retro handheld games (-?)
Those "Arcade Classics" mini retro games (about 6" or 15cm) in the toy aisles? I should've known I wouldn't get an authentic arcade-version experience from any of them when I saw the Pac-Man one: fixed-position LED style.
I got Centipede, & all I know is it's almost but definitely *not* the arcade version. (Maybe it's the Atari 7800 version? I only had the 2600.) Yay for retro games being the in thing, but I still feel cheated.
Another review: https://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/2017/08/basic-fun-for-retro-gamers-stealth.html?m=1
retro handheld games (-?)
It's a fun little thing, but it's not what I thought I was getting. What got me so upset are the less than authentic collision detection, such as shots passing right between segments of a joined centipede & being killed by a flea without being touched by it, & the fact that poisoned mushrooms aren't restored to normal like partly-shot mushrooms are between lives.
retro handheld game (cw for just a bit big)
I took the Arcade Classics Centipede box apart enough to see what's inside it. It looks like a nintendo-on-chip board with all the interface pads directly soldered to everything else.
I couldn't lift the plastic display bracket out without risking breaking the plastic frame, & I probably broke one of the frame's plastic screw threads putting it back together.
An RPi would be a tight fit, unless it's a 0 or 0W.
Retro handheld game (not too big for CW):
And Joust to Defender hack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kRvsfbadIs
The Joust to Defender hack is missing the smart-bomb button (because the Joust box has only one game button: flap), but if you're adventurous, you can transplant the game ROM into the Rampage box, which has two game buttons. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeNS3JnLmNc
retro handheld game (cw for just a bit big)
Oh, wow! It turns out that Basic Fun put 2 games in 1 for some of their Arcade Classics boxes & controlled which 1 loads by a jumper pad on the logic board. Just to the right of the game-on-chip blob is J1: On the Centipede & Joust boxes, the pad is open, & on the Q-bert & Defender boxes, the pad is shorted.
The open pad can be shorted out with a screwdriver or soldered switch hack.
Centipede to Q-bert hack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUY7CD6vilk