Just delay a video when needed, it's not life or death. Better a late video than a burned out RUclipsr. Don't listen to demands for a schedule. Quality over quantity
Well, RUclips would like me to have a video every week, I'm already planning for every other week only... but that is a self set thing. I do have a project to put out in case of "ran out of time" usually, but the special one I mentioned should be the next one. Because reasons 😉
@@atkelar screw RUclips, the algorithm had burned out more good channels then I can count. Unless you really want to go at it full-time, don't forget to attend to family and things, it's important to do that.
That brings back so many memories. I ended up with one as a kid. Similar Philips branding in Australia. I had always assumed that there must have been some programs, Word processor, programming environment, or similar which required the keyboard but we only had a couple of games. I always wanted to learn how to program it but the PSU died one warm afternoon. Either a cap or resistor burnt out from memory. The only time I can remember my father yelping in pain was as he tried to repair the power supply and discharged the 300V caps through his hand! The version we had was fitted with a 240V SMPS.
It might have been the version from my found schematic diagram. Becuase that shows mains input and a transformer. I'd assume yours had the classic 9-pin connectors for the joysticks too? At 256 bytes of RAM, I doubt a word processor though... But I really would like to know if any of the games ever made use of it in a way.
I don't think mine had the 9-pin connector. The joysticks were hard wired as per the unit restored in the video. I recall trying to keep the cables tidy was impossible. Oh wow. 256 bytes of RAM. One of the games I had was searching through the large matrix to look for a mine - think of a very earl version of minesweeper but with a single solitary mine. The location of the mine changes each time the game was played so I assume it used a few bytes of the RAM!
My brother had one of these. I can remember he had a pac-man style game, where the dots moved around the maze so you had to chase them down. He also had the programming cart, I can remember my 8 year old self being truly confused at the assembler language it used!
I was only four when this was released, so I can't share any personal "from the time" experiences... but I really would love to see what they had as "dev" options; I'm sure emulators weren't that much of a thing back then.
One of the reasons that Philips may have entered into a deal with Magnavox in the USA to market this device is that they did not use the Philips brand name here until several years later. They were known as "Norelco" here, since there was already a company here named "Philco", and there was the potential of confusion between the two brands. Once Philco went out of business, they began using the Philips brand here.
It was a few years before my parents even considered anything electronic as a toy for me. And even then, I never got anything "play games only" but started with a PC-I...
I was genuinely pleasantly surprised when I saw that you have a Philips G7000 project. I am one of Sweden's biggest collectors of this video game console. I have composite-modded a couple of these, and it's something I highly recommend. Another fantastic video as usual. It would have been fun if you went into detail about how everything works on the console. Perhaps a follow-up video? Looking forward to your next project.
If I get my paws on some dev tools, I might give it a try for fun. That would fit in with an explanation on the components. As far as a project video however, this is what it is: There wasn't anything broken, so I only looked into as much detail as I needed for a proper tune up. 😅
The G7000 uses TTL RGBi internally and is thus CGA compatible. The composite signal goes through a potentiometer to the modulator. The input to the pot is strong enough for RCA so you can have RGB, RF and Composite at the same time! (I tried. Three screens on one G7000 at the same time. It works.) That's how I mod mine. It has an insanely sharp picture over RGB. Getting RGB from RGBi is also relatively easy with a bunch of resistors. The RGBi signals are under the RF shield though. I have a photo on my website. The G7000 is also relatively easy to make multicarts for. The easiest thing you can do is burn whatever game you like on a 2716 or 2732 EPROM and install it in the cartridge instead of the one that's in there. You can use a bigger ROM and DIP switches to select a game. But I don't remember which of the pins is needed for the 8k sized games (but there's some real good ones, including a few that were never released). IIRC the 8k pin is next to the 4k pin on the cartridge with a test pad and nothing else connected (but so are all the unused lines).
I saw the RGB and "Luma" lines on the circuit diagram. Thought that it might be something like that, but it's good to know that it is direct CGA, that makes things for RGB mod a tad bit easier indeed. I'll check to see what I can make for a circuit board for the mod when I come around to it. Thanks!
@@atkelar There's one gotcha* - unless your CGA monitor doesn't care about the video levels in the blanking period, you need to manually blank those, otherwise games with a non-black background may look either weird or have no picture at all. IIRC you have to AND each of the RGBi signals with NOT VSync (which also has the blanking). Funny thing - on my friend's G7000, the picture started to be intermittent. I RGB modded his console (and built him a multicart) and a few years later, the composite signal generator IC finally completely died, so now RGB is all that is left. Which is good because he doesn't have any old TVs. Btw. I also use to put a power switch and LED in G7000s when I mod them. Why the European version has no power switch (not even on the PSU), I don't know. *) two, actually - CGA monitors want 60Hz video signals so you gotta twiddle the (usually internal) V-Hold pot. Or use a Commodore 1084. But the reward is a super crisp picture. Think the composite mod will improve the muddy RF output? Dream on! It looks just the same over composite!
The project is certainly a "do it right" one... but day job obligatoins will dictate whether I can make part one in time. Let's see, I should be able to tell by the end of the week!
Cool! I find it interesting how different the internals of the machine are from my Magnavox Odyssey 2, from the different PCB's in the controllers, to the placement of the power circuitry on its own daughterboard, to a different plug for the power brick. I'm quite surprised, as I would have thought that the only difference would have been in the video circuitry (PAL instead of NTSC).
Indeed there are several revisions around; It also doesn't seem to be based on when but rather where they were made. My case for example has provisions for the power switch that was included on other models... and some other mounting studs for whatever else is different. So they clearly had one case mold for several different inner workings, and that only makes sense if it was pre planned; a generation shift would use up the old cases first too IMHO.
Interesting video love some retro game consoles. 👍👍 I had and loaned out the first PONG home game console. I never got it back when the person moved home.
Not a system you see often on RUclips. I think you have one of the better third party games for the system. Having no storage, all games were simple and repetitive. Also any version I have seen had 12v for the RF box. The logic is 5v only.
There seem to be several versions around... but I did measure the power lines, and this one has two 5V rails, so the RF modulator also runs on that. One clearly needs to be careful when repairing them, as the schematics will not alwasy be right.
@@atkelar i have never seen the version you have and I have had and still have those machines. G7000 and g7400. Almost looks like what they call a cost reduced version. Your version also has more shielding on the main pcb
Even worse, that's an intel microcontroller missing nearly all of it's registers! The most common use was in keyboards to run the device as they were not well suited for general purpose computing.
There are indeed numerous different brandings around. I couldn't find a complete list and also no definitive reason as to why it was sold under so many different names/editions...
@@atkelar kinda a mistery. and i even got cartidige with the jopac name. wich are.... kinda pointless. funny enough i need make some repair to them non of the power switch stay in ON position.
It's called "Kontakt LR" - Kontakt is the manufacturer, "LR" is German for "PCB clearner" pretty much. The spray is specialized to dissolve flux residue. Reall thick layers need a bit of mechanical help first, but I like the rsult.
It sure doesn't compare to other computers... but I have to look at it in context: 1978 was when almost nobody at home had computers at all and all the gaming console were pretty much versions of Pong... compared to that, it does provide a nice step up and is a relevant part of history.
Just delay a video when needed, it's not life or death. Better a late video than a burned out RUclipsr. Don't listen to demands for a schedule. Quality over quantity
Well, RUclips would like me to have a video every week, I'm already planning for every other week only... but that is a self set thing. I do have a project to put out in case of "ran out of time" usually, but the special one I mentioned should be the next one. Because reasons 😉
Look after yourself. We’re in it for the long game with you.
@@atkelar screw RUclips, the algorithm had burned out more good channels then I can count. Unless you really want to go at it full-time, don't forget to attend to family and things, it's important to do that.
That brings back so many memories. I ended up with one as a kid. Similar Philips branding in Australia. I had always assumed that there must have been some programs, Word processor, programming environment, or similar which required the keyboard but we only had a couple of games. I always wanted to learn how to program it but the PSU died one warm afternoon. Either a cap or resistor burnt out from memory. The only time I can remember my father yelping in pain was as he tried to repair the power supply and discharged the 300V caps through his hand! The version we had was fitted with a 240V SMPS.
It might have been the version from my found schematic diagram. Becuase that shows mains input and a transformer. I'd assume yours had the classic 9-pin connectors for the joysticks too?
At 256 bytes of RAM, I doubt a word processor though... But I really would like to know if any of the games ever made use of it in a way.
I don't think mine had the 9-pin connector. The joysticks were hard wired as per the unit restored in the video. I recall trying to keep the cables tidy was impossible.
Oh wow. 256 bytes of RAM. One of the games I had was searching through the large matrix to look for a mine - think of a very earl version of minesweeper but with a single solitary mine. The location of the mine changes each time the game was played so I assume it used a few bytes of the RAM!
My brother had one of these. I can remember he had a pac-man style game, where the dots moved around the maze so you had to chase them down. He also had the programming cart, I can remember my 8 year old self being truly confused at the assembler language it used!
I was only four when this was released, so I can't share any personal "from the time" experiences... but I really would love to see what they had as "dev" options; I'm sure emulators weren't that much of a thing back then.
One of the reasons that Philips may have entered into a deal with Magnavox in the USA to market this device is that they did not use the Philips brand name here until several years later. They were known as "Norelco" here, since there was already a company here named "Philco", and there was the potential of confusion between the two brands. Once Philco went out of business, they began using the Philips brand here.
Norelco was also known for making electric shavers and the like. Was it the same company?
Every one of your videos is a delight!
Yay! That was actually my very first games console when I was a kid ,:)
It was a few years before my parents even considered anything electronic as a toy for me. And even then, I never got anything "play games only" but started with a PC-I...
I was genuinely pleasantly surprised when I saw that you have a Philips G7000 project. I am one of Sweden's biggest collectors of this video game console. I have composite-modded a couple of these, and it's something I highly recommend. Another fantastic video as usual. It would have been fun if you went into detail about how everything works on the console. Perhaps a follow-up video? Looking forward to your next project.
If I get my paws on some dev tools, I might give it a try for fun. That would fit in with an explanation on the components. As far as a project video however, this is what it is: There wasn't anything broken, so I only looked into as much detail as I needed for a proper tune up. 😅
The G7000 uses TTL RGBi internally and is thus CGA compatible. The composite signal goes through a potentiometer to the modulator. The input to the pot is strong enough for RCA so you can have RGB, RF and Composite at the same time! (I tried. Three screens on one G7000 at the same time. It works.) That's how I mod mine. It has an insanely sharp picture over RGB. Getting RGB from RGBi is also relatively easy with a bunch of resistors.
The RGBi signals are under the RF shield though. I have a photo on my website.
The G7000 is also relatively easy to make multicarts for. The easiest thing you can do is burn whatever game you like on a 2716 or 2732 EPROM and install it in the cartridge instead of the one that's in there. You can use a bigger ROM and DIP switches to select a game. But I don't remember which of the pins is needed for the 8k sized games (but there's some real good ones, including a few that were never released). IIRC the 8k pin is next to the 4k pin on the cartridge with a test pad and nothing else connected (but so are all the unused lines).
I saw the RGB and "Luma" lines on the circuit diagram. Thought that it might be something like that, but it's good to know that it is direct CGA, that makes things for RGB mod a tad bit easier indeed. I'll check to see what I can make for a circuit board for the mod when I come around to it. Thanks!
@@atkelar There's one gotcha* - unless your CGA monitor doesn't care about the video levels in the blanking period, you need to manually blank those, otherwise games with a non-black background may look either weird or have no picture at all. IIRC you have to AND each of the RGBi signals with NOT VSync (which also has the blanking).
Funny thing - on my friend's G7000, the picture started to be intermittent. I RGB modded his console (and built him a multicart) and a few years later, the composite signal generator IC finally completely died, so now RGB is all that is left. Which is good because he doesn't have any old TVs.
Btw. I also use to put a power switch and LED in G7000s when I mod them. Why the European version has no power switch (not even on the PSU), I don't know.
*) two, actually - CGA monitors want 60Hz video signals so you gotta twiddle the (usually internal) V-Hold pot. Or use a Commodore 1084.
But the reward is a super crisp picture. Think the composite mod will improve the muddy RF output? Dream on! It looks just the same over composite!
As always it was a joy to watch...
Not gonna lie I'm kinda hoping for a part 1, because that means they're still be a part 2 and that means more atkelar ❤😂
Take your time! I love yout 2 part ones! Do it right, no rush. We love your content, and I for one, am willing to wait :)
The project is certainly a "do it right" one... but day job obligatoins will dictate whether I can make part one in time. Let's see, I should be able to tell by the end of the week!
👏 super and mini-me is cute 😁
Pretty cute little 'puter, nice job on that one. Boop!
Cool! I find it interesting how different the internals of the machine are from my Magnavox Odyssey 2, from the different PCB's in the controllers, to the placement of the power circuitry on its own daughterboard, to a different plug for the power brick. I'm quite surprised, as I would have thought that the only difference would have been in the video circuitry (PAL instead of NTSC).
Indeed there are several revisions around; It also doesn't seem to be based on when but rather where they were made. My case for example has provisions for the power switch that was included on other models... and some other mounting studs for whatever else is different. So they clearly had one case mold for several different inner workings, and that only makes sense if it was pre planned; a generation shift would use up the old cases first too IMHO.
Great job on the restoration and you're talking cat is hilarious so I subscribed 😅
Interesting video love some retro game consoles. 👍👍
I had and loaned out the first PONG home game console. I never got it back when the person moved home.
Aww.. sorry to hear about that. It's sad that some people seem "borrowing" means "gifted" at times.
Aww yiss, new Atkelar!
Great restoration 👍
Not a system you see often on RUclips. I think you have one of the better third party games for the system. Having no storage, all games were simple and repetitive.
Also any version I have seen had 12v for the RF box. The logic is 5v only.
There seem to be several versions around... but I did measure the power lines, and this one has two 5V rails, so the RF modulator also runs on that. One clearly needs to be careful when repairing them, as the schematics will not alwasy be right.
@@atkelar i have never seen the version you have and I have had and still have those machines. G7000 and g7400. Almost looks like what they call a cost reduced version. Your version also has more shielding on the main pcb
Hey DKOldies...THIS is what people mean when they say refurbishing a vintage console.
Super!
Interesting what the old 8-bit Intel CPU can do.
Even worse, that's an intel microcontroller missing nearly all of it's registers! The most common use was in keyboards to run the device as they were not well suited for general purpose computing.
New Atkelar I just drop everything else to watch it! Now I got a Master system you surely would have a struggle with to restore again lol
Dude same, I absolutely want my muppet show electronics with high paced music in the afternoon
Oh this machine . Here it's called the videopack the next version is videopac+ there is also a under license version caled the jopac by brandt.
There are indeed numerous different brandings around. I couldn't find a complete list and also no definitive reason as to why it was sold under so many different names/editions...
@@atkelar kinda a mistery. and i even got cartidige with the jopac name. wich are.... kinda pointless. funny enough i need make some repair to them non of the power switch stay in ON position.
Atkelar, what is the spray can with a brush for cleaning PCBs that you are using?!
It's called "Kontakt LR" - Kontakt is the manufacturer, "LR" is German for "PCB clearner" pretty much. The spray is specialized to dissolve flux residue. Reall thick layers need a bit of mechanical help first, but I like the rsult.
Thank you 🥹
So that thing is either a Magnavox or a Phillips, using Intel chips.
I wonder who designed it?
:o)❤
Hii
i had one of those as a kid. what a piece of sh..t! gave it away lately after we rediscovered it in the attic. does not deserve the name "computer".
It sure doesn't compare to other computers... but I have to look at it in context: 1978 was when almost nobody at home had computers at all and all the gaming console were pretty much versions of Pong... compared to that, it does provide a nice step up and is a relevant part of history.