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.
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.
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.
I thought I'd make a little post about a
new arcade game pickup I have. Its something that you don't see all
that often when you search for Capcom CPS-2 games. Normally the CPS-2
setup is an A-Board mated with a B-Board which is the game. This version
of the CPS-2 is different because you don't need an A or B board, its
all on the one PCB in a nicely shaped metal case.
When
the game turned up in the post I was very surprised at how small it was
compared to a normal CPS-2 board. I was expecting it to be of similar
size to the A+B setup but the whole Black board is shorter in length
than the standard CPS-2 and also thinner height-wise than a single CPS-2
B-board.
As you can see in the photo its got some nice
curving to is on the edges. When you think of metal casing, or when I
do I think of just a box. But this has some nice shaping to it. The
problem with it being painted metal the wear and tear to it shows up and
there isn't really a nice way to clean it up. Other than sanding it
back and repainting it. I won't be doing that though :-P
Also,
you can see from the photo that it has the standard CPS-2 connections
to it. Jamma edge, Kick-harness connector and the 2 QSound ports. The
volume and setup buttons are different though. The hole you see in the
top of the casing lets you twiddle a PCB mounted potentiometer which
controls your volume rather than the 2 UP and Down buttons on the side
of an A-Board. And the Setup button is a PCB mounted mini button set a
little bit back from the Jamma edge rather than the button thats on the
side of A-Boards.
The 2 photos above show the size difference between the standard CPS-2
setup and the Black All-In-One boards. Also you can see the venting that
is in the back of the Black board. As there is no fan in the All-In-One
boards it has venting at the back, the volume hole on the top and the
Jamma edge connector area are all used to let heat out. And I assume
that the metal casing will work as a bit of a heat sink as well.
These
boards also differ from the normal CPS-2 setup in its Suicide battery
replacement. With the normal CPS-2 B-board you can just switch out the
battery with the game board all opened up and just on your work bench
away from your Cabinet or Supergun. The Black All-In-One's need to have
power to them while you change the battery otherwise they will suicide
on the spot apparently. So you need to have the game connected and
running (I guess so you can see that its still working when you
disconnect the battery) the whole time, being extra careful that you
don't short anything as you do it. A rather scary process I would think.
Thankfully this game has had its battery changed last year so it has a
good bit of time left on it.
Also I've had to have my Vampire Hunter CPS2 board phoenixed recently and the guy who did it for me said that he could more than likely bring the black board back to life too if I mess it up. And he's local! Brilliant! :-P
As well as the board itself being a little bit of an oddity in the CPS2 world as the plastic A+B setups are more readily available the game itself is brilliant!
It has one heck of a character roster! A good selection of the greatest Capcom characters VS most of your favourites from the Marvel world! With the great art style of Children of the Atom and the other VS's series. The Sprites are massive and so well drawn. Its really a work of art!
Here are some images to show the first stage of the final boss,
Onslaught. If you thought that The Hulk, Zangief and Venom were massive
then check him out!!!!
The first few photos are from me testing out the game on a CRT TV hence the slight doming to the photos. The final three photos showing Onslaught are from my little Flatpanel LCD TV I use my Supergun on.
I can't really think of anything else to write about the game. I'll try to get a little video tour of it recorded and put on my Youtube channel and linked here.
I thought I'd make a post on something that had been playing on my mind for a couple of months. And the thing that had me thinking and questioning was "why does no-body overclock the model 2??". Sure I've seen the Screen Savers video on youtube where they describe how to do it by pinching the clock speeds from the cartridge slot. But I was never convinced with this way of doing it and the guy in the video doesn't get it to work that way. And the way they show the overclock is on his model 1, which is what you find all the overclock info on. Overclocking the model 1.
Well, the way described in the video involves using quite long wires to do the overclock which from my understanding would cause problems because of the length of them. In the model 1 overclock video I've followed Damomonster explains that wires longer than 3 inches will cause problems with the overclock.
Last week I managed to find a very rare video on youtube of someone claiming to have overclocked their Genesis 2, and the way they did it was the same way I'd overclocked the model 1. Using a 10mhz crystal on some vero board mounted on top of the processor. But since then they have taken the video down, so now there are none. Except mine now I think :-P
I've been thinking that if you know which pin to lift on the model 2 processor then in theory you can do the overclock the same way as the model 1. You'd just have to know where to tap your +5v from and where a nice close point would be to get Ground.
Well its pin 15 that you want to lift on the processor, just like on the model 1. The processor is the same as the model 1 but in a smaller form factor. Now we know which leg to use we can begin ;-P
Right, I think I'll write this point for point.
THE GUIDE :
(1) -- first thing to do is to make the 10mhz overclock 'package' described in Damomonster's great step-by-step guide :
A thing to remember is keep your wires nice and long to begin with so you can trim them down to size when you come to mount it and hook it up to the processor.
(2) -- now you've got the 'overclock package' made and insulated up with electrical tape and some nice long trim-able wires we can go to the Mega Drive 2 (Genesis 2). Open the sucker up by removing the 4 screws underneath, then remove the inner metal shielding. For me I find it easier to take the whole motherboard out of the case so you can rotate and investigate it easier.
(3) -- Now the board is out of the case you need to find the processor, which is the square chip in the back right hand side of the board behind the cartridge slot.
The next step is to find Pin 15. I've marked this on the photo in pencil. Sega have been nice to us and have numbered the pins on each corner of the chip. You can see Pin 10 on the bottom left of the chip, so we count across to the right and find Pin 15.
(4) -- The next step is to get the soldering iron out and get it warmed up. I don't know how much heat the legs can take on the processor as they are very small and fiddly to get to so I would recommend a lowish wattage soldering iron with a thin tip on it just in case. I used a 15w Antex for doing this with a small wedge shaped tip. A pencil shaped tip would be even better I think.
(5) -- Now the soldering iron is warmed up and we have Pin 15's location we need to warm the pin. I did this by pressing onto the side of the chip and the soldering pad area and got a thin Pick tool behind the leg. You need to be very careful here as the legs are deceiving! They aren't sticking out from the chip, thats the soldering pad that gives it that look. The leg is actually wrapped back and under the chip to raise it from the PCB. To give some ventilation I assume.
While heating the leg gently wiggle and bend it outwards. Remember, take your time so you don't pull the solder pad up at the same time!
You should end up with the chip looking like this :
You can see Pin 15 now lifted free from the board and the solder pad is still underneath.
(6) -- Well done!! That's the scariest part done! The next steps are delicate still but that was the hardest bit.
Now we need to cut 2 wires, strip the ends and tin them. The wires want to be just long enough to reach the back of the case.
This is the most direct and shortest route for the wires to go. We need to keep the wires as short as possible but still able to reach our Double Pole / Double Throw switch so that we can still switch between the stock speed of 7.6mhz and 10mhz. This way we can still use the Mega CD and 32x because we can revert back to stock speeds.
(7) -- Now we carefully solder 1 wire to the solder pad under Pin 15. Be very careful not to tug this wire too much or too hard. You could still pull the solder point up and that would be a pain.
(8) -- Next we solder the other wire to the leg of Pin 15. Add a little solder to the leg first so that all you need to do is gently press the wire against the leg using your soldering iron to get them to melt together.
(9) -- Now we are at a stage where we can follow the rest of Damomonster's overclocking video BUT FIRST we need to know where to tap the +5v and the Ground from as these are going to be different to the ones in the video as that is a Model 1.
In the above photo you can see 3 capacitors. There are 2 to the side of the processor, 1 to the left and 1 to the right. These 2 are the ones we will use to get our +5v and Ground from. They are really close which keeps our wires short and very convenient.
Again Sega have made it easy for use because they have marked the + side of the capacitor so we know which side to get +5V from (the + side) and the none marked side is Ground.
Here is the second part of Damo's overclock video to follow :
The main thing to follow from this video is the Double Pole / Double Throw (DP/DT) switch set up and the LED wiring.
(10) -- Now you've followed his video you should end up with a switch looking like this :
In this photo its the overclock wiring you can see on the top. Blue = 10Mhz, Orange = Pin 15 and Green = 7.6Mhz Stock speed. The row of pins below are Orange = Red LED colour, White / Blue = +5v from the Overclock package, White / Orange = Green LED colour.
(11) -- In the photos you can see that I've just electrical taped everything in place to test it out. You should now have something that looks like this :
(Ignore the mass of wires on the left, that is from my A/V port retro-fit)
Now we can go and test that the overclock works. :-D
Below is a video of my Mega Drive 2 showing the overclock mod and it working on Sonic 2. It was tough to film as I used my phone and I couldn't mount the phone so you can see me playing Sonic 2 (which might be a good thing haha) and excuse the sniffing and coughing as I have a cold ;-)
(12) -- Now you've tested its worked you can squeeze some hot glue over the Pin 15 area. This will make sure that the wires will not get tugged and pull the leg off the processor or pull the soldering pad up. You do this stage once you've tested it as this is a perminant step. Also squeeze some hot glue onto the top of the processor and stick the overclock package on-top. this will stop it ever moving around.
AND WE'RE DONE! :-D Your Sega Mega Drive 2 / Genesis 2 is now overclocked! You can enjoy Sonic 2 in all its none slow down glory as well as a whole host of games that push the stock clock speed a bit too much passed its limit of 7Mhz.
So there you go. I haven't been able to find any real guides on how to do this to a Mega Drive 2 especially one with photos and video of it working. So I decided to make one if this mod worked out, which it did, so I did. :-)
I hope you get it to work out if you give it a try. Just take your time lifting that leg up and you'll be fine. If you have any problems leave me a comment and I'll try to help you out.
