August update 2019

William Quade on August 4, 2019

It has been a while since I last made a blog post (it’s quickly approaching a year). I’ve primarily been improving the PS1 and PS2 modchip guides. I have also been keeping up with my eBay store and the store on this website. In this August 2019 update I’m writing about what my plans are for this blog in the coming months.

Guide update

I have been working on comprehensive guides for PS1 and PS2 modchips. They are to help others get information about chips, and how to install them. It makes more sense to put installation instructions into more static pages instead of chronological blog posts. [Read More]

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]