The Blog

Sega Saturn Power Supply Swap Hints and Tips

Nix McRetro // 10th February 2019 // Hacks, Sega, YouTube

Here’s a few of the potential pitfalls to watch out for when swapping power supplies between Sega Saturn revisions. In this video I’m fitting a compatible 240V PSU to a Japanese “This is COOL” Skeleton Saturn so I can use it directly from Australian mains. That is a power-supply swap,... Continue reading

Denon DCD-F101 Eject Mechanism Repair

Nix McRetro // 8th February 2019 // Hacks, Repairs, YouTube

This one sure was a doozy, I lost most of the footage and just ended up with what you see in the above video. At least the darned thing works. Not that I personally use CDs or DVDs for that matter. I don’t see the attraction. For CDs, my hearing... Continue reading

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