darkchylde28

That might have some success, but a big part of the whole retrobrite process is also getting uv light onto the item being brightened, so placing some sort of cage over/around the item you're working on will severely limit that bit.

The NT Mini uses a slightly bigger FPGA, as I understand it, which is what allows it to do 1080p while the AVS is stuck at 720p. Additionally, the NT Mini had "jailbreak" firmware released for it which allows it to become a whole host of other popular 8-bit systems (2600, Colecovision, Intellivision, Odyssey2, etc.) and play ROMs off the SD card. ...yeah, what he said!

I had the same thought. I didn't think about it maybe reacting and causing an issue with the process but did think about the distinct possibility that it would "let go" during the process, most likely when you wouldn't be around to catch it (as these things always seem to occur). Good luck!

To me it was worth it, specifically to remove the lag that's present whenever playing my original system(s) hooked up to a modern TV. Regardless of the TV used (mine, friends', etc.), there was always a detectable level of lag that threw off gameplay in anything action oriented. With the AVS? I've never once had that experience, across the same TVs that my original systems were used with as well as new ones which have entered various households. Even if it might not seem like it, there's still a detectable amount of lag present even on the NES Mini. A friend of mine got one when they were still unobtainium and was absolutely thrilled with it...right up until I pointed out that I could feel lag on the more action oriented games (Mega Man 2 & Ninja Gaiden) and proved it to him using my AVS. I got a call a few days later letting me know that he was looking into picking up an AVS as he couldn't not feel the lag when playing anymore and suddenly understood why games seemed harder than they were when he was a kid. If accuracy in controls and gameplay are really important to you, the AVS is a good investment.

An idea that comes immediately to my mind might be to clip some sort of little clamp onto the bottom/underside of anything that floats and use that to anchor it down under the surface. It would mean that you wouldn't get the "natural" effect of potentially having both sides get brightened if you occasionally bumped their container to get them to shift positions, turn over, etc., but it would at least guarantee that the part that's always going to be visible would be brightened up like it's supposed to be.

For me, it would have to be whoever is inside the suit(s) of Advanced Power Armor in the opening cinematic for Fallout 2. When I played that game, I made it my mission to kill any- and everyone wearing that crap. Still won't use such a suit (or any part of one) in any subsequent game.

I honestly don't know that there are any off-the-shelf solutions, although there are folks here and there that will custom build them for you. If you don't mind cannibalizing something, your best bet money-wise would be to keep your eyes peeled on Craigslist and snatch up any low priced broken/non-working arcade game that comes up to gut and repurpose the cabinet. Years ago I ended up with a free cabinet from my local arcade (knew the manager due to working in the same mall) when they'd gutted out a broken game and repurposed the other components, so that might not be a bad avenue either, if you've still got a local arcade or game repair place nearby.

"Attack In Space" by Tomy, a wind up Space Invaders style handheld. Past that, maybe Jungle Hunt for the 2600? My brother picked up a 2600 in sometime in late '84 or early '85 after we'd moved, so all the games that came along with the deal were his and any purchased after that point for the longest time were "family" versus being mine. I recall picking up some odds and ends games from Big Lots shortly after they opened their first store in our area for $1 each out of my savings and Jungle Hunt being one of them. First NES game would be a 3 way tie between Mega Man 2, Strider, and SMB/DH since I got all three the same Christmas that I got my NES.

Since the last CRT lines shut down a few years ago and the materials/methods used to produce them tend toward big time toxicity, I have doubts that outside of a nuclear war that reset everything we'd ever seen production lines for them start up again. However, given the popularity of older systems and other hardware that is more compatible with that technology versus current, I don't think its outside of the realm of possibility for someone to product something of a hybrid--modern panel technology married to something that has the equivalent refresh rates, color saturation, etc., of the older technology.

If you've got a modern TV that still has composite/component inputs, there's a good chance that you've got a screen that will do 50hz. It's not always advertised, but many (most?) modern displays are sold across multiple markets with no changes to the inside electronics save for the power supply (and in some cases, not even then, as some will have switches to immediately convert them from 110 to 220 and vice versa). If you've got an AVS or access to one, you can set it to 50hz and see if your TV picks it up properly; if not, just reset the system to defaults and you'll know.

Over the long holiday weekend/mini vacation, mostly one or the other of my children (or both) complaining about something while we were in the car.

I'm no expert, but my suggestion would be to get a flash drive of some type as your first stop and then to pick up a US system first since that's where you're based. If you want access to all the cool PAL-specific demos and such, pick up a PAL system too (or at least the chips for one, if you're willing to do a mod to be able to switch it back and forth--guides are available online on how to do that), but I wouldn't make that the focus of your initial setup. RAM upgrades are definitely worthwhile if you're wanting to play some of the more advanced games and see some of the bigger/better demos, but shouldn't be a priority out of the gate versus making sure you've got an effective way to get software on and off the system. If you really want to mess around with actual disks, you'll need to pick up at least one drive, if not two, but again, my suggestion is to go for a flash based solution since they're ultimately cheaper and easier to deal with.

So glad I saw this when I (finally) got around to scanning new posts after getting back from my Thanksgiving mini-vacation. I took care of my Secret Santa stuff before leaving, but didn't get a chance to ship. Gotta get that done in the next day or two!

Finished Dune Messiah while visiting my grandmother for Thanksgiving and ended up starting Children of Dune immediately after. Thought Dune Messiah was on the "meh" side (well written, but didn't really do much of interest, at least to me), but am enjoying Children of Dune nearly as much as the original book. I'm about 50% done right now, but where we're back home and there's a lot less relatives to get excited about and visit with my kids, I have a feeling it'll be a while before I get to finish it.

I didn't like it much as a kid. Hated it initially when playing at a friend's house who rented it, as we couldn't figure much of anything out. Ended up buying it for $10-15 during the deep discount sale I described above and discovered that when you buy it new, it includes a map alongside the manual that is essentially a walkthrough. Locations on the map for every piece of gear are labelled as well as what doors require keycards and which keys. So, if you study the map carefully, you can easily figure out where you need to go at any given point to pick up your next keycard, vital piece of gear (gas mask to get through the gas room, etc.). I had a bit of fun running straight through the game that way, but was ultimately disappointed with the ending and put it up until a friend borrowed it (then moved away without returning it--never seen a copy in the wild with the map ever again).

Honestly, with the exception of Mega Man 2 (and the SMB/DH pack-in), all the well known, popular games were owned by my friends and not me, lol. I got enough money in my pocket to buy a regular priced game or two maybe once a year, so I'd save all that money and blow it on as many $10-20 NES titles when one of the local department stores (Hills, for those who are/were familiar and remember) would do its shelf-clearing after Christmas blowout sale. I ended up with a bunch of stuff that was thought of as crap then, but gold nowadays. (Anybody who was in the 6-10 age range and, without using a walkthrough or hint guide, thought Metal Gear was anything other than frustrating back in the day is probably lying, lol!)

For the first part, YouTube has mostly always been that unstable, so why would it have ever been a good idea to try to make your living off of the platform? Even PewDiePie wasn't always the big shot that he is now, and if hadn't stuck around the platform due to the inherent instability in such an endeavor, he wouldn't have made it to where he is. With that said, I'm not saying folks should actively attempt to set up YouTube as their primary/only source of income, just that if they do manage to make enough bank off of it, they're probably already plenty aware of how unstable it is (given many YouTubers who have only recently started making enough off of it to drop their 9-to-5 have said it took them years of building and audience and finding a voice to do so). Also not really sure how many "regular" jobs are going to benefit directly from skills learned being a YouTuber. As far as the FTC fining people is concerned, I doubt that they're really out there for only the "big fish," as they have to apply COPPA unilaterally lest they open themselves up to discrimination lawsuits. From what's been bandied about, they're supposed to be using similar tools to what YouTube is to flag everything that doesn't meet their standards and working from there. It's not clear whether humans will be involved with reviewing the content caught in such a net before the fines go out or if it'll all be automated, but just about guaranteed, anybody whose stuff isn't labelled "for kids" that they decide fits that bill is going to get a letter, fine, etc.

Just finished Dune Messiah last night (liked it well enough, but not as much as the original book) and getting ready to start on Children of Dune when I get a chance. Also found out that there's about a half dozen more new-canon Star Wars books that I wasn't aware of that I'm looking into checking out and picking up.

I'd go, as I enjoyed the first movie and my wife is a huge fan, but my son has been kind of "meh" about sitting down to watch the first one and the baby doesn't sit through much at all. There's always video, though! (Or streaming...Disney+ to the rescue in 2-5 months!)

Understood, but for the people who are making a living off of it, how is that totally different from folks working in the older, well established TV/movie industry? I think the big separator between the two is having to be "discovered" or accepted in the Hollywood/network system, while YouTube allows folks (individuals, teams, etc.) to be their own bosses, produce whatever they want, and find, establish, and serve their own audience (versus one that's preconceived by Hollywood/network executives). You don't have to have a hit record (or series thereof) to be a professional/career musician--there are plenty of folks playing "house" music, doing behind the scenes work for movie/TV studios, playing every weekend at any and every bar that will have them, etc. Most of those folks have a much less stable life than those who hit it big (relatively speaking, as those folks tend to have their own issues), but it doesn't mean that they don't have a career, having been doing that sort of thing professionally for a good bit of their life, etc. I wouldn't choose to go that route (huge success or struggling week to week), but I won't declare that it's "not a real job" to those folks who do choose to go that route. To me, any "real" job is one that you get some sort of payment for and do consistently. That includes everything from working fast food all the way up to things that require you to sit and push buttons in a George Jetson manner.

I think maybe the level of dedication things went to to actually get some of the badges? A lot of the franchises got ridiculously long in the tooth, so if you didn't get the badge while it was comparatively more easy to get, you had to throw a lot more money at it to achieve the goal. I'm a huge Mega Man fan, but I don't own every single title and most likely won't, given what a lot of it costs. There also wasn't any follow up to determine whether folks who got a badge when there were only a handful of games out (say the NES, SNES, and PS1 Mega Man titles) actually kept up with everything (picking up all PS2, XBox, GBA, etc.) to maintain that level of supposed fandom or dedication. The full system set badges definitely cost folks a lot of money if they didn't already have the stuff laying around, and rightfully so. But badges for various franchises which are meant to show fandom really shouldn't have been as much of a climb. Maybe "fan" and "superfan" badges should have been available? You got a "fan" badge if you had, say, 10+ games in the library, but "superfan" if you had literally everything released? Heck, a lot of folks would have loved to have gotten a badge for the not-insignificant feat of accumulating a full licensed NES set minus SE, since not everybody lucked into that one when it was still affordable nor has/had $5-10K+ to throw away on a single cartridge (that isn't a particularly great game anyway and can be replaced by a single $5 cart that's simply renamed).

To the "YouTube Isn't A Real Job" camp, does this mean that acting isn't a real career? Producing? Directing? Sound design? Screenwriting? All of these skills, and more, are often put into use by individual YouTubers, especially the best/better ones (not necessarily the popular ones, the folks throwing refrigerators into swimming pools, tearing open blind bags, etc.). To simply discount the whole community as "not a real job" is incredibly disingenuous to a large swath of people. I agree that folks who specifically make their living at it are taking their destiny into their own hands and, should it implode, have only themselves to blame if that's their only source of income or support. However, dismissing everybody at the same time while only having real objections to the seemingly talentless attention seekers (which still often have a lot of good camera work, editing, etc.) is wrong (at least to me). I guess if being a YouTuber isn't a real job, then neither is most of what the folks in Hollywood do, since what's being done is largely the same--they're just part of two different systems, one established a century ago (or longer) and the other within the last couple of decades.

I'm honestly very concerned with how this will turn out, as most content that I actively, regularly watch on YouTube falls into the realm of what COPPA could cover (old video games, old toys, etc.). Seeing as YouTube's settlement has passed the buck on to content creators, putting them in danger of getting fined $42K for every video that gets randomly deemed as targeting children (despite all the creators I subscribe to specifically making content for like-minded adults), I expect to see a lot less content, if not a collapse of some channels entirely.

Yup, this is what I came here to say when I saw the topic this morning. The way I defined it internally is that the "Golden" age would be when things began (like with comics), built the medium, and built up interest in the format. This would be from the late 50s/early 60s (Tennis for Two & Space War, if you aren't familiar, check them out) all the way through the crash of '83. After that point, both in the arcade and at home, we entered into the "Silver" age, where characters, themes, etc. that would continue to drive the medium would be introduced and tweaked. This would be from ~1983 (introduction of the Famicom) to arguably late 1999/early 2000. Finally, I'd argue that we're currently in the "Bronze" age, starting at the turn of the millennium, with the introduction of the Dreamcast/PS2. This is arguable, but I'd say that those systems really took major leaps forward with the technology and were really the base of our current/modern systems moreso than the first steps in that direction (PS1, Saturn, etc.).

Saw the below video this morning, had a good laugh, and thought of this thread. I've had the same thing happen when using a controller on a PC, but it's typically curable with a lot of fine tuning of the controller settings or just picking up a better controller.