/vr/ - Retro Games

They aren't even good Laserdisc players.

>>3875269
No one owns one. My uncle had one for a year in the late 90s but I think it broke and he threw it out.

If you want it, buy it. Just know the games are literal unplayable pieces of garbage.

Well OP, do you like low quality 90s home-video pornography?

>>3875805

He could find better porn on a 5 year old iphone...

I think he has some sort of invested interest in this.

>>3875269

Had one at the store where I worked. We only sold the Genesis expander for it (TG16 was already dead in USA). I only remember playing a rollercoaster-type racing game with a sci-fi background. The game was pretty but sucked to play.

Mixing the analog laserdisc video with a transparent video game overlay was novel, but most Pioneer laserdisc players that weren't Elite were pretty much shit out of the box, and the Laseractive was no exception. They had weak motors and bad brakes (needed to slow down the spinning of heavy acrylic 12" discs), and they would usually break in under two years.

>>3875952
I've kinda been interested in collecting laserdisc, particularly older anime ovas, esp. since most of the discs are pretty throwaway for most people these days.

I'd imagine some later model (maybe including a dvd player) would be the optimal laserdisc media player at this point?

I want one but DAPHNE scratches the itch pretty okay. Games with sprites on top of FMVs like Astron Belt are pretty much gimmicks - especially the Mega LD ones

>>3875269

It contains 100 Capacitors. If one fails the whole system dies. You're welcome.

>>3875961

Pioneer Elite CLD-97 or CLD-99. CLD-79 is okay.

>>3876086
You don't need a reference level player if you are starting out with LD, besides.

As long as it can play both sides and was made in the mid 90s, the player will perform well.

>>3876116

AC-3 RF out is a must, so that limits you to the last two generations. I recommend Elites because the build quality of the regular players makes them a bad gamble 20+ years later.

The cheapest player I'd buy today is a CLD-59, which was the Elite version of the 606.

>>3876120
You don't need AC-3 since it appears on so few discs, and most players from the 90s can be modified to output AC-3 RF or have a built in demodulator to send the AC-3 straight to your receiver.

AC-3 as a must on Laserdisc is like saying you need Dolby S on a cassette deck.

All you need out of a LD player is dual side play if you want to get started. Dropping some serious coin on an Elite level player or reference level is a big commitment.

>>3876025
>It contains 100 Capacitors. If one fails the whole system dies. You're welcome.


This is true to any system though.

What you should've said was that the Laseractive uses faulty caps which leak and corrode the boards practically all the time.

>>3876524
All the best releases on LD came near the end of its life. And if you're going to get into LD, don't do it half-assed.

Yes, you are correct that the RF out is easy to add to many models. Which is why I bothered listing the CLD-97 in the first place.

But the motors in the cheaper players are still shit and don't last. So I still stand by my recommendations.

>>3876559
It's perfectly fine to get a regular player as your first one. My first player was a CLD-1070, and I have a Sony MDP-333, A Marantz LV520 which is a rebadged Pioneer unit, and my main one is a D702...they are all solid players and perform well for watching Laserdiscs.

I was a heavy investor in the Laseractive technology. If you can get a large number of games it does a have cool factor most consoles can not match. Is it better than 3d0... Well only in video quality. Unless you want the exclusive games... The best use if the LA is pc engine and pc.CD titles.. I had a blast with Gradius II and the hu card shooters. Unless your into Dragon lair type games... Aka road prosecutor or triad stone... I'd skip.. But Don Quixote is quite cool if you don't mind slower walking speeds.

>>3875269
TIMEGAL is the best game for the laseractive. Too bad it costs a fortune.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVFLz0FXTnc

also look at all these excited folks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kn3qgOyJE1Y

>>3876524
>All you need out of a LD player is dual side play
I don't get why this is such a big deal. It takes like 5 seconds to flip a disc. I have a Sony MDP-333. It doesn't have dual side play but I don't really give a shit.

>>3877924
>Sony player
pleb

>>3877927
Again, don't give a shit. It was 20 bucks and came with 30 discs.

>>3877945
The only LDs you ever need.

>>3877973

>Dat Vol. 5

Never did find one for less that $200.

>>3878008
I have it, if you really want a complete color Tex Avery collect buy it, theres also a few Chuck Jones cartoons in there as well.

>>3878024
Can't tell from the picture (obviously), but is your Vol. 1 the uncensored one?

>>3878078
Yes it is, why did you ask.

Pic is not mine.

>>3878078
Yes it is, why did you ask?

Pic is not mine.

>>3875269
Good luck finding one that isn't broken or ultra-expensive. I bought one, for quite a pretty penny I might add, thinking I could fix it and it was a terrible mistake. The game modules on these will ALWAYS need recapped if they haven't been recapped already. They are legendarily bad. Also, if you do need to make a fix, sourcing parts is a real pain. I don't think mine's ever going to get to working condition.

>>3878106

Just curious. I have it, too, and it's the sort of thing I might have to be buried with.

>>3875269
I own, use, and have repaired multiple of these. Here's some things I've learned

The capacitors on every game PAC are totally fucked, leaking everywhere, and the boards are all melting because of it. The recap and repair is an expensive job to have done, so either do it yourself (not easy if the board is badly damaged), or buy one that has already been recapped. Even with the leaky capacitors, most are still working, so don't take "working" as a sign that everything is OK.

Video output:
-The composite video output from them is horrendous. Everything goes through the muxer that overlays the console graphics on top of the LD video whether or not you're playing a Laseractive game. It causes a sort of double-image and looks like shit.
-It can be modded for s-video (circumventing the muxer), but it only works with the LD video. I haven't tested this yet, but it should eliminate the double-image. However, you won't be able to see any of the controls from the PACs with that video output.
-It can also be modded for RGB, but you can only see the PACs' video and not the LD video. It's gimmicky, but it's good for when you want to play genesis, tg16, and their respective CD games.

>>3878195
>It can be modded for s-video (circumventing the muxer), but it only works with the LD video.

There is no advantage to this as luma and chroma are already mixed on the analog LD video signal. By modding to S-video, you are relying on the player's shitty comb filter to separate the two, instead of your television's comb filter, which is probably better, assuming it's even half-way decent.

>>3878339
The point is to circumvent the graphics overlay electronics that make the composite video look like shit.

>>3878359

But it would STILL be better (and easier) to tap some raw composite video there than try to convert it to S-Video at that stage.

>>3878406
Maybe! I haven't messed with those outputs yet, so I'll see how it looks one day.

>>3878460

It should look better. And I take back what I said earlier. Most LD players with S-Video out didn't have a shitty comb filter. Most had an even shittier notch filter.

Bumping because I really like the laseractive

I actually own one of these. I works perfectly fine. But i use it for laser discs only. Its not bad. To own one of these is to simply complete a collection at best, IMO. Good luck op, they can get pricey.

>>3882730
Did you go about the process of recapping this and the PACs?

Reading about the actual state of its hardware makes the thing sound like a headache.

>>3882797
>Reading about the actual state of its hardware makes the thing sound like a headache.
Not as much a headache because it's pretty clear what needs to be done. It's just a pretty big job.

I don't think anybody is throwing away the PACs when they die, but it makes me wonder how many will still be easily salvageable in a few years.

>>3875269
Two words: disc rot.

>>3883976
>Two words: under age

>>3883976

>>3884115
>I don't know how to argue against a valid point so I'll just namecall.

>>3875269
I really wanted one but couldn't bring myself to spend the $500+ they go for. Instead I got a LD player from a karaoke parlor that was going out of business to satiate my LD thirst. Was totally worth it.

Don't bother with AC-3 audio, it's only useful for surround sound (do you really have surround sound set up for your retro gaming rig?), many discs have stereo PCM audio that sounds great if not better than the AC-3.

Also LD players are plentiful enough that you can replace it if it breaks and/or upgrade to a better one if you really want.

>>3884881
>plentiful enough that you can replace it if it breaks and/or upgrade to a better one if you really want.
I literally never come across them in thrift stores in the past 10 years

I've got a nice shitty 90s Pioneer LD player. The audio sounds great and movies are cheap. Unless you're a nutso collector, don't bother with with a Laseractive.

I've wanted to get an LD arcade machine but I don't know if that'll ever happen, something like Time Gal, Dragon's Lair, etc.

>>3885012
Has a Laserdisc arcade system ever shown up for sale? I imagine they have, but those things seem to be needles in the haystack.

>>3883976

The nice thing about disc rot is, it's not really lurking in anyone's collection, waiting to strike their discs anymore. If it was going to rot, it did already.

Discs that were prone to rot have thoroughly rotted now, and won't play. Discs that haven't rotted by now almost certainly won't.

>>3888985
Actually most laserdiscs do have some disc rot but since they're a monodirectional analog (literally dumb) format they never just fail to play they just have parts where they lose picture or sound. They're not like DVDs where they have to have a minimum amount of data and they're not like tapes that will wear out and get ate up.