Retro AV |OT| RGB, CRTs, Upscalers, and more

Father time catches up to all of us… even powerful video game hardware.

Yeah, at this point I don’t see future consoles coming close to a high end PC at launch, but I’m ok with that since games matter the most!=p

I agree, I just we could make our own choice between resolution and frame rate and what we are willing to sacrifice to get the game to the performance we desire. Ultimately, I wish consoles were more like PCs in that regard and I wish PCs would use checkboarding techniques to get higher resolution while being able to turn in solid performance. Both PCs and Consoles have things both teams could benefit from.

PS4 Pro and X1X are heading in that direction of choosing between res and fps but it’ll be a while before it’s standard on consoles(if at all).

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I see the future consoles being 1 of 2 things. Either we are going to go down the switch route and the processing power will be in the dock (instead of just a hub like the switch is) or we are going to be iterating 2-3 times per generation. I think Nintendo is happy where it is, I think Sony will stay on its current course. I think MS actually might go for the processing power in the doc and have a portable device like the switch. Either way, the doc could still house a disc drive so BC could be a thing. I am expecting MS to really shake it up next go round as I think the next gen will be win or quit.

Honestly the only one on that list that I would agree with is the original Xbox. It still wouldn’t match up to a modern PC of that era in raw power, but the price of the system versus the performance it had was still an outlier. Halo was a gorgeous game, even when put up beside PC games of the time.

Take the N64 as an example: It’s widely known to have very blurry textures due to being the first real push to full 3D in the console world. Mario 64 ran at 320x240, @ 30fps. Mario Kart 64 had to use pre-rendered sprites for the cars because the system didn’t have the power to render them in 3D. The hardware was extremely limiting.

In the same year in the PC realm, gamers were playing Quake at 60+fps, with 800x600 or 1280x1024 monitors. The games had much higher resolution textures, and fully 3D accelerated graphics that took advantage of dedicated GPUs.

When you bump up to the GameCube era, most games were running at 640x480, while PC games were easily at 1280x1024 or 1600x1200.

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That’s a fair point. Especially regarding the N64.

Thinking about it a bit more… where the consoles really have the advantage is the games themselves. Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony and Sega have all had some truly remarkable franchises over the years that may not have happened without dedicated gaming consoles.

They seem to output goldmines year after year, despite being on hardware that is a generation or two behind.

Edit: And it’s not like the console manufactures couldn’t use more powerful hardware… but they know that no-one would ever buy a $1500 console.

SNK really tried to be cutting edge with arcade perfect Neo Geo AES hardware, and I guess it’s lack of mainstream appeal scared of other manufacturers.

Snes jr just arrived and its in damn good shape… now all i gotta do is find a modder in NA, and get this thing RGB modded. Also maybe a power led if possible.

That post really takes me back! I never understood the hype over the N64 because I was already playing Quake. Quake basically created the GPU market.

For reference:
Quake came out June 22, 1996
Mario 64 came out June 23, 1996

As for CRT’s I really keep bouncing back and forth. I was CRT till I die until the OSSC came out. The OSSC paired with my ks8000 is incredible and the just-over-1 frame of input delay on my tv is totally manageable. Since moving and re setting everything up I’ve moved everything a million times. Right now I’m back to having all my retro consoles hooked up to my CRT’s and I’m constantly bothered by something. The OSSC is just SO CRISP.

Yup, I was the same way. I had been gaming on computers and consoles since the days of Atari and Commodore VIC-20, but when the GPUs started to take over, I switched almost exclusively to PC. I just never really understood the N64 because it looked like crap compared to what I was used to.

Now I have a retro gamer perspective on the whole lineage of consoles, and I can appreciate and enjoy the N64. I’m just 20 years late to the party I guess… Haha

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I’m was the same way, with the exception of a few N64 titles, I was almost exclusively PC from 94-2000. It wasn’t until about 12 years ago I started going back and appreciating what was done back then. I was always looking for the next best thing and anyone that lived PC in the 90s knows, how steep of a slope that was, with graphic cards and new hardware coming out every 6 months. I was committed to PC and consoles seemed so outdated at launch. I was a snob basically

I famously didn’t like the N64. My favorite 3 games were Mario 64, Rogue Squadron and Ocarina of Time. I had a lot of N64 games over the years but there was always something that bothered me about it. Unlike most of you who PC gamed, I was late to the party and started playing on a PC in 2000. I was way more into the PS1 and then Dreamcast (which was almost always hooked up to my CRT).

Even now sometimes I feel like a poser retro gamer because I’m really into a narrow number of systems and games. I own systems I don’t even like because I’m hoping to eventually find the one magical game that will suddenly make me love the N64 or whatever. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Most of the good N64 games are better on the 3DS.

The OSSC is a helluva thing, once we all have locally dimming and OLED tvs, it’s not going to be hard to move away from CRTs. That’s not saying I dont want my CRTs anymore, but when the time comes I won’t worry about my back when hooking my systems up.

So this discussion brings up something I’ve been wondering about for a while - what is the next major step to build upon what the OSSC has done? If it’s open source, will a company like Micomsoft now use its expertise to improve upon the situation and mass produce something that’s the best yet at a lower cost, given its access to manufacturing lines?

Play Sin and Punishment.

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And then buy and play Sin and Punishment 2, which despite being an amazing game sold a total of 4 copies worldwide.

Sin and Punishment is such a great example of why licensing and making everything a sequal or connected universe is such a strong tool.

Take Sin and Punishment and make it a Star Wars game. Boom there’s a million copies sold.

Best thing about the N64 was drunk multiplayer with three friends. LAN parties were too much trouble to set up on the PC and even if you did it wasn’t as fun because you weren’t all on the same couch looking at the same screen.

From purely an “game with awesome gameplay selling well” side, that would be great, but for me I loved the story side of the games as well. It sucks that that is the best way to sell something, but I am well use to how few games can target me as it’s audience and do well. The Souls games are one of my biggest surprises in that regard.