@@crywolfplays do you think there are any advantages to Retrotink vs an emulator? Like does it retain a more natural/smooth look or is an emulator basically always just "better"?
In 16 years we went from NES to Gamecube, the difference was phenomenal. Whats changed in the last 23 years? Unfinished releases, with patches. Partial game releases, with paid DLC to unlock the rest. Pay to win. Subscription, games as service
@@SteveDavies80 On the SuperNintendo i dont had to buy a DLC but StreetFighter2 , Streetfighter 2 Turbo and then SuperStreetFighter 2 the new Chalengers...i had to pay 3 times a Fullprice StreetFighter 2 Game to unlock the Rest👌I can also Rember if i had to buy BugFixes in a PC Magazine to patch Gothic 3 ....and we had also a Big Library of Shit Games on the NES and SNES ..not just the Games we loved till today.I also dont play pay to Win Games or unfinished Games on my PS5 or Switch..maybe you should just stopp buying Pokemoon Games ..and buy Stuff like XenoBladeChronicles or Breath of the Wild ? There was no pay to win and Nintendo finished much more in this Games then Blizzard in Diablo 4 and BugTester in Starfield🙈DemonSouls and other Games on PS5 where also not pay to win...couse they are SinglePlayer Games.Diablo 2 had a Expansion Pack back in the Days...Bro where you even born as the NES lounched or 5 Years old as the GameCube lounched?what you talkin bout Pay to Win at Nintendos SinglePlayer Games?are you drunk? The only Games who have Pay to Win and always kind of unfinished are MMO Games and GooglePlayStore " free" Games....where had you pay to win to beat Zelda or Mario on the Switch?🤣
For me personal the Game Cube like the N64 didnt beat the SNES Magic..and i prefered PlayStation couse it had much more JRPGS then N64 and Game Cube( like the SNES back in the Days)
This is pretty much how I experienced gamecube games in europe back in the day on a CRT because RGB cables were commonplace and cheap, and pretty much every PAL CRT TV had an RGB Scart socket, even old ones from the 80s.
Yeah, digital port vs composite cable is like night and day. I was blown away when I bought a BitFunx HDMI adapter. Please include 1080 Avalanche in the next video. This game looks amazing, with great particle effects, fabric animations, etc.
It's a true testament to how games had clear art direction and people actually had to consider where to put precious polygons. Today you just get more and more until budget runs out and you have to sell 10 million copies to even out. With that out of the way, I absolutely love the Lord of the Rings games because they all were technical marvels on every platform. The Third Age was a really nice clone of Final Fantasy X and the GBA games too, with Diablo and Fire Emblem-likes.
Same, I wish there were just checkpoints you had to drive thru inside of the side to side, I think it would be more fun. I always felt like I was fighting the arrows and not the opponents lol
Another great video CryWolf. Hmm..I personally think Burnout 2 looks pretty good on the GameCube as well. 60fps, Widescreen, Progressive Scan, very fast moving with dense traffic and awesome crashes, a very nice improvement on Burnout 1, although I don't really like the motion blur it has. It may be a PS2 port but it looks very solid. Man, I wish EA and Criterion ported Burnout 3 to the 'Cube. I heard someone say Need for Speed Carbon looks good as well? Although the 7th gen versions are superior, and I think it's only 30fps on GCN as well. tbh Underground, UG2 and MW all look pretty decent on GCN, they're just all capped to 30fps. Oh yeah, and how about Super Mario Strikers as well? Another 60fps widescreen GCN game IIRC, with a good art style and expressive character models. And frighteningly fast loading times. When it comes to playing GCN games I actually still have a TV that supports cable connection. I just use my Wii's component cables and I'm good to go. 480p doesn't really bother me. However, I did try one of those cheap converters to get it to connect to a HDMI only TV..it was miserable. So I'm looking forward to that next video. I saw someone else mention 1080° Avalanche, that game was made by Blue Storm's developers. Who also went on to make Prime Hunters. Oh yeah and..I started a hard replay of Prime 2. It's SO hard. Probably not a great decision considering I still have to finish Prime 1 and 3, but..oh well.
Thanks! Great comment here. I considered burnout 2 but I don't have a copy and burnout 3 was just so great I was bummed they never ported it lol. Mario strikers is a good one. I played it a long time ago but haven't tracked down a copy. GameCube has crazy fast load times across the board almost, that's a good topic to explore too. Prime 2 on hard mode is epic but hardcore yeah. The early 2000s were kind of a haven for racing games. Tons of them look "very good" even today, even if only a few like fzero look incredible
@@crywolfplaysMan I need to get myself a copy of GX I've gotta be honest. Definitely track down Burnout 2 if you can, it looks alright and plays really well, even if it's not up there with GX or even Mario Kart. Good luck finding a cheap copy of Super Mario Strikers, by the way. Man, 2004-2006 GameCube games are pricy. I was lucky to get Prime 2 for £18..That's why I haven't played Star Fox Assault yet, I think the lowest price I found it for was about £50..
Went for the HDMI + 480p + Mcable for modern screens. The Mcable does a very nice job with the anti-aliasing and the texture upscale (very Nice on Rogue Leader). I recently bought a Crt Sony Trinitron, and went for a high quality Scart cable. Color and image cleanliness are greatly improved.
That's interesting, I looked at the Mcable but decided against it due to mixed reports about whether it was just a marketing gimmick - so you're saying it's shown a tangible improvement for you?
Yes, I personally really like it. The processing isn't 100% perfect that's for sure. For instance there is a color and contrast boost on my LCD monitor when using the cable. I don't mind it, and it is always possible to tweak the settings of your screen anyway. To me the real gain is definitely the Anti-aliasing. Pixely edges really show up when the signal is clean in 480p and using an HDMI cable. When I play the GameCube on a modern screen, it is on my PC monitor, so I'm quite close to the screen, and it's easy to see imperfections. Well what I can say is that for my modern setup it works really well, lines are really smoothed up and the image is less pixaleted overall. As for the texture upscaling part it is noticeable, even if it shows less than the anti-aliasing. But you can see that textures are less blurry and more detailed. On a game like Rogue Leader the Xwing is way cleaner and detailed, and the night sky looks better, you can see that the stars are less blurry. I play with the cable on with all my Gamecube games, I find them to look better in all cases with the cable powered on. I also use it on the Switch, the improvements are obviously way less visible, but the quality boost is noticeable as the image and characters do look cleaner. There are articles and videos that shows the difference when the cable is turned on and off on a setup. In my case I don't regret buying it. Is the image looks better with an HDMI dongle + 480p + Mcable compared to a pricey upscaler on a modern screen? I do not know
Awesome video! I tried revisiting my GameCube year and the and I could not deal with the picture quality that I was getting. so i shelved it. Seeing the converter comparison at the end was a game changer for me and If I did not like the amenities of dolphin emulator I would get the retrotink and a good pair of cables. I look forward to your next video, i would like to see the difference between the varying converters out there and the picture quality that they produce.
The RetroTink 5X has been a very well spent $325 for me. With its incredible deinterlacing, optional scanline effect, and lack of any noticeable input latency, it has effectively replaced my need for a CRT screen. All of my old consoles (NES, SNES, N64, GameCube, PS1, PS2, and Xbox) are now plug-and-play on my modern 85" flat panel, along with the Switch and Xbox Series X. Throughout this entire year I think I've spent more time on 20+ year old games than I have on modern ones.
Same. The retrotink makes them look beautiful and the current generation of games is so dull I've been spending way more time with retro systems finding games I missed or revisiting classics. Honestly I think some of them look better stylistically and in terms of visual appeal than a lot of modern games, even if they are obviously lower fidelity.
@@justdev8965 I know they do. I previously had a 55" Samsung with composite and component dongles. And yeah 480p sources look fine, but there's still ugly and laggy deinterlacing on 480i sources, and 240p sources just look abysmal. Maybe one of these days flatscreen TV's will include some features to better accommodate retro games, but until then I'll stick with a good upscaler.
Another Visual BLOW AWAY was SPARTAN TOTAL WARRIOR 😍😍 Talking about a lot going on on the screen: This game has the best big battle feeling to this day!
I liked the first video because it focussed on the games, would we like to see more output comparison videos? Not really, it's been done to death already.
I got the official Gamecube component cables for $75 15 years ago. I thought that was expensive back then. I don't know why but I get a better image with s-video over component.
@@justdev8965 Not all s video cables are equal. I've tried a couple different ones and performance varies. I had a sony bravia lcd with s video inputs and component. S video looked awesome. Same goes for PS1 and s video. I have an entire tote full of cables and I've tried a bunch. It's hard finding tvs with s video inputs. Especially flat screens.
gamecube was far ahead of its time, especially in comparison to ps2 and dreamcast the graphics like Rogue Swiadron felt like the next console gen, exclusive games were amazing
I use mine with HDMI (retro bit Prism HD) and mClassic to a 40" 1080p TV. Man, that little Cube looks gourgeus. Clean, sharp, amazing graphics. F-Zero GX looks fantastic with this setup.
From the comparisons, I feel like the "softer and smoother" look is from the generic converter, while the expensive ones gives the "sharper, cleaner, and jagged" appearance. This looks to be a clear example of "games intended for CRT that don't translate too well with direct upscaling on flatscreen". That Retro Tink probably has options to deal with this via CRT filters which you're not using?
This is a good point/question - the Retrotink has a lot of options to tailor the picture to your liking - various smoothing/sharpness options and CRT/image filters, etc. I went with as cleaner/sharper looking for this video because I thought it looked the best over capture and for exporting to youtube, but there's a lot of options.
XGIII's sequel XGRA is even more impressive graphically, wish you'd mentioned that! Despite being less well-received than XGIII it's still my favourite in the series
Here's a few games I found graphically impressive on the Gamecube. 1.TimeSplitters 2 2.TimeSplitters: Future Perfect 3.Ed, Edd 'n Eddy: The MisEDventures 4.Piglett's BIG Game 5.Chihi-Robo! Plug Into Adventure Also, I got an Insignia-Brand RCA-to-HDMI converter. How does that hold up to the Retrotink?
Love Timesplitters, I hope that makes a comeback some day. Used to play multiplayer every weekend with a couple friends. Insignia is just a Best Buy white label brand of other electronics, so I would assume it's comparable to the other cheaper converters. However, some are better than others - I've never tried the insignia one so I'm not sure what the equivalent would be. For example the Wii Portholic converter is similar in price to the generic composite to hdmi converter I show in the video, but in my testing its quite a bit better - sort of in-between the cheap option shown and the retrotink. Maybe Insignia would fall into that category?
XGIII was perhaps first next gen -title released that would had simply been impossible to port for previous generation systems. Unlike say, Wave Race Blue Storm's tracks, that are still impressive, (your vehicle can leave dirty brake -marks into walls on tracks, for example). I think the 5 best looking NGC -games are *Metroid Prime, *StarFox Adventures, *Eternal Darkness, *Star Wars Rebel Strike, *The Legend Of Zelda Twilight Princess. -But of course, there are a lot of NGC -games that look nearly as good as these, like Super Smash Bross Melee, that had perfect character models.
Well it looks old. However it was really really good for its time. I remember getting a massive headache when i got my 1st game cube. Graphics looked too good to be true
Some Peopel also dont know some Multiplattform Games like Batman was the worst Version of all Consoles and had also some Crappy Games like Conan 😂and just 600 Games where not everyThing was Gold like the Windwaker ( And Nintendo Fans really talked BullCrap like the N64 Zelda looked grafikal better then the Windwaker couse Nintendo Dudes are also flip floppin Dudes like X Bots😂Or how you explain the N Cube sold not very well 😂Bro Resident Evil 4 back in the Days was like ( Thats no real Resi no more) same to the Wind Waker and Mario SunShine😂Today those Nintendo Fans akt like they prised it also back in the Days 😂👌I can Rember ive i played Game Cube i feeled like " Im the only One who like that WindWaker Game and Final Fantasy Cristal Chronikles Game 😂
@KnowToChill that's fine, I never said it did. But it was the most powerful console of that generation when you talk about tech specs. That's all I'm saying.
I’ve built what I call an ultimate GameCube. I’ve got a HDMI mod internally, giving the best digital you can get out of it. Throw in the GC Loader and soon to be a flippy drive, I’ve got no need to emulate anymore. I do need to get a upscaler though.
@@danthemanic8479 Nah. I felt like I didn't need to. I have a couple Wavebirds anyway. Though I do have a Hand Held Legend GC Ultimate controller on order.
Yeah that works pretty well if you have a decent component to hdmi converter or a TV that still has component inputs. Wii hardware items are usually much easier to find than gamecube.
"waves influence your steering" that is the issue with current game development. High res graphics is so hard to pull off that everyone is focused on it and simply don't have time for gameplay. GameCube was the time when graphics was developed well enough so you could actually recognize everything (I think PS2 as well), yet the focus was still on gameplay. Now you need hollywood level fidelity and lootboxes and skins that make money. Fidelity is to get the foot into the door and lootboxes are for the return of investment. Gameplay is last if even a consideration.
If you get into the visual differences with any retro system, especially GC, you really need to show S-Video as well. Everyone focuses on the component cables, but as someone who started using S-Video on my first 32in CRT in 97, for SNES and up, ppl need to realize that while component IS awful, S-Video is in the middle compared to Component, yet the quality difference between these three is not equally separated. If you compare all the signal formats vs Component (100%) I would rate them like this RF at 10% Composite 25% S-Video 95% RGB/VGA -100% Component - 100% While the best separate the colors into individual wires, the biggest difference low to high quality is S-video, where the Chroma and Luma are separated. I say all this because I see SO many ppl just say, I want the best, I need to spend high amounts for RGB/Component, when S-video is so close at a fraction of the price, and most reviewers skip it entirely. Side note, you can get GC component quality output for really cheap as well, around $20 bucks ... just buy a GC compatible Wii.
Thanks for these great insights, especially about s-video, this is the type of analysis Id like to go deeper into. I've also use a Wii with component cables with the retrotink and I think it looks equally great to this video. Because this video is so GameCube focused I wanted to show some GC specific hardware examples. There are also some cheaper not as horrible options for the Wii, for example I think the portholic HDMI adapter does a surprisingly good job for it's ultra cheap price - better than the converter shown here. It's not as good as component+ retrotink obviously, but it's a decent super cheap option. I only have limited s video experience so I'm curious to try that
I wonder how much of the poor quality is on the converter... Growing up with a Gamecube, Wii, and a standard definition CRT, I was surprised when I'd go to a friend's house or store demo and saw how bad the games looked Super Mario Galaxy, which was stunning and beautiful on our CRT, was turned into a blurry mess on the "better" hd tvs I think your comparisons in the latter half of the video look exactly like what I was seeing makes me wonder if it was the circuits in the TV converting from composite (which would line up with what I read- having been curious, I looked it up and found that TV manufacturers purposefully used really bad conversion circuitry, because it drove you to buy native HDMI devices, like blu ray players, sold by the TV manufacturers themselves)
For your next video: S-Video cable. I got one for my GameCube and was pleasantly surprised it was backward compatible with my N64 and SNES. I definitely wished I had the Component cable, but I got one for my Wii and moved all my GameCube gaming to the Wii instead. I capture S-Video using a GV-USB2, but I've only used it for SNES so far. For missing games: I was sad you showed XGIII and not XGRA. I'm including this link for CryWolf, not trying to bump my own channel: th-cam.com/video/hr1lPNc1Umc/w-d-xo.html Such a great video highlighting GameCube, I love it! I'm gonna go watch the first one now. :)
Thanks for watching and sharing! I've actually never played xgra because I heard it was worse, but I've been meaning to find a copy to see. Unfortunately part 1 of this video wasn't captured on the retrotink but thanks for watching regardless, I'll check out your video. I've never used s video so curious to see
Very true. They said that at least on paper the original Xbox was more powerful, but that's just it: on paper. Cause in reality the cube blew both the PS2 and yes even even the Xbox in performance. I say this for all multiplatform titles of that era. That ATI GPU chip, there was just something about its design that produced wonderful colors.
@ yes many say the xbox was more powerfull, well it was in some ways, but defenitely not on the graphical side of things. Most gamecube games are razor sharp, like MGS2 quality on ps2, but then on about any game.
you dont need 200gbs worth of textures, nor path traced lighting to make games look good. especially since realistic graphics tend to age rather poorly. artstyle and some basic 3d rendering techniques are enough to make games look decent, such as shade smoothing, beveled edges, normal maps and basic global illumination that unifies texture tint. compare something old like tales of vesperia 2008 to a more modern tales game like xillia that is 5 generations newer and you will realize that polygons arent everything. what happened? they nailed vesperias graphics and couldnt replicated it since. booting up sunshine always feels fresh visually despite its age. i love gta san andreas, but man, did it age graphically in spite its gorgeous art style.
That's some clean video! I'm impressed at how closely this console footage can approach the native HD output of an emulator.
Thanks for watching, same, in 1440p mode the Retrotink looks almost comparable to an emulator in my opinion.
@@crywolfplays do you think there are any advantages to Retrotink vs an emulator? Like does it retain a more natural/smooth look or is an emulator basically always just "better"?
In 16 years we went from NES to Gamecube, the difference was phenomenal.
Whats changed in the last 23 years?
Unfinished releases, with patches.
Partial game releases, with paid DLC to unlock the rest.
Pay to win.
Subscription, games as service
Publishers got extremely greedy. We're still getting amazing games today, but not nearly as often.
@@SteveDavies80 On the SuperNintendo i dont had to buy a DLC but StreetFighter2 , Streetfighter 2 Turbo and then SuperStreetFighter 2 the new Chalengers...i had to pay 3 times a Fullprice StreetFighter 2 Game to unlock the Rest👌I can also Rember if i had to buy BugFixes in a PC Magazine to patch Gothic 3 ....and we had also a Big Library of Shit Games on the NES and SNES ..not just the Games we loved till today.I also dont play pay to Win Games or unfinished Games on my PS5 or Switch..maybe you should just stopp buying Pokemoon Games ..and buy Stuff like XenoBladeChronicles or Breath of the Wild ? There was no pay to win and Nintendo finished much more in this Games then Blizzard in Diablo 4 and BugTester in Starfield🙈DemonSouls and other Games on PS5 where also not pay to win...couse they are SinglePlayer Games.Diablo 2 had a Expansion Pack back in the Days...Bro where you even born as the NES lounched or 5 Years old as the GameCube lounched?what you talkin bout Pay to Win at Nintendos SinglePlayer Games?are you drunk? The only Games who have Pay to Win and always kind of unfinished are MMO Games and GooglePlayStore " free" Games....where had you pay to win to beat Zelda or Mario on the Switch?🤣
This video is Great! Giving early Nerrel vibes. I really enjoyed seeing how different the capture options were. Keep up the Amazing work!
Thanks so much!
BEST. CONSOLE. EVER.
Also the difference in setup quality is INSANE
For me personal the Game Cube like the N64 didnt beat the SNES Magic..and i prefered PlayStation couse it had much more JRPGS then N64 and Game Cube( like the SNES back in the Days)
@@KnowToChill for me gamecube beat all of
them!
@fantadig098 for me the GameCube was the wannabe DreamCast just with less Gernes then the SNES had ..but more fun then then the N64 before.
@@KnowToChill And for me there wasnt any big reason to upgrade from a Nes since snes was nes 2.0.
This is pretty much how I experienced gamecube games in europe back in the day on a CRT because RGB cables were commonplace and cheap, and pretty much every PAL CRT TV had an RGB Scart socket, even old ones from the 80s.
Yeah, digital port vs composite cable is like night and day. I was blown away when I bought a BitFunx HDMI adapter. Please include 1080 Avalanche in the next video. This game looks amazing, with great particle effects, fabric animations, etc.
It's a true testament to how games had clear art direction and people actually had to consider where to put precious polygons. Today you just get more and more until budget runs out and you have to sell 10 million copies to even out.
With that out of the way, I absolutely love the Lord of the Rings games because they all were technical marvels on every platform. The Third Age was a really nice clone of Final Fantasy X and the GBA games too, with Diablo and Fire Emblem-likes.
GC with SCART output and Trinitron TV is another option, if you find some "new old" stock
5:15 Hey DJ! Gimme a fat beat!
LOL I always wondered if I was hearing that wrong.
I would have really liked wave race if you didn’t have to zigzag left and right side of the arrows. That killed it for me
Same, I wish there were just checkpoints you had to drive thru inside of the side to side, I think it would be more fun. I always felt like I was fighting the arrows and not the opponents lol
Another great video CryWolf.
Hmm..I personally think Burnout 2 looks pretty good on the GameCube as well. 60fps, Widescreen, Progressive Scan, very fast moving with dense traffic and awesome crashes, a very nice improvement on Burnout 1, although I don't really like the motion blur it has. It may be a PS2 port but it looks very solid. Man, I wish EA and Criterion ported Burnout 3 to the 'Cube.
I heard someone say Need for Speed Carbon looks good as well? Although the 7th gen versions are superior, and I think it's only 30fps on GCN as well. tbh Underground, UG2 and MW all look pretty decent on GCN, they're just all capped to 30fps.
Oh yeah, and how about Super Mario Strikers as well? Another 60fps widescreen GCN game IIRC, with a good art style and expressive character models. And frighteningly fast loading times.
When it comes to playing GCN games I actually still have a TV that supports cable connection. I just use my Wii's component cables and I'm good to go. 480p doesn't really bother me.
However, I did try one of those cheap converters to get it to connect to a HDMI only TV..it was miserable. So I'm looking forward to that next video.
I saw someone else mention 1080° Avalanche, that game was made by Blue Storm's developers. Who also went on to make Prime Hunters.
Oh yeah and..I started a hard replay of Prime 2. It's SO hard. Probably not a great decision considering I still have to finish Prime 1 and 3, but..oh well.
Thanks! Great comment here. I considered burnout 2 but I don't have a copy and burnout 3 was just so great I was bummed they never ported it lol. Mario strikers is a good one. I played it a long time ago but haven't tracked down a copy. GameCube has crazy fast load times across the board almost, that's a good topic to explore too. Prime 2 on hard mode is epic but hardcore yeah. The early 2000s were kind of a haven for racing games. Tons of them look "very good" even today, even if only a few like fzero look incredible
@@crywolfplaysMan I need to get myself a copy of GX I've gotta be honest. Definitely track down Burnout 2 if you can, it looks alright and plays really well, even if it's not up there with GX or even Mario Kart.
Good luck finding a cheap copy of Super Mario Strikers, by the way. Man, 2004-2006 GameCube games are pricy. I was lucky to get Prime 2 for £18..That's why I haven't played Star Fox Assault yet, I think the lowest price I found it for was about £50..
Great video! I would be very interested in how GC & Wii games on Wii U with hdmi compare to a composite and component + retrotink setup.
Thanks for wtaching! That's a good idea, I should look into it.
Went for the HDMI + 480p + Mcable for modern screens. The Mcable does a very nice job with the anti-aliasing and the texture upscale (very Nice on Rogue Leader).
I recently bought a Crt Sony Trinitron, and went for a high quality Scart cable. Color and image cleanliness are greatly improved.
This, I have used to have the same setup. The mclassic works the best with sub 540p games especially
That's interesting, I looked at the Mcable but decided against it due to mixed reports about whether it was just a marketing gimmick - so you're saying it's shown a tangible improvement for you?
Yes, I personally really like it. The processing isn't 100% perfect that's for sure. For instance there is a color and contrast boost on my LCD monitor when using the cable. I don't mind it, and it is always possible to tweak the settings of your screen anyway.
To me the real gain is definitely the Anti-aliasing. Pixely edges really show up when the signal is clean in 480p and using an HDMI cable. When I play the GameCube on a modern screen, it is on my PC monitor, so I'm quite close to the screen, and it's easy to see imperfections. Well what I can say is that for my modern setup it works really well, lines are really smoothed up and the image is less pixaleted overall.
As for the texture upscaling part it is noticeable, even if it shows less than the anti-aliasing. But you can see that textures are less blurry and more detailed. On a game like Rogue Leader the Xwing is way cleaner and detailed, and the night sky looks better, you can see that the stars are less blurry.
I play with the cable on with all my Gamecube games, I find them to look better in all cases with the cable powered on.
I also use it on the Switch, the improvements are obviously way less visible, but the quality boost is noticeable as the image and characters do look cleaner.
There are articles and videos that shows the difference when the cable is turned on and off on a setup. In my case I don't regret buying it. Is the image looks better with an HDMI dongle + 480p + Mcable compared to a pricey upscaler on a modern screen?
I do not know
Awesome video! I tried revisiting my GameCube year and the and I could not deal with the picture quality that I was getting. so i shelved it. Seeing the converter comparison at the end was a game changer for me and If I did not like the amenities of dolphin emulator I would get the retrotink and a good pair of cables. I look forward to your next video, i would like to see the difference between the varying converters out there and the picture quality that they produce.
This is so great, thanks for sharing! There's always more content coming.
The RetroTink 5X has been a very well spent $325 for me. With its incredible deinterlacing, optional scanline effect, and lack of any noticeable input latency, it has effectively replaced my need for a CRT screen. All of my old consoles (NES, SNES, N64, GameCube, PS1, PS2, and Xbox) are now plug-and-play on my modern 85" flat panel, along with the Switch and Xbox Series X. Throughout this entire year I think I've spent more time on 20+ year old games than I have on modern ones.
Same. The retrotink makes them look beautiful and the current generation of games is so dull I've been spending way more time with retro systems finding games I missed or revisiting classics. Honestly I think some of them look better stylistically and in terms of visual appeal than a lot of modern games, even if they are obviously lower fidelity.
@@crywolfplays Art direction is everything. It's why I think, for instance, Halo CE looks better today than Halo 2.
@@wadelangner3694 For sure, I talk about this a lot in Part 1
Just buy an LCD TV with component inputs. Yes, some 1080P and 720p Samsung models still come with component inputs. Way better than Retrotink
@@justdev8965 I know they do. I previously had a 55" Samsung with composite and component dongles. And yeah 480p sources look fine, but there's still ugly and laggy deinterlacing on 480i sources, and 240p sources just look abysmal. Maybe one of these days flatscreen TV's will include some features to better accommodate retro games, but until then I'll stick with a good upscaler.
Another Visual BLOW AWAY was SPARTAN TOTAL WARRIOR 😍😍
Talking about a lot going on on the screen: This game has the best big battle feeling to this day!
@@TheKosha92 that game was woke thrash tho
I liked the first video because it focussed on the games, would we like to see more output comparison videos? Not really, it's been done to death already.
I got the official Gamecube component cables for $75 15 years ago. I thought that was expensive back then. I don't know why but I get a better image with s-video over component.
Really? S Video? Well now I'm curious
@@justdev8965 Not all s video cables are equal. I've tried a couple different ones and performance varies. I had a sony bravia lcd with s video inputs and component. S video looked awesome. Same goes for PS1 and s video. I have an entire tote full of cables and I've tried a bunch. It's hard finding tvs with s video inputs. Especially flat screens.
gamecube was far ahead of its time, especially in comparison to ps2 and dreamcast the graphics like Rogue Swiadron felt like the next console gen, exclusive games were amazing
Yeah I always thought the best gamecube games looked almost 1/3rd or 1/2 a generation ahead of PS2, even though I liked my PS2 as well.
I use mine with HDMI (retro bit Prism HD) and mClassic to a 40" 1080p TV. Man, that little Cube looks gourgeus. Clean, sharp, amazing graphics. F-Zero GX looks fantastic with this setup.
Love to see the prism here, it looks so good too
From the comparisons, I feel like the "softer and smoother" look is from the generic converter, while the expensive ones gives the "sharper, cleaner, and jagged" appearance. This looks to be a clear example of "games intended for CRT that don't translate too well with direct upscaling on flatscreen". That Retro Tink probably has options to deal with this via CRT filters which you're not using?
This is a good point/question - the Retrotink has a lot of options to tailor the picture to your liking - various smoothing/sharpness options and CRT/image filters, etc. I went with as cleaner/sharper looking for this video because I thought it looked the best over capture and for exporting to youtube, but there's a lot of options.
Luigi's mansion looks great on GC.
Looks sick i love star fox and really want to play these and also twilight princess and windwaker
I want a new Wave Race ( and Pilot Wings ) so bad.
The two towers and return of the king need remasters!!
100%
XGIII's sequel XGRA is even more impressive graphically, wish you'd mentioned that! Despite being less well-received than XGIII it's still my favourite in the series
I actually never played the sequel because I heard it wasn't very good, but I'll have to check it out
Here's a few games I found graphically impressive on the Gamecube.
1.TimeSplitters 2
2.TimeSplitters: Future Perfect
3.Ed, Edd 'n Eddy: The MisEDventures
4.Piglett's BIG Game
5.Chihi-Robo! Plug Into Adventure
Also, I got an Insignia-Brand RCA-to-HDMI converter. How does that hold up to the Retrotink?
Love Timesplitters, I hope that makes a comeback some day. Used to play multiplayer every weekend with a couple friends. Insignia is just a Best Buy white label brand of other electronics, so I would assume it's comparable to the other cheaper converters. However, some are better than others - I've never tried the insignia one so I'm not sure what the equivalent would be. For example the Wii Portholic converter is similar in price to the generic composite to hdmi converter I show in the video, but in my testing its quite a bit better - sort of in-between the cheap option shown and the retrotink. Maybe Insignia would fall into that category?
I use the eon gchd and am very happy with the results
XGIII was perhaps first next gen -title released that would had simply been impossible to port for previous generation systems. Unlike say, Wave Race Blue Storm's tracks, that are still impressive, (your vehicle can leave dirty brake -marks into walls on tracks, for example).
I think the 5 best looking NGC -games are *Metroid Prime, *StarFox Adventures, *Eternal Darkness, *Star Wars Rebel Strike, *The Legend Of Zelda Twilight Princess.
-But of course, there are a lot of NGC -games that look nearly as good as these, like Super Smash Bross Melee, that had perfect character models.
Link from Soul Calibur 2 looks like from the PS4/Xbox One era. Truly remarkable programming, they squeezed every ounce of power from the Cube.
@@justdev8965 Yes, but Bowser on Melee is equally impressive. Just pause game anytime, zoom in and it still looks like box art on actual game.
Just for a bit of trivia, the reason why the GameCube acronym is GCN and not NGC is because NGC was already taken by the NeoGeo Color. :)
Well it looks old. However it was really really good for its time. I remember getting a massive headache when i got my 1st game cube. Graphics looked too good to be true
Some people dont know that the gamecube was the most powerful console of that generation from a tech spec point
Some Peopel also dont know some Multiplattform Games like Batman was the worst Version of all Consoles and had also some Crappy Games like Conan 😂and just 600 Games where not everyThing was Gold like the Windwaker ( And Nintendo Fans really talked BullCrap like the N64 Zelda looked grafikal better then the Windwaker couse Nintendo Dudes are also flip floppin Dudes like X Bots😂Or how you explain the N Cube sold not very well 😂Bro Resident Evil 4 back in the Days was like ( Thats no real Resi no more) same to the Wind Waker and Mario SunShine😂Today those Nintendo Fans akt like they prised it also back in the Days 😂👌I can Rember ive i played Game Cube i feeled like " Im the only One who like that WindWaker Game and Final Fantasy Cristal Chronikles Game 😂
Xbox was
@@bigstv15 X Box was that Crap Konsole with Power like every Season James....
@@bigstv15 X BOX Classic didnt even outsold the Power of SuperNintendo 🤣👌
@KnowToChill that's fine, I never said it did. But it was the most powerful console of that generation when you talk about tech specs. That's all I'm saying.
I’ve built what I call an ultimate GameCube. I’ve got a HDMI mod internally, giving the best digital you can get out of it. Throw in the GC Loader and soon to be a flippy drive, I’ve got no need to emulate anymore. I do need to get a upscaler though.
That sounds really cool
@@austinnafziger4159 Bluetooth controller and ports mods too?
@@danthemanic8479 Nah. I felt like I didn't need to. I have a couple Wavebirds anyway. Though I do have a Hand Held Legend GC Ultimate controller on order.
I learned the hard way many years ago with cheap converters. Got me a retrotink5x and it's great. I would love the retrotink4k
The 4k looks sweet but the difference between 1440p and 4k and some other perks I don't think warrants a 700$ price tag lol
Wish we didn’t skip Phantasy Star Online ep 1 and 2 GameCube..
I think PSO Blue Burst is still a thing. Might take a bit to set up, but the experience remains authentic.
An inexpensive component cable approach is to use a 1st Gen Wii an component cables
Yeah that works pretty well if you have a decent component to hdmi converter or a TV that still has component inputs. Wii hardware items are usually much easier to find than gamecube.
"waves influence your steering" that is the issue with current game development. High res graphics is so hard to pull off that everyone is focused on it and simply don't have time for gameplay. GameCube was the time when graphics was developed well enough so you could actually recognize everything (I think PS2 as well), yet the focus was still on gameplay. Now you need hollywood level fidelity and lootboxes and skins that make money. Fidelity is to get the foot into the door and lootboxes are for the return of investment. Gameplay is last if even a consideration.
I agree with this. Games that focus genuinely on gameplay first and innovation are super rare from large publishers
Softmodded wii for the higher fps (inferior image to gamecube is a meme) component cable to vga transcoder to PC CRT monitor is the best way
If you get into the visual differences with any retro system, especially GC, you really need to show S-Video as well. Everyone focuses on the component cables, but as someone who started using S-Video on my first 32in CRT in 97, for SNES and up, ppl need to realize that while component IS awful, S-Video is in the middle compared to Component, yet the quality difference between these three is not equally separated. If you compare all the signal formats vs Component (100%) I would rate them like this
RF at 10%
Composite 25%
S-Video 95%
RGB/VGA -100%
Component - 100%
While the best separate the colors into individual wires, the biggest difference low to high quality is S-video, where the Chroma and Luma are separated. I say all this because I see SO many ppl just say, I want the best, I need to spend high amounts for RGB/Component, when S-video is so close at a fraction of the price, and most reviewers skip it entirely.
Side note, you can get GC component quality output for really cheap as well, around $20 bucks ... just buy a GC compatible Wii.
Thanks for these great insights, especially about s-video, this is the type of analysis Id like to go deeper into. I've also use a Wii with component cables with the retrotink and I think it looks equally great to this video. Because this video is so GameCube focused I wanted to show some GC specific hardware examples. There are also some cheaper not as horrible options for the Wii, for example I think the portholic HDMI adapter does a surprisingly good job for it's ultra cheap price - better than the converter shown here. It's not as good as component+ retrotink obviously, but it's a decent super cheap option. I only have limited s video experience so I'm curious to try that
I wonder how much of the poor quality is on the converter...
Growing up with a Gamecube, Wii, and a standard definition CRT, I was surprised when I'd go to a friend's house or store demo and saw how bad the games looked
Super Mario Galaxy, which was stunning and beautiful on our CRT, was turned into a blurry mess on the "better" hd tvs
I think your comparisons in the latter half of the video look exactly like what I was seeing
makes me wonder if it was the circuits in the TV converting from composite
(which would line up with what I read- having been curious, I looked it up and found that TV manufacturers purposefully used really bad conversion circuitry, because it drove you to buy native HDMI devices, like blu ray players, sold by the TV manufacturers themselves)
For your next video: S-Video cable. I got one for my GameCube and was pleasantly surprised it was backward compatible with my N64 and SNES. I definitely wished I had the Component cable, but I got one for my Wii and moved all my GameCube gaming to the Wii instead. I capture S-Video using a GV-USB2, but I've only used it for SNES so far.
For missing games: I was sad you showed XGIII and not XGRA. I'm including this link for CryWolf, not trying to bump my own channel: th-cam.com/video/hr1lPNc1Umc/w-d-xo.html
Such a great video highlighting GameCube, I love it! I'm gonna go watch the first one now. :)
Thanks for watching and sharing! I've actually never played xgra because I heard it was worse, but I've been meaning to find a copy to see. Unfortunately part 1 of this video wasn't captured on the retrotink but thanks for watching regardless, I'll check out your video. I've never used s video so curious to see
Graphicly, the gamecube was the graphical powerhouse of that gen.
Very true. They said that at least on paper the original Xbox was more powerful, but that's just it: on paper. Cause in reality the cube blew both the PS2 and yes even even the Xbox in performance. I say this for all multiplatform titles of that era.
That ATI GPU chip, there was just something about its design that produced wonderful colors.
@ yes many say the xbox was more powerfull, well it was in some ways, but defenitely not on the graphical side of things. Most gamecube games are razor sharp, like MGS2 quality on ps2, but then on about any game.
you dont need 200gbs worth of textures, nor path traced lighting to make games look good.
especially since realistic graphics tend to age rather poorly.
artstyle and some basic 3d rendering techniques are enough to make games look decent, such as shade smoothing, beveled edges, normal maps and basic global illumination that unifies texture tint.
compare something old like tales of vesperia 2008 to a more modern tales game like xillia that is 5 generations newer and you will realize that polygons arent everything.
what happened? they nailed vesperias graphics and couldnt replicated it since.
booting up sunshine always feels fresh visually despite its age.
i love gta san andreas, but man, did it age graphically in spite its gorgeous art style.
Most of us are watching this on 5" smartphone screens and can't really see much difference between the capture methods.
I'm watching it on my 120€ phone right now, and I definitely see a difference (check your YT settings)..🫠👍
I'm watching on a phone and the difference is night and day
@OriginalChrizum I agree...120bucks-phone, and you can see it!GREETZ 🤖👍
@@ZachAttackIsBack Change YT settings, bro!!
I bought a cheap converter, that same one you showed and the quality is terrible. I was very disappointed.
That happened to me a long time ago, was very disappointing
It still doesn't good. Was decent looking at it's time. Looks dated in 2024 and beyond
Smash bros 😮??
It's in part 1 :D
I’m only 4 minutes in, but the graphical fidelity seems to equal the Switch and the frame rate is dramatically higher
In a lot of cases you're not wrong lol
Goddamn, gaming has been ruined.. in the same way as music
No mention of Metal Gear Solid Twin Snakes THUMBS DOWN
You mean they look Good. You don't mean they look mentally ill.