Jump to content
IGNORED

Astrocade S-VIDEO boards UPDATED


128Kgames

Recommended Posts

Greetings Programs-


I have a limited number of the Astrocade S-VIDEO boards for sale, the price is $58.00 which includes domestic USPS Priority tracked shipping and insurance. I have recently sold these on the Yahoo Bally Alley group and am making the remaining ones available on AtariAge. These also work on the Bally Home Library Computer, Professional Arcade and Computer System.


I will test each board before I ship it however due to the nature of the Bally/Astrocade line these are final sale. If your console is not working to begin with, these boards are not going to change that. If your only issue is with the quality of the RF video, then this will greatly improve upon that in my opinion, with the added feature of RCA out for audio (MONO sound).


All the installation information needed is on the Bally Alley website, to the best of my memory there never was a formal install guide but the original 8bitDomain pictures will show you what you need to do:




You will find pictures of my internal mod on Bally Alley as well, I will include cable ties with each shipment if you plan on doing the internal mod which I originated, unfortunately I have run out of the cable tie mounts but they should be failry easy to pick up.


If you run into any issues with the install I will do my best to help, please keep in mind I work and attend school so I may not be able to get back to you right away.


I will ship these most likely within a week of receiving payment and will email you when and also the tracking information.


You can PM me via AtariAge and I will reply with payment information. If you live outside the United States please let me know and I will see what arrangements can be made. If you would like to purchase more than one board please let me know the # of boards you want and I will give you an updated price combining shipping (I’m using flat rate envelopes).


Thank you for your interest.


-Michael


S-Video%20Mod.jpg


S-VIDEO - The boards for sale have been slightly revised, the ground (open U) and adjustment screw (now plastic and Philips not slotted).

Edited by TMOSteel
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just installed this a few hours ago. I can recommend it!

Just a little counter-clockwise adjustment for better red (too far and it goes black & white).

Haven't tried the sound yet because I can't locate my headphone plug to RCA cables.

Maybe my Yurkie "Composite/L/R to headphone plug" will work for sound?

 

Pros:

No soldering!

Easily reversible.

No display interference.

Easier to connect to modern displays (with upscaler, or maybe S-Video to composite)

It has a green LED. (Okay, you'll never see it, but maybe route the glow out somewhere with a plastic fiber?)

 

Cons:

Need a short screw and nut for the ground (or use one of the two supposed to be used for the S-Video port.)

(subjective) Color, brightness, saturation, tint and chroma bleed are different than RF.

Board says (stereo). I wonder if the console has any separate channels in the first place, or what was the designer thinking?

Edited by iesposta
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just installed this a few hours ago. I can recommend it!

Just a little counter-clockwise adjustment for better red (too far and it goes black & white).

Haven't tried the sound yet because I can't locate my headphone plug to RCA cables.

Maybe my Yurkie "Composite/L/R to headphone plug" will work for sound?

 

Pros:

No soldering!

Easily reversible.

No display interference.

Easier to connect to modern displays (with upscaler, or maybe S-Video to composite)

It has a green LED. (Okay, you'll never see it, but maybe route the glow out somewhere with a plastic fiber?)

 

Cons:

(subjective) Color, brightness, saturation, tint and chroma bleed are different than RF.

Board says (stereo). I wonder if the console has any separate channels in the first place, or what was the designer thinking?

 

Funny you mentioned the green LED, I had completely forgotten that the board had one until I opened up my Astrocade when I was testing these board for shipment. I thought the exact same thing as you did, to run some type of fiber connection to use this as a power LED since it only comes on when the console does.

 

Two consoles I picked up in 2004 from a former Bally employees collection had actual LEDs modded from the motherboard and drilled through the case.

 

As far as I know, we are stuck with MONO sound, I don't think the Bally/Astrocade consoles ever supported anything but (did any games back in the day?).

 

Thanks for the recommendation and I am glad you liked it.

 

As far as the ground goes, wasn't there a motherboard screw right by the large capacitor:

 

S-Video%20Mod%20%5BClose-up%20of%20Groun

Edited by TMOSteel
Link to comment
Share on other sites

NTSC TIA chip in Atari 2600 has 2 channels output on 2 pins (The PAL ones do not).

Atari VCS was to have 2 built-in speakers. You can see where they would have mounted inside the "woodgrain" consoles, and the speaker grill holes were left in for a long time because they didn't hurt anything, and let heat escape.

 

Combat, and other very early games, put the sound of the "player on the right side of the screen" to the right speaker, and the "player on the left side of the screen" to the left speaker.

Of course that's not really stereo, and when you drive to the opposite side, your "right player tank sound" still comes out of the right speaker.

SpiceWare's Medieval Mayhem was coded this way. The right 2 players' sound comes out the right, and the left 2 players' sound comes out the left. (I don't know if he did any fading from one channel to the other like when the flagman walks across the screen, but fading could be coded to follow a player.)

 

Atari decided to combine both channels and send video and sound to the TV, scrapping the amplifier, speakers, and even a built-in game (there are connection points for a built-in ROM game).

 

Some games sound good "separated", others do not.

If I am annoyed by the separated sound, I change the TV setting to mono.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks iesposta. If it's not too much trouble, could you post a pic your install (the rear of the console)? I'm very hesitant to cut holes into such a rare system and I really like that the mod is reversible. Yea, wth am I waiting for? PM incoming ;)

 

I was never keen on cutting holes in the Astrocade which was how the install was originally intended. If you follow my install here you can run everything out of the existing RF cutout on the back of the console:

 

http://www.ballyalley.com/pics/hardware_pics/s-video_mod/mike_di_salvo_pics/mike_di_salvo_pics.html

 

SVIDEO_09_(After).jpg

 

To me it almost looks factory (if Bally/Astrovision had decided to use S-VIDEO and RCA jacks!). Its nice, its clean and you can completely remove it you ever want to return it to stock.

 

BTW, the 7th picture down labeled "before the upgrade is started" is mislabeled; that was about 3/4 of the way complete, before I finished with the zip ties and mounts.

 

So this is what it looks like from the inside:

 

SVIDEO_08_(Final_placement).jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have seen that install but forgot. I will definitely do mine this way. Still completely reversible.

 

Here are some JPEG's. Disclaimer: Always looks better in person. Cell phone photos of CRT never capture what you see correctly.

med_gallery_29575_921_60113.jpg

 

I never noticed the blue/black eye of the yellow ones when try are horizontal!

med_gallery_29575_921_182298.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have seen that install but forgot. I will definitely do mine this way. Still completely reversible.

 

Here are some JPEG's. Disclaimer: Always looks better in person. Cell phone photos of CRT never capture what you see correctly.

med_gallery_29575_921_60113.jpg

 

I never noticed the blue/black eye of the yellow ones when try are horizontal!

med_gallery_29575_921_182298.jpg

 

My favorite game on the system, hands down. You picked a great game to highlight the board, thanks for sharing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've mailed out additional boards to people today, thank you for your patronage and I will post feedback this weekend.

 

Boards are still available for those interested, if you have a Bally or Astrocade system or plan to buy one someday, pick one of these boards up before they are gone for good!

 

Have a great evening and thank you for looking.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have sold the remainder of the boards to another individual; I have asked him if he would like me to refer sales to him and will post an update when he replies.

 

EDIT: Please go to http://console5.com/store/bally-astrocade-s-video-modification-circuit.html if you are interested in purchasing the S-VIDEO board.

Edited by TMOSteel
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Finally got an Astrocade shipped to Europe and just found out that my TV is only partly NTSC compatible, which means I get a picture, but no sound via the RF signal.

Anyway, so I would be interested in a S-video mod, on the page from the console5.com link it says "Out of Stock" . Is there still a way to get such a S-Video mod?

Thanks in advance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Has anyone figured out how to make a simple composite mod? S-video is no longer practical to me.

 

Also, I would like any tips on replacing the internal RF cable. It is an impossibly tight fit inside. The original cable is almost sure to be broken.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

I am guessing these are no longer available?

 

I sent my Astrocade away to someone with some other systems to repair and mod and he said he could do a mod like this one. I have only just got the system back off him (been trying to get it back for months!) and he has not touched it, so he has messed me around over this big time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...