My Colecovision

After visiting boot sales for years, I only saw a Colecovision at a boot sale once. That was on 4th June 2011. I bought it of course! Originally released in 1983 in Europe, it wowed gamers with it's arcade style graphics which were a generation ahead of the Mattel Intellivision and Atari 2600.

It was about 6.15 in the morning at a very popular sale. The sellers had just pulled in out of their car and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. (Let's not talk about the 'ones that got away!'). They wanted £50, just as I had said that, someone picked up the box of carts. I offered £40 for the lot and the deal was done. That was a lot of money spent in one go at a sale then, but it was a particularly good find.

A boxed Colecovision, boxed Expansion #1 (VCS player), four Colecovision games and nine VCS games. As pictured, the Colecovision games were Donkey Kong (the pack-in), Gorf, Mouse Trap and Time Pilot. All the Colecovision games are excellent versions - just see Donkey Kong on the picture below. You only have to do a side by side comparison on the games compared the the VCS to see the vast difference. Time Pilot is also excellent and that didn't come out on the VCS.  The controllers however - I'm not a fan. Fortunately you can use any Atari 9pin compatible - just depending on whether the game needs the keypad or not. 

However, as you can see by the picture, the original owners had more VCS games - these were more easily available and often cheaper - hence why many bought the expansion add-on and more VCS games.

Since then I've also bought another loose Colecovision as backup and bought a copy of Defender which is another excellent version. I'm also a big fan of Q*Bert - so I've got a copy of that as well. I'll be doing some more in-depth look at some the games later this year once lockdown is over.

Original overall picture on Flickr

Donkey Kong playing on TV on Flickr

My first games console - The Atari 2600 Jr

I got a games console quite late compared to a lot of my classmates. My first computer was a Texas Instruments TI99/4A, which was passed down to me by my Uncle. However that didn't come with any software, nor did we know where to get any from, so I was restricted to typing programs in from the accompanying BASIC manual.

In the 80s I had friends with C16s, C64s, Spectrums, Amstrad CPC6128s and one person who had a Sega Master System early on, but up until I got my first console I was limited to my TI for any kind of personal computing/gaming.

I remember the page in the Index catalogue vividly. Back then, the Argos and Index catalogue were sacred tombs that were used to plan Christmas lists or to simply pass the time looking at all the wondrous goods. Remember, times were simpler then with 4 channels on TV and no Internet. The catalogues came out twice a year. Spring Summer and Autumn Winter. The latter was always best for toys and was usually a bit thicker as well.  I can't remember exactly which year it was, or even if it was this exact catalogue, but the picture, layout and price was exactly the same. So if not this one, possibly the year after. (So 88-89)

Index Catalogue Autumn Winter 1988

Don't worry, I include the full picture of that page of the catalogue at the end of the blog. I found it on the Internet years ago and stored it away as a memento. Glad I did because I can't find it again now unless I want to pay £12.99 on eBay for a download!

I remember I had to use my own money to buy it as my parents wouldn't buy me a games console themselves. I was restricted by how much money I had, hence why I went for the cheapest option at £39.95 - The Atari 2600 Jr. The NES was £100 in comparison, too much! At the time, I didn't realise that this console was compatible with an older looking console that I'd never seen. I wouldn't find that out until a family friend said I could borrow some cartridges. I remember going into town (Lincoln) and into the Littlewoods where the Index was and purchasing the console.

As it says in the advert, it came with Centipede (that's also the Centipede title screen on the TV), and Centipede remains one of my top 10 games today. I also got two other games - RealSports Boxing and Ms Pac Man. I always thought I got Ms Pac Man from Index and RS Boxing from somewhere else, but Ms Pac Man isn't pictured. I might be misremembering that.

The family got quite into playing Ms Pac Man and Centipede. Friends who came weren't impressed with the graphics, but we had fun with the console for a couple of years and it began a lifelong love affair for me. I knew it didn't have as good graphics as other systems out there, but it was mine and I could play it whenever I wanted.

Over the years I picked up a couple of other Atari VCS models and amassed quite a collection of carts. But after a few years of moving around the country and them being in storage I decided to sell them and keep the hardware. I've still got my original Ms Pac Man cartridge and a few other carts, including a flash cart. So I can play all the games on the original hardware and controllers but without the bulk of all the games taking up space.

I'll write more about Centipede and more Atari stuff in an upcoming blog article.

Index catalogue Autumn Winter 1988

Kaico Nintendo GameCube HDMI adaptor

As I wrote in a previous blog, I had sold my GameCube RGB cable, since I wasn't getting the use out of it and it was worth big money. If I was going to be playing my GameCubes in the future, it would be on a flatscreen. Also, one of my GameCube is Japanese, which doesn't support RGB - I've got an s-video lead for it, which is as good as it gets. After realising that a £30 Hyperkin cable wasn't going to cut it as lag was concerned, I started to look at the other options. The GCHD ran to about £110 quid, the Carby ran to £75 and there was a new one on the market - the Kaico HDMI adaptor at £55. Now, the Carby and the Kaico both use the same open source software and under the hood the two are essentially the same. I ordered the Kaico one and received a well-engineered little device that you see below. It also comes with a little remote which allow you to turn on scanlines and control various aspects of the picture. All of these devices are only compatible with your GameCube if it has a digital AV port, which are the earlier models.

Well, if you are a fan of the GameCube and you are gaming on a flatscreen, you should get yourself one of these. Using Swiss, you can force all the games to run at 480p and Mario Kart has never looked so good. No lag unlike cheaper options as well. I'm extremely pleased with the cable. It means my GameCube has been getting a whole lot more attention. A recommended purchase!

You may also be interested in reading this blog entry about Sp2SD and Swiss.

CRTs for old games

Any retro gamer of a certain age will certainly have a love for a good picture on a CRT TV. It would annoy me when people connected games consoles using an RF lead or have the aspect ratio set wrong, thereby not playing the game in the most optimum way! (A bit sad, I know!)

Certainly, you can't beat a picture that's displayed on a CRT when using a good quality cable displaying a good game. The scanlines generated added a certain atmosphere. Developers took advantage of the fact that the graphics would be displayed a little soft. (Hence why some old games look so blocky on crisp new flat screen TVs).  There must be something in it, as hardware and software often have the ability to fake scanlines on flat screens, to give more of an authentic old school feel.

Trinitron tubes are up there with the best and crispest display. The best option is a Sony Broadcast Video Monitor (BVM): Screens made for use by businesses doing professional stuff like TV. These are generally MASSIVE, extremely heavy and extremely expensive. They are professional monitors. They therefore have the best picture. As of writing a 20" SONY BVM-A20F1M had just sold on Ebay for £500. Yes, £500 for a CRT!

Next rung down is the Professional Video Monitors (PVMs). These are still excellent and are made by manufacturers such as JVC, Panasonic and Sony. As of writing a 14" Sony PVM-14L1MDE has just sold for £250.

I used to have a 9" PVM made by JVC. It didn't support RGB like all the good ones do, so it was a bit cheaper. (It did S-video and Composite). Someone on Ebay was getting rid of a load and it cost me a tenner plus delivery. Even though it didn't do RGB, the picture was so stable and crisp. It really was excellent. It made a pretty good test-bed monitor and you can see here I was testing it out with Bust-a-move3DX on the Nintendo 64.

I sold it when I moved down south though. It was a nice-to-have, but didn't really need it. If I do pick up another PVM in the future, it would be one with RGB - and a 14" would be nice!

I own one of these.

The next best thing the the consumer TVs - the Sony Trinitrons, or other TVs with Trinitron tubes. They are consumer level, but still produce a nice crisp screen and until recently were super cheap. I own two Sony 14" Trinitron TVs. At one point, you couldn't give these away but now on Ebay they are approaching £100 each. Bonkers really, but people are hoarding them as the most affordable authentic option.

Whenever I got a 'new' console, I'd have to then seek out the best possible connection method to the display device. I've got RGB leads for my SNES. I have a S-Video lead for my Jap GameCube. I have an Atari 2600 modded for RGB SCART. I used to have an official RGB GameCube cable.

I say 'used to' for the last one as I've sold it last Christmas. It goes for about £35 online. Thing is, as I've got older, I've had less time for gaming. More time has gone into things like relationships and work. When I do play a game I want it to be fun, relatively quick and convenient. Keeping a hold of a 14" TV and my GameCube RGB cable to play GameCube in RGB doesn't seem that convenient. CRT TVs take up space, and it's only 14" after all. I want to be able to plug it in to the nearest LCD TV and have the best possible picture on there. Hence why I bought the Kaico HDMI adaptor.

I'm still going to keep some RGB leads and my TVs, but I will also look for ways to play my old systems on new TVs in the best possible way. I'm waiting for a SNES HDMI adaptor to come into stock at the moment. Expect a blog entry soon. It might not be truly authentic, but it means the games will get played more often, and that's better than them not being played in my book.

I kept a CRT as my main TV until quite late compared to others. I was the source of some stick from my friends. But the quality in SD was great. I had an RGB lead for my Xbox 360 that I had at the time. However, as game designers started designing UIs for larger flat screens, it made it harder and harder to read small text. In 2013 I finally upgraded to a Panasonic Plasma, but that's another story!

First CRT I had in Kidderminster. Lots of retro in this picture!

Playing Atari 7800 Centipede

My last CRT that I had as my 'main' TV. 

My SNES collection

I'm rather enjoying this blogging, and I've been thinking about all of the different things I can write about. I'm currently at my girlfriends house in Colchester and my SNES collection is at my house. So I'm not able to play it currently, but I can write about it. I thought I could write a short background to my collection, and go into more details when I've got access to it again.

I do however have a photo of it to hand:

As far as I'm concerned, this is my perfectly curated collection of 30 cartridges. This picture was taken in about 2013 and I haven't added anything else since then (and I've been to Japan in the meantime, but that's a story for another blog!) This is what I play and I don't see myself adding anything else to it.

In the past I've owned way more SNES games, including some with boxes. 😅 I've had a Super Scope and various arcade joysticks but as I got older I lost interest in having things for the sake of having things and so I sold off all but what I really wanted and would play. Actually, as I write this I think should probably sell the Super Game Boy as I use the GameCube adaptor if I want to play any of those on the big screen!

To start at the bottom, we've got two PAL SNESs (SNESes? SNES?). The one on the right is my main one - you can see on the picture that it has a larger cart port cut out. I had it modded by Console Passion with the switchless mod. It can run at 50/60Hz and will more-or-less play any SNES game from any region. The left-hand SNES is essentially my backup machine. I also got rid of the original power supplies as they were getting old flakey. I bought two replacements from Consolegoods which should see me right for some time.

In rows from top left (PAL unless noted):

1) NBA Jam, Street Racer, Sunset Riders, Pop N Twinbee, Parodius Da! (JAP)
2) Super Tennis, Earthworm Jim, The Firemen, Ghoul Patrol, Super Donkey Kong (Country) (JAP)
3)Pilotwings, Street Fighter Alpha 2, Super Aleste, Super Streetfighter 2, Darius Twin (JAP)
4)Sensible Soccer, Donkey Kong Country, Super Mario All Stars, Super Mario World, Super Mario Kart (JAP)
5) Starwing, Super Bomberman, Super R*Type, Zombies, Yoshi's Island (JAP)
6) Super Mario Kart, Axelay, Street Fighter 2 Turbo, Yoshi's Island.

I've got duplicate copies of Mario Kart and Yoshi's Island as the Japanese versions do prefer to run at 60Hz because of the DSP in MK and the Super FX in Yoshi's. Running the PAL versions of those games at 60Hz means they either don't run properly or act all funny!

I picked up the Hudson Super Multitap at a flea market in about 2004 - I've only seen one like it since then. It's great for Super Bomberman and Street Racer, which admittedly I don't get to play all that often with more people! I didn't take pictures of my controllers, but I've got 5 or 6 official controllers and a couple of good third-party ones.

That's it for this post! Just an overview! As you saw from my games list earlier, the games weren't sorted when I took a picture. Over the coming weeks and months I'm going to post more articles about specific games and genres.

I'll leave you with these two little photos. These are close crops of my room at Uni in 2002. You can just about see NBA Jam in the cart slot! Can you spot anything else? There's some games there that I don't have now!