benducklow

Problem solved baby! Went to Radio Shack and got an RCA-F connector adapter and she looks SWEET. Crisp, clear picture. I'm loving it! Time to head back to the tube and play some Space Invaders! Thanks everyone!

I was able to try one thing; I tried swapping the RCA cable that leads off the motherboard to the game switch and found out it was worse! This RCA cable is of good quality so I am not sure if this is relating to what SUPERCAT was speaking of... In my process of putting back the old RCA cable, I bent in the outer connectors on it so it would clasp the connector on the board a bit better and it did improve the picture. Not perfect, but alot better. I'm going to try and scor one of those RCA-to-F connectors from a local Radio Shack this afternoon and give it a whirl tonight. I think its time for me to start re-plenishing my cart collection with some of the classics!

Thanks everyone. I knew you guys would know what to do. Dauber: you were talking about COAX...did you mean RCA? The only COAX I have is from the game adapter to the TV... If you meant RCA, if I take apart my woodgrain 2600, is there a simply RCA style jack in there that I can disconnect so I can replace the cable? Or is it soldered on the main board? I know the cable than runs out from my 2600 to the game adpater is pretty thin and is very long. KEILBACA: I actually looked into getting it modded with s video and component audio/video out from oldschoolgamers.ca but looks like its $90 plus shipping...ouch. I'll definetly be looking into the RCA-to-COAX adapter.

Wait....you're referring to Donkey Kong as "good ol'"...are you sure it's a 2600 you have? Hey, I haven't played Atrai since early/mid eighties...I was in flashback heaven yesterday.. Circus, Basketball, you name it, it was all good.

Hi there. I know you folks know your systems (better than I) so I thought I'd see if any of you have a solution for my recently revived Atari 2600. My picture quality is kind bad; I get wavey lines though the picture. I can still see everything but its kind of distracting. I am not sure if the its the game adapter, the cart (I think all my carts produce some sort of lines) or the fact that I am using the game system on a newer (CRT) TV. Anybody help a born again Atari fan?

Good news! 5 years later. (Yeah I know, I was EXTREMELY lazy) I didentified that it was the AC power adapter that went bad. I first tried to replace the game switch but obviously that wasn't the fix. I am happy to say that yesterday I was able to play good ol' Donkey Kong just like I did back in the day! Thanks for your help fellas. I didn't forget about this post!

I loved that game! I remember going down to my local Tom Thumb store and spending all my allowance on it. It was a great game (still is) I also liked that game called 720.

Thanks for the tips ya'll. I will check into these troubleshooting steps. I will get back to this posting and let you know...Hopefully I will be blasting rocks apart in Asteroids in no time! Ben

Newbie here to this website. I came across a 2600 system at a local Goodwill and snatched it up without a hesitation. I have been wanted to get one of these (again) for a LONG TIME. The system is in overall great shape, paddles power supply and several games were included! I plugged it in when I got home to an old b/w TV I had laying around and nothing. I wanted to get some assistance on how to start troubleshooting this unit. I tried several games and nothing even appears to be doing anything. not ecen a flicker on the TV set. I looked on the posting but didn't find a whole lot except to perhaps starting with the power supply. Any experienced repair/troubleshooters out there? I am not much of a electrician so ANY help with be great. Thanks in advance- Ben