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Retro-GAF unite!

it does indeed, and now to track down that update file (unless you have a link!) - good to know, totally gonna have this setup on my roommate's TED so we don't run into this issue, good looking out shin.

I only have a link to the patch file, which was made by Elmer on the PCEngine FX forums. So major shout out to him for making this. Here's the link to his thread over there about it. http://www.pcenginefx.com/forums/index.php?topic=20120.0

Hopefully those guys don't mind sharing the patch link here.

The patch file is in Xdelta format

Elmer says "To use the patch, just apply the xdelta patch to a US Super System Card image and then copy the newly patched image to your TED2's SD card."

US https://www.dropbox.com/s/zcz384fj47xu84u/TED2 System Card 3.01 USA.xdelta?dl=0

Japan
https://www.dropbox.com/s/nuctz90ra9aoo3k/TED2 System Card 3.01 JPN.xdelta?dl=0
 

-KRS-

Member
So I'm shipping some retro stuff to a retro GAFer who's stationed in Germany (in the US). What's my best bet? USPS or a private company?
I'd say it depends on the recipient's country's postal service. In Germany's case, their postal service is very good. So going with USPS should be fine. I'm in Sweden and I've only ever gotten packages shipped with USPS from the US. Never had an issue. Obviously make sure to pack it well and use tracking for both parties' sake and you should be fine.
 

Galdelico

Member
I'd say it depends on the recipient's country's postal service. In Germany's case, their postal service is very good. So going with USPS should be fine. I'm in Sweden and I've only ever gotten packages shipped with USPS from the US. Never had an issue. Obviously make sure to pack it well and use tracking for both parties' sake and you should be fine.

Apparently, USPS doesn't provide a tracking number to check things out after the package left the US. That said, I'm in Italy and I've never had a single issue with it. I've always received my orders no problem. With Italy, though, the real bummer are the customs - no idea how they work for other EU countires, like Germany - but then again, there is a safe turnaround: mark your package as gift, for a value that is not higher than 15USD, and it should get delivered with no additional fees.
 

-KRS-

Member
Apparently, USPS doesn't provide a tracking number to check things out after the package left the US. That said, I'm in Italy and I've never had a single issue with it. I've always received my orders no problem. With Italy, though, the real bummer are the customs - no idea how they work for other EU countires, like Germany - but then again, there is a safe turnaround: mark your package as gift, for a value that is not higher than 15USD, and it should get delivered with no additional fees.

After it leaves the US you have to check your local postal service for the tracking number. I recommend this site to check tracking, since it makes it easier to keep track of packages the whole way.
 
Is it an APO AE adddress? If so then it will just be USPS and like shipping to the US. Zip will most likely be Chicago MPS zip.

As a matter of fact, it is. I had wondered this about shipping to a base. You're totally right. So USPS it is. Will not be cheap but the buyer has agreed to cover the shipping cost. I almost didn't do it, but I definitely want to be able to do something good for someone who's serving the country.
 

Krelian

Member
With Italy, though, the real bummer are the customs - no idea how they work for other EU countires, like Germany - but then again, there is a safe turnaround: mark your package as gift, for a value that is not higher than 15USD, and it should get delivered with no additional fees.
I wouldn't do that with packages to Germany. Customs (at least in Germany) is well aware of that "trick". If the package is large enough they will still single it out and ask the recipient to pick up and open the package in person at the customs office.

Of course you could be lucky and no one bats an eye but why risk it?

As for the parcel service, USPS should be fine, but UPS or FedEx work well, too.
 

Galdelico

Member
After it leaves the US you have to check your local postal service for the tracking number. I recommend this site to check tracking, since it makes it easier to keep track of packages the whole way.

Thanks for the link!
I do what you suggested with everything coming from Japan - their tracking codes translate into signed mail, once they land here - but for some reason it doesn't seem to work with USPS.

I wouldn't do that with packages to Germany. Customs (at least in Germany) is well aware of that "trick". If the package is large enough they will still single it out and ask the recipient to pick up and open the package in person at the customs office.

Of course you could be lucky and no one bats an eye but why risk it?

As for the parcel service, USPS should be fine, but UPS or FedEx work well, too.

You're right, I forgot to mention that. Size is a factor here as well. I guess if you get an X-68000 in the mail from Japan - whether it's marked as gift or not - you're gonna get huge customs fees. :)
That said, customs are aware of the trick here too, but it's not in their interest to indiscriminately tax every single letter or small packet that comes from overseas. In fact, it was an actual customs employee who suggested me to resort to that expedient, first time I had to talk to them, in order to track down a parcel.

Also - at least in Italy - I'd say it is worth the risk. Aside from the fact I've never had a single package taxed in two years (since I started collecting/importing again), prices for shipping services that 'include' customs fees - like the Global Shipping Program on eBay - are astronomical, and proper deal-breaking 9 cases out of 10. Regular USPS has been perfect for me 100% of the times so far.
 

Krelian

Member
Also - at least in Italy - I'd say it is worth the risk. Aside from the fact I've never had a single package taxed in two years (since I started collecting/importing again), prices for shipping services that 'include' customs fees - like the Global Shipping Program on eBay - are astronomical, and proper deal-breaking 9 cases out of 10. Regular USPS has been perfect for me 100% of the times so far.
Maybe I'm just unlucky but every time I ordered something from Asia I had to get it from the customs office. No matter the value they declared on the package. It's been a while since I last ordered something from Asia, I mostly try to buy from within Europe or the US/Canada if possible, exactly because of my bad experiences with customs. Packages from the US/Canada are less risky I think, the last couple of games went through without problems.
 

TeaJay

Member
Here in Finland customs is totally random, no matter what it reads on top of the package as the price. They sure don't have the manpower to check every single package, so if you're lucky, you never have to pay.

I've generally had good luck, only had to pay customs for maybe 5-10 total shipments. But I'm always prepared. It was a bummer though that I did have to pay for my three flashcarts a while back... A full 100€ extra simply on customs.
 

bodine1231

Member
Wii image quality is fine. It's a little soft over 480p but people really exaggerate it.

I think running a Wii is a fine way to do things with some caveats. The biggest benefits of real hardware is that you get perfect accuracy, perfect compatibility, and no latency.

For accuracy, generally the Wii VC is pretty good. I'm not aware of any major problems (aside from N64) but all software emulation has quirks so I would imagine there are some minor stuff. Community/homebrew emulators on the other hand tend to have a lot of issues. I think it's super impressive that they are as good as they've gotten, but you'll run long list of issues depending on the emulator. These include occasional crashes, framedrops, frame pacing issues, video mode switch bugs, bad horizontal scaling to correct aspect ratio, inaccurate reproduction of visuals, sound sync issues, sound popping & cracking, sound accuracy issues (genesis...), and more. If you're picky it can really detract from just sitting down and playing a game.

As far as compatibility goes, with the Wii VC emulator you're limited to what Nintendo put out plus luck on whether injected roms work. Homebrew emulators tend to have better compatibility but are more likely to have issues mentioned above.

For latency, all emulation will introduce a minimum 1 frame of lag, with some introducing significantly more. Wii VC seems pretty snappy but I wouldn't trust say Snes9X not to have more. Not a big deal for RPGs but even playing Mario with extra lag makes it really difficult.

A good compromise is picking up real hardware for systems you care about the most and are not that expensive, like say SNES, and doing Wii for the rest.

Thanks. Checking at RetroRGB it looks like the 1 chip SNES is a tiny bit better but not by that much. I'd like to get all the old consoles though, as much for display purposes than playing them since using the Wii is just so much more convenient. I just bought a Super Famicom and will probably get an Everdrive during the black Friday sale since its my favorite system. I'm tempted to do the same with the NES but it looks like way more of a hassle to get RBG going on it.
 
A soft-modded Nintendo Wii/Wii U basically will do this for you.

I'm aware of that, but as I keep learning about the Wii/Wii U's inferior video output I'm starting to regret selling my GC, and I'm irrationally trying to find a reason to hold on to my GC component, VGA, and RGB cables in case I decide to rebuy a GC... but that's crazy. There are only a few games on GC that I still care about, and that's not worth holding on to hundreds of dollars worth of cables for... right??
 

AtomicPumpkin

Neo Member
Yeah you can install a Wii optical drive replacement like the Wiikey fusion in a GameCube or a clone intended specifically for GC and run everything off an SD card.

Only problem is you have to remove the existing optical drive.

There's also the option to add a XenoGC modchip (~$10) to the underside of the of the optical drive, burn Swiss to a disc, and then run games off of an SDGecko (basically a memory card with an SD slot). It takes longer to load games this way, though, but at least it supports audio streaming unlike the Wiikey/Wasp Fusion.
 

Fularu

Banned
I'm aware of that, but as I keep learning about the Wii/Wii U's inferior video output I'm starting to regret selling my GC, and I'm irrationally trying to find a reason to hold on to my GC component, VGA, and RGB cables in case I decide to rebuy a GC... but that's crazy. There are only a few games on GC that I still care about, and that's not worth holding on to hundreds of dollars worth of cables for... right??

It's only inferior if you use the (uber expensive) GC component cables

Do you want to drop 300+$ on them?
 
It's only inferior if you use the (uber expensive) GC component cables

Do you want to drop 300+$ on them?

But I already have those uber expensive GC cables, which is what I said in the post you quoted. Had them for many years and only recently learned that they've become expensive, along with also uber expensive VGA and NTSC RGB SCART cables (which are modified D-Terminal/Component cables).

AKPEKte.jpg

I was debating whether its worth holding on to them instead of selling them, but I already sold my GC couple of weeks ago, so I would need to rebuy the console... and yeah that seems like crazy talk to me right now, considering I haven't touched the GC in years. So if anyone here is interested in any of these cables before I put them on eBay, let me know. I'm willing to give up to 50% off going prices to avoid dealing with ebay, also would trade if you have something I want.
 
There's also the option to add a XenoGC modchip (~$10) to the underside of the of the optical drive, burn Swiss to a disc, and then run games off of an SDGecko (basically a memory card with an SD slot). It takes longer to load games this way, though, but at least it supports audio streaming unlike the Wiikey/Wasp Fusion.

I ran into so many problems trying to run games that way.

Edit: by that I mean the Swiss ISO loader is really not good enough. Super buggy games is not the way to run things on real hardware.
 

Peltz

Member
I'm aware of that, but as I keep learning about the Wii/Wii U's inferior video output I'm starting to regret selling my GC, and I'm irrationally trying to find a reason to hold on to my GC component, VGA, and RGB cables in case I decide to rebuy a GC... but that's crazy. There are only a few games on GC that I still care about, and that's not worth holding on to hundreds of dollars worth of cables for... right??

I think it is worth it if you want have a GBA collection plus GB Player. Otherwise, sell the cables and just grab a Wii plus 1st party component cables for a much cheaper price.

Wii's image quality is near identical to GCN's. The differences are so subtle that, frankly, I can't even see them. It certainly isn't a $300 difference in quality and no one here should claim otherwise.
 

Yes Boss!

Member
Wii's image quality is near identical to GCN's. The differences are so subtle that, frankly, I can't even see them. It certainly isn't a $300 difference in quality and no one here should claim otherwise.

Agreed. Plus Wii is frankly more flexible. Undeniable that the GameCube system is a bit more fun to play on of course...for aesthetics though.
 
I think it is worth it if you want have a GBA collection plus GB Player. Otherwise, sell the cables and just grab a Wii plus 1st party component cables for a much cheaper price.

Wii's image quality is near identical to GCN's. The differences are so subtle that, frankly, I can't even see them. It certainly isn't a $300 difference in quality and no one here should claim otherwise.

I don't think anyone here or elsewhere claims that the cable gives a $300 difference in image quality... the market price is not a reflection of that, it's rather what collectors are willing to pay to own one. Is the physical copy of EarthBound worth whatever its going for over the $10 eShop version? No. But that doesn't stop serious collectors from spending the money on the rare cart. Same reason the GC cables are expensive; it's a trophy piece for bragging rights. And yes, for marginally better image quality :p

Other people are OCD or extremely nitpicky about image quality. I am/used to be one. I spent hundreds of dollars importing s-video, RGB, VGA and component cables for every console back in the day just to make sure I get the best possible picture out of my TVs, or even friends' TVs when I visited them, heh. And when the New 3DS came out I stopped playing my unfinished games on my old XL until I could afford the new one, because I didn't want to "consume" my games when a superior way to play them was out there.

I don't have a Game Boy Player and don't like the idea of playing handheld games on TV, I'd rather do the opposite in fact. I want everything in handheld form, which is why the Wii U gamepad and the Switch are appealing to me.

Which makes me wonder, you can play Wii, GC and vWii VC games on the Wii U gamepad, right? I think I saw a video of someone doing it. How does that compare in image-quality and lag vs Wii U's reportedly terrible SD TV output?
 

Fularu

Banned
But I already have those uber expensive GC cables, which is what I said in the post you quoted. Had them for many years and only recently learned that they've become expensive, along with also uber expensive VGA and NTSC RGB SCART cables (which are modified D-Terminal/Component cables).



I was debating whether its worth holding on to them instead of selling them, but I already sold my GC couple of weeks ago, so I would need to rebuy the console... and yeah that seems like crazy talk to me right now, considering I haven't touched the GC in years. So if anyone here is interested in any of these cables before I put them on eBay, let me know. I'm willing to give up to 50% off going prices to avoid dealing with ebay, also would trade if you have something I want.

It was super late and I Was tired :p I kind of glossed over that part :D
 

AtomicPumpkin

Neo Member
I ran into so many problems trying to run games that way.

Edit: by that I mean the Swiss ISO loader is really not good enough. Super buggy games is not the way to run things on real hardware.

This is good to know - thanks! I've done a lot of research on this and this is how I was going to run my setup, but now I'm reconsidering. I've been waiting on my GCVideo to be delivered by Bad Ass Consoles and it's taking forever. I already have a homebrewed Wii running all my GC games via Nintendont and three GBAs (two of which are 101s), so I'm not sure that I need a GCN with a GB Player, if I'm being honest with myself. I also had a WASP Fusion (w/ Swiss installed) and a MEGAdrive V3 coming from BAC, as an alternate means, but the thought of no audio streaming really bugs me. I may bag the whole project and sell it all for what I paid for it. I know that I'll have no problem selling it all, if that's what I decide to do.
 

Peltz

Member
I don't think anyone here or elsewhere claims that the cable gives a $300 difference in image quality... the market price is not a reflection of that, it's rather what collectors are willing to pay to own one. Is the physical copy of EarthBound worth whatever its going for over the $10 eShop version? No. But that doesn't stop serious collectors from spending the money on the rare cart. Same reason the GC cables are expensive; it's a trophy piece for bragging rights. And yes, for marginally better image quality :p

Other people are OCD or extremely nitpicky about image quality. I am/used to be one. I spent hundreds of dollars importing s-video, RGB, VGA and component cables for every console back in the day just to make sure I get the best possible picture out of my TVs, or even friends' TVs when I visited them, heh. And when the New 3DS came out I stopped playing my unfinished games on my old XL until I could afford the new one, because I didn't want to "consume" my games when a superior way to play them was out there.

I don't have a Game Boy Player and don't like the idea of playing handheld games on TV, I'd rather do the opposite in fact. I want everything in handheld form, which is why the Wii U gamepad and the Switch are appealing to me.

Which makes me wonder, you can play Wii, GC and vWii VC games on the Wii U gamepad, right? I think I saw a video of someone doing it. How does that compare in image-quality and lag vs Wii U's reportedly terrible SD TV output?

Wii U's SD TV output at 480i isn't terrible. I'm not sure who told you it was.

It's only terrible for original Wii VC.
 
Wii U's SD TV output at 480i isn't terrible. I'm not sure who told you it was.

It's only terrible for original Wii VC.

Don't know about 480i but in the Retro AV thread Mega was telling me that 480p over HDMI in vWii mode (which is not just for Wii VC, can also be used for Wii and GC games) is awful:

Wii U doesn't support 240p which I think is enough to rule it out vs just obtaining a cheap Wii for your CRT. And while I can't speak for 480i over Component, vWii on 480p HDMI is awful, strangely blurrier than upscaled 720p and 1080p. I thought maybe my TV was doing a poor job of upscaling 480p, but direct caps confirmed it's blurrier. Missle and I speculated Wii U adds a crappy blur filter when set to SD resolution

So I was wondering how that compares to playing the same games on the gamepad. I read that GBA games in particular look great on it (thanks to M2), but also remember someone testing NES lag and finding it pretty bad. So I guess VC is a mixed bag. Now I'm mainly curious how Gamecube and Wii games look and run on the gamepad via Nintendont (if they run at all).
 
Kinda depends on how picky you are.

It looks soft and kinda blurry over 720p or 1080p; at 480p Mega claimed that it wasn't 1-1 map of pixels likely due to the Wii not using square pixels and that being output wrong. I don't know that any of us have really given a critical eye to how 480i looks on the Wii U...

On the gamepad it looks... ok. It's chroma sub-sampled (I think 4:2:0 but maybe 4:2:2) so you'll see solid red shapes with some artifacts on the edges and color inaccuracies. It's also h.264 encoded to send wirelessly so you'll see compression artifacts. Overall like I said it's OK but not amazing.

You can play Wii and Nintendon't GameCube as well as Wii Virtual Console and Homebrew on the gamepad but you can't use the gamepad's controls to do like Classic Controller or for GameCube games. You'd have to separately use a Wii remote with a CC plugged in.

Weirdly Nintendo's Wii U eshop Wii "Virtual Console" titles allow you to use the gamepad as a Classic Controller so I'm not sure why the homebrew people haven't cracked it yet... probably a lack of talented people interested.
 
Oh that's a bummer regarding the CC, defeats the purpose of using the gamepad for me. Thanks.

Seems like getting a PAL Wii is my best option (for RGB output in general, and 240p VC)
 

Danny Dudekisser

I paid good money for this Dynex!
So, here's a fun question:

Is there a system that you consider your collection "complete" for?

I don't think I'm particularly close on any of mine. I've got nearly all the PS1 RPGs I want, but I'm still a good 20 or so games away from having all the games I want for the thing.

It's not retro, but I'm probably closest on 3DS and Wii U at this point. I honestly have to wonder whether completing my library for a system would be more liberating or depressing, though. The chase is fun, right? But it might be cool to actually arrive at the finish line, too.
 

D.Lo

Member
Probably Virtual Boy.

I have every Saturn game I want that I can realistically get (eg no Hyper Duel or Final Dight Revenge).

Most successful systems (Fami/NES, Sfami, PS1 etc) have way too many good games to even complete a set IMO.
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
I feel like my American NES collection is mostly complete. There are a few commons I don't have (River City Ransom and Megaman 1 come to mind), and there are a few rares I've written off (Duck Tales 2, etc)... but more or less I have all the major titles. About 100 games. Obviously that's cutting out 90% of the chaffe, but that's the idea.

I guess it's not "complete", as I'd surely pick up those odd little niche titles as I come across them, but I'm on no drive to fill out that collection. I feel a sense of satisfaction with it.

Famicom side though.... I've got to go deeper.
 
Unless you're someone actually collecting all of the games on a console, saying that you have "completed" your collection for a system basically says that you don't care enough about the platform, or game collecting/playing in general, to look deeper into the system's library for any more obscure titles you don't know of. And there almost certainly are such games, particularly for systems with bigger libraries.

And then on top of that, what about other-region releases? There are some fairly well-known games for any given system that only released in Japan for example, but there are so many more for many systems that are interesting even to the non-Japanese speaker and very little-known. Saying something like "I have all the interesting PS1 games" without owning any Japanese games would be a pretty questionable thing to say, for example. And yes, if they're running on another regions' version of the console, I absolutely consider it a game for that console! Famicom games and NES games are not for different platforms. Sometimes the easiest way to play all games for a system is to get other-region versions of the system, sure, but that depends on the platform, and with modification people can usually fix those issues anyway.

Now, sure, I can understand wanting to stop collecting for a system at some point, but when people make it sound like they have "all the interseting games" for a system when they surely don't even know about lots of such titles... yeah, I find that a little annoying. Of course, if you DO know every single game for a system and know why you don't want the rest of them that's different, but while surely that's sometimes true, I doubt it usually is when people say such things.


So yeah, I don't have complete collections for any consoles because I'm kind of a game-collecting addict and don't own all the games for any system. I guess the closest, then, is the Sega 32X CD, since I have four of the five US-released games for that thing -- all I'm missing is Corpse Killer 32XCD. Then I guess I would call it "complete" because there is absolutely no way I'd ever get a copy of the exceptionally rare Brazil-only release of Surgical Strike 32XCD.
 

entremet

Member
So, here's a fun question:

Is there a system that you consider your collection "complete" for?

I don't think I'm particularly close on any of mine. I've got nearly all the PS1 RPGs I want, but I'm still a good 20 or so games away from having all the games I want for the thing.

It's not retro, but I'm probably closest on 3DS and Wii U at this point. I honestly have to wonder whether completing my library for a system would be more liberating or depressing, though. The chase is fun, right? But it might be cool to actually arrive at the finish line, too.

I've only thought about it for the Wii U since it's actually the most realistic. But I prefer curated collections. No hate on complete collectors, but I like every piece in my collection to have a story and not just be something I checked off a list.
 

Danny Dudekisser

I paid good money for this Dynex!
To be clear, I'm not talking about having complete collections, as in having all the games. I'm just talking about having all the games you want for a system.
 

televator

Member
I think I'm there with the Gamecube. It had a short but sweet library and I'm not a "collector". Only thing I want is the GCVideo mod now.

On N64, the only last game I want is Road Rash 64.

The last ships have sailed on DC, Genesis, and Saturn as far as games I really wanted, but are now beyond reasonably obtainable.
 
To be clear, I'm not talking about having complete collections, as in having all the games. I'm just talking about having all the games you want for a system.

I know, that's exactly what I was talking about -- do most people who claim "I have all the games I want for this system" even know what all the games they're missing out on are?
 

entremet

Member
I think I'm there with the Gamecube. It had a short but sweet library and I'm not a "collector". Only thing I want is the GCVideo mod now.

On N64, the only last game I want is Road Rash 64.

The last ships have sailed on DC, Genesis, and Saturn as far as games I really wanted, but are now beyond reasonably obtainable.

I thought DC was reasonable? I'm not too familiar with the library, but I heard it was one of the collector friendly system.
 
I know, that's exactly what I was talking about -- do most people who claim "I have all the games I want for this system" even know what all the games they're missing out on are?

There's fun in trying something new but unless you have a system that sold gangbusters you can run out of stuff you're interested in pretty quick on a lot of consoles. These are systems where you maybe saw a few hundred releases max. Like I could pretty easily tap out on Master System, N64, WonderSwan, Dreamcast, GameCube, and Wii U.
 

Danny Dudekisser

I paid good money for this Dynex!
I know, that's exactly what I was talking about -- do most people who claim "I have all the games I want for this system" even know what all the games they're missing out on are?

RetroGAF types probably do. People here probably have a really good sense for what's worth looking into on a given system.

I thought DC was reasonable? I'm not too familiar with the library, but I heard it was one of the collector friendly system.

Yeah, I don't think it's too bad. The only exceptions would be a couple of the shmups, and Super Street Fighter IIX.
 
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