|
Post by chibby on Jan 14, 2018 22:13:05 GMT -5
I have a laptop currently that has an extremely finicky charge cable. In fact, the last two or three became finicky at some point before they became landfill, but I digress.
The efforts I've been putting in to making it work, combined with some of the discussions I've seen thus far have made me think about some of the old tricky/hacks/methods that people used (or still use) to make their retro games function. We've all blown on our fair share of cartridges I'm sure, so I thought it'd be a fun addition to the forum to have a dedicated place for stories about going out of your way to make something do what you wanted.
|
|
|
Post by anayo on Jan 14, 2018 22:37:22 GMT -5
I have a Genesis model 2 that would only stay powered on if you held the AC adapter at a certain angle. After soldering the AC adapter bit back onto the motherboard, it worked.
I have a Japanese Sega Saturn that wouldn't read discs when I received it. Turned out for some reason the spindle with the ball bearings on it for spinning the CD had been compressed about a half centimeter into the system, creating friction against the surrounding plastic and preventing the disc from turning. I popped it back out with a flathead screwdriver and it worked.
My mom found a bunch of N64 controllers for $2 each at a nearby thrift store, but the joysticks were all worn and floppy. I ordered a bunch of replacement joysticks from Ali express for $5 each. They're easy to replace, you just remove some Phillips head screws from the N64 controller and the way to remove and replace the joystick mechanism is obvious from there. They're as good as new now.
List of stuff I still need to fix:
The joystick on my Ms. Pac Man Coleco tabletop arcade is still unresponsive when I move up. I tried disassembling it and replacing the little electrical contact thing that makes the controls work at the expense of crippling 2 player mode. It's still unresponsive. I had an idea for another remedy but haven't gotten around to it.
I think all my NES's might need new 72 pin connectors. I had one in really good condition that seemed to work, but I must have just magically gotten the cartridge in the right alignment, because when I put a different game in the system it just stopped working, seemingly for good. I can only get a title screen to appear if I manually press the game down farther than the resting position of the spring mechanism inside.
|
|
|
Post by toei on Jan 15, 2018 0:38:12 GMT -5
I was playing a fan translated computer strategy RPG called Farland Symphony (for those who know the Farland Story series on the PC-98, it's a huge improvement over those). I hadn't had a problem throughout the entire game, but during the final boss fight, the game just crashed. I tried a few times, and it kept happening, but I refused to leave the game unfinished. I ended up memorizing all the things that seemed to make it crash - stepping on certain tiles, using certain spells, etc. - and finally beat it. I wasted hours on that thing.
|
|
|
Post by chibby on Jan 15, 2018 8:16:59 GMT -5
Toei that sounds awful!
In about 2004, I got my hands on the original Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. We were playing it on a PC that was 3-5 years old already. Kotor was already plagued by bugs, but additionally it was a real bear for our computer's processor. So among the wide variety of reasons that it might crash, sometimes the whole computer would just shut off. The more heated the conflict, the higher likelihood it seemed.
My Dad was not a gamer, but Kotor unlocked something in that man. He would get up at 3 or 4am so that he would have time to both read the Bible and Pray AND play Kotor for a few hours before going to work around 6am and not then coming home, sometimes, until 10 or 11pm. He had about an hours' commute and he worked really long days. That or he had a secret life that he took to his grave, who knows? Either way the poor guy was maybe getting 3 hours of sleep each night, but it was worth it because Kotor is fantastic. My mother, most days, wouldn't get out of bed until roughly 10am or so, which meant if I was enough of an early bird, I two could devote 2+ hours to some sweet sweet Kotor early in the mornings (I did have to time it so my dad was already gone before I made any noise, otherwise he'd make me do homework and pray first).
The scheduling is not the story, though as I've finished typing it, I suppose it could be. Most of you probably realized immediately that my computer's problem wasn't that it "just shut off" it was clearly overheating, but I had no clue. Once we realized what was going on we read that computers overheat because of dust buildup on the inside, so we bought a ton of the aerosol dust sprayers and went to town. It didn't help. Eventually we realized that the heat was the very obvious result of the game and we pulled one of the side panels off the tower and stuck our highest powered fan right next to it on full blast. It helped a lot. I would also be down there so early and unawake that I would think to myself "Why is my left leg so cold, but my right leg is fine?"
To this day, Kotor and it's sequel are two of my favorite games ever made.
|
|
|
Post by Ex on Jan 15, 2018 10:21:29 GMT -5
I need to give the KOTOR games another chance. I tried to get into the first one many years ago, and it just didn't click for me. I'm not saying it's a bad game by any means though. There's been more than once that I started playing a game, decided it was crap, and put it away. Then years later gave the selfsame game another try, and suddenly found myself enjoying it. I've learned that my present mood (or energy level) can have a big impact on my enjoyment of a new video game. As rational/logical as I try to be, I'm only human unfortunately.
Anyway, as for the point of this thread, I'm trying to think of finicky game hardware I've dealt with. Of course I had the usual NES issue where I would blow on the cartridges (80s kids had no idea how dumb this was) to get them to work. Sometimes that did work, but not as good as a q-tip and 70% rubbing alcohol would have. My original Xbox has had various issues with its optical drives dying. I had two Samsungs die in it, and now its got a Phillips drive (which is presently working thankfully). I had a Game Gear go bad, because I lent it to someone and they left batteries in it too long (caused corrosion and leaked unregulated current through the chipset). And that's all I can think of. I've owned tons of consoles/handhelds, and I still own many that are quite old now, but they work nominally. Amazingly enough, my original Master System sat in a non-temperature regulated, non-humidity regulated shed in hot Georgia summers for years upon years, and after that still worked when my brother dug it out and played it. I was very impressed with that.
|
|
|
Post by chibby on Jan 15, 2018 13:21:55 GMT -5
I need to give the KOTOR games another chance. I have to imagine my love for them is a pretty particular mix of timing then and nostalgia now. I hadn't played a lot of RPG's up until that point and it's a lot less daunting than something Square Enix might put out. Also The Force. It probably also couldn't have hurt that my old man was in to them so I didn't have to feel like dirty heathen for playing them over and over. If you play through the first and decide to move forward with the second, you need to get your hands on the Restored Content Mod. The developers (Obsidian Entertainment for the second even though Bioware did the first) were rushed to complete the game for holiday sales and as a result there was content that was coded but not implemented into the final product. Over the course of some many years, modders ripped through all of the game files and made a patch that put them back into the game. The ending still feels not quite right, but it feels maybe 7/8ths complete instead of 3/4ths. I realize that's a small difference, but it meant a lot to me when I went back to play it.
|
|
|
Post by Sarge on Jan 16, 2018 17:54:49 GMT -5
KOTOR is amazing, but it does take time to get rolling. It's the game that managed to get me to actually mess with Western RPGs. I remember the first eight hours or so being kinda dull, but once you get off-world, the game really takes off. Getting a lightsaber is one of the biggest deals, but by that point your character is starting to come into his or her own as well. You get to the point where you're just a wall of death. I don't remember if I did dual-wield or not in the first game... but I probably did. And used Flurry a lot.
Also, I've been meaning to go through KOTOR 2 again with the Restoration Mod. I've got a friend that says it's a fine experience that way, much closer to the original intent.
|
|
|
Post by Xeogred on Jan 16, 2018 18:36:49 GMT -5
I beat KOTOR1 for the first time in the beginning of 2016. Definitely enjoyed it for the most part. I tried the PC version but lost my patience in tinkering with it to get it to work, so I just played the Xbox version. I sadly played KOTOR2 first back in the day, I guess being a kid it was just a case of that's the one that was available when I rented or borrowed it. So the cool connection between the two games was spoiled on me. But anyways, the game was amazing and a crazy take on Star Wars... I'm excited to revisit it with the Steam version sometime soon and with the Restoration Mod. It was Obsidian, not Bioware, and if memory serves me right... I might like it more than all of Bioware's stuff to this day.
For those who maybe don't know, the Steam version of KOTOR2 was patched just a few years ago with updates to support widescreen displays, controllers, achievements, etc. So I'm assuming it'll be smooth sailing to play unlike the PC version of KOTOR1.
KOTOR1 is indeed a slow burner early on. That's the difference I always heard about back in the day... KOTOR2 gives you Jedi stuff right away if I remember right. But it's a good 10 hours into KOTOR1 before that stuff starts happening.
|
|
|
Post by Ex on Jan 16, 2018 22:52:26 GMT -5
I just realized the only BioWare game I've actually beaten is Mass Effect. I got almost to the end of Baldur's Gate, and halfway through Jade Empire. Only put about three hours into KOTOR before hanging it up.
My thing with BioWare, is of the games I've played by them, the gameplay/graphics/audio are all OK, even good. But BioWare's writing has been particularly drab in my experience. They really could have used more exciting/juicier writing in their earlier days. That said, I'd like to beat a lot more games by the company in the years ahead. So many fans can't be wrong?
|
|
|
Post by Sarge on Jan 16, 2018 23:26:11 GMT -5
That being said, Mass Effect is a good one. Kinda wish they'd stuck with the more RPG bent of the shooter combat.
And Mass Effect is over ten years old. Jeez, seems like yesterday I was playing through it.
|
|