Zez Retro / Cathode Ray Podcast

Louis visited Steve in the US and after 4 days together, this is their live podcast to reflect on the visit.

In this episode I speak to developer Danhans42 who was the programmer of the PSIO homebrew custom menu "Litemenu" which was never released after legal action from the PSIO maker. PSIO is a plug in dongle for the original grey Playstation 1 which allows you to run games from an SD card. While it was one of the first "Optical Drive Emulator" type mods for PS1, it has experienced...

"CRTs created our whole scientific culture!" - Steve Nutter, during one of his megalomaniacal rants in this episode Listen in as we kick off with an exploration of Steve's tech tinkering, where he restores a Sony CRT and adds an S-video mod. He discusses how the S video connector was run from three lines on the board and how the chroma and luma inputs were tapped. In another segment,...

An eclectic episode this week. Steve gives us an excellent explanation about what the yoke does in a CRT. It's the magnetic part which attaches around the pointy end of the tube and helps to guide the electrons on their short journey from the gun to the phosphors of the screen. We also talk more about the Chinese CRTs and the individual parts and circuit boards which you can buy on AliExpress....

Controversy in the retro community. Who doesn't love a bit of it? Ok fine, but lets talk about it * That BANGING Bang & Olufsen CRT Steve has been working on from 1989 * Update on the Chinese CRTs (we found someone buying them!) * Should Louis buy a 100hz Widescreen Trinitron which only has SCART inputs? * Hilarious PSIO drama * Our thoughts on the release of the Morph switch from Pixel FX...

In this special episode, Steve and I break down the recent promo video from PixelFX for their new "Retro GEM" product. The promo opens with a very devisive comedy sketch which we attempt to break down the same way I would analyse a comedian's Stand Up routine. We both like the product, the PixelFX team have a very strong track record in our community and we respect the work. That ske...

The summer reunion episode! Steve and Louis get back together after a long break. The guys discuss Steve's recent PVM repair work and how frustrating it can be to work with electronics where the smallest thing can cause you days of frustration. The episode gets into these "new" CRTs which have been listed for sale on Alibaba (the wholesale version of AliExpress). How are they making...

In this week's episode Steve and I have both had big life experiences this week. I started a new job teaching leadership and Steve did the daddy dance at his daughter recital! We did some technical work too. Steve is looking at his clear prison CRT and wondering if it needs the same reactive RGB mode which Shank put into a portable Wii. He has a client supplied Sony Trinitron FW900 to work on and...

Steve and I are back at the podcast this week * Looking back at our childhoods when we first played the TMNT arcade game * What to look for when repairing a Sony VGA CRT monitor * Louis' adventures game hunting in Amsterdam and other Dutch cities * Will Steve do a Hip Hop dance number soon?? WE NEED VIDEO! (0:00:00) - Start (0:00:04) - Looking back at TMNT in the arcades (0:08:44) - Troublesho...

In this podcast episode, Joe, AKA Scarlet Sprites, discusses his passion for retro arcade gaming and his extensive collection of arcade machines. The conversation touches on the challenges of fitting multiple machines into limited living spaces, the evolution of the Neo-Geo gaming market, and the impact of the MiSTer FPGA platform on arcade collecting. Joe also shares his experiences in restoring...

Originally streamed live on 19th April 2023 to the Retro Tech USA YouTube channel. Welcome to the Cathode Ray Podcast LIVE! with @ZezRetro Today we will look at some news in the Retro Community involving @PatTheNESpunk and The Nintendo hacking lawsuit. We will be referring to this video from @Jenovi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwGlRJN8h8o We will also refer to this publication on the Nintendo...

Steve and I have made it to 50 episodes and we look back at our time making this podcast over the last 2 years. 0:00 Start 0:30 Thank you to everyone for joining us for 50 episodes 5:07 What was our first episode? The first Zezcast was a prologue? 7:00 What has changed in 50 episodes? 13:30 Perspective from Louis' acquaintance with ~1.6m subs 25:00 Steve's thoughts on running a VERY niche...

This week Steve and I had Robert Dale Smith on the podcast, a man who knows a thing or two about controllers. His twitter is filled with his exploits, most recently hacking a Fischer Price "toy" controller into a real low lag USB controller using a small embedded board. You can find his controller adapter products at the aptly named https://controlleradapter.com He currently has a preord...

In today's episode I am talking to Swedish homebrew hacker Konrad Beckmann. Around summer last year Konrad announced a project to create a Nintendo 64 flash cart by using nothing more complex than a Raspberry Pi Pico. Recently Konrad made big progress on his project to use a Pico to get a digital HDMI-like signal from the N64. His ethos is to find ways to hack these devices as cheaply as possi...

The Cathode Ray Podcast with Steve Nutter from RetroTechUSA and Louis Zezeran from Zez Retro. We talk about the future of digital HDMI-like mods and what we did in the last week. 0:00 Start 1:00 Reflecting back on the last episode with John Linnemann 6:00 PicoCart64 discussion with Konrad Beckmann 14:00 Are cheap HDMI mods the future? 19:55 Steve's trip to Florida 29:55 Everyone in the Florida...

In this episode Steve and I are joined by John Linneman from Digital Foundry to discuss CRTs. A few weeks ago John posted a picture of his project to apply tinting (like a car window) to the screen of his BVM to reduce glare. John tells us the story behind this mission and we find out this latest successful effort has only come after years of trial and error. We talk about issues involving Europea...

Live stream with Steve & Roger taken from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VUZ36IA3Ug

Big news this week that the S-Video MiSTer FPGA framework from Mike Simone has been integrated into the main MiSTer core. This means you can access EXCELLENT S-Video and Composite analog output using a fairly inexpensive adapter. In this video I talk with Lu from Lu's Retro Source and I have a long form discussion about the framework and explain the ins and outs. Lu is also producing his own short...

In this episode the boys talk through the ups and downs of selling retro items online. eBay and it's buyer protections are good but the fees and legal requirements for that platform are starting to add up. Is another platform the answer or should we look to our retro community instead? 0:00 Start 3:00 Thoughts on the new YC framework for MiSTer 5:25 What console do you use to test the best composi...

Trial and Error - Live Episode 1 Taken from the RetroTechUSA YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xyfTrd0m5E

Steve and I take a end of auction analysis of the 25 x 27" CRT lot from last week. Now the auction is done and we know the final sale price and we can see the bid history. We use some CSI analysis to try and determine who each bidder was. The theme of this episode is buying CRTs and how the market is going. Steve gives us a breakdown of his experiences buying CRTs from Japan. Our friend the 8BitEs...

I am flying solo for a Zezcast episode where I talk to Antoine Fantys AKA FG Software/Vectrex28. Antoine has Czech heritage, grew up in Switzerland and now lives an works in Tokyo Japan. By day he is a software developer for a large company and by night is an NES / PC Engine homebrew hacker with a great collection of games and demos to his name. I came to know Antoine over Twitter when I posted ph...

Last week a lot of 25 x new old stock 27" JVC CRTs went up for gov auction in DC. This sounds like a great chance to pickup a rare find, however dealing with TWENTY FIVE, VERY BIG screens is more work than it seems. In this podcast Steve breaks down the total cost of picking up this lot including everything from transport, storage, inspection and buyers fees. The final cost will surprise you! We a...

Steve is back after his trip to the hospital! 0:00 Start 02:00 Basketball and Jordan were huge when we were kids 06:00 Laserdisc - how does it look? 18:00 Steve weighs in on the N64 29:00 Story of Steve's first PVM 32:00 A HUGE collection of PVM parts for the shop 42:00 Steve opens up about his health 46:00 Visit to Brooklyn Video Games! 52:00 Quick room tour from Steve 53:00 CRT delivery horror s...

On my recent trip to Tokyo I sat down with my mate Jim (aka KidShoryuken aka Mad Panic Gaming) to ask the big question "Are there any good games and pickups left in Japan??" Has everything been sold already? Are pickups, games and systems still available at a good price? We discuss a variety of systems ranging from original systems such as Famicom and N64 right up to current gen systems like Switc...