Pocket MD, with compromizing photos :P

[Tiido Priimägi]

So thanks to a friend I got my hands on a little device called Pocket MD :

exterior, front :
http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/4/21/1876835/PocketMD0.jpg
exterior, back :
http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/4/21/1876835/PocketMD1.jpg
cartslot shot :
http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/4/21/1876835/PocketMD2.jpg
internals after cracking things open :
http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/4/21/1876835/PocketMD3.jpg
like before, but different angle :
http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/4/21/1876835/PocketMD4.jpg
Front side shell and buttons from the dark side :
http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/4/21/1876835/PocketMD5.jpg
inners, fully revealed, from front side :
http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/4/21/1876835/PocketMD6.jpg
the system ASIC(QFP) and LCD controller(blob) :
http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/4/21/1876835/PocketMD7.jpg
The screen poor screen that does not blur :
http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/4/21/1876835/PocketMD8.jpg
Closeup of the screen :
http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/4/21/1876835/PocketMD9.jpg
More inners with one detail removed :
http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/4/21/1876835/PocketMD10.jpg

And then my batteries died so no more pics...

I tried quite a lot of games with it and things seem to function very well, I could not notice any wrong behaviours in the games and sound seems to be produced correctly too, except PSG is too loud, but on that part I'll give more information a bit later.

Screen is some low cost TFT thingy with a controller under a blob next to system ASIC, it seems to function off 14MHz clock (like the one you see on old video cards etc.). You can notice how the pixels are placed on that screen, like some older type digicam screen. Things look bad when they don't move, but once things move everything looks better, good thing is there's no blurring.

Sound part is extremely crappy, the ASIC does stereo FM but everything gets mixed to mono and there's notable amount of distortion too, for reasons I'm gonna write about shortly. The ASIC outputs 3 sound signals, 2x for FM and 1x for PSG. now these signals get all high pass filtered, then they are all mixed with 3 resistors into same line which is in turn low pass filtered aswell as highpass filtered again. PSG resistor has too low value and things are way too loud and cost major distortion for quiet higher impedance FM signals... that mono signal seems to travel to a crappy opamp and then to a volume pot and then to headphones through 100ohm resistor...

The buttons feel soft and unresponsive, they're tiny too and that can propose problems when playing something.

I managed to work out some region mod etc. for it, nothing difficult really since you have (teeny weeny) jumper pads next to the ASIC...


anyway, I hope this makes people happy

[segaloco]

Hey, I saw this thing over at assembler. Personally, I don't like knockoffs, but I wonder what you could pull of with this. Is it just a genesis on a chip, or does it actually have real hardware?

[Tiido Priimägi]

it seems to have real HW in that chip, I could experience all VDP glitches and features 1:1 to original...

[segaloco]

O_O, I might consider finding one of those then. I hate system-on-a-chip knockoffs, but if that is actual hardware, it would make for a nice addition to any collection.