the best way to play a game is strictly up to the player
This is always the right answer. There are very real, tangible benefits to using a CRT that isn't just nostalgia - but anyone saying it's the "only" way to game is just gatekeeping. I say this as someone who owns like 10 CRTs and moderates CRTs@kbin.social.
I do the best of both worlds, a component-input CRT paired with a hombrewed Wii to emulate retro games in their original resolution with minimal lag. If your setup keeps you happy, then that's all that matters.
The whole $300 for a single game thing is misleading when if you want to play a second N64 game, all you'll have to buy is the second game you want. If anything, it comes out to being cheaper than buying a single game for a modern console if you apply the same standard
In my opinion the future of retro gaming, at least for popular games, is going to be dominated by open source decompilation-remakes. A few have already been released and have become the definitive way to play those games. They are simply the best version possible, free and open source:
Those are but a few of the hundreds of such projects that have been released. PC games have benefited from such ports for a long while. A more conprehensive list can be found here:
There are countless other projects that are under developement. Give it a few years and this will become the dominant way to play games, hopefully at least. They will run on everything natively, with unprecedented features (Widescreen, 60FPS+).
I don’t think decompilations will be the future due to the usually needing a leaked codebase to kick-start them off. It’s very hard to decompile and learn exactly what each function does without the contents and names from the original source code. It’s possible but it takes so long that it’ll never be enough to be the main way to play old games in the future.
They don’t necessairly. There are hundreds of examples of clean-room reverse engineered decompilations, such as the ones that I have listed. The great part is that once it’s done for one game, that game will forever be open source and perfectly preserved, able to be relatively trivially ported to any platform from the present pr future, indefinetly.
But considering the amount of games that exist that is never going to be the primary ways to play older games. It’s great for those that end up getting that prices done for them but it’s only going to be the odd few that end up becoming a passion project for some super fans with the ability to do so.
I don’t think decompilation is the best way due to higher risks of git repo takedowns due to copyright violations. And the above mentioned “clean-room reverse engineered decompilations” contradicts itself since it’s either decompiled or clean room.
But that aside it can be somwhat useful for games with similar engines, but yes they are usually games with a quite active community. As soon as one of the games has a working port basing ports for other games on it is a lot easier than starting from scratch. This can affect not so important games using bigger engines.
examples:
ScummVM supports a lot of engines (90 something) and even more games (325) by now. With few engines (SCUMM, SCI) supporting a lot of games.
OpenRCT2 has its original/main focus on Rollercoaster Tycoon 2, but also (works on) supports Rollercoaster Tycoon.
Openage has its original/main focus on Age of Empires II, but also (works on) supports Age of Empires and Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds.
OpenRW has its original/main focus on Grand Theft Auto III, but also (works on) supports Vice City and San Andreas.
OpenMW has its original/main focus on The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind , but also (works on) supports Oblivian and Skyrim.
FreeHL (based on doom) has its original/main focus on old Half Life and Half-Life: Deathmatch, but the author also works on various mods for it: Counter-Strike 1.5, Team Fortress Classic, Scientist Hunt, Gunman Chronicles, Poke646, They Hunger, Opposing Force.
OpenRA has its original/main focus on Command & Conquer: Red Alert, but also (works on) supports Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn, Dune 2000, Tiberian Sun and Red Alert 2.
Julius has its original/main focus on Caesar III, but also (works on) supports Pharaoh.
Xoreos has its original/main focus on Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, but also (works on) supports Neverwinter Nights, Neverwinter Nights 2, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II, Jade Empire, Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, The Witcher, Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II.
GemRB implements Infinity Engine and no idea if it ever was focuse on a single game, but they (works on) supports Baldur’s Gate 1, Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale 1, Baldur’s Gate 2 and Icewind Dale 2.
like i can def think of plenty of exceptions, but most games work great with an xbox or dualshock controller, and you can even get a dinky little controller for yr phone on ebay for like $12
I do sometimes have this fleeting fantasy of getting a CRT TV, plugging back my NES and having some sweet nostalgia gaming. Then I remember that at the mere sight of those brutally rectangular controllers my hands start cramping and that I have no space to spare this.
CRTs take up too much and are too heavy, and using retro consoles on modern TVs look bad and then there’s all the different connections you can end up getting lost in trying to make it look better.
So I just go with emulator with crt filter. Easy and gets the job done even though it might not perfectly replicate the native experience.
I’m kind of an anti-purist. Give me an emulator with save states and rewind, a scalefx filter and whatever other nonsense. Add on the convenience of emulators and it’s no contest for me.
The last few years of remasters have amazed me in how they’re just blatantly adding emulator features. jRPGs like the Atelier and Legend Of Heroes series have speed up buttons, the Megaman Z/X collection has save states, Battle Networked boosted the basic damage attack. Its fairly interesting to see developers looking at amateur apps and going “Yea, okay, you had a point.”
The last few years of remasters have amazed me with how much they HAVEN'T added emulator features even when the game is blatantly being emulated. Some of them miss save states or practice modes (particularly shmups) or proper key rebinding on the controller. I have 6x more buttons than the game originally needed, let me actually use them.
I am definitely one who typically prefers emulation. The ease of use is just way too nice. Playing things on hardware is always an option for those willing to take the steps necessary to do so.
Another option though that I think worth touching on is hardware emulation, via stuff like the MiSTer project. Reprogrammable boards that allow more accurate hardware emulation of the old consoles is really cool, and helps to be more authentic to the classic experience if that is important to you. You would still need stuff like a crt tv and controllers if you wanted to go all the way. But having 1 board that can be programmed to mimic a bunch of different systems makes it slightly more accessible
I have a really tough time convincing myself to play a game through emulation if I have already have access to the game in a way that I can use the original controller. But most of the time that translates to me just never playing it because I need to hook it up to a TV…and most of them I can even just play anytime, anywhere if I get over that! So I need to take my own advice and get over it so I can at least just play the damn games.
I was actually just learning about the MiSTer project, it sounds really neat. Maybe a bit prohibitively expensive as of now, but if you have the funds it sounds like the best way to go. Solves tons of the issues that I have for my retro goodies!
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