CrossBow

<--- raises hand...
 

<--- raises hand...
 

<--- raises hand...
 

I had not seen or heard of this trick yet! Very nice. I will give it a shot, but there is a difference between what I get and what the older TEDs were doing. The older 1.x version TEDs simply never show up as Hucards you can play on the Analogue and that is what this seems to get around. The issue with my TED 2.5 version and most other 2.x versions is that they do appear and we can run it, but then the TED boots up tossing an SD IO error or other error related to accessing the SD card. 
So I will see if this does anything different and report back.
 

Here are my arrivals for this week...

I also had the 7800 when it was new back in the late 80s and for me it began with mostly the arcade ports. Although it was mostly those that I didn't already own for the 2600. So it was games like Pole Position II (That it came with lucky me!), Xenophobe, Crossbow, Rampage... stuff like that. You know, the at the time more modern arcade games.
But then I only really played on my 7800 for about 2 years before turning to the PC darkside. Once I got back into retro game collecting and playing again, it is now strongly all about the 5th era or modern homebrews for me on this system as that is largely what I play on it most now.
 

The parts are being provided by Fred Quimby aka Batari on the AA forums. But I think the initial labels and manuals were likely printed by Al or whomever Al uses for those since I believe that is of the exact same quality. But the PCBs were coming from Fred.
 

Yes I placed an order for Elevator Agent last week when John first announced it!
 

Yes I placed an order for Elevator Agent last week when John first announced it!
 

I also had the 7800 when it was new back in the late 80s and for me it began with mostly the arcade ports. Although it was mostly those that I didn't already own for the 2600. So it was games like Pole Position II (That it came with lucky me!), Xenophobe, Crossbow, Rampage... stuff like that. You know, the at the time more modern arcade games.
But then I only really played on my 7800 for about 2 years before turning to the PC darkside. Once I got back into retro game collecting and playing again, it is now strongly all about the 5th era or modern homebrews for me on this system as that is largely what I play on it most now.
 

I also had the 7800 when it was new back in the late 80s and for me it began with mostly the arcade ports. Although it was mostly those that I didn't already own for the 2600. So it was games like Pole Position II (That it came with lucky me!), Xenophobe, Crossbow, Rampage... stuff like that. You know, the at the time more modern arcade games.
But then I only really played on my 7800 for about 2 years before turning to the PC darkside. Once I got back into retro game collecting and playing again, it is now strongly all about the 5th era or modern homebrews for me on this system as that is largely what I play on it most now.
 

Yes I placed an order for Elevator Agent last week when John first announced it!
 

Well, this pretty much confirms it. I'm not the only one to encounter this as it seems Games Radar confirmed this during their review of the console but I hadn't seen that review until this Reddit post finally popped up in my searches a bit ago.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AnalogueInc/comments/18hs8nx/analogue_duo_turbo_everdrive_v25/
So yeah, it seems that the ONLY Turbo Everdrives working currently with the Analogue DUO are the latest TED PRO versions. It does anger me a little that according to the Games Radar review, this issue with the TEDs was known about months ago and passed onto to Krikzz but apparently nothing was done to address it and focus seemed to be with the newest TEDs working. 
So just have to wait and see if a FW update from Krikzz is needed for the older TEDs work, or if a FW update from Analog is needed to correct...or...
Everyone just waits until the thing is jail broken allowing games to be loaded from the SD card anyway like the other previous Analogue consoles.
 

It feels very solid. The CD drive is a bit odd though. You really have to push the discs in nearly all the way before it grabs them and loads them up. At first i thought mine wasn't working because I couldn't get the PCE CD game I inserted into it to eject out. But after power cycling it and pressing the button a few times it finally did and has been fine since.
But, the main bummer for me is that my TurboEverdrive 2.5 doesn't work on it at all. I can insert it and the DUO sees it and lets me select it to play. But then the TED loads up with an SD IO error? However, the TED works fine on my actual Turbo DUO...so I don't know what that is about.
 

December has been quite a month for new pickups for the collections here at the ivory Tower!
First up is that I got my Gleylancer re-release by Retrobit from Strictly Limited Games and also after more than a year, my copy of AsteBros came in. Both for the Genesis.

 
And then I finally was able to get Stellar Assault for the Saturn for a good price direct from Japan and got in my physical copy of Bomb Rush Cyberpunk for the PS4 from IAM8BIT.

 
Then the main last thing for the month that I was waiting on arrived today. It speaks for itself.
 

December has been quite a month for new pickups for the collections here at the ivory Tower!
First up is that I got my Gleylancer re-release by Retrobit from Strictly Limited Games and also after more than a year, my copy of AsteBros came in. Both for the Genesis.

 
And then I finally was able to get Stellar Assault for the Saturn for a good price direct from Japan and got in my physical copy of Bomb Rush Cyberpunk for the PS4 from IAM8BIT.

 
Then the main last thing for the month that I was waiting on arrived today. It speaks for itself.
 

It feels very solid. The CD drive is a bit odd though. You really have to push the discs in nearly all the way before it grabs them and loads them up. At first i thought mine wasn't working because I couldn't get the PCE CD game I inserted into it to eject out. But after power cycling it and pressing the button a few times it finally did and has been fine since.
But, the main bummer for me is that my TurboEverdrive 2.5 doesn't work on it at all. I can insert it and the DUO sees it and lets me select it to play. But then the TED loads up with an SD IO error? However, the TED works fine on my actual Turbo DUO...so I don't know what that is about.
 

December has been quite a month for new pickups for the collections here at the ivory Tower!
First up is that I got my Gleylancer re-release by Retrobit from Strictly Limited Games and also after more than a year, my copy of AsteBros came in. Both for the Genesis.

 
And then I finally was able to get Stellar Assault for the Saturn for a good price direct from Japan and got in my physical copy of Bomb Rush Cyberpunk for the PS4 from IAM8BIT.

 
Then the main last thing for the month that I was waiting on arrived today. It speaks for itself.
 

This is happening because the 7800 emulation has the buttons reversed on 7800 games. As the Starplex is wired as a 2600 controller, the 7800 emulation is treating it as a single fire button controller. Because single fire button controllers should register as button 1 or the Left fire button on the 7800 controller, but it is reversed on the 7800 emulation, that means it is only going to treat it as button 2 and not 1.
This has really thrown me off on quite a few games. Similar to how I complained about how ARTI testing was fine with an actual controllers, but the buttons get reversed in the game when using the Mega78...
Although I don't know that I've seen Ben from Pliaon mention it specifically, I'm hoping they correct the reversed button functions on 7800 games in the first major FW update.
 

This is happening because the 7800 emulation has the buttons reversed on 7800 games. As the Starplex is wired as a 2600 controller, the 7800 emulation is treating it as a single fire button controller. Because single fire button controllers should register as button 1 or the Left fire button on the 7800 controller, but it is reversed on the 7800 emulation, that means it is only going to treat it as button 2 and not 1.
This has really thrown me off on quite a few games. Similar to how I complained about how ARTI testing was fine with an actual controllers, but the buttons get reversed in the game when using the Mega78...
Although I don't know that I've seen Ben from Pliaon mention it specifically, I'm hoping they correct the reversed button functions on 7800 games in the first major FW update.
 

This is happening because the 7800 emulation has the buttons reversed on 7800 games. As the Starplex is wired as a 2600 controller, the 7800 emulation is treating it as a single fire button controller. Because single fire button controllers should register as button 1 or the Left fire button on the 7800 controller, but it is reversed on the 7800 emulation, that means it is only going to treat it as button 2 and not 1.
This has really thrown me off on quite a few games. Similar to how I complained about how ARTI testing was fine with an actual controllers, but the buttons get reversed in the game when using the Mega78...
Although I don't know that I've seen Ben from Pliaon mention it specifically, I'm hoping they correct the reversed button functions on 7800 games in the first major FW update.
 

This is happening because the 7800 emulation has the buttons reversed on 7800 games. As the Starplex is wired as a 2600 controller, the 7800 emulation is treating it as a single fire button controller. Because single fire button controllers should register as button 1 or the Left fire button on the 7800 controller, but it is reversed on the 7800 emulation, that means it is only going to treat it as button 2 and not 1.
This has really thrown me off on quite a few games. Similar to how I complained about how ARTI testing was fine with an actual controllers, but the buttons get reversed in the game when using the Mega78...
Although I don't know that I've seen Ben from Pliaon mention it specifically, I'm hoping they correct the reversed button functions on 7800 games in the first major FW update.
 

So an  update on this...
I was able to find a 2 port unit that in working condition in my spares pile. Popped in my backbit Pro that has a full 5200 set on it and Decathlon fired right up without any issue and played fine. I then dug out my actual Decathlon cartridge and popped it in..and..
Black screen...
Tried again, and still black screen although moving the cartridge slightly towards the back or front would cause it to show a brown...or green screen.
I cleaned the cartridge with my 99.9 IPA and my de-ox-id and not much black came off on the cotton swap so the cart fingers were pretty clean. Tried it again..same thing. I then started to experiment with this a bit and finally found that if I lifted the cart out of the slot after inserting it just a smidge, that the game would sometimes boot right up and work. But if I so much as bumped that 5200, then it would scramble the graphics and lock up. 
I think what is happening here, is similar to the 2600 activision carts. That is, the PCBs on these Activision 5200 games are likely a tad thinner than 1st party games and I don't think the PCBs extend out of the cartridge mouth as much as 1st part games do. 
My guess is that there is nothing wrong with the system or the game, other than after 40 years, everything is a bit more loose than before and it just isn't make a very good connection anymore. I still have issues with nearly all of my Activision games on my 2600 and 7800 systems, so it doesn't surprise me that the 5200 games might have similar fitment issues into the slot after all this time.
Oh...and yes this spare 2 port does have a 4-port BIOS installed so I still don't know if the game with work on stock 2 port units or requires the 4 port BIOS similar to the 2 CBS games and Pitfall!.
 

So an  update on this...
I was able to find a 2 port unit that in working condition in my spares pile. Popped in my backbit Pro that has a full 5200 set on it and Decathlon fired right up without any issue and played fine. I then dug out my actual Decathlon cartridge and popped it in..and..
Black screen...
Tried again, and still black screen although moving the cartridge slightly towards the back or front would cause it to show a brown...or green screen.
I cleaned the cartridge with my 99.9 IPA and my de-ox-id and not much black came off on the cotton swap so the cart fingers were pretty clean. Tried it again..same thing. I then started to experiment with this a bit and finally found that if I lifted the cart out of the slot after inserting it just a smidge, that the game would sometimes boot right up and work. But if I so much as bumped that 5200, then it would scramble the graphics and lock up. 
I think what is happening here, is similar to the 2600 activision carts. That is, the PCBs on these Activision 5200 games are likely a tad thinner than 1st party games and I don't think the PCBs extend out of the cartridge mouth as much as 1st part games do. 
My guess is that there is nothing wrong with the system or the game, other than after 40 years, everything is a bit more loose than before and it just isn't make a very good connection anymore. I still have issues with nearly all of my Activision games on my 2600 and 7800 systems, so it doesn't surprise me that the 5200 games might have similar fitment issues into the slot after all this time.
Oh...and yes this spare 2 port does have a 4-port BIOS installed so I still don't know if the game with work on stock 2 port units or requires the 4 port BIOS similar to the 2 CBS games and Pitfall!.