adamantyr
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Posts posted by adamantyr
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the aliens move too fast then line up and you die.. until you are out of lives.. everybody dies.. nobody wins made for a very short high score contest
I never noticed the score, honestly.
The fact it has no variation and no difference is definitely an issue.-
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Unfortunately, once you get it working you will soon discover super Demon Attack isn’t super at all. In fact, it’s a rushed to market incomplete game which is impossible to play beyond the second boss level. Someone decided to produce those cartridges before the game was finished. One of the worst TI cartridges IMHO which is a shame because it has beautiful graphics.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Really? I never got far in the 2nd phase simply because the aliens moved too fast, but I felt like it was pretty awesome and I got my money's worth out of it.
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Okay, I got a PAL TV from Germany on it's way to me.
The TV is 230 volts, 50hz, 43 watts. Can anyone tell me exactly what kind of transformer or adapter I will need to power it safely please? Links to amazon or other sites are welcome.
This one sounds like it would do, but a vote of confidence before I spend money would be nice: https://www.amazon.com/LiteFuze-LC-300US-300Watt-Voltage-Converter/dp/B00BQ0FQ4S/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?keywords=230v%2Btransformer&qid=1558306886&s=gateway&sprefix=230v%2Btrans&sr=8-4&th=1&psc=1
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Hey friend, i built some cables,
tried on my monitor/TV and works great
IMG_20190518_174847.jpg IMG_20190518_175100.jpg IMG_20190518_185141.jpgIf you think it could be help you PM me
I'll let you know. The problem is, even getting a component TV nowadays is a challenge, most TV's now only have a composite (if that) and HDMI.
That said, it's a nice cable, but I imagine the work involved plus the cost of international shipping may get up there a bit in price.
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The cartridge came "tested"? I recall Super Demon Attack had a lot of issues on mine, I had to remove and replug it several times to get it to work.
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In a pitch, you can use windex and a q-tip to clean the contacts.
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Wasn't your whole goal to get clearer video from a PAL TI? That's not going to happen with the RF input to a TV of any kind. From what I've read, you have modify the PAL RF modulator to get access to the composite signal, which you can then connect to that Magnavox studio monitor you have. You can see where the composite signal is located in the image in this post. I would offer to do the modification for you, but I'm down in Portland, and you would need to bring the PAL TI and monitor to test.
Not actually, my goal was to SEE the TI running in a PAL format. Running on a regular TV using the modulator is fine, that's basically what every TI user in Europe had unless they heavily modded it or got some custom cable.
The TV I may be able to get looks like it's from Germany, so it should work with the standard PAL modulator which was optimized for the European standard and not the UK. Hopefully anyway. I'll find out Monday if I can get it.
Someone should really edit the top of this thread with a list of everything a U.S. 99'er would have to do to get a PAL TI working. It's not trivial.
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Using the TI PAL modulator...
About the time the TI came out TV sets sold in the UK began to work well with a either a 50Hz or a 60Hz signal, as the tv sets were able to lock onto the frequencies well. My present CRT tv set is perfectly happy with an input of 50 or 60Hz.
There was a long standing issue in the UK with television sets made for the UK market not working too well with the UK TI99/4a. You could tune the TI sound in perfectly OR you could tune the TV picture in well. To get something approaching good meant VERY fine tuning of the tv channel, and if you got the sound perfect with no hum, the picture was probably rolling or there was colour loss etc.
This was designed in by TI. The PAL modulators were made for European PAL. The BBC chose to have their own version of PAL for the UK standard and there was a wider audio bandwidth. Or to put it another way, on the TI modulators of the day the sound channel was too close to the picture channel to play nicely with UK tv sets....
The UK used PAL STANDARD I while Europe used PAL STANDARD B or G - B and G used different bandwidths but the distance between image and sound was the same. The BBC wanted better quality sound so the sound channel in standard I was 0.50 MHz adrift of Standards B and G.,
I suspect this may be your problem with the RF signal. There is no ready answer except to tweak the fine tuning on the tv set- most sets had a manual fine tune opton. And compromise. Most folks preferred a good picture.
There's no fine tuning on this TV... just a channel detector. I ran that, it found 33 and 34 for the TI, and a bunch of digital channels. (Vizio, if it helps.)
Also, I think the fact it's B/W with splotchy artifacts of color is indicative that the color bands aren't being handled properly. Per "system information" it considers the channel 34 on antenna to be NTSC. So it's clearly NOT detecting it's a PAL signal or compensating. And no, there's no manual option to change it.
I think my last test here will be to acquire a PAL TV if I can (I'll know by Monday if I can get one), and test on that. It will require me to buy a transformer/converter for the TV.
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Back in the 80es, my dad had adjusted one of his TV sets to be able to receive AFN television in Germany. On all other TVs, the picture was rolling because of the 60Hz, and it was black and white, and sound was missing, if I remember correctly, but on this one we could watch and listen, but in b/w only.
Yeah, I'm guessing with older TV's, you NEED to have an actual PAL 50hz TV. Maybe a modern one would work, I'll test it sometime this weekend.
EDIT: Tested it, the modern TV doesn't have a sync issue, but there's no sound, it's black and white, and there's TONS of nasty artifacts going on, little blips and splotches all over. This picture looks better than it is.
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Some pics of it in action:
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You don't happen to have a newer flatscreen TV with analog tuner? The test that I made at the start of this thread was with a Samsung monitor/TV (LE19B450). Chances are that those devices are multi-norm.
I do, but reaching the antenna port would be a major hassle, and the TV is huge so it's not really going to show me how it looks in comparison to my regular TI monitor.
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That shouldn't make any difference, provided the VCR works.
Inside such a modulator, it's usually possible to fine tune the channel it uses. That's intended for television sets with fixed channel steps, where tolerances may imply that the two devices can't perfectly match their channels. If the TV looks at channel 36.3 and the modulator outputs 35.8, some fine tuning is necessary.
I've never needed to do that, so I can't say for sure if, and then how, you do that with the TI modulator.
There is no VCR here. Nothing worked with that, so I had to go to a TV I had that is ALSO a VCR but has an antenna in, so I could just directly hook up to it. There's no composite cable involved right now whatsoever.
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The RF modulator for European consoles is supposed to emit an antenna signal, tuned to UHF channel 36. That antenna signal should include both the image and the sound.
You can look at a picture of such a modulator. The channel number is printed on the label. This particular one has been modified to output composite video and sound on two separate coax ports (one BNC and one RCA connector).
It's an unmodified PAL modulator, so it says it's tuned to channel 36 UHF on the label. As I switched the TV closer to 36 the sound changed as it got closer to the band. Channel 34 was the only one that rendered any image, the rolling black and white.
My VCR/TV is from the 90's so it may be one of those TV's that just doesn't work with the older standards. Unless someone has a better theory?
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Okay, an update...
I had to order a PAL Male to RF adapter part so I could hook up the PAL Modulator to a US TV or VCR.
Unfortunately, on the VCR, I get nothing. I happen to have an old VCR/TV combo that has an antenna in, so I hooked up to that directly.
That works, but the ONLY channel that comes through is channel 34, and it shows a rolling black and white picture of the TI screen. So even if the VCR COULD go to channel 34, it would probably show the same.
On the plus side, the console is confirmed working. On the down side, I still don't have a clear and useful picture.
And based on what I know of the standard, it may be my TV doesn't have a PAL compatible mode or something.EDIT: I'm following a lead to perhaps acquire a 14" TV that's PAL. It will require a transformer to use, but at least I could hook up to it directly.
I'm okay with a TV because by the look of things TV's are what 99'ers have been using pretty much forever outside of the states. Because there are no other options.
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Sorry, my F18A console is a modified PAL console, and I use that cable for the audio. Otherwise I would be happy to sell it since I rarely use a stock PAL console (because my games run too slow at 50Hz).
Shucks. I was hoping you maybe weren't using it anymore since getting an F18A.
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Hey Adam
the cable that Rasmus showed you, you can also build it yourself, have you seen the diagram that I posted a little above?
http://atariage.com/forums/topic/195510-eu-6-pin-av-cable/page-2?do=findComment&comment=3971397
I could help you to have one but i am living in Italy, maybe someone from USA could be easier and cheaper
Anyway some of the LCD i tried it are not compatible with that signal, for this reason them are no longer made from the ebayer seller, he has too much problems with users that purchased cables.
I have tried it on various brands of TV, mainly: Relisys, Sony, Samsung, United
all Samusng TV/monitor i tried it was not working (out of range, Signal not recognized or showed with glitches)
on some of the sony i tried it worked and the same on most of the chinese not famous branded TV.
I'm not a hardware guy, so no, I can't build my own. Which is why I said if someone can make one to give me a price quote for the work. (In the other thread I think.)
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All pieces are still sold, I am quite sure. Good soldering iron (and some romantic feelings for soldering cables to plugs)...
If someone with the tools and skills wants to figure the cost of parts and labor and testing and make me one, give me a quote!
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I tried this mod and the result was a very bad rolling picture. I think I ended up damaging the modulator. But apparently it's working for some people.
Yeah, that would be a legit fear of mine as well. If the modulator breaks, this TI is for me just a nice door stop.
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I have this cable that I can use to connect a PAL console to the component input of my Sony Bravia TV with quite good results. The color are a bit off but the image is very sharp. (I have a feeling we have been over this before
.) Yeah, I'd LOVE to have that cable, I could do a lot more with it. Unfortunately they are no longer made.
If you're interested in selling it let me know!
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Good to finally find posts on the modulator modifications, many of the links from the prior thread 404'ed on the subject.
I'm not a hardware guy, though, so I'd have to find someone who could do the modification for me.
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Hey I just picked up a PAL TI, but I have no way of viewing anything at the moment. My only present method is to use a VCR as a converter from coax to composite, which I'll be able to test tomorrow.
It's too bad we can't make an 6-pin RGB cable that's compatible with the old Magnavox monitors... I considered buying a commodore serial 6-pin cable to mess with, but I realized it would be way above my skill level (None) to create, plus you'd have to split off a second cable for audio, so that's a heck of a lot of cable work. And the Tech Pages mention about needing an encoder suggests JUST a cable isn't enough.
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I'm doing some research, but I need help here before I spend any more money on this.
I see that PAL male to F-type adapters exist, but that would in this case only allow me to hook it up to a TV's antenna port, if I understand it correctly.
To hook it up to a composite monitor with A/V cables, I'd have to still have a coaxial adapter and THEN also use a second RF modulator to split it to the requisite cables.
Anyone here of a cable-making hardware mind-set that is up to the challenge of making a 6-pin DIN composite monitor cable? I'd gladly pay for one...
EDIT: Nevermind, I see this isn't possible because the 6-pin DIN would require an extremely customized cable with an RGB 6-pin style connector AND an audio cable. Plus, at least according to the TI Tech Pages: "The Y, R-Y and B-Y video signals from the TMS9928A and TMS9929A require an external encoding circuitry to drive a RGB monitor." It sounds like I should just live with trying to convert a coax cable to coaxial then composite.
Further EDIT: It appears that there is no such thing as a coaxial to composite adapter. They ALL go the other way. Apparently the ONLY way I can actually view it is to use an old VCR, which fortunately I have, which can take an antenna signal in and then convert it to the composite ports.
I'd love to get one of the custom component video cables, but it appears they are out of stock and no longer being made.
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Okay, I got the PAL TI today. As stated here, a regular US Power supply works fine with it.
However, I can't figure out how you hook up the RF modulator to a monitor? It just has one white cable with what LOOKS like a composite male pin, but it's a little too small. Plus, no audio at all. Do I need to get a PAL monitor cable from somewhere?
EDIT: Based on the discussion on this thread here, I see that no composite video cable for the TI was ever made for PAL version. That rather sucks.
http://atariage.com/forums/topic/195510-eu-6-pin-av-cable/
So now I'm left with, how the hell do I use this? NONE of my composite monitors have a compatible connector. Incidentally, I have the older PAL modulator, the silver and black box variety.
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I'd like that, the Vancouver library worked pretty well. Decent facilities close by too.
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TI-99/4a disk-based CRPG
in TI-99/4A Development
Posted
Well for the moment, all the monster graphics are done! Some may get tweaked here and there but that's relatively easy to do compared to a complete redo.
The final couple dungeons of the 3rd world disk are taking forever... I'm grinding away though!