LET’S REFURB THIS PC-ENGINE AND TEACH IT SOME NEW TRICKS! | HDMI, ODE, SHELL, CAPS and MORE!

[Applause] the pc engine or turbo graphic 16 depending on where you live was an extremely popular console in japan but was sort of a fifth wheel here in the united states while the juggernauts sega and nintendo duked it out for console supremacy the pc engine sort of flew under the radar even though it had many quality titles while also being the first console to offer games on compact disk so while this console is relatively unknown i think it deserves an upgrade to bring it into 2021 [Music] [Music] hey everyone how's it going my name is tito and welcome to another episode of retro renew today i'll be refurbishing this tired and neglected pc engine hopefully transforming it to make it feel right at home here in 2021 with some modern amenities now here in the us the turbo graphic 16 or pc engine as it was known by in japan wasn't all that popular which is kind of hard to believe because not only did it have amazing titles it also had the backing of zack morris with his face featured prominently on the retail box or at least a very close lookalike and as a kid who grew up in the 90s everyone knew that zack of save by the bell fame was the epitome of cool all kidding aside the pc engine is underappreciated and got lost amongst the noise generated by the far more popular sega genesis and super nintendo however that doesn't mean we can't celebrate this lesser-known console now here i have a pretty beat-up neglected and sun-faded pc engine which i imported from japan and while it works just fine i will be replacing all the capacitors fixing some known hardware issues replacing the old yellow shell to give it some flair and most importantly increasing its functionality which includes giving it the highest quality video output through hdmi so with that we got a lot of work to do on this console but before we move on if you enjoy content like this be sure to hit that like button and consider subscribing to the channel for plenty more retro gaming and modding videos just like this one alright so in this video i'm going to start off by showing you all the parts and products i'll be using to refurbish and mod my pc engine then i'll show you how to put it all together review all the new features and new functionality given to this pc engine go over the pros and cons and of course provide you with my overall thoughts okay so going over all the products i'll be using the first is this capacitor kit from console 5. included in this cap kit are not only the electrolytic capacitors for the pc engine motherboard itself but also two tiny replacement ceramic capacitors to fix the known jail barring issues that the pc engine consoles tend to suffer from but i'll get more into that later in the video next is this incredibly high quality smoked translucent shell from retro game restore this is as far as i know the only replacement shells available for the pc engine retro gamer store also makes very nice shelves for the super nintendo and super famicom which i plan on making a video for in the near future and they also have a sega genesis shell which looks fantastic as well now i also picked up a matching shell for the controller since just like my pc engine the shell of the controller is pretty darn worn out and has certainly seen better days the controller shell does come with a nice inlay however as you can see it is missing the openings for the two turbo sliders thankfully a company called graphics gear very kindly sent over a huge assortment of inlays that they produce in-house with different designs both resembling original color schemes as well as some of their own custom designs these do have the opening for the turbo sliders so i'll definitely be using one of them for my build right now i'm leaning towards this vaporwave design which looks pretty sharp now graphics gear also sent me an assortment of pc engine decals which will come in handy to add the finishing touches to the new shell so i just have to give a big thank you to graphics gear for sending these over and for those of you interested in checking out more of their awesome products be sure to check out their store which i'll have linked down below and the last item i have here is also the one i am most excited about this is the super hd system 3 pro from the folks over at tara onion this is a feature-rich add-on for the pc engine that provides high quality video over hdmi amongst many many other features that i'll get into later in the video i'm really excited to try it out as this is the first hair onion product i've ever purchased i've heard a lot of great things about the company so we'll see if they can live up to all the hype great so that's everything i'll be using for this project now let me show you how to put it all together okay first we need to get inside the pc engine to do that we'll need to remove the four four and a half millimeter game bits on the bottom of the console with the bottom shell off go ahead and carefully tilt the motherboard upwards remove the three jis screws securing the hue card reader to the top shell with the motherboard free you can now remove the power switch cover which definitely looks like it needs a good cleaning next proceed to desolder the tabs holding the rf shielding to the bottom of the motherboard just apply some heat with your iron while gently lifting the shielding up with the rf shield removed we can now access the capacitor legs but before proceeding i cleaned up the old solder from the tabs with some solder wick and isopropyl alcohol i then gently cleaned away some of the dust and debris around the motherboard with q-tips and an old toothbrush soaked in ipa i want to make sure the electronics look fairly clean since we will be replacing the old shell with a translucent one [Music] now let's start to remove the old capacitors i like to mark all the capacitors i'll be removing with a red sharpie that way i know that they are old and original once they've all been marked let's start to desolder them i'm using my hakko fr 301 desoldering gun which makes quick work of these after removing the old capacitor replace it making sure the capacitance and polarity is correct the voltage rating may not match perfectly but as long as it's larger than the capacitor being replaced it's not a problem then go ahead and solder the capacitor in place and then trim the excess leads rinse and repeat and you should end up with this a freshly recapped pc engine but we're not done yet now let's fix the jail bar issues to do that we need to replace two small ceramic capacitors be sure to check out the console 5 wiki to make sure you are removing and replacing the correct ones for your specific motherboard the first cap we'll be replacing is c135 add some flux then use a knife tip like this in order to heat both pads to gently whisk off the old capacitor then use some solder wick to clean the pads and some ipa to finish it off next tin one of the pads with just a little bit of solder position your new capacitor and then tack it in place solder the other side with a solid joint then add some more solder to the other side clean it up and this is what it should look like then you're going to do the same exact thing for capacitor c121 but again refer to console 5's wiki to determine the correct capacitors for your specific model of pc engine or turbo graphics 16. fantastic we are done recapping the console next grab the rf shielding and give it a quick wipe down before soldering it back to the motherboard then position it back in place and re-solder the tabs tidy things up and before we move on to reassembly let's go ahead and clean the clear plastic shielding as well as the power switch [Music] grab the new top shell and gently position the hue card reader as well as the clear plastic shield and secure it using the original screws then fold the motherboard over making sure not to forget to put the switch cover back on [Music] then drop on the bottom shell i gave each screw a quick polish before putting them back in one thing i noticed is that these screws were super difficult to fasten i actually had to use my full size screwdriver as i wasn't getting enough leverage with my smaller ifixit driver now flip the console over and let's add the finishing touch i'll be sticking this pc engine decal onto the top similar to the original and while we're at it i'm taking the serial number sticker from the old console and putting it onto the new shell [Music] okay now let's move our attention to the controller remove the five screws on the rear to get inside remove the pcb and all the buttons and membranes we're going to give them a thorough cleaning in some warm soapy water [Music] pat them down with a microfiber cloth and let them air dry for the turbo sliders i took a very fine grit sandpaper and polished the contacts removing any oxidation to ensure good contact with the controller pcb and also don't forget to clean the controller pcb with some ipa then drop in the buttons and membranes into the new shell put the pcb back in making sure to route the wire correctly and then button it up now let's go ahead and apply the inlay i chose the custom vaporwave design peel off the release paper and then carefully apply the inlay onto the controller [Music] and that my friends is a totally refurbished pc engine [Music] i am really excited to have this newly refreshed pc engine in my collection as you may or may not know i am a huge fan of the console and all of its derivatives i actually made a video tutorial on how to recap one of the handheld variants if you're interested in checking that out i'll have it linked down below regardless with brand new capacitors and a stunning new shell this pc engine is ready for many years of enjoyment okay let's quickly go over the features of this build starting with the shell there really isn't too much to say other than it's extremely high quality and very well made all the details are very well executed and it's certainly a worthy upgrade to the console retro game restore did an excellent job making the shell the controller is also equally good when it comes to the fit and finish and the inlays from graphics gear really make the controller unique and stand out i have to say i'm really liking this vaporwave design now when it comes to the real features of this project the new super hd system 3 pro is the bell of the ball it has a lot of features so many in fact i'll do my best to go over them briefly to keep this video from being too long this device allows you to play every derivative of the pc engine such as the super cd-rom arcade cd-rom and even super graphics games which are all going to be loaded onto an sd card the cost of the super graphics alone is more than the system 3 hd pro making this a great alternative to buying real hardware if you are indeed interested in the super graphics library now to put that in perspective this is essentially a flash cart optical drive emulator and a super graphics console all in one which is really just incredible additionally with the internal fpga you're able to load open source cores for other consoles such as the nes i haven't tried this out myself but the fact that you're able to do this is really amazing and i'm curious what other cores will work with the onboard fpga now moving to the back of the super system 3 you'll see that it offers hdmi and a multi-av din that outputs both rgb and composite the nice thing is that it directly pulls the digital rgb signal negating the need to replace the ceramic capacitors that i did to remedy the jail bars the system 3 hd pro bypasses that circuitry which fixes the jailbar issue now the hdmi can output several resolutions such as 480p and 720p for me i prefer the 720p resolution with the scaling option set to sharp this provides crisp razor-sharp pixels that look absolutely fantastic here you can see the quality of the video output at 720p [Music] also on the back is a multi-purpose button pressing it once resets the game you are playing while long pressing it for about three seconds will take you back to the system 3 pro menu speaking of which i really love how refined the menu system is one of the really cool things you can do is download the cover art database from terra onion so that the game art displays for all of your games you can also have a simple list which is certainly easier to navigate however the cover art is a really nice feature additionally under the video settings you are able to set the resolution as well as the scan line options which are great but i prefer to leave them off here's how the scan lines look set to an intensity of 50 out of 100 [Music] and the last thing i'll go over is the ui style of which you have four options to choose from each resembling a different variant of the pc engine alright so i actually just scratched the surface on what this thing can do if you want more details as to what the super hd system 3 pro has to offer my life and gaming did an excellent highly detailed video on it i strongly suggest checking it out if you're still on the fence as to whether you should purchase one or not alright so that's a quick rundown of some of the features of the shell and the super hd system 3 pro but now let's go over the pros and cons starting with the pros i have to say that first and foremost the versatility of the super hd system 3 pro is immense before i purchased it i used a turbo everdrive which is great and all but it only allows you to play standard pc engine and turbo graphics games now with this one attachment i can play super cd and super graphics games along with standard cue card based games all from a single sd card part of the reason why this product is so expensive i believe is because it expands the capability of a standard pc engine to encompass essentially the entire family of add-ons and console variations of the pc engine into a single package this saves you from having to buy a super cd add-on and an expensive super graphics console at a minimum if having access to these games is important to you this may be a cost effective way for you to do so as those platforms are getting more expensive by the day another pro is of course the video output quality through the integrated hdmi port it is razor sharp and a great way to experience the console's library here's a side-by-side comparison between a 720p signal coming from the super hd system 3 pro versus that of a standard composite signal coming directly from the console speaking of video quality the super hd system 3 pro actually fixes the jail bar issues for you meaning you don't have to do any difficult soldering to replace those two tiny ceramic capacitors now you may be asking why did i actually go ahead and do that fix if this product fixes it for you well for me it wasn't too hard of a task to do and if i ever just wanted to play the pc engine without the super hd system 3 pro it would be jail bar free and that just gives me peace of mind now moving on to the shell like i said prior it is very high quality and really a no brainer to purchase especially if your shell is as sun faded and damaged as mine it really rejuvenates the console and the smoke translucent color looks really nice okay so those are the pros now let's go over the cons and i could only think of three and they are cost cost and cost all kidding aside both the shell and the super hd pro are expensive pieces of kit the retro game restore console shell and controller shell retail together for about a hundred and five dollars while the super hd system three pro goes for about 320 dollars what it really boils down to is how much do you value being able to play these games on original hardware as well as having an assortment of video output options such as hdmi all the pc engine and turbo graphics games can easily be emulated on a pc or even a raspberry pi with similar results the price of entry is very high for these products and i believe they are targeted for die-hard fans of the console now one last con and something to be aware of was that it was actually a bit difficult to fasten the four external screws on the console the screw posts may be a bit too narrow and i actually had to use my full size screwdriver in order to get enough leverage to screw the console together it was so tight that i couldn't do it with my ifixit kit which never really happened to me before regardless both the retro game restore shell and the terra onion super hd system 3 pro are incredible high quality products that enhance the pc engine experience for die hard fans of the console and even though the pc engine is a fairly niche console i am so glad that there are companies out there willing to put in the time and effort to bring these high quality products for the console to market anyway guys that about does it for this video if you have any questions at all about this pc engine build let me know down below in the comments and i'll do my best to answer them and if you enjoyed this video do me a favor and hit that like button it really helps me and the channel out anyway thank you for watching and i look forward to seeing you in the next one until then see you all next thursday [Music] you

Channel: Macho Nacho Productions

Views: 40,021

Keywords: pc engine, pc engine mini, pc engine cd, macho nacho productions, macho nacho, terraonion super sd system 3 pro, terraonion pc engine, terraonion super sd system 3, terraonion, super hd system 3 pro review, super hd system 3 pro, recap pc-engine, retro game restore shell, retro game restore, turbografx 16, turbografx terraonion, nec pc engine, console5 cap kit, console5 pc-engine, turbografx hdmi mod, turbografx add-on, pc-engine add-on, super cd rom 2, super cd rom system

Id: nhoKDf-NgyI

Length: 19min 50sec (1190 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 09 2021