Game Center Jun

31/10/2025

30/10/2025

Nakano Broadway, Tokyo. Lots of small toy shops, watch shops, and a LOT of Mandarake stores. A must-see if you like toys (I don't, haha)

Edit: Forgot to mention, it reminds me so much of old-school Virramall in Greenhills!

24/10/2025

Here's something emulators can do that original games can't: run special rom hacks that use the MSU-1 enhancement to use MUCH higher quality music, or even add FMVs to games that didn't have them! Whether that makes the games better is up to you, since higher audio quality can be jarring sometimes. I treat these like Arrange Soundtracks. It's a good option for those who enjoy them. These rom hacks can also be played on original consoles with certain flash carts.

Contra III feels great with music like this. I also have to mention Super Metroid, since the audio upgrade actually gives it a very grim space horror atmosphere. Makes me want to replay it!

19/10/2025

Windows PC with CRTEmudriver + RetroBat + RGB Modded Sony + PS3 Controller with 1000hz poll rate

If you know what you're doing, emulator setups can be REALLY good!

19/10/2025

I've been trying to find better ways to use my CRT emulator PCs lately and I landed on Retrobat. It's tricky to install on a CRT since the installer doesn't even fit inside a 640x480 screen, but once it's installed, it works quite well.

Retrobat is a frontend for RetroArch and many other emulators. It makes managing settings across different games and emulators easier, all while having a nice interface. Great software, definitely an improvement in usability over RetroArch in most ways.

The one advantage RetroArch still has is that it's easier to force a resolution for when CRTSwitchres doesn't do the job correctly (e.g. handheld systems), but for most games and systems, Retrobat is great. The tradeoff of not having to deal with RA configuration hell is worth it!

Now I have it installed on all of my CRT emulation setups, which are just old office computers with old AMD GPUs and hacked drivers that allow them output the low resolutions that retro consoles used. It's hard to explain how accurate these setups look and feel. It's one of those things that you need to see to believe. 😁

10/10/2025

**AUDIO WARNING** The game crashes in the video!

Testing the new TTT1 emulator with rollback netcode! It runs well enough if both players set displays to 60hz but it crashes too much online! It runs much, MUCH better than previous MAME versions I've tried, though. Could be useful for offline gaming when no original hardware + CRTs are available!

26/09/2025

if you know, you know

I made this art many years ago, but I got sidetracked and lost the motivation to restore the stick, partly because it was really butchered by the previous modder. Found the file in a backup drive while organizing and decided to finally finish it.

I bought the lever from Japan when it was first released, but I only installed it a few days ago 🥲 It comes with a circle gate preinstalled. Yikes lol

Razer Panthera OG
Seimitsu LS32 40TH Anniversary edition
Seimitsu PS14 Flat buttons

10/09/2025

2XKO Beta!

This game looks great and plays very smoothly, but my old ass is really thrown off by the modern controls haha! The game also seems to hate this Ugreen USB hub + gp2040 combo I have on this cab. It works when I use a different USB hub. 🤔

30/08/2025

Great article and video. As someone who lives in a city with no remaining local retro arcades (at least until I built mine), this hits pretty hard. I know exactly how these uncs feel 😭

You can tell the arcade has seen some real stuff with the condition the cabs are in, but there's nothing like OG arcade spirit. If I ever find myself near this place, I'll definitely pay a visit!

27/08/2025

Throwback! Found a 2008 photo of a setup that I tried to play fighting games on.

IIRC this was my first encounter with HDTV input lag: a 50-something inch Samsung DLP with 720p/1080i. I used a Sanwa modded and fully customized Dreamcast green goblin stick through a db15 project box, and a ps1 to ps3 adapter. Coming from a Sony HD CRT setup, the lag on this DLP was unbearable, so I just played Uncharted instead! 😂

This generation of display and control hardware was probably the most cursed era for fighting games!

I still have both sticks btw 😆