CrossBow
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Posts posted by CrossBow
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In regards to the AA sale... I only know that from talking with a few Devs that knew about this slightly ahead of the rest of us, that Albert has been looking to possibly take AtariAge more mainstream. And it is quite likely he needs the help and support of the current Atari do make that happen. But that also means that the questionable ports of games had to go.
That said, there are some others that have been left out of the sale that I've questioned Albert about but he hasn't quite replied back. Namely I noticed that both Intellidiscs and Rob n Banks are still safe for now.
Intellidiscs is clearly a remake/port of Deadly discs that existed back in the day for both the Intellivision and the 2600 from Mattel and Rob n Banks is clearly a port of the arcade game Lock n Chase. I found that interesting and odd.
Also, it can't be coincidence that some of the home brew authors now have their games being offered digitally on the new VCS. I have to assume that a possible agreement between Al and those home brew devs has taken place. Because while the Devs can work with Atari directly on their games to get digital distribution, it could possible cut into Al's sales of physical carts as a consequence. Albert has been wanting to offer digital roms for awhile and just waiting on the best way to go about it with the forums and website integration. But... Atari has such a distribution in place or at least, the resources to make that more easily done... That was a thought a friend of mine brought up with me this weekend.
- socrates63 and Smell Dawg
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1 hour ago, socrates63 said:
Regarding Rikki and Vikki, I managed to buy the 7800 physical when it was released. It sits unopened still. Seeing the price it is fetching, maybe I'll never open it and it will become a part of my retirement fund 😂 In the AA thread announcing the game, it says that the a78 rom file is available for free if you buy the Windows game on Steam. I am going to look into that if it can be played with the 7800GD or Dragonfly.
It was just announced that Rikki & Vikki comes with each 7800GD you buy from Stone Age Gamer. Apparently that was the reason for their increased base pricing over what it should have been is that they are including the ROM for R&V with the cart.
- TrekMD, socrates63 and Sabertooth
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@Funkmaster V I kinda took it personal when you made the comment about having a techie guy on with you 😞, hopefully I'm not that annoying to folks and would hope they would let me know if I were...
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On 7/14/2023 at 9:59 AM, socrates63 said:
That is cool. I didn't know that there were variations.
I've been looking for a Jr for the purpose of getting it RGB modded, but I've also heard the RGB mod kit is unavailable right now.
This is correct and I was told by another who spoke with Tim Worthington on this, that he isn't planning to bring it back without a redesign due to parts he used no longer being cost feasible. So... to me, that essentially means the end of his kits for the 2600 until someone else comes along...
- MaximumRD and socrates63
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UPS dropped this off yesterday afternoon while I was cleaning a 7800 case shell...
Inside, it contained a treasure trove of wonderous items to behold! And has created a huge challenge for me to find places where all of it will go!!!
Better pics of what arrived...
The cart only stuff below is the 32k enhanced version of Zaxxon (Part of the store sale that will be going away soon), and then I got dedicated test cartridges for use in console services. I've been using flash carts to do this for the past 5+ years and finally decided I needed Al to make me carts for the 5200. He hasn't offered the 5200 PAM diagnostics before but I believe he will be adding them to the store soon. I designed the labels on them but not sure he will continue to use those going forward or not. I also had him assemble those 5200 carts withOUT spring loaded dust doors on them. Reason is because most of the time when using them, you are likely to have the top cover removed on the 5200 while servicing it. Well, the pegs for the dust doors are actually part of the top shell molding so without that top cover, the carts can't be inserted easily. Without those dust covers, I can pop these carts into place without issue.
- socrates63, Smell Dawg, Sabertooth and 2 others
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On 7/4/2023 at 6:13 PM, socrates63 said:
Thanks for confirming that I did buy the right stuff, Jesse. The tech I got the TV from recommended retrogamingcables and insurrectionindustries.com (source of my console scart cables).
Maybe I'll reach out to retrogamingcables and see if I can get store credit for the cable.
Edit: @CrossBow here's another thing... I ordered on ebay this scart cable with audio breakout from Germany. It arrived a few days ago. This cable also produced no video like the one I got from retrogamingcables. Is that just extreme bad luck?? That would explain my success rate buying lotto tickets.
The cable from ebay only offers composite and audio near as I can tell and most RGB setups from a console are NOT going to provide a composite signal, only the Red, Green, Blue, and Sync in most cases. Although it is advised that at least +5 be present on the cable since a lot of switchers require that +5 power to know when the signal is active on the cable and switch to it. I know that I always wire up +5 on the RGB ports I've installed. That said, ONLY my more recent installs using 9-pin cables will provide a composite video signal along with the RGB. In the case of your Intellivision, I believe it is an 8-pin din and only has the RGB, S, L/R audio, Gnd, and +5 on it. So it is possible that without the full composite signal on the RGB, that the switchers you were getting weren't working right or something.
All of my current RGB installs as I said will include the +5v (Yours should have that as well on your Intelly), along with a full composite signal when possible depending on the console. HDRetrovision cables, and the Rad2x cables require the +5 and composite on the RGB to work for instance. But I'm getting off track now...
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I'm confused...which cable did get exactly from Retro Gaming Cables? Because I've ordered a bunch of their stuff and never had an issue? Also I would have reached out to them as they are very standup types and would likely fix you up on that cable.
NM I clicked on the links to see. No idea why that combo wouldn't have worked for you? I do know that SCART setups in JPN were different from the EU, but everything from Retrogaming cables would be based on the EU standards and if they were using the JPN format it would specify as such. So again, very strange to see you have such bad luck with their stuff as again, they are pretty much the ONLY ones I advise getting RGB cables from.
- RickR and socrates63
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12 hours ago, socrates63 said:
I got a taste of RGB last year when I bought an Intellivision from @CrossBow of the Ivory Tower Collections. I had an OSSC lying about unused, and curious to see what all the hoopla about RGB was about, I connected the Intellivision to it and to my 65" 4K TV. Wow! Now I understand. I have seen the light.
And you have an older version of the RGB board installed. It does work with the OSSC but only in a few modes reliably. The ones I install now are pretty much compatible with all known scalers and will even work with those cheap Genesis 2 to HDMI cable sets like the one from Hyperkin as an example. But yes, RGB output is quite amazing when you have the setup for it. There are still some instances where I prefer to use the s-video from a console over the RGB due to slight stability and softness issues I have with RGB output in general.
The Jaguar is one of those consoles. I have the RGB cable for it and it does work, but it isn't very stable through my OSSC and I find I have to change the scaling mode between games to get a stable picture and even then... it might still blank out on me ever few min for a sec or two. So I'm quite likely switch back to s-video on my Jag. My SNESjr through restored RGB wasn't stable either and I had to purchase and install an additional dejitter board to it before it was stable. The genesis will depend on which model you are using to connect to it. The RGB on earlier model 1 units is riddled with issues due to PCB design with other signals inteferring with the RGB output. As a result there are a few mods that can be done to correct for the horrid jail bars that RGB output on those earlier Genesis console will produce. I took the cheap method and removed the color subcarrier trace completely off the board that is the main cause. But as I might still want composite and s-video to work, I wired in a switch on the back to enable and disable the subcarrier signal through a new set of wires that run away from the RGB lines. More expensive is to have a triple bypass RGB board installed. But that will disable the composite completely and remove the RF modulator in favor of a new Genesis 2 AV jack to be installed to supercede the original larger DIN jack that is on the model 1 units. The method I went with removed over 90% of the jail bars and was enough for me to be very happy with the output and I'm pretty OCD about it.
I will also state that I can't really tell much of a difference between component and RGB on my AV setup. So I can go either way when offered on which to use. But... actual true digital output like those you can get for the OG xbox and Dreamcast are amazing!
- socrates63 and RickR
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@Funkmaster V did you notice that several of the rooms in the game might have familiar names besides "Funk's Burrow"? hehe...
And Muddy may...or may not already be in the design phase for additional games related to this one...
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For me the 7800 is really where it has been at lately. Course I might be biased... 😉
I do own a TurboDUO with a v2 TurboED cart. But... I still play on my 5200 more than I do my TurboDUO. It has some great games to be sure, but it just doesn't seem to have quite the same magic for me that Atari and Sega systems do.
One note on the 5200 and the VCS adapter. As @- Ω -'s 5200 has a UAV installed and I believe the RF was left intact, he would only be able to use the RF output for the VCS adapter.
- Sabertooth, DegasElite, Justin and 2 others
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I forgot to update this I guess? These UAV 7800 mount boards can now be purchased from the The Brewing Academy directly as they have the plans and everything to take over making them.
I've created an updated install guide specifically using the mount board that is attached to this post, and created a new install video highlighting the use of the mount board.
- RickR, Sabertooth and DegasElite
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They will be available through Stone Age Gamer as Trek linked above, but they will also be in the AA store as well in time. I suspect they might be cheaper in the AA store for those willing to wait. I've added my email of course but not sure if I will be able to get in on the initial batch of them once they get released to the masses.
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4 hours ago, OniDensetsu said:
How much of the original chipset is this device using? Is it all FPGA emulation or?
Pretty much just the power, CPU, controller logic functions of the console. The video output is simulated based on the cartridge data being executed. It works similar to how Krikzz Famicom RGB blaster cartridge works providing RGB from a Famicom without console modification. That is also how all of the audio options are able to work as well.
It will be a very impressive device once released and that release time is near. One word to mention is that the RGB output is just that RGB output only. Even though there is a Sega 9-pin mini din being used, it doesn't provide composite output and instead has c-sync on that pin so that other cables can be used that need it. Like HDRetrovision cables and the Rad2X for instance.
- RickR, DegasElite, OniDensetsu and 1 other
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Thought you guys might like an update. I was able to clean up the crud a bit and get it looking a little better. Good thing I did as 2 solder joints weren't that great and came loose that I then removed the cap, cleaned up the pads a little better and then soldered back into place. So here is what that looks like now...
New LCD is working and looking pretty snazzy as well!
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The client does understand. The honest thing here is that the original quote for service of work would double if I end up recapping it and the client would rather push through. My other concern is that just undoing what has been done, could reveal loose or burnt off pads that would then require more additional work.
There is a reason many of us usually charge extra compared to our normal fees when we have to go back over and redo someone elses work. It is because in many instances, it ends up taking more time to do than it would have originally before it was even touched.
Like all systems I service, it will receive the standard 2+ hour burn in time before I box it back up and send it on its way. That is really the only thing I can do to verify functionality before it leaves my hands. This is how I've found issues with both a Sophia and an F18A boards I recently installed. They initially were working fine. But then 10 min later odd thins would start to occur. The F18A ended up needing to be sent back and had to be reflowed as apparently some of the SMD ICs had loose connections. The Sophia was working for a few days and survived for a half day burn in test. Then a Month later when I got back to that console, no output from the DVI at all but analog outputs were working. So that too has been sent back and a replacement on the way. No Idea why that Sophia suddenly stopped working a month later, but I'm glad I tested it again before calling it good.
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17 minutes ago, OniDensetsu said:
Glad you got that mess cleaned up. Id redo the entire thing if my hands were on it. Cheers Crossbow!
That has been the general concensus from others I've shown this too as well. The problem is that recapping a GG is pretty time consuming. The parts is only like a $10 kit which comes to less than $1 per cap, but the time to remove the old, clean up the board well, and especially reinstall with careful forming of the leads so it all fits nice, is time consuming.
There is a quote already paid for that was only for the LCD installation, Wasn't planning to charge for the audio board as I had those as spares on hand that would work, but for a full recap and redoing what someone else already did, that will cost them extra. They would rather I just clean up the board and inspect the work for any loose joints and go from there.
I mean, even if a few years down the line it starts to have issues, it can be recapped then in a more proper manner since at least the originals are gone and aren't going to cause problems now. It could be argued the owner would save money spending the extra to have me do it again and not worry about it. But then none of us can really offer any warranties anyway since we are dealing with 30+ year old stuff here and what works great today, could develop an all new unrelated issue tomorrow that couldn't be forseen. And while these caps are generic and not of a brand I know of, they could still do the business just fine for many years to come...
I have sent these pics and expressed my concerns to the owner before posting any of this online. Again, the current decision is to clean it up, and continue on.
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I've got a Game Gear that was sent to me to get a new LCD upgrade installed. Normally as part of something like this and especially with Game Gears, I require that the console get new capacitors to be sure everything in regards to power where needed is clean and all worn out leaking caps are replaced. In the case of the Game Gear, it isn't an option really as they all need their caps replaced due to the poor quality of the capacitors made in the 90s.
So due to circumstances, the owner of this GG was having issues getting the screws removed from the console. They were required to open it to be sure which model main board they have so the correct LCD kit could be ordered. Well, they sent it to a 'tech' that offers Game Gear services on ebay and they were able to remove the stuck screws and also provided a recap of the console as well. For some reason, they weren't willing to install the upgraded LCD for the owner. The owner contacts me to ask if I'm willing to install the upgraded screen for them as the system has just been recapped and is working fully in stock condition at this time. I agreed to handle the request.
I receive the GG and then proceed to test it before doing anything to be sure everything appears to be working correctly. It was...mostly. I noticed that audio would sometimes seem to cut out and sounded more distorted than usual at louder volumes with this GG. So I opened it up and was not exactly prepared for what I found inside....
That is the audio board. I won't go into too much detail on this as I think the picture will say most of what needs to be said. But the main issues are two things here:
1st, they use cheap no brand capacitors that in all fairness likely work just fine but for how long or how well I can't say.
2nd and worst issue is that no attempt was made to clean up the original pads and leaking electrolyte from the original capacitors or the flux that was used. You can see this with all the dark yellow to brown spots on the board.
The fact that the caps are radial vs the SMD that was originally used isn't a huge deal but they could have tried to use smaller sized caps vs this mess. This required them to bend part of the metal shield for the cartridge port section for this to fit.
I wish it ended there... but here is a pic of the left side of the main GG system board. Now to be honest, the soldering here is likely fine and again the caps are doing the job as the system is working. But the lack of any attempt to clean this up around the solder work is really lazy and will cause problems further down the line as even flux can be corrosive over time.
Last is that it doesn't appear that the actual power board for the console was even touched. I state this because the small plastic cover for the battery terminals for it was stuck fast and hadn't appeared to be have been removed before. Also, the solder joints and bottom portion of the PCB appears aged. Given the lack of cleaning on the spots they did work on, I would have expected some brown flux residue but nothing like that on the power board. Also, the caps on this board I'm pretty sure are factory and were a brand that Sega was using in the GGs back then.
I will likely redo that cap located at C1 on the bottom of the PCB because it is a bit off kilter. But again, that is factory work.
Well, in an attempt to make a point and see if I could correct the audio issues, I went ahead and redid the audio board with SMD caps of more exact spec that was used and it did correct the audio dropouts and distortion I was getting. Here is what the audio board looks like now cleaned up as best as I could...
So now the question is... should I just redo the capacitor work on this entire GG? It is working so I do plan to at least try and clean up the board more. That will also give me a better look on the solder joints that were done to see if anything looks weak or suspect. But I also feel bad for the owner as I don't know what they paid for this service and I don't need to know nor did I ask who did this.
Remember, you should always ask for references and pictures of work done in the past by any person you are reaching out to for services. If they aren't able to provide or offer, then you might want to look elsewhere so you can have a better idea on what you are paying for.
- RickR, OniDensetsu and Justin
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9 minutes ago, DegasElite said:
Sounds logical. I can see soldering being a thing with the older A2600s. I think socketing, especially ZIF socketing, is a more recent innovation. But, is there an issue with chip creep on those socketed chips? I wonder.
Biggest issue with the sockets they used was that most of them were single wipe and so over time they have worn a bit loose and corrosion can start to cause the chip and socket to want to become 'one'.
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1 hour ago, DegasElite said:
I didn't think they were socketed in. I thought they needed soldering. Cool. :O)
Depends on when it was made. I think all the JRs for instance those chips are soldered in. But on all of the sixers and many of the 4port models, they still used sockets for them.
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Not a ton of pickups recently, but I did get two of these games as part of a trade towards console services I provided to a friend of mine who is also a retro gaming enthusiast.
The two games being 7800 Midnight Mutants and 5200 Dreadnaught Factor. Midnight Mutants isn't sealed but is complete and in really nice condition overall. This means I might have a spare loose cart and possibly manual I can trade out soon. But the Dreadnaught Factor is sealed and unopened with the original retail stickers on it from back in the early 80s.
onEscape is cool new point n click type adventure game for the Atari 8-bit computers. It has a wonderful pokey soundtrack that you can only fully take advantage of with a stereo pokey setup in the console. It also features some really nice pixel art in quite a few places with an intro cutscenes. Its only drawback if you want to consider it that, is there isn't a save option so it does require playing through it in one sitting. However, it is quite short so once you know what to do, you can get through the game in a matter of less than 10min at that point. Still always happy to support the community making these awesome brews for our old systems and the soundtrack really is kinda worth the price of admission in this case.
The Genesis cartridge you see titled 'Decoder' is another music album put on cart from a pretty well known chiptune artist by the name of Remute. This cartridge instead of being a jukebox style album, actually has graphic novel you read through that has the music playing between each portion you read. There is even some short FMV sequences it plays while reading through the story and the still pics are quite colorful and detailed making excellent use of the Genesis palette restrictions. There is a standard jukebox mode as well but it isn't very interactive in that you just choose that mode and it just plays through each song in full one by one, so the real star of that cart is the graphic novel you read through.
- RickR, socrates63, TrekMD and 1 other
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12 hours ago, socrates63 said:
There are wikis and walkthroughs that can help you. Try again, Jesse, but start with the second game.
I need to play Diablo 3. I’ve only played the first two, and it was so long ago that I want to play them again. I bought the first two for the Switch when they were on sale not too long ago.
Sooo... funny thing happened last night. I was thinking about this thread and decided on a whim to fire up torchlight last night. Turns out I was like on floor 31 of the dungeon on my way to the final boss encounter apparently? I say this because at first I went in the wrong direction and was on floor 28 before realizing I needed to go down further. So I did, and had an encounter with some dark wizard dude. Well, due to the weapons I have equipped and abilities, my character was actually pretty OP at this point. As most of the dragonkin would die in like 3 shots of my lightning blast that I had equipped. So pretty much I was apparently able to run around Palpatine style to take out enemies. Well I go back to town and finally knock out a few more quests I had laying around and went back to the waypoint portal. Made it one more floor and fought the big back dude.
Now, he was absolutely taking me out in no time because of the vast amount of enemies he would rush at me. Especially those crazy elemental skeletons! Well, I happen to figure out that if I stood back behind the portal at the end of the floor, that the big boss's melee attacks seem to mostly miss me and due to how close he was to me, he wasn't launching other enemies at me. Once I found this happy bug, I was able to take him out with a combo of my melee strikes (That would register), and my lightning blast against him. Beat him, and the game apparently.
Now there are a few more corrupted enemies and additional floors to explore that are much more buff than those I was encountering before. But yeah, fun Diablo style game and it actually has me looking forward to Diablo IV once that is released.
- RickR and socrates63
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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.
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On 2/25/2023 at 7:11 AM, - Ω - said:
@CrossBow if I ordered one as well do you think it would speed up the back order wait?
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!
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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.
Post your latest/recent pickups!
in Classic Gaming General
Posted
There is another option to get them working again...that would cost less and you could do it yourself...
https://atarirepairparts.com/