What modern goodies would run on a 400?

[zylon]

I think it came out decent. I ran the PS2 socket out the back, opposite of channel switch. Two of those vent slats were already broken. Enough of the original keys work, for most needs, and parrot resistant.

[oky2000]

On 2/18/2023 at 8:32 PM, zylon said:

I think the 400 is neat looking, and stands out among the "breadbin" style machines of the era. I've had this a long time, just never did anything with it. It powered on, memo came up, tried couple carts, then it went in the closet. Far from the most capable, it can do a lot, just seems more challenging to do so.   Having my 600xl down for awhile, kinda spurred me to go at the 400 finally. My goal is to have something capable of more than flash multi-carts. In the process, I'm also learning about the 800, which I've zero experience with. A major bonus for me, is the crappy keyboard. My parrot loves to save me from "evil buttons", and tries to remove them. I added the TKII so I can plug in a keyboard when needed, and still use the basic functions on the membrane one. F-keys, numbers, Space, and most letters work. However, not enough works to even do ?FRE(0) test. While I know my limitations, I enjoy the tinkering and discovery, moreso than just gaming. Pricing at a glance, shows I can get 2-3 "untested" 400's, for what the same in an XL or XE would want.  Lifetime C= user here, but it never needs work, lol. I also find many of the games, when I do play, are more enjoyable on the A8, despite the C having more of them.

I wish I had purchased the 400 back then, I always wanted one as a kid as it just always reminded me of the keyboard on the "TRON Desk". It's fine for playing cart games on limited desk space connected to a 14" portable TV too but they are quite hard to find for a good price on ebay nowadays I would imagine and in 2018 they were already hard to find boxed and working for sensible money. I don't like buying loose machines, tough to store when you have as much stuff as me.

[zylon]

3 hours ago, oky2000 said:

I wish I had purchased the 400 back then, I always wanted one as a kid as it just always reminded me of the keyboard on the "TRON Desk". It's fine for playing cart games on limited desk space connected to a 14" portable TV too but they are quite hard to find for a good price on ebay nowadays I would imagine and in 2018 they were already hard to find boxed and working for sensible money. I don't like buying loose machines, tough to store when you have as much stuff as me.

One will turn up when you aren't looking, lol. It always goes like that.

[oky2000]

Prices are just too high for me, I stopped collecting now. It's OK I have two 800s, a few 800XL a 65XE and 130XE so that will have to do

[zylon]

2 minutes ago, oky2000 said:

Prices are just too high for me, I stopped collecting now. It's OK I have two 800s, a few 800XL a 65XE and 130XE so that will have to do

I kinda stopped at 1 from each generation- the featured 400 in this thread, my 1st ever A8 600xl, and a soon to be rebuilt 65xe. Add in my C64, and it's plenty to play with for my time.  The 600 &65 will stay stock, only plug-in adds to them. The 400 will be the tinker-toy. In going through my programs, I only lose maybe 5% of what I actually might have used, in dropping to the 48k from the 64k my others have. I've already given the 400 the spot previously held by my 2600. 

[oky2000]

7 hours ago, zylon said:

I kinda stopped at 1 from each generation- the featured 400 in this thread, my 1st ever A8 600xl, and a soon to be rebuilt 65xe. Add in my C64, and it's plenty to play with for my time.  The 600 &65 will stay stock, only plug-in adds to them. The 400 will be the tinker-toy. In going through my programs, I only lose maybe 5% of what I actually might have used, in dropping to the 48k from the 64k my others have. I've already given the 400 the spot previously held by my 2600. 

Paying £100 for OutRun on the PC-Engine means it is no longer 'fun' because no game is worth that sort of money to me so I just stopped. I never had the money to buy any arcade cabinets, my old BMX from my teenage years, an ST Book/Falcon/Jaguar/EGA monitor for my PC1 from Atari, An Amiga 3000/C65GS/C16 from Commodore, A PC Engine Turbo Duo, Neo Geo CD etc etc but I have just about everything else so no need to have 'everything' because it's the law of diminishing returns and it's just a value for money thing so I stopped. Some things I sold a decade and a half ago to pay the bills will not be coming back into the collection but hey it's better than coming out of retirement and getting long Covid or some rubbish for my troubles. I already have enough to make a pretty decent vintage gaming museum already.

 

At some point in the future I am going to be selling this stuff, probably the first to go will be an Amiga 4000/040, so having less is better because selling stuff is a job in itself really.