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 Post subject: Re: Do any of you guys collect video games?
PostPosted: 10 Aug 2021, 17:15 
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Got a RetroTink 5X! No more worrying about sync drops during resolution changes!

Right now I'm using it to connect my PS2 to a CRT monitor (only CRT screen I have; don't have space for a TV. Using a simple HDMI-to-VGA dongle in between). Deinterlacing looks good, and importantly the RT5X's 480p output handles oddball horizontal resolutions from 240p/480i input better than the OSSC does: every column appears the same width in FF7's menus for example. (EDIT: I first wrote here that the RT5X outputs more horizontal resolution than a flat 720 columns in 480p output mode, hence it wouldn't divide weirdly with oddball horizontal resolutions, but now I can't find where I thought I read that, so I'll just stick to what I've observed myself.)

With scanline mode turned on ("integer 100%" mode specifically, simple blanking of every other line) I'm getting what I imagine is a PVM-like look for 240p games. Been trying composite, s-video, and RGB with different games to see which ones benefit more from a clearer picture vs. blurring of their dithering and other inherent visual kludginess. For PS1 games I may end up sticking with composite on this monitor for most of the time, which is not what I expected I'd be saying a few years ago!

Anyway, I've been doing a lot of fiddling for what's supposed to be a plug-n-play, fiddle-free device, but I'm an incurable fiddler, and I will say that the device does offer some decent options to fiddlers without compromising the fiddle-free experience.
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 Post subject: Re: Do any of you guys collect video games?
PostPosted: 27 Nov 2021, 04:26 
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Speaking of watches, if you're buying one, don't buy Timex. They are really lousy "quality". Yes, they invented Indiglo technology. Yes, they have some nice looking watches. But, the battery in a Timex frequently outlasts the mechanism/components of their watches, which is simply due to sorry build quality. Timex doesn't even care about this issue, as it has been a issue with their watches going all the way back into the 1990's.

If you want a inexpensive analog watch, buy a Casio or a Fossil, or literally any brand other than Timex.

There's a expose documentary on Heritage Auctions & WATA. Quite the sophisticated money laundering scheme going on with that organization. Sure, some games, sealed & graded, do legitimately go for absurd sums of money, but they also actively engaged in artificially inflating the prices on quite a lot of those record setting auctions by means of using a NFT Hedgefund owned by Heritage Auctions. As a video game collector I found it to be wholly sickening. Anyone keen to watch the documentary may do so here, it's a real eye opener.:
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 Post subject: Re: Do any of you guys collect video games?
PostPosted: 27 Nov 2021, 07:57 
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I would imagine quite a few people who buy or even play older games at all are already familiar with this. I distinctly remember my mother showing me an article in the newspaper a while back talking about Super Mario 64 being sold for a million dollars or something and I knew immediately something was wrong.
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 Post subject: Re: Do any of you guys collect video games?
PostPosted: 27 Nov 2021, 14:09 
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tweeg wrote:
Speaking of watches, if you're buying one, don't buy Timex. They are really lousy "quality". Yes, they invented Indiglo technology. Yes, they have some nice looking watches. But, the battery in a Timex frequently outlasts the mechanism/components of their watches, which is simply due to sorry build quality. Timex doesn't even care about this issue, as it has been a issue with their watches going all the way back into the 1990's.

If you want a inexpensive analog watch, buy a Casio or a Fossil, or literally any brand other than Timex.

There's a expose documentary on Heritage Auctions & WATA. Quite the sophisticated money laundering scheme going on with that organization. Sure, some games, sealed & graded, do legitimately go for absurd sums of money, but they also actively engaged in artificially inflating the prices on quite a lot of those record setting auctions by means of using a NFT Hedgefund owned by Heritage Auctions. As a video game collector I found it to be wholly sickening. Anyone keen to watch the documentary may do so here, it's a real eye opener.:


OK, so I guess this Weekender I’ve been wearing daily for 15 years should just go in the trash then? The one that loses a minute a year and it’s on its third band? The one that’s so cheap I give them out as XMas gifts and every time I see those people they mention how good the watch is?

Nah.

What do I do with my two broken Seikos?
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 Post subject: Re: Do any of you guys collect video games?
PostPosted: 27 Nov 2021, 15:36 
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rcarlson wrote:
Got a RetroTink 5X! No more worrying about sync drops during resolution changes!

Right now I'm using it to connect my PS2 to a CRT monitor (only CRT screen I have; don't have space for a TV. Using a simple HDMI-to-VGA dongle in between). Deinterlacing looks good, and importantly the RT5X's 480p output handles oddball horizontal resolutions from 240p/480i input better than the OSSC does: every column appears the same width in FF7's menus for example. (EDIT: I first wrote here that the RT5X outputs more horizontal resolution than a flat 720 columns in 480p output mode, hence it wouldn't divide weirdly with oddball horizontal resolutions, but now I can't find where I thought I read that, so I'll just stick to what I've observed myself.)

With scanline mode turned on ("integer 100%" mode specifically, simple blanking of every other line) I'm getting what I imagine is a PVM-like look for 240p games. Been trying composite, s-video, and RGB with different games to see which ones benefit more from a clearer picture vs. blurring of their dithering and other inherent visual kludginess. For PS1 games I may end up sticking with composite on this monitor for most of the time, which is not what I expected I'd be saying a few years ago!

Anyway, I've been doing a lot of fiddling for what's supposed to be a plug-n-play, fiddle-free device, but I'm an incurable fiddler, and I will say that the device does offer some decent options to fiddlers without compromising the fiddle-free experience.


The X5 is new to me. It seems to have been created almost exclusively for PlayStation 1 and 2 since those are the only systems I can imagine wanting to de-interlace and then line double and then put fake scan lines in. It’s way more expensive than other products they make. I guess I’m glad I don’t like PlayStation very much.
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 Post subject: Re: Do any of you guys collect video games?
PostPosted: 27 Nov 2021, 18:40 
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It's a good device but I ended up selling mine (at cost, off eBay) to someone that missed the first wave. I already have too many devices, it would have needed to completely blow me away to keep it and it did not.
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 Post subject: Re: Do any of you guys collect video games?
PostPosted: 27 Nov 2021, 19:12 
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From the hype sheet it does seem like it could be the leader when it comes to making fake low res or shimmering jaggy junk look better than it did in the year 2000 but improvements seem marginal to nothing on…the good systems. :) That was a dig, obviously. I meant that Neo/PCE/MD/SFC won’t gain much if anything compared to other devices and obviously stuff newer than PS2 doesn’t need it.

What about Saturn and XB?
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 Post subject: Re: Do any of you guys collect video games?
PostPosted: 27 Nov 2021, 19:35 
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In my book there weren't any real improvements to most systems. I quit reading the thread on shmups but I remember there were issues with Neo originally. SNES too I think but SNES is notoriously tricky. I was happy with what I saw when I tried some Saturn but to me the Saturn looks great in general. I am a CRT user first and foremost though. My NES, Famicom and PCE just stay hooked up to my PVM. Everything else from SFC up to the Wii is on the HD CRT next to it.

I have some DVDO devices that are always hooked up and used basically daily but that is almost exclusively for film content. One of the most useful of these devices that I have is the XRGB3, things look great with it just line doubling and outputting to computer CRT monitors.

Also, the only improvement it has for PS2 over the Framemeister is that it is at least sometimes available for msrp. I guess that's really the selling point for most of these new devices. You can buy them without having to deal with p2p sales.
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 Post subject: Re: Do any of you guys collect video games?
PostPosted: 27 Nov 2021, 19:42 
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Most Saturn games run in 240p but there are some oddballs that utilize higher resolutions. Virtua Fighter 2 is probably the most famous example which renders at a native 704x480i while still maintaining a steady frame rate of 60 fields per second. It's one of the most impressive technical achievement from the entire fifth generation of consoles despite compromises in shading. You often see menus in 480i as well, and some games let you choose resolution for the main game. Stellar Assault SS comes to mind.

The main issue with the Saturn for me is that the low pass filter is disabled when the graphics are rendered in 320x240p. This is the case for most, if not all, revisions but as there are seventeen in total I cannot possibly try them all. When used with the XRGB-Mini or OSSC for instance, you'll get jailbars. The low-pass filter on the OSSC cleans it up pretty much perfectly but with the XRGB-Mini I was out of luck. Nearly all CRTs I've used have not had any issues with this with the only real exception being the Sony BVM-D24E1WE as it shows some strange wavy, static pattern which is very visible in greys whenever there's scrolling. Strangely I've never been able to replicate this on any other BVM (20F1s, D20, A20, A24 and A32) or other professional monitor from Sony, Ikegami, JVC, Panasonic etc as well as just about every consumer set I've stumbled upon. I've tried at least a handful of cables with both composite video for sync, sync on luma and Csync but nothing really helps. There's a thread about this issue on the Shmups forums. The HD Retrovision YPbPr cable supposedly fixes the issue entirely, so that can be a solution too.

I'm playing all of my retro games on a BVM-A24, but would honestly considering going for a scaler as an option at least if there'll ever be one with support for 2160p output. This allows the video processor to take care of all the scaling and not relying anything at all on the internal signal handeling of the TV or monitor. It is a perfect 9X match for 240p.

Haven't bought any physical game in quite a while but I did purchase a Mega Everdrive Pro and a Super SD System 3. Being able to play games for the Mega CD on the Mega Drive as well as CD-ROM² on the PC-Engine without any add-ons is really neat, and works practically flawless as far as I can tell. The Mega CD have a very special place in my heart. Sonic CD, Snatcher, The Terminator, Final Fight CD etc are all games I really enjoyed when I was a kid and they hold up just as well today.
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 Post subject: Re: Do any of you guys collect video games?
PostPosted: 27 Nov 2021, 19:53 
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signofzeta wrote:
de-interlace and then line double and then put fake scan lines in

In case there was a misunderstanding, that's not what I'm doing. I'm just deinterlacing 480i content (no scanlines) and line-doubling 240p content.

Anyway, yeah, for most people it's not going to be a game-changer. It handles a lot of edge cases better than other devices on the market (mid-game resolution switches, better deinterlacing than "bob," even scanlines on non-integer vertical scales on digital displays, etc.) but unless there's something about whatever you're using at present that really gets under your skin, it's a steep price.

nissling wrote:
Haven't bought any physical game in quite a while but I did purchase a Mega Everdrive Pro and a Super SD System 3. Being able to play games for the Mega CD on the Mega Drive as well as CD-ROM² on the PC-Engine without any add-ons is really neat, and works practically flawless as far as I can tell.

Yeah, that's huge, especially because the Sega CD was such an ornery piece of equipment. I have a Mega SD cart and I'm quite happy with it.
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 Post subject: Re: Do any of you guys collect video games?
PostPosted: 27 Nov 2021, 22:05 
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Every Sega CD I've had (I keep exactly one) was not working when I got it. The model 2 is easy to perform maintenance on at least. I don't use it enough to justify that cart (is cool tho), I do really like my Mega SG.
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 Post subject: Re: Do any of you guys collect video games?
PostPosted: 28 Nov 2021, 09:30 
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I've got a Sega Mega CD model 1 that's barely been used but is still in desperate need of service. A shame since it's a really neat looking console.

Found some pics on my phone that highlights the issue I've seen on the Saturn. Game in question is Biohazard (Resident Evil) played on a japanese model 1. It almost looks like moire on the darkest shades on the wall, but most monitors are immune to it.

BVM-D24E1WE
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BVM-A32E1WM with BKM-68X
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 Post subject: Re: Do any of you guys collect video games?
PostPosted: 28 Nov 2021, 23:01 
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I don't collect, but do enjoy the retro side of things. I do emulation on my Shield TV, a PocketGo S30, and a DIY low-profile wall-mount arcade cabinet (work in progress, Sinden Light Gun is awaiting installation).

I also do XBox One, which is about to get handed down to the kids with a Series S on the way. The old Xbox One (which I paid $75 for on FBM about 4 years ago) is actually way more compelling now with Microsoft enabling Cloud Gaming on the consoles... you can stream 1080p60 as if it were being played on an XBox One X for a pretty big chunk of the GamePass catalog. I did some unscientific comparison on gigbatit fiber with Forza Horizon 5 and lag was nearly imperceptible, load times fast, and graphics were a step up from native XBox One of the same game. I occasionally saw resolution dip for a second or two, but the gameplay was unaltered. I'm really looking forward to them getting Cloud Gaming running on Andriod TV as well (currently the app will launch but crashes when you enter a game).
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 Post subject: Re: Do any of you guys collect video games?
PostPosted: 29 Nov 2021, 16:51 
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Just got my first new NES game since the mid-90s.

It's a CIB copy of NES Open.

I've wanted to expand my measly collection for a long time but because most of my childhood games are also CIB and I'd like my collection to be consistent, it's rather expensive so I've never gotten around to it until now, despite the fact I'd already decided I would only pick up a small handful of common titles that I also enjoyed back when I was a kid. Unfortunately, one of those games I enjoyed is very much not common.
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 Post subject: Re: Do any of you guys collect video games?
PostPosted: 20 Dec 2021, 22:38 
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I beat Final Fantasy 6 and started Final Fantasy 4.

On the collecting side I do have some stuff coming, likely not arriving until after Christmas.
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 Post subject: Re: Do any of you guys collect video games?
PostPosted: 21 Dec 2021, 03:27 
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Key with Sega CD back in the day was not to purchase a Sega CD expansion unit, but rather purchase the JVC X'Eye for about the same money instead. It's a Sega licensed all-in-one Genesis/CD combo console that also does Karaoke CDs, played games on mine near daily back in the day, up until it had competition for my gaming time with the N64.
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 Post subject: Re: Do any of you guys collect video games?
PostPosted: 04 Jan 2022, 20:37 
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Finished Final Fantasy 4. Really great game.
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 Post subject: Re: Do any of you guys collect video games?
PostPosted: 07 Jan 2022, 15:29 
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Had a package with Lufia 1, Chrono Trigger and Lunar SSSC (forwarding to a friend at a slight "loss" but used credit from trades) come in. There is now only one US SNES release that I can think of wanting, Brandish. Super Famicom is another story. Lots of great games that are still cheap if you just get the cart.

Been awhile since I played it properly and Chrono Trigger is very good visually to me. I'm not an expert on old systems and the best looking games on them but it really pops. FF6 was similarly good visually. Super Mario RPG looks amazing, too bad the game kinda sucks. Trials of Mana, Yoshi's Island and Contra 3 are some others that look real good. FF4 in contrast was pretty primitive but obviously an earlier release.
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 Post subject: Re: Do any of you guys collect video games?
PostPosted: 07 Jan 2022, 17:40 
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Yoshi’s Island is peak Super on every level. That and Super Punch Out which looks almost like a Neo game or something.

Chrono is one of those games that was so popular it will always have lovers and haters who jump the dumbdumb train. It’s absolutely top tier though, despite some extreme clunkiness like that very very crappy race sequence. From a game play perspective FFVI is way better but both are amazing.

Super Mario RPG entertained me back in the day but now all that crappy Rare CG just makes me sick to look at. It’s one step away from being Donkey Kong Country RPG.
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 Post subject: Re: Do any of you guys collect video games?
PostPosted: 07 Jan 2022, 20:53 
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gypsy wrote:
FF4 in contrast was pretty primitive but obviously an earlier release.

Playing Final Fantasy IV next to the original Final Fantasy III is interesting. Reportedly, FFIV began development as an NES game before they changed their minds a good way through and started over making it for the SNES; and when you look at the finished product next to its immediate predecessor this makes sense.

The class-change scene in FFIV really stuck with me. It's easy to undersell it if you just call it what it literally is ("a class change"), but it makes the redemption narrative hit home so perfectly. One of the great early examples of story informing gameplay and gameplay driving story.
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