The Gamer's Quarter

[dessgeega]

EMERGENCY!

my sega cd + genesis 2 just arrived. it came with two identical adapters (pictured), but neither will fit in the sega cd (pictured)! i just wrote to the person who sold the package to me. someone knowledgable about sega cds (faithless faithless faithless) help me out!

can i get an adapter at radio shack that will fit? someone clue me in!
_________________

[SuperWes]

BUY THE RIGHT ADAPTER.

You know my story.

-Wes
_________________

[dessgeega]

well what's the right adapter!

i need to know!!
_________________

[dessgeega]

okay, the seller said he's sending me the correct adapter.

so. victoly!
_________________

[GSL]

Assuming you weren't lucky enough to have the seller send you the right adaptor, there's a rather easy way to figure out what you need. First, look on the bottom of the electronic device in question, or even next to the power jack. It should list the voltage required by the device (most early game systems run off of 9V) and the polarity of the plug (the center pin is usually negative). Once you have this information, you've got two options:

One, RadioShack. Bring the device in question until you find an adapta-plug that fits your device, then select the power adaptor with the proper voltage. Adapta-plugs can be attached to the power adaptor so that the center pin is either positive or negative, so you'll have to make sure you hook it up properly. FAILURE TO DO SO COULD RESULT IN FRYING YOUR SYSTEM!! (I have yet to have that happen, but just to warn you.) Do not ask the store employees for help, as more than likely they will be clueless--this is RadioShack, after all. Expect to be assaulted with "CAN I HELP YOU FIND ANYTHING??" the moment you step in the door, and at least once more during your browsing. Also, don't expect to spend less than $15 on the required parts, as power adaptors at RadioShack are made with, like, gold and platinum wiring or something that causes them to be ridiculously expensive. This is the easiest option, but certainly not my preferred one.

Two, thrift stores. Places like Goodwill, Value Village, the Salvation Army, and others will invariably have a basket somewhere of tangled AC adaptors. Bring your game system with you (it helps to show it to store employees upon walking in so they don't try to charge you for it) to make sure you get a plug that fits. Make sure the plug you buy says something on it about output, and that it outputs the same voltage as required by your device. Also pay attention to the polarity of the center pin. Thirdly, check the amperage on the adaptor--most game systems require 850ma, and the system itself will sometimes say so around the same area where the voltage is listed. You may end up having to pay as much as (*gasp!*) two dollars, but the prices are usually significantly lower.

[Lestrade]

I hope this works for you, Dess. S'funny, I've been bugging Shaper via IM lately that I want, nay need a Sega CD. Until I get one, I would love to live vicariously through your purchase. Document your Sega CD experience for me, Dess!!

[friedchicken]

The Salvation Army/Goodwill suggestion is a good one for those on a budget. I've tried to find an appropriate adaptor at Radio Shack before, only to find that it's priced significantly more than the eBay acquisition was.

[dessgeega]

[SJ]

It's time to get your Sega CD on.

[dessgeega]

so yeah. i got the new adapter in the mail today, and it's the same as the last one which fail to fit.

i guess i need to get to radio shack.
_________________

[thatbox]

What are you going to play!? Ecco? Sonic? Sewer Shark??
_________________

[dessgeega]

switch. silpheed. maybe penn & teller's smoke & mirrors (just cause i like s&m play, ho ho).

of course, before i play these games i will have to get my sega cd to actually work.
_________________

[dessgeega]

_________________

[thatbox]

dess please press the start button already
_________________

[dessgeega]

i don't know how you can turn on a sega cd for the first time and not sit for ten minutes just watching the logo dance in space. most of y'all won't read faithless's brilliant sega cd story until issue 6 is release, but it's all true.

so. ApM suggested to me that my jaguar adapter (which had been powering my game doctor sf7) would probably work with my sega cd. sure enough, it does!

with that done, i set about burning some cds. (the promise of relatively free games is how i was able to justify paying for the console.) i used saturn cue maker to make the cues and alcohol 120% to burn them - except alcohol wouldn't work, giving me an error about unsupported file types.

so, again at ApM's suggestion, i converted the mp3s into wavs, and alcohol burned these just fine. silpheed was the first game i played on my sega cd, and it ran just about perfectly.

i burned the european version of sonic cd (since i like the music better than the american) and the sega cd would not read it. i need to find the american version.

and then i burned panic! which i will write about in more detail later, as it may be my favorite thing about the sega cd. it will run, the intro movie will play - and then all tracks after the second will be garbled noise, like a typewriter chewing on power cords. i don't know why all the tracks except the second burned like this, but it breaks my heart.

is anyone else more knowledgable of these things?
_________________

[dessgeega]

silpheed seems to be the only game where the tracks actually burned correctly. all of my other burns are filled with horrible computer screeches ;_;
_________________

[GSL]

As far as the European Sonic CD goes, you're probably getting hung up because, despite the SegaCD having no copy protection, the CD is most likely burning as a European region game, which your NTSC/UC SegaCD doesn't like. I'm not 100% sure, but I think there's a program to patch SegaCD disc images to a specific region--I know such a program exists for the Saturn, and I'd be willing to bet money that there's one for the SegaCD as well. Google something like "SegaCD region patch."

And if you'd have mentioned that you had a Jaguar adaptor, I would have suggested trying that! I just assumed that all of your other adaptors didn't work; now that I think about it, you DO have a Model 2 Genesis, which is a strange, strange beast. But anyways, that 9v 1.2A adaptor is the 'sweet spot' for old consoles: it will power the Genesis, NES, Jaguar, original PC Engine (I think; it's been a while since I sold my PCE Core for a Supergrafx. Either way, the adaptor WON'T work for the TurboGrafx-16) and even distortion pedals for a guitar! Yes!

[Shapermc]

Those audio problems happens sometimes because you burned the CD at too fast a speed. These are old lasers that read the data. Burn the disc at 4X speed or less if you have it. It takes for ever, but that was the only way I could get Snatcher to work with proper audio.

Also, yes, as St.Louis said, you need to patch them. I told you this once (you must have forgotten) that I bought the Japanese version of Popful mail (because it was exceptionally reasonably priced) and was pissed when I learned that the SCD was not copy protected but region coded.

Also you need to yousendit.com the Switch file with the cue and wav files to me because I still can't find it. I can swap a few other items with you.

PS: Learning how to properly burn SCG games is a pain in the ass, and you forget everything quite easily if you don't do it for a long time.

PPS: I watched the logo dance around for a good 15 min my first time.
_________________
“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

[Lestrade]

My local game shop is selling Tomcat Alley plus a couple of other games!

Goddammit, Sega CD = NEED. More pics 'n' vids, Dess!

[ApM]

[Shapermc]

[Faithless]

Wait. You can burn SegaCD games and use them ...

Wait. What? Wait. Really? REALLY?
I need to get hopping on this whole internet thing.
_________________
www.call-to-adventure.com
Don't Refuse.

[Shapermc]

[dessgeega]

[dessgeega]

this just in!

nero burns the tracks correctly!

victoly!!
_________________

[Shapermc]

_________________
“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

[dessgeega]

so i just played switch/panic! on my real live sega cd.

it is probably my favorite thing about the sega cd. it's a game about pressing buttons! in fact, it's a game about the fact that our society has packaged every action a human being can perform - cooking, cleaning, warring - into buttons. and the dangers we put ourselves in when the only skill we have is the ability to push buttons. we are at the whim and mercy of those buttons.

and that's also why anyone can play the game! everyone knows how to push a button. it's an amazing game to play with people, especially people who are more casual gamers. that was probably the factor that made me finally purchase a sega cd.

matt sent me a program that will theoretically allow me to bypass region protection and allow me to play a burn of the european sonic cd on my american sega cd. that will be my next endevour!
_________________

[dessgeega]

so the program (convscd110) worked! the game run, though the fmv was oddly choppy. but it didn't affect gameplay, and i got to hear the excellent euronese/japapean sonic theme instead of the american one! the music cut out during tidal tempest 2 though, and when i cleared the stage the game froze. weird! i will try the game again later and see if the error repeats.

i did get to play the collision chaos pinball boss, my favorite sonic boss of all.

next i will burn bouncers, an excellent game that ApM recommended to me, and then ecco. at some point i'll burn snatcher - once i'm up to replaying it. after that, i'm open to suggestions.
_________________

[ApM]

I'm not sure Bouncers is actually excellent. It's certainly bizarre. The disc is mostly filled with extraneous "bonus" FMVs that are awful and occasionally disturbing. But it had Jeff Tunnell behind it! I pronounce it, Best Dynamix Game For Sega CD That Wasn't Rise Of The Dragon Or Willy Beamish.

I just burned "The Mansion of Hidden Souls", which is a cheesly FMV 3D-rendered Myst clone by Vic Tokai about a mansion that turns people into butterflies. I find it... oddly charming? I appreciate the lack of cursor a lot.

And I think you'll find the FMV is oddly choppy on nearly every title you play.

[dessgeega]

i think sentient basketballs trying to bounce off each other's heads into the baskets is pretty excellent.

it does feel like the fmvs are just there to justify the game being on a cd when it doesn't need to be. i'm starting to get the hang of it, though.

i remember reading about the mansion of hidden souls when i was little and being thoroughly creeped out.
_________________

[ApM]

Make sure to watch the magician's video, where he kills a child in cold blood.

I'm trying to vidcap it for the benefit of this thread.

EDIT! Oh dear!

[dessgeega]

[Lestrade]

I've been wanting to play Mansion of Hidden Souls since I saw the first previews for it back in the mid-nineties. I think it was because the game seemed to compensate for its low resolution and rudimentary renders by making everything a very iconic, odd colour. It is the main reason for me to get a Sega CD, even if it sucks.

On that note, does anyone have the old issue of GamePro where they review that game?

Glad to see you're back in business, Dess!

[Szczepaniak]

I love the Sega CD. There were so many awesome games released for it (it helps that I like FMV, in which case... Ground Zero Texas is one of the best on the system).

Keio Flying Squadron is also great fun.

But anyhoo, look around on the net for ISOs with CUE files. Makes the job very easy.

Tis a great system, IF you actually play the decent games on it.

I'm assuming you also managed to test out Popful Mail now, seeing as you had trouble loading it on emulator?

[Szczepaniak]

Ooh... Just dloaded The Terminator for the Sega CD. MUCH better than the dreadful Genesis version, though I'm not entirely sure how to burn it. I've got the ISO, and a whole bunch of audio files, but no CUE file!?

I've only dealt with plain ISOs, or if they've have audio, I've had CUE files. So chaps and chappettes, any advice for a rotten pirate such as myself?

Arrrr!

[ApM]

Try this.

I don't know why those lazy pirates don't package up cue files, but they're easy to generate.

[Faithless]

[Faithless]

Also: I've never played SonicCD with the original soundtrack ....
_________________
www.call-to-adventure.com
Don't Refuse.

[SJ]

[Szczepaniak]

[dessgeega]

[Shapermc]

[dessgeega]

so i played sonic cd again! this time the music cut out on tidal tempest 3, and when the screen faded to black at the end i thought it'd frozen. false alarm! i left it on and it loaded, it just took a while! i think it's more a playing-burned-cds issue than a region-protection-patch issue.

so the ending movie has the same starts and stops as the intro. everything else seems fine, though!

i'm up to THE LAGOON in ecco!
_________________

[Shapermc]

[dark steve]

Also, slower burn speeds! AND WAIT FOR IT TO VALIDATE JEEZ

[dessgeega]

hey!

i've been burning these at 8x, which is as slow as my drive will go. i'm doing the best i can!
_________________

[Szczepaniak]

Yeah, my drive won't go lower than 8 either. I think using silver CDs will help too. I find those funny coloured green, blue and pink CDrs, while fine for PCs, don't run so well in games systems (they came in a massive pack of 3 colours, I didn't actually specifically buy pink CDrs).

EDIT:

Might as well add, that since this topic I've been really getting back into Keio, and also having a lot of fun with Terminator (a surprisingly good film license!). I'm also tempted to get back to Spiderman VS Kingpin, which was greatly imporved over the rather poor Megadrive version.

Man, I love the Sega CD. There were many, many great titles hidden away on it.

[dessgeega]

so hey! heart of the alien! pretty unnecessary! but it comes with another world.

i've also been playing an fmv game, time gal. it actually telegraphs the button presses that are expected of you pretty clearly, so it's not that cheap. except for the "time stops", of course (multiple-choice puzzles with two out of the three choices leading to death).

i have been playing the mega drive sensible soccer a little bit and am considering burning the sega cd version.
_________________

[dessgeega]

SPEAKING of my newfound curiosity in fmv games, i remember reading way back in the day about a first-person fmv street fighting game, and i've always been curious. does anyone know what i'm thinking of?
_________________

[ApM]

His name is Woody. WIIIIILLD Woody!

So far, not nearly as much SKEEE-ETCHIN' as you might expect.

I also played some Road Avenger tonight, and man! You wouldn't expect a game about racing cars and swerving through traffic and making other cars explode and crashing cars through buildings and crowded boardrooms to be so BORING.