Ashevent Posted October 28, 2019 Share Posted October 28, 2019 14 hours ago, e5frog said: Should be great for the collection and if you have a Multi-Cart and don't need to play the real ones. Hardcore collectors use resin... Would have been fun to fake a Democart 2 and put it in a resin block... I love that the protectors I have just open up to get the games out but resin blocks would look nicer hmm...lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikebloke Posted November 3, 2019 Share Posted November 3, 2019 Whats a reasonable price for slot machine without box but with instructions? There is one going on ebay for $130, which is £100, but then theres import tax and shipping which would up it to about £150 for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sneakyturtleegg Posted November 4, 2019 Share Posted November 4, 2019 (edited) As a kid in the early 80's, my father found a deal on a Fairchild Channel F and gave it to my cousins for Christmas one year. Over the years, I remember going over to their house and playing Alien Invasion and Galactic Space Wars the most. Having memories of playing this system, I ended up buying an Analogue NT Mini in 2017. It is a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) based gaming system that has cores for 18 different 8-bit systems, including the Channel F. The NT Mini was developed by Kevin Horton (Kevtris) and all of his FPGA cores represent their respective systems pretty close to 100%, warts and all. It is not software emulation, but more like hardware emulation. The Analogue NT Mini Channel F FPGA core allows roms to be played off of a SD card. It does have NES and Famicom cartridge slots. Adapters could be made to play the original Channel F cartridges, as long as the pins were properly mapped. I play these old systems/cores on a late model CRT television via component video. It does outputs both digital HDMI and analogue video signals (RGB, component, s-video, and composite). The NT Mini has (4) NES controller ports on the front. I have a Super Nintendo controller hooked up to the system with a Raphnet NES to SNES adapter. All of the Channel F controls and buttons are mapped to it. The core does support the Japanese Nintendo NTT Data controllers which have number pads on them. I just thought it was worth sharing with the Channel F community. It might be something that some of you were not aware of. The Channel F hardware seems to be well preserved in Kevtris' FPGA core. Edited November 4, 2019 by Sneakyturtleegg 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e5frog Posted November 4, 2019 Share Posted November 4, 2019 Cool. I was wondering what he was going to use that core for, the thread about it kind of died out. If it's FPGA it's still based on software being programmed into it. Don't really know what would qualify as "hardware emulation". If I had a single write SD card with an emulator on it, would it be hardware emulation? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sneakyturtleegg Posted November 4, 2019 Share Posted November 4, 2019 (edited) It is all some form of "emulation." Split the hair however you want. I'm not a programmer. I do know the way the FPGA is being used is different than running an emulator on multiple layers of an operating system on a PC, a tablet or a Phone. I'm just trying to share something about the obscure Channel F system that we all seem to enjoy. Edited November 4, 2019 by Sneakyturtleegg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikebloke Posted November 4, 2019 Share Posted November 4, 2019 Every year I do find it harder to justify having real hardware instead of emulation. I'm starting to go the way of FPGA as an alternative to pure emulation on a pc, and even better if it allows loading from a real cartridge. The realistic nature of this is of course that it just sucks the data out the cart and treat it like a regular ROM on an emulator but the feeling is there at least. I have the Retron 77 now and I'd be open to looking at others in the future. For many people, I imagine these emulation boxes are an affordable way of keeping an interest in the retro scene. Not everyone has understandable partners who allow such mess in their house! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e5frog Posted November 4, 2019 Share Posted November 4, 2019 3 hours ago, Sneakyturtleegg said: ... Split the hair however you want. ... I'm just trying to share something about the obscure Channel F system that we all seem to enjoy. No critique to you, I was merely thinking about the term "hardware emulation", Kevtris makes fantastic equipment. About $500 (or whatever) and a lot less space than having all those machines also a quick and easy way to load up new games, seems like an option for any Channel F gamer (or the other ones). If you don't have the money and even less space, running MESS/MAME on the computer you already have (mine's almost 15 years) is an option. That's my main tool when writing software for retro gaming machines. With a joystick adapter and image on TV it's almost like the real deal apart from experiencing the original hardware. If you want to get hold of an original stick, I have a few. Quickest way would be to install a 9pin DSUB connector in your 4 button controller and plug it in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sneakyturtleegg Posted November 4, 2019 Share Posted November 4, 2019 (edited) 3 hours ago, Mikebloke said: Every year I do find it harder to justify having real hardware instead of emulation. I'm starting to go the way of FPGA as an alternative to pure emulation on a pc, and even better if it allows loading from a real cartridge. The realistic nature of this is of course that it just sucks the data out the cart and treat it like a regular ROM on an emulator but the feeling is there at least. I have the Retron 77 now and I'd be open to looking at others in the future. For many people, I imagine these emulation boxes are an affordable way of keeping an interest in the retro scene. Not everyone has understandable partners who allow such mess in their house! I agree. I also have a Retron 77. What the Stella devs and the community did with that is amazing. Unfortunately the stock release of the Retron 77 was a Hyperkin turd. The Stella devs almost had to update and "fix" the Retron 77 for the sake of Stella's reputation. I also began consolidating my collections and selling some things off. Its unbelievable how much space my retro stuff takes up! 1 hour ago, e5frog said: If you don't have the money and even less space, running MESS/MAME on the computer you already have (mine's almost 15 years) is an option. That's my main tool when writing software for retro gaming machines. With a joystick adapter and image on TV it's almost like the real deal apart from experiencing the original hardware. No doubt, the long term survival of our beloved retro systems, especially the obscure ones, is in the hands of people like you. I have some systems emulated on my PC, but if possible, I like having some form of specialized emulation box hooked to my television if possible. That seems to be the trend in our hobby recently, but I would say it is still in its infancy. I lucked into the NT Mini. The old pre-NES systems is what sold me on it. It was fairly expensive upon release at $400 and I wavered a bit initially. I did end up selling a few NES and SNES games to get it. I'm glad I did. The aftermarket for it on ebay is ridiculous at this point. Edited November 4, 2019 by Sneakyturtleegg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S.BAZ Posted November 7, 2019 Share Posted November 7, 2019 Does anyone know where I can read the instructions for Dodge It? I'm trying to find what are the different game variations for that, to add them to highscore.com! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e5frog Posted November 7, 2019 Share Posted November 7, 2019 Yes. Check the gallery on channelf.se Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted November 11, 2019 Author Share Posted November 11, 2019 Playing around with Channel F coding... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
masschamber Posted November 11, 2019 Share Posted November 11, 2019 2 hours ago, atari2600land said: Playing around with Channel F coding... I think you might have more games in development than were released during the consoles original lifetime Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashevent Posted November 11, 2019 Share Posted November 11, 2019 I was going back one of the old letters i've owned for years that Fairchild sent to a customer back on 5 Sept 1979. No big surprise on which cart wasn't available even from the factory direct. Discontinued so fast they still didn't have any in a warehouse or anything even back then. Jus thought you guys might find interesting. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari_Bill Posted November 11, 2019 Share Posted November 11, 2019 (edited) Wow, that says a lot about the rarity of this one I’d think. Edited November 11, 2019 by Atari_Bill 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted November 11, 2019 Author Share Posted November 11, 2019 I decided to not go on with the frog crossing game. It'd be too complicated for me. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Mitchell Posted November 20, 2019 Share Posted November 20, 2019 Does anyone have a spare “Press to Eject Cartridge” black button? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Mitchell Posted November 20, 2019 Share Posted November 20, 2019 (edited) Who has controllers with the red fire buttons in front? Edited November 20, 2019 by Rob Mitchell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Mitchell Posted November 22, 2019 Share Posted November 22, 2019 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e5frog Posted November 22, 2019 Share Posted November 22, 2019 Nice, I've got one for Fairchild and three Video Command versions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Mitchell Posted November 24, 2019 Share Posted November 24, 2019 On 11/20/2019 at 4:15 PM, Rob Mitchell said: Does anyone have a spare “Press to Eject Cartridge” black button? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e5frog Posted November 29, 2019 Share Posted November 29, 2019 How about a Tetris cartridge? 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashevent Posted December 2, 2019 Share Posted December 2, 2019 Hope everyone is enjoying Football Sunday! Got this one just a little while back. Still just need #19 (yes, I know impossible) and #20 for the complete numbered set. I was going through all my stuff and I do have an extra Loose #15 and an extra Loose #25 to trade either for a #20. I just need to clean them up and make sure they still work if anyone's interested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted December 2, 2019 Author Share Posted December 2, 2019 I am debating on whether to make a version of Elevators Amiss for the Channel F. Why? This version would only have 3 elevators as opposed to 7 in the 2600 version. What do you think? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted December 3, 2019 Author Share Posted December 3, 2019 While AtariAge was down, I took a chance and worked on this a little. You can now get up to the top and the elevators can hit you. I did however, have to change the guy to be just one color though. There was just too much going on at once for the poor VES could handle. I experimented with 6 elevators. It did NOT like that at all. elev3.bin 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted December 3, 2019 Author Share Posted December 3, 2019 Started a separate thread for the game: 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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