jferio

The TG16, the power adapter connection is actually under the plastic cover that's over the expansion port on the back. If you look at the bottom, there's a panel you can pry up a little, and the whole back should slide right off. The power connector is on the left of the console once you get the cover off, you'll notice a notch in the cover that will allow you to feed the power cord through when you put the cover back on.

Woot, I guess I'll at least be stopping to take a look see this weekend or Monday night. Maybe I'll even see you there, famicommander.

I'd work on sanding the holes, but more to add a 'bevel' to the underside portion... in other words, widen the inside edge of the hole, so that the button doesn't have a good spot to 'grip' there, but try to leave the topside edge of the hole intact. I've noticed this problem with the button design of the 16-bit era AsciiWare sticks, but it varies depending on wear and tear of a particular unit.

I went back to yesterday's thrift to get this one... the store only takes cash, I was low on that, and unwilling to risk the on-site ATM, and I had to see what it was anyway: Genesis Master of Monsters. $3. Loose. I also discovered a recently discovered good game store has opened their second location within a stone's throw of the particular thrift, too.

Interesting few days of thrifting: Xbox Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, sans manual: $5 Atari 2600 Riddle of the Sphinx: $1.50 Sega Genesis Sangokushi III pirate cart: $3 Sega Genesis Tetris pirate card: $3 Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were Rabbit: $3 The Sangokushi cart is in the original Japanese, not the English translation, so I'm not sure I'll actually be able to play it, but it and the Tetris are interesting curiousities, these have to be the first pirate carts I've encountered 'in the wild'.

Nice find on the Imagic Game Center there. Is the lid with it, and intact?

Two finds this week: NES Zapper, earlier gray, with something inky on the cord that I need to clean off: $4 Bandai Pair Match VFD game: $3

Do you have a link to instructions on what to do? I gather it's fairly simple. Here you go. http://khromov.wordpress.com/2010/01/28/dreamcast-battery-replacement-mod-2xaaa/ He soldered the batteries in directly, while I used a battery holder... my personal philosophy is to only desolder and solder a replacement once when I have the option.

I did a fix earlier this month, and it appears to be holding. I just soldered in a battery clip to hold two rechargeable AAA batteries. This is apparently a common fix.

A good thrifting day. Wizard of Wor (2600) Star Wars Jedi Arena (2600) Genesis 6-Pak (Genesis) Earthworm Jim (Genesis) Battletoads Double Dragon (Genesis) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tournament Fighters (Genesis) Vectorman (Genesis) All loose, $3 per cart.

About all I can say is keep plugging at the thrifts, and also keep an eye on the various auction sites and gaming forum marketplace threads. I managed to score one for $3 a couple of years ago, so it is possible.

Two Wico Balltops for $3 each, and Alien Syndrome for the SMS loose for $4.

Given that many of our older examples will probably start getting finicky as the resistors stop, well, resisting and will have to be replaced, yes, one does need to know how to repair. I've warned my friend about that one. Most of the issue with the hard drive is that they tend to 'lock' the motherboard and harddrive together, which prevents you from moving the hard drive, or replacing it, unless you have a method to 'unlock' it. I know the original Xbox can be modchipped to do that, and indeed, that's the only reason I'd even consider doing it. I do consider that the presence of moving parts will mean that the odds of the hardware surviving 30-40 years are less than the cart based systems... although certainly people as dedicated as some of us will find a way to keep these consoles running.

Given that the board has 'USB Cable' where the controller cable goes in, it might potentially be an arcade stick made for the PC that was adapted to the Xbox by the owner. Or, perhaps, it was sold that way, and just came with a breakaway adapter like the Xbox controllers do, with a 'wink wink nudge nudge'. Xbox controllers use a physical variation on the USB specification, and are compatible with PCs when adapted.

This is why I will never, ever buy a disc game again with a label applied to it like that. Too much chance of the monkeys having used permanent labels for me to risk my hard earned money. Thankfully, the one time it's happened, they replaced the disc, but I would prefer not to go through that a second time.

BASIC Programming uses two of them, and any 2600 games using the Kid Controller. Both keypads with BASIC, and the Kid Controller, are wired identically to the Video Touchpad.

No pics for it, but I got N64 Bust a Move 2 Arcade Edition for $5 at one of my favorite thrifts.

I'd be more likely to say that the carts need cleaning. Also, Activision and Imagic carts are a really tight fit in the slot because of the collar (which was made closer to 'spec' than the collar on many 2600s, which tended to be overly large), so that also has an effect on how well the carts work. I went ahead and 'snapped' two corners open on my 7800 so that they fit better and run the first time, every time. Of course, I have a Heavy Sixer, too, so my 7800 tends not to see many 2600 carts anymore.

A pretty good weekend for me, all things considered. Thrifts: Sega Dreamcast controller, $4 Radica Space Invaders TV Game: $4 SegaCD Stellar Fire: $2.50 And at the flea market: NES Rush'N Attack: $4 N64 Cruisin' USA: $3

Both Intellivisions are INTV 1 units. Sorry about that.

All the hardware involved, and the games, are NTSC all the way.

The earlier the console, the more vibrant the colors are. My H6 gives pretty nice saturation that my 7800 in 2600 mode looks... washed out. I did try the mod I did to the Woody on the 7800, and found out that doesn't work with 7800 mode.

I've been working at refurbishing two Intellivoice units for a friend, as well as his own Intellivision. Until I started working on them, his Intellivision and the Intellivoice units were all finicky in terms of working together, even using my console with the Intellivoice units. I've gotten both Intellivoice units working perfectly with my own console, pretty much plug in the unit, then the game, then go, but his Intellivision has a bit of a quirk to it. Basically, I plug in the Intellivoice, plug in the cart, and when I power it up, I have to hit the reset, or hold the reset when flipping the switch and then release, to get it to work. Otherwise, it's a black screen until I do. The console works fine with just the cart and no Intellivoice. With the Intellivoice, quirky even with a non-voice cart. While it works after the reset every time, I'm curious as to what could be wrong. I did try a different power board (but not the transformer) from a 'dead' unit, and verified that the quirk was still present, which implies it's on the main board. If it helps, my serial # is 756952, his is 940666, which may bring in considerations of age and location of manufacture. Thanks in advance.

It's the later shape of case, and IIRC the shielding inside might be lighter, but it should be similar in functionality. Some might have more vibrant colors than others, depending on how late in the run it was before they moved to the cheaper 4-switch design.

The Heavy Sixer tends to have more vibrant colors, although I modified a Woody to give a similar response once I got an H6 to compare it with. A light sixer or a Woody would be easier to modify, though. Ultimately, though, when the mod is installed, it's more a matter of which case style you'd like to have staring back at you, at least if the mod is done properly and the console itself didn't have any deeper issues than the quality of the RF unit inside it. As a note, after I got the H6, the front panel of the Woody looked awfully empty with just four switches on it...