Be Excellent To Each Other

A couple of years ago I went on an eBay cruise hoovering up a lot of the stuff I'd wanted as a kid, so I now proudly own both a Japanese Megadrive (which a friend helped me mod with the language and 50Hz/60Hz switches) and an unmodified Super Famicom with a few choice carts. Both get regular outings, so were well worth buying.

I did also briefly own a PC Engine Core Grafx II which I sold on due to lack of cash (and have pretty much regretted ever since doing so). Not only is it technically a great little machine, but it's so dinky and cute, you can't help but fall in love with it. For those who've never seen a PC Engine in real life, I can guarantee you'd be surprised with just how small they really are.

A friend of mine owns a MAME cabinet, two pinball machines (although one currently doesn't work) and a bar billiards table. His living room fairly approximates my idea of heaven.

I also want Mashed:Fully Loaded for the XBOX for like £3, not £15 that people want on ebay.

What I really always wanted was certain home computers that are impossible to get second hand in Denmark, mostly an Apple ][, an MSX and a BBC.

A couple of years ago I got an Acorn from a professor at university I knew, since he was just going to ditch it. He told me the university had just got rid of a truckload of ancient BBCs, and if he'd known I was interested he would have saved one for me...

I'd also really like a MAME cabinet with a proper horizontally mounted CRT monitor.

EDIT: Sorry , that should be VERTICALLY mounted, obv.

Do you have an original Xbox that's modded? If so.. I may be able to help out here.

If not... sorry.

I really should use my Neo Geo more often. I don't think I've switched it on since moving house in December. I might try and get the video output fixed though as it does a weird image bending type thing at the top of the display.

I’ve just thought of something else I’d like.

Something handheld that plays MAME games. Cheap and hassle free. I know a PSP could do it but I’m entering a minefield of learning how to mod one and as I get older, my willingness to mess with things like that doesn’t last past lunch time.

I can remember briefly really wanting a Sam Coupe after my Spectrum died. God knows why, in retrospect. Also really wanting my own VR machine, until I actually played on one and it was horrid.

No, I just found out the other week, it was XBOX 360 Compatible, and its an excellent multiplayer for playing with friends, I think we've played this years FIFA into the ground now.

It is indeed an excellent multiplayer game but I think I read somewhere that an XBLA version is due soon so worth keeping an eye out for that.

GP2x or Dingoo are your answers for this one (a little bit of a faff for both to initially setup but nothing as complex as a firmwareflash for the PSP)

Because it was a magnificent piece of technology, far ahead of its time?

And here's another minefield. I saw a video that Ashens did with one of those Dingoos and, since I sort of trust him, he said it was good but a little annoying at the same time.

I may take the punt on one but I'll have to think about it because I don't know what I'm looking for. Maybe this needs a new thread?

I was very very close to winning a Hello Kitty Dreamcast some years ago, but my stupid PC at the time messed it up

Also, the last GC Harvest Moon game. I loved that game - it made me cry when my goat died, but I think it was either sold, or damaged, or perhaps borrowed and never given back.

I have hunted and hunted and hunted for one, and get annoyed. Also Chibi Robo which I never played, but always wanted. Too hard to get hold of though.

No luck finding one on eBay, Meems?

You damaged your goat?

I have one of these (the modded PSP). Isn't it trivial to mod the older models?

Re: Handheld MAME. The PSP isn't a bad option but it's pretty fiddly as there are a couple of emulators for arcade stuff and they cover different roms. Fans of Cave shooters are covered by FinalBurnAlpha. I've been borrowing Dr Ashen's Pandora and that seems like a very good but pricey alternative.



Things I want.

An original 48k Speccy with rubber keys. They are just so beautiful. My first Speccy was a 48k+ which had a proper keyboard. Not quite as attractive.

MAME cab. I played some amazing ones at an arcade expo a couple of years ago. Even a bartop half-cab would be great though.

If I had to pick a specific arcade machine, I'd go with Bomb Jack maybe.

I'd quite like to shove a HDD into my modded PS2 and fill it with all the good games. I'd never use it though.

YOU would say that... SAM!

I'm not entirely sure to be honest. I haven't looked into it for a while, but I always thought it was a real faff.

I wanted a HDD for mine so that I could install FFX and play through it again with reduced loading times between random battles. Never happened though.

I did buy another PS2 on Ebay last week though - Slimline version with a Joytech screen attached and a few games. All for £30. Bargain.

Is there anywhere one can purchase one of these hard drive modded PS2s already done for you? Or is there a guide out there for doing it yourself? Can you use a Slim?

WTB, you might be interested in my posts here.

Thank you, kind sir!

You need:
A PS2
A network adaptor (can you just get a hard drive adaptor without a network port, that would do if you could).
A hard drive

I can't imagine you could buy them pre-modded because there's nothing to do.
I think we might have already discussed this at some point on the forum, but I did mine years ago so my information is probably very outdated.

Edit - What Mr D said.

As for gaming stuff I've always wanted, I'd like an old but working cassette recorder so I can realise C64 tapes. I got the parallel-disk cable working, but it doesn't work with a lot of games due to 64HDD being incomplete. If there was C64 software which lets me load tap files through the floppy drive and write them to real tapes using the datasette, that would be very convenient.

I should work out how to do that for the Amiga too eventually, though I've got Amiga disks coming out my ears.

I guess I'd like a Vectrex. I'd never play it.

And I'd like a piano. And somewhere to play (badly) where I wouldn't disturb anyone.

As for odd things I have: I've got a few A500s, an A1200, CD32, and a Game Gear. I've got SNES and N64 Action Replay carts. I've got a 'Password Card' for the original PS and Simons' Basic for the C64. I love odd carts. Nearly bought a Game Genie for my Game Gear, but I decided against it 'cause it would be a bit useless. I got the C64 recently from a kind person, and more tapes should be arriving shortly! My Spectrum +2A still works, but the eject button off the datacorder's missing. For now I've stuck a great big screwdriver in it and I use it like a great big gearstick.

No, used to try all of the time but they never came up or were too pricey.

That game exchange site has had me waiting for one for about three years. No, I have no idea what it is called.

Yeah.

Goodness, don't. It was the most harrowing thing I have ever seen in a game. The old farm hand pulled me aside one morning, said o had not cared for my goat enough. He was crying.

All the lights dipped and the scene went golden in the sunset, then I watched him carry my goat's limp, lifeless body off into the sunset.

Oh, I always wanted the N64 Disk Drive as well! Mainly for the F-Zero X car editor thingy. I think they only released a handful of games for it in the end. Pretty much anything that they got in Japan but we didn't get here I'm interested in.

Bloody hell!

That's pretty creepy.

Talking of odd things, someone actually bought both my World Ports off me the other day. They're modems that plugged into Game Boys and allowed you to read/send email. As this was back in the dial-up days, they also came with top-up cards. Oddly, there don't seem to be many pics of it.

Younger me would've gone bonkers for such magic, even though he didn't have a Game Boy. Modern me reads of XBAND and Satellaview in wonderment.

Younger me had a Psion Siena instead though. :)

I remember those from my GAME days.

How much did you get for them? If I remember, they were about 20 quid originally.

No kidding. How much childhood trauma?!

I just got rid of them cheaply (fiver each probably) as they wouldn't be usable to connect any more I'd imagine so it'd be more for a homebrew project I'd imagine.

Yeah. They'd be pretty useless now especially since you need those top up cards.

This does remind me though that I wanted a gameboy camera and printer for years. When I finally got one, I realised that it was pretty crap actually and the stickers faded real fast.

Neat-o carts: For my C64 I have a Centronics printer interface cart, a radio-teletype cart and a serial interface cart (that I never figured out how to work). No games. I tried a couple of game carts but they didn't work on my C64C

I liked the camera (I've got a few of them) but I've not had much luck with the printers. I suppose the oddest GB attachment I've seen would be the one that connecting to a sewing machine.

WHAT?

edit: wow. http://www.retrothing.com/2006/04/izek_sewing_mac.html

Izek or something.

That's amazing but how would it work? You've still got to feed the fabric through haven't you?

Still... that is ace.

After reading this thread I'm thinking that I would like anything gaming related that I haven't already got.

I had a GameBoy Pocket with a camera. It was rubbish because it wasn't in colour.

If only I knew someone with a GP2X that never got any use!

That's a GP32 -- much weedier hardware spec. And you can have it back anytime you want, it's buried at the bottom of one of my gadget boxes at the moment!

I nearly bought a Virtual Boy once - we had one traded in when I worked at Gamestation, but I settled on just playing on it in my lunch break instead. Not a good console, bloody uncomfortable to use.

On a semi-related note, I have recently purchased something off of eBay, an entirely useless something with only very tenuous links to gaming, which I've wanted ever since I was 5 years old, or thereabouts. I don't want to ruin the surprise... it's due to arrive in the next couple of days so I'll post pics when it does. I will say it is the most flagrantly idiotic and geeky thing I've ever wasted money on - and let there be no doubt I have utterly wasted my money on it. One of my real-life friends got very emotional when I told him about it, and told me that it made him very proud to have a friend stupid enough to buy something like it. I'm quite looking forward to showing it off!

You forget I also have a GP2X, which I rarely if ever use.

Don't know why I'm posting this as I can't think of anything I'd really like other than a fucking huge room and 8 player Daytona arcade cabinets. And maybe Sega Rally 2 player.

I'm not, if I'm honest, really interested in retro gaming other than in passing. I still own most of my original machines [1] but have recently sold quite a few of my old games as they'd been sitting in boxes gathering dust for years.

[1] Not an exhaustive list...

PS1 Chipped to play all regions
N64
SNES
Saturn
Dreamcast
GC
2 Xboxes
2 PS2s
countless iterations of the Gameboy and DS
GP2X

and all the current machines including 2 360s, a PS3 and Wii.

I've wanted a Big Trak since I was about 5. Except now I want an iPhone controlled one. Depressingly, such a thing probably even exists.

Dunno if it counts, but I also really wanted an Omnibot. In my mind I had it making me sandwiches, tidying my bedroom and getting up to all sorts of wacky japes and adventures.

Fancy selling it?