Topic: Retro Gaming Cables

Soooo, does anyone use cables from https://www.retrogamingcables.co.uk/ ?

I seem to remember them being mentioned on NL a few years back (I could be misremembering)

Are they still best in class? Particularly for a UK based store?

I'd also be looking for a shielded RGB Scart switch which RGC have in the works according to their website. (They have another scart switch available now that requires another device or something). Anyone know of a decent scart switch available now from a UK seller? With as many ports as possible!

@Damo thought I'd give you a tag as you seem to be the expert on these things and it may have been you who mentioned RGC on NL way back when!

Backstory:

I just bought a 28inch 4:3 CRT. The working ports on it are an RGB Scart, a VGA (which I'll likely use for a PC) and an s video which I can't test. It also has another scart port which is pretty iffy

Apart from the cables thing, so far so good! Just got to work out a decent place to put this absolute beast!

@ralphdibny I've used these guys a bunch of times in the past and they have always been good-quality products, so I would give them a try.

@antdickens oh wicked, cheers for the endorsement. I just wasn't sure if my memory was a bit iffy as I'm sure I'd seen em mentioned on NL a while back.

It's going to be a slow, slow upgrade process though because of how pricey the cables are. I might start with the mega drive cable and possibly a GameCube cable as I actually have another GC scart cable to compare it with.

The new TV/monitor doesn't have an aerial connection so some consoles are just out for me now. I don't think the Atari JR will take AV or scart and I can't seem to find anything for the master system 2. Hopefully my parents don't mind me dropping my older 21inch CRT off for them to look after until i decide to definitely get rid of it!

@ralphdibny Yup, like Ant says, these guys are rock solid!

@Damo ahhh sweet, I've ordered one to give them a go now! Gone for Mega Drive 1 initially. If all is well then I'll grab some more in future! Cheers

I've been thinking about the Atari Jr for a while and have been looking for a device that will convert RF signal into a SCART output. I imagine the device would require the ability to tune in the RF signal before it outputs it as SCART.

I found this on eBay:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/275408928453?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&...

Has anyone bought or used one of these and can attest to its quality?

I also sort of realised that I have a VCR that I could probably use to tune in the Atari with RF and then use the VCR to output to SCART. I'll probably try this at some point first before buying any more gizmos but I'm still interested to see if anyone has used anything like the above gizmo that I linked.

@ralphdibny Doesn't the Jaguar already have composite/s-video out via AV port? Don't have a Jaguar myself, but sure I've seen Jaguar S-Video Scart cables...

Nevermind - just realised I've mis-read Atari Jr as Jaguar 😅

@dmcc0 haha yeah I meant the jr, it's like a revision of the 2600

I only have one other console that has solely an RF output which is the Master System II. I don't think I realised how much of a Wii Mini it is in terms of the fact it's like a stripped down revision of its predecessor. Only RF and it doesn't take the cards. Luckily I got the MS converter for the mega drive so that's not too much of an issue

@ralphdibny Yeah, got me wondering how you missed the massive AV out port on the back of the the Jaguar😂 - then it occurred to me the Jr might be something else... My console collection doesn't really pre-date the Mega Drive - was more of a computer person before that (C64/Amiga).

@dmcc0 fair play! My nostalgia runs as far back as mega drive and SNES. I do have NES and master system and also the Atari but they are more curios than anything id actually like to game on properly I think. I do love the NES Mario games but I prefer the all stars version (again, SNES). I've also completed Snakes Revenge through emulation and thought it was really good but I needed a guide and all the game genie codes to get through it 😅

I do actually have an Amiga in the loft in my parents house that someone gave me about 17 years ago. I think trying to get that connected up is a bridge that I'm not willing to cross yet though 😅

@ralphdibny I'm sure my brother still has our Amiga & C64 kicking around somewhere and possibly a Dragon 32 as well. I actually came across a Dragon 32 emulator for Nintendo DS a while back, but from what I remember I couldn't get much to run on it - most likely the ROMs weren't the right format or something, but didn't spend too much time looking into it.

I have one cable: RGB SCART for my Mega Drive II. At first I thought it might just be a slight improvement over composite (I grew up playing it through RF!) but it was night and day. Totally worth it for the price. Looks excellent through my 28’’ CRT and really good in my HD flat screen too. Highly recommended.

Apologies for late replies, for some reason I didn't see them....

@dmcc0 oh nice, I've actually never heard of the Dragon 32. Just looked it up and it certainly looks interesting! I have a friend of a friend who has a BBC micro knocking about but they want too much money for it. I was hoping I could "dispose" of it straight into my collection 😅

@Gamecuber cheers for another endorsement of the MD cable. The second hand one I ordered actually never turned up 😭. So I am going to have to order direct from RGC now.

But confused though because some cables only have one variant, either sync over luma or CSYNC. But some cables come in both variants with CSYNC being more expensive. I don't really know whether to plump up for CSYNC, whether it makes everything more future proof or whether it won't work with my set up - I really dont understand it all tbh....

So I've had a bit of an interesting evening testing out some different things. First is the Atari JR tuned into the VCR....

(Can't wait for MS to bring back these classic Activision franchises!!!.....jk)

This mostly works well but some games just cause the daisy chain of devices to lose signal for some reason. I can't really work out why. It tends to be non-Atari published games that cause this whereas all the Atari games seem to work ok.

Also it looks like my paddle controllers are completely fudged up. Can't play a game of Breakout for the life of me, may have to buy a new set at some point....

Next up is the Dreamcast over VGA. This new TV/monitor I have has a VGA port but no sound input. After messing around a bit with this cable I got off of eBay (DC to VGA/RCA sound) I've worked out that when the TV is on the VGA input, it plays sound from the AV1 (scart) input. Which is great because that input isn't RGB and is a bit iffy with video anyway... So I can plug the RCA offshoot from this Dreamcast VGA cable into a SCART adapter and get video and sound together.

So in order to get a PC as well as the dreamcast connected without having to disconnect cables, I may need to get a VGA switch that works without software. I do have a VGA switch but it's like a KVM so I think it needs software/power from usb to work.

I should be able to get both hooked up (using the following configuration:

DC + PC -> VGA switch -> TV VGA port

PC -> Jack to RCA -> RCA to SCART adapter -> Scart switch -> TV AV1 Port

DC -> VGA RCA offshoot -> RCA to SCART adapter -> Scart switch -> TV AV1 Port

AV2 on the set is the RGB port. Currently I have a 4 way scart switch (Vivanco something or other) connected to it. Off of that I will have 4x 3 way scart switches so I can connect up to 12 SCART devices. So far, I've got 2 of the 3 way switches and I've got another 2 on the way from eBay 🤞