Retro game stuff talk

[lilbud]

@obsidianspider The only electronics store near my house is a Radioshack, but it too is closing down. I usually get all of my stuff from Adafruit.

[obsidianspider]

@lilbud Adafruit is good, but a lot of their stuff is expensive. Depending on what you get into, and if you can wait a bit, you can find stuff from China on eBay for substantially less. I found that when I started buying small TFTs.

[lilbud]

@obsidianspider Adafruit may be more expensive, but their customer service and shipping time can't be argued with.

[edmaul69]

@lilbud i always buy my pi's themselves from micro center. Cheap and no shipping cost. Pi 3 is $30 plus tax. And the zeros are $5 and $10. No brick and mortar upcharge or shipping cost. Plus they have a no receipt, no questions asked return policy which you cant beat. I only use adafruit for adafruit brand product due to their high shipping cost.

[obsidianspider]

@FlyingTomahawk Any Hard-Off adventures lately?

[FlyingTomahawk]

@obsidianspider

Sorry, no.
Too busy at work. Summer time is our strong season at work so short lunch breaks longer working hours.
I am sure when things start to quiet down a bit I'll go on a hard-off tour again.
Good thing is I took off from work, July 13 to 19 so plenty of time to get my Famicom fixed.
And just in time for Game of thrones season 7 and hopefully a new ruckage theme release. "fingerscrossed"

P.S.
Please send me your name, address and phone numbes via e-mail. There are a couple things that I don't have any use for anymore and I am sure they are better in your hands.

[obsidianspider]

@flyingtomahawk I totally understand what it's like to be too busy. I've been busy with work lately too. Sadly the retro gaming store near me isn't open when I end up having time to stop by, but even then, it's nothing like the photos you've shared.

I sent you an email just now.

I can't say I've seen a single episode of Game of Thrones. No HBO for me.

[obsidianspider]

@flyingtomahawk With it being summer time I am sure your crazy chemistry lab full of dipped Famicoms will be going strong. 🙂

[FlyingTomahawk]

@obsidianspider

lol yeah, now would be a good time to do that.

[obsidianspider]

I just picked up two more white VMUs with dust caps (they were in the photos anyway) on eBay for ~$6 each including shipping.

As this first iteration of my VMU build comes together I'm already thinking about ways to improve it for a future build.

[obsidianspider]

Inspired by the ever-impressive ivanretrobit's BattPoke build, I decided to pick up a few on eBay. They arrived today.

And wow, they're small. Here are some other items for scale.

[obsidianspider]

The eBay fairy visited again today.

I found a cool Mario shirt, and I finally found a Game Boy Advance hard case. It's not mint, but it's in nice shape.

For a size comparison, here's the case with a GBA sitting on top of it.

I have a feeling I'll end up owning a second case within the next few days as the case that just came was one that showed up for a "Buy it now" price that was less than I had bid on the case that is in an auction that ends tomorrow. Oh well.

[obsidianspider]

I was looking at the Facebook Marketplace and I got a pretty decent deal on an AGS-101 that's been "well loved" today.

For $35 it also came with a copy of Pokemon Emerald.

It looks like a legit game, and it works, but the battery is dead, and it's pretty corroded. Pokemon doesn't really do anything for me, so I'm not sure I'll go to the trouble of finding a replacement battery and replacing it, but hey, a free game is never a bad thing.

I really only bought it for the screen, since an AGS-101 repro screen sells for $45 all day long on eBay, but I'm wondering if I should just get another shell for this thing, if I should put the GBA in a GBC shell, or get one of BennVenn's GBC-101 ribbon cables and convert a GBC to use the screen. Something to think about. For now, I'm charging the battery. :)

[obsidianspider]

The second GBA case that I bought "accidentally" (don't bid on two of the same items on eBay unless you are prepared to win both of them) arrived today along with some extra accessories. I only really wanted the case, so I'll have to see if I can sell them or something. Considering this lot was only $1 more than the first case, and I might be able to sell some of the accessories, I'm ok with it.

The GBA case is in better shape than the first one I bought, so I'll be keeping this as a "very good" example of the case, and now have few qualms about modding the first one. The first one has a damaged "foot" and some scratches on the case.

[obsidianspider]

Two more handhelds arrived today. (Is the Wii U GamePad a handheld? I mean, it has a screen.) Both have screen issues. Neither are mint, but are in good shape with a few scratches. Not sure what their fates will be, but the price was right, and they won't go bad sitting on a shelf, plus they look nice.

[MrJordaaany]

@obsidianspider Always worth restoring a pokemon game man. Especially Emerald version. They always hold their value and a quick cleanup and new battery means it wold sell for 60usd easy (thats about 100 NZD here which all pokemon games still go for).

[edmaul69]

@obsidianspider if i remember right their might be a capacitor that goes bad on the game gear causing the screen to not work. I believe it is located in one of the top corners.

[obsidianspider]

@mrjordaaany $60? I dunno, they don't seem to sell for that around here, especially with a mangled label.

[obsidianspider]

@edmaul69 the screen comes on, but there's no picture, just the backlight. Some reading around suggests a full cap replacement. I also see there are some TFT conversions that have been done. If I don't throw a Pi in this thing I may look at converting it to run on a LiPo with a PowerBoost to bring it up to 5V. 6 AAs would be 4.5V, but I have to think 5 would be in its nominal operating range.

[MrJordaaany]

@obsidianspider Hmmm probably just our overly jacked-up market then :/ Retro collecting is hard here. I almost always use Ebay/Amazon.