NES Mini - Specs are OUT

Interesting, there's a panel on the back of the console. USB controller ports are in the front, so it's not that. Hopefully, there's a slot for memory card, to load/play additional games.


On second thought, it might just be aesthetics to make it look like the original, since i believe the original console had this panel.

PS1 games were on CD's, then PS2 used DVD's (as did original Xbox). CD's hold up to maybe around 700mb of data at most AFAIK. Might be another reason they only put 20 games on it, more storage space might have driven up the cost.

Funny enough, they were still putting PC games on (usually multiple) CD's while the PS2 and Xbox were around using DVD's for their games. There is only one PC game I know of that was available on DVD around that time, which was Wing Commander IV. The cutscenes had much better video quality compared to the CD version (which I own). The DVD version was extremely limited and very hard to find, though you can sometimes find them on ebay now. I gave up trying to find a copy of it years ago, ended up downloading the DVD version from somewhere. Was even able to get it running in windows 7 but it had some color palette issues.

I remember they released a patch for the CD-DOS game to make it compatible with Windows 95/98, it was great because it gave it DirectInput support, which meant joystick didn't have to be calibrated in-game anymore. it also lets you run the game in a window.

N64 games have aged well too, I still find some of them enjoyable.

You can make PS1 games look a lot better in emulators. PGXP changes the underlying graphics engine so that you can get smooth lines and less shaking like on original hardware. Also as of 2018 there are cheat codes you can enter that unlock 60 fps gameplay for a lot of games

I can only compare it to original PS1 game discs when run on the PS3 and the PS1 classics on the PS3 and the 3D games look rough, even with smoothed out textures. If they do increase the resolution, that would certainly make it a whole lot better compared to the 240p res of the original. That looked already jaggerific on a CRT back in the day.

They won't. The idea behind these retro consoles is to duplicate the look & feel of the old consoles. Nintendo has done a superb job of that (with CRT mode). The others (Sega and SNK) failed in their attempts and the quality is actually worse than the originals, according to the reviews I've seen.

Probably the best we could expect with the PS1 Classic is that they make the games look close to like they did when played on original hardware & CRT. I do agree w/ Cop. But again, the PS1 had great sprite-based games (FF Tactics, Castlevania SOTN, Breath of Fire)... I suppose that 3D was new to devs at that time and many probably didn't feel like experimenting, so they chose to stick w/ 2D sprites on a 3D capable console. So if it turns out you can hack it & download games, you can play those still nice-looking 2D games on PS1 Classic as well.

The LG OLED tv's are on sale right now. Highest rated TV's, according to Rtings.com
www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/best/by-size/65-inch

$700 discount and no sales tax...
www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1411165-REG/lg_oled65b8pua_65_b8pua_4k_hdr.html

But you're right, they warn of the possibility of image burn-in.



I went to Best Buy yesterday and looked at the tv's. The quality of Samsung Q8FN and Q9FN (QLED) models stood out from the other tv's (of course, except the LG & Sony OLED models which clearly had better black levels/contrast). Personally, I didn't see a huge difference between the Q8FN and Q9FN - they both look equally great imo. Those are on sale too.
www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1395648-REG/samsung_qn65q8fnbfxza_q8_series_65_curved.html



They say the best value tv's w/ high-end image quality are the Vizio P-series Quantum. This model has the QLED "Quantum Dot" display, which they undoubtedly source from Samsung. People were finding this on sale for $1500 last summer, so anyone interested might want to hold a bit longer and see if they offer the same sale again (maybe Cyber-Monday/week). That's what I'd do, since I don't see myself spending $2000+ on a tv.
www.samsclub.com/sams/vizio-quantum-65in-4k-televsion-hdr-smart-240hz-hdmi/prod22380728.ip?sourceid=cri1234567890123456789012345678901234567890&CAWELAID=730010300002030936&pid=_CSE_CR_RMKT_LF_60%22%20&%20Larger%20TVs_5

Edit: a drawback of the Vizio P-series is that it doesn't do scaling (to 480P and 720P) as well as the major brands (like Samsung, LG, or Sony). So it's not the best tv for classic consoles, which scale to 720P. This wouldn't affect my decision though, since I prefer playing those older games on a smaller sub-40" tv anyway (like the old days).

That Vizio TV is indeed nice. It's surprising that Samsung TV is scored so low for gaming, Samsung's are supposed to be great for gaming. They even have a free Steam Link app you can download and it works just as well as the standalone unit.

I looked up mine on there, it's at an 8.1 for gaming. I believe it, I've tried it both connected to my PC and streaming Steam games over the network, it's great at both of those things. Still looks best when plugged in with HDMI though. Also another reason I got a 40" TV, I may get another (bigger) TV and use this one as a PC display in my room.

If you're looking at budget models, the TCL 6-Series have "the best picture quality for the money..." (cnet.com review)

www.cnet.com/reviews/tcl-65r617-2018-roku-tv-review/


The reason I'm not getting a TCL 6-Series is that they're only available in 55" or 65", and I don't want a tv that large for my bedroom. And I already own a Sony 55" for the living room.

I found some vids on Youtube about how to calibrate my Samsung (J5500) tv and now I'm thinking that Rtings.com low rating is due to they were just figuring out how to test tv's, when this tv came out a few years ago. I noticed in the comparison, many of their tests weren't performed on this model, even though it does indeed have some of these features... for example, I know the tv has a Black Frame Insertion (BFI), Motion interpolation, and Dimming... which they didn't test, perhaps because the features have different/obscure names on this tv... such as, BFI is listed as "LED Clear Motion" in the menu.


The guy in the vid here explains how to calibrate the tv (J5500) with input lag under 30msec... not bad, for a somewhat older ~$200 tv. Except, I did a couple of settings different (HDMI Black Level = Low and Backlight set to 18... this gives darker blacks and better contrast vs. his recommended settings). Really nice improvement in picture quality after the calibration.



I'll keep this tv for a while and use it playing retro gaming consoles and the PS3, since it does a good job scaling to 720P resolutions.

Just ordered some accessories for my 43" Vizio E-Series.

3.5mm to RCA cable, for gaming with headphones on the tv. Yes, this tv has audio analog outs (R/L), which was nice of Vizio because i found that not many of the other new tv's have analog audio output.
The RCA plugs are at right-angles too, in case I ever decide to hang this tv on a wall.
www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077GQYSF1/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Fosmon 3-Port HDMI Switch, HDR, HDMI 2.0, HDCP 2.2, 4K@60HZ 1080p [Automatic Switching. Because these budget model sets only have 3 hdmi inputs.
www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DKDXV8Y/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Try disabling "HDMI UHD Color", which this guy suggests doing when connecting older devices to your tv.