Messages

Alright guys, another small treat, check the Sega Omega Drive in action!:

https://youtu.be/mPmshntRQsw

You know what's the most time-consuming with these build though? Thinking and problem solving, not even the building itself. Thinking about how to make certain functions work, thinking the best way to do something, how things will fit, placement of ports and such. I think I must've spent a month on the Omega Drive control panel alone, just to make sure everything fits and had enough spacing. With the Starforce Neo I had to think of the easiest home-DIY way to make a curved bezel, and I finally made a mini vacuumforming construction to vacuumform plastic over the original monitor. That was a week right there But it's also the most satisfying, when that 19" monitor fit exactly into the After Burner bezel with only several mm spacing, that's very pleasing.

Anyway, I'm gonna focus back on some new features of the Starforce Pi, our engineer quit so I had to find a solution that works on my own, which is tough cuz I'm not an engineer. BUT, I did find some cheaper solutions and figured a way to link 2 Starforce Pis together for head-to-head 2player gaming, so that'll be interesting! I'm still testing though.

Not yet, but I might do at some point, lotta work and time goes into these things. Only thing I'm working towards to get produced is the STARFORCE PI, but that's certainly gonna have a solid level of quality to it

Cheers guys, yeah it's got a real 80s tech vibe over it Once I made the video I'll be sure to post it together with some more pics as a seperate post!

[2016-07-23:]

Check out some new systems I build
Sega Omega Drive: https://starforcepi.wordpress.com/2017/05/01/the-sega-omega-drive/
PC Engine SD: https://starforcepi.wordpress.com/2017/04/19/the-pc-engine-sd/

So it has been nearly a YEAR since my last post. I've been making some of my new build (see above) as well as pursuing the STARFORCE PI development. Time goes fast when things progress slowly. There have been some changes, and I thought I'd share progress as it stands in a summarized way:

2016-07-23: Last teaser video, showing removable button plate (allowing up to 6 arcade buttons) and a magnified window were back in the design. I vowed to only post again with production details and pre-order date. Prototype 1 was at the CAD designer, Arcade shield was still in development with the Engineer.

2016-07-29: My first child was born.

2016-09-01: Contacted Watermelon Games for licensing possibility of their games for the STARFORCE PI. NG-DEV:TEAM was on board against a heft licensing fee, I figured perhaps WG would be more accessible, but alas they weren’t looking to license. Cool guys though, very interested in our gear, specifically the Starforce Neo conversion of the Minitel (they’re French, so they were digging it).

2016-09-14: Prototype 2 arrives at CAD designer, first version was lacking internals and could not be fully realized in CAD.

2016-10-28: Finished workflow on options to include into the Arcade Shield for our engineer. This would include VGA output via the GPIOs to a scanline generator before reaching the 5” screen. We discussed the inclusion of 2 stereo speakers and a dedicated amp to manage 2watt output. We discussed making the battery optional to press the per-unit cost.

2016-11-03: First meeting with a French-Chinese production company on getting small volume production runs. CAD designs would be delivered as soon as our designer delivered them to us

2016-11-12: First CAD draft of housing is delivered. Questions of the design were answered, and the changes would be made.

2016-11-17: Non-disclosure forms were signed with the production company. Packaging options were discussed.

2016-11-30: Second CAD draft of housing is delivered forwarded to production company.

2016-12-16: First attempt to send STARFORCE PI prototype to production company was tried, failed (La Poste did not accept address).

2016-12-18 until 2017-04-01: Xmas Holiday â€" Get PC Engine + everdrive, start new parallel project: the PC Engine SD

2017-01-18: Second attempt to send STARFORCE PI prototype to production company was tried,successful!

2017-02-08: The engineer leaves the project. No prototype of the PCB was made by him at this time, nor was an attempt made at a design, unfortunately. New plans are made to simplify the design so the PCB could be made without the engineer.

2017-02-11: Prototype was returned to sender, this time China post did not understand the addressing.

2017-02-27: Third attempt to send STARFORCE PI prototype to the production company was tried, successful again.

2017-03-29: Package arrived at the production company. CAD design, boxart and prototype of the case are now in China, Shenzhen. Request for PCB development was made.

2017-04-21: Met with the production company, moving forward in getting production quotes from them, and working with the same company Ubisoft hired for their injection mold figurines. Exciting, but no promises yet, as ever.

2017-05-05: Try seperate off-the-shelf components in conjuction with each other rather than creating a bespoke PCB, introducing the solution in a new prototype for production company in China.

So that’s as far as we are now. I’ve spent a few thousand euros since the original Kickstarter campaign, mostly for custom or limited available parts and prototypes, each prototype costing around 200-300 to build. As I mentioned, to keep up morale I’ve been working on side projects, such as the recently finished Sega Omega Drive and the PC Engine SD:

Sega Omega Drive: https://starforcepi.wordpress.com/2017/05/01/the-sega-omega-drive/
PC Engine SD: https://starforcepi.wordpress.com/2017/04/19/the-pc-engine-sd/

Cheers guys, I won't overspam too much, but the last newsletter kind of explains where we are: https://t.co/rgwxeyQLGn


Currently I'm waiting on the production company in Serbia to come back with their plans, and from then on it should accelerate a bit.

Cheers all! Last video of the STARFORCE PI I'm gonna make, next video should be about pre-ordering and production details. But in this video you can see how well consoles play on this system, with 2-player controls and HDMI-out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rL-6BL330w

In the meanwhile, I made a video showing arcade games from Konami, Capcom and SNK on this device, and I'll do a later video featuring console gaming, HDMI out and gamepads connected. Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJlI-OMqfng

Awesome. How does this tie into getting this reality though mate?

Sorry for the late reply. The production hinges on a reliable, realistic estimate of the Chinese production company we have, and their ability to produce these cases. We won't go into pre-order before we have a clear understanding of the cost, and we are confident the small production volume is attainable, within time and budget. Of course, there are always unforseen risks involved, but we'll do our best to be as prepared as possible.

Allright, time to switch back to the SFP development and some of the new features! We're adding a big videoscreen upgrade to the STARFORCE PI, from 4.2 inch 16:9 aspect ratio at 320×240 resolution, to a vivid 5 inch 4:3 aspect ratio screen with 640×480 resolution. Also, we're adding Switchable Button Plates so users can customize their own button configuration, supporting up to 6x Arcade Buttons. These upgrades are a direct result of community feedback, so cheers everyone! Check out the video to see it all in action:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN1UQSUr7T8

Let's see this bad-boy handle some choice NeoGeo Arcade Gaming Action:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWIQfs6IdbQ

That means a lot, thanks

Cheers, yeah I wish I could make these by the dozen, but maybe I can approach it with the SFP Or if we can find someone that can make NeoGeo MVS clones!

[Check the STARFORCE PI Development blog on the full story:]

People are digging the SFNeo so much that I'm getting daily requests asking me to build and sell more! That's very cool, and I'm flattered, but no. Building a system like this is kind of insane, costly and timeconsuming. I've made a build blog that covers the motivation behind the system, the components used, how I made the curved screen with vacuumforming, a walkthrough of the initial hardware test, and the rational behind a rather convoluted video-signal transformation scheme.
 
Check the STARFORCE PI Development blog on the full story: https://starforcepi.wordpress.com/2016/05/01/building-a-starforce-neo/
 
Blog excerpt:
 
'I kept the general L-shape of the MV-1B board with the black ABS plastic cartridge holder, removed the casing of the scart-to-HDMI converter & power supply and screwed them to the back of the ABS cover. I stacked the scanline generator and SuperGun on the top of the MV-1B board, and made sure it had some space between them. The audio came from two small Logitech speakers that I ripped apart and placed right behind the screen.'

[Gaming on the STARFORCE NEO]

Gaming on the STARFORCE NEO



Neo Geo MVS (1990) was the one system to beat them all! I grew up with SEGA's Master System and Mega Drive, but my cousin had a Neo Geo AES with Magician Lord. I played that game only six minutes when I was 10 years old, and that memory has stuck with me forever. Now, to relive that time with the STARFORCE NEO (2016)!

Allright, so the STARFORCE NEO works – let's play some games!



Metal Slug (1996) No one quite does Run & Gun games like Nazca does, specifically through their excellent Metal Slug series. The first episode of the franchise still stands as the most shining example of the 16-bit platformer era, and will remain my favorite game of the system.



Top Hunter (1994) I bought an MVS in my 20s and this game was one of four games I had for it, and easily my favorite, second only to Metal Slug. The graphics are beautiful and the two-player mode is so much fun, it's a bit of a goofy concept to get into, but really worth it.



Samurai Showdown II (1994) Extremely popular fighting series often remarked as one of the best games of all times just left me frustrated as I got my ass handed to me over and over again. Still, can't deny it awesomeness.



Eightman (1991) Based on a 1963 manga, you are a quick-running cyborg superhero that has to blast his way through beat'm up mayhem! It's a bit stale, but I enjoyed it.



Shock Trooper 2nd Squad (1998) Not really like the first version of the game, still a great mix of destruction and cartoon run & gun violence. Just a solid bit of fun!



Mutation Nation (1991) Neo Geo is classically known for its fighting games, but I've always been more interested in the platformer games. Mutation Nation is another beat'em up game that is great fun with some sweet action!



Viewpoint (1992) An isometric shooter game that I actually only got into with the STARFORCE NEO. It's really challenging, but really quite spectacular, and the music is amazing!