Reason why we retro

[User4703]

Its the closest you can get to time travel to what was, for a lot of people, a happier time in their life when they had a myriad of options and life was an open book in contrast to the handful of choices you can make once hemmed in by adulthood. Firing up the old computer allows you to almost be back there again as you temporarily forget how crap life really is. Anyone else off their meds?

 

[miggymad]

I'm not allowed sharp objects ... that's why all my joysticks have rounded corners and circular buttons

 

[RuneRider]

I agree with the nostalgia aspect but sadly I think I may just be ill. With so much of my computer collection as complete as I want... things have moved into a new direction. After pulling out my old Nikon film camera and really enjoying it I decided to buy the one I couldn't afford back in the day. This has spiraled into my now owning fourteen Nikon film cameras from 1959 through to 1998 with many lenses and accessories.

I can't even look in the mirror. icard

 

[RED IMPACT]

Its the closest you can get to time travel to what was, for a lot of people, a happier time in their life when they had a myriad of options and life was an open book in contrast to the handful of choices you can make once hemmed in by adulthood. Firing up the old computer allows you to almost be back there again as you temporarily forget how crap life really is. Anyone else off their meds?

^ This! I think it takes us back to simpler less stressful times.

Amiga for me was playing Pinball Fantasies, The Chaos Engine, Alien Breed long before council tax and utilities bills. The good old days of playing Theme Park for hours on a Saturday in-between homework from school while listening to Guns N' Roses on repeat with happy hardcore hour on a Sunday evening on the radio are unfortunately days long since gone by...

Anything that gets me remotely close to that, including cassettes, CD's, retro, paper are all welcome in my retro bubble.

/geek

 

[User4703]

Glad to see the level of insight and honesty on display here. I really do feel this escapism to the past is the "secret sauce" that fuels the vast majority of retro desires. Of course a lot of people caught up in this will never, ever ever ever admit this to themselves due to projection and defense mechanisms plus the underlying inference that life as it is is crap now compared to what it was. Obviously with 3 replies and 81 views there are some members up in their feels about what was said but hey ho!

 

[Sardine]

for me its the limit of space. IF I had the space, omg I would have not sold any of my stuff and have it all set out in a room ready to use.

My 486 dx4 , Pentium II voodoo 2 and PIII Tualatin Radeon 9xxx setup all stowed away, been seriously looking at Dosbian if it's wrth a shot.
I just dont have any room for a decent CRT and all my Monitors now are either HDMI or DP and 16:9
A VGA to HDMI does work but at the cost of quality as I cant afford a framemeister etc.


This is my desk right now.. What a mess but loads a fun playing on my C64 tying a newly acquired gizmo

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tapecart...ter-tn-Tapuino-SD2IEC-PI1541-C64/133442145850

Tapecart bloody brilliant and loads games faster than my Ultimate II+

Your restricted to PRG files and any multiload games would need the code altering by a Wizard.

but I also have, The C64 Maxi , a recent purchase C64X ( dual core atom in a C64 redone case ) and a Mist FPGA which does an excellent job at a C64

but......... there is no substitute for the real hardware on a CRT ( although my crt is only 9" ( no laughing please I dream of the space for a 20" PVM ) )

I over xmas dragged out my Dragon64 and the kids had loads of fun on it which gave me a warm smile to drag them away from Fortnight, Rocket League or AmongUs for at least 15 minutes

I must say time has not been kind, I fired up Thundercats, Antiriad amongst others on the C64 and I Died in an instant, I don't remember being that bad at those games but still fun.

My kids playing on my C64 again feels great.







Oh the PSU on top of the CRT is temporary just for testing, I have a new modern PSU purchased Dec 2018 ( yup that long ago ) and tried it today.

Works great but i get rolling interference on the lcd or my pvm, the old psu still works and no interference , searching the web I find its typical for this PSU on some C64's

got to find a better PSU again. Any recommendations ??

This is what I have. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B071LG4LBR

what about this one. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07YTFY2PS

 

[miggymad]

@Sardine

I have one of these powering my C64 setup. A little bit expensive but when you have a 30+ year old machine to keep alive for nights of Dropzone and Uridium mayhem , I considered it a necessary purchase. Have had no problems at all and love the OLED screen displaying the voltages

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Commodore-64-Power-Supply-C64-PSU-OLED-Digital-Touch-sensor-UK-230V-Gray/353125594069

A small review is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8fPkLG1MTo

 

[Sardine]

I'll take a look at that thanks

might have to wait I found new project ..lol..

fitting hdmi to my dragon 32 and a casduino internally ( dont shout at me )

the excellent rgb to hd ( with a pi zero ) is also not just for the amiga,,

 

[User4703]

Was reading a comment from someone who just played GTA: SA for the first time now as a teen and he commented on how much better/purer the gameplay felt than later versions even if the controls were a bit cack handed. Its interesting that when something goes from underground to mainstream a lot of what was great about it gets diluted as the plebs pour in and the money increases as things are then done by design to keep everyone on the same page whereas back when it was pretty much a free for all which sparked some real ingenuity. The most amazing thing about all of this is those of us with Amigas literally watched the modern world being born like we had a sneak preview advance screening...

 

[miggymad]

@SherlockHomeless

Back then we never relied on fancy cut scenes or highly polished graphics with rather limited gameplay of the modern console games...we just grabbed a joystick and wrecked it trying to perfect the vault in Hypersports (C64) or shooting up a docking station in Elite to get a Dangerous rating.

Happier times

 

[User4703]

My imagination is more vivid than life.

 

[miggymad]

It was the imagination of a few good men that kick-started the 8-bit and 16-bit revolution we all love today

 

[User4703]

Thats exactly it, whereas now there is a dearth of imagination everywhere due to the way the corporates play and how punters are thick as two short planks anyway. Happily lapping up last years game with a +1 and new lighting effects.

The Nintendo DS was the last time I'd ever had that wow buzz from gaming as it was something new, very rudimentary graphics but so much fun. Speaking of which check out VVVVVV, all that with a bag of chips

 

[veetya]

Its the closest you can get to time travel to what was, for a lot of people, a happier time in their life when they had a myriad of options and life was an open book in contrast to the handful of choices you can make once hemmed in by adulthood. Firing up the old computer allows you to almost be back there again as you temporarily forget how crap life really is.

Hi,
I just noticed this thread... And I'm pretty surprised about so many answers later, you said all that was about to be said, the thread can be closed

Greetz from Wild East

veetya

 

[riri]

I would just like to share my personal experience.

... Because those were the best times of my youth, times that I can only relive through Retro, part of me refuses to leave the old 80s, when I had a ZX Spectrum for the first time and my father beat me the door of the room at 4:00 am and said to turn everything off and go to sleep.
Or later (1990) when I decided to sell a Moto just to be able to buy an A500 1MB (Duck Tales), it was something with nice graphics, music and othrer things.
I started to go to work by bus, but happy, because I had an Amiga ...
Those where the times ...

If time went back, I would do everything the same way ...

 

[Powerpie5000]

Definitely takes me back to the days where things were much simpler and overall more enjoyable as a kid... Before work, bills, children and adult life in general got in the way . I've actually been rebuilding a little retro collection over the last couple of months after I pretty much sold all my old hardware years ago as I never found the time to properly enjoy it. I have a decent modern gaming PC and PS4 Pro that I play from time to time, but it's just not the same.

I've recently bought a boxed model 1 Sega Mega Drive (early version with he "Hi-Definition Graphics & Stereo Sound" text printed on it) along with an EverDrive X5 flash cart. I've also bought a nice condition Sega Saturn, SNES (the better 1 chip version) and another early Japanese Mega Drive that has unfortunately been bastardised with an RF output mod and 50Hz conversion... I will of course be reversing those pointless mods! I also bought a decent little Toshiba CRT TV that does the job as I couldn't justify spending the current prices for a Sony Trinitron or a PVM/BVM screen (prices can be eye watering for those!). I will keep my eyes peeled for another Amiga, but the prices really have ramped up over the last few years! To think I've had a couple of mint A1200's, A600's, A500 (and +) and even a CD32 with various expansions for them all until several years ago! I actually prefer not to think about it now :roll:.

 

[User4703]

Its the closest you can get to time travel to what was, for a lot of people, a happier time in their life when they had a myriad of options and life was an open book in contrast to the handful of choices you can make once hemmed in by adulthood. Firing up the old computer allows you to almost be back there again as you temporarily forget how crap life really is.

Hi,
I just noticed this thread... And I'm pretty surprised about so many answers later, you said all that was about to be said, the thread can be closed

Greetz from Wild East

veetya

I ain't saying I've got all the answers.... but I've got all the answers

If you reflect on that however it really points to such a deep seated misery with the state of existence as is that is evidently endemic in certain subcultures such as these. Worse still is how many would deny it or rail against it when in reality they are 45 year old manchildren regressing to better times for a few hours of peace and satisfaction in an otherwise shitty life.

 

[Coops]

I remember playing on the Spectrum etc with my Dad and how much fun we had, so with my kids I wanted to recreate those memories however they complain about the loading times (they even complain about the loading times on the PS4s & Xbox One's) so I try to stick to the retro consoles. I still use them as an excuse now to justify buying more games even though I have a huge pile that I still haven't played but just had a compulsion to buy and collect.

 

[miggymad]

@Coops

Just to placate the kids a little bit, maybe an investment in a divMMC for your Spectrum is the way to go

 

[Coops]

@miggymad - thanks for that, I will have to look into that.