Jaguar upgrades on offer on E Bay UK

[gusbucket13]

 

I was just wondering if any of the more regular contributors had knowledge of the fellow who is offering the following service on eBay UK

 

atari jaguar conversions Item number: 8200644790

 

claims to reduce flicker, run 17.5% faster, eliminate top and bottom black lines onscreen and make unit regionfree (I guess that means it can be used with PAL or NTSC TV's)

 

Is this possible? I havent seen anything on any forums about such a conversion and before I part with £25 for the work and P&P both ways I want to be sure its not yet another eBay scam.

 

Cheers

Chris C

 

Ps Pics of some of my Jag collection just to brighten things up

[82-T/A]

 

I was just wondering if any of the more regular contributors had knowledge of the fellow who is offering the following service on eBay UK

 

atari jaguar conversions Item number: 8200644790

 

claims to reduce flicker, run 17.5% faster, eliminate top and bottom black lines onscreen and make unit regionfree (I guess that means it can be used with PAL or NTSC TV's)

 

Is this possible? I havent seen anything on any forums about such a conversion and before I part with £25 for the work and P&P both ways I want to be sure its not yet another eBay scam.

 

Cheers

Chris C

 

 

 

I wonder what he did to make it better? I know the Jaguar has the Tom & Jerry chip, and then that Blitter Chip or whatever in it.. but we know that it also has that Motorola chip in it.. which is basically the same chip that the Sega Genesis uses, and a few other systems. I DO know that Motorola sells a chip that is almost identical to that chip, but just faster... like say how you would compare an Intel 386 DX25 with a 386 DX33. Perhaps he somehow managed to swap those chips out? It would be interesting to know...

 

I'm not real knowledgable on the hardware of the Jaguar, maybe someone on here who is can confirm or refute what I just said.

 

From what I understand, that motorola chip, 168020 or something??? was primarily used in the Jaguar just to be the central controlling chip, mostly for I/O and other menial functions... but a lot of the Jaguar ports apparently used this chip almost exclusively.

 

I could be totally off here, so I'll see what everyone else says...

 

If this is true though, I bet it would seriously speed up games like Fight for Life...

[gusbucket13]

Wow that would be so cool if someone has found a way to tweak the Jag past perfection!

 

The guy offers the service regularly on eBay and has no bad feedback so I guess he must have found a way to do something like you suggest, Tom and Jerry being custom made have no candidates for substitution.

 

I have a spare Jag unit stashed in the attic, I think Ill give him a go and report back to the forum.

[Matthias]

Hello!

 

 

I CAN MODIFY YOUR ***PAL ATARI JAGUAR*** TO RUN 17.5% FASTER AND SMOOTHER,AND ALSO ELIMINATE THOSE UGLY BLACK BORDERS FROM THE TOP & BOTTOM OF YOUR TV SCREEN,THE JAG WILL PLAY GAMES FROM ALL COUNTRIES....

 

I would say that it is just the familiar 50Hz/60Hz-switch-modification:

 

As mentioned in the Ebay-description his/her work is only for use with PAL-Jaguar-consoles, PAL uses a 50Hz-framerate while NTSC uses a 60Hz-framerate,

so you get a higher framerate if you modify your PAL-Jaguar to run with the 60Hz-framerate (which is not the same as "games run faster" in general, but some games do in fact run faster). And because PAL offers more screen-scanlines (>280) than NTSC (>240) some poorly designed Jag-games show black borders on PAL-screen (because they are only "filling" 240 scanlines with graphics).

And you also need the 60Hz-framerate to get some few CD-games working.

 

 

 

Best regards

Matthias

[justclaws]

Hello,

 

I agree with Matthias. I think the Ebayer is offering to just do the very

simple modification from the Jaguar FAQ which is the 50hz/60hz mod.

 

However, he does not mention even that he's going to fit a switch...

and without a switch, the whole job takes less than 5 minutes max,

and no soldering required. A switch is easy to add, and very useful.

 

"Hold the Jaguar PCB with the Joystick ports to the bottom.  On the

  underside of the board, near the joystick ports, and to the left of centre

  there are four links, the top and the bottom one bridged.  (Both with zero

  ohm resistors).  Above them there is another link, with a brown resistor.

 

  "The bottom link is the one that needs to be broken.  I used a penknife to

  scratch away the solder, and then a needle-nosed pair of pliers to break

  the resistor.

 

  "The links are *not* labelled in any way.  As another guide to make sure

  you are about to snip the correct link, they are placed directly

  underneath a chip (which is obviously on the top of the PCB!) so if you

  use a soldering iron, be careful!"

 

  Once you have located R140, connect the two points for 50Hz, or leave them

  disconnected for 60Hz, as follows:

 

            60Hz          50Hz

              o-o  R135    o-o

              o o  R136    o o  (Information courtesy of Martin Zimmer,

              o o  R137    o o    [email protected])

              o o  R140    o-o

 

  PAL Jaguars sold in Europe have the R140 pads connected with a zero ohm

  SMD resistor, which can be removed with a soldering iron.  It is possible

  to wire a switch to the points, allowing the Jaguar to be toggled between

  50Hz/60Hz.  This is mainly useful for PAL Jaguars to play games at the

  original speed and screen resolution of the NTSC version.

 

Cheers,

JustClaws.

[gusbucket13]

So basically its just another con artist charging 25 quid for sod all work!

 

Thanks for the advice I have no doubt that you are right it makes perfect sense, Fortunately It was in time to stop me sending off a jag to find out. If thats the case Ill just uncrate one of my US NTSC Jags and fire it up for the same results!

 

Cheers

Chris C

 

Hello,

 

I agree with Matthias. I think the Ebayer is offering to just do the very

simple modification from the Jaguar FAQ which is the 50hz/60hz mod.

 

However, he does not mention even that he's going to fit a switch...

and without a switch, the whole job takes less than 5 minutes max,

and no soldering required. A switch is easy to add, and very useful.

 

Cheers,

 

JustClaws.

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