Messages

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Your favourite games no one talks about.]

Formation Armed F - ...

Armed F always reminded me of Cyber Core, do you have any love for that? I'm not a fan of either, so they do not make my "under appreciated" list.

Blasphemy, Cyber Core is a brilliant game

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: White PCE only giving a screen.]

Holy shit!  MMMonkey, you got me into modding too!  I was on your site the other day!  I'm sorry I can't think of anything to help you out here, but thanks for the well written guides, you've helped a lot of people out

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: pc-engine cdrom2 help]

they spin ... the middle gear was already replaced. The discs played fine on my duo. I was able to get them working by running a magic eraser over it ... Is there a way adjust the pots so that it would read minor scratched discs?

I think the general consensus is to replace the caps first (if they haven't been already)

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Pricey games]

I think it's important to make a distinction between how much games sell for and how much they're listed for.  In the case of Nexzr, you'll find a tonne of listings on eBay that never sell (or do so once in a blue moon), and plenty that are listed for a more reasonable price that sell often.  It's the difference between checking the sold prices and listed prices.

Lo and behold.  One Time Cruise 2 sold for £22, one sold for £36, and one (the only auction) ended at £16.  Those are the only sold listings. Just be patient if you want it that bad, it's not a $70 game.

[Buy/Sell/Trade / WTT: Gate of Thunder (Japanese), Theon's Quest, others for Nexzr, Spriggan 2]

So I have:
Theon's Quest (TG-16)
Then the following for the PC Engine
Gate of Thunder (CIB, no spine)
Super Momotaru Densetsu II (CIB)
Super System Card 3 (loose)
New Adventure Island (loose)

and I am looking for:
   Arcade Card Pro
   Bikkuriman World
   Cadash
   CD Denjin
   Gekisha Boy
   Moto Roader MC
   Nexzr
   Spriggan Mark 2

All CIB

[Buy/Sell/Trade / WTT: Gate of Thunder, Theon's Quest others for Nexzr, Spriggan 2]

So I have:
Theon's Quest (TG-16)
Gate of Thunder (CIB, no spine)
Super Momotaru Densetsu II (CIB)
Super System Card 3 (loose)
New Adventure Island (loose)

and I am looking for:
        Arcade Card Pro
   Bikkuriman World
   Cadash
   CD Denjin
   Gekisha Boy
   Moto Roader MC
   Nexzr
   Spriggan Mark 2

All CIB

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: WTB: Super System 3 Card PCE]

I got one, I'll PM you

[Off-Topic / Re: I'm alive...]

Hey man, I just have to say... WHAT A STORY!  Jeeze I mean my life has been pretty boring of late but damn.  You're gonna have some tales to pass onto your grandkids.

Hope you get back into position soon, we'll be waiting for you.  And good luck

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Snipping old caps]

I always remove with hot air. Fresh solder to all the pads first. I never lift pads using this method.

See that's exactly what I'm thinking.  Have you got a youtube channel by any chance?

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: REPAIR GUIDE - TurboDuo/PC Engine Duo/R/RX: Laser Swap & Adjustment Guide]

this is really good stuff.  I might have to consider an oscilloscope.  I've seen Ben Heck use one to great effect, but it was always a bit mystifying to me, I'll have to watch a tutorial and see if I can work out what's going on (the sheer amount of buttons and dials is a little overwhelming)

I've been watching reviews of the Hantek DSO5000 series and they seem to be a nice value for the money, but I find it difficult to justify forking down 250€ for something I still don't know either how to use or what to use it for... Just a couple months to my bday, so I might get one anyway

Yeah that seems too much.  Check ebay for a second hand one, I just looked and there are some old ones going for like £30

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: REPAIR GUIDE - TurboDuo/PC Engine Duo/R/RX: Laser Swap & Adjustment Guide]

this is really good stuff.  I might have to consider an oscilloscope.  I've seen Ben Heck use one to great effect, but it was always a bit mystifying to me, I'll have to watch a tutorial and see if I can work out what's going on (the sheer amount of buttons and dials is a little overwhelming)

[General Gaming / Re: SNK to announce new hardware ?]

Is it really that little cab thing?  Does it have HDMI out?

[Off-Topic / Re: What do you depise AT THIS MOMENT, literally....]

Perhaps they're also inspired by sexy French ladies.

Alfred 'itchcock
'eavy Unit
'aute coutore
'erpes
The 'ighlander
'ulk 'ogan

That would make sense I guess.  Still it's weird to be like "we're going French on this one word.  No reason, but we've all decided to do it"

[Off-Topic / Re: What do you depise AT THIS MOMENT, literally....]

I hate that most Americans now drop the H in "herb".  It doesn't make any sense!  It's not spelled "erb".  The only people I know that pronounce it "erb" are people with stong jamaican/caribbean accents, but that makes sense, because they're consistent.

For some reason, millions of people seem to have looked at one specific word, and decided "I don't need to say that part of it".  SO ANNOYING.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: [PC Engine Duo] Missing parts.]

Hey, well done!!  And thanks for posting the solution!  One more duo saved from the scrap heap ^_^

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Turbo Express / PC-Engine GT missing 24 V, Q500 getting HOT]

That's beyond me, I'm afraid.  Maybe one of the experts can help

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Turbo Express / PC-Engine GT missing 24 V, Q500 getting HOT]

Do you think it could be a blown resistor?

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: WTT Gate of Thunder]

Nah I missed out on that.  I'd be prepared to balance out a Nexzr trade a little with cash.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Snipping old caps]

I recently recapped a Super Famicom and encountered a few surface-mount electrolytics. Twisting them - not tilting them side to side or pulling them or any motion other than as if turning a screw - seemed to me to put the least stress on the board. They came off with tremendous ease and the board seemed to be able to hand the torque with no trouble. YMMV with Duos or whatever else.

If you're feeling like being a big-spender to get good capacitors, try to identify which caps are doing power decoupling and replace them with Panasonic OS-CONs. They look a bit like electrolytics, but they're solid-polymer based. They have lower ESR/better frequency response than tantalums, come in fairly high capacitance values, and have the side benefit of not using blood minerals (no offense to anyone who uses tantalums; they're in most modern electronics anyway). In positions other than decoupling, their super-low ESR can actually screw things up a bit, so do watch out for that.

I wish I could figure that all out

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Snipping old caps]

I'm watching GametechUS on youtube (on a Friday night, go me) and he snips the caps with short nosed snippers, and it actually seems to do a decent job.  What's the consensus of this technique?  Any downsides?

I never trusted his technique, I saw the same video you're talking about. I think I'd rather have 2 solder irons to heat up both legs of pesky, leaky surface mount capacitors when it comes to their removal.

After removal, I'm conflicted about replacement between low ESR Panasonic caps and Steve's idea of switching to dry tantalum caps so they never leak again and you gain other possible pros/cons.

I was thinking that as well actually.  What are the cons of using tantalum caps?

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: FS: Sega Wondermega with games and backup ram cart]

It's the bad moves you made, or in this case didn't, that you always remember.

Yep.  Swapping my boxed Multimega for a game gear, losing my copy of Avengeing Spirit for gameboy (fml) and lending a friend all my nes games.

Luckily, none of that cost me much, but holy shit is it sad.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Snipping old caps]

I literally don't know.  Like... It can't be worth fucking up a boxed GT over the wrong decision...  And Keith is someone I hugely respect as being way more talented than me.  Yet I've seen others who say in bold capitals DO NOT DO THIS.  Agghhh

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: FS: Sega Wondermega with games and backup ram cart]

I passed on buying a PC Engine LT for $600 in 2008 because I thought I could get one cheaper

tbf, I passed on some good deals too.  I'm actually pretty happy with most of the stuff I did get though

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Anyone have a Hu6260 schematic?]

Console5 has most everything, and they put em up and share stuff, love those guys.

GPU schema here:
https://console5.com/wiki/File:TurboGrafx-16-Schematic-3-Hu6260_Circuit.png

Thanks Sekun ^_^

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Anyone have a Hu6260 schematic?]

A friend pointed out I can test continuity to see if mine are fried, and it's a good shout.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Pricey games]

looks like 1943 kai is creeping up too

I got this for £20 recently.  But yeah it's usually up around £50

[Off-Topic / NBA playoffs]

Anyone following the playoffs?  There's been some outstanding basketball being played.  Any one series so far has had some incredible moments (caveat:  Spurs/Warriors).  I legit think that the 76ers could very well win the east, and the west is looking a lot closer than I'd have thought, but definitely I have the Rockets and Warriors for the finals.

I'm gonna watch every game from here on in.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: SOLVED - Turbo Duo thinks it´s aways closed - Laserunit does nothing]

So glad you managed to solve it, after over a year!  And props for coming back to document the answer, very cool.

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: FS: Sega Wondermega with games and backup ram cart]

shit, I want this.  If my bonus covers this and my overdraft, would you ship to the UK?

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: CD ROM potentiometers part ???]

amazing, thankyou.  I think mine might actually be close to that already, but I'll check at home

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: WNTD Hu6260 Chip]

Honestly, it sounds interesting and I'd like for you to get the chip, make a thread, and document the whole process.  I think soldering that many leads into the motherboard would just be a nightmare, is all.

For that many leads, you'd use a process called dragging.  Use hot air to heat the board up and remove the chip, clean the board, then once you anchor a pin or two on the chip, you literally load up a chisel shaped iron tip with solder, and drag it across the contacts (with plenty of flux)

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: CD-ROM2 spins but won't read discs, help.]

Just to check, what's the polarity of the topmost blue cap?  It's actually aligned vertically as opposed to horizontal

[Console Repair/Mod Center / CD ROM potentiometers part ???]

Ok, so I dug the old cdrom2s out,  and this is with headphones in and a CD, the unit lights up, but doesn't spin, and I'm 90% sure this because old me went through tweaking the pots in frustration.  Like all 5 probably.  Has anyone got a picture of the pots on a working one, or any baseline readings?

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: PC Engine LT repair]

I'm pretty certain the SCD attachment is just lengthening the expansion port so that the screen will open.  Not 100% though.   I thought someone had made their own once.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: [PC Engine Duo] Missing parts.]

Great job, I'm really impressed that you figured so much out just by reading around!

The warm-up issue does ring some bells, but I can't remember the solution.  Off the top of my head:

could be a cold solder joint
could be a pad lifting
Could be that the back plate was actually providing some heat disipation as well as ground.

Probably the easiest thing to start with, if possible, is to try the unit without case, and some kind of active cooling, like a fan, or even try refrigerating it and see if that reduces the "reset time".

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Do any PCE systems use >5V anywhere?]

I learned something!

[Buy/Sell/Trade / WTT Gate of Thunder]

I have a spare Gate of Thunder to trade, ideally for Nexzr or Spriggan Mk II  Mine is complete with manual but missing the spine, and the CD spindle inside the case is a little sunken on one side, but that's easily replaced/fixed

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: PC Engine LT repair]

This is great stuff!  I'm impressed that you've done so well!  What was the initial cost?

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Do any PCE systems use >5V anywhere?]

This meets my interest as well.

Remember, there are two 7805's in a Duo, each hooked up to their own extruded heatsinks. From looking at photos on the web, I see only one 7805 in PCE and Turbografx-16 consoles, and it seems to be connected to a large metal shield for heat dissipation.

I could try hooking up my Turbo Duo to the lab power supply once again, to test it against 7.5 V.
When the console would need 1 A at 10 V = 10 W, I'd expect it to need 1,3 A at 7.5 V to get the same wattage. I can test this by using the current limiter of the power supply and playing a CD game, where I noticed the current draw is at peak when loading from the disk. When the console draws more power than the limiter allows, the lab power supply will switch to constant current mode, the voltage drops and the console will reset itself.

Interested to know the outcome of this.  Actually, I'd be interested to know on a core/white unit too.  Wish I had a variable PSU.  I might put one on my wishlist.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: WNTD Hu6260 Chip]

I'd be up for some of these too (although obviously I'll take my place in the queue).

You've posted this in the PC-FX trades though, might be better off in the Turbo sales section

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Taito PCE chiptunes suck]

I have a question for you audio types:  Is it possible to make rayxanber 3 not sound like shit somehow?  The weapon noises are awful.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Help with Sindibad]

Finally i beat the game.
I write the walkthrough ASAP.

Any good place to upload the corrected map and other pics?

Good work!

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Pricey games]

Ok, updated, thanks guys

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: CD-ROM2 spins but won't read discs, help.]

Of course, I would say that you need to mark down the positions, but you've done that.  Going by the other threads, vr105 controls the CMO (whatever that is) and seems to be the main thing to adjust laser power.

I'm no expert though, I'm just going by what I've read

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Taito PCE chiptunes suck]

does it say "rape sux" on that wall?

And... I know this from Trailer Park boys I swear, but I expect those jugs are basically the bathroom.

That picture raises so many questions.  I like to think the guy is actually enduring temporary inconvenience while he saves to buy his own place.

[Off-Topic / Re: Stan Lee Abuse?]

It was sad what happened to Harper Lee.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Pricey games]

Double Dragon II is over 100 now?

Anyways, for the laser active, time gal, road avenger/prosecutor and don quixote Are all over 100 many times over

I never really count LA stuff tbh, it's all so pricey.  Double Dragon 2 has been pushing £100 since I can remember

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: PCE GT Button 1 not working]

I literally grab each surface mount capacitor and then twist it to the right as far as I can. If it doesn't break off keep twisting the same direction. Don't go right left right left over and over again. So just pick a direction and keep going that way till they twist off. Do not pull up in anyway. just spin it One Direction Until It Breaks Loose. 

Sometimes pads can still get pulled up using this method. However I find that it is the least likely to have it happen.

Out of interest, have you tried applying heat with a hot air wand thing and lifting them then?  I don't want to teach my grandmother to suck eggs, but that way sounds pretty foolproof in my mind

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: CD-ROM2 spins but won't read discs, help.]

it might be that the laser is dead, but you should at least be able to adjust vr105 a little to get it to read. Also, check the caps, because they might need replacing too.

Since I happen to have them open in browser tabs, I'll drop some links to different posts here that could help:

https://www.pcengine-fx.com/forums/index.php?topic=8926.msg396086#msg396086
www.pcengine-fx.com/forums/index.php?topic=22853.msg511444#msg511444
www.pcengine-fx.com/forums/index.php?topic=21371.msg468763#msg468763
https://www.pcengine-fx.com/forums/index.php?topic=7012.0
www.pcengine-fx.com/forums/index.php?topic=7193.75

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Building my own controller/stick]

Oohhh, if you got the hori 6 button pad, please don't use that!  That's the best pad out there in my opinion (and quite a few others).  Well it's your choice, but I hope you agree!