Silverfleet

I know all about the Framemeister and what that magic box does, but I can't swing $400+ on something like that. I'm surprised someone hasn't come up with a cheaper solution aimed toward the classic gaming market. I was hoping better quality cables, or maybe native Component support from some of these consoles, would do the trick. I'll look into the SNES/N64 Component cables. One thing this TV does not have is S-Video input. I wish it did, but I've never seen a flat panel HDTV with one. Also, this doesn't have a VGA input. I do have a VGA adapter for the Dreamcast (and one for the 360 strangely). Maybe I can cobble together some sort of VGA-to-HDMI adapter for that.

I forgot to mention that these Composite A/V consoles are routed through a multi-switch. I've used it before, and it worked ok on the CRT.

Sorry, I mixed them up. Composite: yellow wire (this is the problem) Component: Red, Green, and Blue wires (these work great) I'll fix my post.

My apologies if this topic has been beaten to death. Recently, I made a big change in my little game room. I went from this: To this: We got a new living room TV, so I wanted to try out having the old one (a 2010 Panasonic Viera 42" 1080P Plasma) in there. Obviously, there are some good and bad things about HDTV's and retrogaming, like the loss of light gun functionality, but I really wanted to get something in there so the late 1990's-up stuff looked better and so I could see the damn text on my 360 games. It has a number of inputs: 3 HDMI, 2 Composite A/V, 2 Component A/V, and a coaxial, not to mention a digital out for sound. My CRT only had two Composite A/V inputs and a coaxial, so this is a big upgrade. PS2 and up look FANTASTIC on this thing when hooked up via Composite, and obviously, HDMI-connected stuff looks great. The problem is with Component A/V-connected consoles, AKA the yellow wire with the red and white stereo sound wires. The TV has a 480 mode and displays in the right aspect ratios (which are also fully adjustable and have a variety of filtering options), but anything connected via that yellow cable seems to get a slightly dirty, fuzzy signal. My Genesis is by far the worst; it looks like I'm playing it through an RF modulator in a thunderstorm. Aside from modding all of my classic consoles, is there a way to clean this up? Would a better quality cable with more shielding help? I don't get interference with any other form of input. It's annoying to the point where I might just play old games on my modded Wii or Retropie.

So, I made a controversial update to my tiny game room: the TV. I went from this setup: To this: That TV is a 42" Panasonic Viera 1080P plasma from 2010. It was my living room TV until a week ago, when we upgraded to a larger 55" 4K TV. It does have an issue: every once in a while, a green band will appear down the center of the screen. If I smack it, it goes away. I think it got too hot in the recent heat wave and something lifted off one of the boards, so I'l address it soon. Obviously, there are trade-offs with replacing my CRT with this behemoth. The Good: -Tons of inputs! Has 3 HDMI, 2 RGB Component, 2 Composite AV, and coaxial antenna -Can play PS2 era and up with RGB Component output and last-gen HD stuff through HDMI, so it looks great for that stuff -Virtually zero lag, even on older stuff, because 600hz plasma panel -I can actually see text on the screen now! HD gaming occurred on the tiny 20" on the wall before, and I couldn't see a damn thing. The Bad: -Early consoles look sorta weird on it, even in 480 mode. Scrolling especially looks strange. -No light gun compatibility -I still need to fix it I still have the 25" CRT for now, as well as a smaller 13" that I can bust out any time I want to play light gun games. So, here are a couple examples of how this thing looks with older consoles: I have the Official Xbox HD interface for the OG Xbox, and it makes it look GREAT on this TV. When I first bought the TV 8 years ago, I had the Xbox hooked up to it, and I forgot how great it looked. I played a few games real quick, and yeah, totally awesome. The NES was the only classic console in the lineup I had time to test with last night. It's hooked up via Composite A/V. The gray borders are annoying, and I don't think I can change the color (Y U NO BLACK???). The graphics look sort of weird, and the scrolling isn't quite as smooth as a CRT would be on the two games I played (Double Dragon and Ghosts and Goblins) but those games had jerky scrolling to begin with. That said, everything is still 100% playable, and there is zero lag due to the plasma panel. I will be hooking up a modded Wii and my Raspberry Pi to this soon. I know those look and play great on it, so if need be, I can get my classic gaming fix through those if the older consoles still look odd.

Size-wise, they are a little taller than a real marquee, but not quite as wide. Maybe 24"? They are not backlit. I was thinking of adding a LED in each one to light them up. They were $12.50 each on sale.

If we are strictly talking Atari "holy grails", then I have a few to share: Here's some 5200 stuff. The track ball was a $2 flea market rescue, and it needs some love. The ball is hard to move, so I need to pull it all apart for a good cleaning. It was literally sitting in a dirty pile of junk! The Wicos were a thrift find by my wife. She scored both, with the Y cables, and 10 games with instruction booklets, for $5!!! When she brought them home, my eyes bugged out of my damn head! And since everyone is posting their carry cases, I'll post mine too. Mine was a yard sale find about 10 years ago. I grabbed that with a couple boxes of other stuff, including two Tele-Games light sixer consoles and a pile of boxed (some sealed!) titles. Guy used to collect back in the early 80's but grew out of it, so he was happy to see it go to a good home. I keep my "daily driver" Tele-Games light sixer from that lot (I sold the other one and recouped all my money from the purchase) and I've slowly been filling it with Sears-branded games. Someday, I'd love to get a heavy and get all the launch titles to keep in there.

Wife wanted to go to Hobby Lobby, and as much as I loathe that place, they do have cool signs sometimes. Snagged some framed marquee-style "home decor" half off because they were on sale this week.

Went out to lunch with some friends on Saturday, and the place happened to be next to a used book store. My wife collects books, and I saw a tiny sign that they also sell VIDEO GAMES!!!!! so I was all in on checking it out. Here's my haul: PS1: Soviet Strike Lucky Luke (missing manual) PC: Star Trek: Dominion Wars Xbox: The Hobbit PS2: Super Trucks Racing PS3: LA Noire DVD: Street Fighter Star Wars Episode I (only disc 2, didn't notice until I got home) Super Mario Bros LP: Star Wars Original Motion Picture Soundtrack The jewel of the haul is the Star Wars LP. It appears to be an original pressing, and is a 2 LP set. The cover is slightly bent, but both LP's are minty. This usually goes for around $15-20 on average, and I paid $4!

I was testing out some recent purchases, and waddayaknow... I beat one. Altered Beast: Genesis Not a hard game by any means, but another one down.

Last week, I saw that Gamestop's website was having a sale on those Pixel Pal lights, which I think are pretty damn cool. I already have Link, so I snagged a few more for the Retro Room (Ken from SFII, SMB3 Mario, and Mega Man). While I was on the site, I decided to check out their "retro" selection, and was surprised that not only were the prices better than what I see locally, but they also had a coupon code for 16% off. I ordered up F-Zero on the SNES, Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour on the GC, and Altered Beast on the Genesis to fill some holes in the collection. I've heard that it's a crapshoot ordering old games from them, but it was under $30 total for everything including the Pixel Pals, so I went for it. F-Zero is an original release (not the Player's Choice one), Mario Golf is resurfaced and has a crack repair on the center of the disc (this may go back), but the real surprise is that Altered Beast. It doesn't have instructions, but as you can see, it does have the box! Around here, a boxed, no instructions copy goes for $15-20, and this one was $4. Score!

Finally snagged this on the Switch last night. Didn't have much time to play, but it really feels like a "Castlevania 3.5" with the multiple routes and switchable characters. I love it so far. If this game is any indication of how good Ritual of the Night is going to be, it's going to rule!

Golf Story is on sale right now, and I snagged it last night after hearing a lot of great things about it. I don't like golf in real life, but I love playing golf video games! I played it for a couple hours last night and I see what all the hype was about. It's a great game! Also, I've been slogging through Cave Story+ and have been playing through Saturday Morning RPG. I love the Switch so far!

I've been to about half of those! Thanks for posting this. I can do quick and dirty reviews of some of them if anyone's interested.

I definitely know that store! I went there last year and picked up a couple SMS games for decent prices. I asked if he had any pre-NES stuff, and he told me he tries not to because it doesn't sell. Then, he tried selling me a CIB Colecovision he had taken on trade for $250, untested, with no games. In this guy's case, I don't think he's that knowledgeable with the pre-crash stuff. I've actually run into this scenario with a few other newer local stores. He's younger, and his nostalgia is placed in the mid-late 1990's. Another factor here is that around here, the stuff just doesn't sell. If he can't sell it, why take up shelf space? Most people that are new to collecting and looking to pick up games are like that store owner; they are younger, and are going to pass right over pre-crash stuff and go for NES, Genesis, SNES, etc. 9 times out of 10. There's another store I hit up every once in a while that's had the same shelf of 2600 titles for the past 10 years. When I picked through it a few months ago, everything was dusty and they didn't even remember how to price it! They said they hadn't sold a pre-NES game in months. Another store I hit up more often has both a retail store and a flea market booth. They bring all the pre-crash games to the flea market and put them in milk crates for a couple bucks a piece. I find more pre-crash stuff in antique malls and flea markets than anywhere else these days. Most independent game stores won't touch it.

Twin Famicom! I've always wanted one of those. Nice!

Ok, so I have an uncanny knack for remembering where I got my games as a kid, down to the store they came from in most cases. This should be interesting. Colecovision: This was technically my older sister's, but I ended up "inheriting" it when she moved on from playing games. I was probably about 4 or 5 when I took it over. She got it for Xmas of 1982, but I have no clue where and when the games came from. We had the following: -Donkey Kong -Donkey Kong Jr -Smurfs -Venture -Space Panic -Space Fury -Ladybug -Mouse Trap -Cosmic Avenger -Carnival -Popeye -Pitfall -River Raid -Oil's Well Nintendo Entertainment System: I got this for Xmas in 1987, and it was the Deluxe Set with R.O.B. which I still have. I will try and list the games from back then that I still have (unless otherwise noted), and where I got them. -Duck Hunt: pack-in -Gyromite: pack-in -Super Mario Bros: Xmas gift from aunt and uncle -Ghosts & Goblins: birthday gift from mom's friend -Tiger-Heli: Service Merchandise, first game I ever bought myself -Bad Dudes: BJ's Wholesale Club -Zelda II: Child World -Double Dragon II: Child World -Castlevania II: Child World -Ninja Gaiden: Child World, lost the original and had to re-purchase later -Super C: Child World -Conquest of the Crystal Palace: Child World -Solstice: Caldor -TMNT: birthday present from parents -Ducktales: gift from cousins -Karate Champ: gift from cousins -Ikari Warriors: gift from cousins -Ice Hockey: gift from cousins -Zelda: Saturday Matinee -Astyanax: Saturday Matinee -Wrath of the Black Manta: Saturday Matinee -Ninja Gaiden II: gift from friend who had two copies of it -Rescue: The Embassy Mission: gift from friend -Super Mario Bros. 3: birthday present from sister's ex-boyfriend -Mega Man 3: gift from friend -Totally Rad: rental store that went out of business before I could return it (yes, this happened!) -Rad Racer: Xmas gift from grandmother Then, I discovered $10 used games at a local flea market. It was like hitting the jackpot! I was getting games there every weekend for months! -Mike Tyson's Punch Out: flea market, lost when a friend borrowed it and never returned it -Jackal: flea market -Contra: flea market -Castlevania: flea market -Blaster Master: flea market -Commando: flea market -Adventure Island: flea market -Top Gun: flea market -Life Force: flea market -NARC: flea market -Super Mario Bros 2: flea market -The Adventures of Bayou Billy: flea market -Gauntlet: flea market -Dragon Warrior: flea market -Dr. Mario: flea market -Wizards & Warriors: flea market -After Burner: flea market, lost -StarTropics: flea market I also was smart enough back then to snag games and consoles from friends that were "outgrowing" their NES stuff when new consoles were coming out: -Tecmo Bowl: friend -TMNT II: friend -Burgertime: friend -Galaga: friend -Captain Skyhawk: Friend -RC Pro Am: friend -Battletoads: friend -Base Wars: friend -The Black Bass: friend -Wall Street Kid: friend -Hogan's Alley: friend I think that's it for the NES. As you can tell, I was NES obsessed. Game Boy: This one I got either for Xmas in 1989 or 1990, I can't remember honestly. I bought A LOT of games at local electronics chain Lechmere, which was AWESOME back in the day, so many came from there. -Tetris: pack-in -Super Mario Land: same flea market those NES games came from -Super RC Pro Am, F1 Race, sweet Game Boy Fanny Pack (!!!) and multiplayer adapter: Came as a special bundle from Lechmere -Kid Icarus: Lechmere -Gargoyle's Quest: friend -Metroid II: Lechmere, lost on a high school trip -Operation C: Lechmere, lost on a high school trip -Zelda: Link's Awakening: Lechmere -Samurai Showdown: Software ETC -Star Trek: 25th Anniversary: Lechmere -Castlevania Adventure: (where else?) Lechmere Genesis: I got it for my birthday around 1993, I believe. My birthday is in January, and I got it right after Sonic 2 came out, so that makes sense. The console itself was a "Core" system, and a Model 1 High Definition, and it's still my main player! -Sonic 2: birthday present -Sonic The Hedgehog: bought from neighbor for $5 at his yard sale -Revenge of Shinobi: bought from random used game stand in a local mall -Golden Axe: Saturday Matinee -Gaiares: Saturday Matinee -Fighting Masters: Saturday Matinee -Cyborg Justice: Lechmere -Heavy Nova: Lechmere (came bundled with a terrible "Doc's" 3-button turbo controller that was all but useless) -Streets of Rage 2: Lechmere -Eternal Champions: Lechmere -Phantasy Star IV: Circuit City Express ($19.99 marked down from $99.99!!!) -NBA Showdown '94: first game I ever pre-ordered, from Software ETC -Bubsy: Lechmere I discovered soon after getting the Genesis that KB Toys had an EXCELLENT bargain bin with great games at $19.99 each. I spent a lot of my paper route money there! -Chiki Chiki Boys: KB Toys -Super Street Fighter II: KB Toys -World Heroes: KB Toys -Contra Hard Corps: KB Toys -Rocket Knight Adventures: KB Toys -Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition: KB Toys -Gunstar Heroes: KB Toys -Zombies Ate My Neighbors: KB Toys SNES: I was a late arrival on the SNES scene; I got mine the day after Xmas in 1995. Funny story: I was old enough that my parents just asked me what I wanted that year and I told them SNES and I would cover the cost of games (I had a paper route). My parents bought me the SNES, and I found it by snooping around the house. It was a weird "sports" bundle I have never seen again, and included Stanley Cup Hockey and NCAA Basketball. Well, it was supposed to. I saw that the box was open and it was missing a game! So, I acted "surprised" that I got it for Xmas, and even more "surprised" when the game was missing. So, we took it back to the store the day after Xmas and returned it. They didn't have any more SNES's in stock, so we went to KB Toys, where I had been buying lost of my Genesis stuff lately. I got a "Control Deck" and a few games of my choosing, so it worked out in the end. I didn't have a lot of games for it, and I still don't, but I love the console! -Super Mario World: KB Toys -Samurai Showdown: KB Toys -Super Castlevania IV: KB Toys -Super Ghouls and Ghosts: KB Toys -Super Mario Kart: gift from cousin -Final Fight: birthday gift from my sister, used at Software ETC ( I picked it out!) -UN Squadron: Software ETC And I'll cut it off there, because after that it was the 32-bit stuff. And no, I didn't have an Atari back then; I got mine later around 2002 when I was in college from a co-worker. I probably missed a few games here and there, but that's what I can remember.

If you are a fan of all things Sega, then yes! I picked up a Sega CD semi-recently, and I love it. There aren't a ton of top-shelf games for it, but what's there is really great. Better yet, you can burn games and play them with no mods to the console. I'm all for collecting the originals and all that, but I'm not paying $600+ for a single game just to try it. If you are going to emulate, you might as well try it on original hardware! I'm still on the hunt for a 32X. From what I've played on it, it's basically a slightly more powerful Genesis, and it has a few games I would love to have in the collection.

My wife needed to go clothes shopping, and Gamestop strategically has a store right next to all of the stores she goes to, so yeah... They had a 4 for $20 sale going on for all games under $10, so I snagged these. In surprising fashion, all games were complete (well, at least the 3DS/360 ones were, the others don't usually have inserts)! I think Mad Max was an ex-Redbox game that someone traded in, but whatever. Project X Zone looks really fun, and usually goes for $15 by itself, so I'm calling this a win.

Man, you just reminded me of the long-gone bowling alley near my childhood home: the East Weymouth Bowl-A-Wey in Weymouth, MA. In the richest of New England traditions, it was a candlepin-only alley. It was a long, brick building, and someone spray painted "SOX '86 AL EAST CHAMPS" on the front in white spray paint, which they never bothered to clean off. The place was admittedly a dump (as most of them were), but they always had awesome arcade games! I played Roadblasters, Rastan, Final Fight, TMNT, and more for the first time there. Also, EVERYONE in my area had at least one birthday party there growing up. The "Party Room" was this sparse, rectangular room with a long, orange Formica table in the middle, and they always, and as far as I know, only, served cheese pizza. Everything in there was red, orange, and brown, and woodgrain. Today, it's a parking lot. There's zero photo evidence on the interwebs of it's existence. Hell, going even further back was another long-defunct bowling alley in Hull, MA that is now the site of a fancy hotel. It was even more of a dump, but it was the site of my discovery of arcade games. There, I played my first stand-up arcade game: Moon Patrol. I was small enough that I needed a step stool! That game remains a favorite to this day.

There are two things I can't recreate in 2018: Rental Stores When I was a kid, every Friday night after school, I would go with my dad to the local video rental store and rent a couple NES or Genesis games to play for the weekend. I had their rental rack practically memorized, and I'd spend all day thinking about what I was going to bring home to play. Some of my favorite games were discovered from renting them at this store! The store (and basically all other video rental stores) went the way of the dinosaur, but every time I drive by where that store was, I get hit with the feels. If you told me that I would be nostalgic for this when I was a kid, even with the availability of 5 rental stores' worth of games and emulators that will play entire console libraries at the click of a button, I would have laughed. But here we are. The All-Nighter Back in high school, a friend of mine let me borrow Chrono Trigger on the SNES. It was during the summer, and I had a few days off from work. I popped it in around 6pm with nothing to do one night, and what do you know... next time I looked at the clock, it was 6AM!!! I slept for a little while and then went back to playing. Within a few days, I had the game finished. It sounds lame, and I feel like a total loser for thinking this, but that marathon session with Chrono Trigger changed my gaming life. I hadn't played a JRPG quite like that before, and while others came and went, I'll always remember the 1st. It remains my favorite game of all time, and I've played through it countless times over the years. Why can't I replicate it? I'm now 36, married, and have responsibilities. I can't take 3 days off from work to marathon a game. Hell, my wife went away last weekend, and I TRIED to do this, and ended up just getting tired and just went to bed!

About a month back, I posted about finding an old Dell Inspiron 7000 laptop at work and getting it going. Remember that thing? Today, I was given another one from a friend who was going to donate it: this time it's a Circa 2000-ish Dell Inspiron 8000! The case is similar to the other one, but with these RAD palm rests and some extra buttons. DVD ROM!!! The drive moved to the side instead of the front. Still has a 3.5" floppy drive, too. This one has an ethernet port and a wireless card (guy left it at home but will bring it to me) so it has a chance of hitting the modern internets Lots of ports on the back, including not one but TWO USB PORTS!!! Spec-wise, it's a Pentium III running at nearly 900mhz and has 320mb of RAM. Not bad for a machine of this era. It's also running Windows XP, which is fine by me. The screen on this one is much better than the other one I have. Not sure what I'm going to do with it, or what I can do with it, but yeah!!!

I completely forgot they made those. Thanks Metal Jesus! Off to Amazon...

Yup, I'll be picking this one up very soon on the Switch. Looks AMAZING. It's funny; every game I have for the Switch, save for BotW and Super Mario Odyssey, is some sort of retro-style or retro-inspired game. Other than those games, I have Cave Story +, Saturday Morning RPG, and Blaster Master Zero for it. All of those are great games, BTW.

Thanks for reminding me how much I love my PSP.... and that the screen on said PSP is broken.