Dat Joystick...

Quick update. I took apart that joystick that I posted pics of a while back and probably gonna start working on it sometime this week. I may have to whip out the rotary tool to get some of the old super glue off from the surface, then go at it with the plastic epoxy that I like using so much.

Parts are now flowing in for the M1 Genesis. Just waiting on the switches now.

I did work a deal on the Atari 5200 that I mentioned last week. I was waiting for some games to come in. I used my PC Engine Duo's power adapter to test it. Other than some power connector issues (easily solved by resoldering connections...or just replacing the connector with one that fits a Genesis adapter), everything worked perfect.

Really can't wait until I'm able to clean and mod that sucker. It's really needing it.

Game Gear Brightness Dial transplant...

Once upon a time, I found a Sega Game Gear. It was in really bad condition. but it still turned on. I tried changing the caps on it, but it still didn't work.

Luck had it that another one was found, so guts were swapped and store credit was given. I was able to get a picture, finally. Alas, a lot of light shadows.

I happened to find another one, really cheap. It did work, but the brightness dial had broken, so I was left with a bright screen and no images.

Tonight, I tried to remove the brightness dial from the older one and transplant it to the one with the broken dial in it.

The one on the right is the older one. You can see the capacitors swapped out and the brightness dial already removed and transplanted to the other one on the left.

Both were the same board revision. As you can see, the dial that was removed was broken completely off. 

The caps were not changed on the newer(ish) one, so I was still getting some ghosting. Not sure if I wanna go through the hassle of swapping them out again, or just letting them be.

PS3...dead....

It died suddenly the other day.

Really sad. This is the one that I LITERALLY bought one week after my wife and I got married 8 years ago. If not for that nostalgia, I'm sad that our PS3/Blu-ray/Media Streamer is dead after all this time.

I guess I COULD use the 360, but...meh.

I went to a place on the other side of town that do repairs. Why I didn't do it? I don't have the proper equipment to test and repair that sucker. I didn't want to take a chance of damaging my backwards compatible PS3 any further than it already is.

I bought a second, refurbished Chromecast for the living room, and I also just bought an HDMI switcher that also has optical, coax, and 3.5" audio out. Can't wait for my Wii U audio to be streamed through the 5.1 soundbar in nice, non-boomy all-around sound.

Well, more when things happen. I'm about to swap the contrast adjustment dials on my Game Gears later tonight, gonna see which one has a better looking display, then consolize the other one.

What an E-Fail...

I was gonna TRY and finish up the Genesis mod over the course of the weekend, but I didn't have some components.

E-FAIL!

I just ordered them (resistors and switches) from eBay...yeah, I do that sometimes.

So, for now, I'm sidelining the project and moving on to something else...maybe cleaning the 5200 I just got or reflowing the PS3...I dunno.

Got back from a little vacation...

Took a road trip to Yellowstone National Park last week. It was a great trip, other than the altitude of Yellowstone itself, for this asthmatic, was kinda intolerable.

I also learned that Sunday that a great figure in the gaming world passed away. The President of Nintendo Japan, Satoru Iwata.

Really sad indeed.

I took a moment to change my Facebook picture to the Balloon Fight character, one of the games he created, yet goes unaccredited.

...


In more modding news, I've finally decided to get going on finishing up the Genesis that I raided parts from before. I'm thinking of adding a region switch to switch from US and Japan modes. I did get started on it before we left on vacation, but realized that I didn't have some parts.

I also managed to work a deal for a Atari 5200. I've been doing some research on it, and it seems that there are 2 different versions of it, and I may be getting the bad one. I've looked around for mods for it, and it seems that I found one that will work just fine.

More when I manage to get it.

BLW, FTW!

You may recall THIS POST with the Kickstarter for the NES cartridge replacement.

Well...

It finally came!

Close up of all it's glory!

Needless to say, I was WAY eager to install this tonight.

I decided to install it in my modified NES toaster. The one that I installed the "stereo" mod to it.

Although I did pull the connectors on it, I was kinda happy to see this one's connector swapped out.

Not really getting rid of it since it still works fine. But still...PEACE OUT, OLD JANKEY CONNECTOR! That sucker was on there tight for some reason, too. It was harder to remove than I remember.

Blinking Light Win (BLW) installed with the new "No Push Down" tray. So prettty.

Even though I did the region free mod to it, I still followed the installation directions and power cycled the NES. I really don't have any problematic games to test on it, but the initial game I tried worked without any problems. 

Bad news though is that I won't be able to use the Game Genie with the BLW installed. No biggie though, since I do have a stock one for backup that works fine as well. 

Really can't wait until ArcadeWorks has this readily available for purchase. I may want to pick up another one for backup.

Next (non-commissioned) project...O...M...G!

A while ago, I bought this AES Neo Geo joystick from NG.com.

Yes, I did note it's condition, but according to the sale thread, it worked fine and had arcade controller parts (Sanwa buttons, at least). I had hopes and aspirations to fix that huge, ugly crack in it.

Which, with the flash on my cellphone camera, looks like there's another hairline crack under the "A" button. Whatever. I'll just fix the crack and prime and paint the bad boy, call it good. I was also hoping to swap out the pan head screws holding the joystick for some countersunk ones.

I wanted to assess the damage throughout the case. So I opened it up to see how the installation was done.

I was not prepared for what I saw.

o_O!?! Where do I even start on this one?

Electrical tape on either soldered joints or just twisted together connections. Not to mention the ugly nest of wires there.

This is what actually did it for me. Alligator clips to the buttons. ALLIGATOR CLIPS FOR WHAT SHOULD BE A PERMANENT CONNECTION! I laughed so hard at how sorry this looked.

Other than the alligator clips, these untrimmed, poorly soldered connections are possibly why I was having difficulty pulling off special moves in King of Fighters '94.

This was actually a HUGE surprise opening it up. I was half-expecting a semi-decent mod job in there. Boy, was I wrong. 

Knowing what it looks like now, I may have to tackle this sooner than later. Otherwise, I'll feel bad for using it for so long with this condition. 

Sad.