Retro Video Game Emulation

[Rebel 357]

I took a short break from video game development and part of that break involved getting back into retro video games and emulation. I found inspiration and enjoyment in those old classic games. Not only that but it felt like I learned some things that could be used in my creativity for adult games. I highly recommend video game emualtion to not just gamers but to game developers as well.
I normally used a Raspberry Pi 4B, but at the moment it's been hard to find good kits with 4 GBs of RAM under $88 again. I have found and settled upon a Beelink Mini S 12, which is a bit bigger but more beefier in hardware compared to the RPi4B. These SBC's are getting a bit too expensive for what they can handle. It seems like emulation fans are gravitating towards mini pc's instead. I got mine for under $170 and it can handle far more retro game systems than the RPi4B could do.

Here are some games I've played.
Asura Blade (MAME Arcade)
Dark Arms: Beast Buster (Neo Geo Pocket Color)
Elevator Action Old & New (GBA)
Jingy Storm the Arcade (Naomi)
Keio Flying Squadron (Sega CD)
Madou Monogatari 1 (Sega Mega Drive)
Magical Chase (NEC PC Engine / TurboGrafx16)
Metal Slug XX (PSP)
Okage Shadow King (PS2)
Pocky and Rocky 2 (SNES) (Kikki Kaikai series)
Much Much Pork (Arcade system) (MAME)
Popful Mail (Sega CD)
The Rumble Fish 2 (Atomiswave)
Red Ninja - End of Honor (PS2)
Summon Night 5 (PSP)
Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 1 (GBA)
Dolphin Blue (Atomiswave)
Gun (PS2)
Rapid Reload (PS1)
Tenchu Stealth Assasins (PS1)
Rabbit (Arcade)(Sega Saturn port)
Parasite Eve (PS1)
Steam heart (NEC PC-FX)
Resident Evil (Ultimate Director's Cut rom hack, that does away with the censored FMV and 1st zombie death scene)


Update: I use Retroarch, Lakka OS, and Batocera. Lakka OS is one that I have used for years, it supports a lot of hardware. I'm sure it even supports the Raspbery Pi 5 now.

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[Asia Argento]

Super Baseball 2020 forever. <3

 

[WigglyWorld84]

Very cool! Love me some olds school... though, my old ass doesnt think of half of your list as, "old." The oldest game you listed, I waa in High School.

Personally, I dont need to emulate. I still have every video game I have bought since 1980.

 

[h3n741.g33k]

Necro bump ik but, Just posting here to provide some retro DIY able platforms and resources. Before committing to degrees and Unreal dev along side Ren'py and DOOM mods here are some platforms where you can DIY your own retro games:

Easy68k- ability to dev your own SEGA ROMs. Does require learning ASM68K, text coding it yourself and compiling it yourself, also requires address knowledge of SEGA MD/Genesis [docs available online], and knowledge of hardware specs n limititations (is kinda hard mode but might be worth it).

Pico 8- will need to buy but is cheap and proceeds go to education. Pico 8 is kinda the original and ultra simplistic fantasy console. Requires tracker and basic programing knowledge. The POOM (pico8 doom) cart proves the fantasy console limitations can be bypassed but is mostly for simple games.

Tic 80- FOSS answer to Pico 8, is kinda more or less the same kind of thing but even more bare bones and simplistic. Multi Cart games can expand beyond fantasy console's base limits but requires a bit of work arounds to do. Multi cart ROMs are a lil easier on Pico 8 vs this but Tic 80 is more portable to card computer and bare bones systems. (can run on lesser hardware easier, is easier to flashcart mega cart portable run to any system plug n play style).

Pixel Vision 8, inspired by Pico 8 meets NES/SNES emulation with mild GameBoy to GBA ROM type building [dsnt build gameboy roms but can emulate their style). No need to "code" to use this one, logic nodes works but will still need Tracker knowkedge.

GB Studio- ability to create GB/GBC ROMs from scratch, is free, and supported by dedicated console Analogue Pocket. Builds original ROMs that are compatible to OG hardware. Requires coding knowledge, tracker knowledge (uses Hugedtracker).

DOOM/FreeDOOM modding, can go a variety of routes here, depends on how vanilla vs chocolate you want to go with your mods. GZ DOOM is pretty much the standard but does not build vanilla compatible roms although GZ offers "skys the limit" modern modding. Pr BOOM+ allows coding of more vanilla system compatible mods, and with KippyKappy's mod of DOOM Hack's Pr BOOM to GBA converter, you can convert vanilla compatible mods directly into GBA ROMs. With GBA porting of DOOM 1 MODs you can custom build any kind of 2.5D FPS you want, so long as it falls within some of the limitations of DOOM 1. If going full vanilla, doing DueSF and DueText you can still ground up build DOOM 95 compatible mods.

Ren'py and Tuesday VN dev apps- FOSS, can develop Visual Novels. Tuesday keeps more to just VN style while with Ren'py you can overhaul it to ranging from mini game compilations to traditional RPGs with mild support for 3D per screen and you can embed any kind of rendered out video or audio you want. Problem with Ren'py, it gets kinda data heavy especially with many high res images so can get kinda bulky on data. Plus side both are cross platform compatible. [many are probably familiar with both to some degree].

VG Resources database websites, these are prolly all pirates, but offers video game file rips that you can use as reference and learning how to dev assets to console specs.

Pixiv's V-Roid Studio & Magic Poser App- allows customizable characters for 3D posable, pose references that you can use in drawing or illustration. V-Roid stuff can be exported to VRM and modified in Blender then export/imported to Unreal or Unity along with over a dozen V-Roid Hub connected apps. So versatility of use and though low poly on VRM is great for previz work.

G Develop is a FOSS HLSL node scripting solution alternative to Game Maker Studio that allows no-code creation of a wide range of video game types.

I guess I'll end it here but this shoukd be enough to get going. On fantasy console n retro game scene, most stuff is simply ROM hacks or MODs, meaning most dont go into dev of original games. Case in point, the endless litany of Pokemon romhacks rather than original games from scratch. Or even parody games from scratch. Most start out by modding or hacking games instead is the point.

 

[Mephistopoles]

the feeling to play your old game on the old hardware is something that i dont want to miss. but not everyone has the pace, money or the hardware to do it.
so a respberry py or any relative good one board computer is a nice stepp to build your own "retro station". game emulation is in a good state right now. 15 years back and you just got working ps, sega and snes emulator. dreamcast or ps2 were choppy as hell.

 

[Ascoroth]

I would like to play Chrono Trigger on a portable console...

 

[Rebel 357]

I came across these cheap mini PC's for emulation. I was using Raspberry pi's models 3B and 4B. But then the microchip shortage fucked up everything and caused them to increase their prices significantly. Since I've discovered Mini Pc's like the Beelink Mini S12 N95, I took a liking to them despite being an IT product from China. I wouldn't trust it with my personal info, but I can sure trust the machine for emulation which is what I used it for only. The one I got is able to handle Gamecube emulation and PS2 emulation nicely. And I got it around $135.

For the first one I got, I ended up putting Batocera on it and it worked very nice. It was my first time also using

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, even though it still turned out to a positive experience. Since I just got a new one. I'm going to take some time today and maybe tomorrow to work on it. Maybe I'll try another Gaming OS for it. I've used Lakka Os for it before and it didn't work on my hardware, but that was many months ago.
Lakka OS

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[User_109438]

Wish I could find an emulator for Ogre Battle 64. Similar to FF Tactics but ,( and I'm sure Ill catch flak for this) It was solidly better.