2600 Adapter...why I DON'T use it!

[SoundGammon]

Did you know that when you use the 2600 adapter in the 5200, the chips inside are on but not doing anything?

 

Same as starting your car and going back in the house and letting it run going nowhere!

 

Don't want to wear out my machine!

 

Any thoughts?

 

 

[+H454]

There is a pretty big difference between electrical components and mechanical.

99% of electrical components don't "wear" with use, and caps go bad just sitting on a shelf.

That why switches and power jacks are usually the first to break.

 

Also, the worst you can do to a car is not run it.

If you had a car you only drove once a year, I would say "start you car and go back in the house" - at least once a month for about 30 mins.

[CZroe]

When I see this thread title I keep thinking that you're talking about the joystick adapter. More than once I have clicked to see why and remembered that I had already seen this thread and that it was about the other adapter that plays 2600 game cartridges.

 

I think I'm going to have to hide this thread.

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

Well I do not use mine because I have like a dozen other ways to play 2600 carts, so mine remains packed away with most of my collection. Also I have a 2nd one bought from a user here that modded it so, get this, it operates in the 5200 as normal however it also works as a standalone 2600 with it's own power supply and audio / video hookups! I love that thing!

[Lynxpro]

I want to see someone cram in a board with the ColecoVision parts just to prove Atari Inc could've built such an adapter back in 1983. Just as Coleco's 2600 Adapter cost Atari plenty of sales, I think had Atari done this, more people would've bought the 5200 if they knew they could buy an adapter to play ColecoVision games on it if necessary. The industry thought was Coleco didn't really sell too many of those 2600 adapters but just the knowledge that it was available swayed a lot of customers their way.

 

Aside from the BIOS, everything else in the CV are standard off-the-shelf chips.

[CRTGAMER]

Did you know that when you use the 2600 adapter in the 5200, the chips inside are on but not doing anything? Same as starting your car and going back in the house and letting it run going nowhere! Don't want to wear out my machine! Any thoughts?

 

I do not playing DVDs or Blurays in a game console due to unnecessary wear on the disc reader. However, the 5200 console has no "mechanical wear" parts other then cart slot and power switch. The 2600 adapter really does not put that much strain powering up the 5200 chips inside. I have the 2600 adapter, a neat collectable novelty, There is a small increase amp draw of the adapter with 2600 cart plugged in vs just a 5200 cart which is a slight concern though. Best to play 2600 games on a regular 2600 console.

Edited May 23, 2017 by CRTGAMER

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Did you know that when you use the 2600 adapter in the 5200, the chips inside are on but not doing anything?

 

Hate to state the obvious..but how is that different from using the 5200 normally then? After all you have to power on the 5200 to use the 2600 VCS adapter, and the 5200 provides the power to the VCS adapter. There isn't a way to shut off the 5200 chips since the VCS adapter was an after thought in the design process.

 

Did you also know that when you play 2600 games on an Atari 7800 that all the chips inside are still on as well? In fact I would even guess that the Maria chip is still powered even though it isn't used at all while the 7800 is in 2600 mode. And as Commando will prove, the TIA still is powered and even in use with that game since it uses both the Pokey audio on the cart and the TIA at the same time. So that would mean that all Pokey games (The two that were actually released that is) also have the TIA powered on even if they didn't need it. Though now that I think about it...I believe the TIA does handle other stuff for the 7800 regardless of which mode it is in.

 

Just how things are. I would think the worst the VCS adapter would do would be as mentioned above, the excess power draw could wear out the regulators quicker and the physical wear and tear on the cart port from inserting the VCS adapter and leaving it in there for any extended period of time would be a far greater danger.

Edited May 23, 2017 by -^Cro§Bow^-