What's new Pussycat too?

Thanks Andy. Still not 100% but moved on to the sofa now and going to watch the Rubber Keyed Wonder documentary about the Spectrum tonight.

Also had the Anbernic handheld that looks like a Gameboy Advance arrive today as well as my latest copy of Retro Gamer and a Roy of the Rovers annuall so plenty to keep me from getting too bored this weekend mate.

How are you getting on with the Gamestation Pro? I have a couple of nice Megadrive Pinball games if you want me to share the files so you can put them on the SD card.

 

That would be great, Al, re the pinball files for the Megadrive / Gamestation Pro. I honestly haven't had any time to hit it though I was going to earlier and then Bev's friends came round for tea and that was that Glad you're on the mend and glad you've got some new gizmos to play with and hope you enjoy the Rubber Keyed Wonder! Cheers, fella. Enjoy a relaxing, recuperating weekend, mate.

 

I agree 100% with your words, Paul. I've read your description of Astrobot (I will try it on the PS5 of my daughter) and I've found the same features I always notice when I see a piece of software running. Whether it's an arcade game or an adventure game, be it even a management software, sometimes you can feel how good work has been made behind the scenes, how good was the project and how good they managed to exploit the hardware or language features. It's just there in front of your eyes and you can almost sense the smoothness and the speed of the game/software. Same happens with some OSes or some hw systems, the fluidity of the scene, the smoothness of the objects, windows or sprite movements, the synchronicity of music and video on a demo. Just great stuff! And that's where the most fun comes out of. And, as you said, it is more fun to see how they made it (reading the code or a description of the sw techniques) or, if you're able to, modify the code. I'm 56 now and sometimes it still sounds like "magic" to me.

 

Thanks Daz, to be honest, I remember very well the first years of the 80s and the 90s where I used to work assembling PCs with a little company I formed with a friend, so I was always among DOS and then Windows configurations to run office and business software as well as DOS games, so I knew everything about config.sys, autoexec.bat, RAM management tools and utils, etc. I used to configure also other DOS shells like 4DOS (amazing!) and every kind of deviltry in order to optimize the systems with RAM, storage, peripherals, etc. Do you remember the floppy disk system modified to hold more than 360K, 720K, 1200K or 1440K? You could get 10 to 20% more room to store your file and programs. And so, the DOS/Windows systems are not so glamorous to me to reproduce them now on MiSTer... basically I am completely saturated with those systems... so I prefer weird or less famous computer systems like Oric, BBC Micro, ST, etc. But anyway, it's all about fun, and see that a single little box on my desk is able to reproduce such a lot of systems, is quite amazing! I'll go deep in configuring and playing around with it next weekend. Always a challenge to find enough time and enjoy these sessions, though!

 

Having come from the Amiga to PC, I was used to having to adjust stuff in the startup-sequence. So Dos was a no brainer, BUT, it to me a while to try and see why the PC was considered better. Initially it felt like this machine was a step backwards. Eventually, through money and upgrades I started to see the PC as 'better'. Now, I use the PC as my tinkering tool.

Consoles will remain my go-to games source, purely for not having to do any setup (although older computers didn't need too much tinker ala the C64 and Atari), in goes the disk or cart, and we are good to go, simples!

Hope your daughter likes Astrobot, it may look cute, but there's good old gameplay in shed loads..

 

Who needs 45 TERABYTES of games? Well, just about anyone, right?



The Arley4d project went from a repository of 37 to 45 TB in the last few weeks - of course it's all on the cloud - in the video above you can find a description and the link to the latest version of Emulation Station Desktop modified to download ROMs from the Net (cloud)

I've given a try and installed it - very easy thing to do - the package takes up about 6GB on Windows and has just about every system up to PS3 in it - game ROMs in ISO, BIN, ZIP and other formats are actually downloaded from time to time and you can even copy them as long as they are in the ES-DE \temp folder. Last systems added: C64, Amiga, XBOX, XBOX360, 3DO, Jaguar, etc.

Of course you need fast Internet connectivity and a decent CPU and a powerful graphic cart on your PC. And you're ready to go! A lifetime won't be enough to play them all!

 

Latest acquisition is a MK1 Megadrive and an Ali Express Mega Everdrive so I can finally get to play Shinobi again and Tsatsujin

 

Same setup as me Richie, nice. Hope you have lots of fun with it.

 

So my latest intake is .....
An Amstrad CPC 464, it was sold as untested but was in good cosmetic condition, and it was cheap enough to take a punt, even the tape counter reset button was intact. It arrived yesterday and connected to my CTM-644 and it works. I was worried it might be the cost-down version 4 board with the 100 pin SMD ASIC chip as it was made in Oct 1988 and that was being introduced in '88. The ASIC combined the 6845 and Gate Array so if that was faulty it would have been impossible to fix. So this turned out to be the version 3 so the chips are all seperate. So will get a deep clean and then play some games on it today.

 

Welll done Richie, great find. After you talking about getting one the the other day as well, excellent stuff.

So what are the plans for the Arnold - memory upgrade, SD drive?

Also, didn't realise thhis thread hadn't been updated since August last year. Come one people, show us your new pussycats, or something like that

 

I aint had anything new is ages, as you know, I'm in shifting gear out mode (when I can be bothered to take pics and do the adverts). Good to see Richie getting a bargain. And also nice to see he still likes to tinker with the gear.

Was saying to Al that the only new machine I'd like these days is a PC Engine, a real one, not the mini version. Sadly the cost is silly. Shame, lovely selection of cracking conversions on it, R-Type is wonderful, so many great arcade titles.. Maybe one day..

 

Great find @Vyper68 - don't forget to send us some pictures of the games you are now testing on the CPC!

Last weekend I got back to one of my many favorite games of the 80s. I might be repetitive, but I do love football management games since the early days of Kevin Tom's first FM. I played FootBall Manager I again for a while using VICE emulator and found out again about all the virtues (simplicity, effectiveness, high playability, highlights, etc.) and the defects (only 16 teams each league, limited number of players, unrealistic results, etc.). So I switched to Football Manager II (see pic below) which features 24 teams in Div. 4, longer highlights (maybe a little too much), realistic results, and more. Of course, it lacks many features that I'd like to see in a FM game, but for 64K of RAM that resembles already to a little miracle.

Maybe @Andy Barr would wonder what team did I choose to manage? Well, recently The Black Cats entered my heart, mostly because of the supporters' energy and vibe... ;-)

 

I would like a PC Engine again but the price of the console and the HuCards is a lot more expensive these days, and if you go down the route of CD-ROM it gets even more expensive. I have a UK PCE Mini which is nice but I never really use it these days. If anyone wants do a trade for that or my SNES Mini drop me a PM.

 

As far as the CPC goes, I plan to get a Xilinx programmer and build some 512 or 1MB CPC RAM expansions next month. I fitted an external audio jack to the 464 so I can load in .cdt tape files so I have loads of games to go at - including Football Manager 2

 

I had also ordered some Joy2PIC PCB's from OSHPark but I ordered the "after dark" finish looks really nice compared to the normal Purple that they do.
I am tempted to get some Stereo POKEY PCB's in the same finish and I will have to see if I still have the files for a Happy 1050 PCB as well.

 

Just for my info, I looked at how much a PCE was, I nearly fell off my chair. It and a TerrorOnion device will set you back hundreds..

Wow...Just wow...

 

Dibs please when/if you decide to trade/sell it please Richie

 

Forgotten Worlds have a couple of Turbo-Grafx but I haven't even looked at the price of them. I prefer the look of the original Japanese PC Engine.

 

Yeah, I like the simple white PCE, was always borrowing my brothers one, he had loads of HU Cards. Was a special little machine. The 'after' versions were ugly, compared. Still good machines but not as iconic.

PS, the state of the PCE's on Ebay is shocking, they look like they were dug out of a field, while their description is is 'good condition'. What is more shocking is that they are Chinese or Japanese traders, from looking at what Serena gets from the traders she uses, it's hard to tell the items were used.

We all expect a bit of yellowing, but these are just filthy...

 

The White PCE only has a J-NTSC RF output so it needs to be RGB modded. Whereas the Core GrafX and Core GrafX 2 have a composite out so you can use them out of the box over here. I quite liked the Grey and Orange of the Core GrafX.
What I would really like is a PCE Duo but they are really expensive now and the CD-ROM is a bit flaky now. On my PCE Mini there are a couple of SuperGrafX games, Dai Makaimura ( Ghouls and Ghosts ) Is one and to be honest I am not seeing a big difference but maybe I am comparing it to a SNES version on my SNES Mini.

 

Here are some photos of the CPC464

 

Here are some pictures of the "after dark" finish on the PCB's from OSH Park. I have ordered some Stereo POKEY PCB's in this finish to build a couple up and fit one in my 800XL.

 

All this talk of PC Engines. Might need to run some emulation later. And avoid my mates shop as he had a couple of import machines lol. Also got a PC Engine portable (GT?) in stock but think that is about £650! His latest Facebook looks like he is fully stocking the Atari+ range of consoles, games and joysticks....

 

The 464 is looking good Richie, nice to see you getting stuck in.
Remember and let me know when you are selling it and I'll pick it up next time I'm heading to Scarobourgh

 

BRILLIANT, DAZ! HAWAY THE LADS - bad day at the office today down at West Ham and without captain fantastic Xhaka, we looked a bit lost today. Let's hope he's back soon. Like you, love the old Kevin Tom's FM. Might have to get that one rebooted shortly.... on the Oric of course!

Great to hear that Rich has acquired a CPC464 once more - they really are class machines and cannot be overlooked when discussing iconic 8bit machines of the 80s - as Al jokingly said - but many a truth is said in jest - get ready to offload it again, Rich, once you've had yer fill and our man from across the border comes knocking!!

Good to be back - hope you're all well - maybe one day Paul will get his PC Engine too - hope so, mate - the Norwegian fjords were very nice by the way but you can't beat blighty for your retro kicks! Cheers, lads - catch you during the week and post a few Northern Leets pics - they were stunning and my Kodak instamatic didn't disappoint Oh, and even our boat was in the right colours, guys -