Telegames Personal Arcade

[Manoau2002]

I have read a little bit about the Telegames Personal Arcade or Dina 2 in 1 on a couple different websites. Are these systems reliable? Do they work with homebrew Colecovision games? What is a fair price to pay for one? Do people collect them?

[retroillucid]

Telegames Personal Arcade, DINA is THE best system EVER made!

 

Ok.... I'm kidding of course... As I personally hate their stuff...

 

But hey! That's only my two cents.

 

[Pixelboy]

I've tested some of my earlier Team Pixelboy titles on a Dina (Gulkave and Girl's Garden) and they didn't work. I got a frozen garbled title screen at startup for both games.

[BassGuitari]

I have read a little bit about the Telegames Personal Arcade or Dina 2 in 1 on a couple different websites. Are these systems reliable?

 

Not particularly. Overheated or fried video processors seem to be more the rule than the exception since they were not heatsinked.

 

Do they work with homebrew Colecovision games?

 

My understanding is that in general, no, they do not.

 

What is a fair price to pay for one?

 

For the quality of the unit, a "fair" price would be about $10. But, they're very rare now, so you know what that means. Atari2600.com had a few NOS DINAs and Personal Arcades (really just DINAs in Personal Arcade boxes) for about $100-$150 apiece (I forget). They were the last known source, I believe, and they finally sold out a few years ago, so I'd expect to pay anywhere around $200 and up for one now, if it works.

 

Do people collect them?

 

I do. I guess by that, I mean I have one. It needs a new VDP (which is pretty easy to source from TI99/4a and Colecovision systems) or possibly a new power supply. It also needs an AV mod since I broke the RF modulator after trying to change it to Channel 3 instead of Channel 13, which it is normally set on (the DINA originated in Taiwan; I guess Channel 13 was the standard RF tuning for game systems in Asia).

 

But generally, I don't think people do. People who are interested in them usually lose interest when they find out how expensive and cheaply-built they are. If there wasn't a sort of nostalgia factor for me (oddly, I knew what a DINA was before I knew what a Colecovision was, and I think I remember seeing it listed in those in-store "master" catalogs Radio Shack used to have), I'd probably be among them.

 

For what it's worth, despite its cheapness, I really like the DINA. If/when I get mine healthy again, it'd be my preferred Coleco fix. A few games can't be played since the CV's special controllers are incompatible, and the 2600 and ADAM adapters can't be used, but it CAN run Sega SG1000 games (which no other console released in North America can do to my knowledge), and its built-in game is surprisingly good.

[Osgeld]

i had a Dina, it didnt last though too many play sessions before it cooked its own brains

[NIAD]

BassGuitar hit the nail on the head re. the Dina 2-in-1/Personal Arcade. The only thing I don't agree on is the current value of the system seeing that a surprising amount of them have recently been sold on eBay and with this current info, I would place the value of a CIB with Bit Corp. Power Supply in the $150-$175 range. The other recent auctions included multiple games with the system and there was usually one very rare and hard to find title included in the lot that drove up the price.

 

Also note that it's not common to see this system sold with a Power Supply.

[BassGuitari]

I would place the value of a CIB with Bit Corp. Power Supply in the $150-$175 range.

 

Well that's one thing I'm happy to be wrong about. I guesstimated higher since there's no "source" of them anymore.

[Manoau2002]

Not particularly. Overheated or fried video processors seem to be more the rule than the exception since they were not heatsinked.

 

 

 

When I noticed that telegames was the distributor I thought they were likely junk. I found this quote on a homebrew gaming website that made me wonder if I could be wrong.

 

"A major problem with the Colecovision was who manufactured

it: COLECO. And anyone who remembers Coleco remembers that

they made the cheapest, junkiest toys on the planet.

 

Popular Colecovision problems include the power switch going

bad, the power supply going bad, the controller chips going bad

(controllers stop working) and video RAM chips going bad (garbage

displayed on screen).

 

Telegames USA sold a Colecovision clone which is smaller

and much more durable. The only incompatibilty is that it won't

work with Super Action Controllers. Sadly Telegames stopped selling

this system and other classic games in 2004."

 

 

It sounds like a yurkievision would be a much better money investment at that price range. ( I would rather use yurkie's modified controllers than one with a d-pad anyway.)

[Pixelboy]

I think the Dina is a cautionary tale of sorts. When Opcode gets around to the final design iteration of the ColecoVision 2, I hope they will avoid such pitfalls as using cheap electronics or plastic parts that break down easely. The controllers will be a major point of concern in that respect, no matter what form these controllers take.

[BassGuitari]

"Popular Colecovision problems include the power switch going

bad, the power supply going bad, the controller chips going bad

(controllers stop working) and video RAM chips going bad (garbage

displayed on screen).

 

Telegames USA sold a Colecovision clone which is smaller

and much more durable. The only incompatibilty is that it won't

work with Super Action Controllers. Sadly Telegames stopped selling

this system and other classic games in 2004."

 

This is an interesting tidbit; I've never heard of the Dina being described as "durable!".

 

Colecovisions are indeed, shall we say, "precious," but calling the Dina more durable than a CV is bit of a stretch. The Dina *could* be a very reliable unit, but you pretty much HAVE to do some work on it. Specifically with the TMS9918A (or whichever version it uses); even if the system works perfectly, it probably won't for long unless you open it up and pop a heat sink on the 9918A (and you'll probably need to bend the "fringes" down to fit the top of the case back). An AV mod is pretty simple to do, and recommended since the Dina's stock RF quality is generally noted to be quite poor. A few people have done these things and have reported very satisfactory results.

 

There are also two(?) unused chip locations on the board near the BIOS and Meteoric Shower ROM. It is rumored that the chips from a Colecovision which read controller keypads might go there, theoretically allowing full compatibility with standard CV controllers. To my knowledge, though, no one has tried doing this yet.

 

The funny thing about the Dina is that, largely because of how Telegames "advertised" it, and how it's now put across on the internet, everybody thinks of it as, first and foremost, a Colecovision clone. But it really seems more like a full-on SG1000 clone that can also run CV software. Even the case shape and controllers aren't dissimilar from those of the SG1000 Mark II. That might explain why CV functionality is compromised on the Dina.

[NIAD]

Well that's one thing I'm happy to be wrong about. I guesstimated higher since there's no "source" of them anymore.

Not necessarily wrong as I'm sure you know all too well that when people want something and the item is up on an auction site... anything can happen and the price can quickly become inflated and sometimes inflated to insane amounts.

 

Seeing as I was the winner of the auction pictured above, I like your $200 estimate a lot more and I should really start overvalueing my estimates of an item's value when people ask on here... a quick and dirty way to increase the value of my collection!