pyl85

I've listed some Atari Computer reference books on eBay. All starting bids at or below $.99 no reserve, just trying to get the books in the hands of someone who can use them. Will combine items to save on shipping. COMPUTE!'s First, Second, and Third Book of Atari COMPUTE!'s First Book of Atari Graphics Atari BASIC, A Self-Teaching Guide Your Atari Computer- a guide to 400/800 personal computers Atari Sound and Graphics- A Self-Teaching Guide Atari 400/800 Technical Reference Notes C016555 Not sure what to make of these. It's about 500 pages of what look to be ROM listings, schematics, and pinouts. Some pages marked "Reproduction Prohibited without Publication Dept. Approval." PM me if you want more info/pics. I'd imagine this would be pretty useful to someone on these boards, if the info isn't easily available online. Atari BASIC Reference Manual with 400 or 800 Owner's Manual Atari Product Catalog, Unused Warranty Card, etc. Machine Language for Beginners 6502 Assembly Language Programming Atari 7800- Pole Position II Thanks, Greg

The two pads I pulled up didn't seem to be a big deal. 24 is ground and there are plenty of other places to pick that up. The other trace I lifted, the right side of J9, looked to be connected to the right side of C16. -Greg

Thanks for the suggestions. I've checked the switch about a dozen times and it seemed to be correct. Just to be sure I removed the switch and crossed the wires by-hand with the same results. I've attatched Kokovec's Rev. C board pic and indicated where I am making my connections. Red dots are where the switch is attatched to, black dots represent the solder pads that I accidentally pulled up. Initially I was concerned about C16, thinking the heat from (de)soldering at J9 had damaged the joint. While repositioning the wires to get a good angle of attack at C16, I lifted the right solder pad of J9. I resoldered C16 and attatched the switch wire to the right connection, as shown. Once I get back to school I can have a go at it with a logic analyzer to see if there's any activity at all. -Greg

Hi, I just completed the cartridge port hack on my Rev. C FB2 console using the DPDT switch method. To my delight, I can play cartridges just fine. However, I cannot get the built-in games to run. Powering on the machine with the switch in "normal mode" yields results similar to powering on a 2600 with no cartridge. Sometimes a black screen, sometimes solid tones, sometimes strange patterns, etc. Being the incredibly thorough person that I am, I didn't bother to test the unit prior to performing the cartridge mod. So, it is possible that that the EEPROM or whatever was DOA. A more probable scenario is that I inadvertantly melted a solder joint when performing the cartridge mod or otherwise destroyed something. Has anyone ever experienced something like this? Any troubleshooting tips would be greatly appreciated (i.e. where voltages should be present). Thanks, Greg

Just about to start my second attempt at modding a fb2. I was wondering if anyone else had rigged up a way for the fb2 to automatically detect if there's a cartridge inserted and, if so, to switch to "cart mode." I followed the link to John Soper's page detailing how he did it with a quad analog switch. Looks good, but I don't have the required chip and Radio Shack doesn't appear to carry them. I'm going to try to use some of the 2N3904 transistors I have left over from the CD4050 A/V mod. No idea if it'll work, but, hey, that's half the fun I just thought I'd ask if anyone else had modded their fb2 with auto-cart support and if so how. Thanks, Greg

Okay, here's the deal. I got a little two overzealous when modding my FB2 and pulled up a few solder pads. Obviously this severs the connection from the "big thing" and the "little thing" and now the built-in games won't work. Specifically I pulled (pins coresponding to the cart connector) up 2-5 and 13. I find other points to solder to, but there's really no good spot on the board to repair the trace. I'm going to assume that one IC on the board is the "2600" and the other is the flash-RAM containing all the games. Whatever they are the connection between the two has been severed. My question is can I still run cartridges off this broken unit? Or will nothing work if the connection between these two blobs is broken? Thanks, Greg

Thanks, Curt. I figured that it would be near impossible to remove the epoxy, I just thought I'd ask. Looks like I better get started repairing traces... -Greg

It's time to resume my FB2 cart mod and survey the damage done last time. I pulled up a few solder pads so I'm going to be needing to solder in some jump wires that go from the "big thing" to the "little thing." The only problem is that the "little thing" is completely covered in epoxy. Anyone know of a good way to remove a bit so I can get access to the pins? And sorry for the crude description. Thanks, Greg

Okay, to rephrase my question, where else on the board can you pick up this signal? I don't suppose there's a schematic online? -Greg

I was attempting the cart port mod on my FB2 today and my mediocre solder skills and total lack of proper equipment got me into trouble. The solder point for wire 4 for the cartridge port is completely black. Solder won't stick, I may have pulled it up with the wire that came loose. Is there another point on the board where I can pick up this signal? Or is this going to be my "built-in games only" flashback? Thanks, Greg

I agree. I was wondering if the handheld version has the complete 94-95 rosters. For sports cards (and video games I'd assume) the NHLPA only allows the use of current players. So did EA have to remove all references to players that have retired in the past decade? Is Wayne Gretzky referred to as "C 99"? -Greg

Was playing around with my FB2 earlier and went into the paddle test mode. I don't have any paddles with me right now so I just fiddled with the joystick for the heck of it. I found out that when in paddle test mode if you hit joystick up you go into Maze Craze. What significance does this have? Probably none. Just thought it was kinda cool and wondered if it is by design or just some random strange behavior. -Greg