Brook Retro Board Thread

Tech Talk
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I didn’t see a dedicated topic for this, but if there is, please delete/merge this one.

Does anyone have this board installed yet? What are your impressions of the board so far? I installed mine last night along with a UFB and everything is working but I’ve only tested on PC so far. I’ll be testing it on a Sega Saturn and psx and ps2 this weekend.

I saw someone on shmups forum say they were having a problem with the retro board and an NES.

https://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?p=1335138#p1335138

I no longer have an NES unfortunately so I can’t test this myself.

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I’ve tested it on SNES with TMNT Tournament Fighters, Killer Instinct, and Mortal Kombat. It works great.

2 Likes
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Can I dual mod The Brook Retro Board with the Razer Panthera pcb and still use only one USB out? Do I have to buy the Brook PS4/PS3 board to dual mod?

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I just got the Brook Retro Board. It works with the PS3 to PS4 Brook Super Converter.

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I have a question… How would you recommend I hook up both the Brook UFB and the Brook Retro Board if you can’t vertically stack them?

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I was considering a Brook X jasencustoms retro board.

I got 2 questions:

  1. I have trouble with this arrangement for SNES:

Y B L
B A R

The main 2 reasons is because I can think of 5 games where this would be the preferred arangent for an SNES Fight Stick:

L X R
Y B A

They are Super Mario World, Mega Man X, Super Ghouls N Ghosts, Contra 4, and Castlevania 4. I know al least 2 of them have either no button switching options, (Super Mario World) or worthless with a Fight Stick, (there are only 2 button options on Super Ghoulds N Ghosts, and I think they are both screwy on a BAR joystick, but the default works perfectly fine on a YBA joystick. I want QK = Shoot and MK = Jump) Castlevania does have the option, Not sure of the other 2, but their defaults don’t lend themselves well to a BAR setup.

Another reason might have to do with another issue, the 3D Zero SNES-> 3DO adapter. I think one setting might be right with a YBA joystick. (If SN Y 3D =A, SN B= 3D B, and SN A= 3D C: I haven’t tried it with Soccer Kid. Pataaank has errors when running a 3D Zero, but not a real 3DO pad, but PGA Golf does not have errors.) A similar issue is with the Raphnet SNES-> NES adapter. It’s advertised as zero lag because it doesn’t have a PCB supposedly and is simple pin rerouter with a slight modification that has nothing to do with PCBs. An YBA arrangement would be perfect, but a BAR would both stack the 2 NES buttons vertically and reverse the so the main is on the middle finger. The default is a BAR, and a way to change it SNES-wide (and Xbox Prime-wide) would be appreciated.

There are also questions about button organization with PS1/PS2 and Xbox Prime, mainly becuase there is more than one joystick standard for it, and, with the RJ45 on the Xbox Priime, neither one is followed with the MC Tooldes, the PS360+ or the Brook Retro. But I think it’s less likely THESE games would have issues, becuase most of them have options.

X Y Wh Bl
A B L R

visit this forum to se the actual joystick examples for Xbox Prime I do have:

https://archive.supercombo.gg/t/are-rj45-based-pcbs-adjustable/580087/2

Finally, based on my very limited understand, (very, VERY limited) the main reason why Sega Genesis and 3DO don’t work with RJ45 adapters is because there are only 8 independent signal lanes, yet 9 lanes are necessary to accommodate Genesis and 3DO. And you can’t get 9 independent outputs from 8 independent inputs.

So the solution is to add more lanes. I suggest 15 lanes to accommodate Jaguar and Atari 5200. If you’re going to remake it for just 2 systems, it might not be worth it, but if it was made for those systems, plus others older than Genesis, like Colecovision, Intellivision, (Both of those use coded signals) it would be more worth it for more systems. People complain about these horrible controls. I prefer a fight stick on some of these. I don’t tink my Super Action Controllers would last long enough where a replacement fight stick is necessary, and UGGH those Intellivision controllers. I know you can’t get 16 ways + neutral, but most games that benefit from a fight stick only use 8 or 4 ways anyway.

And just because the processor in the PCB CAN convert discrete inputs into coded input, doesn’t mean it MUST do that. It could simply reroute discrete input into discrete output for the Astrocade, Master System, and Neo Geo. and maybe 2600 Booster Grip, 7800, and Vectrex. Also can it be programmed to be a Genesis 3 button for Forgotten Worlds and Ms Pac Man, which don’t work even with the Mode button?

It should also have a DB 9 Male AND Female (and Jag- and 5200- 15-pin Male and Female too.) the fight stick is plugged into the console, and the other end is for a numeric keypad, which is required for most of these games, becuase even menu selection requires them, and you can’t start without selecting an option. This also allows for the daisy chaining option with the 3DO to be any controller within the chain.

I even thought of a way to making sure ethernet adapters are not obsolete … You can always go from more to less if you need less. Just designate 8 of the 15 pins and use a straight passthrough to ethernet female, and ignore the other pins.

I call it the Paleo adapter. Older than R.etro

If the 8 lane limit is LITERALLY the only hangup with these older systems working, then if you tackle them all at once, you may find enough customers to buy in. If there are more issues besides that, just tell me and I’ll shut up about them. I probably won’t have a solution for that.

By the way, the above link, you can close that conversation since this is essentially the same conversation, just transfer the pictures. It’s about a Brook Jasen Retro Board.

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In the end, the Brook Retro Board is expensive and does less (no Sega Master System, no Sega Mega Drive, no Nintendo 64) than my cheap UPCB.

Is the scene becoming a hipstergarten?

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What UPCB are you referring to?

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The same UPCB that got discontinued by toodles more than 9 years ago and went open source?

You sound like a elitist.
Also if you got no intrest in the brooks boards, why come to their thread?

1 Like
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Well, first, when I compare prices, elitists are the one buying the Brook.

Then, I am astonished that in 2019, someone sell a product which can’t do as much as a 2010 product.

Finally, I went there because I saw a news and thought that it was cool someone finally did something to supersede the UPCB, but in the end, this is a fail and I express my disappointment into the product with arguments.

Which leads me to the most important thing: you are quite aggressive while having no argument to prove I am wrong.

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The MC Cthulhu supersede the UPCB nine years ago. UPCB was discontinued by Toodles way back.
UPCB was a mess that require alot going on, it was needlessly bulky and there not many people left who even know what you are even talking about.

No, all that means is you are ether Cherry picking to try to prove your point (which your not) or you are a cheap stake.

No, you are just being an Elitist as you have your “Superior” Product that got canceled 9 years ago.

No Sega Master System

You don’t even need an a Encoder for a Sega Master System, its a Atari 2600 controller with one more button. Sega Genesis was dropped as with every product you sometimes had to make sacrifices.
The MC Cthulhu droped Master System in favor of on board Dreamcast Support, something that the UPCB can’t do without piggy backing a Dreamcast PCB.

You just being sore as the Retro board is designed to plug into another board that covers modern systems, and the two covers more than the UPCB.

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So, I will sum up your words : new car will supersede the old one because we said so. Oh, the new car will only have three wheels because it was enough and you don’t really need the fourth one. And I am bitchy because the new three wheeled car needs to be towed by a truck to work, a truck which allows me to do what my VLX Premium already do, but still without the fourth wheel on the new car. Thank you for your valuable input.

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What do you mean by “needs to be towed by a truck to work”. The retro board works on its own as a standalone pcb, it can pair with a UFB to have more compatibility. The availability of the UPCB is non existent as in there is no one who mass produces these things to make them available. Brook has done nothing but add support for their boards including nintendo switch and playstation classic support, give it time, they may add genesis later. I was irritated the the MC Cthulhu didnt have genesis or n64 support either, but I didnt go trashing the product and ended up buying the MCC two years ago either way. The UPCB project hasnt been talked about on this forum for years and I surely thought you were talking about an actual product than a open source project. If you can point people in the right direction without being a jerk about it, like idk saying “Personally I think the Brooke line is expensive, I support the UPCB project.” No one will give you lip. Adding the hipstergarden thing is uncalled for. I know we are talking about video gaming peripherals, but we need to start acting a little more civilized when we say things. Information is power on these threads and any given to help people out is great. Lets cut the name calling and belittling and help each other.

Do you have information on this UPCB? Great, make a thread about it. If not, dont belittle the people that do.

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Don’t even lecture me if you don’t know about the UPCB. That’s common knowledge in the arcade stick scene and there already is an extensive thread here, so, basically, you don’t know jack, don’t even do a simple search, but still lecture me and call me a jerk. That proves the hipstergarten’s joke is more than a joke (it was basically a joke from the start and it was so obvious, but, well, then I read your answer…), but a statement, indeed, and I am very saddened by that. You make look the scene like a poser showoff and calling me a jerk won’t change the fact you are the ones proving me right. :frowning:

TL;DR: I just stated an opinion about a product I was genuinely interested in at first. If you can accept someone’s opinion and are egocentrically enough to take a joke as a personal attack although I named no one), your fault.

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Obviously not.

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As I said. I know about the project, its just so old that I figured you were actually talking about something else. I don’t need the information, maybe somebody does.

Call me whatever you like, doesn’t mean anything to me, but to others it may. I know you stated an opinion, im not knocking that down. You can have as many opinions as you like, but you don’t need to go and be hateful about it and start name calling (joke or not, plus it obviously doesn’t convey as one over text). Also you didn’t add a link or so information backing up your claims about a 9+ year old project, yes it’s open source which is cool, yes I can see someone going to OSH Park printing off a board and adding the components to make an awesome stick, but I haven’t seen ANYONE talk about that thing since I first started here in February of 2010, then have the ego to call us a breading ground of hipsters…

If you can’t help people out (which is what I thought this whole forum was for) cool, don’t worry about it. If you can, why not make a thread explaining something about this project you like so much more than a mass produced product? I know enough about the project to know what it is, I dont know enough about it to give information about it (like is said you talking about it now is the first time hearing about it in 9+ years).

IT WOULD BE AWESOME TO HAVE INFORMATION SO EVERYONE CAN REVIEW IT SO EVERYONE CAN MAKE A OPINION ON IT THEMSELVES.

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I own the combo of a Brook Retro Board and a Brook UFB. I was having problems with the Retro Board [problems were resolved and are thus to be ignored…], but I’m going to give the Retro Board credit for its other benefits.

-=Brook Retro Board=-

EDIT: Issues with the Retro Board were resolved, and are to be ignored as outdated. Unless you have problems with your direct input, x input software, or PC drivers, you won’t have any of these problems I had.

Dreamcast Testing
Capcom Vs SNK 2
No issues.
Note: I did try it on my favorite game MvC2 without incident, but that wasn’t done during my testing.

Playstation 4 / PS4 Testing
Street Fighter V Arcade Edition
-PS3/PS4 Brook Super Converter and SFVA3 Legacy Mode
No issues.

PC Testing [ISSUES FOUND]

Ultra Street Fighter 4 [PC]
-Using PS3/PS4 Brook Super Converter
No issues
-Direct Connection to PC
ISSUES: chronic persistent up / up-left input errors.
NOTES: I’m going to have to assume that it’s a problem with Xinput, Dinput, or PC software.

Street Fighter V Arcade Edition [PC]
-Using PS3/PS4 Brook Super Converter
No issues
-Direct Connection to PC
ISSUES: chronic persistent up / up-left input errors.
NOTES: I’m going to have to assume that it’s a problem with Xinput, Dinput, or PC software.

-=Brook Universal Fighting Board=-

=PS4 / Playstation 4 Testing

Street Fighter V Arcade Edition
-Start+Select RJ45 Bridge to UFB
No issues
-Direct USB connection
No issues

PC Testing

Street Fighter V Arcade Edition
-Start+Select RJ45 Bridge to UFB
No issues
-Direct USB connection
ISSUES: Minor problems with the detection of the PCB. Had to frequently force mode. Then again, Street Fighter V for the PC has the worst controller compatibility of any game Capcom has EVER released. There was also a one time constant U/U-L that occurred, but unplugging and replugging it in solved it. It has not recurred.

PC Ultra Street Fighter IV
-Start+Select RJ45 Bridge to UFB
No issues
-Direct USB connection
No issues

-=Ratings for each Board=-

=Brook Retro Board
-Non-PC, 12/10. Compatible with too many other consoles to rate it lower.
-PC: 9/10. NOTE: I had to use a Super Converter [PS3 to PS4] to be able to use it on PC or I pretty much couldn’t use it due to constant on U/UL issues. Those issues disappeared completely when I used the Super Converter.
-Overall, 10/10. Too much value, and controller compatibility with other consoles for any lower of a rating. You might not have the same problems with the PC versions of the games I tested since your PC will have different drivers and direct or x input setups that will work.

=Universal Fighing Board
-PS4, 13/10. No issues in any configuration. Whether I was Start+Select RJ45 Bypassing, or connecting via USB, there were never any problems.
-PC, 9.5/10. Minor issues with auto-detection which are mitigated by Force Modes.
-Overall, 12/10. It isn’t perfect, but again, too much value and compatibility for the money.

-=Brook Universal Fighting Retro Board Combination=-
FINAL RATING; 12/10
There isn’t a person alive that plays fighting games that I cannot recommend this combination for if they have the money. It’s a bit pricey, but considering that you’d have to spend over a grand on fight-sticks, and each one would look or feel different, that’s a problem. With a setup like this, a player could easily use the exact same stick on almost every major console ever released without issue.

Important note: In my setup, I have both an RJ45 and a USB. You should probably only have an RJ45 connection and use Start+Select to access the UFB.
-PLUGGING IN BOTH THE RJ45 AND THE USB SIMULTANEOUSLY CAN IRREPARABLY DAMAGE / FRY BOTH BOARDS!!!

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In Street Fighter V Arcade Edition and Ultra Street Fighter IV for the PC with the Retro Board, how do you resolve the chronic persistent up/up-left errors I am getting. It makes no sense. I know my wiring scheme is perfect since this is the ONLY situation where I have ANY problems. It works perfectly on Dreamcast. It works perfectly on Playstation 4 [via both the PS3 / PS4 Brook Super Converter and the SFV-AE Legacy mode].

In order to use the Retro Board on the PC, I need to use the Brook Super Converter. Even when the RJ45 cable is the only thing hooked up [meaning I detached the 20 pin ribbon cable and the USB link, this happens. I used the multiplier kit exclusively [Screw terminals aren’t in use].

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I plan to do [or aid someone in doing] a UFB Retro Stack install to someone’s Mas stick. His version is a Multi-console model. I opened my big mouth and said, “Why don’t we convert both the Dreamcast and Playstation 2 / PS2 cables to Dreamcast to RJ45, and PS2 to RJ45 Cables”? I actually have a Dreamcast to RJ45 cable, so that’s not a problem. Borrow his / use my multimeter, and 2 probes, mimic the Dreamcast port connections, and it’s a wrap.

The issue is that I don’t know how to make the PS2 to RJ45 cable for the Brook Retro Board. HELP!!!