BigO

If it's just that the end has been cut off (and not too much of the actual cable), you could just pop a new end on it. You'd probably want a solder on type for maximum effectiveness. The original connector type is commonly called an "RCA" connector. To give you some clue what you're looking at, here's a 50 cent solder-on part that should work for you: Item 171BK http://www.showmecables.com/showProducts.a...tegory_id=16918 If you have an ancient VCR or TV laying around, some have RF cables connecting various tuners to other tuners or boards or whatnot. If you're handy with the tools, you could desolder one of those and put it back on. Instead of putting on an RCA plug and then using an adapter, you might just pop on an "F Connector" directly. This is the type of connector used by newer tv's to hook to co-axial cables. These are also available in a solder-on version, thought that doesn't seem very common. These are typically a crimp-on device that requires special tools. You might be hard pressed to find a crimp on connector that will work with the small diameter of the typical Atari cable. Just some more thoughts, in case you aren't already overloaded with free advice.

Picked up one of those Arcade Mania games today out of curiosity. Kinda cool. It's missing 3 of the 4 "pawns" (anything sort of token could be used instead), but otherwise complete and functional.

Eh? So it's laziness that drives them to put in the extra effort of locking them in retrieving them from the cases? Seems like more work and a whole lot more disruption to me so I would have expected the opposite comment. It's not the individual employee that gets to determine that, so work ethic probably doesn't play into it all that much. On the other hand, re-merchandising the area is probably a whole lot less time consuming than it would be for areas of open shelves, so you might have a point there. I don't know for a fact, but I'd expect an absolute machine like Wal-Mart to have analyzed the cost/benefits of this to death. Regarding the shoplifting alarm, maybe they could (somehow or other) start installing some of those detectors much closer to the register (like maybe in the platform where they bag stuff) so the offending clerk is left to correct their own error or to at least report the equipment malfunction in a timely manner. I guess since it only inconveniences and potentially embarrases the customer and doesn't really cost the store anything immediately, they probably wouldn't be interested in remedying the situation.

Has anybody ever seen a "reconfigurable" panel? Not sure it's a great idea, but just occured to me while reading this thread. I'm envisioning something of a 1" x 1" x 1" group of receptacle "cubicles" in a grid. Each receptacle has electrical/mechanical contacts in the bottom. Each physical button could have some means of identifying its function (resistor(s) would probably be simple enough to detect): up, down, left, right, fire. The button could be plugged into whatever position on the board, blanks in all the unused positions. Some minor electronics would be required to recognize the assigned function of the button being pressed and translate the signal to the proper control line. Maybe a standard joystick module could occupy more than one cubicle for stability. Maybe you build the joystick function by placing the buttons around a central cubicle and insert into the central cubicle a mechansim that has a center stick and outriggers to manually activate the surrounding buttons. Hmm...starting to sound like a Lego-ish product... Meh, lots of issues - strength and durability not being the least. Just noodling.

Cool. Never heard of that one. There's one on ebay with a Buy It Now of 24.99 http://cgi.ebay.com/BRAND-NEW-STARPLEX-CON...6QQcmdZViewItem

If you have two track and field controllers, I'm sure I or 100 other people around here could cook up a Y cable to let you use one to control the traditional joystick Left, Right and the other to act as Up, Down. I'm pretty sure you could have both fire buttons active. If you didn't mind hacking up one of your T & F controllers, you could just add in a DB-9 port into which you'd plug the other T & F controller and accomplish the same functionality with both controllers plugged into one port. I bought some old arcade type parts the other day with plans to hack together my own T & F style controller so I could get really good at Decathlon... It wouldn't be a major feat at all to pick up some arcade push buttons and build yourself a 5 button panel to do what you want.

I suspect that Wal-Mart puts things in glass cases that are highly likely to be stolen. I've asked the question at thrift stores about why they leave more valuable items available on a shelf while locking away a $2.00 crappy old video game cartridge and eating up a significant amount of staff labor just to let me see what's in the cardboard box full of cartridges. Each store I've asked gives me the same answer. They say that they know what people steal.

Like retrieve and replace parts that fall off of the robot occasionally? Or upgrade parts to improve the iffy controls? Or pick up a magnifying glass? They are ants, after all.

I have. Works so-so, but makes crumbs. It's not easy to get it down in there and scrub in the tighter space on one side of the edge card so my results were not entirely positive. Something I tried and found to work very well for cleaning my cart contacts was a piece of denim wrapped around a popsicle stick and dampened with rubbing alcohol. (Which reminds me, I need to snag some of that high grade IPA next time I'm at the plant.) I was quite impressed with the Magic Eraser in general. To put it succintly, it works. I've found nothing that will clean textured (haircell, wrinkle finish, etc) plastic surfaces like the Magic Eraser. I had a Tomy Tutor that looked like it had been through a war. With some household cleaner and Magic Eraser, it looked like new. I also used it (very carefully) with plenty of carnuba wax to clean the playfield on my '77 vintage cocktail pinball machine (my other 650x based system). Worked like a champ, as long as I applied pressure sparingly. The last thing I used it for was to scrub the red grease pencil off of a nice $2 thrift store beige Tripp-Lite surge suppressor. Had to add a little of some orangeish-pinkish window/all purpose cleaner to get the job done. It can't be stressed enough: don't get crazy, this stuff is abrasive.

I'm really not much of a true "gamer", but I agree that making the game about mastering an intentionally awkward control scheme isn't the best plan. Though, I understand the concept that it adds challenge and I think is intended to play in to the "homebuilt bot" story line. I disagree with the statement that the game would be nothing without this ill-conceived control scheme. How about straight forward control of the bot with the joystick (which happens to have the 5 needed functions), but add some elements that will cause the bot to be more challenging to control. If I may brainstorm just a tiny bit: * "It's a custom built robot, not yet free of bugs/operating glitches" could enhance the storyline. Maybe it speeds up or slows down or refuses to turn left for "random" periods of time. Play up the clunky homebrew robot angle. Make the dad be a nutty professor or basement tinkerer instead of an engineer. Use your pictured display panel to show malfunction indicators maybe? (Kind of contrary to the "clunky homebrew" concept but will help the player know that their antique joystick isn't failing intermittently) * Bumps or obstacles in the field could cause it to drift off course: gophers, dogs, anthills, garden hoses, mud puddles, something that could be rendered with simple graphics * Exceptionally skittery little ants might be hard to stomp (something for the Difficulty switches?) The general concept seems like a basic, simple, fun game that could ultimately be made difficult to master. In large part, that seems to be the foundation of a good, addictive game. On the other hand, I remember reading something where a member here was really happy about having a new kids game being created (a hack of an existing game, as I recall). Maybe there's a market for simplicity, too. Don't be discouraged. From what I've seen, this place houses a whole lot more cheerleaders than naysayers. I wouldn't characterize this community as being willing to help folks like you but rather that they want to help and even seem to be on the lookout for any opportunity to do so. Hey, what's the worst case scenario if this game fails? You learn something that you can use later to make your first successful game? You might even be able to help me when I get around to actually working on the game I've got rolling around in my head and scratched on a notepad. Best of luck, Pixelboy.

PM Sent. Coincidentally, I just made some room specifically to better support my Atari tinkerings.

---- More house cleaning ---- I have two Wacom Digitizer II 6" x 8" drawing tablets: UD-0608-A for Mac. But, only one stylus. The stylus is cordless, but attached via easily removable tether as shown. I acquired these as part of a lot from which I kept the two PC compatible units. I don't have any Mac equipment. $10.00 or best offer (+ shipping). The tablets: The model info: The "Mac" connectors: (Moderators: If it's inappropriate for me to list non-gaming stuff here, please let me know and/or remove this posting . I'm just cleaning out some unneeded stuff and would rather give first opportunity to this community if possible.)

Well, I'd started out with your thought, but then realized that rather than making some special adapter, it would be better to use an already-existing device that was perfect for the task. Agreed, but would be a bit awkward unless the dustcoveropenerthingy stayed in place by itself, which lead me to lump it in to the adapter category, when in fact what I had in mind was a dustcoveropenerupperthingymajiggy. Were the whole concept to catch on, it'd probably take all of four seconds for someone to come up with a "bend the hairpin just so, clip off the ends and wedge it in" thing that would keep the 2600 dustcover open and still allow the standard carts to be inserted. "Prop it open with a popsicle stick then add one drop of super glue..."

I'm cleaning stuff out before I get crushed by the falling piles. Stumbled across two things that might interest somebody here. 1) TI-99/4a main board. Was functional when I gutted it for the keyboard for a college project in 1992. Gathering dust and abuse ever since. Including power supply tranformer and board. I'd probably fire it up to test it except it's missing a heatsink. Worth a buck or two? 2) Pair of Radio Shack Cat. No. 26-3008 Joysticks. Aluminum handles. DIN 5 connectors. Nice, clean condition. I think they were for the 64K Color Computer I yard saled away several years ago. Since people, including me, don't like these "make offer deals", how does $10.00 for the pair sound as wild stab at a price? Looking for best offer by 3/31/07 (buyer to pay actual shipping charges) [edited to update description to TI-99/4a]

Sold to the gentleman in the front row for $10.00 (Or, at least it will be once payment arrives)

I gave away a very nice condition Tomy Tutor with original cassette cable and 3 game carts a few months ago. The guy's a collector so it went to a good home. I kept being distracted by the little Tutor box with its rubber chiclet keyboard. I had it streaming video to the internet at one point and was going to set it up to accept BASIC downloads and keyboard commands from the 'net in a sort of Tomy Tutor timeshare. I needed a fun uC project (internet/keyboard interface), but the thing had to go away before I found myself actually working on the silly project.

Or use a dust cover scavenged from a cartridge to unlock the 2600's dust cover. He always says it so much more succintly than I do: "Even better yet, maybe the adapter could be a completely separate piece that plugged in to the 2600 cart slot and extended the socket up if necessary or just opened the dust cover and left the slot exposed."

Ha. Good point, supercat. I don't have kids so I forget about the peanut butter sandwich and army men in the VCR stories. It looks like I can work a bare board into the slot on my old 6 switch machine. The flap doesn't just push straight away in the direction the cart is inserted. It moves out of the way basically perpendicular to the insertion direction. I can angle a bare board sufficiently while pushing it in and get the dust cover out of the way. Hardly the kind of process I'd advocate as part of a standard (he says as though he might be called to serve on the IEEE Committee On Atari Mini-Cart Interoperability and Backward Compatibility). My actual point was that I'd expect the mini-cart to be compatible with the standard console units in some non-clunky manner.

Exactly what I was feebly attempting to get across. If one were to want to use these mini-carts in an ordinary CX-2600 console unit, there would need to be some measure taken to insure that the dust flap on the cartridge port of the CX-2600 console unit was opened. Otherwise, the edgecard protruding from the mini-cart would not be able to be inserted in the standard cartridge port of a CX-2600 console unit. At least on mine, the dust flap is latched closed until the pins on either side of the slot are inserted. I have no idea why a simple spring loaded cover wouldn't have sufficed. If you had no plans of using the mini-cart in a standard console then there is no problem.

Sweden you say? Rats. I'd have me one o' them just for the heck of it if it were in the US. Maybe I should wander through some toy aisles around here soon. I was thinking about writing to the manufacturer to see if the thing was still in production. It might not be. I wanted to see what the possibility was of them opening up the game design information. Based on other experiences, I think they'd just let it die rather than release information that they think they may at some point be able to profit from in the future. It would be very intersting to see what a community of homebrewers would come up with for this thing. I love to look at the creativity the homebrew community has brought to bear on the Atari 2600. Amazing stuff these 2600 fanatics have come up with, though I know there wouldn't be the same interest in an obscure console like GoGo unit.

Using a small micro, it would be possible to send data to the 2600 at a rate of about 74 cycles/byte: ; Y should equal 128; X should equal the transmission length (last byte index+1). SWCHA.0 should start out being the opposite state from X.0 lp: stx SWCHA; Trigger micro to start transmission nop 0 dex lp: cpy INPT5 rol cpy INPT5 rol cpy INPT5 rol cpy INPT5 rol cpy INPT5 rol cpy INPT5 rol cpy INPT5 rol cpy INPT5 rol sta buffer,x stx SWCHA dex bpl lp Not the fastest thing in the world, but entirely reasonable. Hmm. Yeah, not so bad. I wonder how the overall time to report a single keypress would compare to my original modified keypad scheme. Reading the modified, passive component keypad would be a lot like reading the two paddle controllers (well, except the pulsing of the rows, and well, I guess it's not quite the same after all).

Not sure if you were responding to me, but I didn't suggest protecting the board (edge card section, I assume) at all. I don't think there's much need either. I was only talking about what it would take to get the thing to plug into a standard 2600 cart slot without a lot of fiddling around.

I've been kinda wondering of some sort of standard wouldn't crop up at some point. I'd thought about making a scaled down version to go in a modded flashback 2.0, just for giggles. Would require an adapter for the regular 2600, to work smoothly anyway, but it might be something for the community to consider. Perhaps if properly made, the mini-cart could fit into a clamshell that would open up the dustcover of the 2600 cart slot. Better yet would be something that the cart just lightly snapped into that would leave the label visible. Even better yet, maybe the adapter could be a completely separate piece that plugged in to the 2600 cart slot and extended the socket up if necessary or just opened the dust cover and left the slot exposed. Seems like if you could stomach a change in proportions, the minicart could be smaller than pictured. Sure would be easier to clean the contacts of a minicart. Someone around here is in the plastics production game. Maybe they'll weigh in. They might, if profitable, make the product themselves and thus eliminate the direct cash outlay for making the mold. Making any sort of adapter would be a less profitable proposition unless it could be done with a family mold that made a large number of carts to one adapter. If the 2 halves of the mini-cart case can be made identical, so much the better for assembly and manufacturing. If the proportions were retained, repro labels shouldn't be too difficult to make (copyright issues notwitstanding). If this project comes to fruition, I have access to a source that might be able to make nicely laminated, digitally printed, die-cut labels. No clue how costly it would be to do in a one-off manner as would be required for this sort of offering, though I know they have the equipment. (and, I happen to be working on software to optimize the creation of semi-custom label print runs of a similar nature).

Another, mostly academic thought I had that caused me to look into the internals of the 2600 was related to keypad input. I thought maybe the two "paddle" inputs in one connector port could be used to create an expanded version of a keypad with more keys. I was thinking of pulsing multiple rows or columns simultaneously, but have each of those simultaneously actuated groups connected through a different valued resistor so that the different, let's say rows, could be discerned by using the same method that the paddle controller scheme uses to determine a potentiometer position. There are twelve keys in the standard keyboard controller. Eight of those are arranged in two columns of four each. One column is attached to pin 9 and is pulled high through a resistor fed 5 volts by pin 7. Currently, when one of those four keys (2, 5, 8 or 0) is pressed, pin 9 is pulled low when the appropriate row line goes low (Pins 1, 2, 3, 4 of the DB-9). Instead of the 4700 ohm resistor, I was thinking a 1 meg resistor could be used for the pullup. Then, instead of one button per Row/Column intersection, you could have maybe 5 buttons. One would be the "zero ohm" as currently set up. The other 4 could be of incrementally higher values of a range that would be experimentally determined to produce reliably detectable keypresses on a variety of consoles. As an example, the buttons could use: 100K, 220K, 470K, 680K resistors. The smallest values possible might be best so that the cap charges quickly. Experimentation would be needed to determine the best values. It might be possible to have more buttons, depending on the reliability of detection across consoles and speed with which the keys could be read. If I actually some immediate application for this, I'd be inclined to shoot for the 5 per intersection number as a starting point. That'd be what, 44 buttons? Probably better than the keyboard on that Tomy Tutor I had for a while. One column uses pin 6 of the DB-9 which is a standard digital input so only supports 4 buttons. Probably reading serial data would be a better keyboard interface. This seemed possible with run-of-the mill 2600 port reading techniques, though also might be really slow. Like I said, just musing. Haven't tried to work out any kinks or sink the idea entirely. Thought I'd toss it out here in case it was useful to anybody or might spark any actual good ideas for someone.

I just have one question. When can we all come over and play?