PCE hardware

[Chilly Willy]

I got a Avenue 6 pad in yesterday, so I thought I might start a thread to get an idea of what kind of hardware most folks have to get an idea of what I'd be looking at as far as an audience for homebrew would be.

I have a Super GrafX with the "standard" two button controller that came with it. I also have the aforementioned Avenue 6 pad... very cool pad by the way. I also have the Neo Power PCE flash cart. When I get some money saved up, I'll be looking for a Super CDROM^2 to add to it.

I've been looking over the available dev tools and examples. Seems like a really nice system. It's too bad it didn't do better in the US.

[Alchy]

How have you been getting on with the Neo? Mine is somewhat unreliable. It basically refused to work through a USB hub so I've had to use a USB extension cord direct from a USB port on the motherboard and it still has incorrectly copies ROMs regularly (I know this because I've retried copying the same ROMs and then they've worked).

I also have an Avenue 6 pad and I have to say I'm not a huge fan of its d-pad. It's a little floaty, and the ridges seem completely unnecessary - they only serve to hurt my thumb when I'm playing Street Fighter (which is presumably the game for which the pad is designed). I've heard that the Hori pad is great but it looks to have the same d-pad as their Gamecube pad, which I didn't get on with well.

[DarthCloud]

I have a PCE Duo-R with an Avenue Pad 3.

I still have to get a 6 button pad, a multiplayer adapter and the Arcade Card.

I guess it's better to use CD-ROM for homebrew since it's easy to burn CDs.

[Chilly Willy]

How have you been getting on with the Neo? Mine is somewhat unreliable. It basically refused to work through a USB hub so I've had to use a USB extension cord direct from a USB port on the motherboard and it still has incorrectly copies ROMs regularly (I know this because I've retried copying the same ROMs and then they've worked).

I haven't run into anything major (yet), but I haven't used it much (yet), either. I use an old laptop with Windows XP Pro on it for flashing my Neo stuff - it seems XP on old computers works much better than anything new, especially W7.

Also, I've run into the issue with "random" write problems on the Neo stuff - it's worst on my N64 Myth cart. There's something not quite right (about the timing more than likely) with the flash programming. One time it will work right, and another time it will fail. I keep asking them to put a retry in the flash writing... if they just retried the block write once or twice when it failed, it would almost certainly pass (eventually). It's probably in the way they use the USB driver as it affects all their stuff, and varies from one computer to the next. I'm not sure their driver guy knows what he's doing, especially on new Windows.

That's why I'd like to see more work on MadMonkey's open source client - at this point, it stands a better chance of getting into a working state than the official client. I like the NeoFlash hardware (other than the price), but their software needs work. If it wasn't for me and conle and mic (among others), very few people would be using them because the menus would still suck.

I also have an Avenue 6 pad and I have to say I'm not a huge fan of its d-pad. It's a little floaty, and the ridges seem completely unnecessary - they only serve to hurt my thumb when I'm playing Street Fighter (which is presumably the game for which the pad is designed). I've heard that the Hori pad is great but it looks to have the same d-pad as their Gamecube pad, which I didn't get on with well.

Everyone has their own preferences for controllers, which is why it's a shame there isn't a wider selection of PCE controllers. The Avenue 6 is about the only you can still get unless you get lucky on ebay. It seems pretty nice to me so far, but I don't play fighters much. I'm more into platformers and racing games.

[Alchy]

I read about replacement menus for PCE Neo, is there any practical reason to do so? I'm not too fussed on aesthetics.

Yeah, their "driver guy" (if he exists) needs... education, at the least. Their software is horrible. Sorry to hear the Myth 64 cart is problematic, I could imagine that getting irritating pretty quickly given the capacity increase over PCE and the unreliability of their writing procedure.

[Chilly Willy]

I read about replacement menus for PCE Neo, is there any practical reason to do so? I'm not too fussed on aesthetics.

Not that I'm aware of. It might be easier to navigate the games on the card, but that would be it considering there's not much more to do on the PCE flash card.

Yeah, their "driver guy" (if he exists) needs... education, at the least. Their software is horrible. Sorry to hear the Myth 64 cart is problematic, I could imagine that getting irritating pretty quickly given the capacity increase over PCE and the unreliability of their writing procedure.

I run the N64 Myth from SD almost exclusively. I managed to get Conker written to the flash once and it'll stay that way until I start experimenting with writing the flash from the console rather than across the USB. It would be funny if that turned out to be much more reliable.

[Mqark]

I have 2 white PC Engines and a core grafx. I have a Tototek flash card, ann 8Mb Doctor card, a suitcase CDROM2, Arcade card pro.

I used to have an LT, but sold it. It was a little bashed up and although it was nice having one, I got more milage from the PCE GT that I had.

I have about 30 SuperCDROM games, a hand ful of Arcade games incuding a genuine Dracula X which some mother sold on behalf of her some for far too cheap a price!

And I have about 40 HuCards.

To be honest, because the flash cards don't work as well as Everdrive does on the other machines (SNES, Megadrive, GG and N64) I don't use them.

Of course, I've got a large spindle of CDR games - but this is honestly to try before I buy.

[Jamtex]

The PC Engine joypad has fairly simple hardware so it is easy to convert any old joystick to work on the PC Engine. 2 or 4 easily got 74 logic chips, bit of vero board and a donator pad.

Although the XE-1-HE Pro is probably the best joystick you can buy.

[WSenna]

I also want to get a 6 button pad, but somehow the HORI seems better to me, if only because the D-pad is the same as on the SNES.