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Lamer Deluxe tm

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  1. Apologies for the white on black text in my previous message, apparently my dark reader plug-in, that darkens my browser, causes that.
  2. Tom sent me a pair of Daptor PDLs to test if that would solve the paddle jitter problem. They use a different way of reading the paddle resistance. At first I still had the same jitter problem with the PDL adapter. Turned out using a different USB cable fixed that. That same cable still had the jitter problem with the D9 adapter. So the Daptor PDL is a good solution for using original Atari or Commodore paddles on the MiSTer. It has a MiSTer dip switch setting, though from what I understand, the correct range with the 7800 core is still being determined together with Kitrinx.
  3. I know, thanks again for the fast and thorough support with that.
  4. I'm puzzled as well by this. My computer is a brand new desktop PC that I built a few months ago. Like I mentioned it is not grounded. I'm not using the MiSTer firmware yet, I'm still on the January 28th firmware. And I'm using 2600 mode. I got my Daptors a few weeks ago (and reported to you on the Amiga mouse jitter problems).
  5. Not all homes have sockets with ground pins in all rooms. Here in the Netherlands it was common to only have those in the kitchen, up to the eighties or nineties (and most of those homes are still like that today). Also, like someone mentioned, the MiSTer doesn't have a grounded power supply. Neither do my monitors. So even if the sockets did have grounding, it wouldn't help. So it would be great if this could somehow be fixed in the adapters.
  6. I discovered this thread just now. I very thoroughly cleaned my paddle potentiometers today only to find zero jitter improvement when connecting them to my PC, using a Daptor D9 (still on January 28th firmware at the moment). Tried touching the DB9 shielding and the jittering went away, as described here. Then I tried touching the USB connector shielding and got the same jitter-free result. So both grounds are indeed connected. Interestingly, when I touch the metal housing of my keyboard, the jittering also stops. My PC is not grounded, as the sockets here don't have grounding pins. This reminds me of a cheap drawing tablet I used to have for my Amiga, it also jittered a lot, until I grounded my Amiga to the central heating pipes, not an optimal solution.
  7. Sadly, yes. I got a new computer and my VIC-20 went to my brother. He didn't do much with it and sold everything to someone in the neighborhood. I vaguely remember that the Popeye prototype stopped working eventually, I don't think I knew about cleaning cartridge contacts at the time. It had regular EPROMs in there, with stickers on their windows (two for 16K), but I don't expect that to have caused problems. As it didn't work anymore, chances are high that it got thrown away by the new owners.
  8. Sorry for the necro-bump, I came across this post with a Google search. I received two Parker Brothers VIC-20 prototype cartridges in the eighties, from a family friend who worked at an electronics store. They looked like this one, no label but a little white sticker with the name of the game on them. I remember the label as handwritten, but that may be incorrect. One of those games was Q-Bert, which, as far as I can remember was the same as the release version. The other one was Popeye, only the first level was playable, the rest was just static of the level screens. Up to now, I still have never seen any other evidence of the existence of this Popeye port by Parker Brothers. Interesting to know there was a Frogger prototype as well, first time I've seen such a cartridge in the exact same style as mine were.
  9. I brought three of those. One of the Lynx 2 units has a McWill display with VGA output, it is connected to the left monitor. The Lynx 1 has an overclocking switch. The other Lynx II has a small text and autograph of RJ Mical on it, which he wrote after watching my Lynx Boing Ball demos. One of the Lynxes had a Lynx Gamedrive and the other an AgaCart, both for running software from an SD card. I also brought my Lynx game collection of almost all commercially released games. Apart from those I also brought my Atari Portfolio, with a serial port module and a parallel port one, with flat cable, the same as used in Terminator 2 by John Connor to hack the ATM. Another device I brought was my MiSTer FPGA, which can run a lot of Atari machines, like 2600/7800, 5200, 8-bit computers, Lynx, ST/STe and a number of Atari arcade machines. It was a really fun day with lots of creative, friendly, approachable people.
  10. Thanks for the tip! I have used a plastic polish called Displex on CDs before. After how easily my Mine Storm overlay flaked I'm a bit scared of the same thing happening to my other overlays if I tried to polish them. But I could experiment on one that is extremely scratched.
  11. Agreed. As well as completely different colors for some elements. I wonder if this is because of revision or maybe also different factories producing them.
  12. Thanks for that information! Great to have confirmation that this is indeed an original overlay, it is a lot better quality than the one that got damaged. As for the differences between the two Star Ship overlays: The one with the pause button text compared to the other one: The transparent blue is a lot less intense (it is covered in tiny scratches though) The transparent yellow also, but that is a bit harder to see It is slightly more thin More opaque white paint at the back The red of the round logo at the bottom left is opaque instead of transparent The red of the corner brackets inside the yellow square at the center is also opaque instead of transparent Both of these elements are opaque red, not made opaque by white paint at the back 'FIRE POWER' and 'SHIELD STRENGTH' texts are white instead of red. On both overlays these texts don't quite line up with the white paint at the back Blue of the Star Ship logo and overlay border is more of an azure blue than a deep blue Copyright text is the same, but text is more clear at the front. Interestingly it says trademark of Paramount Pictures, even though these are called Star Ship instead of Star Trek. The yellow square overlaps the blue for about 1mm all around, almost no overlap on the other overlay The notch of the overlay is slightly larger The slim white border doesn't align well with the blue border on the right 'PLAYER ONE' and 'PLAYER TWO' have a much thicker black border around the red to the bottom-left and a much thicker blue border to the left. So the different layers don't line up as well on this version in general And again both of these overlays are very old
  13. I was using a Mine Storm overlay I printed myself on a transparency overlay and had laminated. That one is much less clear the the real thing. This new one is the most clear and has no dot patterns. I thought it was a reproduction as well, until I noticed the very obvious differences between the two Star Ship overlays (as well as the overlay and white paint thickness and color intensity differences between different overlays). Both of those Star Ship overlays are old, my first one twenty years old, bought from a collector, the other one was store bought in the eighties by the seller I bought the set from. I went there to pick up the set and the seller told me all about how he played his Vectrex a lot as a kid. I have no reason to believe his or my Star Ship overlays are reproductions. Up to now I've only found an image of a similar Mine Storm overlay with the extra numbers owned by a lady in Sweden.
  14. I recently got a really nice set of 16 Vectrex games with overlays and manuals (and an extra controller). It included the Mine Storm overlay as well, which was awesome, as I had been using one I printed and laminated myself for about twenty years. Sadly, when I tried cleaning it with some lukewarm water and soap, only using my hands to gently rub it, some of the blue coloring flaked off and left a large clear spot near the center of it. Instead of waiting another twenty years, I decided to immediately look for a replacement and found one at a retro store. I received it yesterday, but it is not the same as the one I had. It is thicker, has a much more intense color, the white paint at the back is more opaque (and it doesn't completely reach one of the corners) and the cross hairs at the back are black instead of red. There's no mention of it being a reproduction on it anywhere, but one other difference is a number after the copyright text: 120001-0001 The resulting image is much better colored and really sharp (the old overlay has a lot of micro-scratches of course and this new one is in a really good state). Now if this is a reproduction, it is incredibly well done and I am unable to find out who could have made it. I only found one small image where the overlay had a number and this lady just said she had found an overlay for her Vectrex, seemed to indicate an original one. Another possibility would be that this is another (later) version of the original overlay. I live in the Netherlands, so our Vectrexes are later versions and my model doesn't buzz either for instance. I haven't heard anything about different versions of original overlays, does anyone here know about that? Does anyone here know anything about the added number? Or who could have made this if it is a reproduction? EDIT: Checking my other overlays I notice a variation in thickness and color intensity, white paint thickness as well. I have two Star Ship overlays and they have a number of differences (pause text on one and not the other, red instead of white text), this is very interesting.
  15. I'd need to buy an arm for my monitor to be able to rotate it ? Many displays that can be rotated can only be rotated in one direction though. And I have put my 1084 on its side for vertical arcade games ? I won't do the same with my TV though, lol. I sent FPGAzumSpass some of your old high-color demos when asking him to add flicker blending. I've just tried this with Raiden and interestingly I can play it in horizontal orientation with correct dpad directions, so rotating the monitor wouldn't work in this case. Displaying it vertically on a horizontal monitor will correctly rotate the controls as well. A speed option close to the effect of a 24Mhz Lynx will be added as well, so that would be an option to develop and play games/demos for an overclocked Lynx. I have a Lynx I with a 20Mhz overclock switch, which doesn't work with the Lynx GD, but does with the AgaCart.
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