So Jerry and I have been having an argument now for the past several months over playing retro video games on vintage hardware vs. emulators with reproduction controllers. I argue that emulators are obviously cheaper and take up less space. Also, if you’re using a proper reproduction USB controller then the original spirit of the game is intact. Jerry on the other hand is a purist and believes that retro games should be played on original hardware with original software. Part of the reason that I stood by my reasoning for backing emulation 100% is that I lost my NES, GameBoy, and Atari 2600 with all of their games years ago. Now, I didn’t lose them like I did my PS2 in a robbery or sold them on eBay — I simply can’t find them in the house. >_< I've been looking for years and I just can't find them. I know they are here, but where is beyond me. Today I decided to draw a line in the sand and find my shit! I marched upstairs into the attic with a flashlight shortly after 2:10pm and vowed to find something come Hell or high water. After about 30 minutes, I was one happy geek. Not only did I find all of my gaming hardware and software, but I found a lot more as well! I found all of my old vintage Transformers, some action figures I have been looking for, and ironically a model of Ecto-1 that I almost bought this past weekend. (I never even knew I had one!) Along with those finds, I also found some retro gaming product from the old days of The Import Project. So let’s do a little show-and-tell shall we….
This is the old stock from The Import Project that I found. These items are all brand new and in sealed packages. I’m on the fence if I should hang onto these items or sell them. While I could maybe get a decent price for them on eBay, with me really getting into retro gaming I could really use these items in the future. Plus I still have some seller’s remorse from when I sold a brand new in-box Super Nintendo a few years ago.
Here is my original, 1980s vintage G1 Optimus Prime. Of all the things I own my Transformers are one thing I will NEVER sell.
I even found my original 1980s Voltron! This is the re-issue they did that had the figures of the pilots that went into each lion. Sadly, I do not have the figures anymore. But when I was talking to the vendor where I bought my Optimus Prime, Huffer, and Winston Zeddemore last weekend he has the same version except his is missing some pieces like the canopies. Not mine! I even have the Blazing Sword and throwing star thingy.
After dinner, I decided it was time to hook up the NES and show Jack what gaming on vintage hardware was like. When I hooked it up, I just used the RF output since I wasn’t even 100% sure that it still worked after over a decade in storage. After a lot of pulling and prodding, I finally got it to work. Jack ended up playing some Super Mario Bros. and Batman.
After the kids went to bed, I looked online about how to properly clean the inside of a NES since I was still having a very hard time getting games to run. All of the issues seemed to boil down to the 72-pin connector. I watched some videos about cleaning and refurbishing the connector, and some about just outright replacing it. Since I would have to order a new connector and wait for it to be delivered, I figured I had nothing to lose by trying to refurbish it myself. After about 30 minutes of work I reconnected the NES to the TV, this time with proper composite cables, and threw in a game. Boom! The game worked on the first try! I went thru a few more games and all of them worked without issue. My only problem is that when I re-bent the pins to make a better connection during the cleaning process, I bent them a little too much and it’s a bit difficult to get a game in and out of the unit. I’m going to fix that maybe tomorrow by opening it back up and bending down some of the higher pins. Other then that though, she works like a charm!
So have I changed my position on vintage hardware vs. emulation? Kind of. I still am going to use emulation but now that I have some vintage hardware, I can see me starting to pick up some of my favorite games to have as physical copies. It’s a good thing I don’t have an obsessive personality.
o_O
My God, what have I done?!?
