AC output questions

[lucifershalo]

Which brands have made Tabletops with AC output?

and how do you use the the ones that don't have (if you play them of course), with old fashioned batteries or another solution like Power Pack?

thanks

[blanka]

You mean DC input
All Gakken/Bambino/Bandai/Epoch/Entex/Tomy/Tsukuda/Rosy VFD and LCD table tops games have DC input. The Tiger/V-Tech ones with light bulb backlights too.
Nintendo, Parker and Coleco: no input.

Gakken, Entex, Rosy, V-Tech: 2.5mm mini jack top positive
Bandai, Tsukuda: EIAJ-03 plug center pin positive
Bandai's sold under Tandy brand, Bambino, Tomy, Epoch, Onko, EIAJ-03 plug outer ring positive

[lucifershalo]

thanks Blanka
how do you play the Nintendo, Coleco?
I saw a power pack that you put in the battery compartment and you can plug as DC (or AC output)

[blanka]

The Nintendo's I run on batteries. As they are LCD, they do over a year on a set. The Coleco's I don't play much. Galaxian is too noisy, DK and Zaxxon too hard, and Frogger and Pac-Man I play on the Gakken version with adapter. The only one that sucks batteries is Ms. Pac Man.

[Rik]

Yeah, the Coleco Perma Power 'battery eliminator'
http://www.handheldmuseum.com/Coleco/Perma.htm
Was their solution to using a wall plug on their games since they never thought to include a jack in them. Later versions of the Coleco games have a small notch in the battery cover to allow the wire to exit the compartment (earlier models without this just can't close the battery door all the way, but still work). This will also work in any other game that uses 4 C-cell batteries if you want to, and the adapter does have that X shaped end with different adapters as well, but you can't change the polarity (and I wouldn't use it on games that only use 2 C-cells like the Nintendo tabletops, there's too much voltage).

Other than the Colecos, with very few additional exceptions every VFD game has a power port. And fortunately they kept the polarity fairly consistent (although I didn't realize that Tandy branded Bandai games were reversed... That's interesting, must be due to a Radio Shack power adapter that was recommended for game use...)

And a fair number of game that use a 9-volt battery also frequently have an AC adapter port (like many versions of the Mattel sports games and Coleco Head-to-Head games). And you can just use the snap-on 9-volt adapter if there nothing else...

I have a set of Coleco tabletops that I use for play and display and classic gaming shows, and I've installed AC adapter ports onto these (just on the end of a wire sticking out of the back of the game, so no damage to the game was done. ). I then built a power adapter from a high powered AC adapter so I can plug about 10-15 games all into one wall plug and have them powered on at once. It's kind of cool seeing that many VFD games all powered up (and even being played) all at one time.

And, when all else fails, just get batteries... I've received batteries _in_ games that I've bought on eBay so many times that I have a couple of boxes full of them... Just keep an eye on them so they don't corrode, and they'll last a few years in storage.