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e5frog

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Posts posted by e5frog

  1. Posted · Edited by e5frog

    I recently got my first Virtual Boy and have been looking into building a programmable cart myself and perhaps buying a FlashBoy. After looking around in several places I found some info about the link port and after checking eBay I noticed there seems to be none to find...

     

    I started thinking - what would fit? Are there any connectors of that size, is it really necessary to take it apart and put another connector in there?

     

    The connector seems to have about the same spacing as the connector on a Fairchild System cartridge, and that one works OK with a PC ISA bus connector... but it seems there aren't enough room for it's thickness in the link connector.

     

    USB! It even fits over the connector, and even if the fit isn't 100% it seems to touch the connectors 1:1 - only thing is that there should be a connector on the other side as well. So why not take two USB-connectors, strip off the plastic, cut off the metal and piece (solder) two of them together?

     

    Only thing is that the four connectors in the USB-cable aren't very "springy" and neither are the connectors in the V.B. connector but perhaps the ones in the USB connectors could be bent just a little to make a better connection or use the more springy type from a USB female connector. Perhaps the outer shield of the female USB-connector would also be a good fit if the outwards bent area in the top is cut off. Yes, that's probably the way to go, two female connectors pieced together perhaps fitted in the outer shield metal of one of the female connectors.

     

    I'll see if I can get two cheap ones and test it...

    Modifying a cable seems more appealing to me than to modify the V.B.-unit.

     

     

    Unfortunately I only have one V.B. so even if I build a working cable I don't have much use of it, and to be honest, even if I had two V.B:s I'd have a hard time persuading someone in the family to play with me. ;-)

     

    EDIT: Found a description on how to make one from a SNES/N64/Gamecube A/V cable, don't know if it's cheaper or easier:

    http://www.emuunlim.com/VirtualE/spec001.htm Same thing seems to be hacked to: http://www.vr32.de/modules/workshop/?02

  3. Posted

    I'm sorry for the delays, it has been things out of my control, it's terribly sad I haven't been able to finish any more carts now that I've been free from work.

     

    This is what has happened lately:

     

    I had set up my little line of assembly and made a small batch of carts but when testing things went wrong, I finally understood that I had managed to break a few logic circuits and I couldn't understand why, checked the soldering very careful (as it's now almost all surface mounted circuits it takes a steadier hand), couldn't find anything wrong and after checking the pcb for bridges or defects of any kind I tried one cart more, same result...

     

    After some extensive testing, de- and re-soldering and measuring I finally discovered that the surface mounted resistors were of the wrong value, I had gotten resistors 1/10 of the ordered value and I hadn't noticed - hard to do when you don't really expect it... Drawing 10 times more current per output isn't recommended, that's why the resistors are there...

     

    Luckily none of the expensive circuits broke (they built fine circuits in the 70/80:s) so it's fixable.

     

     

    The day before yesterday I got a short message from my supplier that all their packages sent out in one week of December have gotten stuck in the Chinese customs and that they (the people in the Chinese customs) were going to open all packages from that week manually and check them. They promised increasing discounts if it took too long - if it took 60 days I would get my money back...

     

     

    So - I ordered new parts from an extremely more expensive supplier yesterday, I'm expecting shipment via UPS no later than Tuesday.

    I have also extended my leave from my main job this week and plan to finish all ordered Multi-Carts this week unless I'm swamped with work from my other job, there are a few things I need to do but it should be feasable.

     

     

    New plan is to start shipping next week, I'll build one cart at the time from start to finish instead so that the people early on the list don't have to wait much longer. Total building time will be longer but I understand if the early buyers are starting to get a little impatient.

     

    Again, I'm sorry for the delay - I hope it's worth the wait.

  11. Posted

    Hi guys, sorry for the delay, I've been swamped with work and there has been some troubles with the PCB-manufacturer. I've had troubles reaching them and now they have raised the price to almost double of what it was before. So I'm trying to save up some more money (hopefully I'll get a few more orders and it'll be solved that way) and in the meantime I'm also looking for a cheaper alternative. I could have them made locally at about five times the cost - but that really doesn't feel like an option.

     

    So hang in there they'll get to you asap.

     

    BTW. Toymailman should have gotten his, it has been sent a few weeks ago.

  13. Posted

    Any progress here or just fantasies?

     

    If anyone has a working but worn loose thumbstick (whole package) I'm interested in getting one. I bought a controller dirt cheap with a defective one and when I opened it up they had melted the cogs on the bottom black part in an attempt to fix it I guess.

     

    LMK if you've got one.

  19. Posted · Edited by e5frog

    Hello,

     

    the Retro-gaming Connexion association (RGC)is interesting to buy Pac-man.

     

    I read in Revival magazine than if we have an old Chairchil cartridge, the price is low. is right ?

     

    (sorry for my poor english)

     

    Thank you for your response.

     

    There's currently no shortage for shells so I guess I could knock off $5 from the price, but as you'd have to pay postage to ship it it's not really worth it.

     

    So, cart, box and instructions: $69.95.

  20. Posted

    I restarted Mozilla FF, cleared the cache and reloaded Atariage.com, no difference. "Use Full Editor"-button still does nothing. I'm using Mozilla Firefox 3.5.3.

     

    I tried Internet Explorer 8.0.6001.18702 and it doesn't work there either, it reports an error on the page after pressing the "Use Full Editor"-button.

     

    This is the error, sorry, it's in Swedish but I think the error is probably understandable anyway:

     

    Detaljerad information om felet på webbsidan

     

    Användaragent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 5.1; Trident/4.0; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.4506.2152; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; AskTB5.2)

    Tidsstämpling: Thu, 1 Oct 2009 11:16:44 UTC

     

     

    Meddelande: Object required

    Rad: 1105

    Tecken: 1

    Kod: 0

    URI: http://www.atariage.com/forums/public/min/index.php?charset=iso-8859-1&f=public/js/ipb.js,public/js/ips.quickpm.js,public/js/ips.editor.js,public/js/ips.topic.js,cache/lang_cache/1/ipb.lang.js

  23. Posted · Edited by e5frog

    EDIT:

     

    The Sonar Search I found was not a new version, there was eight bytes missing a little more than half way through the first half of the dump.

     

    It wasn't even playable - which I should have checked of course.

     

    It seems I need to look over the dumper code, it was a very strange place to miss data. I had the same dump with four different carts so I thought it was OK...

     

     

     

    I'll remove it again from the Multi-Cart code... *sigh*

     

     

     

     

     

     

    I found an earlier version of Sonar Search today when I dumped some carts, there are (so far) a version before week 45 1978 and one from week45 1978. The later version is previously known and dumped. Here's the zipped binary.

     

     

     

     

    I updated the Multi-Cart and added both versions of Sonar Search, also changed the numbering to only be present on actual released cart versions, so there's 36 different dumped carts and a bunch of other software as well. Pac-Man is not listed as a cart since it's not the full cart version (no intermission animations nor intermission music).

     

    Here's the new full list:

    CART 01 TIC-TAC-TOE

    CART 02 DESERT FOX

    CART 03 BLACK JACK

    CART 04 SPITFIRE

    CART 05 SPACE WAR

    CART 06 MATH QUIZ 1

    CART 07 MATH QUIZ 2

    CART 08 MAGIC NUMBERS

    CART 09 DRAG RACE

    CART 10 MAZE

    CART 11 BACKGAMMON

    CART 12 BASEBALL

    CART 13 ROBOT WAR

    CART 14 SONAR SEARCH

    CART 15 MEMORY MATCH

    CART 16 DODGE-IT

    CART 17 PINBALL

    CART 18 HANGMAN

    CART 19 CHECKERS

    CART 20 VIDEO WHIZBALL

    CART 21 BOWLING

    CART 22 SLOT MACHINE

    CART 23 GALACTIC S.W.

    CART 24 PRO FOOTBALL

    CART 25 CASINO POKER

    CART 26 ALIEN INVASION

    CART 27 DEMOCART

    CART 28 DEMOCART 2

    CART 29 CHESS

    CART 30 GERMAN CART 1

    CART 31 GERMAN CART 3

    CART 32 GERMAN CART 16

    CART 33 ALT. MAZE

    CART 34 ALT. PINBALL

    CART 35 ALT. SLOT

    GAME LIGHTS OUT

    GAME TETRIS

    GAME PAC-MAN

    SOFTWARE COLORTEST

    SOFTWARE ALT. BIOS

    SOFTWARE BIOS

    GAME SWE HANGMAN

    SOFTWARE RAMTEST

    SOFTWARE RG08 PAC-MAN

    SOFTWARE IK

    SOFTWARE TEST CONTROLS

    SOFTWARE F8 OF NATIONS

    SOFTWARE SCROLLING MT:S

    PROTOTYPE DRAW POKER

    PROTOTYPE COLOR ORGAN

    PROTOTYPE FOOTBALL

    PROTOTYPE GALACTIC S.W.

    PROTOTYPE SPITFIRE

    • Like 1

  24. Posted

    Awesome flyers dude. Yeah, I always though the system poped up in 76 and was dead by the end of 77....maybe 78 at the latest. Didn't know it was around over 5 years.

     

    Knowledge is power :P

     

     

    It seems the later carts were mostly offered to registered customers to buy via mail order - someone who bought them at the time probably knows exactly.

  25. Posted · Edited by e5frog

    BTW here's the back:

    post-10242-125405861662_thumb.jpg

     

    The pamphlet that came with it:

    post-10242-125405866096_thumb.jpg

    post-10242-125405867935_thumb.jpg

     

    This is were we see the title "Casino Royale" and strange graphics that wasn't in the final version.

     

     

     

    ... and the envelope:

    post-10242-125405872579_thumb.jpg

     

     

    I think I got them from FND - he's good with the paperworks...

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