Ross PK

Well I went to the shops today and got one, there didn't seem to be any 720p ones that were in my price range and were the size that I wanted. I ended up talking to the shop assistant and it turns out he is a retro gamer himself, and has lots of the old systems! He said that they will look good on pretty much any HD TV, and that obviously the bigger the screen the more pixelated the games will look. He said that they would probably look better in 720p and that the refresh rate probably wouldn't make any difference. There were two TV's that I was interested in, a Panasonic (can't remember if it was LCD or LED) 1080p with a 50hz refresh rate, and a Samsung LED 1080p with a 100hz refresh rate. I ended up picking the Panasonic since the picture quality did seem to look quite a lot crisper and brighter than the Samsung, plus Panasonic seems to be a good brand and the TV itself looked like it was of a decent build quality, whereas the Samsung looks a little cheap, and I don't really know whether Samsung is a good brand either. But I was kind of tempted to go with the Samsung since it had the higher refresh rate. Anyway, he went into the back but unfortunatley they had sold out of the Panasonic ones, so I ended up getting the Samsung http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-UE32F5000-32-inch-Widescreen-Freeview/dp/B00BP58C1S/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top I have honestly no idea why I didn't just ask when they would be getting in more of the Panasonics, and just come back and get one once they had got some more in. I've tried several games on the Samsung at home, and some look okay, not too bad at all, but certain others look really terrible, 16 bit style 2D games look very blotchy like all the detail has kind of been smeared out, Vice City looks the same also, and with some games when there is movement on the screen the graphics look kind of blurred/smeared out, and then once the whatever was moving stops, it becomes more sharper and detailed again, like a camera going into focus. I ended up feeling really tempted to take it back, and then get the Panasonic one when they get more of them in, but there is a chance that the games may look even worse on the Panasonic, plus the refresh rate is lower. So I guess it might be best to just keep this one, and get one of those xRGB devices or something similar, it's nice to see that it has got really postive reviews on Amazon anyway.

I really really don't like the idea of there being a delay in the controls.

Thanks guys. I'll give some more info, I live in a PAL country and the systems I have are an Atari 8-Bit, N64, Dreamcast and PS2, I use my PS2 and Dreamcast the most. I'm not really interested in a CRT TV, because I'm planning on getting a computer desk at some point and a CRT would probably be too heavy for it, unless I was to get a small portable which I'm not really interested in. So for the older consoles, the more higher the refresh rate the better? And should I go for 720p or full 1080p? I'm thinking maybe the higher the 'p' the worse the games will look since the games are at a low resolution.

LCD? LED? Or plasma?

Not at the moment. But I do want to make sure that day never comes.

Die Hard Vendetta (PS2) Gunbird Special Edition (PS2) Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation (Dreamcast)

What makes you think he never gave a shit? Surely if that was true he would've never started posting in this topic in the first place. Seems more like it was the abusive posters who drove him away.

Twisty puzzles. I still have my small coin collection from when I was a kid in the 80's, which consists of defunct coins and foreign coins, I've thought about starting to collect coins again, but I haven't got around to it yet.

My first and only Atari 8-Bit was/is the 800XL. I have nostalgia for that machine, I also much prefer the styling of the 800XL over the 130 XE too. The XE systems look grey and quite bland with no character IMO. Also I have heard that the build quality of the XE has a more cheaper than the XL's.

PC: Jumpman (I'm sure this is free to download) Repton Dreamcast: Q*Bert Centipede N64: Robotron 64 Paperboy PS2: Spyhunter

Why is it so important to you that he does?

Hey Carmel, yeah, CEX is the main shop that I go in for games, some of them are so cheap.

Not really.

Today I managed to get a game for 1p, which is the cheapest I've ever paid for a game. It was Jet Ski Riders for the PS2 and had a price tag of 99p, I think the guy behind the till must've made a mistake. *EDIT* I'm talking about physical games, not ones that you download.

I never thought of that. If it is just a keyboard, I wonder what computer it belonged to?

I've taken a screenshot from the vid.

I don't actually have a pool game (love playing it in real life), I may pick one up some day.

I find most sports boring. But I do enjoy golf, rally, darts, fishing, and snooker video games.

Just made a video of it yesterday. I've got around 134 PS2 games, the majority of them are complete. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yq7vkIxiUHw

Are there any light guns available for the PS2 which will work on an LCD TV?

Back in around 1985 when I first got an Atari 800XL, I was typing in programs from the manual that came with the computer. They wouldn't work though, turns out that PLOT was printed as PILOT in the manual, I remember my nephew at the time pointing it out to me when I was trying to get a program to work which created thunder and lightening on the screen. I wonder if all the manuals had this mistake in them, or if it was something that was really rare? Anyone noticed PLOT being printed as PILOT in their 800XL manual?

Back in around 1985 when I first got an Atari 800XL, I was typing in programs from the manual that came with the computer. They wouldn't work though, turns out that PLOT was printed as PILOT in the manual, I remember my nephew at the time pointing it out to me when I was trying to get a program to work which created thunder and lightening on the screen. I wonder if all the manuals had this mistake in them, or if it was something that was really rare? Anyone noticed PLOT being printed as PILOT in their 800XL manuals?

I buy games to play, but because I have so many and becauase I buy games often enough, around 5% or 10% of them remain unplayed for months, 2 or 3 will remain unplayed for more than a year, since I can't play everything at once. If there's a game that I don't like and I know I'll never be interested in playing again, I'll just sell it for whatever money I can get for it, and if I can't sell it, then I'd happily give it away. This is why I have an end goal, a cut off point, where once I've got all of the games I'm interested in playing for the 4 systems I own, that'll be it, I wont be buying any more. Because as well as not wanting to have too many games, I want to play all of the games thoroughly that I enjoy in my life time.

I don't have any back ups at the moment, I would like to have a back up of each of my consoles but I can't really afford it. I did buy a back up Dreamcast once, and by pure coincidence, about 3 days later, my main one that I had for over 10 years died. So the fact that I bought a back up a few days before was definatley good timing.

There's an ebay seller who is selling hundreds of PS2 games for as little as £1.27 each with free P&P, http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?ff3=4&pub=5574883395&toolid=10001&campid=5336500554&customid=&mpre=http%3A%2F%2Fmyworld.ebay.co.uk%2Festocks%2F Unfortunatley though, he doesn't ship overseas. I've just made a nice little haul myself Wild Water Adrenaline Wreckless Outrun 2006: Coast 2 Coast Quantum of Solace Space Invaders Anniversary Colin McRae Rally o4 DOGS LIFE Colin McRae Rally 2005 WRC Rally Evolved Pipemania Starsky & Hutch Mercedes-Benz World Racing Dukes of Hazzard: Return of the General Lee Corvette 4X4 Evo II Test Drive Off Road: Wide Open Midway Arcade Treasures 2 World Snooker Championship 2005 Colin McRae Rally 3