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ataridave

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Posts posted by ataridave

  1. Posted

     

    I wouldn't pay that much for a Pentium system. Gateway 2000 systems, the 486 and Pentium boxes, tend to command a premium. But you can find other OEM boxes for much cheaper, especially if you go the PII route. The problem with many OEM boxes is their proprietary motherboards and cases (using riser cards for ISA/PCI cards) and even power supplies (many Dell PII). Many OEMs from the PII era don't have an AGP slot for the video card, relegating you to PCI graphics. Still, if you don't anticipate doing much heavy-duty 3D Windows-only gaming and don't plan on upgrading or tinkering much, OEM may be the way to go.

     

    I wouldn't pay more than $80 shipped for a clean, working PII system with HDD, 3.5" FDD, CD-ROM, and 128MB SDRAM. If you're lucky, you might snag one for $40-$50 shipped (shipping is always about $20-$30). Getting one with a legit copy of Windows 95 or 98 is a bonus. A real ISA sound card such as a Sound Blaster Pro or Sound Blaster 16 (or clone) is a bonus. A nice graphics card is a bonus (S3 is a good brand for DOS games).

     

    Sometimes you can get lucky and find one of these in a thrift store or CL. I've found PII & PIII machines "in the wild," but they're getting rarer every day. 486 and Pentium boxes are very difficult to find in the wild. Mostly you find junky Pentium 4 boxes that are not ideal for retro gaming.

     

    Any Windows 95 or 98 system can boot into real DOS with a boot disk. Windows 98 comes with what is known as DOS 7.1.

     

    Vogons does not have a marketplace and doesn't allow buying and selling of any kind. Amibay is the forum for that, but most of the users are in Europe, making shipping a system cost prohibitive.

     

    OK, thanks! I appreciate all that advice! I know about Tie Fighter being on GoG, but thanks for the info anyhow.

  2. Posted

    Well, to cover your bases, you could go overboard like me and have working 8088, 486, Pentium, PII, PIII, and Athlon XP machines capable to booting to DOS. If you want to play DOS games as originally intended, you'll need to find a machine with at least one ISA slot, for a sound card. Most PC with a CPU through the PII will have one; newer PIII motherboards won't have them at all. A PC that was originally designed for Windows 98 should have plenty of horsepower for most DOS games (except the later ones like Duke Nukem 3D). Windows 95/98 era games based on the Unreal engine really need a fast PII or PIII and a good 3D card to run at a good framerate at high resolutions.

     

    I switched my focus from consoles to retro PCs a couple of years ago and am having lots of fun with them. If you want the best forum for retro PCs, check out Vogons.

     

    That's really cool! My main concern with having any older PC is the cost-a fully kitted out Gateway 2000, with Windows 95, costs about $400.00 on eBay, and I just don't want to spend that kind of money. Does Vogons have a marketplace? Because I have almost no luck on Craigslist, so, apart from that and eBay, I would have no idea where to shop for an older PC-where I wouldn't have to spend a ton of money.

  5. Posted · Edited by ataridave

    Eww, gross. Even when there were retail stores with Gateway cow boxes sold atop bales of hay, the Gateway 2000 series was never a great machine. Are you just being nostalgic for something you didn't have? You can play TIE Fighter on just about any modern machine, without the noise and clutter of a vintage icebox-sized PC.

     

    Yeah, I know about gog.com, but thanks for the link! I think Gateway 2000s were fantastic machines! But I don't think I'd need a Windows 95 computer to play games like that. I know of someone who has a Pentium I PC, forget the brand, and Tie Fighter and some of those old games work fine on it. The problem is that if you type in "Pentium I" on eBay, it does a bad job searching for a Pentium I PC. I would just love to have a PC like that; but without spending hundreds of dollars.

  7. Posted

    Perhaps WINE, but what is the point of emulating an inferior PC on another system when you have real, powerful PC's everywhere?

     

    Funny that you mention Windows. The old NT4.0 was available for a handful of non-X86 architectures, but SPARC never was one of those as far as I remember.

     

    OK, thanks for the info! I'd really love to get a Gateway 2000 to play older PC games on. I had a Compaq, one of their multimedia PCs that an uncle got for me in late 1998, but I got rid of it. I'd just love to be able to play games like Tie Fighter. I know of someone who has a Pentium I PC that can play it.

  8. Posted

    If you find a Sun386i, it supposedly can run DOS software including suitable games for a such 386.

     

    The Sun-1, Sun-2 and Sun-3 series are based on Motorola 68K, running UNIX of course.

     

    Pretty much all other Sun workstations and servers were based on various SPARC architectures, which is a different type of CPU and architecture alltogether than an IBM PC compatible, so it would not run X86 code. That said, there were a couple of nice games for SPARC too, both text based and graphical running in X-Windows.

     

    Edit: Well, that is assuming you're talking about computers from before year 2000. In more recent times, Sun have made newer X86 systems but I don't think AMD Opteron based servers from 2003 are very much classic computing.

     

    Yes, I'm talking about computers from before 2000. Thanks for the information! So, without being able to run X86 code, you couldn't install any version of DOS or Windows on one?

  10. Posted · Edited by ataridave

     

    Why not just try the good cleaning yourself? With a 100% stock front-loader NES (including the original 72-pin connector), I've never seen a proper cleaning (plus disabling the 10NES lockout chip, plus properly cleaning all of your cartridge contacts) fail to make one work first time, every time. Of course, if you use it regularly, you'll have to clean it again eventually, probably after a few years.

     

    Get a toothbrush and a $2 can of Bar Keepers Friend powder (it is a metal cleaner which uses oxalic acid as the active ingredient; it removes oxidation and tarnish quickly and easily; unlike rubbing alcohol, which has little-to-no effect on those things). Take the NES apart, remove the 72-pin connector, scrub all of its metal pins with a toothbrush dipped in a roughly half-and-half mixture of BKF and water, rinse off the BKF residue with water, scrub again with a clean toothbrush dipped in alcohol (just to be extra sure you get rid of all the BKF residue), and let dry.

     

    Then cut or lift the #4 leg of the 10NES lockout chip (Google will bring up plenty of pictures/instructions for doing this), and reassemble your NES. Your cartridge contacts need to be clean as well, and to do that, disassemble the cartridge (you'll need the smaller of the two common sizes of "gamebit" security bits [3.8mm] to do so, except for early "5-screw" cartridges, for which you can use a normal flat-blade screwdriver), and clean the same way you cleaned the 72-pin connector. If you try to clean the cartridge contacts with BKF without taking the cartridge apart, you'll probably get water and BKF residue seeping into places you don't want it to go.

     

    Thanks for the advice! And, there are a lot of videos on YouTube that show how to dissasemble a front-loader NES. BTW, what was the RF shielding in it, and other retro game consoles, for?

  11. Posted

    I know about the blinking light fix that was Kickstarter funded, but every NES repair service that I know of still uses the 72-pin connector. I wonder if there are any that use the blinking light fix? Becasuse I do have an original front-loader/toaster NES,. and I would totally shell out the money to send it it in to someone who would give it a good cleaning, and install the blinking light fix. That would rock! :)

  13. Posted

    Why do we spend money on arcade translations for classic consoles and computers when we can emulate these games for free in MAME?

     

    I have a meeting to go to...brb

     

    While you're waiting, here's some Slim Whitman:

     

    Because it's illegal to emulate a game that you don't own; so that's why I don't do it. I'm NOT judging people who do. Although I would love to know who made up those stupid rules. I mean, unless you're purchasing a rom, or trying to sell one, I don't see what the heck the copyright (and other) legal issues are, much less why they even exist. I love the console experience, but there are plenty of arcade (and other) games that have never gotten home ports here in the USA, and never will.

  15. Posted

     

    The Titler is only really for if you wanted a ready to use system with RVB out.

     

    With the NESRGB chip by Tim that cost about 75 us$, there is no longer an urging need for a Titler.

    Depending on what you like, you might go for a Top Loader, a Toaster, or a Famicom, or a Sharp Twin (if you wanna play the Disk games) and RGB mod it.

    It's important to know that the NESRGB mod also produce S-video and composite from the RGB video, rather than re-using the original NES board, so even if what you want the most is S-Video, it's a worthy investment, especially if you make the RVB out avalaible - you will be able to sell it later for a reasonable price for people that doesn't want/know how to install this mod themselves.

     

    And Tim made it so that you can at any moment disable the NESRGB board, and it will output the original composite video.

     

    And if you just want a reliable system, there is a mod on Kickstarter, that was funded but apprently shipping was delayed, that replace the original ZIF connector with a standard 72 pins one, and the NES tray is locked in the upper position; this mod turn the Toaster into a traditionnal "push and pull" cart system, only with a slanted cart port; thanksfully those old gray boxes offer a good grip, maybe because Nnitendo didn't know what system to adopt first...

     

    All I care about is a console that plays NES games that has good composite video out. I've seen ArcadeUSA (Willie) install that Kickstarter funded connector. Right now, the Retro Duo is working great for me; it's just really hard to get rapid fire with NES games, unless you have that huge Capcom SNES joystick. I prefer using a d-pad, and I don't have room for that joystick anyway.

  16. Posted · Edited by ataridave

    Nintendo won't remake a NES of any kind because it would cost them too much for no profit.

     

    Because this would mean advertizing it, released games on carts, etc... and customer service, along with other things.

    If Nintendo make such a thing, unlike clones, it will ahve to be of better quality, to comply with many toy and products norms, etc. So we're talking about a system that would cost about 150/200$ to make, with carts sold for 40/50$.

     

    And it would be a NICHE market.

    Nintendo sold about 8 millions of Wii U, and according tho them, it's a dissapointing result.

    A Nes might sold for... 100 000 units at best? For Nintendo, it's way too small to even bother. And let's not forget that Japanese will want a 60 pins connector, and European/american will want a 72 pins model, dividing the small production and raising costs.

     

    Plus, like mmost other companies, they wanna move to digital content. First because it's awfully cheap - 1) nothing to make 2) no shipping to handle 3) no reseller network to feed 4)??? 5)profit!

    Second because they will be able to make you buy it again - with weak excuses like " emulations of the NES Wii games can't be carried on the Wii Wii 2, please buy again" this or making tricky transfers to make people lose their data, or simply, as Nintendo did, moving your account from a Wii to a Wii U leave your Wii blank - and as a result, if you got ride of your Wii, well your physical GameCube games can't be played and Nintendo will offer them to you on the Virtual console... for a price.

     

    True; good points. As a kid, I had my NES front-loader hooked up via RF, and there were no jailbars. Same with the Genesis Model 1 that I got for Christmas of 1991. Some gamers on another forum mentioned the Famicom Titler, but those go for well over $1000.00 on eBay.

  17. Posted

     

    The top-loader's vertical lines do suck, and being limited to RF-only sucks as well. However, had you bought one new for $50, if you called Nintendo back then and complained about the lines they would have had you send it in and they would have sent you one back with an AV multiport like the AV Famicom, SNES, N64, etc. has, like so:

     

    Y7fxS4r.png

     

    And then it would be $50 well-spent.

     

    Yeah, I've read that Nintendo did that for customers. I could have mine AV modded, but (AFIK) it would cost about $80.00 The system that I'm using now is the Retro Duo, and the colors in NES games look fantastic! And it works with games from both the NES and SNES that don't work on other clone systems. I wish Nintendo would make another NES-make it a top-loader, and put all kinds of video outputs in it. But they probably figure that the market is too saturated with clones to bother. Mark, from Classic Game Room on YouTube, did a very favorable review of the FC Twin. And, given that he's worked on documentaries, I was happy to hear that he liked the FC Twin. However, they are a lot harder to find then Retro Duos.

  18. Posted

    All I can say is, forget about the Top Loader NES. I'm glad that someone got me one as a birthday gift back in May, because it has the worst RF output that I've ever seen, aside from the Jaguar. It works as well as everyone says it does, but the lines look awfull, and they are very visible, other then the parts of NES games where the screen is black. I honestly would have felt ripped off if I had spent $50.00 on a Top-Loader back when they were being sold new in game stores.

    • Like 2

  19. Posted

    I did a bit of questing around and the game I used to test was gradius.

     

    • Capcom power stick runs all three speeds of turbo in NES mode just fine.
    • Messiah wireless also runs both speeds of turbo in nes mode just fine.

    I thought I had more snes turbo controllers handy but did not find any readily available for this test.

     

    I've never owned an snes ascii pad, but I'm very surprised it didn't work. I had thought the reason the programpad didn't work was its computerized functions hogging too much power, but the ascii may throw that theory out the window. Both controllers I tested had extra power drain too (capcom has LEDs, messiah has a radio receiver) and they worked fine. I really have no idea why some controllers work and others don't.

     

    Also if you're using my recommendations to go shopping--do *NOT* buy a wireless messiah. I checked on ebay, and they're real expensive, but more importantly they're not very good. (here's my thread on them, sadly the pics of internals were replaced by ads sometime over the years) Capcom power sticks, on the other hand, are fairly awesome, and when staying clear of 'buy it now' pricing, deals can be had, but check to make sure they have their detachable cord.

     

    Thanks for checking that out for me! I've heard really great things about that Capcom stick.

  20. Posted

    Yep, almost all of them should be fine.

    I did have trouble with the 'sn programpad,' but it's a bit of an odd duck.

    I think it required too much power from the system.

     

    Well, I purchased an ASCII Pad SNES controller, and the rapid fire function will not work with NES games. The controller's in mint condition, too. I'm bummed; I love the Retro Duo, but I'd love to get rapid fire support for NES games. Reaperman, do you have any suggestions?

  22. Posted · Edited by ataridave

    That is freakin' awesome! They even have a Reactor cab! I'll have to go there sometime! Is the Replay Festival held every year in Pittsburgh? Because then I could go to both the fesitval and this Coin-Op Hall of Fame.

  24. Posted

    I love my Retro Duo console, but does anyone know if there's any way to get rapid fire when playing NES games on this system? For example, if I get an SNES controller that has rapid fire support, would that work with NES games? Or just SNES games?

     

    When I had a Sega Master System, I also had the 6-button Genesis controller that has the rapid fire switch, and it did work on Master System shmups.

  25. Posted

    Number one for me would be Solvalou, a game from the Xevious family of games: http://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=9618 It came out on the Wii Virtual Console, but only in Japan. Along that same line, I would also love to play Konami's Solar Assault, which a 3D third-person version of Gradius: www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=9618

     

    Other then those two, definitely Asteroids. I've played plenty of home ports of Asteroids, but never the arcade original in vector graphics.

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