Which consoles to start with?

[marurun]

Then the RetroFreak should be the first pick for someone wanting to dabble in a variety of consoles right on their TV.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Retro Freak is badass and I want one, though there seem to be some disadvantages when compared to the Retron 5. It's more expensive and not available in US stores for instance. From what I can tell, it won't play NES games, at least not without an adapter. And will a Power Base converter fit on it? (Yes, I know there are other more obscure adapters if that answer is "no").

If you don't care about owning carts then it seems ideal. Of course that fact brings up the ol' "then why not just play on a PC?" argument.

EDIT: Game Gear, SMS, and SG-1000 games are playable with an additional Retro Freak adapter. It's $70.

[ElkinFencer10]

Game Gear, SMS, and SG-1000 games are playable with an additional Retro Freak adapter

That, along with its TurboGrafx/PC Engine/SuperGrafx support are the big selling points for me.

[Ziggy]

You guys...

What? Claiming the Genesis has only half the good titles the SNES has? Nonsense.

I didn't mean that literally... But the SNES has the bigger library. Also, more games regarded as gems per genre. I meant to use "half" for comedic effect, just an exaggeration of the truth.

It is a strong pick for a beginning classic gamer.

Which is why it was my second choice.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Game Gear, SMS, and SG-1000 games are playable with an additional Retro Freak adapter

That, along with its TurboGrafx/PC Engine/SuperGrafx support are the big selling points for me.

Yeeeeahhhh this thing is shooting to the top of my wishlist now.

[Tanooki]

That's the drama queen story about it. If there really was an issue they'd have been punished for it by now either legally or by enough gamers to ruin them by reputation.

The problem with the R5 is that it's an emulator that looks to CRC check a cart. It will not run flash kits loaded with ROMs. It may run a solitary game on a kit though if it direct boots. The only reason I'm throwing that in there is that I have QWAK! which was a 300 game run for GBA and they used chinese flash kits, burned one game to them, put a cheap sticker on it and shipped it and it detects and boots right. It also mostly will not work with multi-carts, it will attempt but usually just fail or dump the menu but not the ROMs(games) behind it.

If you want real games the R5 is a solid option. If you want to run any kind of kits or safetly so multi-carts or bootlegs, it's not even in line to be considered.

[Tanooki]

Cinemassacre in general is full of crap too, they're tabloid media of gaming there to stir up hits and fans/fanboys. Also they're key trolls in making gem videos that helped in the early run up of rapidly overnight expensive SNES carts a few years back.

Yeah it's an android emulator, you can even get the android keyboard up in the earlier releases, not sure if it does is still when you work certain stuff. The key thing about it is for those who want an HDMI swiss army knife to run legit games they bought in the day or recently off the shelf. Emulators scare a lot of people they need to figure out how to download, set it up, configure it, throw some ROMS at it from finding them somewhere, and hoping it all works out. I know it sounds dumb, but a lot of people find that too hard and confusing. The R5 just works. Throw in SMB1 and it works, very crispy, with smooth or enhanced(filtered) audio, hot saves as you go, or intentional save/load states. Also it allows you to throw hacks and translation patches on a SD card and it does that on the fly if you shove in a game. It has some merit.

[Sarge]

My understanding is that they had to change the Genesis emulation core, which caused it to start locking up on some games.

RetroArch guys on the matter.

https://www.libretro.com/index.php/retr ... iolations/

[dsheinem]

Ignore Tanooki's stuff about "scalper prices" or videos "driving up prices overnight". He's our current resident complainer-in-chief about the "unfair resellers" who are just "ruining" the hobby for everyone else in the name of "inflated profits" and the like. Those arguments are fairly deaf to the way that the used game market has historically ebbed and flowed and to the general principles of supply and demand.

Yes, most retro game prices are currently up. No, there's not some widespread cabal of greed-driven resellers or YouTube stars who are raising prices beyond "fair" value.

You'll likely find that, if you go the real cart/hardware route, you'll spend a bit more than you would have a year or three ago to get some of the best games. You'll also find that the same strategies that have always worked to sustain the hobby without overspending still work: buy lots and sell dupes individually to make up costs, bide your time for specific games to drop in price (especially if their popularity has spiked), jump into collecting for a system that is currently cheap while you wait for a currently expensive one to even out a bit, use forums instead of ebay, go to yard sales and flea markets, etc. Spikes in retro game collecting are often tied to shifts in demographic nostalgia/spending power/interests (e.g. when people begin to have time and money to revisit things from their youth and buy a lot or when they decide that other demands in life have pushed them past playing/collecting and they sell a lot), and to industry trends (sequels to old games, releases of retro-themed stuff, certain developers being celebrated, etc.).

In any case, don't let the doomsaying turn you off. Regardless of what your budget may be, there's lots of ways to be a really happy retro gamer and collector by either spending very little, spending a moderate amount, or spending quite a bit. Getting mad at market forces is only going to embitter you to things before you even really get started, and before you've had a chance to learn the ropes a bit.

[ElkinFencer10]

Ignore Tanooki's stuff about "scalper prices" or videos "driving up prices overnight". He's our current resident complainer-in-chief about the "unfair resellers" who are just "ruining" the hobby for everyone else in the name of "inflated profits" and the like. Those arguments are fairly deaf to the way that the used game market has historically ebbed and flowed and to the general principles of supply and demand.

+1

Retro gaming is a bubble just like any other, and like any other bubble, it will eventually pop.