Consoles Vs. Emulators

playing retro games nowadays is certainly a lot more involved than it was when retro games were new back then it was as simple as picking up a console for like 20 bucks a couple of games for 5 to 10 a piece and you're good to go today playing retro games is a lot more elaborate that starts with a simple question play on consoles or emulators the answer is that it doesn't matter to me all that matters for all Gamers is that the games remain playable in a comfortable enough format it's interesting today as both consoles and emulators are con stantly seeing updates improvements enhancements and features I come from an interesting background as I've dabbled in all sorts of ways to play retro games throughout the years I felt many of the pros and cons that come from playing retro games on original Hardware they released on and emulators that carry the torch when it comes to what's better like I said it doesn't matter what matters are the games and keeping them as accessible as possible with that said games have a lot more to consider compared to other media you have the controller the technical specs like resolution and frame rate the display itself can have a big impact on games especially for those who want to get into Retro games it's a lot more complicated now you can't exactly just tell someone to NAB a console in some games and have at it retro materials will continue to get more costly in that way it makes emulators extremely attractive the fact that for the most part it's free but the thing that I reckon most would be surprised about is still how alienating emulation can be for a lot of casual gamers at least computer emulation which is what I'm mostly referring to emulation on consoles or at least official emulation on consoles is more comprehensible than more unofficial means computer language is still something that a lot of normal regular casual gamers might not be comfortable with telling someone to just install and play on an emulator sounds a lot more intimidating for most casual gamers than plug in the system and put the game in there's a raw Simplicity in setting up a device that your average person is more comfortable with not to say it can't be a hassle but still easier to understand that's not to give consoles too much credit if you want to play games from several systems then it can quickly get quite precarious the novelty of playing on consoles can only go so far when you're juggling multiple systems of multiple cables all connecting to one or more displays as someone who usually prefers to play on consoles I'll admit nowadays it takes some investment and dedication to maintain an ideal setup with these older systems continuing to age the likely Ood of them prevailing in the long-term dwindles I'm lucky to have most of my systems remain perfectly functional but I still dread the moment any one of them requires service of some kind with my current setup I've tried to organize it to be as convenient and quick access as possible to make playing retro games more seamless compared to computer emulation or at least as seamless as computer emulation for all my 240p systems like the NES Super NES N64 and PS1 as well as my PS2 I have good quality quity scar cables connected to them I use scar because I've had most of these systems serviced for better video quality and Scar is the connection type that works best for me personally the scart cables are then fed to a scart splitting device a device that's not exactly cheap but provides a great feature for me with one signal being split into a professional video scaler in this case the Retro Tink 5x a good video scaler is pretty much Essential for retro consoles on newer TVs as newer TVs either don't have the right video connections anymore or if they do then the games will look like total along with ass loads of input lag that would ruin most retro games with my systems either modded for RGB output or natively has RGB output combined with the video scaler then I'll have emulator quality sharp pixels from the original console which still feels really good to me there's just something about playing on original Hardware that hits differently now if I want an even more authentic feel then I have the other scar signal split into a scar to comp component adapter which then leads to a Sony Trinitron which could be any cheap CRT TV a great many would insist that retro Games should be experienced with CRT like visuals for a plethora of valid reasons and you can't get much better than a real CRT the scar splitter then allows me to play on a CRT while also capturing Sharp video output because CRT like filters aren't exactly attractive in a direct capture environment but for playing on an actual HD TV then CRT filters like the ones that retrotink 5x has can look quite stunning especially with other settings like HDR and BFI to further replicate the visual experience of a CRT the games themselves are also important and probably the most costly effort now for Retro Gaming as the demand is higher than ever and so cost is higher than ever I don't really collect retro games anymore and honestly I wouldn't recommend most two either unless you're really passionate about some retro games I already have all the games I'd want to own and if I were to ever go back to them then the real deal cartridge or disc is how I'll do it but if I don't own a game I want to play then there's more nefarious methods on offer cartridge-based consoles now have flash cards available allowing to play games off an SD card and that extra bit of convenience to load up any game without swapping games off a shelf can go a very long way these flash cards aren't exactly cheap but for the quality on offer and depending on how many games you want to play then it's a worthwhile investment for dis system it's a little more tricky but at least for GameCube and Wii there's easy Homebrew methods like Swiss and USB loader GX to boot up any game you want without hunting Down original copies controllers are very important to me and I can be one picky son of a when it comes to using a proper controller I'm So Dedicated that I've invested a lot into getting all the Nintendo wireless controllers for switch online along with adapters to use them on original Hardware that way I get that fresh authentic controller feel with the convenience of Wireless connectivity though it was quite expensive to be fair all this investment from the games I already own to methods for games I don't own on consoles I've had serviced connected to professional scaling and splitting equipment using wireless controllers with adapters to play my favorite retro games with sharp pixel output or on a CRT on original real Hardware this is compared to having an emulator in games within one folder on a computer using any basic Bluetooth controller I have lying around with sharp pixels are slapping on a good CRT filter as a proponent of convenience it's hard not decide with emulators granted the consoles were a lot of work but like any project It's The End Result that matters I put in a lot of work to make playing these retro games as quick and accessible as possible because I still believe there's something that hits different when playing OG Hardware with that said I still recognize emulators as the smart Retro Game method today last year my PS1 died on me I never found out what was wrong I found a blown fuse soldered on a new one and it blew again after powering on I tried replacing all the capacitors which is one of the most common refurbishing steps but to no success I settled on simply getting another PS1 and saving to hopefully have the old one professionally serviced at a later date it was in that moment of complete absolute failure to save a console that Comfort was found in the emulator duck station it's one of those things of not having to worry about a cons failing or a game no longer booting is what makes emulators so reliable that's not to say emulators don't have their own set of potential issues of course it depends on the emulator and it goes without saying that the newer the console the less reliable the emulator May potentially be it would help to have enough computer intuition in order to diagnose potential issues and how to resolve them but still as long as a game can be perfectly playable from start to finish with as few hiccups as possible then emulators are the preferred method regarding how I play emulators I feel I should explain myself a little more as a number of you were quite exacerbated at my preference to keep the experience as vanilla as possible when using emulation don't get me wrong I love messing around with emulation enhancements it's a very cool way to boost the experience in ways that were never possible before if you prefer to jack up resolutions download fan texture packs use frame rate patches when available and If you feel it greatly improves the gaming experience then that's awesome anything that'll help you in enjoy a game as much as possible is all good in my book but for me I prefer to let the game speak for itself and to be fair to the game by playing by its rules and limitations a good game that's welld designed should be able to stand strong even with older limitations the only emulation feature I'll probably use is safe States as many older games especially on NES can be far too punishing with making the player redo lots of progress or the game won't even have saving to begin with so safe states are just fine with me and I will use them if it helps though the trick with save states is to use them in moderation in my experience the game feels more like Mindless busy work if you overuse safe states which isn't fair to the game in my opinion I still try to avoid safe States if the game is well designed enough as far as texture packs go again I want to be fair to the game and its visuals and to view the game as it originally looked plus and I'm very sorry to say so I say as respectively as I can but I don't like the majority of fan texture packs a good number of you erroneously told me to just download a texture pack like it automatically saves the visuals look I respect and admire the effort many fans put in to try to improve the visuals in games they are passionate about but I'm sorry most of the time it really doesn't look that good in my opinion maybe I'll explain more in detail in another video as far as basic emulator settings go yeah I like to keep things basic duck station allows for all all sorts of visual tweaks there's so much to consider like increased resolution down sampling higher res removing texture filtering removing the PS1 geometry wobble and so much more it's fun to Tinker with and to see games presented in a way that they never could before but if I'm dedicating a playthrough of a game through an emulator I prefer to leave those enhancements off I think it's more fair to the game to play in a way closer to how it was originally experienced my visual preference mostly lies in having a sharp pixel output at ative res as I feel soft pixels aren't the most attractive or CRT like visuals which is different than just softening the pixels CRT displays and CRT mask filters is a much more complex process it's not just softening the image it's the blending of light and colors to trick your eye into seeing more detail than what was originally there between the two I prefer CRT visuals over sharp pixels but I'm happy with either of the other is no option sharp pixels is an emulator staple I like sharp pixels as I feel it's a good compromise between the lower detail while still maintaining a visually clean image plus it's not like sharp pixels are inherently less authentic it's how many games were presented in either cover art or manuals plus many of these older consoles natively output such a clean image that all it takes is a competent scaler to view the sharp pixels and all their Glory so getting sharp pixels and emulators is as simple as setting a higher native res in 2D games or using some kind of nearest neighbor setting in 3D games dolphin recently updated to have resampling which gives me sharp pixels at Native res and I'm still in awe with it CRT like visuals is certainly more tricky but manageable for consoles I have a CRT so I'm good to go if I didn't CRT filters on scalers have gotten so good that my friend who frequently works on CRTs admits that he'd prefer these filters on a good 4K TV because CRTs can be at best a massive pain in the ass a good for 4K TV is also to me necessary for filters like these I've recently managed to acquire a 65 in LG OLED HDR does a lot to replicate the bright luminance of CRTs and black frame insertion does a lot to replicate a crt's motion Clarity it's not necessary for those with an untrained eye but I don't have an untrained eye anymore on PC the best CRT filter I've seen is CRT Royale it was exclusive to retroarch for a while but was thankfully ported to re shade as I don't like to use retroarch it can be a little tedious to inject reshade in emulators and other programs even once it's properly installed you may have to fiddle with the settings like mask type scan line strength additional softening and geometry warping for sprite based 2D emulators or retro compilations then the results can look quite fantastic bsnes seems to have its own CRT Royale filter and it looks pretty good especially when paired with the composite and RF filters for 480 interlaced game games then honestly I wave simulated interlacing as it looks more visually straining than real CRTs instead I try to go for a more pvm look as Progressive resolutions were supported and I'm never going to own a pvm I'll admit it's harder for me to dial in settings that look right as I'm more used to 240p through a CRT still this is a much more visually attractive way to get a softer image to me that I much prefer when using controllers on emulators it can be a little annoying sometimes mainly with setting up the input configuration bsnes sometimes drops all input even if my controller is still connected until I pull up the input settings again I'm less tenacious when it comes to using authentic controllers for emulators for bsnes and duck station I'm fine using a dual sense as I already use it as a PC controller though it can be a pain in the ass as Steam sometimes takes over all controller input and the only convenient solution is to launch an emulator through Steam to get the controller inputs to work for Dolphin I only use re real GameCube and Wii controllers since the games were very much designed with them in mind I was thinking of getting into PS2 emulation but since that controller has pressure sensitive buttons I may NAB a PS2 to USB adapter the games on an emulator are the most legally sensitive area emulators themselves are 100% perfectly legal using games on the emulator is a little more dicey some say as long as you use your own backups from copies you already own then it's fine it's a touchy subject and I'm not the one to ask on what's fair game or non I can only give how I approach it for preservation sake I do have full archives of all games for a few systems that I don't plan to distribute if you want to go hunt down some ROMs have at it it's easy if a little work to download all the games that you want but for actually playing games then I only play the games that I own it probably goes without saying that unofficial emulators on PC are objectively better than the emulation of games you find on conso consoles not to say it's horrible I feel NES SNES even N64 games are perfectly fine on switch Sony's emulation of PS1 games sadly peaked on PS3 and seem to have regressed since I would not recommend playing PS1 games on PS5 the emulation is not good the only real advantage over console emulation I can see is convenience even then I'll admit emulation on PC is getting more and more convenient in one of my previous videos I stated that I prefer playing games on consoles because I find it more convenient mainly GameCube games on Wii U specifically but I may have to retract that I mean let's consider a real world situation assuming I have the TV on and the controller ready to go playing on real Hardware has the standard steps of getting the game off the shelf putting it in the console setting up the video scaler with my preferred settings and turning the console on for Wii U it's turning it on waiting for the menu Selec C in the game using a damn Wii mode to start the game and waiting for the damn Wii U to restart because it has to do that and finally the game Begins for Dolphin it's getting my PC to display on my TV selecting the game on the list and Boom game of course times will vary but using an emulator in this case seems the fastest to me this is also ignoring other factors like setting up CRT filters or having to configure other miscellaneous settings it's also different for every emulator but once you go through through the hassle of installing the emulator getting all your games in order all of the settings set your controller connected and properly mapped and you're good to go yeah an emulator is as simple as selecting the game and playing it I suppose then the only reason to play on consoles is for novelty I'll continue to preach that the authentic feel of consoles goes a long way for me and I'll still play games that way until it no longer becomes possible anymore emulators will continue to advance in game compatibility and accuracy along with all sorts of other enhancements to boost the playing experience consoles are seeing Hardware modifications so that they can keep up in modern gaming environments it doesn't matter how you play your games there's no definitive right or wrong way my only legitimate concern for a new player playing a game is that the controls are comfortable and that input lag is low in my experience most casual gamers don't care about resolution or scaling or even accuracy to an extent in that sense consoles and emulators stand as equals the Real Enemy are those dumbass multi-game devices that boast having so many games with the shittiest emulation imaginable I'll prefer consoles always as little as the novelty of playing on real Hardware is it's enough for me but I'll recognize emulators are the way of the future and will be how these games persist in the long term I was going to go on some tangent about how some emulators like N64 may not be that great even today but I don't know took only a couple minutes to get project 64 installed couple more to get my games in order with a dual sense mapped in got my native resolution settings set up because I'm a freak like that and feels like playing Mario 64 to me a few minutes later and I got reshade installed with CRT Royale looking fine as always emulators are pretty good I should probably wrap things up playing retro games today is easier than it's ever been if you're not fussy over playing on real Hardware if it matters as much to you as it does for me and you're willing to put in the effort and cost then you can never go wrong with the real deal if I want to play Super Nintendo I'll play on Super Nintendo but if you want to just play some retro games then please just use an emulator if you're willing to deal with a learning curve if it's your first time using one the debate over what's the ideal way to play retro games is a silly one what matters is a gamer controller in hand playing some damn games there's no correct resolution standard no correct controller to use in most cases and no correct format as long as the game plays fine so whichever route that works best for you in order to play the games you want to play that will always be the correct one it's getting further interesting as we're now seeing decompilation projects to natively Port retro games to PC and other systems this opens up a ton more possibilities on how to update and alter games far beyond the limitations of emulators I recently checked out that new links Awakening DM and it's so cool with my first thought being why the does this have full 360 analog control and the switch remake doesn't I appreciate those who've watched this far I've got a few ideas on what the next few videos will be may take a bit as I got some PC related stuff I like to work on and some games I like to relax with in the meantime so until then that should do it for me today so all that I would like to say is thank you for watching [Music]

Channel: Mr.Welbig659

Views: 146,109

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Id: 84rfBRHpz6A

Length: 20min 20sec (1220 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 14 2024