Code Monkey

14 hours ago, the_wizard_666 said:

While I'm happy to see it get documented, that box makes me so fucking sad! Hope you can find a replacement for it.  On the plus side, at least it's not on the display side, so it'll still look alright on the shelf.

Do you face your games to the right?

1 hour ago, Tulpa said:

90%+ of the PS userbase just want the latest stuff and don't give a shit about backwards compatibility.

It's about supporting a business practice. A business will often use quantities of customer support requests regarding updates as a KPI to determine their effectiveness. If you don't complain, the company doesn't care.

On 8/28/2023 at 2:57 PM, Bearcat-Doug said:

So it's like an Atari 2600 version of the AVS? I'm intrigued. I see you can also buy a set of paddles with a 4 in 1 multicart of paddle games. Now I'm really interested.

No. The AVS runs hardware emulation on FPGA, this is software emulation.

9 minutes ago, greenthunder said:

Even barring the fact backwards compat PS3s are rare, picking one up would be out of the question for me seeing as I'm only borrowing my friend's PS2.

I'm looking into Retrotink but it seems even their cheaper stuff is out of budget for me. Do they have older revisions floating around or am I looking in the wrong place?

Sorry, I shouldn't be taking over your thread. Those are quite expensive, I was surprised someone suggested it. I would suggest the component output cables with a PlayStation 2, they will play in 1080i but that won't hook up to your monitor so it doesn't really help. The only solution here is either component to HDMI converters or some sort of screen that accepts a component input.

2 minutes ago, TDIRunner said:

Are both of those models capable of playing PS2 discs?  If they are, and they are working properly, they are worth considerably more than what you paid for them.  However, based on your other recent posts, I'm thinking you weren't aware of the differences in the many versions of the PS3.  So I'm just going to guess that you didn't find any models capable of playing PS2 discs.  Fortunately, those are still good deals for any model of PS3 assuming it works properly.  

I keep mentioning "if it works properly" because that generation of gaming consoles (specifically PS3 and 360) was arguably the least reliable generation of gaming consoles of all time.  

I've only ever played Silent Hill: Homecoming so I do not know. However I'm told there is some difference with 2 and 4 USB ports on the front and mine both have 2. So probably not.

Just now, Gloves said:

Launch ps3 was the only console after ps2 to play ps2 discs. 

They launched with a feature and then removed it? That seems shady, people kept giving them money after that? Were they cheaper?

1 hour ago, TDIRunner said:

 

That's sort of like a lottery winner telling others to play the lottery to become rich.  Just because it happened to one person, doesn't mean it isn't extremely unlikely to happen.  A PS3 that can play PS2 and is in fully working condition is extremely uncommon.  Also, finding one in fully working condition for a reasonable price is even less likely.  I'm not saying it didn't happen to you, but the PS3 is not an ideal suggestion for someone wanting to play PS2 through HDMI.   

Really? I got one at a thrift store for $12 and another at a flea market for $10. I thought they were just everywhere like Wiis. What about a PlayStation 4, do they play PlayStation 2 games?

1 hour ago, RH said:

According to the second video, which was the one I watched that was posted by a gamer and researched the Tetris community, yes, someone has gotten past stage 255 and proven it wraps.  They did this with a TAS (Tool Assisted Speedrun) app so they could input perfect keypad entries, and that's how they discovered it soft-reset the game and the gameplay continued.

Were they lying?  Probably not.  Most high score/speed run wizards post videos to back up what they do.

And it's been my casual observation that any old that was coded to be "endless" is considered beaten when you get the game to glitch and freeze.  Pac-Man is a great example.  You "beat" that one when you get to the level 255 glitch screen because you've played as far as you can go.  Tetris is the same, except the glitch screen isn't as concrete.  You can strategize way to avoid it and "dodge" it all they way up to 255.  Regardless, being that this game has limitations that cause it to force-stop when someone has breached an unexpected point in a game is an End Game.  There maybe be multiple forms of an end game, but this is one. It takes quite a feat to get to a crash zone in Tetris, so it is still quite an accomplishment.  That kid even missed his first crash chance and had to keep playing until he got to the second chance.  It's not concrete, but no one had crashed Tetris before by playing it "too far".  For a pseudo-endless game, any pseudo-endless game, that's quite an accomplishment.

Oh, it soft resets? That's even stranger than it going back to zero. Weird.

So by your logic, I can beat Dr. Mario in 1 minute. On any level you can line up enough viruses such that the game tries to clear them all and it can bog and crash. So 1 minute into the first level you can line things up well enough to crash the game. Does that mean I finished it?

Use a PlayStation 3, I got one from a flea market for $10.

I feel cheated by lazy journalism. When this story first happened, I ignored it because I thought it was just some title bait SPAM because I knew the level 29 kill screen had been reached a decade ago and couldn't be beaten. After digging into it I realised at level 29, it was just too hard for people to tap enough times to get the pieces to the sides of the screen, although it was possible. Since it was too hard, people reported this as factually the end of the game and like a dummy I believed them.

Now when someone beats that, journalists pretend like nothing happened and we're supposed to trust them this is now the end of the game? Spoiler alert, it isn't. There are multiple levels where you can trigger a game freezing glitch in the scoring addition where the processor is unable to handle it and locks up. If you manage to score multiple line clears on those levels instead of single line clears, you can continue to advance levels, all the way to 255.

This means next week there will be another news report titled, "This is really, really, definitely the final (final) v.2 (for real final)" level this time when someone advances a few levels more. It's not true, this kid didn't finish the game, he didn't get to any final level, he just got.....pretty far. Others will get further and eventually someone will get to 255 though I doubt at that point it resets to zero, does that happen? I figured it would overflow and just start loading random data from outside the memory range like when you get more than 99 lives in Super Mario Bros. and it starts loading crowns and other sprites into your life counter.

5 minutes ago, Gloves said:

See like, that all sounds lovely. It's just the cynicism people have from being in the "game" for so long - people see cryptic "PM'd" messages and tend to assume the worst. Naturally you don't have to pour out your intentions publicly, but on the same note if you weren't going to say publicly what the PM was about, why post that you were going to PM? From that point anyone can assume anything, and it often looks like putting a stake in the ground for later disputes about who reached out first etc.. You could technically just as easily have PM'd him something like "Hey man no time to chat now but I'm gonna PM you more after work, just wanted to let you know", rather than the approach you've taken.

I dunno that anyone thinks you necessarily lowball or make unfair offers, it's just been a common thread with people with similar behaviours. You've said before that you appreciate when people let you know about this stuff, so I just wanted to share with you why you might feel you're being treated in a certain way from some people sometimes. I personally don't have any real qualms with you, and I could have PM'ed yoy all this equally so to my own points, but I feel like you also don't mind having these conversations publicly. If I'm wrong there PM me and tell me to take it to private chat, and I'll happily do so next time. But like, again, the stuff you posted in response to me is the side people don't see of you when you just post "PMing you". Ya know?

No worries. I was late leaving the house this morning because I was so engrossed with reading this thread while eating my cereal. I literally posted that I would talk with him later, put my bowl in the sink and walked out the door to go to work. And I was still 5 minutes late getting there.

I just wanted to throw something out that he's not alone, I just couldn't message him immediately.

This post is solely in response to the original question. I told my girlfriend if something happens to me she can do whatever she wants with it. Literally anything, I told her she can throw it into a dumpster for all I care, it doesn't matter to me. I mean, if I'm dead, why would I care? How would I care? I told her the easiest would just be to drop it off at Video Game Trader and Jeff can call her when he prices it all, don't even bother trying to sell it privately. Or send it all to Heritage, doesn't matter.

14 hours ago, Gloves said:

Hey man just a heads up every time you do this it looks a bit shady. 

I dunno if you intend to send him advice, but if so it'd be nice to share with the rest of the class. It's a forum, so kinda the whole point is that we're out here sharing info with each other on topics like this. 

On the flip, and based on your past similar posts, one has to assume you're gonna message him with something like "I'll buy everything you've got" or worse yet "I want specifically your rare things". 

The vagueness of your post leaves it to personal interpretation and every time you make a post like this in a thread where someone is asking for advice (and not saying "hey who wants to buy my stuff?") at least a few people I imagine roll their eyes and go "this fuckin guy again". 

11 hours ago, Gloves said:

In this instance that may well be the case, but I just wanted to share with him cuz he's said before he cares about how he's presenting himself, and it's not the first time he's come into a thread where someone is like "does anyone know what I have here?" and he's like "pmed". Just genuinely looking out, not policing it in this case. 

Mostly, I appreciate the honesty but I'll address each of your statements below.

The reason I was going to message him privately is because I wanted to offer him support as someone that has to navigate my own mental health struggles every day. Autism isn't nearly as debilitating as anxiety / depression / bipolar but day after day after day after day being constantly bombarded with people telling you you're doing something wrong or stupid and telling you you're dumb just because I have trouble understanding, I get it. I just want him to know he's not alone here, this is just one of multiple support systems available. There's also 811 here in Calgary, I think it's a mental health line they just launched last week if I remember correctly and I think Telus also has some sort of Health Link that is usually covered by health insurance. I think they also give people a free hour or something like that.

I also wanted to offer my help. I'm one of a few people that knows what it's like to manage a $100,000 video game collection and what's involved in that. I can go by his house and go through boxes, categorize stuff, organize and catalogue. I can even get him set up on my mobile application which is a collection tracker and also has pricing (a little outdated only because I'm building a machine learning model to replace it). That way he can simply add it to his nieces' phones and it's all there. I've been unloading hundreds of Wii and PlayStation games on Kijiji lately and don't mind listing all of the junk games and meeting with people near my place to sell them for him. I can do all of this next weekend with him or I can help out his nieces if something happens. Everything is totally free and I'm not shopping for myself. I'd actually like to go digging just to see what's there.

Addressing your next post, I have to assume you're speaking specifically about me doing that and not paying fair value because if I offer to buy everything someone is selling, isn't that the point of selling it? The only time I would ever not offer fair value is when I want something but just not that badly. For example, I want a Mega Man X3 box which is worth hundreds of dollars but I'm not willing to pay more than $100 for one. I have no interest in reselling so why would I pay more than what it's worth to me? They say no, we both move on, no problem. A month ago I paid $2400 for Panic Restaurant which is worth $2500, I'd say that's fair value. I paid more because I wanted it more. I've paid thousands of dollars for prototypes, $1500 for Surprise At Dinosaur Peak a few months ago and the list goes on. If I want it badly, I pay a lot. If I don't want it badly, I offer much less. Would you pay $1000 for something you don't want that's worth $10,000? I wouldn't, it isn't worth my time to resell it and I don't care about the money.

Your next point, I do care what people think about me (to an extent) but only because I always have to assume my negative interactions are some byproduct of my mental health struggles. However, I'm not sure how I would have gotten this reputation because I've never done this, not even once. Any time anyone has come in here with an actual rare item and I tried to buy it, it was always out in the open, nothing private. The guy with the Minnesota State Lottery cartridge, I never messaged him at all, I posted it publicly. The guy with the Mah-Jong cartridge, no private message, I posted it publicly. The prototypes I've bought here, the rest of the NES games, everything was publicly requested. I have not once messaged someone privately without posting my intentions publicly and there is absolutely no way I would ever use an initialism as a verb (pmed). My brain would explode.

So:

• I'm sorry I got that reputation
• I don't know how I got that reputation
• I'm even more sorry Mike is going through this
• I want to help Mike any way I can, whether that's now or at any point in the future. He's free to pass on my number
• I would go to his funeral if something happened, of course I would. And so would half of the local Facebook community we're in, we all would
• It's going to be -45 degrees tomorrow (not kidding) but once it warms up I wouldn't mind going by to see you for an hour or two, get some food or a drink or something if you feel up to it. I could even bring you something.

One last thing. I meant to address this in one of the points above but now I don't know where to insert it. I'm aware Mike has many uncommon games including a Myriad which I desperately need for my collection. However, he isn't selling it, his intentions have been stated and I'm not here to make offers on it. If he wants my help going through things that aren't for sale then I will respect that. I'm not a monster.

I don't have time now, I have to go to work but I'm going to send you a message tonight.

On 1/6/2024 at 11:32 PM, the_wizard_666 said:

Bionic Commando was released in December 88.  WWF Wrestlemania was released in January of 89. They both have a round seal version.  The 5 screw switch happened at the end of '87.  It seems the switch to the oval seal happened sometime in 89.  So yeah, it should exist.

Edit: Another thing to note is that there the question of a 5 screw Stadium Events existing because the timeliness said it should, but none were known to exist.  Similarly, round seal WCTM should exist.  It's just a matter of time until one shows up.

Oh, that late? Interesting.

It was released in August 1988, how could it?

8 hours ago, wu1fyy said:

After completing a few tasks, I'll be adding a search bar to all consoles so you can easily find a specific game. Following that, I'll be working on implementing a 'list' view layout.

You're the developer? What are you writing it in?

The problem with lazy loading is that you can't use CTRL+F to search for a game name. It's best to just have all games on the screen at once or at most pagination with a text filter.

Both Phleo and I are working on separate projects related to this right now. At some point we'll probably come together for a release or maybe we'll release individually but the knowledge is coming together. 

Of course but now it's so damn expensive it's getting slower.

I only needed 1 more for the $1000+ NES games (except the crazy Little Samson) and I got Panic Restaurant last month so I'm pumping the brakes a little now. Everything else is currently sub-$1000 so I'm taking a break but I'll be back at it soon.

• Stadium Events (I consider it a variant)
• Little Samson (not paying this much for a game right now)
• Bonk's Adventure (already have the box, just need the cartridge)
• Panic Restaurant (just bought it)
• Bubble Bobble Part 2 (got it complete)
• The Jetsons (got it complete)
• Sqoon (got it complete)
• the rest not worth as much......

New video!

13 hours ago, phart010 said:

SPOILERS, SPOILERS, SPOILERS....

Dude. Spoilers.

Not for me, I've finished it, but SPOILERS!

How do I look at the source code?

1 hour ago, the_wizard_666 said:

You know there are a few examples on the sealed contents list that had an oval cart in a round box right?  Think it was mostly Konami/Ultra, but there's some overlap on the seal variants.

Yes, I was just giving examples. 

4 hours ago, Tulpa said:

Was uploading to hosting and linking not an option? Heck, wouldn't a batch upload be quicker?

I honestly don't know how the hosting sites work, I've never used one. I've had my own server since forums first started so I've always hosted and linked my own images until storage got so cheap that forums were willing to host photos themselves. Now I just upload them instead. I have my laptop on my lap all night while watching television so I'm in no hurry to go anywhere. I'm usually working on something for a client anyway.

3 hours ago, Dr. Morbis said:

There are two completely different art styles for King of Kings: the original Family image (on both the box and cart label) which they must've realized wouldn't sell well, and then the re-release action shot featuring the camel (on both the box and cart label).  What you did with your picture would be akin to putting a yellow metroid box with a silver cart label; I honestly don't know how you can't see it...

You're not wrong but like I said, this has all been rectified since then. I used to have circle / oval seal mixed, 3 screw and hangtab but since then I've gone through and separated all the mismatched games. Most games have been re-photographed since then but this is an old photo from before the separation. That's why it's a different style (with box instead of solo).