Questions that do not deserve a thread

[Shoryukev]

I've been thinking about getting some sort of solution for playing GBA games on my TV. I've been debating a few options.

1) Super Retro Advance adapter for my SNES
I know the SNES retro advance adapter only outputs crap-osite which kinda sucks, but it's not a dealbreaker. What could be a dealbreaker is the aspect ratio stretching, does this look okay on a CRT or is it total garbage?

2) GC gameboy player+SD Loader+GBA link cable
Can anyone point me to a "guide for dummies" on where to buy an SD Loader and how to set it up for gameboy interface? I'd imagine this is probably the best option, though I'll have to use s-video. I play my GC games on a wii with component cables so I can't justify spending the money on a GC video mod or the expensive component cables. I want to use a GBA link cable to use my old GBA as a controller if I go this route.

3) Wii hacking
I've been debating hacking this wii anyways, so my question would be...how is the GB/GBC/GBA emulation? I currently use it for some Turbografx games and it looks great to me on my CRT in component video.

4) Revo K101 Plus
I've seen this little clone system and it intrigues me. The advantage it has over the other options for me is that I can use it as a portable device as well (also it comes with a proprietary SD card everdrive-ish cart which is cool). Sure I have an old GBA, but it isn't backlit so it is a pain to use in most lighting conditions. What do you guys think about this little knockoff GBA device? Like the Retro Advance Adapter is uses composite for TV output so I'm kinda worried about that.

[FinalBaton]

I have the SRA and I quite like it. It looks pretty nice, even though it's composite. It's probably the best composite picture I have ever seen on a gaming console. I'm a stickler for RGB on my consoles but, for some reason, I don't mind playing the SRA on my HDTV( my fave way of playing it). You get an aspect ratio closer to the GBA's 3:2 AR. The picture nearly fills a widescreen HDTV but has slim black bars on the left and right. On a CRT, it's nice to have scanlines and the aspect ratio at 4:3 is okay I guess. You do get used to it.. But I still prefer my HDTV because it's got a better comb filter in it, which makes the color look really nice. Perfectly enjoyable picture.

The only complaint I have is that there's some shimmering in scrolling backgrounds. I don't know if this is due to the scaling or to some noise issue, but supposedly the REVO K101 doesn't suffer from this. It is more expensive though (but is portable).

Oh, also : the button mapping on the SNES controller is not optimal when using the SRA

[Einzelherz]

IMO you should hack your wii anyway. It's literally a five minute job now with letterbomb. If you have a component capable CRT, the 8bit and 16 bit emulation on it is a godsend.

GB/GBC emulation is quite good. GBA is decent, but there's not any one go-to emulator for it, afaik. It works decent on wiiMednafen and the later customized versions of vGBA GX, but it's not a replacement for a GameCube, I don't think.

[Extrems]

Why 709? It's only used for HDTV, SDTV (480i) uses Rec. 601 primaries and as far as I can tell the same is true for EDTV (480p).

1. It's intended to be viewed on a PC.
2. It's a compromise between SMPTE and EBU primaries.
3. The source primaries aren't accurate anyway.

Doesn't 601 exist inside of 709? And we're talking about a 32k color pallette, at best, which is largely why my eyes have nearly rolled off.

The bitdepth doesn't matter.

[Harrumph]

2) GC gameboy player+SD Loader+GBA link cable
Can anyone point me to a "guide for dummies" on where to buy an SD Loader and how to set it up for gameboy interface?

Can't speak for any of the other alternatives as I haven't tried them, but I will say GBI works amazing for me. Retrorgb made a guide how to easily set it up, check his site or youtube channel. The adapters are bought from uk.codejunkies.com. (No idea why the adapter is not offered from the US site...)
There's ofc the official thread at gc-forever forums too, no "for dummies" guide though, but lots of good info.

[Lord of Pirates]

There are discrepancies in the SAME set. LCD, Plasma, OLED, CRT, it doesn't mattter. There's no such thing as perfect color reproduction.

Yeah, that's what I meant to say. And of course no display will never have 100% accurate color reproduction. But ideally speaking, I thought RGB (even converted from YCbCr, would be more accurate for GB, GBC,GBA games)

So I'm guessing it's better to just use YPbPr than RGB due to information loss/errors/compression from the color space conversion?

I wouldn't worry about it too much unless you're planning on a Specbos 1211, CS-2000(A), or similar level spectro (thousands of dollars). The cheaper route (hundreds) is going to be an improvement but it's still a compromise compared to the reference level stuff.

[Extrems]

GB/GBC emulation is quite good. GBA is decent, but there's not any one go-to emulator for it, afaik. It works decent on wiiMednafen and the later customized versions of vGBA GX, but it's not a replacement for a GameCube, I don't think.

mGBA is fantastic, it's the most accurate GBA emulator around and is the fastest on GC/Wii.

[bobrocks95]

The standard version of GBI performs color adaption for a Rec. 709 monitor with 2.2 gamma.

That's with the --intent=perceptual option right?

[Shoryukev]

I don't mind playing the SRA on my HDTV

Are you plugging it directly into your HDTV? I'm pretty sure mine would make a mess out of it since it doesn't correctly process 240p. If it works I wouldn't mind not having scanlines for gameboy stuff since these handhelds never had CRTs anyways.

IMO you should hack your wii anyway.

Most definitely! I'll check out those emulators, I've been waiting for my sister to give me her wii since I told her I'd mod hers as well. Figured I'd just do them both at the same time.

Can't speak for any of the other alternatives as I haven't tried them, but I will say GBI works amazing for me. Retrorgb made a guide how to easily set it up, check his site or youtube channel. The adapters are bought from uk.codejunkies.com. (No idea why the adapter is not offered from the US site...)
There's ofc the official thread at gc-forever forums too, no "for dummies" guide though, but lots of good info.

Thanks for the info! I'll have to order one from their UK site if I go that route. I'm looking at used GCs on ebay right now.

mGBA is fantastic, it's the most accurate GBA emulator around and is the fastest on GC/Wii.

I'll have to check this out as well!

[Extrems]

That's with the --intent=perceptual option right?

Correct, which is the default.

[Einzelherz]

GB/GBC emulation is quite good. GBA is decent, but there's not any one go-to emulator for it, afaik. It works decent on wiiMednafen and the later customized versions of vGBA GX, but it's not a replacement for a GameCube, I don't think.

mGBA is fantastic, it's the most accurate GBA emulator around and is the fastest on GC/Wii.

I had not heard about this, so thanks for the mention. I'll give it a whirl.

edit: It doesn't seem to work for me. All I get is the select file screen that I can't navigate to anything on the SD card with.

[Remistewart]

I was curious to know if its possible to use a PS3/PS4 arcade stick on a PS1/PS2 using some sort of purchasable adapter?

[FinalBaton]

I don't mind playing the SRA on my HDTV

Are you plugging it directly into your HDTV? I'm pretty sure mine would make a mess out of it since it doesn't correctly process 240p. If it works I wouldn't mind not having scanlines for gameboy stuff since these handhelds never had CRTs anyways.

Yes straight into my HDTV. It recognises 240p as such, so maybe that helps. Sharpness is so so but the colors are pretty good.

If you have a CRT with a good comb filter it also looks quite good.

[Ikaruga11]

If you're talking RGB color space, it doesn't correspond to any standard.

The standard version of GBI performs color adaption for a Rec. 709 monitor with 2.2 gamma.

What does this mean in layman's terms?

GeneraLight, relax man

I would bet my GC component cable (bought at retarded ebay prices) that there's no way in hell you could tell apart RGB from Component while playing gameboy games (maybe through side-by-side comparison you could spot incredibly small differences).

Yeah, you're probably right. There's most likely no difference in color between RGB and YPbPr for such limited color palettes like the GB/GBC/GBA. In fact YPbPr may even be better since it's staying closer to the source signal than RGB and no color space conversion is done.

If you're still looking for answers though, you can have a look here for GBA specs

The only relevant bit of information I could gather from that article is this:

Color support: 15-bit BGR (5 bits depth per channel), capable of displaying 512 simultaneous colors in "character mode" and 32,768 (215) simultaneous colors in "bitmap mode".

I have absolutely no idea what that mean. What is BTR?

and here's a user on assembler explaining how to get RGBs from an NTSC GC (and also how to get 480p over RGB - I was wrong in my earlier post).

Of course you don't need to sacrifice an official cable for PAL units as you can take RGB from the analog port and add a sync stripper to the cable.

According to the post on AssemblerGames forums, it seems the D-Terminal cable has more data lines.

He advises not to mod the official cables since GCVideo Lite can offer RGB and C-Sync which you can wire to the NTSC's Analog Out and just use an SNES SCART Cable with raw sync.

[Extrems]

What does this mean in layman's terms?

Nothing, this is a complicated topic you'll regret getting into.

[Lord of Pirates]

The fans in my newly acquired 50pro are dead, any suggestions or is it safe to run fanless? It's also quite slow to start the menu on initial power, entering standby takes a fair amount of time, and there are some artifacts during menu startup and while flipping through the IRE levels. Is any of that normal?

This is all with this PSU so power shouldn't be an issue and a floor fan is blowing on the unit so heat shouldn't be an issue either.

There's also weirdness with the half-screen test patterns:

Spoiler

This seems to have to do with having no active source.


Edit: The fans are working with a fan controller. Not sure what the issue is with them not starting in the 50pro. Are they supposed to start with the unit or is there a temp sensor?

[jhonny_d]

what brand/model are the playstation sticks in this picture https://attach.mobile01.com/640x480/att ... 669158.jpg ?

[Chomolonzo]

I live down in Aus and recently got a snes mini for a few US games that never made it here, plus glorious full screen and full speed games. Looking to get it modded with voultar's rgb bypass kit... however it doesn't ship here. I'm aware of the RGB restore method, but apparently the former is the one to get due to image quality. Is there any other place people know of that sell the kit that ship worldwide, or is there another bypass kit that'll give an equally good picture?

[Fudoh]

50Pro: yes, the fans are temp controlled, but should usually start spinning quite easily, since the FPGAs get really hot.

The distortation can be normal. Are you cycling through the test patterns ? Some are supposed to show your source on half the screen and with no active source connected, it can look like this.

Adafruit PSU: as mentioned before, somebody else recommended it, but I personally can't confirm wether it's working fine or not. It as 5V compared to the 6V of the original PSU. Wattage is enough though.

[Lord of Pirates]

50Pro: yes, the fans are temp controlled, but should usually start spinning quite easily, since the FPGAs get really hot.

The distortation can be normal. Are you cycling through the test patterns ? Some are supposed to show your source on half the screen and with no active source connected, it can look like this.

Adafruit PSU: as mentioned before, somebody else recommended it, but I personally can't confirm wether it's working fine or not. It as 5V compared to the 6V of the original PSU. Wattage is enough though.

They have yet to turn on even though the heatsinks are hot enough to burn if I kept a finger on one.

Yes, it happens when cycling through. Seems stable when I leave it on a pattern.

Ken said 5V should be fine when I was emailing DVDO and it seems to be stable after initial power-up. Is there a simple adapter I could buy or make to plug a standard 3pin fan plug into one of the 12v triggers?

[Fudoh]

Is there a simple adapter I could buy or make to plug a standard 3pin fan plug into one of the 12v triggers?

i don't recall which connectors the fans were using, but in general - of course. There are 12V to 5V fan adapters,. which you can use.

[Lord of Pirates]

Is there a simple adapter I could buy or make to plug a standard 3pin fan plug into one of the 12v triggers?

i don't recall which connectors the fans were using, but in general - of course. There are 12V to 5V fan adapters,. which you can use.

It has standard 3pin connectors inside the 50 Pro.

[Xer Xian]

I was curious to know if its possible to use a PS3/PS4 arcade stick on a PS1/PS2 using some sort of purchasable adapter?

I really don't think so, available adapters go the other way around (PS1/2->PS3/4). You need to replace the PCB of your stick with a PS360, Cthulhu or one taken from a PS1/PS2 stick.

what brand/model are the playstation sticks in this picture https://attach.mobile01.com/640x480/att ... 669158.jpg ?

Those are Spital Sangyo sticks. Stock Sanwa JLF and programmable. It's a very nice arcade stick minus the subpar buttons, kind of rare though.

[korpse413]

I just picked up a 32x that came with the Model 1-to-32x cable, so I want to make a Model 2-to-32x cable (mini din9 male to mini din9 male). The 32x also came with a third party composite cable that I cut to get the mini din, as well as another that I had on hand (the amount of composite cables I've collected over the years is insane..). Unfortunately, they put up a fight since the wire contacts were encased in epoxy/plastic mess, but I eventually won out (see picture here)

My question is: How can I recreate a nice cable jacket for the end of the mini dins? Do I reuse the ends that I sliced in half (as seen here) or do I just use a ton of heat shrink tubing and keep incrementally adding size to make it thicker? Or do I make a type of mold out of a clay like epoxy or something.

Figure there are some cable makers out here that could point me in the right direction.

[Shoryukev]

Has anyone here used this SCART cable for the Turbografx/PC Engine? The description says it has a built-in RGB amp, and the price looks good. Only $16 more than buying an RGB amp+SCART+Din connector

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Scart-RGB-Cable ... xyaRZR2X4C

[kamiboy]

I built a similar cable myself. It works. Not much else to say.

[Shoryukev]

I just picked up a 32x that came with the Model 1-to-32x cable, so I want to make a Model 2-to-32x cable (mini din9 male to mini din9 male). The 32x also came with a third party composite cable that I cut to get the mini din, as well as another that I had on hand (the amount of composite cables I've collected over the years is insane..). Unfortunately, they put up a fight since the wire contacts were encased in epoxy/plastic mess, but I eventually won out (see picture here)

My question is: How can I recreate a nice cable jacket for the end of the mini dins? Do I reuse the ends that I sliced in half (as seen here) or do I just use a ton of heat shrink tubing and keep incrementally adding size to make it thicker? Or do I make a type of mold out of a clay like epoxy or something.

Figure there are some cable makers out here that could point me in the right direction.

Model 2-to-32x connectors are very common, why not just buy a new one? Doesn't seem like it's worth the hassle to me unless you're trying to do something special with it in the process.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sega-Genesis-32 ... XQTT9R0IEg

[MetalMilitia]

Have a PVM 2030 question. Will it accept YPbPr via the 25 pin connector? I know there is an option for Sync on Green, didn't know if this would allow for Component usage.

[kamiboy]

Nope. RGB only.

[juji82]

Just waiting to receive the replacement PSU From aliexpress, 6v 7a. Let's see!