sdelfin

@Porco I did see at some point that people solved the memory card issue, which was great to see. I don't remember if the mod existed at the time I was looking at the system, or if I was just unaware of it. I seem to recall that there was no such mod at the time. Either way, I lost interest in the platform after a while because of that whole situation.

I was tempted to buy a Vita two or three times when it was current. I didn't get one because of those memory cards. I had to remind myself about that aspect after the first time I was tempted as that had slipped my mind. The pricing of those things was ridiculous. They didn't have to be the same price as SD cards, but Sony got way too greedy with that.

I decided to extensively play and learn Strider back in August of 2023. I prefer the way the arcade version plays, but the Gen/MD port is really impressive. It does fall short in a few spots like the final stage where there are graphical cutbacks and changes to the design overall. But many people do prefer the Strider sprite on the home version. In fact, the arcade version has some garbage pixels on the sprite box at some points(like inclines). Plus, the arcade version is surprisingly buggy though not nearly as much as the NES game, so you can make a case for the home version being better in that regard alone.

There are a bunch of arcade ports that I or others consider better. Shadow Dancer is mentioned in the article, and I do prefer the home version, though it's only a "port" of the arcade concept instead of the actual game. I hear Rygar for NES is better than the arcade. Many people consider Turtles in Time for SNES better than the arcade, though both versions have things going for them and the arcade obviously is more technically advanced. Rolling Thunder 2 on Gen/MD is better than the arcade version to me, though I like both. Atomic Runner is quite enhanced on Gen/MD over the arcade. Bloody Wolf on PC Engine is widely considered better than the arcade, despite the loss of the two-player option. This is one of those things where I have trouble recalling examples if I haven't played them lately. I might add some to this comment if I remember some. I also want to mention games like Captain America and the Avengers, Zero Wing, Midnight Resistance, and Vapor Trail as a few examples of the home version having better music according to many.

Certain things really need tactile feedback. Game controllers are one. I've said the same about touch screens in cars. That feedback is so important for games, especially the kinds not designed for touch controls like classics from the 16-bit era. It's funny that they claimed precision in the marketing, because that's one thing touch controls are not good at.

@BulkSlash From the looks of it, they reduced the number of characters on screen due to sprite flicker. With a beat-em-up game like that with such large characters, you'll be up against the horizontal sprite and pixel limits pretty quickly. Plus they had to leave a bit of room available to accommodate the second player. It's almost like that option was there for testing during development.

Vista and Win 8 may have improved over time, but I recall they started out in states that were not well received. Windows 8 is what finally motivated me to start experimenting with Linux to seriously switch over. My original plan was to dual boot, but it went so well for me that I eliminated my Windows partition within six months. I didn't really need anything Windows specific on that machine. If or when I do, I'll set up something on another machine for that. I realize that's not going to work for everyone, so for those that need or want Windows machines, that's fine. For me, however, switching to Linux has been an excellent decision. It's not without its issues, but the consistency and stability are great.

I've heard Nvidia support has gotten better, but I have an older AMD GPU so I can't speak from experience. Wine and Proton have come a long way and work very well for so many things. I just recently played all four of the main Batman Arkham games(yes, they're old, but not nearly as simple as a modern-retro game) through WINE via Lutris and it was seamless. I'm really impressed with what Valve has finally been able to do after their Steam Machine push failed. Seeing more devices with Steam OS and more availability of it will be very good.

When the GBA first came out in North America, supplies were somewhat limited. I got my GBA a few weeks after launch. At the time, most stores were only selling the GBA in bundles. I wasn't exactly thrilled by that, but I had already decided to get into GBA early on and had been eagerly anticipating it. The bundle I decided on came with a few accessories and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2. I read reviews of it, so I knew what to expect and knew that it was well received. I was pretty impressed with it and had a lot of fun with it. Just talking about it makes me feel like playing it again. I definitely did not regret my choice. As for the accessories, I don't remember the full bundle, but it did come with a worm light which came in very handy some years later when my area lost power for several days and I needed a fun way to pass the time. I didn't play Tony Hawk then, but I should have.

@deVriestron I've seen some limited testing of a couple of the Linux handhelds. They run a very light OS, but the input lag seemed to be about the same as anything else using software emulation without RunAhead which reduces the lag on the fly(and requires more power than those specific devices had). That's typically one or two frames, depending on the emulator. It could vary depending on the emulator. The results were about the same as on Android. I've also tested on Android and it ends up being about the same as I've seen on PC.

@Tryffel @-wc- it's hard to tell. Certainly a lot of people preferred the SP in its own time due to the clamshell design and the screen being easier to see. But I've seen a lot of people express a preference for the form factor of the original GBA design. I'd be among that group. I have a strong preference for a horizontal orientation for handhelds now.

I'll have to take a closer look at this later. I read a well known series of articles, the "Untold History" of various Capcom games as I recall it was called. Really fascinating getting a glimpse into development of those games. I always wondered what went into character selection, especially with the Marvel aspect of it. There are probably elements of licensing involved in keeping those characters out at that time, even if we don't know or see what other things were going on at that time.

So nice to see hand-drawn art. I've recently been diving into topics related to old comics and cel animation, so I have an appreciation for this kind of art done entirely by hand from the looks of it.

@poyo_pie Shovel Knight remains the gold standard as Kickstarter games go, to me. Shantae 1/2-Genie Hero also seems to be one of the better Kickstarter success stories.

Bloodstained as a project had a lot of issues. I won't go too deep on that because I don't want to try to dump on anyone's enjoyment of the game. But them cancelling versions six months before release and also lying about the performance of the Switch version(and taking a long time to patch it) really left a bad taste in my mouth(I blame the publisher for that). At least they delivered a game and it seems to have been well received.

@RenderSpotlight I really appreciate your post here. You've gotten to do what I've wanted to do for a while, but I no longer have any CRTs and it's not worth it to me to get one. But I would have liked being able to do such a side-by-side comparison to see what differences there are and to compare various overlays and shaders to see just how close things could get to a CRT. I've long suspected you could get them pretty close. I'm very happy with the image I see on modern screens with my scanline setup and things look generally correct to me. Using CRTs is cool too, but that's only going to get more difficult as time goes by, so it makes sense to seek other options.

@GravyThief I agree that it's not authentic in that sense. That's why I suggested arcade monitors may have had them as they were definitely not TVs. That or the PVM look just got popular among enthusiasts early enough to shape tastes. Plus they're simple to make. Speaking only for myself, I'm not after perfect authenticity to what I had, but I do want the games to look right which they definitely do not with raw pixels. I do like the image I get with either good PVM scanlines or a grille overlay. I tend to prefer the PVM lines just a bit more whenever I compare them.

@GravyThief For some it may be nostalgia, but for others it may just be genuine preference. I think various overlays improve the end result for the old systems. Perhaps the explanation for what you bring up comes from arcade monitors, but that's just a guess. And the arcade side of things may have had a lot of influence over display preferences. Most home TVs were shadow mask then. While they may not have had the lines like a PVM, I distinctly remember seeing pixel separation from the mask on the TVs I used as a kid.

Something about that email doesn't sound like a legitimate statement from an actual legal department. And when I say that, I mean that as a considerable understatement. This is quite an entertaining development.

I had a feeling Taki's MiSTer clone was going to turn out well as he seems to know what gamers want in such products and has a good eye for detail from what I can tell from his videos. Good to see that it turned out so well, especially with the original MiSTer having become so expensive and with limited availability, so that more people who are interested can jump in.

I still don't know what happened with the name. It started as Mr. Pi, which I liked, then went up for a vote and ended up being super generic(and worse, in my opinion), and then it was suddenly MiSTer Pi.

In addition to having worse music, the officially released Ninja Gaiden Trilogy on SNES is also missing music.

@PZT It has limited continues, so I assume the rest of the changes made to the US version are there intact. I agree there should be an option to play the Japanese version, which is really good and a favorite of mine. I didn't see any such options in this release.

I have a Pro+ and I can confirm the membranes are weak and do eventually tear. They do sell replacements last I checked and they were not expensive. Whether that's a deal breaker will vary from person to person. However, the Pro+ was phenomenal in my opinion as far as ergonomics and button feel. The D-pad was one of the best I have ever used, and I say this as someone who has used the Saturn pad a ton. For me, that outweighs the bad and I have bought some other 8Bitdo controllers since, specifically the Ultimate C Wired(they were 20 bucks each) which have D-pads that aren't as good, but not bad for me, and the Neo Geo CD pads with the clicky sticks, and those pads have been wonderful as well. Hopefully the switches inside last a long time.

That's a fun discovery. I often put in SNK as initials, so there's a decent chance I'd stumble across stuff like this, but I never bothered putting initials into this particular game when I played it.

Even back in the day, I always enjoyed seeing creative ways to make underpowered hardware do things that were never intended. GBC was an interesting platform for that. Not every attempt worked out to be a great game, but it was cool seeing what good programmers and planners could do. This is a good example of that approach and it's interesting to read about that. I'm surprised they got such quick approval as it's a video-based game from the early 1980s pitched for a late-90s portable system that couldn't replicate the clean visuals, but that's a different matter altogether.

As I recall, this idea to remake GG Shinobi was what Pigsy was working on first and seemed to be a project for which he had a lot of enthusiasm. It's a great idea as there is room to spruce up the concept of GG Shinobi for the Genesis. Both GG Shinobi games are among the very best on the Game Gear, but ports to the Genesis may make them more accessible for some who don't like the limitations of the Game Gear. Nice to see how things are progressing.

I can't say I'm familiar with Screamer. I'll have to have a look at that.

I didn't get on well with Okami back in the day. I played the original PS2 version and I know they made some improvements in some of the remakes, but I had a number of issues with the PS2 version. I'm not excited for the sequel, but I'll look into reviews when it's done to see if it leaves some of the worst parts of the original behind. I'm cautiously hopeful.

Ninja Gaiden is the highlight of these announcements for me. I bought but haven't played Blasphemous yet, but it looks like The Game Kitchen does good work. Visually it looks nice(and nice to see a decent amount of gameplay in a trailer). It looks like quite an update since the NES games in terms of mechanics. I think that will be fine, though I can understand other people wanting a 2D revival to feel more like the NES games. We'll have to wait and see. From the looks of it, it looks like it may take elements of the NES originals, various Shinobi games, and maybe Hagane. I'm looking forward to seeing more of this one.

@Gofixmeaplate I found it through a search which led to pixel artis Henk Nieborg's twitter. That particular image appears to be a mock up for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The pixel art in the game looks very similar, but I don't know for sure if that particular area is in the game as it's a mock up, though I suspect it is, more or less.

@KitsuneNight The Chromatic already got articles and review.

@SilentBluntman I know. That was your point originally. My point is you can make a good argument for both names.

@SilentBluntman The counter to that would be that a majority of systems sold had Genesis written on them and their boxes.

@Null2 I always appreciate a recommendation, so thank you. However, I've already played that one. You're right. It is fun. It's not a great gameplay concept for a Batman game, but getting past that, it's a fun maze-action game with a Batman coat of paint and killer music.

@Porco There's enough of a resolution difference between the two to be noticeable when on a bigger screen. As for the color, it's not an inherent limitation of the GBA's specs, but developers used some odd color choices to compensate for the original model's dark screen for the sake of visibility. What looked good on that screen would often look washed out on a TV.

At first I didn't expect the list to be of the entire Playstation brand as opposed to the PS1. That's fine, though I wonder how lists by system would go. Perhaps They've already done that. Interesting to see how much PS1 is represented toward the top of the list. I wasn't sure how much of a retro preference the Japanese audience has. Aside from that, it's also a factor that the PS1, PS2, and PSP are more Japanese targeted, with top developers often being Japanese developers catering to Japanese tastes. A lot of the popular stuff on PS1 and PS2 either didn't land for me or I've yet to try, but they're good platforms and I found games that I like that aren't on the list, for example the Tenchu games and Katamari Damacy.

I've been in a Batman mood lately and I've played quite a few of the various Batman games. I played the SNES original of this a few times a bit over a week ago. I had trouble getting into it initially, but I ended up really liking it aside from some small things I'd change. I thought Batman took too much damage in the game, and I would have preferred music more along the lines of Sunsoft's Batman games as they're more dynamic and are a better fit in a game. While I was playing it, I did observe that the game was pretty standard technically and wasn't doing things the Genesis could not in terms of performance(sprites on screen, etc). That's not to make this into Genesis vs. SNES. The game exists officially on the SNES and is very good there.

As I alluded to, the timing of this is interesting because I just played the SNES game. Also interesting to see some of the changes for this including using the 320-wide mode. Two players and nine enemies on screen may be too ambitious though as I'm already seeing some noticeable sprite drop out in the trailer. I also wonder if the game balance is any different due to those changes.

I also played a good bit of Konami's NES Batman Returns and that was rather good as well. It's one of the best beat-em-ups on the system, in my opinion. I'd take both Konami games over the film they were based on though.

I love the generic developer name, Advance Communication Company. Looks like they actually did quite a few games including a bunch of ports. Sega kind of followed the lead of the PC Engine CD a little bit as its first games weren't spectacular either. Its first games were, as I recall, Fighting Street and No-Ri-Ko. Looking at the first picture, the two aliens on the left look like rejected concepts from the movie Mac & Me.

That was an interesting read and good for Mechner. He was fortunate that he became friendly with that guy who then vouched for him, especially since Hollywood can be quite cutthroat behind the scenes.

I have no recollection of there being a Warcraft movie. It wasn't for me, but I'm surprised I was unaware of it or forgot about it.

"it felt like a more mature piece of consumer electronics rather than a child's plaything."

It's funny because I always felt like the name Playstation didn't match the vibe of the marketing which was aimed at an older crowd than Nintendo targeted, largely. But the marketing worked, as we all know. I've said it many times that Sega and Nintendo both made things a bit easy for Sony to get a strong foothold in the market. Sony did a lot of things right as well and expanded the market for video games. Signing on the likes of Namco was a brilliant counter to what Sega offered on the Saturn. And Sony kept it up throughout the life of the system including their performance analyzer tool which allowed developers to make their games highly optimized.

I was a Saturn owner early on and thoroughly enjoyed it. I will admit that I had some animosity towards Sony and some of their tactics. But I also saw that they had some interesting offerings on the system early on. When the Saturn releases in the US dried up, it felt like the right time to get a PS1(and Tenchu) and I enjoyed it as well. And I was surprised how much I liked the feel of the PS1 controller. So my fondness for the PS1 isn't as high as it is for people that had it as their primary system for more years than I did, and some of the system's bigger hits aren't quite my thing, but I did grow fond of it and have since discovered some wonderful stuff I missed out on in their day, like Strider 2. And there's plenty more to discover later.

First, I just want to say that this was a fair piece as far as the overview of various methods and lag, especially with regard to software emulation and lag-reduction features like RunAhead. People seem to either not know they exist or forget about them. And I've gotten into a couple of arguments here in the last couple of months with people who make drive-by accounts to tell me I'm wrong while basing their entire arguments on verifiably false assumptions and making seemingly dishonest assertions(like applying display lag only to one method, but not another). RunAhead works, and it works very well. I will concede that Saturn is probably still better suited to FPGA in general, but also speaking only of lag. I do expect that will eventually even out.

I've never used NSO, so I can't speak on it directly. I will say there is a long history of these established game publishers releasing shoddy emulation software and products with significantly higher lag than typical emulators along with a lack of features. Sega, Nintendo, Capcom, and many others have put out low-effort stuff like that. I pointed it out for years. Luckily, it seems to be less common than it used to be and the flaws are less significant.

There's a disconnect between the "absolutely horrid" comment and what people in the comments feel. I do think there's some hyperbole when it comes to some people describing lag. It's almost as if they let their emotions get the best of them because they feel something, even if it isn't really horrid. For example, for a while, I heard people say Super Mario World was "unplayable" in every emulator, yet I could literally play the game and beat it with little effort, and that was without removing the lag at all. Incidentally, SNES lag tends to be only one or two frames in my experience with good emulators, so nowhere near unplayable. I have seen some wild claims with that game. But back to NSO, as one or two others have said up above, what we would really need to judge here are actual, accurate numbers. Without that, this is just a guessing game. Someone might say two frames is "horrid". Most people wouldn't be bothered by two. It's hard to feel two frames unless you go back and forth between two and zero. Of course, with shmups lag will be more detrimental than in platform games. Ninja Gaiden on NES is very beatable with two frames. If I had to guess, based on the disconnect, I wouldn't be shocked if it was about four frames. That would be around where some people would have a problem and others may not notice much. But as at least one other person said, some amount of lag around that amount would not necessarily hurt performance in some games, but would make it less enjoyable to control due to it giving things a heavier feel in terms of motion.

I've long viewed it as the Saturn was more powerful in theoretical terms. The Saturn's two CPUs gave it more computational power overall and the ability to draw more flat polygons. Though I have heard that the PS1's CPU was superior for the task than a single SH-2, and of course easier to use with it being a single CPU. The Saturn had the problem of being more difficult to develop for in a number of ways. I think the PS1 had more graphical features(or easier to use) for its 3D as well and that goes a long way.

A while back on this site I learned of a Sony development tool for the PS1 that they called a performance analyzer. From the reactions of those who used it, it was an excellent development tool that allowed developers to extract a good bit more out of the system. I suspect that the PS1's simpler architecture and relative ease of development factored into the creation of that tool which then made game development easier, or at least extracting the most performance from the system. The point is, while the Saturn may have been very good in some ways, and this guy from Argonaut seemed to like it(as did I as a player), the results in PS1 games, especially later-era games, speak for themselves.

@slider1983 it's not valid to criticize them having a manual way before an actual functioning device? Knowing how the device functions would determine what would go in the manual. They are nowhere near a stage where they would need to be showing retail boxes and manuals(or mock ups), since they can't seem to properly show the device. If you think that criticism isn't valid, that's your call. But I stand by what I said and have seen plenty of agreement on my point already elsewhere.

I love how they added "Plus" to the name, like this is an upgrade to something else(that doesn't exist). In addition to the awful "retail box" in the picture, I heard they have a "printed manual" as well which is ludicrous. They claim that this project is real(lol) but still in development. Then why would they have a printed user manual for a prototype that's nowhere near being ready for release and would likely see significant changes if it was legitimate thus making the manual obsolete? It's quite amusing.

@slider1983 I think it was WWF War Zone that was the first 3D game to have character creation. There were some 2D games that had the feature earlier, I know for sure Fire Pro did, but they were never released outside Japan.

@mashk I think it was somewhat successful in Japan. One thing worth pointing out is that it was a 1988 release(a spring release as far as I can tell) in Japan, but looks to have been a 1990 arcade release in North America. A lot of progress was made in game design in that period which may have led to a different reception in 1990 compared to 1988. It would have been overshadowed by the likes of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Final Fight, and others.

@Sketcz Funny you ask about OLED now. I literally just switched to an OLED phone yesterday. It's my first experience with OLED that wasn't extremely brief. A year ago, my father needed a new phone for a specific feature. I decided on a used Pixel 6a which I had to then set up. I used it for a couple of hours maybe, which was the longest I had spent with OLED up to that point. The Pixel didn't work out well for him so I just picked out a new phone(Galaxy A35) also with OLED. I ended up with the Pixel and just switched my SIM card yesterday. I did read that this phone is not great for those that seem sensitive to this. So I don't have a lot of experience to share. I can tell you that I was using the phone earlier today and did feel what I perceived to be some eye discomfort and general fatigue. I adjusted the brightness a number of times and never could find a setting I liked as far as comfort. With this topic in mind, I grabbed my old phone with an IPS screen and found it to be more comfortable straight away. This was just one data point and there were other variables, so I'll have to keep on testing, but I suspect I have a sensitivity to a degree. I have been prone to migraines in the past, but that's uncommon for me now. Instead, I experience extreme fatigue from certain triggers like certain kinds of lighting.

I had heard of people having issues with PWM in the past, though I never looked into it much since their symptoms seemed more pronounced than mine. I also recall hearing about it in the context of LED light bulbs. In looking this up, I did see your post last month on NintendoLife where you went into more detail and how you hadn't dealt with OLED before the Switch. I have always favored IPS screens in theory thinking that OLEDs might be brighter or harsher, though not with the PWM issue in mind. I have been sensitive to various things such as the 3DS 3D effect(once was enough for me), certain TVs and monitors especially those lit via fluorescent tubes(PWM issue?), extremely bright white screens in general, and possibly certain kinds of overhead lighting.

I used to also assume photosensitivity related to epilepsy only, but I learned otherwise some time ago. That famous incident with that episode of Pokemon in Japan did trigger some people with epilepsy, but I read that many people who also reported being affected were non-epileptic cases of photosensitivity so stuff like that can be pretty rough for a lot of people.

I'm going to try some of the suggestions I read today for dealing with OLED sensitivity and see how it goes. That's the problem with devices like the Switch where you don't have many options outside of a basic brightness control. It's a big reason I favor PC gaming these days.

@guardian1128 @slider1983

As this was a demo, I doubt the CD storage limits factored in much here. Old arcade games like Space Harrier aren't huge, but they would add up pretty quickly so that would be a concern if this was a real project needing to fit on disc. I think it's more of a RAM issue. The Master System ROMs would each fit easily into the limited RAM. I think the actual ports of games like Space Harrier on Saturn would be difficult to include within another game like this due to resources required. I assume the system needs to keep some data in RAM relating to the hub world. On top of that, whatever Master System emulation they're using isn't running full speed. Plus, since it's just a mock up, basically, Master System is easy to implement.

@Sketcz You must do what you think is best. I'll not try to sell you on switching other than to say that I've been very happy and am glad I did it. I'll also just say that I was already doing enough faffing with Windows that faffing about elsewhere was more appealing to me. It just seemed more futile doing that on Windows, but that's just me.

I developed a high sensitivity to light a while back which comes and goes now, so I know what you mean about bright white backgrounds. On all my computers, I use programs or features to reduce the blue light generally. Yes, that gives things a yellowish or reddish hue, but I'm fine with that. On Windows, the program I knew was called f.lux. Beyond that, if you ever move away from that old version of Word, you should take a look at LibreOffice which is multiplatform. I just checked and there is an option to change the colors. That's a good thing to know if there's ever any issue with your set up.

Good to know you understand the revulsion I felt toward Widows 8. What a terrible error in judgement that was.

@Sketcz second message....

I think I understand what you're describing in terms of folders. Sounds like you want to be able to move them arbitrarily and have them stay there rather than snap to a grid. The weakness of Linux is also it's strength, and that's choice. Choice makes it hard to start, but having the choices is wonderful when you really need it(so that interface changes don't have to feel like doom). I tested a few different file managers on a couple of systems today. At first, I wasn't finding that manual placement, even in file managers search results claimed had that. Anyway, I switched to the computer I'm on right now and I was able to change the sorting in the file manager to manual and drag files and folders wherever I wanted. If that's what you need, it is doable. It's going to depend on the specific file manager. In this case, I'm on Mint with the Cinnamon desktop which happens to be what I recommend to beginners with good results in the past. The default file manager which allows manual placement is called Nemo. I experienced some regressions with Mint on some of my other systems, unfortunately, but I'd still recommend it as a starting point because it seems to work well for most people the vast majority of the time. My issues included networking issues(specifically WPA2 passkey verification), and some audio glitches, and maybe one or two others. They seem to be hardware specific(third and fourth-gen Intel systems in my case). Instead of working out the problems, I decided to just try other distros since that would likely be faster. I recently started running Mageia on one system which worked better. It's probably not too difficult for a beginner, but the support for it will be less than Ubuntu and Mint. Mint actually didn't work for me when I got started because of third-gen Intel being too recent for it, so I got started on OpenSUSE and did fine. Loved it. But Mint is easier to start with. If you have more questions, immediately or down the line, feel free to ask. I'm not an expert(I only got to the command line when necessary and mostly copy and paste for that), but I've been happily using various Linux distros for almost 12 years. I can at least provide the perspective of a regular user who just wants a stable and functional OS with an interface that works the way I like.

@Sketcz Windows 8 was the final straw for me with Windows. Before that, I had some major issues with Windows 7. They were enough to plant the seed that I should consider changing OS. Windows 7 was always annoying with how it handled OS updates in my opinion. That seems to have gotten worse. But beyond annoying, for whatever reason, Win7 updates were breaking my install. I'd just get a black screen. So I had to restore the system back to working order and then I disabled auto updates.....and then it still did it. I later found out that the auto update setting didn't matter, but there was a secret setting buried somewhere that actually disabled auto updates. Needless to say, I wasn't impressed.

I had a laptop that started to fail around this time of year in 2012. It was right around the time Win8 was rolling out. I purchased a replacement on black Friday to get a deal. I don't recall if I had the option for Win7 or Win8, but I ended up with Win8. I had heard reports before its release that it wasn't well received in testing, yet Microsoft insisted they knew better and changed nothing. I thought "how bad could it be?" I hated that OS and interface so much. I had an open mind and tons of patience, but the interface made no sense to me, probably irritating me in the same way a grid of folders bothers you. The OS constantly got in my way and made simple things take way too long. I at least wanted a choice to have the old interface back. What Microsoft communicated to me was I could not trust them with interface design. That's when I committed to changing, but I wasn't ready to do it then. A friend of mine had a spare copy of Win7 that he gave me and I "upgraded" to Win7 and stayed on that for several months to at least make the computer usable. After a few days of Win8 upon receiving the laptop, I didn't touch it for a few weeks until I had that Win7 DVD in hand.

@N64-ROX When I committed, and I use that word intentionally, to switching to Linux, I had reached my limit with Windows. My rage post would be directed to that. Even the "good" Windows versions like 7 caused me so many headaches. When I switched, I was determined to be patient and give it time because I really wanted it to work. I actually got off to a rough start because my hardware at the time was quite new and a lot of the popular distros didn't have the updated kernel my hardware needed which led to some bizarre problems. It was not a great way to start that journey. I eventually tried out enough distros and found one(OpenSUSE) that actually worked. Once that happened, I was very happy with everything. I mean that in a literal sense, like using the computer made me happy. Linux just felt right to me, even as a newb. It only took a few months for me to abandon my dual-boot setup.

WINE is weird. I've had it working many times and it has worked great. Just this past summer, I installed a bunch of games on the laptop I'm currently using without issue. Just recently, the option to run Windows exe files has disappeared, and they now open in a file-compression program I like. I don't know why or how that file-association issue developed. I can't say I run into issues like that too much. I have seen them, and other issues, but not often, so my Linux experience has been very good on the whole. I had many problems with Windows, so I still consider myself way ahead. But as far as that WINE issue, I recently bought the Batman Arkham games on sale from GOG and decided to try out Lutris which I had heard a lot about. The Lutris page had a specific script for that game, which installed successfully with a version of Proton. You can also install stuff without a script which I haven't tried yet, but it may be better than just installing WINE from the distribution repository or following the instructions on the WINE page, both of which I have done successfully. I also recall a program called PlayOnLinux which seemed to simplify dealing with WINE. I haven't used that one in a while, but it worked well. I should take a look at that again, but opted for Lutris this particular time. At the end of the day, it depends how happy you are on Windows. I was very unhappy, so I was more willing to deal with issues and push through. The nice this was, when I dealt with each issue, things just made a lot more sense to me and I felt like I was moving forward, so I've been very happy, but I acknowledge that the issues you've had, along with others, are real, though not universal.

The Saturn had its issues in the market, but it was a fun system to own when it was current. For me it was the system I owned at a time in my life when I was most into video games. It may have been a flop compared to expectations and what Sega needed it to be, but it had a very good library. It was funny that by the end of the Saturn's life I had swung back from the 3D craze to a new appreciation for 2D games. Games like X-Men vs. Street Fighter and King of Fighters '97 were a big part of that. It was truly impressive to see that level of 2D gaming at home on my TV at the time. Of course, that could be said for many 3D games too. There was something special about those games. Another favorite of mine was Virtual On. I was not familiar with that game from the arcades, but saw it in a Saturn commercial and thought it looked cool despite not knowing much about it. I picked it up based on that and ended up loving the game. Another great memory of the Saturn was getting two new games right as I had a week off from school. The two games were Fighters Megamix(Japanese copy) and Dragon Force. I had the best week ever with those two.

I've said this many times before. And this is not a knock on Sony or its marketing. The PS1 wasn't really $100 cheaper at their launch prices. It had no game. Most people would need a game if they weren't planning to play demos. Games were about $50 where I was. A memory card would not be required, but would be highly recommended. Without the card, it would be $350. $370 or so with the card. The Saturn came with a game for a bit and didn't require external memory for saving. With that said, Sony's approach was better because people could choose their first game. Plus, it was better optics and psychology having the system priced at $300.

@Sketcz Thanks for replying. It refreshed my memory of a few things as I recall some of that. I haven't thought about TOC files in quite a while. Luckily, I never spent much time on that, perhaps because I was already willing to work with the command line. But that is very annoying when you have those issues with file formats that don't need to be that way. I never dealt with any of the emulators that had that other limitation on iso files and would need a disc or virtual drive, but I have been aware of one or two of those. I've never liked that concept. My recollection is hazy, but I think some of that nonsense is why I gravitated toward and persevered with the command line and then Retroarch a couple of years later. In fact, I think the reason I switched to the command line was because I was using a GUI frontend with MAME and MESS and I could not figure out how to load PCE CD with it, if it was even possible with that frontend. I think it was a limitation of it because it was a more complicated command to pass through than it would have been for a HuCard. It was a process to get to this point for sure. For me it was even more interesting because I had decided to switch to Linux shortly after I started learning the various emulators, so I had a lot of things to figure out all at once.

No surprise about that last part. It seems there are a lot of rude people connected to this scene(that applies to Linux as well), including various people who work on the software. I've always steered clear of various forums and such because of that. That's why I did my best in my original reply to find the right tone to not come across as defensive or condescending because I know that's too common with this sort of thing.

The solution you ended up with sounds pretty good at least. I probably would have gotten the TerraOnion if I hadn't found the solutions I did, as it seemed to be well put together. I do have some PCE hardware, so it would have been of interest to me under different circumstances.

@Sketcz I'll do my best not to evangelize too much about Retroarch because it's fine if people don't like it. But for as to why I like it and use it, it simply did a number of important things much better than the standalone emulators I had access to at the time. Specifically, it was better at all things display related. It had better scaling options, better frame rate handling(fixed stutters that were common with other software), better scanline overlays, etc. The unified interface was also a huge plus. When I switched, I had already migrated from Windows to Linux which may have limited my access to some emulators, but every single one that I had used was inferior to Retroarch in some major ways, even if they were simpler to use. Before I switched, I was mostly using command-line MAME, MESS, and Mednafen. MAME was the best of those, and the only thing close to Retroarch in terms of results. To be clear, I'm not even a command-line guy, but that route made the most sense at the time so that's what I ended up doing. I know Retroarch seems complex at first. I felt the same. I also laugh looking back at my trouble because you don't need to know much to actually get started. I've rarely had to do much fiddling with it, and have had little trouble getting and keeping things working. I've helped other people get started with it too with good results. It's even easier now that I switched to the AppImage version(no installs). I approached emulation like a project(same as when I switched to Linux). That's why I took the time to learn the MAME command line when things weren't quite right otherwise. When I figured that out, learning the same for Mednafen wasn't intimidating. When I decided to see what all the hype was about with RA, I figured if I could do the command line with those, I could figure RA out no problem and I was right. I'm glad I did too.

But the main reason I replied is to ask what the issue is with PC Engine CD emulation? Is it that the standalone emulators you know don't support it or that it's difficult to set up? I had PC Engine CD working in MESS(which is part of MAME now it seems) and Mednafen. I spent a good bit of time getting the CD games to work in those about a decade back and it felt like quite the accomplishment when I got the commands right. I also had PCE CD working in one or two Linux-based handheld systems(non Retroarch). Of course, it works fine in Retroarch, and I don't mean to be snarky saying that. I'm genuinely curious what the issue is with PCE CD.

@amishpyrate You didn't make it up. Though the figure I found was 24 hours rather than 30. Still, the reality is a far cry from what was claimed on standard AA batteries. I found the reference in a Verge article from June.