Tuesday 27 November 2012

SOME NEW PROJECTS - SEGA, NINTENDO, NEC

Hi all,

While waiting on getting hold of a resonably priced 32x for the Neptune ( Im not after a collectors condition but thats all that seem to be around at the minute...doh) I've got started on a few consoles all at the same time.

I've have one spare Megadrive 2 left thats not been tinkered with. I have one put a-side for the Neptune so that is all safe. This spare that is gathering dust is now going to be modified up to a Jamma-drive! That's right, a megadrive that can be hooked up to an arcade cabinet so that you can play the great arcade conversions on the 'big screen'. Alas I don't own a cabinet, just a Supergun so its a little redundant for me but the making of one seems like a fun little project to me.

I'm planning on making the Jamma-drive 2 a bit more stealth looking than the normal Jamma-drives though. These generally have the Jamma fingerboard sticking out the side of the case or hang out of the CD-rom drive area and look good for putting inside an arcade cab'. But for me I want it to still look good on the shelf and look stock but have hidden uses. mwuhahaha. Also its going to have the 50/60mhz mod, the Language mod and the Overclock done to it.

Im also going to keep it so you can use the normal pads and PSU for playing it as a normal Megadrive on the TV but if you want to chuck it in the cabinet you open the new Jamma edge cover and hook the harness up to it. :D

So I've hacked the case up (as well as a spare case for its expansion cover) and I've started to join the new expansion cover to the left side of case. Thats right, this megadrive is going to have 2 expansion ports!!


I now have the expansion cover and clasp all milliputted into the case so it's getting there. I'll be doing a write up on it once the project is all finished. I have the Jamma fingerboards now so soldering is about to begin this week. Woop!

While I have the milliput out I have taken my old SNES off the shelf and decided to restore it back to its former grey glory. Rather than the nicotene yellow that is now become. I have looked up the retr0brite recipes but with the weather as it is there isn't really enough sunlight for me to get a nice clean to it I don't think and I don't want to have a UV bulb on for 2 days solid.


So i'm going to be mixing a paint to match the original case covers and paint it. While I do that Im fixing a crack along the side from the plastic getting old and also doing the lock-out and 50/60Hz mods.

Going to be ace to play my Japanese version of Turtle in Time!!!!

And the last project I've got is a console I've wanted for the longest time! A NEC PC Engine!!! Oh yes!! I did some scouring of ebay last week and found a Japanese white PC Engine going cheap as it was listed as faulty. So I snapped it up to see if I can repair it and finally have the little console that could.


Im hoping that its fully working and the only problem is that its outputting video in japanese RF so the person testing it couldn't get it to tune in. For a start Im going to be doing the RGB port mod to it so that it runs off scart and will look super nice and sharp. I have Street Fighter 2 Champion Edition on its way so that I can test it all as there isn't a power light or anything on the unit to see if its working.

It looks pretty big in that photo but the base size of it is the same as a CD case. Its tiny!!

I'm really excited about all 3 of my projects! Going to be great to get some of these consoles up and running.

Update again soon

Porl''


Wednesday 21 November 2012

MOVEMBER i.e. the realisation of how itchy a moustache can be!!



Hi all,

So this year I've become a member of the Mo-bro's and joined in with Movember. There is quite a large team of us at my work all growing the furry lip warmers. It's quite funny seeing all the people I've known for years essentially being in disguise! haha

I've in the past tried to grow a beard, or at least see how far I could get but I've never gotten further than  2 weeks as it gets so itchy that I nearly skin myself getting the bugger off haha. So when it was suggested we all grow moustaches I thought that it would be easy and non-itchy. HOW WRONG I COULD BE!!

3 weeks in, saturday afternoon to monday. Top lip is itching so much that it has been hardwork not to shave the sucker off! Its amazed me how people grow them for their 'look' but a few people I've spoken too said they never itched at all, so it must just be down to my geeky skin type.

And today, thankfully.....the itching has subsided and its all good again. The magnum p.i. / mariachi band member moustache has stopped becoming an itch feast! Woop! :-D

I'm not sure if anybody will but if you do have a spare quid lying about and you feel generous then please feel free to click on my Mo-space link and chuck the quid my way, bump me up the team listings a little.

http://mobro.co/porlzilla

Cheers yo

Porl''

The progress so far :


Monday 19 November 2012

FINISHING UP SOME PROJECTS - SEGA

Hi all,

After having a really relaxing weeks holiday in Barmouth, Wales with my girlfriend and our new pup, Hugo. He's only 15 weeks old and was his first trip to the beach. Absolutely loved it!

Well now we're home its time to get finishing up some of my projects that have been lieing around in their 99% completed stages. The first quick finishing projects to do were my Overclocked Megadrive 1 and Megadrive 2. They were awaiting some new SPST switches to be fixed into the casing so they can be all screwed together and popped on my shelf.

I started about the overclocked Sega Megadrive 2. I needed to change the switches I'd put on it to test it all out with my new switches from Rapid Online. I couldn't get hold of any SPST (Single Pole single throw) switches so got hold of 10x Double Pole Double Throw switches as they can be used for a little more in the case of modding.

First things first was extending the language and 50/60mhz mod wires to give them some slack and allow the case to be fully opened. And again I needed to add 2cm into the overclock wires so the switch can be mounted in the case.

a tip : when hot glueing switches into cases make sure you don't get any on your fingertips! I got a small blob on the end of my right index finger and it latched on there and really burned me. Got a nice painful blister right on the end of my finger now haha.

A added some more hot glue to hold the mod wires into place to limit the amount of pull damaged that can happen sometimes if the wires get accidentally tugged.

To mount the 2 colour LED in place you will need to cut down the light block that inside the case. I used a grinding wheel on my rotary tool to get the right shape so that the LED would fit under the clear plastic and the case would close.



I added in the same DPDT switches into the Megadrive 1 and finished that up too.

Next will be either finishing up the latest smoothing on the Neptune case (I'm trying to get hold of a 32x at the minute), starting to make a Jamma Drive from a spare Megadrive or carrying on with my second Supergun.

If I can find the right DIN plug I will make an RGB scart cable to HD the Model 2's video signal :-P

I've also been wanting to change my logo on the website so created a new one and uploaded it. The landscape logo fits the page a lot nicer so I'm happy about that.

Hope to update with some more project work soon.

Porl''