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DiscoDr.Bones

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Everything posted by DiscoDr.Bones

  1. DiscoDr.Bones
    Has anybody tried to order ElectronicSentimentalities S-video mod installation service for the 7800 in the last couple of months? It seems like every time I try to, it shows up as out of stock, which makes me wonder if that service is still being provided...?
  2. DiscoDr.Bones
    I would really like to see another run of these carts... I wasn't around for the first one and have sent a message of interest to tep392. I would like to see other people commit to the same and get another run produced! Don't be shy!
  3. DiscoDr.Bones

    Had no prior experience with Origin, but a lot of older games (Crysis series in particular) that I wanted to play again. So a quick chat with their support and minutes later, Origin account created and all my old EA games on it. I’m anti DRM, but that is as good as it gets as far as customer service goes…

    1. BurritoBeans

      BurritoBeans

      Honestly I'm not the biggest fan of Origin, but they have the free games which are always nice to have and it's the only way to get some of the EA titles so I deal with it.

    2. high voltage

      high voltage

      Bad Blood, very underrated game

    3. MrMaddog

      MrMaddog

      My advice is to always start the Origin client first since it has to have huge updates and you need it running to play the EA games anyway. Launching the games directly is a bad idea IMHO since Origin takes forever to load up. I do use it for mainly for the RPGs (both original Origin & Bioware)

  4. DiscoDr.Bones
    Hi, I have come into possession of an ASCII Stick Alpha for the Sega Master System. I have done some Google/Atari Age searching and have come to a limited understanding that trying to use it on a 7800/2600/800XL might be a bad idea, but I don't understand why and under what circumstances (if any) that it might work. But then I have a buddy who swears that he has played some of his Atari games using a different SMS controller for decades and it hasn't caused him any problems. What happens when one tries to play his or her Atari with a Master System controller? Thanks for your time, --SilvaHaloOne
  5. DiscoDr.Bones
    Hey Lendorien, Yes, I still have it... 3DO Road Rash is still one of my favorite games of all time and I don't have any of the subsequent ports of it, "Return Fire" and "Out of This World" still see some play time as well... I play it enough that it is perpetually hooked up in my gaming room. The only thing that seems to have been lost to time are my two original Panasonic controllers... I picked up a couple of Naki replacements a few years ago and they are ok... I have to open them after almost every session and fix one of the trigger buttons though... I have heard that is a pretty common complaint. I haven't picked up much besides those since the early 2000's... I just took a look at prices on Ebay and while they are higher than I would like, they don't seem to be too crazy. I have noticed that a lot of the people I talk to about gaming who are around my age seem to remember the 3DO but never got around to trying it... most ended up with a PlayStation or N64. I ended up with the 3DO and N64 and my next door neighbor had a Saturn, (which he also sold to me in the early 2000's) so between us, we pretty much had our bases covered. Glad people are still talking about the 3DO... I might have to give Road Rash a run through tonight...
  6. DiscoDr.Bones
    I was 14 in 1994 and REALLY wanted a 3DO. So I took a summer job moving sprinklers for cattle ranchers and by the end of the season, I had saved the $600 or so (I think the system had already had a price drop at that point) and got myself a FZ-1 with Road Rash… Gex, Return Fire, Samurai Showdown and Madden not long after that. There was a locally owned movie and game renal store just a few blocks from my house and they had enough 3DO games for a few years that I was able to get a good feel for the system renting a game every weekend I could. By the time they got rid of their 3DO stock (late 1996?), I was getting ready to move on too, however they came to my parents and offered me first dibs to buy any remaining stock for a very low price, so I came out of that with about 20 more 3DO games that I paid about $200 for… boxes, manuals all in pristine shape, discs varied… I would have to look for all titles, but I know I picked up “The Horde” “Dragon’s Lair” “Super Street Fighter II Turbo” “Way of The Warrior” “Crash ‘n Burn” “Out of This World” and many more… which held me over until I finally got a Nintendo 64 in 1998… It was such a great system though… I mean, for every “Way of The Warrior” there was a good game that made up for it, and I can’t think of a single bad game EA put out for the system… I would still take 3DO Madden over any incarnation of the franchise in the time since.
  7. DiscoDr.Bones
    The situation where I might actually have 4 people playing at once isn't going to be super common, but it does happen enough (quite a few Bomberman fans among my co-workers) that I want to be prepared for it. The Duo came with one of the white NEC 6-button controllers... I'm not too happy with the controller D-pad... I'm not sure if that is the case with my controller or the design of the controller itself, so I opened the controller and swapped the cable with one of my TG16 controllers and am using that (the TG16 controller) on the Duo for now. When I have some more money, I'll venture out and pick up some of the other PCE pads. So what kind of issues could there be using a converter cable with the Turbo Tap? Anything that would harm the Duo? Is there any reason you know of to not trust the unofficial cables available on Ebay right now, such as this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/172026659966 Thanks for the help
  8. DiscoDr.Bones
    Hi There, I have a TG16 and 3-4 TG16 controllers with a Turbo Tap… more recently I have come into possession of a PC Engine Duo. Is there any reason I should not purchase a single TG16 to Duo converter cable from Ebay and continue to use the Turbo Tap and controllers as I have now? Or do I need to invest in a PC Engine Tap and buy an individual cable for each controller I want to hook up? It would seem to me that the obvious answer is that I’m fine with just the one cable, but I want to check to make sure there isn’t something I’m missing… Thanks!
  9. DiscoDr.Bones

    I have gone through 3 Epyx 500XJ’s in the last 2 years… moderate to heavy usage several times a week. Is this normal with that model or do I have bad luck? I like it otherwise…

    1. atarian63

      atarian63

      Kinda normal we used to get a lot of returns on these,could be age of the plastic in the switches too

  10. DiscoDr.Bones
    Wow, 176 pages is a lot to sift through.... um... for those of us who are new to the party... is most of the criticism around the concept of there even being being a new cartridge based FPGA system or is most of it based on how terribly it has been mishandled by the group who was/is putting this together?
  11. DiscoDr.Bones

    Been playing a lot of "Broforce" lately. It is a great homage to 80's action movie culture and a fun run-and-gun game as well!

    1. BurritoBeans

      BurritoBeans

      Yeah, Broforce is a pretty fun game. I wish there were a few more games like it, the closest I know at this point is the Hotline Miami series (Both are published by Devolver like Broforce, too) but those are top-down, not side-view.

  12. DiscoDr.Bones

    (Im) Patiently waiting for Rayman Legends to be released on GOG.

  13. DiscoDr.Bones

    I'm pumped that I'm going to be able to attend PRGE this year... the last time I was able to go was 2011!

    1. retrorussell

      retrorussell

      I'll be there for the first time. And I live near Portland! I got no excuse not to go.

  14. DiscoDr.Bones
    Thanks Retrogamer81081... I did move quickly when it came to the peripherals... it was a conscious decision because once I got the system and two of the Best controllers, it felt like the rest of my goals regarding the 5200 were easily within range, so I decided to dedicate my time and money to it before I would have any reason or circumstance to reconsider. Now I'm going to casually seek out complete copies of the 10-20 games I find most compelling for the system and I would really like to try the Wico Command Control Joystick, but I'm not going to be disappointed if that never happens... I'm very happy with the way things have worked out so far...
  15. DiscoDr.Bones
    I have been aware of the 5200 for quite a while, but I had always been discouraged from getting one, either directly or implicitly, because of complaints about the controllers. So when I decided to start exploring Atari a few years ago, I started with the A8 and worked my way around from there. Even though I understood most A8 and 5200 games to be comparable, my curiosity was getting the better of me, so I did some research and set aside some money earlier this year and over a few months I eventually picked up a PSU modded 4 port 5200, an AtariMax Ultimate SD Cart, a few of the Best Reconditioned CX52 controllers and most recently, a trackball. It seems crazy now, because at the time, I was concerned that I was going to feel like I was wasting money in this endeavor, but the last few months, even with the 800XL occupying the spot next to it, the 5200 is dominating my playing time. Like completely. I don’t really feel mislead about the controllers, but I end up preferring the CX52’s to A8/CX40’s in all games except Frogger and Q*bert. Granted I have only been a 5200 owner for a few months now, so there may be long term maintenance issues I’m not yet aware of, but I seriously don’t get the contemporary critical reception the 5200 seems to get. I’m really glad to have one now and would not hesitate to recommend one to anyone interested in retro gaming. It is also worth pointing out that I used this forum extensively for guidance, so thank you to the posters here for sharing their expertise and thank you to the homebrew developers/conversion experts that keep the games coming. --silvahaloone
  16. DiscoDr.Bones
    For the sake of full disclosure, I haven't even really spent all that much time looking into the tools available to do something like a full backup of an entire 360 hard drive to my PC, what I have been doing is a combination of cloud game saves and multiple copies of anything downloaded from Live onto flash drives and the (failing) 250GB Hard Drive, installing games from disk to the hard drive as I play them and uninstalling as I run out of space. I figure with 2TB of data, I could have everything downloaded, stored and installed, which is what my final goal is, and then have all that backed up somewhere else in case of failure. I'm not at all opposed to sticking to a mechanical drive (as they are far less expensive) and Keatah's above post is a very convincing argument for that. So can I derail my own thread here somewhat? What tools/process have you used to back up your 360 data? I see tools called "FATXplorer" and "Xplorer 360," has anyone here had luck with either of those? Is there some other process I'm missing? I do have the full data migration kit somewhere. Thanks again
  17. DiscoDr.Bones
    Hi All, So in the 9 years I have been gaming on my Xbox 360, I have gone through 20GB, 60GB and 250 GB hard drives, all of which have been lost to (or in the case of the 250, showing signs of) mechanical failure. I have spent a lot of time and money on the 360, I would say probably more so than any other of my consoles… I still have quite a backlog of games I intend to complete. However, as the sun sets on the 360, eventually things are going to start to get disconnected and who knows what will happen in terms of the DRM. I also like to revisit things I used to enjoy, a common thread on Atari Age, and I would like to be assured that, even if I can’t play multiplayer, to the best of my ability I would like to make sure I could power on the 360 in 10-20 years and play whatever I feel like. So this has got me thinking… at this point, I trust the longevity of SSD drives far more than I do standard platter drives… since we are now able to use external drives with partitions up to 2TB on the 360 and the One… would getting an SSD housed in an external enclosure be a better long term bet? Does anyone here have any experiences with this (or like ventures) that might provide some additional insight? Or any commentary at all? Thanks in advance, --silvahaloone
  18. DiscoDr.Bones

    Normally when playing Centipede in the arcade, I can post scores > 100K. Picked up the game and a trackball for the 5200, I’m only posting around 25K. Either I’m WAY out of practice or they gave that 5200 spider some Brazilian Bump and a homing device then said you are the guy who squished his mother…

    1. Show previous comments  4 more
    2. DiscoDr.Bones

      DiscoDr.Bones

      Hey Defender_2600, I haven't tried it yet... I'll have to give it a shot.

    3. NE146

      NE146

      I had the opposite experience with Space Dungeon.. level 9 no problem on the 5200 version.. tried the arcade version and couldn't make it past the first couple levels.

    4. TheTIGuy

      TheTIGuy

      Game Character: "(In mono-tone woice) How can you laugh when you killed this boy's father!!"

      Robbie "Wait... What?"

  19. DiscoDr.Bones
    Hi All, As part of a lot I won on Ebay, I came into possession of one of these joysticks... up until this point I was unfamiliar with it, and it came without any documentation. I notice on the base of the joystick that there is a "gate lock" indicator and then when looking down on the base, I see an 8, which would lead me to the conclusion that there is an 8-way gate on it. So... a natural secondary conclusion is that somewhere a 4 way gate for the joystick exists, which if true, becomes rather important to me, as I intend to use the stick for the 4 way maze type games, However I was unable to find any evidence of the existence of a 4-way gate online and an E-bay search wasn't much help either. Does such a thing exist? If so, what is my best bet in finding it? Thanks, --silvahaloone
  20. DiscoDr.Bones
    Awesome! This makes me wonder why Datasoft kept the ghost AI similar to the 400/800 version when, with the space on the disk, they could have had ghost AI comparable to the 5200 version... which when coupled with the digital joystick, would have been the ultimate home Pac-Man conversion for an Atari system back in its day. Quite the missed opportunity it seems...
  21. DiscoDr.Bones
    Excellent, I’m very interested in what you have to say about it, both in terms of what has already been discussed here and in terms of the ghost AI. I have spent a lot of time in the past couple of months playing the 8-bit Pac-Man games, and the more I played the Datasoft conversions… the more they felt off to me, like I was even seeing ghosts going up into the “safe zone” above their home location in chase mode and other violations of what I understand to be their AI logic. Could I be playing bad dumps? I feel like your “Pac-Man Arcade” nails it… the speed, AI, the graphics… my score and the experience when playing it with an Epyx 500XJ is very comparable to doing the same in MAME. I also greatly enjoy the 5200 original Atari release of Pac-Man, while it isn’t in the same league at “Pac-Man Arcade,” the speed and ghost AI are acceptable and enjoyable, even if not necessarily accurate. However, IMO, the ghost AT in both the Atari and Datasoft releases for the 8-bit feels drastically different, and aside from what has already been described here, I can’t figure out why. Any insight you might have, even public shaming of me if I am way off in my assessment, is appreciated.
  22. DiscoDr.Bones
    For the sake of full disclosure... the reason I ask is because I spent the greater part of a week playing both the A8 and the 5200 releases of Pac-Man and found the 5200 version to be far superior, the AI of the ghosts anyway... I'm guessing because they had the additional cartridge space on the 5200 version over the 8K A8 version to better fill out the ghost AI? And even though more recent homebrews have surpassed both in accuracy, there is something super nostalgic to me about the way the original looks and sounds. So I came on here a while back looking for a conversion of the 5200 Pac-Man to A8 and wasn't able to find one, even though I found topics asking for the same thing. I was considering attempting to do this myself, even though I have limited programing experience. Thought it might be a good intro exercise? I don't want to take up too much of your time, but if you still have it, it would be interesting to know. Thanks!
  23. DiscoDr.Bones
    Hey ClausB, that's a very interesting article. I don't want to derail this topic too much, but how hard was it to convert the 5200 Pacman to 400/800? How long did this whole process take you? Is your conversion available anywhere?
  24. DiscoDr.Bones

    Was out this weekend, came home to one of my recently purchased Best Reconditioned 5200 controllers in pieces, seems that the kid felt it wasn’t working correctly and she thought she could fix it. Not sure what I’m going to do about this one...

    1. Show previous comments  4 more
    2. DiscoDr.Bones

      DiscoDr.Bones

      and travistouchdown, that's what the circumstances were for a long time, but as she was getting older I was becoming more lenient about letting her in when I wasn't around. Provided that there are no shortages or quotas (the two 5200 controllers were my first ever purchase from Best only month ago) I'm glad to be out only $50. Could have been a lot worse.

    3. OldSchoolRetroGamer

      OldSchoolRetroGamer

      No doubt the kid was confused "It doesn't center? Must be broken!" an honest mistake....

    4. jaybird3rd

      jaybird3rd

      Tough call. It's too bad about the controller, but on the other hand, you don't necessarily want to discourage the impulse to open things up and fix them and see how they work. Too few kids today have that kind of curiosity and hands-on approach.

  25. DiscoDr.Bones

    I have decided that an Xbox One with Kinect @ $300 is the price point in which I would be willing to take plunge. Gonna happen in 2016? Ever??

    1. Show previous comments  1 more
    2. DiscoDr.Bones

      DiscoDr.Bones

      Yes there have been and I almost pulled the trigger once, but I got a GTX 970 instead.

    3. DiscoDr.Bones

      DiscoDr.Bones

      Buying them separately over time would lessen the blow a bit, but the family demands Kinect if I get one, but I won't do it at $450 total.

    4. Jess Ragan

      Jess Ragan

      You tried Cowboom? That'll get you your cheap rerun machine.

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