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How did they get RGB out of the NES?

MattKC

304,376 views

The NES' graphics chip is designed from start to finish to produce nothing but composite video, so how were modders able to get such a clean RGB feed out of it? Let's find out!

▶BONUS: Getting RGB from my NES with no drilling! BONUS: Getting RGB from my NES with no dri...

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▶Features the following music

DDRKirby(ISQ) - Celestial Journey
BRD Keygen #4
Graff - rain eater
Pink - sonic sucks!
CORE - mr spock's cryo-bed
DualTrax - orion crackmusic
BRD RinjaniSoft Products Universal
Castlevania - Vampire Killer
Super Mario Land - Overworld Theme
Kalachnikov - mental delivrance
Hybrid song 220
xyce - sea side blues
Contra - Jungle Theme

20 Comments

@nehehehgraylois 5 months ago

11:23 the screen being all coffins before crapping out is some creepypasta shit

@Pixiuchu 5 months ago

because of code

@noble_ooc 5 months ago

So wait, there was an intention of an SLI setup on NES

@PokePika01 5 months ago

OK hold up, right away - that Playchoice is entirely too nostalgic for me. My grandpa used to own a jukebox/arcade machine rental business before he retired, and he kept one of those when he did, which I played diligently every time we went over to his house. He had an extra button wired up to enter credits, and think I still remember all the games. Double Dragon, Contra, Mario 2 USA, Mario 3, Tecmo Bowl, Pin-Bot, TMNT. Damn, only 7/10.

@ReverendTed 5 months ago

2:40 - "At this point, it seemed like getting RGB out of a stock PPU was nothing more than fantasy."
Aww, "a pipe dream" was right there man!

@mikhailkerman4042 5 months ago (edited)

mattkc and tom scott are uploading videos again. the world is healing

@ArtdesTests 5 months ago

I'm filing a petition to bring back the classic "Subscribe to MattKC" outro

@spaceinvader7047 5 months ago

Famiclones such as the MicroGenius (Dendy included) are by far the highest quality Famiclone of the era, they support the famicom disk system and expansion sounds such as the VRC7, I own a MicroGenius IQ-501 and the only game I found that it was incompatible with the original clone CPU was “Solar Jetman” as the game crashes immediately due to the clone CPU still retaining decimal mode (which Nintendo removed to avoid legal battle between MOS technology)

Early clone consoles have socketed CPUs and PPUs so you can easily swap them with Genuine NES CPUs and PPUs and have 100% Compatibility

@MNSweet 5 months ago (edited)

2:56 No! I will pause here and find it myself!

@zaneroote5798 5 months ago

3:17 NES preceded the 32x confirmed

@sedrickgates1 5 months ago

12:44 I have one of those LAVA RGB 2.2. It has received firmware improvements and is easy to flash through USB. THe seller is easy to cinnect with and has sorted out all my questions (I hava a PAL system) It is all working very well with palette switching on the joypad, picture is really sharp. I modified the kit so it can be removed easily. The original pakes you solder it straight to the board which makes it a permanent fixture.

@mr.whimsic6902 5 months ago

This is a good followup to the nes color palette video

@MinisMajorasMask 5 months ago

Giving the PPU solid color palettes and watching the composite output is such a clever way to figure out what palette needs to be used.

@chexo3 5 months ago

0:38 RAAAAAH MICRO MAGES MENTIONED

@CATLITmusic 5 months ago

The FPGA essentially makes a bluescreen matte of the background and sprite layers. That's amazing.

@LachesisMZX 5 months ago

13:49 the music is "Funky Stars" by Quazar. "Hybrid song 220" is not actually the title (just what was left in the title field of the original XM for some reason...)

@shy-eevee-fan590 4 weeks ago

9:51 As a glasses wearer, I can confirm, that's kinda what it was like the first time I put mine on, minus visual distortions that happen as your eyes get used to being corrected :D

@Bro3256 5 months ago (edited)

I've been interested in getting an RGB solution for original hardware but stuck to using FPGA-based consoles like the AVS instead. My original hardware preference is actually the AV Famicom since Famicom consoles have features not present on NES consoles such as the 15-pin expansion port and cartridge expansion audio. So I feel like if you were to get the "ultimate" Famicom/NES original hardware experience via an RGB mod the AV Famicom would be a great choice, plus you'd already have the official Nintendo multi-out port.

@KakrocheMiku 5 months ago (edited)

Wake up babe, Lego Island Guy dropped a new video.

I do want to see the other weird models mostly as curiosity, how different do they feel, how the installation and setup difficulty compares with each other, and how limited they are in the whole scope of what can and has been achieved, and how much of a deal breaker those limitations may be

@ThePillowGamer 5 months ago

As a current student in EE it’s super cool being able to understand why these in particular worked and what systems/common techniques (? I don’t really know the word ngl) they used