CrossBow

Guess I never really noticed this forum dedicated for stuff like this. I've done quite a few YT vids over the past 2 years or so. I just completed a new one this weekend with my game play review of the newly released Port/Homebrew of the excellent platformer known as "L'Abbaye des Morts" (The Abbey of the Dead) for the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive. Lots of cool game appearance modes with this one!
 
Enjoy!
 

There is the OSSC though it isn't cheap either, but it isn't quite as expensive as the Framemeister. Also, the OSSC would require some additional adapters as it only has inputs for component, VGA, and SCART I believe. It is that reason alone that I haven't invested into the OSSC and still stick with my separate converters I use. Though the lag isn't too bad at like 4 to 6 fames per second according to 240p test suite. Even less when I do the manual lag test since over the years I've essentially become accustomed to it and just naturally compensate for it. 

Good thing I went ahead and stood in line at this year's Pinfest in Texas then?! 
 

 
had her sign my Lynx Pinball Jam cart and manual as well. She signed one of them as Cassandra, and the other as Elvira. Awesome!

Good thing I went ahead and stood in line at this year's Pinfest in Texas then?! 
 

 
had her sign my Lynx Pinball Jam cart and manual as well. She signed one of them as Cassandra, and the other as Elvira. Awesome!

Thought about it but I already have a small collection of mini arcades forming with the bigfun ones from Wal-mart etc... And these are really small and not really practical for playing is my understanding.
 
Also, if you didn't know it has been confirmed that all 4 games reside in each unit. You can attach a dip-switch to some jumper points inside the thing to switch games between power cycles. 

With permission from Catskull Electronics, I present to you the YM2017 Music Album on a Genesis/MD cartridge. These went on pre-order/pre-sale a few months back and sold out pretty quickly I believe. This is a very cool cart because it not only contains 9 very high quality tracks from various talented chiptune artists, but also had a built in 8x8 LED matrix display programmed to go in time with the music. 
 
I received my cart in the mail yesterday and was blown away by this! I contacted Catskull Electonics who gave his permission to video and record the entire cart album for all to see it in action. No more of these are planned to be made again, so this is the only way to see and hear this excellent composition of work!
 
Enjoy!
 

With permission from Catskull Electronics, I present to you the YM2017 Music Album on a Genesis/MD cartridge. These went on pre-order/pre-sale a few months back and sold out pretty quickly I believe. This is a very cool cart because it not only contains 9 very high quality tracks from various talented chiptune artists, but also had a built in 8x8 LED matrix display programmed to go in time with the music. 
 
I received my cart in the mail yesterday and was blown away by this! I contacted Catskull Electonics who gave his permission to video and record the entire cart album for all to see it in action. No more of these are planned to be made again, so this is the only way to see and hear this excellent composition of work!
 
Enjoy!
 

For me this is a tough question. I guess my vote for my preferred VCS would go to the Sears Heavy as well. I like the walnut finish that was used as it was still very 70s but also very different from most other wood grain designs used back then.
 
However, my very first actual VCS was the 4 switch woody I got in Christmas of '81 or '82. Can't quite remember which year now.

For me this is a tough question. I guess my vote for my preferred VCS would go to the Sears Heavy as well. I like the walnut finish that was used as it was still very 70s but also very different from most other wood grain designs used back then.
 
However, my very first actual VCS was the 4 switch woody I got in Christmas of '81 or '82. Can't quite remember which year now.

That is why Kristof created Vector Pilot!!!

My first Atari experience was likely sometime during its initial release in the late 70s as friends of my parents had them and I can remember playing breakout and Freeway. We didn't get our own 2600 until Christmas '81 or maybe '82 when I would have been about 7 or 8 years old. But it didn't come from Santa (for a number of reasons..not the least of which, was because I already knew the truth about that since I was about 4 years old.) But it also wasn't much of a surprise, because my parents had wrapped it as it was in the normal box. So it was maddening to me for the last 2 weeks before Christmas because I knew what it was under that tree!!!
Kept that 4 switcher until I finally gave it to my cousins about 5 years later. 

Well...even then there are variants as the expansion port remained for a long time. It is usually considered that the va2 and v3 versions of the model 1 have the best overall unaltered audio from them. However, the audio from the headphone jack is a bit on the hot side. 
 
The audio you hear in this video I made was done from my va2 model 1 genesis. I added RCA jacks that come directly off the 1034 preamp inside so most of the extra filtering that goes to the headphone jack is skipped. The only way to get more pure sound would be to tap the audio directly off the YM2612 but then you don't have the PSG mixed in there if you do that. Would require additionally amplification as well regardless since the audio would be so low directly off the chip.
 
Mine is modded with a separate YM3438 attached inside. Basically two synth chips. But the audio output of the original 2612 is disabled and only the 3438 audio out is used in my setup.

There are no real issues between the two sites. I'm a member of both and both have some good stuff to offer. 
 
Now there has been at least one AA person who signed up here and tried starting something that didn't fly here and got booted. AA is bigger, so it is more difficult to police. And what is accepted on one site may not be accepted by the other, since they are run by two different people. There may also be times when a topic comes up and opinions may vary by site.
 
But all in all, both are great sites for Atari fans and both have some great members.

Little bit of history on this...
 
This was a demo featuring 5 songs composed by the great Sega Chiptune artist known as JRedd. It took place at the Datastorm demo party in 2014. There is only one other vid of this entire demo music cart on YT and it was done through an emulator. Well, with the generosity and my donation to Sigflup, I was able to get a cart of BlowFish made for my own enjoyment. I recorded the playback of the entire album using my actual model 1 va2 HDG Sega Genesis. This is quite possibly some of the best music heard on the Genesis technically at least until Paprium is released... 
 
Enjoy!
 

So just a little background regarding this video.
My kids and I watched every Nintendo direct on our WiiU, it became an event in our house and we were all very excited each time they came on.
I kept the kids on Nintendo systems for al long as I could because I wanted them to be kids, I wanted them to be lost in innocence and enjoy the kid and family friendly nature on Nintendo. Iwata, Reggie and Miamoto became stars to the kids and they realized that the long linage of games and characters they love these guys had a hand in all of it.
When Iwata died we all cried over here, it was very sad to see his passing.
The man that brought so much to our family fun time passed and we all sat there and cried.  Because of these Nintendo directs my daughter is studying Japanese to become a translator for Nintendo, thats what she want to do.
 
This is such a touching tribute to his work
 

Well, I realized I hadn't updated this so wanted to point out a few more things I found out and what surprisingly seems to have corrected it, or at least worked around the issue:
 
With more and more testing, I found that what triggers this is obviously heat related and kicks in once the CPU temp hits about 150°F and the ambient temp in the Genesis case is about 112 - 114°F. However, while triggered by temps, if it also requires that the 32x be attached and...be plugged in with its power adapter. So if you unplug the 32x the snow pattern would immediately go away regardless of the high temps in the case. Plug it in and the snow pattern would immediately come back. 
 
Now to add more lemon into this mystery, the 32x doesn't even have to be warm. In fact, I did a test where I took the 32x out and had the genesis playing VR Racing in demo mode for about 1.5 - 2 hours. I was curious if I could get the Genesis hot enough on its own to produce the effect. No such luck as the SegaCD bios screen looked just fine after this. Then I plugged the 32x into the Genesis and plugged the power to the 32x and turned it on and there was the snow pattern! Remember the 32x was just plugged into the genesis so it hadn't been powered on but seconds. So the 32x is a trigger, but apparently not the cause.
 
I finally had a theory and from most of the temp measurements that the bulk of the heat in the genesis was coming off the original 7805C regulators. These are supposed to be +5 volt 1amp output regulators. But they did seem to be getting very hot. Not enough to shut them off, but so hot that the heatsink and AV out ground shield plug was too hot to touch. So...what did I do?
 
I replaced both VRs with 78S05CV versions. These are modern +5 linear VRs with a 2amp output rating. My theory is that with the mods in my genesis, the genesis itself is pulling more current than the original VRs were really ever expected to generate. Add the 32x into the mix and now there is additional current being fed into the system that is causing an over current situation. Again not enough to fry anything or cause thermal shutdown on the VRs, but enough that it had to be given off as additional heat.
 
So now with the new VRs in place the console doesn't quite as hot as before. It does get warm, but only slightly more than the other Genesis I tested with that does NOT produce these results. Either way, I was playing Star Cruiser last night and had it running from 6pm until after 1am nonstop and the Genesis no longer produces the snow pattern with the 32x in place from the SegaCD video side of things.

I'm not sure I've seen much mentioned here about any of this...but get something to drink as there is some history to talk about first:
 
As I'm sure those of you know who might be awesome enough to own a working Vectrex or know someone who does, they buzz...like...a lot! Well, the Vectrex I have was actually given to me back around 2010 as I recall and has always been a particularly noisy buzzing monster. 
 
So about 3 or 4 years ago, I decided I would try and get rid of the buzz on my Vectrex. So I hit up Console5.com and ordered the stuff needed to recap my Vectrex and build and install the de-buzz kit. It took over a day to get everything worked out with it. In the end the buzzing was much less but never quite totally gone. But gone enough to not be as big a deal. 
 
Now that leads up to this year and a fellow Vectrex enthusiast and electronics guru by the name of Charles Tweedy developed his own Buzz Off kit for the Veccy. Very simple installation that doesn't require modifying anything inside the Vectrex at all. Just three wires to solder on and that is pretty much it. 
 
Soon after this Charles began work on a new device he was calling the VAT. It stood for Vectrex Audio Tap. Basically it is a breakout audio amp that attaches directly off the Vectrex sound chip and provides an external audio line out, Headphone out, and an audio input designed for the AtariVox+ or VecVoice device and can mix that audio internally so you can hear them from the internal Vectrex speaker or from the lineout. Awesome stuff to be sure and like the Buzz Off, the installation is very minimal and only requires removing the sound chip off the Vectrex (Easy since it is socketed on most Vectrex units), and you place the sound chip onto a new socket onto a new daughter board. That daughter board in turn plugs back into the socket on the Vectrex where the sound chip originally was. The daughter board has a thin cable that comes off it and eventually routes outside the Vectrex and into the separate breakout audio box using RJ45 connections with the breakout box using standard 1/8" TRS audio and headphone cables.
 
Well, I purchased both items and they arrive the other day. Last night I installed them and had quite a bit trouble with such a simple installation setup. Long story short, it required me to completely undo and reverse the old Console5 de-buzz modification, get the Vectrex back to factory audio and then everything was good to go.
 
With that..I present to you... an audio demo of the Vectrex from the VAT line out. The VAT has one other feature that is pretty cool. Especially on games and audio that make good use of it...
 
Enjoy!
 

I'm not sure I've seen much mentioned here about any of this...but get something to drink as there is some history to talk about first:
 
As I'm sure those of you know who might be awesome enough to own a working Vectrex or know someone who does, they buzz...like...a lot! Well, the Vectrex I have was actually given to me back around 2010 as I recall and has always been a particularly noisy buzzing monster. 
 
So about 3 or 4 years ago, I decided I would try and get rid of the buzz on my Vectrex. So I hit up Console5.com and ordered the stuff needed to recap my Vectrex and build and install the de-buzz kit. It took over a day to get everything worked out with it. In the end the buzzing was much less but never quite totally gone. But gone enough to not be as big a deal. 
 
Now that leads up to this year and a fellow Vectrex enthusiast and electronics guru by the name of Charles Tweedy developed his own Buzz Off kit for the Veccy. Very simple installation that doesn't require modifying anything inside the Vectrex at all. Just three wires to solder on and that is pretty much it. 
 
Soon after this Charles began work on a new device he was calling the VAT. It stood for Vectrex Audio Tap. Basically it is a breakout audio amp that attaches directly off the Vectrex sound chip and provides an external audio line out, Headphone out, and an audio input designed for the AtariVox+ or VecVoice device and can mix that audio internally so you can hear them from the internal Vectrex speaker or from the lineout. Awesome stuff to be sure and like the Buzz Off, the installation is very minimal and only requires removing the sound chip off the Vectrex (Easy since it is socketed on most Vectrex units), and you place the sound chip onto a new socket onto a new daughter board. That daughter board in turn plugs back into the socket on the Vectrex where the sound chip originally was. The daughter board has a thin cable that comes off it and eventually routes outside the Vectrex and into the separate breakout audio box using RJ45 connections with the breakout box using standard 1/8" TRS audio and headphone cables.
 
Well, I purchased both items and they arrive the other day. Last night I installed them and had quite a bit trouble with such a simple installation setup. Long story short, it required me to completely undo and reverse the old Console5 de-buzz modification, get the Vectrex back to factory audio and then everything was good to go.
 
With that..I present to you... an audio demo of the Vectrex from the VAT line out. The VAT has one other feature that is pretty cool. Especially on games and audio that make good use of it...
 
Enjoy!
 

As I hinted in my original thread with my initial thoughts on the game. Here is my completed video game play review for this really fun homebrew from OrionSoft.
 

As I hinted in my original thread with my initial thoughts on the game. Here is my completed video game play review for this really fun homebrew from OrionSoft.
 

I've done quite a few mods on various systems. Pretty much all of my classic consoles have been AV modded in some way either with composite or composite and s-video. Rather than list pics of the ones I've done, here is a link to my YT playlist where I've documented a good portion of my mods or repairs.
 
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLypzYHeVZt9mmepsDRL-2oBIemEfp0XdC

I've done quite a few mods on various systems. Pretty much all of my classic consoles have been AV modded in some way either with composite or composite and s-video. Rather than list pics of the ones I've done, here is a link to my YT playlist where I've documented a good portion of my mods or repairs.
 
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLypzYHeVZt9mmepsDRL-2oBIemEfp0XdC

I've done quite a few mods on various systems. Pretty much all of my classic consoles have been AV modded in some way either with composite or composite and s-video. Rather than list pics of the ones I've done, here is a link to my YT playlist where I've documented a good portion of my mods or repairs.
 
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLypzYHeVZt9mmepsDRL-2oBIemEfp0XdC

I've posted this at AA and on the Sega-16 forums as well so if you already seen my praddle on about this I apologize and you can ignore. That said...
 
I noticed about 2 weeks ago, something odd on my Genesis/32x/SegaCD combo setup. Basically after the system has been on for about 30min to an hour, there appears to be a great deal of heat built up inside the Genesis itself. I actually measured this with my Fluke temp probe and the ambient air temp in the Genesis reaches about 112°F around the AV port. That seems excessively hot to me but perhaps not?

The specific issue this seems to cause is that video overlayed from the SegaCD itself will show up with a snowy like pattern on the screen. But only from the video from the SegaCD itself. I've posted a link below showing the effect. Basically at first when you power everything on and look at the SegaCD bios screen everything appears normal. Then after some time, it will produce a horrible graphics corruption issue as is shown second in the video. Then, if I remove the 32x completely from the system the video is normal again.

Now I have found out that the 32x appears to be the cause. Not sure why, but it is. In the video, the actual video you see on my TV is using the AV out port on the Genesis itself and not from the 32x. However the same results appear from the 32x AV port as well. So the video corruption isn't from the 32x encoder but somehow from a combination of the 32x being attached along with the SegaCD.

So far this graphics corruption isn't actually seen in games with the exception of those using FMV. As an example notice in the sega CD bios screen the graphics issue is only within the window frame of the bouncing Sega CD logo and doesn't affect the text graphics outside that? When I play Sonic CD with the system warmed up and doing this, the graphics glitches are present within the window showing the Sonic CD cartoon intro, but not outside the frame of the intro and do not appear at all within the actual game. Even on the bonus stages where the rotation and scaling effects are being used do not show this issue. Normal cart games are fine as well and if I remove the 32x, the Genesis doesn't seem to get as warm and of course the graphics issue from the Sega CD doesn't appear at all.

Has anyone seen anything like this before? I'm trying to get ahold of another 32x base unit for cheap that works to see if it is the 32x actually causing the issue or something within my genesis somehow.

https://youtu.be/LMS6E46EhUo

Hmm.. this is a tough one. But using the AA scale the following would be my rarest loose carts in my VCS collection:
 
Master Builder
Crazy Climber
Boing!
Chase the Chuckwagon
 
However, I consider both of my Parker Bros. prototypes carts to be the most rare. Especially my WIP version of Star Wars: TAG.
 
I also have a decent condition Activision Checkers....with the foam insert. I keep that in the glass case as well. It was the last Activision title I really needed for the collection (Loose of course), and to find it with the foam insert still completely in tact was even better.