The Blog

HANZO Sega Dreamcast VGA Box and Scanliner Overview

Nix McRetro // 31st January 2013 // Categories: Gaming, Sega, YouTube

My HANZO VGA box has arrived for the Sega Dreamcast, complete with an impressive collection of switches. VGA, audio, scanlines, more switches and even more switches. Wonderful! Half the fun is going to be working out what they all do. For testing I’m using my Dreamcast with the smokey grey... Continue reading

Cross Products SNASM Mega-CD Development Unit

Nix McRetro // 22nd January 2013 // Categories: Devkit, Repairs, Sega

Here’s the latest addition to the collection. It cost me a pretty penny, but it’s certainly one of the highlights now. This is a Cross Products SNASM Mega-CD development unit, and I’ve finally managed to have a quick play with it. The good news is that it appears to work!... Continue reading

Aiwa Mega-CD CSD-GM1 BIOS Dump: MPR-15768-T

Nix McRetro // 21st January 2013 // Categories: Hacks, Repairs, Sega

Someone on the ASSEMbler Games forums pointed out that the Aiwa Mega-CD CSD-GM1 BIOS didn’t appear to have been dumped. Well, that’s a good enough excuse to pull another machine apart! This became a three-part project involving disassembling the Game Unit, removing the BIOS ROM, and dumping its contents. The... Continue reading

Sega Mega Drive 32X Jittery Video: VA4 Service Bulletin Diagnosis

Nix McRetro // 20th January 2013 // Categories: Repairs, Sega, YouTube

Another chapter in the ongoing saga of the Sega Mega Drive 32X on PAL hardware. I’d noticed that Doom was developing a glitchy video problem: it would start out looking normal, but after a few minutes the picture would begin shifting around. As the machine warmed up, the backgrounds would... Continue reading

Removing an EPROM from a Sega Prototype / Test Cartridge

Nix McRetro // 20th January 2013 // Categories: Guides, Sega, YouTube

So I was thinking, why not? What a fun little experiment this turned out to be! I’d been dumping EPROMs from a Sega cartridge containing Monopoly, and the board had four ROM chips fitted. While working through them, I started wondering what would happen if I removed one and tried... Continue reading