Playing old games today by Mark Shreve II
The video game market has changed quite a bit over the years. what use to be a simple plug it in and play is now a lengthy process of updates and downloads. Most people who still use old consoles are used to playing on CRT or tube style T.V.s. What if they are no longer an option for you? The television market is phasing out the old composite (yellow cable) video signal, S-Video, and component (red,green,blue cables.) They are being left behind for the easier to plug and play of the HDMI. When a T.V. is available with composite or component they are notorious for introducing latency. Latency is sometimes a game killer when trying to time a jump, or even shoot at a precise time.
The information provided in this post will no doubt come from me educating myself from others. Website, podcast, and youtube officiant Bob at www.retrorgb.com/ hosts a weekly YouTube round-up to discuss the questions people like us wanna know. He has become the gatekeeper of information to help the masses figure out the best solutions to keeping old games running like new. Bob introduces new products from Insurrection Industries, retrotink, castlemania.com , and many other makers. He heralds in these products, and lets people like you and I know exactly what we are buying. Need to know how a Super Nintendo hooks up best to your OLED TV? Bob has you covered. I never feel at all like he blows smoke at anyones direction. If he doesn't know how to do, he tells us first hand. He's very professional, and at the same time makes it easy to understand. It is a YouTube show I watch religiously. https://www.youtube.com/c/RetroRGB
If Bob is the Herald of retro-gaming, meet the two Angels. Coury Carlson and Marc Duddleson aka My life in Gaming. These are hands down the best information gatherers I have ever seen. They give info on consoles that most of us never knew. Did you know the Gameboy line was always region free? Did you know the Super Nintendo controller had a revision around the time of Super Mario RPG release? Did you know you can play imported Sega Saturn games with an Action Replay and a bit of tinkering? Did you know a lot of the artwork for Konami's games came from Tom DuBois? My Life in Gaming did. You can learn it all from their youtube channel. They cover everything technical in their RGB Video master class. Learn about the building blocks of gaming with the Documentaries. If you want the best of the best....look no further than the Featurette Analog Frontier. So far it's a three part series, and it is amazing. I will throw this on during my commute to work and just listen to them discuss with others the finer points in gaming. Each video reminds me of the old educational videos from the 80's and 90's. I don't know if this is intentional or not, but it feels genuine. It is crafted at a level of professionalism that can't be matched. Check them out! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpvtp7mH0Cdq8FQUxcjDq0Q
Welcome to Voultar. He is a very gifted solderer and modding machine. He too has his own YouTube channel where he shows you how to mod those consoles yourself, and adds a bit of flair as he goes. He makes it all look like "it's that simple." Watching him work has honestly improved my own soldering skills. He gives you tips and tricks to make it not only look cleaner, but make a better connection insuring you won't be popping the lid for years to come. If you think I can't mod or solder this myself, then that's ok. Voultar still has a solution. He offers mod services and installs that you can let the master meddle himself in your console. https://voultar.com/index.php?route=common/home
Be sure to catch him on YouTube as well. https://www.youtube.com/c/Voultar
I would like to note that these are not the only ways to learn or step into the retro gaming scene. I use these as stepping stones into a huge community of people who have a lot of love and affinity for the consoles of yesterday. I myself have always found something magical about pushing that cart into the slot and hitting the power button. In moments you are off saving a princess as a plumber, speeding through courses to save your animal friends from a maniacal man, or blasting aliens out of the orbit of your planet. The idea of not having these to play for future generations would be a shame honestly. I had such a blast on these consoles, and look forward to passing them along to my daughter. Please be sure to like the content from these people that tickles your fancy, It helps them out.
https://insurrectionindustries.com
www.youtube.com/channel/UCT6LaAC9VckZYJUzutUW3PQ