14th October 2020, 9:06 PM
So, I got several things from ebay recent-ish, two I forgot to mention previously and one new one.
First, arriving on Sept. 20, I got an Epyx Fast Load cartridge for Commodore 64, with an Epyx game demo preview disk. Some kind of fast loader is absolutely essential with the C64, and with this my 'run real games on real disks' system is pretty much complete. The Fastload cart does boot the system straight into 64 mode, so I can't use 128 mode on this 128D with it, but 128 mode has faster disk speeds than 64 mode anyway, so I'd just remove the cart for any 128 software I may get in the future. The speed difference is dramatic. (It's probably a bit like going from an Xbox One to an Xbox Series system... heh.)
Second, for $15 and arriving on Sept. 28, I got a TI Silver Link USB cable, a PC-to-TI graphing calculator cable for my TI 83+ calculator I have from back in highschool and college. I never did use the thing a lot; I mostly just used it for a few math classes in highschool and my first year of college and that's it. I only had two games on it, Snake and some other thing I never played, and never got the (then serial port-based) PC cable to load other stuff onto the thing; I rightly thought of it as being pretty seriously inferior to my Game Boy Color. And now that I can load anything TI83+ compatible onto it... well, this feels like kind of a waste of money, because so far almost nothing functions. I've tried a bunch of stuff, some for alternate loaders and some you should be able to boot from the system, but almost nothing works. I managed to get one iffy version of Flappy Bird to load and that's it. Yeah. I've given up for the moment, maybe I'll try some more another time but there's got to be something I am missing that explains why nothign else works... whatever though, it's a neat novelty but certainly not a great games platform. Good calculator, yes. But as a games machine? With no audio and a super-slow-to-update screen, not so much. Also, I'd think things would actually load when you boot them, but... nope. Oh well, at least the cable didn't cost too much.
And third, and last for now from ebay, for $50 I got a transparent green edition Xbox One Duke controller, the remake of the original Xbox controller for the X1. These, the green ones in particular, seem to be going up in price so I decided to get one while it's still easy enough to find in good condition. So far I definitely like the controller, it is a very faithful recreation of the original Xbox controller that I quite like, but working on a modern PC or Xbox One natively and with added second shoulder buttons that duplicate the Black and White buttons. It's good stuff.
And last, this one goes back a few months. I mentioned I got a new Atari 7800 a few months ago. Soon after getting it, I bought a copy of the system's most impressive and probably best homebrew game, Ricki & Vicki. It was $60 ($almost $55 after shipping) and I bought it in mid August. The game is available here, he's down to only 25 copies remaining and will not be printing more because demand was low, so get a copy now if you have a 7800! It's worth it. (There is also a much cheaper version on Steam which is the same game, but with one improvement over the much more expensive cart release, it has saving. The 7800 version doesn't save, not even passwords; that's the one bad thing I will say about it. I think getting the cart is very worth it anyway, though.) http://www.penguinet.com
I didn't mention this purchase at the time because it had a problem -- the game didn't work at all. When I turned on the system, all I saw was a black screen. So, I contacted the guy behind the game about it on email and in the AtariAge thread about the game, and being interested in the issue he asked me to mail him my 7800 console and copy of the game, for testing and possible repair, as a warranty service for just the sot of shipping. I said yes and sent it out last month. After investigation, he found that this system I got only a couple of months ago had a LONG list of issues! The mod was not installed well at all, and solder blobs had shorted things and were killing the power regulator. This was why Ricki & Vicki wouldn't load, it uses more power than other games due to its added audio chip and mapper inside the cart. Additionally, on top of fixing the regulator and the solder shorts, he replaced two capacitors, replaced the socket that the TIA chip was in since the one the modder used was cheap and the chip was apparently coming out of the board sometimes after the system was on for a few hours (!), and re-hooked up audio on the RF line, with some resistors as are needed, so the RF port works again. I will get back to this. All just for about $20 in shipping the system both ways. Yeah, it was somewhat crazy generous, that kind of repair as a warranty service for a totally working cart (the problem was my console, not the game, after all)'s kind of nuts! Really nice, though. And on top of that, he actually gave me some free stuff when he sent it back -- he sent me some things he doesn't even sell, he only has the hardware design and electronic schematic plans for on his website -- two adapters to use Master System or Genesis controllers on a 7800, with both buttons working. They are amazing and if someone was selling these I would highly recommend them, the 7800 controller is usable but being able to use a Genesis controller is very dramatically better! He said they were extra ones but still, yeah, that was very nice. One is hooked up to my 7800 right now.
The system still has one issue, however -- it may be mechanically fixed now, but the mod used has a faulty design in one respect, audio on the cartridge input (that is, for games that use added audio chips in the carts, as R&V does, or Ballblazer to mention an original 7800 game with added audio that I have) has an extremely low volume when output through the AV jack. This problem is particularl ybad on my system; on my Philips CRT TV, with any game other than Ballblazer or R&V, about 35% gets good audio levels. This is a bit louder than ideal for consoles other than the 7800, but it's not too bad, a volume I can mostly leave the TV at (which is good, the thing has a round dial on it for volume and channel and it's hard to change the volume without also changing the channel. And the remote's no help because the volume buttons on it are broken.). However, with R&V or Ballblazer? I need to about DOUBLE the TV volume to 60% before I can hear anything beyond the faintest whisper! And that's way too loud, the sound on the TV does not sound right turned up that high, I don't think. Apparently cartridge-enhanced-audio volumes here vary signifiicantly from one system to another, based on the way the mod was installed and the particulars of the system, but on this one it's incredibly quiet. Apparently this is how all of the 7800 AV mods now work, and this is really something the mod creators should work on.
However, if you connect the system via that now-reattached RF connector? The video image quality is absurdly horrible beyond even my worst expectations, I could never use this system looking like that, but audio is nice and loud from both console and cart with no issues; the mod's problem is only in the mod, and not in the system's primary output itself. So, my solution to this problem is with yet more hardware -- I ordered (for $15) a Phillips RFU which is powered and has extra audio output jacks on it. I should be able to get sound from that and graphics from the S-Video port on the console. I will update again once that arrives but I hope that fiixes the problem.
As for the game, Ricki & Vicki is a very nice looking puzzle-platformer. Each stage is a single screen, with warping around the edges of the screen, and you need to figure out how to get all the items to advance to the next screen. It's a fun challenge and the stages are different in one player and two player modes, adding to the replay value. It's definitely good and better than your average homebrew game by a longshot. The high-res graphics show off that rarely seen 7800 graphics mode, too, and they did a good job of disguising how few colors that mode allows you.
First, arriving on Sept. 20, I got an Epyx Fast Load cartridge for Commodore 64, with an Epyx game demo preview disk. Some kind of fast loader is absolutely essential with the C64, and with this my 'run real games on real disks' system is pretty much complete. The Fastload cart does boot the system straight into 64 mode, so I can't use 128 mode on this 128D with it, but 128 mode has faster disk speeds than 64 mode anyway, so I'd just remove the cart for any 128 software I may get in the future. The speed difference is dramatic. (It's probably a bit like going from an Xbox One to an Xbox Series system... heh.)
Second, for $15 and arriving on Sept. 28, I got a TI Silver Link USB cable, a PC-to-TI graphing calculator cable for my TI 83+ calculator I have from back in highschool and college. I never did use the thing a lot; I mostly just used it for a few math classes in highschool and my first year of college and that's it. I only had two games on it, Snake and some other thing I never played, and never got the (then serial port-based) PC cable to load other stuff onto the thing; I rightly thought of it as being pretty seriously inferior to my Game Boy Color. And now that I can load anything TI83+ compatible onto it... well, this feels like kind of a waste of money, because so far almost nothing functions. I've tried a bunch of stuff, some for alternate loaders and some you should be able to boot from the system, but almost nothing works. I managed to get one iffy version of Flappy Bird to load and that's it. Yeah. I've given up for the moment, maybe I'll try some more another time but there's got to be something I am missing that explains why nothign else works... whatever though, it's a neat novelty but certainly not a great games platform. Good calculator, yes. But as a games machine? With no audio and a super-slow-to-update screen, not so much. Also, I'd think things would actually load when you boot them, but... nope. Oh well, at least the cable didn't cost too much.
And third, and last for now from ebay, for $50 I got a transparent green edition Xbox One Duke controller, the remake of the original Xbox controller for the X1. These, the green ones in particular, seem to be going up in price so I decided to get one while it's still easy enough to find in good condition. So far I definitely like the controller, it is a very faithful recreation of the original Xbox controller that I quite like, but working on a modern PC or Xbox One natively and with added second shoulder buttons that duplicate the Black and White buttons. It's good stuff.
And last, this one goes back a few months. I mentioned I got a new Atari 7800 a few months ago. Soon after getting it, I bought a copy of the system's most impressive and probably best homebrew game, Ricki & Vicki. It was $60 ($almost $55 after shipping) and I bought it in mid August. The game is available here, he's down to only 25 copies remaining and will not be printing more because demand was low, so get a copy now if you have a 7800! It's worth it. (There is also a much cheaper version on Steam which is the same game, but with one improvement over the much more expensive cart release, it has saving. The 7800 version doesn't save, not even passwords; that's the one bad thing I will say about it. I think getting the cart is very worth it anyway, though.) http://www.penguinet.com
I didn't mention this purchase at the time because it had a problem -- the game didn't work at all. When I turned on the system, all I saw was a black screen. So, I contacted the guy behind the game about it on email and in the AtariAge thread about the game, and being interested in the issue he asked me to mail him my 7800 console and copy of the game, for testing and possible repair, as a warranty service for just the sot of shipping. I said yes and sent it out last month. After investigation, he found that this system I got only a couple of months ago had a LONG list of issues! The mod was not installed well at all, and solder blobs had shorted things and were killing the power regulator. This was why Ricki & Vicki wouldn't load, it uses more power than other games due to its added audio chip and mapper inside the cart. Additionally, on top of fixing the regulator and the solder shorts, he replaced two capacitors, replaced the socket that the TIA chip was in since the one the modder used was cheap and the chip was apparently coming out of the board sometimes after the system was on for a few hours (!), and re-hooked up audio on the RF line, with some resistors as are needed, so the RF port works again. I will get back to this. All just for about $20 in shipping the system both ways. Yeah, it was somewhat crazy generous, that kind of repair as a warranty service for a totally working cart (the problem was my console, not the game, after all)'s kind of nuts! Really nice, though. And on top of that, he actually gave me some free stuff when he sent it back -- he sent me some things he doesn't even sell, he only has the hardware design and electronic schematic plans for on his website -- two adapters to use Master System or Genesis controllers on a 7800, with both buttons working. They are amazing and if someone was selling these I would highly recommend them, the 7800 controller is usable but being able to use a Genesis controller is very dramatically better! He said they were extra ones but still, yeah, that was very nice. One is hooked up to my 7800 right now.
The system still has one issue, however -- it may be mechanically fixed now, but the mod used has a faulty design in one respect, audio on the cartridge input (that is, for games that use added audio chips in the carts, as R&V does, or Ballblazer to mention an original 7800 game with added audio that I have) has an extremely low volume when output through the AV jack. This problem is particularl ybad on my system; on my Philips CRT TV, with any game other than Ballblazer or R&V, about 35% gets good audio levels. This is a bit louder than ideal for consoles other than the 7800, but it's not too bad, a volume I can mostly leave the TV at (which is good, the thing has a round dial on it for volume and channel and it's hard to change the volume without also changing the channel. And the remote's no help because the volume buttons on it are broken.). However, with R&V or Ballblazer? I need to about DOUBLE the TV volume to 60% before I can hear anything beyond the faintest whisper! And that's way too loud, the sound on the TV does not sound right turned up that high, I don't think. Apparently cartridge-enhanced-audio volumes here vary signifiicantly from one system to another, based on the way the mod was installed and the particulars of the system, but on this one it's incredibly quiet. Apparently this is how all of the 7800 AV mods now work, and this is really something the mod creators should work on.
However, if you connect the system via that now-reattached RF connector? The video image quality is absurdly horrible beyond even my worst expectations, I could never use this system looking like that, but audio is nice and loud from both console and cart with no issues; the mod's problem is only in the mod, and not in the system's primary output itself. So, my solution to this problem is with yet more hardware -- I ordered (for $15) a Phillips RFU which is powered and has extra audio output jacks on it. I should be able to get sound from that and graphics from the S-Video port on the console. I will update again once that arrives but I hope that fiixes the problem.
As for the game, Ricki & Vicki is a very nice looking puzzle-platformer. Each stage is a single screen, with warping around the edges of the screen, and you need to figure out how to get all the items to advance to the next screen. It's a fun challenge and the stages are different in one player and two player modes, adding to the replay value. It's definitely good and better than your average homebrew game by a longshot. The high-res graphics show off that rarely seen 7800 graphics mode, too, and they did a good job of disguising how few colors that mode allows you.