CatPix

For many people, it's really just for the joy of programming something cool. also, a Game Boy is a cheap, low-power and ready-made computer with an interface. When you see that a domotic unit cost in the hundreds, you think twice.

Several games on the 1292 have been programmed with an "absolute" positionning of the sprite, think like how Pong paddles move or how the rotary joysticks on Atari works. With those games, a centering stick mean that it goes back on the middle of the screen, making games like Bowling impossible to play.. or reall difficult

It's ironic because the GX4000 sold 10 times less in the UK than the NES. I think it's important to get things "in context" In pure numbers the NES sold poorly in the UK (about one million units) but that's only one indicator. First we know the UK market was saturated with 8 bits computers, unlike the US or Japan where cheap computers weren't so much of a thing. Second it's important to consider what thos sytems sold before; simply because people back then wouldn't have bought a console as easily as today. On paper, the Atari Jaguar outsold the GX 4000 (sketchy figures for both systems but we're apparently talking about 250 000 VS 150 000 ); now, let's take other numbers : The GX-4000 was sold for about 6 months and was mostly/only avaiblable in the UK and France. The Atari Jaguar was sold for 3 years and was available in the US and Western Europe (and Japan apparently but come on...). If I divide the Jaguar sales by 6 (3 years : 6 semesters) then the Jaguar sold 41 667 systems every 6 months. Also, Population of France+ UK in 1990 : about 80 millions. Population of the USA+ Western Europe... 248 millions + 350 millions (approx) 598 millions. So with those figures the GX 4000 sold 1875 units per million And the Jaguar sold 6.967 systems per million. So mathematically the GX4000 was way way more successful than the Jaguar (before people check m figures and all : it's a joke, it's mostly to show that you can use figures to make they say what you want... but it doesn't mean it's meaningful) So yeah compared to other countries the NES didn't sold vastly, but it would be interesting to see what market share the NES had, that one would be a much more siginficant figure. Even if the NEs "only" sold a million units in the UK, if the NES was taking 60% of the market then it was succesful. Just not "as successful in the UK than in othre countries".

I dunno who thrift store works in the US, unless you meant "Goodwill" but not all of them get free items.. In fact most of them buy stuff. Sre they buy it low, but they do buy. Goodwill, to my understanding, is a charity type of store? It's meant to both help people that can't get a job and also to help poor people getting the bare necessities. I don't feel it's fair to complain about it. A Pokemon Game Boy game is not a bare necessity. A Megadrive isn't either. If they were upturning basic furniture too it would be a problem, but really what are they doing now? They sell valuable items that aren't basic necessities to people who can afford them and do a gesture. For them it's kind of a donation, and for the buyer, they get a desired item and they can say they did a good gesture, that they wouldn't have done otherwise (making a donation). I can say I feel the same with our local network of "Goodwill" (Emmaüs in France) but I accept it. Because not only sometime, a rare item will escape the attention of the Emmaüs workers, but also because they still have lots of low priced items on the side; where else can I get books for 50 cents, a microwave oven for 20€ and a kitchen table and cupboard for 50€?

I was thinking console since most chatting here is usually about consoles. Also the generation talk is more important in consoles than in PC. I agree that the motion controls in BOTW are bad in puzzles, I assume because they ad to account for the Wiimote and Mablette (Wii U version) and the Joy-con and gamepad Pro (Switch). I was specifically talking about aiming, not puzzles. PC and console are different breeds, there aren't really "generation" in PC gaming and I always found that PC gamers around me, even those that don't define themselves as retrogamers, are much more susceptible to play older games than console gamers. Mostly because PC Gaming have a more smoothed out progression gameplay and graphics wise, and also because you can usually play more games on your current PC where console gaming require to own different systems or hope your game is compatible with the next gen. Or you pay to get your game again in virtual console form.

I second that. Odyssey2/Videopac has a solid, if mostly uninspired, selection of games. It could be the "demo system" of the second gen. All the main genres f games in a solid library. Intellivision is more experimental but also more interesting.

Also motion controls in't just about flapping a Wiimote in the air. Try playing a regular FPS/adventure game then play Breath of the Wild. It's just impossible for Nintendo to remove motion detection from their systems and I think that the next gens console and PC should adopt it. It makes aiming so much more fast, precise and natural it's a given. Much like how analog controls arrived with 3Dad are impossible to remove now. (unless we replace it with VR.)

I haven't heard of a difference in built quality. There is one technical difference in that in addition to the Turbo switches, the pad cords are longer on the second version. Which isn't saying much I think if you look long enough you can find them for under 100$ and it's important to notice that those have A/V out unlike the Famicom. They feature both RCA video out and a DIN style plug (to provide power and A/V to an optionnal RF converter) which, in addition to the ample room inside make them ideal candidates for TimRGB mods. They also aren't prone to yellowing and they are good talk pieces. This might be taken in consideration for someone who isn't very tech savvy and don't want/know how to make a video mod on the Famicom.

Phone? I was talking about PC or current gen games. Those games already are available as downloads and they still cost 65/70$. And cloud gaming require large powerful servers and storage space, all of which has a cost.

Yep. Those are the "straight bezel" ones, second gen, as opposed to the "half-circle" / "horseshoe" ones.

I don't see why. Gameswill still require thousand of people working for 1/2...5 years to make a game. I don't see how cloud gaming will change that. You just have to look on Steam and online shops to see that transport is the tail end of a game cost. In fact it happens that physical games can even be gotten cheaper than the digital game since on the digital store, the seller has total control, but your local supermarket can say otherwise. I don't think gaming will improve much indeed at least graphics-wise. In fact It might even stall since, when developpers will have produced a new 3D engine with characters and effects, they'll reuse it to no end for several years to recoup the cost. In fact they may even stop improving for the more realisting things looks, the more we're creeping into the uncanny valley. Because we will have a realistic-looking face, but wrong or no facial muscles moving, poor lip-syncing, stiff body moves, dead blank eye look, etc. It will improve on that front too but this will be subtle and slow since it's a detail most producer wouldn't care about because "realistic facial muscles" doesn't sell as much as "Bear hair entierely modelised and animated"

Well reading from top to bottom should take 8 seconds so you can at least check if you're in the correct values with a chronometer. As far as I heard the speed is the least important parameter but it may require retuning because belts have different quality (I have belts from different sources and one source is defitively more stiff, which result in more pull on the engine axle and therefore, decreased rotation speed).

If it loads side A and not B you may need to tune the motor speed too. Do it carefully, use a marquer to note where the original speed was at first.

The FDS drive can run from batteries or any 9V DC transformer (a Megadrive one will do) and you need the RAM cart adapter. That's all! Be aware that unless you're buying a tested and fixed one you'll have to replace the drive belt. A Famicom only require a power supply (9V standard as well) and a video cable (RF only unless you're getting an AV Famicom)

I wouldn't call the PS1 the best-looking, but as I have been fiddling with electronics for a long time, know a bit of tech, I can tell that of the 32/64 bits console gen, the Playstation is one of the most pleasingly engineered one design wise. I think I posted that on another thread but... The Ps1 is so well-designed. Save for the reset button, from a top view, it's symetrical in both lenght and width. The hinge of the CD lid is cleverly hidden with that large slab going to the back of the system. The two round buttons have those notches to tell what they do! Even without symbols, the right one has a notch going to the CD lid so you can guess it's to open it, the second one has a notch going to a transparent plastic so anyone remotely familiar can guess it's a power light, therefore the button is for powering the system. The ridges are also a clever engineering answer to a classic cooling problem. Making a simple grille is easy but people can block them easily with paper, or putting the console in a tight space. And it's not really an aesthetically pleasing view. Here, those ridges provide vents you cannot possibly block at once : even if you squeeze the console in a tight cabinet, air would still flow. And they are obviosuly oriented so from the front and even the sides you can't see the opening. It's brillant. It's not a beauty, but it's a beautifully engineered design.

Amusingly after making the video with my belt-less FDS, I decided that heh since I had a belt at hand, to put one; well ajusting the dang head took me a good hour, but I got it working

If the CPU is an oddity it mean learning to write for it. On a system that receive only mockery even from the owners of that system, it's barely surprising. Homebrews on the Supervision and Gamate happened because both use an ultra-standard Z80 CPU most retro-homebrew makers know well, and those systems receive some praise by peopel who own one.

Yeah filming make those old screen even worse. I also feel that many people that were alive BITD forgot how bad those screens are or are too used to wank about "60 fps lag-free games" (or people that mix up the refresh rate of their Tv and the actual game refresh). I have both the Supervision and the Gamate and while their screens are nothing to be amazed with, it's not as some people suggest, a blurry unreadable mess. Though it's mostly because msot games are slow paced. It's also possible that screen tech is in play, too. I bought a Game Boy Clone, the GB Boy. Unlike the related GB Boy Colour, the GB Boy come with a back and white screen. My goodness, this is a crappy display! My best guess is that today B&W LCD screens are using in industrial or low-power applications where lag display is irrelevant. It's even worse than the original GB screen. It could be the reason why the Game.Com screen get despised - using inadapted tech to save money.

Though this only list official hardware. There is at least two pads and one joystick that were made by 3rd parties. The most famous one is the Gamester pad, for the quality of it is vastly superior to the original Philips controllers. https://cdii.blogspot.com/2019/10/tecnoplus-and-gamester-offered-official.html

Mine still have it although 9/10th broken.I think one improvement would be, instead of usign the original design, to put holes where the plastic "hinges" would be, and use a small metal bar as hinges, that way whe you open the lid as intented (by the middle of it) the efforts goes to the metal bar and given the diameter, it would flex and absorb the effort.

I think it depends if the person that got stolen took their insurance money or not. To my understanding, the idea is that the insurance "become the owner" of the stolen items. https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/11/automobiles/collectibles/11STOLEN.html For those who don't wanna click on a link, a Shelby was stolen in the 70's; 30 years later, someone found it for sale on eBay, and checked what car it was , for the seller listen the VIN and special Shelby number, and they matched the stolen car. The rightful owner called the police, and after checking, the car was returned to him. And the "owner/seller" which was found honest and not involved in the theft, well... got nothing. Despite having buying it with what looked like a clean title from a previous owner, he wasn't the legal owner of the car. Though he was refunded for the theft back in the day, so now the car is legally the insurer's property...

And you can add that although Mattel sold the Intellivision, the console itself as Intellivision III was sold up to 1990, so it did survived the crash.

Given it's an unique iteration of a system with "little" value... it's probably worth "how much the next guy will want to pay for it". About this item, we have a message here saying So we know it's NOT Curt Vendel 's one since he say he still have his own. It might be the factory's owner's one, Bonnel's one, Wim Stock's one or the "decorative model". We can't even link this model to any of those persons, bu even if it was, how much would you pay for an item that belonged to Bruno Bonnell or Win Stocks? What about paying big money for the "deep wall hanging display case" one? It's a very interesting piece of talk and I regret not tryign to bid on it, but ultimately I'm afraid it has, for now, little value.

I didn't noticed the free shipping. I never noticed the "Junk" but yeah many Japanese sellers do'nt bother and just drop items "untested" on auctions. Sometime you win, sometime you lose, sometime you get what you paid for. Had a few surprises like that - buying a IFU30 and seeign that the seller sold it with a Cd-Rom² unit inside. I had bough one on the side. Ironically, the "free" one worked after replacing the unfamous rotten gear. The untested one I got on the side probably had a bad laser and never worked. Heh! Got a "non working" Neo Geo CD from Japan for 55$. Turns out the very weak and crappy contact for the closed door was bent. I un-bent it and bam, working again.

It's a strange opinion. I think the likeness for WOW is from what I can see around me mostly a phenomement that touched people born between 1985 and 1995, give or take. People born before may not like it for it's time-consuming nature (and those people tend to know and prefer the Warcraft games) and people born after 1995 consider it like an old game, and prefer the shorter time-requiring games of today, games that either require no learning curve and no levelling (PUBG) or pay-to-win models. Robotron may please lots of peopel because it is at core a simple scoring game, if they can look past the simpler graphics (and most of them do).