Yeah but people who UNDERSTAND THE MAGIC would buy one. : o Eh anyway I also momentarily forgot I was stealing the "Mini" name from the weird little kind of portable emulator things they're selling now that are shaped like miniature arcade cabinets. (Those do have HDMI out, looks like it has a blur filter on it though. : P)

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Posted by Paleface on October 29, 2018 at 23:43:27 EST in reply to I think the FPAGA they are using to transcode the video probably cost as much as several NPGs by itself. That’s just a guess on my part, but this is pretty pro looking. (n/t) from SignOfZeta.

Yeah but people who UNDERSTAND THE MAGIC would buy one. : o Eh anyway I also momentarily forgot I was stealing the "Mini" name from the weird little kind of portable emulator things they're selling now that are shaped like miniature arcade cabinets. (Those do have HDMI out, looks like it has a blur filter on it though. : P)

n/t

Fuck, I’d buy one now. I’m betting that will be out of my price range forever though. There can’t be very many of them and NGP hasn’t exactly cratered in value.

(SignOfZeta)

(03:20:09 10/30/18 EST)

I put a new-in-box NGP and two new-in-box NNGPCs on eBay this spring and they all went for over $200 a piece. : o

(Paleface)

(10:53:47 10/30/18 EST)

Bah I remembered that wrong. THREE NiB NNGPCs went for over $200 each (most was a Solid Silver one for $255); the NiB Sheer Clear NGP went for $100.

(Paleface)

(11:04:36 10/30/18 EST)

Yeah. I was just on eBay. “I bought one of those for $58 for my girlfriend once.” I said, while looking at $200-300 BINs on these 20 year old sometimes even used machines. As with almost any games that physically exist I’m very glad I got whatever I got when I did because it’s fucking crazy now. I have two non-new NGPs in boring colors but they of course still work %100 so that’ll do.

(SignOfZeta)

(12:18:09 10/30/18 EST)

I *should* sell my PCE stuff, 'cause I haven't even hooked the system up for years (the AV out was getting flaky, that's not helping my enthusiasm), but it would be a fair amount of work so I haven't. I suppose it'll probably not drop in value if I hold on to it anyway--but then again, who knows. Bonk 3, haha! : P

(Paleface)

(00:06:40 10/31/18 EST)

You fucking guys...seriously. That saying “I should sell it because I haven’t hooked it up in...”. That’s ridiculous. You should hook it up because you haven’t hooked it up. It’s impossible to be madly in love with something you refuse to even turn on and it’s not the PCE’s job to entice you into hooking it up! That being said, most PCE stuff isn’t very valuable really. It’s mainly just US games and JP versions of games that are famous with US collectors. Magical Chase JP and PC Genjin 3 are only valuable because US versions exist and go for $1000+. The dumb fucks that pay $750 for Night Creatures think PCE is some weird bootleg foreign shit so really good stuff like Hanataakadaka! (I think I spelled that right) or Bakushou Yoshimoto Shinkigeki rarely break $60.

(SignOfZeta)

(15:43:47 10/31/18 EST)

Didn't know that about the price relationship to US stuff. There's only like one or two games I mildly want to play on it, and I would probably feel like putting it away again after I'd played them a time or two. And I'd have to work some magic to clear enough space for it (Duo). Eh and I'd need a low-lag AV input, a Retrotink or something. And to hope its AV-out held together. At this point it's in the "maybe when I'm retired and really bored I'll mess with it" fantasy category, along with all my 2D PS1 RPGs.

(Paleface)

(18:59:41 11/01/18 EST)

Oh wait I can do it blurry style with my ol' Elgato Game Capture HD. Hm. Maybe that'll be my Thanksgiving weekend or something.

(Paleface)

(19:09:35 11/01/18 EST)

Eh wait again, I think my monitor doesn't do 240p or whatever. So the Elgato is back out.

(Paleface)

(19:11:17 11/01/18 EST)

You don’t have just like...a TV in that huge pile of AV shit?

(SignOfZeta)

(02:02:02 11/02/18 EST)

I have a big Sony 4K thing a friend gave me (he was upgrading to an even bigger one : o). It doesn't have AV but it would almost certainly work if I ran the PCE through the Elgato. The TV adds two frames of lag even in "game" mode, though. ; P Sooo I would be maybe a frame or half a frame better off just running the PCE directly into the Framemeister. Not convinced it would be worth the bother, especially since a big part of my motivation is being able to record gameplay and share it on YouTube, and I'd only have 480p at best to work with there. Whereas with a Retrotink + Framemeister I could take it to 960 (and then 1080 with borders), which would be all right. So maybe I'll just get one of those some day and then do it.

(Paleface)

(04:24:58 11/02/18 EST)

Or maybe someone will come out with a PCE Mini with DDII and Don Doko Don on it and I won't have to bother with this AV stuff : D

(Paleface can dream)

(04:53:17 11/02/18 EST)

Ohh except they certainly wouldn't do CD games on that kind of thing so DDII would never happen, wah.

(Paleface)

(04:54:17 11/02/18 EST)

you know there's that thing that plugs into the back of a regular pce and plays all roms and ISOs, right?

(exodus)

(13:44:07 11/07/18 EST)

Not really! But it did occur to me after I posted that last one that the PS Mini thingy is all CD games, so yeah DDII could totally happen even just based on that.

(Paleface)

(16:17:03 11/08/18 EST)

(oh I think the Sony does have composite inputs, for what that's worth.)

(Paleface)

(05:13:34 11/02/18 EST)

I promise you it does.

(SignOfZeta)

(13:14:06 11/02/18 EST)

Yeah I can kinda see them next to the component inputs, I think, although I'd have to move the thing out from the wall to be sure. Hopefully they would do a better job of handling progressive video game signals at the right aspect ratio, at least; over component, this Sony TV drew PS2 480p via component about 10% too narrow! : P Hm granted I was running it through a distribution amplifier, but that probably wasn't causing it.

(Paleface)

(12:44:46 11/03/18 EST)

My 2017 Sony has all analog video inputs combined into one 1/8” TRS jack. You have to use a special pigtail to access any of them. Once you hook them up though image processing of composite signals is quite amazing. I’m speaking of Laserdisc here though and not old games because I’ve never even fucked with that. I have TVs and then I have TVs, if you know what I’m saying. Wrong TV for that. Trying to make an LD look like film is one thing but games are another.

(SignOfZeta)

(15:39:12 11/04/18 EST)

Composite is usually combined with the green component jack on TVs from the last 5-10 years.

(SignOfZeta)

(15:40:56 11/04/18 EST)

Yeah, that's mostly why I was surprised mine appears to have separate composite jacks!

(Paleface)

(17:02:33 11/04/18 EST)

The Retrotink only does 2x line multiplying, which won't really cut it. I guess I should just get my Turbo Duo RGB modded so I can use it with my OSSCs which go to 5x. That would also fix the instability of my Duo's AV-out port, I suppose.

(Paleface)

(13:43:35 11/11/18 EST)

Man, I'd forgotten how cool HuCards are--such elegantly solid hunks of plastic. Now I kind of want just a PCE rather than my big clunkier Duo. Plus, the PCE would actually fit on my desk. Hm.

(Paleface)

(19:41:47 11/11/18 EST)

You don’t think about playing games very much do you? HuCARDs are indeed cool but you’re not going to play Gate of Thunder or Ys?

(SignOfZeta)

(10:58:38 11/12/18 EST)

Well that's the pickle. Currently I'm leaning toward getting an RGB-modded PCE, to keep on my desk, and *also* getting my Duo R modded; I would keep the Duo stored in my electronics cupboard of shame and bring it out to hook up when I feel like committing to clearing space out for a bit for a Super CD session. // My Duo has a controller port problem where it acts like all buttons are being pressed at once unless downward pressure is being applied to the controller plug--this steadily got worse as I owned it; don't remember now if it was there when I first got it, but it definitely developed into a problem even worse than the video out getting flaky (picture cuts out momentarily if that's jostled)--so I'll have to get that taken care of, too--or else get a new used Duo, I guess.

(Paleface)

(16:18:02 11/12/18 EST)

Eh but there still aren't that many of the games that I'm dying to play just now and I definitely don't need to spend the money so I should probably just keep holding off.

(Paleface)

(19:59:31 11/12/18 EST)

Have compromised on just getting the Duo repaired and modded, which isn't all that pricey. If I find some HuCard games I just need to have out all the time, I guess I can always get the modded Core Grafx II or whatever later. : P

(Paleface)

(21:30:16 11/12/18 EST)

Also getting the Duo-R's capacitor's replaced, 'cause apparently that is or becomes a problem, causing "jail bar" dim horizontal lines across the picture. Can't say I ever noticed it, eh, might have gotten taken on that one. : P

(Paleface)

(23:44:37 11/13/18 EST)

Jailbars on RGB modded PCE are very common, I’m pretty sure across all models. People can fix it although I confess I don’t know much about it. Bad caps on Duo R are almost unheard of but are virtually guaranteed on the black systems. Perhaps there is *a* capacitor value that can be changed in order to fix the video but a total capacitor replacement is, I’m %99 sure, unrelated to the jailbar thing (which again, I’m pretty sure only happens with RGB modded systems) and unnecessary work which I personally don’t recommend anyone do because all it can do it break something if it already works perfectly. That goes for all sorts of things, not just game machines.

(SignOfZeta)

(16:56:39 11/14/18 EST)

Google told me: it isn't related to RGB modding, it's just the clearer picture makes them more apparent; and it is 100% due to capacitors. And yeah it didn't seem to be a problem on my system--there's maybe(?) the faintest possible hint of it in this old screen photo I took (inside), so it wasn't a problem yet...but I didn't want to get the system back and then find it was a problem, or something (I'd also read something that seemed to say it gets worse over time?). So eh oh well I just hope I get the darn thing back and it works and the picture looks a little sharper than it did over composite.

(Paleface)

(17:38:10 11/14/18 EST)

This is news to me but then I've been banned from PCEFX so I can't look it up. I have literally (correct use, take note) never heard of a single person mentioning jail bars on an unmodified Duo. If you can't see them without it modded then it is most definite the mod that's doing it. If its invisible in composite on a system that only has composite then its not there. I can see adjusting capacitor type and value fixing the "issue" but again the "issue" is self inflicted.

(SignOfZeta)

(13:06:07 12/05/18 EST)

The PCEFX forum is changing my mouse pointer to silly sprite characters, I don't like that. : P

(Paleface)

(01:26:38 12/08/18 EST)

yeah, they did it right after the forum basically totally died so I don't know who to even complain to. it's weird, it was going fine until suddenly just nothing.

(exodus)

(18:44:00 12/20/18 EST)

I haven't been there in a while but basically Nanto put that Nightwolf guy in charge and he eventually banned anyone who rubbed him the wrong way even a little, installed a swear filter, all sorts of weird shit. While his past forum behavior was borderline psychotic he started behaving like a model of civility publicly while flaming and banning anyone on his enemies list, which was pretty much everyone. Facebook is presumably where everyone went since they had already leached a lot of the forum's traffic before this shit even went down. I don't know what's going on now. Presumably Nightwolf is answering his own questions all day.

(SignOfZeta)

(00:48:51 12/25/18 EST)

almost nothing is going on. Maybe that's why the forum is so quiet, because he banned everyone!? man... people should learn from my mistakes with the ic forums

(exodus)

(15:36:25 12/27/18 EST)

To me I guess jailbars being an RGB thing or not doesn't matter, since I need something other than composite anyway to be able to run it through my OSSCs.

(Paleface)

(01:47:48 12/08/18 EST)

Finally got it back a couple weeks ago, seems like they did a pretty good job with it. Here's how the RGB output looks.

(Paleface)

(22:49:53 01/21/19 EST)

I think the other capacitor problem is chemicals leaking out onto the mainboard, or something?

(Paleface)

(14:03:02 11/16/18 EST)

I guess you haven't checked ebay in a while! hanatakadaka goes for over $100 at minimum. it's $60 for a loose cart, sure. but uh... do you seriously put Bakushou Yoshimoto Shinkigeki, a licensed minigame cash-in, among the "really good stuff" ??? that's weird, dude!

(exodus)

(16:48:06 11/05/18 EST)

(Paleface)

(17:05:45 11/05/18 EST)

I do, yes. I’ve cleared it several times and loved it. I also like Kato and Ken, which is like a crude version of the same thing. I bought the long nosed goblin too long ago, I guess. I paid like $45. Even at $100 though, that’s nearly the bottom end of any mint US game now.

(SignOfZeta)

(18:20:26 11/05/18 EST)

you can still get a lot of US games for around $30 - the only reason I'm balking at this assessment is that I have been looking at this dumb market pretty closely and like mizubaku kids is $140 at best now... I totally agree that aside from the stalwarts like sapphire, sylphia, the demo games, etc, there's more upward price movement on the PCE games that were made expensive by US prices. But the rarer PCE games are really getting up there, even the "kind of" rare ones. Like... Basted! or City Hunter - these kinds of games were like 20 bucks 4 or 5 years ago and now are all in the $60-$100 category. I think as supply dries up just everything is escalating.

(exodus)

(18:53:56 11/05/18 EST)

For sure. The entire gaming market in 1990 was a sliver of what it is today and PCE was a third rate competitor with little international presence so total copies pressed has to be very small compared to SFC and FC. It was undervalued for ages but I guess that's come to an end. I assume JP Mega Drive is just crazy town for the same reasons?

(SignOfZeta)

(00:13:50 11/06/18 EST)

mega drive is insane - especially the low print run american games. some of those are going for like 500-700 bucks. obviously forget about getting a copy of alien soldier, etc!

(exodus)

(23:16:23 11/06/18 EST)

p.s. you should sell it to me not zeta :3 unless you threw all the manuals and box art away!

(exodus)

(16:49:09 11/05/18 EST)

I did indeed throw them very far away. = o

(Paleface)

(17:07:54 11/05/18 EST)

Fucking A...yeah. They’re all worthless now.

(SignOfZeta)

(18:21:30 11/05/18 EST)

Unless you wanted to play the actual games.

(Paleface)

(21:06:31 11/05/18 EST)

I already have the data. The “actual game” is more than just a big stream on a disc.

(SignOfZeta)

(21:37:40 11/06/18 EST)

“Bit stream” isn’t something iOS recognizes, I guess.

(SignOfZeta)

(21:38:24 11/06/18 EST)

we've had this fight before, and I wound up confused :3

(exodus)

(23:17:01 11/06/18 EST)

I *think* you and Zeta are on the same side?

(Paleface)

(12:39:54 11/07/18 EST)

(exodus)

(13:44:19 11/07/18 EST)

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