Ben Ryves

Croydon-based web developer, retro gaming and computing enthusiast and electronics hobbyist

[Ben Ryves @benryves]

@Fur0o0 Hi Darren, I do indeed have some in stock! £20 including postage to the UK. If you're interested please drop me a message so we can sort out addresses etc. Thank you!

[Ben Ryves @benryves]

I've had a request to build some more De-Dead Zone mod boards for the Dreamcast. I need to track down a new supplier for the microcontroller, whilst I'm at it is anyone else interested in the mod? Old price was £20 (+postage if not in UK), hoping to not increase too much!

[Ben Ryves @benryves]

As I'm passing through I thought I'd also mention that I don't really check here very much any more, preferring a place with somewhat SEGA-compliant bluer skies.

[Ben Ryves @benryves]

Here's a little program for the Sharp PC-1500 to draw a crude Christmas tree on its CE-150 printer. The listing can be found at https://t.co/VQEOqyuomU and I've uploaded an abridged video of the plotter in action to https://t.co/x3o3riEtYJ Merry Christmas!

[Ben Ryves @benryves]

@BxygL It's this branch of the original repo that works for me - https://t.co/HKfiPJYrDW - I don't have any real custom dictionaries to test with (couldn't find any to download or buy!)
I'm on Windows so built it with MSYS2 and used Zadig to install the libusb driver.

[Ben Ryves @benryves]

Couldn't quite figure out the first 電子辞書 so had to buy another one to help read the first... Definitely a big upgrade, being able to search by drawing kanji is extremely useful and the jump button also works in Japanese text in the newer model, a real time-saver.

[Ben Ryves @benryves]

Picked up another Casio handheld, though this one's a little trickier to use than the Digital Diary as I can't find an instruction manual - plus the slight language barrier that the device itself may assist to work around... :)

[Ben Ryves @benryves]

Picked up a charity shop flash for my charity shop camera sitting on a charity shop tripod. Shame charity shop film isn't a thing!

[Dr Wes Robertson @ScriptingJapan]

私've 決ed to 始t 書iting 私y 英語 with some 漢字 in it, just to 見ee 何 起ens. The 振ri仮名 will be a bit 恣意的 at 一st, but that's 大丈夫. Nothing 始ts 完璧. 個人的ly, I 思ink it's not too 悪, I 出来n 読ead 何 私've 書itten here without much 難ty, but some 人 might not 好e it.

[Ben Ryves @benryves]

After that first attempt I cut up a second gel pen. It's still not perfect but does a much better job printing text (even tiny text) and drawing some graphics (here's a sample program from the computer's applications manual).

[Ben Ryves @benryves]

Plotters were often mentioned in computer books as a child but I never saw one in real life. Having learned the PC-1500 had one as an attachment I searched eBay and saw one going for a very good price with only a few minutes to go, so stuck a bid on it and surprisingly won.

[Ben Ryves @benryves]

I bought a cheap pack of gel pens, pulled the tip off one, wedged it into a piece of plastic tube from a bottle of bleach spray and wrapped it in tape until it was roughly the right size. It... almost works? It's definitely trying, even if the lumpy thing jams the carriage.

[Ben Ryves @benryves]

@TheDCJunkyard Definitely fits in nicely alongside The House of the Dead 2, aside from the similar gameplay it's got equally delightful voice acting ("Don't come!")

[Ben Ryves @benryves]

The zoom on this thing's not bad at all (shot hand-held in P mode to knock the exposure down a little).

[Ben Ryves @benryves]

Lucky timing with the charity shop today, apparently this had been out for all of ten minutes by the time I got there. That's a lot of camera and accessories for £10 - for years I've been using an A710 (from a different charity shop!) so this SX30 IS should be a nice upgrade.