Pixelboy

Awesome list Shag! Let's see now... My best friend bought the japanese version of Street Fighter II on SNES for rought 200$US because he couldn't wait 3-4 months for the US version. Well, anyone can look that up, you know... I never beat it, but my best friend had the game and could beat it within 20 minutes, without breaking much of a sweat. (Well, okay, some of the bosses gave him some trouble). Would Nintendo really had gone a different path if Yamauchi had stayed? I have to wonder... Well, most of them do mean something to me. I bought a Game Gear just for Mega Man, back when I was collecting all versions of the Blue Bomber games under the sun. Stupidest. Purchase. Ever. Well, I for one will not buy the Nintendo DS until a 2D Metroid game is released for it. I generally prefer 2D over 3D. Call me old-fashioned. I don't own one (I'd have no place to put it), but I would love to own a generic MAME cabinet, even though I may not play with it all that much... That's me alright... I enjoyed it very much!

To me, there's a difference between a long-time gamer and a "connaisseur". A connaisseur has three distinctive characteristics: 1) He/she knows the history of video games, not only in terms of the general time line, but also in terms of geography (North America, Japan, UK, France, Russia, etc.) 2) He/she has a wide-range of gaming tastes, and finds good in vintage games as much as in current-generation products (and everything in between). 3) He/she has played enough games on different platforms to be able to make a valid criticism of any game, with arguments based on his/her gaming experience. He/she should also know the value of games, based on such criteria as rarity and popularity. Any gamer can have one or two of the characteristics above, but a connaisseurs needs to have all three in abundance. If you want to meet some connaisseurs, you might want to visit the offices of gaming publications like EGM, Retro Gamer, etc. Some of the people who work there really know their stuff.

Which means it probably has the hole in question. Thanks!

Is it possible to use Coleco's Perma-Power Battery Adapter (the adapter used to replace batteries in Coleco's Table Top Arcade games like Pac-Man, Galaxian, Frogger, etc.) in the ColecoVision steering wheel expansion module? More to the point, is there a hole in the battery cover for the wire to go through?

Any chance you'll offer custom ColecoVision labels in the forseeable future? It would be nice, because I may be in a position to need such labels one day... Of course, finding CV plastic cartridge casings might be another challenge altogether, since I can't imagine violating commercial carts...

Okay, I've got a buyer! (Thanks again, classics!)

Greetings all. There's an item on eBay I want, namely the manual for Smurfs Paint and Play Workshop for ColecoVision (click here to see it), but the seller is being a real pain (won't ship to Canada and won't accept a money order). Could someone here who lives in the US and has a Paypal account buy this for me on eBay? I would then send the payment to this person using either a bank money order in US funds (drawn on a US bank) or a canadian postal money order in US funds, whichever is prefered. If you want to help, please send me a PM before you buy the item on eBay. If more than one person contacts me, I will make an arbitrary choice. NOTE: I'll be away from my computer for most of today, but I'll answer all messages as soon as I get back.

I don't want to sound bad or anything, but you obviously haven't looked very hard. Just use Google with the keywords "Cloak Dagger Atari" and your answers will be found by clicking the first link Google gives you.

I guess now is a good time to submit this story to slashdot.org...

Definately a problem right there... Your SNES works fine with other carts?

I wasn't into the VCS much during the pre-NES era (I was a ColecoVision fan for the most part), and the NES introduced me to my two beloved game series: Mega Man and Metroid! So my vote goes to the NES.

No, but I don't think it's a rare game in the UK/Europe. You can play all UK releases on your CV. Telegames used to sell it and ADAM's House/ecoleco still do. 1017128[/snapback] But if it's a Europe-only release, then it must be a PAL game. Do PAL CV games play correctly on american CV consoles? I've heard elsewhere that they don't...

Hard to say, are there any bank switched roms over 32k even available now? You can switch between banks while the cartridge is running, so its possible to use all 127 free banks for one game, but the cartridge has its own bank switching scheme. I was able to adapt Bryan's 64k M.U.L.E. conversion for the 5200 into a two bank entry for the 5200 version of the cartridge, so it might be possible. Hard to guess what will be done with future titles right now. 1016404[/snapback] You might want to compare notes with Opcode. If the bankswitching PCB prototype he's using for Pac-Man Collection is too different from you cart's, then perhaps two different bankswitching schemes can be devised and documented for the benefit of homebrew developers. For one thing, your USB cart seems like it would be very useful for certain types of games, like Bruce Tomlin's RPG project.

Well, first of all, opcode just released Magical Tree for the CV, with professional-looking box, manual and cart, so I think he should get praise for that instead of quibbles about Pac-Man Collection... Besides, as I mentionned in another thread, Pac-Man Collection requires a special PCB that allows CV games to go over the 32K limit, so even if the software gets completed soon, manufacturing the carts could be a bit more challenging for Eduardo than for his past games, let alone the box and manual. We'll just have to be patient. It will certainly be worth the wait!

You only accept payments through Paypal? Hmmm... Could you be persuaded to accept a money order in US funds, drawn on a US bank?

Yep, it definately is, although the main problem with PMC is the use of a special bankswitching PCB, because the ROM goes over the 32K limit. It's a fairly new PCB design, still at the prototype stage, and mass-producing this new piece of hardware might be more challenging for Eduardo than for his past CV projects. I'm not too worried though, things are coming along nicely, but it might still take a while even if Eduardo finalizes the software side of things.

I rented Goonies II a long time ago with a friend, and we both had a lot of fun with it, although you really have to invest a lot of time into exploring every nook and cranny. There's a password system for a reason, you know. I don't recall if we managed to finish it before we took it back to the video rental store, but I do remember getting pretty deep into it. I've always liked exploration games, and Goonies II was a fun one, albeit a bit confusing at times. One of these days, I'll have to play that game again. That and Legacy of the Wizard as well...

Welcome to the wonderful world of classic console homebrew programming, a world of great promise, but mostly sweat, tears, money spent... and a lot of lessons learned along the way. You first step will be to find documentation about the console system you're interested in. The Atari 5200 is as good a choice as any, unless of course you're masochistic enough to tackle Atari 2600 programming. I don't know what kind of background you have in computer programming, but if you don't know a whole lot about low-level assembly language, it's going to be a bumpy ride any way you look at it. Once you find the technical documentation (and understand it), the next step will be to seach the internet for existing development tools (compilers, etc.), and at the same time, you'll want to look for people who have already faced the challenges which are ahead of you. You'll find them here, on this forum, but also in dedicated newsgroups and similar places. Just one piece of advice: Trying to go as far as you can with as little assistance as possible is not the way to go. Make friends first, and show them you're serious by building some technical demos to get to know your target hardware, and never hesitate to ask for advice, because as you will find out, technical documentation has a way of answering every question, except the questions you really need immediate answers for. Good luck, soldier!

I don't know what your multi-cart looks like or if it comes with a USB cable (I'm guessing you have to download the software), but I would go with a simple plastic bag, the thick plastic kind which can be opened and closed like a ZipLock bag. Just apply an "official company sticker" on the bag and you've got something that will be much more useful, durable and cheaper than a cardboard box. Just my 0.02$. P.S.: So you're only producing 100 of these wonderful little things? Is it possible to place an order in advance? To maximize your return on investment, you might want to sell a few on eBay... EDIT: It seems I misread your post: You would only be producing 100 of them with a box. Okay, well, my suggestion above still stands anyway.

Thanks a lot for the info. I'll go to bed a little less stupid tonight.

Is that 1 megabit (128K) or 1 megabyte (1024K)? Either way, that's pretty impressive, especially if the basic CV hardware can work with this bankswitching scheme without any additional hardware support. If such bankswitching PCBs could be produced cheaply, think how cool it would be if we supported this PCB in BasicVision. Homebrew CV programmers could go wild!

I believe congratulations are in order! The whole package (cart/manual/box) looks absolutely fabulous! Great job!

So I'm guessing you just unplug the EPROM from the PCB and plug it in the burner when you want to reprogram it, right? Sounds easy enough, although I think the term "burner" is somewhat misleading for uninitiated guys like me. It sounds like a write-once device. And what's this I see in the AtariAge store about PCB boards with "sockets"? What is this "socket" used for?

He's still around. You know Eduardo, when he focuses on a job, he really focuses!

Yeah, opcode is well aware of it.