Messages

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Classic Video Games / Re: Why are the NES era Consoles 3rd Gen and not 4th?

« on: January 15, 2023, 06:08:00 pm »

Not just the 5200 but also the ColecoVision and to a lesser extent the Intellivision were all huge graphical upgrades to prior second gen consoles. I’d say it’s more of a timing thing as to why they are all lumped together. Aside from the Channel F which was released one month shy of 1977, all the major second gen console were all released within in a five year time span between 77-82.

While the Atari 5200 wasn't the best system, one of the things that stood out was that it was one of the first systems that I remember that allowed you to pause the game. I had never seen that before.

The Fairchild Channel F is the first home console credited to have a pause option. Something that’s not very commonly known is that the Intellivision which came out a couple of years before the 5200 also has a pause function which can be initiated by pressing 1 and 9 simultaneously.

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Classic Video Games / Re: The Original Xbox Appreciation Thread

« on: November 09, 2020, 11:36:17 pm »

But the I found out due to the nature of exploit used to mod the console, it could no longer play the MechAssault games. So I had to get another just so I can play MechAssault again.

That has to be a thing with old versions of the softmod or something? I had mine soft modded 4-5 years back and I can swear I remember MechAssault working. It's no longer softmoded because I mod chipped it so I could use a unlocked SATA HD so I can't verify it.

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Hardware and Tech / Re: Genesis Model 1 AC Adapter

« on: April 12, 2020, 11:54:03 am »

I am not sure why people are being so difficult and suggesting dumb things like cutting China pride cables and soldering new ends on them. It's no wonder why so many house fires happen and consoles blow their fuses.

The Sega MK-1602 power supply is what shipped with the model 1 Genesis.  Go on eBay and buy one. It takes 10 seconds. Do not use Amazon. Never use 3rd party or multi-format adapters. They are cheap junk and will burn out (or burn your house down).  I had a cheap NES one 10 years ago.  It melted and shorted out my power strip and would have started a fire if I wasn't sitting right there to smell and see the smoke.

I always use official OEM hardware and it never fails and always works. Having the original hardware also improves the value of the console when sold. There is absolutely no sense in using Chia pride junk with narrow low gauge wire and quality that will not last beyond a year. They are cheap for a reason.

Those 3 in 1 adapters are shit everybody here already knows that. You can find new high quality transformers and SMPS that would be incredibly more safer and reliable that a 30+ year old transformer that has god knows how many hours of operation on it. People never seem to think about how old and how much use this equipment has on it now and that it’s not going to last forever.

It’s perfectly safe to install your own connector tips on a power supply. The Genesis has a 7805 voltage regulator that drops any DC voltage you feed it between 8-16 volts down to 5V that the console actually runs on. As long as the adapter is between 8-16V DC and can supply at least 1 amp and you don’t get the polarity wrong it’s fine.

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General / Re: The Tiger handheld games are being revived. GOD HELP US ALL!

« on: March 31, 2020, 05:20:13 am »

They are absolutely terrible all of them they weren’t even good back then. Honestly just the snake game on one those two dollar Chinese 9999 in 1 brick games is vastly superior to every Tiger game ever made combined. I can’t really see collectors being too interested in this as the originals should be far more desirable.

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Hardware and Tech / Re: Genesis Model 1 AC Adapter

« on: February 06, 2020, 12:16:32 pm »

The Center positive adapters plugs are actually a different size than the the center negative ac adapters.

Center negative 2.1mm  x 5.5mm

Center positive 1.7mm x 4.75mm (This size usually has a yellow tip)

Sega deliberately made the later plug sizes smaller when they changed polarity on the Sega 2 onward so they wouldn't fit each other and prevent reverse polarity damage.

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Hardware and Tech / Re: Genesis Model 1 AC Adapter

« on: February 03, 2020, 12:26:16 pm »

The thing weighs nothing- seriously, I'm 99% sure that big plug was a hollow shell to make it look like an old-school AC.

Yeah I think the case is deliberate to make people think they're getting a transformer. Here's a picture of one I cracked open it's just a cheap and nasty switch mode power supply with the least amount of components possible. It's getting harder to find old school class 2 power transformers new because they're more expensive to make and are not as efficient as switch mode supplies. Switch mode supplies create a ton of electromagnetic and RF noise as a byproduct of how they regulate voltage and need components like chokes and inductors to filter it out of it's output. Most things nowadays are digital and aren't effected by unfiltered voltage so a lot of low end manufacturers will leave these components out to save money.

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Hardware and Tech / Re: Genesis Model 1 AC Adapter

« on: February 02, 2020, 07:12:11 pm »

The problem with those 3 in 1 ac adapters is that they are not transformers like the originals were. They are cheap switch mode power supplies that don’t have EMI/RFI filtering components to save on cost which causes interference in analog video and audio signals.

If basic soldering is something you can do the best option outside of tracking down a original is to just find a used DC 9-12V 1 amp transformer ac adapter and solder on a 5.5mm x 2.1mm power plug. The polarity has to be center negative outside positive.

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General / Re: Your Opinions Of Vibrating/Rumble Featured Controllers

« on: July 25, 2019, 04:00:05 pm »

Honestly I don’t even notice it that often it just becomes like a white noise that my brain tunes out. One of my old PS2's from back in the day actually lost its ability to send the vibration signal to the controller because of a blown micro fuse on the motherboard. It probably didn’t work for months and I didn’t even notice until I was playing Metal Gear Solid and was at the Psycho Mantis put your controller on the floor part.

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Hardware and Tech / Re: Recommended Wired PlayStation 3 Controller

« on: July 25, 2019, 03:27:51 pm »

That d-pad looks absolutely heinous. Is it at least all one piece or individual separate buttons.
Non analog PS1 games must be off the table with that.

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Modern Video Games / Re: Collectors' opinions on Switch Joystick Drift

« on: July 25, 2019, 03:09:54 pm »

Most analog stick modules have plastic components and a spring needed for the sticks tension and for its automatic return to center. The joystick mechanism is mostly made of plastic parts that wears and shaven down by repeated use and friction which can cause the stick to return and sit off of it’s center deadzone. So the controller thinks the sticks are being pushed in one or more directions slightly. Stick drift is a inevitable consequences of use and wear so the issue is if it’s happening prematurely. 

At the very least Nintendo made the sticks easy to replace they're not even soldered onto the board just a detachable ribbon cable.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=nintendo+switch+analog&_sacat=0

Stick drift was very common with controllers that use the standard ALPS joystick modules that the PS2 Xbox original and 360 and a lot of others used and is much harder to replace with 14 pins on each module that has to be desoldered just to be removed from the board.

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Classic Video Games / Re: PS2 clones and alternatives

« on: April 13, 2019, 04:05:54 pm »

I will definitely keep this in mind once the laser on my current PS2 finally kicks the bucket! I just need to learn how to solder haha

You don't really even have know how to solder you just need to melt the solder blob with the iron and swipe/flick it off too remove a solder bridge between two contact points.

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Classic Video Games / Re: PS2 clones and alternatives

« on: April 13, 2019, 03:13:08 pm »

If you really have been through that many PS2’s I’d recommend doing a little research and learn how to replace the laser. It’s actually not that hard at all to do. All you need is a phillips screw driver and some phillips precision screwdrivers and also a soldering iron to remove a anti static solder blob. PS2 lasers are super cheap you can get both the slim and the fat model lasers from China shipped for five bucks.

I have replaced a quite a few PS2 lasers on both fat and slim units and they perform like new units afterward reading blue discs and everything you throw at them. It’s funny that so far the Chinese laser I put in my daily driver PS2 three years ago is actually performing better and lasting longer than the original Sony laser did.

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Hardware and Tech / Re: Need help with fixing OG Xbox

« on: April 01, 2018, 08:35:23 pm »

Have you checked for cracked solder joints under the IDE connector on the motherboard?

The disc drive not opening is actually a very common problem. Its means the belt is streached out or worn and no longer providing enough tension and needs to be replaced. Tapping the top of the drive at the same time as hitting eject can sometimes get them to open.

You can't just stick another hard drive into a Xbox. The hard drive is locked and the bios looks for a file that contains a security key if it's not there if will refuse to boot. You can't just clone the drive or simply copy the file either because the drive is software locked and won't let you read from it's partitions. Only the Xbox the drive is paired with can unlock the drive to read write to it. There's a method to change the hard drive but requires a softmod that also requires the drive to be functioning in the first place. The only way to change a dead hard drive and use one that is unlocked is with a TSOP mod or a mod chip. MS did this because they cared more about preventing piracy than your right to repair.

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Classic Video Games / Re: Your Opinions Of The Spyro Series

« on: March 30, 2018, 11:47:49 pm »

The first three on the PS1 are bonafide classics. The sixth gen ones however are mostly mediocre with a exception of heroes tail which is actually pretty solid in my opinion.

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Hardware and Tech / Re: Need help with fixing OG Xbox

« on: March 29, 2018, 07:17:52 pm »

If reseating the cables doesn't work than it's possibly a bad hard drive or IDE cable. If your hard drive is bad that means you’re boned unless you can do some basic soldering to install a modchip. These Chinese clone Aladin XT boards are widely available and are super dirt cheap. I've used them on both my Xbox's and they are rather simple to install.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Aladdin-XT-4032-Machine-Readable-XBOX-Original-Mod-Chip/122774594237?hash=item1c95efa2bd:g:5HwAAOSwVlVZ8cpr

Not nearly as likely as a bad hard drive but it also could be a bad IDE cable. The original cable is a 40 wire cable that can actually be upgraded to a 80 wire IDE cable such as a ATA100 or ATA133 that increases read right speed of the Xbox HDD by 25%. With a modchip installed and a 80 wire IDE cable its actually possible to use any SATA hard drive with a PATA to SATA adapter.

I’ve used this cable myself it’s a bit short side but just long enough and it’s dirt cheap. https://www.ebay.com/itm/E-IDE-UDMA-ULTRA-ATA-133-HARD-DISK-DRIVE-RIBBON-CABLE-DVD-c37/221657613778?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649