Keatah

Ok. 1- Are all the pins straight and in order? 2- Does pressing on the socket/port itself with the same amount of force cause a problem? 3- Am I correct in assuming that both controllers behave the same way when plugged into the right port? They both cause the issue in the same way? 4- Am I also correct in assuming that the console itself is going through a complete reset (like power off/on) and not just a temporary drop in the video signal?

Does plugging that joystick into the other 1st socket do the same thing?

The idea of a replacement VCS mainboard could be interesting. Over this spring/summer I repaired and refurbished 5 VCS units for neighbors. And there always seems to be some sort of rust or corrosion that has to be dealt with. It's like soda or water inevitably, somehow, make their way through the cart slot and into the works. And while troubleshooting and replacement of the faulty parts takes maybe a half-hour or so, the cleanup and repair of the corrosion-damaged traces and stuff takes several hours. And it seems as time goes on I have to pull out more and more tools and tricks from my workbench. So yes a replacement board could be a useful thing provided it is 100% compatible and works with everything. No exceptions, no corner cases. 100% functionality.

Then there is a short someplace. OR a loose connection wiggling around. try a different joystick. and report back. We'll go through it step-by-step.

Pre-orders! Don't get me going on that. I'm real OLD SCHOOL! Go to the store and buy it. None of this pre-odour stuff, none of the special edition packaging limited release nonsense. Online ordering form amazon and ebay is about as adventurous as I can handle. And it has to be in stock ready to be delivered. I would hope the system is good enough to stand on its own merits and not need buzz from a marketing-department to carry it. The best games and systems of yore just kinda happened. Without hype or buzz. Without internet. Without pre-orders. Without excessive advertising and big-budget video commercials and spots too. I would hope the games themselves would be good enough to make the consumers say, yes! I want to play this! Just like back in the day. Today we're all wrapped up in everything else surrounding the console. Worrying about its competitors. Screen sizes, hardware specs. How much retail space it will get. How it will appeal to others. Stuff that doesn't add to the enjoyment of the system. It's everything but the games! Is that where we get our fun from? Discussing the politics of how a console is marketed? You see, back in the day I didn't know what a microprocessor. Or how many bits a system had or how big its marketing + distribution channel were. Shit, I didn't even know that! They just kinda showed up on the shelves one day. Like magic. For all I know, the consoles were assembled in back of the department store. And that explained how only big stores had them, and little stores not so much. There had to be room for the factory!! BITD I knew what was good or bad by the system it ran on. And how each system had its strengths and weaknesses. Like VCS = action, Intellivision = strategy, Astrocade = arcade atmosphere, Apple II and Atari 800 = sophistication and complexity.. So what does Nintendo Switch mean? What is its flavor?

I suppose I would like them both equally. Even though I grew up with Atari branded consoles.

I'd prefer it be a winter launch here in North America. Videogames are generally bad weather and indoor activities. March is the beginning of summer - when I'm least interested. Besides so many neat things used to come out around the holidays back in the day. LED handhelds, other electronics, more console carts.. You get the idea.

To get the latest builds of VICE you need to go here: http://vice.pokefinder.org/ Seems all the other download areas host a +5 year old copy that doesn't render colors correctly.

Console-based things have to be reliable and simple, because of their retail and plug'n'play nature. If they don't work, the mfg. will become inundated with returns and a bad rap. With PC-based things the consumer has little recourse against the "establishment". Hit or miss is ok, and is part and parcel of the game. Another thing against PC VR is that buyers of such material are going to be more demanding and will expect it to work spectacularly. Whereas with a console, some things will be brushed off as "it's just a game"..

I may be biased from lame experiences in the 90's and dot-com era. And I don't see the technology having progressed all that much since. I think consumer level VR is gimmicky, annoying, tedious. I don't like having anything on my head or stuffing my face up. Just clumsy. And then my thoughts turn to that 3D-TV stuff the industry was promoting a couple of years ago. It never took off did it? When it comes to VR I get the feeling the industry is looking hard for a new wow factor. But in the professional space VR serves a real purpose and is done well enough you don't even think about it. You're simply immersed. Think pilot training and advanced simulations. I think that Augmented Reality is a cool thing and actually underutilized today. And sadly never promoted. There are some cool planetarium programs available for phones and tablets, and of course there's that Poke'yer'mom and go game. But the reason why Augmented Reality isn't getting the big push is because it doesn't roll off the tongue as smooth as Virtual Reality. A marketing thing, you know. It doesn't have the flashy connotations of being inside a new world, or a computer, uhm.. ok.. Augmented Reality shows up in more places than you'd think. A camera's electronic viewfinder, heads-up displays, infra-red diagnostic and thermal cameras, night-vision goggles. AR happens pretty much anytime computer information is overlayed on top of real-world scenery or video imagery.

I was just thinking. The pic I posted is of a rev 3 I believe, if not, well ok.. But I know that up to at least rev 3 they had the blank spot. And I'd assume it would default to built in game if there was no cart in there, naturally. And that's probably why the system displays random garbage or a blank screen on power-up without a cart. They never planned for it. And when with the last minute change to not include a game they had no BIOS message saying to insert a cart - like colecovision. I wonder if rev 0, 1, or 2, had a different wire/trace for the CS line? And as for modding a VCS to have a rom in there, it wouldn't be that hard to wire up a cartridge detection circuit. Heck you could go contactless and use a photosensor even I bet.

Anyone know or recall what that blank spot on some VCS mainboards was intended for? It is a set of 24 DIP pads/holes for what I would assume to be an onboard ROM. Or maybe it was for factory diagnostics, or making a dedicated 1-game console? Or was it for RAM?

Slightly, yes.. There was nothing quite like it, coming home on a wintry day and adding one or two cartridges to my videogame library - a bunch of those cartridge holders on the wall.

Unless you get professional forensic grade materials and lab tools (for complete resurfacing) it'll be hit or miss. In my experience more likely miss. I'm sure someone will pipe up with suggestions like 2000 grit sandpaper or toothpaste buffing followed by rain-x treatment. Sometimes the oddball fix will fill that one single troublesome scratch just perfectly and away you go. To directly answer could a pro machine do the trick? Well, what advanced machines do is remove some of the surface and replace it with a fresh one. Usually .1mm or .2mm worth of material. Since the polycarbonate disc surface is the final lens in the focusing mechanism, any significant changes must be handled with different wider focusing range optics. Advanced readers and recovery machines have the ability to shine the laser at angles and go under the scratches - much like an airliner slipping below the cloud deck on final approach. Landing. Then making a U-turn. And taking off in the direction from which it came.

If you read the comments be sure and ignore all the peta freaks.. Stick your finger in your ear and wiggle it gently to get authentic sound effects.

Female spergs.. Gotta love em!

Maybe. But they were all happy to get me Intellivision, O2, Astrocade, VCS and more. That all adds up too!

Ever wipe with magazine pages? The gloss finish smears it all over!! But with iPad I can take a pic and see if I missed a spot.

T'was wierd. They'd buy me all the videogames I could ever want. But not an Apple II. I had to do child/slave labor over the summer and winter in order to afford it.

Yes so much cheaper than the $20 - $30 of games when they first hit the market. But I wouldn't give those times up for anything. In fact, my interest in videogames might have gone the other way if I got into the scene after the crash. It was fun to experience the newness of a whole different form of entertainment.

I wouldn't even call it a parody. More like real life! Most gamers live in those drab white apartments with microbathrooms, bare walls, stuff strewn about, and general smallness. Any AV rig in apartments has wires showing. More realistic unlike the artificial and perfect pad depicted in the original. The airport - now we're talking. A girl will most likely behave that way and see you as creepy. The car rides. Heh, playing games and fighting city traffic, crammed in the back of a sub-compact - that way more real than the minivan. And yes you might even get motion sickness! Or ride in an older car. That's real. And with the Chicago Cubs doing well, a tip of the hat, eh? Ohh I wonder if the inserting/removing of the controllers will make that nice swishing sound. They spent nearly $14,000 in making that noise just so. But the emphasis on playing in the bathroom is the most accurate of all. I find myself getting into a web page, and all of a sudden gotta make poo. So I pull out my iPad and continue in the shitter. Can't miss moment!

It will connect to any RF->HDMI converter. Incredible versatility!!!