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Thread: Ultimate video game setup circa early 90's

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    Cherry (Level 1)
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    Default Ultimate video game setup circa early 90's

    I'm 25 so I wasn't really all that knowledgable about anything in the early 90's. Nintendo was king and as long as I could play it didn't matter how small the tv was. For those of you who are maybe 10 to 15 years older than myself I was wondering what would have been the utlimate video game setup back then. YOu always hear everyone talk about all the new technology these days with plasma, dolby 7.1, etc. What did we have back then? I always heard that the huge projection tv's got burn in really easily back in the day but one of my friends had like a 60 incher and it was great playing kung fu and mario bros. back in '87. So what kind of sound system would have been the best? Something with RSS and Dolby 1.5? Anyways what was all the rage back then?

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    Great Puma (Level 12) Jasoco's Avatar
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    I'm 25 and I was knowledgable about a lot in the early 90's. Where were you? Actually, yeah, I too was a Nintendo freak. So I'm in the same boat. hey, are we twins?

    I guess ultimate would be someone who had both a Nintendo AND a Sega system. Seems back then most people had one or the other and always fought about which was better. If I wanted to be ultimate in the early 90's, I'd want all four main systems. Well, at least 3 of the 4. NES, SNES and Genesis. SMS would complete it but not as important. (Sorry, Sega-philes.) If you wanted to go all the way, add in a TG16 and maybe some other non popular ones. Of course, did they even make system selectors back then?

    60" TV? Must have been projection. I hate projection. What was the biggest Tube TV they made in the early 90's BTW?

    It would have a VCR (Top of the line. Only $400 on sale.) and all the latest popular movies. UHF, Robocop, the Die Hard and Beverly Hills Cop movies...

    I could go for some Nintendo cereal. I'd eat some before going down to my rec room. Mmm..

    If only...

    Who knows what the "Ultimate Game Room" will be in another 10-15 years?

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    Biggest mainstream tube TV I ever heard of was a 42", and that was not a flat CRT, it was old school (don't think it was a Sony).

    Can't build 'em much larger than that, even 36 inchers can suffer some serious convergence problems at times.

    I'd say the ultimate setup back in the day would have been something like the following:

    Runco CRT Projector (the old kind, with the R/G/B lenses, EXPENSIVE)

    Mid-90s still had digital audio, it just cost more. (only people with laserdisc cared, too). I'll say a nice $10,000 old-school THX-certified 5.1 preamp, right when 5.1 was new and shiny.

    Amps are amps, pretty much, some big Krell monoblocks or something.

    Old-skizool B&W Matrix 801s were teh 5hit back in like '95. The octagonal ones, I guess they cost about $16,000 back then.

    System wise? Mid 90s was 95, so you'd have a PSX and Saturn by then, a Super NES, the 733T also would have an AES, Laseractive, 3DO, CD-I, and probably a TG16 as well, likely also older stuff, like an NES, Master System, and Genesis lying around. S-video was a huge deal too, no component or DVI back in the day.

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    Great Puma (Level 12) Jasoco's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by WanganRunner
    the 733T also would have an AES, Laseractive, 3DO, CD-I, and probably a TG16 as well
    733T? The Teet? I think you mean 1337. :P

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    1. 42'' Inch TV
    2. Laseractive with Karaoke, Sega and NEC Modules
    3. NES
    4. SNES
    5. Neo Geo AES
    6. 3DO
    7. CD-i
    8. Powerbase Converter(It CAN work with the LA when removed from casing)
    9. VCR
    10.Dolby Digital

    Last but not least, tons of LD & VHS movies, VCD's, and lots and lots of games!

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jasoco
    Quote Originally Posted by WanganRunner
    the 733T also would have an AES, Laseractive, 3DO, CD-I, and probably a TG16 as well
    733T? The Teet? I think you mean 1337. :P
    Dude sorry to be off-topic, but where did you get that life-like..Homer avatar? That is seriously creepy almost...especially the four fingers and everything...
    These cartridges are dirty as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!

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    I didn't personally know anyone who had a surround sound processor in '91. If you did anything at all, most people split the audio out and then ran it to their normal stereo.

    I'm pretty sure we either had our 35" TV back then or our projection big screen. Neither had any burn in problems. And actually, we had a projection big screen back when we had an Atari -- even had some of those thick ass wireless controllers too. Nothing like kicking back on the couch playing some River Raid from across the room.

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    Someone needs to scan an old EGM. Maybe I'll do it. Don't you remember the "ULTIMATE GAMING RIG" contests they had in the game mags back then? Some kind of word game, and each entry cost a few $$.

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    i have an origonal 27" or 32" (cant rember, dont have a tape measure) Sony Trinitron tv from about 1987. huh my cars the same age now that i think about it, i should put a NES in it to.

    any way its got an awsome picture considering its age and the tube isnt bowed out form all 4 corners like a normal tv, its a wave like uhhh..../\ not that sharply peaked but it peaks in the center top to botom instead of one point

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    Quote Originally Posted by Wavelflack
    Someone needs to scan an old EGM. Maybe I'll do it. Don't you remember the "ULTIMATE GAMING RIG" contests they had in the game mags back then? Some kind of word game, and each entry cost a few $$.
    Ditto that's what comes to mind for, me as a ultimate game setup back then also.

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    Don't you remember the "ULTIMATE GAMING RIG" contests they had in the game mags back then? Some kind of word game, and each entry cost a few $$.
    That's what I assumed this topic was about from the title. Did anyone here ever enter that thing. What was the deal? The ads seemed to indicate that there was no luck involved, it was supposedly all puzzle skill. It always seemed too sketchy for me to feel comfortable about entering.

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    I had a 20" magnavox with my stereo hooked up to it. It had one a/v input which my genny 2 was hooked up to. I had a NES hooked to the coax port for sweet rf action.
    Part of the #Vbender Crew


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    Ok, here's the thing. I'm perfectly suited to answer this question, because I was gaming in the very early 90's, and I also was into the latest "home theater" stuff too. Basically the whole "home theater" thing was just beginning then.


    Now, I can tell you what I had at the time, or I can tell you what the ultimate would have been. I was a broke college student in the very early 90's, so I was quite far from the ultimate.


    The Ultimate would have been as large a Sony PVM as you could get. A Sony PVM is a Triniton based CRT monitor that was meant for production studios and stuff. These were meant for professional use, and they were made in the very late 80's and early 90's. These monitors supported RGB signals, and Sony made some that were quite large. They had a 25 inch model, 27 inch model, 32 inch model and I they even had a super huge 40 incher.


    The ultimate would have been to have the huge 40 inch Sony PVM. Of course that 40 inch PVM would have cost about 8 grand or more brand new, back in the early 90's. I've seen somebody selling one on Ebay recently for 2 grand, so you figure back when they were brand new they probably were close to 10 grand. The regular 25 inch and 27 inch units went for around 3 grand when they were originally brand new.


    Yep, if you had that 40 incher, and you had your systems hooked up to it via custom RGB cables, then you really couldn't do better than that. I could only imagine what it would have been like to have seen Mario World on a 40 inch Sony PVM back in September of 1991. That would have been heaven on earth. Unfortunately for me, I had no idea that there was even a thing known as "RGB" back then.

    State of the art for me was a 20 inch Stereo Color TV. Actually having a TV that had the little yellow plug and the red and white plugs, that was a really big deal for me. I think I bought it in early 1990. It was a RCA. 20 inch stereo RCA TV. I bought it specifically for my brand new TurboGrafx-16.


    I got a TurboBooster, and hooked up the TG-16 to the stereo TV, and the picture quality and the sound was fantastic! At least by 1990 standards. But that wasn't enough for me. So I also bought some Baby Advent speakers and a Kenwood Dolby Surround Sound Receiver. This way I hooked the TG-16 directly to the stereo system. Games like Dungeon Explorer and Bonk's Adventure sounded amazing on those little baby Advent speakers.



    In 1992, I bought a Mitsubishi 31 inch TV that had a S-Video plug. That was pretty revolutionary at the time. To play on a large, clear 31 inch screen was pretty amazing. Especially with the SNES in S-Video. I remember playing Super Star Wars on it, and the game looking so freaking clear on it. I still had the Kenwood Receiver, and I still had the baby Advents. I didn't add any surround speakers until I got Jurassic Park for the SNES. That was one of the first surround sound games. At that point I was just using some cheapo bookshelf speakers as the surrounds.


    I think it was late 92 or early 93 when I got my first RGB monitor. I discovered RGB kinda late in the game. To think I could have been playing my Turbo in RGB, and I never knew about it. I had sold off my turbo stuff when the SNES came out, so I never actually discovered the joy of the Turbo in RGB until just a year or so ago. I did play the Genesis and Super Nes in RGB back in the day. As well as the Sega CD, and all the other systems that followed. (well the ones that outputted a RGB signal).



    Anyways, I would say that the display device of choice would be the 40 inch Sony PVM, circa 1991

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    Quote Originally Posted by Flack
    I didn't personally know anyone who had a surround sound processor in '91. If you did anything at all, most people split the audio out and then ran it to their normal stereo.

    I'm pretty sure we either had our 35" TV back then or our projection big screen. Neither had any burn in problems. And actually, we had a projection big screen back when we had an Atari -- even had some of those thick ass wireless controllers too. Nothing like kicking back on the couch playing some River Raid from across the room.
    My dad had one and we still use it today. It was top of the line and still sounds better than most of the stuff otu their now. I'll post a pic of it. He also had the these nice speakers from back then that we still have now.

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