Retro Computer Museum Gaming Event May 2011

Although the Retro Computer Museum’s May gaming event was held a few weekends ago, I haven’t had the chance to upload  photos and video i’d taken during the weekend.

Things kick off on Friday afternoon at HQ where I met most of the admin staff and we loaded our cars with all the computer systems, consoles, equipment, games, tables &  what seemed like 100′s of TV’s & monitors!

Jim playing a game of ‘TV Tetris’ as he tries to cram yet another TV into his MPV. I think in the end he got 35 in there whilst I managed about 32 (small ones at that!).

With everything loaded and ready to be transported to the venue, we all had a well deserved break and a bite to eat. It was such a lovely evening we enjoyed  alfresco dining using a few tables we had left over. Suffice to say, this was a laugh a minute meal as it usually is when we get together.

Dave’s (fish), Soph, Andy, Alex, Phu, Jim, Arthur & Jon (hand!)

You may recal my photoshop digital makeover of a few classic computers the other week (see blog post – http://stiggyblog.wordpress.com/2011/04/23/retro-computer-digital-makeover/, well as promised, Dave had them blown up to poster and size for wall decoration….and as you can see, I’m quite chuffed with them

Heading to the venue in one convoy (complete with lots of rubber duck references & singing of the signature film score) we arrived at the venue and spent the next few hours setting everything up.

Here’s a quick video I shot, during Fridays setup.

We finished setup rather late on Friday and by the time I got home it was already into the early hours of Saturday morning…and a few hours later it was morning and time to head back down to Leicester again for final prep work and system check.

Just a few of the systems available to use.

The MGT Sam Coupe was ready for use now that we’d fitted a new keyboard membrane. It’s so nice to see an old system up and running again and with the likes of a very smooth Defender port should see plenty of action throughout the weekend.

More uncommon Sord M5 drew quite a crowd, with many not being familiar with it.

The custom Acorn Atom with colour GFX card certainly turned a few heads too.

Doors opened on Saturday & Sunday and was great once again to catch up with friends and regulars to the scene as well as meeting host of new faces.

Here’s a quick walk-through on the 70 odd systems available to play

Andy Spencer (friend and owner of RCM) poses next to his giant Miner Willy he’d knocked up as part of a new demo.

The chaps from Psytronik software were there too allowing gamers to sample and purchase some of the best remakes around. Pictured is the brilliant remake of the classic Commodore C64 shooter Armalyte. Sadly (for the 2nd event in a row) I forgot about buying myself a copy!

It’s so nice to see another Phoenix arcade cabin with different artwork as opposed to my own. It played like a dream too with all credits being donated to RCM.

After being repaired by Karl & Jim, RCM’s bartop MAME cab is once again in full working order…Dave seems to be enjoying himself.

Down to some serious business now. I had my high score of 650,000 to beat on Defence Force on the Oric -1. Despite getting absolutely nowhere on Saturday I was back for ‘just one more go’. This time I had Jon behind me with words of encouragement.

About an hour and a half and with aching wrists I done it…and I think I’ll leave it at that as I don’t think I’ll ever beat it again….maybe?

Actually I thought the game had ended here and was in the middle of a victory dance when another level started (or looped?) – Here’s the final score. Can you beat it?

Max and Jackie playing the 128k version of Elite on their seriously pimped BBC  Micro.

Max was kind enough to give me the whistle-stop tour of his Beeb. Some seriously nice addons here and may look into the kit provided by the RetroClinic for my own BBC.

I happen to win a few items on the raffle as well as picking up a few bargains from Andy & Steve. I’ll post more on these in a later post.

This is the first full weekend event that RCM have hosted and from the feedback, comments and our observations over the weekend, we think it went pretty well and look forward to many many more.

By 11pm on Sunday evening, everything had been packed up, shipped back to HQ and home again. Completely shattered but very happy!

Other happy gamers – Duncan, Andy, Paul, Dave, Jim, Arthur, Vinney & myself and Mark battling out on Sensible Soccer on Simon’s Amiga.

Oodles of new retro computer & gaming gear

Work and life has been so busy of late I haven’t had chance to update my blog’s Retro Gaming category and also sift through the growing heap of new ‘old’ retro computer gear I’ve received including some rather cool homebrew hardware items for my C64 & BBC Micro.

My Mame cab is almost completed so again, updates to follow.

Hopefully, I’ll get chance to post a few words and the odd piccie over the next week or so but in the meantime, thanks for stopping by and feel free to say hello.

Oops

Oops, another long delay between posts Hopefully service will resume asap!

Be back soon.

Regards

StiGGy

Can I have my 3DO please?

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enought to win a Panasonic 3DO console (FZ-1) model and although the seller was very prompt in despatching the parcel to me the courier company had made a right mess of delivering it

At one point it became almost comical!

I was actually hoping that To recieve the console prior to the Easter break but alas no. Maybe I’m a little impatient here but tracking information advised the parcel was at my local depot two days before Easter.

Sadly, I’d missed the delivery attempt after Easter due to being at work (by only 15 mins according to the failed delivery slip posted through my door).

Although not very clear on instructions, the failed delivery slip listed a website and automated telephone number to arrange a redelivery attempt or collection at the depot. Rather than miss another delivery I thought it best that I collect directly from the depot.

The first problem I encountered was the ref no. on the failed delivery slip appeared to be invalid according to the website! I must have spent at least an hour wrestling with the website. In the end I tried the telephone number in the event that I’d get to speak to a real person and explain my predicament. Sadly, if was an automatic system and like the website said my tracking number was invalid.

So here I am with no item, no way of knowing where it was and no contact information.

The next day I hit the Internet and pretty much from the 2nd hit on Google it looked like this was such a common and downright annoying problem that so many customers had had with this courier. Further surfing resulting in a rather interesting telephone ‘hack’ that allowed callers to bypass their automated telephone system and be put through to an operator….I kid you not!

Well, I tried it and would you believe it, it worked and was connected to real person.

After a few minutes my triumphant joy again returned to dismay as the operator announced that they had no reference to any parcel under my consignment number and no reference of any deliveries bound for my address.

Surely that’s wrong I said and pointed out that I’d even received a failed delivery slip throughout my door. The operator replied that the delivery was probably for another address and the driver had mistakenly posted the slip through my letter box by mistake. Rather angrily I replied ‘so how come it’s got my surname on it then?’ and her reply was ‘errrrmmm’!

I ‘politely’ asked her to search through her records again and this time, low and behold she located my delivery.

It’s at the local delivery she announced so I said I’d like to arrange to pick it up. She said that that would be a problem as the item was due to be shipped again the next day. At this stage I had no choice but to book a day off work and wait in for the delivery.

It never arrived

Back on the phone, I had to go through the same routine of ‘I can’t find any record of you consignment’ pantomime again before we got to the bottom of why I didn’t receive my item this time. His answer, although rather apologetic was that the previous operator had misread the details on screen and no redelivery was scheduled. As you can imagine, this is becoming somewhat frustrating!

Any-ho, we arranged that I would collect the item from my local depot (well, a 30 mile round trip to the depot) the next day.

The next day came, I checked that i had sufficient identification/proof of address and eagerly set off to the depot during my lunchbreak.

When I arrived, the despatch officer said that, according to their records, I wasn’t due to collect the item until the next day and that the item ‘wasn’t ready for collection’. As you can imagine, I hit the roof.

Once I’d climb down out of my tree I explained in great detail all of the problems I’d encountered so far and demanded that they stop wasting my time and go get my *** parcel.

After half an hour looking through the depot the despatch officer said that she couldn’t find it and that it might still be on the lorry.

I asked to see the depot manager and again explained my situation. I also cautioned him not to use the words ‘maybe’,'probably’ and ‘could be’. He went very red.

After another round of apologises from him he said that there really wasn’t much he could do but take my telephone number and contact me later in the evening after another depot search that afternoon.

Grudgingly, I went back to work empty handed.

That evening, the phone never rang

The next day was the wedding of HRH Prince William & Kate Middleton and therefore the depot was shut.

The next day (now two weeks after the item was shipped) I drove down to the depot again determined not to leave empty handed.

When I arrived, two weeks of frustration
from this whole silly game came out.

I roared and the depot manager went red again.

I also suggested that he rolled up his sleeves, gets out into the depot and start looking.

After over an hour, he came back looking rather worried and said that there had yet again been another mistake. Instead of placing my parcel (it was found earlier in the day) in the area awaiting customer collection, it was placed in the area due for redelivery.

You know I though that steam coming out of ears only happened in cartoons

The depot manager was now wobbling like jelly and raced to the office to try and contact the driver by phone.

Sadly, the driver wasn’t answering his phone and thus I once again was leaving empty handed. The depot manager said as I left that he would continue to try and get hold of the driver and tell him that I’m on my way home.

See me racing through city centre traffic on a busy Saturday afternoon.

I arrived home and headed for the letter box. Great no parcel, I’ve won the race to get home before the courier arrived. All I need to do is sit tight and wait.

Hold on, what’s that on the floor?

It was another failed delivery slip with today’s date on it. Hear me ROAR!

I flipped the slip over and in my anger hadn’t seen the hand written note at the bottom saying that my item had been left with a neighbour!

Could it be true? Was it some sick joke? Was I dreaming?

See we race to our neighbours house. She brought the item out for me.

See me jump in the air hollering and pumping fist….see neighbour slowly backing away.

Back home, I couldn’t bare to open it. What if after all of this hassle it’s the wrong item….or it’s broken?

I peeled back the outer packaging…..and am happy to report all is present and working

We’re not finished just yet though! 3 days later I had a voice message left on my phone. It was someone at the depot apologising that they still can’t find my item

See me pass out

Here it is –

Retro Computer Museum ‘weekender’.

This weekend see the first of this years Retro Computer Museum’s epic gaming events. Unlike previous events, this one is being held over the entire weekend.

We’ve all been working really hard to make this one the best event we’ve had so fingers crossed all goes well.

Looking forward to the multiple competitions that will be running throughout the weekend as well as a few personal ongoing gaming battles i have with friends. I’m also hoping to beat my own top score of 650,000 on Defence Force on the Oric -1.

I’ll also be collecting my c64 sd-iec board and will post more about this next week.

As always, will have camera at hand and thanks to the convenience of my iPhone, will probably shoot more video this time.

VGA TV Box.

As my collection of older computers and games consoles increases, so does my lack of space on my desk as it’s usually filled with all manner of PC TFT monitors and TV’s. For some of my older stuff, I have 3rd party or homebrew VGA converters but for most unmodified systems like my Commodore or Sinclair collection most are connected to a standard TV via an RF connection.

Ideally, I’d like reclaim my desk and have the one PC TFT monitor. Of course, PC monitors don’t usually contain all of the usual A/V ports that most TV’s offere so it was with great interest that I happen to come across a solution that might help.

VGA TV Box from Gadmei.

With this, I can connect a whole host of computers/consoles to a standard VGA PC monitor (TFT or CRT) & speakers rather than having to have a separate LCD TV on my desk.

Here’s the specs -

• Highest resolution: 1280 X 1024 /75Hz
• Resolution rate up to 800*600, 1024*768 or 1280*1024
• Refresh rate up to 60Hz or 75Hz
• Built-in Speaker
• Stereo FM function
• Works without your PC, no drivers or software needed
• Simply plug in an aerial lead, and connect to your LCD or CRT monitor
• Connect a set of speakers for sound
• Compatible with LCD/CRT monitors, PDP and Projectors
• This TV BOX is a high quality digital colour PCTV, with 24 bits true colour picture
• Unique MMI AV Cable can be connected with DVD/PS2/XBOX/Game CUBE/VCR or any other composite source
• RF input
• PC Line/Speaker jack
• Supports multipicture, exploring
• 4,9 or 16 Thumbnail scanning of TV channels
• Supports watching TV under windows system (PIP) Function
• 3D noise-reduction
• Full subjoin channel receiving and compatible with Cable TV and Wireless TV of a PAL/I system, up to 256 channels
• No installation software needed, compatible with any PC system
• Plug and Play, cot occupying computer resource
• Full function remote control
• OSD display control on the PC model

My first test was with my Sinclair Spectrum +2 (Thanks to Andy of RCM). Here I’ve connected the RF output from the computer to the VGA box which is them connected to my test VGA PC monitor. The other leads are for audio but as I’m using RF, i won’t be using these yet.

Selecting one of the spare channels, I set the unit to auto tune via the OSD. This can actually take some time as it scans through all of the frequencies but once it’s found the correct one it can be saved to the unit. Although the automatic tuning did a pretty good job, I had to make fine adjustments with the manual options.

You can control the OSD either via the buttons on the actual unit itself or via the supplied remote control.

‘Finders Keepers’ loading from tape on the +2. So far the picture is pretty good. There’s a little color bleeding but nothing too distracting.

Swapping over to the Spectrum +3, you can see the color bleed on the left. I swapped over the RF cable and the picture was improved somewhat.

On the Sinclair Spectrum +, the boot text was pretty crisp and readable (ignore the pinkish tint to the screen, the bright sunlight/iphone camera was producing some discoloration).

Things didn’t look to great on the BBC Micro though and no matter how much manual tuning i did, this was about the best i could do and as you can see it’s pretty awful. However, the beeb is usually connected via a BNC connector and it looks like the RF port hasn’t been used in a few years therefore it’s probably a dirty connection rather than a faulty VGA unit/cabling. I’ll need to investigate further!

I tested a couple of Commodore C64 breadbins and C64 model C’s  via RF and all looked pretty good.

Something a bit more modern this time therefore I hooked up my Playstation 2 via composite. This looked much much better than RF (as you’d expect) but the screenshot below doesn’t do it justice – I should have picked a still instead of the opening sequence from Tekken 4

O.k, so is it better than connected directly to a TV…erm no. However, considering that the VGA box was only £29 and about a quarter the price of the cheapest 15″ LCD TV it’s certainly an economical solution and one that will save me a bit of desk space!