OMPeaRetro

OMPeaRetro

@ompearetro.com

I enjoy breaking and sometimes restoring Japanese retro video game consoles and computers. Currently on a mission to create new controllers for obscurities.

230 followers149 following726 posts

My Dog Racer came in. I've got 3 more animals to go. I have a Penguin Racer coming Friday, the Kuroshiba Special is sitting in the Buyee warehouse awaiting the rest of my order, and the Sheep hasn't quite released yet. I should have all the licensed cars as well. Now to work on a display...

These alignment holes I designed in aren't really necessary, but they really lock things in. Cheap 10mm long 1.5mm dowels are easy to get, too. Also, freshly built owl gt racer. Sticker placement is okay. I'm slowly getting better at it.

Received some more #Mini4WD motors today. Once my Amain and TamiyaUSA orders come in I'll still be missing a Rev Tuned Pro and Plasma Dash, but I'll snag them eventually.

I started printing a single lane #Mini4WD track in PETG. Still have a long way to go, but I should be done in about 2 weeks 馃槀 I designed provisions for multiple locator dowel pins, but the track sections fit perfectly so far. The clips also fit Tamiya's home circuits while being a little stronger.

I was able to go the last day there was a Gundam popup store in a local-ish mall. They had a lot of friendly staff helping out. They had a gunpla/gashapon area, a card game area, and the main store. People of all ages were enjoying it. Definitely worth checking out if it comes to your area.

My favorite new find on FM Towns and PC98 is the SRPG Dead Force. There's crafting, programmable ai, day/night cycles, units/sub units, and a decent story.

I took this picture of Scott Speed in Project Midnight at the top of Mount Washington Sunday. The morning race was delayed and then shortened due to insanely heavy fog. A few hours later he broke the record in the afternoon race. Climb to the Clouds 2026 was an amazing time.

I finished the blazer faction playthrough of High School War on FM Towns. One of the enemies has a sweet X68000 Super tattoo/body paint thing going on

I got some less than common gems in today for FM Towns. High School War is the big one here. It's Marty compatible and it's not dumped according to Redump. I'll dump and scan everything when I get a chance. High School War is a tactical RPG about school uniforms, btw.

It's been a whole year, but I'm continuing work on the FM Towns Marty Master Compatibility List. I'm mostly dealing with more floppy disk games right now, but I do have another undumped game or two on the way from Japan to test. v1.05 coming soon. github.com/Unsatisfacto...

I just verified a slightly updated version of my FM2AND6 controller. A slight cost savings will help offset tariffs, and I've added an LED to show when it's in 6 button mode.

Some test boards are shipping out to me, so I'll be able to test the Zerosen dumps.

Gaming Alexandria@gamingalexandria.bsky.social

Does Zerosen work correctly? I think in MAME it crashes shortly after you begin a game. Was curious if the ROM dump was bad (though it was confirmed multiple times) or if MAME driver has a bug.

I've finished verifying 8/16/32kb games work on my reproduction cart for the Bandai RX-78. I need to finish working on the CMT portion for Basic use, as well as look at games with dual 8/16kb chips.

I'm working on a joystick expansion card for Hitachi's Basic Master Level 3. I should probably see if the machine actually works 馃

I also received a Hitachi Basic Master Level 3 yesterday. It is loaded with expansion cards. 2 cards are for an external FDD unit, 1 for joysticks, and 1 expanded ram. I recreated the joystick card, and will make one with DE9 connectors that are compatible with MSX style pads.

I got my e-waste PC-6601SR in yesterday. NEC was forward thinking and put the battery on the little led board in the front panel. Easy to get to for replacement, and away from important things if it leaks. Speaking of, absolutely no leakage or corrosion on this one. Astounding

I was looking up places to visit in Iceland for a future trip, and came across this picture someone took in a shop. 銉嶃偝銈搞儵 (nekojira) 馃槀

I just paid shipping on my last package from Japan for a while. I was able to check off a couple more computers of the 8 bit variety. First up is an NEC PC-6601SR with no keyboard. Second is a Hitachi Basic Master L3 MK2. It comes with a few expansion boards. Pics to come when I get them.

My last couple orders from JLC have been fulfilled super quickly. I submitted gerbers Monday morning, and received a shipping notification earlier tonight.

I've been diving into the RX-78 some more. I recapped one of my machines, I got 8 and 16k roms working on my repro cart, and I mapped out the rest of the expansion/cartridge port. I'm not exactly sure what some lines are as this system uses a Z80 and the rest are customs.

My last order from Japan for the year. A programming book for the Sord M5. An NEC data recorder. Perfect Mahjong and Excite Baseball for the Bandai RX-78. A pretty clean Family Basic set

The data recorder uses a small, maybe 4mm, barrel connector and asks for a 1 watt 6V psu. Somewhat odd, but nothing crazy. It just so happens that I have a pile of brand new psus that match perfectly.

I'm not a coder, but it's one of those things I've always wanted to learn. I'm easing myself into it in a way I'm sure a lot of old-timers did back in the before times, by copying type-in games. These games can be loaded back into real hardware as well.

The RX-78 also has a lack of documentation and games, so 2 birds and all that. Thanks to @gamingalexandria.bsky.social for preserving so many old JPC magazines. I've been able to dig up 45 type-ins so far using their archives, as well as a few others. I'll reach out when I'm done with this project.

I just got another misfit child in, a Casio FP-1100 in very nice shape. I'll tear into it at some point, and test the 1 cassette I have for it, but I'm focused on the RX-78 right now. It's a simple, but very attractive design. Those blue keys 馃挋

First bit of info on the Bandai RX-78 to correct some incorrect documentation. The joysticks are full 8 way with 2 fire buttons, and everything is microswitched. It's quite nice. The connector is a 7 pin miniDIN.

I also received my new PC98 CD drive Gears. The drive in the BA3 now opens and closes. I had to ream the post hole a bit as there's a small taper on the post. I just took my time until it spun freely.

I put together a care package for my buddy's PC-9821 Ap2. Custom Gotek cases, adapter pcb with power and ribbon cables, front panel trim piece, and extended knobs for a dual Gotek install. Then there's an adapter for popular CF/IDE and SD/IDE adapters, and a rear trim piece for single joystick card

I snagged an auction for something I've been after for the past 4 years or so. I even got a great price. Sometimes patience pays off. Now to wait...

In a surprise to nobody, the PC98 CD drive gear that fails all the time has failed. I had a few printed, but they haven't arrived yet. The broken teeth were jamming the other gears, which made it quite tricky to release the tray.

PC-9801BA3 package came in today. Everything mostly works as is, but the floppy drives and cd drive need love. It'll get a full resto at some point. Now that I have a working keyboard and mouse, I could test some other fun on the Ap2

With all the curvature I'll have to print vertically to get good walls, but I'm just printing in a faster orientation while I dial it in. Nearly there. 1 or 2 more tweaks to get it spot on. Then I can work on the rest of the model. I've also got some retro platinum petg coming in to test.

Slowly fumbling through these more complicated models. I know it doesn't look like much, but there are a lot of weird curves in this. Test prints tonight to hone in on a more finished trim cover for the PC-9821 Ap2 Goteks.

I got the updated dpads for the Double D controllers in today. They pass the button test. By that I mean everything works as it should, and you can pish the dpads straight down and not get errant presses. We're fully blacked out now too, which looks pretty cool.

I did some more controller work last night. I don't think I can find an off the shelf strain relief that would fit the controller/cable combo for the PC9821 controller, so I made one that seems to work well. I also got updated dpads in for the Double D. I still need to test, but it feels good.