Sins of the Silicon and Console Curios - The Bear and Badger

Blue Swirl

Something that turned up in this month's Retro Gamer that I'd never heard of.

Thomson MO5

Thomson TO7

They're French computers/consoles, launched at about the same time as the Spectrum et al. I quite like the look of the T07, very 80s futurism.

poprock

Is that a light pen? There’s a lost technology if ever there was one. Light pens. Somebody really believed light pens were the future.

AJ

Interestingly, the bit on the left is for cartridges, not cassettes.

[Deleted User]

I know I'm breaking the rules by posting a PC, but a) I do happen to think my PC case is damn sexy and b) I use it for playing old console games via emulators.

It's a BitFenix Phenom Mini-ITX.

It's minimal, understated and simple. Plus the front has a soft-touch finish which is a pleasure to stroke. Phwoar!

[Deleted User]

They do nice cases, my old one was by them. I just wish they would ditch the logo.

Vela

Did a anyone here have a Nuon?

Blue Swirl

Vela wrote:

Did a anyone here have a Nuon?

I did play Tempest 3000 on a Nuon-enabled DVD player at PAX Aus. Which means I've played the entire Nuon library.

davyK

I have a Nuon. Unfortunately it is the 505 model which has no fucking controller ports.

The motherboard has the connections for them but some prick decided it wouldn't be worthwhile putting the ports on it. Of course, the designers went for a proprietary connector type.

There are articles for soldering controllers either directly on or by using a mini-din port. For those with soldering skills it is apparently straightforward. I of course, have no such skills. The Nuon only cost me £20 and was an ill-informed impulse buy from Ca$h Converters.

I have a controller still in the box but no copy of Tempest 3000 (the only reason to own a Nuon).

T3K was well thought of by Edge magazine but I have subsequently read a review that was less enthusiastic written by Stuart Campbell. I usually like the sort of game he likes despite his acidic delivery.

Embittered? Of course not.

Blue Swirl

davyK wrote:

Embittered? Of course not.

Don't worry, I have a track history of picking the wrong horse. Game Gear over GameBoy, Dreamcast/GameCube over PS2/Xbox OG (though I later got an Xbox OG), and Wii U over PSXbox14. I got over it, you will too.

In my defence, though, I could always connect a controller to them without any soldering.

Got any pictures of your Nuon? Also, I wonder how many different Nuon-enabled machines were launched. It'd be interesting to see how widespread the adoption was, at least to start with.

davyK

Not annoyed I backed the wrong horse. Just always fancied playing T3K and when I saw a Nuon going for £20 I jumped at it, never imagining for a second that some prick in Samsung would think it a good idea to leave ports out.

It's a decent DVD player (albeit big and chunky looking nowadays).

Will post a pic.

Blue Swirl

davyK wrote:

Not annoyed I backed the wrong horse.

I know, I was joking.

IanHamlett

This is a Pi zero handheld.

CiL45TDWUAAyqbp.jpg:large

Blue Swirl

Niiiiice.

Ed_Flanders

What batteries does it run on?

IanHamlett

I haven't watched the vid. Probably some mobile phone shit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=68&v=UAIILlANNj4

IanHamlett

It's this thing. 12 dorra

davyK

That Pi Zero has softened my heart. Not a fan of handheld gaming but that looks very nice.

Blue Swirl

My brother has a book on the history of SEGA, which I rediscovered when doing a bit of a spring clean. Sadly it's all in Japanese, but there's still some good pictures in there.

The Master System Girl, from Tec Toy (SEGA's Brazilian distributor):

The Girl was essentially a repainted Super Compact:

Finally, it looks like SEGA's tendency to do different colour ways is a long standing tradition - here's the SEGA SC-3000 in a rather fetching red.

Blue Swirl

With thanks to mr crayon for mentioning these bad boys in the Wii and Wii U thread.

Sharp Twin Famicom (red variant)

Sharp Twin Famicom (black variant)

Sharp Turbo Twin Famicom

nick_md

What about the Amstrad Mega PC though?

Blue Swirl

nick_md wrote:

What about the Amstrad Mega PC though?

It's already in this thread.

nick_md

I thought it was a running joke (feelsbadman)

Blue Swirl

nick_md wrote:

I thought it was a running joke (feelsbadman)

Ah, I didn't realise.

*gets into the swing of things*

So, what about that Amstrad Mega PC, eh? What an oddity.

nick_md

That's all well and good, swirl, but what about that Amstrad Mega PC?

(back on track)

AJ

See, the thing about the Mega PC is that they did it the wrong way 'round. If they'd put a PC in a Megadrive, people would have been all over it.

Blue Swirl

nick_md wrote:

That's all well and good, swirl, but what about that Amstrad Mega PC? (back on track)

Not heard of that, post some pics!

AJ wrote:

See, the thing about the Mega PC is that they did it the wrong way 'round. If they'd put a PC in a Megadrive, people would have been all over it.

Probably easily do-able now. A broken MD with a Raspberry pi inside would be super simple.

AJ

No, it needs to be a working Megadrive and they have to use the same ouput. Otherwise, what's the point?

RedDave2

It also needs to be a snes.

Unlikely

AJ wrote:

See, the thing about the Mega PC is that they did it the wrong way 'round. If they'd put a PC in a Megadrive, people would have been all over it.

Then it would have been a £2,000 Megadrive.

AJ

Was it that expensive? Shit.

Well, they also needed to make it cheaper.

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