09/07/2024, 8:05 PM

THE IMPORTANCE OF ORIGINAL HARDWARE

(CRTs look better than you think)

this was originally gonna be a segment about how terrible scalpers are, but i didn't have much else to say past "these people are outsiders of videogames trying to profit on our passion" and then i just sort of got sidetracked. so instead im making it a whole segment talking about what i got sidetracked talking about. i've always been of the belief that, for the most part, the best way to play a game is on its original hardware. "oh but the Virtual Boy!" yeah i know. the Virtual Boy is a nightmare to experience and i'm not gonna say that the best way to play Virtual Boy Wario Land is by getting one. moreso, i think that for most games it's the best way to be. you see, a lot of games are designed to be played on their original hardware. understandably, i don't think the creators of Silent Hill expected me to be playing their game in widescreen on duckstation 25 years after it released. it was meant to be experienced one way, and thats on a PS1 with an original PS1 controller on an old CRT. the fuzziness of the CRT really masks a lot of the imperfections and makes things a lot more atmospheric than they would be if it were all pixel perfect and upscaled and stuff. another really good example of visuals being enhanced by original hardware Donkey Kong Country. this is the one that's pretty well known, but because of DKC's visual style being composed of 3D models being crunched down into sprites, it... does not upscale very well. but again, because of that classic CRT fuzziness, it blends everything together to make a more believable effect. i remember when i was a kid and i heard all about DKC being marketed as a "3D" game, and i never really got that. but after seeing it this way, it makes a lot more sense. it really does enhance the experience a lot. here's some reference pictures as to what i'm talking about.

these images are from a wonderful account on twitter called CRTPixels, and if you're interested in seeing more stuff like this, i highly suggest you check out their account. the resizing i had to do to get these to fit on my site really don't do it justice, so go look at it uncompressed on their account.

so yeah, it makes some games look better. but some people just want things to be upscaled to hell and want the best frames and want every single game in widescreen, fine. whatever. be that way. but some games are enhanced by original hardware in more than just the visuals department. take WarioWare Twisted, for example. being a Gameboy Advance game with a gyroscope built into it, it's notoriously hard to emulate, and has been giving people trouble for ages. sure, a patch for the game that lets you control the tilt with the d-pad exists, but... come on. if you're playing WarioWare Twisted like that, you've gotta be one sick freak. the whole reason someone comes to WarioWare Twisted is FOR the motion controls, and when you take that away... it just ain't the same, man. now, some crafty folks out there have figured out ways to emulate this game with the motion controls, and i'm included in that group. the way i first played the game was by emulating it on the PS Vita, which supports tilt controls with its built in gyroscope, and there's a lot of people who stand by mobile phone emulation as well. but recently, i got my hands on a copy of a real, original copy of the game, and it just... felt better. it felt so much more natural, and didn't have any of the emulation hiccups. and not only that, i also discovered that the game originally had rumble in it this way, which is gonna be something that's always gonna be hard to emulate. the rumble isn't necessary to play and enjoy the game, of course, but it does add a little extra pizzazz to the game that makes it even more special than it already was. there's also like, the entire DS library, for another argument for hardware. its dual screens and touchscreen have always been infamously hard to replicate on other systems, and while the Wii U came close, there's just no good screen setups for it. and once you get into emulating it on PC, it's pretty much over. i mean, have you ever TRIED to play Rhythm Heaven DS with a mouse? you haven't, because you've lived far enough to read this. everyone else died trying. and this is just my opinion (in an already pretty heavily opinion based topic) but i think that DS games look the best on the DS, as opposed to playing them on 3DS. the 3DS has a screen with a much higher resolution, but because of that the pixels don't scale perfectly, and as such everything just looks kind of muddy, and it just... does not look super great to me.

alright here's where the opinionated piece delves even deeper into opinions. you guys know the e-reader right? the GBA accessory that let you scan cards n shit? yeah i honestly fuckin love that thing. it's so weird and reeks of early 2000s Nintendo. a lot of people say it's dumb, and while i wouldn't say it's a revolutionary piece of technology, picture this. you want to check out the e-reader functionality for Animal Crossing on Gamecube. you have two options, you could emulate the game on Dolphin and do some emulator shenanegans to setup a virtual Gameboy that reads the e-reader files you downloaded from Archive.org, or you could play the game on console, plug up your Gameboy to your Gamecube using the GBA-GC link cable, plug in the e-reader, and swipe the cards through the card reader. which sounds more interesting? if you're like me, you probably said the latter. and i know, i know, doing things via emulation is probably easier, but that's not what i'm asking. at least to me, if something has an interesting concept or idea, i am much more tolerant to putting up with its garbage than if it were boring as hell. that's why i'm always so drawn to weird and obscure games, they just appeal to me more. and when emulating special features like the GBA-GC link cable or the VMU on the Dreamcast, you just lose a lot of what made that concept interesting in the first place. at least, that's how i see it.