/vr/ - Retro Games

>>7949927
colecovision has a homebrew RAM expansion with msx ports and arcade ports, and /vr/ has never talked about it

it's called the super game module

http://www.colecovision.dk/sem.htm

They did pretty well in an Atari dominated market. It's a cool machine, controllers are just fucking garbage. SEGA did that hardware better, and so did the MSX.

>>7949937
I have never been able to find one of these things. Do they still make them?

>>7949939
There's some on eBay for like $700; you might as well buy an MSX. The Coleco scene is tiny and intense, so a lot of this stuff sells out and is never made again. I think some emulators and FPGA implementations support it (the Analogue Mega SG "jailbreak" comes to mind).

>>7949927
They didn't, the Atari 5200 was made because they were doing so well Atari was pissing themselves in fear.

>>7949927
How is having a great system with great games fucking it up?

>>7949937
>>7949939
>>7949952
One of the great things about the system is it's 100% off the shelf parts. People have been fucking with it for ages. A few penny chips and a breadboard gives you anything, and more, than any zoom zoom can imagine.

>>7949927
Wasted tremendous amounts of money and resources on a piece of shit computer that bombed so hard it single-handedly sunk the company with some of the most infamous and egregious design flaws in the history of consumer electronics. Which is a real shame because it otherwise had potential.

>>7949927
By not making it MSX complaint.

>>7949937
I'm missing a few of those but they're mostly MSX ports anyway.

>>7949927
If the coleco came with a NES style controller and a better sound chip it would have dominated.

>>7949992
5200 was created to counter the rising pressure from Intellivision. Then Colecovision comes out of nowhere and exposes what an undercooked disaster 5200 really is.

>>7949939
Back in 2013, I got lucky and got one CIB from Goodwill for like $14.

>>7951147
Oh wait, I thought you were talking about the system itself.

>>7951128
The irony is that both were made with a couple-years-old 1979 chipset. I guess Atari had a greater reputation to uphold so it was more obvious and disappointing. And while the 5200's controllers are famously awful, the Colecovision's are also questionable.

>>7951006
It was also the expensive option for its time. It was vastly superior to the 2600. And it was still superior to the Intelevision. You're correct about the controller being crap. Every single one out there needs repaired today.

>>7949952
>you might as well buy an MSX.
For that price you should get an MSX2
Not even close to being worth it unless you're a youtuber than recollect the money through ad revenue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Dt93cDZxlM

nice thing about the Colecovision is how fast it is. it has a 3.5Mhz CPU and a full 3.5Mhz since the port-mapped video RAM doesn't steal CPU cycles. it's faster than the NES. since it was Z80-based, it was easy to do ports of many early 80s arcade games on.

I'm surprised it does get so much homebrew considering it basically feels like a beta version of the NES and Master System and those machines can do a lot more.

>>7949952
>>7951470
The SG-1000 offers the same chipset in a more reliable, power-efficient package with a better controller and it's easier to program due to the retarded interrupt setup on the Colecovision, however Americans will have to import one and they're not super-common in the markets where they were sold.

It was the Dreamcast of its time.

>>7951220
What's the best solution for controllers available on coleco/intellivision? I've looked at buying one of each but I don't know if I want to put up with the bad gamepads. I had 2600 for years but I used high-quality atari-compatible PC controllers then. The extra bits and bolts on coleco/intelli make me wonder what options exist (I assume something out there must exist).

>>7951578
Wouldn't that be Sega Genesis Controllers or am I mistaken about that?

>>7949937
post screenshots

>>7949939
>>7949952
Opcode Games does, "runs," every few months where people can buy them for much cheaper than what you'll find on eBay. The last one was in April. You can keep up to date on Opcode Games' Facebook page. Also, according to the Opcode Games email newsletter, (which I get because I'm subscribed to their magazine,) the SGM2 that's even better spec-wise and has the added feature of allowing you to plug in your Colecovision via HDMI is supposed to be coming out late 2022, although according to wjat I saw online it's been pushed back a bunch of times. BTW, there's supposed to be exclusive versions of their games that magazine subscribers will be eligible to purchas in the future. Ex: One of their games is, "Donkey Kong Arcade," which has the pie level in it that the original Coleco version doesn't have, and in the exclusive version you can play as Luigi.

>>7951470
Part of it is probably because programming in Z80 is so fun. The NES is more of a PITA to code since it has not only a weaker 6502 but a neutered one with no decimal mode.

>>7951858
as Sea Chase anon will tell you. a game like that is easier to do on the CV especially since it's a single screen game from the early 80s that doesn't really make much use of the NES's capabilities.

IDK. The Famicom and SG-1000 were famously released the same day (July 15, 1983) and the latter was immediately seen as an outdated joke of a system.

coleco is based as fuck though, easily the best wester console ever made.

>>7950124
I've always thought it would be funny to put a brushed Stainless faceplate on an Adam and to stick it into a Hi-Fi stack.

>>7951128
>>7951220
The 5200's technology was far from bad, it was the most powerful console with the biggest amount of RAM until the 4th gen came, but it's only an atari 400 being cobbled together inside a console casing AND without any of the features. It not a 1982 console, it's a 1979 computer repackaged as a console.

>>7951615
can't use a numpad on a sega controller

>>7951745
>HDMI on Coleco

big lel, but still pretty cool. Didn't know about Opcode Games, gonna follow that too.

Speaking on the MSX/Coleco similarities, I am fascinated by the stuff coming out of GameGear development lately. SMSPower has been chronicling it, but the most notable example is by far the GGMSX, a Japanese production that adapts GGs to accept MSX1 carts. I can't read the page, but the video footage is really fuckin impressive.

https://www.msx.org/news/en/msx-sega-game-gear

I'm also learning more about how companies did quick'n'dirty MSX ports to Sega SG-1000 series. It seems the folks here are also making their own romhacks to do the same thing (though some of these "official" releases required the below RAM expansion adapter, it seems)

https://www.smspower.org/forums/13579-Taiwan8KBRAMAdapterForPlayingMSXPortsOnSG1000II

The world of 8-bit Sega and how it collides with Coleco and MSX is really fascinating. Makes me think you could probably even build your own modern machine using the same chipsets and release it as a new retro computer (if there wasn't enough of a glut of existing 8-bit machines to satisfy the small but dedicated fandom).

>>7953380
>Makes me think you could probably even build your own modern machine using the same chipsets
A SG-1000/Coleco/MSX compatible clone with all new components would be fucking awesome, I'd buy that in a second.

>>7953213
Yeah it would be faggy if Coleco repackaged a 4 year old computer as a console and...

>>7953503
Ah, TI-99/4A, the secret grandpa of Master System.

>>7953503
that shit has such a bad keyboard, granted I only owned it briefly but man, it really felt like crap.

>>7953503
the CPU was completely different but...meh

>>7953591
More accurately the TI VDP chip since all 2D Nintendo and Sega consoles derived from it.

>>7952145
Yeah that’s a real knee slapper.

TI offered the TMS9918/19 as off-the-shelf components and they had a couple variants of them. The original TMS9918 from 1979 had only char graphics, but the TI-99/4A used a different version that added a bitmap mode. Coleco used a RGB variant of the original 9918 (so no bitmap mode) reportedly because they got a good deal on them. Consequently this means a Colecovision can be easily RGB-modded. Most VDPs required a heat sink but later variants made with a newer fabrication process didn't need this anymore (also the earliest Famicoms needed heat sinks on the PPU but this was gotten rid of by the time of its international launch). Nintendo examined several consoles and home computers, both Japanese and foreign ones, and determined the Colecovision had the graphics fidelity they sought so it would be used as the basis for the Famicom. The PPU was thus basically an enhanced 9918 with more colors, more sprites, hardware scrolling, hardware sprite flipping, and a bit more vertical resolution.

Colecovision is a weird cross-section where toy and arcade gaming meet. It's a cool system that had appeal to everyone. Someone in the thread said it was the Dreamcast of its time and I agree with that.

That said, don't get into the community. 50 year old man-children that think their shitty homebrews are worth 60+ bucks.

>>7953947
>That said, don't get into the community. 50 year old man-children that think their shitty homebrews are worth 60+ bucks.
I'd think that'd be more the case with Atari 2600 homebrews.

>>7953987
A lot of those are actually good, and typically cost less than $60 to be fair.

>>7951668
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxC23OjOPgY

This was an old BASIC type-in program for a grid-based game I got from a book. Sounds kino for a Colecovision port especially since it could make use of the numpad. We could flesh it out to have actual graphics and sound instead of being text-based.

In spite of the numeric keypad controllers, the Colecovision is much better than any other home console from the time.

>>7954323
the keypad is kinda cool, it lets you do stuff like board games that would be harder for other consoles to pull off.

>>7954345
People complaining about the keypad are retarded, some games need multiple buttons and on the 2600, that meant you needed to do shit like flick witches on the actual console, have both controllers hooked up so you could use the button on the second one, etc.
The 2600 port of Mouse Trap had you use the same button for activating the bones and controlling the doors, based on how long you pressed it, and they still weren't able to have more than one set of doors becaue there weren't enough buttons.

It's like complaining about the select button on the NES controller. Most Colecovision games only used the keypad for the menu screen.

>>7953380
Even several of the launch carts for the SG-1000 were just quick and dirty MSX ports I believe

>>7954887
Champion Golf is a port of Super Golf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfTqaTXspUU
And Champion Tennis is a port of Real Tennis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgnqflcyqHQ

>>7954869
On the Colecovision Mouse Trap is easy. Just press 1, 2, 3 to select a door. Even on the NES it would be tricker and probably require button combos. Gateway to Apshai is another one that would be harder to pull off without the keypad.

>>7954912
The NES has 4 face buttons, so Mouse Trap could easily be done with those.

>>7955082
>A=open yellow doors
>B=open red doors
>A+B=open blue doors
>Start=pause game
>Select=activate dog mode

That works but pressing A+B simultaneously is slightly clunky. If you ever played Double Dragon you know what I mean.

>>7953987
>>7953947
Programming the thing is a royal PITA because some genius wired the vertical blank signal to the NMI rather than the IRQ line like it is on the MSX and SG-1000. On the Colecovision you have an NMI you can't turn off. So you have to read the status register to acknowledge the NMI, but if this is done while loading a VDP address, very bad things happen. On the MSX and SG-1000, not a problem. Just execute a DI prior to any VDP access and then EI afterwards.

>>7955153
Nintendo loved the Colecovision so much they even tied the Famicom's blank to the NMI.

>>7949927
Honestly it’s a good system with solid games. It’s just the controller is the worst thing ever

>>7949927
>fuck it up
What was wrong with Colecovision? Pretty impressive console games for the pre-NES era. Thing felt way more modern than shit like the 2600. Also I had an Atari 2600 adapter on it which was pretty based.

>>7954897
Most of the SG-1000's library has been ported to the Colecovision though they didn't bother with any sports games.

>>7955153
you can actually disable the NMI via a register bit in the VDP though it's tricky and timing-sensitive. in this case you have to poll for the blank.

Differences: The SG-1000 doesn't have a BIOS and its controller works completely unlike the Colecovision's. The memory and register map is different as well: the cartridge ROM on the Colecovision maps into $8000-$FFFF while it's $0-$7FFF on the SG-1000. The IRQ setup is obviously different as well. SG-1000 games will need their own IRQ handler and code to read the controller as the Colecovision's BIOS performs these functions for you. They will also need own IRQ and reset vectors for same reason.

>>7956480
Here's a link to a collection of converted MSX games for SMS.

link to original topic:
https://www.smspower.org/forums/16445-MSXToSMSHacks

link to the youtube video on the subject:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1GE-hf7gNQ

link to the download from that page (505 converted MSX games for SMS), if you don't want to open the link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4ach43cuulr6x2l/ROM%20Fullset%20MSX2SMS%20Hack%20v1.1.zip?dl=0

bump

>>7956802
are these actually converted for SG-1000 and they're just running in legacy mode on the Master System?

>>7957908
My understanding is yes; they won't work on a Genesis due to the SG-1000 video mode.

Imagine the console wars posting if this place existed back then

it was the last proper American game console until the Xbox, and shares a lot of its aesthetic qualities especially in being big, black, and imposing

too bad this thing is so unreliable

>crap controllers
>PSU that self-destructs and blows up the RAM
>RAM consisted of 70s vintage chips that used triple rail voltage and get hot

>>7959060
Not a fan of Atari 7800?

>>7949927
They didn't. It's a great machine.