RGB-modded PAL N64!

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metrolf
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RGB-modded PAL N64!

Post by metrolf » Thu Dec 13, 2012 7:52 pm

A while ago I started working on getting my PAL N64 to output RGB. I could stand the horrible composite-video no longer! I know many believe that the PAL N64 can never squeeze out RGB, but you shall stand corrected I say! :lol: I found a forum called NFGGames.com/forum and it seemed like the ideal place to dig up relevant information and it was ;) I decided to go with viletims RGB mod. A big thanks goes to the forum users viletim for providing the elusive RGB-DAC chip and to E5frog for sending me a circuit board to mount everything on and for providing tons of help, tips and guidance! Honestly wouldn't have gotten it done without the help :D

I'll throw up a few pics of the installation and the results, which is awesome 8)

The board completely assembled:
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The board installed and ready to do it's thing:
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I really hate this level...
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Close up showing a star and Mario feeling a bit yellow. In RGB. Horrible joke.
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Oh, and yeah; Bruno wants to fight!
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The only problem I have is this. I do not know if I got a resistor value wrong on my mod or if it's simply supposed to be like this. The blocks on the wall seems a bit weird to me. It's the same for example the skies and on the walls in the temple of time in Ocarina of Time. No biggie tho, just wondering if anyone knows what might be causing this if it's not supposed to look like this.
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One last thing: I first hooked the scart-plug into a Smartlink Scart-socket on my TV and after five minutes the picture started bleeding colours all over, eventually ending up with a screen covered in colorful smudge then it went black. For an hour or so the console didn't output anything but noise. I was convinced everything was fried and destroyed and was almost crying at this point :'( Then the next day I remembered something I read somewhere about smartlink-scart sockets. I think these smartlinks sends power back and forth across some lead in the cable and since the N64 and the RGB DAC wasn't made to receive anything at all it overheated or something. I think. So I switched to another input-socket and the picture is stable now and works flawlessly at all times ;D Relieved, you might say.

Well I guess thats it. Turned out great. Truly hope this forum will wake up from it's dormant, near-dead state sometime in the future 8)
thewise1 wrote:
nobble wrote:
thewise1 wrote:Super long, but incredibly epic.
YESSSSSS!!!
Oh my gosh! What have I done?

markus
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Re: RGB-modded PAL N64!

Post by markus » Mon Dec 17, 2012 6:52 pm

That's really awesome! Do you have any comparison pictures? I'd like to see the quality difference. :lol:
Markus

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metrolf
Portablizer Extraordinaire
Posts:75
Joined:Sun Feb 07, 2010 1:26 pm
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Location:Norway-Trondheim

Re: RGB-modded PAL N64!

Post by metrolf » Mon Dec 24, 2012 8:16 pm

I would like to, but the composite cable I have does not have the resistor on the composite line. I used that in my N64portable. This means the picture I get from it is too bright to give a fair comparison. I could hook it up to my lcd and set it to s-video scart, but I'm sick of moving my 64 around now. I'm lazy, sue me :lol:
The main things that gets fixed is the jittery noise between two colors, for instance around the life indicators in Mario 64 there was a lot of fuzz with composite. Now its crisp and clean.

I just remembered this video where composite, s-video and RGB is being compared on a hdtv and a crt tv, it shows exactly what I've experienced!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GipNV9Ifww" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
thewise1 wrote:
nobble wrote:
thewise1 wrote:Super long, but incredibly epic.
YESSSSSS!!!
Oh my gosh! What have I done?

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