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Okay, but now we have a week old thread and just a handful of games mentioned so far. For somebody new to this subject it might create a false impression that they simply do not exist or that there were no worthwhile games on 8-bit micros in general (which is already an oft-encountered view amongst some who grew up with consoles only). So I'd say the rules need loosening a bit. There is no need to list every single exclusive, old or modern, just the notable ones.

I wouldn't say "most" of the homebrews get ported. Some, more like. I also don't see a reason why good ones should be excluded, if they are exclusive. A few I was really impressed by recently are: ZX Spectrum: Bonnie & Clyde, Wudang (the fact it's written in Basic is mindboggling), Patrick Paddle C64: Zeta Strike - new-, incredibly playable shoot'em up, Millie & Molly - fantastic puzzle game

I wasn't pitting it against the top dogs, or trying to convince anybody it should be their 1st retro system (definitely a bad idea). I was simply answering a very particular comment about only buying certain machines in certain regions (also a bad idea). PAL is not exclusive to UK. Modern displays can mostly handle it as well, no matter the region. The PSU difference can also be easily remedied. Of course, I wouldn't exactly recommend it to a a newbie, plz see above. You missed the "latter" in "Here in Europe the latter are very popular across the whole continent", in regard to ZX & CPC. I've never claimed MSX was very popular in Europe, merely stating it's possible to buy some add ons and have repairs done now. C'mon guys. Was there something anti-reading comprehension in the air yesterday?

This is not entirely true, same as the earlier statements that you should buy Spectrum or CPC "if you live in UK". Here in Europe the latter are very popular across the whole continent. You can even buy add-ons for MSXs too. Most countries have some trusted people who fix them as well, should anything go wrong. Not sure how it is in the USA, but I know many people buy A8 stuff from our sellers, so it's more of a question of delivery price.

Ok, but this is top 500. I would have thought Ultima 1/2 were killer apps for A8.

Nice, always willing to support new text adventures, especially one available on so many formats. Any reason why not on Spectrum 48K, or +2? Suppose it's because of the disk medium...no way to turn it into a tape or z80?

It probably could have, if the people behind it were as passionate as the Ouya people. As it is, it's just a few suits in a rented office, who live off retro-whoring - sorry, licensing - this venerable brand to literally anybody who throws them a dollar or two (shady blockchains or African casinos are most welcome). The idea for the box itself wasn't that bad. If you slashed that preposterous price and put it together in reasonable time, with a competent frontend and e-shop full of really attractive stuff, not just some old rope roms, perhaps it could get some traction and be a moderate success. But they were never interested in that, too much fuss and trouble, it's easier to just push out something - anything - out of the door. So now it's just a sad gadget for a few who still believe and a bunch of speculectors (it's a sad reality of the times we live in that even something that pointless will instantly surface on ebay with 2/3 times the price.)

Why wouldn't they actually get this far? They've collected a fairly big bag of $$$s as a preorder and are supposed to be a bunch of hotshot designers, industry professionals, etc, etc (their own description, of course, not mine :)) The product itself is just a bog-standard SOC board with a custom case, nothing really innovative or difficult to design. It's only a "major progress" because of all the slapstick ridiculousness which took place between the announcement and this point in time. I wouldn't say they deserve any kudos for basically doing what should have been done long time ago and without all the circus & hype that happened along the way. And that's regardless of what I think about this product in general (that it's an overpriced & pointless nostalgia cash-grab).

They are similar actually, it's just like I said - quick shot, so if you move the camera even an inch the results might vary, also these are from 2 different TVs with slightly different settings. It was just to show they are rather unlike that the heavily blue-tinted one you posted.

Atari 65XE -> S Video -> Sony Trinitron CRT PAL MiSTer Atari 800 core -> RGB -> Sony Trinitron CRT NTSC Please note this is just a quick phone job, capturing CRT colors and image in general is a nightmare, and I would have to spend some time with my proper cameras and probably post process to produce quality photo. The real colours are livelier/better in reality than in these pics, but not that much off. Anyway, it's just to demonstrate real hardware+CRT, no idea why in OPs case it's all off. I was using Getaway.atr from the Gamebase set.

I should've mentioned that I output to a CRT (Triniton) and I'm simply looking for the closest representation of what the original output has been like. And from your description, Dragonfire, it sounds like most of these palettes are trying to compensate/simulate stuff for modern displays, perhaps with exception of Composite Direct? Btw, this is for a project of mine, which requires stuff to look as close to the original as possible, not my personal gaming - I'm not that fussy about colours actually.

I have an old Gamecube pad I use with my Wii. The cap from the analog stick got worn our and lost somewhere. I had a McGyver moment and put a spare earphone mesh-cap on that stick. Fits perfectly and the pad is usable again.

I can't believe there's been 17 pages of this. You guys are being played like a violin. I must take my hat off to you, JaguarVision/LeeroyST/Bubsy3000/ColecoKing/ or whatever nickname you are currently using - it's an impressive job.

It may be so that "perfect" reproduction is impossible, but I've asked this question there because I am interested which palette is closest to the original. I don't have a real NES and no frame of reference.

I've heard that there is no "normal' NES palette due to how composite has worked in the old hardware and variable results it produced.

It's supposed to work well in S-video, but has some extra artifacts in composite. Source: a surreal argument I had about it with the board maker: https://misterfpga.org/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=1068

For the cable, you need to buy a dedicated one. Every major RPi seller should have them, they cost a few bucks. Zune cables also work but are more expensive. For the config, change the sdtv options: https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/config-txt/video.md

I guess it's time to stop foolin' myself and admit that I really just don't have time to play in a HSC anymore. I was looking forward to some more Defender and RI, at the least, but the deadline is looming and I haven't fired up MAME even once. *sadface*

For some reason I thought the idea was to list games exclusive to home computers, as opposed to consoles. Guess I was wrong though. In that case it's tricky, because there were so many ports. Few notable "pure" exclusives off top of my head: ZX Spectrum: Back to School, Chaos, Rebelstar, Stonkers, PSSST, Mugsy C64: Project Firestart CPC: Sorcery+

Quite a roundabout way of saying "buy C64!" As for the exclusive list it'd have hundreds of titles. And that's only the significant ones.

I haven't played it myself yet, heard otherwise though. It's nice that they have added these things and at least tried to spice things up (unlike in GTA V) but as these reviews say they are neither anything new (been in Skyrim for years) or going far enough. More of a lip service. It reminds me of original RDR where everything was so cheap that hunting or gambling was actually redundant and the fact you could just stock up on the Dead Eye elixirs made gunplay exceedingly easy and the whole game boring. Meanwhile, in Fallout 4 you can actually build entire settlements and utilise every little item around you, within the world which is actively changing, not static. And that game was released in 2015. And others are just happy with tweaking cutscene choices. This is the kind of stuff that I live for as a gamer. I've played TES/FO games for hundreds of hours but never completed more than 30% of their storylines. No need, because I was making my own ones. They release worlds you can live in, while others make games you play. This is not to say that the likes of TW3, RDR, GTA, and most likely the upcoming Cyberpunk are inherently bad games, it's just that I want more than their stale design templates. I usually play them also for about 30% of the storyline and then go back to TES or FO (with exception of GTA where occasional bout of a madcap survival is always fun) This is why when Howard talked about how there is no hardware yet which could handle what they want to do in TES 6, or how there is not even a vague release date, makes me really hopeful they actually have something groundbreaking cooking up again. Not just TES 5.5, some sort of updated Skyrim, but a step closer to a truly living-breathing world, that old pipe dream which everyone says is already in their game but only Bethsoft has been trying to realize. Alas, after the recent news...I can totally see how MS bosses step in, hurry them up and release that "Skyrim" 5.5 update.

Holy &%$. Words literally fail me at how disappointing this actually is. Un-frigging-believable. Bethsoft is actually the only studio I know which consistently pushed the envelope when it comes to real next gen worlds with open and emergent gameplay. Everyone else - and that includes the likes of CD Projekt Red and Rockstar - is just happy exploiting the old, tired templates. The only games I had hope of really bringing something new to the table on a really grand scale were TES 6 and (to lesser extent) Starfield. And as wongojack mentions, MS buying big studios really does not present a good pattern (Rare, anybody) Of course, this studio is also a popular whipping boy amongst modern gamers, and the sport of Beth-bashing a great pastime (the myth of "broken games" already making appearence ITT). So I expect a lot of joy amongst the low-hanging fruit picking posses. *millionfacepalms.gif*

Like amiman99 said, if you were about to actually find a unit in the condition you describe, it'd cost you an arm and leg. Even so there's absolutely no guarantee that something won't go wrong eventually, no matter what the seller did or says. But there is also no reason to worry it will happen. Buying CRT monitors delivered is a big risk. I wouldn't unless you can pick up yourself. Also, unless you have a big pile of floppies already, you will need a Gotek drive. You can also get an adapter like TOM, so you can use USB mouse and not rely on the old ones. Best bet really is to buy a basic unit from well-rated ebay seller and then get the other bits separately (unless you can find good deal with extras).

The idea of computers not being controlled by one brand and easily expendable using cheap components is not something anybody could defeat. That's why PCs have dominated the market and everyone esle faded away. It has nothing to do with herd mentality, and if it's a bandwagon then it's one I was very happy to jump on. Apple has only survived by because of the specific niche it occupies and its "boutique" airs.

Most text adventures are have puzzles. Solving them gets you closer to your target, which is "winning" or "completing" the game. Making a good map and guessing the vocab are also a part of the challenge. The fiction layer may be brief or verbose, but underlying mechanics are still the same.