Arcade & Retro Repairs & Mods, all new recipe, with no added MSG...

The Last Bandit

Deleted User wrote: »

I got this sorted. Nothing else worked, so I ended up using white vinegar neat. I poured it straight onto a cloth, wrung it out to prevent drips, wiped it all over the grease and give it a good rub around, then left it for a few minutes, and wiped the whole lot off with a sudsy sponge with some fairly liquid.

It came up very well, like new in fact, and hasn't done any damage to the paintwork or plastic.

But the whole place smells like a chipper ? Glad to hear you got it sorted.

The Last Bandit

The Last Bandit wrote: »

But the whole place smells like a chipper ? Glad to hear you got it sorted.

Lol. That's what the fairy liquid was for. To get rid of the smell.

Myrddin

Quick and easy mod on the US Snes to allow PAL/SFC carts to fit - http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=81087626#post81087626

Steve X2

So I've been playing around with that iMac G3 I traded for the other day. It's of course very weak by today's standards but the little CRT on it looks really nice when running MAME.
I wonder if I mod it with a more modern PC or even a Raspberry Pi can I connect up to the CRT or have Apple hard wired it or used a weird connection for the iMac?

Anyone Know? I haven't opened up the case as of yet so I've no clue.

Here's a video of it playing Last Blade 2 on a very old version of MAME. A few dropped frames for sure but not bad for 400Mhz and 128MB RAM. You cant really see how nice it looks on the video with the flickering etc but the screen does look really well in person.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTrQyg-yEMM

Bonus pic:

Myrddin

I'd say your best bet is to pop the back cover off & take a look at how the video signals are delivered to the screen. It would make a pretty neat all in one solution if you could wire up a more modern spec'd pc inside it & still make use of the screen. iCab city :cool:

Steve X2

EnterNow wrote: »

I'd say your best bet is to pop the back cover off & take a look at how the video signals are delivered to the screen. It would make a pretty neat all in one solution if you could wire up a more modern spec'd pc inside it & still make use of the screen. iCab city :cool:

I've only opened the little flap at the back that you can stick more memory and a wireless card in so far.
I'll open it up in the next week or so and have a good look. MAME on the Raspberry Pi is coming along nicely so that's an option or maybe just some PC guts to do it proper.
A nice all in one iCab would be very nice indeed

Dale Parish

You would need to do a decent amount of case modding to get a PC motherboard in there as the motherboard in those things are horrendously shaped. Getting at the TV requires a bit of disassembly but actually it's not terribly bad inside so I don't think it would be difficult connecting something to it.

Myrddin

Sounds like you have a project on your hands Steve, I must admit, if you were able to get a decent enough {mame level} spec pc running in there using the screen, I'd be very tempted to get one for myself & do the same.

Steve X2

EnterNow wrote: »

Sounds like you have a project on your hands Steve, I must admit, if you were able to get a decent enough {mame level} spec pc running in there using the screen, I'd be very tempted to get one for myself & do the same.

Bit of quick research on Youtube and it looks like the monitor connects directly to the motherboard by some non standard (almost IDE cable looking) connection.
Looks like its easy enough to strip out all the guts leaving the monitor and PSU but that monitor connection might be an issue.

The Last Bandit

Is it a slot loader or drawer CD drive ? Slot loader has a custom cable which I can't find the pinout for yet but the drawer loader uses the old style mac 15 pin cable.

http://pinouts.ru/VideoCables/MacVideoToVGA_pinout.shtml

Steve X2

The Last Bandit wrote: »

Is it a slot loader or drawer CD drive ? Slot loader has a custom cable which I can't find the pinout for yet but the drawer loader uses the old style mac 15 pin cable.

http://pinouts.ru/VideoCables/MacVideoToVGA_pinout.shtml

Yeah, its the slightly newer slot loader type. It seems to have an RGB cable in there somewhere according to the teardown.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/103447/iMac-G3-Disassembly-Guide

The Last Bandit

This guy has a pin out for the video header here.
Now you're going in the opposite direction to his mod so not sure if you need to drive all the lines on this or will get away with just the RGB/Sync lines.

Steve X2

The Last Bandit wrote: »

This guy has a pin out for the video header here.
Now you're going in the opposite direction to his mod so not sure if you need to drive all the lines on this or will get away with just the RGB/Sync lines.

Cheers, I'll need to brush up on video connectors and wiring them etc before I have a go at it.

Dr Bob

Damn meant to post this but pop up shop near the dental hospital at top of nasdau st ( near the trinity gates) is selling sugru. Think its only open for a few more days though

Steve X2

That non working Astro Wars I picked up the other day for 99p is now working.
I'm glad I fixed it but I was looking forward to put a Raspberry Pi inside it so a little disappointed as well

Dale Parish

Does anyone know if this is colour? There's a red and green but not blue. Odd thing is it came out of a B&W game.

Steve X2

Might be an idea to make up a few of these.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f__C_wDMmSw

It's a single laptop style PSU which has been converted to power a Sega Mega Drive, 32x, Mega CD and Master System Mk1 simultaneously! It removes the need for 4 of those separate and stupidly bulky wall wart power adapters.

I bought the PSU really cheap on ebay for £10 delivered. It's rated at 9V 4.0A and is perfectly capable of running all the systems. I dug around in my parts bin to find some suitable power cords and soldered everything together. I gutted and used an old cigarette car adapter as the housing to cover the connections and keep everything secure.

Myrddin

Excellent idea.

Steve X2

EnterNow wrote: »

Excellent idea.

I'd say you'd be able to make a few quid doing these.
Perhaps have the cables that actually plug in to the consoles a bit longer than he does, a good bit longer.
Off ya go EnterNow, I'll take at least one

Myrddin

Steve SI wrote: »

Off ya go EnterNow, I'll take at least one

I actually might do it at some stage, after my current project

The Last Bandit

EnterNow wrote: »

I actually might do it at some stage, after my current project

'project' - only one ? You should be ashamed of yourself.

You need at least 3 on the go at the same time to make sure nothing ever gets finished !!

You should definitely throw some of those PSU adapters together, using a modern switched mode supply you'll also be saving on electricity, saving the polar bears etc etc..

Myrddin

The Last Bandit wrote: »

'project' - only one ? You should be ashamed of yourself.

Yeah the other two are a son & a girlfriend Doesn't leave much room for anything else

As for the Polar Bears, I don't think there's any hope when you consider worldwide industrial/manufacturing levels of pollution...this 'green' buzz is but an illusion

Myrddin

My new 72pin connector arrived this morning from Rewind Bits, happy times

Here's an NES i prepared earlier



The new connector



Top off



The shielding removed



Cart holder unit removed



Motherboard lifted & 72pin connector slid off





Cleaned connectors of the console



New connector pushed into place



Oxidation of top row of connectors, they've changed colour compared to bottom



Hassle free gaming!

Dr Bob

Aldi are doing Soldering Irons(tenner) and helping hands (4) again from thursday
http://www.aldi.ie/ie/html/offers/special_buys3_24122.htm
http://www.aldi.ie/ie/html/offers/special_buys3_24123.htm

The Last Bandit

Those 'helping hands' are excellent !! Just add a bit of double-sided tape underneath.

The irons though, might be ok for making up cables and heavy stuff like that but too hot and bulky for any fine electronics work. I doubt you can get a 0.5mm tip for them either

Myrddin

Those of you who have fit replacement 72pin connectors before, do you find the cart is quite hard to get seated with the new one? Its like the pin tension is very high & the carts are very tight fitting now...

Steve X2

EnterNow wrote: »

Those of you who have fit replacement 72pin connectors before, do you find the cart is quite hard to get seated with the new one? Its like the pin tension is very high & the carts are very tight fitting now...

Sometimes yeah. Not every time so it must be down to the individual 72 pin connectors I think.

Myrddin

Steve SI wrote: »

Sometimes yeah. Not every time so it must be down to the individual 72 pin connectors I think.

I wonder are they refurbed or something? The one I got requires quite a bit of pressure to get the carts to fit right. I wonder if I should leave a cart in it for a day or two to 'stretch' it to size

Steve X2

EnterNow wrote: »

I wonder are they refurbed or something? The one I got requires quite a bit of pressure to get the carts to fit right. I wonder if I should leave a cart in it for a day or two to 'stretch' it to size

It'll loosen up over time anyway. But I suppose you could leave a cart in it for a while.
I don't use my NES much any more and more or less stick to the Famicom with an adapter to play NES games on.

Steve X2

Well, after a little bit of soldering and cleaning of the internals I now have that faulty Astro Wars back together and working fine.
It's been in pieces on my workbench for the last week and a bit but I decided that it needed to be put back together tonight(gotta stop putting stuff off ).

Anyway, I'll do up some sort of tutorial and stick it over on retrovia at some stage as I have a feeling most "non working" Astro Wars you see online can be fixed the same way I did it. It's dead easy and only requires the most basic of soldering skills and you're done. I took all the parts out and cleaned them (including the various layers of transparent plastic) but that bit is entirely optional.
So for .99p and some cheap(ish) postage(would of been free if I'd used Parcel Motel) I have a nice working Astro Wars (it's actually up for trade at the moment).

So if you see a non working one knocking around ebay or elsewhere grab it as it might just be a 2 min fix to get it up and running.

Double the fun
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