J.Ivy

My IIE currently sits on my dining room table, for me to play with every few weeks. Beyond that.. well it mainly just gets looked at and i get questions about it when friends come over.

So I bought my IIE and it had a very garbled screen, when it was powered up. Well I just put in the enhancement chips and.. it hasnt changed anything. The computer still beeps, the light comes on, but the picture is beyond staticy. So, what is my next move on this? I am going to try and clean the connector pins for the chips, see if that does anything. Beyond that, ive no idea what to do. Any help would be appreciated. Oh and i use a 1982 12" b&w tv with this IIE, ive used it on numerous old computers, so i know it likes them.

Update. This thing was a turd. Cracked and crushed case with a yellow "glaze" from where a cat had been spraying it for years. I didnt want to touch it, let alone drag it home. I have to many projects that need loads of work, right here at home.

very nice, looks to be in good condition. you should be able to get it working in no time

From what ive been reading, that certainly can be it. Seems to be a very common flaw. Seems to be a tough fix, but doable. http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=40875

So a friend bought an amiga 2000, it has no video output. It beeps when turned on, but thats it. Its been sitting untouched for a few years and now hes offered to sell it to me. Well its a 2 hour drive there and 2 back, so i want some extra info on this. Any idea what the issue could be?

I stopped "modern gaming" in 2007, havent touched a modern console or new game since. So ive countless games i havent played, but i do want to try the Fallout games one day.

http://www.mainbyte.com/ti99/speedup/speedup.html So I found this article online, showing how to use dual crystals and a 2-way switch, to increase your ti speed up to 20%. I figured it would be a fun evening mod. So here it is. Here you can see where the crystal was removed (the black and orange wire) and wires attached. They run through the board to the simple circuit. The speed "standard" or "fast" are determined by the knife switch, which side its connected to. This speedup wont work with every program, so you will have to switch it back to standard for some.

Ive done something akin to this, building a streaming machine/retro game machine. I used a broken Commodore Vic-20 case, fixed it, added a new keyboard and installed a raspberry pi inside it. For 45 bucks you can buy the new raspberry pi, its a 1.2gb 64bit machine, easily able to play games on.

I have never played any, but I want too Like others have said, theyre no longer "porn", theyre just novelty now.

Sega Master System. I had one, it ended up crushed in a move...

The matrix of the Ti-99/4a and ZX-81 are different, so the keyboard has to be modified a bit. A few cut traces and a bit of rewiring. Here are the pictures that i found of a TI that has already been modded for use on a zx81. I actually havent modded my keyboard yet, i was about to and then had this video issue crop up...

Yes, im using the exact same tv that ive used with it in the past.

Well my video output is now being screwy, im not getting a consistent signal to the tv, just flashes of it on the screen. This board WAS working fine a few weeks back when i hooked it up to a 1982 quasar b&w tv set. Ive tried two different adapter cables as well as checked the power supply. Im at a loss, any ideas?

Yes, the crystal clear audio mod is a must for this My plan is to build a street fighter 2 arcade, with the arcade version of the cartridge in it. I think im capable of making my own arcade cabinet and doing the wiring, from the plans ive found online.

Very cool. Is modding the motherboard the only way that you can use this much ram?

I would love to own and use the ZX-pand and AY sound mod, I just dont have the money to buy either at this point. Hopefully i can one day in the future Though there is a cheap way to rig up a joystick for this. I can add a DB9 port in the back, then hard wire that directly into the keyboards matrix, for the left, right, up, down, fire. Giving me a simple way of having a joystick for this machine. As well as using the ZX-tape program for this. Loading and converting the game files to my pc, then onto an mp3 player. So i can then load games through the cassette port.

These were rather cheap and simple 8 bit computers, thus many experimenters modified them back when they were new. Adding wood cases, non membrane keyboards, floppy drives, a host of different things. heres the plans for the ZX-1541 mod, so that I can use a Commodore 1541 floppy drive as my hard drive. A whopping 96kb of memory! http://8bit.yarek.pl/interface/zx81.zx1541/index.html

So heres my current project. Not done yet, but starting to take shape. A sinclair zx-81 (also sold as a Timex TS1000). Its been put into a custom wood case, a TI-99/4A keyboard has been added, a modern power supply and has a 16k ram cartridge. I still need to rewire the keyboard, but im thank full that ive found a few pictures of them already modded online. As well as i need to finish up the power supply and switch. Im debating doing the zx-1541 mod to this. That is using a commodore 1541 floppy drive as an external hard drive for my sinclair. Who knows, it might be fun to store Pong and Pacman on a floppy HD

So here is the model 2 that ive had since new and the 32x that i picked up a bit later. The VA7 motherboard next to it works, its going to become the heart and soul of my DIY arcade

As long as you dont tear apart a working machine to build this, I see no issue with it. There are a lot of battered vintage computers out there that are good for parts only. Save the pieces that can be reused and then have fun with the shell. I had bought two broken and cracked Commodore Vic 20 computers, I was able to make one working machine from both of them. So after i got my stock Vic-20 working, I still had a cracked case left over (no keyboard). So I filled in the keyboard hole with plexiglass, glued up the cracks, bondoed it, painted it in rubber truck bed paint, then found a flexible rubber keyboard that fit it exactly. I mounted my Raspberry Pi 2 model B in it and have been having fun with it since November. Its no where near perfect, but it was a fun weekend project and it became a classy case for my Raspberry Pi. Its better than tossing out the two cracked shell halves

I wouldnt mind a Commodore 8050 dual disk drive. I dont need it, but id sure like it

Thanks for the help Jedi Ive ordered a DB9 cable and DB9 breakout box for this. Cant wait till they come in, so i can get to rewiring this baby.

This should be a fun little project. Ive read up on a few DIY arcade controllers. Shouldnt be all that tough Plus, im a pack rat, i hate tossing anything out and repurposing is a good way to avoid that.

So im bored, wanting to make an arcade style controller for my TI. I have an old (broken) NES advantage arcade controller hanging around. It went through a flood and never worked after that. Why not rewire it to work for my TI? I should be able to locate what pins do what on a TI controller, then use those to hook up to the Advantage. I dont THINK it should be too tough What do you all think?