neurotix

So, top 5 games for me.

1. Final Fantasy 4 aka Final Fantasy II back in the day when it was on SNES. This game has amazing music, unforgettable characters and a great story about redemption. You travel three different worlds more or less. I can clear my copy of this game and get to the final save point with the final dungeon at 100% in under 10 hours. I have probably cleared it and it's remakes around 100 times. Maybe more.

2. Final Fantasy (NES). It has a paper thin plot and zero character development. There's a little bit of story but generally it's go grind and clear the four elemental dungeons. This one is difficult and more like the PC games Wizardry and The Bards Tale or Might and Magic. Just not first person. That means it is about dungeon treks and resource management i.e. saving magic and using healing items wisely to progress. It is non-linear and after you clear the Earth Fiend dungeon, if you know what you're doing you can do the fire, air and water dungeons and beat the fiends in any order you wish.

3. Tyrian aka Tyrian 2000 (DOS). It is fully open source now and has been ported to the PSP and Vita and probably phones and tons of other devices. What this game is, is essentially the best vertical shoot em up ever created. You don't die in one hit. You basically take on stages, collect currency in the form of coins (killing enemies adds to it too) and use the money to buy upgrades like whole new ships. You also have a shield and generator to upgrade, and weapons you have front, rear which can be toggled to fire sideways or forward for most weapons, and sidekicks which have limited ammo and are fired with the right mouse button. (You play using the mouse to move your ship and left button is fire, right one is sidekicks). Sidekicks are usually stuff like missiles you can fire that recharge slowly. Also, this game has tons of hidden secrets like secret levels filled with money, "secret" keywords you can type to activate certain cheats or modes, and more. It is also 2 player and I think the second player uses the arrow keys and enter to shoot. You can link your ships together too by flying close to each other and you'll have a very powerful weapon while you do. The game also has fantastic music and pretty good SVGA sprite graphics. I strongly recommend getting Dosbox and a copy of this (it's free).

4. Super Mario Bros 3. It's the best Mario ever created. I remember I went to a friend's house and they had rented The Wizard with Fred Savage and when they showed Mario 3 at the end I was just enamored and had to have it. I believe I got it Xmas 1990 and before I was introduced to JRPGs. I played the hell out of it. I still play it now, stayed up til 4AM playing and then beating the game with my little sister. This is still one of the best selling games of all time- at least 20 million copies sold.

5. Xenogears. Just go read the plot synopsis on Wikipedia. This game is crazy and quite difficult for a newcomer to it, I would not suggest playing it because it has too many faults, but this was getting into some real Freudian and Jungian psychology, Jewish Kabbalah, Vatican and corruption, aliens, drug abuse, PTSD and multiple personalities, nanotechnology, etc. It was protested by the Catholic Church before release and almost wasn't released here. It was pretty deep for a 14 year old to be playing and is highly cerebral where you would want to cross-reference concepts in it like Animus and Anima, etc. Oh and the music is fantastic, done by Yasunori Mitsuda who did Chrono Triggers soundtrack.

Whew that was a lot. Honorable mentions are:

Chrono Trigger

FF6

FF9

Virtual On: Cyber troopers (arcade)

Super Mario World

Streets of Rage 2

UT2004

Raiden II (arcade)

Phantasy Star Online

Phantasy Star 2

Phantasy Star 4

..and quite a few others I'm drawing a blank on.

Also, check the OP. I have immediately made it more welcoming to PC gamers and collectors.

If I'm not mistaken, SF Rush 2049 is not just on N64 but I think Dreamcast as well where it's pretty much an arcade perfect port graphically+ Stunt Mode and all the other features of the N64 release.

Also, Super Mario All-Stars has a variant cartridge called Super Mario All-Stars + World that has the games from All Stars+ Super Mario World on the same cartridge. I think this was only available as a pack in cartridge but I'm not sure, I do know it came out later in the lifespan of the SNES because of how much ROM it requires.

I will also go through the OP and make it more friendly and welcoming to those engaged in retro computing. Probably on Monday.

Sorry again for ny posts indicating otherwise about retro PCs or stressing consoles. I promise to not make such remarks in the future.

3 minutes ago, pioneerisloud said:

 

 

The above quote is all that I saw so far this morning (in the post from Labrat).  I didn't see the rest of your edit and post above his comment (I should've scrolled up).  I'm just going off what you said bro.  If you want it to be consoles only, we can absolutely discuss our retro PC's elsewhere.  If you want us included, that's great too, we'll stay right here.  No harm, no foul.   

Yes PLEASE continue and discuss PCs in this club, post pictures of rare hardware, post pictures of rigs, give me specs of rigs to add to your club membership, and I'll maybe learn some stuff in the process. The LAST thing I want is for the club to split. I am currently trying to get E to approve this club as official so I can add that to the thread title.

I am sorry for the confusion I caused in editing that post.

Also it's not like I don't remember all the generations of hardware myself, I just don't have any room for old hardware.

I can tell you one thing: I suck at it but I*love* UT2004 and especially Onslaught mode.

You are more than welcome to add and discuss retro pcs here, and I've tried to be accommodating. However, if you want your own club, feel free to make one. I wish you both the best, and again, I really feel like I've been nice and open toward retro PCs, offering to add lists and such. I just can't add much to the discussion myself.

Unfortunately the user base here is small. Bear in mind, this is a continuation of my club on OCN which had 40+ members discussing retro gaming consoles. Clearly not happening here.

Pretty cool but as I made clear in the OP, this is primarily a retro console gaming club, and multiple members have multiple consoles and handhelds. A few of us share a mutual love of the old Final Fantasy games, as well.

Did you want to be added with the specs of that rig listed? I'm literally walking in the dark with what it even is. If you list all your retro PCs and components separated by commas, I can add you and a list of your hardware to the club.

EDIT: I just can't give you any good discussion on retro PCs and I don't have any. pioneerisloud certainly can though and you guys can feel free to take over this thread and talk about retro hw and games. Because some activity is better than none.

Here's the Royal Kludge RK100 with blue switches.

I did zoom in on the side casing of a switch using my phone, and it's marked RK. I think these could possibly be rebranded Gateron blues. They feel almost the same as my OCN ducky with blue switches.

Anyway, if anyone's interested I will be doing a keyboard project soon. I can take photos to share, or not, since activity here is low. The idea has been to do a full custom build for cheap.

Royal Kludge RK100 98% board ($65 with coupon)

XVX retro keycaps ($17)

ThreeBulls blue O-Rings ($7)

Kailh Pro Light Green switches ($37)

That's $126 total excluding tax and shipping.

I may open this board up, clip and lube stabs, pack it with crafter's foam, but probably not plastidip it like I did my Keychron K8 Pro. If people are interested in this project, let me know and I'll document what I do with photos.

Hey @Memmento Mori

What are you running for this?

6 minutes ago, J7SC_Orion said:

...trying some w_prime with 'undervolted' RAM and eclk with the new setup....lots more in the tank on both CPU speed and RAM speed, but not a bad start 

 

Hmm, I had to go check my submissions on my hwbot page and found out I have *not* run this bench on my 7900x3D setup. Will add to the list of things to do. (I really need to clean my rig and desk up) I did it with my 5900x but not the new chip. Too bad that bench doesn't give globals.

Sorry for like triple posting but I did a mod to one of my boards. The E-element Z-88 with modded white switches. It is Doraemon themed so I did a keycap swap to a set that wasn't available years ago. The most tedious part was taking the WASD blue o-rings off of the old keycaps with a toothpick.

I need my E-element Z-88 keycaps changed to Glacier Doraemon in the spreadsheet.

I'll let the pictures explain the rest.

Decided to get this board:

In case it doesn't show up, I'm getting the blue switch/classic keycaps version.

Will probably get it and check it out and leave it as is, I'm curious if it will have Outemu switches or Gaterons. In a few months I'll get Kailh Pro Light Green to go in it, and have to figure out what keycaps and o-rings I want.

EDIT: Got Kailh Pro Light Green switches from the Kailh website. They won't be here for a long time, but they only had 5 in stock so I figured waiting would be a bad idea.

The Pro Light Green are quite different, thanks for the charts. Do you know the actuation force in Gs between the two?

I think I will possibly save up and do a board with Pro Light Greens.

EDIT: I just needed to look at the graphs, duh, for actuation force. Looks like the actuation point is around 45g for both.

Yeah, that's pretty cool that you built your own switches back in the day before anything besides Cherry was available.

What I'm wondering specifically is about the Kailh Pro Light Green clicky switch vs a Box Jade in terms of feel and weight. Like is a Pro Light Green just a Jade that's not box and rated for more lifetime key presses or something. In which case it would be a waste to save my junk food money for a few months to build a new board with Light Greens.

You mentioned Box Royals, this is another switch I am interested in and curious about. I believe they are Box Royal Purples or am I wrong? I read from some sources that the Box Purple are BOTH tactile and clicky. But I am unsure if this is true. If they are just tactile I am not interested, but if they are tactile and clicky it's something to consider.

Also wondering about clicky switches from any other manufacturer I'm unaware of.

No experience with Kailh Pro or recommendations for any other clicky switches though, Flux?

3 hours ago, Alex said:

I switched from MX Blues to Kailh box jades after trying pretty much every single clicky switch I could readily find.

 

I think they're the best clicky switch next to the Kailh box Navys, the MX Blues feel flimsy and plastic-y in comparison - and less uniform pressure across a wide range of keys.

I think the wider stem shape does help with that uniform feel to the keycap as well.

 

 

edit - also in that wide array of switch testing, I really liked the Gateron oil kings or whatever they're called. Never been a huge fan of linear switches but those are neat.

I have a board with Box Whites (try these sometime), Box Jades, Box Navies, Box Pink and Box Pale Blue. Like 6 boards between my wife and I.

This is why I'm asking about others.

2 hours ago, The Pook said:

 

finally, someone else who's right 

What should we do then? 2000 and before stuff only?

Also, do you have any retro game systems you'd want to join the club with, or just commenting?

6 minutes ago, Sir Beregond said:

Oh these aren't regular t-shirts? Hmm...

They're still pretty worth it imo.

What @UltraMegasaid works.

10 years, no PS4/Xbox until they are officially unsupported.

Yes. The closest comparison I can make is that they are like the brand Under armour (at least when I've felt their stuff clothes shopping, don't own anything by them)

If you're always hot, they'd be awesome. If you're always cold like me, gonna have to put an open zip hoodie over it or something.

Agreed with everything..

I think we will keep the 10 year old rule and let people list a PS4 or Xbox One but *only* the originals, not the pro models.

I do agree though on 15 years and 360/PS3/Wii actually being retro, but since this club is for fun I'll allow the original PS4/Xbone.

PC wise, I started the hobby around 2009 and started with a Phenom II x2 that I unlocked to x4 and OCed. I think that is retro now given it can only really run games up to about 2014-2015 but does poorly at it, stuff like Just Cause 2 ran great on it. I agree with pio in that respect, nobody is capable of playing modern games on a FX chip or a 2600k.

Good points, especially pio. Thanks. I'm sure Pook will disagree if he sees this. Now we just gotta see what axipher thinks.

What would everyone agree is considered retro or not? Pook, @UltraMega@axipher@pioneerisloud

How old does a console or PC need to be to be considered truly retro?

10 years was what people generally agreed on and wanted at OCN, but if everyone reaches a consensus or we all agree on a mutual time, it can be changed.

My vote is for 15 years.

Some vaporwave.

So I got my two shirts today. I did finally hear back from Enterprise and he said the shirts are being printed with dye sublimation, as opposed to iron on that was previously used and eventually fades and flakes off in the wash.

Sorry about the bad photos but I had to use the wide-angle camera to fit the whole shirt in the picture, I got 2XL and they are huge, and hang down over my waist quite a bit. However a 1XL would probably be tight around my belly so, gotta compromise.

The print is amazing, especially on the folding shirt.

However, I am a bit disappointed with the material used. It is 100% polyester which makes it really stretchy but also too thin. They are probably twice as thin as a cotton tee. I know in the summer when walking into a grocery store is like walking into a freezer cause they have the a/c so low, I may need to wear these with an open zip up hoodie or something.

Otherwise, they are great. 4/5 stars. Love the print quality but wish they were thicker. I can't wait to wear them when it warms up.