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Status Updates posted by RickR
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One of my children just informed me that Joe Decuir will be giving a lecture at his university. I pointed at my wall where we have a signed Combat cart. He's a fount of knowledge and such a nice man. I may try to sit in on that one.
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Joe Decuir's lectures are the best in the Atarisphere imo. What an interesting man to listen to.
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Is that at Seattle U, Rick?
I made his acquaintance online last year. He’s a generous man and wanted to meet up with me when the pandemic clears up. I’ll let you know when that day comes. Maybe you could join us.
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Yes, Seattle U. I've met him, and yes, please let me know if you don't mind me tagging along when the time comes.
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Love and support for Texas (and other storm-affected places). Here's a report from David "The 8-bit Guy" from his home in the Dallas area.
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Or Frostbite!
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It's Feb 2 -- time to re-watch this film:
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RE: Jack Frost. I wasn't familiar with it until I visited Canada a long time ago and saw it on TV there. I don't remember much about it other than first being delighted to have a new-to-me Rankin/Bass show to watch, and then disappointed at how strange it was. Well, that was a good 25 years ago. Maybe I should give it another go.
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Honestly I think Jack Frost is probably the best Rankin/Bass special. Though it's not particularly a high bar.
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The Kung Fu cart for Commodore 64 arrived this week, and it works really nicely. This is the product I've been wanting for a long time -- just load game images of any type onto a micro-SD, turn on the C64, and choose them from a menu. No typing, minimal waiting. It's so awesome.
And also a view of my home-made "safe" C64 power adapter. I soldered in modern 5V and 9V bricks into a 5-pin DIN plug, and add in a Ray Carlson safety device just for full safeness.
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Wow, that's a neat setup! What's the price for that cart?
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Marco: It's less than $60 shipped from the UK.
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Notes so far after playing with it for a few days.
- CRT/PRG files work fine and load FAST.
- D64 support is spotty. Some work, some don't.
- I expect firmware updates will address some issues
- The "reset" and "menu" buttons are really super nice. Great features.
- Overall, huge thumbs up for this product. I'm so happy to have it. SD2EIC is nice, but a lot more difficult to use. I prefer this by a factor of 100. Just because it's so much easier to use.
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That's true. The sad part is how a lot of companies put out some really great games right before or after the crash but got overlooked by all the crap that had saturated the market.
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- socrates63 and HDN
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A quick review of the "Super Mario Bros Game & Watch". One of my kids got one as a gift, and I've borrowed it while they weren't looking.
Quick summary: It's awesome. Worth the price.
My opinion is that Super Mario Bros on NES is a masterpiece. The colors, the music, the level designs, the bright graphics. All perfect. And this little device captures all that. At first, the controls seem a little slippery, but that's just because the screen is so small. Once you get used to that, it's all good. The screen is nice and bright. The music sounds great. It's so well done.
Bravo to Nintendo for doing nostalgia products with such high quality.
I've seen a lot of complaints about "no kickstand". Really? OK. If that's all there is to complain about, I think it speaks highly about this product.
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Thank you for the kind words.
I feel like a lot of collectors are going to keep this thing in the original box anyway, which makes the kickstand even more pointless. I do get that it's a feature missing that the original G&W had, but to me it's of no concern. Hey, I'm also glad they skipped the LCD screen from the original design too!-
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Haha good points Rick, and I agree! I get the collectability in this but I hope some owners unbox it and have fun, it looks really neat
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I'm of the thought that it would have been much, much cooler had they re-released the original Game and Watch Super Mario Brothers handheld. I have plenty of ways to play SMB on the go. At first I figured Nintendo was kind of phoning it in and releasing another Famiclone (and I still kind of do), but they seem to have added that usual Nintendo polish. I still think that Super Mario 3D All-Stars is a waste of money if you already own the original games, though.
@RickR, I agree with you that the original Super Mario Brothers is a masterpiece. Sure, Nintendo references this game a lot and it gets a lot of attention. It seems like every new Super Mario adventure is littered with 8-bit Mario sprites and World 1-1 recreations. However, if you play the game on an original NES with a real controller on an old-school CRT television, it's an amazing and refreshing experience. Emulation just doesn't do this game justice. I've used a great many NES emulators in my day; Switch Online, Wii Virtual Console, 3DS VC, NESDS, FCEUltraGX, et cetera. Nothing really captures the experience for this game in particular. I have yet to find a Nintendo emulator with the same amazing bass that the real hardware has.
I very much enjoy Super Mario Brothers, and would even argue that it's a better game than the often-acclaimed Super Mario Brothers 3.
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What is it for?
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From what I know, it's like the Harmony cartridge but for the Intellivision. It lets you play rom files, so you can play homebrews and store the entire official Intellivision library on a single cartridge. I hear the Intellivision homebrew scene is quite vibrant. I missed out on the early batches and ordered this. Hopefully it'll come in 4-6 weeks.
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You got it. It's an Intellivision multi-cart.
I'm planning on getting a CRT out to try this out sometime soon. Right now, our dining room table has a new computer for my wife on it. Until we get time to get her VPN installed and swap it out with the old PC in the office, I'm on hold. After, I'll use that space to play some intellivision.
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Ha! I saw these yesterday and was thinking about your shelf crew there, Rick 🙂
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@Gianna I like the ones in the middle.
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- socrates63 and Gianna
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Next on my "want" list is a Rikey and a Wesley.
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New glasses!
The main reason I post this here is this: If you wear progressive lenses like me...get a second pair of "computer" glasses if you can. Mine are from Costco, and that second pair was $100 extra. They have a much larger "normal"/middle area and it makes it a lot easier to see computer screens without tilting your neck all day. That has made work easier. But it's also PERFECT for video games! I can see the periphery a lot better. Highly recommended for old fart gamers like me.
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Hey @HDN, the record player is out. I know you're a McCartney fan, and here's the one actual vinyl record of his that we have.
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Funny that you mention this now, as I just turned on a McCartney song for the first time in a while.
I do miss my record player; I've had to put it away for a while to make room for all the Christmas decorating. Your's seems to be of a much-higher quality!
There are a few good songs on that album, "Coming Up" is one, but its generally regarded as one of his weaker albums. I don't think I've listened to that album in its entirety. Then again, they said that McCartney 1 wasn't great, and I rather enjoyed that one. That one celebrated its fiftieth anniversary this year. So, you do you. Don't assume that something is going to be bad because of its reputation. For instance, 2600 Pac-Man. I love that game! Who knows, you might like McCartney II after all (or maybe not).
I think I'll have to give that one a listen at some point. Perhaps I'll enjoy it.
And also, I see "2600 Space Invaders: The Album"! I believe that one's "Don't Look Back"? I don't listen to Boston.
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This reminds me that I have "The Amazing Adventures of Pac-Man" on vinyl on display in my office. Time to fire that one up.
Honestly, I don't think I've listened to McCartney 2 all the way through. Not my cup of tea.
Our record player has a USB connector, so you could theoretically record digital copies of records. I have never tried that though.
Now THESE ones I think are awesome:-
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This one is leaving my collection soon. It's a nicely working Commodore 64c. I put an ad on Craigslist and got several interested buyers. Why am I selling? I have a "breadbin" 64 that's in very faded condition cosmetically, but I've replaced everything broken on the inside. One 64 is enough for me.
Interestingly, I tried Facebook marketplace first, but only got one lukewarm response. That's unusual. The Craigslist post got many inquiries. It's funny how those two seem to flip-flop in popularity.
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Those power supplies are known to go bad and take the C64 with it. This one tests out fine. But it makes sense to either buy a modern power adapter or buy a Ray Carlson sacrificial diode wire.
On my breadbin, I built my own power adapter AND use the diode thing.
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haha this illustrates perfectly that looks aren't everything 😁
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That's right. You should see the one I made. Frankenstein-esque. But totally safe.
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TUESDAY NIGHT CHAT!
I will be in the chat tonight (around 7:15pm Pacific). My goal is to try a few rounds of emulated Cybermorph for the high score challenge. Join me if you'd like to see how that goes. Maybe you need guidance on setting up an emulator. Maybe offer me some tips on the game. Or whatever you'd like to chat about.
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ROTG pinball is excellent. I only have it on the 3DS so far. For my GB pinball fix, I play Kirbys Pinball Land, made by the same people.
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- socrates63 and RickR
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Cool! I found a Revenge of the Gator cart at a pawn shop during a trip to Idaho last month. Addictive little game. I love the intro screen. I posted my high score a few days ago on the forum scoreboard. (Using an SP, yes I admit. 🙂) Maybe one of you can beat my score!
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The intro screen on that game is FANTASTIC! It seems that Revenge of the Gator has become a bit of an Atari I/O trend. I'd love to get my hands on the physical cartridge someday, as it's pretty cheap and I'd definitely get my money's worth.
I have been getting back into Game Boy stuff recently. So far, I only have the Advance and Super Game Boys, not the "brick". I like my standard GBA better than the SP for a few reasons. For one, I can use AA batteries. I bought a few rechargable ones last year with a gift card and have been using those. I always have one pair in the system and one pair charged/charging and ready to go. With the AA batteries, I never have to wait for the the thing to charge and if I don't have my rechargable batteries laying around, I can use any kind of AA battery in a pinch. The second reason I like it more is that it has a headphone jack. I love listening to my games with headphones and getting that sweet stereo sound. I imagine it'd be decently hard to find the GBASP headphone adapter these days. Thirdly, the GBA is more compatible with games. The SP,. when using a gyroscope game like Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble, will have the controls reversed.
Sure, the lack of a backlight is a problem, especially these days when it gets dark outside so soon. But I have found ways to work around it. When using Game Boy or Game Boy Color carts on the GBA, the games stick out about an inch from the slot. This makes the thing harder to fit in your pocket, but it also makes it so I can clamp a reading light to the cartridge and be able to play my games easily. GBA exclusive games are a bit harder to light, so I mostly avoid them. This works, but it is inconvenient and mostly falls off. I'm hoping that I get a Worm Light for Christmas that will make my life a lot easier.
For those of you who don't know what that is, here's a picture from the web. It plugs in to the Link Cable port.
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- RickR and socrates63
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More gaming-credenza improvements.
- Replaced 2600jr with 7800
- Added Atari 800xl
- Moved Wii down one level
- Moved PS2 up one level
And I've maxed out the switchbox at six systems. There is a real limitation on moving the shelves around due to a lack of many peg holes. This is the configuration that makes the most sense at the moment. Thanks, @HDN for some good suggestions.
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Before and after pictures of my "gaming credenza". I cleaned up a bit to make some room to add a Nintendo 64.
With a full house due to the pandemic, this is all the space I have to work with for retro gaming. There are several systems in here:
- Wii (with GameCube support)
- Retron 3 (NES, SNES, Genesis)
- PS2
- Atari 2600jr
- N64
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Yes, the PS2 can play PS1 games, I believe. And many models of the PS3 can play PS2 and PS1. Lots of people were upset at the lack of backwards compatibility on the PS4.
When you say "RF Switchbox", do you mean one of these?
Or one of these?
Because I might be able to help you out. I have an extra of the latter, and one of the former I can't use. Not sure if the screw-in one works as I have no way of testing it.
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The latter, but I do have one of those. I also have one with push buttons and 8 inputs. But like I said, it's a wiring nightmare. I think I may stick to my "no RF" policy in the gaming credenza.
(The 7800 has been composite modded :) )
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No RF policy? That's strange. Over here, RF is my best friend. None of my CRTs used composite until I found one at a rummage sale that had it. I still haven't found a use for that thing yet.
Here's what the RF wiring setup is over in the gameroom:
FLATSCREEN CRT
\CABLE SPLITTER/
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NES
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SNES
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RF MODULATOR (COMPOSITE ADAPTER)
/ \
ATARI 7800 XBOX
In my room, it's like this:
CRT
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VCR/DVD COMBO
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RF MODULATOR
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ATARI 2600 WII U
I love RF. The picture isn't great (at all), but I'm able to daisy-chain the things together. And, I can use a CRT, which is how most of these games were meant to be played. RF on a flatscreen looks like garbage. Convenience and not having to plug in and out all my systems is much better than picture quality in my opinion.
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Nice! Is it much cheaper than an actual N64 Everdrive? Any downsides compared to an actual Everdrive?
During Black Friday, I ordered Everdrives for SNES and Genesis. Even if you're a collector, playing games using these types of cartridges makes a lot of sense. I use the Harmony Encore cartridge to play 2600 games even though I have the actual game cartridges.
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$60 for this vs. $160 for the real Everrdrive. The only downside is that longevity is unknown.
I have several everdrives (NES, SNES, Genesis, TG16, GBC), and they all work most excellently. I agree they make good sense. Not just in overall cost-savings, but in convenience.-
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Plus, it saves wear and tear on the original cartridges. It's a neat idea, actually.
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I'm still playing and still enjoying it. It's more than just "mindless". Some of the puzzles are kind of clever.
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