Bivotar

The CV power supply generates more than one voltage, as I recall. That's why it has 4 prongs. One pin is ground, and the others are something like +5v, +12v, and -12V. You could probably rig up an old pc powersupply, but that would require a voltmeter and knowing what pins are what. Unfortunately, the Colecovision FAQ doesn't cover this. But the short answer is no, you can't find a generic ps for the Colecovision.

While game graphics have without a doubt improved since the beginnings with Pong and the 2600, haven't they really reached a peak and are now mainly limited by display resolution of TV's? Not everybody owns HDTV yet, I personally don't know anybody that does. Just imagine when mega-displays are a reality and affordable. I always envisioned a display that basically takes up a whole wall, almost like wall paper, and has a very very high resolution. When not being used for entertainment, it could display vivid photorealistic scenes or movies (imagine having dinner while viewing a grand canyon landscape). Games would of course be able to take advantage of this 'mega-display' and have full size, interactive characters to deal with. And of course VR would be a hoot. But overall I think it will be up and coming display technology that will help determine the future of video games.

I stopped in at my local Super Target last night and they had just set out a big stack of a DVD's with new and upcoming Gamecube demos (movies only!). It ranged from stuff like Metroid Prime to Harry Potter. There are actually quite a few different movies on the disk. It has a fairly cool menu. Metroid Prime was probably the coolest demo, with a menu choice to view the history of the Metroid series, including actual game graphics playing in a window. Pretty cool stuff! It of course is free. Now why won't they release some of those actual Gamecube demo disks, kind of like the Playstation JamPak series.

I can't say on the PS2 version, but I picked up Gauntlet:Dark Legacy for Game Cube and was disappointed that it was basically a rehash of Gauntlet Legends on the Dreamcast. A few new worlds, some rearrangements, but overall it felt very deja-vu like (been there, done that). Oh some new characters you could play as (which wasn't a huge appeal to me, oh boy, I can play as a weird jester looking guy!).

I picked up a "MegaJoy 8000" and it's kind of neat. It looks like an N64 controller. It only has AV out (which is okay by me, I hook it up to the overhead projection system at work and it's FUN). It has a couple hundred games on it, but many start repeating after a while. Most are the original games, with a lot being early run NES and Famicon stuff. Seeing some of the Famicon only titles (like Nuts and Milk) was interesting. It has a lot of arcade ports, like Galaga, Dig Dug, and Donkey Kong. The control pad pretty much sucks. Both A and B button have a corresponding mate for 'turbo fire', but all buttons and the pad are really damn spongy. Kind of takes some of the fun out of it. I thought about wiring up a NES Advantage to it, but that seemed to defeat the portability purpose.

It seems like most, if not all the NES carts I've picked up 'in the wild' have needed a good cleaning (at a minimum, lots of alchol, sometimes a little very fine sandpaper). Plus, it is VERY easy to simply open up the case on the NES and bend the cart connector pins back up. It makes it a little 'stiffer' to insert/remove a cart, but it is worth it in terms of the blinky-blink frustration. You could replace that connector, as someone else pointed out, but simply bending the pins a little sure did the trick for me. Your poor NES. I can't ever imagine destroying a game system with my fist.

I was a late comer to the N64 and never regretted finally picking one up. My collection really swelled (up around 50) by swinging through Blockbuster Video and picking up cheap used games. For a while they were really blowing them out, with great titles going for $9.99, and every so often would be a "buy 2 get one free" special. I liked many of the Rare games, including DK64, Banjo Tooie, and of course CONKER (which absolutely rocked!). N64 was probably the last cartridge based console (not handheld), wasn't it?

I caught "I Spy" this weekend, and before the previews was a commercial for Metroid Prime. It was AWESOME! The game looks absolutely incredible and they showed a lot of in-game action. I want to get this game badly, but for some reason fps games on consoles (not pc's) make me extremely motion sick. Does this happen to anybody else? I really tried to play Perfect Dark but after a couple times of getting near puking sick, I gave up.

No, I haven't seen the city flooded yet. That happens when the final world is opened up? What triggers that event?

Yes, I've been over to gamefaqs.com and read through a couple. But they all seem to talk about how to finish each world and episode sequentially. I couldn't really find a definitive "you must do this..." type of answer so I thought I'd post here. I'm sure there is somebody out there that has finished the game, or am I the only one here at AA that is close? I have about 67 shines.

What triggers the last world/stage to open up in Super Mario Sunshine? I've been to all worlds, finished nearly all the episodes, but have no idea how or when the last stage opens up for the final boss battle. Do you have to finish EVERY stinkin' episode?!?! There are a couple (like the Yoshi's Fruit one (episode 8 in Rico Harbor) that are just driving me bonkers. HELP!!!

Dood, what ARE you eating before you go to bed?!?! Peanut butter and anchovy pizza???

Discussion about scoring rare Atari carts in dreams has popped up in the past on the rgvc newsgroup. They referred to them over there as "Reef Store Dreams". It was tied in with the whole Bira-Bira concept. I've definitely had the dreams. They always involved wacky or ultra rare carts. It's always sad when you wake up and realize, it was but a dream.

The cartridge version of DK doesn't have the cutscenes and extra level, but doesn't the Adam cassette version have the extras? I think it also had the ability to save high scores. DK Jr. was the same way, as I recall.

I was a long time rgvc newsgroup reader, and kind of got tired of wading through the spam, eBay auction listings, and other bs. Finding these forums at AtariAge has been very nice! It has renewed my interest in group discussions on one of my favorite topics - classic games! Occasional review of the rgvc ng appears to me that it is 'not what it used to be'. Is it the superior format of these forums? Have these forums replaced the newsgroups?

Parker Brothers did a good job of making CV games. Popeye, Q*bert, and Frogger are excellent arcade translations. For some reason I enjoy the simplicity of Carnival. Not too exciting, but I reach for that one quite often when firing up the CV. War Games is awesome. It gets so frantic. Another is a similar vein is 2010. Trying to fix the ship and get out of orbit before burning up really gets your heart racing!!!

I fondly remember picking up my Genesis when they first came out. That was when consoles still had a pack-in game! The stereo sound, revolutionary 16-bit graphics, and a great library of games made for pure gaming bliss. The weird part is, after picking up a SNES just two years ago, I unplugged my Genny and haven't had it hooked back up since. I don't even have a desire to. I've even passed on boxed Genesis games at thrifts I could have had cheap. Go figure. Does that make me a Nintendo 'fan-boy'?

I picked up an Adam at a Goodwill some time back, and it has replaced my Colecovision console as the system I play CV games on. I only had to pay $5 for it! A couple points though: * You can replace the printer/power supply with a power supply from a PC. This takes a little 'modding', but it is quite easy. I recall getting the pinouts of the Adam power connector from a CV FAQ (somewhere). The Adam takes + and - 12V, and + and I believe - 5V. * AV Output. The V (video) is there, but to get the A, you surprisingly have to do another mod. The audio is a pin on some custom strange monitor connection they have. I drilled a hole in the back of the case, and wired up the audio to an rca jack. Works great! The AV output looks BEAUTIFUL on my Commodore monitor!!! Far superior to the RF out. * The Adam I have is the dedicated unit, not the expansion for a CV system. This allows me to plug the Atari 2600 module in to the CV and play 2600 games on my Adam with the beautiful AV out. However, the audio is kind of scrappy on the Atari games. * A couple CV games don't work on the Adam. Atarisoft Defender is one I know for sure. But it's only a couple. Overall, I love my Adam. I have a pretty big CV collection (about 80 games) and with these couple simple mods, I have a great system to play them on.

Has any 'cube owners played the Crash Bandicoot game that's out? I loved the Crash games on PS1, and was wondering if the new one is any good. BTW, I'll second the vote for Pikmin. FUN. Really unique game concept. But it is short.

Very interesting recount of your cart building project! Do you have an EPROM burner, or how did you get the binary image in to the ROM?