Posts tagged "Modifications"
Whenever a machine is permanently or temporarily modified to work better, including upgrades, the entry goes here.
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BlueSCSI Goes Outside
While the BlueSCSI is great inside an old Mac, what if they were also great outside of one? The external DB25 form factor of the BlueSCSI v1 intrigued me, so I built one – the hard way.
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You're telling me there's 64 Nintendos in there?
Once, I had a Nintendo 64, and now I have another. The new one is from a different country, and sometimes there’s a period of adjustment. Adjustment, and maintenance. Also, I build a bootleg cartridge.
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Mattel's Little Friend
As I’ve gotten deeper into the world of 8-bit computers, one mass-market, North American computer has resisted my attempts to obtain it. That computer is the Mattel Aquarius, and it is at last within my grasp. Or at least it would be, if it would act a little nicer.
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More Memories of Pictures
Back when I did the recap, power supply recap, and trace repairs on the Bad ADB Mac LC, there was something missing. Even after all that work, I was only left with a measly 16 colours at 640x480 resolution. That’s not enough colours at all, but luckily it’s pretty easy to fix.
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Bluer than velvet were her SCSIs
If you need a SCSI hard drive for your old computer, there are a lot of great options becoming available for a solid-state substitute. A great one of those options is the BlueSCSI, and I’m not just saying that because I won a free one. It’s because I won a free kit, so I got to put it together myself.
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Go Back to GBS
There are a lot of people buying fancy upscalers these days. And who can blame them? Old videogames are great, but new monitors are lazy and inept. What, the signal is too slow for you? Clearly all these great old arcade boards, computers, and game consoles are just not a big enough challenge for the input logic in modern LCDs, who prefer to spend their considerable brainpower decoding much higher-frequency syncs. To solve this problem, I’ll spend not very much money.
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Presentcomputer 1000
What if I told you that you can still buy a Z80-based computer from the 80s for only twenty bucks? It has a full keyboard, a pretty solid BASIC interpreter, and there’s even an expansion bus of sorts. And it runs off batteries!
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Revenge of the Famicom composite video mod
When we last read about the Famicom composite mod, there were a bunch of changes I wanted to make, but left tragically undone in the name of getting in some Mario time over the holidays. Now I’m going to make a solid effort at producing a more production-ready version of the modification.
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Modding a PlayStation (Eventually)
I’m a little late to the whole PlayStation ownership game, but what better way to start than by attempting a modchip install? This one had some twists and turns, but ultimately ends up with me being able to play A-Train in blurry composite video.
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Unleashing the Power of the X68000 ACE
You might recall that I own a Sharp X68000 ACE, the world-beating, sprite-spitting computer of everyone’s dreams. So far, though, the ownership experience hasn’t been the most fun I’ve ever had. Repairing the battery damage in mine has been challenging, as the damage goes deeper than I first thought, but I have accomplished one thing so far: installing a more reliable power supply.
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Adding composite video to a Famicom
Since I’ve been reading I Am Error, I’ve been getting more and more interested in the technical aspects of the Famicom. Turns out all you really need to get me interested in your console is prose explanations of how a pattern table works. Also, I get to drip some molten lead into it so I can use a modern TV! Everyone wins.
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A Game Boy Macro
There are a lot of broken Nintendo DS consoles out there. A shattered screen there, a broken flip hinge here: it would be nice if someone could do something to save some of those wounded machines. Someone did do something!
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Dual Goteks in the PC-8801mkIISR at last
In my previous entry, I found out that my old IBM PC “DOS” floppy adapter was not sufficient when trying to read from two drives at once. Somehow, they confused the floppy controller enough that nothing could be read from the second drive.
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Guest Project - a Model M refresh
A few years ago, my friend Grant completed a refresh of one of his Model M keyboards (I know, right?) Here’s his writeup on the process.
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Attempting dual Goteks in the PC-8801mkIISR
I got another couple of Gotek floppy emulators from China, and now the SR has dual floppy drives. Unfortunately, I can’t use them both at the same time.
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PC-8801mkIISR opening and Gotek setup
I’ve been wanting to get back to the SR for quite some time. I figured the Gotek adapter PCB and the HxC-flashed Gotek would be a direct drop-in to the new machine, and I was right.