exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

Hi guys and maybe girls,

Today I connected the Falcon 030 3-in-1 monitor adapter I bought last month. I connected it to my old 4:3 Samsung 710MP tft monitor, works perfectly when I put the switch on the vga position. On the rgb position I get no image. But I don't know what I can do with it? Or do I need another monitor for that? I just tried to open a game on my Falcon (Pinball Dreams), but it says it's better to play it on rgb position, but how? And I have more Falcon games, which say they only work on rgb mode. Who has advice? Regards, Bart

I’m afraid that you’ll need a monitor which can cope with 15KHz refresh rates. Only a very few VGA monitors can do this.

It should also be noted that because the Falcon’s video circuitry is so flexible some programmers abused this to create completely non-standard display timings which will often only work on analogue CRT monitors, and even they struggle.

Alternatively you can buy an OSSC, GBS-C, RetroTink RGB or similar scandoubler. Check AliExpress for the best prices.

I can vouch for the OSSC. I works pretty well with both the VGA and RGB display modes. It isn’t perfect and you need to tinker a bit with it.

stephen_usher wrote: 11 Oct 2024 03:37 I’m afraid that you’ll need a monitor which can cope with 15KHz refresh rates. Only a very few VGA monitors can do this.

It should also be noted that because the Falcon’s video circuitry is so flexible some programmers abused this to create completely non-standard display timings which will often only work on analogue CRT monitors, and even they struggle.

I know this is an old post... but that's incorrect, Falcon absolutely do normal VGA output... when in VGA mode, which this adapter uses. It runs fine at 31khz. In fact, this adapter gives it a lot more options to output as well...

I found this post because, unfortunately, the 3-1 monitor adapter is a bit fat to be able to fit that and my SCSI adapter I have hooked up to use my ZuluSCSI, so instead I had to use the standard Atari RGB to VGA adapter (which just barely fits).

But yes, the Falcon can output 31khz just fine, you only need this adapter and a VGA monitor.

@leech I think the OP is aware of the difference, he asked explicitly about RGB.

I shouldn't be looking in forums for stuff when I've had like no sleep. :) Going back and forth and trying to test stuff out on my own Falcon, but at least I've managed to solve the fat adapter with having a ZuluSCSI hooked up (ended up just adding in my Plextor drive into the chain...)