The Blog

The Jewel of the Xbox

Nix McRetro // 7th February 2019 // Devkit, Microsoft, Repairs

For the longest time I’ve had this Kasumi Blue Xbox from a fellow game enthusiast from way down Melbourne way. And for the longest time the darned jewel has been crooked. I got around to straightening it up. I ended up opting for some fishing wire as my floss is... Continue reading

27C1024 EPROM Dumping with the MiniPro TL866

Nix McRetro // 1st February 2019 // Guides, Programming, YouTube

Ah yes, the ways of the 16-bit chip. Here we dump a Mega-CD BIOS several times to make sure we’re getting consistent reads. It’s also a good idea to reseat the chip between dumps, giving the socket contacts another chance to betray you if something isn’t making a clean connection.... Continue reading

The Two Sides of Every Unboxing Video Ever

Nix McRetro // 30th January 2019 // Sega, YouTube

The first side is as vanilla and ordinary as you would imagine an unboxing video to be. The controller in the box is extracted through the process one would usually expect. You could consider this the safe for work (SFW) or safe for life (SFL) version. The second side of... Continue reading

University Study Update (2018 Recap)

Nix McRetro // 26th January 2019 // Study

GPA Results GPA Semester 2, 2015 5.5* Semester 1, 2017 6.5 Semester 2, 2017 5.3 Semester 1, 2018 6.7 Semester 2, 2018 6.3 Overall course GPA 6.1 * Entry exams to get into the degree. I was curious about how my results were shaping up for my first two years... Continue reading

Sega Dreamcast Dev Kit Software Overview

Nix McRetro // 19th January 2019 // Devkit, Repairs, Sega

We check the HKT-0120 dev kit and HKT-0400 GD writer using DA-Check v2.32, then play around with GDWorkshop 2.9.0K alongside hardware firmware 2.9.1b. The game that we were able to tinker with was WSB2K2 - World Series Baseball 2K2, not much of an exciting game but watch on to perhaps... Continue reading