Should I just emulate?

[dunpeal2064]

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.

And to add to that, a lot of these consoles are SCART-capable, at least in Europe, and are capable of being played with great video quality. So, trying to get the image quality closer to that nice clean RGB signal is still aiming for playing it "the way it was meant to be played"

I do agree that our younger selves were much better off not knowing all this mumbo jumbo, and just being happy with playing whatever was in front of us.


...Now, if someone were to spend their time modding all their 8 and 16-bit consoles to output HDMI 1080p, that would definitely be a case of going beyond how the games were designed to be played.

[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.

And to add to that, a lot of these consoles are SCART-capable, at least in Europe, and are capable of being played with great video quality. So, trying to get the image quality closer to that nice clean RGB signal is still aiming for playing it "the way it was meant to be played"

I do agree that our younger selves were much better off not knowing all this mumbo jumbo, and just being happy with playing whatever was in front of us.


...Now, if someone were to spend their time modding all their 8 and 16-bit consoles to output HDMI 1080p, that would definitely be a case of going beyond how the games were designed to be played.

A lot of US consoles have RGB support too, which kinda begs the question as to why considering you can't even buy cables for those systems in the US that take advantage of those connections. You can happily just use the euro Scart cables though!

I think younger me would've been pretty damn happy with a toploader NES either way. Don't think younger me would've a/v modded it within an hour of owning the thing though.

I have my limits. I won't bother if the mod is going to cost me a ton of money or is risky or something.

[BoneSnapDeez]

I love emulation. Helps preserve the original hardware/games and lets you preview games before buying.

For a few years I did nothing but emulation, as I was dead broke.

Nowadays, I use emulators mostly for really rare games, ROM hacks, and unofficial translations.

[CRTGAMER]

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.

Agree, there is improvement as the better connection is used. Even going from Composite to SVideo on my PS1 results in less color bleeding. Going to Component and set to at least 480p really shows a difference.

Here's a comparison of Zelda with Component on the left, Composite on the right.

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.

I heard a lot of good things too about the X-RGBs which really improve non HD signals on HD LCDs. Plasmas tend to be more forgiving on non HD signals. Aside from losing the Raster Scan affect of the X-RGB, how do your retro consoles look when directly plugged into your TV?

[BoneSnapDeez]

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.

That's kind of how I feel. I use RF on my SNES because all the composite ports on the TV are filled. Doesn't bother me at all.

[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.

I heard a lot of good things too about the X-RGBs which really improve non HD signals on HD LCDs. Plasmas tend to be more forgiving on non HD signals. Aside from losing the Raster Scan affect of the X-RGB, how do your retro consoles look when directly plugged into your TV?

I've never bothered to check. I got it back on my LCD because my Genesis was looking absolutely terrible on it and I was having trouble getting the timing right in Super Mario RPG.

[Jamisonia]

I think I've decided to go to a cross system. I'm gonna keep the most popular consoles, and I will start selling off some of the rarer ones with only 2 or 3 games I'm interested in. Thanks guys

[fastbilly1]

I think I've decided to go to a cross system. I'm gonna keep the most popular consoles, and I will start selling off some of the rarer ones with only 2 or 3 games I'm interested in. Thanks guys

Thats what Ive ended up doing. I slowly paired it down to mostly the ones that I care the most about - well that and the MVS...

[Valkyrie-Favor]

Just emulate. There are a few games that don't work properly/as well with emulation, but besides that there's no good reason not to. If you do get some kind of pleasure out of sticking a real cart into a real system, that's cool. Is the pleasure enough to justify the opportunity cost, though? For me it's not even close.

[dogman91]

Wiimednafen is a good emulator to start out with for the Wii if you want a ton of different systems under one roof. The big plus to me with this emulator is native 240p output (perfect for a SD CRT). Really simple and easy to navigate menu as well with a ton of options. I use it for NES games with a SNES controller adapter and a custom NTSC NES palette to avoid spending $300+ on an NES RGB mod (with which the original NES system otherwise uses composite video at most).

I always go with original hardware though if possible as a lot of emulators have problems and inaccuracies (as well as possible skipped frames), but for casual playing it really doesn't matter either way. I can't imagine replacing my model 1 Genesis with an emulator, and N64/Saturn emulation is flat-out not there yet IMO. If you're going to emulate SNES, go with bsnes by the way, as it's pretty much the only perfect emulator out there in terms of accuracy IMO (or at least ridiculously close).