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So personally I always prefer to play on original consoles and with original games where possible but I am a little more flexible than some people I think as I can appreciate that there are instances where emulation really comes into it's own, just a couple of scenarios where I have benefitted from it - - I am due to go on a caravan holiday, start of July and I plan to take my GPD XD so that I can play some older games without having to lug the original hardware away with me! - English translations, there are a couple of games I always wanted to play but never could because they never got released outside of Japan so there was never an English version. Since the original release however there have been fan made translations which have allowed me to enjoy the games. One of these for me being shining force 3 parts 2 and 3. - The other thought that often comes across is cost, playing and collecting older games is certainly not an affordable hobby these days and it's only going to get more expensive with some games becoming rarer or more sought after. So I can appreciate there will be people who won't ever get the opportunity to appreciate some games without emulation which would seem a shame.

This is what usually puts me off unfortunately. And even then it never really fills me up because I don't eat a huge curry. Usually now its Chicken Kurayi. Ain't that the truth! You can add when they give the wrong dish for a vegetarian, that's a nightmare for me! Dealing with wife's agony whilst I have to drive back there to get a fresh meal 😅 Used to absolutely love doner meat, although absolutely no salad whatsoever Paul, thanks very much! 😄 I think over the years its not been as tasty as it once was. Maybe because i don't go out as much and it used to be a great meal at the end of a drinking session.

Do I wade in? 😅 Its probably well known here now that I just don't like emulation, but that doesn't mean it has to be anyone else opinion too. I think there's some solid reasons why you would do it, just like all of the above @Luseth @J4MES OX4D and @Spacedeck have mentioned. I think the key difference is you've thought about what and why to do it before just dipping into emulators. I have a thought of a separate article I might start writing up about that touches on exclusivity and potential things connected to this that may impact on the next crash. For me, playing older games isn't about the WOW factor you get when a game initially comes out so we all learn at the same time, as clearly its been out for years. So its the whole experience i'm looking for. For example, @Findmartin came round mine last night and its about selecting a game to play, looking at the game cases and seeing what jumps out at us that could be good fun. Then its about getting the unique controller and wires unwrapped, checking the memory card storage in case we get engrossed and want to save a game. Or if its cartridge its blowing the dust off it, opening the tray and doing the same there. Then game wise getting the original game colours, and sounds. I think more so you can see its about having the console and that experience in one moment. Nothing beats that nostalgia and feeling - and it lasts way longer when you can tangibly feel the game and console in front of you. Where I start to adopt some 'emulator-ish' tendencies is through the last points I make about game colours and sounds. Harold tocuhes on it abit above where we haven't got CRT TVs just lying around (mainly because they have an arse built like optimus prime) so what i've bought a few years ago is a HDMI upscaler. In some ways i had to because my TV can take aerial but the ice and snow mario kart race on the SNES just wouldn't show correctly. With an Upscaler it looks pristine and just like what we used to play as kids. Still using the same unique SNES controllers. Whilst I can joke from time to time, never feel ashamed to use emulators when it seems practical to use them due to how your life is. I'm lucky enough to own many of mine as I grew up so still have them. I wish people would not jump on the bandwagon of making money out of old games as it is pricing me out what I love to do, but i'll carry on where i can obtaining old games that aren't overpriced to enjoy them in my own home with as close as an experience it would've been if I had bought the game when it originally came out.

How many of us remember this screen? Or this

Also to add, while I don't have the room or funds to go physical, I do try to get as close to the real thing where I can. So I have the 8BitDo N30 controller to play NES, GB, GBA, GBC, 8BitDo M30 for GameGear and MegaDrive, Raphnet adapter for use with a real N64 controller which supports rumble packs and memory packs, Mayflash adapter for a real GameCube controller and Bongo drums, PS3 controller for PSOne and PS2. The authentic look is nice to have but I much prefer the button placements of the controllers to be near identical or very close to the original controllers, if they also happen to look the same then it's a huge bonus.

I've been thinking about this for years too. My plan was to always get it done at some point. Initially it was stuff like our World Records we beat the game on in International Track and Field. It shouldn't be too hard as I have an Elgato so maybe when we have a spare weekend we should give it a go and see what we can record!

Lack of storage, cost of games, rare games that would cost an arm and a leg to purchase, size of CRT TVs and bad quality from newer TVs unless using expensive adapters. There's plenty of reasons why one would go down emulation route and I do this for the very reasons I listed. I lack any kind of space to build a collection like I would like, nor do I have that kind of money. While I do emulate, it lets me play games I would never otherwise have played or owned, you can choose between the better frame rates of USA versions (with slight reduction to picture). Certain consoles I would tend to go physical though and I'm still interested in obtaining them, but these will be systems that use discs due to size to store them digitally and they will be consoles where a lot of games wasn't ported to newer systems. So things like GameCube, PS2, PSOne. If I build a collection now, it'll be a selective collection where I'll try something out through emulation before investing in the physical version. None of the money we spend on retro things goes to the companies that made these products anyway.

I had only noticed after you had posted as well. Just thought I would mention it. Yeah I had Premier Manager 98, it was tha bomb. You totally should record some old games, would be good to watch dude.

I think emulation is important for the preservation of such games rather than viewing it as a form of piracy window as some do. It's also such a pity that classic titles are bound to an horrendous amount of red tape or restrictions so people can't enjoy classic games in the future on newer systems like we were all expecting years ago and were told would happen. Most of the games I've emulated are ones I already own so my conscience is clear in that regard. There is also a lot of good PR on some of the emulators and even big YouTube channels like Digital Foundry cover these whilst playing emulated games so it's not quite such a sensitive topic as it once was especially with devices that can this concept portable with ease too.

I had not seen it, apologies! I have a stream card somewhere so might look at getting it set up and upload some footage of the games I have ^_^ Alien Trilogy, I never owned that until the last few years but used to love playing it at my cousins (he obviously had better PS1 games than me because now I think about it that's alien trilogy and premier manager!)

@GazzaGarratt Chad has kindly created a retro forum prior to this topic. Maybe move this thread over to Retro Gaming? Will feel more at home there.

What's Your Fave?

Seeing as there is a little bit of interest (though this could turn into just Lee and myself talking about old games) I thought I would show off a couple of games in my Gameboy collection. I have never had them graded so for all I know they could be fake 😄 (And I realise as I'm uploading this I didn't take a photo of the pokemon crystal box but it's in pretty good condition. The pokemon games made up a good portion of my youth so it's probably one of my favourite parts of the collection (though I find it difficult to play the games / modern games these days with the exception of Arceus). But yeah thought it would get the ball rolling. I have a pearl blue? GBA SP that comes out every once in a while, sadly find it a bit uncomfortable to hold over longer spells. I tend to only keep hold of games I have particularly enjoyed so the bulk of my collection is made up of JRPG's / single player story driven games and a good portion of it still get's some game time every now and again. My megadrive broke so that's on my to get list again as those games are now sat in a cupboard gathering a nice thick layer of dust ^_^

Didn't see this one coming and it arrives on Steam tomorrow courtesy of remake kings Nightdive Studios. Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition on Steam STORE.STEAMPOWERED.COM Armed with your investigative skills and the tools of the Blade Runner trade, you'll be immersed in a world that lives and breathes around you with breakthrough lighting and visual effects. Your ability to survive...

Some of the best 8-bit music came from this series. While most love 2, my favourite has always been 3. I remember renting each one when they were available and running through them with my best friend over a few days. Great memories... In fact, I think my frequent use of the work "Fuck" started around this point. Also, a steady diet of backhands from my folks when they heard me say it.

2 and 3 are the best ones IMO.

I can't wait to drive head first through windows again 😂

Absolutely iconic screen there James. Spent ages looking at that badboy.

So I do still pick games up now and again, mostly for X360 and PS3. Whether you see them as retro or not, I don't care 😅. Xbox 360: PS3: Game Gear:

If you like drummers or drumming, this guy is a fucking beast! He also does covers of Dream Theater and the likes 1 handed.

Anyone remember playing Lost Vikings? I played Lost Vikings 2 on the PlayStation 1. One of my best friends had it and we played a lot of it when round at his. Think it was out 1997 when he got it.

I think there are a lot of different reasons here for emulators and against them. A very healthy conversation. I have only used an emulator many years ago to play mega drive games. It was a chance to play games I missed out on when I was young. Some I didn't realise existed and had to play. There were a few classics I wanted to enjoy again like Zombies Ate My Neighbours, Paperboy, Cool Spot, Surf Dog Alien, Animaniacs and Splatterhouse. Some of which I never owned and only played at a random friend's a couple of times. I think they are a somewhat good thing, as mentioned by others some would of never been enjoyed by people. Also the whole money/space/hardware thoughts from Spacedeck makes a lot of sense.

Any way to make the map smaller? I've been walking for 7 weeks

I never played Megaman, not once. I really missed out on the feeling that was surrounding Megaman but I don't think this franchise was as big over here when I was growing up. I look at some of the games and do wonder which ones are the best to go back and try out - which ones would you suggest @Riff Machine ?

Pretty brutal!

Hello there! As the title says, what are your favourite 5 albums of all time? They don't have to be in a particular order, any genre or even instrumental. As we know music can be life changing, it can make you feel a certain way. It can relax you, put you in a positive mood, get you pumped up, driving in the car. Whatever you like to listen to for various reasons. Your choice of albums are ones you can put on start to finish and enjoy the entirety. Desert island scenarios or whatever. For me personally I enjoy a large mix of different music styles and genres and it's hard to pick just 5. You can have 2 honorable mentions also. My list: Red Hot Chili Peppers- Blood Sugar Sex Magik Queens Of The Stone Age- Songs For The Deaf Pink Floyd- Dark Side Of The Moon Rage Against The Machine- Self Titled Parliament- Mothership Connection Honorable Mentions: Cypress Hill-Black Sunday The Stone Roses- 2nd Coming

That's what it's all about, albums that really stick with you or resonate with. Albums you can go back to after a long time and appreciate. Music is subjectively down to taste. For some it just hits the right spot. You hear a song or album and remember a time or person specifically and enjoy. Take your time tho Lee, there isn't a rush.

Shouldn't laugh really....but I did Bet there was some whiplash claims filed that day

I love this thread @IRaMPaGe , great shout. Just a hugely difficult one for me to think about personally as I haven't listened to many albums for years so it would have to be judged on what ones I bought way back when I was in my older teens. Still, probably the same music is what I listen to today anyway 😅 I'll have a think. I love lots of different types of music but I know its not gonna be like what many of you like as Metal/Rock/Punk doesn't tend to be something I listen to very often.

Yeah I'm the same, I can manage lamb in a roast with a decent gravy but otherwise I don't like gamey tasting meat.

Nout wrong with doner meat and salad swimming in multiple sauces 😅

Started on Commodore 64 although had a few Nintendo Game&Watch single players, of which donkey kong was epic. Missed the NES but picked up a SNES, with my brother owning the Sega Mega Drive. Passed on the Saturn and Dreancast but picked up the PS1, Tomb Raider and Gran Turismo were the first games I had for that. Also had the N64 which still has some of my best gaming memories. Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Ocarina of Time and many more. Next came the Gamecube, for which Resident Evil 4 and Eternal Darkness were my standout titles. PS2 was epic for Black, GTA Vice City and San Andreas. Passed on the PS3 and went with the Xbox 360. My favourite console of all time. I had two standard ones and finished with the slim. MW2 and Black Ops 1, Oblivion, Bioshock 1 and 2, Fallout 3 and New Vegas, GTA4 and more....an almost endless list of great titles. PS4 and Switch aren't retro quite yet, so that'll do 🙂

Now for a bit of a throwback, I owned an original Nintendo, got a Mega drive a few years later and a mate had a master system. Had played quite a few different games till this point. But the PlayStation 1, I remember well. It was Christmas of 96 and I had gotten it, me and my younger brother used to love buying games for it and playing it. It came with 2 games, Alien Trilogy and Olympic Soccer. Just some random gameplay from a YouTube video of someone. The startups and the logos, the music and loading screens take me back!

Well, this is the point where my mind would love to go in absolutely every direction but ends up going nowhere 🤣 Great start off for the whole new section, I can see many new threads here that hopefully would be worthwhile. I should open by saying I absolutely love older games and enjoy building my collection in the hope one day i have that much spare time, I can start going through all of them and maybe even having people round for retro nights like I used to do even as a kid (17-21 I had 4-5 random TVs in my front room and had multiple all night gaming sessions with friends playing all kinds of stuff). Not sure what pictures wise to share though right now. I have around or just over 30 different types of consoles right now, but by far I love the Sega Mega Drive and SNES the most. No one can beat a game on a cartridge, its just the feeling of uniqueness and wonder when you have to blow the cartridge and slot before putting in and waiting for the relevant loading Sega logo to appear so you know its worked. Plus games back then were all about the fun factor and no extra frillyness that you had to worry about - looking at you loot boxes. One of my other favourite consoles is my Neo Geo CD. Maybe each one deseves their own little thread but for now i'll just say that this console makes you feel like you're back in the arcades playing those games you always wanted/needed £25 to play the whole game through, if you're lucky. Next step for my gaming area is waiting for my turn to have it get updated again, especially with the right storage as thats usually the one thing that stops me playing all my old games. Need a better and slicker system to plug in and play these old consoles without getting stuck with all the wires! 😅

@Tar-Eruntalion golden sun is a JRPG, it had 3 games (the first 2 on the GBA were the best of the 3) but it had some brilliantly creative puzzles within the dungeons you explored and the story was really quite good. It was turn based and looked surprisingly good for such a little handheld!# The Zelda games are on my to buy list, my gameboy collection is rather small, I think because I have held off on picking games up just because I like complete copies (though that is becoming an increasingly expensive want so I may have to lower my expectations at some point). @Antpool84 it was a great way to kill hours back then, the older games were a major grindfest (not so these days)

This game is so sick. I love it.

Awesome thread to start dude 😊 thats a cool collection you've got there. I used to love my game boy, i spent many an hour on Super Mario World and Tazmania among mamy others. I never got into the pokemon games though, i just missed that craze lol

nice collection @Luseth , i see you are a fan of pokemon, i think i vaguely remember golden sun, what was it about? anyway here is my gameboy collection, i played these games until i got a pc and later a ps3 zelda and warrioland though were kicking my ass so much when i was younger, they had some very difficult parts, i remember i was completely stuck on some dungeon/puzzle of zelda and had abandoned the game and only finished it very recently after i saw a walkthrough, so yeah that game took me more than 10 years to finish😅

I would have to go for Chinese, although pizza is a very close second and Indian is up there too, as long as its good quality i'm happy. Notging more disappointing than craving a takeaway and it arrives and is crap lol

from what i have seen there isn't that much of a choice, sadly. There are some asian restaurants but they have either a few select dishes like a couple of ramen dishes or are very expensive, but the good thing is that we have started cooking asian recipes we find on the internet, simple stuff like stir frys etc nothing too fancy, at least you can find the most common ingredients to make asian recipes

Great lists @phil bottle For the non punk I'm loving the honorable mentions, The Beatles White Album and Dr Dre 2001 are classics. Like a lot of Bowies stuff. I do enjoy The Stone Roses 1st album and The Pixies are good too! I'm not huge into punk, but The Clash are iconic and I do like The Ramones and The Dead Kennedys. 👍

Now That's What I Call Music 1995 Now That's What I Call Music 1996 Now That's What I Call Music 1997 Now That's What I Call Music 1998 Now That's What I Call Music 1999 😎

OK, so here's a non punk top 5 Scientist - Wins the World Cup Orbital - No name brown cover (2nd album) Stone Roses - Stone Roses (1st album) Fields of the Nephilim - Nephilim (2nd album) Pixies - Trompe Le Monde Honourable mention to all the Joy Division albums, first 3 Jesus and Mary Chain albums, the Beatles White album, Beastie Boys, Dr Dre's 2001, Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation, David Bowies Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust...I better stop lol. Can't believe I let a goth album into my top 5 but there you go. I'll do a punk top 5 separately as that's serious business 😁