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Post by 20thcenturygamer on Apr 9, 2019 16:46:55 GMT -5
Wait, did Krikkz just have some kind of sale on Everdrives? The last stock of old style SD2SNES units were $50 off while they lasted. Between that savings and what I recouped selling my Super EverDrive, I was feeling pretty good about my decision to wait so long to upgrade. It wasn't really worth it until both SuperFX and SA-1 were supported, anyway.
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Post by Sarge on Apr 9, 2019 17:35:34 GMT -5
They did on the old stock SD2SNES. It wasn't a huge discount, though. Black Friday usually brings the better deals. EDIT: Ninja'd by 20thcenturygamer by a significant margin... didn't see the page break.
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Post by anayo on Apr 10, 2019 6:20:30 GMT -5
Sarge and 20thcenturygamerDang, guys, I need to keep up with different gaming media sites to stay informed about this. Thankfully I had already bought a SD2SNES from someone on racketboy, but for a second I thought I missed out. Ever Drives are expensive and they don't get discounts very often.
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Post by Sarge on Apr 10, 2019 11:43:26 GMT -5
Just make sure to always check his site on Black Friday, and you'll be good. You might wait a while to get it, since demand is high that time of year, but I think last year the discount was 20%. That's a big chunk of change!
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Post by Sarge on Jun 3, 2019 17:12:11 GMT -5
New hack for the DSi that doesn't require Flipnote, just the camera app. And you can install stuff such as custom firmware that runs from the SD, as well as boot games from there. Pretty sweet stuff. I plan on giving it a go as soon as I find a low-capacity SD cart I can use (I'm not wasting a 64 GB on it right now!). gbatemp.net/threads/memory-pit-a-new-dsi-exploit-for-dsi-camera.539432/
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Post by Sarge on Jun 3, 2019 18:57:22 GMT -5
Well, I'm sure this hack is for someone, but it seems like a gigantic pain in the butt to get working. I got most of the steps down, but I dunno, I think the simplicity of a flash cart seems more appropriate. It's a godsend for someone stuck on 1.4.5 firmware, though. I think the only real reason I'd want to get this up and running completely would be to spin up some DSi-only games, but... I've got most of the ones I care about already. Although apparently you can also run DS games in DSi mode, which would let you run them at the higher clock frequency. One has to imagine all sorts of stuff might break in that case. I also kinda want to keep this DSi as stock, so I pulled Unlaunch off of there (didn't know it flashes itself to NAND).
Anyway, I might fiddle with it again later (I mean, losing this DSi wouldn't be a tremendous loss), but I'm struggling to come up with the impetus to right now.
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Post by dunpeal2064 on Jun 4, 2019 11:45:34 GMT -5
Wall of text incoming.
My absence this last month has actually been due to me exploring this exact topic, and getting the most I can, via the best video quality, with the least amount of systems. I'll talk a bit about what I've messed with so far.
PS2: I have had Free Mc Boot installed on a memory card for quite some time now. I almost exclusively use it to play burned DVD-Rs of ps2 games, though you can use it to force 480p on some games, which isn't as useful to me since I'm playing on a CRT, but its a neat feature. Burns are a nice way to get around region locking, but a feature I've been exploring recently is patching games to run in 240p. This isn't useful for many games, but if a game happened to originally be 240p, and its ps2 port was just linedoubled to 480i, you can essentially patch it back down to its original form. This doesn't always work, but I've had success with Mark of the Wolves, Mushihimesama, and Ibara, all of which looks quite stunning now. Of course, compatibility of PS2 burns in general is great, everything I have tried works flawlessly. I haven't messed with the DVD9 games yet, but I think there is a method to burn and boot those as well (And there arent many I want to play anyways)
PS1: I recently discovered that you can use something called POPStarter to boot PS1 games on a FMCB-modded PS2 off of an SD card. Compatibility here isn't great, and the process can be a bit of a pain, but I've managed to get quite a few games working fairly decently. Luckily for me, the arcade ports and arcade-y games have all worked flawlessly, and its really only the larger, more complex games that might have issues (Though still not always, Silent Hill works perfect, Tony Hawk is unplayable, its a crap shoot). I'm not super happy with this method to play ps1 games, but it works for now, it uses a console I already have set up, and it lets me play ps1 via Component in 240p, which is great.
Wii: I have modded the absolute crap out of my Wii, and it is to the point where, if I were forced to only have one console, this would be the one. Its emulators are great, its controller variety is great, its video options are great... its just great. Here's a little list of things I have my Wii set up to do:
- NES: Fantastic emulation, 240p/480p output via Component cables, and the NES Classic controller plugs right into the Wii Mote.
- Genesis/SMS/GG/CD: Fantastic emulation, even with Sega CD games everything seems flawless, 240p/480p Component out, and a $20 dongle lets you plug a Genesis controller in.
- SNES: Fantastic Emulation, 240p/480p Component out, SNES Classic Controller plugs right into the Wii Mote.
- Turbografx: Mednafen runs Hu-Cards, CDs, Super CDs, and Arcade CDs perfectly, and of course, 240p/480p out with Component. Haven't found a way to use Turbo controllers, but honestly, there are so many controllers to choose from at this point that it hardly matters
- GB/GBC/GBA: Fantastic emulation with pretty accurate timings now. Having played a GC player via Component withe the custom software, this comes damn close, and is more than good enough for me, especially since I also have an AGS-101 SP that I usually do my Game Boy'ing on.
- MAME: Final Burn Alpha via Retroarch is rather impressive. CPS2 and Neo-Geo cores have played everything I've thrown at them. The libretro core for general arcade games is less consistent, as games that used MOBOs like STV or lots of Konami/Irem stuff tend to not work (Luckily those games also tended to get great ports), but I've got all of Cave's early shmups working great, Raizing's games all work great, stuff like Simpsons and X-Men arcade work great... basically everything that didn't get a good port seems to work, its oddly perfect for my setup. And, of course, 240p/480p out via Component, with access to a pretty quality, and quite affordable Arcade Stick, or any other controller you want. Only downside is needing to adjust Vertical screen size, but on a PVM thats pretty easy to do.
- N64: The system that sucks to emulate... but the Wii had the Virtual Console! And, honestly, as a 240p fetishist, I think the VC N64 releases are as good, if not better than the N64 originals. I think 480i actually works quite well for these games, at least on a monitor that has good 480i. Yeah, you don't get access to the full library, but a pretty good chunk of the best games are here, and they work great.
- Gamecube: Nintendont basically just tricks your Wii into loading an ISO, and from there uses the actual hardware to play the games. Every GC game I've tested works perfectly, the program lets you save games onto the USB you load the ISOs from, you get to use actual Gamecube controllers, and (surprise surprise) great video output via Component, at either 480i on a CRT, or 480p on an HDTV.
- Wii: WiiFlow (Or other USB loaders, this is the only one I got working) lets you load Wii games off a USB, and unlike in the past, that USB doesn't need to be in a weird format anymore, so you can store them alongside any of your other games. You do need cIOS installed, but once you are past the booting process, the games are running purely on hardware and work flawlessly. I've heard there may be issues with the really large games (7GB+), I still need to test those out, but even if those don't work, thats still access to 99% of the library. I just got this working, and have ordered some Nyko Perfect Shot housings for the plethora of rail shooters the Wii houses.
- WiiWare: You can inject wads for these just like N64 (or any other) VC games. The Konami Rebirth games and Mega Man 9/10 are great to have, but the WiiWare game that shows off the greatness of the Wii best, imo, is Bomberman Blast. Its a great Bomberman title on its own, but the selling point for me is that the Wii can accept 8 controller inputs without a multitap, meaning you get 8-player bomberman without anything other than the controllers. Considering the systems already being emulated, I think someone setting up a Wii like this will likely end up with 4 Wii Motes and 4 GC controllers, or at least close to it, whereas I could never convince myself to buy 10 Sega Saturn controllers, as the majority of them will be exclusively for that game.
- PC-98: Yep, there is a PC-98 emulator on the Wii (And an MSX one), and you can use the Wii Mote as a mouse, and plug a keyboard straight into the Wii. These emulators are not quite as developed, they require some sort of compiling that I'm not capable of, and the one pre-built PC-98 one I found (Built specifically to play Rusty) ran like hot garbage. Still, if these could be made better, the potential is pretty exciting, as the controls would work great, and seeing those gorgeous PC-98 graphics on a PVM is a dream.
I absolutely love the Wii right now. I can plug it into my PVM and get absolutely stunning video quality, and I can plug it into an HDTV and still get pretty great 480p output for just about everything, with controllers to match just about every console I'm emulating.
So, my current setup is my Wii, PS2, and 360. And, luckily, I bought a really nice Component Cable (With Composite that works as sync, nice bonus) that hooks up to all 3 of those systems. So, without needing a switcher or anything, I can access a stupid amount of games by just switching the console input, which is maybe slightly more effort than using a switcher. These consoles are almost exclusively hooked up to the PVM right now, but its quite easy to just take off the BNC adapters and plug any of these into my HDTV as well. This is more for if I'm taking the consoles somewhere, though, as I tend to just use PC emulation of I want to play any of this stuff on an HDTV.
The only thing missing from this setup that I kind of want in there is the Saturn and Dreamcast. I own both consoles, and both play burned discs fairly easily, but finding a way to get good quality video out of them and make them work with my setup will take some more researching (and money). I think once I get hookups for those two consoles, I'll be done tinkering and can just go ham on any console/game I like.
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Post by Sarge on Jun 4, 2019 12:49:16 GMT -5
Yeah, I've messed with most everything on Wii, and it really is a nice platform for emulation. Lately I've been using my PS Classic with RetroArch, though, for my emulation needs. It works quite well for everything that isn't too powerful (basically up to PSX). But the ability to ISO load Wii and Gamecube games makes the Wii a splendid device for that sort of stuff. Pretty sweet having that stuff at your fingertips. I was literally just looking into Popstarter again in response to another thread, and while it looks like compatibility has gotten better, it still isn't great. It has me considering the PSIO, but I'm probably going to wait on that and go for the Saturn Satiator first. Free McBoot is also a much better exploit than the old PS1 exploit I used to use; I used Tomb Raider as my exploit disc, but now I don't even have to have a disc in the drive! And if you've got a hard drive and HDLoader (or Open PS2 Loader), then the real fun begins.
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Post by dunpeal2064 on Jun 4, 2019 14:19:48 GMT -5
the ability to ISO load Wii and Gamecube games makes the Wii a splendid device for that sort of stuff. Yeah, thats a huge appeal for me. It hits a wide range of stuff pretty accurately. Getting near-RGB quality into a CRT or HDTV is pretty sweet too, most devices that emulate that range of consoles can't as easily output 15khz/240p. That is even has new Nintendo-made NES and SNES controllers that plug right into it is delicious icing on the cake. I was literally just looking into Popstarter again in response to another thread, and while it looks like compatibility has gotten better, it still isn't great. It has me considering the PSIO, but I'm probably going to wait on that and go for the Saturn Satiator first. Free McBoot is also a much better exploit than the old PS1 exploit I used to use; I used Tomb Raider as my exploit disc, but now I don't even have to have a disc in the drive! And if you've got a hard drive and HDLoader (or Open PS2 Loader), then the real fun begins. Ha, I was pretty much having this same line of thought. I definitely plan to get both the PSIO and, whenever it comes out, the Satiator, but that complicates my setup to a pretty extreme degree. I'd need scart cables and converters for each console (PS1 can't use PS2 component cables ), which means a scart switcher and cables for other consoles... its daunting, but I'll eventually give in.
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Post by Sarge on Jun 4, 2019 14:42:57 GMT -5
I'd probably just get by with S-Video, since my Trinitron supports it, and my older Sony Bravia HDTV also looks pretty nice with that content. My new 4K doesn't have it, though, and I've also got an RCA TruFlat that has composite and component, but no S-Video. Doh! I am thinking about getting some SCART cables for my SNES and maybe a few other systems, though, since I already threw down years ago for a SCART-to-Component converter for my Genesis. I had to have some clean visuals there after suffering that composite for so long.
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