Bacteria's project: "Project Unity"

[bacteria]

Short and sweet update.

Although I had a 6 button MegaDrive controller, decided to use my 3 button one, as i'm not into fighting games, and some games need you to press "mode" so they work properly in 3 button mode (as per original controllers), so makes sense for me just to use an official SEGA 3 button controller. The controller I used was one I got ages ago at a car boot sale for next to nothing, as the controller cable was severed. Fortunately, I had a couple of similar controllers myself, so worked out the controller pins and used the controller without a cable to wire it up. Works fine, just connected it up and tested it in the Unity system.

MegaDrive system is therefore completed. 60hz mod works great BTW.

Next jobs are slightly different - the cart slot for the ColecoVision is very tight, and needs a lot of pressure to insert and even remove a game cart, so i'm going to see if can use an alternative cart slot to replace the existing one, and make it work far better. Also, going to rig up two GameCube power supplies together in parallel, to get 12v at about 8.5 amps. My Unity system works fine for all systems but I think the GameCube "just works ok", and with the GBA Player attached, it doesn't quite have enough amperage to run it (as mentioned in an older post), so going to see if replacing the existing 6 amp supply with an 8.5 amp one will resolve the issue.

After that, going to make the last shelf for the cart slots (the last systems) and get to complete the Atari 7800 I was working on before. The SMS system will be quite easy to work with, and the GX4000 too will be quite straightforward, the TurboGrafx less so, but i've worked with them before so all will be fine.

[bacteria]

Decided to mod the GameCube transformers.

Made an error in last post - a GameCube transformer outputs 3.25 amps; so two will give 6.5 amps in parallel. My existing one outputs 6 amps (or so it says anyway, being a Chinese transformer it might not).



Inside - was careful as touching the capacitor connections, etc might result in a shock.



Wired up two in parallel, so use one mains plug input, and one 12v DC output plug



Closed up



I'll test this unit on the Unity system gingerly, as I don't want anything to go wrong, these modded transformers are outputting 12v so should be fine...

[bacteria]

Here's the pics.

Inserted a piece of plastic rod in both ends of the replacement cart slot, so the game cart will insert against the correct pins. Pic doesn't show properly, but the traces on the game cart line up perfectly with the replacement cart port.



Mounted the cart port with wood pieces, superglued to the edge of the cart slot as the Colecovision cartridge only uses a board 1/2 the width of the cartridge. Had to cut a groove in both ends of the cart slot as there is are pieces in the Colecovision cart that stick out and would get in the way otherwise.



That then allowed me to attach an extra piece, and screw the wood together, so the unit can be disassembled easily if needed. Rewired the cart slot, wire by wire, so as not to make any mistakes. Had to extend some of the wires by 1 cm as the wires were slightly too short to fit in the unit otherwise.

[bacteria]

New Colecovision game port worked first time, and is reliable.

Tested the double GameCube power supply on the Unity system, firstly on MegaDrive, which worked fine, and then the GameCube; before the boot-up screen didn't always show quite right (slightly snowy on occasions), fine now, no issues, which is positive; however the GBA Player is still booting to a black screen. Only thing I can think of is I used long, shielded cable for each of the GBA port pins, as the cables needed to be fairly long, that might be the issue.

I have two choices to get the GBA working, one is to have an optional switch just for the GBA, to add an extra ground wire directly to the system, although i'll have to remember to switch it off after use; or use the last slot on the system for GBA and TV Converter unit, instead of plug'n'play (which is no issue frankly, so i'll do that). Just means i'll have a separate GameCube system to the GBA system.

Wasn't a wasted time though making a dual GameCube transformer, it is better than the transformer I used before, and also is "retro".

[bacteria]

Installed the last shelf, secured by 3 screws onto the previous layer, the black plastic screwed to the edge is to keep the distance between the layers right. The slider unit will only have about 2mm clearance, which is fine, and shows my original calculations were pretty bang on - if not, i'd be in trouble at this point!



Just placed the final 3 carts on the shelf for illustration. The GBA and TurboGrafx carts are small, and will have to be placed elsewhere.

[bacteria]

The SMS console i'm using is one I got from a car boot sale a year or two ago, untested, but in good condition. As the SMS only takes RF input as standard, although it's easy to RGB mod it of course, I decided to fully mod the board without testing it until all's done and connected, may as well!

Removed the game port (was a pain to remove), relocated the old SMS cart slot from my old fried board, wired up power, insulated the back of the board with card as it will sit on the Atari board when done, wired up the RGB cable and to the audio point, removed the game controller ports and wired a cable to player 1 port; also cut and broke off two of the grounding strips so the board rests nicely on the space on the Atari board allocated for it.

About 3.5 hours work today to that point, going to have some lunch now, then wire the A/V and controller cables and also power to the Unity system, and test the SMS console for the first time.

[AppleQueso]

Any reason you're just flat out sticking a SMS in there as opposed to just hacking a power base converter?

[bacteria]

I have a MegaDrive 1 Base Converter to play SMS games, however what I read a while back is they don't play as well as using a proper SMS; there is basically a blob chip in the unit that makes it work, and it doesn't handle all SMS games as well as should do.

That's the reason.

The SMS board isn't large, and also means no converter cart is needed to make to allow an SMS cart to stick out even more to work on the MegaDrive.

[AppleQueso]

Only game I've ever heard of having issues with the Power Base Converter is F-16 Fighting Falcon, but maybe the PAL Mega Drive version of the converter is different?

The SMS board isn't large, and also means no converter cart is needed to make to allow an SMS cart to stick out even more to work on the MegaDrive.

I might be wrong, but doesn't the converter cart just ground a pin or two to switch the Genesis/Megadrive into "Mastery System mode"? I figured you could just wire up both the Genesis and SMS slots into the Genesis and maybe integrate a switch that will toggle the SMS mode... Wouldn't be surprised if I'm just mistaken though.

[Majors]

Any reason you're just flat out sticking a SMS in there

This moster does not use any shortcuts!

Bact -> I'm been following this beast build and enjoy all your updates. The wiring and hacking is scary to me, but so awesome at the same time.