Latin American version of the Music Star! :)

This was my friend's Tama. Back in 2022 when i only had a Pac-Man Nano and a Gen 1, she showed me this Tama and i was fascinated. The last few years she lent it to me many times, but yesterday i finally asked her if she was willing to sell it to me. Since she wasn't using it much, she agreed, and we set the price to 30.000 CLP (around 30 USD). I'm very glad i've finally managed to get a Music Star! :)

(This is a fix for people with the "high-quality" controllers that don't like the rough edges on the D-Pad.)

Earlier today i was fed up with the rough D-Pad of my clone controller, took another clone controller and swapped their D-Pads. It worked well so i'm going to document what i did in case anyone wants to try the same thing.

These controllers are pretty common and cheap on AliExpress, but i don't know where to find them as these were given to me by the cousin i bought my Genesis from, so instead here's a guide to identify the two (or three kinda) types of controllers. They should all cost around 5 or 6 dollars give or take. So the total is probably somewhere around 10-12 dollars.

Getting the "yellow buttons" controller

These are extremely common on AliExpress. The easiest way to identify them is the yellow X Y Z buttons. (Look at the review images in case of any doubts) You'll want to take the D-Pad from one of these.

Getting the "higher quality" controller

These are common, but not as much as the "yellow buttons" controllers. You can identify them by the nicer looking grey X Y Z buttons. These also typically have some text like 16-BIT on it. (Again, check reviews in case of any doubts) These will be the controllers you want to put the "yellow buttons" D-Pad in.

(Alternatively) Getting a "turbo switch" controller

There's another type of controller that looks similar to the "higher quality" controllers but have a turbo switch. You can also mod these to have the "yellow buttons" D-Pad, but i don't know how different the internals are so the disassembly and reassembly parts might not apply as much to these.

There's two colors to these, white with blue and red buttons, and black with black and grey buttons.

1. Take the D-Pad caps off of the controllers

Just shove a flathead screwdriver (or whatever flat thing you have nearby) under the D-Pad caps, and pull up on them. They should pop off with enough force.

2. Disassemble the controllers

Take the screws off of the back with a screwdriver. Note that "yellow buttons" controllers have a fake screw on the back, so on those there are only 4 screws instead of 5. Then lift off the PCB and the membrane.

3. Swap the plus-shaped plastic things where the D-Pads are

I don't know what those are called, but swap them. The one with the circular hole on top is the "yellow buttons" one.

4. Reassemble the controllers

Make sure the buttons are in place, then put the membranes back on. Make sure to align the "higher quality" controller membranes to the appropriate screw-holes. Then put the PCB back on (make sure the cable is placed properly), then the back part of the shell, and finally the screws.

5. Put the D-Pad caps back on

This step is pretty self explanatory, make sure the shapes line up. And congrats, you've successfully swapped the D-Pads!

Sorry if this guide isn't great, but i'm very excited to share this. I hope i can help anyone with these controllers. It's probably a preferable option to save a bit more and get a second hand controller, but i'm a bit too lazy to buy one so i'm happy with this.

(Note that the "yellow buttons" controller might become unusable with the "higher quality" D-Pad. I don't think it's a big deal as the process is reversible and those controllers are pretty bad anyways.)

Eventually i want to figure out how to put a pivot on these as well.

i've never made a laughjoke before but i'm tired of looking at this sub only to see generic memes and repost of old laughjokes

The game is looking a bit better now, still some cleaning up left though.

This is my take on the Tetris TGM series' Master mode. The way grades work here isn't exactly the same as any of the TGM games internally, but I was inspired by TGM2. I'm hoping to release this sometime soon as it's already pretty close to finished, but there's some stuff I need to sort out before I'm able to.

(Please excuse the repost, i somehow hit Post despite not clicking anywhere near the post button so i panicked and deleted it.)

I've been working on this for like 2 or 3 months, and i think it's worth sharing here. There's still a lot to polish, but the main gameplay is working great! The mode shown here is Impossible, which is similar to TA Death from Tetris TGM2+. I'll probably show Master mode when i get around to polishing the visuals.