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Microvision Homebrew - Barrage 2021


5-11under

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  • 3 months later...
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  • 2 weeks later...

I'd still like to get into the resin molding for new shells, but it looks like in the shorter term I'll looking at repurposing existing common games.

 

The problem with using existing games, besides them becoming less common in the process, is that the original keypad overlay and screen overlay would still need to be used. The reason is that although the shells have separate front and back, the pieces are glued together, and don't easily come apart. This means the cartridge won't look perfect... it will have a new name label, of course. I'm thinking to also make a kit available, to those who want to provide their own donor cartridge.

 

I need to work on a few things yet... 1) Decide if I'm going to provide any foam pieces to hold the game in the box, and if yes, then make them, 2) Design the back of the box, unless I just go with blank white, 3) Figure out the box top versus bottom dimensions, 4) Figure out the cutting template for the covers for the box.

 

Regarding timing, I'm hoping to have these ready over the next couple of months. No guarantees, though... that's why there's no pre-orders. ;)

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5 minutes ago, atari2600land said:

Hoping for an option to just mail you the donor cartridge and not worry about it.

Maybe... unless I don't want to worry about it. ;) The problem is it costs a lot to mail one cartridge... I'll think about a rebate program where sending me X number of cartridges gives the person X * Y dollars credit toward a game.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 12/13/2021 at 12:42 PM, 5-11under said:

Regarding timing, I'm hoping to have these ready over the next couple of months.

Quoting myself here... just an FYI that I'm starting up on this project again. My next step is to try to build some Microvision-style boxes, with the correct dimensions, top-vs-bottom fit, and label cutting templates.

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18 minutes ago, 5-11under said:

Quoting myself here... just an FYI that I'm starting up on this project again. My next step is to try to build some Microvision-style boxes, with the correct dimensions, top-vs-bottom fit, and label cutting templates.

I’m in for one when you make these! They look awesome 

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20 hours ago, jgkspsx said:

I am so into this and if you need any help with defraying costs I would be happy to chip in. I love the Microvision and opening it up to homebrewing would be amazing.

It's still my plan to provide a suite of materials so people can make their own games.

 

In the meantime, I worked on some box prototyping today. These are the same size as standard North American Microvision boxes. Ignore the "Blix 2017" text. That's just a scrap label I had lying around.

 

MV-Box-1.thumb.jpg.f45b42417a182e3ef410ad0f06fb6bee.jpg

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2 minutes ago, jgkspsx said:

Regarding the bezel - there have been major advances in Vectrex overlay reproduction in recent years. Maybe it would be worth asking Sean Kelly, Kristof Tuts, or Malban Vide about it?

Thanks for the suggestion. If anyone has any other suggestions, feel free to respond...

 

The bezel isn't super difficult to make. The difficult part is the shell... it doesn't come apart easily, and without taking it apart, you can't easily replace the screen overlay and keyboard overlay

 

I'm still thinking about solutions for all this. Things like cutting out material to reveal the screen overlay, and placing new keyboard overlays on top of the existing ones. The long term solution is to make new shells. Anyone done any resin casting, and know how do-able this would be for this application?

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I'll be ordering some mold making and epoxy supplies tonight. Just some small quantities, to see if it works or not. My first test will be the PCB cover. If it all works, it should be easier than trying to replace or cover the screen and keypad overlays (also more friendly to all the existing carts out there).

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15 minutes ago, jfaulken said:

Would it be useful to have a printable 3D model of a cart? I'm happy to model one, resin print and test fit it. 

I'm going to make a mold from the original, and see how that works. I've got one that I was able to take apart.

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Some updates:

  • I've finalized (hopefully) the printing assets, in all their CMYK glory, for box, label, manual, and other items ;).
  • I've also made a keypad layout, but I still need to talk to my local print house to see if they can print that.
  • I'm not getting these printed until I've got the shells figured out. I ordered silicone, epoxy, and some other supplies to get started on that. Those should arrive sometime in the upcoming week.
  • That's about all I can do for now, except for cleaning up the opened shell that I have that will be used to make the molds, and figuring the best type of molds to make.
  • Edit: I also updated the name of the game from Barrage 2021 to Barrage 2022... .

Barrage-Print.thumb.png.a753277eec27e3fac3a725553bc52379.png

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