a freind of mine and I were taking apart an old game console, which goes by the name of ColecoVision, and we came across some interesting things.


one of the first things i noticed is that it had a Z80 in it, which we all know is the same as the processor used in our favorite calculators.


however, this seems a little big...I sure hope that the Z80 residing in the TI84's today arent this big.

i also saw a heatsink on another IC. this confused me, because i thought if they would use a heatsink, wouldn't they put it on the Z80? on peeling off the heatsink, this is what i saw:


Some other inspection revealed another IC, this one with an odd, familiar marking. but i have no idea what it is for.


is it just me, or does anyone else see the Texas Instrument's logo on that?

the entire circuit board is here:
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That is pretty sweet, not that surprising that it's a console since our calcs can run games. Perhaps you could try to run a few homebrew z80 games on it somehow, maybe with some sort of flashed rom?

actually, we took it apart because its dead. something isnt working in it anymore.

however, I could attempt to make an emulator on the Ti. when im better at Z80, and after i learn how emulators work.
***looks over at Ti-boy and calc84maniac

the controller for this thing looked like an ugly phone, but easily workable with Ti's calculator keypad.

Wikipedia results for hardware specifications on this system:
32 KB or less were accepted for game packs.

memory included:
1 KB of RAM
16 KB of VRAM
8 KB Texas Instruments TMS4764 Mask ROM


NEC version of Zilog Z80A @ 3.58 MHz

Video processor: Texas Instruments TMS9928A
(no wonder why there was a Ti logo there!)
256×192 resolution

any other specifications can easily be found here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ColecoVision

The Z80 and its clones and variants were an extremely popular processors so it's no surprise that it was in the ColecoVision. It was also used in the Sega Master System and a customized i8080/Z80 variant known as the sharp 8080 was in the gameboy.

There were also many home computers based on the Z80, far to many to easily list. Our own benryves has even made one himself here.

The large TI chip is the ROM which holds the ColecoVision's BIOS, not the video chip. You'll also see the SN76489 chip underneath it which also has TI's logo - this is the programmable sound generator (PSG). The same sound chip could be found in the BBC Micro, SG-1000/SC-3000 and Sega Master System (amongst many others).

I don't know what the large NCR chip is - RAM?

What's under the metal shielding? I assume you'd find the video chip (TMS9918 or similar) under there. The same video chip was used in the SG-1000/SC-3000 and MSX, and was later extended in the Sega Master System.

There are some decent games on the ColecoVision if you can get it working.

i was thinking this thing had a seperate video processer? thats what wiki sais, anyway.

Yes, the ColecoVision uses a TMS9928A for video (a version of the popular TMS9918 chip). I can only assume it's hidden under the metal shielding as it's not in any of the photos you've posted so far.

probably. i havent been able to get that off still, but the rear has an output that you connect to the tv. as well as a switch that, for the life of me, i havent seen it do anything - even when used during a game.