Good_Times Posted July 7, 2017 Share Posted July 7, 2017 Ugh, the 'displays' harken back to those terrible Tiger things from the 90s that basically looked like random flashing black dashes masquerading as games, lol. We've been seeing them at several local places - big Toys r' Us right up the street, multiple Walmarts, Targets, etc. Gimmicky with a cheap feel to them. Pass, thanks. You can bet your ass that the fleas and Goodwills will be swarming with these things before long, though. Can you say plug & play? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki Posted July 7, 2017 Share Posted July 7, 2017 I hate to disparage the Tiger handhelds and their ilk as I do enjoy a select amount of those but my throwing it out there is the fact that it's unacceptable now, specifically because they started with LCD+ripped audio, then did a full color LCD+NOAC w/ROM in a superior cabinet with art all around, then go back to the crappier cheaper style. That's why I'm dumping on it as they pulled the rug out. I actually currently have some Tiger handhelds and like them in spurts -- Castlevania 2, Karnov, Sub War, Baseball, and Mega Man 2 -- if it doesn't sell on ebay also Double Dragon 3. I'd still like to get Gauntlet back in my hands eventually, and I do recall that Ninja Gaiden was decent but let that one slip. I had pinball it was atrocious, made me wish I still had the Game & Watch. Funny thing I've never seen one of those first gen Pacman/Space Invader lcd+audio rip devices at any form of thrift of flea market in this area. I'd actually buy them knowing I could get it there or talk it down to like $5 which I'd think they're about worth or so ($10 pushing it tops.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glen's Retro Show Posted July 11, 2017 Share Posted July 11, 2017 I did just that.. Glen Glen's Retro Show On YouTube Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki Posted July 11, 2017 Share Posted July 11, 2017 I wish I could do that work. I'd get a 2nd Centipede since the stick is left, 2 buttons on the right. Throw a nice pi in that, sand out the + shape of the joystick well for full motion games like Galaga, and go with that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glen's Retro Show Posted July 11, 2017 Share Posted July 11, 2017 Walmart tutorials above will work with pretty much anything why not give it a try you might surprise yourself and make a cool little gaming system out of it:-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki Posted July 11, 2017 Share Posted July 11, 2017 I'll watch it, but just so you know I'm not comfortable at all with trying to code/load stuff on android outside of sideloading stuff on my tablet or transferring files over so I can mess with my neo geo games on there. Soldering I can deal with large (genesis sized) rom chip swaps off boards, battery replacements GBA sized shells and up to the Dreamcast internal, and then random wires in stuff from Tiger like handhelds of the 80s to large ones inside a pinball table/arcade cabinet. Tiny stuff I can't do, hands shake and always have a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glen's Retro Show Posted July 11, 2017 Share Posted July 11, 2017 Well Tanooki you will be in luck. The 3rd and final part of my basic fun series will show you step by step how to get the code going..should be up very soon ? Glen, Glen's Retro Show Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki Posted July 11, 2017 Share Posted July 11, 2017 Watching that first video, I can't get solder small enough consistently with my hand as you did placing those small wires to specific pins on that LCD screen back pins. If it gets even finer than that later I'd be better off paying someone with your capabilities to do something that fantastic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glen's Retro Show Posted July 11, 2017 Share Posted July 11, 2017 Although I did solder...(prototypes after all ?) I did so because I was unsure on space. You could add the 40pin header and use quick connects. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Akito01 Posted July 22, 2017 Share Posted July 22, 2017 I'm sorry I didn't get any pics, but I was in Walmart today and they had the revamp of Pac-Man for sale. Strangely, it was given the number 7 in their series -I assume Asteroids and Frogger are 5 and 6 (surely they aren't on sale yet?) I was excited at first, because the exterior cabinet design is the same as the good versions of Centipede and Qbert. Turning it on, however, it proved that be a lit color version of the previous LCD one. Given that they decided to go that route, I'm sorry they didn't mimic the exact design of the old Coleco tabletop because it looks very similar at a glance and that might have been enough for me to buy one. I may still do another time, because despite how it plays, it makes for a nicer display piece with the better cabinet design. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iesposta Posted July 23, 2017 Share Posted July 23, 2017 I'm sorry I didn't get any pics, but I was in Walmart today and they had the revamp of Pac-Man for sale. Strangely, it was given the number 7 in their series -I assume Asteroids and Frogger are 5 and 6 (surely they aren't on sale yet?) I was excited at first, because the exterior cabinet design is the same as the good versions of Centipede and Qbert. Turning it on, however, it proved that be a lit color version of the previous LCD one. Given that they decided to go that route, I'm sorry they didn't mimic the exact design of the old Coleco tabletop because it looks very similar at a glance and that might have been enough for me to buy one. I may still do another time, because despite how it plays, it makes for a nicer display piece with the better cabinet design. This story just gets more and more strange! Walmart was to have the LCD full color TV display, while every other store gets the Color Segmented cheap hardware. I hope it is just because Pac-Man and Space Invaders were never planned to get a TV, emulator, ROM, and Walmart wants to make money by selling what other stores sell - be it the same model along with onees that have better hardware. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki Posted July 23, 2017 Share Posted July 23, 2017 (edited) We got us a scooby doo mystery going on here and that's what it is. Just wish we could cut to the chase and pull the mask off for the guilty party. That reminds me, same friend who notified me of the SNES mini unicorn preorder 24hours ago, he said he saw the same with both SI and PM in that color VFD style too. So it's out there. Edited July 23, 2017 by Tanooki 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ComputerSpaceFan Posted July 25, 2017 Share Posted July 25, 2017 Well I think I see the first photo of the "demake" Q-Bert unit now. There's one on eBay and the photo shows an etched grid physically on the screen which indicates to me it's now some kind of LCD and not that glorious active display we used to get. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted July 25, 2017 Share Posted July 25, 2017 I actually like the old segmented LCD games, but that's probably because I grew up with Tiger and Game-N-Watch. Pacman and Space Invaders were fun... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glen's Retro Show Posted July 25, 2017 Share Posted July 25, 2017 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki Posted July 25, 2017 Share Posted July 25, 2017 Kosmic I do too, but my annoyance is them cheaping out after going on about their #3 and #4 units (Centipede and Q-Bert) with a real screen and how better it was, then they decided to cut corners and go back to the Coleco era VFD look like style units instead to save some money. They cheaped out. And yes that Q-Bert redo is more in line with the old MB Q-Bert tabletop from around 1982-83 (I used to have one.) I'd buy that in a heartbeat had the NOAC never existed. The Frogger they have going looked more like a ripoff of the Excalibur Games de-make from a decade ago which was Coleco style among others (they went with like 4-5 handheld frames in all with it.) I'm not saying I wouldn't buy the Frogger one, but I have the better q-bert (NES hack) so it makes it very hard to justify the downgrade. I don't think it's worth $16, probably $10 tops to me personally. Like the above video I question what they're going to do to handle Asteroids as that's rarely been tried using a non legit screen. I've seen the Asteroid LCD game from a decade ago in another mini-arcade cab and it was awful. See for yourself -- it's like Galaga but dumb and with falling rocks. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Osgeld Posted July 25, 2017 Share Posted July 25, 2017 what you gotta do is have multiple layers of crappy LCD screens to cover every spot and rotation of the ship and rocks sounds cost effective to me 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki Posted July 25, 2017 Share Posted July 25, 2017 You know that's not a bad idea. It's not like the original Asteroid had a smooth rotation to it exactly either. If you had enough panels where the rocks were everywhere and slightly overlapping to properly better simulate motion and explosion, then even if need be just kept a centric or fairly (say a little off center for movement) centric ship that could rotate at least 8 ways that wouldn't be so bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrBeefy Posted July 26, 2017 Share Posted July 26, 2017 Walmart where I'm at has a colored Pac man one that is in the same style as the fist black and green one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glen's Retro Show Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Great Hierophant Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 I bought the original Basic Fun Pac-Man and was not very impressed by its joystick, so I can only imagine the horror of this thing. Otherwise the screen is a huge improvement over the original and the newer bezels are much nicer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glen's Retro Show Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 (edited) The joystick totally ruins the playability of this and that's a shame as the screen is an improvement..so I may have to hack the new screen to an old unit..as the joystick in the old unit is tons better.. Edited July 30, 2017 by Glen's Retro Show Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ONLYUSEmeFEET Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 I actually like the old segmented LCD games, but that's probably because I grew up with Tiger and Game-N-Watch. Pacman and Space Invaders were fun... Same. I'm more interested in the VFD handhelds than the ones running emulated ROMs. I already have a great emulation setup that plays NES Q-Bert and 7800 Centipede with more features than their handheld counterparts. I REALLY wish customizable controls were left in Q-Bert. The VFD games are unique and in my opinion, have the better aesthetic. I doubt emulated versions of these will be coming out any time soon, and regardless, they're not going to look better than on a real unit. I know Coleco Pac-Man and Donkey Kong look better on the real deal. I did end up with everything in this series except either Pac-Man (still looking for Color), but I'll say that VFD Frogger is definitely my favorite release at this point. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+-^CrossBow^- Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 I own the newer Frogger release that is in the blister pack. The VFD like screen is nice, but the graphics and especially the sound aren't even close to being right. I preferred they had just mimicked the coleco VFD graphics or something vs what they actually look like. Also the audio is pretty off putting. Some of the tunes sound almost correct but the key or pitch is off on most of them. And the biggest flaw...? No female frog to take home with you in this version. Even the 2600 version had that and they could have just emulated that or used those graphics instead and it would have been better. Oh well... I'm still on the fence about looking for and getting the newer Pac-Man release as I already have the original one that was released last year in both the blister pack and cardboard box releases. Same with SI. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBerel Posted August 10, 2017 Share Posted August 10, 2017 Walmart where I'm at has a colored Pac man one that is in the same style as the fist black and green one. Wait....are there color pacman mini arcade cabinets out now??? Are these LED, LCD??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.