Currently playing Coffee Crisis on Switch, which was originally a 2015 Megadrive game apparently.  

I was under the impression that these crowd funded new retro physical release types were usually pretty good, but this one's shite.  Would just about pass muster in 1990 as a DJ Boy alternative.  Plays like a cross between that and a Ninja Turtles era Komani effort (arcade version, which hasn't aged well), but I'm not convinced this would've ever impressed in terms of gameplay.  Might've had fun renting it for co-op.   




Still, I'll keep plugging away at it.  At least it has passwords.

Heh. Well - got this. Some old arcade games from the early Atari era that I never got to play are always of interest to me so for that alone they are worth it for me.

Emulation is really nice with this - they are recreating the displays rather well, particularly the raster games. As I suspected the vector game display isn't super accurate but it does look very nice. They are too smooth if anything - however it's still a really nice job of a recreation of an expensive analogue display!!

Control is always going to be a problem with some of the games of course. Atari's pioneering days used a lot of analogue (or fake analogue at least) control so modern sticks and the mouse have to stand in for trak balls and paddles. By and large, for trakball it's good though I haven't tried everything yet. Tried Avalanche which is a really early game that Kaboom is based upon. So it needs a paddle - and stick and mouse just doesn't cut it. The only modern equivalent that does is the Wii remote when held on its side and rotated which was used to great effect in the Bit.Trip games.

So I can't see Warlords being all that playable which is a shame as I think there is MP online with this.

Does anyone know if there is such as thing as a USB paddle controller? I'm aware of some homebrew USB adaptors for 2600 controllers which might be worth a look. I could use it with Stella too.

The 2600 emulation seems accurate which is a given - I presume it's using a build if Stella. The DLC contains 5200 emulation and it looks as if it was a real turkey of a console. 2600 Asteroids runs better than the 5200 version

Tried my beloved asteroids dx and gameplay-wise it's accurate though again - the display is maybe a bit too smooth (hard to actually describe the difference - the real thing is smooth too). Some of the sounds are out too (the ship thrust isn't quite right - but it sounds very good) but that's only to be expected as some of the sounds aren't digitally created in those old games and there is even variance between cabinets if there are tiny voltage differences. Of course my muscle memory is programmed for the real control layout so I won't spend too much time with it. Still enjoyable in this format though.

So the eon Super 64 HDMI adapter I got back in November has kicked the bucket. The picture displays ok but it's not outputting any sound.

It's definitely the adapter as I have tried it with another HDMI lead and the N64 itself is fine as it works perfectly with my S-Video cable.

I got it from The Games Connection, the FAQ on their site says they have a 12 month guarantee. I've emailed their customer support, but I'm a bit nervous what with COVID etc. Cost me £110, so it's not something I'm willing to let slide.

Fingers crossed.

I've gone down a rabbit hole of other solutions and mods now.

The Rad2x looks promising, works for all Nintendo consoles with the multiout regardless of region.

Did you get an RGB mod for yours @davyK ? If so do you think it's worth it?

Cool, where did you get it from?

I do still have a CRT but it's in the loft.

I'm now tempted to get an RGB mod and get the Nintendo RAD2X, as it'll also work with my NTSC SNES.

retroking1981 wrote:

Cool, where did you get it from? I do still have a CRT but it's in the loft. I'm now tempted to get an RGB mod and get the Nintendo RAD2X, as it'll also work with my NTSC SNES.

http://www.keepitretro.co.uk/en-gb/collections/nintendo-64

It's up to £90 now though.

I think he prefers to source his own as it's a particular model of JP console he modifies - but worth asking I guess.

I have a spare unmodded JP console now.   However I have an s-video cable I can use with an old projector I scavanged from disposal in work.  Really should give that a go and see how it looks.

As an aside - nothing seems to make MK64 look good. Pretty sure that's a lost cause. Those scaling sprites are pretty ugly.

Srsly

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So someone with a bit of time on their hands had coded a working tech demo of the third stage of Sonic on the SNES!

Quite an interesting tech demo and article that also suggests that the Megadrives processor was 40-70% faster than that of the SNES. #Playgroundfacts

So the Polymega looks really good. Prices are ridiculous though. Amazon showing it at £500 which I'm hoping is someone chancing their luck selling US imports. Hoping it gets a uk distributor i'm probably in for the base unit at no more than £400 as it compliments what my Retron 5 can't do.

Saturn emulation, region free and fan translations will mean I dont have to worry about sorting my mkII saturn which is still playing up.

Just watched the Saturn segment - impressive.

If I was starting to collect today the Polymega looks the business. Its convenience - allowing you to install games - could swing it for me.

You are relying on 3rd party support for controllers though.

On balance - a solid state drive and an OSSC are probably what I would go for at the minute. But I'll be keeping an eye on the Polymega before committing.

I think I would absolutely rather the gameboy thingie first tho.

That's Japan for you, the second hand stores over there were full of pristine stuff.

Cool Spot got thumbs down all-round when we played it on a retroking retro day.  I rented it a couple of times at the time and had no memories of hating it, but it's one of those games that seems to get worse stage by stage.  Like the difficulty slider going one way moves the enjoyment slider in the opposite direction.  

DKC far better imo, it's not absolute vintage 16-bit platforming but wouldn't be far off a top ten (16-bit platformers) for me.