ROM greediness

dankcushions

i'm actually just about to build a pi3 setup for my brother, who isn't so tech-savy or a huge gamer, so i think for him i might limit the roms to either games we had as children, so the 32gb card might be pretty empty. but i think there's something to be said for the 'personal touch' :)

madmodder123

I downloaded every ps1 game rated 7/10 or better on IGN, now I am at 600+ games, so I guess I am a hoarder? Lol

timeonmyhands

This time around I've needed to get whole MAME sets simply because the ROMS worked with a minimum of fuss. I've also collected complete sets for other consoles. My intention is to spend a few evenings working through the lists to see what I want to keep and what to put aside.

That said, I've a 128gb USB stick to play with...

tashman

@dankcushions The personal touch is definitely a winner. I did the same for my brother for his birthday last year. I added 50 or so Spectrum games from childhood to a Pi Zero and bought the cheapest wireless keyboard i could find ( I am generous). He was pleased as punch.

He hadn't played any game for 30+ years....My sides were splitting after watching his (lack of) gaming skills.

Shakz

On my vids I'll show 1000s of games...mainly because that is what a lot of people want to see. On my personal PI....I HAD a bazillion games...eventually got tired of hunting down my favorites though and only have a handful now. Everything I have on the system I game on only takes up 20gb on a 32gb sd card. Wouldn't even be that big if it weren't for those big ole cd based systems.
I call the folks that have to have everything "completionists" They just want as complete a system as they can build. That said the advantage in at least poking around in all those games is you may find something you really like....that was unobtainable in the day, or today.

Ideally I think I will load my home system up with everything I have (1.5 tb) for poking around and finding new stuff. Then finishing my gamegear project for a mobile solution...and only keeping my must haves on it.....could prolly even setup an rsync script to keep my save games/states the same between the home system and mobile system. Could make a little progress on final fantasy 7 on the bus ride home....and start right back to it on my tv after supper....if I ever stop writing scripts and getting involved in other projects that is ;-)

fabio78

In defence of "greediness", I don't have the 1000+ mame ROMS in my memory card since there are many revisions and some are just crap (still have some 300 though), but I do have (and think it's valid to) complete romsets of many home consoles. Several reasons:
-I like to discover "new" games by picking at random, specially when im too tired (or too drunk) to engane full on experiences on my PS4.
-When I read about a game, or someone mentions one I don't happen to know, I can just switch my Raspi on and check it out straight away. It's convenient.
-My fav/childhood games might not be my friend's, so bigger chances to make people excited about Retropie. Many don't even understand the concept of emulation and how it's possible to have so many games in a little box. It's just nice to have friends over and look at their faces when they're browsing through so many games. "Ah, you have that too!!!" If I'm not gonna play a ROM, someone eventually will.
-Many of these friends who are seeing it for the first time, obviously want one too. I tell them what they need to buy and clone my image for them. Done it 4 times already, don't need to bother loading more games.
-How can I know which games I like on systems I've never owned? For example, find the thick of what's on PC Engine to be fairly good, some actually great. In doubt, they're all there :)
-I also see my Retropie as a retogaming encyclopedia. It's just nice to browse through all games, learning about releases, years, box arts, etc. It's just useless, geeky knowledge made convenient.
-Finally, I have a 128GB card, but older systems take almost no space. In contrast, I only have the best PSX titles (it would be senseless to have everything for it given the size of the library and files themselves), and as for PSP, N64 and Dreamcast, the ones that work.

mediamogul

alt text

The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind.

As for my own opinion, I look at my collection like an interactive museum. Being able to fully explore the birth and evolution of an entire creative medium in such a hands on way never gets old to me. Even playing an evolutionary dead end like the wholly unique NES pinball/role playing game, 'Pinball Quest', adds to the overall context of how all this insanity became a multi-billion dollar industry and I find that to be endlessly fascinating. Also, I like the funny noises.

Shakz

@mediamogul wonderfully put!

mediamogul

@Shakz

Yeah, he's good in 'Romancing the Stone' too.

Arcuza

@mediamogul I understand your point.

For me, I just can't stand the games I don't have a historic relationship with...

I think I have tried to get into Chronotrigger at least 20 times last 10 years, but never endured more than 20 minutes into the game.

I think it's a combination of lack of young age memories forgiving the game (I still love Blitz for Vic 20), and the fact that I haven't spent $50 on the game forcing me to play through it even though it sucks. (I still like Chip 'n Dale for NES)

Or just the fact that today's games are fast paced quick rewarding, which makes games of the 90s much more time consuming relatively.

fabio78

@Arcuza said in ROM greediness:

Or just the fact that today's games are fast paced quick rewarding, which makes games of the 90s much more time consuming relatively.

I'd say the opposite is true. Older games are harder and require more dedication, yes, but largely they are dip in and out experiences. Newer games are very time consuming (around 20 hours becoming a standard, with RPGs and open worlds clocking at 40 or 60) and since most now are also story driven, they require you to be emotionally invested somehow.

A Former User

I'm a big SNES fan. Something about the games are just so amazing and pleasing!
Unfortunately, I was never alive during the time of the SNES. So I got some ROMs that allowed me to play these games.
Hopefully in the future I might buy an SNES and purchase those carts.
The thing is though; I have 50 games.
Maybe a little overkill here, so I was thinking or reducing it to 30 soon.

Arcuza

@fabio78 You're right, I was referring to smart phone games like Candy Crush Saga and alikes.

Arcuza

@itsnitro That's my biggest concern. Manufacturers will never sell a lifetime license to a game regardless of platform. They want to resell the same game in the retro shop of newer consoles. Which of course will never allow anyone to consolidate all their owned games into a single solution.

If I could have bought a lifetime do-whatever-yo-want license for my 30 NES-games, 40 SNES-games, 20 GB-games and so on cartridges I would do it right away.

blackshadow

The only thing im guilty of hoarding would probly be PSX games i have about 150 though in my defense ive played and completed every one infact my collection on my pi is only sizable due to romhacks currently it stands at
PSX 150 (played all of them)
GBA 100 (im weeding out some games from this though should end up around 60 70 when im done)
SNES 80(about 30 or so are romhacks/translations) Terranigma is probly my all time favorite game
Megadrive 140(got a lot of romhacks and a lot of love for this system)
MAME 120(made sure i only have 1 game revision multiple entries for the same game in emulationstaton piss me off)
MSX 2(i like the original metal gears)
NGP/C 5

thats pretty much it barring a few ports aswell i love older games in general and even today i still find myself playing more than recent games not that i dislike them mind you but i find if i need to relax or enjoy myself for a little bit its easier to do so with my retro collection than my modern ones

ohmycommodore

Not saying I don't HAVE a ton of games, I just only load a small set on my RP :)

PetroRie

@Arcuza said in ROM greediness:

@mediamogul I understand your point.

Or just the fact that today's games are fast paced quick rewarding, which makes games of the 90s much more time consuming relatively.

Older games are pretty limited but we didn't knew better. I used to play Super Mario Bros 3 almost everyday with my brother and we had a lot of fun. I still enjoy that game, I can't have the same fun and experience on a modern game.

Most new games focus a lot on multiplayer, for an example BF1 I didn't beat the single player I just played 2 missions and I started to play the MP. I unlocked almost everything, I ranked so fast, on Operations I'm almost always the first with the highest points and highest kills. I'm not a pro but it took me a while to get there, it's pretty easy with this game if you always go for the objective you always can flank a couple of them and secure the sector.

However I really think all the new games should have a online co-op mode. This really adds something to the experience in my opinion and many developers forget this. Wouldn't it be great if GTA5 had online co-op?

HurricaneFan

@blackshadow How much storage does your pi have? 150 psx games sounds like a ton of space.

felleg

I'd rather have an organized titanic list of games for some consoles (NES, SNES, Genesis, 2600,...) than be missing the game a friend wants to show me when I bring my pi over. Downloading on the fly is not always possible!

@HurricaneFan
I don't know about others, but I have about 40 psx games. I just store them on an external USB which is always connected to my pi (it's 128Gb and super small, very useful
https://www.amazon.ca/Lexar-JumpDrive-128GB-Flash-Drive/dp/B012PKV7RC

blackshadow

@HurricaneFan i have a 1TB pidrive attached to my pi in a box and use it mostly as a media center for all my dvds i own to save me having em all laying about with my limited space(i have bought a lot of films over the years so converted em all and put em on my pi) have it bolted to the back of my tv out of the way :D

got a pizero laying around doing nothing aswell and im considering a portable build for it when i get time