Famicom World

Family Computer => Famicom / Disk System => Topic started by: cubelmariomadness on October 13, 2010, 04:34:53 pm

Title: Those VCD things
Post by: cubelmariomadness on October 13, 2010, 04:34:53 pm
Has anyone seen those vcd game consoles where you can pop in a disk with Famicom roms on it, and play them off the cd?
I'm not looking to buy one, but does anyone have any information on how those work?
Title: Re: Those VCD things
Post by: ericj on October 13, 2010, 04:38:10 pm
This thing?:

http://ultimateconsoledatabase.com/famiclones/game_vcd.htm
Title: Re: Those VCD things
Post by: cubelmariomadness on October 13, 2010, 04:39:20 pm
Yeah, those things.
Title: Re: Those VCD things
Post by: MS-DOS4 on October 13, 2010, 04:43:26 pm
There's also this cool DVD player that does the same thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5Gdcbj9ZC0

As for info, what do you want to know exactly?
Title: Re: Those VCD things
Post by: cubelmariomadness on October 13, 2010, 04:46:46 pm
Just how they work and what controllers they accept. In the future I might want to get one.
Title: Re: Those VCD things
Post by: 133MHz on October 13, 2010, 04:51:27 pm
I had one. The emulation was really slow with plenty of frameskipping, totally unplayable unless you only went for the Mahjong type games. Apparently the NES emulation was done in the Video ASIC. It used standard Famiclone controllers.

It came with a 300 game CD that used a special file format (some kind of binary at the start of every NES ROM). Even though it recognized ISO9660 CDs with .NES files on them as playable games, I never got them to work.

I gave it to my uncle who uses it as a CD/MP3 player replacement for his modular stereo to this day. I kept one of the controllers and the game CD though.
Title: Re: Those VCD things
Post by: MS-DOS4 on October 13, 2010, 04:59:03 pm
So it does not load onto a NOAC? Odd choice to emulate...
Title: Re: Those VCD things
Post by: ericj on October 13, 2010, 05:07:59 pm
Here's a similar piece of shit you can put in your car, and wish you hadn't:

http://www.chinavasion.com/product_info.php/pName/headrest-dvd-player-and-nes-emulator-7-inch-lcd-pair-grey/

(http://eu.chinavasion.com/images/Chinavasion-CVEJS-SD708-GREY-2-and-new.jpg)
Title: Re: Those VCD things
Post by: cubelmariomadness on October 13, 2010, 05:13:54 pm
That looks pretty horrible for the person resting on the headrest!

By the way 133Mhz, is this the one you had?
http://ultimateconsoledatabase.com/famiclones/miyota_wapstation.htm
Title: Re: Those VCD things
Post by: 133MHz on October 13, 2010, 07:10:00 pm
Quote from: cubelmariomadness on October 13, 2010, 05:13:54 pm
By the way 133Mhz, is this the one you had? link (http://ultimateconsoledatabase.com/famiclones/miyota_wapstation.htm)


No, but I've found pictures of it among my old stuff (probably for a review I never did ::))

Front:
(http://133fsb.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/vcdp_small.jpg?w=800) (http://133fsb.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/vcdp_small.jpg)

Back (notice the two DE-9 controller ports):
(http://133fsb.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/vcdp_back.jpg?w=800) (http://133fsb.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/vcdp_back.jpg)

Box:
(http://133fsb.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/vcdp_box.jpg?w=800) (http://133fsb.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/vcdp_box.jpg)

One of the controllers and the game CD:
(http://133fsb.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/vcdp_cont.jpg?w=800) (http://133fsb.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/vcdp_cont.jpg)

Brains:
(http://133fsb.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/vcdp_asic.jpg?w=800) (http://133fsb.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/vcdp_asic.jpg)
Pretty much like a modern DVD player: An ASIC that does pretty much everything, a ROM for storing the firwmare, some DRAM and a couple of driver chips to run the optical mechanism.
Title: Re: Those VCD things
Post by: ericj on October 13, 2010, 07:12:47 pm
Looks pretty sturdy and kind of like a car cd player, but obviously bigger.
Title: Re: Those VCD things
Post by: NintendoKing on October 13, 2010, 08:39:48 pm
Those remind me so much of a Philips CD-i; to bad they can't play cd-i games because finding a working unit is a annoying task.
Title: Re: Those VCD things
Post by: cubelmariomadness on October 14, 2010, 06:40:54 pm
So are they all like this, or are most of them good quality?
Title: Re: Those VCD things
Post by: L___E___T on October 18, 2010, 10:14:43 am
I still recommend a soft-modded Wii with a Super Famicom controller over any of this.  Best emulation experienec I've found (closely followed by PSP).
Title: Re: Those VCD things
Post by: cubelmariomadness on October 18, 2010, 12:41:37 pm
Eh. I've bricked 2 wii's I've owned. I really don't feel like shelling out a bunch of dough so I can brick it again.  ::)
Title: Re: Those VCD things
Post by: nintendodork on October 18, 2010, 12:59:04 pm
You aren't doing it right then. :P I've soft-modded my own Wii and two friends' Wiis the first time, and I put WAD installers on them and everything.  It's pretty easy to understand as long as you pay attention to what firmware you have and make sure you use all the appropriate tools for said firmware.
Title: Re: Those VCD things
Post by: cubelmariomadness on October 18, 2010, 01:35:59 pm
It's the firmware that got me both times. I understand it all, but I guess I just rushed through it and didn't read up. Like I said, it's kind of like walking through a minefield with a map. If you start rushing, everything is broken.
Title: Re: Those VCD things
Post by: ericj on October 18, 2010, 02:02:46 pm
I agree with nintendodork. I did the same to mine and it still works perfectly.