*English captions by DKGame*
Hey guys and welcome back to Retro Recipes. So today, I'm gonna show you how to convert a Commodore 64
NTSC variant into PAL.
So, the issue you can see if you try to run PAL software on NTSC machines is:
Firstly, the music plays a lot faster. In fact, the entire game plays a lot faster. So, here's the game "Commando"
and if you're used to the music you'll be able to tell instantly, but this is playing a lot faster.
Reason for that is the timing crystal on the mainboard is a different speed in power compared to NTSC.
So on NTSC they run faster. This means the music doesn't quite sound right
if you're used to the PAL version, and isn't how it was usually programmed and how it was intended.
Second issue is a lot of software. Just doesn't work!
It was written on a PAL machine, designed on a PAL machine, the programmer has only tested it on a PAL machine.
So you're gonna run into problems with a lot of European software as you can see in this test video.
So to make the modification there essentially are three things we need to do:
Firstly we have to replace the VIC II chip. This is an NTSC variant. This is the
6567 revision 8
Now, as a general rule of thumb. you can replace
the same variant, but it doesn't matter about the revision, so if you want to move over to the PAL version
you're gonna want to move from a 6567 to 6569.
And as luck would have it, that's exactly what I have here! So I've got a revision 5 PAL chip
which is gonna be going in and replacing my revision 8
NTSC chip, so that should be OK.
Second thing is the crystal I mentioned that alters the timing. So the new replacement crystals and again. I'm gonna put links below
this video to all of those,
they are a lot smaller as you can see here. But we don't worry about that and
everything should run correctly.
So on a NTSC machine, crystal runs
and is marked here is 14.31818 megahertz,
and we're replacing that with 17.734475 megahertz, an easy to remember number!
Again links below to order everything you need.
Third up:
We have to remove this jumper. So as you can see here. This says PAL and
that one there is NTSC. So currently it is on the NTSC strip
jumper between these two points E3. We're gonna move that between E1 and E3 over to E2.
So it will actually be connecting E1
and E2 because E1 is joined on this strip.
So those are the three things we need to do. Let's get started!
Now luckily my VIC II chip is socketed, yours should be too unless you have a particularly early variant,
and I do recommend using a chip remover.
And so basically what you do is click this under both sides,
get a tight grip and pull straight upwards.
There, it should come out and should leave all of these lovely gold plated pins on this ceramic variant
without any bends in them.
OK,
replacing that is this:
Now this, I ordered on eBay.
It looks like it's in really good condition just a couple of tiny bends there.
And what you can do is get pair of pliers and just strain those out just by kind of clamping
pliers onto them.
Now, we have to remember to line up the notch here with the notch here. So this is the correct way.
Get all the pins in the holes before you push down,
and then push down in one straight motion. Ta da!
It always amazes me how modern these things make an old piece of equipment like this look.
Alright, next up. I think will tackle the crystal.
So let's get the
soldering iron warmed up.
This soldering iron actually warms up really quickly.
The X-tronic 3020 is my favorite soldering iron. I'll put a link below the video. Highly recommended!
There we go, it's warmed up already. That was real time no cuts.
So, a few things to note here: Firstly this
little band,
sometimes it goes over the chip. We don't need this.
So we're gonna just remove that completely.
And you can see where it attaches to the back here, so I think the best thing is desolder the back first.
For that we're going to use the solder sucker.
Again, link below.
These are very very fun to use.
Beautiful. See? Solder's now in here!
With a little bit of luck we can pull that straight off the board
and then these two points here and here,
do a similar thing.
I recommend a thicker tip. (That's what she said.)
Reason being you get better heat distribution that just makes removing these things
melting up this
leaded solder *cough* a lot easier
There we go!
There's our old crystal. Goodbye old crystal!
Well, we don't need this hole and these two are ready to receive the new crystals.
Doesn't crystal look sexy?
Got two crystals.
We're really spoiled!
And there's no plus and minus. No it doesn't matter which way around these go so you can put them straight in the hole.
And I think we'll leave them...
we'll leave it sticking up a bit so we're not risking any short circuits.
So hold one side of the leg, solder from the other.
That's that leg done.
I've got to say, crystal has lovely legs!
Hold to one side, solder the other.
Push down, release. Now, we just want to trim crystals legs.
Beautiful. Last, but not least we have to move this jumper across, so let's de solder it.
Now, what can help is to solder whilst you hold this.
Okay, definitely felt that coming out. Same again with the other piece.
There we go, there's our jumper.
Probably, you can probably use that again. Why not keep as many original parts as we can?
So to keep that I'm actually going to remove the solder from
the other two points
So:
Tweezers. Put it in the hole.
Let's drop it in there. We're not gonna be using a heat gun or anything so this should be fine.
Any kind of tape just for a few seconds here.
You see those legs populated now and back to our soldering.
So just hold very gently on one side and just push down
with the solder on the other and release.
Boom! Seals over!
Same again.
Try not to breathe.
Seals over.
And just for the completeness. I'm going to solder up the old holes
so that they are
how the PAL model was.
Just a little bit of solder this time.
There we go. So now we can remove our tape.
So now we have, as if by magic, the NTSC jumper has moved across to the PAL position.
And that folks is all she wrote!
The only thing left to do let's go try it out.
Now interestingly I'm using the XRGB-mini
to display this,
But we've got some scan lines.
Now I turned those on in the
device. Let me zoom in and just show you.
So this product has a scanline generator.
But the scan lines are actually out of alignment, so let me turn them off.
Ah! That picture looks amazing!
But what we do know is that
we're now operating at
50 Hertz.
So let's change the XRGB-mini.
That's it. That's better!
Alright!
Let's give it a go. So Sam's Journey is one game that doesn't work on
NTSC machines.
Cartridge actually is PAL only. Now. we've got our PAL machine,
right here, let's try it out.
Wow!
Well there we go guys, I think it's safe to say this game is now running at the correct speed.
If you compare it to before...
So there we go!
that's our PAL conversion completed. The crystal is now giving out the correct timing for a
PAL video game with the correct speed music, the jumper has been set telling the machine to display PAL
and they have the PAL VIC II in there to bring it all together.
So if you'll excuse me my work here is done, and I have some games to play!
Can't win 'em all!