Atari VCS UK ephemera

I am a big fan of ephemera, those collectable items that weren't made to be collectable. Yesterday in a bunch of newly acquired VCS manuals (direct from a loft) I found some advertisments that had been torn from a catalogue. Some prices had been scribbled on the pages, and it was nice to spend an hour or so scanning them and piecing together the story behind them.

I could speculate that the owner had bought their VCS light sixer (also in the loft) probably in 1982 and a son or daughter had made some notes on the torn pages.

It's interesting to see the release of ET, (rushed out in time for Xmas 82) and then later catalogue pages showing it's swift reductions in price, eventually to 6.99. The VCS had also been reduced to 49.99 as well, including a free Pac Man cartridge. The bottom had evidently dropped out of the VCS market, with newer machines now available and the retailer wanted their stock gone.

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!

Finally able to play an 'old classic' again.

In 2008 I was visiting a lot of Pinball shows and playing a lot of real pinball. There wasn't a lot of good video pinball about at the time. Virtual Pinball and Future Pinball existed, as did Windows Pinball. I became aware of Williams Pinball by Farsight on the PlayStation 2. Alas at the time it was NTSC-U/C (North American) release only, and be default you can't play NTSC disks on a PAL (Euro) PS2.

I researched my options and thought my best bet for playing the one import game I wanted to play was a Swap Magic, which was 2 disks and a plastic tool to open up your Phat PS2's disk drive without it realising. Boot the PS2 from either the DVD or CD disk, depending on the import game you wanted to play. You unscrewed the front of your disk tray and that enabled you to slide the tool in to open the disk drive. Swap the disk with your import disk, use the tool to slide the disk mechanism back and away you go - import game loads on your PS2.

It was a bit fiddly the first couple of times you used it, but you soon got the knack of where to insert the piece of plastic and which way to slide.

It allowed me to play the only import game I was interested in, and it was a pretty good version to boot. It was missing a couple of tables present on other versions, but nothing too important. The main ones were there like Funhouse and Black Knight. Eventually in 2011 (3 years later), System 3 published the game in Europe.

Anyway, why did I start writing this blog entry.... ah yes of course...

Just this Christmas gone when I visited my parents I got my phat PS2 out of storage and tried to boot up this game for old times sake. Curses. Took a while to get the knack of the slide tool, but curses, I couldn't get it to work. It would play normal PAL PS1 games but nothing else. I needed to slim down my stuff in storage so I decided to sell it and the controllers, but keeping my Logitech wireless controller, memory cards, games and Swap Magic. I thought later down the line I'd pick up another machine capable of playing the game.

After Christmas I was looking at modded PS2s on Ebay, but they were a bit pricier than I wanted to pay - £70+ for a Slim version - a lot of money to play a game I own on two other formats as well (PS3 and PS2). It took until lockdown when I decided to revisit the problem. I put a wanted post on RLLMUK forum and a chap responded saying he had a console only NTSC-U Slimline PS2. He wanted £19 delivered for it. Done.

While I waited for that to arrive, I set about acquiring the other parts of the puzzle. A power adaptor was BIN'd off Ebay so that was easy. Then I had to think about the display cable. I decided that HDMI would be the most flexible. The cheap (~£10ish) adaptors on Ebay got middling reviews, so I thought I'd pay a bit more as I've been bitten by going for the cheapest option before. I had been happy with the Kaico GameCube offering so I looked at their offering. £29.99 with excellent reviews. It doesn't upscale the image, (I'd have to pay nearer £50 for a device that does that), but it looked like it would do the business. So total outlay - £19 + £9.95 + £29.99.  Essentially £60 to play one game, however for nostalgia's sake - priceless!

NTSC Slim PS2	Logitech controller	Funhouse

Finally I had all the parts of the puzzle assembled. The adaptor looked to be as well made as the GameCube one and I quickly set it all up. The adaptor needed power via micro USB which the PS2 could supply. The image output is 480i which the TV deals with just fine. It looks as good as I hoped, considering it's a standard definition picture on a HD screen. The most important thing though in a game like this is lag - you can't play Pinball if you've got above the normal lag. I'm already using a wireless controller, but it plays absolutely fine. It loaded my saved game off the memory card and now I'm busy hitting high scores again. Success!

How it all connects together

Mario Kart 8 on the Wii U

I've been playing Mario Kart 8 (MK8) on the Wii U a lot more than usual recently because of the lockdown. Mario Kart is a game franchise I've loved since Super Mario Kart, and I like the fact that you can quickly play a quick Grand Prix or a few online games.

It's great to see that MK8 online is still busy with people from all over the world and there's still tournament being held on it. I do wonder how long Nintendo will keep the servers running. The game came out in 2014, so it's doing well so far.

When MK8 came out in 2014, I borrowed work's Wii U over the holidays and bought my own copy of the game. Completed it, (hammered it!), then when I returned the Wii U, I sold the game. A year or so later, I bought my own second-hand Wii U when it was floundering in the marketplace and re-bought MK8 and also both of the DLC track packs.

The Switch came out in early 2017, with MK8 Deluxe (MK8D) a few weeks later. Similar to before, I borrowed work's Switch, purchased my own copy of MK8D and hammered it again over the holidays. It was great, but when the time came to return the Switch, I also sold my copy of MK8D, content to keep playing my own Wii U version, at least until they turn off the online.

Nintendo's page detailing the differences between MK8 and MK8D.

Why I stick with MK8 for now:

I like to play on a big screen. Although I do like handheld Mario Kart versions (I own them all), I always play in the home. So I'm not going to shell out money especially on a new console, especially when I'd be paying for a big feature I wouldn't really use that much.

Since I already own the DLC for MK8, MK8D offers me very little new apart from a couple of characters, ability to hold double items, and two items (Boo/Ghost - item steal and the feather). Of those three additions, the missing items would be nice, but not enough to buy a new console and a copy of the game.

MK8 online players on Wii U generally tend to be pretty good, and there's loads of Japanese players if you log on at the right time, which, with lockdown is easy - I can do a few races before work starts in the morning!

The graphics look absolutely fine. It's 720p on Wii U compared to 1080p on Switch, but I can't tell enough of a difference. It runs at 60fps (well 59fps some of the time), which is absolutely fine.

Although I do own other Wii U games, MK8 is the game I play the most BY FAR. I won't buy a Switch just to play one game that I nearly already own.

Lets be honest here, I rarely play using the GamePad controller as I don't enjoy the way I have to hold my hands. I have a Wii U Pro Controller which is a great controller. Really comfortable, I love it. When I buy a Switch I'll also have to shell (!) out for a new Pro Controller here.

What is definitely sure though, I will pick up an original Switch and MK8D at some point, and this will be even sooner if MK9 is released. (Would be a day 1 purchase!)

A little more about the Hyperkin 3 in 1 cable...

So, lockdown and the coronavirus have taken centre stage recently, but now I've got chance to post an update about the Hyperkin cable. On my SNES, it seems to work great. I don't notice any lag. I've made sure to put the Samsung TV that I'm using into Game mode, and I turned off all post-processing. The picture quality was acceptable, however when I played Mario Kart Double Dash on the GameCube I was having trouble reaching my previous skill level. The kart just didn't seem to corner correctly. I couldn't put my finger on the exact cause. It didn't seem laggy, and other games seem OK, but I had this nagging doubt that it was lag. I received my Kaico GameCube HDMI adaptor, and of course the first thing I did was to try Double Dash. Viola, suddenly I can reach my previous skill level, leaving me in no doubt that the slight lag of the converter cable was affecting my precise timing of inputs. Suffice to say I'm very happy with the Kaico GameCube adaptor - more details coming in an upcoming post.

As for the Hyperkin cable. I'm keeping it as it's still useful as a backup, but I'm going to buy a specific cable for my SNES now that I know the Hyperkin one introduces lag.

Experiences with the Hyperkin 3 in 1 HDMI cable for the Nintendo GameCube / SNES / N64

This was the first cable that I bought to allow me to connect my NTSC GameCube and PAL SNES to a HDMI TV. It's a cheap solution - it cost me about £35, which is expensive for what it is, but it works and the picture quality is acceptable on the Samsung TV that I use. The TV has a game mode which disables all the image processing the panel does. This reduces any lag that the cable introduces.

The cable is essentially a glorified s-video to HDMI converter in a cable. This is why the block on the cable half-way down requires a micro-USB power supply attached The quality of the image output has been fine for me and I'll continue to use it with my SNESs. Granted, it is only an analogue signal, but for me it's been acceptable.  But, now I have a Kaico HDMI adaptor on the way for the GameCube - this uses the digital out port and I'll be reporting on that when it arrives.

Re-buying something that you sold (GameCube Game Boy player)

I sold my original Game Boy player as it was complete with the disk and worth a pretty penny. The boot disks are seemingly easy to separate from the player, just like the receiver from the Wave Bird. Therefore complete sets at the time of writing go for about £65.

This week, I re-bought one without a disk (£27.99 delivered) - now that I've got a way to play the disk images - I can just use the Game Boy player ISO and it works just fine.

One of the Swiss team has written GBI, which is a new and imporved software for running Game Boy / Advance games.

Nintendo GameCube SD2SP2 SD adaptor

I moved in the Summer, and my GameCube had been in storage. I dug it out when I visited my parents at Christmas and brought it home and set it up. I bought a HDMI solution for it and my SNES (that's for another post) but as I was searching on Ebay I became aware of something called the SD2SP2.

I already had an SD Media Launcher from Datel. This allows you to boot homebrew GameCube games from an SD card inserted in the adaptor in the memory card slot. This also allows you to boot backus from disk and from SD card. I've got a load of games on disk but for convenience and to save laser wear it's nice to have them all super-handy.

Problem with the SD media launcher is that Datel's boot disk only supports 2GB SD cards, so usually you boot the awesome homebrew tool Swiss from that, then you can swap out the SD card, or use another media reader in memory card slot 2. However, it's a bit more of a hassle and so this SD2SP2 looks good. I paid £11 delivered from Ebay in January 2020.

Here it is. It's very small. It fits a full-size SD card holder. 

It fits snuggly into the Serial Port 2 expansion, which up until now had been unused.

Plug your GameCube back in and boot from the Datel disk. The is region-locked so you need the correct one from your GameCube. Mine is a Japanese model with a switch for US, so I use that version.

I have a 251 memory card in slot one and the SD media launcher (with a 2GB SD card in slot 2). I have Swiss on this SD card, renamed to autoexec.dol so it automatically starts.

Voila! Swiss boots to this screen which shows the contents of the SD card now installed in serial port 2. As you can see, I have 'only' a 32GB card in here, and that's plenty for the games I want to have easy access to.

And that's it! What a great mod, and it doesn't alter the console physically. Top marks from me.