hardware showoff

beets

What iare people’s opinions of how GBA games are meant to be played? In the most recent podcast there was a discussion on playing older games on CRTs becuase the games’ graphics accounted for dithering. Surely all GBA games were designed with saturated colours becuase the most common GBA models had screens which washed out the colour (either with no lighting or front lighting). I’ve always found that playing a GBA game on emulator or DS gives off a different vibe compared to playing it on my GBA-SP.

exodus

beets my feeling is that the gba went through so many iterations that you’re best off just playing in the most user friendly way. Like emulator stuff is always going to be off vs something meant to be displayed on a lower res screen, but gba is more complicated than that.

Gen 1 gba games needed the sun or bright light to be visible on the unlit screen. Gen 2 had the washed out front lighting (which has different considerations than the sun). Gen 3 could be played on a nice back-lit screen that was either normal sized or “micro” or on a ds.

With so many options it’s just down to whatever the devs happened to target so it’s one of the more “all bets are off” platforms as far as I’m concerned. I play gba games on a game boy player on my gamecube, myself!

treefroggy

exodus This brings up something I’m super micro-managey about! I’m very picky about which revision of GBA hardware (or which GBI color matrix) I feel like using on a day-by-day, game-by-game basis. Jumping out of a plane? Bring the micro, for sure. Going to the park or beach? Just an AGB-001, maybe bring the worm light just in case.

This is one reason why I always prefer to organize my games by release year, too. Specifically, for my GBA games, I have them organized by year, and if a new hardware was released that year, I have that in parenthesis as well!

Of course, that doesn’t mean I’m only going to stick to the hardware of the period, it’s just there for reference!

But more often than anything else, I use my CRT setup. Especially since I have a portable solar setup, only time I use a portable is when I am waiting in line somewhere, taking a break out in nature, or solar battery is too low.

The back of the MOTHER 3 box had an image of every different device you could use to play it on, I thought that was very interesting! Who played through Mother 3 entirely on an unlit AGB-001, I wonder? Did anyone?

I’ve said before I love the feeling of the unlit, reflective LCD on a sunny day. I need to do a full write-up in defense of these screens everyone is throwing away. I certainly played a lot of weird stuff on the AGB-001 when that was all I had, so now I still like to use it for stuff that feels at home on it. I really like that the GBI includes tons of color matrixes that no one asked for, like Gameboy Color or PSP colors. The washed-out colors really feel nice, imho.

It’s ridiculous how I micro manage my experience by choosing from my swath of every GBA revision though….. But hey, it’s a mood!

Another crazy thing that makes me feel guilty: Playing certain games on specific color variants.
Hamtaro? Gotta be on a yellow GBC.
Gotta match the GBC color to your version of pokemon/ your outfit for the day.
Playing NES ports, gotta be on an NES SP.
Just examples, lol. Same disease effects my controller choice.

Maybe I should just stay playing games in isolation and not post about my meticulous hardware choices.

treefroggy

Can y’all please show off your PC Engine cibs and other obscure software imports? Please, this is the only place I can come to be jealous. I will post some epic stuff in return this weekend when it comes through the mail. I’m talking stuff no american should ever buy, like Wonderswan cibs that aren’t Final Fantasy, games that cost over $100 to import.
Does anybody have a copy of Sword Master for Family Computer cib? What about Pulseman, or Alien Soldier? I showed you my Bushi Seiryuuden cib, please respond.

robinhoodie

treefroggy

treefroggy My 1 GB complete in box

treefroggy

don’t knock the pea green

treefroggy

Look what I got! Ready for summer!

tokucowboy

穴 I’m a little late, but that is a beautiful DS – love that as a way to play GBA games (& DS games, too).

andrewelmore

andrewelmore it still looks bad in here but I have added PLANTS so it’s at least…going somewhere maybe, I don’t know.

rejj

Oh my

treefroggy

Mega showoff— finally got Gunstar Heroes, Bokujō Monogatari, and 4.6 Billion Year Monogatari!!!! The Monogataris both have endgame saves, which is appreciated because I have gotten secret ending in both these games already!!

kory

This is a pretty big deal for anyone who wants to take full advantage of new gen consoles and PC through a receiver. Three HDMI 2.1 inputs (4K HDR 120Hz) is pretty great!

andrewelmore

kory FINALLY

IVE BEEN WAITING FOR SO LONG

kory

andrewelmore Knew you would appreciate this! I’m not exactly in the market for a new TV, but I would not even consider buying a new one until I was sure my receiver could reliably support HDMI 2.1! I’ve never used Onkyo equipment before, but this seems pretty decent and is way cheaper than my current Yamaha unit was when I bought it.

Gaagaagiins

kory @andrewelmore Maybe I’m asking a stupid question here, but what is the benefit of using a receiver?

kory

Gaagaagiins Not stupid at all! In fact, with how good soundbars are getting receivers are understandably going the way of the dinosaurs and becoming even more niche than they already were. For me, I appreciate the ability to continue using my 5.1 speakers that I have invested in (5 Polk passive speakers and a HSU powered subwoofer). You also have access to many more inputs than you would normally would (like 7-8) and it tends to be more reliable than a simple switch or splitter. Also, it’s nice to have a unified way to play media on your speaker system–I have all of my main modern consoles, a PC, and a turntable going into this setup, not to mention the built in AirPlay on the receiver. You also have a lot of granular control over audio post-processing, levels, etc, though I don’t personally mess with that as much. Oh, also, there may be multiple outputs (this one has 2 I think) so you could run a second TV or monitor easily.

But yeah, this definitely isn’t for everyone–tech has gotten to the point where you can enjoy some great fidelity without investing in all of this! But if you have the equipment, I’m glad theres finally a way on the horizon to have it work with the latest TV and console tech.

andrewelmore

Gaagaagiins The biggest thing for me is using an array of surround speakers. I’ve had some manner or another of a 7.1 configuration ever since being in a teeny tiny studio apartment when I was 18. TV speakers are basically cell phone speakers at this point, and soundbars are only a marginal improvement, and the way they’re marketed tends to lean on predatory behaviors that creep me out. Getting good speakers takes way less space and money than people assume, as well. Thrift stores, yard sales, and local listings all tend to be bountiful harvests of decent-to-great vintage speakers of all sizes for a few bucks apiece.

Audio is one of those things that’s weird to talk about because some people are huge weirdo creeps about it, but I do find it kind of weird that basically no one has speakers in their home anymore? It’s kind of a bummer because the barrier to entry is much lower than it appears, and the impact on your experience is pretty massive. You’ll get a lot more bang for your buck with music, games, and movies by getting a receiver and some speakers than the improvement you’d get from a new TV, generally speaking.

Consumer tech has changed our relationship with media in some really weird ways in recent years to maximize rentseeking from streaming subscriptions as the average person’s relative wages and buying power continue to fall, which is a huge bummer. But that’s a whole other conversation lol.

Anyway. Receivers are cool cause you can hook a bunch of stuff up at once in different formats and have it all go out to your TV, and have a proper surround sound setup, which is a massively impactful thing.

I mean heck, even some SNES games had multi-channel surround sound!

ana

Speaking of audio and receivers, this is a good time to brag about the time I bought a pair of Kenwood LS-V530 speakers and a pair of Kenwood LS-V230 for 40 dollars at a flea market in San Diego when I was 14 years old.
They sound amazing and I’ve been using them for a 5.1 setup ever since.

I think they retailed around 600 for the LS-V530 pair and 300 dollars for the LS-V230 pair when they were released, all the info about their price that I have managed to find has been through japanese or australian sites so that’s kind of weird.

I use one of the smaller LS-V230 as a center and one of them as a rear spaeker (my other rear speaker is a pioneer sp c22, the disparity is not ideal but they dont sound that bad togueter after some eq and leveling). I’ve got them hooked up to a yamaha TSR-5810 7.2 receiver, (kind of an overkill for me but I got it for around 90 bucks on a flea market(( this time in tijuana)).

I used to be pretty into audio and stuff but it was kind of weird trying to do some research or talking about it because of the:

huge weirdo creeps

Here’s a picture of my somewhat messy setup, I’ve somehow gottten most of the stuff pictured for kind of a dirt cheap price

kory

穴 Great setup! Amazing bang for your buck too…It’s really crazy how good older audio equipment can sound as compared to some of the new expensive junk out there. I actually found a McIntosh solid state stereo receiver in the trash when I was in college. Did not power on and had a cracked glass front plate, but I was able to get both repaired for cheap! I’m sure this is one of their cheaper models, but even those can go for over $1000 easily!

Love the tate crt (and the tate center speaker lol!)

fridgeboy

Just inherited. Experience my nostalgia.

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