Had no idea if this is actually a new find or not, but I hadn't heard of it before.

Months ago I made a post about my thoughts on The New Avengers as someone a wee bit younger than the average Avengers fan, and at least one comment expressed interest in my thoughts on the original series. Why not. I continued my watch with series 4 of the OG series, because that's what is on bluray and also because my background research lead me to believe this is when the show took on its iconic qualities.

Enough preamble. I've finished my watch of S4 this morning and all I can say is: Woah nelly!

Prior to this, the oldest TV series I had watched was the original Star Trek, a show that was frequently cheap, glacially-paced, and creaky (I probably sound meaner than I intend). None of these words could be used to describe The Avengers. Indeed, what I got was a show that is every bit as charming, engaging and gripping as it presumably was to audiences watching it in 1965.

And that leaves me with quite the pickle because really, what is there to say? Why yes, Patrick McNee bring incredible charisma and a razor sharp sense of repartee to his character. Hmmm, yes, anyone can see that. Of course Diana Rigg is an uniquely gifted thespian (and a very pretty lady). That's obvious to anyone with eyes and ears. Really, what fresh and new insight to bring? Them the breaks I suppose.

Favourite episodes: The Girl from AUNTIE (for being really fucking funny), Castle De'ath (For Gordon Jackson's guest part and Steed bringing his funniest snark), The Cybernauts (For killer robots and the talks of listening to music made by a computer and the character of Dr. Armstrong being very relevant in $_CURRENTYEAR), Two's A Crowd (for the funny nervous Russian ambassador and death by model kit), The Danger Makers (for the creative nature of the problem and the brutal death of the main bad guy)

Other thoughts:

-For something that was made for tiny 60s-era TVs, this is so gorgeously shot and framed. Stunt doubles that don't look like McNee aside, this translates incredibly well to a modern 1080 mastering.

-I've seen fansites snark at The New Avengers for the quantity of good guys that bite it during the episodes and it's a criticism I don't get after watching these. All the episodes have sympathetic (or at least innocent) characters dying in damn morbid ways.

-Where were the Daleks in Death at Bargain Prices? I didn't see them!

-I was surprised by how many French words and expressions are uttered throughout these. You can feel this was made in era where French culture had this aura of prestige and desirability that perhaps is not as strong now with anglophones (Incidentally, McNee's french pronunciation is very good.)

-Did British character actors fall out of trees during the 60s, or something? There are so many strong acting talents with distinctive faces and voices throughout this run.

As an aside: In my original post, I stated that the show did "not appear to have been particularly successful or well-remembered.", but I didn't really do any research. I thought recently to ask my mom about the shows: her eyes lit up instantly and she replied "Chapeau melon et bottes de cuir? C'était les MEILLEURS!" So that was a nice bonding moment.

I got an Hamgeek Mister from Aliexpress. It arrived on Wednesday and I was able to run the usual set up. run update-all and mess with a few cores. I, however, could not get it to run with my retrotink 4k and tried various mister.ini files with recommended settings. At this point, the HDMI connection directly to my monitor stopped working.

I've tried reflashing the SD with a fresh Mr. Fusion install and the pattern is consistent: the monitor does not show a picture. During the install process, the monitor almost picks up the signal but then goes dead and does not do that again when the mister is done installing. If I let the monitor set on the input ,it periodically wakes up like the MiSTER is sending something to the monitor but it's not able to recognize it. Trying to connect the Mister to other displays with VGA or HDMI gives a "Frequency not recognized" error.

I am informed that a recent update has broke HDMI on "clone" (QMtech/Hamgeek) boards. However, reverting to an older MiSter file on the SD (which a few users reported as a working fix) does not work. As such I do not think my issue is linked to that.

Someone suggested to me the SD card could be a issue. I got one today and flashed it. It unfortunately does not work.

I've tried all way of fiddling with the SD. No variation of having or not having a mister.ini file on the sd works, whether it's the monitor or the retrotink. I'm at my wit's end and about to just return the damn thing.

I got a Hamgeek MisTer FPGA clone yesterday. It works fine for its intended purpose and is not reputed to have any issues, but I am struggling to make it display on the retrotink 4k.

-The tink is updated to the latest experimental firmware as of this writing. Prior to that, I tried with the latest "stable" release candidate. DV-1 is enabled in the profile options.

-The mister is connected directly to the HDMI input on the retrotink 4k. I am not using a switch

-Neither triple buffer or genlock work

-I made sure to put a mister.ini file by coping the sample file and set direct-video to 1. That didn't work, so I copied a recommend ini from the console mods wiki. Then I copied another ini recommended in the retrotink discord server. Then I copied an ini supplied by a member of the retrotink discord when I explained my problem. None of them worked.

-I tried 3 different HDMi cables (a generic one, a "8k-certified" one, and the one that came with my xbox series x); the first one didn't work at all. the other two work when the mister is connected directly to my monitor, but give "no signal" when it is connected to the retrotink 4k . Sometimes, it shows strange flashing red lines

-I am using the power supply and SD card supplied with the device.

I could not find any reports through Google or the retrotink discord of someone using that specific variant with the tink4k. Troubleshooting is welcomed, but i'm mostly looking to answer the question asked in the title before I waste money trying new HDMI cables or psus.

I got a Hamgeek MisTer FPGA clone yesterday. It works fine for its intended purpose and is not reputed to have any issues, but I am struggling to make it display on the retrotink 4k.

-The tink is updated to the latest experimental firmware as of this writing. Prior to that, I tried with the latest "stable" release candidate. DV-1 is enabled in the profile options.

-The mister is connected directly to the HDMI input on the retrotink 4k. I am not using a switch

-Neither triple buffer or genlock work

-I made sure to put a mister.ini file by coping the sample file and set direct-video to 1. That didn't work, so I copied a recommend ini from the console mods wiki. Then I copied another ini recommended in the retrotink discord server. Then I copied an ini supplied by a member of the retrotink discord when I explained my problem. None of them worked.

-I tried 3 different HDMi cables (a generic one, a "8k-certified" one, and the one that came with my xbox series x); the first one didn't work at all. the other two work when the mister is connected directly to my monitor, but give "no signal" when it is connected to the retrotink 4k. Sometimes, it shows strange flashing red lines

-I am using the power supply and SD card supplied with the device.

I could not find any reports through Google or the retrotink discord of someone using that specific variant with the tink4k. Troubleshooting is welcomed, but i'm mostly looking to answer the question asked in the title before I waste money trying new HDMI cables or psus.

For those not familiar with arcade game jargons, 1CC means "one credit clearing", or, beating a game on your first coin without continuing. Usually this is with the implication it was done on default or harder-than-default settings, but if you did one on easier or non-default I'm also interesting in hearing.

My list:

8 Man (my first one!)

Aero Fighters 2

Aero Fighters 3

Alpha Mission 2 (on AES mode, which removes the timer on the shop screen)

Fatal Fury

Last Resort (one life clear on first loop)

Metal Slug

Real Bout Fatal Fury (the Saturn port. the actual NG version feels harder from what little I played so I am not sure it counts)

World Heroes Perfect

I can also regularly reach the final stages of Galaxy Fight, Mutation Nation, NAM-1975 and Robo Army on one credit but have yet to properly clear any of them.

Translation: "Thank you. My buddy from ROTD is also waiting for a reply from Plaion".