Questions that do not deserve a thread

[kamiboy]

I buy from Yamatoku all the time. If by handling charges you mean import charges then, yes, that is most certainly a possibility since you are importing goods from Japan into your country and will need to pay your dues. You know what they say about death and taxes.

Yamatoku is, however, rather accommodating, so all you need to do is ask them and they will mark down the value of your goods. Ask them to mark it as 1000 ¥ and you should be good. Be forewarned though that in the unlikely event of things going wrong you cannot claim insurance on a package for any sum greater that what you declared its value as.

Declaring the value low should more of less guarantee no fuss, unless Royal mail is as villainous as the Danish postal system who routinely holds your package hostage and with the politeness of a nazi border controller asks you to forward them documentation on the value of its contents if they do not find it inside box, after opening it of course.

[MysticSynergy]

I'm sure this has been asked a billion times before, but as I was playing my PS1 on my Sony PVM20L2 today, a thought occured:

I have my PSone plugged in through SCART and it plays flawlessly, however when I turn it on, my PVM says RGB 480/60i on the monitor. I am aware that the PS1 only outputs to 240p, but I'm wondering why my monitor display says this, and thought maybe it was upscaling it in some way?

Is it actually displaying in 240p natively like it's supposed to, even though it says 480 and I'm just over thinking this too much entirely?

[Fudoh]

The boot sequence and the menu (memory card, audio player) are actually 480i. Your monitor will say 480i anyway though, even when showing native 240p.

[MysticSynergy]

Thanks Fudoh!!! That makes perfect sense

[Zets13]

I have an NTSC-J SCPH-7000 model PlayStation. It appears to have a modchip installed (12c508) via 2 pins directly soldered to the board and 2 wires. Since I have no use for a modchip and prefer to keep consoles as stock as possible unless the mod gives me some benefit, I want to remove it.

I know nothing about PS modchips, but I assume such mods involve simply adding the chip without removing or adding any other components, so am I safe to assume that all I have to do is desolder the chip and remove the jumper wires attached to it, correct?

[Ed Oscuro]

Thanks Fudoh!!! That makes perfect sense

240p is actually 480i, as well, just with some nonstandard features to make the fields line up on top of each other, rather than alternating as in "standard" 480i.

[PAPER/ARTILLERY]

Can anyone recommend a good 'starter' version of Tetris for a tated screen? I've got two monitors tated in my gaming room and the wife has expressed an interest in playing some Tetris while I'm on the shmups. Don't want to drop her into grand master territory right off the bat though.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Are there even any Tetris games made for a vertical orientation?

Personally, Grand Master 2/3 are actually really good games even for beginners. Sure, their advanced modes can get pretty hectic, but the novice mode is a good challenge for someone learning the game and isn't unreasonable to clear. TGM2 also has 2 player co-op which might go over well with her.

[PAPER/ARTILLERY]

Are there even any Tetris games made for a vertical orientation?

After a quick search around it seems that no, there aren't. I can see why I suppose to allow for versus modes but still a bit surprised to find none at all. Anyway, thanks for the input Roo - grand master it is.

[Ghegs]

Personally, Grand Master 2/3 are actually really good games even for beginners.

Any reason not to recommend the first game? I'm under the impression it's a bit easier to find and cheaper, too.

[Some-Mist]

did some google searching and haven't found anything. I know my next step will be to try a different display... but maybe someone can pin point what's going on without me even having to do so.

so I'm having a recent issue and I think it's my monitor or my jamma harness. I use an NEC XM29 with a supergun, and I typically use composite cables to connect the two. playing batrider and progear, I notice that sometimes the color will slightly shift a shade (slightly darker or lighter - almost like a sepia change). Sometimes it only happens once during a playthrough, and sometimes it constantly flips back and fourth (like 10 times in 3 seconds) which is when it becomes very noticeable.

I just got my battle garegga board, so I connected that... and every once in awhile the game will shift from colored to completely black and white/sepia. just yesterday, it started flickering between the sepia and color, and it's way more prevalent when I fight a boss or when my ship dies. I swapped out the composite cables with an s-video cable thinking they might be shitting out, and it seemed to temporarily fix the issue... then it started again. I am praying that it's my monitor or the jamma harness.

anyone have any idea? I might just need to try out some different displays to pin point it.

[moh]

Personally, Grand Master 2/3 are actually really good games even for beginners.

Any reason not to recommend the first game? I'm under the impression it's a bit easier to find and cheaper, too.

the first game can be had for around $100, and the second will run you about $400. If you don't plan on playing it too competitively, TGM1 is a good start, but the lack of hard-drop turned me off. I didn't care for the ugly 3D look either. If you've got the cash, I would suggest going straight for tgm2. Better graphics, a ton of game play modes, and its sure to keep you occupied for a lifetime.

[Ghegs]

Personally, Grand Master 2/3 are actually really good games even for beginners.

Any reason not to recommend the first game? I'm under the impression it's a bit easier to find and cheaper, too.

the first game can be had for around $100

Man, I seriously overpaid for my TGM, then. Still, I like it. And the hidden 20G mode is fun times.

[Axelay]

I buy from Yamatoku all the time. If by handling charges you mean import charges then, yes, that is most certainly a possibility since you are importing goods from Japan into your country and will need to pay your dues. You know what they say about death and taxes.

Yamatoku is, however, rather accommodating, so all you need to do is ask them and they will mark down the value of your goods. Ask them to mark it as 1000 ¥ and you should be good. Be forewarned though that in the unlikely event of things going wrong you cannot claim insurance on a package for any sum greater that what you declared its value as.

Declaring the value low should more of less guarantee no fuss, unless Royal mail is as villainous as the Danish postal system who routinely holds your package hostage and with the politeness of a nazi border controller asks you to forward them documentation on the value of its contents if they do not find it inside box, after opening it of course.

Thanks buddy so When you get them to mark the item down, you get the item from japan which you have payed shipping fees for, and not have to pay like extra handling fees?

[emphatic]

Are there even any Tetris games made for a vertical orientation?

Try a cocktail rom. The other player need to play upside down though.

[PAPER/ARTILLERY]

Try a cocktail rom. The other player need to play upside down though.

Hadn't thought of that, not a bad idea!

[moh]

Man, I seriously overpaid for my TGM, then. Still, I like it. And the hidden 20G mode is fun times.

don't forget the upside-down mode apprently (but don't quote me on this), nobody in the world has managed to clear it yet. That having been said, nobody has really bothered to try

[Ghegs]

Man, I seriously overpaid for my TGM, then. Still, I like it. And the hidden 20G mode is fun times.

don't forget the upside-down mode apprently (but don't quote me on this), nobody in the world has managed to clear it yet. That having been said, nobody has really bothered to try

Heh, that's something to consider, then.

[emphatic]

Try a cocktail rom. The other player need to play upside down though.

Hadn't thought of that, not a bad idea!

I remember finding the correct one back when MAWS was around, I think you have to get one of the bootleg ones. All other might be for a horizontal screen.

[PAPER/ARTILLERY]

Found a cocktail rom which works nicely, it's not straight tetris though, has stages to pass and challenges etc. The search continues.

Just spent about two hours playing grand master though, man Tetris never gets old.

[Some-Mist]

singled it out to my nec xm29. happy it's at least not the board or the supergun.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Any reason not to recommend the first game? I'm under the impression it's a bit easier to find and cheaper, too.

I've never tried the first one, I've only played TGM2 and TGM3 on the PCBs at colour_thief's place (I like puzzle block games occasionally, but they're not usually my thing, even I nearly cleared the novice mode my first time I think). I just really enjoyed the co-op mode on TGM2.

[colour_thief]

Man, I seriously overpaid for my TGM, then. Still, I like it. And the hidden 20G mode is fun times.

don't forget the upside-down mode apprently (but don't quote me on this), nobody in the world has managed to clear it yet. That having been said, nobody has really bothered to try

The upside down (reverse) mode has been cleared faster than I can clear the game normally.

Also the best code is totally big mode.

[Ed Oscuro]

Well, this is great: Every Raiden board I have with a "2" in the name has some kind of fault now.

Raiden Fighters 2 - board seems dead. Nothing, just one faint horizontal (with monitor in landscape mode) line or two flicker on the screen when supplying power.
Raiden II - working and stable image, but a minor graphic fault; some doubled lines on text. Not unplayable and thankfully not as bad as some examples of corruption I've seen, but I wasn't able to figure it out by just pushing down on the ROMs - guess I'll try the flex test next, then look at it for broken traces and the like. Possibly just a bad ROM or RAM, I guess.
Toki - didn't investigate fully but didn't get any audio. Might have been caused by some silly mistake though, since I didn't hear any audio hum at all.

I did have a look inside the supergun as per the supergun thread but I am not sure what I'm looking at in there - looks like an older design with a lot of big components, rather than something more modern like the arcadeforge designs.

[Thomago]

Let's say we have a 3D game aiming at 60 fps which offers a 480p and a 480i mode: Is the 480i mode more likely to achieve the fps goal cause it has only half the pixels to push around, or am I oversimplifying things?

[Fudoh]

I think the internal rendering is done in the same resolution. For 480i it just gets interlaced during the output stage. If you compare titles which run in both resolutions, they usually show the same performance in both modes. Games that show slowdown during 480p have it in the same scenes in 480i mode.

[Thomago]

Ah, good to know. Thanks!

[shmuppyLove]

I have a GBS-8220 I'm using for my supergun, and I'd like to break out the VGA output to a panel mount connector so I can tuck the converter board away in the case.

Here is a pic of the VGA output header:



What type of connector to I need to get for this header? It's 12 pins across, although I only need 5 of them (RGBHV).

Do I even bother with a connector or just solder directly to the pins?

Edit: Dug into my box of gubbins and found exactly the right bit for the job:



This is part of a harness from a Mad Catz fightstick and has just enough pins to do the job. Just need to grab a GND from somewhere on the GBS-8220 and I'll be set!

[panzeroceania]

Fudoh:

what are your thoughts on Darbee Visual Presence image processing technology?

[Fudoh]

not a fan of it. On low settings it's nice sharpnening engine, but then again on those settings the differences to a classic DE/EE engine (e.g. from DVDO or in current Sony TVs) are not too different. Oh, and for video games it's the worst thing ever.