Easy to solder, especially with the slightly enlarged pads for the video chip. But care must be taken with the small pads. Small damage to the PCB can cause big problems.

Response from Dino Boards | July 30, 2024

Hi Erik,

Thank you very much for the review - sorry to hear about the missing green channel.

I don't think Tindie will let me send you a message, via its messaging system. You can certainly though, send me a message - be happy to discuss and figure out what's going on with your missing colour.

Gerald | July 2, 2021

PAL VDP for RC2014-based MSX machine

For V9958 MSX Video Advanced module for RC2014

Undeniably, MSX was a well-conceived concept of the, now retro, microcomputer era. The MSX evolution brought about agreement by a number of manufactures to build typically Z80 processor-based machines to a common specification, allowing interoperation through hardware and exchangeable software.

The V9958 MSX Video board for RC2014 is a seriously good attempt to enable MSX compatibility through the RC2014 platform. The producer of this (and other MSX for RC2014 boards) has designed a high-quality board, along with ‘test’ software that will run on a RC2014 running CP/M 2.2.

Build is very straightforward: component labeling on the board makes it so and, in my case (after a brief re-sitting of the VDP in its socket) worked. Test/demo software available (GitHub download) provided does a random ‘dots’ display, there is ‘lines’ which draws variable length, varying colour, horizontal lines and a Mandelbrot set demo (that’s actually quite slow but good for a soak-test!) Source code is available for these routines that could be the inspiration for CP/M 2.2-based graphical software.

All-in-all, this is worthwhile product for those that are interested in (re-)exploring MSX software.