Should I just emulate?

[Jamisonia]

There is a big difference between composite, s-video, and component, and that side by side does not do it justice. You have to be there in person. I have posted pictures of Genesis, SMS, and SNES before and after, taking pictures of the TV screen, and you can notice a difference. Video quality is one of the issues.

From reading more about this though it seems in the best emulators aren't perfect, and routinely make errors, especially audio errors. So emulators aren't bit perfect as I said.

[pierrot]

Am I the only one who notices a HUGE difference in terms of video quality between those comparison shots?

Anyway, I feel that emulation gets the job done if you want to play something you just can't rationalize the resources to acquire, but still really want to play. It sounds to me, Jamisonia, like you're a bit too concerned about both accuracy and quality of sound and visuals in your games to pack it all in for emulation. If you can't justify the expenditures for collecting and so on anymore, then maybe just worry about flash carts, and backup modding?

It sounds a bit like you've just gotten tired of the rat race of keeping your old systems up to current video and audio standards. I think modding is an admirable past time, and I'm not above doing it myself, either, but there's definitely a line I'm not really willing to cross in order to get better video and audio quality. Maybe you just want to reevaluate that line for yourself.

[ZenErik]

I've gone the emulation route, personally. I love collecting but really want to trim things down. And anything pre-Dreamcast looks awful on my LCD anyway. I wish I had gone plasma. SNES looked pretty darn good on my friend's plasma last weekend even via composite. It is not CRT GOOD but still good.

Don't have room to have a CRT as well. So selling all my older systems has been nice. I buy them on virtual console, PSN, or whatever if they are available. If they are not, I go with an emulator.

[Jamisonia]

I have a good plasmas, and though it does look better than LCD its still better on a CRT. A good upscaling chip can only do so much.

Basically I want to have the ability to have s-video on all consoles at least. The step from composite to s-video is in my opinion the biggest. S-video and component does have a jump, but not as much. Consoles that are holding me back from this are the PC Engine/TG16 and the NES. The TG16 does have one helluva workaround. The NES well is not feasible at this point.

[ZenErik]

I agree. When I had an s-video = HDMI convertor my Saturn looked so much better!!!! At least when things were not in motion. The colors were worlds better. The image was sharp. Less blurred colors.

But there was a lot of dot crawl with that converter. And overscan. Couldn't deal with that.

[MrPopo]

I'll throw in a plug for the X-RGB3, which does an amazing job of upscaling while retaining the original look and feel and not introducing noticeable lag. The only consoles I don't have plugged into it (and by extension, the Plasma it's hooked up to) are my NES and SMS, since I have light gun games on both of those I want to be able to play.

[Hatta]

Personally, I find I play more games when I have real hardware to play them on. But I think more in terms of "I'm going to play with my 7800 tonight!" than I do "I'm going to play Xevious tonight".

Philosophically I have nothing against emulators, and in the long run emulators are going to be very important to gaming historians. But it's just more fun to play on the real thing, for as long as it lasts. Solving these equipment problems (AV mods, AV switching, console repairs, modchips, etc) is kind of a fun game too. More fun than setting up emulators IMO.

Sometimes I miss out because of this. I haven't played Mario RPG yet, because I haven't seen a copy in the wild, and it won't run on my flash cart. I will probably just emulate it eventually, but games on real hardware take priority. Some day.

The only real important question is, what's more fun for you?

[ZenErik]

Real hardware is certainly nicer. I won't dispute that. And I did look into getting an XRGB. But in the end I would rather save space and money. Perhaps in a few years things will be different, and I will have a separate gaming room with all the space I need to set up every console imaginable and an arcade cab or two.

For now, emulation will have to do. And I understand the better feeling of whipping out a physical copy of a game too. I've gone with downloads for PS1 games on my PS3. The desire to actually play those games is slightly lessened.

[Jamisonia]

Honestly I enjoy modifying and figuring some of this stuff out. The space is the biggest issue for me. XRGB is great, but honestly I'd be more likely to find an upscaling chip myself and make an upscaler.

[AppleQueso]

Personally i think people who feel the need to add Upgraded Audio and Video mods to consoles are crazy, just play the game the way it was meant to be played off the retail shelf.

Boo to you.

I want to use my hardware, and I want my audiovisual experience with that hardware to be as good as it can be.