I love old consoles. What a revelation, huh? I especially like ones that are a bit different to the ones I saw growing up in the United of Kingdomness. Mainly Dorset in the south of England.

Even when current generation consoles and computers were ‘in’ in the eighties, my fantastic parents didn’t have enough money to lavish the latest thousand pound computers on to me. They lavished lots of other things that kept me happy, but electronic boxes with chips inside were not on the table. The first console I had was an Acetronic, bought from a family friend whose kid had got bored of it. It was a poor person’s Atari 2600, but it was MY console and I could play a bad version of Space Invaders on it (with worse controllers) and it kept me happy for hours. The lad up the road had an Atari 2600 and we used to have marathon sessions on that, so I sort of had the best of both worlds. I even had a small collection of VFD and LCD ‘video’ games. Taking those to school on the last day of term was the bestest thing ever for a wee Victor.

Anyhooo.

One of the latest consoles I was lucky enough to snag while on holiday in Japan was the Sega SG1000. I fell in love with the industrial design of this thing. The angles, the colours, the fact it is fully Japanese - awesome in every way*

*Except for the controller - more on that later when I remake the b@st@rd.

The SG1000, was the fore runner to the SG1000 II (redesigned SG1000), then the Sega Mk III (upgraded console, backward compatible with SG1000) and then, the world famous Master System. The SG1000 is basically a console version of the SC3000 computer - which is very similar to the MSX range. It is also well known that the SG1000 shared the exact launch date as the Nintendo Famicom, in 1983. If I could have played an SG1000 (or a Famicom) in 1983, my ten year old brain may have exploded with joy. I was used to Atari 2600, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrums at this point in my life. Cartridge based systems have always appealed to me as they have instant loading, unlike crappy cassettes I had to use on the old 8 bit computers. I never had a floppy disk drive on anything until I eventually bought my first PC as an adult. I totally missed out on the 5.25” floppy era, except for some usage at school with BBC B computers.

I found the boxed SG1000 at a Hard Off second hand shop in Hachioji (Japan). I was given the heads up from a friendly friend of a friend who is an expert on the Hard Off shops. It was cheaper than one I had seen in Akihabara and in far better condition. The price was about a third you would pay on an electronic auction website. For some reason, at the time, I thought the SG1000 could play Sega Mk III games, of which I have a few originals. Of course, that is not the case - it works the other way around. Never mind, I have a home made Pico SD1000 multicart that I was using on my Sega Mk III. I loaded some SG1000 roms on it and the console tested perfectly after I had composite modded it for use on a non RF, non Japanese NTSCJ TV.

One of the main problems with the SG1000 is the single player hard wired joystick nubby thing. It is a rudimentary joystick with two side buttons. It is not very responsive, even after cleaning the metal contacts within with Dioxit ‘gold’ contact cleaner. It just plays bad. It’s also irritating that it is hard wired into the console. When you need to move the console around for using / storing, the stupid thing always flops off of the surface it is on and dangles like a dongly dangly thing. Probably stressing the cable and contacts within.

However, I already knew these things were a weak point of the SG1000. Most owners remove the controller, put it in a velvet lined box and make a non destructive plug / cable thing to use a better controller. Usually a Sega Master System controller, as it has the same pinout and exactly the right amount of controls. Who needs more than two action buttons anyway? I can hear NeoGeo owners and Street Fighter players grumbling from here…

(if anyone can get me a German SG1000 (in the picture), I’d be very grateful)

So, when I composite modded my SG1000 (also, with a non destructive mod) I added a player one 9 pin D-sub socket out the back of the machine, directly wired into the first player joystick plug inside the console. I have just removed my original controller and placed it in its own plushly lined sarcophagus before writing this. So, now I need to make a new controller. Bigger, better, more SG1000 - eee (pronounced ESS GEE ONE THOUSANDEEE)

I purchased two cheapo black NES bootleg controllers. Actually wired for the NES / Famicom mini, with the Wii style plugs on the cables. I proceeded to remove the Wii cables (stored for a future tinkering / stripping for wire) and rewired the controller with a 9 pin wired extension lead with the pin end cut off.

As you can see, I performed a basic ‘pad hack’. This is where you wire directly to the contact point of the directional and action button switches, rather than the original points, which, in this case use an IC for talking to the desired console.

I had to wrangle the wires away from the rubber / graphite contacts, so they could be pressed properly without interference from the newly soldered wires. I eventually moved the solder points in the picture away from the rubber contact point completely. Scraping off a bit of the solder mask a bit further away did the trick. I also had to do some skilful wire wrangling to get everything to squeeze into the case. Then on to the ‘fun’ part - a nice label for the top face.

I say. label, I meant 3D printed label, as I have a 3D printer and not a glossy colour label printer. 3D prints can also have embossed lettering, which I like.

I used an old grey bottom and white top case for the SG1000 controller, as it matches the console and the newly bought NES knock off black case for the Master System one. I only have my home made arcade joystick for my Master System, so the second of my newly bought controllers is now a dedicated SMS version. As the lettering on the Master System font is very thin in parts, I had to test out my never used 0.2mm 3D printer nozzle. It takes twice as long to print compared to the standard 0.4mm nozzle, but the print quality is 200% finer. I could also print the ‘M’ and ‘y’ properly without missing areas.

These things are WAY better than the original SG1000 controller. Jus’ sayin’

$oftware for SG1000

Games came on big ‘tombstone’ black cartridges and then, the later Sega ‘Mycards’

The Sega hardware development head Hideki Sato disliked the cartridges, stating they looked like small black tombstones. He later replaced the game media with much jollier looking cards. There were 51 original cartridge games and 29 my cards.

I’d like to collect these titles, but outside of Japan they are eye waveringly expensive. Standard unboxed cartridges are usually £40-£80 and boxed software is easily double that. Most games come from Japan, so you can add on more for shipping unless you are bulk buying. The next time I’m in Japan (hopefully some time next year). I’ll look out for some original games. In the mean time…

LET’S MAKE SOME

(don’t tell Sega)

I went on to today’s NOT sponsor (they haven’t given me anything… YET)

PCBWAY - I ordered some previously designed blank cartridge PCBs by Saverio Russo

(Click the link to get some for yourself and tell Saverio how awesome he is)

There is also a bit of flexibility on these cartridge blanks.

• You can use standard 27256 (32k) or even 27512 (64k) EPROMS (you have to double up the rom file if using a 27512 eprom - “copy /b file.bin + file.bin Newfie.bin”). You don’t have to use the lower powered ‘C’ versions.

• You can use the first EPROM for 32k and also half of the second EPROM to make up a 48k game. I haven’t tried this yet though.

• If you are just making a 32k or even a doubled up 16k game, you don’t need to populate the top EPROM position or the capacitor for it. The cartridge in the picture has sockets, as it’s the one I use for testing burned EPROMS before I solder them directly to a cartridge PCB.

• You can use these cartridge blanks on the SC3000 computer, SG1000, SG1000 II and the Sega Mk III console / computers.

I now need some cartridge cases. As the damn things are so expensive, I won’t be using original games as donors. Luckily, I have a 3D printer, the .STL files for making cases from 6MMBRX on Cults3d.com

I used FreeCAD to convert the .STL files into .STP files that I can work with on OneCNC (cad/cam software I own). I modified the case parts slightly to make the PCBs fit a bit tighter and I opened out the screw holes for slightly bigger self tapping screws. Of course, I also wasn’t going to print out ‘little tombstones’ (even though tombstone cartridges quite appeal to me.

I Famicommed them up a bit.

The first one was the blue one. I had to sand the screw heads down for them to fit flush - this is another area I modified. Luckily enough, a janky label will be covering the file marks.

LIVE UPDATE

Not an earthquake this time, but this has just finished behind me, while I type this blog -

This cart is going to house HERO.

Back to writing -

I said janky and I MEANT IT. These are meant to look counterfeit. I’m not trying to fool anyone here. I like making my own bootleg stuff, as I like bootleg stuff (and I can not lie).

If I wanted a professional label, I’d get on to my good friend Olly at Arcade Artshop

[not sponsored]

Arcade art shop can print on super tough, thick media and laminate them in a series of textures. Hard enough for actual arcade machines on location. All my arcade machines that have aftermarket overlays are from Arcade Artshop. All my Vectrex controllers have overlays from him, too.

However, I knocked up these labels in a super janky way (as often my desire, forsooth)

I used images from the internet - no AI was used or even thought about being used.

I then loaded them in to MS Paint (oh yes, no expense spared) and resized them to fit in to my template (also made on Paint). I didn’t even use vector graphics, I just squidged the image down to it’s pixelated best self. I printed them at work on the office colour laser and laminated them on my hardly used laminator. It smells like burning when being used, so I make sure I unplug it immediately afterwards [fire emoji]. Good ol’ 3M double sided crazy tape is used to affix them forever to their colourful box.

I am super happy with the outcome and jank factor.

I’m not really into ‘shelfies’, but this pleases my eyes. I have yet to print and laminate the remaining labels.

I have tried to colour ‘match’ the games.

• Wonderboy - Blue

• Ninja Princess - Pink

• Galaga - Purple

• H.E.R.O - White

• Q*Bert - Orange

• Starforce - two tone Grey

• Loderunner - Burgundy

• Congo Bongo - Green (not in photo)

• Pacman (not managed to burn working yet) - Yellow.

Some of the colour matching works, others not - but still colourful!

I have recently discovered that Atari* made a variation of the 2600 to compete with Sega’s Master System back in 1986.

I have obtained detailed photos and build logs of the process Atari* made back in 1986.

The Mission Statement

Looks as though Sega were eating Atari*s lunch in 1986 and the Sunnyvale company, now owned by whoever weren’t happy about it. Their CEO of the time documented to have said -

“why aren’t we selling more of our bygone company’s ancient 70’s hardware to the kids. What do they want a blue hedgehog for anyway?”

“knock up an angled thing with some of those parts I saw in the warehouse the other day”

“We’ll sell millions of them. Enough for my and my billionaire golf buddies to go into space for a moon holiday”

So, onward the brave engineers (tinkerers in their own rights) went to try and build a new (very old) console to try and re-tap into the gaming market.

Hardware

Atari* used old 2600 Jr motherboards they found around the workshops, warehouses and abandoned Toys R Us outlets. Unfortunately, the bottoms of the cases they had made with futuristic plastic printing presses were slightly too small for the pcbs, so they had to trim them down a bit to fit.

Here is photo evidence of a trimmed PCB shoe horned into one of the prototype cases lower sections.

Parts they had to remove because the designer* of the new case was a buffoon.

Looks like they were using the same cutting mat as me back then. What a coincidence.

A photo of the initial printed blueprints. Atari* offices had the same carpet as my nerd studio. What a co inky dink.

The first official top part was created, but unfortunately the cartridge port was about 3mm out of position. They* used 24mm arcade buttons for the Select and Start buttons. Maybe they were also trying to appeal to the arcade kids? Atari already had a killer port of Pac Man that had sold monumental bucket loads and cemented the 2600 as THE home arcade machine. A yellow Master Junior version was also planned, but was dismissed as looking a bit ‘banana like’

You can see the similar stylings to the first Sega Master System console.

New Technology

To keep up with the video game Joneses, Atari* added a composite video and audio mod to the aging hardware. They* had found a new type of modification (still available HERE)

This particular AV Mod wasn’t quite suited to the Rev D 2600 Jr motherboard, as one of the underside pins wasn’t quite in the right place, so the Atari* engineers worked out an easy bodge wire work around. Chris Mettal (the designer of the mod) was informed of the workaround.

The Production Model

I have obtained the only ever production model manufactured. This came into my possession via reasons. If I had to divulge these reasons, I’d be forced to come round and politely ask each and every one to not mention the aforementioned reasons to anyone. Such is the seriousness of console prototyping.

As you can see the internals look like a gathering of tiny snakes.

They* also used a decent amount of hawt goo. Fantastic.

The finished article looks pretty good though.

All Apologies

Please understand that whenever Atari* or They* were mentioned, I was speaking about myself. Oh, and the buffoon designer, also me.

If you got this far believing all that guff above, shame on you. You should know by now, this is the kind of nonsense I live for. Anyhoo - I have been messing with Master System stuff recently and thought a spare Atari Jr I had needed a fancier case, so here it is. Hope you enjoyed. I am off to sit in a dark corner and think about what I have just written and published online.

I’ve now been back in the UK for a few days and feel fine. I don’t generally get jet leg, as I try and go to sleep and wake up on the plane when I would be in the country I am travelling to. You do get a bit tired, but it’s better than being wide awake at three in the morning or dead on your feet at four in the afternoon.

I have been checking out the things I bought. You have to remember that everything I bought was second hand and usually from an area of the store marked ‘JUNK’

In Japan, ‘junk’ doesn’t mean it’s fit for the bin, broken or beyond repair. Almost the opposite in most cases. Junk can mean anything from dirty, missing parts, for repair or even (genuinely) untested. I didn’t even bother to Google Lens translate the things I bought because most things were under £10 - £20. I have only ever seen a handful of cartridges in my time that have been absolutely broken, beyond repair.

I’ll briefly go through the things I have tested so far.

Consoles

1. Super Famicom - Games seem to be playing blind. You can see a brief flash of graphics, then the picture goes out of sync. Game sounds can be heard and if you use the controller, you can also hear the sounds changing, so presume that it’s controlling the game somewhat. I am going to renew the capacitors near the video section soon to see if that helps. I have already reflowed the solder joints on the video connector to no avail. Even if one of the PPUs (Picture Processing Units) is faulty, I have spares boards I could pinch one from.

2. Super Famicom PCB - Works absolutely fine! So happy about getting SFC innards for 53p! I really wish I could have got the mating case, which was also 53p at the same place. I have put this working board in the case of the non working one.

3. Famicom - I performed a quick composite mod and it seems to work ok.

4. Sega SG1000 - I performed a very simple composite mod on this beauty that involved a single resistor for the video and a single capacitor for the sound. I am very happy with the results. The only problem is, where to mount the audio and video RCA jacks? There’s no convenient existing holes in the machine and there’s no way I am drilling a console that is this nice (and expensive)

   So, I got creative with the old 3D printer and created a back plane that goes over the expansion slot at the back. I’ll never be using that, so it’s fine to cover it with some PLA plastic and sockets. I also don’t have ANY game cartridges for this machine, but luckily, I made an SD-1000 pico powered multicart ages ago and this works well on it. None of the Sega Mark III games will work on this machine, as it is a revision behind it. SG1000 games are backward compatible with the Mark III, though. The controller, although a bit crappy, seems to work quite well. I’ll probably take it apart and give the contacts a clean.

I even managed to squeeze in a DB9 connector that is directly wired to player 1 controls. This enables the use of a decent controller.

5. PC Engine - Works fine by using the composite video output from the back extension bus. This was the first of the PC Engine series and is RF by default.

   I checked out the PC Engine software on this machine and they all work just fine.

6. Famicom Mini Shonen Jump Edition - I actually tried this out in the hotel in Japan. It works just as it should do, but all the games are basically crap. All of them are in Japanese and you can’t really play them without being able to read Japanese. Even then, they are still, well, crappy. I modded the firmware yesterday with ‘Hachki2’ and added some English language NES and Famicom games. I added a PC Engine folder full of games too. The range of ‘minis’ can run quite a few different systems. I think Famicom and PC Engine is enough for me on this one.

7. Blue Wonderswan - I have a sneaking suspicion this has been painted, but painted quite well. At first, you could hear a game boot up, but would then fade out to nothing. You could only see some small icons on the screen. I gave the cartridge slot a good blow out with compressed air and got it to play properly, but the screen is worn out. I think this can be repaired by replacing the polarising film that sits over the LCD. Mr Funk has some spare he’s going to give me. Hopefully that will cure it.

   LCD Games.

1. Epoch Monster Panic - Works. Nice little game, but a bit worn.

2. Epoch Mr Rich Man - Works. Battery door needs some work to hold the batteries in firm enough to operate, though.

Controller Hardware

1. Arkanoid Famicom Spinner Controller - When first tested, it wouldn’t let you move your bat all the way to the right, making the game very hard to play, as the ball would escape past you on the right wall side. I pulled off the plastic knob / dial and rotated it slightly and pushed it back on. This sorted it. There is a physical stopper inside, which only lets the controller move about 270 degrees. It was off bit. Now fully working. The included Arkaoid cartridge works fine too.

2. PC Engine Controller - I tested this on the white PC Engine I bought. Works perfectly and all the buttons and auto fires work.

3. Sega Mk 3 Paddle Controller - I tested this on my Sega Mk 3 with the game Woody Pop (on my multi cart - I haven’t got Woody Pop yet, but I’m after it. Paddle works really nicely. Very smooth. I am going to study this controller and maybe reproduce some of them.

4. Super Famicom Controller - Works fine. A nice un yellowed example.

Game Cartridges / Cards

1. Sega MyCard Bank Panic - Firstly, the one that has disappointed me most - and was the most expensive of the Sega MyCards I bought. Whatever I do, I can’t get this card to work. I just get a black screen. I’ve cleaned the gold contacts with IPA (pure), buffed them with a rubber eraser and also very lightly sanded them with 1000 grit sandpaper. I even tried heating up the area where the tiny chip is. Nothing [sad emoji]

2. Sega MyCard Bomb Jack - Works fine after a good clean. An arcade classic.

3. Sega MyCard Astro Flash - Works fine after a good clean. A nice shooter.

4. Sega MyCard Zippy Race - Works fine after a good clean. An arcade conversion.

5. Sega MyCard Champ Lode Runner - Works fine after a good clean. Classic 8 bit version.

6. Famicom Labyrinth Island - Works. A great little puzzle game. Kinda Pengo crossed with Sokoban.

7. Famicom Family Athletics - Works. Can’t play it without the controller mat.

8. Famicom Penguin Wars - Works. I already have this. Can be made into other good games.

9. Famicom Keisan Quiz - Works. Unplayable Japanese though. Nice label.

10. Famicom Firebord Phoenix - Works. Seems like an interesting game.

11. Famicom Racer Mini Yonku - Works. A lot of Japanese text before you start racing.

12. Famicom Metrocross - Works. A good arcade conversion.

13. Famicom Ultima - Works. Unplayable Japanese game. Nice coloured cartridge.

14. Famicom Side Pocket - Works. Good pool game.

15. Famicom PachiCom - Works. Stupid pachinko game.

16. Famicom Super Mario Bros. 3 - Works. Bought for a future donor.

17. Famicom Super Real Baseball ‘88 - Works. Bought for a future donor.

18. Super Famicom - Super Nazo Puyo 2 - Works. Odd Puyo / RPG game.

19. Super Famicom - Mario & Wario - Works. Needs a mouse to play.

20. Super Famicom Space Invaders - Works. Good versions of classic Spacies.

21. Super Famicom Yoshi no Cookie - Works. Good puzzle game.

22. Super Famicom Super Tetris 3 - Works. Fancy Tetris.

23. Gameboy Colour Mr Driller - Works. I’ve just done a quick 500m when I should have been writing this. Oops.

24. Gameboy Colour Kirby Tilt n Tumble - Works. Really good! Kinda like a 2D Super Monkey ball, but with motion controls!

25. Gameboy Advance Mr Driller A - Works. Too much Japanese text and not enough drilling!

26. Gameboy Advance Mr Driller 2 - Works. A fine game.

27. PC Engine Space Harrier - Works. A fine arcade conversion.

28. PC Engine Dragon Spirit - Works. A fine arcade conversion.

29. PC Engine Stupid Jolf - Works, but I’m not playing it as it’s a toilet game.

Conclusion.

I was on my own in Japan, but still had a wonderful time. I was apprehensive at first, as I’ve never gone abroad on my own before. Seems like I am an actual big boy and can look after myself, even in a non English speaking country! I got around Tokyo very easily on their train network. It’s cheap and easy to work out, with everything being in Japanese and English. I even used a bus and that was no problem. Using Google translate helped me out a great deal. I used the ‘Lens’ function for reading Japanese and also the English to Japanese text converter to ask for things. Very handy indeed.

I think the whole experience would have been better with a companion, like I had when I visited in 2010. That is the holiday I will always cherish. I’m sure this time would have been more fun hunting down games and consoles with a pal.

Overall, I am very happy with all my purchases. I was quite surprised on how little I actually spent. The Japanese Yen is quite weak at the moment, but very good for visitors. I got very annoyed when I got back to Heathrow Airport and the cost difference between Heathrow and Haneda for simple things like coffee. Harrumph.

The night I got back, I watched a prominent console YouTuber whining on about how high the prices were in Akihabara (he couldn’t even pronounce the place name properly). It’s obvious that Akihabara is going to be expensive, it’s the retro gaming capital of the world! Taking a twenty minute train ride and walking for about the same amount of time gets you 51p Super Famicoms and five quid Playstations. You also get to walk through beautiful Japanese neighbourhoods. Bargains are also to be had in the gaming capital of Tokyo, AKihabara. You just need to put some effort in and search around a bit. If you’re in the market for consumer electronics, most shops I went in also cater for all your needs at ridiculously low prices. For instance, I saw a 17” CRT computer monitor for ¥1000 (£4.65) In all likelihood, it works, but I didn’t pay too much attention to it rather than the madness of the price. There were hundreds of boxes of computer parts, cameras, tablets, etc.

If you are thinking about going to Japan, do so - you won’t regret it. I noticed how much cleaner everything is from my previous visit sixteen years ago. There’s no more smoking (everywhere) anymore and even vaping has to be done in confined areas (even outside). I went in to all the arcades and came out still smelling fresh, what a pleasant evolution to one of my favourite places on the planet.

HINTS -

1. Take a power bank with you everywhere you go, especially if you are on your own. If your phone battery dies, you’ll be without your lifeline and in my case, main way of paying for things and navigation. Make sure your phone provider allows roaming on your phone and you have enough data.

2. An umbrella is also very useful, but they are everywhere and cheap.

3. Don’t fret if you can’t quite work out the train tickets, if you are short on fare on a journey, the electronic barriers will alert you and you can adjust your ticket fare very easily, then you can breeze through the barriers like an absolute boss. All ticket machines have English language at the touch of a button.

4. Use Google translate and pop a few easy to remember phrases on your phone. It’s nice to be able to say “Hello”, “Good morning“, “Excuse me”, “Sorry” and of course “Thank you” in Japanese, even if you’ll probably butcher the accent.

5. Write down things you are on the fence about buying and where they are located. You can then come back if you can’t quite match the prices or condition elsewhere.

6. Take pictures of everything! You may not see some of the rarer things anywhere else (especially in the shop BEEP!)

O yomi itadaki arigatogozaimasu.

I got there about 10.30 ish and realised most shops open at 12. Harrumph.

I milled about for what seemed like ages. BTW, it’s hot and sweaty again today. From my millings and meanderings, this place seems like food central. TONS of places to eat.

I visited the two video game shops on the second floor. A lot of the shops were anime collectibles (statues and other future landfill)

Mandarake Galaxy is part of Mandarake which specialises in a lot of the ‘hobby’ genres. This shop was well stocked, mainly with game cartridges and discs. I bought two Famicom carts in there. I can’t even remember what they were, as my brain is fried and I had to pack my case earlier. Sorry about that.

Lashinbang is another shop from a chain brand. I got Wonderboy on cartridge for the Sega Mark III there. It was a small shop, but as usual - very decent indeed.

I also noticed this in another Mandarake shop window - after looking online, it looks like the version of Pengo multiplayer I played on the more modern arcade cabinet earlier in the week. This means I can get hold of it and play it at home! Seems reasonably expensive, as it was a limited edition release. Hmm. I’ll find a way of ‘owning’ it.

I’m away for an early night, as I have a long flight back tomorrow afternoon.

Sayonara Akihabara and Japan!

The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men, Gang aft a-gley.

Todays ‘gets’ - I’ll enlighten you as we go on.

(On the Way to) Kawasaki Hard Off

The town that shares a name with a motorcycle manufacturer. Fact.

I got there and tucked into treat No.1 for today, my birth DAY.

Gyoza / soup and noodles (with egg) / rice. A fine breakfast feast.

A half hour walk to the Hard Off, with a cheeky look in a Book Off on the way there (rude not to) I picked up two Famicom carts I haven’t got. Nice #1

• Metro Cross

• Side Pocket

Another quick stop on the way for a place called Village Vanguard. No video games for sale, but I smiled when walking up the stairs and heard Street Fighter 2 music blaring out.

I’ve seen these cabs in a number of locations. They aren’t much to look at (arcade cabinet wise), but they seem functional and nice to see the arcades are still alive. Only 100 JPY a go, too.

Kawasaki Hard Off

I was quite surprised to see this first item. You could get them from Amazon, I presume everywhere in the world. Just odd to see one in a retail store?

I know prices here are mostly crazy cheap compared to outside of Japan, but this was surely a joke? They were practically giving away a boxed Taiko drum peripheral (plus the game?) for PS2 for 550 JPY (£2.56) I almost took up drumming as a hobby. BTW, there were two for sale.

I only bought two small items form this Hard Off, although there was plenty of interesting stuff I looked at.

A super clean Super Famicom Pad (I haven’t got a SFC marked one) and a JLF joystick, as it was crazy stupid cheap and I’ll always use joysticks in projects or cabinets. Picture is a bit further down. Carry on, dear.

Back to Akihabara

I went back to Akihabara for one main reason (apart from my hotel being there, of course). I was to visit a shop called Kaden No Kenchan. Shock, horror - when I got off the train and put in the name of the shop in my maps app, it said it was closed until Thursday afternoon. I’m flying back Thursday afternoon! After a brief tantrum and throwing myself on the floor, I looked carefully at the pictures and it was one the awesome places I visited yesterday! The one with the bored / grumpy shopkeeper.

Thanks again to Jake for steering me that way.

V.G.S.A.A.A

Victor Getting Shocked At Akihabara Again.

SURAGAYA

This place just keeps giving. I did some more blind wandering and found two more amazing stores hiding in plain sight. The first was Suragaya. This is one of the hobby chain stores (I visited another great one on Saturday). This one, however didn’t have any of the hobby guff. This one was PURE console and arcade goods.

There was a wall full of arcade boards all pristinely wrapped in anti static bubble wrap. Luckily for my wallet, I don’t buy arcade boards anymore. I already have all the original boards I need in cabinets and use emulation for multi cabs.

The console selection was vast. I poured through the Super Famicom cartridges looking for a certain cartridge which is ripe for converting in to an SA1 conversion, but I have a feeling these have all been lifted for this purpose already?

I bought some items for others from here, but got these beauties for myself.

• SFC Pad (mentioned earlier)

• JLF Arcade stick (mentioned earlier)

• (PC Engine - 4200 JPY (£20) I couldn’t leave it there.

• Space Harrier SG1000 cart (I’m getting a few of these carts now)

• Battle In Galaxy Super Cassette Vision cart - another for my small collection.

Suragaya is truly an awesome place to visit. Get it on your Japan list.

HARD OFF (Apparently the first one in Akihabara)

I think the only reason I’ve missed this so far, is it’s down a back street that I hadn’t ventured down as yet. Of course, I wasn’t looking for it per se, but bumbled upon it, like I have done with a lot on this trip (happily)

This one had some crazy bargains in it.

The first one is one I don’t think I’ve seen in real life before. I didn’t buy it because -

A. I already have a nice Japanese Saturn with a Fenrir installed in it.

B. It would be too bulky in the old suitcase.

These things are about three times the price for similar condition on the Electronic Auction site we all love / hate. A Victor V - Saturn

In addition to the small lot I bought from Hard Off (a few famicom carts) I bought one of their small plastic bins, so I can have my own junk corner at home. Maybe I’ll put the non working tinkerings in there and try and sell them for 110 JPY? [lol]

Additional Waffle

Here in no particular order are other things I saw today that were cool.

These cabinets at the Akihabara train station. I wanted to play, but you have to use your Suica card (similar to an Oyster card in London) to donate a designated amount for the upkeep of Akihabara. Very cool indeed. I saw another one later on, playing Space Invaders.

Mr Funk (personal friend and friend of this Substack) - now has a grand total of two PC Engine games. Fine ones they are too.

I also said (in my words) that I’d get Bobbi some ‘cheap ass dog$hit golf games’

I think these were in the ‘junk’ basement of Hard Off. Boxed Bandai branded Arcadia and a boxed SG1000 II. Sneaking in between them was also a boxed Cassette Vision.

Before dragging my tired body back to the hotel, I found somewhere that did Pizza. I wanted pizza for my birthday dinner. This was a Chicago deep dish cheese pizza. I liked to call it ‘infinite cheese’ or ‘the cheese tornado’

Let’s go and have a look around. I wasn’t expecting to buy a ton of stuff today, although I had a few places on my list to visit. Most places I went to today were just for looksies, but I managed to find a small batch of groovy things to bring back in my back pack. I also found an arcade game I had not played before (because it is ‘sorta’ modern)

Shibuya

Shibuya is only 4.6 miles away from where I’m staying, so the journey by train to get there was an easy one and I did not go the wrong way, nor get lost. Phew.

There was one place I wanted to go to called Max Games. The pictures on Yelp! looked pretty good, so I trekked out to find it.

But, I could not. On further inspection, the pictures on stupid Yelp were twelve years old. I expect the place is well gone. I certainly couldn’t find it and the place where Yelp / Apple Maps were telling me it was, was probably on another astral plain. I couldn’t even match the building it was supposed to be in. Harrumph.

Onwards! I took a quick walk back to the heart of Shibuya and wandered around. It was not raining today! Unfortunately, it was HAWT. Swelteringly so.

I had a look in Tower Records, as there aren’t many of them around any more and one of my grand daughters wanted som e K Pop thing that I have forgotten the name of already. I got an item of theirs in there. There were so many floors of Asian pop music. It’s huge over there (and many other places around the globe)

I also went in Tokyu Hands - one of many very large craft stores. I’m talking eight floors of crafty goodness. Perfect for tinkerers like me. I had to be careful, as I could spend a lot of money and amass a large amount of items in a place like this. It was amazing inside. They had a whole section for woodworking for instance. I’m not talking about a wall of hand tools or electric mahchine tools. I saw so many gorgeous materials for every kind of crafter. I picked up some translucent type perspex, for which I have a video game themed tinkering in my mind. All the merchandise looked perfectly cut / sanded / presented in a very professional way. This isn’t your local DIY shop by a million miles.

Arcade Talk

I nipped into a GIGO games building. There were about five floors dedicated to bowling, a snooker / billiards hall and of course a video game arcade.

These four Sega Blast Cities greeted me as I walked though the door. I actually played a credit on Gradius II - Gofer no Yabo. I love the Nemesis / Gradius / Parodies series of games, but this is one I have not played that much. I will now after getting a little way through it. A very cool game. I’m pretty sure I owned the arcade PCB of this once upon a time.

All the other games in there were modern and very Japanese. I have no idea what Infinite Boost 2 is and I’m not fussed about getting to know it, either. It’s a mech warrior type go game, which I presume is online multiplayer? It’s everywhere here and VERY popular. I did find these gems in another corner of the arcade floor.

These cabs were modern, wide screen LCD affairs and you may be wondering why I’m writing about them, let alone even played one for a good while?

These things were networked to each other and I presume a game manufacturer’s network too. You had a home button, which upon prodding, gives you access to a bunch of retro themed games. Of course, I spied PENGO on there and had to play it. I was hugely surprised when it started that it was a modern remake / revamped / improved affair. The wide screen was made good use of, as the game had you battling with other Pengos, controlled by the computer for me, but up to another seven other humans can play together. The aim is to amass the most points by squishing enemies (who don’t come for you like the original arcade game,) squishing the other Pengos and getting the magic ice blocks together for bonus points. If you beat the computer / human controlled Pengos, you go forward to more progressive levels. There are a few different bonus levels and the action soon ramps up with the opponents being the quick as knives silver Pengos. Dang, those things can move.

I loved playing this and I can say, if this is the way retro games are going in the arcade, I totally approve. Hopefully on this trip I can find a machine with the EXA arcade system, playing Donut Dodo Do.

There were a few video game shops in Shibuya, but nothing special. I bought a single Famicom cart in a place called Lashinbang (good name)

Got Hot / Returned to Akihabara

Did I mention it was hot today? It was. Meh.

I went back for another nose around Akihabara. This time, I was sneaking and snaking around the back streets, sniffing out bargains and interesting shops.

Spoiler - I found some.

Here’s the first - an obvious named one - Retrogames. Don’t try and google it, you’ll just find hundreds of lists of good ‘retro game’ shops to visit. I managed to get another three Mr Driller games from here. These are usually more money than I am happy to part with at retro games expos and markets, so I’m super pleased to pick these up. I’ll be drilling like a mother*cker when I get home.

Apologies for the drilling outburst.

Electric Town (I rocked down to it)

I am still amazed there’s places I’ve previously missed and keep finding in the same areas I’ve already visited. No idea what this place is called, it’s just in a covered area in ‘Electric Town’. The guy who runs it had SO many cool things on offer and also ‘for shop use only’. At first, I asked him via Google Translate if he had any N64 cartridge flap springs (my usual chat up line) and then Game Boy Pocket screens. He seemed a bit put out and gave me a grumpy NO. I had another nosey about and found something to buy - another Sega MYCARD. Zippy Race - a crappy arcade motor bike racing game, but it was cheap and looks groovy. The guy perked up a bit and didn’t mind when a few minutes later, he had to deal with another transaction from this idiot. I found a Super Cassette Vision cart I haven’t got. These things are hard to find. This one is Elevator Fight - looks kinda cool.

Arcade Suppliers x2

I wasn’t expecting to come across a well stocked electronics shop that had arcade parts, let alone finding TWO. I can’t quite remember which parts were from what shop, but it’s unimportant.

The first one had a bunch of buttons and joystick parts I have never seen before. Buttons in colours that I didn’t know were available - certainly not from the places I get my arcade parts from. I picked up a bag of nine button microswitches from the ‘junk’ box (they are fully working, nothing wrong with them) and then matched them up with the square buttons you can see in the picture. These will obviously be used in a future tinkering.

There’s also -

• x2 Red 30mm balltops

• 35mm super fancy purple balltop

• A lonely pink OBSF24 button (it looked lonely)

• x2 Red triangular buttons (will be perfect for a left / right / shoot retro tinkering

• A HUGE 40mm Red OBSF40 button. I forgot these things existed.

• A ‘Myoungshin Fanta Stick’ joystick. Has a really nice chip shop jamma feel to it and it was 300 JPY (£1.40) - for a whole working joystick! This will be going in my Vardek Kadet cabaret arcade machine.

I also bought two 50mm speakers from the same shop for tinkering purposes. They were filthy cheap, too.

Here’s some images of how these places were stocked -

I’m off to get some dinner now. “Victor needs food, badly” (in Gauntlet voice)

It’s also some idiot’s birthday tomorrow.

Handy advice.

Here We Go!

I started reasonably early again, as I had to do a bit of travelling. It wasn’t that far, but of course I got a wee bit lost and ended up going the wrong way a bit.

Ok, the wrong way a lot, later on. We live and learn…

I was sent a video by our Bobbi, about a well known Japanese dweller going to what he describes as a ‘thrift warehouse’. It certainly is that. The bit I was specifically going to be looking at was the vintage gaming section, tucked right in the front left hand corner of the place.

There wasn't anything I haven’t seen already in the last four days, but the setup was really cute and prices were normal to good (for Japan). The cheapest thing I saw was this lonely Playstation - I hope someone buys the poor thing and it gets some more love.

As I was walking away from the retro corner, I spied this and it made me beam with nostalgia. I even forgave the RF output of the Famicom this one time…

I left the warehouse empty handed and empty rucksacked. As per usual, when I have visited a certain place, I’ll always probe Googly to tell me if any more gaming meccas are nearby. The next Ione was only about fifteen minutes walk away.

Enough said.

Shinamura Book Off

Yes, a Book Off this time, not a Hard Off.

I wasn’t expecting much, but I left with a game I previously never knew even existed and I love it. Mr Driller : Drill Spirits - Japanese only Gamecube game. I only found out about this when Namco remastered it for the Switch a few years ago. I also grabbed a Kirby GB game because the cartridge is a non standard colour. I am such a sucker for a coloured cartridge.

Here is a live picture from the train that I went the wrong way on. Maybe if I wasn’t taking pictures of software, I may have noticed I was going the opposite way that I should’ve been going [annoyed emoji]

This was certainly a Book Off. Thousands of books and DVDs and also games. Excellent.

Another Journey By Train

This time, to the Hard Off at Ushiki. There was a ton of gaming items at good prices, but nothing I hadn't already seen again. I did however pick up a few things that will come in handy and cheaper in here than most places.

• A new calculator for work

• HDMI cable, just so I can play Mini Famicom in the hotel tonight.

• 128gb Micro SD as it was SO cheap. Will always come in handy.

After visiting this Hard Off, I wish I hadn’t jumped on that poor looking SFC on the second day in. This one was only a little more expensive and was boxed with two controllers.

Got Stressed / Decided To Go Back

I mentioned earlier I got on the train going the wrong way and as I was arsing about with my phone rather than concentrating on where I was going, I went a long way, the wrong way. After realising and getting off, waiting ages then getting on the right train, I decided today’s baffooning was to be ended and I’d go back to base and just get to a few shops that were closing for the day the last time I was near them.

I’m so glad I did this.

So, the plan was to go get something to eat, then go visit a retro toy shop and the MAK arcade supply shop in the same building.

As I was vaguely following GoogleBear maps, I darted in and out a few shops that looked interesting on the way. I properly went out of my way a few times…

The first distraction was -

BIG Trader

I had already been in here on the first day and for some stupid reason COMPLETELY missed the floor that was the most interesting. How? I do not know.

I grabbed a SFC game I’m pretty sure I don’t have - Puyo Puyo something 2. I also found some more Sega MY CARDs, too. I’m gathering quite a collection of these cute things now.

• Astro Flash - a nice looking horizontal shooter where you can morph from space ship to mega mech person.

• Loderunner - needs no explanation. A fine game on all formats.

Apparently there were approximately thirty five games released on Sega MY CARD for Japanese systems, while the poor old Master System only got ten before the format was discontinued and most of the games were also released on cartridge.

The big Trader also had this - a crazy drawing tablet peripheral for Famicom. I had no idea this existed. Obviously what Apple copied when designing the iPad.

Vintage Toy Shop & MAK

Truth be told, nothing that interesting in relation to this blog in the vintage toy shop, but there was a bunch of lovely old Japanese toys in there, if that’s your thing.

Above the toy shop, along with another four businesses, is MAK - an arcade supply shop that I presume all the local arcades use? I went here back in 2010 and nearly fell over with how much stuff in there and the immaculate condition of all of it. There were two old dudes in there in matching aprons working on arcade boards and making wiring harnesses. These two have probably forgotten more about arcade stuff than I know (and I’ve been into arcade stuff for about twenty years). The only thing I bought was 20x Black OBSF24 buttons. I use these a lot in the arcade joysticks I make for various systems. They’re about half the price of anywhere else I have ever seen and these ones are authentic Sanwa buttons. The neat brown bag in the cover picture contains my precious buttons.

I only snapped a quick picture, just to give you a bit of an idea how nice this place was and a an idea of some of their inventory.

Now that I had fulfilled the task of visiting MAK and purchasing my buttons, I carried on my wibbly wobbly winding path back to my hotel and the next thing I bumbled into was BEEP. Beep was sort of known to me, but getting here was a totally happy accident. I’m so glad this accident occured.

Just loooook at that sign [googly eyes emoji]

I may go back and see if they have a T-shirt with this logo.

***Warning. I’m not just going to tell you about BEEP, I’m going to DEMAND you visit this place if you are in Japan. If you are reading this and maybe visiting Japan, you’re probably going to go to Akihabara and you simply MUST go here.

That’s enough of the BOLD text. Me finding this is fate, I tell thee. BEEP is up a back street, off the beaten path of Akiba. Find it, you won’t be disappointed.

All the stuff in here is nigh on immaculate. There is more stuff in here that I have never seen before than I can remember to tell you. So much. There were old Japanese computers, about half a dozen CAVE arcade PCBs, X68000s, PC98s, 8” floppy drives etc. I even saw three arcade machines in there, all sold. Soak in the next picture -

I am still not over this place. I’m probably going to go back.

Oh, nearly forgot while fawning all over the place. I bought a friend who has TWO PC Engines and ZERO games for them, a game. It was cheap and is a good one - Namco’s Dragon Spirit. A nice vertical shooter with dragons and all that.

Sleep Well Kids

Tonight, really, sleep well. Remember Doreamon exists and is the happiest cat.

He wouldn’t have fitted in my luggage…

So I got up nice and early, had a healthy (but large) breakfast at the hotel and headed out in the clear weather to get a train to Oi Racecourse. By the time I had got to Shinagawa city, it was pouring with rain. I saw some British ladies at the station, as I was just about to head out into the rain to see if the flea market had a covered area and they pointed to the big sign I totally missed saying NO FLEA MARKET TODAY DUE TO RAIN. I’m glad they had some pity for this poor sap who would have happily walked there (just in case)

Oh Well, Ho and Indeed Hum.

I had a contingency plan! My mate Jake had given me the heads up of a decent shop in Shinjuku. Shinjuku is an awesome place to visit even without the shop I was going to, but wandering around was marred by the rain…

Suruga Ya (Shinjuku)

Compared to a lot of the video game second hand shops in Japan, this one had quite a small section of systems and software, but what a selection! To put this last sentence in some sort of perspective, the (small) section is bigger than most video game shops in the UK.

I got one of the things I wanted to find in Japan in here, let’s call that a

GRAIL GET #1 - Insector X for the Famicom (Cart only)

Shaun Hollet and I covered the original (arcade) version of this horizontal shooter on the Ten Pence Arcade Podcast #196 and I fell in love with the game. If I recall, I got quite far into the game. As I was also playing and collecting Famicom games at the same time, I learned there was a Famicom version and also a MegaDrive version, which I am also looking out for, as that one has a different vibe to it.

Reason to own a reasonably expensive original cart rather than playing on an Everdrive or other multicart for the Famicom - This game simply doesn’t work on said carts. I popped the rom on my Everdrive and got to the first boss fight and the graphics are totally messed up. I think I even beat the jumbled mess and the next level was also badly corrupted. I even bought a super dodge Alistair Expressivo cart and that has exactly the same problem. The cart is out of my preferred price range on the Electric Bay, but I got a rather good deal at Suruga ya.

The next item that jumped out at me shouting “BUY ME, BUY ME!!!” was a Sega SG1000 and compatibles Paddle controller. You may remember a post or three ago where I reproduced such a controller (HERE) - so, I already have a perfectly good Sega Paddle. At the price Suruga Ya was selling it at, I could not walk away from it. It was like Wile E Coyote’s massive Acme magnet dragging me towards it. I regret nothing. It will be essential to a future tinkering where I try and make an exact reproduction of these lovely peripherals.

The last item form this wonderland of cool, was a cheapo SFC cart, again, which I could play on my SNES / SFC Everdrive. Do you know why I bought it?

Simple - this.

Quickie Hard Off (Also Shinjuku)

Yes, I know that sentence sounds wrong.

While eating my now obligatory bun and sipping coffee, my Googlibot told me that a Hard Off existed nearby, so it would be rude not to visit. Took me a little while to locate it, as it was on a floor high above my head in a shopping building. Absolutely worth it, even though I only got a SFC Space Invaders cart. I also got a few things for one of my sons there, guitar related.

Next Off / Hard Off Ageo Store

I travelled quite a way out of this one, as I had a tip off from a mate of Jake’s who is an expert in the Hard Offs (he lives and works here) The second grail item was spotted by him about a week ago, so I crossed my fingers and trekked out, first by train and then a 25 minute stroll to the store.

Oh my, this looks good already!

You may be able to tell by the photo, that this collection of “Offs” are in a more suburban area. The area in question was beautiful to walk through. It gave me a good feeling. As soon as I walked in and saw some of the goods on offer, my good feeling got even better. Let’s hope that feeling isn’t dashed upon the rocks of disappointment.

You’ve already seen the motherland picture at the top of the blog, so let’s not create any false tension here.

They certainly had (my) Sega SG1000 for sale. I gleefully grabbed it and carefully lowered it into my basket. Joy. This particular example is better condition (no yellowing) than the one I saw in Super Potato in Akiba and is also boxed. Did I forget to mention, CHEAPER as well. I just love the angles and industrial design no f this console. Flipping lovely, to say the least.

I noticed a small hand held Epoch LCD game (Monster Panic) that I’ve not seen before. It’s in the same format as som e of the games we got when I was a wee boy. Ours were marked as Grandstand as the manufacturer, but it’s the same company. We got Puck Man, Scramble and a few others. More info HERE - On looking at this link, I now know there were a lot more released than I thought! The website I linked to is a fantastic information resource and I recommend you go check it out, almost immediately. My Monster Panic has quite a bit of wear / patina on it. Shows that it had a lot of love from back in the day [heart emoji]

I also picked up a blue Bandai Wonderswan fro my mate Jim, who runs the Retro Hut in the Barras marketplace, Glasgow. I’m actually disappointed with this one, as it looks like it’s been painted, albeit quite well. I won’t charge Jim of this one, as it’s not great.

You can also make out a Super Famicom motherboard in a bag in the top picture. Again, you’re probably asking ‘another damn SFC?’ Zoom in on the price. It was 52p, just over half a quid. I have a project in mind for a SFC and if this one works, it’ll probably be the cheapest thing I’ve ever made…

Oddly enough, this was right next to it for the same price. Madness, as it is not yellowed in the slightest. I would say near mint. Only reason I didn’t grab it - room in my baggage.

That would have been a whole SFC for a quarter the price of most coffee shop coffees in the UK. Insanity.

I was all paid up and walking out the store and this beauty caught my eye. I already have one of these, tinkered with HERE

But, but, but! This one is GOLD. It was also, only a few quid more expensive than the damaged one I repaired. Case closed, it had to be done.

Last thought of the day -

I nearly got a Super Famicom plastic case. It would fit one of my SFCs in it. It was £20. For a plastic case.

Sleep tight, kids.

***Huge Thanks***

Many thanks to Jake & Alex for heads up on some cool gets today.

Spoiler - it got a LOT wetter later on…

I took the train to the seaside (sort of) in Odaiba. Specifically the ‘Decks’ Tokyo Beach. I have fond memories of going there in 2010 when I was last in Japan. The vibe of ‘Decks’ is lovably run down seaside town, but indoors. Aren’t all good seasides a bit run down? I have never seen any sand or seagulls there, so it’s not even a real seaside, ok? I was going there for the ‘Game Hall’ which is full of old arcade candy cabs and cocktail arcade machines.

[cry emoji]

At least, it used to be. Sadly, it’s now gone. I read a few articles online from around 2024 saying it was gone. Let’s hope those beautiful (and many rare) arcade machines didn’t just get trashed and went to other arcades, or at least collectors. The morning was not lost, though - the place is still fun to visit and most of it is taken up with the ‘retro museum’. I think this is where I got it wrong when I looked up the arcade before going. I thought the ‘retro museum’ was in relation to the arcade, but it is not. The area is decked out with modern antiques and stalls. I almost bought my brother a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles lunch box from one of the vendors.

After wandering around like a lost child looking for the non existent arcade, I had a nose around the adjoining shopping mall type place. I struck gold with another ‘hobby’ store. They had some nice things, but nothing that grabbed my wallet.

STOP EVERYTHING.

My iPhone just made the most horrifying noise, telling me to stay calm, an earthquake was just about to happen. And it did. It’s a new experience for me and one I don’t like very much. I’m in my room, on the 10th floor of my hotel and the room was swaying for about a minute. EEK.

Back to the Writing.

Aaaaanyhoooo.

Some pictures of the hobby store -

I thought this guy was ‘Shadow Mario’, the hated enemy in Super Mario Sunshine. I was going to buy him and stomp on him with my foot. Glad I didn’t. Silver Mario is a good guy.

In the vintage toy section, not for sale (these are modern antiques)

Japan makes the best robots.

I then took the train back to Akiba and chilled out for a bit, as the rain and humidity had wiped my health bar out.

Akiba Arcades

After a Lush bath, a snooze and a snack, I ventured out in the rain (again) without my jacket just for another wander around the area. I happened upon the HEY (Hirose Entertainment Yard) as it’s in the same place as Trader 2 (a good shop)

HANDY HINT - when looking for video game items, look in shops that advertise other media (DVD, Blu-ray etc). Also, don’t pass by camera shops, as they often have tons of other electronic items of interest.

I think I mentioned on an earlier entry that I went in one of the Taito arcades and the old game section was a lot smaller than I remember it. Still good, but ‘cosier’ now.

(I’m guessing that the sign in HEY for no photographs is because of people concentrating on games - I did this very discreetly and I have Diskun’d the two gents in the photo out)

The HEY seemed bigger than I remember it - I obviously went there in 2010!

It’s still an amazing arcade. Or, rather a fantastic JAPANESE arcade. The floors I am interested in are full of Taito EGRET 2 candy cabinets. Not surprising really, as I think Taito owns this arcade. Retro arcades outside of Japan are usually filled with all shapes and sorts of mainly wooden cabinet games.

HEY has their games effectively split into sections.

• Rows of bullet hell games, such as Cave and Psikyo titles.

• Puzzle games.

• A lot of Fighting Games, usually partnered with an adjacent machine for 2 player bouts.

• Dedicated Driving and shooting games.

• Space themed games.

Another nice feature that I do not remember is that a lot of the cabinets are ‘doubled up’ with game PCBs. They have a ‘swap game’ button on the cabinet that uses a Jamma switcher to immediately switch to another game. Both games are powered on at all times and the device swaps the video and audio when switched. This was used to good effect with games like Mr Driller & Mr Driller 2 and Namco Classics 1 & 2 in the same cabinets. The Galloping Ghost in Chicago also does this.

Seeing Super Famicom SMW in a cab was a joy to see. I didn’t play this, as I hate the controllers. I did, however play the one next to it, as it had Super Mario VS in it. The image had horrendous jailbars on screen. It was like playing a dodgy famiclone on a big screen!

As I was leaving, before getting drenched walking around, I played this. I remember being offered one by the makers for a lot cheaper than retail (when I was doing the Ten Pence Arcade Podcast). Glad I didn’t buy it, the controls have serious lag when reversing from left to right and vice versa. Game is pretty cool, but just for the novelty value. BTW - I beat the computer 10 - 8 !!!

Fingers crossed it won’t be raining tomorrow, as I plan on going to a large outdoor fleamarknet on the hunt for game bargains. If it is banging down with rain again, I’ll probably go a bit further afield…

Sleep Tight!

Standard Preamble

Yesterday was a bit of a bust and a downer. With being shattered from the travelling and not feeling very well (physically and mentally) it really didn’t help when all the video game stuff in Akihabara (although very awesome,) was far too expensive for my tastes.

However, the non gaming parts were superb - food, people, hotel, general vibe of the place. I still love this land.

Today fixed that feeling, good and proper. I’ll split it in to the travel, the shops and then go into detail some of the things, I think you may be interested in. For some of the things, you may be wondering why?

Hachiōji

Last night, I googlied (Google with googly eyes) “Best Hard off for video games” and followed a few leads which all came up with a bunch of ‘offs’ all in one place in Hachioji. The place was called ‘eco town’, as the items they sell are mostly reused and recycled. Happily, it was much more than I envisioned. [joy emoji]

The train journey from where I am in staying in Akihabara to Hachioji station took roughly an hour and ten minutes and I had to change trains once. I managed this fairly well and quite impressed myself by not ending up in Peru or somewhere.

The journey then concluded on foot in the pouring rain for about thirty minutes. I was happy with getting wet, as it was still 20c and humid. Gotta get those Japanese steps in, too! (17000 yesterday, 14000 today if you’re wondering)

I was greeted with this sign and a few fine rides.

• Hard Off - Electronic Hardware. If you can imagine it, they’ll have it.

• No, really. From arcade PCBs to Oscilloscopes to valve audio amps.

• Inside Hard Off is also Hard Off Studio where you could find everything to do with audio (making it, recording it, producing it, playing it, etc)

• Hobby Off - Bicycles, Lego, models, arcade machines, jigsaws, millions of card games, RC cars and more!

• Off House - home gear at very cheap prices.

• Mode Off - clothes and shoes

• Liquor Off - Booze

• Book Off - Er, books maybe? But, usually CDs ,DVDs and game software as well.

The first rack I looked at was this and it didn’t disappoint.

If you can’t quite make out the green things on the far right hand side of the picture, it was these -

Arcade pcbs! Specifically Capcom CPS2 A & B boards.

I wasn’t expecting to see those here. This is a foreshadowing to some other arcade gear a bit later on…

I didn’t take many pictures of the console gear, as a lot of it was just in the cabinets, or in ‘junk’ boxes. I did, however, buy a ton of stuff.

On the same floor were all sorts of construction tools, hand tools and tool machinery as well as a cart loads of old stereo equipment. The next picture stood out for me, as I used to have a British made Denon amp and cassette hi fi separates when I was a young man.

I presume they are reel to reel cassette players / recorders? Who cares - look how cool and old they look!

I then ventured to the upstairs Hard Off ‘Studio’, as I thought my youngest son Jack would like to see some of the musical stuff they sell here. But, ‘cor blimey, Charlie - they had so much more than just hundreds of musical instruments, recording gear and everything else you may want to lay down some sweet beats.

These things in the next picture are $$$ everywhere else in the world and have some exact arcade port software (some games were actually developed on X68000 computers)

I also love the industrial design of Japanese computers. The PC88 series, the MSX range, Sharp X68000 and a grail of mine - the X1 Twin. They unfortunately didn’t have an X1 Twin, but did have a few ‘plain’ X1 computers. Fortunately for my wallet, though. The X68000 prices may seem steep in Japanese Yen, but believe me, they are WAY cheaper than anywhere else in the world to get them. If I didn’t already have an X68000, I would be trying to figure out how to get one of those 16 bit monoliths home with me…

Hobby Off

As I was in absolutely no rush, I ventured into all the ‘Off’ stores (except Liquor Off, I don’t drink and that shop would be lost on me)

I’m so glad I did.

The lovely Japanese people take hobbying VERY seriously and I love them for that.

Handy life hint - If you know someone with a hobby, whether it’s messing around with electronics, collecting coloured game cartridges, sewing, gardening, collecting acorns or a zillion other pastimes - ENCOURAGE THEM. Hobbies are an escape and a joy to have.

Hobby Off has something for almost every one. Well, people like us.

I first had a snoop round the Lego section. Full kits, bags of assorted bricks and parts and individually bagged bits AND bobs. I was going to get myself a new Lego character to give red spaceman a friend, but there were so many, I left it. Overwhelmed by beautifully shaped ABS plastic. I turned a corner and found these among a long line of Pachislo machines (Japanese style fruit gambling machines)

Not for gambling fruit, per se. Google it, dammit.

Yes, they are actual Sega Vewlix arcade cabinets. They were SO cheap. I also noticed a Sega Naomi upright cab, themed with the collection of mini games that Wario Ware is based on. Someone had already bought it, going by the Googlified translated sticker on the screen.

I also took a picture of this. One of about six different novelty arcade machines. I took the picture because it was heckin’ FUNKY GATORS!

When I had finished taking a sooooper long look around all the ‘Offs, I sat outside with a cold drink and took in the world. All seemed good. I was relaxed. The next journey was to Yokohama. Not really for video game items, but I was pleasantly surprised!

Yokohama (Oh yes, Mamma)

Now listen here. I nearly got lost on this journey. I couldn’t quite work out the line change I had to do, but I was on the right track (figuratively and physically). I asked a gent (via the power of Googlitranslate) if this was the train to Yokohama. He looked puzzled then gave me the thumbs up and I wandered off still unsure. I got on the train and sat down. The same guy came into the carriage I was in and gave me the OK sign. A few minutes later, a kind hearted lady across from me had also used the power of Googlitranslate to tell me to get to the end of the line and change to another line to get to Yokohama. This lady was a train angel.

Walking through the station, I saw this and really liked it’s style, baby.

I’d have this in my hallway if I could.

I sat down in a Mr Donut for a coffee and er, donut and looked up something that may be of interest. There was a Book Off a nice stroll away from where I was sat and lo and behold, there was also an interesting store right in the complex where the station was.

I got out of the rain for a bit into the Book Off and luckily it had a small section of video game items (I think they ALL do) and I bought a few cheap Famicom carts. Two of them I don’t have in my collection, two can be made into better games and one was just a groovy looking thing.

By now I was flagging a bit and soaked with sweat and rain. The humidity here in June isn’t pleasant. I thought I’ll get going back to my hotel, via another line change train journey. May rucksack and carrier bag were bursting with fine goods and were weighing on me by now.

I go back to the shopping complex at Yokohama and searched for this shop I had found on the inter webs. This mysterious store looked like it was either underground, in the sky somewhere or in a parallel universe. I guessed it was on another floor (as Google Maps was saying I was on top of it) and when I eventually saw an unassuming sign saying ‘Suruga Ya - specialty shop’ Not a hint of a Pac Man, Space Invader or a Mario anywhere. I followed the scent.

Took me ages to find the silly place, but glad I did. If you’re planning on going there (and I would if I were you) - use the lift to go to the ninth floor, then use the escalators to go down to the seventh floor. The lifts DO NOT go to the seventh floor. If you manage to fathom out the Zelda like forest to find the place, you’ll be greeted by a metric sh*t ton of goodies. If you are a particular type of nerd that’s into card games or an insane amount of plushies - this is the place for you. I enjoyed it for slightly less nerdy (but still good) reasons. I bought some nice things here, which I’ll cover in the meat and potatoes section.

Meat and Potatoes Section

From the header picture at the very top of this article -

Top left - a crappy cheapo Famiclone. Why? It’s the exact same one I bought when I was in Japan in 2010! Why not? It’ll probably get tinkered into a toaster or rice cooker or something.

Reasonable condition. Looks like it has a few melted plastic spots. Came with some FR€€ Cars stickers. Worth the label price alone!

Arkanoid 2 with spinner controller for Famicom.

I like oddball controllers and all the ones I’ve seen in the UK for sale have been out of my comfort price. This one was definitely in that comfort zone.

Murray Mint brown Super Famicom.

Haven’t I got enough of those already? Probably. This one was about a fiver and I have plans for it…

Tetris 3 & Mario and Wario Super Famicom carts.

I didn’t even know a Tetris 3 existed, so - why not?

Mario and Wario - just for the label art. I mean, Mario has a bucket on his head. No way I was walking away from that masterpiece! Also, £1.03 UK pounds.

Another Famiclone and a real Famicom.

The famiclone is very smol. Will fit into something smol I make for it…

Famicom - I’ll probably need a spare, right? Or give to a Famicomless friend [heart emoji]

Sega SG1000 games.

• Fantasy Zone 2. Great game and I also have the first one on SG1000

• Alex the Kidd in Miracle world. Look at those mutton chops!

• BANKU PANICU!!! MyCard. I really like this format of software. Bank Panic is also one of my favourite arcade games.

Some Famicom carts I mentioned earlier. The boxed baseball one is useless to me, as I have zero cares for any sports games, but the boxed one was the same price as an unboxed one and I don’t have it in the Famicom collection.

Mr Rich Man LCD Game & Watch style game by Epoch.

When I was a kid, I got King Kong New Jungle, from the same collection of LCD games (made by Grandstand in the UK). I have since got King Kong New York, Mr Woodman and I believe this is the last in the set.

Box is shabby, but rare to even see them (especially a gorgeous Japanese one). Unfortunately the battery cover has a small corner missing, but still present.

Core Grafx PC Engine controller.

This is for a friend. I got you covered, Mr Funk.

Another friend also wants a PC Engine pad. That’ll be a tomorrow task.

Today’s cursed image. Goodnight, sleep tight, don’t let the

LEGOMAN BITE.

The next eight or nine blogs will be a written record of my bumbling about in Japan. I am based in Akihabara, known as ‘Electronic Town’. I will be walking / train hopping around to various towns looking for second hand electronic and gaming shops for bargains and rare stuff to tinker with. I will hopefully going to a large flea market at the weekend too.

The flight seemed to last for days, but was ‘only’ about twelve and a half hours. I landed in Haneda airport at eight am Wednesday morning and could not check in to the hotel until two in the afternoon. Suits me I’ll have to drop my luggage and have a good snoop around to see what’s going down.

At that time in the morning, basically nothing. All the good stuff opened at ten or eleven. Did I also mention it’s damn hot ‘n’ sticky here at this time of the year. Mind you, my home country of the UK has RED weather warnings for this week, so stay hydrated and in the shade, UK kids!

What I love about Japan is the look and vibe to the larger towns. You usually get a lot of 8+ story stores with their own banners and logos. Here is what I am on about -

Even though the signage is usually large and eye catching, you Doo have to look up AND down to find things sometimes and keep an eye out for logos, as most things are in Japanese Kanji. Can you guess what shop the next picture was, that I was looking for?

It’s pretty obvious it’s a shop I was looking for (huge Mario and Pac man) but no actual sign saying SUPER POTATO. The ecstatic looking ‘tater standing in front of a Famicom and Super Famicom is a bit of a give away, though.

Their Signs MOVE!

(and talk and sing a lot, too)

As well as your eyes being gifted with beautiful signage (especially at night), your ear caves are also probed with nice (loud) things. Check out the Namco building ‘sign’

(VOLUME UP)

Actual Video Gaming Bit

I managed to stay alive in the heat and get to a few of the shops I already had researched.

I won’t go in to the that much, as there are tons of guides and videos that other people have done before. All the shops in Akiba - mainly Super Potato, Hard Off, Book Off, Trader are aimed at tourists and their prices reflect this. I collect cart only Famicom games and there were literally a thousand at all the shops I mentioned. None of them were cheaper than I have already bought in bulk from Japanese sellers on that Electronic Auction site we all know about. It was nice to see some rare (for non Japanese dwellers) game consoles in Super Potato. There was one particular machine I have wanted for a while at a price I am prepared to pay, but I will see what other places come up with before I ‘treating yo’self’. If I don’t find one of these ‘things’ elsewhere, I will be bringing this one home with me…

Here is one rarity, that the lovely people on Vectrex Fans Unite! Facebook group would go mad for. My Vectrex enthusiast friend Chris CNP reckons it’s been there for years and they ain’t selling it anytime soon. I saw quite a few gorgeous things with ‘not for sale’ on them. Bugger…

One Final Cursed Image Before Bed

This. This is for my friend George. We both have a love for things that by any kind of nightmare laws, should not exist.

I have no words.

You should see and hear this evil thing in real life!

Why does it have hot dog sausages for lips?

I know what you’re thinking already. This fool is wanging on again about another bloody Atari 2600. Has he got no other interests? I do, go check out the last Substack Blog

This one is a bit special, as I have had this console about a year and have never been able to use it until now. I managed to work out the AV on it only recently and therefore thought it needed a little facelift. It is now fully functional.

Brazilian Sidebar

Brazil is a bit of a special country in regards to video game consoles. Like Russia, China and Korea, they had a bunch of their own homegrown video games (mostly illegal bootlegs). It was usually a governmental rule that companies weren’t allowed to import products from foreign countries Most were unlicensed and all pretty cool in their own special way. However, one company called Tectoy partnered with Sega to make Master Systems and Megadrives. Tectoy were still producing Sega products and then their own Zeebo system into the mid 2000s. They even made their own versions of popular Sega consoles. I will hopefully be able to cover some Tectoy products in the future. I particularly like the Master System 3 and the Master System GIRL.

No Workee At Firstee

I actually bought two of these 2600 bootlegs. They both look exactly like a light sixer or a four switch, but with some subtle changes. The most significant difference is they both have a ton of on board unlicensed games. I think they were all commercial releases. Some have changed graphics, but most are identical to the original cartridge releases. To choose the games, there is a replaced sprung switch where the colour & black and white selector usually is.

However, when I first got them, I eagerly unbuttoned them from their sleek black cases and then sat scratching my head for about a week. The insides were quite different from a regular 2600 or a 2600 jr. These consoles were both different to each other inside and both crappy RF video output only. To top that, Brazilian retro consoles use PAL-M video system, different to what we had he in the U of K.

I sent one console off to Pete Sapwell, a fantastically talented electronics wizard in Yorkshire to try and get some sort of video out of and I kept one here. I plugged away on the one with me and actually managed a very rough composite mod, but the picture was terrible. Working, but terrible.

Pete, as usual had a picture (in black and white) in a few hours of working on it and went off on holiday and almost as soon as he was back, squeezed some colour and a decently sharp picture out of it.

Here is the insides of the one I was tinkering with. It has the working mod on it, which I will explain in a minute, along with the other notations. The modification was found on a German forum - HERE

This mod is particularly useful, as it is wired directly to the TIA chip. This can be done on ANY 2600 that has the original or bootlegged TIA chip.

• NOT difficulty switches. If you switch these while in one of the built in games, the system crashes. If using a cartridge, nothing happens. I later worked out, it is to swap between game EPROMS inside the console. Not sure how many games are on each, but I think there are four selections of games, made with the two switches.

• MOD - Self explanatory - What I made to allow composite and audio output directly from the TIA chip (Television Interface Adaptor)

• Wot no RF? I ripped that sh*t off and hurled it off a cliff in to some lava.

• RIOT chip - a standard 6532 chip that handles joysticks and other inputs.

• TIA - a beautiful lady chip that produces spiffy blocky graphics.

Missing Switches

I realised when actually playing Space Invaders that the console didn’t have any difficulty switches, like ALL 2600s normally have. If you don’t have the switches, or they aren’t functioning properly, you will be stuck in ‘A’ mode. A is for ADVANCED. On my beloved Space Invaders, you’ll be stuck with a podgy space ship that is easy to catch alien missiles with. It simply won’t do, Morag.

The switch for selecting colour or black and white video was also missing. This may not seem like a big deal, as most games didn’t utilise this at all, but some games used the switch for extra functions. Clever developers / Rubbish bootleggers not including these essential switches.

A quick search for 6532 (RIOT) pinouts yielded me some info on what to connect some new switches to (and GROUND to set the different modes)

To test this, I fired up Space Invaders, clipped a crocodile clip to a ground point and carefully touched the relevant pins on the RIOT chip with a pin in the other end of the crocodile’s jaws. A phat space ship immediately went on a crash diet. Success.

Same with the colour / b&w switch. One moment, modern 70’s TV technology, the next, 50’s black and white valve TVs and Elvis Presley on the wireless.

To drill some exact holes for the switches and an area to cut away for the switch lever, I made a very quick and dirty drill jig. I secured it to the case with 3M double sided tape (a godsend for tinkering) and drilled them thar holes. Snippy snippy with some flush cutters and a quickie rub with a flat needle file. This produced the holes and aperture for the three switches. NEAT AND TIDY.

In this picture, you can see all the wires from the mod PCB going to the TIA chip. You can also see the blue, blue and white and yellow wires going to the 6532 (RIOT) chip, attached to the new switches. It looks like the unknown Brazilian bootleg company cloned the Atari Jr, as the PCB is so small and jammed it in some almost identical original ‘woody’ cases. So much spare room inside! A family of Voles could happily live in there.

Embelishments

This thing is painfully plain to look at. I think the bootleggers thought they’d get away with counterfeiting murder, by just not printing anything to do with Atari on it. LOL.

I’d better fix their laziness. As I am fluent in Portuguese (or know how to use Google translate), I made some language appropriate labels for the switches.

I really like the look of these [proud emoji]

I can’t wait to get the other one back from Pete and give it some similar treatment. Or maybe I’ll dream up another wacky case for it???

Picture the scene -

You are sat at least 1.5m away from your beloved Master System controller and your Mum walks past the TV just as you are about to defeat Dr Robotnik in the final boss battle. You are obviously distracted and reach for the pause button on the console - but, you aren’t quick enough and you lose your

LAST LIFE.

Curse you, Sega for not having a pause button on the console itself and not right on the controller where you can get to it in milliseconds. You would have been fast enough to evade that dreaded Robotnik [harumph emoji] if a tiny button was included.

Why didn't they have one? Why didn’t a third party manufacturer include one on a super duper Master System controller?

Why?

Why?

Why?

Obvious Disclaimer

I will not be held responsible if you follow this guide and -

• Give yourself 2nd and/or 3rd degree burns from a soldering iron

• Knacker your console

• Stub your toe on a door

• Stand on Lego with bare feet

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

We Can Do It (without B&Q - ing It)

I was tasked with doing this mod from friend of the Substack, John S.

He actually just wanted a button added to a controller and a fly wire coming out of said button to attach to a Master System cartridge to Megadrive adapter (there’s a set of pins for a pause function on the PCB of the adapter). I had a swift look on the internetwebs and found a controller pause mod HERE and also HERE

If you follow the first link, it’s reasonably easy to do, the second is not and there were many head scratching moments. If you are a beginner to modding, my guide (here) will lead you by the hand into the wonderful world of having a pause button on your controller.

Theory Of Operation (sort of)

I don’t quite understand how the mod works electronically, but I understand enough.

The idea is - (nearly) grounding the LEFT and RIGHT switches of the joystick or controller at the same time. This is normally impossible to do. The resistors stop it being a dead short, but enough of a voltage drop to tell the console ‘something’ has happened. The signal travels along the controller wire to the chip inside the console. The IC takes two low signals and outputs a single signal to the console PAUSE pin, which in turn, pauses our game. This is only my understanding of the process and probably not explained 100%, but it matters not - the mod just works!

Parts Required

• 2x resistors. Can be anywhere between 22k ohms and 27k ohms

• A 4071 ‘OR’ gate chip. I used an MC14071BCP

• Some hook up wire.

• A momentary button of some sort - not a latching type.

  ---

Get Controller > Open Controller

This is an easy one. Unscrews the screws from whatever controller you are going to mod. In my case, it’s my home made arcade controller. I don’t actually own an OG Master System controller. You could do pretty much any Master System controller, as far as I know, they are all the same inside.

You’ll have the Up / Down / Left / Right / Fire 1 / Fire 2 and of course a common ground on all the switches (or terminals on a PCB)

Fitting Controller Parts

You need to solder each resistor to the LEFT and RIGHT pins or points of your controller. You can see in the picture, I am wiring them to a Sanwa style arcade joystick. Twist both resistors together (and solder) and attach them to one point of the pause button switch. Attach the other point of the button to GROUND on the joystick.

The button was later moved to a drilled hole at the back of the joystick case.

If you are modding a regular controller, here is a pic from the guide (linked above)

You’ll have to drill the joypad case somewhere and add your button. You can just see the back of the button to the right of the cable in the picture below. Be sure you have enough room in side the case for the button, nut and terminals that you need to solder the resistors to. Measure twice, drill once.

Adding The Chip To The Master System

You can now close up the controller and open up your Master System. Mine is a PAL Master System II model.

The chip needs to be wired to three points on the mother board and of course powered by +5VDC and GROUND. Make sure you use long enough pieces of wire (they can be trimmed before soldering to the motherboard)

The power wires (+5VDC and GROUND) can be wired to any pins carrying those ‘signals’. I used a handy close by chip. I got the pinout of that chip and wired to the appropriate pins to get power for the 4071 chip. You could also use the +5V and GND pins from the voltage regulator.

The white and green wires go to the joystick port pins on the bottom of the pcb -

The red wire (on the left hand side) goes to the test point under the pause button.

That’s it.

Before you go stuffing it all back inside the console case, make sure to carefully test your work. Make sure the chip legs aren’t shorting out on any other components. You can just turn the console on and pause that hairy faced chap Alex the Kid. You’ll get the map screen up on a successful ‘pause’

With it all working, the penultimate thing to do is anchor that chip down with a sticky pad, HAWT GOO or some other kind of ‘that ain’t going anywhere’ method.

Comments welcome, please. If there’s anything not crystal clear, please tell me.

Paddles You Say?

I made an Atari one recently, but this time I’m making one for a Sega console.

Wait, what? Sega made a paddle controller?

Indeed they did, the snazzily named HPD-200

Brief History - Back in 1987, Sega released a paddle controller for the Sega Mark III (the same console I tinkered with HERE and also HERE)

There were only (ever) seven official compatible games.

• Alex ‘the’ Kidd BMX Trial (paddle reqd.)

• Galactic Protector (paddle reqd.)

• Megumi Rescue (paddle reqd.)

• Woody Pop (paddle reqd.)

• Outrun (paddle optional)

• Outrun 3D (paddle optional)

• Super Racing (paddle optional)

The paddle only games were not released in any other territories.

However, the controller will work on a regular (outside of Japan) Sega Master System, but the code is handled differently on those machines. This is overcome with a smart PCB from raphnet.net in the form of an optional switch for ‘export’ consoles.

A reader named John S. contacted me and told me about the above wizardry. He asked if I fancied making a paddle controller, as the originals are heaps of money. Circa $130 for an unboxed one and $200 for a boxed one with the pack in game Woody Pop.

Er, hefty no thank you at that price. I told John S. if he sent me a PCB as well as one for himself, I’d give it a good solid tinkering.

I obviously ‘ghetto’d out’ the circuit first - wired everything up bare minimum to test the PCB, wiring and components before committing to a case and dial for the controller.

To build this, you just chop the plug end (pins end) off of a nine pin mega drive extension cable and solder the nine individual wires to the PCB. Three wires go from the PCB to a potentiometer. The ohms value can be anything from 4.7k ohms to 20k ohms. A push button also needs wiring to pin six and ground (pin eight). You also need to wire in a latching switch to enable or disable ‘export’ mode.

Spoiler - it worked just fine on the few games I played, via Everdrive. I gave Mr Kidd on his stunt bicycle a go and then I played a tree like fellow in Woody Pop (a cute Arkanoid clone)

I then went to work making a Master System controller shaped enclosure for the heeee - lectronic guts to sit inside. Here is the prototype (the SEGA logo is bleeding into itself, a no no for me.)

The thickness of the two halves had to be increased by one millimetre to get the push button to fit inside properly. I have also redone the SEGA logo and changed the ‘EXPORT’ switch on the bottom to a better position.

Here is the finished article. Niiiiice. Works much better than the crappy Atari 2600 ones. Harumph.

I really must get some Sega blue 3D print filament…

I spotted a picture online of an Atari paddle next to a Commodore paddle. They look alike, but the Commodore one matched the Vic 20 beige colour. My Atari VCS (scroll to the lower part of linked substack blog) needed a paddle, as I own Breakout, Super Breakout, Circus Atari and Warlords, so I may as well make a beige one.

I found the .STL 3D print file HERE (thanks to Stampa3dmaker for designing and releasing the files) and printed out the two parts of the shell and the black dial.

The design is really well done. The button on the side is held by some internal walls, so needs no screws or hawt goo (BOO!). The dial simply pushes on to the spline of the potentiometer.

Speaking of potentiometers (or variable resistors) - The Atari paddle requires a 1M ohm potentiometer for analog positive and negative and a single push button. The pinout is different to a joystick, but is incredibly simple to wire up, as it’s only four wires. Before I even printed the shell parts, I wired up a joystick cable to an appropriate potentiometer and a pushbutton and checked out the functionality. The ‘ghetto’ controller worked ok, but I noticed a lot of ‘dead space’ on the throw of the pot. Towards the furthest of either end of the rotary movement has no effect. For example - when your bat in Breakout hits the left or right boundary wall, you can keep turning the dial and it doesn’t do anything, you then have to turn the dial back on itself to get the bat to move again. This basically limits the range of the dial control. It’s quite severe with only a small number of degrees of movement actually doing anything. I got around this problem ‘physically’ on a past tinkering of the Epoch ‘TV Block’ game. I may still do something of the same kind with this controller, as the limits really bother me. I asked the question of rotary range on AtariAge and basically you can’t do much about it. I did try different value pots and also trimmer pots attached to the main pot to no real advantage. I did settle on a 250k ohm pot. It doesn’t differ much from a 1M ohm or 500k ohm pot. [meh emoji]

If anyone knows how to get better range on an Atari paddle, please get in contact!

Bored of Wire (Mis) Management

I have quite a lot of small reels of thin gauge wire, or hookup wire as the kids say. Various reels of coloured wire usually come in small cardboard boxes with small holes in the front for the wire to poke through. It has a habit of unpoking itself back into the box.

ENOUGH ALREADY.

I typed in ‘wire storage’ to the search bar on Bambu Studio Maker World and liked the look of THIS

Seems like ‘Gridfinity’ is all the rage nowadays. It’s a nice system where a bunch of storage devices can be linked, stacked, etc together. Gordon the foreman (an actual person, not a Pixar character) at my work has a bunch of them in his desk drawer to store batteries, drills, plasters, screws etc. Everything an engineer needs (well, nearly)

I call these the orange and lemon gridfins. They work a treat, go make yourself some.

Another Upgrade / Update

Remember the Super TV Boy that I modded and then re-modded?

Well.

Oops, I did it again (thanks, Britney)

I need to take it back to work and re cut the Atari logo. I didn’t realise at the time the tiny end mill I was using (0.9mm) was actually a ballnose rather than a square ended tool. It left very small ridges between the cuts and the paint fill looks off.

Here’s a picture of the base hot of the mill and a shot of it earning it’s living.

You’d think I wouldn’t be able to top this ‘CNC made from a solid piece of aloominum one of a kind console’

Hold my alcohol free beer…

That is a mighty fine piece of machined oak (with a lego Yoshi on top)

To be continued…

Carts Galore

I am on an Atari 2600 kick at the moment. It was the first gaming console I ever played on. Hours upon hours of blasting wobbly invaders and pointy rocks up the road at Paul Morley’s house (actual childhood friend). His family were quite well off and they had a 2600 with a bunch of games. Some of these games I have made with bank switching blank PCBs and EPROMS are either quite rare and $$$ or, they are home-brews I will purchase the next time I’m in the US and A.

Also, I quite like making them [tongue emoji]

Can you work out what carts house which games?

Embossed end labels and don’t forget the wonky orange guy!

*Cartridge quiz answers

Pengo

Night Stalker / Dark Cavern

Ladybug (Champ Games)

Space Invaders Arcade Edition (ROM hack)

Pac Man 8k (an AMAZING port)

Lock n Chase

Remember when I modded a Super TV Boy into a Super DUPER TV Boy?

No? - Have a wee look HERE to refresh your memory (and mine)

Now that you’re up to speed with my past modification of the Sooooper TV Boy, I’ll fill you in on the mod to a mod. So many MODS, this could be Quadrophenia.

Preamble

Fact #1 - I have been on an Atari 2600 kick lately (you may have noticed)

Fact #2 - I have a future tinkering up my sleeve using a Pelican* box.

No actual Pelicans will be harmed in the Pelican box tinkering.

A Pelican box is an impressively rugged storage / travel box usually used for cameras or electronic devices. They are well known for their build quality and strength. I have seen a videos of a pickup truck driving over these poor things to no ill effect of the contents. Obviously the small Pelican box I bought off of the well known internet auction site would be getting some sort of video game addition to it’s tough inner void. I have tried and failed with about three different types of game with this box already. The Super TV Boy is only one of them. For whatever odd reason, the screen I have already installed in the box works OK with the Super TV Boy, but after a random amount of time (ranging from a few seconds to around a minute) the screen would shut off, having the video game still running ‘blind’. I tested the STVB (snappy acronym) on my good ol’ Sony PVM and it worked flawlessly. I also tested the screen with my PC Engine and it doesn’t shut off at all with that. ???

Annoyed

So, I tried all sorts to try and get the STVB to work in the Pelican box with the weird glitchy monitor. Then, I got annoyed and abandoned the Pelican once more.

The STVB has really small guts, so I’ll just do a quick ‘n’ dirty tinkering with a new case instead of the all in one Pelican.

From the photo, you can see there isn’t much to the STVB. The green PCB is the meat AND potatoes of the console with the components on the super cheap brown PCB containing the power, controls and outputs. The case has already been hurled into the sea, as it was an ugly monkey.

Let’s Get to Work

I armed myself with a Vernier caliper and a ruler, measured some bits and transferred my brain thoughts into a 3D model, using CAD CAM computer software (as I usually do). I came up with a compact case with a base part to hold the PCB. The top part is to house a new power input (USB C), video and audio outputs, on / off switch, LED power indicator and a joystick port for the wired controller. Below is what I am on about. A picture and a thousand words etc.

I made the base upstands the same size as the inner of the base, so it would ‘snap’ together without any screws or screws pillars. It worked nicely, with a satisfying ‘click’ when mated together. You can’t see form the picture, but I also modelled in some pillars around the on / off push button to hold that firm (no hawt goo here this time!)

Here it is wired up. I even left myself (almost) enough wire length to comfortably fit the two parts of the case together. Very unlike me, I know.

As you lower the top part of the case down, you need to plug in the joystick plug into the main PCB, then stuff all the long wires into the case.

Here it is finished in all of it’s (compact) glory. It looks rather like a HDMI converter box of some sort and I’m OK with that.

Yes, yes. I know the LED is brighter than a thousand suns, but I like having a hole burned into my retinas when playing early wobbly Space Invaders.

More Mods?

The controller, although surprisingly decent (playability and build quality) Now does NOT match the case, so I’ll remake it.

But, maybe I’ll remake it in a different material altogether and upgrade the case AGAIN?

WATCH THIS SPACE.

As I have done a bunch of these AV mods already, I’ll burn through them on here and just write up a short report if I come across anything different that requires attention.

Atari 2600 (Vader Edition)

This looks like a regular Atari 2600, but this is probably the most popular model, nicknamed the ‘Vader’ as it is all black and has the wood grain effect missing on the front. It is also a four switch console, with the two difficulty setting switches moved to the back of the console. The top power / RF box circuit board is also missing. This was obviously a cheaper build variety, later on Atari brought out the 2600 Jr, which was a super low cost for them to build (and was a budget console when released, due to it’s age)

There was a handy note stuffed into it’s cartridge port.

The note in itself is a lie. There is no such thing as good RF. It’s plain garbage.

Any hoo - I removed the usual components from the PCB and added in one of my composite mod boards and got a colour picture, but with a washed out ‘band’ effect on screen.

Something was afoot. A dirty great big size 12 foot.

I checked my soldering and also the resistor values on the AV mod board (as I built a PCB the other night with a totally wrong value resistor in place [palm emoji] )

I then checked the voltage on the pcb, it measured +7V! Eek. That’s supposed to be +5v. I turned it off pretty quick, as that voltage could be frying components and the Atari TIA and RIOT chips are proprietary, so I won’t be able to replace them that easily if they go pop. I got my multimeter ready and quickly turned back on and checked the voltage regulator. It was the culprit. It’s supposed to take in anywhere from 9 to 12v and output a steady 5v, but it was not doing its job properly.

I fired it on the spot.

Got a new hire in the form of a working 7805 voltage regulator (a bag of them arrived today, which is nice)

The picture was then lovely, as was the correct voltages flowing around the forty plus year old hardware.

I drilled some neat holes in the back and fitted the video and audio RC jacks.

Fixed, fixed and indeed fixed.

Y.A.A.2600.M

Yet Another Atari 2600 Mod (two to be precise)

Only a heavy sixer and a freshly purchased Vader left to mod. I decided to treat myself to a very reasonably priced (boxed) example, as I’ve never owned a ‘Dark’ Atari 2600 before. There’s also a ‘Vader’ 2600 Jr model I rather like the look of, too…

Inside the box were some FREE booklets. Nice.

This console is mint. I’m very happy with it, apart from a fault I found after composite modding it. The difficulty switch on the left hand (player one) side is stuck on ‘expert’. An easy way of testing this is to put in my favourite 2600 game, Space Invaders. The ‘Expert’ and ‘Novice’ settings are chosen by the difficulty switch and whatever position you have the left one in, your invader busting tank is always set to ‘fat’ mode. Player two on the right hand side switch works perfectly well.

CLEAN THE SWITCH!!! I hear you cry. Ah, a novice fix. Alas, this switch was cleaned with de-oxit and tested out of circuit and it works properly. I have since found out that the cost reduced 2600 consoles, of which the Vader is one of, don’t have a safety diode attached to the RIOT chip and some of the pins are susceptible to static damage. RIP RIOT chip. I could leave this alone and the unit will operate just fine, but I never play Space Invaders with a podgy invader killing tank thing. There is no way to fool the RIOT chip into selecting novice mode, either. Bah and pooh to it. I will borrow a RIOT chip from my Jr console to test to make absolutely sure it’s the IC before trying to buy a new one. There were literally millions made back in the day, so finding one at a reasonable price should be fairly easy. In the mean time I made some new joystick buttons to match the dark look.

BLACK. LIKE A RAVEN’S WING. BLACK.

This Mod Is Not To Be…

I was given a very cute ‘Atari’ Flashback 2 to mod. Those in the know will know that these particular aftermarket all in one consoles with built in games are special compared to the many others that came out afterwards. The Flashback 2 was developed by the late legendary Atari person Curt Vendel. It was designed around an actual Atari 2600 SOC (System On a Chip). It was also designed to be tinkered with. There are twenty four marked solder points on the main PCB of which you can solder wires to a cartridge port connector. You can then play original 2600 cartridges on a mini 2600!

I had plans on remaking the front fascia to look just like an original console with switches and a smaller cartridge port (I was going to make small cartridge cases too)

BUT.

When I cracked open the case to have a look inside I couldn’t find a matching PCB picture online. I then found out that this was unfortunately a clone console. I read up about this and apparently there were many of these made and even massive companies like Amazon and US company Kroger were selling them without even knowing they were illegal bootlegs. This particular board was nick named the ‘Kroger‘ or rev X. I delved deeper into the story behind this and found that someone had mapped out twenty of the twenty four solder points, but then nothing after this. Seems like no one has ever modded one of these bootlegs into a much more useful console [cry emoji] [annoyed emoji]

So, unless someone can work out the last few points or donate a kosher Flashback 2 to me, I am denied the mini Atari goodness.

Well, sort of. Read on…

Alternate Atari 2600 Mini

(Or shall I call it the 1300?)

Soon after the heartbreaking news [broken heart emoji] of the Flashback 2, I found a site explaining how to remove that annoying long ‘button PCB’ from a six switch Atari 2600, which would allow a much more smol console. Ho ho, tee and indeed hee. I have set myself to work on this.

Photo explanation-

• Red arcade button - RESET

• Two black button switches - DIFFICULTY left & right

• Croc clips attached to bench power supplying PCB with +5VDC

• Bench power supply has since been swapped for a USB C socket setup.

• Janky PCB and wires hanging off of the console - composite mod.

I can confirm the above test set up works just fine. I am printing the bottom of the new ‘mini’ case as I write this blog.

Here is the CAD model. BTW, I designed this.

How It’s Going

You read the last sentence mere seconds ago, but for me, it’s been a few days and things have been printed. Have a shufty of the parts ready for assembly…

(Not shown is the label plate for the switches)

All that’s left to do now is fit the four switches and add an embellishment (you expected an embellishment, right?)

I made a cutting template for the additional nonsense.

Here is the finished article.

Front ‘n’ back.

Additional. I Like To Add.

It gives me an enormous feeling of well being.

As this freshly reimagined Atari 2600 is a bit smaller (smol) than standard, it deserves some game cartridges in the same ratio.

Introducing the Atari 1300 ‘Slightly Less Super’ System cartridges.

Many thanks to my mate Bobbi for allowing me to ruin, er, I mean RENEW one of his 2600 consoles.

Noice.

I left home with a box full of stuff for the Yorkshire gang and came back with my box fuller than when I left Glasgow.

Full of stuff to tinker with, no less.

Here is the offending box of goodies (minus the first item I’ll be tinkering with) The SNES console in the box is just an empty shell. I’ll be using half of it to make a slightly nicer SNES.

Item One - SNES requiring some TLC

(and a two switch region mod)

This tinkering begins with a quick back story. I actually bought something from Sore Thumb Retro Games. I got myself a copy of SNES Dr. Mario. It’s a game I really enjoy and I sort of collect the different versions now. I already have the Japanese and European Gameboy and Famicom versions. I have also just bought the European NES cartridge from the popular online electronic auction site. Problem is, I have a Super Famicom Jr, the later released Japanese console and they are region locked. This PAL SNES cart simply won’t work on it - we tried back in Bobbi and Lynn’s testing conservatory. We also had to fix his region modded SNES as it wasn’t reading cartridges at all. A good clean out of the cartridge port with Servisol spray and my spittle infused breath (blowing down cartridge slot and cartridge pins helped with a tightening down of the cartridge socket inside the SNES. We successfully managed to test the cartridge but it was reporting that the game couldn’t be played on that region machine. Ho hum, at least the game was functional.

I mentioned this to our pal Gaz, who being an upstanding gentleman as well as a top bendy yellow fruit, brought along a half modified SNES and a donor case for me to make up a multi region console for myself. All of this, so I didn’t have to take a soldering iron, drill and other torture tools to my unblemished Super Famicom Jr.

I found a guide to do this in the form of a Tube of You videogram. For some reason, my go-to modding site mmmonkey isn’t online anymore and the website is now an adult dating website…

Here is the tidied up and completed wiring. The mod requires you to unsolder and lift a single very small SMD pin from three seperate ICs. You then join two together to a point on a switch. The switch is wired to the console’s +5VDC and GND points and the CIC chip is also wired to a second switch. One switch enables the console to play either European PAL and Japanese or American NTSC games. The second switch enables 50 or 60hz refresh rates. Using 60hz removes the annoying top and bottom PAL orders on the game image. The games also run at the correct speed. We PAL consumers got slightly slower games back in the day [sad emoji]

I also sneaked in a blue LED rather than the standard red one, to show it was special. I think the dirty great switches on the side of it are a bit of a giveaway…

I have since made up some Dymo labels to show the switch settings and given the case a spit ‘n’ polish.

Tinkering One complete.

Item Two - Atari 2600 Fail #1

(Video output requiring some attention)

Apologies for Bobbi’s label, but it kinda says it all.

Yes, they are my Pac Man PJ bottoms. I roll to bedtime in style…

Let’s get this poor old thing opened up and see what’s what.

This was the mod that was in there. I haven’t seen one with a chip on it before. It also took some of the points from the power / switch PCB rather than the main board.

I removed the old mod and replaced it with one of mine, which I know are good. I powered the unit on and couldn’t get it going. I checked out the voltage regulator, as they are usually the first port of call for failures. It wasn’t generating a good +5VDC, so I renewed it and gave the heat sink plate a bit of a buffing as well as some new heat sink compound (probably the wrong amount)

I also replaced the two capacitors on the power / switch PCB as they weren’t in spec. I think they are voltage smoothing caps, so this will help along with the new voltage regulator. The machine still wasn’t coming on, so I chucked out the power supply I was using and injected a good clean voltage from my bench power supply into the Atari. It then worked perfectly.

(As usual, a modern cell phone always captures a CRT image with a dirty great scan line across it). You can see that it isn’t a sh*t black and white picture, though…

I used my Uno SD cart to check with Space Invaders at first, as I know the colours of that game by heart. The invaders were all grey, with other colours not quite right. I worked it out that my Uno cart may have the NTSC version of the game. I used my original cart and the colours were correct, although the colour adjustment pot on the main board was intermittent, turning the image black and white. I’ll try cleaning it out with De-Oxit first and replace it if it still doesn’t function properly.

I have now replaced the original label.

NEXT!!!

Item Two - Atari 2600 Jr Fail #1

This poor thing only has RF sound and video output and wasn’t working with on the TVs Bobbi and I tested it on.

I know you’re all thinking that I’m some sort of graphic artist, but that Jr actually looked like that.

I had some help diagnosing the problem -

Took the thing apart and did the usual composite AV mod. I use my own PCBs (got them printed from Elecrow. Some sort of shared project). The pcbs need some SMD components soldering to them : a single 2.2K,3.3K,75ohm resistor and a transistor. You also need to remove a few parts from the Atari pcb and tap the video signal and power to the mod PCB. I always use the Teignmouth Software Blog guides

Sound is just picked up from a resistor point.

If you fancy just buying a pre made composite mod PCB, get them at TFW8B

Be careful when tearing down your 2600 Jr, as this ribbon cable might get damaged, but it usually just pops apart. It’s a good strong ribbon.

I absolutely love ripping RF gear out of old consoles to replace them with better video, but not as much as Easter Man does.

I drilled some small holes in the PCB and mounted an audio output component next to the newly modified video output. I filed out an appropriate hole in the back of the case for the new hole. I also gently ran over the text on the case with a silver paint pen to give the embossed letters some clarity.

The obligatory ‘finished!’ picture and, believe it or not, the picture hasn’t been altered in any way. I just used some ‘back to black’ car bumper polish on it and it turned out [smiley with sunglasses emoji]

…to be continued…

I digress. I bought something on eBay to do a ‘Stevstixfix’ Basically, a simple repair to an unknown working ‘thing’. In this case, of course a stupid bloody Famiclone. A Nintendo Famicom / NES ripoff. Definitely made in China and definitely insanely cheaply made. It cost me a whole £8.99 delivered to my door, from the Eeeeelectonic Bay.

It arrived in reasonable condition, well packed etc. N64 ‘style’ joystick nubs missing (no one cares, they’re awful)

As in a lot of Steve’s repairs and also my own experience, most faults stem from the power input. This one was no different. Took me a minute to get it open because of the blockage…

Crusty battery terminals and even crustier batteries. They are the crustiest I’ve seen in a long time. Mmmmmm. Doesn’t matter, all that is being launched into the bin.

I tested the unit by using my trusty bench power supply set to +6VDC (4 x 1.5v batteries in series makes the magical +6VDC)

But of course, with a little love and attention (and a clean power supply) it works just fine. Although, I do learn that the He-bay description is a lie! The screen says eleventy billion games, none repeated, honest guv! To be fair, there probably are sixty four games, just with different names and maybe some graphic swaps?

I tested a few games with the main unit controller and they are fine. I didn’t test a light gun game because they are pointless (so says me)

So, this is the end of this quick tinkering instalment. Here is the Keep pile and the discard pile. I plan on making something <much better> with the ‘keeps’ in a future tinkering.

• I am a big man

• (Yes I am)

• And I have a big gun

If you zoom into the first picture, I DO NOT AGREE. Back off, China.

[Youtuber Title] YOU WOULD NOT BELIEVE WHAT I FOUND IN A 2600!!!

Actually, I was genuinely taken aback. I found something incredibly coincidental inside. I promise the next bit is NOT made up for clicks. I found this original quality label inside, taped to the aluminium box (it’s a heavy sixer)

Can you guess what day I opened this up to work on it? Yes, it was the 17th February. When I saw it I thought, '‘hold on, that’s soon”, but it was actually the same day. I opened this 2600 up on it’s 45th birthday. Still working fine, FORTY FIVE years after it was manufactured. I’m going to proudly display this folded over piece of history somewhere on the console when it’s finished.

As you can see from the top pictures, the poor thing has been in the (console) wars. I think it’s too far gone for a repair and I’ve wanted to do a redesigned case for a while, so - here goes!

I started off by doing the almost compulsory AV mod. You bypass the crappy RF box, remove a few components, add in a very small circuit board (I made my own using a PCB fab company) and output the audio and video to composite (RCA) plugs. WAY better picture and sound than ancient RF. The insides of this unit are still in good condition.

Fail Before Starting

I wanted to reduce the footprint of the 2600 and use a few different knobs and switches. Problem is the silly long top board (the beige coloured PCB). The power goes into the lower PCB and then routed into the top pcb where it is fed into a few components and powers the RF box. It also lowers the 9VDC input down to 5VDC via a voltage regulator. I tried to power the main PCB with a direct +5VDC input, but the console would not fire up. It obviously needs the top board to function. If I plugged the top board in and powered the lower board with a direct +5VDC, it would work, but bypassed the on / off switch.

I asked this question on Atari Age -

“can a 2600 heavy sixer be powered without the top board. I guess it would need some sort of circuit similar to the top board to work?”

But got no replies [sad emoji]

So, I will have to work (literally) around it. This would mean splitting the case into two parts, as my 3D printer is no way large enough to make a case to contain that top board (curses). I have never made a ‘thing’ that needs to be joined before. It will be a learning curve at least…

I’m intending on making this -

The bottom will be beige and the top will be made from a carbon fibre PLA filament. I even bought a hardened hot end specially designed to use with this abrasive material.

All sorts of brackets and stiffeners will be needed to make the case robust. I think it will also look like, either a home made thing or a lost prototype. I’m edging more on the home made idea.

Here is a start. Note the large stiffening / holding together plate underneath the PCB.

Looking at it now, it rather looks like an Atari 800XL (which I had back in the day and also, now.). You can see the temporary AV mod wiring there. I extended it to those two holes in the back of the case.

I made a controller bezel, which hides part of the join and gives extra strength to the join in the case. BTW, Can you see the stupid boy error I made?

I designed the case with the power supply hole in the two parts, but forgot to put it on the controller bezel. I had also goofy glued the thing on and ‘IT WASN’T GOING ANYWHERE’. Remember kids, think twice, glue once…

I managed to fashion a hole in it and it works. Stupid boy…

Top Part Of The Case

The lid part of the case is going to be sloped and needs slots for the six switches and of course, the cartridge aperture. I will also need to make a back ‘pocket’ area to fit under it, which will guide the cartridges into the slot on the familiar angle that the original 2600 had. I feel the design requires some sort of over the top embellishment for the lid.

Er, yes. I do love to completely over engineer something.

I really wish I could have made this in one part. I love the look of it, but not wild about the visible joins [cry emoji]. It would also have been nice to made the switch descriptions embossed on the top, but it wouldn’t have worked because of how I had to print the parts. I may just make them and glue them on.

I made a small size miscalculation on the first switch label.

A little bit more work and here it is -

There were twenty 3D printed parts to make this project. I think that is the most parts I’ve done for a single project before. Phew.

BTW - My tiny brother isn’t having this now. It’s mine. I’ve offered to send my good working heavy sixer with joysticks, PSU and a pair of paddles.

Worth it.