Original Xbox 128MB RAM upgrade

William Quade on December 15, 2018

A couple years ago I attempted to upgrade the RAM in an original Xbox from 64MB to 128MB. That attempt wasn’t a success. More recently I tried the original Xbox 128MB RAM upgrade again, this time successfully. This post covers the process of upgrading the RAM in the original Xbox. I cover what I did wrong with my first attempt, and how I was able to successfully upgrade the RAM with my second attempt.

What’s the point of upgrading the RAM?

The truth about upgrading the RAM in an original Xbox is that it isn’t incredibly useful. You don’t really see any benefits while playing retail games or anything like that. There are however some benefits of upgrading the RAM. [Read More]

PSIO review and switch board installation – PS1 flashcart

William Quade on November 19, 2018

I’ve been following the PSIO for some time now, but didn’t have quite enough interest to purchase one myself. At the moment they cost $149 Australian dollars. After you make the order it may take several months or more to be shipped.

Earlier this month I was contacted by a customer asking if I could install a PSIO switch board into their system. Because of that, I had the opportunity to install a PSIO switch board, and test out the flashcart itself. This post is a brief review of my experiences with the PSIO after a few hours of use. [Read More]

Four switch Atari 2600 RGB mod installation guide (2600RGB)

William Quade on May 28, 2018

It has been a while since my last post and I have a lot of projects I have completed since then that I haven’t written about. I plan on working backwards starting with the most recent mod I did. This post covers how to install the 2600RGB board into a four switch Atari 2600, which allows the Atari 2600 console to output RGB video, a huge improvement over the native RF video output.

What is RGB video?

In the United States most older video game consoles used either RF or composite video (coaxial cable like what you get cable TV out of, or the yellow/red/white cables) to output onto a TV. These video output options are passable on a CRT television, but on a digital HDTV it can look quite bad. [Read More]

XenoGC GameCube modchip installation

William Quade on March 31, 2018

I’ve been selling XenoGC modchips for the Nintendo GameCube on my eBay store. I thought I’d write a guide on how to install the XenoGC.

The XenoGC is a popular modchip that allows you to do many things. It can directly boot both game backups and genuine games from any region. It will work on all GameCube models. The chip is fairly easy to install since it only requires soldering six points, no wires required.

The XenoGC source code was released in 2011, meaning if you wanted to you could make your own with an ATmega8L. I may end up doing this in the future, and writing a post about it. Right now you can find XenoGC chips available from places like eBay. [Read More]

Nintendo 64 (N64) RGB SCART video output using THS7374 amp

William Quade on January 28, 2018

I recently bought an Open Source Scan Converter, or OSSC, primarily to make PlayStation 1 games look better on my display. After seeing how well RGB looked on the PS1, I had to try it on other consoles.

I already owned a Nintendo 64 and was using S-Video for video output, which is better than composite, but not great. When I installed the THS7374 amplifier into my SNES Jr. I bought an extra amplifier so I could do the same mod to my Nintendo 64. That’s what this guide covers, getting RGB SCART video output from the Nintendo 64. [Read More]