jalidi

WORKSHEET: Atari 2600 Heavy 6 Switch List Worksheet: NTSC/PAL/Sears/Special: NTSC Serial # (Ex: #54035V or #007649): 94347E MFG Location (Sunnyvale, Taiwan): Sunnyvale, CA (Owner/AA Member), (Location= City, State, Country): Jalidi, in Ontario, Canada A/B Channel Slot (Yes/No): No A/B Channel Switch (Yes/No): No Functional (Yes/No): Yes; power adaptor gives a dirty picture unless you hang the cord a certain way, then it becomes perfect. Notes: purchased from toyratt.ca in Milton, Ontario. only information about previous owner is that it was a trade-in. http://i486.photobucket.com/albums/rr223/jalidi/DSCN0582.jpg http://i486.photobucket.com/albums/rr223/jalidi/DSCN0588.jpg

I have to second the Harmony suggestion, it's a bargain at that price for what it does. Plays the whole collection flawlessly and really, once you have it set up, you can just leave it plugged into a 2600 forever. Less stress on the components due to the constant pulling out and reinserting cartridges of various games. Enjoy your Atari!

Has to be a paddle game, because that is so uniquely Atari 2600 for me. If I'm playing by myself then probably Kaboom! but with other people then definitely Warlords by a long country mile. No paddle, then Frogger. The 1984 version by Starpath not that crappy 1982 Parker Brothers one. P.S. IBTL

I purchased a 7800 Prosystem from Best Electronics with the Composite Video Mod which I assume is the same part which you can order and install separately. The wires do hang out and end in RCA plugs, which I've tried on a variety of screens. It doesn't look so great on my samsung LCD TV even with color tweaks and gaming mode enabled, maybe a 6/10. It's much better on my old JVC 32" CRT TV from 1999, maybe an 8/10. A similiar Panasonic Gaoo 32" CRT TV from the late 90's is about a 7/10. My suggestion would be to contact Best Electronics and ask them what they can do for you. Maybe have you ship your unit to them to be modified and then returned.

The video game market was just supremely oversaturated in 1983. You had the Astrocade, the Arcadia, the Odyssey, the Intellivision, and Vectrex, to name a few, all vying for a slice of the pie, and even Atari was competing with itself with the 5200 and the 7800 then-planned for a 1984 release. Video game sales hit 3 billion in 1983 and then dropped to 100 million in 1985 causing all of these consoles to get wiped out. That plus all the crap games everyone was putting out... and they weren't a cheap purchase, either. People got burned a few times and simply stopped buying, they totally lost faith. ET and Pacman were just a symptom of a much bigger problem, that of the loss of quality control at Atari, which treated its programmers and engineers like dirt and refused to give game designers credit on their software. Lots of them jumped ship or just quit. The ongoing loss of talent and good third-party support really hurt and by 1983 the whole industry went into meltdown, Atari falling harder than the rest.

I bought the Super Pot paddles from Best Electronics... when you're ordering it, just specify the upgrade and it's like 6 bucks extra. Well worth it! Now granted, it's been 30 years since I broke mine, but the ones I got have a distinctively solid feel to them. They're clearly originals (faded Atari logo) but have been refurbished to be like brand-new and last forever. I remember being able to 'rattle' my loose paddle casing but these things don't move at all. And they turn like a dream, just the right amount of resistance. Breakout is a trip to play. Shame there aren't many paddle games but it never took off. The ones we do have are really good though.

I ordered a 7800 Prosystem from Best Electronics about two months ago. I've been playing it ever since. I was initially thrown off by the appearance of their website but I can 100% assure you that the place is totally legit. Totally professional in the way Bradley Koda (the owner) handled my email requests, and I was very impressed by the packaging and time of delivery, only eight days from California to Canada. As far as I can tell, judging from the serial and its mint condition, the unit which I received had been pretty much sitting on a pallet in one of the warehouses acquired from Atari for the past 23 years. I requested the video upgrade for my unit, which is well worth the premium considering how easily it can be plugged into a fairly modern tv. I tried it out on my Samsung LN55C630 LCDTV and was fairly disappointed with the color and crawling lines, especially in Yar's Revenge, the edges of the pixels crawl like crazy. Initially it was about a 4/10, just bordering on unplayable, but with some adjustments (setting it to Game Mode, adjusting contrast and brightness, etc.) I was able to raise it to about a 6/10. So, if you're planning to plug it into a LCDTV or a plasma screen, beware. Fortunately I hung onto a couple of CRT TVs from the 90's and it's about a 9/10 on the JVC 32" I bought in 1999, almost perfect, really. I just ordered and received some Atari controllers from them, and I was shocked to find that they're brand-new. The Atari Trakball came in the original box from 1983. They also do an additional service refurbishing their CX40 controllers with improved contacts and the paddles with super pots that last forever; it's only a few more bucks, but I strongly recommend going for the upgrade. Very impressed at what I received from Best Electronics, I'll definitely be ordering from them again!

Original Sega Genesis controllers work for 2600 games and a good chunk of the 7800 library, too. I think it's better than the CX78 joypad but only one button works, so it fails for two button games. If you have a Harmony cartridge then hold down B while powering on, otherwise it detects it as a paddle and it doesn't work. There's really nothing else other than actual Atari or aftermarket products. That's what I'm using right now while waiting for a Wico Bat, some CX30 paddles and a CX80 trackball to come in. About 35% of 7800 games require that CX24 two button controller too, so I'm getting a couple of those, too.

Ordered from Best Electronics in CA, my 7800 came with serial A1 88 5425512 No evidence of expansion port, so it's definitely one of the later A1's. Guessing it's from 1988, judging by the dated instruction booklet that came with it.

Got my Harmony today... ordered on the 28th, received on the 22nd, international shipping to Canada. Came in perfect condition, right in my mailbox on the last day of summer. Now, after twenty five years, I can finally play all the games I always wanted to play on the original hardware. So pleased to have it working perfectly on my Atari 7800. Thank you very much for developing and making this homebrew marvel available to the Atari masses.