MaximRecoil

This shows how hard I am "pushing" the cartridge to make it go from B&W to color:

I am not pushing it hard enough to flex anything. It is only a slight nudge and the color comes right in.

I was recently given an Atari 7800 with three 7800 games sixteen 2600 games. I hooked it up and all the 2600 games played perfectly and never any problems with the color. All of the 7800 games that I tried in it had problems with the color. Most of the time on the opening Atari splash screen you would see mostly black & white with brief intermittent color and then, depending on the game, it would be in black & white or very faded color. I cleaned both the cartridges' PCB contacts and the connector on the machine with a pencil eraser and rubbing alcohol and that improved, but did not fix the situation. After the cleaning, the 7800 games would come in full color for both the Atari splash screen and the game a good deal of the time. Other times it would do the same as before I cleaned it. So, the next time that it came in black & white, I pushed the cartridge forward just slightly from the top of the cartridge (toward the TV) and it instantly went into full color. After that I could wiggle the cartridge back and forth all I wanted while the game was running and it stayed in full color. I tried it on all the 7800 games and that worked every time, without fail. Evidently the machine's cartridge connector is worn just enough that it isn't making a great contact with the cartridge's PCB contacts and that slight push forward is enough to fix it. I don't suppose the 7800 connector is easily replaceable like in a front-loading NES is it?

I worked for 2 years in a SMT PCB factory as a board inspector/repairer. After inspecting the boards and repairing if necessary, I soldered in terminal blocks. We did about 1,200 boards a night. We used Metcal MX500's: With tips like this: With AlphaMetals Cleanline SMT Core Plus .015" and .025" solder. What a setup that was. I would love to have that setup at home but the Metcal MX500 is about $700 by itself. Those awesome Metcal Micro fine tips are about $20 a piece and that solder is about $20 for a 1 pound spool. That Metcal did 0 - 700°F in about 4 seconds. I feel like I am trying to solder with a baseball bat when I use my $7 Radio Shack Special at home.

Most people who have done that mod will tell you that it does not get rid of the vertical lines. Do a search for more information.

It says that your location is Japan? Why don't you just get a Famicom. They are top loading and they don't have the issues that the American NES 2 has (faint vertical lines and color washout) plus they have A/V (composite) outputs which the American top-loader lacks. I have a top-loader that I got for free and while they are extremely reliable, the picture quality is annoying and I much prefer the original NES (assuming I can get it to work).

I think that is the one. Before I posted the question here she had already stated this: She also compained about a tiny screen (more on that in a minute). I first showed her a screenshot of "The Great Giana Sisters" and she said this: Then I showed her the screenshot of "Bros" from the site you linked to and these were some of her responses: LOL, well, you can probably fill in the blanks of that conversation to see that it kind of turned into an argument over whether or not "Bros" counts as a port of Super Mario Brothers on a home computer. BTW, I downloaded the .ATR and that game is ridiculously bad; funny though.

I have a friend that is claiming that she played Super Mario Bros. on a home computer (she doesn't know what kind) before she ever played it on a NES. She is giving '89 or '90 as the time frame. Given the time frame, I have ruled out emulators as a possibility which only leaves the possibility of a port. I have never heard of any home computer ports of SMB and it doesn't seem like something that Nintendo would have approved of. Does anyone know anything about this?

No problem. Just credit me as MaximRecoil.

Battlezone

I made an MPEG video that illustrates the pattern better than words. Also, I found a way to have a little more life left at the end (pause a moment before stepping into your final position). See attachment: karateka.zip

OK, it goes like this: As soon as the match starts walk in toward Akuma until you are at "footsie position" (as you call it, lol). When you get there immediately do a full string of high kicks which will hit Akuma's arm as he is trying to punch you, lol. Don't worry about the bird at this point, let him get you. By the time Akuma backs off and the bird is gone you will have 1 arrow of energy left. Stay put and let Akuma kick and punch at the air until you see the bird reappear. When you see the bird, immediately walk toward Akuma again until you are right up against him (the next level of closeness past "footsie postion" which I will call "Head Striking Distance" or HSD). Start doing the high kicks to the head. Don't worry about the bird going behind you and coming back. As long as you were walking forward as it first passed you will be fine. You will get in quite a few hits but Akuma will figure he still has quite an advantage and will walk toward you even though he is just spinning his wheels because he is already as close to you as he can get. This allows you to get in another series of kicks to his head as he is walking in place rather than fighting. Then he changes his mind and backs off. Hit him with a series of straight punches as he is walking backwards instead of fighting, lol. The bird will be on its way out at this point so walk forward again until you are at HSD and do a series of high kicks to his head. As soon as you finish the series of 5 kicks; walk forward (Akuma will also be trying to walk forward at this point, lol) because the bird will be almost at your head. Just keep walking forward even after the bird is gone because Akuma will decide it is time to back off. Keep chasing him until you are once again at HSD and kick to the head until he goes down (you won't see the bird again). You will have 2 arrows of energy left every time at this point if you follow that exactly and the brick strip on the ground will be just visible on the right side of the screen.

Your guide is a riot. Great writing and very accurate. I don't have any suggestions beyond what you have already put in there other than there is a specific pattern to Akuma which you can use to beat him every time without fail. Well, it has worked for me about 10 times in a row now so I assume it is "without fail". Next time I play I'll see if I can take note of the exact procedure although it may be hard to put into words. You rescue the princess but it is just part of the automated ending after you beat the last guy "Akuma". It shows you embracing the princess and the screen is flashing. It last for like 10 or 15 seconds and then there is a single credit screen before the game resets.

I bought an Atari 7800 in '87 (I was 12 years old) and Karateka was one of the games I bought at the same time because the screenshot in the Sears catalog looked cool (I had never played or even heard of the computer versions of this game). I was hoping it would be like Karate Champ which I had been good at in the arcade. I was disappointed in the game play but I played it anyway. It turned out that my best friend at the time had a lot of experience with this game even though he hated it. He couldn't get past the green suited 5th guy which we referred to as "The Green Beret". We figured that he was probably the last guy and wondered if anyone had ever beaten the game or if it was even possible to beat. Well I beat Karateka the other night about 17 years after I first played it. I can beat the game every time now. If I ever see my best friend from 7th grade again I will let him know although he always tended to start yelling and swearing at the mere mention of the word "Karateka", lol.

You mean DivX and XviD? Those are the only two that I know of that are routinely used to compress the video stream in an AVI container. They are both available for Macs BTW. MPEG-4 (such as DivX [commercial] and XviD [open source] is a lot more efficient than either MPEG-1 or MPEG-2.

I made a good quality 27 MB 320x240 XviD AVI of it if you are interested. I'm not sure how to get it to you though. I could transfer over AIM or upload it to an FTP server if you have one. To view XviD AVI's either download the free XviD codec - http://www.divx-digest.com/software/xvid.html (link #1 Koepi's Binary is fine) or the excellent free FFDShow which allows you to view most anything (FFDShow is not your run-of-the-mill "codec pack", which should be avoided like the plague) - http://sourceforge.net/projects/ffdshow (version 2002-06-17 is a known stable release).

So those are the only instructions on the net? There are 4 short paragraphs about how to do it. He doesn't show a completed photo of what the board should look like when you are done. The photos that he does show are small and don't show the whole board so that you can get a better feel for the location of things. He never goes into any detail (other than the little schematic) about the 3 resistors and transistor for the amplification circuit. He implies that the amplification circuit is only necessary if you want to continue to have a functional RF-out but he never comes out and states either way. And what is this about cutting the trace under the R3 resistor after you have removed it? If the resistor is not there then that is an "open", why do you need to cut the trace? He ends the article abruptly without ever mentioning the part about connecting it to the actual jacks (RCA or 1/8" miniplug). I would really like to see a few more articles on how to do this (hopefully from authors who don't take so much for granted).

It seems like a simple enough mod if all you are doing is tapping the chroma and luminance and running them to the center pin of an RCA jack and tapping the audio and doing the same. I don't know if building an amplification circuit is necessary or not. I just can't find much about it on the internet other than that article on gamesx.com. I would also like to know how to add composite inputs to a TV that only has RF inputs. I wonder if that is something that a typical TV repairman could do.

Does anyone know of any good online tutorials for this? I found one here but it wasn't very clear and he used a 1/8" miniplug and I would like to do it with direct RCA jacks like in the picture below. Also, does anyone who works on the regular front loading NES's have any spare screws that they could send me if I sent a self-addressed stamped envelope? I need the 7 screws for the big metal shield.

Right, this is the toaster NES: It has RCA/composite A/V outputs on the side which is a very good thing.

Yeah, the original "toaster" style NES has composite outputs along with RF outputs. Composite is much better than RF...anything is much better than RF.

Use 'em anyways. You get a far better picture that way. I advocate exclusive use of AV-out for any system that has it. Most definitely. That is the catch-22 when dealing with the top loading NES's. They are more reliable and they won't "blink" like a toaster NES but they don't have any RCA/composite outs which really sucks. RF = the lowest of the low when it comes to audio/video connections. Plus the auto RF switch that comes with the NES/SNES is a real piece of junk, it doesn't even use solid-core coax and relies on the F-type connector that is crimped on to the end to maintain contact with the stranded wire core of the coax cable. This is something that it doesn't do very well over time.

NES Advantage was an awesome controller. Not really up to arcade standards but tough nonetheless. Does the original Playstation controller count? I'll take one of those over anything short of an arcade control panel. I even have a couple of them hooked up to my PC via a USB adapter and through emulation I have played everything from Bally/Astrocade to recent arcade MAME games with them.

That depends on if you are in the U.S. or Europe. In Europe you could buy a piggy-back unit partly designed by Microsoft for the O2 that would accept a tape drive and came with MS-BASIC which I mentioned in an earlier post: When you start having to buy extra stuff in order for a unit to achieve its intended classification on technical merit then the lines get really fuzzy. I think it is easiest just to go with manufacturer's intent and/or public perception for classification. In that case, the O2 is a gaming console and the TI99/4A is a home computer.

That is really awesome. It is funny that you would be able to do as good (or better) a port of DK on the CV than Nintendo could do on their own NES with their own game. Hopefully if you decide to release it you won't get any flack from Nintendo about it. I know that they can be real uptight about that sort of thing compared to other companies. If you keep this up I am going to have to go shopping for a CV.