May 2012

Above is a quick demonstration of my dual-screen setup, with one of my Sega Saturns running alongside the other television. I’ve been doing some burn-in testing on the consoles, so I figured I might as well record a little Saturn action while everything was connected. More screens, more Sega! I’ve... Continue reading

The Nintendo Family Computer. Ohhhh yeahhhh! I’ve been experimenting with a composite AV modification for this Famicom, and after three revisions I’ve managed to get it working. This particular console actually belongs to somebody else, so the aim is to give its owner a usable video and audio output rather... Continue reading

Finally got a chance to test the Sega TeraDrive Model 3 that arrived a few days ago. Sega sold the Model 3 as the top configuration, with 2.5 MB of RAM, one 3.5-inch floppy drive and a 30 MB internal hard drive. Mine arrived without its hard drive. Thankfully the... Continue reading

Yikes! Listen to that motor spin and click. This white Japanese Sega Saturn was sold as faulty, and after watching its CD drive behave like this, I can see why. The spindle races away, the laser mechanism moves all over the place and the whole assembly sounds as though it’s... Continue reading

Does this Sega TeraDrive work never end? Will I never be content? I’ve been trying to get Windows 3.11 running on the Model 2, which is rather ambitious considering the machine has just 2.5 MB of RAM and no hard drive. Still, I’ve managed to squeeze it down onto a... Continue reading

The Sega Genesis Nomad. What an amazing beast. It didn’t work up until today, and the seller had kindly offered me a full refund if I returned it. Not while I have an empty weekend to do some repairing! I already knew there was a problem with the DC-in jack... Continue reading

Ladies and gentlemen, good news! The Sega Mega-CD Karaoke microphone has been repaired! It turns out that the replacement cartridge I ordered from eBay actually worked, so that’s a rather nice result for a ten-dollar part. The original microphone cartridge was faulty, and I’d already confirmed that the rest of... Continue reading

Japanese Sega Saturn Today I received my white Japanese Model 2 Sega Saturn from Japan. Look at it. Isn’t it just the cleanest-looking Saturn design you have seen? Well, compared with PAL Saturns at least. I’ve added it to the photo gallery too. It powers on without issue through the... Continue reading

Figured I should hit the Sega TeraDrive up with some diagnostics and found out some things I didn’t know. 1. The embedded SEGA startup environment appears to be based on PC DOS 3.x, and the version running here reports PC DOS 3.30. This is separate from the IBM DOS J4.0/V... Continue reading

Here’s a quick demonstration of the Sega Mega-CD Karaoke accessory. It’s a rather interesting little machine, but unfortunately the microphone that came with mine isn’t working properly. That’s not terribly useful for something designed around singing, is it? I suspected that the microphone cartridge itself was faulty, so I soldered... Continue reading

I’ve been experimenting with Windows on the Sega TeraDrive Model 2. Since this machine has two floppy drives and no hard drive, I’ve decided to see just how much Microsoft software I can squeeze onto a disk. Windows 2.1 went surprisingly well. I managed to get it running from a... Continue reading

Here’s another quick demonstration of the Sega TeraDrive, which is becoming one of my favourite strange computers. It’s a 286 running at 10 MHz with Mega Drive hardware integrated into the same machine, and today I’m finally having a proper play with its video output and Sonic the Hedgehog. My... Continue reading

I have just purchased a boxed Famicom from Japan. A rather nice and very white one for under $100, along with a couple of games: Hoshi no Kirby and Spelunker. This will be my first classic console and my first attempt at modding. What I plan to do is an... Continue reading

Some great news, some even better news, and then some unreal news. I’ve got three Sega machines to play with: a TeraDrive Model 2, a Mega Drive 2, and a Genesis Nomad. Not all of them are working, naturally, but that just gives me something to investigate. The TeraDrive is... Continue reading

Sega Mega CD Karaoke Box - Top View Sega Mega CD Karaoke - Top View Sega Mega CD Karaoke Microphone HAA-2932 Just a quick update. I received the Sega Mega-CD Karaoke add-on today, gave it a test and found that there is a buzzing noise from the unit while it... Continue reading

Above is me replacing the capacitors in my European-market Game Gear. This follows on from the earlier unit with very quiet audio and no usable video. The picture was there, but it was incredibly faint, and the sound wasn’t much better. Classic Game Gear capacitor problems! I figured replacing the... Continue reading

Alright, now we’re talking technology! Here’s a little LED counter kit that looks like it was designed in 1981 and marketed by Dick Smith Electronics ever since without a single modification. It doesn’t have much to do with Sega, but that hasn’t stopped us from finding a use for it.... Continue reading

Here’s what happens when you buy a network card for less than three Australian dollars. You might think an ethernet socket would be a fairly straightforward thing to manufacture, but apparently even that’s asking a bit much! The problem is the RJ45 connector. Normally you plug in the cable, the... Continue reading