Andromeda Stardust
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Posts posted by Andromeda Stardust
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Bob, I wanted to say I think your game is a work of art and will help preserve history. Video / Pin hybrids are a rare breed; so glad to see this ported.
I'm really at a loss here.
All I'm going to say at this point is that given the circumstances that the rom was released in, I refuse to download any of them, out of respect for all parties involved.Although I might download the rom for safe keeping, I pledge not to actually play this game until I have the final cartridge in my hands...
OK... I may have my binaries now, but I'm certainly not happy about the way they were posted... basically under protest, and by throwing in the towel. I meant to post something different, but it seems to be too late now. I wish we could have settled this in peace, but apparently it wasn't possible. All I can say now is that I'm very sorry about everything that happened. I hope I didn't ruin too much by my long posting, and I hope there will still eventually be an agreement on a cart release because I still think there are many people who would like to own Baby Pac-Man on a physical cartridge. As of now, I'm ready to agree to any terms presented in case my agreement should be necessary.
I hope you are happy Kurt, as it appears your "wish" has come true. FYI, Bob is not a genie in a magic lamp...
Do you think I can do something to remedy what I've just destroyed?
Not without a flux capacitor...
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OK, seems like I'm late to the party again, and someoine already said we should stop it, but I still want to say somehting BECAUSE I'M KURT...
While I do agree that making unauthorized copies of the game and especially selling them is bad, I think the measures you take in order to prevent this are far overblown and deprive many other people of the fun they could have by downloading the ROM and playing it on emulators (without having any commercial interest in it).
I'm actually very angry about this happening... when you said "someone else can finish this", I thought I would really be the one who finishes it, and I would have continued to post binaries right until the final version. But that was reverted pretty quickly...
I actually didn't foresee this coming since previously you released binaries and even the source code for all of your games. But maybe it was just the fact that I "took the source code and ran with it" that made you think twice about sharing any more of your work...
I have been raised with a mindset of sharing... now that my mother is dead, my father even wants to have joint money with me. Back in the day, I hardly bought any software for the C-64 which I had back then, but I still accumulated a collection of hundreds of disks with basically pirated software, and I basically did the same with any computer that came after it.
When the Internet came about, and with it MAME and other emulators, I jumped all over it because I actually was looking for ways to re-experience all those old games, and with emulators I could do so, while especially for arcade games, most of the old ones have long since disappeared from the arcades we have here in Vienna. But I always felt guilty for playing all those games without paying for them. On the other hand, the same thing happened to me when I produced CD+G Karaoke backing tracks which I found to spread wildly (at least the really popular songs), and there has also been instances, and that's when it really gets nasty, where there was an agreement that I would get paid for doing songs someone else wanted to have, but in the end that someone bowed out of paying me one way or another despite of me having done the work properly.
In my contribution to Baby Pac-Man, I saw a way to give something back to the community which has supplied me with so many games to play basically for free, and I didn't think it would end up in a game where just this way of playing is being blocked. If I had known this, I probably wouldn't have even started making contributions. Actually I regret having taken part in this thread at all, and I've also considered doing the same thing Bob has done... closing my account and leaving Atariage for good. But this would probably take it too far, I guess, so I probably won't do this, but I do consider stopping to play video games totally.
What would we do if the actual copyright owners of this game, Namco and Bally, were enforcing their copyright like this? They could easily send cease-and-desist letters to Bob or Al in order to prevent them from selling unauthorized ports of THEIR game. (OK, so Bally isn't around anymore, but Namco is, and they at least own the Pac-Man character). In the end, they could decide only to do what's commercially viable for them, which probably isn't putting out a new game for a long-dead console.
I can actually see that things are generally going in the opposite direction... in the early 2000's, record companies attempted to add copy protection to audio CD's in order to prevent them from being copied and shared, but that quickly went away. Lately, Youtube has started to auto-generate videos for just about all content that's available on digital platforms (you can usualy find those videos made by "#Artist# - Topic"), so now you can listen to just about anything that's available for sale on Youtube for free (with a bit of advertising). Which for me as a Karaoke singer is a godsend because there's now backing tracks for many songs which previously haven't been put out on Karaoke CD's. What's being done for Baby Pac-Man here goes into the opposite direction, sadly.
As for the royalties, I never asked for a part of the royalties, but instead I would like the binary to be released. So I'm offering to relinquish the part of the royalties I'm offered on the condition that the ROM file be released for free download at the time the cartridge hits the AA store. You still can go after "douchebags" SELLING unauthorized copies of the game, I don't object against that at all.
But... I agree that in the end it's Bob's project, so it'll probably end up as it often does with me... I get fed with a lot of money which I can't use because I already have enough of it, and the things I want don't happen.
If this happens, I consider how to make it hard for Albert to send me my part of the royalties... I could refuse to give him my account number and have him send the royalties as dollar notes in an envelope by snail mail instead, because that's equivalent to how this game now gets distributed.
This has been a "lesson learned" for me, and I guess I will never contribute to a project again the way I did here... I'll rather try to finish my own projects now.
Yes, I've thought about this all night...
Sorry for the long rant, but even if it's Bob's project, I think as a major contributor I'm at least entitled to rant...
Wow...
First off, I am sorry that you feel this way. We are all eternally grateful for your contributions in this project. Please do not ruin it for all involved plus fans who want to pay for a cart, by withdrawing your support in the 11th hour.
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Obligatory cart pic...
Nice, cart looks phenominal.
Congrats Bob! Also thank you for adding back in pin only / maze only modes. More ways to play is always a good thing.
I am always happy to buy games at the AA store. And I don't have ways of playing ROMs of 7800 games currently, but I've bought many physical games I have tested out on Harmony. I respect the decision regardless. Homebrew piracy is low enough. Pirates who build games to sell without permission are scumbags.
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Just got the retron 77 console. I hooked everything, inserted the cart, turn on the switch, and nothing on the screen. Tried a dozen carts and nothing. The microsd was present and correctly inserted. I followed all instructions. What a bomber. Had to return it. You guys had any luck. Does it suppose start right up with the cartridge inserted?
Just got mine today, DOA right out of the box. No boot, just a black screen. I was surprised how cheap it felt in my hands. What a waste, this could have been a great concept.
Man, that sucks for both of you. I wonder how many more got DOAs? Hyperkin's quality testing department must be nonexistent...
Paddles are an integral part of the system. I am surprise that not even 3rd party manufacturers have come up with paddles for the 2600. I might put my mcgyver skills to work.
And the real pity is the paddle design is dead simple. A 1Mohm linear pot, large 2" knob, and a button. Not really a whole lot you could screw up. I could easily build a pair of paddles with supplies from guitar center (since Radio Shack is no longer in business, they're the only B&M chain store I know of that sells pots).
The issue isn't fabbing a new pair of aftermarket pots though. Even well worn pots clean up with contact cleaner, compressed air, and dielectric grease. It's that the real Atari uses an RC time constant to measure the pot's travel. The encoder in the Retron77 uses some other method to read the resistance values and isn't nearly as stable.
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Don't sweat it man, your old RCA modded 7800 is still rockin at my house! it gets lots of love!
And your custom one button "Pro" 2600 fight joystick is safe as well too. That thing is a beast!
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Ok.
Finished the sounds (including the flipper click), prioritized the pinball sounds, relaxed the collision detection a bit, and removed the 'pinball only' selection.
I think we are done, barring any bugs.
Is there a specific reason for removing the "pinball only" mode? I think would be fun to have the option of "maze only" and "pinball only". Maybe hide them in a debug menu (press some combination of inputs on boot to unlock).
Very cool, and I can't wqit to play this fantastic and historic game on my 7800.
Are all the Pacman games now accounted for? We have Pacman Collection with all Pacman and Ms Pacman variants, Super Pacman, Jr Pacman, and Baby Pacman, as well as historucal curiosity Carzy Otto. And yes, well there's also Pacland, but that's a spinoff. I also have Pacland on Famicom, Lynx, and Turbografx.
Job well done, and by far your most ambitious project to date!
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I'll bite. When I picked up the 6" My Arcade Galaga and PAcman at Walmart last summer, I tried to open it up and expose the wires so that I could solder in a 4-pole dip switch to mod it and unlock the other games. Additionally, I was going to wire the unused Select button to the fourth DIP switch so that I could unlock the multiplayer modes (despite not having any way to actually control the second player.
I used the solder iron to knock off the 0 ohm smt resistor, then soldered my wires to the tiny pads and attempted to hot glue over them so the wires would not tug. Before the glue set, I pressed down on the 24-ga wire so it would clear the back of the screen after reassembly, and "pop", the pad lifted right off of the pcb. I then traced the wire down and attempted to scrape away the enamel so I could reattach the lead to no avail.
My toggle switch to flip between Games didn't work. I took the soldering iron and detached all of the wires. Luckily the solder tab that enables Galaga was still intact, so I placed tiny bridge across it and closed up the case. Galaga booted when I turned it on.
So while I botched the mod attempt, I was able to restore it to working condition...
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It's still delayed, I'm not willing to announce a date until the product is in the box and ready to be shipped out. So just regular orders instead of preorders.
The particular issue that instigated the delay has already been corrected, but each cartridge has to be reflashed and I'd like additional time for another round of QA.
I apologize that you all cannot order the game today as originally announced, but it's not physically feasible to advance the schedule any faster than it's already going.
Agree with goldleader. I would rather wait for perfection than get something less than perfect now.
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Wow, this game loot amazing! I can't wait to get this. Are orders going to be handled on the PenguiNet website when the game becomes available for order on January 14, 2019?
JAnuaary 14th is today, also my mom's Birthday!
Where can I preorder, or is it still delayed a bit due to development issues?
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With some games, I think I would prefer an all over blurred screen with smoothed out dithering, especially with the vertical style dithering, rather than razor sharp edges.
They just don't look right. I didn't notice it as much with my HD Retrovision YPbPr component cables because I was either playing the games on my CRT, or @ 240p on an LCD where it was a very soft picture.
Anyway, an option for improvement would be great.
Another game where the difference is huge, and as seen in the link above, is Virtua Racing. There is a ton of dither in the 16-bit port.
With all of the advancements in RetroArch, it's really going to give hardware emulation a run for it's money.
Yeah, Tower Toppler is another example of heavy vertical dithering. I switch to composite when playing that.
I have the Longhorn Engineer Svideo/composite mod.
The new 2019 Rikki & Vikki Atari 7800 game uses it pretty extensively as well. I was considering buying it, but after seeing it running in Svideo, I passed.
Why? It's the most beautiful 7800 game ever made!
As for Virtua Racing: yes, the chessboard pattern dither is highly noticeable even over composite.
Accept dithering for what it is. I imagine there will be a pixel blend option on the Mega SG. I would probably just leave mine off. You can also increase the softness dial on CRTs and HDTVs alike, but this will likely make other games look bad. I don't even have a display that supports Svideo anymore, though my old HDTV did. On my Super Retro Trio, I immediately noticed the "vertical scanline" effect in Sonic games. I actually thought it was quite striking and beautiful.
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The 7800 Centipede was disappointing, shame they didn't just get MIllipede off Famicom for that one.
The four way joystick in Centipede restricts it to four way movement, however remove the joystick restriction and you will find the ROM itself restricts to four way movement, as proven by playing the ROM (graciously provided to be me by an unnamed member on this forum) on emulation or real hardware such as via PowerPak.
Very stupid they did not just get Famicom or NES Millipede, seeing as how that ROM plays infinietly better than the 7800 Flashback ports.
Then this glitchfest that actually had working diagonals. Why did they remove diagonal movement in the final finished ROM?
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Video of the most current build.
Not crazy about the bumper sound, and that the 'pinball entry' & pacscalator/evenup sounds are so similar.
Amazing!
:grin: :grin: :thumbsup:I do collect any and all pinball related games. This will be my second Pinball themed homebrew, after 8-bit Xmas 2016 from RetroUSB. Pacman plus Pinball? Best of both worlds, although I'll admit the ghost behavior is very... odd ...in maze mode. I am glad you included the option to revert classic behavior.
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Rad, I finally got a 7800 yesterday, so I too will be snagging one once it is available.
Second 7800, or third?
Just kidding love you man!
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Hey I've been into a few groups online that play and collect those little cabinets and people are all up about the new quailty boxes and releases there with the Dig Dug and Galaga games.
Something you should be aware of, they're newly baked goods. DD and Galaga are NOT NOAC of any type, they're modern made. DD simulates the original game very well. Galaga though does not, it's actually a hard mode game if anything.
Galaga there if you're a fan of the arcade game, you'll find it all sorts of different. The programmed fly down/attack patterns are not the same on this unit, which you can see even in clips. The little blue/yellow bug who usually will pull a circle around you in the original game, it won't do this or that alone in this one. I can instead approach like that, then rapidly turn towards and and just suicide slam you. The dropped shots of theirs, they do not just only drift like normal, they will TURN to aim (the pixels) at you as they fly down so if you think you could squeak by in the old game just barely, you'll get scraped and popped. There are other differences, but those I have observed. it's a good game, just not Galaga but like Galaga Pro.
Also notice the 09 on Galaga, the original intended one was Defender so that puts that to bed.
I'm also VERY tempted by the My Arcade Retro Champ depending how it ends up in consumer hands who can try all the quirky carts. I have a really nice FC Mobile 88, but it can only do FC games and has issues with the VRC6/7 and some but not all Namco mappers, so I can't play all my stuff, just most, and with no adapted my everdrive n8 is a no go too. This handling both styles of game I'd be willing to buy into it.
It can't be as bad as the Tiny Arcade Galaga port. I've got a standup Galaga 1UP cab but I'm still collecting all of these small packaged goodies. Remember the Micro fun Ms Pacman is one of the best Ms Pacman ports released so far, however they got the fruit order mixed up in the game but not the manual, and other weirdness.
The NES port of Galaga was quite good, though the bullet audio exhibits a glitch in the NOAC. Honestly most of the bitd NES ports are more accurate than the embedded stuff Basic Fun and Tiny Arcade are selling now, the Basic Fun ports generally being superior to super Impulse / Tiny Arcade.
Also, My Arcade Gaming Micro Player is Namco version, not the superior Tengen port which was also re-ported to 16-bit platforms. I'll still buy it though. I'm a sucker for this stuff...
And definitely Bubble Bobble too, even though it's single player only...
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A lot of interesting stuff from CES 2019:
NES and SNES portable player:
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I love how the screen is stretched to hell and back. Couldn't get a decent 4:3 screen? Do they still make those anymore?
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I remember a thread titles "Is Sears the Next ToysRUs or RadioShack?"
Perhaps Gamestop is next. It would actually be a good thing IMO if Game Stop fell out of existence and let Mom 'n' Pop shops take over the redistribution of used physical games.
I still buy games at GameStop and my local GameStop had a Halo 4 tournament at the midnight release of Halo 5 and a Destiny tournament at the midnight release of Destiny 2.
I personally have no problem with the customer service at my local GameStop. I always preorder or know what I want to buy, so I'm never talking with or asking many questions of the employees anyways.
Regardless, their days are probably numbered. Outside of a few releases here and there, physical media in games these days sucks anyways. A disc in a flimsy plastic case with increasingly cheaper looking box art is what we are getting these days. It's not much better than buying a used game disc in an envelope. Next gen I'm going 100% digital, with the exception of maybe a few LE/Collector physical releases here and there. The last standard physical release that I was satisfied with was the PC version of The Witcher III, which went old school RPG and had a manual, map, some stickers and a soundtrack. All The Witcher physical releases on the PC have been pretty awesome.
I agree somewhat, physical is useless if you have to download an update to play the game. However, I will continue to support physical releases for as long as they are available.
Digital games becoming vaporware overnight is about as brilliant a concept as chucking film reels in the trash after it's run in the theaters during the silent film era. Maybe the top 2% of movies from that time period got saved.
Archivists interested in studying the evolution of video game history are going to discover a huge gap in available games between the cart/disc era and the DRM downloads only era.
Potentially this could also happen to Netflix originals and other streaming service exclusive content. Some day, Netflix will cease to exist and all of those films could get lost because digitally pristine physical or DRM free digital backups won't exist, except for inferior quality streams captured by pirates.
How much priceless data will get lost forever in our future if video game companies do not change the way data is distributed to consumers? The current 95-year copyright term is much longer than the lifespan of current video game systems. Any an all archiving outside of game company internal docs within that time period is the realm of pirates. And it has been suggested that without MAME / Emulation, most of those little arcade and console recreations we enjoy today wouldn't be here. Nintendo themselves downloaded ROMs off of the Internet to stock their Virtual Console store, and so did everyone else...
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Hey Kevtris, I was just curious if there will be any filter options on the Mega Sg which could possibly fake a composite connection.
I have to admit, I mostly despise anything less than Svideo since first experiencing (Y/C) Svideo firsthand with a JVC SVHS deck, CD-i, and the SNES back in 1991.
It's pretty well known that many developers took advantage of the RF/Composite blur to fake transparencies and color gradients with graphical dithering.
I.E
I wouldn't use this with every game, but it would be great to have as an option. The Genesis uses the dithering quite liberally compared to the SNES since that could handle transparencies and a higher on-screen color palette.
There is more info on the Anti-Dithering shader (GDAPT) here:
http://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthread.php?32262-Experimenting-with-Anti-Dithering-shader-(GDAPT)
I'm definitely looking forward to seeing more info on the Mega Sg soon.
I imagine it will be an all or nothing effect like when toggling the hi-rez dithering option on the Super NT while playing Kirby's Dreamland 3. The aesthetic looks like vertical scanlines for instance in the waterfall scenes in Sonic, but I can see where it gets grating on certain games.
One difference is the Super Nintendo doubles the resolution when using dithering, from 256 pixel counts to 512. So blending can be performed and still lock the output to a perfect 256 pixel resolution.
Megadrive, on the other hand, dithers at 320 horizontal pixel resolution, reducing the effective horizontal resolution to 160 pixels over composite. I believe the Genesis / JP Megadrive to be in sync with the NTSC pixel clock just like the Atari consoles, which can cause odd color anomalies when displayed as dithered instead of composite blended.
Try playing Tower Toppler 7800 on real hardware over S-Video, or in an emulator for an example of how raw color data can be presented totally wrong in the absence of composite blending.
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Hi...
Okay, so I have been using a 10k pot hooked up to the reset circuit on the atf1508 pld... found the sweet spot to get things totally stabilized with the memory and the pld scratch routines. So now I've applied the needed resistor into place. I'm applying the modifications Mark and I have discussed on the Yamaha circuit and he is preparing a custom testing cartridge that just completed fab'ing....
Some final to do's are testing the flashing of the BIOS from the CC2 and/or Mateos, so I need to get a Mateos to try out. We just want to make sure, that if in the event there is ever a need to update the BIOS out in the field, that it can be done without people having to ship their XM's back.
Mark is then going to clean up the BIOS menu and finalize it more for consumer use, the way it is now it is running a lot of deep testing routines which aren't going to be needed by users. Plus he is embedding a built in game into the BIOS, so that'll be need.
This weekend I am posting up the Entry page for all Pre-order people to send their updating mailing information so that I can prepare with the XM's ship out to everyone. I'll post of a separate thread with the announcement when the page is fully ready.
Have a great weekend.
Only one additional year delay compared to the OP's January 2018 prediction (not bad in the grand scheme of things), but so glad these are shipping in 2019.
I plan to purchase one whenever it is available through the AtariAge store. I am so glad you stuck to the course and never abandoned the race. This was a marathon, not a sprint after all. Take care...
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Congrats. Having a proper baffle for 4-way games such as Pacman is essential. Got a few too many extra buttons on that thing however!
These are really great sticks if you need something you can convert easily in less than one minute with a Phillips head screwdriver.
Cost far less than a Sanwa (Sanwas also feel a bit loose need tuning out of the box imo, which adds to the cost) and while they have similar appearance to the Zippy sticks, they are much better IMO. The switches are heavy enough that it gives you tactile feedback as you slide into the corners, pretty much goes where you want it and don't get as many unintended diagonals in 8-way mode. It's the only Japanese style square gate stick I can really game comfortably on.
Happ/IL are also good for 8-ways if you want bats and round baffles. Better use a heavier box though as they are stiffer and extend further under the control panel.
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<< THIS LINK >> Has some great joystick case ideas for you guys who've not yet built one. One example I found really cool was the transparent case.
Anyway check it out... it just might inspire you to build one... or another!
I can kinda vouch for this method:
Sanding and finishing can be a bit labor intensive however.
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Tetris is neat, but the game ends when you beat level 15, which feels like level 9 on the nes/gameboy. Kinda dumb it should at least keep going...
Also T-spins break the game. Any time you have the opportunity to clear a line or two with a T-block (except edge cases) just soft drop it sideways and rotate into position. It yields big points, more than a Tetris would, and clears less lines in the process. The official game only counts T-spins if three of four corner bricks are occupied prior to rotating in place.
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Is there a basic fun Galaga? I am a sucker for all variations of Galaga and Pacman / Ms Pacman. The Tiny Arcade Galaga from Super Impulse is pretty bad, though not quite as the cheap shots in Galaxian though. If there is Basic Fun galaga, I want to add it to my collection.I just got out of Walmart, and they had both Dig Dug and Galaga (Galaga is now the previously missing number 9). They are not NES roms, though I can't say at all that they are arcade roms.
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Composite interface is only necessary if you want to erect a sophisticated realtime targeting system to calculate the exact location of the gun in reference to the tv screen, then signal a hit whenever the portion of the composite signal that lines up with the coordinate is bright. Hyperkin is not that adept, and such a targeting system wouldn't be feasible at that price point. AVS should work in theory if it just detects delayed light output on the screen.So there is an actual Zapper attachment for the HDTVs. Looks like it needs some sort of cart adapter, which may mean it won't work on an NES connected to an LCD, but just an HDMI-equipped Famiclone. They showed it off with the RetroN 1 HD.
https://twitter.com/CastleManiaRyan/status/1082787771532464128
I don't imagine it'll be $150. Probably closer to $15-20, I'd bet.
Ugg, this is so dumb though. It's as if Hyperkin thinks "Duck Hunt" is the only Zapper game in existence worth playing. Ditto for the Kickstarter. Hyperkin bought them out it seems. So we do get a light gun that properly detects hdtv screens, but now all compatible games must be hacked and add bastardised Game Genies to interface the carts.
Duck Hunt is covered. Great. What about these:
Hogan's Alley
Wild Gunman
Gumshoe
Bill Barker's Trick shooting
Bandai Shooting Range
Operation Wolf
Gotcha
Baby Boomer
Chiller (2p)
RetroUSB VS "Shoot the Dog" Duck Hunt
Action 53 Vol 1 (2 player Zapper Pong)
And prolly some others I forgot about. Anyway I will probably buy the Duck Hunt kit for lolz. And one for Hogan's Alley and Wild Gunman. Wild Gunman would be tricky to pull off due to latency issues.
Later...
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Yep, we opted for a proper BupChip volume knob. It'll be pre-adjusted to mix well on the stock hardware but you can adjust it later if it's not to your taste.
You can't access the potentiometer without taking the board out of its shell, but we moved the screw which secures both halves together to the back side. This way you can open it easily without damaging the game label.
Same Tiido.
Thank you for clarifying. My 7800 was AV modded by Best Electronics and sounds pretty balanced, but I know of other mods that the mixing is off.
I have a volume pot on my NES for mixing PowerPak audio as well.
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Happy New Year... XM shipping this month
in Atari 7800
Posted
Dangit... I remember now.
Both have "Jin" in their username and My Little Pony avatars. Jin and I go back a ways in forum discussions. Sorry for the mixup.