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[cireza]

I have been playing for more than 30 years, and still own all my old consoles. But sometimes, the convenience of having some games on modern consoles drives me into buying some collections. Well, you would be well advised to not do this blindly. So far, I found out that a lot of these collections suck or have huge flaws, and I am simply tired of being taken for a fool.

So here are some of the results of my experiments, starting by the bad.

Digital Eclipse : Shit Tier, never buy from them
These guys throw roms inside a folder with a random emulator and call it a day. Games lack proper scaling/filters and some essential quality of life feature. They will hide these evident flaws behind useless additional content. Street Fighter games lack a button binding for 3P and 3K, which makes them unplayable with a standard controller. Missing characters in games too, because patching them is too difficult for Digital Eclipse.
Recent games tested : Cowabunga collection, Street Fighter Anniversary

d3t : Shit Tier, never buy from them
These guys made the abysmal Shenmue I & II (which released with absolutely ridiculous bugs, like the sky rotating in the wrong direction when rotating the camera) and of course, the MegaDrive collection. No proper scaling, awful filters, impossible to remap buttons. The save in the games didn't even work at launch, you had to resort to savestates.
Recent games tested : Shenmue I & II, MegaDrive Classics Collection

City Connection : avoid
These guys make Saturn Tribute games and other Psikyo ports. From what I have gathered from the internet, these games have had a lot of input lag, to the point they had to address it in official communications. Psikyo games that I have tested did have a lot of lag on Switch.
Recent games tested : Psikyo ports on Switch

Hamster : meh
These guys have been making SNK ports from the Neo Geo. Always with the minimal effort, a shitty interface that is a pain to navigate, I don't think you get proper scaling either. They have announced a new release of the exact same games again. SNK deserves better.
Recent games tested : Neo Geo ports on Switch

Limited Run : probably good, to be confirmed
I can't say that I have extended experience with their ports, however I know that Modern Vintage Gamer works on these and he is quite invested. I have tried Shantae (the GBC games) on Switch and it was fine. Proper scaling, responsive controls. Pretty sure that I had a least one crash though. These games require more feedback and testing.
Recent games tested : Shantae GBC on Switch

Code Mystics : good
Code Mystics throw roms in folders, but they also seem to ask themselves a few questions about what people expect. The Neo Geo Pocket collection is great and offers integer scaling (they added this as an update, and the way to achieve is dumb and not explained anywhere). It plays well and you can also rewind a little bit.
Recent games tested : Neo Geo Pocket Collection

ININ Games : good so far
Again, this probably needs more testing, but I have played two games from them : the Wonder Boy Anniversary Collection and Clockwork Aquario. In both cases, emulation was excellent with a ton of parameters and filters that you could configure. Wonder Boy had full maps with all layers embedded in the games. Menus were very bare bones in terms of presentation, but the content was excellent.
Recent games tested : Wonder Boy Anniversary Collection, Clockwork Aquario

M2 : best around here
Finally one developer that takes these matters seriously. M2 don't simply put a rom in a folder and call it day. They actually look at the rom (hexadecimal values are actually code instruction in old games) and patch them if required. So you are getting quality. The Sega Ages games on Switch are a great example. Their M2 Shot Triggers too. You get all the options you need, excellent interface, added features, it is respectful of both the games from the past, and the players who invest their money in these games.
Recent games tested : Sega Ages Switch (all of them), Aleste Collection, Battle Garegga, Castlevania and Contra collections

Nintendo Switch Online : good
A final note on the various consoles available on the NSO. The experience has been very good as far as I am concerned. Options are quite minimal, but you have everything that is essential, including integer scaling and CRT filter. All consoles support the same features, which makes for an homogeneous experience. And you can rewind, which is excellent and works very well. This helps with games that require some grinding, to make it smoother, or games that were brutally difficult back then. Several PAL games have been 60Hz patched. The NSO controllers, although expensive, are of good quality, even if they are a pain to use for anything else than the corresponding console app. MegaDrive did have some sound issues occasionally.
Recent games tested : all the NSO apps

Share your experiences.

 

[Quasicat]

The Switch has become my main classics machine. Between the NeoGeo arcade games, Capcom collections, Konami collections, etc, it is my favorite for classic games. Enough to where I bought an arcade stick for the Switch which also can connect to my Steam Deck.

I love this thing with a little modification:

 

[John Bilbo]

I refunded three arcade games from Steam because of visual and audio stutter. They were ported by Dotemu. I will not be buying from them again unless they up their game.

Personally I think Hamster ports are some of the best around.

 

[cireza]

I refunded three arcade games

Care to share the titles ?

 

[John Bilbo]

Care to share the titles ?

Metal Slug 2, 3 and Shock Troopers. They all have superior ports on the Switch by Hamster.

I cannot recommend the Dotemu ports even though they get discounts and Hamster ports not so much. You cannot even choose to play with just 1 credit on the Dotemu port.

Hamster ports are great since they have the online leaderboards. I think online leaderboards fit the modern era of arcade games great and add a surprising amount of value if you are interested in score attack.

 

[Quasicat]

I’m pretty sure that Digital Eclipse did the Turtles Collection and that one was really well done, with the comic background, packaging and advertising, and the little mini guides. Something else they did with this and the SNK collection is having someone play the game on one life so you can see how to do something.
It’s really fascinating to watch someone play through the original TMNT game for the NES on one life.

 

[cireza]

I’m pretty sure that Digital Eclipse did the Turtles Collection and that one was really well done, with the comic background, packaging and advertising, and the little mini guides. Something else they did with this and the SNK collection is having someone play the game on one life so you can see how to do something.
It’s really fascinating to watch someone play through the original TMNT game for the NES on one life.

That Turtle Collection did not have appropriate scaling options, so you get shimmering. How difficult can it be to offer this honestly ? Lazy.

 

[bender]

I'd say City Connection is more of a crapshoot than someone to always be avoided.

 

[Quasicat]

That Turtle Collection did not have appropriate scaling options, so you get shimmering. How difficult can it be to offer this honestly ? Lazy.

What system did you play it on? I know the PC ports were pretty rough at launch, but the only real issue with the Switch was the cover art on the Home menu.

 

[John Bilbo]

I’m pretty sure that Digital Eclipse did the Turtles Collection and that one was really well done, with the comic background, packaging and advertising, and the little mini guides. Something else they did with this and the SNK collection is having someone play the game on one life so you can see how to do something.
It’s really fascinating to watch someone play through the original TMNT game for the NES on one life.

That Turtle Collection did not have appropriate scaling options, so you get shimmering. How difficult can it be to offer this honestly ? Lazy.

I've played that collection for quite a bit with my friend and I've really liked the presentation and quality of the ports.

I have to try and see the scaling options and shimmering next time I boot it.

 

[cireza]

What system did you play it on? I know the PC ports were pretty rough at launch, but the only real issue with the Switch was the cover art on the Home menu.

They probably deal with shimmering by not allowing no filter, but I don't have the collection anymore so I can't test. Basically there was no option for proper integer scaling without any filter, as far as I remember.

 

[Quasicat]

What I really missed was the original theme song on the arcade version of TMNT. They used that new cover version that they used in Shredder’s Revenge, which is OK, but it’s not the same.

 

[Punished Miku]

Digital Eclipse shines in other areas. They always put in effort into the UI / menu presentation. Ads, instruction booklets, box art all scanned in for multiple regions. Their Atari and Karateka collections are the gold standard for materials like this. They just did the Jeff Minter collection also, and remade Wizardry. They put out a ton and I'm sure they're not a huge team.

 

[Killer8]

I wonder who at Nintendo thought it was a good idea to pair an OLED screen with a border you can't disable on the Switch Online emulator.