Retro Gaming loves my OCD tendencies

One of the black holes that I’ve been falling into lately is trying to figure out how best to play old game consoles (basically, anything pre HD) on modern televisions. Anyone who’s tried to play a Saturn game on a 4k TV knows how it basically looks like someone dumped a bunch of pixels into a blender and that poured that smoothie onto the screen. From what I’ve heard, buying a late model cathode TV is the most faithful, but that’s a level I haven’t resigned myself to yet.

So I’m testing a bunch of different options to see how they look: 4K TV directly, 4K through a newer system digital download (downloading a PSOne classic on a PS3, for example), an older smaller LCD TV, Nvidia Shield, Computer emulation (PCSX2), little LCD screen attachments (think PSOne screen), and even PSP (older but emulation robust) and PS Vita (better screen, limited selection of titles) respectively.

At the end of the day, I feel there has to be a better way then all of these things. Raspberry Pi emulation seems to be the preferred method for most. But a massive data dump of games is also what I want to avoid. And so as a way to support my ever-sickening video game collecting habit, I try to own the original game (even though I’m well aware the developer doesn’t make any money off of me buying it used). So slowly but surely, I’ll be testing these things out and reporting on them with all the accuracy and unnecessary depth of a grown man putting off doing something more important like cooking or raking leaves or auto maintenance.   

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SeeInBytes

Owen is a writer based out of Denver and currently preparing his first novel PUSH PULL for publication. In the meantime, feel free to explore his meandering thoughts, movie and videogame op-eds and situational playlists. If you know him from another life, this is a chance for exposure to his creative endeavors. www.owensader.com