Retro gaming

This is where you can deliberate anything relating to videogames - past, present and future
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Suits
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Re: Retro gaming

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Michiel K wrote: February 7th, 2019, 9:16 am Image

Slightly related, I also took the risk of buying an SMS controller on eBay (had some bad luck in the past with controller purchases) and that turned up in the post yesterday, as well. I needed it to play Wonder Boy in Monster Land as it's one of the few Master System games that doesn't work with MD controller inputs. I never held one of these and it's interesting to see how small it is, even in comparison to the NES controller (must be the 'missing' start and select buttons). It feels pretty good to hold, though the dpad doesn't feel as accurate and trustworthy as that of its direct competitor's.
Hmmmmm, so I thought the centre of your D-Pad looked strange - or at least different to the two I have at home.

I think, yours is one of the ones that would take the odd joy stick accessory, just with the cap on the hole that accepts it.

Mine both look like this for comparison.

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Michiel K
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Re: Retro gaming

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Suits wrote: February 8th, 2019, 8:53 pm I think, yours is one of the ones that would take the odd joy stick accessory, just with the cap on the hole that accepts it.
Oh yeah, I remember seeing that in magazines, that you could screw a small balltop in the center of the SMS controller's Dpad. Lemme see...

...

It is indeed a cap that you can take out and the screwy hole is under it!
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Suits
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Re: Retro gaming

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Michiel K wrote: February 9th, 2019, 7:41 pm
Suits wrote: February 8th, 2019, 8:53 pm I think, yours is one of the ones that would take the odd joy stick accessory, just with the cap on the hole that accepts it.
Oh yeah, I remember seeing that in magazines, that you could screw a small balltop in the center of the SMS controller's Dpad. Lemme see...

...

It is indeed a cap that you can take out and the screwy hole is under it!
Rad.

Do it.
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Suits
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Re: Retro gaming

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Not picked up too much lately really, the primary reason, I'm running out of space. Again.

I've held off actively searching for Mega Drive/Master System bits as my bookshelf is full, however, if the correct opportunity presents itself I'll still pick it up. I've also got to shift some of my 360/PS3 stuff into the loft to free up some more space for classic collecting.

It's the London Gaming Market on the 17th March, so I've been saving some pennies and putting together a sort of dream list with what I feel, I'd be happy to pay for them. Then if they're there I can make a sensible decision.

As often whenever I go to gaming shows I always tend to get a bit blinded by the lights - like when someone asks you for a good song to put on and you go blank :lol: .

If nothing shows up, or its too much I feel, I'll just pick up as many GameCube games that I can in terms of what I have left to get. Mostly cheap commons that are rare to see at carboots, CEX, etc....

We'll see how that tactic goes.

The two interesting things I've received are;

My darling wife got me these for my birthday. They're lush. All working, all boxed, manuals, inlays and Mario Bros. has its battery stickers still in there too. Lovely. I said I wasn't going to get anymore, here we go.....


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Then, the next grab was trigger by something a work colleague just happened to mention to me in passing.

He said, "The CEX in town has a bunch of those GameBoys games like, boxed, in the window." . Immediately I left the office to investigate.

These are what was there, all boxed, all complete, posters and inlays. Very fair price as well.

I already have both the Tetris games but as cart only, I'll now put them into my swap pile and upgrade to these fine looking specimens.


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Suits
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Re: Retro gaming

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A genuine concern of retro gaming is losing your valued game saves from yesteryear, or being unable to save your data today, as the battery has died.

I have quiet a few GameBoy carts, (not so many SNES) that have depleted batteries which is a shame. I'm not too concerned about old game saves as cool as it can be looking back at them but more a serious issue is being unable to play these games today and make genuine progress and satisfaction.

My most recent case was Donkey Kong '94 on the GameBoy, having to start over each and every time makes certain games pretty much unplayable.

Many of these carts had they're batteries installed in the early 90's or earlier, so with that in mind I decide to get myself a soldering iron kit and give the simple process a go myself.

I got my kit, which was £15 from Amazon and a set of ten CR1616 batteries for £8 and I was away.

I deiced to practise on a spare Kirby cart that I had to attempt to minimise risk and see whats what.


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Got the old battery out.


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And the new one in....


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The solder job was pretty bad as it goes but I learnt so much about how it reacts and how it heats and cools.

Close up of my poor first attempt.


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That said, as messy as it was and how easy it was to bend the contact it set solidly and worked fine !!


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Happy days, thats really good news and seems like a really simple job now that I've given it a go.

Soon after that I had a go at DK '94 and did a much quicker, much tidier job on that with similar results and can now save my progress - nice.

Just got to work through the rest of the failed batteries now.......


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KSubzero1000
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Re: Retro gaming

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Really cool!

Is there a way to change the battery while also preserving the existing save files?
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Re: Retro gaming

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KSubzero1000 wrote: March 9th, 2019, 3:40 pm Really cool!

Is there a way to change the battery while also keeping the existing save files?
Ooooo, you’d have to dump your cart and save to a file, which is certainly doable and pretty common - I’m just not sure how you’d upload it again.

Most people do it to keep it as a file somewhere, like on a PC, I’ve never heard of anyone re-uploading it again so to speak.
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Re: Retro gaming

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I see. So putting a new battery in the cart means losing the previous save file and restarting everything from scratch no matter what, correct?

I have a FE7 save file with most supports unlocked that I would rather not lose... But if it's hopeless, it's hopeless! :)
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Re: Retro gaming

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KSubzero1000 wrote: March 9th, 2019, 3:47 pm I see. So putting a new battery in the cart means losing the previous save file and restarting everything from scratch no matter what, correct?

I have a FE7 save file with most supports unlocked that I would rather not lose... But if it's hopeless, it's hopeless! :)
Yeah, taking out a live battery will wipe any save data that the RAM is holding.

It’s not hopeless mate, I’m sure there’s a way, there’s always a way, I just don’t know how to do it 👍🏽.
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Re: Retro gaming

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KSubzero1000 wrote: March 9th, 2019, 3:47 pm I see. So putting a new battery in the cart means losing the previous save file and restarting everything from scratch no matter what, correct?

I have a FE7 save file with most supports unlocked that I would rather not lose... But if it's hopeless, it's hopeless! :)
I'd be surprised if GBA batteries are dying just yet, although I could be wrong.
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Re: Retro gaming

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Alex79uk wrote: March 9th, 2019, 8:14 pm I'd be surprised if GBA batteries are dying just yet, although I could be wrong.
Could be random chance but not one of mine has died yet.
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Re: Retro gaming

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I can think of *a* way to do it, but it’s super awkward to do unless you’re very handy with the iron.

You’d need to solder the new battery onto short jump leads, solder those onto the board, then cut the old battery off it’s clips using tin cutters. And I’m not sure if what’s left would still fit cleanly into the cart.

It might be possible to use small croc clips to attach a battery to the terminals while you do the work, can you access the terminals from the other side of the cart?

What you’re looking to do is find some way to connect another power source to it *in parallel, NOT IN SERIES* to keep it live while you work.

I... probably wouldn’t recommend it :)
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Re: Retro gaming

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Yeah that sounds like a total hassle, but thanks anyway! :lol:
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Re: Retro gaming

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Retro gaming market in London this weekend. It’s usually pretty crowded and not normally somewhere you’ll find actual bargains, but if you don’t mind paying what something is worth it’s usually worth a nosy.

https://www.londongamingmarket.com
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Re: Retro gaming

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End of this month is the first of the two yearly trips to a retro gaming market I allow myself (for the sake of my wallet) and I'm getting kind of excited about it!
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Re: Retro gaming

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Yeah, I’m going LGM on Sunday.

Got my list ready.
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Re: Retro gaming

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Went along to the gaming mart today, picked up a few Megadrive games. Boxed copy of Crude Busters which I remember playing on a friends machine a lot as a kid, and unboxed copies of Strider (not sure how that’s never been in my collection) and Legend of Galahad (which I remember more as Leander on the Amiga)

I’m no collector, I tend to buy a lot of loose carts without their boxes, when I do buy a boxed game it’s usually cause it’s one I want to play so I don’t tend to care about the condition of the box or whether there’s a manual.)

Also grabbed some silly toy stuff for the office, and a cheap asciiware 6 button pad that clearly has seen better days. Needs a damn good clean.

Oh, and I found a Simon’s BASIC cart for the c64. That’s something I think almost no one will have heard of or care about except me. But it’s a significant part of my ‘learning to code” experience and it was for pennies so it’s a nice to have momento for me of my earliest days.
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Re: Retro gaming

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Flabyo wrote: March 17th, 2019, 4:35 pm Oh, and I found a Simon’s BASIC cart for the c64. That’s something I think almost no one will have heard of or care about except me. But it’s a significant part of my ‘learning to code” experience and it was for pennies so it’s a nice to have momento for me of my earliest days.
Huh, that's interesting. Didn't the C64 have a BASIC programmer built in to it? I grew up on the Amstrad, which did, and I remember I'd spend hours typing in programs from magazines, and altering them slightly like putting my name in the credits or changing some text in the game to convince my parents I'd written it.

:lol:

I did actually make a couple of things from scratch. An incredibly rudimentary drawing program, which could only do right angles and straight lines. You basically moved the joystick and it drew a line if you held down the fire button.

The other thing was a waggleomter, with juvinile wank based labels on the meter. I'm not sure why EA and the like were never battering on my door to join them, I can only assume I flew under their radar.
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Re: Retro gaming

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The built in basic on the c64 was a bit rubbish, it was much the same as the version for the PET and didn’t give you access to all the cool stuff the machine had. Simon’s basic adds a bunch of stuff to it to make it more on a par with something like the version on the BBC.
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Re: Retro gaming

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I always keep my eye open for you Glenn, just to say hi but I must have missed you this time.

I'm starting to dislike how busy that place gets.

Anyway, I didn't get too much stuff this time as I picked up a few big ticket items that I've been after for a while but wanted to see them in my hand as opposed to buying them blind as it were off the internet.

First up, these two beauty's....

Both complete, both in nice condition. Zelda's map is rather torn up and Metroid cartridge label has seen better days but I've been after these two for a while and I'm pleased as punch to finally get these all together and nice. That's it now for me on NES games, I have all I want in physical form.


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Then I picked up these as I was at a stall that had a bargain bin. I don't have any TurboGrafx cards, or any way to play them but at least I can tick one of those of my list now.

The GB cart is a bit faded on the top but I've never played this and it was only a few quid so was well worth it.

I also picked up a bunch of Mega Drive FIFA games, just because they were £3 each and I needed them for the set.


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Then, my big thing I wanted.

I've wanted this for a while, stupidly, honesty mainly for the fun of it and the Wario game on the system.

I got myself a JPN Virtual Boy.


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The stand is good, has all the bits, the mesh face mask is in good condition and all is well. The only thing missing is the paperwork from the box - which does irk me a tad I must admit but I'm still very happy.

Grabbed a few games for it as well but there's not much out there unfortunately, well at least today and I'll be confined to ordering from the internet for Wario but that's cool, I must get that game I've heard an awful lot about it and how good it is so I'm well keen.


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