Category Archives: Modification

Modification

PSIO Switch Board Installation

The PSIO development cartridge, that I had preordered in June 2017, finally arrived this month. The whole package is very well made and looks almost like a genuine Sony PlayStation peripheral. The cartridge requires a modification before use, the PSIO switch board installation. The switch board detects the presence of the cartridge and switches the signals from the ODD to the parallel port.

PSIO package
PSIO package

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SD2SNES Rev. E1 Upgrade to Rev. H

This is an old rev. E1 SD2SNES cart, that I’ve bought several years ago from Krikzz.

SD2SNES Rev. E1
SD2SNES Rev. E1

SD2SNES did undergo some revision changes in the last couple of years. First there was Rev. F, that fixed some interference with 1CHIP units. Then there was Rev. G, that fed the DAC with +5V to improve the MSU-1 volume (and added some noise). And finally in Rev. H, the +5V change was reverted and an opamp added to fix the MSU-1 volume for good.
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Neo Geo MV1FZS 5V and Stereo Mod

When I finally fixed my consolized MV1FZS last month and was able to play some games again, I noticed that it outputs mono sound only. It is now time to make some additional modifications to it.

5V Mod

MVS boards need both 5V and 12V voltages, and 12V is used for the audio amp only. As I’m going to add a new stereo audio circuit, there is no need for the 12V feed anymore. This consolized MVS draws the 12V from the now obsolete XL6009E1 DC-DC converter:

XL6009E1 DC-DC converter
XL6009E1 DC-DC converter

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Neo Geo MV1FZS Battery and Backup RAM Error Fix

After having a great time with my MV2FS, I was looking for something more compact that I could use in the living room. I came across a pre-consolized MV1FZS and played the entire Neo Geo library with it.

Consolized MV1FZS
Consolized MV1FZS

Then it suddenly stopped working:
BACKUP RAM ERROR
ADDRESS WRITE READ
00D00000 5555 B255
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Tennokoe 2 RGB Output

2018 will be a great year for the PC Engine. Terraonion, the maker of the NEOSD cartridge, has announced the Super SD System 3 add-on.

Unfortunately I won’t be able to use it with my Duo-RX and GT, and the SuperGrafx is too bulky and ugly to take it out for gaming. I ordered a cheap CoreGrafx from Yahoo! Japan Auctions which came with a Tennokoe 2 backup memory device attached to the expansion connector.
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Neo Geo MV2FS at Home

Neo Geo games and hardware have been a part of my life for many years. As I was looking at store displays during the early 90s, I was amazed at how huge these game carts were in comparison with other consoles, such as the Nintendo GameBoy.

In the late 90s, the emulators NeoRAGE and NeoRAGEx introduced me to the world of Neo Geo and arcade emulation. At that time, MAME didn’t yet have the capacity to emulate those games properly and at a decent speed. Later on, when MAME finally became a useable Neo Geo emulator, it became quite easy to add new released games and dumps to the source code, and play them as well.
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