unintentionally awesome things about your favorite system

[CatPix]

What PCEngine HuCard got a cart based upgrade? SF2CE had a bigger chip and a couple games had a battery but i don't remember them expanding features, and Sega did a $100 mistake of a price with that SVP chip within Virtua Racing that sold poorly due to that. I'm not saying Nintendo alone did it, but they normalized it and to the betterment of the systems. I can't add more than mdb30 though.

 

I'm serious about the HuCard question as the only old console I still buy games for still is that system which I never got the optical drive for. I'd research it and see if it's worth picking up.

The PC-Engine never received any significant Hu-Card upgrades.

The upgrades were in the CD department, with the CD-ROM unit itself providing a saving capacity and a meager extra RAM.

Then the System Card 3/Super-System card quickly added a beefy 192Ko of RAM (compared to the original 64 Ko of the console).

Ultimately, the Arcade Card added a super beefy 2 Mo of RAM, allowing for near-arcade port (hence the name).

But the most common "improved" games use the Super System Card.

Like with other systems, what can make people believe that the Hu-Card improved was simply experience in development.

Especially since the PC-Engine have a powerful graphic chip; early games are in the NES departement league (make sense, since Hudson designed the PC-Engine as a sort of NES 2 and planned to partner with Nintendo to sell it).

Later games went to use the capabilities of the system much better. Ironically, the Hu-card benefited from the CD-ROM support. Because the CD-ROM might bring more RAM and more data space, but there is still a limit to what the system can display; and the research done to make better CD games was also useful to make better Hu-Card games.

Edited July 17, 2018 by CatPix

[BassGuitari]

Any cassette-equipped old computer: you can run software from .wav or .aiff without having to buy a floppy emulator or SD/Flash/whatever device.

 

Atari VCS: It was the gateway to a whole wide world of retro gaming for me. (I certainly didn't see that coming when I decided to get one!)

 

Channel F, Bally Arcade: cartridges are hotswappable.

 

Atari XEGS: It has standard composite out--this may not sound like a big deal, but when all your favorite consoles use RF or require some goofy AV cable, this is really nice.

 

The Atari 5200 also functions as a beverage holder.

 

EDIT: Oh wait, you said favorite system. Never mind then.

 

 

Edited July 17, 2018 by BassGuitari

[derFunkenstein]

With the SNES there was basically no choice. It was just too slow to do everything that developers wanted to. Thats why a launch title in North America used the DSP1. Id argue it was absolutely intentional.

 

Also, Super SF2 on the Genesis had a NES-style mapper to allow the ROM to be larger than 32 megabits.

Edited July 18, 2018 by derFunkenstein

[edweird13]

I am still rockin CORE I7 920. What an overclockable beast.

[CatPix]

With the SNES there was basically no choice. It was just too slow to do everything that developers wanted to. Thats why a launch title in North America used the DSP1. Id argue it was absolutely intentional.

 

Also, Super SF2 on the Genesis had a NES-style mapper to allow the ROM to be larger than 32 megabits.

Well, from what I read, Nintendo had planned a Super Nintendo release in 1987/1988, with backward compatibility with the NES. So they choose a CPU that was backward compatible with the NES one. But, as time went, as the SNES GPU grew more complex, they ended up deciding to drop NES compatibility... And yet, because the hardware design was so advanced, and with the PCEngine and Megadrive out, Nintendo decided to push the SNES out in 1991 without putting a beefier CPU.

[Jess Ragan]

"Name some unexpected bonuses in game systems you like," you say?

 

Sega Saturn: Had one of the few system upgrades I actually appreciated, the 4M RAM cart. It really added punch to its arcade conversions. It also had a damn fine CD interface, with a handy shuffle feature and the blocky star ship which makes the whole affair seem more alive than the Playstation CD player software, which looked like something Crayola barfed up after an unfortunate food poisoning incident.

 

Neo-Geo Pocket: How many other game systems have a built in horoscope? Also, the thing gets like a zillion hours of life out of a couple AA batteries. It's not backlit, but nobody was really doing backlighting in handhelds back in 1999.

 

Astrocade: Screw getting up to pick options! Once you've put in your cartridge, you can keep your butt glued to the couch and "dial in" your preferences before the game begins. Just crank the little knob on the top of the joystick to select the number of players and difficulty. No need for a select button on the console or that silly built-in keypad.

 

Playstation 2: Not only is it backward compatible with the first Playstation, there's a Playstation built into it. When in PS2 mode, it handles I/O, like the controllers. Naturally, this means that nearly any peripheral that worked with the PSOne will also work with the PS2.

 

ColecoVision: That dopey dial on the bottom of the Super Action Controllers works with Steering Wheel games (if I recall correctly) and quizzically, speeds up Cabbage Patch Kids whenever you spin it.

 

Sega Master System: Built in games, including the previously mentioned Snail Maze. You might also get Alex Kidd, Hang On, or the plain but strangely endearing shooter Astro Warrior included with your machine. No cartridges; it's just THERE.

 

Xbox 360: When you buy a game in the marketplace, it downloads, unzips, and installs on its own. Other systems (cough cough Playstation 3) don't do this. Also, you can play your own music in games, provided you've ripped it from CD first.

 

Nintendo Wii: It's not just a game system! Thanks to its robust online features, you can check the news and the weather too. Provided you jump into a time machine and punch in the year 2008. Wait wait, let me save this... it's a damn good GameCube. Pop in a GameCube disc and it defaults to progressive scan, boosting the quality of the graphics significantly. I mean, the GameCube could do that too, if you had a component cable, but its component cable is like two hundred dollars and a similar cable for the Wii is like fifteen. Game, set, match.

 

Gizmondo: People say that it's since turned into sloppy goop, but back in 2007, the rubberized case felt really good on the hands. Someone should do that again, with less biodegradable material.

 

Neo-Geo: That thing had one of the longest lives of any game console ever. We're talking Atari 2600 longevity here, and frankly it aged more gracefully. Also, it's considered one of the more costly game systems, but I'm pretty sure an arcade owner would beg to differ. The jukebox design meant he could swap cartridges instead of the entire cabinet and still rake in the dough. Its cost effective design meant that it was EVERYWHERE, and opened the door to players who might not have been able to afford paying fifty cents to play Mortal Kombat.

 

Vectrex: Every time I start the machine up I feel like I'm in an Imperial Margarine commercial.

[Video]

Playstation. Early games were small enough to fit in system ram and once loaded, you could pop in your own CD and listen to that with the game.

[John Stamos Mullet]

Playstation. Early games were small enough to fit in system ram and once loaded, you could pop in your own CD and listen to that with the game.

this was awesome. Playing Wipeout with Metallicas Master of Puppets is sublime.

[80s_Atari_Guy]

I personally loved the original Wipeout soundtrack. It perfectly summed up the 90s dance and club scene, and made gaming cool. Sony, really knew how to market the PSX, in the 90s, by merging dance, club, and gaming. Great times.

[derFunkenstein]

Well, from what I read, Nintendo had planned a Super Nintendo release in 1987/1988, with backward compatibility with the NES. So they choose a CPU that was backward compatible with the NES one. But, as time went, as the SNES GPU grew more complex, they ended up deciding to drop NES compatibility... And yet, because the hardware design was so advanced, and with the PCEngine and Megadrive out, Nintendo decided to push the SNES out in 1991 without putting a beefier CPU.

 

That's not how I understood it. My understanding is that it was a rush job because Nintendo was caught off-guard by the Mega Drive and PC Engine. A quick Google search shows that's basically corroborated on multiple sites.

[Tanooki]

Neo-Geo: That thing had one of the longest lives of any game console ever. We're talking Atari 2600 longevity here, and frankly it aged more gracefully. Also, it's considered one of the more costly game systems, but I'm pretty sure an arcade owner would beg to differ. The jukebox design meant he could swap cartridges instead of the entire cabinet and still rake in the dough. Its cost effective design meant that it was EVERYWHERE, and opened the door to players who might not have been able to afford paying fifty cents to play Mortal Kombat.

 

Having owned one of those arcade cabinets I would agree with that. I've had games from 1990 like the original one NAM and then the latest stuff would be a fighter like Mark of the Wolves and The Last Blade. There is a huge margin of difference over time in and out of a genre. Comparing again MOTW to an early game like World Heroes is one, or take a game like Ghost Pilots and Alpha Mission 2 and put that up against Blazing Star or even Captain Tomaday and it's pretty obvious. The system for home as a console was insanely expensive but the arcade version as an operator it saved a lot of money because of that jukebox feature. You put up for the hardware but the games weren't that expensive against the quarters they'd pull in, and were far less than buying and then eating up space on another cabinet to maintain too.

 

The Neo-Geo board had a more rugged console construct to it so it can take a lot more punishment from age. I don't know about dating, but the system was also designed to back in 1990 link up multiple cabinets for major competitions with some racing titles, fighters I think, and also League Bowling using just a simple headphone jack looking long black cable that plugged into a port on the cartridge in each system and they had 2 holes so you could daisy chain them together.

[zzip]

ZX Spectrum - increasing the baud rate of tape-loading games to around 19k, means you can load (Not all) most games in seconds, down from minutes. I managed to take a tape that normally loads around 2mins 30 seconds, to just 10 seconds. It's awesome to see in real time.

That seems amazing for cassette technology. Did it destroy more tapes running that fast?

[Flojomojo]

That seems amazing for cassette technology. Did it destroy more tapes running that fast?

 

I would assume that the tape runs at the same speed, just with more data density in the stream?

[zzip]

I would assume that the tape runs at the same speed, just with more data density in the stream?

Still- that's pretty amazing for 80s cassette technology. Am I right in assuming these are standard audio cassettes or something else?

[Flojomojo]

I personally loved the original Wipeout soundtrack. It perfectly summed up the 90s dance and club scene, and made gaming cool. Sony, really knew how to market the PSX, in the 90s, by merging dance, club, and gaming. Great times.

I have been playing Firestarter (from Wipeout XL, what your people called Wipeout 2097) in the kitchen lately. The HD remakes feel like the Playstation originals felt to me back when they were new.

[Flojomojo]

Still- that's pretty amazing for 80s cassette technology. Am I right in assuming these are standard audio cassettes or something else?

Standard audio cassettes. I used drugstore C-60s for my Sinclair experiments.

[Eltigro]

The Wipeout XL soundtrack is the only video game soundtrack I ever bought. =)

[HoshiChiri]

I love that early CD games let you pop them into a CD player to hear all the audio in the game. Simultaniously awesome soundtracks & creepy bits where it's just 'Oo! Hah! Ugh!' for like 5 minutes when you get to the battle noises.

[80s_Atari_Guy]

That seems amazing for cassette technology. Did it destroy more tapes running that fast?

 

I should have added to my post that, this can only be done digitally, not via analogue. And, as far as I'm aware, it can only be done on non-protected files (TAP), not protected files (TZX). You then play the resulting wav on a portable mp3 player/media player/mobile phone.

I guess my original post looked a bit misleading. I should have said it was amazing the Spectrum, itself, was capable of loading 19,200 baud wavs via a digital source. Apologies.

[TDIRunner]

Being able to use my OUYA as a paper weight.

[youxia]

Still- that's pretty amazing for 80s cassette technology. Am I right in assuming these are standard audio cassettes or something else?

The tapes ran at the same speed, the files were somehow compressed and took less space on tape. Mind you I'm not sure it's the same method 80s_Atari_Guy mentions. Ours required a hardware add which you put on the expansion bus. I tried to look it up but couldn't find any examples. Perhaps it was some real DIY stuff, exclusive to Poland?

[CatPix]

DIY yes, exclusive to Poland... well that one you think about, maybe, but this existed all over Europe too, where floppies were never popular for 8 bits machines.

Software-wise, the CPC could handle a "standard" transmission rate that was already high, and a "double" one, that was indeed double the speed (but was more prone to reading issues, especially with copied tapes).

Magazines of the era were amused that the CPC "double speed" was actually 3 time faster than the C64 FLOPPY (standard floppy, not the later, improved model)

THinking about it, that C64 slowness to load floppies might have been a contributing factor to the non-adoption of floppies in Europe, as the two other main competitors were the ZX Spectrm, that never had floppies as standard, and the Amstrad CPC, which used the 3" floppies.

And it's noteworthy that the CPC is certainly one of the 8 bits computer in Europe where floppies were the most used. 3" were cheaper than 5" 1/4 floppies. (and Amstrad choose the 3" format the same year that Sony released the 3"1/2 format, so it's easy to blame them, for not choosing a more expensive and unproved format)

[Oldschool80skid]

My original NES, SNES, N64, SMS, & PS1 all still work perfectly.

 

Confession: The NES was given the Blinking Light Wins upgrade and I've always pampered my consoles.

 

All purchased new at retail during their prime market years.

 

P.S. Old tech lasts longer.

Edited July 19, 2018 by Oldschool80skid

[Omega-TI]

TI-99/4A

 

1) In over 30 years has never needed an "UPDATE" to keep operating.

2) No need for virus, malware or ad blocking software.

3) While unintentional, it's design eliminates the need for any retro-brite hassle.

4) Boots up instantly.

[80s_Atari_Guy]

I like my TI. But the metal occasionally oxidizes over the years, and that is harder to clean up than yellowed plastic. And they're real pigs to take apart, then get back together. When I put mine back together, after a good clean, 2 of those metal lugs holding the metal cover to the plastic, popped out - raising up a part of the metal cover.