Last but not least, some direct screen captures of a few games via Avermedia 4K. Some of my personal favorites, Dragon Ball Z - Budokai Tenkaichi, Call of Duty, and Castlevania.

🧵 5/5

Moving forward, some pics of the drive cleaning. A little dusty and the old lubrication needed to be replaced. Plastic pieces run through the parts cleaner and laser assembly hand cleaned. Parts lubricated and drive reassembled.

🧵 4/5

Modbo 5.0 and PicFix wired up and ready to go. Also replaced the CR2032 with a new one from Panasonic, and replaced all of the thermal pads.

🧵 3/5

Next, some pics of the Retro G.E.M. install. The GH-026 motherboard doesn't have a large crystal under the resistor arrays, but it does have some slightly inconvenient resistors in front of where the controller flex goes. Firmware updated.

🧵 2/5

To finish things off, we have some screen captures that were taken using an awesome shielded SCART cable from
@misirajeduart.bsky.social going into the @retrotink.com
RT4K.

🧵 5/5

Next up, a few before and after pics. This one was a little dusty, but that is to be expected when the console has not been opened in twenty plus years. All good now. Console cleaned up and ready to go.

🧵 4/5

Moving forward, we have some pics of the recap. The motherboard and power supply were both cleaned and all electrolytic capacitors replaced. The motherboard also took a nice warm bath in the ultrasonic cleaner and is much happier now.

🧵 3/5

Next up, some pics of the work done. The new N64RGB kits include these nifty connectors to make the installation easier (instead of having to strip and tin a 12 wire ribbon). Connector further secured with some UV resin. Added new thermal pads, and a nice new green LED.

🧵 2/4

Last but not least, again, is the firmware. The N64Digital was new and sealed, so the firmware was, of course, in dire need of an update. After updating, the N64Digital has now transformed into an N64 Retro GEM 😅

🧵 3/3

Pics continued. NUS-CPU-08 motherboard and original Japanese power supply were cleaned and recapped, and blue power LED added.

🧵 2/3

Bonus Pics: Here is a before and after the cleaning and retrobright treatment. This was done as a courtesy for a good customer, and I'd say it is a noticeable improvement.

Last but not least, we have the firmware. This came in on v2.1.17. After updating, we are now at v3.9.46.100.

"Hey, look! The DCDigital is evolving into a Retro G.E.M.!" 😆

🧵 5/5

The motherboard, power supply, drive board, and controller board were all recapped/serviced. GDROM drive was cleaned, recapped, relubricated, and replaced the lone thermal pad. The controller board received a new cap, self-resetting fuse, socketed ML2032, and Noctua fan.

🧵 4/5

Next up is the region free BIOS. OEM BIOS removed, area cleaned, and new RF BIOS installed. The new BIOS was programmed with japanese cake v1.031 (devkit boot animation).

🧵 3/5

Diving deeper, we have some pics of the DCDigital HW2 flex installation and some new bigger and better thermal pads. These are cut larger than the OEM ones to make full use of the heatsink for optimal heat transfer.

🧵 2/5

Finally, some pics of the xStation install and motherboard recap. The board was also run through the ultrasonic cleaner to remove any residual residues.

🧵 3/3

Next up, a few pics of the internals. PS1 Retro GEM board mounting and associated flex installations. Retro GEM lid switch control and clock mod were also enabled.

🧵 2/3

Finally, we end at the beginning. A few before pics of the console and how it arrived. I save this for last because most people don't want to see it.

As per usual, it's dusty, and the clock cap has leaked. We also have a nice marking from a previous owner/seller 😆.

🧵 6/6