Video Game "Look what I found"

[CRTGAMER]

Judge Dredd: Dredd vs. Death - $3.88

That's what It was selling for on Ebay. The bidding started at 1 cent and that's what I got It for. I was hesitant after I saw the review but for $3.88, what the hell.

You should include the shipping cost to make your find's price an accurate statement.

Samba De Amigo(CIB)-$0.99
Poor Samba De Amigo I already own you, but I felt obligated to save you from the yellow sleeve of shame.

I was very sad to see the yellow sleeves on inexpensive Wii games at a local Gamestop recently...

Fortunately, this store placed the manual and insert at the back of the sleeve; so, I was able to rescue copies of Pop 'n Music, Rooms: The Main Building, and SSX: Blur for a grand total of $6. Moreover - and since the employee had just placed the games in the sleeves - he had plenty of extra white cases and was happy to give three of them to me for my new games.

Nice! I wish all Gamestops did that.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Nice! I wish all Gamestops did that.

I do not expect to see this happen elsewhere, unfortunately. The employee who was charged with placing the discs in the sleeves thought it was a "shame" that Gamestop got rid of so many PS2 paperwork, and I think the decision to retain the inserts and manuals was his alone...

That said, keeping the inserts and manuals made it a lot easier to browse the yellow sleeves, and I do wish other stores would follow that practice.

[pvt_awol]

I've got all my consoles hooked up to a newer HDTV via a composite switcher, but when I hooked up the Genesis, it looked far worse than any of my other systems do. The screen flashed a lot at first, until I actually started playing, and even then, it's fairly blurry. I figured you guys would be able to point me in the right direction in terms of some work-arounds for the video quality. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Not bad of a pickup, but I feel that you may have overpaid. I hate to go by Ebay prices, but I think I might have given maybe $40 for that lot. Maybe $50. Please don't take that as bashing. I only mean it as "constructive criticism." You did, however, pick up some very nice games, and if you are just starting your NES collection, those are some of the best titles. Mega Man 2 has always been my favorite NES game. So good score there. Bummer about the label.

As for your question, I'm sure that others will chime in with far better answers than me, but in my experience, the Genesis (especially model 2) looks atrocious on an LCD TV. Plasma is a bit better, but not much. I found it hard to play, and so I invested in an HTPC build, just so I could play Genesis emulation. I fear that the original hardware is to blame for the poor quality. There may be filters and gadgets you can pass the signal through, but I'm not entirely sure that it's worth it. You'd be better off picking up a nice Trinitron for cheap and going the CRT route. You don't have to get a Trinitron though, those are just regarded as some of the best CRT's. I have a 27" Sharp Flat screen CRT that does wonders, and I paid $3 for it at a yard sale.

I do think though, if you are dead set on using your HDTV, play the games through emulation. A Wii, or OXBOX, or HTPC. Something along those lines. Again, I'm sure there are converters and resolution upscalers and yadda yadda, but you gotta figure out how much you're willing to spend.

[Wispmage]

Not bad of a pickup, but I feel that you may have overpaid. I hate to go by Ebay prices, but I think I might have given maybe $40 for that lot. Maybe $50.

Yeah, admittedly I may have given him a bit more than I needed to, but based on some recent eBay searches of my own, $40 seems a bit low. Most Genesis consoles alone seem to go for $40-50.

the Genesis (especially model 2) looks atrocious on an LCD TV.

So I've read/heard. As far as a buying something to help the video quality, I'd probably only be willing to drop 20-30, which probably isn't enough to give it the boost it really needs. Maybe I will invest in a cheap CRT at some point. Thanks for the advice.

EDIT: Would something like this be a reasonable solution / give me a decent picture quality?
Composite / S-Video to HDMI Converter

[pierrot]

A lot of Genesis revisions have very poor composite video converters. Best bet for composite alone is to get an HD graphics model 1 (Really shouldn't cost more than $30 with A/C and composite cables; controller(s)) which as a bonus should also provide better sound from the stereo headphone jacks. (Also, flip the Genesis over, and tell us if the metal shielding under the air vents goes all the way to the edge of the console, or stops about 2-3" short.)

Otherwise, if your model 2 has one of the sony chips in it, you could potentially have it modded for S-video. The better option, in the long run, in my opinion, would be to get a scart cable for the Genesis, and run it through a Scart to YPbPr Component converter, which will give you close to RGB quality video for all systems that natively support RGB video: SMS, GEN, SAT, DC, PS, PS2, SNES. It would probably be better to hook it up to a CRT tv, regardless, but you'd still see an astronomical jump in video quality from those consoles on an LCD. (As long as you're not hooking up a PS2 or DC by component or VGA, respectively, already.)

[oxymoron]

Judge Dredd: Dredd vs. Death - $3.88

That's what It was selling for on Ebay. The bidding started at 1 cent and that's what I got It for. I was hesitant after I saw the review but for $3.88, what the hell.

You should include the shipping cost to make your find's price an accurate statement.

It cost me one penny and shipping was $3.87

[Teh Lurv]

Not bad of a pickup, but I feel that you may have overpaid. I hate to go by Ebay prices, but I think I might have given maybe $40 for that lot. Maybe $50.

Yeah, admittedly I may have given him a bit more than I needed to, but based on some recent eBay searches of my own, $40 seems a bit low. Most Genesis consoles alone seem to go for $40-50.

the Genesis (especially model 2) looks atrocious on an LCD TV.

So I've read/heard. As far as a buying something to help the video quality, I'd probably only be willing to drop 20-30, which probably isn't enough to give it the boost it really needs. Maybe I will invest in a cheap CRT at some point. Thanks for the advice.

EDIT: Would something like this be a reasonable solution / give me a decent picture quality?
Composite / S-Video to HDMI Converter

Off the top of my head, $140 sounds like pretty close to what I'd expect a lot like that would go on eBay. Maybe a little bit more. In any case, buying stuff from friends is never a good time to try and lowball a price, especially when it is a nice lot like that.

Genesis composite out isn't great, and HDTVs magnify that weakness. Outside of modding it with S-Video, there isn't much you can do for $20-30 outside of buying a SDTV.

Edit: Don't bother with those cheap converters. I tried one similar to that one and saw very little difference in quality with my Genesis over my TV's built in scaler and a noticeable increase in input lag.

[oxymoron]

That's what It was selling for on Ebay. The bidding started at 1 cent and that's what I got It for. I was hesitant after I saw the review but for $3.88, what the hell.

"selling for" and "sold for" are different things. especially on ebay.

I saw no one had bid on it so I searched the name and about 10 listings came up with the the majority of the prices ranging from 12-25. So I assumed I was about to get a good deal. Which I did but it wasn't as good as I thought. And for $3.88, no harm, no foul.

[aaron]

That's what It was selling for on Ebay. The bidding started at 1 cent and that's what I got It for. I was hesitant after I saw the review but for $3.88, what the hell.

"selling for" and "sold for" are different things. especially on ebay.

I saw no one had bid on it so I searched the name and about 10 listings came up with the the majority of the prices ranging from 12-25. So I assumed I was about to get a good deal. Which I did but it wasn't as good as I thought. And for $3.88, no harm, no foul.

yeah, i'll agree with that. i think it's just a weird game to be excited to get. if you got a copy of Ballz: Director's Cut, however, that would be a different story.

[Jmustang1968]

That's what It was selling for on Ebay. The bidding started at 1 cent and that's what I got It for. I was hesitant after I saw the review but for $3.88, what the hell.

"selling for" and "sold for" are different things. especially on ebay.

I saw no one had bid on it so I searched the name and about 10 listings came up with the the majority of the prices ranging from 12-25. So I assumed I was about to get a good deal. Which I did but it wasn't as good as I thought. And for $3.88, no harm, no foul.

As usual, don't look at their for sale prices, look at actually sold listings.