nintendo 64

enKo Products AV to HDMI Converter Review

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With TV technology continually improving, it becomes increasingly difficult to play your old games. Many modern TVs simply don’t have the old RF or composite inputs anymore. While I still have a TV or two that does, I had no way of capturing that footage onto my computer.

After trying to use the composite functionality built into the Elgato Game Capture HD (which didn’t work for me initially), I stumbled across the option of converting a composite AV signal to HDMI. The marketplace is filled with no-name products that range wildly in price and performance, so getting one that was a right mix of both proved difficult. Eventually, I decided to go with the enKo Products AV to HDMI Converter. This proved to be a mistake.

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A Personal Retro Revival?

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I’ve always had a soft spot for the classics. Having grown up through most of the history of video games, there’s a nostalgia there that gets me in the feels every time. That said, retro gaming is not a part of my day-to-day life. I have a few retro consoles on display in an entertainment unit, with all of the games tucked away in shoe boxes in the bottom compartment.

There are numerous reasons why this is the case. For one, I like to keep up with the zeitgeist, so modern gaming takes up the vast majority of my time. Two, hooking up retro consoles to a modern TV is a huge pain. Thirdly, there was a time in my life where I used retro game collecting as a means of avoiding the harsh realities of adulthood. Once I got my mind right, collecting moved to the back burner.

Due to recent events, the classics may receive a second wind in my world.

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Missing: One Gamecube and One Nintendo 64

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Years ago, when I moved out of my parents’ house, my brother and I split our shared gaming collection. As part of the agreement, he got everything related to the Nintendo 64 and Gamecube. Recently, I went back to my old home to get that stuff, as I have the room for it now and my brother wasn’t planning on doing anything with those old games anyway. Well, at least that was the plan.

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Nintendo 64 Classic Mini on the Way?

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Nintendo has recently filed trademark applications in Europe for a number of different things, including the Nintendo 64 controller. Odd choice, as the system has been long dead. Unless…it’s set for a resurrection. Business Insider, among others, are speculating that this move coincides with Nintendo’s plans for a Nintendo 64 Classic. While I’ll be first in line if such a device were to exist, but there seems to be a number of logistical issues that Nintendo would need to work through to make this happen.

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Looking Back At Mario Golf

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When Mario’s not busy saving the princess from the clutches of Bowser, he and his friends know how to have a good time. Whether they’re racing go-karts, making the rounds on a giant board game or just beating each other up, they sure have no shortage of things to do. Mario Golf on the Nintendo 64 was their first foray on the links. In my opinion, Nintendo hit a hole-in-one with this one.

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A Look Back at F-Zero X

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When most think about the F-Zero franchise, their minds immediately head towards the Super Nintendo original. There’s no shame in that, as the original F-Zero is a classic. For me, when I hear the name, my head speeds towards my fond memories of the Nintendo 64 sequel F-Zero X. Though I feel it was highly overlooked, it was easily one of my favourite games on that system and one of my favourite racing games of all-time.

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A Look Back at WCW vs. NWO World Tour

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Before WCW vs. NWO World Tour, wrestling video games were very basic. Wrestlers were cartoony, move sets were limited and they primarily offered an arcade-like experience. For video game players of that time, this genre of game was fun for what it was. However, the genre definitely was lacking in the (dare I say it) realism department. As a wrestling fan at the time, I was disappointed in the fact that most of the games in the genre had only a handful of characters, a single shared move list across all characters except for finishers, and limited use of weapons (if there were weapons at all). I wanted to play a wrestling game that felt more like I was actually playing a WWF match, rather than playing a beat-em-up that just so happens to take place inside a wrestling ring.

Then I played WCW vs. NWO World Tour.

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The ESRB and My Video Game Collection

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Last year, my 7 year-old cousin at the time discovered Modern Warfare 2 through my 12 year-old cousin. Ever since that day, my now 8 year-old cousin has become enamored with the Mature-rated Call of Duty series. For him, Modern Warfare 2 was his Mortal Kombat; it was his gateway drug to Mature-rated games. As of now, he owns Conflict: Denied Ops and Sniper: Ghost Warrior, which he brags about being M-rated all the time.

I didn’t bring this anecdote up to talk about parenting. I don’t approve of him playing content I would deem inappropriate for him and I do what I can to keep that stuff away. The reason I bring this up though, is because my 8 year-old cousin now views that M rating as a symbol of cool. He loves the fact that he owns games that he knows he’s too young to be playing. They’re his forbidden fruit and he’ll take anything he can get at this point.

All of this made me think about my video game collection and how it relates to the ESRB. Once upon a time, the Mortal Kombat series was my forbidden fruit. Did my catalogue of games evolve in relation to the ESRB guidelines or did I overdose on forbidden fruit? I do the math to answer these questions and highlight any insights regarding gaming as I grew up.

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Ocarina of Time: Timeless

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1998 was a monumental year for gaming. Metal Gear Solid rocked the faces of Playstation One owners, while Half-Life revolutionized first-person shooters and the single-player experience on the PC. I’m sure there are other examples of gaming brilliance I can discuss, but the one I want to talk about here may be the most important game to come out of 1998. It played a major role in revolutionizing 3D gaming and to many, still stands as the gold standard of this entire medium.

I’m not here to debate its place in the pantheon of video games. What I am here to say is, the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time left an impact on me in 1998 that I still feel today.

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Near-Perfect For It’s Time

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It was the year 2000. Clutching my pre-order receipt that I’ve been in possession of for over a year, I went down to the local video game store to pick up my copy of Perfect Dark. Its spiritual predecessor, Goldeneye, blew my mind with a great single player campaign and at the time, God-like multiplayer. I must have put in hundreds of hours into that game, easily. Everything from trying to unlock all of the cheats in single player to all-out assaults on my friends and loved ones in multiplayer. Looking back, Goldeneye is one of those games that defined that whole generation of gaming.

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