The Blog

Sega Saturn Model 1 Power Supply Issues

Nix McRetro // 24th March 2012 // Repairs, Sega

To reproduce the fault, I ran the Saturn for more than an hour until it was thoroughly warmed up. The music player was more than sufficient for this. I then made some recordings to help narrow down where the noise seemed to be coming from. This meant investigating the Saturn’s... Continue reading

Amstrad Sega Mega PC Controller

Nix McRetro // 24th March 2012 // IBM PC, Sega

Picked this up on eBay from the UK and gave it a bit of a clean. It has become my favourite Mega Drive controller. Internally it is much the same as another Mega Drive controller I cleaned yesterday, although that one sadly had some tabs snapped off the D-pad. Amstrad’s... Continue reading

Amstrad Sega Mega PC Disassembled

Nix McRetro // 22nd March 2012 // IBM PC, Repairs, Sega

A quick look inside the Amstrad Mega PC with the system pulled apart. The Sega Mega Drive hardware sits on a dedicated ISA card inside the PC. This is the same machine that arrived in not-so-good condition with NiCad battery corrosion on the motherboard. Related posts Amstrad Sega Mega PC... Continue reading

Math Coprocessors and You

Nix McRetro // 22nd March 2012 // IBM PC, Repairs, Sega

Or, more specifically, math coprocessors for the Amstrad Mega PC and my 486SLC upgrade. The ULSI US83S87 Advanced Math Coprocessor is intended for 33 MHz SX/SLC systems. This one has a 9401 date code and comes in a 68-pin PLCC package. 387SX-compatible math coprocessors use the sort of external interface... Continue reading

Amstrad Sega Mega PC 486SLC Upgrade Experiment

Nix McRetro // 21st March 2012 // IBM PC, Repairs, Sega

Amstrad Sega Mega PC 486SLC Upgrade Experiment

Browsing the internet, I came across an Amstrad PC7486SLC motherboard. I couldn’t help noticing how similar it looked to the Mega PC motherboard. Since my Mega PC was already giving me grief with its hard-drive controller, having another related Amstrad motherboard around for spare parts seemed like a pretty good... Continue reading