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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.
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.
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
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!
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