Weird morning...

[juansolo]

Woke up this morning strangely motivated and needing to do stuff.

Did a couple of muff schematics and BOMs for a document. Did a couple of decals for the some pedals. All ready to rock...

Still had a surplus of creative energy so felt the need (for god knows what reason) to write an article type thing on connecting retro consoles up to modern TVs. I suspect because I've just gone through all this and it's been a lot of reading/research that's taken a lot of time. Therefore I need to dump it into text so I can 'remember' it when I forget it... Makes sense to me anyhow.

http://juansolo.co.uk/geekery/videowafflage1.html

I've had a beer in an attempt to chill. I'm about to have a bacon butty also.

[blearyeyes]

Hey John,

Every morning is a weird morning to me...

What is a Bacon Butty?

[juansolo]

Hey John,

Every morning is a weird morning to me...

What is a Bacon Butty?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacon_sandwich

[selfdestroyer]

Perfect timing John, I was just listening to Retronauts latest podcast on High Fidelity Classic Gaming.

In my collection, I usually have 2 of the same console. One to mod and one to keep in the box. I have added a few SCART and RGB outs to a few consoles over the years. A good upscale box with low lag seems to still cost a small fortune these days. I even have a small tube TV in the garage to test older consoles with when cleaning them up.

Great info John. Thanks for the efforts.

Cody

[midwayfair]

What is a Bacon Butty?

It's like a Nora Butty but more pleasant.

[TNblueshawk]

Oh man. I just found the one way I couldn't eat bacon 

Normally enough beers will zap any unwarranted motivation Juan 

[blearyeyes]

What is a Bacon Butty?

It's like a Nora Butty but more pleasant.

[juansolo]

Oh man. I just found the one way I couldn't eat bacon 

Normally enough beers will zap any unwarranted motivation Juan 

Guessing you're celiac? I actually am strangely fond of rice bread (have a friend that is) and have had many a bacon butty in it.

[chromesphere]

Cool article John.  When you said "retro" I was thinking like...colecovision / Atari era but then I must be getting old.  That little RF adaptor on the Colecovision / Atari was quirky.  Cant seem to find a picture of the Aussie one, but looks something like this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Coleco-TV-RF-Adapter-Atari-Vintage-Video-Game-Commodore-Intellivision-/231652674090

Haven't tried connecting my colecovision to my new sony (UHD lol) tv yet.  It worked on my FHD tv a while ago though so assume it should be a problem.  I guess CRT's are vintage now

[matmosphere]

I think the console thing is an interesting topic. Though I found myself nitpicking. My original 2600 had screw on connectors instead of, out maybe in addition to, the rf connector.

Have you heard of the Retron 5? It looks like a fantastic idea on paper, but I haven't gotten my hands on one top try it out.

[juansolo]

Cool article John.  When you said "retro" I was thinking like...colecovision / Atari era but then I must be getting old.  That little RF adaptor on the Colecovision / Atari was quirky.  Cant seem to find a picture of the Aussie one, but looks something like this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Coleco-TV-RF-Adapter-Atari-Vintage-Video-Game-Commodore-Intellivision-/231652674090

Haven't tried connecting my colecovision to my new sony (UHD lol) tv yet.  It worked on my FHD tv a while ago though so assume it should be a problem.  I guess CRT's are vintage now

My first console was a Binatone Pong clone I've been around a while

I decided not to go back that far in all honesty. I've got everything I've owned (and some I didn't) as emulators running on the Mac and a dedicated Raspberry Pi. The Atari I put on rarely (I still know my way around the maze in adventure), but it's a pure nostalgia machine. Without my bro around to play Combat with, it's not quite the same.

The first timeless consoles I think are the Sega Megadrive (Genesis in the States I think) and Super Nintendo. The games on those stand up today still. The NES and Master System bridged that gap between the Atari and the SNES/Megadrive. But the games are still to primitive for me. Plus I never owned them as during that phase I had a Commodore Amiga and Atari ST which were astounding games computers (yep, I emulate them too).

[juansolo]

I think the console thing is an interesting topic. Though I found myself nitpicking. My original 2600 had screw on connectors instead of, out maybe in addition to, the rf connector. There will certainly be regional differences. I think I mention about component being quite prolific in the US but we never really got it.

Also I'm not claiming to be an authority on these things. This is just all stuff as I understand it... I could well be wrong.

Have you heard of the Retron 5? It looks like a fantastic idea on paper, but I haven't gotten my hands on one top try it out.

The UK six knob 2600 I had literally had 4 sockets on the back. Power, RF, and two joystick. The RF was a hard wired lead with a plug on the end of it. In the US I believe you have a screw on style RF connector that has a bare wire in the middle.

The Retron 5 I considered. But it's essentially an emulator and I wanted to do things with the real hardware. Certainly when it came to the N64 which nothing else seems to get quite right.

What I would say is that if you fancy it, it's better to start sooner than later. Games prices are already rocketing (which is why I've been on a bit of a mission of late). Certain consoles are currently bargains because of people off-loading them. Last gen stuff like the PS3, XBox360 and Wii particularly. But the older you get now the pricier things are getting.

Thankfully I'm not really a collector so I have no issue with bare carts. Which is good because boxed and complete stuff for the SNES is getting insane of late. Want a boxed Earthbound? $500 please! Then you have knock off carts starting to turn up... You can already get repro boxes. So people are bagging a cart that has the same hardware, pulling the ROM, putting a new sticker on it and selling them as the real thing with a massive mark up. It's all getting a bit hairy on that front.

Thankfully I'm nearly there with the SNES, probably about 5 left that I want on that. PS3 is done. Wii I'm missing 2 games. Dreamcast I'm done. N64 I'm still waiting for stuff to land. NGC is done.  Getting there, getting there...

[alanp]

the few of us that had Laserdisc players

You knew ANYONE that had a laserdisc player?!

I think I saw one at a tradeshow... ONCE... big LP size compact disc looking thing?

S-Video was fairly common at one point as the TV Out on video cards. Definite step up over the traditional composite video out, but it did mean having to scavenge around for a telly WITH a S-Video in.

After S-Video jacks, some manufacturers transitioned to unobtanium 13pin mini DIN jacks and the like, with custom breakout cables (RGB, composite, S-Video, a partridge in a pear tree...), and God help you if you lost the dongle, or pins got bent.

[chromesphere]

I think the console thing is an interesting topic. Though I found myself nitpicking. My original 2600 had screw on connectors instead of, out maybe in addition to, the rf connector. There will certainly be regional differences. I think I mention about component being quite prolific in the US but we never really got it.

Also I'm not claiming to be an authority on these things. This is just all stuff as I understand it... I could well be wrong.

Have you heard of the Retron 5? It looks like a fantastic idea on paper, but I haven't gotten my hands on one top try it out.

The UK six knob 2600 I had literally had 4 sockets on the back. Power, RF, and two joystick. The RF was a hard wired lead with a plug on the end of it. In the US I believe you have a screw on style RF connector that has a bare wire in the middle.

The Retron 5 I considered. But it's essentially an emulator and I wanted to do things with the real hardware. Certainly when it came to the N64 which nothing else seems to get quite right.

What I would say is that if you fancy it, it's better to start sooner than later. Games prices are already rocketing (which is why I've been on a bit of a mission of late). Certain consoles are currently bargains because of people off-loading them. Last gen stuff like the PS3, XBox360 and Wii particularly. But the older you get now the pricier things are getting.

Thankfully I'm not really a collector so I have no issue with bare carts. Which is good because boxed and complete stuff for the SNES is getting insane of late. Want a boxed Earthbound? $500 please! Then you have knock off carts starting to turn up... You can already get repro boxes. So people are bagging a cart that has the same hardware, pulling the ROM, putting a new sticker on it and selling them as the real thing with a massive mark up. It's all getting a bit hairy on that front.

Thankfully I'm nearly there with the SNES, probably about 5 left that I want on that. PS3 is done. Wii I'm missing 2 games. Dreamcast I'm done. N64 I'm still waiting for stuff to land. NGC is done.  Getting there, getting there...

Sorry John, i meant more, cant believe super nintendo, PS, PS1, 2 etc are classified as vintage, felt like i was playing those consoles not so long ago.  Thats a pretty cool collection you have there!

[matmosphere]

I think the console thing is an interesting topic. Though I found myself nitpicking. My original 2600 had screw on connectors instead of, out maybe in addition to, the rf connector. There will certainly be regional differences. I think I mention about component being quite prolific in the US but we never really got it.

Also I'm not claiming to be an authority on these things. This is just all stuff as I understand it... I could well be wrong.

Have you heard of the Retron 5? It looks like a fantastic idea on paper, but I haven't gotten my hands on one top try it out.

The UK six knob 2600 I had literally had 4 sockets on the back. Power, RF, and two joystick. The RF was a hard wired lead with a plug on the end of it. In the US I believe you have a screw on style RF connector that has a bare wire in the middle.

The Retron 5 I considered. But it's essentially an emulator and I wanted to do things with the real hardware. Certainly when it came to the N64 which nothing else seems to get quite right.

What I would say is that if you fancy it, it's better to start sooner than later. Games prices are already rocketing (which is why I've been on a bit of a mission of late). Certain consoles are currently bargains because of people off-loading them. Last gen stuff like the PS3, XBox360 and Wii particularly. But the older you get now the pricier things are getting.

Thankfully I'm not really a collector so I have no issue with bare carts. Which is good because boxed and complete stuff for the SNES is getting insane of late. Want a boxed Earthbound? $500 please! Then you have knock off carts starting to turn up... You can already get repro boxes. So people are bagging a cart that has the same hardware, pulling the ROM, putting a new sticker on it and selling them as the real thing with a massive mark up. It's all getting a bit hairy on that front.

Thankfully I'm nearly there with the SNES, probably about 5 left that I want on that. PS3 is done. Wii I'm missing 2 games. Dreamcast I'm done. N64 I'm still waiting for stuff to land. NGC is done.  Getting there, getting there...

My 2600 had a connector like the one chromoshpere link to, but maybe that was a limitation of the tv not the system.

I actually still have a ton  of old nes games. I never got rid of them, and bought a lot cheap when the used places would stop selling them. I've got an nes in the original box for that matter. I've been thinking about unloading it actually, if it's worth anything.