onmode-ky Posted June 23, 2015 Author Share Posted June 23, 2015 In 2006, the first home-grown retro plug-n-play systems showed up in Japan in the form of Namco Nostalgia 1 & 2 and Taito Nostalgia 1 & 2, from Bandai, under the "Let's! TV Play Classic" brand (an extension of their "Let's! TV Play" motion game line). These actually also used XaviX technology, along with a very consumer-unfriendly setup for power and output: you had to buy a separately sold proprietary AV/power cable in order to play any of the units (note the lack of a battery power option, though there was a battery backup of some sort, as evidenced by a "Load" option at the game title screens). This was made worse by what seems to have been a recall of that cable. Each of the units in this series came with 2 retro games and 2 remixes of those same games. In the case of the Namco games, the remixes used a similar setting but with a different type of gameplay, while the Taito games' remixes used characters with different abilities under the same gameplay. Another difference, the Namco series are labeled as "8M ROM" (megabytes? megabits?), while the Taito series are "16M ROM." I never thought I'd actually find myself with any of these Let's! TV Play Classic systems, mostly because of the proprietary power + AV cable they require. The asking price on that cable, which, as I noted in the 2010 post I quoted (outside of the excerpt above), was originally 1599 yen, skyrocketed in the years after the product line was terminated. The cable can now cost more than any of the systems themselves. Still, last month, I came across a crazy good deal on eBay for unopened Namco Nostalgia 1 & 2 units, and after outbidding only one other bid, I found myself winning them for under $25 shipped. That's less than you could normally expect to pay for just one! Too good a deal to pass up. So, I thought I'd bought myself a nice pair of paperweights; there was no deal to be found on that cable, after all. But then I found out that the proprietary cable still uses standard power and AV plug tips. The only really proprietary part is the special casing that bundles those together. Thanks to some useful info people generously posted online, I found cables in my own home that fit the electrical requirements, bought a plug adapter cable to finish things off, and successfully got my new Namco Nostalgia 1 & 2 systems working on my TV! Here's what you need to replace the proprietary cable: 1. AC adapter: You need a 5V DC, center-positive adapter, and it needs to be able to handle 0.4 amps at a minimum. If you have an Intellivision Flashback or a ColecoVision Flashback (or both, like me), congratulations! You already have an electrically compatible AC adapter. However, the Let's! TV Play Classic systems take a cylindrical power plug with a 4.0mm outer diameter and 1.7mm inner diameter (i.e., it's what's known as an EIAJ-02 connector; the PSP AC charging cable uses this plug). The INTV/CV Flashbacks' AC adapter has a plug with a 5.5mm outer diameter and 2.1mm inner diameter. I found a little adapter cable for exactly that conversion on eBay for just $4, and that was my only expense in this endeavor to mimic the proprietary cable. 2. AV cable: You need a cable with a 3.5mm, 4-ring plug at one end and composite video + stereo audio RCA plugs at the other end. The cable's 4 lines need to be ordered thus, going from the ring at the 3.5mm plug's tip end to the ring at its base: white (left audio), yellow (video), ground, red (right audio). This ordering is the same as what most camcorders use for their composite video cables. It is not the same order as what iPods used to use back when they had a 3.5mm video port, BUT since those old iPod video cables did have ground on the same ring, they'll work if you shift the colors of the RCA plugs. Note that there are video cables out there which have ground at a different ring position (usually on the ring at the base, I think), and those are not going to work. I have neither a camcorder nor a video cable for one, but I remembered that I had an extra Kenshin Dragon Quest video cable. That's a plug-n-play game system whose underlying hardware is from the same family as that of the Let's! TV Play Classic systems, ShinSeDai's XaviX technology. I figured that that game's video cable would probably be electrically compatible, and whew! I was right. 3. Possible required modding: The proprietary cable's special plug fits into a recessed part of the Let's! TV Play Classic system casing. The system's power and video ports are side by side at the "back wall" of the hollow. In order to fit into this indentation, your power and AV plugs' head casings need to be at most ~9mm thick, for a length of ~1cm from the base of the metal back toward the cabling. And, in case it isn't obvious, a right-angle plug head will not fit into this indentation at all. In my case, the 4.0mm/1.7mm plug on the adapter I bought for my AC adapter had no trouble fitting. However, I had to do a bit of whittling on my Kenshin Dragon Quest AV cable's plug. Once you have an electrically compatible AC adapter and AV cable, along with plugs that can reach the ports in the proprietary slot, you're all set. I happened to have compatible equipment already and only needed to spend the cost of a sandwich for a plug adapter--which is a pretty good savings over the $70+ that Amazon Marketplace sellers want for the proprietary cable. I should note that I really had to force my AV plug into the AV ports on both of my Namco Nostalgia systems; even though the rubber casing was no longer an obstacle after whittling, it seemed like the AV port itself was a tight fit for the 3.5mm plug tip. It only went 3 rings in until I hit the afterburners. Now for some mini-reviews. Of the Namco Nostalgia games, I had already had Xevious and Mappy for years (on Jakks Pacific's plug-n-play systems), and neither Dragon Buster nor its Dragon Buster 100 survival remix really interested me. So, once I got everything working, I went and tried out the other four games. Xevious: Scramble Mission is a remix of Xevious set inside some sort of complex (i.e., you'll have to navigate corridors) and made up of 6 time-limited stages that each end in a battle with a mini Andor Genesis. I thought it was pretty fun, as a mixture of Xevious shooting and tight quarters gauntlet time trial. Mappy: Nyamco-Dan no Gyakushuu ("Nyamco Brigade's Counterattack") is a Breakout clone featuring the Meowkies bouncing Goro into the air to break crates and grab treasures. After getting all the treasures, Mappy appears, walking left and right at the top of the screen, and you have to bounce Goro into him to end the level. I found this game terribly tedious, mostly due to the need for finely timed button presses to turbo-bounce Goro in order to reach the higher parts of the screen; it's like a hobbled Breakout. The levels with unbreakable crates blocking your shots are particularly annoying. Gaplus took me some time to understand, but the main thrust of this third game in the Galaxian series seems to be building a squad of enemy fighters captured with your tractor beam. Lots of captures makes a wide squad, which makes the Challenging Stages easier, and that's where you get the big points. The stages ("parsecs") increase in difficulty pretty quickly, make for an engaging game. Gaplus Phalanx is a vertically scrolling game in which you use your tractor beam to try to grab as many blue enemies as possible; if you capture red enemies, they subtract from your score (fortunately, they take longer to ingest than blues). The parsecs I've seen do quite a bit of variation on this theme, so it's more interesting than that basic description. If anyone wants to compare high scores on the above games, let me know. And, if anyone has a hot tip on where to get Taito Nostalgia 1 & 2 for cheap, let me know. onmode-ky P.S. There's a nifty feature in these Let's! TV Play Classic games: after each level (or area, in Xevious), the system auto-saves your progress. So, you can die an ignominious death in Gaplus, switch off the system in a hissy fit, and sulk for a week . . . then come back and retry from the beginning of the parsec where you hit Game Over. Each game has its own auto-save slot, too. That's the "Load" option on each game's title screen. P.P.S. On the topic of plug-n-play in general, I've so far found only one release planned for 2015 (outside of whatever AtGames releases in the fall): an ESRB rating popped up in May for Star Wars: Blaster Strike from Jakks Pacific. Based on its description, it sounds like a light-gun-style shooter (Jakks has released at least one each year since 2009). Oh, and I did eventually get the DreamWorks Dragons Hero Portal side-scrolling shooter system. Low difficulty, but I still find it fun. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onmode-ky Posted August 13, 2015 Author Share Posted August 13, 2015 I only found out about the Sinclair ZX Spectrum Vega a couple of months ago, even though it was crowd-funded on Indiegogo last December-January. It's a ZX Spectrum emulated on an ARM processor, in the form of a plug-n-play game system with a whopping 1000 games built in and a microSD card slot allowing play of user-downloaded game images. At £100, it's priced more like a Neo Geo X than an AtGames Flashback or Jakks TV Game, so it's definitely shooting for the niche audience rather than the mainstream. The first 1000 units were shipped to a subset of the backers last Friday, and the next batch will ship out this Friday. The official list of included games was finally published Tuesday this week in a post at the Vega producer's Facebook account. If you're a Spectrum fan, you might want to check it out. For Americans interested in buying a Vega, Funstock.co.uk might be your best bet. I'll be reproducing the games list at my plug-n-play games website at its next update--but rather than being in the retrocontents.html file with the games lists of other retro plug-n-play game systems, it will just be linked from there. In my file, I curate the games lists to correct spelling/punctuation errors, to match in-menu ordering, and to note how certain titles are actually listed in the host system's menu, but with 1000 games on the Vega, that's not happening. I'll just mirror what they published themselves. Incidentally, if anyone here already has a Vega, I would be interested to know what is printed on the tops of the three chips (processor, RAM, flash ROM) on the system board. To summarize 2015 plug-n-play games activity so far, then: - Retro Computers Ltd. - Sinclair ZX Spectrum Vega (released) - AtGames - Atari Flashback 6 (upcoming), Sega Genesis Classic Game Console (upcoming), Sega [Genesis] Arcade Ultimate Portable Player (upcoming) - Jakks Pacific - Star Wars: Blaster Strike (upcoming) Xevious: Scramble Mission is a remix of Xevious set inside some sort of complex (i.e., you'll have to navigate corridors) and made up of 6 time-limited stages that each end in a battle with a mini Andor Genesis. A clarification for the above: the text describing Xevious: Scramble Mission which pops up when you select it at the main menu actually explicitly says that you're piloting the Solvalou through the interior of an Andor Genesis, not "some sort of complex." What I called a mini Andor Genesis in the quoted text above is in fact a core which you need to destroy in order to take out the Andor Genesis which you've infiltrated. onmode-ky 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onmode-ky Posted September 17, 2015 Author Share Posted September 17, 2015 I thought I should note that 2015's full slate of plug-n-play game releases seems to be available for purchase now. - AtGames' Atari Flashback 6 - ToysRUs.com link - AtGames' Sega Genesis Classic Game Console (2015 edition) - ToysRUs.com link - AtGames' Sega [Genesis] Arcade Ultimate Portable Player (2015 edition) - ToysRUs.com link - Bandai America's Pac-Man Connect-and-Play (re-release of the 2012 product, this time in 35th anniversary packaging) - ToysRUs.com link - Jakks Pacific's Star Wars: Blaster Strike - ToysRUs.com link - Retro Computers' Sinclair ZX Spectrum Vega - (Funstock.co.uk link, with backer editions already released) I didn't realize it at first, but the Pac-Man Connect-and-Play that's in stores now is not actually old stock still on shelves. Well, it might in fact be old stock that went back to Bandai, but it's been repackaged with a smaller, black box that mentions this year being Pac-Man's 35th anniversary. The 2012 release was in yellow boxes that were unnecessarily large. AtGames' systems had been listed at ToysRUs.com with a 09/15 release date, which became 09/21 a short time ago, but now they're listed as in stock. At my local Toys 'R Us store, they've been on shelves since 09/05, actually. Star Wars: Blaster Strike apparently hit shelves on Force Friday, the big Star Wars merchandising event that happened on 09/04. It's developed by HotGen, who's developed a lot of Jakks Pacific's plug-n-play games over the past 10+ years but has never done any of the gun games. In 2010, Jakks' Toy Story Mania gun game was developed by Schell Games, because they developed the original Toy Story Mania amusement park ride, but every other Jakks gun game since 2009 has been by Super Happy Fun Fun (the studio run by Mark Stephen Pierce, designer of Atari Games' Klax). This year's gun game being by HotGen and not SHFF, by my guess, may be due to the game running on hardware familiar to HotGen but not to SHFF; HotGen developed last year's Hero Portal toys-to-life games for Jakks, which used 32-bit ARM-architecture processors new to Jakks' plug-n-play line. Perhaps the new gun game uses the same processor. Blaster Strike's gameplay can be seen in this YouTube video from an early adopter. Honestly, I think it looks pretty good, and the fact that it can have a fairly high number of enemies on screen at once seems to indicate that the hardware is indeed a generation beyond the previous Jakks gun games. If anyone gets any of the systems I listed above, please let me know so that I can pester you with questions about it. onmode-ky 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted November 10, 2015 Share Posted November 10, 2015 For those interested, here's the official game list for the Sega Genesis Classic Game Console (2015). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJ Posted November 12, 2015 Share Posted November 12, 2015 (edited) Bandai America's Pac-Man Connect-and-Play (re-release of the 2012 product, this time in 35th anniversary packaging) - ToysRUs.com link- Dd they fix Xevious on this one? & according to the Toys R Us link/product description, they left Pole Position off this one. It worked GREAT with the twisty stick! Best home version yet IMO. Edited November 12, 2015 by RJ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted November 12, 2015 Share Posted November 12, 2015 Dd they fix Xevious on this one? & according to the Toys R Us link/product description, they left Pole Position off this one. It worked GREAT with the twisty stick! Best home version yet IMO. I just ordered it, so if there's no answer within a few weeks, I should be able to provide one. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onmode-ky Posted November 12, 2015 Author Share Posted November 12, 2015 Bandai America's Pac-Man Connect-and-Play (re-release of the 2012 product, this time in 35th anniversary packaging) - ToysRUs.com link- Dd they fix Xevious on this one? & according to the Toys R Us link/product description, they left Pole Position off this one. It worked GREAT with the twisty stick! Best home version yet IMO. Xevious was broken on the very last iteration of Jakks Pacific's HotGen-developed Namco TV Games line, in 2008, having enemies show up in the wrong places. The Bandai America 2012/2015 release that we're talking about here was developed for different hardware by different developers and manufactured by a different company. It shouldn't have the same problem. Technically, there was nothing for them to fix, since they didn't start from the same code base. It would be very unlikely for the same bug to appear. But, I don't actually have one, so I can only say with ~95% certainty that it doesn't have the same problem. I mean, hey, it's not totally impossible for two complete strangers to make the same mistake. We'll await the final word from Bill L. (or anyone else who has one already). onmode-ky P.S. You know how there's a Xevious Arrangement, which looks a lot like original Xevious but has some marked differences? I vote that instead of considering the 2008 Jakks/HotGen Xevious to be broken, we look at it as a new game in its own right, Xevious Corruption. After all, it's a wide release that is, in fact, still playable--it's just very hard and looks a bit strange! OOOHH, I've got an even better name for it, since it has tanks running in the water: Xevious: Solvalou, and Tanks for All the Fish 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJ Posted November 12, 2015 Share Posted November 12, 2015 (edited) I LOVE Xevious Arrangement! I play it on PS1 Xevious 3D/G+. I almost like it better than the original game. I ask because the games included on this yellow Pac-Man shaped one, & the other, are the same except (noted above) they seem to have traded the finally home-version-playable Pole Position (those on disc compilations dont work well) for Pac-Man 256...I'm guessing to save including twisty-stick functionality. Good idea about Corruption. I also have the PS3 online-only Xevious: Resurrection, so the name "Corruption" fits. "Xevious has returned...and now it's EEEEEEVIL!!!" Edited November 12, 2015 by RJ 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrBlackCat Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 (edited) Dd they fix Xevious on this one? & according to the Toys R Us link/product description, they left Pole Position off this one. It worked GREAT with the twisty stick! Best home version yet IMO. What specifically was wrong with Xevious before? I just played it for some time on this current "35th Year Edition" Pac Man unit, with nothing noticeably wrong. Unless it is something drastic, I might not notice though. If you can tell me what to look for, I will check for the issue, as mine is right here and in use. MrBlackCat Edited November 13, 2015 by MrBlackCat 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJ Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 (edited) I cant find where in this forum we dicussed it, but we did. The unit with the ruined Xevious has 2 white arcade style buttons & a red balltop on the twisty-stick. The stick is 4-way only, so Bosconian & Xevious are playable, but hampered. Its games are: Pac-Man Pac-Man Plus Super Pac-Man Pac & Pal Galaga Galaxian Dig Dug Bosconian Mappy (AGAIN with the Mappy) New Rally-X Pole Position Xevious Xevious was extremely messed up, nearly every aspect/element of the game was wrong: No Andor Genesis mother ship(s) Ground rovers not staying on roads/paths Ground targets appearing where they shouldnt Game difficulty seems to increase quickly & unwarranted (though the original game tailored its difficulty to the player's skill) There's likely more issues than I listed, but it's been so long & I stay away from it. Edited November 13, 2015 by RJ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onmode-ky Posted November 13, 2015 Author Share Posted November 13, 2015 What specifically was wrong with Xevious before? In this 2010 post, I summarized the issues RJ had observed (earlier in that thread) in the 2008 "Retro Arcade featuring Pac-Man" TV Games model from Jakks Pacific, and also offered a hypothesis on why it was like that. Namely, I think the part of the code which determines when and where enemies appear, a map of sorts, got corrupted when the the 12-game build was being made. Looking at that post, I see that we can't call that version "Xevious: Solvalou, and Tanks for All the Fish" after all, because rather than tanks being in the water, there are no tanks at all; it's the stationary ground targets that are in the water. But there's a simple fix to the naming problem: Xevious: Solvalou, and No Tanks for All the Fish And just to reiterate, that system was made by completely different companies and personnel from the Bandai America 35th Anniversary system, so Bandai's shouldn't have any similar bugs. Mappy (AGAIN with the Mappy) You reminded me of the scene in Dragon Half when Lufa says of Mappy, "I hate that mouse." In her case, though, she's talking about an in-story rodent named after the Namco character, and she hates it because it can go from ordinary mouse to gargantuan monster whenever its owner is threatened. onmode-ky 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJ Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 (edited) Thx for digging up that old post. Yeah, I was quite po'ed at that, even though I could/can play Xevious other ways. Seems Im mistaken in saying the (domogram?) rovers move wrong; there AREN'T any, nor are there flying rotating (Kapi?) deflectors. Every Xevious enemy is named; I really should know them, being such a big fan. I'll check my coinop's control panel tomorrow- they're all listed on there. We could call the broken one "Xevious: Frustration." Edited November 13, 2015 by RJ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lord_mike Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 For those interested, here's the official game list for the Sega Genesis Classic Game Console (2015). Thanks for the update. It looks like the only difference between the 2015 and 2014 version is the inclusion of Mortal Combat. Do you know if the hardware and software is the same inside? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 Thanks for the update. It looks like the only difference between the 2015 and 2014 version is the inclusion of Mortal Combat. Do you know if the hardware and software is the same inside? That's correct, only those three Mortal Kombat games are the new additions. It should be the same exact hardware/software combination. I'll be on the look-out to see if they made any tweaks to improve things like the sound, but I would be surprised if they did (in fact, I'll just ask now about both units so I have the info in time for the review). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 I just received confirmation that there are no real changes in either of these products other than the games. It sounds like a refresh may happen for the next versions. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrekkiELO Posted November 29, 2015 Share Posted November 29, 2015 (edited) I thought I should note that 2015's full slate of plug-n-play game releases seems to be available for purchase now. - Bandai America's Pac-Man Connect-and-Play (re-release of the 2012 product, this time in 35th anniversary packaging) - ToysRUs.com link I didn't realize it at first, but the Pac-Man Connect-and-Play that's in stores now is not actually old stock still on shelves. Well, it might in fact be old stock that went back to Bandai, but it's been repackaged with a smaller, black box that mentions this year being Pac-Man's 35th anniversary. The 2012 release was in yellow boxes that were unnecessarily large. onmode-ky It's important to note, just in case nobody noticed, "the 2012 release in yellow boxes that were unnecessarily large" was an attempt by Bandai Namco at replicating their original Bally Midway arcade cabinet for Pac-Man, so I prefer it over this new one! Edited November 29, 2015 by TrekkiELO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted November 29, 2015 Share Posted November 29, 2015 I probably won't post the review for another couple of weeks, but I just wanted to note that I was blown away by how good the audio-video is over normally crummy composite on the Pac-Man Connect and Play. Even the emulation seems totally spot on. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldenegg Posted November 30, 2015 Share Posted November 30, 2015 I probably won't post the review for another couple of weeks, but I just wanted to note that I was blown away by how good the audio-video is over normally crummy composite on the Pac-Man Connect and Play. Even the emulation seems totally spot on. Ugh ... that pisses me off, only because they're not selling them in Canada. The few US based sellers I've found with them want to charge a ridiculous amount of money to ship up here. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted December 12, 2015 Share Posted December 12, 2015 My review of the surprisingly good Pac-Man Connect & Play 35th Anniversary Edition has been posted: http://armchairarcade.com/perspectives/2015/12/11/review-atgames-sega-genesis-classic-game-console-2015-version-with-videos/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrBlackCat Posted December 27, 2015 Share Posted December 27, 2015 (edited) I have enjoyed following this topic, with SO much exhaustive effort being put into it. I really have nothing to add as my collecting is not comprehensive and that isn't my goal. I am more a gamer than collector as all my games are opened and played. I didn't want to start a new topic just for this, and didn't really see a place this fit. Because this thread is most likely followed/read by persons with larger collections, I wanted to share a rather simple setup I used to make my games all available for play while minimizing the wiring messiness. This is version 1.0 and I am very aware it can be improved, but this was/is my starting point. I might improve it when I start another cycle of construction in my game room. Hope this sparks some ideas for having access to all the games at once in larger collections while minimizing cord tangles. MrBlackCat Edited December 27, 2015 by MrBlackCat 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chas10e Posted January 20, 2016 Share Posted January 20, 2016 I have enjoyed following this topic, with SO much exhaustive effort being put into it. I really have nothing to add as my collecting is not comprehensive and that isn't my goal. I am more a gamer than collector as all my games are opened and played. I didn't want to start a new topic just for this, and didn't really see a place this fit. Because this thread is most likely followed/read by persons with larger collections, I wanted to share a rather simple setup I used to make my games all available for play while minimizing the wiring messiness. This is version 1.0 and I am very aware it can be improved, but this was/is my starting point. I might improve it when I start another cycle of construction in my game room. Hope this sparks some ideas for having access to all the games at once in larger collections while minimizing cord tangles. MrBlackCat very impressive: what do you do about batteries? I usually remove my batteries to keep them from corroding ...interesting read here ... http://modernsurvivalblog.com/preps/battery-corrosion-why-they-leak-and-how-to-prevent-it/ I also saw this on an end isle & thought this would be a good thread to mention it ... http://www.energizer.com/about-batteries/no-leaks-guarantee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrBlackCat Posted January 20, 2016 Share Posted January 20, 2016 very impressive: what do you do about batteries? I usually remove my batteries to keep them from corroding ...interesting read here ... http://modernsurvivalblog.com/preps/battery-corrosion-why-they-leak-and-how-to-prevent-it/ I also saw this on an end isle & thought this would be a good thread to mention it ... http://www.energizer.com/about-batteries/no-leaks-guarantee Hello chas10e... I use Low Self Discharge NiMh almost exclusively, as they typically never leak. These are numbered and tracked in a spreadsheet as to device and date of installation. A quick sort-by-date gives me any that are in need of swap. Some devices don't use physical switches that break the electrical connection, but have a timed, self-latching semiconductor gate (or equivalent) for on/off, and these will drain the batteries much more quickly, so these I don't keep batteries in. Otherwise, I keep a screwdriver in the drawer and always have plenty of charged NiMh batteries in the racks. When I do use Alkaline batteries, I use Energizer, but I have not noticed the no leak guarantee before. Thank you for the links. Interesting reads. MrBlackCat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onmode-ky Posted May 18, 2016 Author Share Posted May 18, 2016 Around this time last year is when an ESRB rating popped up for the sole plug-n-play game system rated by the board in all of 2015, Jakks Pacific's Star Wars: Blaster Strike light gun shooter, also the sole game Jakks released in 2015. Alas, the ESRB has not rated any plug-n-play game in 2016 yet (neither has PEGI). Thus, at this point, the full list of plug-n-play games officially announced for 2016 release is as follows: - Retro Computers' Sinclair ZX Spectrum Vega+ (handheld rendition of last year's Vega, crowdfunded this past February-March, expected to ship later this year; retains TV-out capability) And that's it. Thanks to Bill L., we do know AtGames is working on a pair of Atari retail products and a pair of Sega retail products for 2016, but I left them out of the list for now due to their being still partly under skunkworks secrecy. Other than AtGames and Retro Computers, though, I've found no indication as yet of any other participants in the 2016 market. Will this be the first year with no Jakks Pacific plug-n-play presence since 2001 (since 2000, really, since the TV Games division is descended from Toymax, the firm who released the initial Activision TV Games system in 2001 and was then bought by Jakks)? Will we see some unexpected new blood in the market? I'll continue to keep an eye out for news. Because this thread is most likely followed/read by persons with larger collections, I wanted to share a rather simple setup I used to make my games all available for play while minimizing the wiring messiness. I'm really late saying this, but that's quite an impressive setup you have there, MrBlackCat. I just keep all my smaller plug-n-play systems in the cabinet under the TV, cables twisty-tied as they were when I first bought them (no batteries installed; I use a single, separately stored set of 4 AA rechargeables for these, that I bought with a charger in September 2003). The larger plug-n-play systems I keep stored in their original boxes, elsewhere in the room (e.g., the Kenshin Dragon Quest systems are next to the display of (empty) Jakks TV Games boxes). It helps that I don't have that many systems. I did get a new one last month, though, the Star Wars: Blaster Strike light gun shooter I mentioned earlier. DollarGeneral.com has them at only $20 (+ shipping & tax) right now, if anyone has been waiting for a price much lower than the $50 MSRP. I like the game enough that it's the only light gun shooter I've ever bought and kept. It's quite challenging--I don't think I'll ever beat even the first stage in Veteran Mode (i.e., hard difficulty). Rookie Mode, though, I did get through the whole game, unlock all the achievements, and earn platinum medals on every stage. Still was no cakewalk for me! The processor is able to throw a large number of enemies on screen at once. Beware! onmode-ky P.S. This is my 700th AtariAge forum post! Also, my website and the first post in this thread now have 10 years of my pnpgames*.txt files! Incidentally, I updated my site this past weekend, with the new files and also some info on a trio of unreleased (but not retro) plug-n-play game systems from recent years. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mulletino Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 (edited) Here's my tiny collection of TV Plug n Play games, I did have a TV Boy years ago that had NES games on, but sold it before moving countries. This was a later cheap purchase: Got my eye on a Golden Tee Golf in a local Pawn Shop, just waiting for the right price. Edited June 2, 2016 by Mulletino Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenixdownita Posted July 9, 2016 Share Posted July 9, 2016 Is there any difference between the BanDai Namco collection (Pac-Man Connect and Play with PacMan256) and the 35th anniversary edition?They look identical to my untrained eyes so is it only the outer packaging box that is different?How about the AU version inside a ghost case instead of pacman? https://www.bigw.com.au/product/namco-pac-man-connect-play/p/WCC100000000027539/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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