Favorite plug and plays

[phoenixdownita]

On 2/3/2020 at 8:17 PM, Tanooki said:

Has anyone in here ever owned that non-US released (or limited?) Jakks Capcom tv game thing?  It appears to use emulation or simulation of the few arcade titles it has on there and I'm curious about the quality of it.  Truth be told the one thing on there that really only gets my attention is Ghosts n Goblins.  I guess I could deal with crappy MAME again but I've avoided it for like nearly 20 years as I got fed up with their endless bullshit of renaming and renaming folders of rom sets by the release, and then the epic bloat of the total rom archive downloads too.

Still have it, I got it from the UK via eBay .... mine is PAL and I couldn't see any pad/via to solder on the PCB to try if it can be made NTSC.

I've been told an NTSC variant was sold in Canada for at least a few months

 

I honestly did not play it that much but it felt alright to me: 1942, Commando and Ghosts n Goblins

(link to YT video, not mine)

 

 

One ebay seller in the USA (don't know if PAL or NTSC)

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-Capcom-Plug-and-Play-3-in-1-TV-Game-Ghosts-N-Goblins-Commando-1942-Retro-/223921914644

 

[Tanooki]

Does it exactly matter?  I guess it should, I know it uses an RCA cable but I guess the output could be a possible issue.  It's not the same as using PAL games on a top loader NES in the US which for most games works with minor graphics issues.

[phoenixdownita]

1 hour ago, Tanooki said:

Does it exactly matter?  I guess it should, I know it uses an RCA cable but I guess the output could be a possible issue.  It's not the same as using PAL games on a top loader NES in the US which for most games works with minor graphics issues.

NTSC TVs do not like PAL signals, if you're lucky it may just display B&W + no-sound, if not it will not even sync (50Hz vs 60Hz and different line count per field).

So yes it matters, I play mine via converter (Composite to HDMI) or it just wouldn't work at all on my TVs.

I cannot say if the games are also slowed down by 17% or have been adapted to compensate, I am not "very good" at any of them to tell (and they were tough to begin with anyway).

 

I still wanted it and I still think it's a nice unit but I'd rather have the NTSC version than the PAL that I have, I stopped actively seeking any of these type of units unless it can be proven it's arcade rom emulation (like the Bandai Namco Arcade Blast) and I am not sure I can say that it is.

This unit is from 2005 so it could be anything but I doubt it's MAME-level emulation (I may be wrong about this though).

[Tanooki]

OH well it was worth the ask...but yes it did come out in NTSC format in Canada as I've seen them loose and new or at least with the packing material still.  It's just something I come to expect I'll never have unless dumb luck happens and it isn't a BIN troll too.

[phoenixdownita]

14 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

OH well it was worth the ask...but yes it did come out in NTSC format in Canada as I've seen them loose and new or at least with the packing material still.  It's just something I come to expect I'll never have unless dumb luck happens and it isn't a BIN troll too.

That US seller I linked may be selling a NTSC unit, worth the ask, at ~40US$ shipped seems fair.

[Tanooki]

13 minutes ago, phoenixdownita said:

That US seller I linked may be selling a NTSC unit, worth the ask, at ~40US$ shipped seems fair.

Possibly so.  I'll look into it.  I recall the game having GnG arcade, 1942 arcade and I think Commando arcade on there as well.  Jakks/Capcom decided not to waste their time on the lesser NES or other system conversions and I think it was pretty well like from when I researched it a long while ago.  I'll check that video that was linked.  I'm used to the old arcade games, especially GnG as I had one I could use daily ages ago so I got to where (definitely not now) could finish it.

[negative1]

From the videos and what I've played in the MAME emulation of the capcom plug and play,

they are arcade emulations. Now, i can't tell if there's slowdown or not in them.

 

Also, they seem to have an easy and normal setting, that may correspond to dipswitch settings.

 

I didn't play all the way through any of them, so i can't verify if all the gameplay elements are exact,

but its very close.

 

later

-1

[Tanooki]

I actually made a deal with the one that was on ebay based out of the US and the dude instant shipped it, so I'll have it shortly.  I haven't touched arcade GnG in decades so that'll be a real treat.  I predict I get my ass handed to me in stage 2 either a bad luck run with the ogres in the building, or the double team at the boss.   I swear I found that stage harder than enough of the rest of the game back in the day.

 

It's a sad sad shame that arcade mega man game key never was released.

Edited March 24, 2020 by Tanooki

[phoenixdownita]

3 hours ago, Tanooki said:

I actually made a deal with the one that was on ebay based out of the US and the dude instant shipped it, so I'll have it shortly.  I haven't touched arcade GnG in decades so that'll be a real treat.  I predict I get my ass handed to me in stage 2 either a bad luck run with the ogres in the building, or the double team at the boss.   I swear I found that stage harder than enough of the rest of the game back in the day.

 

It's a sad sad shame that arcade mega man game key never was released.

Once you have it let us know how it works out, I guess you asked and it is an NTSC unit right?

 

It would be great if you have the time and skills if you can open it up and take pictures of the PCB (front and back) so I can see if there's anything obviously different between your NTSC and my PAL unit and attempt to mod mine.

 

If you don't want to mess with it I understand.

[negative1]

3 hours ago, Tanooki said:

I actually made a deal with the one that was on ebay based out of the US and the dude instant shipped it, so I'll have it shortly.  I haven't touched arcade GnG in decades so that'll be a real treat.  I predict I get my ass handed to me in stage 2 either a bad luck run with the ogres in the building, or the double team at the boss.   I swear I found that stage harder than enough of the rest of the game back in the day.

 

It's a sad sad shame that arcade mega man game key never was released.

well, unless you plan on mastering ghosts and goblins, at least you can continue,

 

and there's always the shooting zombies trick to get tons of extra men,

my friend used to do that, and was able to make it much further into the game.

 

 

if done properly, you earn more men than you lose during that time

 

later

-1

[Tanooki]

I don't think I remember ever trying that stunt for the lives, but how much can you really rack up to be worth it with the ticking clock though?  That guy really has the arremers figured out given you can hop to keep them down and just swing away to kill them before they take off.

 

 

And yes it is a NTSC unit, got it from that American and he got it in the country, so I guess that story I saw about a run 05/06 winter/christmas season makes sense.  I would have no problem pulling it apart carefully to take some pictures. As long as it's not some weird rats nest of failure inside that'll be painful to deal with it shouldn't be an issue.

[negative1]

4 hours ago, Tanooki said:

I don't think I remember ever trying that stunt for the lives, but how much can you really rack up to be worth it with the ticking clock though?  That guy really has the arremers figured out given you can hop to keep them down and just swing away to kill them before they take off.

 

 

And yes it is a NTSC unit, got it from that American and he got it in the country, so I guess that story I saw about a run 05/06 winter/christmas season makes sense.  I would have no problem pulling it apart carefully to take some pictures. As long as it's not some weird rats nest of failure inside that'll be painful to deal with it shouldn't be an issue.

once you get the timing down, you can earn a few men for each one you lose, because when you're running out

of time, you just pass the border into the next area and come back.

 

even if you get 3 men for every one you lose, you gain a lot more, and a lot of points also.

i think you stop getting men after 1,000,000 so at that point, you then play the rest of the levels.

 

later

-1

[Tanooki]

2 hours ago, negative1 said:

once you get the timing down, you can earn a few men for each one you lose, because when you're running out

of time, you just pass the border into the next area and come back.

 

even if you get 3 men for every one you lose, you gain a lot more, and a lot of points also.

i think you stop getting men after 1,000,000 so at that point, you then play the rest of the levels.

 

later

-1

Well then I guess that makes sense since you can just back pedal and go crazy.  I beat the game a few times legitimately in the early 1990s.  A summer day camp/boys club place I was at for a few years had such gems as Super Dodgeball, Mario Bros, and GnG come through and I fed it a fair amount of quarters, but likely less than some as I could apply some of what the NES game did to it at least for less surprises.  I've not taken it down since the 90s though so I don't expect much but for the price I just want to enjoy it once more, same with 1942 though that I can poke away at on my iCade at least, but Commando isn't on there either.

[phoenixdownita]

On 3/24/2020 at 11:01 AM, Tanooki said:

...

And yes it is a NTSC unit, got it from that American and he got it in the country, so I guess that story I saw about a run 05/06 winter/christmas season makes sense.  I would have no problem pulling it apart carefully to take some pictures. As long as it's not some weird rats nest of failure inside that'll be painful to deal with it shouldn't be an issue.

No, I don't remember it being that, I took mine apart to try and find a magical pair of solderpads with NTSC/PAL in it (like the NeoGeo CD if you know what I mean) .... but no luck ... I hope it's not hardcoded in the firmware ... we'll see.

[Tanooki]

Actually I don't, but I get what you mean.  I've never looked at a torn down NeoCD before, but I have used one before when I was out west years ago as a friend I had then did have and use one.  The loads on that thing are just insufferable.  What SNK was thinking, being so good with hardware as they were is just mindblowing.

[phoenixdownita]

7 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Actually I don't, but I get what you mean.  I've never looked at a torn down NeoCD before, but I have used one before when I was out west years ago as a friend I had then did have and use one.  The loads on that thing are just insufferable.  What SNK was thinking, being so good with hardware as they were is just mindblowing.

It's been worked on:

http://furrtek.free.fr/sdloader/index.htm

 

[Tanooki]

On 3/24/2020 at 1:29 AM, phoenixdownita said:

Once you have it let us know how it works out, I guess you asked and it is an NTSC unit right?

 

It would be great if you have the time and skills if you can open it up and take pictures of the PCB (front and back) so I can see if there's anything obviously different between your NTSC and my PAL unit and attempt to mod mine.

 

If you don't want to mess with it I understand.

Done. This captures anything of value on the two parts of the board here that drives it. It seems to work fairly well. Definitely the arcade games or hacked renditions of them with the easy and normal modes given. Feels like a cheap arcade dip switch sub for the challenge of it. 

[phoenixdownita]

On 4/2/2020 at 9:42 PM, Tanooki said:

Done. This captures anything of value on the two parts of the board here that drives it. It seems to work fairly well. Definitely the arcade games or hacked renditions of them with the easy and normal modes given. Feels like a cheap arcade dip switch sub for the challenge of it. 

Thanks a bunch for the pic, mine is very different, still 2 glob tops but lots more passive components and even a quartz ... let alone a couple of capacitors and diodes hot glued on the bottom (directly in the plastic case) on the power lines .... so not so easy to figure anything out. My PCB is square with the 3 buttons in a separate mini PCB connected by "ribbon" cable.

 

Most likely a much earlier revision (2005 July 17) not sure if the PAL was inherently different/redesigned.

 

Worth a try, thanks for playing along.

 

PS: did not have the phone close by to take a picture, sorry, but given how different it is .... no point.

[Tanooki]

Yeah I guess they just kind of did their own thing and not for long as this didn't have much of a shelf life, almost like they just tossed together whatever they had which is strange.  The other side of those boards were smooth if I remember correctly and nothing hot glued as you worded it for locations.  This one as you can see with the little blue legs is there the contacts are for the buttons the detached for the d-pad joystick.  Just makes more of a terrible mystery, though I would think pictures to compare may not be a total loss.

[atarilovesyou]

Interesting to see some fifteen years later that one of these units is such an enigma.  How is the build quality compares to the other units? I remember the buttons on the Capcom one were a bit smaller in comparison. I find it interesting that Flashbacks are still being made to this day yet the Jakks stuff is long gone.  

[atarilovesyou]

On 3/11/2018 at 8:25 PM, reallybrett said:

 Has my favorite version of Pole Position to play because of the twist top joystick 

 

It was a great unit, hut I found the build quality lacking. I returned no less than three of them over the Christmas season.  In retrospect, it was more likely to do with the 8 way stick being used on a 4 way game that caused input directional errors, though. 

 

Pole Position was awesome! The problem there was the programming. I would have to fire it up again but I think the issue was the timer, it wouldn't stop after you crossed the finish line so your high scores were always askew. Ither than that, the control was spot on. 

 

They fixed the program error in the next unit, the wireless version...but the twist top controller wasn't as dialed in as the Ms Pacman unit. 

 

Time to pull them out along with a ton of AA batts and get to work, lol.

[Tanooki]

Seems pretty responsive.  I got up to the start of Stage 4.  Those eyeball platforms got me, forgot the pattern.