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BladeJunker

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Posts posted by BladeJunker

  2. Posted

    Thank you Albert for getting the GameDrive on the AA store, the more flash cart options there the better, especially for the Jaguar. I'll be sure to order one asap. ;) Wasn't sure where to ask but is more Jag Pro Controller stock coming in?

  3. Posted

    If it works then leave them, if it doesn't put new ones in. I do think recapping is an opportunity to put better quality caps in than from the factory, sure were a lot of console makers that cheaped out on that component.

     

    I got some old consoles that I'm pretty sure could use some new caps just to clean up AV signal quality, plus other "quality of life" mods. Some parts are custom and precious like ICs, and others like caps aren't.

    • Like 1

  4. Posted

    Just came to praise the inclusion of the no-flicker option switch. Still lots of people that record at 30fps and games with heavy flickering look really bad at that frame rate. I would encourage more people to include that option to aid the feature videos of your games. ;)

    • Like 1

  5. Posted

    That is odd, 18? 🤔That does seem like poor math.

     

    Don't mind keypads but they should have gone with an optional approach, focused on the game controller angle more with keyboards as secondary accessories. Looking back on keypads it seems like the INTV did it best while the rest found it hard to fill all 12 keys much of the time. Been working on some keypad designs and 3x3=9 or even 3x2=6 is plenty for most games that can use hotkeys, 12 is a lot for one player.

    znxe5r9p1b451.jpg

  6. Posted

    On 3/3/2021 at 11:22 PM, phoboz said:

    I am quite happy with the way music sounds now, I will post a new update soon a very cool tune for the ice levels.

    A person called Sergio Enrique Nuñez Stolles is helping me with music, sound fx and graphics, also @SlidellMan has supported with some graphics.

    I like the sound too, just asking to see if anyone was using a CD music option. Oh don't know him but things seem to be going well with the content contributions, SlidellMan seems enthusiastic from what I've seen. :)

     

    Got my Jaguar in today and it works, was listed as untested. 😌 Just FYI on cleaning one, Goo Gone will strip ink off the bottom sticker and the logo ink will come off with IPA. 😬  Despite that it looks great now from the top and would love try your cool game in the near future. ;) 

  8. Posted

    Pretty cool, I like it, the orange fits well with the other colors. :) The CX40 is pretty friendly for stalk buttons being a hollow cylinder that it is strange Atari never tried for them when many other third party makers did.

     

    Same with the face button, with so much symmetry then I wonder why the CX40 didn't have a second button in the other corner for lefties. You'd think Atari would have made something like the Competition Pro eventually but nope.

    • Thanks 1

  9. Posted

    It's a terrible Catch-22 situation for the Jaguar, it could increase it's popularity with a better emulator but it isn't likely to come because the platform wasn't that popular. Can't fix that but let's talk about what could happen with a better emulator.

     

    A larger number of people would actually play Jaguar games, I personally want to play them but getting a console only grew in difficulty the longer I tried and emulation had enough snags that motivation failed from that strain. So you can have interest that just get's snuffed out, so without an easy emulation route most people won't even pick up and try a Jaguar game Ie. AVGN hates it, so I hate it because I don't have a Jaguar to play with.

     

    Certainly would open up programming interest to a greater number of people when the emulator is better, terrible start when it's moderate to poor for emulation. Not that I dislike the current crop of homebrew but it's kind of a lateral movement with the whole Motorola 68K porting going on, I get that this is the path of least resistance, a working solution. However it's like the AmigaCD32 where much of the unique properties of the platform sit idle with mostly direct cross platform porting.

     

    Not the strongest platform for 3D but it certainly isn't friendly enough to attract that kind of programming, kind of like the Saturn in that way. Still I think it would be a good platform for a flat shaded polygon game renaissance.

    However being more pragmatic just having the 2D programming environment grow and improve could help the Jaguar a lot. It has very rich color output where "let's be honest" the original 2D games had more going on in them color wise than ports from elsewhere. So there is at least the stronger potential to have 2D games on par with SS and PS1 titles.

     

    Doesn't solve the entire hardware gap but the GameDrive eventually playing all the CD games does remove at least one obstacle, that being it's even harder to get a JagCD than the original console. Some nice Jag homebrew here on AA but some of it is CD based which is great for production cost but again limited by a lack of functioning/affordable Jag optical drives out in the world.

     

    There's not much I can think of as a solution other than a crowd sourced emulation project where you essentially hire and dedicate somebody to work on a better Jaguar emulator. I'm not even familiar who's shoulder to tap for such a job.

  10. Posted

    Oh the CD game support is present but a tad spotty, look forward to that getting ironed out. ;)  It's kind of a Catch 22 with JagCD, cheaper than cart games to make but finding a working affordable drive is difficult now. Does seem to be the future, at one time I thought a JagCD reproduction might be practical but it's all optical drive emulators now for various pragmatic reasons.

     

    Just started watching "ctrl-alt-rees" and had no idea he was helping with the GameDrive testing, cool. Wow already a lot of CD games running, I'll have to push to get this sooner heh.

    • Like 1

  11. Posted

    On 2/16/2021 at 9:28 AM, ls650 said:

    Speaking for Canada, when packages are mailed in from overseas the import duties and taxes are often ignored.

    I can't remember the last time I had to pay for a package I've received via Canada Post - several years, anyhow.

     

    On the other hand, if someone in another country ships to me via any courier (UPS, Fedex, etc) these private companies love to make sure I pay - and they also make sure to charge a brokerage of $10-$15 on top of that!

    I always urge sellers to ship to me with post and tracking, rather than a courier.

    Oh that helps me some, still new at this, wasn't sure why I was paying additional fees sometimes but not always. :)

  12. Posted

    On 2/15/2021 at 12:24 PM, Albert said:

    No, I want to maintain control over production to make sure everything is consistent.  If I work with a distributor in the UK and/or EU, I would ship them finished games.  However, I would ship boxes flattened, to reduce shipping volume (since boxed games take a lot of space) as well as help prevent boxes from getting damaged. The boxed games could then be assembled at the destination.

     

     ..Al

    That has been the best route for things like that, less a producer of goods but a straight vendor overseas. That seems to be the best bet for global price issues, vendor orders in bulk to save on shipping cost, then handles local shipping once it arrives. If anyone here wants to volunteer as an ambassador for that you'd help a lot of people in your region.

  13. Posted

    Well you either install a UAV or similar AV upgrade into the 2600, this will give you RCA and S-Video plus a much sharper picture.

    https://thebrewingacademy.com/collections/atari-2600/products/tba-ultimate-atari-video-uav-board-for-atari-2600

     

    The other route is a go-between like a VCR or similar converter box, there you put the coaxial or RF from the 2600 into the box and output to RCA from there. Not going to look great on a modern screen but it works.

    https://www.amazon.ca/ADAPTER-COAXIAL-CONVERTER-GETWIREDUSA-US82/dp/B01AK9YCDG

  17. Posted

    Looking pretty good, of that Metroidvania ilk but different looking enough to stand on it's own. :) I'd pretty much given up on owning a Jag, was going to buy a controller from AA and go the emulation route(warts and all heh) but I won an auction recently. 😲 Anyway that's some cool homebrew. ;)

     

    I see some chatter about 2D graphics performance levels. Yeah it's true the Jag could use more screen melting 2D like other platforms had, always figured it had the potential to do some of what the SS was capable of in 2D. 🤩

     

    Music sounds good, pretty early but any thoughts about a CD soundtrack? The Sega/Mega CD homebrew scene has done interesting cart/CD releases. That GameDrive should help stimulate things a bit, no CD games but still cool.

  18. Posted

    On 2/22/2021 at 8:40 PM, ZeroPage Homebrew said:

    We'll definitely be playing all the QuadTari games again when we're allowed to have extra people in the house. For us in Canada... that may be a VERY LONG TIME and I don't want to put off talking about all the great new QuadTari games that are coming out for possibly a year or more. 😥

     

    For now... multitasking with two joysticks!! Maybe I can get the cats to use the foot pedal controller that came with Thrust+ Collectors Edition if I put treats on it?

     

    - James

    Yeah maybe, I've seen lab mice use lever to reward systems before. Probably be fairly random input unless you make a 2600 game specifically for cats. 😄

    Got myself a keyboard controller on the way for gopher/mole whacking. 😉 Is the foot pedal any fun, seen some for sale?

     

    Wow Karl G sure has been producing a lot of QuadTari goodness. :)

  19. Posted

    Yeah I guess it does have green going for it. Also a blue hue, orange, red, and grey of coarse. Yellow seems possible in NTSC but not in PAL colors.

    http://www.qotile.net/minidig/docs/tia_color.html

     

    Technically an eight color gradient but even a 2bpp greyscale would be nice. Definitely thinks there's some advantage to monochrome, if the color values are uniform across the scanlines it falls in line with the limits of those graphic objects and their color output limit.

  20. Posted · Edited by BladeJunker

    I'm cleaning one now too, had the same conundrum but eventually tried to pull that cap off and free it. My fire switch came loose immediately so I had no hesitation there.

     

    Funny thing I did was try to clean off what I thought was corrosion or rust from around the switches, turns out they were plastic welds since my switches are brown. I swear it looked like rust lol, at least the vinegar did no harm. Interesting to see different plastic colors inside like clear.

     

    It's very quiet for a stick that using switches, a lot of new ones sound like someone is tap dancing.😄

    • Like 1

  21. Posted

    5 hours ago, easmith said:

    Thanks!  .   I have a Harmony Cart as well and it is showing up.  Maybe once or twice I thought I copied it to Harmony and I didn't see it , but then I convinced myself that I just hadn't actually done it .   When I tried again it showed up.   So maybe just try it again and see if it takes ....

    I will make sure the next update is recognized .   PM me and I will send you latest build if you want and you can check it.

     

    Trying not to post too many versions before it is a bit farther along .   Hopefully soon . Out of the 9 screens , 5 are still not done  and there are just placeholders .   Redoing Title screen also .

     

    Have added a few features including harder / easier difficulty option,  and in 2 player mode the ability to choose the background. Also pause feature by switching to map screen with TV Type.     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    It's fine, I'm just stupid lol. That's cool I can wait till the official post, version is bound to be changing a lot right now heh.

     

    Switch functions nice, good timing, just switched to a light sixer since my 7800 AV caps must be pretty dead.

  22. Posted

    38 minutes ago, KevinMos3 said:

    Sometimes when you copy a file over, it doesn't show up where you expect it to.  Since the cart recognizes files based on timestamps, you expect it to show up at the end of the list, but it may appear somewhere in the middle.  This is the case with my current SD card.  I copied over several recent homebew WIPs and they all appeared in different places in the list rather than at the end where I expected them.

    Oh okay timestamps, still new to me. 😉Ah there it is below my Z folder, everything is fine, I just don't know what I'm doing. 😅

  25. Posted

    Well I like the octagonal stalk in the Trooper II since it's a good compromise of grip and shape form, never really liked the original hexagonal shaft. Just a veneer sticker but I like the faux wood panel.

     

    Haven't seen inside, does it use the same blister contacts or are there micro switches inside?

     

    Be nice to have a fire button on top of the stalk, while twin-stick games often skip fire buttons there are game controls like Battlezone arcade or games like Raiders of the Lost Ark that work poorly since you can't really press fire on the joystick bases while operating two sticks at the same time.

     

    I kind of like the second button on the base but much like past multi-button examples it's function redundant Ie. Fire & Fire. Seen some new C64 controllers that allow joystick inputs to transfer over to buttons like Up as a Jump button for example. Same can said of Down too since some games only use Left & Right inputs to move Egs. Space Invaders, Wonder Boy.

     

    I still think the vertical orientation of the grip isn't necessary for left/right hand preference. Try turning your CX40 joystick 90 degrees left or right, this puts the button and joystick on either side/hand in a horizontal arcade orientation. The only thing missing is a mode switch to change the inputs around like the Gravis Gamepad had for this very type of functionality.

     

    I was kind of hoping companies like Hyperkin might try upgrading the standard a little while they try to replicate them. Been working on plans towards something like I described but I can't produce at the speed and quantity like these big companies can.

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