One of the reasons I wanted to build a Retro Chip Tester (RCT) was because there are several adapters available that let you extend the capability of it. The one I had an immediate use for was the 2708 programming adapter. I ordered some PCBs for this, put it together and it has now been…
The Retro Chip Tester (RCT) was developed to test „old“ memory chips from the 1970s and 1980s, which are often no longer recognized by today’s programming devices. The RCT is able to identify defective memory cells very reliably. It can save the contents of ROMs, PROMs and EPROMs to a memory card. If the memory…
One of the PCBs I own had a dead SLAPSTIC, Atari’s custom protection chip used in several games of the time, which meant I just got a nice ROM error in test mode and a blank screen instead of the game. Some old 8 bit hacking and we have hopefully fixed the problem. Check out…
Since Windows 10 becomes an unsupported OS next year, I re-enabled secure boot on Windows 10 (via the BIOS settings for my motherboard) so that Windows Update would let me perform the update to windows 11. Once that had all completed, I disabled it again and my machine now boots into Windows 11 and still…
After some experimenting with layouts / shipping and generally learning to use it, the Store is now live and ready to use. I’ve only put a few PCBs on there for the moment and until the next delivery there isn’t many of those available yet. More items will appear once I have finished sorting the…
With some changes to the website planned over the coming weeks, it has become necessary to improve the security a little. So, with the assistance of an SSL certificate from Let’s Encrypt the site has now moved across to HTTPS at long last. Hopefully I have configured everything properly and it won’t end up by…
One of the members of UKVAC (Aaron) put together a piece of test gear that allows you to visually check the signals on an IC whilst the board is running normally and I picked one up earlier this year as it can do a few things that the ABI Board master cannot. Having sourced a…
The postman bought me a package today containing the updated versions of most of the PCBs from the website as well as the new ones for the MiSTer -> Gorf (and others) interface. I need to get soldering and make sure that they actually work. I think I’ll start with the multigame, not had one…
I have finished moving the remaining pages from the old Frontpage website over to WordPress and put some of the archive history back in. I did have to modify a few things to make it more ‘mobile’ friendly so all pages should be viewable on your phone. (a few require you to rotate your phone…
Macro’s arcade website finally makes it into the current century! After many years of being a Frontpage website, it is slowly being transferred across into WordPress. Not all of the pages and news have been transferred across, so expect the rest to re-appear over the coming weeks. Hopefully it will make it much easier for…
I was looking for some information on arcade monitors, specifically listings of capacitors needed for Capacitor Kits, and everything I found seemed to be in the way-back archive rather than on current sites. So duly reformatted the information that I found, started adding links to manuals and schematics, where I have them, and of course…
I heard from a user about a problem with the signed Xeltec drivers. So in case you are having the same problem :- My new PC has windows 10 installed as UEFI. Installing it that way enables secure boot by default and saves the default keys to your motherboard. Secure boot adds another layer of…
Finally finished building my new test rig! Hopefully get the rest of the test gear setup again and start fixing some boards.