003FCVF6I

I bought the printed copy of the book as well as the audible version. It gives you a lot of background on the development of some of the games, lawsuits and just fun to read or listen to. I love listening to it while on long trips. I just put on my headphones and tune out the screaming kids :D

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Quite technical and highly recommended - Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System.

Does look into how limitations of the platform (Atari 2600/VCS) influenced the game design, implementation and creativity on the platform with several in-depth (down to looking at assembly code) case studies of a couple of games.

Very good read!

Absolutely, the Gamerz Tek clone has very high compatibility and will play Castlevania 3. It's not perfect (no clone is,) but it's probably the best option.

Hi,
I would recommend a raspberry pi 3 running RetroPie and some buffalo SNES controllers:
https://www.amazon.com/Buffalo-iBuffalo-Classic-Gamepad-BSGP815GY/dp/B06XWD8QQJ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1511112517&sr=8-1&keywords=buffalo+snes

Then do this:

http://filthypants.blogspot.com/2017/03/raspberry-pi-240p-composite-output.html

This will let you do 240P to the TV over the composite port, otherwise you will get a flickery interlaced picture.

This setup will let you play pretty much any classic system with your kids, and is simple and pretty affordable, especially if you already have a microsd card or some usb/bluetooth controllers lying around.

> I'm currently using
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> https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N06Q9WH/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_EIkYDbG6SJPB1
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> With no noticable input lag!! And I'm using this on a scart switch!

I have one that looks like this and it has around 7-8 frames of input lag which makes any game with a first-person camera almost unplayable (or at least makes you feel very drunk). Do the insides of yours look any different?

I'm now using a GBS-8200 with the gbs-control firmware, this gives excellent performance at a fraction of the price of an OSSC (though you will need to know which end of a soldering iron is which to put it all together). :)

I got rid of my CRT tv due to it was taking up way so much space in my gaming room and replaced it with

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/lg-43-class-led-6-series-4k-2160p-smart-4k-uhd-tv-with-hdr/6363867.p?skuId=6363867

Was using a Shinybow SB-2840 before it just stopped working (my replacement should be in today. Yay warranty!)

Currently using (No noticeable input lag and picture looks great!): https://www.amazon.com/VCANDO-Converter-Adapter-Switch-Scaler/dp/B01N06Q9WH/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=scart+to+hdmi&qid=1573755726&sr=8-3

Also using the Shinybow SB-5525 Scart switch.

Have 7 systems hooked up and my gaming PC.

I use this one.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XWD8QQJ/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_apa_mJpMBbS503KM8

While any switch will do, I prefer this one. It auto senses the source when you turn on a console, and if you have any consoles on composite (like a Sega Genesis or NES) they'll still get output via the S-Video on the switcher.

Edit: Fixed mobile formatting.

Not sure what the bot did, here's another link just in case: https://www.amazon.com/Auto-sensing-V-Switch-5-2-out/dp/B00DSQMVKU

The passthrough feature only works on component signals I think, and it spits out HDMI which can introduce lag if you're sensitive to it.

I use this Radioshack splitter, mostly because it's powered to prevent signal loss