iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

I kinda just want the joycons tbh

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NES top loader composite mod finished tonight. Of course I planned to record it for YT and the X-T3 decided it was having none of that today. Really need to budget to replace that POS... Anyway, not bad from a budget 80s console that was never supposed to have composite video in the first place lol

Legend of Zelda for the NES - main start screen, on a composite modded NES Top Loader. Other than some very faint jailbars and dot crawl (not pictured), it's a solid signal.

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The main station with all the modern hardware. Yeah, cables are still visible in some places. And please just don't look *behind* the TV where I can't easily cable manage. But from the chair, it's acceptable IMO. The stray cable running down is for the capture card connected to my laptop, fwiw.

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*PS2, not PS1 here. .hack is from PS2 anyway lol

Once I get these last two console mods done, I'll finally have everything connected to a single system for the first time in....6 years? That was ~5 fewer consoles ago too. It'll be nice to be able to play anything I fancy without having to rip apart the setup just to get a signal in the future!

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As for HDMI...well they're digital signals so they either work or they don't. Thankfully, as of now I've had the PS3 running in game for over an hour and not a single signal drop. The Wii U, Switch, and GC with the Carby are rock solid as always. And on the 4K side, the PS5 and Switch 2 are fine.

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And finally the component video stack. SNES Jr will be here soon. Genesis, the video is kinda noisy through the 32x and not the best through the model 2 either. Both might need recaps. PS1 is solid, Wii is solid but soft (normal for those). All in all pretty pleased.

Earthworm Jim Special Edition playing on the Sega Genesis CD. The signal looks fairly clean in this still but when you play IRL you notice some signal noise, worse with the 32x attached. The genesis tower of power will need some maintenance soon.

The only analog system I run in 16:9, the Wii, shwoing the Skyward Sword menu through a component connection. The Wii never was a particularly sharp console. I may try to sharpen it up a bit more through the retrotink later.

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My composite signals. Waiting to see if anything comes of the HD Retrovision component cable for dreamcast. Until then it's just composite in the stack. Atari 2600 needs some hardware help to clean up the signal, but for now it's workable. NES TL will go with this stack soon.

Atari 2600 heavy sixer playing Space Invaders on a composite output (modded). This needed a lot of help on the retrotink to get a decent signal. Considerable red bleed and faint jailbars, but the blacks are clean and the brightness is excellent with some signal processing.

Crazy Taxi running on the Dreamcast. Found out I have an intermittent disc drive while testing this out, but otherwise the signal is decent for composite. I'll have to work on the crop to get rid of the black bars.

For my S Video signals, just the PS1 and N64 for now. I have a second S Video AV cable coming for the Gamecube for my DOL-101, but it'll be a few days. These look really nice for such old tech. N64 definitely softer, I might try to RGB mod one in the future.

PS1 signal, through S video. Signal is exceptionally sharp on the menu screen of Final Fantasy VII.

Gameplay of Ocarina of Time on the N64. Color is good but overall signal is soft. This is fairly normal for most N64s

So other than the HDMI nightmare, everything WAS working this morning. Well, I still need to finish the console mods for the NES TL and SNES Jr. Those are sitting on my workbench waiting to be done. Hopefully tonight. But in the meantime, I have well tuned Retrotink profiles configured now!

Now I have to figure out how to cable manage this mess without any access to the back or corner of the room where these wires run. This was what I originally planned on spending this evening on, and it's already 9pm with an early day tomorrow :/

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It just worked. Of course it did. Why? Hell if I know, but now I have 2 hdmi active switchers, 1 passive switcher, and 1 splitter out to my TV and capture card to maintain connectivity across everything. And it took the better part of ANOTHER day to get it working.

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At this point I've spent 2 hours on the one PS3 HDMI signal. I'm close to buying a component cable for it but I only have 1 more free and I want keep that open for an OG Xbox down the line... As a last ditch effort I grab a passive HDMI switcher instead of the active ones I've been using.

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I try 10 different HDMI cables. No dice. An HDMI splitter to bypass one of the switchers. Nope. I try running it DIRECTLY to the TV. It works *better*, but not perfectly. At this point I'm thinking there's a genuine problem with the PS3's video signal.

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The moment it was running on its own splitter, the random signal loss started happening. Just on the PS3, mind you. I have a Wii U, a Switch, and a Gamecube with a Carby hdmi out that function just fine through the same switch. Just the PS3 doesn't want to play nice.

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Nick Charles @nickcharlesyt.com · 27/09/2026

And here I thought the HDMI part of this setup would be the easy one....nope, the PS3 had something to do about that. First, HDCP is a no-go through the Retrotink. Fair enough. So I routed it through a separate HDMI switcher instead to bypass the retrotink. That's where all the problems started...

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The crazy thing is at least 3 people actually paid $4000+ for those 3 5090 SKUs because they're sold out now.

Nick Charles @nickcharlesyt.com · 27/09/2026

Okay, it took an entire day (and technically this is only the retro half of the room), but you know what? That does look better than I feared it would Just need a few more cables, & the 7800. Oh and I should probably do that NES TL composite mod so I can actually use the cables I routed. Yeah...

My finished retro side of the gaming den, consisting of a white Kallax 4x2 in horizontal orientation. The top of the kallax holds a row of consoles and AV switchers, and the top row of cubes uses shelf inserts to provide a total of 3 distinct rows of console and av capacity.

Top surface, from left to right: 1 Pelican system selector pro with two Pelican universal system selectors stacked on top, a red Nintendo Wii (component) and black PlayStation 2 slim (component), both positioned on vertical stands, the Sega Genesis model 2 with 32x and sega CD attachments (component), and an Atari 2600 Heavy Sixer (composite modded).

Upper shelf, left to right: Sega Dreamcast (Composite, soon to be component), N64 (S Video), a blank space for an in-transit Atari 7800 I plan to composite mod, and an NES Top Loader (soon to be composite modded).

Lower shelf, left to right: PS3 slim (HDMI), a Japanese and north American GameCube (both DOL-001, sharing a GCVideo HDMI adapter and an S Video out), a PS1 (S video), and a SNES Jr (RGB Component modded).

The bottom set of kallax cubes is dedicated to controller, AV, memory, and adapter storage in 2 large door inserts and 2 sets of double drawer inserts.

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Current status: regretting my life's decisions immensely. This isn't even half of the wires that need to go back here...

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The average price per piece may be stable but my average purchasing power per paycheck has steadily gone down as wages struggle to keep up with inflation.

The AV routing...let's just say I'm relying heavily on the pelican system selector line and a retrotink 4k, plus a shitload of HDMI switching capability. It'll all go through an elgato capture card so I can easily grab footage of, well, just about anything.

Ps1 - S Video
Ps2 slim - Component
Ps3 slim - HDMI 1080P
Ps5 - HDMI 4K
NES TL - Composite modded
SNES Jr - Component RGB modded
N64 - S Video
Gamecube DOL-001 - HDMI & S Video (shared)
JPN GC DOL-001 - HDMI & S video (shared)
Wii - Component
Wii U - HDMI 1080P
Switch - HDMI 1080P
Switch 2 - HDMI 4K
Sega Genesis/CD/32X - Component
Atari 2600 - composite modded
Atari 7800 - composite
Dreamcast - component

Pelican Composite/S Video1:
In 1: PS1 (S)
In 2: N64 (S)
In 3: GC (S)
In 4:
In 5:
Out: S Video

Pelican Composite/S Video 2:
In 1: NES TL (RCA)
In 2: Atari 2600 (RCA)
In 3: Atari 7800 (RCA)
In 4:
In 5:
Out: RCA

Pelican system Selector Pro:
In 1: PS2 Slim (Component)
In 2: SNES Jr. (Component)
In 3: Genesis (Component)
In 4: Wii (Component)
In 5: Dreamcast (Component)
In 6: Pelican S Video
In 7: Pelican RCA
In 8: (Front hot swap)
Out: All to retrotink 4k

HDMI 5 in 1 out (1):
In 1: GC
In 2: Wii U
In 3: PS3
In 4: Switch
In 5:
Out: to Retrotink 4k

Retrotink 4k:
In: all analog, and sub-4k consoles via HDMI(1)
Out: to HDMI(2)

HDMI 5 in 1 out (2):
In 1: Retrotink 4k
In 2: Switch 2
In 3: PS5
In 4:
In 5:
Out: Elgato 4K S -> TV and PC

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I even had to ditch the bin storage just to fit it all. I'd hoped I could squeeze the NES TL & snes jr on one shelf but it's just a bit too wide But it's all roughed in, ready for routing. My modern consoles go by the TV, but this setup will actually keep the wired controllers nearby this time lol

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It feels like it was only a few months ago I was setting this kallax shelf up thinking it'll hold every retro game console I'll ever want Yeah that didn't happen. The last slot is going to an Atari 7800, and I officially have no room for an og Xbox or 360, or a 3DO if I ever get so lucky. Oops.

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Thanks, I'll never unsee it now

It's to the point where I have started asking if the original power supply is included with a console and, if it isn't, I won't buy it.

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On a related note, I really wish retro stores would stop carrying these awful "Old Skool" power supplies. This is the 5th one I had for various consoles & every single one fails after a few years. When they start to act up like this they can take out the voltage regulators on your consoles too!

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I can't find any loose connections, cracked solder joints, or anything to indicate any problem ever existed. I poked and prodded every chip, capacitor, connector, and wire I could find. It's all solid. WTF?!

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Nick Charles @nickcharlesyt.com · 20/09/2026

Well, that was interesting. I had an Atari 2600 that wasn't outputting color even when the color switch was on. Opened it up, connected it to the TV to try and figure out what was wrong, and it shows in full color. I literally did nothing but take it apart and it started working!

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Of course, now I have to get the remaining 3 to finish out the set 😆

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Nick Charles @nickcharlesyt.com · 20/09/2026

I've been spending a lot of time on trying to print these cards, and though I did come up with a reliable printing method for printing the rare stuff, nothing beats having the originals where possible!

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Nick Charles @nickcharlesyt.com · 20/09/2026

I was out doing some furniture shopping and just dropped in to a game store on my way home, and what did I find? A nearly complete set of NES E Reader cards for the GBA! Custom cases and artwork and everything. This kind of stuff rarely comes up at all, let alone so well cared for. I had to grab it!

Nick Charles @nickcharlesyt.com · 19/09/2026

Is this supposed to be a good price? Man, Lego is just too expensive these days...

Nick Charles @nickcharlesyt.com · 18/09/2026

It indeed is temperature related! Colder batteries produce lower voltage, & the internal resistance increases as temps decrease. As it pulses the LED the voltage dips until it's just enough to trip the low battery alarm. Even small drifts we can't perceive are enough to affect the voltages this way

Nick Charles @nickcharlesyt.com · 14/09/2026

All of a sudden the quest 3 looks like a totally reasonable deal...

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Honestly, from afar the results speak for themselves. That looks 1000x better than it did before, and it sure as hell beats a bunch of blank cases on the shelf. Now I just have to go through and clean all the messy labels off of these games...maybe soon.

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Placed side by side with my original copy of Suikoden IV, my reprint isn't 100%. I had to shrink it down a bit to fit on a standard page with my printer's minimum margins, but if it bothers me too much I can always go source a ream of larger photo paper instead. For now, this looks great to my eyes.

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I only bought after I managed to haggle with the store owner for a discount off a fairly decent haul, but this label has always bothered me. So I tried printing my own. And wouldn't ya know, using glossy photo paper instead of standard copy paper makes all the difference lol

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Nick Charles @nickcharlesyt.com · 01/09/2026

Ok, so game case art reprints...on the one hand, it's nice to get an actual case for your more expensive games. On the other hand, when reputable retro game store print labels like this...yikes The cut is awful, the blacks are crushed, and the resolution stinks. And they wanted cib pricing for it.

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I've also dabbled in using it for some live translation applications, but even my best effort has it just barely getting the gist of what's getting said. 80% of the original meaning is lost. I ultimately started learning the language myself instead. But I get why that might be impractical for many.

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Nick Charles @nickcharlesyt.com · 01/09/2026

For example it's done wonders to help me categorize and order scattered documents from ~15 yr long projects to help me refocus my time and fix old me's terrible data organization practices. But there's no way in hell I'm giving that level of access to anything I'm not running locally & in a sandbox

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Nick Charles @nickcharlesyt.com · 01/09/2026

I use it for coding, but only at work bc they mandate it. On my own time, the most I'll do is run existing code/text through a local LLM & tell it to "identify" and "extract" info pertinent to my query. Then I go use/update/fix it myself. It's basically a glorified search engine for my own works.

Nick Charles @nickcharlesyt.com · 28/08/2026

Getting this far included doing an optical board swap ona broken GameCube (which *will* have a video out on a new project channel I'm working on!), and I had to do some corrosion repair on the sapphire cart (unfortunately didn't record that) Over 230 pokemon caught so far of 1499 for the pichu egg!

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Nick Charles @nickcharlesyt.com · 28/08/2026

So I've been busy... Well, not today. Today I got nothing done for the project 😭 But the past 2 weeks I've been quite busy indeed. Started a fresh run of crystal and made it to the lighthouse. Also got a Japanese copy of sapphire to go with box and colosseum, so I can do stuff like this:

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Nick Charles @nickcharlesyt.com · 27/08/2026

Bought this last week. Pretty good for the money. Even seems to have a vesa mount on the back. The built in stand kinda sucks but for $33 I'll live with it. Makes me want one with touch capability tbh.