How do you play your Retro Games?

[Selim873]

I play my games on an old 32-inch CRT television, my systems are hooked up to the television through composite cables into my VCR, which is hooked up to my TV through RF Cable. I grew up playing ALL of my consoles through RF up until I got my Dreamcast, starting at 2 years old on the Genesis. I never got used to the sharpness and colors of straight composite compared to the grainy, more color washed and less saturated, look of RF. Plus on my TV, the colors have so much contrast, it just kills me, plus screen burns, my TV has custom settings on it to fix, or for most people to worsen, the color, brightness, and contrast. I would prefer good old RF quality over HD any day honestly, I don't know why either... I guess I just like less color and contrast, I dunno.

You can post pictures if you want, I'll get one posted later. I'm actually aiming to get an even older CRT that still is in good shape, preferably one that was manufactured in the mid-90's.

 

[Wabsta]

Most emulators have an option to make it look like you're playing on a CRT (by emulating those lines for example). Not perfect ofcourse, but it's something.
I'd rather play it on the real system, on my CRT, but in some cases (I'm NOT buying a supernintendo game for 100$+) I just connect my supernintendo controller to my PC and play it using emulators.

 

[DinohScene]

I currently have everything hooked up to a idk inch Aristona CRT (54 cm iirc) 4:3
NES SNES N64 GCN Wii Xbox Xbox 360 and PS2.
All hooked up on SCART splitterboxes and I dont plan on getting a new TV very soon.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

I typically don't play older games, but if I do I usually find them in re-released collections (like the Sega Genesis Collection is nice and there's a few good DS retro compilations).

EDIT: And generally I rarely play games past the PSX/N64 era. Nothing really exciting to me past then.

 

[zachtheninja]

I play all my old 2d games on my ds.

 

[Selim873]

Most emulators have an option to make it look like you're playing on a CRT (by emulating those lines for example). Not perfect ofcourse, but it's something.
I'd rather play it on the real system, on my CRT, but in some cases (I'm NOT buying a supernintendo game for 100$+) I just connect my supernintendo controller to my PC and play it using emulators.

NTSC Filter with scanlines enabled on SNES9x if I'm correct? That's a good quality for me, I tried those on my old Compaq crt monitor, it doesn't look as good though because it's a much higher resolution display than CRT televisions that only displayed at 640x480, with the upscaled 320x240 that made the scanlines happen. I just feel really choosy, I can deal with them easily, I just don't prefer it.

EDIT: SharpNES anyone? (This isn't mine, I ran into it on Google)

 

[1NOOB]

i went the easy way , every emulator i want , the oldies have the good set . ps2/ps1/gamecube/wii run with dvd/cd (sometime on my roms folder when im lazy lol) and every emulator are mapped to 2 wireless xbox 360 controller , i move my pc in the house , so i play on a 21.5'' , 55'' and a projector ~ 80'' . and almost every emulator got some enhancement that make games look better . i wanted to go with the real hardware at first but my snes , game gear , gamecube stopped working for some reason and i broked my dsl when i wanted to change to case lol . so i kinda give up . my consoles are in a closet now lol



edit : and to play the nds emulator i use pinnacle game profiler to map the keyboard and the mouse to the controller

 

[Hells Malice]

PC emulator with 360 gamepad.

I like my old consoles, but plugging them in and setting them up is way too much effort tbh. I used to have a grand setup with all my consoles, NES to current gen, plugged in and ready to go. But i've since had to clean that up since we renovated my game room.

 

[steveroo]

on my wii and ds lite, that leaves out psx, xbox, 360 and n64

 

[Coto]

A few months ago I kept my N64 (modded to plug S-Video directly) and begun to play Pokemon Silver on an Original GBA, 4 hours of game play and the data got lost (dry battery). Replaced battery, soldering, etc and the savedata was lost again after 19hours of gameplay. yay. Pokemon Stadium 2 on S-Video seems beautiful even if pixelated (low res 3D battles) on a 52'' LCD screem through S-Video, again.

I use my Wii to play SNES on GC Controllers, it feels "much more Nintendo" than just using a PC Emu, plus some N64 games which look nice on 480p. GC is too new to me to be considered a retro console, but it es enjoyable on Wii though.

 

[DarkCoffe64]

Well, I play gamecube games with my wii (viva retro compatibility ), I still have my old (and dusty) ps2 hooked up on my tv, I play my ps1 games on the psp
and sometimes, I switch the ps2 for the ps1 and play the games, I still have a gbsp for game boy/color/advance games (and a micro too), and for everything else
I have some emulators.

 

[Selim873]

I'm not really a fan of emulators, I've used them and it's just weird to me because the higher resolution mixed with the game's lower polygon count in the game shows the game's age much more honestly, I mean 3D games obviously, the console's GPU renderer pretty much hides that and adds a bit of nostalgia to the experience because of the controls and how everything works, just knowing you're on the actual console. If I want to handle ROMs, that's when I buy a flash cart, hoping the EverDrive64 doesn't go out of stock again by next week.

EDIT: This is what I had before I got my VCR up here. I already made a deal with my grandpa since he wants to get rid of his 1995 TV that's the same size so we're switching eventually, I want to get as retro as possible.

 

[Devin]

I play on my 19" Monitor. It has built in coax, VGA, HDMI, and RCA input so I'm set. I run most of my things through a switchbox, so I don't have to unplug everything. I do most of my old time gaming via emulation through my Xbox 1, and PC.

 

[Deleted-236924]

I just use emulators, because I don't own anything but a Gameboy Pocket as far as retro systems go.
But with a combination of DSTwo + Android Phone, I can play pretty much any retro game portable, including PS1 with FPse.
The only games I can't really play without using a PC emulator are SNES games that aren't RPGs.
That is because playing a platformer with touch controls usually sucks (Sonic the Hedgehog for Genesis work really great with touch controls, honestly.)
I could play them on my DSTwo, but the limited screen resolution, the frameskip and sound hiccups makes them unenjoyable, IMO.

 

[ZAFDeltaForce]

I use emulators on my PC with a PS3 DualShock 3 controller

Unfortunately the only retro console from my childhood was a Sega Genesis that disappeared some time I was 10

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Unfortunately I am lacking in the old consoles department due to a destructive little brother. What I have left (N64, SNES, GC if that counts) I play on whatever TV is really available...but I prefer to play emulators for the higher resolution and the benefit of having multiple systems in one place with one universal gamepad. I play N64, SNES, NES, PS1, PS2 (sometimes), GC, and some Wii games on my PC. Just can't buy a system for $50 where all of the games for it are $30+.

To be honest I never really was into the Dreamcast all that much...I used to own one but all we ever had for it were sports games and I DESPISE sports games. Can someone tell me what games were actually good for the Dreamcast? A lot of people praise it for its games...

 

[princefarzan]

Unfortunately I am lacking in the old consoles department due to a destructive little brother. What I have left (N64, SNES, GC if that counts) I play on whatever TV is really available...but I prefer to play emulators for the higher resolution and the benefit of having multiple systems in one place with one universal gamepad. I play N64, SNES, NES, PS1, PS2 (sometimes), GC, and some Wii games on my PC. Just can't buy a system for $50 where all of the games for it are $30+.

To be honest I never really was into the Dreamcast all that much...I used to own one but all we ever had for it were sports games and I DESPISE sports games. Can someone tell me what games were actually good for the Dreamcast? A lot of people praise it for its games...

Just to name a few of the awesome games on the Dreamcast:
Jet Set Radio - By far one of my all time favourites
Dino Crysis(Really good game especially if you like Resident Evil)
Crazy Taxi (Fun arcade game)
Street Fighter III 3rd Strike (one of the best fighting games for the dreamcast even by todays standards it holds up quite well)
Grandia 2 (Amazing RPG)
MvC 2 (Great hectic fighting game with tons of fun to be had)
Phantasy Star Online (Amazing Online RPG over 56kbps connection)
PowerStone 1/2 (Very fun fighting game)
Quake 3 (One of the best multiplayer shooters for Dreamcast)
Rival Schools 1/2 (Great anime style fighter)
Shenmue 1/2 (Amazing Story and graphics at the time of its release)
Skys of Arcadia (Great RPG)
Need I go on? There are plenty of more good games for it if you look around.

On-topic:
I play all my retro games(DOS,NES,SNES,Genisis,GBA,GB/C,PSX, N64) with emulators on my modded original Xbox(not 360) on an HDTV ! And I have a Dreamcast for playing my *backup* Dreamcast Games.
The great thing about the emulators for the original xbox is that they have great customizion options for the emulators like letting me fit the games on a widescreen HDTV and they all run great(and look great).

 

[BORTZ]

Well usually I just use my PSP.

 

[NES SNES V.B. N64 G.C. Wii WiiU]

On a Wii via component to an HDTV. Can't be stuffed getting old consoles or an old CRT TV. Also on my DSi.

 

[chyyran]

My DSTWO, through my 3DS, or sometimes on my Wii, hooked up to a HDTV, with the regular composite cables. I'm probably not getting the component ones, because I'm saving up for my WiiU, and don't want to use money on, well, cables.

As for Dreamcast, just on my PC. I may try hooking up a Wiimote to it though.