Brook Retro Board

[Steamflogger Boss]

SIAP but I didn't see a thread.

Looks hot AF

https://arcadeshock.com/products/brook-retro-board

[SCARTicus]

This looks great, but basically the same thing as the MC Cthulhu. Still, Cthulhu has availability issues. It is disappointing that both boards lack Sega Genesis support. I imagine it must be a limitation of using RJ45 or something, IDK.

This one claims no lag. I never noticed any with MC Cthulhu, and I'm crazy about input lag. Still, I guess I'll end up 'upgrading' to this board eventually when I have more money due to this claim and that they seem to use the same RJ45s. At the very least I'll get one if I build a second stick.

I'm really surprised that we don't see more discussion about/interest in multi-console arcade stick boards. I mean, they're totally necessary if you don't want to hack a bunch of gamepads and have a stack of small project boxes to store and keep track of.

It's really good to see another product like this come to market. I wish it were not literally twice the price of its main (possibly just as good) competitor, but hopefully it will be easier to buy.

https://paradisearcadeshop.com/home/ele ... mc-cthulhu

Cthulhu is in stock at the moment, though, and both boards have the same console compatibility list.

[NoAffinity]

^If I understand it correctly, the lack of genesis support is due to the genesis' weird duplexing protocol.

I'm here for a conversation about multi-console PCB's, should one continue. I've got (2) cthulhu's that predated the serial support (PCE, 3DO...maybe one other console?), and one that I purchased within the last year which very nicely supports the PCE and 3DO.

Have built cables for every supported console, both for myself and for others.

Have one that is dual modded for xbox 360 support (one of the pre-serial boards).

From what I undestand the Brooks boards are the same pinout as the cthulhu's.

Anway, I love fight sticks and what is better than having widespread console support in a signle stick?

I am curious how the Brooks board handles the various PCE controller modes. For instance, the cthulhu supports normal mode (2-button) and Neo Geo, when connected directly, and normal->6-button->NG when connected through a multi-tap. Toggling the modes is triggered by pressing the 'home' button (assuming you have it wired to the board). Anybody have experience with one yet?

[airco]

I'm glad they're advertising how easy it is to mod one of these together with a Brook UFB - I have the previous rendition of the Cthulhu that Jasen released, and even then a dual mod was easy enough to do that I could figure it out, and I'm a Melty Blood player.

For anyone not familiar with fg brands, Brook is pretty well regarded and the Cthulhu I own has been great to me. I don't really need an upgrade (I highly doubt there's been much change to the PCB lag if there was any), but I hope there's still a market for it.

[opt2not]

Glad their still using RJ45. But I think the price for this is a bit too much considering the MC Cthulhu is still obtainable for $25. It's geared towards people who want an easier install (aka solderless), which is great, but at nearly 3 times the cost seems like quite a hefty mark-up.

I doubt I'll get them since I already have Brook UFB + Cthulhu's in all my sticks. They're not offering much different. The no lag statement is interesting though. The MC Cthulhu has no lag either, so I'm wondering if they're just listing that because it's a hot topic for people.

[Triple Lei]

My hangup is the voltage. Ever since db_electronics's article I've been cautious (read: scared) to try anything unofficial unless it's been thoroughly vetted.

Heck, it was only a year ago that viletim warned against using the MC Cthulhu for the Dreamcast:

While I think of it, here are two more examples of bad hardware not respecting bus voltage.

• X-ARCADE 5IN1 Adapter
• Toodles MC Cthulhu

The Dreamcast has a 3.3V controller bus with a 5V power supply (just like USB). These two controller adapters drive the bus with 5V signals without even any resistors to limit the current. Avoid them for Dreamcast use if possible.

I'm also hoping this new Brook Retro Board squashes some of the compatibility bugs that the MC Cthulhu and TE Kitty had. Here's one such post on retro games that just wouldn't play nice with the MC Cthulhu. And I myself keep hammering on about how Super Double Dragon on SNES actually breaks my TE Kitty until I can reflash the TE Kitty firmware.

[SCARTicus]

I’m disappointed to hear about the Dreamcast voltage issue. It looks like I’ll need to get a hacked pad. Has anyone ever used a console controller to neogeo adapter in conjunction with an MC Cthulhu or similar to create, for example, a Genesis to almost-every-other-console controller adapter?

Here is a link to what I am talking about:

http://retroelectronik.com/en/supergun/ ... 64567.html

And Arcadeforge.de sells a SNES version.

Does anyone know if there is some reason that this wouldn’t work? It would be great to use that big, comfortable 3-button controller on other consoles.

[maxtherabbit]

any information as to whether the brooks board provides correct voltage for DC?

[opt2not]

I don’t believe that voltage stuff one bit. I read through it and thought “what an over-assumption scare tactic”. I’ve run my Cthulhu for years on DC and it hasn’t given me any issues whatsoever. Nor have I had a flash card wear down any of my consoles...and I’m not just talking about Everdrives, I’ve been running these type of devices years before Krikzz’s releases. It’s all hearsay, and unfortunately a lot of people are legit influenced by some rando braniacs on the internet trying to...who knows what those motivations are. Stop people from using these devices? Get creators to recall products? I don’t really know what the modus operandi is. It all seems like (brain) muscle flexing to me.

Experience stomps theoretics. In the 20+ years of running all types of “cheap made” flash carts and copy devices, NONE of my consoles suffered damage. Even my oldest gear still runs smooth as butter today *knocks on wood*. Of course I maintained/replaced caps and solder joints every so often, but that’s just regular maintenance that all these 30+ y/o devices eventually need.

[ChuChu Flamingo]

It is pretty well known the Dreamcast controller ports are temperamental due to the fuse (easy to replace though). Infamous due to a few Marvel Vs Capcom 2 matches having to be reset as the controllers paused mid game. Most of the time being caused by daisy chained/shitty converters. The evo tourney organizers rejoiced when Mvc2 was released on 360/ps3 by smashing a few dreamcast on video lol.

I mean how can anyone say conclusively that their console died from unstable voltage/flash cart or simply that it is 20+ years old. Most people would assume the latter.

I think its great we have technical people pointing out when things aren't being in spec, even when it might not matter. Just look at the TTL voltage fiasco last year. I would hope people are more aware of it now because the damage isn't instant when running stuff out of spec.

[maxtherabbit]

I don’t believe that voltage stuff one bit. I read through it and thought “what an over-assumption scare tactic”. I’ve run my Cthulhu for years on DC and it hasn’t given me any issues whatsoever. Nor have I had a flash card wear down any of my consoles...and I’m not just talking about Everdrives, I’ve been running these type of devices years before Krikzz’s releases. It’s all hearsay, and unfortunately a lot of people are legit influenced by some rando braniacs on the internet trying to...who knows what those motivations are. Stop people from using these devices? Get creators to recall products? I don’t really know what the modus operandi is. It all seems like (brain) muscle flexing to me.

Experience stomps theoretics. In the 20+ years of running all types of “cheap made” flash carts and copy devices, NONE of my consoles suffered damage. Even my oldest gear still runs smooth as butter today *knocks on wood*. Of course I maintained/replaced caps and solder joints every so often, but that’s just regular maintenance that all these 30+ y/o devices eventually need.

you might not give a shit about the voltages being right, I do

in my world, parts being in spec trumps randomly shoving things in places and seeing what it does

[opt2not]

It’s not random when you’ve been running your gear for 20+ years without problems. That’s called consistency. A random theoretical internet blog isn’t going to change that fact.

[DirkSwizzler]

This seems highly analogous to the whole “My grandpa smoked a pack a day for 50 years and doesn’t have lung cancer” argument.

If you choose to ignore the risks. Fine. But there’s a finite set of hardware remaining in the world and some of us don’t want to roll the dice.

[opt2not]

Yup, some people are more paranoid than others, some people are easily persuaded by others. Theories are only just theories until there’s actual proof to verify them. So far, no one has supplied hard evidence that this voltage issue is actually causing your hardware to fail. An educated guess is still a guess.
Unless someone can show me repeatable proof that this theory is legit, I’ll keep on keeping on.

[Steamflogger Boss]

The only really risky things imo are old pirate carts. Have seen those do damage. In general it is probably a bit overblown, like disc rot. If and when there is a true epidemic, we will surely know.

[Star1]

As the blog post suggested, how risky it is to ignore specs in these scenarios is hard to say for sure, but the fact is that the people who designed and manufactured these components didn't include fancy spec sheets for shits and giggles.

[Syntax]

It's pretty simple.
Run a 3.3v chip at 5v it's going to get warm.
If you can displace the heat and don't mind spending extra energy on a circuit that draws too much current then youre fine.

A prime example is Game boy flash carts that do the 3.3v to 5v chip thing. The battery life on your game boy is less than half due to the excessive current draw.

[maxtherabbit]

any new information on this board?

any reason to get it over the mc chutululwhatever?

[msamiullah1]

Can someone please let me know the pinout to make a gamecube cable for Brooks retro board ?

[WCopeland]

I've found a major issue with this board, at least when using it on the NES.

When holding down buttons, the inputs will randomly be released and then re-pressed over the course of one or two frames at random intervals.

Imagine jumping in Super Mario Bros. and falling down for no reason. It's happening because the board is "releasing" the A button. Now imagine it happening at random intervals for every input. I loaded up a controller test ROM on my NES and when holding down multiple buttons and staring at the screen, after about 30-40 seconds you can see them being "released" and then instantly re-pressed.

I've re-wired the PCB at least three different times, and it happens no matter what I do. When I wire up to an NES controller PCB, it literally never happens. I've submitted a bug report to Jasen's Customs, ArcadeShock, and Brook and was told they would look into it. I hope they discover an issue.

[maxtherabbit]

any new information on this guy?

[mukiex]

Is the Dreamcast the only "worry point" for power consumption/fuse tripping? Is there any site that documents the safe power draw limits of controller ports across older consoles (Genesis, SNES, Turbo Grafx, etc)?

[nmalinoski]

I was looking at getting one of these Retro Boards to make a new control box for an old dance pad (completely forgot about the MC Cthulhu), and I wasn't able to find any information regarding what kind of controller this (Or the MC Cthulhu, for that matter) advertises itself as to the connected console or if that could be changed.

I know that, at least for some platforms, the dance pads report a different controller type, and some of the games use that information in-game to display whether you're using a normal, handheld controller or a dance mad/pad, and I'd like my pad to show up in-game as such.

Edit: I pinged Arcade Shock, then Brook Gaming directly, about the Retro Board; both said this kind of reconfiguration isn't possible. Additionally, I pinged Paradise Arcade Shop to see if the MC Cthulhu can support that kind of configuration; I'm fully expecting the same answer as I got from Brook.