Black Case Atari 2600

[Sean]

I picked up a Black Case 4 switch Atari 2600 at the flea market. Nice shape except a broken Color/BW switch. Fortunately it broke in the color position. Some questions;

 

Is the black case version rarer than the woodgrain?

 

It was made in Taiwan so I'm assuming that it was a later production run than the woodgrain. Does anyone know?

 

And lastly, how difficult would it be to

repair/replace the Color/BW switch?

 

The switch case is intact, it's the toggle that is missing.

 

Are those parts available?

 

And where might I find them?

 

By the way, the system works quite well. I paid $5, that included 18 games; Fast Food,

Coconuts, 3 different labelled Combats, Freeway, Megamania, etc. Not too shabby for a

Saturday morning.

 

Thanks,

 

Sean

[Joel D. Park]

From the looks of the insides of the atari, it looks like the switch should be pretty easy to replace. There are like for solders you have to loosten and the switch should come right off, the only problem is that you will need a switch from another atari system to replace it..

 

That's jut my 2 cents though, I've never actually attempted a repair because I suck at soldering... But I've got a few I might repair some time.

 

Later,

Joel D. Park

[Heavy Sixer]

Based on the "demographic" of my 20+ consoles (yeah, I know, I'm addicted. Sue me.), while the four-switch woodgrains seem to be the most common, the solid black "Darth Vader" models rank second. I think they were put into production around 1983 or so, so they were made for about 3 years; the small 2600 appeared in 1986. I don't know about the different subcategories of black units (motherboard revisions, manufacturing zones, etc.), but the black units collectively aren't all that uncommon. Sure are cool looking, though Nice haul at the flea market, too - congratulations!