Battle of the Ports

[will_d]

Wasn't ACE the place who sold the Super Famicoms that were modded with a switch to make the display brighter?

Can anyone remember what the story was with that?

I wonder if any of those machines are still doing the rounds....

[Baseley09]

Wasn't ACE the place who sold the Super Famicoms that were modded with a switch to make the display brighter?

Can anyone remember what the story was with that?

I wonder if any of those machines are still doing the rounds....

Yeah I brought it up a few weeks back actually - it was the super colour enhancement mod. It apparently made the image brighter and corrected the colours.

[Leon Retro]

Wasn't ACE the place who sold the Super Famicoms that were modded with a switch to make the display brighter?

Can anyone remember what the story was with that?

I wonder if any of those machines are still doing the rounds....

I haven't a clue why you'd need to mod a SFC to make the output brighter, as the console already outputs a really nice RGB image through scart. I can only guess that it was a mod for people who didn't an RGB-enabled scart socket?

I used to visit ACE a lot in the '90s and talk with the guys who ran the shop.

[Yakumo]

Do you remember those RF converter boxes used on the very early SFC consoles so us sad buggers using portable TV's could still play the console on man, those were sad days. Actually my SFC had an internal RGB mod done. The RGB cable was soldered directly to the board with the cable coming out of the consoles side!

[Baseley09]

yeah ruddy hell my core grafx ii had a hardwired rgb sticking out of the side, despite being new chunks of the poly inserts had been cut away so it fit in the box we've come a long way thankfully!!

[Yakumo]

yeah ruddy hell my core grafx ii had a hardwired rgb sticking out of the side, despite being new chunks of the poly inserts had been cut away so it fit in the box we've come a long way thankfully!!

hehehe, my SFC box also had chunks cut out of the polystyrene insert too We sure have come a long way since then.

[Leon Retro]

Do you remember those RF converter boxes used on the very early SFC consoles so us sad buggers using portable TV's could still play the console on man, those were sad days. Actually my SFC had an internal RGB mod done. The RGB cable was soldered directly to the board with the cable coming out of the consoles side!

A friend of mine had one of those RF converter boxes for his US SNES; the picture quality wasn't good, but at least he could use the machine with his cheapo brand 14" tv.

Yeah, some importers would solder the scart cable direct to the board. I wonder if that made the image better?

[Mayhem]

My US SNES has the RGB cable soldered to the board as well. Had an RF converter as well in the very early days until I got a portable with a Scart socket (about 1993 I believe).

[Leon Retro]

until I got a portable with a Scart socket (about 1993 I believe).

I remember that not all scart sockets were wired for RGB, so you either had to know for sure, or test it in the shop. Sony televisions usually had two scart sockets: one RGB and one non-RGB. I wonder why manufacturers didn't just make all sockets RGB-enabled? It's just another strange thing from those days.

[Mayhem]

It was a Sony 14", and I looked at the specs in the store before purchasing

[beecee]

i was told if the TV has Teletext, then you have RGB.

[Leon Retro]

It was a Sony 14", and I looked at the specs in the store before purchasing

I bought a 14" Sony(the one that was really popular around 93-96) around '94 to go alongside my other screen. It delivered a really good image through RGB.

I remember that Sony released a mini(maybe 15"?) widescreen around 97-98 that was reviewed in C&VG when widescreen was something new and they thought it was really cool to be able to stretch the Street Fighter 2 image.

i was told if the TV has Teletext, then you have RGB.

That might have been true at some point - most probably in the early-'90s onwards. I remember buying a huge Sony 34" 4:3 tv from the '80s and it had teletext but the scart socket didn't accept RGB. Luckily it was second hand and cost me ?20, so I got rid of it.

[Asura]

I remember that Sony released a mini(maybe 15"?) widescreen around 97-98 that was reviewed in C&VG when widescreen was something new and they thought it was really cool to be able to stretch the Street Fighter 2 image.

Yeah, this was a big problem with early widescreens. I bought a Sony 32" in around 2004. Great picture and weighed a ton. Unfortunately, it was a widescreen and when you set it up to 4:3 ratio, the screen looked terrible. Often you'd get unsightly colour-casting at the edges of things or little white borders on the left/right of the frame.

I'm sad to say that I'm one of the people who always played Dreamcast/Xbox/PS2 games stretched for this reason, and I got used to it. It's always weird for me seeing stuff like Sonic Adventure in the correct ratio now.

[Leon Retro]

Often you'd get unsightly colour-casting at the edges of things or little white borders on the left/right of the frame.

Yeah, that was unfortunate. It seems like technology always has issues.

I'm sad to say that I'm one of the people who always played Dreamcast/Xbox/PS2 games stretched for this reason, and I got used to it. It's always weird for me seeing stuff like Sonic Adventure in the correct ratio now.

I think a lot of people preffered to stretch a 4:3 image to 16:9. I've never liked the 'stretched' look, so having borders each side doesn't bother me. Now it seems like a lot of retro gamers feel the same, but they prefer to use 4:3 screens for old games. That is definitely the ideal option.

[Team Andromeda]

I'm sad to say that I'm one of the people who always played Dreamcast/Xbox/PS2 games stretched for this reason, and I got used to it. It's always weird for me seeing stuff like Sonic Adventure in the correct ratio now

Yeah I was the same . I got a huge monster Philips widescreen TV for the XBox and just got used to playing all my N64, Saturn stuff Ect stretched. I don't like borders myself .

I also miss the old Teletext service