RetroBlast! - Articles/Reviews

Hardware Reviews ( 71 items )

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RetroBlast! Review: The Phoenix 2600 by Mitch Gerson, 2005/08/01

RetroBlast! Review: The Quasicade Pro by Quasimoto by Tim Waller, 2005/07/01

The QuasicadePRO is Quasimoto’s top-of-the-line arcade game system. Just in case you don’t know, the QuasicadePRO enables you to hook up a Xbox, PlayStation 1 or 2, GameCube and/or PC in the cabinet and play games just like as if you were at the arcade!

Happ Controls 49-way Joystick with Rotary Adapter, GP-Wiz49, and Druin Rotary Board by Ian McCarthy, 2005/06/15

Being a fan of fighters, I didn’t think much of the 49-way optical joysticks manufactured by Happ™/ Midway™/ Atari™ and Williams™. John St. Clair, the author of the book “Project Arcade” concluded on his extremely helpful Build Your Own Arcade Controls (BYOAC) website that “obviously, this (the 49-way joystick) is not an ideal joystick to use.” Why would I be interested in an expensive joystick that was originally intended for only a few unique games, although that list included the revered Sinistar? And even that game had a rubber “spider” to enable more accurate control? Then Randy Turner of Groovy Game Gear™ (GGG) developed his unique GP-Wiz49™ encoder with a Digital Restriction Selector™ (DRS™) that, as well as functioning in standard 49-way analog modes, allowed the low-resolution analog joystick to switch between several different digital modes, including 8-way mode for the majority of modern video games and 4-way mode for classics like Donkey Kong and Pac-Man and even 4-way diagonal mode for games like Q*Bert and Congo Bongo.

Review: GameCab Inc. LED Driver Board by Kevin Steele, 2005/05/01

Adding LED lighting to a control panel adds that extra arcade "bling" that helps give your MAME cab a true arcade machine vibe — let's face it, arcade machines were not known for being subdued. The flashier the better, and since MAME even includes support for using the keyboard LEDs as indicatior in some games, you might as well take advantage of it.

Of course, it's not quite as easy as just plugging in LEDs. Each LED will require a limiting resistor (or you'll burn it out), and you'll need to figure out what value of resistor to use and then wire everything up. Luckily, GameCab Inc. has come out with an LED Driver board that greatly simplifies the process.

RetroBlast! Review: TOKN KB16 Keyboard Encoder by Kevin Steele, 2005/05/01

NOTE: This is a significantly revised review, based on findings by Marshall Brooks (Tiger-Heli) on the BYOAC forums