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ITC Game Gear HD Added to the Collection

Finished this up earlier this evening. This has been a project that has been worked on and off again since PRGE. But first some quick background on this Game Gear... I originally purchased this GG off Ebay where it was clearly stated as Not Working - Parts Only. However, from the pictures shown of it powered out, I had a pretty good feeling that it was something I could fix by simply replacing all of the capacitors as I've gotten a number of GGs working again doing this. The seller had a ma

I'm Building a full size Droid.

Lets do something crazy, like build something I have no room for.   My Landlord own a pool repair company. He is not the pool boy, he takes care of the big jobs. New liners. Digging up and replacing pipes. Repair/replace filter and pump systems. Stuff like that.  Thi This popped up for free on a local FB group so I asked him if he would like it. Sometimes he hangs on to good condition, working equipment so if someone needs one but is a little tight on cash, he can offer it di

Atari Creep

Atari Creep in Projects

Real Life - My mom passed last night

A quick note for my friends here.  My mom passed away last night after a long struggle with dementia.  She had a stroke earlier this week, and I had to make some very difficult choices.  She is at peace now.  Her children and grandchildren were all here to be with her.  We are sad but relieved.  I don't mean to bring anyone down or harm the io fun, but I know a lot of us are getting to the age where these real-life big things happen.  Sad, but the fun and distraction here helps.  My mo

RickR

RickR in Real Life

ITC Adventures:- Portland Retro Gaming Expo 2024

My wife and I were able to attend the Portland Retro Gaming Expo that just took place this past weekend Sep 27 -29, 2024. It was our 4th trip to the event over the years. To say that it was awesome isn't telling the full story. The pictures that follow are only but a small portion of what the event has to offer for those interested in video games.  Atari was present this year with their own fairly large dedicated booth showcasing Atari merchandise, upcoming and current games for modern syst

THE CURIOUS CASE OF ATARI XE RE-RELEASES: DONKEY KONG AND EASTERN FRONT

THE UNAUTHORIZED AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN ATARI DISTRIBUTOR Wednesday, September 25, 2024     Hi and welcome to Lance’s Laboratory! This is the ninth entry of what will be my personal Blog, sharing small slices of life with you from around the Twin Cities and from within my Lab. For those who are new to Atari I/O let me introduce myself: My name is Lance Ringquist, I’m from Minnesota, and I am the world's oldest surviving Atari dealer, and an independent developer of new games for Atari m

ITC Colecovision Upgrades

I've always had a Colecovision as one of the consoles that is pretty much at the ready since first putting all my consoles together in the game room. That said, the CV is one of the consoles that doesn't get much time as compared to most of the others. It should come as no surprise that my CV is also pretty heavily upgraded. It has a dedicated composite video output amp, RGB, the +5v RAM modification, and a short delay BIOS installed into it. But even with all of that, I've never been 100% happy

The ITC5200 got some more TLC for 2024

So around a year ago or so, I did a blog on some updates and cleaning up I did on my personal 5200 here at the ITC. Well yesterday I found myself with some spare time and decided I would revisit my 5200 again. Only this time, I was really going to redo pretty much everything. Originally my 5200 had an older LHE style AV upgrade in place and for the time when I installed it about a decade ago, it was excellent and honestly has provided great results that I never wanted to change it out even

Why planning console upgrades is important

When doing console service work and especially when adding in upgrades like audio video type stuff. It is important to plan how everything is to be done so that you can make sure that things can be undone in a manner that is at least service friendly in the future. As an example of how NOT to do this, I had a pair of 7800s come in last week for services. One of them was to remain in stock condition but get refurbished internally but otherwise working great. The second 7800 on the other hand was

Sega Master System - FM upgrade Region Switch Info

I've installed the FM upgrade board 4 times now into a few different SMS NTSC consoles now and something that I tend to always forget, is that the official instructions for installing the board has a few mistakes in it. One of those mistakes is a pretty big one that I've mentioned to Tim Worthington a few times but it never seems to get fixed in his guide. That step is regarding the process for getting the region switch working on NTSC consoles. Now the steps listed I'm sure are accurate for PAL

Atari 7800 :- Controller remote pause function modification

This is something I've messed with on and off again over the years. After I discovered the controller pause modification you can do on the Sega Master System, it got me to thinking if something similar was possible on the 7800. And yes, it totally is as similar to the SMS, the pause line on the 7800 is always active and only when pulled low to ground does it trigger the pause. So I had played with it a bit using home made perfboard setups etc. But it wasn't really as useful or needed on the 7800

HOW ATARI XE MARIO BROS. GOT THROWN IN THE DUMP

THE UNAUTHORIZED AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN ATARI DISTRIBUTOR Tuesday, March 26, 2024     Hi and welcome to Lance’s Laboratory! This is the eighth entry of what will be my personal Blog, sharing small slices of life with you from around the Twin Cities and from within my Lab. For those who are new to Atari I/O let me introduce myself: My name is Lance Ringquist, I’m from Minnesota, and I am the world's oldest surviving Atari dealer. You may have heard of me before as Video 61 Atari Sales wh

7800 oddity - a Maria that kinda? Works?

Had a 7800 come into the ITC lab to get refurbished, and upgraded with a few things. Among the updates was to get a UAV plus mount board setup as I've been doing for over a year now. This is where it is important that you always...ALWAYS test the current status of electronics before you dive in and start doing stuff. A rule I didn't follow so what I discovered after putting all this work in, isn't something I could verify was an issue before the work started. I had been told that it was wor

My work

I redesigned all the levels in the Hamburgers game for the Game Gear. I think I'm done with that game. I went back to work to see if I could get rid of the scanline issue I had with Fruit Fly Fun for the Atari 2600. I think I did. I played it on an Atari 7800 and I was surprised that a 6 button Genesis controller works, only fire is B. So now I'll continue work on some of my other projects. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Pokémon Yellow

Infinite HP (In Battle) 01FF15DO Infinite PP (1st Position) 01282CD0 Infinite PP (2nd Position) 01282DD0 Infinite PP (3rd Position) 01282ED0 Infinite PP (4th Position) 01282FD0 Enemy Can't Attack and Burned at Beginning of Match 0170E8CF Infinite Money 019946D3 Infinite Money 019947D3 Infinite Money 019948D3 Have All Badges 01FF55D3 Protect Status 010017D0 Never Miss and Have More Critic

RAIDERS OF THE LOST EPROMS - UPDATE!

DISPATCHES FROM THE LAB - RAIDERS OF THE LOST EPROMS Monday, March 11, 2024     Hi and welcome to Lance’s Laboratory! This is the seventh entry of what will be my personal Blog, sharing small slices of life with you from around the Twin Cities and from within my Lab. For those who are new to Atari I/O let me introduce myself: My name is Lance Ringquist, I’m from Minnesota, and I am the world's oldest surviving Atari dealer. You may have heard of me before as Video 61 Atari Sales whic
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