CrossBow

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.

This was done last year but you get the idea. Few games here and there have been added but essentially this is my room of fun for the whole family!
 

Thank you! It isn't nearly as large a collection as many others I know of even here where I live. But I mainly collect the games I've wanted through time and not so much trying to collect for completion. After all, that would be a never ending goal and one that I simply wouldn't have the fund, time, nor the energy these days to try and keep up with!
 
But thank you again.

This was done last year but you get the idea. Few games here and there have been added but essentially this is my room of fun for the whole family!
 

This was done last year but you get the idea. Few games here and there have been added but essentially this is my room of fun for the whole family!
 

This was done last year but you get the idea. Few games here and there have been added but essentially this is my room of fun for the whole family!
 

This was done last year but you get the idea. Few games here and there have been added but essentially this is my room of fun for the whole family!
 

This was done last year but you get the idea. Few games here and there have been added but essentially this is my room of fun for the whole family!
 

This was done last year but you get the idea. Few games here and there have been added but essentially this is my room of fun for the whole family!
 

This was done last year but you get the idea. Few games here and there have been added but essentially this is my room of fun for the whole family!
 

I honestly don't remember this as I would have only been about 6 years old at the time. In fact, when I think back on things, I really can't remember much of anything that far back other than a few memories of when I was about 7 years old and go my first Atari in about Christmas of '81 or '82, and then most of my memories seem to be in check starting around 1984 when I was about 9 - 10 years old.

I honestly don't remember this as I would have only been about 6 years old at the time. In fact, when I think back on things, I really can't remember much of anything that far back other than a few memories of when I was about 7 years old and go my first Atari in about Christmas of '81 or '82, and then most of my memories seem to be in check starting around 1984 when I was about 9 - 10 years old.

Actually that GE wall oven could very well be from the 80s. I recall we lived in a house that was built in the mid 80s and had an oven similar to that. We replaced with a new hotpoint that look nearly like that GE only it was black but still had the same clock/timer combo..etc.
 
As for older houses with wall oven's being tough to replace, you aren't kidding! My current house was built in '65. The Kitchen has been remodeled at least once in that time so I'm not sure what it originally looked like, but I suspect the wall over was added into a cabinet it would seem. We changed all the appliances out in the kitchen with newer. The current wall oven and stove top were early 90's Jenn-Air units. Replaced them with newer Bosch but it was really tough to get a wall over we both liked and had the features we wanted because the original space was only made for a 27" inch wall over. Most Wall ovens today are of the 30" variety. It was another reason we went with Bosch since they had a 27" in model that had the features we wanted. We still had to get it special ordered from Bosch, but they at least offered such a sized model.

Actually that GE wall oven could very well be from the 80s. I recall we lived in a house that was built in the mid 80s and had an oven similar to that. We replaced with a new hotpoint that look nearly like that GE only it was black but still had the same clock/timer combo..etc.
 
As for older houses with wall oven's being tough to replace, you aren't kidding! My current house was built in '65. The Kitchen has been remodeled at least once in that time so I'm not sure what it originally looked like, but I suspect the wall over was added into a cabinet it would seem. We changed all the appliances out in the kitchen with newer. The current wall oven and stove top were early 90's Jenn-Air units. Replaced them with newer Bosch but it was really tough to get a wall over we both liked and had the features we wanted because the original space was only made for a 27" inch wall over. Most Wall ovens today are of the 30" variety. It was another reason we went with Bosch since they had a 27" in model that had the features we wanted. We still had to get it special ordered from Bosch, but they at least offered such a sized model.

I used to use the Ben Heck mod in my CV but had saturation issues all the time, plus the transistor would get stupid hot! Found out from a post at AA that while Ben's mod does work. it isn't correct in regards to voltage and the transistor gets so hot because of the 12v going into it. Eventually the transistor will burn out before its time if you play the CV often. In the end I took it all out and bought one of Yurkie's AV boards but just the board. That way it replaced the simple circuit show for the Ben Heck mod, and I still use the RCA jacks I installed on the back. Looks much better than the simple mod here and best of all, no heat being built up anywhere.

New video is online for the 7800 UAV installation overview. Includes video footage of several games in action through the s-video out this thing produces.
 

New video is online for the 7800 UAV installation overview. Includes video footage of several games in action through the s-video out this thing produces.
 

The flatblade screwdriver trick I also do. Especially if I'm just wanting to quickly check there aren't any broken ground traces between the top function buttons and side fire buttons. The video was done in a way that it shows a complete breakdown of the controller, and about the best way to verify the traces in the flex circuit are good to go before going to the trouble of anything else. 
 
I also mentioned Defender as a good candidate for testing both fire buttons since it does use them for smart bomb and fire functions. Blaster is the best since you have to use all analog control, plus all the fire buttons will fire the laser shots.
 
For quick and dirty calibration or to test the calibration of a particular controller, I will pop in missile command and star wars:TAG to see where the cross hairs are when powering on the console. They should be roughly in the in the middle of the screen horizontally and just off center to the right about an 1/8 of the screen thereabouts. Not scientific, but that is enough to get the job done.
 
Best games for testing the potentiometer movements are bounty bob (If you have one), and Gyruss. If your pots are out of alignment too much, then it is really touch to control the ship in a nice smooth circle around the screen on gyruss.

Taking out the flex isn't that big a deal honestly. In fact, I prefer the Rev 7 flex above all others because the traces are wider and hence thicker and seem able to hold up to the stress better. The Rev 9's I've seen had a sorta graphite trace in them and I'm sure it didn't corrode, but you also can't take the eraser method to it either as it will literally erase the traces when you try and clean them. Also the graphite ones are much more brittle on their traces.
 
Now, having said that, I've seen my fair share of Rev 7's where the traces, especially by the fire buttons, begin to literally warp up off the flex. Again, not a whole lot you can do except to carefully press them back down as best you can. The foil tape I use seems to stick onto the buttons pretty well provided you clean the dots first as I do in the video. Yes, eventually the foil tape will drop off those buttons, but again it was about 4 years before that began to happen to my first one I did using the stuff. I've been told even after 3 years, that the gold rebuilt kits still require cleaning to get them going again. I prefer using the foil since it is essentially the same metal as the original traces and hence the corrosion isn't as bad because you don't have dissimilar metals against each other.