Friday, March 04, 2016

Game Diary: Rapturous Retro

It's been a couple of weeks since my last video, so this weekend I will definitely try and put something together for all of you.  The next episode of the C64 review show is partially completed already, so that's the most likely candidate.  I am thinking that I may change the way I do my C64 reviews though, and just do one game per episode.  When I do four games with music interspersed throughout, that takes a lot of time to produce, and I have to say often at the end of a long week the enthusiasm just isn't there to spend most of my weekend making them.  By focusing on just one game I would be able to release episodes much more frequently and it would be more fun too.

I recently picked up a nifty little gadget that should also assist in my video making endeavours.  A few weekends ago, I received an email from the UK gadget supplier Funstock, where they were announcing that they had a whole bunch of stuff available at half price because they were refurbished.  Amongst the stuff on sale was a JXD S7800B, which is a powerful Android based tablet with physical controls.  After watching half a dozen or so reviews of it on YouTube, I was very impressed with what I saw.  This thing is powerful enough to emulate consoles all the way up to consoles like the N64, PS1 and Dreamcast!  The Dreamcast emulation isn't perfect but it is possible to get the majority of games running in at least a playable state, with a few graphical glitches here and there.  My eyes lit up at the prospect of playing Skies of Arcadia on the go and so I ordered one!



When it arrived, there was a bit of a problem - Funstock had neglected to check the product properly before sending it out and a few vital cables were missing, namely the charger and the USB data cable. Having heard bad things about the regular charger, I managed to find a USB version online and ordered that.  I do have everything I need now though and my JXD is now loaded up with emulators and games for the C64, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, NES, SNES, N64, PS1, Game Gear, Master System, Megadrive, Neo Geo Pocket, Neo Geo MVS, MAME and of course the Dreamcast.  I've been getting used to it over the past week and enjoying a variety of games including Earthbound, Streets of Rage and of course Skies of Arcadia. My dream of playing my favourite RPG on a handheld system is a reality!  Of course if Sega ever do decide to release a legitimate port of the game on the 3DS, Vita or any future handheld I will buy it, but I think the chances of that happening are pretty slim unfortunately.

Anyway, because the JXD has HDMI out built in, I am thinking that I will use it to capture footage of all sorts of retro games.  The picture quality of the C64 games should be noticeably better this way, in theory.  I have heard that I may need to replace the version of Android that comes installed on the JXD with a more recent version though, because the one on the machine runs at 66hz and all the emulators and games run at 60hz.  This isn't a problem in normal usage, but it creates all sorts of issues when you plug the system into a TV - namely horrible input lag and a chugging frame rate.  It's a pain that I have to go through this process in the first place, but the effort of upgrading should be worth it in the long run.  If all goes well, I will then start to use the JXD to make capture the C64 games. During the week on my commutes I will continue to play various games until I get a good feel for one and can put together a review.

During my first attempt at creating content on YouTube, about 5 or 6 years ago, I made 5 or so videos under the title Nintendo Night. These are pretty poor quality efforts because they were made by pointing an iPhone 3GS at my TV - I didn't have a proper capture card at the time.  I'm thinking of resurrecting this series under the title of Nintendo Night Neo, and using the JXD to discover / capture the games.  I could also do something similar with the Sega machines of course!  Picking up the JXD S7800B has really reignited my passion for retro gaming, and for making YouTube videos about them.  I would be interested to hear any suggestions of games that you think I should check out for any of the systems that I listed above.  Keep an eye open for the C64 Review Show Episode 3 at some point over the next week, and in the meantime, take care!

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