Blog: I'm Back! (08/10/22 - 08/12/22)

Hello Patrons! 

I wanted to start by saying thank you for all the kind words and support over the past few weeks. If you aren't aware, my Grandma has been having some medical issues. She lives alone, but my Mom has been helping her. Kristin & I drove up to visit and help my Grandma with appointments, making meals, etc. 

Unfortunately, the doctors are still coming up with a treatment plan for her. But we are ready to return at a moments notice.

We drove back Monday (12 hour drive) and on Tuesday, I was mostly recovering from the trip. 

I have some work to catch up on! Let's dive in.

Wednesday, August 10th

It's my first day back, so I had to catch up on e-mails, messages, etc. But the biggest task was Patreon rewards!

As you know, we no longer have a Professor tier ($12). Many of you who were on that tier have downgraded to the $7 tier (thank you!). Unfortunately, Patreon doesn't notify me who is new and who is not new. So I had to cross-check everyone and send out cards/stickers only to those who were new sign-ups. 

After that, I had to make an audible about videos. As you know, I've been working on the Super Mario Kart episode. My goal was to release this episode on August 27th, the 30-year anniversary of the game being released. But with being out of town last week, it severely hampered my production schedule. I don't want to try and rush something out, so that video will be moved to September. Instead, I will be focusing on the Sharp SF1 episode. I don't anticipate this episode taking nearly as much work, and I can release it before the end of the month. Then, I will shift back to the Super Mario Kart episode. 

If you are unfamiliar, the Sharp SF1 was a television with a built-in Super Famicom. It came out in Japan on December 5th, 1990. For a time, it was the easiest way to get a Super Famicom: The console was sold out routinely for almost a year. 

I started some research on the system, mainly on how it works. I also discovered I can't adjust any TV settings without the remote control, something I don't have! I might buy an old universal remote and see if I can get it to work. 

Thursday, August 11th

I updated a few more YouTube videos. I'm hoping I can go through about three a day. I'm updating thumbnails, titles, descriptions, tags, and more. It's just a little spring cleaning (in August).

After that, I dove back into the Sharp SF1. I immediately stumbled upon a mystery. 

During the Famicom era, Sharp released a TV with a Famicom built into it - the Sharp C1. They even brought a version to North America, the Sharp Nintendo Television. One criticism of this TV was that you couldn't hook extra peripherals to it, like the Famicom Disk System. 

So with the Sharp SF1, they decided to add all the ports the Super Famicom had, including the EXT port and Multi-out port (see above). I thought this was an interesting addition and wondered if the Satellaview, one of the only things to use the EXT port, worked with the SF1. 

According to the Japanese wiki, it does not work. But according to the US wiki, it does work. I hate contradicting facts, so I decided it was up to me to find the truth. 

The Satellaview attaches to the bottom of a traditional Super Famicom console. From a glance, it does not look like there is any way this thing could attach to the SF1 without some sort of modification. And even if it could attach, it would block the multi-out port, which is also required for the Satellaview to function. 

I'm a big fan of showing, not telling. So I decided to order a Satellaview and show, on camera, that it does not work without some sort of wild modification. Sadly, the Satellaview is a useless piece of video game history. The online services are no longer up. But hey, at least we know for sure that you can't use it with an SF1!

At this point, my research is basically done. I'm getting a Famitsu article translated, and then I can write the script. For the last few hours of work, I jumped back into the Super Mario Kart script. Overall, a pretty productive day!

Friday, August 12th

I have officially purchased my tickets for Portland Retro Gaming Expo and Retropalooza. I hope to see some of you there!

I can't progress any further on the Sharp SF1 script because I'm waiting on a translation and some items I ordered off eBay to confirm hardware details. So I mostly worked on the Super Mario Kart script today. I struggled quite a bit. There is just a ton of development information to process and it is difficult to put it together in a cohesive narrative. I had a light bulb moment at the END of the day (go figure), so I'm hoping on Monday I can jump back into it and knock some pages out. 

Have a great weekend everyone!

- Norm