PowerPakBlog

39 and counting. My first home console was an Intellivision 2 that I still have.

But it was not the end. Strange that I even left that question mark as a joke. In addition to fulfilling my order, they've also refunded my money. That's pretty awesome.

The final chapter... I just received the 2 controllers I ordered in October 2016. I know what has happened in between time (RIP Keith) so I'm not here to say anything disrespectful. I got an email a few weeks ago apologizing and asking whether I still wanted the items I ordered. I responded yes, and now they're here, and I am grateful that somebody took the time to do this. I certainly wouldn't have gone too far to recoup the $30 I figured was long gone. So just know that if you never received something, you may be able to make an appeal at this time. THE END... ?

Resurrecting this thread to say that I never received any response from Inty Lives nor any merchandise, even after PMing Nurmix. Kinda forgot about it since it's been months ago at this point. Not going to flame them because it won't do any good and I know some have apparently had reasonable dealings with them, but Buyer Beware.

PM sent, thanks so much for offering to do this.

Eh boy, I don't like the sound of that. OK, thanks guys.

Guys I ordered two Flashback controllers from the Intellivision Lives webstore last month and haven't received them or any shipping/tracking info. My bank statement says I was indeed charged for the order. I emailed their "info@" address and got no response. Over a week later I emailed their personal addresses listed under Contact Us. All I wrote was what I wrote here describing the situation and asking for an update. Anybody know, is this typical, or is there something going on with them right now?

01. Night Stalker 02. Burgertime 03. Tron Deadly Discs 04. Beauty and the Beast 05. Astrosmash 06. Triple Action 07. Lock n Chase 08. Hover Force 09. Ms Pacman 10. AD&D: Treasure of Tarmin Top 5 are pretty much set in stone, others rotate in and out. OK, top 6 are set in stone, Triple Action is too much fun. AND.. if somebody's really bored, it would be fun to compile these and see the overall forum's top ten.

Wasn't MANSLAP one of those Mystique games for Atari? If not, it would be a great homebrew title. Who knows, maybe there's a prototype floating around out there. When I first found this board, I thought, man, these guys are always fighting and appear to hate each other... and then I kept reading and realized that it's actually one big dysfunctional family, at which point I signed up. To each their own.

Wanted to point out that when I say I want to use it on "Raspberry Pi", I'm talking specifically about playing on the JZINTV emulator as part of the RetroPie package. You guys probably assumed that, but if not, now you know. And knowing is half the battle. Yo Joe.

Wow, very cool! And funny because I've recently been wondering if anyone had ever attempted to stuff some circuitry into the space behind the controller. In my case, I was wondering whether it would be possible to make a Bluetooth controller to use with my Raspberry Pi. I found this little BT transmitter along with tutorials on how to use it to convert a wired controller to BT, but quickly realized that the Intv controller would not be quite so easy because, well, it's an Intv controller. I have no experience creating electronics beyond hobby projects, so my thought experiment ended there. Saw this post and thought I'd throw it into the mix. Bluefruit EZ-Key - 12 Input Bluetooth HID Keyboard Controller: https://www.adafruit.com/product/1535

A really cool game to port would be something called L'Abbaye des Morts by an indie developer called Locomalito. He's created a number of freeware games over the years, and one of them is now coming to current gen systems. Anyway, the game I mentioned is a C64 game, ported to many other platforms, including Android (Titled "The Abbey of Death"), all free. Check it out if you're interested. Great story behind it, too. L'Abbaye des Morts

Perfect, thanks. I figured there would be, but I couldn't find it.. cutting power to a computer (which the Raspberry Pi is) without letting it do it's proper shutdown can corrupt files, screw up any process that was running. It's better to be safe than sorry. Actually I have a Pi with Emulation Station on it, and until you mentioned this I didn't realize the machine could be shut down from within the GUI. I've been exiting to the terminal to run "sudo shutdown" when finished. I'm not using Intv controllers on it, but you still access the same main menu. Ha.

Right on. I took a crash course on YouTube. Problem would be no load condition, didn't realize that part. I was just excited to find out I could measure anything, thanks for your help. Yep, old one is working now, so problem solved! Thanks, all.

Question, sorry if it's been asked, I have been searching for the answer... what's the power down sequence for this Ultimate setup, does it by some means run the proper "shutdown" command on the Pi before cutting the power?

FYI, The new one tested a steady 16.2V 2.15A of DC.

Wow... this worked like a charm! Old power pack now works without any special contortions. Actually can jostle the wire, turn the plug, etc, and it stays powered on solid. I had poked a small screwdriver bit in there to scrape at it before, but I wasn't thinking sandpaper. Great suggestion. Will still see if I can determine what the problem is with aftermarket unit, but I'm back in the game.

Yeah, the end connector... how would one go about swapping that if I was interested? Any good tutorials out there? Just curious how hard it would be. It cost $12 shipped, I knew it might not work. I felt like it was worth the gamble. It did tell me that it has something to do with the output connector (seemingly at this point).

I have an inexpensive multimeter I used when repairing an arcade machine years ago. I'm not an expert with electrical systems by any means. If you don't mind, what would be the process for checking the output? I don't want to fry myself... Could you give me some insight into the STIC IC and what it does? I have no idea, just did a quick Google search, but got all kinds of unrelated stuff. Really appreciate the input.

Yeah, I looked at it initially. Just double checked, and it seems rock solid, lots of bright solder, can't wiggle it at all. And also to that point, I thought trying a second power supply would help me determine that as a point of failure or not. And with the new plug, it didn't need the extra nudge, it just fired up without support.

Ordered from Level Up (free shipping!). Eagerly awaiting...

My Intellivision 2 has the original AC adapter, but it's a little wonky. I have to pull up on the part that plugs into the console to get it to fire up and stay working. Usually I jam something underneath it, like an NES cartridge, as you can see in the picture. As long as it's stable, it stays powered on. I wanted it to be rock solid, so I thought I would try an aftermarket power supply and see if that solved it. Bought the new adapter from eBay, new in box. Plugged it in, works great, solved the problem completely... until... it caused it's own problem. After a few games of Burgertime, the console crashed to a green screen mid-game. This has never happened before. Reset, game worked for a minute, then glitched out again to blank screen. I tried another very well tested game (TRON DD) and the same thing occurred. Play for a minute or two, crash. So I started looking at the console, and it smelled hot. It's not like I was playing all day, only a half hour maybe. Started thinking the new AC Adapter may be the problem. Came back later and switched back to original power pack, works fine, played 45 mins to an hour, no problem. I guess the question is... why? As you can see, the new one is marked 16V 1A. I'm not a expert in electronics, all I can do is follow instructions. Is it not the right thing? Just cheap/faulty? And follow-up question: anybody ever have (and solve) this problem with an old power pack (the bad connection)? I'm wondering if the inside of the connector (the hollow post) is corroded... wondering how I could clean it up. As always, any input is appreciated!

None of the TV settings make a difference in the effect. And the picture doesn't respond in any way when I twist the coax cable/connector. I don't know what you mean by a switchbox and a pipe. Sounds like you're referring to a resistor? I'll keep tinkering with it, but right now I'm just psyched to be playing the INTV 2 again.

Thanks for weighing in. I already ordered one from intvnut, figured it would be good to have a fresh one even if it doesn't make a difference in this case. Also thought I'd try to upload some pics just to make sure we're all talking about the same phenomenon. I don't remember the picture being this off 30 years ago, but you know how that goes It's a good 1/4" off on my tiny 13" TV, so very noticeable. If this is what everybody's looks like (barring the AV mod), then maybe that's as good as it gets for now. Here are the pics, hard to get an accurate pic, neither gives the impression of what it looks like in person (for example, the second Tron guy looks like he has a less pronounced ghost/shadow, but every object on the screen has it). Added a line next to the "D" to show how far it goes. Theres a Red area and then a darker (blue?) area.

Sure, TV is a Sanyo CRT, Model # DS13204 (love this little TV) Connected via brand new GE brand coax cable (claims to have "4x the shielding!"), and brand new gold coax-to-RCA adaptor. No rust on the cable/adaptor because that's all brand new. Some surface rusting on the top of the RF modulator. Thanks!