chupathingy

I'll get right to it - there's a problem with my 2600. After it's been running for a while, the colors begin to change. The only big one I've noticed is the transition of blue to green, though there may be more. I've attached a picture of what it looks like. It's not an actual screenshot from the system, it's an approximation made from a screenshot in Stella that I doctored up in MS Paint. Any ideas? Suggestions? Should I just throw it out? I have a theory though - I'm using a stock power supply that is damaged - I have to have the cord in just the right position to get it to work. I read a post a few years ago that said these power supplies are made of bad components and over time lose resistance, thus letting in more voltage than the system can take. This can lead to an Atari Barbecue, which I fear is happening in this case. If it helps at all, I'm also using a first-run Harmony cart from 2011. Any and all info is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

It won't let me listen Says it's not up there

Thanks a million! I'll be sure to check that out.

I've got the adapter and everything, I guess I forgot to mention that I hate taking my only original 2600 on the road with me. Having the smaller unit would be a bit more easy to transport and less prone to breaking down. The reason I took the TV as well as the VCR was so I could get an audio signal with the VCR, bypassing the high pitched whine that comes out of the TV. I'd use just the VCR but Synthcart has a nifty light show mode that I make heavy use of. Plus I just think they look cool. I'd do it myself but my hands are far too shaky and I still haven't progressed past headphone repair. Edit - I'm a horrendous perfectionist when it comes to audio. I finished material for a new album about a year ago but I'm still mastering and getting things just perfect. The way I was running the 2600 through the VCR got the job done, but cut down a whole heck of a lot of treble. I had to boost it on the mixer and it ended up sounding like crap. This is why I haven't used any real hardware in my studio recordings. (Except for the Amiga, but that was just for the speech synthesizer.)

Forgive me if I'm posting this in the wrong sub-forum. I've got a Flashback 2 that I want a cart slot on. Ideally I'd like the configuration where it has the microswitch that grounds out when a cartridge is inserted. It doesn't have to be pretty or anything, just needs to get the job done. I've taken my 2600 to a few live shows I've played, but it's too much of a hassle to get set up, I need to drag along a huge CRT tv and VCR, and the sound isn't that good. I figure the Flashback would be a good alternative, seeing as it emulates 2600 hardware and has a direct audio out, allowing me to plug it directly into a mixer board. What's the going rate on a job like that?

Well, there's no cut traces on the board, everything looks flawless on it. So it sounds like I've got a faulty TIA. No big deal, I've got another Vader model, but I think I'll hold on to this one for sentimental reasons. Thanks for the help guys.

Recently I've been having a problem with my 2600. I fire it up with the Harmony and the text has kind of a weird blue color to it. If I leave the system on for a while, the text goes back to green. The games still work and play fine, except for Cosmic Ark. The star field starts glitching out, eventually settling into completely vertical parallel lines. I've had my Vader for at least three years, given to me in person by Scott Williamson of Star Castle fame so I know it came from a good home. The PCB inside is spotless, no corrosion, although I'm going to swap out that big capacitor soon. It hasn't seen any hard usage, except when I did a concert last year and used Synthcart on it. But that wasn't really hard usage, just about 10 minutes. Here's a short video highlighting the Cosmic Ark problem, I can't get a good picture of the harmony cart problem because the interference is too bad. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ATNRzLf7TM Anyone got any ideas as to what the problem is?

Sorry for double posting, but is there any way slapping a heatsink on the chips would prevent or postpone failure?

Ok, so the RIOT is going bad... Any way I can fix it? Maybe swapping out the chip? Also let's talk about life span. How much longer will a 2600 last with this kind of problem? It's alright if this system fries out though. I recently picked up a Flashback 2 for $8, so I can harvest the cart slot from this one and slap it on the flashback.

I'd love to see something like this happen. Count me in for one if you decide to put these to market.

I recently picked up a 2600 free of charge at ECCC (thanks Mr. Williams!) and it's been having some strange issues. The first one I noticed was with the Harmony cart. When I booted up the system with the Harmony inserted, the text is a strange blue color. As I play through some games, restart the system and select another one, it gradually goes back to the normal green. Normally no problem. The second problem started about twenty minutes ago. I was playing some Cosmic Ark when I noticed the star field starting to glitch out. Instead of being the normal diamond pattern, the stars above the ship were in a straight line and the stars below were moving a lot more rapidly back and forth. Another thing is that the game starts out normal, star field looks great, then after about 30 seconds it starts glitching out. I'm a bit worried that I have a potentially dying 2600 on my hands. Any advice?

I think the first Atari game to have full PROPER background music was the homebrew Marble Craze by Paul Slocum.

You found your Atari 5200 in a trash can? There's no words to describe how flipping fabulous that is! Beats me hands down, finding my (now deceased) Vader 2600 in a thrift store for $4. Nice work.

I'm going to say this bit first - to the mods of this site, sorry about the image. I'll refrain from posting that kind of material here. Anyways, after extensive Harmony use I have reason to believe it did something to my 2600's cartridge port. Whenever I removed it from the port, I kept hearing a kind of crunching sound. I didn't really think anything of it. But now the Atari doesn't even work. It shows the color bars and strange patterns when fired up without a cart but with a cart it shows black screen and with the harmony it shows dark bars on a slant to the right. I've since then picked up a new Atari. This is in no way blasting the Harmony, it's a delightful product and I'm immensely happy that I bought one, but maybe someone can look into it. If there's no way to fix the 2600, I'll put a message in the marketplace. Also there's problems when I use the keypad controller. It keeps paging backwards and no amount of fiddling can stop it. It's not a big error, just something I noticed. Once again, to the mods - my apologies.

Very nice, you guys are lucky to have such great consoles.