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Retro AV Club Thread 2: Classic Gaming Done Right!

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Got a call from the PVM doctor (my local TV repair guy) and apparently one of mine had a fault that needed clearing (will get more info on this soon) and the other one is totally fine.

Apparently my new BNC cable is the wrong type. Which might explain the problems I've been having getting a picture! Hahahaha.

Oh dear. How embarrassing.
 

Mega

Banned
Just over a year ago, but I also shifted the retro setup about 6 months ago to make room for babby stuff. Apartment living is hard work with a babby so we're moving out of the city and into a proper house. Had to do it sometime! We weren't planing on moving so soon but a rental came up in my parents' street so we went for it.

It's gonna be hard to know until we get our stuff there, but I'm tossing up between having it in the spare bedroom or the internal garage. There's a ton of room in the garage, but I guess I'd be worried about it being stuffy and hot and maybe a little damp cos of the concrete floor... I dunno... also when we pop the door people will able to see all my shit lol.

Whichever is more convenient and better at maintaining your stuff. I don't know your new house layout but I'm just picturing going to a game room down the hall from my bedroom on the 2nd floor vs. going all the way down to the garage. And isn't heat, humidity and leaks/flooding from a heavy rain more likely in a garage? I wouldn't trust having all my electronics on a ground floor room that immediately opens up to the street.
 
So I am pretty bummed today. I ordered a "Good" condition PSPGo package from Amazon Warehouse deals. Apparently 3 deep scratches in the middle of the screen and markings on the body is "good" and worth $130. The description mentioned damage to the packaging but no mention of defects to the unit. Oh well, they are going to refund me which is only a huge waste of my time, and not a real loss.

I am going to be sending it back because I can't justify the cost even though it is being use 98% as a mini-console.

So is there such thing as a non-optical media way to play PS1 @ 240p outside the PSPGo? PS2's can be softmodded to support using a hard drive to spare the poor laser, but its PS1 compatibility off the HDD is miserable and the key game I want to have is Castlevania Symphony of the Night and of course it isn't compatible. I play it pretty frequently on my PS2 via component cables but that laser is a ticking time bomb considering I burned out 2 lasers last year on used PS2's.
 

Mega

Banned
^PSIO, but no idea what cost or availability is like.

Also, yes, PSP 3000 has TV Out. I have mine plugged in. But no PS3 controller support like the Go, due to its lack of Bluetooth.

That's crazy, so only go for the back usb3 ports are the best eh?

Worth a shot. I'll give this a try sometime this week.
 
PSIO is expensive, hard to install, and compatibility isn't where you'd want it to be. For that system I'm just waiting on a full ODE instead of the parallel port implementation the PSIO people went with.

PSP-3000 is non-ideal since you can't sync a controller. There is homebrew you can use to connect it to a computer via usb and send commands over but it's laggy.

Honestly I'm not super enthusiastic about how PSP does PS1 games either; it's better than fan emulators but still emulation. I have my setup for PSP games.

@CrashPrime for the scratches you could always replace the screen. I also saw some new old stock systems for around ~$200USD. It's more expensive but fresh is nice.
 
Remember that the PSP uses an R4000 CPU and it is believed that this runs most of the PS1 R3000 code natively instead of emulated.

There's no way it actually does that. People who don't understand how hardware works see the same CPU architecture and assume that's possible.

Just running CPU code isn't enough since most of the work done is on everything else on the system which is accessed by a variety of busses. Those busses do not exist on the PSP. Even if they did the other chips do not exist on PSP, and there's nothing doing chip-level emulation like on PS2 (there the PS2 GS emulates the PS1 graphics chip, for example).

It's a software emulator like anything else, just one written by people with full knowledge of how both systems work and several years of full time work to make it happen rather than hobbyist evenings-and-weekends work done on fan emulators. Just like the VC emulators on Wii for example it's very good but if you're picky you'll find problems. Especially in games that aren't from PSN that didn't get the attention for bug fixes.
 
PSIO is expensive, hard to install, and compatibility isn't where you'd want it to be. For that system I'm just waiting on a full ODE instead of the parallel port implementation the PSIO people went with.

PSP-3000 is non-ideal since you can't sync a controller. There is homebrew you can use to connect it to a computer via usb and send commands over but it's laggy.

Honestly I'm not super enthusiastic about how PSP does PS1 games either; it's better than fan emulators but still emulation. I have my setup for PSP games.

@CrashPrime for the scratches you could always replace the screen. I also saw some new old stock systems for around ~$200USD. It's more expensive but fresh is nice.

If i could replace the screen I would do that no problem. There doesn't seem to be any screen or shell replacements when I google. It's all skins and screen protectors or shell replacements for PSP1xxx/2xxx/3xxx.

$200 is OK if it came with the dang cradle but thats another $50-100. Ugh.

Emulation somehow feels better when it is programmed by the company who made the hardware. Not to claim its better than open source software (infact Mednafen/Beetle is likely more accurate than their Popstation solution) but good luck getting 240p s-video or component with that emulator. The hardware basically doesn't exist.
 

televator

Member
From my limited experience with the system, opening a PSP was a bitch. Everything is very snug in there. I'd be extra attentive with it even for just a screen replacement.
 
If i could replace the screen I would do that no problem. There doesn't seem to be any screen or shell replacements when I google. It's all skins and screen protectors or shell replacements for PSP1xxx/2xxx/3xxx.

First hit in google when I type in PSPGo replacement shell

http://www.consolesandgadgets.co.uk...sing-shell-blue-psp-go-full-shell-p-3868.html

Seems to be back ordered right now but they do seem to be out there, there's one on Amazon but its like 50 bucks. Alibaba also seems to have some but I didn't do extensive searching

I could be wrong but it kind of looks like the PSP Go doesn't have the clear plastic over the screen like the PSP1,2,3XXXs do. Maybe you just need this?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-LCD-Scr...696400&pid=100677&rk=2&rkt=10&sd=252250265809

I don't have a go and I'm just guessing by looking at pictures so I could totally be wrong.
 
First hit in google when I type in PSPGo replacement shell

http://www.consolesandgadgets.co.uk...sing-shell-blue-psp-go-full-shell-p-3868.html

Seems to be back ordered right now but they do seem to be out there, there's one on Amazon but its like 50 bucks. Alibaba also seems to have some but I didn't do extensive searching

I could be wrong but it kind of looks like the PSP Go doesn't have the clear plastic over the screen like the PSP1,2,3XXXs do. Maybe you just need this?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-LCD-Scr...696400&pid=100677&rk=2&rkt=10&sd=252250265809

I don't have a go and I'm just guessing by looking at pictures so I could totally be wrong.

They are just bare against the outside world so yeah the ebay screens should work. I'm waiting for mine to arrive but hopefully the quality is the same.

ifixit has an old teardown. It's not exactly simple but honestly looks easier than the 3DSes I've taken apart.
 
Yeah I came back to post I think just replacing the screen will work after watching this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l3cK70lfCM

It does look a bit complicated to take a part.

Complicated but i thought the screen was behind plastic like the psp 1/2/3 series.

Great news!

Maaaybe worth doing. Better yet get the screen an pop it in a drawer seeing as its a mini console for me anyways. That way if i want to fix it i can but hide it for now.

Neat little find! Thanks guys.
 

Peagles

Member
Whichever is more convenient and better at maintaining your stuff. I don't know your new house layout but I'm just picturing going to a game room down the hall from my bedroom on the 2nd floor vs. going all the way down to the garage. And isn't heat, humidity and leaks/flooding from a heavy rain more likely in a garage? I wouldn't trust having all my electronics on a ground floor room that immediately opens up to the street.

It's all one level, and it's a fairly new house so I think it should be fine except a bit stuffy in the heat I think. The street is slightly elevated so flooding shouldn't be an issue either. It's also down a little private quiet road.

Maybe I'll put my workbench and an older PVM in there for testing, and keep the nicer stuff in the geek room with our gaming PCs.
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
I've been playing Goldeneye with my N64RGB set to do VI deblur and... I think I'm going to turn it off. The text in the mission brief looks really bad and is hard to read + there are not-quite-dither-patterns all over the screen during gameplay (especially in the distance). I think both were assumptions made by the developer that the screen would be somewhat blurry horizontally.
 
I've been playing Goldeneye with my N64RGB set to do VI deblur and... I think I'm going to turn it off. The text in the mission brief looks really bad and is hard to read + there are not-quite-dither-patterns all over the screen during gameplay (especially in the distance). I think both were assumptions made by the developer that the screen would be somewhat blurry horizontally.

Yeah, the dither is much more bothersome compared to a slight horizontal blur. That's why I gave up on trying to get someone's service to install Tim Worthington's N64RGB board and went with Voultar's more basic one.

That, and I accidentally ordered a C-Sync cable for my N64; Voultar's board is the only one that supports C-Sync AFAIK
 
Yeah, the dither is much more bothersome compared to a slight horizontal blur. That's why I gave up on trying to get someone's service to install Tim Worthington's N64RGB board and went with Voultar's more basic one.

That, and I accidentally ordered a C-Sync cable for my N64; Voultar's board is the only one that supports C-Sync AFAIK

I normally really like the way dither looks (the ones on the PS1 output or 16-bit-color PC games are cool) but there's something about the way it's implemented here that it's not pleasant to look at. It's like distant lines are just given a stipple pattern for... whatever reason. And it seems like there's an attempt to add color depth via a dither but it's again a really fugly pattern.

Tim's board has both types of csync on it. I had to go with that since I have a fancy MAV-NUS chip.

You can make csync happen with anything by adding an LM1881. Or for the N64 specifically you could just tie the luma line over to the csync pin on the multi-av out
 

Psxdad

Member
Interested in the UltraHDMI N64 mod. I see they have the kits for sale, but I'm not going to attempt something like that. Who is the best modder to have this installed?
 

coughlanio

Member
Does anyone know if the Framemeister can do 1600x1200 over DVI? I've seen 5 year old posts saying it can, albeit window-boxed, but I'm hoping it was fixed in a later firmware?
 

Mega

Banned
I've been playing Goldeneye with my N64RGB set to do VI deblur and... I think I'm going to turn it off. The text in the mission brief looks really bad and is hard to read + there are not-quite-dither-patterns all over the screen during gameplay (especially in the distance). I think both were assumptions made by the developer that the screen would be somewhat blurry horizontally.

You mean the anti-AA patch? The VI Deblur is the setting in the UltraHDMI that tries to undo the horizontal blurring and it generally looks quite nice for most games (also now available in Tim's newer N64 board).

The anti-AA patch is the Gameshark/Everdrive thing that exposes the full-screen dithering in an unpleasant way. I agree it doesn't look too good in a lot of games and unless you play on a CRT that does a good job of masking it.

CRT: I use N64RGB with the anti-AA codes because my CRTs masks/grilles subdue dithering alot.
HDTV: I use UltraHDMI with built-in VI Deblur, integer scaling and leave anti-AA turned off because dithering is too strong.
 
You mean the anti-AA patch? The VI Deblur is the setting in the UltraHDMI that tries to undo the horizontal blurring and it generally looks quite nice for most games (also now available in Tim's newer N64 board).

The anti-AA patch is the Gameshark/Everdrive thing that exposes the full-screen dithering in an unpleasant way. I agree it doesn't look too good in a lot of games and unless you play on a CRT that does a good job of masking it.

CRT: I use N64RGB with the anti-AA codes because my CRTs masks/grilles subdue dithering alot.
HDTV: I use UltraHDMI with built-in VI Deblur, integer scaling and leave anti-AA turned off because dithering is too strong.

No I'm using VI deblur with Tim's board. I really don't like it, at least in Goldeneye. I should try some other games and probably just install a switch somewhere.
 
They are just bare against the outside world so yeah the ebay screens should work. I'm waiting for mine to arrive but hopefully the quality is the same.

ifixit has an old teardown. It's not exactly simple but honestly looks easier than the 3DSes I've taken apart.

Got my replacement screen yesterday. Installed it this afternoon and it's a perfect match, just scratch free! The process wasn't too bad, a lot of small stuff inside but fairly straightforward to get everything apart and back together.

Really need to get a case now.
 

KingErich

Banned
Last summer I bought a N64 and a bunch of games. I also got an AV to HDMI upconverter and the combo svideo/composite cable.

I am waiting to get home and get the mail because the SNES I ordered is waiting for me. Weeeee!

Anyhow, now I am reading that some of the SVideo/Composite cables are crap as the SVideo cable is wired wrong or something like that.

My question is how do I tell if I have a shitty cable or one that has proper SVideo wiring? Will a multimeter tell me? I test the Chroma and Luma to the ground?

I see there are a couple of more expensive options. The purple Monster cables or First Party Nintendo SVideo cables. Those are like $80 or $40. Does anyone know if any of the sub $20 cables on Amazon or eBay are true SVideo?
 

Vespa

Member
No I'm using VI deblur with Tim's board. I really don't like it, at least in Goldeneye. I should try some other games and probably just install a switch somewhere.

Mischief Makers with deblur looks really good, like a lost PSX/Saturn game, helps that it's not using any dithering shenanigans.

I usually keep it on for 3d games, still playing around with it but the effect seems to be most noticeable on flat screen tv/monitors and BVMs. I can't notice it doing anything on my consumer CRT set.
 

Vespa

Member
I see there are a couple of more expensive options. The purple Monster cables or First Party Nintendo SVideo cables. Those are like $80 or $40. Does anyone know if any of the sub $20 cables on Amazon or eBay are true SVideo?

I got my NTSC S-Video cable from console goods, I'm in the UK so shipping was cheap, might be worth shooting an email to inquire about shipping costs?
 

Mega

Banned
No I'm using VI deblur with Tim's board. I really don't like it, at least in Goldeneye. I should try some other games and probably just install a switch somewhere.

Do you have any pics, maybe before/after shots? I was interested in getting Tim's board at one point but held off.
 
Yeah I got busy with baby stuff but earlier today I installed a switch and took some comparison photos of Goldeneye. I can do some more of other games maybe later.

In all cases it will be "VI Deblur on" left and "normal" right. I guess if you're on mobile that would be top and bottom.

As usual please excuse photos of a TV:

1wvLgfn.jpg
1UynqDb.jpg




(here I tried to get an image of the stipple pattern I mentioned)


I think you can at least agree that it's a big change. For 2D games I imagine it would be great but here I really didn't like it.
 
Here's a few more:

Looks like a big improvement in Puyo Puyo Sun:

Not so much in Zelda:

Even in 3D:

Banjo seems inoffensive I guess but I think I prefer the smooth lines:

So it really depends on the game. Puyo Puyo Sun is both 2D and a port of a PS1 game so no suprise that's an improvement. Even the 2D elements in Zelda look pretty ugly, same that I saw in Goldeneye, so they must have been designed around the expected N64 smooth output.
 

Madao

Member
most of the time you end up picking your poison with n64 games so i often pick the pixely poison.

at least there's 2D elements that look super sharp sometimes.

speaking of this, i haven't used my UltraHDMI n64 since i got my 4K TV. i guess i'll check it out and try getting some pics to test my new cellphone camera too.
 

Fuzzy

I would bang a hot farmer!
Last summer I bought a N64 and a bunch of games. I also got an AV to HDMI upconverter and the combo svideo/composite cable.

I am waiting to get home and get the mail because the SNES I ordered is waiting for me. Weeeee!

Anyhow, now I am reading that some of the SVideo/Composite cables are crap as the SVideo cable is wired wrong or something like that.

My question is how do I tell if I have a shitty cable or one that has proper SVideo wiring? Will a multimeter tell me? I test the Chroma and Luma to the ground?

I see there are a couple of more expensive options. The purple Monster cables or First Party Nintendo SVideo cables. Those are like $80 or $40. Does anyone know if any of the sub $20 cables on Amazon or eBay are true SVideo?
If your s-video cable also has the yellow composite plug on it then it's probably garbage. I followed RetroRGB's advice and bought mine from maxwar82 on ebay.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/merchant/ma..._mPrRngCbx=1&_udlo=&_udhi=&_sop=12&rmvSB=true
 

jackal27

Banned
Well boys...

I'm afraid it's happening. My 27 inch Sony Trinitron has been so good to me since my parents bought it new in '98, but I think she's on her way out. It's creating a horrifyingly loud ringing noise to the point that I can't even play without my wife complaining now. To be fair it's highly distracting for me too. It appears the colors are starting to separate for lack of a better term as well. It's not extremely noticeable, but the picture isn't as good as it once was. I have a half a mind to get the old girl prepared, but I'm not sure she's worth the money.

I've been just kind of neglecting my retro setup for months now, but then a Facebook friend posted this tonight for $10:

It's an Insignia, which I know nothing about, but it's from 2005, appears to be a flat screen (?), has component, AND S-Video. Only bummer is that I think it may only be 20 inches... I've been holding out for a Wega, but this looks pretty close to my untrained eye though. And for $10?? Sounds pretty great.

What do you guys think? Would this make a good retro gaming TV? Any problems with this brand or model?

specs here
 
^ Be patient and you will find a proper Trinitron in no time. I wouldn't go through the hassle of getting that CRT without knowing it's a good one.

Unrelated but I've been using my new OSSC to play some PC indie games with scanlines. It works great!
 
You could also try and find one of the few CRT repair people left out there. It might be something as simple as your Sony just needing a cap kit or something along those lines.
 

Voliko

Member
^ Be patient and you will find a proper Trinitron in no time. I wouldn't go through the hassle of getting that CRT without knowing it's a good one.

Unrelated but I've been using my new OSSC to play some PC indie games with scanlines. It works great!
How do you input into the OSSC?
 
Does anyone know if the PS3 or PSTV renders PS1 games at native internal resolution? I have read conflicting reports that the PS3 renders 480p internal and then will use built in scaling for HD output (may be the cause of input lag?).

What about PSTV? What internal resolution is sent to the TV (and the scaled image that actually is carried)? Is there any reports on if input lag on PS1 classics is any better on the PSTV vs. the PS3?
 

jackal27

Banned
^ Be patient and you will find a proper Trinitron in no time. I wouldn't go through the hassle of getting that CRT without knowing it's a good one.

Unrelated but I've been using my new OSSC to play some PC indie games with scanlines. It works great!
Yeah I'm not sure why, but I really haven't been finding Wegas even though I've been waiting forever. I'm thinking of going ahead and grabbing this one if for nothing else than to replace my smaller CRT I take to Smash Bros. events.
 

Mega

Banned
Yeah I got busy with baby stuff but earlier today I installed a switch and took some comparison photos of Goldeneye. I can do some more of other games maybe later.

In all cases it will be "VI Deblur on" left and "normal" right. I guess if you're on mobile that would be top and bottom.

I think you can at least agree that it's a big change. For 2D games I imagine it would be great but here I really didn't like it.

It is a significant difference but I actually like De-blur with the UltraHDMI's hybrid scanlines filter.

You can see the difference between De-blur and anti-AA below. The first is De-blur only. The latter I believe is De-blur and AA patch combined, very sharpy but also severe with all the dithering and not worth using on a HD display for that reason.

 
I was busy with family yesterday for Good Friday so I didn't notice MLiG put up a new video. Watching now.

RGB308 :: RGB and Component Switchers

The nice thing is if you have a sweet ass US consumer CRT you can just add in a little RGB Scart to Component box like https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004XSSDPO/?tag=neogaf0e-20 to the chain and you're playing with power. I wish they would have included that last step to see the softening effects/brightness, if any, on image quality.
 
I was busy with family yesterday for Good Friday so I didn't notice MLiG put up a new video. Watching now.

RGB308 :: RGB and Component Switchers

Got Bandridge's 3 Way Scart shortly after watching the video, nice to have my scart cables not left out in the open. Hopefully this power supply works with it, damn EU plugs

Future plan is to have 2 of that Bandridge's and that Monoprice Component box for my setup.

1st Bandridge: SNES, Genesis, TurboGrafx-16

2nd: N64, Saturn, PS1

Component: Wii U (For Gamecube and Wii), PS2, Xbox and Dreamcast (via HD Retrovision)

I only have the SNES, Genesis and N64 set up right now, don't own a TG16, Saturn or PS1 yet
 

eEK!

Neo Member
Does anyone know if the PS3 or PSTV renders PS1 games at native internal resolution? I have read conflicting reports that the PS3 renders 480p internal and then will use built in scaling for HD output (may be the cause of input lag?).

What about PSTV? What internal resolution is sent to the TV (and the scaled image that actually is carried)? Is there any reports on if input lag on PS1 classics is any better on the PSTV vs. the PS3?

I've not read anything about input lag differences, but scaling is definitely worse on the PSTV, seems that the emulator outputs at 544p which is then scaled to 720p by the PSTV, meaning IQ is poor.

Below MLIG video goes into more detail if you're interested

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7fCTHu99bk
 

Brhoom

Banned
Does anyone know if the PS3 or PSTV renders PS1 games at native internal resolution? I have read conflicting reports that the PS3 renders 480p internal and then will use built in scaling for HD output (may be the cause of input lag?).

What about PSTV? What internal resolution is sent to the TV (and the scaled image that actually is carried)? Is there any reports on if input lag on PS1 classics is any better on the PSTV vs. the PS3?

PS3 upscales PS1 games, and yes, there is lag.
 
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