zborgerd

Thanks for the pictures and write-up. I was looking everywhere for info on this. I was going to tear mine down but I don't have any originals (only Hyperkin GN6) to compare them to. These feel much better. Shorter button throw and a better d-pad than my other third party 6 button controllers. So glad that classic gaming just keeps getting better and lives on. Now, to find one for the Saturn.

If you find that the switch is not bad, you may want to look into replacing the RIOT chip. I had weird problems with my game select switch causing strange things to happen. Occasionally I had weird colors but most often it caused games to lockup. http://atariage.com/forums/topic/218031-6-switch-tele-games-game-select-crash/ If you think it's just a switch, Best Electronics actually has replacement switches. Be aware that they have a pretty large minimum credit card order.

And crack open a few beers while eating a "Lord Karnage Sandwich". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghp9ztA3nxQ Then play some Truxton, MUSHA, and Juno First!

I hate to dig up an old thread, but figured that someone else should offer an opinion on this. I also just repaired a set of paddles with Best's "Super Pots". They really seem to work great. I like the resistance that they provide and they are almost a perfect drop-in replacement for the original. The center is just slightly smaller, so they suggest wrapping the pot with a small amount of tape to fill the gap in the plastic.

I just replaced the .1 uF in my Vader as well as the 4.7 uF electrolytic in front of the RF modulator. Seems to have improved overall stability in this one as well.

Sure enough, replacing the RIOT resolved my problems. I was surprised to see that there were actually DIP sockets in this thing. Maybe that was typical for the 6-swtich units (I've seen a few other photos online that show this)? I was expecting to install DIP sockets for easy future replacement. I was also surprised to see that the ICs appear to have been sourced from different companies (maybe not, since MOS licensed out 6502/7 and similar chips to everyone under the sun). The bad one in question here was a Rockwell chip. While I had it opened, I also replaced the .22 uF capacitors to stabilize the incoming voltage, and this alleviated the weaker video when pressing the game select switch. I'm going to perform a similar repair on my 4-switch vader. Thanks to everyone for all of the good info here!

I swapped my .22 uF caps out in my 6-switch today (in addition to a RIOT swap http://atariage.com/forums/topic/218031-6-switch-tele-games-game-select-crash/ ). The cap replacements stabilized the video when I press the "Game Select" switch. I'll probably also replace the axial electrolytics at a later date. Thanks for the great info here!

A capacitor kit is a good way to have a supply of a variety of caps if you are trying to have stuff on-hand for electronics repairs. Elenco has a 100 piece cap kit, for $10-$14 depending upon who you buy it from. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004YHZDW0 . It's good if you have to add items to an Amazon order to make a super saver shipping minimum. The kit has a bag containing 5 pieces of .22 uF mylar @ 5% tolerance. The electrolytics appear to be "Qunlo" brand. I cannot attest to their long-term quality, but they seem fine.. If I buy electrolytics, I normally prefer brands like Panasonic and Nichicon. I'm not too worried about ceramic chip and mylar caps though. There are other kits out there as well, such as this: http://www.amazon.com/Joe-Knows-Electronics-Value-Capacitor/dp/B007SVHFXO/

This is going to be one of my holiday vacation projects next week along with replacing caps on a Turbo Express. I have all three IC's. I'm going to check out the board and then start by replacing the RIOT unless I find anything else that's obvious.

Thanks for the response. I also emailed Best Electronics with the details above and they responded that the RIOT is probably the first thing to check as well. I'm probably going to order a few of the various chips for future projects anyway. Might be a fun project to restore this one.

Hello all. I just picked up a 6-Switch Tele-games that works well, with one exception. The "Game Select" switch causes the console to freeze, or crash, when pressed. I've also observed the game mode increment repeatedly on at least two situations when pressed, but it's hard to replicate. Generally, the CPU just bombs and the image becomes distorted or black. In some games, it appears to continue to run the program but in a glitched state - never actually changing the game mode. There was another post about the subject where someone had the never-ending mode increment problem, and I think that it was suggested to clean the switches. I've tried that, but it doesn't seem to help. Looking at the schematics, the switches are pretty simple. Just seems to pull the pin on the RIOT to the common when the switch is closed. Anyone seen this behavior before? Maybe a bad RIOT or problem between the address or data lines on the 6507? Maybe RAM? I've checked the traces and everything appears to be in good order with no physical damage. Initial observations would tell me that something is writing bad data to the RAM or the RAM is just defective. But games seem to run fine as long as the game select switch is never pressed. This Tele-games is unusual, in the respect that it appears to physically be a light-sixer shell, made in Sunnyvale, but everything on the PCB appears to make it a heavy-sixer; from the heatsink on the VREG, to the missing channel select switch, to the ribbon cable. I can see no obvious signs that it's ever been serviced or opened previously. Thanks!