CyberTech Pro 2600 A/V Mod

[cwilkson]

To me it sounds like the Cybertech Pro is dead. I don't see this being released any time soon. Deja Vu

 

 

With this and the AtariVox I plan on having pile of inventory built and ready to go before I start taking orders. So nobody is going to have to sit around once I start taking orders. I can handle tying up the overhead. It doesn't have to be just-in-time.

Maybe I'm missing something. I don't understand why you would make that statement, JackFlack. He's actually making an unusually stand-up kinda move here buy investing his own money without taking pre-orders/pre-payments to minimize his risk. The way I read this, he's essentially paying for someone else to develop a product.

 

I know he attempted to fund and support development of another (really cool) product in the past that didn't come to fruition due to some key players going flakey on him. I suspect he lost money on that deal and yet, he's now doing another project that will benefit the classic gaming community with very little possibility of making him any significant profit in my estimation.

 

I appreciate the fact that when he says the product is ready for sale, that means that it will be ready for delivery. It might not be soon, but I think it will be real. I suspect (I don't know the guy/gal from Adam) that he has deeper pockets than some of us so can maybe afford to take a risk like this, but I still respect his integrity in the way he chooses to conduct business.

[EDIT: my actual post was omitted the first time]

Yeah, I think I'm missing something here too. Gotta be a misunderstanding. Glenn has gone above and beyond the call of duty by trying to finance hobbiest projects that will never turn a dime of profit. He has a day job and a family to consider too. As for me, well....there are 3 vectors on any project: faster, cheaper, better. I will give you any 2 you choose from that list. As would most good engineers. And most would agree that you simply can't have all three. They are directly opposed to one another. Personally, I always choose better first, then cheaper when it comes to design. As for releasing a project. I don't have the skills or resources to market these things myself. I wish I did. Then I wouldn't be forced to go with a 3rd party distributor. And it seems that there's only ever one of those at a time if even that. So they get to charge what they want. And yeah. Things get dropped from the hobby market fairly often. I tried and tried to get Albert to put them in the AA store, but he wasn't interested. These things are beyond my control. And back on the purely technical side of things...when I designed the original bankswitching carts used around here it took 15 minutes of actual design time, and a couple of man-months to make it cheap enough to sell. Things like that are pretty trivial. But these aren't crap digital projects. They are ANALOG. And they are interfacing to old analog systems that have had 30 years to age and go out of alignment. And no 2 units have aged in the same way. And the spec itself is inherently poor to begin with. Couple all of that with trying to pay the bills by working a 60-hour engineering job...it's a wonder any of these things get past the prototype stage. And to answer for disappearing for a long while, try having your father *and* your stepfather die within weeks of one another. And then be victimized by the shenanigans that went on in this hobby. And see if you *ever* want to release something again.

 

The more I write, the more angry I get. And I'm not sure it's justified. So I'll stop here.

Edited July 2, 2009 by cwilkson

[JackFlack]

BigO you yourself said that it fizzled out.

 

I was just going by what Chris said. That he has turned his attention to the Cybertech VGA, and he that he blew up his only Cybertech pro.

 

So I assumed this project is dead for now. And I am watching the progress on the Cybertech VGA.

 

 

 

 

 

I had to buy another 2600 on Ebay as the two I have now are in disrepair. One of them has an A/V mod hard-soldered to it, but otherwise works. The other one looks to be a dead motherboard. So I'm waiting for the console to arrive before I can test the mod.

 

These things always sound good at the beginning and then they fizzle out. What is it about these projects that seem to burn people out? I assume that's what's happened to another supplier since I haven't heard anything in a while and am waiting on something from him.

 

Anyway, if you find yourself in need of another console and can use a 4 switch just PM me. I've got a few more than I need and can make you a smokin' deal.

[BigO]

BigO you yourself said that it fizzled out.

 

I was just going by what Chris said. That he has turned his attention to the Cybertech VGA, and he that he blew up his only Cybertech pro.

 

So I assumed this project is dead for now. And I am watching the progress on the Cybertech VGA.

 

 

 

 

 

I had to buy another 2600 on Ebay as the two I have now are in disrepair. One of them has an A/V mod hard-soldered to it, but otherwise works. The other one looks to be a dead motherboard. So I'm waiting for the console to arrive before I can test the mod.

 

These things always sound good at the beginning and then they fizzle out. What is it about these projects that seem to burn people out? I assume that's what's happened to another supplier since I haven't heard anything in a while and am waiting on something from him.

 

Anyway, if you find yourself in need of another console and can use a 4 switch just PM me. I've got a few more than I need and can make you a smokin' deal.

Oh, no. I was asking a general question based on previous observations and was referring to "another supplier". I didn't mean to make it sound at all like I thought this project had fizzled. The first posting was only in December. I think I've been waiting for something from the other guy for almost that long.

 

From what I've seen, mos doesn't give up very easily. He had to have the rug yanked out from under him repeatedly before he declared his last project dead.

Edited July 3, 2009 by BigO

[toymailman]

Personally, I always choose better first.

Me too, especially when it comes to my 2600 gaming experience.

 

I hope this project gets realized. I am very happy with my CyberTech system that Atari2600.com modded for me. If this one is better then sign me up and thanks for putting time into this endeavor.

[darece01]

Is the CyberTech Pro still on track? Any update on it's estimated availability?

[yell0w_lantern]

I am also very interested in the status of this project.

[cwilkson]

I was waiting for Glenn to reply here because it's his project. But I hate to leave people hanging this long, so I'll go ahead. Glenn has a prototype for testing. But he hasn't had time to look at it. Real life has intruded on us both...economy, family, etc. The project is still alive. It's essentially finished. The real effort is in the last 10% of fine tuning things and that's where we are. Because there are 2 people involved, the cycles are a bit slower. It's just necessary to wait until real life settles down a bit.

[JackFlack]

I was waiting for Glenn to reply here because it's his project. But I hate to leave people hanging this long, so I'll go ahead. Glenn has a prototype for testing. But he hasn't had time to look at it. Real life has intruded on us both...economy, family, etc. The project is still alive. It's essentially finished. The real effort is in the last 10% of fine tuning things and that's where we are. Because there are 2 people involved, the cycles are a bit slower. It's just necessary to wait until real life settles down a bit.

 

Anybody know the status of this? Cybertech Pro?

 

Did a search and found nothing.

[cwilkson]

I was waiting for Glenn to reply here because it's his project. But I hate to leave people hanging this long, so I'll go ahead. Glenn has a prototype for testing. But he hasn't had time to look at it. Real life has intruded on us both...economy, family, etc. The project is still alive. It's essentially finished. The real effort is in the last 10% of fine tuning things and that's where we are. Because there are 2 people involved, the cycles are a bit slower. It's just necessary to wait until real life settles down a bit.

 

Anybody know the status of this? Cybertech Pro?

 

Did a search and found nothing.

 

I had to shelve all the Atari projects due to economic woes. No time to work on them and no development money either. Nothing is abandoned. Just on a very extended hiatus. I'll be in touch soon...

[mos6507]

Chris has kept up with Longhorn's A/V mod more than I have, but he told me that Longhorn committed the ultimate sin, which is to take orders and not ship. The whole reason I wanted to facilitate the return of the CyberTech A/V mod, and the whole reason the Longhorn's A/V mod became attractive to people was to provide an antidote to the prior fulfillment nightmare of 8-bit domain's mods! I see LHE's returned from limbo, but once you destroy the trust of the community, you've got a permanent black mark on your record. I don't think either LHE or 8-bit domain are intentionally screwing people over, but it's just the way they take money without being able to ship immediately and then don't respond to email queries from irate customers that is unacceptable.

 

I don't know how many mods he's shipped or how many people are still in the market for a mod, but if there are enough people out there who want a mod and are hesitant to trust LHE, I'll keep harping on Chris to make a batch of boards. I know Chris is going through a rough patch but I also know he still enjoys doing these projects and now that my cash-flow is getting back under control I can justify following through as long as I have some sense there is enough of a market for it.

 

I'd like to finish verifying the AtariVox+ boards first, though.

[JackFlack]

Thanks for the fast update.

 

I am sure alot of people would be in for one.

[MitchSchaft]

Thanks for the fast update.

 

I am sure alot of people would be in for one.

 

Count me in as well.

[MAGAIVER]

Thanks for the fast update.

 

I am sure alot of people would be in for one.

 

Count me in as well.

 

Im in for this mod, just read thru the whole topic and it sounds promising.

[DJ Vollkasko]

What became of this project?

 

It would be great to see how it compares to the original CyberTech mod, Longhorn Engineer's board and the Electronic Sentimentalities AV mod boards.

Paging Nathan Strum!

[mos6507]

It was going to be very similar to the original Cybertech mod. A solder-free socket style upgrade with Y/C and stereo out and some knobs you could tweak. He was even experimenting with VGA conversion with some discrete hardware inbetween, which was not part of my specs. It was just an unstable time in both of our lives. All I really achieved during that period was to donate my Death Race coinop to him before I relocated to Massachusetts in the fall of 2008.

 

To the untrained eye I doubt people would spot much of a difference between this and the Longhorn mod but there was effort exerted to try to beat it. The project originated long before Longhorn's stuff came out (or others) and therefore it seemed like there was more of a need for such an upgrade. I was getting a little frustrated that the Cybertech mod was once available, but then it wasn't and people went back to soldering jumper wires to various points on their motherboard with sub-par picture quality, all the while thinking that was as good as the VCS can deliver. But such things are ultimately subjective and not something you can really "prove" by looking at a vectorscope.

[Osgeld]

Id love to see a schematic, Im always up for a better mousetrap

[DJ Vollkasko]

It was going to be very similar to the original Cybertech mod. A solder-free socket style upgrade with Y/C and stereo out and some knobs you could tweak. He was even experimenting with VGA conversion with some discrete hardware inbetween, which was not part of my specs. […]

To the untrained eye I doubt people would spot much of a difference between this and the Longhorn mod but there was effort exerted to try to beat it. The project originated long before Longhorn's stuff came out (or others) and therefore it seemed like there was more of a need for such an upgrade. I was getting a little frustrated that the Cybertech mod was once available, but then it wasn't and people went back to soldering jumper wires to various points on their motherboard with sub-par picture quality, all the while thinking that was as good as the VCS can deliver.

 

Thank you very much for replying! Any chance work on this might continue sometime? Or a collab?

 

 

Id love to see a schematic, Im always up for a better mousetrap

 

Better mousetraps for all!

[mos6507]

 

Thank you very much for replying! Any chance work on this might continue sometime? Or a collab?

 

I thought about it, but the only thing I'd potentially be interested in is a custom casemod/motherboard replacement where you transplant the 6507, RIOT, and TIA and junk the rest. I actually have a short-run board like this that I never assembled. I can't remember where I got it (8-bit somethingorother?) but it was meant for VCSp type projects. The idea I had in my head was a wedge-shaped case with touch-sensitive LED backlit switches. It's basically the 2700 without the remote control, and to make it primarily out of wood. Just make the 2700 into kind of a steampunk object d'art, and built to last until we're all in nursing-homes. But I never really got a lot of traction when I brought the idea up. It's really more something I wanted for myself than anything a lot of people might buy.

[mos6507]

As for Chris, I don't know what he's up to these days. He had a bunch of arcade machines despite the fact he was living in an apartment at the time. I once did similarly, I had 5 arcade machines clustered in a 1BR apartment, all lost to my divorce under bad circumstances. But it was getting unwieldy to move them from place to place anyway. It seemed like as far as classic games were concerned he had more interest in coinops and even there, like anybody who invests so much of his time into hobbies, was trying to get his career under control.