What Do I Need To Play My Old Game Consoles On A Computer Monitor?

[mrtimotei]

I've never really toyed around with this kind of technical stuff, so I need to know (Mostly for curiosity), if I wanted to play an old game console (A PS2 for example), on a computer monitor (through VGA input), what cords, etc. do I need to do this? If you could give me links to "said cords" through Amazon, that would be awesome.

I ask this because I've looked at reviews for cords that convert RCA to VGA, TV-Video to VGA, etc. and every review mentions something about the cord not being the right one, or it has a bad quality, or you need some kind of TV converter box, yadda, yadda...

I'd appreciate the help!

 

[Raiser]

When I was trying to get my Wii onto my monitor, most converters I found had some sort of review mentioning color issues, lines on the screen, etc. I eventually broke down and bought a relatively cheap monitor that had input for RCA and composite cables (a TV-monitor of sorts). This was a while ago though. After a quick search, I can't find any of the boxes I had been looking at.

I don't have any experience with the following items, but here's one that catches the eye. It takes RCA / Composite video, S-Video, and VGA as inputs, and outputs as VGA. There is also an item under "Customers who bought this item also bought" for audio if necessary. Both of these converters would, ideally, set you and your PS2 up perfectly.

 

[Taleweaver]

Wouldn't it be easier to just emulate these consoles?

Remember that a console also needs a way to emit audio. And your average PC monitor cannot do that.

 

[Arm73]

+ 1 to emulation.
Whatever your box of choice will be, you are bound to be disappointed by the image quality.
Heck, even my Dreamcast with an official VGA box doesn't look that good anymore on modern monitors.
Emulators however ( even with the occasional glitch ) do have the ability to upscale and render at higher definition, thus, making the image much better.

Or could you do like I din: Shop around for a cheap ( and I mean dirty cheap by today's standard ) old fashioned CRT TV ( possibly one that does 50/60Hz ) with component inputs, and use it as your dedicated vintage games monitor.
Some Sony Trinitron for example do a great job and can be picked up at around 40EUR.

Then you'll get the best of both words: nothing beats the original hardware, and you'll get a picture that is just as goo as it can be and true to the original way the game was intended to be displayed.

Go for a cheap CRT TV I say !!

 

[Satangel]

+2 to emulation, IF you have the hardware to pull it off.
You should have a minimum of dual-core CPU both running at 2.0GHz at least, to emulate PS2.
The PS2 emulator works very very very well, needs a bit of finetuning by the end-user sometimes (you), but with the help of their forums that shouldn't be too hard. I recommend a 360 controller too, esp for gaming where you really need to use the analog stick a lot (God of War).

PCSX2.net

 

[Arm73]

+2 to emulation, IF you have the hardware to pull it off.
You should have a minimum of dual-core CPU both running at 2.0GHz at least, to emulate PS2.
The PS2 emulator works very very very well, needs a bit of finetuning by the end-user sometimes (you), but with the help of their forums that shouldn't be too hard. I recommend a 360 controller too, esp for gaming where you really need to use the analog stick a lot (God of War).

PCSX2.net

Quick question ( I'm too lazy to search the forums ) , does PCSX2 support PSX games, and if yes, how is it compared to a dedicated PSX emulator ( like ePSX) ?
Do PSX games run better on it ( I remember PSX games were slightly upscaled and looking marginally better on the PS2 ), or with all the graphical improvement in PSX emulators is still the same ?
Cheers

 

[Satangel]

Quick question ( I'm too lazy to search the forums ) , does PCSX2 support PSX games, and if yes, how is it compared to a dedicated PSX emulator ( like ePSX) ?
Do PSX games run better on it ( I remember PSX games were slightly upscaled and looking marginally better on the PS2 ), or with all the graphical improvement in PSX emulators is still the same ?
Cheers

Do ps1 games work with this emulator?

No, this emulator only works with Playstation 2 games. In order to play Ps1 games, you will need a ps1 emulator.

 

[mrtimotei]

+2 to emulation, IF you have the hardware to pull it off.
You should have a minimum of dual-core CPU both running at 2.0GHz at least, to emulate PS2.
The PS2 emulator works very very very well, needs a bit of finetuning by the end-user sometimes (you), but with the help of their forums that shouldn't be too hard. I recommend a 360 controller too, esp for gaming where you really need to use the analog stick a lot (God of War).

PCSX2.net

Ahaha, trust me on this. NONE of the computers in my house can run and emulate above N64/PS1 Emulators. I have tried, and they really don't work that great on my computers....

 

[Rydian]

What computer models?

 

[Issac]

I've never gotten n64 or ps2 emulation to be smooth for me, ever... and I'm on an i7 computer I just can't be bothered to play around with the settings and all.

 

[Rydian]

I've never gotten n64 or ps2 emulation to be smooth for me, ever... and I'm on an i7 computer I just can't be bothered to play around with the settings and all.

N64 emulation should work just fine, I was doing it on an Athlon 64...

 

[noob killer]

Wouldn't it be easier to just emulate these consoles?

Remember that a console also needs a way to emit audio. And your average PC monitor cannot do that.

no not really... i have a wii and i have the dolphin emu and honestly the dolphin emu is hella laggy on my computer'


also i was curious about the same thing http://compare.ebay.com/like/400331858206?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar&_lwgsi=y&cbt=y just find things similar to this 1

 

[Satangel]

N64 emulation should work just fine, I was doing it on an Athlon 64...

QFT, N64 doesn't need any configuring I think, just works.
PCSX2 does however, it's all a matter of reading and following guides, in 1 hour you can get it up and running very easily, I enjoy it so much, to see how far I can push my hardware.

 

[noob killer]

oh yeah i looked that up for my laptop dont know what i was thinking

 

[Issac]

I know it *should* work, but every game I've tried always crash, or look like shit. Maybe I've just been unlucky picking roms that have known issues, maybe using the wrong emulator... and maybe I am too lazy to get all the settings and plugins right (most likely the latter).

Edit:

Oh? Hmm, maybe I've just been unlucky then.

and when it comes to ps2 emulation, I know it's just to follow some guides... My trouble is finding said guides, or finding guides that everyone praises which points to settings and plugins that doesn't exist (for me)... :/

 

[mrtimotei]

What computer models?

My Laptop, Dell Studio 1555
Specs:
RAM: 6GB
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T6400 @ 2.00GHz
Graphics: Mobile Intel(R) 4 Series Express Chipset Family (Yes, I know it's awful.)
My laptop is probably the strongest one. I know it has a chance at emulating a PS2 and what not, but I can never figure out how to configure it correctly. Also, this laptop is probably the best out of the rest I'm about to tell you.

Younger Bro's Desktop, Dell Dimension C521
Specs:
Don't really know. I only know that it has an integrated nVidia Graphics Card, and a Single Core Processor... Yet, he finds joy in playing games like Left 4 Dead...

Older Bro's Laptop, Dell Studio 1555
Specs:
Exactly like my laptop, but because of the horrendous amount of shit that is left on there that my older brother can't seem to get rid of 'cause he's lazy, it runs very slow...

My Parent's Desktop, Don't know what model it was... (Aside from it being another Dell...)
Specs:
Once again, I really don't know the exact specs, but let's just say it took about 30 seconds to load a web page in Internet Explorer...


Also, I found this Converter Box, but I'm a little skeptical at getting it because of what the reviews for it say. But, I thought I should at least point it out...

 

[Rydian]

Make sure you're using the latest version of PCSX2, and here's the official config guide showing which settings affect performance and how.
http://pcsx2.net/config-guide/

Here's a recent, shorter version from their forums.
http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-Quick-Start-PCSX2-Configuration-Guide-v1-0-0



And as for N64, people should just be able to install PJ64 and it's update.
http://www.jabosoft.com/articles/114
(1.6, and the 1.6.1 update Jabo released when PJ64 1.7 died.)

And most N64 games should work without any config needed.

 

[Arm73]

Make sure you're using the latest version of PCSX2, and here's the official config guide showing which settings affect performance and how.
http://pcsx2.net/config-guide/

Here's a recent, shorter version from their forums.
http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-Quick-Start-PCSX2-Configuration-Guide-v1-0-0



And as for N64, people should just be able to install PJ64 and it's update.
http://www.jabosoft.com/articles/114
(1.6, and the 1.6.1 update Jabo released when PJ64 1.7 died.)

And most N64 games should work without any config needed.

Hi, I've been out of the N64 loop for quite some time, but I remember I did donate and downloaded PJ64 1.7.
I was aware that the project was kind of abandoned for quite some time, but now that you mention version 1.6.1 you got me curious again.
Do you know as of now, if I'm better off reinstalling PJ64 1.7 ( I should have my old license somewhere on my external HDD ) or this updated 1.6.1 has any kind of advantage over 1.7 ?
Cheers

 

[Rydian]

Hi, I've been out of the N64 loop for quite some time, but I remember I did donate and downloaded PJ64 1.7.
I was aware that the project was kind of abandoned for quite some time, but now that you mention version 1.6.1 you got me curious again.
Do you know as of now, if I'm better off reinstalling PJ64 1.7 ( I should have my old license somewhere on my external HDD ) or this updated 1.6.1 has any kind of advantage over 1.7 ?
Cheers

I don't have 1.7 so I don't know, but the 1.6.1 release is by Jabo and does give a lot of the 1.7 game fixes to the more stable 1.6 base. A lot of people seemed to jump on the chance so I'm assuming it's the better version.

 

[jargus]

Simplest non emulator solution would be to get a capture card with low latency. Easycap and honestech are good USB solutions for this. Blackmagic Intensity and Avtertv dvr are good choices for pci. All you do is plug in plug in your AV cables and view the image/sound on the software it comes with