RARusk

I recently brought some parts from a electronics store. I tried to get some replacement parts for the stuff around the MC34163DW chip. I have a capacitor, a diode, and several coils. What is the rating (uH) of the coil near the MC34163DW chip? I may be able to replace it with something similar that won't make any noise.

My Jag isn't as dead as I thought it was but it is still pretty messed up. I may be able to repair it but it would depend on the information I can get here. My first issue is the video sync. While examining the AV port I accidentally crossed the 10 volt line with another trace and blew out something that caused the video to have no more sync. I was looking for where the Horizontal and Vertical Sync channels originate on the motherboard. If the chip that provides the sync hasn't been damaged then I might be able to salvage at least the RGB Analog video. But the next issue needs to be dealt with first. While trying to look for the sync I did something to the motherboard and now the unit can't be turned off. Here's what happens: I put in the power adapter (regardless of whether or not there is a cartridge in the cartridge slot) and the LED light comes on. It doesn't matter if the power switch is on or off the unit is still on. If there is a cartridge in the slot the unit will still work. When the power switch is turned off only the sound will turn off. The video (or what there is of it at this point) is still on. In addition, the coil near the MC34163DW chip no longer makes any hissing noise and the MC34163DW chip is running quite hot. I do not know if I have damaged this chip or any of the nearby components that it relies upon. Hopefully some of the Jag experts here can help me in determining whether or not this thing can be salvaged.

The lone Gamefellas left in Austin (Northcross Mall) does sell Jag stuff but they did not have any Jag consoles (at least the last time I visited about a month ago). I was hoping that somebody knew of other independent game stores that I might not know about that I could go visit in addition to Gamefellas. They used to have two locations here in San Antonio but they're long gone. They even had another location on William Cannon Road (Austin) but they only lasted a few months. There was another game store called Game Zone on Lamar Rd. (Austin) but they shut down about a month ago. There is another very small place near the UT campus but they carried very little stuff. So there only two independent game stores in Austin (that I know of) and one in San Antonio called Gamerz. However, they primarily deal with repairs and cool looking case mods. Interesting you mention about the power problem. There is a gentleman I have been writing to concerning RGB output and he has a spare Jag but no power. Could solve that problem. Will look into that. I live in the northeast area of San Antonio (Windcrest). However, I work retail (JCPenneys) so the chance of me being able to go to your little get together is probably zero (the day after Thanksgiving is the busiest day for us). I'll also try to check out the sites mentioned later since, at the time of this post, it is 1:18 AM San Antonio time and I need to go to work tomorrow.

My Jag is dead (and just in time for Halloween too). I would like to get another one of course. Is there any place besides Gamefellas in the San Antonio / Austin region where I can go and get another Jag? Good online sites would be helpful too.

I'm familiar with GamesX. I am a regular poster at their RGB forum. Their Jag pinout information is the same as everybody elses. I opened up my Jag and looked closely at the AV port. According to the current pinout listing posted at most places, there are eight pins left blank. I figured out what they all are: 3A - connected to 4A which is Ground. 3B - connected to 3A which is connected to 4A which is Ground. 6B - Not connected to any trace. 9A - Not connected to any trace. 9B - Connected to a trace but it leads to Ground. 10A - Connected to a trace but it stops at the nearby capacitor. 12A - Not connected to any trace. 12B - Not connected to any trace. So you have three extra ground pins and a lot of wasted pins. I was also taking a closer look at the 10 volt pin with my multimeter and I accidently crossed the 10 volts with another trace and knocked out the sync. I hope it is only temporary. I will give it 24 hours to settle down and turn it back on again. If the sync is still knocked out then I'm afraid I may have fragged my Jag and I will have to go and get another. Damn it!

When I got my Jaguar from a friend of mine at work a few years ago I noticed that the card connector for the AV was busted. The left four contacts were broken off. So I removed my RF modulator and put in a HD-15 pin plug and wired it to the remains of the AV port so I could use my new Jag with an AV box I constructed for it. Later I removed the HD-15 plug and replaced it with a PlayStation AV plug I removed from one of those little AV boxes Sony used to make that allowed you to hook up standard cables to the PlayStation but also had an AV plug for their cables. This allowed me to use standard off-the-shelf PS2 AV cables with the Jag. For RGB use I have an EL1883 sync chip to acquire sync for RGB video (PlayStations don't have a sync channel so you have to use a chip to get it from video. Because of the PS AV plug hack I have to treat the Jag as a PS in regards to RGB video). I got massive interference when I tried to use my RGB box recently. I was using the +10 volt pin on the AV port to power external devices from the Jag. But the EL1883 does not like the +10 volts (it prefers +5 VDC). I removed the wire (that led to the AV plug) from the +10 volt pin and put it where the RF modulator got its power (which was +5VDC) and that cleared the problem right up. What I was looking for was if the Jag AV port has a +5 VDC pin in addition to the +10 VDC pin. If not, then why did Atari use +10 VDC instead of +5 VDC like everybody else? I will probably have to poke around with a multimeter and a continuity tester to fill in the missing blanks.

Recently I did a little modification to my Jag and used the AV pinout information I downloaded some time back to help in that. I noticed that there are several blank spots or ? on some of the pins. I went looking on Google and on just about every page I found that had the Jaguar AV Pinouts they were also incomplete with the same blank spots. After all of this time I am surprised that there isn't a page that has the COMPLETE listing of what all of those pins do on the Jag AV Port (unless I missed something on Google). Is there anybody out there who works on Jaguar development that has the complete information on the AV port?

You may want to check out this link I dug up: http://www.razor3donline.com/wired3dglasses.html It looks like you could just plug it into the SMS without any additional hacking. Plus it is affordable and appears to be a lot more comfortable. There was another topic on this some time back and after seeing this one I decided to dig around on Google. Now if somebody can make some replacement cards to go in the slot.....

I just read through the cartridge port hack and looked over the pictures. Pretty damn cool. However, my main question concerns video. It looks like the unit does standard Composite Video but can it least do S-Video off of the motherboard? I strongly prefer RGB Analog but it doesn't look like the unit outputs that. When I get one of these units I will do the cartridge port hack but I will put the motherboard in a real 2600 case. That way I have room to do whatever I want to the motherboard. I have several 2600jr boards and I can desolder a cartridge port from one of those. I will also mount the 9-pin ports in the front and take a PS2 AV plug and put it in the back so I can use PlayStation AV cables.

"I've often wondered, is there anyone on here, aside from myself, who owns all five Namco Museum games?" *raises hand*

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned "The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay". A very good game, especially for a licensed property, with lots of quotable lines. Another game I liked was "Thief: Deadly Shadows". Certainly something different. I just completed "Manhunt" (not bad if you don't mind the gore - but the game tends to crash near the end so beware) and am looking so forward to "Conker's Live and Reloaded". And what about "Return To Castle Wolfenstein: Tides Of War"? Another pretty good FPS plus you can unlock the original Wolfenstein 3-D as a bonus.

I currently have two 15Khz compatible RGB monitors (a Commodore 1084 and a NEC MultiSync 3D). I play all of my games exclusively in RGB. I have an RGB box that contains a EL1883 sync separation chip and I use homebrew cables to connect it to my game consoles (Xbox, Genesis, SNES, PS1/2, SMS, N64 (RGB modified)). I most recently modified my PlayStation 2 to access the RGB and Sync channels straight from the motherboard. By doing this I am able to use any VGA monitor (instead of just Sync-On-Green only) when playing any Progressive Scan games (such as "Soul Calibur II") and getting around MacroVision and Component Video Forceback when playing DVD's. I had to make another RGB box for this modified PS2 because by tapping into the RGB just after it leaves the graphics chip it needs to be amplified. So my PS2 RGB box contains a section of a Genesis motherboard (that contains a CXA-1145 RGB encoder chip - which has excellent amplification properties) to brighten the picture. I also play my DreamCast games exclusively in VGA. Wouldn't have it any other way. I am also a member of GamesX and I post to their RGB and Monitors forum.

All you have to do is desolder one pin and lift it off of the board and place some insulation under it to isolate it. Then you attach a 10K ohm resistor to the pin and then attach the other end to 3.3 volts I believe. That's it. The other beauty of it is that this hack also removes the sync from green so you don't have to worry about the green tint when trying to use it on a non-SOG monitor. The chip also has Horizontal and Vertical sync outputs so you can use them for VGA. There was a site that had the complete instructions but went offline. However, they can be found in the main internet archive (you may have to use Google to help pin it down). There is also a place out of Hong Kong (I think) that actually makes VGA cables using the Component Video cables so you don't have to do all of the work.

How about RGB Analog video output?

The reason that the cable is high priced and hard to acquire is because the cable has the DAC chip built into the plug that goes to the GameCube. In addition, there is also a hack you can do to the chip to make it produce Progressive Scan RGB so you can use it with a standard computer monitor. What I find funny about the GC cable is that Nintendo recently started making GameCubes without the Digital A/V port because they said only 1% of users were supporting it. When you don't make the cable widely available of course you're only going to get a 1% support rate.

Part of the blurriness problem stems from using Composite Video for upscanning. Your best bet is to use S-Video. It will look much better. Most cheap upscan boxes are for shit. Like JB said, try to get an XRGB2, which is one of the superior upscanners (at least from what I hear since I do not own one myself). Viewsonic also makes a line of quality upscanners but, like the XRGB2, they do not come cheap (at $150+). Incidentally, the PS2 can actually output a VGA signal. Unfortunately, only a handful of games support it. On top of that, you need to mod a Component Video cable to attach it to a monitor plus your monitor has to support Sync-On-Green. But, playing "Soul Calibur II" in VGA is pretty freaking sweet so the extra work is worth it (for me at least).

"The first game to use the rampack was Rogue Squadron." Wrong. That honor belongs to "Turok 2: Seeds of Evil" which was a pretty good game for the old N64 along with it's sequel "Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion". Whenever I do any RGB experiments on the N64 I use the Turok 2 cart because when it's high res is turned on it becomes the best looking game in the N64 library (IMHO even better looking than SW: Rogue Squadron). "Doom 64" is also pretty good. I liked "Road Rash 64" too. One of my favorite little tricks I liked to do is, if you stopped just right at the finish and was parked next to another rider and you had the cattle prod or tear gas, you could zap the other rider as much as you want and still get credit for every zap since you had to hit another button to proceed to the next screen. Graphics kinda sucked but still a good game. "GoldenEye" is THE very reason I have an N64. "Perfect Dark" is also pretty good but it tends to slog down a lot because RareWare pushed the machine to it's absolute max. And I loved "Conker's Bad Fur Day". I am eagerly anticipating the Xbox version. The current demo for the Xbox version rocks. If you like the GTA games you may want to check out "Body Harvest" since it was done by the same company, before it became Rockstar North, and it has a similar feel.

Here's my list. As you can see I don't have one particular favorite..... Arcade Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom Road Runner Krull Pengo Arch Rivals (and it's on the Midway Arcade Treasures 2 disc. Yes!) Pigskin (I hope this makes it for Midway Arcade Treasures 3) Mortal Kombat Bosconian (Thankfully this is on Namco Museum Vol. 1 (PS1)) Rally X (also on Namco Museum Vol. 1) Crazy Climber Computer Spy vs. Spy Series (Commodore 64) Monkey Island 1 and 2 (Commodore Amiga) Airborne Ranger (Commodore 64) Impossible Mission 2 (Commodore 64) Defender of the Crown (Commodore Amiga - the very reason I got an Amiga) The Three Stooges (Commodore Amiga) (The PlayStation version would have been a lot better if they used the Amiga version instead of the Game Boy Advance version to port) Wings (Commodore Amiga) (The last great Cinemaware game) Captive (Commodore Amiga) (Very cool concept) Cannon Fodder (Commodore Amiga) (Hard as hell in spots but still fun) Lords of the Rising Sun (Commodore Amiga) (Better than Defender of the Crown. Can't rescue the damn princess because of the stupid decision to use the mouse to move around when inside the castle during a siege. What's up with that?) Consoles Yar's Revenge (Atari 2600) Pinball Fantasies (Atari Jaguar) (I always seem to gravitate to this whenever I fire up the old Jaguar. Maybe because it reminds me so much of the Amiga I guess.) GoldenEye (Nintendo 64 - the very reason I have a Nintendo 64) Conker's Bad Fur Day (Nintendo 64) (Can't wait for the Xbox version.) MDK2 (Sega Dreamcast) (Hard as hell near the end but has an awesome soundtrack by Jesper Kyd.) Grand Theft Auto 3 (PlayStation 2 - the very reason I have a PlayStation 2.) Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (PlayStation 2) Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PlayStation 2) (Yes the game's not out yet but you can see the pattern here.....)

As promised, here is the link I mentioned earlier: http://www.razor3donline.com/3dhardware.html Just click on the Wired Glasses link. It would be knid of cool if one can get the wireless model to work on the SMS.....

The lenses in the 3-D glasses are liquid crystal. They are designed to alternate between left and right really really fast. The graphics within the game also alternate left and right really really fast and when in sync with the glasses will produce the 3-D effect. By the way, you might also want to look for "Maze Hunter". Pretty good 3D in that one. The main issue with those glasses, at least with me, is the frame. They are made for children and hurts like hell, especially around the nose, when I used them. I later removed the lenses from the frame in hopes of putting them into a more comfortable framework. But I found a website, the address I don't remember, that sold 3D stuff for TV sets. They also sold spare liquid crystal glasses that, at first glance, would make excellent replacement glasses for the SMS and for less than $20 (if I remember correctly). I will try to find the link later for it is very late at night here and I'm getting tired.

I'm kind of surprised the no one has mentioned "The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay". One of the best surprises this year. A great way to show off your Xbox. Just got "Midway Arcade Treasues 2" today (Xbox). Based on what I've played so far they did a reasonably good job on the games that interest me the most ("Arch Rivals", "Total Carnage", "Gauntlet II").

The DreamCast still has one advantage over the other consoles - built-in VGA. Once you hook up the DreamCast to a VGA monitor, using either a pre-made or self-made (it ain't that hard to build) VGA box, you won't want to put it on a regular set again. Think "Soul Calibur" looks awesome in S-Video? It looks truly spectacular in 640x480 VGA. To this day I refuse to play my DreamCast on anything other than my monitors. If you want VGA (or something that passes for it) from the other consoles you have to use trickery, hacking, and/or converter boxes to acquire it. With the DreamCast all you had to do was tap into it. Simple. Not every game supported VGA. But most of the few that didn't weren't worth getting anyway.

You're not the only Gojira fan around here Godzilla. I have Super Godzilla (Super Nintendo), Godzilla: Generations (Dreamcast - Import. And yes, I do want Godzilla: Generations: Maximum Impact (Dreamcast - Import)), and The Movie Monster Game (C64). I also assume that you may have checked out Toho's web site concerning the upcoming Godzilla: Final Wars movie. Seeing Godzilla standing in the middle of a giant crater in the middle of downtown Tokyo certainly has my interest piqued. But of course, this topic is about the Alien movies so.... I have the following games: Alien - (C64) Aliens - (C64 - Activision) Aliens - (C64 - Electric Dreams) Alien 3 - (Commodore Amiga) Alien 3 - (Sega Genesis) Alien 3 - (Super Nintendo) Alien vs. Predator - (Atari Jaguar)

OK. Next question. Is there any way to get English instructions for Electric Dreams version of "Aliens"? I bought my copy when I was living in West Germany in the late '80s and the instructions were in German and French. I did a partial translation from the German side but got nowhere. Has somebody managed to post the English instructions of this game somewhere?

You want frustrating? Try playing "Stuntman". That is probably the single most frustrating game (as a whole as opposed to a couple of levels within) that I have ever played. And I have been playing games for nearly 30 years. Don't get me wrong. "Stuntman" is a very cool concept and a cool game but it has so many design flaws I could write a book (a thick one) full of bug reports. For every one thing that makes "Stuntman" cool it does at least two things that are not cool. Since this game was done by the same people behind the "Driver" series, I have very strong reservations about "Driv3r". As for frustrating levels I think that levels 9 and 10 in "Cannon Fodder" (Commodore Amiga) are the ones that stick out the most for me.