The Summer of Chuff 2016

[yotsuya]

Went to Phoenix Comicon yesterday and got to meet two actresses from Doctor Who. Going back today.

Also, I successfully did the NES Zapper hack on Janky Kong. All 8 games on my MultiVS are functional.

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[yotsuya]

Got this autographed by Daniel-San and Johnny for the Casa de Yotsuya gameroom...



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[pbj]

Snuck down to the coast between thunderstorms.

 

[BadMouth]

Chuffed that my bathroom renovation is mostly over and I don't have to crap in a bucket or gas station bathroom anymore.
I wish I could say that I did all this myself, but I paid pros to install the window and do the tile work.

I think the top chunky shelf looks like a bit of a cop-out because it's just a board across the front.
I made a new one that's as thick as the middle shelf, but haven't stained it yet.
Those are my old towels.  Trying to figure out a towel color that works and isn't brown (first world problems).

[pbj]

I want to hear more about the bucket.

[yotsuya]

Looks great!

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[BadMouth]

I want to hear more about the bucket.

Well there wasn't much to it.  Throw a trash bag in the bucket, toss the old toilet seat on top and crap.
Stick a trash can outside like an adult diaper genie.  I assumed my crap would be considered a type of biohazard that needed to be buried or otherwise disposed of properly, but it turns out that it's perfectly legal to toss your own ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- in with the regular garbage pickup.  I threw some kitty litter in with it hoping not to be called out.

Turns out that I don't have to crap as often as I thought.
If the option isn't  there, I just don't go.
(or it could just be that I was careful about what I ate)
IIRC, I ended up with 5 bags of ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---.  Mostly from mornings where I had to go immediately and was too lazy to throw on clothes and drive a few miles.

[Slippyblade]

So, a friend of a friend has a storage shed full of old arcade machines, all of which are in various states of disrepair.  They've been sitting for a number of years.  When word started floating around in my circle that I diddle with arcade machines, my friend connected the two of us.  Here's where it gets interesting...

I looked at the shed of games.  They are all dry, no rot that I can see.  The machines haven't been overly abused outside of normal wear and tear.  I think I'll have a pretty decent shot at getting them working unless there is something catastrophic wrong.  There are TWO Joust machines.  The guy is giving one of the Joust machines to me as payment for working on the rest of the machines.  Considering Joust is one of my wife's favorite games and one I love as well, this is perfect.

So, yeah, I'm getting a dedicated Joust!  I'm actually going to have the beginning of a real game room.

So far:
Asteroids Deluxe Cabaret (dedicated)
Joust Upright (dedicated)
Multi-game ghetto pedestal (Pandoras Box 3 shoved into an old Xarcade sitting on an end table hooked up to a TV)
Pirates of the Caribbean pinball (3/4 size)

Woohoo!

[yotsuya]

Nice.  What sort of repairs are you going to have to do?

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[Slippyblade]

Don't know entirely yet.  Picking up the first machine on Monday.  I've already told him that I will not be doing cosmetic repairs, so no artwork, CPO, etc.  I also explained that I ill only be providing labor, he'll be paying for any parts.  I'm not worried about being stiffed on this though, I've been friends with the guys mom for about 15 years.

[pbj]

I assumed my crap would be considered a type of biohazard that needed to be buried or otherwise disposed of properly, but it turns out that it's perfectly legal to toss your own ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- in with the regular garbage pickup.

Please tell me you actually made a phone call and asked about this.  Besides, anything is legal so long as it's in a black plastic bag in your neighbor's can.

Once I got desperate and didn't have a toilet plunger and had to use my shower.  Waffle stomp is as horrible as it sounds.  Wish I had though of a trash bag.

[Howard_Casto]

Well nobody can accuse you of not having a pot to piss in.  Something about an orange crap bucket with "let's do this" on the front is unbelievably hilarious to me. 

Got back from the doctor... after a year of issues my kidney function is almost normal again.  Super chuffed about that.

[yotsuya]

Although I've spent quite a bit of time working on Janky Kong, I also took a little bit of time to do a composite mod on a 2600 that I had. Coupled with a Harmony cart and it's been great.



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[Slippyblade]

Hadn't heard of the Harmony before, just looked it up.  Very cool, a bit spendy though.

[dkersten]

Chuffed that my bathroom renovation is mostly over

Well I didn't have to ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- in a bucket, but it did suck not having a main bathroom for several weeks...

I am nearly done as well with my bathroom reno and pretty happy about it.  Just waiting on the vanity which will be another week.  I decided not to build the vanity a few weeks back and contacted a friend who sells cabinets and he got me a nice custom vanity for cost.  Even at cost though, the stone top will be the most expensive item in the room, and the top and vanity combined is nearly double the cost of the entire rest of the bathroom figuring in every fixture, screw, nail, and pipe fitting.  But I just didn't want to take a chance at doing a super dark stain on hardwood and end up with less than perfect results.  Usually you have to dye the wood first to get super dark and not splotchy, and I am just not set up for using dyes in my shop, so rather than use up $250 in cherry wood and then ruin it trying to stain it a dark coffee color, I bit the bullet and ordered it up.  Then once I was in for the custom cabinet, I wasn't going to make a laminated countertop, so I opted for stone, which around here starts at $100 per sq foot...

Here is where I started:  a 1966 bathroom with a really bad 80's reno.  That's an old steamer shower without the steamer part, the original 1966 valves, and to top it all off, commercial white fiberglass waterproofing panels on the walls. 


This bathroom was my eyesore for the last 16 years, but with 5 people in the house it was always last on the priority list.  The 3 layers of flooring had rotted out around the toilet and after 3 attempts to re-seat the toilet that would eventually unseal and flood in my basement several months later, I finally got pissed enough to gut the bathroom to the studs... With the exception of 10 minutes to move the tub into the bathroom, I did the whole thing solo, which sucked sometimes but hey, it's rewarding, right?

And the nearly finished results:

The last pic was taken about 5 minutes after finishing the grout, so it is a little dirty but the best "after" pic I have right now...

The vanity will be a dark coffee color, not black but a very rich brown.  The top is going to be a fairly sanitary white with a white undermount sink.. The contrast pops between the porcelain white fixtures and vanity top and the charcoal tile and light gray walls really came out great.  I am excited to get the last few pieces in place and call it done.. after which I will be starting on putting new windows in the upstairs rooms, after I strip the rooms down to bare walls, patch and retexture, prime, paint, new trim, and new carpet.. Aside from the kitchen floor, that will be the last project before the entire house has been renovated (since I bought it in 2000).  AND, that will mark the start of re-renovating the basement, lol...

Somewhere in there I need to write another novel and maybe even get around to building a sit down cab for racing sims... I have a busy year planned..

[Slippyblade]

Love that tub enclosure!  The glass tiles really look nice.

[Howard_Casto]

Hadn't heard of the Harmony before, just looked it up.  Very cool, a bit spendy though.

Well if you are a cheapskate like me, there are other options.  Because an Atari cart is basically a rom chip and that's it, you can do bank switching with dip switches and make a XXX in 1 cart fairly easily.  4k roms won't work though.  Harmony is the bees-knees though, it just seems like the Atari scene is super pricey and given the tech in the vcs it should be the cheapest. 

[Howard_Casto]

Chuffed that my bathroom renovation is mostly over

Well I didn't have to ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- in a bucket, but it did suck not having a main bathroom for several weeks...

I am nearly done as well with my bathroom reno and pretty happy about it.  Just waiting on the vanity which will be another week.  I decided not to build the vanity a few weeks back and contacted a friend who sells cabinets and he got me a nice custom vanity for cost.  Even at cost though, the stone top will be the most expensive item in the room, and the top and vanity combined is nearly double the cost of the entire rest of the bathroom figuring in every fixture, screw, nail, and pipe fitting.  But I just didn't want to take a chance at doing a super dark stain on hardwood and end up with less than perfect results.  Usually you have to dye the wood first to get super dark and not splotchy, and I am just not set up for using dyes in my shop, so rather than use up $250 in cherry wood and then ruin it trying to stain it a dark coffee color, I bit the bullet and ordered it up.  Then once I was in for the custom cabinet, I wasn't going to make a laminated countertop, so I opted for stone, which around here starts at $100 per sq foot...

Here is where I started:  a 1966 bathroom with a really bad 80's reno.  That's an old steamer shower without the steamer part, the original 1966 valves, and to top it all off, commercial white fiberglass waterproofing panels on the walls. 


This bathroom was my eyesore for the last 16 years, but with 5 people in the house it was always last on the priority list.  The 3 layers of flooring had rotted out around the toilet and after 3 attempts to re-seat the toilet that would eventually unseal and flood in my basement several months later, I finally got pissed enough to gut the bathroom to the studs... With the exception of 10 minutes to move the tub into the bathroom, I did the whole thing solo, which sucked sometimes but hey, it's rewarding, right?

And the nearly finished results:

The last pic was taken about 5 minutes after finishing the grout, so it is a little dirty but the best "after" pic I have right now...

The vanity will be a dark coffee color, not black but a very rich brown.  The top is going to be a fairly sanitary white with a white undermount sink.. The contrast pops between the porcelain white fixtures and vanity top and the charcoal tile and light gray walls really came out great.  I am excited to get the last few pieces in place and call it done.. after which I will be starting on putting new windows in the upstairs rooms, after I strip the rooms down to bare walls, patch and retexture, prime, paint, new trim, and new carpet.. Aside from the kitchen floor, that will be the last project before the entire house has been renovated (since I bought it in 2000).  AND, that will mark the start of re-renovating the basement, lol...

Somewhere in there I need to write another novel and maybe even get around to building a sit down cab for racing sims... I have a busy year planned..

I like the accent.  It reminds me of running water.

[yotsuya]

Hadn't heard of the Harmony before, just looked it up.  Very cool, a bit spendy though.

After using it for 30 minutes, it's worth every cent.

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[yotsuya]

I used that same tile in my bathrooms as well.

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[ChadTower]

Although I've spent quite a bit of time working on Janky Kong, I also took a little bit of time to do a composite mod on a 2600 that I had. Coupled with a Harmony cart and it's been great.

Heh, I have a yard sale dirtpile rescue 2600 I repaired recently sitting on my workbench with a composite/svid modchip waiting to be installed.  I probably should have just gone with the regular composite.  Much quicker mod and not many TVs have S vid anymore.

[yotsuya]

I will say the mod has made it easy to hook it up to any new TV, but the caveat is that it handles LCDs differently than it does CRTs. If your TV does a lot of built-in processing, you may need a fidget with settings to get it to look better. You're not going to have some magically beautiful picture of the first time you plug it in, especially if your TV does a lot of picture processing and does things like eliminate flicker.

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[pbj]

[ChadTower]

I will say the mod has made it easy to hook it up to any new TV, but the caveat is that it handles LCDs differently than it does CRTs. If your TV does a lot of built-in processing, you may need a fidget with settings to get it to look better. You're not going to have some magically beautiful picture of the first time you plug it in, especially if your TV does a lot of picture processing and does things like eliminate flicker.

That might be a behaviour of your specific modchip.  Other chips might be different.  Really, I just want to bypass the RF modulator.  I'm not looking for a magical RGB pixel perfect image of a square chasing a rhombus.   

[pbj]

Only good use of a 2600 these days...

[dkersten]

Love that tub enclosure!  The glass tiles really look nice.

I like the accent.  It reminds me of running water.

Thanks!  It was fun to pick out tile and decide which way to lay it out.  Not so fun to actually cut and lay the tile, lol.

[yotsuya]

I will say the mod has made it easy to hook it up to any new TV, but the caveat is that it handles LCDs differently than it does CRTs. If your TV does a lot of built-in processing, you may need a fidget with settings to get it to look better. You're not going to have some magically beautiful picture of the first time you plug it in, especially if your TV does a lot of picture processing and does things like eliminate flicker.

That might be a behaviour of your specific modchip.  Other chips might be different.  Really, I just want to bypass the RF modulator.  I'm not looking for a magical RGB pixel perfect image of a square chasing a rhombus.   

Mine isn't a specific mod chip. It's a transistor and two resistors bypassing the RF modulator.

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[pbj]

Mine isn't a specific mod chip. It's a transistor and two resistors bypassing the RF modulator.

[JMB]

And the nearly finished results:

Looks great but that gold door handle need to go now too. 

[dkersten]

Looks great but that gold door handle need to go now too. 

LOL!

Yes, all the brass is going away this summer.. That comes to around 15 door knobs total, so it won't be cheap..

My insurance estimate for the last big storm came in at around 15 grand, and it covers some of the stuff I was already planning this summer, so I think the next few months are going to be even busier than I thought.. I need to do 30 square of roof, replace some fascia, all the rain gutters and downspouts, garage door, all upstairs windows, add 2 full egress windows to downstairs, replace and paint some siding (so I will probably repaint the whole house and use this as an opportunity to change up the colors), rebuild and stain 100 feet of cedar 6 ft fence, and then redo the 3 bedrooms, lol. 

This was more or less the plans for the next 3 years (except the roof that is practically brand new), so my reno plans are greatly accelerated, and I am not sure it's a good thing.  It's nice that some will be covered by insurance, but damn this one is going to hurt the pocketbook...  Thank God I'm not married or I wouldn't have money for this sort of thing..

[pbj]

Remember when I used to restore pinball machines and ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---?   




Oh well, new hobby.

 

[ark_ader]

Remember when I used to restore pinball machines and ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---?   




Oh well, new hobby.

 

Was that before of after the garage incident?

[DeLuSioNal29]

Sounds like cool progress on everyone's part!

Howard, glad to hear you're health is better!  Super important.

So I got Mike's Arcade Shop goodies in the mail yesterday. Versus to JAMMA adapter, Ms. Pacman to JAMMA adapter and a Nintendo coin sticker.   Also got some white T-molding samples.

I held off on the coin door slot covers for now. I want to see what I can do to my existing ones before I waste any money on new ones.

Chuffed!

DeL

[yotsuya]

Starting another soldering project today. Replacement daughter cards for Castlevania on the Unisystem. I have great fun doing this kind of stuff. I find it very relaxing.

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[DeLuSioNal29]

Just finished the baby room. We chose powder blue even though it will be a girl. Now I'm off the hook to finish up a project or two. ;-)



PS - I painted the letters but didn't hang them. My sister in law insisted on doing it on her own without a laser level. It's more artistic, she said. {Sigh}. Whatevs.

DeL

[harveybirdman]

Yotsuya’s Castlevania talk and your daughter's name hanging makes me want to put "of sorrow" behind it...

I'm chuffed a cause I have one of my favorite games eva coming somewhere between here and the Netherlands and Yots has got me itching to do a bit of soldering.

[pbj]

Aria?  C'mon, dude, the new hotness is Emma.

[BadMouth]

Aria?  C'mon, dude, the new hotness is Emma.

There were 6 kids with various spellings of the name Kaleigh in my niece's kindergarten class. (like 10 or 12 years ago)

Neighbor's toddler is named Emma.

Why do people give their kids the same name all the other people are giving their kids?

Had a quick look: http://www.babycenter.com/popularBabyNames.htm?year=2016
All my friends kids' names are in the top 20.   

[yotsuya]

Jax also seems to be the name-de-jour.

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[pbj]

All I know is I went to the Galleria yesterday and heard parents screaming "Emma!" after every wayward toddler.  That's been a long popular name but there's a hell of a lot of them lately.

Should be hiring the first waves of Rachel soon.  Kaitlin's soon to follow.