EngineersCake

About three months ago I busted out my brother’s old Super Nintendo with the intention of playing all the way through Super Mario World. Much to my chagrin the task was much more challenging and time consuming than I anticipated. However with that invested time I was able to re-appreciate how much fun I had playing on this 19 year old video game system. I am by no means an avid gamer, but it was blast to play again.

One night a few weeks ago I brought this up to a few friends with whom I drink coffee regularly. I thought it would be one of those “Oh, cool” moments that would be forgotten just as quickly as I had mentioned it. That wasn’t the case at all. We chatted wistfully for a bit and it must have set something off in my buddy Brian because a day later I received a call from him explaining that he’d dug up his old Super Nintendo and original Nintendo but the Super Nintendo was broken. Sad that his system was didn’t work but cheered up that he’d called me about it. I told him that I would do everything in my power to bring the ancient masterpiece back to life. Heck, I’d already bought him Super Mario World.

He brought it to me the next day and I was anxious to get the thing apart and working again. Unfortunately in 1991 Nintendo thought it would be an super idea to use silly screws to fasten the system together. (4.5mm. gamebit screws for those interested) I was unable to get my hands on one so I did the next best thing. I went to Ace Hardware the following day with his Super Nintendo and bought a tool that “worked good enough” to get the screws out. I don’t even remember what size the nut-driver was that I bought. I returned it later because I’m a jerk like that. It started like this:

Once the case was apart, I thought whatever was ailing the thing would make it’s self known immediately. That was not the situation at all. Nothing looked out of place or broken or even old, and despite several thorough cleanings as suggested by countless people in the forums and on youtube it still ceased to function. When I figured out that something out of my wheelhouse was wrong I had gotten to this point:

The time to start thinking about extreme measures was upon me. First stop was google, which lent little help, although I did find a site (http://www.nintendorepairshop.com/) that sells the “gamebit” for screws that hold the Super Nintendo and it’s games together, and it only cost $5.00 US. The next stop was ebay where I found a nice Super Nintendo that supposedly works for a fantastic steal of a price ($4.99+Shipping). It’s supposed to arrive soon. When it gets here I’ll bite the bullet and buy one of those rip-off “gamebits” and put the working board in Brian’s case which had yellowed a lot in 19 years.

Many people with older computer equipment (including video game consoles) may notice that the plastic cases over time turn yellow, or in worse cases, brown. In my recent research I came across a website (http://retr0bright.wikispaces.com/) that explains that this is not an irreversible condition. Apparently through the miracle of fancy scientific chemistry the ugly yellowing can be reversed almost completely. I have yet to try this process as I’ve had some difficulty ascertaining the glycerin that goes into the magic mixture. I can’t explain how it works but if you’re curious visit the retr0bright website. I must mention that as soon as I do find this glycerin I’ll be trying this out like no other. It’s exciting… er, at least it is for me.

Since beginning work on the Super Nintendo, I’ve also had a chance to give my friend Nadia’s Playstation 2 a try at repair. She told me it was broken and that she was a stone’s throw away from tossing it. I jumped at the chance. That night I dove in head first. I didn’t even look at iFixit (www.ifixit.com) for their brilliant “how to” instructions on taking it apart. Not something I would suggest to people who are worried about it going back together. Luckily Sony used plain philips head screws to hold the Playstation together. No silly security bits needed. This time, again, I didn’t know what I was looking for. I didn’t eve plug it in to see if there were weird noises or if it was even broken in the first place. I took it apart blew a huge amount of dust out of it wiped the inside down with isopropyl alcohol (evaporates quickly and doesn’t leave any residue) and set off to reassemble the thing. Unfortunately I didn’t have the sense to take pictures of that one.

Back in one piece, with no left over hardware (which amazes me every time), I plugged it in. With great satisfaction it worked. It was fully functional as a game machine and a DVD player. At this point I have no idea what the problem was. Maybe the dust had made it overheat and the thorough cleaning fixed it. Maybe it wasn’t broken in the first place and it was operator error, or maybe it was just having a bad day and crashed without reason. That said, I’m happy I was able to make it work and some day when Nadia get’s around to plugging it back in, she’ll be happy she didn’t toss it.

Next weeks challenge: Installing the new DVD-R in Cameron’s Aluminum PowerBook G4.

My sleep schedule is not right. So in the wee hours of the morning, not being able to switch my brain off, I concoct some ridiculous projects. Disappointingly, none of which I have the funding nor time to complete. Here’s a taste of what keeps me up at night;

Neo-modern home arcade system

Remember back in the day when the arcade was the cool place to spend precious earned allowance? Brilliant companies like Capcom, SNK, Sega and Kanami filled these havens of childhood entertainment with games that sucked away quarters like a Hoover, Those places were merciless, but we kept going back only to be punished again.

These days with the Xbox and Playstations we’re able to get a taste of what that used to feel like. However, the home console experience just isn’t the same. Imagine being able to have the real arcade experience in your own home. A legitimate slice of that childhood wonderment. That big arcade cabinet looks awfully tacky in your game room, and unless there’s a certified technician on speed dial, the reliability of a 15+ year old piece of hardware is questionable at best.

Now forget that paradigm, and picture playing your favorite arcade classic on modern hardware. I was surprised to find such a large classic arcade following, but there are some die-hard video game purists out there. (I don’t qualify) Some of these purists have dedicated the time and effort to create a device to make this drastic modernization possible. They call it the SUPERgun. (http://www.multimods.com/SGModels.html)

What this ingenious device does is , not to get boringly technical, it takes the old RGB (red-green-blue) video signal that the arecade systems used and converts it to VGA (violet-green-amber) signal that modern televisions can display. The connections in this picture should look the same as the ones you would see on the back of any modern TV. This device makes the neo-modern arcade possible.

The next part of the system is where my skills shine. Creating a “frame” to which all the other components are attached. Since this is no longer a commercial piece of equipment, there no longer needs to exist the coin collector, which uses a surprising amount of space. and since I’ll be using a flat panel TV, the whole top of the cabinet doesn’t need to be there. Think bare-bones structure and a small compartment in which to hide the electronic compunents.