The Blog

Sega Master System II in 8-bit Mayhem

Nix McRetro // 14th November 2013 // Repairs, Sega, YouTube

I must say I prefer the 16-bit lifestyle, but this Master System II came up and I couldn’t resist grabbing it before it was kicked to the gutter. There’s a bit where I get composite AV out, but this is part of the investigation rather than a finished composite-modification guide.... Continue reading

Cleaning a Sega Master System Controller

Nix McRetro // 13th November 2013 // Repairs, Sega, YouTube

My Sega Master System sits on the shelf unrepaired, but the controller? We can fix that! Button 2 was behaving very badly, so we whipped out some metho and gave it a good scrub down. At the time I also wondered whether a pencil eraser could give the contacts the... Continue reading

PSIO Prototype 1.1 Game Demo: Tenchu: Stealth Assassins

Nix McRetro // 9th November 2013 // Gaming, Sony, YouTube

Sadly we only got an intro video with no sound, and then the game appeared to have disappeared into a blank screen. No worries, hardware version 2.0 is in the works! Please remember that this is a prototype device and these results do not necessarily reflect the final hardware or... Continue reading

Sony PS one Replacement Laser Assembly Spindle Hub Height Issues

Nix McRetro // 9th November 2013 // Repairs, Sony, YouTube

Just a word of warning to anyone else buying ‘new’ laser assemblies from China / Hong Kong eBay sellers. Of about eight replacement assemblies I bought, only two seemed to hold the hub on properly… but only just! At the time I blamed a motor spindle that was too short.... Continue reading

PSIO Prototype 1.1 Game Demo: Rage Racer

Nix McRetro // 8th November 2013 // Gaming, Sony, YouTube

We have a few laps in Rage Racer, with crash physics even more realistic than Burnout 1 or Need for Speed III. The only thing that wasn’t working seemed to be the background music. At the time I suspected the missing music was due to as-yet unimplemented CD-XA capabilities. Rage... Continue reading