Thread Split: Drakon's Modding

[Skips]

Anyone considering commissioning Drakon should take a look at the Video posted by Game-Tech as this is typical Drakon quality (which he does not give two fucks about).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... QMH-xp-WtI


Jdubs story to go with it (i linked to mine this time Jdubs as its split up and easier to read):

http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthrea ... ost3613998


Also I know its been linked but Phonedorks Drakon Horror story (JUST IN TIME FOR HALLOWEEN!):

http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthrea ... ost3611368

[EmperorZelos]

Anyone considering commissioning Drakon should take a look at the Video posted by Game-Tech as this is typical Drakon quality (which he does not give two fucks about).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... QMH-xp-WtI

I already posted that link, good god I am a newbie modder that just does minor stuff here and there and mostly failing but even I think that is horrendous

[Skips]

Whats super shitty is instead of using the F-Labo in that fucked up of a manner he could have built his own circuit for a fraction of the cost and build it to fit where the PPU would normally go. He probably would have charged $200 for building the CXA2075 application circuit though. He would have actually had to build something on his own, and hey, why do something right when you can do it easy and for more money! From what I can see just from the video, Drakon used the F-Labo as a super expensive RGB to NTSC encoder circuit. There are far cheaper solutions if you are not putting the kit in the PPU socket where it was designed to go. This hack job is the epitome of laziness. Holy shit, I knew some of the "Drakon specials" were bad bad but this is a fucking nightmare. Even Jason sounds like he has stumbled across some horrific murder scene when he opens it up. This is not just terrible mod work, it wreaks of laziness and an acute case of imalazybastarditis (a very severe medical condition).

Drakon needs to wake the fuck up and stop with the pay for what I want you to want mentality. He could have built a small circuit using the THS7314 and an LM1881n sync stripper for less than $10 in parts. Such a circuit would have taken no more than 40 minutes to build into an F-Labo style kit. I'm sure Jdubs would have preferred this over the recockulous hot glue ejaculation that got caked all over the inside of his NES. Listen to what your customers want and stop trying to force things they don't want down their throats.

The whole "did you test with S-Video" shit is ridiculous. Who the fuck is going to use S-Video when they have an RGB monitor or RGB capable video scaler. Listen to what your fucking customer is telling you they want, don't force useless shit down their throat then refuse to support them when the part they paid you for does not work.


P.S. S-Video is shit compared to RGB, stop telling forum goers and customers it's just as good as RGB. My Sony BVM-20F1U RGB picture quality stomps the shit your S-Video bullshit (and it doubles as a means of properly testing the RGB mods I do, GO FIGURE!).

[Lemony Vengeance]

I like using the best tools and methods possible.

Is that so? Lay off the "clue" glue and we'll talk.

So it's my fault when someone tells me everything is good? I don't read minds sorry.

so it's their fault if they're sick of dealing with your bullshit "customer service"? The only service you provide is liberating people from their $$.

P.S. S-Video is shit compared to RGB, stop telling forum goers and customers it's just as good as RGB. My Sony BVM-20F1U RGB picture quality stomps the shit your S-Video bullshit (and it doubles as a means of properly testing the RGB mods I do, GO FIGURE!).

PVMs aren't as available as TVs with s-Video so for some, it's all they've got. it's still better than Composite though. Don't hate

If Drakon doesn't have the means to test the mod, he shouldn't make it. Plain and simple.

[Skips]

I like using the best tools and methods possible.

Is that so? Lay off the "clue" glue and we'll talk.

So it's my fault when someone tells me everything is good? I don't read minds sorry.

so it's their fault if they're sick of dealing with your bullshit "customer service"? The only service you provide is liberating people from their $$.

P.S. S-Video is shit compared to RGB, stop telling forum goers and customers it's just as good as RGB. My Sony BVM-20F1U RGB picture quality stomps the shit your S-Video bullshit (and it doubles as a means of properly testing the RGB mods I do, GO FIGURE!).

PVMs aren't as available as TVs with s-Video so for some, it's all they've got. it's still better than Composite though. Don't hate

If Drakon doesn't have the means to test the mod, he shouldn't make it. Plain and simple.

That is more directed at the fact Drakon likes to boast that S-Video is better than RGB. Also like I said on the Neo-Geo forums you can nab a TV with component video off craigs list for free or fairly cheap then use an external RGB to Component encoder. I used S-Video at first as well then moved to that setup. It's leaps and bounds over S-Video and I recommend it if you are in a large area with lots of options on craigslist. Got my 35 inch triniton for next to nothing. From there I moved up to the BVM.

[Lemony Vengeance]

I have a PVM-2530 so I know where it's at as well

and yes, I caught the "S-video is better than RGB or damn near the same" line and shook my head. Anyone with a brain knows it's not better.

[Udderdude]

I feel pretty bad reading this thread. I know Drakon IRL, and had seen the quality of his personal mods first-hand; while they weren't pretty, they seemed to work well enough for his own needs.

When he told me he was starting to sell mods to other people for $$$, I assumed he had stepped up the quality of his work, and knew what he was doing; certainly he wasn't going to use the same quality of work he was doing on his own projects. But I was wrong. I now regret not asking him if he had upped his skill level, and also not warning anyone if he had said "Nope" ..

This would be like if I offered to program games for people while the only work I had ever done was a half-baked clone of Pong/Tetris, for my own personal use, and never distributed it to anyone to check out for themselves.

I hope he learns his lesson and tries to take this seriously. Maybe if he really learns what he's doing, shows that he's capable and maybe lowers his prices a little (or a lot, apparently they were pretty high), he can keep at it. Maybe even do some mods for free as a gesture of goodwill.

Anyway, semi-rant over.

[jdubs]

I think that the word mod (or any derivative of it) in the context of what Drakon does should be in quotes. His garbage is not modding although he refers to it as such.

I accept responsibility for being blindsided by his supposed best-in-class NES rgb "modding" when I was looking into it in late 20122 / early 2012. It seemed like he was taking a new(?) approach to NES rgb "modding" that would yield superior results.

What you see in the video is what I received. I just hope no one else falls victim.

-Jim (jdubs)

p.s. Drakon, I'm sure you're reading this - GIVE ME BACK MY MONEY, THIEF!!!!

[undamned]

TLDR; Drakon: If you intend to offer your services in the future, hide in a cave and don't come out until you are good.

Drakon will need to re-invent himself. There is no way to undo the reputation he has established, so he must admit that what he has done thus far has been disastrous, hide in a cave for however long it takes to get "good" at what he's offering people, and then have some sort of unveiling of "the NEW Drakon" with a respectable photo album (inside & out) of quality work that he has done on his own and can tell people, "this is what I am offering" not just rosy words of how amazing his services are.

And for his insane price scheme, I don't know how long it actually takes him to do an RGB PPU NES mod, but sometimes a crap job can actually take longer than a systematic organized mod. It's entirely possible that if you looked at how much time it took him to make one of those train wrecks, his hourly wage might be like $30 (not unreasonable). The problem may not be how much he charges for his time, but what he's doing with that time.

I've done batches of custom cables and system mods and really, if you don't develop a good system, it will take you 2x, 3x, or more time. From the sound of people's stories, he was trying to fit these in between school and whatever 1 at a time. Of course it's going to take him forever. That isn't an excuse, it is reason for him to not offer anybody anything until he can do it reasonably.
-ud

[Skips]

I think that the word mod (or any derivative of it) in the context of what Drakon does should be in quotes. His garbage is not modding although he refers to it as such.

I accept responsibility for being blindsided by his supposed best-in-class NES rgb "modding" when I was looking into it in late 20122 / early 2012. It seemed like he was taking a new(?) approach to NES rgb "modding" that would yield superior results.

What you see in the video is what I received. I just hope no one else falls victim.

-Jim (jdubs)

p.s. Drakon, I'm sure you're reading this - GIVE ME BACK MY MONEY, THIEF!!!!

You are not getting crap back from Drakon dude, he would not even replace Phonedork's butchered AV Famicom or buy proper testing/soldering tools. Aside from the case damage he also pretty much embalmed the poor PCB in hot glue. At least you have Jason helping you out now so you at least know the new RGB mod will be done correctly.

Letting Drakon desolder your PPU (or perform any mod work on your consoles) is like letting Sir William Wallace perform brain surgery with his claymore. At least you know now your poor NES PCB/Shell wont get this treatment again....

[jdubs]

You are not getting crap back from Drakon dude, he would not even replace Phonedork's butchered AV Famicom or buy proper testing/soldering tools. Aside from the case damage he also pretty much embalmed the poor PCB in hot glue. At least you have Jason helping you out now so you at least know the new RGB mod will be done correctly.

Letting Drakon desolder your PPU (or perform any mod work on your consoles) is like letting Sir William Wallace perform brain surgery with his claymore. At least you know now your poor NES PCB/Shell wont get this treatment again....

Oh, I know...just figured I would throw it out there in case he had a sudden inflow of dignity.

Ha! Yeah, you nailed the description of his "mod" work.

Jason has been a HUGE help and I owe him big time.

-Jim

[system11]

Wow.

That's some shitty work, as bad as HD and his hot glue conversions. Worse even.

[shmuppyLove]

Wow, that is really awful work. Hot glue bukakke.

[phonedork]

If you're interested in making amends, there's somebody who never got properly compensated for a damaged A/V Famicom.

Don't treat us like marks here. You have a long way to go to combat this free publicity you've gathered over the years.

Once I dug a little hole for myself rep-wise on the 'net but I didn't keep digging - I got right out of it and everybody's much happier. Maybe it's not realistic at this point to expect that you can right every wrong but you certainly can stop digging in.

Last I talked to him he thanked me for the service and said everything is good. Then the bash-fest began. If he really wants more money back all he has to do is ask.

Drakon,

I said that to be nice since really the issue was fixed by SKIPS! But when he later showed me what the fuck you did inside my AV Famicom on top of melting it.... Is when I knew you had fucked me! I did read and understand your high ass prices and had confidence in you. But the work you did for me is less then what I paid! My AV/RGB famicom works great because of Skips! The look on the outside and inside is where you fucked up my AV Famicom!

You want to make it right????????
Send me another AV Famicom to replace the shit you did to mine!

I think with all the money and time I invested in you deserves at least that! The bottom line is my console has been destroyed albeit working! But for how long??? Who is going to attempt to fix anything in that mess?? Your not!! You take no responsibility in your work. You blamed me for it not working as if I did not know what I was doing! Don't talk about me like I am a idiot!! I am a fucking Lead Wireless Engineer working for major LTE Projects! I may not know how to mod a NES for RGB but I am a bright person. People who pay high prices demand nothing but the best! That is what I though you were! I guess in that aspect does make me an idiot!!

PHONEDORK

[jdubs]

If you're interested in making amends, there's somebody who never got properly compensated for a damaged A/V Famicom.

Don't treat us like marks here. You have a long way to go to combat this free publicity you've gathered over the years.

Once I dug a little hole for myself rep-wise on the 'net but I didn't keep digging - I got right out of it and everybody's much happier. Maybe it's not realistic at this point to expect that you can right every wrong but you certainly can stop digging in.

Last I talked to him he thanked me for the service and said everything is good. Then the bash-fest began. If he really wants more money back all he has to do is ask.

Drakon,

I said that to be nice since really the issue was fixed by SKIPS! But when he later showed me what the fuck you did inside my AV Famicom on top of melting it.... Is when I knew you had fucked me! I did read and understand your high ass prices and had confidence in you. But the work you did for me is less then what I paid! My AV/RGB famicom works great because of Skips! The look on the outside and inside is where you fucked up my AV Famicom!

You want to make it right????????
Send me another AV Famicom to replace the shit you did to mine!

I think with all the money and time I invested in you deserves at least that! The bottom line is my console has been destroyed albeit working! But for how long??? Who is going to attempt to fix anything in that mess?? Your not!! You take no responsibility in your work. You blamed me for it not working as if I did not know what I was doing! Don't talk about me like I am a idiot!! I am a fucking Lead Wireless Engineer working for major LTE Projects! I may not know how to mod a NES for RGB but I am a bright person. People who pay high prices demand nothing but the best! That is what I though you were! I guess in that aspect does make me an idiot!!

PHONEDORK

PHONEDORK, you and I are in a similar (sinking / already sunk) boat. He owes us both for his crappy, way-too-expensive, work!!

-Jim

[Lord of Pirates]

Wow, that is really awful work. Hot glue bukakke.

I'm dying .

[EmperorZelos]

I wonder if its better than clue glue

[game-tech.us]

Another of my customer's experience with Drakon, he wishes to remain anonymous:

By the way, I saw your video on Drakon's work and it doesn't surprise me. A while ago, I requested him to do the "Vertical Bar Removal" mod on my SNES and he was a total jerk, wanting to shove a CXA2075 down my throat as a "necessity" for better S-Video (which I don't need). I told him that I wanted it done the way TmEE done his (you know, with capacitors and no unnecessary video encoder) and he basically said "My way or no way" and so I told him "fine, I'll get Game-Tech-US to do it" and then he went off on you with insults saying that you use to always bug him about how to do "this mod" or "that mod" and that he taught you how to do alot of stuff (rolls-eyes at drakon). Needless to say, I didn't go through with it his demands on how to mod my console.

Then I just stumbled upon your video, saw his handywork, and realized that I dodged a bullet by not getting him to mod my SNES. Thank God!

My response:
Wow, yeah I talked to him a few times, but only once do I remember asking about how he did a mod, the clock divider circuit for supposedly better svid (see my YT vids), and only because I had one customer requesting svid specifically, prolly only one of 2 or 3 i've ever made before or since...
Anyway, he didn't want to help me and turned out he didn't come up with it on his own, TmEE (Tido) helped him or came up with it altogether by himself and I actually got more info from Tido about it than drakon. I even found Drakon's original drawing of the circuit that he pulled back off his forum to keep it secret, reposted it in one of my threads asking for help getting it to work, and when I did get a similar circuit working I found that it really didn't help anyway...

Drakon's response to my initial inquiry about the clock divider circuit in Apr 2012:

I'm reluctant to post my schematics as there's a lot of people using my work to make business for themselves. My circuit uses a 74hc107 and a 74hc74 chip. It's up to you to figure out how to wire them.

[SNES_is_the_Best]

Another of my customer's experience with Drakon, he wishes to remain anonymous:

By the way, I saw your video on Drakon's work and it doesn't surprise me. A while ago, I requested him to do the "Vertical Bar Removal" mod on my SNES and he was a total jerk, wanting to shove a CXA2075 down my throat as a "necessity" for better S-Video (which I don't need). I told him that I wanted it done the way TmEE done his (you know, with capacitors and no unnecessary video encoder) and he basically said "My way or no way"

Yea Drakon - by default - uses his beloved video encoder (2075) to get rid of the vertical bar because he doesn't know how, nor have the skills to do it the correct way (TmEE's method). The video encoder doesn't actually get rid of it, but merely "gets around it".

Sounds like your customer wanted it done the right way and Drakon did his usual "my way or the highway" dance. Nevertheless, I'm starting to wonder if this thread should be continue cause I think Drakon has damaged his own reputation more than enough and its getting dangerously close to the point in which all of us are resorting to "kicking him while he's down".

[Ed Oscuro]

There's nothing wrong with sharing actual experiences, I don't see anybody poking their noses in here to take potshots (though it's really tempting). Having this up and able to be added to (and replied to) is a service to the community to keep all of this in one place and visible.

[undamned]

I'm starting to wonder if this thread should be continue cause I think Drakon has damaged his own reputation more than enough and its getting dangerously close to the point in which all of us are resorting to "kicking him while he's down".

People will run out of stories, and like Ed said, it's nice to have this in one place. As I mentioned previously, if Drakon wishes to keep modding, he needs to re-invent himself. It would be a great thing to see him learn how to do this craft proper and more importantly, square up with his previous customers.

He has shot himself in the foot doubly by A.) poor work and B.) leaving dissatisfied customers floating about to tell of their horrific experience. And I don't mean he should off them
-ud

[Drakon]

I actually sent phonedork multiple private messages years ago offering another 80$ for 160$ to cover the cost of buying a new system. He never replied. The fact is he never brought up any issues with me at all. The last communication I had with phonedork before he started attacking me was him telling me that he was very happy and very pleased with my service. He's never replied to me since.

I'm sorry that I didn't progress as fast as some people think I should have. There's many people who have easier access to better tools, and assumed that I have more free time for this stuff than I do. Based on this, they've decided that since I didn't progress as fast as they thought I should that I must be scum who doesn't care etc etc. I used to see skips say rude things about people all the time who didn't immediately take his advice and apply it that very instant. The whole mentality was "if they don't instantly do what I tell them then they must be an 1: idiot 2: @sshole etc etc". When the reality was that these people weren't any of these things, they were pretty nice people, they just needed a little patience. It's really immature that so many people are willing to come to the conclusion that someone is nothing but a bad person so easily, I guess people really need someone to hate on.

The truth is that last time I talked with skips he was in a lot of physical pain from a medical condition in his back or something. So I forgive skips for painting a picture that I'm total scum and doing everything in his power to perpetuate all of this.

Udderdude brought up an example of free work that I did for him. I thought it would be nice as a friend to help him fix his hardware for free when he came to me freaking out that his piece of hardware had broken, which I did fix. This is how I sometimes am repaid for free work from people, in this case, a friend.

A lot of people took my e-mails / pms / whatever and twisted them into some sort of angry reply because they didn't get the response that they wanted to hear. I never said that my ways were the only way. Many people expected me to recreate other people's work with no available schematics or information. When I told people that I couldn't recreate this work and that I could only do what I had come up with, they interpreted this as me saying that everyone else is wrong and I'm right.

It's clear that people would rather believe I'm complete scum so I don't want to bother defending myself. I didn't want to mention any of this here, because I don't want to make anyone else look bad.

[darcagn]

Two years later and you come back to post how you're really the victim here?

[Drakon]

Two years later and you come back to post how you're really the victim here?

Yeah. I really didn't care, I had better things to do with my time. I didn't see the point in arguing because people I tried speaking with wouldn't believe me no matter what I told them. People had already made up their minds about me and had no interest in hearing my side of the story.

A long time ago I posted on my forum that if any previous customers would be willing to pay for shipping I'd undo my old commission work and redo it to the best of my current abilities, free of charge. Of course I'm always open to input from customers of how they want the work done so I can cater to it as much as possible. Unfortunately people have only been interested in posting things about me that make me look worse. Just to avoid any confusion, I'm not saying these things because I want any business back. I just want people to know that I'm not like what these people try so hard to make me look like.

I think a lot of these other modders who seem to hate me like game-tech.us, apolloboy, skips, etc do amazing quality work. The only thing I hope that they learn from all of this is that trashing other people's reputations is really immature and it will attract and perpetuate the wrong sort of attention. I only want the best for them so I don't want to see them making themselves look bad by excessively going out of their way to ruin other people's reputations.

I don't believe in partaking in propaganda battles, I think it's a total waste of time.

[darcagn]

The bravery of you! You're such a martyr.

[Drakon]

The bravery of you! You're such a martyr.

Like I said. You won't believe anything that contradicts what you want to believe.

I also kept quiet because I wanted to give them some time to realize the err of their ways and have a chance to fix this themselves. Unlike them, I don't believe in jumping down peoples throats as soon as I catch any mistakes.

[Skips]

I'm convinced you were dropped on your head as a child. These posts show you really learned nothing and seem more like a plea for attention then anything else. No one cares and everyone has moved on.

No one jumped down your throat immediately and there were over a dozen people working behind the scenes collecting evidence of the whole messy mod work ordeal. If you think it was just a few people going after you you are dead wrong. There were only a few that posted their names publicly on the matter because the rest wanted to stay behind the scenes.

I could say a lot more but if this is your mindset after two years it would just be a waste of my time to repost the whole chronicle of Drakon and take the time to dig up old posts, pictures, and first hand accounts from people all over again.

[sixbynine]

Oh boy, here we go!

[Drakon]

So people covertly working behind the scenes to ruin my reputation instead of offering helpful advice and suggestions is not jumping down my throat.....got it. That's a huge amount of effort to go after someone and no effort to actually help the person.

Also you haven't moved on, I found fairly recent posts by you from earlier this year helping continually perpetuate hate towards me.

Skips pretended to be my friend, presumably to find as much "dirt" as he could. Instead of offering helpful tips and suggestions and being patient for me to improve, skips did his utmost to collect as many damaging things about me as possible. One day without any warning skips stopped responding to me and I found him posting hate about me. If that isn't a dick move, then I don't know what is. From the sound of it, this was a team effort dick move. It was very clear that everyone was trying to bury me and nobody was interested in helping me and actually having any patience or understanding.

When I found someone I didn't agree with the business practices of I'd made a few text posts and then move on with my life. No pictures, no videos, nothing too potentially damaging. I never went out of my way to collect "dirt" on someone I didn't agree with, and I never would.

[Skips]

More like taking the time to do research and gather evidence so we could legitimately expose you. Personally I was hoping it would be a swift kick in the ass to jolt you back to reality, does not seem to have done shit though. What it did accomplish was it made people aware of your work and business practices.