Namco with d-pad for sale - e-bay listing...

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 10:20 am

Did a small mod for e-bay (listed on e-bay as "MODDED + d-pad - Namco plug play tv game Pacman Pac-man"; if this sells, I will make more! I have a number of spare plug'n'plays.

This Namco has five classic retro games from the '80's: Pacman, Galaxian, Rally X, Bosconian & Dig Dug

Did a fairly straightforward mod for a plug'n'play system by removing the joystick and putting on a d-pad. Took about 2 hours to complete, half of that was for tweaking and testing.

The supplied joystick is quite "clicky", not always as responsive as it should be and you need to move the joystick quite a way before it registers movement. In other words, your gaming performance is not as good as it should be due to the supplied joystick. Opening these systems up, it is hardly surprising, as they use an unconventional switches to register movements.

I therefore opened up the unit and replaced the joystick with a d-pad from a spare controller. This has the effect of making the system far easier to control; I have played on the system for a while and did far better at Pacman than I have ever done before!!

If you are interested in seeing more, or buying it, I have listed it on sale on e-bay at the moment... (remember though it is PAL video format, as I am UK). Link

Bibin · Post by **Bibin** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 8:55 pm

Eek; d-pad on right and button on left?

Also, this is technically an NOAC if I'm not mistaken - listen to the sound effects, and observe the screen resolution. All square or triangle waves, at 50, 25, or 13 percent duty cycle.

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 11:35 pm

Bibin wrote:Eek; d-pad on right and button on left?

Also, this is technically an NOAC if I'm not mistaken - listen to the sound effects, and observe the screen resolution. All square or triangle waves, at 50, 25, or 13 percent duty cycle.

Button on the left is how the gadget comes, only replaced the joystick with a d-pad after all.

Not a NOAC as this isn't a Nintendo, it is Namco, although it is "on a chip"; five arcade-perfect games from the 80's, not home console conversions.

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Wed Sep 24, 2008 5:23 am

Actually, the mechanism of the plug'n'play joystick is similar to the one in your pic. Threw it away, so can't show pic, but looks similar (only cheaper).

Issue I find is that you need to push a joystick a fair distance one way to make it register, then the same tilt on the other side to do an opposite movement; that is just down to the fact it uses a stick.

Personal preference at the end of the day, I prefer d-pads, responsive and quick! If my one on e-bay doesn't sell it doesn't matter; if it does, I will make another one.

lovablechevy · Post by **lovablechevy** » Wed Sep 24, 2008 6:58 am

bacteria wrote:
Bibin wrote:Eek; d-pad on right and button on left?

Also, this is technically an NOAC if I'm not mistaken - listen to the sound effects, and observe the screen resolution. All square or triangle waves, at 50, 25, or 13 percent duty cycle.
Button on the left is how the gadget comes, only replaced the joystick with a d-pad after all.

Not a NOAC as this isn't a Nintendo, it is Namco, although it is "on a chip"; five arcade-perfect games from the 80's, not home console conversions.

actually, it is noac. they use noac for many things that aren't nintendo. hence all the issues with them. the first atari flashback was noac. that's why Bibin was pointing out the sound and resolution problems. there have been very few systems officially put to "oac." 2600, c64, nes, and genesis. most other things that seem to implement an "oac" are using the noac. they reprogram games to work on it, and they never emulate 100% accurately.

nightwheel · Post by **nightwheel** » Wed Sep 24, 2008 8:03 am

bacteria wrote:Actually, the mechanism of the plug'n'play joystick is similar to the one in your pic. Threw it away, so can't show pic, but looks similar (only cheaper).

I still have the joystick for my namco around here somewhere.

Bibin · Post by **Bibin** » Wed Sep 24, 2008 12:33 pm

bacteria wrote:
Bibin wrote:Eek; d-pad on right and button on left?

Also, this is technically an NOAC if I'm not mistaken - listen to the sound effects, and observe the screen resolution. All square or triangle waves, at 50, 25, or 13 percent duty cycle.
Button on the left is how the gadget comes, only replaced the joystick with a d-pad after all.

Not a NOAC as this isn't a Nintendo, it is Namco, although it is "on a chip"; five arcade-perfect games from the 80's, not home console conversions.

No. I owned one. They are far from arcade perfect. Play Dig-Dug for example - the dirt digging animation is horribly off. Why does Rally-X have music? Only NEW rally-x had music, but that game had a different title screen.

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Wed Sep 24, 2008 12:47 pm

Very interesting; you guys know more about this than me, so I picked up a few things here, thanks. Didn't realise they are NOAC. Explains why a few of the plug'n'plays have such small boards.

I was basing my view of it being arcade perfect from my playing of Galaxians, Galada, Pacman and others at the original arcades, and on MAME. Subtle differences, as mentioned, I wasn't aware of; just remembered the graphics, sound effects, etc.

Interesting.

themadhacker · Post by **themadhacker** » Wed Sep 24, 2008 12:55 pm

lovablechevy wrote:
bacteria wrote:
Bibin wrote:Eek; d-pad on right and button on left?

Also, this is technically an NOAC if I'm not mistaken - listen to the sound effects, and observe the screen resolution. All square or triangle waves, at 50, 25, or 13 percent duty cycle.
Button on the left is how the gadget comes, only replaced the joystick with a d-pad after all.

Not a NOAC as this isn't a Nintendo, it is Namco, although it is "on a chip"; five arcade-perfect games from the 80's, not home console conversions.
actually, it is noac. they use noac for many things that aren't nintendo. hence all the issues with them. the first atari flashback was noac. that's why Bibin was pointing out the sound and resolution problems. there have been very few systems officially put to "oac." 2600, c64, nes, and genesis. most other things that seem to implement an "oac" are using the noac. they reprogram games to work on it, and they never emulate 100% accurately.

wait, there's a c64oac?

lovablechevy · Post by **lovablechevy** » Wed Sep 24, 2008 1:05 pm

themadhacker wrote:wait, there's a c64oac?

or

yeah, apparently, the pal version is better to hack for it tho. this site is the hacking wiki.

this is the best mod i've seen done with it

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Wed Sep 24, 2008 4:29 pm

I've got one of these, it has some very good games on it, I was quite surprised. I see one or two of them pretty well every week at car boot sales; bought one last weekend for 50p ($1), boxed.

Not found what the A, B,C & D buttons are for as the games I played on the system seem to only need the two large buttons - only played about 1/4 of the games on the system though.

Interestingly, when you boot the system, it goes into BASIC and auto-runs to play the menu for the games.