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You're sitting down to play a retro game. What's your preferred choice?

Emulation all the way!
2
9%
Mostly emulation
5
23%
About half and half
4
18%
Mostly real hardware
9
41%
Only real hardware for me!
2
9%
 
Total votes : 22
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marurun
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Re: How do you retro game? Emulation vs the Real Deal

by marurun Mon Aug 01, 2022 9:19 am

I love to have the original hardware and be able to play it to refresh myself on the source material, but for practical reasons I am just as likely to end up playing an emulated title.
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Re: How do you retro game? Emulation vs the Real Deal

by prfsnl_gmr Mon Aug 01, 2022 10:25 am

Sadly, my retro consoles are boxed up at the moment (because I’m <finally> building my game room!!!!!!!!). Accordingly, I play older games on my RG350 at the moment. It’s a great, convenient way to play my games. The emulation quality is pretty solid for most systems up to PS1, and portable games look better on my RG350 than they do on original hardware. I also appreciate being able to play games without taking over our family TV, and save states make some games more enjoyable (and are necessary to make some games bearable).

I’ll likely switch back to original hardware, at least for old favorites, once I’ve finished building my game room.
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Re: How do you retro game? Emulation vs the Real Deal

by ElkinFencer10 Mon Aug 01, 2022 10:44 am

opa wrote:So long as you're playing on real hardware I personally find using ODE/flashcarts to be kind of semantics. The console just cares about receiving data; not really caring about the source. Others might not feel the same so vote how you interpret things. This poll isn't collecting scientific data. Lol

Yeah, I don't consider ODEs or flashcarts to be emulation (regardless of the E in ODE lol) as the hardware running the game is original, and that's what matters to me.
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Re: How do you retro game? Emulation vs the Real Deal

by BoneSnapDeez Mon Aug 01, 2022 11:56 am

prfsnl_gmr wrote:because I’m <finally> building my game room!!!!!!!!


Pics!!!!!!!

As for the question, I'm split. I mostly emulate 3rd/4th gen stuff (I love my Retro Freak) but everything else is typically on real hardware.

Like aj said though, this is largely a space-saver. No longer do I have to keep the NES, SNES, TG16, and Genesis all hooked up at once.
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Re: How do you retro game? Emulation vs the Real Deal

by prfsnl_gmr Mon Aug 01, 2022 1:12 pm

BoneSnapDeez wrote:
prfsnl_gmr wrote:because I’m <finally> building my game room!!!!!!!!


Pics!!!!!!!


You’ll get them when it’s done…which may be a while. I’ve got someone putting up a ceiling later this month, then I anticipate at least a month of painting, remodeling, and shelf building before I’m ready to bring out the games.
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Re: How do you retro game? Emulation vs the Real Deal

by opa Mon Aug 01, 2022 3:41 pm

I'm curious about something: does everyone's hardware preferences also extend to PC gaming? Are you guys actually dragging out a Commodore 64 to play some Forbidden Forest? Or do you just boot up Vice? Does anyone still have a dedicated DOS machine set up for some Doom? Or has Steam/GOG got you covered?

Everything I do retro computing-wise is strictly emulated. While I'd love a Vic-20 or C64, it's completely impractical and I'm out of space for new stuff.
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Re: How do you retro game? Emulation vs the Real Deal

by BoneSnapDeez Mon Aug 01, 2022 3:52 pm

prfsnl_gmr wrote:You’ll get them when it’s done…which may be a while. I’ve got someone putting up a ceiling later this month, then I anticipate at least a month of painting, remodeling, and shelf building before I’m ready to bring out the games.


Are you converting an area of unfinished basement or did you build an addition onto the house?

(no wait, you have a gaming shed, don't you?)

opa wrote:I'm curious about something: does everyone's hardware preferences also extend to PC gaming? Are you guys actually dragging out a Commodore 64 to play some Forbidden Forest? Or do you just boot up Vice? Does anyone still have a dedicated DOS machine set up for some Doom? Or has Steam/GOG got you covered?

Everything I do retro computing-wise is strictly emulated. While I'd love a Vic-20 or C64, it's completely impractical and I'm out of space for new stuff.


I do retro computing on real hardware!

I have a C64 + monitor that is always hooked up, though I will pull a disk drive out of storage to boot floppies. For the Tandy CoCo, TI-99/4A, Atari 600 XL, Amiga, C16, and VIC-20 I simply hook those to my TV console-style. I mostly own carts for those systems (with the exception of the Amiga, which has an integrated floppy drive).

As far as "PC" stuff goes, I held onto my wife's college computer (a 2003 Dell OptiPlex) which has Windows XP but runs all my Win 95/98 games + DOSBox. Again, I just hook it to a television.
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Re: How do you retro game? Emulation vs the Real Deal

by ElkinFencer10 Mon Aug 01, 2022 4:18 pm

opa wrote:I'm curious about something: does everyone's hardware preferences also extend to PC gaming? Are you guys actually dragging out a Commodore 64 to play some Forbidden Forest? Or do you just boot up Vice? Does anyone still have a dedicated DOS machine set up for some Doom? Or has Steam/GOG got you covered?

Everything I do retro computing-wise is strictly emulated. While I'd love a Vic-20 or C64, it's completely impractical and I'm out of space for new stuff.

I'm not much of a PC gamer - it's pretty much my platform of last resort - and I never got into non-Windows retro PCs. So on the VERY rare occasions I play retro PC games, I'm always using some degree of emulation be it DOSBox, C64 VC games on Wii, or the old Doom games on Switch.
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Re: How do you retro game? Emulation vs the Real Deal

by alienjesus Mon Aug 01, 2022 4:42 pm

I also barely play PC games. Pretty much the only games I have on the system are point and click games where I have the discs. I use SCUMMVM or similar to run them.

I don't really venture into Commodore or Spectrum or similar at all.
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Re: How do you retro game? Emulation vs the Real Deal

by Ziggy587 Mon Aug 01, 2022 4:55 pm

opa wrote:I'm curious about something: does everyone's hardware preferences also extend to PC gaming? Are you guys actually dragging out a Commodore 64 to play some Forbidden Forest? Or do you just boot up Vice? Does anyone still have a dedicated DOS machine set up for some Doom? Or has Steam/GOG got you covered?

Everything I do retro computing-wise is strictly emulated. While I'd love a Vic-20 or C64, it's completely impractical and I'm out of space for new stuff.


For computers, I would have to vote "about half."

So with GoG, I have a lot of games that run on DOS Box. And for DOOM, I've been running them in the source port gxdoom. But I do have older computer hardware. Sadly, most of it is packed up at the moment. I have to move some stuff around (most likely sacrifice a treadmill) to make room for another computer desk so I can finally start DOS and Win9x gaming on real hardware again.

I had some 386 and 486 stuff that I got rid of years back. Now I'm kicking myself that I did because the price skyrocketed on all that stuff. So now my oldest stuff is Pentium II, but I also have some Pentium III and 4 stuff as well. I had intended to set up a couple of old computers (which would be nice for some LAN stuff) but my space for it shrunk so I'll have to settle with just one. But possibly I can set up 2 vintage computers with a KVM switch, I'll have to see. I'm definitely setting up my old P2 with Win98, that's been my go-to for DOS gaming. But I may also set up a P4 and dual boot 98 and XP. Mostly for fun, but also because with a better graphics card I can do late 98 era and early XP era games that the P2 is too slow to run. I have a couple of CRT PC monitors, but only one that's beige and I'm not sure if it works yet (it was picked off the side of the road).

I have plenty of period correct keyboard and mice, but I'm not sure if I'm going to use them. I have that classic 98 era IBM keyboard, which has always been a favorite of mine. And I have a couple of white LogiTech mice, I forget the model number but it was that real popular one that you always use to see. But I was able to find some newly manufactured stuff that I decided to pick up.

Beige Keyboard: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08F3WBFP1

White Mouse: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08WS4FZSG

The mouse is white, not beige, but that was pretty common during the Win9x days. That mouse is PS/2, though, which is kind of surprising to see. Is it cool to use an optical mouse for DOS gaming? LOL. The keyboard is USB, but I'll just use one of those PS/2 adapters for it. I was just excited to find a newly manufactured keyboard in a beige color scheme. They have the same keyboard in white and black as well.

I have a pretty good supply of spare PC parts. Honestly, part of the enjoyment for me is not just gaming on the old hardware, but tweaking stuff. I have an OK-ish big box collection right now. It's not a large collection, but I have pretty much everything that means something to me. If I can ever get the space to set up a desk for an old computer, I plan to make a shelf or two above the desk to house the big box collection.
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