That point when...

Well, I'm gonna stop blogging for a while. We have shifted our focus for the next couple months to getting our current home in shape for sale and acquiring a new home for our family/collecting habits.

Will continue (or post more, at least) as soon as we do the move, which could be within the next several months.

In the meantime, I've already packed up all my consoles in containers (filling up 4 27 gallon bins just for the games and consoles alone!) and several boxes with miscellaneous games and peripherals . All I'm keeping out is my current gen consoles (PS4, XBOne, and Wii U...no, I don't have a Switch yet) and the Raspberry Pi running Retropie...you know, to sate my retro gaming needs.

Stay tuned...and wish us luck!

2017 inaugural post...

Yeah, I'm 16 days in with my first post.

Not really much happening. Nintendo Switch is coming out in March and I'm not on the pre-order list. That leaves the Wii U to be hacked. I'm on that boat for a while, but I haven't really read anything into that just yet, but it will happen before the end of the year.

I did manage to get the NES Classic console on launch day last year (really lucky). Recently, it's been hacked so more games can be added to it. Yup, I did do it, and now my Classic has a total of 56 games to play!

...but I also got a Raspberry Pi 3...

I've been messing with it since the 7th, and so far it's been solid, with the exception of arcade games. It's really hit and miss, and with many different arcade emulators, testing can be tedious.

I also just realized that I didn't post anything last year about PRGE.

To sum it up; I played liaison for some friends to get their booth prepped. Helped a friend out to get stuff taken down for his booth. Got to meet a bunch more friends from forums. And got much closer to completing my black label NES games. The NW Retro Swap Meet is coming up this coming weekend, so I might be able to get a couple more...hopefully.

As like I mention every year, I'm hoping to blog more. Only time and my mental state will tell.

Mental note to self...

When closing up a Gamecube, make sure the disc lid is up prior to setting it on the case.

I was cleaning up a Gamecube that I got for relatively cheap. Got all the insides cleaned and the case de-gunked. Putting it all back together I was hitting snags.

First the Open button wasn't working right.

Then the Reset button.

Then both.

Finally got both to function properly, but then the disc wouldn't spin. Turns out that I had the lid closed and jammed the top case back on. I ended up cracking the lid switch beyond repair.

...

I'm already tired from a shitty day at work. So all I did was short the connection for the lid switch and called it good.

Works perfect, but I have to figure out what do to for multi disc games like Metal Gear Solid...hard switch maybe? I dunno. I plan on hacking this one in the future, adding HDMI and SD card loading.

Gameboy Macro: Done!

...and I'm not happy with how the paint turned out.

First off, Valspar brand paint from Lowes sucks. Even if the color is pretty spot on for what I needed, it just didn't do as well as I wanted. Even after letting it dry for several days, it's still soft. It's so soft that there's finger prints left whenever I press down on it.

It's also my fault since I didn't notice that it was a paint and primer in one. I don't know if that means anything, but I guess it kinda messed things up. It went on a bit thicker than I wanted, so I had to scrape some paint off in order for the battery cover to go back on.

Even so, it's easily chipped/marred since it's still soft. So most of the paint work I did felt like all for naught.

...f**k...

HOWEVER...It does look pretty good (color wise) with the pink and green.

Chock it up for this being an experiment/practice in painting and my "skills" as a modder. I have a working Gameboy Macro with a really nice back light on it, so there's a plus.

If I do anything different, I'd use only Rustoleum for painting. I did put on a clear coat, but I guess I didn't put enough coats on it.

Pics to follow. It's late and I really just need to rest now.

Sprayed and sanded...

I did manage to take a pic of the case after more shaping and sanding on my iPad, but I couldn't get it to upload to Photobucket, so I just moved on.

Here's where we are at now.

I went with this color. In retrospect, I should've taken a pic with maybe the cartridge cover in the original pink to show the contrast, but honestly, it does look good. 

A little closer shot of the front panel. This is after one coat of paint and wet sanded. 

The back. That's water in the battery compartment, left over from rinsing after the wet sanding.

I'm letting it dry for another day before respraying and final sanding and polishing. Already got 1500 grit sandpaper for the final part. Gonna go get polish to finish it up.

Getting closer. I think a week and a half should be good.

More case work...

Got around to sanding the PlasticWeld off from the case. Used a coarse 120 grit and finished with a 320 grit.

Both sides. Still couldn't get the top front part of the case right. I may have sanded too hard and put a little slope on the back. When it's snapped together, though, you can barely tell it's there. I'm sure after paint it'll be ok.

...Yup, a little more pink showing there towards the top of the case. Maybe it's worse that I can see, but again, I'll have to see after painting it. The holes for X and Y came out nice, as well as the hole where the hinge was before. I modified the LED indicator lenses so it'll look at least stock DSish. 

Stylus hole patched and sanded nicely.

DS card slot patched up. I tried to sand it just right, but it seems that there's the slightest dip around the edge. 

Using a 1/16" drill bit, I made the speaker holes. The original mod has the speaker placed roughly where the stylus hole is. I opted to have it where the DS slot was. Testing shows that it sounds a lot better there. When I improve the case work, I may also add holes at the top of the slot that I covered to force the sound out that way. 

I need to pick up a 2 in 1 primer and some 1000 grit sandpaper. As for the color...still don't know what to go with. It may just end up being white...boring, boring white... 

Patching up the case...

As much as I didn't want to do it tonight, my brain said otherwise. I'll just say it quickly with pictures.

...There's gonna be a bunch of sanding to get this right...

Insides. I may have to redo some of the plastic filler after the first sanding. 

The area near Slot 2 is so flimsy that I cracked it by accident. I hope this little bit holds.

I'm gonna have to get some sand paper from the auto parts store so I can get a really nice finish on this. I may end up painting this thing white...probably sell it off if I can get another semi-working DS Lite in the near future.