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Andromeda Stardust

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Posts posted by Andromeda Stardust

  1. Posted

    Had a blinky red-green-blue board I think was originally in a toy kids wear in their mouth?

    Removed the button battery clips and push switch, then jumpered switch and battery contacts (it had 4 in series).

    Im taking bets on how long the uncovered EPROM lasts until it corrupts with these RGB LEDs.

     

    Attached picture and GIF animation of it in the 7800 console.

     

    Yes, its annoying, but I really like things that are red, green, and blue!

     

    I still think a weak UV LED to excite a glow-in-the-dark case would be way cool.

     

    B9F098F6-8141-421F-B608-5752F78F87FA.jpeg

     

    5SecondsApp_581733085.279535.gif

    Yeah definitely put some black electric tape over the window if you're gonna go UV. Blue or rgb should be safe. EPROMs can sit under bright florescent office lighting for months without corrupting.

     

    Even with a typical cheap 20mA 395nm near UV pointed directly on the window, it would still likely take a few days to corrupt it. A 3w high intensity 365nm uv led from Nichia (like they use for forensic flashlights) or direct sunlight, possibly hours.

    • Like 1

  4. Posted

    do you honestly expect a miniature version to respond better than the much larger version.of course it's going to be terrible.also, asteroids goes for about $75 now, and you get 3 other games with it,and you can put in your own machine, change the controls, change the screen, etc.i don't think there's any comparison.those mini machines are made for collectors, and people to put on their shelfs,nobody that actually cares about playing those games will buy them.later-1

    Speak for yourself. I did buy the 1up Galaga machine and required some modding of the control panel to get it perfect. The My Arcade and other 6 inch miniatures are a mixed bag but fun nonetheless.

     

    I do play and have enjoyed playing the little mini arcades. In fact due to their pick up and play nature, I have been playing with the little toy arcades moreso than my actual consoles. They are great collectibles and functional. I would say the Replicate Centipede cab I have (bought at best buy) is just as good response wise as the full scale 1up cabs if not better, albeit pricey for it's size. You pay for quality though.

     

    And the build quality of the quarter scale model is above and beyond the 1up stuff. The tiny 1cm trackball is surprizingly good. My top score is 30k points! Also while I would have liked to get the full scale Centipede / Asteroids machine, there would be nowhere to store it in my house. I literally had room only for one, and it required a small amount of rearrangement.

     

    I had planned on doing a video review of the Centipede replicade when I first got it but I had to build up confidence first. My Analogue SG video review is a bit painful to watch because I was still *very* confused about my identity at the time I recorded it. I am just too busy working full time and living an active life style, to sit around posting unmonetized video reviews about toys. Now I am more into exploring the local art scene as opposed to gaming. Priorities change. Been nurturing my creative right brain side.

  5. Posted

    . And being able to dump your own roms as well is always a nice thing to have for a variety of reasons.

    Brian also mentioned that it was possible to have it play GB/GBC roms, but he didn't go into detail, and I honestly don't know where they would be sourced from since there is no SDCard. I guess it would have to be over a powered USB transfer, such as a PC, in conjunction with a rom sender (VGS), at which point it might not be worth the trouble.

    Still bummed on missing out with the retrovision Super Gameboy NES thingy.

     

    The GB firmware thing would be doable with a pin adapter, however it would probably require a reflash seeing the AVS is currently 95+% utilized. This was why additional firmware updates with extra menu features haven't come to fruition. The Mega SG and Super NT have Cyclone V FPGAs in them, forgot what the AVS used. I wanna say Brian was in bed with Xilinx for a while.

     

    I like the versatility of the Scoreboard app but it gets underutilized. Mobile devices are ubiquitous now and not everyone wants to dongle a PC around. A mobile scoreboard app or Raspberry Pi image would have been nice. I don't even have a working laptop anymore, just a big ass desktop and a smart phone and android I do 99% of web browsing on now. So using scoreboard in the living room is currently not an option. I dump with CopyNES on my toaster but it's antiquated. Also incompatible with Krikzz everdrive and no workaround exists.

  8. Posted

    Sooooo, as soon as I am home from night crew tonight, I know what the evening holds....Glow in the Dark came out AMAZING Bob please do more in the future!

     

     

    A0udGDM.jpgsrITLrb.jpg

    Bob truly is a wonderfully sweet, caring person.
    I expressed to him I really wanted a glow in the dark version, so he swapped his personal glow copy for my gray/yellow reservation (the last of the colored carts available atm when I ordered).
    Bob, you did not have to do that for me. From the bottom of my heart, than you! 🤗
    The effects of the logo embedded into the raw glow material is subtle. You almost don't see it until you cut the lights. I held it in front of a compact flourescent for a minute. You can see the shadow of the pcb projected onto the bottom of the cart:
    post-33189-0-00656900-1560004146_thumb.jpg
    post-33189-0-01158500-1560004281_thumb.jpg
    post-33189-0-63115500-1560004403_thumb.jpg
    I also need to locate that 7800 adapter. If I can't find it, I'll have to modify my console with a 1/8" mini-jack. I'm pretty confident with a soldering iron. You don't unlearn those types of skillsets.
    Busy day today and have a huge prom date planned with my fiance so no games for me. My city is hosting an "adult" prom event for pride month. Glitz and grunge is the theme. We both have purple sequin dresses picked out for the occasion. 🤩👭💗
    Yours, Alita!💋
    • Like 3

  9. Posted

    I got an email from them today. Some things will work, many will not. I would expect things with DLC like Pinball Arcade to break (Kosmic -- if you are reading this, I bet Farsight would give you some store credit elsewhere if you hounded them) ...I mostly used free emulators, which exist elsewhere. I liked MD.Emu because it played 32X games.

     

    Their letter

     

    I want to say pinball should work as it did not rely on Ouya for authentication.

     

    I downloaded a crapton of tables on Android before they shuttered Williams/Bally, and I have everything they ever released on Wii-U.

    • Like 2

  11. Posted

    Well, there are the 9-pin controller ports. ;) If Kev/Analogue did make a set of cartridge and controller adapters to add official support then its one less controller adapter theyd have to build in to the cart adapter.

    VCC is pin 5 on Genesis, pin 7 on Atari. This would require hardware support to supply a reasonable amount of current on one console and still have your bidirectional data bus on another. For instance, Genesis uses pin 7 to change which button presses get output on the controller data pins.

     

    So suppose Kevtris decided to release an atari 2600 core for the Mega SG. Any nonstandard controller with active logic ie a trackball contoller, would likely brown out the digital logic high presented on pin 7 resulting in malfunction of the controller. While this is unlikely to cause damage to either the console or the stisk, it will not function correctly. Sticks with turbo fire may be in a similar way.

     

    To truly support any console with a 9-pin plug, the console would need bidirectional data on all 9 pins as well as power switching transistors to supply the necessary strong vcc or gnd signals to necessary pins.

     

    Additionally, low value shunt resistors or a resetable digital fuse is necessary on every power output pin to protect against shorts if an incompatible controller or device is connected.

     

    This extra necessary hardware components and or schematics cannot be baked into the fpga firmware. So if the Mega SG were designed to operate as sega hardware, then there is no need for switching transistors or digital relays to change the vcc or gnd pins from their default configuration.

     

    I understand that people would love to see another jack-of-all trades like the NT mini, that interfaces everything. A cartridge conversion for Super NT would be stupid easy, since the controller port essentially share the same pin standard. You can easily patch an SNES and NES extension cable.

     

    However, the Retrousb AVS (with Everdrive or Powerpak) is currently the best available option for playing NES cart and accessories. The Super NT and Mega SG (with jb fimmware) make great 16-bit spiritual successors.

     

    Kevtris was nice to include additional Sega cores and CD, so do not look a gift horse in the mouth. He could have produced a bog standard Genesis with no CD support, and SMS only through an PB or FM Mini adapter.

     

    People get a free bonus, then expect the moon and the stars...

  14. Posted

    The game does run on a standard harmony cart (encore version not needed) using the ARM processor programmed with the new CDFJ driver..

     

    Driver needed? Do we need to reflash our harmony to support cdfj?

  15. Posted

    Namco's version of Ms. Pac-Man also felt like Now Production pretty much hacked the NES Pac-Man (or used its code) into Ms. Pac-Man. Some of the ghost behavior is closer to Pac-Man than Ms. Pac-Man.

     

    I probed both ROMs for Pacman and Namco Ms Pacman back in the day. The code for the mazes is exactly the same in both ROMs. Ms Pacman also has 8 unused mazes in it which can be unlocked with a Game Genie. Several of them are asymmetric. The tile data from Pacman and Ms Pacman is exactly the same although Ms Pacman uses multicolor sprites. The maze data uses a character string to start the beginning of the maze, followed by a single byte indicating the number of pellets. From each tile in the maze is stored as 8 bits XXYYYYYY where YYYYYY is the location of the requested tile in the pallet table, and XX is run length compression to repeat the tile 1 to 4 times. NES Pacman and Namco Ms Pacman share this encoding scheme, so it is kind of obvious to anyone attempting to havk or disassemble the game, that Ms Pacman borrowed te same source code from Pacman. Both Tengen and Namco Pacman are identical, NROM 16kbytes PRG and 8kbytes CHR. Both Tengen and Namco Ms Pacman use NROM 32kbytes of ROM and 8kbytes of Chr, but the simularities end there. The Namco ROM was merely extended to 32kbytes to make room for the fruit logic and extra maze data.

     

    Both "end" after 32 stages, though iirc the Namco version loops the mazes forever. Both are good, but Tengen is arcade accurate and has more options. It was also ported to 16 bit platforms, though I would imagine this superior unlicensed version is stuck in Copyright pergatory.

  16. Posted

    Is that really the NES Ms Pac Man? If it is then Tengen and Namco put out different games as that doesn't look like the black cart I own. Sky Kid and Mappy appear to more likely be their NES/FC counterparts though. For all we know for certain is nothing, but they could just be copycats newly done up, source ports but changed, or just oddly emulated.

    The Tengen version is superior. It have full sized mazes, multiplayer options, and pac booster. It also got ported to genesis and snes. I wish thy could push the tengen version to my arcade and just hack the muliplayer option out of the menu like they did for the other games.

  17. Posted

    The weird part is that so many are claiming that they are great and every bit as good as the original.

     

    To those people: Just look at where the individual wires attach to the board and tell me that again. I dare ya.

     

    It seems that their entire perspective toward the exact same replica controller changed overnight based on nothing more than reissuing it with a new logo and licensed packaging.

     

    Now, the RetroBit controller may be better than the Hyperkin GN6 due to the noted rubber membrane difference and I have no doubt that both are good enough for most people but I would never describe either as being the same quality as the original. One serious look at the pictures or YouTube disassemblies and you can see that it simply isnt true.

     

    The Old Skool PGS ControlPad for TG16 is another good example of what you were talking about. Console5 just announced that they had replacement cables back in-stock for TG16 controllers. These have a standard DIN connector on the end that doesnt have the same molding as the original. On the other hand, the Old Skool controller has the same molding as the original controller and the plug end looks almost identical, but the similarity falls apart once you open it. Inside the wires go straight to the board with no disconnect or bracing where the Console5 cable connects the same, better, way as the original.

     

    Old Skools manufacturer only cared about the external look. Im 100% sure that the Hyperkin, Old Skool, RetroBit, Tomee, etc controllers are all made by the same manufacturer, so Old Skools cable is more relevant to the RetroBits Genesis controllers than it might appear. Sure enough, take a look at any disassembly of the RetroBit Genesis controller and you will see the exact same thing: they bothered with the external appearance but not the internal one. Heck, even having a clear controller didnt make a difference. FYI: Amazons thumbnail shows Atari plugs or something and not the Genesis-style plugs that RetroBit actually has, so ignore that. ;)

    Will the Console5 cables fit the Japanese PC engine controllers? What about the 6 button controllers? I need a good, not outlandisly expensive controer for street fighter iI (and strip fighter 🙄)

  18. Posted

    I feel you gorfcadet. I attended a crawfish festival and an art exhibit this evening.

     

    I do have an old glow in the dark 7800 shell from Etsy. The rear screw holes will need to be filed down to fit the oversize pcb boards though. If Bob wants to send me some loose labels and pcb at a discount (or I send him the glow shell for modification), I could release #18 to you.

    • Like 1

  19. Posted · Edited by Kosmic Stardust

    Okay will literally take whatever is left. i was at the crawfish festival all day long...😢

     

    Edit: Looks like I'm taking #18 gray/yellow then...😝

  20. Posted

    I never touched it again, and probably never will.

    It's an attractive case, and so much is right with it, but I have no use for a controller with a bad d-pad.

    If it wasn't worth their time to get right, it's certainly not worth mine to fix it.

     

    It's been 25+ years. Lots of time for us to develop new materials, technologies and techniques. Tons of time for us to refine the old design to remove the few flaws of the original. Modern Genesis controllers should be far better than their 90's counterparts. This device, like so many, manages to be worse. It's not even a properly faithful copy, much less an improvement. Contrast that to the FPGA systems we're plugging these into.

    Nobody puts R&D into their product anymore. It's an "if it works, ship it" philosophy. They aren't going to take the necessary steps by ordering additional prototypes to tefine the product further to get it from 90% completed to holy crap this kicks ass 100%. Nintendo and Sega stood by the quality of their products back in the day much like Apple and Samsung do now. Fly by night Chinese distributers know that a couple extra bucks in R&D will result in lower profit per item sold. People will buy a polished turd over a quality product just to save a couple bucks, then assume all retro gear is garbage and throw it out. Sad but true.

    Has there been any news on the cart adapters?

    AnalogueCartAdapters-vgo.png

     

    One of the main reasons I bought the Mega Sg was to be able to use my original Game Gear carts and play them on a large screen.

    I'd like to get one of each.

    I bought a stack of Game Gear carts a while back and cannot play them on my Sega SG...😢
    • Like 1

  21. Posted

    I never touched it again, and probably never will.

    It's an attractive case, and so much is right with it, but I have no use for a controller with a bad d-pad.

    If it wasn't worth their time to get right, it's certainly not worth mine to fix it.

     

    It's been 25+ years. Lots of time for us to develop new materials, technologies and techniques. Tons of time for us to refine the old design to remove the few flaws of the original. Modern Genesis controllers should be far better than their 90's counterparts. This device, like so many, manages to be worse. It's not even a properly faithful copy, much less an improvement. Contrast that to the FPGA systems we're plugging these into.

    Nobody puts R&D into their product anymore. It's an "if it works, ship it" philosophy. They aren't going to take the necessary steps by ordering additional prototypes to tefine the product further to get it from 90% completed to holy crap this kicks ass 100%. Nintendo and Sega stood by the quality of their products back in the day much like Apple and Samsung do now. Fly by night Chinese distributers know that a couple extra bucks in R&D will result in lower profit per item sold. People will buy a polished turd over a quality product just to save a couple bucks, then assume all retro gear is garbage and throw it out. Sad but true.
    • Like 1

  22. Posted

    I only know about one RGB mod for the 2600: https://etim.net.au/2600rgb/

     

    And, I guess we have the culprit.

    That mod include the ability to mount an "extra" switch on the left joystick for additional functions (palette select and remote "reset" and "select" switches functionality). The extra button activates the inputs normally used for left and right direction of the joystick at the same time. This is an "impossible" combination for a joystick, but not for a trackball in real TB mode, which therefore randomly activates the extra features of your RGB mod (in particular, it activates the reset and select switches repeatedly making the game impossible to play).

     

    You have to modify your console to disable the "extra" button functionality, either permanently or with a switch.

    I'm not an expert, but by looking at the diagram, a simple switch to break the wire going to either pin 3 or 4 of the "extra" 7 pins connector on the RGB board might be all that you need.

    Yes, when I saw the schematic for the reset/select from the left joustick port, I knew eventually this would cause problems with nonstandard controllers. Starplex, keyboard, Atarivox, trackballs, and other devices could potentially trigger it. The Select and Reset combos rely on hitting three inputs, ie LRU, ect. This prevents L+R (paddles) or U+D (driving) from mucking up the game but not other specialty controllers.

  24. Posted

     

    It's certainly handy! 300Mbps down and 15 Mbps up! LOVE IT!

     

    I mean, I livestream but also upload HUGE files all the time as a filmmaker so I need the speed.

     

    Speed Test.jpg

    I get 3Mbits down, 400kbits up. I upload a ten minute video to youtube and it takes like 6 hours... 😴 I doubt I could live stream any higher than 360p.
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