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Fixing That Old Game System
larsoncc writes "Emulation is a great way to preserve past game systems, but what if you could keep these digital dinosaurs running for decades? Well, you can, and some of us do. It's not easy for me to 'let go' of that vintage (circa 1978) Magnavox Odyssey2, or toss my Atari 7800 in the closet because I don't have a power supply. Here's my article to help you solve common problems with 15 different systems, and general tips for the others. Viva la TI-99/4a!!"
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Big Dig-ing until the money is gone...
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"What if nobody's made an emulator for your favorite obscure system?"
There's not very many of these, although there are a few like the Jaguar that aren't emulated very well.
"What if the emulator doesn't play it right?"
Unless you're talking about the same few from the question above, you will find that most emulators play games perfectly down to the last pixel, and in some cases, they look a lot better (as is the case with the playstation games.)
"What if you want to use the original controller?"
They make adapters so you can use SNES, PSX, Genesis, N64, and other controller types, right on the USB port.
"What if you believe in respecting copyright law, no matter how ridiculous it may be?"
If you believe emulators themselves are breaking laws, well, go nuts I guess. But they aren't. Downloading ROMS of games you don't own is, but why said anything about that?
Lots of holes in your arguement, man.
Personally, I believe emulators will be the only way to preserve these games given enough time.
- It's not the Macs I hate. It's Digg users. -
Here's the coral cache link, and here's a list of the systems included in the article:
Odyssey^2
Atari 2600
Intellivision
Atari 7800
TI-99/4a
NES
Genesis
Sega CD
Turbo Grafx
Saturn
Dreamcast
PS2
XBox
GameCube
GameBoy Advance
Anyway, the weak link in th C-64 was not the computer itself, but the power supply, which was separated. Since it was somewhat complicated (fully regulated) and encased in a solid black epoxy box, most people didn't bothered to fiddle with it. This site has the complete schematic for a power supply, from where you can either fix it or build a new one entirely.
What if you want to use the original controller?
These guys have you covered.
http://www.blackchopper.com/
Older gaming systems had very little power, so programmers would code the games in low-level machine language, and they would use many different hacks, tricks, and some games even time things based on counting CPU cycles and precise timing delays between different hardware subsystems. So it shouldn't be a surprise that games developed for these consoles play best on the original console.
The SNES is probably the best example of this because it was probably the most complicated and powerful game console, which was still programmed using low-level machine language. The aforementioned link describes inaccuracies in the best SNES emulator, ZSNES. Further comlicating matters is that some SNES games have separate co-processors built into the cartridge, and so the emulators must also emulate these separate processors, which have their own instruction set, protocol, timing delays, and communication bus. Since SNES games were written in assembler, developed soley for one fixed hardware platform, and then only tested on that system... it shouldn't be a surprise that the games play best on a real SNES.
Yet most gamers have never actually compared a real SNES to emulation. Some games are emulated better than others, but some are just downright bad. Of course, emulation is always improving, and in the distant future, when the real SNES's are all dust, emulation will be the only option. Hopefully it is perfected by then.
Of course, you can cheat and use a Flash Cart or Game Copier
(2), (3), with a real SNES, so that you get the best of both worlds: tons of SNES games on a real SNES with real SNES controllers all hooked up to a TV in front of a comy sofa!
Despite the promises or anything you have heard, never, EVER use Armor All on a plastic or vinyl surface that is not already dried/perished/damaged. Armor All is very good at removing the native polymers in the plastic and replacing them with itself. Once it has made it into the surface, you will continually need to replenish the Armor All or risk losing the plastic. I have seen this product ruin more dashboards, tires, motorcycle seats, trim rubber and so on than I would care to recall.
If you want an Armor All type finish on your plastics, use a hand glaze or plastic dressing. These products are available from auto stores, and auto paint suppliers. Slightly off-topic: if you want your old car/cycle tires to look like new, use a little brake fluid on a rag.. works miracles.
There's a Starman, waiting in the sky / He'd like to come and meet us, but he hasn't got the time.
The link is fine. HUT.FI is the Helsinki University of Technology in Finland. Parent is trolling and saying people's links are bad...
Well, while blowing on a cartridge may seem to make it work, it's actually doing it more damage and will end up corroding the contacts. If you need to clean your games, try using a baby wipe - keeps my Mega Drive and SNES carts in fine order.
If you're still having problems with the NES, try either repairing or replacing the cartridge connection within the console. As you insert and remove games, the contacts slowly get bent out of position, until they eventally fail to touch the games when inserted. You can either bend the contacts carefully back into place, or buy a cheap (under £2, so I believe) replacement. Either way, enjoy your NES! (I was always a Master System player myself...)
And tomorrow the stock exchange will be the human race
Was it the binatone you were looking for? Your description rang a bell except the controllers were detachable and just wheel-like knobs. Memories, if my parents didn't love to dump everything I bet it would still be in the attic getting wheeled out every few years at times like this!
Never underestimate the dark side of the Source
> You cant emulate the 'feel' of having the real thing in your hands.
More or less you can.
Three years ago or so, I built a device described in a joystick driver for linux that plugs into the parallel port, and on the other end of that cable is a box with 4 NES plugs, 2 SNES plugs, 4 9-pin DIN for sega (MS and G), and two connectors I dont recal the name of for the TG-16 pads.
They were aligned in the box in rows for players 1-4.
You plug one controller of any type in for each player, and load the driver (it autodetected which controller was there only on load at the time) and they show up as standard joysticks.
I know the drivers now support PSX, N64, and Dreamcast controllers as well.
I'm sure I also ran accrost a driver for windows to do the same (Never checked it out though)
For more info, see:
Linux joystick driver site
and
TV Game Joystick interfacing docs
Actually there was a trick where if you insert the game in the slot, and slide it as far to the left as possible before pressing it down... you will get the game to work without blowing. I don't know who started that blowing idea, but trust me... dust has nothing to do with it.
http://www.campusprogram.com/reference/en/wikiped
Well then, it sucks to be you, I guess...
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
The article's section on the NES mentions the "Blinkies" ("You put the game in, turn your Nintendo on, and the screen alternates between blue and white.") but doesn't explain the real reason why this is happening: the original NES has a lockout chip to prevent people from playing unlicensed/third-party games on the system. When a game blinks, but you can still see the game's title screen in between each blink, it's because the lockout chip is freaking out.
Fortunately, there's a very easy mod to disable the lockout chip by opening the NES up and cutting a pin on the PCB. It used to be really easy to find the mod on Google, but it seems to have disappeared (could Nintendo's legal department have squashed it? That'd be ridiculous if so, this is well within fair use). Regardless, you can get it at archive.org -- I'm pretty sure that's the how-to file I used when I did the mod a few years back. It worked like a charm, and I highly recommend it!
I used to always put my cartridge in the game genie and plug it in. Almost always worked. Then this summer in order to use my friends we had to put the cartridge in just far enough so the top of the cart would scrape the nes as we pushed it down.
I'm a big fan of the SOYO Kiky X-Series USB adapter. It works in Linux, Windows and MacOS X, and has allowed me to use the PSX pads I like with my games.
--
Me spell chucker work grate. Need grandma chicken.
One key universal fixit that I didn't see mentioned is to reseat the socketed chips. I've fixed so many old systems by applying a little force to socketed chips until they "crunch".
A few other tips:
Always unplug power supplies when they're not in use. It says this in the old manuals, and my experience is that it dramatically increases the life of the supply.
Also, since I deal the most with the Atari 2600, a common problem is that the switches start getting sketchy. This is usually that the solder joints have cracked (which can be fixed by just re-heating them with a soldering iron) or just that the switches need a little contact cleaner sprayed in them. And the paddle controllers almost always need their pots sprayed with contact/tuner cleaner.
It's amazing how well those old systems hold up if you take good care of them.
-paul
I only read the first paragraph and already disagree..
Battery corrosion can and must be cleaned up.
Yes you need an acid. But this does not sound as bad as it looks.
Vinager wil do the job.. I neutralised some battery-corroded cpu boards of 25 year old pinball machines this way.. www.marvin3m.com/fix.htm explains how to deal with battery corrosion.
Leaving the problem like the author suggests is the worst thing you can do ! Because battery corrosion just keeps on burning and traveling over pcb's and if you wait long enough, nothing will survive anymore. It can even travel through connectors and wires and attack other pcb's which are connected to it.
I recently fixed a pinball cpu with battery corrosion.. bought the game cheap, 'it always worked and stopped working one day'
the cpu looked ok, no obvious signs (green color) of leakage, battery had even be removed in the past..
however 2 ic sockets didn't make any contact at all anymore.
So my guess is that the battery had leaked and it had been cleaned off but not really neutralised, and the stuff that got under the ic's kept burning away..
Learn about pinball machines on www.flippers.be
You can build or buy an interface to use 9 pin joysticks on intel hardware. There are many places that have the plans, and here's one. I'll build you one if you're not addicted to solder smoke. I'll charge you a lot, but I'll do it. :)
:) In all honesty though, 1541s are STILL relatively common these days and it's still easier to buy one that works than it is to fix one you've got. I would reccomend that you either buy or build an X cable (google x1541, xe1541 or xm1541) and then buy (or use the free version of) 64HDD. It allows you to use intel hardware as a hard drive for your 64. It's a really good application for us retro-nuts. I love it because you can serve up d64 and lnx images to your commie.
In regards to your drive: it may be out of alignment, and proper alignment is a bitch, but you can take the cover off and see if the read/write head is dirty. You can clean it with a q-tip and alcohol. Also, make sure that the rails that the head rides on are properly lubricated. WD-40 works, but doesn't last long. Also, don't spray it.
Another lesser problem with 1541's is spin rate. This doesn't happen often, but it's easily adjusted. You can find a printable document out there on the IntarWeb that's got a cut-out disk on it with some marks. You tape the disk to the spindle of your 1541 and then you can use a florescent light or a television (not a monitor) to view the spinning disk. When it's properly adjusted the marks will appear stationary. Think wagon wheels in old westerns.
Also, sorry for being so late to the party here.
Also 2: I <3 Amiga too.
--J(K) DOS is like Unix in exactly the same way that a pinto is like an aircraft carrier.
Extension cords, people!
NEVER hack old original controller cables that are permanently attached to your controllers! Always work on removable extension cords that plug into the controllers. That way you have less chance of fucking up vintage controllers.
And if extension cables are in short supply (or are non-existent), well, anyone enterprising enough to hack an original cable should invest the time in creating a suitable adapter such that the original controller cables never get mangled in some unholy fashion. This goes for any piece of hardware, whether it be some rare console controller or some expensive piece of equipment that has a permanently-attached cable hanging off of it. Any hacker who is also a collector will tell you the same.