Up until 2016, the only good option for getting good looking retro games from real hardware on a modern TV was to buy a $300+ framemeister. A lot of us actually did this (myself included) but it was a hard pill to swallow for many.
For quite a while marqs had been working on making his own FPGA scan converter, which eventually became the OSSC, an alternative that while still pricey was more reasonable and eventually became more fully featured than the framemeister. Itās a bit of an underdog story, and a lot of us wish him and VGP success for going through the work to make it a reality.
Of course there was always going to be spinoffs and clones ā itās an open source product so thatās fine. But itās the specifics here that are rubbing people the wrong way.
Personally I feel that even if it wasnāt open source it would have eventually been cloned and likely would have been passed off as legit anyway. But Iām not looking forward to Joe Blow that buys OSSC China Ver. off ebay and claims that all OSSCs are faulty and donāt work with ps2s or something.
Of course it is. Anything you want to have a Chinese factory make will be ripped off. Thatās the nature of the Chinese mind set. Steal, rip it off, make money. I even enquired about getting BluRay discs made of some of my shows from a Chinese factory because they were cheap. They came straight out and said āwe will keep Master copies of your product for future referenceā. Eh? More like future knock off prints. Mind you they didnāt know what my BluRay was even about.
Just look at the clones I review. Many are rip offs of rip offs.
To be honest Iām surprised itās taken this long.
Thing is, the chinese versions are about the same price (Around Ā£140 from what Iāve seen on eBay shipped from China or HK). So yeah, if youāre spending the same amount or saving on an insignificant value like Ā£10 then why bother getting the knock-off?
Itās also worth keeping an eye out for VGPās refurbished stock as theyāre a bit cheaper and have a 6 months warranty.
I think the OSSC is very much worth the price for all that it does though and happy it came out just as I was about to get a Framemeister which is significantly more costly.
Those covers really do add something. Are those sold separate from the main unit or do you have to buy it all together?
Iām also kinda wondering when if ever is someone going to come up with a full case mod? I donāt like the idea that the pcb is itself staying exposed to the elements and expecting to last 5 years without some random dust particle shorting it out.
Itās pretty much the standard for these enthusiast made devices. Normal cases on electronics donāt do much for the dust other then keeping it āout of sight out of mindā and are mostly for that and the presentation side of selling a product.
Someday Iāll find a perfect filter system for keeping all my stuff dust freeā¦somedayā¦
