u/Leviathan1776

As someone who is working on trying to get into the Atari 2600, I've been using this list to decide which games to try out via emulation before purchasing.

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So far, I'm working my way through the A rankings and will probably try out the B and C tier as well.

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Here are my questions for you:

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1. Are there any D or F ranked games on the list that you feel shouldn't be so low on the list? (You can sort the list by grade)

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2. As someone who doesn't really like sports games, are there any on the 2600 that you would consider essential?

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Thanks for your time.

I don't have a good understanding of when an isolation transformer should be used when it comes to CRT repair. I believe that it should be used when:

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You are dealing with a hot chassis

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You are probing around inside the CRT while it is powered on with a probe that is plugged into the wall, such as a scope.

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Is this correct, or am I missing something? Thanks for your time.

One of my resolutions for this year was to get into shmups or fighting games, and I decided to go with the former. The Raiden Project for PS1 showed up at my local game store about a month ago, so I took that as a sign.

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Progress was rather slow, but over the course of a month I managed to slowly work through the game. The first two stages were rather easy, but it seemed to get more difficult from there. I ended up getting set up in Batocera to practice the later levels and bosses over and over and eventually reached a point where I felt confident returning to the PS1 to try my luck at putting everything together into a run.

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It took quite a lot of runs, but I was eventually able to beat Raiden 1 on easy. I died once, but I was able to get a max level power up to get back in the game. If you die in the later game when you aren't near one, it is rather difficult to not fall into a string of deaths.

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Playing on TATE mode on PS1 is rather interesting, as the controls don't get rotated, meaning that you need to hold the controller sideways for the directional controls to work correctly. I used an offbrand Pelican controller and it worked pretty good.

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NOOB QUESTIONS:

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1. It seems that the 8bitDo M30 is the popular controller to go with when it comes to shmups. Its a modern version of the Saturn controller. However, there isn't a joystick. Are we ... not supposed to being using a joystick? Is the D-pad the way to go?

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2. Can you pause during a 1cc? When I was practicing, I would play through the first few stages on my PS1, and then when I got to the later levels I would pause, play through the level a few times on the emulator, and then come back and beat it on the PS1, and repeat for the next level.

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If you can pause a 1cc, then I technically 1ccd Raiden 1 about ten times. It felt too easy like this, so my last run I played it straight through without pausing, and it was definetly much more difficult without practicing each level beforehand. After about twenty tries I was able to put it all together.

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3. Have you played the Raiden Project on PS1? I chose it because the visuals looked cool and the long box drew my eye. I wasn't familiar with shmups prior to this outside of Galaga and Xevious, but it seems to be considered a more difficult game now that I've done some research jnto the era. I played it on easy, but it still seemed rather difficult. I felt that luck played a big part in the later stages, but maybe I just lack skill.

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After spending some time with Raiden 1, I gave Raiden 2 a try and it seemed much easier. I was able to breeze through the first few levels without dying. Part of that result was likely from practicing Raiden 1 so many times, but overall the sequel seems to be an easier game.

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4. Do you play on a CRT? Why or why not?

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NEXT GAME:

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While I will likely revisit Raiden 1 and beat it on a higher difficulty in the future, I am a bit bored of it presently. Raiden 2 also seems like a fun game to complete somewhere down the line.

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I plan to move onto the SNES next, as I really like 240p games and I don't have either other console from that generation. The SNES seems rather weak compared to the Genesis and Turbografx-16, but I was able to come up with this list of games that look interesting to me:

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* Aero Fighters

* Axelay

* Biometal

* (J) Caravan Shooting Collection

* (J) Cotton 100%

* Darius Twin

* Darius Force

* Earth Defense Force

* (J) Flying Hero

* Gradius 3

* Imperium

* (J) Macross

* (J) Parodius Da

* Phalanx

* (J) Pop'n Twinbee

* R-Type 3

* Strike Gunner STG

* Super Aleste

* UN Squadron

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Are there any SNES games that you think I missed? I left off games that have better ports in either this or the next generation of consoles, but I might have missed some cool SNES games. I also didn't list games that have really bad slowdown.

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Of all of these, Parodius Da looks the most interesting to me. Do you think it would be a good next game to play, or would it be too difficult for someone just starting their shmup journey?

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If not Parodius Da, the three games that I narrowed the list down to for the next game are:

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* Earth Defense Force

* Strike Gunner STG

* UN Squadron

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They each have a means of choosing weapons and/or planes between fights, which seems cool. Do you have any experience with any of these? Do you think one of these would be a good next choice, or should I choose something else from the SNES to play first?

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Thanks for your time. Researching shmups and learning about the process of getting good at them has been a lot of fun. There seems to be a lot of good 240p games to keep me busy for quite a while. I've gone through and made a list of all of the Genesis and Saturn games that I would like to play as well, and it seem like the Turbografx-16 has almost nothing but good options. I expect this new interest will keep me here for quite a while.

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Hello. I was curious if there was any means of assigning a specific load state/save state to a specific keystroke/button.

I would like to either have a separate controller or USB keypad in which I could press one button to Save State 1, another to Load State 1, the next to Save State 2, etc.

Is this supported by Batocera at all or would something like this not be possible? Thanks for your time

I really enjoy scrolling through this subreddit every now and then looking at people's setups. Although I'm not involved in older computers as I once was, I would like to put together a retro computer/CRT room. Its something that I've been meaning to do for a while, but I just don't know where to start.

For those of you who have a dedicated space in your home for one or more setups, how did you go about designing it, deciding on a layout, desks, accessories, etc? Did you plan it all out beforehand or did it slowly evolve over time?

I feel stuck as this is something that I've wanted to do for the past year or so but I feel paralyzed with decision fatigue. In terms of equipment, I would be looking at:

* Powermac G3 Yosemite with 21" Studio Display

* Toshiba Timm

* IBM PS/1 Consultant with matching monitor

* Jensen AVS-3250 with matching reciever, VCR, and speakers

* Sony KX-1901A with matching reciever, VCR, and speakers

Let me know if you have any suggestions. I'd really like to jump on this so I'm not in this same position a year from now. Thanks for your time.