– Retrodrömmar
Previously I wrote a post about replacing the capacitors of a Game Gear (see, Game Gear re-cap). I recently bought another Game Gear that would not power on, so I made another re-cap, with a slightly revised routine for replacing the capacitors. For instructions on how to disassembly the Game Gear, and how to identify the capacitors, please see the post linked above. In this…
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The Wii classic controller was a welcome addition for Nintendo’s console since it resembles a more conventional gamepad unlike the Wii remote + nunchuck combination. I recently bought a classic controller with a broken cable on Swedish eBay, and in this post I write a few notes about the repair. To disassembly the connector, you need a special “triwing” screwdriver, also used to disassembly a…
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I heard some good things about the Super Nintendo (SNES) 118 in 1 “118×1” multicart (see e.g. this Youtube video), and figured I will give it a try. My intention with the cart is that it will serve as a way to play SNES games on original hardware while until my collection of original games grow a bit larger. However, my previous experiences with for…
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Sony’s Playstation Portable (PSP) was an attempt to seriously challenge Nintendo’s dominance on the handheld market where prior challengers, such as the SEGA Game Gear, had failed. PSP has been released in numerous variants. The first version was released in Japan in 2004, followed by USA and Europe in 2005. Today, the PSP is still popular due to how easy it is to softmod the…
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In another post about the Playstation Portable, I write about how to softmod the unit. In this post I will demonstrate how to replace the analog thumbstick, which becomes subject to wear and tear over time. A symtom of a failing analog stick is “drifting”, that is, in a game, the stick will pull in a direction without you touching it. Although there are guides…
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Like any other old controller, the SEGA Master System gamepad can be worn over time, which causes faults such as non-responsive buttons, or directions on the d-pad to stop working. One of my controllers would not react when I pressed up on the d-pad, and in this post I will describe how I repaired it. Disassembly the SEGA Master System controller To disassembly the controller,…
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The Amiga series of computes were created by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s as 16-bit successors to iconic machines such as Commodore 64 (and Commodore 128). In this post I will write some notes about how to keep the keyboard membrane of your Amiga 500 in good condition. I recently bought an A500 on Swedish eBay in relatively good condition, but the keys did…
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I recently bought a Gameboy lot with a unit, games, and a case. Included in the lot was a couple of oddly shaped multi-game cartridges. I decided to take a look inside one of them. As seen below, what makes this cartridge “tick” is two chip-on-boards (the black lumps). However, what puzzles me is that the cart also contains several unused spaces for IC:s. What…
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In this post I write some notes about fixing a Game Gear with a very dark screen. The dark screen is one of the symtoms of failing capacitors in the console. This is a common problem with the Game Gear, and the procedure to replace the capacitors is pretty straight forward, although challenging in my experience, as I will further describe below. Step 1: Disassemble…
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I recently bought a Commodore 128 (C128) on Swedish eBay for a good price. In this post I will write a few notes about the disassembly of this lovely machine (I wanted to inspect the insides, and give it a good clean). The C128 was introduced in 1985 as a sequel to the popular Commodore 64. By default, the C128 runs in “Commodore 128-mode”, but…
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