Atari expantion port to 7800?

[leroyneiman]

Is there any way to modify the Colecovision expansion port to accept Atari 7800 games?

Edited April 7, 2010 by leroyneiman

[Murph74]

Technically, yes. Practically, no. The Expansion module #1 as we know it is essentially a full Atari 2600 that uses the ColecoVision's power and RF output to 'pass through' to your TV. There was never an existing 7800 adapter to my knowledge, but people have talked about the 'possibility' of making a 5200 or 7800 adapter, even back in the days when the other systems were still commercially available as new items.

 

So unless you or someone you know has the technical ability to create the first adapter for the 7800, then I'd say the answer is a "no" for the foreseeable future. But you never know what these guys like Eduardo may conceive in the future. I could see someone doing it in a FPGA format just to say they did it, even if it never becomes publicly available. Although, a quick Google search gives no results as to a 7800 FPGA being completed yet-- still, "never say never"!

[frogstar_robot]

So unless you or someone you know has the technical ability to create the first adapter for the 7800, then I'd say the answer is a "no" for the foreseeable future. But you never know what these guys like Eduardo may conceive in the future. I could see someone doing it in a FPGA format just to say they did it, even if it never becomes publicly available. Although, a quick Google search gives no results as to a 7800 FPGA being completed yet-- still, "never say never"!

 

Look for the "Oh Maria!" thread in the 5200 forum. Someone hacked a 7800 into a 2600 adapter but that was a one off thing. This could be done for the Colecovision but a 7800 at least would have to be sacrificed for the needed parts and possibly a Colecovision 2600 adapter as well. It is a lot of pain for very little gain.

 

All of these so-called "adapters" for games from other consoles were the entire other console modified to take power from the cart port and to output video and audio back into other pins on the port. They aren't doing anything truly interesting technically like mapping 2600 chips into the Coleco hardware. You're just using a Coleco to power up a whole 2600 and send it's video and sound through the Coleco. A 7800 adapter would have to work the same way.

Edited April 7, 2010 by frogstar_robot