ShootTheCore

I'm pleased to announce that I've worked with @p0rchio to assume web hosting for JAMMArcade.net - the site will live on! I'll also taking over as "editor-in-chief", so if anyone wants to contribute retro console, computer or arcade repair write ups, hit me up!

@usa_retro 😭

A CRT's soul leaving its corpse.

@Tailsnic_Retro @Cruzlink2 Very cool. 😎

Qué preciosidad para girar el cartucho de seguridad en las CPS3, xD

@Cruzlink2 @pr4m0d Great repair! 👍

Raiden Fighters arcade board came in from an arcade projects forum member. Graphical issues and sound issues. Saw no bad legs or traces anywhere. Pressed on customs and found the SEI400 at U048 was the issue, a reflow solved that. The sound was a dirty eprom socket and chip U0528

@FBXGargoyle Best wishes for a good outcome.

Followup on my mother's condition: It's a brain aneurysm. They are transferring her to the nearest hospital that can treat it (because of course you need to live near a metroplex for this kind of condition). I'll be heading there tonight while my father rides in the ambulance.

Yuck-battery guts! Glad it didn’t spread to the board…

@StriderNC77 The Nanao part in my photo is a NEC V35 CPU with a game-specific encryption mechanism, although the encryption can be disabled by swapping two jumpers. I’m not sure if the pinout matches up to an off-the-shelf V35. You’d probably have better luck tracking down a parts donor.

@_ShootTheCore Are there replacements for that NANAO chip?

Now that the Irem M92 #arcade Multi is complete and starting to ship, I’m selling off several of my spare M92 game boards that I used in testing. Each one gets a fresh capacitor replacement and jumpers installed where the Multi requires different settings for future-proofing. 😎

@BitmapBureau Excellent. 😎

Some good news: Final Vendetta Neo Geo started final checks & tests! More details: bitmapbureau.com/post/retro-dev… From today, we’re gonna do a fortnightly blog post to keep you updated on the FV Neo Geo programming, assembly & distribution steps, right up until you receive your copy.

@Shakunetsu3S @Cruzlink2 Great job!

Nightmare CPS3 was giving me trouble again, one of the PPU traces I repaired broke in transit & it wouldn't read one of the SIMMs anymore. This time I sealed the repaired traces with some solder mask, cleaned out the SIMM and cart contacts, seems to be working great now :)

@RCAVictorCo PM sent - I’d love to buy one!

発送準備…

@EstebanVLobos If this was for me, maybe I’d try a bodge wire but since this is for a customer, I’ll use a fresh part.

@_ShootTheCore I’d try my luck with a microscope and some fine wire, looks challenging

<sigh> It’s so aggravating when a microscopic leg randomly snaps off of a TSOP-48 SMD flash chip when soldering it to a board. Fortunately I have a spare handy but it takes hours to flash with my current NAND programmer. 😅

@zaxour Working Designs at their finest. 😅

I’m fighting a what?

@Aqy @kagiroi0120 Known bug with the core - it's been reported on several times. The clock countdown freezing up is the giveaway that it'll crash soon after. github.com/jotego/jtcores…

Makaimura Revision G crashing out on the MiSTer from yesterday. Hmm, could that be known glitch? @kagiroi0120

@leonkiriliuk @miztlur I’ve found that G3 and G4 Mac Power Books running Mac OS 9 work very well for the Sierra and Lucas games. You can get an active matrix screen, the games look & run great, and the system MIDI supports wave table Sound Fonts so you can easily load in Roland and Yamaha synth sets.

@miztlur I already have a DX4+GUS & K6-3 with Voodoo 3+SB Live desktops. Was looking for something portable for old Sierra and Lucas games. Hence why MMX and older was my focus.

I've been spending the last few weeks doing a lot of research on what's the best retro laptop for DOS gaming. I came to the realization that this beast doesn't exist. Here's my notes on what will make the best machine: - CPU: Pentium MMX/AMD K6: The only CPUs that are not multiplier locked and support the setmul utility to give you granular control on CPU speed to play games from the 80's to the late 90's - Screen: TFT 640x480 for 1:1 DOS pixel scaling - GPU: If you have a 480p LCD, it doesn't matter. But if you get an 800x600 or 1024x768 LCD, then the GPU is critical. Some are able to scale the DOS image to FS (Chips & Tech, ATI) some FS horizontally (S3) and some are just plain horrible (Cirrus Logic, Trident) with huge black bars around the game - Audio: True OPL3 is critical. Stereo speakers a must. Wavetable is nice to have. - Bonus points: Gameport (for Joystick), caddy less HDD (for easier CF/SD upgrades), NiMH batteries (for pack rebuild) - Things to look out for: brittle/cracked plastic, proprietary RAM upgrades, leaked clock batteries, spent backlight/dim image. @RetroTechChris did I miss anything?

@Tailsnic_Retro Reminds me of Irem M92 boards manufactured for Japan versus Korea.

Es increíble la diferencia de materiales entre las SEGA System 18 fabricadas en España y las fabricadas en Japón. Arriba, España Abajo, Japón

@45beats1 Hi there! 👋 You’ll need to open the console up. Power comes in through the blue and red wires in the upper-right corner of this photo. There’s a barrel fuse just to the right of the wires and I think it’s highly likely that your fuse is burnt out. Console5 sells spares.

@_ShootTheCore Hello, I was wondering if you could offer some advice. I have an old TurboGrafx 16 system. I tested the ac adapter and it is working, but I am not getting anything from the console. Would you know how I can tell if the console is getting power? Thank you!

@RCAVictorCo @pr4m0d Hopefully those customs can be reproduced some day. I have a Guwange with a dead 013 and I feel crummy poaching a replacement from a perfectly good Uo Poko.

Dodonpachi and Guwange feature custom chips developed by Atlus. These include the sprite engine 013 and the tilemap generator 038, and I was lucky enough to get two chips. While MAME offers efficiency, silicon traces are also important for in-depth archiving for emulation.

@M0RD3N There’s a very active conversation about it on the AP forums and I believe every game now has been patched to run without the KeyCus. You still have to do a ton of SMD soldering though. After I get caught up on my repair backlog, I’d love to convert my Tekken 3 to Aqua Rush.

@_ShootTheCore It's been a while since I looked into this, but has there been any progress on the game conversion front? Aside from desoldering of the mask ROMs being a huge pain in the ass, there's the keycus problem. Fighting Layer is rather expensive, but it's so much fun.

I fixed up an Arika Fighting Layer #arcade board running on Namco System 12 hardware this weekend. It started up with a scary FIRST POWER ON DATA ERROR message, but replacing the RTC chip sorted it out. Full writeup at jammarcade.net/fighting-layer…

@M0RD3N Ah, I didn’t know that there was a time unlock for more fighters. Thanks for the info!

@_ShootTheCore By the way, you can't actually set the clock on these boards. The inability to do this was tied to the time unlock function, giving you more characters. I have no idea why its set to 2055, though. It doesn't matter as long as the clock is ticking away.