The amazing part is that my cartridges still work perfectly well in my original consoles, decades later. There's no server, no login, no account, no downloading, no ads, no microtransactions... I just turn the console on, grab the controller, and I'm in game in seconds.

How do you handle the NTSC video output? Or are your consoles new enough to output composite video or VGA?

framemeister, ossc and rgb mods

Do TVs not have composite input anymore? I haven’t bought a new one in forever.

Composite - no. But an adapter costs less than a good beer in most countries on AliExpress (well, shipping excluded).

Most of the ones I've seen do, but via an rca to 3.5mm dongle. The main issue is that the scaler built into most modern TVs does a worse job than even a cheap external one.

Personally I use a Retrotink 5X, which handles every old console I own (NES, SNES, N64, GameCube) in visually lossless quality to my eyes. The built-in composite upscaler on a lot of modern televisions handles 240p as though it is 480i, leading to bad flicker. The Retrotink and other similar products upscales the signal properly, producing quite clean visuals.

I bought a Retro Gameboy for my kids this year specifically to avoid all that non-sense.

Turns out that Mario & Tetris & bomber man etc are just as fun to a kid now as they were in the 80's

Indeed; I’m still enjoying games from 1994. They haven’t stopped being fun simply because they’re old. They also represent a significant learning effort over the years. One of the things that makes a game enjoyable is having learned how to play it well. I’m not likely to make that kind of investment in too many more games in my life. I haven’t got that kind of free time. So for me as well, it’s not old games versus new, it’s old games or nothing.

The learning effort thing is a solid point. I think what I play most these days is Super Mario World romhacks. Obviously the level design and whatnot aren't the same as the original, but the controls and physics are and I learned those as a fairly young child in the 90s.

The reason I don't like most other platformers almost definitely isn't because they're actually inferior, it's just because I'm "calibrated" to SMW

mkwii is so much better than most modern games it’s criminal (literally in this case I guess, badum tss)

That and a gaming pc costs like $2000 now and burns 500W.

I guess they would be okay with preservation if no one played retro games?

That was a rhetoric question, because I think they would only be happy if retro games became unavailable, so their profit grew a bit next quarter.

I don't even think retro games eat much of their profits, otherwise they would see it as a business opportunity, but their posture only makes sense if there's not much profit to be had in that niche.

I hope that if they manage to wrestle your retro games from you that you would explore some indie games instead. There are many small companies that make high quality games, usually in the spirit of popular retro games.

I do play some of those

Check out Ufo50. Based on your comment I think you will thoroughly enjoy it.

It’s a fake compilation of 50 games made by an imagined video game studio from the 80s.

They take retro sensibilities and incorporate contemporary game mechanics.

It is an absolute joy.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1147860/UFO_50/

It's also from the makers of Spelunky - one of the tightest precision platformers out there.

This seems very similar to the GameCenter CX games, which is basically the "Nintendo World Championships" Switch game, but with made-up games, and it was for the DS.

> The specific quote is that “there would be a significant risk that preserved video games would be used for recreational purposes.”

Wow that’s the whole purpose of why they were storm in the first place!

Since we're on the topic, were there any fun games released in last 12 months? I wanted to play Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, but never actually got to.

Are you interested in 2D indie games? Nine Sols and Animal Well have been getting a lot of buzz.

As for AAA, Shadow of the Erdtree is fantastic.

Like a Dragon is pretty good, Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom was good, Metaphor: ReFantazio and Persona 3 Reload was good.

13 months ago, but Baldur’s Gate 3 is fantastic.

> “there would be a significant risk that preserved video games would be used for recreational purposes.”

Hahahahaha. Yes, in the enshittified capitalist utopia, GAMES aren't for having FUN! They're for addicting large swathes of people and milking them financially for years and years! Stop interfering with my right to rip you off! And for god's sake stop having fun!

That's the definition of a clown world.

Fair case for advocating piracy. I don't think the copyright office is doing its job in service for society. I wouldn't even call it piracy if you had a licence. It is just normal usage.