Is it a Betabrite? I have one of those. Used it as a ‘case mod’ during a LAN party where I got carried away. There’s another manufacturer but I dunno how they differ, if at all.
You can connect it to a PC but someone would need to write new software to scrape anything from the internet. It connects through a serial port. The software is just a quicker way to program than using the remote. I mean the manual says it was written in 1999, so it’s been a while.
If you like pixel-style signs you should check this one. Made my own using the Guts kit. There’s a lot of interesting stuff for retro gamers out there.
I was there before. Learned about it years ago but don’t visit the city often. Last year made a trip and hate to say it was a little disappointing. The entire bottom floor was Pokemon so I went upstairs. The museum was pretty small. I have most of the stuff they were showing on display. They had very few shirts left and none of the plushies I was looking for. Granted it was the weekend before Xmas but still.
If they rearranged things then I’d assume they have more goodies to show and too small a store. Maybe I’ll check it out again.
I was waiting for this and then stopped visiting for a while. (I have such a backlog of current gen games…) Figures you’d sneak it out in the meantime. Not sure why I thought about it today but I guess it’s still available. Cool.
The trick is to set the VB when your vision is ‘at rest’. If you just stick the VB at any random setting and then try to focus on it you’ll end up sick. It’s not easy to explain but I’ve been able to play mine without any issues other than the expected blindness by bright lights once you’re finished. Ha.
A logo might be a smart idea as long as it doesn’t detract from the rest of the box art too much. I wonder if you’d have any grounds to have certain auctions taken down. I’ve seen a few outrageous prices but would hope anyone actually looking for VB games will know better and the dumbass seller ends up sitting on the game.
Faceball is what I’m looking forward to. Guess I really don’t know enough about the others.
Sometimes we just have to admit the truth. Ha. As a collector I’ve been able to proudly say there’s only been one platform to break beyond my ability to fix. (The laser on an original PS1.) Fixed my PS2 DRE by cleaning the lens, rid the NES of the blinky problem by replacing the 72 pin connector, and so on.
Not too long ago when I dug out the VB after years of hiding in its box I found the display issue and upon opening the system realized it wasn’t going to be a job for me. I have experience soldering but the fine detail here was definitely too much for the cheap ass iron I bought at Radio Shack. I’ve one tip and the iron only 2 temp settings. Taking a crack at it ‘may’ have paid off but chances were better I’d screw something up that’s getting harder to replace.
As long as the boards are good there should be a way of fixing it. It’s only a connection whether it’s through a ribbon cable or not.
I think it was a cart-only version of Waterworld. Less than $100. The prices were too high on complete copies and I just wanted to finish the US set. I have boxes for maybe half the games and manuals to all but Waterworld, Jack Bros, and I forget if I tracked down the manual for 3D Tetris.
I’d love to find some of the other stuff but the games are my focus.
Just stopping in to say Runnerpack did a great job solving my display problem. Another VB is back up and running, hopefully for many more years to come.
It’s been a while since I was here. The weather got hot, projects got set aside, and well to keep this short I never got around to fixing the displays on my VB. Seeing as how parts aren’t readily available and I know I do not have the best soldering iron for delicate work with only 2 temp settings I came to ask about my other options.
Who does repairs, what does it cost, is there something else I can try (was going to attempt the oven trick but it seems it’s not guaranteed to work)?
Tools came again today. The 4.5 looks good but I think the 3.8 is miscut. Time for more email…
Anyhow I got it open and now I’m a little confused. The side that was out is working well but the other side now has the lines and is dimmer. If I push the ribbon cables onto the boards shouldn’t that help? It seems to get worse if I push them and better if I let them sit naturally. Kinda the opposite of what I expected. I haven’t taken it fully apart yet. Even stranger is I tried with Blox and saw the problems. Space Pinball you wouldn’t think anything was wrong. Not sure how that could be.
When I get around to making repairs I don’t think I’ll jump right into solder or my glue/epoxy idea. Might see how far the oven trick gets me but I want to figure out why it’s doing what it’s doing first.
Well that’s terrific. I had ordered a tool from Amazon to open the unit and since I wasn’t in a huge rush chose the super saver shipping. Been about a week, the box arrives today. Would you believe that the box and receipt says ‘screwdriver bit’, but inside is some kind of USB extension cable with a port I haven’t seen before?
Dammit… I hope they can express ship the right part before the weekend.
Yup, I tried drilling out a bit of the glass to reach that metal. Same with yours the display was otherwise in good shape so I didn’t want to discard it only because of the 2 rightmost lines. As I mentioned though like a year ago the whole thing fizzled out and thankfully it wasn’t one of the more expensive boards.
I’ve yet to see the size of the VB board. (I’m about to post the story in my other thread…) So once all that falls into place I’ll see which way I want to go.
Much like solder it requires a delicate touch. This way won’t burn all your parts and if applied with a toothpick or something might work better for some. As I mentioned in my ‘Not Fair’ topic I’ve repaired a dot matrix display with it. When I got my pinball machine a few lines of the display were broken and a new one costs like $120. I tried with solder but just couldn’t get it to stick to the piece inside the glass. A small line of epoxy repaired the 2 or 3 lines and gave me several years of use before the whole thing finally burned out.
I guess with parts that small there’s a risk no matter what you wanna use. So while discussing alternatives I figured to throw it out there for those who don’t have a good iron. Still waiting for the tools to arrive to open my VB and see what it’ll take to fix it.
In my thread I suggested a conductive epoxy as a possible solution. However while browsing some sites tonight I found this which might be easier to buy and use.
If you’re in the US you can probably find the lexan at Home Depot or Lowes. It’s the kind of stuff people replace windows with when glass isn’t desirable. It’ll be easy to get the measurements from the other sign.
Still waiting for them to arrive. It’s funny how Amazon ships the stuff you need the least the fastest. But when you’re waiting for something, of course they take their time.
I’m ok with soldering as I’ve fixed things before including my pinball machine. However I don’t exactly have a great iron making delicate work tougher than needed. Depending what it looks like when I open the VB I would try the oven trick or find a clip to hold the cable in place. Or something which I haven’t seen suggested would be conductive epoxy. I used that to repair a few broken leads on a dot matrix display.
I’m no expert here but it seems you could get by with some lexan, that stuff people cover arcade control panels with. As for the insert I doubt you’ll find one for sale so ask around if anyone has a scanned image you could print out (or have professionally done).
Funny you type that as those are the same ones I just found on Amazon. Zon is $6.99 though. And I already placed 2 orders today for various other parts and things.
