The Blog

Learning to Desolder Microchips

Nix McRetro // 14th July 2012 // Repairs

Desoldering success! What about resoldering? Stay tuned, I might do some of that shortly if I find the energy to wake up before the afternoon. Continue reading

Faulty Sega Saturn from Japan (CD Deck Issues)

Nix McRetro // 14th July 2012 // Repairs, Sega

You might remember the above video from a while back if you are a regular. The disc spins backward and the laser motor goes berserk as well. Enter chip marked BA6798S located on the left of the CD deck board. Rumour has it that this chip controls the motors. Since... Continue reading

Nixie Clock Slot Machine Demo by Chronix

Nix McRetro // 13th July 2012 // News

Here’s my prized Nixie clock from Chronix I got a few months back. Just thought I’d throw a video online showing it cycling through the cathode poisoning prevention routine (slot machine style!). Also, I should have some more photos and documentation up this weekend. Update 2013-04-23: Replaced NiCad battery with... Continue reading

Sega Mega Drive Frenzy

Nix McRetro // 3rd July 2012 // Repairs, Sega

I do not think I could take apart another Mega Drive… at least not for a few days. I’ve gone ahead and taken some great quality pictures of the innards of five of my functioning Mega Drive Model 1s and two of my non-functioning Mega Drive Model 2s. I found... Continue reading

Sega TeraDrive Hard Drive Interface IDE / ESDI / XTA

Nix McRetro // 24th June 2012 // IBM PC, Repairs, Sega

Sega TeraDrive Hard Drive Interface IDE / ESDI / XTA

Above are some photos of Sega TeraDrive hard drive. Sadly it looks like a simple interface is not possible natively by the looks. See the TeraDrive HD pinout spreadsheet on the File Server for the differences in pins. There’s half the data pins missing! 8-bit vs 16-bit perhaps? Sure you... Continue reading