Playing Cards at the Thrift Store

 I took a personal day from work last week. I dropped Char off at UHS at 7:50, and then picked her up at 3:15. I went thrifting in between. 

    One of my goals for the day was to look for another CRT TV. I have the Emerson, but that has a 9" screen. It's mostly for display. I needed something slightly bigger if I was actually going to watch movies or play games on it. I didn't have high hopes of seeing anything, though. CRTs have become a popular collectable. 

    So, I was surprised to spot a CRT TV/ DVD combo at the Many Hands thrift store in West Des Moines. The Toshiba TV was under a bunch of stuff in a full shopping cart. My first thought was, Man, someone beat me to it! and I consoled myself that sometimes that is just the way it goes. I started walking away, but then a store volunteer began pushing the cart towards the electronics section. Wait! It isn't sold. It hasn't been even put on a shelf yet! 

    As the woman pulled a small flatscreen television from the top of the cart's pile, I asked, "Could I look at this one?"

    "Sure!" she replied when she turned around. "I just sent my friend a video of it working on the test bench in the back. She got a real kick out of it. If you want, we can take this to the back again, and you can test it for yourself."

        I agreed. She was really helpful, and she was right. The 13" TV was spotless, and it played her test DVD without a hiccup. Sold! I thanked her and carried the television to the register's counter. 

    

    The TV wasn't a steal at $70, but when compared to the CRT prices on Marketplace and Craigslist, the amount was pretty fair. Plus, the TV still had its original remote. That's pretty important if the any of the physical buttons on the TV fail. Also, the money goes to charity. So, I got that in my karma bank.

    I was happy that they had wrapped the remote in a plastic bag before taping it to the top of the television. Sometimes that packing tape is directly applied to the remote and you can damage the buttons when you remove it.

    Speaking of wrapping, a woman already at the counter was buying what looked to be a stack of 25 small photo frames. The cashier was chatting with her as she slowly wrapped each frame in it's own piece of brown paper. I could tell I was going to be standing there for awhile. 

    That's when another guy spotted the TV I was buying. 

    His eyes widened, and he tapped his wife's arm with the back of his hand. He nodded to her at my TV and walked over to where I was standing. 

    He leaned in to get a better look at the TV and then slowly said in a slightly southern accent, "My son lives in Nebraska and they don't have jack in the thrift stores over there." He then looked me in the eye as if he had made a point. 

    I nodded noncommittally. Sometimes people in thrift stores will start a conversation about what you are buying because they have a fun story to share. I could tell this wasn't going to be one of those situations.

    "Well, my son called me last week and told me I should be on the look out for an old tube TV just like this one." He pointed at the TV as he played his dad-card. 

    "Yeah. Lots of people are looking for these now," I replied, not taking the bait.

    He paused for a few seconds as he considered what to say next. Then he shot back, "Well, my son wants one for playing his old video games." His mouth tightened and his eyes narrowed. I imagine it was the same face he made when he was a playground bully.

    "Sounds fun." I turned to check the cashier's progress with wrapping the picture frames. I was glad to see she was almost done.

    Undeterred, he continued throwing down his dad-cards, "My son says these TVs are called CRTs, whatever that means, and my son says classic video games look best on CRTs just like this one." His voice was tightening up like his face. 

    "I suppose that's right," I said. 

    He stood silent for the next 30 seconds trying to figure out how I could be so dumb. I turned and watched the customer ahead of me hand her money to the cashier. He saw this too, and quickly changed tactics while he thought he still had time to trick this rube into giving up that TV. 

    He put his finger on the price tag and asked incredulously, "They want that much for this?... What do they think they think this is?... You're not actually gonna pay that are you?" It was quite an act. He was even waving his hands around for emphasis. I'm sure he was willing to pay that price, but I didn't point that out. 

    Instead, I nodded. "Actually, it is a decent price. These are collectable and getting more and more expensive." I patted the top of the TV with my hand. "And nice ones like this are really hard to find." It felt good to throw a little dig at him there at the end.

    It was finally was my turn at the register after 30 more seconds of his silence and staring. I slid the TV down the counter and turned it towards the cashier. She scanned the price tag and told me I could tap my card whenever I was ready. I tried tapping my card, but there was a card read error, and my card was denied. 

    Of course that guy was still standing there. He was watching me trying to pay, and he chortled at my card's error. I inserted my card instead of tapping, and that worked. The card reader beeped in triumph, and only then did he turn and sulk away. I think his last hope was that I didn't have enough money and he could still swoop in and snag the Toshiba from me. 

    Sheesh. I've been thrifting my entire life, and people can still surprise me.

    I told this story to Charlotte on our drive home from school. She said, "The next time some jerk tries to play their dad-card on you, you can play the daughter-card. Just say, 'Well, this is for my daughter, and she likes vintage video games, too.' I don't even care if you're lying about me. You have my permission to play that card." 

    Good to know.

    It's time to party like it's 2002:

    It looks better in person. I promise. 

Friday the 13th 2026: Group Photo

    Happy Friday the 13th! Last month had a Friday the 13th, but I was too focused on Valentine's Day to notice. Luckily, March has one, too.

    From left to right: I picked up this two DVD set from Half Priced Books not realizing that it contained FT13th Part 2, not Part V. That's okay. Part 2 is better than Part V anyway. The real star of the show is FT13th Part VI: Jason Lives. Director Tom McLoughlin shot Part VI like an old Universal horror movie (by1986, Jason, Freddy, and Michael had basically become the new Dracula, Frankenstein, and Mummy), and he has stated that, "... if you turn the color off, this movie would look great in black-in-white." I've watched the opening in black-in-white, and I agree.

    FT13th was released for the NES system in 1988. I wouldn't call this a good game, but I think it looks good on the Horror Holiday Shelf. I just came up with that name. I like it.

    FT13th Part 3 in 3D! came out in 1982. They cranked out eight of these films in the 80s. That's almost one a year. There's gonna be diminishing results at that pace, and Part 3 shows some of that. Still, I like the scenes that are set up exclusively for a 3D effect; like when a guy holds up a red hot fire poker to the camera for no apparent reason. My friend Tim gave me this Blu-ray.

    FT13th: The Final Chapter does really end with the death of Jason (at the hands of Corey Feldman), but like this VHS tape, Jason experiences a comeback. Just call this movie Part 4. 

   Up next is Ghoulish: The Art of Gary Pullin.  From Amazon: "[Pullin is] a go-to artist for official film artwork, concert merchandise, LP packaging, and endless other pieces of pop culture ephemera, Pullin has put pencil to paper for film posters such as Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, The Big Lebowski, Vertigo, and The Babadook, soundtracks including Creepshow, Scream, Christine, and Tales from the Crypt, and concert merch for the likes of Jack White, Alice Cooper, and the Misfits."

    I got Ghoulish in a bundle deal on eBay. This isn't the book that I initially wanted, but currently it's the only book from that bundle that I have read. Funny how that works sometimes.

    I'll admit that I bought this can of hard cider from Angry Orchard just for the shelf. I don't even like hard cider. I'll probably punch a couple holes in the bottom and make it a Halloween decoration. 

    

    Stay safe out there!

Halloween 2025: Group Photo #22

 October 22

    Here's some video games to play in October: Resident Evil: Code Veronica (Dreamcast), Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday (SNES), Left 4 Dead (Xbox 360), Shadow Man (N64), Resident Evil 4 (Gamecube), Clock Tower Rewind (Switch), Haunted House (Atari 2600), I Spy Spooky Mansion (Wii). 

Halloween 2025: Group Photo #15

 October 15

    It's a Pumpkinhead-theme day. The Nightmare Before Christmas is represented because, "Cartoonist Tim Burton has acknowledged Jack Pumpkinhead as an inspiration for the iconic character Jack Skellington in The Nightmare Before Christmas." IMDB

Then there's this guy hanging out in front of our house.

Halloween 2025: Group Photo #13

October 13 

  Putting these shelf displays together has turned out to be a pretty fun exercise. I'm combing through boxes and digging out stuff I haven't looked at in years. I'm also realizing that I should start thinning the herd. 

    Okay, from left to right: Frankenstein Double Header DVD, vintage Frankenstein Old Maid card, Frankenstein from the Film Classics Library (over 1000 film frames plus all the dialogue from the film), Frankenstein playing card that I found in the book, VHS tape, DVD, and a Frankenstein's Monster cartridge for the Atari 2600. 

        Here's what the book looks like.

    This Old Maid set is from 1964. The original Frankenstein came out in 1931. Thirty years later the kids in the 60's thought the Universal Monsters were cool again. Pop culture circles were a thing back then, too. These are before my time, by the way.

    Perforated card from a game given away by the French Paper Co. Someone thought it made a good bookmark for the Frankenstein movie book. I have to agree. 

Playing with Music

I just purchased this from shopgoodwill.com.

This is the first model of the original Playstation. Its number is SCPH-1001. The back of it looks like this. 

You can use the standard red, white, and yellow RCA jacks to connect to your TV instead of using the AV Multi Out adapter.

Rumor has it that the SCPH-1001 has a really nice DAC (digital to analog converter), and it's a great CD player. 

Another rumor is that Sony discovered their DAC was too costly to mass produce, so later Playstation models looked like this without the DAC or the RCA connections.

The drawback to buying a SCPH-1001 today is that the laser is likely to fail due to flaws in the original design and the unit's age; this thing came out in 1995. For $9.99, I took a chance, and it plays CDs like a champ.

I could use a game controller to operate the CD functions, but a Playstation 2 DVD remote will control the basic CD functions of a PS1. That's weird, but cool.

As a CD player, the PS1 sounds great, but I missed having a digital display. I don't have my CDs memorized. If I wanted to jump to track 8, I'd have to know what track I was currently on. That makes my brain work more than I want it to. So, I went shopping. 

This 15" Advent LCD TV was just what I was looking for. 

The screen is small, and I like that the speakers are at the bottom. That makes it seem like it will take up less space.

Yellow tags were 50% off, so this only cost $9.50. That was a fun surprise.

An original remote is always nice. The dirt came off without much fuss.

And it has the RCA jacks. I only need the yellow one for video. 

I bought a $15 wall mount for the TV and a 15 foot RCA cord for $8.

Now I can see what track I'm on from across the room. (I plan to clean up the look of those hanging cables.)

This screen just screams 1990s. I showed this pic to a friend at work, and he said, "It's like you have your own video jukebox." I like that.

I thought this project was done, but then I remembered the PS1 game Ridge Racer.  I wrote about RR in 2019, "Once that game is loaded, you can swap the game disc with a music CD and listen to whatever you want while you race. I like Fu Manchu's "California Crossing."

I wanted to hear what Ridge Racer would sound like on my main stereo. I connected a controller to the PS1 and popped in the game. No dice. The PS1 couldn't get past the Playstation logo. I tried cleaning the lens, but it was no use. I did some research and online gaming forums reported that the ability to play CDs but not games was a sure sign the PS1 laser was dying. Well, shoot. 

I tried reminding myself that I only wanted it as a CD player. I now had that, but I couldn't leave it at that. The same forums and YouTube reported that using a laser from the "newer" PSOne was the best solution for the 1001 model. 

I went shopping again.

So, can one go into the other?

This is the "newer" PSOne's laser mechanism. 

This is an old PS1 laser. 

Here's the PSOne laser installed the old PS1. The PSOne's laser mechanism wasn't an exact fit, but it was really close. I only had to file away some of the shell's plastic to make room. 

Making the switch wasn't hard. Check out this exposed PS1 laser. The laser mechanism is only connected by a ribbon cable (left) and some power wires (right). Neither required any soldering. The unit just sits on rubber legs that act like shock absorbers. The mech isn't even attached with screws.

Time to try it out.

The old laser could not get past this logo.

This game is so cool. Instead of watching a loading screen's"spinning wheel", you get to play a short round of Galaxian. Kill all the aliens and you get a better choice of cars to begin the game.

Whoo Hoo! It works! Now where is my Fu Manchu CD?

Retro Gaming Hits and Misses (Part 1 )

I recently watched a YouTube video touting the merits of using a retro TV for retro gaming. 

Before the early 2000s, all television screens were 4:3 (also called 1.33), and most movie screens were in the widescreen ratio of 16:9 (or 1.85). Here's the difference in screen size:

This is why most movies on broadcast TV or on VHS began with this message:

In basic terms, "Formatted To Fit Your TV" meant that the original widescreen image had been cropped from a rectangle to a square. It also meant that you never got to see the whole movie as intended. Something was always going to be missing. 

This is not true with retro video games from the 70s to 2000's. They were programed to be in that squarish 4:3 ratio. What you see is what you were supposed to get. 

This put me on the hunt for a 4:3 aspect ratio TV. I have on old tube TV that I can play games on, but the screen is only 13 inches, and it still takes up most of the space a desk or a coffee table. A LCD (liquid-crystal display) TV is much lighter, thinner, and will use less surface space. 

I bought this Sharp LC-20AV6U at GoodWill for $4.99. It has a 20 inch screen and the original remote was included. The marketing information for this TV brags that it is "Featuring a distinctive side-speaker design...". Actually those speakers are there to impersonate a widescreen TV. 

Nice try, Sharp. But you're not fooling anybody.

I like that it still has the warning sticker about the 2009 broadcast change. 

I also like the ability to connect through the component, s-video, RCA, and antenna options. 

I tested the TV with a DVD player. All was good. I'll call this a "Hit!"

Hits and Misses (Part 2)

Okay, I had the TV, and now I wanted to play games on it. I dusted off this second generation PlayStation 2 (also called the PS2s Slimline). I bought it used in 2008 at Gamers (now closed). 

The PlayStation 2 is supposed to play PS1 games, and PS2 games that are in a CD (blue) or a DVD (silver) format. It is also supposed to play music CDs and single or dual layer DVDs. 

My PS2 would only play the DVD games and music CDs. It wouldn't play CD games or DVD movies. 

That was really weird. It wouldn't even display the "PlayStation 2" logo upon start-up.

Miss! 

I should not have been surprised. I haven't turned on the PS2 in many years. Machines that don't get used regularly can break down just sitting in a dark closet or on a high shelf. Sometimes I wonder if these forgotten items die from a broken heart. 

I suspected the laser was simply worn out. It's the metallic part above the black circle. 

There are many YouTube videos explaining how to replace this laser, so I bought a replacement from Amazon, and studied tutorials while I waited for it to arrive.

A couple of Phillips screwdrivers and a soldering iron is all you need. The soldering iron is for removing the "solder ball" that protects the laser from static damage while it is in the mail.

It's been awhile since I soldered anything, so I also bought a roll of Desoldering Wick Braid. This stuff is great. I just laid the braid over the solder ball, pressed down with the hot tip of the soldering iron, and the braid absorbed the solder instantly. Just cut off the used strip of braid and throw it away.

I didn't take any pictures of my laser replacement process. There wasn't anything in there that wasn't in the YouTube videos. I buttoned the PS2 up, connected it to my new TV, and held my breath as I waited for the PS2 logo to appear...

 Hit!

Thanks to the internet and a new lens, I'm back in the game. A few discs need to be tried a couple of times to work, but that's a minor quibble.  

Here's a retro setup - PS1, N64, and PS2. I'm using a mini jack cable to connect the TV's headphone jack to a computer speaker setup (two satellite speakers and a subwoofer).

Okay, but before you think just I'm bragging about my hits, I need to tell you about my next project. 

For me, fixing things is addictive. I love the rush I get when I can help something broken come back to life. I remembered that my buddy Rob had given me his original PS2 (also called the "PS2 Fat") about 15 years ago. I think that it had quit reading discs, and my trusty lens cleaner disc had failed to fix the problem. I found Rob's old PS2 Fat in a bin in my storage closet.

The console confirmed that it would not play DVD discs of any kind. Also, there was a strip of color distortion on the screen when I played a CD-rom game. I went back to Amazon...

Installing the Fat laser wasn't much different than working with the slim version. I used the solder braid to remove the solder blobs, and used the screwdrivers to install the laser. I then buttoned the PS2 up, connected it to my new TV, and held my breath as I waited for the PS2 logo to appear...

Miss! 

The results were exactly the same as before. Dang! I had to take the machine apart again, remove the new laser so I could return it, and then call this a fail. I decided to put it back together as it was, and see if I could find a different solution.

Then things really went south. A ribbon cable came loose, and I couldn't find where to re-attach it. I lost a small screw that had popped out and onto the floor, and in my frustration I broke the disc tray. I got so mad I scooped everything up and threw it in the garage can in the garage. 

Double Miss!!

Ten minutes later I had my torso in our stinky and mildly wet garage can trying to rescue what parts I could find amongst the sticky, bulbous bags of waste. As I type this the piles of parts are still out in the garage on top of our rain barrels. They laugh at me every morning when I walk by them on my way to work.

No, I do not always hit what I aim for, and sometimes I miss again because of my character flaws.

"I was playing golf. I swung, missed the ball, and got a big chunk of dirt. I swung again, missed the ball, and got another big chunk of dirt. Just then, two ants climbed on the ball saying, 'Let's get up here before we get killed!'" - Henny Youngman

Retro Gaming Hits and Misses (Part 3)

No, I didn't fix Rob's old PS2 "Fat" (using that nickname is a little uncomfortable), and my anger may (did) have made the situation worse.  And now Rob's old PS2 maybe a pile or two of parts... 

...  but they are good looking parts. The top cover looks flawless.

That got me thinking about finding a way to redeem myself. I decided to check eBay for a PS2 that needed parts.

I found two auctions that looked promising.

#1:

Item description from seller: "Kid got a hold of the drill and started drilling holes into it. They are only on the surface; nothing inside was damaged. Console works like a charm!"

I figured I could replace the top shell with mine. That would be an easy fix. I was a bit leery about the honesty of a seller who allowed a small child access to power tools. 

#2:

Item description from seller: "LAST TIME THIS THING WAS TURNED ON IT WORKED FINE SAT IN A BOX ECER SINCE I DONT HAVE CORDS OR ELSE I WOULD TEST BUT ID SAY IT WORKS"

I have cords and a disc tray cover, so that would be an easy fix, too. I was a bit leery of it sitting in a box for a long time and of the seller really having no way to test it (and the all-caps didn't help). 

I put in a low bid on auction #1, but I lost during the night. That was a good thing. The seller of auction #2 sent me a offer of 50% off his $30 price. The total was $32.10 with shipping. Not a bad price to pay for retro game redemption.

The seller's name on eBay is porkemon.

I like how the mailer box was decorated. Somebody was having fun.

The first thing I did when I opened the box was to attach my disc tray cover to the new PS2. Whew. That looks better.

What didn't look better was the TV when I tested this PS2. The console technically worked. I could turn it on. The problem was that the left side of the startup screen was blue when it was supposed to be black. The colors were also way off when playing games. DVDs, however, looked great. Huh?

Miss?

I took a deep breath and checked Google for someone with a solution. No dice. My next inclination was to grab my tool box, but then I stopped myself. Just because I could open it up doesn't mean that I should. Sometimes I have a tendency to "over fix" a problem. I forget to check the simple things first.

I checked the AV port that is on the lower right of the back. 

It looked dirty. Maybe that was my problem? (Notice that the Warranty Seal is still intact.)

I dipped a Q-tip in isopropyl alcohol and ran that back and forth across the contacts. The Q-tip came out covered with grime. That was encouraging. I went through six more Q-tips, but there was no change in the screen's discoloration. I then sprayed the port with DeoxIT D5 and let it sit overnight. 

One thing that I learned while working on pinball machines is that sometimes a machine can fix itself. It just needs to be used. Some people call this "playing through the problem." 

The next day I popped in Sled Storm (PS1 1999) and played for a few minutes. The screen looked yellow, but after losing a few races I noticed that the correct colors would blink on for a moment or two. I exchanged the game disc for a CD, and let the Pixies' Dolittle play. The startup screen was entirely black after a few hours of playing music. Is it a coincidence that the lead singer for the Pixies is Black Francis? 

The PS2 had fixed itself with a little cleaning. I didn't even have to cut the Warranty Seal. 

Hit! 

Now to explain that sound bar...