Retro games and emulation - Discuss retro shit in case you're stuck in the past or a hipster

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Been watching all the 3DS prices shooting up recently. I always thought once the Switch game out, these things wouldn't be go up in price if anything.
It's super easy to hack and can play every Nintendo handheld game released from 2001-2017 natively. With the fan made native SM64 port, and all the official ports to GBA, DS and 3DS, that includes most of the games worth playing for SNES and N64 as well. Then it can emulate things like NES, SNES, Genesis, Gameboy and Gameboy Color acceptably. In a world where a Switch 2 and one game costs $500, a 3DS represents an incredible value and so demand has skyrocketed.

A similar thing is happening with the PSP, which plays PSX natively in addition to the PSP library, also representing an incredible value.

Supposedly this is all being driven by Gen Z who are sick of not being able to own anything outright, so they're just buying these devices prehacked and loading them with games.
 
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So apparently Nintendo Switch emulation is still fucked

This was on the front page of the emulation wiki
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Most/all of the Yuzu and Ryujinx forks have proper hosting away from the hub, so I'm not super worried. It's just Nintendo's lawyers telling Github jannies to sweep again because they're bad and didn't stop it last time.
 
The real funny thing is that the Switch probably has less first party exclusives that are worth it than the GameCube, picking up a Wii U emulator (which by the way, runs pretty well and seems to have gone completely unnoticed by nintendo) means you can pick 2/3 of the Switch library and play it without many issues (some games are fucked because of the tablet controller)

The real meat and bones of the Switch is being able to play your games on the go, which is useless if you're emulating it on PC as you can just use your Steam library or pirate the GOG release.
 
The thing about the switch is that 90% of the library, especially ones that are eShop only, are shovelware titles, and not even good ones either. At least the Wii/WiiU/DS/3DS had SOMETHING unique that wasn't either a 1st party or on PC. if you were to go on the Switch eShop now and organize the releases by date oldest to newest, the difference in game quality between when the Switch was released to now is fucking night and day. Now almost every single "new" game that gets released every week for the catalogue is some form of AI slop or generic "simulator" game, and they are getting even more blatantly obvious with it every month. There is ZERO quality control. As it stands, 1st party content (and whatever other "exclusives" it has, which isn't very many) is the ONLY thing that differentiates the Switch from just getting a PC.
 
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I just thought this was incredibly funny, and is relatively pertinent to the thread.
The Rayman 30th anniversary collection is likely using a frontend for Retroarch, using some basically unencrypted roms/ISOs. On the PC release, you can even swap the .bin of the PS1 release with the original to restore the original OST versus the new one. This also explains why there's no saturn support, as saturn cores in Retroarch suck noodle.

edit: Right idea, wrong frontend. It's Syrup.
 
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For systems (mostly 16-bit and earlier) where the console is literally doing things in the hblank and vblank intervals, I can buy the "lower latency on original hardware + CRT" idea. I don't think it really applies for 99% of people who want to play old games, but enthusiasts have a point.

Once we move into the era of 32-bit consoles and newer where they're rendering to a frame buffer and doing page-flipping, the extra latency you perceive on a modern display/emulator is almost certainly just placebo. These consoles are enforcing the equivalent of aggressive vsync in PC games.
 
For systems (mostly 16-bit and earlier) where the console is literally doing things in the hblank and vblank intervals, I can buy the "lower latency on original hardware + CRT" idea. I don't think it really applies for 99% of people who want to play old games, but enthusiasts have a point.

Once we move into the era of 32-bit consoles and newer where they're rendering to a frame buffer and doing page-flipping, the extra latency you perceive on a modern display/emulator is almost certainly just placebo. These consoles are enforcing the equivalent of aggressive vsync in PC games.
You'd think. A lot of emulator / OS stacks find a way to add lag that "shouldn't" be there. And you can absolutely feel it.
 
You'd think. A lot of emulator / OS stacks find a way to add lag that "shouldn't" be there. And you can absolutely feel it.
I'm more talking in the ideal case of emulation. Obviously, shitty Android handhelds/boxes are always going to be a problem. But a proper setup on a modern system using DirectX or something should feel basically indistinguishable.
 
The thing about the switch is that 90% of the library, especially ones that are eShop only, are shovelware titles, and not even good ones either. At least the Wii/WiiU/DS/3DS had SOMETHING unique that wasn't either a 1st party or on PC. if you were to go on the Switch eShop now and organize the releases by date oldest to newest, the difference in game quality between when the Switch was released to now is fucking night and day. Now almost every single "new" game that gets released every week for the catalogue is some form of AI slop or generic "simulator" game, and they are getting even more blatantly obvious with it every month. There is ZERO quality control. As it stands, 1st party content (and whatever other "exclusives" it has, which isn't very many) is the ONLY thing that differentiates the Switch from just getting a PC.
There have been times when the ports have tempted me to get a Nintendo Switch, but ultimately decided against it every time because I'd have to rebuy everything, no mods, no easy way to share save files, and so on.

You're right, the Switch just doesn't have that many memorable or interesting titles. A lot of the best stuff from the Switch came within two years of its release which is very similar to the GameCube, but the Switch didn't even get all those quirky games that the GameCube got in its last 18 months. It's clear that the market wasn't really interested in the motion control gimmicks the Switch had and prominently advertised in the early days (I can't believe 1-2 Switch got a sequel).

The strength of Nintendo has always been its games, but a lot of its games on the Switch just haven't been that memorable. Super Mario Odyssey I've heard was disappointing in many aspects, and most of its other titles were just sequels to other games. And Tears of the Kingdom was no Majora's Mask.

It's also the first console since the GameCube with no backwards compatibility, and even during that time the Game Boy Advance could play games from the last 12 years.
 
Super Mario Odyssey I've heard was disappointing in many aspects
Odyssey is a high-water mark, IMO. The 3D movement alone was an improvement on Sunshine and Galaxy. The 2D platforming inside of it was a great and seamless addition. I was shocked at how well it worked. OST-wise, it's comparable to Galaxy as well, which is another high bar. I was really impressed by Odyssey. I'm not sure what they'll do with the Switch 2 to compete. Wonder was fun but kind of underwhelming. Bowser's Fury was another delight, but again, different design there.

I'd speculate that the Switch's success was part of the reason Squeenix experimented with Octopath, which resulted in Triangle Strategy and probably the recent HD 2D remakes. I think it's easy to underrate the Switch given how strong Nintendo's lineups usually are.
 
You're right, the Switch just doesn't have that many memorable or interesting titles.
I guess you might think that if you completely ignore every game that was on any other platform.

But if not there's a ton of really cool titles, ones I would just default to thinking of as Switch games. If I limit to things I played since 2019 I could point to Dragon Quest Builders 2, WorldEnd Syndrome, AI: The Somnium Files, Trials of Mana, Gnosia, Getsufumaden, River City Saga: Three Kingdoms, Bakeru, and Ginka. And hey that's just my list, I'd expect that most people have a long list of completely different games in the same bucket of these AA games that are best remembered as "switch games."
 
I guess you might think that if you completely ignore every game that was on any other platform.

But if not there's a ton of really cool titles, ones I would just default to thinking of as Switch games. If I limit to things I played since 2019 I could point to Dragon Quest Builders 2, WorldEnd Syndrome, AI: The Somnium Files, Trials of Mana, Gnosia, Getsufumaden, River City Saga: Three Kingdoms, Bakeru, and Ginka. And hey that's just my list, I'd expect that most people have a long list of completely different games in the same bucket of these AA games that are best remembered as "switch games."
I got a Switch for Space Harrier, money well spent
 
I guess you might think that if you completely ignore every game that was on any other platform.
Well, yeah. If I wanted to play the other games, I could just get them on Steam.

I will say that it has my favorite version of Phantasy Star 1 though. That’s something.
 
Well, yeah. If I wanted to play the other games, I could just get them on Steam.
Yabut I can get hard copies on Switch and have reliable sleep mid game so I don't need to consider the save system per game to just stop for 15 mins. Even vs Steam Deck which has mostly reliable sleep I have longer battery life on my Switch OLED than my Steam Deck OLED, effortless mode switching & docking between TVs, and a system that doesn't freeze randomly.
 
When it comes to a Steam Deck, I can't justify it either because it's twice as expensive, my hands already cramp up with a 3DS in the wrong position, and I struggle to justify when I'd use it. Maybe vacation a bit...once a year? Where I could easily lose it? If I was going out of town (overnight) on a regular basis then maybe.
 
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