[FEBRUARY POLL] What's your preferred way to play old MH?

[monmonboy]

Original hardware if possible, is fantastic. This really hit me when playing Tri (though "emulated" on the WiiU) and the controller was so much better than playing emulated on the Steamdeck. Controllers is something I don't see too much focus on but old Sony/Nintendo controllers can be of incredible quality and the experience of playing with these beauties is worth the effort of an original hardware setup.

I'm trying to get a CRT to play Dos on that, which I know will look great. Has anybody played Tri on a CRT and does it look better than on flatscreen TV? I spent an hour trying to make my flatscreen TV picture quality less digital to make Tri look more original, but was not happy with the results.

edit - I got a SFC to play old Fire Emblem and a PS2 to play Dos, and there is no comparison the original hardware is so much better. I’ve been using emulators for many years but until now I didn’t realise how much has been lost in the emulation. The big points for me are: 1) old games were not designed for pixel perfect rendering/displays, or upscaling, and they look so so bad on emulators and modern screens. I thought Dos looked good at 2x resolution emulated, but original resolution going through PS2 output/tv jank, it looks incredible I don’t know why by the contrast is better the colours too and I don’t think emulators do 3D shading the same as the PS2. Original hardware the graphics look solid, the realism is brilliant.

2) Comfort. Controllers are better on original hardware. The console starts in 1 second and there is no menu. You got the game That’s It. No dicking around with emulation options or downloading crap on Steam or wherever.

3) Experience. Emulation = convenience so you play anywhere anytime. Hardware setup means it’s fixed, you have to wait until you have time at home, you can think about playing more and anticipate each session, plan ahead. I lost this with emulation.

I recommend everyone try going back to original hardware. I don’t know how I’ll feel about this in a year or so but now I can’t see a reason to play a modern game again.

[Draculestia]

I don't agree with this at all I think the PSP games loose way more of their charm and importance in their design decisions if you play them on emulator, although I am thinking of emulator as in on your PC because I'd imagine it's not that bad to emulate the PSP games on your phone. With the Console games you'd sit down and play a session regardless if you're on PC or PS2 (or Wii)

Thinking back, the sound of the UMD on loading screens felt like part of the game for me, and it was strange not to have that when switching over to emulation, but I do not get nostalgic for things like the claw, or for the grainy look of the game on the PSP screen. It sounds like you're mostly attached to the portability of the system (which I don't particularly value) but if that were important to me, I would just find portable ways to emulate rather than play in discomfort on a PSP.

What kind of design aspects of PSP MH are lost if one plays on an emulator?

[Hellbender]

I play on a PS2 using ISO files from original discs. I think it plays great looks fine to me on my flat screen Roku TV. (i do have a crt to hook up but haven't tried it yet)
The important thing for me was when MH Now came out I got super nostalgic about a game I played 18-20 years ago! Found my old PS2 bought the game and started playing with my 18 year old saves. Then I missed all the online stuff and found this place!!
Now I bought MH1 MHg and MH Dos in Japanese, modded my Ps2 to play ISO files, modded the files with English patches, got online and am having a FREAKIN BLAST!!!

One note about hardware vs emu. I haven't seen anyone online get kicked off cause they=re PS2 crashed. Seen a few where the emu crashed.

[Eremital]

I really like hardware when I can get my hands on it, but it's expensive where I live. Although, emulation is great, especially on the steam deck, because now I just have my entire collection on my hand-held, up to World able to play comfortably. I've been playing through 3u on my deck and it's been a blast