I kinda like the slightly worn appearance of my old SP. Like, you can tell it's been used for many years, but not abused. But those shell replacements are such a great way of restoring systems that have really taken a beating.
Also, like Betsuni said, I ought to look into replacement batteries too.
Well, we bought the av cable for his TV manufacturer to try that prior to upscalers. But we also had to order a new 72 pin adaptor so they'll have a little race to see what arrives first.
You might as well try, but to put the issue in like one sentence, the main problem with anything before 6th gen is that modern TVs do not understand that old consoles use a primitive progressive scan format (240p) and misinterpret it as 480i (the interlaced video standard of the time) and therefore want to de-interlace to display on a flat panel. This adds unnecessary lag, blurriness and weird artifacts that you might soon be running into.
This is where the Rad2X cables and Retrotink 2x scaler come in, they do the bare minimum of bringing the console output up to 480p, without adding any lag in the process, and pushing it out as HDMI, which modern TVs will interpret correctly as a progressive signal and avoid de-interlacing. (Plus some TVs have crappy/laggy/non-existent analog inputs anyway.) You can spend much more on nicer looking/sharper scalers or HDMI mods, but they aren't going to actually play the games any better than the (relatively) cheap and simple 2x products.
I kinda like the slightly worn appearance of my old SP. Like, you can tell it's been used for many years, but not abused. But those shell replacements are such a great way of restoring systems that have really taken a beating.
Also, like Betsuni said, I ought to look into replacement batteries too.
I'm looking for Cobalt blue one in decent condition, same as I had as a kid. I have a Flame red one that is nearly perfect aside from a few scratches, might send it to my brother as that's the one he had when we were kids
Well, we bought the av cable for his TV manufacturer to try that prior to upscalers. But we also had to order a new 72 pin adaptor so they'll have a little race to see what arrives first.
You might as well try, but to put the issue in like one sentence, the main problem with anything before 6th gen is that modern TVs do not understand that old consoles use a primitive progressive scan format (240p) and misinterpret it as 480i (the interlaced video standard of the time) and therefore want to de-interlace to display on a flat panel. This adds unnecessary lag, blurriness and weird artifacts that you might soon be running into.
This is where the Rad2X cables and Retrotink 2x scaler come in, they do the bare minimum of bringing the console output up to 480p, without adding any lag in the process, and pushing it out as HDMI, which modern TVs will interpret correctly as a progressive signal and avoid de-interlacing. (Plus some TVs have crappy/laggy/non-existent analog inputs anyway.) You can spend much more on nicer looking/sharper scalers or HDMI mods, but they aren't going to actually play the games any better than the (relatively) cheap and simple 2x products.
I'm sure we're going to end up picking up a 2x mini at some point over the summer. I just want to make sure he sticks with the hobby and that the nes works better after the 72pin swap.
I dunno, I just keep it simple and keep around an old CRT to play retro games on. Upscale and converting them all to HD seems like kinda expensive and a pain? Plus I find alot of retro games look like turd in HD, cause they were never meant to look that way.
You know what's a pain? Moving a 32" Trinitron.... would gladly pay a mere $100 to never do that again.
Personally I'm kind of over scanlines now too, or at least thick ones. It does help many games, but only in the sense that their true form is kind of crap and 240p weirdness obscures it. The highest quality pixel art is breathtaking at 480p on a VGA CRT IMO and a well-scaled flat panel can get pretty close to that.
I waver back and forth. There's nothing like playing on original hardware with a CRT for some games, but yeah I've never felt strong enough to have a CRT on hand after having to move a 80lb one up several flights. I think that's why portables are so great, you get the retro games as you remember them without needing special hardware.
Storage is a factor, as you can only have so much crap (as I'm sure most of us are familiar). So having huge retro libraries while nice is hard to maintain. I've had to purge several times during moves, but I always make sure the consoles and games go to loving homes. For retro stuff, I've started collecting just stuff I had as a kid (or always wanted) which helps narrow the focus somewhat.
I prefer an old CRT. Filters and boxes just cannot give the same image quality. It's worth sacrificing the space and lugging it around when I move to not have to spend hundreds of dollars to get an image that is good, but still not comparable.
My hope is that by the time mine breaks down the equipment will exist to easily (and cheaply) replicate the image quality and low latency associated with just plugging your console directly into a fatass tube TV that you bought off of craigslist for $10.
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ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
I've pulled a lot of Trinitrons from homes over the years. Every one being recycled, almost every one in great shape still. It's heartbreaking.
I think that's why portables are so great, you get the retro games as you remember them without needing special hardware.
It's so weird, but when it comes to old console games, I find myself unable to care about preserving the original experience. I play all of my favorite NES/SNES on either the Switch or a hacked SNES Classic, connected to a 4KTV. But when it comes to the GBA, I just keep going back to the SP. I even have a GBA emulator on my Vita, with it's bigger and better screen, but I'd still rather dig the real thing out of whatever drawer I left it in.
I've pulled a lot of Trinitrons from homes over the years. Every one being recycled, almost every one in great shape still. It's heartbreaking.
And back breaking.
If it makes you feel any better, my old Trinitron was donated, and not recycled. It's probably still out there, bringing joy to some retro gamer after all these years.
Anyone modded a vita to take normal SDcards via an SD2Vita adapter? Pros? Cons? I have a Vita I never use anymore because the memory cards never seem to last.
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augustwhere you come from is goneRegistered Userregular
I haven't used it myself but I haven't read any complaints about sd2vita.
SD2Vita is civilization. It should be the first upgrade anyone makes for their Vita. I threw a 256GB MicroSD card in mine, and while I won't get into specifics I put every Vita, PSP, PS1, and Homebrew game I could ever envision playing and still have over 100GB of space left.
SD2Vita is civilization. It should be the first upgrade anyone makes for their Vita. I threw a 256GB MicroSD card in mine, and while I won't get into specifics I put every Vita, PSP, PS1, and Homebrew game I could ever envision playing and still have over 100GB of space left.
So it's possible for me to do that, then get to the playstation store and download all my games and DLC again onto a new, decent quality microSD card? No interest in homebrew, but I'd love to play some of the games I own but don't have space for since a few cards went bad.
SD2Vita is civilization. It should be the first upgrade anyone makes for their Vita. I threw a 256GB MicroSD card in mine, and while I won't get into specifics I put every Vita, PSP, PS1, and Homebrew game I could ever envision playing and still have over 100GB of space left.
So it's possible for me to do that, then get to the playstation store and download all my games and DLC again onto a new, decent quality microSD card? No interest in homebrew, but I'd love to play some of the games I own but don't have space for since a few cards went bad.
Yes. You have to hack your Vita to be able to use SD2Vita, but you can still access the PSN with a hacked Vita. If you're not interested in homebrew or piracy than it'll be a little easier, since you won't have to downgrade to a lower firmware and worry about spoofing a higher firmware.
Yeah, doing some reading it looks like I can wrangle it on there with 3.71 which is what it's hassling me to update to right now. Ordered a card and the doodad, will take a run at this later this week.
Funny story on this one, I swapped the shell and decided to take some pictures with the other custom I did recently. When comparing the photos I realized that one was much brighter than the other. Turns out, the Red one ended up with AGS 101 inside it! For those who don't know, there's two models of GBA SP- 001 is the original with a dimmer screen. The later model, 101 is much harder to find and is coveted for its much brighter screen, especially for daytime use.
Had I known I may have kept this one and used a really special shell on it (still might honestly)
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ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
You're killing me with these, you know. I'd pay an irresponsible amount of money for a neon game boy micro.
I mean, I wouldn't because I can't. But I would really want to.
The GBAs are sourced from Mercari for 60~ secondhand, I wouldn't buy one more than 80 unless it's a 101. And the cases are around 10-20. Once you practice a bit it's actually not too hard (the hardest part is the screen ribbon). But you can make one yourself for not too much. That being said, GBA Micro are somewhat more rare and not as many aftermarket cases for it. But I'm sure they're out there, it's finding a Micro at reasonable prices lmao
also, 001 is frontlit and 101 is backlit, which is much better.
Yeah it's honestly pretty crazy seeing it in person, I didn't think it was that big a deal but playing some games on it and yeah... Might have to keep this one for myself.
Got my RetroTink 2x-Pro coming today!
Looking forward to playing SOTN to check out the scanlines and then immediately swapping to SMT Nocturne.
All this talk of the remaster has me itching to finally start up the original.
Sorry to get your hopes up!
I got the RetroTink and hooked it all up earlier!
Getting some bad judder when using the 'Line2X' mode, but I'm going to assume that's my crappy TV / cheap component cable's fault.
Passthrough mode looks good and text is actually legible and the games are playable now!
I know it's not going to be comparable to using a component cable, but I'm really curious to see how my GameCube looks with this thing running on standard composite.
hemmelight on
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DeadfallI don't think you realize just how rich he is.In fact, I should put on a monocle.Registered Userregular
The converter is plugged in, I have the PS2 graphics set to the y2yblah blah setting. It boots up the PS2 loading screen then goes black and loses the signal. I've tried plugging the power into the wall, plugging then HDMI into different HDMI ports.
What am I missing?
Deadfall on
xbl - HowYouGetAnts
steam - WeAreAllGeth
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augustwhere you come from is goneRegistered Userregular
What's the hdmi converter?
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DeadfallI don't think you realize just how rich he is.In fact, I should put on a monocle.Registered Userregular
I've never heard of it and it's eight bucks, so there's the strong possibility this thing is garbage. I'm not sure, but it doesn't upscale at all so maybe your tv doesn't support 480p over hdmi?
august on
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DeadfallI don't think you realize just how rich he is.In fact, I should put on a monocle.Registered Userregular
edited June 2021
It is super cheap but it has good reviews, thought I'd start there. I'll check the 480p when I'm able. Would that matter if it loads the PS2 loading screen but nothing else?
I'm basically trying to hook up my mclassic to it so I just needed something simple.
It is super cheap but it has good reviews, thought I'd start there. I'll check the 480p when I'm able. Would that matter if it loads the PS2 loading screen but nothing else?
I'm basically trying to hook up my mclassic to it so I just needed something simple.
It would make sense if the boot screen was a different resolution than the actual PS2 menus. Anyway, I’m not 100% on this stuff so check this out:
Welp, got a 256GB Vita now. It's a little bit janky, every power cycle you have to re-run the break thing, and it works...50% of the time? Weird, but whatever, downloading basically everything I owned. The actual SDCard into the sleeve worked quite well, slides in and out ok, and it sits flush in the cartridge slot so the little door closes.
The Vita is pretty great when it comes to power drain in sleep mode, so you don't really need to power it off completely unless you're putting it away for a while.
Posts
That is way too awesome.
Seeing your battery there... Man, I wonder if I need to find newer batteries for my SPs.
Steam: betsuni7
Some more pics it didn't post first time for size reasons
Yeah
Also, like Betsuni said, I ought to look into replacement batteries too.
You might as well try, but to put the issue in like one sentence, the main problem with anything before 6th gen is that modern TVs do not understand that old consoles use a primitive progressive scan format (240p) and misinterpret it as 480i (the interlaced video standard of the time) and therefore want to de-interlace to display on a flat panel. This adds unnecessary lag, blurriness and weird artifacts that you might soon be running into.
This is where the Rad2X cables and Retrotink 2x scaler come in, they do the bare minimum of bringing the console output up to 480p, without adding any lag in the process, and pushing it out as HDMI, which modern TVs will interpret correctly as a progressive signal and avoid de-interlacing. (Plus some TVs have crappy/laggy/non-existent analog inputs anyway.) You can spend much more on nicer looking/sharper scalers or HDMI mods, but they aren't going to actually play the games any better than the (relatively) cheap and simple 2x products.
I'm looking for Cobalt blue one in decent condition, same as I had as a kid. I have a Flame red one that is nearly perfect aside from a few scratches, might send it to my brother as that's the one he had when we were kids
I'm sure we're going to end up picking up a 2x mini at some point over the summer. I just want to make sure he sticks with the hobby and that the nes works better after the 72pin swap.
Personally I'm kind of over scanlines now too, or at least thick ones. It does help many games, but only in the sense that their true form is kind of crap and 240p weirdness obscures it. The highest quality pixel art is breathtaking at 480p on a VGA CRT IMO and a well-scaled flat panel can get pretty close to that.
Storage is a factor, as you can only have so much crap (as I'm sure most of us are familiar). So having huge retro libraries while nice is hard to maintain. I've had to purge several times during moves, but I always make sure the consoles and games go to loving homes. For retro stuff, I've started collecting just stuff I had as a kid (or always wanted) which helps narrow the focus somewhat.
My hope is that by the time mine breaks down the equipment will exist to easily (and cheaply) replicate the image quality and low latency associated with just plugging your console directly into a fatass tube TV that you bought off of craigslist for $10.
And back breaking.
It's so weird, but when it comes to old console games, I find myself unable to care about preserving the original experience. I play all of my favorite NES/SNES on either the Switch or a hacked SNES Classic, connected to a 4KTV. But when it comes to the GBA, I just keep going back to the SP. I even have a GBA emulator on my Vita, with it's bigger and better screen, but I'd still rather dig the real thing out of whatever drawer I left it in.
If it makes you feel any better, my old Trinitron was donated, and not recycled. It's probably still out there, bringing joy to some retro gamer after all these years.
So it's possible for me to do that, then get to the playstation store and download all my games and DLC again onto a new, decent quality microSD card? No interest in homebrew, but I'd love to play some of the games I own but don't have space for since a few cards went bad.
Yes. You have to hack your Vita to be able to use SD2Vita, but you can still access the PSN with a hacked Vita. If you're not interested in homebrew or piracy than it'll be a little easier, since you won't have to downgrade to a lower firmware and worry about spoofing a higher firmware.
Funny story on this one, I swapped the shell and decided to take some pictures with the other custom I did recently. When comparing the photos I realized that one was much brighter than the other. Turns out, the Red one ended up with AGS 101 inside it! For those who don't know, there's two models of GBA SP- 001 is the original with a dimmer screen. The later model, 101 is much harder to find and is coveted for its much brighter screen, especially for daytime use.
Had I known I may have kept this one and used a really special shell on it (still might honestly)
I mean, I wouldn't because I can't. But I would really want to.
That and it has that weird specific charger
Yeah it's honestly pretty crazy seeing it in person, I didn't think it was that big a deal but playing some games on it and yeah... Might have to keep this one for myself.
Looking forward to playing SOTN to check out the scanlines and then immediately swapping to SMT Nocturne.
All this talk of the remaster has me itching to finally start up the original.
edit: oh I misunderstood
now I'm sad =(
I got the RetroTink and hooked it all up earlier!
Getting some bad judder when using the 'Line2X' mode, but I'm going to assume that's my crappy TV / cheap component cable's fault.
Passthrough mode looks good and text is actually legible and the games are playable now!
I know it's not going to be comparable to using a component cable, but I'm really curious to see how my GameCube looks with this thing running on standard composite.
Trying to hook up my bigger-version PS2 up to my 55 inch old Samsung with a HDMI converter. This one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FCYLVVY/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_fabc_16QCMJ22N7RWK11CD72M
The converter is plugged in, I have the PS2 graphics set to the y2yblah blah setting. It boots up the PS2 loading screen then goes black and loses the signal. I've tried plugging the power into the wall, plugging then HDMI into different HDMI ports.
What am I missing?
xbl - HowYouGetAnts
steam - WeAreAllGeth
xbl - HowYouGetAnts
steam - WeAreAllGeth
I've never heard of it and it's eight bucks, so there's the strong possibility this thing is garbage. I'm not sure, but it doesn't upscale at all so maybe your tv doesn't support 480p over hdmi?
I'm basically trying to hook up my mclassic to it so I just needed something simple.
xbl - HowYouGetAnts
steam - WeAreAllGeth
It would make sense if the boot screen was a different resolution than the actual PS2 menus. Anyway, I’m not 100% on this stuff so check this out:
It’s a few years old so some of the products they talk about probably have new revisions by now.
xbl - HowYouGetAnts
steam - WeAreAllGeth
Actually this a probably a better video:
edit: here mvg claims that you probably shouldn’t use the mclassic with a console that doesn’t have native hdmi:
also, reading some claims that the mclassic doesn’t do anything to 480i, and that’s the resolution on most ps2 games.