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tuluk posted:drat rufus. I would need a warehouse for them if I had them yes. But I do not and am unlikely to get even a third of them. Which is ok of course. Whenever I do the proper effort post it will have more pontificating on being a sane collector, aka a dirty spendshamer. Also need to send you that goodie box. And document the one Acid sent me. Too many projects, too little time.
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Oct 3, 2014 22:28
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New documentary on British games industry: http://www.frombedroomstobillions.com/
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Oct 4, 2014 13:21
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Captain Rufus posted:I would need a warehouse for them if I had them yes. But I do not and am unlikely to get even a third of them. Which is ok of course. no need to send me a goodie box. my price limit for old games is around $40-45, and i generally go for ibm pc/dos versions over apple/commodore versions. ...mainly because i really understand dosbox, and do not have the physical space/desire to deal with buying & maintaining old PC hardware. i blame my first real job in IT support for the burnout effect. enterprise level computer hardware was like moving up from a highschool sports team to olympic games level competition.
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Oct 4, 2014 18:19
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Captain Rufus posted:Well Quarex I would be intrigued if you finish your desire list and decide you are hurting for any of these. I could probably be convinced to sell any of them with the possible exception of Seven Cities of Gold. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmkwC92rTxI OK and Super Cobra and Zorro would be hard to part with too. OK all of them would be a little bit. But I know they would be going to a good home.
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Oct 4, 2014 22:08
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Got my Yamaha USB midi cable in today. It's spotty support at best but I blame Windows 8.1 more than anything. Regardless, it fully works with dosbox and I've been farting around with games all morning. Scummvm hates it really badly but again, probably Windows 8.1 more than the cable. Now I really want a SC-55 because I didn't know that there was such a huge difference between it and the MT-32. I just wish the SC-55 wasn't so darn expensive  Does the SC-55 have the same kinda goofy LCD messages like the MT-32 has? There's a SC55st which is basically a mark II without the display that wouldn't be too bad in price that I could get but I don't wanna miss out on the whole experience.
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Oct 4, 2014 22:32
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flyboi posted:Does the SC-55 have the same kinda goofy LCD messages like the MT-32 has? There's a SC55st which is basically a mark II without the display that wouldn't be too bad in price that I could get but I don't wanna miss out on the whole experience. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpzrF15lUnE I'm not sure if any game actually use the display though. Pinguliten fucked around with this message at 00:42 on Oct 5, 2014 |
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Oct 5, 2014 00:38
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Anyone else remember/know about the glitch in Beach Head where once you're on the side-scrolling tank stage (the amphibious assault after shooting down the planes and shelling the ships and the various other minigames) once you shoot certain enemies and they explode, you can keep shooting the explosion for the same amount of points as killing the enemy originally. As long as you keep landing hits before the explosion fades, the points keep coming in.
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Oct 5, 2014 04:23
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Well I ended up importing a SC-55 MKII from Japan because Japan decided my drunken offer was ok  I was getting tired of fumbling around in dosbox so I looked up frontends and found a decent one named LaunchBox http://www.launchbox-app.com/  I'm still working on getting games but I at least have all the ones I had setup in regular dosbox fully working with my MT-32 or "working" with Sound Canvas awaiting my SC-55. I also tagged the games with which midi module they're using so I can sort based off that if need be  A few caveats I've found with the MT-32 and going the dosbox route: 1) There were two versions of the MT-32. The first one tends to have buffer overflows when sysex is sent too fast to the device. There's a patch in the unstable version of dosbox that lets you change the midi device to "mididevice=# delaysysex" and then all the overflows go away. 2) Obviously because of this you have to drop in the custom-version into LaunchBox. However pretty happy with the starting setup and will eventually do the painstaking task of installing all the games in the world.
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Oct 6, 2014 04:25
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^^ Looks fancy! But I use D Fend Reloaded. I basically set up generic fast as gently caress DOS machine, and then Tandy Graphics machine. Works lovely. But you can basically gently caress around with nearly every tiny setting you could want which gets to silly land. Anyhow, to show yall how I am listing poo poo, I am putting down publisher, formats, basic game type, Atari Mania Rarity level (1 is low), and my desire for it High, Medium, or Low. Some games have multiple releases and even different publishers. In this case the less desired versions are at the end. Note I am presuming original titles here and not copies. (Even if I do need another Autoduel player disk copy because mine isn't working.) (Quarex what I might pay will be at the end.) Beach Head Access (Disk) Action Rarity 8 LOW Beach Head 2 Access (Disk) Action Rarity 8 LOW Blue Max Atari (Cartridge) Action Rarity 8 HIGH (Synapse Disk Rarity 7) Caverns of Mars Atari (Disk and Cart) Action Rarity 5 MEDIUM (APX Disk Rarity 8) Congo Bongo Sega (Cartridge) Arcade Rarity 6 LOW Demon Attack Imagic (Cartridge) Action Rarity 5 MEDIUM ET Phone Home Atari (Cartridge) Action Rarity 4 MEDIUM Fight Night Atari (Cartridge) Sports Rarity 5 LOW (Accolade Disk Rarity 6) Food Fight Atari (Cartridge) Arcade Rarity 5 MEDIUM Frogger Parker Brothers (Cartridge) Arcade Rarity 3 MEDIUM (Sierra Disk Rarity 7 and 8 LOW) Hard Hat Mack Electronic Arts (Disk) Action Rarity 7 MEDIUM Ninja Mastertronic (Disk) Action Rarity 5 LOW Pitfall Activision (Cartridge) Action Rarity 4 MEDIUM Raid Over Moscow Access (Disk) Action Rarity 8 LOW Rescue on Fractalus Atari (Cartridge) Simulator Rarity 5 HIGH (Epyx Disk Rarity 7) Robotron 2084 Atari (Cartridge) Arcade Rarity 5 LOW Seven Cities of Gold Electronic Arts (Disk) Strategy Rarity 4 MEDIUM Super Cobra Parker Brothers (Cartridge) Arcade Rarity 7 HIGH Zorro Datasoft (Disk) Action Rarity 6 MEDIUM Note in ALL cases if a tape version is available I am not listing it because I loving loathe tapes and avoid them where and whenever possible. My desirability score is roughly what I would pay per game as part of a lot for a loose but with manual/maps release. If manual unavailable take 2.50 off unless its a flight sim or a wargame or an RPG where I virtually don't want it without the docs. (Yes yes I can get most instructions from Atari Mania. Whatever. I like having a physical copy to read or refer to during play.) If the box is included add 5 bucks. So what is my desirability score to dollar ratio, knowing that I am a cheap shite? LOW = 5 dollars MEDIUM = 7.50-12.50 dollars depending on game. HIGH = 15-30 dollars maximum for ultra rares and holy grails. (Hey I got Bounty Bob Strikes Back! with manual for about 18 dollars shipped. I can wait and stalk Ebay and Gamegavel like the vulture that I am, striking when the moment is right!) Yeah I still need to get my proper desire list done but of the ones you had Quarex this is where I stand.
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Oct 6, 2014 08:59
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Just picked up a CD of Mechwarrior 2 for DOS at a thrift store for $2. It had the Ghost Bear legacy expansion CD jammed inside the case too! Woohoo, I can't wait to play this classic again. Even just listening to the music takes me back.
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Oct 7, 2014 08:43
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Great news! I joined the SC-55 club! Terrible news! Even though it was listed as fully working the volume knob doesn't work at all  Anyone know how to repair it or what kind of potentiometer I need? It's at least outputting audio but I can't change the levels from it. Not a huge deal but disappointing none-the-less. Edit: Got the device open and  
flyboi fucked around with this message at 20:36 on Oct 9, 2014 |
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Oct 9, 2014 18:55
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flyboi posted:Edit: Got the device open and I have an MT-32 but wild guess without tearing it apart: 100 kOhm dual logarithmic taper (also often simply called "audio") potentiometer like every other volume control ever. Try if you can find something that fits in there. EDIT: Haha, just noticed you were actually talking about the SC-55, sorry I replied on the go. Doesn't matter tho, same things applies. Police Automaton fucked around with this message at 02:34 on Oct 10, 2014 |
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Oct 10, 2014 00:40
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Police Automaton posted:I have an MT-32 but wild guess without tearing it apart: 100 kOhm dual logarithmic taper (also often simply called "audio") potentiometer like every other volume control ever. Try if you can find something that fits in there. The problem is it has metal teeth to attach to the volume knob which broke off. Holding it in place the pot still worked fine. I did a ghetto-fix and used some jb weld to hold the parts together. So far the knob seems fixed but not playing with it much until it is done curing.
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Oct 10, 2014 02:34
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flyboi posted:The problem is it has metal teeth to attach to the volume knob which broke off. Holding it in place the pot still worked fine. I did a ghetto-fix and used some jb weld to hold the parts together. So far the knob seems fixed but not playing with it much until it is done curing. Oh, didn't even see that. I googled and apparently that's a two component epoxy (I'm not from the US) that'll probably do fine. Interesting though that it broke off in the first place, that must've required some work. Police Automaton fucked around with this message at 02:55 on Oct 10, 2014 |
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Oct 10, 2014 02:50
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It could happen to any sc-55 after fully disassembling the knob. So you have the plastic knob that attaches to a metal post which is clipped on to the pot. The metal post actually has ~5-10cm lateral movement in it so if you were to drop a poorly packaged parcel of the device itself on the knob it will punch right through. That said the seller is giving me a 50% rebate which is nice. I like Japanese sellers they're much more respectable versus US. My other option would be to ship it back and ouch on that cost.
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Oct 10, 2014 03:11
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flyboi posted:It could happen to any sc-55 after fully disassembling the knob. So you have the plastic knob that attaches to a metal post which is clipped on to the pot. The metal post actually has ~5-10cm lateral movement in it so if you were to drop a poorly packaged parcel of the device itself on the knob it will punch right through. I don't have a SC-55 but this makes me curious to disassemble my SC88VL and see how they solved it there. the whole tiny daughterboard is an rather unusual way to solve this to begin with, especially the way it's oriented. The good thing about their solution is that this specific event happening will cause a lot less damage as if the pot would be screwed directly into the front with the knob standing off a bit (most common) or a PCB being aligned vertically and parallel to the front. Both would be less prone to damage but if damage actually happens it would be far bigger than what you got there. But anyways a 50% rebate for this is nice, I would've taken an unit with such a flaw any day for 50% off. My SC88VL has a big, nice crack in the display. Doesn't really bother me though to be honest, and the crack really is just in the small protective Plexiglas plate and not really the screen itself.
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Oct 10, 2014 03:30
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With all the Roland gear around I should probably post my stack. On the top a Yamaha TG100 Roland SC-55 (I don't have that nifty Mk.II that flyboi has) Roland SC-88 (How I would love to have the Pro version) Roland MT-32 (first generation) It's kind of sad how much abuse the units get considering how expensive they were when new. The MT is scratched of course. The AC adapter that came with the SC-55 had it's DC cord cut and connected again in a very ugly manner. The SC-88 has suffered trauma to it's front. It was dropped on the volume knob pushing it in and bending sheet metal inside which is why I got it so cheap. The TG100 had its AC adapter cut on the AC side. I'm guessing because it came from England and they have their own special kind of weird power plug there and he was too stupid to just get a connector adapter. The TG100 was sort of a competitor (not really) to the SC-55 and expanded on the general midi standard, eXtended General midi or XG. It's less known than Roland's General Sound GS standard. I want to get a few more units, replacing the 55 for a 55mk2 and the 88 for an 88pro but they are a bit more expensive. edit: well this is what's playing on the SC-55 in that picture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpzrF15lUnE Pinguliten fucked around with this message at 12:54 on Oct 10, 2014 |
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Oct 10, 2014 12:47
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Please stop, I'm not allowed to want outdated MIDI hardware. Particularly because I want to listen to game soundtracks through them! It's a waste of money!
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Oct 10, 2014 17:29
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Xir posted:Please stop, I'm not allowed to want outdated MIDI hardware. Particularly because I want to listen to game soundtracks through them! It's a waste of money! Maybe this will help persuade you  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr4hQovrJaE
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Oct 10, 2014 17:53
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Does the MT-32 or SC-55 let you take new samples and replace instruments with them? Replace everything with cat meows.
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Oct 10, 2014 18:07
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flyboi posted:Maybe this will help persuade you I hate you. What all do I need? I'm entirely new to this side of retro collecting.
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Oct 10, 2014 18:08
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mod sassinator posted:Does the MT-32 or SC-55 let you take new samples and replace instruments with them? Replace everything with cat meows. No they don't take samples, the MT-32 can take patches that modifies instruments but you can't replace them outright. What you can do though is change instruments on the fly which means if there is a meow instrument in the SC-55 you can change all channels to play that interment instead. edit: I looked it up, there is an instrument in the GS standard that is named "Kitty". You know, I just might record something silly like this. additional edit: Tried it out and it sounds awesome, switches back to the correct instrument though so I'll have to edit this midi file.... Oh well, partial success, I'll see if I can do better later: KITTEHs and XCOM Have some KITTEH CANYON as well. Percussion can't be changed out only deleted so I left that in. Also Xir, what you need is a midi device and a usb midi interface (unless you want to set up an old computer). If you are lucky you can get away with paying $40 for a setup but you need to be really lucky for that. Pinguliten fucked around with this message at 20:23 on Oct 10, 2014 |
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Oct 10, 2014 18:15
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Xir posted:I hate you. A usb to midi cable and a midi device. Dosbox, scummvm, x6k or whatever all support midi passthrough. Plug the OUT port of the usb cable into your midi device, the audio out from the midi into the line in on your soundcard, receive glorious midi. Edit: I guess an effort post is in need to explain how this all works? MIDI GAMING OR HOW I LEARNED TO STOP USING MS SYNTH AND LOVE THE SOUNDCANVAS MIDI is a technology from the old days when games came on floppies and CD-ROM was still pretty new and expensive or not even around. MIDI works through data files on the computer that tell a synthesizer to use instruments on specific channels and to play at a pitch/note/vibrate/whatever. Out of the data becomes a song! Here's a popular one everyone knows to get us start... CANYON.MID https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWnTYkCSZfA So MIDI sounds dumb why care about it? Well back in the old days of Sierra/Lucas Arts adventure games, Doom/Duke3d/etc MIDI was the standard for music audio. While DosBox and the sort do have built in midi support or MUNT which is a Roland emulator none are very accurate. It's very easy to setup a device to play with emulators so why not? First we must figure out what we want to play. There are two standards that games were written around LAPC/MT-32 and SoundCanvas. LAPC is the older version that was used for games such as Secret/Curse of Monkey Island, Space Quest 1,3,4,5, Police Quests, etc. If you like the old adventure games you will want a MT-32. Sound Canvas/General MIDI was used in the later games such as Blood, Shadow Warrior, Duke Nukem 3D, Rise of the Triad, Doom, Doom 2, etc. These have more channels/instruments and do not play back at all on a MT-32. Sound Canvas has quite a few options of devices which you can find at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_Sound_Canvas Generally speaking the SC-55 is the main entry point for Sound Canvas and what most games were written around. SC-55 MKII is a minor upgrade that provides a few more voices/instrument support. Very, very, very few games actually use the increased features and so far all I could find is Quest For Glory 4. The SC-88 is a departure from the SC-55 which has more features but requires a "SC-55" mode to work properly wtih games. Due to this some instruments sound different and is a constant debate as to which is the best. If you want the way game makers intended the SC-55 MKII is your best option. In terms of cost you're looking at ~$70 for a MT-32, $100 for a SC-55 and $150+ for a SC-88 So now that we have MIDI devices out of the way you need a way to hook them up. There's cheap usb cables that look like this all over the internet. They should work fine.  However there are assholes that list this cable and then send you this:  These cables are broken to poo poo and don't support a lot of MIDI. If you get it just throw it in the trash. The first one mostly works fine unless you're some MIDI sperg and sending a ton of data through it. Gaming/music playback not a huge deal. I personally have a Yamaha UX16 because I wanted something with Windows 8 drivers native. Turns out it works fine but OSX/ScummVM hate it. It costs more, probably not worth it considering you could play the Chinese USB MIDI lottery 10 times before you equal the cost. So now that you have your cable and midi device all you need to do is plug the USB plug into your computer, the OUT from the cable into the IN on your device. Take the audio output from your device and run it into the Line-IN on your computer and set that as the recording input. Done! Configuring emulators depends on which one you're using. I'll start with the easiest - ScummVM. Just click over to the General MIDI tab for SC-55 and change it to the USB OUT option of your MIDI cable. For MT-32 click the Roland tab and change it to USB OUT and check the box that states something about a real RT-32. Done/done, MIDI should now be playing through your device. DOSBOX is a bit of a pain because DOS in itself is a pain in the rear end. Launch DOSBOX and type mixer /listmidi which will give you an output something like 1: SX 2: SW 3: USB OUT 4: USB IN This means that 3 is our MIDI device. Open up your dosbox configuration file and change the line midiconfig= to midiconfig=3. Save, run the setup program for your game of choice and change the Music option to MT-32/LAPC for MT-32 or Sound Canvas/General MIDI for the SC-55. Address will be 0x330. Save config settings, run game and receive midi. For x68000 it's a crapshoot depending on the game you're using as there's no general method to their madness. Once inside the GUI that you have attached the MIDI OUT port it's a guessing game to figure out which method is used to use MIDI on a game. As an example Detanna Twinbee and Akumajo Dracula both have a boot screen where you push 1 for FM, 2 for MT-32 and 3 for SC-55. On Gradius II you have to push the numpad right until you end up at SOUND which lets you select a new device. Final Fight I could never figure out. I'm still playing with x68000 so I can't really write much on it. Anyways happy MIDI-ing! flyboi fucked around with this message at 19:00 on Oct 10, 2014 |
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Oct 10, 2014 18:34
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I've finally managed to source a reasonably priced and clean Amiga A600 while I'm in Europe but unfortunately it doesn't come with the PSU (although I'm buying it from a reputable member of a local amiga user group so i know it works). I'm looking at the PSU options out there for running this machine when I come back in the US. There seem to be basically zero us-compatible power supplies available online and most european ones run around $60 or so after shipping (plus chances are they are super old and not necessarily reliable). At this point I am looking at making my own, either by using a picoPSU or just a regular ATX power supply since I got access to tons of those. If I go the later route, I'm wondering if there are places that sell original or replica Amiga power CONNECTORS (just the bit that goes into the computer + the wire). Otherwise, I might look into desoldering the power connector from the amiga and replacing it with a custom-wired ATX connector sticking out the back of the machine. The picoPSU can give a cleaner result since i could embed it inside the amiga but it would obviously be more expensive. What do you goons think?
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Oct 10, 2014 21:30
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shodanjr_gr posted:I've finally managed to source a reasonably priced and clean Amiga A600 while I'm in Europe but unfortunately it doesn't come with the PSU (although I'm buying it from a reputable member of a local amiga user group so i know it works). Any US A500-1200 PSU will work with no problems. I use a US A600 PSU with my PAL A500 EDIT: misunderstood the hell out of your post I think, I don't know anything about building a PSU but US Amiga PSUs do pop up on eBay from time to time, I think I paid $40 for mine. You can also check the amibay forums. d0s fucked around with this message at 22:12 on Oct 10, 2014 |
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Oct 10, 2014 22:09
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shodanjr_gr posted:I've finally managed to source a reasonably priced and clean Amiga A600 while I'm in Europe but unfortunately it doesn't come with the PSU (although I'm buying it from a reputable member of a local amiga user group so i know it works). First of all the Amiga doesn't have any crazy voltages, +5V, +12V, -12V DC. Everything that's theoretically in the ATX spec. The -12V can't be left out and is for sound. The original power connector isn't produced anymore, but is kind of problematic anyways. Nothing you'd encounter with the A600 but with a reasonably expanded A1200 this power connectors' rated Amperage at the Voltages used is too low, meaning you're left eventually with a Connector with blackened prongs who won't conduct properly and lead to all sorts of weird power supply problems. The average power consumption of a Stock Amiga 600 floats around 2A on the +5V and maybe a few milliampere on the +/-12V meaning the Computer eats about 10W. (This of course will vary with harddrive/no harddrive used and floppy disk activity) You can supply it with an average 300W ATX Power supply but this would be enormously inefficient. A cheap/older ATX PSU might even refuse to run under these circumstances. The smallest available PicoPSU will work well and it has been done before and will also not be so wasteful. There's probably not quite enough room in an stock A600 for a PicoPSU so you would probably want to remove at least the Modulator. In fact, if you follow the schematics (which you can find all over the Internet, amigawiki.de has nice, vectorized ones) you can remove a lot of parts in that region of the mainboard if you don't plan to use either composite nor the TV-Out. This is quite a bit of work and does require some skill and the ability to read schematics. I personally would also get rid of the stock power connector and use something modern for the external +12V supply while I'm at it. re: Removing components, the electrolytic capacitors (if still original) will probably already have begun leaking onto the board and will need to be replaced. This is a problem with all SMT Amigas and no matter what some people might say, there are no exceptions. I can't stress this enough, if the capacitors are still original, it's not a question *if* they will leak, it's usually more of a question how big the damage already is. A very popular replacement nowadays are ceramic capacitors, as they are superior in many ways (which all are more or less irrelevant in an Amiga) to electrolytics but most of all, can't leak as they're dry. Commodore didn't use them back then as the technology to produce ceramic capacitors in these sizes didn't exist yet. An inherent property of ceramic capacitors is they they lose part of their capacitance the closer they get to their rated maximum voltage, how big that loss is depends on the kind of material used. Their capacitance also depends on the temperature. Generally a capacitor rated for 16V in a 12V circuit is too small and will lose too much capacitance, the same can be said about 6.3V rated voltage caps in 5V circuits. You should always "derate" a ceramic capacitor by at least 50% to be on the safe side, i.E. using a 10V rated capacitor in a 5V circuit etc. Ceramics can be used, but you have to pay close attention to this. Some people might say the loss of capacitance might be compensated by the extremely low ESR (especially compared to the ones commodore originally used) but eh.. I don't know. Another often used alternative are tantalum capacitors, these also can't leak because they are dry. Tantalum capacitors are normally very reliable but have the reputation that they like exploding/burning out of nowhere. This was true once but isn't anymore, this reputation still sticks to them though because they are very sensible to bad operating environments, while rarely being really the problem themselves. Tantalums will be easier to get in the required capacities, but might be pretty expensive. Tantalums should be derated too by at least 50%. Another, new alternative are aluminum organic polymer caps. These are also used on modern mainboards and also can't leak as they are dry. They don't need/profit from being derated, are quite tolerant of "stressful" environments and if they fail, they fail quite gracefully by either "opening up" or shorting out without burning or leaking. They are very reliable and in an "primitive" Amiga, will probably live longer than you. Only downside is the price, they're even more expensive than tantalums and ceramics. Of course you can also use electrolytic replacement caps. They are very cheap nowadays and a lot more reliable and better than those that Commodore used, if soldered in correctly. You can't really go wrong with them, just use some of a good brand like Panasonic and take the ones with the biggest max. voltage possible that will still fit into the place you plan to solder them into. This is probably the safest choice as these will be closest to what Commodore originally designed the Mainboard around, but the other kinds have been used already with much success too. Maybe all this text was pointless for you as the caps might have already been replaced on your board, but maybe it helps somebody else, as this is a valid problem for a lot of old systems with SMT. -- Coming back to the power supply - the original, earlier power supplies for the "Keyboard" Amigas aren't all that bad, in the sense that they don't really have major flaws. For the Amigas that have been expanded with a lot of stuff, they're just a bit weak. Also their capacitors might have aged quite considerably at this point. The biggest problem here is that with at least one revision power supply for Amigas I know of (and there were many) you can't replace the capacitors with some nice "low ESR" modern ones, as the regulator circuit might actually be dependent on the relatively high ESR of the old capacitors and will begin to oscillate with lower ESR ones. Generally I can only discourage work on power supplies when you are not sure what you are doing. You might bring yourself and others in danger of serious harm or death, not only by electrocuting yourself but also by building something that might inadvertently be unsafe and burn your house/apartment building down. So in conclusion: First, replace the capacitors of the A600, then a pico PSU might be the best, safest and most elegant solution if you are willing and able to spend the money and do the modification work, else an original power supply is not the worst choice if you don't have any other option. If you get one, go for the "heavy" big ones, the ones for the A500 that have been rated for 4.5A. The 2.5A ones which were Made in Germany are not bad either.
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Oct 11, 2014 02:52
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Just put up some Roland stuff on SA-Mart. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3671091
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Oct 11, 2014 07:48
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Police Automaton posted:The smallest available PicoPSU will work well and it has been done before and will also not be so wasteful. There's probably not quite enough room in an stock A600 for a PicoPSU so you would probably want to remove at least the Modulator. In fact, if you follow the schematics (which you can find all over the Internet, amigawiki.de has nice, vectorized ones) you can remove a lot of parts in that region of the mainboard if you don't plan to use either composite nor the TV-Out. This is quite a bit of work and does require some skill and the ability to read schematics. I personally would also get rid of the stock power connector and use something modern for the external +12V supply while I'm at it.  . I think my original approach would be to desolder the power connector and wire up cables leading to an ATX plug sticking out of the case. I would also route a new power switch onto the case somewhere and wire that to the ATX plug as well. That way I can just hook up a bog standard ATX power supply to get started and it sets me up for an internal picoPSU conversion later on. Any suggestions on the wire gauge i should be using for this mod? I haven't done electronics work since my teen years so I appreciate all the advice I can get. I don't like my chances of getting a US PSU, been checking ebay for the past few days and haven't been able to find anything. quote:Capacitor stuff I asked the guy to get me some shots of the motherboard around the electrolytic caps (under the floppy and near the audio circuit) and it seems to be pretty clean (pics at http://imgur.com/a/GH41w). Now granted the caps could have leaked under the board so I might have to replace them anyway but i think these photos bode well.
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Oct 11, 2014 13:37
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Brought my C64 out of storage; it's been variously in basements on shelves and...in basements in giant tupperware boxes. The C64 itself is just fine (powers up no problem), but I lack a cable to test the 1541. Two questions: 1. Anything I should do to test the drive? It's the first model 1541, which the internet tells me is unreliable, but which I've never had any issues with before. Granted, like 15 years "before" but still. 2. Other than the $12 cables on amazon, is there a good source for 1541 serial cables? The power hookup looks to be standard. I have the SD card adapter on the way, but I do still have a ton of disk software, and it'd be neat to play it "right", 5 minute load times and all. EDIT: NTSC, not PAL
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Oct 11, 2014 16:28
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Shlomo Palestein posted:Anything I should do to test the drive? It's the first model 1541, which the internet tells me is unreliable, Those things are actually tanks, but like any disk drive the head can get dirty, or misaligned if it's banged around. I'd open it up and clean the head with a q-tip and some alcohol before using any disks in it because a dirty head will grime up your disks too. As far as testing goes, just see if it loads a game and then if you have problems troubleshoot from there, there are a few things that can go wrong and they're well documented online.
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Oct 11, 2014 17:45
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shodanjr_gr posted:Thanks for the wall of text, its very informative A good question. ATX cables from power supplies are AWG 16-18 if I am not mistaken. (~1-1.3 mm˛) Considering a cable length (back/forth) of 30 cm (~ 1 ft) and max. 3A on the 5V to be on the very safe side, you should try to match the thickness of the ATX cable. But really, there's no need to select a cable as thin as possible, just cut up a power cord (if you bought any electronic device in the last 20 years, chances are you have a box full of them )and the strips inside will have about that gauge. It's more important that you have a robust connector that will make good contact. Be careful in your construction that you don't use the +5V standby of ATX. While that is probably enough to supply the +5V alone for the entire computer, you'll have a situation where the 12V voltages are lacking until the ATX power supply is started. Remember that a push button is enough to soft-start an ATX power supply, I'd avoid making holes in the case if at all possible. Remember that this is a very energy inefficient way to run an A600 and you might have bad luck with your power supply (especially when it's older) not wanting to start with such a small load. This should not become a permanent solution. A small 80W PicoPSU is about the same price as a cheap 300W power supply, at least here.shodanjr_gr posted:I asked the guy to get me some shots of the motherboard around the electrolytic caps (under the floppy and near the audio circuit) and it seems to be pretty clean (pics at http://imgur.com/a/GH41w). Now granted the caps could have leaked under the board so I might have to replace them anyway but i think these photos bode well. These pictures aren't really good enough to tell if there's already damage. The problem is that the stuff the capacitors leak is very good at corroding the soldering pads and the glue with which these pads are held in place and can be almost invisible under the right circumstances. To give you some perspective, I've not come yet across an SMT Computer in this decade from the early-to-mid 90s where no capacitor has leaked. This already started to become a problem about ten years ago. A tell tale sign of capacitor leakage is a strong "rotting fish" smell when you warm the caps/surroundings up, for example with a soldering iron. I am willing to bet with you that at least the two capacitors near the audio RCA jacks have leaked, without having seen them as they see the most stress in their lifespan. (Interestingly enough, exactly these two can't be seen on the pictures, they are behind the keyboard connector) A good, if non-approved and kind of controversial, method to remove old SMT caps is to grab them with pliers at the aluminum part from straight above (not the black foot) and carefully turn them around at 45 degrees back and forth. Eventually the legs will snap off inside the capacitor and the remains will be easily removable with a soldering iron. It is very important to just twist and NEVER to pull as to not rip off the soldering pads which might already be weakened because of the leaking caps. If some of the passive components around leaked caps look like they have dull soldering joints, experience has proven it's best to replace them as more often than not, they got damaged too and will fail eventually/have already failed. Shlomo Palestein posted:Brought my C64 out of storage; it's been variously in basements on shelves and...in basements in giant tupperware boxes. The C64 itself is just fine (powers up no problem), but I lack a cable to test the 1541. Two questions: 1. I'm about to take care of such a drive (just standard maintenance) if there's any interest I can write up a guide of 1541 disk drive maintenance, there are a few things to test and take care of to give the drive a long lifespan. Generally they're pretty robust if they're treated well, a very common failure mode is MOS-produced TTL chips on the serial bus (all MOS TTL chips fail for some reason now, but are cheap and easy to replace) and a specific capacitor dying because of the heat in the unit. (Which in itself can be counteracted by a small modification at the transformer, if you live in the right country) Always turn the drive on before the C64 and never pull the serial cable out while the equipment is turned on, this alone will give the unit a longer lifespan than most damaged units around had. 2. I'd just make my own cables if at all possible. The serial connector is a standard 6 pin DIN connector. When you make them by yourself, the advantage is that you can choose the cable length and can also be assured that everything inside is wired up correctly, I've seen some funky cables there over the years. EDIT: fixed some spelling Police Automaton fucked around with this message at 18:54 on Oct 11, 2014 |
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Oct 11, 2014 18:51
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God help me I'm starting to collect more old computers. I found a guy on craigslist selling his C64, C128, and A2000 along with 1702 monitor, 1741 floppy drive and modem for the 128. He threw in a KoalaPad for an Atari because he had no use for it, and the Amiga only has its keyboard which looks like a Spanish keyboard. All of its working and fine, the Amiga's battery hasn't even leaked yet and I got it all for only $150.  Now I just need to get some games, some Workbench disks, and a mouse and monitor for the A2000. 
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Oct 11, 2014 19:02
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Mike-o posted:God help me I'm starting to collect more old computers. I found a guy on craigslist selling his C64, C128, and A2000 along with 1702 monitor, 1741 floppy drive and modem for the 128. He threw in a KoalaPad for an Atari because he had no use for it, and the Amiga only has its keyboard which looks like a Spanish keyboard. All of its working and fine, the Amiga's battery hasn't even leaked yet and I got it all for only $150. Jesus that's an a amazing deal
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Oct 11, 2014 22:39
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Police Automaton posted:
I'd be interested in a basic guide; I've never opened an old floppy drive, so I'm not at all familiar with the components. As far as wiring up my own cable, you wouldn't happen to know the pinouts, would you? Is the procedure similar to crimping your own cat-5 or RS-232 connector? EDIT: Nevermind. 
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Oct 11, 2014 23:47
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I've got an Atari 800XL with the SIO2PC interface and I've been thinking about trying to learn some 6502 assembly programming. I've purchased a few books, but they're all from the late seventies and go into an amazing amount of electrical engineering without being at all helpful at teaching assembly programming. Would anyone have any books or websites they can recommend? I do have the Compute's 'Mapping the Atari' for the XL series, but that seems like a collection of interrupts, which isn't very useful to me right now. Also, reading this thread has got me concerned about the Atari's capacitors, but I can't solder. Guess it's time to start looking for someone to do that for me.
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Oct 12, 2014 14:39
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Shlomo Palestein posted:I'd be interested in a basic guide; I've never opened an old floppy drive, so I'm not at all familiar with the components. Just in case you were thinking of wiring in a reset switch when you're knocking up the cable: later C64's disconnected the reset line from the serial port.
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Oct 12, 2014 15:05
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Pinguliten posted:Have some KITTEH CANYON as well. hahahahahahahaha why have you done this Related, I am utterly confused that I have never been intrigued by retro luxury MIDI gear before this thread. Like, I did not just write .MOD/.MTM/.XMs, I tried my hand at writing MIDI for a few various failed game projects my friends put together ... and yet somehow I completely ignored the fact that my Pro Audio Spectrum 16, wonderful though it was, was obviously not meant for MIDI. WHY DID I IGNORE ALL OF THESE WONDERFUL PIECES OF HARDWARE? WHY? Fortunately I see D0s has already called dibs on the SC-55 in that SA-Mart thread that I would have found myself inexorably drawn to buying. Perhaps I will reward myself someday by going crazy and buying both it and an MT-32. Actually I feel like this thread should offer some sort of retro concierge service where you hand somebody $1,000, exchange a few knowing nods, and then a few weeks later you have an amazing setup.
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Oct 12, 2014 20:41
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Quarex posted:Why have you done this Quarex posted:Perhaps I will reward myself someday by going crazy and buying both it and an MT-32. Actually I feel like this thread should offer some sort of retro concierge service where you hand somebody $1,000, exchange a few knowing nods, and then a few weeks later you have an amazing setup. For that money you could probably get quite a nice machine. Start with one of those old P3 mother boards with a built in vacuum tube integrated sound card. Add to that an ISA hard sid quattro sound card to place commodore sid chips in. A gravis ultra sound isa card, a midi interface board and a few midi modules. While you're at it you could also add an old Audigy 2 sound card with the front end. There are so many toys you could cram in to oldish computers.
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Oct 12, 2014 21:39
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Mike-o posted:God help me I'm starting to collect more old computers. I found a guy on craigslist selling his C64, C128, and A2000 along with 1702 monitor, 1741 floppy drive and modem for the 128. He threw in a KoalaPad for an Atari because he had no use for it, and the Amiga only has its keyboard which looks like a Spanish keyboard. All of its working and fine, the Amiga's battery hasn't even leaked yet and I got it all for only $150. Nice, the Amiga 2000 is my favorite model, easily expandable while not being plagued by the various problems later Amigas have. Make sure to remove the battery anyways. There are lots of directions to go with an A2000 if you're not only interested in gaming. Depending on if you want to get expansion cards and what revision Mainboard it is, you might be interested to do a few modifications to the board to improve reliability. I've had my Amiga 2000 since 1987, it's also housing a 486 in it's giant case and I sometimes (even though less lately, but more because of the electricity bill) have it running for days without stability problems. Shlomo Palestein posted:I'd be interested in a basic guide; I've never opened an old floppy drive, so I'm not at all familiar with the components. You'll have to solder, you do need a steady hand for soldering DIN though, Mini DIN is even worse. A third hand also pretty much is an requirement. The biggest problem with taking apart Disk drives (these old ones but also 3,5" disk drives who sometimes profit from maintenance too depending on age) is that loosing the wrong screws can lead in the best case to de-adjusted drive that'll only be able to read disks it wrote itself. From that point on you'd need an oscilloscope and lots of patience. Also people who mean well often really like to apply the wrong oils and cleaning agents in all the wrong places. A very common rookie error with the 1541 in particular is trying to clean the head and overextending a particular spring, again leading to a drive that won't read correctly. I am kinda busy next week but I hope I can cover 1541 maintenance, (with pictures!) you can check for a lot of possible problems already with a cheap multimeter. raifield posted:I've got an Atari 800XL with the SIO2PC interface and I've been thinking about trying to learn some 6502 assembly programming. I've purchased a few books, but they're all from the late seventies and go into an amazing amount of electrical engineering without being at all helpful at teaching assembly programming. I'm not an Atari guy but I have an archive of assorted courses and tutorials for assembler on the C64. Sadly it's probably not going to be of much use for anyone here because it's all in german. Your search for learning resources might be better if you concentrate looking for assembler courses on that particular system, not focused only on the CPU itself. That's how most of these books were written. It's funny that you talk about the electrical engineering thing though, there's a saying I know that goes "If you can't do it in assembler, you'll have to solder".
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Oct 13, 2014 01:22
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raifield posted:I've got an Atari 800XL with the SIO2PC interface and I've been thinking about trying to learn some 6502 assembly programming. I've purchased a few books, but they're all from the late seventies and go into an amazing amount of electrical engineering without being at all helpful at teaching assembly programming. I would start listening to Antic the Atari 8 bit podcast. They are less gamer guys than hardware and productivity types. This months show even talks a bit about Assembly on the Ataris. There is another more game focused podcast called Player Missile but I haven't checked it out yet. Or added a link to the Roland notes in the OP section. Also Atarimania and Atari Age will become your best friends now.
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Oct 13, 2014 09:23
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