I have a dream! (and a theory) for a mod.

[subbie]

Intresting thread but I can't see why this is in the rare and obscure board? :S There are more suitable places for it for example the hacks and mods board...

Agreed. Moved!
:thumbsup:

[3rdman]

Intresting thread but I can't see why this is in the rare and obscure board? :S There are more suitable places for it for example the hacks and mods board...

. Probably

[3rdman]

This (the OP's dream) is a very common wish.

When handhelds are based on consoles that were connected to the TV, then they can usually be hacked with either a direct TV output of either RGB signals or composite video. Sometimes a circuit board needs to be designed by somebody which people can then use to make these video signals usable. As is the case of the Gamegear which is essentially just a Master system (for sake of simplification).

When a system has been designed only as a handheld, then the images that they create aren't based on television signals and timings. therefore the system are usually designed to output directly to a specific LCD screen with it's own timings and resoloution which doesn't have to be anything like a TV.

The best hope for taking handhelds like Lynx, Gameboy, Game.com, neogeo pocket and Wonderswan is for somebody that designs LCD screen driver circuitry or understands it enough to either come up with some circuitry that interprets these non standard signals and transcodes them to TV ready signals. This I believe has been done for the gameboy at least.

What I'd like to see (as this method is beyond your normal "modder" who replaces green LEDs with blue ones) is for modern LCD screens to be comissioned and manufactured to be compatible with the old consoles, but using modern technology. Although I understand electronics, I do not know enough about how LCDs are constructed to know if this is really possible. However - of course, the biggest reason this won't happen is that it would require a very large number to be produced as the expense of a small run would be unafordable.
Imagine however a world where you canactually see your Lynx screen in all light sources and from a much better range of viewing angles.

Ok, so what you're saying is that the Gamegear mod shown on this thread was only possible because the GG was based on the Mastersystem, and therefore it was always theoretically going to be the easiest handheld to mod in that way?

Also, could the modded Gamegear with all it's new circuits then be attached to a nice LCD screen, and put into a new shell?


But then also, what you seem to be saying is that if (and that's a pretty big if) a Gameking (or lynx or gameboy for that matter) was modded similar to the Gamegear, the mod would not likely transmit useable video because these other handhelds were just not designed with TV signal compatibility in mind?

[Alchy]

But then also, what you seem to be saying is that if (and that's a pretty big if) a Gameking (or lynx or gameboy for that matter) was modded similar to the Gamegear, the mod would not likely transmit useable video because these other handhelds were just not designed with TV signal compatibility in mind?

That's it exactly.

[3rdman]

Ahhhhhh! Ok, I guess unless I meet a mad scientist with lots of expertise and spare time, I'll put the dream to bed....... for now:)

[Mqark]

This is a good example of what I was talking about.

http://www.rival-corp.com/2010/12/02...vga-adapter-2/

To sum it up, IMHO this isn't really a hack. This is effectivly re-designing the console to behave the way you want it to. And this is what we need enthusastic people to do to get TV / VGA outputs from machines that were closed systems (i.e. not designed to be run on a TV in the first place).

[3rdman]

This is a good example of what I was talking about.

http://www.rival-corp.com/2010/12/02...vga-adapter-2/

To sum it up, IMHO this isn't really a hack. This is effectivly re-designing the console to behave the way you want it to. And this is what we need enthusastic people to do to get TV / VGA outputs from machines that were closed systems (i.e. not designed to be run on a TV in the first place).

That's amazing. It's a great time to be in this hobby. So many advances. Hooray 2011!

I've struck up a conversation with a potential collaborator on the Gameking project. So with any luck we can do something similar to the above, before 2011 is over.