The RF Adapter Stack is the ultimate solution to hooking up pre 32-bit game consoles.

Do you even know what an RF adapter is? ...it's that thing that you use to hook up your NES, SNES, Master System, Genesis, Turbo Graphx, or practically any other non 32-bit game system. It consists of a small box about the size of a credit card with two cords coming out of it. One cord goes to the game system and the other goes to the VCR (or TV).

But the RF Adapter is much more than a seemingly pointless part of the hookup cable. It converts the game system's RF out signals to something on a coaxial cable the VCR or TV can understand, for one thing. But then, why is it outside the game system?

The answer, and the key to the RF Adapter Stack, is this: it acts as an electrical letter Y. It is possible, and intended, to join two seperate signals into one with the cable input on an RF adapter.

The main purpose of this is to allow you to watch Cable or use an antenna without disconnecting the game system. After coming out of the RF adapter, the Cable input and the game system are on the same cable. When you turn on the game system (as long as you're on its channel), the TV show simply disappears and the game starts.

This is incredible power. After some time I discovered that the ability of RF adapters to splice two signals into one is nearly limitless. Imagine thousands of Nintendos and their RF adapters in a line. One Nintendo's output cable goes into the next's RF adapter, and so on. On the last RF adapter, Cable is hooked in. The first in the line goes into a TV. When you turn on the TV, you see a Cable TV channel, because Cable is in this RF Adapter Stack. You can also see any one of the Nintendos when they're turned on, because they're all equally present on the Stack.

Any number of game systems with an RF adapter can be hooked together in a Stack. Every adapter in the stack holds the game systems below's picture and sound, plus its own.

With an RF Adapter Stack, no switching is ever required. Any device on the Stack can be accessed instantly.

But...why isn't it useful with modern game systems?

Since the Sega CD came around, companies have stopped including RF adapters with their systems. They have been replaced by AV cables. AV stands for audio-visual, which is what the cables are: yellow for video, red for right-channel audio, and white for left-channel audio. The main reason for this is that they're cheaper. Do you feel cheated? I do.

A coax cable (the type coming out of an RF adapter) is an extremely high-quality cable. In many cases, three layers of shielding or more are placed around the single wire to prevent interference from mucking up the video and sound. A coax cable can carry thousands of video signals. Why do you think they use them to carry Cable TV into your house?

Because of this quality, they are somewhat expensive to make. RF adapters are even more expensive because they must effectively transfer the contents of one coax cable to another. A PlayStation is much, much more expensive than a Genesis to manufacture. To keep the final price down, AV cables have now become standard.

This means that an RF adapter must be purchased seperately. In the PlayStation's case, this would mean actually converting AV to coax, because the PlayStation's output is raw AV. (You actually plug yellow, red, and white cables into the back of the PlayStation.)

My experience with an RF adapter for the Sega Saturn has not been pleasant. The video quality was that of a broken antenna and the audio quality sounded like something off of an old 78-speed record. I now believe it was the quality of the adapter that caused this. This adapter was from a little-known game system solution company. Why did I buy it from them? It was almost ten bucks less than the one from Sega.

I know for a fact that no RF adapter exists for the Genesis/CD/32X combination. The RF Adapter Stack is no longer an effective way to hook up all of your game systems, but it is useful for systems such as the NES, SNES, Turbo Graphx, and Turbo Graphx 16.

And another thing, I know that many of you have already figured out how to do this. I'm not trying to steal any credit...I'm simply explaining to the less fortunate how to (partially) eliminate the annoyance of switching between game systems. If anyone has had any experience with a direct-from-Sega RF adapter, or any other company for that matter, give me a ring.