This thread is my N64 Portable's (still haven't thought of a good name) Official Proggress Thread. I will be posting all my advances in portablizing my N64, and also questions on certain aspects of it. So here it is.

My First Day of Modding:

I just got home with a brand spanking (used) new n64 and I immediately starting chopping the mofo up. With the aid of screwdriver attachments that i had, that just fit perfectly onto the N64 screws. Like they were made by nintendo themselves (take that nintendo!)

After ripping everything off, I proceded to spray the motherboard with air in a can to get off all of the dog hairs left by the previous owner. There was a big clump of dog hair down in the depths of the cartridge slot which was hell, but I managed to pry it out with a safety pin.

Anyways, here is the current state of the N64; just a (relatively) small, plain old N64 motherboard, itching to be modded to the MAX!!!

*WARNING 56K DANGER*
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/5126/epsn00038rs.jpg
*WARNING 56K DANGER*

I have a couple questions about where to go from here.

1. I hear the printed date on the motherboard indicating, I suppose, when it was manufactured can affect modding (being really finicky). Would this affect mine (1999)?

2. If I understand daguuy's guide correctly, I'm supposed to take of those metal blocks before putting on heatsinks, correct?


Gamelver here. Just wanted to say check pages 2 and 3 for info on the 3.3V converter you can build .

you can keep them and put heat sinks ontop of them or remove them and put heatsinks on the chips to save space. or if you love big bulky heavy stuff, you could keep the original heat sink. what you can't do is just use the blocks for heat sinks

Holy cow yours is a late revision.. I was lucky to get one from 96-97.

1. being a late model, Nintendo pulled out all the protective components possible to be cheaper. It will go ZAP if you short or reverse polarity.

2. Those metla blocks are simply connectors between the chip and the metal plate. They will not work by themselves, I'd get a few heatsinks and stick them on with thermal adhesive.
You can also remove them and place te heatsink directly on the chip (but it gets gooey then.)

I have another N64 lying around, it's my friends, so that's why I'm not using it for the portable. But now that I have another one, I suppose he wouldn't mind if I swapped the N64's (only of course if his is an earlier revision). As I dont think he'll be taking up an N64 Portable task in the near future.

And thanks for clearing that up about the metal blocks.

I'll work on it more tomorrow, and see if the other N64 has an earlier revision. I can't really start completely working on it untill I find a nice 'n cheap PSone screen. I have one of my buds on the lookout for anybody he knows that has the screen. So untill that happends all I can really do is slap on some heatsinks, relocate the cartridge slot, and chop up the controller.

Sorry for the double post, but nobody will notice the post if I just edit.

As most of you should know i recently purchased a Psone & Screen from ebay for only $36 with shipping. Once it arrives I can finally start really working on the project. And I should get pretty far considering it's going to be the Christmas break when I'll be doing this.

On to business, since I'll be getting a brand-new spanking white Psone, is anybody interested in getting the old grey playstation? I pretty sure it works, it did the last time I tried it. I will make sure later of course. So, any takers?

Oh, and by the way, I got a 1997 rev. Ended up using my own N64 *gasp* as it was the only 1997 model I had. Let me tell you, contrary to what you might think, it's not very fun opening up so many N64s.

I just noticed that the N64 has the same on/off and reset swithches as the mini SNES

No, it has the same reset switch, but that's it.

Today while I was looking on ebay for a new N64, which in the description, specifically states that the console was bought in 1996. I wanted one of these 1996 revisions so I could do an RGB mod with it. As my current 1997 revision N64 has no VDC-NUS chip, only an AVDC-NUS with 32 pins instead of 24, and also with no C124,125, or 126 resistors in sight.

Still no luck, but I did stumble accross an intersting console.
http://cgi.ebay.ca/NINTENDO-64-PIKACHU- ... dZViewItem
An N64 "Pikachu" console, which in the picture, seems ALOT smaller than the orignal N64. I wont be bidding on it due to it's almost certain lack of RGB-modability, but others who are less concerned with that, and more concerned with size might want to get it.

I noticed the RGB mod on POD, which was only placing 200uF caps on the Red, Green, and Blue pins of the N64 motherboard. And I was wondering what this actualy accomplished, and if this is all I really need to do to achieve RGB. Does RGB not require DC reference levels, unlike regular TV receivers?

back to the topic of heatsinks, i found a cheap supply of good heatinks. chipsets! some comptuers have a tiny heatsink on their chipset. i found one thats only like 1/4 inch high. my friends dad has a comptuer graveyard in their basement (litereally. comptuer parts EVERYWHERE) so im going to go heatsink hunting next time i go over.

Im going to chop up an old P3 heatsink my neighbour gave me, it should do well.

actually if you look at the cart slot, it looks exactly the same size as a normal N64. N64 controllers are just really big. I heard the RGB mod gives you a very weak signal. if you want good quality video from an N64, go for s-video. some people even prefer it to RGB

if you have a proper rgb signal vs a proper s-video signal, i dont knwo how it would be possible to prefer s-video. there are real mathematically proveable reasons why rgb gives a better picture.

as far as the rgb on the nintendo, everyone says its weak. but i was thinking. maybe thats because everyone is happily going about connecting their screens right to the chip, when theres really supposed to be some other componennts inbetween... capacitors?

There is an RGB amplifier circuit right here:
http://people.freenet.de/rgb/
Its for scart, but I suppose you could just forget the scart portion and just use the output for regular RGB.

I'm still asking, will the 200uf cap mod work for the RGB?

On the older 64s which had actual RGB out, people found the signal with additional components was actually worse than composite, which is why they say to connect straight to the chip, even on the old ones. In other words, N64 RGB sucks.

BTW, I think most people use 220nF caps on the lines, but it still doesn't work.

Damn, I'm doomed to use the dreaded composite video then..but S-video sounds promising, can I see some comparison screenshots?

Edit:
Well I found some comparison screenshots
http://atarilabs.com/meat/2000/1201_videoprimer.shtml
RGB looks SOO much better than the other two, are you sure there is no way to get a good RGB signal from my n64?