The Blog

Sega TeraDrive BIOS Dump and ISA Memory Expansion

Nix McRetro // 7th November 2012 // Hacks, Sega

Sega TeraDrive BIOS Dump and ISA Memory Expansion

Another little piece of TeraDrive preservation today. I’ve dumped the machine’s PC BIOS using DOS DEBUG.COM and uploaded the result to the File Server. On early PC-compatible systems, DEBUG can be used to copy BIOS code that is mapped into the processor’s real-mode address space. The exact procedure depends on... Continue reading

Sega Saturn Model 1 VA0 Modchip Installation

Nix McRetro // 7th November 2012 // Hacks, News, Sega

As you can see from the video above, this modchip installation is for an early Sega Saturn Model 1 with the VA0-style 20-pin CD-board arrangement. This should not be treated as a universal Saturn modchip guide. Later Saturn revisions use different CD boards, ribbon cables and modchip arrangements, so identify... Continue reading

Apple Macintosh LC 475 - Derating Tantalum Capacitors

Nix McRetro // 7th November 2012 // Apple, Repairs, YouTube

Voltage derating is particularly important when substituting traditional solid tantalum capacitors into older equipment. A long-standing rule of thumb for conventional solid tantalums has been to operate them at no more than about 50% of their rated voltage. That rule should not simply be transferred to aluminium electrolytics, and modern... Continue reading

picoPSU-80 on a Pentium III 800 MHz

Nix McRetro // 5th November 2012 // IBM PC, Repairs, Sega

Here’s an idea of what the picoPSU-80 setup draws from the wall when connected to a Pentium III 800 MHz machine with 512 MB RAM, a hard drive and a floppy drive. It performs surprisingly well. I should really repeat this test with the machine under a meaningful CPU and... Continue reading

Aiwa Sega Mega-CD CSD-GM1 Startup Screen Translation

Nix McRetro // 5th November 2012 // Repairs, Sega

Aiwa Sega Mega-CD CSD-GM1 Startup Screen Translation

…Please Press the Start Button… …Checking the Disc… …Please Wait a Little Bit… Thanks to T_chan from ASSEMbler Games for the quick translation. So now I finally have some idea what the poor Aiwa is yelling at me while I press all the wrong buttons. I’m keeping these here as... Continue reading