…meaning TWO years since my last update!!! (not counting my FPGA article).
Well it’s that things didn’t evolve that much and I didn’t want to just repeat myself on and on.
So, how has the scenery changed since then? Not “drastically” is the quick answer, except maybe one player. I have the best for last.
- CoinOps. Yes. I did say I won’t mention any BP collection again, but I want to be impartial. I cannot comment on their content specifically, as I am not bound to try again, but I can give you general details.
So the latest “refresh” seems to be called “Arise” and comes in various flavors. He seems to be explaining more than in the old days, that we had to figure what is what and why it exists. BP collections are more “currated”, smaller in ROM count, focused on a nice and smooth presentation. Some people prefer this, it’s a free world. At least now you can go check out his web site (CoinOPS — Official Website | The Ultimate Retro Gaming Frontend) and if you have questions and… dare, you can try asking questions in the (new?) discord. Good luck.
- Unofficial CoinOps spin-off called CC Reloaded, still goes strong with frequent releases that add more and more. I am not even sure how a full CC Reloaded setup looks like and how large it is, as the updates the last few months are on the topic of “retro modern” (so modern games in retro style I believe).
- Same goes with Core Type-R, both official and community packs. They still go strong, with releases even a few days ago. Again I have no idea of the size these collections have reached. They are mostly of the philosophy of “add ons” to existing systems, meaning that existing systems are always expanded instead of fully refreshed. I need to contact the good guys in the team (it’s been long) and get a fresh idea of how the project evolves. If someone know how large a “full pack” setup is, please let me know.
- Complete Play. One more (favorite too) collection that is very much alive. CP78 recently faced some major storage crash and still rebuilding, but we did have new releases recently. Also I believe this crash MIGHT trigger a full refresh on some things.
I don’t have a fully updated CP setup any more, as I *also* had a storage crash. Hardware recovered (it was a serious USB hickup), my source files are also intact as they are in my server, but needs the whole thing needs MAJOR work as with CP collections you have to re-setup everything in the same order of release (!), being careful what is obsolete and replaced and what is just needed before something else that partially gets overwriten. This has to be done with the official release order spreadsheet page in hand… It is a bit painful. Plus it needs plenty of setup (per pack, for some packs) outside the roms and metadata. Things to be redone in the system, things to manually do with some emulators etc.
CP remains a huge monolyth over 21TB (pending to know the size of a modern Type-R).
- PixN Retrobat (ex-RGS, Team Pixel Nostalgia). Well here maybe we have the most news. The project not only is very much alive. The project not only is reaching 20TB fast. The project not only is probably maybe the cleanest to setup. But now they have their own portal and update system!!!
I have to elaborate on this, as I was expecting someone to make something like that eventually.
So, how it works. PixN now doesn’t rely on third party trackers, they have their own. Also they have a web portal, to get the actual torrents but also see the INDIVIDUAL ROMs (!!!)… and you can queue them for download. No… I don’t mean download them directly from the web. No… let say you have a smaller setup, just the games you love, systems you like etc. Not complete packs. You go to the portal, you queue your wanted games and then when PiX update script starts (from within PixN itself)… you also get your games! You are also sharing them for others! It’s like magic… Well no, it is like a very well thought system, like a private P2P. This update script also makes sure your PixN system stays updated. You run it and does most of not all of the housekeeping of your collection. Actually you can even start from a plain Retrobat setup (from Retrobat site), then run PixN update script and your Retrobat, magically (damn this word again) becomes PixN Retrobat! PixN is the only system where I crashed (yes my USB setup sucks… I can only privately say which brand it is), I dowloaded Retrobat, I run the script, I re-symlinked rom folders I had on other disks, I re-extracted packs irrelevant of release date (as they 99.99% of times only affect the roms folder, no overlaps etc.) and found myself having an even better PixN setup than before the crash! In a few days (delayed only by actual extractions/copies from my home server to USB)! BTW all new packs (machines emulated) are NON zipped, so you can (or eventually) share/seed your RUNNING setup and not have to have duplicate the whole almost-20TB system. They even made a docker container that runs download service, so you can have your roms ON your 24/7 home server, share them to others from there (help community) AND use them! This is a first AFAIK and can only evolve further. As for actual content (to go back to the core of this article)? In size it is maybe second to others, but easily has more roms and systems (if you ask how this is possible, know that just a bit less of the more modern platform roms, is a huge storage difference).
More emulation news:
- TDC did make their annual release (which makes it two releases after my last post).
- C64 Dreams still hasn’t made any updates. I don’t expect any, although I got banned and its maker dislikes me because I made that claim… when… 2 years ago? I think we are now somewhere around 4 years with no updates. Still a great C64 curated collection.
- eXo… my last post was about eXoDREAM. After that we got eXoIF also, but no major release yet esp. of the most anticipated ones (eXoWinXX), but this is a reliable team (possibly the most reliable and organized team) and I am sure they will come up with something when ready. eXo productions are meticulously built.
- AmigaVision moved to Amiberry (a WinUAE fork), which doesn’t change much in the experience (as it directly boots you inside an Amiga) and AGS is also very much alive.
- As for WHDLoad, DamienD unfortunately seems to have stopped updating, but RetroPlay does frequently release new images.
- I never mentioned Assembly64. Assembly64 is a piece of software that connects you to possibly the biggest Commodore 64 resource pool (including the full CSDB). If you have ANY relation to C64, you HAVE to be connected to Assembly64 or you are missing.
- I didn’t talk about TOSEC for some time. Unfortunately it is one more (major) project, retro related, that seems to have pushed me away (although I very much wanted to stay part of it and be more active). I do check them out from time to time. Seems it has been quite a long time since last release (1.5 years as opposed to 2 releases per year). Well… I don’t know.
- As for FPGA, they got their own article.
- Two more things I am bound to tackle and write about in the future…
One is is web based retro gaming. Having your retro collection in your server, accessing it like a music or movie library and play it RIGHT THERE on the web! From remotely! Romm is a nice project that has my attention (saw also some others).
The other is a virtual retro environment (that can best be experienced with a VR set). RAVE seems like a good setup.
(so I just gave you two keywords to google for now)
Until next time…