The VM Labs Nuon

[davyk]

Anyone got the Nuon DVD player?

I'm a big Tenpest fan and loved the T2K and TX3 remakes (though I have to admit to not having played the original Jag version  - only the Saturn version).

I've always been intrigued by T3K and given its unlikely an emulator will come along (and really an emu is usually a poor 2nd choice for me) I've always kept an eye out for one.

Well - I saw one in Ca$h Converters a while back - £20 - I nearly crapped myself and impulse purchased it.

I am the owner of a Nuon DVD player - with no controller ports.

My heart sank when I got it home. Apparantly its the N505 - it is full Nuon spec and the motherboard has the required circuitry and terminal for controllers - but the ports are not there. I ask you - what arsehole made that decision?

Anyhow there is a guide to directly wiring Nuon controllers onto the terminals - so I'm toying with that. Got a brand new Nuon controller off eBay but  T3K still garners decent prices so I'll probably get someone handy with a soldering iron to do the job once I get the notion to sink the money and get a copy.

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[Rogue Trooper]

Posted this a while back, elsewhere on the forum, but Jeff Minter was (very) willing to port Tempest 3000 to the Game Cube, he just needed a willing publisher to back him, none came forward so it sadly never happened.

Jaguar Tempest 2000 is fantastic, beats Saturn version by a good distance, but then it was written for the Jag's custom hardware.

I'd also recomend:Tempest X3 on PS1, Typhoon on PC and for a similar 'eat your own face off' exp. N20 on PS1

[TL]

I don't own Nuon, I wish I did though! I have played on one many time at the old Jagfest events I used to go to, the Nuon of course has strong links to the Atari Jaguar as it had many of the same designers. Because of its links to the Jag it had several sequels to Jag games including Tempest 3000, Iron Soldier 3 and Merlin Racing (sequel to Atari Karts). There are also great versions of Tetris, Puzzle Bobble and Space Invaders for it.

I am assuming you know about Nuon Dome?

http://www.nuon-dome.com/

[tomwaits]

Nice find! It should be easy to add a couple controller ports. I'd recommend adding connectors instead of wiring controllers directly to the terminals. Connectors are cheap and it would be easier to swap a broken controller if you ever needed to.

The Nuon has a few interesting games... Tempest 3000 and Iron Soldier 3 are my favorites. Merlin Racing is a pseudo-sequel to Atari Karts from the Jaguar. It's a nuisance that the memory card was never released though so you can't save high scores or progress. Some Nuon games use password save, but not all of them.

The N505 is one of the models that supports homebrews. I like Yaroze Classics better than most of the retail releases. You can download homebrews here:
http://nuon-dome.com/download.html


The Nuon also has a great VLM. Play an audio CD and watch the trippy light show. I think the VLM of the N505 runs at a higher resolution than my N501 but the N505 has fewer video effects.

[davyk]

Nice find! It should be easy to add a couple controller ports. I'd recommend adding connectors instead of wiring controllers directly to the terminals. Connectors are cheap and it would be easier to swap a broken controller if you ever needed to.

The Nuon has a few interesting games... Tempest 3000 and Iron Soldier 3 are my favorites. Merlin Racing is a pseudo-sequel to Atari Karts from the Jaguar. It's a nuisance that the memory card was never released though so you can't save high scores or progress. Some Nuon games use password save, but not all of them.

The N505 is one of the models that supports homebrews. I like Yaroze Classics better than most of the retail releases. You can download homebrews here:
http://nuon-dome.com/download.html


The Nuon also has a great VLM. Play an audio CD and watch the trippy light show. I think the VLM of the N505 runs at a higher resolution than my N501 but the N505 has fewer video effects.

Didn't know you could get connectors - will have a look around for those. The article at the Nuon dome site states they are hard to find and that is what put me off proceeding with this. There is another site that has a guide to using mini DIN connectors that looks more feasible.

Was wondering about the whole PAL/NTSC thing with Nuon - does that matter? Would T3K run slower on a PAL machine? Doesn't seem to be PAL/NTSC setting in the menu.

I'm actually using the player as my 2nd DVD machine and I've played around with the VLM which is pretty good - I understand it has some interactivity too if a controller is connected. This has got me energised again in getting T3K up and running.

[TrekMD]

I don't own one but, from what I've read and seen about it, it would be a console I wouldn't mind owning. 

[tomwaits]

I didn't realize the Nuon controller connectors were unique. I assumed they were the same size as usb but wired differently. Mini DINs would work fine too though... this guide seems to cover the mod pretty well: http://www.debaser.force9.co.uk/n505hack  Only 4 wires per controller so it's an easy soldering job.


I'm in the US so I have no idea if the games run slower on PAL systems.

[Rogue Trooper]

Had a look at what was released for NUON, only 8 games, 1 of those, Korea only! so then looked at unreleased games, noticed Pitfall:Mayan Adventure in there, wonder how press would have scored it, seeing how Jaguar version got mauled.

Native 2-Follow up to the very impressive Jaguar 2D side scrolling shooter, but seems it never got beyond planing stage as VM Labs just were'nt interested in the game.What!!!! crying shame if true.

[davyk]

Yeah - I'm only really interested in T3K - there's the kart game which might be interesting but that would be it really.

[TL]

Yeah - I'm only really interested in T3K - there's the kart game which might be interesting but that would be it really.

Yeah that's Merlin Racing, which I already mentioned - the sequel to Atari Karts on the Jaguar.

[davyk]

Yeah - the Merlin racing looks OK though I played Diddy Kong Racing a lot back in the day so it probably doesn't have anything over that.

I'm a sucker for Tetris and Space Invaders though so if I do get it sorted I'd probably get those and that marble puzzle game - Ballistic I think its called. Have that for Ps1 but its a nice game and would be worth adding to a small collection.

Iron soldier 3 seems to be in the daft rarity league and that's on Playstation anyway. T3K is the star attraction really.

[TL]

A couple of nice videos of Iron Soldier 3 on the Nuon:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxFZclQ2_XQ

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

[nakamura]

I love those Iron Soldier menu screens.

What's a Nuon? I can't remember! 

[TL]

I love those Iron Soldier menu screens.

What's a Nuon? I can't remember! 

The Nuon was a console/DVD player hybrid developed by VM Labs, who included several ex-Flare Design staff including Jaguar co-designer John Mathieson and former VP of Atari Richard Miller. Jeff Minter was also involved in the project.

The technology was licensed to people, much like that of the 3DO, with people like Goldstar and Toshiba producing models. Unfortunately they didn't see the PS2 coming with it's built in DVD player support and that killed pretty much any early momentum the system had.

The Nuon has sequels to a number of Jaguar games such as Iron Soldier 3, Tempest 3000 and Merlin Racing (Atari Karts 2)

[nakamura]

Interesting!