Retro Gaming - The Bear and Badger

mk64

moot, i got a nice gba sp clone a while ago. It was reviewed well on youtube. Some of the saving is a bit meh when the battery is low but for general play it's great. Will try to dig it out. It was yellow. got it on bangood or something.

Blue Swirl

Is there a word for nostalgia if it's something that you didn't experience first time around?

poprock

Passive nostalgia?
Secondary nostalgia?

monkey

Blue Swirl wrote:

Is there a word for nostalgia if it's something that you didn't experience first time around?

The answer to this single question is yes, yes and no.
Yes, nostalgia is the word for this. It doesn't specifically require you to have lived or experienced that period ie Britain's nostalgia for WW2 is experienced by many people who weren't alive then.
But that's a bit complicated here when you're talking in the context of retro games or whatever, where using might give the impression that you did in fact experience it. So some guy made up a new word, which is the second yes.
anemoia - n. nostalgia for a time you’ve never known
https://www.dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com/post/105778238455/anemoia-n-nostalgia-for-a-time-youve-never
But then there's the no. It's a neologism so hasn't made it into any official dictionaries. The guy who made it up makes it his business to coin new terms to fill gaps. What his success rate is at getting them 'officially' accepted, I don't know.

Moot_Geeza

It's actually called notstalgia.

monkey

Oh god that’s better.

Moot_Geeza

mk64 wrote:

moot, i got a nice gba sp clone a while ago. It was reviewed well on youtube. Some of the saving is a bit meh when the battery is low but for general play it's great. Will try to dig it out. It was yellow. got it on bangood or something.

Always got a soft spot for anything like that. I never minded the SP, maybe I've got weird hands.

monkey

Thought the RG300X looked good but the screen size would be too small. But I looked it up and it’s actually about the same size as the top screen of the 3DS. So could be a contender.

poprock

Moot_Geeza wrote:

It's actually called notstalgia.

Oh boy, that’s good.

Blue Swirl

These are all good answers. I'm really digging my PC Engine mini, but I couldn't put it down to "nostalgia" as it's generally understood - I've never even touched a PC Engine before, never mind played one.

And Britain having collective nostalgia for the biggest and most deadly war we've ever known makes a disgusting amount of sense. Suddenly everything falls into place.

EvilRedEye

One weird thing I've noticed is that I'll play a Mega CD game in 2021, having never owned a Mega CD originally, and I'll still be like "Wow! Sprite scaling!" despite it being old hat for years. Somehow my brain goes back into Mega Drive gear and still manages to find it impressive.

poprock

I think that sort of stuff is still impressive - it’s the achievement within tight limitations.

davyK

If playing an older game for the first time that I really like, the feeling is nostalgic, but it's more about nostalgia for the feeling you got back then when you started playing a really good game. I got this feeling when I played PC-Engine games for the first time on Wii's VC.

I remember feeling that they were really good and it would have been even better to have played them when they were contemporary.

I really believe my tastes are totally satisfied by technology set around the PS1/Saturn era applied to 2D gaming. I don't need games to look any better than that. I appreciate having more heft under the bonnet - e.g. 360's ability to render bullet hell games and something like GW2 without a hiccup.

But I like pixel art that isn't smoothed out. Bright colours too. ANd that simpler, arcade style of game. That doesn't mean I can't like modern games - Cuphead for example is glorious. I've stated my love for Trials HD too but they are really very simple games with modern tech to enable them.

I really liked those WiiWare games M2 did - Contra Rebirth etc - looked and played like a SNES with extra processing heft. That's the magic spot for me.

For 3D , Gamecube level is good enough for the games I like. 360 is putting jam on it of course but really wouldn't need anything more due to my liking of abstraction.

Blue Swirl

poprock wrote:

I think that sort of stuff is still impressive - it’s the achievement within tight limitations.

Indeed. Some of the stuff they got the PCE to pull off, especially in the later releases, was really impressive. It does make you wonder how much potential there was in older machines that we'll never know about because we just chucked them in the loft so we could hook up the new hotness to the TV.

Blue Swirl

Addendum: Twitter suggested “newstalgia”.

EvilRedEye

Trying to find a black velvet drawstring bag that most closely resembles a larger version of the one the Game Boy Micro came in, to put the RG300X in, but it's hard to find one that's quite as rectangular. Will have to keep looking.

poprock

You could probably find something on Etsy, if you’re okay with home-made. Anyone selling drawstring velvet bags on there will probably be up for doing custom sizes.

EvilRedEye

Yeah, I think custom might be the best bet. The bag I keep my 3DS in is of a similar proportion to the ones available online and it's far too wide.

Blue Swirl

An even more elegant homebrew PC Engine portable.

EvilRedEye

I'll have to actually unbox my PC Engine Mini thing, it seems you're quite taken by it!

My SD cards for the RG300X have arrived. Setting up the Adam image was actually surprisingly straightforward. The simplified interface isn't that simplified though and you still need to remember a bunch of hotkey combinations. At least it looks nicer.

I'm loading up the main SD card with games now. I had a quick look at Vagrant Story - it seems to run OK. It's also kinda surprising when vibration happens because I keep forgetting this GB Micro-looking thing actually has it. I've heard so much mixed stuff about the PS emulation so it must have its limits... I'm downloading the launch line-up on the assumption it won't push the hardware too much and also won't use analog sticks that my console doesn't have. Will see how it goes.

EvilRedEye

Tried Wipeout and Ridge Racer (USA versions) with the FPS monitor turned on, was a solid 60fps every time I looked at it. CPU utilisation was about 60%. So it seems like it will do at least part of the catalogue. Jumping Flash immediately crashed the emulator though. Not sure what's going on there.

EvilRedEye

Rayman looks gorgeous on this - solid 60Hz (I don't think the PlayStation Mini managed this?) CPU utilisation lower than the 3D games - is often 50%-ish, goes as low as 40% and as high as 60%. Had another game fail to load. I haven't put any BIOS on the SD card - I'm wondering if that's part of the issue. Will add some BIOS files and see what happens.

Edit: Yeah, it was using an emulated BIOS rather than the real thing, adding the real BIOS fixed it.

EvilRedEye

Tried a few different things, all of them were smooth and weren't maxing out the CPU or reporting framerate dips. Crash Bandicoot 1 got the closest with 90% CPU utilisation in places. I would perhaps be a bit wary about buying a dual analogue console with this chipset (such as the RG350M or RG350P) and expecting all the later PlayStation titles to work well, but it looks like a d-pad-only console should do decently with the earlier pre-DualShock games. Think there are lots of dual analogue consoles at a bit of a higher £100+ price point that can comfortably do the whole PS library if that's what you want.

Blue Swirl

EvilRedEye wrote:

I'll have to actually unbox my PC Engine Mini thing, it seems you're quite taken by it!

So far I'm loving it. And it was a much cheaper way of satisfying my curiosity about the machine and its library than going out and buying an actual PC Engine! (Though I still want to get some real hardware, cos I'm stupid like that.)

There's an accidental feature in Castlevania: Rondo of Blood I'm quite enjoying. To access the PCEm's menu, you press Select and Run together. Then you can create save states wherever you are. Par for the course for mini consoles, but in CRoB that's also the combo for activating your super attack. So you can save anywhere, but you'll have to waste a super to do so. Seems like a good risk/reward, even if it wasn't intended.

davyK

I'm going through some of the retro compilations I have on PS2. I'm currently diverted by Taito Legends 2, in particular Gekirindan - an old school vertical shmup with pleasing design and Cameltry which is a tilt/marble game but in 2D. Cameltry got a SNES port called On The Ball in PAL and going by this it was a really solid port and damn close to the original.

EvilRedEye

I've managed to hit the limits of the RG300X. Tried Soul Blade for PS - depending on the level, it maxes out the CPU and really chugs. And it basically can't do 3D on the 32X properly - which sorta makes sense as the PS is, IIRC, the most straightforward 3D console whereas 32X is a big mess of MD and 32X chips. So yeah, treat 3D as a bonus on this (and get a more expensive retro handheld if 3D performance is important to you) although it can do a decent amount of the PS catalogue.

ChopperByrne

I really want the Analog handheld, with the converters for Game Gear and NGPC.

Moot_Geeza

The RG300X sounds great for my needs. Did you manage to sort out the sound issues with MD emulation ERE, or does it only work with the stock emulators?

EvilRedEye

Interestingly the Adam image uses RetroArch instead of the emulator that came with the console, so presumably it's more accurate although I haven't used it much yet to compare. I wouldn't say the stock emulator was particularly bad, I'm just sure Sonic 3 & Knuckles had more dropped sound effects and slightly more inaccurate sound compared to my childhood.

I think it will be really interesting to see how things pan out with the Pocket. Can definately see the advantage of having a high resolution screen - gives you more options for integer scaling without squinting at a postage stamp bit of display.

Blue Swirl

ChopperByrne wrote:

I really want the Analog handheld, with the converters for Game Gear and NGPC.

Marry me.

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