Original Japanese Famicom - can it output RGB?

[FM-77]

I was thinking about getting an original Famicom system, but I have a question -- is it possible to mod this thing so it can output RGB? I guess the answer is no, but I haven't managed to find any info on the net whatsoever.

Any ideas?

[atom]

Assuming its the same as American NES which is a dangerous assumption I know...
You can take the PPU (picture processing unit or graphics chip) from nintendos playchoice arcade machines and transplant it for the Famicom ppu. The new chip has RGB out of course because it was an arcade machine.

[Rockard]

It will work using atoms method, but it will have a stripy problem that may be possible to fix. Me and my brother will soon make some pcbs to put inside the machine instead of the antenna-pcb. It will include some stuff for adjusting seperation of stereo channels and the extra sounds that some carts have. I will use a 8-mini-din using the same hole as the rf.. will look nice.

[Moosmann]

@Rockard: Do you mean the horizontal stripes lines from the old famicom ? Try to use a capacitor (without polarity, not a typical electrolyt capacitor like the from RGB cables) maybe 4,7 uF from PPU Pin 40 (= +5V) to GND.

I also noticed the lines on a modified black japanese PC Engine DUO and with the capacitor the picture is great.

Bye Markus

[Rockard]

Moosmann: Yep! that stripy problem..

Thanks for the tip! We tried another solution that MAY have worked, but I'm not sure if it killed those lines completely. Agh, I reallyt need to get that famicom fixed soon so I can enjoy all those "rare (outside japan)" japanese games I have collected...

I hate fiddling with my rgb-nes with converters and leaving it bar-naked to be able to fit the disk system adapter ;(.

yummyummy.. I need more sparetime.

[Guest]

Is there any NES system that can output RGB without taking parts from another system? If it requires parts that can be bought it's not a problem.

[NFG]

The Famicom Titler and the Famicom-TV (both from Sharp) had the same PPU as the PlayChoice 10 hardware, and could be modded for RGB.  

No NES systems used RGB.  French NES systems have RGB ports, but they're converted from composite video and don't really look any better than composite.