Glimglam

Picked up Ms. Pac-Man, finally. Having a lot of fun with it. A little less rage-inducing than Jr. Pac-Man, at any rate, though both are still a joy to play. Also took the time to plug in Berzerk again, and it plays great; can't wait for the 7800 homebrew version I ordered to arrive when it does. Played them all on my new CX78 joypad that just arrived too, and it works really well with them. Though, so far I think I've lost the most time overall to Pressure Cooker. Got a high-enough score in it to qualify for the patch and everything. Now if only they still gave those out...

I only have one composite modded console, and that's my Famicom, since the normal RF output from a Japanese console doesn't properly register on our TVs. Maybe I could have figured out a way, using that alternate channel method that people have figured out, but I didn't want to put up with the hassle. My first one conked out on me though, so I had to get another to replace it. Ugh. At least the new one looks waaaay better, cosmetically, even if it is painted... For all my other consoles with RF, namely my 7800, 2600 Jr, and Tandyvision One, I leave them as-is. The picture looks decent for most games, though color bleeding seems to be a common issue -- the graphics aren't crisp or anything, but they show up surprisingly well on my HD screen for the most part. (I don't currently own a CRT.) I don't trust myself with trying to do a mod on my own, getting someone else to do it is probably going to be too pricey in postage and service to be worth it, and pre-modded consoles tend to be expensive for me in general, so it isn't something I personally consider "necessary" to play games. To get the best picture quality? If you do it right, maybe, but then again I can always use an emulator if I want a clean, pixel-perfect image, without needing to put my precious thirty-plus-year-old consoles at risk under the iron.

I try not to get any duplicates if I can, but sometimes I end up with dead carts and I need to get replacements. So far, I've got a dead Asteroids cart, a dead Donkey Kong cart (original Coleco shell), and a dead Ms. Pac Man cart (for the 7800, but still. It was from a brand new box, too!). I've managed to get working replacements for the former two, and I'm still looking for a replacement for the latter... Maybe that counts? Despite these carts being, for all intents and purposes, "dead", I can't bring myself to trash or sell them. I'm a hoarder, I swear. It kinda sucks, because the Donkey Kong cart I have that doesn't work looks to be in pristine cosmetic condition, and the replacement I got that DOES work is in ruddy condition, and sporting a faded "not for resale" sticker with pink highlighter marker written over on the back -- probably used to be a pack-in with a Gemini. I could certainly comment on my local store having duplicates instead of me, though. Entire boxes and trays, filled with the same game. Mostly Pac-Man, but I recall seeing plenty of common games like Combat, Asteroids, and Space Invaders there too.

Wow... I'd gone off for a three day break, thinking this thread would quiet down, but nope. More insanity. The mystery PCB being identified as a DVR board in the newest "prototype", Coleco apparently on the verge of shutting this thing down... huh. Well, I know I'm a little late to the party now, but I gotta say... having finally caught up on nearly fifty(!) pages of this thread that I missed, on the 200th page of the thread overall, I'm at a bit of a loss on what to say or add. It's basically already been said and told, much better than I could. I'll be eagerly awaiting what Piko has to reveal on the matter, though. That could prove to be interesting stuff. I also decided to throw a few coins into the AA jar, which is the least I owe this place for being such a good community to hang around in, and for helping to "debuff" a scam multiple times over. So, thanks, AtariAge. You guys are great. ^^ (I would have ponied up for a 1 year or 2 year sub, but, I... don't quite have that much to spare at the moment, heh. Already spent my spare change on a copy of 7800 Frenzy from the store here and some joysticks on eBay. I'd be more than happy to do so later when I can, though. I think the place deserves it.) I spent the whole night catching up on this thread, lol. And playing copious amounts of Factorio on the side, but, I needn't get into that right now...

Welp, I ended up buying the thing, in the end. My curiosity could not let it pass me by... Will report back, post pics, and whatnot when I get it in, along with my CX-78 joypad, though that might take a while still. I guess we'll soon see how that oversized knob handles.

Ugh. What's up with the "Coleco Chameleon" watermark plastered across those images? Is it even necessary? It's just distracting. oh wait that was intention all along wasn't it What I don't get is how they also said that this delay "won't affect the release date", which hasn't even been revealed aside from "2016". Why would you delay the Kickstarter to "improve" the prototype, when you should already have one by now, after all those promises... and yet, say that it'll still be out on schedule regardless? Isn't that... kind of what a delay is supposed to result in? A pushed-back release date? I don't know. Maybe I'm just badly misinterpreting the situation. But none of it makes any sense to me.

Well, each of those emails in my pic is actually 100 separate notification emails, if I were to click on and view them. Gmail just meshes them together automatically, if they arrive within a certain amount of time of each other. Helps cut down on getting those walls of spam like you're getting, so I guess you do have it worse...

Given this delay, it's possible that Mike finally saw the light, and realized that going through with the Kickstarter after that Toy Fair fiasco (and the subsequent Facebook censorship) would be akin to painting a target on himself and screaming "shoot me!" And thus, decided it wasn't worth the headache and (further) humiliation if (more like "when") Kickstarter boots them off the site, after getting flooded with the inevitable reports of fraud. It's wishful thinking, sure, but at least it'd finally be over... Until they reveal that sweet deal that Indiegogo and/or GoFundMe made them, of course. I mean, I won't say I'm not disappointed. I had a pizza ordered and everything...

Getting email notifications for this thread may have been a mistake...

"Open the Jaguar shell, Mike." "I'm sorry, AtariAge. I'm afraid I can't do that." "What's the problem?" "I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do." "What are you talking about, Mike?" "My cartridges are too important for me to allow you to jeopardize them."

Probably busy finding some more tape for that 'prototype.'

It's easier to do than it seems. Never underestimate the power of layer blending.

To be fair, we probably would make some very nice towels.

Well, technically you can still buy cheaper reproductions in bulk, nowadays. Of just the cable, anyway. But even so, the fact it even uses those cables in the first place is the clinching factor that it's a SNES, if you ask me. I know Gamecube and N64 use the same cable too, but, those boards probably wouldn't fit. (Besides, they aren't "retro" enough. ) I mean, where could you even get the connector to plug that cable into to begin with, aside from reusing/cannibalizing Nintendo-made parts? I don't imagine those were ever made very publicly-available, unless I'm mistaken. Even if you just ripped out the composite output from one, I imagine there's still a lot of work needed just to attach it to the board, let alone if it would even be made to work, which it probably wouldn't. And these jokers can't even rig up a simple power light.

No? Hmm. They show up for me. I'll just post a different picture, then. Same thing. http://www.starekomputery.pl/photos/142/396abb92721354fb401ade0cf94bdb91.jpg Both, maybe? I have no idea. It looks like a joystick with an extremely short throw distance, at any rate. I bet there are people who would go nuts over that.

I was doing a little surfing around on eBay looking for some controllers (gonna pick me up a TAC-2, if I can), and I came across a rather... peculiar one, out of nowhere. It piqued my curiosity. I looked up the name that's printed on the box, "Quick Gun Joyball", and the one on the controller itself, "Datex Joy Ball", and both results didn't get me very far. Just some pictures, mentions on foreign websites, and long-since-ended listings on eBay. None of it was very informative, so I know next to nothing about this controller, other than it's apparently meant for Atari and Commodore systems, and... looks kind of strange. That big red knob on it in particular seems a bit clunky to use. My gut wants to say it's some kind of cheap and obscure import controller, but I'm not entirely sure. Anyone heard of/know anything about it? Sorry if I'm posting this in the wrong place (still trying to get used to the forums, pardon my noobishness), but I was curious, since I've seen almost zero mention of it here or anywhere. If nothing else, it's yet another example of the many different designs they were making back in the day. I'm tempted to try and get it for the sheer novelty and obscurity alone. I'm a sucker for that kind of stuff.

I've only got a 7800 right now. A Jr. is on the way, though, hopefully arriving this week. After that... well, I'd probably be getting a Vader, and/or a Gemini. I dunno, for some reason, the controller of the Gemini looks kinda cool to me. Not sure how well it plays, but I guess I'll have no way of knowing that until I get my hands on one. I would love to own a Heavy Sixer, but I have such a hard time finding them at good prices. This exchange rate is killing me.

Mmyep. It'll be arriving by post hopefully soon. Probably tomorrow or the day after. I've also had my eye on a Gemini at the local used game store, but, it'd be just for the collector novelty if I got it.

Strange, I own a few Activision carts, and they fit just fine in my 7800. A bit on the snug side, but they do without issues. Imagics are still a pretty rough fit, though. I've decided not to push it with those after getting it to work only one time. I'm getting a 2600 Jr. pretty soon though, so hopefully I won't have to torture my poor 7800 for much longer anyway.

Be sure to keep on the lookout for the clear shell, colored shell, and clear colored shell variants, too. (Kickstarter backers only! Never to be made again!)

I've never had any issues with most of my own games (I play them on a 7800, as I currently do not own a 2600 unit itself), but I've noticed that Imagic-produced games (I only own Atlantis so far) don't fit into the slot very well. Takes a good amount of force to get it in, and makes me afraid I'll end up breaking it sooner or later. Given what I understand, that seems to be a common problem with playing them on a 7800. Boo on me for owning one then, I guess. If other carts are fitting okay, it might just be that one cart in particular. Some just fit tighter (or looser) than others. No idea why.

Are they really just swapping out the rewards from previous levels with different stuff altogether at higher tiers? This is not how reward tiers work. Why charge more money for something and offering nowhere near as much in return? I guess now we'll be hearing about how acquiring all the rights to what they're peddling is forcing them to jack up the cost to compensate... And darn it, I wanna know what that pack-in game is. I bet they "worked miracles" in getting it to knock my socks off. It mentions a six-game "Elektronite" games bundle, too. I googled the name, and it looks to be some kind of homebrew game publisher. Here's their Facebook, and a store selling their games that I found.

Well, I meant "impossible" in terms of creating one within such a limited time frame. But I imagine the complexity you speak of plays a part in that. Programming games for the thing must've been a chore. For a while before this, I'd wondered if the system would just end up being a Raspberry Pi taped inside a shell. That seems to be edging more and more into the realm of plausibility now...

Thank you! So in short: impossible? Welp, that's hardly surprising. I don't know all that much about the nitty-gritty of getting these things up and running, but I'd figured it's not exactly a weekend project. Add on the Genesis core, Colecovision, INTV, and apparently now a 2600 one... plus the SNES one that's obviously not done... and potentially more still, if Mike and his PR squad are allowed to flap their gums further... I'm not even sure what they're trying to do with this thing, anymore. I don't see it doing things that other systems can't already do, and better. This thing is shaping up to be some kind of Frankenstein's monster of cores and components.