The Retrogaming Thread! [8-bit/16-bit/32-bit/64-bit]

Realised most of my gaming these days is retro games, mainly Gamecube with a bit of arcade thrown in. After much mulling about getting a handheld device (almost got both a Switch Lite and SteamDeck at various points over the past year) I finally put a pre-order in for a Retroid Pocket 6.

One of the issues I've had is justifying the cost, haven't really wanted to splash out massive sums on something I've never really had before (with the exception of Gameboy Advance SP and DS Lite). I've gone for the 16-bit colourway with 12Gb of RAM, SD8Gen2 and stick on top (same as the top model below). All in it's cost around 220 quid, but doesn't ship til the New Year.

Retroid-Pocket-6-redesigns-kv.jpg
 
Answer from the Retro-pes thread :

Yeah NHL 94' with is rebuilt every year even graphically, is a jewel and vastly more than playable now even if it's a 16 bits games.
NFL2K was promising but EA crushed it with their exclusivity contract :( At least we may another hockey game than the EA sports one (not a fan, boring and some movement to do are not very intuitive a bit like in UFC fight on the ground)



*Note : that game is already super good in his vanilla version but modders really took that version seriously and try to make it most sim possible.
OF course, with filters + shaders and all emulation brings to us, the game is much more attractive visually than on that video.

NHL 94: 2025 Edition​


The most refined and realistic up-to-date versions of this all-time classic game, has been updated for the 2025 playoffs! Here are the top reasons you might want to give it a try…


New in ‘25. Gameplay has been completely rebalanced, and optional patches provide alternate Arcade, Classic, and Rookie gameplay balance modes and more. Plus, for the first time, an optional wide display mode! 800 players obsessively rated, up-to-date rosters and realistic lines, based on even more extensive 2022-2025 regular season data. New player Photos, updated Logos, Colours, Uniforms, Arena names… everything up-to-date for the 2025 playoffs.


Gameplay Revisioned. The gameplay has been carefully re-balanced for a more realistic modern hockey feel, with harder to score goals, easier to hit crossbars and posts, more realistic speed burst, fewer penalty calls, custom energy depletion and recovery rates (balanced for more realistic line rolling and shift length), and player rating distribution curves that have been carefully calibrated for more realistic gameplay on the ice.


Graphical Refinements. Hundreds of refinements have been made including title screens, banners, player photos, scoreboard, audience, face-offs, bench area, player sprites, nets, ice markings, scorekeepers, Zamboni driver, and more. The goal is to bring the most graphically refined version of NHL 94 ever made, remastered for modern flat screens, while remaining faithful to the spirit of the original art direction.


And so much more. Of course there is the checking bug fix, but also a custom weight scale, less variance in Hot/Cold rating randomization, immediate goalie control by pressing the (Y) button with a six-button controller, a custom 3-Stars of the Game rating formula, numerous bug fixes, and so much more
Click to expand...
 
Badger Mushroom said:
Realised most of my gaming these days is retro games, mainly Gamecube with a bit of arcade thrown in. After much mulling about getting a handheld device (almost got both a Switch Lite and SteamDeck at various points over the past year) I finally put a pre-order in for a Retroid Pocket 6.

One of the issues I've had is justifying the cost, haven't really wanted to splash out massive sums on something I've never really had before (with the exception of Gameboy Advance SP and DS Lite). I've gone for the 16-bit colourway with 12Gb of RAM, SD8Gen2 and stick on top (same as the top model below). All in it's cost around 220 quid, but doesn't ship til the New Year.

Retroid-Pocket-6-redesigns-kv.jpg
Click to expand...
The design is superb, especially regarding the texture material.
I also own one small console-emulator for games better to play in handheld, but i'm definitively more home console.

For PSP it's okay on a big screen but not when i want to play GG Shinobi or some GBA games. But i'm a bit dissapointed about the model i brought : the picture looks a bit too small, i should take a look but the screen ration is a bit too hybrid. Got hard to get used to it.

Perhaps one day i will check about another model but i'm at the moment more interested to buy a screen you can set to vertical for Shmup's and many others games.
I also wanted to built an "only racing" kind of system, but there's so much different arcade cabinet with not the same features at all that i given up about it. But if i was full or money i would built 4 or 5 system for old school system racing, more recent one, and shooting too (with a pedal like for Time Crisis but where you could play other games like Lethal Enforcer or House of Dead without that system to hide of course)

But also an Hang on type moto racing (is it the only moto game with that kind of Arcade cabinet? I wonder, i remember some Namco games. Here some Moto racing models starting by Super Hang On :

1762553032699.jpeg

Still Hang on, but i never saw that one, still cool but less immersive. I remember well one of that kind for Crazy Taxi.

1762553190006.jpeg

That one for Moto GP Racing looks fantastic but the price too

https://jclgames.com/products/motog...Sdeb4Hbv2CY2kdQWFOELiLGMHWRM7XPmdyPWcWeF5vZsq

On vid :
 
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NeoRetro said:
Answer from the Retro-pes thread :

Yeah NHL 94' with is rebuilt every year even graphically, is a jewel and vastly more than playable now even if it's a 16 bits games.
NFL2K was promising but EA crushed it with their exclusivity contract :( At least we may another hockey game than the EA sports one (not a fan, boring and some movement to do are not very intuitive a bit like in UFC fight on the ground)



*Note : that game is already super good in his vanilla version but modders really took that version seriously and try to make it most sim possible.
OF course, with filters + shaders and all emulation brings to us, the game is much more attractive visually than on that video.
Click to expand...

I don't own Sega. How is emulating Sega games ? Any tips you recommend ?
 
vegasheat said:
I don't own Sega. How is emulating Sega games ? Any tips you recommend ?
Click to expand...
Megadrive emulation is top notch since 2005 bro, you can take anything if you got retroarch (or you can take the emulator "Fusion", i owned tons of great filters and you can set scanlines from +25/50/75% and that system is done for having the exactly samey Crt lines as you get on a real Megadrive. Don't own a megadrive neither (first i need a good CRT monitor, better for 16 bits consoles)

Only Saturn was hard to emulate even more than Dreamcast, but less now on : for 3D games i recommand Yabasanshiro emulator, and for 2d or 2,5d games i used Mednafen.... But a another emulator i never heard, for Pc, seems to be the best choice and is called "Ymir". Need to test but i never get any core called Ymir purposed when i go to DDL emulation cores/base on Retroarch.

Back to Kega Fusion : you don't need anything more than what i'll send to you, it emulate all sega console from 8 to 16 bits, there's some funs Hockey games on Master system like Slap Shot.
I will send you Kega Fusion / also for mates here as the filters files are very very hard to find on that format and it looks cleaner than a shader.

For the game graphics enhancement so you can try (i suggest 2xbrz filter to add and 25% scanline combo for a perfect rendering. If you don't like scanlines, just remove them. As i own on my PC that emulator, config is linked to my preferences but change it as you like ;)

Here's a pack with the game, it's quite simple (just plug a controller and assign controls, then select the file and launch it)
Perhaps, as it's an old but still upper good emulator to avoid issues it should be better to assign Windows 7 or XP3 compatibility on the .exe file.... But it's not necessary.

There's also most games on the .rar files, often translated in french as it's my 1st langage but it's easy to foudn roms everywhere, it wasn't that heavy to upload so i did it once for all. I found NHL 94' 2025 in ten second so


https://www.mediafire.com/file/8xv4220wj7l8wb5/03.+Megadrive.rar/file
 
NeoRetro said:
Answer from the Retro-pes thread :

Yeah NHL 94' with is rebuilt every year even graphically, is a jewel and vastly more than playable now even if it's a 16 bits games.
NFL2K was promising but EA crushed it with their exclusivity contract :( At least we may another hockey game than the EA sports one (not a fan, boring and some movement to do are not very intuitive a bit like in UFC fight on the ground)



*Note : that game is already super good in his vanilla version but modders really took that version seriously and try to make it most sim possible.
OF course, with filters + shaders and all emulation brings to us, the game is much more attractive visually than on that video.
Click to expand...

That one is awesome, mate. I applied that patch myself when it came out... I just don't remember if I downloaded from romhacking.net or from the nhl94 forum... But anyways, major props to the guys who keep modding and updating those classic gems. I mean, I remember I ported the puck design (using those tile editing softwares) from an earlier mod to that 2024-25 one (since the 24-25 uses that default puck from NHL 94... the one which looks like it has a hole in the middle, ya know) to a smaller puck (form the older mod), with no hole... looks way more realistic to me ; )

Speaking of realism, to me it's really shocking that these 3 hockey classics - NHL Hockey (the 1993 one), NHL 94 and 95 - ALL of them have better skating physics than today's EA NHL games (which is a stupid arcade, animation based, bad gameplay sociopathic online microtransaction bullcr@p fest)... To see how low EA went, to all the criticism FIFA and the Madden series get (and deservedly so), their current NHL series (this and last gen) is 10 times worse.

I use a version of Kega Fusion that was modded by that zenju guy who kinda like introduced the xBRZ graphic filter (I think it uses 5-"factor"...? As in 5xBRZ)... I totally respect people that go for scanlines, but as an old timer, I think I played enough on 'em. And since I play on a big flat screen, too much "pixelation" doesn't look so good. So I rather use an "edge-smoothing" filter / shader, and no better than xBRZ (I personally use 6xBRZ on M.A.M.E.)

I mean, I wish I could use MESEN to emulate Genesis / Mega Drive games (because of the rewind feature), but unfortunately (of the SEGA consoles) it only emulates the Sega Master System and Game Gear... Here's hoping the emulator author makes it compatible with Genesis in the future. I mean, I tried "Ares" (another multi-system emulator, which does have a rewind feature), but despite having several graphic filters/shaders on the menu, most of them (including all of the "edge-smoothers") don't work at all, for some reason.

Anyways, great post mate!! Personally, it feels great to be back posting in this thread again, now that I retired from PES 21 a second time ; )
 
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