Artlover

It's been awhile since I opened an Atari 2600 PS. Most cheap transformers that output DC have a small half-wave bridge rectifier inside of them. Sometimes they go bad, in which case replacing it will fix it. Some power supplies also have thermisiters to shut them off if they get too hot. These also go bad sometimes. They can also be replaced, but I generaly just bypass them all together. (Bypass at your own risk.) If the actual transformer is bad, it could also be replaced I suppose, but at this point it would be cheaper to buy a new unit, and would be pointless to bother with. Cheap power supplies suck. Thats all there is to it. Commodore made some really bad ones, then filled the things with that potting compound. Egads, I hated that crap. 1581 power supply was like that. First, it used a conventional 1watt to-220 case 5+ volt regulator as a rectifier instead of a bridge rectifier or diode network. To bump the voltage up to 5volts (running AC into a regulator produces less output voltage), they put a resisitor between the regulator & ground. Needless to say, these things typicaly burned out within 6 months. I cracked the case open, spent hours chipping away the potting compound till I got to the board, copied the circuit board (which I broke into 4 pieces), re-used all the good parts I didn't break, and made my own, with 3 minor changes. #1: rectified the voltage before the 5+ regulator. #2: used a 3watt to-3 cased regulator. #3: used a big plastic quick-box to mount it in w/no potting compound. Has worked for the last decade with no problems.

I personaly like any old generic "Glue-Stick" type glue for stuff like that.

BTW: As far as the keyboard question, yes. Microsoft has a USB Keyboard adaptor. It's free with purchase Phantasy Star Online. Or you can build your own. Nothing to it since the 4 controller ports are standard USB.

I've seen this on many a system. There are many reasons at work here. Why are dupe topics bad? Duplicate posts are a waste of space, litterly. Why does there need to be 1050 identical threads on why Pac-Man for the 2600 sucks? It's easy to say "it doesn't bother me", or "just don't read it" when it isn't your space being taken up by the stuff. (How many pac-man sucks" threads have we had just this month. 3 or something?) Sure, it's small. And with compression is even smaller. But then this BBS also has to store, log, and track it. So it's making info a data files and/or making existing ones larger. And it all adds up after awhile. Just getting more space ultimatly isn't the answer. Who creates them? Lasy people who simply can not be bothered to do a "search". People who don't pay attention and don't even notice there is a search option. People who know there is a search, but can't figure out how to use it. I propose a solution, I don't think has been seen anywhere, at least I haven't. Create a mod or patch or something so that when a user hits "submit" on their new subject, that the system automaticly does a quick title search, and if it finds any matches, prompt the user. Say, "x many simmilar topics already exist. Submit any way? (y/n)". I'm sure that will stop at least a few duplicated topics.

So much for 3 days.... I assumed that my order would have been proccessed some time the next day, which would have been Wedensday. Making for a Friday, or at worse a Saturday delivery. I checked my account and discovered they didn't proccess my order till Thursday. So at best, I'll get it Monday.

TI99/4A - Dark Orange w/black text Vic-20 - Purple w/white text C-64 - Green w/white text Collecovision - Light yellowish Orange w/black text Intellivision - Dark Pink w/black text IBM PC - Blue w/white text Apple II - Red w/white text ZX Specturm - Cyan w/white & black text. Am I forgetting any?

Wow, this is the first time I've seen this document. Odd, with all the searching I did. This just explained why I could never get a home-brewed 8k cart to work. Thanks.

$199 and you are getting more then $199 worth of hardware. P3-733, nVidia GeForce video (1920x1080 - 116.5m/sec polygons), 8gig or better HD, 64meg ram, 10/100 ethernet, 256 channel (64 3d channels) stereo dolby 5.1 audio. But mostly because it makes for a cheap instant webserver. Buy Xbox, Install mod chip, Boot linux and run Apache. Can't get much cheaper. Even if you built your own striped down PC for a server, wouldn't end up being much cheaper if at all. And the rates for leasing commerical webspace can still get downright insane.

Yeah, I doubted that I could do a real analog rotary controller for it, but what I was thinking was a dirty little pseudo work-around. Press Left, and the blaster moves clockwise, and Right moves it counter clockwise. So, throw together a simple decoder circuit to read which direction the driving controller is being turned, and use that to trigger either a left or right pressed responce. Wouldn't have any speed control, or aim-by-feel responce, but would atleast give me something just a little more intuative then a joypad. Kind of a shame they didn't put analog control into the Saturn release. Being able to use the 3D analog stick would have been an acceptable compromise.

Really? I never hear of that. I'll take your word for it. Of course, Apple didn't revolutionize anything. Decent computers, but nothing revolutionary about them. Their big thing was that commercial back in the 80's. Microsoft stole Windows from Apple, who stole it from Xerox, who stupidly didn't think anything would come out of these computers & gui's. If Xerox had only developed it, imagine what could have been.....

Thanx. Ordered and will be here in 3 days.

I liked the "Grave in a Jar" add-on for the Ghost in a Jar.

I found there are a lot of resources on the net on making (improvising) your own rotary controller with the help of an Atari 2600 driving controller. Google search for: 'Jaguar Rotary Control'. Looks easy, albeit a bit cheezy. But whatever works, eh. I gotta see if I can do something like that for my Saturn, playing tempest with a joypad blows!

Woo woo. Picked up Tempest 2000 at GameXchange for $14.95. Also picked up Nights into Dreams w/analog controller. Also for $14.95.

Not exactly correct. The original Model 1 Genesis will work with either model Sega CD unit just fine. The original front loading model 1 SegaCD that the Model 1 Genesis sat on top of still connected to the Genny's side port via a right angle stick-up connector on the right side of the CD unit. It had a 1/8" stereo audo-in jack that connected to the Genesis's headphone jack to allow the Genny's sound to be passed through the CD unit. The second top-loading model 2 SegaCD came with a base extension to screw on to the base section to give it the same footprint as an original Genesis. It also had a 1/8" stereo audio-in jack to connect to a model 1 Genesis's headphone jack. Both CD units came with the 1/8" stereo patch cable for connecting model 1 Genesis audio. Model 2 Sega Geneis's do not officaly work with an original top-loading SegaCD unit. They will, but you won't get Genesis generated sound. This is because the model 2 Genesis has audio-out on the expansion connector and no headphone connector, where-as the model 1 Genesis doesn't have expansion port audio-out, and does have a headphone connector. The model 2 SegaCD was built to use either one (expansion audio-out, or patch cable from the headhpone jack), but the original model 1 SegaCD only supported the headphone patchcable. But if you make your own cable, you can still use them together. If I remember, you just need to tap off the audio-out points of the model 2 Genesis, and route them to a 1/8" stereo plug to connect to the model 1 SegaCD, and you should be all set. I also believe the metal RF shield/mounting plate of the model1 SegaCD will not mate up with a model 2 Genesis correctly, so you won't have to bother with attaching it. You may or may-not have RF issues. The SegaCD's & Genesis's were all pretty hit or miss about that. Some needed the plate, some didn't.

All this Saturn talk made me set mine up again. Couldn't find the power cord, but the dreamcast one fits. Was playing Panzer Dragon, and oh my god, I forgot how bad the "pop-in" problem was... Flying over the stupid flower/enemy spawn thingys, in seemingly open ocean... Don't blink cuz the walls & cave entrence just suddenly showed up. I have to give kudos to Sonic R that atleast tried to do a fade in/out whenever possible.

If I remember correctly, the original Saturn design was 2d only, and they threw 3d capabilities in later down the road of it's development. Also remember, in Japan the Saturn & PSX were developed & released at about the same time. So I think they had, or could have had, an idea as to what was needed. Thats probably what prompted them to hack in the 3D stuff. Most of it's specs arn't that far off from the PSX. Sega released the Saturn in the US a bit early in an effort to beat the Sony PSX out, but that backed fired. Because of the price, some retailers refused to buy into it, leaving gaps in avaialblity. This also gave Sony an edge to see how the unit was received here, prepair their marketing campaign better, and have more game titles avaialble at launch.

How exactly did this turn into the "best games for Saturn" thread? I dont think anyone is denying that it had some good games. EVERY console has it's share of them. Good games, and zealot fanaitism (is that a word?) aside... For what it was, what it cost, and what it was competing against, was it a smart business decision to bother with it?

Well, personaly, I don't think the Saturn was all that great. It's specs were a little worse then the Playstation, but was $100 more expencive ($399). The whole Saturn fiasco also hurt the Dreamcast. While the Dreamcast was much better, and cheap ($199), it suffered from the Saturn's "Overpriced, yet inferiour" legacy. The PS2 comming out didn't help either.

Hmmm. Well, replacing the cap wont hurt. It's primary purpose is to filter/smooth out the power from the wall transformer and to provide a momentary source of power if for some reason the wall transform has a drop. However, a bad cap can do odd stuff. Maybe it's discharging in spikes and hurting the regulator. Maybe the wall transformer is passing a lot of AC. Or maybe something downstream from the regulator is going bad, and causing a short. Take a look at the Atari 2600 schematics that are here on AtariAge, and look at the power circuit part (bottom center of the schematic), specificly after the regulator. If this was the case, I would suspect the 4.7u/50v cap or 4050. But lets not get ahead of ourselfs here. Replace the cap, and I'd also suggest getting another regulator and replacing it again too at the same time.

Well, for what it's worth, the CG was hacked last year, and people were playing burned DVD's on it. They didn't give any details thou about what they did electronicly. Physicaly, they had to remove the mech from the case to use regular DVD's, beyond that, don't know what else. Mod chip's will probably start appearing soon for it thou. What I want to know is, is any one trying to work on a CG emulator for the PC yet?