42 replies to this topic

[jsoper]

Sorry to start yet another cart mod thread, but thought this was deserving (and I rarely start threads anyway).  Full details here:
  FB Cart Info
The quick version is that my FB2 has a cart slot that automatically disables the game rom, no switch needed.  About 3/4 of carts are working, I think the problem is long wires and/or a 4.2v VCC in my system.
Was thinking about making these to ebay but it's just so much work, hours of soldering, cutting, debugging, assembling.  So it's free to rip off, just don't brag to much.
Hey Curt am I the first consumer to do a cart mod?  Any prize?  Pretty please....

Edited by jsoper, Fri Aug 12, 2005 12:28 PM.

[keilbaca]

Is that seriously an adapter for the GB SP to get composite audio/video on it?

That's awesome, where can I get one?

And congrats jsoper I'm waiting for a sound corrected FB2 to mod.

Edited by keilbaca, Fri Aug 12, 2005 12:32 PM.

[jsoper]

keilbaca, on Fri Aug 12, 2005 6:32 PM, said:

Is that seriously an adapter for the GB SP to get composite audio/video on it?

That's awesome, where can I get one?

Thanks Keilbaca.  The device is called a "GBA AV converter", there's plenty on ebay.  I was impressed with the video at first and planned to make a tiny 2600 portable with it and a FB2 board with GBA buttons controlling it.  But the other night I found it drops every other video frame or something.  You get Asteroids with invisible asteroids and things like that.  
No GBA speaker either, the sound loops back around to the headphone jack.  It's good for quick lab setups though.

[Curt Vendel]

You know what dude, PM me - I think you definitely deserve something for being the first!      I will also like to link your first mod/hack onto my webpage and maybe make a section for people to show off their work.

Curt

jsoper, on Fri Aug 12, 2005 1:14 PM, said:

Sorry to start yet another cart mod thread, but thought this was deserving (and I rarely start threads anyway).  Full details here:
  FB Cart Info
The quick version is that my FB2 has a cart slot that automatically disables the game rom, no switch needed.  About 3/4 of carts are working, I think the problem is long wires and/or a 4.2v VCC in my system.
Was thinking about making these to ebay but it's just so much work, hours of soldering, cutting, debugging, assembling.  So it's free to rip off, just don't brag to much.
Hey Curt am I the first consumer to do a cart mod?  Any prize?  Pretty please....

[keilbaca]

Curt Vendel, on Fri Aug 12, 2005 2:30 PM, said:

You know what dude, PM me - I think you definitely deserve something for being the first!      I will also like to link your first mod/hack onto my webpage and maybe make a section for people to show off their work.

Curt

jsoper, on Fri Aug 12, 2005 1:14 PM, said:

Sorry to start yet another cart mod thread, but thought this was deserving (and I rarely start threads anyway).  Full details here:
  FB Cart Info
The quick version is that my FB2 has a cart slot that automatically disables the game rom, no switch needed.  About 3/4 of carts are working, I think the problem is long wires and/or a 4.2v VCC in my system.
Was thinking about making these to ebay but it's just so much work, hours of soldering, cutting, debugging, assembling.  So it's free to rip off, just don't brag to much.
Hey Curt am I the first consumer to do a cart mod?  Any prize?  Pretty please....

Give him a demo 10 game unit

He certainly deserves it. That's one hell of a good job.

Edited by keilbaca, Fri Aug 12, 2005 1:39 PM.

[Curt Vendel]

You sneak, inventive bastard!   What a neat idea, a trans-gate chip!    Here I was thinking you might go with a pair of leave switches or something....     Nice work :-)

Saw your comments about the difficulties... looking back in hindsight now... I wish we'd done slide switches.... just means FB3 will have to be even better...

:-)



Curt

[keilbaca]

Curt Vendel, on Fri Aug 12, 2005 2:42 PM, said:

You sneak, inventive bastard!   What a neat idea, a trans-gate chip!    Here I was thinking you might go with a pair of leave switches or something....     Nice work :-)

Saw your comments about the difficulties... looking back in hindsight now... I wish we'd done slide switches.... just means FB3 will have to be even better...

:-)



Curt

Nothing like a little soldering, some cutting and two old switches can't fix

[ZylonBane]

Curt Vendel, on Fri Aug 12, 2005 2:42 PM, said:

Saw your comments about the difficulties... looking back in hindsight now... I wish we'd done slide switches.... just means FB3 will have to be even better...

Something I'd like to see in any future Flashback is the ablity to navigate the menus using the console buttons. It really feels like a missing feature, since you have to set the joystick aside and double-click the power button to access the menus in the first place.

[keilbaca]

ZylonBane, on Fri Aug 12, 2005 4:28 PM, said:

Curt Vendel, on Fri Aug 12, 2005 2:42 PM, said:

Saw your comments about the difficulties... looking back in hindsight now... I wish we'd done slide switches.... just means FB3 will have to be even better...

Something I'd like to see in any future Flashback is the ablity to navigate the menus using the console buttons. It really feels like a missing feature, since you have to set the joystick aside and double-click the power button to access the menus in the first place.

WTF are you retarded? That's the 2nd post today that made you look like an ass.

The joystick control is fine. Just make a quick reset button for the menu, so you don't have to power off and on. But leave it that you can control the menus with the joystick.

EDIT: Duh... I can make it myself. Add that to the mod count when I get a non-errored FB2

Edited by keilbaca, Fri Aug 12, 2005 4:11 PM.

[Lord Thag]

Very nice mod!

The possibilities for a portable setup are tantalizing. I definately think we're hitting the 'second golden age' of Atari with all the great products and homebrews coming out. I'm going to wait for a sound fixed version before I mod mine. I'm keeping the screwed up version on the off chance that some bozo ten years from now thinks it's collectible. Ya never know....

[keilbaca]

Lord Thag, on Fri Aug 12, 2005 5:30 PM, said:

Very nice mod!

The possibilities for a portable setup are tantalizing. I definately think we're hitting the 'second golden age' of Atari with all the great products and homebrews coming out. I'm going to wait for a sound fixed version before I mod mine. I'm keeping the screwed up version on the off chance that some bozo ten years from now thinks it's collectible. Ya never know....

Same. Also, I'd like to hear, Quadrun, Quadrun, Quadrun

Hey Jsoper. Do you have a real quadrun to say... try out and see if its really disappeared for good? or maybe a krokodile cart?

[jsoper]

keilbaca, on Fri Aug 12, 2005 10:32 PM, said:

Hey Jsoper. Do you have a real quadrun to say... try out and see if its really disappeared for good? or maybe a krokodile cart?

I got it on my multicart.  Finding the printout of the dipswitch settings is the hard part

[kevin242]

that mod sure looks cool!   Nice job.

[kevin242]

jsoper, on Fri Aug 12, 2005 1:45 PM, said:

keilbaca, on Fri Aug 12, 2005 6:32 PM, said:

Is that seriously an adapter for the GB SP to get composite audio/video on it?

That's awesome, where can I get one?

Thanks Keilbaca.  The device is called a "GBA AV converter", there's plenty on ebay.  I was impressed with the video at first and planned to make a tiny 2600 portable with it and a FB2 board with GBA buttons controlling it.  But the other night I found it drops every other video frame or something.  You get Asteroids with invisible asteroids and things like that.  
No GBA speaker either, the sound loops back around to the headphone jack.  It's good for quick lab setups though.

Do you happen to know if the GBA AV converter will work with the Nintendo DS?  I
would love to get one if it does.






thanks
Kevin

[supercat]

I know many carts short pins 12 and 24, but one is 'called' ground and the other is called something like 'shield ground'.  Is it possible that some carts connect one to a metal shield but not the other (for EMI reduction, that would generally FWIU be a good idea).

[Shaggy the Atarian]

Now we just need an A/V mod for the Lynx.  

That is a very cool hack. I just wish I could get a FB2 to play in the first place, much less have a few to hack.

[Songbird]

Shaggy the Atarian, on Fri Aug 12, 2005 8:07 PM, said:

Now we just need an A/V mod for the Lynx. 

I agree, if you mean a mod to allow the Lynx to be output to a TV screen. I was really disappointed Wizztronics never finished their design...

[keilbaca]

jsoper mentioned before that the power switch ran off of the 5v power inverter. Here's a question for you, and why can't this work? Move it from the 5v pin of the inverter to the 9v pin. That way, you can do a battery hack to it, using say... a 9 volt, and it won't drain the power from it because the inverter is cut off.

[Jacob Rose]

Very cool hack! I haven't used a 4016 or 4066 before, but it looks like I will soon!

[Jacob Rose]

ZylonBane, on Fri Aug 12, 2005 4:28 PM, said:

Something I'd like to see in any future Flashback is the ablity to navigate the menus using the console buttons. It really feels like a missing feature, since you have to set the joystick aside and double-click the power button to access the menus in the first place.

I can see where you're coming from with this; after all, most games for the 2600 use the select lever, and not the joystick, to choose which game to play. A console-mounted game select button isn't a feature of any modern machine I'm aware of, so it's part of the nostalgia. I'm just not sure anyone would have the patience to select through all the games like we did back then - remember going through all the variations (a hundred and twelve!) on the Space Invaders cartridge?

[jsoper]

keilbaca, on Fri Aug 12, 2005 10:32 PM, said:

Hey Jsoper. Do you have a real quadrun to say... try out and see if its really disappeared for good? or maybe a krokodile cart?

Tried it on an eprom multicart, no voice.  Also noticed that the Galaxian .bin has the same problem as the official cart: screwed up with an extra column of bad guys.  This makes me think my problems are long wires and not the 4.2v VCC.  Time to shorten things up.

[jsoper]

kevin242, on Fri Aug 12, 2005 11:29 PM, said:

Do you happen to know if the GBA AV converter will work with the Nintendo DS?  I
would love to get one if it does.
thanks
Kevin

It should, it has the notch so it's a 3.3v cart not 5v like some older gameboy stuff (which DS does not support).  Try it and see.  If doesn't work, re-ebay it.

[jsoper]

supercat, on Fri Aug 12, 2005 11:33 PM, said:

I know many carts short pins 12 and 24, but one is 'called' ground and the other is called something like 'shield ground'.  Is it possible that some carts connect one to a metal shield but not the other (for EMI reduction, that would generally FWIU be a good idea).

Kevin Horton wrote that every cart he had ever checked shorted them together.

[compacho]

Awesome Mod man. I just love it! Hope u get a nice goody bag from Curt.

[A.J. Franzman]

jsoper, on Sat Aug 13, 2005 11:31 AM, said:

noticed that the Galaxian .bin has the same problem as the official cart: screwed up with an extra column of bad guys.  This makes me think my problems are long wires and not the 4.2v VCC.  Time to shorten things up.

I wouldn't be so sure, they look plenty short to me. I think low voltage probably is the the problem. They probably used lower voltage as a compromise like you said, so they wouldn't have to level-shift. For 100% compatibility, you might need to use some sort of level-shifting buffer (several of CD4010 &/or CD4050?) between the cart port and board, and supply the port with true 5V power.