Topic: How is the Gamecube NSO so far?

@WaveBoy Yikes, that's a hell of a lot of lag. No wonder it's so noticeable! Although I hadn't even thought about trying a wired controller to at least reduce the lag that the wireless controller adds.

I use the Kaico adapter, which is pretty good and from what I understand also produces zero lag, although I know the company does unfortunately have a bad reputation for allegedly stealing other people's work. Before that I was using a RAD2X (I have a PAL Gamecube, so it at least made use of RGB), but moving to the digital out port via the Kaico and getting true 480p was just a night and day difference. Now my RAD2X just gets used on my RGB modded N64 and SNES.

@Mana_Knight Yeah, Colosseum is the only game left of the initial April 2025 roadmap. While it's possible they could add a surprise in like they did with Wario World back in December, I'm leaning towards the next game being Colosseum in November and then a second roadmap appearing in February 2027 if there's a general Direct that month.

@Reprise
lol Yup. I mean, you can apply the same amount of lag to NSO NES, SNES, N64 & Genesis I'm guessing if all of their emulations are producing the same amount of latency. At the end of the day, we all have our preferences, and services like NSO, or the real software & Hardware, CRT's & 4K QD-OLED TV's(etc) all have their pro's and cons.

an authentic retro set up, games, consoles, making the extra space for a 2nd set up etc is a much bigger investment, vs dropping a monthly or annual fee for a service that gives you a wealth of game libraries at your finger tips. Convenience is the name of the game, on a modern 'in the now' platform ala the NS2. But having tested every platform on NSO out, except GameCube & Virtual Boy, it aint worth it for me personally, with the exception of maybe NSO GameBoy & GBA in handheld mode on NS1 OLED.

I just don't like how you can't select the GB or GBA display filter and bypass the motion persistence blur that's added by both. If you go raw unfiltered sprites, then motion clarity is normal, but then the visuals look more artificial. Can't have it both ways.

Which is why I'd rather just buy a ModRetro (V2) Chromatic - Bubblegum(it's gotta be Bubblegum ) and then an Analogue Pocket(White) purely for GBA games.

But back to NSO on a TV. You'll have to deal with a lot of lag, samepl & hold motion blur, a 4:3 screen that's too large on 55 & 65" 4K TV's, and while the CRT filter has been imroved, it's still not quite as good as the real thing. Plus NES emulation suffers from dark desaturated ugly colours, which has been an going issue for years ever since the Wii era. To compensate, just ramp up the color before colors start to clip.

At this point, I'd rate play the real thing on a CRT, or even on an FPGA console with my 4K TV, or older consoles connected to like a RetroTINK 6x CE Scaler which allows you to custom shrink the 4:3 screen down, has quality CRT filters, and it only adds 2ms of lag, on top of the 10 present from your 4K TV. There will be zero lag with lets say an SNES, wired SNES Controller & cartridge. So 12ms total which is wayyy better than what NSO is dishing out.

@WaveBoy Yeah, the NSO is fine for those who are happy to play with those caveats. My son likes to play all the NSO games and being able to use save states and rewind means he can play fairly casually and try out a lot of different classic games without any real investment.

I do prefer original hardware as well. I am fortunate enough to have a whole load of consoles and reasonable connection methods to hook them up to modern tvs. Obviously a CRT would be ideal, but I am not sure I have the space currently and I haven't managed to track one down locally. I have a huge collection of games I have amassed over the years.

For Game Boy games, I play on a ISP screen modded original Game Boy Advance. I have an SP as well (the original frontlit model) and a DS lite, but I prefer the original GBA personally. It just feels the most comfortable to me and the d-pad isn't mushy like the DS Lite. I love my GBA. The ModRetro and Analogue handhelds are very tempting though.

My issue with NSO, which my play time has been dominated by N64, was the handful of unavoidable issues that I would actually notice on certain N64 games (which I would say has been the initial harsh input delay Mario 64 had at launch that as far as I know is not as bad now, Winback's terrible boss frame drops that I don't know if ever fixed because I never saw anyone else even talk about it, Pilotwings' FPS change being the reason a certain part seemed nearly impossible (seemed because I never played it before hand), and a few moments of weird pauses in Majora's Mask). And I can say that even across a much smaller quantity of games, I ran into exactly as many issues emulating them around a decade ago. (and thus would be more issues than NSO when taking into account Mario 64's input delay apparently no longer being so egregious). Including two amazing experiences where for one game I needed an updated version of an emulator, after several hours of it working fine, and another game later where I needed the older version of said emulator instead. People vastly underestimating the issues with emulating like the issues I ran across back in the day (not to mention DS emulation I tried that would regularly be a bit too much for my previous laptop to handle), is a major reason why I get annoyed at emulation discussions involving NSO, because way too many people assume emulation outside of it has regularly been really good, which is far from the case (even though that doesn't justify some of those issues for a paid product).

I can say for myself, that Mario 64 at NSO Expansion Pass' launch is the first and only time I can recall noticing the input lag, across any of Nintendo's attempts at emulating. I'm sure it exists otherwise, but that one actually affected my time playing it, where I could just tell it was a bit off. It's just at the end of the day, it is more convenient to me and on my actual console, and it is easy to get a good deal on it via the family plan, so its the best option for those reasons. (and the negatives are usually negligible by comparison)

Been playing Star Fox Adventures. I'm not typically a Star Fox fan but I am intrigued by this one because fans have said it's less like a Star Fox game and more of a Zelda-like which I do like. I just returned the first SpellStone, so I'm pretty decently into this game and I am kind of liking it but I can see reasons why this game isn't quite as beloved for reasons other than the genre mismatch (this definitely feels more like a spinoff). The map design isn't quite as masterful as a Zelda game and the combat is super button-mashy and repetitive. That being said, there is one thing I really like and that's Slippy's hints, they've been a life saver for some of the more obscure puzzles and I think other adventure games should take notes. Also, from what I can tell many people that have played this game hate Tricky, I have to say I'm not as bothered by him and I've seen much more annoying companion characters. At any rate, interesting game. It is interesting that there's been rumors floating around about a new game in this style, I might be interested in that (is there a way to integrate this more into traditional Star Fox gameplay? Like could they do something that's like a mix of this, traditional Star Fox, and Starlink somehow?).

Yeah it's well documented but the game was a completely new IP named 'dinosaur planet' early in development and then they sorta slapped the Star Fox franchise on top of it to market it. It's an odd game, that I don't remember liking much, but I might give it another try idk.

@PsychoIsaac I'm aware. I don't entirely get why they felt the need to make this Star Fox, it doesn't really feel like an appropriate IP for this concept.

Oookay, I just finished the Test of Fear and I think I have a better idea why some people hate this game. There's a lot of QTE BS in Lightfoot Village. First the minigame to escape from being captured by the Lightfoot tribe, which is "press A at the right time as a meter swings back and forth". I had to abuse the hell out of Suspend Points to beat that one, not sure how people ever beat this back in the day. Then the Test of Strength is a button mashing challenge, a.k.a. buy a Turbo controller to win. And then the actual Test of Fear. Hoo boy. It's like the escape minigame except you have to constantly keep the cursor in a certain range as it swings wildly and unpredictably. Again, I had to abuse Suspend Points to win this one.

Anyway, if anyone else has trouble, here is my advice for beating the Test of Fear.

First, I see some people online saying to mute your TV. I recommend against this because the intensity of the music helps you figure out when the cursor starts moving faster. If you find the visuals distracting, the online advice to cover everything except your top screen (back in the day they seemed to recommend putting a blanket over your TV, but since this is on Switch 2 and you can play it in handheld mode you can try that and use smaller coverings like paper). Second, I saw a great recommendation to hold the Control Stick up most of the time and tilt up and to the left/up and to the right as needed. This helps keep the cursor steady and limit yourself to more precise movements. Lastly, you need to be aware of key moments when the cursor starts swinging wildly. The first is when two raptors start attacking you, the cursor will move wildly to the right so at that point you should push the Control Stick far left. Second, when multiple raptors start attacking (again, designated by intense notes in the music), it swings wildly a few times until they all stop attacking. Lastly is when General Scales (the giant dinosaur) appears, first the cursor moves as far right as possible and then later it will move far left. I recommend positioning your cursor in the center left of the range and then push the Control Stick far left when it starts moving, and then the opposite after that. Finally, General Scales will grab you and then the test will finally end.

I can say for myself that the button mashing game is the reason I never beat it.

I think it might've even been one of those cases as a kid where I started a game over in the hopes that I just missed something and that the thing I got stuck on was more doable than it seemed (note: this was basically never useful).

I remember Test of Strength taking me WEEKS to beat back in the day. In the end, I think I managed to do it by rubbing my knuckle back and forth across the A button, which actually ripped the skin off of my finger.

Is anyone else highly annoyed that HDR is now enabled on the Gamecube app? HDR didn't even exist back in the early 2000s. These 20+ year old games are not designed for it.

The only way disable it is to go into settings and turn HDR off entirely which is quite annoying. Like most people, I like to have it set to "compatible software only", but Nintendo doesn't seem to understand that Gamecube software is not compatible! Ugh.

How is Chibi Robo? I don't hear much talk about it.

I've just finished Path of Radiance and I recommend playing this puppy. The writing, story, characters, dialogs everything is top tier. Also game is focused on battles and story, not a social sim which I hated it 3 houses. 9/10

I already own all the NSO games that are on Gamecube in physical format, so I don't see the need to pay extra to get these premium consoles yet.

@Reprise Ha same here. I read a tip at the time in a magazine at the time to cover the controller in a thin towel and did what you did, but I used my knuckles because I thought it'd be easier (also ripped the skin).

@kkslider5552000 Same. Felt for sure I'd missed something in the game to make it easier.

@ROMhaiku It's way more painful than you'd think it would be too if I remember correctly. I seem to remember my finger being in agony for a day or two afterwards 😂 I wish I had been smart enough to have used a thin towel or had read it in a magazine.

By the way, for anyone reading, it really does work and makes it a piece of piss to beat. I beat the game a few times and never had any problems with that part again. Just be careful not to rip the skin off your finger 😅

@PsychoIsaac I didn't like it at all. Not my thing. I don't understand why it is so beloved, but that's just me.

@PsychoIsaac A cool game for people who love cool, quirky games, but not for everyone, especially if you have a low tolerance for slightly Animal Crossing-y repetition and tasks and if quirky characters can't make a game for you.

Huh maybe I'll skip Chibi Robo then, still gotta play Warioworld