Wiz vs FC Mobile, ROM vs. cart - Which do you prefer?

[BAD PIXEL]

So, I'm kinda torn here. I recently picked up a GP2X Wiz. It's great. The screen is so clear, the sound is awesome, the d-pad and buttons suck, but otherwise, it's a great, portable way to enjoy the classics. But there's something missing. For whatever reason, I miss playing the actual cart. Specifically, I'd rather play an actual, honest-to-goodness NES game on the FC Mobile 2 over an NES ROM on the Wiz. Is it just that the controls on the Wiz are lacking, or is it more? The Wiz has the FC Mobile 2 beaten on sound, portability and screen (but not on controls, however), but there is something about having and playing the cart that keeps drawing me back to playing the FC Mobile 2. It makes no sense! I notice this even more with old school RPGs like Faxanadu and Star Tropics; I just like to play the actual cart. Is this normal?

I'm sure this has been brought up before, but I'm curious about what you guys think. Do you prefer the carts? Is retro gaming more than just playing the actual game? Does having the cart, manual, guide, etc make a difference? Essentially, is old school gaming about the entire experience, using old school hardware, peripherals, etc or just playing the game? Which do you prefer, ROM or cart?

[Flak Beard]

I personally feel like the cart and actual hardware add to the experience. It just takes you back in time that way.

Still, roms are convenient. I often play roms of games I own just so I can save when I want. My PC is hooked up to my TV with a Saturn USB pad. I just fire it up to the Maximus Arcade front-end, and go to town.

[MrPopo]

I've found the FC Mobile is a really nice piece of hardware for the price. You can get better results building your own portable from an NES, but not everyone is inclined to do so. Also, if you want to fix the sound put a piece of tape over one speaker. From what I can tell there is a single speaker inside that is getting piped through both outputs, so when you close one off it instantly sounds close to what a TV provides.

I found that while emulators were great when I was in high school and early college (both dorms), when I was in my own place and had the space to start hooking up systems the original experience is best. Number one, you get the perfect original sound and video. Emulators are just modeling the hardware, so there's a layer of imperfection being added. Second, there's just something gratifying about putting that cart into the system; a tangible quality, if you will.

[BAD PIXEL]

I agree with you both. I'm finding there's more to the experience than just playing the game itself - and I think that emulators, while convenient (especially with the ability to save) don't bring the entire experience together. And MrPopo is onto something about the "layer of imperfection" that comes from ROMs emulating hardware. Even the FC mobile has this, to a lesser extent. There's just something there that is different when you aren't using original software and hardware.

One big plus for emulators is the availably of translated heavy-Japanese games (Sweet Home and Mother spring to mind). It's just such a shame that neither of these will never really be playable on the original hardware or software, unless you a) learn some Japanese or b) get a translation guide and split your attention between the game and the guide. At least with games like Recca, Crisis Force and Joy Mech Fight, among others, we can just buy the original Famicom carts with an adapter and not worry about too much of a language barrier.

Hey, and thanks for the tip about the tape over one of the speakers - it does help! I already have several layers of duct tape placed in a stripe around the back of the cartridge slot to keep the carts from wiggling, so what's another piece of tape?

[Luke]

I'm sure this has been brought up before, but I'm curious about what you guys think. Do you prefer the carts? Is retro gaming more than just playing the actual game? Does having the cart, manual, guide, etc make a difference? Essentially, is old school gaming about the entire experience, using old school hardware, peripherals, etc or just playing the game? Which do you prefer, ROM or cart?

For me, there is no substitute for playing a retro game on the original console with the original controller. ROM's are easily available, but to me seem somewhat empty. Even playing "new" retro games has a nostalgia factor for me.

Someone once said "I'd trade all of my tomorrows for just one yesterday". I wouldn't take it that far, but I understand where the guy was coming from. Some people try to re-live the past because they're not happy with the present, but I'm not that guy either. I just love solid games that still present a challenge, and Lord knows retro games serve that purpose for me.

[BAD PIXEL]

I'm sure this has been brought up before, but I'm curious about what you guys think. Do you prefer the carts? Is retro gaming more than just playing the actual game? Does having the cart, manual, guide, etc make a difference? Essentially, is old school gaming about the entire experience, using old school hardware, peripherals, etc or just playing the game? Which do you prefer, ROM or cart?

For me, there is no substitute for playing a retro game on the original console with the original controller. ROM's are easily available, but to me seem somewhat empty. Even playing "new" retro games has a nostalgia factor for me.

Someone once said "I'd trade all of my tomorrows for just one yesterday". I wouldn't take it that far, but I understand where the guy was coming from. Some people try to re-live the past because they're not happy with the present, but I'm not that guy either. I just love solid games that still present a challenge, and Lord knows retro games serve that purpose for me.

I guess that's a big part of it. I totally get that "empty" feel from ROMs also. I'm not sure where that comes from. Maybe the unlimited access and availability have something to do with it. You can have the game, any game - but that's it, just the game. When I play NES games, I can tell you that the experience is enhanced greatly when you have a few game-related back-issues of Nintendo Power to look through, or even the game box around.

And for me, it's not about trying to relive the past because today's games suck. It's more that I feel as though earlier games tended to be more creative from a design perspective. Imagine you only had 16 colors to put on a screen and create a world like Castlevania. What solutions would you come up to accomplish that? Ever since the 16-bit era there's been this great push to get graphics to the point of being photo realistic. And yeah, at 14 when the SNES came out, I was all for it; the more complex and realistic, the better. But these days, my take on it is that when games start to look so lifelike, they lose a certain graphic style and character. Let's say like a penciler on a comic book has a certain style and way of solving graphic challenges or presenting a story. Their style probably isn't super realistic, but it works better than photo-realism for the story.

I think it's fascinating to see how game designers and programmers used limited hardware capabilities and color pallets in different, dynamic ways to really push the systems and develop a style to showcase the story for their game. With the limited color pallet, it's like screen printing, in a way. You have to really decide and think about the best use for your limited number of colors and what is the best placement, use of contrast, etc. I'm not saying today's games aren't creative, but look at what designers and programmers have to work with now versus what was available on the 8-bit machines.

[MrPopo]

IAnd MrPopo is onto something about the "layer of imperfection" that comes from ROMs emulating hardware. Even the FC mobile has this, to a lesser extent. There's just something there that is different when you aren't using original software and hardware.

I'd actually be curious to see just how true that is for the FC Mobile II. The patents on the NES hardware have expired so a company can just take the patent documentation and create their own, with the advantage of modern manufacturing techniques (smaller components).

One big plus for emulators is the availably of translated heavy-Japanese games (Sweet Home and Mother spring to mind). It's just such a shame that neither of these will never really be playable on the original hardware or software, unless you a) learn some Japanese or b) get a translation guide and split your attention between the game and the guide.

There is a third option. You can burn the rom to a mask rom or eeprom and solder the chip into a donor cart. That's what places like NES Reproductions do. I have a copy of Mother that's translated and on an NES cart.

[BAD PIXEL]

IAnd MrPopo is onto something about the "layer of imperfection" that comes from ROMs emulating hardware. Even the FC mobile has this, to a lesser extent. There's just something there that is different when you aren't using original software and hardware.

I'd actually be curious to see just how true that is for the FC Mobile II. The patents on the NES hardware have expired so a company can just take the patent documentation and create their own, with the advantage of modern manufacturing techniques (smaller components).

One big plus for emulators is the availably of translated heavy-Japanese games (Sweet Home and Mother spring to mind). It's just such a shame that neither of these will never really be playable on the original hardware or software, unless you a) learn some Japanese or b) get a translation guide and split your attention between the game and the guide.

There is a third option. You can burn the rom to a mask rom or eeprom and solder the chip into a donor cart. That's what places like NES Reproductions do. I have a copy of Mother that's translated and on an NES cart.

The FC Moible 2 does get it pretty close and the unit itself has a very Nintnedo-circa-1990-like quality. But the hardware is still not an exact replication of the NES. For example, Battletoads locks up on level 2 (which seems to be a common problem on clone systems and some emulators - RARE must have put in some wild code to get the vertical, multiple plane scrolling to work). This is one of just a few isolated incompatibilities I've heard of on the FC Mobile 2, so Hyperkin is close - I'm just surprised they either didn't check (or didn't correct) the hardware on a popular game like Battletoads. Or like you said, since the patents have expired, they could have created an exact reproduction of the hardware used on the NES. I can't imagine that'd be any more expensive than what's in the FCM2 now. Though, in my opinion, Hyperkin still cut corners with the sound, the display, the controllers, video out, etc., so maybe going with a cheaper chipset was another area where keeping the costs down played a role.

I've never even heard of NES Reproductions, but this sounds like an amazing solution. Man, if I could get Mother and Sweet Home in English on NES carts... I'm Googling now. Thank you for that suggestion!