Retro console and games thread

pingwing

pingwing

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Mucky_Pup said:
What's the difference between the NTSC and PAL N64's?
Click to expand...

pal = 50mhz, nstc = 60mhz refresh rate.

All 64 games are created originally in nstc (japan and usa tv standard) and are then ported into pal. Some bigger companies generally put a good effort in, so classics like Mario and all Rare's games play really well and you'd never know, but some games (Wave race is the most criminal but Beetle adventure racing was a close second) didn't bother, so things like the sound is out of time with the images (because of the frequency difference) or they are boxed for different number of scan lines (beetle adventure racing did them all in pal).

Plus there are a couple of nstc only classics out there (sin and punishment, indiana jones and the infernal time machine are the main two but find me a pal/boxed copy of mystical ninja 2 and you'll be sitting on nintendo gold) which don't play well with the converter cart and it's better to just own the console for it....

So yeah 64 is one of the last consoles to really demonstrate the problems of lazy coding for pal tv, plus an nstc console can always output to rgb when only a few pal ones can.

It's a lot simpler to do the 64 properly if you start with the american stuff as letting go of the classics bought as a kid in the uk is pretty hard :( (though some are immaculately boxed)
 

Shashman

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I've been bitten by the NES bug!

Having owned one as a kid, and it being the single toy I played with the most over the course of my childhood, I've decided that I'm going to start collecting NES games, and putting them on display (accessible and played with, don't worry. I'm not going to be one of those collectors who has a coronary every time someone even looks at the packaging in an unsanitary manner :p ). I also want it to be the one toy I show my kids someday :)

My idea is to fix wooden boards along the walls of a yet to be decided room, which will protrude the width of a cart box and painted the same colour as the wall. The boxes will rest on top of the wood, and be held in place by either some very fine string or some very fine bungee cord-type elastic, strung the length of the wooden board, so that the boxes can be picked up and put back.

As I'm making a display out of all, I'm only interested in boxed games, which is proving to be quite costly hah!

Collection so far (all boxed):

Konami Hyper Soccer
Top Gun Second Mission
Bugs Bunny's Blowout
Dr. Mario
Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles
Jack Nicklaus Golf
Super Mario 3
 
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Mucky_Pup

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Won a PS1 and a few games for just over a quid on ebay, guy lives locally so I asked if I could pick up to save on postal charges, and has said I can just have it for free if I come get it.

Also, got my Zelda NES game today, box is a bit beat up, but I still wanted it, lol.
 

Shashman

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w00t!

Just added:

Low G Man
Burai Fighter
Micro Machines
Terminator 2
Top Gun The Second Mission
The Newzealand Story Bubble Bobble II
Offroad
Gauntlet II

To the NES collection. All boxed, most with manual, for £47 delivered.

NZ Story and Micro Machines alone would be worth that on average, so very happy! :D
 

Armadillo

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pingwing said:
pal = 50mhz, nstc = 60mhz refresh rate.


So yeah 64 is one of the last consoles to really demonstrate the problems of lazy coding for pal tv, plus an nstc console can always output to rgb when only a few pal ones can.
Click to expand...

Don't know if it was a typo, but 50Hz and 60Hz not Mhz.

No NTSC 64 does rgb as standard. The early NTSC ones and one French PAL one can be easily modded for rgb. Apart from those machines, the rest all need heavy modification to get rgb from them (building a replacement dac).


64 is not the last console to demonstrate problems, how I wish it was :(.

A huge number of ps1 games are shocking conversions.
Sega tried to bring sanity back to the world with most Dreamcast games supporting 60Hz.
Sony dragged us back to the dark ages with shocking conversions again and no 60Hz on most games until late in the consoles life and even then, only certain devs.
Xbox & Gamecube are a mixed bag, but doesn't really matter as most games have a 60Hz option.
Now Nintendo tries to drag us back to the dark ages with 50Hz VC games and even worse people are buying them :eek:

60Hz is always preferable, even what are considered good PAL conversions have issues. PAL Ikaruga drops animation frames so that it runs the same speed as the NTSC 60Hz version.

Soon as the consoles switched from hardware selection, over to the software selecting frequency (N64 onwards with exception of the Saturn), there was just no excuse to not have a 60Hz option.
 
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pingwing

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Armadillo said:
Don't know if it was a typo, but 50Hz and 60Hz not Mhz.

No NTSC 64 does rgb as standard. The early NTSC ones and one French PAL one can be easily modded for rgb. Apart from those machines, the rest all need heavy modification to get rgb from them (building a replacement dac).


64 is not the last console to demonstrate problems, how I wish it was :(.

A huge number of ps1 games are shocking conversions.
Sega tried to bring sanity back to the world with most Dreamcast games supporting 60Hz.
Sony dragged us back to the dark ages with shocking conversions again and no 60Hz on most games until late in the consoles life and even then, only certain devs.
Xbox & Gamecube are a mixed bag, but doesn't really matter as most games have a 60Hz option.
Now Nintendo tries to drag us back to the dark ages with 50Hz VC games and even worse people are buying them :eek:

60Hz is always preferable, even what are considered good PAL conversions have issues. PAL Ikaruga drops animation frames so that it runs the same speed as the NTSC 60Hz version.

Soon as the consoles switched from hardware selection, over to the software selecting frequency (N64 onwards with exception of the Saturn), there was just no excuse to not have a 60Hz option.
Click to expand...

Whoops! Massive typo's from me posting half asleep again...

Plus you've highlighted how much consoles dropped off for me since the 64 (though the ps2 was fun), never really thought about how bad some games look in the uk because of silly old pal.
 

Mr_Orange

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A friend found his old Master System II with Alex Kid built in along with a Dizzy game, Sonic 1, Olympic Gold, 2 controllers and 2 joysticks in his Mums attic. He knew I had a collection of old consoles so I gave it to me! All I had to do was replace the RF cable with a spare one I had from another console and it all works. It filled a gap in my collection nicely.

I'm contemplating if I should do an RGB mod or just keep it RF.
 

ZG002

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Just picked up a pal n64 (I know not the right one lol) for £20 with all cables, expansion pack, controller and 4 games. Only wanted it because I was a playstation guy back then so never got to play Mario and Zelda. Just need to find those two cheap now. :) wanted a snes also but they tend to command a higher price on the bay, car boot sale this weekend so hoping I might find something of interest there :)
 

phatboy

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photo from mate at work.....apparently i have a few bits waiting for me lol.....but it is all good as STIG is watching it for me

S__7BE1_zps50c70123.jpg
 
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