After doing a bunch of research I have been planning to get a Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8" and a PowerA MOGA XP7-X Plus (if they are ever available).
It is basically an Xbox controller that expands in the middle to hold a cellphone or tablet to create sort of a DIY Switch like device (only with a much better controller). With an Android tablet you can very easily run emulators plus you have access to the various Android app stores and xCloud and other game streaming services. The tablet is able to run PS1 and N64 games well and even some Dreamcast games. It will be a bit pricy with the tablet running about $150 and the PowerA device reportedly going to cost $100. The MOGA XP7-X Plus was announced earlier this year with a released date of Holiday 2020, but they haven't said anything about it in months and when you search for it you mostly find stuff for the XP5-X Plus.
Not sure what prompted this, but last weekend (or was it two weekends ago? Who knows) I was wondering how long I would last if I played the original Tomb Raider in 'hardcore mode' by starting a new game and not saving ever. The systems were down this afternoon at work, and since I'm working from home, I figured I could give this a shot. I expected to be able to get through the Peru section and die in St. Francis' Folly (level 5).
I think I've played this game too much, because I made it to the first section of Egypt (level 10) and had to stop because I was getting hungry and my hands were feeling like crap, not because I died. I managed to get all the secrets up to that point, and while I was pretty sure I would die getting that tricky one in Palace Midas (level 7), I managed to get it without dying (although I did use a med pack). I ended up saving the game anyway, in case I want to pick it back up. I'm pretty sure those mummies in the next level will get me though, despite the fact that I have plenty of med packs.
If I ever want to attempt this again in one go, I will need to:
- Clear my schedule for at least 6 hours
- Queue plenty of podcasts
Careful. The next steps down that road involve learning speedrun skips and downloading Livesplit. Before you know it, you are on a discord server somewhere passionately arguing about whether a newly discovered wall clip counts as a "major" or "minor" glitch.
Careful. The next steps down that road involve learning speedrun skips and downloading Livesplit. Before you know it, you are on a discord server somewhere passionately arguing about whether a newly discovered wall clip counts as a "major" or "minor" glitch.
Good news: this sounds neither appealing nor fun to me 
hbi2k wrote:Careful. The next steps down that road involve learning speedrun skips and downloading Livesplit. Before you know it, you are on a discord server somewhere passionately arguing about whether a newly discovered wall clip counts as a "major" or "minor" glitch.
Good news: this sounds neither appealing nor fun to me :)
Give it time.
The phone clip doesnt work with the handheld. It is just there to prevent my hands from cramping. So far the low resolution doesn't look too bad. I've been enjoying it for PS1 and older stuff.
I recently signed up for this Retro Game Treasure (referral link) thing which is a monthly surprise box of retro games. It is kind of neat. You set up a profile on their site and enter in which systems and which genres of games you are interested in and what games you already own and even a wish list of games you would like to get and they try to use that to build you a monthly game box. Just got my first one today:
Not a super great selection of games. Super Pinball Behind the Mask (SNES), Game & Watch Gallery 2 (GBC), Zoop (GB), and Star Wars Episode I Racer (N64). I have passed on a few copies of the Star Wars game because of the condition they were in at stores. It is the only one I would have bought myself. They are all in good shape and they all work with zero cleaning. Kind of neat for just the novelty of getting a box of random games every month. The box it comes in is super cute as well.
Should I get a Pi for retro gaming?
Should I get a Pi for retro gaming?
Depends what you want to play.
For anything up to SNES, yes. After that, even on a Pi 4, it gets dicey. PS1 will work OK, but may drop some frames if you try to increase the resolution. Some N64 games will run OK, some won't.
Also a Pi will let you play most of the arcade classics from the 80s and 90s.
The phone clip doesnt work with the handheld. It is just there to prevent my hands from cramping. So far the low resolution doesn't look too bad. I've been enjoying it for PS1 and older stuff.
I've always wanted a handheld gaming printer. Never know when you might need to print a Wizardry map on-the-go. Can I sync it with my phone for incoming faxes?
My wife got me the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0" for Christmas and so far it seems to run NES, SNES, and Genesis games very well. I have been using it with an Xbox One controller. Definitely not as good as my Super Nt when it comes to twitch games, but easier to carry around 
Turns out my brother-in-law is a game collector as well. He is a way more hardcore about it than I am as he is the type who pre-orders 2 special edition versions of a game so he can have one to keep sealed in the original packaging and one to play. He is getting close to having the full SNES collection Complete-In-Box. He gave me a few of his spares that he saw on my Amazon Wish List and a couple of the Retro-Bit collections. He gave me the Retro-Bit Jaleco Brawler's Pack and Data East Classic Collection as well as copies of Earthworm Jim 2 (I forgot to remove it from my wish list when I got it a few months ago), Joe & Mac, The 7th Saga, Donkey Kong Country, and Jurassic Park 2: The Chaos Continues.
Despite trying to talk her out of it my wife insisted that we go to her parents for Christmas and since we didn't have any pressing need to hurry back we kind of zig-zagged across Missouri and NE Oklahoma and hit a number of game stores and thrift shops. I picked up quite a few games off of my wish list for SNES and N64. I got Ranma 1/2: Hard Battle, King Arthur's World, Cybernator, Super Star Wars, Star Fox, and Samurai Shodown for SNES and Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, Extreme-G, Extreme-G2, and F-Zero X for N64. When I was testing them I ended up playing F-Zero X for about 30 minutes. I had forgotten how good that game is.
Found a couple of stores I will have to stop at again next time we are heading that way. Gameco in Joplin, Missouri is one of the best used game stores I have ever seen and FTW Game Co. in Pryor, Oklahoma was small but had a very good selection. Vintage Stock continues to be a bit disappointing no matter where it is and the two Joplin stores closed too early and opened too late for us to stop at them.
Wow, nice haul. Merry Christmas to you!
I finally got my copy of Trophy for the NES. It's a brand new MegaMan clone that I Kickstarted a while back so it was nice to get it and play a bit.
Since I don't know where else to post this here we go. Here is my repaired PS Vita 2000. The left stick was bad but I replaced both and the screen as well. It was probably the easiest repair I've ever done.
Cons. The black on green doesn't look good to me and the sticks are definitely not OEM.
F-Zero X for N64. When I was testing them I ended up playing F-Zero X for about 30 minutes. I had forgotten how good that game is.
Just reading that makes me want to go fire it up tonight. Quite possibly my favorite racing game ever.
I will say, most NIntendo hardware is pretty easy to work on with the right tools. Everything is plug in. The one repair I did to a PS4 controller leads me to believe Sony is the same. I'm afraid to fix the old 360 pad because it requires soldering. Not looking forward to that since I've yet to successfully solder anything.
I always forget the N64 had an F-Zero game. I've played the SNES, GC, and even GBA games, but I've yet to play F-Zero X.
The N64 had F-Zero X, WipeOut 64, Episode I: Racer, two Extreme-G games, and AeroGauge. It was a futuristic racing playground. And they were all at least pretty good, except for AeroGauge!
F-Zero X is my fav out of snes/n64/gc. I never gave the gc one enough time though because I had no one to play it with.
My favorite on the system was San Francisco Rush 2049, but that was only semi-futuristic.
I didn't play the N64 much, as I didn't have one until 2001. Tried to use it a year ago and fried it with a cheap hdmi converter....
My favorite on the system was San Francisco Rush 2049, but that was only semi-futuristic.
I didn't play the N64 much, as I didn't have one until 2001. Tried to use it a year ago and fried it with a cheap hdmi converter....
Hooked up my N64 and let the kids play Starfox, Mario, and a few others last year on my older Plasma with the original hookups. Worked just fine, except all the analog sticks are loose from years of use / abuse playing Goldeneye, F-Zero, Starfox, Perfect Dark, etc. I found some info on restoring the sticks, but didn't do the work since the kids stopped playing pretty quickly.
Has anyone else done any N64 analog stick repairs before and have recommendations on the method that worked for them?
Side note: My kids have no idea what they are doing when playing Starfox in MP. It is both hilarious and painful to watch.
AUs_TBirD wrote:My favorite on the system was San Francisco Rush 2049, but that was only semi-futuristic.
I didn't play the N64 much, as I didn't have one until 2001. Tried to use it a year ago and fried it with a cheap hdmi converter....
Hooked up my N64 and let the kids play Starfox, Mario, and a few others last year on my older Plasma with the original hookups. Worked just fine, except all the analog sticks are loose from years of use / abuse playing Goldeneye, F-Zero, Starfox, Perfect Dark, etc. I found some info on restoring the sticks, but didn't do the work since the kids stopped playing pretty quickly.
Has anyone else done any N64 analog stick repairs before and have recommendations on the method that worked for them?
Side note: My kids have no idea what they are doing when playing Starfox in MP. It is both hilarious and painful to watch.
I picked up one of the Retro Fighter Brawler 64 controllers and it is great for most N64 games. Only issue I have with it is it sucks for FPS/TPS games because it requires you to play southpaw style (unless you want to try to use the C buttons to look). I spent a good amount of time training myself out of southpaw and it just feels wrong to go back.
Does anyone know if this would be a good TV for retro gaming; NES, SNES, N64 on original consoles? It's just sitting in the basement of a house I put on an offer on and I was considering making a corner of the basement a retro gaming area. I doubt the current owners want it (the house is almost completely empty, I think it was just too heavy for them to lift) so I'm pretty sure I can get it for free if I want it but I don't really know enough about old TV's to know if it would be good for that.
(The basement is redonkulously big and I've never had room in a house before to consider retro gaming but it seems like it might be cool to do? I like playing emulated old games from my childhood but it could be fun to play them as they actually were.)
Looks great to me. RCA for NES, SNES, N64. Component inputs you can use for GameCube and Wii for 480p too.
Looks great to me. RCA for NES, SNES, N64. Component inputs you can use for GameCube and Wii for 480p too.
Plus the clear plastic protector is still on, so mint condition.
Hard to tell from the pics. Is it a CRT or a LCD? If it is free with the house then might as well give it a try. While I love my classic games I am all about running them on modern screens via the Super Nt or Mister. Need a better N64 though.
Speaking of N64 sort of: I played the XBLA Goldeneye 007 port and it is quite good. Like better than the Perfect Dark port. I am kind of hoping that the release of this causes renewed interest in doing an official release and that they can work something out. Also really surprised how well Xbox emulation works on my PC. Getting Xenia installed and working was easier than just about any other emulator I have dealt with in recent memory and it ran better than some older systems do.
My favorite on the system was San Francisco Rush 2049, but that was only semi-futuristic.
I didn't play the N64 much, as I didn't have one until 2001. Tried to use it a year ago and fried it with a cheap hdmi converter....
I had no idea Rush was on the N64. I played it on Dreamcast and LOVED it.
Building a MAME Cabinet is going to get easier before long. Well not really a MAME more of a MiSTer Cabinet. The team at MiSTer Addons (this is where I got a lot of stuff for my MiSTer from) is developing a JAMMA addon board for the DE10 Nano that will make it a nearly plug-and-play solution for a DIY arcade or an easy swap into an existing JAMMA cabinet. I wish I had room for a standup arcade machine now.
Version 1.0 of the SA-1 version of Race Drivin' for SNES has been released. This game was basically unplayable in it's original form so this is pretty cool:
Holy sh*t Race Drivin'!
Pages