80s_Atari_Guy

A old Black and White Movie, that has been digitally "Enhanced", scaled upto 1080p, a noise filter added to hide the scaling artifacts, and coloured in, does NOT then make it a better movie. The charm of the original has been lost, and now it looks like a science project made by some college grad. Just because a modern HDTV, using HDMI, makes everything now look clearer and more defined, doesn't mean it now looks better. Frailties of CRTs, artifacting like fringing and color bleeding, added to the look of the game. Some prefer the first image, I appreciate that. I, and I guess most here, prefer the second image. It would be nice if some of the more vocal pro-HDMI crowd respected our preference, rather than belittle it.

Real Thing Emulation Real Thing Emulation Real Thing Emulation

Thanks for the link. I agree about Bang & Olufsen. I knew someone, a few years ago, had a MX4002 -- the 21" version. Very nice picture, and stylish TV.

Nice, really nice picture. Where did you get Sophia RGB ? All I see in this forum is Sophia HDMI (rev c ?)

I have just got a Vecflash serial version, including the serial cable. I had to google the serial drivers. The included readme states. 1) Connect cable to PC's serial port and VecFlash 2) Run the loader software 3) Switch on the Vectrex Place your game .bins in the same directory as the loader, or put vfm.bin into your game folder I don't have anything with a serial port, only a old DOS PC - but this is DOS only. So I have ordered a decent-branded serial to usb converter. I take it, from the readme. Connect everything up, run loader with vecflash in the Vectrex (Vectrex switched off). Switch on the vectrex, copy over the bin files - assuming the converter cable works. then ??? Just wait ? When the files are across, switch off the Vectrex, then back on and the files are there in the menu ? Because this cart is old, I think it's 2004, Googling for help, mostly gives results for the USB version, which is a different method to the serial one - You don't need the Vectrex for the USB version. And, anyone know the capacity of the cart ? How many bins can it hold ? Any help, most welcome.

Thats great. Are there many .cas files out in the wild ? I checked my TOSEC Atari collection and despite nearly 12000 files, I only see 50 .cas files. Edit:- Apologies. Directly after posting the above, I just checked the preservation zip and there they are. [cassette] Nicely named. If any seeds are ever needed for the preservation zip, I have 10Mbit upload, so will happily seed.

That looks great. I see Tape: - Does this mean it can load .cas files ?

That has also lasted 40 years, and still going strong. Do you think a flashback will last for 40 years ? Sorry, I love the original too much to care about a cheap imitation that doesn't even look and sound 100% to the original. Not aimed at you, though. I'm happy, you're happy I just prefer the original hardware, and see no gain in going HDMI to a massive LED TV. On a 60" LED TV, the 2600's pixels would be the size of Mug Coasters.

They would have to pay ME, to take a Trashback 8 Gold. Cheap, plastic, toy.

Thanks, I will keep that in mind. Adding a diode, will add a little bit of complexity for me - I'm idiot level, for soldering. I know which end gets hot, but my eyes get tired easily and I can't focus up really close when they're tired. If I can avoid the diode, I will, for now.

Seriously ? Wow, you my friend brought me many memorable days gaming on my A8 XL. I used to collect English Software games, I loved them all. But Jet Boot Jack, was the best.

I like my TI. But the metal occasionally oxidizes over the years, and that is harder to clean up than yellowed plastic. And they're real pigs to take apart, then get back together. When I put mine back together, after a good clean, 2 of those metal lugs holding the metal cover to the plastic, popped out - raising up a part of the metal cover.

There are some with multiple accounts who bid on their own items to up the price. When they "Win" their own auction they relist it, along with the same excuse of "Relisted due to time waster, or fake account". A lot of these are easy to spot because the auction is listed as private, so bidders are kept private. I'm sure there are a lot more dubious things going on, on ebay, but I doubt ebay care. It's going to take a rival auction site to show up, or a mass protest by either sellers or buyers, to get ebay's attention. Until then, this is only going to get worse. Empty boxes, now go for the same price entire systems went for just a few years ago. I avoid things like "Rare", and "L@@k". I also avoid systems, even badly yellowed, packaged in a plastic bag to make it look better than what it is. There are lots of misleading "New Old Stock" adverts, where you can clearly see usage, in the uploaded pictures.

Exactly, mytek. That Piman crap didn't bother me because we have the ability to skip that part. The meat of the video was the project itself, and it seems a bit petty to whine about piman. Looking forward to part 2.

My PC, is overkill. I game at 1080p, and a 1080 GTX + I7 8700k, is overkill - when a 1070 + I5 6500k would be sufficient. But that is irrelevant. I own it because I can afford it. The Ferrari comparison has nothing to do with best PC for the money. It's to do with moaning about COST for something, anything, high-end. Like I said, if you own a Golf GTI, or (like myself) you own a Ford Focus ST II, they're fast cars and do what the Ferrari does, only slower and without the luxury or the brand. But walk into a Ferrari dealer and moan at the salesman because the cost of one of their cars is 1/4 of a million dollars, and that you can get a Golf GTI for 10 times less, is absolutely pointless and irrelevant. I mean, it's pointless in any market. TVs, Cars, Houses, etc... And that brings me back to the original 1994 point. In 1994, the BEST way you could play Doom - Best fidelity, Best FPS, was on a Pentium PC + Monitor + Keyboard + Mouse. And the cost of that is irrelevant BECAUSE you want the BEST. If you want second best, then a 486 DX2 66/100 would have been cheaper. But a 486 was nowhere near the Pentium performance. I know, because I went from a 486 DX2 66 to a Pentium 60. The difference was huge.

Thanks, Farb.

It's none of ebay's business how much you price your hardware, because that leads down a very dangerous path. If I list my car on Autotrader, Autotrader doesn't automatically fill in and tell me what it's worth and what I should be selling it for. Same for Gumtree, and SellMyRetro, they don't tell me what I should be pricing my hardware for. I'm not seeing this. I'm seeing people pay mental prices for common hardware and software. I suspect, the rabid collector who has to have everything will pay whatever the seller wants. The amateur, will pay what they think are the going rates, based on what one or two recently sold for. While the rest, will wait it out and hope something comes up at prices that reflect what they're selling. Obviously, Country to Country, will differ depending on their own markets.

I haven't yet ordered my parts, time permitting, I've just got too much to do yet. But, just to be 100% sure. You ONLY require the diode if you want to daisy-chain other SIO devices ?

But you have proven my point. Moaning about this When, like you said, you can quite easily play any game on modest hardware, is completely irrelevant. Console gamers, the real rabid ones, use this to bash PC gaming. When, in the end, you can just do what you said, here... It's similar to the Xbox One X thread, where someone is moaning about "whats the point of the Xbox One X". Again, irrelevant. I'm sure you'll agree. Because, if you can't afford the X, then just get the One. To moan about the X, is like pissing in a hurricane. It's pointless. So, again, why bash the PC for it's cost, 1994 or today, when you can just play gameX on whatever you can afford. Isn't that the whole point ? I'm not trying to be funny, or annoying. I'm trying to say, why use cost, to bash a system ?

Exactly as it is today. Your point ? Because nothing has changed. People like you still moan at PC prices, and still bring up the cost of playing GameX on SystemX, compared to GameX on SystemY. In 1994, the best way to play Doom was on a high-end PC. The best way to play a budget Doom was on console. Bitching about the price of that high-end 1994 Pentium PC, like I've tried to say, is irrelevant. If you could afford it, you bought it. If you couldn't, you got a console. Bitching about a Pentium PC costing over a £1000, in 1994, is/was irrelevant.

I understand your point. But you don't seem to understand mine. Youtube comments, for example, are worse than Reddit. On PC videos, you often see console gamers moan about the cost of a high-end PC. My whole point is, it's irrelevant because a 4k gaming PC IS going to cost you. A I7 8700k, a Nvidia GTX 1080Ti IS going to cost you. They're driven by market forces, and the market prices are high, especially because of miners. Moaning gets you nowhere, it doesn't magically bring down the cost to a Xbox One. To me, it's used to bash PC gaming. I can afford a high-end PC because I'm paid well. But don't bash me (Not you personally) because I paid 4x the price of a Xbox One because, like I've tried to explain, it's completely irrelevant.

The problem with auctions is that they're so damn random, so BIN items interest me more. Just as a example, I see 3 Sinclair QL computers, all boxed and in similar condition, yet 1 goes for £130 ($168), one goes for £95 ($123), and the last goes for £77 ($100). So do you take the average from all 3 ? Do you go for the most you can get ($168) ? So, I can see why newbies to retro gear get confused. And ebay doesn't help because ebay tries to fill in your price based on what one recently sold for. So, someone finding a QL in their loft will price it for $168 because ebay says it recently sold for $168. This drives up prices, because the next one might sell for $175, and the next for $200.

Then you couldn't afford it, so cost is irrelevant. My point being, moaning on a forum about the cost of the best PC gets you nowhere because, if you want that PC you have to pay for it, end of. Now, if the topic was, "What is the best PC I can get for my money", then cost IS relevant because the PC you get is based on what you can afford. It brings me back to Ferrari. Walking into a Ferrari seller, and moaning about the cost of their cars because you can get a Golf GTI for a lot less, is completely irrelevant The Ferrari being the best PC of 1994, and the Golf being the 32x.