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I won an auction for an MSX2 off Yahoo Japan. It's 100V. Any suggestions for a step-up converter to 120V?
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Jul 19, 2022 20:32
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Yeah I had it backwards. Want to run 100v MSX2 on 120v electricity.
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Jul 19, 2022 20:47
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I'm getting a SANYO PHC-23 which has a hardwired plug. I think I'm gonna end up building my own RGB SCART cable so that should be a fun exercise.
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Jul 20, 2022 04:54
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Successfully recapped the logic board of my TI-99/4a. Just need to do the power board tomorrow. I'll be paying Parsec when I'm 80.
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Aug 6, 2022 05:34
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Why oh why does the up direction on both joysticks stop working when the caps lock is on for the TI 99/4A? A handful of games will warn you and remind you to turn it off, but still...
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Aug 22, 2022 22:11
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TheMadMilkman posted:
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Sep 2, 2022 23:08
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 the arrow keys 
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Dec 11, 2022 21:07
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  I'm officially a Japanese PC owning weirdo (well I have an MSX2, but that was a much smaller investment). It's CX20 model FM Towns, a 386DX 16 MHz with 2MB of RAM, although I have some SIMMs on the way to upgrade it. The floppy drives might be bad (either that, or all of the refurbed disks I bought on ebay are bad...or both!). The mouse is definitely bad, the cursor jumps everywhere even after a thorough cleaning. I have an adapter coming that will let me use a PS/2 mouse. It's theoretically possible to use a GoTek for a floppy, but I will need to build my own adapter as it doesn't use a standard floppy cable connector. I found someone that designed a PCB adapter that I could try building. Most games just boot off the CD, which is why it was able to be consolized into the FM Towns Marty. Most games will use a floppy disk to save, but some games like Wing Commander 2 require a hard drive install like a typical MS-DOS game. Most importantly the CD-ROM works. The GDEMU guy makes an ODE called The Wizard that I apparently just missed pre-orders for. Hopefully this drive lasts long enough until the next batch of orders he does. It is possible to use a SCSI CD-ROM (or ZuluSCSI/BlueSCSI/SCSI2SD/etc) for games with the proper driver/boot disk. But an ODE would probably have the best compatibility. I successfully installed TownsOS 2.1 L10 (I think the latest version is L50) to the ZuluSCSI. But in order to boot off it you need to boot off the TownsOS CD-ROM and run the setup utility to enable booting from SCSI. I have to do that every time right now because the TWO CMOS batteries are dead, which I will replace shortly. One is a CR2430 and the other is an NC468, which I cannot find any information on. It's apparently 3V rechargeable, like the Dreamcast. Someone on nfg.forums suggested replacing it with a non-rechargable and add a diode. Right now I have the ZuluSCSI connected externally, but there is an internal hard-drive bay I could install it into once I get things settled. There's a very mysterious hole on the side of the case which leads to a potentiometer on the motherboard. I'm very curious what that's for. The very well illustrated documentation didn't seem to mention it at all. I don't actually think the FM Towns games library is very good or interesting. The X68000 or PC88/98 are much better for that. But I think it's interesting that this is a souped-up 386. I think after I upgrade the RAM I could install Windows 3.1. TownsOS is kinda interesting. It's a GUI that runs on top of MS-DOS 3 and has a nice simple aesthetic. I think Fujitsu was highly inspired by the Mac (see the FM Towns all-in-ones). It seems there's a fair number of games and software for it, they use the extension .EXP instead of .EXE. But I think later software is DOS or Windows based. Here's bonus pics of the A-Train III big box I got with it.   
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Feb 26, 2023 19:50
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I played the A-Train game on the Switch ( https://www.nintendo.com/store/products/a-train-all-aboard-tourism-switch/ ) and it's pretty fun if you like those kind of games. EDIT: Train snipe
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Feb 26, 2023 22:04
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They don't make it easy getting to the powersupply on the FM Towns but it was worth the work, found a swelling cap that I will need to replace.
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Mar 1, 2023 00:48
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Well dang, recapping the FM Towns power supply resolved all of the previously mentioned issues. Mouse works perfectly and the floppy disks read and write now. I'm surprised it worked as well as it did, three of the capacitors were hanging on for dear life and probably only had hours left before they failed completely. In addition to that I replaced the CMOS batteries so it will boot from SCSI without having to go into the settings on every cold boot. I also installed two 8MB SIMMS, bringing the total to 18MB, which is absurd for a 386DX. EDIT: lol one day later and the Towns isn’t turning on. Looks like a resistor blew on the power supply. NyetscapeNavigator fucked around with this message at 18:47 on Mar 9, 2023 |
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Mar 9, 2023 03:03
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My first PC was a 386 SX 16Mhz with 1MB of RAM. You could upgrade it to 4MB (after disabling the 1MB on board).
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May 15, 2023 21:34
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SCheeseman posted:but the market was flooded with them at the budget end. Freaking 286s were still being sold when my family got the 386 SX in the early 90s.
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May 16, 2023 18:58
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lol Laser was the brand of mine as well.
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May 16, 2023 22:40
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I like the hardware, personally. Especially for systems I never got to use before, like the MSX. Compared to software a lot of hardware is still a bargain, with some notable exceptions.
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Jun 27, 2023 23:53
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If you like bad displays it sounds like that Hand 386 thing is right up your alley. e: retro computer snype
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Jun 28, 2023 04:07
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 It wasn't easy but I managed some PC-98 couch gaming.
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Aug 28, 2023 03:14
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kirbysuperstar posted:There's a few more but they were done by a guy using MTL and they're really bad. I think Dead is the Brain is one such case. Dead of the Brain seemed pretty coherantly translated. I booted up a translation of a game called "Desire" and it felt machine translated and boring. I noped the heck out of it when you find a girl on the beach who is literally described as "between 3 and 12 years old" Some of the Touhou games have translations, although they're pretty playable as-is. And don't forget The Screamer, home of YOSPOS favorite ＤＥＨＵＭＡＮＩＺＥ ＹＯＵＲＳＥＬＦ ＡＮＤ ＦＡＣＥ ＴＯ ＢＬＯＯＤＳＨＥＤ 
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Aug 29, 2023 17:44
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Oh there's all of the Farland Story games as well, but the Basement Brothers said the translator jacked up the difficulty needlessly. I got another Sharp X68000 Super in the other day. I'm hoping at least the mainboard is good so I can revive my Super that suddenly only plays Human 68K 1.x software. I am going to make a Youtube essay titled "Why you shouldn't buy a Sharp X68000".
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Aug 30, 2023 06:36
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I have two Gotek floppy emulators with flashfloppy firmware. I got both from ebay. You basically just dial a disk image. It's great for trying out PC-98 games quickly, before trying to install them on the HD. What model do you have? I have a PC-9821 Cs2. I don't know how the floppy connectors evolved over time but mine I think is an Amiga style 34-pin connector. My PC-98 only included one floppy drive and a CD-ROM. The floppy power cable supported two drives, but I had to buy a floppy cable that supported two drives separately, and the case does not really support adding a second floppy drive (Gotek or otherwise) without some additional mounting equipment, so the second Gotek is just secured with some tape. The HD is a Compact Flash to IDE adapter wrapped in some anti-static bag stuffed in the enclosure because there is also no way to mount it without some bracket I am too lazy to make myself. I am scoring 0 points for aesthetics here. My model has no gameport, and it sounds like gamepad support on PC-98 is pretty hit or miss. I just won an auciton for a gamepad that emulates key presses, although I read a review that mentioned noticeable input lag. I'll have to see for myself. I guess my only alternative would be to buy a Soundblaster or some other soundcard? Not really sure. 
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Aug 30, 2023 07:23
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I’ll figure out a better solution then. I guess learning how to create 3D printed bits is an inevitable part of this hobby.
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Aug 30, 2023 08:23
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEtgzO-Im8w&t=399s There's some factual errors, like I think the "V" in DOS/V is for VGA, not the number 5, and there was a PC-98 port of Windows 95, but still an interesting video. NyetscapeNavigator fucked around with this message at 04:49 on Sep 4, 2023 |
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Sep 4, 2023 04:27
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Being a Minnesotan I have to stan The Oregon Trail. MECC baby.
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Feb 6, 2024 02:22
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Buffis posted:Need to find a nice black CRT to pair this with, but still flexing the rest of this setup cause drat it is nice to own one of these finally. I just shipped my three dead X68000s to iFixRetro in the hopes at least one of them can be brought into working order.
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Feb 22, 2024 18:36
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Buffis posted:Yeah these supposedly loving LOVE killing themselves. Yeah the big issue is usually the power supply, or battery leakage on some models. I follow a bunch of Japanese retro folks on twitter, and this made me chuckle. 
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Feb 23, 2024 02:03
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Seat Safety Switch posted:(ACE tragedy) Well this post definitely convinces me my own ACE with battery damage will never see life. I have a PRO that I think might work if I put in a Pico PSU. My PC-9821 was $20 and works like a loving champ.
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Feb 25, 2024 13:21
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 07:35 |
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Seat Safety Switch posted:I had to design my own Pro (1) PicoPSU power supply board so I selfishly recommend you use mine if you can. Of course! Your site has been a valuable resource.
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Feb 26, 2024 18:36
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