Neo Geo Pocket Flash Cart And Linker Developments

Archive for the ‘Website’ Category

Wow, I’ve eluded to big changes on the horizon of my personal life. Today I can finally talk about them. I’m guessing this will be the first of a series of posts, because I don’t really have time for really diving into the subject. I will be trying to keep you guys informed of developments here, but I am also starting a more personal site at www.EdMandy.com, but it might not even be quite up and running when you read this.

More posts can’t be a bad thing, though. I noticed that it’s almost been 2 months since my last post. Wow, time flies when you’re getting ready to buy a house, move to another state, and quit a job you’ve been at for 15 years.

So, yeah, yesterday I put in my resignation at the job I’ve worked for the past 15 years (PLUS 3 summer internships). It was very surreal. Of course, it will greatly impact my life, but it will also have an effect on my co-workers.

Again, I can’t really go too in depth today, but here are my basic plans:

• Buy a house (DONE)
• Move everything to the new house (HALF DONE)
• Quit my job (I put in my 2 weeks yesterday)
• Start working on an iPad/iPhone game (much more on this later)
• Start some entrepreneurial ventures (like flashmasta.com)
• Sell our current house (start selling in about a week from now)
• Move the family (after school is complete on June 6th and our house is sold)

That seems like a simple list, but it’s a lot of work. That stuff has been my main focus recently, and I’m sorry that the Flash Masta project has suffered in the meantime. Once I am set up again in the new location, I will be able to focus on my projects (like this) a lot better. I really hope/expect this to be a positive move for this project and others (like the WonderSwan Flash Cart) I’ve started but haven’t had a chance to complete.

As always, please comment. I really like interacting with you guys. If you want to head over to http://www.edmandy.com/ and see more info about me there, please do. I hope to have that site more functional/informative in the coming weeks. Also, I’ve been using Twitter a lot more lately, so check me out @FreeplayTech. Thanks for the support over the years.

Did that title get your attention? Are you all ready to read about how to cut forum users with a laser? Well, it’s actually 2 separate issues: Laser Cutting & Forum Users.

Forum Users
In the last week, the forum has had an influx of new user registrations. This sounds good, but with it came a bunch of forum SPAM. Upon further investigation, I think there was a new exploit to get around one of the anti-bot security measures I had in place. After (hopefully) patching the hole, I ended up cutting a BUNCH of forum users (not with a laser).

If you are a legit user and find that you lost your account, PLEASE register again. I may have inadvertently cut some real users. I’m very sorry if I accidentally removed your account.

Laser Cutting
As you may know, the Linkmasta USB device comes inside of a translucent blue box. To accommodate the NGPC cartridge, a rectangular opening is hand cut in the top of the plastic case. There is also an opening for the USB cable that gets hand cut in the side of the case.

Last week, I paid a visit to a company that specializes in plastics to talk about getting these cuts done more professionally. Unfortunately, they said that they couldn’t do both cuts with their laser. However, they should be able to do the top NGPC cartridge socket.

This is not going to be cheap. It will cost me significantly bit more than what I am currently doing. I don’t know if it’s sustainable, due to the costs involved. The main reason I decided to do it for now is just to learn about the process, so I’m chalking the cost up to education. I am having them cut 25 case tops, and I will check out the quality and make a determination if it’s worth it to proceed this way in the future or not.

One think this may mean is that any purchases made in the next week or so may be delayed as I wait for the laser cutting process to be done. I think it will be worth the wait, though. If you want to be first in line to get a bundle with a laser cut case top, head over to the NGPC flash devkit purchase page.

I have finally made accounts for the “Flash Masta” and “Freeplay Technologies LLC” on Facebook and Twitter. Here are the links:

• Flash Masta Facebook
• Freeplay Technologies LLC Twitter (FlashMasta.com posts)
• Freeplay Technologies LLC Facebook
• Flavor’s YouTube Channel (Freeplay Technologies LLC & Flash Masta videos)

If you use any of those networks, I’d appreciate a Like, Friend, Follow, Retweet, Subscribe, etc. I hope to get things ramped up quickly, and your help can really kickstart it. I know that there’s not much content on the Facebook or Twitter pages yet, but I want to utilize them as another way to get my information to you.

Oh, and if you didn’t already know, Freeplay Technologies LLC is just the business name I’m selling the NGPC Flash Carts under. If I make some SNES to PCE controller multitap adapters or anything else like that, I may not want to use the “Flash Masta” name for those. It’s better to have a business name that can encompass all that stuff. That’s why you’re seeing that name on Twitter and Facebook.

Things have been going well, but as usual, they’re slow. I sold some shirts on eBay, then I was out of town for a while. All along, though, people make an order every once in a while. I wish I could do this full time. If so, I’d be better at updating this site.

So, I still have units available. I also still have shirts I plan to list on eBay. I have ideas for new projects. I have to prototype projects I already started. I just need to get in gear, but that gear always seems to be LOW.

I wanted to ask you guys a favor, though. Do you think that you could help spread the word about this a bit? If you like the Flashmasta project, maybe you can subscribe to my YouTube account and then Like one of my videos at http://www.youtube.com/cfc2ngpc. That way, other people might notice and watch the videos.

Another way to help is to post a link to http://www.flashmasta.com/ on Twitter or Facebook. Speaking of Facebook, did I mention that SNK Playmore liked me on there? Well, it’s an unofficial SNK Playmore fan page, but it’s still cool. If you shared a link like that, maybe other like-minded people would see it and check out this site.

I feel like I need to do some advertising, but I just don’t have the time to do it properly. If a few of you have a a couple minutes each, it could add up. You never know who might see it and post is somewhere else.