#hardware

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from the 2017/2018 one-a-day series
025 outtake / 365 . pickaxe spading fork wheelbarrow shovel . 25january2017
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#tbt #sculpture #foundobjects #balance #prop #pickaxe #spadingfork #wheelbarrow #shovel #hardware #garden #tools #blackandwhite #bnw #abstract #pnw #maplereach #tualatindrainage #oregon #oneaday
https://www.instagram.com/p/B7rdsZZFLbR/?igshid=580bxnakm8bw

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from the 2017/2018 one-a-day series
025 outtake / 365 . pickaxe spading fork wheelbarrow shovel . 25january2017
.
#tbt #sculpture #foundobjects #balance #prop #pickaxe #spadingfork #wheelbarrow #shovel #hardware #garden #tools #blackandwhite #bnw #abstract #pnw #maplereach #tualatindrainage #oregon #oneaday
https://www.instagram.com/p/B7rdsZZFLbR/?igshid=7p3ovgi0lwh1

Picked up this NOS Hyper Neo Geo 64 board recently, for no other reason really than… why not? It was cheap and someday I might throw it in a cabinet.

If you’re looking at the expensive NOS ones on eBay right now, know that those are likely coming from the same guy I got this one from for a lot less. Check the well known arcade Facebook groups instead.

I don’t know much about these really but I’m guessing it’s either a revision 1 Fighting board or the Korean board (based on photos I’ve seen and various threads I’ve read).

I’m not sure I’ll ever have any games for this thing so… to the arcade PCB storage bin you go for now

This will have to do for now. It seems the aftermarket “bubble” lenses that are similar to the originals are not easy to find these days.

Everyone wants the flat glass ones which are nice and better long term, I guess, but lack a big part of what made the Game Gear… Game Gear. In my opinion, anyway.

If anyone happens to know a source for those for a reasonable price these days, let me know. I picked one up from @console5dotcom several years ago for about $4.

I might try my hand at buffing out what I can from one of my originals for the next repair. In this case, the lens was already an old flat plastic aftermarket lens which was cracked so it’s fine as it is.

Regardless, it’s nice to have a working GG again with a killer screen

Comparison shots of three NGPC systems, each with a different screen configuration.

*Not shown: one with a worm light

Up first is an unmodified stock Pocket Color. Let’s be honest, playing that thing is near impossible, back then or now.

Next up is my first Pocket Color from back in the day with an Afterburner front light mod done by @jamma_nation_x probably sometime mid 2000s.

Last is the more recent full size IPS screen installed on one of the extra systems I had planned for a random pi project. I’m glad I decided to keep it as-was so it could land here

It’s not completely done, mind you. I had to borrow some parts from another unit to get it to this point so I’m still digging for those parts that go with this one. The shell also doesn’t sit quite flush so I need to work that out as well. Regardless… man, this is what I’ve been waiting literal decades for.

Still looking forward to what @bennvennelectronics might do in the Neo Pocket aftermarket screen game back when things are more normal again

Dug out an old NGPC that I bought for parts a few years ago (literally for the shell more than anything for a planned project I canceled) but ended up repairing it. Figured I’d use this one to install one of the full size LCD kits finally (something I’ve been waiting years for).

The shell is slightly yellowed as you can see from the first pic - top is the one in question, bottom is my original/main unit that still looks good as new.

Gave the front shell a peroxide bath with the help of @horde5150 yesterday and I have to say that the result is pretty amazing (pic 5 shows an after comparison with the back shell which is still yellowed).

Assuming I don’t ruin the shell with the mods to the case I need to do for the screen install (the translucent shell versions are brittle AF), I’ll do the back as well (after confirming how best to salvage the labels).

Exciting, though expensive, times for retro gaming, these.

Some progress on the Game Gear tonight. @bennvennelectronics LCD installed and seems to be working well. Now I just need to clean things up a bit and replace the lens and I think I can call this one done

Several years ago now I replaced the capacitors and backlight in the Game Gear I had as a kid. It still doesn’t work completely and I never dove in to figure out what other issues might be present.

At some point I picked up three dead Game Gears for next to nothing hoping that between them all perhaps I could get at least one working.

I’ve since picked up a new LCD from @bennvennelectronics and have been sitting on it for a while knowing I needed to do another cap kit on at least one of these things. And if you’ve ever attempted that, then you know that once is more than enough Well, I finally got around to that tonight.

One of the four would at least power on so I figured that was a good place to start. I swapped in a working audio board and just got done with the cap kit. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a working Game Gear.

Next up: the new LCD!

So sometime last year, I bought this interface because, hey, it’s relatively cheap right? And who cares that it comes without a case?

Well. I kinda did after getting it. Inserting it into a cartridge slot with a lid is incredibly annoying, because it’s difficult to align it to the actual cartridge port.

However, a little while ago, a friend gave me some hardware, and among it was a Philips NMS 1250 modem. Not very useful in these modern times, so it sat on the shelf for a while, and although I did try to convert it to an RS-232 interface at one point, the project wasn’t a very successful (or useful in my case).

I had considered putting the Maxiol into this case before, but never really fully attempted it because of how it would fit; I’d have to dremel out the screwholes and everything… but today, I just thought “screw it”, and went ahead.

Some rough measuring did make me find out I had to cut a slight hole for the PATA connector (which I’m not using, so I didn’t cut it out in full… yet), and a hole for the socketed chips (which are a bit too tall to fit otherwise).

A little while of dremeling later, and this is the result.

It’s not pretty, but it does work, and it’s a bit more protected. I might end up trying to make it look a bit tidier later on as well, but functionality was a bit more important at first ^^

Still to do: drilling 3 small holes to make the LED’s visible. Maybe even putting LEDs in the case itself so they’re properly visible, but I’m not too sure yet if I want to attempt soldering directly on the cart… I’d hate to break my only mass-storage device for MSX ^^

Went to the Nijmegen MSX Fair today! There was so much cool stuff to see and people to talk to! It was an absolutely amazing day, and definitely worth the super boring trip by train and bus ^^

A Wii drumkit was connected to a MSX Turbo-R (there were a *lot* more of these on show than I expected!) for playing a rhythm game, but I really sucked at it, and someone brought an MSX made out of lego. Not functional, as far as I know ^^

I also managed to buy a Gouda 1MB Memory Mapper for my MSX2, which means I’ll be settled for life, RAM wise… on MSX at least.

Of course there were plenty of games on show and sale, and although those aren’t my primary interest, some of them looked pretty cool. Seems like MSX scene definitely has a knack for publishing their games on shiny looking carts, with boxes, manuals, and all that jazz included. Fancy!

Also had a chat for a while with someone that interfaced a xylophone to his MSX! As far as I understand it works with relays that are triggered by software written in MSX-BASIC. It can go as fast as 64th notes at 255 BPM! (I of course had to ask how fast it could go ^^)

And of course, plenty of setups with port expanders filled to the brim with all the fancy toys an MSX user could wish for.

Surgery.

Clockwork GameShell Kit Yellow

Rama Works® U80-A SEQ2

TechTechPotato (Dr Ian Cutress): “Ian Interviews #20: Dr. James Chen, MediaTek Wi-Fi” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mthugtrHQpw

AMD Ryzen 7000 desktop series to offer over 15% single-thread uplift, launch this fall https://ift.tt/V5kXzoZ

AMD 6nm “Mendocino” Zen2 APU with RDNA2 graphics for mainstream laptops unveiled, will launch in Q4 - VideoCardz.com https://ift.tt/6jVznaH

LG Gram 14T90P convertible review: The Lenovo Yoga and HP Spectre challenger https://ift.tt/9ATOqVj

[LTT] The Desk Made of Radiators can cool ANYTHING https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6WDvzlmtSM