Laseractive PCE and Vajra review

[twor2005]

Does anyone actually own the Laseractive with PC Engine pack? Was this actually released in the US? I looked but never saw one; only on ebay in recent years. If it was localized, did they localize the system packs for US HuCards? How are the games? Questions abound! Thoughts and comments on the LD-ROM welcome.


This review of Vajra from the January 1993 issue of Gamefan got me curious:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y246/twor/gf2-2124.jpg

Sorry photobucket won't host anything over 250k, but the text is legible anyway.

edit: you might have to cut and paste the link.

[Keranu]

That was very interesting. Does anyone have links for screenshots of the game? I would be curious to see them.

[twor2005]

I also found this site:
http://www.cyberroach.com/new_laseractive_pics/default.htm

Interesting that the PC Engine pack got a sequel to JB Harold that apparently saw a US release. Check out the TurboGrafx 16 logo on the spine card (!)

[Keranu]

Yes I have been to this site a few times before. It has some good stuff on it.

[NEC Avenue]

One of the members here has both LA modules.

https://www.pcengine-fx.com/forums/index.php?msg=1055

[Pingu]

I have a laseractive with pce, megadrive and gennypacks (still looking for that karaoke and computer interface ones) though it's broken now thanks to my stupidity. It's a neat machine that sadly only have composite out (and you can't use that optical digital out for sound either) but it's otherwise pretty much your standard duo and also uses the duo arcade card.

[SNKNostalgia]

You know you can easily do an S-video mod for the Laser Active and also an RGB output mod as well.

S-video:  http://www.gamesx.com/misctech/laseractive.htm

RGB:  http://www.gamesx.com/misctech/laseractivergb.htm

[GUTS]

^^ Yeah but those mods don't work with games, only with movies unfortunately.

[SNKNostalgia]

Damn that sucks. It works with the gamepacks only with RGB. So I say go with that or get a NeoBitz Encoder to convert it to S-video or Component. Kinda pointless then to use S-video mod, unless you use it for LD only. Oh well, I wonder if there is a way to get the video out of the modules or something hmmm.

I remember the system when it came out for like $2000+. I smelled failure for that system before it even came out. I was 10 years old and knew this, just how stupid can companies be at times?

[GUTS]

Yeah it sucks cause I bought one thinking it would be great to have a Laserdisc player and Sega CD/Genesis all in the same system hooked up at once, but there was no god damn S-Video on it so I never use the thing.  It just sits there under my other stuff collecting dust cause it's a pain in the ass to hook it up.

[SNKNostalgia]

Yeah it sucks cause I bought one thinking it would be great to have a Laserdisc player and Sega CD/Genesis all in the same system hooked up at once, but there was no god damn S-Video on it so I never use the thing.  It just sits there under my other stuff collecting dust cause it's a pain in the ass to hook it up.

I say get it modded. You know you can get a J-Rock encoder and use it to get a real good S-video output if thats all you need. It would only run you up at $75. Around the same price as the PCE/TG16/Duo S-video. If you want component (also includes S-video/composite) then try the NeoBitz, it will run you at $105 though. After you do the mods you can probally make a switch for LD S-video and game S-video. It would be a nice project for this system.

[PCEngineHell]

You all are fools. The laseractive is the worst of the worst in LD players,and suffers great breakdowns. Power board dies,laser eye dies,all at random. It was not built to last,only to be cool looking and play crap games. Its great if you have a NEC pak,as it makes a better Duo,but otherwise steer clear. Also,you need nothing special to hack s-video out of it,but without  a comb filter,it sucks depending on the ld played. You need nothing special to do the hack,just a spliced s-video cable and solder. The paks can be hacked,but are cramped and messy. It i snot worth hacking them. O yea the s-video hack on the player only works for the LD video side of things.
You guy sneed to take it from me,a extremely heavy LD collector. The LaserActive S U C K S ! ! !
If you buy one, you surely
gamble,gamble,gamble,DIE!!!!!!!

[PCEngineHell]

You guys need to know something about LDs,and th eplayers. They are anolog signal. They suffer from noise,and line drop outs. If you have a sucky player,you get a sucky picture. its not like dvd,which is digital,and which about any player will give a great picture in s-video OR  even in composite. DVD handles both well. LD doesnt depending on the player
Also,LD was created around compsoite technoligy.
Any player with S-Video out will have at least a 3-line comb filter built in for the s-video to look good.
Hacking a s-video hack into your laseractive will do nothing for you image wise,because you will end up with no comb filter to clean things up. Your best bet is to use a great TV,with a 3-line or 3-D comb filter,and use composite output on the laseractive only.
This also applies to all ld players. If your ld players comb filter,given you have a player that has s-video out,is a 3-line,and your TV has a new better 3-line or 3-D filter,USE COMPOSITE INSTEAD!!!!!
LD WAS NOT DESIGNED FOR S-VIDEO KIDS! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Only use your ld players s-video if it has a better comb filter then your TV Monitor. Also,noise reduction.  Ld players do a 48-52 db noise reduction,depending on the player. The suckier the player,the lower the DB  number,which means the uglier the picture color and detail wise.
Most good players that have comb filters will have at least 49-50 db,which is fine. The high end Elite and Sony and Panasonic players all had 50-52. They offered the best in noise reduction and comb filters.
If you care to get into ld collecting,its worth it,but you need to read ahead of time,to know what your getting into. Its not like collecting DVDs,and buying any old JVC or Apex player. You have to be pickey about your player if you want a great picture.
There are some great players without S-Video also,that do good clean picture and 49 db. If your tv has a basic comb filter of any kind,using a player like this will do fine,with a clean sharp picture.

http://www. laserdiscarchive. co. uk/

A great site for player research.  Go here before buying a player. This way you can get some reserch in on a certain player model to see if maybe the specs will serve your needs.

[PCEngineHell]

http://www. gamesx. com/ should be ignored on the s-video hack comment stating that the picture will be better. I and any other real laserdisc user/collector/owner will tell you up front that if you have a average ok mastered ld,it will look like crap. Only the best mastered LDs will look ok,and if played on a great TV with a wonderful comb filter,will look way way better in composite. Just because the ability to hack the player and add a s-video jack to it is there,does in no way mean you should use it. Pioneer and every other LD player maker did NOT include S-video to players that did'nt have comb filters.
Also,There are LD players released in the UK that do both Pal and NTSC,and RGB video playback. The RGB playback is for stuff like NTSC disc being played on a dual pal,player that does ntsc in rgb,but the output is nowhere near as good as a normal/pretty good NTSC player using composite output for video. LD was NOT designed for RGB,this method was only used for dual region players to assist with signal lock and focus. Its basically giving you the ability to play the other region,but not at great quality. LD WAS ONLY DESIGNED FOR COMPOSITE COMPOSITE COMPOSITE ORIGINALLY ! ! ! THIS SPEC NEVER CHANGED ! ! ! PLEASE KEEP THIS IN MIND!!!
I know this from years of experience. I have 8 players,industrial to home,with comb filter to none. About any real laserdisc tech guide will tell you this also.
Take care!!!

[PCEngineHell]

I might do soem pics of my ld stuff soemtime for you all if you care for me to do so,including pics of Salamander anime by Konami on LD.I have the first one,which basically covers Lifeforce/Salamander game all the way to the end stage boss.really neat to watch.I have alot of rare ld's,some really cools ones all in all.I have over 120 ld's,and my list grows weekly.

[Pingu]

Well, I'm pushing 400LDs now and I can tell you that I'm not using my laseractive for just watching movies, I'm using my pioneer elite cld-99 for my ntsc discs and my old sony lasermax (found in LD arcade game cabinets) for my pal discs. My laseractive is used for playing everything PC engine, megadrive, mastersystem and yes gamegear as well. Going to be interesting to see if I can hook up a X32 to it as well. It is a highly versatile gamingmachine, not to that sadly only have composite out but my panasonic FT-2900 somewhat makes up for that.

Specs is not the only thing making a machine great.

[PCEngineHell]

Cld-99s are nice, good players. Ever thought bout going for a X-9 or a Sony Muse?X models are supposed to read rotted disc extremely well.

I have 2 older players for arcade cab kit. I keep one here and one at my friends place. LDV 2200 here, and a LDV 4200 at my friends place. Both can be used fine for arcade kits. The Sony Lasermax players were pretty sturdy US wise, but not as good as the Pioneers. Sony always had a problem here or there, and couldnt make a ld movie worth a flip either in their US plant. Too much rotted disc by them. Really sucks. I have a CLD-D504, 2 CLD-D301s, Sony MDP-605 but needs repair, has motor problem, CLD-V2800, LD-V6000A which reads disco vision fine, a LDV2200, LDV4200, A Panasonic LX-120, a Panasonic LX-200. I keep all of the players other then the MDP-605 and the LDV4200 here at my home. I hade a wonderful MDP-333 player, which btw the UK version of that player is supposed to be really nice too, but I chose to sell it, as it had problems locking down on Mitsubishi made disc, because of their smooth disc labels they used. There was a fix for it, but I dont like putting extra stickers on my disc labels. I had well over 150 disc years back, but Sony rotters and useless stuff I didnt want to keep made me downsize. I wont keep just anything on LD. It has to warrent a reason for being kept, by either being only on LD or VHS, have somethng the dvd version doesnt have, or just be a movie I really like. I dont like drama, comedy, or children movies. I only collect action with real actors, horror, sci-fi, anime, and dark comedy. I allow nothing else into my collection. That means no True Lies, Last Action Heros, Leathel Weapons, Lion Kings, Black Sheeps, or 3 Ninjas lds. I have alot of box sets too, Criterian stuff. Imports that you cant get here. Im about the only person I know of in the US with Outlanders anime imported on LD that is regestered on LDDB. And oddly I have 2 region pressings of Aliens Special Edition Boxset. I have a pressed in Japan, and Pressed in USA set. Slight differences, like mint marks, but both have the exact same speckle areas in the exact same parts fo the LDs, and I dont attribute this to rot like others may think. I am thinking more along the lines of Mitsubishi using scratched glass masters. It did happen now and then. I need to start listing stuff on th eLDDB more, but I dont have the time, with kid sand all, going from disc to disc, listing mint mark after mint mark, gets old. I used to want a Elite, but seeing it made no real difference on stuff liek Hardwares playback quality noise wise made me not want one anymore. There is a pretty good amount of ld collecters in Ark. You have to look to find them, but they are here. usually movie store workers and so on. A few I have talked to said to forget using aElite, stick to what I have, get a line doubler, and be happy. Considering a good line doubler has a way better comb filter then a Elite-97-99 I will prob end up doing that instead. Do you have any pics you can post of your Elite player going at it?Id liek to see some to see the quality on a poorly mastered LD, to see how it improves it. Most collecters here are like me, very strict, and dont keep average fliks, so nothing larger then 200 lds max, pretty much all good mastered stuff.

[PCEngineHell]

I heard/read that UK players/disc didnt do one of the audio modes either,digital,ac-3 or what,Im not sure,but I do remember reading that.Which is it?

[PCEngineHell]

I dont have any pal disc because of the fact we got pretty much anything you guys did over there and more,so I could never find out if this was true or not.

[GUTS]

Older Disney movies rock, Lion King was kick fuckin ass.

[PCEngineHell]

The CLD-99 has a first generation NEC 3D Adaptive filter,which is basically why I wont spend that kind of cash on it.Back then it was worth it,but second and third gen filters are much better.Now you can get line doublers that do a better job for standard 3-line filter players for 400-600 bucks.I wish the US got a player laiter in the game then the 99,but thats how it went down.Japan got the best Pioneer decks in the end,costly,but the best.I alwasy liked Sony and Panasonic for offering really good high end decks for alot less then Pioneers price too.really the worse prob Sony had player wise was on some models had door jam probs.Thye could be fixed easy,but still sucked.

[SNKNostalgia]

Well as for the video mod, I was thinking more on the improvement of the video game video output. Of course I know about the LD being in composite and 3D comb filters etc... Some people don't have TVs with the filters so in that case it wouldn't be too bad of an idea. Really the best bet for older TVs is to get one of those $100 composite to S-video splitters, that might atleast clean up the picture for older TVs. As for games, as long as you got an RGB output you can do anything with it just about. You could easily make a wire harness to hook into all the RGB outputs of the modules, just would take some time and hacks. I kinda figured the Laser Active wasn't all to great for LD since it was more focused on games.

[PCEngineHell]

btw,what are you using to play gamegear games on Genesis?

[Pingu]

Cld-99s are nice,good players.Ever thought bout going for a X-9 or a Sony Muse?X models are supposed to read rotted disc extremely well.

Yeah, I've thought about it but they're insanely expensive, you can get a cld-97 or 99 for under $350 these days, no such luck with the above mentioned players. Still if I do happen to come across one at an afordable price I think I'm going to pick it up.

I dont like drama,comedy,or children movies.I only collect action with real actors,horror,sci-fi,anime,and dark comedy.I allow nothing else into my collection.That means no True Lies,Last Action Heros,Leathel Weapons,Lion Kings,Black Sheeps,or 3 Ninjas lds.I have alot of box sets too,Criterian stuff.Imports that you cant get here.Im about the only person I know of in the US with Outlanders anime imported on LD that is regestered on LDDB.

Well, to each their own I supose, I happen to like some of those other categories as well. I admitt that my collection is a bit bloated right now, I usualy bulk buy them. And some of them are really to cheap to pass by, I mean renting some movie from a video store can be more expensive than buying some of these titles. If I don't like it, or they rot to pieces I can always take them down to the beach and play catch with them.:p
Outlanders, I did like the manga so I wouldn't really mind getting that one as well.

Do you have any pics you can post of your Elite player going at it?Id liek to see some to see the quality on a poorly mastered LD,to see how it improves it.

You mean like running a segment with or without the filters activated? Hmm, no I supose it could be done, I could borrow a digicam and take some pictures but I'm not that sure they would come out good enough.

I heard/read that UK players/disc didnt do one of the audio modes either,digital,ac-3 or what,Im not sure,but I do remember reading that.Which is it?

Right of the bat I can't really remember which one it is. As PAL has a higher bandwidth than NTSC PAL LDs only have one track for sound, either analogue or digital. Could be that as well.

btw,what are you using to play gamegear games on Genesis?

I'm not really, just went to look at it and it was a master system to game gear adapter, not the other way around (which kinda makes sense as the game gear has a bigger colour pallete), my bad.

[PCEngineHell]

Lol,god I couldnt stand gamegears screen.Yea I consider my Panasonic LX-200,which I got dirt cheap,and almost new,to be my best player.It doesnt do AC-3,but does dual side,most of it is metal and thich plastic on the laser rail flip drive,very heavy duty!!! Has gold plated RCA jacks,rf in and out,s-video,and thick load tray,which isnt common,and has great noise reduction and sharpness.It doesnt clear off speckles as well as my Pioneer CLD-D504,but the overall image is sharper and noise wise cleaner.Def a A+++ player,too bad no one list teh specs for it on the laserdisc archive.

[PCEngineHell]

What disc do you use to test your picture quality movie wise?
I use Hardware to test noise reduction,because it has alot of it,Event Horrizon,because it has great blackness and sharp contrast,Armatage disc 3 for the ailaising edge test,because certain average players had probs with the armatage lds,and would have jaggies on this anime bad,and rainbow effect on the edges of certain things,why I dont know,but it makes a great test.For my audio I use Panther to test it.The bass on the audio is wonderful and deep in the music.
Anyway what do you use?

[Keranu]

Older Disney movies rock, Lion King was kick fuckin ass.

Aladdin kicked Lion King's ass though.

[PCEngineHell]

Bah,only Disney I have is Tron boxset,and The Rocketeer,and Snow White,because Snow White is morbid if you think about it.

[GUTS]

Oh hell yeah, Aladdin is fucking awesome.  I love that whole string of Disney movies that started with Little Mermaid and ended with Lion King, they're all awesome as hell.

I love their old ones too, up until the 70s they made some awesomely sweet movies and cartoons.

[Pingu]

I don't really have any discs that I use for testing, usualy I loop the test picture thats after some movies for set up but that's about it.
Currently looking for an ADA ac3 rf demodulator, want to switch out my old one for one of the same brand as my surround system (using an old ada ssd 5.1, great piece of equipment) and I need to find a decent close caption decoder as well. I do have event horizon and could try with that one.

[PCEngineHell]

5 more ld's picked up this week Keranu.Gamera,Alien and Aliens widescreen THX versions,Ghost in the Shell clv,and yet again another Army of Darkness US widescreen.
I will have both US releases of Ghost in the Shell now,so all I have to do now is pick up the Japanese Pioneer boxset,which I can get for 50 bucks locally.
I have both US presses of Evil Dead 2,just need the presses of Evil Dead 1 now.
That and I need to pick up Capt Supermarket Japanese ld.

[Pingu]

Try to pick up Tetsuo the iron man, it's so weird you think you are trippin'.

[PCEngineHell]

I have it already,the pressing by Image.
Yea its great,has a sequel called Body Hammer.
They are redoing the first one,I think Keno is,as Image lost the rights to it.Funny too,on VHS it hasa extra movie called DrumStruck,but on LD and dvd it is not included I think,so I am wondering if Keno will include it finally.....

[PCEngineHell]

I love the first ones cover too,really great looking for the weird quality it has.I originally saw it back in 92,and have loved it ever since.Its almost in a way like a giant industrial,instrumental rock/horror video with raw sex and violence. It reminds me of NINs music video of Happiness in Slavery. Black and white,and violent.

[Pingu]

If they ever make a racing game out of the chase scene I want it.  

[PCEngineHell]

LOL.the rocket feet thing was really done well.That whole movie had a neat style to it.Just liek when the guy gets smacked by the car,and jazz music just starts playing out of nowhere.The opening credits are funny to,with the guy just bouncing about the screen.Great stuff.I said Keno was redoing it,I could be wrong on that,it may be Tarton.I need to look it up because thinking about it I cant remember which,just that who ever is going to handle it is going to do a stereo mix of the audio I think.

[Keranu]

Oh hell yeah, Aladdin is fucking awesome.  I love that whole string of Disney movies that started with Little Mermaid and ended with Lion King, they're all awesome as hell.

I love their old ones too, up until the 70s they made some awesomely sweet movies and cartoons.

Hell I even think Beauty and the Beast is awesome, but I totally have to make sure no one is looking when I watch it. I also remember thinking how hilarious Return of Jafar was when I was a kid, but now and days I think it's awful. Couldn't you watch this movie with 3-D glasses or something back when it came out?

[PCEngineHell]

I couldnt tell you,because I never watched it all the way myself. My kids are disney haters with a passion.I didnt make them this way,that just dont like US kid cartoons or anything of the such.
The only thing my son William ever liked by Disney was that live Alice in Wonderland show with the 2 MC Hammer clones rapping on rollerblades,and his liking of that was short lived.
The show sucked.

[PCEngineHell]

Alot of people dont know this,as it was hardly ever talked about,even now,but there was a laserdisc attachment setup to either the C64 or the Amiga,or one of those crappy 80ies computers.EEP,I didnt mean that about the Amiga.Anyway there was games for it where the game data was on floppy,and the video was on the disc.There was soem shooters and the such,but the game spriites sucked graphically.
I can no longer remember what it was called,or which comp it was for.
When I learned of this,it was back in 97,when my interest for LD was beginning.

[PCEngineHell]

If I remember right,Astron Belt was one of the games for this ill fated set-up. You had to use a special LD player that worked for this set-up,and I remember reading taht the Astron Belt port was not as good sprite wise as the arcade game,which sucked anyway.

[Keranu]

I couldnt tell you,because I never watched it all the way myself. My kids are disney haters with a passion.I didnt make them this way,that just dont like US kid cartoons or anything of the such.
The only thing my son William ever liked by Disney was that live Alice in Wonderland show with the 2 MC Hammer clones rapping on rollerblades,and his liking of that was short lived.
The show sucked.

Haha, that sounds like an awesome show! I better look it up!

[PCEngineHell]

I kid you not,the show had servere stereo types.

[PCEngineHell]

Its about as funny as watching the zombie fight the shark at the bottom of the ocean to your great grandmas organ music in Zombi 2 aka Zombie in the U.S.

[Keranu]

That's something I'll have to check out as well! Reading that post reminded me of the beginning of the Batman movie based of the 60's show where Batman has a shark bitten on to him and it won't come off until Robin throws him a can of Shark Repellent.

[SignOfZeta]

I thought I would necropost in this thread because I'm going to be trying out some mods on a US Laseractive in the next few days and I'm going to log my progress here. Its also a nice nostalgia trip for PCEngineHell fans. What a well adjusted human being he is.

From what I can see looking around the net the best semi-known mods for the system are s-video for LD side, and RGB from the PAC side. Neither of these are usable with actual LDROM/MegaLD games, but they will work with all PCE/MD/Genesis games as well as movie LDs, although from separate outputs.

The RGB is supposedly very low power, but hopefully I can amplify it enough to work with an s-video encoder circuit.

The effectiveness of the s-video mod is unknown, AFAIK. Looking around the internet there seem to be more people with opinions on it than there are people who have tried it (kind of like the Laseractive itself). I will compare the signal I get with the composite and also with the s-video I get from a professional Y/C separator I have and see how they look. I also have two TVs to try it on. An early 00s JVC with a very nice picture from everything s-video I've ever plugged into it, and my crazy-ass Sampo/NetTV which is pretty nice as well. My suspicion is that it will be well worth it, but for now I don't know. Should be fun!

[nectarsis]

I thought I would necropost in this thread because I'm going to be trying out some mods on a US Laseractive in the next few days and I'm going to log my progress here. Its also a nice nostalgia trip for PCEngineHell fans. What a well adjusted human being he is.

As well adjusted as people that complain/whine/talk about someone that hasn't been here in years.  Obsess much?  Or just hanging out with the BEST YEAR EVAR!! peeps?