MGustafson

I just did the Easy composite mod yesterday. Highly recommend it. Piece of cake

Just finished this mod, cut out R3 and pulled audio straight from between the two resistors shown elsewhere on here. Used the floppy power connector trick also. I put the two plugs facing down on the back left side of the conssoe and used the three resistor setup off the transistor, made it into a nice little bundle. Only change I really made is the two resistors to ground connection. I ran a wire from them to the ground on the video jack with the assumption that grounding the video amp circuit to the video jack would create a little better ground. Had an issue at first with no video, but realized it was that the floppy power jack fit slightly loose, I put a bend in the pins that it's on and voila, much better connection. The video issue had me panicked, but after I wiggled it the signal came through the tv just fine. It works wonderfully on both my 32 inch lcd AND on my 65 inch that's mounted in the living room. Very slight ghosting, but I took a lot of care soldering the transistor connections and trimming excess leads of AFTER soldering. My first run had some slight color issues and more ghosting, but I went through my connections and found a couple sloppy spots I cleaned up with side cutters and a knife. Must say the playing this on our living room TV is quite the treat. I think next time I will try to add a quick disconnect to the audio wire, plus put the amp circuit on a small board that I can mount in the groove on the left side. I'm planning on keeping the jacks mounted to the case, which is the reason for the disconnect so basically if I have to tear it down or if the board dies for some reason, I can reuse the mod in another console with only about 10 minutes worth of work. All in all I'd say this was a 3 out of 10 in difficulty, and that's with my lackluster soldering skills, but everything is VERY easily done and I already have people wanting me to do it for them. Buy yourself a resistor kit so you don't have to scrounge, a dual wattage soldering iron (mine is a 20/45 or something around that) and a bag of the transistors, once your friends see it work on a modern TV they'll be wanting one two so you can probably make your money back on the equipment in no time. I spent about $25 and the resistors work a work write off since I use them all the time there. Now my next steps will be replacing the power (I want to experiment with a USB power source from a phone charger) plus a LED swap and probably a custom badge for any consoles I work on. Then on to the controllers.

these things are awesome, I have two I use with a short BASIC sound generator for sampling.

IMHO I have a 130xe 800xl and 1200xl. To start I'd suggest going for the 800xl. Never had one go bad (I have 6) and they can take a beating. I have one I bought at a yard sale thet looked like it had been run over. The shell was cracked and the keyboard was barely held in however the internals were all good and it works to this day. I've also never had any software that didn't work on it that I really wanted to run (due to the lower ram). The design also matches most of the hardware you will get for it as opposed to the XE line I only had one 130xe and I still can't figure out how it went bad. It's got no cosmetic damage and is clean as hell but one day it just quit on me so it's left kind of a bitter taste in my mouth for the xe line. Besides that they look flimsy and aren't nearly as cool looking as the xl line. I also have a 1200xl that I love but the downside is that it has issues running some programs and is extremelly rare to find. I found a listing on Craigslist and drown 100 miles to buy it off a guy at 2am just to make sure I got mine.

it's an ste, but I'm not looking to ship it. I just wanted to see if I could make a quick buck at a buddies yard sale. if anyone is in the area and interested the sale goes on till 5:30 tonight or I could arange to be here with it later on, dropping the price to $35 if you show up at the yardsale and if you buy both sets I'll make it an even $50.00

Image 19 on the link looks like it has an Atari version of the IPod clickwheel.. Just thought it was funny as hell..

1040st with a sc1224 monitor (monitor still has box and foam) only thing needed is the power cable (basic computer power cable)

I'm selling a few things in Puyallup this weekend. 1 ST setup with mouse and monitor and software 1 600xl setup with tape drive, 1050, controllers, 2 monitors (1 might not be working) only thing missing is monitor cable. 40 bucks per set get off on Pioneer exit of 512, turn north, turn right at school (spinning) turn right on 1st street, about halfway down on right.

I have a buddy that picked up a SNES store sign for $25 bucks a couple weeks ago and I can't find any values for it online. It's the light up neon with the long black plastic box and just "Super Nintendo" in trans-red plastic. The closest thing I found was this old EBay auction but it's for the NES version not the Super. Otherwise it's identicle: http://cgi.ebay.com/RARE-VINTAGE-NINTENDO-...1QQcmdZViewItem Any info would be great. Also if anyone in the Tacoma, WA area is interested he may be looking to resell it. [email protected]

BPA83S1200 83 S DA 000423 113 Guess that makes mine the oldest The "3" on "113" is in blue pen

The enclosure is from the 1064?!? The 600XL 64k memory modules. Any chance these enclosures are floating around out there empty our do I have to rip apart a 1064? If that's not what it is then what can be used? Surely not a power brick enclosure. Awesome idea though.

I just got my second 410 yesterday. I never use cassette drives but it came with a huge lot. Now I have both versions of the 410's, the smaller Taiwan and the bulkier Sunnyvale one which has the handle on it. Which one of these is rarer and would it be worth enough that I should sell it? I'm into all the 8bit hardware but I really don't need a pair of 410s laying in my closet if I could make some scratch off it. ~Mike

I know that I prefer to buy PD software in sets. I almost never buy singles of these unless they're something I'm missing. I have bought mixed lots of a couple from here couple from there deals.

Thanks for the welcome and the info. I was kind of afraid that the accessing of the floppy over and over was a bad sign but I'm more hopeful now I'm US so I will need to get a monitor. I saw the PeST interface and I think if I can't get an ST mouse locally then that's what I'll go with. The ALT-(arrow) tip will help alot to start with. For peripherals which hard drives were made specifically for the ST and which one is the prefered? I'm not loaded but whats a hobby good for if you can't blow some cash now and again eh? With an ethernet adapter would it provide net access? That would be sweet. I love killing a few nights tinkering with this stuff. I'm also interested in the music aspect of the STs and would love to get some sort of a starting point on that. Thanks again and it feels good to step up to the big (16bit) leagues...

I think it'd be great if the made their own brand of Motherboards/Video cards, but they'd have to do something kick-ass with them or they'd just be another company in a vast sea of crap. Hell even if they just made a custom heatsink on a vid card shaped like the logo then it'd be cool. They should've partnered with a hardware company to do this. LOL, they could even make a bios for a MB that would let you select to boot the system as a true Commodore and then run games and carts from an external USB Floppy drive/cart slot combo unit.... now that'd be fricking sweet.... and probably not too expensive for them to get going....

I just got a 1040stf today with a bunch of XL stuff and am thrilled to try it out. I don't have a monitor of mouse yet (or any software yet for that matter) so I'm wondering about the best way to go about this. I'm trying to track something down locally but if I have to go online I'm going to be picky and would like to know what to look for. Also which periphials were made for the system that I should look at? Before I buy anything online I'd like to make sure the system isn't toast. I bought it from a guy who got it at an auction and he had no idea what to do with any atari stuff besides sell it dirt cheap. I plugged in a power cord and turned it on to see if it powered. It did and then it kept trying to read the disk drive over and over for a minute before I turned it off. Is this normal in STs or is there a problem I won't see until I get a monitor? Also is a mouse required to use the system or (since it uses a joystick port) can I limp by with useing a joystick as a pointing device for a time or just get by without anything?

Thank you guys for the info and help. I've been playing around for the last few hours and my first 3 questions are answered. as far as question 4 (the mods) I've decided that instead of free or low cost mods I'm going for the 32 in 1 os and the supervideo/clearpic mods first. I want to add an internal hd and possibly a ram upgrade. About how much will either/both of these mods set me back cash wise and how difficult are they? Also which ram upgrade should I go for? I'm figuring I'm gonna wind up spending a pretty penny getting this this supercharged but I've always planned on that with a 1200xl once I found one. Still wondering also about the amount of units produced with both the 1200xl and the 800xl. Anyone have access to data on the total amount of each model? It's just idle curiosity thats driving me on this one. Thanks again so far, Mike

I saw this on Craigslist. Normally I'd be trying to sell my soul to get the extra cash together but I'm feeling generous today. I don't know this guy at all and I have not asked anything about the system so I can't vouch for it but I figured someone here might take a stab at it. http://seattle.craigslist.org/tac/sys/306725412.html

Thank you for the info. I did get an Ape Face with the lot I purchased. Is the APE/SIO2PC a mod on this or a seperate unit? Do you know where I can get a detailed photo are schematic of the 800xl and the 1200xl board so I can try swapping chips?

I just bought 3 800xls off a guy who got them at an auction. I have opened up 2 of them. They were obviously opened before so I am wondering if the previous owner changed out chips. I noticed that the two systems don't have anything added or missing and they both run but the makers on the chips and some chip model numbers don't match. some are later revisions (D,C,B) and some have different part numbers. The two systems are close in serials (both older white label) but I'd like to see a parts list/schematic for the systems. Anyone know where to find one?

I would appreciate ANYTHING on the 8bits. I love these machines and would love to see a section. Even it it's just bare minimum stuff at first. Hardware lists and details (ie which power supplies are used) would be phenominal. This would save me endless time and effort trolling the net for questionable information. I remember seeing on here a couple of years ago that an 8bit section was going up. What happened?

I just picked up my first 1200xl and brought it home. I've been using my 800xl for years so I'm not new to Atari by any means but I have never really researched the 1200xl (just seen bits and pieces about it). I have a couple of questions: 1.I love the feel of the keyboard but some of the keys weren't working. I mashed the keys a few times rather hard and then they started to work normally. Is this common and is there an easy fix for it? I have the keyboard torn apart right now and took the circuit board off. Is there any way to peel apart the contacts for the keys without destroying them? I think I just need to clean the contact thuroughly but not sure how to go about this. 2.I need to confirm that the 1200xl does _not_ have BASIC buit in by default. I figure it doesn't since the machine goes to the Atari logo but I'm not sure if something is broke or not. I got a great deal on a ton of stuff from a guy who bought it all at a storage unit auction so he had no idea about the systems condition. 3.Are there any upgrades I could do just by swapping chips from an 800xl (I got three of these from the same guy)? 4.Are there any easy (freeish) upgrades I could do to this machine to enhance its performance? I bought this with the idea of learning how to mod Ataris so I've never done any upgrades to the 800xl's before. 5.How many of these were made? I never saw a count but I am interested. I know they were only sold for a year or so. The serial on the bottom of mine says 423 and I'm jsut curious how far the production run went. 6.Same question on the 800xls as above. I got 2 of the older white labels and 1 of the newer brown ones so I'm just curious. Thanks for any help you can give.

Got my first Atari hardware find of the new year: 3 800xls 1200xl (serial is in the 400s, how many of these were made I never had one before?) 1040 stf (also my first st) 1025 printer 1050 810 410 program recorder 850 modem 1000e microbit modem Ape-Face all with power supplies and a couple of tapes and a couple of disks all for... get this... $50... I talked the guy into $25 cash and a few SNES and N64 games... God I Love craigslist.. Guy said he bought it all at a storage unit auction...

I have a NEX I use as my primary for NES games, mainly so my housemates don't screw up my old NESs, and I've never had any problems with controllers. I've used it to test about a dozen used standard controllers, my UForce, Max controllers, Acclaim wireless controllers, power glove, advantage, and a few misc ones and they have all worked fine (except for the power glove which never worked for anybody to start with). Sure the pitch is a little off, but it's been so long on most of these games that I wouldn't notice unless I put it side by side with the original setup.

U - Ultimax V - Vectrex W - Wii