N64 RGB Mod Attempt thoughts

[Venom]

While I sort some Japanese consoles out for 60hz, started to look at my N64 which TBH looks terrible on my LCD tv, so just stays in a box !

I was going to get one of these for my snes and if I can make my n64 RBG out , it can be used to get a better picture. I tend to bring the consoles out play them and put them back , and was not looking at adding a powered OSCC. So seemed a reasonable solution to have this non powered cable. I can just leave that at back of TV permanently.

Any thought on below before I order some flux ! Can anyone reccomend a general purpose flux for this type of thing, as last one I got was brownish with a brush and just went off and was really sticky . I see his is almost see through and looks less glueish and more tranparent alcohol looking.



Rad2x

I am not the best solderer in the world but have been looking at 3 videos.

I assum there must be some consoles that dont work with the simpler mods 1 and 2 as 3 seems way beyond my skills.

I rekon option 1 seems the best for a novice like me.

I have a spare N64 to practise on as that has broken capacitors. I think the key here is for me to get some flux ! I have some Wire wrap wire which I think is already tinned and single core so should fit nicely down the hole !

Wire Wrapping

3 Videos I think 1 looks the easiest, anyone thinking nope go for 2 !

Down the hole ! 5:25

Capacitor 10 minutes

Tim Worthington Start of video

 

[Brettster]

Flux, is not magic, it helps the clean the contacts of oxidation and aid in solder flow, Solder will follow the heat.
if you want an easy life get some of the No Clean flux, its less likely to be a sticky brown mess at the end of the work, but I would still clean the area with ipl anyway, No clean flux pens are easy to use and convenient, the thicker pastes are more suited to surface mount stuff. if you opt for a liquid flux in a bottle, try to get a squeeze bottle with a syringe tip so you can apply just enough rather than a river
N64 will always look terrible on a modern screen without some external processing, it was also never designed for RGB output, the softer S-video or Composite, helped to smooth the edges and blend the textures. Best option for all the older stuff is a CRT, there is nothing better

 

[Venom]

Thats really useful info, thanks for the detailed reply !

 

[Retroman839]

For N64 I always used s-video & a 29” 4:3 Sony trinitron.
Or 36” 4:3 Philips match line.
I never saw a better picture for N64.

Having said that .
I am impressed with the emulator.
It’s a marked improvement visually
Hdmi out of pc to any hdmi tv.
I have a Radnet n64 usb controller
But couldn’t get the rumble to work!

So I still prefer the jap/usa to
S- video for N64 play.

 

[Retroman839]

Apperantly .. it is the s Video signal
Converted to hdmi

 

[Retroman839]

As long as you own the game
Running emulator you get the good resolutions .straight to hdmi
. some of the dodgy techniques Nintendo used to hide poor graphics
like take wave race had some bad slowdown that the emulators don’t suffer & Less of that fogging too to hide texture maps popping too..
the emulator does offer some genuine visual upgrades,

 

[Venom]

Did not realise the OSCC's now did dreamcast too (although mine looks pretty good on VGA) but that would still require the n64 to be modded to RGB for an OSCC.

oscc 1.7

HMMM

 

[kuato_lives]

Best option for all the older stuff is a CRT, there is nothing better

This. You can spend a small fortune trying to use a modern display (check out the mental price of the Retro-TINK-4K!) and the picture still won’t look right, no matter how long and sincerely reviewers spend staring at pixels trying to convince themselves it looks amazing.

Fed up with all the different PSUs, cables and decoders/encoders, my set up now is CRT-SCART-console. Happy days.

 

[Retroman839]

That’s why n64 emulator is best
Hdmi to hdmi all handled on the gpu

 

[Retroman839]

That’s why n64 emulator is best
Hdmi to hdmi all handled on the gpu

Or mister ( neeed a good n64 to usb controller though ) 🥵

 

[Venom]

I've got an emulation pc i5 with a 1030 card will take a look, cheers. I used to have loads of 14 inch portables, think 19 inch will be ok for me. Thanks all

 

[Venom]

I might mod it anyway as n64 seem to go for 125 to 150 modded and about 70 non modded with a couple of games, the chips are less than 20 !!! I did buy a really good multi cart but tbh not enjoying the games, as much as I enjoy my snes and megadrive...

 

[Retroman839]

Pilot wings , wave race , star fox , Mario 64, zelda

 

[AnOldCabinet]

N64 is just one of those systems where, whatever you try, it still really looks best on a CRT. It's definitely still worth the RGB mod as they are cheap if can fit self...but...even with RGB they don't look that great via an OSSC (where nearly every other console does). Even the expensive HDMI mods don't really make it look any better than a 25 quid RGB board mod and a decent CRT.