The Console War thing mattered at school, when kids around the lunch table would argue about which was best-- and it really boiled down to whatever your parents bought for you. It was never like, "I'M NOT GOING TO PLAY SNES AT BILLY'S HOUSE BECAUSE I'M A SEGA KID!" That is exaggerated.
Number one is perfection. We've been so conditioned by corporate franchise narrative that nothing can ever be allowed to simply end in a dignified, natural manner. There's always got to be a next installment, next spin-off, next re-boot/make/master/imagining, next *something*. Otherwise that thing you love is DEAD and you should feel sad and anxious and generally bad about that. It's pathetic.
The crazy part is that their are alternatives that give you 90% of the same result and they cost around $50. I can't understand these people throwing these insane amount of money on such small upgrades
I think you're probably right about the console wars being over-stated. I was a kid in those days, and it probably just feels like a longer, more intense cultural era because everything feels longer and more intense when you're that age. But once the Playstation came out, and especially after the XBox came out, it became impossible to keep people thinking in that kind of "my team vs. their team" binary way. Another variable that I think is pretty key is that as we got older, we started buying video games with our own money, and were able to buy as many systems as we wanted. When you were a kid in the 90s, by contrast, you were dependent on your parents who often didn't think a kid needed TWO (or more) video game systems. So a lot of kids had to come up with a rationalization for why the only system they had was the best one. I feel like people have more money now and the culture has changed, so having multiple video game systems no longer seems as decadent as it used to.
No way. Those school yard debates were intense. On top of that exclusivity was a bigger deal back then. PlayStation dominated for two straight generations until the 360 came out and by then it just wasn't the same.
re: the 90s console wars, what i didn't see anyone mention here is that for a lot of us as kids it was also about the two companies representing radically different *ideologies*. Sega were your friends who listened to Nirvana & Dr. Dre while Nintendo were your parents yelling at you for that, basically. The major turning point, image-wise, was when Nintendo neutered the blood & Fatalities in the original Mortal Kombat while Sega put the famous "Blood Code" in their version; Nintendo instantly became the uncool video game company at my school thanks to that. And you say that Nintendo never felt the need to clap back at Sega's marketing, but the fallout from the MK decision actually DID make them do that later on: the (hilariously cringeworthy in retrospect) Play It Loud ad campaign featuring none other than the Butthole Surfers! The thing today i would compare it to, in terms of that "competing ideologies" aspect, is WWE vs. AEW. And trust me, people go fucking FERAL over that shit on social media
Yeah, this is an excellent point, and one of the reasons Jason's point about the console war fell flat. Modern console wars may be frustrating, and may even be more widespread and have more impact on the industry than the old Nintendo vs. Sega one, but they were never about competing philosophies in the same way.
One thing I love about the "console war" between SEGA and Nintendo was so different in Japan. PC Engine was second place, and one factoid I love mentioning is how the Saturn sold better than the N64 in Japan, which I just find absolutely hilarious.
The Saturn's game library surpasses that of the N64 in several genres, especially among those games exclusive to Japan. It's not so surprising that it outsold the N64. Honestly, I think a modern view of both libraries gives Saturn an advantage, by the way.
@@jpa3974 that’s not exactly wrong, but the N64’s best games were revolutionary. What Saturn game has the impact of Banjo Kazooie? Actually that is sort of a genuine question, as I am kinda interested in the Saturn Library
@@thomasffrench3639 The Sega Saturn is extremely awesome when it comes to RPGs (which is why the Sega Saturn severely beat the Nintendo 64 in Japan. RPGs are the # 1 genre in Japan. The Saturn had several classic "A ++" tier RPGs while the Nintendo 64 had... well... not much in that category (and a lot what it had was really BAD. See Quest 64 for an example). Problem is, many of the RPGs on Sega Saturn these days are insanely expensive to the point where they are more expensive than some Neo Geo games (if you can find a RELIABLE alternative way to play these games for free, I would strongly recommend that route, unless you have several thousands of dollars in expendable money strictly meant for entertainment. If you do then it's worth owning the real copies of the games. If not, then alternative free ways exist, but make sure you find something that's reliable and actually works since some of those alternative free ways have glitches). Some of the best Saturn RPGs include: 1) Panzer Dragoon Saga 2) Shining Force 3 3) Shining the Holy Ark 4) Dragon Force and there are many, MANY more. Lots of great stuff in the RPG category. Of course the Sega Saturn has other games in other genres that are also really awesome. I'll let someone else pop in and suggest some suggestions since I've already typed up an essay here. LOL.
Of course it did, the Saturn had the better RPGs and RPGs were WAY more popular in Japan. In terms of being revolutionary to all of gaming, the N64 stands out. In terms of being revolutionary to RPGs, I've never played a game quite like Dragon Force, Panzer Dragoon Saga was way ahead of its time, Shining the Holy Ark was way ahead of its time.
@@Denny-Thray RPGs are the deciding factor of sales in Japan or if a console sells well, all the RPGs move to that system. But it didn't sell that much more, only a few thousand. I have a feeling that most of the early adopters were Saturn players as the RPGs didn't really catch on with the PlayStation until Final Fantasy VII from what I can tell.
The video game preservation one has always annoyed me too especially because the reality is that video games are *insanely* well preserved as a medium. 99% of video games have been dumped to ROM for backup which is how you *actually* preserve digital media. You can't count on an ATARI cart reading in 10 years.
Completely with you on #1 and all of the passion it entails. Drives me absolutely crazy the obsession with regurgitating the SAME things over and over. Remaking games that don't need it for the sake of it. TTYD could've been rereleased as is and its 100% playable and holds up but people lose their minds over it just because of nostalgia but like the game ALREADY EXISTS. Cool for those playing it for the first time but the fans treat it like this spiritual revelation. I'd prefer they just rereleased the original and focus more energy on NEW projects. When do the remakes stop? People are clamoring for Pokémon Gen 5 remakes but like when does it end? Are we eventually getting Scarlet/Violet remakes? Can we ever just move on from something? Not everything needs to keep going forever but like you said recognizability matters so much to ensure making money for a lot of these things so its inevitable everything will keep coming back and never be left alone. We're firmly in an age of playing it safe and pandering to nostalgia. Risks are a rare thing of the past and everything's expected and sequels now. "When is Pikmin 5? Splatoon 4? Mario Odyssey 2?" Its like people can't anticipate anything than what they already know and often reject things when they're different so things never change and just get regurgitated into oblivion. We're at the point people are asking for remakes of games that have ALREADY been remade like Ocarina of Time. So yeah, I resonate with the point lol
given that the retro game store owners/flippers have insisted thousand year door's rare therefore it's expensive and HAS to be $80, it makes me happy thousand year door is available on a modern console.
#10 Sega Dreamcast - Yeah, it is overrated. VMUs, while cool in concept, never achieved their goal and were vastly ignored too. #9 Upscaling - Yep. If you want to spend money upscaling, just by a good ole CRT. There, you spent money and have scanlines. #8 Anything older than NES - *sigh* What an ignorant statement. There was gaming, good gaming, happening well before you were born. Why would you choose not to play something just because it's old? Also, why restrict yourself only to consoles? #7 Tom Kalinske - He was both the rise and fall of Sega of America. Overrated if you don't acknowledge his down turn. #6 Sega Vs Nintendo - Back in the day, this pushed both companies to be better. If you're just taking into account the school yard bickering, yeah, that was dumb then and now, but on a corporate level, this was huge for gaming overall. #5 Minor console variants - Yep. Collect whatever you want, but don't think you're better or have accomplished something special 'cause you have six different NES consoles that all do the same thing. #4 Preservation - Unless you are helping in some way to getting things to the masses, you're only preserving it for yourself. #3 Original Hardware - In only the rarest of situations does this matter at all. Collect what you want, but don't think you're superior 'cause you have a lot of money and space. #2 Emulation - Is this a thing? I... I don't think this is a thing. Do you mean folks who think the only way to emulate things is on the MISTer 'cause it emulates on the chip level? 'Cause yeah, some of those folks are kinda weird about it. #1 Comebacks - You know what needs to be remade? Things that sucked. Why remake things that were good? They're already good! Take that concept that was hindered by the hardware and remake that.
#8 Ignorant statement? #8 was one of his strongest points. Old games may have been good at the time of release...I'm sure they were amazing...but the key word is "were". The vast majority of the stuff older than NES has aged incredibly poorly. The only people who cheerlead atari games for example are people who grew up with them. They are not good games outside of historical curiosity. They are overrated.
@@antiquecardboard I agree with most of his points, but not his Atari point. If people only played it for "30 seconds" there would not have a vibrant homebrew scene like it has.
The order to rush the Saturn's launch came straight from big boss Hayao Nakayama himself. And that made SOME sense: coming out first was a major reason why the TurboGrafx-16 beat the Genesis in Japan but the other way around in America. Kalinske actually opposed the move, however, because there were not enough Saturn games ready to make it appealing. In fact, in a sense, Kalinske was the one who wanted to move forward while Sega of Japan was stuck in the past. Read Blake Harris' "Console Wars" -- he wanted a pure 3D machine (like the PlayStation ultimately was) and not a weird 2D/3D hybrid like the Saturn.
Hilariously, he blames Tom for the Saturn's development difficulty. Like, huh? He even cites pandemonium, you know, the guy who lead a whole mob against Kalinske in and made Bernard Stolar out to be some kind of hero. Pandemonium even defended the Dreamcast on the grounds that it "could do 3d" like that wasn't something expected out of hardware in 98, but this guy thinks his conjecture is otherwise factual.
The one mistake is the US launch was Sega of Japan's fault. Tom wanted to launch it months later, but the president at Sega of Japan forced him to do a surprise launch that killed the Saturn.
@@NottJoeyOfficial one of the most Chinese whispers points in gaming. My version of the story is Japan wanted a 3 month early release and Tom one-upped them and made it 6 and lost Wallmart. Japan could only provide 10,000 units per month anyway. It was meant to be a 3 month preview, not 6.
The best thing about original hardware (especially cartridge based stuff) is that it's plug and play (assuming your tv has the hookups). I used to have issues with button mappings being lost, you spend time configuring - especially if you want to play multiplayer local games. I like to plug in, sit down next to someone, and play.
There's also little things like overscan in NES games. There is a section of the screen in NES games that devs kept junk and unused art because it would be hidden from the player by the TV bezel. This is especially viewable while exploring the overworld in old NES Dragon Warrior games. You can do things like crop it. And there's the fact that pixels are really supposed to be kinda blurry because a CRT TV naturally filters them. You can have shaders produce this effect. But an easy way to overcome both of these problems is to play on a CRT TV on original hardware.
I play pretty much everything, But I am definitely an atari Enjoyer. Yes most have to be done in small doses, But you get the most out of the library if you're a high score chaser. You have to be in that mindset where you sit down and play for like a 1/2 hour or an hour. Trying to get your best score. Maybe have a board in the room with high scores for everyone
The 2600 was my first console that I got for Christmas in 1981. I partially agree with what he is saying in his rant about the 2600. I don't see any scenario were I would play a game like 3-D Tic-Tac-Toe. But if you want a quick 10-15 minute retro gaming fix the 2600 is fine.
Tom Kalinske wasn't responsible for the 32x. Hayao Nakayama was afraid of the Atari Jaguar and the 3DO so Sega of Japan forced them to develop the 32x. The surprise launch of the Saturn was also Nakayama's idea.
@@kindasomeviews what extra buttons? there's 4 face buttons and the triggers. I think you're thinking about the Atari Jaguar. it has a bunch of keypad style buttons and plastic overlays for each game.
I am 14 yo, and play Atari games! You say arcade games older than the NES are still ok, yet the Atari 2600 had aloe of great ports. Centipede, asteroids, millipede, missile command, breakout, super breakout,warlords, Popeyes, Mario bros, frogger, bezerk, ms. PAC-man, and Jr. pac-man. All of these are good, if not great arcade ports. Therefore the 2600 has to be a good console. Play adventure it is super good!
There will always be a minority opinion, and that is okay. Rock on, dude! I'm glad you dig the 2600. It was my first console back in '88. Give Yar's Revenge and The Empire Strikes Back a try.
@@starwarsunfiltered7848 I have looped the score on yars’ revenge, the trick is to hit the quotile mid air. When he’s in swirl form, after the second loop of the swooshing, fire your zorlon cannon. Head upward and it should hit the quotile. Get to the blue stage, play normally until the gray level. Stand below in the botton left, or bottom top. Wait for the swirl to fire at you, loop back to the top. The swirl should head straight up, and just time your cannon correctly and 6K with a bonus life. Yars’ revenge, not yar’s revenge.
I agree with most of his points, but not his Atari point. If people only played it for "30 seconds", it would not have one of the most vibrant homebrew scenes today (at least for consoles), which it does.
The Dreamcast was the singularity event in gaming. That marked the first time that we invited gaming corporations into our homes via internet connectivity. Everything we hate about gaming in the modern era- outrageous DRM, gigantic day 1 updates, players treated as beta testers- it all started when the Dreamcast moved into your house.
To clarify one thing about the Saturn, the launch date wasn't Tom's fault. Sega of Japan's president forced him to move the launch up. The other stuff is accurate, but that launch date being moved was not his idea. As for playing on original hardware, I adore playing on original hardware and always will, but I will never recommend anyone do that. Emulate them, you do not need original hardware, I'm just a dumbass that likes it. I have moved away from buying the games though and towards modded consoles to play them. Still more work than emulation, but cheaper than buying the games. You still pay more for a worse experience though!
Dreamcast is great. It's not overrated. As a person who basically grew up playing arcade Sega games, I find the Dreamcast library to be truly a dream console for those who like good old quick arcade experiences: Daytona USA, Crazy Taxi, House of the Dead, Jet Set Radio, Sega Rally, Tokyo Xtreme Racer, Ikaruga, Sonic Adventure II, and that's just a FEW of the great hits it has. Those titles might not be impressive or really that appealing to yonger audiences or people who never really grew up playing arcade games from Sega. To us, however, people who did, it's a great successor to Genesis and Saturn with an exceptionally strong library of games considering its relatively short lifespan. It wasn't the Dreamcast that ruined Sega, it was a slow decline that began during the Sega CD/Sega 32X era, continued into the Saturn era and peaked during the Dreamcast times because it was sold for dirt cheap, Sega had to dedicate a lot of budget to port its arcade games/develop new games for it on its own, including new sports games, and because piracy prevailed pretty early on in its lifespan. Sega was going into the 6th generation pretty much knowing that it was the end of it and merely hoping they could somehow 'pull it off' with Dreamcast after a whole CHAIN of disastrous decisions (CD -> 32X -> Saturn) that brought down its reputation and status worldwide + put an insane dent in their pockets. Dreamcast was none of that. It was cheap, it had a huge and solid library of games, and it was overall a great system. It felt like both US/JP Sega stopped being braindead idiots for a moment fighting over which market is more important and finally did something right in almost all departments. Alas, it was too late. So, yeah. Dreamcast IS special. It's basically Sega's terminal lucidity moment before its quick and inevitable death. P.S No, it is not as weak as you claim it to be. Look at some of PS2 ports of Dreamcast games. In most cases, they look MUCH better and sharper on Dreamcast. Does that mean that PS2 is weaker than even Dreamcast? Hell no. Does that mean Dreamcast is weaker? Well, let's just say 'it's complicated'. Dreamcast does belong to 6th generation for a reason as it did have the power to compete with PS2.
I should have jumped on the dreamcast a few years ago when the availability was decent. Really wanted to try Powerstone in particular, the price threshold now is rather large.
The issue with the Dreamcast was Bernie Stolar's decision to price at $199.99 vs SoJ's ask of 249 - Sega was in dire financial straits and couldn't afford subsidizing the price cut. Other issue was SoJ's horrible Japan launch. The console could've been kept in the burner for a year, as Japan had pretty decent Saturn sales and the prices eventually made it affordable. The fault the Dreamcast had was being a budget system released in 1999 against Sony's PS2 with no DVD support. Sega could never compete with Sony, they got price cut on a weaker system with the Saturn, hard. The PSX was sold at cost, whereas the Saturn's huge $399 price was *at a $150 loss*. They were never gonna stick around.
🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation: 00:00 *🔥 Introduction to the concept of the video:* - Explanation that the video will discuss overrated aspects of retro video games, not specific games themselves. - Clarification that the term "overrated" is subjective and based on the creator's opinion, inviting disagreement from viewers. - Emphasis on presenting unpopular opinions to provoke discussion and differing perspectives. 01:11 *🎮 Sega Dreamcast:* - Critique of the Sega Dreamcast's overrated status in gaming history. - Evaluation of the Dreamcast's library and comparison to other consoles like the Saturn. - Discussion on the Dreamcast's financial impact on Sega and its role in the company's decline. 06:54 *📺 Upscalers in retro gaming:* - Criticism of the necessity and pricing of upscalers in retro gaming setups. - Argument against the need for upscalers for casual gaming experiences. - Commentary on the obsession with finding optimal gaming setups detracting from actual gameplay. 10:28 *🕹️ Pre-NES home consoles:* - Disparagement of pre-NES home consoles, particularly the Atari 2600. - Assertion that Atari 2600 games lack lasting appeal and are more suitable for brief, nostalgic experiences. - Preference for the Intellivision library over Atari games. 14:37 *🕴️ Critique of Tom Kalinske's legacy at Sega:* - Examination of Tom Kalinske's role in Sega's success with the Genesis and subsequent downfall. - Citation of leaked financial reports highlighting excess inventory and poor sales decisions under Kalinske's leadership. - Criticism of Kalinske's handling of the 32X and other Sega hardware failures. 18:50 *🔀 Sega's Strategic Missteps* - Sega of America's reluctance to move on from the Sega Genesis led to the creation of the 32x as a stop-gap measure. - The failure of the 32x and mishandling of the Saturn launch by Tom Kalinske contributed to Sega's downfall. - Poor decision-making and resource allocation hindered Sega's ability to compete effectively in the gaming market. 23:29 *🎮 Reassessment of the Sega vs. Nintendo Console War* - The Sega vs. Nintendo console war is overrated, as it was more of a marketing rivalry than a significant industry influence. - The impact of the Sega vs. Nintendo rivalry was limited to a few years in the early '90s and was overshadowed by subsequent developments in the gaming industry. - Console wars, including Sega vs. Nintendo, are exaggerated and do not reflect the broader impact of gaming platform competition. 26:06 *🕹️ Marginal Differences in Console Variants* - Console variants with marginal differences, such as one chip Super Nintendos, are overrated in the retro gaming community. - Obsessing over minor differences in console variants detracts from the enjoyment of gaming and overlooks the practicality of gameplay. - Emphasizing console variants' significance perpetuates a culture of elitism and detracts from the core experience of playing games. 30:19 *📼 Misrepresentation of Preservation in Retro Gaming* - Claims of preservation in retro gaming often misrepresent the actual preservation efforts, focusing more on collecting than genuine preservation. - The notion that game collecting equates to preservation is flawed, as true preservation involves efforts such as ROM dumping and documentation. - Retro gaming content creators should be mindful of accurately portraying preservation efforts and avoid conflating collecting with preservation. 33:29 *💻 Debate on Original Hardware vs. Emulation* - The debate over playing games on original hardware versus emulation highlights the irrationality of emphasizing authenticity in gaming experiences. - Playing games on original hardware is deemed overrated, as emulation offers a more practical, cost-effective, and versatile alternative. - Despite nostalgia for original hardware, the benefits of emulation, including convenience and accessibility, challenge traditional perceptions of gaming experiences. 37:28 *😠 Overrated aspects of emulation and choice overload* - Emulation and choice overload lead to not committing to games. - Having access to numerous games simultaneously can result in not fully enjoying any of them. - Choice paralysis and a lack of commitment are facilitated by emulation setups with extensive game libraries. 40:16 *😤 Critique of the clamor for constant sequels and revivals* - Constant clamoring for sequels and revivals undermines the dignity of original classics. - Not every retro property needs a modern remake or sequel. - Some games are fine as they are and do not require unnecessary remakes or revivals. Made with HARPA AI
The thing about organizations saying that old games aren't accessible (in an "official" way, which is irrelevant) seems like lobbying to me. Anyone who really likes video games knows that we have free and easy access to basically all really old games, even things that would be insanely difficult to get officially, like arcade games from the 1980s-90s. There are people lobbying to replace the current free and easy way to play old games with low-quality always-online services where you don't own anything you "buy". These guys' "solution" is a real nightmare.
There is important context missing around the Video Game History Foundation study, which is that industry associations like the ESA have for years stood against the legality of publicly accessible video game libraries on the basis that, they argue, they are good enough stuards of their games that they keep most of them readily available and accessible, and that the ones that aren't also need to be kept out of libraries because they might be about to monetize them again. Obviously, that isn't true. I agree that emulation is the true best preservation, but it's illegal, and if publishers want to oppose legal means of preserving older games in a library they should offer a more compelling reason than the blatantly false claim that they're already doing a great job of it. This study is meant to be a specific refutation of that argument, which is revisited annually at the US Copyright Office, where archivists and software associations each argue their case. Reasonably in-depth article here: arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/03/why-game-archivists-are-dreading-this-months-3ds-wii-u-eshop-shutdown/
@@necrosadotor I hate when people say that emulators are too difficult to setup for pc illiterate people, it's just as easy as going to the settings menu on Windows, hell, in pretty much all active emulators they give quite detailed explanations for each and every option. Now where I will say that emulation might be an issue is that emulators don't run 100% of a system's library (this mainly applies to 5th gen consoles and up) and if your game happens to be one of the minority that can't run properly/at all then there's nothing you can do about it other than letting the devs know.
Umm... the Dream Cast might have been over rated but I feel like the mismanagement from the late Genesis and Saturn era set in the rot waaaay before the Dream Cast came along. Maybe they weren't posting losses, as you said, but they were making a ton of stuff that was not paying off. Like the 32X, the Sega CD, the Saturn was a distant second until the 64 came out. When I was a kid no one I knew had a Sega Saturn, most people had a Play Station and a few had N64s. There wasn't even a Saturn section in the local video store! Nintendo kept support for the SNES well after the N64 came out, but Sega basically dropped the Genesis right after the Saturn came out. It was a mess over there. The Dream Cast was just the final straw.
Strangely, my 4k tv from 2018 actually has composite but not component. And I think that's common for that time period. TVs generally axed component ahead of composite because composite is/was much more common.
Kalinskie skates on the 32X because even though the final product was his baby, his division convinced home office not to make it it's own CONSOLE, which would have been an even more mind boggling disaster so somehow even in his worst moment he was still the voice of reason.
I think the one I would push back on the most would be about the video game history foundation's study on game accessibility. Not even on the overarching point (yeah, youtubers playing these games is not preservation), but that study was *really* excellent in and of itself. It comes in the context of the VGHF wanting to go before the federal copyright office to argue that there isn't adequate legal availability of games for study, to argue that more copyright exceptions are needed. They need remote legal access to emulation and ROMs to basically do what they want with game study. The strong implication is that you can't study games with only ~15% accessible, which does has downwind impacts on preservation. They also showed that even that 15% access is fragile: when Nintendo closes an eshop or (say) the one provider of colecogames remotely shuts down, then you can't play anything from that system without original hardware and software. You brought up films, but films kinda show the point. They are *way* more accessible on streaming devices or via modern rereleases on blu ray than games are. Obscure films get rereleased a lot, not categorically but a lot. Obscure video games almost never make their way to the Nintendo online services and the like. I will grant, that the article is kinda punchy about it. The full paper on, as full papers usually are, is more intellectually honest about it all.
I like this video and I like #10 even though I disagree with you 90% of that point. While the DC was not the most powerful system... it was not that far removed from the PS2. In fact many of the games that are on both the PS2 and DC - the DC version is graphically superior. Dead or Alive 2, Code Veronica, Grandia. This is due to a few things first - the PS2 lacked anti aliasing which the Dreamcast had. PS2 was also harder to develop for than the Dreamcast. The Dreamcast also had better texture scaling than the PS2. Also the biggest factor which made the games look better and is even more true today... Devs for the Dreamcast almost exclusively utilized the 480p function for the system whereas its mostly 480i on the PS2. Yes the PS2 could render in 480p but for whatever reason it was underutilized all the while the video output for the PS2 can be argued to be one of the worst ever. Its a huge thing to overlook how much better these games looked and still do running in 480p on the Dreamcast. There are some glimpses as to what could have been on the system had it lasted - D2, Shenmue 2, F355 are great examples but also games like 'Whats Shenmue' in which the character models are near Xbox quality. Recently indie devs have found out that Naomi based games on the system can be modded to run on real hardware. They are dumping stages from the Xbox version of the Dreamcast and increasing the textures on the character models and the game is running without a hitch. Check it out: ruclips.net/video/ZBj0lFrBeHQ/видео.html Also a dev from the ground up a snippet of Metal Gear Solid 2 running on the console: ruclips.net/video/5vzbZ7num14/видео.html The Dreamcast to me is like Grant Hill we never got to see the true potential.
@@Mephianse81 Not really the point of my comment. I'm just disagreeing that planned DC games were better off on other consoles or that the DC was not up to snuff graphically to hang with PS2, GC or Xbox. Potential is one thing but the specs of the system were decent enough.
I just seen a RUclips video a few weeks ago so apparently you can trick a dreamcast to run PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2. That’s not emulation and the dreamcast runs PlayStation 2 games better or very least Gran Turismo
I'm 65 years old and have been playing home console games since the late 70's. I will disagree with your statement that I'd disagree with you on these issues. Sorry, but I agree with you on every single one of the points you've made here. Yeah, and beyond my control, I am a "Boomer", and you probably hate me because I agree with you. I guess because I always can say, "Been there and done that, and I'm moving on." I don't even play games from the previous gen of consoles. I'm gonna die sometime within the next what, 20 years, so I do NOT want to waste my time playing some old POS games when I can play something new. It's like some people who watch the same movie 100 times or binge watch a 10 year run television show, 6 times. F THAT! There is too much out there I haven't played or seen to waste my time with retro shit. Only thing I didn't care for was your nipple rubbing towards the end of the video. Next time, take your damn shirt off. You can get chaffed doing that with a shirt on. LOL! All said, Great Video!
Not everyone on the internet hates people outside of their age group. I think you have a cool perspective mostly and I'm turning 20 in less than a week when I write this.
9 is insane, the problem isn't just the video quality it's the signal delay that makes games like super metroid feel like mush. Being fine with crappy RF signals but then refusing to emulate anyway is just a weird contradiction. captured footage doesn't really account for all the different TVs that i've seen done wayyy worse and were actually unusable. some tvs don't even have the connectors anymore. physically it might not actually be fine. digging through an abandoned hospital for some pristine RGB monitor and modding your snes with better outputs, that to me is overboard. i bought an upscaler 5 years ago and it works "just fine" i feel like the advice: "you just need an upscaler, not the best" just rings better, otherwise just fucking emulate. because i don't know who is buying overpriced retro consoles on ebay and then not wanting to spend another 100 dollars. I'm in the "i bought an upscaler and a flashcart and my desire for purity ends after the console" camp
Very much this. Retro consoles look like hot garbage on flat panels compared to what they should look like. And I am one of those with an old CRT that still works. Upscalers do great work in making games look like they were intended to, and something like the 4k is pretty much only for those who want the absolute top end equipment, a retrotink 5x is more than enough for people who want high quality upscaling and even that is overkill for most.
@@JB-mm5ff Because the room my CRT is in isn't the most comfortable? And well, it's dying and no one knows how to repair them around here anymore. CRT, good ones, are getting very hard to find. And not everyone has one, they are bulky as hell, with anything close to the size of a small LCD tv nowadays being damned difficult to move.
@@bishopcruz Even a mediocre one is decent, hunting for some great one is pretty overrated. Also quick tip, find a electronics repair guy in their 50's they can repair them or for that matter any decent electronics repairman that can actually read and understand schematics. (in my experience a lot of "repair guys" don't know electronics, they just see a broken thing and replace it, not understanding why it's there or what it does) These people can probably most easily be found in HAM Radio groups and such hobbies. I personally learned to repair them from understanding the schematics of them and had a little help from my local electronic components shopkeeper, which started his career as a CRT repairman back in the late 70's. I now on occasion do repair CRT's.
Your #9 is the definition of the channels out there like "My life in gaming" - and it's something I too cannot stand. There's a time and a place for this sort of thing but people can definitely go overboard.
Several points on upscalers: 1. Most TVs do NOT work with RF these days. They have ATSC and QAM tuners, which do not natively support the NTSC standard. 2. Display latency is significantly lower with a retrotink over a standard upscaler and especially the one in modern TVs that support composite input. 3. The retrotink 4k mostly exists BECAUSE of scanline filters. Scanline filters do look terrible in 1080p for sure, 100000% agree. But 4k resolution is so ridiculously high that you can actually make a *good* scanline effect. But you need a 4k monitor/tv in the first place to remotely make it worth the money. Or just get a CRT lol
I definitely disagree with the upscaler comment retrotink 4k is the way to go. CRT’s are dead imo everyone play games how you want. But once I got my hands on a 83” tv trying to go back and play on a 27” tv it’s no comparison. That’s what’s wrong with the world always getting rid of something that’s old but always getting ideas from old technology. They could actually make a flat screen crt in bigger sizes but because of companies thinking of losing money over this it will never happen. CRT’s will eventually die off no one is around to fix them like back in the day. This world never preserve anything old they just let it die.
@kamarrawlings6285 Dude. I can safely say that most CRTs will outlive both me and you. I had 3 brand new TVs die in about 10 years, while my old 20+ year Trinitron is still good as new.
@andrewweltlich9065 the only thing truly wrong with them is that they are heavy as shit and take up alot of space. That's it. Every other part of them are objectively better then LCDs..... I'd still say OLED kicks a CRT's ass though
@@90sNath My point is just that there are pros and cons to all TV types. A lot of retro gamers act like CRT are the absolute pinnacle of technology and everything that has released since has been inferior garbage, hence why I claim CRT is overrated.
@andrewweltlich9065 ...but it's objectively true though? Only reason we adopted LCDs was because they weren't bulky. CRTs have smoother motion, look great at multiple resolutions, no input delay what so ever, and the tvs have good speakers.
Seeing the dreamcast for the first time was CRAAAAZY when it came out Was such a huge leap in visuals at the time. Remember seeing NFL 2k and Shenmue and just being totally floored. For #3 this makes sense coming from you as a mostly rpg guy where input control does not matter and from a guy who doesn't like shmups or arcade games. There is an obvious lag that emulation has still not solved.
The Stomping Grounds jumpscare was crazy as someone who used to live in Gainesville FL and worked at the retro game store whose previous employees would go on to open Stomping Grounds. Glad to see they're still kicking, but yeah no that Genesis price difference is absolutely nuts.
Great stuff. I just got literally over 1 year back into retro gameing and it´s just awesome nowerdays with all the handhelds available. And your channel is a great one and one of the last unique and pure ones. Keep up the great work and content. Greetings from Europe.
OMG, regarding game remakes. I'm as susceptible to the idea of a Breath of Fire II remake as anybody for example, but after 30 years has gone by, it becomes less of a remake and more of an officially licensed fangame. How many people that even worked on the original game are even involved in a "remake"? Take Suikoden I & II Remaster coming out, Yoshitaka Murayama the brain child behind the series has sadly passed away, (Apparently he had nothing to do with Suikoden IV and V, but that's a different matter) and I have no idea how much input he had in the remake to begin with. A dedicated ROM Hacker can remake a classic game just as well if not better than whatever company owns the IP.
This is a prime example of the “if it was before me it doesn’t matter” mentality. I never put much into the generational warfare, but Zoomers are encouraging me to change my mind. Oh, John Hancock isn’t a Boomer… FYI.
Atari and Intellivision games are good under one condition only - you care about high scores. I could see us old men today playing with friends to see who can get the high score. That's when arcades ruled, and video games were mainly about competition, because there wasn't enough memory to have an actual story in them. When tech improved, competitive games were relegated to arcade retro games, party games, or sports games.
It is interesting to bring up preservation, because I recall a friend of mine importing a copy of Starlight Scramble Renai Kouhosei for the PS1 from some guy in Italy, because we wanted to play it after having watched the OVA. And at the time, we couldn't find any ROM of it online. Funnily enough that did end up getting the ROM dumped online (though he had ripped it himself before that), and that is a game that could actually benefit from being played on an emulator, since the text auto scrolls, so the pause feature would be quite valuable. Either way, interesting vid.
"Stop playing! Go learn skill! Learn to program..." 🤯Oh! This way i can program my own games, put them on the everdrive, and then have a reason to play more and without guilt! GENIUS! ✌️
Underrated aspect of why the Dreamcast ate it is its online connection. They went all in on gaming over 56k dial-up about two months before broadband became the national standard. Remember how they would give you a "free" Dreamcast? But only if you signed up for two years of their dial-up internet service? Which cost you way, way more than just buying the console and using the widely available free dial-up services? Sega made so many baffling decisions and it's kind of miraculous that they even still exist and aren't like a wing of Bandai now.
If I recall, it was Shenmue that really tanked Sega. They spent everything on that game. I imagine they wanted to get Dreamcasts in everyone’s hands with the hopes that their investment in Shenmue would pay off.
Pretty good list (besides your Dreamcast take) Sega and to an extent SNK over producing lead to some of my favorite childhood memories. I got a new in box Neo Geo Pocket with Sonic Pocket & a Sega Gamegear with Sonic 2 for $20 each at Toys R Us, God those were the days.
The console war was like rooting for your favorite sports team. Like yeah, ultimately it was just a marketing gimmick (it was more about magazine ads than tv ads), but we cared deeply about it. Like branded clothing and mascots and stuff. Like we understood that our console was hardly any different from the other, the way sports fans understand that none of their players even come from the local area, but it was about being caught up in a fandom that doesn't exist anymore.
Addressing #4, if you go over the relevant Accursed Farms videos the actual issue with games preservation is the ones that can't in fact be simply emulated. Such as live service games and MMOs. Especially the live service ones, where even if you're playing a single player game you require a server connection and there's a reason why work-arounds for those aren't exactly common. I'm sure that Ross will be putting out Dead Game News episodes on individual games with a popular following that cannot be played anymore for quite some time. Other than that? Pretty solid list overall.
Nintendo absolutely acknowledged Sega's existence in light of the Genesis' success. Check out "Smashing the Myth About Speed and Power." It was a magazine advertisement that Nintendo ran which was made to look like an editorial column. The whole thing was about debunking the Blast Processing myth, but it was in and of itself full of misleading and false claims. It was perfectly Nintendo to take some weaselly, slimy approach to "clapping back" rather than just going directly at Sega as Sega had done to them. There was also Howard Lincoln going to Congress and telling the world that, unlike Sega, Nintendo was for children, which was actually the best advertising campaign Sega ever had.
The thing about the 90s console wars is that during the 4th gen where it was at its height, cross-platform releases barely existed, and when they did the differences between platforms were usually really noticeable (not like, oh no, the playstation drops frames slightly more than the xbox, my day is ruined). Picking a console was picking the games you were going to have access to much more so than now. If you see the fomo-driven salt about exclusives now (or from the sixth and seventh gens especially), it was a lot like that but for the entire libraries. Not sure I look back on it fondly but it *was* a thing.
@@thomasffrench3639 Definitely not. Hell, nowadays I'm free to check out the Turbografx-16/PC-Engine library to heart's content, and I don't even think I knew anyone who knew what that was growing up, let alone anyone who had one. I think most of the retro youtubers who lean into the Nintendo/SEGA console wars are doing it primarily as a bit for nostalgia's sake. It'd be weird to take it seriously at this point.
Top 3 is literally just correct. Although I will mention that many games just look better on CRT, and there can be input lag in modern rereleases that hurt the experience, but there's probably ways to fix that with emulation Number one is perfection. It's like people treat retro games as needing an "update" that every good game needs a remaster, when they could just focus on porting, or just make new games. And I love that you said just let those games exists. I get so tired of the idea that game frachises need endless sequels or the company is somehow disrespecting the legacy by not doing that. It is so annoying, and a bit entitled. Although I will say that a few franchises like Mega Man and Castlevania that end with unresolved plot points that should be brought back to finish what was started, but my point still stands.
Your channel should be more popular. But there is something special about you not being popular. The videos feel real. I find myself agreeing with a lot of these opinions. But I'm king of the unpopular opinion. Here is an example. "RE4 sucks. It was the beginning of the end for the franchise." Edit: Also if I'm in the right mood and drunk enough. Atari can be fun for like 2 or 3 minutes so fuck you. Edit Edit: "Because of you" My guy, I bought a reproduction of earthbound for 20 bucks when the actual copy was 100-150 dollars... by choice. It was JUST as good as owning the real thing. I could see it, look at the art, put it in the system, and play it all the fucking same. Because I knew then the value of the item didn't justify the cost of the game. There were truly plenty of copies made. Its not a "rare" game. But where I must disagree with you is the scanlines thing. I get it, another unpopular opinion that I have. I heard a lot of people barf over them. I installed Emudeck on my steam deck. I apply scan lines to anything older than n64. I kinda dig it.... I hate that I do... But I do... It looks good IF and ONLY IF. The tv you are using is a decent size and modern. I think the only reason it looks good. Is because these older games with older graphics. You just arent meant to be looking at them that bright that clearly. The imagination cant work when you see it so well.
I can tell you the most underrated thing in retro gaming... MiSTer FPGA. The price point combined with the ignorance of people not comprehending what it actually is makes it a niche piece of hardware. Just about everything you can play on it is either as good or better than playing the games on the original hardware.
War is war and war is hell. Are you trying to tell me, a veteran of the cola wars, that my sacrifice meant nothing? If it wasn't for people like me you'd all be drinking Fresca right now... and how sad would that be?
10. I think you're discounting the appeal of the Dreamcast being arcade focused. At that price point, arcade perfection for current titles was revolutionary. I was a Soul Calibur 1 and 2 arcade player, that was my fighting game of choice, and I mean the kind of player who read guides online and analyzed frames and hitboxes and all that, so having a perfect clone of the game at home was a valuable resource to me. Only the Neo Geo had offered this level of arcade accuracy up until then, and at an insane price. We absolutely compared the DC to N64 and PS1 at the time, it felt like we had gotten the next gen early until the PS2 hit. Sega failed because of the Saturn and 32X, is my opinion on it, having been a customer since the Genesis days. Nobody wanted anything from either of those, while DC's library was often rented out at video stores, despite being well stocked. If not for the hampering on them going into the DC cycle because of those two competing failures, it should have kept hem alive. 9. My idea of getting fancy with my input is plugging in a NES shaped controller when I emulate NES games, and so on up to N64. 8. Yeah Mike Matei is the only kind of person who plays Atari for fun. I had my older brother's Atari, and playing outside was the more fun option until NES came out. Combat was okay with a second player, the most fun games were like that, where another player creates most of the interaction. 7. That man got me to buy a Genesis with the price drop and Sonic, so I can't disagree with the herd on that one. The fact is that Sega needed to completely separate the Japan and US branches, nothing else could have saved them, and I don't think that was ever his call. As for the Genesis inventory, you know that kept going in some parts of the world, so I'd bet those got sold to someone later on and were resold down in Brazil. As for the Saturn, I rented one many times, with many different games, but I never found anything I liked nearly enough to make me think about buying the system, but I could say the same about the 32X. 6. Those are some pretty big years, dude. You're talking about half of the most important decade in all of retro gaming history. It matters more because it was first, that's really all it is. It was foundational, and so everything that came after it owes it a debt of respect, that's all. But it was always a friendly rivalry blown out far more in the marketing, as most people would eventually own both systems, and simply have a preference one way or the other, just like with DC and Marvel comics at the time. 5. I don't know anything about this subject, I just played the regular off the shelf stuff. 4. I completely agree with you here. I've never noticed any difference in emulated vs real up to the N64, which is as far as I bother with on computer. Excepting Zapper games, of course, which sadly require a CRT. While I wish that were easier to accomplish, digital is fine for the game itself, that's not the game's fault. 3. Again, agree. I went fully digital for retro games when everything was still cheap at FuncoLand, and I only wish I'd waited longer due to the lost money from selling off at that time, not from missing the hardware. Again, I miss my Zapper, but I have light gun games on the Wii now. I remember I was in computer class at school in 1995 the first time I saw someone play Mega Man on a PC, and I learned right then how it all worked. We waited a long time for N64 to work well, please do make use of it. Especially Rogue Squadron, that one took til this decade. 2. I play for fun, that's literally the only reason I play any game. I do not understand those who play for any other reason. Unless the method of playing them is impacting the fun, it doesn't matter. Personally I'm happy emulating NES through N64 and PS1, and my only console is a Wii. I'd kinda like a PS2, I have that library still, but otherwise I just don't care for modern game design, I'm happy where I'm at. 1. I much prefer fan made remasters to company produced "remakes". FF7 Remake is not a remake, it's an entirely new game. What we've always wanted, we got from a fan, just HD graphics stapled onto the old game's actual skeleton of code. Check out the fan and mod community, that's where the real love is at. Not sold to you on a shelf.
I loved the DC but the biggest issue with the DC was the controller. It would have been horrible with modern games. As someone who used to play DC to death to the point I have tapped the well dry i know all the issues with it. It has less buttons and one stick so the things you would do with the 2nd stick has to be done with buttons which you have less of to begin with. ALL 4 button used for movement in fps games for example. Triggers used for camera in platformers. RetroTInk4K cost alot of money to make and so he must have put parts in it that were more expensive than nessery because the Morph4k is able to upscale to 4k at a much cheaper price and it also has wifi which the tink doesn't. The morph doesn't have analuge inputs, but it still will be cheaper when they release. I bought an Atari2600 at a carboot sales years ago and only played on it that one time when I got it home and have no desire to play it again, it's too dated. There really wasn't that much of a war between the Mega Drive and Super Nintendo when i was a lad and in school for me we didn't talk about games much. There was no internet either for people to argue.
26:17 The one chip vs two chip difference on the SNES is VERY noticeable with RGB/component. I have no idea what it looks like with composite...Composite video is for cavemen.
I still play 2600 pretty often. Usually for a couple hours at a time. Played Centipede for a couple hours straight trying to get a high score. I usually play the same game for 20-30 minutes at a time on average. Yeah, sometimes shorter, and sometimes longer. I still genuinely enjoy Atari 2600 games. It's also the only older console I still have and play besides my Gameboy.
Agreed. Didn't own a 2600 growing up (started on a ColecoVision, but had the add on that allowed me to play Atari carts) In fact, I played Berzerk for like 45 minutes not too long ago.
You should try Turmoil and Towering Inferno for Atari 2600. Turmoil especially was really good. But yeah... even my favorite Atari 2600 games I can't play for very long these days. You had to live during that time when it was the only thing you had to play outside of the arcade. I didn't even know anybody who had a Colecovision or Intellivision, but everyone had an Atari 2600. My one buddy had a Commodore 64 though and his old man was an OG pirate. He had about 1,000 games for it on 5 1/2" diskettes with the names handwritten on the labels. That thing was awesome.
Collectors (Hoarders) are trying to create demand for crap they've accumulated over the years. That's why the Sega Dreamcast is getting love all of a sudden.
I came here to say and pump this. I hate collectors claiming that what they're doing is for "preservation" when the whole point of preservation is to make something available to everyone... which if you did then reduces the value of the collectable and so basically they're lying out of their butts. Yes there are collectors who don't care about dumping Roms or scanning manuals and will even contribute to it but they just like having the physical embodiment they're not putting together an investment portfolio but the margin between the two can be thin and fuzzy
@@pr0ntab"preservation is to make something available to everyone" This isn't preservation, preservation is keeping and maintaining it so it stays in existence for as long as possible and ideally in a usable state. Preservation doesn't require public access, the funny thing is that more often than not these collectors do more in actual preservation than the people calling for public availability.
@@relo999 what you're talking about is a museum. Which is fine but let's not conflate the two things I don't think anyone wants to go back to the days of cabinets of curiosities as it relates to art. But maybe I have a skewed perspective on this.
I have no problem with people who collect games and ACTUALLY play them, my issue is the people who collect them just to have them sitting on a shelf, and just for bragging points.
I actually agree with most of your list, except that emulation is functionally the same as OG. There are some games that cannot be properly emulated (e.g., gun games), and others that are more affected by input lag. I definitely feel the difference when I play original hardware on a CRT versus emulation on a HD flatscreen. It’s been baked into my muscle memory over 40 years. But in general, emulation is a good alternative to just play the games. 😊
Nice video! I especially enjoyed your take on the Dreamcast. I feel like the Wii U and the Switch have the exact same issue. I think you might be a little out of the loop on the upscaler issue. Yes, they are stupid expensive, but RetroTink is run by 1 guy that will bend over backwards to please all of his customers. Mike Chi is a really cool guy and his products are high quality. I think those 2 aspects justify the cost of most of his products. You absolutely get what you pay for. The part I'm not sure you understand is that not all modern TVs handle 240p video signals the same. I'll be honest, your TMNT footage comparison, your footage does look very, very good. I'm not sure what your setup is there, but most modern TVs and capture devices treat 240p as 480i, so it deinterlaces the progressive 240p image. This causes lots of weird artifacts and input lag can vary a lot as well (up to several frames). The scaler you showed us is the best value for scalers imo (RetroTink 2x I think). The RetroTink 4x is 100% for enthusiasts. They aren't for people that don't care beyond the game being playable, these are people that seek the best of the best and/or want to shape the image to their liking. If you want an emulation quality picture without using an emulator, this is the only way to do it. Hobbies are expensive and enthusiast products have diminishing returns. Having an enthusiast hobby product top out at $750, really isn't that bad compared to other shit. Have a look at audiophile equipment sometime... go listen to a demo of a sound system that costs over $100,000 and laugh your ass off at the difference from a $3000 sound system.
@11:50 Man... you are not wrong about the Atari 2600, but the ColecoVision was some next level shit in 1982. If it had simply had the capacity for battery backup like the NES, it would have _been_ a third gen console.
While I did skip through a majority of your video, I do love your rant. You tell it like it is and are very happy for it. Please do continue it! Much love and support from an extremely extremely old fansubbing group!
I got a NES for my 5th birthday with the Mario/Duck Hunt cart from my grandparents. I only ever got games on birthdays and Christmas and was lucky if I could get one. My parents couldn't afford anything else. With that background, I completely ignored the console wars as I was never going to be able to choose anything. I was happy with what I had.
i like the atari 2600, but its highscore games, your not playing certain games like you said that long...especially if you suck as well. Some of their games can be addictive for high score challenges and def test your hand eye coordination past a certain point despite being such simple games
Ummm, not all the games were high score games... Yes, of course the shooters and games like Frogger were, but games like Adventure, Submarine Commander, and Star Raiders sure weren't
25:34 Nintendo's clap-back was an article or two in Nintendo Power politely discussing the technical differences between the Genesis and SNES. 33:00 You might be surprised to learn that almost everything was already dumped in the 90s. Things missing on the Nintendo side were pirate multi-carts, FDS images, and BS Satellaview dumps, the latter of which is still an issue. There were also a handful of games with no known good dumps. And of course prototypes that no one knew existed yet.
I love how scorching hot these takes are. That being said, playing retro games without an upscaler on a modern TV... is a mistake. That being said, don't buy the RetroTink-4k unless you are fabulously wealthy. That is an absurd price to pay.
40:17 Excessive reboots is a technological problem. Technologies such as the internet, streaming, and large hard drive storage have allowed us to preserve cultural media trends that in prior generations would have died out naturally. For example if you were nostalgic for Universal horror movies in 1970 you would have a hard time finding those movies. You might watch them a couple times a year on tv. You couldn't even record them. You would spend the majority of your movie watching time consuming movies from 1970 because that's what was available. In 2024 if you are a fan of Universal horror movies you can watch them exclusively and spend none of your attention or money on current movies. This example extends to music and video games as well. This results in current media being suffocated by all the prior generations. Current media can never gather steam to emerge as a distinct art form. There isn't enough money and attention for it ever to be born. This is why, since the 90s (and the birth of the internet), the decades have blended together. Old media is like a vampire staying alive by sucking all the life out of this generation's art forms. If we killed the metaphorical vampire, we would create space for new games. However I don't think we can put the genie back in the bottle. It doesn't matter what millennials or gen-z do, this phenomenon is going to persist.
Original hardware, by which I mean the machines mainly, has a real presence in the physical gaming space. That is, it doubles as decor. I suppose you could also argue that wanting your game area to have that sort of vibe is pointless and we should all just live like hardcore ascetics in our stark white THX 1138 cells, but I'm going to keep enjoying the look the old hardware brings with it in any case.
original hardware (including a CRT) is valuable to me because I am old and am playing retro games partly for nostalgia reasons... if I was young person playing the games for the first time it probably wouldn't be worth it
5:14 console generations aren’t exclusively defined by who they’re competing against- technical capabilities are also important, and a lot of consoles (Famicom, Wii, PS2) outlive their generation. the DC lived and died when the industry was still transitioning from 5th to 6th gen; just because it competed with the N64 doesn’t mean it wasn’t technically more on-par with Gamecube. (it also launched much closer to the PS2 than to the PS1)
I happen to still enjoy the old Atari 2600 since I that console was the only thing around at the time in the 1980s. Period. Atari 2600 kept me busy durint the weekends after i did my homework since i was in elementary school back in the day. Loved playing the games that me and my siblings had for the Atari. This was way before the frikkin NES came along by the way
Yeah, I'm one of those I guess... But I do enjoy SOME 2600 games. Those were the version I'm used to playing. Mouse Trap (built in game in my coleco gemini), Venture, Pool, Pitfall and even Donkey Kong. I get that I could fire up Mame and play the real arcade version, but there's no nostalgia in that, and nostalgia is a big part of wath retro gaming and retro computing is.
Number two called me out hardcore. 💀I disagree with the last one about remaking games, but mostly because there are some retro titles that I want to be able to play on modern consoles. I'd love to see an upscaled Skies of Arcadia, for example. Or see what a modern Phantasy Star 4 would look like. Secret of Mana's remake was trash, but Trials of Mana (Seiken Densetsu 3 in Japan) was the gold standard of remakes imo. Anyway, good video. On to your other list!
While I do think Trials of Mana is better than SD3 when played purely in single-player, removing co-op is a such a major feature deficit that I think it can only be considered a side-grade at best (especially considering that, soundtrack aside, SD2-3 are pretty generic as single-player games and co-op is really the main thing that makes them worth playing in the first place).
5:30 I think the dreamcast was a 6th gen console in terms of power though, it was so much more powerful than everything else at the time. The graphics had like 5 times the polygon count and the games ran at 60 FPS I remember being completely blown away. 10:30 Based, Atari suuuuuuuuuuucks. I also have an issue with the NES personally, I know it has very good games but the way the sprites flicker all the time because there can only be like 3 sprites on screen at a time is just so jank.. the sprite are also like only 3 colors.. Mario 3 is my favorite NES game but I would much rather play it on mario all star on the SNES. I also have an issue with the n64, it was great at the time but the framerate and resolution is so bad I would much rather emulate the games so I can play at a decent framerate and resolution, it's just better. 24:00 True, snes vs genesis war is talked about too much.. The snes was just better anyway in my opinion, tons of masterpieces I can't think of any game on the genesis that comes close to zelda alttp, mario world, chrono trigger, final fantasy 3, megaman X.. Never really liked sonic it's too fast for the sake of being fast, half of the time you just run in loops or in tubes or get flown by jump pads and you don't even have to do anything. 40:30 Yeah ! They should make new freakin games instead of remaking everything. Most remakes are bad and even those that are good.. I don't want to replay a game I already played with better graphics.. I usually only play remakes of games I didn't play before.. I think the trials of mana was kinda ok because they change how the game played a lot but still.. they could have just made a new mana game, others like the remake of system shock are great because the game had horrible controls. I really recommend trying new IPs though especially indie games.. modern games are underrated in the retro community
Kalinski gets a pass for stuff because it was such a huge deal for any company to split the market share with Nintendo, they had such a huge share that it was inconceivable any company would compete. It's just like an athlete being known for that game winner in the finals but we don't bring up the next 5 years of the ones that didn't go in.
Kalinski was a genius. This guy is fast and loose with the facts, doesn't realize SoJ pulled SoA strings. Unsold inventory is common for any business. Even NoA had piles of unsold Dragon Warrior carts given away with Nintendo Power.
The Dreamcast being released midway through a console generation is interesting because that isn't the first time that happened with Sega. The original NES was released in 1985, Genesis was released in 1989 to compete with the NES, and the SNES came out in 1991. Worth noting the Sega CD and the SNES released within a couple months of each other; the Sega CD is actually the direct competitor to the SNES. I think that is what makes that brief moment of the console wars interesting. It wasn't like the consoles existed as generations, it was more of a back and forth.
Some good takes in here. The "fidelity" thing that you touched on with upscalers, console versions, emulation, and all of that stuff has bothered me for a long time. There's a reverence for these machines without recognition of what they are and how they were meant to be used. These were cheap machines designed to be hooked up to consumer-grade CRTs, which were blurry as shit. Sure, a Model 1 HDG Genesis has clearer output if you hook it up to hi-fi and upscale it to your $4000 OLED TV. But you were never going to notice the difference between revisions hooking it up to your 14" Sears TV from 1986 via RF (Composite if you were lucky) with mono sound, which is how most people played and enjoyed the hell out of that machine. And RGB-modding and super clean scaling makes the games look worse in a lot of cases! Lots of games were designed to have the colours smear a little, they just look gritty and weird if the output is too sharp. It's the audiophile mindset. These folks aren't listening to the music, they're listening to their gear. Also, fucking PVMs/BVMs. Just stop. There's no need. Don't spend a king's ransom or more on a 13" PVM when the 24" JVC in your uncle's basement is there for free and will get you 95% of what you actually want out of gaming on a CRT and you don't have to squint at the damn thing.
I love emulation, but he describes my one biggest beef with it very well. Hard to spend time and really enjoy one game when thousands are at your fingertips.
According to Blake Harris’ book Console Wars, Tom Kelinski didn’t want the 32x, and he was vehemently opposed to the Saturn’s early release, and that Sega of Japan twisted his arm into both of those things.
We definitely need more revivals/sequels of old series rather than nostalgic remakes/remasters. One wonders how mechanics, structure, and presentation would have evolved.
Gamecube As a Nintendo fan, who remembers the collapse of the company from its heights on the SNES down to the Gamecube, the amount of praise this console gets baffles me. This was the heart of the dark age, like when the Byzantines abandoned Italy to the Lombards because it wasn't worth playing there until the renaissance. The handheld stuff was alright, especially if you were a Pokemon fan - but for me GBC and GBA was all about the RPG ports and it wasn't really until the Wii and DS Lite that Nintendo was on its way back up (and it might still be on its way up).
![Seungmin "그렇게, 천천히, 우리(As we are)" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kAzmhLHePqU/mqdefault.jpg)
The Console War thing mattered at school, when kids around the lunch table would argue about which was best-- and it really boiled down to whatever your parents bought for you. It was never like, "I'M NOT GOING TO PLAY SNES AT BILLY'S HOUSE BECAUSE I'M A SEGA KID!" That is exaggerated.
Absolutely there would be schoolyard shit talk. SNES kids were riding high that one year Street Fighter 2 was a SNES exclusive, for example.
I had cousins who were Genesis fans, and would bash SNES, but when they came over for a visit, they still played my SNES.
@@McLovin_2007 Oh, I'm sure. I mean, deep down-- we all wanted both.
@@martineastman9855Then there was the rich kid with a NEO GEO AES.
@@Chelaxim more like the kid that lied about having a Neo Geo 🤣
Number one is perfection. We've been so conditioned by corporate franchise narrative that nothing can ever be allowed to simply end in a dignified, natural manner. There's always got to be a next installment, next spin-off, next re-boot/make/master/imagining, next *something*. Otherwise that thing you love is DEAD and you should feel sad and anxious and generally bad about that. It's pathetic.
I mean as much as I agree, I don’t find franchises with cliffhangers as a “dignified natural manner”
There was a show on scifi called starfly or star-something. It was pretty good. It ended early but somewhat dignified
Someone put Jason Graves out, because he's on fire!
9:28 An SNES emulator like Retro Arch or Higan would get you the same results at no cost on any PC. $750 is boomer exploitation.
The crazy part is that their are alternatives that give you 90% of the same result and they cost around $50. I can't understand these people throwing these insane amount of money on such small upgrades
>it's your fault
dude, I haven't bought any of those things. I play my retrogames on emulators like God intended.
Keep it up, brother 👍
based
Pfff, pleb.
I play mine in an old TV with RF cables like God intended.
Hell yeah brother
Me too 🤣. My young self would have loved to be able to rewind, save and fastward any NES game.
I think you're probably right about the console wars being over-stated. I was a kid in those days, and it probably just feels like a longer, more intense cultural era because everything feels longer and more intense when you're that age. But once the Playstation came out, and especially after the XBox came out, it became impossible to keep people thinking in that kind of "my team vs. their team" binary way.
Another variable that I think is pretty key is that as we got older, we started buying video games with our own money, and were able to buy as many systems as we wanted. When you were a kid in the 90s, by contrast, you were dependent on your parents who often didn't think a kid needed TWO (or more) video game systems. So a lot of kids had to come up with a rationalization for why the only system they had was the best one. I feel like people have more money now and the culture has changed, so having multiple video game systems no longer seems as decadent as it used to.
No way. Those school yard debates were intense. On top of that exclusivity was a bigger deal back then. PlayStation dominated for two straight generations until the 360 came out and by then it just wasn't the same.
Going from #3 gripe to #2 gripe is peak old coot! Congrats Jason u just aged 50 years!
That was the best part!😂 too many rabbit holes in ways to play the same video games with both original hardware and emulation.
Mortal Kombat on Sega had blood
This mattered on the playground if you were a 90s kid
Plus fighting games play snappier on Genesis.
@@SeveredLegs shoot'em ups and most racing games also
re: the 90s console wars, what i didn't see anyone mention here is that for a lot of us as kids it was also about the two companies representing radically different *ideologies*. Sega were your friends who listened to Nirvana & Dr. Dre while Nintendo were your parents yelling at you for that, basically. The major turning point, image-wise, was when Nintendo neutered the blood & Fatalities in the original Mortal Kombat while Sega put the famous "Blood Code" in their version; Nintendo instantly became the uncool video game company at my school thanks to that. And you say that Nintendo never felt the need to clap back at Sega's marketing, but the fallout from the MK decision actually DID make them do that later on: the (hilariously cringeworthy in retrospect) Play It Loud ad campaign featuring none other than the Butthole Surfers!
The thing today i would compare it to, in terms of that "competing ideologies" aspect, is WWE vs. AEW. And trust me, people go fucking FERAL over that shit on social media
Yeah, this is an excellent point, and one of the reasons Jason's point about the console war fell flat. Modern console wars may be frustrating, and may even be more widespread and have more impact on the industry than the old Nintendo vs. Sega one, but they were never about competing philosophies in the same way.
One thing I love about the "console war" between SEGA and Nintendo was so different in Japan. PC Engine was second place, and one factoid I love mentioning is how the Saturn sold better than the N64 in Japan, which I just find absolutely hilarious.
The Saturn's game library surpasses that of the N64 in several genres, especially among those games exclusive to Japan. It's not so surprising that it outsold the N64. Honestly, I think a modern view of both libraries gives Saturn an advantage, by the way.
@@jpa3974 that’s not exactly wrong, but the N64’s best games were revolutionary. What Saturn game has the impact of Banjo Kazooie? Actually that is sort of a genuine question, as I am kinda interested in the Saturn Library
@@thomasffrench3639 The Sega Saturn is extremely awesome when it comes to RPGs (which is why the Sega Saturn severely beat the Nintendo 64 in Japan. RPGs are the # 1 genre in Japan. The Saturn had several classic "A ++" tier RPGs while the Nintendo 64 had... well... not much in that category (and a lot what it had was really BAD. See Quest 64 for an example). Problem is, many of the RPGs on Sega Saturn these days are insanely expensive to the point where they are more expensive than some Neo Geo games (if you can find a RELIABLE alternative way to play these games for free, I would strongly recommend that route, unless you have several thousands of dollars in expendable money strictly meant for entertainment. If you do then it's worth owning the real copies of the games. If not, then alternative free ways exist, but make sure you find something that's reliable and actually works since some of those alternative free ways have glitches).
Some of the best Saturn RPGs include:
1) Panzer Dragoon Saga
2) Shining Force 3
3) Shining the Holy Ark
4) Dragon Force
and there are many, MANY more.
Lots of great stuff in the RPG category.
Of course the Sega Saturn has other games in other genres that are also really awesome. I'll let someone else pop in and suggest some suggestions since I've already typed up an essay here. LOL.
Of course it did, the Saturn had the better RPGs and RPGs were WAY more popular in Japan. In terms of being revolutionary to all of gaming, the N64 stands out. In terms of being revolutionary to RPGs, I've never played a game quite like Dragon Force, Panzer Dragoon Saga was way ahead of its time, Shining the Holy Ark was way ahead of its time.
@@Denny-Thray RPGs are the deciding factor of sales in Japan or if a console sells well, all the RPGs move to that system. But it didn't sell that much more, only a few thousand. I have a feeling that most of the early adopters were Saturn players as the RPGs didn't really catch on with the PlayStation until Final Fantasy VII from what I can tell.
The video game preservation one has always annoyed me too especially because the reality is that video games are *insanely* well preserved as a medium. 99% of video games have been dumped to ROM for backup which is how you *actually* preserve digital media. You can't count on an ATARI cart reading in 10 years.
like it's trivial to find a torrent with every NES or SNES game ever made, try finding one for movies or books or art
Completely with you on #1 and all of the passion it entails. Drives me absolutely crazy the obsession with regurgitating the SAME things over and over. Remaking games that don't need it for the sake of it. TTYD could've been rereleased as is and its 100% playable and holds up but people lose their minds over it just because of nostalgia but like the game ALREADY EXISTS. Cool for those playing it for the first time but the fans treat it like this spiritual revelation. I'd prefer they just rereleased the original and focus more energy on NEW projects. When do the remakes stop? People are clamoring for Pokémon Gen 5 remakes but like when does it end? Are we eventually getting Scarlet/Violet remakes? Can we ever just move on from something?
Not everything needs to keep going forever but like you said recognizability matters so much to ensure making money for a lot of these things so its inevitable everything will keep coming back and never be left alone. We're firmly in an age of playing it safe and pandering to nostalgia. Risks are a rare thing of the past and everything's expected and sequels now. "When is Pikmin 5? Splatoon 4? Mario Odyssey 2?" Its like people can't anticipate anything than what they already know and often reject things when they're different so things never change and just get regurgitated into oblivion. We're at the point people are asking for remakes of games that have ALREADY been remade like Ocarina of Time. So yeah, I resonate with the point lol
given that the retro game store owners/flippers have insisted thousand year door's rare therefore it's expensive and HAS to be $80, it makes me happy thousand year door is available on a modern console.
#10 Sega Dreamcast - Yeah, it is overrated. VMUs, while cool in concept, never achieved their goal and were vastly ignored too.
#9 Upscaling - Yep. If you want to spend money upscaling, just by a good ole CRT. There, you spent money and have scanlines.
#8 Anything older than NES - *sigh* What an ignorant statement. There was gaming, good gaming, happening well before you were born. Why would you choose not to play something just because it's old? Also, why restrict yourself only to consoles?
#7 Tom Kalinske - He was both the rise and fall of Sega of America. Overrated if you don't acknowledge his down turn.
#6 Sega Vs Nintendo - Back in the day, this pushed both companies to be better. If you're just taking into account the school yard bickering, yeah, that was dumb then and now, but on a corporate level, this was huge for gaming overall.
#5 Minor console variants - Yep. Collect whatever you want, but don't think you're better or have accomplished something special 'cause you have six different NES consoles that all do the same thing.
#4 Preservation - Unless you are helping in some way to getting things to the masses, you're only preserving it for yourself.
#3 Original Hardware - In only the rarest of situations does this matter at all. Collect what you want, but don't think you're superior 'cause you have a lot of money and space.
#2 Emulation - Is this a thing? I... I don't think this is a thing. Do you mean folks who think the only way to emulate things is on the MISTer 'cause it emulates on the chip level? 'Cause yeah, some of those folks are kinda weird about it.
#1 Comebacks - You know what needs to be remade? Things that sucked. Why remake things that were good? They're already good! Take that concept that was hindered by the hardware and remake that.
#8 Ignorant statement? #8 was one of his strongest points. Old games may have been good at the time of release...I'm sure they were amazing...but the key word is "were". The vast majority of the stuff older than NES has aged incredibly poorly. The only people who cheerlead atari games for example are people who grew up with them. They are not good games outside of historical curiosity. They are overrated.
@@antiquecardboard I agree with most of his points, but not his Atari point. If people only played it for "30 seconds" there would not have a vibrant homebrew scene like it has.
The order to rush the Saturn's launch came straight from big boss Hayao Nakayama himself. And that made SOME sense: coming out first was a major reason why the TurboGrafx-16 beat the Genesis in Japan but the other way around in America. Kalinske actually opposed the move, however, because there were not enough Saturn games ready to make it appealing.
In fact, in a sense, Kalinske was the one who wanted to move forward while Sega of Japan was stuck in the past. Read Blake Harris' "Console Wars" -- he wanted a pure 3D machine (like the PlayStation ultimately was) and not a weird 2D/3D hybrid like the Saturn.
Yeah he's missing important facts. Too busy spinning hot takes to mention the details. He'd make a good sleezebag attorney.
Hilariously, he blames Tom for the Saturn's development difficulty. Like, huh? He even cites pandemonium, you know, the guy who lead a whole mob against Kalinske in and made Bernard Stolar out to be some kind of hero. Pandemonium even defended the Dreamcast on the grounds that it "could do 3d" like that wasn't something expected out of hardware in 98, but this guy thinks his conjecture is otherwise factual.
The Tom kalinsky point is right on. I appreciate you pointing out the 32x hurt Dreamcast
The one mistake is the US launch was Sega of Japan's fault. Tom wanted to launch it months later, but the president at Sega of Japan forced him to do a surprise launch that killed the Saturn.
@@NottJoeyOfficial one of the most Chinese whispers points in gaming. My version of the story is Japan wanted a 3 month early release and Tom one-upped them and made it 6 and lost Wallmart. Japan could only provide 10,000 units per month anyway. It was meant to be a 3 month preview, not 6.
Tom wasn't responsible for the 32x, it was Hayao Nakayama's idea.
The best thing about original hardware (especially cartridge based stuff) is that it's plug and play (assuming your tv has the hookups). I used to have issues with button mappings being lost, you spend time configuring - especially if you want to play multiplayer local games. I like to plug in, sit down next to someone, and play.
There's also little things like overscan in NES games. There is a section of the screen in NES games that devs kept junk and unused art because it would be hidden from the player by the TV bezel. This is especially viewable while exploring the overworld in old NES Dragon Warrior games.
You can do things like crop it.
And there's the fact that pixels are really supposed to be kinda blurry because a CRT TV naturally filters them. You can have shaders produce this effect.
But an easy way to overcome both of these problems is to play on a CRT TV on original hardware.
@@Denny-Thrayfinding a CRT TV and original hardware is not really the easiest way, but I get what you mean
and the lack of input latency....
I play pretty much everything, But I am definitely an atari Enjoyer. Yes most have to be done in small doses, But you get the most out of the library if you're a high score chaser. You have to be in that mindset where you sit down and play for like a 1/2 hour or an hour. Trying to get your best score. Maybe have a board in the room with high scores for everyone
That's the thing, not everyone wants to sink twenty hours into a video game. Sometimes fifteen minutes of River Raid is just right.
The 2600 was my first console that I got for Christmas in 1981. I partially agree with what he is saying in his rant about the 2600. I don't see any scenario were I would play a game like 3-D Tic-Tac-Toe. But if you want a quick 10-15 minute retro gaming fix the 2600 is fine.
Tom Kalinske wasn't responsible for the 32x. Hayao Nakayama was afraid of the Atari Jaguar and the 3DO so Sega of Japan forced them to develop the 32x. The surprise launch of the Saturn was also Nakayama's idea.
IMO the biggest problem with the dreamcast was the giant fucking controller.
And then XBOX copied the design and basic layout and made it even fucking bigger lmao
and the weird expensive fucked up tamogachi memory cards
ngl I used to have one and I still can't tell you what all the buttons are. even after emulating a few games with it
@@kindasomeviews what extra buttons? there's 4 face buttons and the triggers.
I think you're thinking about the Atari Jaguar. it has a bunch of keypad style buttons and plastic overlays for each game.
The cord coming out of the bottom of the controller is pretty annoying too.
I am 14 yo, and play Atari games! You say arcade games older than the NES are still ok, yet the Atari 2600 had aloe of great ports. Centipede, asteroids, millipede, missile command, breakout, super breakout,warlords, Popeyes, Mario bros, frogger, bezerk, ms. PAC-man, and Jr. pac-man. All of these are good, if not great arcade ports. Therefore the 2600 has to be a good console. Play adventure it is super good!
There will always be a minority opinion, and that is okay. Rock on, dude! I'm glad you dig the 2600. It was my first console back in '88. Give Yar's Revenge and The Empire Strikes Back a try.
@@starwarsunfiltered7848 I have looped the score on yars’ revenge, the trick is to hit the quotile mid air. When he’s in swirl form, after the second loop of the swooshing, fire your zorlon cannon. Head upward and it should hit the quotile. Get to the blue stage, play normally until the gray level. Stand below in the botton left, or bottom top. Wait for the swirl to fire at you, loop back to the top. The swirl should head straight up, and just time your cannon correctly and 6K with a bonus life. Yars’ revenge, not yar’s revenge.
I agree with most of his points, but not his Atari point. If people only played it for "30 seconds", it would not have one of the most vibrant homebrew scenes today (at least for consoles), which it does.
Pro tip if you ever play on real hardware use a Sega Genesis controller it works. Pitfall 1 and 2 are still fun games to this day.
>"Nooooo, stop having high standards for things! Just be happy with inferiority chudd!"
That will be one retroTINK 7x please, hell make it two!
The Dreamcast was the singularity event in gaming. That marked the first time that we invited gaming corporations into our homes via internet connectivity. Everything we hate about gaming in the modern era- outrageous DRM, gigantic day 1 updates, players treated as beta testers- it all started when the Dreamcast moved into your house.
To clarify one thing about the Saturn, the launch date wasn't Tom's fault. Sega of Japan's president forced him to move the launch up. The other stuff is accurate, but that launch date being moved was not his idea.
As for playing on original hardware, I adore playing on original hardware and always will, but I will never recommend anyone do that. Emulate them, you do not need original hardware, I'm just a dumbass that likes it. I have moved away from buying the games though and towards modded consoles to play them. Still more work than emulation, but cheaper than buying the games. You still pay more for a worse experience though!
Dreamcast is great. It's not overrated. As a person who basically grew up playing arcade Sega games, I find the Dreamcast library to be truly a dream console for those who like good old quick arcade experiences: Daytona USA, Crazy Taxi, House of the Dead, Jet Set Radio, Sega Rally, Tokyo Xtreme Racer, Ikaruga, Sonic Adventure II, and that's just a FEW of the great hits it has.
Those titles might not be impressive or really that appealing to yonger audiences or people who never really grew up playing arcade games from Sega. To us, however, people who did, it's a great successor to Genesis and Saturn with an exceptionally strong library of games considering its relatively short lifespan.
It wasn't the Dreamcast that ruined Sega, it was a slow decline that began during the Sega CD/Sega 32X era, continued into the Saturn era and peaked during the Dreamcast times because it was sold for dirt cheap, Sega had to dedicate a lot of budget to port its arcade games/develop new games for it on its own, including new sports games, and because piracy prevailed pretty early on in its lifespan. Sega was going into the 6th generation pretty much knowing that it was the end of it and merely hoping they could somehow 'pull it off' with Dreamcast after a whole CHAIN of disastrous decisions (CD -> 32X -> Saturn) that brought down its reputation and status worldwide + put an insane dent in their pockets. Dreamcast was none of that. It was cheap, it had a huge and solid library of games, and it was overall a great system. It felt like both US/JP Sega stopped being braindead idiots for a moment fighting over which market is more important and finally did something right in almost all departments. Alas, it was too late. So, yeah. Dreamcast IS special. It's basically Sega's terminal lucidity moment before its quick and inevitable death.
P.S No, it is not as weak as you claim it to be. Look at some of PS2 ports of Dreamcast games. In most cases, they look MUCH better and sharper on Dreamcast. Does that mean that PS2 is weaker than even Dreamcast? Hell no. Does that mean Dreamcast is weaker? Well, let's just say 'it's complicated'. Dreamcast does belong to 6th generation for a reason as it did have the power to compete with PS2.
I should have jumped on the dreamcast a few years ago when the availability was decent. Really wanted to try Powerstone in particular, the price threshold now is rather large.
The issue with the Dreamcast was Bernie Stolar's decision to price at $199.99 vs SoJ's ask of 249 - Sega was in dire financial straits and couldn't afford subsidizing the price cut. Other issue was SoJ's horrible Japan launch. The console could've been kept in the burner for a year, as Japan had pretty decent Saturn sales and the prices eventually made it affordable.
The fault the Dreamcast had was being a budget system released in 1999 against Sony's PS2 with no DVD support. Sega could never compete with Sony, they got price cut on a weaker system with the Saturn, hard. The PSX was sold at cost, whereas the Saturn's huge $399 price was *at a $150 loss*. They were never gonna stick around.
To be fair though, he was kind of right about the controller.
But I don't think the system itself is overrated.
Emulators and piracy are our only hope for affordable retro gaming as capitalism moves forward to sell what's new.
🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation:
00:00 *🔥 Introduction to the concept of the video:*
- Explanation that the video will discuss overrated aspects of retro video games, not specific games themselves.
- Clarification that the term "overrated" is subjective and based on the creator's opinion, inviting disagreement from viewers.
- Emphasis on presenting unpopular opinions to provoke discussion and differing perspectives.
01:11 *🎮 Sega Dreamcast:*
- Critique of the Sega Dreamcast's overrated status in gaming history.
- Evaluation of the Dreamcast's library and comparison to other consoles like the Saturn.
- Discussion on the Dreamcast's financial impact on Sega and its role in the company's decline.
06:54 *📺 Upscalers in retro gaming:*
- Criticism of the necessity and pricing of upscalers in retro gaming setups.
- Argument against the need for upscalers for casual gaming experiences.
- Commentary on the obsession with finding optimal gaming setups detracting from actual gameplay.
10:28 *🕹️ Pre-NES home consoles:*
- Disparagement of pre-NES home consoles, particularly the Atari 2600.
- Assertion that Atari 2600 games lack lasting appeal and are more suitable for brief, nostalgic experiences.
- Preference for the Intellivision library over Atari games.
14:37 *🕴️ Critique of Tom Kalinske's legacy at Sega:*
- Examination of Tom Kalinske's role in Sega's success with the Genesis and subsequent downfall.
- Citation of leaked financial reports highlighting excess inventory and poor sales decisions under Kalinske's leadership.
- Criticism of Kalinske's handling of the 32X and other Sega hardware failures.
18:50 *🔀 Sega's Strategic Missteps*
- Sega of America's reluctance to move on from the Sega Genesis led to the creation of the 32x as a stop-gap measure.
- The failure of the 32x and mishandling of the Saturn launch by Tom Kalinske contributed to Sega's downfall.
- Poor decision-making and resource allocation hindered Sega's ability to compete effectively in the gaming market.
23:29 *🎮 Reassessment of the Sega vs. Nintendo Console War*
- The Sega vs. Nintendo console war is overrated, as it was more of a marketing rivalry than a significant industry influence.
- The impact of the Sega vs. Nintendo rivalry was limited to a few years in the early '90s and was overshadowed by subsequent developments in the gaming industry.
- Console wars, including Sega vs. Nintendo, are exaggerated and do not reflect the broader impact of gaming platform competition.
26:06 *🕹️ Marginal Differences in Console Variants*
- Console variants with marginal differences, such as one chip Super Nintendos, are overrated in the retro gaming community.
- Obsessing over minor differences in console variants detracts from the enjoyment of gaming and overlooks the practicality of gameplay.
- Emphasizing console variants' significance perpetuates a culture of elitism and detracts from the core experience of playing games.
30:19 *📼 Misrepresentation of Preservation in Retro Gaming*
- Claims of preservation in retro gaming often misrepresent the actual preservation efforts, focusing more on collecting than genuine preservation.
- The notion that game collecting equates to preservation is flawed, as true preservation involves efforts such as ROM dumping and documentation.
- Retro gaming content creators should be mindful of accurately portraying preservation efforts and avoid conflating collecting with preservation.
33:29 *💻 Debate on Original Hardware vs. Emulation*
- The debate over playing games on original hardware versus emulation highlights the irrationality of emphasizing authenticity in gaming experiences.
- Playing games on original hardware is deemed overrated, as emulation offers a more practical, cost-effective, and versatile alternative.
- Despite nostalgia for original hardware, the benefits of emulation, including convenience and accessibility, challenge traditional perceptions of gaming experiences.
37:28 *😠 Overrated aspects of emulation and choice overload*
- Emulation and choice overload lead to not committing to games.
- Having access to numerous games simultaneously can result in not fully enjoying any of them.
- Choice paralysis and a lack of commitment are facilitated by emulation setups with extensive game libraries.
40:16 *😤 Critique of the clamor for constant sequels and revivals*
- Constant clamoring for sequels and revivals undermines the dignity of original classics.
- Not every retro property needs a modern remake or sequel.
- Some games are fine as they are and do not require unnecessary remakes or revivals.
Made with HARPA AI
ai is trash and so are you
The thing about organizations saying that old games aren't accessible (in an "official" way, which is irrelevant) seems like lobbying to me. Anyone who really likes video games knows that we have free and easy access to basically all really old games, even things that would be insanely difficult to get officially, like arcade games from the 1980s-90s.
There are people lobbying to replace the current free and easy way to play old games with low-quality always-online services where you don't own anything you "buy". These guys' "solution" is a real nightmare.
the only problem is emulation. often enough you'd need some basic knowledge to adjust just basic things of original games
There is important context missing around the Video Game History Foundation study, which is that industry associations like the ESA have for years stood against the legality of publicly accessible video game libraries on the basis that, they argue, they are good enough stuards of their games that they keep most of them readily available and accessible, and that the ones that aren't also need to be kept out of libraries because they might be about to monetize them again.
Obviously, that isn't true. I agree that emulation is the true best preservation, but it's illegal, and if publishers want to oppose legal means of preserving older games in a library they should offer a more compelling reason than the blatantly false claim that they're already doing a great job of it.
This study is meant to be a specific refutation of that argument, which is revisited annually at the US Copyright Office, where archivists and software associations each argue their case.
Reasonably in-depth article here: arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/03/why-game-archivists-are-dreading-this-months-3ds-wii-u-eshop-shutdown/
It worked for spotify, it ain't so bad. But here we've been used to free access for too long I think
If we were to rely on companies to preserve stuff, 90% of games would just straight up disappear
@@necrosadotor I hate when people say that emulators are too difficult to setup for pc illiterate people, it's just as easy as going to the settings menu on Windows, hell, in pretty much all active emulators they give quite detailed explanations for each and every option.
Now where I will say that emulation might be an issue is that emulators don't run 100% of a system's library (this mainly applies to 5th gen consoles and up) and if your game happens to be one of the minority that can't run properly/at all then there's nothing you can do about it other than letting the devs know.
Umm... the Dream Cast might have been over rated but I feel like the mismanagement from the late Genesis and Saturn era set in the rot waaaay before the Dream Cast came along. Maybe they weren't posting losses, as you said, but they were making a ton of stuff that was not paying off. Like the 32X, the Sega CD, the Saturn was a distant second until the 64 came out. When I was a kid no one I knew had a Sega Saturn, most people had a Play Station and a few had N64s. There wasn't even a Saturn section in the local video store! Nintendo kept support for the SNES well after the N64 came out, but Sega basically dropped the Genesis right after the Saturn came out. It was a mess over there. The Dream Cast was just the final straw.
Strangely, my 4k tv from 2018 actually has composite but not component. And I think that's common for that time period. TVs generally axed component ahead of composite because composite is/was much more common.
“Alright, I’m ready to respectfully disagree with some ”
10: Dreamcast is overrated
😡 😡 HOW DARE YOU SIR!?!?
Great stuff as always Jason!
9: Brother I haven't owned a TV with a composite input for like twenty years now
Listening to your whole talk about how games don't need remakes or comebacks made me think "Finally, someone gets it."
Kalinskie skates on the 32X because even though the final product was his baby, his division convinced home office not to make it it's own CONSOLE, which would have been an even more mind boggling disaster so somehow even in his worst moment he was still the voice of reason.
I think the one I would push back on the most would be about the video game history foundation's study on game accessibility. Not even on the overarching point (yeah, youtubers playing these games is not preservation), but that study was *really* excellent in and of itself.
It comes in the context of the VGHF wanting to go before the federal copyright office to argue that there isn't adequate legal availability of games for study, to argue that more copyright exceptions are needed. They need remote legal access to emulation and ROMs to basically do what they want with game study. The strong implication is that you can't study games with only ~15% accessible, which does has downwind impacts on preservation. They also showed that even that 15% access is fragile: when Nintendo closes an eshop or (say) the one provider of colecogames remotely shuts down, then you can't play anything from that system without original hardware and software.
You brought up films, but films kinda show the point. They are *way* more accessible on streaming devices or via modern rereleases on blu ray than games are. Obscure films get rereleased a lot, not categorically but a lot. Obscure video games almost never make their way to the Nintendo online services and the like.
I will grant, that the article is kinda punchy about it. The full paper on, as full papers usually are, is more intellectually honest about it all.
That is correct. The study itself was good. I think he missed the point of why the study was made. You explained it better then I could.
38:40 tbf this is a you problem, not an emulation problem. It also applies to cheap digital games
I agree with points 3 and 1 for the most part!
I like this video and I like #10 even though I disagree with you 90% of that point. While the DC was not the most powerful system... it was not that far removed from the PS2. In fact many of the games that are on both the PS2 and DC - the DC version is graphically superior. Dead or Alive 2, Code Veronica, Grandia. This is due to a few things first - the PS2 lacked anti aliasing which the Dreamcast had. PS2 was also harder to develop for than the Dreamcast. The Dreamcast also had better texture scaling than the PS2. Also the biggest factor which made the games look better and is even more true today... Devs for the Dreamcast almost exclusively utilized the 480p function for the system whereas its mostly 480i on the PS2. Yes the PS2 could render in 480p but for whatever reason it was underutilized all the while the video output for the PS2 can be argued to be one of the worst ever. Its a huge thing to overlook how much better these games looked and still do running in 480p on the Dreamcast. There are some glimpses as to what could have been on the system had it lasted - D2, Shenmue 2, F355 are great examples but also games like 'Whats Shenmue' in which the character models are near Xbox quality. Recently indie devs have found out that Naomi based games on the system can be modded to run on real hardware. They are dumping stages from the Xbox version of the Dreamcast and increasing the textures on the character models and the game is running without a hitch.
Check it out:
ruclips.net/video/ZBj0lFrBeHQ/видео.html
Also a dev from the ground up a snippet of Metal Gear Solid 2 running on the console:
ruclips.net/video/5vzbZ7num14/видео.html
The Dreamcast to me is like Grant Hill we never got to see the true potential.
He's not ranking it on potential
@@Mephianse81 Not really the point of my comment. I'm just disagreeing that planned DC games were better off on other consoles or that the DC was not up to snuff graphically to hang with PS2, GC or Xbox. Potential is one thing but the specs of the system were decent enough.
I just seen a RUclips video a few weeks ago so apparently you can trick a dreamcast to run PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2. That’s not emulation and the dreamcast runs PlayStation 2 games better or very least Gran Turismo
I'm 65 years old and have been playing home console games since the late 70's. I will disagree with your statement that I'd disagree with you on these issues. Sorry, but I agree with you on every single one of the points you've made here. Yeah, and beyond my control, I am a "Boomer", and you probably hate me because I agree with you. I guess because I always can say, "Been there and done that, and I'm moving on." I don't even play games from the previous gen of consoles. I'm gonna die sometime within the next what, 20 years, so I do NOT want to waste my time playing some old POS games when I can play something new. It's like some people who watch the same movie 100 times or binge watch a 10 year run television show, 6 times. F THAT! There is too much out there I haven't played or seen to waste my time with retro shit. Only thing I didn't care for was your nipple rubbing towards the end of the video. Next time, take your damn shirt off. You can get chaffed doing that with a shirt on. LOL! All said, Great Video!
Not everyone on the internet hates people outside of their age group. I think you have a cool perspective mostly and I'm turning 20 in less than a week when I write this.
9 is insane, the problem isn't just the video quality it's the signal delay that makes games like super metroid feel like mush. Being fine with crappy RF signals but then refusing to emulate anyway is just a weird contradiction. captured footage doesn't really account for all the different TVs that i've seen done wayyy worse and were actually unusable. some tvs don't even have the connectors anymore. physically it might not actually be fine.
digging through an abandoned hospital for some pristine RGB monitor and modding your snes with better outputs, that to me is overboard. i bought an upscaler 5 years ago and it works "just fine" i feel like the advice: "you just need an upscaler, not the best" just rings better, otherwise just fucking emulate. because i don't know who is buying overpriced retro consoles on ebay and then not wanting to spend another 100 dollars. I'm in the "i bought an upscaler and a flashcart and my desire for purity ends after the console" camp
Very much this. Retro consoles look like hot garbage on flat panels compared to what they should look like. And I am one of those with an old CRT that still works. Upscalers do great work in making games look like they were intended to, and something like the 4k is pretty much only for those who want the absolute top end equipment, a retrotink 5x is more than enough for people who want high quality upscaling and even that is overkill for most.
@@JB-mm5ff Because the room my CRT is in isn't the most comfortable? And well, it's dying and no one knows how to repair them around here anymore. CRT, good ones, are getting very hard to find.
And not everyone has one, they are bulky as hell, with anything close to the size of a small LCD tv nowadays being damned difficult to move.
@@bishopcruz Even a mediocre one is decent, hunting for some great one is pretty overrated. Also quick tip, find a electronics repair guy in their 50's they can repair them or for that matter any decent electronics repairman that can actually read and understand schematics. (in my experience a lot of "repair guys" don't know electronics, they just see a broken thing and replace it, not understanding why it's there or what it does) These people can probably most easily be found in HAM Radio groups and such hobbies.
I personally learned to repair them from understanding the schematics of them and had a little help from my local electronic components shopkeeper, which started his career as a CRT repairman back in the late 70's. I now on occasion do repair CRT's.
Your #9 is the definition of the channels out there like "My life in gaming" - and it's something I too cannot stand. There's a time and a place for this sort of thing but people can definitely go overboard.
Several points on upscalers:
1. Most TVs do NOT work with RF these days. They have ATSC and QAM tuners, which do not natively support the NTSC standard.
2. Display latency is significantly lower with a retrotink over a standard upscaler and especially the one in modern TVs that support composite input.
3. The retrotink 4k mostly exists BECAUSE of scanline filters. Scanline filters do look terrible in 1080p for sure, 100000% agree. But 4k resolution is so ridiculously high that you can actually make a *good* scanline effect. But you need a 4k monitor/tv in the first place to remotely make it worth the money. Or just get a CRT lol
Yep, can't turn to channel 3 or 4 on new TVs. S-Video isn't on modern TVs either.
Legit just get a CRT. Upscalers are too much trouble
Or you could just... get a cheap crt?
I definitely disagree with the upscaler comment retrotink 4k is the way to go.
CRT’s are dead imo everyone play games how you want. But once I got my hands on a 83” tv trying to go back and play on a 27” tv it’s no comparison. That’s what’s wrong with the world always getting rid of something that’s old but always getting ideas from old technology.
They could actually make a flat screen crt in bigger sizes but because of companies thinking of losing money over this it will never happen. CRT’s will eventually die off no one is around to fix them like back in the day.
This world never preserve anything old they just let it die.
@kamarrawlings6285 Dude. I can safely say that most CRTs will outlive both me and you. I had 3 brand new TVs die in about 10 years, while my old 20+ year Trinitron is still good as new.
10:06 and that's why you buy a CRT folks. Fuck the upscale shit
I actually think CRT televisions should be on the list. They are completely overrated. Not without any benefits, just way overblown.
@andrewweltlich9065 the only thing truly wrong with them is that they are heavy as shit and take up alot of space. That's it. Every other part of them are objectively better then LCDs..... I'd still say OLED kicks a CRT's ass though
@@90sNath My point is just that there are pros and cons to all TV types. A lot of retro gamers act like CRT are the absolute pinnacle of technology and everything that has released since has been inferior garbage, hence why I claim CRT is overrated.
@andrewweltlich9065 ...but it's objectively true though? Only reason we adopted LCDs was because they weren't bulky. CRTs have smoother motion, look great at multiple resolutions, no input delay what so ever, and the tvs have good speakers.
Seeing the dreamcast for the first time was CRAAAAZY when it came out Was such a huge leap in visuals at the time. Remember seeing NFL 2k and Shenmue and just being totally floored. For #3 this makes sense coming from you as a mostly rpg guy where input control does not matter and from a guy who doesn't like shmups or arcade games. There is an obvious lag that emulation has still not solved.
The Stomping Grounds jumpscare was crazy as someone who used to live in Gainesville FL and worked at the retro game store whose previous employees would go on to open Stomping Grounds. Glad to see they're still kicking, but yeah no that Genesis price difference is absolutely nuts.
Great stuff. I just got literally over 1 year back into retro gameing and it´s just awesome nowerdays with all the handhelds available. And your channel is a great one and one of the last unique and pure ones. Keep up the great work and content. Greetings from Europe.
OMG, regarding game remakes. I'm as susceptible to the idea of a Breath of Fire II remake as anybody for example, but after 30 years has gone by, it becomes less of a remake and more of an officially licensed fangame. How many people that even worked on the original game are even involved in a "remake"? Take Suikoden I & II Remaster coming out, Yoshitaka Murayama the brain child behind the series has sadly passed away, (Apparently he had nothing to do with Suikoden IV and V, but that's a different matter) and I have no idea how much input he had in the remake to begin with. A dedicated ROM Hacker can remake a classic game just as well if not better than whatever company owns the IP.
“Things didn’t matter as much in the 90’s because there was no online play” is the zoomeriest of zoomer takes.
I mean for most people that was true. Computers were extremely expensive and it's a zoomer thing to pretend otherwise
Privileged 90s kid hits up the comment section
@@MegasusJr2Console kid doesn't understand lan parties were cheap, especially in computer labs
@@InkyBlitz I honestly don't consider LAN and online play the same thing.
This is a prime example of the “if it was before me it doesn’t matter” mentality.
I never put much into the generational warfare, but Zoomers are encouraging me to change my mind.
Oh, John Hancock isn’t a Boomer… FYI.
Atari and Intellivision games are good under one condition only - you care about high scores. I could see us old men today playing with friends to see who can get the high score. That's when arcades ruled, and video games were mainly about competition, because there wasn't enough memory to have an actual story in them. When tech improved, competitive games were relegated to arcade retro games, party games, or sports games.
It is interesting to bring up preservation, because I recall a friend of mine importing a copy of Starlight Scramble Renai Kouhosei for the PS1 from some guy in Italy, because we wanted to play it after having watched the OVA. And at the time, we couldn't find any ROM of it online. Funnily enough that did end up getting the ROM dumped online (though he had ripped it himself before that), and that is a game that could actually benefit from being played on an emulator, since the text auto scrolls, so the pause feature would be quite valuable.
Either way, interesting vid.
"Stop playing! Go learn skill! Learn to program..."
🤯Oh! This way i can program my own games, put them on the everdrive, and then have a reason to play more and without guilt! GENIUS! ✌️
None of these “takes” were really that hot. I enjoyed hearing someone say them out loud.
Underrated aspect of why the Dreamcast ate it is its online connection. They went all in on gaming over 56k dial-up about two months before broadband became the national standard. Remember how they would give you a "free" Dreamcast? But only if you signed up for two years of their dial-up internet service? Which cost you way, way more than just buying the console and using the widely available free dial-up services?
Sega made so many baffling decisions and it's kind of miraculous that they even still exist and aren't like a wing of Bandai now.
If I recall, it was Shenmue that really tanked Sega. They spent everything on that game. I imagine they wanted to get Dreamcasts in everyone’s hands with the hopes that their investment in Shenmue would pay off.
Pretty good list (besides your Dreamcast take)
Sega and to an extent SNK over producing lead to some of my favorite childhood memories. I got a new in box Neo Geo Pocket with Sonic Pocket & a Sega Gamegear with Sonic 2 for $20 each at Toys R Us, God those were the days.
The console war was like rooting for your favorite sports team. Like yeah, ultimately it was just a marketing gimmick (it was more about magazine ads than tv ads), but we cared deeply about it. Like branded clothing and mascots and stuff. Like we understood that our console was hardly any different from the other, the way sports fans understand that none of their players even come from the local area, but it was about being caught up in a fandom that doesn't exist anymore.
Addressing #4, if you go over the relevant Accursed Farms videos the actual issue with games preservation is the ones that can't in fact be simply emulated. Such as live service games and MMOs. Especially the live service ones, where even if you're playing a single player game you require a server connection and there's a reason why work-arounds for those aren't exactly common. I'm sure that Ross will be putting out Dead Game News episodes on individual games with a popular following that cannot be played anymore for quite some time. Other than that? Pretty solid list overall.
Nintendo absolutely acknowledged Sega's existence in light of the Genesis' success. Check out "Smashing the Myth About Speed and Power." It was a magazine advertisement that Nintendo ran which was made to look like an editorial column. The whole thing was about debunking the Blast Processing myth, but it was in and of itself full of misleading and false claims. It was perfectly Nintendo to take some weaselly, slimy approach to "clapping back" rather than just going directly at Sega as Sega had done to them.
There was also Howard Lincoln going to Congress and telling the world that, unlike Sega, Nintendo was for children, which was actually the best advertising campaign Sega ever had.
The thing about the 90s console wars is that during the 4th gen where it was at its height, cross-platform releases barely existed, and when they did the differences between platforms were usually really noticeable (not like, oh no, the playstation drops frames slightly more than the xbox, my day is ruined). Picking a console was picking the games you were going to have access to much more so than now. If you see the fomo-driven salt about exclusives now (or from the sixth and seventh gens especially), it was a lot like that but for the entire libraries. Not sure I look back on it fondly but it *was* a thing.
Totally, it's just not really relevant nowadays.
@@thomasffrench3639 Definitely not. Hell, nowadays I'm free to check out the Turbografx-16/PC-Engine library to heart's content, and I don't even think I knew anyone who knew what that was growing up, let alone anyone who had one.
I think most of the retro youtubers who lean into the Nintendo/SEGA console wars are doing it primarily as a bit for nostalgia's sake. It'd be weird to take it seriously at this point.
I'm with you on most all these points. Side-note though, you ain't great at cussing. Don't try so hard. Effective cussing is an art.
Top 3 is literally just correct. Although I will mention that many games just look better on CRT, and there can be input lag in modern rereleases that hurt the experience, but there's probably ways to fix that with emulation
Number one is perfection. It's like people treat retro games as needing an "update" that every good game needs a remaster, when they could just focus on porting, or just make new games. And I love that you said just let those games exists. I get so tired of the idea that game frachises need endless sequels or the company is somehow disrespecting the legacy by not doing that. It is so annoying, and a bit entitled. Although I will say that a few franchises like Mega Man and Castlevania that end with unresolved plot points that should be brought back to finish what was started, but my point still stands.
Your channel should be more popular. But there is something special about you not being popular. The videos feel real. I find myself agreeing with a lot of these opinions. But I'm king of the unpopular opinion.
Here is an example.
"RE4 sucks. It was the beginning of the end for the franchise."
Edit: Also if I'm in the right mood and drunk enough. Atari can be fun for like 2 or 3 minutes so fuck you.
Edit Edit: "Because of you"
My guy, I bought a reproduction of earthbound for 20 bucks when the actual copy was 100-150 dollars... by choice. It was JUST as good as owning the real thing. I could see it, look at the art, put it in the system, and play it all the fucking same. Because I knew then the value of the item didn't justify the cost of the game. There were truly plenty of copies made. Its not a "rare" game. But where I must disagree with you is the scanlines thing. I get it, another unpopular opinion that I have. I heard a lot of people barf over them. I installed Emudeck on my steam deck. I apply scan lines to anything older than n64. I kinda dig it.... I hate that I do... But I do... It looks good IF and ONLY IF. The tv you are using is a decent size and modern. I think the only reason it looks good. Is because these older games with older graphics. You just arent meant to be looking at them that bright that clearly. The imagination cant work when you see it so well.
Atari. Joust, Original Mario Bros, Food fight and 2 player asteroids all awesome and worth playing
Thank you for mentioning the Dreamcast piracy issue. So few people I see bring that up when discussing why it failed.
I can tell you the most underrated thing in retro gaming... MiSTer FPGA. The price point combined with the ignorance of people not comprehending what it actually is makes it a niche piece of hardware. Just about everything you can play on it is either as good or better than playing the games on the original hardware.
Here i was getting my pitchfork ready but noooo, you had to actually go and make really good points and have an interesting perspective on your topics
War is war and war is hell. Are you trying to tell me, a veteran of the cola wars, that my sacrifice meant nothing? If it wasn't for people like me you'd all be drinking Fresca right now... and how sad would that be?
10. I think you're discounting the appeal of the Dreamcast being arcade focused. At that price point, arcade perfection for current titles was revolutionary. I was a Soul Calibur 1 and 2 arcade player, that was my fighting game of choice, and I mean the kind of player who read guides online and analyzed frames and hitboxes and all that, so having a perfect clone of the game at home was a valuable resource to me. Only the Neo Geo had offered this level of arcade accuracy up until then, and at an insane price. We absolutely compared the DC to N64 and PS1 at the time, it felt like we had gotten the next gen early until the PS2 hit. Sega failed because of the Saturn and 32X, is my opinion on it, having been a customer since the Genesis days. Nobody wanted anything from either of those, while DC's library was often rented out at video stores, despite being well stocked. If not for the hampering on them going into the DC cycle because of those two competing failures, it should have kept hem alive.
9. My idea of getting fancy with my input is plugging in a NES shaped controller when I emulate NES games, and so on up to N64.
8. Yeah Mike Matei is the only kind of person who plays Atari for fun. I had my older brother's Atari, and playing outside was the more fun option until NES came out. Combat was okay with a second player, the most fun games were like that, where another player creates most of the interaction.
7. That man got me to buy a Genesis with the price drop and Sonic, so I can't disagree with the herd on that one. The fact is that Sega needed to completely separate the Japan and US branches, nothing else could have saved them, and I don't think that was ever his call. As for the Genesis inventory, you know that kept going in some parts of the world, so I'd bet those got sold to someone later on and were resold down in Brazil. As for the Saturn, I rented one many times, with many different games, but I never found anything I liked nearly enough to make me think about buying the system, but I could say the same about the 32X.
6. Those are some pretty big years, dude. You're talking about half of the most important decade in all of retro gaming history. It matters more because it was first, that's really all it is. It was foundational, and so everything that came after it owes it a debt of respect, that's all. But it was always a friendly rivalry blown out far more in the marketing, as most people would eventually own both systems, and simply have a preference one way or the other, just like with DC and Marvel comics at the time.
5. I don't know anything about this subject, I just played the regular off the shelf stuff.
4. I completely agree with you here. I've never noticed any difference in emulated vs real up to the N64, which is as far as I bother with on computer. Excepting Zapper games, of course, which sadly require a CRT. While I wish that were easier to accomplish, digital is fine for the game itself, that's not the game's fault.
3. Again, agree. I went fully digital for retro games when everything was still cheap at FuncoLand, and I only wish I'd waited longer due to the lost money from selling off at that time, not from missing the hardware. Again, I miss my Zapper, but I have light gun games on the Wii now. I remember I was in computer class at school in 1995 the first time I saw someone play Mega Man on a PC, and I learned right then how it all worked. We waited a long time for N64 to work well, please do make use of it. Especially Rogue Squadron, that one took til this decade.
2. I play for fun, that's literally the only reason I play any game. I do not understand those who play for any other reason. Unless the method of playing them is impacting the fun, it doesn't matter. Personally I'm happy emulating NES through N64 and PS1, and my only console is a Wii. I'd kinda like a PS2, I have that library still, but otherwise I just don't care for modern game design, I'm happy where I'm at.
1. I much prefer fan made remasters to company produced "remakes". FF7 Remake is not a remake, it's an entirely new game. What we've always wanted, we got from a fan, just HD graphics stapled onto the old game's actual skeleton of code. Check out the fan and mod community, that's where the real love is at. Not sold to you on a shelf.
I loved the DC but the biggest issue with the DC was the controller. It would have been horrible with modern games. As someone who used to play DC to death to the point I have tapped the well dry i know all the issues with it. It has less buttons and one stick so the things you would do with the 2nd stick has to be done with buttons which you have less of to begin with. ALL 4 button used for movement in fps games for example. Triggers used for camera in platformers.
RetroTInk4K cost alot of money to make and so he must have put parts in it that were more expensive than nessery because the Morph4k is able to upscale to 4k at a much cheaper price and it also has wifi which the tink doesn't. The morph doesn't have analuge inputs, but it still will be cheaper when they release.
I bought an Atari2600 at a carboot sales years ago and only played on it that one time when I got it home and have no desire to play it again, it's too dated.
There really wasn't that much of a war between the Mega Drive and Super Nintendo when i was a lad and in school for me we didn't talk about games much. There was no internet either for people to argue.
Same for the N64 really
26:17 The one chip vs two chip difference on the SNES is VERY noticeable with RGB/component. I have no idea what it looks like with composite...Composite video is for cavemen.
I still play 2600 pretty often. Usually for a couple hours at a time. Played Centipede for a couple hours straight trying to get a high score.
I usually play the same game for 20-30 minutes at a time on average. Yeah, sometimes shorter, and sometimes longer.
I still genuinely enjoy Atari 2600 games. It's also the only older console I still have and play besides my Gameboy.
Agreed. Didn't own a 2600 growing up (started on a ColecoVision, but had the add on that allowed me to play Atari carts)
In fact, I played Berzerk for like 45 minutes not too long ago.
You should try Turmoil and Towering Inferno for Atari 2600. Turmoil especially was really good. But yeah... even my favorite Atari 2600 games I can't play for very long these days. You had to live during that time when it was the only thing you had to play outside of the arcade. I didn't even know anybody who had a Colecovision or Intellivision, but everyone had an Atari 2600. My one buddy had a Commodore 64 though and his old man was an OG pirate. He had about 1,000 games for it on 5 1/2" diskettes with the names handwritten on the labels. That thing was awesome.
21:38 This is indeed Sega of Japan's fault (but the 32x isn't, after all they are so afraid of the Atari Jaguar...)
Collectors (Hoarders) are trying to create demand for crap they've accumulated over the years. That's why the Sega Dreamcast is getting love all of a sudden.
I came here to say and pump this. I hate collectors claiming that what they're doing is for "preservation" when the whole point of preservation is to make something available to everyone... which if you did then reduces the value of the collectable and so basically they're lying out of their butts. Yes there are collectors who don't care about dumping Roms or scanning manuals and will even contribute to it but they just like having the physical embodiment they're not putting together an investment portfolio but the margin between the two can be thin and fuzzy
@@pr0ntab"preservation is to make something available to everyone"
This isn't preservation, preservation is keeping and maintaining it so it stays in existence for as long as possible and ideally in a usable state. Preservation doesn't require public access, the funny thing is that more often than not these collectors do more in actual preservation than the people calling for public availability.
@@relo999 what you're talking about is a museum. Which is fine but let's not conflate the two things I don't think anyone wants to go back to the days of cabinets of curiosities as it relates to art. But maybe I have a skewed perspective on this.
I have no problem with people who collect games and ACTUALLY play them, my issue is the people who collect them just to have them sitting on a shelf, and just for bragging points.
I actually agree with most of your list, except that emulation is functionally the same as OG. There are some games that cannot be properly emulated (e.g., gun games), and others that are more affected by input lag. I definitely feel the difference when I play original hardware on a CRT versus emulation on a HD flatscreen. It’s been baked into my muscle memory over 40 years. But in general, emulation is a good alternative to just play the games. 😊
Dude, you are the actual spiritual successor to AVGN
Nice video! I especially enjoyed your take on the Dreamcast. I feel like the Wii U and the Switch have the exact same issue.
I think you might be a little out of the loop on the upscaler issue. Yes, they are stupid expensive, but RetroTink is run by 1 guy that will bend over backwards to please all of his customers. Mike Chi is a really cool guy and his products are high quality. I think those 2 aspects justify the cost of most of his products. You absolutely get what you pay for.
The part I'm not sure you understand is that not all modern TVs handle 240p video signals the same. I'll be honest, your TMNT footage comparison, your footage does look very, very good. I'm not sure what your setup is there, but most modern TVs and capture devices treat 240p as 480i, so it deinterlaces the progressive 240p image. This causes lots of weird artifacts and input lag can vary a lot as well (up to several frames). The scaler you showed us is the best value for scalers imo (RetroTink 2x I think). The RetroTink 4x is 100% for enthusiasts. They aren't for people that don't care beyond the game being playable, these are people that seek the best of the best and/or want to shape the image to their liking. If you want an emulation quality picture without using an emulator, this is the only way to do it.
Hobbies are expensive and enthusiast products have diminishing returns. Having an enthusiast hobby product top out at $750, really isn't that bad compared to other shit. Have a look at audiophile equipment sometime... go listen to a demo of a sound system that costs over $100,000 and laugh your ass off at the difference from a $3000 sound system.
@11:50 Man... you are not wrong about the Atari 2600, but the ColecoVision was some next level shit in 1982. If it had simply had the capacity for battery backup like the NES, it would have _been_ a third gen console.
Game collecting is game HOARDING. I say this as someone with a wall of games
Yes, especially if you're not even playing said games. Never got the point of collecting games just to have them sitting on a shelf.
While I did skip through a majority of your video, I do love your rant. You tell it like it is and are very happy for it. Please do continue it! Much love and support from an extremely extremely old fansubbing group!
I got a NES for my 5th birthday with the Mario/Duck Hunt cart from my grandparents. I only ever got games on birthdays and Christmas and was lucky if I could get one. My parents couldn't afford anything else.
With that background, I completely ignored the console wars as I was never going to be able to choose anything. I was happy with what I had.
i like the atari 2600, but its highscore games, your not playing certain games like you said that long...especially if you suck as well. Some of their games can be addictive for high score challenges and def test your hand eye coordination past a certain point despite being such simple games
Ummm, not all the games were high score games...
Yes, of course the shooters and games like Frogger were, but games like Adventure, Submarine Commander, and Star Raiders sure weren't
25:34 Nintendo's clap-back was an article or two in Nintendo Power politely discussing the technical differences between the Genesis and SNES.
33:00 You might be surprised to learn that almost everything was already dumped in the 90s. Things missing on the Nintendo side were pirate multi-carts, FDS images, and BS Satellaview dumps, the latter of which is still an issue. There were also a handful of games with no known good dumps. And of course prototypes that no one knew existed yet.
I love how scorching hot these takes are. That being said, playing retro games without an upscaler on a modern TV... is a mistake. That being said, don't buy the RetroTink-4k unless you are fabulously wealthy. That is an absurd price to pay.
Major disagree on #1
We need remakes of the old Mystique porn games.
LMAO
Nah, we need a remake of Big Rigs Over the Road Racing 🤣
Oh, and Hong Kong '97 🤣
@@scottbreon9448 I’d play both 😂
40:17 Excessive reboots is a technological problem. Technologies such as the internet, streaming, and large hard drive storage have allowed us to preserve cultural media trends that in prior generations would have died out naturally. For example if you were nostalgic for Universal horror movies in 1970 you would have a hard time finding those movies. You might watch them a couple times a year on tv. You couldn't even record them. You would spend the majority of your movie watching time consuming movies from 1970 because that's what was available. In 2024 if you are a fan of Universal horror movies you can watch them exclusively and spend none of your attention or money on current movies. This example extends to music and video games as well. This results in current media being suffocated by all the prior generations. Current media can never gather steam to emerge as a distinct art form. There isn't enough money and attention for it ever to be born. This is why, since the 90s (and the birth of the internet), the decades have blended together.
Old media is like a vampire staying alive by sucking all the life out of this generation's art forms. If we killed the metaphorical vampire, we would create space for new games. However I don't think we can put the genie back in the bottle. It doesn't matter what millennials or gen-z do, this phenomenon is going to persist.
Original hardware, by which I mean the machines mainly, has a real presence in the physical gaming space. That is, it doubles as decor. I suppose you could also argue that wanting your game area to have that sort of vibe is pointless and we should all just live like hardcore ascetics in our stark white THX 1138 cells, but I'm going to keep enjoying the look the old hardware brings with it in any case.
original hardware (including a CRT) is valuable to me because I am old and am playing retro games partly for nostalgia reasons... if I was young person playing the games for the first time it probably wouldn't be worth it
5:14 console generations aren’t exclusively defined by who they’re competing against- technical capabilities are also important, and a lot of consoles (Famicom, Wii, PS2) outlive their generation. the DC lived and died when the industry was still transitioning from 5th to 6th gen; just because it competed with the N64 doesn’t mean it wasn’t technically more on-par with Gamecube.
(it also launched much closer to the PS2 than to the PS1)
Dreamcast ages very well
I was scared with the title but you acutally make a lot of sense. I don't have to agree with you at 100% but overall, this is good!
I happen to still enjoy the old Atari 2600 since I that console was the only thing around at the time in the 1980s. Period. Atari 2600 kept me busy durint the weekends after i did my homework since i was in elementary school back in the day. Loved playing the games that me and my siblings had for the Atari. This was way before the frikkin NES came along by the way
Yeah, I'm one of those I guess... But I do enjoy SOME 2600 games. Those were the version I'm used to playing. Mouse Trap (built in game in my coleco gemini), Venture, Pool, Pitfall and even Donkey Kong. I get that I could fire up Mame and play the real arcade version, but there's no nostalgia in that, and nostalgia is a big part of wath retro gaming and retro computing is.
oh yeah mouse trap is fun, had that on coleco. Might be my favorite coleco game
I admit to still playing the 2600 DK on Stella every so often. I think the challenge of the rivets screen when you get up around 100K brings me back.
Number two called me out hardcore. 💀I disagree with the last one about remaking games, but mostly because there are some retro titles that I want to be able to play on modern consoles. I'd love to see an upscaled Skies of Arcadia, for example. Or see what a modern Phantasy Star 4 would look like. Secret of Mana's remake was trash, but Trials of Mana (Seiken Densetsu 3 in Japan) was the gold standard of remakes imo. Anyway, good video. On to your other list!
Funnily enough, that's the one I agree with most.
While I do think Trials of Mana is better than SD3 when played purely in single-player, removing co-op is a such a major feature deficit that I think it can only be considered a side-grade at best (especially considering that, soundtrack aside, SD2-3 are pretty generic as single-player games and co-op is really the main thing that makes them worth playing in the first place).
5:30 I think the dreamcast was a 6th gen console in terms of power though, it was so much more powerful than everything else at the time. The graphics had like 5 times the polygon count and the games ran at 60 FPS I remember being completely blown away.
10:30 Based, Atari suuuuuuuuuuucks. I also have an issue with the NES personally, I know it has very good games but the way the sprites flicker all the time because there can only be like 3 sprites on screen at a time is just so jank.. the sprite are also like only 3 colors.. Mario 3 is my favorite NES game but I would much rather play it on mario all star on the SNES. I also have an issue with the n64, it was great at the time but the framerate and resolution is so bad I would much rather emulate the games so I can play at a decent framerate and resolution, it's just better.
24:00 True, snes vs genesis war is talked about too much.. The snes was just better anyway in my opinion, tons of masterpieces I can't think of any game on the genesis that comes close to zelda alttp, mario world, chrono trigger, final fantasy 3, megaman X.. Never really liked sonic it's too fast for the sake of being fast, half of the time you just run in loops or in tubes or get flown by jump pads and you don't even have to do anything.
40:30 Yeah ! They should make new freakin games instead of remaking everything. Most remakes are bad and even those that are good.. I don't want to replay a game I already played with better graphics.. I usually only play remakes of games I didn't play before.. I think the trials of mana was kinda ok because they change how the game played a lot but still.. they could have just made a new mana game, others like the remake of system shock are great because the game had horrible controls.
I really recommend trying new IPs though especially indie games.. modern games are underrated in the retro community
Kalinski gets a pass for stuff because it was such a huge deal for any company to split the market share with Nintendo, they had such a huge share that it was inconceivable any company would compete. It's just like an athlete being known for that game winner in the finals but we don't bring up the next 5 years of the ones that didn't go in.
Kalinski was a genius. This guy is fast and loose with the facts, doesn't realize SoJ pulled SoA strings. Unsold inventory is common for any business. Even NoA had piles of unsold Dragon Warrior carts given away with Nintendo Power.
The Dreamcast being released midway through a console generation is interesting because that isn't the first time that happened with Sega. The original NES was released in 1985, Genesis was released in 1989 to compete with the NES, and the SNES came out in 1991. Worth noting the Sega CD and the SNES released within a couple months of each other; the Sega CD is actually the direct competitor to the SNES. I think that is what makes that brief moment of the console wars interesting. It wasn't like the consoles existed as generations, it was more of a back and forth.
The SG-1000 and SMS competed directly with the NES. The Genesis from a hardware standpoint was competing directly with the PC Engine.
Some good takes in here. The "fidelity" thing that you touched on with upscalers, console versions, emulation, and all of that stuff has bothered me for a long time. There's a reverence for these machines without recognition of what they are and how they were meant to be used. These were cheap machines designed to be hooked up to consumer-grade CRTs, which were blurry as shit. Sure, a Model 1 HDG Genesis has clearer output if you hook it up to hi-fi and upscale it to your $4000 OLED TV. But you were never going to notice the difference between revisions hooking it up to your 14" Sears TV from 1986 via RF (Composite if you were lucky) with mono sound, which is how most people played and enjoyed the hell out of that machine. And RGB-modding and super clean scaling makes the games look worse in a lot of cases! Lots of games were designed to have the colours smear a little, they just look gritty and weird if the output is too sharp.
It's the audiophile mindset. These folks aren't listening to the music, they're listening to their gear.
Also, fucking PVMs/BVMs. Just stop. There's no need. Don't spend a king's ransom or more on a 13" PVM when the 24" JVC in your uncle's basement is there for free and will get you 95% of what you actually want out of gaming on a CRT and you don't have to squint at the damn thing.
I love emulation, but he describes my one biggest beef with it very well. Hard to spend time and really enjoy one game when thousands are at your fingertips.
According to Blake Harris’ book Console Wars, Tom Kelinski didn’t want the 32x, and he was vehemently opposed to the Saturn’s early release, and that Sega of Japan twisted his arm into both of those things.
We definitely need more revivals/sequels of old series rather than nostalgic remakes/remasters. One wonders how mechanics, structure, and presentation would have evolved.
Gamecube
As a Nintendo fan, who remembers the collapse of the company from its heights on the SNES down to the Gamecube, the amount of praise this console gets baffles me. This was the heart of the dark age, like when the Byzantines abandoned Italy to the Lombards because it wasn't worth playing there until the renaissance. The handheld stuff was alright, especially if you were a Pokemon fan - but for me GBC and GBA was all about the RPG ports and it wasn't really until the Wii and DS Lite that Nintendo was on its way back up (and it might still be on its way up).
I just want to say that at 11:25, that is the literal motion most people do when they get home from a long day at work.