GRcade Retro Gaming Chat

[Victor Mildew]

Ad, how old were you when you made Adsteroids?

I was 28 years old.

About14/15 at a guess

[jawafour]

I BLOODY FIXED IT ...

That's incredible, Ad - brilliant work to get the drive up and running again! I bet you had nostalgia overload going through your old disks and tapes!

I have two of the They Sold A Million compilations for my C64. And - ah! - Space Crusade was an excellent turn-based strategy game. I've got that for my Amiga rather than on an 8-bit format.

As for Adsteroids... awesome stuff . Maybe we're due a remake? Several centuries ago I coded a few games in Basic, including a Thundercats game for my younger brother. It featured eight screens of "collecting" action... he loved it .

[Victor Mildew]

Interestingly, and annoyingly, the drive stopped working again after a few hours yesterday. Went back to how it was after fixing the belt, so it works but can't read the disc. Hmmm.

Yes it was a massive nostalgia overload - this was my first introduction to gaming, the exact games, sounds and sensations. Very strange to be playing them again but it's been fun.

Ultimately I'm going to sell it on as I can emulate if I really want to play, so I may contact the guy I bought the repair kit from (as he's an enthusiast) and see if he'd be interested. I don't think I could just sell it to some random on eBay or similar given how important it is both from a nostalgia and family point of view (it was my dad's work computer back in the day).

I only had the space crusade demo from Amstrad action, and never beat it, but I loved it so much I went to the effort of copying the tape to a disc so I could play it whenever.

[jawafour]

Interestingly, and annoyingly, the drive stopped working again after a few hours yesterday. Went back to how it was after fixing the belt, so it works but can't read the disc. Hmmm...

I suspect that you may have already seen these guides, Ad, but they appear to provide decent tips on repairing the drive:

> Drive repair guide - Richard Loxley: link

> Drive service guide - DataServe Retro: link

If you can get it fixed then it would seem like a nice bit of kit to keep, especially for the memories that you have attached to it. Emulation is convenient and handy but it's great to have the original hardware if possible!

[Victor Mildew]

Thanks Jawa, dataserve is who I bought the kit from and the other guide sides his stuff It does mention the felt on the drive head which is there on mine, but might be a bit flat so maybe I could try to puff it up again and see if that works,

[jawafour]

...It does mention the felt on the drive head which is there on mine, but might be a bit flat so maybe I could try to puff it up again and see if that works,

Yeah, I saw that tip and wondered if it could be worth looking at. I guess there's a fine margin in terms of adjusting it to be "just right". Hope it works, dude!

[kerr9000]

Motorbike King complete for the PS2 for 10pence

Kickboxing Knockout for the PS1 missing manual for 50pence

[kerr9000]

I grabbed a few more bits today

Thunder Pro Wreslting Gaiden for theSega Megadrive Japanese complete for £10

WWE Crush Hour for the Gamecube complete for 15pence
Sensible Soccer 2006 complete for the ps2 for 15pence
and
Disney's stitch experiment 626 boxed but missing manual for 15pence

[Corazon de Leon]

Where do you put all the stuff you buy, Kerr?

[Green Gecko]

I believe it is a format not unlike a zelda dungeon, however the walls are constructed of megadrive carts.

[Drumstick]

After saying I would do it for years, today I finally used the Homebrew/GameCube Memory Manager app combo to back up all of my GameCube saves. It's so reassuring to know that my 17 years worth of saves are preserved, now sitting on an SD card safely tucked away, in case my 1019 Block Memory Card corrupts (something that can happen if you leave memory cards in the Wii, like me).

Also, sidenote, it's nice to have all my saves on one card. Back in the day, some chump on the F-Zero GX development team decided to make your game data and garage data locked to the card you initially saved them on. Whenever I wanted to play it, I had to use a different memory card that had only GX data on and nothing else. No longer a problem!

[kerr9000]

I have a large cupboard which is at the bottom of the stairs which leads to my room a lot of it is in there and then a lots actually in my room my bed is wooden and has a large storage space underneath it. I have kind of calmed down on purchases compared to what I used to be like but the honest truth of it is that a lot of the reason I buy Retro games is actually because it helps keep my PTSD at bay... Joking aside as well I do actually have games in a wall crawl space. I know I spend a lot on it but it keeps me calm and well it keeps me going and helps me to be a good dad and a good fiance etc.

If anyone is interested in PTSD I did a video talking about how I got it and how it affects my life but I have stupidly realized there is like 3 minutes of silence at the start so maybe skip that bit doh

[Green Gecko]

I understand man. I think I have very very mild PTSD from a shitty internship where I felt I was bullied and taken advantage of, it didn't help I was probably really depressed at the time. I think about it almost daily for no reason, it makes me angry, I recite conversations and events that only spanned 2 weeks of my life. But that was 6 years ago. Reliving stuff over and over again has stolen a ridiculous amount of time away and at times destroyed my confidence.

If it helps you feel good, that's great.

By the way I also collect loads of stuff, today I picked up off the street 3 metal nuts, a metal dowel, two rubber bands and two bits of wood nailed together because I might find them useful (I do though). And a Tetris Bop It because, I don't know, the universe is speaking to me. I'm basically a magpie.

I make stuff with this crap though and that makes me happy.

[jawafour]

The kickstarter for Sega Master System: A Visual Compendium is now live!

Dang, I've been waiting for this! The Master System was the first console I owned and it was an exciting time, heralding the (re-)arrival of consoles in the UK and enabling arcade-quality gaming in homes!

I've already got my support in for this project. Press me to find out more!

The campaign is heading into the final few days and it has done well; £98k pledged for a £50k goal. The extra money has enabled some stretch goals to be met and so this has boosted the book with extra features; I really hope that the £100k mark is reached so that a slipcase is included!

[Corazon de Leon]

The reason I asked Kerr is that my spare room is getting more and more cluttered with all my stuff, and my GF is getting more wound up with every 360, Cube or Wii U game that pops up in the post.

I'm getting to the point where I think I'll have to confirm what my specialist consoles are to collect for - thinking that GameCube and XBox 360 will probably stop when I've got all the valuable/unique/interesting titles for them, but SNES and N64 I'll go for full sets of unboxed PAL. It will probably take most of the rest of my life to afford that.

Also, sidenote, it's nice to have all my saves on one card. Back in the day, some chump on the F-Zero GX development team decided to make your game data and garage data locked to the card you initially saved them on. Whenever I wanted to play it, I had to use a different memory card that had only GX data on and nothing else. No longer a problem!

Pretty much describes my thoughts on the GX save fiasco of 2003.

[Green Gecko]

I never noticed that, but I only had two custom vehicles and some decals (which were brilliant).

[jawafour]

...The kickstarter for Sega Master System: A Visual Compendium is ... heading into the final few days...

Yay! The £100k stretch goal has beeen met and the backers' version of the book will come with a slipcase . If you want to find out more, press here to be more Master.

[Corazon de Leon]

Is there a Mega Drive version of (Visual Compendium book)?

Not yet, Cora. So far there have been versions covering the C64, Amiga, Spectrum, NES and SNES. The Master System one will become the sixth addition. Positive news is that the publisher has gained official agreement from Sega to publish the book and this bodes well for a Mega Drive edition in the future! I hope that there could be a Mega CD / 32X one, too!

Is the SNES one still available Jawa?

[jawafour]

Is the SNES one still available Jawa?

It's out of stock at Amazon... but back in stock at the publisher! Check it out at Bitmap Books' website, Cora!

[Drumstick]

Did they do an N64 version?