Rob from Retro Gaming Cables has just announced that they’ll be offering an 8pin MiniDIN to SCART passthrough cable, using their same overmolded, strain relief manufacturing process that the rest of their cables use: https://bit.ly/2Srn1yZ
At first glance, this might not seem like that much of a big deal, but DIY’s and custom modders are probably jumping for joy right now…
We in the Retro Gaming world are used to consoles that already have a multi-out connector. SNES, Genesis, Saturn and many others already have a great solution for getting RGB, but sadly, all cables made to spec require components in them. That means all the products out there that utilize an existing connector like the Genesis 2’s (SSDS3, Sentinal Supergun, GrafxBooster) require a design that outputs an improper RGB signal, that’s then corrected by components in the cable. That means anyone making cables in the future will have to realize they need to be built to a Genesis 2 spec, or the image will suffer (or not work at all).
Over the years, the Xrgb Mini’s RGB input has become a bit of an unofficial standard for retro gaming mods. Already used by Tim Worthington for the NESRGB and on the HAS supergun, these connectors allow developers to output a perfect RGBs signal with just a simple passthrough cable being required. That means anyone with the pinout can make whatever custom cable they’d like, without ever worrying about damaging equipment or sending an improper signal.
Now, with Retro Gaming Cables offering a readily available, affordable solution, as well as Retro-Access offering a full coax solution, there’s no excuse for developers making custom projects to use anything else. That means CDi, Atari 2600, Colecovision, Intellivision, 3DO…and pretty much any other custom mod can use this, instead of confusing things by using cables meant for other devices.
On top of that, connectors are available from major resellers and Dan aka Citrus3000Psi has made PCB adapters, allowing an easy way to solder to these DIN’s:
Surface-Mount Connector: https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/cui-inc/MD-80SMK/CP-4080-ND/251989
Adapter Board (for upside-down installs): https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/4LTEbCdM
Socket Connector: https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/cui-inc/MD-80CV/CP-2880-ND/352864
Adapter Board: https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/0hrYbjDu
Now with two major cable sellers offering these, let’s all make a promise to only use existing cables on the consoles they were designed for and use these for everything else.
The Retro Gaming Cables version will be available the first week of January and the Retro-Access coax cables are available right now.
We have just received our new 8 pin min DIN mould, so we can male SCART cables for the Tim Worthington NES RGB mod pic.twitter.com/YF8g9cI9eJ
— Retro Gaming Cables (@retro_cables) December 20, 2018
