– Retrodrömmar
The Nintendo Gameboy was released in 1989 and became a huge success. The unit can be described as a handheld version of the popular 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), or Famicom (Family Computer). The Gameboy is characterized by using the same type of controls as the NES, powered by four AAA-batteries, a monochrome (greenish) screen, and a simple, but robust design. During the 1990s several…
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Wico Command Control is another classic joystick I have had the honor to work on lately. In prior posts I’ve described repairs of Wico Q Stick and Suncom TAC-2. The Wico Command Controlk was bought together with a couple of other broken joysticks. All three joysticks had their cables cut at the base of the joystick for some reason. Apart from that, the Command Control…
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If Commodore 64 is one of the most classic home computers from the 1980s, then Suncom’s TAC-2 (Totally Accurate Controller MK2) joystick is one of the most classic joysticks of all time, known for its precision and robustness. The TAC-2 is almost indestructible apart from some corrosion issues, and problems with old broken wires, both with can be easily fixed. However, there are a few…
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I recently bought three broken joysticks from Swedish eBay: A Tac-2, a Wico Command Control and a Wico Q Stick. All three joysticks had their cables cut at the base for some reason. In this post I will focus on repairing the Q Stick. The Qstick is a budget joystick created in China for the European market. It reminds about Suncom’s Tac-2 in design (a…
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In this post I will mount a Raspberry pi 3 in a Commodore64c. The purpose is to create an emulator environment for a variety of videogames and computers. When I ran the emulators for Commodore 64 and Amiga, I think the right “feeling” did not kick in due to lack of keyboard and the possibility to use old joysticks. For this build I choose to…
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I recently bought some broken joysticks (Tac-2, Wico Command Control, etc) at Swedish Ebay. Some of them had cut cables for some reason. So, after I’ve fixed them I want to make sure they work properly before I plug them into a real joystick port. A quick way to do this is by construct a joystick tester. The idea is rather simple: You connect the…
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In this post I aim to refurbish a poor Game & Watch Donkey Kong that has been severly mistreated by a former owner. The classic handheld game from Nintendo was bought on Swedish Ebay together with two broken Gameboys, of which one is repaired (we will cover this in a later post). Anyway, the below pictures show the state of Donkey Kong when we recieved…
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