Saccharin

That's a great point. I believe you're absolutely right. Check out the AVS forums. The reviews are mixed, and most of the people that like it seem to be just happy that an 8 input (w/component, ethernet, etc.) even exists. Does anyone want to buy my Pelican 8? If some are interested I'll post the full rundown. I have 100% positive feedback on eGay.

Well, in your defence, the search feature of this new forum software sucks in many ways. It's much harder to find what you want now then it used to be. I've all but stopped using it myself. You can still kinda find what you're looking for, but it involves knowing how to formulate your search just right and half remembering exactly what you're trying to search for. From a noob standpoint, I can see how the current search option is useless. As I understand it, when the forum software gets upgraded to a newer version, some patches and fixes will be made to the search engine, and hopefully. Realisticly, for the most part, some of your complaints are unfounded in real-world application. Gold plated connectors for example. It only helps if you're using crappy cables with crappier plugs. Gold plating only helps get you a slightly better electrical contact being made between a poor connection. If you have a decent quality cable and plug, the gold plating does nothing for you except cost extra money. Especialy if your cable is already has gold plated plus. The gold plating doesn't help with any other aspect of signal transport or signal loss. Remember, the only place it's gold plated is at the connector. The wire is still copper and the traces on the circuit boards are still tin plated copper. The signal canl never be any better then the worse componete in the chain. Ok, actually, gold plating preventions oxidation, which helps with long term stability of established connections. But then, so does general preventative mantienance and cleaning. Daisy chaining. Technicaly, yes, daisy chaining switchers can effect quality. But this is one of those real-world things. I dare most people to beable to tell the difference in a double blind test. Of course, it does matter on the switcher. Some are better then others. Some crappy ones loose alot of signal and the loss will multiply with each one throw in the chain. Better ones are well sheilded enough to prevent such issues. Amplified switchers can be a problem daisy chained too, as you'll quickly over drive the signal into distortion. I'm not saying there isn't any factual truth to some of the points. But largely, it's all nutty audio/video phile insanity that doesn't matter in %99.999999 of real world applications. Like engineered oxygen free, time base corrected a/v cable at $30 a foot where it only makes a difference on an osillioscope. Anywho. As you can tell, many of us use pelican switchers. Got 4 of them myself, daisy chained together, and everything looks just fine. The difference between comming off #1 vs #4 is barely an IRE or two of luminance. Can't even tell unless you happen to have two identical sources on each and can swtich back and fourth a few times. And I think that's more to do with ultra cheap radio shack cable that's running 30 feet between switcher #4 and the other 3 then anything else. Anywho 2. It also really depends on how much you're looking to spend. Good high quality professional studio quality AV switchers can reach thousands of dollars, and still maybe not even offer you everything you want. A pelican runs for $20. 1020270[/snapback] Well, I'll have to disagree with you here. I noticed decreased video quality immediately upon hooking up the Pelican. Not huge but there's a diference. I also use Monster cables so it's not that I use cheap cables. About the gold contacts, I have noticed a difference between gold and non-gold. Every gold plated selector I've used is superior in picture quality, including the Pelican. You can tell me that I'm imagining things, pile all kinds of techie logic on me, but it still won't convince me. It's just a difference of opinion here. I'm very picky about video quality and can detect the slightest difference in signal loss. Your double-blind challenge would prove you right, but only because most of the population are ignorant of the tell-tale signs of picture quality. The Pelican is a cheaply made yet neccessary evil for multi-system gamers—until something better comes out. And where can you get a Pelican 8 input for $20???

Hey guys. Just wanted to follow up. I snagged a Pelican 8 input off eBay for a decent price. It seems to work OK, however I still worry about not having enough inputs someday. The video quality on my TV is noticeably less, but not horrible. Slightly more pixelated. They should've used gold contacts. The thing seems cheaply built—it has that "Made in China" look to it. All in all, not a bad alternative for the multi-system gamer. You could always get an RF modulator to add more inputs later on.

LOL, yeah I thought of a S-video Y adapter from my TV, but, yeah, a bad idea!

All the cables I use are gold plated. Good point about the component jacks. The Pelican still doesn't have enough S-video jacks for my needs though.

Mine are from Area 61 and to the best of my knowledge all of the gold dots got replaced. The ones I have seem really sturdy. Granted, I haven't used them all that much. My biggest gripe is that the controller doesn't respond IMMEDIATELY when I want it to. It takes a split second or so.

I have searched. That's why I'm here. It amazes me how often people imply that you're too lazy to do a search just because you ask a question on a forum. ANYwayz... Yeah, the Pelican doesn't sound like a bad option eventhough I don't need half of the connections on it. I don't like that it doesn't have gold connections though. I'll also need about 10 S-video inputs eventually. One idea I had was to get a 6 input from good old Radio Shack and use a 4 input RF modulator on my antennae connection. Doing RF mod isn't the greatest but I have really good monster cables I can use on the RF S-video mod.

Come on, guys! I know there's others with this issue. A little nudge in the right direction would help me out here. Thanks for your input, skunkworx.

Sorry, already scooped one up. Thanks anyway. I should also mention that I bought a "Family Boy". It's a NES/Famicom clone. I'm not big on clones but I read some good reviews about them and they were dirt cheap so I decided what the hell. Anyone else here got one of these? Family Boy Vol. 4

That's the point I've been trying to make. The 5200 sticks are just non-responsive as hell. I don't even care about the non-centering.. I have a nice new rubber boot on my gold-contact-enhanced controller so it more or less makes it pseudo-self-centering. What I hate is trying to make a sudden move in Pac-man and have the damn thing not do what I want it to! GAY! I guess I'm not cool enough to memorize the ghost patterns yet. But besides, when that siren starts goin' off they start swarmin' my inept ass anyway. To me, it just goes against the very instinct of gamers. Like JB pointed out, a good portion of the 5200's games are classic arcade ports that used digital sticks. We shouldn't have to relearn how to use something as essential and basic as a controller just to be able to enjoy our favorite classics. But don't get me wrong guys. I really want to become a student of how to master these damn things—if it's possible. I like a challenge once and a while and I have a morbid curiousity for things like this and insanely hard games—eventhough my gaming skills have eroded greatly over the last 8 years or so.

A friend recently invited me over to see his "hot" new N64. Now my eyesight is admittedly not the greatest but, frankly, I couldn't make out anything on his big screen TV other than fuzz when he loaded up StarFox64. "Look at the amazing graphics", he proclaimed. I strained hard. I tried to focus my eyes. No picture. Nothing. Just blurry fuzz. I told him, "I see nothing but fuzz". Oh, he said, "that's the bilinear filtering. One of the N64's amazing features. It makes N64 games look great even though the resolution is only 270 x 180" OH, I said. Then, unfortunately, he cranked up the sound. Cheesy music was thankfully broken by the occasional bleep or blip. Once in awhile an annoying static filled voice would make some childish proclamation. To add insult to injury he then started talking about "force feedback". And how it would "revolutionize" gaming. Neat concept, I thought. "That could really improve gaming in the future", I told him. "Well the future is NOW!", he proclaimed. And proudly handed me the N64 Rumble Pack. Once in a great while I felt the controller make an almost indetectable buzz. Perhaps to 3 or 4 year old hands, I thought, this is force feedback. To me however it seemed more like a child's imitation of a Norelco electric razor run by a watch battery. To say I was glad to leave and get back home to my Jaguar64™ and Tempest 2000 is a great understatement. Tempest 2000 doesn't need a "Rumble Pack". It rocks gamers with an intense soundtrack, mindblowing crystal clear graphics, and gameplay to die for. And only Atari made it possible. In summary all I have to say about the N64 is: Fuzz, Buzz, Beeps, and Blips. This low rez child's console is no competitor to the Jaguar64™. Jaguar64™ - Over 50 NEXT GENERATION titles and countin'. Watcha' waitin' for? GET the POWER! 1015526[/snapback] LOL Great stuff. You're the ultimate Atari Jaguar propagandist! Hmmm. "Blurry" graphics. I don't really recall that. Then again, back in those days I stayed quite high off the ganja so I suppose everything looked cool. I remember being enthralled by titles like Mortal Combat 4 and no loading time or choppy gameplay like gay-ass PS1.

Yeah, but I don't need component or ethernet. I know I can daisy chain, but I don't like it. It degrades the signal. I just want a good quality 10 port with gold contacts and S-video plus audio. A remote would be nice.

Hey guys. I'm in a bit of a quandry, and I'm hoping you can help me out. Like many of you, I have a lot of systems. I also have a few other components like a DVD recorder, satellite box, and S-VHS player. I hate having to plug and unplug every time I want to play, so I'm looking for a high quality video switch selector with at least 10 inputs. I spent an hour or so last night searching but didn't have much luck. The one I'm looking for is preferably Japanese make and with gold contacts. I can't use two 5 input selectors because I only have one S-video input on my TV. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

LOL! That alone is worth getting a Jaguar! From my understanding, the original 3DO (FZ-1) was built MUCH better than the later version, the FZ-10. The FZ-1 looks as if a 300-pounder could easily use it for a step stool. Unfortunately, I ended up getting the FZ-10, albeit with some games. Got it for a relatively cheap eBay price. I couldn't find any "new" 3DOs so I just went for one on the cheap. I'm really excited about the 3DO. There's some mouth watering titles I want to take a crack at. Speaking of a Sega Saturn, I just snagged one of those on the cheap too. I immediately purchased an Action Replay 4-in-1 adapter to play the Japanese imports, since those are the best games for it. I also picked up Super Robot Wars as a christening for the Saturn! Great points. I'm big on uniqueness, charm, nostalgia, etc. This system is starting to sound more and more appealing. Well guys, as you already know I scooped up a Saturn (I've got a woody for Super Robot Wars) and a 3DO. My next system is between a rebuilt NES from OSG +72-60 adapter or a Jag. Since I've just purchased 2 "newer" generation systems in a row I'll likely go for the NES. I've been dying to play the Famicom version of Mappy and other classic arcade ports. Of course eventually I WILL get a Jag—if anything out of sheer curiousity. One good thing about having multiple systems is that you can enjoy console exclusive titles. Speaking of the Jag, some of you mentioned it being the first 64 bit console. That would place it years ahead of its time. How do the graphics compare to an N64? My friend had one back-n-the-day and I really dug the graphics. I would still love to see more takes. Keep 'em comin'!

My God that is bad-ass!