Playing GameCube classics, but in 4K on a Mac with PlayStation controllers, just as Nintendo intended.

LazaroFilm@lemmy.world to RetroGaming@lemmy.world – 634 points –

My son still needs to figure out how to drive straight lol but he’s rocking it at Paper Mario TTYD.

68

God bless the reverse engineers and emulator developers.

The dolphin team is unironically a group of some of the best software engineers I can think of, solving problems outside the scope of basically any standard industry practice for free and getting results

The RPCS3 team who figured out how to emulate the wacky core design of the PS3 are truly mentally unwell and I hope they never get better because the world needs more people like them.

It is truly a marvel and it can run even on CPUs with less cores than it had.

Just as Nintendo nintended.

"Now that we've taken the picture for your Internet points dad, can I back to playing on the PlayStation now?"

Haha not really. He actually switched to Mario party. He’s also really into Paper Mario TTYD.

Genuine question because I like retro games, what is the point of 4k here? It's blocky pixelated Mario kart, is there mods to update textures or something?

It just looks clean. Lowpoly games benefit from running at high resolutions to a surprising degree. The better the art, the more it benefits from being shown with as little obfuscation as possible. There are texture packs and shaders available for popular old games, but even without them, it's often worth it to ramp up the resolution, even far beyond 4K. I've played some old games at ridiculous resolutions like 5k or more, eliminating even a hint of jagged edges. You can then add a touch of retro flair through scanline and bloom shaders.

As others have mentioned, there are two schools of thought.

Crisp 4K rendering, no jagged lines, higher details added in textures, etc

Or emulating the look of a CRT by using high density displays to create the same look.

https://youtu.be/-B5ebucZ69s?si=0lDLAWdMlN77VQen goes into it a bit. This shows off a device for actual consoles. But the same principal applies when doing it in software for emulators.

I’m a bit in both worlds. I think that the split is at HD games. Up to SNES a CRT really makes things look as they were designed, but once you reach 3D games the low rez really feels like a limitation game designers had to deal with.

The textures themselves remain at their original resolution. But anything that was 3d rendered in the original console (like the karts and characters in Mario kart) will now have crisp lines. Additionally many emulators will support some form of texture scaling to make the original low texture stuff look marginally better. On a system like N64 it’s a toss up on looking significantly better. But on a PS3 emulator for example, since many environments are rendered in 3d, it’s a considerable improvement

Yea. There are Hd textures made by fans. And the 3D is generated in 4K. No pixels in sight!!!

Yeah there’s usually hidef textures you can download or even just decent up scaling options

If you play these old games in fullhd etc, it actually feels like the game you remember. If you play it in original resolution it's nothing like that.

Agreed. That plus the fact that SD on an HD screen looks even worse. HD texture and up scaling really breathes a new life into the games.

It's also because it's missing that pattern CRT screens gave to old games

Modern LCD's don't have a pattern like CRT

I think their is an option for a simulated CRT pattern in some emulators but I'm not familiar with it

Yeah "4k" monitor maybe but it looks worse than my old CRT

It looks absolutely stunning in 4K no pixels in sight with HD texture packs and 4K 3D renders. Now for older gen’s like SNES your CRT is a definite win.

2 more...

Apple doesn't even make a 4k macbook....

There’s a 4K tv right above. We actually connected the computer to it not long after the photo.

Things still look better at 4k displayed on a 1440p screen than they do at native 1440p. If you have the power excess, why not?

I have a 2TB ssd on my PC that is almost full with all kinds of retro games. All the way up to the PS3. It's crazy how good these games look on my 4k monitor compared to those tube TV's I played those games on back in the day. Lol

It’s amazing! GameCube with Hd textures looks like next gen I love it!

And old games are actually a lot more fun than a lot of the new ones. I haven't played a new title for a long time. Still going through my retro collection. 😁

The only thing is some old gave have very wonky camera movements and controls especially for first person like 007. Some have custom controls hacks too.

I played through several GameCube titles using the original Wii along with the Wii2HDMI dongle. I thought the games still looked great even on HD televisions. Burnout 2 is still awesome.

I see you Apple Playcube and raise you my Google PlayBox

An then there’s my Apple iDSphone

I have a foldable phone (Samsung Z Fold 3), which unironically works out perfectly for DS and 2DS games. The only thing missing is the 3D.

Adding to this you can use Playstation and other controllers with Nintendont. Pretty useful if you have a Wii and want to play GameCube games but don't have the controllers.

Yep. And actually the DualShock 4 controller can send motion data so you could use it as a very wonky looking Wii controller. I tried it briefly on MarioKart Wii.

Looks great but I'd plug the laptop into the TV, those games were made to be played on a big screen from the sofa, not gathered around a laptop.

The TV had some major delay that makes the game les fun somehow. Besides, TVs were much smaller back then. That laptop is bigger than the TV I had back then.

Why not connect to tv or a bigger monitor?

Delay. I have a 4K TV right above but somehow there is significant delay on it.

Does TV have game scene / picture mode? On mine that is more than just different colour settings, it cuts the delay significantly. Also ensure all motion smoothing / interstitial frame generation bullshit is disabled.

4k..... 10 inch screen....weird flex but okay

It’s actually 4x resolution on this screen. I have a 4K 55” on the wall in front but there was some lag and we unplugged it.

Sorry man, I was in a bad mood (quitting smoking) , just hanging shit on a random on the internet... I love video games because you can play however you want to play, as long as you're having fun bro... I hope you have an awesome day mate

E-waste

why e-waste? I’m re-using things. Nothing is wasted. We are re-using controllers to play new games. The waste would be to buy each console. Instead I’m using my work computer to play. I gave my son my old computer and he’s using it now. Nothing is wasted.