Arcade, Disassembly, Modification, Repair, Saturn, Sega, ST-V

Sega Titan Video (ST-V) at Home

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I bought a Sega Titan Video (ST-V) mainboard and a Darksoft multi-cart along with a CPS2 in 2018 for use at home. I’ve rarely used it, and everything I’ve done with it hasn’t been documented here. This is about to change as it seems I have opened Pandora’s box after testing a SuperGun with it.

Introduction

The Sega Titan Video, more commonly known as Sega ST-V or STV is an arcade system based on the Sega Saturn. Not only based on, but actually having the same specifications, which makes it a low-cost arcade system (Nicole Express commented on this here). A lot of information about this system can be found in the usual places, such as Sega Retro, System 16, Arcade Otaku Wiki and most importantly the Arcade-Project Forums which turned out to be an invaluable source over the years to get this thing running. You will find many links to threads of this forum in this article.

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CD-i, Disassembly, Modification, Philips, Repair

Philips CD-i Power Supply Units

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The aim of this article is to compile a comprehensive documentation of all known power supply units for Philips CD-i players. It is a work in progress and will be updated with new information at regular intervals. I welcome feedback, especially if you discover an error or can contribute additional information.

Frequently asked questions concern the operational safety of a model in different countries and the location of fuses. To answer these questions accurately, you need to know the specific built-in or external power supply associated with the model, version and revision of the player. The grouping by mainboard/hardware generation provides a clear overview, as already shown in the article Modifications for Philips CD-i players.

The documentation of the fuses in the Mono III and IV generations began years ago with the article Philips CD-i Mono III / IV Fuses, and it was always the plan to summarise it in a more comprehensive article covering all generations.

This article now follows that approach and presents specifications, information on fuses, compatibility and possible modifications. It summarises all relevant data from the previously mentioned articles.

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CD-i, Disassembly, Modification, Philips, Repair

Philips FW380i Mini System Repair Part 1

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The Philips FW380i Mini System landed unexpectedly on my repair table last August. I never intended to get one of these models because the CD-i part is at the lowest end of CD-i hardware (very similar to the Roboco mainboard of CDI450 etc.) and also the build quality of FW mini system is not something I would have bought or used in the 90s. However, this particular CD-i mainboard was only used for this model and has some very unique features such as a separated servo board, a connector for communication with the FW part and even some unused connectors for a disc changer – which unfortunately never saw the light of day. Long story short: this model was never properly analysed, which is why it piqued my interest.

In this article I will show you how I carried out the disassembly and basic cleaning last year. I will follow up about diagnosis, repair and possibly modifications at a later point. The exact model/version I’m taking apart here is an FW380i/20 – which means that a 22ER9956/20 DVC mini cartridge was installed at the factory.

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Apple, Bandai, Disassembly, Pippin Atmark, Repair

Pippin Atmark Troubleshooting and Repair Information

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A collection of technical information to assist in troubleshooting and the repair of Pippin Atmark consoles. You can use it side by side with the disassembly guide in my Pippin Atmark PA-82001-S Monitoring Unit article from 2019.

You will find details about the FFC of the control buttons, the Matsushita CR-504-L optical disc drive and the VOLTEK SPEC7188B power supply unit. The information applies to both “monitoring” and retail units.

Control buttons FFC

These are the control buttons on the top of the Pippin and what they look like on the back. When you open the case of a Pippin, pay special attention to the FFC (flexible flat cable). Otherwise you could damage the control buttons, the FFC or even the ZIF connector on the mainboard.

Pippin Atmark control buttons
Pippin Atmark control buttons - back
Pippin Atmark control buttons
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3D Printing, Disassembly, Mega Drive, Mega-CD, Sega, Sega 32X

MSDEXP and Clamshell Case for Terraonion MegaSD

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This is a follow-up on the Terraonion MegaSD Cartridge article from 2019. In the past two years, I managed to find an MSDEXP adapter and a clamshell case for my MegaSD cartridge.

MSDEXP

Thanks to Mobius Strip Tech, I was able to source an MSDEXP. I can now finally play Mega-CD 32X games with the MegaSD.

The housing from Retro Frog is a high-quality print with a matte look. Inside there are two connectors, some passive components and a lot of tracks:

MSDEXP - top
MSDEXP - bottom
MSDEXP PCB - front
MSDEXP PCB - back
MSDEXP outside and inside
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Disassembly, NEC, PC-9821, PC-FX

NEC PC-FXGA, PC-FXGA DOS/V, and its Breakout Box

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A spontaneous article about the NEC PC-FXGA: The PC-FX Game Accelerator Board for PC-98 and DOS/V. It emerged from the search for a replacement breakout box for the PC-FXGA DOS/V card in the PC-FX Fan Club Discord server. The details of the breakout box are in the second half of the article, and before that some information and photos.

There are already many resources about PC-FX(GA) (see list at the end of this article), so I won’t go into too much detail here. Basically, it’s a PC-FX on a card for your PC, with a special feature. Game Accelerator means that it also contains the 3D chip Huc6273 (Aurora) that is not present in the normal PC-FX. There are two versions of these cards: PC-FXGA, a C-Bus card for use with NEC PC-9800 series computers and PC-FXGA DOS/V, an ISA card for use with IBM PC-compatible computers running DOS/V.

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3D Printing, Disassembly, Famicom, Modification, Nintendo, Repair

Nintendo AV Famicom With Switchless NESRGB Maintenance

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My Nintendo AV Famicom that I equipped with a switchless NESRGB solution in 2016 is spending most of its days on a shelf as a backup console. It still needs some maintenance, which I will cover in this article: cleaning, securing the NESRGB, placing the LED and repairing the expansion port cover.

Last week, I just wanted to quickly test some Famicom carts and realised that the console wasn’t outputting any picture or sound. There was still a reaction on the TV though: black picture and a crackling sound when I switched it off. Fearing the worst, I opened it up and saw my favourite insulation tape. However, as I’ve learned in the past, this stuff disintegrates over the years and sticks to everything, so now I was apparently in for not only a repair but also a clean. I opened the console and plugged it in again. When I removed some of the insulating tape, graphics rubbish suddenly appeared on the TV. On closer inspection, I realised that the NESRGB board was tilted slightly backwards. It must have come loose at some point.

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CD-i, Disassembly, Philips

DVS VE-200 NVRAM Backup and Battery Replacement

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The DVS VE-200 CD-Interactive Player is a CD-i player manufactured by LG. Like other CD-i players, it contains a battery-backed NVRAM and real-time clock.
In this article, I will take a look inside and show how the battery can be replaced while making sure that the NVRAM data won’t get lost in the process.

DVS VE-200 CD-Interactive Player
DVS VE-200 CD-Interactive Player

The player is one of four known very similar models that make use of the GoldStar / LG mainboard (midi-size). The other three models are: GoldStar / LG GDI-700M, GDI-S710 and Knowlogy K2000-MSS. What makes them special in terms of NVRAM and RTC is that they don’t have a Timekeeper or SmartWatch socket, but a different solution:

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Miscellaneous

10 Years of retrostuff.org

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10 years ago, I started this blog retrostuff.org to record what I was tinkering with in my spare time. It was initially meant to be some sort of diary and also include everything that I bought related to retro- and game consoles (see category New Arrival), but that turned out to be way too much work, so I focused on technical articles. Over the years, I had so many projects that not everything could be properly documented and put in an article. The backlog is huge and I’m always trying to review and improve old articles as well.

For the 10th anniversary, I took a trip down memory lane and selected one or more articles that were important to me. Be it because they are about a favourite device or an important discovery or milestone in research.

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CD-i, Disassembly, Philips

Philips 22ER9021 and TecnoPlus TP520 CD-i Gamepads

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Last year, I asked myself whether or not all Philips 22ER9021 CD-i Gamepads are the same and answered with probably. Since then, I have had a look at some more gamepads of different production dates, including an unbranded 22ER9021 and a TecnoPlus TP520 CD-i Control Pad. Let’s revisit and elaborate on what has been discovered last year:

  • The production number on the label contains the year and calendar week (example: 1A 00 9447). This applies to almost all Philips CD-i players and accessories. So far, only the white mice for the professional players didn’t follow the year code.
    A full production number has 8 or 9 digits and an additional 5-6-digit serial number at the end. But most accessories are only labelled with simple 8-digit production numbers and that’s why you find so many accessories with the very same data on the labels.
  • Inside, all 22ER9021 gamepads have the same PCB with these markings:
    CDI JOYPAD REV 1.2
    P/N:12290210001-03
    This is still the case after checking some more, even uncommon variants. Also, they all have the same Philips PCA84C122AT/071 8-bit microcontroller for remote control transmitters.
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