— Hitman's Museum of Consoles & CRTs
Where dead consoles come back to life — restoring, modding & preserving retro gaming hardware.
+34 photosSuccessful repairNEC — PC Engine LT
An epic of strife, perseverance and adaptation. The NEC PC Engine LT is the 1991 laptop-format PC Engine with a built-in colour LCD. Almost always dead from cap leakage. This one needed a full recap, a new voltage regulator, and an off-the-shelf voltage inverter module to replace the T500 LCD bias transformer, killed by the electrolyte. Without that, the screen stays dark.
+11 photosSega — Wondermega
Full board recap on this Victor RG-M1 Wondermega (JVC's branding of the Sega Wondermega), complete with a laser sled clean. Drew blood for this one; photo evidence in the thread. Everything works; the motorised tray is just waiting on a replacement belt.
+18 photosSuccessful repairNEC — PC Engine CD-ROM2
This NEC PC Engine CD-ROM² threw everything at me: 3D printed gears, a dead laser, a Discman sacrifice and a spindle height mystery, before a full recap finally brought it home. Worth every frustrating hour of it.
+7 photosNEC — PC Engine IFU-30
Capacitors, voltage regulator and the supercapacitor that keeps the save data alive on this NEC PC Engine IFU-30 interface unit. Validated with Street Fighter II and Bomberman '94.
+6 photosNEC — PC Engine CoreGrafx
A quick pre-dinner recap on this NEC PC Engine CoreGrafx, plus the standard 7805 voltage regulator replacement and jailbar fix caps thrown in for good measure. Short job.
+3 photosNEC — Ten No Koe 2
This NEC Ten no Koe 2 was harbouring what are probably the original Hudson Soft branded batteries, in there since the day it left the factory. No leakage, so the batteries were kept as-is; the compartment got a preventative treatment anyway in case of past leakage.
+33 photosSuccessful repairBang & Olufsen (B&O) — Beovision 1
This Bang & Olufsen Beovision 1 CRT TV had the audacity to emit smoke and then carry on displaying a perfect picture. A lengthy investigation eventually uncovered an X2 safety cap that had met a truly spectacular end. Came away with a cleaner TV and a great story.
+20 photosPartial fixFujitsu — FM Towns Marty
Thorough recap from top to bottom on this Fujitsu FM Towns Marty. The console boots and the CD-ROM side works, but the floppy drive remains undefeated. It spins but refuses to acknowledge any disk.
+15 photosSega — Wondermega
A pig to take apart and put back together, but the end result speaks for itself. Both the Mega Drive and Mega-CD sides of this Sega Wondermega HWM-5010 are fully operational.
+5 photosNintendo — Super Famicom
Yellowed Nintendo Super Famicom (SHVC-001) shell, no problem. Recapped, cleaned and retrobrighted; could not match all the SMD values on the day so a few remain as a future task.
+57 photosSuccessful repairSega — Game Gear
Had lunch with a couple of friends and one of them brought a Sega Game Gear along, wondering if anything could be done with it. Power LED only, nothing else.
+4 photosSega — Game Gear
Cautionary tale and full recap redo on a Sega Game Gear: do not recap Game Gears with ceramic capacitors. Replaced ceramics with proper electrolytics throughout.
