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I'm loving the poo poo out my NESRGB, but there has been a somewhat recurring issue that I'm not certain is the hardware, the cable, or the XRGB. Every now and then, like if I play for about 2 hours spurts it will happen 10% of the time, the audio will go super quiet. I can usually turn it up loud enough on my receiver that I can still hear, but it's obviously annoying. The only permanent solution seems to be resetting the system, but the last time it happened I was able to get it back by powering the XRGB down and unplugging/plugging the 3.5mm audio connector. I could see it being the XRGB, because I've put in far more time into the NES than I have on the other systems hooked up to it and maybe I just haven't played enough on the SNES/N64 to cause it, or the cable because I haven't used this mini-DIN SCART thing for anything else but the NES, or obviously the NESRGB mod itself because that's a far more involved thing than anything that's on the other systems.
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Aug 1, 2016 14:23
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 18:00 |
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It might be worth talking about how to fix the N64 control stick at some point in the OP, as that's something anyone who uses a N64 is going to have to deal with sooner or later. I myself spent the better part of this past year scrounging up the cheapest official N64 controllers I could find for the sole purpose of taking them apart to clean them and grease the joysticks (basically following this guide. If you use something like bicycle/ceramic grease you should be able to more or less future proof the thing since the stick grinding down is the main reason they got so lovely. Alternatively you could try the Gamecube-style sticks as a replacement, which is something I went with for a little while. The problem is they are way too sensitive and make games like Turok or Rogue Squadron practically unplayable. "OEM" style sticks are probably better, but at least the one I got was so tight that it was basically usable without some grease (afterwards it was indistinguishable to me from the official stick). Getting the stick apparatus open does require some tiny rear end screwdrivers, though. Like a glasses or jewelry adjustment set.
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Aug 3, 2016 02:16
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So the next project I was going to tackle was to replace all the batteries in my carts; anyone else who has done that, any success with the electrical tape method that seems to come up first on google? Would definitely prefer to do that than to break out the soldering iron for every single one.
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Aug 11, 2016 13:49
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Part of it was also so that I could buy all the batteries I'd need in bulk, if I have to get ones with tabs already on them it seems like it'd be a heck of a lot more expensive. Is there a particular pack/deal that might mitigate this?
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Aug 11, 2016 14:19
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What about something like this, which eschews the tabbed battery approach with a battery holder mod that is itself soldered into the cart, presumably so that future battery replacements are even easier?
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Aug 11, 2016 15:05
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I didn't even consider this possibility but anyone have any experience with something like the Retrode to backup saves? I could probably live with losing most of my SNES saves but it might be nice if I could hang onto Chrono Trigger at least, since that has like 20 NG+ runs on it.
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Aug 11, 2016 16:49
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 My "genius" solution to the rare quiet audio issue I was seeing with my NESRGB. After determining that the original mono audio jack was still producing sound at normal volume levels when the NESRGB went silent, I just had to throw in a Y-adapter to go from RCA mono to RCA stereo and then another Y-adapter to go from RCA stereo to 3.5mm and thus have it work with the SCART cable. I originally went with a straight up mono RCA to 3.5mm but apparently that grounds out the right channel on the 3.5mm side so I was only getting sound out of one speaker.
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Aug 13, 2016 04:06
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For a lark I decided to boot up a couple of games I had on my Wii U's virtual console as a point of comparison with the NESRGB and god drat the VC versions look terrible. I definitely had the idea before going into all of this that if I had a game on the VC that'd do just fine, that was the best the game could reasonably look and something like the NESRGB would just be the same sort of thing but with the added nostalgia from playing on an actual NES. The VC version looks blurry as hell, I'm not sure if it's the upscale or the emulation but it's nowhere even the same conversation as RGB on the NESRGB. Guess that answers the question as to whether I should re-buy some of my favorites that I have on VC but not yet in cartridge form yet.
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Aug 17, 2016 13:07
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I think I need to mess with the Sync settings for my N64 on the XRGB-mini. Unlike the SNES/NES, there is a very noticeable visual glitch where the screen tears for a split second as an artifact scrolls quickly down the screen. Happens maybe twice a minute and I'm fairly certain it's a Sync issue as the N64 is the only one using a Luma-based SCART cable and when I set "SYNC_MODE" to Off it goes away and is instead replaced with a less annoying judder. I figure there must be some way for me to tweak the settings where I can avoid both the tearing glitch and the judder. I've tried playing around with SYNC_LEVEL and SYNC_TIME a bit, and if they made a difference I couldn't really tell other than if I set SYNC_LEVEL super high the display would simply go black. I've heard getting a "sync cleaner" to go in between the SCART cable and the RGB connector on the mini might help; does anyone have any experience with this?
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Aug 21, 2016 22:16
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God I forgot how much I can't stand soldering. Getting these batteries out is torture. Star Tropics was particularly arduous because the tips were bent over and I couldn't get the smaller one turned back up right so I could pull the battery out. Hopefully I'll just get better at it as I go as I have like 15 more SNES games to do. I feel like I should get a clamp, so that I can put the soldering iron on the backside and pull the battery at the same time on the other side.
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Aug 23, 2016 02:31
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Monitor Burn posted:I've found that it's easier if you cut the tabs/solder blobs flush before desoldering them. Same goes for most through-hole components if you don't plan to use them later. Also my brand new tip is already covered in ugly brown/black oxides 
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Aug 23, 2016 13:31
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I'm still knee deep in debugging my N64 SYNC issues and it's thrown me into the insane rabbit hole that is CSYNC/sync-on-composite/sync-as-luma. I'll probably do a boring technical write-up once I wrap it up, but for now I'm hoping to get just this clarified: Does the XRGB-mini actually require CSYNC, or can it can accept both sync-on-composite and sync-on-luma to some degree? I first thought it was the former at first, meaning that you'd be required to have a Sync Stripper somewhere along the line. But it appears that this was only true for older firmware on the mini; the current iteration can handle it just fine but it man require adjusting the sync levels manually. My current working theory is that the sync-on-luma from my N64 is not arriving at the XRGB properly. Perhaps because the sync stripper in my current adapter going into the XRGB is interfering with it or otherwise not cleaning the luma properly to get HSYNC/VSYNC or that the stripper is not doing anything at all and in fact it's the XRGB itself that is screwing up the sync signal, meaning I need a new sync stripper. Or even because the N64 itself is not outputting luma properly, which I will be able to test when I get a S-Video cable.
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Aug 24, 2016 15:54
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Uncle at Nintendo posted:I remember when I got fed up trying to figure out why my 1chip-03 snes was not giving me a stable image. They removed csync on that model and I couldn't remember what my cables were. Sync on composite or sync on csync? I got so fed up I just opened the SNES and literally jumped a wire from csync to composite sync. And guess what? It worked. I don't think it messed with the picture quality at all. Now I get a stable image. Is it crude? Yes. Did it work? Yes! Is it internally destroying something unbeknownst to me? No clue!
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Aug 24, 2016 22:09
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Apparently of all things it's the "Game" mode of my TV that's causing my N64 visual glitch  The problem went away as soon as I connected the thing to another monitor/TV, and anything I tried on the original TV (XRGB, S-Video, even Composite!) had the issue. But setting it to something like "Standard" instead of "Game fixes that...at the expense of a lot more input lag which kind of really blows.
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Aug 30, 2016 01:22
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FireMrshlBill posted:Are there any sub settings in the game mode that could help? Or maybe things you can turn off in other modes to get the lag down? That is weird. The issue presents itself as a horizontal artifact that scrolls vertically every 10 seconds or so. Monitor Burn posted:I can't remember which one it is, but I know there is some setting on the XRGB-Mini that fixes sync issues like this. I was having a lot of problems with my XRGB and certain displays until I toggled it off.
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Aug 30, 2016 02:56
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I'm probably going to regret going down this rabbit hole but are there any other vendors that do the UltraHDMI work besides RetroFixes and BadAssConsoles?
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Aug 30, 2016 14:17
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What's the best suggestion for getting a new battery into GB/GBA games? It looks like finding CR2025's with the holder/tabs is a lot harder than it is for the 2032.
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Sep 5, 2016 23:47
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I got pretty decent at soldering in NES and SNES batteries after a certain point, but I'm not sure I'll ever do an OK job with my GB/GBA carts. GBA especially is such a bitch to even get the plastic casing closed after the fact.
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Sep 19, 2016 22:48
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Yeah they're 2025's, Zero Mission seems to be fine but Circle of the Moon is definitely bent a tiny bit in the middle (it still can plug in). GBAs are mostly dumb if only because the battery has to sit over a bunch of ICs.
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Sep 19, 2016 23:38
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Zonekeeper posted:Got my sizes mixed up - 2032s are used in NES/SNES carts, 2025s are the "large" save batteries used in GB games, and GBA/small GB batteries are 1616s. If you're trying to shove 2025s into GBA carts designed for 1616s, then that's what your problem is.  If anything I guess it will last longer.
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Sep 20, 2016 01:59
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So there is one weird thing with the Blinking Light Win that I've noticed. The connector, as those who use it probably know, is very tight compared to the original NES 72 pin one. When I plug in a game with an extra thick PCB, which presumably pushes the pins out farther than normal, it sometimes stops working for a while because I can only guess the metal contacts need some time to bend back to their normal position. Maybe a couple of hours each time. Besides just waiting it out or blowing a blowdryer into the NES, is there anything I can do to maybe avoid this?
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Sep 24, 2016 23:23
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You're basically rebuilding the NES with a NESRGB, taking off the PPU entirely and putting it on the NESRGB PCB.
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Oct 17, 2016 15:49
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That "chili dog" looks disgusting but you better watch what you be saying about Japanese curry, I'd eat it every day of my life if it weren't so calorie-dense.
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Oct 18, 2016 17:45
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Is there any relatively reasonable way to play Famicom games on a front-loading NES? I have an adapter thing that works, but because it's so short it's a gigantic pain in the rear end getting the cartridge into and out of the NES. There's no real pressing need or desire for me to be honest other than to be able to say I can play Japanese cartridges on all my retro systems.
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Nov 3, 2016 15:26
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Jim Silly-Balls posted:Won't famicom games work in an nes when put thru a game genie? Or am I misremembering that?
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Nov 3, 2016 16:15
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Jimbot posted:Did people actually call the Super Nintendo the "Super NES" or was that just the XTREME 90's bullshit we look back on with confusion and shame? SNES or Super Nintendo is all I ever heard.
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Nov 26, 2016 00:34
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I've been sitting on various twitters and e-mail newsletters and sites for any kind of update on N64 UltraHDMI mods for months now and haven't seen a peep  Either it's all happening under the table or the PCB boards just really haven't been getting made or sent or whatever.
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Dec 1, 2016 14:37
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I assume a whole big batch came in for a lot of folks, because yeah those long dormant feelers I had placed out looking for UltraHDMI news suddenly came alive. Here's hoping all goes well.
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Dec 12, 2016 00:53
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It's never been frequently needed, but for most of my college and professional life I've needed to deal with soldering every now and then and I still hate it. The batteries in my carts weren't too hard though after a few attempts.
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Jan 4, 2017 00:50
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I've heard Brave New World FFVI is pretty solid, and I've always wanted to try that one Castlevania 2 hack (Redacted?) that cleans up the translation, makes it so that the towns people say actual hints rather than BS, and make the text crawl and day/night transitions almost instant.
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Jan 19, 2017 16:53
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Random Stranger posted:I just finished Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrows, and I have opinions!
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Feb 4, 2017 21:55
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I sold Yakuza 3 and 4 just last month. Though they are hardly the only games in my collection that I was unlikely to ever replay, I also had no lasting affection or nostalgia for them either.
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Feb 5, 2017 15:12
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I got my N64 UltraHDMI and it is so very slick. There some options that still don't seem to behave with my TV (such as the vaunted Direct Mode), and I can't seem to access the UltraHDMI's menu without having a game in the system, but overall it looks great with Auto De-Blur in 1080p and more importantly it works in non-Direct Mode with no artifacts on my TV, fixing the weird issue I was having with vanilla RGB. I guess the scanlines they throw in for Retro Mode aren't the worst implementation I've seen but I still don't think I care for that fake retro look. Even for mid-to-late 90s 3D video gamin' I think I'd rather have it all super sharp and crisp, warts and all.
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Feb 10, 2017 23:01
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Instant Sunrise posted:N64 literally does not boot without a cartridge inserted since each cartridge contains a bootloader, so that's not surprising. It makes sense in retrospect why it would not work, but it's really interesting seeing how the De-Blur function kind of blows on higher res games such as Turok 2, Rogue Squadron, and Perfect Dark. They very noticeable look worse with it on. Normally you'd use "Auto" to make the feature automatically turn off in such games, but at least a few low-res games seem to cause issues with that. Star Fox 64 seems to think it's not 320x240 for example and only benefits if you set it to "Always" instead. So my compromise, for now at least, is to keep it at Always unless I play one of those higher res games.
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Feb 11, 2017 03:08
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Did Star Fox 64 run at some sort of weird non-320x240 resolution? It's the only game in my library that doesn't seem to work with Auto De-Blur, meaning the algorithm used to determine whether it's 240p or not is thinking it's something else.
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Feb 11, 2017 17:08
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Yeah, any of the "High-Res" games like Rogue Squadron, Turok 2, etc. seem to run at 480i and thus look worse when you force De-Blur. That's relatively easy to check though because one of the De-Blur options is basically "force it on even on interlaced signals" which only ever happens on those types of games. But not all of them are consistent with this when it comes to menus; for example GoldenEye and Starcraft 64's menus seem to be 480i while in game they're 240p. 99% of all of these situations are solved by picking Auto and just letting the UltraHDMI figure it out; it's just that Star Fox is a weird outlier.
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Feb 11, 2017 17:26
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Doc Morbid posted:Hm, looks like my Framemeister got a bit angry about this new 4K screen (Samsung KS7005) and messed up the auto sync settings, causing tearing and judder and all that fun stuff. Manual sync fixed that, and now everything is looking good. I'm not noticing any extra input lag either. Nate RFB fucked around with this message at 14:00 on Feb 12, 2017 |
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Feb 12, 2017 12:21
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Doc Morbid posted:The old Mini, yeah. I didn't even know there was a newer one. XRGB-minis are still going for like $500 (  ) on ebay so people are still rushing on this after they ceased production. I'd love to hear some detailed impressions of the new XRGB before I'd jump in on that but it's awfully tempting as-is. I guess if I were to do that (and get a 4k set of course) then it'd actually be better to put my UltraHDMI through the XRGB to upscale it 2x, assuming the scaler in that is still better than the TV's.E: You know I'm actually not sure if the 4k one is out yet. I'm mostly just going off of some dicussions in here back in Autumn. Nate RFB fucked around with this message at 14:17 on Feb 12, 2017 |
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Feb 12, 2017 14:08
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Not a retro game at all but if you haven't already give Oath in Felghana a try, it's a re-imagining from the ground up on Ys III and is far superior. It's probably my favorite Ys title.
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Feb 13, 2017 21:17
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 18:00 |
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Quiet Feet posted:It's not only the graphics but the gameplay even feels kinda basic even for an early 16-bit game. Most of the bosses have ridiculously simple patterns. The second boss in the quarry is literally stuck in place. And Garland can be beaten by just slapping on the invincibility ring, standing in front of him and holding the attack button. You won't even run through half of your ring power doing that. I don't mean that to sound like I'm just complaining, it's just not a strong point to the game. Really running the gamut of any of the Ys titles on Steam is a good time. All have tons of modern updates implemented by the localizers that actually make them run better than they did at original release. Ys I & II are the oldest games on there and therefore the roughest around the edges, but they still look pretty nice (it's a PC re-release from 2000 or so) and well if you've gotten through original Ys 3, I think you'll be fine.
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Feb 14, 2017 03:15
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