NESHD - a 1080p HDMI mod kit!

[akaviolence]

This vid is a run through of the menu and some features and some game-play on a 120" 1080p projection setup.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xuw6EZdj2tE

[akaviolence]

I had a couple issues on the first av fami install, but I think we got it figured out!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulcF7qGzLAo

[akaviolence]

Kevin's post from the nesdev thread:

Well, Jason (gametech) came over tonight and we did a bunch of everdrive testing. Turns out his everdrive works fine on my HDMI modified toploader. We ran SMB3, Zelda, Double Dragon, Faxanadu, SMB, SMB2, and a bunch of other games and all of them seem to work fine. Overall I tested NROM, UNROM, MMC1, and MMC3 games.

The only minor issue I had was reset. sometimes I had to mash reset a few times before the menu would come back up. Once (out of 15-20 games run) I had to cycle the power.

This confirms what I said earlier about the ED working back in november. It seemed to work then and still seems to work now.

Turns out his ED is one of the very first made, and as such it has really old firmware on it. Rev 3 firmware.


I also have a "modern" ED that uses the latest firmware. This ED does NOT work on the Hidef nes. The menu sometimes comes up and the graphics are always corrupt- looks like uninitialized VRAM. You can tell the menu is there, but you can't start a game, it just resets. Sometimes it's showing an error screen I think, but you can't read it. I did not get this version to run a game.

So I took the rev 3 firmware off Jason's ED and put it on the "modern" ED, and guess what it worked just as well as his ED did! So whatever change happened between rev 3 and 4 of the ED firmware seems to be the reason. I put the latest version of firmware on Jason's ED and it failed in the same way the "modern" ED failed.

These are good data points on tracking down the problem I think.

I was thinking of making a video showing this happening.

Regarding the HDMI connector fit, I test fitted my toploader with the cable I have here and it worked OK so I thought it was going to be fine. The connector is recessed as far as it is so I could use the same board on the NES and the nt both. I tested so I thought it was OK, but turns out it isn't. Various cables seem to have different "tongue" lengths. I modified one by cutting some of the plastic off with an xacto knife and it only took me about a minute to do this. I was surprised how easy it was actually.

This board would work fine on a front loader I think. the plastic is much thinner on the back so the fit should not be an issue there.

On the next run I will move the connector out on a little PCB "flag" to fix this issue.

Like any other brand new high complexity product, there's going to be some things to fix. There's literally hundreds or even thousands of little things that could go wrong, so it's not unlikely one or two of these things will slip through. I tried to do extremely thorough testing here. This included 20 sets of CPU/PPU's, 4 different NES main boards (front loaders and top loaders), 12 or 13 Hidef NES proto boards I hand stuffed and reflowed, and 10 different monitors. There is also the HDMI Analyzer that I paid quite a lot of money for just specifically so I could debug the HDMI link on this project. Overall I am in fairly deep on this project financially so I hope it will eventually pay off, and that I will make a bit more than minimum wage for the hours I put in and the cash I spent for tools and prototypes. Overall 5 or 6 people were helping me test/debug it (it wasn't just 2 people as someone claimed).

Not a whine or anything, just stating what the facts are. Hope this clears up some of the loose ends people have about the project. I hope to be able to supply as many boards as the modding community can use. There's not going to be any limit. So long as people buy them I will sell them, barring any parts availability issues.

[akaviolence]

Some of the Analogue NT's have made it out to customers.
Here's a link to one guy's review of it with the Hi-Def kit installed:
http://filthypants.blogspot.com/2015...irst-look.html

[akaviolence]

Initial stages of fitment of kit to front loader NES.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0cwm2thGQs

[akaviolence]

There was a vrc7 mapper released for the NES Everdrive. This means Lagrange Point can be played!
I had some trouble getting a couple of the roms to work, english translation worked 2 times and not once since...
The hi-def nes kit shines here as it's the only way to get the expansion audio to work since the kit generates it internally, no need for the exp audio part of the mapper pack to work, which currently does not.
It was also my first attempt at audio capture via line out or headphone jack of the projector and tv, neither work very well.
Can anybody recommend a good hdmi 1080p capture card?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32wWs2j2S0Q

[Cornholio857]

I recently saw your video of the install and the mod in action. Very cool! Your other videos are also very informative.

I also have the same Nine Inch Nails t-shirts you wore in a few of your videos. I gotta collection of them. LOL

[BladeJunker]

I started watching the videos for this venture and I really like the end result, so much better than half-assed emulation efforts. I was starting to think there wasn't anyone out there with electrical engineering skills who liked old consoles what with things like the Neo Geo X and other crappy clone/emulation solutions to the HDMI gap with old school. I know some components just aren't made anymore but it's great to see actual hardware of the past and present working together instead of just another Android tablet with a different skin.

[akaviolence]

From Twitter:
@krikzz 1 minute ago
#EverDrive N8 OS v13. Now compatible with NES HDMI adapter!
krikzz.com/forum/index.ph...

Excellent! Thanks for the update, will spread the word!

[akaviolence]

Kevtris posted an update to the hi-def's firmware, only 30-40 consoles are out there right now so this mostly just applies to them:

Weeeelllll, here it is. I received the everdrive yesterday and loaded V12? firmware onto it (the version before the "fix" for the HDMI adapter). Thinking this was going to be a "worst case" test. It worked perfectly with the games I tested- I tested about 6 or 7 different mappers and all is well. Reset even worked properly. Before, the error messages wouldn't show up properly but they do now (i.e. no SD card).

FDS is working properly now, and so do MMC5 games (i.e. reset works there too, and no need to use a game genie). I sent it out to a couple people and they could apply it properly, though one person has problems.

He was using a powerpak, and his MMC3 file was different than mine- I think he has the savestate mappers. This caused the update to not work. It reported a data corrupt error and refused to flash the firmware. I gave him my mapper 4 file direct off the CF card on my powerpak and then he got it to work properly.

I don't know anything about the save state mapper, but I assume it cannot load 512K PRG ROMs, because it uses some of the RAM for the savestate part? I could be totally wrong but that's just my first guess.

It works on some everdrives, but some people had issues.

Anyways, here is the update:

http://blog.kevtris.org/blogfiles/Hi...te%20V2.00.nes

To use it, load this ROM on a flash cart (or burn EPROMs? hehe), run it and then get into the Hi Def menu, select "save and update", then "update firmware", and follow the on screen prompts. It will check the update for integrity, and then flash it if it passes the check. Cycle power and it will use the new firmware.

[akaviolence]

Kevtris posted an update video last night:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcB0olRfYM0

Biggest news is the next batch of kits has been ordered!
There is also a small firmware update, v2.25.
http://blog.kevtris.org/blogfiles/Hi...25%20final.nes
This fixes a few games and interpolation.

[akaviolence]

Hi-Def NES update - kits ready for sale Sunday July 3rd
https://youtu.be/X0E8KzTt2i4

[akaviolence]

Pre-oders sale page is live, has been all day and looks to be holding up no problems so far.
https://www.game-tech.us/product/hi-def-nes/