I finally got around to modding my NES frontloader model with Tim Worthington's NESRGB. It's nice to be able to connect the NES to a modern television, with something other than crappy composhit video!
I recapped the machine, including the caps inside the power/RF unit (tricky to disassemble from the mainboard without damaging plated through holes if you're not careful), changed the voltage regulator, desoldered the PPU very carefully, and installed the NESRGB kit.
I run it through an OSSC to promote it to HDMI, via an SCART connector. Instead of using the default 8 pin RGB port the kit includes, I got a nice PCB and 3D printed replica of the SNES multi-av out port, and wired it to that instead. I had to modify the case of the NES to use this connector, but, it came out very cleanly, and, it allowed me to use my already existing SNES SCART cable.
Next, I recapped my Colecovision (which I've had since '83, I think), and modded it to use composite video (it only had RF out). Not the greatest video output, but, tons better than RF. Once I get an oscilloscope, I'll build one of the RGB mod boards for it, as the CV has a weird way of generating colors, and doesn't have native RGB. It requires the use of potentiometers to adjust color signals to get the RGB.
Next up was recapping and replacing the voltage regs on my Japanese AV Famicom, USA SNES, and Japanese Super Famicom. Thanks to Console5.com for their convenient recap kits.
Finally, I modded my original Playstation to use the PS-IO, which is an optical drive replacement. It requires installing a switchboard via 8 wires to the mainboard, and cutting two traces that are hella close to other ones you DON'T want to cut. It took over a year for this product to arrive on my doorstep...I pre-ordered it in December 2017 from the Australian guys who make it. I can now load .bin/.cue backups of my games from the PSIO cartridge, instead of the increasingly unreliable and heat-generating CD drive. While I was at it, I also swapped out the old modchip I had in there already that I installed back in '95. I upgraded it to a stealthier model, as some of the last games made for the PSX could detect and disable earlier modchips.
So much retro, so little time...