Lava RGB

34 pointsposted 3 days ago
by todsacerdoti
(amaiorano.io)

12 Comments

dsr_

3 days ago

Since it's not explained until the end:

this is an adventure in adding VGA output to a Nintendo NES.

ZenoArrow

3 days ago

VGA is referenced in the fourth paragraph:

"Although the power module includes a Saturn-style DIN connector, I don’t own a compatible cable, and prefer to use VGA cables. So for my install, I decided to add a SNES multiout port."

pixelpoet

3 days ago

OTOH it's instance #3563229642 this week of HN post title that tells you absolutely nothing what the link is about. For all the care that goes into HN and repeated editing of titles, I can't understand why this is regarded as fine :D

dylan604

2 days ago

LavaRGB is the title of the post. Adding any more text to the title would be editorializing.

Do you buy a book based on its cover/title alone? Why would you not click the link to see what it was about? Something making it to the front page is going to be interesting to a decent sized audience, so why not click the link. It takes no time to ctrl-w if it's not your cup of tea, but it is much more productive than whining about titles

_aavaa_

2 days ago

Buy, maybe not. Not buy, absolutely.

“Don’t judge a book by its cover” is a quaint phrase probably from when all books looked the same. But if the title and cover don’t convey what the contents are about, someone who may have liked it won’t even open it.

This is an indictment of the publisher given a bookstore full of books, not of a “lazy” reader.

pixelpoet

2 days ago

> Do you buy a book based on its cover/title alone?

Not a good analogy, and I would counter with: what is the purpose of the subject line in an email? It's neither new nor rocket science, and pretty obvious IMO.

dylan604

2 days ago

adventure to put it mildly. there's a lot of work for this mod including 3d printing parts. it is not for the faint of heart. i'm still confused on the point of it though. the NES was designed around using an interlaced monitor. do the VGA monitors display as interlaced? I assumed they'd have been progressive monitors. I guess I need to follow the links for more details on the board rather than just the blog on how to install it.

burnte

2 days ago

VGA had both interlaced and noninterlaced modes.

zdw

2 days ago

Why would you do this over the lumacode mod?

https://github.com/c0pperdragon/LumaCode/wiki/PPUdigitizer-(...

Seems like that's simpler hardware and doesn't require modifying the case.

geedy

2 days ago

I just bought my ppu digitizer two days ago! Very excited to get that working.

There are a couple reasons you would go this route or classic nesrgb, and I was very tempted (I might still do a nesrgb on my other nes, if ppu digitizer goes well).

Primary one is lumacode is a digital signal that requires interpretation before it can be input into a tv. You can use the creator's rgb2hdmi which requires a raspberry Pi, or you can use a scaler like retrotink or ossc (pro). An RGB connection is standalone in many setups, and also works with scalers. If you want to interface with a CRT, lumacode doesn't immediately support that.

Additionally, ppudigitizer doesn't (directly) support multiple palletes. You are stuck with whatever your lumacode interpreter provides (though you could in theory change this yourself).

chiffre01

2 days ago

I enjoy reading about these mods because they super interesting. But considering the NES graphics were never intended to be displayed in perfect form on high definition displays I always feel like something is being lost.

N_Lens

2 days ago

That's impressive effort for modding a NES to output VGA.