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new mod 3.5" LCD replacement board Game Gear with VGA FULLSCREEN
Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2015 10:33 am
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iframe type="text/html" width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Xuj-r8MI3XE" frameborder="0">
Sorry for the poor quality of the video! I had not much time to make the video. I try to make a better video ASAP. Features: 3.5" LCD replacement, VGA out, retro-style, scanlines on VGA, SMS games AND GG games in fullscreen on 3.5" LCD or VGA, scaled or native screen horizontal (selectable via jumper). VGA and internal LCD is switchable via backlight knob. retro-style (vertical dark lines as the original old LCD) and scanlines on VGA are selectable by pressing START, FIRE1 and FIRE2 together. You also have TV out at the VGA out connector: When internal 3.5" LCD is on, you also have RGB with CSync! more infos here: order-lynx-lcd@online.de The GG KIT contains: Board with 3.5" LCD, VGA connector with screws and quick guide (for 1ASIC, 2 ASIC and Majesco GG) McWill ;-) |
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Revo
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Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2015 10:43 am |
Hey, nice. What's the price? Shipping from Germany? | |
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Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2015 11:47 am |
I would also like to know this! | |
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Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2015 11:57 am |
The GG mod cost 95 EUR plus shipping cost. Shipping cost within the EU 15 EUR and all other countries 35 EUR via DHL. |
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Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 12:18 am |
Looks awesome!
Mail sent |
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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2015 1:50 pm |
Here is another awesome video of my new Game Gear mod!
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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2015 2:25 pm |
That screen looks awesome. Love the scanline option! | |
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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2015 3:58 pm |
McWill, what about vertical scaling? will allow 1:1? | |
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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2015 5:16 pm |
The scaling in that video is a bit nasty, as is the cropping... but then finding an LCD with integer scaling for all of 256x192, 256x224 and 160x144 would be ridiculously hard, especially at an exact aperture size.
What's the LCD persistence like? Some GG games need it, for example Power Drive (gameplay) and Batman Returns (title screen). |
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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2015 8:37 pm |
The VGA output is 31khz? or is possible to output 15khz?
A 640x480 TFT will be a great idea no? integer scaling is possible for all systems, and non-integer scaling is much better than in 320x240, less evident And are not difficult to find (i buy a 3.5" 640x480 LCD past year in ebay) |
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Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2015 7:56 am |
No, because the aspect ratio isn't correct. So some circles become oval. And that makes no fun! A 640 x 480 LCD was a idea, but is too expensive! The GG mod would be cost almost double the amount, because you also need additional hardware. |
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Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2015 9:47 am |
The problem is that if the screen is 320x240, is impossible to make integer scaling for vertical How do you deal with this? any kind of bilinear filter? |
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Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2015 9:58 am |
Can the scaling be turned on and off?
EDIT: Nevermind, I read in the description that it is possible. |
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Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2015 5:35 pm |
I got my pre modded game gear from McWill yesterday.
He did an incredible job. I got a receipt with a company name, very professional. The work he put into it is simply amazing. You can't tell it's not original. Well, apart from the VGA connector sticking out from the bottom. The screen is incredible. GG games are scaled to fit the resolution, so there are some scaling artifacts if you pay really close attention, but there is no smoothing luckily. The scaling is done so that it results in full pixels. No filtering and no smoothing. As good as it gets. Also tried VGA, works perfectly, scaled to 640X480. You might need to adjust the aspect a bit, but that goes for most VGA output consoles and devices. No biggie. I trully have no downsides or cons to report and I am a critic. If you are still deciding, go for it. The question is how long stuff like this will remain available and untill what year are experts investing time into devices like these. The scanlines are activated as followed. Keep holding down start+a+b and the GG switches between normal and scanlines every 3 seconds or something like that. VGA mode is activated by turning down the contrast to 0. Again, McWill, thank your for such a stellar job. Your laber of love has not gone unnoticed. Funny thing is that I've never actually played a regular GG, but judging from videos and pictures the original screen straight up stinks. It is very comfortable to hold and play a GG, I was pleasantly surprised. It could just be the most playable handheld. Nice D-pad. And the speaker is really loud, amazing! |
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Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2015 10:26 pm |
Now the GG mod is available with new firmware: Selectable native resolution or scaled resolution on 3.5" LCD and VGA in GG and SMS mod by pressing the 3 buttons! |
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Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2015 8:09 am |
Nice! I can't wait to get my GG back with your new firmware :) | |
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Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2015 8:33 am |
I received my modded GG from McWill with this latest firmware and I have to say I am delighted with it. Lovely clear and bright image. Master System resolution games look great scaled and don't lose much screen size at native resolution. GG games are best left with the scaling on. The VGA output even looks good on a 1080 LCD. The fake scan lines option is actually pretty effective. Still looking for a good CRT monitor to use with this and my DC. It's great mods like this that help make the Sega 8 bit community the great place it is to be. |
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Posted: Sun Nov 22, 2015 7:13 pm |
This is terrific stuff. I have one of the (now rare) Japanese GGLCD boards that started this mod off earlier in the year and am wondering what the added benefits to this board are. From what I understand there is:
1) added scanline feature 2) switchable resolution feature 3) backlight on/off switch and perhaps more. What I'd really love to know is if this supports PAL. I documented the mod to make GG into PAL mode a while back here and it would be great to play some PAL 50hz stuff without the glitching (like New Zealand Story, for example). Gotta save up my moneys for one of these after I finish my GGLCD mod! -Segasonicfan EDIT: just saw this thread for more info: http://assemblergames.com/l/threads/sega-game-gear-lcd-mod.57895/ Is it true that he stole your design McWill? That's really not cool :/ |
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Revo
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Posted: Sun Nov 22, 2015 7:22 pm |
Yeah electronic PCB made these days are really rare^^ | |
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Posted: Sun Nov 22, 2015 10:02 pm |
The GGLCD PCB by norix is, it is no longer in production AFAIK and it was very hard for me to obtain. |
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Mcwill
Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2016 10:14 pm
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Buongiono
I sent for a review and installation of an LCD screen and VGA output on my game gear , excellent job , works perfectly ; thanks, I'm very sadisfaction |
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Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2016 11:26 am |
Wow, I haven't frequented the forums for a long time and this comes out?
Very nice! |
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Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2016 2:34 pm |
I have fitted quite a few of these, and they are perfect every time!
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Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2016 9:00 pm |
hello
mail sent ^^ thanks for this awesome work! |
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Posted: Mon May 09, 2016 9:23 am |
I just wanted to say this mod is awesome. If anyone is on the fence about getting it like I was, go for it. Totally worth it. Completely satisfied.
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Posted: Mon May 09, 2016 11:28 am |
Can someone post a clear video of the screen scrolling (at different speeds and in different directions)? I'd suspect the integer scaling would bug me, so it'd help clear it up for others with the same issue. | |
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Posted: Mon May 09, 2016 11:47 am |
It bugged me, so I always turn off scaling. It is great for playing Master System games (e.g. using an EverDrive GG), though. |
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Posted: Thu May 12, 2016 3:32 pm |
Thanks for posting these images and info. I've been super interested in getting one of these as an upgrade to the Norix board. Just need to save up money or wait for a price drop though.
Mostly intrigued by the "pure" original resolution mode with side-boarders. Not a fan of the pixel stretching that the Norix board does. Also contrast / color balance seems to be an issue with these since the GG LCDs have quite a range from the model VA0 to the majesco. Royal Stone for example, looks great on my original GG - slightly muted pastel colors due to the blue and color dampening on the original model but it looks over saturated and nasty on an LCD or TV. Kind of interesting. -Segasonicfan |
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Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2016 9:59 am |
One last thing. I just got a GG everdrive, which also plays Master System games (& SG-1000)
Master system games look glorious on the new screen. I understood that Master system games look horrible on the regular screen. So I just wanted to point out that this new screen ALSO makes for the perfect portable Master System. Still massively enjoying the screen. |
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Color Issue
Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2016 8:39 pm
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Having issues with the color coming up yellow or a redish color. I attached a photo. Can anyone help me out with this issue. I checked all my wires and everything is connected correctly. I am doing this for a Cx that went to another place to get installed but could not finish the work. Board revision is PCB Revision 837-7996 / 837-7719-01 VA0. Thank you
EDIT: The screen would flicker to the correct color then back to the yellowish/red color on every game |
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Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2016 11:22 am |
It is best to contact McWill personally. | |
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Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2016 3:18 pm |
ok | |
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Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2016 12:07 am |
It seems the colors are mixed up. This can caused from a short circuit at the old LCD ribbon of pads D0 - D3 or wrong CLK_32MHz trace. Please check again, if there are any short circuits. Have you further pictures of your wiring, especially the old LCD ribbon. BTW: I hope the GG was working correct before? |
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Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2016 3:28 pm |
can you please post a picture of the CLK_32mhz solder point so that I have it correct. | |
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Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2016 3:50 pm |
I was not the original person who tried to install it, the Cx took it to another place to get it installed and thy could not finish the solder work. They brought it to me to finish the last 6 wires for the LCD pins. The other place also replaced a bunch of caps on the volume control board and on the main GG board. I am not sure if this is interfering with the color or if its a motherboard issue. The Cx does not know if the color issue was originally there or not. The other place that did tried to install it ripped pin 9 and loosen the old LCD pins. I had to solder directly to trace on a couple of them. | |
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Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2016 4:13 pm |
Here are the install pics.. also I was not the one who recapped the board.
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Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2016 4:14 pm |
More pics
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Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2016 4:20 pm |
More pics
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Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2016 5:38 pm |
I think at pad 16 of the old LCD ribbon there could be a short circuit. Also at the IC2 near T2. Please also check C74 near the crystal X1.
BTW: I would remove all wires, clean the pads and solder again. The wire CLK_32MHz seems to be OK. Attached you can see a picture of the CLK_32MHz point. You can use one of both points. Please let us know the result after checking. |
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Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2016 7:50 pm |
ok, I will let you know | |
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Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2016 3:04 am |
I tried everything you suggested, and its still giving me the color issue. The only way for me to really test it, is by moving the LCD to another GG and test it. Unfortunately I do not have access to one and the Cx does not have another I can move it too. I told the Cx if they by chance get another one (untouched) I can move it over. The Cx does not know if it had this issue or not before going to the other shop to get it installed. I don't have info where the Cx bought the LCD mod either. | |
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Posted: Sat Nov 12, 2016 3:07 am |
Very nice!
So does this mean the pinout and data lines for the LCD have been fully reverse engineered and documented finally? |
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Posted: Sat Nov 12, 2016 5:38 pm |
Man, those games look pretty wrong in that screen... I'm not sure if I'm watching the same video as all the people who are saying that it looks great.
If I understood correctly, you have to choose between pixel inconsistency or wrong aspect ratio? |
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Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2016 12:26 pm |
I have a GG with MWill's lcd mod and it's really fantastic. You have to se it to believe it.
If I remember correctly these are the modes: GG: scaled to fit, 1:1 (with black borders) and same with scanlines. SMS: scaled to fit, 1:1 with only small borders and same with scanlies. I think it is quite individual how you react to the scaled modes and depends on your relationship to the GG/SMS. I owned a GG earlier but couldn't really get used to the blurry screen, and I'm after all an original Lynx owner which has about as bleak original screen. For me it was a real retro ressurection to get a modded GG (which now can act as a true sms handheld ) and to get my Lynx modded. I would give this mod 10 out of 10, it's fantastic. But I still enjoy my Lynx mod a tiny bit more 'cause it scales 1:1 perfectly so that one gets 11/10 ;) |
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Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2016 12:12 pm |
I'm still more interested in the technical details.
Is it piggy backing off the RGB signal or is it properly decoding address lines? I know replacement LCD was always a holy grail for my GG but I was never happy with effectively replacing the screen with a TV/monitor running from RGB, I want a real replacement that uses the same data lines. |
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Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2016 1:42 pm |
It's attaching to the data lines and in posts at AtariAge he says it's all digital. | |
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Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2016 8:42 am |
That's what I gathered, would be good to document the pinouts and signal format in wiki. | |
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Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2016 3:33 pm |
Yeah, but I get the impression he doesn't want to share too much, especially since it seems there was some weird ripping off of his device already. | |
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2016 7:12 am |
Fair enough.
I guess I'll have a crack at decoding the lines myself. I would prefer a more open source solution so future tinkerers can implement their own modifications, especially as available hardware becomes obsolete. |
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2016 7:25 am |
I think the gist is to decode it to a frame buffer, then resample up on the way to the LCD (via whatever binary encoding it uses). A more powerful chip (FPGA?) could do fancy upscaling but any upscaling causes blurring or other ugliness. Given that we know there are four (?) data lines and a clock signal, which the TV mod converts to analogue, I guess the signal is not that complicated? | |