NoahsMyBro

I needed to get the dining room table cleared ASAP, so tonight I went ahead and toghtened up all of the connections and reassembled the 5200, in the desperate hopes that my B&Wness was due to a bad connection between the chroma signal and the rest of the circuit. No such luck. I've still got a B&W picture, although it is a very sharp picture. The sound is good too. I'll have to test the RF and get back to you guys on that. As for where I picked up Chroma - the bottom leg of the 2nd resistor from the right, on the row where all of the sync and luma signals are. I realize now I never checked to make sure the connection was good between my wire and the resistor on the motherboard. I'll have to double-check that too. Oh well. Hopefully I'll get to resume work on this over the weekend.

Why would I have a B&W picture? Should I have the 1uF cap on the chroma line if I am tying it together with the sync/luma for composite output? If I do have that cap on the wire, and it's backward, what will be the result? Thanks, Steve

Well, I've nearly finished modding my 5200 for composite A/V. This is probably the toughest hardware 'hack' I've done, and I must say I was pretty nervous when I went to test the system a few minutes ago. FWIW, the system is a 4-port. I didn't really give that much thought until I went to test things, and realized that I would still need to attach the switchbox in order to power the unit. D'oh! I haven't hooked up audio yet - the FAQ leaves the 2 1uF caps off of the parts list, and it's too late to pick one up. When I connected the video (I tied luma and chroma together at the end, just before the RCA jack), I got a sharp Black & White image on-screen. I noticed that on Jon Soper's page, he suggests just attaching sync & luma together in the middle of the job, and testing to see if you get a sharp B&W image. Does this suggest my chroma may not be securely connected? In the FAQ, there is a 1uf capacitor on the Chroma line. As I'm adding the chroma and luma together to use composite, should I NOT use that capacitor? For that matter, if I wired up the capacitor backward, would this be my result? I wasn't sure which leg was positive when I used the cap. Thanks, Steve

Thanks! You often post very clear, easy to understand shots like that. What do you use to label the pictures? (The 5v, arrow, for example) -- Steve

Man, it takes me a LONG time to get things done! I can't believe how long I've been getting ready to do this mod. And this is something I want to do! I'll have to point this out to my wife the next time she complains I procrastrinate about things I don't want to do. (And, I am typing this on a new laptop, and I cannot type with this keyboard!) OK, now on to my latest progress, and the reason for this post: I have soldered the Chroma, Luma, and Sync resistors and diode to the board, as Jon suggested. The sync and Luma leads are all tied and soldered together. Where is the best place to get GROUND and +5v ? Also, where is a good place to put the rest of the circuit? I don't want to lose the controller storage bin; I've always appreciated that feature of the 5200. I planned on putting my composite jacks on the aux. port cover. I was thinking of putting the rest of the circuit on a small board from Radio Shack, and just resting the board on top of the aux. port edge connector (with tape insulating the bottom of the board). Any suggestions? Thanks, Steve

As I said before (Last summer?) I WANT ONE! TWO, if I can afford it when they're ready. PLEASE MAKE ENOUGH. I won't be able to make CGE, and don't want to be left out in the cold for this. Hey, how's this for an idea? A Bundle with the MasterControl 5200, Adventure II, and Klax? Yeah, now you're talking. Looks like Clay, John, Ron, you guys need to get together and have lunch! --Steve

I've been on the 'net since about 1994 or 1995. Upon venturing online, initially into Usenet, I discovered there were other freaks like me that still remembered, enjoyed, collected, and discussed videogames. Since then, I've been surprised to not come across a single soul that feels as I do about 2600 Defender. For me, that was the biggest disappointment by far. Pac-Man -- I wasn't such a huge fan of the arcade game, and so I didn't care too much about the home port. Also, perhaps because I wasn't a big fan to begin with, like others here I didn't find much about it that differed, game-play wise. I did find the graphics to be a joke. They were so bad my little brother, friends, and I really did laugh out loud upon seeing them. But the game was playable enough. ET -- My brother and I would often go with my Dad to Sears or an independent video retailer (Worldwide Home Video? I don't recall the name) near our house on special occasions, where we would select one game for him to buy us (b-days, report cards, Chanukah, etc...). My brother one time chose ET. I tried very, very hard to discourage him, but he would't listen. I knew with a movie-tie-in pedigree it was going to suck. Again, I had low expectations, so I wasn't disappointed. And now I come to DEFENDER. Defender is my all-time favorite arcade game, possibly second only to Stargate. Knowing what usually happened with big-name licenses, I should have known better, but I reserved a copy of Defender, and biked over to get my copy on release-day. OhMyGod this game just sucked. Bad. It was awful. I had spent an eternity wondering how Atari could possibly fit all of the various controls into the 2600 with it's CX-40, and ya' know what? THEY DIDN"T! Hyperspace and Smart Bombs were last-resort, oh shit I'm in trouble it's an emergency measures. So what did the geniuses at Atari program in? You have to somehow maneuver all the way to one edge of the screen in order to use them! If I can manage that I don't need the damn smart bomb in the first place! Seems pretty unsmart to me. Once I saw how changed the game was - gameplay-wise, I admit I didn't play it much more. So maybe it is a good game on it's own, without comparison to the original. And it seems most people online think it's a pretty good game, so that may be. But if you couldn't already tell, this was by far my biggest disappointment.

>Peterghiea>>> I'm assuming this misunderstanding was due to cultural differences. I was posting in jest. Joking. Kidding. If I had the extra cash I'd love to have a copy of Battlesphere Gold. -- NoahsMyBro

Hey T-Bird, I bought BattleSphere classic many moons ago. But, ya'know, I'm pretty sure it's 99.7 times better than your new-fangled BS:Gold, so I won't be buying the repackaged, revarnished, super-deluxe clearplastic version of the game I've already got! (Not to mention I'm friggin' tapped, financially speaking....) BUT, maybe, just maybe, if you got a FREE, 'reviewer's copy', into my possession, I could be motivated to concientiously and objectively review it, and post my full review online so that interested parties may be able to become more fully informed about the game. If you do happen to have some that you just can't seem to unload on somebody, let me know & I'll see if I can help you out. -- Steve

Thanks guys. This is probably the most ambitious project I've undertaken so far, and tips like yours are definitely helpful and appreciated. I'm going out of town Wednesday through Monday (finally, the beach, I need it more than you can imagine....), so it's unlikely I'll get this done before then, but once it's done I'll let you all know how I did. -- Steve

OK, tonight was the night I planned on finally doing the 5200 A/V mod I've meant to do for a very long time now. I'm stumped on something really simple, though. I plan on using the mod described in the 5200 FAQ, found at both Atari Age and AtariHQ. ( http://www.atarihq.com/5200/5200faq/04_13.html ) Near the left side of the diagram, where the 4 Lumas and the Sync connect to the rest of the circuit, are the vertical wire & the horizontal wire supposed to be connected to each other, or do they just cross in the picture, but are supposed to be separate wires? I'm talking about the line that starts with '9.1k'. To the right of that a little bit, the wire running vertically crosses the wire going into the transistor. Should those wires be connected, or not? CR1 750 1.6K | 10 | + | Sync --|<]--///-, ,-///-` | / GND 4.7K | | ___/-------` Luma 3 ---///-----| | Q /|/c 9.1K |--|------(b| ) RCA jack Luma 2 ---///-----| | |e/ 75 __ 18K | | -----,---///-----O__ LUMA Luma 1 ---///-----| | 2K | | OUTPUT 36K | `-///----///--` GND / Luma 0 ---///-----` | 75 GND / Anybody know? Thanks, Steve

I've only had time to read the first installment so far, but I definitely am interested, intend to follow along, and last night printed out the then-current thread in case something happened to it. Keep it up! -- Steve

Andrew - this is a fantastic thing you've started. I very much hope you continue with this project for a long time. (I don't really know how you would determine the 'end' of it, so I can't see it one day being finished.) You not only hit upon a good idea, but the writing is top-notch-professional throughout. I wasn't distracted at any time by typos, misspellings, or grammatical errors. I honestly think you could produce a book out of this, and if you did I'd buy it. So, as has already been mentioned above, keep this going, it's terrific stuff!

I'm skeptical this will actually come to fruition. BUT, if it does happen, I'd like to volunteer to edit the articles. I think I have a pretty good grasp of English grammar, and a HUGE pet peeve of mine is seeing improper grammar usage, whether in print media, the web, advertising, etc... Of course, as rolenta can attest, if you send me anything very large (100 pages, for example), I'm bad about following up. He'll also be able to verify that I am very nitpicky about these things. But if you don't mind the nitpicks, and the newsletter is relatively small (under 15 pages or so), I think I could do a good job. -- Steve

Did you forget JNC (JCS?), the hard drive manufacturer?

I'd consider 'Mario Brothers' - the original (arcade, 5200), 1-screen - pipes, turtles & coins - to be a Platform Game. I'd also call DK a platform game. IMO, if there are various platforms, accessible via jumping, falling, climbing, ladders, whathaveyou, it's a platform game. It's that simple. Well, not that simple. For example - Miner 2049'er, City Connection - without question. BUT, what about Elevator Action? That doesn't seem to me to be a platform game, but it certainly fits my definition above. And what about Peter Packrat? I'm not sure whether or not I'd call that a platformer. I guess I'd put Peter Packrat into the category.

The 2 earliest platform games I can think of are Space Panic and Lode Runner. No scientific research here, and I'm ignorant of non-US areas, this is just my best recollection of things.

This is a really neat project! I don't usually get involved with any of the projects that require thought or much effort (programming contests, Cafeman's creature design), but this is too neat and easy to pass up. And I think I have a good idea to use. BUT, I am running into a slight obstacle, so to speak. I've been trying to use a new, Linux-based PC at home over the last 2 or 3 weeks, and I can't figure out how to install Stella under Linux. If any of you knows how, could you please send me some guidance, or IM me or something? It's hard to test my levels if I can't run them. Thanks, Steve

Regarding power strips: I am in NJ and won't be able to make it to the show. BUT, my company is a lot smaller than we once were, and we have many extra power strips. If any of you will be going to the show from this area and want to pick up 10 or 15 power strips for use at the show (& then keep them, it's OK), let me know and I'll try to get them to you. -- Steve, aka NoahsMyBro, aka The Notorious "O"

It's terrific to see you're still alive and typing! When you get to CGE, you WILL sell out of your magical devices. This, for me, is a very bad thing, as I won't be able to make it to the show. Please, for all that is honorable in the world, make more in September! -- Steve

Well, Cafeman, I did lose 20 lbs (and then regained about 8 or 9), so maybe that's it? Or the lack of an infant in my arms this time? Maybe you've just spent so much time staring into Adventure II code lately that everything/everyone is beginning to look like a Dragon.

Well guys, I don't know whether to be hurt, or just proud that I haven't ever pissed anyone off enough to be remembered! I am the notorious 'O' ! (hmm, sounds like a rap singer's name, maybe I could branch out....) -- Steve, aka NoahsMyBro, aka that guy over there....

I'd like the cart to have a bottom plate to, but the cart is so outstanding otherwise I really can't complain. As for the menu question, it isn't necessary to remove the cart and plug it back in. You do need to power-cycle the console though, to return to the menu. Sorry. BTW, You should have posted prior to PhillyClassic! We could have met, and I would have urged you to pick up a copy of Koffi! If you don't yet have it, you should check it out asap. It's a terrific game for the 5200, recently developed by Cafeman, and available from the AA store.

Curt - I'd be interested in the DVD. In particular, I initially heard that Sid Meir would not be making the show. Then, after the show was over I learned he actually was present. So I'd want to see whatever talk or Q&A Sid gave. As for Space Dungeon - I tried all weekend to play it - once it was turned off, many, many times it was already occupied, and a few times I actually got to play it. Aside from being much harder than the 5200 version I love, it played just fine. (Although I suspect the right joystick tended to hit certain directions, making it harder than it should have been to point it in other directions.) -- Steve

I have one curious question -- Just prior to this year's show, when the PC4 website mentioned that a mini-Stargate was in the list of coin-ops that >might< make the show, I mentioned to somebody that at PC3 there was no Defender, but there was a mini-Stargate, and it played great, excepting the minor problem of it not resting on the floor level, causing it to rock/wobble back & forth as you played. I encountered the same exact thing when playing the mini-Stargate at this year's show. I'm assuming it was the same Stargate. Am I right, David? And, assuming I'm right, having never owned a coin-op I don't know anything about them, but I would expect this to be the easiest thing to fix. I'll gladly accept any dinky, run-of-the-mill, fully-functioning & mint condition Defender, Stargate, or Tempest in return for my professional adjust-the-legs-so-it-sits-level service. -- Steve