bacongames

If there's anything I am sure of, it's that Dan really is like that.

What I never understood is people trying to spin Dan saying wild shit as some virtue. He is a sweet and very entertaining individual (in part because of the people around him reacting to said wild shit) but c'mon. Dan is Dan for a reason.

News about the problems of the industry are more relevant than anything else that could be a in a news segment to me. If it's going into more depth or variety on the Game Mess that's fine but I agree that a Bombcast with a news section skirting "heavier topics" entirely would be a huge disappointment.

@farmer93 said:

Having a high end PC to start is great. It gives you a wide range to play around with emulators across multiple generations, including ones MiSTer can't do because of its FPGA chip size (PSX and Saturn cores are coming but right now people are unsure that N64 are possible and definitely not PS2 generation and newer). Plus, they are the most convenient in terms of features (save states, rollback, multiple formats, etc.) And even with a MiSTer or a Switch, it's a great way to fill in gaps.

As for original controllers, it depends on what your goal is. Is it the literal old controller, attempts at an exact a reproduction, or a modern reinvention that evokes a close feel? I'm not as versed in the state of converting old controller signals to USB so you might have to do your own diving there to find the right one that minimizes latency. Otherwise I would recommend you look over 8BitDo's catalog and pick a bluetooth one that speaks to you. They give you all the benefits of modern convenience, good low latency performance, and retro feel. And it works regardless of whether you use it on PC, Raspberry Pi, Switch, MiSTer, etc. Personally I use a DualShock4 for all my retro gaming needs but I get appeal.

As for the MiSTer there are a lotofgreatvideos out there reviewing the project and helping with set up but you're basically spot on with image quality and responsiveness. Regardless of method (FPGA or software), everyone is aiming towards the goal of perfect reproduction with the lowest latency possible. The only real split is whether accuracy matters to you in terms of a clean crisp image on an HD display or an analogue signal sent out to a CRT. The advantage with the MiSTer is that it can do both. I use my MiSTer on an HD display exclusively but you can output analog video at the same time using a daughter board to a CRT. It's partly why it's hot shit because even the crunchy CRT types are into it too. But even without a CRT or caring about it, the MiSTer puts out perfect or near perfect accurate emulation with a lot of options to scaling the image, applying scanlines, filters, rendering modes, etc. And it does it with zero lag at the rendering level (the best software emulators get close to 0 but can't get as good as FPGA solutions).

In terms converting old game image to modern HD display, the MiSTer is as good as directly RBG modding consoles and passing through analog signals to the best polyphase scalers out now (e.g. Retrotink 5X). Personally, whenever a core is released I trust it to be as good as the original hardware would be (sans the occasional tweaking/bugfix), and it comes out natively upscaled with zero lag. Quite the box I think. Oh and one last thing. I think what I loved about MiSTer is that, because it's all there once you set it up, it's a fantastic vehicle for discovering retro games. I would never have sought out PC-Engine or Master System games on their own but by wandering around, I've found some new personal favorites.

(P.S. Justin's post does a good job laying it out as well).

I can say outright that collecting original hardware will come later if you really care about it because it's by far the most expensive option. Otherwise it's split based on what hardware you already have to work with:

If you have a decent to great PC

The easiest way to get back into it is to use time tested emulators specific to each console. If you've got a decent PC, you can run most anything. The better CPU, the better it will run cycle accurate emulators like BSNES. I recommend this path regardless because it will be a good way to ease and compare different approaches later.

I would stay away initially from multi-emulators like MAME and emulator frontends like RetroArch, which are useful but overwhelming and unwieldy. If you start to feel hampered jumping from one emulator to another, then you might consider Retroarch. Alternatively if you're hankering for specific arcade games, MAME is still your best bet.

If your PC is crap or you want to play on a TV

Here's where you have to cough up some dough but you have a ton of options.

Raspberry Pi: An extension of the emulator approach for PC except it's under powered hardware and cuts a lot of corners (often way too many if you care about accuracy). Some people are perfectly happy with this and it's the cheapest option but you get what you pay for. Also right now Pi's are harder to come by thanks to global supply chain problems.

Paying for Official Emulation: This is often the most convenient route for people who just wanna scratch an itch or want the cute little box on their shelf. Here you can get the Switch Online service if you have a Switch and a bevy of mini consoles from Nintendo, Sony, and Sega.

MiSTer: I'm biased because I think the MiSTer kicks ass but it's the best solution of all with two caveats: it's not the cheapest option and it's a bit tinkery. But the benefits are huge and you're a part of the frontier of retro gaming preservation and excitement. Don't start with this first but if you catch the retro bug and want to go deeper, the MiSTer is a great choice. It's among the highest quality accuracy of any solution, compact, versatile, and because it's open source, it's growing all the time. Right now it's got an immense collection of consoles and home computers that it is hardware emulating incredibly well and is all in one place. It's a bit of a clunky interface but not too bad. As with any hardware solution, it's a bit constrained by global parts issues but it's bouncing back a bit.

(P.S. There is the Analogue family of consoles but you're only doing that if you have a cart collection already and still want the convenience of FPGA. It's technically cheaper but it's a per-console proposition which makes the MiSTer worth it in the long run).

I hope this helps. Feel free to elaborate on what sort of set up you're aiming for and I'd be happy to gab on.

Looking over the games media landscape nowadays, the "problem" with GB is that it's stuck with one foot in "games coverage" and the other in "game streams/shows we think are interesting" and feeling the split. For a long time GB has been about spinning both coverage and feature plates and doing it damn well. But I think what we're seeing is them trying their level best to keep up both but with even less resources than a couple years ago. So I don't begrudge them for less quick looks or taking swings on pitches from outside the main staff. But trying to do it all with outside pitches has been to mixed success (which is natural with a shotgun approach like they've done). I wonder if people can feel that to some degree and not get a good sense of "where the site is going," even if they're sticking with it to see how it goes.

Quite smartly, Nextlander and Waypoint (and others) with smaller teams went the other way and focused on game streams that work well for them. It must be refreshing to be able to hit the reset button and not worry about old formats and chasing traditional games coverage. Just kinda do what you and/or the audience want to see. And by doing so, it sort of recaptures that intimate community feel that GB grew out of over the years. I certainly can feel the energy they're putting out there and have produced some of my favorite stuff over the last couple years.

In the long run I hope something sticks going forward, whether that's more hires (and more diverse hires please), or a direction for shows/features that gets everyone excited. (And if you want I got these pamphlets about how QL's should be abolished but maybe we're not ready for those yet).

@bigsocrates: You basically nailed it. Amidst all the bummer posts and "constructive criticism" I've trawled through, I've seen vanishingly little of the constructive criticism people think they're putting forward. And other times it's just vague like "more quick looks," which I'm not sure is actually what they want and some weeks we have as many as I remember from years ago.

I know that some people tried with Nextlander and didn't like it (and that's totally okay) but I wonder how much this is about trying to make Giant Bomb the one-stop-shop for everything. For a long portion of it's history, it was really the only game site/podcast I truly engaged with and felt content because there was all these things they did I saw nowhere else or nowhere better. Eventually other places began catching up and saw the value in personalities showing through in podcasts, video, etc. And now we have the off shoots from the site itself that have grown and become their own thing, which is awesome.

Even in the best of times, there were things GB wouldn't do that I went to Waypoint for and vice versa and now with Nextlander there's even more to pick from. So I wonder if some of this is from people who never ventured much beyond GB and found satisfying alternatives up until now. And I'm here to say that there's some great ones out there now.

This shit was over the moment they 1) gave people the option to pay them thousands of dollars for a space ship in a video game that didn't exist yet, 2) a bunch of marks actually payed them hundreds to thousands of dollars for a ship in a video game that didn't exist yet and 3) some weirdos started a Star Citizen lore podcast for a video game that didn't exist yet.

@bisonhero: I use it and mean it in a world changed by COVID. There's no good quick vocabulary for it otherwise. It's kind of odd that people take it to mean COVID is over. Like? Obviously not? But language is werid that way, like you point out. I think it's mostly a semantic instinct thing but it should be easy to suss out the context.

The real answer has already been provided by Gears of War but we don't have our equivalent to E-Day.

Pretty much nailed it. What good is running a video game website for like 13 years if you can't fuck with the audience every once in a while.

This is why Ben pulled the plug on Kingdom Heartache and I'm still bitter about it.