While we’re usually preoccupied with what’s right around the corner, there’s a huge world of retro games out there just begging to be dug into. There are thousands upon thousands of older games, from stone-cold classics to landfill-filling turds. For anyone with even a passing interest in the theory of games though, and how we got to where we are now, it can be fascinating to crawl through these classic games and witness the birth of entire genres, mechanics, and gameplay refinements.
One of the strongest points about PC gaming is that actually playing these games has never been easier. While the consoles move on from generation to generation, abandoning support for older games, some folks are doing God's work in building emulators and archiving ROM dumps. Without them, a lot of these games would disappear without a trace or only exist on the shelf of some fusty old collector, wrapped in cellophane and never to actually be played.
When it comes to playing these games, we have a huge range of options at our fingertips. Anyone with a smartphone can potentially play just about every retro game in existence. Others like to load up their low-powered laptops with a Sega Genesis library. Even better though, we can now use our high-powered PCs to play 3D games at higher resolutions and frame rates than were ever possible before, playing classic games that actually look better than the original.
For me, playing old PC games is obviously pretty easy. Chances are that if it was good, it’s been re-released in some form or other, whether it’s a proper remake, a remaster, or made compatible with modern systems thanks to GOG.com. There’s the occasional crime against humanity, such as No One Lives Forever being lost in the ether, but 99% of what I want to play is out there and playable through legitimate sources.
In terms of everything outside of PC, I’ve got a lot of it covered with my NES and SNES Minis. They’ve both got, ahem, quite a large library of games, so if I ever want to play something from my childhood I can just plug it in and play without any hassle.
For everything else though, I’m pretty much reliant on PC emulation. A lot of older games from consoles are incredibly difficult to find and/or run, and even things like Wii games look so bad these days without Dolphin that it’s basically a necessity. I’ve got Super Mario Galaxy 2 on Wii, for example, but I started playing on the Wii U and the image quality was incredibly blurring. The same game on Dolphin looks incredibly crisp. If Nintendo re-released an HD version of SMG2 on Switch I’d been up for it, but they’re not offering a good alternative right now to prevent PC emulation.
Are you big into retro gaming or do you prefer to look forward? For the retro gamers out there, what sort of setup do you have going on? Have you got a PC loaded with ROMs, or do you prefer the authentic hardware? Let us know below!
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I have a Sega Mega drive lying around.
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I'm building a MAME machine with an old PC i have ;D
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Ya building a Mame machine is pretty cheap cause all you need is a core 2 duo (or any cheap dual core) and a GTS 250/450 with 4gb of memory and just install Windows XP or Linux.
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PSP and Hacked PS Vita with homebrew and Adrenaline (PSP emu) to play PSV, PSP, PS1 and retro console games. Otherwise I use a PC for everything else.
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Snes, GB color, GB advance SP, PS 1,2,3 and 4, N64, Gamecube and first Wii. Have to buy another nintendo again for Zelda..
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Funnily enough the NES classic outsold both PS4 and XBone in June xD
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Ive still got all my original Playstation consoles, although ive been using my ps3 for my ps1 and ps2 games due to memory cards being easily corrupted
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I have a Raspberry Pi 3B+ with a 128gb SD card in it and it is almost full from just Mame, PS1, DC and PSP games.
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I built myself a retropie in a nespi case, hooked up to a qumi q5 projector.
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Well it's not a setup anymore, but thanks to my dad being a gamer when he was younger and before I was born I have all Nintendo, Sega and Atari Consoles until the GameCube(except the virtual boy or whatever and portable Sega consoles), I have 2x Xbox OG(1 for me, 1 for my bro), 1x PS1, 2x PS2s(1x for me 1x for my bro and the PS2 was my first console), I have 2x PSP(same reason), 1x PS3, 4x Xbox 360s(none working thanks to RRoD). All my retro consoles that have two versions are the eastern/Japanese versions, that means (super)famicom and Megadrive 1/2.
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On the other hand the majority of the games I have for all consoles before PS1/N64/Saturn, i.e Atari 2600,5200,7800, Megadrive 1/2 and (Super)Famicom are all cracked cartridges, according to my dad, there were very few legit games available in the late 80s and early 90s due to my country being communist(pseudo-socialist). And I have 3 games for the Saturn...
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i don´t have any retro machine, only ps2 but i don´t think that classify as retro xD.
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it does.
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i don't like retro
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Into retro in a big way, held onto a few machines from the 80s and 90s and prefer original hardware where possible. Use Launchbox for emulation on the pc.
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my HDMI-enabled N64; HDMI-cabled Dreamcast, XBOX and Gamecube; NES and SNES systems; PCSX2 to play all the random games i can track down while i travel (that mostly plays on my laptop)
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NES, SNES, Super Famicom, Game Cube, Dreamcast.
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I'm not in to retro gaming but I still have my Atari 2600, NES, SNES, Gameboy, Genesis, Game Gear, Playstaion, two PSP's, Xbox, and Xbox 360.
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The retro games i still play now (thanks to emulators) are:
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Got actual consoles hooked to a signal converter to the PC monitor.
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Hi people i used to own a dreamcast i have plenty of consoles today i rarely do retro gaming but i have like a PSone(slim),PS2(phat)PS2(slim),PSP,GBA SP, 2 Xbox 360 (Elite and white) for current gen i have PS4 and switch.
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Snes, Snes Mini, Nes Mini, N64 and PS2/PS1 with loads of original games for each. I really enjoy collecting Retro games and mostly collect RPG's.
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I picked up a 4k tv yesterday and UHD content looks amazing, but I'll tell you what. Nothing beats retro gaming, i would LOVE to get my hands on a dreamcast or an NES and play on a better display then what we used to play on. Unfortunately after moving my only retro system is a ps3. I regret selling my Dreamcast though. Most advanced system of it's time.
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Let me tell you this: If you own an NES, you need a CRT TV. NES looks bad on an HD or 4K TV :D
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Yea ive heard that before lol. Unfortunately i do not have one but id give it a try anyways.
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You can get HDMI modding kits for the NES. Or, pick up something like the RetroFreak which supports 12 different consoles and lets you rip the cartridges to the system, or even use an SD card to load in your own ROMs. Only 720p for now sadly but the footage I've seen looks decent
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Nice, I bet it looks awesome