-^CrossBow^-

February 16

Okay... I just went through the pics I was able to make the manufacture and chip PN from and here are the ones that are unique that I was able to find in my records. The odd thing is the Sony chips apparently have at least 3 different speeds being used and as a result a different resistor attached as well with one of them having a 370Ω and most having a 100Ω.

Most of the ones in sockets were earlier '84 revision boards. Also these are different sizes as the original pics I cropped these from are different sizes or taken from different distances to respect of the original pic I cropped them from.

I think the pics are enough to show which were in sockets and which were not, also I would say I usually see them more often with resistors tide off ground to the write enable pin on the bottom chip. On those that have the resistor bodged in, the trace to that pin on the bottom has been severed at the factory.

Goldstar - Seen these on mostly newer revisions.

Hitachi in an older '84 revision board.

Another Hitachi in an older '84 revision board but different speed.

Samsung. Soldered in with a 100Ω? resistor

Motorola, I don't believe this was actually socketed originally and was one I replaced thinking it might be bad. No resistor

Motorola in sockets with a resistor

NEC - I don't see many with this brand of RAM on them but they are out there. No resistor

OKI - Seen a few of these on middle '87 units usually. No resistor on this one and soldered in.

OKI again that is soldered in but with a 100Ω? resistor I believe.

RCA - I've seen these mostly on older (Possibly original '84) units. Socketed

RCA socketed again but this one didn't have the resistor on it.

Sony -10L with the 370Ω resistor. Soldered in.

Sony -12L with a 100Ω resistor and soldered in.

Sony -15L with no resistor and soldered in.

UMC - soldered in with no resistor.

February 16

Had I know there was interest in this, I could have been doing this all along with all the 7800s I've found. Let me go through my pics from client service work and see if I have any that show the ram up close enough to share. I've seen many different brands and I know they are different speeds as well. I've often wondered if the ram speed differences in the variants is part of the hardware issues we find, especially with the extra timing circuit since I can literally see a game work or not work simply touching that cap into circuit without resetting or power cycling the console?

February 16

4 hours ago, Pat Brady said:

1326. I think I can do better, but not tonight.

The new room numbers look great!

Several obstacles can be avoided without having to react to them:

Yes, I've recorded footage of my doing this exact same moves and sent them over to VHZC to see if he is okay with the timings on these rooms etc. But you are correct in your spoilers and that is how I've been getting the quick scores. My controllers of choice with this game are using my Retrogameboiz NES style 7800 controller and my Epyx 500xj. Basically anything with a short throw for better quick accurate control is needed here.

February 16

10 hours ago, Tempest said:

My Saturn is the wrong model for the Fenir unfortunately.

But you were asking about the RHEA earlier? The RHEA is the ODE for model 1 20-pin Saturns. The Fenir I thought was also a 20-pin ODE or at least I could have sworn I saw it listed that way the other day on FB? If you have a model 2 Saturn, then the RHEA isn't what you want. You would need the Phobe but it is just as scarce as the RHEA.

I guess my point being that if you have a model 1 Saturn you should be able to use the 20-pin Fenir ODE? Or are there model 1 units with 21-pin cables? I thought those were only found on the model 2 units?

https://shop.fenrir-ode.fr/?fbclid=IwAR1bkBPYBcptH6OXSJQQYU_2Cr_3fGgcuWyyqHw6_LqHqE83Flhlh9XLbq4

February 15

On 2/14/2021 at 12:28 PM, GoldenWheels said:

I'm having low sound issues with a few roms on an RCA modded (no not sure which mod) model. Anyone else? My 7800 seemed fine before and normal carts sound ok. Maybe I'll try my normal unit.

Depends on how the composite upgrade was done in regards to audio. If your normal games sound okay like commando and ballblazer having the same volume as other games, then the DF cart has some adjustment trimmers on the back of the PCB. You do have to open it of course to get to them. They are marked as PR and PL I believe and if you only have in single pokey mode, then you only need to adjust the top trimmer. The middle trimmer is for dual pokey mode with the pokeyMAX and the bottom trimmer is for adjusting the Yamaha sound.

If that doesn't make much of a difference, then the issue is how your audio was likely done on the AV mod work.

February 15

1342

February 15

12 minutes ago, Tempest said:

I may get a MODE for my Saturn as the RHEA seems to be impossible to get. But at the moment my Saturn is chipped to play CDRs and that works for me.

I have a spare Saturn that was my main Saturn for years that had an old racketboy mod board installed into it. I replaced that out with a Phantom chip about 2 years ago and it is now a spare unit. The one I use now is was gifted to me with the RHEA already in it as thanks/payment towards some local console service I did several years ago. I like the RHEA but it hasn't received an update in I couldn't tell you how long and it is finicky with images. I find that I have to use Imgburn, Alcohol120, and even DJ still to get working images off my originals. Fantastic Pinall! I thought I would never get a working image from but eventually go it ironed out. I've thought seriously on getting another MODE to put into it so I don't have to mess with it as much.

I do advise getting a mount kit for whatever you end up doing. Just having easy access to the SDcard alone is worth it. I bought my mounts for my RHEA and MODE from laser bear industries. They have other mod kits as well for these systems. May not be the cheapest prices as I've not done much research into that. But they have been my one stop shop for the stuff I needed.

February 15

2 minutes ago, Tempest said:

Actually I do use RGB SCART for my DC. I use an RGB to Component converter for all my systems. So I guess I'll have to do the resistor trick.

I've seen a few different types of inserts. Will this kind help with the cooling or does it have to be one of the more open ones? https://www.ebay.com/itm/SEGA-Dreamcast-GDEMU-3d-Printed-Tray-Insert-with-SD-Extender-SD-Cover/283756958217

I've got a 256GB SD card coming, I hope I can format it so it works with the GDEMU. I hear there are programs you can use for that as Windows won't do FAT 32 if it's over 32GB.

I forgot that the MODE has dummy loads built in so you don't have to worry about the +12regulator if you have one. I still ended up removing my +12regulator off the PSU since I have the DCDigital installed I wasn't worried about not having RGB in place. But the point being that you don't have to worry about doing anything with the PSU with a MODE installed.

February 15

10 minutes ago, Stephen said:

Well, I tried that - including the SD Card Maker. It seemed any card over 32GB I tried, the GDEmu just refused to boot the menu, it acted like there was no card installed. PC could read the card just fine.

My thought on this is that the SDcards are fine but that your OS is formatting them using ExFAT or NTFS and not FAT32 as is usually required by these devices. There is a program out there to force format large capacity SD and flashdrives to FAT32 format. That is how I got my 128GB SDcard working in my RHEA on my Saturn.

I own the MODE and yes it is expensive. But you know what? I really like how darn simple the thing is to use. Like the GDEmus it is a reversible mod as it just literally plugs in place of the original GDrom drive. I also like the fact that the MODE can use an actual 2.5" HDD and SDcard media at the same time. It is easier to update in most cases etc. So it is expensive, but its cost shows in how it all works, the options it has, and overall ease in its use. So far it seems to work with every game as well and I don't have to mess with Region changing the images or any of that jazz as I still have to do with my RHEA on my Saturn for instance.

February 14

I can confirm the angle shots are now fixed it would seem. I also do like the changes on the map screen as it doesn't have as much empty/negative space making it appear that the map should be larger than it actually is.

On the potions etc, I did find 2 I think on the round I was playing but there are some things I want to discuss and to prevent spoiling anything, I will take them to PMs.

February 14

I'm down for one!

February 13

Not sure I can find any ways to get any faster than this. Really enjoying this one!

February 13

17 hours ago, imstarryeyed said:

Do any of you have a game(s) list of Saturn games that you regret not buying for your collection when you had the chance?

I think I've mentioned this once before. It isn't just a Saturn game I regret buying but my greatest regret in all of my collecting honestly. Many years ago in the early 2000s when I got back into collecting more, my then wife and I were visiting an old 2nd hand junk/thrift type store in a rural part of the state while visiting relatives. As we were leaving, I noticed sitting ontop of a table between some book ends, a few Saturn games. One of them was Panzer Saga and it was priced at $45 as I recall at that time. There was no way back then that my wife would have allowed me to spend that much on an old game so I let it go. I also didn't know the value the game would command just a few years later.

Naturally over the years I've tried to go back to the place on a whim, but honestly I can't recall what the place was called or where it was located exactly. I do remember thinking that the place was going to fall in on us at any time as it was a converted chicken farm building thing and had been around a long time as the floor inside it was very uneven in places and the the whole structure had lots of sags and whatnot along it.

So yeah... because of that I made it a point that any other games for the collection I wanted, I would buy them if I had the means to afford them so as to not miss something like that again.

February 13

Okay, so I haven't quite figured out exactly how the diagonal shot is happening, but it does it on JS7800 and Bubsystem both. Now, if you spam the fire button, then the shots tend to only go in the direction you were last facing. But if you are more leisure with them, then it is about every 3rd shot of so that will go off in the upper diagonal to where you are facing.

You stated that rooms with gravestones and stairs are highlighted on the pause/map screen when you have a map? Well, my second room was a gravestone room and it was forever highlighted in grey on the map screen after visiting it as were all the other gravestone rooms. Also the room with the stairs was highlighted in light purple. It wasn't until about a dozen screens after that, that I found the map item. So it would seem that the rooms will always highlight regardless of possessing the map item or not?

Some things to consider based on what I've played in this latest release:

- When you turn to ghost form, I think it should be possible for the player character to then move through walls completely. I'm stating this because I just played and was able to uncover nearly the entire map of the first level. However, the gravestone screens seem to be right close to each other near the start of the level. But by the time I was way far off, there wasn't a gravestone screen anywhere less than 9 screens from me. As a result, there was zero chance of making it to one before the 30sec timer runs out. But if the player character can actually go through walls, then they have a stronger fighting chance of making it to one. Granted it could have just been really bad luck on how the gravestone screens happened to be in the order they were on the map, but it was pointless to have the option when there wasn't anyway in heck I was going to make it in time.

- Do the mummy gems actually do anything or just points like other treasures?

- Some of the room feature too narrow a passage on the top half as compared to the bottom half. Needs to be more consistent and only allowing portions of the map with single character sprite corridors makes it impossible to NOT get hit by monsters. This is complicated more when given the fact that sometimes your shots don't actually seem to go forward when you are in a tight corridor like that.

- Health pickups and their frequency of generation needs to be looked at. On level 1, I played through all screens minus about 10 of them? and I only had 1...ONE health pickup that I found. The only reason I couldn't find more or didn't explore the entire map was due to the distance of the nearest gravestone screen as I stated above and couldn't possibly make it there in time.

- I'm not sure mummies should be available to spawn from the get go, if you only have the default shot weapon, they are basically impossible to kill as they simply take too many shots with the default weapon. This resulted in a lot of lost health on the first screen. Maybe they shouldn't become available until after the bow weapon is found first?

- On the main play screen, in the lower right is where you have your weapon select shown. However, you do not have sprites to show that you possess the other weapons and just have to know and cycle to see what you have picked up. I think that once a weapon is found, its sprite should be shown in the spaces for it, but then make it have a colored background behind it when selected?

- Map screen and maps in general look like there will always be left over space on the left and right hand sides? I would suggest moving the items in possession (Map, key) as largest sprites (If possible) on those sides instead of along the top maybe? Or something to fill in that space. Maybe change that screen completely so it doesn't use the outline of the current room your are in and could just be more minimalist to make seeing the map and items easier. Possibly give it a different decorative graphics on the sides of that screen? Or, maybe have it look like a map parchment with some graphics to show worn paper curls and edges on the sides?

Okay, that is enough from me for now LOL! It is actually a lot of fun and keeps me wanting to explore and find more treasure in the rooms. That is why I passed by the stairs room and kept going when I found it.

Let me know if any of this doesn't make sense or is confusing and I can record a play session to better highlight what I'm talking about?

February 13

Few issues that I've noticed. This was through Bupsystem as the emulator.

- shots fired left or right will go diagonal after ever so many. Usually to the upper diagonal to where you are facing without moving the controller in diagonally

- Room numbers appear in the lower center of the mazes. They don't impede or block your movement but just seem outta place there?

- Pressing button 2 to change weapons will also cause the game to randomly teleport the player to a different room while also changing the weapon. In fact, you can press button 2 even with the default shot weapon and still teleport around the maps?

February 13

8 hours ago, cedropoole said:

Unless you don't own a PS1, is there any real advantage to the Saturn English patched version over the already English language version that was released in 1999 on the PS1? I realize that this is a Saturn thread but come on, how many AtariAge users don't have both systems. I have both and the differences are minimal to me.

I actually do have PS1 but only like 3 games for it as I've never really had an interest in collecting the original PS. The Saturn on the other hand I do enjoy playing quite a bit and I've owned the actual Grandia game for about 2 years now waiting on the fan translation to mature. I will do the same when Princess Crown eventually gets a full translation.

I will do the same with Symphony of the Night as well as I see there is a full english patch for that game too. But yeah while I know that many of these games exist on another platform, they may NOT be on the platform I would rather play them.

February 12

Well, I've had the earlier translations but only this past week did I finally apply the latest translation patches to actual images of my Grandia discs I made and finally started to play the game. I own and have played quite a few of the RPGs on the system in the past but Grandia might be the first one that really makes me excited to see what the next areas of the game will look like. They story isn't anything special but the translation makes the character interactions pretty entertaining and I've been having a blast playing the game.

February 12

Awesome! That one new screen I mentioned in discord kicked my butt the first time I encountered it but I've got the pattern for it down. Now to try and improve the times.

I did find the secret room and asked you a message about it in discord PM so as to no spoil anything here.

February 12

8 hours ago, Swami said:

I always wonder if you could fit a 7800 in a Sears Video Arcade II 2800 shell. Is anyone selling those?

The main issue with this is that top shell buttons wouldn't line up with the 7800 buttons along the lower front. Also the Sears II bottom shell I'm not sure is molded to line up with the joystick ports properly. So either way, you would have to make some case modifications for it and the plastic is still brittle. There are likely fewer Sears II units in the wild than 7800 so I wouldn't want to try and adapter those shells.

February 12

I will take one. I mean..how could I NOT have a 7800 keychain!

February 11

29 minutes ago, mattyv316 said:

Here you go

Yeap, looks the same only I couldn't get anything from mine. Only difference was I removed the 75Ω resistors off the output lines since my SCART cable has that stuff in the SCART housing already. Hmm...

February 11

@YannAros I sent you a PM detailing my results after installing your kit again using the inexpensive SCART to HDMI scaler/converter.

But to give a screen shot from my phone off my display:

February 10

Can you show a pic of the board you got from Crayon King? The one I have I can't get it to produce any picture at all form it but I am having luck with the RGB board from Yannick in my SSVA. Actually my SSVA is only an SVA in appearance. The original mainboard 20 years ago died on me and so I actually have a standard Mattel 2609 mainboard in my SVA shell. Still...

February 10

1 hour ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Valid design decisions. Though emulator players will have an advantage now.

Easy level slows down the timer if I understood right. So that would be the mode to use to memorize how to navigate each screen and then go to norm level there after for a faster timer.

February 10

1 minute ago, bikeguychicago said:

I do have the issues you mentioned with Gyruss and Bounty Bob so I would like to attempt to calibrate my 5200 and controllers. I just purchased an Atarimax and have the diagnostic cart ROMs copied over to it.

Are there detailed instructions on how to use these diagnostics tools to calibrate everything together? Also, where does one obtain the loop back board that you mentioned?

Thank you!

I got my loopback board from Best Electronics several years ago. At the time they only had the 4 port version available but if you remove the top cover on the 2 port units, the 4 port loopback can still be used without issue.

The instructions for calibration are in the 5200 service manuals. What I basically have found is that with the loopback board plugged in, I go into the calibration portion of the controller test where it shows the values in real time and then adjust the pokey until the values read within the service manual +/- a few. Even calibrated to the service manual specs, I've still found that the controller pots themselves might need to be adjusted before all games work properly. If I can get Bounty Bob to move left and right and up and down without too much issue, then I can pretty sure that the controller and system are calibrated correctly to each other.

But that is another important thing to note here. When you adjust the console to factory, that doesn't mean that every controller themselves will just work and most of them have to be adjusted separately by forcing the trimmer arms on the pots beyond where they are pressed onto the shafts a smidgen to have them match up to the expected readings.

But yes, look to the service manuals on how to do this. There are also eyeball methods other use like adjusting the trimmer until the crosshair in missile command is centered as an example.

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