Apparently retro gaming are making a comeback....

[Little stoned kiwi]

GOG has been bought by one of the original co-founders and announced they plan to provide better support for Linux. That could be cool.

[grue]

Ha, great

Where do you look? Can’t find anything on Facebook where the owner doesn’t know to write “retro gaming” and mark it up to £250-300ish and all the charity shops just seem to have old pottery and clothes (I think probably because of PAT test requirements etc or I guess they’re just rarely given away and probably get snapped up by people who circulate the shops and bung them on ebay)

I usually look at local newspaper ads or facebook groups of Chania, my city.

[F-ZeroOne]

...I do find myself falling back on older, but not exactly "retro" games (like "X-Com: Enemy Unknown") sometimes

Which does raise the question, at what point does something become Retro?

Beats the hell out of me. I recently learned "Sonic the Hedgehog" is 35 years old - Thirty. Five! - and I still in my head think of that as only barely qualifying; to me "Retro" is something that had colour clash and loaded from a tape. I guess it varies depending on your personal experience, to a lot of people DVDs are now as ancient a technology as VHS or Teletext is to me.

[SuperMappy]

[Beats the hell out of me. I recently learned "Sonic the Hedgehog" is 35 years old - Thirty. Five! - and I still in my head think of that as only barely qualifying; to me "Retro" is something that had colour clash and loaded from a tape. I guess it varies depending on your personal experience, to a lot of people DVDs are now as ancient a technology as VHS or Teletext is to me.

I remember ready the manual to Sonic 2 in the bathroom at our local McDonalds when the wife and I went and got it just a few days after it was released and that was 34 years ago.

[Cloudane]

CRT sorted.

I asked in the local Facebook group. Someone messaged me who had 2x 14” in an old spare room

One Samsung one Bush (BTV18SIL which seems sorta well known)
Unfortunately he did look on eBay and clock how much they go for but I offered £40 for the pair with a promise that I’m not a dealer and we did the 50/45 haggling thing.

The Samsung is the lesser of the two actually, it’s blurry, not great scanlines, washed out and has a slight effect like a magnet has been held to it. Maybe it can be improved by someone with the know how. The Bush is great though.

Could I have done better and persevered until someone offered me one for a fiver? Probably. Happy enough though - the curiosity was driving me crazy and it’s no good spending your whole life waiting to save a few quid.

Yep, the effect is legit. I’d forgotten what they look like and only remembered blurriness. I also forgot how much they flicker though - oof!
I do believe 4K or 8K OLED will be able to simulate it with filters but also size has something to do with it - we weren’t playing these games on a 50” screen. And good luck finding a 4K 14”!

[Cloudane]

Double post

[grue]

CRT sorted.

I asked in the local Facebook group. Someone messaged me who had 2x 14” in an old spare room

One Samsung one Bush (BTV18SIL which seems sorta well known)
Unfortunately he did look on eBay and clock how much they go for but I offered £40 for the pair with a promise that I’m not a dealer and we did the 50/45 haggling thing.

The Samsung is the lesser of the two actually, it’s blurry, not great scanlines, washed out and has a slight effect like a magnet has been held to it. Maybe it can be improved by someone with the know how. The Bush is great though.

Could I have done better and persevered until someone offered me one for a fiver? Probably. Happy enough though - the curiosity was driving me crazy and it’s no good spending your whole life waiting to save a few quid.

Yep, the effect is legit. I’d forgotten what they look like and only remembered blurriness. I also forgot how much they flicker though - oof!
I do believe 4K or 8K OLED will be able to simulate it with filters but also size has something to do with it - we weren’t playing these games on a 50” screen. And good luck finding a 4K 14”!

Nice!

I can't enjoy the 16bit era games on a TFT no matter what, I want the scanline/ghosting/blur for the full experience.

[F-ZeroOne]

Todays "Penny Arcade" spiel has a suitable quote:

"Ronia and her friends had a "retro gaming party" a couple weeks ago.

They played the Wii."

[skab]

Todays "Penny Arcade" spiel has a suitable quote:

"Ronia and her friends had a "retro gaming party" a couple weeks ago.

They played the Wii."

From a purely age perspective that's accurate, even if it hurts ("I'm old!")

But for me "retro" implies some kind of serious limitations, and somewhat weaker 3D capabilities don't really count. Only having 4 or 2 colours when you crank up the resolution, colour clash, only having 4 or 8 sprites, not having enough CPU power even for simple flicker-free b/w wireframe 3D graphics, those are actual limitations. Having to switch from 4K to FHD for 60+ fps with full options, that's not retro and will never be.

[venusian]

And good luck finding a 4K 14”!

Reading this on a 14" laptop at 3K resolution.

It looks retro only in that there is a selection of smeary marks on it, just like the old family telly.

[Deckard]

I am thinking of getting a 3ds XL to play OOT and star fox with that cool 3d effect AND they are completely hackable now so can play almost anything up to N64 - Anyone any thoughts ? (I see the prices are starting to creep up now too)

[venusian]

I am thinking of getting a 3ds XL to play OOT and star fox with that cool 3d effect AND they are completely hackable now so can play almost anything up to N64 - Anyone any thoughts ? (I see the prices are starting to creep up now too)

The last revision of the 3DS XL (I forget the model designation) was much souped-up. The faster processor and suchlike weren't much used, but they added eye tracking for the 3D effect, which is worth having, I think.

I went looking for one some years ago, and they were already very expensive by then. Probably worse now.

[Deckard]

Yeah around 150 now (ish) on eBay

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/127988991353

Hopefully can get a local one from FB Markeplace for around 120

[venusian]

That one is EBay is an original 3DS Xl, not the "New" one: no C-stick, no eye tracking. The "New" ones seems to be about 30-40 quid more.

[Deckard]

Got a white new 3DS XL dual IPS (I didn't know that was a thing till I did my research) Jap one in white for 200 ! Plus 45 quid import fees I have just leant !