Bacteria's multi-console system project : UNITY

Nice demo. Seems to be coming along very nicely.

 

Thanks. I've put the vinyl covering onto the Turbografx cartridge. I've also played all the Japanese and USA/Europe games I have, about a third i'm going to keep, the rest i'll get onto ebay at some point.

Next week i'll crack on with another console to add to the system, I have Jaguar (one game hard wired into it) and MegaDrive ready, so may as well get those two done as next, then i'll rip apart my old Project Unity system for some boards; to recycle into this project. Never going to use that system again after all, not now I have this far more advanced system.

 

Had an hour this morning for modding work, constructed new cartridge unit for Jaguar and installed it inside. Only have the soldering to do to the JAMMA connector, so should be done and a video made by end of week on YouTube. As mentioned before, the only game I like on the Jaguar was Wolfenstein 3D, so therefore I hard wired it to the cartridge port a while back. I'll then do the MegaDrive next.

UPDATE (4th) - about 90% done on the Jaguar (Wolfenstein).

 

Put a stack of my TurboGrafx / PC-Engine games on ebay for sale, within minutes sold a couple! Kept all the games I like. Going to work through my other games too (eg N64, 7800, ColecoVision, GX4000, etc) over the next months and get more listed. No point keeping games i'm not keen with; I have boxes and boxes of games so need to have a short through...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/peagloss/...h=item4d3624ffaa&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562

Update - sold a fair number of games so spent a fair while getting them packaged and posted, so didn't get time until this morning for the wiring; got it almost complete, however will mean video won't be made and posted until early next week now.

 

Jaguar (Wolfenstein 3D) finished and working. That's system 3 done for the Unity system. Just played through the first level of the game. RGB is crisp.

Will be uploading a video next week when make it.

Going to remake the d-pad section on the master controller too, it works fine, however not perfect in feel as used tacts for it not original style rubber pads.

Update - opened the master controller, the d-pad hole needed sanding to stop the d-pad squeeking a little when being used, so seems fixed now.

 

The d-pad works lovely now. I had intended to make the video this morning for the Jaguar however ended up spending the time playing Wolfenstein 3D instead. I'll have to do it tomorrow!

Will make speedy progress on the next system as it's MegaDrive and I already have the board ready to make and install into a cartridge. After that i'll be breaking up Project Unity for some boards.

May well install Intellivision too as it transpires, but if do only will be for a handful of games in reality - ones that will work well in 4 directions with a d-pad and also quality games - i'm thinking Night Stalker, Lock'n'Chase, Astrosmash, Space Invaders. The Intellivision uses 16 way joystick, and i'm not going to make a special joystick for this system, not this time - so left with maze games which only use 4 directions. Yes, I know there is a FlashBack for Intellivision which will have better image quality as it is particularly poor on Intellivision, however other attempts by Blue Rangers have not made a 1:1 conversion of the games in the past so I doubt will be this time either - playing for example on the PS2 compilation, the robots in Night Stalker look different and their movement patterns are different - also the game loses its edge from being good to boring. I'll therefore stick to original hardware - NOAC systems like Flashbacks are compromised. Sad I know the difference, however back in the day my father got an Intellivision when it first came out in the UK, and I played it to death at the time, hence why I know the original versions play differently, and better too.

Systems i'm going to include with Unity ultimately will be:

Done Definitely doing May include Unlikely

(already done - N64, TurboGrafx, Jaguar (one game only))
MegaDrive
SNES
NES
SMS (unless get a flashcard for MegaDrive)
Intellivision (probably, although a fair bit of bother so unsure)
Colecovision
Atari 7800 (which will also play Atari 2600 games)
Amstrad GX4000 (not decided if will bother)
NeoGeo - if do will make it one game as sold my multicard a while back - Neo Turf Masters - which is an awesome game especially for a golf title
GameCube, with option for GBA
Saturn - later in project, maybe
Probably won't bother with DreamCast as little i'm interested on that system, same with Xbox
PS2 (which will play PS1 titles too)
Wii - simply because i'll connect it via HDMI for best output quality via Unity

The Wii, PS2, GameCube (and Xbox if change mind) will use their own controllers; all others will continue to use the Master Controller

 

Jaguar video is done. I will upload it in the next couple of hours or so. Short'n'sweet video, as I like to make them.

 

Video uploaded.



Next system will be MegaDrive I guess, as that is the last of my prepared boards; however subsequent systems won't take long to install as they'll be butchered from the old Project Unity system; although will take a short while to work out what went to what in that box so can easily migrate boards to this new system.

Just noticed, on video it says "part 3" when is "part 4" - never mind, can't be bothered to change it so i'll leave it as is.

 

Taken me 1.5 hours, but i've made the cartridge for the MegaDrive, installed it inside the cartridge, made the hole for the game cart; basically just need to use the vinyl covering and then wire up the system and controller to the JAMMA board interface - and done.

In saying that though, I previously cut the MegaDrive controller into a third of its size but then lost the diagram to show what connects to what, so i'll have to hunt out a controller to know the pinout. Just a small setback but annoying!

With any luck, if I haven't finished and uploaded a new video by Friday it should be done Monday next week, assuming all works fine. Then i'll be butchering my old Project Unity system for the next wave of boards!

UPDATE - wired most of the connections to the JAMMA, so mostly done, should have it done tomorrow with any luck.

 

Finished wiring up the MegaDrive to the JAMMA board, then realised i'd wired it all back to front so had to re-do it. All looks ok, i'll test it tonight, if all goes well I might be able to make a video tomorrow and upload it; if all works ok.

 

The MegaDrive works fine however initially didn't do anything, I checked all connections, all fine; so adjusted the voltage. On a lot of retro consoles, they state DC as 9v or even 12v however actually run fine on 7.2v up to their stated voltage, and that's typically because the console actually runs off 5v as the main DC voltage just goes to a 7805. There are a couple of exceptions however, the SNES works fine like this however needs 7.2v-9v as otherwise you don't get audio; and another exception is the MegaDrive - it states 10v and it seems to need it, even though there are two 7805's that run the board, clearly a circuit needs more voltage to work.

So, changed my 8.5v input line to 10v, and the MegaDrive sprung into life. I'll have to therefore use a further regulator in the MegaDrive cartridge to provide 10v; which is no issue. Also, the video needs resistors on the RGB lines to bring the colour down a tad less bright to bring out the colours better. I'll therefore fix these issues tomorrow, so in other words i'll not be making the next video until next week. Easy way to get the video quality less bright is to use two 75ohm resistors (I have some) and connect two in parallel to half the resistance, to end up with in effect about 37ohms; one such set of resistors onto each of the RGB lines going to the HDMI converter should do the trick; maybe with a 220uf capacitor on each line too (i'll have to experiment). Thinking about it, the other console systems i've done so far are showing the video a bit bright too, so need to fix it.

Had a test on a couple of games and all works great though, which is what matters.

 

Adding the capacitors to the RGB lines seems to make no odds, however around 36ohm resistors on the R,G and B lines brought the colours down nicely on all the 4 systems i've done so far. Image quality on the systems looks really good.

On the MegaDrive I was getting some slight wavery lines on the video, after changing the soldering points i'd connected the ground to on both ends of the shielded cable I used for video, which made no difference, tested on the other 3 consoles and barely have any such interference. Realised then I needed to use thicker wire for the ground to the console from the voltage supply to remove the issue.

I am very happy indeed with Unity so far, it behaves 100% and is easy to change systems. I didn't have the skills when made Project Unity (previous system) to pull it off, however making that system gave me the skills for making Unity. This is going to be one heck of a swansong modding system for Bacteria when it's done.

 

Well, had some fun playing Psycho Pinball last night on my large 65" television, however did notice there seemed a tiny bit of lag when using the system, may have just been me but could also be from the HDMI converter maybe. Only way to know is to test on my 32" television which has SCART input; if it is the case then I will probably get a cable adapter for my 65" Samsung television which allows it to input SCART and use that instead.

As far as next system is concerned, was going to do another old system next, however my wife wants to play her Wii Fit game, she hasn't used it for about 2 years; so I have decided to do the Nintendo Wii console next - to use the Wii I need to tap off the RGB port to connect to the Unity system, and also use the power supply anyway, so may as well. I've got to the stage of opening the Wii up as I want to reduce the height of the system down and preferably make it less wide too, so it would then take the same footprint as the other systems I have. If I bust it, i'll get a Wii Mini, which is top loading, so easier to mod with anyway.

The Wii is the most modern console I have, and am interested in too.

Question: - Anyone know the specification for the Wii's ribbon cable - pitch, etc; as I may need to use a longer ribbon so would be handy to know what I need to get - I may need one about double the length probably.

 

I believe having opened up the Wii entirely, the ribbon cable is 0.5mm pitch, 32 pin, 16.5mm wide. The ribbon cable is short, I can get a replacement on ebay that's far longer so will do.

Measurements indicate I can get the Wii system into the shorter size of my cartridge and also slimmer, so will have an opportunity to use better cooling for the system with a much larger fan. Nice I can make it fit the cartridge footprint, for continuity.

This system will take longer to make on the basis of experimentation and also waiting for the cable to arrive. The power cable from the motherboard to the drive unit is a series of slim separate wires, which I can easily lengthen myself, it's the ribbon cable I need to buy. I did that on Project Unity as I recall, changed the ribbon cable on the PS2 board to one that was about 30cm long; worked fine.

 

When you finally complete the project you should do one massive video featuring all the systems. I'd be happy to feature it on my YouTube channel.

 

Excellent, thanks very much, i'll do that.

The photo below shows the Wii in parts, I need to reduce parts of the board down, namely remove the AV port and the GameCube controller and memory card ports; then the motherboard will fit ok in the cartridge; i'll still need to have the drive unit slightly elevated but nothing like it is normally. When i've removed the ports and worked out the A/V pinout I can start the wiring process and cartridge making, while I wait for the extended ribbon to arrive. I'm going to use the base of the Wii casing intact so as to provide shielding needed presumably for the Wifi/Bluetooth adapters. The large heatsink might prove an issue, so may well incorporate flatter heatsinks and use a larger fan instead. The 3mm thick MDF the motherboard is resting on is the bottom part of the cartridge.

This is a lot of the fun of modding after all, problem solving and generally working things out.

 

for the wii you could use some VGA heatsinks like people do on the Xbox when building "slim boxes"

 

Indeed, I have various heatsinks in stock so i'm sure one will be fine; doesn't matter what it looks like after all as it won't be visible when in the cartridge.

 

So, you're not thinking of keeping the game cube controllers? Will you ad a separate game cube?

 

Going to use separate GameCube board, reason being I have one in the old Project Unity system which has the GBA addon board so can therefore include GBA into the system. Also, i'm not keen on having to use the wavy sticks with the Wii to select GC games and then use those controllers, easier to just use GC hardware as I have the board already and the drive unit relocated.

Bought a 22cm replacement Wii ribbon cable, long enough for what I need for sure; it was either that or 30cm or 35cm, so took the 22cm one so as to reduce chance of interference. Paid a couple of Euros extra to hopefully get the ribbon in a few days time.

I'm going to compare the video quality from the HDMI upscaler output compared to SCART, also lag; if playing Psycho Pinball on the MegaDrive feels the same on both modes then i'll stay with the HDMI upscaler, if not (ie lag present) i'll use SCART instead and buy an adapter for my large TV to let it use SCART - the adapter came with the TV originally, which I lost, so i'll have to replace it if that's the case.

It's all part of the fun after all - what works best, how to improve things, etc.