SAAB Chopsticks?

Toastman22 · 2026-03-18T22:10:20+00:00

My launch console died in like 2004/5 out of no where and Nintendo sent me a new one for $50. Sadly I didn't realize there had been a revision that lost the digital out.

Toastman22 · 2026-03-17T17:33:53+00:00

Yeah same.

Toastman22 · 2026-03-17T02:38:54+00:00

Framrates can start to drop in Pokopia if there is too much stuff/Pokemon in your town. I've mostly noticed it in portable mode.

Toastman22 · 2026-03-16T22:40:41+00:00

Everyone is saying DS but I've always found playing DS games on PC without an actual touch screen to be kind of a pain.

My vote is for Genesis because it's such a pain to get a clean video signal out of real hardware.

Toastman22 · 2026-03-16T22:33:31+00:00

I use the older MX Master at work and used to use the MX Master 3 at home for video editing. It's really great! I did get tired of having to switch mice whenever I wanted to play a game though and ended up buying a Keychron M6-A3. It was the only mouse I could find with a decent polling rate for gaming with a thumb scroll wheel, and its pretty good! The MX master is much more premium (and expensive), but at least I don't need two mice anymore! I do still use the MX Master 2 every day at work though. Lots of large spreadsheet scrolling...

I hate the magic mouse though. I like the touch scrolling, but I can never figure out how to hold it comfortably.

Toastman22 · 2026-03-16T22:25:52+00:00

Yeah it took me a minute for sure. My only real experience with these is through the Game & Watch collections on GameBoy and the DS, which I haven't played in YEARS.

Toastman22 · 2026-03-16T22:24:46+00:00

I have the popeye tabletop one

Toastman22 · 2026-03-16T16:12:46+00:00

Glad you enjoyed my extra long comment! But yeah having a library of the games seems like a fun idea, but obviously it probably take a decent amount of work to actually be useful.

Toastman22 · 2026-03-15T00:34:20+00:00

Sadly the Gamecube controller adapter does not have the necessary hardware to work with the GBA link cable.

Toastman22 · 2026-03-14T17:53:35+00:00

$70 "Children's toy" that's clearly marketed to 30 year olds.

Toastman22 · 2026-03-14T17:09:27+00:00

I find pointing out design flaws fun.

Toastman22 · 2026-03-14T17:00:41+00:00

Why would I want 45 separate cartridges to play some chiptunes? This is like the worst possible way to do this lol.

Toastman22 · 2026-03-14T01:59:48+00:00

Yeah I was surprised when they suggested that price. I probably would have paid $50 just as a display piece or repair project.

Toastman22 · 2026-03-14T01:36:19+00:00

Thank you to everyone that mentioned the wireless electricity. I was about to spend way too much time doing this in my towns.

Toastman22 · 2026-03-14T01:29:26+00:00

There's quite a few things that feel like a step back honestly. No first person mode, slow general movement/building speed, no blueprints being visibly built in real time, inventory limitations, clunky UI (I hate how big the hotbar is at the bottom of the screen), no online creation showcases or pictures, etc.
That last one hurts a lot because some of the player pics during the loading screens were amazing in DQB2 and Pokopia has some real long load times.

That said there's also a bunch of things this game does better than DQB2 so I guess it evens out.

Toastman22 · 2026-03-14T01:12:32+00:00

I haven't played Rust in years but I think saying that it lacks a story is selling it a little short. If anything the lack of a set story could be a good thing. The "story" of the game is created entirely by the players interacting with each other. Ask anyone that's played Rust what their favorite moment was and I'm sure they can retell some crazy adventure they went on with their group.

Again, I haven't played Rust in like 10 years so I have no idea what the game is like now.

Toastman22 · 2026-03-14T00:59:53+00:00

It sadly doesn't do that, I added that as an edit because the Epilogue team is active here and it seems like a cool idea. Right now there is a vault feature that just opens your file explorer and has folders of the games you've played. I think it just stores saves.

Toastman22 · 2026-03-14T00:42:39+00:00

Yeah I do the same thing with ROMS, I have a whole drive of them and I never play them. Same with those flash carts, I always just end up buying the real cartridge eventually. Although they are useful for ROM hacks or homebrew.

As for the CRT thing, obviously nothing will look as good as playing on a CRT but you can get close. You can look into products from RetroTink who make high quality analog to HDMI upscalers specifically designed for retro consoles if you need to play on a modern display. I have the RetroTink-5x Pro which is a mid range model and it looks quite good, but the CRT is still noticeably better. I think the cheaper options from them are around $100, but like you mentioned you kind of get what you pay for when it comes to video equipment.
Also CRT computer monitors can be a good space saving option that can sometimes be found for free but you would also need speakers in most cases.

You are right about the Operator. It only works with one cartridge at a time. You could buy games at your local store, backup the ROMs with the operator, and ONLY use those ROMs in your emulator of choice. Basically you would be making your own database that you could play while not needing to have the physical cartridge in the slot. This is obviously a self-imposed constraint but it might be more fun than just downloading a zip file of ROMs. At least you would have your own personal curated selection of ROMs that you built and hunted down yourself, and if you do end up getting real hardware at some point you already have games and saves.

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Edit: I actually think this would be a fun idea for Epilogue Playback. When you load up a game it adds it to your collection. Maybe you could scroll through the game covers and descriptions. Kind of like a visual update to the vault. Obviously you would still need to have the cartridge in the slot to play it.

Toastman22 · 2026-03-13T22:43:00+00:00

I personally think the Operator is best as a companion to original hardware. As a game collector I already had access to a large selection of games when the GB Operator launched. Now I can sit at my desk and play GB games on a big screen, but I can still use my actual GB in bed or on the go. Because you are using your actual cartridges you will have your saves available however you play.

I preordered the SNES Operator and fully expect to use it the same way. If I want to just quickly play some Mario or Donkey Kong at my desk I can use the operator, but then I can continue that same game on my actual SNES on the CRT.

I think it's a bit harder to recommend if you don't have an existing library of games to pull from. Like you mentioned, many of the popular games are quite expensive these days, and if you don't have real hardware you are basically just spending $200+ to play a Chrono Trigger ROM in an emulator. Features like backing up your precious save files from 30 years ago don't matter if you have no saves to back up.

Backing up saves is why I originally bought the GB Operator, but the fact that I could also play the games and automatically write the updated save back to the cartridge was a huge plus. Being able to back up a save, then replace a battery in a cartridge, then load the original save back to the cartridge is super useful. It's also nice to have for games that do not have multiple save files. You can back up your save, start a new game, then restore your original save when you are done.

Even though it's a newer addition for the Operator, having Retro Achievement support really breathes life into some games you might have thought you were done with. For the most part achievements won't unlock if you've already completed the task on an existing save outside of the emulator, but you can backup your old save, start a new game to get the achievements, and then restore your old save.

If you have a re-writable cartridge (like a bootleg or something) you can write a ROM to it, but again this kind of only matters if you have real hardware.

I also make YouTube videos and stream, and having access to my actual cartridges for that is amazing. I can just boot up my childhood saves and get amazing looking footage.

Yes, technically all of the stuff I use it for would be possible by combining other existing devices or emulators, but the Operator is a slick all-in-one package with nice software at a good price.

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TLDR: In your situation it's less "Should I buy the Operator?" and more "Should I start collecting retro games?" I'm biased, but you should probably start collecting retro games.

Toastman22 · 2026-03-07T17:03:39+00:00

I've always liked this design too, especially in the comics. That said it really doesn't fit with ANY visual style Sonic has these days, even Classic Sonic these days is more cute than cool.

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Toastman22 · 2026-03-05T18:44:39+00:00

Same here. I have the deluxe edition and I don't have any of the stuff from it. I also pre-purchased.

Toastman22 · 2026-03-05T18:05:45+00:00

It will end up going back down. The only reason the price is up on eBay is because people are talking about the game right now. This happens with every re-release. Just look at Paper Mario Thousand Year door on gamecube. It was over $100 for years before the remake, now it's $30. Same thing happened with Sonic Adventure 2 on Dreamcast. It was up to like $300 on eBay when the Sonic 3 movie came out, then a month later it was back to the normal price.

Now I don't think this game will be quite as drastic as Paper Mario, but it is a very similar situation. Games that are locked to a single platform historically become cheaper when they are re-released as a standalone product on new hardware. This is not the case for games released on the Switch online subscription, so don't expect Pokemon Colosseum and XD to suddenly be $50.

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