CatPix

What would be interesting is to list the working clones. Cheapo NOAC clones are bullshit; For example, your Megadrive clone iis interesting, if it can run all/most of the Megadrives games properly. Many Megadrive clones today are poor, with bad color, almost always a bad sound (mono, noisy, and some instruments not playing). So it would be nice to know which clones does a job as good as the expensive Retron and other high profile clones but for cheaper.

I use Datacrow for all my stuff. Maybe not the most practical tool, but you can't have one almost universal tool doing all the things right.

From what I remember the Telstar Arcade was released in 1977. Both Fairchild Channel F and Radofin 1292 APVS were released one year before, so it's not the first cart based game system. Plus, even if the cartridge seems to house a microprocessor and ROM on a chip, the base itself is just used to link the video output, controllers, power for the cart itself. So it's not exactly a Pong on a chip, but it's certainly not the first programmable cartridge system as we define them, only a little oddity on it's own. In the same fashion, in Europe, the SD-050 and SD-090 family of Pong machines were popular (were those machines ever released in North America?) What they are is nothing but Pong chips of the AY family on carts. The nice thing being that you can get all the games on carts rather than having to collect rare and bulky systems.

They don't blame the limitation as much as they blame Warner for asking for impossible stuff. THIS : [media=480*360] [/media]Is what Titus wanted to do, and what they did. According to them, the game is complete, or complete at 98%, but Warner refused to release it, and so this game is lost. People that tested the demo of the game, it's a good game. Maybe not a ball blasting hi-quality game, but a very decent PS1 game.

The Videopac was more popular than the Atari 2600 in France (thanks to an earlier start mostly), yet today, more people play and know about the 2600 than they know about the Videopac. Youger retrogamers sometime never heard of the Videopac! True then, I don't know much about the German market, but when I look around for games, there isn't much Atari 8 bits games from Germany or England compared to Commodore 64 or ZX Spectrum games. So, being successful doesn't mean it can't be underrated/forgotten today. Much like the Master system, that receive less attention than the NES.

J'aurais dû me douter que tu en parlerais... I didn't mention the Super Cassette Vision, because of the very small selection of games, and most of those games being uninteresting, short, with poor gameplay. Still, it worth owning it only for Star Speeder... The 8 bits version of F-zero, with guns

Really funny to read that... In Europe, the Master System was and still is considered a serious opponent to the NES, and it's a classic game system here, with systems and games being sold and even programmed as late as 1996. So for underated game systems, I'll go with : - The PC engine. Which was never oficially released in Europe but enjoyed a great success on the gray market/import, with national-wide companies such as Telegames in UK or Sodipeng in France. Still, today, it's a rare beast and not much people know much about it. - The 3DO. The idea, the concept, the power of the machine... IMO, the 3DO influenced the Playstation licensing model but fixed all the mistakes the 3DO did. With many fabulous games, (and amazingly bad games, worse than the CD-i one for some) it's a very special system I really like to have in my collection and play games sometime. - The Atari 8 bits. Alright, it's a computer, but in Europe, during all the 80's, gaming was on computer. The Atari 2600, the Intellivison, the Colecovision went on and off, almost not noticed (alright, I might be forcing it a bit) until the war grew between the Master System and the NES, both released fully and gaining success by the very late 80's (and even there, most gamers would prefer to save money for an Atari ST and an Amiga rather than buying 8 bits sytems) and at the time, if the war was high between the Commodore 64, the Amstrad CPC and the ZX Spectrum, the Atari 8 bits line was badly promoted, games released were either slow or mediocre ports of Spectrum or Amstrad versions. So, it should have gained success, but didn't, and I find it being so bad it need a little reminder.

Even if the 32X is an add-on and not a game system on it's own, it's still a 32 bits add-on and not a 16 bits add-on. (just kidding) Anyway, I think a good candidate is the PC engine, too. Better graphics and better sound than the Megadrive on a general matter (more displayed colors at once, variable resolution that equal the Megadrive resolution for most games. Sound is from a custom chip by Hudson... not as flexible as the Yamaha FM chip of the Megadrive, but "easier" to program), and Neo Geo ports on CD-rom using the Arcade Card adding more RAM to handle more fancy stuff... and even some arcade ports (not Neo Geo ones, tho) such as Street Fighter II which are impressive considering the limited hardware. Sure it's not as easy to get and probably the most expensive... (try to find a PC engine + the CD-rom + the Arcade card... Or a Duo + Arcade card... and add the games. May be not as expensive as a Neo Geo, but certainly way more than a Super Nintendo and even more than a Megadrive and Mega CD) but it's worth mentionning it. Fatal Fury Special : [media=480*360] [/media] Art of Fighting : [media=480*360] [/media] And just for the eyes' pleasure : [media=480*360] [/media] (remember, this one run on the ORIGINAL PC-engine. No CD add-on, no Arcade card) (and if you wonder, you can play SFII with either the usual pad, using the same trick as the Megadrive to switch between punch and kicks, or use an "Avenue 6" 6-buttons pads)

In France we have a solvent called "Essence F" (F gas. No idea what it means ). It's used to dry cleaning of clothes, removing stickers, and cleaning plastic parts since it doesn't burn any plastic surface. Wikipedia give equivalent for it as being "white gas" (not white spirit) si if you can find a way to get some, it's a nice way to clean your cartridges, clean your laminated labels (non laminated works too, but you may make a bleaching effect if you rub the label too hard) and it's very effective to rub CD cases with it with a very light abrasive material such as paper towel to remove scratches. Still, if you're unsure how to deal with chemicals, the best way is ; water+ soap for the cart, and cristal vinegar for the electronics. If you wanbt to get a cart working, a very effective and fast way is to rub cardboard on the contacts. It got a very small abrasive effect on corrosion, so you can make a cart working with just that.

There is at least one name hidden in some Interton VC 4000 programs. Long story short, Interton claimed at the time that all their programs were written in Germany. This is true for most games, but hidden in the code of Shooting Gallery you can read : CHOI ANDREW, HONG KONG, MARCH 31 1981. PROGRAMS BY THE SAME AUTHOR : INVADER, BREAKOUT. Other games have been written in England for the 1292 AVPS clones and some of those games were released on the Interton too. Funnily enough, Choi Andrew made a comeback for some Arcadia 2001 programs. It might just because the Arcadia 2001 is more or less an upgraded VC 4000, so he was probably one of the few programers in Asia able to code on the Signetic CPU. This text is found in the games Space attack and Crazy Gobbler : "To my wife Daisy and son Jonathan From Choi Andrew, Jul 1982" A famous case is in Super Monkey Daibouken on Famicom, where a developer put that message hidden in the tileset (made of kanjis so there is various translations around on Internet) of the game : "Designer Nakajima Kaoru, born 1960 in Toyokawa-City in Aichi prefecture, 26 years old. I wanna lick your pussy! I want a perverted miss. I like vagina and the clitoris! Chitsu, Kuri, I love you! I love you!" The Jaguar version of Rayman have differen hidden messages, that can be displayed on the title screen by inputting codes on the Jaguar keypad. Some examples : "I wanted to thanks : Nintendo and Konami for the great games they made" "A vendre : Ascona (19XX) état épave. Signé Jean Marc G" (selling : Ascona (19XX) clunker. From Jean-Marc G) "La Jaguar est mon amie et Rayman aussi, alors laissez-les vivre" (Jaguar is my friend, and Rayman too, so let them live!" A good source for hidden stuff in games (did you know that in SMB2, the tune for the the dark world where you get mushrooms and coins is longer than the time you can stay in? So you can listen the whole tune on this website) : http://tcrf.net/The_Cutting_Room_Floor

The GC version is rarer than the PS1 version. When it come to gameplay, it's the same really on both versions (I have them) but, moving a character with a joystick when it was designed for being moved with the D-pad is a bit clunky (which isn't saying much. Even if RE3 greatly improve the gameplay of RE 1 and 2, it's so stiff compared to other titles of the time...). It's not much of a deal to me, but if you're used to play your RE 1 and 2 games on PS1, you might find the CG version a bit harder to control. So really, unless you find RE3 on GC for 2/3$, don't bother and get a PS1 version. Except if you prefer to have a GC collection.

I didn't mentioned the arcade because I know only a few people would gut an arcade, or even try to find an arcade board just to fix an Astrocade. As for the release date... sure, it's getting old; but, Atari 2600 are rarely non functionnal, and they are as old. 1292 AVPS and Interton VC4000 are as old, and they aren't know to be prone to failure (but the Interton get damn hot if you make it run for half a day. This isn't too good). If the custom chips aren't damaged, then it's most likely you can fix your dead unit. It might take a power replacement, or some other chip, tho.

Prehistorik man (Super Nintendo) PC-Kid II (PC-Engine) Okami (PS2)

It's mostly because those systems have proprietary chips; once it's overheated, it's dead, and you need to find a new one. Where can you find a new one? In another Astrocade, nowhere else! That's the issue with the Bally and the reason why, unless you already have a dead one with different dead chip, you can't fix a dead one (providing it's an chip that overheated here, and not a transistor, or a capacitor)

Modern gamers have been used oto some tricks. We old players are used to other tricks, that's all. I found myself getting stuck in modern games, where other people (youger people) find their path easily. The most recent example I recall is in "Fahrenheit" (Project Indigo). At some time during the game, you're supposed to walk around a moving truck to stay hidden. I failed and failed, until I started to look on walkthroughs/FAQs (the written kind). I looked at a dozen one, in French then in English, only to find the same line "follow the truck then move behind". Still it wasn't working, so I looked on a video walkthrough and finally I could do it. But even when I found forums with the question "I'm stuck at this very part, what do I do?" the answer was the same. And players found it usefull, but for me, it was total BS. On the other hand, I am always amused when people doesn't seem to deal with a simple game with one or two buttons... I see people grabbing Atari 2600 joysticks without caring about where the wire goes out of it (I mean, except for some oddities, the wire aways goes out from the upper part of the pad)... and a surprising number of people that grab the Atari 7800 joypad upside down!

It can't be "too much". Your SNES might be a bit more aging or having been used more, and need a bit more power than 850mA. Get a PSU with 1000Ma/1A output (or more, it doesn't matter) and you should be fine. Those kind of PSU must be tested with something (like the SNES) draining a lot of power. If tested with just a measuring device or something like a lightbulb, you may not see that when asked to deliver those 850Ma, the voltage drop down.

Well I read it, and jetset, who created this thread, doesn't have a PAL console.

What you need mostly is a 50 to 60 Htz converter. PAL to NTSC cannot work properly because your game system being NTSC, it will ALWAYS send an NTSC color subcarrier. So unless you have a cleverly ade converter, it try to pick up a PAL colot signal when you send an NTSC signal. Your best hope is to have a monitor and TV with a V-hold tuning, either automatic (most Euro TV can display 60 Htz signal without manual control) or manual. Of course such devices are useful if you have a PAL system.

It's a well know selling site in France, the equivalent of Craig's list (but more easy to use if you want my opinion). The downside is that you have no control or way to trust the seller nor the buyer. French systems are almost always different in that matter. The Colecovision was available on SCART model only in France. The Intellivision got a SCART release in France only, as well as the Atari 2600 Jr (though for the Atari, it's a composite version, not RVB version). As far as I know, the Atari 7800 "Péritel" (the French name for SCART) is unique to the French market as well. The NES, Super Nintendo, Master System and Megadrive also have unique models for the French market : they were shipped with RVB cables, and no RF output at all. The Master System and Megadrive I doesn't even output any composite signal; the Super Nintendo and Megadrive II have a PAL composite signal in addition to the RVB. (and the Master System II have RVB output too, whereas it appears to be RF only in other countries?). In fact, only a handful of system are "SECAM" systems, and none of the "aftercrash" system after 1983 ever enjoyed a SECAM composite output. And unlike what some people and selling site suggest, except for the ocasionnal French only version of a box, and/or translation of the software, there in zero difference between a "SECAM" game and a PAL game. By the way, there is no such thing as a SECAM game. All games sold in France, before and now, are labeled "PAL". The only exception I ever saw is the writing on the Colecovision saying "This system accept SECAM carts" and the carts themselves labeled "for SECAM TV system only" (but this is just like that PAL A and PAL B bullshit : All French Colecovision are PAL systems with an internal board labelled "PAL to SECAM converter' that convert the video signal from the Colecovision from YUV to SECAM and RVB) For micro computers, well they either had PAL or RVB output. In this case they were sold with a PAL to RVB converter. The Commodore 64 was sold in PAL version, or in SECAM+RVB version. So this Aquarius II would have a legitimate SCART and not a home made mod. If you wonder why SCART was so commonly seen in France compared to the rest of Europe, it's because not only SCART was invented in 1977 by French (and European) electronic brands, but also by law, every color TV sold after January 1st, 1981 in France, must have a SCART input. There was no compatibility requirement and so, some TV such as the earliest Sony Trinitron doesn't have RVB compatibility, but many TV had RVB and SECAM (and very quickly, Pal compatibility); so, making a SCART connexion was cheaper than making a specific SECAM L tuner, and ensured more compatibility.

Wow, you must have an active market for Intellivision games; those prices are rather high

Tempting.... I would buy it, but meh... What I'm gonna do with it? Aaah the dilemma! And sadly, very often those "make an offer" announces are nothing but bidding auction in disguise. From the first pic you can tell it got a SCART plug. Now, does it mean it's RGB? If the video chip is capable of RGB, it certainly is; but it could be composite "only". Still, 1000 times better than RF.