Random Thoughts & Topics v2

[cobainwasmurdered]

HCTP is my fav game. Great CAW and career mode as well as a big roster.

 

[SFH]

I just can't comprehend how literally nothing changes from one day to the next with our home wifi, laptop, and printer, and just like that our computer does not acknowledge the printer's existence.

It doesn't help that half the time I'm on zero sleep when I need to print something, as is the current case, so I have zero patience. I just deleted the printer and my standalone scanner from system preferences and clicked to find it again on the wifi (the physical printer says it is on the wifi) and no printer, anywhere.

EDIT: AND THE MOST INFURIATING PART OF IT ALL IS THAT MY WIFE FIGURED IT OUT AND FIXED IT WHILE I WAS SLEEPING

 

[Smues]

Turbo-Graphix 16 Mini launches March 19, 2020. Sold exclusively through Amazon and preorders open on Monday. U.S. price isn't known yet but the Japanese price is around $100 USD. Kotaku says the game list will be nearly identical across regions, but didnt specify which list it included which I'll post below so I'm not 100% certain the American version will have all of these but it should be close.

Note: Both the American and Japanese games listed are on one console. It's not the seperate listings of the American and Japanese release.

American games:

Air Zonk
Alien Crush
Blazing Lazers
Bomberman ‘93
Bonk’s Revenge
Cadash
Chew-Man-Fu
Dungeon Explorer
J.J. & Jeff
Lords Of Thunder
Military Madness (Nectaris)
Moto Roader
Neutopia
Neutopia II
New Adventure Island
Ninja Spirit
Parasol Stars
Power Golf
Psychosis
R-Type
Soldier Blade
Space Harrier
Victory Run
Ys Book I&II

Japanese PC Engine games:

Akumajō Dracula X Chi No Rondo (Castlevania: Rondo Of Blood)
Aldynes (SuperGrafx game)
Appare! Gateball
Bomberman ‘94
Bomberman Panic Bomber
Chō Aniki
Daimakaimura (Ghouls ‘N’ Ghosts - SuperGrafx game)
Dungeon Explorer
Fantasy Zone
Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire
Gradius (Nemesis)
Gradius II – Gofer No Yabō (Nemesis II)
Jaseiken Necromancer
Nectaris (Military Madness)
Neutopia
Neutopia II
Ninja Ryūkenden (Ninja Gaiden)
PC-Genjin (Bonk)
Salamander
Snatcher
Star Parodier (Fantasy Star Soldier)
Super Darius
Super Momotarō Dentetsu II
Super Star Soldier
The Kung Fu (China Warrior)
Ys I&II

 

[Youth N Asia]

Keith Courage and Splatterhouse not being listed really surprises me. Would also much rather have seen Devil’s Crush over Alien Crush.

 

[Kageho]

https://kotaku.com/blizzard-chief-development-officer-and-co-founder-frank-1836543811

So yeah, Activision has gotten out all the original Blizzard crew with this. So can't wait for all the more Activision like things Blizzard will do now.

 

[Master Thrasher]

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

 

[Master Thrasher]

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2019-08-28-the-lion-king-and-aladdin-sega-genesis-classics-to-get-hd-remasters

With the movies being remade; this is happening. There's a lot of Disney games in the 16 bit era that need to re-released.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ko8ey8JCpP8

 

[Baby Shoes]

I got that Disney Afternoon Collection immediately and while I didn’t play it as much as I expected, this will be no different.

Much more sentimental attachment to these for me. Aladdin I rented and never got to finish. I remember loving Lion King and usually getting stuck in the same area, so will be good to revisit.

 

[Valeyard]

I don't think I can really play anything else until I beat Dark Souls 2. It's getting to where the anger is making any skill I had go down and I roll like an idiot until I get stabbed by some twat with a spear. I just wanna grind to use my Castlevania whip.

 

[Master Thrasher]

https://twitter.com/DaveBautista/status/1168916756100014081

 

[Master Thrasher]

https://bloody-disgusting.com/video-games/3585943/forever-entertainment-remaking-first-two-house-dead-games/

HOTD 1 and 2 might be remade.

 

[Kageho]

Blizzcon is going to be such an absolute mess because of the whole Blitzchung situation.

I think I might sit down and watch. It could be a fun time.

 

[909]

My brother goes to Blizzcon every year so I’m very much looking forward to his yearly text updates this time.

 

[Master Thrasher]

I work Blizzcon every year so I'm looking forward to all the religious people and pro and anti China people protesting.

 

[Master Thrasher]

https://twitter.com/PanzerDragoonRE/status/1187670702989684737

I hope it's good. A lot of Saturn titles need to be rereleased or remade.

 

[Master Thrasher]

https://www.pcgamer.com/rumour-valve-are-about-to-announce-a-vr-game-called-half-life-alyx/

We're kind of getting a new Half Life game.

 

[Master Thrasher]

https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-mlbpa-sony-extend-video-game-partnership

MLB The Show will be on non Sony platforms starting in 2021.

 

[KingPK]

MLB finally realized those shitty RBI Baseball games they publish are a waste of money and they might as well give everyone the good game.

 

[Master Thrasher]

Yeah I don't get trying to grow the game and connect with young fans by having one game exclusive to one system.

 

[Smues]

Got one of these last month (Arcade1Up, 3/4 scale machine) and really liked it, but it gave me the arcade bug again. So I decided to take another shot at making a raspberry pi machine.

Replaced all the buttons, joysticks, wiring, and circuit board with an LED button set and USB encoders.

Ran into plenty of problems and things took a lot longer than they should have, but I've got it to a satisfactory place.

Was able to finally make the wiring fit the plastic cover too, though it could be better.

Because reasons, the 2p and 3p buttons and their coin buttons aren't compatible with 2p and 3p's USB encoders so until I solve that problem they just get solid color buttons. It all works fine though. I set all the console emulators to use 2p and 3p as 1p and 2p, while MAME is set for all four straight accross but I can change it if I need two players to have 6 buttons. Haven't figured out if i can set it on a per game basis though.

My next project is to convert the A1U Marvel cabinet (which I bought solely for conversion because it's a gen3 cabinet and I like the pre-wired speaker. Man what a let down that game list was) to run a real arcade PCB, despite my failure to run one last year on my Starcade.

I also have the Star Wars cabinet (which is awesome BTW) that I had hopes of modding with a Pi to play other arcade games that use a flight yoke. Specifically to play S.T.U.N. runner, but apparently it doesnt run well on a Pi, so I'd have to use a PC. Still a maybe but far in the future, and that's if the flight yoke turns out to be unusable with a Pi.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

that's really awesome man

 

[Master Thrasher]

The local Target had Red Dead Redemption (360 version) on clearance. I had it on the PS3 and wasn't too enamored with it but I figured I'd give it another go.

Oh and cool arcade machine you got. Didn't know you were into building stuff.

 

[Tino Standard]

Awesome work on your cabinet, Smues.

I have a Raspberry Pi setup in my basement that I’ve been tinkering with over the past couple years. I bought an X-Arcade Tankstick and built a shelf for it to go with a TV mounted to the wall. Doesn’t have the same nostalgic feel as a traditional cabinet, but it’s clean.

Replacing the joysticks in the Tankstick made a noticeable difference performance-wise. I’m thinking about swapping out some buttons next. No performance issues with those, but I feel like having different color buttons would make it easier to explain controls to my friends when they come over. Speaking of which, I wish I had the expertise to program the controls to be a bit more consistent across emulators. For example, you can use a certain button combo to exit out of games on most emulators, but on one (AdvMame, I think?), you have to use the escape key on a keyboard. Would be nice to get to a point where when friends come over, they can just plug-and-play and not need me to navigate.

 

[muzzington]

https://monitor.firefox.com/breach-details/Zynga

Over 170m peoples data was stolen from Zynga Games.

 

[Smues]

I intended to stop spending money and pursue this project maybe in the summer, and then the video converter I needed went on sale on black Friday and I ended up ordering everything I needed throughout the month of December.

I would have MUCH preferred to use an Arcade1up Mortal Kombat machine, both for the artwork and the built in games, but it's generation 2 and there are reasons I wanted to use a gen 3 machine so I used Marvel. The button layout for Marvel was more convenient as well.

I'll try to keep this short and skip the boring stuff. Decided to start with a Superman PCB since it was affordable and I have found memories of playing it at Chuck E Cheese.

Removed and replaced all buttons, joysticks, and wires. Not sure how it looks in the pictures but the joysticks aren't centered in the holes and there is a small visible gap on each because of the way the panel is drilled. They work fine and have their full range of movement, but i intend to try and find a solution for that. Wired a power supply that powers the JAMMA harness, and wired a power strip into a power switch on the backdoor, so everything inside is plugged into that strip
and to turn it all on or off I just flip the switch on the back. Did the same thing with the TMNT machine and Starcade. Wired everything into a JAMMA harness, which is what plugs into the arcade board. Took a little bit to get video working and stable but it's good to go now, only complaint is the box that converts from the board to my monitor won't boot automatically to an input, so I have to hit a button on the remote control everytime I boot up. Not a big deal though.

Audio took quite awhile but I had my big breakthrough the other night and it seems to be solid now. I need to clean up the wiring for it, but it works fine at least.

Bought a jigsaw and last night cut a hole in the back for the power switch and a big one in the front for this bad boy. I still need to mount it in firmly and it's not hooked up yet, but I like how it looks in the panel. When I tested it the 2p coin slot worked but 1p if its connected it just constantly sends the add coin signal and the game stops and flashes COIN ERROR. 2p did that at first but after running a couple quarters through worked fine, but no matter how many I ran through 1p it still was broke so that's on the to do list.

So it's at a pretty good usuable stage, with the todo list being big but nothing that had to be done to make it playable. I may wire a coin button to one of the unused buttons just for convenience until I fix the other coin slot. (Superman doesn't have a freeplay mode as far as I can tell).

So I'm really happy how this has come out so far. Especially given I failed so hard last year and broke a Captain America board. And now that I've got this working, in theory when I buy new games, as long as they're JAMMA (arcade wiring standard adopted in I think the late 80s) it should just be a matter of unplugging the old board and plugging in the new one with the JAMMA connector and basically be plug and play. Now if only Gauntlet Legends/Dark Legacy wasn't so fucking expensive.

 

[Master Thrasher]

So cool. How many games/machines do you have?

 

[Smues]

Five. Yes I know I have a problem.

1. Marvel A1U machine converted to run JAMMA boards.
2. TMNT A1U machine converted to run a raspberry pi with Retropi.
3. Star Wars A1U. Unmodded, has the arcade trilogy of games from the early 80s.
4. Pac-Man A1U countertop machine. If that one counts, it's small. About a foot and a half tall, 8 inch screen. Unmodded, has Pac-Man and Pac & Pal.
5. The Starcade tabletop machine I built in 2018. Runs a Pandora's Box 6.

I've had to stop myself from buying the Rampage A1U while Walmart has had it in stock in town for $200. And if theyd ever stocked Final Fight when it was $150 or shipping to Alaska wasnt over $100 I'd have that too. I have a problem.

And just when I thought I was safe, I read that they're likely to announce new machines next week at CES. Shit.

 

[Master Thrasher]

https://www.shacknews.com/article/115706/arcade1up-reveals-nba-jam-arcade-cabinet-with-online-play-at-ces-2020

Cool.

 

[Smues]

Messing with this shit has been my 'invest myself in something rather than offing myself' activity for the last couple of months, so I got a random bug up my butt to try and make a Pop'n Music panel for the TMNT machine. Did some measurements and discovered I'd have to use smaller buttons than a real machine has, because even if I got another panel the size of the one it came with, I'd run into the same problem I had with that where the sides of the machine cut off wiring. So I ordered a blank panel and 60mm buttons, and spent the majority of an entire day (because I'm slow as shit at this stuff) drilling the panel and jury-rigging the wiring. My god the wiring, it's a nightmare, but that's mostly because I wanted to get it working that day and not wait for the proper wires to come in the mail, so it wont be such a mess when I get those. Anyway:

The holes aren't completely level/equidistant which I figured because it's me doing it but I did measure everything multiple times and do the math for the spacing and such so I'm really happy how it turned out. Honestly it looks better than I thought it would, though some of that is probably the plexiglass. Buy I managed to cut holes in the plexi this time without even cracking it much less destroying it like the TMNT glass so I'm proud of that too.

While there are a ton of Pop'n Music games, though I dont know how many arcade ones are emulatable, I essentially did all this to play Cha-La Head-Cha-La, which for playing via a Raspberry Pi means playing Gameboy Color and Playstation 1 versions. I already had the GBC rom, but for the life of me couldnt find a download of the PS1 iso I needed. I have a Japanese PS2 so I considered getting an adaptor to play through that but I'll worry about going down that rabbit hole later, so I grabbed my physical copy of the game I needed and ripped an image and threw it on the Pi and it runs great. So that should be plenty for awhile since I really suck at the game.

Total waste of time and money, and I absolutely love it.

HAHAHA

 

[Master Thrasher]

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-02-20-the-capcom-cafe-has-a-guile-burger-and-it-looks-amazing