Sorted out? If you don't mind me asking, how did you go about it? I'm all ears for advice. I almost have the initial $15,000 loan I took out to pay for attorneys paid. (About $3,800 remains) But I still have a ton of credit cards to deal with after. I was intending on rolling that up all into a second loan, but the banks/credit unions aren't quite willing to help me with that just yet. (I've been probing in recent weeks)

Well a BETTER resource then me is the youtube channel "MyLifeInGaming". That's where I learned of a lot of these devices and how they work. They are long, but those guys do DEEP dives into all your retro console connection options and explain how everything works. They are even console specific videos. Only interested in Sega Saturn stuff? They got one for that etc. Stupidly useful.

I did look at a video about that SNES HDMI I saw...not quite there yet. It is really convenient and looks mostly good but the colors are a bit off in the current version. (Saturated) Wait and see if they revise it. They have a couple of others for different consoles, I wonder how those are?

There is a ROM of Simon's Quest with a corrected translation, maybe try that? I tried it and I got pretty far without a walkthrough before I couldn't figure out where to go anymore. That game gets a clap for kinda plowing the road for the much later games but otherwise kinda sucks. The two PS2 3D games aren't bad. Their biggest sin is the absolutely BLAND stage layouts. Just flat, rooms followed by more flat rooms. That said their are a few secrets to find in them still. Curse of Darkness is worse about it though as a lot of it is outside so the bleh stage layouts stand out a LOT more. But it does have a cool monster growing mechanic. Lords of Shadow is just God of War.

I think everyone is emotionally susceptible to a story though. I listen to audiobooks at work sometimes and I listened to "The Diary Of Anne Frank" and after spending that much time in her head, I had trouble finishing it because I knew already how it all ended for her. I eventually powered through but I was depressed for days afterward. But it's worth it, if you aren't going to let go and get into it...why bother at all?

Oh lord, I forgot Cutthroat Island was a thing. Didn't know there was a game. I dunno if you are into toys at all but I recall seeing that someone made this:

[Link]

Yeesh...at least they had the courtesy to directly do something shitty. My siblings are cowards lol. My credit score is actually fine. I may owe a LOT of money but I've never missed a payment on anything.

Oh the component ones look the best with the OSSC. (They don't have to scale as far) My PS2 looks great, like it did on an old TV way back when. But what on Earth are you doing playing your Dreamcast over composite!? There are a number of cool options for the Dreamcast. The VGA box is the classic method. (And it runs to the OSSC so it's very easy) There is something called the Toro Box that is specifically for the DC. The N64 is apparently a tricky one, requires hard mods. I don't have one so I don't really know. It looks like there are some HDMI cables for it though. I wonder how well those work. The Hyperkin thing is interesting but I'm not sure about it. Emulation for the N64 has always been a fair bit rough in my experience. (not Sega Saturn rough, but rough) I wonder how well that will work? But an exciting thing has started happening of late is all in one HDMI scaling cables for old consoles. I have to research how well they work one by one but that seems like a far cleaner solution. Just need a decent HDMI switch at that point.

Well all of the Castlevania games are good. You have a N64, don't get Castlevania64. (Or Legacy of Darkness for that matter, it's a better version but still not good. Cornell is kinda a cool character I guess) I also didn't care for Lords of Shadow. It's just reskinned God of War, which I wasn't super fond of.

CRYING!? That must be some horror game! I still need to restart Alien Isolation though. I got distracted when I started it by something else. (I find I'm having to plan out my playtime more now to make sure I finish stuff. Gotta finish FFXV by next Tuesday. Bloodstained will be in my hands at that point, I'll be damned if I'm not playing that immediately) But Alien/Aliens are two of my most favorite movies EVER, so I must give that game a proper go. (Especially after the Colonial Marines debacle. I STILL won't play a Gearbox game)

I haven't heard the word "Plotz" in FOREVER. That got a giggle.

Yeah if you liked any of those SNES Super Star Wars games then play the Indiana Jones one. It's the same thing. Its also cool because it's all three of the original movies in one game. It's also not expensive. $15-20.

[Link]

Check out the weird minigames we're streaming [Link]

Yeah, I just gotta get out of this financial mess now. I'm nearing a milestone though, so it's becoming slowly possible.

[Link]

That is the link to buy the OSSC. It is not the only option for such things and is expensive, but it is I think overall the best. The only thing that sucks about it is that it doesn't take Composite so my NES needs to be figured out. But it will take any Component, VGA or SCART signal to HDMI and scale it up for you. There is a good Japanese upscaler called the Framemeister that will do composite but that one is even MORE expensive. And there is one specifically for Composite called the Retrotink, that is kinda like the OSSC but it doesn't line double up as far. I am thinking of getting one anyway and running it into the OSSC to get my NES running again but I gotta research it more. I feel like running that converter, into another converter to VGA into a third converter (The OSSC) might produce a bit of lag. And if I'm going to accept that...I may as well use the Retron5.

It outputs to HDMI so if your monitor can take that, then it will plug and play. I hear it actually works better on monitors because they are far more flexible with what video signals they can accept. My 4k Sony LED TV works well enough but it doesn't react well to certain line doubling configurations that are kinda off spec. I haven't been able to get ANYTHING to Line5x mode. I intend to buy a TCL TV for the game room once I...have one. I keep hearing they play really nicely with the OSSC for some reason.

I DID give you SOTN didn't I? I forgot about that. It was the digital code from Lords of Shadow as I recall. I already had it on the PS1 and on the PSP Dracula X Chronicles disc so I didn't really need it again. (Though it's probably better than the PSP one. You can play as Maria on that one, but it's got some technical issues)

Yeah I dunno where RE7 as I have yet to play it but it does look tense as all hell. A far cry from the shooty action game that they kinda became. I haven't played 6 but I am told it's not very good and just a big action game.

Well I suppose a walk through is an option . (I just picture Indiana Jones stopping everything to look at his script lol) If I end up not liking them I can always just play Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventures on Super Nintendo. It's basically just the SNES Star Wars games engine but Indiana Jones. Good stuff.

"Thorn" is a way to put it I suppose. Actively selfish, terrible people who deliberately destroyed someone's life (And mine as collateral damage) is another.

Well I had an old Sony Trinitron for awhile, but keeping a giant CRT television around is kinda impractical nowadays. They are hard to move, and hard to even store as newer furniture isn't designed for them. I can get an LED for pretty cheap these days, and get everything scaled up to a bigger screen. It takes some research and a little money to get a upscaler to get it working, but I'm happy with it. Like I said it locks out light gun titles, but I have a few arcade shooters on my Wii. That and CRTs while VERY durable, mine the image was starting to drop.

Well really, if you aren't going to play EVERYTHING just play CV3, Rondo of Blood, SOTN and Aria/Dawn of Sorrow. Those are the best. The others are good, but those are the bare essentials I suppose. (Chronicles on original mode is great if you want a truly brutal difficulty curve) But I'm a ridiculous Castlevania nerd. (obviously)

DLC has just gotten out of control. Can't really trust anyone anymore.

WHAT!? RE2 IS THE BEST lol. It doesn't matter too much, all those old tank control ones are good. (I guess Zero is kinda meh) I'd love a remake of Nemesis. That is a tense game...giant bastard chasing you all day. But that demo for the RE2 Remake impressed, I'll definitely be getting that at some point. I haven't played Resident Evil 7 though.

Yeah, I hear the Lucasarts games are really good. I'm just wary because that genre has never really meshed with me, but I imagine I can get the game for like a dollar lol...

Ah man, that stinks about the controller! I thought it would be very gimmicky and not exactly useful, but it actually plays very well. Sometimes the throw motions don't always line up, but it's never been so bad as to not use it ever. Simplifying the controls down to the two buttons and the joystick on the Pokeball Plus controller though was really slick.

Y'know, I was the same way re: transferring PoGo 'mon over to the game. I mostly did it for the Meltan boxes in my PoGo account, but I never actually used many (if any) of the ones I transferred. I did make sure I got the version exclusives I needed, but that was mostly the extent of it. I still wish there was a way to transfer them back, but alas, no dice.

Isn't Pokémon LGP/LGE such an adorable game? I sunk a lot of time into it completing the dex. Are you playing with the Pokéball controller, and do you use Pokémon Go enough to have it compliment the game?

Well in my case it's direct family, so that's a little tricky. Particularly when your family is big like mine. But it is what it is, they know what they did, I have no want to talk to them again right now.

Yeah the Retron5 is fine for what it is. I just notice little things sometimes that bug me is all. It's only ever been a temporary solution for me, until I get that room put together. I actually wasn't going to use a CRT, it's too impractical. (I had a nice one for awhile though) That OSSC line doubles/triples/quadruples or sometimes even quintuples all of those old connections (Except for the NES composite) so they display properly on a new TV. It's not cheap, but I do not regret buying it. (Though I am locked out of light gun titles) That is all far more practical and futureproof for me I think. But I think I will keep the Retron around for some of those 16 bit RPGs that I could import and just translate.

Yeah Im lucky I bought Bloodlines when it was still just kinda expensive. The only US released Castlevania titles I don't own:

Castlevania: Legends (EXPENSIVE)
Castlevania 64 (not very good and I don't have an N64)
Legacy of Darkness (Ditto)
Lords of Shadow Mirror of Fate (I didn't care for the first LoS)
Lords of Shadow 2 (Ditto)

But Bloodlines isn't as expensive as the SNES Dracula X, which might be the most valuable game I own. (That or Valkyrie Profile) And I like that game more than most people. Its not as good as Rondo in any metric, but it's still pretty good. But I wouldn't get that collection for the Game Boy ones lol. Adventure2 ain't terrible though.

I always tell these younger kids that DLC as an IDEA is a good idea. But it has been perverted by greed. Really I think an industry wide crash is probably the only shot at fixing it at this point. (and possibly on it's way, just a question of when) The problem is that if that happens, it will obliterate tiny studios before the Activisions of the world ever see a scratch to their bottom line. You can't shit on people forever...

Resident Evil 2 Remake did seem really good from what I played. I'm sure I'll get that in the future. Yeah, I find it easier to get lost in older games a lot of the time. Though I've never really been into point and click adventures I must confess. Life is Strange is about the only game like that I've every really enjoyed. Just not my genre I guess. Though I've always kinda wanted to try those old Indiana Jones ones.

Yeah, ooff is one way to say it. Just gotta excise toxic people from your life is what I've figured out. Just cleaning up the damage now. I guess we both just keep climbing.

But I am not sure that the Retron is a long term solution. While it's infrequent I've noticed an emulation error or two. The purist in me screams in those instances. (Like playing GBA games full screen is pretty rad but on occasion I get a screen tear or something) I'll get back to my legit hardware one day. I bought the Open Source Scan Converter and while pricey, what it can do for picture quality with your old consoles is pretty stellar. Once I have that room empty I'll get another TV and some RGB cable. The NES is the only outlier...it can't do RGB without a hard mod that I am not qualified to do. I'll have to figure that out or keep the Retron around. Be a shame to have two NES' and not use either one though.

Yeah modern Konami is..

But that Castlevania collection looks fine. It looks bare bones () but from what I understand it plays as intended so you can't really be upset about it. I don't intend to get it though because Kid Dracula aside, I own physical copies of every one of those games. I can see why it's a good deal though, a physical copy of Bloodlines alone will cost you three times the price. I could get onboard with a GOOD Silent Hill Collection though.

Yeah, I just have a distinct distaste for being taken advantage of and I don't like what gaming has become. They don't sell games complete anymore and find more and more predatory ways to screw you over. And now the generation of kids growing up think that's normal, that what they are being sold IS complete. I'm the crazy old man where I work now, I gather the new kids around and tell them tales of when games were once sold complete, before the dark times, before paid DLC. I'm not against DLC as a concept, but it is a concept that has been perverted by greed. There are exceptions of course, I love the way CDProjektRed handles it. They release a game WORTH the purchase price, then add onto it later. (Sometimes for free) They don't cut pieces out of the game and sell them back to you.

I'm not disinterested in ALL new stuff (Hell FFXV is on my playing list right now) I just don't buy anything new anymore. I REALLY want to play DMC5 but I can't pay full price if it's got microtransactions. Gotta wait for a sale...ethical objection. I'd rather buy old games, they don't ask for money.

I'm fine, working my way back from near ruin but we're moving along.

Okay, that's a similar setup to what I'm doing right now. I have a Retron5 though I don't intend to use it forever. I actually still have my SNES, Genesis, NES & Game Boy they are just in storage do to lack of space. I have all of my stuff crammed into one bedroom and it gets messy. (And I intend to add to it) I have a room that is just full of random junk that I am slowly working at cleaning out to use as a game room, but lack of funds means it's slow going. The Retron5 works pretty well for what it is though, I notice a weird emulation hiccup from time to time though. Save States are crazy useful for someone working a full time schedule though. I'll go back to my actual hardware one day though. Getting the NES to my big TV is a bit problematic and I haven't quite figured that out. Everything else will neatly plug into the OSSC in some way. But being able to load translations is a neat feature too so I'll probably keep it around exactly for what you're doing. There are some of those 16bit RPGs I want to get. (Sailor Moon, Treasure of the Rudras and some others)

I find myself going to my old stuff more now, newer games don't appeal to me as much anymore. (No doubt due to all the shady garbage companies do now) I only have a Switch and a PC for this generation. It's kinda weird. Looking at your playing DQ2 actually got me thinking about finding that Game Boy Color version of the first two. I actually have Dragon Warrior on the NES, but it was like $5 so I bought it. I understand that original translation and version can be...rough...

EDIT: How are you? (Where are my manners? I apologize)