– Retrodrömmar
The Dreamcast was released in 1998 and is still going strong. However, as with any old console, it requires some maintenance and updates to keep functioning. Even if the Dreamcast is built like a tank, one weak point is the power supply unit (PSU). It may fail over time, and generates heat that may shorten the lifetime of other components. Thus, it is a good…
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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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The SEGA Master System 2 was a low-cost version of the Master System console. The console was released in 1990. I recently acquired a SEGA Master System 2 with a faulty RF unit. These systems does not have another AV port, but can be easily modified to output composite video and audio through an rca jack. In this post I will show how to make…
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In a previous post on Game Gear recap I briefly mentioned that I was working on putting a Raspberry pi in a broken Game Gear. In this post, I will describe this project with more details. Similar to when building a Gameboy Zero, the process of building a Game Gear Zero essentially involves creating a handheld emulation device through the use of a raspberry pi…
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In this post I am taking a closer look at the green “Gen Top 100 SMS Top 100” multi cartridge that, as the title suggests, contain 100 games for Genesis / Mega Drive and 100 games for the Master System. My experiences are written based on running the cartridge on my PAL Mega Drive 1 connected to a CRT TV. First impressions The label on…
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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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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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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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In this post I will cover how to fix a Dreamcast controller port not working. Essentially, it involves replacing a broken fuse at the controller port board. While you are doing this, you can also replace the Dreamcast cmos battery. I will not describe how to disassembly the Dreamcast, since it is quite trivial (see, Dreamcast disassembly). What you need for this fix is the…
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ScummVM is a neat little application that allows you to run classic point-and-click adventure games on a variety of platforms, including Dreamcast. That means, you can run your old favorites such as Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Leisure Suit Larry, on your Dreamcast! To do so, you need to create a Discjuggler CDI-file (see, guide for burning cdi-files for Dreamcast). In this post I…
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