Grover Torbel

It’s an Atari / Commodore by Holden! See, we CAN all get along. [emoji12]. (For those of you not in Australia, just look up Holden Commodore.)

Just realized that I may have never told you, but the TIA fixed the problem. Working 2600 now. [emoji106]

I'm very comfortable with desoldering, but hate to destroy any working Atari console. I'll probably just bite the bullet and buy a new chip from Brad at Best Electronics. ?

Received the donor light sixer and did a quick test swap of the TIA. Perfect video! Now I just need to find a working TIA and I'll have two working light sixers, one composite modded and one original. ?

Well, the 4050 chip is now replaced with a brand new TI chip that is resting happily in its new socket. Sadly, there is literally no change in the video. There is a "working" 4-switch woody on its way that should provide a TIA to swap for testing. Hopefully I'll know more next week when the 4-switch 2600 arrives. PS: I can't believe the price of TIAs. It was actually less expensive to buy a whole working 4-switch woody than to buy an individual TIA chip.

4050 desoldered and waiting on sockets and new 4050 chips. ?

Since I do not have any spare TIA chips, I tore open a working Vader that I hoped was socketed. No socketed chips. ☹️ Anyone have a spare TIA you like to sell? Looks like I can get one from Best Electronics, but I'd hate to spend $25 plus shipping just to test. Just for grins, I reflowed the 4050, but there was no change to output. I'm certainly willing to desolder the 4050 and replace with a socket and new chip if you think that's the root cause. I'd like to get the light sixer running, but don't want to spend more in repairs than I would for a working light sixer on eBay. Canyon Bomber and Combat both seem to work, but exhibit the display corruption. Centipede does not seem to work at all (no display and no sound). All carts are known good working in the Vader.

I bought a fairly inexpensive "working/tested" Atari 2600 light sixer that was shipped to me. When it arrived, the box was crushed, but the 2600 was visually unharmed. When I hooked it up, the picture was badly distorted and in B/W, but it appeared that the games were functioning and sound worked. After trying several different aged TVs, I inspected the board visually, reseated chips, reflowed power connection, etc., but nothing changed. I guessed that the RF circuitry could be the culprit and thought it could be a good candidate for a composite mod. Composite mod was relatively simple, but once completed, the 2600 still had the same exact same display problem even though it was now via a composite connection. Do you think this could be an issue with the RIOT chip? I've heard they are most prone to failure, but am not certain if the RIOT (6532) chip would cause this problem. For reference, I've attached a photo and brief video of the distorted screen with a combat cartridge in the system. Any thoughts? IMG_3127.mov

Well, it was nerve wracking cutting into the case, but here's what I did: 1. Use a fine tipped sharpie to mark the outline of the jack by tracing around it. 2. Using a drill press, drill a few holes well inside the lines you've drawn. When done you should have a single large hole roughly the shape of the the lines you've drawn but well inside the lines. 3. Drill the two holes for the screws at each side. 4. Using a hand flat file carefully remove plastic while frequently testing the connector for fit. TAKE YOUR TIME. 5. Once the connector is a good fit, use some alcohol to remove any remaining traces of the sharpie ink from the case. 6. Fit the connector in place using the side screws to secure. Others have used a Dremel but I tend to bust stuff when I try to go faster using power tools, especially working on old plastic pieces. Good luck and, really, just take your time and you'll be fine.

One kind of cool thing about the C64 Mini is that, even though the keyboard is just for looks, you can plug in a USB keyboard. I also like that you can add programs/games to it. It’s still emulation, but a kind of a cool overall package. [emoji846]

So, not Atari, but definitely retro 8-bit love.

Star Raiders

For video, UAV is great or you could do something like the full digital (Sophia DVI board) in this picture if you don't mind cutting your case. With just a cable, it connects to a HDMI LED TV with no signal conversion required. Pretty incredible picture, but color will be weird on games that use artifacting.

How do you know the first power supply was bad? Did you check it with a multimeter? To me, it just sounds like something in the 800 is failing, but it's hard to tell without doing some testing.

These chips from Jameco via Amazon worked great for me in a 600XL. MAJOR BRANDS Major Brands 41464-10 ICs and Semiconductors, 100 Nanoseconds Speed, 64K x 4, DIP-18, DRAM (Pack of 3)