Hardware Mods - the thread of "wtf is shorting out this time?!"

[Kazin]

The Sega Saturn optical disc emulator the Fenrir - what I use, and I love it - has been cloned. I point this out not to encourage you to buy it - support the original developer of it instead - but that if you do happen to get a clone, do NOT update/install real firmware on it, because you will brick your clone ODE.

 

[Sarge]

Yeah, I saw this and it's a bummer. And I recommend buying a real deal as well - I've had mine for a while and it's very good. I'd trust his over the clone anyway, and the Fenrir is still the cheapest ODE solution on Saturn. (You can do a Saroo cart, but my understanding is that it's not quite as compatible as Fenrir/MODE/Satiator.)

 

[That Old Chestnut]

Pretty interesting video on the DMG-103 mod, using custom components from Nintendre Mods:

 

[Kazin]

god i want one of these so baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad hnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg

 

[Sarge]

Fancy. Very appealing-looking compared to the mushroom for sure.

 

[Kazin]

I sent my Virtual Boy out to 1up Restorations/Long Island Retro Gaming to install this Virtual Tap video out mod:

It uses a HD Retrovision Sega Genesis 2 component out cable, which itself was almost as much as the mod kit ffs. You can even change the palette between the regular red, an ugly yellow, blue, and grey!

That's controlled by this little button here:

I've had a BlueRetro wireless controller dongle kicking around for my VB for a while, and I never really used it, until now obviously. This was what I always intended it for. I did not trust myself to do this mod. Virtual Boys are fragile and rare enough, and having had someone already do the Virtual Lens mod to my VB, I did not want to then go and break it with this mod, plus I am awful at drilling holes of the appropriate size into plastic for the little video out ports. The regular function of the VB still works as usual - if I want the 3D effect, I can use it regularly no problem. It actually still runs in 3D as usual while the video out board does its thing - including the sound. The sound still comes out of the VB for some reason - I'm not sure if that's a limitation of the original hardware, or the mod, or what, but thankfully the VB can get plenty loud, and I suppose I could always plug in headphones or speakers or whatever. Very pleased to have this stupid thing!

 

[Sarge]

Dang it, I still need to send mine off to get fixed. Very slick stuff.