Epicenter
07-10-2003, 08:59 AM
I'm writing this to tell you guys about a project I am working on. It's basically a small, portable wooden box, into which I've built the guts of a Genesis Model 1. The board is attached to the bottom of the box with wood screws, the power switch on the board is replaced with some wires leading to an old-fashioned 70's-style toggle switch. The reset button is a vintage moment switch of the same variety. The last 2 switches are for changing between US/JP Modes, and another will pick a CPU.
Since the 68000 and 68010 are nearly 100% compatible, I'm going to solder the 68010 onto the top of the 68000 (all the pins except halt, to switch it). This way, games that lag considerably (i.e. Sonic 2 at the end of Death Egg Zone where all the fire appears in the tunnel, Ecco: Tides of Time when fighting the vortex queen, or fighting numerous vortex drones in the New Machine), should get a considerable performance boost.
All the switches are mounted on a metal shelf mounted in the box, on velcro. Also attached with velcro are my cartridges. There is also a DB-9 connector I will be mounting in the front for a controller (since I mostly play 1P games for the Genesis, there's not much point rigging up a second controller port rigt now). The lid also latches shut, and there's a carrying handle on it. :) As a finishing touch, there's a bright red LED on the front for a power indicator, and written on it in Japanese characters are "SEGA GENESIS" and "MEGA DRIVE".
The machine's mostly finished, so I'll post some photos once it's 100% done. Only thing is, I have 2 identical boxes, one for a 500 MHz K6-2-based MAME Box, and another for the ShopDrive .. but only one lid between them. Do you guys think it'd be a good idea to just make it into one big swing-open unit? This way, you've got a PC with NES/SNES/Genesis/MAME games playable on it on one side, and an upgraded Genesis on the other.
I'm also looking into getting a Model 1 Sega CD and mounting the slide-out tray in the case like a PC CD-ROM drive, then hooking that up to the Genesis board. To do that, I'll need to either fit them together the way they are normally mounted together, or rig up a set of 60 soldered wires between them. Needless to say the first idea works better, I'll just have to find a good way of fitting it into the case.
*shrug*
What do you guys think? :)
Since the 68000 and 68010 are nearly 100% compatible, I'm going to solder the 68010 onto the top of the 68000 (all the pins except halt, to switch it). This way, games that lag considerably (i.e. Sonic 2 at the end of Death Egg Zone where all the fire appears in the tunnel, Ecco: Tides of Time when fighting the vortex queen, or fighting numerous vortex drones in the New Machine), should get a considerable performance boost.
All the switches are mounted on a metal shelf mounted in the box, on velcro. Also attached with velcro are my cartridges. There is also a DB-9 connector I will be mounting in the front for a controller (since I mostly play 1P games for the Genesis, there's not much point rigging up a second controller port rigt now). The lid also latches shut, and there's a carrying handle on it. :) As a finishing touch, there's a bright red LED on the front for a power indicator, and written on it in Japanese characters are "SEGA GENESIS" and "MEGA DRIVE".
The machine's mostly finished, so I'll post some photos once it's 100% done. Only thing is, I have 2 identical boxes, one for a 500 MHz K6-2-based MAME Box, and another for the ShopDrive .. but only one lid between them. Do you guys think it'd be a good idea to just make it into one big swing-open unit? This way, you've got a PC with NES/SNES/Genesis/MAME games playable on it on one side, and an upgraded Genesis on the other.
I'm also looking into getting a Model 1 Sega CD and mounting the slide-out tray in the case like a PC CD-ROM drive, then hooking that up to the Genesis board. To do that, I'll need to either fit them together the way they are normally mounted together, or rig up a set of 60 soldered wires between them. Needless to say the first idea works better, I'll just have to find a good way of fitting it into the case.
*shrug*
What do you guys think? :)