English also not my first so I didnt notice anything until you say. There is so much accents in the world so yours not out of place. Congrats for video and hope you do some old console games or emulation content in the future. And you giving me hope I can do gaming content in english too
I second this. I have a collection of games but those were all from over the course of my life. I don't buy retro games. The prices are exorbitant. If I feel like playing something outside of my collection I'll use a something like that or an HDD or something else to load the games. I still use emulators most the time though. They give you a lot more control. You can sometimes get a better experience. Though the newer the system, the more issues I'll run into. But most the time emulation is just fine. I only really recommend original hardware for certain systems or to people who really want an authentic experience.
@@SkaterPoopyPantsWhile unfortunately that is the case for a lot of forgotten retro games (especially licensed games or from defunct companies), nowadays you actually CAN buy some ROMs legally. There are quite a few retro games you can buy on Steam and/or GOG, and a few other platforms (I remember SNK has games on their store? EGG is another option, if you're looking for japanese games). For example, SEGA offers emulated games on Steam. Now, from what I've heard, the emulator itself is kinda bad, but since emulators themselves are free (and legal), you can take the ROMs, and run them on a better emulator. You could count the mini-consoles as well, since you also can extract the ROMs from them (though some of them have become collectors items, so you'd have to make the call on that one). For games that are not available like this, you could look up the concept of "Abandonware" to form your own opinion on the matter, as well as cast your own judgement to determine if any game falls under that category. There's a lot for this topic, and a lot of it ends in grey areas without definitive answers. As a final note, the Internet Archive has games on their Arcade section, some of which have been donated/marked as public domain, and in general, is a good site to keep in mind.
Its worth mentioning that Duckstation also has the ability to overclock the PS1's CPU, meaning games that ran at terrible frame rates, will benefit greatly from the overclock, the most beneficial example of this is the NFS games on the PSone, specifically NFS III and High Stakes, if overclocked, the games will run at 60 FPS. Another benefit of overclocking the PS1 CPU is the ability of using 60 FPS patches for example, Gran Turismo 2 has 60 FPS patches that greatly enhance the experience.
Wait, what? 😮 I'm a big fan of NFSIII, I was actually playing it yesterday, I have to try that option, I've seen it but I didn't think would be good, and I think the Duckstation wiki is down. So yeah, thank you for your comment!!!
This is where I am as far as emulation goes. I sold most of my retro games & have primarily been using emulation to play everything from the Wii & back. Physical ownership is good for console preservation, but, to me, digital preservation in a public access archive is the way of the future 😎
I found the balance for me is to have a modern console, my pc, and a retro console. I have both current gen consoles, a pretty poor pc but it does emulate up to ps2, and a dreamcast to focus on. also, with 7th gen consoles, you can always get one and mod it, ps3 is easy I hear, 360 requires a mod chip and soldier. I have a Vita and 3ds that i modded myself and it was extremely easy.
PS3 by far is the easiest to mod just by installing CFW for the Fat model and Slim model, Hen for any system using a HFW image. You can dump games using a fat32 storage device in Multiman but you can also switch to CFW mode there and then toggle Fat32 to NTFS to copy games from larger drives, this makes it easier to copy all your games instead of having to use different methods for different size roms. Originally you had to decrypt PS3 iso file yourself but it's now possible to download them as decrypted iso.
With RGH3, there is no longer more than 2 permanent wires to solder for the Xbox 360, and no rare/expensive modchip needed any longer. All you need is a Raspberry Pi Pico and some wires and a resistor to mod an Xbox 360 in 2023.
For me it's the other way around. I used to emulate everything, have a massive library of retro games but not REALLY playing anything. Since I moved to original hardware, games and a crt, I carefully buy games for snes and n64 and actually enjoying them instead of having to choose from a list of 1000 snes roms.
@@arthurmurfitt7698 nonsense. Most retro games, even snes games, are €40 max., with some exceptions for all platforms of course. If you can't afford that once or twice a month you're doing something wrong.
Hello, Super Sharper Gamer! By watching your video and listening to your words I realize that you are actually completely right in the world, since many times retro game sellers play with our feelings of nostalgia, however, it is good to realize that it is possible to continue having fun without acquiring expensive amounts of old hardware and above all, the most important thing is to have fun with what we have at our disposal. For all this I congratulate you, because this shows that you really know a lot about the subject, since I have verified it myself. You are great, greetings and hugs friend! ♥🌟🤩
Just to let everyone know if you use retroarch then you can use swanstation which is a fork of duckstation. When you play a ps1 game in swanstation just pull up the menu by pressing f1, go to core options, then enhancement settings and you can do stuff like increase resolution massively and get rid of wobbly polygons by turning on PXGP geometry corrections. Plus there are advance setting for overclocking cpu and making some games 60 fps like gran turismo 1 and 2. Games like resident evil 2 look superb when the resolution is increased as characters look fantastic. With swanstation on retroarch there is no need to have standalone duckstation but of course go with what you like and find useful. Take care gamers.
well at least he woke up and saw the truth, there are still stubborn collectors who keep on buying these retro games and feed the greedy scalpers, i hope he is able to enjoy these games like others who also play retro stuff too, a big reason why steam deck is so popular these days
I play most of my retro stuff on original hardware and with the original carts or discs. I got most of my collection before prices got out of control though. There's no way I'd be able to buy what I have now if I was starting from scratch. Emulation is essential in keeping old titles playable to new audiences and I'm happy there's a big community devoted to improving the retro gaming experience.
It's not just gamers that are using emulators either, big companies themselves are also using emulators or are making their own so they could sell you those older games. Just know that the reason why companies can't always give you the game you want was because of license rights or lost source codes. Some games had license music, actors, contents, or ads in them that prevented those same games from re-releasing, another reason why most won't be re-release is cause they just aren't best seller. If a game flopped in sales in the past, why would a company release that game again? It would only waste development money to re-release it. This is why games like Rocket Knight Adventures, Astal, Kid Icarus: Uprising, and F-Zero GX don't get re-release cause even though those games are fantastic, they just don't sell very well and the company lose money on it.
It would not be a waste of money to re-release the game unless it was a rebuild of the games engine or something, or it had a ruthless marketing campaign which 99% of the emulated retro releases on PS5/4 are just released with no warning to little marketing other than being under the new games tab in the store. The cost comes in developing and maintaining their in-house emulator, their emulators are very young, and I bet the biggest issue is that some games simply won't run correctly on them as we've seen in the past with free emulators in their infancy. For example, I have had Pcsx2 for about 5 years now, had it on my crap PC and also on my new beefy PC, The Punisher game has always ran terribly on this emulator, while today its fully playable and way better than it's ever been, the game still has terrible glitches, and weird slow motion slow down no matter how you run it, now obviously because it's so easy to get these games "FREE" on the internet, it's easy for them to get a working copy, put on store fronts and let the money come pouring in, but in the state a game like that is on pcsx2 I doubt a rom of this game (or other games with similar glitches) would work on sonys in house emulators, it might just be a matter of waiting until they put further development into the emulators but like you said its a matter of money, they might be happy with where those emulators stand and don't care to pour more money into making them better, who knows.
Just bought a Saroo for my Saturn and a PSIO for my PS1. Couldn't be happier. All my other consoles have an "everdrive", or were modded to run games off their HDD. I'm doing it in a way that I can still play physical games if I wish to do so, so I don't have to dispose of the original games I already own.
Brother , I actually really dig this video . I'm an old skool gamer and have been building retro emulator builds since existence ....I love your presentation and openess. 100% agree ..... Own the real things if you can , but there is absolutely no shame in running emulators . They are bloody awesome ! Subbed!...great vid , got a good laugh too and mad content . Well done . 🤘😉
For me the main thing is the display. If you play from NES, MSX, C64 to Wii, use a CRT with original hardware or MisterFPGA or RGBpi. If you play from PS3, Wii U.. Till now use emulation on a flat panel (plasma / oled)
Totally agree. I saw a local chap selling his GB copy of Pokemon Red. There isnt even a Box or booklet or confirmation on the battery being replaced (30 yesrs later, its probably needed). 49 euros Madness. For a game enulated to dearh, with a better remake FireRed and better romhacks out there...
If on top of preserving games you can build your own slick interface to navigate your games and features, with side extras like scanned manuals, the experience can surpass the original. Even better if you're able to build your own retro machine. Meanwhile I just make my Windows look like Win98 then I feel like I'm playing PC games back in 1999 lol
You do make a good point. I often find that I'm doing myself a disservice by going for a more "authentic" experience when it comes to older games. It's honestly more of an OCD thing than anything else. For whatever reason I have this compulsive desire to experience a game "as it was originally intended". A lot of things are better left in the past, though. There's the cost of the software, as you mentioned, but even if you modify your hardware in some way that usually also has a cost associated with it. There's the unreliability of old hardware as well. But beyond that, we often forget things like antiquated control schemes, long loading times, poor performance, quaint saving systems, unbalanced difficulty, etc. Not too long ago I played Red Faction on the PS2. I'd had the copy for years, but had never come around to playing it. I had a horrible experience due to the issues listed above. I should have just played the PC version with the community restoration mod installed. So, yeah... It does depend on the game and the system, but I'll be trying to keep my urge for authenticity under control going forward. I've had a blast with DuckStation since I decided to give it a go and I don't want to go back to official hardware for PS1 games anymore.
I love playing retro games on my Steam Deck. It pretty much runs everything PS2 era and earlier, I can play with the enhancement features of each emulator, and easily add them as games to Steam so I can launch them in Gamemode. I also really like that many games now have retroachievements so you can unlock things as you go and get a little more of that rush. I still remember having a great time on many of these older games when I was younger, and achievements are fun even though unnecessary.
I'm sort of between playing originals on the actual hardware via flashcards/burning cds, and playing updated versions on newer hardware that have been improved for modern displays
OK, I'm in favour of using original hardware AND emulators but it differs by the system. I like to play SNES and N64 hardware with everdrives because I got those during the pandemic and they weren't expensive, even getting a couple of physical games for them plus they are NTSC models. If you live in the UK or any European country it's now possible to play these on most HD tvs, previously you had to know if your old crt was NTSC compatible. I play PS3 games on a hen enabled super slim, because it's much better than trying to emulate them and it's a HDMI system that isn't region locked. If I wanted to play PS1 and PS2, I use emulators because I have the option to play NTSC titles. It would be hard to get working NTSC hardware for those in my region, the bios chips are region locked so even if you soft modded a PAL system it wouldn't be region free and also mechanical hardware is harder to maintain. For everything else like Neo Geo, Amiga, Dos, Dreamcast etc I use emulators because that is where its cheaper to do. 😀
Cool video, my collection has grown out of control at home and emulation has been my friend. I have more than a 1000 physical games that take so much space and are difficult to maintain, keep track of and stop people from stealing.
I find that the only legitmate con in playing emulators is typically performance of certain titles. Some games run flawlessly only on original hardware (Rogue squadron 2 & 3 are the best examples of this). However, even with graphical glitches and performance issues the emulators have been getting better and with a decent gaming setup (around $1k to $2k) you can get around most of that. Original hardware is great, but emulation unlocks so much potential for these older games.
Rogue squadron 2 runs perfectly if your hardware is strong enough even android and iPhone can run it full speed. Not sure about 3 tho that one is a bit more demanding but I’m sure on pc that runs full speed.
4:39 xStation is a much better option than PSIO in terms of compatibility and support. but the only downside is that it completely replaces the disc drive.
A big issue for me too is you need an additional setup to play retro gaming consoles unless you spend 300+ usd on a framemeister so you can play on a modern tv. I just don't have the space to dedicate a corner to a crt setup so it's more convenient for me to use an old pc connected to my tv and emulate stuff
I think hardware FPGA emulation is definitely the sweet spot here. I love my collection, but my MiSTer makes me question why I still have it because the experience is so accurate and so much more convenient beyond the initial investment (which would be a fraction of the cost if I just sold my collection)
Another benefit of modern emulation is the ability to use some truly great CRT shaders to simulate many aspects of using old displays. Sure, you do get retro collections which might have a CRT filter or two, but they tend to be primitive and inflexible compared to what you can do with RetroArch, and especially when you install shaders not already included. Emulation can open the doors for so many great options, and my goodness does it save on space and money!
This is how I believe retro gaming is evolving: In the past, original consoles and original games, because everything was still affordable. In the present, original consoles and Everdrives/ODEs, because game prices are more and more ridiculous. In the future, emulation + ROMs/ISOs. because inevitably, CRTs and consoles are bound to fail, hardware doesn't last forever. I'm currently happy having no physical games, but playing on the original consoles. If I want hi-res/sharp image quality, I just play newer games.
You can enjoy retro gaming wiouth expend tons of money and wiouth using emulators too. Just get the real hardware and get the softmod, everdrive or ODE depending on the system. I have been enjoying the hobby like that since 2014 and it didn`t cost me much money. The problem is getting obssesed with having the actual game cartridge in the best conditions, there is all the money goes.
I know practically nothing about emulation, but this was interesting! Lately I've felt a growing need to play some of my older games again - mainly PS2 and some PS1 - and why not aim for the best possible quality. I did play around a little with PCSX2 about five years ago and got it to work. Not sure if it worked GOOD or not, since I just tested each game for a few minutes, but it worked... I never really used it enough to fully understand how to do things properly, and then I just moved on and forgot all about it. It's still installed on that old pc, but I suspect there are better versions available today, and maybe that pc has become a bit old as well. I don't really use pc's for much beside web surfing so I'm certainly no expert on specs and requirements. I guess I'll have to do some investigating here. 🙂
Even if the companies were still around and actually did see a dime of the games in question, chances are that the developers working in there would be completely different people, and would not see their wages and/or monthly bonuses increases in the slightest for you having bought the game -- Whether it is an used CD, or some super old game available on Steam (which doesn't even run on modern without 2 different fan made patches)
My favorite part of emulators existing is that people delve into the workings of games and certain bugs will be optionally patched if someone figured out a way to do it and the community allowed it. So in the end, some games can actually be less inaccurate than they originally were, even if that is conceptually an oxymoron. Also the whole CRT thing, not all emulators adopted all the corrections yet(Btw, it remains impressive that someone working on Dolphin actually thought to give the option to replicate all the diffrent known color and brightness-spaces one may want to play with, even tho I personally prefer to just play with the raw output to cut down on choice paralysis.), but in general it just helps if you want to do what original hardware cannot, being to replace the features of the displaytypes that most people no longer have but were mostly what games were designed around until around the Wii's launch. 9:15 Funfact, this will never be 100%. I mean, it wouldn't be anyways because they count online games no longer having their server(Why?), but they also actively plan to never reach full compatibility because they would have to implement a feature that they appearently won't to "avoid legal trouble" even tho the chance for trouble is supposedly so small that simply having an emulator should be too dicey by that logic. That puts a bit of meh into the celebration of their great accomplishments, since usually the emulator-mindset is to eventually reach 100 unless the requirement is completely outragous.(Like how Dolphin reaching full compatibility would require it to merge with Cemu exclusively because of the vWii-channel that swaps to WiiU mode)
Hi! This is my first vid of yours, and just thought I'd thank you for 1) Not being a "purist" - I love retro games, but agree - a lot of it you can't get ahold of, is too expensive, or the hardware is hard to get too. and 2) For using your real voice. I will always prefer a human voice over an AI or ComputerVoice thing. Sure, we can tell english isn't your first language, but it's good enough and you can tell you're doing it because you want to share the stuff you like. So yeah, thanks for continuing to do what you like. :)
I have a PS4 as my normal gaming console. I also have a SEGA Genesis for which I still buy games for because I like collecting for it since it's my favorite console ever. Every once in a while, I plug it and play on it. It's great to use the actual hardware, but I also have a Retroid Pocket 3+ where I play emulation. Having so many consoles is impossible both because of space and budget. I think emulation is important to preserve the history of gaming. I do not agree on having emulation for current generations, for those I'll pay the money, but older devices I feel it's fine because it can be the only way to play some games that otherwise would get lost, and people would not even know about.
Great channel I subbed. The best way I think to play emulators on the go, is with Valves Steam deck. It plays everything ps1, ps2, ps3, psp, psvita, gamecube & wii, genesis, master system, nes, snes, dreamcast, even wiiu & switch. I love this machine, plus you can play most of your games you bought for your pc on the steam store!
I don't know, I don't condemn anyone for emulating, and I've done it before and sometimes it offers things you can't do on original hardware, like Dolphin letting you place gamecube and wii games actually rendered in 1080p and not just upscaled into 1080. Tell you what games like Sonic Colors looked amazing in 1080p aside from some textures looking flat because they weren't designed with that resolution in mind. (before there was a remaster of the game) Still I overall just prefer to play with the original versions on original hardware. When it's just a big list of roms it's hard to value them or put time into them, I would just randomly jump around and get bored of games quickly. Something about having the physical copy of the game and picking it off the shelf, puts my brain into a space where I can give the game the attention and respect enough to enjoy it for what it is and stick with it. When games are just a large list and easy to swap between them, it changes how I play them.
I can get how many people get that way. For me what works is just sticking to one rom. Keeping lists low or one game and then delete also helps when I delete games I finished already. But yeah sticking to one good game till it’s done helps me treat it as if it was physical.z
If you just want to play the games, by all means use emulators. As mentioned, they're as good and often better than the original hardware. I will say, however, that there is something about playing them on real hardware that emulators just can't match. If you're into it for the nostalgia, it's worth exploring, though can get pretty pricey. What I've personally done is get my childhood consoles and flashcarts for them, and I'll only buy actual carts of games that have some special meaning to me and that I can find for a reasonable price. I also got a RetroTink, which is expensive but you only need one and it really helps with the experience of getting these consoles on modern displays.
I've been retro gaming since I was a kid and I quit buying older games last year. I only bought stuff under $15 and now thats even become not worth the effort. Playing older JRPGs with save states and fast forward is so much better than hardware. Thank u emulation devs.
I collect some games for the vintage artwork and cool physical packaging of the original but i found most retro games gave me 'Rose tinted glasses' and once played i was like "This isnt as good as i remember from when i was a kid". If you can get a remake or remaster this helps appreciate them in 2023, in a similar way as some emulators do, however i tend to find most emulators are notoriously difficult to configure and setup with complex options, more so for retro home computer games than consoles due to the complex keyboard control schemes. Some emulators also run the games too fast as they wont work with modern CPU speeds etc or have difficulty with disk swapping.
If accuracy is a goal, the Ares multi-emulator is quite impressive. The newer the system, the greater the system requirements, but 2D is essentially no longer a problem with anything less than 10-15 years old.
I love emulators but the biggest downside of them, especially for a system like the NES, is the latency. Golf games are a good way to experience the issue, if you find you are consistently off it's probably due to latency, can be introduced from many factors. Real hardware and a CRT does not have those issues. Some computer and monitor setups can get pretty low latency but not perfect, and idk about the new retroarch features to fix the problem, they make weird things happen on the screen imo
The best modern emulators for consoles like the NES don't have input lag issues at all... and if you have any you can just use runahead frames (which only "make weird things happen on the screen" if you crank them so high that you're literally re-winding time in-game). The only emulator I've truly had significant input lag issues on is PCSX2. The emulator isn't the problem, it's you being hyper-sensitive to modern displays with poor input delay themselves.
@OGmolton1 Thanks. Makes me feel better about keeping it and getting the new retrotink 4k next. I managed to make it look smooth on my lgc1 77 and hit the pad no problem on my first setup.
If the the original systems are modable, then that's the way to go. Consoles are more convenient without shader cache compilation, compatibility issue, and accuracy. This still stays true for the current gen where there are so many bad ports on PC. I will still buy a gaming PC though in the future, keyboard and mouse control are so good.
Subscribed!! 🕹️ The only downside to emulators for me is my laptop is not powerful enough to use all the graphics improvements or even smooth gameplay. My laptop struggles with PS1 games without any graphic enhancements. It's a shame because I would love to play the original tomb raider games with smooth graphics. I own a physical ps2 and play my ps1 and ps2 disks on that
I also use RetroArch for about 3 years now. It makes no sense for me to pay a lot of money for loose cartridges without packaging. My new TV has no scart input anymore so i can't use the RGB output of my consoles. Just buy yourself a very good controler and use RetroArch. Consoles like Neo Geo weren't payable for a teenager or younger people. They were too expensive.
Basically, buying the original stuff, both hardware and games, are nice for collecting/display purposes. For actual gaming tho, emulators are just easier and more convenient. Discs get scratched, cartridges need soldering to replace batteries, etc.
I was introduced to emulation back in 2013 or so and since then I have being using emulators if I wanted to play something old. But the emulation, as you said in your video, is not perfect. Thus why I stay away from some emulators of some platforms. For example, I stay away from RetroArch emulator because, while it may be comfortable to use, because it has everything to run all retro consoles, the emulator itself is kinda crappy. Sometimes it will work fine, other times it will give you an error. Sometimes it will emulate perfectly, and other times game will work like crap. That is why I thought that, why should I bother with RetroArch anyway, if it can't provide stability on daily basis? And since then I used separate emulators for each platform of my interest rather than RetroArch. And then next emulator that I stay away from is PCSX2 because, PS2 emulation is kinda sucks. And despite all those claims that it now works fine, I tried most modern version of PCSX2 and it still f-ckes up with me. Like, back in the days games was just simply lagging on PCSX2 for me, but now emulator itself does not want to work, saying that I don't have some freaking render installed or something, I don't know. Maybe it's the deal with OpenGL, but last time I checked, I have support of OpenGL v3.3 version on my PC, and yet somehow it is not enough for this piece of crap emulator to work. So screw it! I will not even bother to make it work. And then the original Xbox emulator, which is Xemu. It worked fine like 3 or 4 years ago, but I decided to try it last year and, it's the same crap as with PS2 emulator. It says that I lack some sort of components. I don't even remember what it was. And so yeah, I decided to screw it too because, why bother if it doesn't work out of the box? Let it just rot on pile of crap that it is. As for the platforms that I'm emulating with no problem, they are: NES, Famicom, Sega Mega Drive, Master System, Game Gear, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, SNES, TurboGraphx 16 or PC Engine, Arcade, Neo-Geo, PS1, PSP, Wii and GameCube. Those are the ones that I can emulate with no problem. I also don't update emulators of those systems because, latest versions could screw it up for me. So once I got everything set up and running, I turned off any updates check on those emulators and called it a day. Because, new version of emulator does not mean that it will be the better one. And as for the emulators that I'm using for all those platforms, then they are: FCE Ultra, NESTopia, VirtuaNES, Gens Plus, Gens 100Mhz, Gens ReRecording, Kega Fushion, Snes9X, ZSnes, Visual Boy Advance, Magic Engine, Mame, DuckStation, PPSSPP and Dolphin. You may ask "why do you need few emulators for some of the platforms?". And the answer is simple: because there is some games that doesn't work on one emulator but work on another. Or there is fan made hacks aka mods for those old games that requires you to have specific emulator. And that is why I'm having few emulators for some of the consoles. Cause in case if some games does not work, let's say on VirtuaNES, then I can run them under FCE Ultra or NESTopia.
Here's some key words everyone ought to know if you want to do emulation right. CRT Emudriver 2.0. CRT Switchres. Extron RGB 192. Component video/Analog transcoder - OR - Jungle chip OSD RGB pins hack, 75 ohms. These things will change your life as you know it. It's a deep rabbit hole, but worth the effort.
Get a console, a Flashcart/ODE and play whatever you want, show resellers the middle finger so the bubble bursts. Or just use an Emulator, but I like playing on my CRT :D
At this point, emulation is media preservation. With big companies delisting stuff on digital storefronts forever. And some older games being very pricey on ebay
To be honest, I enjoy emulation and retro games, but the fact that you're saying "Emulation is better than using an old console because of piracy" is something I do not agree at all. I understand SOME games are really overvalued nowadays, but people buy single modern games for 80$ all the time, I do not see anything bad in paying around 50$ for a PS1/PS2 game if you really want to play it (and still, most games are way cheaper than that), and it's what I do, if I want a game, I just buy it, burn an .iso with IMGBurn and play it on my PS1 and PS2 emulators on PC. You can play legally owned retro games on your PC exacly as you can play illegally obtained copies of the game on a console using homebrew and modchips, Emulation is NOT piracy.
I agree that the outside perception is largely that they are the same, but emulation =/= piracy/. There are some super gray areas, I admit. Abandonware is an area where sailing the high seas might be the only option. I have no problem with pirating games for super obscure consoles in name of preservation. I also have no issues getting roms off of Classic editions of consoles. Earthbound and FF7 alone justified the purchase. What are your thoughts on scraping roms off an emulation device?
Honestly people who pirate roms off the internet most of them can’t afford buying the original games (of course it depends on the system, ps2 games are super cheap for example), however it is insane how some games, especially Japanese games are so goddamn expensive. I am not surprise honestly, the retro gaming market is self destructing increasing their prices all the freaking time and increasingly becoming more difficult to get your hands on. Even CRT TVs are getting insanely expensive even for the lowest tier TVs, it’s infuriating so yeah I am happy that I moved on to just using emulation. My wallet is definitely happy with that decision.
@@AymanAntri7 Then again, I'm not judging you for pirating old games (even still, I do not think the situation is that bad, at least for PS1/PS2/PS3 era), but emulation is just not piracy, taking isos and roms in a not legal way is piracy, I emulate stuff PS1/PS2/Wii/NGC/PS3 all the time and I just use CDs, Blurays and DVDs I actually own.
@@RedFlameFox Well it really is a morality issue at the end of the day, sure you can argue that I am pirating mother 3 fore example but good luck playing that game if you are not proficient at japanese plus mother 3 has only been released in japan, getting that game in original cartridge is expensive. Iso based games are cheaper and easier to dump and get the file so when I can, I do that. However these discs will not last forever, eventually piracy is necessary for preserving and accessing content from the past. Game companies clearly have no interest on preserving and they dont make money anymore on old videogames besides the ebay sellers so what is the point really?
To be fair, at some point, piracy is going to be inevitable. Especially when used games aren't reasonably priced anymore. Even in this video PS3 era games are reasonably priced. With software modding, you can dump such games easily nowadays.
i am a game collector and I believe that every nerd my age, when they start paying their own bills, think about purchasing the consoles they had as a child. But there aren't retro consoles for everyone and demand keeps growing, so prices won't stop rising... There are extremely faithful emulators like blastem for the mega drive and mister fpga hardware, start thinking about it!
Actually, I don't like emulators that much anymore because of the input lag. I much rather using a MiSTer. To be completely honest, I personally couldn't care less about convenience either. I mainly only use emulators on the Steam Deck for portability since I doubt anyone's ever going to make a MiSTer handheld.
Emulation is great, I enjoy collecting though. For a couple of reasons, one is I have a room with all my old games and systems and once in awhile I'll go there to relax and hook up a system which I enjoy doing. The other reason is we don't have market money, and the government keeps devaluing our currency and there's very few places for everyday people to put their money in a way that they can hold value and then return possibly make some money. My game collection to me is nothing more than a savings account that I get to play and enjoy
for RPGs or slow paced game, i prefer emulation so we can smooth out the jaggy polygons and have better graphics, duckstation is the king. for fast paced or rhythm game real hardware is the only option for me. and crt tv for 240p is unbeatable either with real hardware or emulation.
I also own orignal hardware like Nes, Gameboy, N64, Dreamcast, Gamecube and so on. But the hassle is just not worth it. The cables, the upscalers, aging capacitors etc. I want the fantastic possibilities of emulation like: Romhacks HD Mode 7 Widescreen Support Higher resolutions and texture packs Perfect digital image Yes, i am getting old and value my time more.
I find it really hard to believe someone would prefer to get real official cartridges instead of emulating games without being a game collectionist, ever since I was a kid I was an emulation fan trying to get all consoles and all games on my PC and everyone I knew was the same if they didn't have a modern console at the time (like an Xbox 360 for example), if anything emulation us obviously better from the get go, it was never a hard thing to do, I learned how to emulate PS1 when I was 11 yo and didn't emulate PS2 because my PC wasn't powerful enough
For me emulation began as a no brainer replacement when Drakan 2 The Ancient Gates i think its called wouldnt load in a some kinda of Swamp level (forgive me i dont remember whats it called, it was a while back now) and short story, kept freezing even after proper cleanup, everything. Still no luck. Better PC meant better for emulation as the last time i tried it. So went on making .iso of Drakan and booted up in PCSX2. I think the version was 1.4.0. I forgot to set it up, so i was like it looks the same and no better wtf. Then lights up and yeah, did the setting up part, immediately boom, looked nicer ran better all in all a better experience. This was the day i said bye bye to og hw and went on emulating. Yes even those games i didnt owned. What i could i did buy, expensive shit i didnt. As in the video, nobody from the team developing it profiting from it anymore, i think no harm done, just to play a game or two. So yes. Emulation is here to stay and what i really want is to get even more accurate especially PS2.
I absolutely LOVE emulation, IF it works well. It had allowed me to try games from systems I never owned in the past. Yeah, i know I'm not supposed to do that, but like you said, buying copies of old games gets expensive real fast. There are games that I would NEVER have the patience to play on a real console without save states. Like GTA: Liberty city Stories (PSP version). Some of the optional (but required for 100%) missions are rage inducing for me. If I wasn't able to just press a key and instantly restart the mission when I screw up, I'd take the game and throw it out the window. Unfortunately, I have an old system, so PSP is about the most advanced system I can emulate at full speed. I can play some PS2 games, although many of them run at less than full speed for me, and some are just too slow to even consider playing. I'm talking, like 5 FPS. I can't run Dolphin at all. Well, i can, but the games are unplayable unless I completely disable the sound. Trying to emulate anything later than that is currently out of the question for me. I hope to be able to get a newer, faster system in the near future, that will allow me to emulate more advanced systems.
So you’re using a pc I’m assuming? Not sure what phone you use but androids especially the top flagships can emulate ps2 full speed even god of war basically and Nintendo switch even and 3ds plus others.
@@robmalcolm8042 I actually don't have a smart phone. Even if I did, I wouldn't want to play emulated games on it. I want a big screen and real control options.
I've always emulated retro games for the past 20 years, I never cared about having original hardware and games unless it was cheap. I'm also far more interested in retro hardware than physical retro software. So I'd be fine with an everdrive.
Very interesting video ! We can clearly see you have experience, video and editing are really good ^-^ And we can see you really put in a lot of effort to be understandable despite your accent, so yeah ,very good ! edit : 7:00 what game is this? Edit² : 8:25 yes and indeed you are brave, despite being fully fluent in English, it isn't my first language either, and doing a 40min long video essaie in english (which isn't my native language either) proved to be way harder than I ever thought. So much so that I gave up and went for videos in my language instead. So props to you for working in english !
I regret spending near $1000 on my current console collection. While I can justify consoles that are hard to emulate currently like Saturn, Xbox 360 and PS Vita. But in essence, I feel like most of the rest can be replicated much better on emulation, especially with runahead to eliminate the latancy. That's not counting that there are emulators that have less latency than real hardware like Dolphin for example. I feel like it was all for naught.
Buy the console for a few bucks, chip it, insert a usb full of games. There, that is the cheapest way to enjoy them without artifacts. But emulators are as the video says, better when trying to play them on better graphics and save the savegames.
I've build a console to play old games, i build it into a broken xbox one s housing! It was a laptop that was sh1tty, it had a celeron n3000 or something, so bad for windows or linux, but great for emulation and lakka! Up until Nintendo 64 and PSP, i have no problems! Anything heavier than this and it will not run, but i don't care! I am proud of my own console with emulators! It has enough hard drive space for a considerable big library, and it plays very well! I am also of the same thought that emulating games you don't own isn't piracy, paying some dude on the internet an heavy up count for a disc or cardridge that the og developer never will get any money from is bad! I just enjoy my games the way i want it! I also have a modded og xbox and a ps3 just for those games that are hard to emulate!
Most people that Collect games don't do it because they want to play them. they Buy them as an Investment. as you know the more you play something the faster it deteriorates. so in true most collectors use Emulators to play them, even if they don't like to admit it.
I see some videos in youtube of "experts" bashing cheap upscalers and video converters, and I always say, they forget mist people in the world can't pay 700 USD for that shiny 4k upscalers that does magic. Most people just want to play their okd syasems. I do play both on original hardware or emulators., that have easy cheata and save states that help a lot of not wasting my little free time. So, yeah, just use what gives you fun, do not mind what purists say.
3:58-4:07 Also, a lot of re-releases or remasters these days are susceptible to censorship for "modern sensibilities". Look at the new Baten Kaitos remasters for the Switch. The localization is completely butchered. Same with Pikmin 1 and 2. Tales Of Symphonia is objectively worse with every single port. The only way to play it in 60fps is with the GameCube version, ideally on the Dolphin Emulator.
Old games aren't that expensive if you get them loose (plus they retain and even increase in value over the years) and if you use savestates then the whole game experience is fundamentally different from what the devs originally intended, which kind of defeats the purpose of playing in the first place. Also, none of the games feel special when you have literally all of them available at the press of a button.
See my video about the Dark Side of the Retro Gaming: ua-cam.com/video/W8y2U4owR0s/v-deo.html
English also not my first so I didnt notice anything until you say. There is so much accents in the world so yours not out of place. Congrats for video and hope you do some old console games or emulation content in the future. And you giving me hope I can do gaming content in english too
Cool to see other Finnish people like retrogames.
It's fine to use original hardware just don't buy original games. Their prices are getting out of control. Use an Everdrive card or equivalent.
I second this. I have a collection of games but those were all from over the course of my life. I don't buy retro games. The prices are exorbitant. If I feel like playing something outside of my collection I'll use a something like that or an HDD or something else to load the games.
I still use emulators most the time though. They give you a lot more control. You can sometimes get a better experience. Though the newer the system, the more issues I'll run into. But most the time emulation is just fine. I only really recommend original hardware for certain systems or to people who really want an authentic experience.
Ey.. for some games prices u can buy 2 damn consoles..
I do both, I only buy games I really really want, mainly Castlevania games
@@SkaterPoopyPantsWhile unfortunately that is the case for a lot of forgotten retro games (especially licensed games or from defunct companies), nowadays you actually CAN buy some ROMs legally. There are quite a few retro games you can buy on Steam and/or GOG, and a few other platforms (I remember SNK has games on their store? EGG is another option, if you're looking for japanese games). For example, SEGA offers emulated games on Steam. Now, from what I've heard, the emulator itself is kinda bad, but since emulators themselves are free (and legal), you can take the ROMs, and run them on a better emulator. You could count the mini-consoles as well, since you also can extract the ROMs from them (though some of them have become collectors items, so you'd have to make the call on that one). For games that are not available like this, you could look up the concept of "Abandonware" to form your own opinion on the matter, as well as cast your own judgement to determine if any game falls under that category. There's a lot for this topic, and a lot of it ends in grey areas without definitive answers. As a final note, the Internet Archive has games on their Arcade section, some of which have been donated/marked as public domain, and in general, is a good site to keep in mind.
@@alucardhellsing9640for some games you could buy I car 😂
Its worth mentioning that Duckstation also has the ability to overclock the PS1's CPU, meaning games that ran at terrible frame rates, will benefit greatly from the overclock, the most beneficial example of this is the NFS games on the PSone, specifically NFS III and High Stakes, if overclocked, the games will run at 60 FPS.
Another benefit of overclocking the PS1 CPU is the ability of using 60 FPS patches for example, Gran Turismo 2 has 60 FPS patches that greatly enhance the experience.
same thing with pcsx2
Absolutely. I have been dabbling into that lately myself.
Wait, what? 😮 I'm a big fan of NFSIII, I was actually playing it yesterday, I have to try that option, I've seen it but I didn't think would be good, and I think the Duckstation wiki is down. So yeah, thank you for your comment!!!
This is where I am as far as emulation goes. I sold most of my retro games & have primarily been using emulation to play everything from the Wii & back. Physical ownership is good for console preservation, but, to me, digital preservation in a public access archive is the way of the future 😎
Always has been. 😊
I found the balance for me is to have a modern console, my pc, and a retro console. I have both current gen consoles, a pretty poor pc but it does emulate up to ps2, and a dreamcast to focus on. also, with 7th gen consoles, you can always get one and mod it, ps3 is easy I hear, 360 requires a mod chip and soldier. I have a Vita and 3ds that i modded myself and it was extremely easy.
PS3 by far is the easiest to mod just by installing CFW for the Fat model and Slim model, Hen for any system using a HFW image. You can dump games using a fat32 storage device in Multiman but you can also switch to CFW mode there and then toggle Fat32 to NTFS to copy games from larger drives, this makes it easier to copy all your games instead of having to use different methods for different size roms. Originally you had to decrypt PS3 iso file yourself but it's now possible to download them as decrypted iso.
With RGH3, there is no longer more than 2 permanent wires to solder for the Xbox 360, and no rare/expensive modchip needed any longer.
All you need is a Raspberry Pi Pico and some wires and a resistor to mod an Xbox 360 in 2023.
PC that can run PS2 full speed is not poor by any means
@@old_liquid anything that gets outclassed by a steamdeck is def poor by today's standards. my, now old, pc was very bad.
@@BabyVegeta03 and if if my pc cost less than steamdesk? 3400g and 3060
You explained the pros and cons so well, this was very helpful, thankyou. Great vid!
Thanks for watching!
For me it's the other way around.
I used to emulate everything, have a massive library of retro games but not REALLY playing anything.
Since I moved to original hardware, games and a crt, I carefully buy games for snes and n64 and actually enjoying them instead of having to choose from a list of 1000 snes roms.
Ok, moneybags… 😂
@@arthurmurfitt7698 nonsense.
Most retro games, even snes games, are €40 max., with some exceptions for all platforms of course.
If you can't afford that once or twice a month you're doing something wrong.
I appreciate your honesty and frank attitude about emulators and games, subscribed!
Hello, Super Sharper Gamer! By watching your video and listening to your words I realize that you are actually completely right in the world, since many times retro game sellers play with our feelings of nostalgia, however, it is good to realize that it is possible to continue having fun without acquiring expensive amounts of old hardware and above all, the most important thing is to have fun with what we have at our disposal. For all this I congratulate you, because this shows that you really know a lot about the subject, since I have verified it myself. You are great, greetings and hugs friend! ♥🌟🤩
Just to let everyone know if you use retroarch then you can use swanstation which is a fork of duckstation. When you play a ps1 game in swanstation just pull up the menu by pressing f1, go to core options, then enhancement settings and you can do stuff like increase resolution massively and get rid of wobbly polygons by turning on PXGP geometry corrections. Plus there are advance setting for overclocking cpu and making some games 60 fps like gran turismo 1 and 2. Games like resident evil 2 look superb when the resolution is increased as characters look fantastic. With swanstation on retroarch there is no need to have standalone duckstation but of course go with what you like and find useful. Take care gamers.
I started collecting a little after high school way back in 2004! Man the prices of some old games youse would get for were INSANE compared to today.
well at least he woke up and saw the truth, there are still stubborn collectors who keep on buying these retro games and feed the greedy scalpers, i hope he is able to enjoy these games like others who also play retro stuff too, a big reason why steam deck is so popular these days
I really enjoyed this. Very good script and editing, really professional, congratulations. I hope you do more like this.
I play most of my retro stuff on original hardware and with the original carts or discs. I got most of my collection before prices got out of control though. There's no way I'd be able to buy what I have now if I was starting from scratch. Emulation is essential in keeping old titles playable to new audiences and I'm happy there's a big community devoted to improving the retro gaming experience.
It's not just gamers that are using emulators either, big companies themselves are also using emulators or are making their own so they could sell you those older games. Just know that the reason why companies can't always give you the game you want was because of license rights or lost source codes. Some games had license music, actors, contents, or ads in them that prevented those same games from re-releasing, another reason why most won't be re-release is cause they just aren't best seller. If a game flopped in sales in the past, why would a company release that game again? It would only waste development money to re-release it. This is why games like Rocket Knight Adventures, Astal, Kid Icarus: Uprising, and F-Zero GX don't get re-release cause even though those games are fantastic, they just don't sell very well and the company lose money on it.
It would not be a waste of money to re-release the game unless it was a rebuild of the games engine or something, or it had a ruthless marketing campaign which 99% of the emulated retro releases on PS5/4 are just released with no warning to little marketing other than being under the new games tab in the store. The cost comes in developing and maintaining their in-house emulator, their emulators are very young, and I bet the biggest issue is that some games simply won't run correctly on them as we've seen in the past with free emulators in their infancy. For example, I have had Pcsx2 for about 5 years now, had it on my crap PC and also on my new beefy PC, The Punisher game has always ran terribly on this emulator, while today its fully playable and way better than it's ever been, the game still has terrible glitches, and weird slow motion slow down no matter how you run it, now obviously because it's so easy to get these games "FREE" on the internet, it's easy for them to get a working copy, put on store fronts and let the money come pouring in, but in the state a game like that is on pcsx2 I doubt a rom of this game (or other games with similar glitches) would work on sonys in house emulators, it might just be a matter of waiting until they put further development into the emulators but like you said its a matter of money, they might be happy with where those emulators stand and don't care to pour more money into making them better, who knows.
their emulatiors suck the selection really sucks and its all region locked
@@ryan89554 Regionlocking is more and more not the case anymore.
Just bought a Saroo for my Saturn and a PSIO for my PS1. Couldn't be happier.
All my other consoles have an "everdrive", or were modded to run games off their HDD.
I'm doing it in a way that I can still play physical games if I wish to do so, so I don't have to dispose of the original games I already own.
Brother , I actually really dig this video . I'm an old skool gamer and have been building retro emulator builds since existence ....I love your presentation and openess.
100% agree .....
Own the real things if you can , but there is absolutely no shame in running emulators .
They are bloody awesome !
Subbed!...great vid , got a good laugh too and mad content .
Well done .
🤘😉
For me the main thing is the display. If you play from NES, MSX, C64 to Wii, use a CRT with original hardware or MisterFPGA or RGBpi.
If you play from PS3, Wii U.. Till now use emulation on a flat panel (plasma / oled)
Gaming on projector is nice too
Totally agree. I saw a local chap selling his GB copy of Pokemon Red. There isnt even a Box or booklet or confirmation on the battery being replaced (30 yesrs later, its probably needed). 49 euros
Madness. For a game enulated to dearh, with a better remake FireRed and better romhacks out there...
If on top of preserving games you can build your own slick interface to navigate your games and features, with side extras like scanned manuals, the experience can surpass the original.
Even better if you're able to build your own retro machine.
Meanwhile I just make my Windows look like Win98 then I feel like I'm playing PC games back in 1999 lol
You do make a good point. I often find that I'm doing myself a disservice by going for a more "authentic" experience when it comes to older games. It's honestly more of an OCD thing than anything else. For whatever reason I have this compulsive desire to experience a game "as it was originally intended". A lot of things are better left in the past, though. There's the cost of the software, as you mentioned, but even if you modify your hardware in some way that usually also has a cost associated with it. There's the unreliability of old hardware as well. But beyond that, we often forget things like antiquated control schemes, long loading times, poor performance, quaint saving systems, unbalanced difficulty, etc. Not too long ago I played Red Faction on the PS2. I'd had the copy for years, but had never come around to playing it. I had a horrible experience due to the issues listed above. I should have just played the PC version with the community restoration mod installed. So, yeah... It does depend on the game and the system, but I'll be trying to keep my urge for authenticity under control going forward. I've had a blast with DuckStation since I decided to give it a go and I don't want to go back to official hardware for PS1 games anymore.
I love playing retro games on my Steam Deck. It pretty much runs everything PS2 era and earlier, I can play with the enhancement features of each emulator, and easily add them as games to Steam so I can launch them in Gamemode. I also really like that many games now have retroachievements so you can unlock things as you go and get a little more of that rush. I still remember having a great time on many of these older games when I was younger, and achievements are fun even though unnecessary.
Besides PS2 and earlier, the Steam Deck can actually run some PS3 games competently.
I'm sort of between playing originals on the actual hardware via flashcards/burning cds, and playing updated versions on newer hardware that have been improved for modern displays
OK, I'm in favour of using original hardware AND emulators but it differs by the system. I like to play SNES and N64 hardware with everdrives because I got those during the pandemic and they weren't expensive, even getting a couple of physical games for them plus they are NTSC models. If you live in the UK or any European country it's now possible to play these on most HD tvs, previously you had to know if your old crt was NTSC compatible. I play PS3 games on a hen enabled super slim, because it's much better than trying to emulate them and it's a HDMI system that isn't region locked. If I wanted to play PS1 and PS2, I use emulators because I have the option to play NTSC titles. It would be hard to get working NTSC hardware for those in my region, the bios chips are region locked so even if you soft modded a PAL system it wouldn't be region free and also mechanical hardware is harder to maintain. For everything else like Neo Geo, Amiga, Dos, Dreamcast etc I use emulators because that is where its cheaper to do. 😀
Thanks for your warm welcoming video about emulation
We are sooo much on the same page about emulation. You just earned yourself another sub!!! GAME ON!!!
Cool video, my collection has grown out of control at home and emulation has been my friend. I have more than a 1000 physical games that take so much space and are difficult to maintain, keep track of and stop people from stealing.
I find that the only legitmate con in playing emulators is typically performance of certain titles. Some games run flawlessly only on original hardware (Rogue squadron 2 & 3 are the best examples of this). However, even with graphical glitches and performance issues the emulators have been getting better and with a decent gaming setup (around $1k to $2k) you can get around most of that.
Original hardware is great, but emulation unlocks so much potential for these older games.
Rogue squadron 2 runs perfectly if your hardware is strong enough even android and iPhone can run it full speed. Not sure about 3 tho that one is a bit more demanding but I’m sure on pc that runs full speed.
4:39 xStation is a much better option than PSIO in terms of compatibility and support. but the only downside is that it completely replaces the disc drive.
it's a sad moment to realize the games are no longer worth what they are "worth."
A big issue for me too is you need an additional setup to play retro gaming consoles unless you spend 300+ usd on a framemeister so you can play on a modern tv. I just don't have the space to dedicate a corner to a crt setup so it's more convenient for me to use an old pc connected to my tv and emulate stuff
I think hardware FPGA emulation is definitely the sweet spot here. I love my collection, but my MiSTer makes me question why I still have it because the experience is so accurate and so much more convenient beyond the initial investment (which would be a fraction of the cost if I just sold my collection)
Another benefit of modern emulation is the ability to use some truly great CRT shaders to simulate many aspects of using old displays. Sure, you do get retro collections which might have a CRT filter or two, but they tend to be primitive and inflexible compared to what you can do with RetroArch, and especially when you install shaders not already included. Emulation can open the doors for so many great options, and my goodness does it save on space and money!
This is how I believe retro gaming is evolving: In the past, original consoles and original games, because everything was still affordable. In the present, original consoles and Everdrives/ODEs, because game prices are more and more ridiculous. In the future, emulation + ROMs/ISOs. because inevitably, CRTs and consoles are bound to fail, hardware doesn't last forever. I'm currently happy having no physical games, but playing on the original consoles. If I want hi-res/sharp image quality, I just play newer games.
You can enjoy retro gaming wiouth expend tons of money and wiouth using emulators too. Just get the real hardware and get the softmod, everdrive or ODE depending on the system. I have been enjoying the hobby like that since 2014 and it didn`t cost me much money. The problem is getting obssesed with having the actual game cartridge in the best conditions, there is all the money goes.
I know practically nothing about emulation, but this was interesting! Lately I've felt a growing need to play some of my older games again - mainly PS2 and some PS1 - and why not aim for the best possible quality. I did play around a little with PCSX2 about five years ago and got it to work. Not sure if it worked GOOD or not, since I just tested each game for a few minutes, but it worked... I never really used it enough to fully understand how to do things properly, and then I just moved on and forgot all about it. It's still installed on that old pc, but I suspect there are better versions available today, and maybe that pc has become a bit old as well. I don't really use pc's for much beside web surfing so I'm certainly no expert on specs and requirements. I guess I'll have to do some investigating here. 🙂
EXCELLENT VIDEO!!! OUR TIME IS PRECIOUS!!!
I love your perspective on emulation.
Even if the companies were still around and actually did see a dime of the games in question, chances are that the developers working in there would be completely different people, and would not see their wages and/or monthly bonuses increases in the slightest for you having bought the game -- Whether it is an used CD, or some super old game available on Steam (which doesn't even run on modern without 2 different fan made patches)
My favorite part of emulators existing is that people delve into the workings of games and certain bugs will be optionally patched if someone figured out a way to do it and the community allowed it. So in the end, some games can actually be less inaccurate than they originally were, even if that is conceptually an oxymoron.
Also the whole CRT thing, not all emulators adopted all the corrections yet(Btw, it remains impressive that someone working on Dolphin actually thought to give the option to replicate all the diffrent known color and brightness-spaces one may want to play with, even tho I personally prefer to just play with the raw output to cut down on choice paralysis.), but in general it just helps if you want to do what original hardware cannot, being to replace the features of the displaytypes that most people no longer have but were mostly what games were designed around until around the Wii's launch.
9:15 Funfact, this will never be 100%. I mean, it wouldn't be anyways because they count online games no longer having their server(Why?), but they also actively plan to never reach full compatibility because they would have to implement a feature that they appearently won't to "avoid legal trouble" even tho the chance for trouble is supposedly so small that simply having an emulator should be too dicey by that logic. That puts a bit of meh into the celebration of their great accomplishments, since usually the emulator-mindset is to eventually reach 100 unless the requirement is completely outragous.(Like how Dolphin reaching full compatibility would require it to merge with Cemu exclusively because of the vWii-channel that swaps to WiiU mode)
Hi! This is my first vid of yours, and just thought I'd thank you for 1) Not being a "purist" - I love retro games, but agree - a lot of it you can't get ahold of, is too expensive, or the hardware is hard to get too. and 2) For using your real voice. I will always prefer a human voice over an AI or ComputerVoice thing. Sure, we can tell english isn't your first language, but it's good enough and you can tell you're doing it because you want to share the stuff you like. So yeah, thanks for continuing to do what you like. :)
pretty good video, subscribed! keep it up!
I have a PS4 as my normal gaming console. I also have a SEGA Genesis for which I still buy games for because I like collecting for it since it's my favorite console ever. Every once in a while, I plug it and play on it. It's great to use the actual hardware, but I also have a Retroid Pocket 3+ where I play emulation. Having so many consoles is impossible both because of space and budget. I think emulation is important to preserve the history of gaming. I do not agree on having emulation for current generations, for those I'll pay the money, but older devices I feel it's fine because it can be the only way to play some games that otherwise would get lost, and people would not even know about.
Great channel I subbed. The best way I think to play emulators on the go, is with Valves Steam deck. It plays everything ps1, ps2, ps3, psp, psvita, gamecube & wii, genesis, master system, nes, snes, dreamcast, even wiiu & switch. I love this machine, plus you can play most of your games you bought for your pc on the steam store!
I don't know, I don't condemn anyone for emulating, and I've done it before and sometimes it offers things you can't do on original hardware, like Dolphin letting you place gamecube and wii games actually rendered in 1080p and not just upscaled into 1080. Tell you what games like Sonic Colors looked amazing in 1080p aside from some textures looking flat because they weren't designed with that resolution in mind. (before there was a remaster of the game)
Still I overall just prefer to play with the original versions on original hardware. When it's just a big list of roms it's hard to value them or put time into them, I would just randomly jump around and get bored of games quickly. Something about having the physical copy of the game and picking it off the shelf, puts my brain into a space where I can give the game the attention and respect enough to enjoy it for what it is and stick with it. When games are just a large list and easy to swap between them, it changes how I play them.
I can get how many people get that way. For me what works is just sticking to one rom. Keeping lists low or one game and then delete also helps when I delete games I finished already. But yeah sticking to one good game till it’s done helps me treat it as if it was physical.z
If you just want to play the games, by all means use emulators. As mentioned, they're as good and often better than the original hardware. I will say, however, that there is something about playing them on real hardware that emulators just can't match. If you're into it for the nostalgia, it's worth exploring, though can get pretty pricey. What I've personally done is get my childhood consoles and flashcarts for them, and I'll only buy actual carts of games that have some special meaning to me and that I can find for a reasonable price. I also got a RetroTink, which is expensive but you only need one and it really helps with the experience of getting these consoles on modern displays.
I've been retro gaming since I was a kid and I quit buying older games last year. I only bought stuff under $15 and now thats even become not worth the effort. Playing older JRPGs with save states and fast forward is so much better than hardware. Thank u emulation devs.
Gutted i sold my stuff a decade earlier along with it being sold under value... forever regret that as i was forced too via desperation.
I live in Germany, and I am very happy with retro game market here. The only problem is finding more room for my collection andmy consoles...
I collect some games for the vintage artwork and cool physical packaging of the original but i found most retro games gave me 'Rose tinted glasses' and once played i was like "This isnt as good as i remember from when i was a kid". If you can get a remake or remaster this helps appreciate them in 2023, in a similar way as some emulators do, however i tend to find most emulators are notoriously difficult to configure and setup with complex options, more so for retro home computer games than consoles due to the complex keyboard control schemes. Some emulators also run the games too fast as they wont work with modern CPU speeds etc or have difficulty with disk swapping.
I use the Wii with homebrew to emulate on CRT TV.
I think ready for emulation very soon. At least it will take up less space.
Launch Box is awesome and convenient. Bought lifetime license for 70$ couple of years ago and very happy with it.
If accuracy is a goal, the Ares multi-emulator is quite impressive. The newer the system, the greater the system requirements, but 2D is essentially no longer a problem with anything less than 10-15 years old.
Why bother with it when RetroArch is much more mature and advanced?
can you explain what you mean about PSIO abandoning its customers?
I love emulators but the biggest downside of them, especially for a system like the NES, is the latency. Golf games are a good way to experience the issue, if you find you are consistently off it's probably due to latency, can be introduced from many factors. Real hardware and a CRT does not have those issues. Some computer and monitor setups can get pretty low latency but not perfect, and idk about the new retroarch features to fix the problem, they make weird things happen on the screen imo
The best modern emulators for consoles like the NES don't have input lag issues at all... and if you have any you can just use runahead frames (which only "make weird things happen on the screen" if you crank them so high that you're literally re-winding time in-game). The only emulator I've truly had significant input lag issues on is PCSX2. The emulator isn't the problem, it's you being hyper-sensitive to modern displays with poor input delay themselves.
I wanted to emulate for ddr, but i read the frames are off and cause latencies. It's better to keep my ps2.
@@mexdrago3009 I would think 100% for sure for a game like ddr you are better off with the real deal hardware for now.
@OGmolton1 Thanks. Makes me feel better about keeping it and getting the new retrotink 4k next. I managed to make it look smooth on my lgc1 77 and hit the pad no problem on my first setup.
@@mexdrago3009just play stepmania
Play games in any way you prefer. My only suggestion is: go for a crt TV or for a serious scaler.
If the the original systems are modable, then that's the way to go. Consoles are more convenient without shader cache compilation, compatibility issue, and accuracy. This still stays true for the current gen where there are so many bad ports on PC. I will still buy a gaming PC though in the future, keyboard and mouse control are so good.
Subscribed!! 🕹️ The only downside to emulators for me is my laptop is not powerful enough to use all the graphics improvements or even smooth gameplay. My laptop struggles with PS1 games without any graphic enhancements. It's a shame because I would love to play the original tomb raider games with smooth graphics. I own a physical ps2 and play my ps1 and ps2 disks on that
MISTer FPGA is the way to go, imo. Emulators for the newer consoles are getting better and better.
I also use RetroArch for about 3 years now. It makes no sense for me to pay a lot of money for loose cartridges without packaging. My new TV has no scart input anymore so i can't use the RGB output of my consoles. Just buy yourself a very good controler and use RetroArch. Consoles like Neo Geo weren't payable for a teenager or younger people. They were too expensive.
Basically, buying the original stuff, both hardware and games, are nice for collecting/display purposes. For actual gaming tho, emulators are just easier and more convenient. Discs get scratched, cartridges need soldering to replace batteries, etc.
I was introduced to emulation back in 2013 or so and since then I have being using emulators if I wanted to play something old. But the emulation, as you said in your video, is not perfect. Thus why I stay away from some emulators of some platforms. For example, I stay away from RetroArch emulator because, while it may be comfortable to use, because it has everything to run all retro consoles, the emulator itself is kinda crappy. Sometimes it will work fine, other times it will give you an error. Sometimes it will emulate perfectly, and other times game will work like crap. That is why I thought that, why should I bother with RetroArch anyway, if it can't provide stability on daily basis? And since then I used separate emulators for each platform of my interest rather than RetroArch. And then next emulator that I stay away from is PCSX2 because, PS2 emulation is kinda sucks. And despite all those claims that it now works fine, I tried most modern version of PCSX2 and it still f-ckes up with me. Like, back in the days games was just simply lagging on PCSX2 for me, but now emulator itself does not want to work, saying that I don't have some freaking render installed or something, I don't know. Maybe it's the deal with OpenGL, but last time I checked, I have support of OpenGL v3.3 version on my PC, and yet somehow it is not enough for this piece of crap emulator to work. So screw it! I will not even bother to make it work. And then the original Xbox emulator, which is Xemu. It worked fine like 3 or 4 years ago, but I decided to try it last year and, it's the same crap as with PS2 emulator. It says that I lack some sort of components. I don't even remember what it was. And so yeah, I decided to screw it too because, why bother if it doesn't work out of the box? Let it just rot on pile of crap that it is.
As for the platforms that I'm emulating with no problem, they are: NES, Famicom, Sega Mega Drive, Master System, Game Gear, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, SNES, TurboGraphx 16 or PC Engine, Arcade, Neo-Geo, PS1, PSP, Wii and GameCube. Those are the ones that I can emulate with no problem. I also don't update emulators of those systems because, latest versions could screw it up for me. So once I got everything set up and running, I turned off any updates check on those emulators and called it a day. Because, new version of emulator does not mean that it will be the better one.
And as for the emulators that I'm using for all those platforms, then they are: FCE Ultra, NESTopia, VirtuaNES, Gens Plus, Gens 100Mhz, Gens ReRecording, Kega Fushion, Snes9X, ZSnes, Visual Boy Advance, Magic Engine, Mame, DuckStation, PPSSPP and Dolphin. You may ask "why do you need few emulators for some of the platforms?". And the answer is simple: because there is some games that doesn't work on one emulator but work on another. Or there is fan made hacks aka mods for those old games that requires you to have specific emulator. And that is why I'm having few emulators for some of the consoles. Cause in case if some games does not work, let's say on VirtuaNES, then I can run them under FCE Ultra or NESTopia.
Here's some key words everyone ought to know if you want to do emulation right. CRT Emudriver 2.0. CRT Switchres. Extron RGB 192. Component video/Analog transcoder - OR - Jungle chip OSD RGB pins hack, 75 ohms. These things will change your life as you know it. It's a deep rabbit hole, but worth the effort.
Get a console, a Flashcart/ODE and play whatever you want, show resellers the middle finger so the bubble bursts.
Or just use an Emulator, but I like playing on my CRT :D
At this point, emulation is media preservation. With big companies delisting stuff on digital storefronts forever. And some older games being very pricey on ebay
just keep it up, great content!
To be honest, I enjoy emulation and retro games, but the fact that you're saying "Emulation is better than using an old console because of piracy" is something I do not agree at all.
I understand SOME games are really overvalued nowadays, but people buy single modern games for 80$ all the time, I do not see anything bad in paying around 50$ for a PS1/PS2 game if you really want to play it (and still, most games are way cheaper than that), and it's what I do, if I want a game, I just buy it, burn an .iso with IMGBurn and play it on my PS1 and PS2 emulators on PC.
You can play legally owned retro games on your PC exacly as you can play illegally obtained copies of the game on a console using homebrew and modchips, Emulation is NOT piracy.
I agree that the outside perception is largely that they are the same, but emulation =/= piracy/. There are some super gray areas, I admit. Abandonware is an area where sailing the high seas might be the only option. I have no problem with pirating games for super obscure consoles in name of preservation. I also have no issues getting roms off of Classic editions of consoles. Earthbound and FF7 alone justified the purchase. What are your thoughts on scraping roms off an emulation device?
Honestly people who pirate roms off the internet most of them can’t afford buying the original games (of course it depends on the system, ps2 games are super cheap for example), however it is insane how some games, especially Japanese games are so goddamn expensive. I am not surprise honestly, the retro gaming market is self destructing increasing their prices all the freaking time and increasingly becoming more difficult to get your hands on. Even CRT TVs are getting insanely expensive even for the lowest tier TVs, it’s infuriating so yeah I am happy that I moved on to just using emulation. My wallet is definitely happy with that decision.
@@AymanAntri7 Then again, I'm not judging you for pirating old games (even still, I do not think the situation is that bad, at least for PS1/PS2/PS3 era), but emulation is just not piracy, taking isos and roms in a not legal way is piracy, I emulate stuff PS1/PS2/Wii/NGC/PS3 all the time and I just use CDs, Blurays and DVDs I actually own.
@@RedFlameFox Well it really is a morality issue at the end of the day, sure you can argue that I am pirating mother 3 fore example but good luck playing that game if you are not proficient at japanese plus mother 3 has only been released in japan, getting that game in original cartridge is expensive. Iso based games are cheaper and easier to dump and get the file so when I can, I do that. However these discs will not last forever, eventually piracy is necessary for preserving and accessing content from the past. Game companies clearly have no interest on preserving and they dont make money anymore on old videogames besides the ebay sellers so what is the point really?
To be fair, at some point, piracy is going to be inevitable. Especially when used games aren't reasonably priced anymore.
Even in this video PS3 era games are reasonably priced. With software modding, you can dump such games easily nowadays.
i am a game collector and I believe that every nerd my age, when they start paying their own bills, think about purchasing the consoles they had as a child. But there aren't retro consoles for everyone and demand keeps growing, so prices won't stop rising... There are extremely faithful emulators like blastem for the mega drive and mister fpga hardware, start thinking about it!
Is this the guy from hydraulic press channel, Sounds very similar.
XEMU is the best way to play online in MK Deception and MK Armageddon, it has better netcode than in ps2
Awesome content! New subscriber here! A retro gamer like you! Hope you can make a content about the PSP! Thank you!
Actually, I don't like emulators that much anymore because of the input lag. I much rather using a MiSTer. To be completely honest, I personally couldn't care less about convenience either.
I mainly only use emulators on the Steam Deck for portability since I doubt anyone's ever going to make a MiSTer handheld.
really enjoyed this video - your English is great
Emulation is great, I enjoy collecting though. For a couple of reasons, one is I have a room with all my old games and systems and once in awhile I'll go there to relax and hook up a system which I enjoy doing. The other reason is we don't have market money, and the government keeps devaluing our currency and there's very few places for everyday people to put their money in a way that they can hold value and then return possibly make some money. My game collection to me is nothing more than a savings account that I get to play and enjoy
for RPGs or slow paced game, i prefer emulation so we can smooth out the jaggy polygons and have better graphics, duckstation is the king. for fast paced or rhythm game real hardware is the only option for me. and crt tv for 240p is unbeatable either with real hardware or emulation.
I also own orignal hardware like Nes, Gameboy, N64, Dreamcast, Gamecube and so on. But the hassle is just not worth it. The cables, the upscalers, aging capacitors etc.
I want the fantastic possibilities of emulation like:
Romhacks
HD Mode 7
Widescreen Support
Higher resolutions and texture packs
Perfect digital image
Yes, i am getting old and value my time more.
most retro games are still possible to use your real disc on an emulator with a USB drive
I find it really hard to believe someone would prefer to get real official cartridges instead of emulating games without being a game collectionist, ever since I was a kid I was an emulation fan trying to get all consoles and all games on my PC and everyone I knew was the same if they didn't have a modern console at the time (like an Xbox 360 for example), if anything emulation us obviously better from the get go, it was never a hard thing to do, I learned how to emulate PS1 when I was 11 yo and didn't emulate PS2 because my PC wasn't powerful enough
For me emulation began as a no brainer replacement when Drakan 2 The Ancient Gates i think its called wouldnt load in a some kinda of Swamp level (forgive me i dont remember whats it called, it was a while back now) and short story, kept freezing even after proper cleanup, everything. Still no luck.
Better PC meant better for emulation as the last time i tried it. So went on making .iso of Drakan and booted up in PCSX2. I think the version was 1.4.0.
I forgot to set it up, so i was like it looks the same and no better wtf. Then lights up and yeah, did the setting up part, immediately boom, looked nicer ran better all in all a better experience.
This was the day i said bye bye to og hw and went on emulating. Yes even those games i didnt owned. What i could i did buy, expensive shit i didnt. As in the video, nobody from the team developing it profiting from it anymore, i think no harm done, just to play a game or two. So yes. Emulation is here to stay and what i really want is to get even more accurate especially PS2.
I absolutely LOVE emulation, IF it works well. It had allowed me to try games from systems I never owned in the past. Yeah, i know I'm not supposed to do that, but like you said, buying copies of old games gets expensive real fast.
There are games that I would NEVER have the patience to play on a real console without save states. Like GTA: Liberty city Stories (PSP version). Some of the optional (but required for 100%) missions are rage inducing for me. If I wasn't able to just press a key and instantly restart the mission when I screw up, I'd take the game and throw it out the window.
Unfortunately, I have an old system, so PSP is about the most advanced system I can emulate at full speed. I can play some PS2 games, although many of them run at less than full speed for me, and some are just too slow to even consider playing. I'm talking, like 5 FPS. I can't run Dolphin at all. Well, i can, but the games are unplayable unless I completely disable the sound. Trying to emulate anything later than that is currently out of the question for me.
I hope to be able to get a newer, faster system in the near future, that will allow me to emulate more advanced systems.
So you’re using a pc I’m assuming? Not sure what phone you use but androids especially the top flagships can emulate ps2 full speed even god of war basically and Nintendo switch even and 3ds plus others.
@@robmalcolm8042 I actually don't have a smart phone. Even if I did, I wouldn't want to play emulated games on it. I want a big screen and real control options.
Original hardware with mods to allow games to be played from files is the ideal solution for me
I've always emulated retro games for the past 20 years, I never cared about having original hardware and games unless it was cheap. I'm also far more interested in retro hardware than physical retro software. So I'd be fine with an everdrive.
Very interesting video ! We can clearly see you have experience, video and editing are really good ^-^ And we can see you really put in a lot of effort to be understandable despite your accent, so yeah ,very good !
edit : 7:00 what game is this?
Edit² : 8:25 yes and indeed you are brave, despite being fully fluent in English, it isn't my first language either, and doing a 40min long video essaie in english (which isn't my native language either) proved to be way harder than I ever thought. So much so that I gave up and went for videos in my language instead. So props to you for working in english !
7:00 James Bond: Nightfire?
I regret spending near $1000 on my current console collection. While I can justify consoles that are hard to emulate currently like Saturn, Xbox 360 and PS Vita. But in essence, I feel like most of the rest can be replicated much better on emulation, especially with runahead to eliminate the latancy. That's not counting that there are emulators that have less latency than real hardware like Dolphin for example. I feel like it was all for naught.
Great video, thx!
Buy the console for a few bucks, chip it, insert a usb full of games. There, that is the cheapest way to enjoy them without artifacts. But emulators are as the video says, better when trying to play them on better graphics and save the savegames.
mortal kombat 9 is playable in rpcs3, so yeah the emulator is getting better every day
I'm trying to get into emulation, but getting it on my Steam Deck is pretty hard due to Linux. Any tips?
I'm not sure how but kde plasma should be on it. Either run retro arch or just run individual emulators.
Are PS2 emulators more resource intensive than GameCube?
yes, a bit, it's nothing bro
I feel like Sean Connery is doing the Narrating 😅
Get powerful raspberry pi mini pc with many gamepad inputs ,and truly enjoy amazing Retro gaming on a tight budget 👍😸👍
I've build a console to play old games, i build it into a broken xbox one s housing! It was a laptop that was sh1tty, it had a celeron n3000 or something, so bad for windows or linux, but great for emulation and lakka! Up until Nintendo 64 and PSP, i have no problems! Anything heavier than this and it will not run, but i don't care! I am proud of my own console with emulators! It has enough hard drive space for a considerable big library, and it plays very well! I am also of the same thought that emulating games you don't own isn't piracy, paying some dude on the internet an heavy up count for a disc or cardridge that the og developer never will get any money from is bad! I just enjoy my games the way i want it! I also have a modded og xbox and a ps3 just for those games that are hard to emulate!
Most people that Collect games don't do it because they want to play them. they Buy them as an Investment. as you know the more you play something the faster it deteriorates. so in true most collectors use Emulators to play them, even if they don't like to admit it.
To emulate you need the right hardware as well
I see some videos in youtube of "experts" bashing cheap upscalers and video converters, and I always say, they forget mist people in the world can't pay 700 USD for that shiny 4k upscalers that does magic. Most people just want to play their okd syasems.
I do play both on original hardware or emulators., that have easy cheata and save states that help a lot of not wasting my little free time. So, yeah, just use what gives you fun, do not mind what purists say.
3:58-4:07 Also, a lot of re-releases or remasters these days are susceptible to censorship for "modern sensibilities". Look at the new Baten Kaitos remasters for the Switch. The localization is completely butchered. Same with Pikmin 1 and 2.
Tales Of Symphonia is objectively worse with every single port. The only way to play it in 60fps is with the GameCube version, ideally on the Dolphin Emulator.
Yeah and some county 1 dollar cost 1000 to other
Are you from Norway? 😅
My guess is Iceland.
Old games aren't that expensive if you get them loose (plus they retain and even increase in value over the years) and if you use savestates then the whole game experience is fundamentally different from what the devs originally intended, which kind of defeats the purpose of playing in the first place. Also, none of the games feel special when you have literally all of them available at the press of a button.
You can just...not use savestates.