Games
The Joys of Retro Gaming
So, I’m selling some stuff on Ebay and a prospective buyer asks if a TurboGrafx-16 HuCard game works. Well, shit, I dunno, let’s find out! I need some gear to do this. Console, power source, video cable, display. A hassle, but let’s see what we’ve got.
I find the TurboGrafx system, luckily I knew where it was. It had an AV Booster attached, so I could use any RCA cables and wouldn’t need a custom video cable. I found my box of power supplies, and managed to find three that matched the specs. The stepdown adaptor was nearby, cool. But I have no display with composite video inputs. There’s the Sony PVM but it has BNC connectors and I don’t know where my RCA->BNC dongle is.
It’s not like this desk didn’t have enough shit going on already.So I get the Micomsoft XCapture-1 out of its storage container and plug it in. I set it to composite, plug everything in, and… blue screen. I clean the contacts, wriggle things, occasionally see a flash of game, and I can hear some very distorted audio, filled with electrical noise. That’s not great. Bad power supply, maybe.
The power supply I’m using is for an Atari Jaguar, and I notice it’s cracked partly open. I grab my screwdriver with the security bits, install the pig-nose bit, and attempt to remove the one screw still holding it together. And the bit snaps immediately. Cool. Fuck it, next I hook up a Neo Geo power supply. Same thing. Hmmm. The XCapture should handle composite video just fine, and it seems unlikely both power supplies have gone funny, but let’s try a third. This one’s for a PC Engine, so it’s at least closer to the exact specs the TurboGrafx needs.
Blue ScreenSame thing. Well, fuck, I guess the TG16 is dead. Probably bad capacitors, I’ll have to find my gamebit drivers and crack it open later. In the mean time, what else is lying around that might work? My DuoRX should be nearby… And six storage tubs later I find it. Now I need an appropriate power supply. Here’s one for a Sega Genesis 2, that’ll do. And video cable… Ah, right on top of the pile in the video cable tub. Great!
Although the DuoRX is a Japanese system, which normally won’t play US HuCards, I have previously modded this one to do the job. But it still needs a cartridge adaptor, and I can’t find my Kisado. I can, however, find a crappy knockoff that came with my Korean Vistar. But first, let’s bump my coffee and make a mess. Cool, yup, I’m feeling the good vibes tonight. But the adaptor doesn’t fit in the DuoRX, and the system doesn’t detect the card at all. So that’s just not going to work.
Nope.And then I knocked the screwdriver set off my desk, sending bits everywhere, springs akimbo, and I spend five minutes finding all the parts and reassembling the case and all the bits. Back to the task at hand.
I look around for other systems that might work. There’s a PC Engine, but that’s RF only. But I do have a CD ROM2 system, and it’s got RCA outputs… But I lost the power supply for that like 20 years ago. But, oh yeah, since I’ve already got the power and the AV cable for PC Engine gear, let’s find that Core Grafx I saw earlier… There it is! Hook it all up, and the adaptor fits, and…
White screen.
This system hasn’t been modified to play American cards, so even with the adaptor it won’t work until I open it up and do some soldering.
Fuck it. “Untested.”
Untested--NFG
[ Aug 22 2024 ]
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