Inspired by reclaiming a bunch of my old retro games from my parents’ house, I decided to dip my toe back into the world of retro game collecting. While I never had any motivations to build a massive library filled with complete collections of games, I did have a very specific criteria in mind so that I don’t fall down the rabbit hole. So far, the process of collecting has moved rather slowly.
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My history with this particular branch of the franchise is murky at best. I adore the first game, but haven’t really spent much time with the rest. I still have the first six X games on the last collection for Gamecube, but maybe I’ll double dip to get it on a modern platform.
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A far cry from Turtles in Time, I was incensed by the banality of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles demo on the Gamecube. Was this really supposed to inspire someone to buy the game?
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Part of my push towards video included retro games. I want to be able to broadcast and capture video from old classics. For quite some time, I struggled with the technical logistics of getting my computer to read analog signals. Eventually, I figured it out. Or so I thought.
Everybody knows Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda. But do you know Air Fortress? The subject of this feature is an NES hidden gem you probably have never heard of. Check it out!
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Save for a brief moment in time when video game collecting was a coping mechanism for the harsh realities of adulthood, video game collecting has been more of a side-effect of being a gaming enthusiast. I bought what I wanted and didn’t really let stuff go. After moving into a house and getting a bunch of my brother and I’s Nintendo 64 and Gamecube stuff, I’m currently sitting on a pretty decent collection that looks really cool in my display units.
Now that I have all of this stuff back in my possession and a gaming setup that can capture and stream these old games, it has the gears in my head turning. What if I could build on this even further? What if I could make this the gaming collection of my dreams? Before I potentially veer deep into the game collecting rabbit hole, here are some of my thoughts before making the jump.
What better way to start NES streaming than with one of the console’s greatest games that hasn’t really made its presence felt on modern platforms? Let’s blaze through Contra!
…with the Konami code, of course.
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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 HDÂ (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.
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.
In Third Person 