Early Hong Kong Micro Genius version with unusual encoder
Moderator: Moderators
Early Hong Kong Micro Genius version with unusual encoder
I recently got hold of this Micro Genius, it works fine with NTSC / PAL switch. It comes with UA6528 and UA6527 which supposed to be NTSC Compatible chip, crystal clock is unusual at 21.251461 MHz, 3 wires from the main board connected to an encoder IC marked as MK5060, it has its own clock of 17.734475 Mhz. i'm posting some pictures..
Re: Early Hong Kong Micro Genius version with unusual encoder
These are some of the earliest PAL Famicom clones. Those NTSC UMC chips are from 1988. I don’t think the PAL (Dendy) UMC chipset had been made yet.
Re: Early Hong Kong Micro Genius version with unusual encoder
I've tested it, the colors are off but the CPU has some weird sound bug to it, especially DPCM, i tried to remove the CPU and PPU and insert it on another console, it runs at full NTSC mode but the colors are a bit off, something to do with NTSC tinting
Re: Early Hong Kong Micro Genius version with unusual encoder
NTSC NES colours are different from PAL NES colours. This machine is taking the NTSC PPU signal, decoding the NTSC and re-encoding it as PAL so what you’re getting is NTSC NES colours re-encoded as PAL (and then decoded by your TV).
I tend to notice the red colour in the NTSC NES palette, it’s closer to “pure” red than the PAL NES red colour, which looks a little bit purple to me.
Richard
I tend to notice the red colour in the NTSC NES palette, it’s closer to “pure” red than the PAL NES red colour, which looks a little bit purple to me.
Richard
Re: Early Hong Kong Micro Genius version with unusual encoder
About the PAL / NTSC switch, when i switch it to PAL it switches to full PAL mode that runs slower with black bars on top and bottom, i feel like this console works like Hong Kong version of Famicom where it halt the clock in PAL mode
vortexion wrote: ↑Sun Jan 16, 2022 2:38 am NTSC NES colours are different from PAL NES colours. This machine is taking the NTSC PPU signal, decoding the NTSC and re-encoding it as PAL so what you’re getting is NTSC NES colours re-encoded as PAL (and then decoded by your TV).
I tend to notice the red colour in the NTSC NES palette, it’s closer to “pure” red than the PAL NES red colour, which looks a little bit purple to me.
Richard
Re: Early Hong Kong Micro Genius version with unusual encoder
Definitely! The MK5060 appears to be what's responsible for pausing the PPU after the visible field is drawn... I guess it has to move the vertical sync too.
Re: Early Hong Kong Micro Genius version with unusual encoder
I discovered that these 2 pins from this IC are disconnected