Getting Astrocade to work on a Japanese TV :-(

[128Kgames]

Carl there should be an adjustment screw on the board that can fine tune the picture/colors without doing it on the tv. If memory serves its either plastic or metal, slotted or Phillips. Just try turning it in either direction until you get the picture you like, but keep track of how many turns and in what direction in case you want to back it out. I would at least reset the tv picture first, then try the adjustment screw.

[ballyalley]

Long story short, they soldered the wire. I got home, and being an expert by now, quickly hooked up the mod and… SUCCESS!

"Houston, we have liftoff!" I mean, a picture... we have a picture! I'm glad that you found a place to solder the wire for you.

 

The picture is incredibly sharp, even know I'm converting it from S video to composite. It still looks better than any classic videogame system I've seen.

Glad that all the hoops that you have to go through to get a picture in Japan work out to something that is still usable. I wonder if you have the only Astrocade in Japan...? That's a weird thought.

 

The colors look a little off compared to what I've seen on YouTube, but I probably just need to adjust my TV.

Tried out gunfight solo and then a little incredible wizard. The sounds are very loud, with lots of scratchy noise and crazy effects. The Astrocade is so cool. :-)

 

The sound effects on the Astrocade are pretty great; very arcade-like. I've often wondered what kind of music a modern programmer could push out of the system using assembly language on a cartridge. For the most part, the music that was programmed in assembly language uses the system routines built into the ROM. These routines were written in 1977 and were meant for music that would accompany a video game, not music for music's own sake.

 

Thanks to everyone on the forum and Adam for being kind enough to send the mod.

 

I'm glad that the mod worked out for you, Carl. The Astrocade is a strange beast. Let me know if you need anything else. What carts do you have?

 

Adam

[Carl Mueller Jr]

"Houston, we have liftoff!" I mean, a picture... we have a picture! I'm glad that you found a place to solder the wire for you.

 

Glad that all the hoops that you have to go through to get a picture in Japan work out to something that is still usable. I wonder if you have the only Astrocade in Japan...? That's a weird thought.

 

 

The sound effects on the Astrocade are pretty great; very arcade-like. I've often wondered what kind of music a modern programmer could push out of the system using assembly language on a cartridge. For the most part, the music that was programmed in assembly language uses the system routines built into the ROM. These routines were written in 1977 and were meant for music that would accompany a video game, not music for music's own sake.

 

 

I'm glad that the mod worked out for you, Carl. The Astrocade is a strange beast. Let me know if you need anything else. What carts do you have?

 

Adam

One of the first things I'm going to do is investigate the sound chip. It seems like you could do some volume envelopes to enhance the music quite easily. I've written a lot of sound engines on the Intellivision and would like to see what I could do on the Astrocade, eventually.

As for games, I have most of the ones that are worth getting, I think. But I do not have Cosmic Raiders, Solar Conqueror, or Bally Pin. After that, I think my collection will be reasonably complete minus the homebrews, which I can't ever hope to own, I'm sure.

Thanks again, Carl

[ballyalley]

One of the first things I'm going to do is investigate the sound chip. It seems like you could do some volume envelopes to enhance the music quite easily. I've written a lot of sound engines on the Intellivision and would like to see what I could do on the Astrocade, eventually.

I'd love to hear what you can do with the sound. When you did your work on the Intellivision, did you make any cross-platform development tools for creating sound effects for your music engine, or do such tools already exist for that platform.

 

I guess talk about programming belongs in another thread, as it sure looks like you got your Astrocade hooked up properly to a Japanese TV.

 

As for games, I have most of the ones that are worth getting, I think. But I do not have Cosmic Raiders, Solar Conqueror, or Bally Pin. After that, I think my collection will be reasonably complete minus the homebrews, which I can't ever hope to own, I'm sure.

 

Those three games are all pretty good. Of the three, Bally Pin is reasonably easy to find.

 

You're probably aware that the two homebrew games (War and Crazy Climber) are available on the more modern multicarts. Just a few days ago, Ken Lill has made his multicart available again. His multicart is called the UltiMulti Cart and it has every released game, prototypes and BASICarts (BASIC games that have been converted to run from cartridge) on it. I have his newest release; it's well worth picking up for the $125. He's also making a composite video mod (which does require soldering). He didn't say if he is making his Lil' White Ram 32K RAM expansion, so I suppose that's "out of print." His multicart and the composite upgrade will both be available until the end of the year, then he will stop making them for good. You can read about these in his posting here:

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/263338-composite-or-s-video-upgrade-service-for-the-astrocade/?do=findComment&comment=3751521

 

When you're interested, Carl, maybe we can start a specific Astrocade programming thread. I doubt that there is enough interest for an Astrocade program sub-forum. Also, don't forget to join the Astrocade Yahoo group.

 

Adam