Are you getting a Genesis Mini?

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Are you getting a Genesis Mini?

Post by Eviltaco64X »

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Sega did a pretty good job on this. They even brought the Streets of Rage guy back to make a new YM2612 track for the menu.
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Re: Are you getting a Genesis Mini?

Post by pixel »

I put in a preorder on Amazon. $85 US for two controllers and a console is a fair price, and the early reviews say that the Genesis Mini isn't a piece of junk like the PS Mini.

If the console is hackable, I'll probably buy another set of six-button controllers and give it to a relative for Christmas.
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Re: Are you getting a Genesis Mini?

Post by |darc| »

I think these are really good deals for casual gamers, and it's cool that the companies are finally caring enough to put work into making quality throwback consoles, but... I don't have a use for these things as a more serious gamer, and I don't see why serious gamers bother to collect them, so...
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Re: Are you getting a Genesis Mini?

Post by pixel »

|darc| wrote: Fri Aug 30, 2019 9:14 pm I don't see why serious gamers bother to collect them, so...
Those damn controllers ... those damn controllers :x I want them for my PC setup

I don't care about the console itself, I used my NES Mini for all of an hour. Like you said, I respect the quality that they're putting into it. At least the games run pretty damn well for an emulator via HDMI.

And it depends on how serious you want to be. A Genesis Model 1, OSSC and Mega SD are about ~$490 without cables, SD card and other accessories. Even at that price, the Genesis Mini is six times cheaper than that hardware. A Mega SG is a good buy at $200, but that isn't original hardware either.
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Re: Are you getting a Genesis Mini?

Post by Eviltaco64X »

pixel wrote: Tue Sep 03, 2019 5:17 pm
|darc| wrote: Fri Aug 30, 2019 9:14 pm I don't see why serious gamers bother to collect them, so...
Those damn controllers ... those damn controllers :x I want them for my PC setup

I don't care about the console itself, I used my NES Mini for all of an hour. Like you said, I respect the quality that they're putting into it. At least the games run pretty damn well for an emulator via HDMI.

And it depends on how serious you want to be. A Genesis Model 1, OSSC and Mega SD are about ~$490 without cables, SD card and other accessories. Even at that price, the Genesis Mini is six times cheaper than that hardware. A Mega SG is a good buy at $200, but that isn't original hardware either.
It's pretty cool that it retains all the different games from every region on it too. All you have to do is change the language to get the JP/EU/Asia exclusives. The Asian MD collection has Alien Soldier in it. That game alone is easily a few hundred dollars unless you get some Chinese repro.
By that point, how authentic can the OG hardware experience truly be?
|darc| wrote: Fri Aug 30, 2019 9:14 pm I think these are really good deals for casual gamers, and it's cool that the companies are finally caring enough to put work into making quality throwback consoles, but... I don't have a use for these things as a more serious gamer, and I don't see why serious gamers bother to collect them, so...
I see where you're coming from. Something like this has a certain draw to it, too. It's clean in a way.. compact, minimalist, and painless to get working on modern TVs.

Sometime in the earlier part of this decade, I hit a wall with collecting. Idk if you remember when I used to hang out in the IRC a lot 10 years ago and I'd go on about how I lost around 95% of my collection in a fire. After that, I decided to rebuild.
By 2012, I had a mountain of consoles and games again and I really started going in that purist direction (best revisions of original HW with the highest quality accessories, high-quality CRT, etc). I didn't have the money to go gung-ho and start doing the really cool stuff like RGB and Stereo mods, but I tried to get as close as I could to optimal quality.

I even had a mint non-TMSS Model 1 Genesis and Model 1 SCD with all the original pack-ins - manuals, CD+G discs, Sega Classics 4-in-1, Sol-Feace, etc. Somehow in collecting all this stuff, scouring the oddest of second-hand shops and flea markets high and low, I ended up not playing video games at all. When I tried to, I would play something for 5 minutes and then get bored with it and turn it off. I didn't enjoy it anymore. All the stuff I had became clutter. I ended up giving most of my Nintendo stuff to loved ones and sold almost everything else off.

A couple years later, I saw a beat-up Model 2 Genesis at a flea market. I haggled the guy down to whatever cash I had in my wallet and he accepted. It came with some decent games - Streets of Rage 2 was the crown jewel of them. Here, it turned out to be one of those early Model 2s with a YM3438 that are deemed better to avoid. What's more, it only came with an RF adapter and you have to jiggle the cord and put a little weight on it to keep the system on.

But you know what? I actually enjoy playing games on it sometimes.. I had a 3-4 hour session not too long ago and it was on a 13" TV in mono via RF. It's outright blasphemy to a purist retro collector. Maybe because it's so beat up, I don't worry about preserving it. I still kinda miss having that immaculate Model 1 combo, but it felt like it came with this extra responsibility and burden (aka the opposite of fun). It was something to handle delicately like a treasured artifact in a museum. With this one, the only thing I have to worry about is not bumping into it while it's on because it's on channel 3 and the static will probably be very loud and sudden. :mrgreen:
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Re: Are you getting a Genesis Mini?

Post by |darc| »

pixel wrote: Tue Sep 03, 2019 5:17 pm Those damn controllers ... those damn controllers :x I want them for my PC setup

I don't care about the console itself, I used my NES Mini for all of an hour. Like you said, I respect the quality that they're putting into it. At least the games run pretty damn well for an emulator via HDMI.

And it depends on how serious you want to be. A Genesis Model 1, OSSC and Mega SD are about ~$490 without cables, SD card and other accessories. Even at that price, the Genesis Mini is six times cheaper than that hardware. A Mega SG is a good buy at $200, but that isn't original hardware either.
The controllers... aren't they sold separately though for all these consoles? They were for the NES mini, and RetroBit is making new licensed Sega controllers with USB...

Yeah, that other stuff is expensive, but I do myself have a Genesis model 1, Framemeister, Mega Everdrive, Sega CD model 2 with region free BIOS, etc.... :)
But even if you don't spend that much, I think any degree of 'seriousness' means not working with mini-consoles, though. Just my opinion.

Pretty much anything FPGA-based I give a pass in the 'original hardware' area... Almost always the implementation is good enough to be entirely indistinguishable. I have considered getting the Mega SG fpga-based console because I want to hear the DC sound without so much buzz and interference (I have replaced the audio circuit in my Genesis model 1 with the MegaAmp replacement circuit and done as much as I could to isolate the audio, but still some buzz remains...).
It's thinking...
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Re: Are you getting a Genesis Mini?

Post by |darc| »

Eviltaco64X wrote: Tue Sep 03, 2019 11:02 pm Sometime in the earlier part of this decade, I hit a wall with collecting. Idk if you remember when I used to hang out in the IRC a lot 10 years ago and I'd go on about how I lost around 95% of my collection in a fire. After that, I decided to rebuild.
By 2012, I had a mountain of consoles and games again and I really started going in that purist direction (best revisions of original HW with the highest quality accessories, high-quality CRT, etc). I didn't have the money to go gung-ho and start doing the really cool stuff like RGB and Stereo mods, but I tried to get as close as I could to optimal quality.

I even had a mint non-TMSS Model 1 Genesis and Model 1 SCD with all the original pack-ins - manuals, CD+G discs, Sega Classics 4-in-1, Sol-Feace, etc. Somehow in collecting all this stuff, scouring the oddest of second-hand shops and flea markets high and low, I ended up not playing video games at all. When I tried to, I would play something for 5 minutes and then get bored with it and turn it off. I didn't enjoy it anymore. All the stuff I had became clutter. I ended up giving most of my Nintendo stuff to loved ones and sold almost everything else off.

A couple years later, I saw a beat-up Model 2 Genesis at a flea market. I haggled the guy down to whatever cash I had in my wallet and he accepted. It came with some decent games - Streets of Rage 2 was the crown jewel of them. Here, it turned out to be one of those early Model 2s with a YM3438 that are deemed better to avoid. What's more, it only came with an RF adapter and you have to jiggle the cord and put a little weight on it to keep the system on.

But you know what? I actually enjoy playing games on it sometimes.. I had a 3-4 hour session not too long ago and it was on a 13" TV in mono via RF. It's outright blasphemy to a purist retro collector. Maybe because it's so beat up, I don't worry about preserving it. I still kinda miss having that immaculate Model 1 combo, but it felt like it came with this extra responsibility and burden (aka the opposite of fun). It was something to handle delicately like a treasured artifact in a museum. With this one, the only thing I have to worry about is not bumping into it while it's on because it's on channel 3 and the static will probably be very loud and sudden. :mrgreen:
I understand where you're coming from and I've gone through the same thing. Mostly I've admitted to myself that I love collecting old hardware and I love modifying and changing that old hardware for its own purposes and I don't regret paying money to mod a console that sits on a shelf because I actually genuinely enjoyed the ride of figuring out what's possible, how it works, what it takes to change it, and overcoming the challenge of doing it. It's genuinely absurd how many consoles I've modded for RGB, SPDIF, HDMI, etc. plus additional changes, and I've literally spent thousands of along the way (you certainly know how expensive this shit can get), and I will never really play, for example, many Atari 2600 games in RGB on my 2600 flash cart, but it was so fun making it happen.
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Re: Are you getting a Genesis Mini?

Post by Eviltaco64X »

|darc| wrote: Wed Sep 04, 2019 2:07 pm I understand where you're coming from and I've gone through the same thing. Mostly I've admitted to myself that I love collecting old hardware and I love modifying and changing that old hardware for its own purposes and I don't regret paying money to mod a console that sits on a shelf because I actually genuinely enjoyed the ride of figuring out what's possible, how it works, what it takes to change it, and overcoming the challenge of doing it. It's genuinely absurd how many consoles I've modded for RGB, SPDIF, HDMI, etc. plus additional changes, and I've literally spent thousands of along the way (you certainly know how expensive this shit can get), and I will never really play, for example, many Atari 2600 games in RGB on my 2600 flash cart, but it was so fun making it happen.
"Collector's syndrome" seems to be a common thing for anyone that goes in deep enough. The fun of collecting topples the fun of playing games. I knew a few old vets from AG who ended up reaching that same place.
Compared to most, the direction you took turned out to be a vastly superior way to spend time. You've spun your energy and drive into an impressive and versatile talent that can be parlayed into many different uses.
Do you still push the limit of what you're capable of doing with consoles? Do you venture out into other types of electronics like old hi-fi stereo receivers and home theater EQ?
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Re: Are you getting a Genesis Mini?

Post by pixel »

|darc| wrote: Wed Sep 04, 2019 2:01 pm
pixel wrote: Tue Sep 03, 2019 5:17 pm Those damn controllers ... those damn controllers :x I want them for my PC setup

I don't care about the console itself, I used my NES Mini for all of an hour. Like you said, I respect the quality that they're putting into it. At least the games run pretty damn well for an emulator via HDMI.

And it depends on how serious you want to be. A Genesis Model 1, OSSC and Mega SD are about ~$490 without cables, SD card and other accessories. Even at that price, the Genesis Mini is six times cheaper than that hardware. A Mega SG is a good buy at $200, but that isn't original hardware either.
The controllers... aren't they sold separately though for all these consoles? They were for the NES mini, and RetroBit is making new licensed Sega controllers with USB...
I haven't seen the cludgy old 3-button models with USB for sale. :( The six-button Retrobit controllers look really nice, I might pick one up sometime soon.

It's all well and good, I have a plan for the Genesis Mini hardware. My dad and brother have been interested in emulation since they played Launchbox/RetroArch on my HTPC, so I'm planning on modding and upgrading these mini consoles for them. I'm going to put an SD card reader inside my NES Classic for my brother so he can have everything up through the PS1 on one easy-to-use console.

For my dad, I got a good deal on one of those AtGames-brand Intellivision systems they sold a few years ago. If all goes according to plan, I should be able to use those goofy phone pad controllers with the Genesis Mini and gift it to him.
|darc| wrote: Wed Sep 04, 2019 2:01 pmIt's genuinely absurd how many consoles I've modded for RGB, SPDIF, HDMI, etc. plus additional changes, and I've literally spent thousands of along the way (you certainly know how expensive this shit can get), and I will never really play, for example, many Atari 2600 games in RGB on my 2600 flash cart, but it was so fun making it happen.
I've got a pretty simple motto when it comes to spending money: It doesn't matter as long as it makes you happy. :) I live vicariously through the My Life In Gaming channel on YouTube because I find all those mods incredibly fascinating. With good PC hardware, I'm happy with the latency options in Retroarch for classic games so I'm not interested in the hardware scene.
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Re: Are you getting a Genesis Mini?

Post by |darc| »

Eviltaco64X wrote: Wed Sep 04, 2019 10:43 pm"Collector's syndrome" seems to be a common thing for anyone that goes in deep enough. The fun of collecting topples the fun of playing games. I knew a few old vets from AG who ended up reaching that same place.
Compared to most, the direction you took turned out to be a vastly superior way to spend time. You've spun your energy and drive into an impressive and versatile talent that can be parlayed into many different uses.
Do you still push the limit of what you're capable of doing with consoles? Do you venture out into other types of electronics like old hi-fi stereo receivers and home theater EQ?
Yep, early on when I started doing mods I also started collecting NES and DC titles but quickly abandoned that. Trying to collect retail games seemed like a pointless endeavor in money spending. I now only collect rare/obscure Dreamcast discs -- stuff that wasn't sold in stores (promo discs, GD-Rs, dev stuff, etc.).

I do still push myself with console mods, just not as often anymore. Earlier this year I worked on cosmetic stuff for the first time, and did a blackout Dreamcast that was dyed entirely black (of course, mods inside were done as well: DCHDMI, GDEMU, Noctua fan, etc.). A huge problem for me though is losing interest during the process. For example, I don't know if you're familiar with the GCVideo HDMI mod, but I was a really early adopter of that one, I bought a development FPGA board and flashed it with the GCVideo firmware and crammed it inside a GameCube myself. Now there is real manufactured mod product sold and I own it, and my GameCube is disassembled on a table in the corner of my office, along with a few other half-finished mods, just because I lost motivation to finish and I assume I will regain it one day, hopefully... or I'll just get super motivated to clean out my office at least :lol:

True that it is a versatile talent, though. I can confidently do all kinds of random electronics repairs now with the skills I gained modding consoles.

As far as HiFi/Home Theater type stuff, I have a decent setup in my living room, nothing custom or modded though other than making my own cables or something. Not high end audiophile stuff, but not really budget crap either. Just some decent components I've cobbled together over the years: Vizio 4K TV, Pioneer receiver, a bunch of Polk speakers, an Infinity sub, cheap Audio Technica turntable, cheap HDMI switch with DC/PS3/PS4/Switch/WiiU and a Framemeister for legacy A/V connections. Nvidia Shield for streaming apps and Plex. In my office I have an older Core i5 machine running Ubuntu server with 16TB ZFS array with Plex. The Shield is pretty cool as I can gamestream PC games from my desktop Windows PC that has an RTX 2080 Ti in it and play on the 4K TV.

I've done restoration work on old computers, though. I recently completely restored and upgraded a broken Mac SE/30 a few years ago.
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Re: Are you getting a Genesis Mini?

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|darc| wrote: Thu Sep 05, 2019 2:49 pm Yep, early on when I started doing mods I also started collecting NES and DC titles but quickly abandoned that. Trying to collect retail games seemed like a pointless endeavor in money spending. I now only collect rare/obscure Dreamcast discs -- stuff that wasn't sold in stores (promo discs, GD-Rs, dev stuff, etc.).

I do still push myself with console mods, just not as often anymore. Earlier this year I worked on cosmetic stuff for the first time, and did a blackout Dreamcast that was dyed entirely black (of course, mods inside were done as well: DCHDMI, GDEMU, Noctua fan, etc.). A huge problem for me though is losing interest during the process. For example, I don't know if you're familiar with the GCVideo HDMI mod, but I was a really early adopter of that one, I bought a development FPGA board and flashed it with the GCVideo firmware and crammed it inside a GameCube myself. Now there is real manufactured mod product sold and I own it, and my GameCube is disassembled on a table in the corner of my office, along with a few other half-finished mods, just because I lost motivation to finish and I assume I will regain it one day, hopefully... or I'll just get super motivated to clean out my office at least :lol:

True that it is a versatile talent, though. I can confidently do all kinds of random electronics repairs now with the skills I gained modding consoles.

As far as HiFi/Home Theater type stuff, I have a decent setup in my living room, nothing custom or modded though other than making my own cables or something. Not high end audiophile stuff, but not really budget crap either. Just some decent components I've cobbled together over the years: Vizio 4K TV, Pioneer receiver, a bunch of Polk speakers, an Infinity sub, cheap Audio Technica turntable, cheap HDMI switch with DC/PS3/PS4/Switch/WiiU and a Framemeister for legacy A/V connections. Nvidia Shield for streaming apps and Plex. In my office I have an older Core i5 machine running Ubuntu server with 16TB ZFS array with Plex. The Shield is pretty cool as I can gamestream PC games from my desktop Windows PC that has an RTX 2080 Ti in it and play on the 4K TV.

I've done restoration work on old computers, though. I recently completely restored and upgraded a broken Mac SE/30 a few years ago.
I was lucky enough to avoid becoming one of those guys that has to track down near-perfect, CIB copies of everything including terrible Simpsons games and Madden. I kinda respect the effort, though.

Cosmetic stuff interests me. I spent the past couple years in the machine trades studying form and tight tolerances. I've had this want to make injection mold tooling for a Dreamcast shell because I know a place where I could take it and have cases molded in a wide variety of colors (inc. skeleton and translucent cases). Maybe there's some money in it, but I'm more interested in doing it just to do it. The idea of making translucent colored shells is perhaps the most interesting part of it to me. I'm like 80% there knowledge-wise. The biggest challenge of course is the cost, size, and weight of all the expensive, heavy machine tools. I don't see how I'd be able to really focus on it without my own private shop.

I remember hearing about GCVideo HDMI back in 2014. Looking at it now, it was from the thread you posted on AG back then. It piqued my interest because I had a very nice set of GC component cables at one point and they seemed almost impossible to reproduce because of that one proprietary chip. It's really come a long way. I've left all too much half-finished. I hate doing it now. The other half of whatever it is haunts me from time to time, but I'm probably just as guilty of keeping it up as ever.

That's a nice setup. You'll always have those types who go overkill and spend thousands if not tens of thousands on home theater stuff. It must be cool to be on the bleeding-edge like that, though I wonder sometimes what it must have been like to buy a Mitsubishi LaserVue. I'm more of a "good quality HDTV w/ minimal input lag and powerful 2 channel stereo" kinda guy. I'd like to get one of those higher-end Pioneer receivers from the late 70s and some nice old-school floor speakers (a pair w/ double bass and a pair w/ super tweeters). It'd also be kinda neat to playback audio on a raw power vintage 2ch and a 7.1 system simultaneously. I mostly rotate between a launch 20GB PS3 w/ (250GB HDD upgrade), my old softmodded Xbox (both systems via component), and my PC via HDMI (TV audio output -> receiver headphone jack -> receiver <- PC). Nothing fancy by any means, but I get whatever I need out of it.

I lack the space to have a well-organized retro setup. Otherwise, I have some really nice things in storage I'd like to put to more use (double sided LD player/5-disc changer combo, vintage Panasonic turntable, Pioneer dual tapedeck, various CRTs I don't have the heart to throw away because they work perfectly fine)
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Re: Are you getting a Genesis Mini?

Post by |darc| »

Eviltaco64X wrote: Fri Sep 06, 2019 7:00 amCosmetic stuff interests me. I spent the past couple years in the machine trades studying form and tight tolerances. I've had this want to make injection mold tooling for a Dreamcast shell because I know a place where I could take it and have cases molded in a wide variety of colors (inc. skeleton and translucent cases). Maybe there's some money in it, but I'm more interested in doing it just to do it. The idea of making translucent colored shells is perhaps the most interesting part of it to me. I'm like 80% there knowledge-wise. The biggest challenge of course is the cost, size, and weight of all the expensive, heavy machine tools. I don't see how I'd be able to really focus on it without my own private shop.
Well, you have been beaten! There's a Chinese guy who's doing that just now. He has manufactured clear translucent shells, smoke black translucent shells, and wants to expand. Just this week I've seen him do a DC shell that is the Saturn "This is COOL" shell re-imagined for a Dreamcast, and even a translucent red-orange Arsenal football themed Dreamcast. His work is just starting to trickle out onto the market. I think they're going for like $60 apiece now?

Within the last few years it looks like the Chinese Dreamcast scene is really flourishing. I'm seeing a lot of Dreamcast games with translation hacks into Chinese being released on the internet recently.
Eviltaco64X wrote: Fri Sep 06, 2019 7:00 amThat's a nice setup. You'll always have those types who go overkill and spend thousands if not tens of thousands on home theater stuff. It must be cool to be on the bleeding-edge like that, though I wonder sometimes what it must have been like to buy a Mitsubishi LaserVue. I'm more of a "good quality HDTV w/ minimal input lag and powerful 2 channel stereo" kinda guy. I'd like to get one of those higher-end Pioneer receivers from the late 70s and some nice old-school floor speakers (a pair w/ double bass and a pair w/ super tweeters). It'd also be kinda neat to playback audio on a raw power vintage 2ch and a 7.1 system simultaneously. I mostly rotate between a launch 20GB PS3 w/ (250GB HDD upgrade), my old softmodded Xbox (both systems via component), and my PC via HDMI (TV audio output -> receiver headphone jack -> receiver <- PC). Nothing fancy by any means, but I get whatever I need out of it.
2ch won't do it for me. I'm surround-obsessed. Not like I build crazy surround systems or anything (I just have a 5.1 setup), but whenever there's content in surround I seek it out. Music in surround is seriously underrated. Finding real surround copies of music* is really hard but I've done a pretty decent job of finding a good array of classic rock and other music I like in 5.1 or at least the old 4.0 quad style on some Russian torrent trackers and also some of those weird websites where they upload content to shady filesharing websites in the hope that you pay money to get unlimited transfer on the site and they get referral money or whatever.

Unfortunately all of these use a multitude of formats (5.1 PCM in FLAC, SACD ISOs, DVD-A images, DSD files, etc.) so I wrote a set of scripts to basically convert any of those file formats to 5.1 PCM FLAC which I store on an SMB share on my 16TB ZFS server, and access through Kodi on the Nvidia Shield. I don't particularly like Kodi but it seems to be the best app to get 5.1 FLAC down right so that's really all I use it for.

(* real as in created by the original musicians that way, not fan-made surround remixes, those are plentiful but mostly meh)
Eviltaco64X wrote: Fri Sep 06, 2019 7:00 amI lack the space to have a well-organized retro setup. Otherwise, I have some really nice things in storage I'd like to put to more use (double sided LD player/5-disc changer combo, vintage Panasonic turntable, Pioneer dual tapedeck, various CRTs I don't have the heart to throw away because they work perfectly fine)
It gets cluttered but there are ways to make it work. Right now all of my retro consoles besides my DCHDMI console are in my coat closet near my front door/living room. I have them stored in there alongside a dozen small plastic bins, each of which corresponds with a console, and includes RGB cables, power adapters, memory cards, controllers, etc. for that console. I also have a plastic organizer with drawers that hold various other accessories like light guns, fishing rods, etc. Whenever I want to play a particular console I just grab it and its plastic container from the closet and I set it on my coffee table and set it up to plug right into the Framemeister's front RGB port. That makes it extremely fast to get a console out and hook it up and play, but at the same time I don't have to have my whole living room cluttered with dozens of old electronics.

However I don't think I'll have it like that for long, because I recently bought a nice rolling cart that I put my 20" studio RGB CRT monitor on. I'm going to put some shelves on it and set up all the retro consoles on it with a SCART switcher. I want to put it in my spare bedroom with a very large beanbag chair or something so my girlfriend and I can lounge and play retro games. Since the CRT monitor has passthrough outputs for the RGB inputs, I can just roll the cart in the living room and plug the Framemeister to the CRT and play everything on the cart on the 55" 4K TV if I feel like it or if I have guests over or whatever who want to play multiplayer on a big screen.
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Re: Are you getting a Genesis Mini?

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|darc| wrote: Sun Sep 08, 2019 6:30 pm Well, you have been beaten! There's a Chinese guy who's doing that just now. He has manufactured clear translucent shells, smoke black translucent shells, and wants to expand. Just this week I've seen him do a DC shell that is the Saturn "This is COOL" shell re-imagined for a Dreamcast, and even a translucent red-orange Arsenal football themed Dreamcast. His work is just starting to trickle out onto the market. I think they're going for like $60 apiece now?

Within the last few years it looks like the Chinese Dreamcast scene is really flourishing. I'm seeing a lot of Dreamcast games with translation hacks into Chinese being released on the internet recently.
I can live with that. It's pretty cool to hear there's a source of new replacement cases again. Once Lik-Sang went under however long ago, nothing came to fill the void.
|darc| wrote: Sun Sep 08, 2019 6:30 pm2ch won't do it for me. I'm surround-obsessed. Not like I build crazy surround systems or anything (I just have a 5.1 setup), but whenever there's content in surround I seek it out. Music in surround is seriously underrated. Finding real surround copies of music* is really hard but I've done a pretty decent job of finding a good array of classic rock and other music I like in 5.1 or at least the old 4.0 quad style on some Russian torrent trackers and also some of those weird websites where they upload content to shady filesharing websites in the hope that you pay money to get unlimited transfer on the site and they get referral money or whatever.

Unfortunately all of these use a multitude of formats (5.1 PCM in FLAC, SACD ISOs, DVD-A images, DSD files, etc.) so I wrote a set of scripts to basically convert any of those file formats to 5.1 PCM FLAC which I store on an SMB share on my 16TB ZFS server, and access through Kodi on the Nvidia Shield. I don't particularly like Kodi but it seems to be the best app to get 5.1 FLAC down right so that's really all I use it for.

(* real as in created by the original musicians that way, not fan-made surround remixes, those are plentiful but mostly meh)
The most immersive home audio I ever experienced came from a JVC Quad circa 1976 with around 8 floor speakers wired up to it and placed around the room and in the rafters. My friend played through Bioshock with the TV hooked into this system. It was truly incredible.

It would have been nice to see surround catch on more than it did (outside of movies and video games). I'd say both quad and 5.1 asked a little too much of consumers and producers.. When music is properly optimized for it, it sounds fantastic and I think it still has the potential to make a comeback of sorts as a healthy niche market for physical collectors and enthusiasts like Blu-Ray and vinyl do. My 20GB PS3 has SACD playback. The 60GB and partial-BC 80GB do as well. They pulled support for it very early in the system's life. It's something I've always wanted to play around with, though looking into it now, apparently SACD playback from early PS3s isn't very good in the first place and I'd have to buy a different player to get the "real experience".
|darc| wrote: Sun Sep 08, 2019 6:30 pmIt gets cluttered but there are ways to make it work. Right now all of my retro consoles besides my DCHDMI console are in my coat closet near my front door/living room. I have them stored in there alongside a dozen small plastic bins, each of which corresponds with a console, and includes RGB cables, power adapters, memory cards, controllers, etc. for that console. I also have a plastic organizer with drawers that hold various other accessories like light guns, fishing rods, etc. Whenever I want to play a particular console I just grab it and its plastic container from the closet and I set it on my coffee table and set it up to plug right into the Framemeister's front RGB port. That makes it extremely fast to get a console out and hook it up and play, but at the same time I don't have to have my whole living room cluttered with dozens of old electronics.

However I don't think I'll have it like that for long, because I recently bought a nice rolling cart that I put my 20" studio RGB CRT monitor on. I'm going to put some shelves on it and set up all the retro consoles on it with a SCART switcher. I want to put it in my spare bedroom with a very large beanbag chair or something so my girlfriend and I can lounge and play retro games. Since the CRT monitor has passthrough outputs for the RGB inputs, I can just roll the cart in the living room and plug the Framemeister to the CRT and play everything on the cart on the 55" 4K TV if I feel like it or if I have guests over or whatever who want to play multiplayer on a big screen.
A dedicated portable SCART setup sounds pretty badass. I actually had my beat up Genesis on a 3 shelf rolling cart for awhile. 13" TV on top. System/accessories in the middle. Loose cart games in a tub on the lower shelf. Nice for that old-fashioned "playing games 3 ft away from a tiny screen" vibe.
|darc|
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Re: Are you getting a Genesis Mini?

Post by |darc| »

Eviltaco64X wrote: Tue Sep 10, 2019 3:15 pmOnce Lik-Sang went under however long ago, nothing came to fill the void.
There's some guy in Venezuela who has a large stock of them, and he posts them on eBay individually for high prices (around $100 iirc). No idea where he got them from, perhaps he bought all of them up from some Chinese warehouse around when the console died.
Eviltaco64X wrote: Tue Sep 10, 2019 3:15 pmIt would have been nice to see surround catch on more than it did (outside of movies and video games). I'd say both quad and 5.1 asked a little too much of consumers and producers.. When music is properly optimized for it, it sounds fantastic and I think it still has the potential to make a comeback of sorts as a healthy niche market for physical collectors and enthusiasts like Blu-Ray and vinyl do. My 20GB PS3 has SACD playback. The 60GB and partial-BC 80GB do as well. They pulled support for it very early in the system's life. It's something I've always wanted to play around with, though looking into it now, apparently SACD playback from early PS3s isn't very good in the first place and I'd have to buy a different player to get the "real experience".
Thankfully it doesn't seem to be dead yet, there's actually a lot that has come out on BD-Audio. Likewise, I have a workflow for extracting BD-Audio ISOs, extracting the lossless PCM surround audio streams, and encoding to 5.1 FLAC audio.
A large portion of Pink Floyd's stuff has been released in 5.1 in a box set recently. That shit is really awesome to listen to stoned.
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Re: Are you getting a Genesis Mini?

Post by Eviltaco64X »

|darc| wrote: Wed Sep 11, 2019 8:41 pm Thankfully it doesn't seem to be dead yet, there's actually a lot that has come out on BD-Audio. Likewise, I have a workflow for extracting BD-Audio ISOs, extracting the lossless PCM surround audio streams, and encoding to 5.1 FLAC audio.
A large portion of Pink Floyd's stuff has been released in 5.1 in a box set recently. That shit is really awesome to listen to stoned.
Cool. I've always wondered what Lateralus would sound like properly formatted for surround. It really seems like an album that would benefit a lot from it.
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