Wow you didn't like Planet Zoldath? I loved that game. It reminded me a lot of similar games I've played in the 80s. Walking around a lot, puzzling, no focus on speed or combat, just trying to explore an alien ecosphere. I absolutely loved that game, especially the variety in the different (randomly generated) maps and strategies you need to use to solve them. Especially the inclusion of aliens that give hints and trade stuff is really cool I feel.

Sure the walking is slow and the two slot inventory is annoying, but I feel just like with Barbuta, that was kind of the point of it. The walking speed isn't that slow and the map is very small. And there are strategies you can use to prevent a lot of the backtracking. The game does have the flaw of it being randomly generated, it can give you terrible (or impossible) maps. But I went and got the cherry for this game, I loved it.

It's my favorite MSX game for sure!

Crossposted it! Thanks, I didn't know that community existed.

AI will take jobs when the shareholders think it will make them more money. This has very little if not nothing to do with how good said AI is at the job.

My first computer was an MSX (the model in the vid, not the same one alas) in 1984, it opened up the world of computing for me (hence my username having the 84).

I have DOS 2.0 running on that thing with FAT16 support, so that means folders and it can (in theory) handle 4GB of data. If I would have told my young self that, my head would have both literally and figuratively exploded.

Function generators have come down in price so much the past 10 years or so. In the past a good function gen was a very specialized expensive piece of kit. These days you can get a pretty decent unit for not much money at all.

When I first got this monitor powered up, the vertical deflection was totally collapsed. Turned out two transistors were acting weird. They weren't broken exactly, but not acting like they should either. Without a function gen I would not have caught that as quickly as I did.

Wow that's awesome man. Glad you added the 'since childhood' part, I was feeling a bit old.

I've fixed up a lot of CRTs, but this one is kinda special, since it goes so well with the MSX system.

Yeah totally correct. The CRT is only the tube part, the whole thing is the monitor. But when I call it monitor people automatically assume it's like an LCD. So I would have to call it CRT monitor, but that's a lot.

I will post a vid of the thing if people care.

Edit: Posted it https://lemmy.world/post/20980504

Yeah the pot is fine, that was the first suspect. Cleaned it and even thought of replacing it, but it measures just fine.

I've found several versions of the service manual and combined them to get the info I want. Both seem to be parts of a larger manual, which I can't find.

I've been probing and scoping for hours over the past months. But when the CRT is apart that's kinda hard, since it has a lot of high voltage I want to avoid. No worries, I have the tools and the experience to work with these things. Over my professional and hobby lifetime I've fixed over a hundred CRTs and worked on/designed/built hundreds of other electronics.

I took out a couple of transistors (this thing is almost all discrete components, no integrated stuff) in the horizontal deflection path and tested them and they seem fine. I hooked them up to a function gen and a scope and tested them within parameters. That's how I found and replaced two other transistors that were dodgy and bringing the thing back to life to start with (it had fully collapsed vertically).

I checked every component in the horizontal deflection path and they all seem fine. And since the thing works most of the time, I suspect they are fine. It might be mechanical, but I've tapped all around and that does nothing. If the issue shows up, it stays like that for a while and then randomly disappears again. Only for it to randomly come back.

I'm pretty sure it isn't a thermal issue, it's a small CRT which doesn't use a lot of power and doesn't really get hot. The issue also appears and goes away randomly. And with the parts open on my bench it still happens. I've blasted the entire horizontal path with hot air in case of some cracked solder or something like that. But it still happens.

I suspect it's actually one of the other circuits that throws off the horizontal deflection. Probably something shorting or close to somewhere. The weird thing is, it doesn't collapse, it just loses horizontal adjustment. It's as if the pot is bad, but the pot is perfectly fine. I'll have to get out my notebook, print out the schematic and start drawing it out. That usually does the trick to get my brain to figure out what the actual issue is. Somehow even after using computers for so long, I need to revert back to how I learnt it in school back in the days to fully engage my brain. Computers probably are too easy and make me lazy.

Of course and we won't reuse them, that's not hygienic! A new bottle every time is the ticket!

Finding datasheets and service manuals is a nightmare. So many websites claiming to have the right file, only to end up being a scam and not having any files. Having files they have no right to and are publicly available behind a pay wall. Having weird online viewers instead of just giving the file. Padding the file with extra pages of nonsense so they can claim more pages and a larger file size. Having the wrong file mislabeled. Etc. It goes on and on. And then there's the sites that redirect a thousand times and then crash the browser. I hope I didn't just get a virus or something.

All I want is to fix this old CRT from 1981 so I can enjoy it for a few more years, is that too much to ask? And back in those days they actually cared about repairability. Especially the services manuals with scope traces for the test points save so much time troubleshooting.

Archive.org is a good place luckily. If it isn't down because shit heads can't behave on the internet. As a species we really like to get in our own way all of the time.

And no I still haven't fixed up that CRT. It is working now after replacing two weirdly behaving transistors, a new power cord and a new power button (old one worked but didn't stay on unless you held it on). Replaced a few caps but most tested fine, good quality caps. Even the once I replaced were working, but marginal on the ESR. Cosmetics are also good, but there is still an intermittent fault with it losing horizontal size adjustment. It goes from fine and perfectly working to a little too narrow without any adjustment. 90% of the time it's fine, 10% of the time it's faulty and it switches random. I've been going mad tracing where the issue is, but I will fix it one day.

On the one side we have a perfectly serviceable candidate, maybe not the best ever, but pretty damned good. On the other side we have a diaper wearing grandpa, with severe cognitive issues who is not running for president but instead to be king/dictator. This second candidate is rude, shits on everything, is a racist piece of shit and a felon to boot. He is running only for the grift and will fuck over anybody and everybody (except for his own daughter who he just wants to fuck).

AND SOMEHOW AMERICANS BE LIKE HOW CAN I EVER DECIDE 50/50

This simply cannot be reality

I like how Ben is getting caught up on projects from years ago and taking to the time not only to finish them, but also put together YT videos about it. He still finished the Switch controller, even though the Switch is almost eol. He finished a lot of other stuff that has been laying around for years as well.

We all know we've got unfinished projects laying around, I wished I had the drive to go back to some and finish them up.

Und dann kommt plötzlich ein Holländer angerannt und ruft GEKOLONISEERD

Sounds like a skill issue, fuck them kids

Yeah not sure what they mean by "online" in the early 80s. That was even too early for BBS to really be a big thing. Like there were people out there messing with that stuff. I had a modem for my MSX in 80s, where you put the horn on the modem to interface. But besides from dialing my one friend who also had one and being amazed at the tech, it had no real use. The graph makes it seem like an actual percentage of people were not only online, but meeting their future partners on there? That makes me doubt the validity of this graph.

Please note this is reposted content from 10 months ago.

Yeah agreed I remember reading back then that 2020 would be peak, but we've sailed right past that and emissions were higher than predicted. And we've kept on increasing even with the covid dip pushing things down.

Well it could have been much worse with a third panel "Tasha"