Getting RGB out of a GBA for a SCART CRT

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Aerosol
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Joined: Sat Jan 28, 2023 2:21 pm

Getting RGB out of a GBA for a SCART CRT

Post by Aerosol »

Hello all. I'm not a trained electrical engineer by a long shot, but nobody sells what I'm after so I thought I'd give it a shot myself. For my purposes, I need to get RGB out of a GBA.

I've got a broad sense of where I'm going with this. The plan is to shove the RGB signals through a DAC, and then squeeze the analogue RGB signals I get through a THS7374 before chucking it down a scart cable. But I'm not sure of how to combine hsync and vsync in the right way, or if it can be done without an FPGA. Can anyone give me any tips? Or even just let me know if I'm way off base here?

I have another option, which is to just buy an IPS+TV Out kit and then do my thing with that instead, but I'd really like to be able to get RGB out of the GBA, not Composite.

Thanks for reading.
Guile
Posts: 145
Joined: Sun Jan 03, 2021 10:11 pm

Re: Getting RGB out of a GBA for a SCART CRT

Post by Guile »

I've never used one myself but I saw there are HDMI out kits for the GBA but it looks like maybe those default to 720p output. That would give you RGB instead of composite but I don't know if it can be set to 240p.

You could also try a Gameboy Player on the Gamecube or a Mister.
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Syntax
Posts: 1774
Joined: Wed Aug 09, 2017 12:10 am
Location: Australia

Re: Getting RGB out of a GBA for a SCART CRT

Post by Syntax »

You need this or a hdmi kit and a downscaler if you want 15k.

https://shop.insidegadgets.com/product/advancevga/
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Guspaz
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Joined: Tue Oct 06, 2015 7:37 pm
Location: Montréal, Canada

Re: Getting RGB out of a GBA for a SCART CRT

Post by Guspaz »

Or use a PAL gamecube with a Game Boy Player (which is essentially the GBA hardware without a screen) and GBI (https://www.gc-forever.com/wiki/index.p ... _Interface) outputting 240p or 480i RGBS over SCART.
fernan1234
Posts: 2175
Joined: Mon Aug 14, 2017 8:34 pm

Re: Getting RGB out of a GBA for a SCART CRT

Post by fernan1234 »

If your goal is to simply enjoy the games, go with the GBA core on MiSTer for the best possible experience on a CRT (and flat panel).

If instead it's about using the OG hardware, your best option would indeed be a GB player + GBI.
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