2600 Games Darker on a 7800 System

[NightDriver]

Hi,

I was just wondering why when I play my 2600 games on my 7800 they appear to be darker and not as colorful or as bright as when I play them on my 2600. And no matter how much I adjust the TV's color/brightness/sharpness setting it’s just not the same as when I use my 2600 with the stock TV setting. For the 7800 I have the model with the expansion port on the side and I attach it to my TV by using a coaxial cable and a gold plated adaptor that I plugged intro the back of my 7800. The coaxial cable idea works pretty well and I barely notice any scrolling lines unless I look really really close at the TV. And I don't want to do an S-video mode because my TV doesn't have an S-video input. And I also don't want to chop up my Atari 7800 to add composite cables either. And for my Atari 2600 I have a six switch model but it’s not the heavy six switch it’s the 1978 model. I read on one of the posts on AtariAge.com that some of the earlier Atari 2600 built in 1978 had the thicker RF shielding to them too but I can't check to see if my Atari 2600 is on of the earlier 78' produced ones because its missing its manufacture sticker on the bottom. So anyway I was thinking that if I did have an earlier model Atari 2600 maybe the thicker RF shielding is why my games look brighter on my 2600. So I was also wondering if I could do anything to thicken up my RF shielding in my Atari 7800. What is the RF shielding anyway, is it that small metal box that goes around the RF plug in or is it that big metal shielding that wraps around the whole motherboard? I think the metal shielding that goes around the motherboard is used for grounding proposes but I’m not an electronic expert. If I need a thicker RF shielding to get a brighter image when I play my games is there anything I can coat the RF shielding in to insulate it like covering it in fiberglass or does it have to be metal because of heat transfer reasons. Also could I cut up some thicker sheet metal and reshape it to make a new RF shielding? I haven’t looked in my Atari 7800 for over a year so I’m not too sure how hard it would be to make the shielding. However I do have sheet metal experience since I have made some custom car parts before using sheet metal but I don’t have access to a welder. I was worried about typing up what I though the reason might be because I didn’t want it to persuade your guys thinking, so if you have any other ideas feel free to leave a post of other reason or ideas you have. And ohh yeah sorry this is kind of a long post.

[jsoper]

I read the first third of your post but it wasn't worth finishing without paragraph marks.

 

The 7800 has a weak 2600 chroma (color) signal to keep it from interfering with 7800 games. I modded my 7800 for s-video and put a switch to connect either 7800 or 2600 chroma. It's a small hassle but worth it for strong colors.

[Bryan]

And shielding has nothing to do with color strength. It must be metal to block radio frequency energy radiated by the 7800 (and just about any other digital device). Inadequate shielding would cause the TV to pick up some of this energy causing interference in the picture. Take all the shielding off, and look at the screen to see the difference.

 

-Bry

[treismac]

I didn't realize just how dark the 7800's video is until I went from playing Commando on Wii7800 to the original hardware, where the colors look very dim and drab. The ground/dirt in the game is particularly victimized by this effect. I suppose a video mod is the only solution to this problem.