The Spam Thread!

[cpd2009]

First impressions so far...

Whatever company made these consoles (some "KinHanK Games Retro") did a good job putting the microSD together and getting all the menus set up. I haven't experienced any major bugs or stability issues so far through my testing. Emuelec is quick to boot up and you are dropped into the system selection lists.

Emuelec itself has extensive settings menus, ranging from simple UI features to advanced emulator settings which I likely won't touch. The default scaling for RetroArch is rather decent, and isn't stretched to widescreen. For NES, Nestopia is used. SNES uses SNES9x while MD/Genesis uses Genesis Plus GX. There is also over a thousand MAME ROM sets which either use MAME 2010 or FB Alpha Neo. Emulation of these systems so far has been wonderful. No slowdowns or other speed issues, no screen tearing observed, and sound reproduction is almost on par with the real thing.

The game selection is rather astonishing. The card contains over 30,000 ROM files and practically ever commercial released game for the major consoles is on here. KinHanK however found a way to pad out the list only a little bit. Some games are listed twice or more, and the duplicate is typically a PAL ROM or an international release. This means I finally get to play Super Probotector: Alien Rebels!

So yeah, this little box surprised me. Every game but one has loaded up fine so far. The lone game that didn't work was Sonic Jam 6, that unlicensed Mario Bros Genesis port.

Soon, I will gather the specs of the box. Below, here is a video review of the same box I got with the exception being a larger microSD card..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSj444Su3xA

[huckleberrypie]

The Probotector thing reminds me of what EA did in the Command and Conquer games to appease German censors, by giving them the impression that the human characters were actually androids or cyborgs in an effort to make the conflicts further removed from whatever geopolitical issue the original games were inspired from.

[cpd2009]

Earlier this evening, I tried out an arcade ROM for a hack-n-slash game I never knew existed... "Knights of Valour". KoV is an arcade slasher series from a Taiwanese company, and the lore is loosely based on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms stories apparently. Lots of excellent sprite work and tons of enemies on the screen, rather good music and sound samples, but it does start to get a little bit boring after a while. Some of the bosses are kind of weird though and the special move/power-up system takes some time to get used to.

I've never seen a real KoV machine in real life before, and I don't know if it was ever distributed in North America. The company that made it was IGS, and the game ran on their own arcade board, the Polygame Master.

[cpd2009]

You know? I'm starting to consider selling off my physical game collection again and just use the SuperConsole X, or in the future, set up a custom PC or Mac with RetroArch. I already have backup copies of all the ROMs, which will make setting up RetroArch rather easy.

You know that I have always been on the fence in regards to retro game emulation, mainly due to the murky legal situation surrounding it. But you need to ask yourself... how else will I be able to play the majority of a game console's library outside of the big releases like Mario or Sonic? All Sega and Nintendo are interested in doing is rehashing the same old games for every generation. Most of those games are good, don't get me wrong, but that is all they feature time and time again? Where's Mr. Nutz? Or M.U.S.H.A? How about Zero Wing? (yes, it has the infamous Engrish but it's supposedly a rather decent shoot 'em up besides that) Maybe even Turrican?

And with rights issues complicating these games re-releases, it's obvious that many other classic gaming gems will never get re-released making emulation the only way to play. Collecting the actual game cartridges is becoming so damn expensive that it's impossible to acquire real copies of much loved games. And if I were to sell whatever I already managed to re-acquire, I can possibly make a good penny I could use for other things, such as, maybe, a Retroid Pocket perhaps?

[huckleberrypie]

You know? I'm starting to consider selling off my physical game collection again and just use the SuperConsole X, or in the future, set up a custom PC or Mac with RetroArch. I already have backup copies of all the ROMs, which will make setting up RetroArch rather easy.

You know that I have always been on the fence in regards to retro game emulation, mainly due to the murky legal situation surrounding it. But you need to ask yourself... how else will I be able to play the majority of a game console's library outside of the big releases like Mario or Sonic? All Sega and Nintendo are interested in doing is rehashing the same old games for every generation. Most of those games are good, don't get me wrong, but that is all they feature time and time again? Where's Mr. Nutz? Or M.U.S.H.A? How about Zero Wing? (yes, it has the infamous Engrish but it's supposedly a rather decent shoot 'em up besides that) Maybe even Turrican?

And with rights issues complicating these games re-releases, it's obvious that many other classic gaming gems will never get re-released making emulation the only way to play. Collecting the actual game cartridges is becoming so damn expensive that it's impossible to acquire real copies of much loved games. And if I were to sell whatever I already managed to re-acquire, I can possibly make a good penny I could use for other things, such as, maybe, a Retroid Pocket perhaps?

So I guess this brings you the issue of ROM legality then? Well if you already have legally backed up copies of all the games in your possession, I don't see what's so illegal about emulation in itself.

[cpd2009]

It doesn't help that the big game companies make it seem like they are out to get anyone who even dares mention emulation, even if it only refers to the emulators themselves which have been declared legal on many fronts. Then you add in things like the DMCA and things get even messier despite efforts of digital preservationists to spread the message of game preservation. As I mentioned above, there are thousands of games for older computers and consoles that aren't playable through any official means. The only way is with a ROM of the game acquired from an archive. And some of these games are so expensive, only the most devoted and wealthy collectors can get these games in true physical form.

There are already thousands of people using these emulation devices to relive their childhood games, and they get talked about all the time on YouTube and other videos. Sure they may throw out the disclaimer about ROM legality, but people still play their games with ROMs found on the internet without having a physical cartridge in their ownership. I've seen others put together amazing arcade machines with hundreds of classics, and even popular content creators like Stuart Ashen have previously mentioned using modded devices (like a PSP) to play retro games.

I guess you can say that I am trying to get over my fear of legal repercussion with emulating games. Even if I did have backups of my collection, it would only make a small fraction of my now massive ROM library and I also do not have the tools to back said cartridges up.

[huckleberrypie]

I remember what the 8-Bit Guy opined about emulation and downloading ROMs in that he doesn't mind such piracy for as long as the original developers/publishers are either long defunct or disinterested in their vintage back catalogue especially for niche or licenced titles which may never see a release due to legal complications.

[cpd2009]

I remember what the 8-Bit Guy opined about emulation and downloading ROMs in that he doesn't mind such piracy for as long as the original developers/publishers are either long defunct or disinterested in their vintage back catalogue especially for niche or licenced titles which may never see a release due to legal complications.

I recall watching that video quite a while ago, but I'm starting to agree with him. Case in point... one game on the SuperConsole X I found was a SNES port of the original "Aero Fighters" arcade shoot 'em up. Its a fun and challenging game, and back when I was deep into the game collecting scene, it was one cartridge I had on my radar. (pun maybe intended?) But it was beyond expensive. Right now, a battered used copy is selling on eBay for $749, and clean or near mint copies complete with box and manual can drain up to $1,500 off your credit card, maybe even more. Another one was Space Megaforce, which was a bit more affordable and I was eventually able to acquire a copy. But after playing it, it's really nothing too exciting and not worth the current asking price.

Another console I also desired was the Neo Geo AES, but obviously, never got it since the second hand market is insane with their prices. The only times I ever got to play Neo Geo games were at arcades.

I also read a few intriguing articles on ROMs and emulation, and it turns out, many of todays indie game developers got their start with ROM hacking. And if I recall, one of the lead developers of Sonic Mania once made fan-hacks of original Sonic ROMs. Sega was apparently so impressed by his work that he was eventually hired by them, at least that is what I remember.

[huckleberrypie]

Peter Cifaldi of Digital Eclipse admitted to piracy in one interview, but he makes no regrets about it as it benefited both him and the companies he worked for, to be fair.

Of course it's a different story in the case of Soulja Boy, who clearly did not care about the ramifications of kanging ROM images and making a profit out of it via those bootleg consoles he resold under his moniker.

[cpd2009]

Acquired a Gigastone 64GB microSD card tonight and cloned the original SuperConsoleX card. While there is really no discernable speed difference between the Gigastone and the generic no-name, at least I got a storage card that will likely be far more reliable long term than the no-name. At some point, I will again clone the OS to a larger 128GB card. There are so many pre-loaded ROMs that updating Emuelec is impossible due to lack of space.

I will use the no-name 64GB card to toy around with making a custom emulation OS. Besides Emuelec, there is Batocera which some say is more stable than Emuelec. And pre-configured images are provided for Amlogic S905 SoC boards. And funnily enough, my streaming TV box provided by my cable company also runs off an Amlogic S905x SoC and also has a microSD slot. For the lulz, I am going to insert the old Emuelec card into the streaming box and seeing if it will actually boot Emuelec.