TurboNanza - Internal mod for TG16 (S-Video/RGB/Composite)

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Gunstar
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TurboNanza - Internal mod for TG16 (S-Video/RGB/Composite)

Post by Gunstar »

Open source mod board that provides RGB, S-Video, Composite video, and an audio modification by Zaxour (based on Voultar, Tianfeng, and Mobius Strip Tech's research)
https://github.com/zaxour/TurboNanza
Image
There's also a Saturn 10pin din mod for the TG16 so you can get all the various video signals out of one connector
Zaxour's Kofi if you feel like donating.

Looks like there's also a board coming out for the Duo R. PCE might also get some love too.
Image

Does anybody know much about S-Video mods for the PCE line of consoles? I think there were some older mods for the Duo R (maybe others?). Excited to get S-Video for my Coregrafx and TurboDuo as I held off from RGB modding them when I learned of the colour palette differences.
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Bratwurst
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Re: TurboNanza - Internal mod for TG16 (S-Video/RGB/Composit

Post by Bratwurst »

Gunstar wrote:Does anybody know much about S-Video mods for the PCE line of consoles? I think there were some older mods for the Duo R (maybe others?). Excited to get S-Video for my Coregrafx and TurboDuo as I held off from RGB modding them when I learned of the colour palette differences.
How is it generating the S-Vid? From the way the board interfaces with the expansion bus of the TG16 PCB, it looks like it's just generating it from the RGB lines so the color palette discrepancy is still going to be there.

EDIT: I see there's Y/C in points, so I'm guessing this isn't generating S-Video from RGB, huh. I'm keenly interested.
fernan1234
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Re: TurboNanza - Internal mod for TG16 (S-Video/RGB/Composit

Post by fernan1234 »

Yeah avoiding the RGB raw color palette, while also providing something cleaner than composite, was the whole point of designing a board that supports S-video.

Clearly worth it just looking at Simon there, looking like a normal human being on the left vs. looking like a deep-fried shrimp on the right. I had 100% crossed out PCE hardware in favor of a MiSTer, but this breathes life back into it.
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Gunstar
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Re: TurboNanza - Internal mod for TG16 (S-Video/RGB/Composit

Post by Gunstar »

There's a post on PCEFans forum discussing the Voultar evaluation board he made back in 2020/21 here which mentions a resistor amp mod method, sadly the image linked in the thread is dead. I'm guessing it's the same as the one ApolloBoy mentions here:

Image

I think other methods like the db electronic mods used an encoder. Would love to see the quality of the resistor amp mod.
fernan1234 wrote:Clearly worth it just looking at Simon there, looking like a normal human being on the left vs. looking like a deep-fried shrimp on the right.
lol
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ApolloBoy
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Re: TurboNanza - Internal mod for TG16 (S-Video/RGB/Composit

Post by ApolloBoy »

Gunstar wrote:There's a post on PCEFans forum discussing the Voultar evaluation board he made back in 2020/21 here which mentions a resistor amp mod method, sadly the image linked in the thread is dead. I'm guessing it's the same as the one ApolloBoy mentions here:

Image

I think other methods like the db electronic mods used an encoder. Would love to see the quality of the resistor amp mod.
fernan1234 wrote:Clearly worth it just looking at Simon there, looking like a normal human being on the left vs. looking like a deep-fried shrimp on the right.
lol
The one I was talking about is actually outdated and doesn't really work right with some displays. Voultar's evaluation board actually grabs the chroma signal from the color difference signals from the HuC6260 while luma is still taken from pin 40 (albeit isolated). Check it out here: https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/vmmVfv2H

Both S-video and the new composite video signal from the evaluation board look drop dead gorgeous BTW, S-video looks extremely close to RGB and with none of the palette discrepancies you get from RGB mods.
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Gunstar
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Re: TurboNanza - Internal mod for TG16 (S-Video/RGB/Composit

Post by Gunstar »

Oh nice, you've tried the evaluation board! I saw that Voultar wasn't happy with it but maybe it was more to do with streamlining the PCB. Awesome to hear it's looking good. I'll wait to see how Zaxour's boards shake out in terms of BoM but excited to get S-Video on my machines.
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Re: TurboNanza - Internal mod for TG16 (S-Video/RGB/Composit

Post by BazookaBen »

Just a heads up for anybody getting a turbonanza: have your exacto knife ready, and also something smaller like a very small jewler's screwdriver

It seems Zaxour, because of availability or whatever, went with a DIN that isn't shaped exactly like the Saturn's. Pins are in the same place, but the plastic part is different. So you have to hack away the bottom and a little in the corners.

Maybe some 3rd party cables will fit the provided DIN, but my Insurrection RGB cable and my old s-video cable didn't.

Anyway, I'm beginning the soldering now, will have a review later
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Gunstar
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Re: TurboNanza - Internal mod for TG16 (S-Video/RGB/Composit

Post by Gunstar »

BazookaBen wrote:Just a heads up for anybody getting a turbonanza: have your exacto knife ready, and also something smaller like a very small jewler's screwdriver

It seems Zaxour, because of availability or whatever, went with a DIN that isn't shaped exactly like the Saturn's. Pins are in the same place, but the plastic part is different. So you have to hack away the bottom and a little in the corners.

Maybe some 3rd party cables will fit the provided DIN, but my Insurrection RGB cable and my old s-video cable didn't.

Anyway, I'm beginning the soldering now, will have a review later
Thank you for that info, shame you got to do a bit of hacking to get those cables to fit. looking forward to your review!
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parodius
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Re: TurboNanza - Internal mod for TG16 (S-Video/RGB/Composit

Post by parodius »

Indeed, I've received mine but didn't have a look at it until now.

I have 2 retrogamingcables SCART cables: one using Luma as sync, which has the proper Saturn connector shape and doesn't fit,
and a c-sync one for NTSC consoles which has a slightly different connector, which fits but is very difficult to put in or remove because it's not perfectly round.
Almost feels like the plastic inside the TurboNanza connector has the flat part on the wrong side.
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My sales thread : 2020/07/20..MASTER.VER.
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BazookaBen
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Re: TurboNanza - Internal mod for TG16 (S-Video/RGB/Composit

Post by BazookaBen »

Here's the DIN installed. To make it easily fit Saturn cables, I had to slice the top to make it flat (note that the DIN is mounted upside down compared to Saturn). And you can see that I also notched out the corners at 10 and 2 o'clock.
Spoiler
But man, s-video picture quality is amazing, and audio is as well.

It's so awesome to finally hear the true red book audio from Rondo of Blood. My only experience playing it before was on Wii Virtual Console. While that version still sounds great, I think the compression took some of the punch out of the bass and the detail in the high end.

Even though I hadn't played Rondo on Wii in a few years, I could immediately tell in improvement in the sound quality once booted on an actual PC Engine via the Turbo Everdrive Pro.
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BazookaBen
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Re: TurboNanza - Internal mod for TG16 (S-Video/RGB/Composit

Post by BazookaBen »

I do have a minor gripe though as an OCD purist

I am a little disappointed that, with a Core Grafx II, I had to make some internal cuts in my Core Grafx II shell, because of the added thickness the Turbonanza adds to the board under the EXT connector. Those internal cylinders that house those little spring loaded balls, which hold on the EXT port cover, had to be cut out, and I had to remove those balls (or half balls, more accurately).

This means the EXT cover doesn't stay on as well as before. Though, it may have been possible to leave those in w/ the springs, and just put a strong layer of tape so they don't fall back into the console. Also, according to directions, a little bit of the RF shield needs to be cut, but I just removed the whole thing.

If I had to start over, to avoid that modification to the shell, I would not have put the turbonanza in its intended spot under the EXT connector. Instead, I'd just run 13 wires from the underside of the EXT connector, and just mount the whole turbonanza somewhere on the top side of the shell, maybe sandwiched in the Hucard ribbon cable, secured with tape. But in this instance, my impatience won out over my OCD, and I made those cuts so I could put everything back together quickly, and get playing.

Good news for people with Turbo Grafx is the extra spaciousness of the oversized American shell means you don't have to do any of that
Last edited by BazookaBen on Sat Jul 01, 2023 2:53 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: TurboNanza - Internal mod for TG16 (S-Video/RGB/Composit

Post by PC Engine Fan X! »

Yes, NECHE USA took about a whole year with retooling the PC Engine console into the TurboGrafx-16 console with it's larger overall footprint console-wise (the initial test focus group said that the PCE console was deemed "too small" and didn't seem powerful enough to compete against the NES -- otherwise, the TG-16 would've launched in 1988 instead of in the Summer of 1989). NECHE USA also had to redesign the PCE CD-Rom2 Interface Unit into the bigger TurboGrafx CD add-on along with the redesigned Turbo Booster & Turbo Booster Plus add-ons as well. By launching a year earlier, it might have done better/fared better in the heated video game console war between the SFC/Snes & MD/Genesis in the early 1990s era.

The artwork used on the early 1989 to 1991 TG-16 games were mostly crappy but started to improve with the rise of Turbo Technologies Incorporated better known as TTI (a joint collaboration between NEC of Japan & Hudson Soft) in late 1992 to better promote the cool 'n' slick Turbo Chip game cartridges/CD-Rom2/Super CD-Rom2 games for sale in the USA along with it's Turbo Duo console debut.

In retrospect, the only main pressing issue/gripe with the parent company of NEC of Japan, is that they didn't release more "killer app" PCE gaming titles to be sold in the USA with the TG-16 & Turbo Duo -- thus regulating them to 3rd place in the early 1990s gaming console wars with the already well-known limited selection of software to play/choose from to begin with. Plus the fact that TTI announced in early January of 1994, that they weren't going to be releasing anymore new gaming hardware period (which included NEC's incoming 32-bit powered PC-FX console down the pipeline as well -- there could've been a proper USA debut of the PC-FX for the 1995 timeline but alas, it wasn't meant to be and thus remains as an Japan exclusive console release to this very day).

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Gunstar
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Re: TurboNanza - Internal mod for TG16 (S-Video/RGB/Composit

Post by Gunstar »

Thank you for those impressions, BazookaBen. Glad the S-Video is living up to the hype, hoping I can find time to install one in the next few months so those tips are handy especially about relocating it so you don't hack bits of the shell
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Re: TurboNanza - Internal mod for TG16 (S-Video/RGB/Composit

Post by BazookaBen »

Yeah, the plastic cuts are all internal, which is cool for most people, and I'm honestly cool with it as long as I can find a way to get the EXT cover to stay on as tightly as it did before. Might try to find a way to get those metal balls/tab things back in in a way that they're not at risk of getting loose inside the system. They used to be held in place by the RF shield

And I think on original PC Engine models you don't have to cut as much stuff. The github hasn't been fully updated with pictures of every type of console so I'm just going on written descriptions
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Re: TurboNanza - Internal mod for TG16 (S-Video/RGB/Composit

Post by PC Engine Fan X! »

How does Turrbonnanza fare against Krikzz's EDFX add-on in terms of stereo output?

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Re: TurboNanza - Internal mod for TG16 (S-Video/RGB/Composit

Post by BazookaBen »

Sounds fantastic to me. I'm not hearing interference or anything. Full stereo on CD games.

Don't have an EDFX to compare to but I doubt there's a noticeable difference. They both pull audio from the EXP pins
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