Retro gaming (1 Viewer)

[LeoA]

I wish they'd hurry up and announce the DLC add-on arcade games that they teased back in spring for Arcade Stadium.

 

[Ruz-El]

I wish they'd hurry up and announce the DLC add-on arcade games that they teased back in spring for Arcade Stadium.

Ah, I had no idea they already announced add-ons! I'm down. I wish more of the retro arcade releases were all in one hub like this. I'm looking at you Namco and Arcade Archives.

 

[LeoA]

Especially with the lack of folders on Switch, an Arcade Archives hub would be a nice thing to have.

 

[Steve Y]

Not accounting for sale prices, it would cost over $1400 to buy all of the Arcade Archives titles. Even though most of these are done well, that seems a bit high to me. Some of them aren't even feature complete (Kid Niki on Arcade Archives and Trojan on Arcade Stadium are both missing their North American versions).

I hope they're still planning to add more games to Arcade Stadium. The plans were so vague when they were mentioned earlier this year.

 

[LeoA]

I sadly think Capcom slipped up with their trademark renewals for Trojan and another classic, Mercs. Only explanation I can think of for why these lacked their North American versions on Capcom Arcade Stadium after having no issues in previous years (Trojan as recently as the excellent Capcom Arcade Cabinet release from the 360 era, which incidentally is still available, has quite a few games not included in Stadium, and is backwards compatible on Xbox One and Series X/S).

Has happened before with other classic arcade games. Taito's legal department for instance screwed up with Jungle Hunt and didn't renew in time (If one ever wonders why only the obscure spiritual follow-up Pirate Pete is on Arcade Archives and the Egret II Mini, that's why). Coleco Holdings proceeded to claim jump it and several other classic arcade trademarks that the owners had been lax in renewing in a timely manner (Bump 'n' Jump and Zaxxon are two other examples I can recall), enabling them to license out the Colecovision ports without paying a license fee to the copyright holders of the arcade originals.

The one bright spot with the expense of Arcade Archives is that you're probably able to cut down the list significantly when putting together a wish list. With such a wide breadth of games available, it means that there's likely quite a few that a classic arcade fan can consider non-essential or redundant. For instance, I'm only interested enough to buy about half the Arcade Archives range and about a dozen or so of the Neo Geo downloads (Not being a fighting game fan sure saved me a lot of money with the latter).

 

[Bryan^H]

I feel good about my decision to skip the Analogue Pocket. As much as I admire the design, and would like to own one, the pre orders are insane. Basically they sold out almost instantly when it went live. so if I ordered one I'd be charged $220 instantly, and have it shipped first quarter 2023.

Anyway, I fear that being as hot as it is the used game prices of CIB Gameboy are going to rocket past the insane prices they currently are. Which is a shame. I knew I should have been collecting them years ago when literally no one one cared, and they were dirt cheap. Now even the most common popular titles rival rare Saturn games in price. Like $300-$700 expensive. Same games that would have cost just $30 a few years ago.

Someday I'll learn.

 

[Steve Y]

I feel good about my decision to skip the Analogue Pocket. As much as I admire the design, and would like to own one, the pre orders are insane. Basically they sold out almost instantly when it went live. so if I ordered one I'd be charged $220 instantly, and have it shipped first quarter 2023.

I love what the Analogue Pocket has achieved (the faithful presentation and screen modes especially) but I don't have any cartridges for these early platforms and am not interested in building up a cartridge library again. So at the moment I have no reason to shell out a few hundred bones just to wait over a year for delivery.

 

[LeoA]

I did what I wasn't going to do and ordered one, but only went for the Pocket itself. My debit card was rejected when preorders opened and by the time I got around to calling the bank, several hours had gone by (Analogue is Hong Kong based and apparently that was a red flag for my bank).

With well over $200 being tied up into possibly 2023 (Although I don't think it said "Group C: 2023" when I ordered like the store page now says), I decided to hold off on the dock for now. Shipping is crazy and it will cost more in the long run to get that separately, but almost $400 being tied up for possibly two years was a bit too unpalatable.

Hopefully though I'll be in Group B (Late next year), which isn't too distasteful for me.

 

[Steve Y]

With well over $200 being tied up into possibly 2023 (Although I don't think it said "Group C: 2023" when I ordered like the store page now says), I decided to hold off on the dock for now. Shipping is crazy and it will cost more in the long run to get that separately, but almost $400 being tied up for possibly two years was a bit too unpalatable.

I have a pre-order in for the Steam Deck. Although I'm in the third shipping group, it would still arrive a year before the Analogue Pocket. I'm curious to see what kinds of retro gaming options will be available on it (I'm guessing there will be a lot).

 

[Bryan^H]

I did what I wasn't going to do and ordered one, but only went for the Pocket itself. My debit card was rejected when preorders opened and by the time I got around to calling the bank, several hours had gone by (Analogue is Hong Kong based and apparently that was a red flag for my bank).

With well over $200 being tied up into possibly 2023 (Although I don't think it said "Group C: 2023" when I ordered like the store page now says), I decided to hold off on the dock for now. Shipping is crazy and it will cost more in the long run to get that separately, but almost $400 being tied up for possibly two years was a bit too unpalatable.

Hopefully though I'll be in Group B (Late next year), which isn't too distasteful for me.

Nice goin Leo.

I want one badly but just can't justify the wait of well over a year. I'm not sure how Analogue even operates anymore. I mean I thought this was supposed to be offered on their site like the Super NT, or Mega SG. I thought I heard these are not "limited".
These pre order waves are just plain frustrating to me. They sell out, then another batch is slated For a later date. Is this going to continue until the reach "group Z" in 2029

I like my idea better. It is offered on the website for sale, I put it in my cart, checkout, and receive it a week later. I can live with that.

 

[LeoA]

As expected, I'm in group B (4th quarter of 2022).

 

[Bryan^H]

As expected, I'm in group B (4th quarter of 2022).

Not too bad.

I see the actual in hand E-Bay listings are selling for $500-$700. I actually think about doing it. Is the inconvenient price better than the inconvenient wait? Will have search my soul for such a decision.

 

[Bryan^H]

I have to say a dedicated video game room has been a logistical nightmare. How to keep all game systems hooked up was the easy part, planning for space of storage, and games ready to go is much, much more difficult. At one point I was just ready to say screw it and go full emulation, accepting lag time as a sacrifice. I still have a long way to go as I have a massive PS2 library, and that is probably my most "go to" system in the room.
Sad thing is I had to make some deep cuts.

I love my XBOX 360 collection, but there is just no space, so everything in the room is SD--no HD systems whatsoever (PS3, and 360 will be hooked up in my bedroom, along with current gen systems). The Sega Master System is my favorite pre 90's system, and the one I have the most nostalgia for as it was the first console ever owned. And I love most every game I own for it. The powered speakers for all my islands of consoles have been great and impressed me the most (especially N64).

This is my room now at about 70% completion. Yet to be done cord/cable management (small black zip ties) filling my shelves, and S-Video mods for the Master System, and NES (possibly Genesis), and a do over with the poster frames with non-glare glass, and maybe repositioning. So many things done wrong.

S-Video : 3DO, Playstation, Super Nintendo, N64, Saturn, Xbox, PS2, Gamecube, Dreamcast,

Composite (for now) Sega Master System, NES, Sega Genesis/CD

 

[LeoA]

Other than the lack of systems from Sunnyvale, amazing setup.

I'd be tempted by some of these mini arcade cabinets of recent years if I had the space for a dedicated game room. Especially the Arcade 1-Up Outrun cabinet.

No RGB or component capabilities on the display that you have your SMS and Genesis connected to? If it did, while pricey, HD Retrovision cables would still be cheaper I assume than getting them modded for S-Video would be. Even cheaper would be RGB.

 

[Bryan^H]

Other than the lack of systems from Sunnyvale, amazing setup.

I'd be tempted by some of these mini arcade cabinets of recent years if I had the space for a dedicated game room. Especially the Arcade 1-Up Outrun cabinet.

No RGB or component capabilities on the display that you have your SMS and Genesis connected to? If it did, while pricey, HD Retrovision cables would still be cheaper I assume than getting them modded for S-Video would be. Even cheaper would be RGB.

Thanks Leo,
If my game room was twice the size, all issues would have disappeared. I don't plan on living in my current house for more than 5 years so next home will have to have a (big) room with this in mind.

RGB, and component are fantastic, but honestly it all boils down to S-Video to me. All my monitors have S-video as the highest source available. Which is fine, I like the look of it best for what I have (the sharpness really looks amazing on my monitors) and while it might not be as good as RGB on a PVM, I'm really happy with it. Component while making the color really pop never impressed me as much as S-Video overall.

I wanted a mini cabinet and almost caved twice (Outrun) but there is no way it would work in my small room. I guess the elephant in the room is why not just have one stand and monitor with all systems connected to it? That may happen yet. My multiple CRT are purposeful for the reason that they are getting harder, and harder to find, believe me. In the past four years I have seen new old stock plentiful, to being nearly impossible to find now. Well worn/used monitors going for double even triple the price. They are very scarce. The less I see them offered the quicker my decision to buy them. but I'm maxed out for good, and will buy no more. As long as I'm playing old school games, I want to play them on CRT.

I'll post more pictures when I am fully done hopefully by next month.

 

[LeoA]

S-Video really is the sweet spot. Moving up from composite to S-Video stunned me for several classic systems. But the jump to component was much more modest.

 

[Bryan^H]

And oh yeah, no way I'd forget Atari. My 7800 is in its box stored for now. I'll find a way to get it hooked up, or use it on rotation with another system. Just started digging into titles on E-Bay, and most are very reasonable (lots are easy, and cheap mostly). I'm really excited to collect 2600 games for it too, I think it plays them all?

I am going to start posting a lot more impressions, and reviews of classic games I'm playing on this thread.

 

[jcroy]

Any colecovision or intellivision?

 

[LeoA]

Some revisions of the 7800 have some slight compatibility issues, but in general it's 99.9% compatible. My two have always run every cart I've thrown at them, including sometimes problematic stuff like Pitfall 2 and Robot Tank.

I also recall hearing that the Supercharger doesn't work on some or maybe all 7800's, but I never owned one of those (The Supercharger tapes though all play fine via my Cuttle Cart II multicart on my 7800's).

Incidentally, the 7800 was the first console I ever had modded for higher quality video output back about 2005 or so. It's now able to output both composite and S-Video (Stock 7800's can only do RF through a TV/Game switchbox or a coaxial F-Type adapter).

 

[jcroy]

Some revisions of the 7800 have some slight compatibility issues, but in general it's 99.9% compatible. My two have always run every cart I've thrown at them, including sometimes problematic stuff like Pitfall 2 and Robot Tank.

Why exactly would these two cartridges be problematic on some other systems? Is it related to "bank switching" ?