Curating a classic video game library

[Fau Teixeira]

For example, I'm playing Octopath Traveler 2 on PC, i use a controller and it would translate incredibly well to a console. It's also a very very good game.

[Dave Gray]

^ I'm not really sure how that's relevant, since it isn't a classic game.  But it's also on consoles.  It's on Switch and two versions of Playstation.

[Dave Gray]

I was also thinking about PS1 -- Final Fantasy VII is supposed be...like...the RPG to end all RPGS.  I've never played it, so I should probably have that.  But I'm not sure that people are going to want to spend 100 hours on an old console.  I'm not sure how that would hold up.  But I would say that it's probably a good one to have.

[Spider-Dan]

River City Ransom is a great game that I had as a kid.  It's one of the best-aging games on the entire console; a great choice.

How many games do you have now?  I can give you an idea of what to look for.

[Dave Gray]

Well, AS YOU KNOW, I have all the games, if we're talking about emulation.

But in terms of actual physical NES cartridges, I have the NES classic which has:
Balloon Fight™
BUBBLE BOBBLE
Castlevania™
Castlevania II: Simon's Quest™
Donkey Kong™
Donkey Kong Jr.™
DOUBLE DRAGON II: THE REVENGE
Dr. Mario™
Excitebike™
FINAL FANTASY®
Galaga™
GHOSTS'N GOBLINS®
GRADIUS™
Kid Icarus™
Kirby's Adventure™
Mario Bros.™
MEGA MAN 2™
Metroid™
MEGA MAN™
NINJA GAIDEN
PAC-MAN™
Punch-Out!!™ Featuring Mr. Dream
StarTropics™
SUPER C™
Super Mario Bros.™
Super Mario Bros.™ 2
Super Mario Bros.™ 3
TECMO BOWL
The Legend of Zelda™
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link™

And then I have individual cartridges from the original, which a lot are duplicates of the above, plus:
Jackal (one of my favorites of all time)
Pinball Quest
10-yard Fight
Cobra Triangle
Bases Loaded
Championship Bowling
Pac Man
John Elway's Quarterback
Tetris
Battletoads
Arkanoid

...there are some others, too.

[Dave Gray]

There is a PS1 classic that has mixed reviews.

Apparently, it's easily crackable to make it better, but the controllers don't have an analog stick and it's the worse PAL version of many of the games.  But for reference, here are the 20 classic games included.
Battle Arena Toshinden
Cool Boarders 2
Destruction Derby
Final Fantasy VII
Grand Theft Auto
Intelligent Qube
Jumping Flash
Metal Gear Solid
Mr Driller
Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee
Rayman
Resident Evil Director’s Cut
Revelations: Persona
Ridge Racer Type 4
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo
Syphon Filter
Tekken 3
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six
Twisted Metal
Wild Arms



Off the top of my head, I think that Tomb Raider, Gran Turismo, and Crash Bandicoot are missing, in terms of big names.  ...maybe Spyro the Dragon?

[Spider-Dan]

Well, AS YOU KNOW, I have all the games, if we're talking about emulation.

But in terms of actual physical NES cartridges, I have the NES classic [...]

The NES Classic is emulation.  If we're talking about curating a collection, it doesn't really make sense to include emulation, as you don't really need any of these consoles for that.  Furthermore, all of these systems have flash carts or optical drive emulation available, which allows you to load the console's entire game library on a microSD card and play it with the original console on a TV.  If that's the route you want to go, this discussion is going to be pretty short.  But if you want to use physical cartridges/discs on real hardware, then that's a different story.

[Dave Gray]

I think some kind of combination is fine for me.  I prefer to play on original hardware or original controllers.  Emulation is fine, too.  But the NES classic emulation is pretty professionally done, IMO.  There are save states and things like that, that are user friendly.  Also, it's all tested and works.  Emulation downloaded from the Internet is a mixed bag of quality and stability.

I also already own the NES classic and SNES classic, so it's not something I added.  I just happen to have them.

[Dave Gray]

So, I played a good amount of the classics lately and the emulator that I have is really friggin' amazing, in terms of the quality of the ports for everything SNES and down.  Unless there's some special peripheral you need, the experience is great.  So, I'm not really worried about what I need to have on a cartridge vs. not.  I don't really care.  It's more about not drowning in 20,000 choices and setting favorites in the menus and stuff like that.

I am also particularly interested in these mods.

I played NBA Live '95 and it was really fun.  I played Tecmo Super Bowl III and I thought it was similarly great.
There are updated roster for the original Tecmo Bowl as recently as 2012.  I'd love a 2023 roster/logo update for Tecmo Super Bowl III.  I wonder if such a thing exists and I'm unsure how I'd load that data, even if I got the file.

There is a wrestling series I love on N64 -- WCW vs. nWo World Tour, WCQ/nWo Revenge, and WWF No Mercy.....the 3rd one is the best in terms of features, but their reach exceeded their grasp.  They were running out of hardware power and that last game was chuggy.  I see that there are great hi-res emulators that use the engine, but also that include a bunch of new and classic wrestlers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fI8kUsIVDFg

I wonder if these are feasible to run on a console.

[masterfins]

I don't see the game "Leisure Suit Larry" on anybody's list, I guess I'm just old.

[Spider-Dan]

The relevant entries in the Leisure Suit Larry series are all PC games, which are outside the scope of Dave's collection.

[Dave Gray]

I played those Leisure Suit Larry games.  Those adventure games, along with Space Quest, Police Quest, King's Quest, along with the Lucasfilm stuff: Indiana Jones, Monkey Island, Maniac Mansion, Sam and Max -- they're all great and important.  But they're early PC titles and really require keyboard and mouse to be done correctly.