#lehub

by Lee Jones

My original SNES was sold at a car-boot many years ago along with some other consoles, and any gaming these days is kept to a minimal setup. For convenience sake, I use OpenEmu for the majority of games on my MacBook - and as much I love an actual SNES and an old CRT monitor, the monitors mess with my eyes, and not having to tidy it away or watch out for any cables now that it’s all built into my laptop is a real bonus. Besides, having bought a nice inexpensive SNES-style USB controller from The Pi Hut it’s increasingly difficult to care about not owning the real thing. Check it out.

Right now I’m playing Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island (1995).

Yeah, it’s a sequel (err… prequel…) to Super Mario World, and Mario is a baby which I guess makes this chronologically the first Mario game of the franchise. Whatever. I’ve been revisiting this over the past week or so, and with it came a massive wave of nostalgia that I stupidly didn’t expect thanks to how amazing the game looks and sounds, but more on that a little later. Back as a kid, I was getting tired of the ‘save the Princess’ lark that’s commonly used to motivate these games, and remember enjoying the fact that the purpose of this one was simply to traverse 6 worlds and reunite two baby brothers. Not a massive leap by any stretch, but a nice touch all the same and there’s a lot going on, with wee bonus stages and collectables which stack up the replay value along with the levels themselves being long enough to warrant a mid-level checkpoint so that if you lose a life you can carry on from that point. Admittedly nothing new, but still pretty neat.

Over the 6 worlds there’s 8 stages that include halfway and end of world boss levels. There’s also 6 secret levels and 6 bonus stages - one of each available in each world, only available by scoring 100 points in each stage by locating 5 flowers, 20 red coins and 30 stars.

Unlike a lot of games of its time, it’s beautiful. It stands the test of time, and if it were released  today I’d have no complaints thanks to the art direction. Each level’s like a page from a colouring book, rough around the edges, a 2D platformer with 3D elements, a varied and tasteful colour palette, and the character animations are on point all thanks to the SNES’s Mode 7 effects and Super FX 2 hardware meaning this game wouldn’t have looked out of place on a 32-bit system, which when you think about it is rad for 16-bit tech. That said, developers had a fair amount of time to push the console to it’s limits as Yoshi’s Island was released 5 years after the console launched.

Even in moments of absolute chaos on screen, triggering different sounds from jumping on enemies, pushin’ out eggs, aiming and shooting, hitting coins, and getting got by an enemy, all the while the background music is playing, the sound palette manages to make it all work together. It’s rarely irritating, even the galling cry of an endangered Baby Mario initially managed to trigger a warm pulse of nostalgia, until I snapped out of it and remembered it’s game over unless I grab him back -  I swear, the countdown timer coupled with Baby Mario’s cries is second only to the fear you get as Sonic struggles to reach an air-bubble before imminent death in Chemical Plant.

The legal English Hub fez seu lançamento do website e eu pude contribuir com esse processo! Aqui está parte do meu trabalho.

Hello! Sorry to all, again. Real life has been particularly busy over the last few months. Coupled with the realization that LeHub is going to be so hard to get off the ground given my meager budget and employment law in my country. I’ve had no choice but to put all my efforts into my photography and a few more realistic side projects. I am still collecting and the titles within the various LeHub lists are steadily growing but I am aware of the lack of enjoyment that will spread for now. 

Console collecting has had to take a back seat (though I think you’ll agree the collection isn’t too shoddy?) as life as a self employed photographer isn’t exactly the cheapest thing on the planet. If you’re a photographer I shoot on the Fuji X format so that will give you an idea. 

This isn’t the end though... 

I’ve sank way too much time and money into this! This is more of just a lull I hope. I’d still love to find a regular writer or 2, it’s harder than you think! And in an ideal world I’d happily team up with someone who has a premise, I’m all for the kind of business arrangement that’s more of a you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. 

Anywho, before I start to ramble; I’m hoping this isn’t the end for LeHub, my heart is still in it and it is on my mind a lot. I can’t even really write in what little spare time I have as I’ve no time to do anything to write about. Real life and the fact I’m not getting any younger just has to be my priority right now. The site is still there though so feel free to get involved, have a read, play the mini games, enjoy the paper craft, even submit articles if you like.

If you want to directly help with the cause please check out the following links:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/lehubonline01 - My eBay page

http://huntersescape.co.uk/ - A holiday home thing I manage. 

And finally if you want to say ‘hi’ just click the little speech bubble at the or if you’d like to ask me anything click the “Ask Me Anything” tab on the left.

By Niall Hunter

I'm sure if you're of a North American persuasion there would appear to be a lot wrong with that ad. But that is a conversation for another day and believe me, I will be addressing the fact that you have controllers with Parma Violets for buttons and we have Smarties. Actually, given that thought you'd think the Brits would have the purple buttons and the USA would have RGBY as you don't get Parma Violates in the US... Aaaaaanyway. Let's talk cleaning!

I recently decided to splash out and get my self a SNES controller. Fed up of dealing with cheap fakes and and after a chat with an American friend about the aforementioned differences and possibly importing an NTSC SNES I thought the least I could do to start is get a PAL controller. So I got one, it was £17.99/$23.07 and I got the seller down to £15/$19.24, it's always worth haggling when you have a serious addiction such as a gaming collection. So I waited by the letter box for days and it finally arrived. I ran up stairs, plugged it in along with Jurassic Park and... I couldn't turn left or right :/ Sigh, it said on the ad it was in good working condition sooo? As with anything tech related especially retro stuff the best thing to do is take it apart. This my seem drastic but you can see below why I do this. In fact even if something is working just fine I do this, if I'm confident I can put it back together then why not?

Note the labeling on the inside for placement of the buttons depending on the country it was intended for.

The amount of goods I've bought from eBay and similar that are spares or repair/sold as seen that don't work is actually really high. Nine times out of 10 all an item needs is some TLC. Remember with the older stuff it probably belonged to a child with dirty hands and general filth, there may have been pets in the house and in the 80s and 90s smoking was far more common, especially in doors. When you think about all the abuse electrical goods had to take from their environments and for how long, cleaning them starts to make sense. If not to make them work, to at least make them hygienic.

Taking these apart is easy, and cleaning isn't difficult at all. All the plastic and rubber parts were just soaked  in some hot soapy water for 30 mins then a good scrub with a little more soap and a toothbrush, then rinse (ensure you don't lose any parts down the drain, like I did), towel dry and leave on a radiator for as long as your patience will allow. For the PCB I just needed to make sure the white lines on the black circles were a uniform white, this will amaze you when you see how much filth comes off. I used a lemon scented wet wipe and the lid of a pen. And again just allow that to dry. If you have never done this kinda thing it's always worth getting on YouTube and just seeing if someone else has done it, usually they will have and there will be lots of tips and pointers. I may even do a tutorial myself but I'll be sure to get a very yellowed controller with a view to restore it's original colour too.

By Niall Hunter

I recently acquired a Sony PlayStation Portable and a bunch of games (listed in the sites “The Collection – Portable Games” section), which cost me the princely sum of 2 bottles of Russian Standard. This is my third PSP, well fourth actually but I gave my PSP Street (E1000) to a girl #Smooth. Anyhoo, it's a PSP-1000 in totally mint condition. I've always had a soft spot for the PS2 so one I could carry around with me has always been amazing (remember this is in a time before mobile gaming as we know it), and their bizarre Universal Media Discs (UMD) and the fact it was Sony's first portable gaming device AND you could watch movies on it AND you could hook it up to the internet... There is just so much fun to be had on this thing as the above original ad shows, your other choice back in 2004 would have been a Nintendo DS, a very different kettle of fish.

The Street doesn't hook up to the internet, it was Sony's last monetary squeeze with the product before the baton was fumbled over to the Vita. But no internet is fine, using the PSP to browse the net was like trying to driving a car, only steering with your feet and operating the pedals with your hands...technically possible but would you really want to spend any amount of time trying to get anywhere like that... no, just use a computer.

I digress; I have a new PSP, it DOES hook up to the net so what to do, I may as well make use if I can right? Keep it in a box as is in such great condition?Well yeah actually I'll probably keep it in a box as it's in such great condition, but I'll use my other PSP-1000 now :) 

The PSP has a game library of around 869 games and growing, in 2005 hackers were able to disassemble the code, they then published it meaning if you were so inclined you could develop your own games. But what's better than almost 1000 games? More games! And what's better than a PlayStation Portable? Everything portable!

This was just interesting :/

It got me thinking, what about emulators? I don't just mean things on the PSN but what about if I wanted to play some Atari on the tube? Or perhaps NES while waiting for that friend who's always late? Or maybe even some Sega Game Gear which tbh would be great on a PSP, SGG users will know what I mean!

You get my point, it would be great to have all of these things in a little hand held, up to and including the rival of the day, the Nintendo DS. And the odd retro computer too eh? Why not throw in a C64, ZX Spectrum, Atari 800, BBC and a like in the mix too? That would be magical?! Well as with all great ideas it's already been done! If you have a PSP and want to turn it into something so much more just click here. If you're a Vita owner this should work for you too!

Another great feature of the PSP is the ability to hook it up to a TV using an AV cable, meaning you can play your games on the big screen, effectively turning the PSP into a PS2 and allowing you to watch all your UMD movies like a normal person would with a DVD player. But given that you can now emulate anything you like (almost) and store it all on a single SD card fitted in a Memory Stick PRO Duo adapter you have one lean mean all purpose ever growing gaming machine, and all in your pocket.

Wait what?! A console that you can game with on your TV, then unplug and go out, taking the games/movies/emulators with you... how innovative SONY. Now just imagine if you could fit a rumble pack to a PSP...Oh you can.

Games List- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PlayStation_Portable_games

PSP Emu - http://wololo.net/emulators-for-the-psp-ps-vita-the-ultimate-download-list/

PSP Wiki - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_PortableAn 

Article About Mobile Gaming from 2004 - http://www.awn.com/animationworld/growing-possibilities-mobile-gaming-2004

By Niall Hunter

A couple months back (22 Feb 2017) I wrote an article about taking a new direction, kinda. Everything still all very retro but not just 100% gaming, so more of an expansion really. I've kind of embraced this change over the last month. Whilst I have still been collecting games, charging docks and I almost bought a boxed Dreamcast and a Switch I've also been looking at other things that interest me. As with everything in life they are all somewhat linked and share technologies, well mostly. It's always refreshing to mix things up too.

If you follow the writings on this page you will have read my rave about the Casio I bought and rant about 'Smart Watches'. Well lately I picked up a new radio, a radio that seems inevitably doomed at first glance. It's a 1970s Roberts Rambler Transistor Radio. Luckily it wont be affected by the impending turn off of the Frequency Modulation transmitters, not because it's a fancy replica DAB, but similarly, it doesn't have the ability to receive FM, it is Long Wave and Medium Wave only. This makes for some interesting noises when you're trying to scroll through the spectrum to find a station. You'll have to keep a keen ear and listen out for a familiar noise or voice, hopefully in your chosen language. Make sure you're away from anything else that uses electricity or emits and or receives a signal. I found that trying to tune it around my computer, TV and monitors while surrounded by consoles and cables was a bit futile. I was basically trying to receive radio signals in a Faraday cage. Stupid. At first I thought I'd just bought a rather nice white noise machine but after trying to tune it in by an open window on my top floor I was surprised by a wealth of stations. Ironically the radio will probably work at it's best at the top of a hill away from our power hungry information highway, exactly where my mobile wont... I have a plan there though.

So why have I bought this thing? It's surely a waste of money in our iTunes, Groove Music and DAB dominated era. You mean other than the fact it looks amazing?! I actually like to do things like camping and picnic-ing. It's nice to remind my pasty skin what fresh air feels like now and then and get some exercise, but occasionally you end up stuck in the tent thanks to British weather so a radio beats off the potential boredom. This radio still has a good few years left in it not to mention an amazing battery life, I've read it will last 130 hours before it needs replacing. This is most likely due to the fact it doesn't need my 'current location' like every app in the world seems to these days or an update every 48 hours. It will work in places that a DAB radio wont or indeed places my phone wont receive a signal.

The old way of doing things can get a bit mundane with this kinda thing though, especially in a less than perfect setting, so when the nostalgic crackle in music starts to get on my wick or the constant searching for a station gets boring I'm going to replace the battery with a small AUX speaker, a Bluetooth speaker would do just as well I guess but I'm thinking of battery longevity. The radio casing is more than ample to fit a travel speaker and/or an mp3 player if you remove the GIANT 9V PP9 battery. Given the modern way of things it's not out of the realms of reality that you'll have a travel speaker to go with your phone anyway so just swap out the battery. And then if your phone dies or your speaker dies just pop the PP9 back in and away you go.

If you like the look of these old radios but don't fancy the hunt for a station or you're mostly surrounded by things that interfere, this simple mod may be for you. It's a damn sight cheaper than a decent DAB but with all the genuine style, it sounds great and it still works as intended, something I really like in my retro tech... not just an ornament for the hipsters sake of it. 

I have already looked into wiring a Bluetooth receiver to the existing speaker and in all honesty it looks remarkably easy and cheap. It's something to mull over and maybe a project for the future.

My Rambler cost me £30 ($37) from eBay although I bought 2 to cannibalize parts (if you intend to buy one that doesn't work just to mod you can pick them up a lot cheaper and then fit a bigger speaker), I already had a travel speaker and an mp3 player (my phone). A Roberts DAB radio that's styled like it's namesake will cost you £90-120 ($112-150).

By Niall Hunter

I started off writing this piece talking about my new Vic-1111 project but it quickly turned into a love letter about my new watch... and so that's what's happening. Unlike modern watch wearers of today you will see that by wearing this watch I am showing my appreciation for it and it suits me well as a person... I am not trying to show off the amount of disposable income I have; You'll see. I have gone and bought myself a Casio! A Casio A168WA-1Y to be exact, it's the metal version of the F-91W, exciting I know. 

The watch is nothing fancy, it's design belongs in the late 70's or early 80's and I remember my Dad owning the black plastic type. The features of the watch are an alarm, the proper 'beepdidy beep' kind, the day and date, a stopwatch and of course, the time (12 or 24 hour format), it can handle being surrounded by water and the battery should last at least 7... YEARS! Oh and if it's dark lets not forget the light, I seriously have a strange attraction to blue light, like a fly staring death in the face. I put my obsession down to owning one of these watches in my formative years back in the 1990's, the Elecroluminescence not only makes you sound intelligent when you say it but my god is it beautiful! The tech it self was actually developed in the 1950's but this was the first time I'd seen it, it was in MY watch and it wasn't just a gimmick. For the first time the whole screen was lit up. In the past watch lights had just been small weak dim gestures that only lit a quarter to half the screen. No commercially viable LED's back then.

It is quite literally a time piece by definition and that's it. I'm actually down grading from the Fitbit Surge that a friend gave me, I feel kinda bad that it's relegated to my 'man draw' but after a year and a bit with it... Well the whole smart watch thing really is a bit of a gimmick which I don't need. And my strap had started to give way for no other reason than it's made of crappy rubber. I think my time in the Caribbean was maybe too much for it. The thing with fitness on a watch is if you have a routine then the info it can give you very quickly becomes predictable and if you are actually into your health and fitness then you should probably have a good idea without any need for a device on your wrist. I think the only thing a fitness watch can really help you with is seeing your numbers change, like a video game a smart watch gives you a score to beat. That's great I guess for motivation but you could also try just not being so god damn lazy. When I say you I mean the royal you, not YOU, you’re awesome :)

So given that once upon a time I was quite the athlete and that I've had the Surge for over a year I'd rather just have a watch that represents me and tells the time. Until a smart watch doesn't need to be pared with a mobile device, all the other bugs are worked out, they don't need constantly charged, water isn't a problem, its not a lit up musical invitation to be mugged and they generally become nicer to use then I just don't see the point. Oh, and if you're not sure if you agree with that? The Apple Watch will set you back around £400 ($495,96) up to literally the price of a new car depending on how stupid you want to be, the watch I had, the Surge will cost you £150 ($185.99) and my new shiny Casio cost me £17.50 ($21.70)... I'll leave you a link. Orrrrrrr go for the Casio W59-1V, it does all the same things mine does, it’s as much of a retro classic, 

it’s even more waterproof and will set you back £8.29 ($11)