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About this blog

Stories on work done here at the ITC. Some of it might be interesting to some folks.

Entries in this blog

Ivory Tower Technical Info & Notes

Lumacode - The ultimate upgrade option for retro/vintage consoles?

I will try and keep this short. But Lumacode has been around for a while now but only recently has support for so many other systems come about to work with it. For those not aware of Lumacode (Like myself until a few months ago). It is a 2 wire digital signal that sends cleaned up luminence video that when paired with an RGB2HDMI converter + Raspberry Pi Zero. Can provide you with a high definition HDMI output that works on modern displays.  Sound too good to be true? It isn't in this case
Ivory Tower Technical Info & Notes

Intellivision Composite upgrade kits and RF output

If you weren't aware, there have been composite only upgrade options for the Intellivision consoles for well over a decade. However, all of them have 2 issues depending on how they were designed: The first issue is that older boards require the RF modulator to remain in place in order for the console to provide the correct signals for the composite boards to even work. So you can't remove the RF modulator. The issue with this, is that the quality of the composite output isn't that good and
Ivory Tower Technical Info & Notes

Cuttle Cart II Repair & SD Card Upgrade

Over 20 years ago, a wonderful engineer by the name of Chad Schell created some of the first ultra functional flash cartridges for Atari and Intellivision consoles. One of these was from 2003 when he developed the Cuttle Cart II for the Atari 7800 console. As you might guess this is a flash cartridge that was able to load up and play all known 2600 and 7800 games and homebrews that existed at that time. The cartridge features an on screen menu to select you games to play along with other options
Ivory Tower Technical Info & Notes

Hybrid 5200 4 port console power conversion made easier

I recently received in a 4 port 5200 to receive a power conversion along with a Sophia upgrade. However, the focus on this blog post will be to focus on the power conversion process as this 4port 5200 was a bit different than most. This 4port console seems to use the newer revision main board that incorporates the VCS adapter modifications as part of the board circuits. That isn't too unusual, but what was is the fact that it was initially giving me OS ROM errors when running the 1.1 diagno
ITC Console Collections and Details

The ITC Neo Geo CD - Awesome System with Too Small a Library

Wow, okay so a little backstory on how this all came to be... First I have to mention that I never intended to get a Neo Geo anything in my collection as the prices for the systems and the games is just too far beyond my level to spend and focus on. However about a year and half ago, one of my clients sent me their Neo Geo CD to replace the capacitors, install a battery holder and new battery, and to install an Neo Geo CD SD Loader into it. Well, while working on that console, I ran into an
ITC Console Collections and Details

ITC Game Gear HD Added to the Collection

Finished this up earlier this evening. This has been a project that has been worked on and off again since PRGE. But first some quick background on this Game Gear... I originally purchased this GG off Ebay where it was clearly stated as Not Working - Parts Only. However, from the pictures shown of it powered out, I had a pretty good feeling that it was something I could fix by simply replacing all of the capacitors as I've gotten a number of GGs working again doing this. The seller had a ma
ITC Adventures:-

ITC Adventures:- Portland Retro Gaming Expo 2024

My wife and I were able to attend the Portland Retro Gaming Expo that just took place this past weekend Sep 27 -29, 2024. It was our 4th trip to the event over the years. To say that it was awesome isn't telling the full story. The pictures that follow are only but a small portion of what the event has to offer for those interested in video games.  Atari was present this year with their own fairly large dedicated booth showcasing Atari merchandise, upcoming and current games for modern syst
CrossBow

CrossBow in ITC Adventures:-

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ITC Console Collections and Details

ITC Colecovision Upgrades

I've always had a Colecovision as one of the consoles that is pretty much at the ready since first putting all my consoles together in the game room. That said, the CV is one of the consoles that doesn't get much time as compared to most of the others. It should come as no surprise that my CV is also pretty heavily upgraded. It has a dedicated composite video output amp, RGB, the +5v RAM modification, and a short delay BIOS installed into it. But even with all of that, I've never been 100% happy
ITC Console Collections and Details

The ITC5200 got some more TLC for 2024

So around a year ago or so, I did a blog on some updates and cleaning up I did on my personal 5200 here at the ITC. Well yesterday I found myself with some spare time and decided I would revisit my 5200 again. Only this time, I was really going to redo pretty much everything. Originally my 5200 had an older LHE style AV upgrade in place and for the time when I installed it about a decade ago, it was excellent and honestly has provided great results that I never wanted to change it out even
Service Work Stories

Why planning console upgrades is important

When doing console service work and especially when adding in upgrades like audio video type stuff. It is important to plan how everything is to be done so that you can make sure that things can be undone in a manner that is at least service friendly in the future. As an example of how NOT to do this, I had a pair of 7800s come in last week for services. One of them was to remain in stock condition but get refurbished internally but otherwise working great. The second 7800 on the other hand was
Ivory Tower Technical Info & Notes

Sega Master System - FM upgrade Region Switch Info

I've installed the FM upgrade board 4 times now into a few different SMS NTSC consoles now and something that I tend to always forget, is that the official instructions for installing the board has a few mistakes in it. One of those mistakes is a pretty big one that I've mentioned to Tim Worthington a few times but it never seems to get fixed in his guide. That step is regarding the process for getting the region switch working on NTSC consoles. Now the steps listed I'm sure are accurate for PAL
Ivory Tower Technical Info & Notes

Atari 7800 :- Controller remote pause function modification

This is something I've messed with on and off again over the years. After I discovered the controller pause modification you can do on the Sega Master System, it got me to thinking if something similar was possible on the 7800. And yes, it totally is as similar to the SMS, the pause line on the 7800 is always active and only when pulled low to ground does it trigger the pause. So I had played with it a bit using home made perfboard setups etc. But it wasn't really as useful or needed on the 7800
Service Work Stories

7800 oddity - a Maria that kinda? Works?

Had a 7800 come into the ITC lab to get refurbished, and upgraded with a few things. Among the updates was to get a UAV plus mount board setup as I've been doing for over a year now. This is where it is important that you always...ALWAYS test the current status of electronics before you dive in and start doing stuff. A rule I didn't follow so what I discovered after putting all this work in, isn't something I could verify was an issue before the work started. I had been told that it was wor
Ivory Tower Technical Info & Notes

New PCB Design for Intellivision installs - Sample install pics

I already made a blog post not that long about about my new designs and had posted pics of the render of the PCBs. Well, I actually received the PCBs in the other day and have had a chance to test them out. While I did make a pretty big blunder on my model 2 specific PCB, it was easily fixed and isn't that big a deal to fix in situ when installing. And it only affects me since the gerbers that I play to release publicly already have the fix in place so future boards that get made up should be go
Ivory Tower Technical Info & Notes

New PCB Designs & New Option for UAV Installs Soon!

For the past several weeks on days where I have some off time from other console service requests, I've been designing up some more new PCBs to assist me in the services I provide for folks.  I know I recently posted about a new PCB mount for the Intellivision and while I do have those new mounts in place, I wanted... more. So I designed new ones that are currently on their way to me. It is a 2 piece PCB design that uses a thicker bottom PCB as a base that can be used with either model Inte
Service Work Stories

Latest stuff at the ITC

I know I've not made a video in a very long time on my ITC Youtube channel. But I figured I would mention here the latest things happening at the 'Tower'. Just because there haven't been any vids uploaded, doesn't mean there isn't something always still going on. First is that console service requests have picked up quit a bit for me over the past 2 years. It really started during the pandemic, but then larger and larger service requests started to come in since and at this time, there is p
CrossBow

CrossBow in Service Work Stories

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Ivory Tower Technical Info & Notes

Player 2 auto triggering fire button...again!

I already touched on this in an earlier blog post not that long actually, but I will summarize again really quickly. Main issue is that in 7800 mode and games, one or both fire buttons might show as being pressed without a controller plugged in. Plug in a controller and everything behaves as it should but ultimate, the console shouldn't read anything actively from the ports without a controller plugged in. In my previous blog, I mentioned that an out of spec resistor located at R35 was
Ivory Tower Technical Info & Notes

Atari 7800 Powering On / Off issues...

As stated in another blog, I have a few 7800 sent to me for repairs and eventual upgrades. This 7800 had an interesting problem where as soon as you plugged in the DC power to the console, it would immediately power on and would NOT turn off. While there are a few components in the mix that can cause, this, I've found really only two components well technically 3 that should be looked into as possibilities: The first component and the one most people already know about, is the power switch
Ivory Tower Technical Info & Notes

Very dark and poor RF output? Look to the 74LS32 IC...

A few 7800s have been sent to the ITC for repairs and eventual upgrades. Before any upgrades are done, I always get the consoles back to fully working stock condition first. This 7800 was working but had very dark, fuzzy, and as such very poor RF output. Now yes, RF output doesn't look that hot on modern displays to begin with, but this was obvious something was wrong. After looking over the board for a bit, it became apparently that someone in the past had replaced or tried to replace the 74LS3
Ivory Tower Technical Info & Notes

Weird Paddle 3 issue on a 2600 4-switch?!

I've seen something similar to this before although not in the way I was seeing with a recent 4 switch console I was servicing. As part of diagnostics I will use Paul Slocum's excellent Test Cart program as it should some primary colors, shows the current state of all switches minus power of course, but also has a basic graphical view of each controller and small block on the bottom that will move left/right when you plug in paddles to test those too. So all in all a nice utility to know that al
Ivory Tower Technical Info & Notes

Atari 7800 - Self activating fire buttons?!

I received an A1 series 7800 main board in the mail recently where the owner stated it was working properly but was missing a pause button for some reason. Well, when I receive a 7800 system for services, one of the things I do is to pull up a test utility without any controllers plugged in. The reason for this is to ensure that the system controller ports are working properly. But you ask... "How does not having any controllers plugged in, help to know if the ports are working properly?" E
Ivory Tower Technical Info & Notes

Just a simple but kinda cool project?

The 'Tower' was without power most of last week due to powerful storms on Father's day. As a result it put me behind a bit on console services and projects. Well last night as I've been working kinda constantly on console stuff to try and get caught up, I took a break and decided to do something I'd been meaning to try and implement for a while now. I'm sure many of you here are aware of the Atari Vox? In summary it is a small device that plugs into controller port 2 on the 2600 or 7800 sys
Ivory Tower Technical Info & Notes

Loctite and ABS = Gallium and Aluminum...

So over the past few months, I've been trying to find ways of making the RCA jacks that I install into consoles more secure so they don't free spin over time. What I've been doing in the past that actually works 90% of the time far as I know...is that instead of using the small lock ring washer that typically comes with RCA jacks, I use inner star washers of the right diameter to do the same thing, but with more points of contact to lock into the plastic. It also has the advantage of holding the
Ivory Tower Technical Info & Notes

Intellivision Consoles can be quite frustrating! - Black Screen of Death...

Seems to be lately that I'm getting in more and more Intellivision consoles that all arrive with the same similar condition. Basically what most might call a black screen when powering on the console but it is more like a dark grey screen with a few lines along the bottom of the screen of even lighter grey. Pressing the reset button does produce a full black screen that will flicker and come back to the same dark grey screen or sometimes it might do something different like an all fuscia colored
Ivory Tower Technical Info & Notes

A New Challenger Approaches! - A7800 BackBit Pro Adapter has arrived at the ITC!

Received my BBPro 7800 adapter today and we have some really good things and some not so good that I'm hoping can be worked out in time. - First the good, is that the menu of course is easy to navigate working in the same manner - This might be the fastest loading flash cart for the 7800 with the exception of the older Mateos cart - Plays the many of the original released games without issues including both Commando and BallBlazer with properly balanced and proper sounding Pokey audio! Ni
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