Messages

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Bonk III HuCard - did you buy it new? & did it come with a manual?]

I also have a Bonk 3 hucard with the french fold-out poster. It came in a box with a big DUO on it and the cheap plastic tray. I bought it used so I don't know if it was the complete package.

[Off-Topic / Re: Darius arcade cabinets in the US?]

I also saw it here in Canada. I used to play it a lot at an arcade in Sydney, NS of all places.

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: Whoa, NEW HuCard Sleeves]

Wow! These look great! I don't know how I missed this thread but I've been suffering with yellowed sleeves for way too long. I'll put an order in on the website later this week.

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: Sadler's Summer of Raffles: AIR ZONK!]

Very nice! Sign me up, please.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: 8Mbit Flash HuCard FAQ]

This may be helpful:

https://pcedev.wordpress.com/downloads-and-links/

Specifically the 'PCE cribsheet page 2 (ver 1.0.4)', this part in particular:

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: DSP in a HuCard & Max Storage Size of a HuCard]

Memory is accessed in 8KB pages and the first 247 (0-F6) are available for hucard data. Accessing more than that would require a mapper of some sort.

SF2 is a 2.5MB game that uses a 1MB map split into two halves. The lower 512KB is static and writes to specific addresses on that page will swap one of four other 512KB pages into the upper half.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Scanline timer or equivalent in PCE hardware]

Neutopia 2 does the wavy screen effect during the first minute of the game.
Racing games like Victory Run use the same kind of effect to draw the track.

You can set the RCR register to fire an interrupt on any scanline you like, as many times as you want.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / mapper info]

Ahoy!

I'm writing an emulator and I've run into a problem with some games. I know there's a special mapper for SF2, and another for 384K roms. These games are working fine for me. I'm having a problem with some 512K roms. Is there a mapper involved I should be simulating? Better yet, is there a document somewhere with this kind of info?

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: BONK 3 BOX]

My Bonk 3 box has a UPC sticker over the original UPC, and came with the folded manual in french.

I bought it used, so I don't know if it came with an english manual.

[General Gaming / Re: My Scart RGB to YUV Component Converter impressions.]

All that old stuff gets played on a 20" SDTV because I can't as of yet figure out how to get my HD set to do said effect.

If you want to play on an HDTV, an xrgb will take a 240p signal and output it as 480p with scanlines.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: My RGB Amp design schematic! Hope it helps serve many amps to come!]

A turbo booster makes a nice place for an rgb mod, if you don't want to open up or cut holes in the TG16.

[General Gaming / Re: Post pictures of your video game collection!]

Pricy, but very impressive! I can't imagine many people have a complete set like that.

[Feedback / Re: Forum change - General Chat & Fighting Street]

The only thing that bugs me is all the Fighting Street posts showing up in the unread post list. There's a lot of noise going on.

[General Gaming / Re: SNES, Genesis, N64, Repro game boxes - go in on an order of 100 with Duo!!!!!]

They charge a LOT for shipping to Canada, as well.

[General Gaming / Re: Game Blast - Sega Master System]

I'm amazed at how colorful those games can be.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Issues in capturing TG (and PCFX video).]

Sometimes it can be hard to capture video from classic systems, and if you can it typically doesn't look too good. This is because they did some trickery to display a non-interlaced picture at 60hz on an interlaced screen.

Older video game consoles such as the Nintendo Entertainment System generated a non-standard version of NTSC or PAL in which the two fields did not interlace, and instead were displayed directly on top of each other, keeping the orientation of the scanlines constant. This would be 240p and 288p respectively.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/240p

This is called 240p. Basically they would draw half the screen (240 lines), then draw the next screen's lines on top of those previous lines, instead of just below, by manipulating the length of the vsync pulse by half a scanline. You see thicker than normal black scanlines between thse image lines because they're now being skipped. Most TVs back then had no problem displaying this mode because they were analog and could handle slight deviations from the standard. Devices today tend to assume 480i (or worse, 480p @ 30hz with a crappy internal deinterlacer) for all things NTSC. This can result in blurry images or the image will jump up and down quickly. Or not display at all.

What this means is that you have to be very careful when you're looking for a capture device. Typically this mode isn't listed, or it is listed incorrectly. Even the top-end scalers today tend to do it incorrectly. The reason why the xrgb is still quite useful is that it understands this mode and will convert it to a mode modern equipment understands.

Here is a site that talks about capturing 240p and suggests hardware to use:

http://yokotate.hazard-city.de/

It is more geared towards rotating the image in realtime for shooters, but it still has useful information.

[Off-Topic / Re: Where to get an RGB compatible monitor?]

The XRGB2+ is incredible. I've tried a lot of devices over the years and this is the only one that did things right. It doesn't try to scale the picture, instead it just doubles the lines (or inserts black scanlines if you prefer) so you get a nice, crisp image. A lot of modern TVs have a problem with 240p signals (they treat it like 480i instead) so passing it through an XRGB beforehand can really help.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Adventures of buying a Broken PCEngine and Briefcase from ebay]

That's a nice quality picture for a projector on a classic system. Which model is it?

[Off-Topic / Re: Where to get an RGB compatible monitor?]

Buying an xrgb unit would give you an RGB input with a 480p output, good for plugging into a VGA monitor or even a HDTV with a VGA input.

Other than that, you could look into getting a used monitor from an arcade machine...

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: Good price on US Soldier Blade]

hucard and sleeve only. comes with a blank hucard case that has the information from the box back taped to the back of the case.

They're both loose.

[Off-Topic / The “What-Did-You-Buy-Today?” Thread]

Holy crap, that is awesome!

[Off-Topic / The “What-Did-You-Buy-Today?” Thread]

moblog.oopo.net/media/Dan%20Peori/.small/1233273985.jpg.JPG

Naomi + Capcom I/O board, Capcom vs Snk, Guilty Gear X and Power Stone.

[General Gaming / Re: sega genesis]

I just soldered them like this:

wire --> resistor --> capacitor --> output

Add a bit of heatshrink tubing and it will be nice and snug. The only problem is finding room for them if you're doing to do it inside the scart connector itself.

[General Gaming / Re: sega genesis]

I finished my genesis rgb mod tonight:



RGB+sync, composite video, stereo audio. Just hooked them up to the pins on the din connector. I had to put a 220uF capacitor and a 75 ohm resistor on each of the RGB+sync lines though. More info:

http://www.hardwarebook.info/Capacitive_coupling

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Check it out...]

This one of those 'oh crap' moments.

After taking a closer look at my Bonk 3, it ends up I have the duo-style box and the french turbochip-style instruction booklet.

Doh!

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Check it out...]

AWESOME, do it to the bonk 3 turbochip manual!

It isn't very exciting, just black & white. I can do up a quick scan if you want...

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Check it out...]

The true test is to print it out and compare with the original at the same size. It looks a little over-processed, but it may look normal at a smaller size than my screen.

I usually scan my stuff at 600dpi, apply a simple gaussian blur and resize to 300dpi.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: RGB to Component (YUV) converter options for TurboDuo / PC Engine]

To be fair, I said the 9A60 worked for the Dreamcast.

But it should work... maybe. Probably. It works for a TG16 through an xrgb2+, at least.

It doesn't do anything fancy to the signal, just the color, so it should probably work fine. If I had an rgb-capable TV I would test it.

BTW, the xrgb2+ is incredibly awesome. Highly recommended if you're gaming on a hdtv!

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Did anyone ever make a TurboGrafx / PC Engine Cleaning Kit?]

Now she's a pretty girl!

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Magical Chase BIN on Ebay]

Here's a fun thought.

It is LOT cheaper to buy a flash cart, put the Magical Chase rom onto it, saw off the gba-style connector on the end and paint it to look like the original hucard.

[Off-Topic / The “What-Did-You-Buy-Today?” Thread]

To be consolized:

moblog.oopo . net/media/Dan%20Peori/1226528362.jpg

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: Turbo Duo/Duo-R with S-Video and RGB mods, respectively]

I use an Audio Authority 9A60.
http://www.audioauthority.com/product_details/9A60



I picked it up years ago to hook up a Dreamcast to a HDTV. It works great (and automatically!) with any resolution unlike another one I have.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Official catagorization for Us released Turbo-Grafx 16 games]

Those are sealed SuperGrafx games, I need to find a good supplier of poly bags to properly store them.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Official catagorization for Us released Turbo-Grafx 16 games]

Here's some better pictures:





Only the copy of Alien Crush on the top left pile and Sinistron have replacement labels, the rest are all original.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Official catagorization for Us released Turbo-Grafx 16 games]

Here's a quick picture of my US collection:


Buster Bros. is in the middle of the stack on the right. Dragon Slayer is right above it. the next two above that are Fighting Street and Monster Lair.

If you need me to scan stuff, or at least take a picture with a real camera, I can do that.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: RGB Mod for a PcEngine Duo-r]

Component video and RGB (scart) are very very close in terms of quality. They're basically the same signal (resolution) with different ways of sending color information. You can buy a transcoder to convert it for you. There should be very little loss in quality, if any. See more at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YCbCr

Some US TVs can take a RGB signal on their component inputs, or you can usually feed an RGB signal into a VGA input if your TV has one.

The problem then is that you'll probably need a HDTV to get these inputs, and they tend to do very ugly things to 240p video from older game consoles.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Magical Chase BIN on Ebay]

Rather pricy for basically a loose hucard + instructions stuffed into a 'spare' case.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: To celebrate the PC Engine's 21st, I have been playing...]

So far tonight: Aero Blasters, Bonk 3, Dungeon Explorer (ABMBI AKLIE), Victory Run, R-Type, Dragon's Curse, Space Harrier, Bomberman '93, Military Madness.

Not pc-engine technically, but a celebration regardless. The supergrafx is coming out soon for some fun, too.

[Off-Topic / The “What-Did-You-Buy-Today?” Thread]

Excuse the bad quality picture, I just picked this up from a local kijiji seller:



A TG16 + booster, 5 controllers + tap, Military Madness and a loose Bomberman '93, plus some other minor games.

Cheap!

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: PC Engine / TurboGrafx Flash Cart Questions :) (Specifically the 64M Neo Flash)]

How much of a discount would a group buy get?

[Off-Topic / The “What-Did-You-Buy-Today?” Thread]

Thanks to the wonderful folks at risingstuff.com, I finally have one of these:


Which means I can finally play games on my projector that hates 240p:


A hundred inches of screen and every damn pixel and scanline is visible and lag free. I love it.

[Off-Topic / Re: Issues with eBay Seller London.21 aka the.recordmans.music]

Holy crap, that shadow in #7 is awesome!

[General Gaming / Re: ps3 mods?]

Nope, all PS2 models play the same games at the same speed and quality.

[General Gaming / Re: ps3 mods?]

PS1 emulation is software based and should work on all models.

PS2 emulation was handled at least in part by hardware:

20GB - Hardware EE + GS, no wifi.
60GB - Hardware EE + GS.
80GB - Hardware GS.
40GB - Nothing!

I have a 20GB model and it does a great job since upgrading to the 2.0 firmware. Compatibility is very high. It renders at normal resolution and upscales that for output so there isn't a lot of improvement but the upscaling quality is a lot better than most/all HDTVs.

You can't mix and match hardware in the PS3. I tried adding a wifi board from my 40GB model to the 20GB model and it didn't work. The board worked fine, it just ignored the wifi parts.

[Off-Topic / The “What-Did-You-Buy-Today?” Thread]

I had a lot of fun in the LBP beta. It isn't supposed to be out for at least a week - how did you get a copy early?

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: FS: Turbo Grafx Hu cards and CD ROM's]

My games arrived today in great condition. Thanks again!

[General Gaming / Re: Why isn't there a flash cart for the Neo Geo?]

There's a good description of the problems here:

http://www.tototek.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=5597#5597

Neo Geo is a very difficult system to make a playback device for, far more difficult than NES.

The issue stems from 2 obstacles:

1) The Neo Geo has five ROM buses which must be emulated which means a very tricky design. All other consoles except NES, which has two, have only one!

2) The Neo Geo has enormous ROMs! To emulate all but one Neo game (KOF2K3) you'd need 512M (32-bit bus made from 2x 16-bit flash chips) for character (graphics) memory, 64M (16-bit bus) program memory for the game code, 128M (16-bit bus) for audio samples and 4M (8-bit) of Z80 program memory. That adds up to 708M for the largest game -- that would require over $200 of NOR type flash memory and that's assuming that the font ROM memory is integrated into character memory!

Instead of using flash, one could use cheap old computer SIMMs (this is what my DIY Neo geo RAM cart is designed around) but this creates another issue--power! Computer SIMMs consume about 4 mA per megabit, which means a ~710 megabit RAM cart with the support circuits would consume nearly 3 AMPS (15W)! Compare this to any other copier which consumes around 5W at most! Powersupplys that hefty often cost $30-50 and would be bulky.

Neo Geo like NES also uses bankswitching, special character bus chips and encryption. These issues can easily be worked around but make the design more difficult because later games which have their own form of bankswitching must be hacked to use the "standard" bankswitching.

The Neo Geo console's graphics bus is different from MVS and requires a logic chip with many many pins, essentially any home "playback" (flash)cart will have to have a MVS->AES converter built into the design to emulate this additional component in AES carts. Think integrated Phantom-1/NEO Super Converter (normally valued at $250 alone!)

Encrypted games (everything after KOF98?) will need to be decrypted before being flashed since emulating encryption would be a dumb waste of resources but thanks to MAME sources this is pretty trivial (the only thing that's trivial about emulating Neo carts )

Another substantial issue is the two PCB needed for Neo Geo games, in small numbers I would imagine the boards being as costly as $50 for a set since they're huge!

Alltogether this project is so extreme, it's simply not cost effective for anyone to make.

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: Moved to eBay -- FS: just some Turbo Games (Air Zonk, etc.)]

I'm not saying you're ripping people off, no worries. International shipping, especially from the US, can be a complete pain in the arse.

I was just pondering bidding on the copy of Air Zonk at $24.99 USD when I noticed the shipping to Canada was listed at $20.53 USD.

Ebay seems to be acting up right now but it appears that the other TG16 games are listed at the same shipping cost as well.

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: Moved to eBay -- FS: just some Turbo Games (Air Zonk, etc.)]

$20 for shipping to Canada is rough, dude.

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: RESTOCKED!!! TG16 Spine label Stickers…(5) full sets (3) small sets…]

Put me down for a full set, please.