+sixersfan105 Posted May 28, 2020 Share Posted May 28, 2020 Sooooo I bought a Nuon player! My first one ever. I opted for the Toshiba SD-2300 because, after a little research, it sounded like it has a better track record after 20 years. All I hear about the Samsung N501 is that they've been breaking on everyone right and left, and *sometimes* it's as "simple" as replacing the disc drive itself with a donor but other times not so much. While playing homebrew would have been cool, I'll take a well-built system over some extra homebrew goodies any day. In any event, the Toshiba SD-2300 is on its way to me now; should have it by Saturday. It appears to be in great shape and has been tested and comes with the original remote, too. No Nuon controllers, of course. If anyone has a spare HPI Stealth controller, I think that's the one at the top of my wishlist, with the Logitech not far behind. Would rather have an analog stick than to go the route of a digital-only Samsung/HPI Warrior gamepad. I did read that the remote can be used to somewhat awkwardly play some of the games, most notably Tempest 3000, Merlin Racing and Freefall 3050 A.D. (at least their respective manuals make reference to the remote being compatible). Do other games work with the remote, too? I came across a firmware update for the SD-2300 on Nuon-Dome. For those that have this Nuon player, does the firmware update offer anything significant? Any downsides to installing the update? Also, I have read that while the Toshiba cannot play homebrew, it can play DVD-Rs just fine. Any special trick to get DVD-Rs with game images to play nicely with the player or does it just "work?" Think those are all of my questions at the moment. Looking forward to dipping into the Nuon scene! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctorclu Posted May 28, 2020 Author Share Posted May 28, 2020 7 hours ago, toxie said: As i pretty much hit a brick wall with these weird hangs/crashes on Merlin Racing and Tempest 3000, here the current status/release: https://sourceforge.net/projects/nuance-nuon-emulator/files/Nuance_060.zip/download Please read the Demo/GameCompatibility.txt (especially for the workarounds for Tempest 3000 to make it work a bit more reliably) and the readme.txt for the keyboard mappings. And of course, this is all done in honour of the original author of Nuance, Mike Perry! I mainly continued all of this to not let this great piece of technology of him bitrot even more. I love what you've done on it. Maybe you just need to take a break and try something else. Maybe see is the controls can be improved in the Atari 800 emulator? You get that working we might have MULE and Return of Heracles for the Nuon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctorclu Posted May 28, 2020 Author Share Posted May 28, 2020 12 minutes ago, sixersfan105 said: Also, I have read that while the Toshiba cannot play homebrew, it can play DVD-Rs just fine. Any special trick to get DVD-Rs with game images to play nicely with the player or does it just "work?" Think those are all of my questions at the moment. Looking forward to dipping into the Nuon scene! Welcome! As far as I know, no way to encrypt games to work as DVDs currently. Wish there was. And the Nuon 2300 is probably one of the most rock solid Nuon machines too. I have one, and use it for the regular releases. (oh yeh, DVD-R copies of the original releases do work on the Nuon 2300 BTW) Primarily play the 2300 to save my n501 Nuons. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted May 29, 2020 Share Posted May 29, 2020 7 hours ago, Stephen said: 10 hours ago, toxie said: As i pretty much hit a brick wall with these weird hangs/crashes on Merlin Racing and Tempest 3000, here the current status/release: https://sourceforge.net/projects/nuance-nuon-emulator/files/Nuance_060.zip/download Please read the Demo/GameCompatibility.txt (especially for the workarounds for Tempest 3000 to make it work a bit more reliably) and the readme.txt for the keyboard mappings. And of course, this is all done in honour of the original author of Nuance, Mike Perry! I mainly continued all of this to not let this great piece of technology of him bitrot even more. Awesome! I'll try to check this out this evening. I tried this new version tonight. Only file I have on my PC is my shitty Breakout demo and it would not work. It seems if I repeatedly clicked the Display Status and MPE Status buttons it would "kick" the display window into updating, but I could not get any controller response. I reverted to my previous version 0.51 of Nuance and it worked, but the video was all screwed up (wrong colours). I will try to make time to diagnose some more this weekend. Work has been kicking my backside lately, and it's also my mom's b-day this weekend so I can't guarantee anything. System specs are fairly decent - Intel core i-7 4770k, 16GB RAM, NVidia GTX 1080 vid card, Windows 7. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toxie Posted May 29, 2020 Share Posted May 29, 2020 Very weird. So far i tested 3 setups (2 mid range laptops, 1 highend desktop), all did work well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Austin Posted June 1, 2020 Share Posted June 1, 2020 On 5/28/2020 at 7:07 PM, sixersfan105 said: Also, I have read that while the Toshiba cannot play homebrew, it can play DVD-Rs just fine. Any special trick to get DVD-Rs with game images to play nicely with the player or does it just "work?" Think those are all of my questions at the moment. Looking forward to dipping into the Nuon scene! Really? I did not know this. I parted with my games recently but still have the system. I'd be interested in knowing more. As far as the remote you mentioned, it should work with every game. "Work", of course. It's a terrible experience, but at least you can *sort of* get a taste of the games with it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctorclu Posted June 1, 2020 Author Share Posted June 1, 2020 On 5/28/2020 at 8:54 PM, Stephen said: I tried this new version tonight. Only file I have on my PC is my shitty Breakout demo and it would not work.... System specs are fairly decent - Intel core i-7 4770k, 16GB RAM, NVidia GTX 1080 vid card, Windows 7. On 5/29/2020 at 11:03 AM, toxie said: Very weird. So far i tested 3 setups (2 mid range laptops, 1 highend desktop), all did work well. Toxie, what would you call "midrange"? And you just might have some features installed that Stephen does not. 2 hours ago, Austin said: Really? I did not know this. I parted with my games recently but still have the system. I'd be interested in knowing more. As far as the remote you mentioned, it should work with every game. "Work", of course. It's a terrible experience, but at least you can *sort of* get a taste of the games with it. Well for starters, there is the glorious archive link... https://archive.org/details/Nuon_dumps I downloaded the Merlin Racing.zip file, which expands to a Merlin Racing.mdf and Merlin Racing.mds... not familiar with those formats. Anyway, you can take the original disc on the Mac, read it, create a .iso file and then burn to DVD-R recreating the .iso. A great way of preserving your original. And there is probably a way to recreate a disc from what is on the internet archive, but haven't played with that yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toxie Posted June 2, 2020 Share Posted June 2, 2020 There are no really fancy features needed: Its simple SSE2 CPU code (which every PC out there nowadays should have, and otherwise the application should crash anyway) and simple OpenGL code, so also nothing fancy needed. As for the dumps: Its enough to just decompress these files (or mount them to a virtual DVD drive and then copy from there) and put the Nuon folder from there (i think that was what it was called) somewhere on your HDD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sixersfan105 Posted June 12, 2020 Share Posted June 12, 2020 On 5/31/2020 at 11:19 PM, doctorclu said: Well for starters, there is the glorious archive link... https://archive.org/details/Nuon_dumps I downloaded the Merlin Racing.zip file, which expands to a Merlin Racing.mdf and Merlin Racing.mds... not familiar with those formats. I have had some success changing the .mdf extension to .iso and then burning that to disc for use in my Toshiba SD-2300. I say "some success" because it can take a few tries sometimes to successfully load in the Toshiba, and sometimes even when the game(s) successfully load(s), they will occasionally freeze during a play session, but it's possible that has more to do with the quality of the DVD-R than anything else. So far I've only tried the games on the Windata discs that I had on-hand. May try purchasing some Verbatim DVD-R AZO discs, as I've heard that AZO dye plays nicest with DVD players in general...I have NOT had success with the Space Invaders XL file from the above link. Tempest 3000, Merlin Racing and Ballistic have all worked thus far, and I will report back shortly on Freefall and Iron Soldier 3. Edit: I was able to successfully play Freefall and watched the entire quite impressive Iron Soldier 3 intro, and then no subsequent screen loaded. The Toshiba also started making strange noises after that and hasn't been able to load another disc (including regular DVDs) since. I think the DVD-Rs tired it out; I hope for better luck tomorrow. If not, I may be in the market for a new player lol @Austin I hope the above is helpful for you, too! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sixersfan105 Posted June 18, 2020 Share Posted June 18, 2020 I scored a like-new Logitech NUON controller complete in box! $100 plus shipping from a guy I met in the comments section of a NUON player review on YouTube. Woo hoo! Sure beats $500 on eBay which is obviously not worth it. Now I'm just waiting on a replacement Toshiba SD-2300 (my initial one died after two days in my possession) as well as a Samsung N501 that's headed my way. This is evidence that there are good people out there and that those of you looking for a controller at a decent price have hope yet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrazyChris Posted June 21, 2020 Share Posted June 21, 2020 Wonder if a controller adapter could be made for the NUON? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sixersfan105 Posted June 21, 2020 Share Posted June 21, 2020 2 hours ago, CrazyChris said: Wonder if a controller adapter could be made for the NUON? It's my understanding this is impossible due to a proprietary chip required on NUON controllers that speaks with the system BIOS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eltoozero Posted June 21, 2020 Share Posted June 21, 2020 Sorry for the lack of updates guys; I’ve still got the junk to make more Yak Twisters, just been stuck on other projects and priorities. I’ve got precious little time to hack on it, but I’ll get to it. To all those that have emailed inquiries, sorry for the lack of replies, I do have your messages filed away and when I have a fresh stock of units I’ll be reaching out. The fresh revision will be somewhat easier to adapt into a non-rotary controller, that’s why I’m not just producing more of the initial version. For now, please be patient. 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sixersfan105 Posted June 21, 2020 Share Posted June 21, 2020 Very exciting stuff, @eltoozero. Thank you!! Looking forward to further updates Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeefMan Posted June 28, 2020 Share Posted June 28, 2020 Hi guys, it’s been awhile! So I got my hands on an N505 and was able to add controller ports scavenged from an N501. Was really hoping to see some kind of performance bump with the N505 having the faster Aries 3 but it seems to run exactly the same as the N501. Even with the Aries 3 version of Doom it plays just as poorly as the N501. I do have an RCA DRC300N and the Aries 3 version of Doom flies, unfortunately there is no way I know of to attach a controller to this system or play commercial games. You’d think Doom would play the same between these two systems, the N505 and DRC300N, both having the Aries 3. The firmware must be gimped on the N505. Would really like to know if the N504 performs any better or is it gimped just the same? Ive also ordered a 54 MHz crystal to swap out with the 27 MHz stock crystal to see if I can overclock the N505 to the full 108 MHz the Aries 3 has to offer. Looking forward to trying out the latest version of nuance and maybe one day getting a rotary built! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sixersfan105 Posted June 28, 2020 Share Posted June 28, 2020 Thanks for sharing, @BeefMan. Sounds like you've been having some fun tinkering! That's very surprising to hear about the Aries 3 chip not showing any boost in performance on the N505. Is the resolution increase on the VLM noticeable? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeefMan Posted June 28, 2020 Share Posted June 28, 2020 7 hours ago, sixersfan105 said: Thanks for sharing, @BeefMan. Sounds like you've been having some fun tinkering! That's very surprising to hear about the Aries 3 chip not showing any boost in performance on the N505. Is the resolution increase on the VLM noticeable? Sadly the N501 and N505 appear to have the same VLM resolution. The DRC300N appears to have the higher resolution but not the same number of effects. Spoiler Spoiler Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeefMan Posted June 28, 2020 Share Posted June 28, 2020 Does anyone remember what the firmware update did for the SD-2300? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sixersfan105 Posted June 28, 2020 Share Posted June 28, 2020 2 hours ago, BeefMan said: Sadly the N501 and N505 appear to have the same VLM resolution. Hmm, which would further your suspicion that something is holding back the Aries 3 in the N505. 24 minutes ago, BeefMan said: Does anyone remember what the firmware update did for the SD-2300? Of course I can't find the source now but I had previously read it mainly had to do with audio quality and audio syncing. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted June 28, 2020 Share Posted June 28, 2020 13 hours ago, BeefMan said: Hi guys, it’s been awhile! So I got my hands on an N505 and was able to add controller ports scavenged from an N501. Was really hoping to see some kind of performance bump with the N505 having the faster Aries 3 but it seems to run exactly the same as the N501. Even with the Aries 3 version of Doom it plays just as poorly as the N501. I do have an RCA DRC300N and the Aries 3 version of Doom flies, unfortunately there is no way I know of to attach a controller to this system or play commercial games. You’d think Doom would play the same between these two systems, the N505 and DRC300N, both having the Aries 3. The firmware must be gimped on the N505. Would really like to know if the N504 performs any better or is it gimped just the same? Ive also ordered a 54 MHz crystal to swap out with the 27 MHz stock crystal to see if I can overclock the N505 to the full 108 MHz the Aries 3 has to offer. Looking forward to trying out the latest version of nuance and maybe one day getting a rotary built! Been ages since I touched anything Nuon related. I think that the Aries 3 had to be coded to run in double speed mode. But, this wouldn't make sense that the VLM is not looking better - it was definitely advertised to do so. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeefMan Posted June 28, 2020 Share Posted June 28, 2020 Actually the DRC300N might have the same number of effects of the Samsung units but it randomly cycles through them with no way to manually select. The effects are def high res and smoother frame rate. The NUON VLM is quite nice looking, especially the liquid effects. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeefMan Posted June 28, 2020 Share Posted June 28, 2020 More shots from DRC300N VLM 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeefMan Posted June 28, 2020 Share Posted June 28, 2020 Here’s a shot of the four machines I have. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sixersfan105 Posted June 28, 2020 Share Posted June 28, 2020 I will say that of the three NUON remotes that I've used (the Samsung Extiva N2000, the Toshiba SD-2300 and the Samsung N501 (N504 and 505 have the same remote as the N501)), the Toshiba remote has by far the smoothest analog stick. It doesn't necessarily making game playing any more enjoyable, but the stick itself is smooth as butter. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeefMan Posted June 28, 2020 Share Posted June 28, 2020 1 hour ago, sixersfan105 said: I will say that of the three NUON remotes that I've used (the Samsung Extiva N2000, the Toshiba SD-2300 and the Samsung N501 (N504 and 505 have the same remote as the N501)), the Toshiba remote has by far the smoothest analog stick. It doesn't necessarily making game playing any more enjoyable, but the stick itself is smooth as butter. I would agree. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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