CatPix

I'll need to open the one I will maybe got one day to pull out the video signal. I need at least composite out because I have only one small travel LCD TV that can receive RF NTSC-N signals.

I have a hard time finding a bad console... Because it's quite rare to have a badly conceived system with bad games. One prime example would be the Hartung Game Master. The system is ridiculously shitty for the time it came on the market, and there is not a single good game on the system. I consider the VCS being a bad console. I mean, the sound is crap, the basic video capabilities are ridiculous (look at the Astrocade... ), the joysticks are the worst ever made... Still, when bringing on the games, it's just awesome. The same would go with the Megadrive. The system is perfectly technically able to display 128 colors at the same time on-screen, without wasting that much blast-processing power. Still, it's not implemented. Why? The sound chip isn't that bad in itself, but programers are left in the dark on how to program it nicely and as a result, most game have a basic, 8 bits like soundtrack and sounds. The controller feels clunky and far away from a promised arcade experience. Still, awesome games on it. So, overall, great system. On the other hand, you have systems like the 3DO that are brutally powerful and able do deliver a great gaming experience, ruined by poor games that doesn't even try to use the console's strenghts. Overall, a waste of good technology... but not a bad console.

I'm totally jelly... Congratulations! And it was't even costly! I need to find one too... Oh, one question BTW : is the power adapter external or internal? If external, is it like your average 9/12 DC block with a classic barrel plug, or one odd shit like the Colecovision had?

Marvellous Awesome Totally Tested Electronic Linker Cart.. AKA : M.A.T.T.E.L. Cart Intellinker cart Multi Game Entertainment Computer System or Multi Game Entertainment Computer Module Intelliplexer SD Cart BeeNTV cart

Being a member of an association that put old systems on display for people to play with, I can tell that given the occasion, and if there is other kids around to play with, kids, and even teenagers, plays EVERYTHING. Atari 2600, Videopac/Odyssey² (Duel/Gunfighter is a must have for kids to play with), NES and Master System of course. And Pong. Yep, put a simple Pong system with simple slider sticks or rotary knobs and they stick hours on the machine. At one occasion, I put my own Teleplay (Fairchild Channel F clone) and I saw people sticking on the included Pong game for 15 minutes, totally flabbergasted with the joysticks. (video in French only)

This looks like a new version... This clone pops from time to time, with more or less included games, sometime with no SD port. It take regular ROMs. Unless this model use better emulation, there is some issues with some games that will simply not play (this one seems better, because older versions wouldn't play Street of Rage, and SOR is on the list of included games), and as usual with many Megadrive clones, the sound emulation is far from perfect. The display quality on a TV is rather correct, on the other hand. And in stereo.

IT'S NOT A GAME. Dammit, that's an interactive movie! Not because it's on the 3DO means it's a game! Calling this a game is like calling a "choose your own adventure" book a board game because you have to use a dice! You can't even call it a FMV game or a slideshow game. Even the worsts FMV/slideshow games requires you to have memory and reflexes, or to look around to find things. "Plumber don't wear ties" is just an interactive story (and a really bad one) but it certainly doesn't even get close to be considered like a game in any way.

"questionable build quality (*cough*NES*cough*)" Lolwut? Apart from the ZIF connector (that I never saw fail back in the times where the NES was a previous-generation system and not a collectionnable system) what is questionnable in the NES? It's one of the few system of the time to have something else than shitty RF output, awesome and well-build controllers (nothing like the Master System controller with those weak buttons and this directional block that press two directions most of the time, or the Atari 7800 pads of which the rubbers dome get crushed by the buttons), solid shells, solid power and reset buttons, pad plugs that I never ever saw failing (even on the one I found in a dumpster after a rain). Well, technically wise? It was made in 1983, and at the time, it was a kickass machine. Sure it took 2 years to arrive in the USA, a bit more to get a full scale European release, and I would say that the apex of the machine is more around 1990, but heh, at the time, it was 7 years old. Really, except the ZIF connector that can get cleaned easily, I see no questionnable failure in the NES design.

I never heard of any. Still, the sound always get from the unit; if you have a TV compatible with 50 Htz, you can display it even with the RF connexion. The picture might be fuzzy but it should work. I think they aree easily moddable into composite, so as long as you have a TV compatible with 50 htz, you'll be fine. If you have a TV able to display PAL, that would be better, but many models are B&W anyway.

Thanks! I guessed it wasn't planned, as you mention not being able to emulate the second sound chip (I hope that you might get it working later ) and the ECS emulation is a more important point as it's a rarer piece of hardware.

I'll look around for this lil baby. Those multicarts are so convenient Easier to carry your whole collection around. Will there be an Intellivoice emulation as well? I'm just curious, I have an Intellivoice. But Intellivoice emulation would be impressive.

Submarine and GP are easy find, and only a handful of collectors are interested in those machines. They are just Pong chips on a cart, technologically wise. There is 9 carts of them, of which one is the 6 game version of the Pong game chip (so the same as Supersportic, minus 4 games), so only 8 you might like to collect. They worth only what people might like to offer for it, so I think around 10/15€ for the whole lot you have on picture will be a decent price.

Thats for the info.Tho, the color switch is working on the SECAM systems, because, on all games, moving the stwich effectively changes the display from color to monochrome. I guess that in both cases, it keep the software on B&W, this make sense. Thanks for the infos regarding the map. Most games I have are loose carts, so even on my PAL console, I never popped the map on. In fact, on my PAL unit, switching the color switch did nothing, so I though because it's a SCART model, the B&W mode was desactivated. I'll try that when I'll get back at home

Nice! I'll take a look to get those. Atari games are rather cheap here, and there is probably just a handful of French players that ever heard about Secam versions of VCS games (and if they do, they won't buy them because they all have a 7800 to play with PAL colors). I won't be able to dump them myself, I'll ask around me, I might know a friend that can do it.

I'll never understood how people can get so excited about a crappy game that isn't even an official Atari game... Come on, there is a ton of Asian bootlegs that are as rare as this one.

No... How can I recognize it? I could use some Pitfall and Pitfall II or other title, but that would be useless if they are PAL versions...

Sadly, I have none of them. When I'll get one, I'll let you know, but it wouldn't be before months I guess. I have no idea. but The Smurfs may have been made for the French market first (it's a French licence after all) then later made for the PAL market, and this copy going back on the French market for economy reason. Or they modified the calibration between the woody and darth vader models. I'm not sure about this, so I can only make theories about this.

Yeah, that's what I suppose. Because those colors really are the same than the ones from colored Pong machines, so I suppose Atari used an equivalent of the AY-3-8515 : it's a chip used in Pong systems that add 8 colors based on the level of gray of the B&W Pong signal.

It definitively worth it. Zelda II, Kid Icarus, Akumajō Dracula (Castlevania), Super Mario Bros 2 (the Lost levels, not the USA/Euro version). With better sounds that their NES coutnerpart and less censure. Of course it depends of your tastes after all.

Busy WE, so here are the pictures. I decided for going from most graphical stuff (game with recognizeables sprites, backgrounds, lot of details, etc...) to most simple games with just lines and dots. Skateboardin' : Ow my eyes Desert Falcon : Even more ow! Tennis : Feels like playing on clay but... pretty fine looking. Double Dragon : Bonus on game crappiness. HERO : Doesn't look too bad, if you don't know about the original game. Even if you know it, nothing burn the eyes really. Jungle hunt : Some colors are off, but pretty playable. Fatal Run : Ouch. Demon attack : Strangely, I got a black and white screen with a fuzzy grainy picture and a hissing sound. The game may use a color trick that doesn't work here. It's not the cart, the game works perfectly when used on PAL system. Cosmic Ark : the starfield glitch doesn't appear here... It definitively fuel the explanation that on SECAM units, the colors aren't made from the TIA itself. By the way, the cart I have is the one that doesn't display the starfield if you disable color. It would be interesting to test with the second version that keep the starfield even with the color switch off. Secret Quest : Looks pretty bland, but playable, no odd colors to burn your eyes. Dark Chambers: Odd colors, but not a big deal for this game really. Obélix : Looks pretty. Not much difference when played on a PAL system. Centipede : There might be collor differences, but does it really matter for this game? Berzek : Same comment. Perfectly nice to play. Haunted House : Same. Well, overall, if the most graphical games does look ugly, most games are perfectly fine, and some really doesn't appear to be different from their PAL or NTSC counterparts. I have a PAL 2600 Jr and an Atari 7800 that plays the games with their PAL colors, so I can tell that every game I have got the "right" palette, so none of these games have been modded for SECAM unit specifically. You can only assume that for Obelix, the programmers succeeded in chooseing colors that will fit both PAL and SECAM systems.