Retro games and emulation - Discuss retro shit in case you're stuck in the past or a hipster

[innocent jogger]

I have a new found appreciation for the first F-Zero game thanks to 99.

The OG F-Zero is my favorite racing game.

OG F-Zero is awesome and still holds up today IMO. There are certain games on older systems that were just magic and I have left me looking for better or equal games since.

Some of the best games ever made (fight me) that still hold up:

• Atari 2600: Demon Attack
• NES: Contra, Castlevania, Punch Out, both Zeldas...shit there are too many to name. If you like NES then you know.
• SMS: Golden Axe Warrior (AKA Sega Zelda)
• SNES: F-Zero, Zelda 3, Super Mario World and the best Metroid game EVAR.
• N64: Paper Mario (best in the series)

Oh, FFS, I started sperging out. Sorry folks.

 

[Georgio Cocklord]

OG F-Zero is awesome and still holds up today IMO. There are certain games on older systems that were just magic and I have left me looking for better or equal games since.

Some of the best games ever made (fight me) that still hold up:

• Atari 2600: Demon Attack
• NES: Contra, Castlevania, Punch Out, both Zeldas...shit there are too many to name. If you like NES then you know.
• SMS: Golden Axe Warrior (AKA Sega Zelda)
• SNES: F-Zero, Zelda 3, Super Mario World and the best Metroid game EVAR.
• N64: Paper Mario (best in the series)

Oh, FFS, I started sperging out. Sorry folks.

As much as I like these games, the nes and atari 2600 are just terrible consoles. The primtive hardware made physics processing a nightmare and stuff like castlevania and contra run like ass even when emulated cause the clock speed is shit. It's like playing gradius iii on the snes, it plays at 5 fps from stage two onwards. The jump in castlevania is especially heinously fucked considering how much you have to jump in the game. I much prefer the shitty arcade game haunted castle but I do hope there's a way to fix the nes castlevanias considering there are reverse engineered fixes for gradius iii, super mario world, ghouls and ghosts and couple other SNES games to ditch the SNES clock and run at higher framerates. Also I wish more people developed for retro consoles since the S tier Indies are all dead, morphcat hasn't put a single game since the 2019 micro mages steam release, most operating genesis Dev's are all z tiers with no release date, no high profile genesis releases since xeno crisis and demons of astebourg, mega cat games hasn't done shit.

 

[Carpenter Trout]

As much of a mess of a game it may be considered, I still recommend playing Ace Combat 3 through the Project NEMO fan patch.
The International release infamously removed most of the game, leaving just what is a glorified demo.
The game was also a tech marvel for the time, consider that the whole idea of moving the camera as freely as in AC3 was a big selling point for the times.
Also, in the JP/Nemo version, there are cutscenes animated by the studio behind the Ghost in The Shell anime.

The game is clearly a product of its era and it also tanked, but I think it's still a nice game.
Also the R-102 is a sexy piece of junk.
and both Erich and Rena are the best characters

And some German guys managed to extract the assets of Ace Combat 3 for use in other media, this includes the map models that are to huge that they'll freeze blender.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

As much as I like these games, the nes and atari 2600 are just terrible consoles.

Atari, yes, it's almost entirely nostalgia. Some games are playable but nothing to go out of your way to play beyond perhaps historical curiosity.

NES is largely in a similar position but at least it has some very notable exceptions. I also think, to be fair, if people like ball crushing difficulty then there's still a lot there unlike Atari, but finding something balanced worth playing is rare.

 

[Sicko Hunter]

These are the only Atari 2600 games I would recommend anyone. None of them are "must plays".

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

These are the only Atari 2600 games I would recommend anyone. None of them are "must plays".
Ver archivo adjunto 5491911

There's some others too, like Donkey Kong and Burger Time, but there's better versions to play anyway.

I think the best way to play Donkey Kong is the GB version that lets you go through the 4 stages once, then opens up into a much broader (and better) game.

 

[Lone MacReady II]

OG F-Zero is awesome and still holds up today IMO. There are certain games on older systems that were just magic and I have left me looking for better or equal games since.

Some of the best games ever made (fight me) that still hold up:

• Atari 2600: Demon Attack
• NES: Contra, Castlevania, Punch Out, both Zeldas...shit there are too many to name. If you like NES then you know.
• SMS: Golden Axe Warrior (AKA Sega Zelda)
• SNES: F-Zero, Zelda 3, Super Mario World and the best Metroid game EVAR.
• N64: Paper Mario (best in the series)

Oh, FFS, I started sperging out. Sorry folks.

You gotta play GX, if for no other reason than to watch the fucking ridiculous (amazing) cutscenes. The game has a lot of charm, it refines the vehicle play with beautiful nuance, and has a sick ost even by F-Zero standards.

 

[Georgio Cocklord]

NES is largely in a similar position but at least it has some very notable exceptions. I also think, to be fair, if people like ball crushing difficulty then there's still a lot there unlike Atari, but finding something balanced worth playing is rare.

I'm talking about the console itself, not the library, it's incapable of very basic physics processing and people had to go out of their way to code something playable on it. Castlevania is a barely playable game, the nes cannot calculate the arc of belmonts jump, there are a ton of frame skips and has very bad input delay for the attack. There's also the terrible clock speed which is worse than the SNES somehow and instantly freezes when there's more than 4 moving entities on screen. The physics was good only in super mario brothers, really good in fact or it was good in the late releases like gimmick and kirbys adventure at which point the console had become incredibly workable. Games like legend of Zelda, adventure Island 1-4 and splatterhouse wanpaku graffiti are also playable which is fine but that's a minority, the majority of games are unplayable from astyanax to shatterhand to 5 eyes and a ton of others.

 

[Sicko Hunter]

There's some others too, like Donkey Kong and Burger Time, but there's better versions to play anyway.

I went out of my way to not include games with superior console ports. Colecovision has the definitive home console port of Donkey Kong for the second console generation. I'm pretty sure the Burger Time Coleco port is better too but I may be wrong.

 

[Judge Dredd]

What PS2 emulators do people use these days? I'm considering a playthrough of Silent Hill 4, but last I heard about PS2 emulation was a bunch of drama I didn't care about.

 

[Gog & Magog]

What PS2 emulators do people use these days? I'm considering a playthrough of Silent Hill 4, but last I heard about PS2 emulation was a bunch of drama I didn't care about.

https://pcsx2.net/
You'll need ps2 bios before you start playing.

 

[Am I Very Wrong]

What PS2 emulators do people use these days? I'm considering a playthrough of Silent Hill 4, but last I heard about PS2 emulation was a bunch of drama I didn't care about.

there is a pc port that should work without too many problems (unlike the original silent hill 2 pc version). however controller implementation wasn't the best and i had to tinker with the resolution too iirc.

pcsx2 is the only option and while it used to be awful it became more than decent in the last year or so

 

[innocent jogger]

These are the only Atari 2600 games I would recommend anyone. None of them are "must plays".

I have a pressing question about Yar's Revenge...Who destroys the Gond?

Colecovision has the definitive home console port of Donkey Kong for the second console generation. I'm pretty sure the Burger Time Coleco port is better too but I may be wrong.

I totally agree about the Donkey Kong port. Coleco also has my favorite port of Burger Time as well. It is actually a decent little system for that era. Superior to Atari 2600 and Intelivision.

Speaking of DK, have you ever tried the homebrew rom, "Classic Kong Complete", for snes? I thought it was really good.

 

[Overwritten Tapes]

What PS2 emulators do people use these days? I'm considering a playthrough of Silent Hill 4, but last I heard about PS2 emulation was a bunch of drama I didn't care about.

I have PCSX2 from vimm.net

Only issue is the framerate is SO slow and I haven't been able to figure out how to get the game running at normal speed. My nes/snes/ps1 emulators all work fine, just the ps2 is having issues. I've been wanting to replay need for speed underground but whatever.

 

[Pissmaster]

and stuff like castlevania and contra run like ass even when emulated cause the clock speed is shit.

Plenty of games ran smoothly, like Mario 3, Little Samson, and even The Flintstones.

I'm talking about the console itself, not the library, it's incapable of very basic physics processing and people had to go out of their way to code something playable on it. Castlevania is a barely playable game, the nes cannot calculate the arc of belmonts jump, there are a ton of frame skips and has very bad input delay for the attack.

You could throw TMNT into that list. Konami was shitty during the NES days, then they got their act together from SNES through PS2, then went back to being shitty.

There's also the terrible clock speed which is worse than the SNES somehow

7 year difference between release dates. The clock speed is fine for 1983. A desktop computer with a 4.77mhz Intel 8088 could cost as much as a used car at the time. The CPU in the NTSC NES is a Ricoh 2A03, which is a cheapo modified MOS 6502 with decimal mode removed, so you couldn't use floating point integers. This made a lot of math a hell of a lot more cumbersome to implement.

One advantage the NES had over everyone else was the proprietary, remarkably powerful (for 1983) Picture Processing Unit, at a time when just about every computer relied on the CPU to draw the picture while also being responsible for everything else. You can squeeze a lot more performance out of 1.79mhz when it's not responsible for rendering video.

A lot of Konami games of the era ran at 30fps, so the PPU just rendered the same frame twice, while the CPU took two frames to process whatever was happening, unlike many games that just needed one. Konami's code wasn't as efficient as it could be.

and instantly freezes when there's more than 4 moving entities on screen.

The NES can draw up to 8 sprites per scanline. If you go over that, it'll just overflow, not freeze. Some games pull a little trick where they have sprites flash on and off every frame to make it appear as though there are more than eight sprites on that scanline.

 

[Sicko Hunter]

Speaking of DK, have you ever tried the homebrew rom, "Classic Kong Complete", for snes? I thought it was really good.

I haven't can you link it?

 

[innocent jogger]

I haven't can you link it?

You can get the ROM here.
There is a play through video here.

 

[Georgio Cocklord]

Plenty of games ran smoothly, like Mario 3, Little Samson, and even The Flintstones.

Little Samson was one of the last games on the console, like I said most games released from 82-86 87 did not run well, they ran like shit especially platformers which require precision

7 year difference between release dates. The clock speed is fine for 1983. A desktop computer with a 4.77mhz Intel 8088 could cost as much as a used car at the time. The CPU in the NTSC NES is a Ricoh 2A03, which is a cheapo modified MOS 6502 with decimal mode removed, so you couldn't use floating point integers. This made a lot of math a hell of a lot more cumbersome to implement.

One advantage the NES had over everyone else was the proprietary, remarkably powerful (for 1983) Picture Processing Unit, at a time when just about every computer relied on the CPU to draw the picture while also being responsible for everything else. You can squeeze a lot more performance out of 1.79mhz when it's not responsible for rendering video.

A lot of Konami games of the era ran at 30fps, so the PPU just rendered the same frame twice, while the CPU took two frames to process whatever was happening, unlike many games that just needed one. Konami's code wasn't as efficient as it could be.

I can understand that but nobody gives DOS platformers any credence for being good despite being just as garbage as most NES platformers. Duke Nukem, Xargon, Jill of the Jungle and Commander Keen ran just a bit better than NES games framerate wise but had just as shit physics calculations as in the NES. So I dont understand why NES platformers get that much love despite having aged like a corpse covered in milk and cum.

The NES can draw up to 8 sprites per scanline. If you go over that, it'll just overflow, not freeze. Some games pull a little trick where they have sprites flash on and off every frame to make it appear as though there are more than eight sprites on that scanline.

My bad, a lot of games I play tend to freeze a lot so I probably miscalculated as 4. The flash thing was just to prevent sprites competing for CPU time so rendering was more efficient, deadlocks could be avoided. It still looks like shit to be honest especially when it freezes, Ive played Gradius III on the SNES through to completion, it never went beyond 5 fps most of the time and I will still say 8 eyes and Shatterhand play worse.

 

[Friendly Primarina]

What PS2 emulators do people use these days? I'm considering a playthrough of Silent Hill 4, but last I heard about PS2 emulation was a bunch of drama I didn't care about.

Bear in mind the last "stable" release is quite old, with significant changes since then. For best results, I suggest using the latest development version.

 

[Carpenter Trout]

What PS2 emulators do people use these days? I'm considering a playthrough of Silent Hill 4

The nightly PCSX2 is pretty good. It runs some demanding games on an old laptop without any issues and without compromising the game.

but last I heard about PS2 emulation was a bunch of drama I didn't care about.

It was quickly solved internally, their posts are still up on Github if you're starting to care.
tl;dr: Stenzek said something, another user said another, lead dev told everyone calm down.

Ah, and if you want to use cover arts for the roms without hunting them down manually, you can follow this guide (and this is the version for the PS1/Duckstation):
In short, open up PCSX2 (or duckstation), click the "Tools" submenu, then click on "cover downloader", and paste the following link, make sure you've checked "use serial file names" and then click start.

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xlenore/ps2-covers/main/covers/${serial}.jpg

For the PS1 games the link is the following:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xlenore/psx-covers/main/covers/${serial}.jpg

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I know Sonic has a pretty negative connotation as of the past 15 years (Sonic Superstar is a dumpster fire on it's own rights, on top of the PC port being more akin to a spyware than a game), but has any of you tried the Sonic Megamix Mania mod?

It is made by the guys that made the original Megamix Rom for Sonic on Mega/Sega CD