Hardware Thread

[Anonymous No.4551005]

So /vr/, what hardware do you find a e s t h e t i c? Or is there some obscure console you wish you could find/afford/have shipped from Japan in one piece?

Maybe you've ruined your console by spray painting it or have saved it from the horrors of yellowing and have some before and after photos.

Or even just know of a few interesting facts or quirks about a piece of hardware.

It's all good in the Hardware Thread.

[Anonymous No.4551010]

Mega Drive model 1 (Japan) is one cool looking machine.

[babbage's gramps !RATGzMALLY No.4551018]

Model 1 Genesis/Sega CD

[Anonymous No.4551025]

this piece of shit

[Anonymous No.4551026]

>>4551010
It's the kind of pinkish red and blue accents I dig on the Japanese Mega Drives.

Also the MD logo is also pretty aesthetic.

[Anonymous No.4551030]

Speaking of Mega Drives, I used to own on of pic related but had to sell it unfortunately.

[Anonymous No.4551032]

>>4551025
>this piece of shit
Does it that have some compatibility issues or something?

[Anonymous No.4551098]

I like the look of every Sega console, with the wonder mega being my favourite.

I also think the PS1 looks really aesthetic in black like the net yaroze. The only Nintendo console I like the look of is the twin famicom.

[Anonymous No.4551123]

>>4551005
Pic related's not a console, but still supported by a great number of video games. Got one earlier this week for a really decent price (along with a really cheap SC-55), tried it this weekend and damn this thing sound gorgeous. The SC-55 sounds really good too, it's fun to see how a bunch of effects applied to samples can make them sound so good. Fun thing is that some musics sound better on the SC-55 than on the SC-88 Pro (such as the 3rd stage of Hellhound on x68000), but usually they sound better on the latter. Some MIDI files also use the expander's screen to display stuff like a picture and the title of the tune.
>>4551025
Cutest amiga model. Too bad it lacks a numpad.
>>4551032
When it comes to amiga stuff anything with a kickstart rom higher than 1.2/1.3 = compatibility issues. It's an issue of game programmers expecting ROM routines to alway be at the same address when Commodore specificially wrote bulletins telling programmers to use the ROM routine vector table instead of the routine start adresses cause the former wont change but the latter will.
Not that many of the games concerned are actually that good.

[Anonymous No.4551134]

>>4551005
>a e s t h e t i c

having to retrobrite your hardware to keep it looking good is pathetic; black + brushed stainless is the superior way.

[babbage's gramps !RATGzMALLY No.4551139]

>>4551098
Twin was designed by Sharp

[Anonymous No.4551184]

>>4551005
Sharp X68000 all day.

[Anonymous No.4551193]

>>4551184
Fucken delish.

[Anonymous No.4552554]

Sega Teradrive. Basically an IBM 286 PC with Mega Drive hardware built into it and the hardware can talk to each other. This thing probably would have been a dream for the demoscene if they could use both CPUs at the same time.

Used to be able to find them relatively frequently on eBay years ago.

[Anonymous No.4552587]

>>4551026
Same one we had in Europe. I had one and one day when I was on a trip in my early teens my little brother tried to hook it up and couldn't, so my Grandma threw it away because it was "broken".

I'm still mad.

[Anonymous No.4553023]

>>4551005
Dreamcast will always be the most a e s t h e t i c console to me. It's the one that's most likely to conjure up images of clear blue water and hazy pink sunsets. The system menu is sex, I just love the way it looks.

[Anonymous No.4553072]

>>4552587
No, the european model is like the US one but with the "megadrive" name instead of "genesis". Yours was probably an import.

[Anonymous No.4553076]

Pic related. Perfect color scheme, most aesthetic shape, aesthetic carts, and aesthetic games. This can not be topped.

[Anonymous No.4553081]

>>4553072

this one looks awesome, will it play US games?

[Anonymous No.4553089]

the red white/yellow tint with the gold plated controller aesthetic stands out from the rest of the the other consoles. Too bad it doesn't put av like its other release does otherwise it's perfect. Don't need to unplug the controllers and put them away when they're hardware to the system. The cables aren't long either so it's to be enjoyed while sitting on the floor. It's a debate whether I'd buy the AV Famicom for it's composite output or the original Famicom just for the aesthetic of the console alone. I can see why they changed the look overseas since it looks like a toy and isn't really an eye grabber with the toaster design. But that doesn't mean it is an eye grabber on its own.

[Anonymous No.4553097]

Super cassette vision.
Perfect aesthetics

[Anonymous No.4553104]

>>4553081
No unless the ROM header specifies that the game is allowed to run in both the US and European configurations.

[Anonymous No.4553115]

>>4553076
I prefer the white PC Engine, but this model has the advantage to sport composite directly on the console instead of RF. Not that it matters when you have the CD interface hooked anyway.

[Anonymous No.4553130]

>>4553089
Actually I always digged the look of the Famicom, I can't really explain but it's probably seeing it in the background of a few animes that are either from the 80s or some character who has horded a lot of computer shit.

Also, is it supposed to be tinted yellow? I always presumed they've just yellowed over time.

[babbage's gramps !RATGzMALLY No.4553132]

>>4553072
>>4553081
I think my favorite is the Korean one. I'd love to get a junk one with a good case.

[Anonymous No.4553136]

>Sega Saturn karaoke machine
>All those buttons, knobs and lights
If there is a machine that looks more 90s than this, then I haven't seen it.

[Anonymous No.4553140]

>>4553132
>Segagaga domain
Can't believe it's down now. I used to love going through that website every now and then. It's got so much obscure stuff on it and the website felt like one from the 90s.

Kind of felt secret or well hidden somehow, I dunno.

[Anonymous No.4553147]

>>4553136

[Anonymous No.4553151]

>>4553147
A Laserdisc player and a karaoke machine? Okay, you win.

[Anonymous No.4553154]

[Anonymous No.4553162]

>>4553023
Damn good console, the first one I ever asked for actually and did receive one on my 8th birthday IIRC.

Later on I saw a picture of the Dev Kit and I was strangely amazed at what looked like a Sega branded PC, then years later I actually found one on eBay.

[Anonymous No.4553167]

>>4553154
So a Jaguar then?

[Anonymous No.4553172]

>>4553151
Yah, there were karaoke LDs released for it too. There are a bunch of those for sale in my country right now, and they're not that expensive compared to high-end LD players (some of the karaoke models being actual high-end ones too). Then again they're not worth getting unless you're into LDs, even though they're also really good CD players.

[Anonymous No.4553182]

>>4553172
What country anon? I'm from the UK and LaserDisc is very rare in my experience.

[Anonymous No.4553213]

>>4553182
France. They're not common place but they're not hard to find either, and depending on the time of the year it's pretty easy to find one in the 40~50€ range.
Got my first one in a thriftstore for 40 bucks with a bunch of movies (the 5th element, a bunch of disney cartoons, 2 demonstration NOT FOR RESALE discs and my favorite movies amon them all "Les tontons flingueurs"). It was a mid-range model but it was both PAL and NTSC compatible so it allowed me to import a bunch of animu LDs.

[Anonymous No.4553232]

>>4553213
Noice, I don't think any 90s formats really caught on in the UK, but I didn't think of the potential for imports.

I suppose I could get into VCDs because my Saturn came with a VCD module.

[Anonymous No.4553267]

>>4553232
Good luck then, VCDs are mostly bellow VHS-tier when it comes to picture quality. I have a bunch a pal gave to me in uni cause he himself got them without having any use for them (he also gave me the G Gundam crabstick DVD box), but I don't think I'd spend money for these unless I'm sure they're good ones.

[Anonymous No.4553269]

>>4553267
Ah well sod it then.

[Anonymous No.4553286]

>>4553269
Well I didn't say that to discourage you, just be aware that a bunch of them (mostly the HK ones) are pretty bad looking. I've been thinking about getting the Saturn VCD module for mine too.

[Karakasa-Obake !!bwTnifX4END No.4553441]

If only it wasn't 99% japanese only "adult" games. That is one sexy assed console.

[Anonymous No.4553445]

ps2 but not the fat nigger one

[Anonymous No.4553737]

>>4553441
>that
>gaems

[Anonymous No.4553749]

aesthetic

[Anonymous No.4553762]

>>4553441
it looks like shit

[Anonymous No.4553774]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sloped_armour
I fucking love the PS4 design as well for the same reason.

[Karakasa-Obake !!bwTnifX4END No.4553795]

[Anonymous No.4554928]

The Casio Loopy was marketed towards girls, and it shows, I think it's pretty cute for its time.

[Anonymous No.4554934]

>>4554928
Also, the SNES CD-ROM prototype

[Anonymous No.4554953]

>>4551184

Gorgeous.. I wish I spoke JP for this bad boy.

[Anonymous No.4554971]

>>4554953
You can alway try to learn.

[Anonymous No.4555287]

Ok, back in the early 90's, around the time the Pentium was starting to appear, some company named Sigma Designs created an MPEG decoder card that doubled as a SoundBlaster sound card, called the ReelMagic. Later the name got changed to RealMagic for reasons unknown, but it's basically the same hardware. You install the card, and hook it up to your CD-ROM drive, other/main video card, and your speakers. This let you play fullscreen 30FPS video on a 33mhz 486.

The company did their best to get game companies to sign on to create special MPEG/ReelMagic versions of their games, but only a few actually did. Since the card was pricey as hell and didn't offer much to the consumer, it quickly faded away, and Sigma took their decoding magic to making chipsets for other manufacturers.

The end result is there are some special MPEG/ReelMagic versions of Dragon's Lair, Return to Zork, The Psychotron, The Horde, and quite possibly some more, though only those four games have been spotted. The difference in quality is most noticeable on Return to Zork, where the MPEG version has superior videos and transitions and scenes even compared to the retail CD-ROM version. This version of the game was used in the JP only Saturn version of the game, unfortunately the JP version dubbed over the audio, meaning the only way to play this version in English is to have a old PC with a ReelMagic card in it.

Here's a video of the retail CD-ROM release:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kx5F8zra5zs
Here's a video of the JP Saturn release, based off of the MPEG/ReelMagic version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5PtYwQq6Ok
(notice the opening video is larger resolution)

On the plus side, since the card was just an MPEG decoder, that means the MPEG/ReelMagic versions of the games have all the video files stored on the CD in basic MPEG v1 encoding. So you can mount the image and watch the videos in just about any video player ever.

No emulator out there supports ReelMagic hardware.

[Anonymous No.4555368]

>>4551123
What kind of software would one use for sequencing?

[Anonymous No.4555441]

>>4555368
Notator/Logic Pro, Cakewalk or Cubase.
i've been using cakewalk 3 on my 486-based DOS/Windows 3.1 setup, but I'm actually trying to make a Notator SL setup for fun (even funnier is the fact that such setup actually perform better than the 486 one).

[Anonymous No.4555475]

>>4555441
Sounds like fun. I'm hoping to be able to find some cool hardware when I go to Japan later this year.

[Anonymous No.4555476]

Sony made a series of tiny Trinitrons, which I imagine were intended to sit atop the desks of Japanese executives in photo ops. I have one, a KV-4000, which is apparently one of the highest pixel-density CRTs ever produced (with 500+ TVL on a 2" screen). This thing has a beautiful space-age design and the picture was really quite bright and colorful. I got it at a yard sale at least ten years ago, and teenage-me blew it out by plugging it into a power adapter with the wrong polarity. I've never been able to get it to work since, and I'm kicking myself because it would be worth like $200 if it did.

[Anonymous No.4555493]

>>4555441
>>4555475
By Notator SL setup, I mean an Atari ST-based one. As for sequencers used on japanese computers, i don't know that much about them. There's this x68k-based one that warmbell use for his arranges :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCzDnbnkiZo
Got his yo-kai disco and luna ascention one on my 486 HDD to play them directly on my MT-32, they're quite nice imo.

[Anonymous No.4555649]

>>4555476
>500+ TVL on a 2" screen
Doubt on the first point, emphatic NO on the second (it's 3.7" visible)

[Anonymous No.4555719]

[Anonymous No.4555735]

That type of old computer from the late 90s where the brand was half a face made of lines.
The smell, the color, playing Battlezone and those cartoony adventure games.

[Anonymous No.4556338]

>>4555735
>the brand was half a face made of lines

Packard Bell?

[Anonymous No.4556613]

>>4555719

[Anonymous No.4556680]

I love this ugly bastard.

[Anonymous No.4557279]

>>4553167
The jaguar shells were used as a cost saving measure and saved a huge amount of time and money that would have been spent designing a brand new case. Really it was the ultimate destiny of the jaguar shells to be part of the project that would usher in a new era for retro games but now it won't happen thanks to ecelebs.

[Anonymous No.4557334]

I love the thick slab of English plastered on the Mk II for no practical reason.

"A fun-packed console designed for simple operation. This computer video game with its distinct images allows you to enjoy the maximum in playing satisfaction. Its colorful game play is sure to test your skill, sharpen your reflexes and greatly enlarge your imagination."

[Anonymous No.4557343]

>>4557279
>Really it was the ultimate destiny of the jaguar shells to be part of the project that would usher in a new era for retro games but now it won't happen thanks to ecelebs.
Good, it's ugly as sin.

[Anonymous No.4557358]

>>4557279
The retro gaming youtubers were afraid of their cartridge hoards becoming devalued and worthless. Chameleon would've been the most beautiful console ever created.

[Anonymous No.4557593]

>>4557279
>thanks to ecelebs
>still shilling the dream

[Anonymous No.4557597]

>>4553154
This shit still cracks me up.
>shit, I don't know shit about hardware design
>don't wanna spend any of that sweet groupfunded money on hiring someone who does
>fuck it, just stick a famicom PCB and some video card in there, no one will ever know