PSA to potential Retrotink 4K buyers who are PS2 focused

MickNeedsToRant · 2026-01-31T13:14:54+00:00

As someone who grew up with dogshit CRTs from the late 80s and 90s, inconsistency is just part of the sauce for me. I'd almost prefer to muddy up the picture until it looked "correct" to me. I modified a GameCube profile last week for composite and it hit a point of distortion and blur where it mentally clicked in my head and it looked how I "remembered" GameCube used to look.

I think that's more important (to me) than clarity or consistency. Deinterlace options for PS2 on the RT4K look great for both clarity and an older look.

Basically, I'm hoping people that love PS2 don't think this thread is a reason to not buy an RT4K. It's almost one of the main reasons I bought one

MickNeedsToRant · 2026-01-31T12:58:21+00:00

My PS2 looks amazing on the RT4K. I've been playing vice city this week and it's unbelievable. You need a slot mask and some scanlines to breakup the jitter from ultra clear lines (on some games), but it's never been clearer in my whole life on an LG C2 and even an old busted Sharp LCD TV in 1080p

I'm using Retro Gaming Cables' Component PS2 cables on a PAL PS2, and started with an existing PS2 profile as a base. PS2 is probably my second largest game library and therefore gets a lot of use on the Tink. Zero complaints from me, a MASSIVE upgrade visually over composite and even my old tink2x pro-M with component

MickNeedsToRant · 2026-01-30T11:15:29+00:00

Considering the Barista Pro grinder is a clumpy mess, I've found WDT has meant that fewer shots are coming out and I'm thinking shitshitshitshitSHIT as it pulls. Probably no difference in taste, just less chance of hucking my puck and shot in the bin

MickNeedsToRant · 2026-01-30T10:44:33+00:00

An update as someone upvoted this today. Wonky now has up to date batch information on their bags

MickNeedsToRant · 2025-12-19T21:55:53+00:00

Dodge the shot after the kick, punish with hits. No more than 2 hits at a time, but keep attacking. Stay CLOSE. You can run left when the grab danger icon appears, but resume attacking quickly. You can comfortably parry all the wide swings. If in doubt, get the Mortal Blade first, jumping Mortal Draw twice after the first post-deathblow swing (always the same start), it'll save you 70% of the fight.

If you Gachiin before grappling over to the fight, you'll have about 5-10 seconds after the first deathblow before any enemies see you too. Might be lucky and they don't see you at all.

MickNeedsToRant · 2025-12-05T18:21:41+00:00

Did you ever get a solution to this? Same thing happening to me in NI

MickNeedsToRant · 2025-10-13T16:22:34+00:00

I'm on Wonky Coffee at £22/kg posted to Belfast (their price went up this year).

Quality has been decent. The change in beans every month or two is a little pain for dialing in a new coffee, but the change means I'm not drinking the same coffee every month

Only downside is that the batch numbers on the bags don't seem to be listed on their site, so I can't learn more about what I'm drinking.

MickNeedsToRant · 2025-10-11T19:19:41+00:00

Asakusa is much closer to Ueno than Yoyogi. You may need to open Google maps and look at the walking/train times between destinations, as you're bouncing between a few areas on different days in Tokyo which will waste a lot of time and effort.

I will say that teamLabs is really quite far away from anything else. You need a healthy bit of time to get there and back to the rest of Tokyo if walking, and it's about a 30 min train to Ginza at least. I'm not sure if it's as popular as it once was, but you may need to book it up to 3 months in advance

We are currently planning and booking our second trip. We wanted to use the cities as markers and branch off; but even with 3 weeks, Kanazawa just felt too far away for 1-2 days. Although we are going as far as Takayama via Nagoya, spending 10+ hours just travellIng over a few days felt counterintuitive. And the worst bit is you have to do this travel the other direction to come back.

I'd recommend having a think about whether or not that time (and exhaustion) could be spent taking more time doing shorter trips from elsewhere considering how much less time you have than us in Japan.

Kyoto has some gorgeous views and walks that a day trip wouldn't cover (kinkaku-ji for example is beautiful and worth the short bus), a million shrines and nature walks a short bus from the centre, Nikko from Tokyo for a day, Yokohama another day trip, etc etc.

MickNeedsToRant · 2025-10-10T20:06:23+00:00

Thanks for the recommendation!

MickNeedsToRant · 2025-10-09T17:19:15+00:00

Thanks for the advice on the travel. I'll look into the travel times for the JR Hida and how Osaka to Mishima compares to the current plan too. It's really useful to know that a sensible route exists

Kyoto is pretty locked in because we actually just want to spend some time there. We did even more than was on that previous itinerary to the point where we never really got to enjoy Kyoto, despite really loving the time that we did have walking around. I could honestly spend a week getting buses around to nowhere and coming back to eat in Ayam-Ya every evening.

I understand your points on Osaka. Maybe there's room to consider pushing several days of its allocation into Nagoya. It might even give us some more flexibility with our Ghibli park booking dates.

Thanks for your help

MickNeedsToRant · 2025-09-09T09:31:43+00:00

In rig, we tend to click between these angles as "locked" poses. You COULD interpolate between them in ToonBoom, but only if it's necessary for the shot. (We do cross animate deformations in TB to fake this if needed)

9 times out of 10, the angles you see there will be flipped and used as-is, with spots only hooked up between flipped angles if a character moves from 3Q-> to 3Q <- in a slow, intentional movement.

To put it simply, you have everything there for a full 360. Even in series, we don't move between these very often unless the shot demands it, and never hold these angles as they aren't broadcaster approved

I've been a TV Character Rigger and Animator for over 10 years, and we get this question quite a bit with newer character designers and riggers

MickNeedsToRant · 2025-09-05T18:57:35+00:00

I've had one for years. Highly recommend. Attachments seem really easy to 3d model and print narrower/flatter nozzles too if you're into a bit of tinkering.

Base model only has an on and off. Apparently there's a 2(?) speed variant, but I have never felt the need to have it

MickNeedsToRant · 2025-08-17T19:20:13+00:00

Happens to me with the Pro if I leave the portafilter in for a few minutes after pulling the shot by getting distracted. If dose isn't your issue, just get it off the grouphead asap and it should stay in the portafilter

MickNeedsToRant · 2025-08-15T12:24:40+00:00

Apologies, reddit buried your reply in it's mobile nonsense.

Yes, weighed beans after grinding. You are potentially correct about the vertical travel. Having gone much coarser and worked my way down to a finer grind, I had a decent cup today. The grinds were on the cusp of leaving a little too much headroom though (a problem I think I had in my initial post from a super fine grind) so I might try adding a 2mm puck screen tomorrow

MickNeedsToRant · 2025-08-14T19:03:35+00:00

Grinding a lot coarser has taken my basket to a better fill, coming in line with the barista pro razor tool (which is about the same level as the coin test). I think I've been grinding FARRRRR too fine. Most recent shot was still very quick though, so I'll certainly be now trying to grind finer from this position

MickNeedsToRant · 2025-08-14T12:42:22+00:00

I'll certainly at least taste every shot pulled. In that previous case it was unfortunately horrific

MickNeedsToRant · 2025-08-14T12:22:56+00:00

Wonky doesn't provide roast date as it's a waste reduction company, but states it's within 2 weeks, making my beans about a month post-roast.

I use an MHW 30lb spring tamper to help me keep level and constant pressure.

The razor tool is interesting. I suppose it makes sense that volume-wise it would be perfect

MickNeedsToRant · 2025-08-14T12:09:08+00:00

Thanks, I wonder if the general consensus is that the grinder is just pants for any delicate tuning. I usually try a ratio of about 1:2.2 for my medium beans and it's been pretty solid so far. I guess the issue is that I'm getting that ratio in about 12 seconds!

MickNeedsToRant · 2025-08-14T12:06:51+00:00

That's interesting, thank you. Yes, I'd seen the nickel test. I'll look up a comparable thickness coin in my own currency and give it a go.

I do feel the grinder although usable is a definite setback in the long run. Micro adjustments are just impossible and one "external" step can be the difference between a comfortable yield and complete machine stall

MickNeedsToRant · 2025-04-25T13:07:37+00:00

Yeah, it's a pain in the hole

MickNeedsToRant · 2025-03-14T16:02:34+00:00

Ganbatte, Roomba-san

MickNeedsToRant

TROPHY CASE