The rgb / s-video / stereo sound famicom

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Drakon
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The rgb / s-video / stereo sound famicom

Post by Drakon »

This's still a work in progress:

Image

Image

What's done so far: true rgb, s-video, both look crystal clear (no jailbars or video interference at all).

what I learned from working on this:

You can completely remove the rf box and run the system using just the regulator and power jack, I also soldered in the original fuse just to be on the safe side.

Relocating the rgb kit to the back and having the rgb signals travel to the back adds a lot of interference to the image (jailbars and such), which means I'm going to have to wire up all 40 ppu connetions by ide cable (shouldn't be a problem) so I can fit the kit in the back.

The case of the original famicom is freaken tiny, making things fit inside of it is a nightmare.

It seems that jailbars are mostly curable by having the rgb from the ppu go directly into a video encoder at extremely close range. Even adding a couple of inches of length between the kit and the ppu adds jailbars so distance is very important.

What's left to do: A lot of things, you'll see as it comes along, I still havn't wired up the upgraded audio circuit but that shouldn't be an issue.

When desoldering the ppu and installing the precision socket some random trace broke (it wasn't a ppu trace). The trace physically looked fine so it took me forever to fix this issue. That and being too busy with life.
http://16bitgamer.forumotion.ca/

Older games are better
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xan_racketBOY_fan
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Re: The rgb / s-video / stereo sound famicom

Post by xan_racketBOY_fan »

Looks great - how difficult of a mod is this? I love the famicom but I'm afraid I may end up frying it :P
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AppleQueso

Re: The rgb / s-video / stereo sound famicom

Post by AppleQueso »

Really wish there was an RGB mod out there for the famicom/nes that didn't mess the colors up.
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Ziggy
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Re: The rgb / s-video / stereo sound famicom

Post by Ziggy »

I really wish some one would create a PPU that could be used for this so we don't have to buy a Play Choice board to rip the PPU out of.
AppleQueso

Re: The rgb / s-video / stereo sound famicom

Post by AppleQueso »

Ziggy587 wrote:I really wish some one would create a PPU that could be used for this so we don't have to buy a Play Choice board to rip the PPU out of.
This too. Even if I were cool with the color shift, I don't think I would be comfortable gutting a PC-10.

I know that the retrousb guy is working on a crazy device to get HDMI out of the NES. It's basically a board that works by watching the data lines of the PPU itself. Picture a thousand times better than composite, no gutting a Playchoice required. Too bad that things not too useful to me since I don't plan on using my NES on an HDTV, but it shows that something is possible.
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Re: The rgb / s-video / stereo sound famicom

Post by fastbilly1 »

AppleQueso, do you have a link to that NES HDMI device? I know its not out yet, but that is super interesting to me, since I dont want to hack up my VS boards for RGB.
AppleQueso

Re: The rgb / s-video / stereo sound famicom

Post by AppleQueso »

fastbilly1 wrote:AppleQueso, do you have a link to that NES HDMI device? I know its not out yet, but that is super interesting to me, since I dont want to hack up my VS boards for RGB.
http://www.nintendoage.com/forum/messag ... adid=92557

There's the thread where I read about it, not sure when it's coming out... Unfortunately it's apparently only designed to fit in the toploader, but i'm sure there's ways around that...
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Ziggy
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Re: The rgb / s-video / stereo sound famicom

Post by Ziggy »

AppleQueso wrote:I know that the retrousb guy is working on a crazy device to get HDMI out of the NES. It's basically a board that works by watching the data lines of the PPU itself. Picture a thousand times better than composite, no gutting a Playchoice required. Too bad that things not too useful to me since I don't plan on using my NES on an HDTV, but it shows that something is possible.
Same, HDMI wouldn't be useful to me. Aside from a little VC on the Wii, all my NES gaming is done on my CRT. But if some crazy device IS possible, then I don't know why he's limiting it to HDMI. Does the majority of the retro gaming world really wanna play their NES on an HDTV? You can't play Duck Hunt on anything but a CRT. Unless he's also working on that. :lol:

Not that I'd be happy to take the PPU from a Playchoice board, but being that they aren't cheap and it apparently messes up some colors pretty bad, it's not worth it to me. That being said, if the PPU from a Playchoice board is compatible in an NES, then is the reverse true? Can you put the NES PPU in the Playchoice board? I know you'd be limiting it to composite video, but that's better than leaving it in a non-functioning state.
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Drakon
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Re: The rgb / s-video / stereo sound famicom

Post by Drakon »

AppleQueso wrote:This too. Even if I were cool with the color shift, I don't think I would be comfortable gutting a PC-10.

I know that the retrousb guy is working on a crazy device to get HDMI out of the NES. It's basically a board that works by watching the data lines of the PPU itself. Picture a thousand times better than composite, no gutting a Playchoice required. Too bad that things not too useful to me since I don't plan on using my NES on an HDTV, but it shows that something is possible.
http://forums.nesdev.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=9561

That should help you gents.

If it makes you guys feel better most of my rgb ppus came from playchoices that were basically trashed (missing parts and probably would have shorted if I fired them up). I call what I do "repurposing". I had to fix up some of my ppus too they came with bent pins, dents on the top, dead spiders underneath, surprisingly they all worked.
xan_racketBOY_fan wrote:Looks great - how difficult of a mod is this? I love the famicom but I'm afraid I may end up frying it :P
Extremely difficult in a famicom. I had to rewire half the board to get this to work right. This's a lot easier on the av famicom but even on that I wouldn't call it easy at all.

I externalized all the extra ports and such on my famicom since there's no space under the hood to fit anything really. The hardware is completely done. All that's let now is to build the external jacks into a project box so they look nicer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdB36egh ... e=youtu.be
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AppleQueso

Re: The rgb / s-video / stereo sound famicom

Post by AppleQueso »

Drakon wrote: If it makes you guys feel better most of my rgb ppus came from playchoices that were basically trashed (missing parts and probably would have shorted if I fired them up). I call what I do "repurposing". I had to fix up some of my ppus too they came with bent pins, dents on the top, dead spiders underneath, surprisingly they all worked.
Ah, well hopefully you held onto the boards themselves and everything. If there's ever a reliable and cheap way down the line to rgb mod an NES without needed that PPU, might be an interesting project to fix up those playchoice-10s.
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