Unisonic Champion 2711

Some of you are thinking..."What the heck (or &%?%) is a Unisonic Champion 2711 ??"

Well it is one of the most obscure and weirdest game system ever released...yes released!
Here's a picture of the beast:

I won't go into much details as i wrote a FAQ about this unknown game system. Just go to the menu under "Links" and click on "Unisonic Champion 2711 FAQ" to learn all the information there is.

In the FAQ, i wrote that one day the Champion 2711 will be dumped and emulated...well it's been a couple of months now that it's been done. I sold a dead Champion 2711 to "plgDavid" and lent him all the cartridges so he can dump everything and he also made the driver for MAME (MESS is now part of MAME if you didn't know). Since MESS 0.167 (ahh damn..MAME!), now you can try out the Unisonic Champion 2711 and if you need the BIOS and the carts ROMS then you're in luck because they are now available in the "Archives" section and the file is "unichamp.zip" that you need to put in your MAME ROMS section.

You can check videos of each game PACs right here (or on my Youtube channel):

And now, "decle" from Atari Age forums is trying to convert/adapt all the games of the Unisonic champion 2711 to the Mattel Intellivision!! That is so great!

You can read all about it here: Li'l Bro - A Unisonic Champion Simulator for the INTV
and even download the PAC-01 conversion in ROM format for the JzIntv or other Intellivision emulators.

This i a great time that we live in now as many game consoles/systems are digitally preserved for historical purpose (and also to play...HEH!). =)

A/V modding a Coleco Telstar

If anyone of you wants to mod a Coleco Telstar or any Pong console that uses a General Instrument AY-3-8500 or AY-3-8500-1 chip, then i suggest to read the posts on this post on Atari Age forum: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/251031-composite-mod-coleco-telstar/#entry3521842

Have fun reading and modifying your Pong console! =)

--- Sly DC ---

Reply to Chris Purviance

Chris Purviance wrote this on February 20, 2016 at 2:28 PM

Yeah, I've had one of these that I got with the original adaptor back in like Oct. 2013. I bought it on sight in a retro game shop and took it home and played it! I had never seen one in the flesh before, so I had to have it. ( : I don't remember the warp wheel working on it then, it may have sound, though. Been thinking about checking or changing the motor and/or capacitor on it. It does light up, just don't remember seeing stars on it for sure like yours.I remember
these from the Sears or Penny's Christmas catalog years ago, not sure about
ever seeing a commercial for it. Thanks for the vid! Been thinking about pulling
mine out here again. ( : ( :

To Chris:
 You id the right thing to buy it on the "spot" as these are getting rarer to find. Hope you will be able to fix your STPB (Star Trek Phaser Battle) and if you ever need tips or help to fix it, don't be shy to ask. 

As for my STPB, it now in the hands of a great fellow game collector which i know he will take good care of it (he was facinated on how huge is this thing...LOL!), so thanks for the post! =)

--- Sly DC ---

New artworks for MAME 0.172

Finally after some few months of waiting, the MESS/MAME team have finally released some VFD artworks that was missing for some already emulated games:

 Bandai Burger Time

(been dying to play this game!)

 Bandai Pengo

Bandai Zaxxon

Gakken Jungler

And also a LED based handheld: Entex Space Invaders (the"black" version, not the "grey" one).

They also updated these VFD games: Mattel Star Hawk (crosshair overlay), Gakken Crazy Kong (ladders overlay) and the Bandai Packri Monster (maze overlay) and they added 3 new LCD games by Konami: Top Gun, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Contra artworks.

 

So go grab the artwork packs on the M.E.S.S. artwork page pronto!! =)

Mego Star Trek Phaser Battle (part 3)

Yikes! It's been two months (minus a day) the last time i posted something. Even if i don't post for a long period of time, i'm still alive and kicking. It's just that health and family are priorities if you're wondering why sometimes i don't post or answer for a long period of time.

OK, now on the subject: Mego Star Trek Phaser Battle (again!)

As i wrote in a previous post (actually, the first post about the Mego STPB) "i do have the original instruction manual sheet and i will post it as soon as i scanned it". Well now here's the scan of the manual as promised!

Sorry for the both middle parts but my scanner had a problem to scan the manual sheet as it was too long and that the flatbed is just 8" X 13" but at least now it is available for anyone who's missing the manual sheet....enjoy! =)

I can't rescan the manual as i sold the Mego STPB to my good friend Ianoid.

So what's next for the Mego STPB ? A "Simulator" of course!! The MESS/MAME team could emulate this game as it has a AMI C2567 4-bit microprocessor (28-pins) but would need to dump the content of the uP and scans, pics, etc. But i will try to make a simulator of this game in the future. =)

BTW, the Mego STPB was invented by Lawrence L. Reiner and Micheal Henning ? You can check out the US Patent "D250906" for the plastic cabinet of the Mego STPB and they also invented the Mego Grand Prix Road Race (see US Patent #4174833). Here's a picture of this game:

And this game is based on a well popular electro-mechanical arcade game called "Road Runner" by Midway in 1971, which the game was also released by Sega (Monte Carlo) and Taito (Speed Runner). In fact, many vintage electro-mechanical handheld games are based on old electro-mechanical arcades (just an example: Tomy Digital Derby) but that is another story to tell in a future post!

So Live Long and Prosper! :P

Nintendo Color TV Game 6/15 in PAL ?

European video game collectors always had a problem when it comes to game consoles/systems that comes from Japan or North America (same for us with European PAL/SECAM consoles/systems in North America) but seems that many doesn't know that there is (in fact...."was" would be more like it) a Pong console that was able to play all the Nintendo Color TV Game 15 in PAL.

I am talking about the Miragama GMC-802. Yes! That Pong console can and does play all the games of a Color TV Game 15 (or a Color TV Game 6 with a simple mod, can play also all the games but that's future story) in PAL, not NTSC. But how come ? Very simple as the dedicated game chip inside it is a Mitsubishi M58813P (PAL version) and not a M58815P or M58816P (those two are NTSC).

Check this picture (thanks to Adrian Scheel of Pong-Picture-Page):

And you're not imagining it, the chip was made on the 39th week of 1982. If you check on Old-Computer web site (http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=693&st=3), you'll read that they wrote "Motorola M-588135" for the chip, they may have mistaken it for the Mitsubishi logo as i myself wrote the same mistake (in French...that's my native language BTW) before Adrian send me some picture inside the Miragama GMC-802.

P.S: Now talk about a weird coincidence!! If you check the date on the post i made on Old-Computer, it is exactly 6 years, not a day more or less! Think i'll get myself a lottery ticket...lol! :P

So if you live in Europe and want to play a Nintendo Color TV-game 15, then i strongly suggest to get yourself a Miragama GMC-802 as you won't have any "display" problems. I'll leave with pictures of the Miragama GMC-802. )

Marx T.V. Tennis simulator

Let's go back to my very first simulator i coded for the LÖVE engine in November 2012: the Marx T.V. Tennis. Just to say that this version isn't perfect but it is playable. Since then, i gained more experience coding in LUA. I still have other sims that are playable like the Yonezawa Screen Tennis (with model variations), and many Waco electro-mechanical games like: Draw Poker, Black Jack, Slot Machine and Chuck-A-Luck (last one is very rare). 

So here's some screenshots of the Marx T.V. Tennis:

You can choose between 3 models: the green one which is the most commun, the red/brown one which is less commun and the unreleased black one but is shown on the box. Thought it would be fun to include this one also. 

The "read-me.txt" is included in the RAR file so read it to know which buttons does what. ;)

Like i wrote, this is not the final version and i will update it in the future. So have fun with this version until the next one! =)