I was just thinking about how there’s so many ways to play our old favorite games these days: Collecting for original hardware, playing ports and remasters on modern consoles, throwback consoles like the SNES Classic, having a dedicated emulation machine or handheld, etc.
What method works best for you? Has it changed over time?
Original equipment if possible. Once I replaced my TV with a new crappy smart TV, my retro consoles obviously wouldn’t work. A $25 insignia upscaler from best buy has solved all those problems except for PS2 since it’s native resolution is hard to convert to digital, so it looks like crap. All other consoles look fine and saved me $300 compared to a retrotink. Otherwise it’s all on my modded Wii or Xbox 360.
Emulation, mostly RetroArch, on Linux. Logitech F310 for older 8 and 16-bit systems, PS5 Dualsense for PS1 era and up. ScummVM standalone version though.
VR ports. I’m in the middle of Jedi Outcast right now and it’s amazing.
Cool! I want to play Baroque on PS1 in VR someday, if that becomes possible.
There’d be a good shot if the source code or a unity port was available, but a brief search tells me that’s unlikely to pop up anytime soon.
Yeah, I think the most that would be possible is running Duckstation or something using a VR headset and controller, and not being able to turn in-game using motion controls.
I don’t consider that a VR port, just playing a game using VR view. Lame.
emulation, don’t want to buy a crappy av to hdmi converter and i can use my wireless controllers.
I have a PS2-compatible PS3, and a N2DS XL. The 2DS is a fantastic little emulation machine, and the PS3 plays three generations of games from my youth well into my adulthood. Between those two devices and my desktop, I’m pretty much set for any game.
That said, my favourite way to play old games is The Internet Archive Console Living Room. The bar to entry is so incredibly low (any modern browser is good enough), and you can share random games with people just by giving them a link. For example, would you like to play my favourite game of all time? Click here and click the power button. Controls are below the game.
I play on my Linux desktop or SteamDeck, upscaled to my monitors native resolution, 60fps+ patches if available/needed at all.
I mainly play PS2/3 era stuff with some earlier games now and then. I try to go out of my play what’s considered “the best” version of any given game and emulate that if possible. But ideally I’d go for the native PC port if it’s not terrible.
For me I care more about playing good games rather than trying to capture nostalgia. Most older titles I play nowadays I don’t even have any nostalgia for since it’s my first time playing a lot them.
Also I’ll play Remasters if they’re overall considered good and don’t take anything away from the original game, But I’ve been burned on bad remasters more times than not.
Emulated on a PC.
In about '98, I discovered SNES9x. I had an SNES hooked up to my TV at the time, but as soon as I discovered how convenient it was to play on a PC instead, I just stopped using it and eventually boxed it up and put it away. And I haven’t looked back.
I used to pick up remasters of games on Steam, but now I’m almost 30 and find original hardware and non-remastered games really nostalgic.
The PS3 and Wii are such an all-star combo for playing Sony and Nintendo’s huge back catalogs. Hacking them gives me access to nearly everything up to the seventh generation. I also play a lot of fan translations and mods on the original hardware, and it’s a treat to the ears to play MSU-1 SNES games using SNES9x on Wii. Both consoles’ retro games look amazing on CRT TVs too. The Wii and especially the PS3’s UIs are really special to me, and hearken back to an era where users were allowed to heavily customize the vibes of their devices. I have a DS and PSP for handhelds, too.
I also have the Sega Genesis Model 1 with an Everdrive, since that’s the best way to experience those games’ music, with the Genesis soundchip not emulating well on modern consoles. Plus I love the headphone jack. More consoles should have that!
I used to have a bunch of old consoles hooked up, but I sold them because the Genesis, Wii and PS3 work together to create my ultimate minimalist retro setup.
I do still buy remasters and emulate games on PC occasionally, but it’s on a case-by-case basis. I use my PC to A) fill in gaps in my retro library, B) play a rare remaster that’s actually the definitive version of the game (which doesn’t cut content or downgrade the experience in any way), and C) if a game really benefits from upscaling options only found on PC emulators.
I have a mini PC running batocera, which has been great! It’s hooked up to the TV and can run up to PS3, and even Switch, though I haven’t been able to get a Switch emulator running yet.
And I can technically do Xbox360 too, but 360 emulation is in a sorry state, in general. And it’s even worse on Linux, because there’s no native Linux version, so batocera has to run the 360 emulator through Wine.
Other than that though, it’s great! Considering dual booting Steam OS to play more modern stuff, as well.
Try Bazzite. No need to dual boot
My use case is that this Mini PC acts as a living room console, and I like the Emulation Station front end, and that Emulators, controller setup, etc. more or less work out of the box.
But my big issue with it, is that Steam has effectively been broken on Batocera for a long time now. So, if I could run all of my ROMs and more modern stuff via Steam, all on one OS, that would be great
How would Bazzite fair in a living room console kind of use case? What is setup like? Especially for emulators. Could I have it boot straight into a front end, like ES or Lutris?
I’m holding out hope for a good Linux build of the 360 emulator. Because, like, I love Fable II and would like to eventually finish Lost Odyssey, but not enough to keep an entire console in my collection for.
The original XBOX emulator struggled too, but now runs well on Linux, so I think we’ll get there before long.
Original hardware, modern TV, flash cart/ODE/internal hard drive softmodded whenever possible.
For me the ideal way to enjoy retro consoles would be a SBC with RetroPie connected to a HDR 4k OLED TV with raster scan emulation. As it stands though I have a 1080p IPS monitor with regular old RetroArch. It’s nice, but I hope one day I can afford the most baller setup.
I think for everything that is not best played with a CRT I head to emulation, HDMI compatible and especially handhelds I try to stick with original hardware (overall the DS format as it is odd while being emulated).
I bought a Retro Freak I play the old games I could never buy/beat as a kid. Played my first PC Engine game ever just the other day!
Real hardware or FPGA emulation (Analgue pocket). I avoid software emulation because input lag.
I prefer original hardware on a CRT for most games, but for games that originally had bad performance, an emulator on a CRT at original resolution works well too.
Unless I play late at night. I try to be kind to my neighbors, so I don’t use either of my CRTs because of their flyback transformer noise. I don’t know if they can hear it through the walls or windows, but I don’t want to take the chance and disturb them. Its not that important to me.
