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Author Topic: Anybody hacked the flashback blast! yet?  (Read 14712 times)

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Howard_Casto

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Anybody hacked the flashback blast! yet?
« on: October 17, 2018, 08:09:51 pm »
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Bandai-Namco-Flashback-Blast-Pac-Man-PAC-MANIA-Retro-Gaming-Yellow-818858029629/370082388?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=0&adid=22222222227248711782&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=293180601306&wl4=pla-533869769274&wl5=9009075&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=8175035&wl11=online&wl12=370082388&wl13=&veh=sem&gclid=CjwKCAjwu5veBRBBEiwAFTqDwXAooKwvFuiJslABVCHOkVk_oHT_sg59Sc0lhtdzRu2VHU4hp1ONwxoCrowQAvD_Bw

It's a little android stick and they have a bunch of collections, most in the same form factor.  I know that the pac-man version at least, uses the arcade versions of the games.  I just thought for a mere 20 dollars you've got a self contained, self-powered unit that comes with a wireless controller.  Hack in some arcade controls to the pad and it'd make a nice little gift for some of the muggles in your family. 

pbj

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Re: Anybody hacked the flashback blast! yet?
« Reply #1 on: October 17, 2018, 08:38:12 pm »
The number of legal retro consoles is too damn high.


Howard_Casto

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Re: Anybody hacked the flashback blast! yet?
« Reply #2 on: October 17, 2018, 10:02:05 pm »
I don't see that as a bad thing.  Anything to keep the hobby alive and when the normal people get sick of their novelties it goes back to the second hand market where we can pick them up for peanuts. 

wp34

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Re: Anybody hacked the flashback blast! yet?
« Reply #3 on: October 17, 2018, 10:19:02 pm »
I don't see that as a bad thing.  Anything to keep the hobby alive and when the normal people get sick of their novelties it goes back to the second hand market where we can pick them up for peanuts.

I've been hoping to find one of those Atari Flashback handhelds cheap at a second hand store.  Target doesn't even seem to discount them.

And yeah I agree with you about anything to keep the hobby alive.  That's probably why I like those new mini Arcade 1UP cabinets despite their many flaws.

Grasshopper

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Re: Anybody hacked the flashback blast! yet?
« Reply #4 on: October 18, 2018, 02:40:30 pm »
A word of warning, there appears to be two versions of the Pacman handheld in circulation, one with arcade ROMs, and another with NES ROMs! From what I gather the NES version is vastly inferior.

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Howard_Casto

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Re: Anybody hacked the flashback blast! yet?
« Reply #5 on: October 18, 2018, 03:03:20 pm »
Actually the NES ports are really good for what they are and they are formatted for a horizontal monitor, but yeah, it's come to my attention that some of the early runs of the Walmart exclusive version has the old Nintendo ports on it....for ….. reasons?

The more I learn about the 1up stuff the more I dislike it, but I still think it's a step in the right direction.  If you look at those god awful midway ones from a few years back, it's a major improvement in look and quality.  Hopefully future revisions will be even better... like with regulation width and a 19" monitor. 

Howard_Casto

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Re: Anybody hacked the flashback blast! yet?
« Reply #6 on: September 07, 2019, 01:40:57 am »
Ok necro bump....

Walmart currently has the whole lot of these units for around 7 bucks.  Did anyone in the hacking community bother to even look at these things in the last year?  Couldn't find signs of progress over at Atari age. 

pbj

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Re: Anybody hacked the flashback blast! yet?
« Reply #7 on: September 07, 2019, 08:51:15 am »
I have the Activision 2600 one. I suppose I could  plug it into my pc and see what happens.

Howard_Casto

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Re: Anybody hacked the flashback blast! yet?
« Reply #8 on: September 07, 2019, 03:08:05 pm »
That one and the pong were the only two that peaked my interest.  You can only buy pacman and space invaders plug-n-play units so many times before it gets silly. 

It just seems strange that nobody bothered to try.... sure they are crap, but so are the flashback legends units and those were hacked. 

nitrogen_widget

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Re: Anybody hacked the flashback blast! yet?
« Reply #9 on: September 08, 2019, 12:03:01 am »
That one and the pong were the only two that peaked my interest.  You can only buy pacman and space invaders plug-n-play units so many times before it gets silly. 

It just seems strange that nobody bothered to try.... sure they are crap, but so are the flashback legends units and those were hacked.

maybe this is why?
https://kotaku.com/flashback-maker-trades-twitter-snipes-with-fans-over-do-1829921552

nerds were pissed off by the different versions from the company with arcade and nes roms.

never piss off the nerds.

Howard_Casto

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Re: Anybody hacked the flashback blast! yet?
« Reply #10 on: September 08, 2019, 12:18:43 am »
Yeah I remember that, but that typically has the opposite effect.  I know when we were hacking Mortal Kombat 9 Ed Boon made a snide comment about how people shouldn't mod the game as it effects gameplay balance so we just created a bunch of tools to hack the game even further.   :afro:

I might pick up a couple of the pongs.... yes it isn't the best representation, but for 14 bucks you've got a quad pong/warlords machine that'll do hdmi as apparently you can use controllers from another unit to get the count up to 4. 

Grasshopper

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Re: Anybody hacked the flashback blast! yet?
« Reply #11 on: September 09, 2019, 02:16:13 pm »
I'm half glad that these things aren't available where I live.

I keep falling into the trap of buying items I don't really need just because they're cheap.
"Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel." - Samuel Johnson

JDFan

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Re: Anybody hacked the flashback blast! yet?
« Reply #12 on: September 09, 2019, 02:28:18 pm »
Edit : Deleted

nitrogen_widget

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Re: Anybody hacked the flashback blast! yet?
« Reply #13 on: September 09, 2019, 08:05:44 pm »
Yeah I remember that, but that typically has the opposite effect.  I know when we were hacking Mortal Kombat 9 Ed Boon made a snide comment about how people shouldn't mod the game as it effects gameplay balance so we just created a bunch of tools to hack the game even further.   :afro:

I might pick up a couple of the pongs.... yes it isn't the best representation, but for 14 bucks you've got a quad pong/warlords machine that'll do hdmi as apparently you can use controllers from another unit to get the count up to 4.

that's easymode warlords.
and cheaper than doing it with a pi.


Howard_Casto

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Re: Anybody hacked the flashback blast! yet?
« Reply #14 on: September 09, 2019, 10:15:14 pm »
Yeah, it's kind of like those steamlink boxes.  You might as well pick one up when they come on sale.... they are only 5-10 bucks and will run games stand alone. 

nitrogen_widget

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Re: Anybody hacked the flashback blast! yet?
« Reply #15 on: September 10, 2019, 07:29:55 pm »
Yeah, it's kind of like those steamlink boxes.  You might as well pick one up when they come on sale.... they are only 5-10 bucks and will run games stand alone.

I got one a few yrs ago on sale with a steam controller for $50.
it worked better than the RPI and any android device I tried it with.

then I picked up a second for 12$?
It's still in the box but I have a a few BT controllers I can use with it.
did not know I could make it emluate.
how far does it go?

can it beat my ouya for power?

Howard_Casto

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Re: Anybody hacked the flashback blast! yet?
« Reply #16 on: September 11, 2019, 03:32:30 am »
Not sure... mines still in the box, but you can install retro arch I believe. 

Howard_Casto

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Re: Anybody hacked the flashback blast! yet?
« Reply #17 on: January 08, 2020, 01:37:29 am »
I ran across this article today:

https://wrongbaud.github.io/Holiday-Teardown/

If you scroll to the bottom they've read a flashback blast.  It's got a few bitmaps, a menu program, ines as the emulator and the roms.  I have no clue what he had to do hardware-wise to extract this data... did he just use the usb port?  Assuming that part isn't too bad it'd be trivial to replace the roms. 

nitrogen_widget

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Re: Anybody hacked the flashback blast! yet?
« Reply #18 on: January 08, 2020, 08:22:56 pm »
I ran across this article today:

https://wrongbaud.github.io/Holiday-Teardown/

If you scroll to the bottom they've read a flashback blast.  It's got a few bitmaps, a menu program, ines as the emulator and the roms.  I have no clue what he had to do hardware-wise to extract this data... did he just use the usb port?  Assuming that part isn't too bad it'd be trivial to replace the roms.

looks like he desoldered the eprom, mounted it on a PCB then wired it into a breadboard and used an eprom reader.