evolvingconsole

NEC Turbo Grafx 16

Mods, NEC Turbo Grafx 16

TG-16 Engine Block AV

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Everyone that owned a TG-16 also had a TurboBooster, right? I doubt that. If you wanted to use anything other than RF out, you needed the TurboBooster. It would get you composite output and stereo audio. They have since been hard to find in good working order or at all. There is a way to make a cable to plug into the expansion port on the back to get composite output but its just feels janky and a non-permanent solution. In comes the AV Block which I picked up from StoneAgeGamer earlier this year. This unit plugs into the TG-16 expansion port and gives you many output options due to its use of the Sony CXA1645 video encoder chip.

Three output connectors are found on the Engine Block AV each carrying the following signals: (Specs was taken from StoneAgeGamer)

  • Mini DIN9 (a.k.a. Sega Genesis 2 A/V connector)
    • RGB + CSYNC (i.e SCART)
    • Video level CSYNC
    • CVBS (a.k.a. composite video)
      • Compatible with out of the box yellow/white/red Sega Genesis 2 A/V cable
      • Transcoded from RGB by CXA1645
    • Stereo Audio Only
      • While the Sega Genesis 2 A/V pinout permits mono audio, it is not supported by the dbGrafx Booster (why the hell would you want mono audio?)
      • Amplified on dbGrafx Booster
  • S-Video connector (a.k.a. Mini DIN4)
    • Y/C Video
      • Compatible with standard S-Video cable
      • Transcoded by CXA1645
  • RCA Jacks (yellow/white/red)
    • CVBS (a.k.a. composite video)
      • Direct signal from console (i.e. same as original Turbo Booster)
    • Stereo Audio
      • Amplified on dbGrafx Booster

 

Flash Cart, NEC Turbo Grafx 16

Turbo EverDrive

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Growing up, I never had a TG-16 but I had a buddy that did. It has some titles that get over looked quite often. I loved playing Military Madness back in the day and the Bonk games are really not that bad. I came to the conclusion that I really like playing these games on an actual system and not emulated. Looks like Everdrive to the rescue. I picked up the Turbo Everdrive and tossed a microSD in there and started playing. This card is built like a tank and fits in to my TG-16 perfectly.

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Broken, NEC Turbo Grafx 16

NEC TurboExpress repair

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I bought this 6 or 7 years ago knowing that it was broken, thinking i can fix it at some point. I know these things are a bit hart to find so I figured a broken one is better than not having one.

After unwrapping it I did notice that the shell is in really good shape, that’s a plus. But, I noticed a yellow wire sticking out from the bottom of the shell.

Once opened I seen a few problems. First off the power wires from the battery tray are taped together. Looks like a pretty bad hack job. Then I noticed the yellow wires are soldered (not very well) to some pins on the PCB where the LCD ribbon cable connector was. It must have broke/ripped off and someone tried to do a hack job. I noticed that the LCD ribbon cable is also cut.

After I removed the PCB from the shell I noticed there was a capacitor that was wired off board in what looks like to be one of the capacitors in the audio path. It must have had audio problems and was “repaired”.

What have I done so far:

I desoldered the yellow wires and noticed there was 2 pads that the LCD header was. I bet the 2 pads were lifted when it broke off. So now I need to do some simple continuity test to see if I can pick up the traces from somewhere else.