Retro game stuff talk

[FlyingTomahawk]

had off today and I thought I'll try to mod my Famicom and Mega Drive. I want to have the best possible picture on my CRT TV. RGB/Scart is, unfortunately, not an option here since that is limited to Europe only. Japan used to have RGB21 which has a different pinout and TVs with RGB21 are super rare.

Let's start with the Famicom. The Famicom can only output composite and mono audio.
Composite is still better than RF. Got me all kinds of Resistors, Capacitors and Transistors. I used one of my yellow Famicoms since I wanna keep the best looking white one stock with RF only. The result is great. Very slight jail bars but barely noticeable.

Next, the Mega Drive....
The Mega Drive can output RGB and I do have 2 RGB/Scart cables which I used with my RGB to HDMI converter box. Which upscales the image to 720p or 800x600 which is not native resolution and you don't get the scan lines.
The CRT TV has no HDMI nor Scart. So here we are limited to S-Video. The mod is straight forward and super easy. There was no need to wire up anything for audio since you can take that from the 3.5mm headphone jack on the front.
The result is stunning. The sharpness and color reproduction is great. Especially on a native CRT resolution with natural scan lines.

That's it for today. Now it's time to enjoy the fruits of my work and play some games.

[obsidianspider]

Great job! Next step you'll be doing a retrobrite job on that modded Famicom!

[FlyingTomahawk]

Just a small update on the Famicom mod and jail bars situation. I was able to eliminate them and the image looks 99.5% clean. Just write it here in case someone is looking for that solution in the future.

It does involve some risky modification though.
You'll have to lift the leg of pin 21 on the PPU and remove the 2SA937 transistor, bent the base leg, connect that with a short wire to that pin 21 leg and solder the transistor back in its original position on the PCB.
Additional add two 1uf ceramic capacitors between pin 20 and 22 of the PPU and between pin 40 of the CPU and any ground point on the PCB.

That's it. Now i can finally enjoy retro gaming with a clean image. Also modified another Famicom with a different PCB board layout and there I did the same and that also cleaned up the image.

[obsidianspider]

@FlyingTomahawk Well done! Does that only affect the original Famicoms? I have an AV Famicom and never noticed jailbars, but I'm also not that discerning.

[FlyingTomahawk]

@obsidianspider
As far I know, only original Famicoms that have an AV mod.

[obsidianspider]

Today I added Tetris for WonderSwan Color to my collection. I got it for what I typically see a loose copy selling for. That said, it's the most expensive game I've bought in quite a while.

and I still stink at Tetris

[Clyde]

@obsidianspider said in Retro game stuff talk:

and I still stink at Tetris

😄

[WeirdH]

@obsidianspider said in Retro game stuff talk:

and I still stink at Tetris

Do you know how to get to Carnegie Hall?

[FlyingTomahawk]

Consoles from 1972 - 2018 Japanese TV commercials

[FlyingTomahawk]

Been busy, busy busy....

Now that I successfully modified the Famicom (AV mod) it was time to do something about its looks. I didn't wanna go the Retr0bright way since I cannot get my hands on the needed material I decided to simply paint it. Removed carefully the front and rear labels.
The color used is Suzuki 0RB olympus white

Next, I redid the wiring and added an LED power ON indicator light.
Reapplied the labels and....I'm really satisfied how it turned out.

I also was able to score a Famicom Disc System (2500 Yen). It was sold as Junk and the previous owner said that he didn't check if it works or not which usually means the belt is shot and needs to be replaced. Other then that it's in great condition, boxed with all the bags still there.
Also was able to buy Dracula 1, Dracula 2 and Metroid. All 3 for 1980 Yen

As I suspected the belt was in bits and pieces but that is no surprise after 20+ years.
Replacement is on its way and that thing should be up and running in no time.

[FlyingTomahawk]

Received the replacement belt(s) today...for free.
A little pre-story to that...
There is a Japanese guy that has a blog and there he shows you step by step with videos and pictures how to replace the belt and align the spindle. Those Mobilon rubber bands are sold in 100 gram packs so one package contains 460 rubber belts! That guy bought 3 packs since he repairs FDS often he says. I guess he does repair work? Anyways, he says he has over 1400 belts and anyone who contacts him gets 5 belts for free, shipped home! And not only that but he also includes washers and bolts to offset the motor pulley to prevent the belt from dropping out once replaced. All for free! How generous is that.

To be honest the belt install and spindle setup are bit of a pain in the rear. It took me a few tries until I got it working properly.
Once done I finally could check if my FDS games were working. And they sure did...

[ruckage]

Hey @FlyingTomahawk , hope you're doing well.
Awesome work on the Famicom/FDS - looks as good as new.

[FlyingTomahawk]

@ruckage

RUCKAGE! Man how are you? It's been like ages since I last read you.
How is life treating you? Hope everything is alright.

Thanks for the kind words. Yeah, I'm happy with the result.

[VictimRLSH]

@obsidianspider said in Retro game stuff talk:

Today I added my very first Treasure game to my collection: Dynamite Headdy for Sega Genesis. It’s in very good shape and only mildly suffers from the common Genesis game problem of looking like someone soaked the label in vegetable oil. I don’t know why so many Genesis games do that.

Also: can anyone suggest a good gamebit screwdriver that works well with Genesis games? My orange handled one from Amazon “works” but it often slips from the screws on Genesis games and mars the finish. I’d like to minimize that in the future.

My custom PCBs also arrived today. They're my very first boards that I designed myself, so there's nothing fancy going on, but it looks like they'll fit the ribbon cable that I intended, so hopefully I'll be able to test with a Pi soon.

Did you get any extras of these done? Willing to sell?

[ruckage]

@FlyingTomahawk said in Retro game stuff talk:

@ruckage

RUCKAGE! Man how are you? It's been like ages since I last read you.
How is life treating you? Hope everything is alright.

Thanks for the kind words. Yeah, I'm happy with the result.

I'm doing well thank you, been pretty busy. Had a fun month long roadtrip just before Christmas travelling around France, Andorra, Spain and Portugal.
Hope you doing well too.

I must get on and finish my Famicom and PC Engine projects. The PC Engine Mini is coming out soon which will work out quite well for me because they're selling additional PC Engine USB controllers which will be ideal for my project (I've already pre-ordered one.)

[ruckage]

Here are some new GBA/Gameboy games I've bought since the last time I posted.

And I've made some more cases as well:

And here's how they all look spine on displayed on my shelves (That's 29 cases so far - still quite a few to make yet):

[obsidianspider]

@FlyingTomahawk Super jealous of the great deal on the FDS. Very well done!

[obsidianspider]

@VictimRLSH said in Retro game stuff talk:

Did you get any extras of these done? Willing to sell?

Extras of what?
Dynamite Headdy? No

The breakout board? OSHPark has a minimum 3-board order. I need the other two for testing screens. I'm not looking to sell any. Sorry.

[obsidianspider]

@ruckage Those cases look fantastic! Those are the European DS cases, right?

[ruckage]

@obsidianspider said in Retro game stuff talk:

@ruckage Those cases look fantastic! Those are the European DS cases, right?

Thanks :) . Yes, they're European DS cases. It's really easy to modify the GBA cart holder to also hold GB/GBC games and they will also hold the manuals with another small modification (gb/gba manuals are usually bigger than DS manuals - at least in the UK). They also have a nice wide spine which is great for adding spine art.

Some US cases have a GBA slot but I'm sure I read that it was removed on later cases so you have to be a bit careful. It's also pretty much impossible to modify them to hold Gameboy carts and the larger manuals as huge amounts of plastic would have to be cut away.