History Main / RetroGaming

The second perennial question for retro gamers is "real hardware versus emulators", generally a question of authentic look and feel opposed to the convenience of having 10,000 games for a dozen systems available at your fingertips. Earlier systems relied on effects caused by the fuzziness inherent in their output to allow the illusion of more colours on screen and smoother transitions between colours than was strictly possible for the hardware, meaning that an emulator may not show a retro video game as the makers intended. Some very old systems are nearly impossible to emulate, as they were based on analog systems. Or may use hardware that may not be emulated at the moment. For example, for someone who grew up with a computer with a particular sound card[[note]]Particularly, the [=SoundBlaster=] AWE series, which due to bias by the main programmers of DOSBox who thinks that the Gravis [=UltraSound=] is vastly superior, will probably not see emulation in official releases of the software[[/note]], not having the sound card emulated in DOSBox is a good enough reason to go and splash money on the hardware route for some because "the game will not sound like how I remembered it".[[note]]This is especially true with sound hardware, due to the numerous clones of the [=SoundBlaster=]- the most mainstream card in the market- back in the 90s, and how the chipsets of these clones have quirks and slight variances in sound quality compared to the real deal. Put simply, no two clones sound the same, or anything like the real deal for that matter. However it also applies to display cards to a certain extent. An [=SiS=] card will have video quirks that are otherwise not present in an S3 or a Cirrus Logic card, for example.[[/note]] Also, sometimes action games don't work as well in emulation, due to various factors that can contribute to input/output latency[[note]]the original Videogame/FZero, for instance, can be noticeably more difficult in emulation due to lag, and if played that way too much can actually retrain a formerly-skilled player [[DamnYouMuscleMemory to the point of driving into walls]] on the real thing[[/note]]; this is often made worse by attempts to sync the screen refresh to that of the monitor in order to avoid tearing and juddering. On the flip side, plugging an old console (or a modern console, for that matter) into a modern TV can also add significant lag due to image processing, depending on the TV and its settings.

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<<|VideogameCulture|>>

An interest in playing older video games. Retro games have had an upswing in interest in the last 10 years as the average gamer gets older, and computers have become sufficiently powerful to [[{{Emulation}} emulate]] earlier systems at full speed.

The second perennial question for retro gamers is "real hardware versus emulators", generally a question of authentic look and feel opposed to the convenience of having 10,000 games for a dozen systems available at your fingertips. Earlier systems relied on effects caused by the fuzziness inherent in their output to allow the illusion of more colours on screen and smoother transitions between colours than was strictly possible for the hardware, meaning that an emulator may not show a retro video game as the makers intended. Some very old systems are nearly impossible to emulate, as they were based on analog systems. Or may use hardware that may not be emulated at the moment. For example, for someone who grew up with a computer with a particular sound card[[note]]Particularly, the [=SoundBlaster=] AWE series, which due to bias by the main programmers of DOSBox who thinks that the Gravis [=UltraSound=] is vastly superior, will probably not see emulation in official releases of the software[[/note]], not having the sound card emulated in DOSBox is a good enough reason to go and splash money on the hardware route for some because "the game will not sound like how I remembered it".[[note]]This is especially true with sound hardware, due to the numerous clones of the [=SoundBlaster=]- the most mainstream card in the market- back in the 90s, and how the chipsets of these clones have quirks and slight variances in sound quality compared to the real deal. Put simply, no two clones sound the same, or anything like the real deal for that matter. However it also applies to display cards to a certain extent. An [=SiS=] card will have video quirks that are otherwise not present in an S3 or a Cirrus Logic card, for example.[[/note]] Also, sometimes action games don't work as well in emulation, due to various factors that can contribute to input/output latency[[note]]the original Videogame/FZero, for instance, can be noticeably more difficult in emulation due to lag, and if played that way too much can actually retrain a formerly-skilled player [[DamnYouMuscleMemory to the point of driving into walls]] on the real thing[[/note]]; this is often made worse by attempts to sync the screen refresh to that of the monitor in order to avoid tearing and juddering. On the flip side, plugging an old console (or a modern console, for that matter) into a modern TV can also add significant lag due to image processing, depending on the TV and its settings...

The second perennial question for retro gamers is "real hardware versus emulators", generally a question of authentic look and feel opposed to the convenience of having 10,000 games for a dozen systems available at your fingertips. Earlier systems relied on effects caused by the fuzziness inherent in their output to allow the illusion of more colours on screen and smoother transitions between colours than was strictly possible for the hardware, meaning that an emulator may not show a retro video game as the makers intended. Some very old systems are nearly impossible to emulate, as they were based on analog systems. Or may use hardware that may not be emulated at the moment. For example, for someone who grew up with a computer with a particular sound card[[note]]Particularly, the [=SoundBlaster=] AWE series, which due to bias by the main programmers of DOSBox who thinks that the Gravis [=UltraSound=] is vastly superior, will probably not see emulation in official releases of the software[[/note]], not having the sound card emulated in DOSBox is a good enough reason to go and splash money on the hardware route for some because "the game will not sound like how I remembered it".[[note]]This is especially true with sound hardware, due to the numerous clones of the [=SoundBlaster=]- the most mainstream card in the market- back in the 90s, and how the chipsets of these clones have quirks and slight variances in sound quality compared to the real deal. Put simply, no two clones sound the same, or anything like the real deal for that matter. However it also applies to display cards to a certain extent. An [=SiS=] card will have video quirks that are otherwise not present in an S3 or a Cirrus Logic card, for example.[[/note]] Also, sometimes action games don't work as well in emulation, due to various factors that can contribute to input/output latency[[note]]the original Videogame/FZero, for instance, can be noticeably more difficult in emulation due to lag, and if played that way too much can actually retrain a formerly-skilled player [[DamnYouMuscleMemory to the point of driving into walls]] on the real thing[[/note]]; this is often made worse by attempts to sync the screen refresh to that of the monitor in order to avoid tearing and juddering.

There are now museums set up around the world dedicated to capturing the history and examples of the early years of videogaming. Much like early DoctorWho tapes, videogame development was thought of as disposable, and little to no effort was made to conserve source code, original artwork and other associated products of the process, with games as recent as VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI having all its development resources lost. Further, early (and not so early) storage media are notoriously unreliable, and efforts are being made to transfer early digital artifacts into more stable form.

The second perennial question for retro gamers is "real hardware versus emulators", generally a question of authentic look and feel opposed to the convenience of having 10,000 games for a dozen systems available at your fingertips. Earlier systems relied on effects caused by the fuzziness inherent in their output to allow the illusion of more colours on screen and smoother transitions between colours than was strictly possible for the hardware, meaning that an emulator may not show a retro video game as the makers intended. Some very old systems are nearly impossible to emulate, as they were based on analog systems. Or may use hardware that may not be emulated at the moment. For example, for someone who grew up with a computer with a particular sound card[[note]]Particularly, the [=SoundBlaster=] AWE series, which due to bias by the main programmers of DOSBox who thinks that the Gravis [=UltraSound=] is vastly superior, will probably not see emulation in official releases of the software[[/note]], not having the sound card emulated in DOSBox is a good enough reason to go and splash money on the hardware route for some because "the game will not sound like how I remembered it".[[note]]This is especially true with sound hardware, due to the numerous clones of the [=SoundBlaster=]- the most mainstream card in the market- back in the 90s, and how the chipsets of these clones have quirks and slight variances in sound quality compared to the real deal. Put simply, no two clones sound the same, or anything like the real deal for that matter. However it also applies to display cards to a certain extent. An [=SiS=] card will have video quirks that are otherwise not present in an S3 or a Cirrus Logic card, for example.[[/note]]

The second perennial question for retro gamers is "real hardware versus emulators", generally a question of authentic look and feel opposed to the convenience of having 10,000 games for a dozen systems available at your fingertips. Earlier systems relied on effects caused by the fuzziness inherent in their output to allow the illusion of more colours on screen and smoother transitions between colours than was strictly possible for the hardware, meaning that an emulator may not show a retro video game as the makers intended. Some very old systems are nearly impossible to emulate, as they were based on analog systems. Or may use hardware that may not be emulated at the moment. For example, for someone who grew up with a computer with a particular sound card[[note]]Particularly, the [=SoundBlaster=] AWE series, which due to bias by the main programmers of DOSBox who thinks that the Gravid [=UltraSound=] is vastly superior, will probably not see emulation in official releases of the software[[/note]], not having the sound card emulated in DOSBox is a good enough reason to go and splash money on the hardware route for some because "the game will not sound like how I remembered it".[[note]]This is especially true with sound hardware, due to the numerous clones of the [=SoundBlaster=]- the most mainstream card in the market- back in the 90s, and how the chipsets of these clones have quirks and slight variances in sound quality compared to the real deal. Put simply, no two clones sound the same, or anything like the real deal for that matter. However it also applies to display cards to a certain extent. An [=SiS=] card will have video quirks that are otherwise not present in an S3 or a Cirrus Logic card, for example.[[/note]]

There are now museums set up around the world dedicated to capturing the history and examples of the early years of videogaming. Much like early DoctorWho tapes, early videogame developments were thought of as disposable, and little to no effort was made to conserve source code, original artwork and other associated products of the process. Further, early (and not so early) storage media are notoriously unreliable, and efforts are being made to transfer early digital artifacts into more stable form.

The second perennial question for retro gamers is "real hardware versus emulators", generally a question of authentic look and feel opposed to the convenience of having 10,000 games for a dozen systems available at your fingertips. Earlier systems relied on effects caused by the fuzziness inherent in their output to allow the illusion of more colours on screen and smoother transitions between colours than was strictly possible for the hardware, meaning that an emulator may not show a retro video game as the makers intended. Some very old systems are nearly impossible to emulate, as they were based on analog systems. Or may use hardware that may not be emulated at the moment. For example, for someone who grew up with a computer with a particular sound card[[note]]Particularly, the [=SoundBlaster=] AWE series, which due to bias by the main programmers of DOSBox who thinks that the Gravid [=UltraSound=] is vastly superior, will probably not see emulation in official releases of the software[[/note]], not having the sound card emulated in DOSBox is a good enough reason to go and splash money on the hardware route for some because "the game will not sound like how I remembered it".[[note]]This is especially true with sound hardware, due to the numerous clones of the [=SoundBlaster=]- the most mainstream card in the market- back in the 90s, and how the chipsets of these clones have quirks and slight variances in sound quality compared to the real deal. Put simply, no two clones sound the same, or anything like the real deal for that matter. However it also applies to display cards to a certain extent. A SiS card will have video quirks that are otherwise not present in an S3 or a Cirrus Logic card, for example.[[/note]]

The second perennial question for retro gamers is "real hardware versus emulators", generally a question of authentic look and feel opposed to the convenience of having 10,000 games for a dozen systems available at your fingertips. Earlier systems relied on effects caused by the fuzziness inherent in their output to allow the illusion of more colours on screen and smoother transitions between colours than was strictly possible for the hardware, meaning that an emulator may not show a retro video game as the makers intended. Some very old systems are nearly impossible to emulate, as they were based on analog systems. Or may use hardware that may not be emulated at the moment. For example, for someone who grew up with a computer with a particular sound card[[note]]Particularly, the [=SoundBlaster=] AWE series, which due to bias by the main programmers of DOSBox who thinks that the Gravid [=UltraSound=] is vastly superior, will probably not see emulation in official releases of the software[[/note]], not having the sound card emulated in DOSBox is a good enough reason to go and splash money on the hardware route for some because "the game will not sound like how I remembered it".[[note]]This is especially true with sound hardware, due to the numerous clones of the [=SoundBlaster=]- the most mainstream card in the market- back in the 90s, and how the chipsets of these clones have quirks and slight variances in sound quality compared to the real deal. Put simply, no two clones sound the same, or anything like the real deal for that matter. However it also applies to display cards to a certain extent. A Tseng Labs 4000 will have video quirks that are otherwise not present in the S3 3D Virge or an [=ATi=] Rage Pro, for example.[[/note]]

The second perennial question for retro gamers is "real hardware versus emulators", generally a question of authentic look and feel opposed to the convenience of having 10,000 games for a dozen systems available at your fingertips. Earlier systems relied on effects caused by the fuzziness inherent in their output to allow the illusion of more colours on screen and smoother transitions between colours than was strictly possible for the hardware, meaning that an emulator may not show a retro video game as the makers intended. Some very old systems are nearly impossible to emulate, as they were based on analog systems. Or may use hardware that may not be emulated at the moment. For example, for someone who grew up with a computer with a particular sound card[[note]]Particularly, the [=SoundBlaster=] AWE series, which due to bias by the main programmers of DOSBox who thinks that the Gravid [=UltraSound=] is vastly superior, will probably not see emulation in official releases of the software[[/note]], not having the sound card emulated in DOSBox is a good enough reason to go and splash money on the hardware route for some because "the game will not sound like how I remembered it".[[note]]This is especially true with sound hardware, due to the numerous clones of the [=SoundBlaster=]- the most mainstream card in the market- back in the 90s, and how the chipsets of these clones have quirks and slight variances in sound quality compared to the real deal. Put simply, no two clones sound the same, or anything like the real deal for that matter.[[/note]]

The second perennial question for retro gamers is "real hardware versus emulators", generally a question of authentic look and feel opposed to the convenience of having 10,000 games for a dozen systems available at your fingertips. Earlier systems relied on effects caused by the fuzziness inherent in their output to allow the illusion of more colours on screen and smoother transitions between colours than was strictly possible for the hardware, meaning that an emulator may not show a retro video game as the makers intended. Some very old systems are nearly impossible to emulate, as they were based on analog systems. Or may use hardware that may not be emulated at the moment. For example, for someone who grew up with a computer with a particular sound card[[note]]Particularly, the [=SoundBlaster=] AWE series, which due to bias by the main programmers of DOSBox who thinks that the Gravid [=UltraSound=] is vastly superior, will probably not see emulation in official releases of the software[[/note]], not having the sound card emulated in DOSBox is a good enough reason to go and splash money on the hardware route because "the game will not sound like how I remembered it".[[note]]This is especially true with sound hardware, due to the numerous clones of the [=SoundBlaster=]- the most mainstream card in the market- back in the 90s, and how the chipsets of these clones have quirks and slight variances in sound quality compared to the real deal. Put simply, no two clones sound the same, or anything like the real deal for that matter.[[/note]]

The second perennial question for retro gamers is "real hardware versus emulators", generally a question of authentic look and feel opposed to the convenience of having 10,000 games for a dozen systems available at your fingertips. Earlier systems relied on effects caused by the fuzziness inherent in their output to allow the illusion of more colours on screen and smoother transitions between colours than was strictly possible for the hardware, meaning that an emulator may not show a retro video game as the makers intended. Some very old systems are nearly impossible to emulate, as they were based on analog systems. Or may use hardware that may not be emulated at the moment. For example, for someone who grew up with a computer with a particular sound card[[note]]Particularly, the [=SoundBlaster=] AWE series, which due to bias by the main programmers of DOSBox who thinks that the Gravid [=UltraSound=] is vastly superior, will probably not see emulation in official releases of the software[[/note]], not having the sound card emulated in DOSBox is a good enough reason to go and splash money on the hardware route because "the game will not sound like how I remembered it".[[note]]This is especially true with sound hardware, due to the numerous clones of the [=SoundBlaster=]- the most mainstream card in the market- back in the 90s, and how the chipsets of these clones have quirks and slight variances in sound quality compared to the real deal. Put simply, no two clones sound the same.[[/note]]

The second perennial question for retro gamers is "real hardware versus emulators", generally a question of authentic look and feel opposed to the convenience of having 10,000 games for a dozen systems available at your fingertips. Earlier systems relied on effects caused by the fuzziness inherent in their output to allow the illusion of more colours on screen and smoother transitions between colours than was strictly possible for the hardware, meaning that an emulator may not show a retro video game as the makers intended. Some very old systems are nearly impossible to emulate, as they were based on analog systems. Or may use hardware that may not be emulated at the moment. For example, for someone who grew up with a computer with a particular sound card[[note]]Particularly, the [=SoundBlaster=] AWE series, which due to bias by the main programmers of DOSBox who thinks that the Gravid [=UltraSound=] is vastly superior, will probably not see emulation in official releases of the software[[/note]] not having the sound card emulated in DOSBox is a good enough reason to go and splash money on the hardware route because "the game will not sound like how I remembered it".[[note]]This is especially true with sound hardware, due to the numerous clones of the [=SoundBlaster=]- the most mainstream card in the market- back in the 90s, and how the chipsets of these clones have quirks and slight variances in sound quality compared to the real deal. Put simply, no two clones sound the same.[[/note]]

The second perennial question for retro gamers is "real hardware versus emulators", generally a question of authentic look and feel opposed to the convenience of having 10,000 games for a dozen systems available at your fingertips. Earlier systems relied on effects caused by the fuzziness inherent in their output to allow the illusion of more colours on screen and smoother transitions between colours than was strictly possible for the hardware, meaning that an emulator may not show a retro video game as the makers intended. Some very old systems are nearly impossible to emulate, as they were based on analog systems. Or may use hardware that may not be emulated at the moment. For example, for someone who grew up with a computer with a particular sound card[[note]]Particularly, the [=SoundBlaster=] AWE series, which due to bias by the main programmers of DOSBox who thinks that the Gravid [=UltraSound=] is vastly superior, will probably not see emulation in official releases of the software[[/note]] not having the sound card emulated in DOSBox is a good enough reason to go and splash money on the hardware route because "the game will not sound like how I remembered it"[[note]]This is especially true with sound hardware, due to the numerous clones of the [=SoundBlaster=]- the most mainstream card in the market- back in the 90s, and how the chipsets of these clones have quirks and slight variances in sound quality compared to the real deal. Put simply, no two clones sound the same[[/notes]].

The second perennial question for retro gamers is "real hardware versus emulators", generally a question of authentic look and feel opposed to the convenience of having 10,000 games for a dozen systems available at your fingertips. Earlier systems relied on effects caused by the fuzziness inherent in their output to allow the illusion of more colours on screen and smoother transitions between colours than was strictly possible for the hardware, meaning that an emulator may not show a retro video game as the makers intended. Some very old systems are nearly impossible to emulate, as they were based on analog systems. Or may use hardware that may not be emulated at the moment. For example, for someone who grew up with a computer with a particular sound card[[note]]Particularly, the [=SoundBlaster=] AWE series, which due to bias by the main programmers of DOSBox who thinks that the Gravid [=UltraSound=] is vastly superior, will probably not see emulation in official releases of the software[[/note]] not having the sound card emulated in DOSBox is a good enough reason to go and splash money on the hardware route because "the game will not sound like how I remembered it".

The second perennial question for retro gamers is "real hardware versus emulators", generally a question of authentic look and feel opposed to the convenience of having 10,000 games for a dozen systems available at your fingertips. Earlier systems relied on effects caused by the fuzziness inherent in their output to allow the illusion of more colours on screen and smoother transitions between colours than was strictly possible for the hardware, meaning that an emulator may not show a retro video game as the makers intended. Some very old systems are nearly impossible to emulate, as they were based on analog systems. Or may use hardware that may not be emulated at the moment. For example, for someone who grew up with a computer with a particular sound card[[note]]Particularly, the [=SoundBlaster=] AWE series, which due to bias by the main programmers of DOSBox who thinks that the Gravid [=UltraSound=] is vastly superior, will probably not see emulation in official releases of the software[[/note]] not having the sound card emulated in DOSBox is a good enough reason to go and splash money on the hardware route.

The second perennial question for retro gamers is "real hardware versus emulators", generally a question of authentic look and feel opposed to the convenience of having 10,000 games for a dozen systems available at your fingertips. Earlier systems relied on effects caused by the fuzziness inherent in their output to allow the illusion of more colours on screen and smoother transitions between colours than was strictly possible for the hardware, meaning that an emulator may not show a retro video game as the makers intended. Some very old systems are nearly impossible to emulate, as they were based on analog systems. Or may use hardware that may not be emulated at the moment. For example, for someone who grew up with a computer with a particular sound card[[note]]Particularly, the [=SoundBlaster=] AWE series, which due to bias by the main programmers of DOSBox, will probably not see emulation in official releases of the software[[/note]] not having the sound card emulated in DOSBox is a good enough reason to go and splash money on the hardware route.

The second perennial question for retro gamers is "real hardware versus emulators", generally a question of authentic look and feel opposed to the convenience of having 10,000 games for a dozen systems available at your fingertips. Earlier systems relied on effects caused by the fuzziness inherent in their output to allow the illusion of more colours on screen and smoother transitions between colours than was strictly possible for the hardware, meaning that an emulator may not show a retro video game as the makers intended. Some very old systems are nearly impossible to emulate, as they were based on analog systems. Or may use hardware that may not be emulated at the moment. For example, for someone who grew up with a computer with a particular sound card, not having the sound card emulated in DosBox is a good enough reason to go the hardware route.

The second perennial question for retro gamers is "real hardware versus emulators", generally a question of authentic look and feel opposed to the convenience of having 10,000 games for a dozen systems available at your fingertips. Earlier systems relied on effects caused by the fuzziness inherent in their output to allow the illusion of more colours on screen and smoother transitions between colours than was strictly possible for the hardware, meaning that an emulator may not show a retro video game as the makers intended. Some very old systems are nearly impossible to emulate, as they were based on analog systems.

[[http://hotud.org Home of the Underdogs]] is a 'digital museum' of underappreciated games, the vast majority of which are fifteen to twenty years old. (It's previous incarnation at http://www.underdogs.net/info became defunct a few years ago due to an apparent lack of funding.)

There are now museums set up around the world dedicated to capturing the history and examples of the early years of videogaming. Much like early DoctorWho tapes, early videogame developments were thought of as disposable, and little to no effort was made to conserve source code, original artwork and other associated products of the process. Further, early (and not so early) storage media are notoriously unreliable, and efforts are being made to transfer early digital artifacts into mmore stable form.

The second perennial question for retro gamers is "real hardware versus emulators", generally a question of authentic look and feel opposed to the convenience of having 10,000 games for a dozen systems available at your fingertips. Earlier systems relied on effects caused by the fuzziness inherent in their output to allow the illusion of more colours on screen and smoother transitions between colours than was strictly possible for the hardware, meaning that an emulator may not show a retro video game as the makers intended. Some very old systems are literally impossible to emulate, as they used based on analog systems.

The second perennial question for retro gamers is "real hardware versus emulators", generally a question of authentic look and feel opposed to the convenience of having 10,000 games for a dozen systems available at your fingertips. Earlier systems relied on effects caused by the fuzziness inherent in their output to allow the illusion of more colours on screen and smoother transitions between colours than was strictly possible for the hardware, meaning that an emulator may not show a retro video game as the makers intended.

The Home of the Underdogs (www.underdogs.net/info) was once a 'digital museum' of underappreciated games, the vast majority of which are fifteen to twenty years old; unfortunately, [=HotU=] is now defunct due to an apparent lack of funding; the games featured on the site are no longer linked for download, and bring up a '404' error page. However, the site has now returned at www.hotud.org

The first perennial question for retro gaming is, "What counts as retro?". Diehard older retro gamers may insist that only pre-[[TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983 crash]] games and systems count, while more liberal definitions have a moving point of retro as any system at least 10 years old. Most people seem to pin their preferred retro gaming system to "[[NostalgiaFilter whatever I was playing when I was 12]]".