Hornpipe2

While that would let me connect to the antenna/cable jack on the back of the TV, the quality would no doubt be worse than using composite. I was hoping to find a hookup that preserves the (relatively) high quality of the s-video signal. I have not actually tried the Composite input on the new TV yet. When I compared composite to s-video on the old CRT, there was definitely a noticeable difference. I find "dot crawl" to be very distracting. I guess I'll just have to live with composite, though, until I can spare some change for one of these: http://www.google.com/products?q=%22s-video+to+vga%22&scoring=p or enough time to build this: http://elm-chan.org/works/sc/report.html

You might be able to cut some new rubber caps out of a disused PC keyboard...?

My wife and I bought a big plasma TV for our Christmas gift, and I'd like to hook up some of my old consoles to see what they look like on a 50" screen. Sadly, the TV does not have S-Video hookups... just lots of component, HDMI, and composite! And since most of my old systems don't support RGB or Component Out, this leaves me stuck with an inferior picture. Since S-Video is Y/C and Component is Y/Cb/Cr surely there must be a cheap way to break the Chroma signal into two color components? I see some solutions online but they run into the $150 price range. EDIT: Oh I also have a VGA input on this too, so an S-Video to VGA adapter would work fine too. Those seem to be available at a cheaper price ($60-70).

Exactly. I had a similar container format idea. But what I had in mind was chunk based, something like: Container signature followed by chunks in the form of: Chunk signature Chunk size Chunk data And in the simplest model there would be a geometry chunk followed by a raw data chunk. Why chunk based? So we can add information like CRC code, disk information (like copyright or created by etc.) and even application specific information if we allocate some part of the chunk signature for this purpose. i.e. computer emulators could store compatiblity info in there (OS revision, stereo pokey emulation etc.) The simplest program would skip through the chunks until it finds the geometry and raw data. If it can't find raw data, it's probably either copy protected or compressed for example. Of the various suggestions offered so far I like this one best. 4-character signature ("HEAD", "DATA", "GEOM" etc), then uint32 length, and then raw data. I've worked with chunky file formats before and they were so easy to use.

To answer your last question: try the Super Video mods on this page: http://www.wolfpup.net/atarimods/supervid.html ETA: this might not apply to PAL...

Here is a thread which describes two different ways to add indicator LEDs to your FB2 for difficulty and power: http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/114906-adding-leds

That's simply amazing! Have you tried it already? No, I haven't... the chip required is pretty expensive ($40-60), though it may be possible to source a cheaper one that does the same thing. I don't have a stereo receiver with Digital In to use it with, though. First priority for me would be getting component cables anyway : ) That same site hosts another hack that lets you get RGB out of the component cables, if you don't mind hacking them up. You could use that for RGB TVs, SCART hacks, or hooking to a VGA monitor. http://gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=av:gamecube_rgb

If you're feeling really dangerous adventurous, you can build a little circuit to get S/PDIF digital audio out of your Gamecube! The inside of the 'cube is tight, but there might be enough room to squeeze this inside. Would make it sound even better than the Wii. Maybe there's a similar Wii hack out there? http://gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=av:nintendogcda

When I sell Nintendo games on eBay I usually throw in the description "Has the official Nintendo Seal of Quality on the label, so you know it's good!" : )

You can transfer your Mii to a Wii Remote. Nothing else. Saves and things like that are saved to the Wii's internal memory or an SD Card. WiiConnect24 is largely for updating. It means the Wii can update itself any time, even when it's shut off. You can completely turn off the Wii (including WiiConnect24) by holding down the power button when you go to turn it off. The power light should turn orange/red. I'm PRETTY sure yellow means the console is inactive but WiiConnect24 is still running. Green means the Wii and WiiConnect24 are both running. I'd have to check my Wii manual to be sure. WiiConnect24 basically enables the "blue drive light" when you get a message and the console is off... so you know when an update happens, or one of your friends has sent you a message. Pretty useless I guess. I leave mine on anyway because the blue light is just so inviting.

Nice collection, I like the assembled displays. My advice: start trolling CL / freecycle / etc. for a used bigger CRT TV! A collection like that needs a bigger TV to play it on : )

My favorite card-themed game for GC was Lost Kingdoms (I had the sequel briefly but didn't get much chance to play it). It's an RPG, the main character assembles a deck of cards and uses them in battle to summon monsters / magic attacks / etc. I remember it seemed to lack balance and polish in some areas but overall it was engaging enough for me to play all the way through.

Had it briefly and sold it. I liked the game for the first couple hours, never tried it online though, but it just didn't hold my interest at the time. Maybe I was too busy to give it a fair chance. I loved PSO I and II though, maybe I'll give it another chance. Hey, if you were online gaming with the PSO I and II, does that mean you're on a private server somewhere? I've considered joining one, but I don't think it would be any fun without friends on it too.

YOOMP!

Yes! The term for what you're trying to do is "image stitching" (or "panorama stitching" or something similar). Basically, you put the camera on a tripod, then rotate it around and take a picture every 60-90 degrees or so, and then use a software app to blend them into one long image. Then you'd need some kind of 360 degree viewer that you could load the photo into. I've never tried it before but I know the tools are out there. Hopefully, at least some are free : )

Before this goes any further: the Gamecube hardware actually outputs some kind of RGB through the Digital Out port. GC component cables actually contain a custom Nintendo chip to process the special data into YCbCr (component). There is no Component Out from the GC. Hence... * Wii component cables can't be used on the GC, * N64 / SNES / etc. don't have useful component cables either, and * There are no third party Gamecube Component Cables available, as the custom chip is proprietary (and embedded within the Wii to provide component out from the console!) Thus the insanely high cost! To answer your question though: source If you haven't gone S-Video though and you don't mind playing in interlaced, that's a solution that will get you 90% of the way there re: image quality without the extreme expense... ETA: or play your GC games on a Wii with component out?

I'm so burnt out on the "portable consoles" idea. Most cases can spare room for stuffing in Ye Olde PS1 5" LCD (and those that don't, duct-tape it to the top!) It's gotta be really top-notch workmanship to capture my attention any more. Like this one, for example: http://showcase.benheck.com/marshallh_multari_65.html

Um... if that's a FB2 then could be worth it, but the Flashback is probably not good for $15 : )

If he's OK with a Gamecube game instead, I highly recommend TimeSplitters: Future Perfect. I think it's got some of the same team that worked on GoldenEye back in the day, this one's got co-op multiplayer, vehicles and a really good soundtrack by Graeme Norgate : ) Of course it came out in 2005 so it's 4 years old. Maybe throw a used copy in the stocking, and get something else? It's cheap now. EDIT: Crap, it's rated M. Never mind. It's just for violence though I'm sure... there's no adult situations or excessive foul language in this that I remember. +1 for the Metroid Prime series.

Too bad... Outrun is my favorite racing game of all time! The feel of the whole thing really sucks me in - no competition, just cruising along a beach while a comfy smooth jazz soundtrack plays in the background. But then I'm a total sucker for 2d parallax racers anyway. Lotus Turbo Challenge on the Genesis isn't bad... Lotus II RECS loses a bit of appeal as the randomly generated courses aren't as detailed as the original. Plus I think the challenge has gone down.

Map tiles get a bit confusing, because tilesets are actually stored across four files. However, they are somewhat better documented because a lot was shared between those and Warcraft II. Here's documentation on War2: http://cade.datamax.bg/war2x/wc2tile.html The main difference is that Warcraft II, megatiles are 32x32 (made of 16 8x8 Minitiles) whereas War1 is 16x16 (4 8x8 minitiles). .gfx (or in War2BNE or newer, .grp) graphics files are arbitrary sizes and stored in a different format, but it is identical to War1/War2. These are used for unit, building, and spell images. Here's a Google cache of info from Starcraft on how those work. Stratlas loads only the first frame of GRP files, making it mostly useless to you : ) http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:Y86P9TJ-nSUJ:mediasrv.ns.ac.yu/extra/fileformat/games/grp/grp.txt+starcraft+grp+file+format&hl=en&gl=us&strip=1 Good luck!

Latest version is much easier. 18,431

Good idea - see if you can swap all those sealed ones for loose versions, and ask them to throw in some extra stuff : )

To Rom Hunter: According to this thread in the 2600 HSC, the oldest known proto of Dumbo's Flying Circus is flagged as the Original in collection v5. The most complete version is actually Dumbo's Flying Circus (07-11-1983) (Atari, Jerome Domurat, Peter C. Niday) (CX26115) (Prototype) (PAL) - I suggest moving the tilde to this one for the next release of the collection. ETA: Things keep getting stranger... the version marked Original is NTSC, while the later protos are PAL. (AtariAge has it listed as an NTSC release though the final proto has 286 scanlines). Thoughts?

No wonder my score is so much lower, haha. I was using the version marked as original in Rom's Collection, but that's the oldest (5/5/1983). AtariAge hosts the latest (7/11/1983). I'll let Rom know to change the filenames. ETA: I see what happened... the 5/5/1983 version is NTSC, while the later ones are PAL!