I made a thing (Atari 2600/7800 joystick)...

 A fellow retro gaming enthusiast that I follow on Twitter posted up a 3D print of a C64 joystick. It also would work for Atari 2600 and 7800, but it's all dependent on how it's wired. 

I raided an old, worked Atari 7800 controller for the wiring and the connector, the actual joystick came from an old Ion iCade cabinet, and the buttons from an old Xbox 360 joystick that I had. I printed the 4 way gate for the controller. I followed some schematics online to get all the wires connected to the right pins on the connector, including some resistors that I ordered to have it work with the Atari 7800. The print of the joystick itself took a few hours to complete (2 different parts).

This joystick was several months in the making simply because...I don't know why. I was going back and forth (like I always do on things) whether or not to start ordering parts for it. It was supposed to be made with whatever spare parts that I had, and the thing that was holding me back was ordering new buttons for it. But, I went through a cleaning fit and found my box with a bunch of joysticks, including an old Xbox 360 joystick. Since I had all the main parts ready, I just needed a couple of resistors to finish it up. 

Prior to getting the component that I needed to finish it all up, I spend an evening getting spade connectors crimped and routed through the narrow areas, including on getting all the ground connections. Tonight, after finally getting the component I needed, I finished up the soldering for the buttons and finally got around to testing it.

...Pictures taken moments before disaster. Prior to me taking this pic, I did some initial testing with my Atari 2600 playing Joust (the only game I had nearby...I have more) and it worked fine. Both buttons worked as button pushes on the 2600, the joystick controls were pretty decent. I then brought out my 5200 to play with. I bought a board that allows you to use a 2600, 7800, SMS, and a 3 button Genesis controller. I tried several games that I had and they all worked great. Then I took this pic with Dig Dug

...oh boy...

The buttons didn't work properly, but the controls did. I used a 2600 controller I had to test and it works fine. I'm thinking that I may need a different value on the resistors that I got...or I can just use the Genesis 3 button joystick that I found in that box of joysticks...among other things...

Well, it's nice to repurpose stuff. I may attempt to make another one in the future, using all the parts in that 360 joystick.

Original Xbox modding...

 Whelp, I got stuck in the slush trying to get to work. Didn't make it out 10 feet before the tires just spun. I couldn't even get back into the driveway. I do have chains, but I couldn't get them on properly before an hour before my shift. I called in about 5 minutes before I hit that mark.

It's been a while since I last put tire chains on my car. Last time I did was maybe 15+ years ago. I'm way out of practice. But after I called, we managed to get the chains put in decently, just enough to back my car up into the driveway. We (wife and I) tightened the chains after I got back into the driveway. We left them on, just in case conditions don't improve tomorrow morning.

Anyway, I really didn't want to sit in the office defeated, so I took an hour nap first, then looked for a project to do. I've had an original Xbox that I've been meaning to soft mod, so I went with that.

I didn't get far in the mod, though. I did follow some tutorials to a certain point. I basically got to a point where the softmod is on the original Xbox hard drive and the app that is needed to clone the original hard drive to a new, larger hard drive. I just ordered the SATA to IDE board for the new hard drive. I'm going back and forth thinking if I should order a 1 TB hard drive for it. I do have a 3 TB hard drive that I could replace in my computer, migrate the current 2 TB hard drive to my backup drive, then use the 1 TB drive that I have in there for the Xbox, but that requires me to clone the 2TB to the 3 TB....choices.

Snow day!

And I don't like it. 

It's not that I don't like the snow. I love the snow. Love seeing it falling. I love seeing my kids and dog have fun in it. Love just sitting inside with the fireplace on, sipping on coffee.

What I don't like is that no deliveries are being done. My parts that I ordered are all being held. The snow is pretty much hindering anyone from traveling.

Ugh...

Worse yet, deliveries may not resume until 3 days from now. 

...

Another Dreamcast done...

 I did the same battery mod to my original Dreamcast done tonight. I also managed to swap out the LED to a yellow one, but it's really dim. I may swap that out later for a brighter one, but that's later. Plugged it all back up and did a quick check. Looks like everything worked fine. 

I was also planning on stripping down my really old and yellowed Super Nintendo, but as I got down to getting the reset and power sliders off, the tabs started to crack. I though long and hard about if I want to continue or just leave it alone and enjoy the aged look of it. It was the original one that I bought weeks after I came back from a Japan trip in 1992 (bought Street Fighter II there). I'm gonna enjoy the aged look on it. As I put it all back together again, I realized that the case had a hole in it where I first put in an S-Video mod so I could use a standard S-Video cable, but I since removed it...not sure why.

Pretty simple stuff tonight. I also ordered some caps to do a future PC Engine project as well as a model 1 Sega Genesis adapter repair. Stay tuned!

Dreamcast battery mod...

I ordered some parts to swap out the battery in the Dreamcast. I bought a vertical mount CR2032 coin cell battery holder and some BAT85 diodes. 

 Here's the controller PCB out from the console. I desoldered that battery since it's pretty much dead. Even if I left the console on for a few days, the battery would only hold the charge for no more than day. I also desoldered part of the resistor to the left. The mod that I learned from Voultar (mod instructions found HERE as well) was to add a diode to the longer end of that resistor to cut the charging circuit so it won't try to charge the removable, non-chargeable battery. 

I had to squish and zoom in for this shot. Here's the vertical battery holder and the diode installed. The cathode (-) of the diode is facing toward the mainboard and the anode (+) to the resistor.

Top down shot of it. 

It does power back on after the mod, and I did set the time. Testing it the next night (I did this the day before), and it seems to have kept the date and time settings just fine. So glad it'll be easier to swap out the batteries when it dies. I'm gonna have to open up my other Dreamcast and do the same mod for it.

That's all for now.