After a month or so of waiting and prodding around, I've managed to dump the stock firmware off the Rockchip revision LeapPad Academy, version EPIC4.user.1.7.2109.312280833:
https://archive.org/details/leapfrog-epicv4-firmware
https://drive.google.com/file/d/13TB0eCU...xQ2XI/view

The firmware can be flashed using RKDevTool 2.69 and later. I did test the system (super), boot and recovery partitions and they do seem to work fine, but don't blame me if anything happens to your device.

I have also included two uboot images in the package: the stock factory uboot based on the latest available OTA update, and a hacked one with the anti-dump code patched out. Make sure to flash back to stock uboot in case LeapFrog issues a new OTA update! Mad props to pseudolobster and RedScorpioXDA for the uboot hack discovery and imgRePackerRK, respectively, without which would make this effort impossible.

Thought I'd record this footage where I play the game via AetherSX2 on my mum's new realme tablet:

Here is a thread to document my next computer restoration project, this time on one of my old PC towers from back in the day. It's what I named "Jasper" a frankenstein of a rig that I purchased from a friend in 2009.

The case is branded "Tangent Computer" as it was once a pre-built PC, but at one point, the former owner had to replace the motherboard with it's current Asus TUV4X one. The CPU is a Pentium III at 1ghz and the graphics card was originally an Nvidia Riva TNT2. I later replaced it with an Asus Radeon 9600XT. Exact amount of RAM is currently unknown, as with the hard drive too.

I last used this computer as a daily driver for about two years, running Windows XP Professional. For 2009 through 2011, it was still a decent computer for web browsing, but it was beginning to show it's age with sites like YouTube. Once I moved on to the mid-2011 Mac Mini, Jasper became secondary, and then unused and in storage.

Taking inspiration from Clint/LGR, I want to restore Jasper into a semi-retro computer gaming rig, with main focus on Windows 9x/ME PC games. I have many such games in my collection, such as Bejeweled, Chuzzle, various shovelware collections, you name it.  The OS will either be Windows 98 SE or ME.

Here is what Jasper needs so far:
-A new PSU.
-A new rear cooing fan with a proper motherboard connector
-A preferably new-old-stock IDE hard drive at 80GB. Windows 98SE has issues with larger drives such as 120GB and up unless you use special drivers.
-A motherboard BIOS battery.
-Optionally, a new case as well. The current one is very beat up and full of stickers from your's truly. I could get some Goo Gone and remove the stickers off the front and it would look rather presentable.

Thread will be updated once parts are ordered.

Hey, here is something SSC related for once! Well, at least for one of the videos I will link below. Some of you may have seen these before as they were memes around 2011 when they first showed up on YouTube. What makes these Pakistani McDonald's toy commercials appealing (at least to me and many others) is how unintentionally funny and disturbing they are. And it's all thanks to using very cheap 3D CGI and taking many liberties in re-creating the licensed characters in whatever 3D software they used. It's far above Rapsittie Street Kids, but it's still very amateurish. And don't forget about King Schwarz. More on him in a bit...

First off, the one with the SSC toys. Or rather, somewhat creepy renderings of SSC herself, and either a clone of her or another character altogether. (I'm quite rusty on SSC lore  ) It's also shared with some random flying toys for some reason.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=224RSCqouNA

Secondly, it's the Crash Bandicoot Side of Life. Nowhere near as creepy as the SSC renderings above. Crash himself looks okay, but Neo Cortex? His face looks far too realistic in comparison to his normally cartoony appearance in the games. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3WmB28Gi14

Third, the infamous Sonic Games commercial. This particular commercial got the most attention with YTP creators. The animation is cheap, as expected. Sonic looks a little off, but the other characters do look rather decent. The small bit Sonic fans point out the most is the Pakistani narrator calls the character Rouge as "Row-guh", as in "going Rogue" and not the French pronunciation of Red. I think this has more to do with the narrator simply not knowing English phrases that well. The best part? These Sonic LCD games got a North American release and can be found on eBay. Good luck replacing the battery as you'll need to have a tri-wing screwdriver on hand.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxV7495Oabw

Fourth is the Hello Kitty commercial. And no, she is not saying "I am a little boy" at the end. It's a mondegreen, and "boy" is actually "Queen". The thick accent muddles the English words quite a bit. Other than that mondegreen and Hello Kitty's creepy smile, it's a fairly standard Happy Meal ad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-8Z9NKJbro

Fifth is for a Play-Doh Happy Meal, with some surprisingly good English in some parts. Nothing too special here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bX54qj35V1U

Sixth is for some toys called, confusingly, Crash Gear. No relation to the Crash Bandicoot universe, but these appear to be just generic action vehicles. All but one have fairly generic names, but the last vehicle is called "Kingschwarz". Eh, what? Is a King name Schwarz driving that thing?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgb0e-g1ogw

Seventh is another ad featuring Hello Kitty. Very little animation in this one, but was that Grimace jumpscare at 0:26 necessary?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ii35iS_k2d8

The final ad is for McDonaldland Character bobble toys. Birdie is definitely on something here, and she and her other McDonaldland friends are now aliens. Just run with it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgP2n1Gk0Ew

Here is my mid-2011 iMac, purchased refurbished from MacOfAllTrades. I named it "Lilly", the same name of my now-gone 2011 Mac mini, and also because this was the Mac I would have purchased in 2011 if David hadn't pressured me into getting the slower Mini instead. I digress...

Below are photos of the final setup. This iMac previously had High Sierra installed, but I decided to downgrade to Mountain Lion. ML works better with 4GB RAM, I can still use the older version of iMovie that has more features, and overall, this OS is nowhere near as demanding as High Sierra is.



I placed Lilly where Rusty's monitor used to be at. Rusty will soon be hooked up to my HDTV solely for games.



From left to right past the calendar icon... Arctic Fox browser, Preview, iTunes, VLC, iMovie '11, QuickTime, HandBrake, and Avidemux 2.6.9. I found Handbrake to have a much better interface than Avidemux just for converting the raw QuickTime recordings to smaller files. I keep Avidemux around for the commercial compilations and making the upscaled YouTube uploads. I know I said I was going to use iMovie '11 for that, but it caps at 30fps. I plan on making YTP again though, and iMovie '11 works well enough for that.







The recording setup. The HDMI dongle connects to one of the back USB ports, and the Composite-to-HDMI converter goes into the dongle. Final picture shows QuickTime recording from the HDMI dongle. It's stretched out, but I resize it to proper 4:3 with Handbrake.

On my way of starting some kind of retro Mac/PC laptop collection, I wound up with a gently used (for the most part) 2009 White MacBook from eBay. I got it delivered yesterday, and it was very clean throughout. As it was, it came with 2GB RAM, Mac OS X Snow Leopard, and a 5400rpm 250GB hard drive. Graphics are an Nvidia GeForce 9400M, and the latest OS it can run without a patch is High Sierra. Odd... kind of reminds me how 2013 MacBook Airs get Big Sur while 2013 iMacs do not.

But anyway... it was a bit of a process to restore this machine and make it semi-modern. One odd thing about this MacBook is that two screws were missing on the bottom panel. This was clearly mentioned in the description, and given how neatly kept the remainder of the machine was, this wasn't a deal breaker, and I am planning on replacing the bottom panel anyway for reasons I'll get to in a bit. It even came in a nice protective sleeve too. Another nice thing was the previous owner decorated the laptop with one of those stick on skins, which here is a abstract leaf pattern with colored birds sitting on said leafy patterns. I plan on leaving this sticker on as I won't really be using this MacBook out in public. Taking off the bottom panel is very easy, with normally eight small Philips head screws holding the case in... or rather, six as two were missing with this MacBook. A neat feature about these 2009 White MacBooks is the bottom case is covered in a rubber sleeve which helps the laptop keep a good grip on a table surface. Age hasn't been kind to it. This rubber bottom is crimped onto the metal plate around the edges, and you'd think it be pretty tightly fit. Well, it's not, or at least, no longer is. While trying to get the case taken off, I instead pulled off a portion of the rubber casing, and getting it back on over the edge of the metal plate is impossible. So now, the edges of the rubber are drooping out in spots.  Luckily, spare bottom cases (likely after market ones) are sold on eBay, and I am going to get one soon.

Here is what I am doing. I replaced the slow 5400rpm drive with Greta"s old 250GB SSD. I then installed El Capitan, and upgraded to High Sierra from there. Next up is the RAM. This MacBook supports up to 8GB RAM. High Sierra is running rather snappy as it is with 2GB RAM, but this is because of the SSD speeding things up. More memory intensive apps and games will start to slow things down, and I am planning on some video/audio capture experiments with this thing. I will upgrade the RAM at the same time I replace the bottom case.

Below are some photos of the unit, and some random pictures taken during the setup process. I will also provide links to Geekbench Scores, which I ran against my 2020 MBP. Spoiler: The 2009 MacBook gets smoked by the 2020 MBP.

2020 MBP score:
https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/2661672

2009 Macbook:
https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/2661689


Photos in the next post...

Special thanks to Roy Boxer for supplying me with this one:



ROM build number is KOT49H.user.1.1.171.20190530.155308. Should work on all editions using SP Flash Tool v5.1744 and later. Just make sure to BACK UP the stock ROM first before flashing this, and clear /data and /cache via recovery mode after flashing. Trust me, I bricked one of my Epic demo units before and it helps to keep the stock secro, seccfg and NVRAM prior to doing anything with the Epic.

Here's yet another ROM dump I made for the Epic:


ROM build number is KOT49H.user.1.8.804.20200416.135116. Should work on all editions using SP Flash Tool v5.1744 and later. Just make sure to BACK UP the stock ROM first before flashing this, and clear /data and /cache via recovery mode after flashing. Trust me, I bricked one of my Epic demo units before and it helps to keep the stock secro, seccfg and NVRAM prior to doing anything with the Epic.

Musings of a Snoobian Butler

LEGAL STUFF: No, I don't own and will never have the rights to the Frozen franchise or any other Disney property, let alone Steamboat Willie.

Set shortly after the Dark Horse comic Reunion Road and told in his own point of view, Kai Mikkelsen breaks his silence and tells his story to Elsa and Anna.

I bought a leapfrog epic academy edition online for my granddaughter and it didn’t come with an activation code. Tried reaching out to the seller, but to no avail they're not answering my messages. Please help me, my granddaughter is so upset and ready to play with it.