CrossBow

The ONLY Razor keyboard I've owned was my Tron keyboard. And it worked okay but the oversized keys on it made it a pain to type on and the sound effects it was supposed to make never did work quite right on it. I'm currently using a SteelSeries Apex Pro on my main gaming PC. It is much better but the added Oled screen hasn't really been as useful as I had hoped it would be. I had a Logitech mechanical prior to this that was one of their top rated keyboards. But... after having 3 key tops literally snap off the posts and them wanting $100 to send me replacement keys I said screw it. https://steelseries.com/gaming-keyboards/apex-pro My absolute favorite keyboard though is the one I can never use because my Wife cannot handle the noise. I have an actual 1987 made IBM Model M mechanical with a PS2 interface on it and yes even my current PC still came with one PS2 port on it. But yeah...she can't handle the noise from it at all. Too bad because I love typing on that keyboard.

The HOKEY in my concerto was sounding pretty bad in most stuff as well. Until his new .96 update. Once I updated to that, then Bently's Quest now sounds much closer to what it should. Although final roms of many of the recent homebrews still produce the wrong audio or no audio at all on my concerto setup. I'm not even using my concerto as I've been using the Backbit adapter in the lab and stick with my DragonFly for everything else for the time being.

It is just a flash cartridge similar to the Concerto or upcoming 7800GD. The main cartridge doesn't really do anything on its own without an adapter to interface it to the computer or console you want to use it with. From there it just provides an easy to use menu of your games. Select the game you want to play and it resets the system and starts up under the game you chose. So it doesn't add anything to the console feature wise. Just a flash cartridge with built in pokey emulation.

I totally forgot to mention that I got my sidecar with my 7800 adapter for the BBpro just over a week ago now I think? I've done anything with the Ti since I'm knee deep with service work/commissions currently but it will be nice to finally check out my final grom and get this going to check it out in the future!

NP and I'm glad I'm in a position to do so. I own more flash carts for the 7800 now than any other system I own in the collection as most of then only need one or two to do what I want. But as I service and work on so many 7800s (More than any other console by far), I feel I kinda need to have everything on hand so I can test as many configurations and options as I can for myself and my clients who might have the same hardware. What I might have to do, is remove the Kiloparsec BIOS from my test 7800 and revert it back to stock BIOS. And then with Bob's permission, send Evie the Kiloparsec BIOS I've been using for her to install and test further. Because I see the same behavior in both the Kiloparsec BIOS and the NTSC modified ones that have built in Asteroids... I will guess they both are similar designed and the reasons for the BBpro 7800 adapter not working as expected is for the same reasons in each BIOS type.

Evie released v1.91 yesterday for the BBPro and it has fixed a ton of stuff in the process and continues to impress me with her quick and continued support of her products. As of version 1.91 all original released games are now confirmed working with my setup with a few small exceptions that I will mention below: - Fatal Run still seems to auto start within a sec or two of the title screen coming up. Difference now is that it doesn't lock up the console and you can at least play the game. It also seems to auto skip the cutscene between levels that shows folks living and enjoying life, or turning into gravestones. But the shop works properly and it doesn't have any graphical glitches and is playable now. - Summer Games is playable but has flickery white lines on the screen only during the opening ceremonies still but actual game events look correct and the game is completely playable. - Tower Toppler now loads up and works! But similar to many homebrews and both Summer/Winter Games, it has little flickery white horizontal thin lines scattered about the screen throughout the game. - Winter Games like Summer Games has the same white flickery lines that appear during the opening ceremony. But again, actual game events look correct and the game is fully playable. And that is really it! If you don't see a game listed, then assume that game is now playing and working as it should. So again all of the original released games are now fully playable with just a few showing some odd graphical anomalies during their game play as noted above. Some other issues that appear to possible be unique to my test 7800s here, is that the Reset wire I mentioned is supposed to NO LONGER be needed. This is awesome news for everyone, but it seems that 7800s with custom BIOS in them like mine will still require this added reset wire for the time being. Not sure what the differences are but both the Kiloparsec BIOS that still isn't available publicly and the much more common Asteroids built in BIOS sold by Best and The Brewing Academy are the same and require the reset wire. Atari 2600 games are also working again but similar to above, the custom BIOS seems to interfere with how this is supposed to work and so I have to work around the issue in my case on these test 7800s. In a nutshell the reset wire in my 7800s here is required, but also causes the 7800 to only reset into 7800 mode. As a result the 2600 game roms won't load up normally. However, if I disconnect the reset wire from the cartridge just before selecting a 2600 game, then the 2600 game will load up immediately and play without issue. So there is a way I can at least get them to load up, but it is a PITA as it currently is for me and my 7800s here. In addition, after I've played said 2600 game and want to switch to something else, I have to reconnect the reset wire again in order to start up the BBpro adapter. I've made Evie aware of these issues but as she doesn't seem to have access to any 7800s with custom BIOS installed, it makes it difficult to figure out the problems. This weekend, if I have time, I do plan to try and revert the Kiloparsec BIOS in my lab 7800 back to the stock BIOS setup and see if it behaves in the proper manner. My guess is that it will and would mean that for any with modified BIOS in their 7800, they might be better off to steer clear of the BBpro 7800 adapter until those issues are figured out and corrected. Which is sad because aside from this, the BBpro 7800 adapter is shaping up to be an excellent option for those looking for an easy to use flash cart for their 7800 and possibly other systems that the BBpro can support.

I have the first Torchlight on my Steam account and played quite a bit of it on my PC years ago. But then I got to a point where I either didn't know how to progress or couldn't get past a certain spot and my frustration had me put it down and I've never really gotten back to it again. Odd too considering I played through Diablo 3 all the way through on at least the first two difficulties. I can remember thinking about getting the sequel but never did pull the trigger since I never finished the first game.

If there are some in there, they still won't work as time itself is enough to cause oxidation on the contacts of the mylar and breakdown the graphite of the carbon pads. In fact I'd argue that NOT using the controllers on a routine basis might be worse than using them all the time because of that.

There has been several updates to the BBPro adapter since that post and quite a bit has been fixed in places. Here is the current summary of how things are. Some of this I'm unable to confirm as it appears the BBPro doesn't like consoles with modified BIOS in them like all three of mine do and the other two I'm currently servicing here now... sign. As of update 1.9.0 the following is supposed to be fixed that are major: - Reset wire isn't supposed to be needed anymore (However, I still can't get this working on any of the ones I have here as they all have modified BIOS in them) - Pokey Support for games has been improved - 2600 games are now working again (Again, I can't verify as the modified BIOS detection routines appear incompatible with BBpro thus 2600 games not working still for me) Here is the list of original released titles I've had trouble getting to load up. These were all taken using Trebor's v3 ROM pack: - Ace of Aces will loads up with audio but has corrupted text in the menus and will lock to a black screen when trying to start a mission - Basketbrawl goes to a black screen after the 7800 logo loader - Fatal Run starts but then within seconds will try to load the demo mode and locks. Trying to quickly start a game will also black screen lock - Fight Night menus have corrupted text and player graphics are corrupted along with all score info on the top of the screen - Ikari Warriors title screen looks correct but game play sprites are corrupted including all enemy bullets, grenades, and power up items. - Mat Mania Challenge has all player sprites corrupted - Mean 18 has corrupted game graphics throughout but does try and play - Meltdown fails to load with black screen after 7800 logo loader - Midnight Mutants fails to load with black screen after 7800 logo loader - Moto Psycho starts but lower half of game play graphics are corrupted - Ninja Golf loads up but center portion has missing/corrupted player graphics along with corrupted graphics in map in the lower left. On the green with the dragon fights the lower half of the screen is full of corrupted graphics - Planet Smashers loads but entire game play screen is full of corrupted graphics - Scrapyard Dog fails to load with black screen after 7800 logo loader - Summer Games is playable but has flickery white lines on the screen only during the opening ceremonies - Touchdown Football will start up but then black screen when pressing reset to start the game - Tower Toppler fails to load with black screen after 7800 logo loader - Winter Games works but has the same glitching horizontal flickering lines during the opening ceremony - Xenophobe, doesn't start, black screen So there are still issues with many of the official games however, you may have noticed that the Activision titles are not listed anymore? That is because the versions of those games with the AB bank method in them do work and play normally. So it is only the original dumps using the original bank switching method that don't. Also the Pokey audio has been corrected for Popeye and Keystone Koppers, but Keystone Koppers like quite a few other home brew games, will have thin flickering white horizontal lines across the screen while the game is running. As many home brews share this and it is the same effect seen in both Winter and Summer games, I suspect it has something to do with whatever graphical mode is being used and can likely be corrected in time. I will update this blog as Evie releases major change updates.

Received my BBPro 7800 adapter today and we have some really good things and some not so good that I'm hoping can be worked out in time. - First the good, is that the menu of course is easy to navigate working in the same manner - This might be the fastest loading flash cart for the 7800 with the exception of the older Mateos cart - Plays the many of the original released games without issues including both Commando and BallBlazer with properly balanced and proper sounding Pokey audio! Nice! Now for the issues I've encountered... - None of the 2600 roms I've tied to load up will work. What happens is that the 7800 resets after selecting the game and then essentially crashes. Now, I actually have a modified BIOS installed into my 7800 that was developed by Pac-Man Plus (Bob D.) and RevEng that plays the Kiloparsec build in 7800 game when it doesn't detect a cartridge installed. However, in the case of the BBPro, whenever I try to load up any 2600 game or some of the more recent 7800 home brew releases, it will default to the Kiloparsec built in game. - Some of the more recent 7800 home brews that I've been testing, will load up, but the audio isn't quite right on their POKEY sounds and the graphics glitch quite a bit with horizontal flickery lines. - One of the home brew games I have is E.X.O. in its full ready to be released form. It is a 512kb game but it doesn't load and causes the 7800 to load up the Kiloparsec built in game in my console again. - Doesn't seem to support Pokey at $450 or $800 which are somewhat newer implementations of Pokey addressing. So it seems it only supports Pokey at $4000and $8000 is my guess? Here is the list of original released titles I've had trouble getting to load up. These were all taken using Trebor's rom pack" - Ace of Aces will load up but no audio and corrupted graphics - Basketbrawl just gives a black screen and seems to lock up the BBPro since the button won't respond and requires a power cycle of the console - Choplifter works but has minor graphic glitching with horizonal lines across the top of the image. Seems to play normal otherwise - Double Dragon doesn't load up - F-18 Loads up but with corrupted graphics on title screen and then locks up after selecting a mission - Fatal Run starts up but then locks up to black screen when the demo starts or when trying to start a game - Fight Night stars up but the menus have corrupted text and game play graphics - Ikari Warriors starts up but with game play graphics corruption - Mat Mania Challenge will start but player sprites are corrupted - Mean 18 has corrupted game graphics and not really playable - Meltdown will give a black screen when trying to load - Midnight Mutants gives a black screen when trying to load just like Meltdown - Moto Psycho starts but player graphics are corrupted - Ninja Golf starts up but main player graphics are missing in the middle of the game play field and graphics corruptions in the map in the lower left - Planet Smashers - starts up but sprite graphics are corrupted - Rampage won't start, black screen - Scrapyard Dog doesn't start, black screen - Summer Games is playable but has flickery white lines on the screen only during the opening ceremonies - Touchdown Football will start up but then black screen when pressing reset to start the game - Winter Games works but has the same glitching horizontal flickering lines during the opening ceremony - Xenophobe, doesn't start, black screen So that is currently how my testing went last night with the new adapter. One of the main issues I see mainstream with the adapter, is the requirement of an additional reset wire that has to be installed using a clip off pin 13 of the 4013 IC inside the console, and then routed back out so you can plug it into the cartridge adapter. Many of Evie's adapters use and require this so it isn't new or unique to the 7800 adapter. But, I also don't see many folks willing to open up their consoles and remove the RF shielding to attach the wire and then figure out how to route it externally. Nor would they be okay with a wire dangling from their console in order to the use the BBPro. If you never planned to remove it it wouldn't be that big a deal, but then that kills the multi system aspect of having it in the first place. Evie is going to look more into trying to find ways to not require this wire, but in its current state, the adapter and the BBPro won't even load up without it attached. So, work to be done with it still for sure and this adapter appears to be a bit more wip still compared to the others I've gotten. But, Evie has always shown strong commitment to supporting her products and in likely short time, she will have quite a few of these issues resolved. I'll be sure to update as she updates the adapter.

Well I'm not as cool as you as I only have just the one that Machine made and sold a few years back. But after a shipping mistake on my part, I got the 'official' box for mine yesterday. Nice to see it all come together. Wonder if he will make a manual for them in the future? Hmm...

That 7800 BB cart is worth 1/3 of the asking price for the Pokey inside it alone!

Well, thank you again! I actually just placed my order for the 32k Sidecar from Evie's side a bit ago. It is on backorder as you said, but then I'm still waiting on my 7800 adapter for the BackBit Pro cartridge too so maybe she will see it is me ordering something again, and be able to have them both ready. I will let you know when I've got it. I will also be sure to run that jumper wire on my speech module so get the voltage passthrough going.

🤯 Are you kidding me?! That is very awesome of you and I appreciate that! I haven't order it as yet as I've been really busy with service requests and haven't had much time for myself LOL! but thank you again!

I'm guessing you are younger than me then it would seem given the time line you stated. By 90 I wasn't even gaming on consoles anymore because we then got our first computer. A very beefy for the time 286. Once I had those Sierra Adventure games and Wing Commander with my Adlib card...consoles just couldn't compare in my eyes. It wasn't until the dreamcast that I got more seriously interested in consoles again and even then it was just after the DCs demise around 2003. Now I tend to game equally between my PC and consoles but the newest console I own is a PS4 Pro. Just never seen a need to go with the current gen as yet with my gaming PC still able to play he newer games I'm mostly interested in. I also forgot that owned Rampage for the 7800 back then as well. I know because... I...might have opened that present a bit earlier and played it very late at night when everyone was asleep and then taped it back up in its wrapping paper the next day... yeah... that 'might' have happened.

@TrekMD you actually own 3 of Tom's jag rotary controllers? I only own one and did order a box, but mine isn't arriving until tomorrow I think.

Well, I got my first 2600 back in Christmas '82 and it came with Space Invaders, and Defender along with the included combat of course. Over the course of a few years I added to it a little here and there but it required me to use my allowance money. I know that I bought Kangaroo, Ms. Pac-Man, and quite a few others. By about '86 I had about 20 or so 2600 games for it. Then sometime around '88 I found a pawn shop about a mile from my home at the time that had about 100 Atari games. Many of them were games I already had, but most of them were games I didn't have or had never heard about. And all of those games were only like $1 or $2. So I mush have bought about 20 or so more games during that time. It was also around this time that I did get a few 'new' games during the 2600 revival 'The Fun is Back' and also got my 7800. Initially I only had the Pole Position 2 it came with. But it wasn't long before I built up a small collection of 7800 games as I was now mowing lawns and able to do other things around the neighborhood for money here and there. So I know that I had the following 7800 games during the 7800s time frame: Joust, Food Fight, Xevious, Galaga, Super Skateboardin', F-18: Hornet, Double Dragon, Dig-Dug, Ms. Pac-Man, Choplifter, Donkey Kong, and... Crossbow. I didn't have anything for the 7800 beyond that until the early 2000s when I got back into retro gaming and consoles again. BTW most of my 2600 games in the early 80s came from stores like TG&Y and ToysRUs. When the 7800 came out, there were only 2 stores near me that sold them. ToyRUs again, which is where I got a few of them, but also Service Merchandise became the main location where I picked up the newer released 2600 games like Midnight Magic and Solaris along with a good chunk of the 7800 games. Later on, it was through local retro game stores where I picked up the rest of my 7800 and 2600 games. Other than maybe about 3 or 4 times, have I ever found Atari related stuff at Garage sales. Mostly Sega and Nintendo at garage sales.

I believe is only works correctly in the A7800 emulator and requires you to select the 7800 type with XM module present. That will also allow the FM audio to be heard over the TIA. It has been a while since I fired it up in emulation but I do recall that only the A7800 emu was able to play it correctly.

I never knew that Evie had a sidecar 32k expansion available? Would it still require the internal modification to use it with a speech module between it and the Ti? I really like Evie's stuff so I'm quite likely to go this route although I would really need a case for it.

When it comes to the Colecovision console, there really hasn't been that many different controller options that were available and some of the more recent ones that do exist are either quite expensive or only a couple buttons which limits the controllers ability and would require having to use a standard controller to start you game and then swap out back to a new one to play. This is actually quite bad for the controller logic IC chips as they are susceptible to ESD damage that can be caused by plugging controllers in the console while powered on. ITC#86 will show you a new controller option from Jimmy over at Ruggers Customs that uses the Sega 6 button controller common to the Genesis/Megadrive model 2 that has quite a few of the most needed keypad buttons mapped to the controller. As it uses an already great controller design and mixes it with a new PCB designed to work with the Colecovision, the Rugger Pad might just be the affordable controller you have been looking for when playing Colecovision games.

@RickR I just mean it is great when you can get actual snow, but it isn't something we get that much of where I live and instead we get more ice storms than anything. As a result I'm NOT a fan of this time of the year and never have been. Now several years back I spent about 3 months in the Denver area in the winter and was surprised because while it did snow quite a bit and it did get cold, it didn't feel nearly as cold as it does where I live. Additionally, cities and other locations that get a bunch of this weather throughout the year more are also much better prepared for it. The roads and parking lots were totally clear the whole time in the winter when I was there.

We ended up getting about 3 inches of sleet all over and around the Ivory Tower. As such my driveway is now a death trap and while we closed the offices at my work Monday, the rest of the week has been worse since it melts a little during the day and then refreezes at night into something more solid and smooth. Ugh... Snow is fine, but we tend to get more sleet and ice in these parts.

Oh I was advised by a few others in the modding scene to just replace it and keep it to myself. But I don't see any value in hiding such a mistake. And in this case, it was easily avoided but also something very easy for anyone to do. But sure, I could have just replaced out the board and let it go and none including the client would have been any wiser. But that isn't how I do things. I take it for what it was, a mistake and valuable lesson to be learned from the mistake I made in this case. And yes I let the owner of this console know what happened.

Won't got into too many details on this other than to state up front, that I try to be as transparent as possible with the work and services I provide. As a consequence of this, mistakes can and will happen. It is just a matter of when. One such big mistake happen to me this week while installing a very expensive DCDigital setup into a clients Dreamcast. I actually had the main installation done and was ready to test. However, in order for a DC to boot up, it requires that the cooling fan and GDRom drive be installed etc. So you kinda have to put it all back together in order to test an install like this. Well I put in a few of the screws in various places to hold things down into place and then proceeded to fire up and test the DC. I got a power light and the controller and VMU beeped. But...nothing else. No drive spin up and nothing on the screen. No signal even being detected. And not just from the new HDMI output but nothing from the analog video side either! I quickly turned it off and tore the console back apart to see what was going on. I removed the DCDigtal setup and tested again. Same thing...nothing. It was when I started to do the sniff test to see if anything had burned out that I found it... and what I found horrified me! What did I find? Well...this... The picture above shows at least 5 and likely 6 traces between the SH4 CPU and the GPU that were now torn and broken. How? Well notice the pattern of the tears in the traces and how it cuts into the PCB a little? Yeap... that was done by a screw. It seems that even though I had carefully laid out the screws so that I knew what went to where, I mixed up the three longer screws used to hold the main board and shielding together along the back of the system, with the three shorter screws used to secure the GDRom in place. And because of that, the screw twisted down into the main board causing the damage you see above. The other spot to the left where you see exposed copper is where I was trying to solder small kynar wire to repair these broken traces. But... no luck as the traces are just too small for the wiring I have on hand. And the large ICs on the DC are BGA type meaning Ball Grid Array. They are essentially surface mounted ICs with all of the contact points existing under the chip package so you can't just solder to pins or something on the bottom. This required replacing out the main board in this particular case and provided a lesson I'm not likely to forget going forward to always be mindful and double or triple check your work and assembly process. And with that, the owner of this DC will soon be able to play their games again in wonderful HDMI output directly from the dreamcast in the very near future. According to the picture below, the self test fully passed on the replacement main board. The red spots are in fact little hearts that appear when everything is good. You get an X when things fail in the self test.

Not that they looked awesome or anything, but they held up for as long as I needed and used them. I made my own 5200 overlays about 20 years ago by reverse printing onto transparency film. I then used a hobby knife to cut out the overlay. From there I used a coat maybe 2 of white spraypaint on the printed back side of the overlay. I followed it up some clear coat to lock it in better. The end product was pretty durable as I recall if maybe a bit stiffer than the originals but did the job well. Ahd it was cheap to do at that time. i would think something similar could still be done today. And, there is a guy over at AtariAge that creates custom overlays for the 5200 and Jaguar I believe on request. I've got a pack of his 5200 overlays he was selling a few years back and they look great!