Jump to content
Have You Played Atari Today?
2600|5200|7800|Lynx|Jaguar|Forums|Store  

phoenixdownita

+AtariAge Subscriber
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content Count

    4,028

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    4

Posts posted by phoenixdownita

  1. Posted

    More about MegaSg + MegaED x7 and SMS FM sound.

     

    So wrt SMS OutRun playing it directly on MegaSg jailbreak (no megaED at all) it has the sound-noise bug due to non-correct emulation of JP SMS (only game with that glitch by the way), note that I do not know if SMS Outrun played on an original Genesis with FM bolted-on (MegaED x7 or Power Base FM) would show the glitch or not.

     

    Now onto MegaED x7 not being able to play its on FM when MegaSg has SMS FM off, not sure why but, here is the kicker, if you have both SMS FM on (MegaSg + MegaED x7) then you get double FM glory, thanks to the MegaSg ability to turn its own SMS FM on/off live you can hear the MegaED x7 version underneath it.

     

    So weird, so if MegaSg SMS FM is off, the MegaED x7 SMS FM just doesn't work, no "detection" really and the games play in PSG mode, if you turn on MegaSg SMS FM (before starting a game) and Mega ED x7 SMS FM on they both produce sound which the MegaSg mixes (I  take that cart audio pin if enabled always mixes no matter the core: Genesis/SMS).

     

    My take is that the SMS emulation of the MegaSg with SMS FM off somehow "overrides" the MegaED x7 one, because when both are on you get dualFM (no nothing stereo really and they play in glorious synchrony).

    And yes, SMS Outrun when played with the MegaED x7 SMS FM only (after switching the MegaSg SMS FM off) still has the same audio glitch (which clears at the first tires-screech or off-road tires noise and reappears at each track section).

    Note: you need to have MegaSg cart-audio option turned on for MegaED x7 SMS FM obviously.

    End with a question: is the only thing a MegaED x7 (non pro) can play that a MegaSg cannot Virtua Racing? Literally that 1 game?

  2. Posted

    1 hour ago, Reaperman said:

    I'd been looking for raphnet snes controller to nes port adapters for some time.

    No idea how hard they are to get hold of, but they'd always been out of stock when I checked--until today.  (granted I don't check super-often, so maybe my timing was previously just awful)

     

    Looks like they are currently available at both raphnet-tech.com or their ebay store.

     

    Sure I could make my own, but I'm lazy, and these have a nice extension + map the buttons around.

    I bought an NTT data controller some years ago, and haven't yet tried it out with the NT Mini

    Just bought one for no reason whatsoever, I don't have an NtMiniV2 (or even NtMini for that matter) .... lol .... I realized what it was only after I paid ... oh well!

    • Like 1
    • Haha 1

  3. Posted

    13 hours ago, carlsson said:

    Btw, I just realized that Team Pixelboy has converted the SG-1000 version of Pitfall II to ColecoVision, which makes it a little bit more reachable to play on realistic hardware. The same probably can be said about a number of SG-1000 games, appearing on very similar systems.

    At that point if you have it play it on the MegaSg which emulates SG-1000 with the TMS9918 palette (you can switch that dynamically in the video setting, "extra" menu option).

    Disclaimer I have not tried Pitfall II but I did try SG-1000 Girl's Garden and also Sega Galaga loaded up straight from a MegaED x7 (it should work the same if not better loading it directly from the MegaSg Jailbreak FW) and the palette makes a big difference.

    • Like 1

  4. Posted

    Can anyone confirm that the MegaSg with latest JB firmware has "noise" while playing SMS outrun with FM on?

     

    I tried it via a MegaED x7 and the MegaSg self switches to SMS mode but it does have the same issue Tim SMSFM board had up to ver 2.2:
    http://etim.net.au/smsfm/smsfm.html
    " In late 2014 there was some extra details discovered about the Japanese SMS sound hardware on detailed in this thread. The benefit is there are no longer 'extra' sound effects playing in Outrun at the start of a race."

     

    I have Tim SMSFM 2.0 on my US SMS and it has the issue, I was hoping the MegaSg emulated it correctly instead (a JP SMS does not show the issue obviously).

     

    If you want to test it, just load SMS Outrun with FM turned on, you will hear quite some noise as you play until the first time you activate sound effects that needs the PSG chip, it can be your tires screeching in a tight corner or the bumpy sound when the tires hit the dirt off-road, at that point the noise ceases until the very next segment of the race.

    On the side it also appears that on the MegaSg the FM sound as emulated by the MegaED x7 on SMS games simply does not work, I turned on MegaSg cart audio, turned off MegaSg SMS FM, turned on MegaED (3.13) FM but I still just got PSG on SMS Outrun .... to be fair I have not tried it on my real Genesis but I expect it to work as it is an advertised feature ( https://krikzz.com/forum/index.php?topic=6702.0 )

     

  5. Posted

    2 hours ago, Zap1982 said:

    Suppose Brand recognition would be an issue. I think calling it "BBC" (if you would want that) would present issues in itself too.

     

    Jeez.. Acorn really is confined to the history books aren't they! And said books never got a digital release either!

    Is it? The ARM cpu was their doing so maybe BBC/Electron/Master are not too popular with the retro crowd (are they?) and Archimedes itself was more of a showpiece for the Acorn Risc Machine and too expensive for its time but calling footnote the company that created one of the most popular cpus on the planet is .... a little wrong.

  7. Posted

    dafuq?

    I guess they thought they can not gain anything from being sold at Walmart? 

    And yes it is weird when a company asks you to cancel your order with a reputable distributor to instead reorder directly from them ... aside the fact they get to keep more of the money (cut out the middleman etc....) assuming they know how to ship/distribute it cheaply.

  8. Posted

    On 1/23/2021 at 11:23 AM, mozartpc27 said:

    that's $800-$900 - a conservatively estimated 260% over the inflation rate over the same period.  So good ROI.

    you mean good ROI when you buy low and sell hi?

     

    Cause buying any of that lot when it was new would not break you even, just the Plus/4 according to wikipedia:

    Introductory price $299[1](equivalent to $737 in 2019)

  10. Posted

    On 1/25/2021 at 6:44 AM, CatPix said:

    We can add that in 1983 Sega released the SC-3000, which is an upgraded SG 1000 with a keyboard, more RAM and an upgraded video chip, making it a mini-computer. (and the basis for the future Master System)

    It's not unlikely that, as with other systems of the era, Sega might have planned to have an ecosystem of console, computer (and arcade?) based on the same chips.

     

     

     

    The SC-3000 does not have an upgraded video chip, it's identical to the SG-1000 aka TMS9918A ( https://segaretro.org/TMS9918 ), it does have more RAM (2K instead of 1KB https://segaretro.org/SC-3000 ) and the keyboard.
    I had one when I was a kid before I returned it for a C64. It requires a cart even for BASIC ... can't remember which one it came in the box (there's a few variants)

    • Like 1

  11. Posted

    Palettes/comparison are here:

     

    https://www.smspower.org/Development/Palette

     

    The Genesis/MD VPD removed all TMS9918 modes and only kept the SMS advanced modes.

    The SMS had both modes obviously but with a different (generally darker) palette, playing Sega Galaga (SG-1000) on an SMS is frustrating due to dark blue enemy bullets on black background.

     

    I do not own an SG-1000 but I do own 3 SMS (an US, a JP and an EU MD-II with VDP2) which I believe can all be simulated by the MegaSg.
    There aren't very many games for SG-1000 so it's not exactly that you're missing out on a lot to begin with.

    • Thanks 1

  12. Posted

    @Steven Pendleton @cybercylon

     

    Wrt to Saturn but also PS1 games supporting 16:9, if memory serves the trick they use is to still render it at 4:3 output but "squeeze" the picture and have the TV force the widening to maintain the pixel aspect ratio.

     

    Up until 720p there was no 16:9 supported proper ratio per se, 1280x720 is native 16:9, while 640x480 (aka 480p) is 4:3, so told the Sega Saturn is capable of outputting 352x240 (vs 320x240) getting the horizontal resolution a 10% boost but not a proper 16:9.

    So usually what is referred to is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anamorphic_widescreen and here's a list of Sega games https://segaretro.org/Anamorphic_widescreen
     

     

    So in short 16:9 is a "compressed" 4:3 in which the X axis gets to show more area (with less details given the number of pixels is fixed anyway) so when stretched to 16:9 on a widescreen TV geometry is unsqueezed and you usually get to see more area to the sides (the side pillars are not black so to speak, and the top/bottom not cut out, but there's less pixel density and so a slightly less defined image).

    • Like 1

  13. Posted

    On 1/6/2021 at 12:26 PM, Asaki said:

    What. Why?

    Because when I tried to associate my the network ID in use by my moribund Wii U with the "new" Wii U it told me "network ID in use" and to use the other console (the broken one) to disassociate it first (I heard you can go though their support channel to sort out some of the mess ... why is that not the default error message then? You know "contact customer support for assistance with migrating .....").

     

    It gets better, when I bought the MK8 DLC the Amazon link told me to redeem it on the Nintendo website which in turn required a Nintendo account (not a network ID) to do so, so I had to associate my new network ID to a newly created Nintendo account to finally have a chance at redeeming the DLC ... but I never did the last step, I just tried on my "new Wii U and new network ID" to redeem the code and it just worked ... unsure why that was not the recommended way in the first place.

     

    So yeah .... Nintendo really made it a mess wrt the online side ... been told with the Switch and the Nintendo account thing they are somewhat getting out of the mess, I don't have a Switch so  ... never had such issues with my XB360 (I rotated among 4 of them over time) and can use the acct on my XB One with all compatible content from my 360 available on it ... aka "that is how you do it".

  14. Posted

    Why isn't there a "none" option so that I can vote to express that "things were they way they were and that was fair" kind-of opinion?

    [I still have some passing interest in the Astrocade but due to 8bits fatigue I think I'll pass permanently on it, I do own a 7800 to try 2600 games and I am not "so amused" even wrt the 7800 proper library, I grew up with a 2600 but at that time my perception of good game carts were Combat and Air-Sea Battle etc... aka lots of variations, these days I think the SMS is one of the best 8bits but then again I'd rather play "16bits" due to more colors etc..., at the same time MD/SNES is where [email protected] really started to shine imho].

    • Like 2

  15. Posted

    Haven't looked at the video, I hope you mention the early batch of Wii U with the "bad" flash memory.

    I happen to have one of those, it worked fine for years on end then finally my 4Y old wanted to play with it and kaboom "corrupted" and no possibility of repair now (wish they released a utility to at least "revive" it given Samsung did release a fixed firmware for the flash chips controller).

    At any rate I had to buy a "used" one on ebay some four month ago or so, console only, and it was clean, the seller didn't even mention it came with Mario Kart 8 digital (the neat thing is that if you restore it to factory, MK8 is once again ready for download for the next owner, until the servers are up that is) .... my son loves the game so much, I only paid 70US$ shipped for the console (I reused my "flashmem-challenged" edition gamepad/power/sensor-bar... and off I went) and now [literally 2 days ago] I also bought the DLC for MK8 (12US$ on Amzn) and he's having blast, he talks about it when he wakes up, he "sings" the countdown-race sequence ... awesomesauce, we have him playing using a wiimote [no-plus] + driving wheel plastic holder and it's the best thing so far to motivate him, I hekped him on 50cc (bad idea has he didn't learn to play really)  but then let him handle 100cc and it's been brutal but he's making progress, and winning a gold cup here and there [he won the crown cold cup on his own with a tie for 1st first try ... I was so impressed].

     

    Me personally I get bored with MK8 and never liked "kart" style racing games, so told it's a decent consoles just to gimmicky in a way, but I did enjoy Zen Pinball 2 on it and bought a few of the table-sets (not that i can transfer them being locked to the "flashmem-challenged" console at this point ... I even had to recreate a new nintendo NetworkID ... so dumb the online handling, in all honesty Microsoft got this right, one account, no matter the console)

  16. Posted

    It's the pinnacle of 16bit gaming, the real arcade at home.

    I didn't have one until a few years ago ... for me it went NGCD (Top Loader) because at that time there was no flash solution out yet and AES/MVS games where/are expensive, then NG CDZ (just because I found it on the "cheap" and really wanted to see the extra loading speed) then finally AES with MagicKey II + banana cart then NeoSD and now Neo SD Pro.
    I have a furrtek SDLoader that I had not yet had time to install in the NGCD Top Loader ... which would very likely revive it in terms of playability (it's slow in loading and that makes later KoFs games (but not only) be really King of Loading).

     

    If you are in the hobby and you're now into "exotic" territory and you can afford it it's really a nice console, indeed about 1/3 of the games are fighters but that means there's still a lot of non fighters worth trying ... some are weird (8-man I am looking at you) but still fun in their own ways.

     

    It's only got more expensive over time so it can be off putting but a working AES set + neoSD is in the whereabouts of Jag + JagCD or cheaper, a consolized MVS can be had for 400US$ or whereabouts (like this one https://www.ebay.com/itm/mvs-consolized-Mvs-Neo-Geo-Snk/164381930258 )

    • Like 2

  17. Posted

    From https://www.c64-wiki.com/wiki/BASIC

    Comparing BASIC V2 (second release as in VIC20/C64 etc..) vs BASIC 4.0 (PET 40xx/8xxx) it seems this is the list of 4.0 extra commands:

     

    APPEND | BACKUP | CATALOG | COLLECT | CONCAT | COPY | DCLOSE | DIRECTORY | DLOAD | DOPEN | DS | DS$ | DSAVE | HEADER | READ# | RECORD | RENAME | SCRATCH | 

     

    (note that BASIC V2 had a π constant added and TI/TI$ also aliased to TIME/TIME$ that seem amiss in the PET BASIC 4.0)

    At any rate a link to BASIC 4.0 is here:

    http://www.commodore.ca/manuals/pdfs/Commodore_Basic_4_Users_Reference Manual.pdf

    and yes all the extra commands are related to files.

    I am not referring here to perfs/bug-fixes (however important) just BASIC language features/functions available.

    NOTE: Also true that BASIC 3.5 (C16, C+4) seems a superset of BASIC 4.0 with gfx/sfx support added so I have no problem believing that VIC20/C64 BASIC V2 is actually BASIC 4.0 without file commands but perfs/bug-fixes as needed).

     



     

  18. Posted

    Yeah, why isn't GWBASIC represented? the RM Nimbus is an 80186 (so obviously not 100% DOS compatible) so DOS era equivalents should not be shied away from.

     

    Not sure why PET is at spot 17, with BASIC 4.0 it's better than Vic 20 (at spot 12) and C64 (at spot 6) in terms of pure BASIC, if the C64 is so high because of PEEK/POKE to access "advanced" Gfx/Sfx chip ... that has nothing to do with BASIC.

     

    I don't dislike C64 BASIC, that's all I had, and it was functional and "fun" (not sure the quote mode was to my taste but once more it worked), but I liked SIMON'S BASIC more because of the explicit support for Gfx/Sfx commands.

  20. Posted

    On 12/28/2020 at 6:30 PM, jgkspsx said:

    Hmmm. I was looking at an RGB2COMP to send into my 2X Pro, and that got me thinking... should I just get the direct SCART to HDMI? As it is, I'm eventually going to have an SCART switch, a composite switch, and an HDMI switch in the picture, so I wouldn't really be simplifying anything by sending the RGB2COMP into the 2X Pro, and it feels like it is more likely to hurt video quality than help. So many cables...

    I thought of doing the same (aka a 2X-M and a separate 2X-SCART) but then the combined cost did not really make sense to me at that time and decided the RGB2COMP to be the way to go being 30US$ cheaper than the 2X-SCART, it doesn't add any lag and any feature added to the YPbPr input of the 2X-M (or 2X-Pro in your case) would be available.

    Ideally the SCART input should just have been an option all along imho in Retro Tink offerings (instead of YPbPr I offer) as so many consoles already support SCART output natively: having to go the YPbPr way first aka console-mod/transcoder makes little sense, but it is what it is and at least we have options, for sure the presence of YPbPr TV sets in the US early on "forced" the move to it in the first place.

     

    Note that the 2X-SCART does not have many of the settings available in the 2X-Pro (but the 2 units are indeed closely related) given there's no need to support anything different than 240p and 480i over the RGB+Sync signals (no composite/SVideo) ... not sure if that means some other features may be impacted due to the lack of the slider switches (it has none) and one of the push buttons (it has only one vs the two of 2X-M and 2X-Pro) ... you be the judge. 

    • Thanks 1

  22. Posted

    If this ships, and if it has any success whatsoever what does it tell about what customers want in a video game console?

     

    I really see an old joke materialize, maybe AtGames can do it, it's a pinball machine with a soda can dispenser incorporated.

    You play the pinball and if you hit some random progression point (like a "multiball") the machine shots back at you a soda can at groin level (oh the irony of the "multiball" if you happen to be a male) .... just to spice things up.

  23. Posted

    On 12/30/2020 at 8:34 PM, Rhomaios said:

    It gets worse when it comes to PS1 games, too.

     

    Region locking is the biggest scam these companies pull.

    I understand why they do it mind you, I just think that it should be easier for legit originals to be played on out-of-region consoles than backups ... so that people that want to do the right thing can.

    I believe PS3 enabled that, I remember purchasing a non US version game in my case it was Saint Seyia: Sanctuary Battle ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Seiya:_Sanctuary_Battle ) PAL version and it worked, alas if memory serves anything related to on-line did not ... but at least I could play it in its original glory ;-)

    Not sure where the current crops stands? Are Switch, PS4, PS5, XB One and XB One "seriously whatever" still region locked?

    And yes, now I remember PS1 is also so weird on PS2, and pretty much supporting backups easier than originals out-of-region .... totally demented.  Then again it was the same for the actual PS1, meaning those modchip of old would defeat both original check protection AND regional lock-out .... so not surprising PS2 did the same.

  24. Posted

    There's no holy grail title that'll appear magically on the Jag and make it look like a Saturn or a PS1, period.

     

    It was ahead of SNES/MD, and it better be, but it was not strong enough in textured 3d games which is what people wanted at the time, and that defined its fate. End of story!

     

    The Tramiel stating that it is more powerful than a Saturn but just shy of a PS1 means zero, do you expect them to tell you it had no chance of competing with either?

     

    To the guy that thinks the unified bus is "da bomb" please think again .... what can be done today is very different than way back when, the 68K has 0 caches, so even if it can "take care of something else" while Tom/Jerry are working their magic, if said magic involves using the bus the 68K can't do jack-shit because it has no caches and so it needs the freaking bus to get any other instruction .... the more of the bandwidth goes into gfx/sfx the less the 68K has .... very different to the just released Apple M1, with Unified Memory Architecture .. right .. well guess what? even the memory is on the same chip now (what part of SoC did we not understand?) so they can go back to old patterns and carefully arbitrate who/when accesses what and put caches where they are needed.

     

     

    • Like 3

  25. Posted

    On 12/24/2020 at 2:38 PM, glorfindeal1 said:

    Ok, Jag GD is available.  Working on CD support yet?  :)

    Merry Xmas to you too and a Happy New Year as well ... I hope you really have a gaming emergency to be so keen on those 13 JagCD games as otherwise there's very little to look forward to ... or if you prefer I really hope you value Primal Rage, IS2 and Battlemorph above all else as the JagCD library is such slim picking that in terms of add-ons at that point the 32X is having a giggle ... really.

    • Like 1
AtariAge
Forums
Store
General
Follow AtariAge

Copyright ©1998-2021 AtariAge

×
×
  • Create New...