CatPix

I realized I never posted about a pretty amazing example : Near Moscow, there's a museum focused on Lenin, that opened in 1987. They wanted state-of-the-art technology, but no Soviet company could provide it as there was simply nothing able to sync up light, electric and electronic devices. But the British had it. And the British company used Apple II computers. So, the Museum set up ghost companies in order to import the display tech and the Apple II computers required. And as of 2019, the Apple II still run the show. While for a long time the musem didn't got modernized (for lack of funding and lack of interest from the public at large) the current director said that he wanted to keep the museum as it was in 1987. A sort of museum of a museum (according to visitors, this includes the original captions with all the propaganda lies, although additionnal panels sometime reveal the lies. Sometime) "Magic cubes" with animatronics, lights and film projection. All driven by 5 Apple II. (no pictures of the computers or of the ES400 system themselves, even on andex, tho)

The football game use the keypad to control the players on screen. That is, you hold the button and move the player (on a line) and each of the 11 players can be moved individually. It's probably the only non-multiplayer real-time football game to allow you to do that I remember trying to move all 11 players and it kinda worked, tho obviously pressing 11 buttons at the same time wasn't easy so I'm not sure if the console can or can't poll 11 buttons presses.

A bit late but I used an Atari power supply. Any supermarket generic power supply with 9V and a 3.5mm jack type will do the trick.

Or you can just leave the sound going to the speaker Perhaps adding a volume slider.

Apparently, in the Miyama Textile company in Japan, a 40 years old Sharp MZ-80 is still used... to create punch cards for looms. (the MZ-80 appears only in the first 2 minutes) (oh, last post in 2016. Ne wonder why it took me a while to find this thread back )

FOMO for me only come in play with homebrews, if they interest me. Most of the time physical releases will only be made once due to the high cost so once the original run stops you're out of luck to get one. Commercial games? Retro games? There is no running out of them, and there's always emulation and Everdrives. And, yes, you nca have those for homebrews too but at least when I buy from a homebrewer I know my money goes to someone directly.

Unless I missed it, I realized there is one major game that wasn't yet named here... I guess because most of the later games didn't mentionned her ever. Alone in the Dark let you choose between Edward Carnby or Emily Hartwood. Emily Hartwood may be the first 3D playable character. Or at least the first playable one outside of arcade games (but I don't think there were that many 3D arcade games in 1991 with playable human protagonists)

I can't hurt to replace caps especially if your system is know to ahve failing ones. At least replace, for older machines, the power supply caps and any tantalum ones (the ones that looks orange droplets - usually more found in IMB-PC clones and used near RAM) A cap that fail on the logic board may just cause glitches, but a failing cap on the power supply may cause power instability bad enough to fry part of your system. When possible, replace electrochemical caps with non-electrochemical ones as those can last decades (I have seen Mikado caps from the 1920's that are still within their original building specs) and more importantly, won't leak out when left unnattended. So, replace in the PSU, replace the one that you know will fail (such as the Xbox clock ones). Normally you only need to replace the electrochemical and tantalum ones, every other type is more robust - if you wonder why they aren't used more, it's mostly because of cost, capacity and size - Electrochemical caps are usually cheaper, available in more capacities and smaller that ceramic and other types. For replacement being junk, well just order caps from reputable brands. Even "super good" caps (electrolytics ones at least) shouldn't cost you more than 2$ a pop, except maybe for beefy PSU ones (and even then, with a few exception like the boomstick in a PET power supply, they are still under 10$). Usually I recommand NOT to buy "cap kits" as they tend to have mediocre quality parts for very high prices.

I never seen a TV set made after the early 60's with a rotactor for frequencies. Tho I guess the French market was odd on that point. The screen shows channel 36 but it could be "ghosting" and the main picture could indeed be on the VHF range.

Your Videosphere should be perfect! This system is most likely B/W anyway ^^

Or use a VCR tuner. But yeah, CRT made after 2000 in Europe usually have a very hard time picking up console signals. Also, those consoles were almost never pre-tuned to a defined canal so you should also try to use fine tuning as it's unlikely the signal is precisely on canal 36. I suppose you tried to tune the signal on the system itself?

I can see your argument but on the other hand, if those games were still like that they would not be played, or not the same. All of those games for me are multiplayer games only. Sure maybe it's because without those RPG elements they are rather shallow and repetitive experience, but on the other hand, if I play on my own then invite friends at home that do not own the game, then I'm playing a character with 20 XP when they play a 1XP character each time. Many of those games still require a knowledge and experience of the gameplay to be played fully. You can easily tell a beginner from a skilled player even without all of those mechanisms in most cases, be it Mario Kart or Mario Tennis. Arguably Mario Golf is the easiest to master quickly. If those games hadn't evolved they would just not be good multiplayer games in the modern world (a world where Mario Tennis is no longer the main game everyone plays at home and with friends daily), and it has nothing to do with "dumbing down". The current Super Mario Kart or Smash player will crush any beginner to a pulp, yet those games doesn't have upgrade or XP systems. Skills are still a requirement. I do get the point that those games would be better enjoyed solo with a XP system but they are mostly focused on multiplayer experience. And on the dumbing down, I remember the era where Silent Hill and Resident evil came with an auto-aiming function. Not assisted aim, auto-aim. The ennemy is behind you? Press R1 and your character flips back; press R2 and you're dead center in the target. I remember survival horror games with infinite inventory space, ammo that piled up because ennemies were slow and weak so you could smash them with a melee weapon; items that blinks, sparkle, glow or your character stare at them if he is close enough. In Zelda games, there are NPC to give you clues and even reminders since at least Zelda Ocarina of Time. If there is a dumbing down in game, it's been going for at least 25 years. On the other hand, you have now 200$ game controllers with over 35 buttons for FARMING simulators. Games like Factorio or Satisfactory gather millions of players, people are excited for City Skylines 2. All kinds of games that get more and more complex as time goes. Some licences do get dumbed down, and there are simple dumb games out there. But it's certainly not a general trend that drag all games and gamers down.

This always amuses me when I read that "Mario was able to do tennis, racing, etc..." but that's the opposite : The impressive thing is that Nintendo managed several times to release good and funny games in various genres, and "upmarket" them by filling them with their Mario (and later other franchises) characters. Mario tried educationnal games and they were a burning disaster. If Sonic failed to branch into other genres, it's not because Sonic wasn't made for them or because people didn't held Sonic in high esteem, it's because the games were bad, period. If you had put Mario characters in Sonic R and call it Mario R, it would have bombed too. Mario, or a mascot, do sells games, sure, but it's just part of a wider formula. Many other company mascots have tried to show up in unrelated games and most failed, not because people don't like their mascot to do something else, but because the editor though that dropping a mascot in a mediocre game would still sell. It doesn't work that way. Yet having Mario in his games is important because each character from the Nintendoverse have their characteristics that allow for gameplay variations that may not work so well with "generic" characters. But the point is : Mario didn't succeeded in appearing in a plethora of game because or despite he is the hero of one game. It's because he was put in a series of decent-to-good games in a consistent manner.

Talking about Japan, The Maze of Galious on MSX Let you play either Popolon or Aphrodite. One of the earliest game I remember playing with a female protagonist was Jill of the Jungle, on PC. A nice lil platformer. I think it's free on GOG.com.

Interesting topic. I tried to read it all but lots of answers came up. I think someone touched an important thing of what may make our current culture feel so bland, repetitive and overwhelming; That we make more culture. But it's hard to even start to fathom HOW MUCH. For the book industry, for example, more books have been printed between 1950 and now than between 1950 and 1450. For the media industry; France has a public service of sort, called INA (National Institute of Audiovisual); their main mission is to record every movie, video and music released in France (and for the past 20 years, video games. And if I recall right they ponder about saving French Youtuber video content as well). In 2010, they said that at this point, after 60 years of French television archives, they had accumulated the equivalent of 100 YEARS of continuous (24/7, that is) video archives. And this is only for video broadcast in France. Now imagine how much centuries of video, music and reading is produced every year. (not even counting Youtube and streaming). This is plain amazing. It's hard to even wrap your head around. And yes, most of that is garbage. It make sense; the reason we produce so much media is that today it cost almost nothing. More stuff in the hands of more people, which in turn lead people hoping to make it. More fresh meat for the industry to toss in the grinder... and kick out once they start to get famous and ask for more money. But on the other hand, it mean there's a treasure trove of stuff to discover over Internet. I have played more indie games in the past 5 years than in the past 15 years since I herd of indie studios. Getting in touch with people from all over the world made me find about different medias, music, cartoons. Many old, some recent. Culture has never been so rich and so accessible... but as roots.genoa said, it requires you to do mroe than just sit in your random cinema megaplex and complain about always being served the same stale soup. I'm probably missing about lots of stuff that would tickly my fancy. I barely started recently to read mangas. I hardly watch animes. There's no time for everything. Yet if I wait for culture to get served to me without looking for it, yes, that's like going in a city I never been to : - Either I go to names I recognize like McDonald's and complain about them serving the same selection - Or I got in the city, losing some time to look for restaurants until I try one. I may be dissapointed; but I also found some great dishes made by a talented chef. It is a choice ;one that is not wrong either. If you like McDo, if you like the current pop culture, enjoy it. But if you don't like it... There is something for you out there. It just require you to look for it. So many things that even 15 years ago wouldn't be available, or perhaps on some cultural channel at 3 am.