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Re: Intellivision Board details

Posted: 10 Nov 2025 14:17
by raspberrypioneer
rubber_jonnie wrote: 10 Nov 2025 13:48 Interesting. I have a Penultimate +2 cart for my VIC-20 and that's enough for me I think. How does it work on the VIC-20 though, the cart ports are very different.
You mean the KFF2? That's just C64 as far as I know.

I've just got the 35k switchable RAM expansion for the Vic. I cheaped out a bit, the Penultimate cart seemed a bit expensive! The only thing about the switchable RAM is the location of dip switches for the configuration needed - it just about protrudes from the end of the cart port, not good for fat (or possibly just normal) fingers! In my setup I use my own Arduino PRG/D64/T64 file loader or the SD2IEC. I created loaders for games with multiple PRGs like Dig Dug, Moon Patrol etc so they're D64 files which load with a simple LOAD"*",8,1 otherwise too much to do / remember to load them! I think these were cart games originally.

Happy with my VIC-20 setup except for the video quality. I'm tempted to carry out a fairly simple mod to convert from composite to s-video. A bit more research needed - my VIC-20 is the 2 prong power supply version, quite an early model, so the motherboard is a bit different to ones used in the s-video mod. It's really solid, especially compared to the 2 C64s I've got!

Re: Intellivision Board details

Posted: 10 Nov 2025 14:25
by rubber_jonnie
raspberrypioneer wrote: 10 Nov 2025 14:17
rubber_jonnie wrote: 10 Nov 2025 13:48 Interesting. I have a Penultimate +2 cart for my VIC-20 and that's enough for me I think. How does it work on the VIC-20 though, the cart ports are very different.
You mean the KFF2? That's just C64 as far as I know.
Sorry, I misread and thought you meant the KFF2 worked with the VIC-20. Had to go back and re-read.

Re: Intellivision Board details

Posted: 31 Mar 2026 19:10
by grobda
Bit of a thread necro as I managed to bag 3 intellivisions offof ebay, plus a speech module, for £38 posted. (SCORE!) :lol:

anyway smalltime bragging over - hooked them up, they all worked, with varying degrees of RF nicety. One actually produced a very nice RF picture after tweaking the pots a little. The other two not so much. They're all the same radofin design as per the OP. I've prodded around the RGB board and found this so far;
intellivision pal vid.jpg
Basically the colour inputs (V1-V4) and control bit (v5) are anded through the 7408 so pixels are drawn when V5 plus a combo of V1-4 are high.
V1-3 are fed to two different 7442 4-bit to 10x1 bit decoders. V4 is sent straight to one decoder and inverted and sent to the other. not all outputs are used but the ones that are correspond to the 15 colours (not including black as 16th) the console uses.

That was far as i got with plotting the schematics but tracing the board shows each colour then being fed through resistors to 3 rails - some colours are fed through an inverter and more resistors to the same rails. I've drawn these lines but not got as far as measuring their resistance. Ideally the 3 rails would be RGB but I'm betting they're not and are processed more, ending up as R-Y G-Y B-Y fed to the TBA520 to produce comp. Anyway I got bored/overwhelmed at this point and went down the composite route.

I already had an intellivision I'd installed a cleancomp universal board on. This works well. But a little pricey for what it is (considering my initial outlay). So I built and installed the same mod as RJ et al. I'm not sure its great for PAL... some pictures cause shearing and even rolling depending on colours used (and this is with tweaking all the pots). I took the modulator out which made the picture nicer and usable with plenty of games that are mostly black background, but colourful games with solid backgrounds looked less pretty, with vertical banding, shearing etc. I then decased the modulator and used the hollowed out casing to put the comp mod PCB in, hooked up to a 4 way 3.5 mm jack, allowing use of a cable with the familiar 3 red/white/yellow RCA jacks at the other end. Audio was wired to both L and R. The jack socket is a barrel design which fits where the old single RCA RF socket used to be, making the mod a no-cut solution, and reversible if you really wanted that authentic murky RF picture back.

Pondering now a couple of routes; tweaking the current comp mod, trying other ones, or trying an RGB mod. I've considered the HDMI mod but realistically I don't like playing analogue era systems on LCD screens; by that point I'd be better off with an intellivision sprint or mister.

Interested if you guys took it any further or found another solution.

Re: Intellivision Board details

Posted: 02 Apr 2026 21:19
by raspberrypioneer
grobda wrote: 31 Mar 2026 19:10 Bit of a thread necro as I managed to bag 3 intellivisions offof ebay, plus a speech module, for £38 posted. (SCORE!) :lol:
Wow that is some deal! Well done - my eBay Intellivision alone was about that amount, and I thought I got a bargain! :mrgreen: Maybe the Sprint has brought prices down.
grobda wrote: 31 Mar 2026 19:10 Basically the colour inputs (V1-V4) and control bit (v5) are anded through the 7408 so pixels are drawn when V5 plus a combo of V1-4 are high.
V1-3 are fed to two different 7442 4-bit to 10x1 bit decoders. V4 is sent straight to one decoder and inverted and sent to the other. not all outputs are used but the ones that are correspond to the 15 colours (not including black as 16th) the console uses.

That was far as i got with plotting the schematics but tracing the board shows each colour then being fed through resistors to 3 rails - some colours are fed through an inverter and more resistors to the same rails. I've drawn these lines but not got as far as measuring their resistance. Ideally the 3 rails would be RGB but I'm betting they're not and are processed more, ending up as R-Y G-Y B-Y fed to the TBA520 to produce comp. Anyway I got bored/overwhelmed at this point and went down the composite route.
Good job with progress you made, must confess it's a bit beyond me. I did see something on AtariAge about having RGB output via a new board some clever person developed. There might be some cross-over with that and the work you've done. I considered RGB but the mod-board didn't seem available at the time.
grobda wrote: 31 Mar 2026 19:10 I already had an intellivision I'd installed a cleancomp universal board on. This works well. But a little pricey for what it is (considering my initial outlay). So I built and installed the same mod as RJ et al. I'm not sure its great for PAL... some pictures cause shearing and even rolling depending on colours used (and this is with tweaking all the pots). I took the modulator out which made the picture nicer and usable with plenty of games that are mostly black background, but colourful games with solid backgrounds looked less pretty, with vertical banding, shearing etc. I then decased the modulator and used the hollowed out casing to put the comp mod PCB in, hooked up to a 4 way 3.5 mm jack, allowing use of a cable with the familiar 3 red/white/yellow RCA jacks at the other end. Audio was wired to both L and R. The jack socket is a barrel design which fits where the old single RCA RF socket used to be, making the mod a no-cut solution, and reversible if you really wanted that authentic murky RF picture back.
I settled on the composite mod board replacing the old RF modulator, also a no-cut solution but with a DIN socket, pinouts compatible with Atari/C64 composite video leads. Looks good and I'm happy with the video quality on my TV. The main niggle is there is tearing on the top part of the screen on the TV I'd ideally like to use. I don't know why that happens.

I'd be interested in seeing the 3.5mm jack solution you've made, sounds like a nice clean approach. I thought about this at one point but reusing an existing video lead was quite appealing.
grobda wrote: 31 Mar 2026 19:10 Pondering now a couple of routes; tweaking the current comp mod, trying other ones, or trying an RGB mod. I've considered the HDMI mod but realistically I don't like playing analogue era systems on LCD screens; by that point I'd be better off with an intellivision sprint or mister.

Interested if you guys took it any further or found another solution.
Would consider RGB if I could get hold of a board, hopefully that will mean I can use any TV - if you do go down this route, please keep me posted! I'm with you regards HDMI, feels wrong might as well emulate.

What are you using for loading games?

Re: Intellivision Board details

Posted: 03 Apr 2026 12:37
by grobda
this is my a/v output;
intycomp.jpg
its a 4 pole 3.5mm barrel socket that fits through the hole in the modulator where the rca socket used to be. the comp mod sits inside the modulator housing (UHF modulator PCB removed).

I've had the shearing with this comp mod;
https://wiki.intellivision.us/index.php ... dification
It also causes rolling for me on some games eg beauty and the beast. I'm planning to tweak the components to see if this helps but not got that far yet.

Composite is definitely 'good enough' for the intellivisions resolution, and the cleancomp works well, certainly better than the above comp mod on the TV and 2 CRT monitors ive tested it on.
https://retrosix.co.uk/CleanComp-Univer ... p651982252
The only downside is that it doesnt fit inside the modulator housing so not as neat a solution. I've removed the modulator completely from that system and need to make something to house the board and socket.

However I have bought some RGB mods of this design;
https://oshwlab.com/yannick.erb/Intelli ... copy_copy
cost populated worked out at ~£20 per board ordering 5. I substituted the obsolete FMS6143 for a THS7314DR which seems to be similar enough to function (fingers crossed) im kinda out of my depth here but the datasheets seemed to match and the pinout is the same. If they don't work I'll have to find a supply of old stock.

Once they arrive the plan is to use a megadrive 2 rgb cable with a 8 pin mini-din socket and probably make a 3-d printed bracket to mount the pcb and socket where the modulator used to be. But this will take a while. :lol:

If they all test OK i'll likely sell a couple and keep at least one.

I'm using the PIRTO II for running games;
https://github.com/aotta/PiRTOII
I bought a cased one from ebay and also got some plain PCB's in the same order as the RGB mods. Still need to source the purple pi pico's. Thought being to produce some 'ready to go' systems with no case mods and fully reversable if desired. IE you could solder the old RF modulator back in if you're a masochist.

Re: Intellivision Board details

Posted: 03 Apr 2026 12:58
by rubber_jonnie
grobda wrote: 31 Mar 2026 19:10 Bit of a thread necro as I managed to bag 3 intellivisions offof ebay, plus a speech module, for £38 posted. (SCORE!) :lol:
That's quite the deal!
grobda wrote: 31 Mar 2026 19:10 Interested if you guys took it any further or found another solution.
I didn't take mine further than the comp mod I did earlier in the thread which works just fine via my RetroTink and HDMI TV. I have also since got an Intellivision Sprint which is quite impressive. It would have been better if they'd included a proper cartridge slot, but to be fair the USB stick does work well as an alternative.

Re: Intellivision Board details

Posted: 03 Apr 2026 20:15
by raspberrypioneer
grobda wrote: 03 Apr 2026 12:37 this is my a/v output;
its a 4 pole 3.5mm barrel socket that fits through the hole in the modulator where the rca socket used to be. the comp mod sits inside the modulator housing (UHF modulator PCB removed).
Looks like an elegant way to expose the composite mod connection, especially keeping the RF modulator housing. 8-)
grobda wrote: 03 Apr 2026 12:37 I've had the shearing with this comp mod;
https://wiki.intellivision.us/index.php ... dification
It also causes rolling for me on some games eg beauty and the beast. I'm planning to tweak the components to see if this helps but not got that far yet.

Composite is definitely 'good enough' for the intellivisions resolution, and the cleancomp works well, certainly better than the above comp mod on the TV and 2 CRT monitors ive tested it on.
https://retrosix.co.uk/CleanComp-Univer ... p651982252
The only downside is that it doesnt fit inside the modulator housing so not as neat a solution. I've removed the modulator completely from that system and need to make something to house the board and socket.
The board I used fits into the footprint left the RF modulator. It's available on ebay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284325832172

Works well for me and perhaps worth considering if you do more composite modding? Here's what mine ended up as.
composite-mod-1.jpg
composite-mod-3.jpg
grobda wrote: 03 Apr 2026 12:37 However I have bought some RGB mods of this design;
https://oshwlab.com/yannick.erb/Intelli ... copy_copy
cost populated worked out at ~£20 per board ordering 5. I substituted the obsolete FMS6143 for a THS7314DR which seems to be similar enough to function (fingers crossed) im kinda out of my depth here but the datasheets seemed to match and the pinout is the same. If they don't work I'll have to find a supply of old stock.

Once they arrive the plan is to use a megadrive 2 rgb cable with a 8 pin mini-din socket and probably make a 3-d printed bracket to mount the pcb and socket where the modulator used to be. But this will take a while. :lol:

If they all test OK i'll likely sell a couple and keep at least one.
Right you're pretty advanced with the RGB option! I'm definitely interested if you sell them. :)
grobda wrote: 03 Apr 2026 12:37 I'm using the PIRTO II for running games;
https://github.com/aotta/PiRTOII
I bought a cased one from ebay and also got some plain PCB's in the same order as the RGB mods. Still need to source the purple pi pico's. Thought being to produce some 'ready to go' systems with no case mods and fully reversable if desired. IE you could solder the old RF modulator back in if you're a masochist.
I use this too it's very good, high but not perfect game compatibility. I see there's a spinoff which uses an SD card called Minty, looks very good too: https://github.com/gtortone/Minty

Re: Intellivision Board details

Posted: 03 Apr 2026 23:47
by raspberrypioneer
rubber_jonnie wrote: 03 Apr 2026 12:58 I didn't take mine further than the comp mod I did earlier in the thread which works just fine via my RetroTink and HDMI TV. I have also since got an Intellivision Sprint which is quite impressive. It would have been better if they'd included a proper cartridge slot, but to be fair the USB stick does work well as an alternative.
You got a Sprint! I think they've done it really well from what's been posted online. Despite having a good setup now, am still a bit tempted.

Re: Intellivision Board details

Posted: 03 Apr 2026 23:49
by rubber_jonnie
raspberrypioneer wrote: 03 Apr 2026 23:47
rubber_jonnie wrote: 03 Apr 2026 12:58 I didn't take mine further than the comp mod I did earlier in the thread which works just fine via my RetroTink and HDMI TV. I have also since got an Intellivision Sprint which is quite impressive. It would have been better if they'd included a proper cartridge slot, but to be fair the USB stick does work well as an alternative.
You got a Sprint! I think they've done it really well from what's been posted online. Despite having a good setup now, am still a bit tempted.
I did indeed and it's pretty cool that it comes with a load of keyboard overlays for the included games too :)

Re: Intellivision Board details

Posted: 04 Apr 2026 10:11
by raspberrypioneer
rubber_jonnie wrote: 03 Apr 2026 23:49 I did indeed and it's pretty cool that it comes with a load of keyboard overlays for the included games too :)
Yes - the overlays make a big difference for some games. Also built-in intellivoice, I can't really play B17 bomber effectively without both. :(