What's new Pussycat too?

Sadly as it's back to Russel T Davies, I imagine he will continue his crusade to make everyone gay in some way. Looking at the new Doctor I think it's a given. Shame I liked some of the stories but the drive to make it overly PC killed it.

Sadly Tennant is only in for the anniversary which I believe is a two parter and as he's such a great actor there are piles of work out there for him.

Was looking at the price of a PS3 on ebay, 40 quid (machine only, no pad) seemed the norm so you got a great buy there..

And yes, double dipped (oh errr) which surprised me as I did two lines and had 2 numbers on each, normally only do one. Must be some odds on getting 2 out of 2 but would have preferred a chunk of cash more

Here's hoping..

 

The 7800 has been collected and I've had a quick play with a couple of games. Everything seems to be working well apart from the joypads which are a little bit dodgy in some directions. I'm probably going to try and pick up a third party controller anyway so not a big deal. Nice to be playing Asteroids on the old CRT display again though.

 

I still prefer playing The Need For Speed on my 3DO, Gran Turismo 2 (original Playstation version) on my Dreamcast using Bleemcast for emulation and enhanced graphics, 24 Hours Lemans, Test Drive V-Rally and F1 World Gran Prix on my Dreamcast, and, last but not least, the classic Atari Jaguar World Tour Racing for my 3D/simulation drivers. I've got several newer NFS, Test Drive, MSR, etc. for my original Xbox and 360, but I still prefer the 90's/00's classics myself. Really the ones that started it all.

 

I still haven't had a chance to put real time into my 7800 and the Dragonfly cart with all the games, virtually. Hopefully I will soon. I've played some Jaguar lately here or there for a few minutes, but that's been it for gaming for me for months. Too busy fixing broken equipment for the business in the off hours this time of year.

 

There is no place whatsoever for blatant sex, relationship drama or parading of sexual orientation in sci-fi and fantasy, period. It ruins it all, just like it ruined the more recent BattleStar Galactica series. Eluding too, sex and romance, like between Leia and Han in Star Wars, or like it Lord of the Rings is great, and needed, but the rest just ruins the rest of it. And then you start throwing overt (current day) political and PC stuff in too. Again, keep it vague and along the lines of ideals, not true current politics. Obviously my favorite series of all time, The Foundation series by Isaac Asimov is full of government and politics, but distant fantastical ones that may vaguely resemble something can ponder or learn by. But then the entire series shows the entire gambit of politics and government and slaps both good and bad of each across both of your cheeks.

 

While looking for some dust covers for my 7800 and TRS-80 Coco 2, I did stumble across, of all things, a dust cover for the Sears Video Arcade II, which used the same shell as the Japanese 2700 (2900?) and of course the more venerable 7800. But whatever, I can handle a Video Arcade II dust cover, in fact, if I ever come across one, I'm planning on transplanting an NTSC 7800 (not my custom PAL one I bought from @nysavant) into a Sears Video Arcade II case. This cover appears to be made of canvas material instead of vinyl, but I ordered it in black to match the other covers in colour. It's a shame Sears never got any of the first run 7800 boards during the initial trial release, and made the Video Arcade II an actual 7800 100% 2600 compatible as it is...but with the same style case as the Video Arcade II which is essentially a 2600 Jr. inside.




So I ordered it...$20 with free shipping, so about the same as the others. Now I just need one for the Coco and hopefully some for peripherals. I cancelled the order for the 1010 recorder plastic cover, deciding I want black vinyl for all...

...well, I made a tactical decision and went to Amazon and found some vinyl material to make my own dust covers for the Coco 2 and all my computer peripherals. 2 square yards worth to start. About $25.00 for both sheets. I'll most likely cut to fit and crease at the corners, etc., overlapping, and then use Velcro to hold the seams together.

 

well, I know I said in another thread on this site that I was done purchasing more hobby toys for a while...I lied, unintentionally of course, but when I find something I've been wanting for a while, and on the cheap (by todays prices) I had to over-rule my own word.

I've found and purchased a Sears Video Arcade II (I guess I better order another dust cover) in untested/non-working condition, as I prefer since it just looks dirty and should clean up nicely, since I intend to use the case for an NTSC 7800 motherboard only auction (tested working) which I also found for the price of non-working complete consoles, and since I have another case in mind fit the bill perfectly.

I will just be modifying the bottom half of the case to accommodate different positions of controller ports and other I/O and switches, if necessary. This case top will be restored to mint and left original, no custom painting it. Though I might do something with it's controller and I haven't decided if I want to make a new Atari 7800 badge for it, or leave it as a Sears VA2 and maybe add something more discreet to the current badge, distinguishing it as a 7800; like maybe adding 'Pro-System' underneath the name or 7800, or both, but in more discreet and smaller alphanumeric symbols.

Lastly, I had to have the combo joystick/paddle controller that works with the VA2 console, and will still work perfectly with my 7800 once I make the built-in paddle/joystick buttons work with the 7800 motherboard and modify the two buttons to act individually like 7800 controllers.

Of course my PAL 7800 from @nysavant I custom painted will stay as it is, the main one I use, but I just always wanted a 7800 with a VA2 case, so now I can have it and it will be NTSC one and I don't have to worry about custom OS roms or hacked games to be compatible with all games. They will sit side-by-side, by side (my recently restored Atari 2600 "Vader" VCS)

 

The Video Arcade II dust cover arrived today, I had forgotten that at the last minute I decided to get the red/maroon dust cover since the "black" looked more dark grey and wouldn't match the black vinyl dust covers anyway. I will watch the seller for when they have more 7800 branded dust covers available and this one will go to the VA2-7800 I'm going to create. I probably will go with another red dust cover for the 7800 so the two custom 7800's have matching dust covers.



I also ordered two triple-shelf tempered glass wall-mount shelving which will hold 6 of my vintage consoles. One will hold the 2600 and 2 7800's and the other my Jaguar/CD, Panasonic 3DO and Sega Dreamcast. My three favorite game consoles of all time in that order. '

6 black shelves for six (mostly) black consoles. I first need to go to the home improvement store and get 8 grey-wood wall panels and finally finish my room walls, then I can anchor these shelf units to the wall afterward.

I already have 3D printer files to make wall holders for the game controllers and mount them alongside these shelves. The console cords themselves get tucked away behind the vertical beam before mounting it to the wall (the raised center serves the dual purpose of anchoring the shelf support and hiding the cables.

I will of course have to get more "cable ducts" to continue to hide the cables whether they go up to the ceiling or down to the floor (in regards the projector that is mounted to the ceiling). The ceiling route is more direct, and I might even find some hollow molded trim for along the ceiling that is made to hide cables/wiring.

Otherwise beside a few audio/video cables going to the projector the rest will be tucked away behind the wall shelves and the audio/video cabinet I already have there below them.

Everything centralized there for audio/video/games and only the projector cables feeding elsewhere, and actually I just remembered I have the blue tooth transmitter/receiver for the projector now and my new amplifier can receive Bluetooth. I just haven't used it much as I already had it wired into the projector. I've been using the projector's Bluetooth box with my Bluetooth headphones for late nights.



My room will have grey wood paneling, a different shade of grey-wood tongue and groove flooring already installed. White floor and ceiling and door/window trim will complete it. Except for re-painting the ceiling, and I'm not sure if I'm going to do it white. It will be a bright pale color to reflect light well, but I'm not sure what yet.

But possibly, if there is any left over, I will just use the pale green paint we used on the walls in the kitchen and living room area. I already know it goes well with the grey wood flooring and white trim in there. If none or too little green is left over, I think I will go with a light tan or sand coloured ceiling. Just not white or off-white...too boring. White trim is enough to highlight the other colours.

The last touch will be black drapery that that comes down and retracts around the wall that my projection screen is on. Both sides and on the ceiling. this is for anti-reflective light from the projector and off the screen bouncing around the walls and ceiling that interferes with the screen image itself.

I want my room to be as bright and pleasant as possible most of the time, but when I want to use the projector I want it to be as dark as possible at the end of the room where the screen is.

 

So, I've been busy the last few months buying lots of gadgets, support hardware, kits,software, etc. and doing Show-and-Tell here in our Show-and-Tell thread.

Well. it may look like I am "wasting" too much money on vintage toys and whatnot. Though most times they can be a sound investment where at least you usually don't lose money over it if you have to sell it off. In fact, especially if you repaired and restored it, can make a decent to hefty profit.

I've had a good and bad year as far and my business and income are concerned. Good in that we have plenty of business and are making money. Bad that we have had constant trouble, break-downs with both equipment and the vehicles that carry and pull the equipment. Everything has broken down on us, some we've spent the money to repair, some we intend to do that, but needed it sooner than the parts arrival and repairs would take, so we bought more equipment to replace them, temporarily, until the old equipment is repaired and then one or the other will become a back-up in case of more Murphy's Law and continual issues in the future.

Now I've always had back-up equipment, and we had to use it, and it was like playing whack-a-mole with breakdowns and having some equipment having both the starter and back-up out on injury. Since I don't want this to repeat again, we have invested in back-ups to the back-ups and a back-up for them as well!

We now have 5 riding lawn tractors and one Zero-turn mower., though currently 2 of the riding mowers still need repair.
We now have 7 weed-whacker/trimmers. two still in need of repair. I also still have the small tractor that needs rebuilding of course. We also now have 6 chain saws ranging from 16 inches up to 28 inch chain/blade; one is a trusty little Echo and the rest are all Sthil (one echo and 6 Sthil trimmers too).

But that's not all! We also have had my Blazer break down, it need the transmission repaired or replaced, but leaking fluid started a fire on the manifold up directly in front of the firewall. I was able to pull over, open the hood and grab water I always carry and put it out quickly with it. Luckily only the plastic protective covers to the wiring harness were melted and burned, but the wires inside were all fine. Though a separate Air Conditioner wire did not survive. And I had a melted vacuum line I had to replace. It runs and drives mostly fine (running a bit rough the last time I drove it) but the transmission is still leaking and it starts producing smoke in the same place under the hood very quickly.

So, for the last few weeks we have been using my partner's 2 ton diesel Dodge Ram dual tires on both sides, pick-up truck. But we spend about $50 a day just on fuel for it, about 4 times as much as the Blazer used, and of course Diesel is $1 more per gallon too.and the cheapest is over $5 a gallon now for regular petrol.

So, I bought a great running and soon-to-be great looking Chevy Suburban V8 truck. But it was involved in a collision and needed fenders and bumper and hood repair or replacement, as well as the cage that it all mounts too and the radiator mounts inside of needs to be replaced too. everything else is fine. But, we had to strip the entire front end down today, with only the engine sitting on the exposed frame to get all the damaged parts off and ready to install the replacements.which we have already acquired from the auto salvage/bone yard.

Unfortunately the cage we got has on slight variation to the year/model of the Suburban, and so where the front of the fenders are suppose to mount are off by about 2 centimeters. So we have to go back and exchange it for one exactly the same. So we drive the Diesel and a lot more on fuel for a while longer. The Suburban will probably get even better gas mileage than the Blazer, even though it has two more cylinders and is a bit larger.

But after that we will have 3 company vehicles once the Blazer is repaired-which won't be until the end-of-season most likely. So we now have plenty of back-ups which we hope will be enough that we are stopped from doing business for repairs and waiting for parts to arrive.

But we have also taken steps to become more self-sufficient in other ways too. We have also had to repair or replace tires on most everything this season, with about weekly trips to a tire repair shop for repairs, mounting tires on rims and replacements mounted on rims. I also had to buy two new tires and rims for my trailer, though I did manage to repair one of the old tire and rim so I have a spare now too. So, we bought are one tire changing machine and air compressor. We already have a generator and can carry it all in the Suburban for even site and roadside repairs.

Another issue has been dead and dying batteries on vehicles and equipment, all have new ones now, but we purchased a quality charger/booster for the shop and we also purchased one of those battery booster.starter devices that doubles as a 12V power supply. Capable of 680 cranking amps of starting power. That's with us for job site and roadside emergencies now too. And of course we bought a lot of mower parts for repairs. Over all, we have spent about $7 Grand on the business since the season began. But we made triple that in the same 3 month quarter so far.

Anyway, I will edit and post pictures of everything new, but NATM, I was, but I just typed like two pages of story and description, and need a brake and don't have everything photoed yet, with maybe before and after shots for the used equipment we are repairing/restoring. As I'm OCD like that and can't just repair it to like-new condition, but I want it to look like new too, so deep cleaning, washing, waxing, maybe new paint jobs, etc. Of course some stuff is new, and so no after shots for them.

 

So, the 2sq yards of faux leather I ordered arrived today. I think it just might be enough to cover all the peripherals I want to cover. I will make covers for the peripherals most important to me first, in case I do come up short. For one, I don't know how proficient I will with minimal scrap material waste when cutting each dust cover out.

So even if there is enough material that a pro-sewer could manage all I want to cover with the material on-hand, it doesn't mean I will be able to accomplish it, but I am good with area and maximizing use of it, and will do due diligence in proper measuring and placement of dotted-lines to maximize material use, so maybe that's all that's required and not long experience specifically with cutting out material properly for minimum waste. I hope so, but I am not counting on it.

So of course my 800CX and 1200XL system peripherals will be first inline, then it will be the Bally keyboards and cassette deck, not because I value the Bally system more than the TRS-80, actually I think I feel the opposite about them, but because my Custom Bally has Vinyl and chrome trim and you know how dust and hair and whatnot like to stick to edges of materials with sticky backing to secure them.

Don't you hate it when your rolls of tape get dropped to the floor or ground and everything they touched sticks to the sides? That's why the Bally gets dust covers first. It was a lot of hard work installing that trim and I'd rather not have to redo it all.

I think it'd be pushing it to expect to get more than those systems done with what I have on hand, so I won't even think about other items until I get dust covers on the peripherals of these systems first. it's covering my single bed in the pictures, overlapping and all, just like a bed cover.

 

Think of the giant dust cover you could make for your bed Matt

 

Or a large gimp outfit?

 

LOL!!!
My real purpose and secret is out!

 

We all knew

 

classic scene to a classic movie...I'll have to give it another watch. I've seen the film 2-4 times in my life I would guess, but I'm sure it's been 20 years since I saw it last. I want Royal with cheese, like you Brits get, instead of the Quarter Pounder with cheese.

 

Lol.... Yes, whole film just works so well....."I aint Jewish, I just don't dig on swine"...Made for Jackson, all top drawer ...

I personally don't like Tarantino from what I have seen and heard him talk about, but he writes some great films..

 

We are the quarter pounder here as well Matt, mainland Europe gets the Royal

 

Well, I decided to go ahead and install my new shelving before I get my paneling on the wall, they will be easy enough to take down temporarily to do the paneling, that most likely I won't be doing until next fall or winter anyway. I do want to get one more of these shelves to hold my original Xbox, 360 and a Sega Saturn I intend to get again. And maybe a Sega Mega Drive/CD/32X too, which will go where I currently am displaying my controllers. Though I'll probably change positions with the consoles so the brands are grouped together.

 

Fine selection there and natty covers too..

 

I just picked up a PAL Vader 2600 sold as untested as it was RF only and had no PSU. So that works fine with my UNO2600 cart from Electrotrains. I then picked up a PAL 7800 in mint condition with the non standard power supply for a low price as it was listed as a 2600 by the seller. Only downside was no joypad. It did come with a two button Quickshot Python so I could mod that I guess but I’m not likely to need one just yet as I only have 7800 Ballblazer and the POKEY from that cart is in my 65XE!

 

Blimey Richie, is any console safe from you

Good luck to you my friend, keep enjoying the old stuff, it needs the loving..

Paul..

 

I was just about to buy a 7800 Ballblazer cart off of ebay for the incredible price (these days) of $35 to get the Pokey inside to use as the second Pokey in my 7800's Dragonfly unit as I'm doing an old-school dual-Pokey mod to it since specially programmed (for 7800) Pokeymax's are not currently available for it! No special programming is required for a DIY dual-Pokey as it's real hardware. I just have to run one extra wire along with the power cord from my Dragonfly to the 7800 console connecting it to pin 13 of the 6502 CPU. I had put it on my list to go back a buy once I transferred some money between accounts, but was too late! Great additions there Richie!

On a non-Atari related note, I just received a couple of albums (one used in excellent condition and one brand new) as I slowly (due to high costs of $25-$75 per album! New and used!) rebuild my vinyl album collection that was damaged (some salvageable some not) while in storage for 7 years too long! As cheaply as possible looking for deals.

From my favorite band, Rush. 2112 is a used original, the vinyl in perfect condition. ~$30. Moving Pictures is a new 40th anniversary edition (from 2021) with a red vinyl record that I thought was cooler than the original (not to mention modern remastering of the recording). ~$40. The 2112 record is also a special (original) edition that shows a hologram of the star-in-circle from the cover on the vinyl as it spins!

Early birthday presents to myself as I turn 54 next month.

 

Coloured vinyls, loved them when the 12-inch singles came out. As for Rush, I'm not really a fan of hard rock, but I have exceptions. As for recreating record collections, tell me, lost all my records, gave up on buying them and started getting the lossless FLAC versions, still missing bits here and there but overall I'm happy.

And an early Happy Birthday to you, my old friend.. Enjoy the old gear whiles It's around or not super expensive..

 

Yeah Matt, my Stereo POKEY is an old school DIY one using MYTEK’s design minus the Transkey element. I preferred that and I can always pop it back into my 7800 cart but with all the will in the world Ballblazer on the 65XE is better so I don’t think I’ll do that any time soon.
The chip shortage is impacting a lot of projects isn’t it.

 

Though 7800 Ballblazer has a higher resolution (with the ball and Rotofoils anyway), I too prefer the A8 version just because it was my first experience, and everything else is identical. Plus, since the Pokey would be going into my Dragonfly device for the 7800, I still get to play Ballblazer with Pokey sound on my 7800!

Anyway, The DIY Dual Pokey, piggyback style, that I'm doing is the original, pre-dual-Pokey-boards, from 1989 by C. Steinman of DataQue, the directions originally appearing on Genie network, pre-Internet. He (sold by his company DataQue) also did the original 65816 CPU accelerator board in the early 90's, a feature in the short-lived Atari Classics magazine. Of course I downloaded them off of some site on the internet back when I first got into the 8-bit scene again in 2016, after a 4-5 year hiatus.

The only modification to his original project that I changed is the use of a socket piggy-backing the original Pokey (also in a socket) and so where in Steinman's instructions he calls to bend up and cut off pins of the second Pokey chip, I do that to the socket leaving the 2nd Pokey fully intact to return to it's origin if I so choose. The first Pokey has a socket soldered to half it's pins on top, but also fully intact.

A 74(LS/HC/F)14 inverter also gets piggy-backed to another conveniently located 74LSXX I.C. for only VCC and ground (other pins all go to the Pokey's or CPU. I don't bother with a socket on these as I have dozens of 74 series I.C.'s in my electronics inventory. And the amount of spare 74LS continues to grow as I replace them as I go along in all my machines, with 74HCXX or now 74FXX's for less power consumption and less latency which is needed especially in my machines that are heavily upgraded putting greater strain on the PSU's and also helps deter PHI2 signal degeneration throughout.

Of course the Pokey BallBlazer music is even better on the A8, if you have a Pokeymax as they turn old mono-Pokey songs into stereo! Something real multiple Pokey's can't do. The games have to be hacked to do stereo with real Pokey's. If you haven't played A8 Ballblazer with a Pokeymax board yet, you are in for a treat if and when you do @Vyper68 ! With the algorithmic tune panning between the speakers and fading in and out while the bass line fades in and out and pans as well.

Of course which speaker any given voice plays from depends on how you set up the features of Pokeymax, and which voices you choose to play on the left or right speakers. There are a few different choices. And then this musical magic pumping through a Hi-Fi or amped PC speakers (must have a subwoofer too) sounds incredible! Anyway I've been enjoying all the old 4 voice mono music and sound effects from legacy software a lot over the last year or two since I installed a Pokeymax in my 800 (when my machines were running) with the new depth of 4 voice stereo music and effects.