Mikebloke

I actually own kickle cubicle on the nes, and I have to be honest I probably played it once and never looked back, and I'm a pretty heavy puzzle game player, reading this thread and then realising I actually own the original was amusing because it never once entered my head that it existed or that I already owned it! Will probably give it a try next time the nes is out.

Just a heads up as well that monetisation is now 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours watched in a year. I used to have monetisation but when the adpocalypse happened I didn't hit the new criteria and my money stopped. I've just passed 100 subscribers myself but my hours watched hit something like 1,500 hours a year, it's just not enough. Because I don't make content on it now, it's down to about 500 a year. Good luck though, I wish you all the best.

Sorry to hear this Ray, I did check out videos you did when it crossed over an interest of mine. I know how deflating sites like YouTube can be when you create content but never really know whether it's a valuable use of your time. I've given a number of goes at trying ideas but never got enough interest in what I do. I think there is a part though where if you enjoy something you should pursue it for your own passion and as a hobby, and getting back into coding rather than playing games has become one of mine. This also has the benefit of making sure you don't go totally insane, especially if other things are piling up around you. As a person I think you are honest and open, and that does come with appearing oversharing. You've never hidden difficulties you've experienced and continue to experience, but I do wonder whether you need support outside this site and the Internet at large with managing your financial situation so it's more stable. My only real advice I can give on this is to try and seek that help, and to try to avoid buying anything new unless it's necessary until you are in a better place. Perhaps keeping the 5200, which clearly you have an emotional connection to, could be something you can continue with, perhaps even specialise in, and that might give you something you can hang on to, enjoy, and provide content (if you are up for it) that others can enjoy too. All the best. Mike

First off thanks for everyones comments, I have been reading and it has helped form some of my own opinions on things, I'll try and respond to some of the comments I feel I have something to say upon, but thanks to everyone who responds. 'Thanks' has gone out to everyone who contributed to this topic! Budgeting was something I started to do a little while ago, I used to set my 2nd job income as a marker, if I was spending more than that, then it was pointless doing my 2nd job. Due to circumstances largely related to the "great resignation" of the COVID-19 experience, I just wanted to rest instead of destroying myself working all the time, so now I'm back to 1 job for the first time in about 6 years. The more I look at it, my move towards into getting romcarts is something of an eyeopener in terms of cost; I had none before the introduction of the R4 card, and it slowly went from there. I'd be lying if I haven't played games I could have in theory paid for, but a lot of them are those that are beyond the bounds of my income. Having said that, I do buy modern collections of old games, and I wishlist new ones and grab them when I can, hell I'll even buy the Konami collections that came out recently once I'm done with my current playlist! I am definitely broadening out my homebrew collection, and while I've never bought anything from AA directly before it became problematic to send to the UK, its the sort of stuff I now look at and think about seriously buying. This was definitely a thing for me in the early days of me getting romcarts, the choice is too broad, which led to me buying games alongside romcarts to ensure I finished them. I think romcarts are a genuine distraction from keeping 100% to a game. I was already cataloguing games and if I finished them by this point, which did help, but wasn't a guarantee. I think I've just learnt to either enjoy one-session games, or keep to playing a game before moving on to something else. Long term it might be an issue if I do get rid of substantial parts of my collection, but I'd probably make sure I've finished it first anyway. Still don't think I'm fully all the way there when it comes to hardware emulation, but I do think its something I'll seriously consider long term. Whether that is in replacement or alongside original hardware being stored, I don't know - but now I'm going down the route of selling software, hardware isn't much of a stretch either. Yes, I hunted for a few topics as I know they already existed, but hoped starting a new one was different enough from existing threads and linked partially to current world events. Although I didn't really cover it in my initial post, I've long been behind a generation of consoles anyway, only recently getting a PS4, Xbox One and a Neo Geo AES in the same month (that was quite a bit of cash I splashed that month!) And realistically, the AES gets the most varied play, while Xbox gets a lot of Minecraft played which could literally be on anything modern, while the PS4 gets limited play with console exclusives. The PS5 / Series X supply issues is not something that was ever going to effect me in the immediate term, but they will be things I would want to get eventually. With the further expansion into "download only" consoles and most disks requiring further download anyway, my redline I set long ago back in the PS2 > PS3 days is nearly here: If a game cannot run on its stock disk without a download, then it isn't truly a console that can be plug and played. This was going to be my line I stopped at (and realistically, I think there is enough arguments to be said about the current gen where that can be argued we've past that line), and I was going to start sweeping up as many games I could from that point to the dawn of video games as I could. Of course, its now turned from an improbable dream to an impossible dream. Haha, I think one of the things that woke me up to this is that I am from a low income family with little to no education. My dad in a sense broke the mould for my family and went into early IT before computers were miniaturised. A recent conversation with him highlighted the fact that when comparing myself to my siblings, despite them being self employed - I'm the only one who like my parents - own their own home and may be considered "middle income". Knowing that actually I have uplifted from when I was born to where I am now, and that my "poor person's hobby" is now unattainable for non-poor people which I would put myself under now - means my desires for a large ever increasing collection is unattainable regardless of the reasons for doing so (I swear I do actually play most of the games I buy, though a number of my "I must buy everything I don't own" purchases has gone unplayed...). I'm possibly at that point of life most people get to where the disposable, finite things for sale feel more valuable than the things that last a heck of a lot longer. I'm not motivated by the idea of increasing value, and I know that I can always be caught out by the 'bubble popping' and not a gambling man. Priorities change, and I always thought my video game collecting habit would roll past everyone else. But ultimately, 1,500 games + is nothing these days - notable collectors have 10,000 + and that isn't a likely figure I'll ever hit. XD Yes, I'm getting to that point regarding the games. Things like the Capcom Mega Man collections have been real eye openers, I only ever owned MM2 + 4 for the NES, the most common ones (certainly by PAL standards at least) - which I still have. But playing the ones I never had I still get those same sparks whether its on a console or my laptop playing on keyboard (I totally abuse the backtrack feature, my God how did I beat NES MM's back in the 90s!). The "feel" of a real console and real controllers is still a thing for me, and the CD-i and Amiga CD32 feel much better with their best controllers - there is still something for me in the consoles, but I think I have let go of the need for physical software. Totally useful advice, I foolishly went into a "I'll own everything one day!" because it felt like I had the most games of the people I knew, and although even I thought a full library collection of the PS1 era onwards was highly unlikely, I thought going some way towards it would still be an accomplishment - realistically, those that can afford it, go for it, those that have targeted collections, can go for it with time and patience. 1st and 2nd gen consoles, and select 3rd and 4th gen console libraries are what I'm gunning for long term, and I had that goal in my head a few years, but I've now learnt I don't need to have everything else AS WELL as that. I don't think any console I intend to keep all my games for has more than 60 games in its library, its a doable and achievable goal which still ensures the games actually get played - and I do really enjoy these consoles and they are out quite regularly and played. Thanks for this, I think there is some really good points here, especially about being in the right frame of mind to make a long term decision before getting rid of things. I think there is something to be said if the collecting itself is unhealthy and is causing depression - I don't think that is directly my issue, but I think the knowing my silly childhood goal is unlikely is depressing in itself - and learning to let go of such a silly goal is a mental strain taken away. Since I started this post, and reading everyones comments including yours, has made me realise I am heading in a) the right direction and b) the direction I want to go in. Realistically, I will keep my RPGs, Strategy games, WipEout collection, mainline games of the usual franchises such as Mario, Sonic etc, but there is a lot of trash I don't need taking up space and I could very comfortably get rid of. While a number of users here are up for full hardware emulation, I think we're in the same boat of wanting to keep hardware but without the cost of buying the software at inflated prices. I still think one day I may go all the way, but knowing what I probably knew deep inside already - that things on my shelf don't need to be there - many things doesn't even have an emotional or childhood connection - they are there because I saw it cheap and it added a number to my collection - they can go. Yep, good advice, and represents most of the games I've already earmarked to go - and a few I'm eyeing up joining them. Yes, definitely some interesting hardware coming out, I think another thing that is leaning me towards a full emulated experience in the future is things like the Analogue Pocket and the Polymega, These things I should be snapping up! But instead I'm holding off. These things are built for people like me with huge physical media! Without having to rely on dying hardware that need parts replaced! But I'm not going for it, and I know deep inside that once my hardware starts failing, I'm more likely to move to full emulation than to find a modern alternative - especially if I've reached the point of getting rid of physical games. But, I will burn them out for as long as they survive first! The feelings attached to physical hardware is still there, but full emulation devices will seemingly only get better with time. I imagine the jump will happen for me at some stage. Yes, I think there is somethings I would never sell even on the consoles I'm looking to part some stuff with. I might get rid of some NES games, but the ones I grew up with and the console itself is not likely to be on that list. I'm still holding on though, I don't think I will get rid of my PS1 console, even though I really have no need to keep it specifically - there is still some peculiar things PS2 and 3 does to some PS1 games. I know that when it comes to video games, I have been very materialistic. Another big thing for me was finally accepting the dominance of Steam and online libraries. I avoided it like the plague, saw it as almost criminal, immoral. Then I had to register Fallout New Vegas, one of the best games ever made, and now I have more games on steam than I do in Physical. I've had various computer switches since then, and all I need to do is press download. I think this topic has helped me get to a place I'm happy with, there will be some purging, but it will be slow and steady. I think I will stop and think about each before I do it. I've already had some experience of this - I used to have a massive book collection. At its height it was at the 2,500ish mark, and I think now I'm under 300 or 400, it used to be in piles on the floor stacked, with oddball bookcases everywhere. Now me and the Wife can fit all of it on 2 bookshelves.... and the rest is hidden. Lol. Yes, definitely at this place now. it helps that most of the games I want to play never released here anyway, and romcarts is the only way to play translations. I'm starting to think about PS1 and PS2 solutions, and will likely get something for the Saturn for the fact that its drive does appear to be failing at longplay situations, and Saturn is a typical console for me to play long sessions - where as other systems for the time such as the Amiga CD32, CD-i, 3DO etc are more casual one session experiences so it never has to run adequately for very long. I think I'm known enough about my collection though that it won't be dumped - though I have personally salvaged some good book and VG hauls from others where this nearly happened... Vectrex is definitely something I wanted to get into. It was always slightly out of my price range when I was looking into it. If I could trade the space of several hundred of my games for one I would probably do so. Things like the Magnavox Odyssey, its not a perfectly working unit but those are super rare now, and it is an experience that although emulatable, fits the uniqueness you talk about for Vectrex. I wouldn't mind taking a stab at Vectrex homebrew one day myself, and I'll need a system to be able to play it on! Your position on PS5 is likely going to be a similar one to mine. I'll get the Final Fantasy games, I'll get the exclusives, and I will ignore pretty much all the rest. Haha, glad you joined the thread, when I think of the debate of physical or emulation, I always think of you. And although I predicted most of what you were going to say, I was nicely surprised it wasn't a simple answer either. I think I look at how you see things as my "ultimate place of content" of the situation of giving up the completionist mentality and the futility of holding on to physical collections. Despite that I am still a hypocrite, I still want the "stuff" and I've got some more deep thinking to do before I am fully prepared to let go, but I will always read what you have to say - you are in a sense my "emulation Buddha" and while I may never reach your level of attainment - its still almost an aspiration of mine to be able to 'let go'. I do wonder long term what the validity of keeping systems like CD-i and the 3DO, 2 systems I do own which aren't really in tip top condition are when I'm not prepared or knowledgeable enough myself to fix them, so I think you are a step beyond me at least in terms of getting rid of the slack - but I think I am on that first step of withholding buying new things, and the second step of getting rid of games I don't need or want. I still can't imagine letting go of my complete UK/PAL collection systems, but I imagine one day even those may feel unnecessary. I think my reasons are slightly different from some others for getting rid of some things, but I think you are right in that physically these systems will just stop working without maintenance and essentially new parts. With new devices able to do it better, and without the same locks in place as old systems - its a convincing argument that I think I will succumb to with time. I do wonder whether I created my own issue when it came to the completionist factor. I bought games cheap because I was too poor to keep up with the other kids, my age means I sit just after the generation where copying cassette tapes was common practice (though I did have some for my Amstrad 464 which was my first microprocessor system...). Gaming was getting popular as a mainstream activity. I never resold anything, so things started amassing. Although I did buy lots of things over time - I probably didn't go super crazy until I divorced and remarried. Instead of saving money I started spending it, I was no longer the main earner and probably allowed myself the luxury of buying things for the pleasure of buying them. As things start to tighten, I wonder if that opened my eyes to the idea that I shouldn't be doing it. I don't want to blame my new wife for enabling me, but she certainly didn't stop me lol. I think allowing myself to go unchecked has got me to the position I am in now. I've tripled or possibly quadrupled my collection in that time and got every console under the sun whereas before I only had the major consoles. Ebay has a lot to answer for, and I won't lie, most of my stuff since I remarried has come from there. Its accessibility is definitely an issue for me and getting rid of the app on my phone did help. I still get alerts for some specific things, but I deleted most of them, and I certainly don't go looking for games like I used to. I used to search my list of 'wanted' games about once or twice a week. I now don't even click on the few email alerts I do get except for one console. Its a sign I'm managing my bad habit if nothing else. Hahahahahaa, not there yet, but thanks to people here - I think I'm on a path now. My job is going outside, meeting people, talking and interacting, I need the ability to shut down XD but I have learnt that I don't need to spend increasingly large amounts of money to do that shutting down like I used to. Easier to spend £200 on a device to play a whole library than it is to spend £200 on buying, 2-3 or even 1 game. Yes and I think some people have mentioned even in the states too, selling collections comes with its own tax headaches, we have something of a looser system in the UK, so loose that most people probably don't even know about it. We have a £1,000 limit a year on general purchasing and reselling kind of things, but its not enforced harshly for most small hobbyists. I don't think I've ever risked going anywhere near it and I don't think any of the games I'm thinking of selling in my first cull of games will hit it either! Its funny, the NES was the first console many years ago I realised I had no chance of getting 100% in, despite the fact that the systems I do have 100% in are arguably rarer. There is a level of demand on the more "common" systems that make these much harder. For those who have committed goals of a single console, or single genre, this may well still be possible. But for those that want it all, look at the NES situation. If anything was the first step to me getting to where I am now, its the thought of how much and how long it would take to get a full NES collection. I will keep some of my NES games, but I could probably half mine easily. Final thoughts: Thanks everyone who has responded to this thread, there is a good sense of people at different levels, some who are still building collections, others like me going the way of romcarts, those who have taken the larger step of getting rid of all but nostalgic collections, and those that use virtually 100% emulation. I genuinely don't think I harm the video game industry much, because I always bought 2nd hand, and rarely kept up enough to buy the handful of 1st hand games I have bought in the past. They get minor sales from me from the likes of steam etc, but in the last few years most of my income has been heading towards private sellers of old tat - stuff the developers and publishers never see sight of. Since the pandemic, I have leant more to homebrew and the AA / AAA companies releasing their collections on steam - the irony is I spend more now supporting the industry whether its on PC or to homebrew developers than I ever did in the last 30 years with exceedingly less number of games. I've decided I will part with the 75 games I've earmarked out. I think coming up with alternative solutions for PS2, Saturn and other systems I will likely purge some of them too. I wouldn't be surprised if by the end of 2022 I am 250 or more games down, instead of up. Another purge before long is probably likely. I will probably put them up on the marketplace here first, if anyone is interested, I'd rather sell to people here than ebay who I've gone off mostly since the changes anyway. I'll probably do that early in the new year, after I've checked in with myself that I'm happy with that plan. I do not see a situation right now where I wouldn't be, and that is a big step for me in the first place. As a young person, I thought I'd one day own everything, that everything would be as cheap, if not cheaper than when I started this journey. I was a fool, and the collecting business has been infected by "investors" with very different outlooks to video games than I do. I remain committed to playing and completing every game I buy, and I will likely continue to buy a select few games out of nostalgia, or completion in limited circumstances. But the likelyhood is, this is the end for me of buying retro games, and the beginning of a more tailored collection of love rather than lust. I collect for the thrill of gaming, playing enjoying and understanding games in their place of time and as a throwback to how things used to be. My childhood dream I've woken up from, its time to be something closer to that of an adult.

There's a few others but not too many. Gemfire which also ended up on the next gen consoles, Think there is a version of M.U.L.E and although we'd be stretching the boundary of strategy there is things like Elite available too. Edit didn't realise this was bumped, but hey, anyone who is a fellow education worker is off work by now right

Wow that brochure gives a lot of new insight. I wonder if having the two models was a way of placating Baer's desire to have an affordable system even if he wasn't directly aware of it, but then changed again to avoid splitting things up. Production wise it probably wasn't worth it on a product that was completely new to the market that had no industry standard to go by. What could have been is a really fascinating part of the odyssey history, and it's not surprising a cut down model was considered, its almost surprising they didn't try and cut down the components inside as well given that seemed to be one of the bigger issues which prevented the more exciting potential features from being released (perhaps they got it already cut down to the bare minimum as it is!).

Not an endorsement but googling "HDMI Pong" got this as the first result. https://www.google.com/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwiVy8uqtO30AhUM7u0KHf-IBhsYABAIGgJkZw&sig=AOD64_2WCpI1HVlsbWyZDH6_JDE0HnHqXg&ctype=5&q=&ved=2ahUKEwjSv8SqtO30AhWcQUEAHV-6CqcQ9aACegQIARBB&adurl= Based on this review though, its just 2600 Video Olympics:

Man I was so hyped for this, but seeing those dates just put me off, it didn't help that it was open for pre-order on the 14th and 15th is payday for me. Knowing now I would almost definitely be in "Group C" if I paid up now, I'll wait. I'm kind of gutted that so many things are living on this pre-order on the possible never-never. I get that Analogue are pretty legit, and there is a good chance it'll be fulfilled - but I miss the days when you ordered something and even if you had to wait for it you had the knowledge it'd definitely get to you somewhen. I think I'm banking on a lot of things being good to really feel like it would be value for money: All the adapters coming out (I don't have a Lynx yet, but I'd get games if I knew I could play it), the dock actually being useful and having a decent compatible controller to use with it, and a number of other things. What's another year eh? I feel like they would probably be a bit more direct on times later in the year which might help me, but I'll sit on it for now.

Click your username in top right, under settings there is "ignored users" and you can add people there.

I still have some of these if you are interested. Hopefully your console arrived OK.

Is that a little bit like when people pay for a goat, but you don't actually get the goat, it goes to a stranger in a foreign country and is named after you.

Ok some more improvements for 2nd version: Shark2.bin First off, I've adjusted the title screen and the play area to compensate for the x boundaries. Secondly, I've added a third digit for score and highscore (I was already tracking score hundreds to avoid it speeding up more and overflowing to be very slow, but wasn't showing or recording it in highscore) Finally, I've added a different animation for shark facing right, collision box is altered to reflect this too. There is a safe spot when facing right, so I need to deal with that, got a couple of ideas on how to handle that. The graphic is slightly different to make it looks more obvious which way it is facing. I also did try to randomise the fish movement again, but its not much, if at all better. Still working on that one! I also fixed a minor graphical issue with the fish being taken leaving some pixels on the screen. I'm wondering if speed up every 10 points is too slow, I wanted to improve the fish movement before I altered it. I also feel that its still a little too easy, and thinking my only other option might be to add a second shark, which will need to behave slightly differently to avoid them merging together. But happier than I was yesterday with it.

Thanks, I did wonder about this, obviously with the emulator you get the full possible experience. It would be easy enough to adjust values to move things more into the centre. I'll do that in my next update. I do need to work on the randomisation a little bit more, not quite happy with it yet. From a learning experience I've done a lot with this which was new, though I still look at lines from what others have produced and get confused. Alongside working with 2 bit colour graphics competently for the first time, using DC more effectively for the score and the random movement and actually showing a score! There's a few other things I picked up. After spending 2-3 hours trying to make my own way of randomising the fish movement I broke and I looked up someone else's example of a lookup table I could emulate myself. I then blended that in with what I already had. Even sleeping on it, I now can see how I can do some of the things I've done quicker. Some of the code in this version is looping or repeating lines of code rather than more effective forms, but I don't think it's too noticeable that this happens. Colission detection I'm not a huge fan of when a graphic touches another graphic even if it's the 'transparent' pixels, so it's purposely limited to what I consider 'realistic'. For example, if shark mouth is on your torso, you're dead. But if you pass shark tail you are OK. Same with fish, if its near your character hand that is a point, but if you brush past with your feet that does not count. I'd like to update it again today with shark that faces right when moving right, and for the Colission area to take that into account.

3 days of working has led to what I can consider to be something that resembles a game! Shark.bin Shark is a 1 player game where you try to catch the fish while avoiding the shark. Use Player 1 controls to move across the screen Push button down to start game Pull button up / Button 4 on console to reset On day 1 of development I got the characters for the game on the screen, this is my first actual attempt at something that can be moved which is not a solid block. On day 2 of development I added scoring, including an on screen display and a game over screen. The Score for your current session (green) is below your session highscore (blue) On day 3 of development I tied it all together, added a start screen, added better randomisation of the fish movement and spawn and added an increasing difficulty as you score points There is still some things I would like to do to edit this, and I think there is one issue which causes a freeze I need to sort out. Regardless, I'm happy with what I've produced so far.

Yes need to add sensing off to on, fixed a graphical bug on my part though, I did start documenting code but I think I'm going overboard for absolute beginners, might cut it down again. Working on another short project, nearly done - I can't find background red (pink?) though, background blue seems to be $c3, green, grey and black seem easy to find - does anyone know where background red is? Edit: Wait, is grey the "background red"?

Thanks e5frog! I have wondered once I finished the 'Autoslalom' game whether all 3 of those black and white games can be combined to one ROM which might be worthy of an inclusion... I'd like to think I could get all 3 into less than 4kb! Is there a limit on how big the multicart can handle? Yeah I have to admit the default controls in Mess doesn't feel natural - what I have is player one is arrow keys, then the others are shift, spacebar, alt and ctrl - which makes me lean towards using my left hand on the left side of the keyboard for those controls. On the other hand player 2 is RDFG (instead of traditional WASD) and then Q, W, A and S are the other buttons. Its alterable, but I have to admit I have played on a controller before when playing with kids. So with this game, Ctrl is push down for red and A is push down for blue, but I don't like it either! In mess0210b that I still use, Options - Joysticks - Joystick 1/2 lets you alter the keys. Getting more into making the games is making me wonder about Eprom or other solutions so I can test on real hardware - but I think what I need to do either way is also test for release of a key before its treated as another keypress. The idea should be that players would have to keep pressing but I appreciate at the moment you can just hold it down! Once its reached the edge yes, it prevents further movement. If this was on a real odyssey, I imagine it wouldn't even have that much of an end and you could go back up and down! but I wanted a sense that someone had actually won, and then a need to reset. I'll probably work on this some more with some alternative versions including a start screen and some graphics for winning - because hey why not! I have recently found https://www.assemblytutorial.com/ which although it doesn't cover the F8 / Channel F system it made me wonder if something similar can be done as well. At the moment I reference the VES wiki a lot for specific things like which bit is which key for reading, the instruction set, etc. I don't feel worthy enough of doing the equivalent version when I'm still starting out but I might do something that can be printed and easily used (I already have a few things printed from the original PDFs and some of the pages you've done on the VES wiki). I'm up for releasing the code of this version, I think its fairly simple and has enough things that can be altered to get people started - I'll give a shot at optimising it and commenting it and release it soon. Think I'm nearly ready to take a shot at finishing my Simon game as well now, even when I started that I was very unconfident about what I was doing, whereas small projects like this helps me practice.

Another small little game: Bucket Filler This is my interpretation of the "bucket filling" game that was originally expected to release on the Magnavox Odyssey, but due to various cuts, didn't make it. This is based purely on my understanding of how the game was apparently supposed to run: The game was able to filter the screen blocks of colour (colour was one of the things that was ultimately removed to save money for the Odyssey), the idea of the game was that you pressed the button, and you filled (or emptied) your bucket, filling the screen until it was all your colour. A 2 player game, press the button down to fill a line of the screen your colour. The game ends when the middle line reaches either the top or the bottom of the screen. Press button 4 on the console to reset. BucketFiller.bin Ok this was just a little game I thought I'd do that I felt comfortable doing in a very short amount of time and did it without copy pasting anything but the blit code, and I quite like the fact that its a game that actually; I don't think has been represented visually in any way online (at least none that I know of, if anyone has a video of the game running on its original prototype, I'd like to see it!) though I believe it has been on tour before with the prototypes of the Odyssey. Because of that, I have just guessed how it works. But seeing the description on many websites, this is how I thought it might look (perhaps was meant to be horizontal, perhaps I could do that too...).

I was thinking of mentioning this as well - I do buy these classic collections that come out quite often. I have a lot of versions of the mega drive collection but also have various sonic collections, mega man collections, namco and taito etc. They are certainly more convenient to use when you want to spin up a few games, but I still feel they lack that feel of the 'original' console. Regarding ps1/2 rpgs, they will be the last to go but you can keep hoping XD

Too Long Didn't Watch version: The web of who worked/was a director of/funded Wata, Heritage Auctions and associated groups is far more complex than first thought (but not very exciting and mostly predictable). Various members of these organisations tried to claim they weren't working for that organisation, despite pictures, videos, newspaper articles and TV programs showing and listing them as employees A youtube Lawyer (a real lawyer, but one who does videos for youtube, does that make sense?) looks into the legality of whether it is price fixing, false advertisement (sad news: Its still pretty grey, and not clear cut). Both Wata, Heritage Auctions made dull statements in response - including how it was a shame that Karl hadn't contacted them first for comment, despite the fact that Karl had contacted them first for comment.

Hi all, I wanted to make a post which is half-rant, half-question. Today I think I'm finally on the process of letting go... of my physical game collection, of sorts. In limited situations. Which might become a snowball. I would be particularly interested in viewpoints of others who have gone through this dilemma, regardless of the outcome and whether they felt relief or regret from their decision. There is a lot that has led me to this place, but the ultimate power that is probably effected a lot of us in the last few years is this: As a hobby owning legitimate copies of games for original hardware is something I'm increasingly priced out of, alongside continued rareness as number of collectors go up and number of copies of games in the wild go steadily down. My game purchasing not that long ago was scatter gunned - I would buy anything that was cheap even if I didn't want to play it. Early consoles I justified to myself as "finishing a collection" and to be fair these are ones I intend to keep - they are ones I'm most nostalgic about even though many I only played as an adult (videopac, intellivision, coleco, 7800 etc). Like many people, I grew up through the phases of 2600, NES, Sega then moving on to Sony/Microsoft. It is perhaps ironic that many of those consoles - the NES, Master System, SNES, Mega Drive and PS1/2 are likely the ones I'm targeting games to get rid of. Today I went through those consoles, looking at what games I wouldn't miss, and put them into 'storage'. I think I will sit on them for a few months, and if as I suspect, I am completely unbothered by their hidden existence, I will likely look to part with them. Recently I came to the mental decision of stopping myself from buying retro games - I will probably pick up the odd retro game here and there, but not hunting for them on a week to week basis. To even think of selling some (other than doubles) was unthinkable even a few months ago. I was able to pluck out about 75 games from these consoles, which makes less than 5% of my entire physical collection - but it was a good start. I hadn't even looked at copies of the same game such as lemmings, cannon fodder and theme park that I have on multiple consoles for no good reason (that might make it up to a hundred, I could probably filter out some more PC games to double it further). I find myself increasingly buying homebrew, or finishing off collections close to being 100%, but other than that, I'm now choosing not to buy games I would have bought before. I know some users on here have gone to full emulation, but I don't think I'm ready for that yet, I like my physical hardware, and I still see romcarts largely as devices for unofficial ports, hacks, mods, translations and homebrew.

I wonder if the company who built the multicards would consider building a batch. I imagine they did me a bit of a favour given the world climate at the time, but they actually asked me if I wanted them made up... They might be willing to give this board a go too.

Right, here we go, a "version 1" of Clay Pigeon Shooting, a port from the Tele-Spiel ES-2201. This game is now 1 or 2 player. Right player uses up and down to aim, push button to fire missile. Left player (or left to its own devices) the target on the left side automatically drops down the screen, but is able to do two things, either move left or right, or speed up/down. Left and right controls is... left and right. speed up is either twist right on left controller or button 3 on console (for those playing 1 player) and speed down is... you've guessed it, twist left on the left controller or button 2 on the console. Collision is determined if the bullet hits the target on its right most edge, meaning if you shoot too early the bullet will go through the target but not register as a hit. I've based this purely on the video that's available of the Tele-Spiel ES-2201 and its games, so I've attempted to make it "playable" while looking similar to the original. I think there could be some minor improvements to it to make it as close as possible to the original. Like Ghost Chaser, I can imagine a few alternative features to make it "better" while keeping the original idea of the game intact. My next project is to port the "autoslalom" game, which is like a poor man's night driver or a rich man's Grand Prix. ClayPigeonShootingv1.bin

I'm impressed anyone is able to make anything sound like something with a possible 3 beep noises, so congrats! On the clay pigeon shooting front, I was able to easily restrict the player movement from looping, I was also able to make what is as close as I would call collision detection without feeling it was a complete lie, I only got two more things to do. I wrote a bunch of lines for the speed alteration (which I'm making both player 2 twist option and on console keys option) which I smuggly thought I fully understood my ci from my ni and my li from my lr at this point, and of course managed to crash the whole thing. So bit of work still to be done! And then I will need to make it so player 2 can move the target left and right slightly for more difficulty for player 1 to hit it. The collision detection should compensate for this too so once this bit is done the game is finished, just a matter of when I get another couple of hours to have a good go at it. I know what I'm working on is a bit pants compared to what others have managed so far with the channel F, but doing these ports has been an interesting learning experience and has actually got me to the point where... Something works.

I have to admit I've been powering it from batteries since I got mine, still the first set as well. I think mine did have a replacement battery case, but I think that was a long time ago too! I've had issues with getting PAL / uk tvs to get a signal too. I tried all sorts including VHS players, but sadly they were all PAL signals only. An RF to USB was the only thing I could find. But this is the other thing, I got a device that had a 'modern' wire that connects direct to RF. A lot of models had the very very very old system of two wires that you screwed into to make a connection on the back of the TV. There is ways of making your own RF cable, to circumvent a pre-mid 70s invention of the RF port. I don't even know if European tvs even had screws for cable wires back then! Perhaps we did too I just never seen it. Boojakascha is a better person to follow advice on than me though, I'm just glad my device even works, with the occasional use of board pulling and reinserting!

I did wonder about moving! I totally used this many times and noticed the hit ratio refreshed. Glad to see I wasn't dreaming it! I think it's a cool little feature. These games focus on strategy and defence and having defencive strategies pay off is good to hear. I usually made the to hit and damage scores go up 2 before switching, but it depends on other scores. I didn't do it until I got to the 10 crown mark but since then I did partake in poison if my starting stats weren't good.