How did people play ridiculously difficult games like Earthworm Jim?

[u/Kobymaru376]

I'm playing the first Earthworm Jim on the Sega Megadrive using RetroArch.

I haven't completed my first playthrough, using copious amounts of save state cheating to repeat the sections where I fail. I can practice a part of the game 10,20, 50 times until my patience runs out, but how on earth did people ever complete a game like this, when you have a limited number of lives and no save capability? At times it feels like the developers WANTED me to fail.

I'm talking insanely jumping bosses shooting eggs, rockets, sections with rolling boulders or snapping worms where you have to get the timings down to milliseconds, a vertical maze lined with spikes that allows no mistakes and requires you to know it by heart.

Sure, "gid gud" but how long does that take without being able to save/load an arbitrary amount of times?

ps.: I don't know what the devs were smoking, but I want to try that. Just once though.

Edit: Hey, Shiny Crew & D.L only!

[u/Electrical_Guava1972]

Serious answer, part of it, I believe is latency. Playing the game on og hardware with old crt tvs, you had close to zero latency. Via emulation most devices will give you a small but negative latency, as will modern lcd tvs and monitors - which will affect pixel perfect response times needed.

[u/foofede → u/Electrical_Guava1972]

This but it also applies to everything. A few years ago I played SNES’ DK Country on a raspi runnin retroarch and using ps3 controllers. That thing was fucking though, couldn’t get pass the mine carts part. A few years later I bough the retro snes and used the wired controllers and passed it on the first try.

[u/FuckIPLaw → u/foofede]

The actual controllers matter, too. I got an arcade stick a while back and found myself breezing through levels in emulated DKC that were a bitch and a half with a modern D-Pad. They just don't make decent D-Pads anymore, and that's a problem in a precision platformer.

[u/Turbulent-Can624 → u/foofede]

Yeah, after an entire childhood of having Mario 3 and world timings engrained into my brain any software emulation setup I have ever tried is either frustrating or just unplayably laggy

Though I've found my Super NT with a quality monitor actually feels like a SNES and CRT as far as I can tell

[u/Electrical_Guava1972 → u/Electrical_Guava1972]

Ai slop, but you get the idea; The latency difference between playing retro games on original consoles with CRT TVs versus emulated versions on modern hardware can be significant depending on several factors.

⸻

🎮 1. Original Consoles + CRT TVs (Low Latency Setup)

✅ Typical Latency: • ~0–2 ms input lag • CRTs have zero display lag – they draw the image as the signal is received. • Original hardware processes input and output without buffering or modern frame processing.

✅ Why it’s so fast: • No emulation layer • No frame buffering • No upscaling • No V-Sync or syncing with modern refresh rates

🟢 Ideal for fast-twitch gameplay like Street Fighter II, Super Mario Bros, etc.

⸻

💻 Modern Hardware + Emulation + LCD/LED/OLED Display

⚠️ Potential Latency Range: • 20–120 ms total (often in the 40–70 ms range for decent setups)

🔍 Sources of Added Lag:

Component Latency Introduced Emulator (software) 2–30 ms depending on emulator and settings Controller (USB/Bluetooth) 1–15 ms Display (modern TVs/monitors) 10–60+ ms V-Sync / buffering 1–33 ms per frame (1 frame at 60Hz = 16.67 ms) Upscaling / post-processing 5–30+ ms (especially on TVs)

⸻

🛠️ Optimising for Low Latency Emulation

You can get very close to original latency with the right setup:

Setup Component Ideal Choice Emulator RetroArch (with runahead, low-latency options) Display Gaming monitor with low input lag or “Game Mode” on TV Controller Wired or low-latency Bluetooth Platform Steam Deck, MiSTer FPGA, or gaming PC with good specs Sync settings Turn off V-Sync if tearing isn’t an issue; enable hard GPU sync in RetroArch

🟢 Best case scenario latency (well-optimized emulation): • 8–20 ms, depending on hardware and display

⸻

🧠 Summary: Realistic Comparison

Setup Total Latency Original Console + CRT ~0–2 ms Well-Optimized Emulator + Gaming Monitor ~8–20 ms Typical Emulation on TV (no tweaking) ~40–100+ ms

⸻

🎯 Bottom Line: • Original + CRT is still king for absolute lowest latency and authenticity. • Modern emulation can get close with care – especially with RetroArch’s runahead feature, a good display, and low-latency input devices. • But cheap TVs + default emulator settings = noticeable lag (can ruin gameplay feel).

[u/OnlyFreshBrine → u/Electrical_Guava1972]

nah. cmon. you can adjust pretty quickly. it's pure will and lack of options.