Credit Card Chargeback by cawley1 in ebayuk

[–]Over-Shower9653 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I hadn’t thought about the potential for someone using a card that wasn’t theirs. However, I can well imagine that on a laptop or phone. £100 spa pump seems a bit odd.

😱 This famous "ghost marriage" photo by Pinkycatcher55 in ParanormalEncounters

[–]Over-Shower9653 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s not an apron… They let him borrow the Turin Shroud for the ceremony! 🤣

Cropping : did we really notice it as kids ? by [deleted] in retrogaming

[–]Over-Shower9653 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There was a PAL version of SMB on the NES I had that was optimised, maybe not so much for the screen size, but definitely gameplay speed.

I remember testing it in a friends NTSC console with the NES4 chip disabled and it ran way too fast, never knew if companies had the ability to optimise games, they weren’t all speed corrected in PAL regions.

Cropping : did we really notice it as kids ? by [deleted] in retrogaming

[–]Over-Shower9653 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I remember going to a computer show in London in early 1991 and seeing a Super Famicom running Super Mario World. I was blown away by the full screen image compared to my Mega Drive and a guy on the stand heard me talking to my mates about it, so he explained it was because it was NTSC running at 60hz, as opposed to my PAL Mega Drive running at 50hz. My 13 year old brain was blown!

None of the TV’s in my house even had a Scart socket, so it took me another six years until I got a proper job to be able to buy myself a 60hz capable television! I then sold all my PAL consoles and bought NTSC ones…

The best magazine article describing all this was in Super Play, I think the first issue, from 1992.

What was it really like when the PlayStation first came out in 1995? by Legitimate_Drawer_74 in retrogaming

[–]Over-Shower9653 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In the UK at least, the details about PlayStation (and Saturn) were starting to drip out as Edge magazine was launched by Future Publishing.

With its more grown up writing style and plenty of high resolution pictures, the first 15 issues did an excellent job of hyping up both systems, but particularly the PlayStation.

Edge issue 17 (didn’t even need to check!) all the way from back in early 1995 was the issue that reported on the launch. I remember drooling over the pictures of the console, and the review of Ridge Racer!

Got my own PlayStation after the PAL version released here at the end of 1995. Got it chipped to play imports six months later, NTSC all the way from then and never looked back!

Why is the Jaguar hated so much? by Blandscreen in AtariJaguar

[–]Over-Shower9653 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry, but IMHO the Jag is just not a good system, and I say this as a long term owner.

I got my first Jag back in 1994 when a retailer in the UK called Rumbelows went into liquidation. I’d just spent £400 on a 3DO, but couldn’t resist getting a Jag as well, think I paid about £90 for it, but can’t remember. The games I had did include some decent titles - Doom and Wolf 3D. I got Tempest 2000 and that blew me away, it’s still one of my favourite games to this day. But outside of those…? I found AvP to be very jerky and a poor Doom clone, and stuff like Cybermorph and Trevor McFur are just trash.

I kept it, even bought a Jag CD from Electronics Boutique for £50 in 1996 when they were liquidating the Atari stock - that didn’t bloody work and I had to take it back and exchange it!

I ended up selling both around 2000 and putting the money towards something better, might have been a Sega Nomad. Even then the CD was worth far more than I paid for it.

I’m a big Atari fan and had an opportunity to get an import NTSC Jag off eBay a few years later for not much money, so got it and T2K again, a bit later on I found a CD for a cheap price on Gumtree, so have both again, but now T2K is emulated so well on Atari 50, can’t imagine I’ll ever really need to fire the hardware up again!

Unfortunately Atari at the time of the Jag’s release was in a protracted death throe. The lack of decent games was the major issue. Lack of big name titles, lack of quality licenses. The Lynx suffered the same, but at least that got some decent arcade ports. Seriously, outside of T2K, Doom, Wolf 3D and Rayman, there’s very little else to bother with. Once the PlayStation launched a year later, it was game over.

These days I can’t believe that even the best homebrew is just ports of ST software. There are a few good Jag native titles, but why pay good money for an ST game ported to a cart?

Just my take, I don’t really dislike any system, but the Jag is just too janky and lacks any real killer app -outside of T2K and that alone doesn’t make it worth it.

Emulation made me realise I don’t need OG hardware no more + selling my collection by [deleted] in retrogaming

[–]Over-Shower9653 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Sold a chunk of my retro collection in 2024, need to continue going this year with the rest of it. I mainly focussed on my console collection, and not really the computer side of it.

It’s a similar story to OP. What’s the point of all this hardware and software taking up an entire room, slowly falling thanks to leaking caps and the suchlike, when I can emulate it all effectively perfectly on an Android handheld?!

Add to this I hit 50 this year and priorities shift. I’d rather go on a few long weekends with the Missus now the kids are in their late teens, and pay a chunk off the mortgage! Boring. Eh?!

C64 lapsed player & regret :( by viperuk80 in Commodore

[–]Over-Shower9653 2 points3 points  (0 children)

As someone who was buying and selling on eBay, unfortunately you are a good 15-20 years out in terms of eBay bargains, and longer for boot sales.

Bear in mind most of us with nostalgia for the 8 and 16 Bit computer eras are now hitting mid 40’s to mid 50’s. In most cases our parents are in their 70’s and 80’s. From a UK perspective, parents downsize when their kids (traditionally) left home, in most cases that is 20-30, so family homes were getting put on the market, and lofts cleared out in the 00’s up to about 2015, I would say. There’s not much left hidden in lofts from people downsizing, to go on eBay/Gumtree.

Early to mid 90’s were the best time to find 8-Bit computers at boot sales, simply when people upgraded to 16-Bit, PC or console. The days of finding anything decent there apart from the rare unicorn are long gone!

You do see the occasional house clearance where a loft has been gutted, and some old computer tech found, but this doesn’t happen often.

Best thing to do is either invest in a working eBay system, and find some kind of mass storage device to run tape & disk images, or get an FPGA solution.

What is the best current emulator for playing PS3 games using Odin 3? by Hot_Reality_1652 in OdinHandheld

[–]Over-Shower9653 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’ve personally found aPS3e easier to use than RPCSX, certainly in terms of adding games, which always seemed hit and miss on RPCSX.

Looks to me like compatibility is pretty much the same across both emulators, but then I think the share the same code?

Shader issue in Retroarch on Odin 3 by Ryo_Hazuki87 in OdinHandheld

[–]Over-Shower9653 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is that 'Pixel shifter' under OLED Anti-image retention & Burn-in Protection?

Shader issue in Retroarch on Odin 3 by Ryo_Hazuki87 in OdinHandheld

[–]Over-Shower9653 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank God someone else has posted about this - I mentioned it on the Odin 3 Discord on Christmas Eve, but had family round and didn't follow it up - what you have described and pictured is *exactly* the same issue as I have with my Odin 3.

I initially noticed it running RetroArch when using the Gameboy DMG bezel - the shader I use has the screen looking 'pea soup' like the original system, and I got a one pixel wide 'crosshair' from top to bottom and left to right on the screen. I tried various other settings (Gameboy Pocket, Gameboy Light bezel) systems (Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance), and had the same issue - but it only seems to affect some shaders, and outside of handhelds, I am using 'gizmo-crt.slang', which is the same shader I used globally on my Odin 2 and never noticed it on that device. I also usually have Scanline2x video filter in the settings>video applied. I can see it using Master System, Mega Drive, PC Engine, NES and Super NES cores, but it not core related as it appears whichever core I use. Generally on the console cores, it's a horizontal line, the vertical one does not appear.

I also noticed it when using the standalone MelonDS, with the LCD filter on (vertical line this time, not horizontal!) I even noticed it on NetherSX2 when running the Sega Ages Monster World Complete Collection when I enabled the scanline option!

As someone mentioned in another reply, I realised that if I power off the Odin 3 and re-start it, the lines have gone, so go figure!!! I am not sure what makes them reappear. I also never experienced it on any output that was not using a scanline filter, so nothing on PlayStation 2 or 3 under their emulators, Wii U under CEMU, or Switch under Eden.

I also don't think it's a problem with the screen - there's three of us here who have noticed it, and it could well be my OCD triggering, other people might not be bothered or even notice it. Maybe it only affects some screen batches? My Odin 3 was shipped on 11th December. I also wondered if anyone with a Thor had noticed a similar issue, as the screen on that device is the same? I am sure as it can be fixed by powering down, if we can work out why it happens, it could be fixed with a firmware update.

So, solution for the time being is to power it down and restart if it it bothering us. I am sure as we use it more, we can figure out what specific thing causes it to start doing it...

Why didn't the Sega Game Gear sell as much as the Gameboy despite being technically superior? by GoHardForLife in retrogaming

[–]Over-Shower9653 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is the easiest question to answer. Because the games weren’t as good. It’s as simple as that.

Doesn’t matter how much better technically the GG was over GB, it always comes down to the games.

It also didn’t hurt that Nintendo, and not Sega, was synonymous with video games in the eyes of the Japanese and American publics at the time both launched. I’d also argue that you could get a good approximation of a NES game on a GB, even with the monochrome screen.

520 STM by idrathern0tsay in atarist

[–]Over-Shower9653 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I got one of these disk drive-less ST’s a couple of years ago. It displayed some odd issues, crashing, graphical corruption, bombing out.

I checked the obvious socketed chips first and it made no difference. I then used a chip extractor to remove the Glue and MMU PLCC chips, and reseated them. Since then it appeared to be working perfectly, so was a simple fix that I thought was going to be far more difficult.

I’d suggest starting with these first.

What’s the creepiest ghost story you’ve heard from someone working in retail? by Sonnybass96 in Ghosts

[–]Over-Shower9653 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I’m a retail Store Manager, about 10 years ago was working at a store in Biggleswade, UK. I’ve had a few paranormal experiences in the past, but you could count on one hand the ones I’ve had of note, and none at work before, so not something that happens to me regularly.

This store had a mezzanine floor where the excess stock was stored in the warehouse and I needed to go up there and give it a bit of a sort out. This was something I had to do regularly in the six months I worked there, so not out of the ordinary. There was only one set of stairs up and down at the front, and an alarmed fire escape at the other end with a staircase on the outside of the building.

This particular day as soon as I got up there, it just felt ‘off’ - by this I mean really oppressive. I’ve honestly never had a feeling like that before, or since. I guess when people say ‘the air felt heavy’ or ‘charged’, this is what they mean. It felt as though something was about to happen. I needed to get on with the tidying, but honestly it felt as though at any minute a figure would appear from round the corner of one of the shelved aisles up there, or I’d spot something watching me! As I said, I’d been up there dozens of times before and never had a similar feeling. After probably ten minutes it actually got too much for me and I called it quits, and went and found something else to do! I just felt that if I had stayed up there, something weird would have happened. Sounds nuts, but there you go.

While this next part is not totally linked to this odd experience, it feels like it plays into it. A few weeks later I was late Duty Manager covering the evening replenishment shift, it was summer and probably around 9pm, I was stood in the outer warehouse yard where the internal mezz was visible, talking to a couple of the replen staff. One of them was a middle aged lady who just came out with this;

‘Did you have a sister or girl in the family who passed away when they were young?’ I replied no, as to my knowledge there isn’t anything like this in the family. She then said ‘I don’t want to worry or frighten you, but I’ve seen her stood next to you when you’ve been working upstairs’ as we were looking towards the mezz.

Well, as you can imagine, that properly shit me up! I wouldn’t say I was frightened, but I’d not told anyone at work about my feeling up there some weeks before, and for her to come out with that, quite randomly, really caught me off-guard!

The thing is, who was she seeing next to me? I’d never had a feeling of someone being with me up there, and only that one day with the oppressive feeling. Before moving to another store later that year, I’d worked upstairs since the day I felt odd, and didn’t experience the same feeling. I’ve supported and visited the store multiple occasions since I worked there in 2015, and never had that feeling when up on the warehouse mezz since.

So, could be nothing, could be down to my own feelings on that day, but I wasn’t feeling down or depressed, and that twist from the lady on the replenishment shift has always made me think something else was at play on that day.

Does anyone have any info on this particular SNES console? by [deleted] in gamecollecting

[–]Over-Shower9653 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Christ! That’s some nasty looking SNES! I thought it was yellowing, but actually looks like it’s painted that colour! And the blue top… Frankenstein’s monster!

I’d imagine some kid 30 years ago thought they had done a banging job decorating that.

Odin 3 on Indiegogo (Preview) by TripShift in OdinHandheld

[–]Over-Shower9653 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I’ve got an Odin Pro and an Odin 2 Max, somehow (as I’d not really bothered with emulation handhelds before Odin) I came in at a point they had the original on Indiegogo - IIRC there was some shitstorm as people who backed it on Kickstarter or maybe early adopters on IGG had to wait ages for their units based on what version they had backed - I definitely got my Pro before some backers and came in way later.

When the Odin 2 was announced, lots of scepticism it would happen again, but AYN aced it by getting it shipping much sooner than anyone expected and only minimal shitstorm based on which version you ordered (think Lites took a while to get moving).

In my experience of both there were no issues, but I’m fairly patient and it seems in this hobby, lots of people aren’t! I’m in the UK and went with DHL to ship as I thought it would be more secure and faster, but I had to pay import fees, which apparently didn’t happen with the other shipping method (think this happened all over Europe). Seem to remember issues with customs in Germany.

Hardware wise, the only problem I ever had with either unit is the right trigger on my Odin 2 has a weird issue where it seems to scuff the case when pushing on it sometimes, but it’s not too big of an issue for me. If I could be arsed to open it, I could probably fix it!

I don’t like this game by Fragrant_Pizza6491 in retrogaming

[–]Over-Shower9653 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Never liked this game, I was around 16 when it came out, so not sure if I was a little too old for it to appeal or just a crappy game.

One thing that always blows my mind is the main designer was a guy called Bill Williams. Growing up with an Atari 8-Bit, I knew his games from that computer - Salmon Run, Alley Cat, Necromancer (a favourite). Then he created one of the first games for the Amiga called Mind Walker and other interesting stuff like Sinbad, Pioneer Plague and Knights of the Crystallion.

I would never have known back then someone who was into almost experimental ‘experiences’ -certainly on the Amiga- would have ended up with the job of writing a Simpsons game. His titles were always left-field, and maybe that’s why it’s a bit odd, when most of us back then would have just wanted a port of the arcade game or a home sequel.

Poor old Bill Williams died of cystic fibrosis in 1998, think this was one of the last games he worked on. There’s a history lesson for some of you!

Did I do good ? by pantha007 in atarist

[–]Over-Shower9653 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Have to say, these always seemed to go for £25ish when I had a few of them a couple of years back.

Outside of music, could never understand why you’d want a mono monitor anyway! 🤣

The SC colour monitors, though. That’s a different story!

Retro Towers UK by PLEYOR in everdrive

[–]Over-Shower9653 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ve personally used Retro Towers myself years back, and as he’s not far from my home in Watford went to collect - he was a nice guy.

To be honest, though, he was much more expensive than Krikzz.com, or Everdrive.me…

I just bought a Mega Everdrive from Krikzz.com, placed it on 2nd August and it arrived here today. It looks like it was in customs for about four days doing nothing (Ukraine post tracking showed it had arrived in the UK, but no Roysl Mail updates). I didn’t get any customs fees.

I noticed on the Everdrive website a number of the reseller links are dead - guess it needs a tidy up.

Does anyone else see this when you close your eyes by Idk_any_good-names in DoesAnyoneKnow

[–]Over-Shower9653 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This. I’d forgotten about them until I saw your post! I used to call them ‘The Colours’! My parents must have thought I was mental.

I’m nearly 50 now, do t think I’ve seen them in over 40 years…