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Sega Genesis Sage

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  1. Good question. Probably a lot of work and not a lot profit. I see these cases are kind of expensive now.
  2. Not totally unprecedented, The Shining famously has a lost ending scene: http://www.openculture.com/2017/04/the-lost-final-scene-of-the-shining.html
  3. What I meant was for the average person using TV speakers and/or a stereo setup. Once games transitioned to redbook audio and full voices, that was pretty much it for the average person, they're not gonna notice much improvement after that.
  4. Oh ya, if you have the equipment for it, you can definitely see a big difference, but for the average schlub, things have kind of plateaued. The auditory jump from Xbox to Xbox 360 to Xbox One for the guy using TV speakers is pretty much a flat line. Whereas the difference between, say, Atari and SNES, or even NES and SNES is huge.
  5. One thing I think people overlook is sound. Sound can make a game feel "next gen." Sound quality hasn't improved that much since Playstation era
  6. Also, instead of a CRT revival, what I see as more likely is better and better and increasingly popular "CRT filters" in emulators and other similar devices.
  7. CRTs are only "lag free" afaik if you're going analog to analog. If you have a digital signal (which is most devices these days) coming into a CRT, it has to be converted to analog, which introduces some lag. And some late model CRTs, even when displaying analog video, had lag because they had some amount of digital processing of analog signals as well.
  8. The big downside with CRTs wasn't so much picture quality (as CRTs routinely trounced flat panels when they were both available on the market), but size/weight. There's just something about a TV that's flat that really appeals to people, and is very practical. Also, the size of flat panel TVs now is a lot larger than the biggest CRTs we ever saw. Starting up manufacturing on CRTs again would be very very expensive. You have a lot of components there. Ever take apart a CRT TV vs a modern TV? There's a lot more stuff inside of a CRT. Especially at the quality level people expect, you're going to be paying very high prices. Just look at how much PVMs cost in their day - thousands of dollars. And that was with some amount of economy of scale behind them. And even if you did get together enough people that wanted new CRTs, and were willing to pay the high price for one, the last large, high end CRTs were manufactured.... 15ish years ago? The engineering knowledge is going to be tough to find, and it may at this point have been lost to time. If anything, you'd end up with a much lower quality CRT than the top end CRTs of yesteryear. Also, CRTs aren't magical, gaming on a CRT isn't going to immediately eliminate all the lag we see with flat panels. That's because much of the lag we see nowadays is because of digital processing of the picture. Later model CRTs that had HDMI inputs suffered from some lag as well. Finally, the vinyl comparison doesn't hold up, because vinyl is relatively cheap and compact. A vinyl record is a small investment, and the player can be easily moved around, or integrated into an existing home theatre setup. A CRT (especially a large one) requires a much bigger physical space investment.
  9. I don't think there's any question that typically gets asked on a videogame forum that requires 10 pages of detail, even scientific papers have summaries. I also grew up on those kinds of forums, I don't mind, I have thick skin, but most people don't and that kind of attitude drives a lot of people away. I've seen it happen on multiple forums. You may not personally think it's rude, but a lot of people do.
  10. The issue I have with it is that those links often end up being dead links if there's an inevitable change in forum ownership, software, etc. Isn't there a bunch of dead Nintendoage links out there now because GoCollect was sloppy with the migration? To me, there are few things more frustrating than Googling something, having the exact question come up in a forum post, and then the answer being given as a now dead link. Is it really that hard to copy paste the answer, as well as the link?
  11. Bubble mailers are usually fine for newer stuff, but I've definitely gotten damaged cases for Genesis, Xbox, PS2, Dreamcast, etc. It's not a high chance, but given the choice, I'd personally pay a few bucks extra for additional peace of mind. And it should go without saying that any cardboard or Sega Saturn style longbox games definitely should get a box (and a well padded one at that, with at least 1" of good padding on all sides and the game definitely not touching the cardboard of the outer box).
  12. Haven't seen anyone else talking about these, so I thought I'd give it a shot. Mods, please feel free to merge topics if I'm mistaken. First, I'd like to say that I bought these myself, I wasn't provided with these by anyone or asked or prompted by anyone to do a review. The cases in question are available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GBMRQJW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_Ov04DbGFVC09P It's worthy to note that I had some hands on time with the first run cases, and found them to be quite subpar. These, however, are the exact opposite. Let me explain. Most importantly, they hold together tightly, just as tight, if not maybe slightly tighter than OEM cases. In hand, they feel extremely similar to the real deal. The feel and creak of the plastic and the way the cases snap together is extremely satisfying. They really nailed it. The edges of the cases feel ever so slightly sharper than OEM cases, but that could just be because the OEM cases are 25 years old. But the fact alone that these feel and lock together so incredibly well makes them worthy replacements. But their attention to detail goes beyond just a superficial examination. The hole size/spacing is so accurate, you can actually swap parts with the OEM cases. These cases are based on the Sega CD ones, which have slightly smaller holes and pegs on the hinges, but they match well enough that you can just pop a new door (the most frequently broke part) onto an otherwise OK OEM case. Picture here with VGC case on top, Saturn on bottom, and Sega CD in the middle: You can pop in the CD tray from an OEM case and it fits pretty much perfectly. The CD trays that come with the cases are much better than revision 1 - they're dark gray instead of being black, and the color almost matches OEM cases exactly. But if you're extremely picky and have an eye for these things, you'll notice that the grain of the plastic is slightly off, and that the Compact Disc logos are missing. Not a big deal at all, but worth noting. Picture here of OEM Saturn tray on bottom, VGC case on top: The only fit issue I had was trying to fit a VGC Online tray into an OEM Saturn case, but that was only because I was assembling leftover pieces, not an issue I see people running into on the regular. Of course, original manuals and back artwork fit into the cases perfectly, and I had no problems with the games I tried. Here's a pic of Tomcat Alley with the OEM try and VGC Online case: The only potential issue that I can see turning people off is that when you have these on a shelf, the ridged tops of the replacement VGC online cases don't match the cloudiness of the OEM cases exactly. The VGC Online cases are crystal clear, while the OEM cases are slightly cloudy. Not sure if this is due to age or what. But either way, it's a very minor nitpick, but I thought again worth mentioning. Here's a pic of what I mean, with Tomcat Alley in the middle having a replacement case: These are sent out in packs of 10, and all 10 I received were unbroken and scratch free, which is quite impressive considering how fragile the original ones are. These are individually wrapped in a thin plastic baggie, which is then wrapped in a bubble wrap bag, and put into a cardboard box. Amazon just slapped a shipping label onto that box, which had me slightly worried, but they arrived safely. Overall, these are absolutely fantastic, and will make your games look like new. It's very satisfying to revitalize some old games, without having to cannibalize parts. VGC Online has done a very big service for the community with these. I could see some potential minor improvements with a V3, but not much. Must be why LRG hasn't released their cases yet, they probably can't compete on quality. The only question I have now is where can I download and print replacement inserts for my disc only games?
  13. It's this and other kinds of similar choices that set the tone of a forum. Allow the questions, and you risk annoying long time members, but you have a lot of new members coming in and a more active community. Don't allow the questions, and you have a more loyal base of hardcore posters, but much less new blood. It's up to the mods the kind of community they want to make.
  14. There's a few factors: 1) the improvements are there, but they're more subtle. Framerates, resolution, etc are all a lot higher quality and more stable this generation compared to the Xbox 360 and PS3. You really have to sit down with the games for a while to notice. 2) the CPUs of the PS4 and Xbox One are relatively weak, while they were relatively strong on the PS3/X360, which prevented things like really advanced AI and physics. This shouldn't be the case with the PS5 and Xbox Two. 3) ray tracing, if done right, is the generational leap in quality you're looking for. Not sure what the implementation will be like on the PS5 and Xbox Two, but it has a lot of potential:
  15. Agreed, the whole "just do a search," "did you do a search," etc thing really makes a forum feel unwelcoming.
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