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About TheGrandPubaa

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  • Birthday 08/22/1985

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    Hot Springs, AR
  • Interests
    Video Games, Retrogaming, computers, all that geeky stuff.
  1. It looks like most of the chips on the C64c are soldered directly to the motherboard, so i'll have to wait until I can order some sockets before I decide if i'm feeling particularly froggy on that one. I did test the 6567R and the 6567R8 on both machines - on the "C", either chip works fine. On the "BB", the no signal message on the tv disappears but the screen still looks black - maybe I detect a slight faint rolling pattern of some kind, but it's hard to tell. I did find out that the 7701 from the "BB" was bad, but the 8701 that came in the "C" works. I don't have any carts so I can't test whether the kernal rom is bad.
  2. My apologies for double-posting. As I tried several of the floppy disks that came with the C64 haul, I began to realize there was no sound being generated. If I turned the volume all the way up, I could hear occasional pops of different kinds, but certainly nothing SID-like. Well, it turns out the 6581 in the breadbin C64 works in my C64c(which looks to use the same board type, so no newer SID-II or whatever, the 8580), and so AD&D Secret of the Silver Blades has music and sound effects now. If I want to try and get the breadbin working again, it looks like I will need a new SID at minimum, but I suspect the PLA as being the primary culprit, honestly. I'm sad, because I wanted(want?) to do a dual SID mod, but I suppose that will have to wait for now. Need more toys like a fastloader cart, an SD2IEC, a controller adapter......the wallet squirms just thinking about it. Oh, and most important of all, an S-video cable. This coax nonsense is for the birds. As an aside, the keyboard random keys issue persisted with the BB keyboard, but I reseated the connector several times and positioned things just so, so now it no longer spazzes out to a light blue screen when I jab at the 2 key, so I suspect it's an oxidation issue and the first keyboard probably works fine(just needs a new 7 key and a stalk).
  3. Now that I have a working and safe power supply solution, I was able to at least dip my toes into the C64 stuff I picked up last weekend. The C64c powers right up and seems at first glance to work fine - though it's missing the 7 key and the keyboard itself is behaving oddly like the shift/commodore/whatever key is flickering on/off at various times to where i'll start typing letters and end up typing petscii characters. Skimming the internet suggests I could potentially swap in the keyboard from the breadbin into the C64c and it should work, so i've got that option in my back pocket. As for the breadbin C64, it just outputs a black or blank screen. There didn't seem to be any obvious damage to the components on the board, so my first thought is one of the chips is bad(VIC-II or PLA, possibly?). Does anybody know if it is safe to swap chips between the two C64s to try and narrow down the possible fault prior to shopping around for replacement parts?
  4. *possible minor spoilers ahead* Due to the funky licensing situation between Ys and Sega, there aren't any licensed Sega Arcade games in the arcade(at least not the arcade in Bailu Village, I haven't gotten past that yet), so the games that are there would more closely represent electromechanical-style arcade games that are more generic - Excite QTE and a sequel to QTE Title are there, as well as a whack-a-mole game and a mechanical driving game.
  5. My ideal PSU was quoted a little high for me for this time of year, so I'm asking for a barebones PSU quote with none of the bells and whistles; we'll see what happens there. Would be fabulous if I could get it by this upcoming weekend. Mind you, I'd still like the fancy one maybe after the holidays as I've got a 1541-II sans PSU and of unknown functionality. But that can wait.
  6. Hi there. I was fortunate enough to pick up some free(for the cost of driving about 4 hours round trip) Commodore 64 stuff in varying states and conditions. I have lots of ideas, lots of projects, lots of questions; but for the moment, I want to focus on the power supply. I have two of the vintage huge brick PSUs that I am terrified to attempt to use for any length of time given their propensity for killing chips as the fail. My C64c was tested and apparently works while my breadbin C64 powers on but doesn't function? Anyway, I need to source a modern power supply in order to start tinkering, testing, and toying with my stuff. Doing some reading, i've seen a few different ideas and suppliers. Seemingly the most well recommended is a guy named Ray Carlsen that makes a DIY modern power supply(as well as the C64 saver thingie). Another is a Polish company named Electroware that make a similar PSU. Keelog makes a similar power supply as well. Finally, I have also seen a DIY option conjured up by Retro Recipes. Ordering a unit from Ray Carlsen would be a perfectly fine option but for the fact that his is more of a hobby and therefore ordering something is like buying something from a mail order catalog with a mailed-off money order. Just a lot more steps involved than i'm used to in an Amazon/Ebay/Paypal age. So it could take a while for anything I purchase to get here, which is fine but a bummer since thanksgiving is coming up and i'm looking forward to a few days off. Electroware's product seems okay(i've read pro and con reviews, so who's to say?), but being that they are based in Poland, shipping is expensive and I won't get the item until sometime in December according to the Ebay estimate. Which I guess is fine, but see the bummer note above. I couldn't find a single review or comment about the Keelog PSU, so it's a straight up unknown quantity. And then there is the DIY option. It could potentially be easier to source the parts(amazon or even rummaging around at goodwill for compatible wall warts) and faster to get started, and i'm not intimidated by any possible soldering, but there is the non-0 possibility that I will end up frying my hardware, which would be an even bigger bummer. All this being said, can you think of any way I could possibly order a modern(safe) C64 PSU that could possibly get here within the week, or failing that, within the month of November? Ideally, this would mean a US supplier, but all things being equal, i'm open to any other reasonable alternatives.
  7. So i've spent about a week playing Shenmue 3 in shorter bursts of an hour here or half an hour there, and despite a bit of roughness and a sort of low-production undertone, i'm enjoying it for what it is. I keep trying to decide if I think it's a "good" game or not, but that framework isn't quite accurate to the feeling I get playing. It's more like "I'm playing a new Shenmue game, this is right and proper and how things should be," sort of like how it is anytime a new standard-fare Mario platformer comes out or something - like it's just a part of reality that fits nicely in my life, but also as though it is its own genre unto itself. I couldn't possibly be objective about it, but I hope it does well and enables Yu Suzuki to continue making the rest of the series. I even bought the complete dlc collection on PSN sight-unseen since it's supposed to eventually have a story expansion, so there you go.
  8. My controller arrived today, same day as my copy of Shenmue III as a matter of fact. Thanks again.
  9. I was fortunate enough to receive my Kickstarter backer copy of Shenmue III a day early, which is something I never expected would happen. I always assumed I would have to wait a week or more due to shipping issues or, really, any worst case scenario you can imagine. But it's here, the disc is in my PS4 right now, and I just played around in Bailu Village. It's surreal given how long ago that I played Shenmue II on the Xbox, moreso considering I just beat the remaster of Shenmue II this morning in anticipation. Sadly, I have to go to work before I can spend any real time with it, but hey, I waited this long. What's another 8 hours?
  10. This is more of a feeler listing as I would like to find out if it's possible to get a G5 1.6GHZ compatible AGP video card with at least 128MB VRAM(256 preferred, but dependent on cost) for a more reasonable amount of money than the +$100 listings i've seen on eBay. All things being equal, I would rather not dump a log of money into a machine that has somewhat of a checkered history as far as it's reliability is concerned. I don't have any hardware that I could use to flash an AGP video card myself, so I can't just buy a PC ROM card and flash it. As long as it works with my system and preferably has a VGA port in addition to DVI, I wouldn't mind a flashed GPU if it meant it was a bit cheaper. I was hoping to stay under $30 shipped if at all possible. Thanks for reading.
  11. Just had a positive transaction that consisted of good communication, fast shipping, and well-packed goods. I'd be happy to be a repeat buyer in the future.
  12. I picked up a Sony Clie for 8 dollars and discovered it uses Memory Stick Pro cards(the long ones, not the Pro Duo that were used in the PSP - although technically I guess those could possibly be used with the adapter...). I thought I would check and see if anybody had a super cheap one they were willing to part with. Preferably 1GB or more, though I would probably settle for a 512 as well. I don't want to spend much at all since this is a PEG-TJ27 which was low end even back in 2004. However, it looks like it runs Palm OS 5 something or other so I thought it might be a fun diversion to run some Palm OS games on it on the cheap. I'm not even sure if the battery holds a charge. Anyway, thanks for reading.
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