bacteria

Can't get Intellivision Flashback, or Colecovision Flashback in the UK, apart from silly money. Anyone know different?

Anyone worked out if the Intellivision Flashback can be modded to use original game cartridges, to play the titles not on this unit? Also, i've not seen them in the UK, is it coming out over here too?

Makes sense - the PAL version doesn't even have the shielding on the motherboard in his pics. The RGB mod therefore should be changed from reference to working for (all) PAL consoles (as inferred) to (probably) only working for PAL Italian consoles that have certain boards. That is rather limiting! Pity.

It would be nice to know which PAL consoles work with the RGB mod, and how to know if you find a board that has a compatible one without opening up the console; eg a serial number range, or maybe colour of the board you can see on the cart slot, or whatever. If there was an RGB mod that worked for UK console board, would be interesting.

Have a look on your motherboard, if it doesn't show LM1886 stamped on a chip, then it isn't. The chip is not too far from the RF section. Post a pic of your motherboard if yours has it.

Bought one of these RGB units with high expectations however was not able to install it - I have three Intellivisions, all UK, all PAL; and none of them have the LM1886 chip which Zoe's mod needs. It was a big shame. I'm sure the mod is awesome, however indicates that either the PAL mod does not work on UK consoles or only certain revisions maybe; no idea; the serial numbers of the consoles I have are a lot different however the motherboards are all the same. The reply Zoe's team gave was the console was the last version and PAL/NTSC board, which I find a bit strange as back in the day your television only worked PAL in the UK and the console worked fine on them. I guess this means UK consoles, in spite of being a major PAL region, is not compatible with the Zoe mod as no LM1886 chip? Anyone know differently, or what to look out for on an Intv available in the UK (preferably) that would indicate the motherboard is suitable for this RGB mod?

Here is the video link, enabling viewing the video in larger screen mode. The screen adjusts to your screen monitor, "F11" to full-screen if you prefer. http://www.made-by-bacteria.com/unity.html The presentation covers the system in a fair bit of detail and also provides a demonstration of the system working. I hope you enjoy the video! Summary: * The most comprehensive retro video gaming console system made * 15 unique original gaming consoles, playing 18 formats in total * No emulation or clone hardware, all original boards * One power supply for all systems * One SCART cable for all systems for audio and visual * One Master Controller to work all the proprietary console systems * 3 years to make * Approximately 3,500 hours to build * Approximately 300 metres of cabling * Approximately 20 kg * Costed around £700 in parts, boards, controllers, wiring, etc

A composite modded Intellivision (PAL) console looks rough on old televisions let alone modern televisions but is the only option. I'd like to get a fully working French (Peritan) model RGB Intellision console, as long as it is a sensible/reasonable price. I don't care about the condition of the case at it will go into my Project Unity system, if it has the RGB cable that would be great but if not, let me know the pinout for RGB on the console and I can take it from there. I do need the console to be fully working of course. I'm in Hampshire, UK.

It can be done, yes, however would need a d-pad a similar size to the Intellivision one. It is hard with 8 to get tacts working, let alone 16 way, as the disc needs to press on one tact without activating the neighbour. That would mean in reality you'd need a d-pad about 2x the size of the one used in my project. Yes, some games need 16 way, Skiing is one of them, however most of the games play fine, all be it 8 way. 4 way is fine for maze games of course, no issue, 8 way for games like Tron Deadly Discs, etc. One thing though with the stock Intellivision controller, as we all know who have used one, is they are hit and miss the 16 way the d-pad works; even back in the days the console was brought to market; reason being the controller uses a piece of acetate to separate two layers of conductive printed traces, when pressed, makes the contact; not that accurate.

Yes, 2600 and 7800.

Turns out the pot next to the daughter board is broken, pressing it a little and I get colour.

Using old CRT television and also more modern LCD screen, result the same; black and white. Ideas?

Spent ages, and done various searches, and not got the answer, hoping you guys can help please. I've got a French Atari 7800 console, the "Peritan" (SCART) RGB model, and when I test on my UK televisions, I get black and white only, no colour. Got one of these units as I wanted crisp RGB output via SCART. Is this a normal problem (monochrome, not colour)? How can I fix it so I get colour please? Monochrome isn't ideal, I want colour! Your help would be appreciated.

Not the 7800, but my father got the 2600 around the day of launch in the UK; and also Intellivision when that came out.

Entertaining video!

Don't suppose there is any chance of him making a multi-cart with a few of his games on one cart?

Old consoles used thick power supply units, many that got hot. Using regulators, you can make a PSU yourself that is cool and far more compact. Depends if you want that facility of course.

We had a problem with a member who it turned out ripped someone off on the BenHeck forum at the same sort of time as he did on on my old forum - he was a trusted moderator on my old site and when I discovered he'd taken someone's money and not only didn't provide the goods, nor refund, had been lying about sending item out when he even later admitted he didn't, was lax on replies, and making lame excuses, I banned his ass and made it public that he couldn't be trusted - he went under the name of mrafterfx; turned out this wasn't the first time he's conned people unfortunately. He was keen on Battlefield 3 at the time and we tracked him on that forum too before he did a runner there as he knew we were on his heels. I can't remember if the name mentioned here was him or not though, was several months ago. Problem with commissions is you have no way to trust someone to fulfil a commission unless their reputation is solid and they have something to lose - if they are just "a regular member" then they can leave the forum concerned and run, and not be tracable. By definition, if someone has something to lose (eg reputation) they will be trustworthy - or take your chance with "regular Joe" - we aren't talking about small change here after all. Personally, I only take on commissions if i'm prepared to do them, only take deposits when i'm ready to do work (even if the buyer is keen on paying in advance - i've lost orders in the past due to this honest policy, but hey!), and if (like now) i'm not taking on commissions (apart from one in the next months, will do more later in the year) I tell people that. They see worklogs of progress and even offer repairs for systems i've made; when items get sent I forward them a copy of the postal details as proof of dispatch and conclusion of transaction. That's what I mean by reputable.

(sorry, going through old threads for research!) He was also in Mario Hotel on the Philips CD-i closing hotel room doors! (so a "hotel porter")!

Don't worry, it will be unleashed by new life!

Here's the link to my latest YouTube video : getting proper diagonals from a d-pad for the Intellivision:

Good news! I have a spaghetti junction of wires on the Intellivision, however after various experimenting, got the d-pad wired up, tested, and I now have proper diagonals! The d-pad is reliable too in gameplay, been testing on Tron Deadly Discs. Will make a video to conclude this part of the work and then compile the next video for upload, soon. Anyway, it works!

Here it is at the moment; the Intellivision board (composite modded), with all the diodes for the kaypad, shoulder and d-pad buttons, as done several weeks ago. I'm adding extra diodes to connect the diagonals to. The basic configuration, as per the upcoming video which will explain things in more detail: Up = up + ground (as normal) Right = right + ground (as normal) Up & right diagonal = up, right, ground (as per usual) plus pin 6 of the Intellivision controller cable Each contact, apart from ground, uses a diode to keep the data flowing one way and it works as per the previous Intellivision video clip for this project; I can't tap off the existing up and right d-pad contacts (as per above) as that would make either right or up become a diagonal, also they need to be segregated from the pin 6 extra contact or i'll get a different d-pad direction; solution in theory in easy enough, more wires and diodes to keep each line separate. On the tact switches for diagonal movement, ground will be one contact and the other three connections to make the diagonal work will be on the other tact contact. Doing it this way will mean in my video I can show "before and after"; once it all works then, i'll make the whole thing compact to fit into the controller casing. In the pic you can see the black backing controller piece with d-pad secured in place to go through the master controller perfectly. Done about 1/3 of the extra wiring, hope to finish the rest today or tomorrow, and then test.

Interesting link, thanks! If my manual method doesn't work properly i'll check it out.

Well, this topic, which was originally intended as a pinout for the matrix of the controller, has now expanded to incorporate the d-pad construction too. Made a digital 8 way d-pad, as evidenced in the below pics. This is the completed d-pad i've made, the grooves in there are to house the wires against the unit. At the moment, the contact pads are under the d-pad pressing against the bottom piece, instead of the regular way of the other way around. Not decided if this is better or not. I was originally wanting the diagonals to work in conjunction with their neighbours, so in other words, if you pressed NE direction, then N, E and the diagonal would register. On testing with 8 LED's, it seems that there is a sweet spot where the diagonal only works; slightly off and either N or E are on too, slightly more you get all three registered. So thinking laterally, if you're pressing NE then it doesn't matter if N and/or E also registers as the important thing is the diagonal. The diagonal will contain connections to ground, N, E and also pin 6 off the Intellivision connector which makes the proper diagonal register. I could do some fine sanding work to get the diagonal working precisely when N and E are pressed, but there isn't any point. I'll just use some diodes to separate the N, E, pin 6 on the diagonal direction (also SW, SE, NW of course too). I've used diodes to make the signals one way on the Intellivision matrix anyway: if using two diodes degrades the information too much, then i'll sand the diagonals down more; plan "B". Pics showing what I mean: Next job will be to rig this up for real on my Intellivision construction, that way i'll know it works or not and how well it works, before incorporating it into the controller cartridge for the Alpha Omega system. I'll let you know how it goes. What this means, is that it's entirely possible to make a controller mod to use a SNES or MegaDrive or similar controller and gut it out and make an alternative controller that works with proper 8 way, reliably; maybe with a set of small tacts for the keypad and the buttons on the pad for a game specific game, or modding a controller and incorporating 9 buttons (1-9), with Select and Start for Enter and Clear.