Arcade & Retro Repairs & Mods, all new recipe, with no added MSG...

Jack burton

Right, I need to do a bit of a service on my new crt.

So I need a deguassing wand and take off the case to give it a good clean with some compressed air. Check the caps aswell

Anything else Ill need to do to get me the best picture?

Star Lord

Make sure you're well insulated?

Doge

A guy called Tony in the Vectrex group managed to source brand spanking new CRT replacements for the Vectrex from Georgia. They ship worldwide apparently too!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjz5IKcn7ng

Doge

So heres what delayed the Zip Stik GET:

As you can see from the advert, its says its a "PC Joystick" and has a "vga connection".

http://www.adverts.ie/accessories/pc-joystick/4926503


I assumed the seller got it wrong and meant it had a regular DB9 connector which is the closest looking thing

to VGA.

So delivery day came, and i pulled it out of the box and this was at the end of the cable:





Arghh! A gameport connector for the PC!

The joystick was obviously modified by someone to be played on the PC.

So I decided I'd demodify the mod and make it useable!

Luckily I had a spare db9 cable from the last joystick I bought which was damaged.

The zip stik has very non standard wiring, the colour of the wires are different to the Atari standard,
and the GNDs of the microswitches are not daisy changed.
There was wires going from the GND terminals of the joystick microswitches to the positives of other microswitches.! Wtf


Also there was resistors and capacitors between the GND and positive terminal of them too!

So being quite confused I decided to desolder all the wires and wire it myself using this standard schematic:



Something still wasn't right, it was acting as if the one direction was held down or closed even though the switch wasn't been pushed.

So i decided to snip off the resistors and capacitors and voila, everything was working as it should!


And here's the finished result:





The extra grey connector is for use with a Spectrum without the need for a special adapter.

So in the end I got to learn a lot about joystick wiring and repair!

Doge

Would anyone here be kind enough to send me a spare DB9 cable from a broken mega drive, commodore, atari etc... controller?

I have a cool little mod planned for use with the C64. :cool:


I'm going to avoid using the ones from these new chinese replicas as you would almost break the port trying to force the cable in!....





They're really bad!

KeRbDoG

sugarman wrote: »

Anyone have experience with the PS2/Network adapter?

Having serious trouble with my Fat PS2 this evening and its driving me insane.

I have FreeMcBoot installed on a Mem card and a Network adapter with an 80GB drive in the bay.

All was working perfect last time I used it before Xmas. I go to rip some new games today when I boot up HDLoader to be greeted with "Hardware Error" "Could not detect hard disk".

I can hear the drive bootup upon starting HDLoader, and the Network adapter registers as connected on my laptop. So I dont think its that. Well, I hope not!:(

I tried 2 different drives in it that I have setup correctly and have been using the past number of years, and theyre both the same.

On the root of the drives in the explorer I cant see anything.

Tried the obviously of cleaning the ports and making sure everythings nice and tight.

Any ideas?

From what I remember of my PS2 'Test' console with its HDD/LAN Adapter, you need to format the drive before you can do anything. Done?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLvjY-W3qWU

Steve X2

I eventually got around to finalising how that USB Host Adapter will sit inside my Jap RGB'd 3DO FZ-1.

The ways its designed you are supposed to have a usb drive sticking out the front.

Ugly as fook!!





So I moved it back further inside the case(thanks Sugru ) as I don't need to access the USB very often. I think it looks a lot better and no nasty USB port on the front of the case.

The Last Bandit

Looks better alright... but is that USB interface any good ? Any problems with FMV streaming off it or anything like that ?

Steve X2

The Last Bandit wrote: »

Looks better alright... but is that USB interface any good ? Any problems with FMV streaming off it or anything like that ?

No probs with loading anything so far and I've played a lot on it. FMV, CDDA and data seems perfect.

Steve X2

Here it is running the super awesome amazing 3DO version of FIFA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_H4LmMKzNI

Edit:

And "Starblade" and "The Need for Speed"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rb0hAyAuqN8

CiDeRmAn

That looks incredible Steve.
So sorry I didn't pick one up.
I believe they were limited in number, those mods?

The Last Bandit

Does seem rather spiffing alright !! Would have liked one myself too..

Steve X2

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

That looks incredible Steve.
So sorry I didn't pick one up.
I believe they were limited in number, those mods?

It is very nice actually. I think he made about 8-10 of these for the FZ-1 and more for the FZ-10(and a good amount of them for the Dreamcast).
I managed to nab 2 for the FZ-1 and 1 for the DC.

I was actually talking to him yesterday over email, so he hasn't vanished and I can ask if he has more as I know he can be very hard to track down

CiDeRmAn

What was the damage for the device for the 3DO?
I'm lucky enough to own everything I want for the console but I suppose the FZ1 drive will eventually pack it in and there has to be some way to keep enjoying that 3DO gaming goodness.

Steve X2

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

What was the damage for the device for the 3DO?
I'm lucky enough to own everything I want for the console but I suppose the FZ1 drive will eventually pack it in and there has to be some way to keep enjoying that 3DO gaming goodness.

I paid 165 Euro for 1 device inc shipping from Kazakhstan.
Was trying to get one for over a year from him. Had to pay his friend in Moscow and he forwarded the payment to Kazakhstan and then he shipped it to me.
Totally worth it though

Steve X2

Decided to do something with the C64 case I modded a while back as I have a little free time on my hands for once. I installed a better keyboard in it(old one was missing a key) and will be putting a Raspberry Pi 2 in there and hooking it up to the original C64 keyboard using the Keyrah V2(so i can actually use old joysticks as well).

I'm moving most of the rpi connections to the back of the case using various couplers and will probably do something about the GPIO connections as well.
I've got all the main parts and am just waiting on the Keyrah to arrive from Germany.






Edit:
And yes, there are some extra layers of purpleness, as it always needs more purpleness :0)


.

Steve you do some lovely stuff

CathalDublin

Deadly, what price should one be paying for a broken breadbin C64, been looking for one for ages now but the postage on the ones currently listed on ebay is extortionate

Steve X2

BrownFinger wrote: »

Steve you do some lovely stuff

Some would say very strange stuff :0)

CathalDublin wrote: »

Deadly, what price should one be paying for a broken breadbin C64, been looking for one for ages now but the postage on the ones currently listed on ebay is extortionate

I'm not really sure but any I've seen are overpriced before even the postage. I actually picked up a couple from a guy in Bray a few years back as he had a load of retro computers he was moving on at the time.

CiDeRmAn

Steve SI wrote: »

I paid 165 Euro for 1 device inc shipping from Kazakhstan.
Was trying to get one for over a year from him. Had to pay his friend in Moscow and he forwarded the payment to Kazakhstan and then he shipped it to me.
Totally worth it though

Maybe not this half of 2015 but I'd definitely want one of these contraptions.
Very cool indeed.

Steve X2

Few more bits arrived this morning for the C64 mod.
I got a nice little adapter to convert the micro sd connector on the Raspberry Pi to an external full size SD card connection to make life a bit easier(and allow for a dual boot setup in the future with another little mod).

It's a cable nightmare at the moment, but I have a slim and short HDMI cable on the way so that should help.
I'll be changing the power connector so there will be an external female micro usb port to power everything. Still waiting on some small bits to arrive and also the Keyrah.

The Last Bandit

Just keep it closed an it'll look fine. Don't forget to install a decent Amstrad emulator - that'll confuse them

Andrew76

Does it still play C64 games? :P

Steve X2

The Last Bandit wrote: »

Just keep it closed an it'll look fine. Don't forget to install a decent Amstrad emulator - that'll confuse them

It shall be done

Andrew76 wrote: »

Does it still play C64 games? :P

Sure, using the RPi Vice emulator

eddhorse

Steve SI wrote: »

It shall be done



Sure, using the RPi Vice emulator

Is that the RPi 2 or your old B+?

Also got Hyperspin working, easy peasy, thanks for the suggestion!

Steve X2

eddhorse wrote: »

Is that the RPi 2 or your old B+?

Also got Hyperspin working, easy peasy, thanks for the suggestion!

It's a RPi 2, might as well do it right

Good stuff on the hyperspin.

CiDeRmAn

Steve SI wrote: »

It's a RPi 2, might as well do it right

Good stuff on the hyperspin.

Come on guys, I need to know how Cave shooters perform on this thing, before I go and spend money on it!

eddhorse

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Come on guys, I need to know how Cave shooters perform on this thing, before I go and spend money on it!

Ciderman and his daily request

Steve X2

I've two versions of MAME on it. MAME4all and advancedmame.
Both use a very old romset and don't have many of the cave shooters. Dodonpachi runs perfect if that helps

CiDeRmAn

eddhorse wrote: »

Ciderman and his daily request