Thought it might be fun to have a thread to discuss what retro games (for the topic of this tread, let’s say 10+ years old) and how we play them.
I’m currently playing through Shadow Man; the Dreamcast release. I’m pretty sure if I’d played this on release I’d never have finished it. It’s just so huge and labyrinthine, I don’t think I’d manage it without a guide. Still a really impressive game though.
I’m playing on my Retroid Pocket 3+ via the Android version of ReDream.
Cool timing here. I literally just spent all last week getting my complete emulation setup going. I have all the consoles and whatnot, but honestly I tinker too much to ever actually enjoy them.
Anyways, I think it’s time to really dive into the games instead of just collecting and looking at them.
I was also able to put CFW, on a PS3 slim of mine so I’ve been getting that setup.
I started Drakengard last night and it is… a slog. If I can get the cheats to work without freezing the game I’ll have a better time.
This brings me to thinking about front ends and such. I bought Launchbox Lifetime last sale (FYI it is on sale right now) and that gave me BigBox. Mostly it’s a clean way to play the games, but there is a feature that pulls in the games from all the major providers/stores. I’m wondering if something from there or PlayNite (since it’s open source) that might be able to be implemented here.
This is a cool topic! I’ve been playing Secret of Mana and Snatcher on my Retromachine (Rpi 3B+ inside a NES shell, custom painted and I did all the soldering and shell script editing).
It’s running retropie and emulation station.
Back in October, I made the decision to finally play Silent Hill. So I got the emulator configured and whatnot and played through it and got the worst ending. It was a great experience, though. I think the only other way I could play Silent Hill would be to buy a PS1 or PS2 and buy a copy of the game off ebay or something.
Or I think it was released digitally on PS3 back in the day, but I don’t know where my PS3 is right now.
Although I’ll put an emulator on almost any device that will support it, right now my main emulation machines are a New 2DS with CFW and my Steam Deck. I’ve done the retro-pi and even hacked my SNES mini, but handheld seems to be my favourite type of device for emulation. Emu Deck is great for simple setup on Steam Deck. And undoubtedly my favourite thing to emulate is Chrono Trigger because I need to play it every so often 
I must have Chrono Trigger on five consoles! Still haven’t finished it because I’m a weird gamer. Very few games get me hooked. I’m more into modding, collecting, and building. Eventhough I have been enjoying Secret of Mana lately.
Some aspects of it don’t hold up if you don’t go to the temple before going to the kingdom then you cannot progress and your save file is useless. Gotta love games that punish you for being different
Second emulation on a SD. Playing Pikmin 1 there with absolutely no issues at all and finished the epitome of gaming, DKC with screen settings that made it look like an old TV screen. What a time to be alive
My current setup for emulation is my Steam Deck and my Anbernic RG34XX. The Steam Deck is an emulation dream machine, so not much to say there. The RG34XX is more for games where I want that classic Game Boy-ish “feel.” Most recently I played The Minish Cap and the Genesis Sonic trilogy on it. Right now I’m whittling away at Four Swords Adventures on my Deck so I can finally kick off part 2 of me marathoning all the Zelda games. Unfortunately, I struggle to enjoy that game much as a purely solo experience, so it’s been quite slow.
How’s the build quality?
It’s good, especially considering the low price. It feels plasticky but very solid, and I like the buttons a lot. The screen is also surprisingly bright and sharp. The shoulder buttons are a particular weak point, but it doesn’t really matter much for the systems this can emulate (Up to PS1). The biggest weakness is that the built-in software is not very good, but there’s a free custom firmware called GarlicOS that improves the experience a lot.
I should have just bought the RG35XX instead of the Analogue Pocket I just ordered. It felt like a silly purchase when I was doing it, but I wanted a nice Game Boyish type device for some reason. The cool looking colors just went on sale, so I snapped one up. I suppose I could just sell it and get one of these less expensive devices that actually emulates more advanced systems.
The Analogue Pocket does have the benefit of playing actual cartridges as well which was very tempting for me as someone who is a sucker for collecting cartridges.
They recently announced a newer edition of the RG35XX that can support more systems and comes with extra bells and whistles too, like adding WiFi/Bluetooth support. I haven’t looked very deeply into it, but it’s still at a similar price point, I believe.
My New 2DS was my main emulation machine before I got my Retroid 3+. I love playing Dreamcast games on the RP3. Looking forward to trying PlayStation on it.
I’m seriously thinking of getting a Steam Deck next time I feel I need to upgrade my PC, but I worry about futureproofing. One of the main reasons I don’t PC game in bigger way is because I find it a)hard to keep up advancements and b) too bloody expensive.
The Steam Deck is a good compromise between a gaming PC and a console. It’s a great way to access PC games, but in a console package. From a hardware perspective you would treat it like you do any other console, like an Xbox. So if you’re comfortable with the life cycle of any other console, you will probably be ok with a Steam Deck. Naturally I won’t presume that’s true 100% of the time and it will vary person to person based on one’s needs. But so far I’ve found it to be an excellent platform, with no need to upgrade to the latest hardware revision. That said, I might feel differently if it was my only console. I think of the Steam Deck much like a Switch, it’s a great as an additional console to something like a main PC/Xbox/PS.
That sounds good. With it being a capable emulation machine was well it’s quite temptitfoe if/when the Retroid gives up the ghost.
Hello folks! I have $150 in gift cards to Amazon I got for Christmas. There are several things I have my eye on but I want to really consider my options and potentially hold for a bit so I don’t use them instantly.
What I’m considering:
What combination of things would you get? I feel like I would use the rpi the most but the retro trio would be good to test my genesis carts.
Focusing on series completion of retro games now!!
The only games i have emulated this year are old pokemon games. There’s some amazing ROM hacks that put fresh new twists on old GBA games. I’ve also dabbled with Pokemon Nuzlockes to not much success. I enjoy using the Universal Pokemon Randomiser to mix things up too.
Honestly, I’d recomend a Retroid Pocket 3+. It’ll do everything apart from the PS2 games. Runs Dreamcast and below really well (Saturn emulation can be a bit dodgy depending on the game) and costs around £200. Unless you spercifically want a respberry pie for some reason, I’d go for the RP3+ (I have used both).
Here’s a great review of the new Retroid Pocket 4 for those interested.
