Retro Gaming Megathread: Disconnect from the present, and Go back to the nineties.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Retro Gaming Megathread: Disconnect from the present, and Go back to the nineties.

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Caitlin: Aug 18, 2006; When I die, if there is a heaven, I will spend eternity rolling around with a pile of kittens.

Ineffiable posted:

If the Vita takes off as an emulation device, get ready for a second wave of bitching about memory card prices.

Because those prices are STILL atrocious.

# ? Aug 1, 2016 21:22

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# ? Apr 18, 2024 12:22

univbee: Jun 3, 2004

Ineffiable posted:

If the Vita takes off as an emulation device, get ready for a second wave of bitching about memory card prices.

Not as bad as the PSP's memory cards in its prime. I paid like $200 for an authentic 4 gig memory card back in those days. :gonk:

# ? Aug 1, 2016 21:25

BENGHAZI 2: Oct 13, 2007; by Cyrano4747

Ineffiable posted:

If the Vita takes off as an emulation device, get ready for a second wave of bitching about memory card prices.

Already got my 64 gig :smug:

# ? Aug 1, 2016 21:26

univbee: Jun 3, 2004

Literally The Worst posted:

Already got my 64 gig

I got two, and a 32. :smug:

Also I think a 4 and a handful of 8's from coming with hardware.

# ? Aug 1, 2016 21:27

TheMcD: May 4, 2013; Monaca / Subject N 2024
---------
Despair will never let you down.
Malice will never disappoint you.

With the amount of times I've had to deal with corruption on my 32GB Vita card, I'll stick with my GCW-Zero for my handheld emulation needs, thank you very much.

# ? Aug 1, 2016 21:29

univbee: Jun 3, 2004

TheMcD posted:

With the amount of times I've had to deal with corruption on my 32GB Vita card, I'll stick with my GCW-Zero for my handheld emulation needs, thank you very much.

Really? For all the fuckery I've done with my Vitae I haven't really had anything like that happen. Weird.

# ? Aug 1, 2016 21:31

Random Stranger: Nov 27, 2009

Caitlin posted:

Because those prices are STILL atrocious.

"If you're going to complain about the prices on our memory so much, why don't you just buy third party? Mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha." -- Some Sony Exec in 1995 laying out their strategy for all of their electronics for the next twenty years.

# ? Aug 1, 2016 21:40

BENGHAZI 2: Oct 13, 2007; by Cyrano4747

TheMcD posted:

With the amount of times I've had to deal with corruption on my 32GB Vita card, I'll stick with my GCW-Zero for my handheld emulation needs, thank you very much.

I like that that doesn't exist anymore

# ? Aug 1, 2016 21:42

univbee: Jun 3, 2004

Random Stranger posted:

"If you're going to complain about the prices on our memory so much, why don't you just buy third party? Mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha." -- Some Sony Exec in 1995 laying out their strategy for all of their electronics for the next twenty years.

Lest we forget, the Sony PS1 Memory Cards held 128 kilobytes and cost like $20+US. There haven't been many storage media formats with a higher per-kilobyte price in the entire history of computing.

# ? Aug 1, 2016 21:43

BENGHAZI 2: Oct 13, 2007; by Cyrano4747

univbee posted:

Lest we forget, the Sony PS1 Memory Cards held 128 kilobytes and cost like $20+US. There haven't been many storage media formats with a higher per-kilobyte price in the entire history of computing.

1996, though

Also I had a Monster Memory Card from like madcatz or some poo poo that was a solid megabyte

# ? Aug 1, 2016 21:46

univbee: Jun 3, 2004

Literally The Worst posted:

1996, though

Also I had a Monster Memory Card from like madcatz or some poo poo that was a solid megabyte

Ah yes, the multi-page memory cards. Those tended to be flaky as gently caress, though, I lost my saves once and immediately stuck with official Sony cards from then on, and used a Dexdrive to backup saves via glorious COM port connectivity on my PC.

# ? Aug 1, 2016 21:48

Instant Sunrise: Apr 12, 2007; The manger babies don't have feelings. You said it yourself.

I can just save my games on the cartridges themselves, no need to buy an extra memory card! :smug:

# ? Aug 1, 2016 21:50

Silhouette: Nov 16, 2002; SONIC BOOM!!!

Nah, they were $14.99 MSRP. PS2 memory cards were $24.99 MSRP, though.

In retrospect, the PSX's pricing schemes were pretty odd, since it was the first time that the MSRP on software went down across the board. Most games were $34.99-39.99, with Squaresoft games selling at $44.99-$49.99. It was one of the big reasons that the PSX had such a huge lead over the N64, since N64 games were $59.99+, with the Greatest Hits-style rereleases being sold for the "bargain" price of $39.99, as opposed to the PSX's GH line being $19.99.

# ? Aug 1, 2016 21:51

univbee: Jun 3, 2004

Instant Sunrise posted:

I can just save my games on the cartridges themselves, no need to buy an extra memory card!

Nintendo was right.

Well, they would have been if memory cards and games requiring them weren't a thing on the N64. :psyduck:

# ? Aug 1, 2016 21:51

fishmech: Jul 16, 2006; by VideoGames; Salad Prong

univbee posted:

Lest we forget, the Sony PS1 Memory Cards held 128 kilobytes and cost like $20+US. There haven't been many storage media formats with a higher per-kilobyte price in the entire history of computing.

...The 3DO save memory expansion unit only held 256 KB and cost way more, prices are difficult to find but it seems to have cost at least the equivalent of $60. And N64 Controller Paks held only 32 kilobytes while costing at least $10!

And that's to say nothing of how expensive and low storage floppy disks often were for 80s computers, or any of the storage media before 1980. Or all the various strange formats of non-floppy disk removable storage in the late 80s and 90s for portable devices. You could easily pay over $100 to add 16 KB of storage to one of those things at times.

# ? Aug 1, 2016 21:53

univbee: Jun 3, 2004

Silhouette posted:

Nah, they were $14.99 MSRP. PS2 memory cards were $24.99 MSRP, though.

In retrospect, the PSX's pricing schemes were pretty odd, since it was the first time that the MSRP on software went down across the board. Most games were $34.99-39.99, with Squaresoft games selling at $44.99-$49.99. It was one of the big reasons that the PSX had such a huge lead over the N64, since N64 games were $59.99+, with the Greatest Hits-style rereleases being sold for the "bargain" price of $39.99, as opposed to the PSX's GH line being $19.99.

Yeah. Once you got memory cards and an extra controller sorted (and eventually dualshocks), the bang-for-your-buck of the PS1 was ridiculous, especially in Canada where PS1 games were like $50-60 (with some GH games getting low as $10CAD) and N64 games could hit $90.

# ? Aug 1, 2016 21:53

Rirse: May 7, 2006; by R. Guyovich

Silhouette posted:

Nah, they were $14.99 MSRP. PS2 memory cards were $24.99 MSRP, though.

In retrospect, the PSX's pricing schemes were pretty odd, since it was the first time that the MSRP on software went down across the board. Most games were $34.99-39.99, with Squaresoft games selling at $44.99-$49.99. It was one of the big reasons that the PSX had such a huge lead over the N64, since N64 games were $59.99+, with the Greatest Hits-style rereleases being sold for the "bargain" price of $39.99, as opposed to the PSX's GH line being $19.99.

Vastly prefer this over the 16 bit era of random prices on games, with stuff like Chrono Trigger and Phantasy Star IV are 100 dollars.

# ? Aug 1, 2016 21:53

Lepecard: May 19, 2009; Soiled Meat

Instant Sunrise posted:

Please add this to the OP with regards to VGA grading:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/122034604912

....$25 for shipping!?

# ? Aug 1, 2016 22:01

Wayne Knight: May 11, 2006

univbee posted:

Nintendo was right.

Well, they would have been if memory cards and games requiring them weren't a thing on the N64.

I get it, though. You could make the per-cart price cheaper if you had the save memory in a separate place.

# ? Aug 1, 2016 22:07

Random Stranger: Nov 27, 2009

Silhouette posted:

Nah, they were $14.99 MSRP. PS2 memory cards were $24.99 MSRP, though.

In retrospect, the PSX's pricing schemes were pretty odd, since it was the first time that the MSRP on software went down across the board. Most games were $34.99-39.99, with Squaresoft games selling at $44.99-$49.99. It was one of the big reasons that the PSX had such a huge lead over the N64, since N64 games were $59.99+, with the Greatest Hits-style rereleases being sold for the "bargain" price of $39.99, as opposed to the PSX's GH line being $19.99.

It's hard to understate how expensive reproduction costs were for the first twenty years of video games. Those chips in your carts were not cheap. Not to mention the additional packaging and shipping costs. Those N64 carts cost about $15 to $20 to manufacture. Sony, OTOH, could press the disks for about $1 each and use standard CD manufacturing equipment to package them up. I doubt total manufacturing and shipping costs were more than $2 a game for Sony.

# ? Aug 1, 2016 22:07

DMorbid: Jan 6, 2011; Hello! I see you.

univbee posted:

Nintendo was right.

Well, they would have been if memory cards and games requiring them weren't a thing on the N64.

The N64 memory cards would've been okay-ish if most games requiring them didn't take up the entire goddamn card or at least so many "pages" that you couldn't fit another save file on there. I suppose you could've bought one of the third party ones that had more space, but those weren't the most reliable things in the world.

To be fair, I don't remember any games worth playing that required an N64 memory card.

# ? Aug 1, 2016 22:28

absolutely anything: Dec 28, 2006; ~As for dreams, she has enough and more to spare~

Doc Morbid posted:

The N64 memory cards would've been okay-ish if most games requiring them didn't take up the entire goddamn card or at least so many "pages" that you couldn't fit another save file on there. I suppose you could've bought one of the third party ones that had more space, but those weren't the most reliable things in the world.

To be fair, I don't remember any games worth playing that required an N64 memory card.

# ? Aug 1, 2016 22:33

fishmech: Jul 16, 2006; by VideoGames; Salad Prong

Doc Morbid posted:

The N64 memory cards would've been okay-ish if most games requiring them didn't take up the entire goddamn card or at least so many "pages" that you couldn't fit another save file on there. I suppose you could've bought one of the third party ones that had more space, but those weren't the most reliable things in the world.

To be fair, I don't remember any games worth playing that required an N64 memory card.

That's because N64 Controller Paks were 1/4 the size of the standard Playstation 1 memory card. Because Nintendo was money grubbing as hell.

# ? Aug 1, 2016 22:35

liquid courage: Aug 12, 2011

sack up and use craigslist. if you're willing to drive, you can find some excellent deals. got my pvm through craigslist for $50, as well as cheap copies of rockman & forte, einhander and legend of zelda: ocarina of time.

# ? Aug 1, 2016 22:39

Instant Sunrise: Apr 12, 2007; The manger babies don't have feelings. You said it yourself.

That's how I got a SNES mini, Yoshi's Island, and some NCAA basketball game that's gonna end up as a flash cart for $60

# ? Aug 1, 2016 22:41

Captain Rufus: Sep 16, 2005; CAPTAIN WORD SALAD

OFF MY MEDS AGAIN PLEASE DON'T USE BIG WORDS

UNNECESSARY LINE BREAK

Random Stranger posted:

It's hard to understate how expensive reproduction costs were for the first twenty years of video games. Those chips in your carts were not cheap. Not to mention the additional packaging and shipping costs. Those N64 carts cost about $15 to $20 to manufacture. Sony, OTOH, could press the disks for about $1 each and use standard CD manufacturing equipment to package them up. I doubt total manufacturing and shipping costs were more than $2 a game for Sony.

It's why nearly everyone went cd but Nintendo. It was cheaper. Yeah Japan players would pay 100 bucks or so for a Dragon Quest game in the early 90s and a handful of game starved Jrpg geeks might pay 75 for a SNES RPG. Most people would not. And still won't. Even in the computer space nobody paid 60 bucks msrp for an Ultima. They were 40 bucks Mail order and like 50ish at Software Ect.

And now with stuff like digital downloads and emulation there is far less need for expensive pricing outside of those people who must have legit game on legit hardware. For every one person happy to pay 140 bucks or so for R Type Delta there are 99 more who won't. ( They had it right next to RTypes which was 30 and I bought today. Rtype 1-2 for 30 is good if you want legit physical as opposed to whatever idiotic pricing getting them on the PC Engine would cost. Same store has had Rule of Rose for about the same price for months now. It ain't moving. Saturn House of the Dead however went fast. I just bought the graphics and game mode superior Win 9x version online for 15 shipped from Europe. I wasn't paying 75 for TG Dragons Curse. I'd be hard pressed to pay half that. Because I am cheap and have enough games to last me a lifetime anyhow.)

I went in for Donkey Kong Country for 20 as they had 3 copies a few weeks back but all were sold out. It was a sign to get one of my Psx hunted titles. I doubt I'll ever see Carnage Heart in store. They do have SNES Rampart and Civilization for 15 each I might grab finances depending in the next month or so. Hot Water Heater being replaced is a bajillion times more important than time wasting video games fun as they can be.

# ? Aug 1, 2016 22:42

Grapeshot: Oct 21, 2010

Random Stranger posted:

To inaugurate the new thread, I have done something crazy.

No, I didn't buy that. But what I did do is order a couple of Chinese reproductions.

I don't think it's really come up around here before, but there's Chinese manufacturers who are taking advantage of the retrogame boom to run off a few hundred copies of a ROM they downloaded. SNES stuff tends to be a bit pricier but if you just look it's not hard to find a place that will run off any Genesis/Mega Drive game for you for less than $5 including shipping from China. (I'm pushing at the edge of the rule here, but I assume that if you really want to go do this you know how to find the largest Chinese manufacturing marketplace out there on your own).

I ordered a couple of games that were unreleased in the US in US cases, but I'm interested in if they work at all (a big if when it comes to Chinese carts), what the shell is like, and how easy fraud would be using these carts.

FWIW, there are more expensive reproductions of Chrono Trigger on the same site and they do claim to be able to save. It looks like the more expensive SNES reproductions run about $18 - $25. Though I definitely wouldn't get Star Fox 2 from them.

I ordered a SNES RPG reproduction from Aliexpress, and it did work OK and save mostly OK but there was an infinite money cheat turned on permanently.

You may not be able to tell it from a real cartridge in a photo, but you can definitely tell in person. The game is lighter than a real cartridge, the plastic color is slightly off, and there may be plastic clips holding the game together instead of screws. Also the label paper was too thick and too glossy.

# ? Aug 1, 2016 23:53

hexwren: Feb 27, 2008

we're missing the most important part: BIG GRAY GAME CARD

# ? Aug 2, 2016 00:17

d0s: Jun 28, 2004

I think I've added all the suggestions made so far as far as links etc go, if I've missed anything post it below. for the people asking why handheld systems, etc. aren't mentioned, I just haven't gotten around to it, the OP is a living document like the menu of TGI fridays.

# ? Aug 2, 2016 00:42

Anidav: Feb 25, 2010; ahhh fuck its the rats again

I hope some Russian shits out a microsd to Vita memcard adaptor

# ? Aug 2, 2016 01:11

BENGHAZI 2: Oct 13, 2007; by Cyrano4747

Anidav posted:

I hope some Russian shits out a microsd to Vita memcard adaptor

Too small

# ? Aug 2, 2016 01:19

Anidav: Feb 25, 2010; ahhh fuck its the rats again

Don't microsds come in 256gb these days? Could fit half the Vita library on there.

# ? Aug 2, 2016 01:29

BENGHAZI 2: Oct 13, 2007; by Cyrano4747

Anidav posted:

Don't microsds come in 256gb these days? Could fit halve the Vita library on there.

I mean physically. They're shorter than a micro sd

# ? Aug 2, 2016 01:30

Anidav: Feb 25, 2010; ahhh fuck its the rats again

Oh well have it stick out of the system.

# ? Aug 2, 2016 01:31

Ofecks: May 4, 2009; A portly feline wizard waddles forth, muttering something about conjured food.

d0s posted:

I think I've added all the suggestions made so far as far as links etc go, if I've missed anything post it below. for the people asking why handheld systems, etc. aren't mentioned, I just haven't gotten around to it, the OP is a living document like the menu of TGI fridays.

Looks like some YT links got autopasted into video tags in that section.

Here are some nerds I occasionally watch play old games on Twitch:
https://www.twitch.tv/lordbbh - currently the Twitch MAME roulette king
https://www.twitch.tv/macaw45 - Sometimes does JP computer stuff, which gets no coverage and is pretty interesting
https://www.twitch.tv/icarusfw - does a shmup-only MAME roulette, also taught me how to play mahjong :aaa:

# ? Aug 2, 2016 01:32

PaletteSwappedNinja: Jun 3, 2008; One Nation, Under God.

Rupert Buttermilk posted:

I'll truly never understand this

Alex Kidd in Miracle World, the very first game, is not a bad game for its time and most of the fond memories people have for the series/character relate to that one game.

# ? Aug 2, 2016 01:33

d0s: Jun 28, 2004

Ofecks posted:

Looks like some YT links got autopasted into video tags in that section.

Here are some nerds I occasionally watch play old games on Twitch:
https://www.twitch.tv/lordbbh - currently the Twitch MAME roulette king
https://www.twitch.tv/macaw45 - Sometimes does JP computer stuff, which gets no coverage and is pretty interesting
https://www.twitch.tv/icarusfw - does a shmup-only MAME roulette, also taught me how to play mahjong

I know all these guys from shmups but I'm keeping streamers goons-only because there are like a billion retrogame streams

e: fixed YT links thanks

# ? Aug 2, 2016 01:37

Karasu Tengu: Feb 16, 2011; Humble Tengu Newspaper Reporter

Literally The Worst posted:

I mean physically. They're shorter than a micro sd

The vita also runs at a lower power than microSD but I guess you could get around it I guess if you really care.

You'd still have to fight Sony's encrypted filesystem though.

# ? Aug 2, 2016 01:42

BENGHAZI 2: Oct 13, 2007; by Cyrano4747

I actually stand corrected, micro sd is the exact same size as the Vita memory card

The odds of an adapter are slim tho considering it's been this long without one

# ? Aug 2, 2016 01:43

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# ? Apr 18, 2024 12:22

BENGHAZI 2: Oct 13, 2007; by Cyrano4747

Elliotw2 posted:

The vita also runs at a lower power than microSD but I guess you could get around it I guess if you really care.

You'd still have to fight Sony's encrypted filesystem though.

Yeah honestly it's a massive cluster

Having access to the filesystem will help, though

# ? Aug 2, 2016 01:43

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Retro Gaming Megathread: Disconnect from the present, and Go back to the nineties.

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