Retro Gathering Vintage Computer Edition 2016

This weekend I drove all the way to Västerås to attend the first Retro Gathering convention of 2016, they’ve started hosting two conventions a year since it’s become so popular with retro games and vintage computers here in Sweden. This Retro Gathering they called VCE, because it was a Vintage Computer Edition, and damn! There were a LOT of vintage computers there ^_^ I think it scared off a few of the Nintendo-fanatics though, since there were a bit less visitors than usually, but still there were loads of people! :D

Retro Gathering VCE 2016

It’s so much fun going to these conventions, mainly to meet with all the friends you’ve gotten to know through the common interests and also, of course, to buy shitloads of games!! This year was no different for me.. I came home with a massive haul. I will make a separate post once I’ve gone through it all XD Here’s  picture of most of it stacked up in a couch! Just so you can get an idea ;D

Retro Gathering VCE 2016 loot

I also really enjoy seeing all these odd old machines, they always have more things like this at Retro Gathering than any of the other conventions here in Sweden. Most conventions are strongly focused around Nintendo.. so it’s nice to see something different ^_^ Some of the things they had brought in this time I had never even seen before! So many cool machines ^_^ There was an Apple Pippin for sale (or even two, one was boxed and new!), there was also an Iris Crimson that appeared in Jurassic Park, and a bunch of other cool machines. These are just a few of them! Do you recognize them all? ;D I sure didn’t!

Most of the computers there were for sale, I was really close to buying the T2100 with the beautiful monochrome orange screen, but once I returned to buy it it was already gone >_< For only $34! I also glanced at the Japanese Commodore 64 which was quite rare, with a few boxed cartridges! So beautiful ^_^ I did however buy some other systems, like the Atari ST 1040 and a ZX 81 ^_^ Apart from computers there were LOADS of games for sale, both Nintendo, Sega and lots of other stuff! Pappas Pärlor was also there to sell some of his awesome custom bead arts ^_^ Apart from this you could find almost anything at Retro Gathering VCE! I even saw a Vectrex 3D imager! It’s 3D-glasses for the Vectrex, and they were boxed with 2 games! Super rare and also super expensive >_<

I’m super happy with my weekend trip to Retro Gathering VCE 2016! I met so many nice people, had lots of fun and I’m looking forward to the next Retro Gathering this fall ^_^ I’m quite exhausted now though, and I will be busy with my haul for a while, testing all the new games! :D :D :D I will update shortly with everything that I bought ^_^

Play & record 8-bit and 16-bit consoles on your Mac / computer

Making reviews and wanting to be able to record what I’m playing so that I can show through video what the games are like. This has turned out to be a difficult problem to solve, but today I managed to solve all my previous issues.. with a little help from my friends ;D

I started out trying to record with a film camera, filming the TV screen. This was crap. Crappy quality, shaky, bad angles, ugly sound.. etc. So i moved on to borrowing my boyfriend’s brother’s HDPVR, this worked on and off, didn’t work with my NTSC or japanese systems, only my PAL. The recordings got a constant humming in the background sound and it was also a hassle to connect the thing, cords from the HDPVR to the TV, to the laptop (not being able to use my stationary computer=inconvenient) and to the console. I then had to transfer the files from my laptop to my stationary to work with them.

After talking to some stores, I got convinced to buy a DVD recorder. This worked, but not with my NTSC or japanese systems.. also it was a hassle having to record on DVD’s then transfer the files to my computer and convert them to files I could use. The recordings also carried a constant humming sound in the background and the image was laggy..

However the DVD recorder purchase was not in vain. A friend advised me to get the Elgato Video Capture from the apple store.

When I first connected it to the system and straight into the computer it didn’t work. Apparently because the consoles have some built in anti-piracy code (according to my engineer friend). The image looked like this and froze immediately:

BUT when I connected it through the DVD burner into the console the image was perfect, no lag, and I could play the games straight on my iMac, while recording!

It doesn’t look too messy, not too many cords or machines to connect together, and best of all, the sound is perfect!

I’ve been playing a bunch of Streets of Rage on my iMac tonight, with headphones, and OMG that games’ music is just so awesome! This is what the image quality looks like:

This is totally ok for my purpose ^_^

Now I haven’t had time to try it out with my NTSC machines or the japanese yet, but I hope it will work o_O The Elgato is said to be able to take all formats, however I’m not sure if the DVD burner might f*ck it up..
I’ll update once I find out ^_^