But it’s fun planning out the year, even if our plans change.
Mine are pretty simple:
-Get PVM/BVM. Gonna have to swallow my sticker shock for this one
-Be more spontaneous with my retro pursuits. More like follow my bliss here. I do have elaborate lists, but I find just buying stuff by gut, within my budget, makes the hobby way more fun.
-Really start exploring retro releases and collections. The Switch and PS4 have developed really great retro collection libraries. Switch edges out the PS4 here. I’m talking about Tengu Project stuff, Arcade Archives, Cave M2 releases. These are all legit and great ways to still get your retro fix without dealing with aftermarket nonsense.
Had a look at last year’s thread and realised I forgot to post in it, will rectify that for this year:
-I want to finally get around to getting that Famicom and Famicom Disk System I keep saying I want, and hopefully international travel picks up again so that picking up games is more fun and spontaneous (I like what @entremet said there!)
-Most of all, I just want to be surprised again. Last year there were a number of old games that unexpectedly fit me like a glove, and more often than not they were games people just aren’t talking about any more. So I’m definitely looking at further broadening my horizons beyond what I’m already familiar with.
Normally, I stick with the generic “play more games I already own.” But after 2020, I’ve really dug into my library and am ready to start grabbing some new things. Here’s my list:
Grab Metal Slug 4 and 5 for Neo Geo MVS. And somehow grab Metal Slug 6 for Atomiswave.
Grab a Sega CD with Sonic CD
Finish some more Dragon Quest games
Beat LoZ: Spirit Tracks. This is now the last mainline single player Zelda game I have left to finish.
Play more original Game Boy games - I haven’t focused enough on the platform in recent years and there are a ton of gems to enjoy there.
Basically finish some things I’m part way through.
Finish converting an old Famicom Mahjong controller to a USB keyboard. To play Hanafuda arcade games (Mahjong and Hanafuda games share the same control panel, which this controller imitates).
A year ago when I bought it that would have been a more difficult task involving writing some Arduino code. But - believe it or not - in February of last year somebody did exactly this and shared their code on GitHub.
I’ve already flashed my Pro Micro (Arduino Leonardo clone) and just waiting on some little electronics toolkit bits so I can do the wiring in a more professional way.
Finish my fan-translation of バンドくん Band-kun. Half complete so far.
Finish my game Daily Driver and have it published/released!
Uncover more forgotten classics - to echo @harborline_765. I feel I’m pretty much done with Dreamcast but have hardly scratched the surface of all other platforms. There’s gold in them there hills.
I want to be less cheap with what I’m buying. Feel like I spend too much time hunting for a bargain or spend too much time making up for the issues with cheaper hardware options. I’d be better off just spending more per item and buying fewer things.
Last year I got past whatever mental block I had on buying US region NES and SNES games so I want to continue filling out those libraries. I already have a lot of Fami & SuFami games so it’d mostly be to fill in gaps there.
Similar thing for me - I’ve really cut back any retro spending in the last couple of years, but this year I’d love to get maybe 4-5 games that I really love, don’t yet own, and are insanely priced.
They’re in the X Legacy Collection 2 (currently on sale on steam and I assume other digital storefront) and that one doesn’t suffer from the massive input lag the first half of the collection does.
I would like to tackle two of my consumer CRTs issues. I have a 27FS100 that’s literally a dime a dozen in these parts, so that will be my guinea pig. I want to open it up, recap it, and try and fix the geometry. It’s not terrible, but I want to learn how to get it as good as you can for these flat screen CRTs.
After that experience, I’ll decide if it’s worth doing my 32FV310. If it’s not worth it, I’ll probably look at selling it and going curved screen. Maybe a 32" JVC D-Series.
So many of my retro goals have been reached that I’m still waiting for my mind to become clear as to what I want my gaming - and more speficially retro gaming - goals to be.
My initial thought is I want to slim down what I have and focus on flash carts through original hardware. I have my EverDrive 64 which I really enjoy and should start playing through more games on it as opposed to constantly loading up the Mario 64 speedrun practice rom (which is incredible fun).
I’ve had a Dreamcast and sold it about 3 times now, but nostaglia is getting the best of me this last month or so and I really feel the itch to pick one up again. The sad part is I sold all my Dreamcast games last time I sold my console, but at least I remember everything I had to I could acquire them again.
I’m also trying to ditch the world of PVM’s and mainly focus on the OSSC through my VG27AQ display. I’ve been wanting to pick up a Toro Box by the Behar Bros to get the Dreamcast connected through Scart to the OSSC.