The ULTIMATE NINTENDO 64?

[RIP-Felix]

I'm working on something "special" and wanted to solicit your opinions. This could extend to other consoles too, but I'm wondering specifically about your wish list for the N64.

1. Do you like smooth or sharp pixels
2. CRT or HDTV
3. What kind of budget for a mod would you set?
4. What's important to you regarding the N64? Is it getting the best picture quality or input lag or both? Maybe it's something else, like finding a good 1st party controller with a tight stick, or perhaps a high quality replacement for the analog stick. Maybe you just want to know what the best games.
5. What do you think of the "Fantastic" translucent colored consoles? Which color do you prefer?

I'm trying to get a sense of where most peoples interest lies. I'm too close to the hardware aspect of modding, and I think that's only a small subset of the people interested in the console.

[tthurman]

I never played the N64, so I can't really offer any opinion of value.  Along the lines of the exchange in the MiSTer thread though, crt baby!

[Draco1962]

i thoroughly enjoyed playing Goldeneye 007, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time & Majora Mask, Star Wars Rogue Squadron and Episode  1 Pod Racer, and so on. This was my first owned console before my Sears PONG clone.

I gave it to my oldest son and my granddaughter plays it today.

[RIP-Felix]

10 hours ago, tthurman said:

I never played the N64, so I can't really offer any opinion of value.  Along the lines of the exchange in the MiSTer thread though, crt baby!

No, you're the perfect person to weigh in then! I'm really looking for the person that just want to try something out for the first time and has very little knowlege or opinion to beging with. Your input would be greatly valued!

I'm assuming then you have very little knowledge about the video solutions, mods, or games? So if you were to find a N64 for cheap at a thrift shop and wanted to give it a try. How would you start out? Assume it only came with the AC adapter, no video cables.

1. Would you prefer to play on your HDTV or a CRT?
2. You need a video cable. Where would you start and what kind of budget are you setting? If you're willing to approach this seriously and provide a link to the product you would likely buy, that would be helpful.
3. Are you willing to install a simple mod or would you need an installer? Perhaps you want to keep the console stock, no mods.
4. At what point do you just walk away? Too much money, too hard to figure out.
5. What would keep you engaged? The games, the fun of collecting, hardware modding and chasing video quality, etc.

10 hours ago, Draco1962 said:

i thoroughly enjoyed playing Goldeneye 007, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time & Majora Mask, Star Wars Rogue Squadron and Episode  1 Pod Racer, and so on. This was my first owned console before my Sears PONG clone.

I gave it to my oldest son and my granddaughter plays it today.

I still keep one in the living room for parties. Mario Party, Mario Kart, & Goldeneye are still as great 4-player as they used to be.

[tthurman]

16 hours ago, RIP-Felix said:

I'm assuming then you have very little knowledge about the video solutions, mods, or games?

Only what you've enlightened me to, which probably qualifies me as not a complete novice.

Quote

1. Would you prefer to play on your HDTV or a CRT?
2. You need a video cable. Where would you start and what kind of budget are you setting? If you're willing to approach this seriously and provide a link to the product you would likely buy, that would be helpful.
3. Are you willing to install a simple mod or would you need an installer? Perhaps you want to keep the console stock, no mods.
4. At what point do you just walk away? Too much money, too hard to figure out.
5. What would keep you engaged? The games, the fun of collecting, hardware modding and chasing video quality, etc.

HDTV, due to lack of options

This plugged into my retrotink 2x (not something I would have known this time last year, or RetroRGB, who recommended the linked cable)

Stock

Assuming the above worked, I'm satisfied.

Collecting the games, especially since there are a bunch of Star Wars games I wanted to play.

 

[RIP-Felix]

Cool, thanks.

I didn't opt for the retroaccess S-video cable you linked, because I RGB modded my console and went with the HDretrovision component cables (at much greater expense), but last week I bought a $8 S-video cable...that works really great. I expected a bigger difference. Perhaps the better shielded S-video cable would be better, especially if you have a lot of cords behind your setup, but I've been staring at zoomed in side-by-side comparison video of the $8 S-video against my $90 YPbPr/RGB setup and the difference is too minute to see from a normal viewing distance. I don't see any reason to mod or pay more than the price of a TINK2x Classic and $8 S-video cable. That's a very good experience for under $100.

I'm getting the sense the vast majority of gamers really don't care about the best, they care about the games. And the hardware side of things frustrates them. They only look as far as it's necessary to get the games working. And when they invaraibly buy a bad product with 3-5 frames of added lag and noisy upscaled composite, this either causes them to find out why and get a good product, or blame the console/games and move on. That's a Retro Gaming tragedy!

That's what the avove questions are for. If I can understand better what most people are, and are not , interested in, I can help them avoid the tragedy without boring them with stuff they don't care about - that cut off is somewhere in the Moding and upscaling realm. I'm just trying to peg where it is exactly. Based off my assumptions and your answers, it's probably at any moding and upscaling beyond 480p (when buttons and setting need to be fussed with before playing). There's probably a cost threshold too, which I'm guessing is in the $100 or less category.

[tthurman]

To me the $26 cable isn't a outrageous price, and the build quality is worth it to me for a relatively small price premium.  Some of the other mods or options, not so much.  I could never see me stacking a series of video processors, specifically for the reason you stated.  That last 1.00 to .05% is like stereo equipment, the land of diminishing returns!

I've always leaned toward decent cables, but not exotic over priced/hyped snake oil.  My HT is wired with Blue Jeans Cable, which at one time was much more reasonable than now, but they are still a good value.  That said, I have hundreds upon hundreds of dollars in BJC component/composite and RF cables, with many of the former not being used any longer.   All this stuff is Beldon mid to higher spec, which I used to build my studio interconnects with.  It's good stuff without breaking the bank.

I never was a Monster fan, although I do have some of their products.  About a 1000' of CL2 rated cable in 12 AWG that I feed my speakers with, mostly because it's super high strand count, which makes it very flexible despite the fact it's encapsulated in a 3/4 damage and fire resistant wall pull designed jacket.  I also have a set of original XBOX Monster Component AV kits (Toslink) which everyone raved about back in the day,  and had such good look with them I decided to go looking for a back-up set.  In this instance everyone indicated the cheap cables where complete trash, but I got lucky and grabbed a deal on ebay for an almost like new Monster set and a new unopened Toslink, so basically I got my modded XBOX and my unaltered one running over component (to HDTV though).

[RIP-Felix]

Yeah I agree, bang for buck matters more when it comes to AV equipment upgrades, because of the diminishing returns on the high end.

But the same is true on the cheap end. Sometimes you get lucky with a cheap N64 s-video or x-box component cables, but most of the time that's not the case. Once, I got burned on those cheap amazon x-box component cables, noisy crap! I complained and they sent me a replacement set with exactly the same problem. They didn't even want them back, so they went in the trash where they belong. Clearly defective, the entire design, and they still sell them! I eventually bought an old school 3rd party brand from when the X-Box was still around. They work good. It's not as simple as going on amazon and searching x-box component cable and reading reviews. It should be, but it's not.

It just pisses me off that these companies are preying on unsuspecting gamers who're looking to relive fond memories of childhood consoles. It turns what should be a good experience into a bad one. It doesn't help that much of the retro gaming community portrays inexpensive lower end, but perfectly good solutions as if they're inferior and not worth you're money. Composite is actually not that bad! S-video is a huge step up. Past that, it's a diminishing scale of price/performance ratio.