Author Archive: Dreamcast

Macintosh SE/30 recap and repair

Macintosh SE30 mainboard

I recently acquired an untested Macintosh SE/30 from Swedish eBay. It was a promising project as the seller stated that the battery was removed without signs of leakage. These machines are infamous for being damaged by leaky batteries. When I booted the machine I was presented a bright screen with horizontal lines, no beeps or signs of any OS. Macintosh SE/30 recap The second thing…
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The rise of PC gaming

Monkey Island screenshot

In this post we’ll summarize key events and characteristics that led to players turning to their PC:s for gaming. The materials are based on various sources, such as Jamie Lendino’s excellent book “Starflight: How the PC and DOS exploded computer gaming 1987 – 1994”. Let’s dive right into it. How did the personal computer go from being purely business-oriented machines to gaming powerhouses? The PC’s…
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Why did the Dreamcast fail?

Dreamcast

I decided to give ChatGPT (3) a go, to explain why the Dreamcast failed. It generated the following response: The Dreamcast was a video game console developed by Sega and released in 1998. Despite receiving critical acclaim and having a strong initial launch, the Dreamcast ultimately failed in the market and was discontinued in 2001. There were several reasons for its failure, including: Competition: The…
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Compaq Presario 460

Compaq Presario

I recently acquired a Compaq Presario 460 from Swedish eBay. I did not know this model existed before I saw it online. As a kid I owned a Presario 433 while my buddy owned a 425. A few years ago I bought a Compaq Presario CDS 520. The difference between the “CDS” range and the regular Presarios is that the former has integreated sound card…
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Nintendo DS Lite screen flickering fix

NDS Lite

This post describes how you fix screen flickering on your Nintendo DS Lite. The fix is relatively straight forward: If you experience flickering on one of your screens, you fix it by adjusting screws (potentiometers) in the battery compartment. For this procedure, all you need is a tiny Philips screwdriver. In the example below, I am fixing flickering of the lower screen. Step 1: Open…
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Game Gear volume control replacement

Game Gear volume control

My recapped Game Gear had a problem with scraping sound when adjusting the volume with the volume control. There is a relatively straight forward way to fix that: replacing the volume control wheel. To do so, you need some basic soldering skills and tools. The volume control is a 10KA (log) Potentiometer. My potentiometer was a bit slimmer than the original, but that is not…
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PS Vita softmod

PS-Vita-Softmod7

The PS Vita, released in 2011, is a very capable handheld console, and you can really benefit from softmodding it, allowing you to play homebrews, backups, emulators, etc. In this post, we will show how you softmod the system, step by step. The following steps will be performed: Update firmware to 3.65 or above. Install h-encore and Vitadeploy Install Ensō Finalize setup Install NoNpDrm +…
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