Larry and the Long Look - RetroUSB release

[a3quit4s | 4,098]

Hello fellow nerds!

Got a Larry and the Long Look from Khan Games as a RetroUSB release on the Sealie Computing UNROM 512 board https://www.nesdev.org/wiki/UNROM_512

No picture/no sound on the game on an Analogue NT Mini Noir. Previous owner reported green screen on toaster with blinking light win and AVS. Unsure if it ever worked. 
 

Cleaned pins, checked traces with multimeter all seems normal. There are 3 capacitors 2x measure the same and one reads double the other two. 104 ceramic capacitors. This had me concerned but I have a Study Hall by Khan and RetroUSB with the same board and it reads the same and Study Hall boots up. Used tweezers to check to make sure solder joints were solid. Not really sure what else I can do here. I’ve got a post out for someone to send me pics of their board so I can make sure the right solder points are soldered but it looks right to me. 
 

Any ideas? @SNESNESCUBE64 pinging you since you are the master of electronics around here

Edited December 6, 2023 by a3quit4s

[SNESNESCUBE64 | 540]

Try it on a real NES first before you do anything else. Clones can be flakey sometimes.

The first thing I would do is check the jumpers. UNROM, going off memory, has jumpers on the game board to specify how much RAM it uses and whatnot. From there once that is validated, I would to try and dump the roms either with an NES ROM dumper or by removing the chips to validate them that way. If the ROMs check out good, I would validate the character RAM IC. 

The unfortunate part about UNROM512 is that it is meant to be erasable. I really don't like using parallel flash ICs as they are less permanent than OTP EPROMs or even UV EPROMs.

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

After testing almost 1000 different NES games, I found a whole bunch that will only work on my AV (composite) modded toploader or unmodded front loader. 
 

They didnt work on my AVS, or blinking light win modded RGB front loader. Fully cleaned carts and 100% tarnish free pins.  
 

licensed releases

unlicensed releases

homebrew

hack/repro

 

In hindsight I should have kept track, but I didn’t.  
 

My copies of larry are sealed, so I cant test

Edited December 6, 2023 by MrWunderful

[a3quit4s | 4,098]

1 hour ago, MrWunderful said:

After testing almost 1000 different NES games, I found a whole bunch that will only work on my AV (composite) modded toploader or unmodded front loader. 
 

They didnt work on my AVS, or blinking light win modded RGB front loader. Fully cleaned carts and 100% tarnish free pins.  
 

licensed releases

unlicensed releases

homebrew

hack/repro

 

In hindsight I should have kept track, but I didn’t.  
 

My copies of larry are sealed, so I cant test

I’ve definitely had games that don’t work on the Analogue that do work on original hardware but I’ve always gotten some kind of graphic/sound on the screen before it would inevitably freeze up or glitch out. It probably pays to follow your advice though and break out an unmodded toaster and give it a test. It sounds like a job for tomorrow though lmao

[a3quit4s | 4,098]

Two unmodded front loaders and a random NES clone I had laying around couldn’t get it to boot. Best I got was just garbled graphics on the screen. 

[Tanooki | 4,933]

You say retrousb release, did it have more than one run?

[a3quit4s | 4,098]

53 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

You say retrousb release, did it have more than one run?

I think it had a kickstarter re-release maybe? Or maybe Khan did one on his own? Either way being specific never hurt lmao

[Scrobins | 1,726]

16 minutes ago, a3quit4s said:

I think it had a kickstarter re-release maybe? Or maybe Khan did one on his own? Either way being specific never hurt lmao

Kevin did a second release on his own site called the “Engagement Edition” which had a few updates to the previous release.

[Tanooki | 4,933]

That's it I was confused.  Some years back I wanted to grab a copy and we ended up talking and I bought one directly from him, and now that I'm looking at the box it says engagement edition so it's not an earlier release.

[CMR | 520]

@a3quit4sI know this is a little old, but I've had good experiences contacting support@retrousb.com  The shell on my Powerpak started cracking and falling off, and they replaced it for free.  They may be willing to help you with your game also.

Edited January 15 by CMR

[a3quit4s | 4,098]

17 minutes ago, CMR said:

@a3quit4sI know this is a little old, but I've had good experiences contacting support@retrousb.com  The shell on my Powerpak started cracking and falling off, and they replaced it for free.  They may be willing to help you with your game also.

Hello! I heard back from BunnyBoy at RetroUSB but he wasn’t able to help. Luckily I did have someone step up and help me out. They can call themselves out if they like but I don’t want everyone and their mother reaching out lmao